Azee squeezed her eyes shut. Her breath caught in her throat as her fingers touched the raised disk carved into the front of the safe. She felt the cold, smooth crystal beneath her fingers, but nothing happened.
Hesitantly, Azee opened her left eye just a crack. “D-did I do it wro-” All of a sudden, the rune crackled and lit up with an intense blue-green glow. A low pitched humming filled the room as the crystal beneath her fingers suddenly began to grow warmer.
In a panic Azee tried to pull her hand back, but something had bound her fingers to the disk. No matter how hard she pulled, she could not get free. Panic filled her body again and she squeezed her eyes shut, praying to anyone or anything that would save her.
‘Luke!’
Azee’s fingers tingled and her fur rippled as the hum grew louder and more incessant. Through her closed eyelids she saw a bright flash of light. For a moment, Azee was certain she had been killed.
And then, with a loud crack, the front wall of the safe fell to the ground. Her fingers suddenly free, Azee stumbled back and fell on her rump with a surprised yelp.
“Did... did it work? Azee asked, slowly opening one eye.
Eloise nodded, a smile working its way across her lips. “You’re not dead and the safe is open, so yes, it worked.”
“D-did I break it?”
“No, you didn’t break it.”
“B-but the door.”
“The moment you put the door back in its place, it will fuse with the rest of the safe. It would be hard to mount hinges to a hunk of crystal, don’t you think? ”
“I… I suppose so.”
Taking a deep breath, Azee peered into the safe. A glowing, blue rune illuminated the interior, the pale light reflecting off of several stacks of coins, and various other pieces of jewellery. A small pile of runes were placed in individual glass cases at the back, the symbols intricate and glowing emerald green. A number of books and ledgers sat upon the lowest shelf, all wrapped in fine leather and bound with silken ribbons. It was a fortune, a trove of treasure to make even the most wealthy banker salivate.
But none of that interested Azee in the least. Her gaze was locked onto a sheaf of papers bound in a leather folio, the words ‘sales ledger’ stamped in gold on the cover.
Her heart leapt in her chest. ‘Chara!’
Azee lunged forward, reaching for the folio. The moment her arm crossed the threshold of the safe, a bright green rune burst into life around the edge of the entrance. Azee’s eyes widened as she felt a sudden rush of heat billow up her arm.
“Get back!” Eloise roared, grabbing hold of Azee’s tail and yanking hard.
With a piercing yelp, Azee fell backwards as the air inside of the safe became filled with sparks, before erupting into an inferno. A great burst of flame shot out, singeing Azee’s fur and leaving black scorch marks upon the walls and ceiling. The heat was intense, but only lasted for a few seconds.
Azee sat up as quickly as she could, rubbing at her stinging eyes. Fragments of incinerated papers drifted lazily through the air like fat snowflakes, settling upon her fur and hair.
Everything inside of the safe had been utterly destroyed. The stacks of coins had melted into ugly puddles of slag. The rune crystals crackled like hot coals as they split and crumbled to pieces, their glass cases melted and still glowing. All that remained of the books, the folios, and stacks of paper, were scorched fragments of parchment and leather.
For a moment, Azee stared, completely stunned, at the ruin before her. A small scrap of paper, still smouldering, drifted down past her face, and crumbled to dust as it touched her shaking palm.
There was nothing left, every trace of paper had been utterly destroyed.
“A secondary defence rune,” Eloise growled, pulling herself to her feet, brushing ash from her dress. “It must have been keyed to Windhill himself. Anyone not directly from the Windhill bloodline would trigger it.”
“And you didn’t see it?” Azee demanded, her voice cracking.
Azee scrambled forward on her hands and knees and started pawing through the smouldering ashes in the safe. The pads on her fingers hissed as they touched the hot crystal, but Azee was beyond caring. She couldn’t breathe, her mind was a blur.
“Please…” she whimpered frantically. “Please, please let there be something! Anything! Please!”
But there was nothing but hot ash.
Eloise sighed heavily as Azee stumbled away from the safe, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry Azee…”
Azee gasped, trying and failing to catch her breath. She tried to get to her feet, but her legs refused to follow her orders. The room span about her wildly, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think. Her stomach turned and Azee was violently sick upon the floor.
“Calm down,” Eloise urged, striding over and reaching out a hand to touch Azee’s shoulder.
“NO!” Azee spun around, shoving Eloise’s arm away, foam and bile bubbling at the corners of her mouth.
