Yo. What up readers, reviewers, and Jerry.

The holidays are here, and if the last chapter was any indication, I apparently need to make sure I get my editor a Christmas card, because he goes on vacation for a week and I released that particular-... Moving on. Turns out that A-1 went with the LN spelling for Tiese and Ronie after all, as opposed to the ones FFN was using, so that's awkward. I'll retroactively change past chapters to reflect the official spelling of Tiese and Ronie's names. Big chapter. Heavy chapter. Managed to keep everything rated T, somehow, if a very hard T. There's your warning for what you all now probably suspect is appearing this chapter. Enjoy!


Chains of Sorrow Chapter 12: Ronie


"They tied me down this gleaming cross,

For your eyes is all around,

Your strength is all I have to hold,

And the fire keeps my heart cold..."- Burning Cold, Eurielle


A single tree.

An ancient solitary tree, standing upon a barren hill, like a crucifix looming over a city of heretics, threatening all with it's oppressive presence. The ground below it seemed just as dim and lifeless, nothing more than a collection of ridges and crevices that almost promised a sprained ankle to any damn fool who casually wandered up it's slope without intent.

Even it's decrepit branches seemed to carry an air of animosity, strutting out like a thousand revolting, gangly tendrils reaching out to grasp at the heavens, eclipsed by the setting sun to resemble the claw of some great ghastly beast.

A great beast that Tiese strode towards without but a hint of hesitation.

"Sorry to drag you out here so suddenly." Tiese mumbled as she offered a helping hand up the latest ridge.

The violet haired girl shook her head as she accepted her companion's hand, "It's fine, I just-... I thought you wanted me to meet someone."

"I do. Unfortunately-..." Tiese seemed to hesitate for a moment, before shaking her head clear and continuing on towards the mammoth tree, "This is the only place we'll be able to speak to them."

Fine, Yuuki thought, she could accept that. But did the meeting spot have to be so...ominous?

Nothing about this place- not one single speck of dust- seemed to exude anything, save for a distinct sense of melancholy. It overwhelmed all else, as if some unseen force was determined to weigh heavy the heart of those it captured in it's dolorous grip.

"I should ask, before you meet her..." Tiese whispered as a hand shot out to block Yuuki's path, "Has Kazuto ever happened to mention his other slave to you?"

...What?

"Other slave?" The words seemed to rip the very air right from her lungs, "B-but I thought-..."

"That you were Kazuto's first slave? No. No, not at all." Tiese's arm dropped to clasp Yuuki's hand in her own, gingerly leading her forward towards the great trunk of the tree, before finally drawing to a halt just feet from the lumbering monolith, "He doesn't have to be the one to tell you, but you have a right to know about-..."

"Tiese? What's going on?..."

"Maybe it's better if I just show you..."

It was only a few feet away; their final destination. Yet still, once that destination behind the lumbering trunk came into view, Yuuki silently found herself wishing that it had been miles, rather than meters.

There, in the gentle afternoon light, a single headstone lay, it's fine marble structure so stark a contrast to the decrepit old tree towering over it.

"Hey there, Ronie... Sorry I haven't visited in a while..." Tiese's voice was measured and her countenance neutral; yet the undercurrent of pain was hardly something to be ignored, "Uh, I-... I brought someone with me today..."

Ronie. The name inscribed on the tombstone. A fallen soul, doomed to forever languish in lone solace atop this hill; a hill that, Yuuki was beginning to realize, held little more than it's cluster of long banished memories.

"Uh," Yuuki found herself hesitating as she gazed down at the stone, until she eventually summoned the will to offer a small bow to the headstone, "Pleased to meet you."

Tiese let out an amused huff, "I appreciate it, but there's no need to force yourself to act along on my account. We see enough acting on Kazuto's part as is."

Yuuki stepped back with a nod, watching silently as Tiese plodded over to the gravestone.

"He's always given us some half-assed excuse of sunk cost fallacy," She clarified, running her fingers against the shoulder-height marble, "That he didn't want to spend the money on a new slave if they'd just-..."

Her finger drifted from the smooth stone, slowly arching up like the hand of a clock reaching for the midnight hour.

Until, eventually, it stopped.

"We all knew it was a lie."

"Tiese?... What is that?..."

She wasn't entirely sure why she'd even opened her mouth. Perhaps she just felt the need to taste the words on her own tongue, as if to prove they weren't just some bitter bilious lie, or perhaps it was just to distract herself from her heart threatening to burst from her chest as she beheld the sight laying before her.

