Prompt: Mercy Killing

Characters: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, Saint Adeline

Summary: Lady Maria takes care of the patients in the Research Hall, but one patient has a particular bad fate...

"Oh, Lady Maria, how good to see you."

"Good morning, Frieda.", Maria said. Like every morning, she came to the research hall. Like every morning, Frieda was there to greet her.

"Have you seen my eyes? I seem to have dropped them... in a puddle.", Frieda said and like always, would start to search in a body of water. She long didn't had eyes anymore, her head a bloated mass of flesh.

It had happened to every patient in the research hall.

"I am afraid, I have not, Frieda.", Maria said. "I will help you search later, yes? After I made my round. How about you come with me for breakfast?"

"Oh, Lady Maria, is that a promise?", Frieda said. Her voice sounded cheerful, as if she was smiling, but there was no smile at her face. How could there be a smile, when she didn't possess a face anymore?

"Yes, it is.", Maria said. "Come. Let's check on the others."

Like every morning, Maria would make her round. Like every morning, Frieda would accompany her after she convinced her, that she would search for her eyes later. Like every morning, every patient in the Research Hall was delighted to see her. In fact, Maria was the only one who came to visit them outside of experiments and research.

Their families and friends didn't know. They all had been infected by the scourge. They had been brought in by the church in an attempt to cure them. The attempt had been to infuse all this poor people with an overload of arcane. They didn't turn into beasts, but instead... into that. Their body still human enough, their head a blobby mass of flesh and their mind in another plane of existence. It was pitiful. Laurence called them failures. Maria called them patients.

Nobody of them had deserved that fate.

Like every morning, Maria gathered more and more patients which she delivered to the room where they would take in their breakfast. A peculiar sight, because these people were missing mouths. The way they ate, it looked like they absorbed the food into their heads. It looked grotesque and it sounded even worse. Maria had gotten used to the sight over the last few weeks.

One patient wasn't with the others. There was one patient who was secluded from the others and Maria knew why. The woman with the name of Adeline had once been a blood saint. Even though she had been deformed beyond recognition, the church would still use her blood. Blood Saints were valuable.

Disgusting., Maria thought as she carried a tray to the room where Adeline was strapped on a chair. Once she had considered Laurence to be a friend. After seeing all the atrocities happening, atrocities she had been a part of, Maria was done with him. She had told him time and time again, that the blood may be dangerous, but he didn't want to listen. Instead of finding out, he tried another methods to stop the scourge. Methods that left people into a state he didn't had any other word for as "failure".

Maria knocked at the door, carefully balancing the tray. "Adeline, it's me, Maria.", she announced herself.

"Oh Lady Maria, come in, come in.", a delighted voice came from the other side of the door.

Maria stepped in and said: "I brought breakfast."

"Oh, did you bring some brain fluid? Murky, mushy brain fluid?", Adeline said that in a tone as if she had asked Maria if there was bacon with the eggs.

"No, it's something far better.", Maria smiled.

"Ah, well, I can still hear the sticky sound.", Adeline said and her head seemed to rise, as if her gaze was going to the ceiling.

"I might not have brain fluid.", Maria said. "But this morning there is some fresh yoghurt with your plate. That surely tastes better and sweeter."

Maria kneeled down and loosened the straps around her arms, so that she could eat. She scrunched her face a bit at the slurping sounds. As used as she got to them, hearing them that close was still making her feeling a bit nauseous.

Maria's gaze went down as Adeline was "eating", down at her arm, where there still was a needle sticking out. So that anyone could take her blood as they pleased. Not even that, Adeline would gladly give it to them. Every blood saint had been conditioned to happily give their blood away. Some of them were even still young girls, not older than twelve or thirteen. Maria could never understand how Laurence deemed it fine for them to work as blood saints.

This whole mess is at much your fault as it is his., the voice in Maria's head came to word. She sighed. She knew that, just... unless Laurence, Micolash and Gehrman, she actually tried to make up for her sins.

You are only taking care of the patients because of your guilt. It not for your guilt, you wouldn't care about them at all.

Maria bit on her lower lip until she tasted blood. The thoughts were back again, all the thoughts telling her just what a terrible person she was. This even started with her blood. A blood so vile that she swore to herself to never use.

"That was wonderful, Lady Maria.", Adeline said after the last piece of food had been "absorbed". "Next time, please bring me some brain fluid."

Maria stood up, but didn't leave right away. Instead, she spoke: "Adeline, are you happy?"

