A New Life

by Payton Cavallo

  “Yeah.” Craeft said, the boy looking a like he was trying not to vomit at the sight of all the death around him. Rayan winced at the thought that someone so young would be exposed to so much. The charred corpse of Leas and Glorina’s bloody and broken body were indeed brutal, even by Rayan’s standards, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. It was bad enough exposing Aethel to that when he had killed Lianza, but for a child like Craeft…

  Even worse was Mona’s reaction. Or rather, lack thereof, as if she was used to sights as gruesome as this. The thought that something like this must have been normal in her life, and considering the Guardians were Mrs. Alcott’s experiments, probably something that happened regularly nearly made him retch.

  To think that Alcott would purposefully expose her child to this…

  Her reckoning could not come soon enough in Rayan’s mind. If he had more magic, Rayan knew he’d be sorely tempted to have her share the same fate as Leas did.

  Rayan shook his head. It wouldn’t do to let his anger get the best of him when they were in such a hostile environment. No, he could vent later when they were safe and sound and away from the clutches of the woman that had turned his mother into a freak of nature.

  “Good. I’ll go grab Aethel and I’ll help you three get out of here while I handle Mrs. Alcott.” He gave them a shaky grin, feeling little confidence in his abilities despite his bravado. With his magical core nearly completely empty, he knew he would stand little chance in a fight with the noblewoman, not as weak and exhausted as he was now.

  Rayan took one last look at his mother before he left, feeling his eyes begin to get watery once more. He held his fingers to his lips, drawing in a small bit of magic, just enough to keep him from reaching dangerous levels of magical exhaustion and blew a small ember onto Glorina.

  The fire started small, a small flicker on her cloak that grew and grew till it completely consumed Rayan’s mother. The redhead watched as her body was consumed by flames, happy that, while she had passed on, at least her body would be given a proper Ascean cremation rather than being left to rot in some mad noble’s labs.

  The three stood there, silent, as Glorina’s body was devoured by the flames, the fire caressing her like a delicate flower as it reduced her down to ash, leaving nothing behind. Rayan looked at the ashes for a moment, sending a silent prayer to Miion to guide her soul to Paradise, before he turned around.

  He put his hands on the two kids shoulders and led them out of the doorway, his walk slow as his exhausted body could barely carry him.

  Rayan staggered, cursing his body as he felt the magical exhaustion take its toll, his core having been nearly completely emptied. Sweat poured in tiny rivulets down his face, and he felt nauseous as he tried to walk, before he collapsed onto the floor. He quickly pushed himself up, trying not to look weak in front of the children he had to protect.

  Rayan noticed the fearful look in Craeft’s green eyes and Mona’s yellow ones, as if they were terrified that he would kill over on the spot, though he couldn’t blame them. He was practically useless at this point, and if any of those guardians came by, there was little he could do but tell the children to run and try and stall it.

  And considering his own body seemed to be failing him, he wouldn’t be able to even do that for long.

  “Are you alright?” Mona asked.

  “I’m fine,” Rayan replied as he forced himself to stand, his knees nearly giving out on him once again. “Just a little bit of magical exhaustion is all.” He saw the look of fear in Craeft’s eyes. “Don’t worry, we’ll find your mother.”

  Craeft didn’t look to reassured. “But how? You can barely even move.”

  Those words cut into Rayan like knives, but he would not allow it to show on his face. He would not let despair fill him. He had to think calm and rationally, or else he would lose it again.

  “I’ll find a way.” Rayan said. “Now, let’s go.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rayan gasped as he felt the physical and magical exhaustion take a toll on his body. It was subtle, despite his attempts to hide it. A stumble here, a couple deeper breaths than were necessary, the sweat trickling down his frame. But Rayan would not let it discourage him from helping the children and Aethel escape. “C’mon just a little further.” Rayan said, his hands held tight around Mona and Craeft’s hands as they walked through the laboratory, strange vials full of unknown properties surrounding them in the sterile white environment along with trays full of meat that writhed as if it was still alive.

