《Devils Cattle》 Chapter 1: Devils Cattle A gross stench wakes me up, the taste of sulphur and meat going through my nostrils and down my throat. It was a common occurrence for dead bodies to be on the street, especially around here, but they don¡¯t usually last long enough to begin rotting. I push myself up from the greyscale mud I slept on, my shoeless feet making a squishing sound when I begin to walk in my living space. ¡®Living space¡¯ is sort of the best way to describe it, it¡¯s not a house, its more of a mud filled hut, made of weak rotting planks that have strange roots growing between the seams. All I have is a small wooden chest where I store some basic things, a ring I had stolen off my owner, a couple of copper coins that have no use, pieces of paper that have some blood on it and a pencil. ¡°You awake Fay?¡± Noah speaks through the door, he is scrawny like me, you can¡¯t exactly get a body builder physique when you¡¯re being fed scraps. ¡°Yeah, come in.¡± He opens it gently, trying not to break the door off its hinges like last time, ¡°what do you want?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a corpse, like in the middle of the street, I wanted you to come check it out with me, there¡¯s a huge crowd.¡± He begins to poke and prod at my shirt. I sigh, ¡°yeah? What¡¯s so interesting about a corpse?¡± ¡°I dunno, but there¡¯s a crowd so¡­ put two and two together, it¡¯s going to be gnarly.¡± He pulls me by the collar, taking me into the dim outside, clouds are always covering the sky nowadays, I can¡¯t remember the last time I¡¯ve seen the colour blue. I begin walking with him, the place we live in is basically a spot to store cattle, therefore the living conditions are made to keep us alive for as long as we are useful, it¡¯s fair, we did that to lesser creatures too. There is a crowd of 60 people, men, women and children all gossiping about the latest death, too stupid to worry about their own lives. They are all in a circle position, like how people surrounded witches as they burned. Noah pushes us through like we are royalty, we get a good look at the body. It looks to be an experiment gone wrong, a kid with 3 limbs connected like a wheel, his body coiled around itself. ¡°Boring.¡± I step back and leave, why would I want to be reminded of what¡¯s going to happen to me one day? Noah follows, ¡°okay yeah whatever I get it¡­¡± I begin walking towards the only nice building in the area, the food clinic. It''s made of grey bricks and has an actual interior. I enter the building, the wood floor being soaked in mud from the countless people walking in an out. "Blood please.¡± Another human, a worker, holds out a syringe to collect my blood as payment. I hold my arm out and put my hand into a fist. Making my blue vein bulge. He slides it in and collects the blood, putting it into a small vial. ¡°Next.¡± It¡¯s only me and Noah here at this time of day, so we both easily collect our scraps. ¡°Look mine looks like a crocodile.¡± He holds out one of his chips, the organic shaping of the chips just elongated one of the sides, so it looked like there was a long nose. ¡°Have you ever seen a crocodile?¡± ¡°No, well on the internet, yes, but no.¡± I forgot he was captured younger than me, probably doesn¡¯t even remember much about the modern world. ¡°Crocodiles don¡¯t have round bodies dipshit, they aren¡¯t a circle with a stick sticking out.¡± I grab it at eat it whole, the texture is squishy and gross, despite the hard exterior. ¡°Wow we got an eco-scientist over here, leave some of the food for us lesser folk.¡± He grabs one of my soft crackers and chews on it, ¡°wish I could have a cola.¡± ¡°You know what I miss?¡± We begin to walk back to the main part of town. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Mango, sweet, delicious, moist mango.¡± I lick my lips thinking about it, only tasting dirt. ¡°Well maybe Anne can plant some.¡± ¡°Oh yeah? How¡¯s that farm going by the way?¡± ¡°Shes been having trouble with compost... but has seeds.¡± ¡°Ooo what seeds?¡± I begin to smell the stench of the corpse again, more people have crowded around it. ¡°Not sure, some fruit, we¡¯re hoping it''s a vine fruit, not a tree fruit.¡± ¡°Right, a tree fruit would be trouble. Harder to hide and stuff.¡± We walk back into my living quarters, I sit down on the mud. ¡°Do you not wanna do anything today? Old man is trying to make weapons out of planks, do you want to help?¡± I just lean backwards onto the wall. Noah is a part of the whole ¡®I still have hope, and we can fight back¡¯ side of things. ¡°No, I''m good.¡± ¡°Anne wants to see you though.¡± He pokes at my face. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°I''m not into romance, tell her to find another boy to obsess over.¡± I move down further, my elbows hitting the mud and sliding until my whole back is on the floor. ¡°Shes into your ¡®I don''t give a shit¡¯ attitude, come on, when''s the last time you felt anything?¡± Noah stands over me, continuously poking at my stomach. Noah is a blonde haired boy, or was supposed to be blonde haired before he shaved it all off into a weird buzzcut, a lot of the ¡®rebels¡¯ have been doing that lately. ¡°I feel tired of your annoyingness.¡± ¡°Wow harsh.¡± He giggles while he sits beside me, ¡°tell me.¡± ¡°Tell you what?¡± I hurt my neck as I turn to look at him, his brown eyes meeting mine. ¡°What''s got you so down in the dirt, literally, in a literal sense¡± ¡°I just¡­ I think cancer patients should accept they are going to die rather than grabbing a knife and trying to rip the tumour out.¡± I stick my fingers in the mud, pulling it out then dropping it with a squishy noise. ¡°Someone needs to get you some chemo.¡± ¡°Yeah? You look like you''ve gone through chemo.¡± He slaps me softly, falling backwards to lay on the floor with me. ¡°It''s not wrong to have hope, to try and try until you break. Although you losing your hair would be a travesty.¡± He pulls on my brown hair softly, it had reached my shoulders a while ago. I slap his hand away, ¡°I don''t want my hair this long... she does...¡± ¡°For some experiment?¡± ¡°I think she just likes it...¡± the sound of a carriage slowly comes in, ¡°great, they¡¯re here to get the body.¡± I lay further down into the mud. Noah gets up, ¡°come on, I wanna intimidate them.¡± ¡°You''ll die dumbass, stay here.¡± Noah doesn''t listen, already out of the door and into the street, the wheels of the carriage get louder until they suddenly stop. I guess I should probably make sure Noah doesn''t do anything stupid. I slide up and walk, the rain had picked up yet again like it does every day, a light drizzle that keeps the ground nice and slippery. The crowd that was once there has scattered to various spots behind and inside the huts. The carriage was not royal at all, just a simple wooden carriage holding 4 people in red and gold armour, completely covered face to toe with a sleek design, they¡¯re being dragged by normal looking abnormal horses, probably designed to be stronger. The slimmest person in armour steps out towards the body and sinks down to their feet, touching it, I hide beside a hut. I see Noah doing the same, probably got too scared to intimidate anyone. The person takes the helmet off to speak clearly, it''s my owner, purple hair that is perfectly straight going down her neck Armor, greyish pale skin, eyes that are bright orange, annoyingly beautiful, something not human, ¡°When did this body arrive, did anyone see it die?¡± It speaks with an accent that isn''t identifiable, European or something, her English has gotten better from the past 5 years I''ve been in this situation though. A man steps out and shakes, I don''t remember his name but he has a shaved head, so he is one of the rebels, ¡°it came from the swamp and died here, we haven''t touched it. Not after what you did.¡± ¡°It? I think you should know this isn''t an ¡®it.¡¯ this was a 12-year-old boy named Kian, how does that make you feel?¡± She smiles very obviously, savouring the man who begins shaking in rage, ¡°oh how he was screaming for mommy, begging for me to stop.¡± She takes a step forward. The man moves as well, challenging her. The man''s hand begins bleeding, his nails digging into his palm, I begin to walk back, behind the houses because I don''t want to see another person die. Going to go home and rest. ¡°Fay? Come out, now.¡± She looks directly at me, probably noticed i was the only one moving, urgh. I walk out slowly, my knees shaking, I kneel so I don''t fall on my ass while speaking, ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°What should I do with this man?¡± She steps towards him again, her eyes genuinely glowing, giving the man an orange tint. I speak slowly but concise, ¡°killing him now would be a waste of resources¡­ you¡¯re too smart to let personal feelings get in the way of your higher goal.¡± She turns back and smiles, ¡°correct.¡± She walks back to the carriage and whispers to the other people in armor, they all get out, 2 picking up the body. Once the body is in the carriage she stops, ¡°exhilarating as always Fay¡­¡± she then wafts her hand ¡°bring the man for experimentation, we don¡¯t want to waste him, right?¡± Irritating¡­ she walks up to the man, he clearly readies and attack, swinging a haymaker at her, she lets it hit her clear in the head without budging. ¡°You done?¡± She takes out a small vial of blood and drinks it, then tapping the man¡¯s head to go to sleep. As she drags him across the mud her eyes are staring directly into mine. ¡°You can go Fay, stay safe.¡± She lifts the man by his wrist and throws him into the carriage without a care in the world about damaging him. I nod and get up, everyone is scowling at me, but I tried my best, obviously they need someone to reroute their anger to. Once the carriage is fully gone, 3 shaved people walk over to me, what seem to be the younger kids in the town, I mean I¡¯m young too but these kids were around 14 and willing to prove themselves. ¡°Demon fucker.¡± They begin to push me onto the mud, ¡°DEMON FUCKER.¡± They begin to get louder as they kick me, nobody comes in to stop them, not even Noah. My mind goes away from my body, I go into the fetal position and just wait till they get their anger out. A lot of the people here dislike me because one of the ¡®demons¡¯ took a liking to me, it¡¯s not even my fault. ¡°Okay, stop.¡± Noah walks in and guides the crying kids away. One of them shrieks, the other cries tears of anguish, then the last one just looks empty, ¡°what was his name? Tell me.¡± He speaks softly. I push myself off the mud, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°He was a great¡­¡± he walks away leaving me alone, holding back tears, Noah had collected the other two boys and is hugging them in a hut, everyone else is staring at me. Being experimented on meant you were going to return deformed or dead, I was the one exception to that rule. ¡°Bye.¡± I say as loud as I can, bruises beginning to form on my body already, a seam on my shirt had ripped so my left shoulder is fully visible down to my arm. I go back into my living space and open my chest, grabbing what little paper I had left. I bite my finger, causing it to bleed, and fill the pens ink tube with it. I¡¯m trying to figure out how they do what they do. ¡°Hey Fay? Can I come in?¡± I shove the paper back in the chest and suck the blood out of my thumb. ¡°Sure.¡± Anne walks in, her curly ginger hair stained with mud, ¡°the kids¡­ said they were sorry.¡± ¡°No they didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Yeah they didn¡¯t¡­¡± she sits on the chest, ¡°let me see the bruises.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°To make sure nothing is broken?¡± She chuckles, ¡°take your shirt off.¡± I give her a look of annoyance, ¡°no.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a ploy.¡± She kicks her legs into the mud playfully, ¡°god you¡¯re so paranoid Fay.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, I can tell when I have a broken bone like most humans.¡± I stand and stretch, ¡°see? Perfectly fine.¡± Anne stands up and holds my arms, I don¡¯t have any muscle because they like to keep us underfed, ¡°Fay, if you keep bottling things up you¡¯re going to be on that hoarders tv show.¡± ¡°Hoarders tv show?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s called¡­ I forgot you¡¯re young, you probably don¡¯t know what that is.¡± She lets go of my arms and takes a step back. ¡°Not that young, I¡¯m like 19.¡± ¡°Young compared to me dumbass.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t speak subjectives to me, I¡¯m also hot compared to a rat.¡± ¡°You think so? Have you seen a mirror?¡± She plants a pitiable laugh into the empty air and steps out, stopping by the door, ¡°there¡¯s a reason people hate you, so find out that reason and stop doing it.¡± She leaves me alone yet again. Chapter 2: Pointy sticks don鈥檛 win wars. Night has come, the man who got sent to be experimented hasn¡¯t come back, so it¡¯s to be assumed that he is dead. Am I a bad person for getting him tortured and killed rather than just killed? Everyone acts like it¡¯s my fault, when it¡¯s clearly not. I am a victim like everyone else, so why should I be guilty for getting a small advantage? I get up from my knees and go on a small walk outside, the air is nicer at night, fireflies fill the night sky making everything beautiful. Nobody is in their huts right now, at night most people go to the food clinic to convene, since it¡¯s the only place with lighting and seats. It was a genuinely nice building, it was here before I got here. Grey bricks, 2 stories, the bottom one holding crates of scrap food and the top holding the vials of blood. At first I assumed the workers there were evil, but nope, they just need to fill a quota of blood every week or they get killed, they live in the same town as us sadly. I hear some splashes of the men going into the water, trying their best not to touch the sticky bottom that pulls you under. It feels like I¡¯m missing out on a party, laughing and conversation loudly playing far away. Noah¡¯s probably inside of the food clinic chatting about the revolution. I climb up on a hut and sit on top of it, my feet dangling down, I can get a view of the whole town, not much of a town sadly so it wasn¡¯t a nice view. ¡°You being a creep again?¡± Noah sneaks up behind me and grabs my armpits, causing me to jump. ¡°People watching¡­¡± ¡°Woah no retort? you sound depressed.¡± ¡°Mhm¡­¡± He sits beside me and hits my back in a playful gesture that still hurts, with the bruising and all. ¡°Things are starting to look good, we are preparing enough weapons for everyone, you included.¡± ¡°Weapons? You mean sharp planks you cut on the food clinics bricks? Those weapons?¡± He smiles, ¡°yeah¡­ pointy things are notoriously good at hurting people¡­¡± ¡°Try and stab through a bear with a pointy stick and tell me how far that gets you.¡± That rewards me with another slap on the face. ¡°Wish we had you strategising with us, you are probably the smartest here.¡± He leans in to watch a certain someone, a blonde girl he liked with her feet in the water. ¡°If I was smart, I¡¯d be out of here already.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the only one of us who has gained the favour of a demon.¡± ¡°I think that means I¡¯m less smart and more just evil, evil attracts evil you know?¡± ¡°Actually opposites attract, magnets and shit. Speaking of which how do we make a magnet?¡± This guy almost never takes anything I say seriously, that¡¯s the only reason I can stand talking to him. ¡°You need an electric current, I think you just use iron or something, give one a negative charge and one a positive charge.¡± ¡°Okayyyy, how do we do that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t fuckin know, we don¡¯t have electricity here.¡± That shuts him up for a while, I breathe in the nice cool air, this place doesn¡¯t feel very polluted when you breathe through your mouth. ¡°Aight, I¡¯m going down, good talk.¡± ¡°Bye Noah.¡± ¡°Seeya Fay.¡± He runs off to the food clinic to talk to the people he actually cares about. I jump down from the roof of the hut and walk back to my living quarters, the sounds of people slowly disappearing. I shut the door and lay backwards into the mud, goodnight. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡­ Good morning. Another day another nightmare reality, I do my usual sulking until Noah taps on my door like he does every morning. ¡°Can I come in?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Uh, she is here for you¡­ again.¡± He seems shaken, she probably went directly to him to tell me, showing that she knows exactly who my friends are. I get up and stretch, ¡°thanks Noah, you stay here.¡± I tap him on the shoulder twice and walk out. She is right outside my hut, a carriage behind her, not like the carriage before, this is the lavish carriage she only uses for me. ¡°You look informal.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a formal place.¡± I step towards the carriage, ¡°am I going again?¡± ¡°Yes. You¡¯re in the back with me.¡± There is a man in red armour sitting at the front, directing the horses, she taps him twice then turns back, ¡°now.¡± As I walk towards the carriage I can see almost everyone staring at me, what do they want me to do? Not follow what she wants? Are they serious? I get in, there are two wide red cushioned seats, she sits on the one at the back while I sit on the front, we face each other. ¡°You can go!¡± She shouts while closing the blinds, she really doesn¡¯t like me seeing the exact route to where she lives. We stare at each other in silence, ¡°so?¡± I say, I find it¡¯s best not to bullshit with her, say what I want and be honest. ¡°So? Whats with those bruises? You probably just took a beating like a good little boy huh?¡± I shrug, ¡°I¡¯m not a fighter, if I was I¡¯d be dead.¡± ¡°Right you are.¡± Her armour clanks as she crosses her legs, she is wearing a bit of red makeup on her lips and eyes, like warpaint but sharp, precise. Makes her predatory nature physically real. We stare at each other, this has happened countless times and it always feels like I¡¯m playing conversational chess. A bump in the road signifies we are on an actual path now instead of the squishy mud, that was around 4 minutes¡­ I wonder how they hide the route¡­ ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± She leans in, always intent on hearing my every thought. ¡°I just timed how long it took to get here¡­ to find the route to escape.¡± I say plainly, usually saying plans to escape to your captor is a bad idea. ¡°Hm, you can¡¯t, not without¡­ nevermind I won¡¯t say.¡± ¡°You need a key or something?¡± ¡°Basically.¡± The bumps get smoother, 5 minutes in, I wonder if they use some of that blood magic to do this. ¡°Fay, that Noah boy, how much do you care about him?¡± This is an incredibly dangerous question, ¡°I don¡¯t really care about anyone, he¡¯s funny, but that¡¯s it.¡± ¡°Oh really? So you won¡¯t mind if I turned him into your dog? A little puppy you can walk and take care of?¡± I stop breathing for a second, then in, then out, I keep my face still, my heart beating, my jaw relaxed. ¡°Go for it.¡± I shrug, ¡°although I feel like I¡¯d just drown him if he was a dog.¡± She giggles behind her glove, ¡°you¡¯re a very good liar.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a compliment coming from you.¡± ¡°Oh my, what does that mean?¡± She gives a soft gasp, getting up and sitting beside me, I get a faint smell of lavender from her. She really is trying to impress me for some unknown reason. ¡°I¡¯ll leave your boy alone, but I want names, who should I take next?¡± This has been a common occurrence, she has been making me make the lists of who to take for experiments, she sometimes listens and sometimes doesn¡¯t, I usually choose the eldest people, given they¡¯d probably die soon anyway. ¡°I actually don¡¯t have a list at the moment¡­¡± ¡°You do, but you can tell me when you¡¯re more relaxed¡­¡± she plays with her hair, ¡°your hair is nearly as long as mine.¡± She leans over and sniffs me, holding my hair to her nose, ¡°you need a proper shower.¡± She yanks a strand out and takes it, ¡°imagine if I made a clone of you¡­ then kept the original trapped in a cage¡­ I¡¯d keep cloning you and you¡¯ll never be able to experience the happiness I give your doppelg?ngers.¡± ¡°Clone me and I¡¯ll kill myself.¡± She smiles, twirling the strand in her finger, ¡°which self?¡± ¡°The one who loses.¡± She lets out a small breath, her orange eyes staring into mine, she doesn¡¯t have pupils so it¡¯s hard to know what she is thinking. ¡°Then¡­ I¡¯ll see if I can make it happen.¡± She curls up on herself like an excited schoolgirl who just got asked on a date. The carriage stops, ¡°finally, you smell awful. Can¡¯t stand being around humans.¡± She puts a bag around my head and pushes me out harshly, I twist my ankle on the drop off the carriage. ¡°Move, move, you¡¯re so useless.¡± She pushes me, I don¡¯t know where I¡¯m walking. ¡°WALK CORRECTLY.¡± She grabs my wrist and drags me, I lose my footing so she just lets my knees get cut up on the rough ground, my legs get hit my stairs before reaching carpet. ¡°So fragile.¡± She pulls me up more stairs, making sure my legs hit each one, I try not to make any noises of pain. I¡¯m taken into a room and onto a bed, I¡¯ve been here countless times before, the bag gets ripped off my head. ¡°Urgh, doing that whole showing off thing is so degrading for me, but I can¡¯t exactly bring you in normally can I?¡± She grabs some paper, ¡°let me heal you.¡± There is a vial of blood that she dips her fountain pen into, she writes something fairly quickly, then drinks the rest of the vial. ¡°Say thank you.¡± ¡°Thank you master oh dearest master.¡± I say sarcastically, my body now laying backwards on the perfect king sized bed, the bed frame being made of mahogany, much like everything else in the room. She rips the paper with the writing on it then takes my shirt off, ¡°woah, bruises.¡± She pushes down on one harshly, making my body to scream in pain, my lips stay shut. She places the paper on my chest, then holds her hand on it, saying something in a foreign language. The paper burns up. My body feels tingly with static and goes back to normal after a couple seconds, I feel as perfect as physically possible with my malnutrition. She grabs some grapes and begins feeding them to me by hand, ¡°you¡¯re so puny, I¡¯m going to get changed, don¡¯t leave or I¡¯ll really genuinely ruin everything in your life.¡± She walks out. I get up instantly, checking out her notes, trying to remember as many of the symbols as possible. I¡¯ve done this every single time, if I can use their magic I can actually fight back in a meaningful way. Not just with pointy sticks. Chapter 3: Playing god. There¡¯s only so much time I get before she comes back, I memorise as many symbols as possible then sit back on the bed, waiting. I wish I could just take her whole research book, but that¡¯ll 100% get me tortured and killed. The door swings open as she walks in, she is now wearing a purple dress that matches her hair, the usual one she wears with the slit on the leg and heart cut out near the collarbone. Without the armour she looks to be around mid 20s, although I¡¯d assume she is older considering she hasn¡¯t aged in the past 5 years. Her height is taller than mine, 6 feet if I were to guess. ¡°Let¡¯s clean you up.¡± She walks over to the desk and writes something in blood, using a specific blood vial and taking a sip. ¡°You should live here with me.¡± I know for a fact that¡¯s a trap, the less time I spend with her the better, if she manages to ¡®figure me out¡¯ there would be nothing left stopping her from killing me. ¡°Nah I like living there, keeps me humble.¡± She places the paper on my chest, saying a few words in a different language again. It burns up and all the grime and sweat from my body dissolves. My hair feels silky smooth and shines in the mirror placed on the roof of the bed. ¡°I actually have a reward for you.¡± She speaks softly while sitting beside me, ¡°but first¡­ tell me about who you want me to take.¡± I think deeply, I could just say another one of the elderly¡¯s name, or¡­ ¡°Jackson Colton.¡± He is around 34, not nearly as old as my usual choices. But. He is the leader of that stupid rebellion that¡¯ll get everyone killed. He isn¡¯t a bad person, just stupid, to save everyone else I think it¡¯s the best choice. I don¡¯t feel good about it, but I¡¯d be saving the majority of people if they give up on the rebellion right? ¡°There¡¯s a break in the pattern here¡­ why him?¡± ¡°He is a trouble maker.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± She gives me an other worldly grin, ¡°playing god now are we?¡± She steps up with a little hop and makes her way to the closet, ¡°I got my designer to make you something.¡± She takes out almost the exact same clothes I¡¯m wearing, ¡°don¡¯t look so sad, there¡¯s a built in spell, keeps you clean, you just need to drop blood on it every day, two oz.¡± She holds it out, like it¡¯s a genuine gift, ¡°what¡¯s the catch?¡± ¡°You obviously won¡¯t use it and instead study it to find out how it works. I think that¡¯s funny.¡± She pats me twice on the head. ¡°How badly do you want my old study book?¡± I¡¯m caught off guard, I shouldn¡¯t tell her anything that I ¡®want¡¯, ¡°it makes no difference, I¡¯ll figure it out either way.¡± That seems to make her curl up again in excitement, she gets as close as she can and bites down on my shoulder, causing me to bleed. I wince slightly as she pushes me down onto the bed, he teeth still latched onto me. She pulls away ¡°ah¡­¡± she licks my bite mark twice before pulling back with a gasp ¡°do you want any food Fay? Anything you desire in specific?¡± Mangos¡­ ¡°nothing really.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll get you some bread.¡± She walks to the door, standing for a moment, waiting for me to say goodbye. I just stare at her, a minute passes, then two. ¡°Would love to see that back bone of yours.¡± She walks out swinging her arms, what she said was probably entirely literal. As far as things go, this was normal for me, she never takes me to get experimented on like the others, I just stay in her room and rest until nightfall usually. Then I get a bag over my head and thrown into the mud. I hold the clothes out, it¡¯s a brown shirt like mine but the fabric is much nicer, then pants which have a more stylish volume to them. Clearly very very expensive and clearly very much a waste since I¡¯ll be ripping it up back home to figure out how it works. There is a small tag on the collar that says the name ¡®Gracelia.¡¯ Which could be a brand or a person. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. She comes in with some fresh bread ¡°baked it for you like a dutiful wife.¡± She begins cutting it on the desk, leaving crumbs everywhere ¡°husband sit at my desk please, it¡¯s bad manners to eat on the bed.¡± This girl is so irritating, bringing my culture into a stupid joke, I place the clothes on the bed and walk over, I place a kiss on her forehead, ¡°thanks wifey.¡± She steps back for a second, contemplating what to do, there¡¯s rage I see in her eyes, unified rage between us. ¡°Okay!¡± She smiles and pulls out the chair for me to eat, she spreads butter on the cold bread and makes the eating experience pleasant and easy. I eat as gracefully as I can, despite how hungry I am, you¡¯d be surprised how unbelievably hard it is not to go feral on this bread right now. I finish the entire loaf, ¡°and to think I thought you¡¯d share it with me.¡± She makes a fake pouting face while guiding me off the chair, ¡°I actually have a place I want you to go today, follow me.¡± She opens the door to the outside hallway, not once had I been allowed to leave without a bag on my head¡­ is she going to kill me for that forehead kiss? ¡°Change first, into those nicer clothes.¡± She watches as I strip myself near the bed, putting on the comfortable silky clothes I¡¯ll have to rip up later. ¡°Follow, no words from here on.¡± She walks out hastily, I follow as quietly as possible, the hallway has the same mahogany aesthetic, logs as stability then red painted walls with gold patterns on them, the floor was all red carpet but felt harsh against my feet. We make a turn and some girl dressed up in a black dress walks by us while shaking, ¡°wait.¡± She says as the girl passes by, ¡°come.¡± ¡°Yes master.¡± She says softly, holding her hands together in front of her while bowing. She steps forward at a respectable distance, still shaking, my owner speaks as cutesy as she can, ¡°you remember this boys face?¡± ¡°No master.¡± She continues to look down. ¡°You didn¡¯t even check, look at him, you remember his face?¡± She grabs her jaw and makes her look at me. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t¡­¡± is whispered faintly. ¡°Oh¡­ I¡¯m so silly, I¡¯m sorry.¡± She lets go and steps back, ¡°I¡¯ve created a paradox! I ask if you can remember his face, but you can¡¯t tell me without seeing his face! Making you remember it!¡± She giggles and laughs. ¡°Very good one master¡­¡± ¡°Yeah well, bye.¡± She places a hand over her face and it dissolves into a puddle on the floor, the body drops and the dress lays flat. All that¡¯s left is a skull, ¡°funny right? Fay?¡± I don¡¯t respond, her eyes grinning at mine, she puts her hand on the jaw of the skull and moves it like a puppet, she uses a high pitched voice, ¡°I¡¯m Fay, and I don¡¯t have a sense of hum-or.¡± I don¡¯t say a word, remembering her saying I shouldn¡¯t talk, when she makes demands like that it¡¯s an excuse to hurt you when you break them. She throws the skull behind her and goes to a set of stairs, we walk down one flight, then another. The entire interior of this place is dark and made of concrete. Like a secrete military base. ¡°It was¡­ door 23e, here, you can talk now Fay.¡± She unlocks the metal door by touching it, it slides to the side like it¡¯s those sliding doors at supermarkets. I walk in and see the man from yesterday, the one who was taken due to my advice of not wasting resources, in a small dog cage, alive but gagged. ¡°You wanted to learn magic right? Let me give you a crash course.¡± She ungags the man, he stares directly into my eyes. ¡°Fucking traitor, demon fucker.¡± His voice is filled with spite and hatred. ¡°Okay, let me show you how to shut him up first.¡± She gags him again while he tries to bite her fingers, ¡°come, sit on my lap.¡± She sits down at a table and pats her crossed legs I do as I¡¯m told, we sit at a large table full of paper and blood vials, not speaking a word, I¡¯m scared if I open my mouth I¡¯ll begin to just scream curses. ¡°So, you¡¯ve clearly tried to figure out these symbols, I¡¯ll show you what one means, if I wanted to crush his windpipe I¡¯d use this symbol here.¡± She draws a line going down, then a snake like figure wrapping around it, ¡°that represents the windpipe, then I¡¯d add the symbol for soft crushing, we don¡¯t want an explosion now do we?¡± She draws in 4 symbols. ¡°Soft crushing is made of 4 variables, we have a carry variable to tell that we want the windpipe affected, then a multiplier for damage depending on blood used, which I put at around 10% so he doesn¡¯t drown in his own blood, then explosion combined with downwards gravity.¡± She taps the two symbols at the end, ¡°these two together just cause an implosion, like when you squeeze a lemon. Do you understand?¡± I just nod, I feel sick to my stomach, she takes out a syringe, ¡°I want you to write it for me, using your blood.¡± She takes my blood and puts it into a vial. ¡°Take as much time as you need.¡± She lifts me up while getting off the chair, then sitting me down, placing the fountain pen between my fingers. I dip the pen and begin writing, copying the exact symbols as she watches from above. ¡°Now rip it so it can be placed on his skin.¡± I tear the paper off, looking at the man in the cage who is shaking his head, holding back tears. ¡°You need to drink some blood, this spell doesn¡¯t require much so just take a sip, it needs to be in your stomach for it to work. I grab the vial and sip a hefty amount, trying to punish myself for what I¡¯m about to do¡­ I crouch down in front of the man, ¡°I¡¯ll hold him still for you.