Helianna slowly woke up, her ribs aching and her head feeling as if it was trapped in a vice. The room was dark and silent. She started to sit up, but the pounding in her head instantly worsened, so she layed back down with a groan. The sound of her own voice drove another nail into her head, silencing her.

She weakly put a hand to her face and realized it didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t figure out why. She briefly explored her face with her hands, trying not to make it worse. It took an agonizingly long time to realize what was different. The wax-like prosthetics that she’d used to alter her face shape was gone. Her attempts to hide her face were undoubtedly ruined.

It took her several minutes to remember what happened, and she was confident she had a major concussion. Thinking hurt and she had to suppress another groan. She figured the only reason the ithrax hadn’t killed her yet was because they needed her report. They were probably the ones who’d taken the prosthetics off.

She immediately wasn’t happy with the decision, even if it made sense. Unlike other ithrax, delaying killing her could be dangerous. Respawning as a null worked quite differently than it did compared to any of the other members of an ithrax cell. Because they were completely antithetical to magic, nulls couldn’t meditate with the other members of the cell and ‘store’ their body state. Even after countless years of research, nobody knew why nulls were able to still respawn, much less how.

To make matters worse, the amount of time between a null’s death and when their last memories were seems to be random. Sometimes, it would be months back, but at others, it would only be a few days. Because of that, if a null sustained an injury that could be permanent, they were almost always killed immediately as there was a risk that they could respawn while still containing the injury if they waited too long. Realizing this, Helianna decided that if they didn’t come to take her report soon, she would take the matters into her own hands.

It didn’t take long for a stranger dressed in medical clothing to walk in and see her awake. However, instead of checking the severity of Helianna’s concussion like she expected, the stranger immediately left to get the other ithrax. They arrived quickly, Isela clearly concerned.

“Are you alright?” asked Isela. Despite whispering, the sound pounded in Helianna’s skull.

“No.”

“Can you give a report?” Sylas asked, sounding stern but still sympathetic. She weakly nodded and did her best to give a report. She had to stop frequently as the pain became too much. She couldn’t focus and frequently lost her train of thought, requiring the other two to guide her back on track. The report should have taken only a few minutes, but instead took over an hour. Even then, she failed to provide all the information.

“We’re going to kill you now,” said Sylas. Despite the low light and struggles to concentrate, Heliann could clearly see a smug grin on his face. She reached out a hand and gripped his arm.

“Wait. I owe you.”

“We know,” Sylas responded, but Isela continued. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No. I need to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Just… please?”

Both Sylas and Isela frowned, but he nodded while Isela protested. “No, it’s fine! You don’t need t-”

“One at a time. Isela first.”

“Ok, but what do you want to do?”

“Only Isela.”

He narrowed his eyes for a moment, unhappy that she wasn’t answering his question. He still listened and walked out, rolling his eyes as he did so. Helliana’s head was threatening to burst open and it took everything she had to focus.

“Isela. Do you remember your parents?”

“I do.”

“Do you care about them?”

“Not anymore.” This answer shocked Helianna and it took her even longer than previously to respond.

“Why?”

“They’re dead. The Academy killed them.” Helianna was once again shocked, struggling to comprehend it, quite literally thanks to her concussion.

“Don’t you hate The Academy, then?”

“Of course not.” If Helianna had the mental capacity to think faster, she instantly would have bailed, but was unable to think about more than one thing at once.

“Your family is dead. The Academy killed them. And they told you?” Helianna stated in shock. Isela shrugged her shoulders.

“I mean, they know what they’re doing. They wouldn’t have killed my family without a reason. I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure my parents deserved it.”

This time, Helianna spent several minutes trying to figure out how to respond, during which Isela grew increasingly more concerned for her. Helianna tried to shake her head to clear her wandering thoughts, and instantly stopped. The pain from the movement helped her refocus however, and she grabbed Isela’s uniform, a more decorative piece than anything else due to the limitations of her species. Helianna closed her eyes and instantly felt some pushback, foreign magic keeping her own from infiltrating the runes in the uniform. It was enough that due to her decreased mental capacity, she knew she didn’t have time. Her magic seemed to have its own will, but clearly not enough at the moment.

After several seconds of fighting the uniform’s runes, she managed to push her magic into the uniform. However, the second she relaxed, the foreign magic instantly retook control of the runes, reminding her of a trick candle. Pushing one more time, she managed to regain control after several seconds. Even in her addled state, she instantly recognized that the foreign mana was too strong and she wouldn’t be able to stop it for long. She opened her eyes and looked at Isela, who instantly quieted.

