When you pass out from pain you expect some things. You expect to wake up with a head ache. You expect you'll probably have a bad taste in your mouth, you expect to be in a potentially worse situation than before you passed out. You do not expect to be looking into the shocked eyes of a corpse! That my little journal is the last thing you expect to see! Needless to say when I awoke staring into the eyes of a corpse I screamed and then ran face first into metal bars, yeah this wasn't my brightest moment.
"I see you're awake and clumsy." It was the Hunter's wife, should I put quotes around that? I mean she wasn't the wife of anyone let alone a hunter. She was dressed a lot differently now, a plain grey robe, black ass length hair draped flowed freely, I guess I hadn't noticed how ordinary she had looked before, but she was most certainly nothing to really write home about. We were in what appeared to be a cave, books lined the stone walls, the furnishings inside were more extravagant than the lady who tended them, royal reds and blues. I could see a large desk with ornate chair, feather quill pen sitting in an ink well. It was a very well furnished cave lair.
"I'm going to kill you!" My head hurt, I woke up next to a corpse I ran face first into bars and I had a taste in my mouth like I drank ashes, but I still spoke my mind!
"How impolite for someone who saved you Trezlan, not entirely unexpected, but completely impolite." Her voice had that old regal air to it.
"Saved me? You damned me lady! You killed my aunt and all my friends!"
"Oh I damned you? Forced you to be a brutal murderer? Please Trezlan, that was inside of you the whole tiem, why else would I have selected you? Because you're a murderer! Depraved acts were already welling inside of you to begin with! When I stumbled across that Hunter camp I expected to just find a snack or two, but then I sensed the corruption inside of you, well I couldn't just let that go!" Nothing hurts worse than the truth, well thats a lie, getting stabbed with a barbed sword that has been set on fire hurts more than the truth, but thats like a once a year kind of injury, where as the truth is one of those things that never ever goes away.
"Couldn't let that go so you tricked me to go to Rolak?" I was in a cage, there was a bench and the corpse. It wasn't a very large cage and the bars were spaced enough that I could reach through them, but that was it. I did notice in a frightening way my arm was healed, the corruption was gone (I didn't mention previously you can remove it did I? Well its possible but... most would never ever do what you have to "cleanse" it from yourself). I did notice on the regenerated flesh a new brand, some kind of strange magical mark that looked part inscribed, part burned in.
"Well you went to Rolak on your own accord, I just needed you out of the way, could have killed all the hunters myself even, but I had to see if you had it in you, and you did! Congratulations Trezlan you're on your way to being a better you."
"You're evil!" I saw things in a very black and dumb way back then.
"Evil is such a low concept, isn't it evil to deny someone what they truely are? To let someone die without ever having really lived? Your aunt would have had you watching horses and trading their wares for years Trezlan! I freed you from a life of boring! Not to mention you were dying and they didn't know it, sure the outward corruption is new, but your insides were already black with it, in a few years you would have used your power too much and gone full on insane, probably becoming a lot like my creature you killed." She kept her distance, just out of arms reach. I could see she only had one weapon on herself, a thin almost ceremonial looking dagger, the blade was blood red.
"You don't know any of that!"
"Such a vicious angry child, you'll learn. I saw your Aunt's mind before she died Trezlan, she was never going to let you be free, never going to let you be your own man. You should be crushing people like her beneath your boots, not cleaning theirs!"
"So you'll show me freedom by locking me in a cage? And how did you save me? You don't look like any healer I've ever seen." A smile spread across her lips, the kind of smile you see on a predator before it eats you.
"Necromancy, you see the former occupant of your cell, he was alive and well until I stripped it from him and gave it to you. You should be pleased! He was the leader of the mercenaries who killed your aunt, a particularly ugly man, he died terribly and you got his strength!" Revolting at the time, now just common place for me, its amazing what you can grow used to, "You see dear Trezlan I saved you from your boring fate and saved you from your own magical incompetence, I only keep you in your cage until you recognize the gift I'm giving you! I'm your new mother and you are my child."
"Whatever mother burn like the heretic you are!" I tried to evoke flame, but all I could do was cause blood to shoot from my nose, honestly if I could harness that ability I'd have one disgusting party trick. She laughed.
"Please, do you think me a fool? You can not harm me, or even use your magic here. You are not my first child, though you are certainly my most stupid." Defeated I sulked to my bench, the corpses eyes held on me for a time that creepy glare the dead have.
"Should have let me die."
"You say that now child, in time you'll make the right choice, they always do, for now remain in your cage and sulk, I'll remove the corpse later." She turned around and sat at the desk, a large volume lay in front of her and she resumed writing in it (it was her own journal, upon her death I took ownership of it, part of the reason I'm writing this, though unlike her I'm not going to include the rituals she did.) I mostly concerned myself with thoughts of ending my own life, but even back then I was accutely unaware she wasn't wrong. I'd tainted myself with murder, and enoyed it, and in the harshest truth of all, did feel a bit more freer since I was not beholden to my aunt or her guild. The worst truth is admitting the people you love, are holding you back. Till next time little journal, I'll go over how I was broken and made to be a servant once again! Fun times I assure you.
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