Marco kept the window open so the fumes wouldn’t linger, but the small coal brazier kept choking up the room.
In front of him was an alembic. One side of the contraption was being heated and housed a clump of herbs. The smoke carrying burnt material flowed across, condensing on the other side, into a thin, blood-red liquid.
Once purified with mana, it would turn a vibrant blue and the process would be complete.
Before he got to it, a soft knock rapped against the door.
He covered the brazier with a small plate. “Yeah?”
“Can we talk?” The door cracked open and Sophie peeked inside. “I… wanted to continue from last time.”
“I’d love to, but I’m busy.” Marco exhaled through his nose. “I’m preparing to deal with Hito.”
“So you were serious…” Her voice thinned. “…maybe we shouldn’t do it.”
“Do you not want to?” Marco’s brows creased. “Can you do it yourself?”
“It’s not—” She swallowed, shoulders tightening.
“Are you afraid?” He asked softly.
She nodded.
“It’s going to be alright.” Marco walked up to her and their eyes met. “Only tell me that you want me to help, and I will.”
Silence stretched between them. Sophie looked at the vials, at the faint steam rising, at anything except him. Marco waited, trying hard not to seem impatient.
“…I want you to.” She finally muttered out.
“I’m glad,” Marco sighed in relief. He patted her arm. “Is there a place you can bring him? Somewhere you two would be alone?”
“Yes, plenty.” She nodded slowly.
“Great, here’s what we’ll do…”
The next morning, Sophie walked beside Hito through the common district. The quickly placed cobbles were uneven in places, and the whole place still smelled faintly of fresh mortar.
Her fingers kept drifting to her waist, brushing over the cloth-wrapped drink Marco had given her. Every time she touched it, her pulse quickened.
“You’re lively today,” Hito said. “Good to see.” His smile was soft. It felt genuine.
“I feel better,” Sophie answered, matching the smile. “Seeing all that money… it made my worries disappear.”
“I told you,” Hito chuckled. “You were holding yourself back for no reason.”
His words stung her. How could he not see them for the lie they were?
They headed toward one of the finished houses. Hito walked with the relaxed confidence of someone who could do no wrong. Sophie tried to steady her breathing as she led up the short steps and into the building.
The main room was bare but bright, sunlight catching dust motes in the air. Hito glanced around, tapping the wall with his knuckles.
“Crazy to think the people who’ll live here were starving outside a few months ago,” he murmured, then he looked back at her. “You made this happen, Sophie. You changed their lives.”
Sophie hesitated. The words were exactly what she wanted to hear, kind and appreciative.
And exactly what Marco warned her about.
She could almost hear him: ‘that’s the trick.’ He was sweet now because she was doing what he wanted.
Her chest tightened, but something in her settled too. A kind of clarity.
Sophie smiled brightly, stepping toward the doorway to the next room. “We’re alone here, you know,” she said, lifting the drink, inviting him to follow. “I thought we could have a little drink. As a reward.”
Hito took a step after her, eyebrows rising.
She opened it the moment she crossed into the next room, precisely as Marco told her to. The drink’s heavy, putrid aroma rolled out into the air. Hito recoiled, waving a hand.
“Ugh, this is foul,” he asked, leaning closer. “What is it, Soph?”
Sophie froze. This wasn’t how Marco said it would go. She didn’t know if she should insist, pretend it was fine, or—
She started to breathe faster. Her vision swam as everything started to turn foggy. The air felt thin, too thin.
Oh no.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The floor rushed up to meet her as everything went pale.
Marco watched through the thin hole in the door, breath held behind the filter mask. He winced as Sophie dropped to the floor. The bruises she would wake up to were not part of the plan.
Hito spun toward her, startled, still too focused on the putrid smell to notice the faint shimmer in the air.
The drink he had given Sophie was just a foul-smelling decoy, one of Ualani’s failed experiments. The real sleeping potion was suspended in the air beforehand and already working its magic, just slowly.
Hito knelt beside her, shook her shoulder, cursed under his breath. Then, with a grunt, he lifted her up in his arms and started for the exit.
Marco's ears heated up. He barged in, determined to keep him in the room until the potion worked.
Their eyes met. With a scowl on his face, he dropped Sophie to the ground like the bastard he was. He staggered toward the exit, still very much conscious and shouting for help.
Unfortunately for him, Ualani was already behind him. She cut off his exit with a barrier, a small stone glowing in her hand, preventing any sound from leaving the room.
“So I got played.” Hito's voice was steady, furious. “You’re making a huge mistake.” He tried to charge past Ualani, but his shoulder bounced off the translucent barrier with a heavy smack. Cursing, he drew his sword.
Marco backed off a step.
Hito's boots scraped across the floor. He swung with strength, but his footwork faltered. His breath hitched. His cuts grew sluggish.
The potion was finally digging in.
Marco dodged backwards, keeping a steady distance. Hito’s blade started to drag across the air as if it weighed twice its usual heft. His knees wobbled and he collapsed to one side.
“Seriously?” Marco muttered, chest tight. “How the hell did he withstand the potion so long?”
