Darkness

When the effects of the poison faded and she woke from her forced sleep, she was greeted by the sight of an iron door and a lot of stone. The slavers had gagged her, and her hands were affixed to the stones behind her.

Great. No singing. D is more intelligent than I hoped. But he doesn’t know, that I can do things without having to sing.

Getting out of these shackles would mean that she’d need all her strength. And then keep it going. At least she didn’t have trouble grabbing her magic. But she was lacking the necessary fine control to really bolster her strength. That would take another hour or two. Maybe.

Whenever she made her magic resonate, it stayed like that for a while and then leveled back out. Like ripples on a pond that disappeared without constantly dropping stones into it.

Though maybe that was why her magical power boost failed far too quickly? Maybe she needed to keep the resonance going. Was it really as simple as keeping her concentration up? It would make sense, but Qiin hadn’t expected her to collapse that quickly. Or rather that she collapsed at all. But he did have an incentive to not tell her all the details about her magic. Maybe he was only surprised by the extreme weakness that settled in after the song’s effect ended.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to test her theory. Which meant that she had to practice.

And then escape as soon as possible. Preferably before they sell me to Saesquar or her goons.

Progress was slow going and it felt like two hours passed before she had a handle on her magic. She took a deep breath through the gag and formed the magic, then she tried to push against the wall, trying to rip the metal cuffs off the wall.

She still had problems keeping the image up. It and her strength slipped several times and she became weaker and weaker every time. But the creak in the metal told her that she at least made some progress.

The longer she tried, the more exhausted she felt. Not only bodily, but also in mind. It was as if some kind of fog had settled around her ow thoughts. At that point she didn’t make any progress but only managed to weaken herself more and more.

Then the door in front of her opened and one of the random villains came in, holding something that looked like a jug. At least they wouldn’t let her die of thirst.

“It’s soup,” random villain A told her. “Can’t give you anything you have to chew.” Of course they wouldn’t take the risk of her singing again. At least they didn’t know that she didn’t have to sing to use her magic. Otherwise they’d probably keep her unconscious all the time, and then she’d wake with Saesquar in her face.

But he had to remove the gag either way so she could drink the soup. Right?

Wrong. Random Villain D, Random Boss Boy, had thought of that problem. He had provided her with a straw. A leaky straw. It was vile, unhygienic, and worst of all, the soup was also cold.

It made her angry, and she wanted to sputter the soup back at A, but that wasn’t really possible. If she hadn’t been this exhausted, she’d have tried to drown the man in his cold soup to teach him to bring it when it’s warm at least.

That would tell him that I’m able to use magic without singing. So it’s better not to do it, even if I could.

Before long, he left. With scattered soup on her, and only a part in her. She wanted, no needed, a bath. She’d even take the one in Saesquar’s temple! With her remaining anger, she pushed herself past her limits and pulled the shackles fully out of the stone.

She fell to the floor and removed gag to get a full lung-full of stale basement air. She’d needed to wash her clothes, too, or get new ones at least.

Then let’s see if they have any clothes or money to reimburse me!

With a grim expression on her face, she used her magically enhanced muscles and completed the work she’d started on the wagon: Removing the collar from her neck.

She was a bit surprised, that with all the noise she was making, no one had come to investigate her. Then she heard explosions through the door. She stopped. What was happening? Had Saesquar or her goons come for her already?

Nia pressed herself against the wall next to the door. Her heart beat so loud that she feared someone could hear it over the explosions. What could she do, if the dark goddess had come for her? Granted, she could strengthen herself now, and could hold it, but she still had no idea how to defend herself.

Dabbling in Karate way back when wasn’t enough. A yellow belt wasn’t enough. And she knew that even those with a darker belt should never try to fight in a life-or-death-situation. One with knives or guns. And she knew from the others that all the monks were far more than they seemed, or than she’d give any monk of her old world credit for.

The door crashed open, and a stout man ran inside, axe in hand.

The sound crashed her thoughts. And then she recognized the man. “Nia?” shouted the man, that had run past her.

All tension left her all at once. With all the relief, she let go of her magic and promptly crumbled. Even if she could sustain the magic, it didn’t protect her muscles from the accrued exhaustion.

Ralf turned around and looked at her. “There you are!” She head the relief in his voice. “We’ve been looking for ya for quite some time now.” He helped her back on her feet. “They left Sonja bound and gagged in the forest. She was so pissed, that she has figured out how to throw exploding fireballs.”

“Sorry, but I was just on my way out,” Nia said.

“Yeah sure.” She received a snort in turn.

She didn’t reply to that. What was the point? The evidence was in the cell before him and he ignored it. Just because she was a little weak right now. Okay. It was a lot weak. It was just unfair! Magic shouldn’t have drawbacks!

“I wonder what Sonja’s drawbacks for those fireballs are …”

“What are ya mumbling about?” Ralf looked at her, falling more and more into stereotypical dwarven speech.

“Mage talk.”

“Hrmpf.”

They climbed the rest of the rough and uneven stairs in silence.

Scorch marks greeted her as they arrived in the room above. It was a small corner, brick-built walls around them. From there it opened up into a larger room that could’ve been the inside of an old tavern.

No. No snappy comment now, brain.

