“Father…that…” He gulped, an expression that seemed to be a horrid mixture of pity and misery plastered onto his face. “that thing isn’t mother anymore.”
“Shutup.” Gawain pushed forward, moving his son’s arm out of the way as he approached Glorina. The abomination looked down at him, her massive frame that towered over even Aethel staring down at her husband with brown eyes. “Honey, do you recognize me?”
“Guh…Guh…” Glorina spoke, her words sounding like they were causing her an extreme amount of pain to say. Gawain’s blue eyes looked into her brown ones, his filled with hope that his wife was still inside their somewhere, despite what Ms. Alcott had done. “Guh…wain…”
He hugged her. Arms that used to be able to wrap around her were no longer able to do so, but to the man, that didn’t seem to matter. The man held onto her tight, as if she’d disappear if he let go. But as Aethel watched the scene, she couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong.
And then she saw Glorina’s fingers twitch, and alarm bells went off in her head. She took a step back as she heard Glorina speak in a raspy tone.
“Guh…wain…run…”
“What?” Glorina pushed him away, Gawain falling to the ground. “But my love-“
“Run…away…” Her hands twitched and grasped, as if she was struggling to control herself. “Run..away…Gawain…puh…puh…please.”
“I’m not leaving you. I failed you as a husband once, I’m not going to do so again.” Tears flowed down Gawain’s face as he stood back up. “I’m never going to leave you again.”
Glorina slammed her fist into the side of the wall, leaving a plate sized dent into it. Aethel was terrified by the sheer strength the creature that was Glorina possessed, while Rayan still had his Caster aimed at Glorina. His stance was shaky, as if he was having difficulties in firing at her, still seeing the woman as his mother despite the abominable transformation that had been forced onto her.
Rayan’s finger twitched on the Caster’s trigger as he beheld her form, and a few tears fell down his eyes, as he seemed to struggle with an internal conflict. Aethel couldn’t help but feel pity for the two, being forced to see the monster their loved one had been turned into.
And if she wasn’t quick, what Craeft may be turned into as well.
“Run…away…now…”
Glorina picked Gawain up and threw him into the wall, his body hitting it with a slight crunch. Gawain cried out as he clutched his shoulder, the bone clearly broken if the odd angle it was stuck in was any indication. “Glorina! H-honey, it’s alright. I’m alright.” He stood shakily. “I know you didn’t mean to do th-”
He was silenced as Glorina picked him up by the throat and began to strangle the life out of him. Gawain’s eyes were filled with terror as his wife seemed to look at him dispassionately, as if he were a stranger to her.
As if he was worthless.
Aethel knew that whatever this was, Glorina wasn’t there anymore.
“Rayan, now!” Aethel yelled. Rayan hesitated, his finger twitching in the trigger. Aethel, eyes wide in panic, ripped his caster from his hands and fired it, a purple beam of light lancing out and hitting Glorina in the head. They watched, stunned, as it did practically nothing to her. The piercer caster was meant to be able to go through solid-iron, yet could barely even break Glorina’s skin. However, it did disorient her slightly, which caused her to drop Gawain, the man wheezing as he clutched his throat and ran back towards the duo.
“Father, use your magic to work the keypad!” Rayan yelled as he took his caster back and fired another beam at Glorina. Gawain didn’t need to be told twice as he ran towards the keypad and began to push his magic into it with his amulet glove.
While Rayan shot at Glorina with his caster, Aethel threw an exploder runic stone at her, yet the she-thing caught it in her hand, and held her other hand on top of it. It detonated, the shrapnel barely even managing to pierce her tough flesh.
However, Aethel would not let that stop her. If she was going to have to fight the abomination that Glorina had been turned into, and her exploder runes had proven to be ineffective, then there was only one thing she could do.
“I’m going to have to use blood runes!” She said to Rayan, and the man nodded as he dumped his caster to the side and held his amulet glove up, flames dancing along his palms.