“Chara is gone! She’s gone! She… she… ” With a howl of rage, Azee lunged forward and swept her arm across Luke’s desk, sending papers flying, and an inkwell smashing against the wall. She sank her claws into the varnished and immaculately polished wood, sending splinters flying.
“NO!” Azee cried, clutching at her ears, as if trying to tear them from her head as she staggered about. “No no no! NO!”
Eloise couldn’t help but step back. Azee was utterly out of control. She knew all too well that a person whose mind was overrun with such pain was capable of anything.
“Take a breath,” she commanded as Azee dropped to her knees. “There is still hope!”
“What hope?” Azee howled, tears flying free as her wails turned into great heaving sobs that tore the breath from her chest. In blind rage she pounded the floor with her fists, as if trying to bring down the house with her bare hands.
Finding no relief, she slammed her forehead against the unyielding wood, trying to pound the grief from her skull.
“Stop!” Eloise surged forward and grabbed Azee’s head. “Get a hold of yourself!”
“It’s gone! It’s all gone!” Azee wailed, wrapping her arms around herself. Her grip was so tight that her claws drew blood. “Chara…”
As Azee howled in pain, a glint of metal amongst the debris from Luke’s desk caught her eye. Beneath a few papers, and amidst the shattered remnants of its glass case, lay Luke's gun.
The moment her eyes fell upon the weapon, Azee’s grief turned to rage. Hatred filled every part of her, blowing to shreds what little control she still possessed. With a furious bellow, Azee swept the papers aside, grabbed hold of the pistol and lunged for the door.
“Wait! Stop!” Eloise called out, trying to catch Azee as she rushed past. She felt the slightest touch of fur on the tips of her fingers, and then Azee was gone, sprinting down the hallway.
“Oh shit!” Eloise hissed, clambering to her feet and taking off in pursuit.
===
The world rushed by Azee as if she were in a blizzard. She stumbled as the carpet bunched up beneath her feet, but her momentum carried her forward. By the time she reached the main staircase, she was almost on all fours.
Azee grabbed hold of the bannister as she reached the main staircase, nearly tearing the decorative carved flower from the top of the post. She tore down the stairs, four at a time, her claws shredding the carpet.
She didn’t know what she was going to do, she had no plan. The gun felt heavy in her hand, the sound of her heartbeat roared in her ears. Only one thought rose above the cacophony… ‘Attack.’
In her frenzy, Azee nearly lost her grip on the gun. As she struggled to keep hold of it, her finger curled around the trigger. The moment she thought she had regained her hold on the weapon, it fired, sending a bullet into the stairs a few inches from her foot.
Azee cried out as, between the surprise and the fright, she lost her balance and tumbled forwards. She crashed down the last few stairs and dropped into a moaning heap against one of the grand hall’s marble pillars.
Panting hard, Azee fought her way past the pain in her back and shoulders, pushing herself back to her feet. The gun had slipped from her fingers and lay a few paces in front of her.
‘Never put your finger on the trigger unless you are damn sure you are going to fire the weapon.’
‘B-but I was just cleaning it… And the safety was on.’
‘Doesn’t matter Azee. You don’t touch the trigger unless you mean to pull it.’
“Shut up.” Azee growled out loud, picking up the gun and limping towards the cellar.
===
“Come on…” Luke muttered to himself, fiddling with a new length of bent wire, trying to force the lock on the cell door. With the chill air, the painful scratches down his arm, and the knowledge that he only had a short time, it was difficult to keep his hands steady. Luke knew there was no chance that Azee or the witch would be able to open his safe, so it was only a matter of time before they came back to get him. There were weapon and defence runes stored in the safe, runes he could use the moment he opened it. But none of those runes would allow him to deal with the witch without potentially killing Azee at the same time.
“Just gotta get out, and get the overseers to subdue them both.” Luke muttered as he worked. “When the Order comes, tell them that it was the bitch who put Azee up to everything. She didn’t give her a choice, or messed with her collar somehow..”
He growled in frustration as the wire caught against the lock mechanism and became stuck. “Then... gotta get Azee’s collar fixed… As soon as it’s fixed she’ll be reasonable again and
I can have a long talk with her.”
Pulling the wire free, Luke took a moment to collect his thoughts. “After that, everything will be back to the way it was and we can forget this ever happened.”
