"She's a valuable little guinea pig to you. Isn't she Pilum Murale?"
"Guinea pig?" I asked, stunned at his words.
"Right, right. The story is that he's taken you on as his apprentice," the man, Renfred told me. "He's got you fooled, poor thing."
"He what...?" I asked.
"Reika!" I hadn't noticed the Ariel in Renfred's hand before now. "Don't listen to him, sweetie! He's-" He squeezed his hand and she cringed in pain.
"There are iron fibers whoven into this glove," Renfred told her "And we all know how the Fae hate iron. Stop struggling or you'll hurt yourself."
"Let her go!" I ordered. "If you're a mage why are you doing this?!"
"You've got the wrong idea, kiddo," Renfred told me. "I'm an alchemist. guess that fairy's fed you lies, too."
"I have not lied," Elias told Renfred. "Nor am I attempting to fool anyone. My kind has little use for lies." Renfred smirked at him.
"Right, my bad. You just omit the truth. You offer honeyed promises and half-truths instead. Of course you haven't lied to the girl. You just failed to mention that she's going to die soon, and that you bought and collared her so you could sate your curiousity." My eyes widened and my mind went blank.
"I'm... going to die...?"
"That's how it is for a Sleigh Beggy and even more so for a Sleigh Fendeil. Sleigh Fendeil's constantly putting their life on the line to protect those around them, Fae or otherwise. Sleigh Beggy can absorb and generate almost unlimited magical energy, but you have the same endurance as any other alchemist - maybe less. Just breathing forces your body into overdrive, absorbing and creating magic. Sooner or later the strain's too much and causes sudden, massive organ failure," the girl behind me said.
"Nicely put, Alice," Renfred complimented his apprentice. "You understand it well."
"Um... thanks."
"Is that so?" I asked them.
"See, kid? You're in a precarious situation, but he's not lifting a finger to help you out," Renfred said and I glanced at Elias who hadn't physically moved from his spot across the lake. "You're just a specimen to him. I bet you've had some symptoms already. Stuff like sleeping for days on end."
"Did you know you were asleep for two days?"
"Lots of Sleigh Beggy die young without ever knowing what they are. And trying to use magic burns through your life even faster." So that means my dizzy spells... "Trust me Reika, his kind don't have hearts. Don't look for love or compassion from some monster masquerading as human. He bought You, then bound you with that charm. And look, it's got a tracking spell. That has to be hard on you. We'll take care of it for you." The stone around my neck lifted in the air and started to crack. My eyes widened and I leaned foreward into the knife. The girl freaked and lessened her hold as the knife cut my throat and I slammed my head into her face before the censor to hit Renfred's arm, making him drop the Ariel. "What?!"
"Master!" the girl, Alice, called out. The cats jumped between me and the girl. "Cats?!"
"This is our territory, alchemist!" Molly told him. "Leave at once! Your kind are not welcome here!" I gently scooped up the Ariel in my hands.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Uh-huh. I'm fine with that nasty iron gone," she told me rubbing the back of her head.
"Why?" Renfred asked and I turned to look at him. "Don't you want to be free?"
"Free?" I asked him. "Elias may have bought me, but I was the seller. You don't seem to understand anything. I don't really care if he was lying to me, he gave me a home. So, maybe you're telling the truth, but maybe not I don't really care. I chose to stay with him." From my shadow, a massive amount of spikes appeared between me and them.
"You forget, I am darkness." Elias placed his fingers gently on my cheek. "The shadow that lies beneath the briars. I am Pilum Murale, "The Spear Wall"." I looked up at him and he turned his head down to me. "Are you well, Reika?"
"Yea, I"m okay," I told him.
"Rash girl. Here, show me that cut." I turned to him and he knelt down to my level. He opened his jaw and licked the blood off my neck. "Humans can die of even the smallest wounds."
"Couldn't you peel yourself off a wall any faster, stupid shadow?!" the Ariel shouted at him.
"There was little I could do while they held Reika," Elias told her. We looked back up at the blight that seemed to have grown while we were talking. "The bindings are giving way." Elias pulled me gentlly in front of him and fixed my collar. "Here, Reika, purify it, would you?"
"Okay." I nodded my head.
"Allow me to join you." I looked down to see Molly looking up at me.
"Majesty!"
"If this blight is finally to be destroyed, it is my duty as the last King of Cats to witness its demise."
"Sheesh," the Ariel sighed as Molly jumped into my arms. "It'll be fine! me 'n' sweetie will handle it." I determidly turned to the blight and reached out my hand. Last minute I pulled back slightly before placing my hand on it. The blight seemed to stretch out and wrap around me, pulling me in.
"Ka." I heard someone calling out to me. "Reika." I slowly opened my eyes at see the Ariel and Molly looking down at me. "Reika, sweetie! You're awake!" I stood up and looked around us to see a lot of people eating and talking while drinking.
