Chapter 18A:

We knelt, powerless against her magic, as Lida circled around us, a malicious glee on her face. She skipped around joyfully, taunting us with each step she made.

With a wicked grin, she acknowledged my plan. “Using a topaz…that was a clever idea, my dear Luca. I’ll give you that, but…” she pointed to herself, her grin widening. “I’m always at least one step ahead.”

I wondered how she had found out about the topaz. She hadn’t forced me to reveal anything like she had during my first days here, and I’d made a conscious effort to keep my mind clear of thoughts about the topaz whenever she was near. Could her power extend even greater distances? Maybe she didn’t need to be close to me to read my thoughts.

Her verbal assault continued as she expressed disappointment, her tone laced with mockery. “I must say though, this was your last escape attempt? Kind of underwhelming.” she scoffed. “I mean, you did manage to kill Walden, but I was never a fan of the guy anyway…he had it coming.”

Then she turned to Sona. “Look at the little monkey girl here, making friends. How sweet.”

“Screw you!” Sona spat through gritted teeth, refusing to make eye contact with Lida.

“Ah, ah, ah, that’s not nice.” Lida chuckled. “Did you tell our dear Luca how you were planning on using him all along?”

At first, I thought it was just another torment from Lida – trying to turn us against each other. But Sona’s silence was unsettling, and I was taken aback, turning to her for clarification. “What is she talking about?”

Sona fired back, her tone defensive. “Are you really listening to her? She’s clearly trying to torment us even more.”

Lida laughed, relishing the tension. “Oh, I wish it were that simple, my dear Luca. You see, despite popular belief, little Sona here never intended to kill you that day. She only wanted to use you.”

Sona was about to refute Lida’s words, but Lida silenced her with a sharp command. “Don’t speak unless spoken to.”

Suddenly, Sona couldn’t open her mouth to speak, and I watched her struggle, her lips fighting to move.

“So, you knew she was the one that attacked me?” I asked, shocked.

“Duh.” Lida sighed, exasperated. “I always knew. I just wanted all the pieces on the board to get to their intended positions. Today. Here.”

She casually sat back on the stool in the center of the room and continued. “Sona spent a lot of time thinking about how she could escape Vedem. She overheard some of Walden’s men talking about the crown sacrifice. Then Jhad - we’ll get back to him later - told her about you and your dear Ren. She connected the dots, and realized it was you.” Lida paused, her grin widening. “Thinking, for some reason, that you had an elevated status as the crown sacrifice, she wanted to make contact. But she never intended to kill you. She’s not stupid, you see. Her words, not mine. She always knew that if she killed you, she’d face the wrath of the entire village. The whole ‘it’s the only way to end this’ was just a load of crap she made up on the fly.”

I let the realization sink in. I had been planning to use her, but all this time…she had been using me…?

“I see you’re confused, Luca. Let me wrap this up for you.” Lida said, grinning. “She knew you were getting sacrificed, and after what Martin and Kenneth did, she realized you’d probably trust no one with your escape plans anytime soon. So, what did she do? How did she gain your trust, or at the very least your cooperation?” Lida stood up and paced around us, her voice filled with amusement. “She showed you she’s capable. She showed you she could be ruthless and useful. And then she showed you she could be compassionate. She even pretended to care about that poor couple in the jailhouse, when in reality, she couldn’t give a damn about them! And you took the bait. You worked long and hard to implement her into your escape plans.” She paused, savoring the tension. “You’re probably thinking ‘What’s wrong with teaming up to escape together?’ Well, wrong! Let’s hear it from the culprit herself.”

The pink glow of the chain around Sona’s neck brightened as Lida commanded. “You can speak now. When I forced you to answer truthfully about what you’d do if your freedom depended on Luca being sacrificed, what did you tell me?”

Sona struggled but couldn’t resist Lida’s magic. “I told you I would sacrifice him myself if it meant escaping this shithole.”

Lida theatrically gasped, while Sona, filled with disappointed and shame, refused to meet my eyes.

Lida continued, relishing in her revelations. “And what about Jhad? I promised we’d get back to him, didn’t I? She dragged the poor guy and his boys into this. She convinced him that killing you would lead to their freedom, and that knuckleheaded leader believed her. He raised a riot, and some of his men died, buying little Sona time to kill you - never realizing she was never planning to do it in the first place.”

