It was meant to be a curse.

At least, that was how the wizard who cast it on her had framed it. What was the exact wording again? “I curse you with a terrible hunger that can never be sated, a belly that can never be filled, and a fate worse than death for those you love.” Something like that.

It had certainly seemed like a curse in the beginning. Her stomach constantly felt empty, no matter how much she ate. The hunger had only gotten worse and worse, until the day it overtook her entirely and she, somehow, swallowed her sister whole.

With her stomach as flat as ever, at first she thought that she had instantly died, but she quickly realized that she could still feel her moving around inside her. All attempts to make herself sick to retrieve her sister had failed. And weeks, even months later, she would still feel the occasional movement, or see a handprint push out from her abdomen. A fate worse than death, indeed.

But it had assuaged the hunger, just a bit.

That had been four years ago. It turned out, the way to deal with this curse was to lean into it.

After some experimentation, she had found that the minimum was about one person a month. If she ate at least that often, the hunger would settle to a dull itch, rather than a powerful roar. Still always there, but weak enough to get used to. And with her new profession, she usually had the opportunity to eat more than that.

After all, the Thieves’ Guild often had people they needed to disappear. And she could truly make that happen without a trace.

It had, in truth, turned into a rather charmed life. She was paid a tidy salary just to be available for a meal when needed, and the Guild paid for her lodgings, too. She had steady work, new friends, and the Guild threw the best parties. She could even make a bit of extra coin every once in a while by making a bet with some new member who didn’t believe she could down an entire cauldron of stew on her own.

And sometimes, like tonight, she would lay in bed, and just feel. Nothing that entered her body ever came back out; they were all still there. She would occasionally feel a twitch, or see the imprint of a hand or face or paw push out from her belly, or make out the faintest sound of a muffled shout or scream. It felt so normal now that she usually didn’t even notice when it happened, but if she focused, she could feel the contents of her digestive system writhe and squirm.

She let out a huff, and ran the fingers of one hand over her lower belly. Somewhere, buried deep in her guts, her sister was there. Still with her.

Nowadays, this barely felt like a curse at all.