Leinas knew that to look upon her from a distance, one would see only a royal guard. One of the four Imperial Knights charged with guarding the Emperor of the Baharuth Empire. Perhaps they would see a beautiful woman with her toned physique, long blond hair that fell over the right side of her face and green eyes. Perhaps they would be enchanted by her 'beautiful' face. Or at least the portion that they could see anyways. For what was visible was indeed beautiful, but that was only because she allowed it to be seen. The other half she made sure to hide away. The other half was her shame and reason for current predicament.
The water from the brook babbled peacefully as it fed into the lake that Leinas was crouched beside, the call of birds sounding faintly in the distance. Yet whereas Leinas used to come here to find peace and quiet in her own personal sanctuary and place of safety. Now, she merely came here to torture herself.
Her reflection stared back at her from the water, mocking her with the image of a beautiful woman. Of a strong woman, one of honour and courage. A warrior maiden who was as gifted with the blade as she had been with her beauty and intellect. A lady of noble birth and fine breeding. A lady who had been taught by the best tutors and fencing masters in all the Empire, as was only to be expected for someone of her family name. A name that she refused to even utter aloud now since it had been stripped from her.
The image looking back at her bared her teeth in a snarl. The image was a lie. She had no honour or courage. She fought only for herself and a chance to have her curse lifted. Guarded the Emperor only so long as the benefit remained decisively in her favour and knew that she would leave him to die in an instant if it meant that she could live. All she had left in this world was her life and so she guarded it with all the ferocity that she had left in her. She vowed that she would not die until those who had wronged her were made to pay.
Her family had been so proud when she had chosen the path of the warrior. Praised her, and oh how they had bragged as her martial exploits had grown. She remembered all of that all too well, and how at one time all she had wanted was to keep seeing those looks of approval, of pride on the faces of those she had loved. And whom she had assumed had loved her as well. How her dear Alphonse had called her his beautiful Valkyrie. Oh how she had blushed when her fiancee had called her that and proceeded to pepper her with quick nips and kisses that had made her giggle like a school girl.
Then the 'accident' happened. It had started off much the same as any other day when her family lands were threatened by monsters. She had led a party of household guards with her in her hunt and had found the beasts easily enough. Ugly, dreadful things that died easily enough, or at least as easily as monsters were able to die. Another feather in her cap and another victory to her name, but she had rejoiced too early.
One of the beasts was not quite dead, and in its death throes had launched a vile mucous like substance that had struck her in the face. It had burned like acid and she remembered the feeling. Remembered feeling her face blister and bubble at the touch of it. How she had been bedridden and feverish for days afterwards.
The damage had been grievous, but she had been told that it would pass, that it could be healed. With her family's wealth and influence, it would be a simple thing to see it cured. Yet it hadn't been.
It had been no simple wound, it was a cursed one. Salve after stinking salve had been applied to her face to no result and all healing magic ever did was give her a moment. A single fleeting moment of her face whole and well again, before it reverted back to how it had been. How it always was now.
Her loving fiancee had abandoned her when she had needed him most, broken off their engagement for another girl, one without her new disfigurement. Her friends had disowned her, not wanting to be associated with a freak while they mingled with the Baharuthian nobility where a simple button out of place could be seen as a scandal to be talked about for weeks. Abandoned by her friends and lover, she had felt to be worthless. No longer even a maiden as she had surrendered her virginity to her fiancee before their wedding, so in love had she been. So sure of their future that she had opened her heart and her legs for him, making her unsuitable for marriage to many suitors from noble families of the old stock. At her lowest filled with self pity, hate, and loathing she had believed that she could still rely on her parents. That she could bury her head into her mother's dress, or father's chest as she had done when she had been a child. That they would be there for her. How wrong she had been.
They had cast her out. Stripped her of their family name, for the disfigurement that she now bore was one that was leading to her noble family to be openly mocked and ridiculed. That her curse was not just a blight upon her face, but upon the family honour. As she had walked away from her family manor carrying all she possessed in the world, she had been tempted to kill herself. To end her humiliation and shame right then and there. But she didn't. Found that she couldn't.
