I woke up staring up at a warping wooden ceiling above my head, and soon realized the world felt rather unstable. I tried to roll over; however, something kept me in place or it was my inability to even move. I looked down at my left arm, and had to focus on it to have it move again. It took a lot of straining to get it to move, and I could feel beads of sweat forming from the sheer effort.
“Looks like she took a number on you when you don’t even remember, nor have the conscious ability to react” Someone whispered nearby that almost felt like the person was talking directly in my mind. I wanted to turn my head to the source of the voice, but trying to do that hung my head down all loose against my left shoulder.
“Let’s see here. A minor fracture up, and down your cranium spinal cord. 4 spots pinching your nerves. .A depression in your cranium that has buried bone fragments into your brain. You are lucky to even still be alive, but I guess she has no experience in trying to recover another person back to proper status. The damage she recovered was serviceable to make you live this long” The person continued. I felt something soft like fur touching my head, and something washed over me like icy water.
“Till we meet again Lin” The voice whispered in a growingly faded voice. I was surprised by what the person did as I could move my body like it was normal, so I looked around for the person. However they weren’t even around in the room, but there was a gold choker sitting on the dresser next to the bed with a letter sitting underneath of the choker decorated with bloody fingerprints except the name was clearly legible, it was directed at me. I pushed aside the choker, and picked up the letter. My finger slipped on the fresh blood that was on the letter, and the letter slipped from my hand onto the floor. I leaned over to reach down to pick up the letter from the floor, and heard the door open.
I tensed up as they slowly walked up as they seemed nervous, and whispered “Lin?” I recognized the voice as they seemed rather nervous and scared.
“Yes?” I asked in response as I straightened myself to see Abigail holding a bouquet of white roses. I had only given those flowers for guild members that had passed over the years, and I bought a bouquet for Miriam recently. I didn’t think they were for anyone that was recovering, but I rarely visited the infirmary ward of the guild.
Abigail dropped the bouquet of roses, and rushed over to me tackling me to the bed in a hug. “So glad to see you are awake” Abigail choked out as tears were rushing down her face. I wanted to ask, but figured now wouldn’t be the right time as I embraced Abigail back. I held onto Abigail till she stopped crying, and she pushed herself off of me. I could now get a good look at her face even though she kept trying to wipe away the tears that weren’t there. Under her eyes were black bags that showed that she hadn’t slept that much, and her eyes were bloodshot. From what I could feel was her hair was drying out, and very brittle from undue stress. I didn’t think Abigail was this fail before I left, but now I was worried about what happened and how long I had been out. I finally noticed her fingers were bandaged as if something cut her hands, or a protection seal hurt her. I thought back to the envelope in my hand, and I could hear the sound of blood drops hitting the ground. Abigail finally finished by trying to scrape away the non-existent tears causing thin tears on her face as she left the room with heavy steps like she saw a ghost. I wanted to call out to her, but held myself back as she might have actually collapsed into a heap or run off causing more harm to her.
I just sat there looking out the open door as the room seemed to grow colder as I didn’t hear anyone else coming, and the hourly bell rang loud eleven times. I sighed and looked down at the envelope. There were no other markings besides the bloody fingerprints and my name on the front. I flipped it over, and broke the rose seal on the backside. Inside was a simple thin piece of paper written in basic cursive writing that magus use to make themselves seem better than standard people.
It stated: “Dear Lin,
If you are reading this. Then they made it over to you to help you out. I’m sorry I overdid it when I kicked you, but it sadly had to be done to make it look convincing. Now I expect some kind of retribution when we meet again, so I look forward to that. Another thing is I left our family’s sign of marriage with this letter. It is that choker, but that one isn’t the turn bindings of life as it is the one for engagement. I won’t need to explain it all here right now, and will explain more when I visit you to see your answer. Don’t worry as I know for now we are strangers in name. Let’s meet at the Owl’s Tavern as the freljord monsoon comes at midday.
-Banished
PS: Do watch out for the Magus Inquisitors as they might want answers as you are still alive.
PSS: Attached to this letter is a familiar scent that will help you calm down.”