Taking a deep breath, he reinserted the wire into the lock. “And I’ll personally light the pyre beneath that witch’s feet.”
All of a sudden, the door exploded open and Azee burst into the pantry. Her shoulders shook, her whole body vibrating with rage. Her ears were flat as she panted, her hot breath billowing in the cold air of the pantry.
As Luke and Azee’s eyes met, the hairs on the back of Luke’s neck stood straight up. The look on Azee’s face... it was as if an inferno was raging behind her eyes. He had seen that look only once before, in the mirror the day he had personally executed Hawk for daring to disgrace his precious Azee.
The look had frightened him when it had been upon his own face. Seeing it now, on the face of another, terrified him.
For what felt like an eternity to Luke, Azee didn’t move or speak, she simply stared at him, her face blank, as if she didn’t she didn’t quite know who or what she was looking at. Her entire body shook as she tried to catch her breath, but her eyes were locked on his.
Desperately Luke searched Azee’s face for any hint of her thoughts; but there was nothing.
Luke’s eyes widened as the smell of singed fur and burned paper filled his nose.
“Lord… you got in. How in all ten of layers of damnation did you manage that?”
Luke’s blood ran cold as he noticed his prized duelling pistol in Azee’s hand. The gleaming silver was stained red with blood, dripping from Azee’s fingers and palm.
The sound of another pair of footsteps rushing down the stairs filled the pantry. Moments later Eloise arrived. Despite her hasty pursuit, she gave no indication of fatigue.
“Azee, listen to me, you need to calm down.” Eloise slowly raised a hand towards Azee. “Just give me the gun. Alright? Just give me the gun.”
“She’s gone…” Azee murmured. “Chara’s gone.” Slowly, her finger shifted and curled around the trigger.
“Azee, don’t be foolish.” Eloise commanded, keeping her voice as steady as she could. “Give me the gun. Please.”
“It’s alright Azee, okay, it’s alright.” Luke slowly raised his hands. “I understand you’re angry, I understand you are scared.”
“You took her away from me. And now she is gone forever.”
“Please, just let me help you. We can fix this, okay? Chara isn’t-”
Before Luke could say another word, in one lighting fast motion, Azee raised her arm and pulled the trigger.
The sound of the gunshot slammed against Azee's ears again and again as it bounced around the confines of the pantry. She yelped as red hot lances of pain shot up her arm and the gun tore free from her grip. Almost immediately, her nose was assaulted by the acrid smell of gunpowder.
As Azee shook her head, trying to clear the ringing in her ears and the burning in her nose, the sound of strangled gargling drew her attention.
Luke stumbled backwards, his eyes wide, clutching at his neck. Dark red blood rapidly seeped through his fingers from a deep wound on the left side of his throat.
Luke’s voice was choked with blood as he tried to speak, raising his right arm towards Azee.
“A-az-azee…”
At that moment, all of Azee’s anger evaporated. She blinked in shock, not yet fully comprehending the sight before her.
“L-Luke?”
Luke took one more stumbling step backwards, before dropping to his knees and pitching forwards, slamming heavily to the stone floor.
“LUKE!”
Azee rushed forwards and pulled hard on the cell door. Her mind spun as she tried to remember where she had left the key.
‘The key! Where is the key?’
With a desperate curse, she sprinted over to the lamp hanging on the wall and reached under the metal shade. She pulled the key free from its hiding place, but her hands were shaking so much that it slipped between her fingers.
With another curse, Azee dropped to her knees. The moment before her fingers touched it, Eloise stepped forward and put her foot down on top of the key.
“Just what exactly do you think you are doing?” She asked, her voice cold.
“Move!” Azee yelped, trying with all her might to shift Eloise’s foot. “I have to do something!”
“There is nothing that you can do. Even if you could reach him, he is far beyond whatever limited medicine you know.”
“NO!” Azee howled. “Please! I have to do something! I hate him, but I can’t let him die!”
Pulling as hard as she could, Azee was able to dislodge the key from beneath Eloise’s boot. Grabbing hold of it, nearly dropping it again in her panic, she tried to leap towards the cell.
Eloise’s hand shot out, seizing Azee by the scruff of her neck. With an almost casual motion, Eloise lifted Azee off her feet and slammed her against the wall, as if she weighed nothing at all.
Eloise spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “We don’t have time for this. If you want Windhill to live, there is only one thing you can do.”
Azee trembled, unable to move as Eloise held her tight.