Her life was the one thing that she had which was truly hers. Something that nobody could ever take away from her so long as she had the strength to keep it. Not a lying lover, not heartless parents, not fake friends, no one. Her strength had not abandoned her and so long as it remained she would do more than survive, she would thrive. She would cure her curse, regain her standing and wealth, then finally she would visit bloody vengeance upon all those who had wronged her. But first, she liked to torture herself with what she had lost.
She reached up with her left hand and pulled back her hair, grimacing at how some pus had leaked through the sodden linen bandages and onto her hair. Even now the smell of the pus was as atrocious to her as it had been when it had first appeared. Thick, vile, and green, it flowed ever more from the pustules and fissures that the curse caused to not only form, but flourish on her face.
As the sodden, stinking bandages fell from her face, Leinas traced every line, every fissure, every weeping boil and pus filled pimple ripe to bursting that lined the right side of her face. The skin not at all like the marble perfection of the left side, but like cracked clay the colour of old leather. The skin and flesh turning black from necrosis, but never truly dying. In the center of it it all, nearly hidden by the puffy, weeping, twisted mass of diseased flesh that had been her face was a solitary emerald green eye. Peering out of the ruin of her face surrounding it. It looked how she felt. Trapped by the curse, tired, begging to escape from it.
Carefully, Leinas washed her hair and face in the water, scrubbing roughly at the rotten side of her face with a cloth, breaking pimples and pustules with wet squelches and terrible pain, but all she did was grimace as the mixture of stinking fluids were scrubbed away into the water, leaving open, angry wounds in their wake.
Satisfied that her hair was clean enough so as to not soil the rest, she pulled it back away from her face and set a crystal mirror at her side, uncorking a large blue health potion as she did so. Laying down on her back, she picked up the mirror to gaze upon herself, while with the other she picked up the potion and began dousing the right side of her face with it.
Slowly, as the healing potion did its work, Leinas watched with the same hope as always as the necrotic flesh retreated. Leaving ivory pale skin in its place, unblemished and flawless. The mountainous ridges of pimples and pustules, the craters of open wounds all mended like water returning to form. How her eye went from being bloodshot to a bright green emerald in an ocean of perfect white.
She set down the potion and with an ungloved hand, she traced her fingers over her face tenderly. Praying, silently begging that this time it would work. That this time it would last. Then, as always, the ivory white of her skin began to blacken, so she poured more of the potion on it, banishing it away again, if only a matter of moments. She continued like this until the container was empty.
When she saw pustules begin forming again on her face and watched watched helplessly as the skin began to blacken again, she set down her mirror, unwilling to watch her face reach the zenith of its destruction that was rapidly approaching.
"Excuse me, Ma'am?"
By force of habit, Leinas turned to looked at the person who had addressed her and locked eyes with him. Realizing in an instant that he could see the ruin that was her face, unobstructed.
She held up a hand to cover the right side of her face, whipping her head away so the man couldn't see the grotesqueness of it. She felt her rage well up, fiery and hot inside of her at this intrusion, at this violation of her privacy in what was supposed to be a moment for her only.
"Pray leave now, before your life is cut as short as your manners appear to be," snarled Leinas, holding her spear towards the man, while keeping the other in front of her face.
"I meant no harm or disrespect," said the man softly, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. He was wearing cheap, drab coloured travelling clothes with a pack on his back with an attached sleeping role. The hood raised, perhaps to protect against the fierceness of the sun."I was merely hoping to ask for directions."
"And where pray tell to do wish to find?" demanded Leinas.
"Well, that's just it," said the man sounding embarrassed. "I don't know where I am."
"You," began Leinas, face twisting into a snarl despite her best efforts, always trying to keep her face neutral or else risk rupturing pustules as was happening now with sickening squelches. "You expect me to believe that? Truly?!" Is that what you expect me to believe is your reasoning for approaching me? At the Capital of the Baharuth Empire and you don't know where you are?!" Demanded Leinas, practically shouting in rage.
"I didn't know," started the man again, before Leinas cut him off.
"Or did you just want to catch a glimpse of the Emperor's cursed knight? Your sorry little excuse just a reason to approach me?" Demanded Leinas, venom dripping from her words as freely as the pus dripping from her face.