There, upon the thickest bough of the tree, a single length of rope hung, carefully tied into an all too familiar shape. A shape that so many a slave had seen approach them like a lion's maw closing around its victim.

The shape of a hangman's noose.

"Do you understand why I wanted you to see this, now?..." Tiese's voice was like a bucket of ice water, ripping Yuuki back to reality, "Kazuto is a slave to his own bondage, just as much as the two of us. But his chains aren't made of rusted steel or rope-..."

...If you'd been on that ledge, would you've jumped too?...

"His are made of sorrow." Yuuki finished, her vision blurring as she forced herself to rip her gaze from the old, beaten rope.

"I guess I owe you that explanation..." Tiese mumbled, slumping against the grave as she steadied her voice, "Ronie and I were birthday gifts. When Kazuto and Eugeo turned 16, we were given to them as 'companions'."

Yuuki knew that term all too well. It was a dreaded term to any female slave. Call it what you wanted. Companion, handmaiden, courtesan-... It all meant the same thing.

"Ironically, instead of-... Of that, they ended up actually treating us like real companions. Real friends. They even ended up bringing us to the Eternal City so that we could accompany them throughout their training to become swordsmen."

Yuuki's eyes shot wide as she joined Tiese against the marble headstone, "You got to see the?!-..."

"See it? We were allowed to stay there with them. It was a dream come true for us. Staying in the Eternal City with the kindest masters fate could have possibly blessed us with..." Tiese's voice fell low, weakening as her resolve seemed to waver, "Everything seemed so perfect... Until that night... Until Raios and Humbert-..."


She could still remember it; the sound of splintering wood echoing through the room like a thunderbolt as a blur of black and blonde rushed into the room. She remember their faces alight with rage as they took in the gut-twisting sight that lay before them.

And she remembered Eugeo whispering her name, in disbelieving horror, as he gazed down at her, pinned under a grey haired young man's comparatively massive form.

"Kazuto! Eugeo! Just in time! It's been 3 hours, Humbert and I were worried you wouldn't come!"

It was Raios that had opened his contemptible mouth. The one that had taken she and Ronie only hours before, bound them in their sleep before dragging them away to this hellish place.

Eugeo, however, seemed unconcerned with the snake's venous words. His attention remained solely locked upon her expressionless, tear-stained face.

"Eu-... Geo?.."

He had immediately snapped at the moment, leaping at Humbert with the ferocity of an enraged tiger, catching the man in a headlock before throwing both he and her rapist to the hard, unforgiving floor.

Humbert, though, only laughed as the two struggled, even as profanities spewed from Eugeo's mouth like a fountain.

"What?! What's wrong, Blondie?! It's only a slave! Don't tell me you-..."

Any further bile that may have flown from his maw was swiftly muted as Eugeo's fist slammed against his jaw, sending a stream of blood and spit careening across the floor like a fountain, sending a wave of satisfaction through Tiese as she lay there, the same emotionless stare plastered upon her features.

That victory- that little shred of satisfaction- lasted only a moment however, as Humbert's free arm suddenly seized a small lamp, as the other held Eugeo's head in place.

It was an agonizingly slow few moments. Moments that seemed to last eternally. Tiese couldn't bear to look away though-...

Even as the bastard sent the point of the lamp into Eugeo's eye with a sickening squelch.

Screaming. The shrieks of an mortally wounded animal echoed throughout the room, nearly shattering her eardrums, and her heart along with them.

But as he screamed, even as blood ran down his face like a burst water pipe, Eugeo fought through the agony long enough to rip his photon blade from his belt, pressing it against Humbert's forehead.

Only to have it casually struck from his hand by the older Swordsman.

It was a primal struggle from then on in, just two beasts wrestling for dominance over the other. A duel to the death.

A duel Humbert was winning.

His eyes, his psychotically manic eyes, flashed with glee as his hands wrapped around Eugeo's throat, crushing the young man's windpipe with ease as the life ebbed away from him.

"Just a few more seconds, Blondie! Just a few more seconds and you'll be dead! Just a little longer and I'll have it all to my-..."

That was all.

Those were the last words that passed through his chapped, bloody lips before the blazing blue blade of Eugeo's photon sword burst out of the front of his mouth like a lance driven through, felling the monster in but an instant.

And Eugeo, who'd been gazing upon the cold vast nothingness of death only moments before, could only stare up in amazement as Tiese smiled down at him, tears running down her bruised and battered face as she let the hilt in her hand fall to the floor with a thud.

"Humbert!"

