Li Mei sighed as she nestled deeper into her pillows, blatantly ignoring the murky gray light peering through her bedroom curtains. The weight of a long, tense, yet somehow boring night made her young bones ache like an arthritic grandmother.
She took comfort in the fact the Spring Gala ended uneventfully. After the maze was concluded and prizes were awarded, Li Mei mingled with the crowd absorbing gossip and occasionally giving whispered pointers to Teresa. By the time Duchess Marilyn announced the conclusion, and attendants started handing out gift bags for guests to take home, Li Mei was ready to burst.
Inane, inane, inane! All those people cared about was gossip! Didn't they have anything serious to worry about? Oh sure, brush off news of a village being wiped out by a sudden monster horde rampaging through, who cares about the dead peasants! But can you believe Miss Whatsherface wore yellow Prismthorn flowers in her orange chiffon bonnet? The very nerve! Truly the end of civilization as we know it!
"I hate fancy people," Li Mei muttered to herself, her muffled voice coarse and dry.
Only when Hana gently knocked on the door a few minutes later did Li Mei reluctantly sit up, exerting all of her strength of will to leave the embrace of her soft, fluffy pillows. Bao, stretched out at the foot of her bed, likewise seemed unwilling to move.
"We'll take breakfast in bed this morning," Li Mei said, slowly rolling back her shoulders until a series of pops and cracks eased some of the tension lingering there. She felt more drained after one dumb fancy party than she did after an entire day fighting enemies in the forest! "And then a hot bath... Ah, no. Professor Bishop's coming by this morning... Just breakfast, then. Tell Otto he got lucky, no morning training today."
Hana looked a little disappointed, but still nodded and went about her business opening the curtains and adding water to flower vases and gently patting Bao before leaving the room. Li Mei sighed and propped herself up on her pillows, watching a bit of gray sunlight highlight the Fera's beautiful teal fur, enjoying the simple luxury of a lazy start to her morning.
Tap tap!
Tap!
TAP TAP!
Li Mei flinched, cracking an eye open to examine the source of the incessant noise rattling her window.
And immediately shut her eye again.
"Good morning, Miss Mei! I'm here to pick you up." Faust smirked, threads of violet mana sneaking through gaps in her windowsill to undo the latch and let him right into her room. Bao let out a snort, slowly raising his head and fixing three of his four eyes on the "intruder".
"So it's true after all," Li Mei sighed, covering her eyes with one hand. "You think of the devil, and he comes knocking."
"You did tell me to knock first."
"Weren't you supposed to knock and announce yourself before entering my home?"
"I just did."
"Most people use the front door, I believe?"
Faust shrugged. "It's best that I don't. Not with this face."
"Then put a different one on, I know you have at least three faces, your other disguise and your natural two! Don't walk into a girl's room unannounced, especially through a window!"
Faust covered his mouth, barely suppressing a snort. He turned his head, his shoulders shaking from restrained amusement, but the sight just made Li Mei want to push him back out the damned window he crawled in through. When he finally composed himself, Faust raised an eyebrow at her and commented, "That was a rather... Creative way to call me two-faced."
"There's plenty of other things I can call you in even more creative ways if that's what tickles your fancy..." Li Mei muttered rebelliously, narrowing her eyes to express displeasure further as Faust unrolled a small package he'd kept tucked unobtrusively under one arm and tossed a few articles of clothing onto her bed. "What exactly are you doing?"
"Are you always this grumpy in the morning? Get dressed quickly, we have little time for your shenanigans." Though his words were mild, the order laced within made the black band around Li Mei's neck burn until she obediently reached for the clothes Faust had chosen. She stamped down the boiling anger rising in her belly, and glanced toward the door, hoping and praying Hana would appear with her food. At least he had the decency to remain with his back turned while waiting for her to change... "I haven't even had breakfast!"
"We'll eat after. I'll take you anywhere you like. But this appointment cannot be missed, so you will not drag your heels, you will speak only when directly asked a question by me. I'll be carrying you for much of the journey, you will not make a fuss or attempt to break free of my hold for any reason. If anyone gives us suspicious looks because of poor behavior, you will be punished. Now hurry, get out of bed and finish getting dressed."