“W-what?” she gasped.
“Make a contract.”
“A-a c-contract?”
“A contract with me. I can save him, I can even make it so that he will help you find your sister. But this time, I am going to want something in return.”
“W-What?”
“You.”
Azee’s eyes widened. “M-me? Why?”
“That’s not important. Now make your decision, we have a minute at most. You can save Luke and your sister, but it will cost you.”
“I-I can’t!”
“You’re the only one who can.”
“Please! I don’t want to be a slave anymore. I’m begging you, just-” Azeewas unable to continue speaking as Eloise pushed her harder against the wall, nearly cutting off her breathing.
“You should have thought of that before you shot him!” Eloise’s eyes were narrow slits as she glared at Azee, who shuddered in terror. “Decisions have consequences. You knocked him unconscious, you locked him up down here, you came to me for help, and you shot him! It is up to you to take responsibility for it!”
Eloise released her grip on Azee and let her drop to the floor, gasping for breath. She took a moment to smooth the rumpled fabric of her dress.
“If he dies, anything that I bring back will be naught but a shadow, a memory. Your sister shall be out of your reach forever. So make your decision, and make it now.”
Fear like Azee had never felt before coursed through her veins. Eloise looked down upon her, towering over her like some sort of dark god from the old tales. Every trace of warmth was gone from her, every fragment of humanity brushed away. Despite the stillness of the air of the pantry, Eloise’s hair and the fabric of her dress danced as if in a stiff breeze.
“I save him, and you are mine, or I let him die and your fate is no longer any of my concern. Choose!”
Eloise’s voice roared in Azee’s ears like thunder.
It took every fragment of strength, every scrap of will, for Azee to open her mouth and speak.
===
Luke’s eyes flew open and he sat up, desperately gasping for air. His head spun, his heart thudded hard in his chest. Blind fear, terror gripped him, he felt as if he had just awakened from a nightmare.
The sound of crystal clattering to the ground drew his attention. Half a dozen fragments of catalyst stone slid off of his bare chest and dropped to the floor.
With a shuddering hand, Luke picked up one of the shards. The crystal’s maroon colour had faded to a dull grey, and it felt strangely light and cold. As Luke held the crystal between his fingers, it collapsed into a flakey powder.
Brushing what was left of the ruined stone off on his trousers, Luke looked down at himself. His shirt and vest had been removed and were nowhere to be seen. He shivered a little in the cold air of the pantry, and his head throbbed.
As he massaged his forehead, trying to clear his thoughts, Luke noticed that almost a whole wall of the pantry cell had been destroyed. Half a dozen of the solid bars had been reduced to puddles of smouldering iron.
“Azee?” Luke raised his head and looked around. “Azee, are you-”
‘I was shot!’
The sound of the gunshot rang in his ears, piercing all the way to his core. He felt the searing agony of the bullet tearing into him, as if someone had ripped away a strip of his flesh with a red hot hook.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been hit of course, such was the risk one took when one frequently engaged in duels. But this time he had been wearing no armour, and there had been no runic shields or protective barriers. This had been no bruising strike, or glancing blow, this time he’d felt the life draining from him, he had felt death.
Instinctively Luke reached up and touched his neck where he had felt the bullet tear into him. The flesh was strangely smooth, except for a long but shallow indent just behind his jaw, a few finger width below his ear. He could feel other, smaller marks branching out across the side of his neck
“She shot me… She actually shot me…”
That particular revelation felt strange. Luke knew he should be angry… but all he felt was shock. Azee, his Azee, his most trusted friend, or at least as close as a pelt could come, had shot him. Even with her collar broken, for her to do that, to go that far, the very idea would have seemed ludicrous had he not experienced it for himself.
“Faster than I expected.”
Luke jumped at the sound of Eloise’s voice. She emerged from behind a stack of crates, seeming to glide rather than walk, as she approached.
“You were very nearly lost to us. To be honest, I expected we would not see you return to your senses before daybreak.”
“What’s going on here?” Luke struggled to get to his feet but found his legs unwilling to follow his commands. “Where’s Azee?”
“She’s safe, and out of the way for now,” a small smile crossed Eloise’s lips. “Don’t worry about her, master Windhill.”
Though he could not explain why, the sight of Eloise smiling at him sent a shudder down Luke’s back. It was as if he were an insect, caught in a spider's web, looking at his own reflection in one of the spider’s eyes.