Raios' cry was drowned out with a flurry of hearts slamming against throats as the auburn haired man suddenly leapt atop the bed, scrambling to seize the girl before she could even think to leap away to safety.

Only instead to be met with a blur of brown hair encompassing his vision as his arms found themselves locked around a very different catch.

"RONIE!"

Tiese's voice cracked as she watched with wild eyes as Raios roughly yanked her to the far end of the room, using the girl as an impromptu shield as his free hand reached for his photon blade, which he rested against Ronie's neck; ready to fell the girl at a moment's notice.

Kazuto, meanwhile, followed only steps behind, stopping for only a moment to scoop Eugeo's saber from the ground as Tiese watched his shoulders shake in rage.

"Let her GO!"

"Oh, sure. I'll let 'it' go; just as soon as you and your little blonde friend shove-..."

His quip was cut short, replaced by an agonized scream as Ronie's teeth sunk painfully into the crook of his elbow, coaxing blood to the surface as she dug her teeth into the man's flesh with all the determination she could muster.

But even all that determination, that burst of strength she found within herself, paled in comparison to her captors overwhelming brute strength; each ounce of which was used to throw her against the cold metal ground with enough force to make even Tiese cringe in pain.

Yet Ronie herself seemed undeterred, only gazing up to her Master with a soft, gentle smile.

"Kazuto, I-..."

Tiese never saw it happen.

She couldn't bear to watch it; to watch as Raios's photon sword ripped through her best friend's throat, or Kazuto's cry of abject horror as her last words were cast into the abyss, along with her soul, never to see the light of day ever again.

"Yeah, that's right..." The auburn haired snake gasped as he held his still bleeding arm, "Not so tough now, eh?..."

Kazuto's grip on Eugeo's photon sword very nearly failed as his entire body quaked manically, as if somehow rejecting the very reality placed before it.

"Oh, don't tell me you're actually that torn up about all of this," Raios' mocking tone felt like a knife against Kazuto's heart, ebbing away what little life remained within it with its unforgiving serrations that tore away at him mercilessly, "Your little Ronie was nothing more than a slave! It was property! Nothing else."

Kazuto wordlessly unhinged his own photon sword with his free hand, tears flowing freely as he stared down at Ronie's smiling face.

The face of a girl at peace.

"Just get a new one if it's such a big loss." Raios paused for an agonizingly long moment before a smirk flashed across his features, "Who knows... Maybe that one won't die on you."

The room was suddenly overwhelmed in a brilliant flash of blue and black as the ever menacing hum of photon blades permeated the air like a siren's call as their wielder wordlessly held them aloft.

Raios, meanwhile, readied his own saber with a sadistic chuckle, waving it's tip tauntingly across Ronie's corpse, charring her clothing as he spat out the words that Tiese was sure she would have ingrained within her mind for the rest of her days.

"...You just don't get it yet, do'ya? It's just the way the world is."

That was it. That was the tipping point.

With a cry that rivaled a banshee's wail, Kazuto rushed Raios, dragging the twin blades across the ground in a beautiful arc of burning metal as the ground behind him ignited behind him in a shower of sparks.

In that instant, Tiese saw him, through the sparks, dust, and flashing plasma.

A young boy, lashing out at the unfairness of the world. A heartbroken man, his lover lost to a sadist's cruel hand. A fierce warrior, striking out at his foe with reckless abandon. The manifestation of the rage that they all shared within their hearts.

The Black Swordsman...


"...I don't remember much of what happened after that. I think-... I think I fainted when I tried to stand up." Tiese shook her head as she clenched her eyes shut, "All I know is that I woke up in a hospital almost 3 days later with news that Raios, Humbert, and-... And Ronie, were all dead..."

Yuuki clutched at her coat as a bone chilling shiver shooting up her spine. It all made sense now; why Kazuto held such distaste, such hatred, for slavery.

"For the next few days I was a husk. I didn't want to eat, or even speak. Even when they gave me birth control for the incident, it was like trying to swallow bricks. All I wanted to do was sleep. I just wanted to fall asleep and never wake up again." Tiese sighed; looking not all that far off from that very same sentiment at the moment, "I mean, I'd just lost it all. I lost my best friend in an instant; she thrown away her life in exchange for mine..."

Yuuki felt herself slump. She could certainly relate.

"I lost my first time to some vulgar monster who used me like an animal..." The red haired girl shuddered as the words flowed out of her lips like a bitter poison, "And my Master, the one person I truly loved in the world-... He had to be put through seeing me like that..."

A long moment passed as she seemed to collect herself, if only just a little.

