And her name is…
Prolgue

This is the day. The day that I kill everyone between me and my escape, but everyone who remains will only live long enough to be surprised when I burn this city to the ground. These Sioga have had me a full year, and today I am breaking out. Happy Birthday to me.

I have spent all day reaching hopefully towards all those that have made it close enough to my cell and siphoning as much of their life energy as I could before they would notice. Now is my best chance to get away, and if I don’t do it now I don’t think I’ll ever get out. If I fail with this attempt, with everything I’m going to have to do, and no lay of the land.. they will for sure be keeping a closer eye on me after this if I’m caught. I just hope that if they do catch me they see me as more of a hassle than I’m worth and go for the kill. I will use my magic as little as possible, but even with that I’ll be giving them more information than I like.

I watched the last guard leave the room after he snuffed out all the mage lights, leaving the room in darkness. Then I wait until I can no longer hear his steps, and check the room outside my cell. Squinting in the dark I confirm he hasn’t left anything behind that he would need to come back for. Next, I pull the breath into my lungs and roll off my cot, moving toward the door and start what I started last night, pulling the life energy the locking bar in my cell.

It is exhausting work and takes energy from me over giving me strength when I do it from living things. I’ve rarely had the need to try such a skill, but I also never saw myself needing to rust a lock from the inside. There were a lot of things I never saw coming, and once I’m out of here I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Rust is forming up the mechanism and the sweat on my forehead is beading up in thick droplets.This has to be enough right? It has to be.If I’m wrong they could hear me and come back, but I can’t do any more when I don’t know how many doors are between me and outside, or even what to expect passed the door to the’s prison.I hold my breath and jerked the door, catching the latch I’d rusted through mere inches before it crashes to the floor.

Now I needed to sit for a minute, breathing deeply and as softly as possible while I tried to regain some of the energy lost through this trick. The air entering my lungs sounds too loud and my heart is hammering in my chest, drowning out any possibility of me hearing someone coming back down.

“I should have taken more from the last guard, he looked exhausted anyway.” I mutter and wipe my sweat inside the collar of my shirt.

My legs are wobbly beneath me but my will to escape is lifting my feet forward. The next door to the stairwell is made of wood and I find myself almost laughing at the ease of draining the life from this material over the metal. So far with this much hopefully they hope my affinity is material based. They’ll still might keep me for my blood, but they might continue to not see me as a threat.

The staircase spirals upward with no windows, and I wonder how deep underground I am. Each step echos no matter how gently I place my bare feet. It’s either I climb so slowly I can’t be heard and risk doddling, or go fast and loud to get out but risk being heard from the top. I pick something in the middle, trying to walk close to the wall and keep on my toes to minimize the sound traveling up.

Please Goddess don’t let me be caught, and if I am just let me die.Death would be preferred over returning to the basement.

There is no where I can hide if someone decided to come down, so every so often I’m scanning for any loose rocks in the wall that I could use as a weapon. I’m fairly sure after lights out the guard patrols are reduced, and that none of them actually come down these stairs to check on me, but it’s hard to be sure when I’d be sleeping. Honestly, for all I know it could be the middle of the day right now and I could emerge into the middle of a stage at high noon.

At the top of the stairs the door is unlocked and I laugh. Taking deep breaths I manage to slow my heart rate before twisting the knob to open it. Not many outside of those that dressed like guards have ever seen me, but in my provided loose red pants and T-shirt I’m sure to stand out.

“3, 2, 1,” I chant before opening the door to yet another room.

It’s quite a bit larger than I expected, set up like it’s ready to receive company, and has two doors. I move around well crafted furniture and over plush carpets in my bare feet before pausing briefly in front of a mirror. The only reason I don’t shriek is that I know the colour red is for prisoners and the figure is wearing red. As I am currently the only one in the prison, this is what I now look like.

I don’t show the pointed ears of those here, but I can feel my fangs itching under my gums to come out with every perceived threat. My blue black hair has now passed my ears and is showing the beginning of the gradient. After about 15 centimetres of growth the dark colour begins to lighten into lighter shades in the blue colour line; just like my mom’s did. I run my fingers through it, seeing what a mess I’ve let it become, and tie it in a knot at the back of my neck.

My eyes roam my body and I’ve thinned. I liked my athletic build, gained through climbing trees and mountains, helping my neighbours in their gardens, and playing with the kids in the village. Adjusting the chest binding they gave me to wear, I notice I’ve lost my curves as well. It took me a long time to appreciate them, and Before them I looked more like a boy with my short hair. When I started to look more like a girl the boys my age started to treat me different. I beat them all bloody for it, and they knocked that shit off, but it made me hate the hips and tits for a while. Now I’m so underfed that I haven’t had a period in months.

“Ignore it,” I command myself. “We need to go.”

I need to ignore the pain I feel in seeing myself so far gone. The hollowness in my face and the way the clothes hang off my body, covered in injuries in various states of healing are things that I can fixafterI find my way out of here.