"Well, you are beautiful, but that's not why I approached you," defended the man, hands still raised.
"Bea-" began Leinas, voice choking off as rage, fiery and uncontrollable spilled over. There was only so much mockery that she could take. Only so much humiliation that she could bear from those feigning concern, or downplaying her affliction, but truly only wishing to see the ruin of her face. To know if the rumours were true.
"Is this what you wanted to see?!" demanded Leinas, showing the ruin of her face. Leaking pus anew and foul smelling ichor from dozens of separate open wounds and burst sores. "Does this satisfy your curiosity you pox ridden bastard?" She didn't see the look of revulsion, or sick curiosity that she had been expecting, or even pity that she hated just as much. Instead it looked more like understanding.
"It was not my intention to mock you," said the man, voice calm and eyes locked with hers. "I am a traveller from outside these lands, I beg your pardon."
"You may beg your leave of my presence," said Leinas, fire leaving her voice and turning back to the water. Returning to the dull monotone that she usually maintained, sticking her spear into the ground. The fiery wrath of her rage lowering to a low simmer with the mans uncompromising calm.
Finally taking the cue, the man quietly left after Leinas steadfastly refused to either look or speak to him. When he was gone, Leinas felt empty, drained, and oh so very tired. He had called her beautiful, mocking her surely, but yet she could feel it in her bones that he had not. Perhaps she should not have sent him away so quickly? It was not often someone could look upon her face and not be repulsed or disgusted by it. Crinkle their nose at the heinous smell. Leinas let out a mirthless laugh at the thought.
Was she truly such a lonely and depressing creature that she would latch onto the first man who showed her any attention or gave her a few kind words? Surely she was. Why not add pathetic to her curse? One of Jircniv's four knights swooning at the feet of some wandering vagabond, because he had said a sweet nothing to her? She let out another mirthless laugh, before lashing out with an armoured boot into the water in her rage. Letting go of a sigh, she composed herself and continued her ritual.
With practised movements, she took a fresh set of poultice soaked bandages and applied them to the side of her face quickly becoming necrotic. The poultices smelled strongly, but it was better than the smell of rot and filth that her wounded face gave off. Carefully using her hair to both hide the bandages wrapping around her face and the cursed flesh.
Tying her hair in place and finally satisfied that it was once more hidden from view, began her trek back to the capital. Spinning her spear lazily in her hand. Tossing it up into the air and catching it, twirling it around her body, before switching hands.
It was a long practised habit twirling her spear. Taken from early drills to improve dexterity, now something she did idly to pass the time, or even to just have something to occupy her thoughts while she walked or else was bored. With her long walk ahead, it was a welcome distraction.
It was at least a three hour trek if one took their time, which Leinas enjoyed doing when she wasn't on duty. It was quiet, peaceful, and gave her time alone with her thoughts. It was also a pleasant day, with few clouds in the sky and a slight breeze to keep one cool. The heat was not oppressive, even wearing her amour and she gave silent thanks for that. Sweating overly much aggravated the open wound that was the right side of her face, making it weep ever more pus and make it difficult for the bandage to stay in place.
The poultices in the bandages numbed the right side of her face so that it did not pain her, and while pungent, the medicine would soon be imperceptible to her, unlike the rot of the pus which she could always smell, no matter how long it lingered. An added benefit of the fresh bandages though, was how the fresh poultice would mask the smell of the pus, even from her. For a time at least.
She thought once more of that odd man and how he could have truly been lost so close to Arwintar. The Imperial Capital sat in a great crossroads of the Empire. All roads lead to Arwintar and so long as you did not stray, getting lost was quite impossible. He seemed genuine, but it was such a stupid excuse. Even more absurd to consider. This was a back road, trekking up into the foothills surrounding the city. If the man had left the main highways, he was either foolish, or a fugitive and trying to evade the law. Then again, if that was the case, why would he approach a knight of the Empire? He hadn't been bad looking, perhaps he was used to dealing with people afflicted with such maladies? Maybe he had really thought her beautiful? Leinas' thoughts drifted to more romantic desires involving her and the vagabond and she shook her head in bemusement. She really was pitiful, daydreaming of being able to sit and hold hands with a man, to bury her head in his chest. To feel the warmth of another without the fear her affliction causing her ridicule or rejection. To be kissed on the cheek.
