#whynne

She'd tried so hard to warn them. The rope knot gag had done its job, they hadn't heard her, hadn't understood the dangers. It didn't matter what happened to her, but how could she let them die like this?

"Whynne! We're coming, hold on!" Thats what Malcolm had shouted across the throne room to her, his sword already drawn.

"Let her go, you sick cunt!" Else had roared, her grip white-knuckled around her holy symbol.

"Your friends have arrived," the man, the villain she had come to know as 'Mael', whispered too-close into her ear, "don't you want to talk to them one last time?"

He'd ripped the gag away, burning the corners of her mouth against the rope.

"It's a trap!" She'd cried, "You have to get out! It's a -!"

The rest was drowned out by a deep earthy rumbling, the crashing of stones grinding against each other, and wild, elated laugher from Mael - as shadowy spears shot up from the floor, and tore through her friends faster than she could blink.

The hall echoed with cries of pain and surprise, blood splattered the walls and nauseous horror threatened to overcome her. Her breathing was jagged, strained, as she pulled against the ropes.

"No! No, please!"

Mael held her fast, stronger than he seemed - something she'd become familiar with after a week of being thrown around by him. She thought she could endure it, as long as her friends were safe, she could endure anything...but not this...please, not this!

"How beautifully you led them to their deaths," Mael snickered, "adventurers are truly fools! Ah, I love it - oh my, it seems some of them survived the first wave, what shall I do?"

Tears streamed from her eyes as she watched the two stronger party members tremble, and hold fast against the pressure and pain of the spikes. Blood soaked through their clothes, and dripped into puddles on the tiles.

"Please, please - you can - you can do whatever you want to me, just let them go! I'm begging you, please, just - just let them go!"

"What a tantalizing offer, you must really care for your friends..."

"I - I do - I - they're all that matters to me! So - so please -"

Mael waved a hand, and the shadowy spikes disappeared into puffs of dark smoke. Everyone fell to the ground, groaning, and Whynne allowed herself - stupidly, naïvely - a moment of relief.

"Pfft - but don't you already know?" Mael laughed, jerking her ropes back hard, "I can already do whatever I want to you! Nothing you or your pathetic mortal friends do could ever stop me! Haha~!"

"No, please - aghh!" She was silenced by the gag again, despite shaking her head, trying to fight it.

The shadow spikes shot up from the floor a second time.

Whynne's heart felt like it stopped. She couldn't breathe.

Then the spikes disappeared again, dropping the bodies back to the floor. They struck again, and then disappeared again. Over and over, until the hall was finally quiet.

No more groans of pain from her friends. No more movement.

She managed one or two weak gasps of breath, blinded by tears that burned in the back of her throat, and she screamed. She screamed, and thrashed, and fought to break free.

Until, eventually, she was so overcome with grief that she fell slack; all she could do was sob over the gruesome, bloody mess that used to be her friends.

The words struck Whynne down to her core, ice cold shock burned in her chest and made her breathing tight and difficult.

"Malcolm!! How could you say that?!" It was Poppy's voice, breaking the way it always did when she was furious, "None of this is her fault! You're angry at the wrong person -!"

"So what?!" Malcolm yelled back, "You're saying you would have still come for her? Even if you knew this is what would happen!? What can we do for her, or for anyone, if we're stuck here with that Fae psychopath?!"

"Ma - Malcolm -" Else said, nervous and stuttering. She always got timid when the party argued because she had a crush on Malcolm, but didn't always agree with him.

Else, Whynne, and Poppy had spent so many nights trying to encourage her to admit her feelings, comforting her, laughing and crying together...

"Come on, Else," Malcolm huffed, "don't pretend you don't feel the same way. We can't live like this!"

"Don't speak for her, you ass!" Poppy snapped, "And don't talk about Whynne like that! You think she wanted this to happen?! You've seen what that monster does to her!"

"It doesn't matter what she wanted or not!"

"Guys!" Else interrupted, "Please...it's just...it's not like we can leave, anyway..."

"I'm not so sure about that."