"Where are we?" I asked staring at the people.
"It looks like a human tavern of old," Molly told us. I was surprised when someone's arm went through my own and I looked down to see through my hand.
"I'm see through?" I questioned.
"Mm-hmm," the Ariel nodded. "I figure we're in the blights memory.
"G'day Matthew!" I was surprised to hear someone say. "How's the wife?"
"Resting at home." I turned to see the same man as before in the same clothes as the last memory I'd seen. Matthew seemed to be looking around. He looked through the people in the tavern until he saw a young boy with silver hair and he made a beeline for him. "Are you the visiting alchemist?" The boy slowly turned to him to reveal light blue eyes.
"Yes! That's me," he confirmed. I couldn't help but feel this really bad feeling from this kid. "Ha ha! Let me guess - you're surprised by how short and young I am?"
"Uh..." Matthew seemed at a loss of words.
"In need of advice?"
"How did you know?" Matthew asked him.
"That's often why people come looking for me," the alchemist told him. "What's the issue? Bad year for crops? Want to catch a pretty maiden's eye?"
"N... no. It's my wife," Matthew started saying. "She's been weak and frail all her life. I want to cure her. To make her healthier. Do you know of any potions or medicines that might help?"
"Hmm," the boy seemed to have to think on it. "You must really love her."
"Yes! Very, very, much!"
"Hm hm! Embarrassingly frank, aren't you?" The boy laughed. "In my experience, herbal remedies rarely do much for those who were born sickly. Might I visit and examine you lady wife?"
"Of course! Please do!" Matthew quickly ran out of the tavern as the boy got up and covered his face with his hood.
We followed the alchemist and Matthew to see Mina still in bed with her cat faithfully by her side. The alchemist examined her throughly before smiling at her.
"Thank you," Mina said with a gentle smile on her face when he handed her hand back.
"Please rest now," the alchemist told her. "I need to speak with your husband."
"All right. Thank you, sir." We followed the alchemist and Matthew outside.
"Well?" Matthew asked him.
"I'll be blunt," the alchemist told Matthew. "I doubt she'll ever get any better than she is now. I'd say she has a few more years at most." I looked at Matthew to see him stare at the alchemist in dreaded shock. "This is simply how she is. There's no cure."
"No!" Matthew shouted grabbed the boy by his shoulders. "Please! Yo have to do soemthing! Mina's always been delicate! She has such an industrous nature, but she's too weak to accoplish much! Please! I'll do anything! Anything at all! I can't just let her die! It's so unfair!"
"Anything?" the alchemist asked and I felt shivers go down my spine. "Tell me, does you wife like cats?" Matthew looked confused.
"Cats...? Er, yes. In fact, once even sleeps with her," Matthew told the alchemist.
"Excellent!" the alchemist told him. "Then this could be a great opportunity! Did you know that cats really do have nine lives?"
The next memory showed rats running out of a building that Mina happened to be walking by. She was in the same outfit I'd seen her in earlier in the day with cloth wrapped around the top of her head.
"Is it me, or are there more rats about lately?" I overheard someone say.
"Oh, Mina! You feel well enough to be up and about?" a woman asked them.
"Yes!" Mina answered happily. "And on such a lovely day, too! Have any of you seen Matthew?" she asked the small group of women. "I went to bring him lunch, but he wasn't in the fields."
"Hmmm? He's off having a trist with a mistress?" one of the women suffested.
"What...?"
"Mind your fool tongue, girl!" an older woman scolded hitting the woman on the others head. "The whole village knows Mina's the only woman for him!"
"A while ago I saw him take an axe into the woods," the third woman told Mina. "Maybe he's collecting firewood?" Mina just looked at her confused and went into the woods calling for her husband.
"Reika? You hanging in there?" the Ariel asked me. "You're pale as milk."
"How far has he gone?"
"I just have this bad feeling right now," I told her and Molly.
"Oh! A hut? I didn't know there was one way out here," Mina said walking towards said hut. She picked up the axe and held it in her hands. "This is our axe...! What on earth is he doing?" She moved towards the door and slowly opened it calling for Marrthew. I wrapped my hands around my middle as she opened the door and as much as I didn't want her to go in, I knew where this was going. I looked into the hut from behind her and my hands flew up to my mouth to cover both it and my nose. The smell of blood and gore overwhelmed everything. Cats were hanging on hooks and were in buckets all over the place. Blood and gore covered the ground like a rug that was completely soaked.
"Wh-what...?" Matthew was standing at a table with a pile of bits with a single light on his work.
"Oh! Mina! You look so well today!" He turned to her, blood covering her face with a smile on it. "That's marcelous! I just finished, see? This potion will cure you!"