She looks so small on the floor, a blindfold tied around her head. When Alexius commands me to bind her, I can feel her trembling like a leaf beneath my hands. I steer her to the wooden table and ask her to lie back. I can feel the terror rolling from her body in great waves. I tie down her wrists and ankles, careful not to over-tighten. She does not need to be more uncomfortable than she already is. I convince myself this small gesture makes me a better person. It does not, but I push the thoughts away.
"Alexius, is this truly necessary?" I ask the magister, the man with whom I have been apprenticing for some time now. He smirks from across the room and booms out some egotistical, clichéd line about sacrifices and greatness.
"Prepare the body," Alexius commands. I look at the girl, tiny, shaking, naked on the table and my stomach turns. I was never one for blood magic or human sacrifice. Alexius knows that. I believe some sick, depraved part of him loves to watch me twitch, like a fly caught in a web.
"Then stand aside if you cannot stomach it."
I do not need telling again. I scuttle away, closing my eyes to what he is doing to the elf. I heard the dagger pull away from the sheath, see the flash of a spell behind my eyelids. The quiet snick of flesh being rent open nearly has me heaving.
"Bring forth the amulet," Alexius whispers through the haze of power.
I turn and open my eyes, grabbing the amulet from table before me before turning back.
She is split apart. Her arms. Her wrists. Her neck. Her face. She is all but disemboweled. Blood runs freely from her wounds as the paralytic spell Alexius surely placed over her renders her unable to even react to imminent death. I fight down the nausea that washes over me and hand over the amulet.
As she fades, Alexius raises the amulet over her. A flash of green, and Alexius is knocked backward as a swirling storm of emerald and ebony magic opens before us. Alexius looks gleeful, maniacal in his achievement. As he reaches out to touch the portal, it flashes again and vanishes in a shockwave of power, knocking us both off our feet.
I am the first to regain my footing. The amulet is on the floor, glimmering sinisterly, covered in her blood. I look to where she lay dying, only to see that she, too, has vanished.
I originally had this posted on my Tumblr for AO3 audiences, but since it's such a huge pain to post links here, I figured I'd just post the whole thing as an additional chapter.