Cintra is a beautiful city. The capital of the kingdom that bears its name. Beautiful, rich, envied by some. But nobody envies its prisons. Cold, gloomy, and infested with rats and disease. A prison like all prisons but with one thing more. Paid torturers to fulfill their deviant desires.
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The prison cell is empty. There are no lights, no windows. Just darkness. Nothing but the icy temperature of the chains planted in the wall. The dampness of the rocky walls only makes the room more biting. A woman in chains is at the back of the cell, opposite the gates that separate the prisoner from the three guards who are laughing and drinking in the warmth. The woman is dressed in her armor, but she shows no weapons.
Her wrists chain her to the wall. Her arms are stretched above her head. The woman looks around for the umpteenth time. Looking for the slightest detail, the slightest subtle thing she dilated and golden pupils would have missed. But her further observation is obsolete. These eyes had captured the finest being, the most hidden object in her line of sight. In this deep darkness, nothing escaped his gaze. Her keen gaze eventually came to rest on the guards—the people who were supposed to restrain and control her.
Ineptitude thinks the woman's only reason for her inaction is her morality, the fact that she respects the law and its code of chivalry. All her former colleagues followed the same principle in their hearts. The same code is now only followed by her and her two elders. The guards laugh, eat and get drunk. They wear standard city guard equipment, including an iron chapel, a gambison, a beautiful brigandine, and redanian leggings.
To the side in a rake are their three steel swords. Classical swords of guards. Blades in the low average of what is done. Simple steel long swords that could not cut a human being in half if used with enough force.
The guard in front of the cell looks at the chained woman.
"What are you looking at, mutant." the man shouts angrily and raises his beer mug as a provocation. The woman did not answer and continued to look at the guards as a whole. She was passing from one to the other, staring at them, looking at all three simultaneously. She alternates these looks with just her knowing her thoughts and intentions.
"Why do you care about her, Bernard? She's just a degenerate who will be executed first thing in the morning for the crimes she's committed." says a guard as he drinks his beer. Half of his mug ends up on the floor and the table because of his words.
"Yes, leave that monster, or she and her kind curse you." says the last of the three guards.
"Robert is right. She and her kind of creature can put a spell on you just by talking. According to the elders, they can bewitch you with a wave of the hand." replied the second guard.
"Yes, and according to the elders, they are considered very good swordsmen. I didn't believe it, I thought it was children's tales, but after seeing the mess that scum made at the tavern, I believe it."
"Yes, a massacre. She gutted the mercenaries like they were children. According to witnesses, she was making her sword fly, and a head fell to the ground in a spurt of blood."
"Yes, and well, I, Jacques de Cintra, say that we should slaughter these beasts, these abominations of nature. They should be made to suffer the worst sublimes, hanged and burned at stake." The first guard, named Jacques, gets carried away. He raises his glass and slams it violently on the table, causing some of his beer to fly off and spill on the table.
"Yes, we should mutilate them all as they mutilate us with their monsters," Robert retorts in a loud voice.
"Perfectly, by pest, all these mutants should be decapitated. We don't need monsters to defend us from other abominations. We can very well do to them by ourselves as we do in this city." Bernard stands up violently with his hands on the table. His stool is thrown back.
"I agree with you, Robert. We don't need dark powers, ugly eyes, and better reflexes than ours to protect the widow and the orphan. We do it perfectly in this city.
"Cintra has never been more peaceful and safe with us," James says. Jacques and Bernard stand up in turn. The three guards, now standing, train their mugs between them.
"To us! Death to the monsters!" All three shout simultaneously before pouring the remaining beer in their mugs down their throats.
"AAAH. Nothing like a good pint of beer to get the job done right.
"Hey, guys, I've got an idea, " James said with a smile.
"Bah, tell us, don't keep your idea to yourself when we could be having fun.
"The madwoman must be executed tomorrow morning at dawn, right?"
"Yes, and?"
"So what if we execute her now? We'll make it look like she tried to escape, and we were forced to kill her so she wouldn't escape." James explains his plan to his brothers on guard duty. The more he talks about his project, the bigger and more gloomy his smile becomes.
"Yes, good idea, Jacques."
"Excellent, we can make all these monsters pay for what they did."
"We'll torture her before we kill her slowly.
"We can even have a little fun with her. Although she has terrifying eyes, she has a pretty good body. So I'm sure we can use her to get some relief. Plus, according to the legends, they are sterile and can't reproduce. Although this is the first time I've heard of a female mutant, I don't think that changes anything." said Robert with unhealthy envy.
"Especially since you can't make a child with a monster." finished Bernard.
The guards approach the cell door. Robert takes out his keys and opens the door.
"Well, my pretty, your fate has changed. You will no longer be executed by the executioner tomorrow but now by us," says Bernard as he enters the cell.
"Of course, we'll have a little fun with you first. It's been a while since I've been with a woman. You're not one, but you'll do. After all, anything with a hole can relax me."