  “It was a little blurry since I was still partially under Leas spell, but I still remember Leas putting Aethel a room around here.” He said, a small smile of encouragement on his face. “Maybe once we get out of here I-“ He was cut off as he screamed in pain, as several projectiles went through his shoulders. His grip on the children was released as he clutched his wound, blood pouring out of several holes.

  “And just where do you think you’re going?” Mrs. Alcott asked, the sleeves of her lab coat pulled up to reveal her wrists, a strange bulbous bracelet of bone underneath the skin, several holes on the front of the obvious alchemical modification. Rayan was silent, though the silence was broken as she trained her wrist once more on the man. “You wouldn’t be happening to be trying to rescue Aethel would you?”

  Rayan grimaced as he tried to summon any magic he could, but only fumes left his hands, and meager ones at that. His magical core was pushing nearly empty, and to push it any further would most likely cause irreparable harm to his core, or even death.

  Alcott sighed as she realized Rayan wouldn’t talk. “Well, despite your attempts at breaking her out, the truth is, she doesn’t need you anymore.” Alcott said. “She’ll accept my offer eventually, especially since her son is with me. You however…” She aimed her wrist at his head. “You’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble. I’ll just dispose of you now and save myself any future inconveniences.”

  Rayan looked into the noblewoman’s eyes, feeling nothing but shame at his failure. He wouldn’t be able to defeat Mrs. Alcott, no matter how hard he tried. If he tried to use magic, he knew it would not come to his aid, and if he tried to physically overpower her…well, he doubted she only modified her wrists. Rayan spotted the sharp white bone projectiles protruding out of the holes in her wrists and sent a silent prayer to Miion that Aethel and the kids would escape.

  The sharp crack of bones filled his ears, and he noticed a large bony hand fly in front of his face, the dull sound of the bone projectiles hitting flesh filling his ears. Rayan looked down, and spotted Mona, her right arm having transformed into a large bony mitt.

  “Mona. Step. Aside.” Mrs. Alcott said slowly, her wrist still trained on Rayan.

  “No mother.” Mona replied.

  “What did you say?” Mrs. Alcott asked, her voice filled with a dangerous intent.

  “I said no.” Mona said once again.

  “Mona, if you do not cease with this childish tantrum you are throwing, I will not hesitate to create more vials of my virus from you.” Mrs. Alcott said. “Get over here. NOW.”

  Mona quivered under her mother’s gaze, the woman she had feared all her life looking at her with nothing short of contempt and a promise of pain should she be disobeyed.

  But underneath it all, Mona could feel the burgeoning freedom in her heart, the hope of finally being able to escape the nightmare her mother had created for her spurning her onward. Mona steeled her gaze as her arm retracted, Mrs. Alcott sending a smug smirk her way, before Mona produced a tentacle from her back and fired a bony projectile from it.

  Mrs. Alcott used her alchemically enhanced body to move out of the way of the bone, the sharp object indenting itself in the wall behind her. Mrs. Alcott stared back at her daughter, as if stunned that she would actually attack her. But her expression of confusion gave way to anger and then to rage, her fists clenched tightly as she glared at the young girl. “You…you dare attack me?!” Mrs. Alcott said. “The one who gave
you life?! The one who created you?! You wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for me!”

  “Exist?” Mona said, tears in her eyes. “I only exist for you to torment me with your projects. You don’t see me as a daughter, you see me as a sick experiment you can poke and prod to see how it ticks.”

  “So what if I do?” Mrs. Alcott said, “I made you. You belong to me, and you should be grateful I didn’t just kill you when you were nothing more than a mere tumor. Instead, I gave you life, I gave you a home, and all I asked for in return was your compliance so I could make the world a better place.” Mrs. Alcott glared at her daughter. “You’re denying everyone their chance at perfection. How could you be so selfish?”

  “Mona isn’t selfish, she’s the nicest girl I know!” Craeft said, a bit of frost building along his hands. “And you’re nothing but a messed up noble, just like Marissa was back home.”