Li Mei's neck burned. White hot fire spread from the band on her neck, flooding her limbs with the force of the multiple orders taking hold. She gasped for breath, but the blinding pain was only alleviated when she finished getting dressed and scrambled out of bed to stand, panting. Li Mei pressed her fingertips to her neck, as though applying pressure would alleviate the lingering ache, an admonishment from the slavery enchantment for taking so long to fulfill her "master's" orders.
She wanted to argue, to complain, to yell and scream and question, but every time she opened her mouth, the band around her neck burned so brightly it scorched the voice right out of her throat. After a few attempts Li Mei just settled for mentally cursing Faust in the most "creative" ways she could manage.
Especially when she saw Bao still on the bed, trembling with exertion and fury as violet threads of mana wove into a simple spell whose only function was to hold him securely in place. He would have flown to her side in an instant if Faust wasn't keeping him pinned somehow...
Li Mei tried to catch Bao's gaze, to apologize silently through her eyes, but the Fera was focusing all his fury and attention squarely on Faust's hated face.
"None of your little pets will be joining us today, they're all too eye-catching." Faust said with a sigh, shaking his head at the angry Fera. "No fancy Nobility badge either. Keep your hood pulled up, tuck your hair in, eyes down." Another string of orders, one Li Mei was quick to obey since the band was still stinging with a promise of more punishment.
She'd much rather be inflicting the pain than receiving it.
The clothes he brought her were plain, of a much poorer quality than she was used to receiving from him. An itchy caped tunic, plain cloth gloves barely held together by uneven stitching on the sides, a dirt-smeared skirt adorned with simple flower embroidery on the hem clearly done by the hand of a child, and stiff boiled leather shoes that didn't quite fit her feet.
Peasant clothes.
Faust was wearing a similar outfit, though he opted for greasy threadbare trousers instead of a dirty skirt. To finish off his look, his belt was just a knotted rope looped around his waist, and he donned a floppy fisherman's hat, jingling with a few silly fishing lures hooked into the front brim, that cast half his face into shadow. One swipe of his hand across his face smeared it with dirt and grease that disguised his naturally delicate features, and added a shadow of stubble across his jawline.
'Neat trick,' Li Mei thought with narrowed eyes, only to freeze as he scooped her up in one arm.
He stank like fish and brine. A true fisherman's stink. Apparently even his simple disguises were thorough.
She couldn't even scream in surprise or indignation without his permission as Faust turned to the open window, and leapt right out of it, soaring through the air to land in the shadows of a nearby alley. Li Mei refused to cling to him no matter how her stomach seemed determine to stay behind with Bao, clenching her gloved hands into fists and screwing her eyes closed against the rush of wind that... Somehow, did not dislodge neither her hood nor Faust's dumb floppy hat.
Since it was still early, the town was wreathed in fog that, on a good day, would burn away by the afternoon and let a couple hours of genuine sunshine through before the evening fog rolled back in. On a bad day, it would start raining and not have a chance of letting up until the next dawn. The air felt moist and cool, a tad chilly, but refusing to give up its secrets regarding the day's weather.
"Don't squirm now. Try to relax."
Another order, whispered softly, as Faust walked nonchalantly out of the alley and into another, taking several back-tracking twists and pointless shady turns before merging with a small crowd of folks on a street several blocks down. No one gave them a second glance, though certainly a few mothers remarked that she was getting a bit big to be carried and pampered. Faust laughed them off and said it was a special day for his shy little girl, and the mothers laughed knowingly while Li Mei fought back a scowl.
'I definitely like it better when Bao is carrying me,' Li Mei thought to herself, trying not to let anything but mild curiosity show on her face. No matter how smooth Faust walked, or how well he protected her from jostling by the crowd, his very touch still sent spiders crawling down her throat to wriggle with disgust in her belly.
He took her into a new part of town. Her Interface helpfully filled out the foggy areas of her map, but it didn't help her discover where they were going, so she stopped watching the progress after awhile. The crowds seemed to get more and more dense, while the people themselves seemed...
Rougher.
Near her house, even the poorest folks had mildly pleasant expressions on their face when going about town. It was a nice area, good security for the most part, and everyone gave each other friendly acknowledging nods if their gazes met. But as Li Mei glanced around, she saw only scowls, glowers, angry glares and empty stares. There were no nobles of any kind in sight, and the narrow packed streets wouldn't have allowed for mounts or carriages.
The horizon mutated, from pleasant houses to brick monstrosities periodically punctuated with tall chimney stacks belching black smoke into the sky. A faint layer of soot settled over everything, and soon Li Mei's face felt greasy just from contact with the air.
