“Let me go dammit!” Miranda demanded. Luna ignored her and carried her all the way to the toilet, carefully putting her down on the seat.
“You…!!!” Miranda snarled while looking viciously at Luna.
“Let me know when you are finished or if you need any help with anything,” Luna smiled softly before leaving the toilet and closing the door behind her.
“You are taking quite a while,” Luna shouted at the door after a while.
“SHUT UP!” Miranda screamed back.
“Looking for an escape route?” Luna asked sweetly.
“I know there isn’t one!”
“Then?” Luna pried.
“Nothing,” Miranda remarked.
Luna opened the door and saw Miranda sitting slack on the toilet.
“You look like you are already looking forward to the evening bath,” Luna smiled poisonously.
“Don’t even think about it!” Miranda rejected the notion.
“Get better so you can stop me,” Luna snickered and went to pick Miranda up again. Miranda tried to defend herself but could barely move, much less overpower Luna. Luna carried her softly back into the bed and snuck on top of her again.
“When will you get the point?” Luna asked sweetly.
“You will pay for this.”
“I don’t care.”
“Why are you so stuck up on this idea of helping me?” Miranda asked sharply.
“Because it makes me feel really bad when I see how lonely you are,” Luna breathed.
“What the hell are you talking about? Did you hit your head?” Miranda retorted.
“You know what I mean. You don’t belong here. I mean, you have your place here, everyone accepts you and all that. But you don’t belong here, not truly, not here,” Luna started.
“What do you mean?” Miranda shot back.
“I have never told it to anyone, so I am sorry if it sounds weird, but I know what that’s like. I know I am not human, not really. I mean, I was human once, but it isn’t just a monster spirit that’s latched onto me. It’s like the second part of me. I can’t separate it or ignore it. It is me.”
“I am nothing like that,” Miranda rejected.
“I know. We are like different species. You look human, act human and feel like a human. But you are not. I don’t know what you are. I know you are not like me, but I do know that no human could ever do for me what you did,” Luna breathed.
“What do you want from me, Luna?” Miranda pierced her with a stare.
“I thought we could become friends,” Luna whispered softly, afraid how it would sound.
“For what?” Miranda jabbed at Luna.
“I just felt like it could be fun. That it might be something we are both missing,” Luna added.
“Don’t you have any friends?” Miranda continued jabbing.
“Well… Raven is like an older brother to me. Iowen is nice, something like a friend, but she doesn’t understand. With Yen, I have some amazing sex… I don’t know. It’s strange. It’s not that I don’t have friendly people around me, it’s just… I am sorry. I have no right to ask you to listen to any of this, it’s none of your business and I am here to help you not to pour my heart out onto you. I am sorry. I will leave if you want me to,” Luna concluded.
“Why did you tell me all this?” Miranda asked.
“I don’t know. I am sorry. Please don’t throw me out.”
“When the creatures started eating you alive yesterday, why didn’t you let the spirit in?”
Luna took a deep breath, closed her eyes and grit her teeth.
“Because I would have gone berserk and killed everyone around me or gotten killed by them,” Luna whispered softly.
“What were you thinking of when you saw the black flames erupt around you?”
“I was wondering if I didn’t overdo it and went straight to hell.”
“When I appeared above you?”
Luna started turning red.
“That you got the wrong person and should get the hell out of there before they start chewing upon your pretty face.”
“And when you watched me fight above you?” Miranda pressed on with the questioning.
“That one day I wish to be able to do something like this. Leap face first into something truly dangerous for the sake of someone else without a shred of doubt… and that you must be amazing in bed. I spent the most of the night imagining what it would be like to make love to you,” Luna admitted.
“If you could go back in time and do things differently, would you change anything from what you had done?”
“No.”
“Yesterday I received a report that one of the smaller drug dealer dens was found empty. There was blood everywhere but no corpses… would you know anything about that?”
“I was hungry.”
“Why are you eating junkies?”
“Because they taste funny and the drugs in their blood get me high... two in one.”
“I should have you captured, trialed and burned alive in the courtyard,” Miranda evaluated.
“You should.”
“What’s the weirdest thing you ever had sex with?”
“Oh, come the fuck on, Miranda, that’s under the belt.”
“Literally. Answer!”
“Polar bear.”
“How did that go?”
“He got a heart attack after less than a minute.”
“What’s the weirdest thing you ever tried to use as a dildo?”
“Frozen squirrel.”
“Ewwww,” Miranda exclaimed.
“Says the girl with hundred pounds worth of dildos under her bed,” Luna countered.
“I should have you drowned in melted iron for this.”
“I am so not letting you go to the toilet alone.”
“You are such a little bitch.”
“I like you too.”
“DINNER!” sounded from the door.
“FUCK OFF!” Miranda shouted back.
“Can’t madam, general’s orders,” the man refused.
“It’s the same one from the morning,” Luna observed.
“Meeeeh… I was enjoying grilling you, now I lost the mood,” Miranda complained.
