I couldn’t extend my awareness far enough to catch a glimpse of Soaria, but I could explore the tunnel she dug out of her cell. It was largely headed in the direction of her hideout, so I decided to use shifted steps to head back over there.
I gave Silvia a pointed look to stay put, and said. “Alright, I’ll go take care of it.” Before I patted Ysdra on her head and offered a reassuring smile to all as I vanished.
The next few jumps got me back to the clearing outside the carved hollow beneath a tree, but as I appeared, I heard a muffled gasp, and knew I’d been spotted.
And so the chase begins.
Sure, I coulda just teleported either her or myself to the other, but given what she and her underlings had done to such a kind girl’s father, I wasn’t exactly willing to let her off easy.
Though she was quick, I had to give her that.
It was only a second after she saw me, but she crossed the admittedly small chamber and dove back into the hole she’d crawled out of in a decidedly familiar tactic that I felt I knew from somewhere.
What was more impressive, was the fact that Silvia had broken her arm, so that meant she’d made it all the way here with only one. However, she apparently stashed a healing item here, and used it to recover both her useless limb and a good bit of the damage from her fight with my obedient owl so now she was moving even faster. And based on the blood mixed with the dirt, it looks like she dug the tunnel here with her bare hand, but now she has some kind of shovel gloves equipped–not that they’re gonna help her elude me!
I dove into the ground like I’d done so many times in the past and was once again amazed at the sensation of the earth simply parting to let me pass. It’s so solid until I try to go through it, then it becomes even easier to travel through than water!
Swimming was the closest analog to the motions I was performing, and with my expanded awareness keeping Soaria well within my sights, I literally dug circles around her in an ever tightening spiral. Ya’know, just in case she can feel my approach somehow… Not that that’s looking to be the case.
I wanted to test when she’d notice my approach, since I had eyes on her reaction, so I took the plunge and darted in. It took a bit, but she did respond once I was within a few feet of her–which was hilarious to watch as she gasped and wildly diverted course to go deeper and off to the side.
So her senses are sharp enough, but given that she’s calming down it seems like she doesn’t know it’s me. I’ll have to change that.
Again, and again, and again.
I came at her from top, bottom, and every side at multiple angles.
At first, she just swerved around to evade, but after my harassment became more and more frequent she realized that she was being hunted.
I heard her mutter something under her breath like “Infernal dragthan!”, but the inflection didn’t really make it sound like a curse so I assumed it was the name of some kinda burrowing critter instead.
Okay. So she’s still in the dark. Literally… That kinda defeats the point of doing this, soooo let’s be more direct!
I burrowed around in front of her, did an about face, and charged straight at her. She sensed me coming at the last moment and stopped her advance, but I was much faster than her and was easily able to shoot an arm out into her tunnel and grab her by the collar before she could evade.
With our passages connected, we met in the pitch black, face to face. I hissed. “So nice to see you again Soaria. Though dark enough, this isn’t the place I selected for your stay. Why is that?”
Instead of trembling, the sound of my voice outright paralyzed her. Her pupils dilated like a rodent staring down a hungry cat, her arms pressed outwards as if looking for an escape but were trapped by the narrow walls, and her jaw just hung open, as only a strangled squeal emerged.
What? Is this all the master assassin amounts to? I get she’s afraid of me, but one look at me is all it takes to reduce her to this?
Uriel buzzed.
I blinked. Oh. Oops. That’d explain it, but I didn’t think to activate it, so I guess I’m more upset than I thought… I gritted my teeth. Linus died due to my carelessness. I need to take responsibility, but I also don’t want to do something I’ll regret… Then relaxed with a sudden epiphany. So why don’t I try something different?
I deactivated my ability, and eyed her expectantly. “Well?”
Her shovel gloves were quite sharp, and fitted in front of her fingers to better help her scoop with both hands, if she lashed out it’d probably hurt, but she let them slip from her hands, retracted her arms down the narrow tunnel to her sides, and shut her eyes without a word.
I gave her a light shake, but even after that, she refused to answer.
What? Are you telling me to just kill you? In this admittedly awkward position where we’re lying down in front of each other?
I snorted. “As if you have any right to decide how this ends.”
Unite will, experience extension, and revery.