"I was having constant panic attacks, and I attempted suicide twice with a scalpel while I was still in bed, so the nurses were forced to keep me sedated pretty much constantly. Unfortunately on the third night, the nurses ran out of ketamine, and so of course I woke up. Did so much screaming that night that I lost my voice for a week. No one knew what to do-... Except Eugeo..." Yuuki could practically feel the radiant warmth that beamed from Tiese as her Master's name passed her lips, "He crawled right into bed with me, held me until I stopped screaming, and told me that he wouldn't leave until he saw me smile."

"So, did he?"

"Mhmm... I honestly thought he was exaggerating at first. But nope..." She seemed almost amused for but a fleeting moment, "An hour went by, then a day, and then a week... He only ever left the bed to use the bathroom or to help the hospital staff change my IV drip."

"What about Kazuto? What was he?-..."

"Actually, believe it or not, Kazuto actually was helping him with his little scheme, despite what he was going through after losing Ronie. Brought he and I food every day. Eugeo was pretty determined; no matter what I did he refused to leave until he saw me smile again..." Tiese explained, dragging her finger across the barren soil, "Eventually I gave him a pathetic excuse of a smile so he'd finally go with Kazuto and report to a medical wing for a full eye assessment."

"And?..." Yuuki'd seen his eyepatch. She was no fool. She already knew exactly what she would say.

"He'd been partially blinded in one eye. The candlestick holder had burst open his retina. All-..." Tiese shuddered once again, "All because of me.."

Yuuki could only offer a sympathetic nod. She knew exactly how that felt. To be helpless. To feel helpless.

It was how she'd felt nearly every day before Kazuto had come along, after all.

"But-..." The red haired girl continued, "Even after the doctors told him about his partial blindness, he came right back with a smile on his face and honey-pies in his hands. My Master had just learned he was blind in one eye, and all he cared about was whether I'd had some stupid panic attack while he was gone..."

"Did you?..."

"Did I what?"

"Have a panic attack."

"Ooh, yeah. Yeah, I had one." Tiese confirmed as she brought her knees up to her chest, "There was no way I wouldn't-... And I think Eugeo knew it... Honestly, I think that panic attack was the worst one. I couldn't stop thinking of 'his' face. I still can't get it out of my head... It was like I was being held down again while he-..."

A quick shake of the head was all she could do to cast away those memories once more.

"None of the nurses ever heard me. My voice was so damaged I couldn't even scream, so they never even thought to check on me. Eugeo knew instantly, though. Like I said, I think he was ready for it. The second he was through the door the food was left on the table and he was back in bed with me, holding me while I sobbed. And then, while I was crying, he said something I'll never forget... He said-... He said when he saw me under Raios, he realized just how much he couldn't stand to see me in pain. How much he wanted to protect me!..." Her voice quivered as she seemed to lose composure for but a moment, "He told me it was over, and that Raios wouldn't be hurting me anymore, because 'I've got you now'..."

...I've got you now...

"When he told me that-... Well..." Tiese reached back, gently laying her hand upon the grave she leaned against, "That was the first time I truly smiled in weeks... After that night, things started to get better-... Slowly. And I do mean slowly... I was like you when you first arrived at Kazuto's. I hadn't eaten in over a week by the time he brought me that honey pie, so it came right back up." Tiese gave an embarrassed sigh as the event clearly replayed in her mind's eye, "Alllll over his lap..."

"Yeah-... I guess we have some common ground there." Yuuki chuckled.

"But he just shrugged it off. He couldn't have cared less I'd just gone'n barfed all over him. He just kept on saying the exact same thing... 'I've got you now'..."

Tiese gazed up towards the afternoon horizon, that same reverent glow about her as the darkest phase recollection seemed to fade away into the aether.

"I was in the hospital for another few days before I was discharged. But when I was, I came home to a completely different-... A completely different everything."

"Wasn't your home?-..."

"Back in Aincrad City? No. No, this is my home. The moment I was discharged, we moved out here. I haven't even seen the city since that day." Tiese explained, "That was a little over 2 years ago, now. At first he was just doing all he could to be supportive; to help me live life like we used to... But eventually, small smiles became laughter, friendly hugs became kisses on the cheek, and before I knew it, one night-..."

And in that moment, as the memory seemed to flood back against her, stronger than any memory before it, the dam finally broke; the red haired girl left to weep openly as she struggled to force the last few words from between her lips.

"He just-... He told me he loved me!... Me! He could've had anyone, but he chose me; his slave. And I-... Even after everything that Humbert-... He chose me... But Kazuto-... Kazuto has no one right now."

