Carmine

My eyes opened and an intense pain shook through the bones of my limbs. My teeth bit into each other as I sucked in the air. I winced and moved my heavy head in a desperate attempt to figure out where I was.

It was clear. I was trapped. My legs and arms were latched down with rusty metal cuffs. A blue light beamed from symbols engraved deep in the metal.

In between the cuffs and my wrist, light swirled and twisted from my skin into the metal.

I wiggled and failed to pull myself free where each worthless drag increased the cold and painful burn against my joints.

All I knew was I was on some damned dais. I looked around in unfettered rage and a familiar face met my drooped eyes. It was Corona and to the side of her; Templars in full armor down to the mail coif.

A Templar.

Judgments were trained to kill demons and witches, but Templars were trained to fulfill the church's will. They were the ones that attacked me and the royal guards.

A man bowed in front of Corona. He looked handsome, but his clothing looked familiar. I blinked in shock when my memory worked. It was the Champion from the forest!

I tried moving, but it burned more. Was this how I was going to go out? Like some sacrifice in this temple of her holiness, Erot? What kind of madness was going on here? I flung my eyes around and tried to get a grasp of my surroundings.

Chains led up into the roof and a slim crevice in the flatness indicated that it parted with the rest of the roof. Right now, the roof was closed in.

“Heretics!” I shouted. “Is this how you sully your God's holy ground with my blood?!”

Corona turned her head and stared.

The pain was starting to fade, but my fatigue increased. I said, “Corona, What are you doing!? Release me from this at once!”

She muttered incoherently and turned to the people behind her. Corona looked back at me. A smile was on her face. I could not detect malice in it and yet fear crushed my confidence.

Corona stepped forward. The gown she wore now was longer. White and flowing with primp creases from the wide shoulder top. It contained a blue crotch flap with a pair of gold-lined trimmings.

“I won't kill you. If I wanted to, you would be dead already,” Corona said.

I asked, “What are you planning to do to me, what is this? You really think Erot is going to let you devil worshippers get away with this?”

“Now why would you think us devil worshippers?”

“You have a witch's plaything right next to you. I am being restrained by some sort of—magical—” I pummeled my wrist against the metal and it stung. My fingers tingled as I bit back the pain. “You—"

“You don't get it don't you?” Corona asked.

“Get it?! I don’t want to understand this madness. Release me now!” I bellowed and grunted. “You think you can do this to me—I am not some toy for your evil enjoyment. You hear me! If you are going to kill me, just for God’s forsaken eyes do it! Or release me from this foolery! M-my, my life is not your little toy!”

“Yes, that is life,” Corona said with a flutter of her hand. “You are either being played with or doing the playing. You are either the tool or the master.”

“Go to hell, you witch. I will never be your tool,” I replied.

“You will be serving Erot,” Corona countered.

I looked at Corona sternly.

Erot?

Corona laughed and gave me a knowing glance. “Yes, Erot will be your master, tool. We serve no demon, only the true God.”

“What? Hold on Erot is a witch!? A God is a witch?” I asked in morbid shock.

“Witches do not exist. Only your overseers, the ones you call Gods," Corona said. She turned her back on me.

What kind of blasphemy was this? This was not real. I was being chased down by a God?

Corona twisted her lips when she faced the Champion. Her hands rested on her hips. She walked up to him and her lips smacked together.

“Five thousand and fifty, you have returned to us. Billasoia saw your failure, but you have not redeemed yourself in Arkonlia Erot's name,” Corona said.

Her hand lifted off her skin and blazed in a white light. He stepped back, but it was too late, for a blast of light crushed into his abdomen. It sent him flying into the opposite wall. He fell, and his limbs twisted all about languidly.

My jaw slacked in surprise.

With a final lift of his head, the light in his eyes extinguished after receiving so much light himself. His head dropped and his body lost rigor.

Corona snorted. “Like I would share credit with you.” She made a fanning motion with her hand at his lifeless body.

Blood pooled out into a big pond under his body.

Corona continued, “You lost to some old fossil of a MC and failed. You failed to grab her without him there, no wonder Billasoia did not want you back. Worthless—like I would recommend you back to her Maiden. Fool, I had her in my grasp all this time. Where were you?”

My breathless anxiety debilitated me.

Her eyes stared down at me as she came up onto the platform. She was next to me and her hands were behind her back.

No smile from Corona made me feel comfortable. I was sure of one thing, surviving this beautiful woman might be the hardest test I face.