As Luke tried again to stand, he felt as if a great weight was pushing down on his limbs. He tried to fight against it, but each movement took more and more energy. Soon he found himself completely frozen in place, unable to move anything but his head.
“Magic,” he snarled. “You really are a witch, aren’t you? The Order will take you apart, piece by piece.”
“You and Azee… The two of you have a very strange relationship.” Eloise knelt down in front of Luke, examining him with detached curiosity. “You put a collar on her, you sell her sister, and then you put her at great risk while tricking her into destroying any chance she had at finding said sister. And yet, at the same time, she is the first thing you think of when you awaken, mere hours after she shot you with your own gun.”
“I didn’t trick her!” Luke snapped. “I don’t know how you opened that safe. It’s supposed to be unbreakable!”
“Seems you put too much faith in things that are considered ‘unbreakable’.”
Eloise reached out and delicately began tracing a symbol on Luke’s chest with the end of one of her fingernails.
Again Luke tried to move, but the spell held him tight. His skin recoiled at her touch, and everywhere her finger went, a glowing red line was left behind.
“And then of course there is the matter of you raping her as often as you please.”
“Rape her!?” Luke exclaimed. “I would never!”
“What then, you ‘made love’ to her?” Is that it?”
“None of your business, witch!” Luke’s face flushed as he spat his words through gritted teeth.
“No need to worry, master Windhill. Compared to the other atrocities of which your family is guilty, yourself included, this crime would seem to be but a mere drop in a tempest.”
“Azee and I… we’re friends! We’re… we’re more than that even! I care for her!”
“Of course you do.” Eloise raised her head and stared directly into Luke’s eyes. “Slaves are expensive pieces of property, aren’t they?”
Returning to her work, Eloise shrugged. “Frankly, I don’t much care how you justify it to yourself. Though even for someone as deluded as yourself, you must realise that you never gave her much of a choice, did you?”
Luke was silent for a moment, glaring at Eloise as she continued to trace a complex rune into his skin.
“I have been around a long time. I’ve seen many terrible things, heinous acts committed by those who call themselves heroes, even saints. It is as tiresome as it is asinine.
“As I thought, you’re not from Halcyon, you’re from the north.” Luke’s eyes narrowed.
”Regardless of my origins, I refuse to let you, or the rest of your slave-owning colleagues for that matter, dress up your actions in some noble cloak. In the end, you don’t serve Halcyon, you don’t serve your faith, and you certainly don’t serve some long dead ‘lord’. You serve yourselves.”
“How dare you judge me! Or anyone else for that matter! You, and the rest of your greedy, decadent brethren would starve without the sweat and blood of us in the south!”
“I’d hardly say that it is your blood or sweat that keeps people fed. I doubt that either you, or anyone in the last five or six generations of your family, have done anything resembling a real day’s work.”
Eloise finished tracing the left side of the rune and began on the right. “Still, you’re not wrong, the evils of Halcyon and the rest of the southern nations may not be repeated verbatim within the Alliance, but the northern nations do certainly indulge in their fair share of villainy.”
“Villainy? We’re doing what is necessary! For us to survive! For humanity to survive!”
“And the Shiyan? What about them?”
Luke paused, the word was somehow familiar but he could not place it. “The who?”
“Oh yes I forgot. I meant the ‘pelts’, the people whose labour you are profiting from, what of them?”
“They are fulfilling their purpose!”
“Their purpose? Are you saying that Azee’s purpose is to spend her life toiling, in the heat and rain and mud and vermin, to sleep in a barn, breeding when you command it, until she dies?”
“Azee is different!”
“Strange. She doesn’t look human to me.”
“We… We’re helping them. This is…. a necessary part of their education as a race.”
Eloise laughed out loud, a laugh so cynical and disdainful that it stole what little warmth there was from the air.
“Please, it’s bad enough that some people actually believe that nonsense, without morons such as yourself trying to pass it off as wisdom or some sort of excuse. Putting aside the imposssibility of any people, Shiyan or otherwise, evolving while being crushed under your boots, do you honestly believe, for a moment, that you or any other, will ever willingly give up your slaves? Regardless of whether they did, in fact, learn whatever lesson it is you are trying to ‘teach’ them?” Luke had no response. He couldn’t admit the truth of course, that everything Eloise had said had crossed his mind before.
