Scylla pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, and massaged her scalp, the persistent headache a bothersome distraction, for the past few hours since she was summoned from her gardens, she had been poring over the readings that was before her.

The squelch of Ramon feet on the wet tiles announced his arrival, the floors had to be kept wet, Scylla abilities were notorious afterall.

She gestured, “Ramon, look at these numbers. Who ran them?” Not expecting a reply, she continued “I know of rapid diffusion when shields are quickly disabled... but a slow diffusion and merger is impossible.” Turning to him “hey, are you listening to me"

“of course" Ramon said as he poured the bucket of water on the floor, taking care to make sure some of the spray splashed on Scylla’s feet. Grinning a little at the frown that grew on her face “ this numbers are not hand made, they are from the royal ori. These results are irrefutable.” He reached for the papers.

Scylla nudged the papers away from his reaching hand, “that’s why we have to distrust the numbers". She murmured to herself “nothing is ever certain.”

Gathering all the sheets of paper, she stood up, attempting to stuff them inside the satchel belted across her waist, a hand landed on her wrist stopping her. “ you were only suppose to sign off on the readings, not to investigate the anomaly.” He paused as he squeezed her hand gently “ there are others better suited for that task.”

Scylla harrumph, “you mean Ludg and his merry band of stooges?” she brushed Ramon hand away “you would have better results with a pack of wild rats"

Ramon squeezed the bridge of his nose, “ ludg has won every scholarly debate in the yearly quorum of sorcery. He is a conscientious wizard and this issue has been ruled as a fluke.” His voice softened “ the barrier has stood for all these centuries, despite all the maleficent efforts of cultist and mad wizards attempting to unleash that hell, despite even....”

“despite even...... Scylla the cursed, the wicked witch of the woods?” She looked at him and smiled “ I have not been deaf all these years, I know what my colleagues whisper behind my back. If they could only grow a pair and say them in my presence. At least the little folks have more colourful epitaphs about me.... let me see. What’s my favourite?.... oh, this one: every pregnant women should avoid her gaze, for she makes your babies bald... even females!”

After all this time, Ramon was used to her tirades, he spoke, “be that as it may, these papers do not leave the repository.”

“oh, now that you say so...” she attempted to walk by him, there are some details I need to clear up, but I need sunlight” smiling, she wave her hand holding the paper in a mystical manner “ I devised this new fantastic spell, I am sure it may help in this query.”

He sighed, “there is no use for games Scylla, truthfully, every location traces has been edited out from them and swapped with doctored traces, even with the papers you would need weeks to reverse engineer the missing data.”

Scylla started then her eyes blazed in anger, she pushed the papers into Ramon chest, “ you had me digging through that for hours Ramon..... hours, I thought I was mistaken on why the spatial coordinate was wrong, but chalked it up to the incident..”

“Wait.... hold up... you could tell the records were doctored. That’s....impossible.”

“Don’t hold your breath, the council over estimate their craft.”

She whirled around, walking away with long strides, she was tall with long legs, she ate the distance, her voice echoed in the room “I am charging double my fees, and next time you need my help I am charging triple!”

“ For what you charge, we are practically not paying you" Ramon muttered to himself “ you practically seize every opportunity to enter the repository after you were banned, moreover if your preferred form of payments are spiders, then you can quintuple the fee, there must still be tens of species you still don’t have in your unholy collection.”

“I heard you Ramon.... My current fees are now triple.”

Cursing silently, Ramon rapidly shut the heavy doors of the repository with a gesture, wispy glowing lines swirling around his fingers. He paled a little for he sometimes forgot how heavy the damned thing was.

The repository sat at the top of a seven storey tower. The tallest in all of Morphia. Raised by sorcery five thousand years ago, it had withstood the test of time, and many illustrious sorcerers had traversed it hall’s. The repository was a sphere crystal-like structure, it resembled many triangular crystal mirrors pieced together in the shape of a sphere, it took a sizable portion of the towers roof. It base rested on seven magical column... it was the highlight of the city, for it glowed even at night.

Created by the third mage king, during his heights of magic, it was a glorious feat of ingenuity, for it was the only device capable of connecting to an ori.....the only one left from the fall. For the methods of creating those sentient machines were long lost, and the most important parts of their makeup- Divinity, could no longer be found. No matter how long the priest in their temples prayed, no matter the sacrifices given, they would all fall short.

For the gods were dead. How else this this land got cursed.

