Chapter 40: Reprisal

To Vina's relief, the falling shadows never thickened, and soon those waiting at the portal ring made their way through to Lampasa. Unfortunately, the creatures did find their way to them, and the adventurers, including Emin, were continually engaged in a battle to defend the portal ring.

Vina continued her examination of her lantern until Anox's vibrance was close enough she could do something to help him. Stepping closer to the front line, she felt the black blood of the creatures soaking the ground. It responded to her in a way the paliternian blood had never done before. It begged to be used, so she obliged, too tired to even try to convert it. In the darkness, black crystals rose in the backline of creatures, shredding them with quick efficiency.

“Why are you doing this, Stine?” Vina asked herself. “You know I can kill them with their own blood, right? You want this, don’t you?” She scanned the crowd of remaining creatures, looking for any that might be actively controlled by Stine, but she didn’t see any of their extra eyes open.

You have gained 8460 experience points from killing various creatures of different levels.

Seconds later, Anox’s group crossed the line of adventurers, battered but alive. Without further options to power the portal ring, Vina exhaustedly converted what blood existed around her and dragged it back with her to the portal ring. She had barely taken a step when Anox and Solyn were on her.

“What happened to Alora?” Anox demanded.

“She’s safe.” Vina responded curtly, without turning to look at him. “You’re all leaving. Right now. Go through the portal ring.”

“What did you do to her?” Solyn asked, fearfully.

Vina could feel Emin and the other adventurers approaching. "The Asharaina opened a portal for her earlier. She's not here anymore," Emin said to Solyn

“Where did she send her!” Solyn's voice rang out in alarm.

Vina whirled around on them, her tone severe. “She is safe!” She glared at them. “If I tried to take her back with all of you, Stine would have killed you to get at us just like it did with Ransy. I kept you all alive! Now go through the portal ring!” She pointed at the still active portal behind her. “Or I’ll leave you with them.” Vina pointed at the creatures she suspected were gathering again for an attack.

The crowd was quiet for a moment as they stared at her, but one voice spoke up. "Vina?"

Vina groaned upon hearing Norimor speak. “What!” she snapped at her.

“Please. Send me where you sent Alora,” she requested, her voice still tired and weak.

Vina shook her head. “You don’t want to go where I sent her.” She hesitated. “Shit… you can’t go to Lampasa either… or Halos.” She reluctantly nodded as she realized there was only a single place safe for this woman now. “Okay fine. I’ll send you there.”

“Vina…” Solyn started.

"I don't care!" Vina shouted at the gathered crowd. "I witnessed two cities get destroyed today! Whoever is going to Lampasa, go through the damn portal now! I'm closing it in the next minute! After that, you’re either going where I’m going, or you’re staying here!"

The remaining adventurers stared at her in surprise at her outburst, but slowly they started moving toward the portal ring. Vina noticed Emin stood oddly nearby. "What do you think you’re doing?" she asked him pointedly.

“There’s uh… no threads pointing through there,” he said awkwardly. “I’m going to see if I get one for where you’re going, if that’s okay with you?”

Vina frowned at him and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Look, I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m heading to Valanire after this. You know, the city that’s been wiped out twice? You probably want to choose Lampasa; the capital city of the Twelve.”

Emin gave her a pained look. “You sent that girl to Valanire all alone?”

“Of course not! The entire town of Prosit is there,” Vina denied, but she knew she would have done it even if Prosit wasn’t there.

“Well, then it can’t be that bad. We’ll see what my aspect says.” Emin said, looking toward the portal ring.

“Alright, but keep an eye on the creatures while I get the connection set up,” Vina grumbled as she watched the last adventurer step through the portal ring.

Vina kept a wary eye out as well, but she quickly activated the portal ring without trouble. Emin gave her a smile and nodded. He and Solyn picked up Norimor’s litter and stepped through the portal ring first. With a quick look over her shoulder at the ruined city, Vina turned away and followed them through. On the other side, she was met with a flurry of activity.

The inside of the refuge building was filled with people from Prosit, all seeking safety. Vina pushed her way through the crowd, trying to find Tressi. Along the way, she noticed some men prodding the exposed runes on the floor. She immediately stopped them, admonishing them to leave the area. Finally, she managed to get outside as well, relieved to see the barrier still overhead, though the sight of the city brought a deep sense of sadness and anger.

"Vina!" Tressi's voice called out, her tone reflecting her frustration.

Vina turned towards Tressi, her expression tense. "Yeah, I came to speak with you," she replied, trying to maintain her composure despite her mounting stress. An unsettling realization suddenly fell on her shoulders. She knew she was responsible for the safety of these people now, and it unexpectedly weighed heavily on her mind.

"This is Valanire!" Tressi said, raising her voice, her emotions clearly running high.