He stepped closer, his shoulders sagging. He bent over the man to inspect his breathing—
Hito's eyes flicked back open and he sliced at him.
Marco didn’t even have time to swear. The blade arced up in a blur aimed straight at his neck. He threw up his arms on instinct.
Enchanted steel bit through his flesh.
White pain tore through him as his left hand was cut in half, fingers falling to the ground, and the blade carved deep into his right arm, nearly severing it too.
He stumbled back, choking on his own breath.
Hito pushed himself to stand—
A sharp crack sounded as a small block of ice slammed into the side of his helmet, rattling his skull.
Hito dropped like a stone, this time without any tricks.
Ualani was already by Marco’s side, eyes wide over the cloth mask, her hands hovering over the wound.
He was bleeding out fast. His life was literally in her hands now.
Marco leaned back against the wall, vision flickering.
“The plan was shit after all.” he managed to force out as everything went dark.
Marco's head swam as he came to. He blinked, the harsh rays of sun coming through the window caused a momentary sting.
He looked down, expecting to see a bandaged stump, but his left hand was back in place. A wide swathe of raw, pink tissue was the only proof it wasn’t all just a nightmare.
He flexed his fingers, opened then closed. The stiff motion brought pain, but also a wave of relief.
The deep slash on his right arm was similarly, just a thin line of pink.
He looked up. Ualani was kneeling next to the unconscious Hito, her eyes closed and her hand on his chest.
“Oh, you’re up,” she glanced at him. “Your ideas are really something.”
“Which ones?” Marco groaned as he got up. “I had plenty of great ideas.”
“That tube, whatever it is.” Her eyes flicked toward Hito. A clear thin tube ran from a small glass bulb into his throat, drip-feeding the man with sleeping potion. “I will make good use of it.”
“Are you done already?” Marco massaged his temple. Having almost bled out, he wasn’t in the mood to consider the ramifications of showing Ualani basics of anaesthesia.
“No, I was just about to start.” She shrugged. “I spent most of the time patching the two of you up. Your living weapons make for excellent connective tissue, by the way. Very resilient.”
Two of you? Marco’s gaze snapped past Hito. Sophie was lying a few feet away, still peacefully asleep.
“She’s fine already, but I had to fix her broken arm,” Ualani continued, following his look.
Marco clenched his teeth. He had wanted Sophie to be asleep, just so she didn’t have to see what was about to happen, but he didn’t consider Hito would discard her like that.
“Thank you,” He said, bowing his head to Ualani. “This is more than what we agreed on, and you still did it.”
“Can’t have you die before you get to pay me, do I?” Ualani smirked. “But are you sure you don’t want to train on him a bit? I’ll probably be able to fix him up anyway.”
Marco shook his head. He only half-seriously considered it. “I’m good. Let’s just get this done.”
"It's your call.” She sighed, gesturing for him to come closer. “I’ll try to pass the mana through you, so you can at least get some visualization experience out of it. It’s better than nothing.”
Marco sat down next to her, placing his hand over hers as she pressed her palm lightly against Hito’s scalp.
The moment the contact was made, Marco’s head throbbed. It was a dizzying rush of foreign sensation, like having a different mind in his head.
He almost pulled back, but refocused, allowing the sensations to wash over him, and slowly, the chaos resolved into a terrifying, three-dimensional map of Hito’s cranium.
She delicately moved a stream of mana, so tiny it passed through the delicate body parts without any harm. It was as incredible as it was impossible for him to replicate.
It flowed like a thin thread, weaving between the countless, indistinct parts of the brain. Finally, she reached the deeper area around the brain stem that she had told him about.
Marco could feel Ualani hesitate. And seeing the same thing she did, it was obvious why. Which specific fold or node was the one they needed?
She started to inspect each centimeter deeply, smoothly moving between structures.
And he saw it.
Woven into one of the organs, almost like a spool of fibers, were the golden lines. The same ethereal, luminous strings he saw flowing out of the bodies of the dead.
“This is it,” Marco stated, his voice barely a breath.
“How?” Ualani stopped casting for a second, surprised. “Are you sure? It all looks the same to me.”
“Yes. I can’t really explain it, but I am sure.” He nodded. “The last thing you showed is what we need to hit.”
“Alright.” She took a deep breath. “It’s on you if he breaks.”
She slowly pushed more mana into Hito’s brain, accumulating it in the specific organ Marco identified. Once it reached an amount she was satisfied with, she briefly let go of the energy, letting it violently dissipate.
Hito’s body jerked once, a sudden, sharp spasm.
Marco held his breath for a second, but there was no more movement. Hito didn’t wake.
Ualani stood up, rolling her shoulders.
“It’s done. He should lose at least a few years of memory from that.” she sighed, brushing dust from her robes. “So much work for something that could have been accomplished with a knife to the throat.”
“Don’t complain. You’re being paid for this,” Marco said, still staring at the violated man in front of him.
“Oh, I know.” She turned, a smile slowly spreading across her lips—a smile that made Marco shiver despite the warmth of the room. “And I’m going to greatly enjoy my payment.”
Do you mind shoutouts at the top of the chapter?
