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> “I awoke this morning alone in an unfamiliar room. My mouth tasted of blood. They took everything from me. And then some. But this book remained, yesterday’s entry completely blank.”
My hand should have been bleeding.
Not from the broken pieces of ivory that had already fallen to the floor.
But from the twin blade that had been hidden beneath the handle.
Its edge was sharp, that much I could feel. But the healing blade of the Medoblad, the reverse of the curse, it wouldn’t harm me.
Doug looked at me with a mixture of awe and fear, but I didn’t care about him. All I cared about was one thing and one thing only.
I stood next to Frankie, and then, careful not to cut myself with the other end, slid the blade effortlessly into the same spot where I had unleashed the curse on her. What the healing serum had failed to do, the Medoblad was accomplishing in spades, and I watched as the stone fled from her body. When I finally saw Frankie’s feet begin to twitch, I knew that the cure was complete and pulled the blade free. As I did, Doug’s command in my head ceased and I turned to face him, but then I felt something grab me from behind.
“What have you done?” said Frankie, whose hand was now wrapped around my wrist.
“I … we saved you,” I said, nearly dropping the blade to the ground.
She withdrew her grip and then slowly took in her surroundings, while Doug stood silently at the front of the house, and her eyes went wide when she finally saw him.
“How? He’s the one who kidnapped me in the first place!”
“He’s from the Guild,” said Beatrice. “Thought he was doing his boss a favor by opening that box. But he’s not too smart, that one.”
“Shut up!” said Doug. “I’m going to-”
“He just wants what’s inside the box,” I interjected. “You’re the Guild’s Keeper, aren’t you? You can open it and then we can all leave.”
Frankie shook her head slowly.
“No, you have it all backward.”
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“I’m not the Guild’s Keeper. Far from it. For 200 years, my family has kept the cave and that box hidden from the Guild. Until someone found out that I had taken up the charge.”
I brought my hand to the glamour stone and felt Jade fade away, and it took a few seconds for the glimmer of recognition to appear on her face.
“YOU!” Frankie shouted. “The girl from the gym, the one who tore off the bandage on my tattoo, you…”
“Didn’t know what we had done,” I said. “We thought it was just another Raid. We didn’t realize what we were doing. And then Dalia said that the box was Guild property so-”
“You ignorant fools!”
“Why did you tell us where the last gold token was then?” said Beatrice, producing a small golden coin from her pocket. “When we healed you the other day, you told us where to find it.”
“That token was lo-”
“Enough!” said Doug. “I don’t care about any of this. You,” he pointed at Frankie, “are going to open that box and I’m finally going to get my hands on that Relic.”
“Over my dead body,” said Frankie calmly. “I may have failed my family but I won’t allow you to open the box. That key will die with me here and now and you’ll never be able to-”
“I was expecting you to say that,” said Doug. “But fortunately, our friends here have provided me with a convenient method of getting what I want out of you.”
We stood helplessly as Doug crossed the house in an instant and Frankie could do nothing as he held up a second note written in black ink in front of her eyes. Before she could react, the command had already taken effect.
“I’m going to open the box for you,” Frankie said in a monotone voice. She slowly walked forward a few steps to where Doug had placed it and picked it up, sending the ink vial and pen falling to the ground as she did.
Frankie lifted the box aloft with her palms and closed her eyes. Her body began to twitch and her lips began to tremble as violent spasms rippled through her limbs, but somehow she kept a hold of it. It was like I was watching an exorcism from a horror movie with Doug as the priest. The tremors continued to wash over Frankie until finally, her eyes reopened, and her pupils were surrounded by a silver aura.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Ephphatha,” she said and the box complied. A gust of air burst forth from the opened lid, spreading to every corner of the house, and I felt a strange sensation around my neck as the glamour suddenly reactivated.
“And now I’m going to die,” Frankie said in the same monotone as she collapsed onto the ground, the box tumbling from her hands.
“Well done,” said Doug. “Well done. And now the Relic is mine, and Gilbert and Dalia and the Guild will-”
“What did you do to her?” Beatrice said, anger rising in her voice.
“What you must have known the ink was capable of,” he replied.
“No!” I shouted. “I healed her. I saved her. And you-”
“Told her to open the box and die,” said Doug, smirking. “She would have died anyway soon enough. Being a Keeper extracts a great toll on your body. I just sped up the process a bit.”
He nudged Frankie in the ribs, as if double-checking that his command had taken effect, before picking up the now-unlocked box and retreating to the door.
I rushed to Frankie’s side, my fingers frantically searching for a pulse in her neck, but the only thing I felt was the coldness of her skin. Without thinking, I plunged the healing end of the Medoblad into Frankie’s shoulder over and over again, each jab becoming more frantic, as I waited for the blade’s magic to restart Frankie’s heart.
“Give it a rest,” said Doug. “You should be more worried about yourself. Can’t decide whether you would be more useful to me alive or dead, but I suppose I’ll have time to figure that out once I kill Trinity back there.”