Scylla hurried down the steps of the tower, for once not complaining why the constructors, her weird ancestors, found no reason to make levitating platforms, and all effort she had pushed for so important a device, was unceremoniously rebuffed.

She had to force herself to put a frown on her face, and glare at any one who she set eyes upon, just so that she could cover up the giddiness threatening to burst out of her.

Ramon was a smart mage, and was very careful in managing his affairs, he was straight laced and a pain in the behind, nonetheless Scylla had got very good in in disguising her intentions, and having a young pretty face still contributed, she didn’t miss the way his eyes softened when he looked at her. She sighed, knowing the folly of her royal blood.

She made it to the ground floor, her breath still steady, despite rushing down the top of the tower, she headed for the exit at a brisk walk, her eyes catching the sight of the last person she wanted to see, hoping he did not notice her, she walked a bit faster. she groaned when his voice, high pitched for someone so....voluminous resounded in the reception hall, “For as I breath... look at what the spiders dragged in.”

Scylla did not have to disguise her irritation any longer, she looked sideways and saw ludg, plodding towards her surrounded by his band of cronies, he was rubbing his hands together, undisguised glee in his beady eyes, he took pleasure in denying her the simplest of victory. A childhood spat the fool has held on for so long, and it had transformed into hate after not satisfying his craven desires all these while.

The rational part of her mind told her to ignore him, she had important work to do, and he was a loathsome distraction, a simple complimentary gesture and a not so pleasant smile could solve many of her problems, instead she said this to him, “Amazing the amount of shit, the gods drop on my face today, I thought I smelt a rather pungent one from afar...”

Ludg snorted, the greasy smile fading from his face, “ I suppose that is fair, after all I have taken the duties you have failed to do, and uphold all your contracts. I can also withstand all your insults.” He looked around to garner more attention, and snickered, “ you are of royal blood, so we would surely tolerate your shortcomings.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Scylla grimaced, the greasy meatball was more a politician than wizard, and he would twist her words into strings of conspiracy, and even though she could banter with the best, he had his way with words that could sway the simpletons, who now strained their ears to catch the conversations of the ongoing conflict. The mage Kings would weep in their crypt to see how low their scion had fallen. She would have no victory here, but she won’t leave without taking a bite from Ludg.

She smiled, “ Amazing how much shit comes from your mouth, your asshole must be jealous.”

Ludg blanched, face turning pale in restrained fury, for someone so intelligent, it was surprisingly easy to get under his skin.

Scylla turned away from him, walking towards the door, now that he was on a back foot and distracted, she should leave, time was of the essence, and she could not waste it now, nevertheless she said, “ it was fun catching up with you ludg, besides eh.... you know, the smell of shit.”

Leaving the shocked audience behind and ludg sputtering in fury, she stepped into the bustling street of the city, she needed to transcribe her findings and prepare for a journey, the distortion was far away from here in the country sides.

She didn't need weeks to decipher the traces as Ramon had thought, she did it in ten minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stood outside the red forest and waited, adjusting my breathing and running through plans of actions in my mind, when I fought it was mostly reactive, I had superb reflexes and coordination, it was the most simplest of things to react to my opponent moves.

For the outer edge of the forest that would be okay for the type of opponents I met, but the ones deeper inside would move faster than me. I had to learn how to fight properly.

The first time I entered the forest I expended some petal of energy, was the forest surrounded by a barrier?

If it was, did I need to use my petals to go through?

Could I use other methods or just sheer strength to pierce through that veil?

Or as always would my body sought to take the take the path of least resistance and use my petals.

Let find out.

I moved ahead with my arms waving in front of me, expecting resistance, after a while I stopped, realising I was never going to hit a barrier, I dropped my arms that had been waving ineffectually at the air. I had been walking towards the forest all these while, yet it seemed I stayed in the same position, the earth appeared to stretch endlessly beneath my feet, and I could walk for hours and not get close to the forest that appeared a few meters away from me by my perception.

So this was the barrier.

I cocked my head in thought. Perhaps it was a matter of speed? With that in mind I ran. My feet thundered on the earth as I pushed my self to the limit, where I could barely hold against my feat from manifesting, the forest ahead stood still with mocking indifference.

I stopped, looking behind me, again it appeared as if I had not moved that much, I crouched and looked at the ground. My burst of speed earlier had tore through the soil, I watched in a tired kind of anger as the churned earth healed beneath my footstep.

I had been going around in a circle!

I gave up.

It wasn’t much effort to call on a feat. A red haze of light surrounded me, and I walked towards the forest, which steadily grew closer to me, till I penetrated the ephemeral barrier and the madness of the forest unveiled itself before me.