"AAAAHHHH, I recognize you right there, Robert, always in the best of moods. After all, you aim in the hole and stuff."
"Yes, and the ladies or whatever love it. You should ask little Gregory. Ah, how tight his hole was once I got his head in the water. A real whore hole, he wouldn't let go of me. All so I could get rid of him," Robert retorts with a smile.
The guards approach the woman. James takes her face by the cheeks and squeezes it.
"We're going to have a lot of fun in the next few minutes." declares James as he squeezes her cheeks before withdrawing his hand.
"You are going to regret this. I'm warning you don't push me around." The woman warns the guards of the dangers they are about to face. Nevertheless, the woman's threats or warning does not have the desired effect as the guards burst out laughing.
"You can't do anything. You're at our mercy, and we're going to take advantage of it," says Robert.
The woman spits on him. The spit goes into James' eye. The latter moves back and wipes his eye. Then, he puts a firm slap on the woman.
The woman's head turns to the right. A red trace from the gloves stands on her left cheek, but it quickly fades.
"Fine, you want to play rough. Let's play. I'll make you squeal like the little whore you are."
"Robert, go get me a knife. I'm going to make her bleed a little," orders James. Robert complies and walks out of the cell.
Bernard stands on the wall. "I'll let you have a little fun but don't damage it too much. We have to enjoy it too.
"Don't worry about it," says Jacques.
James looks the woman in the eye, not scared at all. On the contrary, he gloats, gloats about being able to brag about killing a mutant and playing with her. He boasts about how she sold herself to him for his freedom, but he doesn't give in and kills her heroically.
Lost in his reveries, he comes to because of Robert, who did not come to bring him his knife.
"Robert, what are you doing? You can't bring me a FUCKING KNIFE." James turns around, annoyed. He sees Robert standing on the table and ignoring him.
"Robert, what the fuck are you doing!?" James becomes enraged and lashes out at Robert. Robert collapses on the table with all his weight.
"Robert, by golly, it's not funny! YOUR JOKES DON'T MAKE ANYONE LAUGH." James yells at Robert and hits him on the shoulder. Robert does not react.
"If it makes me laugh." the woman's voice echoes through the jails.
"What-?" Jacques turns around violently to hurl insults at the woman. But he falls on Bernard, who violently hits his head with the pommel of his sword.
Jacques staggers and collapses on a stool that breaks under his weight. "BERNARD QU-. Jacques also falls unconscious. Bernard calmly sits up in his seat and also falls into unconsciousness.
"This is what happens when I am pushed to good." the woman declares as she looks at the three guards.
"I knew well that the signs of Sum and Axii are a good combination to settle things without killing."
The woman moves her arms to see the firmness of the chains restricting her hands.
"Well, I can break them, but I will be a fugitive if I go that. I won't be able to claim the bounty on the monster's head in the city. What to do?" the woman wonders as footsteps echo down the stairs leading to the gaols. Lit by wall torches, a shadow looms at the bottom of the stairs. The shadow becomes bigger and bigger and finally gives way to a man.
The man is dressed in dark clothing. A strong armor with fur. Accompanied by red and white, his outfit looks noble. The armor looks very strong and flexible, allowing the wearer to move easily and quickly. The man's face is hidden under a black hood, but the woman can easily recognize that a person is a man. His head and his build are impossible to have for a woman.
The woman's observation made her linger on a detail of the man's outfit as he approached her cell. The man stops in front of her.
The woman widens her eyes at the golden A on the man's belt.
"I see you've managed to get yourself into trouble and out of it just fine, my little griffon." the man says with a small smile.
"What are you doing here? What is an Assassin doing in my cell? And please don't call me my little griffin. I'm a griffin, not a little griffin." The intrigued woman is slightly angry that she is being called a griffin's cub.
"Well, I came here to find you and take you home. Keldar has made a contract with the League and for that, I need to get you back to Kaer Seren so I can start it." the man states as he fucks himself a little making his emerald eyes visible.
The woman looks into the man's glowing eyes.
"What did Keldar ask the Brotherhood that requires my attention?" questions the woman, surprised that her elder is sent an Assassin to fetch her.
"He will tell you himself. I can only tell you that it is something you desire."
The woman was about to question the man, but he didn't give her time. He takes the chains and melts them.
"Well, now that you are free, follow me. We need to get your equipment and weapons back before we can complete your mission." the Assassin states as he steps out of the cell.
The woman rips the chains off the wall. She removes the cuffs from her wrists and rubs them to remove the red marks.
"What mission? I didn't take any contract."
"I'm talking about the contract you're undertaking against your freedom Lyndis. The contract where you have to face the monster that terrorizes this city. A contract from which we will make a ballad where the beautiful witch of the Griffin, Lyndis of Cintra, slew a monstrosity from the capital of Cintra.
AN:
I thank ArtoriasPendragon for allowing me to use her creation, Lyndis, in my story.