"What are you talking about, Lady Maria?", Adeline's blobby head bopped up and down, as if she was cocking her head.

"Are you happy... like this... being in here...", Maria said. How should she put it? She couldn't ask if Adeline was happy having a big mass of flesh for a head as well as being strapped on a chair, only used for her blood.

"Oh, Maria, I am happy as long as you visit me.", Adeline said. "I am happy as long as I can hear the sticky sound. If I wouldn't have been accepted in here, wouldn't I have been killed before becoming a beast?"

"...", Maria didn't answer right away, knowing that Adeline's fate would have been death otherwise. Though, she couldn't help but ask herself if maybe death would be a better fate for Adeline, who sat on the chair day in and day out, got her blood harvested and asked Maria for brain fluid every time she visited.

Maria reached into her pocket and felt a certain key. It was the key to the balcony. The patients normally weren't allowed there because they could fall or, and the church considered that the worse scenario, escape and be known to the public. Maybe she should...

No, the church ministers would be there soon. If she would unfasten Adeline's bindings so that she could leave, they would notice. It had to wait.

"We will see each other this evening, Adeline.", Maria said and left the room after fastening Adeline's arm back to the chair, hearing her say: "Aaah, the sticky sound. Drip Drop... Drip Drop..."

Maria closed the day behind her with a sigh. Well, it was time to take care of the other patients for now. During the day, Maria once again helped Frieda find her eyes, only for her to know that she would search for them again the next day, had to prevent Isaac from smashing his "head" against the wall and once again had to catch Tilda, who was under the delusion she was a robin and nearly jumped off the balcony.

Yes, all these people hadn't turned into beasts, but their minds were at a different place. A lot of them talked about water and dripping sounds. A topic that made Maria shudder as she felt the coldness creeping on her skin. It reminded her of the Hamlet and the atrocities she had committed there. Could it be that the patients somehow saw the events of the Hamlet in their delusions? But how?

Whatever, it wasn't Maria's job to find out, it was her job to make them feel better (to make herself feel better) and so she spent the whole day with the patients, talking with them, playing with them, taking care that they wouldn't hurt themselves and soon, evening had rolled and they all had met in the room where they would take in their dinner. Maria was taking a serving to Adeline. Guilt., she thought. The only reason why I still hang around here... Wouldn't it be... wouldn't it be better for them to be dead...?

No, how could she think about his. That was the same mindset that the Healing Church had. If someone was infected, instead of trying to cure them, kill them, get rid of them. However, the beasts were truly dangerous, she had seen time and time again. The patients in here... they weren't a threat. They were locked away anyway. There was no reason to get rid of them, but... were they happy? Being locked in here day in, day out, living in their delusions? When she wouldn't interfere, some of them would have already killed themselves. Maria started to ask herself, if they actually wanted it. That under their delusions, they still were there and they were begging her to be free.

Maria shook her head to get these thoughts out of her head. She had done enough killing. That part of her life was over. She knocked at the door and entered once Adeline called her in. Adeline sat on her chair like usual and greeted her. "Good evening, Lady Maria.", she said and then her head contracted a few times. "Ah, that smell, you must bring soup."

"It's good to see that you still have a taste for things other than brain fluid.", Maria said, kneeling down next to Adeline and unfastening her arms, so that she could eat on her own. Her gaze fell on the one that was used to draw blood of her, it was bruised and looked painful. Even with her accelerated healing as a Blood Saint, having so much of your blood taken every day, that started to take a toll.

"I had some brain fluid earlier.", Adeline said. "Murky, mushy brain fluid... But... Lady Maria, your soup tastes even sweeter."

Maria's gaze darkened a bit. Just what did the Church do? Which kind of experiments did they run on Adeline? She was there, strapped to a chair, having to give blood every day and then they even encouraged her delusions about the brain fluid... A much worse thought was, who even did they use to get brain fluid?

Maria suddenly felt nauseous.

As Adeline was eating, Maria felt into her pocket and closed her fingers around the key to the balcony. Once Adeline was done, she took the plate and pressed the key into Adeline's hands. "Here, take this.", Maria said.

"Oh, what is that?", Adeline said, dangling the key in front of her "face".

"Let's just say, it is a charm that can ease your mind.", Maria said. She then kneeled down again and unfastened the straps around Adeline's legs. The church ministers were gone for the day, it was just fair for Adeline to get out of this sticky room for once.

"Good night, Adeline. May the faint breeze give you comfort."

