"Wow..." I uttered in awe. They were different and similar at the same time. All of them reminded me so much of my caretaker. However, all of them looked tired as well, like they've been stalling in their carriages for hours.
Hours? I scrambled up the trees to look at the sun and sure enough, it was on its highest point. That large ball of gas was mocking at this point.
I woke up in the middle of the day. It wouldn't let me experience the night and now it's stopping me from experiencing the early signs of morning.
I needed to get to the bottom of this.
I was taken to this place. There must have been something here that changed the process of me blacking out. Something that attracted me.
Upon first investigation from afar, I didn't catch anything that's out of the ordinary. The life forms were minding their own businesses, doing things that satisfied them. I felt so many intentions, far more than what I usually felt in the tower with those mindless clones. I had to stop feeling for them because my head started to ache from the flood of information.
Using my base senses garnered similar results. It wasn't a big deal, I got all the information I could from the settlement.
There was nothing out of the ordinary with the place. So why was I here? Maybe it was something inside that needed my attention. Something that called for me. I needed to go inside—
"Kshhiwwiw! Als hmh xlmw xs csy?!"
I turned to the voice, my hand pulsing with blood, ready to attack. A wave of worry-filled intention phased me, breaking my concentration as a large woman pulled me in to her space.
Her hands grabbed my own before they crawled all over my body. The feeling of being groped was similar to my time at the tower, yet instead of the numbness, I felt uncomfortable. She wasn't as thorough, nor was she prodding in places she shouldn't. No, I was creeped out by the unhealthy amount of sympathy that cried her eyes as she spotted the scars that littered my skin.
"Evi csy epvmklx? Evi csy lyvxmrk ercalivi?"
Her voice was honeyed, tears springing from the sides. There was magical discharge in the air that I had no doubt came from her simmering emotions.
"Get off of me."
Recognition flashed in her face and she leaned back in surprise, "Cleathean? You're a long way from home, buttercup!" She checked over my body again, to my uncomfortable mumbling.
Her accent was thick. I could barely make out the words from her lips without squinting. What was this woman?
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
What language was she speaking before? Why won't she stop touching me? Couldn't she see that I was uncomfortable? It was so fucking weird. Her accent was thick and weird.
"Hey." She snapped her fingers in front of my face.
By instinct, I raised my arms to her face, showcasing relatively clean wrists. She backed away from the sudden movement. I remained where I was. The dull pain at the back of my head growing in reminder of what would happen if I wasn't still.
Her fear was replaced by worry. By the Gods, she was basically sweating with sympathy at this point. I could feel every intention and emotion she had. I wanted to move and back away from her and her emotions. I was overwhelmed by her aura, if I looked into her eyes, I would no doubt feel the full brunt of her feelings.
I couldn't move away. I was so conditioned. I was so used to this that I could feel myself being punished if I even twitched.
This woman entered my space again. I readied myself for the injections that never came. Instead, she gently moved my hair away from my eyes and to my ear. I didn't move, I didn't flinch. I stared at her chest with the burning desire to stay still.
I didn't even realize I was whimpering until she shushed me and moved my wrists away from their position. "Who hurt you, buttercup?"
Surprised, I inhaled sharply as well as stepped away from her. This woman was dangerous. She knew of the conditioning I went through and was able to lower my defenses through the thick stench of her emotions.
"I-"
"Hey, it's okay. I ain't gon' hurt you."
"Who are you?" My voice may have wobbled but the intent was clear. She stepped back, looked entirely afraid of me. I must have released a bit of my magic. I shouldn't have done that. They would easily find me.
They can't find me now. Not when I haven't solved my current problem. Not when they could subdue me through the decades of conditioning instilled onto me.
"My name is Tiana."
Oh. I had forgotten she was there for a moment. Tiana. What a weird name.
"I am from the Village of Eisle. I'm a travelling merchant, y'see?" She pulled out a gold plaque that I couldn't read. "I have business inside the City of Karkos. I didn't mean any harm, I only wanted to help."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
She chuckled like she didn't expect me to say something comprehensive. I may look barbaric but I'm quite eloquent. My caretaker made sure of it.
Seeing the serious expression on my face made her shiver. She must have thought back to the magical discharge that I released from earlier. Nodding to herself, she replied, "Do I need a reason to help someone in need? From the looks of it, you need it more than me."
I took another step back, so close to going back to the bushes and running away from here forever.
I can't survive this kind of treatment. What is this? Why does she feel dangerous? She's weak, I know that. I was easily able to grab her and dangle her without breaking a sweat. Her wrist is red, if I had just flinched one more time I would have broken it. So why does she feel so fucking dangerous?
"Who...are you?" I felt ashamed to have let my voice quiver that much when I spoke.
I am supposed to be the abomination. The mutant that everyone in the tower was scared of. Outside of those crazy fucking scientists, they were all scared of me. So how dare she make me feel so fucking scared right now?
She softened, finally taking a step back. I didn't know I would get so relieved as soon as she did. It was like someone had turned off the static playing in my ear, "My name is Tiana from the Village of Eisle," She said, "I don't know about the details but you look like you could really use some help."
Should I..
"Black outs. Do you know?" If she was offering help, I should get as much information about it as possible.
"Black outs? What do you mean by that?"
"I can't see the night. Just after the sun sets it would be sun rise. Now it happened again but this time it's suddenly noon and I'm far away from where I used to be."
She looked to the band on her wrist then to the wagon behind her before she replied, "That sounds like a problem that we don't have the time or resources to solve right now. Do you want to come with me inside the town? I know of a doctor that might be able to help in knowing what's happening with you."
Inside the town. Do I want to go? I'm so close to just stepping back and letting nature take ahold of me. Is that really what I want? To suffer?
I don't want to go inside the to—
"I would really love to go."
Fuck it. I got this freedom, I'll spend it however I want to.
———
[ Kingdom of Cleat - 1 Year after The Escape ]
"Did you find her?"
The man looked over the documents spread all across the large table, an irritant crease between his brows. His voice echoed endlessly despite speaking with a touch of softness.
Two teens appeared behind him with a cloud of smoke, kneeling.
The one with white hair trembled as he looked to the man in front of him before reporting, "The doctor has not been able to make progress with the experiment. From the current data, there have been signs of where she might have gone to but when we investigated further, there was no trace of her."
A suffocating aura engulfed the room. The table along with a large chunk of the floor breaking apart as the man groaned miserably at the news. He heaved a long sigh, shoulders slumping as the pressure continued to grow.
The other teen, with eyes as white as the moon, stepped in smoothly. Appearing by the man's side and offering him a scroll as he added, "The continued destruction has gotten worse and worse by the minute, which means that the drug that the doctor had given her in the case of this scenario was slowly working."
Before the man could actually express joy over the news, the nervous one spoke again, "However, while the grunts were gathering data of the effects the drugs had on her, they were ambushed and killed. Reinforcements were only able to recover half of the data the initially acquired, the rest of the site was reduced to a large crater."
The man's fists went through the calm teen's chest in rage. "One year. It has been one year since she escaped and we have not found a single clue as to where she is or what she is going to do next." He looked at the teen, the fire blazing in his eyes as he watched the muscles in his forearms flex as he opened and closed the fist inside of the boy.
The timid one had already looked away, bile rising in his throat as he tried to erase the images of his comrade's suffering from his head.
There was a sickening squelch when the man located the heart and squeezed, followed by a lifeless thud. "The day of reckoning is near. If we do not present our weapon to the King, the church's summoned heroes will ceaselessly have to risk their lives to those demons."
The man walked over the corpse to reach for the broadsword nearby. "I will be leading the next expedition. Take me to the research facility."