Announcements:
Working on a map to show you locations, but the kingdom introduced in this chapter, Pugnax, is about 2 kingdoms west of where Bella was born and next to the kingdom where… important stuff will happen.
Also, I am currently juggling an odd RL schedule, so if we manage to pass 250 followers I will still need a few days before I get a bonus chapter out for everyone. This is also part of the reason why I have putting out late chapters the last few weeks.
One of the things that I will be changing in the rewrite, is Anton’s past and I will be giving him a bit of face time to argue with DeMorte in a conservative versus liberal sort of situation – this will be to establish that DeMorte is still a conservative by many of our standards, even if he will be a radical by the standards of his current world.
The churches will also be taking a larger role in the world as a whole from here on out and I will be adding some religious scenes to the rewrite… although the pantheon is still not complete and this is how it currently stands:
Spoiler :
Hoh - Water/healing
Heh - Fire/smithing
??? - Earth/farming
Harno - Air/travel
Conbra - Life/fertility
NoEs - Death/cycles
Tophon - Justice/light
??? - Deceit/darkness
??? - Unity/peace/femininity(?)
??? - Division/war/manliness(?)
Prometheus – Humanity/technology(?)/???
??? - ???
Opinions and suggestions are welcome for the parts with question marks.
Reminders:
-DeMorte is fairly paranoid about mages touching him, but non-mages, especially attractive women without a weapon, are safe enough – so long as they do not actually sleep in his bed.
-Bella is currently 15 and the merge occurs 5 days before DeMorte gets stuck in his current body.
-Dras (full name Drasiedi) was John’s old friend. Specifically, the more responsible one with burnout and the sleeping disorder that DeMorte copied to compress his own sleep. He also received some light genetic modifications a little while before DeMorte left for the capital.
-I still need to work on introducing information over the long term
-By many standards DeMorte is a horrible person, but even he has friends/people he cares for
-Healer is an official title – protected by the king’s law like any noble title
Chapter 35: Sisterhood of Pugnax
Cycle 3086 AF, day 52 of the Wood phase (9 days before merge deadline)
Hohen Healing Temple in the kingdom of Pugnax:
“Hoh’s blessed waters!” The young woman collapsed against me gasping and I smirked as I enjoyed the way her brain was reacting in the afterglow. I had nothing better to do this early in the evening, while everyone else was awake, so sneaking away with one girl or another was entraining in more ways than one.
Being able to keep an eye on each step of her mind’s reaction to what I was doing was the major interest right now, but I did grudgingly experiment on my own body too. It took a long time to come to that particular decision, but I was very interested in keeping track of and regulating my own brain, so I practiced influencing it and discovered magical orgasms – literally.
I did know how to cause them before, in theory, but it was odd to actually design a systematic spell that could cause someone to reach orgasm. The spell should work on males too, but I was not going to test that particular application just yet.
Furthermore, that spell was the precursor to one of my most impressive spells yet, a general pleasure spell. My current test subjects were helping me test some of the addictive qualities of the spell, as it did seem addictive to a certain extent. Combined with my pain spell, I could envision some truly effective combinations to use while interrogating prisoners.
I had tried the spells on myself a few times, but while I did feel good the effects seemed to be severely diminished in comparison to how others reacted. I had a few ideas about why, including my initial reluctance to experience any pleasure or orgasm this close to my deadline to change my sex.
I gave the young woman in her a moment of recovery before planting a kiss that left my tongue to run wild inside of her mouth. It had nothing to do with the experiment, but it was fun. She moaned softly into my mouth and I saw her brain go into a tailspin of hormones at the same time as I felt her body tensed up for a moment before relaxing. She seemed to melt into me and I managed to keep my discomfort at physical contact to a minimum.
She was one of the 5 woman in the Hoh worshipping healing temple that I managed to confirm as very interested in other women. Of those, I had collected 2 of them for this experiment, one of whom was busy tonight, while I quietly suggested to the others that they should hide their actions better. The final woman was too young to attract my attentions, but that did not stop her from trying.