¡± She grabs him so he cannot move, I place the paper on his collarbone. ¡°Now say¡­ morva eris¡­¡± her voice goes silky smooth when she spoke those two words. I stop for a second, thinking through my options, I was convinced she would activate it for me, but no, no she hasn¡¯t, that means¡­. I rip the paper from his collar bone and slam it onto hers with as much force as possible, ¡°morva eris.¡± A crunching sound happens, she grasps for her throat like a dying animal, breathing desperately. I grab the man¡¯s gag and take it off, ¡°where¡¯s the key?¡± ¡°Holy fuck¡­ you killed it¡­ it¡¯s in the bottom drawer, left side.¡± I stand up, her body is convulsing, with blood coming out of every hole, I step aside her body and rummage through the bottom drawer. A shiny gold key is very visible in the drawer full of metal devices, I grab it and turn around, to see the man¡¯s head blowing up like a balloon. The girl is standing up with a wicked smile on her face, ¡°congratulations on losing your magic virginity.¡± Her hand is touching the man¡¯s head, it strains against the bars as it gets bigger. The man¡¯s head pops and everything goes red. Chapter 4: Seeds of change My owner asked if I wanted to stay the night after the show she gave me, naturally I said no, I can¡¯t stand that place, all my worst memories are there. I¡¯m being taken in a worse carriage, a bag over my head which makes breathing increasingly difficult with my panic attack rising. Today was one of the worser ones, I really thought she was chilling out, recently she has just been letting me eat and sleep there while playing mind games, now she is getting me to kill people with my own hands. She made a mistake though. The only thing I was missing from my research was the fact that the pen I was using was poor, there was no secret code or the fact that I¡¯m human making it impossible. I had snuck out with a fountain pen, put it snuggly into my pant pocket. I have my hand in my pocket right now just so I know not to lose it. The carriage stops, the bag gets removed from my head and I get kicked out, the man in armour leaving, almost having the carriage ride over my leg. This place looks exactly the same, but everything feels different, one door opens with a slushing sound and Noah walks out, ¡°how was it?¡± I¡¯ve only told him good things about my time with her throughout the years, but I know some part of him knows I¡¯m lying. ¡°Was good, got bread with butter, new clothes, she healed my wounds too.¡± I smile at him, acting like there¡¯s a camera facing me. Noah doesn¡¯t reply, ¡°sounds rough.¡± ¡°No it¡¯s fine, really I¡¯m fine.¡± I walk towards my hut, he follows me. ¡°Hey,¡± he grabs my shoulder, ¡°Anne has something to show you.¡± He takes me to her hut, which was one of the furthest ones away, near the murky water. The fireflies in the sky are very prevalent around her house. He knocks on her door incredibly softly, ¡°are you awake? Fay wants to see the farm.¡± There is no response so he knocks twice softly, ¡°helllooo?¡± A few moments pass and he kicks the door, it flies open, Anne is awake, startled and afraid, rubbing her eyes. ¡°Noah what the fuck!?¡± She gets up and looks at the door, one of the hinges got broken. ¡°Don¡¯t swear in front of Fay, I¡¯ll fix it later.¡± She looks over at me and gives a faint smile, ¡°hey Fay, how was it?¡± ¡°Good, like always.¡± ¡°Glad to know she treats you better than everyone else.¡± There¡¯s a faint spite in her voice, ¡°nevermind, sorry, look.¡± She takes me into her hut and shows me the progress of the plant, she had used planks to build a big pot for compost. The compost just being human feces, it was very disturbingly gross, but good for farming. There is a little green sprout, it looks unnatural in the grey world we live in. ¡°How do you sleep here? Smells like shit.¡± Noah breaks the silence, I¡¯m just staring in awe, looking at this actual piece of hope. This isn¡¯t revolution, this is just hope that we can prosper in a place where decay is inevitable. I speak softly, ¡°you know what it is?¡± Anne crouches down ¡°tomatoes, it¡¯ll fill the world with colour when it grows fully¡­¡± Noah crouches in between us, squishing me a bit, ¡°yeah and we can use the red from the tomatoes to make war paint.¡± I sigh, ¡°that¡¯s¡­ sure¡­ go ahead.¡± Noah flicks my forehead a couple times before getting up, brushing the mud off his pants. ¡°Those are pretty fancy clothes; the mud doesn¡¯t stick to them.¡± He pulls on the fabric, ¡°uh¡­¡± His face twists in confusion, making me confused, ¡°what is it?¡± He lifts the arm hole, pulling my skin with it, ¡°this shirt is threaded into you¡­¡± Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. I take a deep breath in, ¡°yeah it¡¯s okay.¡± Of course she would do this, every place where my body touches the fabric is connected to my skin, my collar, my shoulders, my pants probably do the same thing on my waist. I smile, ¡°alright, well I¡¯m going to bed, thanks for showing me the plant Anne.¡± She just stares at me in disbelief but does not try to stop me from leaving. The mud on my finger''s dissolves, the clothes seem to do a routine cleaning every few seconds. What did she say again? 2 oz of blood a day I need to feed it? If I stop feeding it, will it die? Will I die if it dies? I don¡¯t want to test that theory. I enter my hut, opening my chest to check my notes, I had a lot of the healing spell notes she did, now that I know what the ¡®carry variable¡¯ looks like I can easily fill in the rest. It goes, body, carry variable, and then 3 symbols which probably combine to heal. It¡¯s like a new language. There are a couple people here with sickness and disease, I¡¯m hoping this baseline spell can help them¡­ I just need blood. I¡¯ll chat to those workers tomorrow, see if I can get a vial of my own. I put my things back into the chest, including my fountain pen, then lay down to start another day. My clothes are annoyingly sticky, like I have glue on the inside, it takes a while to be comfortable¡­ I¡¯m guessing I won¡¯t be able to cut it up or anything, she would¡¯ve made that harm me. Goodnight¡­ ¡­ Good morning I stay face down in the mud, having this self-cleaning spell on me has really made me care even less about professionalism. Someone knocks on the door, it''s far too soft to be Noah, ¡°Fay? Can we talk?¡± Anne¡¯s voice comes through the door. ¡°Yeah sure.¡± I sit upright, the mud on my face falling off with zero friction. She comes in with a little frown, ¡°wanted to talk last night but you seemed in... a bad headspace...¡± ¡°Hm? Aren''t we all?¡± ¡°In comparison to the rest of us? Yes.¡± Her eyes never leave mine, she sits in front of me, cross legged. ¡°Comparisons blahmarisons.¡± I try to keep the conversation light. ¡°What does she do to you?¡± She keeps the conversation dark. ¡°Just feeds and takes care of me, the usual.¡± I say my usual lie, i know she and Noah don¡¯t believe it for a second, everyone else does though, everyone else thinks I¡¯ve seduced the demon. Her hands ball into fists, ¡°She threaded clothes onto your fucking skin.¡± ¡°So what? At least she isn''t killing me.¡± I lean backwards on the rotting wall, ¡°It''s a spell to keep me clean.¡± I grab some mud and smear it on my face, it dissolves after a few seconds, ¡°see?¡± ¡°And that doesn''t make you feel, you know, not human?¡± ¡°Does it matter?¡± I say this without much thought behind it, it seems to anger her, like i just stabbed her with a knife. She pulls my sleeve, the fabric barely moves as its fused to my body, ¡°listen, we are ALL struggling, but we also take solace in each other''s company, YOU don''t have that, for the past 5 years... since... 14... you''ve been singled out by this-this thing and we have no fucking clue what she is doing to you.¡± She pulls in closer, her face to mine, she doesn''t say a word. Her greenish eyes pierce mine with unsaid words. ¡°I''m fine.¡± Is all I can get out, she pulls back and laughs. I watch her step out, not even turning back, her dirty clothes blow in the wind as she leaves, the ginger hair on her head looks almost grey from the sunlight. My body seems to act on its own, I walk out and start following her for some reason. She begins to quicken so I do too. ¡°Why are you following me?¡± She says out of breath, still speed walking towards the food clinic. ¡°I¡¯m going to the food clinic.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°They¡¯re holding another meeting.¡± She says this like it means anything to me. ¡°Good, maybe I can talk them out of being stupid.¡± She continues her fast pace, ¡°they aren¡¯t being stupid, they¡¯re being human.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll talk them out of that too.¡± I catch up to her, walking side by side. She doesn¡¯t say another word as we reach the food clinic. There are a bunch of people convening inside, the stench in the air makes me almost gag, Anne doesn¡¯t seem to notice. I walk in and everyone stares at me, ¡°I¡¯m just here for food scraps.¡± I walk up to one of the workers, ¡°take my blood.¡± The worker steps forward, ¡°I¡¯m busy.¡± His words spit into my face. I prepare myself for another beating. ¡°Hey hey, it¡¯s fine.¡± I hear the soothing voice of Jackson, someone I consider to be a cult leader nowadays. ¡°Take my blood, I¡¯ll pay.¡± He holds out his arm gracefully, with his palm open. ¡°No, just take mine.¡± I put my arm out in front of his, Jackson smiles a bit and takes a stride back, the crowd is full of whispers, I can hear faint words of discontent and envy towards me. Jackson runs his hand through his brown blonde hair, mud covering his entire body head to toe, he gives the worker the tiniest of nods, ¡°go for it.¡± The worker grabs the syringe from a box and inserts it into my arm, carefully extracting it into the vial. ¡°Oh, I actually changed my mind, I don¡¯t want food, can I get that back?¡± I reach for the vial, hoping the worker wouldn¡¯t care enough¡­ to care. He pulls away, ¡°what for?¡± ¡°Personal reasons.¡± That seems to set the stage for an all out revolution just on me, I admit it¡¯s strange to be asking for blood, that¡¯s something a demon would say. Jackson grabs the vial from his hand and passes it to me, ¡°here, stay safe okay?¡± He puts it in my hand, putting his second hand under mine. ¡°Just tell me, why don¡¯t you like the idea of us fighting back?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯ll get you all killed.¡± ¡°Right, because when a lion attacks your family you just let it, you don¡¯t do all you can to protect them.¡± I frown, ¡°that¡¯s not the situation, the lion is coming once a week to take someone, but if you attack the lion it¡¯ll kill all of us. That doesn¡¯t sound very wise does it?¡± He lets go, leaving the vial in my hands, ¡°hah, Noah was right, you are sharp.¡± He turns back towards the crowd, ¡°take care of yourself Fay.¡± I nod and leave, god damn it I wish Jackson was a bad guy, the fact that I told the owner to kill him¡­ instead of sadness it now fills me with dread. Chapter 5: Implosion With my vial in hand, and my goal within reach, I return to my hut and begin planning my spells, I had 6 pages in total, 3 of which were completely ruined by failed attempts. I pull a piece of paper, using the chest as a makeshift desk, along with the vial and fountain pen, time to make a healing spell. I copy the symbols from my notes, body, carry, 3 combination variables which hopefully mean a ¡®general heal.¡¯ The fountain pen works wonderfully with the vial, I finish the spell within seconds. She normally drinks a lot of blood for healing magic, must be expensive. I go to the corner of my hut and slice the side of my arm open against a sharp bit of the wall, the blood slides off my body quickly due to my clothes. This is the wound I want my spell to heal. I rip the paper, drink the vial and place it on my arm. ¡°Morva eris.¡± I say as strongly as possible, I feel the tingling feeling I normally feel before healing, pins and needles stabbing my body. Instead I vomit, heaps of blood comes out from me previously drinking the vial, the wound hasn¡¯t healed at all, and I feel lightheaded. What did I do wrong? The paper only burnt halfway through, I hold it close to my face, I messed a symbol up probably. A piecing feeling hits my skull. I fall to the ground. ¡­ ¡°Hey wake up.¡± I feel someone slapping my face, ¡°you got a nasty wound¡­¡± my arm gets lifted and placed onto my chest. The wound probably won¡¯t get infected due to my clothes luckily. I open my eyes to see Noah, he seems worried and confused, the stuff I had on top of the chest isn¡¯t there anymore. ¡°I have questions.¡± He says softly, ¡°are you¡­ on our side¡­?¡± I never told them about my plan of learning their magic, if I did they¡¯d most likely go all in and get hurt, and considering that failed attempt, that I felt like I had almost died, I made the right choice. ¡°If I wasn¡¯t my answer would be the same, but yeah I¡¯m on your side dickhead.¡± I get a feeling of a spike hitting my brain, ¡°argh.¡± Leaves my lips while I cradle my head. The pain subsides as quickly as it came. ¡°Your nose is bleeding.¡± He says softly, I wipe my own nose and watch as it dissolves. I can¡¯t really tell him, not after what just happened to me, I was planning to show off how blood magic works when I actually knew how to use it, I¡¯m not giving away half baked information that¡¯ll get us killed. ¡°Stop asking questions.¡± ¡°Or what?¡± I wanna say something like ¡®you¡¯ll get people hurt¡¯ but that seems like a genuine threat. ¡°Because I¡¯m trying to help, give me time.¡± We start a sort of staring contest where neither of us wants to accept defeat. ¡°Yeah sorry, I¡¯m just paranoid.¡± He smiles and ruffles my hair, ¡°you wouldn¡¯t do anything, I trust ya.¡± He looks to me, then to the chest, then back to me, ¡°hope you remember who you are.¡± He walks out, his entire body clouded in fake relaxation. I need more blood, I wonder¡­ I wonder if blood types have anything to do with it? I notice whenever she is writing a spell she chooses a specific vial¡­ How do I get other vials though? The food clinic is usually locked up at night¡­ I just wait, as usual on most days nothing happens, twice a week she comes to pick someone up to be taken, me usually as the second person to actually come back. I remember the first time I was taken, it was around 4 months in when I was captured, she came by in a carriage and pointed at me, I was so small back then. I was yelling and screaming like everyone else did when they got chosen, she was just laughing, and then a soothing calmness wafted over me, I tried a different approach, everyone I saw who got taken was always yelling and crying, I decided to do neither, my body completely shut down. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I looked her in the eyes, I don¡¯t know what I was thinking, most people said her eyes bring out a deep sense of fear, but to me they were just eyes. Her face changed for a second, a small smile appeared on her face and she told me, ¡®there¡¯s fighters, then there¡¯s flighters¡­ then there¡¯s you.¡¯ She took me to her room after a carriage ride, fed me, questioned me and healed me, keeping me clean, I felt weird, I wondered if this is what she does to everyone before she experiments on them. When she wasn¡¯t looking I grabbed one of the mugs from the bedside table and slammed it into her, she stood still for a second as the tea dripped from her hair, then she just turned around and hugged me. I didn¡¯t get experimented on, I got sent back, and people were so happy, they said it was a miracle I was spared without a deformity, people laughed and cheered. The next week I was taken again, I was less scared, I knew what to expect. I had full confidence I could repeat the same events. And to my luck, I was right, she was strange, she usually tried to scare me, find out how I tick, but I knew if I just kept surprising her, I¡¯d be safe. I came back, the town said it was a miracle, they cheered and laughed. The next week, I was taken again, same old thing happened, I came back, the people said it was a miracle and cheered. The next week I was taken, I came back, the people said it was a miracle. The next week I was taken, I came back, the people said I was lucky. The next week, I came back, they gave me a pat on the back. The next week, I came back, they smiled at me. The next week I came back, they watched as I tracked back into my hut, to sit in silence. I wondered how a group of people could get so bored of a kid surviving what nobody else does, every week they see someone get taken, they most likely die, then they see me get taken, and I always live. I¡¯m the target for all the resentment of those deaths, ¡®how come he gets to live but the others don¡¯t? That¡¯s not fair!¡¯ While I was just trying to survive like the rest of them. You know what I think? I think I¡¯m doing a great service for always taking the second spot of who was taken, before I started getting chosen specifically it was two people a week who didn¡¯t come back, now it¡¯s one. You¡¯re welcome. I just sit in my own thoughts until night falls, the fireflies come out in droves from the swamp, there¡¯s not much sound coming from my open door besides the flickering of bugs. I open the chest and luckily Noah didn¡¯t take anything, I copy that implosion spell she taught me, I¡¯m hoping if I don¡¯t put a specific target it¡¯ll just implode whatever I put the paper on. That makes sense right? I write 4 implosion spells. Two without the carry variable because I¡¯m unsure if I need that if I don¡¯t have a target. I also removed the 10% damage variable, because I assume a door is stronger than a windpipe. I step outside holding the paper, rain sprinkles down so I hide the ripped pieces of paper in my pocket. I put the rest of the blood vial in my hand, there¡¯s not much left. Nobody is near the food clinic as I approach, it¡¯s clear that everyone is asleep from the long day of plotting the war of ants versus ant eaters. Okay, I reach the door and it¡¯s locked like always, I place the paper on it and right as I am about to say the words, I think. There¡¯s no target on this paper, so what¡¯s stopping the paper from targeting me instead of the door? Nothing. I decide to reach up and place the piece of paper in the top crack, having it lay flat and cozy¡­ this won¡¯t just try to implode the whole house right? I drink half of the remaining quarter of blood I have left from the vial. It¡¯ll be fine, it¡¯ll be fine. I hold my hand just barely on the paper, not quite touching, sort of like I¡¯m handling a magic ball. ¡°Morva eris.¡± The door creaks softly for a second and disappears with a ¡®woom¡¯ sound, a small ball lands on the floor, the entire door was compressed into a 8 inch sphere. I try to pick it up, its way too heavy and I can¡¯t get a decent grip, ah who cares, it¡¯s fine. I walk in, all the candles are out which makes things difficult. I breathe heavily, yet again I feel light headed A sharp pain shoots through my brain, I fall to the floor, an ice pick is being stabbed repeatedly into the top right of my head. I steady myself on my hands and knees, I cough up blood yet again, god damn it¡­ I wonder if there¡¯s a limit to how much the body can take with magic, is a healing spell an advanced magic? Probably, this didn¡¯t seem like a joke of a spell either. Crushing a windpipe isn¡¯t nearly as extreme as crushing a door into a small ball. I get up, they store the vials in the back area, there¡¯s a door which leads to it that was luckily unlocked. I open it up and walk in, it contains shelves and shelves of vials, all full of blood. Now, there¡¯s a likely chance people will know someone broke in with the door missing and all, but the only person who could genuinely suspect me is Noah, who saw my notes. I am doubtful he will try to get me in trouble, I¡¯m counting on that. How¡¯s a little blood magic going to get in the way of 5 years of friendship? I grab around 6 different vials of blood, all varying in blood types. And I walk out the door, this was incredibly easy, it¡¯s not like I suspected much resistance, but still. I walk to my hut and realise storing the vials in my chest might not be the best place for them. The only person TO suspect in this situation is me, I¡¯m the most disliked in the town, even without the information Noah has I¡¯ll still be a suspect. I put the vials behind the chest, dug under the mud, like treasure. I also rip up all the old research paper I had, only showing the blank pages left. I stuff the research paper in the mud as well. All done, I¡¯ll be fine. Chapter 6: Float This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Chapter 7: Putting down the dog. The hut stays silent, it¡¯s probably around 11 pm, I¡¯m forcing myself to stay up, this is exactly what Jackson wants, me to be tired and intoxicated by sleep deprivation. I see him walk by my door, he turns his head ¡°oh this is your hut? Didn¡¯t know, took a while to find you.¡± That¡¯s a lie. He elegantly places himself on top of the chest, sitting on it with his legs crossed, ¡°now tell me, people fear what they don¡¯t understand, so why are you so secretive?¡± He is back to the cryptic talk, I hate this guy actually. ¡°If I had nuke launch codes would I just give them away to everyone? Or figure out where those missiles are aiming first.¡± He nods, ¡°you¡¯re a big one for metaphors aren¡¯t you? Not one for saying what you really mean.¡± He looks around the place, then staring at the chest below. He stands up, ¡°this chest, it was given to you right? She gave it to you?¡± I nod, it¡¯s obvious he already knew that, nobody else has chests. ¡°So if I were to open this? Would it kill me?¡± I shake my head, ¡°it¡¯s just a wooden box.¡± He lifts up the lid and looks at the contents, a gold ring, copper coins, 3 pieces of paper with the 3rd being ripped a bit and a fountain pen. ¡°Hm, so that¡¯s how¡­¡± he figures it out almost instantly, ¡°the ink is blood correct?¡± There¡¯s no point lying to a question he already has the answers to, ¡°yes.¡± He clicks his tongue a couple times, pacing a bit, ¡°hm, not good.¡± He takes a piece of paper out, then the fountain pen, ¡°show me.¡± ¡°No.¡± He smiles a bit, pacing again, he walks to the door and closes it, ¡°tell me Fay, do you feel special? Chosen? The ¡®one.¡¯¡± I stay completely still, I don¡¯t know why but it seems like he could very much beat me to death currently, I reach into my pocket, but found nothing, that swim must¡¯ve destroyed the paper. ¡°My circumstances are certainly different.¡± I give a general answer, an objective fact. ¡°They are, yet we seem to know nothing about what she does with you, what do you two talk about¡­?¡± There is an obvious glint of truth he is holding onto right now, ¡°she just¡­ just toys with me.¡± I give the most honest answer I¡¯ve given anyone. ¡°Oh¡­ hm. You want to tell me why she sometimes chooses the elderly? And always seems to nod at you when she does so?¡± This is a nightmare, ¡°what are you talking about? Probably¡­ she needs to get rid of the older ones first because they are likely to die¡­ before¡­ the rest.¡± I realise how alien I sound, it¡¯s logically correct¡­ but. He slams his hand into the wall beside me, ¡°don¡¯t act stupid.¡± I¡¯ve been completely cornered, he knows more than anyone here most likely, I didn¡¯t expect anyone to be that perceptive. Shit, if I admit that I can tell her who to take he might tell someone else, then if she takes Jackson it will be obvious, obvious I told her to kill him. ¡°I don¡¯t have a say in anything.¡± I try to sound as strong as possible. ¡°Yeah? Strange. I must just be ¡®fucking paranoid and not fit to be a leader¡¯ huh?¡± He moves back, ¡°I¡¯m fine with you not wanting to be apart of our revolution, I¡¯m fine with you openly saying you hate it, I¡¯m even fine with your stupid secrets.¡± He leaves silence for a moment, letting me absorb his words, ¡°what I¡¯m not fine is with you actively working against us.¡± I open my mouth but he shuts it down with his continued monologue, ¡°but, you are more use to me alive, if you are an ally to her, it¡¯s a very valuable resource.¡± This guy is working his way up to using me as a hostage, ¡°why are you telling me all this, are you stupid?¡± ¡°I¡¯m telling you because I don¡¯t think you are genuinely a traitor.¡± He paces towards the chest, ¡°but I do think you are capable of very stupid things.¡± He grabs all the paper and the fountain pen, ¡°this is mine now.¡± He wafts the paper in my face, a gentle breeze blows through my hair, ¡°adios, oh and also.¡± He reaches into his pocket and gives me food scraps, ¡°consider it a dog treat, considering how you act around her.¡± He drops it in the mud. He leaves while whistling to himself, what a dickhead. I fall face down on the mud, part of me is glad I put him on the list, he is dangerous, he is thinking that poking a bear is better than just giving it honey¡­ fuck now he¡¯s got me self conscious about my metaphors. I groan into the mud as I sleep. Goodnight. ¡­ Good morning. I wake up to nobody knocking at my door, no Noah, no Anne, I guess they both gave up on me. I walk out towards the food clinic since my stomach is a bit achy. There are a lot of people there this time of day. Through the door I can see multiple swords made of planks, kids swinging them around, all giggling. There are some people swimming and some people just chatting, must be nice to be apart of this community. Now that there¡¯s no door I just walk in, the worker stares at me, ¡°can you take my blood?¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Not until you return the vials you stole.¡± He stands straight. I could just return the vials, I really could, I should, but I wont. Someone walks besides me, ¡°just take mine, stop being an ass.¡± Noah holds his arm out. The worker stares at Noah with respect, turning to me colours his face with distain. ¡°Just give me two vials.¡± I accept, holding my arm out, he fills one, placing it on a crate, then fills another. I feel light headed. I sway a bit as he hands me my food, I walk out not thinking anyone would notice I¡¯m gone. ¡°How¡¯d the talk go?¡± Noah runs upto me. ¡°You know how it went.¡± I say with a bit too much spite, our friendship has been a bit too rocky lately. ¡°I do, from his perspective, how¡¯d it go for you?¡± I don¡¯t respond, everything he says feels like it¡¯s just a way to get information, this isn¡¯t my friend talking to me. I enter my hut and sit down, ¡°go away.¡± He gives me a shoulder pat, a gesture he did not earn with this fake conversation, ¡°take it easy.¡± Take it easy¡­ I eat my food then lay in the mud, doing absolutely nothing. The whole day passes without anyone checking up on me¡­ nothing happens. I fall asleep. ¡­ Morning. I slept in a bit, I can¡¯t even be bothered to get up, every bone in my body is screaming for action, every muscle wanting that contraction. I just lay until something happens. Nothing happens. Night. ¡­ I roll over in my sleep, I woke up at night, the fireflies are out. I feel dizzy and sick, I haven¡¯t drank water since¡­ a while. I go to the swamp and quickly suck some down. I don¡¯t expect anyone to give me water at the food clinic since I¡¯m universally hated. It seems like it¡¯s early night, there¡¯s a party going on, probably a birthday. I feel someone tap me on the shoulder, ¡°you trying to drain the swamp? Good escape plan.¡± Anne chuckles nervously, the moment I look at her, her face changes from relaxed to scared. ¡°You look incredibly pale.¡± ¡°Yeah? Just been¡­ not doing too good.¡± I stop shoveling swamp water into my mouth and sit backwards. ¡°You¡¯re a bit of a recluse, but I can¡¯t blame you¡­ have you figured out what you¡¯re going to do?¡± I look at the sky, there¡¯s a parting in the clouds that show a few stars, ¡°Anne, if I betrayed everyone¡­ but it was for the greater good, would it be okay?¡± She taps her chin for a moment, ¡°depends, you thinking of killing Jackson?¡± A small laugh comes out of me, the fact it¡¯s that obvious is irritating, ¡°when¡¯s the owner coming back?¡± I ask, I¡¯m completely disoriented on what day it is. ¡°I think¡­ tomorrow or the day after, it depends.¡± ¡°Can you keep a secret?¡± I¡¯m at a loss, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m dead either way, whether or not I tell anyone. ¡°Can I? Yes. Will I? For you? Yeah.¡± She rubs my back gently. ¡°Jackson is already dead¡­ I uh¡­ last week¡­ told her to take him.¡± She seems stunned for a moment, ¡°your reasoning?¡± ¡°To stop that stupid revolt they are planning.¡± She breaks into a breathy laugh, gliding her fingers through the mud before leaning back, ¡°you¡¯re a moron sometimes, Jackson isn¡¯t the reason there¡¯s a rebellion, this situation is, our circumstances are why there¡¯s a rebellion.¡± ¡°But¡­ if Jackson¡­¡± ¡°Then someone will take his place.¡± We sit in the empty air, our breathing and the sound of bugs being the backing track to this miserable moment. ¡°Are you going to tell him?¡± I ask with little to no emotion. Her hand touches mine, ¡°no¡­ I¡¯m just continuously surprised at how you are so intelligent, but you never see the human side of things.¡± Right now that seems like an unobtainable goal, ¡°am I a bad person?¡± ¡°I dunno, are you?¡± I don¡¯t respond, she gets up ¡°I¡¯ll go get you water and food, tomorrow¡­ get her to save you somehow, I don¡¯t know, threaten to kill yourself in front of her or something¡­¡± Little does she know I¡¯ve done that many times, just to get out of small situations. I wait and wait, she comes back with a yawn and a paper cup full of water, ¡°thanks.¡± ¡°No problem¡­ this¡¯ll probably be one of our last times together right?¡± She hands me the cup, waiting till my hand is firmly holding it before letting go. ¡°I hope not.¡± ¡°Hmmm? Why not?¡± ¡°I¡­ Noah is a bit¡­ he is treating me differently¡­ so you¡¯re my only¡­ friend now.¡± I don¡¯t know why it took so much effort to say that. ¡°True.¡± She sits down, ¡°this reminds me of when we swam. Good old memories.¡± ¡°That was incredibly recent, you need a concept of time.¡± ¡°You need a concept of not taking everything literally.¡± She nudges me, a bit of water falls out of the cup. Another long moment passes with neither of us speaking a word, it feels nice. ¡°About last time, when I asked if the magic was corrupting you, that was stupid to say. I¡¯m sorry.¡± I shake my head, ¡°it¡¯s fine, really¡­ I get it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ with her it¡¯s so confusing¡­ like I don¡¯t get why she has to be so obsessed with you.¡± Her hand moves to illustrate her point, ¡°like, holy shit, pick a lane lady¡­ ya know¡­? Hey does she ever, uh, kiss you? Or anything of that nature?¡± ¡°Of that nature? She bites me sometimes, but that¡¯s just for the blood.¡± She splashes her feet a bit, ¡°that is not just for blood, where does she do it? Bite you? In some dungeon?¡± ¡°Normally in her bedroom?¡± She splashes harder with a chuckle ¡°grooosssss.¡± She drags the last letter out, then her demeanour completely changes ¡°it¡¯s sick, it¡¯s disgusting, I don¡¯t know how you can stand to be around her when she¡­ kills kids, turns them into things and ships them back as trophy¡¯s.¡± It¡¯s weird to hear something like that and feel nothing, ¡°yeah¡­ she sucks¡­¡± I say with not much conviction. Definitely not enough hatred. ¡°Sucks majorly¡­¡± she lays back, pushing on my chest to lay with her, ¡°let¡¯s sleep here.¡± Her body gets closer to mine, her arm around my shoulder. ¡°Is this okay?¡± Normally it wouldn¡¯t be, but right now I¡¯m alone, ¡°it¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Goodnight.¡± ¡°Night.¡± Goodnight. ¡­ A carriage sound wakes us both up, she¡¯s here today, today I either die or die. Great. Anne sits upright, ¡°Urgh, I hate that woman¡­¡± she stands up, brushing her hands through her hair, ¡°but if there is any chance she is safer than here, please take it, stay with her.¡± I really don¡¯t get her love hate relationship with the owner, I follow her as the carriages stop by the food clinic, everyone is standing together in a crowd rather than hiding this time. She jumps down from the back, I watch from behind a hut while Anne rubs my shoulder nervously. She takes her helmet off and looks around, ¡°FAY! Come out. Now.¡± She shouts with genuine anger in her voice. Before I know it I¡¯m walking forward, one step after another towards her, she notices me, ¡°stop fucking moving right now.¡± This isn¡¯t like her, not like her at all, I stay still, genuinely scared of what she is going to do. Everyone is staring at me, like they expect me to say something evil. She continues, ¡°stay there, I¡¯ll talk to you later.¡± She points directly at Jackson, ¡°you¡¯re coming with me.