“Are you really okay with The Academy killing your parents?” she slowly ground out.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” Isela asked, but Helianna could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

“Think about it for a moment. Are you really okay with The Academy killing your parents?

“I mean, I don’t need to,” she immediately responded. “Why would I care if they killed…” She trailed off and turned her head away in confusion. “Wait… wait a second. Hold on. No, I wouldn’t want…” Her breath hitched and she looked back at Helianna, fear in her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“The Academy is using sovereign magic to brainwash you,” Helianna slowly stated, struggling to keep her own magic in control. “Take your uniform off and I can explain more.”

“My uniform?” the girl asked with incredulity.

“Yes,” Helianna responded, growling at this point as her brain started wandering and she started losing control. Terrified at what Helianna had implied, Isela didn’t hesitate in the slightest. In her haste, she started to literally tear off her uniform, not taking the time to take it off normally. Her claws made short work of most of it, but in her desire to rip it off as fast as possible, she only made herself slower, eventually stopping. Helianna immediately knew why. Without her magic suppressing the runes’ influence, Isela was already being influenced.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“You… you manipulated me!” she screamed. “You have sovereign magic! How? What are you?” Isela shook her head in anger and confusion before locking eyes with Helianna. Her first instinct was to swing at Helianna’s weak form, but managed to stop herself.

Helianna quickly sat up and gripped Isela’s uniform. She collapsed back down, and with gravity aiding her, managed to pull off the last of it.

“What the fu….” Isela trailed off and shook her head, realizing what just happened. “What’s going on?”

“You’re being influenced by sovereign runes carved into your uniforms. The Academy is controlling you.”

“How?” Helianna tried to think but was unable to put together the right pieces and groaned.

“We can talk when you don’t have a concussion. I’ll help deal with this for Sylas.” She turned before immediately pausing. “Actually, I can do this on my own, right? You don’t need to turn off the runes? Just take off the clothes?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll do it. We’ll come back when we’re done.” Helianna simply groaned in response. She simply laid there, happy to look up at the ceiling and do nothing for a while. Content to not think, she had no idea how long it took for Isela and Sylas to come back in.

“We’re going to confront them,” said Sylas. Even in her addled state, Helianna immediately knew it was a bad idea.

“Don’t do that. You’ll get all three of us in trouble.” Isela shifted uncomfortably. She clearly agreed with Helianna, but hadn’t been able to convince Sylas.

“No. We’ll be fine,” Sylas insisted. “Just trust us.”

“No. You’ve failed every mission.”

“No we didn’t!” yelled Sylas defensively. The loud sound instantly rang throughout her head and it took her several seconds to be able to focus on what Sylas was saying.

“-and then we’ll pick you up. It’ll be fine.”

“What?” she managed to struggle out. He sighed, realizing she hadn’t heard most of what he said.

“We aren’t killing you. We’re leaving you here and will pick you up later. We’ll be fine.”

Without giving Helianna a chance to respond, he grabbed Isela’s arm and stormed out of the room. Helianna tried to protest but was too little, too late. She knew she was in trouble, but couldn’t do anything about it. Just sitting up was difficult and her head was constantly pounding. She stared up at the ceiling, grateful for the quiet. Despite the brewing storm, she fell asleep.

She spent the next few weeks doing a lot of nothing as the nurses cared for her. Thanks to the concussion, she found herself perfectly content to lie there and simply stare at the ceiling. After a few weeks, the nurses started coming in and quietly talking to her to help keep from getting bored as her mind recovered. Another week later, she got up and started being a little more active. That was when the situation with Sylas and Isela hit her. She needed to leave. Now.

Despite not being fully recovered from her concussion, she was good enough to move and left the following night. She had no idea if she was still being watched like during her last mission, but if so, she figured she wasn’t getting 24 hour surveillance. After being so injured for so long, it would be a waste of man-power to have someone constantly watching her, right?

And if someone was watching her, she figured they would have come in and killed her, hoping to prevent Helianna from developing any permanent damage. Maybe someone following her talked to Sylas and Isela, who claimed to have killed her?

She didn’t want to think much, still getting headaches when she focused hard and it took enough mental effort to find a stable in the dark. When she did, she quietly saddled a horse, struggling to keep it quiet. In her struggle, she wasn’t paying close enough attention and didn’t tie the saddle well enough.