"Yeah, I know. Where's Langternem?" Vina asked, trying to get to the point.

"Why is it empty?" Tressi asked pointedly. "What happened to all of the people?"

Emin approached, having overheard Tressi's questions. Vina waited for him to get close enough to hear so she wouldn’t have to repeat herself. "They're all dead. The whole city was wiped out a while ago. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe here now. The only remaining threat is Langternem. Where is it?"

“How did that happen?” Emin asked, cocking an eyebrow at her and prompting a weary sigh from Vina.

“Short answer, Emin. Amets did it. She used an aspect to kill everyone.”

Emin frowned and his forehead creased with concern. “She’s too young to bond with an aspect.”

Vina's frustration boiled over. "Listen to me! Where. Is. Langternem. If you don't tell me, we're going to have another mass death event here by morning."

"The disease..." Emin began, but Tressi interrupted him, pointing towards a wagon waiting against the refuge building.

"I've kept it safe. It's right over there," Tressi said, referring to the crystal.

Vina moved quickly over to the wagon and found the crystal, still safely nestled inside. She pulled it out with her title, too tired to lift it herself right now. Vina sighed in relief as she saw the strange figure snuggled up inside, seemingly still content.

Emin looked like he wanted to say something, but Vina gently shook her head, indicating that it wasn't the right time. She turned her attention back to Tressi. "I'm going to Halos. I'll try to get someone here soon. The bridge is out, so you won't be able to leave the plateau, but there was fresh water in the wells last time I was here. Do you have enough food?"

Tressi nodded slowly. "We bought supplies in Termily with the money we saved by hiring you. Vina... we have a lot of questions. How is the entire city covered in a barrier? How could everyone die while under it? What should we do with Alora?"

As memories flooded into her mind in response to Tressi's questions, Vina winced, trying to push back the painful recollections. "Is everyone calling her Alora?” Vina asked, delaying while she tried to get control of her thoughts.

Tressi nodded.

