Luna caught a glimpse of her reflection in a puddle of dirty water on the rooftop. She was young — no older than thirteen years old and she wore a monochromatic cloak with a crimson spider web pattern embroidered on it. She stood beside Cyrus, a tall red haired man wearing a perfectly fitting tailored white suit. It was the kind of clothing a topsider would wear, suits were extremely rare in the Undercity. Cyrus had an hourglass tattooed on the front of his neck and he was laughing uncontrollably. The plump well-dressed man he was torturing didn’t seem nearly as amused.
The victim was tied to a worn chair on the roof of an abandoned warehouse. He screamed and pleaded, crying the all too predictable way a man who had never been tortured before usually did. Dealing with Cyrus was like flipping a coin, he could be incredibly kind and generous or outright cruel and unpredictable.
Cyrus was pouring a vial of sapphire colored fluid onto the man's fingers one at a time. As the fluid touched the digits they instantaneously crystalized. The unbearably painful alchemical reaction this created was made obvious by the blood curdling screams coming from the plump man. Luna had shifted her attention to the hazy silhouette of the palace in the distance beyond the Undercity. She imagined a perfect life as a princess, attempting to block out the weeping man’s cries of terror and anguish. Cyrus swung the hammer down, exploding the fat man's thumb into a million tiny pieces before he dropped to the ground and rolled on the floor laughing.
The obese man wore spectacles and a luxurious suit that he had soiled. He whined and sobbed stuttering desperate pleas for mercy. “P-P…Please! I’ll give you anything you want. My family owns the textile mill in the docks district. They’ll pay a fortune for my safe return. Oh maker! Be reasonable!”
Cyrus cackled like a hyena from the floor before suddenly jumping to his feet. His expression changed from one of pure joy to uncontrollable disgust and he moved his face just inches from the crying man's face. “Do I seem like a man who can be reasoned with? I know exactly who you are. I know exactly who your family is. I know they’ve hoarded obscene amounts of wealth for themselves just as a dragon stockpiles its treasure.”
The man with the hourglass tattoo on his neck strutted around the rooftop, moving in grand sweeping gestures like he was the lead actor in a theatrical production. “The thing about people like you and your family Mr. Tsang, is that you amass riches beyond what you could ever need in one hundred lifetimes. All at the expense of the workers you treat worse than stray dogs.” Cyrus spun around and bowed, arms extended like he was putting on a magic show for the entire South Side. “So you see, my little piggy, that is why no amount of gold offered could ever give me the satisfaction that watching you suffer does.”
The overweight man with the mangled hands head drooped and his lamentation intensified. Cyrus looked over at Luna and his facial expression shifted to tender and caring. “And so you see, my promising young apprentice, this is a gift for you. This pathetic excuse for a man and his greedy family are responsible for the dangerous working conditions and unsafe machinery that killed your father. Did you bring the potion I showed you how to make?”
Luna thought of her kind and loving father holding her and Lane. Her scared face twisted into a snarl—she looked at the bound man’s eyes and she nodded.
Cyrus’s eyes glowed like the moon as he watched his student with rising interest. “Go on now, child. Show me what you’ve learned.”
Luna approached the sobbing Mr. Tsang, pulling out a vial from her cloak. She was still scared and unsure, but with each step her hatred and desire for revenge grew inside of her like a bonfire. When she got to him, her eyes burned like a thousand suns. Luna promised herself this terrible act would heal the pain that had lived in her heart since her fathers tragic death.
She took a deep breath before uncorking the vial and pouring the thick crimson liquid down the struggling man's throat. Mr. Tsang screamed and writhed in pain. She expected a reaction, but the intensity of it caused Luna to jump back in shock. The empty vial fell to the rooftop floor shattering. A tangle of vines grew inside of the terrified man and when they ran out of room to expand further, they ripped themselves free from his body. Mr Tsang’s screams got exponentially louder and louder filling the frigid night sky until they faded out leaving just the sound of Cyrus’s laughter.
Luna lurched awake in the dark tunnel covered in cold sweat and out of breath. The total darkness startled her and she found herself feeling around the ground for her flint and tinder. Upon locating them, she managed to get the torch lit after a handful of tries. Luna looked curiously around the campsite and narrowed her eyes when she saw that Cassian's bedroll was empty. Even more unusual was the fact that his boots and all of his gear was still sitting there. She wiped her face with a handkerchief and rubbed her eyes trying to get her bearings.
Strapping her rapier to her belt and throwing her cloak over her shoulders, Luna went to work looking for clues around the campsite. No sign of struggle, that’s probably a good thing. She thought. That’s when she noticed a single set of footprints in the dust leading from the campsite. What an idiot. Is he trying to get lost in the tunnels? Luna thought.
