Bound in Spirals Ch. 05

"I-I'm okay, I-I for... I f-forgive you." He managed to say, barely. "It, it's my fault, I said something out of line, I deserved it."

Lorry raised her head and looked pained as she wiped her tears. "No Sam, it wasn't your fault, you shouldn't say that. You were right before. You don't deserve to be hit, I was wrong."

Sam brushed the tears from his eyes, 'Y-Yes, that's right. I did nothing wrong. Calm down. I don't deserve to be hurt... I have things to do, I can't have a breakdown now.' He tried to force his breathing to settle. 'What was it that book said? Breath with my diaphragm, relax my tense muscles? I think that was it...'

He breathed slowly and deeply, then gradually released his clenched hands and jaw. 'I'm not in danger right now, it's just a panic attack. There is no need to worry. Lorry is nice enough, she is helping me. She just reacted instinctively, and she won't do it again... My stepmom is the one who hurts me, not her. Britney can't get to me anymore...' He wiped the sweat from his forehead with shaking hands.

"I-I'm okay now, I think. I just need a minute to gather myself." Sam said and forced a small smile. He brushed back his hair and pushed himself up onto his knees. "That happens to me sometimes, I'll be alright."

Lorry looked like she wanted to hug him, but held herself back. "I-I am very sorry Sam, I wasn't thinking and I let my frustration get the better of me. I think I have become too used to having others do as I wish." Her golden brown eyes still shimmered with tears. "I have learned an important lesson here, but you should not have had to suffer for it. Please do not think too badly of me."

Sam looked down and rubbed the back of his head. "I forgive you Miss Lorry." He said, and made sure not to blame himself this time. "I won't think badly of you. I know you probably didn't mean it. Just... just don't do it again." He thought he felt decidedly better after saying that.

"I, er... can we... can I..." Lorry stammered. "Can I give you a hug?" She finally managed to say, looking slightly embarrassed about it.

"Um, yeah, I think that would be alright..." Sam said, rubbing the back of his head more furiously. Truth be told, he didn't want her to touch him. Lorry's eyes seemed to light up and she quickly embraced him tightly. "Oof..." He grunted as she ran into him. He held back the anxiety that threatened to take over again.

For a moment he just stood there awkwardly, then he hugged her back. "Thank you for forgiving me Sam." She mumbled, her face buried in his chest. She seemed to be sobbing again. 'She's crying more than I was...' He thought wryly and chuckled softly.

"I... I think we should get going now." He said, realizing the people were still standing there watching them. His cheeks felt hot.

"Ah, right. You need to check on your friend." She said, sniffling and drying her eyes. As she glanced around she saw the people looking at them curiously and her cheeks reddened. "Get on 'bout your own business, why're ya standing there staring at us?!" She berated them, her hands planted on her hips. She muttered something under her breath and harrumphed loudly as they scurried away.

When they finally reached Mother Ranlenn's, it seemed she was out running errands. Theodore was still asleep when Sam checked on him, and he decided to find Letta while he waited for Mother Ranlenn to return. He considered trying to sneak out a back way to avoid Lorry in the waiting room, but he needed to find out which direction it was to the lake.

"I need to check on something else, can you tell me which way the lake is?" He asked.

"The lake? What do you need to check on there?" She said, frowning slightly.

"I... That's where my, uh, mode of transportation is at. I need to make sure it's doing alright." He said, hoping she wouldn't ask more.

"Okay..." She said, frowning even deeper. "I can bring you to it, I suppose."

"Uh, well could you just point me to it?" Sam asked, noticing her odd look he made up another excuse. "I, er... I just need some time to myself. I'll come back once I'm done." He said.

"Alright... I will show you where to go." She said with a touch of hesitation. Sam followed her as she pulled him out of the building and explained in great detail how to reach the lake. He thought she was being a bit excessive with all the unnecessary twists and turns. 'Is she trying to send me on a wild goose chase? I thought she didn't want me to go, so what's with all this?'

He realized he'd been tuning her out and hurriedly said yes as she asked him if he'd understood her instructions. Lorry pursed her lips and Sam thought she was about to go over it again, but she eventually nodded. Sam gave a small wave as he hastened into the alley between Mother Ranlenn's and the house next to it.

