Sanora jolts out of bed when she wakes up. She is still furious. Every fibre of her is teeming with pure rage. Vadia is already gone, but she figured as much. She throws aside her blanket and gets dressed. Ahead of her is a day of waiting. She knows that Vadia’s office is not far, and if she casts her active flesh sense Sanora can easily ‘see’ Vadia from their room. She pours magic into the spell until she can feel Vadia in her chair. It is an odd feeling. There are a few people around the place and knowing about them without having any idea of the architecture is weird. The information overload hurts her brain a bit, so she focuses on Vadia alone for now. She sits down on the bed and waits, ready to get up in a second should anything happen.

Things haven’t been well lately. She has had doubts about Vadia and their relationship, which have only been strengthened by the dead redback she found. But right now, her wrath dwarfs those feelings. So, she waits. For the whole day she just waits, playing around with bone spears to pass the time. Maids walk around the hallways, cleaning and doing other tasks but nothing else happens.

After a few hours Sanora perks up. Someone is entering the office. She lays a hand on her sword, ready to engage in a moment’s notice. Her heart is beating a mile a minute. But the person just sets down something in the room and leaves again. She lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and the waiting game resumes.

The day passes, the sun makes its way across the sky slowly. Sanora’s stomach rumbles, her bladder aches but she can hardly feel it. She is so hyper focused on Vadia that she doesn’t even notice her fatigue from casting the spell for hours on end. But she doesn’t care about herself right now. Doubts aside, Vadia is her girlfriend, and she would not let it stand that someone would dare to hurt her. Who even would do such a thing to the daughter of the local lord? Who could even get that close?

Sanora has not the slightest clue, but it is not important. She will know sooner or later.

Noon turns to evening, and evening turns to night. Vaida has been working in her office all day now, and it’s about time for her to head back. Sanora’s eyes are sore and bloodshot. She has barely even blinked all day. Her mind is starting to grow foggy, her head aching. At some point a burning sensation has started to spread through it. But whatever it is, it isn’t important to her. Vadia stretches and looks out the window. Sanora perks up.

Vadia finally gets up from her chair, and heads to the door. She hesitates a moment before opening it and peeking out, looking down the hallway both directions. Once she is sure it’s empty, she heads out, but not towards her room. Sanora gets up as well. She waits until Vadia has rounded the stairs before quietly making her way down the hall as well. She keeps up her pursuit, always staying behind two turns so Vadia doesn’t notice her. She is walking through parts of the castle Sanora has never been before, granted there are many of those. But the longer she follows her the more eerie it gets. They walk further and further down, each hallway more deserted than the last. They are underground, the air is cold and not another soul besides them is around, even in Sanora’s spell range. The hallways are confusing, built like a labyrinth. If it wasn’t for the spell Sanora would have gotten lost a few times already. Even with the spell it’s not easy keeping up. Just why is there even a cellar like this? Although cellar might not be as fitting as dungeon.

After some walking Sanora picks up the first other person down here, and Vadia seems to be heading right towards them. She enters a room. They exchange a few words and Sanora’s blood freezes when she feels Vadia’s next movement. It seems like she is undressing. Sanora speeds up her steps and finally reaches a door. It’s thick, several centimetres of solid metal sperate her from Vadia and whoever else is in there. A muffled, pained scream resounds through the door as whoever is in there hit Vadia in the face. She falls onto something. A bed maybe?

“Oh no you don’t.” Sanora growls through bared teeth and walks to the door with her sword drawn. She takes the handle and rips the door open to reveal a sight of pure horror. A sinister room, the walls are blank stone. There are only a few things in there: shackles on the walls, a worn table, and a bed with handcuffs on its posts, Vadia lying on it naked, covered in fresh bruises already. But the thing that she least expected to see in there is the person next to the bed, looking at her in surprise and horror.

“What are you doing here?” Vadius looks at her with angry, cold eyes.

Sanora just stands there, looking at the two people who stare at her.

“Sanora.” Vadia whispers and swallows audibly.

She just stands there. The mix of emotions is something Sanora could not hope to put into words in ten lifetimes. Anger, hate, disgust. She could throw up on the spot.

She is about to speak but suddenly Vadius spits a load of blood. A white stake is embedded in his chest. Sanora looks at her outstretched hand from which the bone spear just flew off.

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

“Oh.” She says cooly. Vadius shouts.

“You damn bitch!” He holds his wound. “I’ll have your head for-“ He is cut off by another one right to his head. He looks at Sanora with a stupid expression and hits the floor with a wet thud a second later.

Sanora’s hand is still trembling with fury, but slowly the realisation sinks in. She just killed the ruler of Deepvalley.