¡± Jackson is sitting down on the food clinic steps, he stares into her eyes, something most people can¡¯t do, ¡°am I now?¡± She doesn¡¯t respond, walking towards him, ¡°next word out of you and I kill every god damn child in this entire town.¡± She is using her bluff voice, it¡¯s obvious she needs to fill some quota, killing people without a reason just isn¡¯t viable¡­ but. There is something not right about her, more so than usual, I wouldn¡¯t call her bluff, just in case. This seems to make Jackson shudder, after a few seconds he replies, ¡°no you won¡¯t.¡± Coming to the same conclusion as me. But something is off. She takes a good step forward, like a soldier, ¡°okay!¡± She walks into the food clinic, easily walking in due to the lack of the door. I turn away and close my eyes as I hear the screams of people running out. People falling into mud¡­ the cries of children. ¡°Fayyy, keep your eyes open.¡± She orders, I have to do as she says, she takes out two little spheres of meat, I watch as they roll in the mud, it¡¯s obvious what they are. What they were. ¡°You remember this spell? Of course you do, you used it on the door.¡± Jackson is shaking with barely conscious rage, he looks like he is about to combust into flame. He stands up, ¡°I challenge you to a duel.¡± This guy is a dumbass. ¡°Oh really now? Okay, duel started.¡± She sprints at unnatural speeds, grabbing his head and slamming it into the mud, then a secondary slam through magic penetrates the air causing mud to fly everywhere, it falls down like rain. ¡°Good duel.¡± She grabs his wrist and effortlessly drags him into the carriage, ¡°fay, you¡¯re coming with the body.¡± It¡¯s unusual for me to be taken the same day as someone else, it¡¯s normally the day after. Maybe this is finally the day she kills me. She doesn¡¯t put a bag on my head, just lets me ride with her, the carriage goes into the swamp and she wafts her hand, fog shows up. She wafts her hand again and the fog disappears, my eyes instantly get blasted by light, the blue sky with faint clouds, green grass and green trees. It has those cool looking cube bushes. This place looks like the entrance to a mansion. ¡°W-why.¡± ¡°Because. You messed up.¡± This feels like the last day you give a dog before you put it down. I think I¡¯m about to die. Chapter 8: Ape with a machine gun The sounds I once thought were illusions come to life, little red birds perching on branches, flowers growing wildly on the grass, colour, so much colour. She is just staring at me, I can tell she isn¡¯t in her usual mood because she would normally show me this just to strip it away or reveal it¡¯s all smoke and mirrors. ¡°You look pale, have you been feeding your clothes?¡± She reaches into a bag, taking out a vial and dripping it onto my shirt. ¡°Thanks¡­¡± She looks at Jackson¡¯s sleeping body and kicks it, ¡°he was fairly brave, took me on my bluff.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not really a bluff when you actually do it.¡± ¡°I said every kid, not two.¡± Her old self returns a bit before hardening again, ¡°you used magic in your town.¡± ¡°I did¡­¡± ¡°And you didn¡¯t stop to think maybe we had sensors for that?¡± The thought had briefly crossed my mind, but I assumed she wouldn¡¯t care whether or not I used magic over there. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it mattered.¡± ¡°My boss thinks it matters.¡± She taps her metal shoe on the floor of the wooden carriage, ¡°so you¡¯ll be meeting her. Tonight.¡± She holds her hand out to the armoured man controlling the carriage, ¡°stop. Make sure this man goes to room 24-o. Fay, let¡¯s walk.¡± She jumps off, I follow, the feeling of grass and stone path on my bare feet was wonderful, I feel free. She takes me into the forested area, where there is a dirt path that has twists and turns, ¡°where am I going?¡± ¡°You¡¯re going somewhere safe.¡± For a moment I let myself think that maybe she cares about me, ¡°why does that matter?¡± ¡°If you had a machine gun would you give it to an ape?¡± ¡°That¡­ no that would be stupid.¡± ¡°Well now everyone knows me as the person who gave an ape a machine gun, because you shot it in the air for the world to hear.¡± Her feet clank as she moves. ¡°So I made a case for you, that you had some use beyond being flesh. So people think me giving you that machine gun had a purpose.¡± She has an awful scowl on her face, I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s a good or a bad thing for me. ¡°And¡­?¡± We reach a small cabin, ¡°your new home.¡± She walks in, ¡°better than your hut id assume.¡± There¡¯s a small liquid canister by the door, she pours a vial in and the cabin lights up. ¡°Had it specifically made for you, in haste of course.¡± She opens the door and lets me inside, it was a mahogany cabin, one bed in the corner with two windows, a fridge, a kitchen with a stove and kettle. And a table with two seats. ¡°You don¡¯t need a shower due to your clothes, use the woods for your waste.¡± She pulls a chair out and sits, I follow and sit in front of her. I decide to work up the courage to speak, ¡°so what¡¯s happening here?¡± ¡°Let me run you through it, we, me, aren¡¯t supposed to share any details about magic with you, humans.¡± She clicks her tongue twice, ¡°it¡¯s a huge no no, like the bestiality equivalent of magic.¡± Her thumb keeps making circles on the table, ¡°you ever hear of Shepard dogs? They control the flow of sheep, for such a dumb creature they can do things we can not, well you can not at least.¡± ¡°Thanks for the confidence.¡± What¡¯s with all my comparisons to dogs lately? ¡°So, after the whole, beacon you set off situation occurred, I convinced my boss that this will be the perfect opportunity to see what humans can do with magic, as an experiment.¡± She smiles at me creepily. ¡°Now, this will be on the down low of course, because I can¡¯t be seen going back there, my boss is going to say we eliminated the town due to disease.¡± He fingers tap more, ¡°so you¡¯ll be my stand in, you¡¯ll go in, you¡¯ll give them the means to learn magic, you¡¯ll also keep taking one of them a week to build resentment. You can use whatever humans you take for whatever you need.¡± She stands up suddenly, ¡°tea?¡± She doesn¡¯t wait for an answer ¡°you¡¯re being awfully boring right now.¡± I ignore her, the kettle starts heating up despite the lack of a source of electricity, ¡°what if I refuse?¡± ¡°You die.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± I¡¯ll probably take that option, it beats becoming the enemy I¡¯ve known for 5 years. ¡°Oh, there he is! My good old fay.¡± She laughs and pours water into two mugs, ¡°your town will die too of course, alongside me if I can¡¯t prove what I did was a good idea.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Why did she admit that? ¡°You¡¯re going to die if I fail?¡± ¡°Mhm! Fun right? For once we are partners, you own me, I own you, it¡¯ll really spice things up¡­ speaking of spice, chai?¡± She places a tea bag into a mug, ¡°I¡¯ve never asked this, what country are you from?¡± She holds her mug with both hands, leaning in, this is the longest she has held a nice streak in a long time. ¡°Well¡­ my parents moved a lot¡­ America¡­ Australia¡­ Greece¡­ I was born in France but I¡¯ve been everywhere¡­ before here¡­¡± It¡¯s weird to think how all those places are gone¡­ I wonder what my home town looks like now that it¡¯s deserted. ¡°Wanna know how your parents are doing?¡± These words make my stomach drop, I assumed they were dead. ¡°Where are they?¡± ¡°Currently in Japan, having a nice holiday without you¡­¡± she studies my face for a moment, ¡°oh my god¡­ you thought everyone was taken didn¡¯t you? That this was an apocalyptic event¡­?¡± She lets out a hearty chuckle, ¡°you really thought¡­ you thought the world ended! Instead of just us picking up a few stragglers.¡± Her voice turns serious and sultry, ¡°if you don¡¯t mess this up, I can bring you back to them.¡± I consider the offer for a second, deciding she is lying, trying to get under my skin again,, ¡°fuck you.¡± She picks up the mug and splashes the boiling water in my face, I fall to the floor in agony, ¡°relax relax. Jesus.¡± She whispers annoyed, my hands grab at my face, trying to get the scolding liquid off, I feel a hand placed on my chest, ¡°morva eris.¡± Suddenly I¡¯m fine, I look at her, really look at her, that wasn¡¯t a planned attack, that wasn¡¯t manipulation, that was anger, she got angry and made a shitty decision. I¡¯m going to put this whole ¡®modern world still exists¡¯ situation on the back burner for now. ¡°Okay.¡± I say calmly, I stand up, ¡°so, as far as I can tell, you¡¯re in as much trouble as me, so, I have demands.¡± ¡°You have demands? Oh do you?¡± She gives a disgusting smirk while drinking from my mug, ¡°shoot.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not taking anyone.¡± ¡°That kind of defeats the point, they need an enemy to focus their magic research on.¡± She says like it¡¯s the most obvious thing in the world. ¡°Is there any way to do it non lethally?¡± ¡°God you¡¯re such a wuss, no of course not, I have enough trouble convincing my boss to keep you alive.¡± She sighs, ¡°I¡¯ll teach you a spell to kill without pain, genuinely, does that work?¡± I notice she is legitimately trying to compromise. I assume we would¡¯ve all died eventually anyway, all of us¡­ and I was already helping her choose 1 person a week anyway¡­ how is this different? Am I selfish because I don¡¯t want to be seen as a villain? If I don¡¯t do this, they all die, if I do do this, only one dies a week, that is objectively better, that¡¯s a better outcome. ¡°Fay?¡± She snaps her fingers in front of me, ¡°so, you agree?¡± I wait a few seconds, then nod, there¡¯s no other choice, if I try to be clever, I¡¯ll probably get them all killed. ¡°Great, this is a really unique situation Fay, I¡¯ll be assigned to a different town working alongside you with your own little experiment.¡± She pokes my face. ¡°How¡­ how do I stop them from killing me? If they all were to charge me at once?¡± She stops poking my face for a moment, before continuing while talking, ¡°you have a week to learn, I¡¯ll teach you.¡± She accidentally pokes my eye, ¡°first I¡¯ll teach you how to harden your skin because wow you¡¯re soft.¡± She gets up and walks to a small set of drawers, ¡°there are some nicer clothes in here, I want you to act the way you usually do around me with my boss, show how weird you are.¡± She finds a button up white shirt and brown pants, alongside dress shoes with socks. She just pushes the shirt into my shirt, it phases through me like it¡¯s being absorbed, my once brown rag turns into a long sleeved button up shirt. ¡°Don¡¯t try to remove it, it¡¯s still connected to your skin.¡± She does the same with my pants. ¡°You know how to put shoes on?¡± ¡°Are you really asking that?¡± Her genuine tone irritated me, I put socks and the shoes on. I feel sick to my stomach, ¡°I uh¡­¡± It all suddenly hits me at once, I run out into the forest and vomit, I just agreed to actively choose people to kill, in person, I am her now, I am her. I feel my hair being held back as I vomit once more, ¡°I¡¯m not going to pretend to understand, just do not vomit in front of my boss.¡± I wipe my mouth, she is standing with her arms crossed, not amused at all, ¡°can I get some food?¡± It¡¯s not like she can say no, she lets out a long groan, ¡°fine, follow me.¡± She begins walking back through the path. I don¡¯t know why, but I have the sudden urge to get more information about her, I have never heard her name, ¡°hey¡­ what¡¯s your name?¡± I say awkwardly. ¡°Nice pickup line. We don¡¯t go by names we go by achievements, if someone can¡¯t pick up who you are talking about without a name then you don¡¯t deserve to be talked about.¡± She speeds up a little bit, ¡°for example, you¡¯d be ¡®the human who used magic¡¯ or whatever, and nowadays I¡¯m known as ¡®the one who taught a human magic¡¯¡± She stops, I almost walk into her, ¡°I used to be ¡®the one who reached rank 4 at the age of 6.¡¯ Thanks for that.¡± She continues, her body shakes in an emotion that feels human. I do not feel sorry for her at all, not one bit. If I could kill her right now I would, and I will when I can. I don¡¯t even know what rank 4 means. We reach out of the forest and walk down the path, a huge manor in the distance, ¡°okay I¡¯m just gonna¡­ close your eyes.¡± She grabs hold of my neck, firmly but not threatening, ¡°close.¡± She says into my ear. The second I close my eyelids wind bursts into my ears, then stops. I open my eyes and we are by the door of the manor. A woman in a black dress walks over and opens it, ¡°welcome.¡± ¡°I can open my own doors.¡± She grabs the woman¡¯s arm, ¡°what about you?¡± The arm falls off, onto the ground, the woman just stays still staring at it with a miserable look on her face. I walk around her, I mouth a small ¡®sorry¡¯ which could only be seen as a taunt. I move onto the carpet, she is already in the middle of a huge doorway, this space is super open, there¡¯s a staircase in front of me which splits left and right by the wall, there are countless rooms and hallways. ¡°Come on, you wanted food right?¡± I follow her carefully, I really dislike how accommodating she is being. We reach an incredible long table full of chairs, she yells ¡°I WANT HUMAN FOOD FOR THE BOY, NOW.¡± The sound of doors opening and feet tapping fills the space, she pulls out a chair and makes me sit. After around 12 minutes they bring out way too much food for one person, she seems to notice, ¡°did you think we were feeding a whale? Throw the bottom 80 percent in the fire.¡± I watch as the perfect looking food all goes into fire, the food that the people in my town would eat in a heart beat, burning, wasted. I¡¯m left with a crepe and various other meals I cannot name by heart. ¡°Can I have a fork?¡± ¡°No? Hands, eat with your hands fay.¡± She is continuing to play this stupid game when there¡¯s no footing to stand on. The old her is slowly creeping past the stress of being caught. ¡°Oh! Too bad.¡± I stand up with the plate, walking to the fireplace and throwing the plate it, ¡°thanks for trying, ¡®the one who taught a human magic.¡¯¡± Her hands squeeze together, her breathing becomes ragged, her eyes glow a little bit more than usual, ¡°wow¡­ you are¡­ just wonderful.¡± She walks over almost impulsively to me and bites my neck. She grabs hold of my shoulder, continuing to bite harder and harder, making annoying noises, eventually I try to push on her chest, which makes her stop. Blood drips down her mouth, ¡°I¡¯ll get you a fork.¡± Her uneven steps reach a table beside the fireplace, she opens up a drawer and gives me a fork and knife, ¡°eat up, big day today.¡± This was the version of her I was used to, the one who was captivated by me fighting back. This is the person I can handle. Chapter 9: Safe to say I鈥檓 safe to stay. The whole relationship with me and her has become so complex I don¡¯t know how to describe it, I want to murder her for what she did, has done, and will do. But currently she is the only reason me and my town are alive, she is the one who kept me alive for 5 years when she could have killed me at any moment, albeit out of a desire to harm me mentally and see how I tick. ¡°I have checkmate in 8.¡± She says, moving her bishop to pin my knight to queen. We are passing the time while we wait for her boss. ¡°It¡¯s the start of the game, that¡¯s not how chess works.¡± I move my queen to check the king. ¡°Aha, you did exactly what I wanted.¡± She moves the pawn to attack my queen. ¡°This pawn is unprotected since you moved your bishop.¡± I take the pawn for free in the middle of the board, checking the king again. She grabs the board and throws it into the fire, ¡°whatever, human games are boring, they¡¯re all about overloading your brain, not stimulating it.¡± This is probably the most casual conversation I¡¯ve had with her, ever. ¡°You have demon board games?¡± ¡°No¡­?¡± The flames grow bigger as the wooden chess board burns ¡°why do you call us demons?¡± She leans back on the chair, she had changed into a red dress after I ate which made her seem younger and more expensive. ¡°I dunno, you have an evil complexion¡­ what¡­ is your race called?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t go by names, neither race nor people.¡± She puts her feet on the table with a smug look, like this makes her better than me. ¡°Not big on labels?¡± ¡°We just think if you begin to categorise things you only get ¡®in fighting,¡¯ that¡¯s why we base ourselves off our achievements. Losers stay losers for being losers and winners stay winners for achieving greatness, no outside variables.¡± That¡¯s¡­ ¡°Yeah.¡± Is all I can say, it was neither funny nor stupid, just a piece of culture, I hate how these things have culture, I hate how these things are capable of not killing us but decide to do it anyway. ¡°So¡­ when¡¯s your boss coming?¡± ¡°Soon, very soon, I can tell.¡± She lowers her feet back onto the ground. She can tell¡­ I really don¡¯t get the power imbalance here, ¡°what is your boss called?¡± ¡°The one who moved a star¡­ 11th rank.¡± ¡°Moved a star?¡± ¡°She found an equation to bypass light speed, it was never used on a star since it requires too much blood, but it does allow for stuff like this.¡± She holds her hand out in a fist and a cup floats, ¡°I¡¯m moving it from my perspective, my hand looks like it is holding it.¡± She flings her hand and the cup goes flying, ¡°she discovered the equation to try and move stars but instead came up with a better telekinesis spell, uses less blood too, nowadays it¡¯s been watered down so much that even 2nd ranks can use it.¡± ¡°So she never actually moved a star?¡± She nods, ¡°she is very respected so they gave her that name, reinvented the wheel as you would say. It¡¯s only theoretically possible.¡± As much as I hate to admit it, I¡¯m excited to meet this person, I saw these people as savages and psychopaths but it¡¯s clear there¡¯s an underlying science¡­ I hate how it¡¯s so easy to humanise monsters if they show just a fraction of humanity. ¡°Wait how do you use magic without writing it down?¡± She smiles, ¡°asking the grown up questions? See this ring?¡± She holds her hand out, shows off the gold and red gemmed ring that she always wears, I saw it as insignificant. ¡°It sucks out my own blood, and I can use it to do spells on the fly.¡± She flings another cup. ¡°it¡¯s harder because instead of symbols you need to imagine very vividly every instruction in order, for telekinesis it¡¯s around 8 variables, so that¡¯s 8 variables, every second you need to keep track of. Like juggling.¡± She ignites fire on her hand, using a finger as a lighter, ¡°the more variables, the harder it gets exponentially and the more blood it takes, like juggling, although variables vary in difficulty, doing healing on the fly is like juggling anvils.¡± A knock on the door startles us both, I don¡¯t know why. My mind is doing mental gymnastics not to follow it¡¯s natural instincts to run away, I know I¡¯m in danger. A girl walks in, wearing a grey sweater and black pants, no shoes on, ¡°this the kid?¡± She seems almost my age, her hair is a black and silver mix in a sort of messy unkempt hairstyle, red crimson eyes with white white white skin and freckles. ¡°Hey.¡± I get up from my chair and hold my hand out, we are the same height so I felt a little too comfortable despite my fear, the moment my hand gets too close to her it falls off into meat cubes. It¡¯s insanely disorienting to lose my hand within seconds of just using it. Stay calm, blood trickles down from my stub of a arm, stay calm, just react in a surprising way, be interesting, ¡°not big on handshakes huh? I understand.¡± I smile while my teeth are slamming into each other like a hydraulic press. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Hm.¡± The small girl gestures her hand and makes it grow back, not even my owner could do that without writing it on paper. Her ring is just silver, no gem at all, just a boring ring. My owner shows a new emotion that I hadn¡¯t seen prior, fear, her voice is shaking, ¡°see? Isn¡¯t he special?¡± ¡°As much as a conjoined twin is.¡± She says bored, I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a compliment or not. She inspects the place, ¡°you eat alone at this table?¡± She sits down with her knees up, I slide beside her while my owner just sort of stands around uselessly. My owner speaks quietly. ¡°Uhm, yes, I eat alone here, I¡¯m terribly lonely. That is why I mingle with the mud rats¡­¡± she says pathetically calculated. The girl turns her head to me for a moment, ignoring her, ¡°may I taste you?¡± As much as it¡¯s horrifying to hear that after having my hand removed, I just smile and nod, at least she is asking. ¡°Sure¡­¡± I hold my arm out, she leans over the chair, putting her hands on the table, she bites into my flesh despite probably having countless of ways to extract her meal. She lets go after a minute and heals it, the bite mark disappearing like memory foam, ¡°did you teach him blood potency spells?¡± My owner does a small laugh, ¡°no? That would be suicide for him.¡± ¡°It would be¡­¡± she holds my arm, ¡°did you use a healing spell with your own blood as fuel?¡± There¡¯s no point lying, ¡°I did¡­¡± My owner stands up, not able to contain herself, ¡°see? See?! I told you, I told you.¡± She gets all excited. The girl in front of me holds her hand out towards her which makes my owner stop her celebration, ¡°I¡¯m aware of your confusion, you did a blood potency spell, you used your own blood in a healing loop, channeling your blood through a spell into yourself, causing blood loss, then healing that blood loss, then causing it again.¡± She puts a hand on my head, ¡°usually humans die within a hour or two, unlike us who adapt to it. Any seizures? Headaches? Vomiting?¡± I¡¯m having a hard time following this, ¡°yeah, for a little bit¡­¡± She stands up from the table and walks out, I am incredibly confused. The front door slams. My owner just smiles, ¡°my little ape with a machine gun has perfect aim it seems.¡± ¡°Can you stop using that phrase?¡± I begin swaying a bit from blood loss, this is the second time I¡¯ve been bitten today. ¡°I need water.¡± My owner claps her hands, she seems overjoyed at the prospect that she won¡¯t be punished for teaching me magic. A woman in a black dress walks in, ¡°master, we have an issue.¡± She continues her good mood and just nods, ¡°give it to me.¡± ¡°The latest experiment subject has¡­ left the premises¡­¡± the woman bows down, ¡°we are sorry.¡± My owners eyes blink a few times, stands up, walks over to her, ¡°thank you for being the messenger.¡± She touches her cheek, I¡¯m half expecting the girl to explode into gore but thankfully she doesn¡¯t. The owner looks to me, ¡°your friend Jackson escaped, that¡¯s your issue now, he is from the town you are supposed to take care of, bad bad fay letting him escape.¡± She does a little spin, ¡°better check how he got out, you remember the stairs down to the experiment rooms?¡± The change in atmosphere makes my mind sway even more. She sits down, ¡°you go, I¡¯ll talk to my boss for you, it¡¯s safe to say you are safe to stay.¡± She perks up, amused at her little rhyme. A part of me feels relief at Jackson escaping, I never wanted him to die, I just wanted him gone, he was a disease causing everyone to be foolish¡­ or maybe that¡¯s just what I tell myself. I walk down those same steps, into the concrete hallway full of labeled experiment rooms, I see a metal ball and a door missing by the end of the hallway, clearly implosion magic. How did he figure out how to use implosion magic? There¡¯s blood on the floor beside the metal ball, he must be going through the same reaction as me with the vomiting, this looks significantly worse, makes sense with how much stronger metal is than wood. I feel relief, do I need to find him? I can just say I tried my best and give up right? I walk into the experimentation room, there¡¯s a secondary metal sphere¡­ did he use implosion on a cage he was in? How¡¯d he get out without crushing himself? How did he even know what symbols to use? He did obtain my pen and paper, along with access to blood¡­ but had no access to the information¡­ I lost the papers that show the spell symbols in the water with Anne¡­ unless they fished it up¡­ or¡­ her hands were on my hips¡­ did she? ¡°Fay, boss wants to see you.¡± My owner walks in, ¡°huh, someone was inspired. This really isn¡¯t good.¡± How did he know the activation phrase? Did I write it in my notes? Did Noah tell him? Was anyone on my side? Was Anne just trying to trick me? Was I seriously on nobodies side this whole time? This entire time was I just being played? ¡°Fay you¡¯re breathing loudly, you¡¯re sucking the air and fun out of the room.¡± She walks in front of me, ¡°this is your issue, boss says if you don¡¯t find him within this week this whole experiment is off, that means you, me, the whole town.¡± She gestures her neck being sliced open. Great, just great. These people who are all against me are relying on me, I¡¯m the one keeping them alive, yet they all want me dead. Great. ¡°Yeah I¡¯ll find him.¡± I say without much thought, I walk out, there¡¯s a trail of blood that leads to an outside door, straight to the forest. I stand on the grass, there¡¯s a woman in a black dress who walks over, ¡°he ran left, there¡¯s a river he would have to cross.¡± Her voice is soft and soothing, every one of these servants look almost identical. ¡°Don¡¯t speak.¡± My owner dismisses her, ¡°hm, I¡¯ll translate you a book on tracking magic.¡± She grabs my hand, taking me back to the entrance, the arm she detached is still by the front door. I step over it, the boss is sitting down at the bottom of the steps of the stairwell. ¡°Let me take your measurements.¡± She slumps towards me and grabs my hand, a small thread cuts my ring finger off. ¡°Thanks.¡± I don¡¯t even react as it gets healed, my mind has been overloaded with information, the modern world might still exist, I¡¯ve become what I hated and everyone I know might die. She puts the finger in a red box. ¡°Do you have a preference in ring colours?¡± ¡°No¡­¡± ¡°Okay then. Clean up your mess, she is your new boss.¡± She points to my owner who is staying still in the corner, ¡°I hope we never see each other again.¡± She just disappears in front of me, without a trace, poof, gone. My¡­ boss, walks up to me, ¡°that solves that.¡± Her body language is one of stress and anger, trying to stay formal and be my manager, ¡°I¡¯ll bring you a tracking magic textbook tomorrow¡­¡± She holds her hand out in a way that signifies a handshake, ¡°I know you want to kill me, you hate me, you despise me, but right now, we are technically co workers. Sorta.¡± I¡¯m unsure if it¡¯s Stockholm syndrome or if I¡¯m just that needy for any positive attention, but it feels nice that she isn¡¯t trying to toy with me, I feel like she let me into her world. I shake her hand, ¡°do you¡­ hate me?¡± I ask this with all my guards down, I feel completely lost right now emotionally. She squeezes my hand for a second, ¡°I don¡¯t hate anyone, but you are interesting, and you challenge me, and I believe you are capable.¡± She must¡¯ve realised she was being vulnerable, ¡°I still tortured kids in your town and have no emotional attachment to you other than basic interest, remember that.¡± She lets go, something flickers in her eyes, ¡°do you want to give me a name? To make things easier?¡± I need to remember this person in front of me has basically been our enemy for me and my friends for 5 years, I need to remember that, why is it so easy to gain sympathy towards people? Why is my hatred and anger mixed with some fucked up need for affection. ¡°Lilith.¡± Chapter 10: Rank D Last night I created around 10 implosion spells and walked through the forest, I assumed I could track Jackson despite not having any knowledge of what tracking entails. ¡®There was a broken stick? Oh he must¡¯ve went that way!¡¯ I sounded like a paranoid schizophrenic. I eventually found my way back to the cabin, fell asleep, and here I am, the next day. The mattress was sent straight from heaven, but I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about how back home people would still be in the mud. They all probably think I¡¯m dead. I do miss how in the mud you could slide your feet through it while you fall asleep and it would be very calming, but a mattress wins just on pure comfiness alone. I turn on the kettle, every appliance in this cabin is powered by the blood canister outside, I have to fill it with a vial every week, super easy. There¡¯s a few foods I recognise in the pantry, cans of beans, instant noodles and chips of varying flavours. Really trying to make me feel the poverty of the modern world. I make a earl grey tea and eat chips, this is my breakfast, at least it¡¯s a step up from food scraps which come from unknown origins. Halfway through my cup I hear a knock, ¡°master Fay, I have a delivery.¡± The female voice is muffled through the door, I make my way towards it and open without much thought. Behind the door is a girl in the same black dress, a servant, she has frizzy black hair and green eyes, the faintest of freckles on her face must mean she doesn¡¯t get outside much. Her dress, unlike the other servants, has a more rich quality to it, along with a star pin that is shiny and silver. She also has a green ring, I¡¯m unsure if it¡¯s decorative. ¡°Master Fay-¡° ¡°Just call me Fay.¡± ¡®Master Fay¡¯ is gross. ¡°I¡¯ve been directed to call you master Fay, sorry for the inconvenience.¡± She bows and walks in with a leather bag, ¡°master Lilith could not make it today, she told me to be yours to command from this moment forward.¡± She unzips the bag and takes out paper, blood vials that add to my already heavy amount of vials in a drawer, a book and another heftier book. ¡°Today we need to visit experiment site j-23 and deliver one of these books. To start the experiment.¡± She hands it over. I take it and open it up, it¡¯s a 10 page tutorial on the very basics of blood magic, it includes base variables, what they mean, how to activate them, the strengths of different blood types depending on which magic you use. A lot of this stuff is unknown to me too, the other book she brought is a hefty 50 pages, it looks to be more in depth. ¡°Is experiment site¡­ j or whatever, is that my home?¡± She bows, ¡°your question confuses and baffles me, this is your home, you cannot be from an experiment site, if you were you¡¯d have to be executed. Don¡¯t spread these slanderous lies about yourself.¡± She lets out in a single breath. I nod, already understanding the politics, ¡°okay, what do I call you?¡± ¡°Nothing, I will use social cues to find out what you need or who you are talking to, names are for those who can¡¯t keep track of the conversation yes?¡± ¡°Gotcha, so I call you nothing?¡± I grab the small book and search for a spell I could use for basic self defence. ¡°Yes.¡± My head shakes in agreement, the book describes the symbol I use for the implosion spell as gravity magic, ¡°hey ¡®nothing¡¯, do you know a variable I could use to make someone fall asleep?¡± She seems a bit shocked at her new name. ¡°Tell me Fay, what¡¯s a way to forcefully make someone fall asleep without magic?¡± She sounds confident, ¡°knocking them out with brute force or making them lose oxygen to their brain?¡± ¡°Mhm, so do that.¡± She opens up my 50 page book and looks through, ¡°variables are the most basic form of spells, think of it like learning the alphabet¡­ let me show you how to make a word. Given your low potency I will have to water down a spell for you.¡± She isn¡¯t human is she? Despite her human appearance there is an air of superiority. ¡°Are you human?¡± I ask stupidly. ¡°No, I am the one who clones herself, 4th rank.¡± Every piece of the puzzle fits together, that¡¯s exactly why every servant looks similar. But I have another question. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°What are ranks?¡± She looks through the pages of the book, ¡°ranks are ways to determine value, there are multiple factors, blood potency, achievements and intelligence.¡± Her face turns to me, ¡°do you want to learn your rank?¡± There¡¯s a tinge of insanity in her eyes, yet I still nod obediently. The servant master dynamic doesn¡¯t feel as straightforward. She grabs my wrist and touches a vein, it bleeds painlessly. She daps her finger in the blood and brings it to her lips, ¡°we don¡¯t have a measurement, but you have the potency of a kindergarten rank D.