I brought the letter closer to my face, but not too close in case there was a toxic substance involved. However the familiar lemon and honey scent wafted from the letter, and I could feel all my nerves melt away like freshly melted ice. I got up out of bed to walk over to the bouquet of white roses that Abigail dropped off. I brushed them off a bit, and walked back over to the bed to place them in a vase that was on the dresser. I walked over to the bookshelf to wait for Abigail to return back with probably Erik or Adrian. If it was Adrian I’d probably deck her sending me out on that mission even if it was forced. I picked up a black market book that I had been meaning to finish about the magick and technological advancement before I was born titled: “An interview with Akiko, the technomagic advancer genius.” I flipped the book to my book marker that was on the invention of the magick camera. I walked back to my bed, and began to read it.
****
“‘So let’s start this next segment. Let’s talk about this ingenious idea of the camera, and especially your use of them to check their means of death. I wonder how did you come up with this setup?’ The interviewer asked.
‘Which part you want to know about. The idea of the camera, or the use of it to identify corpses?’ Akiko asked, looking for clarification.
‘Let’s start with the idea of the camera.’ The interviewer replied.
‘Sure. The idea of the camera has been around for quite some time. I actually can’t remember when I wanted one built as I was working for both the guild and as a mercenary at the same time. It might have been during one mission I handed out to a startup group of closer to 50 new members of the guild. I mean they were brand new as they came from a nearby village from over the mountains. I’d say the youngest was about twelve years old, and the oldest was around twenty. They were all cocky as they supposedly beat all the monsters around their village location, and there weren''t any threats possible. I so wanted to prove to them that there are more monsters than meet the eye. They demanded to take one of the biggest threats on the board which was a rogue basilisk.’ Akiko explained.
‘Basilisk? I’ve never seen one before, nor heard of anyone willing to divulge that information.’ The interviewer wondered.
‘Sure. They are typically a secret monster to hunt in the guild due to their high threats. As a result most are kept in cages, and tracked on the map. The ones we are called rogue basilisks typically were ones that ran free, or broke out of their cages. What they look like are a massive ebony colored snake with crimson eyes when they are fully grown. The scales can break even magick enhanced swords, and deflect arrows. Plus there are these thin thorn-like hairs on the surface that can cut even into wyrm scales, and the tail is tipped with this toxic barb that is hidden unless you are impaled. They have this jaw that can split down the middle to eat anything bigger than its mouth can consume, but it’s not like there is anything bigger than a fully grown basilisk as they are closer to fifty feet from the snout to the tip of their tail and as wide as eight feet at their thinnest, ballooning up to fifteen feet if they swallowed anything large. The caged ones are only half that size as they become a massive issue if any bigger, so they are given out as quests to the highest ranked members of the guild. The money they get is enough for lifetimes as the parts are rare. It was posted on boards before as your standard guild members with any semblance of a brain, or a collection of a brain, wouldn’t bother taking it. The risk of death is high, and typically not even worth the rewards that are given.’ Akiko explained.
‘As I was saying before. So those roughly fifty something newbies took the bounty off the board, and slammed it on the desk in front of me. I took the paper, and told them to piss off as they would all die with ease. The quest was being saved for the top ranked member when they came back from border patrol against Kaori. The leader of the group pulled out her sword, and pointed it at my throat. It was at that point that I wanted to have a camera to photograph these poor fools at their final moments to send back to their parents. I obliged to give them their quest, and once they agreed to waive their rights to place anything back on the guild as we did give them sufficient warning about the stupidity of the mission. Once they left I had a massive betting pool going for how many was to live, and for the record I voted that none was going to live. A few voted that one or two might run away back to the guild. Only one person voted more than two people would live.’ Akiko continued from earlier.
‘So how many did live through that?’ The interviewer asked curiously.
‘We waited for like a month when the top ranked adventurers did return, but nothing did return from those newbies till the day that the top ranked adventurers were about to set off. A village elder from near the last sighting of the basilisk came into the hall carrying the head of the cocky leader all bloated, and bubbling with necrosis. I gave the elder props for willing to carry the head all the way to the guild hall in a bag, and the bag was slowly leaking the entire way through with black liquid as the tissue fluid was dripping through the thin hole of the poor girl''s swollen esophagus’ Akiko replied.