Pushing aside the thought for now she turns to Vadia to ask her if she is alright but stops. She expected a lot of expressions on her face. Shock, sadness, anger at Sanora, relief maybe even a blank stare. But what she sees makes her skin crawl. On Vadia’s face sits a sneer. A wicked, disgusting sneer, no better than she has seen on the lurcher or that man in the streets that night. She sneers as she looks at the corpse of her father, lying in a slowly spreading pool of blood. She is about to put it off as Vadia just being overwhelmed but just then she sees something that finally pieces together everything in her head. A ripple of magic surrounds Vadia and all of her bruises fade away including the one on her back.

‘Of course. She is a damn healer. If she didn’t want me to see that bruise, I never would have. She wanted me to come here.’

Normally Sanora would have seen all of this for a cry of help. But that disgusting, triumphant sneer is everything but normal.

“Oi. What’s with that fucking sneer?” Sanora says with a voice so cold it makes even her shiver for a moment. Vadia’s reaction just confirms Sanora’s doubts as she slaps her hand over her mouth. A cold sweat runs down Vadia’s forehead.

“W-what do you mean?” Vadia’s demeanour shifts in a split second from evil and wicked to the damsel in distress.

“Don’t you dare give me that!” Sanora hisses at her. “You wanted me to come here. To find this. That redback in your pocket wasn’t coincidence either was it? This is it. This is what you needed me for all along, to kill your father?!”

“I-“ Vadia stammers, the words getting caught in her throat.

‘Tell me. Tell I’m wrong please!’

“I’m… sorry.” Vadia whispers.

‘No, no no no! Don’t say that! Don’t tell me…’

“It was all a lie?” Sanora says, tears already welling up in her eyes. “You led me on all this time for this!?” Vadia flinches as Sanora shouts.

“I’m sorry!” Vadia cries, tears flowing down her cheeks. “I couldn’t take it anymore! For years I had to endure this, and you saw what happened when I tried to run! But I just could not work up the courage to do anything so-“

“You drugged me into this relationship to do your dirty work?!”

“I told you I am sorry! I mean it! I felt so infinitely bad after I got to know you. How could I know that you would be innocent and sweet? It tore me apart to do this, but I had no other choice!”

“No other choice?!” Sanora roars. “You could have just TOLD ME! I don’t know how but we could have worked this out together! Just not… this!” Sanora wails through her tears. “Shit shit SHIT!” She roughs through her hair. Her mind is in turmoil, her heart pounding and her breath fast. What is she going to do now? The ruler of Deepvalley, dead at her hands.

“We still can, just please-“ Vadia scrambles out of bed but Sanora cuts her off, pointing her sword at Vadia.

“No! I don’t want to hear a single fucking word from you! You drugged me, raped me! Told me you love me. That I could trust you!”

“Sanni please.” Vadia whispers and walks up to her.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Sanora swings her sword and Vadia falls back, a thin cut on her cheek. “Don’t you dare call me that ever again.” She growls at Vadia who looks up at her with teary, horrified eyes. Before her doesn’t stand the usual, cheerful Sanora but a demon, moments away from killing her too.

“I know I what I did is horrible, unforgivable but I didn’t lie when I said I love you. After getting to know you, things changed. You really are important to me! Just don’t… please don’t leave me.” Vadia sobs. Sanora just stares at her with a murderous gaze and sheathes her sword.

“If you ever dare and step into my sight again.” Her voice is as cold as ice. “I will rip your fucking throat out.” She turns around and walks out of the room, leaving the sobbing mess that is Vadia on the floor without turning back.

She storms through the castle back to her room, stuffs her most important belongings into her backpack and leaves the castle in the veil of the cold night.

She walks through the streets, straight down into the first ring. With every passing second, she grows more scared and uneasy, fearing that every single guardsman of the city is about to come for her head. She stays away from all the main streets, seeking cover in the slums of the town and ignoring all the gazes lingering on her. She is quite an odd sight. An armed, fully packed girl walking through the slums while crying. But she presses on, walks deeper into the eerie alleys. After some time, she reaches a street so deserted that even the scum that was watching her dispersed. She slumps down by a wall and sits on the cold stone to finally just let out all her tears and her frustration. To finally break down in peace and solitude.

After a moment she looks up, locking eyes with a man on the opposite side of the narrow street. He is old and clad in rags. His hair is grey and long, as is his unkempt beard. In his hand he holds a rat which he is gently stroking. Another on sits on his shoulder. They look at each other for a moment. The man grins, revealing his few left teeth.

“Don’t mind me young lady. I like to cry here too, ‘tis a nice alley.” He nods. “You want a comforter?” He holds out a rat. It’s quite an adorable critter, not like the usual, dirty and sick street rats.

“I’m good.” Sanora sniffles and shakes her head.“Oh, don’t worry, we all need a helping rat from time to time. This here be named Quentin.” He says with his almost toothless grin.

She sighs. This is going to be a long night it seems.