A cry of alarm grabbed Leinas' attention and she stopped in her tracks. Hearing a man shouting in alarm and a woman shrieking in fear.
"Greater Speed," breathed Leinas, feeling power and strength rush into her limbs as she took off at a run faster than a horse could gallop. Clearing deadfall and a small creek in a single leap. Rushing through the woods like they were no more an obstacle than a pebble in the road. Deftly dodging grabbing branches, or else ripping them free with her armoured form until she burst into a clearing.
Ogres. Ugly, ungainly, putrid smelling, and dumb creatures. Appearing to be almost hunchbacked with a protruding brow and a pronounced underbite. They conjured up images to a more distant, primitive ancestor of mankind. Something utterly dull and slow, a clown or village idiot, something only fit to laugh at or pity, but they were no laughing matter.
Violent, quick to anger, and incredibly dull, the only thing they seemed to enjoy more than the smell of their own filth was attacking anything that moved. Which just so happened to be this family that looked to be gathering firewood. A man, a woman, and three children.
The man was holding a woodcutting axe in what he seemed to think was a martial pose as an ogre advanced on him, the rest of his family sheltering behind him. Too frightened to run, all of them were about to be quickly turned to paste by the ogre's club.
"Three fold thrust of light," murmured Leinas, rushing forward as the martial art made her limbs feel like they were blazing with molten magma in her veins, giving her a rush of power and making her feel half a god.
She blitzed into the first ogre from the side, three great wounds spraying hot, sticky blood as the beast roared in agony. It turned towards her, but Leinas had already rolled towards its backside, using the edge of her spear's blade to slice through it's achilles tendon.
The monster howled in more pain than rage, falling to a knee and at Leinas' level. Thick cords or muscle and tendon standing taught in the monster's neck as it clenched its jaw in pain. Its dull eyes full of hate. Leinas didn't hesitate. A quick thrust saw her spear sever the spine of the ogre at the base of its skull with the wet tearing of meat and crackling snap of bone severing. With a sound like a bellow emptying into a forge, the air escaped the beast's lungs and it fell to the ground with a meaty thud. Shuddering like a man chilled to the bone in the dead of winter. Tremors wracking the body of the ogre as it pissed itself. The dead did that sometimes. It was always odd.
Readying her spear, Leinas saw that the other ogre had ignored her completely, choosing instead to go after the woodcutter family. Bowling over the father, it raised its club, ready to crush one of the children. A young girl of perhaps six.
"Lesser dexterity," breathed Leinas beginning to move. "Lesser strength," she huffed as she felt the fiery strength of the martial arts rush into her, trying to beat the descending club of the ogre. "Ability boost...flow acceleration," added Leinas, knowing that she would pay for that last one later even as she felt her nerves light up as though she had been hit with a lightning spell.
She made it to the girl, holding her spear up in one had to ward off the club, while the other pushed the child out of the way.
"For-" began Leinas, cut short as the ogre's club batted her spear down, the impact numbing her hand and travelling down her arm into her shoulder. The haft of her spear bashed against the right side of her face, leaving a hot, wet sensation dripping down her jaw, but she ignored that, using the blow to aid her in a spin, coming around in a crouch, vision still fuzzy as she aligned her weapon in her partially numb grip.
As the ogre began lifting its club, intent on trying to squish her again, she used her body enhanced by all the martial arts she had used to rush forward like a loosed arrow, driving her spear through the soft flesh of the ogres jaw through its upper palette, and finally into its brain. Squatting upwards as though she was lifting something of extreme wait as the spear lodged in the top of the monster's skull.
The ogre thrashed as it died, shitting itself, before falling limp. The added weight of its body allowing Leinas' spear to punch through the top of it's skull and tear free. She flicked her weapon, spraying blood, brain, and bits of bone onto the grass.
Breathing hard, Leinas couldn't help but smile as her shoulders rose and fell with her ragged breaths. Saving a family from a pair of ogres? Not too bad. If she had been able to fight more on her terms though, she wouldn't have needed to exhaust herself using so many martial arts so quickly. She turned to the family, still smiling, but it faded with the looks on their faces.
