Chapter Seven:

“And as I gazed at her, I felt a… protective instinct rise in me. I knew we would become the closest of friends, but… more as family than friends. I would forever be at her side, and forever be her first counsel.

And as I gazed at her, I sensed a potential to be great, far bigger than anything I’ve seen before.

She was the reason I decided to break the spire.”

-Evelyn, Conflagrator of the Charred Tower

The next time I woke, Evelyn was sitting next to me. “Took you long enough to wake up. You’ve been sleeping for two weeks!”

I slowly sat up, careful not to use my left hand. Then Evelyn laughed at my cautiousness and grabbed it.

I glanced at the arm. It wasn’t bent in the wrong direction. There was no bone sticking out. I moved my arm, catching a glimpse of my elbow. An ugly scar lay there. I grimaced, but I’d never been one to care about looks. I quickly pushed myself out of bed, finding the dagger in Evelyn’s hands. She gave it to me, getting up and walking over to the door as I tried to figure out how to do so myself. My body was unused to moving, but I pushed through the cramping and limped to the door.

Evelyn opened it, and we stepped through into an empty hallway. She bounced to the end of the hall, and I followed, my bare feet sinking slightly into the red carpet on the floor. The walls were painted a warm tan. We passed a multitude of doors before finally arriving at the hallway I had just started to think of as infinite.

A massive room filled with tables was directly outside. Every one of them was full of people eating. I froze, ducking behind Evelyn until, laughing, she pulled me in front of her and directed me through the sea of giants. I was ten years old at this time. Everyone was taller than me. Luckily, I wasn’t crushed underfoot, and was quickly led to a counter. Behind it stood the ugliest man I’d ever seen. I attempted to duck behind Evelyn, but she had a firm grip on my shoulders, and held me in front of her. I didn’t have any method of escaping her grasp without hurting her.

My dagger was still in my hand, so I went to dismiss it.

To my surprise, Evelyn grabbed the blade just as it started flowing up my arm. She gave a sharp tug, and I let it back out. Seemingly satisfied, she pressed it into my palm, not looking down at me. I refrained from attempting to dismiss it again. The ugly man started speaking in a language I couldn’t recognize, and Evelyn replied.

The ugly man snapped something, and Evelyn started to shout. Finally, the ugly man pulled out a bowl, dumped exotic foods into it, and slammed it on the table. Then another one, even louder.

Evelyn grabbed both, glaring at him while she walked away. I dutifully followed as she snarled under her breath.

The crowd made way for her, and she brought me to an empty table among the sea. Thankfully, I sat next to her. I didn’t have to deal with anyone else. She slid a bowl over to me, and I glanced up, surprised. A metal stick dropped next to it, with four prongs on top. “This is a ‘fork’,” Evelyn said softly, pointing at the metal stick. “You stab your food with it-” she demonstrated particularly violently-”and then you put it in your mouth.”

I attempted to replicate her, but it didn’t quite work. I put it down on the table, grabbing my dagger and stabbing pieces of food with it, pulling them off the end. Evelyn just shrugged and continued eating. I quickly finished, but had an abundance of food left in the bowl. I just couldn’t eat any more, though. Evelyn glanced over and stole the rest of my bowl, removing my ability to choose what to do with it. She dumped it in her own bowl and continued eating.

I licked my dagger clean, and then pointed at it, waggling my eyes at Evelyn. She slid closer to me, leaning down to my ear. Her voice was dead serious. “They’re suspicious of you,” she hissed. “You can’t show off anything supernatural here. I explained your mask away by telling them a church tortured you. I told them that your mask could morph to create a mouth-hole because they didn’t want you dead. I can’t explain your dagger.”

Carefully, I nodded, and placed it on the table instead of making it disappear. I wondered why Evelyn would be helping me, but quickly discarded the thought. We could talk later. A burly man soon stepped up to the table as Evelyn continued to eat. “What do we have here? A newcomer?”