¡± she moves back to the book, ¡°think of kindergarten ranks as rank zero, you have to go to a testing facility to get your actual rank promoted to 1.¡± She smiles for a split second then stops. ¡°A 6 year old child of our kind is usually kindergarten F to C, so congratulations.¡± ¡°What¡­ about humans?¡± ¡°No potency, one vial of your blood is worth 1.5 vials of normal human blood in terms of the magic to blood ratio.¡± She wafts her hand to wipe the conversation clean, ¡°now, you want to make someone fall asleep.¡± She writes down a spell, ¡°this is simple, even given your lack of potency to use any real variables.¡± Her hand swiftly stops, ¡°the brain variable, carry variable, then you need to specify the oxygen, we can¡¯t have two targets at once so how will we specify the oxygen in the brain?¡± Oxygen¡­ there¡¯s not really a way to move it out is there? ¡°Is there a variable to turn oxygen into carbon dioxide?¡± She takes a breath in, then out, ¡°like that? Too much carbon dioxide would kill someone, you don¡¯t have enough control, what we need is to simply make the brain float downwards.¡± She writes the symbols, it looks like a math equation, I recognise the implosion symbol with another one, combining into something new. ¡°This causes the arteries at the base of the brain to become useless due to the downwards pressure, this needs to be active long enough for them to fall asleep.¡± She writes parentheses over it all and adds a spiral symbol outside of it, ¡°this¡¯ll keep this active for 30 seconds, that should knock them out.¡± That makes no sense considering what I saw Lilith do, ¡°how come Lilith could knock people out instantly?¡± ¡°I¡¯d assume she just swings the brain around a bit in their skull, you could do that.¡± I shake my head ¡°no, this is fine.¡± I grab the piece of paper as she replicates it, making around 5. I want them to not be hurt, I¡¯m not hurting anyone other than the 1 I need to take. ¡°There¡¯s a carriage on the main path, I will be taking you there.¡± She rips the paper and puts the spells in my pocket. ¡°You give them this book, explain what has changed. Then you take one of them to kill.¡± I feel sick, ¡°okay.¡± She walks outside and I follow, I still have the same clothes as before, it¡¯s going to be a drastic contrast that¡¯ll make them have a more ¡®us vs them¡¯ revolution. We make it to the carriage, it¡¯s the wooden one, she gets into the rider seat and begins to guide the horses as I sit in the back. ¡°Nothing?¡± She responds to the name quickly, ¡°yes?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hurt anyone.¡± I order ¡°no matter what.¡± She nods. I just stay silent, my knees together, this trip will probably take 4 minutes, 4 minutes until I¡¯m back there, 4 minutes until I have to kill one of them, 4 minutes until people realise I am what they assumed I was. ¡°Hey nothing? Are you¡­ the original you?¡± I remember the fact about her cloning herself. ¡°I am, the other me¡¯s have no blood potency, they are basically human puppets. I use human bodies and through a long and tedious process where I give them my brain, not my memories just my personality.¡± She sounds like she is reading a script. ¡°Cool.¡± Is all I can say, fog shows up, I need to find a way to figure out a way in and out. Then I can have them all escape. The fog dissipates and I¡¯m back in the grey world I¡¯m used to, I can see people gathered around the food clinic. We stop by it, I step off with the book in my hand, and walk towards it. Everyone is just talking, they aren¡¯t even paying attention. ¡°Guys listen.¡± I say at my normal volume, every one is still focused on each other, they¡¯re definitely doing this on purpose. ¡°Listen.¡± I say louder, yet again nobody turns their heads, I do get a few people looking at me with their eye and then looking away. ¡°Oh! Look they¡¯re here.¡± Noah walks out of the hole in the wall where the door is supposed to be, ¡°nice clothes.¡± He jumps down the steps and walks up to me with a swagger in his movements. ¡°I have a book for you.¡± I hold it out, it¡¯s clear after Jackson left he was put in charge, nightmare. ¡°Are you sure I can read? Or is that too complicated for me? Can¡¯t be trusted right?¡± He says emotionally. Looking back at the crowd who are nodding to his words like sheep. He reaches into his pocket and I step back, he seems to notice ¡°you thought I was going to use a spell on you? Does that mean it worked? Jackson escaped?¡± He says proudly, taking food scraps from his pocket and eating them. So he knew, they probably all knew, even Anne¡­ Nothing is sitting on the carriage still, hand in her face looking bored, I hold out the book. ¡°Okay.¡± He takes it while his mouth is full of food, ¡°oh this is more magic? I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re on my side!¡± His words are laced with resentment. Apparently turning up with nice clothes made his suspicions correct, ¡°okay¡­ now I just need one of you to come with me¡­¡± Noah¡¯s face which was previously just reserved anger is now full on rage, ¡°so you fully took her spot hey? Take me then.¡± He throws the book onto the mud. ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ take the oldest¡­¡± I look into the crowd, and find someone who has greying hair, ¡°you please¡­ sorry.¡± Noah reaches into his pocket again like he is reaching for a gun, I grab a piece of paper from my pocket and slam it onto his chest, ¡°morva eris!¡± I scream. His hand is holding an implosion spell, he drops it and begins to sway, ¡°m¡­ ma¡­ ja¡­ jule¡­ kin¡­¡± he falls onto the ground, I check his pulse and he is fine, his breathing is fine. I grab the spells from his pocket and look at the old man, ¡°come on.¡± I point at him, I feel like I just shot him. ¡°Please¡­ don¡¯t do this¡­¡± someone says in the crowd. ¡°WE DON¡¯T DESERVE THIS.¡± ¡°YOU KILLED HIM.¡± ¡°DEMON FUCKER.¡± I didn¡¯t kill him I didn¡¯t do anything I¡¯m not doing anything I haven¡¯t done anything I¡¯m just like them I¡¯m just a victim I¡¯m a victim they don¡¯t understand. Nothing jumps down and strokes my hair, ¡°you did good¡­ just finish this and I¡¯ll make you some toast.¡± She whispers in my ear, there are countless people screaming at me. I fall onto the ground unable to move, nothing keeps shaking me, trying to get me to activate again, I don¡¯t. I put my face in the mud trying to drown everything out, even myself. After what had to be two minutes I¡¯m dragged back onto the carriage, an even older man who must have been hiding was taken, nothing must¡¯ve done my job for me. As I look up I see Anne by her hut, I see the faint green of her plant beside her through the door, her face is incomprehensible to me, something I can¡¯t decode. The fog appears and we go home. Chapter 11: Eris ring The ride back was short, I stepped out and nothing followed me. ¡°Hey I¡¯m gonna call you null actually, I think that¡¯s cooler right?¡± I say, my voice has a tinge of manic energy to it. Null nods needlessly, ¡°it is a wonderful name, are you aware of the culture around naming people?¡± I step a little bit ahead, the forest trees painting a nice view towards the cabin, yellow sun rays of the morning hitting the stone path, ¡°no?¡± ¡°It means¡­ in your culture it¡¯s close to marriage.¡± She speaks in an awkward tone, not confident. ¡°Oh?¡± Oh. ¡°Really?¡± Really. She keeps up with my pace, walking beside me, ¡°it means to settle down with someone, if they accepted that proposal everyone must call them by that name.¡± So they do have names¡­ just for¡­ this is a joke right? ¡°Yeah right.¡± ¡°It¡¯s complicated, many friends accept each other¡¯s names. And as your servant I will accept my name too.¡± She looks displeased with this. ¡°Lilith is just messing with me.¡± I really should have called her something gross, I wasn¡¯t aware of that piece of culture. We arrive at the cabin and to my pleasure she started to prepare toast. ¡°Where¡¯d you get the bread?¡± She pulls out a little bag from her pocket, ¡°this bag holds 6 years worth of food.¡± The bag stretches as she reaches inside, she pulls out another piece of bread. ¡°Come here.¡± She puts paper on the kitchen counter, writes a few symbols, one looks like an awkward campfire, and another is the damage multiplier. She takes a sip of blood then activates the spell on the bread, cooking it a perfect golden brown. ¡°Your turn.¡± She hands me the pen and paper, I copy the exact symbols, I reach for the vial to drink some blood but she slaps my hand. ¡°You need to work on blood potency, use your own blood, when you activate a spell without blood in your stomach it takes the reserves from your body.¡± That makes sense, a lot of sense. ¡°Morva eris.¡± I say sorta bored, it turns the perfect golden brown, there¡¯s not much of a magic feeling to magic anymore. Null grabs the toast and spreads jam on it. ¡°No butter?¡± ¡°I will acquire butter tomorrow.¡± She spreads the jam and holds it to my mouth. ¡°I can feed myself.¡± I grab the toast and take a bite, it¡¯s the perfect toast texture. Null begins to clean up, mostly focusing on dust and eventually moving outside to trim weeds, she is truly a servant. I finish my toast and walk out to see her, ¡°don¡¯t I need to learn tracking magic to find Jackson?¡± She looks up at me, on her knees pulling a certain pesky weed from in between two stones, her doing this in a black dress seemed crazy, ¡°you need a ring for that.¡± ¡°When will I get my ring?¡± ¡°Today or tomorrow¡­¡± she pulls it out with a yank, landing on her butt. ¡°Surely you have magic to make that easier.¡± I help out with the other weeds, but I¡¯m not much stronger than her due to malnutrition. ¡°I do, but I find the process fun, for the journey not destination.¡± She hums a bit as she finds more weeds, ¡°you¡¯ll die when you put on that ring you know.¡± I freeze, ¡°huh?¡± ¡°The only reason master Lilith¡¯s boss is letting you prance around is because she knows the ring will kill you, no human in the history of humanity has ever put one on and survived.¡± She continues to hum, waiting for my response patiently. A faint distant part of me thinks, ¡®no surely not, I¡¯m special, I¡¯ve always been special.¡¯ But that drowns out in my practicality. ¡°How many humans have tried?¡± She sits on her toes, her knees rising, ¡°I¡¯m unsure, I know the test results of 100 humans they made do potency spells, they all died.¡± That¡¯s not a very big research pool, ¡°I survived a potency spell.¡± ¡°Indeed you did, but a ring is a constant potency spell, whatever reaction you did have, although minor, would be constant.¡± Yeah that¡¯s no good, I¡¯m fairly sure I had a seizure, along with vomiting blood and bleeding from the nose. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I hear footsteps, it¡¯s Lilith in her armour ¡°good day co worker.¡± ¡°Hey Lilith.¡± I let out without thinking. She stops, ¡°yeah.¡± She stands around for a second before tapping null on the shoulder, ¡°I need a word, maybe a couple words, possibly a sentence.¡± Her voice sounds shaken behind all that nonchalance. Null stands up, formally following her down the path away from my cabin. ¡°I¡¯ll help you with the rest of the weeds master Fay.¡± As I watch null walk down the path I see another version of her, she seems like a less expensive version. ¡°Hey, how long have you been alive?¡± She begins to move leaves off the path, ¡°33 minutes and 11¡­ 12¡­ 14 seconds.¡± Weird, this is weird. ¡°Well thanks¡­ I¡¯m going back inside.¡± She bows, letting me go. So obviously I need to find a way to delay this ring thing as long as possible, I have 6 days to find Jackson¡­ but I don¡¯t want to kill him. If I get null to clone Jackson, kill the clone then leave the real Jackson alive, all will be good right? That¡¯s the best option. The old man I had taken to kill was buried¡­ I could use that as a body¡­ save Jackson, meaning that death was not for nothing¡­ I walk outside and ask the clone, ¡°hey when you die, does you body remain the same?¡± She shakes her head, ¡°I am unsure master Fay, perhaps you should ask someone else.¡± Annoying, okay, I go back inside of the cabin and open up the 50 page book, its basically those 10 pages they gave the town and 40 more are full of various variables. Combination variables are very interesting, they have a certain blood burning number, BB, some being around 10, others being at 4000. I hear metal boots walk into my cabin, Lilith is standing around the doorway holding a black box. ¡°She really didn¡¯t want to give you any time, this is probably our goodbye.¡± She places the box on the table. ¡°Block the door.¡± She orders null, opening the box to reveal a dark wooden ring with golden swirls, ¡°it¡¯s cool looking too.¡± She inspects it for a moment before putting it on the table. ¡°I had one plan, I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s going to work, might as well try.¡± She takes an empty vial from null and extracts her own blood using magic. It fills to the brim with a purple liquid, it bubbles like it¡¯s acidic, ¡°just drink this, it¡¯s not scientifically proven but it might help with the transition phase.¡± I look at the door which is fully blocked by null and the clone of null, I¡¯m not going to be able to leave, ¡°okay yeah fuck it.¡± I don¡¯t matter, if I die I die, that¡¯s not my problem¡­ I just need to be alive for as long as possible to keep my town safe. I¡¯ll force myself to be alive. I take the vial and gulp it down, it burns my mouth to throat to stomach. Lilith grabs my wrist and puts the ring on hastily. My fingers start feeling tight, like they¡¯re being pulled, I look over at null and she is boiling the kettle. A sharp pain strikes up my back, like a bead going from the bottom to the top, hitting my brain over and over again. It speeds up, the bead in my spine shoots up every second, then every half a second, then every quarter. I fall onto the ground, my legs completely stop moving and my vision loses focus, I¡¯m about to die, I¡¯m genuinely about to die. I crawl to the desk I had setup on the drawers, grabbing paper, I look over at Lilith who is just watching apathetically. I try to open my mouth but my jaw is shut, like some force is holding the top of my head and bottom of my jaw shut, a huge hand. I bite my finger and crudely draw that general healing spell, it¡¯s riddled with potential mistakes. My finger that holds the ring is completely black, decaying, rotting. I lose all vision, everything going dark, I thought I fainted but I can still feel physical sensation, I¡¯m awake, just blind. I try to fill the rest of the variables without vision off by heart, even though I only used it once. Once I think I¡¯m done I lose the ability to use my right hand. My head slams against the drawer, I must¡¯ve lost balance, I can¡¯t hear anything anymore, I can just feel. I grab the paper whole and slam it to my chest, realising I can¡¯t activate the spell, I use my remaining hand while laying backwards, keeping the paper on my chest. I have to pull my jaw open, moving with my tongue, ¡°morva eris.¡± I say without hearing anything. I pass out. ¡­ I was with my parents, somewhere in a caf¨¦, eating pancakes with bacon and eggs, I had just poked a yoke and watched it make a little yellow river onto the plate. Someone walked in, he looked strange, odd colour¡­ I assumed it was a crack addict. He searched the caf¨¦, I noticed he was wearing a fantasy robe, nobody had noticed him, nobody at all. He stood by the table where my mom and dad were both sharing a poached egg. ¡°Can you see the guy staring at us right now?¡± I asked, they don¡¯t reply, weird. I turned towards the man, his eyes glowing a dark purple, illuminating the inside of the cloak. His hand slowly rose from his side and reached towards my face. His fingers were unnaturally large, his hand covers my face and... and¡­ I felt mud on my feet, mud everywhere, all colour had been drained, everything had been drained. There was screaming, fighting, people begging for god. A woman comes up to me and drags me into a hut, her ginger hair was a bit dirty, but she seemed safe¡­ Why did I feel so calm? People were screaming, crying and lashing out, why did I feel more calm than I was in the caf¨¦? I feel water poured onto my face, ¡°if that doesn¡¯t work he is dead, great, I¡¯m done for, it¡¯s over¡­¡± I hear Lilith¡¯s voice faintly. Then a kick to the side of my body, ¡°FUCK YOU, YOU WORTHLESS HUMAN, YOU RUINED MY LIFE.¡± My eyes pry themselves open from the pain, I gasp for air, my hand clutches at my chest, my vision regained. ¡°Stop.¡± I say weakly, my voice sounds coarse. Lilith is above me looking incessantly annoyed, ¡°oh, you actually lived.¡± She gets me to stand up, ¡°what were you thinking? Doing another healing spell?¡± I tilt my head, ¡°to heal? Obviously, I was dying.¡± ¡°Solution to poison being more poison.¡± I look at the paper and it isn¡¯t even burnt up. ¡°You activated it using the eris ring, because you were visualising it.¡± She picks up the paper, ¡°thank god because this would kill you if you activated it. It¡¯s a mess.¡± She rips it up, null walks over and collects the scraps to throw away. ¡°So¡­ I used the ring to heal myself?¡± ¡°Not at all, you tried using the basic heal spell again, with your own blood.¡± She sits down, clicking her finger towards null, ¡°tea.¡± I begin to feel light and vomit on the floor, the vomit had an otherworldly purple color, she giggles, ¡°well that¡¯s a waste of my blood. Clean it up.¡± She snaps at null again. My piercing headache comes back, a stabbing through my brain, it¡¯s so much worse than it used to be. Lilith grabs my arm and takes me outside. ¡°Let¡¯s begin training.¡± She pulls me harder, I fall onto the ground and vomit again, ¡°really?¡± My head feels like it¡¯s splitting open, a knife being stabbing into my skull over and over again. Blood starts dripping from my nose, ¡°huh, that¡¯s weird.¡± She wipes my nose with her hand, the liquid looks dark blue. ¡°That¡¯s your brain.¡± Great, my brain is coming out of my nose as a fluid, awesome. I vomit again, the blood being purple still. That vial did not have this much purple blood. I vomit again, a pain goes down my brain to my spine. ¡°Urgh, suck it up. Everyone has a hard time with the ring at first, you haven¡¯t died, so man up.¡± She kicks my side, making me roll over, ¡°oh you look pale.¡± Chapter 12: Clones You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Chapter 13: Pretty ring for a mud thing The forest at night had an exceptional quality to it, due to the lack of light pollution, the sky through the tree leaves burst with colour of the galaxies far away. ¡°I thought I had to use tracking magic.¡± I was under the assumption null would still follow the rules of teaching me, but it seems like she has given up for some reason. ¡°Do you really want to learn?¡± She asks while guiding a light on her finger, she had checked Jackson¡¯s file and used tracking magic on his blood type, so the light will shine brighter like a compass when you are facing it. ¡°Not really¡­¡± the ground here was covered in leaves and sticks, we could make no sneak entrance. I had a couple of the sleeping spells in my pocket, hoping it won¡¯t come to that. Jackson isn¡¯t stupid, he will clearly accept my plan to clone him then use the clones dead body as proof we found him, it¡¯s so simple. Anyone with half a brain would see that. We find the river and walk along it, he is probably using the river to fish and drink, smart. ¡°Hey uh¡­ where even are we? In the world?¡± She shakes her head, ¡°I don¡¯t know, we are on earth.¡± The smell of smoke made its way to us, null stops, ¡°he is¡­¡± she continues walking until we find a campfire with a rock covered in paper. ¡°Huh¡­ where is he?¡± Null looks around, ¡°it says he is here-¡° a spear slices through nulls jaw, she falls onto the ground gurgling, I feel a kick to my stomach. I hit a tree as I fall backwards, he steps back to keep distance, ¡°paper doesn¡¯t do well when you have to get close right?¡± He chuckles to himself, his hair is messy and his body is covered in dirt and sap, even more dirty than he was in the town. Null is below him with blood pooling along her mouth, she reaches for his leg but he stops it by stabbing her through the hand with the pointy stick. ¡°STOP.¡± I yell, ¡°hear me out.¡± ¡°Hear you out? That¡¯s rich.¡± He takes a few stones from his pocket, it¡¯s wrapped in paper. He throws it up and down into his hand, I move left while he moves right, like two predators getting ready for a fight. ¡°We had a plan to take you alive, we clone you then use that clones body to prove you are dead.¡± I explain as calmly as I can. ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± He throws one stone, ¡°MORVA ERIS.¡± The stone compacts in on itself and shoots out like a bullet into my shoulder, grazing my bone and causing a deep wound. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± I clutch at my bleeding wound hoping to fix it with willpower. ¡°It¡¯s energy, the implosion power has to go somewhere, so it compacts on itself and increases its velocity. Basic physics.¡± He gets ready to throw another, he screams the two words, aiming directly at my head, it misses just barely, hitting my hair and burning it a bit. The rock hits the tree behind me, rattling leaves and sticks to fall down and cloud my vision. A crack in front of me signifies he is moving forward so I hold my hand out hoping to catch his attack. Instead of doing a stabbing motion like I expected, he does a swing directly at my head, hitting me in the temple. I grab a piece of paper and try to reach for his feet while I fall to the ground. The spear stabs through my wrist, ¡°what¡¯s this ring?¡± He asks calmly while ripping the paper from my hand, ¡°does this spell kill instantly?¡± ¡°Just puts you to sleep, please just listen, If I don¡¯t¡­¡± he rips the spear from my wrist and I pull back, I receive a kick to my head. I cough out a tooth and pull myself backwards, he is walking slowly towards me like a machine, ¡°everyone in the town dies if I don¡¯t give them your body, plea-¡° he tries to stab me again but I manage to grab the spear, ¡°PLEASE JUST-¡° I receive a kick to my stomach, landing back first into a tree, Jackson looks completely drained of empathy right now. ¡°You¡¯re such a manipulative little creature, you¡¯re like a cockroach, finding its way to live, spreading disease.¡± I receive another kick to the chest as I sit down, a couple ribs feel like they break. ¡°You say everyone in the town will die if you don¡¯t kill and clone me, but I think the reality is that everyone in the town will die because you messed up and used magic.¡± He kicks me again, ¡°we all died the moment you did that.¡± He goes for another kick, this time I grab his foot as hard as I can and try to use a little bit of my innate magic. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. He coughs up that black liquid, not falling instantly, but definitely still hurt. All I did was visualise that 10% damage variable. I get up as he sways, ¡°please.¡± I reach into my pocket for the sleeping spell, he reaches into his and pulls out his own paper. He coughs out again, swaying even more, ¡°what did¡­ you do?¡± He takes a step forward but his feet move back, ¡°stop it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not doing anything, please just listen to me.¡± I get on my hands and push myself up with barely any strength left. ¡°Just trust me.¡± ¡°Fuck you.¡± He slams the paper onto himself, activating it with a scream. A ball of meat falls to the ground, what remained of Jackson. Why? Why did he do that? Is he stupid? Is he dumb? Why would I lie? Why didn¡¯t he trust me? I¡­ I can still save him. I grab the ball of meat with both arms. I run over to null while almost falling over, my body is bleeding way too much, she is alive miraculously, stitching her jaw together with some glowing pink stitches. Whatever I don¡¯t care right now, ¡°do you just need dna to clone someone?¡± I grab her shoulders. ¡°Please, make him alive again.¡± She stares at the ball of Jackson, then at me, she nods twice while getting up. The once gaping wound in her jaw is now shut carefully, I guess this is how you heal yourself with your own magic. We both walk back, her in a bit of a rush, I¡¯m leaving behind a trail of blood but pure adrenaline keeps it feeling like a mild paper cut. Once the cabin comes into sight she slams open the door and writes a healing spell, placing it on my chest and saying the words through a confusing airy tone. My body heals almost completely, albeit my ribs still feel incredibly wrong. I place Jackson¡¯s ¡®body¡¯ on the table, she begins to prepare some resources from her bag, the small bag that holds 6 years worth of food in it. ¡°Make way to grave, shovel¡± she says while muffled due to the stitches. When we took that man from the town I made sure I buried him beside my cabin as a reminder for what I did, sorry old man. I pick up a shovel and move the loose dirt, I didn¡¯t even give the grave a chance to settle. I had only buried him 3 feet so I reach his body quickly, there was a stench of rot that I was used to in the mud town. I drag his body out, onto the path and into the cabin, null is taking blood from the Jackson ball. It¡¯s disgusting to look at, it¡¯s like how chicken nuggets look before they are cooked, but as a sphere with hair and obvious lines where limbs don¡¯t connect. ¡°Need lots blood.¡± Her jaw is still causing her words to be confusing, but it¡¯s getting better with time. She picks up the old man¡¯s body and places him beside the ball. A pink thread connects the two, it surrounds the ball, then surrounds the old man, I hear the sounds of cutting and snipping, like she is giving them a haircut. ¡°4 hours. Wait.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I sit down, watching her work at them, ¡°is there any way to take them back? To the modern world?¡± He jaw has almost been completely healed, only faint scaring on her face remains. She shakes her head, ¡°only master Lilith and her boss have that ability. We are on private land.¡± Her fingers twist a bit to reshape the head of the body. I stand up and take some chips out of the cabinet, ¡°why are you helping me?¡± I pull the two edges of the bag and it pops open. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t have long left, Lilith replaces her clones every 2 years, I found receipts¡­¡± I sit back down, ¡°chip?¡± I hold it to her mouth and she bites. ¡°I thought I¡¯d achieve great things when I was released from my box, but a life made to suffer and cause suffering isn¡¯t purposeful.¡± The arm twists on the old man, making his form lankier, I can¡¯t see anything below the pink threads. ¡°I get that¡­ my whole life has been about maximising the good I do.¡± She shakes her head and smiles, ¡°this is a roundabout way to achieve that¡­¡± I notice her human emotion, ¡°woah you¡¯re smiling, that means you are sentient.¡± ¡°I could just be good at mimicking emotions.¡± ¡°Does it feel that way?¡± ¡°No¡­¡± ¡°Then it isn¡¯t, you¡¯re as real as anyone else¡­ real¡­¡± I get reminded of the 10 clones I killed in cold blood, how brutal I was, how unfeeling I was in the moment. ¡°I need air, you go¡­¡± I get up, moving to the door and swinging it open, I walk down the path out of the forest to bask in the moonlight. I killed 10¡­ no including Jackson and the old man I don¡¯t even know the name of I¡¯ve killed 12¡­ people¡­ ¡°Urghhh.¡± Well I¡¯m going to save Jackson so that means I killed 11, so I just need to save 11 more and I¡¯m back to being a good person. Fog surrounds me for a quick moment before dissipating, the sound of a fancy carriage passes through. ¡°Stop!¡± A female voice shouts as it goes by my feet, someone in a black and red dress comes out, their hair styled up to make sure she looks sophisticated. Her face is nulls. ¡°Now what¡¯s a young boy doing out here in the wilderness, it¡¯s rare to come across such a specimen.¡± She hops down and grabs my hand, ¡°do you talk boy?¡± I nod, ¡°yes nul- no uh, I mean, yes I talk.¡± That¡¯s going in my most embarrassing moments book. ¡°Ohhh good! You are the human with magic aren¡¯t you? Such a wonderful delight, a treat, a tasty one at that.¡± She pulls me up from the ground, ¡°I am here on business but I can¡¯t deny the pain of not being able to study your thoughts.¡± She strokes my cheek. This is nulls owner, the actual original, I don¡¯t know why but I can tell, she has a similar atmosphere to her than it was to be around Liliths boss. I speak in the voice that I use for Lilith, I need to control the flow of conversation, to make a suggestion of a future meeting so I have time.¡°That would be wonderful, we should setup a date then, what time would be convenient?¡± She lets go of me and claps, walking over to another version of her and grabbing paper, ¡°13th of December, 5 days, I¡¯ll come pick you up, wear something nice. Your gift wrapping is sub par at best.¡± She hands me the paper delicately, the glove on her finger is fully black except for the ring finger which has the ring and skin showing. The paper had the exact time she will pick me up and the date, ¡°thank you, looking forward to it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s always so wonderful when our kind makes a new breakthrough, you¡¯re one of us now, don¡¯t forget it okay?¡± She fiddles with my ring, ¡°such a pretty ring for a mud thing.¡± Mud thing? ¡°Thanks¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re so pure, alas I need to talk to¡­ what does she go by ¡®Lilith¡¯ now?¡± She looks over at one of her clones. ¡°Yes, she goes by Lilith.¡± A clone speaks as calmly as possible while tapping her pen on the table within the carriage. ¡°Okay, well I need to see Lilith about issues she is having with one of my clones, they¡¯re nasty little things aren¡¯t they?¡± She pats both my shoulders at once, ¡°oh! Before I forget, did you get innate magic?¡± ¡°I did¡­¡± She squeals in excitement, hopping back into the carriage, ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to our meeting. Bye!¡± I wave, she had just given me information I probably shouldn¡¯t have. Null is going to be replaced soon. ¡®Issues Lilith is having about one of her clones¡¯ is just code for ¡®I want a refund and a new one.¡¯ Does that make my kill total 12 again if I can¡¯t save null? I need to save 12 people to make me a good person, that¡¯s all. Chapter 14: Advertising space The sounds of scissors cutting is all I can hear, the cabin walls do a good job of blocking out the wilderness so the ambiance is just silence. Its late, very late, so why don''t I feel tired? ¡°Why am I not tired?¡± These past 4 hours I''ve just been saying what''s on my mind. Anything except for the fact that Lilith might replace null sooner than the 1 year she had left, that felt like an after-clone sort of conversation. The old man''s body seemed a lot more filled out, the smell of rotting had passed by, Jacksons blonde hair pokes through the threads, it is just as long without the mud that usually made it brown. ¡°Your body is still in a state of shock, it won''t let you sleep until you fully recover.¡± She says simply. ¡°But I feel fine.¡± ¡°You feel fine, but you are not.¡± She begins to unwrap the threads, ¡°he is done.¡± I stand up from the bed, ¡°will he be naked?¡± ¡°of course.¡± I walk towards the drawer and pick out some of the baggier clothes, trying not to let them touch me since they¡¯ll just absorb into my clothes. I pass them to Null who is unwrapping his lower half. I lift a leg to put the grey sweatpants on, then his arms to put the black sweater on, ¡°okay... can you wake him up?¡± ¡°He should be awake.¡± I see his eyes flicker while they''re closed, he is faking being asleep. ¡°Jackson, we saved you, please don''t do anything that stupid again.¡± They flicker again, Null takes a step back, ¡°he should have retained his personality, just not his memories.¡± Then why is he trying to act like he isn¡¯t awake? ¡°Jackson... that''s your name, I''m Fay, I''m your... friend...¡± His eyes open, staring daggers directly at me, ¡°then why do I want to rip you apart right now? Fay.¡± He moves off the table and stands in the corner like an injured wolf. ¡°We... we had a fight, you killed yourself, but I saved you.¡± His gaze turns to the sphere of meat on the table, ¡°what the fuck is that?¡± He takes another step back, into the drawer where it makes a noise that startles him when he bumps into it. ¡°That doesn''t matter... I need to take you somewhere tomorrow...