"So what IS a homunculus?" Arash asked inquisitively as he sipped on the tea Gato had prepared. He was very dehydrated but couldn't stop his curiosity.
Gato chuckled, "you see dear hero, we are false humans."
Arash's face twisted in confusion, "false humans? What do you mean?"
"Haha! You were right dear Zara, he is quite brazen!" The cat said, "you see dear Arash, we homunculi are the result of mixing the alchemical practice with witchcraft, or 'Wicca', to create a man-made human." Gato broke his sentence for a moment and sipped his tea then proceeded to speak as he stared into the cup, "the alchemists use a form of science to create a host body for the souls that witches use to bond with the souls they either harvest from other humans or, in most cases like mine, they harvest from an animal."
Arash stared, yet again, in child-like amazement at Gato, who wasn't used to being stared at with any emotion other than hatred or fear. He now understood why Zara had taken such a liking to him.
"But if you are meant to be human, why do you..." Arash couldn't find a polite way of saying it so he left in hopes Gato would understand.
"Well dear Arash, that's the thing, whenever a which uses the soul of an animal, the soul carries..." The cat paused yet again to catch his thoughts, "certain traits with it. Mine was my cat-like cunning and my physical appearance. The only reason I'm as smart as a human though is because they place a mental enhancement spell on the minds of their homunculi."
The thought just occurred to Arash as to why Gato's kind was created in the first place and he could barely hold down the bile in his stomach, "wait, were you created to be-"
"Slaves, yes" Zara pipped in seeing the pain hidden in her old friend's eyes, "the capital city is a horrid place that forces any demi-human or sub-human like Gato to bend to the knees of even the common folk, but we will speak of it later."
Gato gave a slight nod of thanks to Zara as he continued, "About your mission here dear Arash, there are some things we need to discuss. We need a plan."
Arash heard the wolf growl in his head, "before that, may I ask what happened to me?"
Zara sighed, "it seems my father has a new ally, the god of the hunt. Your home villages patron god. And he gave us a new ally."
"That's right, dear Zara." Gato said, "Dear Arash now has a familiar."
Arash heard snoring in the back of his mind now. It seemed the wolf grew tired of the conversation at hand.
"Let's get back on topic now," Zara said.
"Right, so how do we even begin to plan the fall of a king?" Arash asked as he heard.
"The king won't be difficult." Zara stated, "it's his minions that are the problem."
"That is correct dear Zara." Gato chimed in, "there are hundreds of humans and demi-humans working beneath the king. Half of those dear souls are being controlled through either blackmail, " Gato pulled a glass vile containing a small insect and placed it on the table, "or controlled."
Zara was unfazed as she had already suspected as much, but Arash was astonished. He recognized the bug, it was a barkweasle.
"You know, don't you? dear Arash." Gato said as a statement than a question.
Arash nodded, not taking his eyes off the vile as he spoke, "they are from my home forest. The barkweasle would latch itself to the base of a creature's neck using its small claws and inject it with a toxin from its barbed tail that would dull the host's mind so that it could use its light telepathy to lead it into the woods to die. When the host died it would lay it's eggs in the dead body, hundreds at a time."
Gato purred at the young man's knowledge, "that's correct dear Arash, but do you know what's different about these ones?"
Arash shook his head and the car waved for him to take a closer look at the vile. So Arash examined the bug.
It looked very similar to the ones he had seen his parents take part in eradicating years ago. It looked much like a common black tick except for the split back for the wings and the small, scorpion-like tail. Arash then squinted as he saw the tiny, red dot on its belly.
"What you see there Arash, " Zara stated, "is the mark of a control curse"
Gato folded his arms, the room was dead silent.
___________
Above the goddess of darkness watched Arash and his party discuss their plot. Her brothers had chosen him well, but her army outnumbered their "hero" by vast amounts.
"Brother," she said, her voice becoming a demonic pitch with every uttered syllable, "you are a fool to challenge me"
"That he is" her obnoxious brother, the god of the purse, stated with glee as his fat belly lolled about in the frilly pompous clothes he wore, "with us as a team we are unbeatable! Not to mention our little ace!"
The goddess smiled, her small frame shook at the idea of wiping out the whole universe!
"When will yall ever learn?" A voice from behind them said, "yer no gud at gamblin!"
After that line, and that ridiculous accent, they didn't even need to turn around to see that it was their brother. The god of gambling, and subsequently cheating.
"Ya ain't got the skill ner the eye to see it Lil sis" the god of the gamble stated as he did card tricks with a deck he had materialized, "that there boy, wit the help of is friends, WILL beat yer army! And I don't join losing sides, that's why I joined our dear brother."
The goddess tensed with anger. The pompous god jiggled as he turned to rebuttal, but the gambler was ahead of him.
"Brother I woun't turn so fast, lest ye finish our sisters job for er." He said holding in his chuckle.