“And what, exactly, will be the fruit of their education?” Eloise asked as she finished the symbol and got back to her feet. “What will their lessons be? The value of life when placed against profit? The coercive power of violence, pain, or terror? Or perhaps what they are learning is how they should treat others when the wheel turns and they are in a position of power? Well… I guess we’ll find out.”
Luke barely heard the final part of Eloise’s question as he looked down at the rune she had traced into his chest. It was extremely complex, a maze of twisting lines and eldritch symbols, unlike any rune Luke had ever seen before.
“What is this? Answer me!”
Completely ignoring Luke, Eloise pulled a sliver of red catalyst crystal from within her sleeve. From another pocket in her dress, she withdrew Azee’s collar.
“How much did you pay for this?” Eloise asked, turning the collar around in her hand. “The crystal is excellent, likely mountain heart if I had to guess, from the east mines. Runes like this, must have been masterwork, and the ignition cost must have been rather high as well. A season, maybe two, off of someone’s life?”
Eloise looked back at Luke. “No… this level of complexity, at least a year. What do you think Azee will do when she finds out the cost that her ‘care’ came at?”
“I did it to protect her!” Luke snapped. “She has had enough pain in her life already! She doesn't need to be afraid of anything anymore, I’m going to look after her. ”
“Did you ask her?”
“Ask her what?”
Eloise traced the collar’s rune with her finger. “What she wanted, whether she felt safe, whether you needed to subject her to this damnable thing.”
“She…. If I had asked her, she it just would have frightened her.”
“Then you aren’t much of a protector, are you.”
Kneeling down in front of Luke, Eloise held the collar just under his chin. “We both know the real reason, you didn’t ask her, don’t we?
Eloise leaned close and whispered in Luke’s ear. “As you said, ‘Azee is mine’.”
Leaning back, Eloise turned her attention to Azee’s collar. She reached up and withdrew the thin metal needle from her hair. “A rather poignant reminder of Azee’s status, and your ‘friendship’ with her.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”
Eloise gave no reply as she scratched a rune into the back of Azee’s collar, working swiftly but with obvious skill.
Luke tried again to fight against whatever magic was holding him in place, “What are you doing! You’ll kill her! The smith warned me never to tamper with the collar!”
“You needn’t fear.” Eloise muttered as she worked. “I know what I am doing.”
“Please!” Luke’s breath shuddered slightly. “I know I made a mistake, I’ll get Chara back. Please, that collar is the only thing that will protect her.”
“Not anymore.”
Eloise finished carving the rune with a flourish. After sweeping it clean, she set about carving an identical rune into the small piece of red crystal.
Soon, both runes were complete. Satisfied with her work, Eloise tapped the red crystal against the rune at the front of Azee’s collar. For a moment, a thin trail of red light, like a single strand of a spider’s web, joined the two pieces of catalyst crystal together. But as Eloise set the collar aside, the strand vanished.
“What are you doing?” Luke demanded as Eloise raised her arm and aimed the crystal at the centre of his chest. “Why is that crystal red? Answer me dammit!”
But Eloise didn’t answer.
The moment the crystal touched Luke’s skin, the rune began to glow blood red. Tiny tendrils of light raced like bolts of lightning across the sky through the intricate lines of the rune. Every vein and artery glowed brighter and brighter as the rune on Luke’s chest filled with crimson light.
The whole pantry was bathed in a red glow, all except for the long black shadow that Eloise cast as she stared down at Luke, watching as the rune ignited.
Luke expected pain, but the feeling was more akin to thousands of ants crawling across his skin. He was certain he could feel the symbol carving itself into his chest, tendrils of energy wrapping around his heart. His flesh rippled and bent, taking the piece of crystal from Eloise’s fingers and pulling it beneath his skin.
And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over.
Luke collapsed onto his back, panting for breath. Finding he was able to move again, he sat back up and looked down at himself. There was no trace of the rune, no burns or blemishes, nothing. But as he gingerly poked himself, on the left side of his chest, just above his heart, he could feel the small piece of catalyst crystal, nestled beneath his skin.
“What in the Lord’s name did you do to me?” he cried, managing to climb back to his feet despite his knees shaking badly.
Instead of answering, Eloise picked up Azee’s collar from the ground, turned and made for the pantry door. She walked leisurely, utterly unconcerned by Luke’s protests.
“Hey! Get back here!” Luke bellowed. He tried to reach out and grab the back of Eloise’s dress, but his legs nearly gave out and he was forced to brace himself against a barrel.