Unbeknownst to the mistake, she rode it out of the stable and out of the town, using the stars to try to guide her southwest. She wanted to go to Copocole, away from where The Academy might look for her. She quickly found herself struggling due to the slightly unstable saddle, but determinedly kept going, even as the bouncing of the ride hurt.

She rode for several hours before a searing pain flashed across her hip. She suddenly found herself unbalanced and couldn’t feel the saddle with that leg. She shifted suddenly to try to stabilize herself, but with the saddle too loose, she was unable to and fell off the horse, bouncing and rolling across the ground. She lay there, groaning in pain for several seconds before slowly pushing herself up, her vision spinning. She looked down at her leg to see what happened and found it completely missing.

There was no blood, simply an empty stump where it used to be. Dazed and struggling to comprehend what happened, she didn’t hear the footsteps until they were right on top of her. She looked up and saw a similarly disoriented Isela standing over her.

Between the disbelief, healing concussion, and new injuries, she promptly passed out. When she woke up, she found herself staring up at the sky. It was morning and the light seared her eyes, eliciting a wince from Helianna.

“You’re awake?” Isela asked, and Helianna’s head throbbed. Helianna could immediately tell that she had a new issue. She was certain she had gotten another concussion when she fell off the horse. She must be getting permanent brain damage at this point.

“Kill me. I don’t want permanent damage.” she croaked out.

“Tell at least some of what happened. Then I will.”

“You failed your job. I ran into a troll.” She took some time trying to organize her simple thoughts. “You saved me from rapists. I showed you about The Academy controlling your mind. Sylas made you confront The Academy. You died and respawned while I tried to flee. Going to Copocole.”

“Why aren’t I weaker in power, then?”

“Later. I’ll remember. Kill me.”

“Fine.” Isela sighed. She didn’t like killing an ally, even if it wasn’t permanent. Helianna closed her eyes just in time to miss seeing Isela slash her claws across Helianna’s throat. Helianna’s eyes shot open. Her voice was barely understandable through her own blood.

“Slow death… asshole.” Isela blinked in surprise at the accusation and watched as it took over a minute for Helianna to fall unconscious before dying.

Helianna opened her eyes, disoriented. Her last memories were of charging the troll and was very confused on where she was. She heard a thump and turned to see that Isela had collapsed to the floor beside her. She heard someone coughing their throat behind her and she turned to see Sylas.

“Sylas?”

“Yes.”

“What’s going on? Why am I here?”

“Well that’s a little difficult. The three of us are apparently one ithrax cell. The problem is that all three of us died in close succession, even if not all at once. Because we’re a small group and the timing of our deaths, there’s a period where none of us have any memories, simply going off of each other’s hearsay.”

“Oh.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I was charging a troll. You guys failed your mission.”

His face contorted into a scowl.

“We didn’t fail! It was more difficult than anticipated. Apparently you fought it but someone tried to harass you or something? We saved you, so then you then supposedly revealed that The Academy was mind controlling us? We went back to The Academy and we both got killed while you were running. When Isela respawned, you gave her the same rundown and then she killed you because you were so injured.” He gave her a few moments to digest the information before continuing.

“Now explain. What the hell is this about mind control?”

“Hold on.. I need a moment,” He huffed in frustration as he crossed his arms. “You said that after I explained the mind control, you went back to The Academy?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head and massaged her temples. “Dumbasses.” She dropped her hand and looked back at Sylas. “Are we’re really an ithrax cell?” He nodded. “Shit… I really got the incompetent team.”

“We are not! You bitch!”

“You failed both missions that I’ve seen you on and you decided to confront The Academy, just the two of you! How stupid can you get?!”

“At least we didn’t get nearly killed by a simple troll!”

“That happened because of your fuck up! And that’s not my job! I kill people, not monsters!”

“Fuck you!” He threw a punch at her, but she easily shifted to the side and nailed him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him.

“Dumbass.” After a few moments, she sighed. “At least I should explain what’s going on with The Academy.”

After taking a few moments for both of them to calm down, Helianna then explained to Sylas about the runes and how they influenced everyone’s mind. He glared at her the whole time with his glowing white eyes narrowed, but he didn’t interrupt. As she finally finished and he opened his mouth to speak, they were interrupted by a third voice. Isela.

“How am I not dead?”