Monsters and Maidens

She woke screaming and in the dark. She was drenched in sweat, cold and shivering, yet feeling like she was burning.

And alone.

There was a moment of fear and apprehension gripping at her chest like a vise. The nurse could only look around and cast the small spell of illumination. The room is empty, and Dia’s mind spins with every possible horrible thing that might be happening. She can practically taste the lingering remains of a powerful spell.

One that had kept her asleep. She doesn’t even need to check if the bond is still there, its presence is like a sun in her mind and heart, and it is screaming at her. There is little pause, shoes and pants, and she is out of the room in a whirlwind of agitation.

The house is destroyed, of the four walls, two have massive holes in them, the door is gone, and she can see the street behind the kitchen through the hole in the back. All the signs of a fight. Dia takes a split second to confirm there’s no one in the house, spots a black glass sphere in the kitchen bucket, and ignores it as she runs out.

There are other maidens, the sound of startled activity and panic. Dia knew what this panic would bring, there would be many injuries and potential deaths from feralborn maidens reacting poorly to what was clearly some kind of battle between two or more powerful maidens.

The nurse in her told her to head straight to the nearest guard and warn them, following orders and heading for the medicen after. Minimize casualties, minimize death, help, heal. Instead, she ran straight through the disaster. Rick was in danger, Monica might be in danger as well.

Monica finds her first, however.

Dia can only scream in shock as the feline emerges from the shadows, stumbling and dripping blood from a great deal of cuts both shallow and deep. “Help.” The feline doesn’t command, but the tone is close.

“Where’s Rick?” Dia knelt and pressed her hands against the feline’s abdomen.

“Danger. Hurt.”

It quickly becomes clear that Monica was in a bad shape, something had poisoned her and had been causing harm within her body. Dia couldn’t quite believe her eyes, however, the damage was in Monica’s veins and muscles. As if the attacker had used the blood to channel her powers.

There were very few maiden breeds that could do such a thing, and there being any one of them within the city was a grave sign.

“We need to call the knight captain.”

“No.”

Monica straightened herself, growling. “Monica help Rick.”

Dia narrowed her eyes, keeping her focus on the arteries that weren’t too far off from hemorrhaging. The damage was extensive but not critical. Still, Monica was in no condition to head up against someone as strong as her. She would die.

“Rick needs help.” She stated. “Captain Deneva will help.”

“Monica help.”

“Yes, Monica and Deneva.”

The feline growled, frowned, but remained quiet, eyes fixated on a spot in the distance as if she were looking through everything between herself and the horizon. “Rick need help. Now.”

Dia could sense it as well, the sensation of Rick being in danger. It gnawed at her, it burned inside her chest, it called and tugged at her bond like a string. It was an effort to not just stand up and start running straight in Rick’s direction. And, much to the nurse’s chagrin, Monica’s bond was stronger.

She had to be the responsible one.

Her healing poured into Monica, the powerful maiden’s body thrummed as it recovered, and Dia… hesitated. Was Monica really the best option to save Rick? Could she ensure he got out well or would she make the situation worse? She knew Monica might have the best of intentions, but she’d seen what those could mean.

The question burned inside Dia. She had a choice, she could disable Monica, right here and now before she left. Did she trust Monica was the best option? Should she stop her? Just one twitch, cut the signals moving down the spine, rendering her unable to move on her own for the next hour.

But Rick was in trouble. What could she do?

She looked at Monica, meeting the blue gaze and sighing.

“Fight.” She whispered. “I will find help.”

Maybe Monica understood, maybe not. The feline maiden just nodded, standing up. She was gone before Dia could even get back on her feet. The nurse’s thoughts turned to what lay ahead, to what she could do. She turned back to the house and found the travel bag, her the medicinal herbs and miscellaneous items were contained within. And it was clear she’d need them. She began to run towards the district entrance as fast as she could.

All around her the district was waking up, and panic was starting to rise. The scent of blood in the air was unmistakable even for Dia’s senses, and her sense of smell was laughable compared to most maidens out there. The screams did not take long to start, once she felt one of the houses crumbling down.

The sound of fighting had begun. The knights would lock down the district, she had to get out before that happened. She ran hard, many maidens were moving faster than her, however. The mist was dispersing, the maidens were moving. Every passing second had more maidens rushing to get out of the district before the fights broke out in full. Many of them were bringing their owners along. Dia could only guess that many more were locking themselves in their basements.

Normally, these situations were relatively calm. Maidens could stop maidens, human safety would be prioritized, the elders brought out of the district. Even feralborns had enough presence of mind to know not to start a fight near their humans.

But this felt different, there was fear, lots of it.

The guards at the gates were trying to calm down what was effectively a mob. The maidens were demanding to be let through first, faster. A loud banging sound shook the district and a second house fell. The hundreds of maidens at the gates started clamoring louder.

The scent of blood returned, it stuck to Dia’s throat.

Mist began to emerge from between the houses, howls and snarls and screams echoed across the air. Dia stepped back from the crowd near the gate as she felt the fear clawing at the back of her mind like a wild animal. It threatened to choke her in its intensity.

Someone near the gate screamed.

There was a flash of fire and another of lightning, more screams. Louder, another house collapsed. This time nearby, a maiden’s body rocketed across the street, falling against the cobblestone. There was no blood in the corpse, it was shriveled and dry, even with the maiden’s head detached from her body, not a drop stained the spot where the body had fallen on.

As one, the crowd held their breath, hundreds of eyes widening in terror.

Something shot from within the house. Something red and fast, so impossibly fast.

A maiden shrieked, clutching at her leg as the red spike had punched cleanly through.

It was a simultaneous realization. The crowd turned towards the gate and ran.

Any who stood in the crowd’s path would be crushed.

Dia was there with the other panicked maidens. They crossed through the gates even as more maidens fell to the bloody spears. The nurse’s mind screamed at her to run away even as the shadows of the night kept her half blind to her surroundings.

She just had barely enough of a presence of mind to angle her dead sprint towards the direction Rick had been taken. Monica or not, she had to get there and help as soon as she could.