"Christ, that took forever... Well, at least she didn't insist on escorting me, I suppose." He mumbled as he began jogging, getting as much distance from Lorry as he could. Despite all his words of forgiveness, he was starting to feel a bit resentful towards her, if slight in comparison to his stepmother. 'Why would she just hit me like that, could it be part of the whole female mages being prejudiced that Samson mentioned?'

Sam just shook his head, he still did not understand completely the things that Samson had told him. 'Why would you hit someone over something so trivial anyways?' He thought, and shuddered as he remembered all the illogical reasons Britney had given for his 'punishments'. He told himself he wouldn't have to worry about it much longer. He, Theodore, and Letta would be out of Eltinn by the end of the day.

He kept his course as straight as he could through the narrow alleys between houses. At one point he saw an immense manor bordered by tall hedges, down a wide street and he found himself curious about what it would be like meeting a lord or lady. He wondered if their garb would be more, or less opulent than Lorry's silk dress.

As he was lost in thought, he felt a tingle in his neck. It felt like he had a dozen eyes on him all of a sudden. He spun, scanning the windows, and the piles of detritus and rubbish in the alley, searching for the watchers. Just as sudden as it had appeared, the feeling was gone. The only sign of life in the area was a small gray and brown cat which whipped it's tail furiously, apparently he had disturbed it.

He let out the breath he hadn't know he was holding and turned back to run again. Weaving through the alleys, he didn't see many people. And, when he did, they were often just rounding a corner as he looked. A few times he thought he saw the same red silk clothed woman on different streets, but he never caught more than a glimpse of her. He chalked it up to similar clothing.

He tripped a few times as he ran, grumbling under his breath about new boots. Oddly, the buildings and houses seemed to be becoming more dilapidated the closer he got to the lake. The small huts were often caved in or roofless, with moldy wooden walls bending inward, looking as if the lightest touch would collapse them. The people he saw looked more ragged, their clothes torn and caked with dried mud. Their heads were downcast, and their eyes had a weariness that sleep would not cure.

On one street, there was a young girl sitting in the road, weeping over a loaf of bread dropped into the wet sewage drain. Her reddish blonde hair matted down with muck. Tattered rags hung on her too thin frame. He ran past, regretting that he didn't have anything he could spare for her. 'It can't be much further to the lake, right?' He thought, hoping this was the worst he would see.

Suddenly, he felt the eyes again as he entered another filthy alleyway. He spun, his breath catching with his fear. Sighing, he relaxed as he saw it was just another stray cat, dark brown fur shifting in the light breeze. It stared at him, looking confused, and Sam laughed with relief. The cat flicked it's tail as it continued to stare.

Sam scratched his head, 'That's odd, I wonder if this one isn't a stray. It's fur is too clean for that.' He frowned as he saw there was an odd pattern on it's head, the same one he'd seen on the cat from before. 'A familiar? Is Lorry trying to spy on me? No, this pattern looks too different from the one on Neril's head...'

Again, he felt the eyes on his back. Sam shuddered, turning to see another cat at the other end of the alley. It was the one from earlier. He felt both of their unnerving gazes on him, and several more. His fear returned with a vengeance and he franticly ran past the cat, careful to give it a wide berth. As soon as he was past he broke into a sprint, heading toward the lake with a renewed vigor.

He didn't even bother to apologize as he shoved past a woman stumbling in the street drunkenly. The cobbled roads turned to dirt as he ran. 'I have to be close now. Once I reach Letta it'll be fine,' he told himself. Recklessly stumbling through the ruinous shacks and hovels, Sam felt the eyes follow him.

Abruptly, he found himself slipping on the putrefying corpse of what appeared to have been a dog at one point. The sickly-sweet smell of rot molested his nostrils as he crashed into the half deteriorated wall of an abandoned house. It caved in with an explosion of dust and moldy debris. Sam coughed and retched, his body having a hard time deciding which to do.

Staggering to his feet, he pulled up his shirt to cover his mouth and nose. 'The eyes... The eyes. They're catching up to me! I need to get away! I need to escape!' His mind hazed with panic, Sam scampered out of the wreckage and started running again. He blinked away tears that formed, trying to clear the dust from his eyes. He thought he could hear footsteps behind him.

He clumsily came to a stop, as he realized he was in a clearing. With his vision blurred, Sam couldn't see much more than the crumbled remains of a fountain in the square. The ground looked like it had been paved with stones at one point, but it had been covered with a layer of dirt, only occasionally showing a round rock on the surface. He listened closely for a moment. There were definitely footsteps following him.

