Disclaimer: South isn't mine. :(
Author's Note: My apologies for the beginning of this chapter. I'm a very sick person, very sick. ALSO. THIS CHAPTER WAS SO FUCKING HARD TO WRITE. I don't know why. So, if it doesn't make sense, or well, kind of sucks to you guys, then that's why. And I'm sorry, but I have no idea when I'll be able to put out the next chapter. School's coming up in a few weeks and I'm freaking stressing out guys. You have no idea.
Chapter Twenty - Six : Heads & Tails
I clamped down on the sick, hurt feeling inside that threatened to make me burst into tears, forcing my eyes to dry.
Another pointless scream leaves my lips as the rusted metal knife was slid out from my abdomen and clanks down onto the table to my right, joining the other medieval surgical tools the man they called a Doctor had implemented for the previous procedures and tests he'd administrated on me just minutes before.
Clawed fingers are on my beaten face, smoothing my hair back, as his other hand ghosted across my stomach and trailed between my legs. Sharp, canine fingernails roughly caressed the skin of my inner thigh as the Doctor hovered over the chair, moving his hand further into my quaking body. I jerked my head back, teeth biting holes into my bottom lip to keep from screaming again from the violation between my legs. Behind his blood splattered surgical mask, his hollow, snake eyes glinted in a twisted joy that made my insides coil.
A throat clears.
The Doctor's movements freeze, reluctantly removing his hand and placing it to his side. My body stiffens against the cold metal chair, cringing as far away from that thing, before feeling a cold, wet tongue licking my cheek before he turns away from me.
My bloodshot, tear filled eyes fell upon my audience.
From my seat, which also had been blessed just as my previous chair within the dungeon, I looked into the eyes of each and every one of them. And even as the blood poured from the gash on my stomach, and into a small glass jar, I never looked away from the fourteen empty eyes staring back at me.
"The fourth and fifth tests are complete," the Doctor affirms, shuffling to stand crookedly to my left as he lowered his mask. A sharp nail jabs at the punctured flesh of my stomach that was already healing on its own. "The flesh is regenerative, healing almost instantly, you can barely see the scars left behind. She's quite a breathtaking magical being, if I do say so myself."
I growled at the sick smirk on his face as the muscles in my arms tightened angrily against the restraints around my wrists. I didn't know where I was, or what dimension I'd been sent to. I'd been chained inside this darkened, guarded room for hours barely dressed in only my undershirt and underwear, while that psychotic fuck treated me as a guinea pig. And them, they watched at the far end of the room. No words. Just watching.
"It's not m-magic," I barked, sputtering a mouthful of blood out at his feet. "It's my mother."
A man stands from the his seat centered in between the six other seated tribunal council members. His frozen, emerald green eyes pierced into mine in an unyielding gaze of hatred and rage, the veins in his throat and arms shooting out in response as he gripped the edge of the nearly ten foot table where they sat. He was younger than the other members sitting at his side, no older than his mid twenties. The younger man looked human, unlike his fellow members who I could sense were far from their counterpart. And ironically enough, he seemed to treated with superiority by them and everyone around him.
"Do tell," He demands, crossing his muscled arms across his massive chest.
My head lulls forward, the loss of blood making me lightheaded, as I glared towards the man through the waterfall of matted blonde hair covering my face. Apparently I'd taken the time to answer too leisurely because there's a boot pressing down roughly against the top of my right foot. I ground my teeth, toes curling against the broken pieces of glass covering the cold, brick stones underneath my feet.
The man's light blonde eyebrows rose, awaiting an answer.
"Before—Before she died," I croaked, lifting my head weakly. "She passed her immortality along to me."
His smooth face pinched together, patronizingly, as he moved around to sit against the edge of the other side of the table.
"Your mother died when you were a little girl," He says, his cold gaze burning into my face. "You look no older than twenty. How is this possible?"
"I do not know."
An older man at the end of the table stands to his feet, a growl bubbling in his throat as he demanded that I try. I bit back the pain my neck, and lifted my head back to look them all in the eyes. This council was known for rarely ever showing mercy unto their prisoners. If I was to win their favor, I needed to show every once of honesty in my features.
"My aging just slowed d-down after that," I continued, taking in a shaky breath. "Until one day, it all just...stopped."
"How many abilities," A woman snarls, beside the older man, "do you possess?"
"I do not know," I repeated for the second time.
Her scrutinizing, expressionless white eyes searching my face carefully, examining every detail of my expressions. When she hadn't found a reason to distrust my statement, I could tell that she was disappointed, yet content with her silence from now on.
"Ah, the absorberio galios," The younger man whispers then.
My body flinches at the name.
"That's what your people called you," He continued, eyes on the ceiling, as he thought it over. "It is said that you are...My apologies, you were the only pure blooded among them. Unique, powerful. A god really."