Evelyn held up her middle finger, as if that would do anything to stop the man. He laughed and continued to speak. “Now, girl. Why don’t you come with me, and I’ll get that mask off you and melted down into more weapons?”

Evelyn finally spoke. “Adolf. Shut up. The mask’s bolted into her skull.”

Adolf shrugged. “Does it matter?”

He reached down to my shoulder, as if to grab it. My patience ended and my fingers clamped around his fist like a vice, pulling his hand down to the table. My dagger went through it, pinning it to the wood. Adolf screamed shrilly, and then started to whimper as the room went silent. Evelyn rolled her eyes. “Adolf, that’s what you get for harassing a… young girl.”

Adolf continued to scream as a thin man in a white uniform strode over to the table we were sitting at. “Again?,” he asked Evelyn. “It’s always you who injures him.”

Evelyn shook her head. “Not me this time.”

“Then who? The ten year old girl next to me? Did her widdle hands pick up the dagger and stab it hard enough to get through his hand and into the wood?”

I no longer appreciated the newcomer. The dagger came out of the wood easily, and it rose to his neck. The newcomer didn’t notice until I tapped their skin with it, leaving a thin line of Adolf’s blood behind. Evelyn started to laugh as the newcomer retreated, white-faced. I simply sat down and waited for her to finish eating so we could leave this place.

When she finished eating, she took both of our bowls, told me to stay, and then left. Luckily, no one harassed me, mostly because they all looked far too scared to do so. I cleaned my bloody dagger on my shirt, and then stood up when she arrived once more. “Why is your shirt red?,” Evelyn asked, peering at the red stain on my green shirt-the one I’d woken up in.

“I cleaned my dagger on it.”

Evelyn shrugged, and grabbed my hand, starting to walk towards a door on the far side of the room from where we entered. Opening it, she ushered me inside. As soon as the door closed, she started speaking. “Don’t disappear your dagger. Don’t know how you can do that, but I can’t help you if anyone sees. If you want to make it go away and come back when no one’s looking, sure. Just make sure they think you have a hidden sheath, not that it disappears up your arm.”

She glanced at my metal mask. I decided to return some of the help she’d given me with a payment of trust. “I can take off the mask.”

I reached up, grabbing it and easily pulling it off my face. Evelyn looked at my face for the first time, and nodded. “Put it back on.”

I put my mask back on. “These were gifts from a god who helped me survive.”

Evelyn opened her mouth, but nothing came out for a few seconds before she finally spoke. “I’ll need the whole story.”

She dragged me into a room, which seemed like a suite of quarters for someone relatively well-off. I opened my mouth and started talking.

At the end of it all, Evelyn embraced me. I was so surprised that I nearly cut her with my dagger before thinking better of it and dismissing it. Her embrace was warm and soft enough that I melted into it. Then I raised my own arms and hugged her back. When the hug ended, I stepped back, taking off my mask. “Your eyes are black,” Evelyn said.

I tilted my head, confused, before Evelyn ran off to the bathroom and grabbed a handheld mirror. She held it up to me, and I saw what she had been talking about.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

My eyes were swirling midnight orbs. There was no white sclera. There was no colored iris. There was no pupil. It was entirely black, ever-moving. Flecks of purple passed through every so often. “You have pretty eyes,” Evelyn whispered to me before picking up the mask and putting it back on my face. “If your mask is god-made, you should be able to change it as you would like. Don’t change it visibly, but make it so that you can feel through the mask. So you can always feel the wind.”

I placed a finger on the mask. It seemed to vibrate ever-so-slightly. I thought about it changing, so that I could feel the vibrations, feel my finger through the mask.

Then I felt soft flesh. My finger touching my cheek. I pushed, but I could only feel a mounting pressure. My finger didn’t pierce a hole through my mask. “I did it!,” I exclaimed, and Evelyn smiled, a happy, carefree smile, before speaking once more.

“Good! Next. You’re far stronger and deadlier than a ten-year-old has any right to be. I applied to be your mentor, and I’ll be the only person training you. If someone else asks about your abilities or me, don’t tell them anything, yeah?”

