The real horror began, I suppose, when the woman stiffened.

Tiny bumps arose all across her body, rising and growing from her skin, before breaking through the surface entirely. Spikes of pale-white bone emerged all over her, followed by streams of blood. Some were smooth and thin, while most were thick and jagged, chunks of bleeding flesh attached to them as they emerged. It must've been painful.

No, I shook my head. It's definitely more than just painful.

She was screaming the whole time, but her voice was cut short and reduced to muffles because she had no mouth or lips, not even eyes with which to express pain and horror; Lady Victoria took all of those away from her. The sound that escaped her was a low and continuous wail that just barely tugged at the edges of my senses. She might’ve been crying beneath the skin that covered her eyes, but I would never know.

I have never known a more disturbing sound.

Her screams were preferable.

The woman longed for death. But it would not come for a while.

The sharp and jagged blades of bone that pierced her flesh only ever emerged in places that drew blood and inflicted pain, but where ultimately nonfatal – at least, not in the immediate sense. The Bone Curse, as I understood it, was a spell that was meant to torture, meant to cause nothing but prolonged pain and suffering to its victims. It wouldn’t kill, not until its target’s mind snapped and broke under the agonizing strain the spell brought to bear.

The woman before me… her mind was breaking; I was certain of that, at least. But she still lived and she still fought on, even when simply surrendering would’ve been better. Her will was strong – much stronger than her bloodied and broken body… even if it wouldn’t help her.

“That is good,” Lady Victoria nodded and smiled, and laid her right hand on my shoulder. I turned my focus from her and kept it firmly on what I was doing, supplying a steady trickle of magic to feed the torturous spell. Still, I could not help but feel some measure of pride at her praise, considering every other Dark Mage was scared to their wits whenever she came around. “You’re doing really good, sweetie! It's a bit sloppy, but that's to be expected; I knew you could do it. I didn't doubt you for a moment.”

Her touch also seemed to take the pain away from the smoking stump that was my left wrist. It was still there. There was still enough of it that I still wanted to scream and roll on the floor. But… it was far less than before – a shadow of what it once was.

“Now, stop,” Lady Victoria commanded. And I pulled back immediately.

The bones that’d protruded from the poor woman's skin simply receded back into her flesh and disappeared. The woman went limp and fell unconscious immediately afterwards. The swift and harsh rising and falling of her chest told me she was still alive, if only barely. She would die soon - hopefully. I didn't want her to suffer anymore.

I fell to my knees and wheezed.

I shuddered, not from exhaustion, but from the pain that lingered.

My left hand was still gone.

I could probably fix it, given enough time; the whole point of my Innate Talent was that it gave me the ability to manipulate the bodies of living things, right? That meant I probably had the ability to fix myself.

I breathed in and forced the pain away to a dark and distant part of my mind.

It didn’t work. And it distracted me enough that I didn’t notice Lady Victoria looming over me. She bent down and wrapped her fingers around the sump of my left hand. Her grip was rough and tight. I felt my bones creak and groan in protest. Her crimson eyes blazed above an inhuman grin.

And then, pain erupted all over me. I screamed and fell to the floor. I struggled with my remaining hand, having dropped my wand on the floor as I clawed at Lady Victoria’s fingers. I succeeded only in hurting myself further. I didn’t care at that moment. The very idea of rationality fled from my brain and left behind only the most primal of thoughts, that of survival. And I wanted to survive. Pain was a detriment to that. I needed to get away, to escape. “LET ME GO!”

She did not let go.

Instead, Lady Victoria shook her head and chuckled. “Mercy is for the weak, sweetie; Dark Mages harness pain and suffering, and inflict them upon their enemies. Mercy is beneath you. Mercy is beneath us.”

My bones cracked as she spoke, shattering like glass in her iron grip. She was strong. She was too strong. I couldn’t even make her fingers budge, despite biting and clawing at them; I inflicted no damage, either. Her pale and perfect skin remained unmarred and flawless.

I was weak – too weak.

I needed strength… I needed power.

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I WILL NOT DIE HERE!

Something bubbled within me, an eruption of power and energy that would’ve overtaken my mind if Lady Victoria hadn’t flicked my forehead. Whatever power had awakened within me disappeared in an instant. “None of that; I won’t have you throwing a tantrum here, my sweet little apprentice, no matter how entertaining that might be.”

I wanted to vomit.

I wanted to cry and scream.

Everything hurt.

My bones cracked again.

I think I might’ve definitely been screaming, but I couldn’t entirely be sure.

A grey haze clouded my mind, occluding my vision, my senses.

There was only pain.

Lady Victoria raised me up and brought me close to her blazing crimson eyes. Up close, they really did same like coals, burning in the blackest night. For a moment, I wondered if she was going to kill me. But, the thought disappeared as quickly as it appeared. If Lady Victoria wanted me dead, then she would’ve killed me before I could even realize anything. “Do not make the same mistake again. Am I clear? Are you listening to me, Uriel? Do not ever show mercy ever again. If you do, I will hurt you. I will break you. And I will ensure the very idea of mercy is banished from your head. Do you understand?”