Considering that a pair of my confirmations were a full Sister Healer and one of her senior pupils, I had gained a small safety net of people who were very motivated to keep me happy. Though they would not be able to help me once I actually took what I needed from this place.
The Sisters here had mixed reactions to such meetings as they dirtied the so-called purity of their members, but they were much better about it than the church of Conbra. While followers of Hoh were taught some anatomically incorrect things about virginity, the church of Conbra had strict teachings when it came to what genders a person was supposed to be attracted to.
Such “crimes against nature” were typically viewed as signs of insanity where Conbraian followers held sway and were punished with either “corrective” measures or execution.
Given that this particular temple was largely made up of a cult dedicated to keeping women away from men, I was only vaguely surprised that a number of women were more interested in women. With just over 1200 Sisters and initiates who were only allowed outside for special reasons and a rather impressive wall to enforce the rule, I was actually surprised that I only managed to confirm 5 of the people other were attracted to other women… Though if I was being honest a sizable part of my personal surprise was disappointment.
Not that I actually believed in the rumors of midnight orgies, but I did wonder how they were started and if there was even a kernel of truth, it would be fun to discover.
Regardless, I had an idea that it might have had something to do with the temple itself, as the temple was actually open to the public both as a place to honor Hoh and receive basic medical care. The full Sisters helped where they could and usually hired themselves out to local nobles as a fully trained Healer for whatever healing might be needed.
I broke the kiss slowly and stroked the young woman’s face, she was a few cycles older than me in my current body and decades younger than I was mentally, but she was good for a bit of fun. Though the way she looked at me made me slightly nervous.
I only had one love, regardless of the life I lived in and while I enjoyed seeing her react to my attentions, I did not need her assuming love was a factor. I knew some people who had made such mistakes in the past and it never seemed to end well.
I told her that I was using magic to manipulate her body to react more had not seemed to get through her head. That she ‘knew’ such manipulations were impossible was definitely an annoyance. Not only did she know that the overly-protective holy wards block most magic, but she was also an older initiate who the Healers had spent the last 10 cycles training on the limitations of magic into her head.
Even the non-mage menders who were trained here needed to know how to help the actual Healers as well as what they could and could not do. This allowed both menders and Healers to prioritize wounded individuals appropriately and not waste mana on minor wounds.
I stepped away from the woman and her look turned pleading. The fact that she almost seem to start begging when I turned to leave made me wonder how much of her current state I could attribute to my spell and how much was just an overly excited teen. “W-wait, please.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, I barely remembered the woman’s name and the last thing I needed was a clingy woman following me around, but I viewed myself as responsible for her current state so I turned back to her with a neutral look. Although it might have been slightly ruined when I ran my eyes over her delectable body, which was young, perky, and in a rather good health despite the questionable food they made here.
She stuttered for a moment before blurting out something unexpected. “I recommended that the novices be taken to the tournaments from now on to see what some of the Healers at work outside the walls. I also pointed out that it would let them see violence that caused those injuries in case they had to deal with that in the future.”
I blinked and nodded thoughtfully. The novices here contained a fair number of upper class and they had varying degrees of exposure to violence and blood. The cleaning up of the treatment rooms had gotten most of them used to blood and even removing dead bodies, but some of them managed to dodge the duty religiously. “What did the Sister Healers say to that?”
Blushing and obviously wishing that she could have said how much she loved me or something along those lines, she explained how good of an idea they found it. Apparently their Healers were already on hand and used to do this for certain novice groups in the past, but it had fallen out of practice when the sword tournaments popularity waned.
Since they had recently made a large return to the public’s attention the Sister Healers had been hired for their healing expertise. Naturally, my name had come up as I had volunteered a lot for observing the Healers at work in the previous phases since I joined the order.
If everything went well tonight, I would be able to leave in a few days without attracting too much attention, but if not it would give me something to do while I came up with another plan.
I stepped forward and slipped my arms around her mostly naked body to pull her close for another kiss. Letting what robes she still wore, fall to the ground a few moments later.
We had a little more time until curfew and I swore that this room in particular was left ignored, yet clean, explicitly for young woman to sneak away to. Regardless, I would happily use it for the moment, though I somehow doubted this young woman realized how serious I was when I said that this would be our last time together.
