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“Okay, I was… trying to figure out what was different about our bond,” I explained. “All the other bonds are just… there. Yours seems to be encased in some sort of crystal or something.”
“Crystal? That does not… I cannot see how that could be true.” Amura replied.
“Yeah, I’m going to see what I can do about it,” I explained.
She watched with interest as I sat down.
I tried not to focus too hard on the bond itself but on the crystals instead. For a second, the crystals seemed normal, and then I saw it. It wasn’t a singular structure, it was a series of geometric patterns, and each had something like a spike, anchoring it to our bond. Since I had become a little more familiar with the way magic worked, I reached out with my will and tried to… well do anything… to the first structure.
As soon as my will entered the structure, Amura cried out in pain, clutching her head.
I immediately stopped. “Are you okay?”
“What was that pain?” She wondered.
“Well… I think crystal is a bad word to describe the structure around your bond now.” I noted. “It seems more like… a series of spiked bands, clustered tightly enough that they look like one structure. I tried to see what they did, and… well, that’s when it hurt you.”
“Ah.” She noted. “So that is how the Marked’s Torment works.”
“The Marked’s Torment?” I repeated in confusion.
“The way that the one to whom I am enslaved may with ease torture and torment me if I attempt to disobey or perform poorly.” She explained simply.
“Holy fuck… Nope. That’s not staying.” I declared. “Um… let me try again.”
“To torture me?” She murmured, taking her turn being the confused one..
“No, to make sure no one can ever do that again?” I declared.
I glanced down at my bonding sigil again. Knowing now that each of these was here to restrict or harm her, I could not let them be.
This time, instead of just touching it with my will, I tried to slip my will between it and the bond. Amura didn’t react as the golden energy of my will slipped between the bond and the surrounding structure. I made sure to encase the point that dug into the bond most heavily.
“Agh…” Amura noted panting, “This is… most strange.”
Satisfied that the bond was protected, I wrapped my will around it and tried to crush it in my will. My head felt like a hot icepick had just been stabbed into it. It made concentrating very hard, but I didn’t relent. I increased the pressure, which increased the pain, but after a moment… The band shattered, dissipating into nothing, and the pain stopped. Looking over, Amura looked like she’d just been laid out by a haymaker. One hand held her head as it lolled around on her shoulders, her legs and other arm were spread eagle. If she hadn’t already been sitting in the corner, she probably would have been knocked back.
“By all the Hells… What was that?” She groaned.
The door burst open and Creadean, Tavorwen, Flendreir, and Anbethir burst into the room, weapons drawn. Mavrin, Narusil, and Sevrina were right on their heels, their arms in a casting stance.
“What did she do to you?” Creadean snarled.
“What? No. NO! Put the weapons away.” I told them. They hesitated, so I added. “NOW.”
Amura luckily was too distracted. “Ugh… my head.”
I went over to her… “Are you okay?”
“I… believe so.” She groaned. “Is my bond unfettered now?”
“No, that was one of the structures… there are at least…” I glanced down at the sigil. It was hard to get a count because of how densely packed they were, but I tried to guess. “… Around fifty of them.”
“Fifty?” She cried in indignation “Master… to remove all of them in this manner… I’m not sure I could…”
“Master, please explain what’s going on,” Creadean demanded more than asked.
“Look. Amura’s bond isn’t exactly like yours.” I began. “I thought hers was just encased in some sort of… magical crystal… but we were experimenting and I realized they were tools built into the bond to torture her. I broke one. It hurt like hell, but I’d do it a hundred times over if that’s what it takes to get rid of it. I won’t have her walking around with a fucking shock collar.”
“A shock… What is this thing you speak of?” Tavorwen prodded.
“A shock collar. Assholes in my world use them to train dogs. If the dog does something they don’t like, they can just push a button and zap the dog.” I snapped. “Even on a dog, most people agree it’s a shit way to make the dog obey. It’s worse on a hum-… person.”
“And that is what caused you such pain?” Tavorwen repeated.
“Yeah.” I affirmed.
“Amura did it.” Creadean declared. “We could FEEL her in your pain.”
“Sit down,” I instructed Creadean, and I went to Amura. “Are you okay? I guess some of them won’t believe unless we do another.”