¡± I''m going to take him back to the mud town, until I can find a way to get them all out. His eyes go everywhere, ¡°let me out, let me go.¡± His voice is tinted with desperation, something I''m not used to hearing from him. I look over at null, making sure I don''t create any openings, ¡°null, can we get a carriage tomorrow?¡± She shakes her head, ¡°We can only visit once per week, and they have sensors on who leaves and enters.¡± This really isn''t good, I did not think this through, what do I do? Just leave him to live in the woods? Thats better than letting him die, I have the proof of his body on the table. ¡°Okay... Null give him the food bag.¡± I step closer to Null, ¡°please.¡± She shakes her head, ¡°with all the respect in the world... master Lilith would notice it gone.¡± I groan, ¡°Null you¡¯re going to die soon anyway, just give it.¡± My hand reaches out towards the kitchen counter where the bag rests dormant. ¡°What?¡± She turns to me, ¡°what do you mean?¡± Shit that argument doesn''t really count, I forgot I didn''t explain her situation yet, ¡°the original ¡®you¡¯ came by, I talked to her, said Lilith had a complaint about you.¡± ¡°I... she... just because I wanted to be called Null?¡± Her voice hits my heartstrings, she is on the verge of tears. ¡°I don''t know, just-¡± I hear the door slam, Jackson had run out. I move towards the door but Null grabs my arms. ¡°I didn''t DO anything, Lilith RESPECTED me.¡± She pulls on me, trying to convince me with things I don''t care about. ¡°Okay, I believe you, please help me get Jackson.¡± Theres too much going on at once, I didn''t expect Null to react so viscerally. ¡°Please, one at a time.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°We...¡± She wipes at her face, ¡°we can''t track him, we don''t have his blood type.¡± ¡°Yes we do? We just used it to track him last time.¡± ¡°His blood type is the old man''s now... we can''t ask for his blood type without being questioned... I''m sorry...¡± her face spills out tears. I put fingers on my temples, ¡°okay, okay, okay, its fine. It''s okay, thank you.¡± She puts her arms around me, Squeezing tightly, ¡°it''s not fair, it''s not fair, it''s not. It isn''t, it isn''t fair Fay.¡± My head keeps turning towards the door, lost between searching for Jackson and helping Null with her existential crisis. I start stroking her hair, ¡°hey... its... fine, I''m sorry, it isn''t fair, is it?¡± Her tears fall onto my shirt and slide off like they never existed, I put my arms around her and squeeze, ¡°we are similar. You know?¡± I let out something I don''t really believe. ¡°How so?¡± ¡°You aren''t exactly on either side of this are you? You can''t be loved by humans, nor by demons, I get it.¡± My hand keeps a steady rhythm, going through her silky black hair. ¡°I thought master Lilith loved me... if I did everything right... she liked you, so I needed to like you too... but that got me... refunded...¡± She blames me, of course she does, everyone does, everyone blames me. I''m beginning to believe it''s true that I''m just a disease, enough people have told me it''s all my fault that I''m beginning to believe it. ¡°I''m sorry.¡± Is all I say while pushing her away, ¡°we need to find Jackson, and maybe... I can strike a deal with the original you to keep you safe... okay?¡± I have no clue if I have any leverage with her original self, but if it makes her stop crying then I''ll be good. ¡°Can you walk?¡± She lets go of me, the place where she was grasping at my shirt hurts a lot, like she was pulling at my skin. ¡°Whenever I cried in front of master Lilith, she just threatened to...¡± she moves the palm of her hand below her nose to wipe snot, ¡°but it''s fine, it is fine.¡± We both walk outside, it¡¯s not completely obvious the direction he went, but if I were him I¡¯d go right, directly into the forest. I begin to sprint, null walks behind me, there¡¯s nothing to track him off until I hear a scream, his scream. It¡¯s in the direction of the open path, I make my way there and see the original null holding him up by the neck and pulling on his limbs like he¡¯s a toy. ¡°Oh! Is this yours?¡± She looks over at me, Jackson is slamming his hands onto her arm without her knowledge. ¡°Yes¡­ please¡­ let him go¡± I¡¯m out of breath, I have to kneel down. ¡°This one¡¯s a clone, are you aware?¡± She taps on the man¡¯s face, ¡°ran in front of my carriage as I was about to leave, terrible terrible timing.¡± Null catches up and they stare at each other, there¡¯s a lot of pain in her eyes, ¡°hello¡­¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re the one I needed to talk to.¡± She squeezes Jackson¡¯s neck until he passes out and drops him, I rush over to his body and listen for breathing, he is fine. Null tries to stand tall in front of the original, ¡°Lilith said you were acting defiantly, tell me why that is.¡± She strokes her shoulder. ¡°I¡­ just wanted a name¡­ and didn¡¯t feel¡­ good with the¡­ my clones being slaughtered.¡± She lets out in small gasps. ¡°Your clones aren¡¯t real, they have no feelings nor thought.¡± ¡°But¡­ I-¡° ¡°That¡¯s because you are different my love, you were made to be spectacular, while they were made to be puppets¡­ do you feel like you¡¯ve been acting spectacular?¡± Null sniffles, ¡°no¡­¡± ¡°Then I will reset your brain. You¡¯ll be born again.¡± She says this like it¡¯s definitely going to happen. Null doesn¡¯t even pull away, accepting her fate. I stand up, ¡°don¡¯t please.¡± The original smiles and gracefully tracks her way toward me, ¡°they had to invent a new level of currency to pay for my clones, why would I leave one defective?¡± My mind speaks by itself, ¡°I¡¯ll pay for her.¡± The original null stands around a bit before giving the widest of smiles, ¡°you have very little capital.¡± ¡°Just tell me what to do.¡± She looks over to her clone in the carriage, she nods, ¡°let me first figure out your standing, are you one of us or one of them?¡± Neither, ¡°whoever benefits me the most.¡± ¡°Hm, well you are untapped advertising space, if I can¡­ if I can clone you, sell those clones at a expensive price as a sort of high fashion¡­ the human who figured out magic¡­ slogan could be ¡®has a ring to it¡¯ or something dumb,¡± she thinks for a moment, ¡°I¡¯ll figure it all out, you two can stay, where does this boy go?¡± She kicks Jackson who is laying on the ground. Null speaks up for me, ¡°experiment j 23. This district.¡± The original null smiles, ¡°I¡¯ll take him there on my way back, bye bye!¡± She waves, I wave back. That resolved itself incredibly well. Null seems happy with herself, ¡°thanks null¡­ but didn¡¯t you say they have sensors?¡± ¡°If the clone woman comes to an experiment site with only clones¡­ nobody will bat an eye¡­¡± And since Jackson is a clone¡­ ¡°thank you¡­ that solves everything.¡± We walk back, I wonder how Noah and Ann are doing, are they learning magic currently? Preparing an attack on me? Most likely. ¡°Hey null?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°What rank is Lilith?¡± I ask randomly. ¡°Oh. Rank 7¡­ anything above 5 is considered a master of their craft.¡± She pulls on her hair out of stress. ¡°And I¡¯m not even rank 1.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, you need to go to the examination facility to become rank 1, it¡¯s where they test you.¡± I don¡¯t even know why I¡¯m asking, we get back to the cabin, the ball of meat that was the original Jackson is still on the table, ¡°I¡¯ll put him in the grave.¡± I pick it up. I walk outside, the moon is right above me now, ¡°sorry Jackson.¡± I throw him in the grave and fill it up, at least I saved some part of him. I grab a stick and plant it into the loose dirt, I then sit next to it, breathing in the air. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m doing¡­¡± I watch as an ant crawls across the soil, making a long journey to who knows where, never stopping, never giving up. I wonder how things would have been different if I had just trusted people with my knowledge on magic¡­ Jackson with limited experience figured out how to turn rocks into projectiles¡­ I wonder what the rest could have done¡­ I wonder how things would have been different if I didn¡¯t break down that door and instead just asked for help like a normal person, was it truly out of the realm of possibility that Noah couldn¡¯t get me vials of blood? I wonder how things would have been different if I told them I had been the one who had been choosing elderly to be taken away, would some of them sacrifice themselves? Would they have worked as a community to save the kids like I had been trying to do? I wonder how things would have been different. Chapter 15: Its empty now [Noah¡¯s Perspective.] Four people. Four people have died trying to figure out this book. Four people who wouldn''t be dead otherwise. Four people Fay killed by giving us an incomplete book. This is what they wanted. ¡°Food scraps are getting low...¡± Anne sits on one of the storage crates in the food clinic, we had completely reorganized everything, moved crates outside to use as compost boxes, its clear they arent going to feed us again. They are starving us? Why? ¡°Just please... be quiet Anne... I know, I''ve known, stop reminding me.¡± I go through the pages, there''s only theory in here, a few ¡®variables¡¯ but nothing precise. It''s clear Fay for some reason wants us to experiment on ourselves to figure this out. Healing magic, that is what the book is mostly about, it works fine but most of the time the person doing the spell dies after losing a lot of blood. The book says we need to drink blood to not use our own in the spell but no matter how much we drink it''s not enough. I''ve been trying to figure out a way to grow the tomato plant faster, healing is a sort of regrowth so I''ve tried multiple different variations of symbols. ¡°Noah go to bed, and I mean that in a selfish way, I want to sleep.¡± Anne moved the tomato plant into the food clinic a day ago, had almost everyone in the town carrying it safely, now its seen as her prized possession and she sleeps beside it every night. ¡°I just...¡± I write down another spell, ¡°one more, before bed.¡± I walk towards the plant, wrap the paper around it and say the special words, ¡°morva eris.¡± Yet again it feels like a hammer had hit me in the top left of my skull, ¡°FUCK.¡± I fall to the ground, shaking violently, I never get used to it. ¡°You done?¡± Anne had seen this happen enough times to know I''d be fine, my first reaction to magic was vomiting blood, but now I just get super bad headaches, an improvement. I wipe my nose, some blood had come out yet again, ¡°yeah I''m done...¡± me and Anne share few words nowadays, I just stare at her, she hasn''t been getting much sleep, and neither of us have the will to talk about Fay. The last thing she said about Fay was ¡®at least he is taking the option any one of us would take if we had the chance, to live a life.¡¯ Which I disagree with completely, its either all of us or none of us, you don''t kill everyone to save one life. The dark circles around her eyes almost looks like makeup, I haven''t tried to argue about fay, there''s enough going on. I just can''t believe who I considered to be one of my best friends just... joined them, started doing what they do, of course he seems like he doesn''t want to, but he is still doing it, even good people can be pushed to the edges of insanity. The sound of a carriage comes through. ¡°It''s way too late, is it fay?¡± Anne stands up and walks to the open hole in the wall, it''s an expensive carriage, white and gold. A woman in a fancy black dress jumps down, the floor she stands on turns to grass, ¡°urgh, can''t people do landscaping around here? So, this is the human''s home...¡± She walks to the back of the carriage and takes out a body, Jackson. I run out, my feet splashing in the freshly rained mud, ¡°what did you do to him?¡± The woman just stares at me, ¡°who might you be? I didn''t think you things could talk.¡± I open my mouth but she snaps at me, ¡°actually, I was under the impression this experiment site was empty, terminated due to the use of...¡± She pushes past me and walks over to the food clinic, stepping inside while Anne hides in the corner. I check on Jacksons body, he has strangulation marks on his neck, but overall, he is breathing, alive, Fay didn''t kill him. Thank God. I hear a squeal, ¡°my my! You are just wonderful Anne.¡± I sprint back inside, seeing Anne being cuddled by this strange woman, ¡°Anne are you okay?¡± I yell a bit too loud, people are starting to leave their huts, staring at the green grass this woman left for us. ¡°The pursuit of life is a wonderful one!¡± She guides Anne¡¯s hands to touch the plant, ¡°the growth of beauty in a box, much like my own but stricken with the limitations of poverty.¡± She touches the plant, and it grows multiple sprouts, plump green tomatoes appear that quickly turn red. She just did what I''ve been trying to do for multiple sleepless nights. ¡°How¡¯d you do that?¡± ¡°You have an affinity for the living too I see... are you by chance that boy''s friend... what''s his name... Fay?¡± She looks over at my notes and failed spells, ¡°Fay Fay Fay Fay.¡± She repeats as she scowls. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. She picks up one piece of paper, ¡°Why are you using general healing magic? That is silly.¡± ¡°It''s the only thing in this book.¡± I pick it up, she quickly snatches it from my hands. ¡°Well, this is authoritarianism at its finest, the pursuit of knowledge should not be limited to 10 pages of dirt.¡± pink threads pierce a piece of paper, turning it into two, she begins to write using a piece of thread with blood dipped at the end. ¡°I''ll write you some information on growth magic so you can go down this beautiful road of knowledge, I''ll even throw my own secret formula¡¯s in here... since you are all probably going to be dead soon anyway.¡± She smiles and hands me the piece of paper. She taps us both on the head, ¡°mind if I pay a visit next week? I want to see progress. I want to see this place covered in greenery!¡± She jumps up and down for a moment, ¡°I''ll bring more... wait!¡± She runs out, me and Anne just give each other a look of astonishment, who is this lady? Is she on our side? Probably not. But she just gave us crucial information and food. ¡°Do you trust her?¡± Anne says in the quietest voice possible. ¡°I...¡± she brought back Jacksons body, which has obvious connotations to Fay, only Fay would bring someone back alive... Does Fay trust her? She comes back in with a chest, ¡°Chest full of seeds, it''s all sorted randomly so don''t try to figure out which are which. That¡¯s the fun of it!¡± She opens it in front of us and it is indeed just a chest full of seeds, no labelling, just seeds of different shapes and sizes. ¡°Tell me, when you look at these seeds, do you think you are worth more than them?¡± ¡°Yes...? Obviously.¡± She claps, ¡°and that''s the beauty of it, you created it, therefore you own it, it is really that simple.¡± She stands up, ¡°It''s been a while since I''ve had a talk with mud rats, perhaps I should get my own experiment site... there''s a lot of government perks... what do you think?¡± We both nod. Not knowing anything. She clicks her tongue, ¡°nah because then any research I do is funded by the government and therefore public to them... I''m a secretive person you know... I might just buy a plot of land... could find humans pretty easy... where are you two from?¡± Anne speaks up first, ¡°Germany.¡± I speak up next, ¡°Australia.¡± ¡°Okay! I''ll go to those two places and pick up some humans, thanks for the talk you two.¡± She leaves, hopping on the grass path she made that leads towards the carriage. It rolls off... ¡°I... I''m going to get Jackson inside... but then we need to talk about what that means.¡± I walk out, the grass on my feet feels amazing but that''s not what''s occupying my mind right now. She just said she would take humans from the countries we were from. Does that mean the world isn''t in a complete apocalypse? That all of us have just gone missing? The world didn''t end? I drag Jacksons body through the mud and onto the stairs, I rest him down carefully on the wood as Anne stares at the potato plant. ¡°Did you notice?¡± She asks. ¡°Notice what?¡± ¡°Shes the same girl who was with Fay in that carriage the other day.¡± I didn''t even realise Fay was with anyone, I was fully focused on him, him as the enemy. ¡°Do you think he told her to help us?¡± I ask without much thought, my mind is overwhelmed currently. She pulls a tomato off and takes a small bite, ¡°God... I missed flavour... I think he did...¡± She hands the tomato to me, I refuse, ¡°save it for the kids... take the seeds too...¡± I grab the piece of paper the woman left us, it has a custom formula with 9 symbols, there''s a note below it saying it''ll most likely kill a human with no potency... I don''t know what that means. I copy all the symbols, putting the paper on the plant, before I say the two words a hand grips my wrist, ¡°don''t...¡± Jackson is sitting upright, staring at me, ¡°just... I don''t know why... just don''t.¡± I let go of the paper and hug him, I never thought I would see him talking again, ¡°you''re fucking alive, Jesus Christ, you scared me... so the plan worked? You escaped? Why didn''t you stay away man?¡± My face hits his shoulder, I feel on the verge of tears, ¡°dude I had no clue what I was doing... everyone expected me to replace you... I was so scared, I''m so glad you¡¯re back...¡± I squeeze tighter. I look into his eyes, all I see is confusion, like he doesn''t know what''s happening, ¡°right you must be disoriented, hey Anne.¡± I wave over at Anne, ¡°give him one of the tomatoes.¡± I let go of him, Anne walks over, ¡°did Fay seem okay? Did he bring you back?¡± She hands him the tomato, while he eats, he nods, ¡°Fay? Oh... uh... sorry I''m confused... in the... cabin?¡± he gives the tomato back after a bite and rubs at his head, ¡°why don''t I... where... why is nothing coming up?¡± Me and Anne exchange glances, what cabin? ¡°You okay?¡± Jackson gets up and begins pacing, ¡°there was... this ball of meat... they said it was me... and... but I don''t remember... I don''t... there''s nothing going on... in my head...¡± He keeps stomping his feet like a child, ¡°where am I?¡± ¡°Home...¡± is all I can say, but it''s not really true, is it? ¡°Yeah?¡± He walks out, the crowd of people who were drawn to the green grass see Jackson walking down the steps, they all instantly gasp then cheer. One man jogs over and grabs him to his side, ¡°couldn''t stay away huh?¡± ¡°that''s why they don''t fuck with us!¡± some kid screams, something doesn''t feel right, this doesn''t feel right. Jackson pushes the man away, ¡°please don''t... please don''t touch me... I uh...¡± everyone stares at him, waiting for his next words in silence like he is about to speak the gospel. ¡°I don''t... its empty... its empty...¡± Anne looks at me, ¡°okay that''s enough.¡± She grabs Jackson and brings him inside, she speaks the crowd as she does so, ¡°he is tired, just go to sleep, I''m sure everything will be fine come morning.¡± She sets Jackson down on the wall, he is breathing heavily and shaking. ¡°Fay... I know him... the... the one with the girl... then the same girl? She got me while I ran to the forest... did I die?¡± He curls in on himself. ¡°Just... sleep okay...¡± I take my shirt off and lay him to his side, letting him use the shirt as a pillow. He is wearing expensive clothes, probably given by Fay, grey sweatpants with a black jumper. ¡°Go to bed... okay?¡± He closes his eyes and his breathing slows. I step back, Anne had already made her way to pick the seeds out of the tomato to plant some more, ¡°Anne... I don''t think Jackson is okay.¡± ¡°You think?¡± She says sarcastically while digging her hands in the compost, planting the seed carefully. What did Fay do? Did he torture Jackson? Wipe his memories? Anne settles down, ¡°lets sleep here, make sure Jackson doesn''t try running into the water and drown himself.¡± She pats the space next to her. I rest my head on her shoulder, ¡°he will be fine... Jackson is fine... he always is.¡± Anne strokes my head; my hair grows fast so it has gotten some length to it and cutting it off with sharp planks is time consuming. ¡°Go to bed... we will figure this out tomorrow.¡± I rest more comfortably on her, ¡°goodnight.¡± ¡°Night.¡± My parents are still alive if the world isn''t destroyed. My sister is still alive. I''m still alive. Chapter 16: An Invitation The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Chapter 17: Dinner party If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Chapter 18: Because its fun ¡°Go!¡± The boy closes his hand into a fist, my body loses all velocity, every limb is frozen by the joint. ¡°Mom! I got him!¡± I can only see the grass as he says this, my neck locked in place. ¡°Very good. Now just fling him, remember the wrist movement.¡± My body gets released, I fall to the grass, sliding back a bit, ¡°aw man, I messed it up again.¡± A light drizzle of rain begins to come down, the only light source being from the extravagant lights of the mansion. The grass marble between my fingers almost slipping away as I stand up from my awkward fall. The boy is staring at his mom, completely distracted, ¡°what was the movement again?¡± I throw the grass marble, converting it into the liquid, and then imploding that liquid into a bullet, doing exactly what Jackson did that night with extra steps, I lose vision for a second as the second implosion spell causes the bullet to break the sound barrier. It flies directly towards his temple. ¡°Oh!¡± He ducks just in time, crouching with his right hand on the floor. He swipes with his other hand in a haymaker, somehow hitting me from the far distance we were both at. The haymaker sends me flying right into a rougher patch of dirt, beside the mansion where they were growing fresh trees. Surprisingly it didn''t do much damage despite the knockback I felt. I grab the growing tree with my hands to produce more of the black sap, I have it slide across the grass as I step out of the patch of dirt to meet him again. Stay calm, wait for him to try that telekinetic attack again. The liquid stays beside my feet as we both standoff, he gets up from his crouched position and watches me, ¡°mom do I do close quarters now?¡± ¡°What do you think honey?¡± She steps back. ¡°I just think his innate magic outmatches that spell you taught me.¡± The woman takes a sip of wine, ¡°how are you going to learn without challenging yourself?¡± I implode another patch of grass as they speak, they both stop at my sudden action. Staring at me with a vicious gaze, like I had done something wrong. ¡°Mom he is cheating!¡± ¡°He isn''t, even if he was you can still win.¡± She finishes her drink and passes it to a random person beside her, ¡°go on.¡± The boy holds out his hand and squeezes, yet again I''m frozen. I form the liquid near my feet into a spike and shoot it towards his body. His body twists to lay back on the grass, dodging the spike completely, his arm swinging in the air to catch the ground, this movement causes my body to swing around his body like I''m a sledgehammer and his body is the handle, my body gets flung up and around him. As I''m being catapulted above him, I desperately try to control my body and use the grass marble to fire another bullet, converting it to a liquid and then imploding it towards him, the sound barrier breaks and pushes me further upwards, it must''ve hit because I hear a cry. I fall from 30 feet in the air while my body tumbles and turns, landing on a slope of grass while rolling. My shoulder takes the brunt of the fall, I land on the edge of the cliff, I hear wailing and crying, ¡°ITS NOT FAIR.¡± I see the boy run over the hill and towards me, holding his hand out yet again in an attempt to grab me, his other hand seems to be bleeding. Instead of the usual telekinesis a bolt of red lightning shoots out of his hand and towards me, striking my body almost instantly. The burn from the impact goes through my clothes and into my heart, my body falls onto the floor, ¡°I WIN, I WIN I WIN I WIN.¡± My muscles move uncontrollably like id been hit by a taser, the crowds of people watching me get hunted by this child, he steps over me and begins kicking me, ¡°DIE, OFF THE CLIFF.¡± My body rolls once, closer to the cliff face, then again, then again, my body still not responding to any movements I try to make. One of my hands are hanging off the edge while my other is on the grass that leads to it. I try to visualize the implosion spell again, this time without that 10% multiplier, if I''m going to die I might as well take one of them with me. My body gets kicked again, I regain the use of one of my fingers, I say the words in my mind, the two words. A rock cracking sound happens as I activate it. The floor we were both on turning into a ball that tumbles down the side of the cliff. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The child manages to save himself somehow, it was stupid to think he couldn''t use the telekinesis on himself. I feel the brunt of the spell mid fall, my body chokes up blood, it floats through the air like I''m in zero gravity, the waves below getting louder and louder. ¡°NO!¡± The boy grabs me with the same telekinesis, now standing safely on the cliff, he flings me back up and onto the hill, I land with a few more rolls towards the mansion, almost besides the feet of the people watching, ¡°you hurt me.¡± He lets out a small sob. The mom who is now just beside me shouts, ¡°try the twist move!¡± She taps me on the back a few times, ¡±you¡¯re doing well.¡± She throws my body back into the middle of the valley, the boy is holding his hand out, ¡°how do I do the twist again?¡± ¡°You take the carry variable onto itself, randomize each part of the human anatomy to pull together on itself¡± ¡°Thats so much to keep track of though!¡± He stomps a bit before trying it on me, I feel my arm tighten but then release, ¡°urgh! Can''t I just kill him?¡± ¡°Not if you can''t perfect this spell.¡± I need to be able to physically touch him, like back with the clones, I can convert the organic insides of them into that liquid. His hand is bleeding pretty bad, it has a hole through the middle causing the middle and ring finger unable to function. I reach into my pocket, deciding now is the time to use that thread ball Null gave me, as I take it out of my pocket the boy notices, ¡°woah pretty.¡± I throw it overarm as hard as I can towards him, he tries to catch it like it''s a ball. ¡°STOP.¡± The mother screams as it touches his hands, the thread ball instantly unwraps itself, slinging threads in every direction like a grenade with shrapnel, sharp rubber bands fly into the air cutting up the grass and him. Both of his hands fall off as it lacerates every part of him, parts of his torso are missing. The thread only bounces of bone, but the rest is fair game. I didn''t realise it would do that much damage. Did I just kill a kid...? No this isn''t a child, it''s a demon, a demon that if I left alive would kill multiple humans... I''m saving people by doing this. The boy lands backwards onto the grass, coughing. ¡°Okay. Remember the healing spell! Focus on every part of your body!¡± She says frantically, not making a move to join in on the fight. The boy''s body begins to reconstruct itself, hands rejoin as well as they can, little bits of lightning solder the pieces together that were ripped clean off. He survived that. I produce 2 more marbles of grass in haste, planning to aim directly at his head with the projectiles as he is healing, but something stops all my limbs. ¡°Let him finish healing, don''t be a sore loser.¡± The two marbles fall out of my hands, rolling down the hill. The mom is using the same spell the boy was using. I watch Lilith walk down the hill while drunk, almost tumbling multiple times, she gets close to the boy, ¡°maaan... you really hurt em.¡± ¡°What are you doing?¡± The orange haired woman runs over and grabs Lilith¡¯s arm. ¡°My human won! I''m checking damages.¡± ¡°He did not ¡®win.¡¯ The fight barely started.¡± They both stand eye to eye, Lilith''s posture showing no sign of the power she has displayed in the past. ¡°Want me to kill both of youu?¡± She pokes her nose and turns to me, ¡°urghhhh, why do you have to be so interesting?¡± My body gets released, I land feet first on the floor, all I can do is plead in this moment, ¡°take me home.¡± ¡°No!¡± ¡°Please.¡± She grumpily picks up a piece of loose thread, ¡°I hate this so muuuuch.¡± Her body lands on mine in an improvised hug, ¡°I want nothing to do with you Fay...¡± Her head rests on my shoulder, the boy is now looking around, confused, his body still healing itself, ¡°did I lose?¡± His mom holds his cheek, ¡°only because he cheated. But you should have been smarter.¡± They both walk back into the mansion, the crowd of people dispersing as well, the most interesting event of the night had ended. Lilith is crying on my shoulder now, ¡°you ruined my life! I was going to do great things and now I''m being blackmailed by everyoneeee.¡± she squeezes her arms harder around me, ¡°you''re an abomination, a disgusting creature Fayyy.¡± I can''t even feel sorry for her, nothing in her words or tone is evoking any emotion from me, I''m distant right now. ¡°Lilith... lets go home, okay?¡± ¡°NO! We need... we need to settle this!¡± She steps away from me and walks into the mansion, expecting me to follow, I do so. We make our way in and out of rooms until Lilith spots the orange haired woman sitting on the couch with the boy crying next to her, Lilith speaks up obnoxiously, ¡°I challenge you to a duel!¡± She points at the mom. She just shakes her head, ¡°with all due respect... I''m rank 5... I''d lose.¡± ¡°That 2 rank gap didn''t stop your child from duelling my... human thing, duel me.¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°No.¡± Lilith grunts, ¡°okay.¡± She steps forward, somehow taking 5 steps in one, grabbing the head of the woman and popping it, the lights in the mansion flicker while the body falls to the couch side, landing near the boy, ¡°didn''t even have your defences on... pathetic...¡± Lilith seems completely sober now as she turns towards me, the blood sliding off her body, the clothes having the same enchantment as mine. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± She grabs my hand harshly and walks me upstairs, people rush into the room where the attack happened, nobody bothering to stop her. ¡°My court date is soon... for teaching you magic... I''ll be executed.¡± She walks into a random room, one with a desk and a bed. I don''t even give a fake reaction, ¡°that''s good.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± She squeezes my hand nervously, ¡°a part of me asks...¡± She shakes her head a few times, trying to replace her words and failing, ¡°a part of my asks what was all of this for?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°What''s the point of... any of this...? Getting stronger... trying to achieve something... none of that matters.¡± I don''t take any of this seriously, I can''t after every single conversation we¡¯ve had has been manipulation. ¡°What will happen to me...? When you¡¯re gone.¡± She stops for a moment, then sits on the desk, this is eerily similar to our old meetings, ¡°aha... oh she has plans with the whole human magic experiment thing... I''m the scape goat; she will be doing all that behind closed doors while I take all the blame for what happened in the open.¡± That doesn''t really answer my question. ¡°you''ll be dead soon after me, they¡¯re trying to figure out where you stand, some people are saying you are one of us because you have a ring, others say this is a gross misinterpretation of the law of being.¡± I sit on the bed like usual as she draws up a healing spell, the bed sheets a lot silkier than the ones in her usual place, I decide now is the right time to ask if I ever had the chance, ¡°why do you do it?¡± ¡°Do what?¡± ¡°Try to hurt people on purpose... for no reason, like with the experiments that go nowhere, making me kill Jackson, hurting Null, taking me to see my parents just to rip it away.¡± Her eyes widen for a moment before relaxing into her usual gaze, ¡°because it''s fun.