This time I was prepared to partake In this feast.

No feats. No reality bending abilities. Just me, my hands, and my will.

Whatever distraction I had been before, when I tore that tree branch had been forgotten, as the damned resumed their haunting dance of slaughter. Their furious cries silent. The trees screaming in their stead.

It wasn’t long before one crazed beast noticed me, a red tiger with brown stripes, it had just killed a winged buffalo and burrowed at the chest for something, which it swallowed. A flash of light showed me it was a red gem.

The gem that remained from that creature I previously slew. I was interrupted from my musing by the burst of red light that spewed from the body of the tiger, it appeared to have reached a sort of limit and was evolving.

The brown stripes were fading and it was growing bigger, the mouth was opened in a silent roar, and new longer, sharper teeth was extended. It rose up on its hind leg and roared toward the sky. The trees echoed its joy. Just as I shoved my hands into its chest.

I fiddled around and pulled out the glowing gem, I stashed it by the opening near the seam of my clothes, that closely resembled a pocket. I still had the element of surprise on my hands, and I intended to make the most of it.

I skirted around the fighting press, always moving, eyes roving around for weakened prey, when I saw an opportunity I struck. A seven foot crab, with most of its limbs missing, was snapping it only misshapen claws at an equally destroyed opponent, I pulled my foot up to my chest and stomped on it, my feet broke through the carapace and impaled it to the bloody ground, my instincts were correct, I could find the exact positions of the gem. I pulled the gem out using my feet, my toes cradling it, my ambidexterity apparently extended to all my limbs.

The bug thing it was attacking rushed at me in its final moments of fury, it swung at me with a bladed Chitinous arm, I ducked and in the same movement swiped my fingers down it torso, the contents therein exploded out, I snagged the gem out of the air, side stepping the rushing gore. My eyes tracking my next prey.

An unlucky bear was pushed towards me, by a twin headed hippo, its back was against me as it snarled at his opponent, all aits attention directed at the hippo, I shrugged - easy prey. I blinded it by swiping across it face, it pulled back in shock, and I got access to it neck, I seized it and pulled, my fingers slicing deep into its throat, my other hand snaked across its chest like a lover, two long slice with my fingers was all it took to nearly tear it in two and I fished for the gem. All these took two seconds.

The nature of the footings didn’t allow easy movement, but the two headed hippo had been charging towards me all these while and was now close to me, it let down it head as both horns that were four foot long and gleaming razor sharp pointed at me. I scoffed and leaped over its head, landing on its wide back, I reached across and seized the ear from its left head and pulled up, forcing it to stop and allowing me to get within reach of its horn, I grabbed it, and with a yell drew it up and sideways, it’s neck crumpled with a sickening crack, I felt the spine underneath my feet shifting because of the unholy pressure I just applied when breaking the hippos neck.

Almost like a graceful dancer, I began tracing the ridge of bone underneath the skin with my feet, my toenails pierced through it firm hide and lodged into the spine, I scrunched my face and I pulled, the hippo collapsed below me, my hands had better grip, I seized the protruding bone and with a burst of gore, pulled the spine from the convulsing creature.

The red gem was in my pocket a moments later, I moved on to the next, I sliced through muscles and blinded eyes, crippled and disembowel, the gems with me kept increasing and soon I had more than twenty, eyes began focusing on me more often than not, as the pile of gems with me were beginning to blaze, and soon I was beginning to get bigger, stronger contenders for my prize.

I bared my teeth, my heartbeat had began to accelerate and focusing was becoming much harder. I was fighting three battles, the most intense was surprising – it was my hearts.

They roiled and fought me. They fought against my mode of combat, for that was not what dragons do, we did not spar with the weak, or kill with subterfuge, we roared and dominated the battlefield, we rip and tear, we stand at the centre of chaos and with the might of our claws and the fire of stars in our heart bring order to madness. We....... okay my hearts could take a time out, it was dragging on my concentration.

The second was my feats, they pulled on my senses. Wanting to be let out, the desires of my hearts and the eagerness of my feat to manifest itself fed on each other, growing and thriving until my eyes were covered in red, and it was all I could do to scream....

Nevertheless I needed control.

I don’t know who I was yet, but my desire to control my fate was paramount.

So with hearts screaming, and feats raging I continued my slaughter with the precision of a surgeon.

Nothing would control me again. Nothing

#%^:...^%!*?:;,•°°¤°°

Oh....... I was such a fool.