I felt a sting of betrayal. I may not have considered Sona an actual ally, but still, seeing her mirror my own self-preservation was irritating. Yet, I quickly shook off those feelings, realizing the hypocrisy in my own judgment. I had refused to trust Sona, believing Lida was behind our meeting, thinking she was just another Kenneth or Martin. Sona’s revelation stung, but in the end, we were all prisoners seeking freedom. Also, I’d be damned if I let Lida take any pleasure from this.

“I can’t blame her for wanting to use me.” I admitted, my voice steady. “I would’ve done the same.”

Sona, who had been looking down after the revelation, glanced at me with a mixture of relief and surprise, visibly lightened by my response.

Lida’s grin faltered, her expression twisting with disgust. “Such maturity…Disgusting.”

“What if she had killed me? Wasn’t it too risky of you to let her get so close to me?” I asked, trying to shake Lida’s confidence.

Lida raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. “Risky? How?”

“What if Sona had been serious about killing me?” I pressed. “The knife was already at my throat back there. I could’ve been dead, and your entire ritual would’ve been doomed.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She dismissed me with a casual wave. “Oh please, didn’t I already tell you I’m everywhere? I knew she’d try something, so I gave her a passive command not to kill you, just to be on the safe side. Judging by your broken nose, I probably should’ve commanded her not to hurt you at all. My bad.”

“That’s a lie!” Sona shouted. “You never gave me such a command!”

Lida chucked, shaking her head in disbelief. “It seems you still don’t realize how much you’re trapped in the palm of my hand. Let me give you a demonstration. Luca, think of any number.”

I hesitated, surprised by the request, but couldn’t refuse.

Twenty-seven.

“Was it twenty-seven.” Lida asked, a grin spreading across her face.

I wasn’t shocked – after all, I already knew she could read my thoughts. But the alarmed look on Sona’s face made me uneasy.

“What happened?” I asked, turning to her.

“She forced you to forget…” Sona said slowly, as if piecing together a larger revelation.

My confused look prompted Lida to explain. “You told me what number you thought of.”

“No, I didn’t…” I said, suddenly unsure of my own answer.

Sona’s comment suddenly received the context it lacked. “Did you make me tell you the number I thought of, and then make me forget I ever did?”

Lida clapped her hands exaggeratedly and shouted. “Bravo! Bravo! Someone is finally paying attention.”

The realization dawned on me - she wasn’t reading my thoughts. She had made me confess the truth about all my plans and then erased the memory of my confession from my mind.

The plan with the topaz – that’s how she found out. I had unknowingly revealed it to her during one of those moments, probably this morning. The thought was unsettling, making me wonder how many other private details I had unknowingly shared with her.

Sona, too, seemed visibly shaken, her eyes distant and lost.

Lida erupted into uncontrollable laughter. “Yes! Yes! It looks like you finally get it now!”

She turned to Sona, her grin widening. “Your poor little brother…So many personal stories you shared with me. The drunk, deadbeat parents. The harsh life on the road. The slave traders that captured you both. Oh, it was so touching how you protected each other through it all…yet now, you’ll never save him.”

Then her gaze shifted to me. “And Elandor? He’s probably rolling in his grave with regret right now. So disappointed he let you join his crew - a failure of a thief, a failure of a protector, who couldn’t even save one girl! You want to reach Kase? How about you try reaching the neighboring village on your own first?”

She glanced back at Sona. “And you - how did you think you’d save your brother? With these half-baked ideas? What was your plan if Luca hadn’t bailed you out of jail today? I’ll answer that – there wasn’t one! Pathetic.”

Finally, she turned back to me again, her voice cruel. “And what would Mama think, huh, Luca? Her son, a little wimp, who forgot the most important lesson at his first venture outside the big city – never take candy from the suspicious old man.”

Lida’s voice echoed through the room as she taunted and judged us, relishing in our deepest fears and regrets. As her taunting ended, she settled into the stool with a triumphant grin, basking in the emotional turmoil she created. “Phew. I’m done.”

Elandor’s name rang in my ears, the realization I had failed him intensified with each moment. In his final words, he asked me to protect Ren and reach Kase. After what happened to Frenkie and Will, he wanted to believe he had saved at least the two of us. And yet, I had failed him.

