The cell brightened as the sun rose. Cass watched the ray of light shine through the window and slowly creep along the dirty stone floor towards the corner she had curled up in. She was tired, and could only hope that Rat waited until the next night to torment her, by that point Cass might be out of it enough not to notice what was going on.

Of course, she was not sure it really mattered. Even if she had not been put into this cell with Rat the day would have come where she didn’t have a choice. Sure, she could have tried to join a gang or become a thief, but the cost of joining and the cost of getting caught by the guards generally ended up being what Rat was going to take anyway.

She had seen it happen time and time again, and it always ended with the woman dying from some unknown disease in a dirty alley with no one but the dregs of the city to note their passing.

Really, did life even matter? Sometimes Cass felt so empty that she wondered if the pain might be worth it, just to feel something at all besides fear and hunger and void. But she knew she was too much of a coward, a brave person wouldn’t be cowering in a corner waiting her turn to be beaten and violated. She didn’t even have the courage to kill herself and be done with it all, so she just existed without reason.

Lost in her thoughts, Cass nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a loud banging sound in the outside cell. She stayed out of Rat’s way as he cursed and got up, tossing Birdie to the side like little more than rag, and followed him out.

“Oi Rat,” it was one of the guards that had threw her in here, he had been banging a wooden club against the bars to get his attention.

“Tinus.” Rat seemed to swallow the curses that he wanted to say, after all, he was stuck in the cells with them too. “What do you want?”

Cass realized something suddenly, Rat spoke with far better diction than most thugs on the street. Cass herself took pride in her ability to speak, she had painstakingly learned in bits and pieces from the priests and priestesses at the Church, and it honestly made a difference when begging or dealing with authority. Anyone who could speak clearly received much better treatment, even if Cass had no idea why.

“Well now,” Tinus grinned evilly, “Ya recollec’ our agreement, right?”

“Of course.” He seemed a bit nervous all of a sudden, Cass took careful note. It always paid to know the weaknesses of those with power.

“Well now, that one kid fought back. The deal bein’ that you beat the struggle out of ‘em, and ya don’ get taken.” Rat paled when he heard this, apparently Stone had caused enough trouble to warrant the guard coming here to talk to him about it. Depending on how things went, Rat might be taken. Cass fervently prayed to the Gods, even if she knew they wouldn't listen to an orphan’s prayer, that he be taken away and she would be safe for a little longer.

“It won’t happen again,” Rat hurried to assure the guard. “I will make sure of it.”

“Well now,” despite the situation, Cass could not help but wonder why the guard started every statement that way. “See, we was thinkin’ that you needed some remindin’.”

Tinus grin widened into a horribly cruel and sinister smile, “So for the mornin’ we’ll be takin’ your new toy.” The guard pointed the club at Cass.

Her mind went blank, she had gone from daring to hope that Rat might be taken away to realizing she was probably about to die. It was an odd feeling though, if she was honest with herself, she might say it was relief. Her life would finally be over, according to the Church she could not possibly make it to Paradise, but Cass had always been careful not to break any important law or rule. So if she avoided the Hells, doctrine said she would be reborn. Maybe in her next life she would be happy.

“Can’t you wait a bit?” Rat scowled, though Cass could tell he was relieved not to be taken. “I haven’t even got to try her out yet.”

“Shoulda screwed her las’ night.” Tinus laughed, “Now come here girl, I don’ have much patience.”

She should struggle, she supposed, but why bother? So Cass followed Tinus obediently, joined by another guard who watched her to make sure she didn’t run. They twisted through corridors, and down several flights of stairs, perhaps she was in the basement of the castle. She wasn’t sure if there was another stone building this large in the city after all.

Their destination was a small chamber where three robed men were busily working with some bowls. All around the room were cabinets with expensive glass doors showing off all kinds of exotic ingredients and preserved creature parts, but what caught Cass’s eye was the table in the center.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Made of striking black stone one could barely see that it was blood stained, but Cass noticed it. At the four corners of the table were shackles with intricate carvings in them. In fact, the whole table was exquisitely carved with incredibly detailed work. Were it not for the blood and shackles it would be beautiful.

One of the robed men turned to greet them, “Ah thank you Tinus, if you would be so kind as to put it on the table.”

This man was old, his hair stark white and thinning and a face made of wrinkles. He would look kindly if not for his piercing eyes. Cass also noticed that he referred to her as “it.” Well, she didn’t care at this point.