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Later that evening, after a round of partly compressed sleep, I quickly and quietly moved from the shared dorm that represented my current sleeping arraignment. Luckily, not only were my bunkmates fairly deep sleepers, but had also learned the consequences of trying to pull pranks on me fair quickly.
Between my reflexes and a few old memories of night assassination attempts, I tended to be a light sleeper unless I was compressing my own sleep cycle. The resulting lectures from the Sisters in charge had mostly been instructions on how to mend broken noses without magic.
I snuck out of the room and down the hall that connected to dozens of rooms just like my own. It was regularly patrolled by some of the Sisters, but they were so consistent that they were easy to dodge.
After the hallway ended at some stairs it became a little more annoying, but the wards were not set to detect people leaving the novice area, just people trying to force their way into sensitive areas or coming in from outside. As a result I was fairly safe so long as I avoided anyone coming up the stairs at the wrong time.
In fact, it could have been much more dangerous for me if these particular stairs had been made out of wood, because of my weight, but thankfully wood seemed to cause mixed reactions in this city. Richer individuals and members of the aristocracy typically viewed it as a sign of wealth, especially when made into furniture, but for some it was a source of fear.
It had something to do with one of the other cults in the city, one dedicated to the god of humanity, Prometheus. That cult in particular only believed in touching wood if separated by cloth and only cooking with iron instruments separating food from the fire. Food roasted over an open flame was only acceptable if it was a non-wood fire.
The Sisters of the temple gave the novices strict instructions to avoid them if we ever went out, even though we hardly ever did so without a pair of strict Sisters watching our every move.
The current ‘temple’ where I was residing was rather large and had apparently been built just after a large flood cleared the previous residents out. It had several different building on the temple ground, which were walled off from the outside world and protected by the so-called “holy ward.”
Given the power of the wards many people wondered just how they were created. When mentioned in concert with the flood prior to construction some even suggested that Hoh herself somehow marked the land for her followers.
I disagreed, thinking that there was no way that the gods would do something so direct, but I might have been judging the local gods based on the how the Nalks acted.
Though finding out how the wards worked was actually one of my end goals. When I joined the Hoh Sisterhood it was to steal either the cult secrets of the magic that the Sisterhood used, specifically, a set of ritual healing spells or the holy ward’s method of construction. Either one would cover my payment for the sex changing spell, according to mage Jorgensen.
I had met that particular graveborn just after my birthday at the end of the metal phase and had almost hated him from the start. Apparently, the most trustworthy person, once he was paid, that I could contact in regards to a sex change spell. Although I truly did not like my inability to walk away from this particular deal.
Jorgensen had been able to drive up the price to the point where I knew that he was used to dealing almost exclusively with rich nobles. He demanded that I either pay a hundred gold pieces, as he had no desire for mithril, or… well, the point was, the number of people who actually knew how to cast it was extremely low and he was my best option.
There was also an annoying statement from the church of Conbra that he used to help justify a ‘reluctance’ to help me. Said statement talked about the “questionable sanity” of anyone who sought to change their Conbra-given body. Especially when changing females to males, because it was seen as shirking the duty of having children.
I was not sure where I what I was going to do after I managed to become a man again, but if I ended up in a position of power than I would likely have several interesting chats with the various churches.
Even without my slightly changed world views from time with Anton, I did not like the level of power churches here had. It had been similar in my previous world, but they only had so much influence in an area ruled by outlaws.
I sighed at the memory and check behind me for any followers before I started descending the stairs.
Since the novices were placed on the top floor, allegedly to help keep us from causing trouble, I had to go down 4 flights of stairs without attracting attention. Luckily there was no one moving around in the hall lower floors, which housed the senior inductees and near Sisters, but I paused as I came to the bottom of the stairs.
I had to confirm that the guards were, as per usual, taking their smoke break and my nose easily confirmed that they were. I had astounded when I first learned of their habit, but the 3 women who were supposed to watch over the novice’s dorm left for a smoke break every night at a certain time. The fact that smoking traxico was unhealthy was actually a matter of debate within the Sisterhood so it was not forbidden, just frowned upon.