One spell short of the past revealing combo I used on Benedict, I used the two mind magic spells to merge our thoughts together, and the time magic to ensure I got all the details exactly as they’d happened. Then, I unilaterally bombarded her with the one thing I knew no trained assassin would never expect or be prepared to face.
Weaponized mercy.
Everyone she’d ever harmed, killed, or otherwise been at odds with, everything she’d ever felt even the tiniest shred of guilt over, every doubt, and sense of sorrow was dredged up, changed to soothe, reassure, and comfort if not outright forgive, and then rapid fired into her mind’s eye over and over again.
Soaria trembled, her voice, initially shaken, gradually grew more frenzied. “W–what is this? Why are you doing this? Why show me this?!”
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I smiled, and continued the mental onslaught of images and information sourced from her mind, and reshaped through my will. “Because souls are precious things, even tarnished and dirtied ones like yours. So be thankful you’re still alive, and can actively atone through your future actions. If you were dead, then the process of cleansing you would be far more unpleasant. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Shade, whenever you should meet hereafter.”
She gawked at me for a minute, then snarled, gripped my wrist and squeezed, twisting her hands in opposite directions in order to break my hold with ye olde ‘snake bite’. “Do you think I chose this life? Do you think any assassin or thief does? You cast blame on the wrong people! And I will not be broken by this… this torture!”
Unfortunately for her, my fire resistance ability could apparently nullify the burning sensation she was attempting to afflict me with, so I pulled her face a little closer and tutted. “Wrong is wrong no matter the reason why it happens, just as hurt is hurt no matter who afflicts it. This punishment is yours, and those who set you on this path will face theirs one day if they haven’t already. As for torture, it only feels that way because you don’t know mercy. And your instinct is right. It’s far more than you deserve, but I’m giving it to you anyway because that is my choice to make.”
She started to squirm seeing as her ‘snake bite’ didn’t work, and spat. “Mercy? You call this mercy? I never asked for it! Take it back! I want nothing from you but freedom! Let me go, and you’ll never see nor hear of me again!”
I shook my head, and wiped the glob of saliva from my cheek. “But that’s the problem. You’ve lived your whole life free of me and mercy and look where that’s gotten you. Not to mention that I definitely will see you again, no matter where you scamper off to, and I dread what I’ll find when I do.”
At least, that’s my best guess of what’ll happen if my abilities continue to grow, and if the system remains intent on having me judge the souls of the dead… And I’d rather be as lenient on those judgments as I can, so I’ve gotta start mitigating the damage. So ready or not, it’s time for a little unwanted rehab. Hypnosis.
I gazed into her eyes, and though I wasn’t entirely sure if she could see mine in the total darkness of the tunnel, I felt the spell take effect and watched her pupil’s dilate again and her face and body go slack.
With her in a trance, I began the list of restrictions I’d cooked up. “One: You will do no harm to others unless it is self defense or in defense of the defenseless. Two: You will act as an unknown guard and protector of the Kalsynth family, especially Ysdra, for a period of five years or until the political strife within the empire is concluded, whichever is resolved second. Three: You will act to encourage, protect, teach, or guide others in your free time, and cooperate with Father Iskel for the betterment of the community. Four: You will take no credit for any of your deeds, and answer obediently to just authority. And five: You will never again take up unlawful work, or make contact with those who do unlawful work, unless it is on behalf of the greater good or to help them escape the mire of that lifestyle. Understood?”
She blinked, lowered her eyes, and nodded. Then she said, her voice flat. “As you command.”
She remained frozen for a while as if the new restrictions needed time to settle into place before they could interact with her ego.
Then, like a switch being flipped, she suddenly started to twitch and spasm–her eyes rolling around in her head, as if the mental battle had become so intense that needed to take physical form.
And man she’s determined too! It’s already been several minutes, but she isn’t stopping. If this wasn’t for the sake of saving her soul I’d stop and try something else, but I really need this to work!
Foam started to gather at the corners of her mouth a bit later, so I decided to alter the terms before she blew a metaphorical gasket.
I snapped, and her head shot up, eyes once again glassy. “You will be released from these conditions the moment you understand them, and the reason why I placed them upon you. Until then, and after, you will be safe from further punishment from me and mine. Agreed?”
Because if you can actually pull that off, you’ll have changed to the point where I won’t need to punish you anymore.
