'So what do you suggest we do? Why can't you use your magic to get us out of here?' Robert internally voiced.
'Blood magic do not work like that, it's useless in battle. You need time to use it, preparation is key. In this case your healing magic would work better than my magic!' Jonas retorted, but he knew their situation wouldn't get better by arguing.
'If i still had my necklace then yeah, we could but it got destroyed.' Robert reluctantly thought, that was a gift from his wife on the day his kids were born, 'She did what?' Jonas asked in surprise.
'Yeah it started glowing really bright, and then it crumbled' he answered, as if it was obvious.
'Oh, anyway we have to get out of here we have about a week and a half, maybe two. The man riding behind the cage is the one with the key, just so you know in case you come up with some brilliant plan that doesn't involve her'.
'Alright, I get it, I just don't want to rely on Anna anymore. She..' he didn't finish, Jonas did for him 'It scares you what she can do' Jonas stated, and Robert could only nod, it was true, he knew the power from creatures like Anna. He had just never seen it up close before.
'As long as we have no plan, tell me about her, you should know right?' Robert off handedly thought.
'I do yeah.. Hmm what should I start with?' a pause following as he thought back.
'Yeah, I just don't get what kind of magic that can create something like her.' Robert announced, Jonas' attention was on the word something, and not someone. Robert was scared shitless and he thought he was in a cage with a timebomb. If Anna reacted with violence when she woke up it could only end in a bad way for them. Jonas had to calm him down so he could actually help when she woke up.
'Listen Rob, she's not that bad, she was actually a really bubbly character at first. When they didn't torture her every day that is. She would run around and tell stories, they were always detailed and focused on something good, sometimes a prince getting a kiss from a princess, or a champion who gets his wife back from an evil king. She was a ball of positive energy, even during physical training and the fights. She both won and lost, but she always checked on her opponent after a fight, making sure they were okay. They were friends and enemies at the same time. She was the one that held the group together as friends instead of mortal enemies. That was back when she was eight i think. And after the kids had learned fighting styles, tactical thoughtprocessing and basic knowledge of the world it all changed.' he took a moment to survey Roberts face, searching for any kind of emotional display. Nothing so far, just a man in thought.
'Well continue' Robert urged him on, desperate for some answers about all of this madness.
'On the day of the first session in the ritual room I understood how serious this project was. It was horrible, I was told to cut into a small girl. I don't remember ever getting shaky before cutting into anyone, you know with the blood magic and all. But I did, and we used her blood as our source of magic, the method we used was different from any blood magic I have ever seen. The headmaster, the old man, had derived a method of mixing enchanting and blood magic. We drained her of almost all her blood, performed the ritual on it, and put it back.. It was new, and exciting, but two of the kids died during a ritual session. Anna on the other hand was tough, she only showed positive progress during it all. Where others would crack and slowly lose their minds during the transition to full-blown hybrids, she never wavered. She took it and harnessed it like no one else did. But it did change her in the end, her positive energy faded, their friendships soon turned to animosity towards one another. And since she was the most succesful, they excluded her, what little possessions she had was taken by the other kids. She was shunted out of the group. She was essentially alone for three years, getting tortured every night, with no one to share the pain with. Until you came around' His tears started welling and he had to stop thinking for a moment, this also gave Robert some time to just, absorb the information.
A silence fell over the two, their temporary link allowed Robert to feel a slight hint of regret and sadness from Jonas. So he looked anywhere but at him or Anna. Instead he took in the scenery around him, it was lightly snowing, covering the hills and wooden landscape of Sasmain, the main part of the Southern Isles.
Well it wasn't so much Isles, the land was split into three large regions, in the west was Wesain pure plains, no real forests but good for agriculture and hunting but other than that there was nothing special about it. In the east, Escain, that was mostly marshes and wetlands, It was frequently hit with massive storms blowing in from the ocean to the east. Crops could with difficulty be maintained but they mostly rely on shipments from Wesain, their strength was in enchanting metals, making it possible for non magic people to fight against mages. Between these two regions was Sasmain, the capital of Westergaard was located here, they had strong military and a large navy, the land was mostly hills and small mountains, abundant in mines and woods. The three regions was split by two huge rivers that flowed from the Skymountain. The mountain that was said to be the gateway to heaven, the tip extending further than the skies.
Sasmain, the middle part of the south, had a nickname only known to those with magic in their blood, Hell. Prosecutions of those people had almost driven the south into a civil war, but the King came up with a system, a system that effectively made magic users slaves to the non-magic people. It wasn't actually the Kings idea, but his advisors idea. The advisor who originated from Escain, arguably the most powerful enchanter in the world, who had a hunger for power that rivaled the kings. He crafted potions, and spells, and trinkets, made to force a magic person to submit. And it was effective, too effective. Any magic user in the south was slaves after that, hybrids included.
Robert had been lucky to even be allowed to live with his family, the king had given him one condition, to help with a new project far in the northern part of the main region. A project he had just helped blow to pieces, and essentially stolen the projects most valuable possession, Anna. He barely had time to realise the consequences of his actions before Jonas started up again.