I tried to nod – I really did. But my body wouldn’t listen. I could only keep on crying and sobbing as she dangled me over the floor.

And then, she sighed and released her grip. Before my feet even touched the floor, however, Lady Victoria’s right leg surged forward. The impact drove the air from my lungs, cracking my ribs in the process. My eyes widened and every muscle in my body tightened as her foot met my chest and I was sent hurling towards the wall. I collided against the models and charts, several of them cutting into my skin, until I felt my back smash into something solid. My vision dimmed for a moment as I fell to the floor.

I felt only pain and anguish, but I was too tired and too hurt to scream.

Lady Victoria walked towards me and held out her right hand. “Shi Zikia…”

My vision cleared. The fog in my mind dissipated. Most of the pain that surged across my body disappeared as though it’d never been there. The one source of agony that lingered was the burning of the stump where my left hand had been.

I glanced up towards her just as she dropped my wand on the floor in front of me. The wooden thing clattered and bounced towards me. I grabbed it by shear instinct. And then, Lady Victoria spoke again. “Shi Zikia, the Breath of Life; it is a basic form of physical healing that’s good for the treatment of material injuries. Say it as I said it. Channel your magic properly. Fix that hand of yours, sweetie. It looks dreadful.”

I nodded and leaned against the wall behind me. I raised my left forearm and leveled the wand a few inches away from the still-smoking stump that used to be a hand. The smell of roast pork had faded, leaving only the stench of burnt meat, skin, and fat. Blackened bits of sinew and flesh desperately clung onto pale-white bone. It wasn’t bleeding. The initial explosion ensured that most of the blood that lingered around it would harden and coagulate in the immense heat, preventing a constant stream that would see me dead in minutes.

I breathed in and, to the best of my ability, uttered the foreign words of the spell. A surge of magic streamed through me, begging to be unleashed. I wasn’t sure just how much was needed for the spell to work properly, so I went with what I thought to be a moderate amount. Lady Victoria’s pronouncement of the words still lingered in my thoughts. Replicating them wasn’t a problem, “Shi… Zikia….”

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but more pain definitely wasn’t it.

I screamed and tossed my head back as the burning agony that enveloped the stump of my left hand intensified a hundredfold. I looked on in horror as a new hand emerged from my flesh, but it wasn’t mine. I felt the growth of new tissue, appearing and rising from the depths of my flesh. I felt my veins writhing beneath my skin, the movement of blood and muscles, the growth of bones. And all I could do was scream and scream as I clutched at my left forearm. And then, I took a moment to really look at what was going on, instead of turning away and screaming. What took the place of my old limb was a misshapen thing with only four fingers, each one covered in dark grey scales and tipped with sharp black talons. It was larger and heavier than my right hand, larger than an adult’s.

It took a moment for it to really sink in.

And then I began screaming again.

Unfortunately, trying to run away from my own hand was not possible, no matter how much I wanted to be separated from the thing that was there.

It wasn’t my hand.

The appendage was monstrous and dreadful.

The fact that it moved in accordance to my will was lost to me.

All I saw was an ugly and misshapen appendage that should not have been there.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” I ended up pushing my back even further into the wall. It was a futile effort. But I didn’t care. I could hardly even think. “GET IT AWAY FROM ME!”

I was broken out of the dreadful spell when Lady Victoria suddenly reared back in laughter, howling and cackling as her crimson eyes blazed with amusement. Her crimson eyes seemed to turn into blazing orbs for a moment, like bonfires burning in a starless night. Her laughter lasted a few seconds, before she shook her head and leaned down. Faster than I could react, Lady Victoria grabbed my monstrous hand and tore it right off. A shower of blood and gore erupted, drenching my face.

The pain didn’t begin until after several seconds had passed.

This time, however, I forced myself not to scream.

A muffle escaped my lips.

Tears streamed from my eyes and snot from my mouth.

I wanted to scream – I wanted to scream so badly.

My eyes closed shut as my body shuddered in the onslaught of agony that followed.

But I forced myself to remain quiet – silent. I had screamed enough, shown enough weakness. I didn’t want to be weak. I’d been weak my entire life. I’d been stepped on and abused. I’d been starved and exposed to the elements. Not once did I have control over what happened to me. All I had done was react again and again and again for years.

I was weak.

I did not want to be weak. I wanted to be strong – stronger than anything, stronger than anyone. I wanted to be stronger than Lady Victoria, stronger than all the Dark Lords and Ladies in this hellhole of a school.

I would be weak no longer.

No more!

My eyes snapped open.

I didn’t care about the pain or the fear. I would face them all – I would take them all on.

I breathed in and out, repeating until I calmed down enough to focus on anything else aside from the pain on my left forearm. I knew the spell, I knew its words, and I had an idea as to where I went wrong. It was a simple matter of trying again and again and again until it worked.

The pain was nothing.

It had to be nothing.

Lady Victoria’s blazing coals of crimson fire met my own eyes. And she smiled and nodded. “Try again, sweetie. Try again as many times as you have to.”