Getting back into the building would be slightly trickier, but I had been doing this every few nights for the whole phase so I was used to the climbing.
I walked out the front entrance to the initiate’s building without fear, the whole temple awoke before dawn, so only the night guards were up at this late hour. The wards around the compound made it seem like there was nothing beyond the large walls of the compound either, despite being fairly closer to the center of the city.
The other buildings besides the temple itself were a few supply buildings, a mess hall, and a residential building for the Sisters themselves.
What I was after was in the library underneath the temple itself, in a back room where novices such as myself were not allowed and under multiple layers of magical protection.
For a brief moment I wondered why in the world Jorgensen even wanted the information, as it was not like he could confirm it… unless that fool thought that I was going to walk a copy of the rituals out the front gate.
Given the ward’s high level of security and the loyalty magic that full Sisters used when they gained the title, getting to the back library was almost impossible without some knowledge of borderline forbidden magic. Getting anything out would be impossible with anything short of an army or an iron spike through the ward’s anchor point. Which was why I suspected that he suggested this robbery as a bluff to make me give up on purchasing his services without- anyway.
Since such a large part of ritual magic was the belief that it would work, writing it down as ‘this worked centuries ago’ dramatically increased the likelihood of the ritual’s success. This at least meant that the Sisters would likely have a physical copy of instructions for how to perform their rituals.
Unlike almost every single other branch of magic, ritual spells were entirely illogical affairs. In fact, to best describe it I would have to quote an old friend: “Ritual magic is 3 parts belief, 1 part magic, 1 part timing, and a lot of luck throughout.”
In particular, this branch of the church of Hoh was known for their healing rituals which would cure some of the worst diseases and heal deadly of wounds without leaving a scar. Of course no one was allowed to witness such rituals and all of those healed were unconscious when it occurred, so it was still a fairly secret process.
One of the few well known facts about the Sisters was that they had a requirement that all of their members keep themselves virginal. Though I wanted to slap some of the Sisters for their ideas of a virginal purity. For example, apparently you could only have your virginity if you had an intact hymen… I wanted to give a detailed lecture on anatomy when I heard that, especially given that this place was where some of the better Hoh Healers were supposed to be trained, but I was supposed to be a novice.
On that subject, I did ask them why men were not allowed in the order, but apparently only women can use virginity magic… I asked them if the hymen had magical properties and earned an extra cleaning duty.
According to them, it was all about purity, but to me it just showed that their famous ritual spells really did, at least in part, rely on belief to work. If nonsense was what was they thought was required to make their rituals work, than nonsense would be standing at attention somewhere nearby.
I shook my head at the foolishness, the only ritual spell that made sense was a mana gathering ritual where a mage would pool their mana in a series of circles in preparation for a large spell. Though that was called only a ritual spell because it required a certain level of synchronization if more than a single mage used it at the same time, but it did not need someone to believe in it to work.
I navigated between buildings, staying out of sight as much as possible as I went to one of the temple’s side doors and pulled out my key weapon to break into the library. It was a magical device of a rather morbid nature as I had made it from a ball of a recently indisposed senior Sister’s hair. If anyone found me with it they would accuse me of blood magic, but it was just me using DNA to replicate the ‘feel’ of the senior Sister, who was allowed in most every place under the temple’s wards.
The Sister in question was old enough that not even the other Sisters could aid her failing body, but while she was ill and alive, I could fool the wards into thinking I was her. Though the opposite was true as well, if she died, the wards would remove her ability to access the library, so I kept very close eye on how she was doing.
I did not know how far I could go with this method of tricking the wards, but I had scouted out every major building’s non-public areas over the last few days so I was at least sure that it worked for most places on the grounds. One of the last places to go was the library in the basement of the temple itself.
It was not far away or watched by hulking guards clad in iron and ready to fight, but it did have the holy wards guarding it. In fact it had taken the majority of the time I spent after arriving here to just work my way through each different level of security that the ward provided. The very first layer only needed the cult’s proof, which also allowed us into areas besides the temple without problems, but it got much more complicated after that.