Vina shook her head slowly. “You won't be here long enough for any of it to matter. Just keep Alora here until I come back. Also, keep an eye on the woman in the litter. I don’t know what name she is going by. I don't think she'll hurt anyone..." Vina's words trailed off, her uncertainty evident. "I just... am not sure whose side she is on." She glanced up at Emin for a moment. "Oh, and this is Emin. He's an adventurer. Seems nice enough." She waited for Tressi and Emin to introduce each other, but in the awkward silence that followed, Vina pointed at each of them in turn. "I hate to ask, but I need some blood to get out of here."

~~~

While she navigated the dimly lit streets of the City of Halos, Vina couldn't help but notice how the various torches and fires constantly overpowered the light of her lantern. Her shadow kept flickering into existence before being stifled once again, giving rise to an elusive and haunting presence. It taunted her with its vague outline, something she almost recognized, but not quite, sending shivers down her spine. "If Stine bonded me with something like an aspect, could it be removed?" she wondered as she walked.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Feeling both physically and emotionally drained, Vina walked numbly toward The Halos Family Home. A contingent of guards had attended to her as soon as she arrived through the portal ring, and she was grateful for their presence. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she found herself stopping to gather her strength before continuing onward. The constant blood loss over the last two days left her feeling light-headed, and the sight of the blood bar in her vision made her wonder if it was the cause of her current state.

As she walked with the guards across the city and into the expansive manor, she noticed the strange looks they gave her, perhaps unsettled by her fatigue and quiet demeanor. Approaching her room, she felt an odd sensation, as if someone was already waiting for her inside. The person's vibrance felt eerily similar to her own, but Vina suppressed her instinct to raise alarms. Instead, she scratched the nearest guard with her nail, drawing a single drop of blood. A simple apology was all it took for her to secure a small buff to her attributes. Entering her room, she drew Selenia, ready to defend herself from an intruder.

But before she could stab the person in her bed, they woke up. Stepping back in surprise, Vina stared in disbelief at seeing herself standing on her bed. Her doppleganger held her arms out in protest. “Wait, Asharaina!” her own voice pleaded to her. A moment later, Caja’s face formed from her own.

"Damnit Caja!" Vina groaned, relieved that it was her Dedicated and not an imposter. She turned and sat down on the bed, trying to make sense of the situation. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making it seem like you haven't left," Caja explained hurriedly as she transformed back to her natural form, causing Vina's night dress to quickly become too small for her tall body.

Vina looked at her dumbfounded. “That’s… actually a really great idea.”

"Well, it was until..." Caja paused, her gaze searching Vina's face. "What happened to you?" She rushed over and put a hand on Vina's shoulder, expressing concern. "Your vibrance has really changed."

Vina hesitated, unsure where to even start. “Turn on a lamp,” she whispered. While Caja prepared the lightsource, Vina composed herself, preparing herself to view her shadow again.

As Caja turned on the lamp, casting a soft glow in the room, Vina reached over and turned off her lantern. Her shadow cast on the wall, and she looked at it intently. Caja followed her gaze and looked as well. Vina could see that the shape of her shadow seemed off - the shoulders were wrong, her hair was too long, and the shape of her head was far too narrow. When she turned her face, her shadow followed, but the outline there did not resemble her own.

Vina stood up, examining the outline of the rest of her body, but Caja gently pressed her back to the bed. “Don’t… just no. Turn… Turn your lantern back on. What's wrong with your shadow?" she asked quietly as Vina snapped her lantern back on.

“Stine forcefully bonded something like an aspect onto it. It called it a dark spiny echo,” Vina said, her voice filled with apprehension. “You saw my body when we showered in Valanire. Can… can you check if anything is bonded to me?”

Caja nodded slowly and helped Vina out of her armor, leaving her in only her underclothing. Her heart raced with a mix of relief and vulnerability as Caja began her careful examination. With a soft touch, Caja's hands gently explored Vina's arms, and Vina held her breath, watching Caja's face for any reaction.

After completing the examination of Vina's arms, Caja moved on to her chest and torso. With her armor off, Vina began to feel the chill of the room’s air on her skin. Caja's touch was warm, however, and gentle yet purposeful. Vina tried to relax despite the growing tension within herself. She felt a mix of vulnerability and trust, knowing that Caja was doing her best to help her.

Caja's examination moved down to Vina's legs and feet, her expression remaining focused and determined. Finally, Caja's fingers reached Vina's back, tracing along the curves of her spine. As she pressed her finger against Vina's lower back, just at the base of her spine, Vina felt a peculiarly cold sensation surge through her veins. "There," Caja murmured, her tone cautious and concerned. "This is new. It wasn't there in Valanire."

Vina's breath caught in her throat, realizing that something was indeed bonded to her. The fear and determination to remove it surged within her. "Caja, can you help me remove it?" Vina pleaded, locking eyes with her Dedicated. "I can't have something bonded to me that comes from Stine."

“Vina… it’s not a stone. It looks like a tattoo, just shaped like an oval with tiny spikes. It’s part of your skin,” Caja said with concern.

“Get a knife? Cut it out of me,” Vina ordered, feeling the desperation rise within herself.

Caja's eyes flicked between Vina's face and her back. “I can’t. I swore an oath to The Family that I would not harm you. Besides, we’re in Halos. The Aspect of Retribution would…” her voice trailed off, well aware of the potential consequences.

Vina closed her eyes and sighed, understanding the risks involved to her Dedicated. “Okay. We have to figure out how to get it removed though.” She got up and went to a closet to find fresh clothing.

Caja called out from behind the corner. “Just between you, me, and Riza, there is some other business we can handle outside of the city as well.”

Vina narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

Caja looked at her nervously. “Someone tried to kill me. Well I mean, me while I was being you. They tried to kill you actually. They didn’t know it was me. Anyway, Riza stopped them from doing that.”

Vina’s heart jumped into her chest and she peeked around the corner. “Did they hurt you?”

“No!” Caja said quickly, but then her hand leapt to her chest to rub just beside her sternum. “Well, a little. Just a little poke of a dagger. Riza detected what was going on right before they tried to kill me. She captured them alive.”

“Show me where we’re keeping them,” Vina growled. She looked longingly past Caja to her bed, but she dismissed the thought. The desire to protect her Dedicated overrode her current needs.

~~~

Vina waited for Caja to unlock and pull the metal door open. She was simply too tired anymore to do it herself. “I have got to get more sleep,” she told herself as she stepped into the cell. At Vina’s request the guards waited for them outside. “Caja, do you want to wait outside as well?”

Caja shook her head. “No. You don’t have to be alone for this.”

“I’m not going to answer any of your questions,” said the woman chained to a chair.

Vina nodded her thanks to Caja, but addressed the woman. “That’s fine. I already know everything.”

The long brown haired woman was paliternian, and clearly had some connection to those from Halos from her way of speaking. Vina could tell from her vibrance that she had quite a bit of experience with combat. Her vibrance was easily a match for her own.

Vina grabbed a chair and sat across from her. She placed her hands on the table and drummed her fingers against the hardwood. Her nails dug into the fibers like putty. “You know, when I got this ability for my nails, I was really disappointed at first. I thought it was a duplicate ability.” She flicked the last of the blood from her amulet onto the table, just a drop, and moved it around. After a moment it burned a rune into the wood. “But it’s not. You see that? My other ability works, but it's crude. The burn is shallow, the edges are angled, not sharp. Also, it just uses so much blood while my skill doesn’t level as fast.” She dragged a nail across the wood and copied the same rune. “This is how it should look. Much better right?”

