It took awhile before she woke up on the cold operating table. The room was dark, only illuminated with a single light source on the ceiling. She tried to move her hand but noticed that she was strapped down, looking down, she saw her naked body marked with black outlines.
Then, she saw him. Sitting down as he read her notebook. The reptile was studying it, every flip of the page more intense than the last, his anger growing at the contents of the notes and how close Nashra was to finding the truth. He sat the book down so he could stand over her, his wrathful gaze this time became calm like he achieved everything that needed to be done.
Nashra gulped, her mind racing with fear. ‘So, when do I go back to Olympus?’ She asked the reptile, not caring for the answer. All she wanted was an end to her nightmare.
‘No,’ the reptile coldly replied. ‘We are not heading back.’
‘What… what do you mean? They’ve sent you to get me, to put me on trial for what I did. I deserve a fair trial!’ Nashra expected the reptile to reply, to show any emotion. Yet he just looked down at her, their apathetic expression made her stomach sink.
‘They know me too well. They know how I deal with traitors, especially those who try to seek godhood.’
Nashra’s eyes widened, she thought knew what the reptile meant. She believed the reptile would kill her, to end her life on the operating table without anyone knowing. There was no point to scream, she knew the reptile would drag her body to somewhere more isolated without anyone coming to interrupt him. A premeditated murder, one orchestrated by a soulless beast. She would say to herself.
‘Why did you do it? Why did you kill those people?’ Nashra asked the reptile.
The reptile pulled out the grimoire that she stole from the Order, to remind her of what brought her to Salt Lake to begin with. ‘Faith magic is powerful, potent under the right circumstances. You know this. You tried to use it to your advantage.’
‘But why them? They were innocent!’
‘They were tools.’ The reptile calmly replied like the deaths of civilians were nothing more but a mistake needed to be corrected. ‘You were close to figuring it out. Your numbers were wrong, but it was a matter of time before you found out what you were missing. I couldn’t take the risk. They had faith in you, a link that needed to be broken.’
Nashra looked at the emotionless reptile and began to sob. ‘Even the kid?’
‘That wasn’t my doing.’ The reptile admitted, one of the few truths he told her. ‘The mother rolled onto their child and blamed it on me. They couldn’t handle the guilt, none of them could. It was what needed to break the bond between you and them, they needed to learn you could never protect them. In the end, it was fear that drove them out of their sanctuary. It made them irrational, easy to predict. A broken faith was necessary to unravel the spell.’
She looked at the reptile, confused as to why he was speaking clearly to her and in a clear and concise way. Not like his usual blunt and short responses. When Jackson pulled out his medical equipment and expected his blades and needles one last time. She knew the reptile had plans for her. ‘Are you going to kill me?’
‘No,’ the reptile replied. ‘I will require your silence.’ The reptile forced a magical gag around her neck. She tried to scream, but no sound could escape her lips. The reptile walked around the operating table, examining her body like a twisted science experiment.
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‘I will tell you what will happen once I am done. The world will think you’ve died, your body will be forever missing. That is the only mercy I will grant you.’ Jackson slowly put on his gloves, ‘you are a worm! Anyone who seeks godhood is nothing more but a parasite. A leech that feast on the lifeblood of the common people. You might’ve dreamt of good intentions, wanted to be a hero, but I know what will happen. What righteous fools like you will do to the world below! I know how this will go, it will always go that way with people like you. It will be only a matter of time before you turn the ocean into blood, set every cloud aflamed, and bring about the end. You will doom us all, you will be an enslaver just like all of them.’
Jackson injects an IV into her as well as painkillers and drugs to keep her awake and alert. He doesn’t want her to pass out or die of shock. ‘My grand achievement is making the Order believe achieving divinity is a myth. A fool's errand that would never work.’ The reptile leaned into her; he wanted to hear her terrified breaths, the smell of terror from her sweat. ‘What I promise is suffering. You will never move, you will never speak, but I will make you aware of what will happen to you. I will put you in a place with a certain reputation. Some of the male staff will do the work and force themselves on your worthless body. This was never what you wanted, you wanted to be the height of morality, a creature of worship and beloved by all. As long as I live, I will never make that dream become a reality. I will make you nothing more but a piece of meat to be played with by others. I will make you youthful for a very long time, and no one will come to save you or bat an eye that you age slowly compared to the others. Nor will anyone grant you the mercy of death.’
She wanted to plead with the reptile, but he responded with a hateful gaze. A hate never felt before, not one that is mindlessly destructive but of calculated malice. In the end, he pulled out a piece of fabric with a strange rune. ‘In your diary, you planned on creating a bloodline, and I will grant you that. You will never go through menopause, and every child you birth will have their father’s faces. You will birth a generation of children, but none will have your skills or greatness. They will be born deformed, disabled, and forever require the assistance of others. Because that is what people like you deserve! A parasite that deserves nothing more but damnation.’
The reptile was silent when he carved her open, breaking her body so it would always require the aid of others. An act so inhumane, one too extreme even for the Order. But the Order will never know what happened, what Jackson did. The only thing that was reported was the mass murder of civilians and the violent altercation with him and his target and the destruction of the grimoire and Nashra’s notes. It was all the reptile would tell them, even if the Order knew something wasn’t right with what he said.
The issue was always apparent. They knew how extreme he would go, but they could never imagine how far he would go. One always wondered what the Order would do if they found out what Jackson had done to her and others who tried to achieve immortality and godhood. But any investigation would always come out empty-handed, because the reptile knew how to hide. He knew the dance of secrecy better than anyone… he knew it too well for his own good.
She would be dropped off at a medical facility, one known to abuse their patients. What the Order wanted was justice for what Nashra did, they thought she would die even if her death would be gruesome. Yet her crime never fit the punishment, and her suffering for years to come will forever be a crime against humanity.