Blood Bond

The green-haired elf propped his boots upon the table and reclined back in his seat. He raised a cup to his lips, sipping upon the tea as wisps of steam rose over his sharp-featured face. "Drat! I don't want to go back down to see what's left of that wretched thing."

Another elf with curls of dark chestnut, stepped back from the shaft of morning sunlight slanting in from the window. He grimaced and sipped on his own steaming cup of tea. "Nor do I. I kept hoping that pathetic girl would stop squealing half way through." He pulled back from the tea, and shuddered, as if somehow, the night was actually painful for him. "The way her insides were twitching. Absolutely disgusting."

The elf at the table circled one hand in the air. "She should've just passed out and saved us having to see that mess." His gaze dropped to the floor. "Think she's still making sounds down there?"

A movement at the door to the stonewalled room caused the green-haired elf to look up but he didn't lower his boots let alone get up off his seat. "Morning Captain. The servants had brewed some tea, and brought some fresh fruit."

"Hmph, you two were here late?" The sandy-haired man with the pock-marked face walked over to the table and poured himself some water from a pitcher. After downing a glass of water, he dumped a cluster of grapes into his mouth. "When are you elves gonna ship those prisoners out of here? I can't wait to get off this assignment."

He leaned back against the edge of the table, not noticing the rat scampering between the shadows of the tea kettle and the fruit bowl. Its bloody paws left tiny red tracks on the table top.

The elf chuckled. "Soon enough, Captain. The diversion will happen soon enough. No one will be paying attention to us then."

He tried to raise his tea cup, but found that his arm was locked in place. None of his muscles would obey him. He tried to yell out in alarm, but his lips and mouth wouldn't move either. Only his eyes would respond. Those eyes shot toward his friend at the window and found his eyes staring back into his own. His friend was as still as a statue as well, caught with his tea cup half-raised to his lips.

My blood had seeped into their brains, but I had only taken over their basal ganglia and motor cortex.

I don't want them to move, but I want them to be fully conscious for what's to come.

The Captain ate another cluster of grapes. He looked back and forth between the two petrified elves. "Hey, you two…"

He clutched at his chest. Then his eyes glazed over as my blood took full control of his mind. He slowly pushed off the table and stood up straight.

"Sergeant!"

A prison guard in armor hurried through the door and saluted with a palm to his chest. "Yes sir?"

"I want you to get the keys and release the prisoner."

The guard raised his head, looking bewildered. "I'm sorry sir?"

"We have orders from the Marshal. Release the prisoners. And…" I dredged deeper through the Captain's mind. It seemed he was looking forward to going through all the confiscated equipment. "Give them back their belongings. Do it NOW!"

—

When I sank back into my body, the pain still lingered. I wasn't sure if it was actual pain, my body's memory of it, or my healed nerves misfiring.

I sucked in a breath, and some drool came back up. My face was still laying atop a pool of blood, now dried. I was still on my knees upon the icy stone, my body bent over. My arms were numbed behind my back. The cold metal shackles still bit into my wrists.

The metallic scent of blood mixed with the putrid odor of excrement inundated my nostrils. I really hope I didn't dirty myself during the night, but I couldn't tell. My dress caked with dried up blood, crinkled.

The sounds of metal clanking echoed from down the hallway. More and more of them sounded. At first distant, but it slowly advanced until they rang from the cell right next to mine. There were voices shouting out, some full of excitement, joy even.

I tried to speak, but only a pathetic groan left my lips.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Metal bars slid against each other. The rats parted, clearing a path. Footsteps rushed over to me.

Meris's arms wrapped around me, peeling me off the ground and onto her lap. No words were said, just a long inhuman wail. I turned my listless head and tears fell on my face.

Another set of footsteps and Kael sank down beside me with a heavy thud. "Someone get the keys for these damn shackles!" he cried out.

His shaking hand cupped my cheek. It was warm. I smiled at him. When I tried to talk there were razors in my throat.

Had I been making sounds the entire night?

—

I raised the bowl of soup to my lips and let the hot liquid pour over my tongue and down my throat. My blood was repairing me from the inside, but the soup still felt soothing.

"Thank you Lorne. Now, go rest. You were just released," I said to the old Steward as he took the bowl from my hand. He was still in his drab prison garb of grey shirt and trousers, looking nothing like the last time I had seen him. He was a lot thinner.