That night, Maria slept unwell. The memories of the Hamlet were deep. Her guilt was even deeper. Eventually she gave up and decided to clean her room. As she was busy, he found her Rakuyo in the corner. Why did she even hold onto that? She wasn't a Hunter anymore. She should get rid of it. Maria decided to take it her the next day and discard of it once she was done caring for the patients for the day.

She laid awake for the rest of the night, wallowing in her guilt, and got up once the sun shone through her window, no need to try and get some sleep anymore. She freshened herself up, got dressed, picked up the Rakuyo and went to the Research Hall like every morning, where Frieda searched for her eyes again and she personally brought her to the breakfast room before going to visit Adeline.

As soon as she entered the room, Adelina spoke: "Oh Lady Maria, Lady Maria. You shouldn't have untied me last night. The church doctors will get mad when they see. Can you help tie me to the chair again?"

"Adeline.", Maria said, slowly putting the tray she had carried on a dresser next to her. "Have you been here the whole night?"

"Where should I go, Lady Maria?", Adeline cocked her head. "I have everything I need here. Food. Your company. Brain fluid." The last words sounded joyous, too joyous for Maria's taste.

"I'll ask you again, Adeline. Are you truly happy like this?", Maria asked, her voice low.

"Lady Maria...", Adeline said and the joyous tone of her voice receded. "...I knew that the alternative would have been to turn... I... arranged myself with my fate."

Maria stared at Adeline in surprise. That had been true words for once, not the mad rambling that the patients normally did. Deep down in there, there was still her true self, a self that must have loathed what she became.

"It's fine, Adeline.", Maria said and her fingers slipped around the handle of her Rakuyo. "You don't have to suffer anymore."

It was over in a second. Maria's hand were shaking as she removed the blade from Adeline's chest, tears spilling out of her eyes. Blood gushed out of the wound as Adeline's body slumped over, limp and lifeless. It was over. Death was the better fate for her than being used as source of the blood for as long as she lived.

"Lady Maria?" Maria gasped as she heard the voice. Adeline's voice. But... that couldn't be! She had just taken her life! How could Adeline talk to her?

As Maria slowly looked down, she saw that the limp body of Adeline had started moving again. The wound on her chest was closing. Maria knew that blood saints had great healing abilities, but that was ridiculous. She had been a huntress. She knew that she hadn't missed any vital organs.

"Oh, Lady Maria, I have made a mess.", Adeline said. "My precious blood cannot be spilled. Please... please help me collect it, Lady Maria."

Maria stared at Adeline, the obvious blood stain on her gown and then at her Rakuyo, coated with the exact same blood. She suddenly started to feel sick.

"I... I need to go.", Maria murmured and rushed out of the Research Hall. What had she even been thinking? She had decided that Adeline's life hadn't been worthwhile, she had practically killed her and Adeline didn't even have any ill feelings for her.

These hands of Maria were never made to protect, they were made to destroy. She never should hold a weapon in her hands ever again.

As Maria travelled to her destination, there was one lingering thought in her mind. Adeline had come back to life. She had been dead, Maria was sure of it, but she had come back to life as if nothing ever had happened to here.

Where all the other patients in the Research Hall immortal too? If one day she wouldn't catch Tilda and they had to scrape their remains of the floor, would she just put herself together and get up and try fly again?

Did Laurence knew about that?

Whatever the answer was, Maria wouldn't get it. She never ever would raise her blade against one of the patients ever again. She would catch Tilda every time when she jumped. She was the only one who was there for them.

As Maria exited the carrier she had taken, she was standing in front of the Fishing Hamlet.

She swallowed down bile as she went into the village, the swallow water pooling in her boots. She remembered how she and Gehrman had been ordered to slaughter the villagers, bring the corpses back to Willem who had cut them open to search for eyes. How the both of them had cut a bloody path to the corpse of the Great One. How Laurence had used the confusion of the battle to harvest the blood of the the corpse.

If the Great Ones managed to exist after their death, there was no reason that particular one should ever forgive them for what they had done. And if Maria had a choice, she would want to act as its guardian, so that nobody would find the secret of the Hamlet ever again. Alas, that all was in the past and there was nothing Maria could change about it anymore.

She stopped in front of a well and tossed her Rakuyo inside, her face scrunched up in disgust. She would never hold a weapon ever again.

Once Maria heard a splash, she turned around without looking back. There were some patients who were waiting for her.

(Author's note: Hmm... that isn't actually my idea for canon, just a "what if" idea based on item descriptions, because I thought it was fitting the prompt pretty well.)