"I'll kill you" She hissed.
"Yeah, most likely" I agreed.
Have you every seen a wild animal in a cage before? Not a zoo animal, no, not one of those oversized pets who do little more than sleep and gorge themselves on motionless kibble.
I mean a wild animal. The fur around their lips permanently stained pink, no matter how often they lick their chops. The kind who seem to always follow your jugular with a hot glare.
The kind that makes you thankful for metallurgy and smiths, the kind that make you pray their cage holds.
In a dusty storehouse, with its roof full of rotted holes, illuminated by clear, white moonlight, I saw a beast. Her hair, even if dirty, was a harsh white, the color of sharp teeth; her eyes a thick and blackish red. She wore the torn and beaten cloth of a slave, it let me see how her emanciated muscles tensed and coiled, ready to lunge.
Finally, a heavy steel collar bit into her neck. The surface of it's body covered in grooves, deep ravines burning with blue flame.
"You think this is funny?" She smoldered, her thin scarred fingers choking the iron bars, pulling her face against the grate with a scowl. "You think you're any better? Huh?"
Her tone could have been sweet, she could have been whispering, but she couldn't hide a certain hardness about it.
"Well...I guess." I replied honestly, humming as I looked around the rotting storehouse. "I wouldn't want to be in here when this roof finally gives..." I admit.
She didn't appreciate the honesty. If the way she threw herself against the bars, thin talons flashing, begging in vain to rip into me was any indication. She probably could of too, if there wasn't iron between us.
"You...! I'll-!" She cracked, her eyes burning with rage and moisture.
"Quiet down. They'll hear you." I hush.
Normally, my words would have had the opposite effect; but she did quiet.
Maybe because I reminded her of the slavers outside, or maybe it was the way I stepped forward in the face of her anger instead of away.
I stepped in front of her. Now, even with the bars constraining her range, I was in her reach.
I offered a sheepish smile, somewhat at a loss.
If you were about to let a tiger out of it's cage, wouldn't you hesitate?
"Do you think you'd be better off like me?" I ask slowly, spreading my arms out for her to get a good look at me.
She wouldn't have seen much anyway; I was an urchin, with little more clothing than her, with only a touch more fat to my bones.
I doubt any of that mattered to her...
"Yes, of course, yes." She bit, her once harsh tone, small and weak.
I nodded and stilled. If I was being honest, it might be better for me, no, the world, if I just...well, killed her.
She didn't know it yet, couldn't know it, but she would be free one day and with that freedom she would ravange the land, turning an entire world upside down all in the name of power.
Genocides, plagues, artificial famine, she would release all of these upon the innocent.
I know this. I know what she will become.
However, Her weak gaze told me something I haven't known. That no matter what I knew about her, what she would become, her pain, her weakness, in this moment, was real.
If this was the fate of the woman she would become, I wouldn't lift a finger for her.
Even now...
"What...what is that?" She whisper, her eyes wide. They froze on my palm as a thick steel chain materialized along my forearm, a hiss of blue steam rising from its shifting form.
"What are you...no...! I'll scream! I-I still have value! You- can't!" She broke, scrambling away from the bars, throwing herself into corner of her cage as the chain rose into the air.
"I'm sorry." I offer with a weak smile. "I don't think I'll be to live with myself otherwise..."
The chain twisted in the air on my mental command. My eyes, and chain's sharpen end, aimed at her neck.
"Please...please...!" She shook, her wet eyes bleeding tears, searching mine. "What...did I do? Why do you hate me too...?"
I couldn't tell her I didn't hate her. I feared her.
My chains lunged.
Have you even seen a wild animal in cage before? Their eyes are full of fear, Not hunger, not rage, pure terror.
Her were eyes are no different.
I couldn't stand it.
[Hollow Chain]
My mental command was short but my chains ignited, blue flames roaring from the metal.
It was done. I only hope I can survive the consequences.
"Huh...what is...?" She croaked, her eyes blinking away hot tears.
Her hands reached towards her neck. She probably expected find her blood, maybe my chains, definitely her collar.
She found none of them.
"You...how did you..?" She gasped her hands cradling her now bare neck.
I only held her confused eyes in mine as I circled over to the door of the cage.
"Hey, you said you'd prefer to be like me, right?" I say, my chains reemerging to wrap around the thick lock on her cage.
She stared with wide, glassy eyes at the lock then at me. She attempted a tight squeak before emotion overwhelmed her ability to answer.
She only nodded, splashing tears on the floor of her cage.
I repeat the same command in my mind; Flame consumes both chain and lock, leaving the door to creak open when the flames dissipate.
She doesn't move even as the door opens. She watches fearfully as hope and suspicion duel behind her wet eyes.
So, I offer her my hand.
"Hey, what's your name?" I offer, even though I know the answer.
"...Alyn..." She whispers, her eyes searching my empty palm.
Yes, Alyn. Alyn the kinslayer, The vile witch of flame, the blade which cuts mythril, and 'she who poisoned the world tree'.
I knew her by these names, all titles she had earned.
But I couldn't see anyone but Alyn in the small cage before me.
"I'm Gully, or Gilligan...or no-good brat, depending on who you ask..." I add with a small smile, my hand not retreating an inch.
She doesn't laugh at my joke, only straightens herself a bit, pulling herself a little closer.
Her eyes flicker from my smile to my hand.
"You got anywhere better to be, Alyn?" I continue.
"Outside of this cage?" She narrows, with sharp look.
"And after that?" I chuckle.
She doesn't join in my mirth. She shakes her head grimly and look away without a word, as if the rotten storeroom could console her.
"Well then..." I hum, drawing her eyes back to me. "Why don't you run with me?"
Her blood red eyes seize me, the red saucers widening to scan every inch of my face.
