The sun is hiding behind the horizon, as the city of sin just awakes. The empty streets of hard stone, dirty and filled with vagabonds make way for the passing of corrupt priests, decadent merchants, and slavemasters. All parading their rotting selves with pride and without worry as anyone with coin, status, or connections can do in the border cities.

Houses of shoddy stone and wood rarely rise above a single floor, and there are several barracks, little forts, inside each city where the criminals are given an ultimatum; Join us and protect this place, or be cast out of the human borders and try your luck with the beasts and monsters.

Night cities, where the day is filled with hungry children begging for food, and drug addicts soiling the streets with their waste. Only at night do the real businesses open, and the wealth can enter the elite's pockets.

Lively as any other city during the day, so long as is not winter.

"Hey," Loretta says to a passing man, fat with years of sedentary living, and surely with even a fatter coin bag. She stands in an alley with sleeping addicts as the man, with a guard on each side, passes nearby.

"Not interested" he replies coldly.

"Are you sure?" she insists, unveiling her scarf and revealing her face to the man, who this time opens his eyes as if he had stumbled on a chest filled with gold in the middle of a dirty sewer. He steps back.

"How much?" he asks, a sultry smile on his face as he looks at her from head to feet " I don't expect one of your kind to be cheap"

"I don't know...how much you got?" Loretta asks turning around and moving her cloak away so the man can see her strong legs and hypnotizing behind, marked well by her tight leather pants.

"E-Enough I'm sure," he says stepping in with her into the alley, the guards rolling their eyes as they shield the entrance from any curious onlooker.

"Show me," she says suddenly turning around and dragging him closer to her, even deeper inside the alley.

Then, one of the addicts sits up, her blue eyes looking carefully as now she sits in between the guards and Loretta with his interested guest. A small circle of blue fire appears in the palm of her hand as she raises from the ground and covers the mouth of the man behind him, making sure to show him her hand.

"Be silent, or be turned to ashes" Anaid whispers into the man's ear as she leans her hand closer to his face, burning his eyebrows slightly, he nods his head in fear, and Anaid nods at her friend.

Loretta smiles as she begins to put her hands on the man, grabbing anything of value and putting it inside a bag she lifts from nearby. Anaid looks back to ensure the guards don't catch them and after a few seconds they are done.

"Thank you" Loretta whispers to the man and gives him a wink, before looking at her friend and smiling.

But she is not smiling.

Anaid's mind boils with anger, hatred, and frustration so much, that the flame in her hands grows too much, burning the man and forcing a yelp out of his mouth that alerts the guards. Anaid throws the man against a wall and Loretta lifts her in her arms, eluding the guard's spears as she jumps away onto one of the nearby roofs.

Jumping around they leave the exterior part of the city and go nearby its heart, a fort overlooks the entire city from afar atop a large hill. Once deep inside the city, the houses raise many floors above the ground, looking at everyone else with disdain, the wood more properly cut and even decorated, the stone more square and chimneys rise above the rooftops to keep their owners warm during the cold winters.

And among all houses, there is one that challenges the view of the stone castle, meeting its watchful eyes from beneath it, two rulers of the same people, one for those that bear arms, the other, for the masses.

It is as big as the castle in the distance, with many rooms and many people housed within. Dark wood makes its walls and the windows hide what happens inside with dark red curtains, four floors tall, it is a beacon of the city.

The friends descend to a nearby alley of the great house, no longer littered with addicts, but whores who glance at them and quickly crowd at the entrance so nobody can see inside, Anaid approaches a wall and with her eyes turned black whispers to it.

"Spread 'em" Anaid begrudgingly says as Loretta tries her best to suppress a burst of laughter, drowning it as best as she can.

A section of the wall turns into blue fire as they quickly pass through, entering the building unharmed, and the fire disappears into a normal wall once they do. The whores return to their places as they look for clients.

They are inside the whorehouse, it is dimly lit and decorated with many burgundy silks that hang on the corridors, stairs, and walls, some can be seen through, others not. A smell of perfume, giggling, walls being hit, and a woman standing around with skimpy clothing strides around the large house from time to time.

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"I swear, I don't know why Scarlett doesn't change that illusion's keyword," Anaid says with a tired sigh as she takes her cloak off and throws it on the ground, showing off her leather armor beneath, it was simple, functional, and light.

"Probably because nobody is gonna figure out what the keyword is," Loretta says now allowing a small quiet laugh. She too takes her cloak off, but instead carefully folds it in her arms, doing the same with Anaid's cloak once she picks it up from the ground, leaving both on a nearby bench once she is done.

Loretta's leather armor only protects her chest in comparison to Anaid's, which makes sure to protect every spot of her body except for her head.

"Girls!" a man shouts from afar as he spots them, rushing to their side.

He is old, and scrawny, dressed elegantly in black and bright red he could pass for a visiting noble. He is tall and has grey hair tied in a ponytail that hangs on his right shoulder. His eyes are green, and he walks with the help of a cane with the head of a goat as a handle dragging his right leg with him.