Yuuki tilted her head in confusion as she watched a smile, a truly happy smile, flash across Tiese's face.

"Or, rather, he had no one. Eugeo and I can't be there all the time; not like he needs us to be," The violet haired girl felt a hand against her shoulder, gently squeezing it in reassurance, "I know it seems insane, unthinkable for someone who's come from-... From a life like the one you had but, please-..."

Yuuki barely found the strength to nod, "I will."

"Good... Come on. I think it's going to start raining soon. Let's head back..."


That had been the end of their little nature hike.

The moment she and her new companion had returned home they had been greeted with warm grins that had been followed by even warmer baths, along with instruction to get a good night's sleep.

Right. Sleep.

How in the world was she expected to catch even a wink of sleep after learning all that she had today?

Ronie. The name of the girl who had come before her; come and gone, locked forever within her tomb of earth. The reason that Yuuki was the only thrall to the Swordsman in black.

It certainly explained Kazuto's aversion to the very idea of slavery. After all, why buy into a system that had very clearly robbed him of one of the only true relationships he'd ever held in his life? Which only begged the question; the question that niggled in Yuuki's head like a termite burrowing into wood.

Why her?

Why break that self-made promise for her? Slaves were an investment, even if you only intended to claim ownership over one for a short while. It wasn't a casual move for most, so for him to break that pact was more than monumental.

And that old noose; the rope that hung just above Ronie's grave like some dark predator waiting to strike.

It sickened her.

Even as Yuuki lay there, gazing down at the object within her grasp, the image of that damned rope haunted her mind's eye, sending waves of nausea through her like a lance to the gut.

To think Kazuto had once attempted to-...

"Yuuki?"

It was Tiese; at least judging by the locks of red hair that flowed faintly in the dim ray of light that flowed into the guest bedroom like a river.

"Just checking in... You asleep?"

Yuuki felt her hand clench around the cold metallic object in her clutches with such fervor she was sure her knuckles were bleaching.

No, she couldn't let anyone know; not yet. Not until she did what she had to do. Not until the horrifying risk she'd taken had seen it's payoff.

And so she remained still, as still as the dead, waiting with her heart held securely in her throat, until the nearly inaudible sound of her bedroom door clicking shut rang against her eardrums.

Good. She was gone.

Now came the hard part.


"Tiese, I need'ja to be honest with me."

The girl in question, who'd been immersed in her cup of tea as she leaned against Eugeo's side, sent a sparing glance to the black haired Swordsman, "Hmm?"

"Yuuki hasn't looked at me in the eye once since the two of you got back." Kazuto explained as his own gaze drifted down to his lukewarm drink resting stagnant before him on the kitchen table, "What happened?"

"From what you've been telling me, she's had a problem looking people in the eye since day one." Eugeo pointed out, popping a bit of buttered bread into his mouth.

Tiese, meanwhile, merely continued to sip her tea; suddenly finding great interest in gazing down the bottom of the mug.

"Why is it suddenly an issue?" The blonde haired young man persisted, his free hand running along the small of his companion's back, "I mean, maybe she's just tired. She did have a pretty long day after-... Hey, are you even listening, Kazuto?"

"I saw her eyeing it when I was fixing her bandages," Kazuto mumbled, the anger in his voice bubbling just under the seemingly calm surface, hazily dragging himself to his feet as he bit his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, "But I didn't think she'd actually pull something like this..."

"Pull something like 'what'?"

Kazuto merely pointed back to his desk, "Notice anything?"

With Kazuto's inquiry, Eugeo's confusion only seemed to intensify. What on earth was his friend even on about? Nothing; not one thing was out of place, at least from what he could see.

The black haired Swordsman's communicator sat untouched, a light coating of dust from resting for nearly a full day. His coat- the very one Yuuki had strolled up to the house, wrapped in like a cocoon- hung on its hook, as stagnant as the communicator.

Even his photon sword sat unmoving, just where he had-...

...

"Oh my God..."

"Tiese!" Kazuto's authoritative bark caught even Eugeo off guard, sending his remaining bit of bread into his tea with a pathetic splash, "Where's Yuuki?!"

Tiese refused to meet either man's gaze as she finally rose to her feet, a steeled expression etched across her face.

"...Setting you free."


There we go! For those that read the entire chapter, spot the little reference to Chapter 4 I threw in! Next update probably won't be out until after Christmas. As I said last chapter, things get crazy around the holidays, and I don't want to half-ass a chapter (again), so I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season, and an even more fantastic New Years!