Disobeying an Order

Kieran held the sword of his opponent tight with his left hand on the blade. Blood quell between his fingers and trickled down his arm, dripping on the floor. He slowly turned around and looked at Sophia with her sword lowered.

“Stupid girl. Don’t gamble with your life. This is the real world, not some game,” he said with an unusually pained expression.

Sophia looked over to Victoria, who was still held by one of the four men. They both had an equally surprised look on their faces.

“Told you, he would say something like that,” Sophia said with a weak smile.

“Huh?” was the only thing that came out of Victoria’s lips.

“Who the fuck are you?” said the man, whose blade was in Kieran’s hand, snapping finally out of his confusion.

He tried pulling his weapon free, but the grip on it was too strong. The blood flow down Kieran’s arm got stronger. He turned his body and kicked the man straight into the chest, catapulting him backwards. Victoria managed to wiggle herself free and jump out of the way before the man, who had been holding her, got buried under his buddy. Kieran unsheathed his sword and moved between the two surprised looking man. A split moment later they went down bleeding profusely out of multiple cuts on their bodies. Kieran moved over to the two struggling men on the floor. Two precise cuts later and their heads rolled away from their decapitated bodies. All that happened in a mere instant. The young girl in the corner of the room began to scream as one of them stopped in front of her. The two women next to her tried to shield her from the scene with their bodies.

“What the hell happened?” Victora said next to Sophia looking at the gruesome scene in the cell.

“Guess I won our bet,” Sophia said shruggingly.

“You cheated! You summoned him somehow, am I right?”

A sheepish smile appeared on Sophia’s face.

“You never specified that I could not,” she said cheekily.

“Having fun, I see?” Kieran scoffed from the other side of the cell.

“Well, you took your swee—” Sophia said, turned towards him, and paused. “What’s happening to you?”

Kieran was bleeding out of his nose and the veins below his skin turned black, clearly visible.

“Punishment.” Kieran groaned in pain. “Disobeyed an order.”

“Shit! What can I do?” Sophia yelled alarmed.

“Absolve that order…”

“I can’t! I don’t have any magical energy left! See?”

Sophia raised her arm, showing the mark to Kieran. She tried pouring magical energy into it, but nothing happened. Kieran stared at her shackles.

“Hold out your arms!” Kieran pressed through his teeth.

Sophia did what she was told. Kieran came over to her and raised his sword.

Clink Clink

Sophia did not flinch as she felt an impact on either of her wrists. The shackles fell to the ground rattling, and she immediately felt kind of reinvigorated.

“Now…” Kieran moaned and went to one knee.

“I.. uh… what… do I say?” Sophia asked panicked.

“I don’t care! Anything! Hurry!”

Sophia focused and tried pouring magical energy into her mark. It began to glow immediately.

“I… uhm…” she searched for words, “order you to stay at my side from now on!”

Kieran immediately stopped groaning and breathed deeply. His pained expression was gone and his veins returned to their normal color.

“Surprising choice…” Kieran mumbled. “You could have just rescinded your last order… instead you overwrote it with a new one.”

“I… panicked!” Sophia admitted. “I said the first thing that came to mind.”

“That’s even more surprising. Hope you won’t regret it sooner or later…”

Kieran looked the confused Sophia up an down.

“You’re not hurt?” Kieran asked.

“No…” Sophia replied. “Aside from a slight headache.”

“You earned that after downing so much wine yesterday.”

“Yeah…”

Sophia chuckled slightly and Kieran got back up on his feet.

“Interesting connection you both have…” Victoria commented, “I didn’t knew that magic exists to make one obey one’s commands… and with such consequences…”

“We can talk later about that, for now we bett—” Sophia replied and nearly tripped over the shackles on the floor in front of her as she tried to walk. “Fuck I forgot about those.”

She picked them up and inspected the symbols on them further. They somewhat reminded her of the inscriptions on Kieran’s body.

“What exactly are those are those?” she wondered.

“Shackles with the ability to suppress magic,” Kieran answered.

“But.. that can’t be!”

“Not the most surprising thing of today…” Victoria mumbled,” and I’ve heard that those exist. Aren’t they extremely rare though?”

“Yeah, but they and the Inquisition keeps a close eye on those that are in existence… how did one of them end up with those gangsters?” Sophia wondered aloud.

“No Idea,” Kieran said and looked at the unmoving bodies on the floor,” and I doubt the can tell us now…”

“Maybe someone up there can tell us? We have to go through there anyway…”

Kieran looked up the staircase for a moment and then turned towards Victoria.

“We better hurry then, before your friend kills all of them,” he said and a scream followed by battle noises came from above.