“Here.” Eloise grabbed hold of a broom, hanging on the wall, and tossed it to Luke. “When you are able, you can join us upstairs in the parlour.”
Growling in frustration, Luke braced himself against the handle of the broom. “You’ll pay for this!”
“Don’t tarry now. The tea I sent Azee to prepare should be ready by now.”
===
Azee’s tail lashed back and forth as she paced around the parlour. No matter how many times she tried to sit down her anxiety would scream at her, and within moments she would be back on her feet and pacing.
“I shot him... I shot Luke…”
Azee’s hands curled into fists. “He deserved it! He sold Chara, he took her away from me!”
And yet, despite her anger, the memory of Luke, lying bleeding upon the stone floor, didn’t bring her any peace. Far from it, it filled her with intense shame. Worse yet, she didn’t know what it was that bothered her more, the shame of shooting Luke, or that fact that she felt ashamed of her actions at all.
With a sigh, Azee forced herself to sit down on one of the couches. Eloise had told her that Luke probably wouldn’t awaken till the dawn, and that she should probably try and sleep.
But Azee knew that sleep was impossible. She tried sitting for a few moments, then laying on her back. She even tried hugging one of the cushions, but nothing helped.
“He tried to kill me!” She snarled, suddenly jumping up and throwing the pillow across the room. “If I'd been in front of that fire, if Miss Eloise hadn’t pulled me out of the way…
‘He didn’t think we would even be able to open the safe…’
“Doesn’t matter! He deserved what he got! I’m glad I shot him! I’m… I’m...”
Azee grabbed the sides of her head, pulling hard on her ears. She wanted to shout and scream, to cry and howl, to throw anything even remotely breakable against the wall until it was little more than fragments.
‘How am I supposed to save Chara… I can't even save myself!’
As she paced, Azee’s eyes were drawn to an elegant bouquet of roses made of delicate glass. It had been one of Lady Windhill’s favourite decorations, and it had always confused Azee as to why the Lady hadn’t taken it with her when she had moved.
Despite its beauty, Azee hated the thing. During her first week serving in the house, while cleaning the bouquet Azee had accidentally broken the endmost tip off one the delicate thorns. As punishment, the Lady had held her left hand in nearly boiling water.
“You won’t forget this, will you, you little beast!”
Some days Azees hand still ached from the memory.
With a growl, Azee seized hold of the bouquet and pulled her arm back.
‘Too damnation with you, and this place!’
But just as she was about to throw the delicate ornament, she paused.
Drawn by Azee’s cries of agony, Luke had tried to stop his mother. When the Lady had refused to stop the punishment, Luke had claimed that he was the one who had broken the thorn, not Azee. Azee had been in too much pain to argue, and had slunk back to the barn to nurse her wound. The thrashing Luke had been given for his lie had made him walk funny for almost three days.
Slowly, Azee lowered the bouquet and stared at it.
‘Luke…’ Tears started to well up at the corners of Azee’s eyes. “You utter bastard… Why did you take her from me? Why couldn’t you just leave her alone...”
With a growl of frustration, she set the bouquet down. But as she turned around to resume pacing, her tail knocked into one of the blossoms. The delicate glass structure wobbled for a moment, before tumbling from the table. Azee spun round and tried to catch it as it fell, but the bouquet slipped through her fingers and shattered into a thousand pieces as it hit the floor.
As she stared down at teh remains of the ornament, the pieces shimmering like diamonds even in the half light, a powerful jolt of terror rushed through Azee’s body. Immediately she began searching for a broom, her mind racing with what she would say.
‘I’m so sorry Master Luke, it was an accident, I didn’t-’
Azee froze midstep.
‘Master…. Luke.’
Never before had those words felt so hateful, so poisonous.
Unconsciously Azee’s hand drifted up to her neck, gently touching where the collar would normally have sat. A few hours ago, the absence of her collar had made her feel naked, exposed. But now, the mere thought of it on her neck made her skin crawl.
“I save him, and you are mine, or I let him die and your fate is no longer any of my concern.”
The thought of being a slave to anyone for even one more day, one more hour, even one more minute, felt as if a great hand were squeezing the air from her lungs.