They stripped her and doused her in water, Cass noted that the floor seemed to be built to let water flow into a drain, and her back was scrubbed vigorously. She was vaguely curious as to why this was happening, but it didn’t really matter she supposed. She was then shackled face down on the table, and she shivered with the cold. She didn’t complain, just lay there and listened as the robed men talked and busily worked around her.

“I do wish we could get better research materials,” This one sounded young, but his voice had a nasally sound to it. “I mean, look at her back. She is so thin that her spine juts out, that makes this so much harder.”

“Quit complaining,” Another young voice, annoyed sounding. “That is all you ever do, if you worked with half the effort you spent griping about work we would probably have results already.”

The older man chuckled at that, “You are both my apprentices, and you should learn this lesson. Magic is a slow art, making gains in understanding its mysteries is a lifetime pursuit. The letters back from the Tower believe our progress is nothing short of outstanding.”

“I don’t particularly see how spending hours of work only to see the subject die in ten seconds instead of nine is progress.” Cass mused that maybe he had broken his nose, she had never heard such a nasally voice before. She hoped they would get on with it soon, she was cold.

“There you go, complaining again. It doesn’t matter, the pigments and combs are ready.” The annoyed voice squatted down in front of her so that he could look her in the eyes. All mages were nobles, only they had magic in their blood, and considering the healthy glow to this mans face and the sparkling blue eyes and lustrous blonde hair, Cass could only compare to her own thin frame and think bitterly about the gap between them.

“Listen carefully,” The mage said, although he seemed to be hardly paying attention himself. As if this was something he had repeated so many times that he had grown bored of it. “You will be feeling some pain on your back soon, if you don’t move and stay very quiet we will give you a gold coin and release you, ok?”

Cass tried to nod, but the table didn’t let her. Still, the mage got the idea and stood up. They probably weren’t lying about the pain, but she doubted she would ever get a gold coin. Doubt wasn’t the right word even, no one would give an orphan such a treasure. More likely they would do whatever they wanted and then kill her. Finally.

“Well then let’s get started, you two start at the subjects shoulders and I will start on the lower back.”

“As you say master.”

“Of course, master.”

Cass felt three sharp, but wet, points on her back and then a sharp pain as something hit the objects, driving them into her. She didn’t cry out, just clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. It would all be over soon anyway.

However, it started to seem like it wouldn’t be soon at all. The process of feeling the point and having it hammered in continued for hours, with the mages wiping her back every so often. Sometimes it didn’t hurt much, but other times it felt like she was going to pass out and she could never tell which it would be before it was hammered in.

She tasted blood in her mouth, Cass had bitten her own tongue subconsciously to keep herself from fainting. She had lost track of time and didn’t know how long she had been on the table when she vaguely heard the old mage say “Now for the last part of the glyph.”

She felt the point on her back once again and then she screamed at the top of her lungs. It felt like her blood had instantly been replaced with liquid fire! She struggled and thrashed on the table as energy seemed to pour into her, fight with her, but she didn’t understand anything but the absolute incredible pain!

“What the hell? This reaction!” The nasally voice seemed shocked.

The old man had to shout over Cass’s screams, “It is a magic reaction, it happens when the power from the glyph comes into contact with a mages natural power.”

“But she is a commoner, an orphan.” The annoyed voice seemed vexed, “She cannot have magic power as it only runs in noble blood lines.”

“Obviously, she is the bastard child of one family or another. It doesn’t matter, it is a wasted experiment. We will have to repeat it with the next subject, all mages who have the glyph placed on them die. The body simply cannot hold that much magical power.”

“Well this is a waste, if we had known we could have used the Book to find out whose bastard she was. Might have made decent blackmail material.”

Throughout this entire conversation Cass was thrashing and screaming, feeling overwhelmed as the fire in her blood got hotter and hotter. It felt like a massive pressure in her chest, fighting to break free through her skin.

I just wanted to die! She wailed in her thoughts, just let me sink into the emptiness and die!

She reached for that abyss again, and like a flood the fire seemed to pour into it. The heat seemed to be cooling and eventually she collapsed on the table, barely awake or coherent.

“Wait… Impossible, she is still alive!”

“Quick, get the healing potions! There is so much we can learn from this!”

Cass couldn’t understand the excited voices and she fainted.