Pleading With Corruption

Aerowyn gazed sorrowfully at Iris. The girl was petrified, the experience of Colin mercilessly cutting her up obviously fresh on her mind. She was looking back at Colin with terror, adrenaline no doubt raging through her skinny frame.

His mind raced as he attempted to figure out a way to get her out of here. But in order to do that, he needed to stop this brutal examination. He prayed she could hold out long enough for him to figure something out.

***

Iris couldn’t take her still prickling eyes off Colin. After what she had just experienced, her entire thought process was dedicated to survival. She took in every twitch of his limbs, waiting for any indication he was going to attack.

“Good…begin.”

Colin’s bearing changed, taking on a more serious tone as he sheathed his sword. She watched as he clenched his hands a few times, turning towards her until his scrutiny focused solely on her.

Suddenly, but sporadically at first as they picked up in tempo, small arcs of lightning flickered along his body, creating a mixture of soft buzzing hums and sharp crackling sounds. The hairs along her neck stood on end, and she felt a sense of danger, like a premonition of promised death.

She crouched down in preparation to lunge to the side—CRACK.

Iris went flying, stars enveloping her vision as his blow launched her halfway across the room, snapping her head to the side and almost breaking her spinal cord at the base of her neck. Following the impact, she felt her cheek sting with a lingering burn, most likely from the lightning still crackling along Colin’s fist.

Dazed and confused, she wobbled to her feet, eyes darting left and right to get her sights back on Colin. She located him in the middle of her room, looking down at his closed hand with an indistinct impression.

“Enough of this, Sovereign. This isn’t working.” Aerowyn said. Iris could barely hear him through the ringing sound reverberating around her head.

“I didn’t tell you to stop, young Graven.” King Valdoc said, voice stern and admonishing.

This time, Iris managed to see the barest hints of Colin as his form blurred, streaking across the room towards her. There was a sound resembling the zap of lightning, and she was sent rolling across the floor, her chest aching from Colin’s strike and her insides feeling like they were being hit on all sides by blacksmiths’ hammers.

Thankfully, the burn wasn’t severe with most of it being blocked and dispersed by her torn tunic, only the slightest amount getting through. Still, Iris spat out blood, furiously rubbing at her chest to try and alleviate the pain while groaning.

“Valdoc! I implore you to stop this nonsense! We might lose the chance to know what this Trait is without proper study!” Aerowyn’s comment boomed through the hall, forcing the King to respond in kind as he stood up from his throne. The two guards on either side put their hands on the hilts of their weapons as the King’s own input reverberated like thunder.

“You do not command me, Advisor Night! Know your place.”

Aerowyn pulled back his voice, “Please, Valdoc. Think about this. Are you willing to give away what could be a vital Trait to someone unprepared? Someone you perhaps do not fully trust? What if it’s useless? Should someone important to you be given an unknown Trait that is lesser than what they deserve? Let us wait for another day, and we can prepare more to examine and activate the Trait.”

King Valdoc’s eyes unfocused, thinking about the proposition. He looked back over at the scuffle, where Iris was bloodied and bruised. She had just been sent flying back for the fifth or sixth time, and she didn’t know if she had it in her to get back up again. The one time she attempted to stay down in the hopes to stop Colin’s assault–he had only walked up, briefly gave her a look of pity, and then pulled her up by her hair before throwing her into the rows of seats where she was sure it wasn’t just the chairs that were broken.

“Mother’s Grace, Aerowyn, I really wanted to get this over with today.” King Valdoc said, sighing with annoyance. “Enough, Colin. Bring her to the dungeons for now, stay with her in the meantime. We will continue this tomorrow.”

He turned around, walking over and grabbing the Queen’s hand and leading her out of the room via some back entrance to the throne room. Before the Queen stepped out after King Valdoc, she looked back at Iris, giving her a warm smile that felt more like a predator before an easy meal, “Do sleep well, tomorrow will be busy…and hopefully entertaining.” Her sultry voice stayed with Iris as Colin hoisted her prone body up and over his shoulder, the words replaying over and over as she slowly lost consciousness.

***

Two nights, two jail cells.

Hopefully, this wouldn’t be an everyday occurrence.

Iris had awoken on the cold stone floor, body aching in places she couldn’t—and didn’t want to see. From what she could see, the bruising didn’t seem to be too bad, some light blues and purples scattered across her arms and legs. If anything, she seemed to be in better shape than she expected.

“I tried mending what I could, but I lack the experience compared to Aerowyn. Plus, healing oneself is easier than healing others.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The voice shook her from her reverie, causing her to jump in shock as she whipped her head towards the sound. There, right outside the bars, was Colin sitting on a stool too small for his larger frame. Out of reflex honed from multiple consecutive beatings, Iris scrambled to her feet, raising her shaking arms in preparation for another beatdown.

He sighed and put his head in his hands, “Look…I’m sorry, Iris. You can relax. I know you might not believe me, but I don’t intend to hurt you. What I did…I had no choice.” He paused, searching for the right words, but she didn’t put her arms down, still not fully believing his words. “For much longer than you or I have been alive, it’s been my family’s duty—the Graven’s, that is—to watch over the examination and administer the combat portion when testing for Traits. We have also served as protection from those looking to assassinate people like you.”

Iris shook her head, “People like me?”

