She opened her eyes, squinting them at the sight in front of her. Subtle wisps of white glow suddenly started to emerge from her body, not from her fingers, but from her forearms. The wisps danced in the air, traveling from her arms into her hand where her fresh wound lay open. Her vision became blurred with tears.
Alissa was aZeity, a mage capable of manipulating the effects of time in all living matters and shifting flesh at will. Her legswere still weak as she recovered from the pain, but the wave of relief that flooded her senses was more overwhelming than she could have anticipated. It wasn’t about craving power, but the fact that now she had an actual chance to break the Senectus Subita curse.
This was the first time since Alissa crossed the walls that saving Dhalia had started to feel less like a dream and more like reality. Her bare feet hurt when she walked on little pebbles scattered on the ground, but she didn’t care. Feeling a sliver of happiness seemed like a surreal feeling when her heart still battled with grief, but at that moment, Alissa couldn’t deny that she felt lighter.
Her eyes met Mrs. Ilden, finding a proud smile on her lips. “Will it hurt this much every time?”
The teacher shook her head. “It will hurt a lot in the beginning. With time and practice, you’ll barely notice the pain anymore.”
Alissa nodded. When she glanced at the palm of her hand, the cut was still there, open and bleeding with the same intensity as before. Alissa frowned.
Had everything been an illusion?
It was only then that she realized something was wrong with her hand. To her dismay, the magic either didn’t understand her command to heal her palm or chose to ignore it entirely. Instead, an extra pinky finger had grown on her left hand. Her mouth fell open.
Behind her, Mrs. Ilden laughed, a sound so hearty and unrestrained that Alissa found herself grinning even after everything.
“What do I do with this now?” she grunted, wiping her tears away as she assessed the newly created pinky, surprised to know it was fully functional.
“Now you learn how to use your magic of time and undo the creation of your extra finger.”
“That sounds way beyond my expertise. I don’t even know how I grew it in the first place.”
“You can either do that, or you can remove it the old-fashioned way and then heal the wound with your magic.”
“What old-fashioned way?” she asked, but the teacher’s smirk said it all. Alissa’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth in shock. “Do you mean cutting it off?”
Mrs. Ilden shrugged, the smirk wider now.
“That sounds unnecessarily painful. Maybe I could keep the extra finger?” She twitched her nose at the sight. The finger moved in synchrony, but the deformity quickly changed her mind. “Never mind, learning the magic of time it is.”
A few days later—after battling the parasite clawing her mind once more—Alissa watched the wisps of magic travel toward her left hand. A satisfied smile danced on her lips; it had been easier to control the magic this time.
Maybe I’m actually getting better at this.
The magic enveloped all of her fingers at once, tying knots of power around them. She found the tickling pleasant until a sharp sensation overtook her, leaving her completely numb. Her heart thundered inside her chest as the knots of magic squeezed not only her extra finger but all of them.
Alissa heaved in panic, calling for the teacher. “Mrs. Ilden, help! I think I accidentally ordered my magic to cut off all my fingers!”
Before the teacher could come to her rescue, the wisps of magic dissolved, taking with them only the finger that hadn’t belonged there. The extra pinky had vanished as if it had never existed. Despite the scare, this was the first successful use of her power.
After her first success, others came more quickly and less painfully than she had anticipated. Even Mrs. Ilden had been surprised at how fast she had been improving when she managed to fabricate her first piece of flesh. When she tasted it, she was astonished by how it replicated the flavor. Emotion tinged at her core; if she could always rely on her magic to make meat, Alissa and her family would never starve again.
The more she used her magic, the more its energy became evident. First came the sharp pain, then a tingling sensation that danced within her as her magic stopped trying to take over. It burned through her forearms and urged to be summoned. While she still wasn’t capable of summoning great power like Mrs. Ilden, she was determined to keep practicing. To keep improving.
The progress with her magic wasn’t the only piece of good news during this second week of isolation. Days earlier, they had learned that the Iron Claws had ceased their searches for Alissa. According to rumors, an announcement was made to the public stating that all fugitives had been captured. The posters with their faces had been removed from every location, leaving not a single one behind. Breno’s death—an innocent civilian—had stirred unrest and discontent among the people of Golheim. The Crown was forced to fabricate a story about Alissa’s captivity and to continue their search discreetly, away from the public eye. Mrs. Ilden believed the Crown was convinced Alissa had already left the capital and was shifting their focus to other areas of the realm.
Because of this, every night Alissa would return to the city, infiltrating the quieter streets to gather as much information as she could about Eldric’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, none of the downtown market owners could provide her with any useful details. Whether it was due to fear or ignorance, she couldn’t be sure. She did learn, however, that the Crown held the mostvaluable prisoners of the kingdom in underground dungeons, and that was where she suspected he was being held. Sadly, she hadn’t found any proof that Eldric was still alive.
Not until that night.
Alissa moved like a shadow. As she approached the city center, by Thayan’s white marble statue, she saw him. His dark linen trousers were torn in several places, and blood seemed to cover the parts of his skin that were visible. His torso was bare, revealing a chest covered in scars and lacerations that ran from his lower back to the base of his neck. One of his arms was missing from the elbow down, and fresh blood dripped from where thick metal chains cut into his wrist and ankles. His black hair was longer, his beard thicker, and his eyes had lost their color, reflecting the emotional and physical toll of torture. Eldric’s beauty was completely overshadowed by all the abuse. She almost didn’t recognize him.
At first, she thought he was dead, put on display as a warning to anyone who might betray the kingdom. But when he groaned in pain, she realized he was still alive, a mere shadow of his former self, a ghost of the brilliant man he was. Alissa’s legs shook with relief, her heart racing as she used the back of her hand to wipe the tears streaming down her face.
She hurried toward him, desperate to free him from the atrocious chains that kept this strong, loving man suspended like a carcass, longing to hold him in her arms and never let go. A shift in the darkness of one of the surrounding buildings startled her. Then, she saw it—the shadows strategically positioned, lurking near the buildings around them. She counted twelve figures waiting for her. It was a trap, and she was about to walk straight into it.
The torment of walking away from him, of leaving the man she loved at the mercy of evil, was almost unbearable. To leave him there, hanging helplessly and alone, destined to be torturedrepeatedly until his body reached its breaking point, felt like condemning him to death. Breaking those chains and fleeing to Bryniard with Eldric by her side was a desperate dream, but she couldn’t risk being captured now. If she did, Freyah and Breno wouldn’t be the last victims of the treacherous path she had chosen to take. Eldric would only survive for as long as the Iron Claws did not capture Alissa.