“Wait, I’ve got it!” The two turned as Gawain turned towards them, the keypad alight with a bright blue glow. His head was turned, so he didn’t notice as the keypad began to shift and contort, changing its form into something far more sinister.
Rayan immediately knew what it had shifted into.
An alchemical grenade.
“Father!” Rayan cried out, “Get away from the-“
His words were far too late, and the grenade went off. Gawain was killed instantly as the entire upper half of his body was blown apart. Aethel faired far better, but was left lying on the ground as the shockwave hit her, stunning her and leaving her ears ringing and her body feeling like her bones were shaking. Rayan faired the best of them all, still managing to stand on his feet.
That was, before a purple light lanced out and hit him, sending him into blissful unconsciousness.
“Who knew a little transfiguration could go such a long way?” Aethel looked up, and even in her state, her eyesight blurred by the shockwave, she knew that it could only be one man. Leas Evans. His sheer presence, strolling into the sight as if he owned the world, gave him away to Aethel. “Just transfigure a bomb into a keypad, and poof,” Leas made an outward motion with his hands. “Got all three of them down. Well, two of them down, and one of them, well, I guess he’ll be the new wall decoration. Ugh.” He looked down at his boots, drenched in blood from stepping through what had been the upper half of Gawain. “I’m going to have to buy new boots after this.”
Aethel tried to move, do anything, but she was still in shock from the blast. “Oh, there you are love.” He crouched down to Aethel’s level, the woman desperately struggling to even move. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other hasn’t it? A long time indeed.” He held her head up with his hand, the blonde still bearing a dazed look.
“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You and your friends just had to go and kill off one of my employer’s experiments. Not to mention, someone who owed her quite a bit of crowns. But,” He smiled as he held his amulet glove to her chest, a purple light glowing in it. “Have no fear. I’m still getting quite the handsome reward for bringing you and your two friends in. Whatever Ms. Alcott wants with you two, or more specifically, you, I don’t know. But know that my cousin isn’t exactly kind to the people she kept here. That mongrel over there can attest to that.” He pointed towards Glorina, the she-thing letting tears fall down her face as she beheld what became of her husband.
“Now, you just need to take a nap, and when you wake up…well…you’re probably going to wish you didn’t.”
The purple light left his Amulet Glove, a whisper of “Somnunc” leaving his lips, before Aethel felt the world darken around her and her consciousness slip away.
Chapter Eleven
Aethel strained against the chains keeping her attached to her cell, her very last shred of self-control having snapped at the sight of the woman. The metal groaned as her muscular form lurched forward, Aethel trying to strangle the noblewoman, clad in a lab coat and a blue buttoned up shirt and long skirt, that laid just outside of her reach.
“I’m going to strangle the life out of you when I get my hands on you.” Aethel growled out as she attempted to grab the woman. It infuriated her, the object of her wrath lying just outside of her reach, Ailbe’s eyes not even holding any malice at Aethel, only a sort of pity, like the kind when someone saw a sick person. It only drove her anger to new heights as the noblewoman dared to look at her that way, when she had been the one to leave her with a werewolf.
“Are you finished?” Ailbe drawled. “I have no time for thes
e childish actions.”
“Childish?! You’ve got my son Miion knows where, and you talk about me like I’m childish?!”
“Yes.” The simple response stunned Aethel. Her mouth was agape as the woman continued. “If I wanted to harm Craeft, I wouldn’t have come in here to gloat about it, I would have simply done it. Now either sit down and act like the noble you are, or rather, were, or I’ll simply leave you to stew in here and you’ll never find out about your son.”
Aethel felt her anger simmer just underneath the surface, as if it were ready to burst out of her skin like fire, but she knew that the noblewoman was serious about her threat. So she sat down, the brown dress she wore lying flat against her as she looked up at the noblewoman, a pleased expression on Ailbe’s face. She clenched her fists till they turned white, her rage bubbling just underneath the surface but held down only by her desire to know what happened to her son.