‘I was developing the camera during that entire month, and saw the head as a perfect way to see ways to develop it even further or see any flaws with it. The head was in no shape, nor recognizable to anyone besides me. I took the head to my workshop, and took the first photograph with the nearly perfected prototype of the condition of the head. I took multiple photographs at different light levels, and angles to see what would work out. Once that was done. I started to cut apart the head while photographing after every cut to test the zoom function, and see how much detail I could gather for future research in possible medicine that I could hand over. It was when I looked at the eyes after I did a detailed zoom in photo did I notice scars against the back of the eye near the optic nerve, and found that interesting as there was plenty of potential to tell about the cause of death. There seemed to be scars of wind and water runic magick burned in, and I wanted to know more. Now by this point the top ranked member had left for the basilisk, so there was no way for me to gather any detail on them. They did return later that week bloodied and bruised. So I took that opportunity to examine their eyes, and noticed some more scars from magick they were all known for using. I wanted to examine a few more corpses to hopefully see a before and after image. So once we got the all clear that the basilisk was confirmed to be killed, I set out on a trip to gather materials. I could have used the guild to do so, but I wanted some fresh air at the time. Upon my travels I encountered a bandit group nearby the mountains near a barely used mine. I could tell they were from a nearby village that fell into shambles as a recent crop failure scattered everyone. So when they tried to capture me, I instead beat them all to an inch of their life. I took photographs of each one of their eyes after I bound them all up, and slaughtered half of them with an iron sword to get a control sample. Then I started to slaughter the rest with variations of fire magick I can produce like a fireball or a fire sword. To my surprise even within the same magick there were subtle differences on the burn marks in the eyes. However, that only applied to the ones that saw their cause of death as the one I killed after they were blindfolded were unable to register the marks other than the basic mark related to the element‘ Akiko continued.”
****
"Stop swinging that staff around" I could hear Erik shout in a panic voice as his footsteps got closer to the room.
"Take back what you said" Abigail responded angrily. Erik quickly ran into my room, and made a break for the window. I did the same thing before when I annoyed Abigail, and it was a pain for her to calm down. Erik frantically tied to undo the lock on the window when Abigail charged into the room. Her face bright red from running for some period of time, and from the obvious scowl on her face. Erik gave up trying the lock when Abigail jumped over the bed to club him over the head. Erik barely moved out of the way as it came down, and it smashed through the lock holding the window tight. The window creaked open from the vibration, and Erik pinned himself into a corner on his knees. I let out a sigh, and closed my book. Abigail snapped out of trance, and so did Erik to both look at me.Stolen story; please report.
"What?" I said. I was a bit stunned as well as my voice sounded completely different. It was more feminine, so I looked down to see I was still in my normal body though.
"What is going on" I whispered to myself.
"Are you really Lin?" Erik asked with a confused look on his face.
"I should be" I replied nervously before a searing pain erupted from the left side of my chest. I looked down to see that my shirt was drenched in blood, so I took off my shirt to see a blood sigil. It looked like a family crest, and it felt very familiar like I belonged to it. It was an hourglass emptied about two thirds encircled with a ouroboros snake with a further encirclement of a rose that bloomed just above the head of the ouroboros and the top of the hourglass. I barely remember the day I was given this sigil from my family, but I couldn’t remember who that was anymore as my original family was killed years ago.
I looked up at Abigail who looked very pale upon seeing the sigil. “Where should I put this bouquet Abigail?” A familiar voice said, and I looked over at Adrian who just came in holding a bouquet of white roses. Adrian looked rather confused at Abigail’s pale face, and looked back over at me who was sitting upright. I could almost tell that Adrian’s eyes wanted to fall out of their socket as she saw me before she threw the bouquet against the wall to rush at me. In one swift motion picked me up in the air by my neck, and deftly moved her fingers against my skin to analyze me.
“Who did this? What monster is out there that can heal that level of injury” Adrian stated as she let me go. Apparently not noticing the sigil yet as she looked around the room like a cat searching for the mere trace of a mouse. Abigail collapsed to the ground as she grew too light headed, and Erik kneeled down to try to help her up.