Faust strode confidently down the suspicious streets, weaving between groups of beefy tattooed folks chattering over open mugs of stinky ale without leaving so much as an impression of him in their minds. Taverns had doors flung open even in the early hours of the morning, their wobbly tables spilling out into the walkways, filling the streets with noise: cheering or jeering as yet another brawl broke out, the crunch of wooden furniture utilized as weaponry, the call of outcome bets and scathing taunts.
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Li Mei held a hand to her chest, hand clenched so tightly her smallest finger started to ache. 'Why the hell is Faust bringing me somewhere like this?!'
But of course he made sure she couldn't ask. She could only watch as he led her deeper into the worst side of town, past gaping warehouses stinking of salt and blood, piles of fish guts being pushed into the shallow harbor waters. Past more taverns, and factories, tent cities and...
Brothels!?
Li Mei blushed as a very pretty lady wiggled fingers her way, the woman's face splitting into an amused grin as the child turned away with reddened cheeks. 'Goodness, I really could see everything! What an outfit!'
To her great relief, Faust didn't stop at any of those places. He didn't spare a glance for the pretty lads and ladies trying to entice him closer to their respective establishments regardless of the child on his arm, and Li Mei wondered if they were hoping for something simple and quick since he had a kid with him and likely wouldn't be inclined to linger.
'Easy money, I guess? Ugh, I do NOT want to be thinking about Faust doing ANYTHING like that, gross gross gross gross! Or maybe... Oh, they might think he wants to sell me...'
That would make more sense, and in Li Mei's mind, the smiles on those pretty faces as they passed turned just a bit more sinister.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Faust set Li Mei upon her own two feet... In front of a warehouse squeezed between various other warehouses, its doors chained shut and fastened with an enormous rusted padlock. Faust ignored them and knocked on the heavy metal door, a rapid pattern with various shifts in force that was most likely a code of some sort.
The door creaked inward, completely rendering the chains superfluous. Li Mei arched an eyebrow, having no choice but to follow as Faust ducked into the dark interior.
The door creaked shut behind them. Li Mei jumped in surprise, glancing over her shoulder and scouring the shadows for a gatekeeper that simply didn't exist, but threads of burgundy mana killed her concerns about ominous ghosts before they even finished forming.
Around her neck, the band started to burn again. Li Mei hurried to keep up with Faust's lengthy strides, ignoring the distractions around her. The pair wove through a maze of crates, barrels, sturdy shelves and piles of old furniture. The warehouse was a massive junk hoard that reeked of mildew and rust - Li Mei covered her nose with her sleeve, but the stink of her own clothes made her instantly regret the action.
After at least ten minutes of sidling through seemingly infinite towers of garbage, they reached a door. A normal carved oak door, set into a wall of various scrap wood and sheet metal cobbled together into a flimsy partition. Faust knocked once, twice, thrice, then pushed it open, signaling for Li Mei to enter first. She wanted to shake her head and refuse, but a glare from Faust promised he would make it an order if he had to.
With a heavy sigh, Li Mei stepped inside.
Sheets of canvas and tarpaulin in various colors lined the walls and ceiling, giving a rather claustrophobic feeling to what was very clearly an operating room. A flat table slab in the center, a single light overhead dangling from a bent metal post, several short shelves of tools and vials along the sides, and one desk just behind the slab. A short, bald little man in a stained coat sat on a stool that prevented his feet from touching the floor, his frog-like face watching them through a pair of spectacles with a few too many lens attachments.
Li Mei felt her heart flip in her chest. Faust patted her shoulder, but instead of comfort she felt only dread from the gesture. A thread of pain shot up her arm, and she realized she'd been clenching her fists with all her might.
"You're right on time as always, Mister," the little man said, his soft voice oddly lyrical in a way that absolutely did not mesh with his appearance. His tone was eerie in a way that sent chills down Li Mei's spine, further increasing her desire to turn tail and run.
But orders were orders. No matter how she tried to resist the compulsion to obey, the magic of the damned collar kept her from moving her legs away from Faust, and burned her throat for even having the impulse. If she tried, if she really tried, she could take a whole step back before the pain increased to a blinding level.
Perhaps she made a noise without noticing, a grunt hopefully and not an embarrassingly childish whimper, but both Faust and the frog man turned to look at her simultaneously.