“Much better.” Ailbe said. “Now, would you like some hot tea?” She pulled two small cups out of her pocket, poured a small bit of tea into them, and floated one over to Aethel using her amulet glove. “It’s best that we have this conversation with a calm and rational mind, lest we be a bit too hasty in our decisions.”
Aethel snatched the cup out of the air. She was tempted to throw it back at the woman, but she knew that it would only make Ailbe leave and so she downed it quickly. She felt her muscles relax slightly as the anger seemed to retreat slightly. Her eyes widened in fear. Had she been poisoned? Perhaps drugged so Ailbe could experiment on her, only giving her this slight bit of hope for her own amusement? Horrid thoughts ran through her mind, and Ailbe seemed to notice the expression on her face.
“It’s just a minor calming potion dear, no need to worry about it.” Ailbe said. Aethel didn’t trust the woman, after all she had betrayed her by letting a werewolf, even if an artificial one, stay with her. But if she had wanted to kill her, Ailbe would have done it already, which meant she was needed for something.
‘But what?’ Aethel thought as the noblewoman spoke once more, her words calm and direct.
“Tell me Aethel, what do you think of perfection?” Aethel glared at the woman, causing Ailbe to let out a sigh. “I see you won’t let the subject of your son’s health go I see. He is fine. I have my guardian’s watching over him, along with my daughter, in a comfortable cell down here. They saw some things they weren’t supposed to, and I sent them down there to give them some time to think about what they saw.”
“What they saw?” Aethel asked. She was still worried for her son, not wanting him to be near those freaks of nature she called Guardians, but she was also was quite curious about what the woman was speaking of.
“Yes. They saw my plans.” Ailbe said as she held her hands out. “You see Aethel, I deal with the flesh constantly. People aren’t satisfied with who they are, and I am paid to help them. Some are too fat, so I burn the fat away. Some are too short, so I adjust their bones. Some don’t like their gender, so I change that too. Some want a new nose, different eye color, a better tan. The list goes on and on. We as human beings, aren’t just satisfied with our bodies. And, neither am I.”
Ailbe lifted up her shirt to just above her midriff, revealing a large nasty glowing red mark right above her womb. It pulsed with the repulsive traces of a curse, a sign of a wound that would never heal unless dealt with by healer, and even then, there was no guarantee it would ever go back to normal. “This is the result of my family’s curse. My womb was cursed from the very beginning of my life.” Aethel saw Ailbe’s eyes begin to get watery. “My body was the furthest thing from perfect. I went through several husbands, all looking for an heir, and they left when they realized I could never give them what they wanted.”
A few tears rolled down her cheeks. “I hated myself. There was no one I could count on as my parent’s had died young, leaving me with my own fortune, and thus I had to deal with it alone. My body failed me time and time again as I produced nothing but stillborn children, as if Miion was mocking me by allowing me to give birth to only death.” Ailbe neutral expression cracked as her mouth twitched in misery. “I wanted to die. But…” Her mouth turned upwards in a shaky smile. “then Mona entered my life.”
“But Mona was simply a tumor, wasn’t she?” Aethel questioned. The blonde felt pity for the woman, having known what it was like to stuck in a miserable situation. If Aethel didn’t have Craeft, she didn’t know what she would have done. Still, her pity was dulled by the simmering rage in her heart.
“Indeed. Miion saw fit to mock me once again by gifting me with a monstrous tumor, alive yet not a child I so desired. I was infuriated with everything, wondering what I had done to deserve this. In desperation, I fused the tumor with a baby homunculus and well, the results speak for themselves.” Ailbe said. “Once Mona came into my life, even as the strange child as she was, I soon noticed her abilities, and that’s when it hit me. She was perfection incarnate.”
“She’s just a child.” Aethel replied.
“Aethel, Aethel, Aethel.” Ailbe shook her head. “You’re not seeing it. People hate themselves and are desperate to change themselves and with Mona’s help, I’ve made it possible.” Ailbe’s blue eyes looked down at Aethel. “I suppose as a single mother on the streets, destitute and forced to do whatever she could to provide for the child growing in her womb, you had to have known the sheer pain and misery of hating yourself.”