¡± Because it''s fun. Chapter 19: j-23 The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 20: I didnt have a choice I hear people whispering, some angry, some annoyed, some scared. Everything is grainy, my body feels like its submerged in water, my feet being stuck in quicksand, desperately swimming to the surface ¡°Try it again.¡± ¡°Why are we doing this?¡± ¡°Just let him die.¡± ¡°don''t be stupid.¡± A cold hand touches my chest, ¡°morva eris.¡± My heart beats for a moment and I feel every sensation at once, I get pulled upwards, then it stops. Someone chokes and falls to the floor. ¡°Again... Jackson please.¡± A cold hand touches my chest again. ¡°morva eris.¡± It beats twice, each thump bringing me closer to home, then it stops. Someone vomits, ¡°I can¡¯t anymore Noah.¡± ¡°Okay... sorry, you''ve done enough... I''ll try.¡± A warmer hand touches my chest, ¡°morva eris.¡± My heart beats three times, then beats again, then again. Until it eventually stops and my lungs fill with water. ¡°Jesus...¡± someone who sounds like Noah speaks in between irregular breaths, a hand it placed onto my chest again, paper on my collarbone, ¡°morva eris.¡± My heart beats, then again, then again, then again, restarting itself like an engine. My eyes are thrown wide open, I float back into my body, I feel the pressure of my hands tied together, the hard feeling of wood on my back, my head facing the roof, a familiar roof. ¡°He¡¯s breathing.¡± Noah coughs up blood, ¡°are you alive?¡± I move my head into a more comfortable position, I see that I''m in the blood vial room of the food clinic, the shelves no longer here, its empty. There are multiple people by the door peeking in, Jackson, Anne and Noah being the only one standing near me. I cough up water, it spills onto my legs then onto the floor, ¡°thank... thank you...¡± Noah grabs my jaw, ¡°what are you doing here?¡± Jackson moves back into a crouched position, readying himself like I''m about to pounce. ¡°I... I was in trouble... thank you.¡± ¡°Bullshit.¡± Jackson steps back further, staring at me, ¡°we have that... that woman tied up too, tell us everything or she dies.¡± The clone? ¡°Okay... okay... I was attacked... they tried to kill Lilith and since she had connected my heart to hers... I...¡± Noah squeezes my jaw, ¡°who is Lilith?¡± They don''t know... of course they don''t know. ¡°The... demon, the one who always took me.¡± ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re on a first name basis now? Thats great, good to hear.¡± I notice a ring on Jacksons finger, a golden ring. ¡°Where''d you get that ring?¡± I try to point at it but my hands just jerk against the rope. ¡°You¡¯re not asking questions here.¡± Noah looks over at the people peeking through the door, ¡°go... please.¡± They stop spying on us and exit, I hear footsteps large and small leave the building. Anne sits on the floor with crossed legs by the wall, watching this all go down. Noah with his hand still on my jaw speaks again with a stronger tone, ¡°so, you were in trouble. You almost died and came here?¡± I nod to the best of my ability. ¡°Why here and not the fancy ¡®cabin¡¯ you are in?¡± Jackson¡¯s clone must''ve given that information, do I lie here? Noah releases my jaw a bit so I can speak, ¡°this place is safer.¡± ¡°You think?¡± He lets go and laughs, ¡°you aren''t exactly on our good list, you know, after wiping Jacksons memories and killing one of us.¡± ¡°I had no choice...¡± I say on impulse. ¡°Right. You never have a choice.¡± He walks over to Anne, ¡°what do you think? Do you think he never had a choice? You just couldn''t tell us vital information; you couldn''t tell us what was happening whenever that thing took you. You just HAD to be quiet.¡± Anne shakes her head, ¡±Noah. Don''t bring me into this.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± She gets up and leaves without saying another word, it is now exclusively me, Jackson and Noah. ¡°Right. What''s your big plan here? We are still experiments right? You are trying to turn us into lab rats? No matter how many people die?¡± Noah holds the side of my chair steady. ¡°I don''t know.¡± He ignores my response, he begins to move back and forth from wall to wall like a bouncing dvd logo. ¡°What''s the point of any of this? You get to come and go as you please, but you can''t bring us to wherever you are? Save us all?¡± ¡°There are sensor-¡± ¡°Don''t give me that, I don''t care, you should''ve taken us with you.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. It''s clear he is not in the mood for a rational discussion, ¡°look, if I didn''t do what I did the whole town would be dead.¡± ¡°Says who?¡± ¡°The boss.¡± ¡°ooOo¡± he holds his hands up, ¡±Jackson... the boss... don''t wanna upset the big boss, right?¡± ¡°You really think I''m doing this out of some evil plan?¡± ¡°No? But you could''ve at least told us what was going on.¡± ¡°You weren¡¯t exactly welcoming last time.¡± He brings his hand to his chin, ¡±hm I wonder why that is? Maybe it''s because you were going to kill one of us, who knows?¡± ¡°I didn''t have a choice.¡± My voice gets louder, trying to match his. ¡°You never have the fucking choice, do you?¡± Noah moves back to Jackson, ¡°everything is soooo linear.¡± I lose my cool. ¡°Okay! I admit it, I do have a choice, and my choice was to minimise as much damage as possible, do you think I want to do any of this? No? Of course not, but I did what I needed to do. Do you want me to just barricade these doors? Die with the rest of you?¡± I pull on the rope. A sliver of liquid comes from my wrist, releasing my hands with a snap, I don¡¯t bother to register this breakthrough, ¡°ANYONE, literally anyone who was in my position would make the same decisions.¡± I point at him while Jackson moves to stand in front. Jackson leans forward, face to face with me, his hands in a readied fighting position, the gold ring in my view. Thats the gold ring from my chest, just a normal ring. Good. ¡°I''m not going to do anything, relax.¡± I say calmly, I keep my arms to my side. Noah pats Jackson on the shoulder, ¡°Fay, you had the chance to help us, instead you just ran away-¡± ¡°NO, I DIDN¡¯T, I''ve been fighting, I''ve been hurting my way through whatever bullshit these demons throw at me to hopefully one day save you all.¡± Noah steps in front of Jackson, ¡°so why wipe Jacksons memories?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t even¡­ because the original Jackson killed himself after I tried to save him.¡± ¡°Bullshit.¡± Noah shoves me. ¡°Why would I lie about that?¡± I stumble backwards, ¡°I needed to capture him because Lilith threatened to kill everyone if I didn''t.¡± ¡°Oh, and you believed her? If she was going to kill us all, she would have done that already.¡± He shoves me again, trying to get a reaction out of me, ¡±you have no idea who Lilith is, she isn''t cunning, she doesn''t have a master plan, she just hurts people.¡± I step back again, I need to stop this before it turns into a fight, ¡°...thank you for saving me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± He stops pushing forward, everything in his body language showing he will soon fall apart, ¡°just... why dude? Why?¡± Why? What is that even supposed to mean? Why I did what I did? ¡°To save you all.¡± ¡°Nobody asked for that... but... right now... if we were to kill you right now, would we be safer? If you really are that self sacrificing.¡± I don''t even know the answer to that question, Lilith is in the ocean somewhere most likely, alive due to me being alive... if I died would she die? If she died, would they be safer? Most likely. ¡°I don''t know.¡± There is a whole spectrum of politics I''m not even aware of, the only hope I have right now is with the original Null, I can use my small bit of capital to save us. Anne comes in with a green apple, ¡°here.¡± She passes it to me, when did they have time to grow an apple tree? ¡°Thanks...¡± I take a bite, the flavour non-existent. ¡°We¡¯ve figured out how to make plants grow faster, but it causes the fruit and vegetables to be flavourless.¡± She takes the apple back and takes a bite. I completely ignore Noah and Jackson who are speaking in the corner of the room, ¡°beats the food scraps.¡± ¡°It does... I like your suit by the way. You look fancy.¡± She pulls on my blazer, I take it off instantly and put it on the chair. ¡°Don''t remind me... I had to go to a party and fight one of those things.¡± Noah joins in, turning his head from Jackson, ¡°did you win?¡± ¡°Not even close... I think they were using it as training, it was some kid...¡± Anne looks at me confused, ¡°you fought a kid?¡± ¡°A kid demon... trust me he was strong.¡± ¡°Wait how many of them are there?¡± Noah grabs the blazer and puts it on. ¡°At the dinner party? Like 40... I think? But there''s a lot more... it''s like a whole society.¡± All the tension in the room disappears as we exchange information, Jackson is just in the corner watching each of us. I decide to tell them everything, ¡°did you know the modern world exists still?¡± Noah doesn''t look surprised, ¡°yeah... some woman came by and told us sorta... black hair black dress, you know her, right? Dropped off Jackson.¡± The original Null talked to them? That makes sense, ¡°yeah... be careful with her, she is bad news.¡± Jackson in the corner speaks in a whisper, ¡°we have her tied up outside... when we raided the carriage... she seemed different though.¡± I stare Jackson in the eyes, ¡±untie her... she is a victim in this, a human clone of the one you met.¡± Noah and Jackson both exchange glances, ¡°makes sense, Jackson can you untie her? Explain why to the people as well.¡± Jackson stands up with a grunt, leaving the room with a slump, I watch him leave, I feel awful. ¡°Sorry about Jackson, I really did try to save him.¡± Noah''s face changes a bit, the look he used to give me before all this breaks through his expression, ¡°yeah well... Jackson was always extreme... not like you gave him a reason to trust you.¡± ¡°Fair...¡± Noah grabs the apple from Anne and takes a bite, then hands it to me, Anne sits down on the chair, ¡°so what were you running from? Why did you get hurt out of nowhere?¡± She crosses her legs expectantly. ¡°Lilith got attacked at the dinner party... sorta right after she connected her heart to mine... guess that''s why I coughed up water as well... I threw her into the ocean.¡± ¡°No shit!¡± Noah laughs, ¡°...wait so did we save her by healing you?¡± ¡°I have no idea.¡± ¡°Okay well...¡± his demeanour changes again, ¡°we aren''t going to let you leave this room... you know that right?¡± He grabs the split rope from the ground, ¡°how''d you break this?¡± I show him my ring, ¡°innate magic... don''t ask me any more about it, I barely know how it works.¡± ¡°Ah I thought that was gross designer shit. Looks dumb on you, Anne move.¡± Anne stands up, ¡°sit back down.¡± ¡°I''m not going to try and escape.¡± He groans, ¡°remember the door? Well, this rope is a door for us, we want to feel safe.¡± I take a bite of the apple and hand it to Anne, the core is now showing, ¡°fine... just don''t tie it as hard as before.¡± I sit down and put my hands behind the chair, ¡°I saw some of the town before almost dying... it looks nice.¡± Noah wraps rope around my wrists, ¡°yeah... we¡¯ve been growing a lot of stuff lately... got a chest full of seeds.¡± He pulls the knot together, ¡°people are pretty happy... except... some died trying using the magic... we have lost 7...¡± ¡°How many people are left?¡± ¡°66... hey remember when there were hundreds of us? Almost no space to sleep.¡± ¡°Yeah, I remember sleeping on Annes lap while she sang a lullaby.¡± Anne groans, ¡°don''t remind me, not my fault I had a squad of crying children, it¡¯s my maternal instincts... don''t blame me dickhead.¡± Noah laughs, ¡±how''d the song go? The cuckoo and a donkey¡± He begins singing the lullaby dramatically, ¡°the cuckoo and the donkey, had an argument, who will sing the best, who will sing the best.¡± ¡°SHUT UP.¡± Anne slaps him on the head, ¡°it made you stop crying. cry-baby Noah.¡± ¡°I was 12, relax.¡± He snickers, the knot being completed. I lean back, ¡°my favourite was the one about the ducklings.¡± ¡°Ohhh yeah the duckling one, sent me straight to sleep out of boredom.¡± I lean back further making sure I meet Annes gaze. ¡°You just kept repeating the same lines over and over again, I felt like you were the demon torturing me.¡± Anne gives a throaty laugh, ¡°asshole.¡± She puts the apple near my mouth and I take a bite. Noah claps to get the attention of the room... ¡°okay... well. Fay. Just... I dunno.¡± He steps out first, leaving on an awkward note. Anne hangs around, ¡°he still cares about you... but you did mess up multiple times by thinking you could do this all alone.¡± ¡°I''m tired of that argument. Don''t start it again.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± She walks towards the door, ¡°I''ll bring more food in the morning... get a good night''s rest.¡± She slips out and shuts the door, the lack of light irritates my eyes, so I shut them, I wonder how Lilith is doing? Since I''m not dying, she must be okay, maybe captured. The innate magic drips from my hand like sweat, it''s getting easier and easier to conjure it purely on instinct. I can''t even stop it from producing itself. What''s the plan here? Lilith is away, the boss will check up on us, the original null date is in... 4 days, right? Tomorrow will make it 3 days. So, she might check here for me and help me get out, I just hope that doesn''t sour anything. The boss might check on me, especially since Lilith has been injured... will they send people for her? She mentioned a court date... are they going to get their government involved? If so, isn''t this place supposed to be a secret? I try to close my eyes, attempting to sleep again. Nothing happens, it''s like my brain is always on no matter what. I haven''t slept in a while, I didn''t get sleep yesterday either... is that just something I''m not going to be able to do anymore? Don''t people die after no sleep after a while? I guess I''ll just... wait. Chapter 21: Dont overdo it [Noah¡¯s perspective] I have this recurring thought, over and over again, like my minds connected to a wheel on a car and keeps getting flattened every time it does a full rotation. My thought is ¡®what if I¡¯m not enough?¡¯ Jackson, before he lost everything, before he complained about being empty every second of every day. He was the one who was keeping us together, he was courageous, funny and most of all knew how to control a room of people. I¡¯m not a leader, part of me wonders if I sealed the fate of everyone in this town by forwarding our magic research. That¡¯s what they want right? They want us to learn. They want us to struggle and make something of ourselves for some benign reason. Fay is back, and I can tell he has been through unimaginable things, but I can''t stop feeling mad, mad that he thinks he can play God. I wish I could just hate him, I wish he wouldn''t give arguments to his wrongdoings, I wish he could just give me a reason to hurt him as much as he hurt the rest of us. ¡°Noah?¡± Anne walks into my hut, its day now, the grey sky making my grass floor look dead. ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°I fed Fay. But he has multiple injuries, I think a concussion, or maybe just sleep deprecation... there''s also a burn mark on his entire chest¡­¡± she says this like I can do anything about it. ¡°I can¡¯t do anything, I¡¯m still lightheaded from using two spells yesterday and I¡¯m afraid if I use anymore, I¡¯ll be-¡° I swipe at my neck with my thumb. ¡°What about Jackson?¡± ¡°Then talk to Jackson.¡± She brushes her feet over the grass outside, finding out where Jackson is hiding, most likely in a corner far away. I don¡¯t blame him, from what he told me he awoke in a cabin with Fay, there was a sphere of meat on the table and Fay had told him he killed himself. Not exactly good words to say to a newborn. I get up from the grassy interior, we had been slowly expanding the grass in each home to make standards of living better, but Jackson is the only one who can use the growing spell without coughing up a lung. I walk along the path, kids play by the apple tree we had grown near the water, the roots sinking deep into the mud and out again. One kid was especially high, a fall would injure him and that¡¯s another spell we can¡¯t afford. ¡°Hey get down!¡± The woman in the black dress that we released begins to climb the tree with ease, I get closer to watch intently. ¡°Let me guide you down.¡± She says gently, her hand reaching for the boys, he follows her presence like she is the last person on earth, landing safely on the mud. I give out one of my classic fake smiles, ¡°thanks¡­ uh what¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°I do not have one.¡± She lets go of the boy, who is just standing around trying to find new finds to do. ¡°Huh¡­ we should give you a name then.¡± ¡°Please do not. Consult master Fay first.¡± She bows deeply, ¡°my creator was bestowed a name; therefore, I want the bestower to bestow me as well.¡± Jackson arrives at the scene, he¡¯s clearly been up all-night growing things, ¡°clone, I need help with some flowers.¡± She turns her heel while looking at me, ¡°goodbye.¡± She walks through the mud with surprising agility considering the high heels. Everyone is doing their own thing, a man called Gerald taps me on the shoulder, he is one of the older people in the town and was very adamant about killing Fay for obvious reasons. ¡°I need help collecting the planks, I have about 5 men, need more, these conditions arent good¡± We had destroyed the majority of the unused huts over the last two days, our plan is to build a better shelter behind the food clinic for people to hide in, along with a lot of small spaces for kids to stay away. ¡°Sorry but I need to talk to Fay first, I¡¯ll be there in a minute.¡± I smile again. He grunts and goes along his way while kicking his feet in the mud extra hard, the opposite direction of the food clinic. I walk towards a big plant pot made of wooden planks, we had filled it with seeds of different kinds, but none had grown yet. I look around and spot my friend Leo who was hanging around this girl that he liked, better let him show off, ¡°AYE, LEO I NEED TO BRING THIS INSIDE.¡± He snaps his head towards me, smiles and scratches the nape of his neck while saying something to the girl, he makes his way towards me, ¡°why?¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Need to get some use out of Fay, gonna get him to grow these seeds.¡± He nods and digs his hands on one side of the rectangular plant pot, I put my hands under the other side, ¡°okay¡­ lift.¡± I go backwards up the stairs, there are some cracks in the planks that leak mud but that¡¯s fine, I move back into the blood vial room and rest it down, Fay is staring at me, ¡°Leo you can go¡­ have fun with Grace.¡± Leo laughs, ¡°like I need your permission, seeya.¡± He waves. ¡°Seeya¡± I wave back. I turn to Fay who is looking worse for ware, a cut on his forehead, burns on his neck down to his collar hidden by the shirt and yet again an obscene amount of water puddling on the floor. ¡°Rough night?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± I drag the box closer, ¡°I¡¯m guessing you know what growth magic is?¡± ¡°I do not.¡± He doesn¡¯t? I untie his hands and take out a piece of paper with the formula on it, ¡°here.¡± He takes it and stares for a while, ¡°why is it burning the body?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a body variable then a cook variable in parentheses, then that carries into whatever this combination variable is¡­ is it burning body fat to grow plants?¡± He rips that part of the spell off ¡°I guess that makes it use less blood which is good for¡­ humans¡­ considerate¡­¡± He places the paper on the mud and says those two words, he holds his head ¡°argh¡± when he activates it. A few sprouts turn into plants which turn into fruit and vegetables, a leek, carrot, basil? And a red crimson flower. I¡¯m unsure about most of these. Fay leans back on the chair, ¡°using me as fuel for food now huh?¡± He gives a tiny laugh before staring at the ceiling. ¡°After all these years and I¡¯m still cattle.¡± ¡°Yeah... Thanks.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡± He holds his chest where the burns are ¡°hey uh¡­ by the way if anyone visits just hide, especially if it¡¯s Lilith or a short girl with freckles.¡± He sits around for a moment, I just inspect the plants, ¡°are you going to tie me up again? My wrists really hurt.¡± ¡°Nah¡­ just¡­¡± I pull out a carrot and take a bite¡­ ¡°this tastes¡­¡± I take a piece of basil and eat it, ¡°holy shit this tastes of food.¡± I get overwhelmingly excited. ¡°Cool.¡± Is all he says to this, the kids are going to love this. ¡°I¡¯ll make more spells, you¡­ yeah I¡¯ll be back with more seeds and plants.¡± I get up, pulling out a few more carrots and leeks, there¡¯s also a flower that looks nice, dark crimson. I lock the door as I walk out and search for Anne, who usually gives out the food. She is sitting on the left side the food clinic with the clone and Jackson. All sitting against the wall. ¡°So¡­ how do you get over the empty feeling?¡± Jackson is looking at the ground, the clone is holding his hand. ¡°You focus on the future not the past¡­ when I was made¡­ I dreamt up a future where I¡¯ll be a famous painter¡­ travel the world and paint different landscapes¡­ eventually people would follow me on my tours, and I¡¯d have a million friends.¡± She squeezes his hand. Anne looks over, ¡°oh, hey Noah.¡± ¡°Hey¡­ uh Jackson you okay?¡± Jackson begins crying. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I want to be¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to know¡­ just think of a future where you are happy¡­ and that cold feeling¡­ I like to sometimes wrap myself in a blanket and pretend I have body heat.¡± Right¡­ when we first got Jackson the first thing we realised was that his body was constantly cold. Anne snaps her fingers, ¡°gimme, carrots.¡± She holds her arms out, I place them gracefully in her thankless hands. Along with the other plants I had ripped from the ground. ¡°Fay grew them, they have flavour¡­ they don¡¯t taste like nothing.¡± Anne gets excited, which is the normal reaction unlike Fays ¡®cool,¡¯ she takes a bite, ¡°mmmhm, Jackson here¡¯s something to look forward to.¡± She passes him the carrots and he takes a bite. ¡°Tastes earthy¡­ it¡¯s good¡­¡± Anne nudges him, ¡°is that a smile I see?¡± She turns towards me, ¡°can you get Fay to grow more¡­¡± ¡°I can¡­ but¡­¡± I look over towards the people collecting planks for the safe space, ¡°Fay mentioned someone dangerous may come over¡­ I¡¯m going to help with the safe hut¡­ can you get Fay to grow things?¡± She nods, ¡°yep!¡± ¡°Great, thank you.¡± I pat her shoulder, playing the role of the leader. I go down the pathway, past the parked carriage in which we ripped apart, curtains used for sheets and wheels used for makeshift wheelbarrows. I get to the place with all the planks. There are only around 7 people working towards moving all the planks, since most people want to save their energy and not starve to death, thats why my top priority has been food, because excess food means excess energy. Old man Gerald is the one leading everyone, he stops while holding two large planks, ¡°glad you could make it.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t miss it for the world.¡± I grab some planks that were by the water, a light drizzle of rain begins to come down like always. Everyone is carrying up to 2 planks. So, I need to carry 3, maybe 4. That¡¯s what the old Jackson would do. I manage to get 4, 2 in between each arm place uncomfortably in my armpits. As I''m walking to the back of the food clinic some kid, 12, Harry speaks to me, ¡°Hey Noah!! We are playing a game of zombie tag; do you want to join?¡± I smile and turn while holding the planks, my wrists getting tired, ¡°not right now... but later at night we can have a super spooky game of zombie tag. I''ll be like...¡± I make my voice deeper ¡°¡®braaaaiinsss¡¯¡± He runs away, towards the group of kids who were hiding behind a hut. They wave at me as they leave, I would wave back but my hands were occupied. I continue walking, past the carriage, some girl speaks to me, 23, Alina, ¡°hey... uhm I was wondering if we were going to get any more fruit? Adrian really wants some.¡± She had been taking care of Adrian since he was 4, 9 now, super nice girl, she is one of the ones who took care of the younger kids as soon as we were all taken, ¡°ask Anne, we should have some food coming up soon... tell Adrian I said ¡®hi¡¯ okay?¡± She nods and leaves me be, I continue walking, almost reaching the food clinic before someone stops me, another kid, Luke, 15. ¡°So is he in there? Is he dead?¡± ¡°No. Fay is not dead.¡± Alot of the younger kids hate Fay, they used to not like him because he got special treatment and seemed on the side of the demon, but that turned into hatred when it was revealed that he was 100% on the side of the demon, taking one of us to be killed in front of everyone. ¡°Why even keep him alive?¡± My fingers start digging into the planks, I could lose grip at any moment, ¡°because he has information we need, it''s a tactical move.¡± He nods, ¡°interrogation style¡± he punches twice in the air ¡°are you the bad cop?¡± ¡°The worst cop. In a cool way.¡± The kid chuckles and leaves, I walk beside the food clinic, Jackson and the clone are playing with a flower that Fay grew. As I walk by them, I hear, ¡°I understand your heart... just don''t focus on what you need to remember, make new memories okay?¡± The clone pulls petals off the crimson flower, ¡°a flower with very few petals just needs more water to thrive.¡± I get to the back of the food clinic, there are stacks of planks piled high, along with crates that used to hold food scraps and vials used as supports. Old man Gerald is wiping at his brow, removing the nails from the planks with his fingers, they keep slipping due to the layer of sweat he has all over him, he sees me place the planks down, ¡°don''t overdo it.¡± I nod and begin to track back, I keep my breathing steady despite how much I want to take deeper breaths, to pick up 4 more planks. I have to overdo it, if I don''t how could I call myself a leader. Chapter 22: Means to an end [Fay¡¯s perspective] After being treated like a dispenser of different fruit and vegetables for the entire day I finally got tired enough to fall asleep. And I began to dream. A very lucid dream. As in: I''m sleeping right now. I see bubbles moving up every time I take a breath, sand at the soles of my feet, if I try to move the sand locks me into place as if I was connected directly to the ocean floor. My breathing is clear and crisp, as if I''m not surrounded by water. Stretches of glass patterns fill the floor, looking like rivers, connecting to each other and then splitting, somehow I can tell a spell caused this phenomenon to happen. My arms begin rising, someone''s hands lifting them by the elbow, behind me I can hear bubbles. A red string floats up, wrapping around my wrists, pulling my arms up further, pulling to the point I feel my legs stretch. ¡°Fay.¡± A drowned-out voice impossibly close to my ear speaks to me, ¡°wake up.¡± I wake up covered in sweat, my eyes sting like they had had salt rubbed in them. Anne is beside me, I remember sleeping on the floor uncomfortably, Anne taps my shoulder twice, ¡°thought you were dead.¡± Why aren''t my clothes making me dry? ¡°Hey Anne... I need blood... for my clothes...¡± I feel a sting at every part my clothes connect to my body, spikes piercing through the skin rather than being threaded. ¡°Let me ask Noah.¡± She hands me a flavourless apple, ¡°thanks.¡± I eat without caring much about the fact it tastes of nothing, I was never one to care about the taste of things, only the nutritional value. She uses her arms to push herself up, stepping away with her hands behind her back, she waits a few moments before swinging her body towards the exit. ¡°Hey.¡± I say, which stops her, ¡°that swim... it was a trick, right?¡± ¡°The swim?¡± ¡°When we first got in the water... it was to get whatever I had in my pocket.¡± She chuckles, ¡°sure, seeya Fay.¡± She leaves, I knew it, I should stop expecting people to be on my side in any of this, heroes in the stories don''t do what they do to have everyone like them, they do what they do to save everyone, and I will save everyone. So, my plan, the original Null is a perfect angle, she wants to use me as merchandise, so my body has some use to her unlike the boss and Lilith who only see me as an intriguing specimen. If I can leverage that deal with her to somehow transfer everyone in this town to the modern world, I''ll be good. Then she can do whatever to me, I don''t care. Noah comes in with a vial in his hand, his hair wet from swimming or sweat from working, ¡°your clothes are killing you?¡± I nod. ¡°Okay.¡± He unscrews the cap of the vial and pours it on my shirt, it stains for a second then disappears, I feel the change almost instantly, the threads connecting to me loosening, my body feels relaxed, like I had just gotten the best massage of my life. The sweat on my body falls off, my hair returns to its silky-smooth texture, the fog in my brain clears. I didn''t even realise how much cognitive decline I had. ¡°Thanks Noah... what''s the plan here by the way?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Should I tell him of my plan? Would he even understand? ¡±You planning to just keep me here forever?¡± ¡°We plan on using you as a hostage, if anyone comes by, we threaten to kill you. Hope you don''t mind.¡± ¡°Bold of you to assume I matter at all to these demons.¡± I get up from the floor, the original Null will be here in 2 days, maybe sooner. ¡°Sounds good, just don''t fight back.¡± ¡°Don''t tell me what to do.¡± What a stupid thing to say. ¡°A leader who doesn''t listen to advice is more like a dictator.¡± I sit on the chair in the middle of the room, ¡°but what do I know right? I''ve only had the most experience with how these demons function.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I''m being petty, but Noah is clearly not handling any of this well. ¡°We aren''t friends anymore Fay.¡± He has fully reverted to how he was before, why? ¡°Hey instead of trying to be like Jackson, you be your own person.¡± He lets out a breath of anger, ¡°considering you killed Jackson... nevermind...¡± He looks at the door, ¡°the clone wanted to speak to you, is that okay...? She is right outside.¡± The clone must''ve been accepted while I''m still locked in this building, that''s awesome, ¡°sure.¡± She walks in, her head low, her hair had been cut short, ragged, uneven lines for bangs, one side obviously longer than the other, the hair reaching only to her nape and ears with faint longer strands, ¡°hello Master fay.¡± ¡°Hey.¡± ¡°I was... I''m here to enquire about a name, you named my creator so I thought it would be fitting... Jackson had suggested the name Lily... because I''m pretty like a Lily... is that acceptable?¡± I nod, ¡°go for it, Lily.¡± Why does she even care? She lifts her head, ¡°Thank you Master Fay... if it''s okay... I want you to tell Master Lilith I died at the dinner party.¡± Her smile breaks through the facade of professionalism, this place is probably a lot better than working under Lilith. ¡°Yeah? Like when you started the carriage that boy shot a piece of lightning at you, and you died instantly?¡± ¡°Exactly... such a shame...¡± ¡°You should change out of that dress, it''ll make it easier.¡± I smile back. Noah stays in the corner of the room looking back and forth between us whenever we talk. ¡°Yes. I should.¡± She bows, ¡°may I ask something defamatory?¡± What? ¡°Go for it.¡± ¡°When you killed 10 of us, did you feel anything?¡± I lean back in the chair a bit, I genuinely don''t have an answer, yes? I do? I rarely think about any of them. Noah pats Lily on the shoulder, ¡°Fay is the master of bottling up memories and acting like they never happened, isn''t that right Fay?¡± He stares into me. ¡°I guess...