“Who the fuck are you really Lin?” Erik asked with venom in his voice.
“I don’t understand that question?” I asked as I was rather confused at the hostile turn this was becoming.
“You can’t feign ignorance with that sigil” Erik spat out as he picked up Abigail.
I could feel Adrian wanted to tear my head off as she looked down at my sigil. “So we had a traitor within our midst. No one you were a monster just she was” Adrian stated.
The atmosphere grew cold as their anger was slowly devolving in a murderous bloodlust. These were people I trusted, but apparently this sigil was a disaster. I looked down at the book sitting on the bed sheet to see the same sigil was prominent on the backside with the word “Azure Rose” underneath it. I finally understood that Akiko and Banished were the same, and I barely remember there was a bounty on anyone with connection to Azure Rose yet it seemed like everyone was chasing a ghost. The only reason Banished allowed scot free was due to the magus college, but that didn’t mean an “accident” was barred. Erik placed Abigail in a chair before tearing the mirror off the desk that it was glued down to and throwing it at me. I caught the mirror in my left hand like it was nothing, but I then noticed Adrian lunging at me with a thin blade that surrounded her hand. I used the mirror to block the thrust from Adrian; however Erik didn’t hesitate as the bed was nearly up against the wall as Adrian’s blade hit the mirror. I kicked the wall behind me to bust a hole to slip through that gap as the bed was smashed against the wall. My body was still aching as I just woke up recently, but that didn’t matter as I was now in another fight for my life. I had a few seconds to figure out what to do before Erik or Adrian either broke through the wall or ran around. I noticed I was in the corner room of the building, and there was a smaller shop across the street that belonged to the dwarven smith. There was something about dwarves that I didn’t like naturally, and I could feel that same bloodlust from the dwarf as she had the same hatred as me. I rushed towards the window grabbing a chair along the path to use that as a shield to bust through the window. As I busted through the window Erik used the bed as a means to smash through the wall, and Adrian followed shortly after. I was already halfway down to the ground level with the shattered remains of the chair. I braced myself for impact against the ground , and started to roll at a moment that felt right. I barely mistimed the roll as I hit the ground a bit harder then I wanted, but it didn’t matter as I could still continue to run. I rushed into the blacksmith to steal one of her steel longswords, and when she tried to confront me I kicked her into the anvil. I barely gave a second glance back at her as she was splayed out on the top of the anvil after she hit the corner of it. I was partially hoping I kicked her into her precious furnace as she once tried to shove me into it for giving insult to her subpar crafting skills. At that time I saw gnomes craft better gear, and now I rather trust arachne or even lamias.
I ran through the back door of the smithy trying to formulate a plan for me to get out of this city as soon the soldiers, mercenaries, adventures, and especially the magus inquisitors. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I abruptly ran down a side alley as a fireball slammed into the ground where I was going to be at. I could feel the heat emanating from the blast lick my ankle to know that it was meant to turn me into a pile of ash if lucky as I could hear the stone just sizzle away and the acrid smell of burning flesh that was probably unlucky to be within those buildings. However now wasn’t the time to be worrying about others as I knew only one sect would be willing to use an explosion that powerful, the magus inquisitors. I even knew one person who was even willing to use a blast that powerful as she had a high distrust for me, and even wanted to gut me ever since we first met, it was First Lieutenant Justinian Enegale. I could taste the bloodlust dripping from her mouth even though I didn’t know where she was. I ran down another alley as the ground behind me erupted as lava started to pour out. Most people would think she was missing, but this was how she played around with her prey to let them let their guard down before surrounding them. Most of the time she was restrained to reduce the number of casualties and collateral damage, but this time it seemed her leash was removed. I knew where I was, and used the building on both sides to get up onto the rooftop as the path in front of me turned into a wall of fire and the path that was under me melted away. I ran across the rooftop to jump to another building as the structural stability of the building deteriorated as the lava lapped away at it. I was slowly making my way towards the center of town where the magus weren’t allowed, and could hopefully