Astellia
"Lift your face girl," the man's voice sneered dripping with venom and rage as he crouched over my bloodied body.
I looked up at the cruel man who had once promised to take care of me making me trust him to run away with his cavalry of jokers. The shadow of a man I remembered from years ago didn't exist anymore, it hadn't even taken him an hour to drop his mask, beat me, lock me away, and write my name in his illegal brothel.
How long has it been since I last saw the sun? Felt the wind and the grass? I had been kept underground, in the lowest level where the worthless, cheap women were stored for use. Common men who didn't have enough money for the beauties got us. The first time I had to serve someone, I bit off his nose, Singher had beaten me, starved me, and whipped me for the whole week before he healed me for another session with a stranger.
I stabbed the second one in the neck with a butter knife.
Unfortunately, that meant I was more in debt with the settlement to Singher. Fortunately, however, I was not to serve another man and instead became a simple maid, not until he cut the Achilles heel of my right leg, shoved a slave rock in my wound, and sewed it together, branding and captivating me for life.
That was over ten years ago. I turned twenty-five today. Today was the day I was supposed to be free. My escape had been perfected, from how I was to fake my death to how I would live in the woods, alone, just me and Belur, the forest of monsters.
"Gods, Singher. What did you have for breakfast, you stink," I cough out blood in my response, looking up at the cruel man I once loved. He was older than me, you could see it clearly with the wrinkles around his eyes mouth, and droopy eyes. He should be in his late thirties by now.
Singher's face screwed together in an ugly expression, his eyes angry as his gloved hand grabbed my chin roughly, "What made you believe you could run away? When you owe me your stupid life?" he growled low, his other hand playing with a dagger before bringing it to the pulse on my neck.
"Do it, we both know you can't. As much as you like to kill, you love to torture even more, you freak," I chuckle as a response to his threat. Singher never had the best childhood, he made sure to remind me of that whenever he beat me and told me not to hate him too much. I knew he wouldn't lie about that, after all, his eyes were murderous as he remembered the royal kids who had broken his bones and called him a freak.
They were right but damn do I wish they had the least bit of decency to not ruin lives. To break the cycle of violence and hate that had been built up over the last two decades, when the oracle passed away a month after she gave the bone-chilling prophecy of evil rising. Except everyone became power-hungry, hoarding dragon riders and creating the yearly games to enlist the next dragon warrior into their army.
"Do not joke, Lia, I have had enough of your bullshit," he pressed the dagger to my neck and waited for a response of some sort but I had nothing left. The usual anger I showed him had been used up, the fear had been long gone, and the old me that he wanted to protect and lock up was wasted away. As if sensing the fire in me fading he chuckled, his eyes filling with delight as he moved the knife from my neck to my stomach, "Gods, Lia. Finally, and here I thought I would have to mess with you until the end of my life. You bring me so much joy."
With that, he stabbed the dagger into my stomach, not once or twice or three times but six times. Making sure to mess up all my internal organs and break my rib cage. He left my heart safe, so I would bleed out a slow death.
"I'll be back my dear, I have some guests to attend to, then we can say goodbye properly," Singher whispered sweetly and ripped off his gloves before walking away with his goons, leaving me alone for dead.
I wasn't going to die, I watched as my body slowly healed, the pain numbed from the herbs I had taken as a precaution in case he decided to torture me again, so I waited and waited for my organs to rearrange, my skin to sew back together before grabbing the dagger he had so recklessly left on the ground.
"Asshole, those guests of yours will burn this brothel to the ground," I giggle as the words leave my mouth, remembering the messenger bird I had sent to the Guardei, with tips to all underground illegal businesses, just like this one here.
Wasting no time, I brought the knife to the scar on my right leg where the slave rock pulsed with the brand. My body was still numb so I felt no pain as the flesh ripped and blood seeped out uncontrollably before I squeezed my flesh to push out the ruby stone. The crushing feeling freed my soul as the rock left my body, I was no longer locked here.
I stood up to my feet, dizzy with the loss of blood but steady enough to limp up the stairs. Today was the day for the Calling to occur, this year it was in the elemental realm and a lot of people had gone including the goons and women of the brothel.
The hallways were empty as I made it to the first floor, creeping to the back of the building where the servants usually were before jumping into the wine food storage room, the only room with a window not overlooking the main entrance.
No time to see the world around me, the one I had missed for the past ten years, I ran around and grabbed the oil barrels, opened them and threw them around the room, to the hallway, and connected them to the small, thin trail of powder I had thrown all around the brothel last night.
Taking a small oil lamp I threw it on the ground, near the oil puddle, watching with mixed feelings as it lit up on fire, racing to the hallways. I had chosen a day where no innocent maidens would be hurt, all of them had been taken out by a man for the Calling today, so the realm's only disgusting creatures remained in this building. Men.
I was just worried for the women who might end up in a worse fate than they were now. I turned and jumped out the window, speeding to the stable in the distance, and got a horse ready for myself. A black mare with the healthiest body, Singher's goddamned horse was now mine!
"Come on girl, let's get out of here before we burn to crisps," I urged the mare and almost squealed in delight as she trotted towards me with her belt and harnesses all ready on her. Tipping my leg over her body, I lifted myself and ushered us out of the stable with loud gallops, gaining speed as we ran down the main entrance and coincidently making eye contact with Singher and his guests, cloaked men with giant builds and sparkling eyes as they took in my bloodied body racing away.
"Have fun six feet deep, asshole!" I called out before facing the front, ignoring Singher's yells and the flurry of footsteps behind me.
I was free... "I'm free!" I yell, and in response, a loud explosion rings out behind me, the brothel and all its occupants burning as limbs start flying around me, they deserved it.
My mare galloped faster than she already was, speeding out into the setting sun and I could finally calm down, the adrenaline left my body and I shivered and trembled, the tears of the past falling down my face but I was smiling.
Because I could feel the wind on my skin. I could see the sun in the distance. I was running through a forest. We moved past the forest, past the grassy fields of summer, past the small village.
I had no destination because I had just the found freedom I had been deprived of for the past twenty-five years.
********
"Come here Cerin," I called to my horse and fed her the apples I bought from the small town we left behind with some of the money I had stolen.
We had traveled without stopping for a whole day before stopping to get food and rest. Then I bought a small tent, boots, clothes, and a cloak for the cold at night and resumed our travels.
Rubbing Cerin's black fur I mumble in thought, "A little more than three months..."
I still had enough money left over since hunting for animals in this forest was not difficult with the dagger. Water from the running streams was fresh enough. I just had to stay out of sight for a few more months so the bounty on my head could clear. Singher had kept a good reputation as a just businessman.
Bullshit.
My lack of knowledge had bitten me in the back when some Guardei spotted me just as I was examining a poster with my face on it, they thought I was a mass murdered, psychopath that liked blowing people up.
We had been traveling North since then, where Belur was. The forest of monsters. It let no one in and no one out, with monsters, beasts, and wildlife all residing in it.
I could get in though, remembering the tip from a traveling tradesman who had stopped by the brothel for a night, "Offer your blood, and if you're worthy, Belur will welcome you, if not...then it will consume you."
A gamble I was willing to take after the tradesman rambled on about how sweet my blood smelled. If he liked seeing my blood, then so would a bloodthirsty forest.
Cerin finished her apple supply and drank some water from the stream as I readied our belongings to continue our travels.
Soon enough we were back on track, m face covered with the hood of my cloak as it bellowed behind me with the rushing wind, we ran for days and days until our destination was before us.