He laughed. It was tired and filled with regret, but Iris wasn’t ready to lower her guard just yet. “All of that, and that’s your takeaway. Yes, people like you: orphans and criminals whose only purpose is to kill the Broken and then serve as test subjects to study Traits before that Trait is gifted to another.”

“How is this…Trait gifted to another, exactly?” She asked, though she felt she already knew the answer.

Colin looked at her with sorrow, “The same way it was gifted to you. Death is likely a solace for the Broken, but it’s also the ley line to allow a Trait to pass on.” He dropped his gaze back to his hands, adopting a forlorn expression.

“And the Traits you keep mentioning? What are they?” Getting more into the conversation, she ended up allowing her sore arms a rest, dropping them to her side.

“They are unique to each Broken, and they give their wielder an irreplaceable ability unable to be replicated through Auris.”

She cocked her head, “But how do these Broken get them? And what are the Broken? Why was he bound? Why not just examine them?” Her questions started coming rapid fire, her curiosity piqued.

He held up his hand, “I…I don’t think I can give you answers for those questions, Iris. That information, it’s not for you to know, me telling you would just put you in unnecessary danger, more than you’re already in. Just rest for now, hopefully Aerowyn thinks of something, because I don’t think I can do tomorrow what I did today.”

With no other choice in the matter, Iris sat back down, wondering what Trait she had apparently gotten from the Broken. Just the thought of the man laying lifeless on the floor sent her into a fit of dry heaving, new tears appearing in her stinging vision.

Why were her eyes bothering her so much? She rubbed them in an attempt to get rid of the sensation.

She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, doing everything in her power not to remember the feeling of warm blood splashing across her face, or the sound of the unnamed man’s head rolling across the chamber.

Taking deep breaths, she slowed her erratic thoughts and centered herself.

Iris thought through the events of the day, reliving the good and the bad, and realized she had experienced both luxury and agony. For one, she had dined on foods she’d only dreamt of. But for another, she was at the whims of the King and Queen, held desperately onto the side of the living only through the mending Aerowyn and Colin had provided.

No.

Iris had lived both ends of the spectrum, and one was obviously more enticing than the other. But for her to reach a status where she no longer needed to worry about her next meal, she had to get stronger. And she would do it for Tarros, for Elder Varron, for anyone and everyone she considered her friends.

She studiously brought her mind back to the matter at hand—what was the Trait? How did she activate it? Was it controlled via Auris? Hopefully not. Iris was still a Blank—she didn’t have any sensitivity towards the apparently omnipresent magic.

Iris glanced back up at Colin, only to nervously look away when she found his gaze planted on her own.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

“I—who says I’m thinking?” She shot back, glaring back at him.

“You were making a weird face, it was like you were smelling something foul.”

“Stop watching me! I’ve dealt with you enough for one day!”

“Okay okay,” he held up his hands, giving up on trying to reason with Iris.

“Listen,” she started, “I want to know how Traits work. Don’t think me talking to you means I’ve forgiven you, though.”

Colin sighed, “I don’t know how they work, to be honest. I myself don’t have one, obviously.”

“Obviously?” she asked.

“You’d be able to feel it, apparently. It’s like some sixth sense Trait-bearers have. They can recognize when someone else has a Trait, like a shared bond—or that’s what I’ve been told.”

Iris thought that sounded like something she had experienced recently. Right after she murdered the Broken, the King and Queen did give off a different impression to Iris. Did they…?

She turned towards Colin with an inquisitive look, “Do the King and Queen have Traits?”

He scoffed, “Of course they do. The whole royal family each has one. King Valdoc and Queen Eloise more than likely have some of the strongest Traits in Elyria. Before you ask–no, I do not know what they are. They keep that held closely to their chests. The only Traits I know of are some of the Oathbound’s.” He noticed her raised brow, prompting him to clarify. “The Oathbound? You know…the King and Queen’s guard? The two that were outside the room? Gleaming silver armor and golden cape?” At her shaking head, he continued, “Well they are men and women sworn to an Oath to serve the Royal Family, mostly in matters of mundane tasks, like protection whenever one of the family decides to explore the capital.”

“What about the one’s inside the room with the black capes?” She asked.

“They—”

“Having a good chat, Colin?” Aerowyn said, almost materializing from the darkness of the hallway.

Colin started, not used to being taken by surprise by the old advisor. “Mother’s tits, where the hell did you come from?”

“Needless details, come on now, open the cell.”

It took a second for Colin to regain his senses, “What?! You think we are just going to walk her out of here and no one is going to stop us? Please don’t tell me that was your plan.”

Aerowyn’s head rocked back and forth a few times before answering, “Well…my initial idea was to come up with some elaborate plan that wouldn’t be too brash. Nevertheless, I’m going to be honest with you both.” His shoulders drooped, like being relieved from a huge weight. “The royal family are asleep, especially due to Valdoc being so exhausted from the early ritual. The only people we would have to worry about would be the Oathbound. Unbeknownst to them, we have the perfect thing to get by them unnoticed.”

“And what might that be, oh-so-smarter-than-all Advisor Night?” Colin said mockingly, not believing the ridiculous plan Aerowyn was trying to tell them.

“We have me.” Aerowyn’s smile almost shone in the darkness.

Something within Aerowyn shifted, and out of nowhere, Iris could feel the same sense of pulling on her attention that King Valdoc and Queen Eloise had. She gasped, putting what Colin had described of Trait-bearers and that feeling together like two and two.

“We are going to walk out of here under the power of my own Trait.”