I nodded. I was used to secrecy, with living on the streets for my entire life. “I’m stronger than a normal ten-year old?”

Evelyn gave me a sideways look. “You don’t realize it?”

I saw a glint of steel out of the corner of my eye and summoned my blade, flashing it into an instant parry. The sword Evelyn held was stopped cold before getting anywhere near me. Evelyn turned around, dropping the sword behind the bed. I carefully dismissed my dagger as Evie spoke again. “You think a normal ten-year-old could’ve blocked that?”

I thought about it for a moment. After all, I was the only ten-year-old I knew. “Maybe?”

Evie sighed, lightly taking my hand. “You don’t have much experience with others, do you? Any kid I attacked like that would’ve died. Most adults too. So, this is your room.” She pointed at the wall. “Mine’s that one, on the other side of the wall, if you need anything.”

I shrugged, following along behind her as we exited the room, looking to all the world like a young girl following her mother.

Evie led me to an entirely different area. The carpeting changed from red to an almost glistening bronze. The walls changed from tan to a deep, burnished gold. Eventually, the hallway we were walking in came to an abrupt end at a cherry-red door, which opened easily into a large room. A single other person sat in the room. They were masked as well, a raven’s head covering their actual face.

“Why have you brought someone wearing a mask into my presence?,” he asked.

To my surprise, Evelyn bowed deeply to the man. “Lord Charred. This is our newest recruit. Metalshapers, probably of Machina or Vulcan, attached this mask to her skull.”

I bowed, following her example. Lord Charred didn’t move, simply examining me through the Raven’s eye sockets. “How old is she?”

“Ten years, Lord. She held her own against multiple people in the mess hall.”

Lord Charred sat up. “So, she’s promising. That means she needs to be mentored. We don’t have any open at the moment though, so I’ll-”

Evelyn spoke up, interrupting Lord Charred. Based on the respect she had yet shown him, I surmised this was a bad idea. “Lord, I can mentor her.”

The raven-masked man’s head glided to face her, and he stood up. Evelyn didn’t seem afraid in any way, only seeming to wait for him to finish and then go back to sitting. “You may.”

Evelyn bowed again, taking my hand and turning to leave. “Thank you, Lord.”

Lord Charred’s next sentence came out in a growl. It seemed designed to be menacing, but I only heard a cat’s annoyed purr. And Evelyn seemed to hear the same, hiding her smile as Lord Charred spoke. “No one interrupts me, Evelyn. Next time, I’ll have you killed.”

Evelyn only bowed again and walked out of the room, a gentle grasp on my wrist. We soon exited the room. When we got far enough down the hallway, I was the first to giggle. Then the laughter flooded out of me, and Evelyn joined. “That’s who leads the Charred Tower?”

Evie was back, and she smiled at me. “Yup.”

“And you follow him?”

Evie’s smile grew sharp enough to cut through stone. “No.”

I woke up as soon as I heard my door open, my knife instantly in hy hands as I dodged to the side to avoid anything they might throw at me. This was my normal strategy whenever I was awoken unsuspectingly, though without the knife.

My mask went on immediately afterward, and I hoped it had been dark enough to mask that action. A fire flickered on in front of me, and I stared into the eyes of Adolf, the man whose hand I’d put a knife through. I sighed. “What do you want?”

Adolf roared, and the fire burned brighter. “The church told me they’d give me power in exchange for killing you. Accomplishing two of my goals this quickly is amazing.”

“EVELYN!,” I screamed as loud as I could.

Adolf laughed at me. “No one can hear you. You thought I was here alone? No one’s going to hear you or Evelyn’s screams.”

My vision turned red. They wouldn’t touch Evelyn, not if I could help it. My dagger flew out of my hands, a straight throw at Adolf’s neck. He sidestepped it, just barely, a cut slicing open along his face. The dagger landed in the wall. “Now you have no weapons, girl. What are you going to do now?”

I waited for him to advance, taking a fearful step back. He approached me, fire held straight out in front of him. “I’m going to burn my brand into you, girl, before killing you.”