The woman looked at the rune and then back at her but didn’t respond.

“Maybe you’re not a person who appreciates art. That’s okay. I’m still learning it myself. I bring this up, because I’m learning a lot about myself. What I was able to do before compared to what I can do now has changed.” She pointed at the burn spot on the table. “I used that ability to burn a rune off of a man’s chest mid-battle because he was sending creatures to attack children.”

“You don’t scare me.” The woman glowered at her. “You can’t hurt me here without hurting yourself. The Aspect of Retribution protects me.”

Vina smiled at her. She took a nail and dragged it across her arm, making a cut that didn’t bleed. She tried to hide the pain, but her exhaustion allowed some pain to leak through. “I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to decide how I can best use you to achieve my goals. What should I do to someone who tries to hurt my Dedicated?”

She reached out quickly and grabbed the woman’s wrist. “I’m starved for blood actually. In these last two days, I fought a swordmaster, one of the twelve, and The Darkness itself.” She frowned at the woman, then shrugged. She activated blood stained hands and watched as the effects took hold. Then she took her hand away a moment later, gathering the woman’s spilled blood on the table before them.

“I have a lot of weird abilities like that…”

“How…?” the woman panted with fear in her voice.

“Shut up! I’m talking!” Vina snapped. “I said, I have a lot of weird abilities like that. See, I can use a skill called Ichoric Conversion to turn this blood into my own, but I also have an ability that transforms your blood into my own while it's in your body. I am confused on what the difference is.” Vina placed a hand on the woman’s body and activated Infuse, forcing a portion of her blood into the woman. She deactivated the skill almost immediately to prevent losing much of her own dwindling supply.

“What are you doing to me?” The woman’s voice raised in panic, her eyes searching screens only she could see.

Vina peered closely at her, feeling the change through blood sense. “Can you feel it Caja?”

“Yes. It’s you… inside her? Is it growing?” Caja asked in confusion.

Vina nodded. “Give it a second. I want to see what happens when…”

“Wait… The aspect of retribution should be…” The woman started.

“No!” Vina said, slamming her hand down on the table with a shout. “You wait! You tried to kill Caja!” She took a breath and spoke more slowly. “Now I’m going to make sure your life is used to make us all safer.” She pointed at the woman and snapped her fingers as an idea occurred to her. “Blood Call. I can extract what’s been converted because it’s my blood, right?”

Caja nodded slowly. “If that’s what the ability says.”

Vina glared at the woman before activating her blood call ability. The effect surprised even Vina. The woman trembled and screamed out in pain. Small holes burst forth from her skin as ribbons of blood issued forth from the woman’s body toward Vina’s outstretched hand. She knew how unforgivingly powerful Blood Call could be, and it didn’t disappoint her this time either. Vina calmly collected her blood on the table beside the first puddle.

“Is that the intention of the skill?” Vina wondered aloud, but no one in the room answered her question. “Do you feel a difference between these two, Caja?” Vina asked, and her dedicated shook her head. “It’s minor. After I infused my blood into her, it also infected her with hemophages. The second globe contains all of those hemophages. I cured her of my own infection by accident.” Vina activated blood call once more on both globes and they entered the cut in her own arm. She immediately felt the influx of fresh blood into her veins and saw the blood bar increase slightly in her vision.

“It disabled the ability?” Caja asked. “That doesn’t sound like a good combination. Wouldn’t you rather just leave it inside of her?”

Vina shook her head. “Maybe. But I actually infected her with a pathogen. I wouldn’t want it to spread around the city, even by accident."

Vina pulled out her lantern and set it on the table. Its runes were still lit up red, and the light from the actual glass globe was burning brightly, blocking her shadow from appearing on the wall. “I’ve recently learned I need to be heavily investing in my blood runes skill. I’ve long been considering using blood runes on my body. I think tonight, you’ll help me progress my understanding.”

“My name is Kallie! Lord Haldo hired me!” The woman said abruptly, her body visibly shaking with fear.

Vina cocked an eyebrow at her. “Oh, I already know.” With eyes filled with anger, she spoke ominously, “And I’ll send you back to him when I’m done with you.”

“Speaking of Lord Haldo… Vina, I found something in the library’s Official Family Meeting Requests. Annalina wanted to meet with you, but Haldo intercepted her letter. It never made its way to you,” Caja said, handing Vina a piece of paper.

Vina's eyes locked onto Caja's, and in that moment, her rage seemed to consume everything else. She crumpled the paper without even opening it. For a moment, there was only silence between them, but within that silence Vina's resolve had been hardened.

Whatever you need, we'll be by your side," Caja said, her voice unwavering.

Vina nodded, her eyes fierce with determination. With a steely resolve, she whispered, "Halos isn’t safe for us anymore."