His gaunt face glanced over to Meris whose arm was still wrapped around me as I sat in a chair in the guard room. "I can still serve, High Princess. Will you not rest? We should take you to your room." He hesitated. The crow's feet at the corners of his eyes deepened. "We all heard you last night. It lasted until morning."

"I…" My fingers caught on frustratingly on dried, clotted blood as I tried to pull them through my hair. Grime encrusted my face and body. I was a complete and utter wreck again.

"My apologies for the appearance." I gave up on the tangled hair and focused on finishing up the soup. "Perhaps this should be my style going forward given how often I take to it."

My laughter bounced strangely off the stone walls. It was a brittle, hollow sound, but it was mine. Everyone else at the table sat silent with grim faces. Beside Lorne, was Master Alarc and several higher-ranking Royal Guards who were prisoners. None of them would meet my eyes.

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Guess I was really bad at jokes.

"Your highness. He's right. We should draw you a bath."

"No time. We have the advantage of surprise, so let's act while we can."

There were raised eyebrows all around the table. I realized not one of the freed prisoners had seen me since I left the keep on Soul Seed day. I was a completely different person then.

"Lorne, can you get a hold of a few trustworthy servants? I need to get messages out to a few people, discreetly."

The old man dipped his head gracefully. "Tell me who and it shall be done."

I turned to the dejectedly looking Royal Guards, two men and a large woman with thick black hair. "I need you to join up with the Ironfell contingent, and rally any out there who support our cause to their banner."

A fist slammed against the table. "Ironfell? They're one of the usurpers. Do you know how many of ours they killed?!" One of the Royal Guards, a bald-headed man snapped gruffly.

"I've convinced them to join me along with Veridia. It was necessary." I hissed back at him, my glare sent him back into his seat.

"Veridia too? How…" The woman's voice trailed off. Her eyes and several others shifted over to the former Captain of the prison guards standing stiffly at attention by the entrance. His face was blank, his lips half-ajar, and his eyes were completely vacant.

I hadn't drained him dry, but I also hadn't completely withdrawn from his mind. It was a trick I learned from controlling Key, Hope, and all the rats. I could partially disconnect, and leave them on their own, or in an unmoving, zombified state—either way, the strain was much less.

Fear was written on everyone's faces as they looked at the man who seemed not quite alive. They probably assumed I had done something similar to Ironfell and Veridia.

I supposed there was some truth to that.

"Lord Stonehand will be taking control. Refer to him as to what needs to be done. They will congregate once they get word." I shifted my attention over to the wizened, gray-haired man beside me. "Master Alarc, I require your aid in a far more dangerous matter. One in which your life will be in deep peril."

My words didn't faze him in the least. Instead, his eyes glinted with a lethal light. "Your Highness, my life is already in your hands. I know those elves had something unpleasant in store for us."

"Come then, we'll be going somewhere deeper and fouler than the dungeon to pay them back." I stood up with Meris supporting me. "We're going to kill a Saint."

—

"So that is what the elves are planning. I never heard of devices that could inflict destruction of that magnitude on their own." Master Alarc had a finger to his lips as he stared contemplatively at a point on the table. Everyone else had cleared out now, leaving only Kael, Meris, me and him in the room. "Celestial level spells usually require armies of mages working together to gather enough mana. Usually one mage is sacrificed as the conduit. But this… just requires one command?"

"A trigger. Could be an air affinity shock, or the connection to a power source. A starter… A catalyst."

Master Alarc sucked air in through his teeth. "Yes, I see what you mean. Too easy. Too quick for a counter."

"And there are five of them. Too many would die. We have to stop it before they detonate them." I pleaded.

Alarc slowly raised his head and studied me with his eyes. "And you're sure that the Lady of Deepwood will be there as well?"

"She committed far too much to this not to. The fact she came for me so quickly after I told the slum lord that I could disable the bombs told me as much."

Plus, she had stationed her Jarlen there. But that was something I kept to myself.

Alarc shook his head. "Princess, you face both the risk of being incinerated by the device and the repeat of what happened last night. Do you truly understand the implications here?"

"Please, child. This is too much for you." Meris pleaded with me.

Kael stood, rooted in place, the muscles of his face tightening. He knew. I had to go.

