"Why dont you tell me all about it, sister?"
The words started the white haired girl, causing her to drop the small knife she was about to use to reunite with her family. As she quickly turned her head towards the speaker she only had a single though swirling in her distraught head 'Will there be no place they are willing to leave me be anymore?'
What came into her vision was not quite what she expected though. She was subconsciously already expecting to see a couple of smug and triumphous faces, elevated at having caused even more pain and suffering to her. Ralf, Fred and Fjodor. The three men of the village who went to quite the effort to ensure her life was as miserable as possible, without actually having to touch her, as if she was some sort of diseased fllthy pest, that had to be kept around.
No, what came into her view was a two meter tall form of a man, dressed in light leather armor and covered with a rain cloak, one that the mercenary types liked to wear. She had seen quite a few of their kinds passing through the village every now and then. While most were decent, and did not interract with the ordinary folk like her, some had a rather developed tastes that brought more than a single farmer girl or child in the harms way. So, instinctively, as she was turning in the mans dirrection more and more, one of her lightly searched for the fallen knife, and once she left it, it slowly found its place back in the hand that had held it just moment ago, though now with the sole purpose to deter the guest from deciding that she was an easy target.
Sure, she was prepeared and more than willing to depart this world and join in whatever realm her family was now, but that did not mean she was willing to become someones toy before her inevitable end. She was strong and somewhat pridefull enough in at least that regard, to still have some sort of self preservation instincts in certain situations. So, with the small knife in her had, giving just a sliver of courage, she used her other hand to quickly wipe the tears on her face, managed to half force a rather pathethic smile as she asked a question to the man as she was turning to face him.
"How may I help sir? I asume you have come to me for my meager skills as a healer and herbalist?"
"I came because you called me here." spoke the cloaked man, causing her to furrow her brows, his one sentense not really sticking to her mind, what with her asuming it had been another insult dirrected towards he rby the towns biggest bulies.
"Though that can wait. You seem far too malnourished to continiue our coming conversation in the state you are in. Lets..." The mercenary spoke, and suddenly stopped when he noticed something. That something being her pain colar that sprung in his eyes that was covering quite a large part of her neck.
"I can perform my duties even as I am, do not worry sir." She responded with a rather low voice, seeing the man was not trying to get his hands on her for the time being at the very least, signaling her that he most likely is in need of her services.
"Who did this?" theman asked with and unexpectedly cold voice as one of his arms blurred as the next moment said arm was holding her by the collar around her neck. Feeling the sudden chill in the surroundings enveloping her, she could not help but stutter out a response.
"Village chief and his people. One of my punishements for being related to Vlad."
"Vlad?"
"My little brother, born a forsaken, and done with as the law of the Echlisiarchy demands." She answered thruthfully, but as she spoke of her brother, Rex could feel pain in her voice, and new tears rolling down her cheeks.
'Fssssssss' a powerfull sizzling resounded around her as the collar dissapeared from its place around her neck, causing her to just stare at the man in shock for a moment.
"Lets get inside. We have things to talk about." the man said as his hooded head gestured towards her own humble home at the other end of the path she had been maintaining. Understanding that she was in the presence of someone trully powerfull, she slowly struggled to her feet and lead the way back to her own run down house. There she lead the man inside and sat akwardly at the poor excuse of a table she had. The man looked at the shabby chair that she had seated herself on, then at the one he was supposed to take, murmured 'we will fix this', withdrew a couple of rather good quality chairs, sat in one and moved the other in her dirrection.
"Sit here" he pointed at his second chair, that was much closer to his own side than the white haired girl was right now, but with the tone that indicated his commands was exactly that, a command and not a request. Once she was in the rather comfortable chair close to the mercenary, he withdrew a few containers from his presumably storage rings and in a few minutes there was a veritable feast of unreasonable quality in front of the girl.
"Eat first, and make sure you do so to your hearts content. Then, and only then will we continiue." Once again his tone brooked no opposition, so she did as told, still vary of the man. What followed was almost twenty minutes of pure bliss and tears streaming down her cheeks once more, as she experienced a food of such undescribable taste and warmth that it reminded of a past long gone when she was still together with her parents as they laughed at the dinner table as they were all waiting for the birth of her sibbling. Once she had eaten till she could no more, and a slight, if barely noticable change had already appeared on her exaustaed visage, she looked towards the man next to her.