The twins, Sonja, Tom, Tina and Mother Clemens stood over two beaten figures. They were bound with rope and groaned, indicating that they were still alive. Those were D and B.

Then A has left in C’s wake? Not sure whether I should congratulate him on that decision. Then again, with what I’m about to do, it was definitely the right choice.

“I found her.” At Ralf’s announcement, everyone except the villains looked up at them.

“You’re alright!” They exclaimed. Even Tom.

“They planned on selling me to Saesquar,” she answered, and the two villains flinched. “Though that wasn’t their original plan …”

“What … was their original plan?” Mother Clemens asked, while Sonja and Tina nodded, wanting to know as well.

“They thought they acquired a song bird they could sell easily.” Nia used their own words to describe their plan. Sonja and Tina both looked disgusted at them. Mother Clemens somehow looked dark. Nia got the impression that the moon, hidden behind a thick layer of clouds, would look similarly threatening.

“You are aware that you have sinned in front of Luaria? Doubly, no even triply so?”

“What’s the punishment for it?” Nia looked at them. She expected something like eternal imprisonment, or maybe some magical shackles. Even death.

“It’s usually excommunication.”

Nia’s eyes widened. That’s it? Then she narrowed her eyes at the villains. I thought to let the church handle things, but if that’s all, then I’ll improvise on my initial plan.

“Mother Clemens, dear,” she said with an overly sweet voice. Funny how easy that comes to me right now. “Would you be so kind and leave the building, stand in front of a tree and cover your ears for a moment?”

“Why should I …”

“I want to show them, what divine punishment is really like.”

“Excommunication usually is divine punishment …” The priestess looked slightly puzzled.

“Oh? What does it entail?”

“They’ll lose any and all protections, especially during the Dark Period. They’re also shunned by society, so it’s likely they won’t survive. Alone. And in the dark out there.”

Nia frowned. It was apparently a much harsher punishment than she thought. But then again they were villains already, so they were already kinda outside society. Besides …

“They have comrades out there that won’t be excommunicated. It might not even seem as such a harsh punishment.” Nia smiled viciously at them. “That’s why I’d like to sent a message. It’s rather ‘unsaintly’ though. So, please, leave for a moment.”

Mother Clemens took a deep breath and set her lower jaw. “Very well. You are the saint. Please just … Don’t make us hang up corpses in front of the building.” With that, she walked out and signaled the twins to follow her.

“What are you planning?” she heard Tina ask.

“You might want to turn around, too. This is nothing Jesus would approve of.”

Tom hit his hand with a fist. “What do you want us to do?”

“Nothing.” She grinned and used her magic to strengthen herself again. “I am perfectly able to do this myself.” Thanks to her magically enhanced strength, she had no trouble standing upright, no trouble hitting her own palm with a fist. She didn’t plan on doing much, so it wouldn’t worsen her condition. Probably.

Ralf raised an eyebrow at her as she let go of him and walked over to the two villains, who had, wisely, stayed silent thus far.

“Do you know what separates a saint from a priestess?” she asked in the same sweet voice she’d used on Mother Clemens.

Both Villains shook their heads. Nia reached with one hand to the metal cuff still on her left arm, and increased the power of her magic for a moment. The metal shrieked as she closed her hand around it, and ripped the metal apart.

B shivered. The floor below him got wet all of a sudden

Nia hissed the answer to her riddle: “I don’t need to sing to be able to use my magic!”

“Her companions looked as shocked as the villain’s boss.

“H… how? Why?” asked Random Villain D.

“I am the one asking questions and making demands now!” At her tone, he shut up. She grabbed him at his clothes and lifted him, holding him close to her body. She didn’t want to make it harder on herself than she needed to. But right now, she wanted to impress. And she wanted to leave a lasting impression.

With one strike, she employed her knee as a nut-cracker. Hitting the universal weak spot of men. She didn’t even use her full power, but it was enough to make him cry.

She let go of him and went to Randolf. Sorry, but nisery likes company. Besides, you could’ve chosen differently. Like C and A had.

In her mind she heard things crack. Then she let go of the wailing man and walked away. She didn’t even look at them anymore. With that she left something behind. Part of her old self as well. Ralf and Tom couldn’t look at them either. They did walk further away, getting a table between them and her.

That’s probably not enough. It won’t change their thieving disgusting ways. After their wails died down a little, she turned back to them.

“I placed a curse on you: Should you ever try to kidnap, traffic or sell any woman, girl or child, or knowingly let it happen, you’ll lose your manhood!”

It was bullshit. A complete lie. A bluff. But this was a fantasy-world, she had magic, and she had just demonstrated that she could do magic without singing. So it was at least plausible. She hoped that this was a good deterrent and would make these two stop their colleagues from repeating what had happened to her.

“Be thankful that I didn’t take Mother Clemens’s suggestion of hanging your corpses out to dry!” she hissed and left through the same door the priestess had used.

Nia managed to hold onto her composure until she reached the twins. There she let go of it and her magic, crumbling against Erax. Or was it Torax? She didn’t know. Her whole body trembled. She wasn’t made for these things, and the way her magic worked, didn’t help at all. She wanted to cry.

“Nia!” Mother Clemens sounded alarmed.

“I just need a good night’s sleep, and I’ll be fine,” she lied, closed her eyes and enjoyed the sweet darkness that embraced her consciousness once more.