A sick, black thread of smoke was twisting out from the blade Alice held, and seemed to reach towards me.

No no fuck no that can't touch me.

I released the forearm with my right hand and shoved it desperately into my pocket, my mind screaming that I needed to get away. Feeling light headed, I surged magic through the circle on the arm brace as my fingers brushed against the pouch of seeds. Alice was lunging forward with the dagger.

Grow grow GROW!

Blackberry vine burst out from the pouch and my pocket. It wrapped around Alice and the person holding me, yanking them both away. Long savage thorns that were larger than normal due to my panic tore into Alice's arm holding onto the dagger, causing her to scream and drop it. The vines kept wrapping around them thicker and thicker, binding their arms tight to their sides and digging thorns into their flesh that ripped at them as they struggled.

I turned to see who had been holding me and found it to be the manservant Alice had been speaking to over breakfast. I gulped in air, coughing at the bit of irritation it caused my throat.

What the actual fuck is happening.

I staggered out from between them until I bumped up against the opposite wall. My heart felt as though it was trying to beat its way out of my chest. Both Alice and the man glared over at me, blood dripping onto their feet from the thorns.

"Why. The Fuck. Did you attack me?" I gasped, voice sounding hoarse. I brought up a hand to my throat and rubbed what felt like a graze at the base of it that was beginning to sting.

Alice smirked, maintaining eye contact with me. "Roderick," she said in a voice that was eerily calm.

"Wha..?" Movement in the corner of my eye caused me to whirl around in time to see another man charging at me. I flinched back, but couldn't react before he was on me, shoulder driving hard into my stomach. My breath was knocked out of me, everything around me seeming to blur and tilt. I landed on the ground, hard, my head cracking against the stones with a sound that left my ears ringing.

The man was on top of me, one knee pressed into my chest with all of his weight behind it. He grabbed my throat with one hand and squeezed. I grabbed that hand, trying to pull it away as my panic continued to build. His other hand disappeared from my sight, reappearing holding onto the dagger that Alice had dropped.

I kicked my legs and twisted my shoulders, trying to throw the man off. The edges of my vision were beginning to fade into grey, my lungs burning with the need for air. The man grinned, and I could hear Alice cackle.

No no no Gods no please.

The man began to bring the dagger down towards me. The black blade glistened wetly as more tendrils of smoke curled around it and towards me.

No please no get off me GET OFF ME!

A blur of movement struck the man in the head, causing him to droop and release the dagger. It fell onto me, tumbling to land hilt first against my chest before clattering back onto the ground. The weight of the man was suddenly gone. I rolled onto my hands and knees while desperately sucking air into my still burning lungs. My vision slowly came back into focus so I could see my hands pressed against the grimy stone beneath me.

A large hand touched my shoulder. I reacted before a coherent thought formed, whirling around and smacking the hand away while I frantically scrambled backwards, dragging myself along the ground and away from whoever it was.

Captain Strykar was crouched a short distance away from me, one hand outstretched with his palm facing outwards. It looked as though he was trying to comfort a flighty horse. Behind him, the man who had tackled me lay in a crumpled heap.

"It's ok, it's ok, you're safe Miss Rowan," he said in a low voice. His eyebrows were scrunched together, his dark eyes watching my face carefully.

I tugged my collar away from my neck. It felt too constricting, too tight. I could still feel the fingers gripping into my skin. I couldn't breathe.

It was too tight.

"Rowan," the Captain said, voice more firm this time. I found myself focusing once again on his face. "Take deep breaths. Focus only on that. In, and out."

I did as he said, concentrating solely on breathing in and out. My heart slowly began to calm down, and breathing became easier. I became aware of an ache at the back of my head where I had hit the ground. It still felt like something was wrapped around my neck, but my mind was clear enough that I knew nothing was now. And that I would likely have one heck of a bruise.