'The first time she killed one of the kids was the moment I knew she was the one to help me get revenge. The whole room could feel her emotions, anger, hatred and envy. But the most bloodcurdling of it all, she was smiling. After that I never saw Anna again, she started calling herself Athena in the presence of the mages. Fitting huh, calling herself after an ancient goddess. She turned into a force not to messed with, and she knew it. The kids knew it. We all knew it. And that is where the runes come into play, you have been trying to figure them out all this time. They are a control spell, similar to the enslaving done all over the country, but her power was too much for one person to control, that's why we were always four people in there. I intend to remove them, but I can't do it alone. You see now why I need you to be there for her? If she wakes up and sees my cloak and the cage she will lash out, we need her calm, her emotions should be positive, not negative. Now I'm not saying she will burst out the same force as she did back there, but just in case.' Jonas was growing desperate, the kid was starting to stir in her sleep, it wouldn't be long before she was in the land of the living again.
'I get it, believe me I do. But the things i felt, it was like she sucked out all my happiness and replaced it with fear and anger. I even saw the flames be drawn towards her, what the hell was that?' Robert never enjoyed having so little information, she was a wildcard, unpredictable.
'That.. I'm not sure of. But we are going to find out, she is the first one after all. We know about her powers but so far they never had any element, it was just raw magic. My best educated guess is that not having an element weaved into your magic makes it volatile, difficult to control and it apparently takes a huge toll on her. She wasn't even awake for more than a minute or two before she passed out. A normal hybrid wouldn't have spent their magic that fast... Well, until now she didn't have an element.' Jonas thought offhandedly, he kept glancing down at Anna and her hair. He could feel a difference in her magic, it was barely there right now but he felt it.
Robert took a couple of deep breaths and tried focusing his mind, time to be composed and calm, if what Jonas said was true Anna would pick up on this soon after she would wake up. Afraid of what she might do but determined not to die at the hands of a madman, Robert slowly shook her by the shoulders to get her out of her dreams.
"Anna... Anna... Anna please wake up." he said while gently shaking her.
Anna slowly opened her eyes, with a groan she put her hands up to her face and.. Wait.. Hand. 'Right that's a thing now' she thought and another groan escaped her throat. She wiped her face with her left and noticed her hand was black, she must be filthy as hell, a face full of soot and hair filled with grime. 'Shit, where the fuck am I' she thought as she shot up sitting with her back straight in the middle of the cage, she looked right, a hooded man, to her left, Robert. Around them a cage, and lots of guards, she was sitting with her back facing the way they travelled. Her first decision was to force them all to the ground and run, but as soon as she tried gathering her magic, her head felt like exploding. Before her eyes she saw flashing lights, and she fell back and closed them again, just lying on the warm wooden boards was nice. Why were they warm? She had been expecting cold, actually she was expecting freezing cold. But it was warm, and the hand on her left shoulder was burning.
"Can you move your hand away from my shoulder?" she asked softly, not wanting to move.
"Uhm, 'kay, sure" Robert retracted his hands, "I was just, you know, uhm, worried about you, I don't want you to get sick in this weather. I mean, you're still only in a thin gown and you're frigid cold."
"Are you sure? I feel fine.. Sort of. I don't know" Anna didn't actually know how to feel at the moment, so she lifted her right arm and just looked at it. The cut was incredibly well done, she couldn't have done it better herself, it was clean, about an inch below her elbow. The ice that covered it was a thin slice, maybe half an inch in height, the circumference was a tiny bit wider than her arm and wrapped up her arm in small vines, keeping it in place. As she stared at it she began feeling the cold in her veins, as if her blood itself had been frozen over, her skin looked paler than before and her breath didn't show in the cold.
"Am I going insane here?" she thought out loud, and that made Jonas chuckle.
"I thought the same thing when i saw you lying on the ground with a strong magic shield around you. You actually froze a man, it was kind of amazing." Jonas said in a way to chipper tone.
"Shut up! She don't need to know that! She just woke up and the first thing you tell her is that she killed yet another person?!" Robert had hushed his voice but it was loud enough for the guards around them to hear and they all looked at Anna who was now awake, most of them had seen her display of power. They all moved slightly farther away from the cage, and of course Anna noticed this.
Her tactical mind took over, she gathered her thoughts and pushed all the questions away, now thinking up a plan to get the fuck out of the cage. It suddenly reminded her of the restraints in that god forsaken room. She sat up on her knees and pressed her forehead to the bars, as close as she could to the few guards on the left side of the cage.
"Are you afraid of me?" she asked the closest guard with a smirk. The man in question didn't even turn to look at her, he simply ignored her.
"Good, you should be!" she snarled, "Don't worry as soon as i get out you'll be the first to die..." still nothing, "You saw what I did to the man who ran into the house right?" he flinched, good sign, "We don't want that to happen again do we?" he spurred his horse forward and up to the generals horse. He leaned in and whispered something to him.