"Hulian!" Loretta shouts in excitement as she waves at him.

"Lory!" he replies with a chuckle, sticking his hand inside his coat and taking out a dry fruit the size of his thumb, handing it to Loretta, who after taking out her scarf eagerly eats it.

"Is Scarlett here yet?" Anaid asks dryly, taking Hulian by surprise.

"Yes, she is in her study, but tell me how..."Hulian tries to reach for Anaid, but she doesn't bother to acknowledge it, instead, she rushes past him. The old man looks at her go with a saddened face, his thick and messy white eyebrows lowering.

"Sorry, on her behalf," Loretta says to him, a sheepish smile on her face.

"No, no...I know it's tough on her" he passes a hand through his hair as neither of them speaks for a moment "why don't you come with me to my room? Your hair grows absurdly fast!"

"For you to leave it like it's been the victim of a murder?" she giggles.

"Practice makes perfect" he replies, a cough escaping his lips.

The pair then walk side by side deeper into the house of pleasures, while a door is banged at, louder than any other bang happening around.

"Come on in Anaid, you know you don't need to knock"

Entering the room on the third floor Anaid finds herself surrounded by paintings, exotic flowers, a few erotic statues, and a large stylish chair of ornate wood and red pillows. The room is the biggest in the house, with a fireplace lit and the window closed, thick curtains preventing anyone from looking in or out. It doesn't smell of perfume, but instead, there is a tender scent of lavender.

"Close the door" the voice is fruity and feminine, and the owner turns her head to look at Anaid.

It is a woman dressed in an elaborate dress of black and red, different tones of red make her look almost like a walking rose. Her skin is a ghostly white and her complexion seems sickly, with bony fingers that end in sharp nails, colored black and red to match her dress.

But it is her eyes that would catch anyone's attention, they are black, and even if there is makeup on her face, there are signs of skin burned, as if it came out of her eyes and spread along the sides of her face. Her hair is an obsidian black long and carefully combed so it looks like a straight painting instead of real hair.

"I need to learn more spells" Anaid demands, closing the door behind her loudly as she steps forward "I'm ready"

"Is that so?" Scarlett raises from her chair, the dress sticking to her flesh almost like a second skin, she towers over her, in fact, she could tower over any human, being nearly three meters tall "Are you ready for the consequences?"

"I have to be, I can't let that bastard keep the throne any longer"

Scarlet takes a step closer, the fireplace growing weaker as the entire room seems to darken in her presence, even Anaid is tempted to take a step back, but her resolve is too much to allow herself to do that.

With a snap of her fingers, blue flames swallow all clothes on Scarlett's body, an illusion made with magic. And she exposes herself to Anaid, as a warning.

The makeup on her face could barely hide the scars, but the rest of her body is plastered with them. Like a falling lighting that spreads and grows to all sides, like the roots of a tree that branch in all directions, the scars are lines in the flesh that spread from her eyes through all parts of her body. And behind her back, a pair of leathery, sickly wings grow and swallow the space between Anaid and her completely.

Anaid feels the cold sweat fall from her face, her heartbeat quickens with fury, and her legs beg her to run away, trying to not move away from her eyes, to keep looking at Scarlett without fear. But then the visions begin to appear vividly in front of her.

Long arms that stretch from the shadows and tear at her clothes, deafening laughter fills her ears, she is falling now, an endless abyss of long hands that dig their claws in her flesh, cutting her face and biting her breasts with animalistic lust. She screams, begs, and cries as the hands force her legs apart.

She rolls and screams and opens her eyes. She is still in the room, but Scarlet sits on the chair with a book in her hands, everything is back to normal, as it was when she first entered the room. Except tears paint a sorry path through her cheeks, and she is on the floor.

A few women knock on the door rapidly and it suddenly opens on its own, the group of whores looking at Anaid are shocked but relieved once they lay eyes on Scarlett and see everything seems to be fine.

"Take her to her room, and ready a bath for her would you my dears?" Scarlett says resting her head on her shoulder and smiling at them. They smile back warmly and help Anaid to her feet with care and affection.

An hour later, Loretta enters the room she shares with her friend, a new haircut that looks very similar to the one she had before, but there is a bit of improvement.

Upon entering she sees Anaid's armor and clothes were thrown on the ground and she shakes her head, the room is divided by the neat and carefully adorned right part, and the monotonous, simple and serviceable left part.

She begins to take out her armor and when she is done, she hears the soft whimpering of her friend, so soft only her enhanced hearing could catch. With a careful step, she approaches the half-open door of the bathroom.

Anaid sits in the bronze bath, the room brightly lit, hugging her legs as she sobs, the black of her hair melting away thanks to the water, showing bright golden hair. She is unsure of what to do and takes a step back.

"No," Anaid says halting her friend, a long silence follows until she speaks again "Just, stay there"

And Loretta steps back sitting outside the bathroom but close enough to her friend so that she doesn't feel alone.

So that she doesn't feel like she is back inside that cave.