"What have I done to earn such kindness and help from the sir?" she asked as her hand once again reached towards her neck that was now free from the dreaded collar of suffering. She was far too well aware that there as no such thing as free lunch in this world, especially in her case, both figuratively and literaly.
"You wanted to end your life, why? And tell the truth, I can sense lies."
Her shoulders slumped in resignation, though she supposed there was no harm in answering the mans questions, in fact it might even scare him away, allowing her to proceed as planned.
"I take it sir is not from around here?" she asked and seeing Rex shake his head, indicating that he indeed wasnt, she continiued.
"Almost twelve years ago, my brother Vlad was born in this village, but unfortunately for us he was what the churh call a forsaken."
"Archon is the term used by most of the world if only one of the eyes is not human like, and a true archon, if both eyes are non human like." Rex explained so that the girl could speak further.
"Thank you. Vlad was a true archon, and because of the comandments, he was taken from my parents and brought away to..." Her lip quivered, and Rex sighed at her emotional turmoil once again.
"I know what they do, proceed with what happened after." He gave the girl the freedom to move past that particular pain right now, and she gratefully took it.
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"Thank you." she nodded with more tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "My parents tried multiple times to venture into the forest to maybee find him and then escape to Sweith or maybee Zharr, but were ultimately caught and executed for their attempts. I was spare only because I had started my training as a herbalist from mother, and they could not quite allow the village to be without one."
"And what did you think of Vlad when you saw him first time?" Rex asked with a slight amusement in his voice now. Turns out his actual parents were not to be blamed for what happened to him, and he had a sister to take care of now. And as much as he was actually happy with the revelation, he also had quite the anger boiling inside him towards the bastards that had made the life of his sister so much worse and painfull.
"Rex." he spoke, and seeing the questioning look on the girsl face, he elaborated. "Thats the name I am known to my people. So, what's yours?"
"Arana? but why?" she shyly asked, getting more and more confused by the mans actions as they talked.
Before Rex could there was a loud thud, someone striking the door of her home and yelled.
"CLEAN YOURSELF UP BITCH. The tithe collector has arived and is rather iritated. Use what little dignity you might think you have left and go please him."
With that said the man walked away, confident the girl would not dare to defy the orders she was just given, and out of reflex, or maybee due to the constant abuse she had recieved during her last decade, she flinched at the words, few tears once again slid over her cheeks as she grabbed for the small knife she had placed on the table during her meal and was about to finaly free herself from this torment, only to not find said small weapon where it had been. She quickly took to the man in fear, slight panic settling in her.
"Why act in such a drastic manner? No one will touch a single hair on your head, unless to comb or wash it, of course." spoke the man, and seeing her looking at him with undivided attention, he chuckled, and spoke once more as his hands moved towards the hood that was obscuring most of his face.
"Tell me if you recognize me, okey?"
As the hood was removed and his facial features came into her sight little changed in her expression. The rather young man did not remind her of anyone, aside maybee from the chin that she supposed did look a bit like her dad, but otherwise the man looked rather ordinary and she was sure she had not seen him before in her life. She was about to say exactly that, when he opened his eyes and she froze. The two eyes with pitch black sclera, and bright yellow retinas and irises. She had seen those eyes before and they belonged to someone she was longing to be together with, alongside her parents. Her little brother Vlad. The eyes were just so strikingly similar, though she could not believe what she saw.
The man before her seemed to be an adult, clearly fully developed, but her brother should be no more than twelve about now, she was sure of it, but then was this weird feeling she felt coming from the depths of her being, this familial pull, telling that it was indeed her baby brother before her eyes.
"I-it cant be. I-it c-cant. Vlad should still be a kid of twelve or so about now. H-How?"
"You know that the eyes indicate special power of sorts right?" Rex now asked in a calm and patient manner.
"Y-yes, the church call it the power of the devil."
"Well, mine is related to energy manipulation in a rather unique way. When I was abbandoned in the woods back then it activated on its own, absorbing the surrounding life force of the world, forcing my body to mature to a point where it could function on it own. My body, thus have gone through around six years or so in those few days, resulting in the sight before you. And yes, I know that you are of the same bloodline as me, even if not awakened and mutated in your case, but that is something we will fix."
Rex smiled at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "You, my sister, will be a blood mage. Of that I am sure." The only question in his mind regarding that particular thing was the time and amount of heaven grade food they will have to have her consume for her bloodline to start to manifest its abilities.
