The windows inside were open and let in the cool night air. Sheer green and silver curtains flowed inward, letting in the lights from outside. The room was washed out in the moonlight. The walls were panelled with pale wood and one of them was inlaid with shelves filled to books that were double backed. The spines were dusty and peeling with age. The middle of the room was dominated by a large desk that was covered with a map of the continent and scraps of paper and stubs of pencils. Wood shavings littered the edges and the contents of its drawers were half spilling out. Behind the desk were the aforementioned windows. Shalom walked over to the desk and started rifling through the drawers and felt around for secret compartments and hidden drawers and came up with nothing. Bren walked over to the panelled walls and felt around the seams for levers or anything that was hidden. She walked to the painting and tried to pull it off the wall but it didn't even budge.
A painting that is stuck to the wall?
She tried to push it to the side and tried to pull it off but it didn't even move an inch. Then, she slowly pushed at it and the frame sank into the wall. A large wooden box rose on a pedestal in the space that the painting just vacated. Bren smiled as Shalom came up behind her and placed a praising hand on her shoulder. They carried the box- which was surprisingly heavy- and placed it onto the desk. Shalom lifted the lid and they stared at the stack of notes with the Stoechían crest stamped on it. Currency.
Below the money were documents that showed multiple transactions and lists of names that for some reason jumped out at them.
Hans Dela
Carrom Garr
Mala Mensa
They were all crime masters of the city and all of them had a steady flow of cash at their disposal and control of large territories in areas of... the slum?
Bren went through some of the notes at the bottom of the box and her heart stuttered. The last stack of papers were labelled
Aiden Dearth.
Her hands shook as she turned the page.
Shouts rang out as Shalom calmly unsheathed his sword. His eyes crackled with lavender lightning. Bren felt around for the energies in the chandeliers but their flow was going elsewhere. She didn't have enough in her reserves to teleport. They had to get out of there.
Shalom smiled at her, feral and alive as the guards broke down the doors.
"To the end?"
Bren smiled as she slid the papers into a seam in her bodice.
"To the end."
And then she fought.
…
A red haze had descended in Bren's vision. The air was electric with flowing energies that coalesced within every wielder in the hallway. The Energies burned bright and fast. A guard rushed towards her with frozen claws. Bren raised her blades and dodged them, flipping the dagger to plunge it into the man's heart. A surge of energy rushed into her veins from the blade and a shudder wracked her body. The darkness in her roiled. That parasitic thing with nails for teeth and flames for eyes. It howled and screeched at that little piece of energy. Bren shied away from it, away from that power. The same power that had labelled her a monster. The same power that had leeched away her sister's life… But it wouldn't do to dwell on things of a past best forgotten.
Another guard- a woman this time- slammed into her from behind. Bren lost her balance for a moment, losing her centre of gravity and toppled forward barely rolling into a crouch as she collected herself. The woman blasted Bren with shards of ice. Each shard piercing her skin until her entire body felt like It was on fire. The monster raged at her to let it out but Bren swallowed it down and got up again on shaking legs. She wanted to turn around and see where Shalom was but she dared not take her eyes off of the guard. She looked to be collecting her reserves and Bren knew she needed to regroup but when she went searching for those reserves of energy she found nothing but emptiness. Dread coiled low in her gut, panic spreading like wildfire in her mind. Her breaths came choppy and fast as the monster roared. It's claws raking her insides wanting to be let out. Wanting to suck the life that enveloped this room, this mansion. The people inside the mansion. Her family.
Are they really your family? They don't even know the truth of you, of me.
The monster sneered, his teeth bared in an ugly grin.
The guard had started to raise her arms and blue light gathered in writhing lines of energy that crackled and cast out cold waves. She could hear the clang of metal on metal, the smell of burning brain matter and hair, the taste of copper heavy in the air. She knew that she could not survive the next hit. She may be immortal but she could wound and weaken. She could bleed and hurt. Her fingertips blackened and sharpened to claws as skeins of darkness flowed out of them. Her pupils spread across the whites of her eyes until darkness was all that remained. She hoped that Shalom had enough sense to hide away from the dark, from her. The guard's face paled with fear. Her hands shook as the darkness took shape. Her lips moved in silent words. The same one. Filled with horror and disgust, fear and defeat. The ice on the guard's fingers glanced off of the darkness barely making even a dent.
Monster. Monster. Monster.
Bren's heart shriveled and fractured a little bit more. Her light dimmed a little bit more. The life within her withered a little bit more.
Tears of pain and blood streaked down her cheeks as the Monster devoured the hallway, sucking the life out of everything that had a heartbeat. Her silent sobs echoed in her mind. The Monster had reached the door that led to the outside. She couldn't stop it. It was too much. Her mind would shatter and- and she would be spent. There would be nothing left and she would have peace. She would have- What was that?
Brenneth!
The voice pierced through her thoughts.
Brenneth! Come back darling.
His voice was soft, pleading.
Bren screamed as she reined it in. Skein by skein. Thread by thread.
You don't control me. You are mine and I was never yours.
The Monster howled and fought but she sank her nails in and pulled until it was back inside her. In that forgotten space where her past was.
She barely noticed the careful hands that wrapped around her wrists, the winds that raged and the lightning that crackled. The ash that hung in the air.