"Eww," said the little girl that she had just saved, before beginning to cry.
Embarrassment and shame made her feel hot flushed the side of her face that wasn't a stinking ruin. Seeing the child's face scrunch up in revulsion hurting more than blocking the blow from the ogre. Taking a rag from a pouch on her waist, she wiped roughly at the side of her face, momentarily clearing away the pus and fluid. Throwing away the sodden rag, she didn't turn back to face the family until she had bound her face again with fresh bandages. Ensuring to hide that side of her face with her hair.
"We...would like to thank you, truly ser knight," began the father, hesitant, but she could see it. Lingering there. The revulsion. The pity. THE DAMNED PITY! She hated that man, and his family. They all bore the look upon their faces. Even after she had saved them. After she had saved their brat who was still crying at having seen her face. How the mother seemed to almost be subconsciously keeping the rest of her children back in case she was contagious. How even the father for all his gratitude seemed to be afraid to get too close to her.
"You saved us," said the man, eyes flicking to the sodden cloth, and the idea of ramming her spear through his throat was such a strong compulsion that Leinas almost did.
"And I would not have needed to had you not been logging illegally," said Leinas tersely. Taking perverse satisfaction at the fear on the man's face.
"We were only taking what we needed for cooking and heating," defended the man, holding up his hands in a placating gesture.
"There is no excuse for thievery," said Leinas flatly.
"The Emperor said that we could take deadfall and lumber for personal use from the crown forests, Ser Knight," worry intensifying in the man and Leinas had to crush down the urge to smile.
"This isn't a Crown Forest. That is on the other side of the road. This, is the private demense of the Count."
"W-we didn't know," began the man.
"Truly? You just quoted the Emperor to one of his four knights, yet you still claim ignorance? Or am I in the wrong?"
"N-no," stammered the man, face going ghost white.
"So you were stealing then," pressed Leinas viciously.
"I-it was an accident."
"Thievery is thievery. Leave your axe and cart, consider that punishment," said Leinas, seeing from the make of their patched clothes that they could not readily afford to replace the worn steel axe and weathered cart without great difficulty.
"But Ser Knight, we need that," pleaded the man.
"I suppose there is another way to pay," said Leinas, seizing the man while her body was still enhanced by her martial arts, the man yelping in surprise as she forced him to the ground, spear edge resting against his wrist, heedless of the shrieks coming from his wife.
"The hands of a thief were to be taken under the old law, and it's not entirely gone yet. Would you rather pay with that?"
"No! Please, gods no!" begged the man, the spear head still dripping blood and brain matter from the ogre uncomfortably close to his face.
"Very well," said Leinas releasing him, before taking the wood chopping axe and casting it far into the forest and then bring her spear down on top of the car, shattering the wooden construction. Now all the children were crying and the wife had rushed over to her husband, glaring hatefully at Leinas.
Leinas held her gaze and narrowed her eye, adjusting the grip on her spear. She smirked as terror overtook the woman's eyes and she broke the gaze, looking at her husband and the ground, quivering as Leinas walked by. She felt a savage satisfaction at that. She also felt tired. So very tired. Likely just from having used the martial arts she reasoned herself.
Even still, she took out her Book of Revenge and wrote down how the woodcutters family had slighted her. She had already taken action against them, but it didn't feel like enough, it never felt like enough. Every reminder of her wound, every poke and prod, every stare felt like a thousand hot pokers to the core of her being.
It was much later when she made her way back to Arwintar than she had intended. The sun a golden orb on the horizon, bathing the spires of the Imperial Palace in its dying glows to make it appear as though they were aflame. The lake outside the city appearing like molten copper, giving the impression that instead of quenching one's thirst it would scour the flesh from one's throat to drink it.
As the final part of her ritual, Leinas went up to a small shrine devoted to the Goddess of Healing, Grannus. There was another man here, but not the cancer ridden beggar missing a leg that was usually here, just an old man praying tearfully. She wondered what had happened to cause him such grief? It could be any number of things she reasoned, age was an enemy that no one could truly defeat. It was an enemy that took everything from you eventually. A piece at a time, be it memories, monuments, or people.