Malcolm's tone shot through her. Whynne hugged her arms, fresh bruises aching, and clenched her teeth against the burn of tears in the back of her throat.

"Wh - what are you -"

"Think about it, Poppy," Malcolm said, "it's not like he needs us as servants. He doesn't even care about us, not so far as I've seen...Whynne's the one he wants. The three of us could just as easily walk out the front doors..."

There was a long quiet between them.

Whynne's shoulders shook, she closed her eyes tightly to hold back the tears. What would crying do? What would it change?

All those years of adventuring together, all of the fights they survived together, the loyalties they'd grown...

It was all threatening to come unstrung inside her.

"How could you say that...?" Poppy asked, her voice weak and horrified.

"It's just the truth," Malcolm said, "I'm sure we could do more for Whynne, too. If we...weren't trapped here with her."

She couldn't listen to any more of it.

Whynne tore away from the door, fleeing blindly down the hallway. She ran, head bowed, taking corners hard, unsure where her feet were leading her.

It's like she's not even trying anymore!

She shook her head violently, trying to get the echoing words out, and choked against her tears

You're saying you would have still come for her?!

A moan of sorrow passed her lips, eyes burning. Her breathing was heavy, and her legs went weak as she took a flight of stairs two at a time, and ended up outside on one of the castle walls.

She slowed to a walk up to the edge of the wall, and took a step up between the crenellations, the tips of her boots hanging over the edge - the long drop down onto rocks below.

The sky was grey with clouds; far away there was rain falling over the forest. Whynne stared out over the castle grounds, catching her breath as a cold wind brushing through her hair.

We can't live like this!

Whynne stared, cold, unseeing.

"We can't live like this..." she whispered, as the tip of her boot brushed a pebble over the edge of the wall, "I can't live like this..."

"It won't kill you."

Whynne gasped, turning back to the doorway so quickly she pulled a muscle in her neck. A young girl with kinky curly hair and a huge black bird on her shoulder stepped out onto the wall. She was in simple garb, and had a leather glove on her arm.

The girl clicked her tongue, and her bird stepped up onto her arm. Whynne noticed a small scroll tied to its leg as it took off into the air, shedding a couple black feathers, and flew off into the clouds.

"The fall," the girl said, flashing a tired smile, "it won't kill you."

Whynne glanced back over the edge one last time, before stepping down onto the flagstones again. She didn't respond, just brushed past the girl - and noticed one of her eyes was milky-white and blind - on her way back to the door.

She heard the girl whistling to herself on the wall and a shudder went through her, as she took the stairs aching and slow back into hell.

『 Previous / Next 』

[Day 2 // Holding Back Tears]

"Whynne tumbled onto the floor, the last of the intruders bloodied and subdued beneath her. Grey light filtered into the castle's entry hall through the half-open doors. A light drizzle pattered peacefully outside.

She jammed her knee into his shoulder, kicking the weapon out of his hand, and pressing the sharp of her knife into his temple, right next to his eye.

"A - alright! Alright!" He cried, gasping for breath, his face torn with dismay at his fallen comrades, "Please, don't kill m -!"

"Shut up," Whynne said, pressing her blade into his skin and drawing a fine line of blood, "tell me why you and your men broke into the castle.

"W - wait! Ah - we were just scouting it! The - the duke has ordered it! He - he owns the land here now - s - so we -!"

Whynne furrowed her brows, staring down, uncaring, into the watery eyes of the adventurer under her. The duke? She tried to recall his name, what he looked like. It felt like such a long time since she'd come to this place.

"What duke?" She asked.

"D - Duke Horatio..."

Horatio...the name sparked a memory in her mind, a short and fine-featured man with dark hair and a serious look about him.

Was it at the adventurers guild? Or maybe near the Imperial plaza? Damn her fuzzy memory!

Could he have the forces to storm this place? To wipe out Mael, and all of his monsters and undead? But even an army couldn't stand up to him, not in his own territory. She grimaced.

"Listen to me," she said, lowering her voice, "you go and you tell this Duke to stay away from this castle. It belongs to - to my master, and no army, no nobleman, no one could ever hope to take it. You understand me?"

