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.

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  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.