I recalled my dagger, which I could see stuck in the wall behind Adolf. His eyes widened just before it went through his neck. Flames seared my hand and wrist, but I ignored them, watching Adolf choke on his own blood, my knife stuck through his neck. I kicked him aside, letting his blood soak the floor as I recalled my knife. It still dripped with blood as I exited my room.

Another stood outside, a translucent domed wall between us. I watched a scream rip its way out of her throat, somehow silent. The dome shivered, then started to fill in with color, turning green.

I slammed my dagger into the dome. Nothing happened, and I bashed my head into the dome as well. It shivered once again, but didn’t falter. I screamed and dropped the dagger, letting bloody fists fly to crash against what felt like stone. I knew every second I wasted here was another second for Evie to die. With a final scream, I hit the dome as hard as I could with my left hand.

There was a crack, and an unbearable pain as I raised the hand once again. I pulled my left hand in front of my face to see what had happened. Blood dripped off open wounds on my fist, and my wrist was clearly broken, my hand at a right angle to my forearm. Anger started to rise in me. Anger at my weakness. Anger at my inability to help those I cared about. Anger at being stuck in this dome while Evie was dying outside.

And as my anger rose, a black malevolence rose along with it. Forget your friend, and I will give you power, it whispered. My anger rose to a boiling point by the addition of this malevolence. “No.”

While you lived in the Black Hole, she lived in the Golden Rows with a silver spoon in her mouth. You deserve to live through her death.

“No,” I spoke once more. My lips started to twist into a mad smile.

You’ve known her for but a few days. What is she to you?

“You said it yourself,” I said. “My friend.”

My mouth erupted into an insane rictus, my fallen dagger flooding back up my arm. I raised my right arm, letting my broken left hand dangle where it was. Black power sheathed my hand just before I struck. “And I won’t sacrifice friends.”

The dome burst, my fist carrying me straight through. I screamed again as I felt the power exact a price for its use. Pain erupted in my right arm, but I couldn’t stop here. Not now. The woman who’d erected the dome stood in front of me, her hands over her mouth. I gave her a twisted smile before blowing her head off with my fist.

My dagger tattoo moved from my left shoulder to my right, and then down into my hand, the dagger materializing through the coating of black energy covering it.

Not a dagger, but a sword, my weapon emerged. I immediately dashed towards Evie’s rooms, right next to mine. There was no visible dome. The one woman had maybe created two domes, because I could now hear sounds of fighting from within the room.

“If you don’t want the girl hurt, you will stop fighting,” a voice sounded within the room. Not one I recognized, it was a deep male baritone that I immediately hated.

My heart dropped when I heard the clatter of dropped weapons. My gaze dropped to my sword, and black energy crept up the blade. “To save the girl, take this oath, bound by the God of Law. Repeat after me. I swear to only obey my great lord-”

My sword cut through the door’s hinges and lock in two quick slices, before I shoved the useless piece of wood in. A man wearing a black cloak and holding a silver quarterstaff stood, mouth wide open, staring at me. Evelyn was kneeling in front of him, her weapons on the ground. She was in disbelief as well. “Allina?”

My anger once again rose to a point, and the black energy rose within me. I finally understood what it truly was. The black energy was the manifestation of Sacrifice. I had sacrificed my aloofness, my ability to persist without friends. And I had gained the black energy. The more I sacrificed, the more I would gain.

I hated this power.

My sword came up in a single sweep, taking off the man’s head. In return, it exacted another payment of pain from me, black energy sizzling on my skin.

Evie got up, taking a step, and then lunging for me. She caught me, looking me over. My sword climbed back up my shoulder, and the dark energy faded from my body. I attempted to hide my broken left hand under my clothes, but Evie found it, cradling it carefully. “For me?”

I carefully nodded, the pain finally breaking past my adrenaline. Evie gently took my right hand and half-dragged me back to my rooms. As soon as I was dropped on my bed, I fell asleep.