catch my breath as I hoped the word hadn’t reached the adventure guild just yet. I leaped off the building as it collapsed, and just as I landed the stone roof split open under my feet causing me to fall through. As I fell through I could see the smirk on the Second Lieutenant like she knew what I was going to be doing, but what she didn’t think about was I expecting her as well to open me a free passage. So in return for her kindness I threw the sword I stole at her to prevent her from getting another cast off on me as I punched my way through the floor to bust into the maintenance tunnels. I could feel my entire hand breaking from the impact, but that was minor considering my life was in danger. They really sent out a death squad for my head, and I knew if I didn’t escape the town I was going to die. I gave up my plan for the adventurers district as I could be easily surrounded by the time I got there. I ran down the narrow tunnel, and could hear the stampede of magus inquisitors behind me. I thought I was safe as I hit a T junction in the tunnel, but that was a mistake as I was about to make the turn for the left path. I could hear the crackle of fire under my feet and soon the ground underneath of me exploded. It was a landmine that someone planted. I fumbled to the ground, and tumbled about skidding to a stop against the wall with my left foot blown clean off and at least half my left shin. At this point I was wishing it just blew my entire leg off, but that pipe dream wasn’t going to come true as spikes from the wall jutted out to impale me. It wasn’t fatal, but I could feel the serrated edges against my vital organs ready to turn them into ground meat if I even tried to escape. I let out a breath as I hoped my death would be swift and painless. I shouldn’t have let my guard down as it dropped my anti-magick barrier, and the soft footsteps of the inquisitors slowly marching down both sides of the tunnel as if to gloat their easy victory pissed me off. I could feel the serrated edges on the spikes retract, and the spikes soon left my body leaving me to drop to the ground as I was letting out a lot of blood. Blood was quickly pooling under me as I felt the air start to cool down, and my vision was starting to grey out. I knew they weren’t going to kill me that easily, and I noticed the magus inquisitors executioner within their midst. A sadistic bitch that knew blood magick, and I saw some of her “special sculptures” that she made from victims. She once told me that she had a special spot in her room for me to occupy once she got her hands on me. I knew that it wasn’t a good sign as I had to once put down one of her sculptures as she was bored of keeping it alive. My vision was going black as I saw her standard smile, and her sickly, small, delicate fingers wiggle about in my direction. I just wished for death as I slipped out of consciousness.
I woke back up bound to a chair if you could call it that as I was sitting on a wooden chair dotted with spikes digging into my skin. I could see dried blood stains from under my arms from previous victims. I couldn’t move my head as I could feel the leather straps digging into my forehead and neck, so I was forced to look across the table at the executioner Ivana. Her silver hair was speckled with crimson stains that I swear from previous victims. Her slim, thin figure would be like the upper class of royal beauty if it wasn’t for her penance of violence that stripped her of her title.
“Normally I have something on the table of someone beloved to you. However you don''t have any people remotely close to you. Even the three people that you once called friends would rather kill you. Besides you know how I work, so that strategy wouldn’t be that effective” Ivana softly whispered as she softly rapped her fingers on the table. A cruel smile was plastered on that face of hers as she made a small gesture like she was pulling something, and I could feel my stomach lurch as a spire of blood erupted from my abdomen before quickly rushing back into my body.
“Now that we both know the stakes. I’m going to ask you questions. If I’m satisfied with the answer. I’ll not torture you for a minute” Ivana declared as she slammed a blood stained hourglass on the table. The glass was cracked, and I could see specks of sand slip through the crack here and there.
“You can go to hell you bitch. Even if I could give you any answers, I wouldn’t” I spat out, and I could still hear that feminine voice.
Ivana chuckled as she walked around the table dragging on her nails on the table, and it let out a loud screech. “You are going to want for death when I’m done with you. Whether it was to be burned alive by the first lieutenant or impaled by the second” Ivana whispered as she grabbed my right index finger, and with ease snapped in backwards. I bit my lip as I could see the skin was still intact, but my finger was touching the back of my hand. I couldn’t move it anyways.