"Lie on the table." Faust's order struck like a nail in the coffin lid. Li Mei wanted to shake her head or refuse, but the collar, the damned collar! It burned and burned until her feet shuffled forward, and she lifted her small body onto the cold metal slab in the middle of the room. "Be still, and silent. It'll be over soon."
"Soon is relative," the frog man whispered, the sound barely audible over the anxious pounding of Li Mei's own heart. The pain from the collar faded, but her hand still ached, and could almost feel the blood rushing to pound in her temples.
The slab was cold. Incredibly cold. It seemed to leech the warmth from her body instead of warming beneath it, until her legs trembled and her teeth chattered. Meanwhile, Faust and the frog continued their conversation, uncaring of her discomfort.
"Say, Mister, you really brought them, right?"
"Of course, Chanter." Faust smiled, sweeping off his hat and producing several small, flat crystal disks from the inner lining. "As promised, once the procedure is finished, they're all yours."
The Chanter's eyes lit up, fingers flexing as though for one brilliant moment, he thought himself capable of taking his prize and running. But the glint in Faust's dark eyes kept the smaller man from making a move. "Very well. I assume you're familiar with the procedure?"
"Familiar enough. I know where to put them, if that's what you're asking."
"Very good, very good. If you would?"
"Naturally. And the other materials?"
"Prepared as you ordered. No problems in acquisition, thanks to your funding. I'll start mixing the ink now."
Li Mei, unable to turn her head due to Faust's order of laying still, closed her eyes and focused intently on the Interface minimap to watch their movements.
'Deep breaths. In... Out. In... Out. Yeah... Whatever's going on, it'll be fine. Faust wasn't lying when he said he planned to take me out to eat later, so whatever this... This nonsense is, it shouldn't be too bad. Right? Right. Right...'
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Faust placed the anchors at key points around the room, fastening a few with threads of mana to ensure they wouldn't budge an inch during the ritual. While he had first-hand experience regarding Chanter Ferogg's skills, he also knew the man would get completely absorbed in his work, and could miss smaller details that might have lasting repercussions on Li Mei's well-being.
Such inattention to detail was why a genius Chanter like Ferogg was removed as a professor of the Academy, and had to resort to black market rituals and enchantments to fund his ground-breaking research. Faust sighed inwardly - it was truly lamentable.
Ferogg shuffled around the cramped room, pulling several jars and vials from different shelves, hopping comically to reach some of the higher ones. Everything was piled onto his desk, then mixed and stirred into various other containers with seemingly haphazard movements. In the time it took Faust to fix all the anchors in place, Ferogg had finished mixing four vials of potent magic ink, each a unique color. Shimmering purple, sparkling gold, neon cyan, and rich burgundy.
Getting Li Mei's, Ferogg's, and of course his own hair for the inks was no challenge. The fourth hair, however...
Faust clenched his hand into a tight fist, nails gouging the flesh of his palm. How many countless people did he send to their deaths, just for the chance to maybe retrieve a hair off that man's head? How many lives exchanged just for a chance?
A chance he had to take. Faust glanced at Li Mei, shivering on the cold slab, and sighed. Lowering her body heat was an important part of the ritual, but she looked so miserable...
Well. She'd thank him when it was over.
"Shall I explain?" Ferogg said as he retrieved a brush from the desk, dipping it first into the burgundy vial.
Faust arched his eyebrows, but Ferogg's gaze didn't waver. The Chanter was adamant about his ritual processes, and explaining the purpose to the subject was important to the man for reasons Faust couldn't begin to fathom. Li Mei flinched, and Faust could almost hear her ears twitch in curiosity, one of her eyes creaking open.
His lips curled into a wry smile, Faust nodded confirmation. "Be my guest."
Ferogg nodded, his expression revealing that he wasn't surprised in the least. As the tip of his brush touched the slab near Li Mei's left shoulder, the man began to speak. "We are performing a ritual, a procedure which will remove a powerful enchantment you've been inflicted with."
Li Mei froze. Even her shuddering stopped, and her eyes flew open. Faust was careful to avoid her gaze, choosing instead to begin warding the room against eavesdroppers and outside dangers, anything surprising that might interrupt the Chanter's important business.