“Good,” Luna smirked.
“Come in,” Miranda ordered and Luna went to quickly hide in the bedsheets.
The soldier came in pushing a large table loaded with food. He picked the one from breakfast and started taking it out.
“Get Elias to come here in an hour,” Miranda ordered him.
“Yes madam,” he confirmed before leaving.
“Will you let me eat normally or do you plan to keep being an asshole about it?” Miranda shot at Luna.
“Shut up,” Luna cut back and went on to smash the food into paste once more.
76
Collward
“What the hell happened?” Collward asked with murderous voice.
“The Order busted your secret lab, framed Leker so obviously that even the city guard got it and Salazar jumped on it, confiscating all his assets,” James summarized.
“You seem awfully smug for failing so hard,” Collward cut back.
“Failing? You told me to make sure Mr. Leker does not get assassinated. He and his family are alive and well and I believe Salazar’s prison is a very secure place for him to be. I still keep my men around just to make sure he doesn’t kick the bucket before we leave,” James retorted.
Collward paused to breathe it out.
“You are technically correct,” he replied.
“The best type of correct,” James made a vicious grin.
“Fine. I will count it as a success. Now answer me a question – what is the largest army you had ever commanded?”
“Answer to that question will be very, very expensive,” James smirked.
“I will add an extra pick from my magical armory to your reward if we succeed in Redwall,” Collward offered.
“Three hundred and eighty-two thousan
d men” James replied.
“Hmmmh… quite the legend, aren’t you? Never thought I would meet the most esteemed general of the old kingdom.”
“Yet here we are.”
“Next mission – make sure Mr. Leker and his wife meet an untimely demise, as soon as possible. Head to Redwall afterward. There is a testing laboratory under the arena. You are to secure it and find me a place to make headquarters. Secure that one too. I also want you to handle the army deployment from now on,” Collward commanded.
“Sounds good,” James remarked.
“Pleasure dealing with you, general,” Collward accepted.
“The pleasure is mine,” James smiled warmly.
Mr. Leker and his wife disappeared from the prison of Xona that night. Their bodies were never found.
77
Luna
“I am here,” a manly voice sounded from the door.
“Come in,” Miranda responded softly. The door opened and a well-arranged man with short blond hair, a well-trimmed beard and sapphire blue eyes walked in.
“Elias, meet Luna. Luna, meet admiral Elias la Grace. You should both know what this is about so keep me out of it,” Miranda introduced them and dug herself back under the feather beds.
Luna was sitting at the table and carefully scanned the man. His right arm and shoulder were wrapped in bandages and hanging down immobilized. He radiated power.
“I am honored to meet you, admiral,” Luna bowed in greeting.
“Oh please, skip the formalities lady Luna. Call me Elias,” he smiled warmly and handed her his left hand. When Luna reached to shake it, he lifted it up and softly kissed it. The formal greeting made Luna turn red.
“Let’s sit down,” Elias proposed and took a chair. Luna took a chair opposite of him.
“Jack told me you have a little issue with your spirit running a little bit too wild and would like to have that looked at. Is that correct?” Elias went straight to the point.
“Yes,” Luna confirmed.
“What seems to be the issue?” he asked warmly.
“I seem to be losing the sense of self. I am not sure how to explain it… it’s like I am becoming more like the monster and slowly forget who I actually am,” Luna tried to explain it.
“I will need to do a little spell on you. It will not hurt or be harmful, but I need to check how the binds between you and your spirit are done,” Elias revealed.
“Okay,” Luna agreed.
Elias stood up and started tracing arcane symbols into the air in front of Luna. She didn’t feel anything happening and it took about fifteen minutes. He sat down and took a sip of tea. Luna was looking at him full of anticipation.
“The way spirits get bound to people is through a special binding magic. This binding magic determines your ability to interact with your spirit and manipulate it. Whoever did your binds was a genius without equal. He managed to tie an adult wolf soul to a child’s soul so that the child one could grow while the wolf couldn’t influence it too much. The issue you are facing now is that your own soul has grown up and is uncomfortable in the body you have because your body never really grew naturally. That makes it and the wolf soul try to push each other out, which makes your emotions unstable as they reflect whichever soul happens to be in charge as of the moment,” Elias explained and paused to get more tea.
“That… sort of fits,” Luna evaluated. It did fit, especially the part about James being a genius. He was and nobody knew it better than Luna.
“To What I can do to help you is to remake the binds to a regular werewolf binds. You shall have your form in the physical realm and wolf form in the Dream World, that shall make each soul have its own place and not fight each other. You shall retain all your abilities and gain greater control over them. Your emotional part should stabilize too,” Elias proposed.
“What will that require?” Luna asked.
“Three things. First of all, I need to find some literature on how to properly do the werewolf binds. There used to be a clan of warriors who gave wolf spirit to their greatest men; I will find some remainders of their rituals to figure out how to do it in detail and then how to train you and the wolf spirit afterward. Second of all, you need to talk to whoever made your binds and confirmed that this makes sense to him. I shall not pretend I know more about the soul binding magic than that person. I don’t and I am very well aware of it. Thirdly, it will take a lot of time during which you will be unable to do anything and then a lot more time when you will need to be around me so I can monitor the results and adjust the binds if necessary,” Elias explained.