“I’d love to rape you right here, but you aren’t in that position yet. I remember the last person that I raped right here, in the same chair. Oh they were begging me to kill them as she was bleeding out, but we kept fucking for hours till she broke to give me the answers that I wanted to hear. I still have that dog around on a leash that you have seen” Ivana stated as she bit down on my right ear, and tore off half of it.
“Now let’s start off easy. How are you still alive, and what is your affiliation with Azure Rose?” Ivana asked.
“I can’t give you the answer to either one” I replied truthfully as I had nothing to gain from lying. Ivana reached down to my right hand, and sliced it open along each bone down to the wrist to make my hand look like five extended bits of flesh.
“I’m going to enjoy this as you aren’t screaming yet” Ivana said.
“This is nothing” I spit out.
“Oh someone trained you in torture resistant?” Ivana wondered as she impaled a blood spike through my right arm.
“I will get my answer one way or another” Ivana stated.
“I dare you to try” I retorted.
Ivana kicked the back of the chair to have it recline, and she threw a rag over my face. “I normally don’t like going to the extreme, but you seem determined to resist. I wonder how you will last.”
I could hear the shifting of a bucket, and soon the cold sensation of water was felt on my skin and through the rag. The damp rag filled my nostrils and open mouth, and soon I felt the sensation of drowning as I was gasping for air. My breathing was slowly becoming more ragged, and it was becoming extremely hard to breathe. My body was trying to squirm to get out of the sensation, and it was overriding my attempt to remain calm. The iron spikes were tearing apart my skin, but I just didn’t care as I needed to get out of the current situation. Just as I was nearing the limit of consciousness, the rag was removed from my face. My body let out a loud gasp for air as it was letting in fresh, acrid air. Ivana was standing over me with a smile that was to let know she was winning.
I could feel a stabbing in my right hand as she was probably sewing my hand back together with steel wires. I really hated this bitch as she knew how to drag a person to the limit without care. I could hear her humming a child’s lullaby as she was sewing any gaping wound.
“The next time you are on the brink of death. Expect me to be fucking you as you start gasping for breath. The excitement of your body in a fight or flight mode as it is slowly drawing it’s last breath while it is engaged in a pleasurable action is so lovely” Ivana whispered. “You have no idea how many get addicted to that brink of death pleasure that they are willing to spill their guts for another round.” Ivana licked her lips at the thought.
“Now which type of pleasure do you want to try next?” Ivana asked.
I was now mentally begging for Odin, or even Akiko to come in. However I didn’t even know who they were personally I think, so I found it odd that I was thinking of them.
“You want to try the thousand cuts?” Ivana said as she made a mocking gesture as she leaned in to me.
“For now I’ll let you rest up. Can’t enjoy a person if they aren’t at top form” Ivana said as she left the room. I let out a sigh as this was insanity, but it was something I expected. I wasn’t expecting any assistance to get out as my closest allies were more than likely to stab me in the back. I closed my eyes to think on what I should do, and I felt myself just want to give into this madness as it will at least ease the pain. I couldn’t really give her answer, nor did I want to betray my family.
“Wait. Family? Why am I remembering my adopted family now” I thought to myself. I cannot make out what my adopted family looks like, but my entire family did raise me to be I guess a monster. My original family I barely remember, besides the beaming smile of my older sister. I shed a tear as I slowly started to remember all the good times I had with her. I missed that warm embrace, and started to long for Jin or Akiko.
“Finally remember Master Lin?” A familiar voice that I haven’t heard in decades echo in the room.
“Jin. I won’t even bother how you got in, but I guess I am grateful to hear your voice” I said.
“Of course. I wasn’t allowed to interfere unless you hit a certain threshold. I am sure your sister is rolling in her grave” Jin stated as I could feel a gust of wind slice through the leather binds.
Jin picks me up from the chair as my skin peels off. I can feel my scales start to react as it slowly starts to shift back into place. “Damn did I forget a lot” I said as I looked down at my right hand as the scales ripped apart the steel stitching to reattach everything.
“Let’s leave Ivana a bit thirsty before she returns” I said as I wrapped my arms around Jin’s neck.
“You got it” Jin replied as he kissed me on the lips, and I could feel the winds whipping up.