Leinas took a single gold coin and flicked it in the offering pool with a satisfying plop. Letting it join all the others that she had put into the shrine, praying that this time perhaps the Goddess would heed her prayers.
She said a few quiet words that the other worshipper made sure to keep a respectful distance from to give her privacy. It was common practice at such shrines and she made sure to give the same courtesy. Such matters concerning Grannus were entirely private, meant only between the afflicted and their god. Then she added a few other words that were not quite proper prayer.
"I would give myself, all that I am, body and soul to any god or demon that could rid me of my curse," said Leinas in little more than a whisper. "For all eternity I would serve."
It was a dangerous thing to make such a promise, Leinas had always been by the priests that there were many maleficent beings ready to make such a bargain, only to leave the afflicted worse off in the end. Or else a slave to the being. Leinas didn't care though. She would give anything, do anything to be free of her curse.
Met with only echoing silence from the statue, Leinas turned to leave, stopping and studying the old man again. He seemed so familiar. Like she had seen him before. She narrowed her eye in consternation, before widening in shock as she realized that he was the beggar.
"You man, hark and answer me. Are you not the beggar who was stricken with cancer and maimed?"
"Indeed, I was," said the man, voice overflowing with gratitude and devotion, fighting back tears.
"H...how? How were you healed? Did the goddess heal you? Did Grannus grant you a boon? I pray thee, answer me and i will reward you richly," said Leinas, voice rising along with her excitement and faint, but burning hope.
"I do not know if Grannus had a hand in it, but she must have. A traveller, wearing a hooded cloak and carrying a pack stopped by when I asked for alms. His eyes were grey like that of steel, but warm and kind as a mother's embrace. He held me like I was his lost child, and then," the man choked off, fighting to regain control of himself.
"And then?" demanded Leinas breathlessly.
"He made me whole," said the man, wiping as fresh tears spilled forth.
Where? Where did he go?" demanded Leinas, sick realization taking hold that this man could be, no, he was the man who had come to her at the waters edge. Had Grannus sent her a saviour and she turned him away out of her own shame and damaged pride? Please no, gods no. Grannus no. Give her another chance, oh gods, please don't be so cruel.
"He was looking for an inn in Arwintar. I recommended the Prancing Stag. It's cheap, but clean."
"What else did he say? Anything else?" pressed Leinas breathlessly, silently berating the man for taking so long to answer and master his emotions. She understood of course, he had been granted his miracle, but Leinas wanted hers now too.
"His name is Arclight. I fear I was too overcome to ask anything else," choked out the man, still fighting to keep his emotions in check.
"Thank you sir, Grannus continue to bless you," said Leinas absently taking out a handful of coins and tossing them to the man before taking off at a dead sprint towards Arwintar.
The guards moved out of the way of her, giving her a confused answer as to the location of the Prancing Stag. She used martial arts to speed her run, practically flying through the streets until she came to a plain, but well maintained inn.
She barged in still breathing heavily, dripping in sweat and carrying her spear. The wide-eyed tavern keeper looking at her, frozen midway through polishing a tankard. Men deep into their cups looked up blearily to see who had entered and looked away just as quickly when they saw it was the Cursed Knight. She had a reputation, both as a ferocious fighter and as having a very long and vindictive streak in her. Both were very true.
"Traveller. Arclight. Room," gasped out Leinas inbetween ragged breaths.
"R-room five. Second floor. Is this," began the man, but Leinas had already turned her back to him and started ascending the stairs. She whipped her head back and forth, checking room numbers, heavy plate boots thudding off of the floorboards. The excitement building within her threatened to overwhelm her a she finally found the room, practically vibrating with excitement. Heard thudding hard enough in her chest that she feared it may either explode or leap out of her breast and run away.
'So long as I am cured first,' thought Leinas.
She rapped on the door, waiting impatiently for a heartbeat as she heard nothing, terror springing up in her breast that the man was gone, or else had never been here to begin with. Cursing the beggar for sending her on a fools errand. She would be sure to write his name in her book if that were the case. The fear evaporated as she heard movement within the room.
"Hello," said the man pleasantly surprise on his face to see Leinas again, no doubt after her words to him earlier in the afternoon and to she her half ready to drop dead from exertion and panting."