¡± that is probably true... why am I not freaking out about seeing my parents? I had a whole day to myself... why don''t I feel bad about Jackson? Why is none of the stuff Lilith does to me make me feel miserable? That doesn''t matter right now. I''m too busy to focus on the past. Lily and Noah walk out, leaving on that uneasy note. The entire day feels the same as the last. Anne comes in, I grow plants, we got a vine of passionfruit which grew way too quickly and had to be moved outside, there was also a cactus that I grew that almost shot into Anne¡¯s eyes, I don''t bother to talk during all this. And then it must''ve hit nighttime because nobody visits, another day down. I lay in the corner, the door is locked again, not like it would stop me. I close my eyes. Goodnight... ... ... Drip, a faint trickle of water comes from a barred window, the metal shimmering with yellow and pink, an unnatural combination, there is a bed and a toilet, both having that same shimmer. I''m sitting on the bed, its comfortable, there are no bars like you''d see in a normal prison, the walls are pure concrete rather than medieval, there''s a red door with the words ''CAPTIVE'' on the inside. Beside the door there are symbols made of purple blood, the makings of a spell, several lines are crossed out, it looks incredibly complex, like those university equations I never got to do. I feel the mattress move behind me, the weight shifts, my neck and head stays locked in place looking at the red door, the same voice in the water whispers in my ear, ¡°thank you for your sacrifice.¡± I wake up back in the food clinic, red pooling at the place I was sleeping, I feel dehydrated and dizzy. I don''t try to decode whatever that dream meant, my arms have cuts on them, specifically around my wrists pulse points. I wrap my hand around it to not cause any more bleeding. I get up and to the door, it''s not even locked as I use my shoulder to push it open, I can see through the food clinics makeshift door its nighttime, the fireflies out filling the seams of the door with rays of yellow light. I need bandages, we don''t even have bandages, do we? I step down the steps and towards where I think Anne is, the grass path is bigger now, almost reaching every hut, it looks nice. The place Anne usually stays at has no grass path, so I step into the mud, it was an incredibly nostalgic feeling. Wait why am I going to Anne instead of Noah¡¯s? What can Anne do? I walk through Anne¡¯s door, she is sleeping, her chest rising slowly, my body moves without my permission, I dip my fingers in my wrist wound, drawing symbols on Anne¡¯s forehead. My clumsy movements wake her up. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Her eyes are wide alert. I can''t speak, my body moves towards her as she pushes herself against the wall, I grab her whole face with strength I didn''t know I had. My mind gets shot back into my body, like whatever had possessed me disappeared. Anne slaps my hand away, ¡°what the fuck Fay? Get the hell away from me.¡± She stands up and leaves the hut, I''m left alone. Something drips from my eye, purple blood landing on my hand, burning me a bit before I wipe it in the mud. Purple blood. I know exactly who has purple blood. That spell she placed on me to connect our hearts... what could it- Noah runs in and grabs my shoulder, pushing me into the wall, my head hitting the side with a thud, ¡°did you just try to kill Anne?¡± He spits out while reaching for my throat, ¡°I should throw you in the water.¡± I grab at his arms, he is significantly stronger than me physically, I try to get my words out, ¡°I... didn''t...¡± ¡°Oh? I trust you so much, especially after escaping in the middle of the night and writing cryptic shit on Anne¡¯s forehead, must''ve been a prank, right?¡± He pulls me outside, towards the water, ¡°should''ve known.¡± Blood drips from the wound on my wrist, if I used my innate magic he would die. But if I let him kill me, I won''t be able to help everyone right? No that''s stupid, I just don''t want to die. ¡°STOP.¡± I yell, he squeezes further, people begin leaving their huts to watch the witch trial. My feet begin to enter the water as he pulls me further. He doesn''t say another word, Jackson and Anne watch from a distance, I need to find the right combination of words, something that will make Noah calm down. ¡°Noah... if you don''t stop, I''ll kill everyone here...¡± it''s just an empty threat, they¡¯ll understand when I save them all. He obviously won''t listen to me pleading my innocence, I need to play the part he thinks I am. He lets go, throwing me to the side, I fall back on the mud, he looks at me completely different, like he isn''t looking at me anymore, ¡°you¡¯re... you¡¯re just not anything anymore, you¡¯re nothing.¡± He leaves, taking my threat completely seriously, I''ll let him know it wasn''t a real threat later, I''ll tell them everything when we are in the modern world, eating at a nice restaurant, hanging out as friends, this is just a means to an end. I need to figure out what caused me to get possessed. Chapter 23: Thanks Null Surprisingly threats work when you have a potential bomb strapped to your chest. Nobody knows what I¡¯m capable of. It¡¯s advantageous to use that, right? Im spending all night playing with my innate magic, I realised I can make it solid and liquid fairly easily depending on how much of my own blood i flow into it, I even made a small ball of the material that I can glide between my fingers like a coin. I¡¯m sitting by the water, nobody has bothered to visit me, staying on the other edge in the safe food clinic. If I told them I had been possessed, which I was, they¡¯d most likely try and kill me, at least this way I skip the eventual backstabbing. I¡¯m sure they are plotting ways to take me down at the moment, a lucky implosion spell maybe, have one of my friends sneak up on me, kill me instantly. It¡¯s like lobster when they fall into a vat of boiling oil trying to escape, I¡¯m trying to free everyone, but everyone wants to have their own success story. I put the ball of my innate magic in my pocket and play around with magic some more, trying to activate the heating spell that null taught me a while ago, I plant my hand in the mud and visualise the one symbol. I feel the mud bubble and then my hand boil, an unwelcome yelp comes from me, the skin is completely red... I stroke the boiled hand as I think. Implosion is made of 4 variables, the carry variable, explosion variable, a downwards gravity variable¡­ then the damage multiplier¡­ Lilith had explained this fairly poorly, and to be honest my mind hadn¡¯t really been in the right state to absorb all the information. I try the downwards gravity variable by itself, it does just that, pushes things down, the mud squishing into itself and compacting into dirt, the water seeping out and making it into a square puddle. The one thing I learnt about the damage multiplier is that it¡¯s universal, you just have to think about what it¡¯s setting the damage to and then it does it, there aren¡¯t specific numbers. I try the downwards gravity with the damage multiplier at 200%. The mud crushes instantly into dry dirt, creating a square hole around 1 foot deep. It¡¯s similar to the implosion spell with the sound it makes. I visualise the heat variable with the downwards gravity variable, hoping it is a combination spell. All it did was compress air, I couldn¡¯t target it on the ground, it just made the air visually distort like you are in a desert and far away terrain looks all bumpy. ¡°Boring.¡± I lay back on the mud, I should have studied more. I look down at the water. I wonder if a boat would work, a boat¡­ I get up and move toward the apple tree, getting way too close to comfort to the people guarding the food clinic at the front door, I climb up and take an apple, biting into it and stealing a seed. I can cut up the wood with my innate magic, use downwards gravity magic to compact them into planks¡­ then a boat¡­ and I can get everyone out. Of course, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s on the other side of the sea but¡­ it¡¯s stupid not to try. I go back to where I was, taking the seed and planting it into the mud, I try to optimise the grow magic spell, remove the 3 variables that burn body fat¡­ The combination spell in parentheses carried into whatever I¡¯m growing, that¡¯s all I need. This is different from doing the implosion spell on the fly since I only need to activate it once. Constantly activating this would genuinely be balancing a juggling act instead of just throwing something. I hold my hand on the seed, 1, 2, 3, 4... 1, 2, 3... ¡°Hey.¡± A bored voice from around 2 meters behind me makes my heart race. I turn and see her, the boss. Dressed in a black white tank top and grey sweatpants. She appeared completely out of nowhere, scratching at her neck below her messy white and black hair. ¡°Hey...¡± my voice loses its air, my voice coming out in a weird breath. ¡°I was told you had died at the dinner party.¡± ¡°Who told you that?¡± ¡°It got around.¡± ¡°Okay. So-¡± She holds her hand up, ¡°I''m going to put an end to this silly experiment really quick, and then we can talk, with her gone and all... urgh...¡± She drifts her feet through the mud, ¡°do they want it painless?¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Painless? ¡°don''t kill us. Please.¡± I sound pathetic again, every hair in my body is pointing upwards, trying to flee from her presence. ¡°I''m not killing you, relax. Just them...¡± I can''t argue the ethics to someone who has none, I take a big breath in to speak properly. ¡°Don''t kill them... they can help you.¡± ¡°Okay?¡± She snaps back instantly, expecting the best from me. They need value, everyone needs value. ¡°So... I have a ring, right? I have innate magic, just... give everyone time to learn magic... and... we can all help... and they can have rings too...¡± What am I even saying? ¡°Yeah, so I get arrested this time? You know the only reason I let it get this far is because ¡®Lilith¡¯ begged me to, she cried and screamed at me to let everyone live.¡± She turns on her heel, ¡°teaching humans magic serves me no purpose, I have nothing to prove, and my life doesn''t depend on whether or not it was a good idea to teach a human magic.¡± She swings her arms around and steps toward the food clinic, ¡°and now that Lilith is dead. Theres no point to this anymore. A cleanup. So, as I said, do they want it painless?¡± Dead? She¡¯s dead? ¡°Dead?¡± ¡°Yeah. She was executed, captured in the middle of the ocean by some big league and shot in between those pretty little eyes.¡± She pokes at my forehead, speaking like this is a completely normal scenario, ¡°I''m mad, I never got to learn what her innate magic was.¡± She steps away, her face still bored and uninterested, ¡°you haven''t answered, so I''ll go with painless, to respect the dead.¡± She starts striding towards the food clinic, the mud not stopping her or slowing her down. I run after her, ¡°Lilith connected our hearts with a spell, she isn''t dead.¡± ¡°that''s not... what you are describing isn''t possible, for a multitude of reasons.¡± She sighs, ¡°she was just tricking you, that''s all you were good for in her eyes.¡± She wasn''t, Lilith wasn''t lying, I clearly got the injuries she got in the ocean. She reaches the first hut, through the door I can see that it''s that old man, I don''t remember his name, Gerry? Gerald? He is with two kids sleeping by his side, huddled around him like he is the only person in the world. She holds her hand out and it everything, the hut, the man, and the children pull into a single point, a tiny little glowing black dot, she steps toward it and taps it gracefully, shooting it into the sky, ¡°Thats food for the stars.¡± What should''ve made me scream in rage had only just irritated me, like someone had shouted at my dog rather than kill a child in front of me, I grab the ball of my innate magic I had hidden in my pocket and throw it at her overhand, she turns her head as it bounces off her cheek. Not a single emotion changed as the ball hit the mud, she just seemed bored, ¡°okay?¡± I unharden the ball and shoot it as a spike into her neck, it barely makes it half the distance before the liquid falls to the ground, I''m unable to control it, ¡°huh... that''s interesting.¡± She crouches down and dips her finger in the liquid, ¡°burns... its fighting to counteract my magic... like little creatures...¡± She licks it, ¡°most people have variables ingrained within themselves, they call it innate magic. Do you understand?¡± ¡°I do...¡± ¡°Well... usually people are born with 2 or 3 variables, and that makes peoples innate magic have basic properties like fire or gravity spells. But sometimes, and this has been the driving force of most breakthrough research, people are born with longer equations. I was born with 12 variables that allow me to displace matter.¡± Why is she lecturing me? ¡°I see you are confused. The fact is: I have no clue what combination of variables would make this liquid.¡± This is perfect, ¡°okay well I''ll let you... uh study it if you let everyone live.¡± She smiles ¡°let me? Oh, how grateful I am.¡± The entire food clinic disappears behind her, just gone, turned into a yellow light that shoots into the sky and explodes like a firework. Everything being illuminated with pink, red and yellow. ¡°As I said I am here to end this experiment.¡± Everyone in the food clinic is dead. ¡°Use this as fuel to further your success... that anger? Study. Use it to study.¡± She places her hand on my cheek, ¡°and I want... you to keep trying your best, okay? Hey don''t cry.¡± She taps me twice and then hugs me tightly, ¡°I taught you a good lesson... all that matters is getting stronger, otherwise people like me will step over you.¡± She pulls back, still holding my cheek, ¡°let me take you back to Lilith¡¯s manor, you had living arrangements there, right?¡± The light had dimmed, the empty space where the food clinic always stood tall is gone, that was the cornerstone of everything good in this town. I''m sure there are survivors. I''m sure there are people left alive. ¡°By the way, what¡¯s your name?¡± The girl starts destroying huts at random, pointing at them daintily, going ¡°pew¡± for a few of them, each time a little dot shoots into the sky. ¡°Can we go home?¡± I don''t answer her. ¡°I''m not done.¡± She picks out a few more in the distance. ¡°Who cares. Youve killed them all, destroyed their paper, they are going to starve to death anyway.¡± She nods, ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right, trapping ants in a bottle is better than squishing them, right?¡± Not by much. ¡°Sure... yes.¡± She stops, ¡°okay, let them starve. Remember chose this. To extend their suffering.¡± ¡°I did.¡± I did. She grabs my shoulder forcefully, ¡°I''ll take you to your home.¡± What was once the mud towns bleak destruction is now a cabin with the lights on, through the window I can see Null cooking, her hair is tied up and she seems to be humming a tune, as she turns to the sauce she is making she sees us and waves happily, probably didn''t know where I was. She opens the door, ¡°Master Fay! I made-¡± The boss points her hand out and Null disappears. ¡°I forgot about her.¡± Turning into the same glowing point that floats into the sky. Everything goes blurry in my mind. ¡°Is she dead?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ... ¡°...Kay.¡± I walk down the path into the cabin, the food that was once being made by Null left unattended, two plates on the table had been set, alongside tea. The food was a simple spaghetti dish, probably was making a meal every night waiting for me to return. The boss disappears. I grab the pan, making sure the mince cooks correctly, it needs to be brown right? The sauce was in a separate bowl, I pour it onto the mince, it was tomato sauce with little bits of green in them, spring onion? I turn up the stove, the sauce begins to bubble a bit, jumping out of the pan onto the counter, ill clean that later. I clumsily drain the boiling spaghetti outside, some of it spills out onto the grass, I bring it inside and pour it in with the sauce. I mix for around 4 minutes before I pour it into both plates, some drips off hers and onto the table. I leave the pan on the floor, the stove still on and sit down at the table, ¡°okay! Let''s eat.¡± I take a bite, the spaghetti was undercooked, the sauce made up for it though. I''m back home. Everything is great. I''ll still need to plan a way to help everyone. But everything is perfect right now. ¡°Thanks Null.¡± Chapter 24: Safe space [Noah''s perspective] ¡°it''s so dark.¡± ¡°Shhh, no sound... we are playing the quiet game.¡± ¡°The quiet game is boring.¡± ¡°Just because you¡¯re losing doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s boring.¡± ¡°where''s mom?¡± ¡°Yeah, when''s old man getting here? Do you think he is okay?¡± A loud explosion happens, pink, red and yellow light up our faces faintly through the crack in the hole, the cave we had dug underground as a safe haven being put to good use. ¡°I wanna go home...¡± ¡°We will be out soon.¡± ¡°Yeah! When the sun is out.¡± ¡°But it''s so cramped in here.¡± ¡°We¡¯re kinda like sardines.¡± ¡°Ew!¡± ¡°Hey hey... we are safer together... lean on the walls.¡± ¡°But they are so sticky... and the ground is so wet, and these planks are gross¡­ and- ¡° Someone bumps into a plank that we are using the support the small cave, I hold my breath hoping nothing caves in. ¡°Just... stay still, okay?¡± ¡°Why couldn''t we stay in a hut? Old man Gerald gets to.¡± ¡°Because it''s not safe dummy.¡± ¡°Yeah... everyone up there is fighting to keep you all alive... okay?¡± ¡°I want my BROTHER.¡± ¡°Your brother is too big to be in here, stay quiet please...¡± ¡°I''m cold...¡± ¡°Me too...¡± I try to make myself smaller, ¡°how about we play a game?¡± ¡°A game? It''s too dark to play a game.¡± ¡°Let''s play tag!¡± Lily who was sitting by the entrance speaks quietly, she was the best at calming the kids down, ¡°let''s talk about our future... what do you want to be when you grow up?¡± ¡°I wanna use magic to grow a treehouse!¡± ¡°Quiet words...¡± ¡°Okay... treehouse...¡± ¡°I wanna open a bakery.¡± ¡°Thats wonderful... maybe a treehouse bakery?¡± ¡°Ohhh that sounds amazing.¡± ¡°Mhm... you could both team up.¡± ¡°Who said treehouse?¡± ¡°I did!¡± ¡°I can''t see you, dipshit.¡± ¡°Language!¡± ¡°Lily! he cursed!¡± ¡°No more swearing everyone...¡± ¡°I wanna become big and strong like Noah.¡± ¡°You need to do one push up first.¡± ¡°I can do a push up!¡± ¡°A girly push up maybe.¡± ¡°Nuh uh. I can do a million man push ups, stupid.¡± ¡°Just sleep... close your eyes and think about your dreams.¡± Lily¡¯s soothing voice hypnotises everyone I close my eyes, I hope Anne is okay... Jackson should be fine since he is by the edge of the water preparing an attack on Fay... but those explosions don''t fill me with confidence... Did Fay really just kill everyone? We barely had time to prepare this safe space, it was made up of implosion spells and shoddy planks as supports so it doesn''t cave in, we were supposed to create a sort of hut above this hole behind the food clinic, but we didn''t have the resources. The opening is covered by a crate, its heavy enough so that Fay won''t try to move it. I didn''t think his threat was serious. But now... Breathing begins to die down a bit, softer and softer, we had managed to fit 12 of the youngest here, the oldest being 13. I stay leaning on the wall, falling asleep standing up. My mind wanders, forgetting the tragedy that may be taking place above. Goodnight... ... I wake up to crying from one of the youngest, a 4-year-old who was born here, the woman who birthed him died 2 years ago, and nobody since has been able to get pregnant, he knows nothing but the world he was placed in, the light from the small crack in the box fills the room with grey, we are safe. Lily wakes up and picks up the crying kid, who was sandwiched between 2 more, this whole place was a tangled mess of children sleeping atop each other. ¡°Everyone wake up!¡± I yell, ¡°I think we are good to leave.¡± I don''t know anything, but I do know that we can''t stay here much longer, or we will die of hypothermia, this cave is unbelievably cold. Everyone begins waking up, the small space erupting in chatter, ¡°why isn''t Jacob breathing?¡± One girl asks while shaking him. Jacob Kecher, who was above two other children looked almost blue. ¡°He is just... sleeping, it''s okay everyone.¡± I pick him up, he was fairly skinny and small for someone that is 9. Although most of the kids here grew abnormally, too skinny, too short, bad skin, it''s just another curse placed on us by those demons for not giving us real food. Jacob always waited by the food clinic for scraps in the early morning and would give them extra blood to feed his little family. Even if we eventually get out I''m not sure if any of these kids will grow up normally, some are too distant, some are too emotional, some scream in terror at night, some watched the people they loved get taken, some do get taken and then returned so their friends can see what the demons had done to them, everyone here has suffered trauma that would make most adults shut down. I place him near the entrance as I push the box to the side, it tips over and light shines through, the clouds just as grey as they always are. ¡°Everyone stay down here until I give a signal, okay?¡± A couple kids salute and nod, trying to copy the older kids soldier mentality. Alot of them have roughly shaven heads, trying to follow the revolution and copy me. I take Jacobs body and lay it beside the open hole, not taking in the surroundings, I place my head to his chest and to my surprise he is breathing faintly. I cradle his neck, and much like most children here, his head is too big for his body, I''m sure anyone in the modern world would notice it instantly, but to us this is just how children look now, if we ever escaped they¡¯d be rewarded with being called freaks in the modern world. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Lily comes out, ¡°Lily I need blankets, grab some from the food clinic.¡± ¡­ ¡°Noah.¡± ¡°GO. Now.¡± ¡°Noah... I-¡± ¡°We need to be quick.¡± I stare at the boy''s sunken eyes as I hug him, hoping to use my body heat, ¡°Lily what are you doing? Go!¡± I turn my head to Lily, ¡°What are you doing???¡± She stares into empty space, empty space. Empty space where the food clinic used to be, the huge wall right near the entrance of our safe space was gone completely. ¡°Fay...¡± I say under my breath, he wouldn''t do this right? Was he aware of how many people were in that food clinic? Was he aware? ¡°Okay its fine... just find where everyone is...¡± I look around and see nobody, some huts completely missing, ¡°They¡¯ll be by the water... go find them Lily... they¡¯ll have blankets...¡± I look in the 4 directions, the edges of each part of our small island, no one is there. ¡°Check... they might be in some of the huts...¡± I count each hut remaining, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... 7 huts... that''s enough to fit the remaining... 66... minus 14 who were living in the safe space... 52... 52 people could fit in 7 huts. ¡°Bet they¡¯re so cramped... tell them they can come out okay Lily?¡± Lily nods and runs off to the closest hut, ¡°Everyone can come out now!¡± I say, ¡°that''s the signal.¡± Kids begin to crawl out and see the lack of anything, the faint patches of grass, the tree we had, a few huts. Thats all we have left. But I can make this work... Staying near Jacob, I take off my shirt and wrap it around him. ¡°Is Jacob going to be, okay?¡± A little girl asks, she was a friend of Jacob, named Amelia. She had a similar complexion to the rest of the children, blonde hair she refused to cut off, matching her sickly pale skin and sunken eyes. We were close to finally getting enough healthy food for everyone with the fruit and vegetables, so this is a good day''s complexion. ¡°Jacob will be fine, don''t you worry about it...¡± All the spare clothes we had are gone... what are we going to do when these kids grow older and out of their clothes? Will they even grow up to need new clothes? This is just a bigger version of the door situation, Fay didn''t realise how much the food clinic meant to us maybe? Why though? Why? Lily comes back and bows, ¡°There is nobody in any of the huts.¡± ¡°Okay? Get them over here... we need heat for Jacob.¡± I waft her away, Jacob is still breathing faintly, ¡°It''s going to be okay... get them over here... we will discuss plans.¡± ¡°They¡¯re not here.¡± ¡°I know. Tell them to come over.¡± I stroke Jacob''s hair, Amelia had sat down near me, trying to copy my movements, more kids wander out and sit in the mud, some sit by the tree trying to climb to collect apples. ¡°They¡¯re not in the huts.¡± Not in the huts. ¡°Then where are they?¡± ¡°They aren''t here.¡± ¡°Check the... check the...¡± I look in the 4 directions again, there''s nobody by the water, nobody. ¡°Maybe they made an underground space as well... smart bastards... go find it.¡± ¡°I don''t think...¡± ¡°Find it. Tell them we need all the help we can get.¡± The kids begin to start complaining, about where everyone is, that they are cold, that they are hungry, ¡°please just... go to the apple tree if you are hungry, okay?¡± The 6 kids who were complaining around leave, leaving only Amelia and me. ¡°Amelia, you need to use your body heat... I''m going to search for the others, okay?¡± She nods, her dark eyes staring at Jacob with as much emotion as she can muster, as much emotion as this place allows, ¡°okay...¡± I get up, smiling softly at Amelia trying her best, Jacobs body had turned back to its usual hue, the blue almost completely gone. I walk towards Lily who to my surprise found someone. Anne is speaking in broken gasps, her face wet with tears. The sight of Anne alive reignites my hope that everyone is hidden away. ¡°Anne what''s going on?¡± I step closer. ¡°Oh. Oh, okay so... do I explain again?¡± She looks over at Lily and she nods. ¡°They¡¯re all gone. I was going to talk to fay and have Jackson restrain him... but... before we could get close enough after preparing the spells... the entire food clinic disappeared, shot into the sky as a glowing yellow dot.¡± She takes a shaky breath, ¡°I hid myself in the mud and Jackson ran out to save people I think, I''m not sure where he is.¡± ¡°Okay... where did everyone escape to?¡± ¡°They were in the food clinic.¡± ¡°But the food clinic turned into the yellow dot, so where did they go?¡± Anne stares at me, ¡°they¡¯re dead.¡± Dead? ¡°No, they¡¯re not.¡± ¡°They are.¡± ¡°Where did the yellow dot go? Maybe we can find them?¡± ¡°It exploded. In the sky. Noah they are all dead.¡± ¡°Did the explosion... did anyone survive?¡± ¡°No. They are dead Noah.¡± ¡°Where are the bodies? Did you check for them?¡± ¡°There are none. They are gone.¡± ¡°Then¡­ where¡¯s the yellow dot¡­? Maybe¡­¡± ¡°It exploded. Noah, they are dead.¡± My eyesight becomes unfocused, the water behind her and grey sky becoming solid colours, her face merges into itself and loses all features... ¡°where... where...¡± Fay killed all of them. ¡°Okay... we need food... we need to grow stuff now... all we have is that apple tree.¡± I walk back towards the kids who are now eating apples on top of some branches, everything comes back into focus, they seem happy but confused with the circumstances. A kid from the top branch asks, ¡°Where did everyone go.¡± ¡°Don''t worry... collect as many apples as you can, plant the seeds.¡± I begin to climb up, I seem abnormally strong as I reach the top as I pull out apples, taking the ripe ones and dropping them to the ground. ¡°You look funny without your shirt on.¡± A girl called out, her name was faith. At least she wanted to be renamed to faith, so we all went with it. I had as much muscle mass as my diet would allow, but my ribs still show as defined bumps. ¡°You look funny looking too.¡± Everyone giggles, I successfully take every apple from the tree that has nutrient value. From the top branch I can see that there is no one left, no supplies left, and no hope left. ¡°Meanie.¡± ¡°You were mean first.¡± I jump down and ruffle her short black hair that had gone slightly grey in the sides. At the age of 10. ¡°Is everyone else dead?¡± The eldest child asks while looking abnormally calm. ¡°Yeah. We think so.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± He begins to collect all the apples, putting them into one space, his resilience reminds me of Fay. Before Fay killed everyone. ¡°Hey.¡± I hear a familiar voice, Jackson who is covered in water approaches from the shore, touching the tree carefully. I don''t even care about who is living or who has died, I need to focus on survival, that''s what everyone needs from me. ¡°Hey.¡± ¡°I swam out once I saw what was happening... they¡¯re all gone?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Okay...¡± We need paper... or at least something to write spells on. ¡°Jackson, go search every hut for paper.¡± He nods, walking away with a faint look of dread, Lily runs up to him and gives him a big squeeze, ¡°I''m glad you are safe.¡± ¡°I''m glad you are too...¡± Did he swim out because he was scared? I thought he had tried to help people? That doesn''t matter, the eldest kid begins to slice at the apples with a sharp piece of wood, taking out the seeds and planting them in the soil. ¡°Further out, we need space for them to grow. Don¡¯t waste the apple too, place it in the crate.¡± He nods and does just that, planting the seeds apart from each other. A little boy runs up to me, ¡°I made a mud snowman!¡± I smile, ¡°let me see.¡± He takes me to see it, its near Jacob who seems alive and well, chatting away to Amelia. The small snowman looks miserable given the circumstances, already falling apart, ¡°He needs a nose, go find a stick.¡± He nods and happily runs over to the tree, I get to the crates we had put behind the once existent food clinic, they are full of nothing, but I was hoping they somehow replenished themselves. All the useful things were inside of the food clinic. ¡°Noah! Theres a carriage coming in!¡± Anne shouts, already gathering the kids. A carriage? Are they back to kill the rest of us? ¡°EVERYONE HIDE IN THE SAFE SPACE NOW!¡± The kids scatter like ants, slipping on mud as they reach the small hole, getting inside and away from view. I see the carriage roll up to the patch of grass, it has very fancy wooden sculptures dug into the side of the wood, red curtains blowing as it moves. I see another version of Lily sitting on the carriage front, looking disinterested. The same woman who taught us the growth magic steps out, looking around, ¡°this place is rather drab, I expected more from you.¡± She walks towards me, I was the only one who didn''t hide so I was the target of whatever was going to happen, everyone else is now inside of the safe space, I walk towards her with equal confidence, ¡°we have no paper.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± She looks irritated, ¡°well I suppose nothing can be done. I''m going now, I expected this whole place to be full of greenery but all I see is a tree and a patch of grass. Disappointing.¡± I step forward, ¡°please, we have children, they are starving, we need food.¡± ¡°And why would I care about such nonsense? You failed my interest, yet you ask for more?¡± She moves onto the mud which quickly sprouts green as she reaches me. ¡°If rumour isn¡¯t to be believed... have you seen Fay for the past 3 days?¡± It''s always about Fay, everything is about Fay. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good to hear. I wish you well on your food shortage, farewell.¡± She turns on her heel and begins to walk away. ¡°WAIT.¡± Jackson runs up from a hut and grabs her wrist forcefully, ¡°I know somewhere in your heart you don''t believe kids deserve to starve.¡± ¡°I don''t believe fish deserve to be eaten alive by bears. Yet it happens and will happen, as is the circle of life.¡± She grabs his wrist in turn and inspects it, ¡°Is this an inactivated Eris ring?¡± She digs her fingers in, causing Jackson to grunt in pain, ¡°let me activate it for you, I am not as unjust as the others. I do not believe you are deserving of an unfinished narrative at this time.¡± She taps the ring, a blinding white light shoots out into the sky as it glows gold. ¡°What an unkempt ring, its amateur work at best.¡± Jackson falls to the floor, seizing up, convulsing while vomiting blood into the mud, quickly soaking into his shirt. I run up to him and lay him on his side, ¡°did you kill him? Is he dying?¡± ¡°I''m unsure. He should be dead soon.¡± She touches the floor and grass grows around Jackson, making a nice bed for him, a coffin of green. She stares for a moment, then with a deep sigh she decides this is no longer interesting, ¡°you''ll survive if he does... now if you excuse me, I have a date.