  “Silence you little mongrel.” Mrs. Alcott said. “What goes on in my family is none of your business. Besides, you’re only worth anything to me because of your mother, and I only need you alive and in good health.” She said darkly, Craeft shivering at the cold tone of her voice. Mrs. Alcott held her amulet glove up and aimed it at her daughter.

  “Perhaps an acid spell should teach you some manners. Acidi-“ She was cut off as a small chunk of metal with blood on it landed next to her. “What the-“

  ‘KRAKA-THOOM!’

  Mrs. Alcott slammed into a nearby table, the vials shaking violently as the explosion sent her flying. Luckily for her, she had modified her skin to be harder or that explosion would have blown her to bits.

  Rayan, Craeft, and Mona were sent back a few feet, but were considerably better off than Mrs. Alcott, who groaned as she stood up, her spine crackling as it shifted back into place, her body automatically fixing itself. “What was…Aethel?” Mrs. Alcott asked, her eyes full of surprise as she saw the tall woman standing before her. Blood was dripping down her fingers in rivulets, and in her hand were several jagged pieces of metal. “You got out of your cell? How?”

  “A person’s magical core fills every part of their body with that nice aetheric energy. Including blood.” Aethel let a smirk slide across her face as she looked at the woman that had dared to hold her child hostage. “If you had been a little stricter in containing me, I wouldn’t have gotten out, but now…now I’m going to blow you to bits.”

  “It doesn’t have to be this way Aethel.” Mrs. Alcott said as she wobbled forward, her balance slightly off from her fixed spine. “You can still swear your loyalty to me.”

  “My loyalty is to my family.” Aethel replied, her eyes wandering towards the trio. “Rayan, take the kids and get out of here.” “But-“ Rayan started to say before Aethel cut him off. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll meet you back up there once I’m finished with this thing.” Aethel said.

  Rayan didn’t want to leave her alone with Mrs. Alcott, but seeing as he was wounded and exhausted, he knew that he would just get in the way. He grabbed the children’s hands, the wound in his shoulder causing him to grit his teeth in anguish as he quickly led them out of the room.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Alcott said, aiming her wrist at Rayan once again, before another piece of metal landed near her and detonated, scorching the outer layer of her skin and obliterating her clothes.

  “This is between you and me!” Aethel yelled, her voice filled with rage and frustration as she threw several more of the shards of metal, blood-exploder runes on them as they detonated. Deadly shrapnel was sent all over the room, Aethel managing to duck behind one of the counters to avoid it, Ailbe not having the time to do so as she was peppered with broken glass and metal shards.

  After the explosions died down, Aethel took a peek over the counter she had hid behind and her heart dropped at the sight before her. At the last moment, it had seemed Ailbe had swallowed a vial of her Changeling virus. The explosion seemed to have done little more than rid Ailbe of her clothes, revealing the horror show underneath. Her skin had a sort of grey-ish tone, like it was made of a bit of iron, the woman merely huffing as the shrapnel that had been lodged in her tough skin simply fell out, small trickles of blood leaving her wounds as she regenerated.

  Her fingers crackled as the nails extended, sharpening into something more akin to talons than nails, her amulet glove still atop her right hand. Her pupils had become slitted, and her tongue stretched out of her mouth, forked like a snake. Tentacles sprouted out of her back and absorbed the writhing meat from the trays around the room, before quickly retreating back into her back. The cursed area atop her womb glowed a bright red, black vein like wisps appearing underneath her skin. Aethel couldn’t help but wonder if that was what drove the noblewoman to the heights of madness, as such a large amount of cursed magic constantly flowing through Ailbe’s veins would’ve messed with her mind. Ailbe spotted Aethel’s green eyes looking at her in a mixture of awe and terror, and let a smile slide across her face.

  “Impressed?”

  “More like disgusted,” Aethel said as she stood up. Ailbe shrugged, as if she knew the former noble would think of her that way.

  “You can be disgusted all you like, but this is merely the future.” She held her hands out as she spoke. “You are looking at the finished product. It doesn’t allow for me to become completely like Mona, but it is certainly close enough.”

