What is this… feeling?

My fur is gone, but my skin is still dark. My claws are dulled and useless… I’ve changed.

The collar, it did something to me.

They don’t want me to break free again, so they’ve removed all of my natural weapons and defenses.

Now, I’m even weaker than an adult human. No, I’ve become a beastborn child.

First, they take my freedom, then they alter my body. Is there a low point Daedalus won’t reach?

Wyrrm Bait won’t let go of me. It’s fine, nowhere is safe for me, not even the cage I slept in.

I turn back and look at the pile of scrap metal that was once a cage.

Grizzly man is scary.

The sight of the cage is burned into my memory, a constant reminder:

“You cannot escape.”

Though it is an effective scare tactic, they’ve made it clear that they don’t want me dead, just scared and hopeless.

I will find a way out someday.

“Everyone out, Leina needs to clean the room.”

We relocated back to the living room.

The bloody footprints I made before were already mopped up by the human woman.

I never really thought about her role in all of this, is she a hostage of Daedalus

Maybe they’re using her to threaten Wyrrm Bait into working for them. So cruel.

The white scaly man draws a circle on the ground with something that looks like chalk.

Several symbols are drawn inside and outside of the circle.

None of it makes sense to me, but I know a magic circle when I see one.

I watch him work with a blank expression, though I know who the ritual is for.

I force myself to remain calm.

“What’s the spell do?”

“I want the catilyss to be able to communicate with us.”

“You’re not forcing an entire language into her head, are you?”

“No, if I wanted to do that, I’d apply the spell directly to her. These symbols function like a set of commands.”

“What are you telling it to do?”

The lizard man is pointing at the symbols and explaining something.

He doesn’t seem to be in any hurry, and I can’t feel any malice from anyone.

Instead, the air seems to buzz with excitement.

If I’m not being sacrificed, then maybe they’re using this ritual to test their new alterations on my body.

“The symbols on the inside will take any language spoken inside and translate them to the common tongue. The symbols on the outside will do the same, but in reverse. However… it’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“Are you saying that it would require a specific language to return?”

“Kind of. Because the language she uses is likely not one anyone knows, it will have to be transmitted to her brain directly. It may not translate perfectly.”

“Wait, then that means–“

“Yeah… Whenever she speaks, the spell will also be picking up on her thoughts and try to use those to help translate it to us.”

“That still puts stress on the brain!”

“It’s better than forcing an entire language, right? Besides, we won’t use the spell for too long. We’ll give her plenty of time to relax in between uses.”

“…Okay.”

The scaly man is done drawing.

‘W-Wyrrm Bait! No! I’m not ready!’

The human places me in the center of the circle.

My heart is racing inside my chest.

The mage is casting a spell.

Magic dances between his fingers as he reaches for the circle.

I crouch low and brace for whatever may come.

A flash of warm light bursts all around me for an instant.

I’m fine…

I continue to shield my face, just in case.

“Hello?”

A voice.

I heard it clearly.

“Alice?”

It’s that name they kept using earlier.

Is that my pet name? I’ve become their pet…

“Y-yes?”

I remove my hands from my eyes slowly and look around.

The circle hums and glows with power.

All around, there are excited faces.

This must be their test, an experiment on my mind.

I can feel a slight tingling inside my brain.

“It works!”

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“Amazing!”

“Wow.”

Their sudden excited voices frighten me.

I cover my ears and shut my eyes tight.

Someone is speaking again, I can’t block it all out. It’s muffled.

“We didn’t mean to scare you, Alice.”

“What if Alice isn’t her name?”

“Oh oh, try asking for her name!”

I can still hear them.

I cautiously open my eyes and release my ears again.

There’s no escaping it, let the people ask their questions and get it over with.

“What’s your name?”

Wyrrm Bait. They’re using you to communicate with me…

It’s true that I can trust you, a little, but that only because we’re both stuck in this together.

If I ever learned that this was all a set up, and that you were never truly on my side…

…

Right, they asked me for my name. Honestly, it’s been so long, I can’t seem to remember what I used to be called.

Even if I did remember, I wouldn’t share it with them.

“I… I don’t have a name.”

“What do you think of ‘Alice’?”

“Sure…”

Not like I have much choice. Daedalus has already decided on it.

“Where do you live?”

“The dun– … Nowhere.”

The red-haired dwarf whispers to the beastborn man.

“Was she about to say the dungeon?”

The lizard man speaks up now.

“Where did you come from?”

Do they know? No, they can’t possibly have known, I gave nothing away.

“I don’t know… I was with others, then peoples come, then… I ran, far down.”

“Others? Family?”

Wyrrm Bait’s eyes go wide with hope.

Do people see all monsters as a sort of family to one another?

I never had any family in this world, only those who wished to kill me or those who did not care about my existence.

“Peoples, family, all try to kill me. Peoples kill family, family kill peoples. All died. I live alone.”

Their faces go pale from shock. All except the lizard man, he’s already white.

I don’t expect these peoples to understand what it’s like to live all alone in the world.