Doug laughed and I looked back at Beatrice, who had barely blinked at the taunt.
“He kept me holed up in the Guild Hall for far too long, so I’ve had a lot of time to consider how I was going to do it, if I ever got the chance.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Gilbert,” said Doug. “He’s had a special interest in you, T, for a long time. Was stalking you even while I was doing the same. So fortunately for me, he showed up in the atrium that night shortly after you left me there to die. He gave me the antidote and asked if I wanted to learn under a real mentor. Of course I said yes, but didn’t realize until much later what I’d signed up for. It was only in the past few years that he let me out on my own. But only while wearing this.”
Doug held up the glamour stone around his neck. It was green, like mine, but lacked Jade’s luster.
“I wonder what it would feel like to wear that one,” he said, pointing at my neck. I glanced down and saw a sight I’d never seen before: my mother’s locket, ajar.
I looked back up at Doug, only to see him vanish again and reappear at Beatrice’s side, holding her chin with his fingers, as if he was a lion surveying his prey.
“In case you were wondering, it’s going to be slow and painful and I’m going to enjoy every single minute of it,” Doug whispered in her ear, but Beatrice remained preternaturally still.
“Where’s that arrogant spirit I know so well?” said Doug as he released his grip on Beatrice and shook his head. “I thought you would put up more of a fight, but now that you’ve finally met your match, you’re nothing but a scared little girl. Figures.”
Doug turned around and walked over to the wooden box, and I saw Beatrice clench her fists tightly. I searched for some sort of signal in her eyes, but she just stood there, staring at Doug, as he bent down to pick up his treasure. He slowly opened the lid, his face erupting into a vicious smile. But the glee was only temporary.
“No,” he said, closing the lid and opening it again. “This isn’t right. It’s not-”
The purple blur hit Doug at full speed, pinning him against the wall and sending the wooden box careening across the room. When the dust settled, I saw Beatrice with her arms locked around him, her body completely surrounded by the purple aura.
“Hurry,” said Beatrice. “Don’t … know … how much longer … I can hold him.”
Doug struggled to break free from her grasp, but Beatrice’s strength was equal to his own, and I stood there, frozen with fear.
“Jen!” Beatrice yelled. “What the hell are you waiting for? Do it!”
I looked at her and suddenly I was back in the lighthouse again, a raging inferno all around me, two lives hanging in the balance.
Except I was no longer the morally righteous, foolishly naive woman I had been. The Quests and the Guild had seen to that. And Beatrice. And Doug. And even Duncan. They had all shaped me into a different sort of instrument. One that had no reservation of doing whatever it took to survive.
I pulled the blade free from Frankie’s shoulder in one long arc before reversing my grip. It should have been slick with her blood, but the metal was perfectly pristine, shining brightly somehow in the dim room. I pressed the edge into my palm as I closed my fingers around it, took a deep breath, and then charged at the man and the woman who had upended my life.
It all happened in an instant.
Beatrice spun Doug around and then released him, his forward momentum impaling him on the outstretched blade. The recognition of his impending demise slowly dawned on his face as he looked down to see the Medoblad plunged into his stomach. Gray stone erupted from the wound and Doug frantically tried to pull the blade free, but the alchemy was quicker, and his hands stopped short only a few inches from the Medoblad. The rest of him followed suit, until he was nothing but an angry, snarling statue.
“Pull it out,” said Beatrice, her body still flickering with power.
I complied, only to watch in horror as she smashed her palms through Doug from behind, his body shattering into a hundred pieces.
“Why did you do that?” I yelled. “It was over. We beat him. We didn’t need to-”
“Yes, we did,” said Beatrice, brushing the stone fragments from her hands. “I made the mistake of leaving him alive last time, I won’t do it again.”
“But-”
“It’s done, Jen. Nothing to do now but move forward. In the box in the back, there’s another vial of the vitality serum. Quickly now, before…”
The ring’s power vanished in an instant and Beatrice fell forward, but I caught her with my free arm, and we toppled to the ground. I slid out from under her, careful not to let the Medoblad touch her, and flipped her over onto her back. The serum I found in a box with several jars of preserved rats and pigeons, and I quickly grabbed the vial and raced back to the unconscious Beatrice. Propping her head up on my legs, I removed the wax stopper and poured the brownish-gray liquid into her mouth.
Beatrice gritted her teeth as the serum began its savage work restoring her body. After a few minutes, she finally opened her eyes and stared straight up at me, a look of shock on her face.
“Jen,” she whispered. “Your locket.”
“I know,” I said. “Somehow, it opened during the commotion.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s … look inside.”
I pulled the front open all the way to find a shiny golden circle with a small bird-like creature etched in the middle nestled in the interior of the locket. My fingers pried it free easily and when I looked down at my palm, I was holding a gold token.
Next: The Guild comes calling.