It took a bit longer for a response to come, she jerked her neck a few times, like a robot glitching, but then more naturally asked. “You swear?”
I chuckled. “If that’s what it takes to save you, then I do. So go in peace.”
She blinked, so slowly and deliberately I momentarily thought she had been messing with me this whole time and might attack, but instead she clasped her hands in front of me, and lowered her face into the dirt. “Then until that time comes, and perhaps even after, please watch over me.”
I patted her shoulder, and warped away with shifted steps.
I sat in the branches of the tree she’d dug her base from and rested my heavy head in my hands. Goodness. Taking away, or at least limiting someone’s free will isn’t exactly pleasant, but I prefer it over having to destroy or forcefully cleanse another soul.
I sat and watched the moon, wondering if Linus would approve of this punishment, when I saw Soaria emerge from her former lair. She too watched the night sky for a while. Then she smiled, placed something under a rock, and headed off toward Kalsynthholme, no hint of her usually refined and cautious nature in her movements.
Then the system ruined the serenity of the moment.
#
Soaria an’Selm wasn’t stupid.
Deception and betrayal were her constant companions and she’d grown accustomed to them over her long career as an assassin. Gotten good at lying and knowing when she was being lied to, and all her experience told her that Anon wasn’t lying.
That was a promise from the most powerful and enigmatic being I’ve ever met. No more punishment, from them or that silver bird-girl–likely even the county too. And all they wanted was for me to do good. All they wanted was for me to be… safe… .
It was a feeling that sat oddly in her soul. Something that burdened her more than those fabricated visions. Someone who wasn’t indebted or subordinate to her, a complete stranger, really and truly wanted her to be safe.
To be saved.
And they were angry with her too. The hand that gripped her collar wasn’t gentle, those eyes looked ready to eradicate her in the most painful ways she could imagine, but then it passed as suddenly as spring rain. As if all she had done, as if all she had trained others to do, could just be forgiven and forgotten in that short of an instant.
She muttered as she rubbed her face in the dirt of the tunnel. “What right do you have to forgive me? What right do you have to make others do the same? How dare you dredge them up like that? Are we but pawns in your game?”
Anon’s words echoed in her mind. “Because souls are precious things, even tarnished and dirtied ones like yours.”
She tightened her grip until her palms started to bleed. Precious. Precious enough that you’d hunt me down yourself, force me to live a different life, and forgive all I’ve done? Her lower lip trembled. Someone like me? Covered in blood? Is that precious to you?
Anon had gone, but the warmth of their hand on her shoulder remained, as if to say. “Yes, of course.”
Soaria an’Selm wasn’t stupid.
She’d figured out and met Anon’s conditions for freedom almost as soon as they’d been set. She knew they wanted to help her, that they wanted better for her, and for the other people of this land, maybe even the entire world, and that they would go to any length to make sure even the lowest and most unwanted people knew it.
She had her freedom from that spell, but before she dragged herself from the hole she’d been digging for far too long, she wrote everything she knew about Marquis Palaeshek down and resolved to do as Anon asked anyway–simply because they cared, and because she hoped to make up for her apprentices as well.
If they are burning in death, or are slated to do so, then the least I can do is try to reduce the time or the heat, as I’m the reason they now suffer.
After she emerged, the cool night air wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable. Having grown up in the desert she hated the cold, but right now it was strangely refreshing. The moon, whose light constantly worked against her during missions, now felt like it was smiling down at her, and that the twinkling stars, her trusted guides, were waving to her, celebrating her arrival at this moment as if they’d been waiting for it all along.
She crouched, and slipped the note under a rock. Given how easily you invaded my mind, I doubt this will be useful to you, Anon. But in case it is, I hope that this will aid you on your path to saving others.
#
I waited until Soaria had left the range of my senses and then hopped down to take a peek at what she’d left for me. And it was a lot. “Directions to Palaeshek’s domain, locations to his escape routes and underhanded dealings? Anything and everything she was able to learn about him handed over to me in one concise note? Well, I was going to go after him soon anyway, so this is great!”
I tucked the dirty parchment away, and looked back in the direction of the castle. But first, I’ve got a funeral to attend. But should I be there in person for everyone to gawk at? I mean, the whole city knows about me at this point, so maybe it’d be better to just watch from somewhere secluded or in disguise? I should probably look into that ghost too, though I expect that to be easy.