The man gave the barest hint of a nod, and Whynne stood up from on top of him, returning her knife to its sheath on her hip. She watched the adventurer scramble up to his feet, and flee out the front door into the rain.

Whynne took a moment to herself, just one little moment, and inhaled a fresh breath of air. The caress of the wind cooled her face, the rain made everything smell fresh and damp.

And then, she closed the doors with a slam.

When she turned around, Mael was there, nudging the dead bodies with the toe of his boot. He gave her a leering grin, gesturing for her to come join him.

Whynne didn't want to. She really didn't want to.

But, her expression stony and calm, she did.

"Oh my, what a mess my house cat has made of these mice!" Mael said, leaning an elbow heavily onto her shoulder, "But I thought I heard four little mice skittering around my halls...and I only see three lovely dead mice here..."

"I sent the other man back to - agh!!" Mael interrupted her by hooking his elbow around her neck, and levering her wrist backwards, straining her shoulder and arm up past the point of resistance and sending a jolt of pain through her body.

"This is such a pretty arm~!" He sighed, giving her a little jerk and humming at her scream of pain, "But if it's of no use to me, what shall I do? Break it? Cut it off and feed it to the hounds?"

"A - aaghhh!! Let - let go! I did wh - what you asked! Aahh!"

Whynne clawed at his elbow with her free hand, digging trenches of blood into his arm while straining for breath.

"I asked a cat to take care of a mouse problem!!" Mael laughed, his voice manic and warbling with glee, "But you let one of them go! You let him go! This arm couldn't kill the last mouse!!"

Whynn struggled, tears and white spots blinding her. She was growing light headed, and her face was going cold.

"Pl....ease..." she wheezed.

There was a silent moment, and then Mael forced her arm upwards in a clean, sharp jerk and Whynne felt something snap and shatter in her shoulder.

She let out an unholy scream, that rang down the columned hallway.

Mael dropped her, letting her body crumple to the tile floor, trembling in pain, her right arm broken, swelling with a stabbing pain so intense it overwhelmed her.

"I have no use -" he said, stomping on her head with his boot, "- for disobedient," another stomp, "animals!"

His final stomp was on her broken shoulder, and Whynne wailed, guttural and feral, her mind lost in the crashing waves of pain.

She could barely hear him over her own groans, and the slamming of her heartbeat in her ears; "I wish you wouldn't make me discipline you, don't you know you're my favourite?"

"Haaah....aahhghh..." Whynne couldn't form words. She couldn't make her mouth work.

"Once you've learned your lesson, go get yourself healed by your little cleric friend. It's not so long of a walk from here."

Mael laughed, his high-pitched giggle, as he walked away and left her there, broken among the bodies she'd killed for him.

Why...why had it come to this...

Her tears pooled on the floor, her arm too painful to even consider moving.

She felt helpless, so helpless and so alone. Scared she would never make it to Else for healing. Scared she'd never escape this hell.

Echoing voices played in the back of her mind, that night she'd returned to her friends' rooms and overheard them talking.

Whynne is the one he's obsessed with...we'll be fine if we just lay low...

Whether we like it or not, what choice do we have...

She choked a sob, and let out a scream, a wail so profound that the sorrow of it threatened to overcome her.

She cried and cried, and the sky cried with her, rain battering the windows as the setting sun painted the clouds blood red.

She faltered, her threat unfinished under the sound of her captor's snickering laughter. He spun around to face her, his long violet hair as wild as his cruel, leering grin.

"Pfft - I'm sorry, it's just too good! I knew you were the one!"

"Wh...what are you -"

"I can't wait to see the looks on their faces! Ahh, I can just imagine it!"

He stepped too close, his body pressed against hers, and leaned his forehead into her hair. His whole body felt too-warm, like he was made of fire, and the smell of smoke stung her nose.

"Get - get off me!"

"Ahh, you've made me so happy," he said, with one hand cupping her head lovingly, and the other unfurling a long leather whip, "Make sure you scream nice and loud, or else how will your friends find you?"