"Good day good ser," panted Leinas. Struggling to control her breathing. "I wanted to apologize for how I reacted to you earlier this afternoon. That was most rude of me and I felt that I just had to apologize to you in person."
"Oh, well, it's alright," said the man awkwardly. Seeming perturbed by the frantic joy on Leinas' face. She swallowed and made an effort to control her breathing, before continuing.
"Say, I've just realized how rude I've been in not introducing myself to you. My name is Leinas. Leinas Rockbruise. May I ask yours so we may put such that unfortunate scene from earlier behind us?"
"People call me Arclight," said the man, pausing at the unabashed joy that spread on Leinas' face, unfaltering even with the muted pops of pustules breaking under bandages.
"May I come in?" asked Leinas, entering without waiting for a response. The room was spartan, even by inn standards, lit by the setting sun from an open window the room seemed to be ablaze in liquid gold. Setting her spear against the wall Leinas sat on the man's bed, crossing her legs.
"I heard a wonderful story," began Leinas, "truly wonderful. I heard that you helped a poor and crippled beggar by the shrine of Grunnar."
Something like concern flashed across Arclights face and Leinas rose, taking his hands in hers, hoping to calm him, but it seemed that it only served to perturb him more. Silently cursing herself, Leinas kept the smile plastered on her face.
"No, no, I thought it was wonderful. Truly a miracle," said Leinas. "I was just wondering...if, perhaps, such miracles could be repeated? I know you did it, he mentioned it by name and I know the man, I've seen him. You gave him a new limb and cured his illness," continued Leinas when she saw the guarded expression on his face.
"I chose to help that man, because he had a good soul. Kind. So I healed him. Your soul...is clouded."
Leinas felt icy terror grip her chest, worry that the man would refuse her, that he would not life her curse.
"But surely you would help someone in need? Life my curse, would you not?"
"You said that you knew the man that I helped? The beggar?"
"Why of course, he and I frequent the same shrine quite often. We are all equal under the gods are we not? I've been sure to give him alms plenty of times."
"Yes, I would say we are. Tell me though, what was the man's name?"
"Pardon?" asked Leinas.
"The beggar, the man you've given alms to plenty of times, what is his name?"
The smile faltered on Leinas' face and she felt panic take root in her breast. What was his name? She had seen hid dozens of times, prayed alongside him dozens of times. In all those times had she never thought to ask him his name? Think! She must know it, perhaps it had just slipped her mind?
"I...am having trouble recalling it at the moment, but I am sure I will see him again soon."
"Do you know what he prayed for?"
"Of course," said Leinas. He wanted his affliction cured."
"But do you know why? Did you ever ask?"
"It was to make him able bodied and free of pain," said Leinas simply.
"He wished to be healed so that he could earn money to give to his estranged daughter and her family. Do you know why he's estranged from his daughter?" asked Arclight.
"I do not," said Leinas.
"All that time and you never thought to find out the simplest thing about the man?"
Silently, Leinas moved her hair to the side and removed the bandage from her face, revealing her grisly curse.
"All that time I have been doing all I can to avoid the mockery, scorn, and pity of others. I've been concerned enough with my own curse, I don't need to add the weight of my pity to another's burden. Nor do I have the strength to shoulder more of a burden than the one I already carry. I ask you, no, I beg you. Please, release me from this millstone I carry around my neck giving me naught a moment's peace."
"You...have flashes of purity and virtue in your soul, but also cruelty and malice," said the man, strength in his voice that had not been there before. Eyes hard and resolute. The words cutting into Leinas like swords.
"A...are you saying you won't help me?" asked Leinas, breathless.
"I am asking why should I?"
"I...I can help you."
"How?" demanded the hooded man.
"I have money. A great deal. If your wish is to help others then it would be of great use to you, truly it would. Name the amount and I shall see it given. I'll take out lines of credit if needed,"
"I have all the money I require, more than you could provide and the aid that I give requires none regardless."
"Leinas felt panic take root in her breast. Feeling like a flock of birds had nested in her ribcage and were now beating the wings fiercely, trying to break free.
