The taste of rancid blood jolted me awake. I was attached to a host completely unlike the tachak I used to have. Its blood was foul--rotting and laced with chemicals. This was a corpse. Worse, it was a corpse that’d been treated with preservatives. Not even the most sickly worker would willingly take this kind of host. 

I pulled away. At least, I tried to pull away. My belly hooks were firmly embedded in the creature. I tried to retract them, but they were held in place. My wings, too--they were attached to the back and sides of the animal. My tail… either it was numb or gone, because I couldn’t feel it at all. Even my belly tendrils were fixed in place around the animal’s spine. As if that weren’t bad enough, there was a hard collar around my head that pinned it to the host’s neck.  

The elsewalker had sewn me to a host. Why? What could they possibly gain by sewing me to a corpse? It would take days to fix a host this broken at home, where I could eat something actually nutritious while working on the host. Not that I would bother fixing up anything this far gone if I had a choice. Unfortunately, my options were limited. The best chance of escape I could see was getting this host just functional enough to walk and fight. 

I focused on the animal’s brain. It was battered, and a large part of the brain stem was missing. That meant I would have to actively control its autonomic functions like breathing and digestion. As I took control, I found that air entered the lungs of its own accord, and blood moved by itself, likely due to devices meant to make this corpse appear more alive. For the moment, those devices would take some of the pressure off my own damaged system. 

Right now, I needed some idea of what this body looked like and how it moved before I could stand it up. I probed the animal’s memories and found that it wasn’t an animal at all. It was an elsewalker--one of the two-legged, two-armed, mostly hairless beings that went around collecting random things around their mining camp. 

This particular elsewalker was Human. No, that was her species, not her name. Her name was Leah. She lived in this arid place, which she called Earth, and she’d never been to my realm. Her father had, though. He’d likely been the one to capture me, which made this whole situation even more confusing, as I doubted a father would use his own daughter for scientific experiments.  

I connected with Leah’s senses, feeling the heated metal table beneath her, the oxygen tube down her trachea, and the needles in her arms. Someone was pacing nearby, muttering to themselves in a language I didn’t know until I found it in Leah’s mind. 

“This has to work. She doesn’t have enough time to try again. I should’ve grabbed a second realm leech. This one was so beaten-” Leah’s father paused. “Wait. What was that? There it is again. Yes, brain function--do it again, leech!”

I opened Leah’s eyes. Her face, which was mine for the time being, rested in a foam doughnut above a concrete floor. Leah’s father laughed estatically at the EKG monitor as I drew my arms beneath me. My muscles protested furiously against the simple movement. They screamed as I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. As I yanked out everything attaching me to nearby machines, Leah’s father rushed to embrace me. 

He was laughing and sobbing at the same time. “You’re okay, oh, you’re okay. I’m so glad-”

I bit his shoulder with the enamel-covered bones filling Leah’s mouth. They cut through fabric and flesh until blood oozed from the wound. Shouting in pain, he shoved me back. I wasn’t strong enough to hold on, but I managed to tear his shoulder all the same. He unleashed a string of curses as he clutched his shoulder. 

I bared my teeth. “I’m going home, human. Either send me back, or I’ll kill you and find my way back without your help.”

He stiffened, eyes wide and crazed. “You can talk?”

“Did you think me a mindless animal when you sewed my flesh to this corpse?”

“Leah,” he screamed. “She’s my Leah, not a corpse.”

“No, it is a corpse. Neither I nor any other aryta can revive the dead. The moment I am free from this body, it will collapse like a puppet with its strings cut.”

He looked like he was going to scream again, but his expression turned stony in an instant. “You’re not going anywhere.” There was a cold steel in his voice as he pulled a small remote from his pocket. “If I click this button, that collar sends a nail through your brain. Not Leah’s brain--yours.” His finger hovered over the button. 

I froze. 

“Now that I have your attention, listen closely. Here’s what’s going to happen: you will bring Leah back, or you will die.”

“I already told you, no one can-”

“Don’t lie to me, leech.” He gritted his teeth. “If you can’t, I’ll replace you in a heartbeat.”

That was insane. Many of Leah’s memories were still intact, but whatever soul she might’ve had was long gone. If I tried mimicking her, anyone with half a brain who knew her well would see through the farce in an instant. 

Leah’s father was obviously too grieved to think clearly. I could use that to my advantage. If I played my part well enough, he would let me be alone at some point. I would use that time alone to free myself and find whatever portal he used to take me here. 

“Okay.”

His eyes narrowed. “No more arguments?”

“I value my life. Do humans not?”

“We do.” Still looking suspicious, he moved to a counter against the wall. He kept a keen eye on me as he took a bundle of clothes off the counter and tossed them at me. “Put these on.”

As I dressed, every movement was agonizing. I normally would’ve retracted some of my tendrils to stop feeling the pain, but I couldn’t do that while they were sewn in place. When I pulled the shirt down, I subtly touched my back where my tail should’ve been. It was just a bandaged nub. Gritting my teeth against the urge to shout, I continued dressing until a lack of oxygen in my muscles made my limbs give out. It was all I could do to land on my side instead of my back. 

“What is it? What happened?” Leah’s father held out a hand like he was going to try and help me up. 

I scoffed. “You’re asking me to fix a corpse. It’s not as easy as you think. This body isn’t even capable of providing enough oxygen to its limbs.”

“Then fix what’s wrong.”

“I will, with time. Weeks of-”

He snarled. “Don’t lie to me. In the lab, you realm leeches healed lethal injuries in hours.”

So that was what they did with the arytas they took--experiments. “Was this lab in my realm, perhaps?”

“Does that make a difference?”

“You’re asking if me being in your dehydrating, nutrient-poor atmosphere makes a difference to my health and therefore the health of my host?”

Scowling, he marched over to a metal door at the back of the room. He used optical and fingerprint scanners, as well as a voice command, to open the door. Rich, purple-tinted air seeped out. The portal must’ve been behind that door. If I rushed for it, he could easily trip me up without even using the killing collar. I needed to take my time. 

Leah’s father came back to the table I was lying on. “Lie face down.”

“Why?”

“I’m taking you to get some ‘good’ air.”

“Why does that require lying down?”

He lowered his voice. “Don’t think I believe for a second that you’re content to stay here. I know you’ll try to escape the first chance you get. I’ll tie you down while you fix up Leah.”

That would make things difficult. However, escaping would be much easier in a healthy body. Fine, I would allow myself to be strapped down for now. I lay face down on the table. 

He strapped me down before wheeling the table into the portal room. Though I couldn’t see the portal, I heard it whirring and smelled the rich, cool scent of home. Breathing deeply through my gills, I focused on patching my body as well as Leah’s. 

Unfortunately, air alone wasn’t enough to fuel healing. I needed to eat, drink, and sleep, and I could only do one of those things right now. No, I couldn’t even sleep. If this were a living host, it would heal even while I slept, but falling asleep now would let my host die all over again. I had to stay awake if I was going to make this host presentable. 

I heard Leah’s father sit nearby. He would be awfully bored if he decided to watch me regenerate. I wished he would leave so I could regrow my tail without risk. Once my tail was back to normal, I could curl it up out of sight, but it would be difficult to control the movement of regrowing muscles. If it grew in full view of Leah’s father, he would likely cut it off again and waste more of my precious energy.