The mages who ordered Vina and company to hunt Syon, just to dispose of them like this, would not be punished. Just fined.

The face resembling Vina's spoke again. "Do. Not. Be."

"We. Are. Not. Different. Our. Fates. Are. Not. Different."

"Kartal. And. Lucius. Are. Not. Day. And. Night. Fire. And. Water."

"They. Are. Two. Sides. Of. Different. Coins."

"Weight. The. Same."

"Are. Worth. The. Same."

Velvet shook her head, refusing Vina's words. "Kartal wouldn't do something like this."

"Neither. Would. Lucius."

She understood the meaning of Vina's words. Lucius Tarius was her father, and Vina knew more about him than Velvet.

Vina moved her eyes down, grimacing in pain, but managed to make Velvet look where she wanted.

The second formation, hidden under the stone floor. Only a portion was visible, the one previously dug by Frenese, but it was enough for Velvet to connect the dots.

She took a deep breath. Digging the whole formation out would take too much time, time she didn’t have.

But Vina’s meaning was clear: ‘The only thing separating our fates is a thin stone layer. I just stepped on it first’.

She didn’t say anything more after that, her remaining energy emptied, the conversation over. Neither did Velvet, taking a step closer and pressing the tip of Sinoe’s Baslard against Vina’s forehead.

“Goodbye.”

Stab.

There was no resistance, no struggle and no opposition. Only resignation.

Velvet moved to the next face.

Stab.

And the next.

Stab.

Some did weep, some half attempted to curse at her, some begged for her to leave them alive for a few minutes more.

Yet she ignored them.

The flesh ring as a whole was powering Frenese. If she wanted to stop and seal him back, she couldn’t afford hesitation.

Even if her Esca became so tainted with blood that no mage would approach her.

Stab.

Stab.

Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab.

The flesh ring fell to the ground. No longer struggling. No longer alive.

Blood dripped from her hands, from her face and from her dress. But she ignored it, walking towards the open book.

A chalice was under it, blood seeping from its edges, overfilled.

Frenese’s book was made of some texture soft to the touch, resembling short, dense hair. Under the hair, there was skin. When she touched the hairs, they moved, the book trembling slightly. The pages depicted a mixture of sigils and formations, some of them being the ones who previously siphoned Frenese’s blood, still glistening red.

The book was a devil’s prison, not a grimoire. If text was what she wanted, she wouldn’t find it here.

She tried to close the book using her hands. It didn’t budge.

Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

Wrapping her chain around the book, she started pulling again. Using all the magic force she could manage only made the borders nudge.

She had a list of plans to try. It wasn’t a matter of if the book was going to close, but of when.

Velvet knelt down, reaching for the chalice, lifting the heavy, bloody cup to her mouth with both hands, feeling the sharp edges prickling at her gloves and her lips. And drank.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The metallic, salty warm liquid ran through her throat, leaving a burning itch behind.

She wanted to puke, her disgust towards food had not disappeared, making the act feel even worse. But she raised the cup again, taking another gulp.

The chalice had enough blood for fourteen mages, which was more than what Velvet could safely consume. So, once she was sure the next gulp would make her puke, she stopped drinking, and, instead, dropped the remaining contents over her head and body, before tossing the chalice aside.

Even if her insides couldn’t take anymore, her outsides could, and every single help she could get was welcome. She wasn’t picky, not now.

Velvet felt her strength increasing, her movements becoming faster and her magic potency expanding.

She tried to close the book again. This time, the book edges started to close on each other. Slowly, but closing nonetheless.

But the chains didn’t hold on. At first the links started to stretch, a scraping, pressured noise coming from them, until they snapped.

Due to her devil’s blood intake, Velvet jumped back in time, preventing a stray piece of metal from stabbing her.

She no longer had a material chain. And that was the end of her safe plans.

Now she had to go for the dangerous ones.

She took a deep breath, steading her resolve.

With a click, she separated the space-leaping toad, the fire salamander, the bomber frog and the Strangler Humming Figs’ containers from the rest.

She then opened the three amphibian’s containers, deploying their lakes one on top of another, combining them.

Taking a deep breath, she used the dream charms on herself, falling asleep.

…

The empty darkness, the void around her was somewhat comforting now. The lack of smells, of the taste of blood in her mouth, of the gurgling sounds of the gut-like maze…

“Come out. I don’t have time to try to make you appear, and I don’t know your name. But…”

“You said you were the chains, right?”

Some of the darkness moved, and some shadow-like hands extended from the void, trying to reach her.

Except that, this time, Velvet reached from them first, grabbing one.

The last time she touched those, maggots had crawled from inside her skin, which only meant one thing.

She could bring parts of the chains out from the dream. Just in an incomplete way, but all that was because she was weak, not because it was impossible.

And if she broke her limits, she could manage to pull the chains out.

The hand she had grabbed from the wrist twisted, grabbing her own wrist too.

“Good, we won’t separate now.” Tightening her hold, she screamed the next words. “Andras Apolyon!”

Everything went red, a sharp pain in her head causing the dream to shatter.

…

Velvet woke up screaming, her skin falling apart in pages. This time it was worse than before, her head opening like a book, ink splattering in all directions.

But she had grabbed something.

She pulled, watching how, from the center of her chest, which now was a mess of fluttering pages, her hand was dragging out a chain. Ink dripped from it, tainting the original color, but it didn’t matter.

She forcefully pulled more of the chain out, wrapping it around the book. This time it was closing, the chains unwavering.

A presence made itself felt behind Velvet. The miasma. The corruption.

It wanted to speak to her, to tell her the secrets of everything, the answers to all her questions.

Then, she threw the Strangler Humming Figs away, crashing the ball against the wall in front.

Smash!

The container broke, the contents inside being freed, the two trees towering over the maze.

Sensing the hostility in the air, the trees started to sing.

Stumbling around, Velvet steadied herself against the book, her head hurting as if it was splitting apart. But that feeling was what she wanted.

Now, the voice of corruption could barely be heard anymore. And, if it could, the pain made her unable to understand anything.

Clenching her paper hands with all her force, Velvet pulled the book towards her, both of them falling into the lake.

Hugging it tightly, she kept on checking its state.

Close dammit! Just close already!

A gap was all that remained. And then nothing.

The book was closed.

Now her corruption was the last obstacle.

Deep in the lake, Velvet chained herself to the bottom, and forced her Esca open.

The pages forming her body shook, the black, rotten substance coming out in a neverending mist.

Velvet struggled, the air in her lungs progressively leaving, her sight blurring.

But, every time she was close to fainting, Hyde used the awakening charms on her.

Forcing her to remain conscious.

That was part of her plan.

She coughed, feeling the water invade her throat, nostrils and lungs, making her gag and choke.

Even so, she was unable to faint. Until her body stopped expelling miasma, until the corruption started to recede.

The wait was long, the kind of long who ignores the normal passage of time. But it ended, and, once it did, Hyde used the earring to reduce her body weight to the minimum, making her slowly float to the surface.

Once there, she coughed, gasped and puked water, her vision darkening.

Crawling onto the shore, she flopped down, only half her body out of the water.

Thud!

With a hit, the book, which she had been holding onto all this time, fell from her arms. Closed. Sealed.

Velvet wanted to laugh, but only managed a whimper, her body finally giving up.

Everything went dark, and she fainted.