The side entrance of the temple branched off into a variety of different areas, including a critical treatment room and a ritual room. I took the stairs that were partially hidden behind a sharp curve between 2 adjoining passages and prepared myself.
The wards washed over me and I made sure that my modified shroud extended all around me without covering up my key. Like it had last time, the wards left after they confirmed that I was allowed to be there.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
The modified shroud I created in the dungeon had been more useful than I originally thought it might because it was technically not a spell and therefor the wards would not see or react to it. It also shielded me from detection to a certain extent.
Downstairs was the basement and the library that promptly opened itself to my presence.
It was the area beyond the library though that held all of the most important written records. It was also an area that, until tonight, I had been unable to access.
I had been coming down here for quite some time, but it was not until I got creative with some of my questioning that I managed to actually figure out how to enter. The back of the library was reserved for Sisters who had already become fully recognized members of the order and knew their craft well enough to solve a small riddle that was carved near the gate that kept others out.
The darn thing had been a truly evil puzzle to beat because I kept trying to put in the correct answer, when the Sisters had deliberately made sure that only the wrong answer would let you in. Specifically, there was a carving of the human body with mana paths running through most of the body.
I kept trying to complete the paths correctly only to have the puzzle reset after I was done. It turned out that I was expected to carve the symbol of the Sisterhood, a complicated series of lines that was supposed to represent purity somehow, over the carving’s groin. The mana paths were technically wrong as a result, but that was what it took.
The official motto of the Sisterhood was something about being the water to wash away wounds, but the unofficial saying was ‘purity of within and without.’
I shook my head as the gate swung open silently and I wondered what other layers of protection I could expect. This much was already beyond what most noble houses used to protect their own personal area, only creating a wall that had to be directly removed by the ward owner was more secure.
[AN: IDK if the terminology is correct but it should be similar to admin level access instead of having the correct permission and password]
The back room automatically brightened with magically powered lights and I stepped in to look around only after I had checked for any more puzzles or hidden traps.
The rear area seemed to be a dead-end, but it had a few shelves, which were mostly filled with scrolls instead of books. I carefully removed several of the smaller scrolls and started reading them, trying to confirm that if any described a ritual, any ritual. I also looked through a few of the books that where there and it was all interesting, but it also took time.
I gave a small smile while mentally keeping track of how much time I had before the rest of the temple awoke. I found that several obvious ritual scrolls were kept in the same area and given time I could copy one of these by hand, but that would longer than I had remaining.
Assuming that magical devices would not set off the wards here, I might be able to use one to create a fake copy but… that was assuming that these minor scrolls counted as secret rituals. They were fairly well protected and it was obvious from the mana in them that they were tied to this place so they might be, but I had no way of knowing for sure.
I also could not take them outside without dealing with whatever safety measure had been put in place. I could read and memorize it easily enough given the size, but I looked around for anything I missed earlier.
The wards for example, which were centered on the temple, though there seemed to be something blocking me from figuring out where the wards were actually anchored at. It was usually the lowest point in any given building for security concerns, but I had not found the ward room yet.
I put the scrolls away and started walking around the edge of the room, keeping my hand just barely out of direct contact with the wall. It worked and soon enough my hand felt a large amount of mana leaking out from behind a portion of the wall near a corner.
I smiled and gently probed this hidden passage for a while as my smile quickly faded and replacing itself with a grimace.
I growled to myself when I realized the extent of this layer of defense as it required directly manipulating the wards in a specific way to pass through, no exceptions.
Stone the graveborns who designed this!
I shook my head, if I was going to force my way past that I would have to do some fairly serious preparation work and it would likely be a loud exit. A full iron suit would help too, but my current identity as ‘Stella’ would be completely unusable afterwards.
Plus, my iron and bone armor were currently being looked after by the local Histone chapter and it would be rather difficult to get them back because of the fairly strict over watch.
I turned back and quickly, but quietly, exited the library. I could think of a few spells that would help, but all of them ended in one noticeable exit and I really could not afford to do that more than once.