“You didn’t have anyone?”

“No. I watch peoples kill peoples and family kill family. It’s normal.”

I assumed experienced warriors like them knew the basics of dungeons.

In a place where monsters eat everything and everyone, sometimes people would use the perfect opportunity to kill a criminal or someone they hated. Their body would be eaten and never discovered.

The dungeon was a perfect place to commit crime too, it was wild and lawless.

How could these bounty hunters be so clueless?

Wyrrm Bait looks sad.

“It’s not normal. Family shouldn’t kill each other.”

They were really clueless. That might be how things work up here, but not underground.

Though, who was I to tell them they were wrong.

“Oh… okay.”

“Have you killed anyone?”

The lizard man almost seems to growl between his words.

He’s looking for something bad to pin on me.

I don’t have to lie about this, thankfully.

“I haven’t killed any peoples. I try to save them. Some get eaten by family, I fight family.”

The human sighs with relief, but the reptilian is not convinced.

“No. Dedicantus, cast that spell.”

He wants to hurt me! I’m honest, I didn’t hurt anyone!

My ears flatten against my head, and I shield my face with my arms.

“What spell?”

The dwarf grumbles.

“Silver Lining, you’re scaring her.”

“I don’t care. Cast that truth spell or something.”

*sigh*

A golden light surrounds the dwarven man for a moment then fades away.

Truth spell?

They don’t believe me.

“I’ll ask again, did you hurt or kill anyone? Not monsters or your family, but people like us. Innocent or not.”

He’s mad.

“No. I have not hurt or killed any peoples. Not like you, not innocent, not even bad peoples. I try to help all the peoples. Bad family, monsters, they hurt people. I only fight back to save peoples and… and to survive.”

My brain is throbbing now.

All of the stress, the questions, the demands.

I can’t take it anymore.

“Dedicantus.”

“She’s telling the truth.”

“What do you mean by ‘survive’?”

“My head… it hurts.”

Tears flow freely once again.

How many times have I cried today alone?

Daedalus is such an evil organization.

“Silver Lining, that's enough. Drop the spell.”

“Not yet, I have to KNOW. What do you mean by ‘survive’?!”

“I… I had to eat family…!”

“What?”

“I had to hunt, and kill, and eat family… to survive. Not peoples, I would never hurt peoples.”

“Why not?”

My words won’t work properly anymore, the pressure is building up, it feels like my brain will explode.

I fall to the ground, clutching my head in agony.

“AAAaaaaa–!!”

“Silver Lining, DROP the spell!”

It’s difficult to see what’s going on, but Wyrrm Bait is fighting against his captors for me.

The circle that glows with power, quickly dims and returns to a normal, chalk-like brightness.

The throbbing in my head does not go away immediately. It fades away slowly, like watching a pool full of water, drain out of a small tube.

Their voices are once again indiscernible.

“You were supposed to end the spell sooner.”

“It would have ended sooner, if none of you interrupted us. Dedicantus, was she telling the truth?”

“Yes. The whole truth.”

“Th-that’s all I wanted to know.”

The white lizard man, they kept calling him Silver something, he leaves through the front door, grumbling on his way out.

“I’ll be back later; I’ve got work to take care of.”

The room is quiet for a moment, but still very tense, even after Silver left.

Wyrrm Bait lifts me up and sits on the couch with me in his arms.

I have a newfound respect for the man who was willing to fight back against our captors for my sake.

I could never do the same, people scare me more than monsters.

----------------------------------------

“Hendrick, you didn’t lie to make Silver Lining feel better, did you?”

The dwarf shakes his head back and forth.

“No, she was completely honest.”

“Then she…”

“It’s as she said, she had to kill and eat her own family to survive.”

There’s a long moment of silence before Reyah speaks up.

“What kind of world is this, where a girl has to kill and eat her own family to survive?”

“She could have been like any other monster and just eaten people instead.”

Hendrick sifts through his beard in thought.

“What if… Maybe there was a person she met, someone that changed her mind about people.”

“That would be a logical reason for her to want to save people.”

“I’ll have a look around town and see if I can find some of the first people she rescued, maybe ask them some questions.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“You and Reyah, take the girl to a life mage. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about Alice hurting anyone.”

“Okay.”

Red Mountain, who was silently spectating everything, claps his hands together.

“You are all wonderful people. I only came back today because I was worried about the girl and wanted to see her treated well. Glad to see you’re nothing like the Guile guild.”

“Yeah, well, they operate differently. Karth isn’t a part of any guild yet, and our guild is just full of happy idiots.”

Reyah puffs out her chest proudly.

The beastborn man smiles.

“Could I be of any assistance?”

“Sure, if you’re not too busy. Reyah can go with Hendrick, and Red Mountain can come with us.”

Karth gets to his feet, carrying the sad girl like she was his own child, and stroking her back for comfort.

“Are you sure, Karth?”

Reyah asked with uncertainty.

“Why not? Red Mountain knows more about beastborn than any of us.”

“Okay, we’ll trust her with you then.”