╚╩╩╩╝ Jaime ╚╩╩╩╝

I jolted awake with a searing pain in my chest. I quickly found that couldn’t see and tried to suck in a breath, but couldn’t open my mouth, so I frantically pulled at my mouth to open it. Just as soon as the pain had arrived, it disappeared, leaving me struggling to pull at whatever was keeping my mouth closed. My fingers eventually caught at a piece of cloth and pulled it down, freeing my mouth as I sucked in deep. Being able to fully breathe again calmed me down enough to be able to recognize the feel of bandages. My head was completely wrapped in bandages.

Running my hands around the bandages, I found the edge of the wrappings and started to pull. The bandages quickly unraveled and dropped, allowing me to see again. I was sitting up on a small bed in a large room. The room was completely empty with a single door in the corner to my left with a tall standing mirror next to it. I looked down at where I had been lying and noticed that the white sheets had been dyed red in several spots. Looking down at the bandages, I could see that they were also dyed the same color.

Rushing to the mirror, I stared into the mirror and found that I hardly looked different, though I was wearing a long pale gown spotted with several, large red stains. I had only once seen my reflection when I was staying at the inn, and it seemed like I had grown slightly paler. To be sure, I felt around and squished my face and nothing felt different. Just then, the door opened beside me and a woman wearing a… maid outfit stood in the doorway. What was a maid exactly? I thought for a moment and met the woman’s eyes. The maid suddenly looked very nervous and started to dart her head back and forth from me and the bed before turning and rushing down the hall past the door.

I stood frozen for a short time before following after the maid. The hall was short and lit by a large window overlooking a spacious yard.

“I’m telling you. She’s awake!” A woman’s voice cried out from behind a door.

“Impossible! You saw what she looked like! We just managed to get her wounds closed.” I could hear Pert reply. His voice was rough and weak.

I walked over to the door and opened it slowly. The room behind the door was over twice the size of the room I was just in and had two large sofas facing each other with a large desk just in front of a large window. Sitting on one of the sofas was Pert. He was hunched over, holding his head in his hands. Beside him was a woman with short, blond hair who rubbed up and down his back.

“Who-” Pert started, raising his head and stopping completely when he saw me. His eyes went wide with surprise and his mouth hung open.

The woman sitting next to Pert spoke for him, her voice gentle and kind. “Come here.”

Quietly, I walked over to their sofa and stood in front of the two of them. The woman held out her hands as a blue aura flowed through her soft blue eyes and around her body. The aura stretched out from her hands and wrapped around my body. The aura felt warm and soothing as it moved around my body and back to her hands.

“It’s her, but there’s not even a trace of injury on her body.” The woman said, furrowing her brow then mumbling. “My magic could hardly fix the burns.”

“Is that really you Jaime?” Pert asked, his voice wavering.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Why were they acting weird? The last thing that I could remember was that we left for Renae and… we were attacked. What happened with the beast? Before I could ask anything, Pert grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. Something must have happened to me that I couldn’t remember, but it seems that whatever it was is gone.

Letting me go, Pert took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Jaime, this is your aunt Licilia.” He spoke, gesturing to the woman who sat next to him.

Licilia turned to her husband with a questioning look. “Aunt?”

“You never met them, but Jaime is my cousin’s daughter.” He explained.

“Why-” She started, stopping as soon as she started, her eyes meeting Pert’s. “I understand.” She spoke softly, then turned to me and smiled. “There’s someone you should meet.” She turned to the maid who stood near the door. “Could you fetch Veria for us.”

The maid nodded her head and quickly left the room.

“Where are we?” I asked.

It almost felt like we were staying in a castle. The rooms were huge and there was even a maid.

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“This is my home.” Pert answered.

If this was his home, why did he live in a little shack out in Pyle before? My confusion must have shown on my face, because Licilia clarified.

“My husband loves to live simply. I, on the other hand, prefer to live somewhere with proper plumbing and food.” She explained. “Such is what I expect as the wife of a count.”

“A count?” I asked, surprised.

Pert scratched the back of his head nervously as he replied, “Yes. I was a major in the army and was given the title of count when I retired. I don’t like the feeling that I get when others call me by it, though. It’s embarrassing.”

“Will you be leaving again soon?” Licilia asked, turning to her husband.

“No. People can manage things without me being there now. I’m here to stay.”

“Good. People were starting to call me a widow.” She chuckled.

A soft knock came from the door before it opened. In the doorway was a young woman with long, light brown hair and bright green eyes the same color as Pert’s. She looked to be a few years older than me.