"What about you, do you want to die?" she asked another one in a sweeter than candy voice.
"Just shut your trap before the general comes back here to shut it for you" he tried to sound macho, but it came out as a defiant kid.
"Yeah, you'd like that, I bet you get off on seeing little girls in pain." she laughed, sounding a little maniacal.
At this comment he rode a little closer, pulled his sword out and held it up against her chin, "A prisoner isn't allowed to speak, so do it again and you won't be able to talk ever again".
Anna could feel the blade slowly parting a small portion of her skin, the pain was meager compared to what she had been through, but this guy could be riled up, and she was starting to have a sick kind of fun, so she continued with her mental attacks, trying to get them all jittery. Their talking had gathered some attention. She let her tongue roll out and licked the blade lightly on the edge, carefully to not cut it.
"W-what are you doing girl!?" his bluster wavered a little.
"Hmm, I'm getting acquainted with the sword that is going to help me cut down every single one of you" her threat was clear and absolute to the guard who quickly pulled his sword back.
"Aww, weren't you gonna make me shut up?" she taunted, and this guard also took off to talk to the general. Her little act was a complete surprise to her current roommates. They had no idea where all this came from, but apparently she knew she was making them all a bit jumpy. And actually put it to use, even when she was beat up and fragile, her eyes didn't shine and she had nothing else to scare them with. Yet she was still not giving up, intent on never getting locked up again. If that happened now it would truly break her, she barely held it together as it was. So she kept up with her assault.
"How about you big guy, you can feel it can't you?" she asked the last of the guards on the left.
"Feel what?" he plainly asked back.
"Your end, it's approaching hastily.."
"Yeah, but it is so far away that it won't arrive in another 40 years." he laughed.
"What if I give it a push in the right direction?" again she smirked, threatening the guard as if she was in control of the whole situation. Which was far from true, she couldn't feel her magic yet, and without that she couldn't do anything. She was still a little kid in the end.
"Then do it short stuff, I don't believe you for a second. You're missing half you arm, you friend his leg, and that priest there is of no concern.. You can't do anything, if you could you wouldn't sit there making idle threats." he absentminded answered.
'Damnit' she thought, Anna hadn't used her training in the real world so the sudden resistance was foreign and her bravado crumbled quicker than it arrived,. She turned around and sat with her back to the bars, slumping in on herself, she was too exhausted to come up with snarky reply after snarky reply right now, she needed some power to truly frighten them all. The other two must have been newcomers, this guy was too comfortable when he talked to her. She had to come up with something different.
Jonas and Robert had been oddly quiet, Jonas took his thumb and swiped it across Anna's chin gathering some blood on the tip, she looked at him and he leaned in before asking her "How are you mentally?" in a whisper.
"I don't know. Why?" she whispered back.
"This way you can be in on our conversation, but your mental state has to be clear and strong, I don't want to link our minds if I risk becoming insane, I know what you've been through, I'd rather not live through your memories" he almost sounded apologetic.
"Yeah don't do that, I'm not really..." she abruptly stopped with widened eyes and as if she just now realised how messed up she was, she started softly crying. Her brave facade shattered and she just sat there, a young girl, never having been out in the world yet still doing whatever she could to be a part of it. And even as she felt a warm arm wrap around her she never looked up, she just sat with her legs pulled up to her chest, and her eyes buried into her knees. Leaning up against something warm was suddenly not so bad, not when the tears kept coming. For once she wasn't alone.
Internally Robert and Jonas had been discussing her act and which guards that had been most shaken up by it, a plan had slowly formed during it all and they were ready to set it in motion when they at some point had to stop. The travel to the kingdom would take a while, about two weeks Jonas had said. Considering the cage was heavy and they travelled at the speed of an old man walking leisurely on the beach, they would have to stop in about a few hours, half a day at most.
"Don't worry little one, we'll get out sooner than you know it" Robert, despite the cold on her skin, comforted the crying redhead as he pulled her closer, letting her get the salty tears out.
Alright, faster update than last time, just had to get this out, this chapter was mostly to get started with what the world looks like in my head.
I've also decided on Annas heritage, and the reader that made me consider it gets his will (You know who you are). So far I have a good idea of where this is headed, more on how magic is used for common tasks, which is something I'm excited about, doing the whole world building thing has alway been fascinating to me, so if I get into a rut of just explaining shit about the world let me know where i go wrong and what I should improve on :)
And lastly, if you have read this far and still feel like reading more then thank you it warms my face and heart, if you are at a point where you just don't want to read further and have lost interest, I would love to know why so I can avoid it in the future, after all this is just practice.
It's the perfect place to voice your opinion and help shape perhaps the next big writer. Not me, but in general I think you should let the writer know what you think, it helps them understand what makes the readers tick and how their words a being read, I always know where my stories are headed, so I might make a mistake of having a character act or react in a way they shouldn't because I know more than they do, so if that happens I'm sorry, not doing it intentionally :D
Love Mr. Turtle