Seeing that I was calming down, Captain Strykar stood and turned his attention to Alice and the manservant that were still wrapped tightly in the blackberry vines. Alice was still struggling, blood steadily dripping on the stone beneath her feet from all the wounds inflicted by the thorns. The manservant was limp, head lolled forwards and angled away so I couldn't see his face. He seemed to only be upright still because he was being supported by the vines.

Was he passed out?

The Captain grabbed him by the hair and lifted his face. My stomach churned, and my chest felt like it was hit by ice. The man's eyes were bulged and glassy, tears of blood running down his face. His skin was purple and blotchy, thick blood oozing from his nose and joining the blood coming out of his mouth along with white foam. He was dead.

"What? He's... I didn't do that, I swear I didn't," I stammered, barely able to form a sentence amid my racing thoughts.

Why was he dead? I hadn't done that. Oh Gods, what if he thinks I killed him?

Captain Strykar didn't say anything to me. He released the man's head, letting it flop back down almost sickeningly, and stepped over to Alice. She was still struggling against the blackberry vine, glaring and snarling at him. The Captain's face was set in a hard stare, and he grabbed hold of Alice's jaw hard, forcing her to keep her head still while he scrubbed a hand across her mouth. When he was done, I could see that her bottom lip was stained black, along with a black line that went down over her chin. The mark of the Tarnished. Demon worshipper.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Alice wrenched her face out of the Captain's grip and cackled, eyes wide and still filled with hatred. Gone was the cheerful maid that had happily gossiped with me over a meal all week. I didn't know this person. She looked down at me, giving me a smile that was too broad, showed too many teeth.

"You were lucky to survive this time," she said to me, staring without blinking. "But just wait, soon all abominations like you will be cast before the Forgotten One."

Her mouth moved as though it was biting something. Captain Strykar swore under his breath, letting go of her face and backing away a few steps as Alice began to convulse. I wanted to look away, not wanting to see what came next, but couldn't seem to tear my eyes away.

Her face went pale, then a blotchy red. Her eyes bulged and rolled upwards as she made wet gurgling sounds. Frothy white bubbles formed at the corners of her mouth, and the convulsing became stronger. Her head lolled down in my direction and she opened her mouth as though to say something, but instead vomited thick, lumpy blood down her front. More blood began pouring from her nose and eyes. Alice convulsed a few more times, making more choked gurgling sounds as blood flicked off her. Then she went still, and limp.

A heavy silence followed, and I felt as though it was pressing against me. A glob of blood dripped off Alice's chin and splattered onto the ground. My stomach heaved. I frantically looked around, spotting a crate near me with no lid. I fumbled my way over to it, just getting my head over the opening when I lost the ability to hold back. I vomited forcefully into the crate, and when my stomach was empty, kept dry heaving for a while longer.

I became aware of Captain Strykar gently rubbing my back in small circles between my shoulder blades. I rested my head against the edge of the crate. I felt a small ping of embarrassment, but couldn't muster up the strength to really care.

"Sorry," I croaked, throat feeling raw from the bile.

The Captain held out a handkerchief to me, which I accepted with a muttered thanks.

"Don't worry, I've seen a lot worse," he said as I wiped my mouth.

I snorted and looked sideways at him tiredly. "That doesn't make me feel better," I told him.

Captain Strykar chuckled and stood from his crouch. The second man that was laying on the ground began to groan and shift, so he walked over to him and thumped him on his head with his fist. The groaning stopped once again. I stood, keeping a hand against the nearby wall for balance and deliberately not looking towards Alice's body. Just the thought of her made my stomach rebel, but I forced it back down.

"Thank you for the help," I said to the Captain as I leaned against the wall. "But... how were you able to find me?"

The Captain scratched the back of his neck. "It was pure luck really," he said. "I was coming back from taking this guy for a swim when I saw you and the maid heading down the back alley. It seemed strange, so I followed you here."

"This guy" turned out to be a large wolf that was sat at the entrance of the alley. His fur, still damp from his swim, was mostly black, with a pale grey undercoat showing around his neck and legs.. His yellow eyes stared at me intently, and looking into them made me a bit nervous. Callum had mentioned his family raised wolves, but I hadn't seen one around the mansion since arriving.