  She groaned in ecstasy as a tail sported from her back, a bony blade like appendage on the end. If Aethel was disgusted before, she was even more sickened from that. “I have skin of iron, the eyes of a feline, the tongue and sensing abilities of a snake, and a few other additions.”

  A cruel smile full of teeth passed over her face as she ran her hand across her womb, the area pulsating with a sickening mixture of black and red. “And this,” Ailbe grit her teeth as she stuck her hand into her womb, blood pouring out onto the floor as she ripped that piece of her out. The putrid tendrils of cursed magic seemed to resist being torn out of her, but Ailbe offered them no quarter as she pulled. With a sickening squelch, she ripped the accursed womb out of her. “This is finally gone from me.”

  She tossed it, the normally pink organ, decayed and black from the accursed magic, landed on the floor with a wet thump. Ailbe cackled as the organ regenerated inside of her, seemingly clean of the curse that had affected her family for generations. “I’m free of it. Finally free of it!” Tears of joy poured down her face. “Don’t you see now Aethel?! I can use this to help so many people, just like it helped me!”

  “Yeah, and you only need to stand upon a mountain of corpses for it to be completed.” Aethel said, the noblewoman shrugging in reply. “Sacrifices must be made Aethel, and speaking of sacrifices, I’ll sacrifice a small bit of my pride to give you one final chance to join me.” Ailbe extended her hand. “Can’t you see the possibilities of this Aethel? I saw that blood on those runes. Imagine it’s potential with my virus.”

  Aethel shook her head, her hands clenched around the few pieces of metal she had left. “I will never join someone like you. You kidnapped my son, tortured your own daughter, killed my friend Gawain and harmed Rayan, and terrorized this town for your heinous experiments.” Aethel said, her voice filled with determination. “You are nothing but a monster, though at least now the outside reflects the inside. Rotten, just like your womb.”

  Ailbe scoffed, before her legs crackled and bent, becoming more like a feline as the knees shifted.

  “So be it. It will take longer, but I can always produce more of it, with Mona’s help of course. It’ll only take a couple months at most to produce enough to infect Athsbane, and from there, it’ll spread. All I’ll need to do is eliminate you, your brat, that man, and make sure Mona never leaves this place again. It’s regrettable, but I do what I must to achieve perfection.”

  “Over my dead body.” Aethel replied.

  A menacing glare appeared in Ailbe’s eyes. “That would be such a waste Aethel. With my new abilities, I’ll make sure to keep you a
live. But just barely.” Ailbe crouched down before she leapt forward.

  Aethel barely had the time to react before the noblewoman was upon her, her nails digging into Aethel’s flesh. A cry of pain escaped her lips, but Aethel could not let the pain stop her. If she failed now, it would only be a matter of time till her son was killed. And Mona, the girl she had started to see as her own daughter after the week she had spent at their house, as another part of the family, she would be tormented to no end if Ailbe had her way. Rayan…she would probably kill him, or turn him into one of those Guardian monstrosities. Her heart hurt at the thought, having found herself thinking of him as more than just a friend. So, for there sakes, Aethel had to live and fight this fiend to the very end.

  Aethel headbutted her, but grimaced as all she managed to do was hurt herself, Ailbe’s iron hard skin protecting her from the impact. Ailbe overextended herself as she tried to slash open Aethel’s throat, allowing Aethel to pivot and grab her arm before shoving it behind her back.

  The blonde swiped her hand, clearing several beakers off a burner before slamming Ailbe’s head down on it. Aethel felt nauseous at the smell of burning flesh, Ailbe writhing and screaming under her strong hold as her face was burnt from the flames.

  Her flesh bubbled and sizzled underneath the intense heat, but even then, she managed to create several spikes around her arm that dug into Aethel’s flesh, the woman letting out a shout of surprise as she was forced to let go of Ailbe.

  Ailbe shakily stood back up, her single remaining eye, the other having slid out of her eye socket, looking at her with white hot fury. She tore the flesh off, leaving only half of her face on her skull. Ailbe’s flesh shifted as she pulled mass from other parts of her body and regenerated the half of her face, sickening crackles filling the room as her flesh moved.