Velvet was calm and comfy, enveloped in soft, warm sheets. She was finally home, far away from all that madne-
Flip.
A rather annoying sound broke her perfect rest. Now, who-
Flip.
Flip.
Crunch.
Of course. Only Celia would read and eat in her bed in the middle of the night. That damn brat.
Flip.
“Put that shit back, or else.” She warned between her teeth. How dare she interrupt her totally deserved dream?
Kids those days, zero empathy.
“Wha-!”
Thud!
Celia threw her book to the floor, surprised. Velvet rolled around to face her, ready to scold the hell out of-
Creftalia.
“Um…”
Both of them stared at each other in silence. Creftalia was leaning over her bed’s edge, trying to grab her fallen book, while Velvet was glaring at her with hostile intentions.
Her drowsy state gone, Velvet called her paper figurines, ready to attack.
But none came.
Right, they got all destroyed in the Arena.
She searched for her knife next. It was also nowhere to be found. All her things were gone.
“Wait, wait!” Creftalia panicked, seeing how Velvet was determined to simply throw hands against her (Velvet was confident in her possibilities to just beat Creftalia unarmed). “We are in the Mergifari’s hospital! Fighting is not allowed!”
Velvet squinted at her in silence, before looking around. Eight beds on each side, with curtains separating each one, all of them white. Both Creftalia and her were dressed in plain, simple hospital clothes, which consisted of a short sleeved shirt and loose pants.
“Why did you open my curtain?” Velvet asked. Of all the curtains, only the one separating them was open. Also, they were the only people in the room. “Do you swing that way?”
“I do not!”
“Really now?”
“W-well, I never thought about it… Stop!” Creftalia shook her head. “I was just helping the nurses in monitoring your condition!”
Velvet looked at Creftalia’s bed. Books, magazines and snacks surrounded her, the sheets full of crumbs. “Is that so? You look like a slacker who found an excuse to slack off.”
“I-I did not! I’m just recovering from… wounds? Oh, and corruption too…” Creftalia tried to explain herself, but every time she stopped speaking, Velvet moved slightly, getting up from her bed and towards her.
You’re doing that on purpose… Creftalia whined. Instead of incorporating in one movement, Velvet was doing it slowly, wanting to scare her.
And it was working.
“‘The Galant Fuath and the Knighty Princess’.” Velvet read out loud the book’s title in Creftalia’s hands. “An interspecies romance.” She looked at some other books in the bed. “‘A werewolf’s hand in marriage’, ‘Sharing bed with a dragon’.”
“Stop!” Creftalia rushed to hide her books, even when both of them knew how useless that was.
“Aren’t you glad I found the source of your corruption? ‘The hydra’s mistress’.”
“I’m really sick! Cough! Cough! Cough!” Creftalia lied.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“You know? Back where I’m from, the kids liked to pretend to be sick to get away from work. At least until they had to eat some of my Get-well-soon-soup.” Velvet grinned. “Now, it was an amazing soup! Just the smell cured slackery!”
Creftalia laughed nervously. “W-what about the ones who were really sick?”
“Oh, once they drank it, they were perfectly healed by the next day!” Velvet had finished sitting on her bed. She could now jump at Creftalia any time.
She wasn’t going to, but Creftalia didn’t need to know that.
“Sounds like a potion… Did it taste bad?”
“I never found out.” Velvet shrugged. “When I felt like I was getting sick, I simply made enough normal soup for two days.” She finally got up, feeling her body stiff. “How long was I asleep?”
“Three days… Your soul was damaged, and your Esca too.” Creftalia started rolling one of her low braids between her fingers. The braid looked tangled and unkempt, showcasing how much the girl had slacked off. “Sometimes you were close to losing control, your skin opening like a book.”
Three whole days… Velvet thought, grimacing. How much had she missed?
“What happened after the devil got sealed? You better not have slacked so much you know nothing.” She put her hands on her waist, giving Creftalia a stern gaze.
“I-I haven’t…” Creftalia rolled her braid harder, sweating a bit. “After the devil was gone, the Director and others showed up, cleaned the pocket dimension, took the wounded mages, and then…”
“And then?”
“Told us to continue.”
Talk about merciless. “What about my group? Tell me the positions of the people I know.” Since Creftalia was giving such lazy answers, Velvet just asked more.
“They were with me when the red mist appeared in the distance. Luckily, we were far away, so it didn’t get us… Um… Syon got number two, Drifa three, Skugol four, I’m at twenty-six, and you’re twenty-seven.”
Did you really get clapped just after me?
“Who is number one?” She kind of knew the answer.
“Dianthus.”
Made sense, the guy simply didn’t go down.
“How many positions are in the end?” It was a way of asking how many people got killed, from the 156 participating mages.
“Eighty-four.”
Seventy-two mages died. Almost half of them.
Velvet took a deep breath. Now, the last question.
“What positions do Gertine Doyle and Nereus hold?”
She saw Creftalia looking down, refusing to meet her gaze. “Gertine is thirty-five.”
“And Nereus?”
Creftalia fell silent, taking a deep, shaky breath.
“H-he, and every other mage from the Gluttony Paradigm or adjacents went insane.”
Mages could find the pocket dimensions of demons who shared their Paradigm due to attraction. That meant that the presence of a gluttony devil not only affected them the most, but also provoked different behavior in them in relation to mages from Paradigms not related to gluttony.
Creftalia pressed her lips, her body slightly shaking. “When the Director found him, he had killed four mages, and was eating the fifth.”
“N-Nereus is now in the mental ward, together with the other gluttony mages.”
Velvet stood in silence for a few moments, before speaking softly. “Is it possible to see him?”
Creftalia nodded slowly. She didn’t want to go there, but Nereus was her companion, and he deserved that at least.
…
The mental ward was under the hospital, being part of the edifice. Velvet and Creftalia walked through the aisle, between doors and doors, all of them locked and reinforced with charms and formation spells.
No sound came from any of the doors, and the only noise was the occasional nurse strolling around, or some visitors like them.
“This one.” Creftalia stopped in front of a door labeled ‘134 C’. “Nereus is inside.”
Velvet got closer, slowly but determined, and looked through the small window.
A person was inside. She recognized the unruly, savage black hair.
Nereus was inside, walking around the room back and forth without stopping, over and over. He touched the cushioned walls with one hand, constantly dragging it around.
He was wearing a plain white shirt with short sleeves, and loose pants. In his arms, Velvet saw bandages, not knowing if the wounds they were covering were self inflicted or not.
In his mouth, a black, iron muzzle was placed. And, in his hands, some cushioned gloves sealed them.
Velvet looked at him for a while. Nereus didn’t stop walking from side to side at any moment, his eyes always fixed on the wall.
Letting out a sigh, she let go of the window, caressing the door. “Is recovery possible?”
Creftalia bit her lip. “The nurses said it will take time. From five to ten years, and it might never fully heal.”
Velvet fell silent again, lost in thought.
“Velvet.” Creftalia said, fidgeting uncomfortably, pulling out two black small balls. “I… I have the containers with Navros and Mars. I can give them to you, if you want them.”
Nereus’ familiars.
Velvet shook her head. “I don’t want them. They will be more safe with you anyway.”
She still didn’t know her state before the eyes of the official mages. Even if they didn’t see her sealing the book, they could connect the dots with ease.
And she wanted to prevent dragging anyone else down with her.