"I am nor god, nor demon," I muttered through swollen, half closed eyes.
Stiffening my jaw, I locked eyes with the seven beings sitting before me as they stared back at me. I knew what lay in each of their minds, that most of them wanted me dead long before the Doctor had started his tests. Though, as determined and stone-walled as their verdicts of me were, these seven people, these things, weren't naive enough to send an innocent person into oblivion if they hadn't deserved so.
"I regret to agree with her, Lord Adem," The Doctor murmurs, stepping from behind me. His voice was childish and weak, as though he was afraid to relay his scientific findings unto the Tribunal. "Her blood is proof to that fact. You see demons, their blood is tainted, and quite flammable. If anything, her blood bended the flames."
The younger man-who the Doctor had referred to as Lord Adem-clenched his fists angrily into tree trunk arms, digging into the veined flesh. When his green eyes hardened into mine, my lips twitched in satisfaction.
"You may not be a demon," Lord Adem murmurs, his dark voice cutting like a blade, and forced everyone to take notice. "But you are a murderer. And as such, you will be punished."
A silence falls upon the members, obeying the finality in their leaders voice. Lord Adem walks wordlessly back to his seat in the center of the group, and settles down.
"You are brought before this council today in trail for the slaughter of a reported eighty Tribunal soldiers in the past century," Lord Adem announces, leaning his hands under his chin against the table. "This is an unacceptable offense and rewards certain death."
But then there's an exasperated breath, and he's pinching the bridge of his nose as he thinks out loud to himself.
"But seeing as that sentence is near impossible to achieve, given your situation, the next option is captivity."
Before I could even register the possibility of being chained in that dungeon for the rest of my existence, the two large, iron double doors at the end of the darkened room bursts open. A ray of blinding light flitted into the room through the opening between the doors, my eyes fall onto an older woman as she glided effortlessly into the room. A long, white robe was draped over her delicate form, barely hinting the sparkling amulet laying on the older woman's whithered chest. My eyes focused as best as they could, noticing the significance of the amulet instantly. This woman was of royal stature, thus, seemingly overruling anything Lord Adem would sentence without protest from outside parties.
"Chaining her up like a dog, is that it?" She questions, her English accent seeping with formality and superiority.
"This is none of your concern," Lord Adem growls, clearly unnerved by the woman's presence. "I'll ask you to respectfully leave my chambers. Now."
"Your chambers?" Gray brows pulled together, dubiously. The crossed expression lingering on the elderly woman's face diminished then, blooming into a slight amusement. "Have you forgotten who I am, dear boy?"
The woman shakes her head, as if he was just some little boy, uncurling some of her pinned tresses of gray locks. She laughed then, the feathered shakiness of her tone cluing in on just how old the woman was.
"Of course I haven't, Chancellor," Lord Adem answered, through clenched teeth, pinching back any anger left in his features. He was superior to the rest of the Tribunal members, and she was superior to him. Therefore, he had must obey the commanding power of legislature.
"Then you must know that until there is not a breath more in my body, I am still head of this council's sentencing."
She moves closer, aligning herself with Lord Adem. I squinted through the film of tears still lingering in my eyes, seeing his lips press into a hard line as he glared venomously into the woman's withered, set expression.
"After all, it was your father that bestowed this upon me before he was murdered," She continues, poison dripping from her words. "Unlike him, I'm not that easy to get rid of."
A stillness heavies itself between the two of them then before a thunderous boom irrupts; Lord Adem lifts his bruised fists from tabletop beneath them.
"How dare you disrespect me in my own court," He seethes, nostrils flaring. "You leave this room now, or by god, once I am Chancellor, I will personally see to it that your body be tossed to the rats!"
The woman merely smiled towards the young man, her eerie demeanor unfazed by the vulgarity of his words. A small gloved hand reaches out from underneath her blinding robe, and she snaps her fingers once. Just as the clipped sound echoes through the air, Lord Adem's upper body is thrashed forward, face smothering against the tabletop by an invisible force. The moment is short lived when the woman lowers her hand, breaking whatever hold she had on the man's body as he snapped upright again.
"Have some manners before I cut out your tongue," She threatens, her intense eyes unyielding on the young man's fuming form.
Lord Adem, though very much enraged at that point, only smoothed out his jacket, begrudgingly settling back into his seat in a quiet defeat. The elderly woman nods discretely at the action before turning wordlessly around to meet my dejected eyes.
"Do you know why you are here?"
The obvious softness in her voice, comparing to the complete animosity she'd expressed with Lord Adem, had startled me into silence. I hadn't expected such compassion from one of them, especially from someone from such royal blood lines. The fact that she intentionally came down here and overtook another prospector's sentencing completely baffled me.
"Y-Yes," I breathed out, dipping my head down as best as I could manage.