“You called for me, mother?” The girl spoke.

“Yes, come in.”

The girl came in, glancing at me curiously, and sat on the sofa opposite her parents.

“Veria,” Pert started. “This is Jaime, she’s going to be staying with us from now on.”

Veria eyed me up and down and pursed her lips.

“Be nice. She has been through quite a bit to get here.” Pert retorted. “She’s your cousin, and I expect you to make her feel welcome.”

“No problem, dad.” Veria responded, cheerfully.

“Could you take her around the house and find her some of your old clothes. We’re going to be heading to the Freelancer’s Guild later.”

Veria nodded and took my hand, leading me out the door.

“Now will you explain to me what happened?” Licilia whispered to her husband just loud enough for me to hear.

╚╩╩╩╝ Pert Wark ╚╩╩╩╝

I watched as the Plague Beast darted around, dodging every attack that came from the ground. The enormous roots coming from the ground were surprising, but they had probably come from the wooden dog that Hamil had been taking with him everywhere.

Then the attacks stopped, and the Plague Beast rushed towards the jail wagon that the soldiers had brought with them. Surprisingly, the beast freed the prisoners inside and attacked the soldiers by spewing acid at them.

This creature had a yellow aura, and the chance of any of the soldiers, or anyone nearby, having that level of power was extremely low. Acquiring a green aura was something that most people could do, since all you had to do was pay the fee and pass the test, but a yellow aura was something that very few people had, since they needed to have some form of nobility.

I’d promised Licilia a long time ago that I would stop fighting, but situations like these demanded action and I was the only one capable of fighting the beast.

I activated my aura, feeling the familiar energy rush through my body and envelop it entirely. Secondly, I activated the specific element that my body had attuned to, lightning. The aura wrapped around my body trembled as the elemental energy merged with it.

With my body enhanced by the elemental aura, I kicked off the ground and towards the Plague Beast, colliding with it. To my surprise, the beast was able to match my speed and darted to the side, towards the crater in the ground. I chased after it, managing to catch up and swing a fist against one of its eight legs. The appendage snapped from the force of the blow, but reformed itself almost instantly. It then used this appendage to swing at, knocking me a short distance away, my own aura having saved me from being instantly killed.

Our battle consisted of this kind of back and forth for a what felt like several minutes, but was most likely just a few moments to those watching. Not fighting for several years had left me out of shape and rusty. If I was in my prime, I might have been able to win, but I was far from my prime.

Suddenly, a bright light started to shine from where the caravan had been. In just a moment, I had turned to see Jaime standing with her palms out, the light gathering in her hands. The Plague Beast took this opportunity to strike at me, throwing me aside.

The light in Jaime’s palms grew brighter and brighter as countless spirits filled the air, dancing to some imaginary tune. The Plague Beast seemed to get distracted by this as well, giving me the chance to attack. I was about to strike when every fiber of my being screamed at me to defend myself. I quickly ducked down and forced out as much of my aura as I could to defend myself as the light grew blinding, the spirits in the air, moving faster and faster until the light disappeared completely.

As the light disappeared, the spirits in the air suddenly changed to a pitch-black color as they swarmed around the beast and everything in the surrounding area. Swarming like they did, it almost seemed like a black flame was consuming the beast. I watched as the Plague Beast charged blindly into the trees as some of the spirits chased it. The rest of the spirits, however, rampaged violently. The checkpoint that had been damaged in the battle had disappeared completely as the spirits devoured everything in a black inferno. Some even came at me, though my aura was somehow able to fend them off.

Almost immediately after the beast had run did the spirits stop their attack, completely fading away like they weren’t even there to begin with.

I dragged myself out of the pit and turned to see a horrifying sight. I ran as fast as I could over to where Jaime had been standing and crouched down to where she had fallen. Her body was mangled and charred. Both her arms had been devoured by the flames all the way up to her shoulders, most of one of her legs was gone and her entire front had been burned off completely, leaving her chest open and her face dissolved.

I immediately told the soldiers where the Plague Beast had gone and commanded them to leave, showing them my proof of nobility and carried Jaime all the way to Renae myself. Licilia, my wife, had served in the army with me as a healer. She possessed the ability to speed up the healing process of people’s bodies, so she may be able to save Jaime.

Despite what I had hoped, though, Licilia was only able to stop the bleeding and bandage her up. The chances of her surviving were extremely low, so imagine my surprise when she came in my study looking like none of it had happened.