"The enchantment, or your curse, which I imagine you're very aware of, is high level and insidious. Removing it would have... Repercussions. Under normal circumstances. Under the circumstances in which you currently find yourself, such as under Brittalund's unique suppression mythal, however? It becomes possible, and even safe. As you may have noticed, I am avoiding discussing the curse in great detail, as it also has an observation circuit woven in. Watching for certain... Keyword combinations, as it were. As well as a certain voice speaking said keywords."
As Ferogg spoke, he drew perfectly straight lines in strange patterns all over the slab. First burgundy, then purple, then cyan. He moved quickly, yet with precision, without a single flaw in his placement.
Still, somehow, Faust felt nervous. His heart hammered, and he clenched and unclenched his fingers so many times the muscles of his hand ached.
"He is listening, for Mister here to explain circumstances. For Mister to cave, break down, and go back on his word. An Oath. One which is, currently, protecting your life. Ah, but I don't know the finer details of that one. That's for Mister to tell you about, later. Once the curse is broken."
A sparkle, a bit of a glint, caught the light at the corner of Li Mei's eyes. Faust glanced away again, unwilling to see her tears. He knew it was relief at the thought of living without the shackle at her throat, and not concern or sorrow over what he might have had to do to keep her safe in the first place.
But for a moment, a brief moment, he allowed himself to imagine otherwise.
Ferogg drew a few golden lines on the slab, then turned to Li Mei. "Do not move, child. Not an inch. I must draw these lines on you now, as a conduit, and they cannot have a single error."
Li Mei closed her eyes, and Ferogg began the delicate task of painting lines on her face and neck with golden ink. Aside from a faint twitch in her hand, she kept even more still than when Faust had ordered her to do the same, holding her breath with restless anticipation, breathing only between strokes of the brush when Ferogg dipped it back in the vial for more ink.
"And now we begin. Mister, I'll need your support for the ritual."
A ritual was just a large enchantment, and hence worked best when someone patient and methodical, such as a certified Chanter, took the lead. Faust nodded assent, moving to stand behind Ferogg as the Chanter took his place at the foot of the slab. Faust rested his hands on the shorter man's narrow shoulders, closing his eyes so as to better focus on carefully funneling threads of mana from his powerful Core into the Chanter's inferior one.
Relinquishing control of the threads took more concentration than simply controlling them, and it only took a few moments for cold beads of sweat to break out on Faust's forehead.
The drawn lines on the slab began to shimmer, filling the room with three colors of light - purple, burgundy, cyan. Not an unpleasant mix, but a strange one.
Ferogg carefully guided the mana threads through each line, each conduit, activating the ritual bit by bit.
Then the gold lines began to glow. Mana gathered from the surroundings, pulled in by the anchors Faust placed earlier, gathered together in a cloud above Li Mei's chest that was slowly condensing into a slight crystallization reminiscent of a Core formation.
Li Mei twitched.
The silence order kept Li Mei from crying aloud, in pain or in warning, as greenish black mana oozed from the silver ring on her smallest finger. The metal itself seemed to dissolve, filtering through the cloth glove on her hand, inching toward the golden lines glowing ever brighter with each passing moment.
Faust flinched. Something - a tickle, a pinprick, a faint touch on the edge of his senses - caused him to open one eye, only to call out in alarm when he spotted the foreign mana arranging itself over the slab, joining the crystallization of mana hovering over Li Mei's chest.
Then the greenish black mana surged downward, dragging the partially-crystallized mana cloud with it, and piercing straight into Li Mei's Core.
Ferogg convulsed, coughing up blood. He lost control over the mana, over the ritual, and his eyes bugged out of his head as realization struck about what, exactly, that might mean. He shrieked and, with one fearful glance at Faust, took off running in a desperate bid for escape.
Faust turned as well, not to flee, but to bring down the anchors still pulling in mana. Greenish black mana surrounded each of the anchor disks, repelling his attempts with a sort of sinister glee that burned his hand and scorched the mana he tried to use to pry them off.
More and more mana condensed, funneling into Li Mei's body, following the trail of greenish black mana that dragged the crystallization down in the first place. Li Mei writhed in agony, but due to the orders he'd given, could not even scream. Faust tried instead to dispel the mana gathering, using his own threads to redirect its flow, but that damnable greenish black mana moved like a thing possessed, cutting him off at every opportunity.
And then it was too late.
The backlash built up, and all the mana in the surrounding block exploded in one brilliant, blooming flash of pure destruction.