She doesn't speak for a long moment, just stared as if I had smacked her.
Come on, I know I don't look reliable but this is a bit much!
"What? I'm not one to brag, but It's a pretty good deal. I may be young but I've got my own hideout and an unique arte." I rattle off. "I'm not desperate, I'm-"
I was going to continue, not out of desperation of course, but-
"Yes." She slowly nodded, reaching forward.
"Yes...?" I echo'd my mind taken by the warm sensation wrapping around my palm.
"Yes...Don't you know any other words...?" She batted, her thin fingers squeezing my rough hand.
"Yes- I mean, I do-" I fumble. "Ah, you know what I mean..."
"Yes." She nodded with what was almost a smile. "I do."
"Smartass." I huff.
I pulled her forward, bringing her out of her cage.
She stumbled a touch but corrected herself before I could grab her.
Her weakned legs clicked as she stood up fully for the first time in who knows how long.
She was only a head shorter than me but when she looked up at me, her presence seemed to eclipse mine.
I'd like to say she looked like a completely different person in that moment, that only a small wisp of a smile was enough to prove she wouldn't become the monster I knew she could be.
But I couldn't nor could I let that stop me, not now.
All I know is that, as of now, as my eyes meet her's, I see Alyn, just Alyn.
I might have said something sweet, something reassuring.
If the screech of a rusted lock hadn't cut through the storehouse.
Alyn turned, no doubt searching for something to hide behind.
I simply looked up through one of the rotted holes and summoned my chains.
"Huh...? Huh!?" A groggy voice cried out. "The noble! The nobles gone!" The slaver bellowed when he saw an empty cage.
The camp, once sleepy, woke in an instant. The scrape of metal against metal and shouts against cold air rose not a moment later.
We watched the surrounding cabins wreck up their insidious contents, slavers of all shapes and states of undress flooded into the grooves of the camp.
Too many to count, and too many to fight.
We were hidden by the thin shadows that wouldn't hold
We would be exposed by a single wave of the torch.
Torches like the ones that ran towards the storehouse.
Luckily, we were now longer anywhere near the storehouse.
In the same breath I had pulled us through one of the holes of the storehouse, I had pulled us by chain to a shadowed portion of the camp's rampart.
So, I was able to watch as a flood of torchlight crashed against the shabby building.
I turned my eye to Alyn, who watched with open disgust.
"Why...?" She whispered between gritted teeth. "What right do they have to hunt me, even now?"
I knew why: because they could-- and they would make a lot of money if they did.
"Ah..." She finally spoke, unclenching her jaw. "It's power, isn't it?" She said with a shake of her head, a poisoned smile covering her grinding teeth. "As long as you're powerful, right..?" She turned to me, a sick smile stapled to her lips, red eyes shaking and wet with madness and grief. "The strong get to slaughter fathers, violate mothers...That's their right...right?" She chocked out a laugh, which festered into a fit. Soon, she was doubling over as she clutched her stomach. If it wasn't for the shouting below, the slavers would have heard her, not that it lasted long. "That won't...can't happen to the strong..." She whispered at the end of her fit.
"The strong are free..."
She straightened herself and lifted her eyes to mine. "Right...?" Her eyes begged me for something.
To affirm her. To give her credence, even if it was to discredit the memory of her 'weak' parents.
I let her question hang in the air. The cold silence left her cradling herself.
To justify her thirst for 'power'....It would have been easy to do.
I only needed to look down at the hive of slavers below, each frantic to enslave Alyn a new, to find a justification for 'power'.
But...
"You're only half right."
"Excuse me...?" She hissed, her thin talons digging deep into her thin skin.
But if I do, I know where it will lead.
I've seen an Alyn justified in her pursuit of power.
It ends with a graveyard the size of a continent.
"The strong are able to protect themselves from danger. That much is true. If you're parents were stronger, they might still be alive." I nodded, accepting that bitter truth.
Alyn's nails dug deeper as I spoke, tearing thick red tears from her arms.
"I know." She hissed. "Don't you think-!"
"But you are wrong." I cut, reaching out to stop her hands from digging deeper.
"Get off of-!" She shook, thrashing in my arms.
"Your parents didn't deserve to die."
"Shut up...!" She hissed as tried to twist away.
"What these slavers did wasn't their 'right' it was just-"
"Stop!"
I flung my hands away. A breath later, a dark purple flame had flashed over her arms.
Now untangled, her hands returned to the gashes on her arms. Her chest heaving, her breath heavy and weak.
I...I went too far.
I didn't dare move an inch, my eyes flickering from her to the slavers below.
They had begun to spread out from the storehouse, expanding the range of their search.
They would start sending out search parties soon.
We had to leave first.
I turned my eyes back to her, my head dipping, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed."
I needed to get change her path, for the continent's sake, but the sound of her weak breaths told me I pushed too hard too quick.
"Alyn, listen-"
"Enough...please, let's go. I need to lay down, I need.." she staggered, her eyes hazy.
I stepped forward and held out my hand, "C'mon, I have a place we can hide away..."
She swayed on her feet, the wear of her confinement finally hitting her.
She was spent. I can't imagine how she felt emotionally but I knew she was running on fumes. That use of her Arte just now just sealed the deal.
She didn't speak, only fell forward for me to catch her.
It was only when I lifted her limp form over my shoulder that I truly grasp how thin, how sickly she was.
"Gully..." She managed.
"Don't worry, I'll lose them. Just rest." I hushed her, summoning my chain and aiming it towards a tall tree outside the camp.
"Thank you." She whispered before going silent.
Thank you, huh? The Vile witch never said thank you....
"Haa....what have I gotten myself into..." I hush as I shoot a chain into the woods beyond the camp's wall, flying away under the cover of the dark forest.