The chimeras prodded us like cattle until we stood before the desk. Hilarious rose to greet us on the other side, the green gem on his chest catching and scattering the sunlight against the walls in a dazzling pattern. He saw me looking and tucked it beneath his shirt. Behind us echoed footsteps followed by a click as the door by the bed swung shut, the dragon chimera walking to stand behind Rude. The phoenix chimera stood at my left shoulder, close enough to be a threat. If I attempted to reach for the gem now, I would be burned to ashes before I grabbed it.
“Welcome to Castle Mare, my new chimeras. Please forgive the…” there was a pause as he searched for the right word “..rough treatment. The other kingdoms don’t appreciate what we do, so the more obvious and legal transportation methods are beyond our capabilities at the moment, I’m afraid. And my king doesn’t trust just anyone to have free reign of the castle. I hope you understand.”
Rude scoffed, then, realizing his mistake, covered it with a cough. Hilarious ignored the faux pas, turning his full attention toward him. “Yesterday evening, my assistants tested you for potential. You,” he pointed towards Rude, who straightened, “will be the first among your group to be transformed into a chimera. We already have the perfect specimen..” Rude gave me a smirk, clearly proud of this accomplishment.
Hilarion, too, turned his attention on me, his fake smile replaced with a greedy look. “You, on the other hand, have quite a unique presence. Caesar says he’s never encountered anyone like you. Unfortunately, we don’t know what to do with you. It’ll require some….testing. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not. I have to do this.” I filled my voice to the brim with the expected desperation, though not for the reasons he believed.
He smiled. “Good.”
“Caesar will lead you to your new room. Wait there until I come for you.”
“Of course.”
Where else would I go?
The phoenix chimera, Caesar, opened the hidden door on the wall, and we left Rude, Hilarious, and the dragon chimera behind in the twisting corridors. Caesar walked much faster this time, his pace challenging to match. Our destination was a barred door hiding a more comfortable cell, a room the size of a walk-in closet-sized containing a mat, a stool, and a chamber pot. There was another door on the wall on my left, presumably leading into the main hall. A small window near the ceiling lit the room, casting it in a dissonantly cheerful light.
The window, unsurprisingly, was too small to fit through.
“Master will check on you soon,” Caesar said, spinning on his heel before leaving. The bar clunked as he slammed it shut behind him.
Though I doubted they’d be that stupid, I waited a few seconds, then tried the door to the servant’s entrance and the one on my left. As expected, both were barred shut.
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Bored out of my mind, I sat down on the mat, tracing anxious patterns into the stone with my thumb as I wondered how August and Faust were doing. Hopefully, they’d get the knife to me soon. The ideal time to strike would be when Hilarious brought me to the office, alone, for the chimera transformation, and I had no way of gauging when it would be, though it seemed he was more interested in his tests than making me a chimera. Regardless, I would have to take the opportunity as soon as I saw it.
I dozed off at some point, waking once when the main door’s bar creaked open. Dazed, I stumbled to my feet. Caesar entered the room first, radiating a powerful heat and walking close enough to force me to stick to the walls lest I get burned. Hilarious stood behind Caesar in the entryway, arms crossed and a contemplative look on his face.
“Your companion’s transformation was successful,” he said casually. “It will take a few days for him to recover, however.” Unsure if I was happy or disappointed, I gave a non-committal grunt.
He continued, “The chimera transformation isn’t perfect. For that reason, I have Caesar scan all the potential chimeras for compatibility with what we currently have, and we go from most to least compatible.”
I thought of the others, and my stomach flipped. Then I thought of myself, and my heart pounded.
Hilarious chucked cruelly. “Don’t be like that. You should know as well as anyone that this transformation is their last hope.” He stepped a little closer, staying behind Caesar and far out of my arm's reach. “Which leads me back to you. My previous master, may the great serpent keep his soul, discovered that the likelihood of a chimera transformation being successful depended on the strength and type of their magic and the magical creature they were combined. Dragons, Phoenixes, Trolls, and our Sea Serpents are some of the most powerful magical creatures. We found out the hard way that lesser magical creatures, such as the fire salamander, simply didn’t have enough magical power. It resulted only in the transfer of certain characteristics. Such as the ability to burst into flames… without the immunity to fire.”
My lips cured up in disgust, my brain conjuring an unwanted picture of the result. Hilarious shifted on his feet, face drawing into the eerie shadows the lighting cast on his face. He continued. “For that, among other reasons, my master and I were forced to work with the remains of phoenixes and dragons in our experiments. Sometimes, however,we’d encounter a magic type we’d never seen before.”
His face turned greedy, and he eyed me like I was his golden ticket. I didn’t like where he was going with his stereotypical monologue.
“In those cases, we thought we didn’t have a compatible magical creature. And then the previous mage, my master, realized we could treat humans as magical creatures.”
I really didn’t like where this was going. Panicked, my eyes lept to the window, and I reevaluated my stance on if I could fit through it or not. I’d gotten skinnier, I think, since arriving here.
“What does your magic do?” He asked, though it was more of a treat than a question.
Play dumb. “I–I don’t know.”
His smile turned sly. “I don’t believe that. You were unsurprised by my declaration earlier. What does it do?”
“I told you! I don’t know!”
Hilarious sighed and snapped his fingers. “Caesar.” At his command, Caesar moved closer, his flames burning hotter than ever. He reached out for me, burning through my sleeve and singing my skin. I slid to the side, out of reach of his hands, but not the flames.
His flames trickled ever closer, blocking off all escape routes. My options were dwindling down with the counting of the seconds.
“You can either tell me, and this can be painless, or I can force you to reveal it very painfully. Either way, the result is the same. It’s up to you.”
But there were still more than two paths available.
I dropped my eyes and raised my hands in surrender. Caesar stepped back, taking the uncomfortable heat with him.
“I don’t know much,” I admitted. “Sometimes I have dreams which come true. That’s it, I swear.” All true, from a certain point of view.
“The future…” his tone was contemplative, considering. The weight in his black leather boots shifted forward on the stone, and I could feel his eyes raking me for any sign of a lie. “I think you know more than that. I’ll give you some time to consider your options.”
He turned on his heel, and the black leather faded from my line of sight. A few seconds later, Caesar followed in his master’s footsteps. The door closed, the bar on the other side slamming down with a bang, and the tension in my chest escaped my mouth in a whoosh of air.
I needed that knife now.