"So, a hug for your brother maybee?" Rex asked as he extended his arms towards the girl who was still trying to process everything he had just told her.
"Hello? Earth to Arana? Hug pending?" Rex sighed at the small short circuit of the girl, and used his own overwelming mana reserves to becon her towards himself, and once she was on his lap, he closed his arms around the girl, embracing her into a gentle, but affectionate hug. He had no memories of the family that apparently did not discared him of their own volition, but seeing how how much his sisterapparantly had loved her little brother to be, Rex could not even begin to show any sort of dislike towards her, even more so when he had suffered arguably more pain and agony than he had in his beast like childhood.
Only when Rex had her in his embrace did she finally came out of it, her arms locking like vices around Rex back, and true flood gates opened as she bawled her eyes and heart out. She was no longer alone. The brother, she believed was gone just like her parents, was now not only alive, but within arms reach, better yet, he was embracing her with care and warmth. he felt like a wall that was protecting from the biting winds that had been tearing into her for the last decade, and it felt good, it felt safe, And so she allowed her bottled up emotions to escape from the strainng confines as she cried and cried in his arms.
A few hours had passed by now and Arana was no longer crying, yet she was still tightly hugging her brother, as if scared that the moment she lets go he will dissapear, like a fleeting dream, and she once again will be plunged back into the nightmare that was her life for quite a while. Her dreamy state however was disturbed when a kick to the door forced them open and in walked a seething man acompanied by two other men. As he walked inside he cursed.
"BITCH, I WILL FLAY YOU ALIVE. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SERVE THE TITHE COLLECTOR HOURS AGO!"
Arana flinched at the yell, but she immediatly calmed down, when her brother huged her even tighter, and whispered in her ear.
"Its okay. I got this. This is not a dream and nobody will ever hurt you again. I am here. I am here." He repeated the last few owrds as he embraced her with one hand while gently caressing her white hair.
"Huh?" the screaming man in the middle exclaimed stupified as he saw the sight before him once he entered the small kitchen alongside his goons.
He saw the white haired girl in the lap of an unknown person, as she was embraced and gently soothed by the stranger.
"THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING BITCH?" he screamed. "YOU WHOR..." was as far as he got in his sentence as he fell to his knees, his voice stuck in his throat. His cronies were no better, in fact they fared worse sinceboth laid headless next to his kneeling form.
"They hurt you a lot. I know." Rex soothingly and gently spoke to Arana. "They will suffer in return. They will suffer hundredfold. Do you want to see them suffer too? Do you want to inflict untold pain to them in return?" he asked his sister, while maintaining his gentle caress.
"It will be okey. They deserve whats coming to them, and if it would make you feel even a little better we can slaughter them all slowly, one by one. Anything that will help you went that pain."
Rex words were gently spoken, as though a poem from heart towards ones lover, yet the content of his words twisted the expression of the only surviving man from the goon squad into abject fear and terror. He could not see the face of said man, but it was rather obvious by his own state that the starnger was not something that they should ever mess with. Whats more, the pressure on his person was so great that even a single sylabble was not an option, let alone words and sentences to negotiate with the monster beneath the bitch.
Rex gentle treatment, and the stark opposite words he were speaking slowly raised Arana out of her fear striken state and were awakening something deep within her, something she was never aware about herself. Deep within her, she heard a distinctive snap, as if a chain of sorts were broken. Then another such snap happened, and another, and another. A couple minutes later the snapping sound of chains ended within her soulspace and a spark of something glinted deep within her eyes, bringing her out of her stupor.
Arana hugged Rex even tighter, and lifted her face from his chest and snugged in his neck, as though she was a vampire inhaling his intoxicating scent before sinking her teeth in that delectable neck of his.
"Thank you brother." she whispered "I needed that." her voice light, almost a whisper, yet since her mouth was so close to his neck and ear, he heard her words clearly, not stopping his caress on her head. "I would like that. Seeing them suffer as I did. Returning the pain that I had to endure hundredfold. I am not sure this one village could satisfy me though. What shall we do, if that is the case?"
"Heh." Rex smirked at ther words. "The whole Ehlisiarchy is yours to burn, save for a few slaves I will claim for another purpose."
A throaty purr escaped her throat as Rex gave her the green light to exact her own revenge.
"I will be right there with you all the way, so rely on me, always." he added.