I moved to each door, listening carefully for any sounds that would indicate people are near.One door is significantly colder than the other, and I’m guessing that means it leads outside to some kind of court yard. That has to be my best option and I wipe sweat on my palms before moving to grip the knob. Slowly I unlocked it and pull the door open, checking in all directions for signs of life.

There’s nothing. In all direction all I see is some sort of garden. I step cautiously forward, continuing to look around myself as I shut the door behind myself. The garden is wide with what looks like large stone paths the lead through high curving beds of flowers and other plants. There’s no straight path or directional signs, but I see an exterior wall that guards could walk around for patrol. Seeing as how the front gate is definitely out of the question, over the wall is my best bet and I pick a path with the tallest plants around it. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

I walk close to the plants, off the stone paths and in the grass, siphoning small amounts of life every from all of them. It shouldn’t be enough to kill them, but the flowers will likely fall off or depress severely. With any luck they’ll believe a pest has gotten into them to ruin a while section, but I’m not really paying attention to what I’m taking, just doing so until I start to feel better.

Once I’m at the exterior wall, I look over it’s construction quickly. Along the way I had to dodge guards by hiding under bushes or quickly climbing into one of the few large trees spread around for shade. Now that I’m here I note the almost smooth construction of the wall and drain a little more from the nearby plants or my next idea. I start to strip the life out of the mortar in the wall that holds the bricks together. Once I’ve taken enough energy from the material I’m able to pick away at it to make hand and foot holes to climb up with.

I push the mortar in the wall away to create my gaps with my thumbs. Even still, the rough texture tears at my fragile, dry skin and my fingers and toes are bleeding by the time I get to the top. I check both direction but no one seems to be on patrol up here tonight and I sigh with relief. My fingers are raw and I’m missing one of my toe nails, but I made it.

I crouch down and move to look over the other side when I catch sight of something flying towards me. A duffle bag, of all things, flies up and strikes me, hard, in the middle of my chest. I stumbled backward, the bag falling to the floor at my feet, but the momentum has sent me stumbling backward and tripping off the side I just climbed up. Just barely, my hand catches the side of the wall and I hang off the edge.

Behind me I can hear bells begin to toll and I can see mage lights appearing with the guards over the ground. My fingers are too worn to get purchase as I try to climb back up and my bare feet aren’t helping matters. My breath is loud in my ears as panic starts to set in but a sudden hand grabs mine and fear consumes me fully.But distantly in my mind I have this strange thought.His fingers make me feel nice.

A heat warms in my chest and I look up to see a man with hair of a deep purple that’s fades to a lilac half pulled into a small bun. Strands of his hair fall free and his dark, nearly black, eyes meet mine. That heat moves into my face and I want to ask him his name but I’m brought about by a bell sounding closer to me.

I look around me and see guards in the garden coming towards where I’m just dangling, completely vulnerable. My eyes look hopefully up to the stranger, who is clearly also breaking some rules, and plead with my eyes. All he has to do is give me his hand and help me get a leg up. After all It’s his fault I’m not in his position right now. His eyes also noticed those guards in the field and then he turns to me like he’s sizing me up in a way that filled me with horror.

“Please, no,” I beg.

I feel him releasing me and reach up quickly with my other hand to grab his wrist. Grabbing as much of his energy as I can in that second, as he pries my hand free, I stared deeply into those bottomless eyes.

“You’ve made my list stranger,” I rasp before he ends up breaking my last finger and I fall to the ground below.

I’m immediately winded and roll over to try and fill my lungs with air as the footsteps get closer. There aren’t many coming my way, maybe a half dozen if I’m getting them all, and I think I delude myself into believing I have a chance if I don’t hold back. I don’t have any weapons, so all I have to defend myself is my magic and they are a lot more than a few small plants or flowers. I can swing a mean punch, but I am not a skilled fighter.. this is all I’ve got, which means they’re gong to die.

I need them to space out their attacks, and use the garden to break them away from each other as I do. I grab the first two I can as fast as I can, dodging their knives, and take as much of their energy as I can in those few seconds. I can feel their energy entering me like a drug. It’s different than the mind altering foods I have been slippedwith my meals, and it makes a cruel, smug smile pull tightly on my lips. When the second one hits the ground I am practically humming with the insanity of it all.

The next one who takes my hand in his starts gasping for air as the life leaves his eyes but then new arms are wrapped around my stomach and I’m yanked backwards. The one thatwasholding me is running away and I’m forced to look to the one that holds me now.

“That was a big mistake,” I hiss, wrapping my hands over his face to pull everything from him and he hits the ground behind me.

The next one that tries to run doesn’t get away, but by now I’m laughing with the dark energy of taking their lives. I’m about to go back to the wall and continue my escape when something strikes me. An arrow is protruding through my arm and I feel another one land in my back. I can’t even feel the pain with the hum of all the life energy coursing through my body, but I’m forced me to accept my defeat.

I can’t climb with these wounds and my hands keep slipping in the blood as I try to remove them. There are too many guards now, and even if I had the ability to climb there is no time. Aside from someone magically showing up to help me, or that black eyed stranger returning to help me, I’m out of option.

I sigh fully, showing my claws. “Fuck it, never without a fight.”

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