"I-I-I have the Emperor's ear. I'm one of his Four Knights. I-I could get you an audience, a partnership even. Jircniv is a genius of a man and the most powerful in the Empire. You two working together could heal all the ills of the people in the Empire."
"I need no help to find those in need," said the man simply. "Nor is it my sole mission to heal every malady in this nation. If this is what you think of to offer me, then you have nothing to sway me."
Leinas felt faint, everything felt far away and as though the world was spinning out of control. Her breathing was quick and shallow. Desperation driving her beyond reason, beyond pride and sanity. Beyond anything other than the thought of finally lifting her curse.
"Yes...but...you called me beautiful did you not? Earlier today?"
"I did," began the man, taken off guard as Leinas forced him to the bad and straddled his waist, stripping off pieces of her armor, fighting with clasps as she grinded herself against him. Trying to make his manhood stiffen. Thinking back to the one and only time she had been with her fiancee, trying to replicate the same motions, yet lacking the passion.
"Then I offer you myself. You can have me, all of me, you can have my beauty all to yourself," said Leinas, manic energy taking hold of her. "I'll stay with you tonight. Every night if you like. I'll cry out your name and only your name if you can lift my curse."
Arclight grabbed her wrists and Leinas smiled victoriously until with strength that seemed inexorable forced her off of him and stood, turning to leave.
"I was talking about your soul, not your body," said the man, such judgment and command in his tone that it froze Leinas in place. "But I also see the cruelty in you. The malice. Why should you be deserving of such a blessing?"
"I...I..." stammered Leinas, heart thudding in her chest as hopelessness and fear spread its icy tendrils. The man seemed to grow in size and Leinas realized that whatever he was, he was not human. Though his physical form stayed the same, she could feel his presence, overpowering in its intensity.
"Wait! Please!" begged Leinas, latching onto his leg like a child onto their father. "I'll give you anything! Do anything! Just please, please release me of this curse," begged Leinas, beginning to weep for the first time in years.
"It has cost me my family! My fiancee! My honour! And my heart! I can't! I can't go on like this! I can't take the staring anymore! I can't take the quiet whispers! I can't take the pity! I would rather die! What do you want me to do? What need I prove? How must I redeem myself? I'll do anything you want, I swear it! If you won't heal me, then I beg that you kill me."
The man stopped at those last words, and Leinas gripped his leg even tighter. Leinas held on with all of her strength, but found her grip removed with firm, but gentle hands, strong beyond measure.
"Look at me," demanded the man and Leinas did, unflinching as the man moved her hair to see all of her. Tears mixing with pus as they escaped from her face. "Perhaps...I judge too harshly," said the man, face softening. Pain, and wounds of the body when allowed to fester poison the mind and soul as well. There is chivalry in you yet. Will you change your ways if you are healed?"
"Yes! Anything! I swear it," pleaded Leinas.
"You will regain your chivalry. I will remove your curse on the promise that you help those like you once did. That is the price that I demand. Do you accept?"
"Yes! I accept! I do!"
Without saying anything else, Arclight pressed his hand to her cursed face heedless of the diseased flesh, and said something that Leinas couldn't make out. Warmth and light flooded the room, the pain disappearing from her face in an instant. In but a moment it was over and with a shaking hand Leinas touched her face, feeling smooth, unbroken skin.
Frantically, she took out her crystal mirror and saw her face whole and smooth. Not a blemish to be seen. She began to weep. After all these years. After all these struggles. After all the humiliation It was over. She was free. She felt light, like she was could fly or run forever. Such relief! Such bliss! She felt the man take her in his arms in a kind embrace. A warm embrace. The kind a loving father gives to their child. Stroking her hair as she wept.
"I have given you a blessing, to be sure," began Arclight, letting out a sound of surprise as Leinas kissed him passionately, before alternating between laughing and crying tears of joy.
"I swore I would give myself body and soul to any god or demon that could lift my curse," said Leinas hoarsely. So I am now yours, body and soul my lord."
"Uh...come again?"
AN: Had this half completed for the longest time and decided to put it out since I started watching Overlord again. Was hoping for Leinas to have a bigger part in the series, or at least as much as Fluder, but oh well. Might do more with this, might not.
EDIT: Lengthened and changed some parts of the chapter, made it better imo.