“I would have them all gone… Regardless of how it pains me.” She declared, holding her head.
“Alright.” I could accept that. “Let’s get you into bed where you, hopefully, won’t hurt yourself if you thrash.”
Once she was gingerly settled, I returned to my chair. “Now watch so you can all SEE that she’s doing NOTHING.”
I concentrated on the bond again, my will slipping under and around the second node. This one had two spikes, one on each side. I wondered how I could maybe make it less fucking painful. The squeezing hadn’t worked particularly well, in my personal opinion. So this time, I formed a hammer out of my will and tried to just smash the thing.
I felt the impact in my head. It burned and I felt concussed, but I saw cracks on the torture band, and they slowly started to repair themselves so I had to move fast. I struck again, and the cracks separated the band into two pieces, I used my will to rip the two pieces clear of the bond… at which point they disintegrated.
Tavorwen caught me as I fell forward.
“Master! Master, are you okay?” She pleaded.
“Oww… um… yeah.” I declared, and with some effort, I could straighten… This was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my head. But somehow I was able to push through it.
“Mythrin’s claws… That… How can you bear such pain?” Narusil wondered.
Amura appeared to have passed out.
“I have to… get these off her…” I grunted and prepared for the third.
“You must rest!” Mavrin declared. “The dark energy being released is… it’s causing your balance to shift. You could kill yourself, or her if you continue!”
That gave me pause. Pain could be recovered from. But… I didn’t want to kill her.
I ground my teeth in frustration.
“Master… I am trained to handle dark magic… May I assist?” Mavrin offered.
“Dark magic is not to be trifled with,” Sevrina warned her.
“Would you have me stand by as our master struggles so? And not all interactions with dark magic corrupt.” Mavrin declared. “While it is still classified as dark magic, the magic to counter dark magic utilizes the energy of good… I believe that is what is required here.”
The others stepped aside to let Mavrin approach me.
“Are none of you concerned for Amura?” A voice from the hall asked, and to my surprise, Heilantu pushed through and walked to Amura’s side. I knew Heilantu didn’t like Amura. She didn’t like how there was a Shadow Elf in our house. But still, she sat by her side and began the incantations of healing. Silver-white light encircled her hands as she laid them on Amura’s temples.
With a shudder, Amura began breathing more easily.
“By the host… that must have been painful,” Heilantu noted sympathetically. “Now, before you do anything with our Master, I will see to him first.”
She came to me invoking those same incantations. As her hands touched my head, it was like a wash of cold water through the searing pain in my head.
“Hells… How were you still conscious?” Heilantu breathed and began a second incantation as the first faded and the pain started to return. It took her four such spells before I felt like myself again and my head wasn’t hurting anymore.
Her hands trembled as she pulled them from my head.
“Is he ready now?” Mavrin asked.
“As ready as any may be,” Heilantu assured her.
Mavrin took my other hand. “Guide me to the magic of which you speak.”
I closed my eyes, and I felt, more than saw, a pinprick of silver… light? Will? Call it what you want… My brain processed it as a light like it processed my will as a golden light. For a second I couldn’t figure out what to do then I reached out with my will to kind of… wrap it, like in a blanket.
“Talnir’s Tome! Master… such power… Is THIS why your magic has such power?” Mavrin gasped.
“What is it?” Narusil pressed.
“His power is as an ocean! Boundless and deep!” She shuddered. “Terrifying and beautiful…”
I chuckled. “Let’s stay on task.”
I guided her to the bond and to the structures. I cracked open an eye, and Marvin had her eyes closed and a look of intense concentration on her face.
“This is what you were undoing?” She breathed in awe.
“What is it?” Sevrina pressed.
“Refractive matrices of dark magic. They… they are embedded in the very bond itself.” Mavrin noted.
“Why would anyone do such a thing?” Sevrina wondered.
“Amura said they were used to punish slaves that did anything wrong or didn’t do as well as their… Marked thought they should.” I explained.
I almost called the slave owners “Masters”. The means were very different here.
“So, Mavrin, can you help me get rid of them?” I refocused.
“Matrices like this are very persistent and durable forms of magic… How did you destroy the previous ones? I can see where once their magic pierced the bond but… not how you were able to undo them.” She confessed.