“That’s a little overwhelming,” Luna admitted.
“I know. My idea was that I get what I need before the tournament ends, then we meet in Xona and do it on my ship. That way I can be around you for an extended period of time without issues and well, you can do things around the navy during the second phase,” Elias proposed.
“How long is an extended period of time?” Luna asked softly.
“I expect the remaking of binds to take about two years. The monitoring phase should be of similar length,” Elias revealed.
“Oh… and you would just do this for me?” Luna breathed.
“We are men of God, Luna; we don’t need an extra reason to do a good thing. Neither do we need a compensation for doing it,” Elias smiled.
“I am sorry… I just find it a little hard to swallow. I mean, this would be simply too kind of you without you wanting something from me,” Luna contested.
“It isn’t really. I will get a lot of precious experience working on your binds. During the monitoring phase, we will likely be hunting sea monsters, pirates or anything else we don’t like at the sea so it’s not like you will sit in the kitchen. Plus, the main purpose of our Order is to wipe the demons out of this world. You are not a demon and from what we know, you are not particularly fond of them either so having someone strong who sympathizes with our agenda is very beneficial for it in the long term,” Elias explained.
“I admit like this it makes a lot more sense… thank you,” Luna conceded.
“I will look forward to meeting you here in Xona after the tournament ends,” Elias smiled. He rose and bowed to Luna.
“Me too. Thank you, Elias,” Luna whispered.
“One more thing. Feel free to ignore most of the things Miranda tells you; she doesn’t really mean them and the more she swears, the happier she is,” Elias smiled.
“OI! Shut the fuck up you fucking sea rat,” Miranda shouted.
“Landlubbers…” Elias mused as he left the room.
“Are all the people from the Order like this or am I just lucky?” she asked Miranda once he left.
“Hmm?” Miranda sneered.
“Jack, You, Elias, Merewen, the archbishop… you are all such nice people,” Luna breathed.
“If you are done talking to yourself, my bed is getting cold. Get back to work, bed warmer,” Miranda interrupted Luna.
“I guess hot water should warm you up better. Time for a bath,” Luna smirked as she went to Miranda.
“Don’t you fucking dare you little shit!” Miranda shouted.
Luna smiled and picked her up. She carried her to the bathroom, where the hot bath was prepared above a light fire that kept it warm.
“Let me be you rotten cunt!” Miranda kept swearing.
Luna softly put her on the chair next to the bath.
“I just love unwrapping presents,” she whispered in Miranda’s ear and started removing her bandages. Miranda tried to struggle, but she could barely coordinate her moves plus everything was still hurting like hell. She gave up quickly.
“I will have you skinned alive and then chained down in the dog house,” Miranda snarled.
Luna undressed as well and softly slid into the bath with Miranda.
78
Elizabeth
“I can’t do it!” Elizabeth shouted angrily.
“Yea you can, let’s try again,” Astril smiled warmly. They w
ere sitting in a makeshift house in the middle of the deep forests.
“Maybe I just don’t have any magic to access!” Elizabeth argued.
“Everyone has it and I am sure you have lots of it,” Astril tried to calm her down.
“We have tried for a hundred times, it never worked!” Elizabeth protested.
“Because you think it’s impossible so you never really try,” Astril countered.
“It is impossible! I don’t have magic!” Elizabeth shouted.
“Why don’t you go get some food to calm down,” Astril tossed up.
“Fine! Come on Niuffie, let’s go,” she told the tiny baby tiger before picking it up to put Niuffe into the pocket of her tunic. Elizabeth headed out into the forest. She already knew the paths around it to the smallest detail. It’s been two months since they set the provisory house here with Astril. Two months during which she learned how to get food, survive in the forest and basics of fighting. Two months of horrifying torture, because Astril did absolutely nothing. Astril was beyond lazy. She was either gone, sleeping or complained about Elizabeth doing something wrong. That often happened, very often. Elizabeth tried to spend as much time outside as she could, but she needed company and Astril was better than nobody. Tiny, tiny bit better but still better. She went through the forest and picked up whatever fruit she could find. The animals ignored her as usual, so she got her arms full of food easily. She headed back to the house after.
“What the hell are you doing?” Elizabeth shouted and dropped the fruit as she entered the provisory house. Astril was naked and her lean body was entwined with another woman, a brown haired one.
“Why don’t you go pick up some more food, we aren’t finished,” Astril waved off Elizabeth and went back to kissing the other woman.
“What? That’s… that’s my bed!” Elizabeth screamed as she realized where they are lying.
“It’s comfortable. I’m Leena, nice to meet you,” the brown-haired woman remarked before she returned to Astril’s mouth.
Legacy of Dreams: Freedom Page 41