“Don’t you dare go there.” Aethel growled. She would not let this woman bring up her past. She had done things she wasn’t proud of, but in the end, she had succeeded and given Craeft a loving home.
And that was all that mattered in her books.
“I do know that your family kicked you out once they found you pregnant with your child.” Ailbe said, her blue eyes filled with a strange compassionate look. As if she was looking into Aethel and seeing herself there, alone and unwanted. “They threw you out onto the streets at the young age of sixteen, with no skills to support you. And you had to resort to the one thing you could use. Your body.”
“If you say another word, I will find a way out of these chains and snap your neck!” Aethel said.
“It’s okay Aethel, I’m not judging you.” Ailbe moved closer, and kneeled down, laying her hand on Aethel’s cheek, her eyes filled with understanding. “It hurt back then didn’t it? The world ostracizing you because you were different. Cursed.” She ground out, as if the very word itself was a vile abomination spewed forth from her lips. “No one would help you, so you had to help yourself and build yourself from the ground up to achieve your goals. I understand you completely Aethel.”
Aethel smacked the noblewoman’s hand away, resisting the urge to actively pound her head into a red paste. It was bad enough that she was stuck down here with her son’s kidnapper, but she was not going to let this reprehensible thing touch her. “You don’t understand me at all.” Aethel replied, the words laced with as much venom as she could muster.
“You were just like me.” Ailbe purred, the sheer satisfaction in her voice making Aethel want to vomit. “You see, we aren’t perfect. There’s always something we’ll hate about ourselves…but what if we could be? I know the old slogan, perfection is in the eye of the beholder, but what if we could change ourselves all the time? No matter the perception, we could change ourselves to match it. We could shed our old selves and become newer, better selves, leaving the past behind us.”
“You’re talking about Mona’s ability to shapeshift, aren’t you?” Aethel asked. Ailbe nodded, a small smile on her face, glad to see that Aethel was catching on. She had known the woman was smart, something she took high value in.
“Of course. If I could give that ability to everyone, think of how happy they’d be. We wouldn’t need to visit an alchemist or bio healer to fix ourselves, we could do it with nary a thought. We could snap our fingers,” She did so, “and we would be an entirely different person. It would be perfect and beautiful, and I’ve created a virus based on my dau
ghter’s DNA to do just that.”
“But how would you go about making it? I may not be an alchemist, but even I know you’d have to have a lot of Mona’s blood to…you didn’t.” Aethel stared at Ailbe in abject disgust and horror. She wouldn’t have done that, surely not to her own flesh and blood. The sheer amount needed…it would be horrendous. “What have you done?”
“I’ve made the future.” Ailbe said as she slipped her right hand into a pocket in her lab coat and produced a small vial filled with a green liquid. “I call it the Changeling virus. I’ve finally finished it, but I can’t produce it in large quantities yet.” Ailbe felt a hint of satisfaction fill her as she gazed into the vial. It was the pinnacle of her life’s work, and would help finally rid herself of her family’s curse, and introduce a new age to humanity, one where everyone would be free to pursue their own vision of perfection. And once she was done with humanity, she’d introduce it to the other races as well.
It would be cruel to leave them as they were.
“Unfortunately, there is a ninety percent fatality rate, but I’m sure I can work out the kinks in time.” Ailbe said. “Still, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the right path forward.”
“This is…” Aethel barely held down the bile building in her throat. She couldn’t believe that she had ever been friends with the woman. Then again, it wouldn’t have been her first time choosing the wrong people to have as friends. Marissa had shown her that much. “I have no words.”
“I know, brilliant isn’t it. But not to worry. Once I have enough, I’ll simply release it into the local water supply, and let it spread from there.” Ailbe said, misinterpreting what Aethel meant. “And I’m glad you agree with me my friend, because I’m going to need your help.”
A New Life Page 12