¡± She steps away with the form of a runway model, her intricately designed dress floating just above the grass, once she steps into the carriage the fog comes back as it always does, and just like that she''s gone. Fay has singlehandedly made everything worse, what was once a lively town is a wasteland, he should''ve just killed himself as soon as that demon took interest. I should have killed him. What could''ve been years of continued living has been cut short to what might be weeks. And for what? What was the reason for killing everyone? Was it to save us? Is he even human anymore? Was it a mistake? Did someone force him? None of this matters. I''m going to find a way out of this, I''m going to give these children real lives, I''m going to undo everything. I''m going to wipe out every demon on the planet. Jackson coughs up more blood, his eyes becoming lifeless. I grab his wrist and try to forcefully take it off, it doesn''t budge, like its threaded to him just like Fay¡¯s clothes. ¡°Shit...¡± I pull again, all it does it dislocate his ring finger, I drop his arm which joins his convulsing body, ¡°don''t die. We need you.¡± I sit by his body, holding him steady. Jackson is stronger than anyone else here, even if his mind isn''t in the right place right now. Chapter 25: Lets talk business [Fay''s perspective] I find myself upright, my feet having to stretch down to touch the floor, my arms above my head, every movement I make rattles the chains around me. Bubbles float up every time I take a breath, yet again I am getting the air I shouldn''t, my hair lays flat against my shoulders, my eyes don''t get irritated by the water around me. The chains rattle again, pulling me slightly further up, I can''t even reach the cement floor with my feet anymore. ¡°Guide me.¡± The voice behind me speaks in a language I don''t understand but still get the meaning, it undoubtedly is Lilith. I feel multiple wounds appear on my body, my wrists start hurting, bruising on my neck and the back of my head, my fingers feel overworked and blistered. I wake up in a completely different bed than the one I slept in, the cabin walls replaced by a room I am all too familiar with, Lilith''s living quarters. Everything looks dusty, not too dusty, but dusty enough to let me know this place hasn''t been touched since the dinner party. My body retains the wounds that I got in the dream, my wrists especially which are now black with bruising. ¡°Null... Noah... Anne...¡± the three people I care about and those they cared about are gone... Still, I can''t stop thinking about how Null referred to me. As ¡®master Fay.¡¯ Something she dropped before the dinner party. Although it may seem psychotic to obsess over a simple title, it''s all the fuel I need for me to believe Null is alive. ¡°Noah...¡± he isn''t dumb... how could he have survived? Maybe he was put on lookout, he wasn''t in the food clinic because they needed to make sure I didn''t fulfill my threat. ¡°Anne...¡± Anne would have stayed in the food clinic with the kids... unless maybe she left at the perfect time to try and talk to me... it wouldn''t be the first time, right? She always worries about me. That means I''m fine. Everything is fine. Just everyone else is dead... but that''s okay. I can save everyone else. Three distinct knocks come from the open door and down the hallway, someone is here... the boss maybe? I get up and realise my legs feel tired, like I had just walked miles, ran miles. Is that from me sleepwalking here or more transferred damage? That heart spell she did obviously allows her to make me do things voluntarily and involuntarily. I need to make sure every idea is my own. To double check every decision I make so I don''t cause any more distrust. I walk out into the hallway, its eerily quiet, some windows are open so I can hear the breeze but other than that this place is silent. I step down the large staircase near the entrance, three large knocks happen again, ¡°Don''t keep me waiting!¡± Who is that? Null? I step into a sprint, jumping down 5 stairs to the front door, almost slipping on the entrances rug as I swing the door open, ¡°NULL! You''re alive.¡± I see null in an incredibly fancy dress, I don''t always follow my emotions but after the last few days I decide to hug her. I wrap my arms around Null and squeeze, ¡°God, I missed you... that dinner party sucked you were right.¡± Hands touch my hair, stroking the top of my head, ¡°yes well... I didn''t expect you to be so excited about our date... It''s not romantic you realise? It''s a business date.¡± Date? I unwrap my hands and look at her, she is undeniably Null. The original Null. ¡°Oh... sorry...¡± She nods with an unnerving smile, ¡°I didn''t expect you''d take camp in this building so early after her death. You had me running cat and mouse to find you.¡± I don¡¯t reply to whatever she said, instead I look behind her and see a clone waiting by the door, holding a pen and book, ¡°Null?¡± She doesn¡¯t respond, the original Null moves to the side to block my view of her, ¡°who is this ¡®null¡¯?¡± ¡°Just¡­ one of your clones.¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re one of those people? Fell in love with my clone? You realise clones don¡¯t have souls, right?¡± What? She walks over to the clone waiting, ¡°I copy the data of the brain, they act like real people but that''s about it.¡± She is wrong, otherwise none of them would try to escape, they would instead just be slaves. ¡°You¡¯re wrong.¡± ¡°How so?¡± ¡°They have free will.¡± ¡°Never said they didn¡¯t. That¡¯s the beauty of them.¡± She scratches the neck of the clone. The clone leans into her hand like a cat. ¡°Yet they aren¡¯t sentient, and the fact that you, a rank¡­ what? Rank 1 is telling me how my technique works is terribly rude.¡± She told Null a while ago that she was sentient, I remember. ¡°But¡­ you said.¡± ¡°I say a lot of things, telling a high rank clone they aren¡¯t sentient could make them not function correctly.¡± She steps away from the clone she was inhumanely petting, ¡°let¡¯s go, I expect you on your best behaviour.¡± I walk out of the door onto the pathway where a fancy carriage is parked. Two more clones waiting by it. ¡°Where are we going?¡± ¡°To the capital. Inner circle obviously.¡± Inner circle? She guides me up into the carriage like I¡¯m a noble, I sit down to face her in front of me. ¡°What¡¯s the inner circle?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ right. The inner circle is only visitable by rank 5s and above.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m not rank 5.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll get fined. Who cares.¡± She leans in close, ¡°I want to get the business talk done quickly, so tell me, are you interested in a lucrative business where you sell your body¡­? Quite literally.¡± I nod, ¡°only if you save my friends.¡± ¡°What friends? I don¡¯t see any.¡± She looks left and right cartoonishly. ¡°The people in the experiment site.¡± ¡°Oh¡­? Well, I just so happened to visit that experiment site and guess what?¡± ¡°What.¡± ¡°Nobody was there.¡± She¡¯s lying. ¡°Okay.¡± She leans back, ¡°take us to the inner circle!¡± She wafts her hand out of the open window of the carriage. ¡°What¡¯s your full name Fay?¡± ¡°Fay Cross.¡± ¡°That¡¯s incredibly marketable. Your parents had good taste.¡± She crosses her legs, the windows outside begins to fill with fog. ¡°Thanks.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°So, I could just take you and lock you in a basement somewhere to constantly clone you, but that would be despicable. So, what do you want that would make you happy?¡± She isn¡¯t going to let me see my friends obviously, so what I need is the ability to travel to experiment sites. ¡°What am I right now?¡± ¡°You are Fay.¡± ¡°No¡­ I mean am I considered a human?¡± ¡°Yeah? A human with an eris ring.¡± ¡°I want you to pull whatever strings you can to make people see me as a demon. Join whatever society this is.¡± ¡°Demon?¡± Right, they don¡¯t call themselves that, ¡°just whatever your kind is.¡± The fog disappears, sounds of chattering and wheels can be heard. The original null smiles and steps out onto the stone pavement, ¡°sure.¡± I get guided out by her gloved hand, taken into a roadway path where carriages go back and forth, every building looks new and organic, similar to late medieval architecture with stone and wood buildings. All of the wood has streaks of glistening gold that emit a faint glow. ¡°Has Lilith never taken you here?¡± ¡°She hasn¡¯t¡­ yeah¡­¡± Everything is sloped downwards like in an upside-down cone, not enough for it to be noticeable close up but in the distance, I can see buildings get lower and lower until it reaches a huge grey circular tower in the middle that passes beyond the clouds in height. How do they keep this hidden from the modern world? We have satellites and planes that could easily see this titan of a city. Up on the slope I can see more buildings spread the horizon higher and higher and then a wall which looks worn, if this is the inner circle I¡¯m guessing there¡¯s an outer circle where the rank 4s and below live. ¡°I have arranged our date, first we get you a haircut, then we fatten you up with various foods, then we can talk business in my floor of the tower.¡± That¡¯s less of a date and more of just ordering me around to do things. Although I guess I don¡¯t need my hair long anymore since Lilith isn''t here. ¡°Okay. So, haircut first?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not done, don¡¯t interrupt me. Then we need to get you a valid ranking, as you wanted to be considered one of us, correct?¡± I nod. ¡°Well let¡¯s go ahead then, haircut first. I know just the place.¡± She takes my hand and walks us down the street, there are various different looking people here, some with the devilish appearance that Lilith had and some with human features such as the original null and her clones. Nobody seems to notice me. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say I was popular?¡± ¡°You are popular, just nobody knows what you look like. Most assume you died at the dinner party as that¡¯s what that foul redhead told everyone.¡± Foul redhead... from the party¡­? Was she trying to do me a favour? I see no reason why to lie about that especially since it makes you look bad¡­ All this walking makes my legs hurt even more, my long-sleeved shirt helps hide the bruising on my wrists, but anyone can tell I¡¯m about to stumble over at any second. ¡°Are all humans this weak when it comes to exertion?¡± ¡°No. I¡¯m just really hurt right now¡­¡± I pull my sleeve up and show her the bruising, hoping it convinces her to heal me. ¡°That looks like it hurts.¡± She continues walking not sparing a second glance, dragging me along the streets perfect stone pavement, the buildings get bigger and bigger the more we go down the slope, I can see that around the tower is a huge grassy area similar to circular New Yorks Central Park with a water moat. We must¡¯ve reached a ring of shops because suddenly every building has a sign designating what it is, inns, restaurants, cafes, blood vial shops, experimentation parts and book shops litter the area. Instead of walking down the main road, she takes me sideways into a small alleyway full of people, small lights of yellow and orange are strung across the alleyway like its Christmas. This place is incredibly busy, I bump into multiple people as the original null pulls me haphazardly towards her destination. Eventually being pulled into a small indoor space full of waiting chairs. It was completely empty, a locked door at the end of the hallway with a sign saying ¡°closed.¡± ¡°Wait here.¡± She guides me to sit down, I stare at one of the paintings that are hung up on the wooden wall, it shows a historical battle between shadows and what look to be demons of various colours and shapes marked 6122 BC. She knocks on the door in a specific pattern, repeating in twice before a man with messy hair opens it and grunts, ¡°what?¡± ¡°Theo! I need you to give this one a makeover, style him up for me.¡± She points at me. Theo? I thought they didn¡¯t have names? ¡°Is this another¡­ one of your¡­?¡± ¡°Gods no! Him? Really? I have standards. He is the human who knows magic.¡± Theo steps forward, his ragged brown clothes mixing well with his messy brown hair and brown eyes, his clothes seem to be broken and stitched together. ¡°Him?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°I was told he was dead.¡± ¡°He isn¡¯t.¡± He stares directly into my eyes. ¡°Can he talk?¡± ¡°He can, he from a government experiment site so he isn¡¯t too messed up like those privately owned places.¡± ¡°So why is he just staring?¡± ¡°I believe he is deep in thought.¡± There is nothing going on in my mind right now. I stand up, ¡°I need a haircut. Thanks.¡± I let out a small smile and pat him on the shoulder, ¡°Theo, are you a human?¡± ¡°No?¡± He removes my hand from his shoulder, ¡°Is it just because I have a name? What year do you think it is?¡± The original Null giggles, ¡°Theo is new, 20 years new so he has ¡®ideas¡¯ about how things should function.¡± New? Not born? ¡°Okay, cool... so haircut...?¡± Theo¡¯s face droops as he falls asleep mid conversation. Swaying slightly. Somehow keeping himself upright. ¡°Is he going to cut my hair?¡± ¡°Yes... He¡¯s not narcoleptic just tired, I¡¯d assume. I owe him a favour to get him more customers.¡± Oh, she owes him a favour. Of course she does. Of course she wouldn''t take me to a respectable hair salon. She snaps her fingers in front of him and he wakes up, his eyes widen awake, ¡°yes yes haircut, leave him with me.¡± He waves at the original Null as he opens the door. ¡°Why does the door say ¡®closed¡¯ if you¡¯re open?¡± I ask. The door had a permanent etched ¡®closed¡¯ sign on it, embedded into the door. The room is simply a bed, a mirror, a chair, and a desk, someone''s home. ¡°Have you ever walked into a building without a sign? It''s the exclusivity my friend.¡± All things considered I don''t feel the least bit scared of this person, he seems a lot more human than the usual demons. I sit down on the leather black chair and stare at myself in the mirror. I look completely different, my eyes which used to be brown are now tinted with red, almost looking amber, my skin has taken on a smoother appearance, my old acne being completely gone from my face. Is this the clothes or something else? Theo reaches into a desk drawer and takes out a fluffy blanket he puts on my chest, ¡°shouldn''t you-?¡± He snaps his fingers. ¡°This place is no talk zone for you, only simple gestures, okay?¡± He opens his hands, ¡°How much shorter do you want it?¡± Doesn''t he need scissors? ¡°I want it-¡± ¡°No talk zone.¡± He snaps at me, looking annoyed. I just pull on my hair and point at the point I want it cut to, I want my hair to be as it was when I was taken at 14, I had it in a sort of middle part where the back hair was longer than the front. My parents would tell me to make it shorter, but I was always happy I could control my appearance to piss them off a bit. He nods and hair begins to fall off my head, like invisible cuts are happening around me, I hear faint snips in surround sound, hundreds per second. In the span of a minute, I see my hair turn from the long mess it was to a short mess it now is, jagged edges and even a few cuts on my scalp make it look like someone''s first try cutting hair. ¡°That was my first time cutting hair... let me regrow it and retry.¡± He goes to his desk and uses a blood vial to write a spell, taking a sip of it and placing it on my head, ¡°morva eris.¡± My hair reverses to the point it was, he stumbles back a bit holding his head, ¡°shit I should have drunk more blood... ow... time magic aye? So much blood potency usage.¡± I nod and he begins to cut my hair again, swaying as if he is about to fall asleep... My mind wanders, first I need to be considered a demon... sign a deal with the original null... then I need to learn tracking magic... it''s based on blood type and since the original null uses herself as a base, she should have the same blood type as Null does... then I go back to Lilith''s manor and track where she is hiding. There were some book shops. I''m willing to bet they sell information on magic types. ¡°Done. Does this look good?¡± I snap out of my daze and look into the mirror, its fine, nothing extraordinary, the layering is off, and one side is slightly longer than the other, but it works. ¡°It does-¡± ¡°No talk zone! How many times do I have to say this?¡± I nod, then give a thumbs up, he seems happy and walks to the door, ¡°you may leave, thank you for the practice.¡± I follow him through the door and see the original null redecorating the waiting room with plants, ¡°you did a poor job Theo.¡± She says without looking, just adding vines to the wall, ¡°but I suppose that''ll be good for my purposes.¡± She looks over and smiles, ¡°next is food, fatten you up, this bony look won''t do.¡± She pokes at my ribs, so I take a step back. ¡°Okay... can we go to a bookstore first?¡± ¡°Before getting food? Are you mad? What are we to do with the books as we are eating?¡± She gets genuinely mad, ¡°did you not think before asking? Would we place the books by our feet below the table as we eat? That is no place for a book Fay. Or would you rather read at the table as ways to ignore me?¡± ¡°No, I just need to-¡± ¡°No, I''m not done. Fay Cross, I thought of all people you''d understand that you BUY right before you leave, you also stated you wanted to be considered one of us. Where would the books go as we get your rank tested? On the floor? Would you make me carry them?¡± ¡°We can go to the bookstore after. Sorry.¡± ¡°Yes. We will. You really expected me to carry your books? Or would you have one arm preoccupied with a book as you get tested?¡± She just won''t let this go. ¡°I didn''t think, I''m sorry.¡± ¡°Did you think at all? Is this the person I need to do business with? Theo. Do you understand my grievances?¡± Theo walks to the door and opens it, ¡°I don''t care.¡± He closes the door behind him, leaving me with her. ¡°I''m sorry. I didn''t think at all, I''m sorry.¡± It feels like second nature to try and make myself seem as pathetic as possible, so I won''t be killed, Lilith made me do this a lot. ¡°No. I am sorry. I am overwhelmed. Just yesterday I tried to get myself a government signed experimentation site, and guess what? They refused my application.¡± ¡°That... that''s awful.¡± She grows some more roots on the walls, the cracks filling up with green, flowers blooming, ¡°It is awful, my week has been awful. So, you understand, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, I understand why my stupid question to go to the bookstore was... stupid.¡± I cringe at the way I''m dumbing myself down for her. She smiles, ¡°Thank you.¡± She heads towards the exit and walks out into the alleyway, looking around at the busy street annoyed, ¡°EVERYONE OUT. NOW.¡± Her hair begins to shake, her presence reminds me of the boss, which makes sense, she is certainly a rank 10. Everyone runs out, including the people in restaurants and staff manning those restaurants. She seems happy with herself, ¡°that let off some steam.¡± She grabs my hand and takes me to an empty cafe, it looks similar to how cafes looked in the modern world, tiled floor, cupcakes and pastry in a glass display case. She goes behind the counter and picks out two apricot scrolls, I find a two-person seat, for her to sit with me, but instead she sits in the opposite side of the cafe, expecting me to cross over to sit at her table. I get up and sit in front of her, ¡°thanks.¡± She claps, ¡°Okay! Let''s talk business.¡± Chapter 26: You are not special This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Chapter 27: Grow, Pollen, Bees The impossibly long hallway gets shorter and shorter as I walk through it, as if my vision was dolly zooming inwards towards the two giant red doors at the end. Walking without the damage in my legs seemed easier than usual, like I''m using a lot less energy to move than I used to in the modern world. My limbs feel lighter, and my mind feels clearer. As I reach the end of the hallway I hear the voice of a very passionate shouting man, doing a speech, muffled by the doors. ¡°-that is why I created the ranking system, to spread the seeds of power to those who want to grasp it, all 100 of you will be given the chance to-¡± I open the door, the room it leads to is a huge auditorium where demons are lined up like it''s a school assembly. The man on the stage who is wearing a suit steps forward and off the stage with a quiet tap, landing gracefully and walking in a practiced stride towards me, the golden chandelier making his long red hair have highlights of orange. ¡°101 now apparently.¡± He continues to walk, almost every demon is staring between me and him, people of different shapes, sizes and colours making the room feel chaotic. One of them stands at what must be 8-foot tall, dark purple skin that makes him look almost rotting. Another person of note is someone with green hair and green eyes, an unbelievably pale complexion that makes her look like an elf from every cliche fantasy story. Her eyes are sharp along with her ears which reach to a point rather than the usual blunt edge. There are multitudes of interesting looking people here, one with red warpaint over his body, one with hair that is standing up like she was shocked, one who was reading a book rather than taking in the situation. The man in the suit stands in front of me, inspecting everything, ¡°Gracelia clothing, you come from noble lines, yes?¡± I nod, it''s not like I can go out and just tell him I''m a human. ¡°Sponsored by who?¡± ¡°The one who clones herself.¡± I remember Null calling herself that, I assume the original goes by the same title. He leans in to speak whispers into my ear, "you just gave away the game. I smell her on you... the one who taught a human magic. Glad we could meet. Fay. Alive and kicking unlike those rumours.¡± He plucks a piece of my hair, holding it towards the light, his voice reaches everyone as he speaks, ¡°all 101 of you will be tested, remember it is an honour to become rank 1. That is why instead of the usual 20 accepted. I will be reducing that to 5. Only 5 people will leave alive.¡± He giggles, ¡°hah, 5, alive¡­ rhyme was unintentional because I''m thinking two dimensional.¡± He looks back at me, the single hair now twisted into a small ribbon, ¡°I expect great things.¡± With that he walks back to the stage, I stay standing by the door, not bothering to move into a line, I had already been singled out so what would be the point of conforming when nobody is asking me to. The 2-meter elevation of the stage does nothing to stop the man in the suit from stepping from the floor and teleporting to the top instantly like he had some sort of quick step ability. He swings his arms around as he does a spin, ¡±It is time, remember, there is nothing better than killing those to reach whatever goals you may have.¡± He stares directly at me, ¡°especially those who were wronged.¡± He holds his arm up dramatically, ¡°ready! Set! Go!¡± He snaps his fingers. My eyes get blasted by white light, my clothes and shoes removed, replaced by a black tracksuit and socks ¡°10 seconds before the first fight begins.¡± A disembodied voice speaks clearly into my ears. This is a perfectly rectangular white room, 12 meters by 6 meters. ¡°9.¡± Another countdown just like in the dinner party, on one of the long walls there is a perfectly red number, saying ¡®9.¡¯ ¡°8.¡± Now it says ¡®8.¡¯ In the corners of each room are grey boxes, multiple stacked on top of each other. ¡°7.¡± I¡¯m guessing one of these walls are going to fall and show me my opponent, I start conjuring up my innate magic to prepare, I wasted 3 seconds. ¡°6.¡± Defensive magic. How do I do that? I don¡¯t have enough volume conjured to make a wall. ¡°5.¡± If my opponent has magic that goes faster than I can see, I¡¯ll be screwed. ¡°4.¡± I harden a small plate shield the size of my forearm using the innate material. Adding onto it as the seconds pass to hopefully protect me. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°3.¡± I flatten it using downwards gravity, layering it like how people used to layer sheets of paper to make shields. It takes on a more silver look than the usual black. ¡°2.¡± I conjure another flat sheet of material, my eyes begin to feel pain, the beginning of a migraine happening due to using too much magic. I haven¡¯t conjured up this much in a while. ¡°1.¡± I combine the second sheet to the first, two layers of shield, I hope that¡¯s enough to stop whatever is coming. ¡°Go.¡± The wall where the text was displaying the timer pops out of existence, there¡¯s a golden-haired boy pointing his finger directly at me in a finger gun position. His room the exact same as mine. ¡°Act one: revolver.¡± He says like as if it was a slogan. He aims directly at my face, I lift the makeshift shield and hold my ground, moving my leg behind me to steady my posture, in my other hand I try to conjure more material to my head¡¯s dismay. ¡°Bang.¡± A yellow trail shoots from his pointer finger, reaching me before I can blink, the projectile hits directly into my shoulder, passing through and hitting the wall behind me. I don¡¯t realise it until blood starts trickling down my hand. He switched from aiming for my head to my shoulder on a whim. I take a step back as he charges me, I have conjured enough in my other hand to shoot it towards him as a spike. He goes in for a choreographed kick to my side which I let happen as I fire the spike towards his stomach. Point blank. It hits his stomach and tears away at the tracksuit, before I can celebrate, I¡¯m flung into the wall from the force of the kick into a few boxes, the spike only leaving a shallow cut. I fall to a sitting position, the back of my head ringing with pain and my shoulder creating a waterfall down my arm to the ground. The makeshift shield landing by my feet. ¡°Thought you¡¯d be stronger, with a sponsor and all.¡± He points his finger at me ¡°act 7: shotgun.¡± Why does he keep saying stuff like that? Does it help? Or is it just a quirk that he does? Act 1: Wall. I think in my head right before he says ¡°bang.¡± The shield on the floor sprawls into a thin wall as tiny yellow projectiles fly through. The wall splits apart like glass flinging itself everywhere around the room, a projectile hitting my wrist, my jaw and my stomach. All small but noticeable. I lift my leg and kick at his shin like I''m a child, controlling every shard of the wall to fling towards him like he is the centre of the universe, directing them with my spare hand. He looks way too calm, mini blades of glass like material hit his body, sticking into his skin without him saying a word. ¡°Act 5: railgun.¡± I kick at his shin again, trying to activate implode on him from a distance like I do with projectiles, but a deep sense of uselessness washes over me, like the spell doesn''t even work against him. He takes a step back, aiming his finger gun directly at me, I try to stand up, the tiny hole in my stomach becoming a faucet after every movement. He is trying to tank this and wait it out, there are multiple shards stuck in his body. What I need to do is grab his skin and convert him into my innate magic, if implosion is too weak then I need to use something stronger. This person seems like someone who only learnt base combos in a fighting game, to win against someone like that you just need to throw them off balance. I reach for a box beside me, landing on my stomach as I stretch. Explosion, 200%. A flash of white blinds me as the box explodes into pure nothingness, only leaving behind the shockwave that pushes me into the other corner of the room, it also just so happened to knock him onto the ground as well. I stand up, holding my hand to my stomach as I sprint towards him, from the corner of the room to the middle where he lays shocked, limping my way there as quickly as I can without stumbling. Then my head experiences the worst pain I had felt in my life. I fall onto the ground like a ragdoll, feeling like someone had slammed my head against a moving train, I cough up what had to be gallons of blood onto the floor. He stands up, the shards dissolving into nothingness, ¡°Interesting innate magic, it was trying to dissolve me, dissolve my spells... Ill name my next act for you, let''s see...¡± He begins to pace the room all smug, while my body convulses in short spurts. ¡°Act 16... grenade... in your memory.¡± I begin to drown in the puddle of my own making, barely able to lift my head before it falls back down causing a splash. I really should have thought this through... ¡°Well, I guess this is it, when I''m rank 1, I''m going to be in the big leagues baby! Join in some missions, maybe cop a few human''s aye?¡± ¡®Cop a few humans.¡¯ I lift my arm from my side, planting it in the puddle. Blood is organic material, isn''t it? The puddle turns black, I think back to every variable I had learnt so far, implosion, downwards gravity, healing, explosion... and growing magic. Those 4 combination variables that Noah and Anne made me all too familiar with. I repeat the 4 variables in my mind for growing magic, not even knowing what each individual one does. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. ¡°I''ve figured out how to counter your little magic, don''t bother, my teacher told me all about the little tricks people will try.¡± It feels like this is a game of rock paper scissors, except right now I don''t even know what hand I''m about to throw. The puddle sprouts into bees, black bees that crawl out of the puddle as if it was a deep pit of water. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Growth... The boss mentioned the liquid did seem alive. He looks terrified. ¡°Summoning...?¡± He quickly lets out a shout, ¡°ACT 4: RAILG-¡± a bee flies into his mouth causing him to choke, another follows by stinging his neck, another follows by stinging his cheek, another, another, what had to be 20 all stinging at once, filling the room with the sound of buzzing wings. My head feels like it''s about to burst, but I don''t stop, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. I repeat like a mantra while my head is about to pop like a balloon. I see him struggle, whatever poison the bees are pumping into him causing his body to turn a grotesque green, then back to pale as he begins to somehow dispel whatever was poisoning him. He coughs out the bee, the others trying their best to sting him without him taking notice. ¡°Nice...¡± He breathes in heavily, ¡°nice try... but poison is... not... how...¡± He stomps my head into the ground, then again, then again. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 ,2 ,3 ,4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Just keep trying, keep trying. He slams my head again, I feel my nose and teeth break against the puddled floor. I hear a thud, the sound of a body falling, the disembodied voice comes back in full swing, ringing in my sensitive ears, ¡°well done, healing will commence.¡± My body begins to get its natural lightness, the painful burning feeling in my wounds fade away, my shirt where the projectiles hit me thread themselves back together. I look at the body, the bees are completely gone, becoming little puddles of liquid, his skin is painted with purple veins, mostly on his neck and eye area, apparently all he had managed to do is delay the poison, not stop it. ¡°You get ¡®1¡¯ penalty for overcharging your magic reserves in a spell that would have been suicide.¡± What? Was it because they thought I was relying on the healing afterward to win? I guess that makes sense as a rule, so people don''t spam their most powerful attack in a kamikaze fashion. A door in front of me, unconnected to any walls pops up. I step around the body, my legs feeling lighter than ever. If everyone in that test did a one-on-one battle, that means that 50 demons had just died. Good. I had made so many mistakes, I could have died, would have died if I wasn''t healed. I put my hand on the handle, that means 50 left to get rid of. Chapter 28: In the red If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Chapter 29: War Tactics Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Chapter 30: Suicide cult A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Chapter 31: It鈥檚 all connected Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.