Her words about my mother cut even deeper, a painful reminder of her dying words and my inability to fulfill them. The weight of disappointment pressed down on me, and for a moment, I almost accepted Lida’s words.

Sona, on the other hand, appeared utterly shattered. The mention of her brother had torn open inner wounds that seemed irreparable, leaving her broken.

“Don’t feel too bad for losing to me.” Lida gloated, relishing in her apparent victory. “I’ve been doing this for the past four hundred years or so. You were never going to outsmart me.” Then her tone shifted, more cutting. “You know what? No. Scratch that. You were weak. Sad and pathetic. Not even the toughest nuts I’ve cracked during my time here.” Then, grinning with satisfaction, her voice turned more serious. “Any last words before I lead you to the main square? The time for Vitara’s ritual is nigh.”

I took a deep breath.

I had already planned for this exact scenario, suspecting we might meet Lida here instead of Belferon. A plan I had set in motion before entering this room, when I asked Sona to hand me the ring we took from Walden.

A plan that involved the fluorite ring - a mineral whose ability did little to help us in this predicament, yet held hidden potential.

I recalled Elandor’s words from the treasury: the revelation that any magical stone could unleash its power explosively if we directed our flow of mana inward instead of outward. I had never tried this before in my life, but now was as good time as any.

Feeling the cool surface of the fluorite ring inside my hand, I began channeling my mana outward, through the mineral, like I normally would. But what did it truly mean to direct mana inward instead of outward? Elandor’s words had already sounded cryptic back in the treasury, and now, when I actually had to use this concept, it felt even more mysterious.

I tried to simplify it. Usually, when using a mineral, a mage would create a mental image to focus the flow of mana. For me, whenever I used magic, I imagined a flowing river inside my head - a river that eventually turned into a waterfall. That image helped me channel my mana and use the minerals normally.

So, if I wanted to direct my mana inward, what would I picture?

I imagined the waterfall’s water reversing its course, climbing upward and flowing the other way. The image felt absurd, unnatural. Even though I could picture the image in my mind, keeping it steady and vivid was a challenge.

Meanwhile, Lida grew impatient with our silence. “So…No final words? You are a sad bunch. Did I break you too hard?”

I didn’t feel any change in the ring, so I knew I needed more time. Splitting my focus between the fluorite ring and engaging Lida in a conversation. What seemed simple at first quickly became mentally exhausting. But I managed to direct enough questions at her to keep her distracted.

“Final words, you say?” I asked, masking the intensity of my effort. “How about a reflection on your own existence, Lida? Centuries of tormenting and manipulating...sounds rather one-dimensional, don’t you think?”

Her eyes flickered with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. “Oh, my dear sacrifice, you can’t even begin to imagine the joy I feel each time.”

I maintained my focus on the ring, the risk of failure looming closer, but I pressed on.

“Is this truly living, though?” I continued, distracting her further. “Thriving on the despair of others, repeating the same cycle year after year. It sounds like your life is too monotonous, yet you think it’s worth boasting about.”

Her laughter echoed through the room, and I seized the opportunity to press on. “You know, Lida, since I got here, I’ve started wondering what it’s like to actually be alive. Not just exist, but truly live. Isn’t there something you desire? Don’t you have dreams of your own?”

For the first time since my captivity, Lida’s expression shifted to anger, actual anger. For some reason, my last question triggered her.

“My dreams are none of your concern.” she snapped. “Tormenting you all is enough.”

As she finished her words, I felt the fluorite ring in my hand grow warmer. Unsure of the exact conditions required for it to explode, I seized the moment, hoping the rising temperature signaled an imminent reaction.

“If that’s all you desire, then I’m glad I’m the one to end it.” I declared, letting the ring slip from my grasp.

It rolled leisurely across the floor, catching Lida’s attention. Her puzzled expression showed uncertainty, as if she didn’t quite understand what was happening.

The seconds ticked by in suspenseful silence as the ring made its slow journey toward her. I held my breath, waiting for something to happen. The room hung in a moment of tense stillness.

The ring stopped right in front of her, yet nothing happened. Had I acted to soon?

Lida laughed, mocking. “Was that supposed to be intimidating?”

Suddenly, a small explosion erupted from the fluorite ring. The force of the blast sent everyone flying backward, a burst of magic disrupting Lida’s control. I felt the invisible bonds that had held me release their grip, and for the first time in so long, freedom seemed within reach.