I would have to arrange a few things ahead of time, but it would not be too hard to make sure that Jorgensen was ready for me ahead of time. If he betrayed me though…
Well, no matter how I tried to figure it out, I would be stuck as a woman unless I wanted to take the extreme measure of trying to use my genetic recoder before it was finished. It should make me male, but the mutations in my DNA would be… unpredictable.
Even with my perfect memory for the lessons I learned from Anton, there were still too many variables to guess what would happen. Even with the minimized changes I worked into the magical device, I would be better off making myself a gender neutral than a male.
In the best case, everything went well and I would survive with minimal changes outside of a few noticeable growths between my legs… if it did not, I could end up with multiple tumors, all of my improvements to my current body would be disrupted, and my unnaturally dense muscles or bones might decide expand.
That was the consequence of rapidly trying to force genetic change though and anything that would slow it down enough to let me watch and correct it might end up taking months.
Genetics could not simply be messed with without risk and even with whole cycles of experimentation on both myself and the modified humans I had no guarantee that it would work. Stones, even with all the advanced knowledge from Anton under my belt, that would still be one stoning monster of a gamble.
Still, I had to keep emergency plans available… despite the clear lack of options I had. Jorgensen was already taking me for all I was worth instead of simply accepting my bit of mithril as payment and now I had to put my trust in him near the last possible moment.
I pushed down the rising urge to hurt someone as I snuck through the temple and back outside. Even if I was disguised as someone else, the wards would likely smite anyone who started leaking too much killing intent.
I felt a slight burn in the back of my mind and ignored the youngling who had stopped speaking to me a few phases ago.
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A few days later I at the tournament, suffering through the indignity that was listening to someone who out ranks you try to teach you something you already know. I was allowed to watch some of the sword matches, which was entertaining, but after the first few participants were injured, the Sisters in charge called me back to watch them treat the wounded.
I originally found interesting to learn from the Sisters as they had different ways of describing the things that Anton had taught me so many cycles ago. There were some things that they were mistaken on, but they had a good grasp on the basics like how urgent it was to treat what injures or how to set bones to let them heal properly.
Healers had been rare in my previous life, with most people just taking care of their own wounds and the person next to them. Even as a ‘king’ I was treated similarly with the majority of healers only coming to my little kingdom only when forced to.
I was still looking for a way to slip away into the crowd and send a message to Jorgensen to be ready for me. Fortunately, his personal tower was not far away from this fighting arena and once the last of the fighting was done the Sisters would be busy publically educating (arguing with) people about various points of personal health. I could slip away at that point and make a hurried visit.
“Are you listening Stella?”
I nodded. “Yes Sister, you were talking about-” I jerked my head to the side as I heard a familiar voice from the other side of the large room. Even with my sharp (although not currently pointed) ears it was not hard to hear his voice as he was arguing with someone, although they were not quite yelling.
I started wondering about the odds of meeting him here, but decided that it was actually fairly good. Between his determination to become an expert swordsman and the odds of Nalk interference, fair odds went out the window. The fact that he might recognize me also popped into my head
The Sister heard the yelling too, but tried to get me to ignore it by calling to me. I answered her question with less than half my attention as I concentrated on what Dras was saying. His voice was clearly upset and while I did not know why, I had a suspicion that I had or would have something to do with it before this was over.
Since the only thing separating us was several curtains that divided up the room
“-I told you that I am fine, just give me a healing potion and let me get back to the competition.”
“Sir, please, there is something odd that we need to check, it will just take a moment-”
“I told you that I am fine and I do not want someone rooting around in my body with magic now, I-”
The Sister I had been shadowing stepped past me and pushed through the curtain that gave the illusion of privacy aside. Located underneath the area when the actual tournament was fought before a sizable crowd, this area was meant to be where people could relax and receive treatment before they either fought again or left. Therefore anyone who disturbed the sanctity of that would deal with the Sisters, who had been placed in charge of it.
The words spoken were very quiet, but I picked up phrases like “ignorant sword ape” and “inconsiderate masochist” before it was done.
Dras was very quiet after that, but I heard him exit soon after. I gave him my sympathy, but remained out of sight the whole time.
