Carmine

Corona laid her instruments out. She focused on laying out her tools on the stone arrays the Templar brought to the right of my body and Corona navigated her body between the two.

She laid out an assortment of slim knives and odd cylinders made of clear glass with needles attached to the end. Two copper vases that must have held some liquid sat on either side of them.

I asked, “What are those things for?”

She froze then she started moving. Twisting, she moved up from my waist to my chest. Her hand swerved and slapped me hard in my face. The wretched pain made me choke. I coughed as no air came to me.

Gasping as blood gurgled at the back of my throat, I spat to the left side as I tried to breathe through my mouth. My nose seared in pain and my eyes squinted amid the agony.

It was annoyingly stifled and I could not breathe through it.

“I do not know how you woke up from that sedative I gave you, but I am not wasting any more time on a worm such as yourself. You will not interrupt me. Be quiet, so I can get this done,” Corona said.

She grabbed the cylinder object and knocked the side of the glass as she leveled it in between her fingers. I needed to figure out how to get out of here. There were the Templar soldiers, but they would never help me.

She grabbed my forehead.

The point of that needle was aimed at my head. My eyes widened. I tried to wiggle, but her grasp was so soft and yet so strong. My eyes wavered up her arm holding me down, veins pulsed big and blue.

The pain roared in my head as the needle pierced inside me. She withdrew it smoothly and let me go. I exhaled heavily as she went back to her table of tools.

My head pounded. I wanted to ask, but she was not the talking type. My attempt to pull my hands free was a mere fidget with the cuffs.

I was stuck. What else did I have up my sleeve? I looked at the champion. His body moved. Was he alive?

Not even the Templars watched him. Ok, that was a little bit of hope, but I was still on my own. I needed to deal with this on my own for now.

Gods, Overseers, what was real?

I closed my eyes.

Mumbling to myself, "...Ashuor I know I have been reluctant to pray to you for so long. It is not that I have been sinful. I just feel that I was never worthy to ask for your help. I don't know if you can hear me. But I swear I have done a lot of horrible things, I have screwed up. I-"

I winced as this woman rubbed my stomach with some burning balm. It felt gummy and thick. But the pain was all that was on my mind. She seemed unfazed by the balm on her hands.

I continued, "Ashuor I don't ask for much. I won't even ask for me to live. Just if I am to die end the pain quickly, but if I am to live give me something, anything to get out of this. I swear I will never forsake you. Please show me a sign father Ashuor."

A loud gnawing sound woke me up from my prayer. I turned to look up. The chains turned and crackled as they slid from the ground to the roof. The upper floor was lowering.

Corona turned and her face lost all its color. A drop of the balm hit the right cuff. Steam raised as I heard the sizzle. A symbol stopped glowing. The tight tug dispersed as the twisting light disappeared from my wrist.

“Who in damnation is coming down here?” Corona glared at the men. They looked clueless. Her back was turned, so I slid my hand out of the cuff. I smiled, but put it back in pretense.

My hope was restored.

I was still sealed down by my left hand and both my legs. That balm, I stared at it. It was a good distance away. I need to get to it, but how?

“Kello? What are you doing here?” Corona asked in a sing-song voice. She was smiling with a wide breadth.

Her hands were behind her back. Kello was flanked by four judgments. He looked at the templars, then at the dead body then at me.

He said nothing. Everyone was still. Like stone, but their eyes moved slowly and measurably. It was like they were picking out who was where, and what weapons they had. A fight was about to ensue. I easily detected that. Kello's eyes reached Corona. “Corona, what is going on here?”

“Oh, I have found heretics. Well, the templar found these two. That man and this girl. We were holding her captive. Waiting for—”

“Corona, please don't lie to me.”

She rocked her head. Her head fell. I saw a spark of arcing light in her hand and it fizzled between two fingers. “What do you want me to tell you, Kello? Hm?” she asked cordially. But the tone carried this danger like she was a trapped beast.

Kello said, “I have been wondering for a good while now how you reached the high ranks of this temple. Erot favors you highly I see. But the capturing of Ascus royalty is not her Lord's doctrine.”

“She spoke to me, not you Kello, she always spoke to me. Because all of you are puppets! I am her true servant and deliverer of her doctrine!” Corona said.

She lashed her arm forward releasing a blast of light from her arm. A judgment blocked it with a wave of his shield, but he shuddered back as the light's shock still traveled up the length of his arm.

The templar rushed them. Kello drew a sword and effortlessly cuts down one templar. He sidestepped and rushed with a judgment toward Corona.

She jumped away from their lunges and knocked the table further up the stairs to the dais, so knifes clattered on the ground.

The two vases rocked unsteadily. I sled my hand out and tried to reach them, but I was not even close. My restraints still held me prisoner.

I winced as my head ached. There were rabid screams and shouts around me. I stared down at my belly and remembered the balm still thickly rested on it.

Of course stupid, it was right in front of me! I took up some with my two fingers and felt the burn instantly. I rubbed the other cuff. The runes stopped glowing and with both hands freed, I disabled the other cuffs.

“Arrragh!”

“Carmine duck!”

I rolled off the dais hitting the ground, for a spear hit the wall. Cracking the stone, dust wafted off its rod. I looked back and saw Kello bleeding badly as the judgment aggressively cleaved at Corona's ever-veering body.

Her right hand was burnt down to the bone from her finger to her lower arm, while her dress was torn in many places. Blood splattered in small pools and dried splashes along the ground and wall from many other unfortunate victims.

I shook in disgust at the sight.

Kello shouted at me, “Go!”

My disgust must wait for better days to revel in my disturbing life.

I grabbed the spear and ran. Corona rushed at me diagonally. She pushed me down and my head pounded the floor. I lifted the spear. A scorching pain rocked me when my hand was slapped away.

Something slammed into her chest. I surged up, but my left hand was a bloody mess. The pain seared like hot coal, so I almost tripped.

Looking back, she rebounded. A table floated off the ground and flew into Corona. She got thrown into the wall.

I looked up and saw that champion standing.

His arm was up. Dust swirled around it majestically. It veered and blew around like some light gale sparkling in the luminous candlelight. That was magic.

The champion suddenly ducked out of the room. I followed him out. Running full speed, but I never caught up. Searching for safety, but I never found it.

My feet reached the narrow halls and screams of torment shattered my brief courage.

The long hall's darkness stared at me. Candles were too far in intervals, so I kept tripping on the pits in the rugged floor.

The darkness whistled passed with such ease and fluidity. Footsteps crept into my subconscious. Even at a distance, they echoed further and further away. Hearing nothing, but my raspy breath; I pushed my lethargic-laden legs onward.