It was a sign of respect, one that of which my parents had told me was pertinent when greeting other higher families. We didn't hesitate, no matter the situation, it was second nature. She raises an eyebrow, tilting her head at the action in puzzlement. I felt my body shudder involuntarily under her wise eyes, and I look back down to the floor.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" She asks, stepping closer.
"I was only protecting myself," I answered, shaking my head at the grueling memories of my past. "Those soldiers had n-never planned to take me into custody...there was too much blood in their minds. They were sent to kill me, that's all."
The woman nods, tapping her chin in thought. "Is that so?"
"I am not what you think I am," I told her, my voice practically pleading out to the strange woman. Desperation. "I'd still hadn't gotten use to the human emotion. "I'm good. I don't deserve this."
After the words leave my lips, my head lulls forward, until my bloody chin pressed against my collar bone in exhaustion. The abuse of the past few hours and terrible fatigue had taken its toll on my body, coiling my aching back against the cold metal. I promised myself that I'd do everything I could do to make them see, and what they've been doing to me for the countless hours I've been captive here had shown me that this wouldn't be possible. Odds are I would die in this place, I'd accepted that. That I probably wouldn't see my friends again, or Ashley and Sophie again...The much more present weaker part of me had accepted this too.
"With the powers bestowed upon you, it is quite inevitable," She counters, her voice even softer than before. "That is something we will not stand by. So, it seems as though we've got a decision to make with you."
The woman crosses her robed arms as she stared down at me, deep in thought. Behind her, Lord Adem is scowling into her back while the rest of the members' expressions are blank with dejection. I took in a deep breath, anxiously awaiting the announcement of my fate as the older woman weighted it within her grasp.
My eye clamped down, willing my heart ot stop beating in hopes of being dead before her horrible punishment was placed upon my head. But before I could even comprehend the action, the elderly woman is stepping towards her until she's standing in front of me. The soft pressure of fingertips are on my shoulder, and my body dips down numbly against the touch.
A forced breath leaves my lips as a wave of warmth, like sunlight, enveloped my entire body. I gasped then, my back arching against the chair, feeling something pricking and probing every sore and injured piece of my body. This was a feeling I'd recognized, one that I had experienced only once before in the forest after mine and Ashley's attack. This woman, this stranger, was healing me.
Just as I'd realized this, she's removing her hand from my shoulder, and the warmth leaves. I opened my eyes, registering that neither of which were swollen and bleeding anymore, and looked up into her kind, wise eyes for the first time.
"You will die, " She whispers, and I'm lost in her wistful expression. "But not today, my child."
Straightening myself up as best as I could against my restraints, I prepared myself for whatever she would say next. Even though, I was scared out of my mind. I've never felt so human. The woman folds her hands formally against the front of her robe, lifting her chin as her wrinkled lips parted to speak.
"You are to be stripped of your wings and immortality," She orders, loud and clear enough for everyone in the room to hear. "From this day forward, you will be human. No spell nor charm nor incantation can relieve you of this sentence. Do you understand this punishment as it has been given to you?"
My lip trembles as I nodded once, giving into a fresh batch of tears welling in my eyes. I couldn't even explain the emotions rising inside me after hearing those words. There was joy, complete and naive, that I wouldn't be killed like I'd expected. Though, there was a dominant presence of sadness that I still didn't know if I would ever see Ashley again.
Lord Adem jolts forward then, slamming his fists once again into the table's wooden surface.
"No, damn this, damn this!" He roared, every vein in his body pulsing. "I will not stand by while you do away with one of the most prized criminals of written history!"
"Yes, you will," The woman demands, eyes still boring intensely into mine. "Now sit down, or leave this room."
From my peripheral vision, I could see the younger man's chest heaving up and down, exhaling angrily. A long second of silence passes before there's a loud crash of splintering wood as his chair is being flung against the brick wall behind him. His booming footsteps echoed in the darkened room as he stalked towards the doors, slamming them open, and disappearing behind the other side.
"Anyone else who agrees with him can leave as well," She adds, shaking her head disapprovingly. When no one decided to leave seconds later, she continued on with her sentencing.
"Once you are stripped of your former life," She starts, leveling a grave glance into my alarmed eyes. "I cannot promise that your memories will carry over into this one. There's a grave chance you will not get them back any time soon, if at all. Do you understand?"
My heart sunk at those words, dreading the very possible fact that I wouldn't even remember my entire existence for the past century. I wouldn't even remember the girl I fell in love with. That was the blackest form of hell I could have ever imagined for myself. It was only when I my bloodshot eyes drifted absently, that I realized she was waiting for me to answer her. My head tilted down slowly, resembling some sort of nod in her direction as I crumbled inside. A whithered hand touches the pendant on her chest, the jewel it held glowing brightly in response. Inhaling the warm air around her, the woman closes her eyes.
"Very well."
R&R.