The Sister came back and promptly gave me a lecture on concentration before going back to work.
Sometime later, the quarter finals to be precise, I was dismissed and told that I could go observe the fighting if I wanted to. I wanted to ask her why, but the Sister had a look on her face that said she knew that I really wanted to be upstairs watching the fighting.
Naturally I was more interested in Dras and how his body was doing than anything else, so I immediately took the Sister’s offer. Although I found myself wondering why exactly she thought I wanted to see the fights. In her mind I was just another newly joined novice who still had the right to remove myself from Sisterhood.
Regardless, I took the time to find my way to the private boxes. Since most nobles dismissed the art of the sword because of their incredible magical talent they were currently empty.
I heard from someone announce Dras was up in the next fight and I tried to smile, but my special brand of luck came into play.
I saw a servant I recognized as belonging to a very specific annoyance. Knowing that person was here was a mixed blessing as it saved me the trouble of finding them, but I disliked the idea of being seen with them, even temporarily.
I walked up to the servant and nodded towards the door. “Alone?”
The servant, who was quite quick on the uptake, realized that I did not care and knocked on the door in a specific patter before opening it for me.
The tall man who was seated alone turned to look at me and gave me his most disgusting smile. “Hello little Bella, or Stella, or whatever it was.”
I quickly put up a ward for privacy before responding. “NoEs’ rot Jorgensen, why are you here?”
[AN:
-Time left until merge = 5 days plus the time before dawn on the 6th day
-The person below is from chapter 10]
* * *
Just outside the Imperial Jade palace of Etror
How much does a mother love her child? How far would a parent go to protect their post precious little one? If someone had to ask, then they were not a parent, or at least not one worthy of their child.
Inhale, exhale.
She withdrew the now hot stoker that she had been playing with in the fire.
She did not want to do this and part of her begged not to, what she was about to do was against the rules and obeying the rules felt so good.
Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
I have to do this for him though. Her clothes, wonderful and expensive, were on the floor behind her. They were wonderful gifts from her owners, the heavenly Emperor and Empress themselves! She felt a shiver of shame at having dare let their precious gifts touch the ground outside of their bed chambers and felt a strong desire to go pick them up and clean them thoroughly!
Anyone could walk in on her right and see her, naked beside a fire that should not be burning, with her child deliberately facing away from her as ordered. They would see her and then both of them would be in danger. Jie would be in danger!
That thought cleared her head at last and she replaced the metal into the fire for a moment to prepare both it and herself. No more hesitating, if she did not concentrate they would both be dead.
Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
She was hyperventilating by this time, though she did not know the word.
Finally she took a deep breath in and held it for a moment as she pulled the hot metal out of the fire.
Then she exhaled, emptying her body of air until it hurt and she pushed the heated metal into her flesh.
Without any air in her lungs she could not scream from the pain as the rune of loyalty was seared and distorted. She did however take a full gasp of air and fumbled to stoker as she did so.
Pain burned its way through her mind and part of her remembered the joy of obeying again, but she pushed it away. The smell of seared flesh made her want to throw up, but she concentrated. The world spun and she heard her son calling her name in concern, but she ordered him not to look.
Then she grabbed the stoker and proceeded to remove both the “obey” and the “contentment” runes as well.
Stand up, she groaned, stand up and get going! NOW!
She stood.
There was a commoner’s outfit for both her and her son, although he was supposed to have put it on by now.
She asked, but he responded something about it being stinky. She did not have the energy to laugh, so she put her outfit on and tried not to pass out as it rested on her new burns. She took Jia by the shoulders and turned him around to face her. “Put. Them. On.”
A while later they were walking out the back door of the building. It was supposed to be a guard position, but when the rebels sought to use her son against the Emperor, a friend had deliberately recalled all of the guard to the central palace.
They would be back here any moment, so she pushed Jia along. He was young and did not understand what had occurred that night, so he was complaining, but he was her son and would listen to what she said. The only ones who could get him away safely were the history writers. They had likely known about the attempted rebellion ahead of time for they had already announced that they were pulling back from the capital after the Day of the Emperor.