Captain Strykar was looking over the bodies of Alice and the manservant and clicked his tongue. "We'll need to have these taken to the mansion. Hopefully we'll be able to get some answers out of the live one." He then looked over to the wolf. "Greg, go fetch father," he said.

The wolf - Greg - gave a grumbling huff before standing and bounding off out of sight. I snickered.

What had he just called that wolf?

The Captain looked over at me with a frown. "What?" he asked, voice sounding indignant.

I couldn't hold back. I broke out into full fledged, almost hysterical laughter.

"You.. You named your wolf.. Greg?!" I managed to gasp out.

This just all seemed totally ridiculous. I narrowly escaped being killed by three Tarnished because the Captain happened upon me, and now help was being brought to us by a wolf named Greg.

Captain Strykar rubbed the back of his neck, a slight blush across his cheeks. "Yeah, I know, I'm not great at names," he told me.

I wiped tears from my eyes, still chuckling. "No no, it's a great name. Just unexpected," I reassured him.

He made a disbelieving noise, then jerked a thumb at Alice and the manservant. "Think you can get rid of the vines? They'll make it hard to transport them," he asked.

"Sure," I responded, flicking my wrist at the vines. They instantly began to shrink in on themselves, shrivelling and fading until they were noting more than a bundle of dry twigs strewn over the ground. The two bodies had fallen onto the ground, both connecting with the stone with a sickeningly wet impact.

Captain Strykar stared at me, and with a start I realised what I'd done.

Ah shit, wasn't supposed to do that in front of anyone.

"You're a caster?" he asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"Ah, yeah, I am," I replied a bit sheepishly.

The Captain was looking at me with interest. "I'd heard that casters amongst the earth magus were rare, even when they were greater in number," he said.

"I wouldn't really know," I retorted, giving him a lopsided shrug while fidgeting with the fabric of my dress. I was still trying my best not to focus on the bodies. "I don't remember anything outside of life here in Ardere, and mum and Da don't really talk much about Arbor."

I mentally punched myself for the slip up. Da had warned me not to show off that I was a caster. He said people tended to get jealous of those who were different, and we were already plenty different just by being earth magus'.

"That's surprising," the Captain was saying as he looked around the alley. "I would have thought they would want to impart their culture to their children. Is this yours?" He was holding the small knapsack with my travel cloak stuffed into it. It had fallen at some point during the struggle.

I nodded. " Yeah, that's mine. I also had a bag of fruit around here.." I spotted the hessian bag Alice had been carrying. The lemons and apples were spilled out of the bag, all of them sitting in a thick puddle of blood. "..somewhere. Never mind, they can stay there," I finished.

"As for the culture thing, mum and Da wanted us to fit in as much as possible with the people here. They worried that keeping to our culture would get us bullied when we were kids."

"And were you bullied?" he asked, still looking around the ground.

I snorted. "Yeah, but not because of our culture," I replied. My boot kicked something hard which clattered along the stones.

The dagger these Tarnished had been trying to attack me with lay close to my foot. Now that no-one was trying to stab me with it, I was able to properly see what it looked like.

The blade was black and didn't look to be made of metal, instead having an almost glossy shine to it that changed colours in the light, looking purple at one angle but changing to a pale green as I tilted my head. The edge was jagged, coming to multiple savage points along its length. The handle was made from a material that looked powdery and grey-white, and was wrapped with a rough twine where it joined to the blade.

Odd symbols were carved around the handle. It almost looked like a magic circle, but off somehow. I couldn't see any sign of the smoky black tendrils that had swirled around it earlier.

Had I imagined it?

Captain Strykar clicked his tongue again. "There's the dagger, I was looking for it."

He walked over and bent down to pick it up. As his outstretched hand came near the blade, the black tendrils emerged from the black material, reaching towards his fingers. My stomach felt like it dropped out from under me, a heavy sense of dread filling my head as I quickly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back from the dagger.

"Don't touch it!"