“Freedom…”
It had been only a few days after Kashin had been released from confinement, after being dragged back to the ranch from one of his escape attempts. One of his eyes was still nearly swollen shut, and his wrists still hadn’t healed from the tight iron manacles, the hunters had used to drag him back behind one of their hounds. and there were welts marks from the blows of a switch across his entire body. He had been sitting beneath the oak tree when Azee had sat down beside him.
“Why do you try and run?” She’d asked, whimpering a little at the painful switch welts all over Kashin’s body.
Kashin had smiled down at her, massaging his raw wrist.“Little one… there is nothing like eating what you want, when you want, even if all you have to eat is weeds and frogs. The best sleep I've had in my entire life is when I am under the stars. I could sleep in a tree, in a hollow, or on a rock if I wanted, no chains, no collar. Those little choices were… they were worth all of this.” He gestured at the marks covering his body.
“But they hurt you when they catch you.”
Kashin smiled, placing a hand upon her head.
“Freedom is the best and worst thing in the world. Even if it’s only a little bit of freedom, even if it’s only for a little time, there is nothing you would not do in order to hold on to it.”
Three weeks later, Kashin had made his final, fateful, escape attempt. But even as he died, Azee had been unable to get the sound of his voice out of her head, the feeling that, in a horrible way, Kashin had known the consequences of the choice he had made.
“Why did he bite them?” Azee had wept the night after Kashin died, burying her head in Chara’s chest. “Why did he fight?”
“I… I don’t know. Maybe… maybe it was what he wanted.”
“But why… why did he want to die?”
Chara hadn’t had an answer then. But as she touched her neck, a terrible realisation wrapped itself around Azee’s heart.
Kashin was right. there was nothing she wouldn’t do. Months of pretending, months of fear and anger, years of emotion denied to her, roiled in her chest.
“Never again.” She snarled, lowering her hands and bunching them into fists.
“What happened to Luke doesn’t matter. My mind is mine… and I will never let anyone take it from me again!”
The sound of footsteps emerging from the cellar drew her attention. Moments later, Eloise emerged from the kitchen and strode into the parlour.
“Where’s the tea?” Eloise asked, glancing at the shattered glass on the floor.
“I’m not your slave yet,” Azee snapped. “Get your own damned tea.”
Eloise raised an eyebrow. “I told you before, didn't I? I have no need for a slave.”
“But… but then what-”
“AZEE!”
Using the broom to support himself, a still shirtless Luke staggered out of the kitchen.
“You saved him.” Azee shook her head in amazement. “You actually saved him.”
“Of course. I've never broken my word, and I wasn’t about to start tonight.” Eloise looked over her shoulder. “Most certainly not for someone like him.”
Ignoring Eloise’s comment, Luke tossed the broom aside and staggered forwards. With each step he regained more control of his legs.
Azee’s breath shuddered as a dozen different emotions warred within her. Her gaze was drawn to the scar on the side of Luke’s neck. It was certainly not as bad as she had feared it would be, but the mere sight of it made her stomach turn.
As Luke drew closer, she found herself rooted to the spot, staring at him. Her mind rang with the sound of the gunshot and vile smell of gunsmoke. As the floor swayed beneath her feet, for the second time that night Azee felt as if she were going to be sick.
Luke drew himself up, standing as steady as he was able. “Azee… are you alright?”
With a shuddering breath, Azee nodded. “Y-yes, I’m-”
She froze as Luke leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace.
“It’s okay.” He muttered, holding her close. “It’s okay Azee, I’ll look after you.”
Azee stiffened. Luke’s skin pressed against her fur, his arms around her, holding her tight. It was like so many times before, the moments they had shared, his breath in her ears and against her neck, whispering to her. She felt warmth, the gentle touch of his lips, hands stroking her, waves of pleasure…
“NO!” Azee barked, tearing herself free of Luke’s grip and shoving him backwards.
Luke stumbled, unable to keep his footing and falling to the floor.
“Don’t touch me!” Azee snapped, her fur prickling and her lips curling back from her teeth. Her tail curled between her legs as tremors ran up and down her body, her ears pressed flat against her head. “Don’t you dare ever touch me again!”
Luke stared up at Azee, blinking in shock. “Wh-what are you-”
“I don’t want you looking after me,” she snarled.
Another rush of cold ran down Luke’s spine. The way Azee was looking at him, it wasn’t fury or hate, not frustration or sorrow, but rather just cold anger.
“Well then, now that everyone is here and we know where we stand…” Eloise held up Azee’s collar. “Let’s get down to it, shall we?”