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Following the footprints for a time through a maze of tunnels, she eventually found herself in a large cavern. The unusual chamber had a large five pointed rune carved into the stone floor. A lit candle burned at each point. In the center of the rune, Cassian hung, tied to some sort of crude effigy. Kindling was piled at the feet of the statue. Bloody stars! Is someone intending to…set the prince ablaze? An intoxicating voice whispered melodically into Luna’s ear, “I can see the shame you try so hard to hide.” Luna felt a cold sweat come over her and she looked around. “Turn away now and I will grant you everything you’ve ever wanted. The wealth to reshape your home. The power to eviscerate all those who seek to harm your friends and family. Even that which you desire most can be yours—I can erase the haunting memories that keep you up at night.”
Luna felt a panic attack begin to grip her in its suffocating grip. The voice started again, “Everything can be yours—it would be effortless. Turn around and walk away, Luna Stone. Forget about this night exactly as you try to forget the sins of your past.”
Luna grimaced and her breathing became labored. The cave began to spin around her faster and faster. If there’s only one thing that I’ve learned in this cold world, it’s that doing something just because it’s easy is a sure fire way to hate yourself later. Luna brought her hands to her head and screamed as loudly as she could, “Get out of my head!”
Luna sprinted to Cassian. When she got to him she noticed immediately that he was pale and sickly. She saw an old wooden table nearby with a dusty book, a charred skull, an opal necklace, and a sacrificial dagger on it. She grabbed the dagger and began trying to cut the ropes that tied Cassian to the carved wooden sculpture.
A buzzing sound came from a dark corner of the cavern and Luna saw the silhouette of an old woman with four arms levitate up into the air. Luna gasped as a pile of severed human limbs beneath the woman cracked and popped to life melding together to form into the shape of a giant scorpion.
The fleshy scorpion construct accelerated across the stone floor swiftly and Luna rolled to the side, dropping the dagger and drawing her trusty rapier. The stinger of the scorpion golem launched down at her and she jumped back swatting at the monster with the burning torch. When the stinger crashed into the floor, the stone exploded in every direction. The fleshy construct hissed as a portion of its front leg caught on fire and withered away causing a charred group of severed limbs to fall to the ground. The monster emitted an unnatural distorted roar and a cluster of body parts jumped into place reforming the leg.
Chanting a guttural sounding series of phrases, the witch cackled and a ball of fire launched from her mouth lighting the kindling at Cassian's feet ablaze. As if receiving a command from its master, the demonic beast came barreling into Luna faster than she could dodge. The heavy impact threw Luna back into the table shattering it and sending the items on top of it flying in every direction. Her face bounced hard off the unforgiving stone floor and she rubbed the side of her throbbing head as she jumped back to her feet. Sparing a quick glance over her shoulder she saw the flames would reach Cassian soon, she was running out of time.
Esmerelda was chanting and her voice sounded like a hundred voices speaking altogether in unison. As she recited the guttural words the runes on the floor began glowing. Luna dropped her rapier and jumped just out of the way, avoiding a terrible pinching claw from the cadaver scorpion. Rolling backwards she pulled a vial from her cloak and threw it at the scorpion monster. A thorny mess of vines cracked through the stones and ensnared the construct. Luna looked on in dismay as the mess of severed limbs separated and then reformed allowing the monster to easily escape the vines.
Cursing under her breath, Luna kicked the gears in her head into overdrive, frantically trying to think of a plan. The scorpion creature was gathering itself for another charge and the flames were nearly upon Cassian. She rubbed her bruised skull trying to plot her next move with alacrity. That’s it! The skull of Niklas! I’m an idiot — how did I not think of this sooner! Maker, I hope this works.
The scorpion flesh golem howled supernaturally, shaking the chamber as it raced towards Luna. Sprinting to the splintered table Luna scooped up a hefty jagged rock. With a piercing shriek, Esmerelda sent stalagmites crashing down from the ceiling, nearly crushing Luna. With pieces of the roof now missing, an opening allowed moonlight to come flooding into the dimly lit cavern. The scorpion construct leaped forward and extended both its claws out to cut Luna in half. Luna brought the heavy slab of granite high over her head before swinging it down with two hands and smashing the charred skull into a thousand tiny blackened bone fragments.
When she smashed the skull a shockwave emitted from it that threw Luna across the room. She looked up from the floor to see the construct made of severed limbs falling apart and burning up. Esmerelda emitted an indescribable screeching noise as she turned to black smoke and fled, escaping through the man-sized hole in the roof of the cavern. The runes on the floor stopped glowing immediately. Luna ran over to Cassian picking up the dagger and cutting him free from the burning wooden statue. She sat there on the stone floor exhausted.
Luna held the unconscious Cassian in her lap and as the many horned effigy burned — she breathed a sigh of relief.