"I had been stabbed before, multiple times, through the chest, through the heart. I had set off an explosion that killed three hundred and survived. Now here the scale is far greater. But I believe I'm the only one who could look inside those devices and have some idea of how they work." I was the only one who actually researched how those things worked online. Not only that, I was the only one with the molecular view. "I have to go. I am the only one."

Silence greeted my response. I readjusted my crinkly blood-caked dress. "Master Alarc, I only need you for one thing. Lelian, she has a named staff, Elderwood, and on it are three bodiless Soul Seeds, a fire-affinity Evoker, a water-affinity Sorcerer, and air-affinity Conjurer. I need ways to counter the powers associated with those runes."

Master Alarc rolled his shoulders. . "I see. I have heard of those vile things. Give me a little time, and I will have some counter measures." He tapped at the crystal at his chest, a green-tinged crystal with the rune of an outward facing palm rising over large stone columns, a Grand Wizard rune.

"You have an hour. I am watching all the sites right now, but if they move it'd be too late."

He arched a questioning eyebrow at me, but didn't ask me to elaborate. Instead, he asked bluntly, "but what of her being a light-affinity Grand Saint? If you were disabled like last night wouldn't all this be for naught?"

"I believe I have a way to deal with her healing. It's the Divine Protection that I'm more concerned about." I paused, wondering if I should ask Meris and Kael to leave the room. But I looked into their eyes and realized that they'd never judge me. I have to trust in their love. "Have you heard of vorpal weapons?"

A frown formed on Alarc's face. "Vorpal weapons? Do you mean the distortion weapons powered by dark magic used by demons?"

"Yes, what do you know of them? Is dark magic just dark-affinity magic? And are they actually effective against Divine Protection?"

"It is dark-affinity magic." Alarc drew back from my enthusiasm. "Those unholy weapons first appeared a hundred years ago. Some records indicated them capable of cutting down Divine warriors even despite their auras."

A hundred years ago for research that was done fifteen years back on Earth. The time dilation between the two worlds must be quite extreme. But the distortion weapons sounded like a match for the weapons that were labeled as 'vorpal' in the new files from Blackwood. They were described as being able to cut through 'shielded' targets and required the feed of some mysterious 'XB78' energy.

So all I need now is a source of dark-affinity magic.

The creases over Alarc's forehead increased, as he watched me. "Your Highness. Are you contemplating the use of demonic weapons? How did you know about them? Did you consort with demons? It is forbidden!" He staggered upwards with each question and then recoiled away from me.

"Theron accessed the forbidden Sage's Records, and I suppose I'm following in his footsteps." I stepped forward into Alarc, forcing him further back. "Tell me, was it forbidden for them to launch this surprise coup and slaughter our soldiers and citizens? You know those vile Soul Crystals, they are going to take those from people like you, that's why they locked you up. Is that forbidden? Is it forbidden for them to torture me like that with healing for hours?" I shook my head at him. "Perhaps it is forbidden for them to set off those devices that will kill tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of people. But would they ever take the blame? Would that stop them?"

"You can leave if you want. I will let you reconsider your choice." I stepped back from the old man to give him room. Wiping down my dress with my hands, I stood straight between Meris and Kael. "I did not consort with Demons, but I do have their knowledge. And I will not hesitate to use that knowledge to protect those I care about."

Out the window was a clear blue sky, such a beautiful day for the coming battle. I sighed. "Like my father I also believe in the power of virtue. But my virtue isn't the principles of the gods. It's just the value of life. I believe in protecting the innocents, to save those suffering. Yes, when I see the abandoned children out there, the broken families, my heart does break. I want to protect them, our people, the refugees, everyone. And even if I can't, I want to save as many of them as I can."

Alarc just stood there staring at me with unblinking eyes. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Perhaps I sound awfully naive. A few rats scurried around my feet. They made Meris wince hard, but I smiled down at them. A thought struck me, making me chuckle. "My heart bleeds for them because I have so much blood to give."

One of the rats crawled over my stained slipper. It wasn't even mine, none of them were. The rats under my sway were gathered at the room entrance watching the figure standing there. "Those with power should protect the weak. Now, wouldn't that be truly chivalrous…" I raised my eyes to the sandy-haired boy. "Prince Cassian?"