The emperor would threaten them, but the history writers were beloved by the people and they would vanish into the countryside now that their precious manuscripts were fully copied and removed. Her friend had told her that and she knew that his words could be trusted.
It was a long walk to the last history writer’s outpost, so she forced herself to take a rickshaw and put Jia in the back.
Someone yelled at her to stop, but she just ran. Her body was weak, but she swore that her friend was there with her, pushing her on.
She ran, kicking off the silk slippers that she forgot about while changing and forcing herself to keep moving.
Her hands kept slipping and her feet were numb, but she kept going. She remembered the past while she ran, those cycles of time spent depending on her twin only after a decade of living without him. The days of hunger and how they ended with their enslavement during a war.
What happened that day was awful, but she had survived. Both of them had survived and worked to stay alive in various places, eventually being seized by the Emperor for their master’s disloyalty. The pain from those memories was fair greater than the occasional wet slap her feet made on the cobblestone.
She saw the building that her friend had described in such detail and knew that Jia was safe.
“Mother your hands!”
She gasped for air and ignored her son’s cries, the wooden handles had finally stopped slipping from her hands.
She saw a guard and slowly came to a halt, before giving a weak bow. He looked scared for some reason, but she could not accept that.
Her feet were long past numb by this point and her throat felt horse from desperately breathing through her mouth to keep running. She stumbled forward and the guard took a half-step back. “You. Will.” she gasped a few more times, “Save. Him.”
She stared the man in the eyes as other moved around them, Jia was next to her crying about her hands and someone she did not know was trying to get them both inside, but she could not go with him.
She had leave, she had to be as far away as she could from him when the truth was discovered.
The guard nodded and she turned to Jia.
It was at that point when she finally noticed her hands were bloody. Wiping her hands as best she could on the peasant cloth, she knelt and tried to steady her breathing.
Her son… she cupped his face and took a moment to burn it once again into her mind. “I love you.” She kissed his forehead, “stay alive.”
She turned her head to the man she previously assumed to be a guard as Jia hugged her fiercely, refusing to let go, and met his eyes. It broke tradition, but she wanted to burn her will into his soul. If he let her Jia die, than not even the gods would protect him from her wrath, nor death keep her from delivering it.
Slowly, they took Jia away and tried to take her inside too, but she shook her head and slowly turned away.
They started to call after her, but she ignored them and someone gave the some order that made them stop. She could hardly hear anything around her at that moment. I was not a good mother, please be safe Jia.
Earlier that night Jia’s blood had been used to kill his father, her twin brother, instead of the person who she had tricked everyone into thinking it was, the emperor himself. The lie would soon be discovered though and there was no way that Jia would be safe.
Had all started when the empress had called on her and her brother all those cycles ago? Or did her path here start at birth, when she and her brother both survived despite their parent’s death? Or was it when she started to fall into such hedonism that even looking back she still could scarcely believe it?
The truth was that by the time the emperor finally called her to bed on a whim, she had been with so many that she half expected to be sent away or even killed simple because of how many preceded him, including his wife and her twin brother. Instead, he had her branded and had proceeded to chip away at her humanity.
Ironically, it was his desire for a son that both saved her and doomed her. Even an unacknowledged son had his uses and the branding had ensured that she could be with no other than him. That the last one in her bed before him made her pregnant… she suspected that her friend fooled him.
Since the timing fit, everyone was happy.
Now though, the history writers would be taking him, they would keep her Jia safe, even though her fate was already sealed.
The runes were not the only layer of protection that ensured the emperor’s safety and the death spells would be activating soon enough.
She walked another hundred meters along the street, until she came to a small waterway and for a few moments she enjoyed the peacefulness of the night before she felt something grip her heart. As the pain followed, she directed her body’s fall into the waterway and soon felt no more.
With her duty complete, the last thing she heard was a quiet clapping from the empty air around her. Her friend, no doubt.
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Once upon a time I said that I would try to keep my ellipses use down… I failed =P
This chapter fought tooth and nail for something I already had planned out, but here it is, I apologize for being late again, I’ll be on the spot next week, I promise.