'Maybe it's just a coincidence... No, those cats mean it can't be one,' he thought. 'Who could it be, though? They have to be mages, but why are they chasing me? I shouldn't take any chances, I need to reach Letta.' Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows of the alley parallel the one he'd come from.

It was the woman. The woman he'd caught glimpses of before. Sam took a step back warily. She wore a red mask with metal bars over the face of it, concealing all but her mouth and eyes. The mouth was shaped in a menacing smile, the shape visible beneath the shafts of dull gray. Her bright red robe swayed loosely as she strode lithely into the square. Under the prison of a mask, Sam saw a thin lipped smile.

In her right hand, the woman held an odd looking silver sphere. There appeared to be a glowing red circle on the side facing him. As he stared curiously, the woman pocketed the strange item in her layered robe. When her hand returned, it held a long black dagger. Sam scrambled back in shock, "Wh-What are you doing?!"

The woman's smile widened, and her long blonde braid whipped as she shook her head. She continued toward him, spinning the curved blade deftly between her fingers. He began to turn to run, when he felt pain rip into his left side. His immediate thought was that he was having another panic attack, but he was too aware for it to be that.

"They never understand, do they sister?" The woman said wryly. Sam turned his head and saw another woman behind him, her face covered by the same red mask. The tip of a black blade suddenly jutted from his abdomen, a thin film of blood coating it. The pain made him want to howl, but he was too shocked to get out anything beyond a grunt.

"No, they do not." The other woman replied stiffly. She pulled the knife out with a flourish.

"Wh-Why?" Sam asked, his voice rasping. In his surprise, he forgot his magic. He stumbled away from the two women who now seemed to loom over him despite the significant height difference. He held his side, trying to staunch the incessant flow of blood.

"Why? Because you upset the balance," the first woman said, "We can't have men running about with such power, it is too dangerous."

Sam tried to make sense of her words, but she might as well have been speaking gibberish. He turned again in the direction of the lake preparing to run, when he saw the faint glowing yellow patterns. The blonde haired woman continued to flick and twirl her knife absently as she stepped forward and the looping patterns of magic seemed to shift with her.

'Magic... That's right, I have magic...' He thought, and desperately tried to reach it. It didn't come. He could feel it distantly in his mind, like it was just beyond reach. The pain was so overwhelming. 'Why isn't it coming?! This can't happen now! I've accessed it with more pain than this, haven't I?' His mind seemed to be whirling too quickly. Those eyes were on him still, and he felt so vulnerable under their gaze.

'M-My sword...' He raised his hand to the hilt. Like a snake, the blonde haired woman's arm whipped forward with surprising speed. The knife buried itself in his wrist, and this time he did howl. His hand fell and he saw the gruesome wound where the blade struck through his bone. His trembling legs buckled under him.

Sam had to fight the urge to remove the source of the pain. He couldn't do it, not when he couldn't access his magic. His voice was ragged when he spoke again, "Wh-Who...? Why...?"

"Who are we? You are more a fool than most men." She said, her contempt seeming to permeate through every word. "We are the bane of the vileness you men spread with abandon. They cannot be trusted with so much magic, thus you must be culled."

"Sister, we are wasting time, we mustn't dawdle when we have more to accomplish. Get it over with. The concoction doesn't seem to be working." The other woman said, fingering the coat of blood that still glistened on her knife. Her dirty blonde hair was plaited in the same braid as the woman next to her.

"Oh, a little fun shan't hurt. You are so priggish. The result is the same, why not enjoy it?"

"Very well, I shall do it." The woman replied curtly, and stepped toward Sam. Before he could react, he felt the cold metal pressed against his neck. "You have permission to say one thing before you die, make it quick."

Sam's throat worked, but before he could speak the blade slid into his neck, like slicing through warm butter. Crimson sprayed out from the slit. His throat gurgled as he tried to breathe through the blood pouring into his lungs. 'I'm going to die here.' He thought resignedly, and he felt calm. Too calm, considering how panicked he had been a moment before.

Distantly, he heard the women speaking again. "Ha! I knew you enjoy it, despite that facade of efficiency. I thought you were going to let him speak for a moment there."

As consciousness began to slip away, Sam realized that his magic wasn't so distant anymore. In fact, it was as though it was only a hair's breadth away. Absently, he felt himself connect to that abyss of swirling, golden power, like touching a pool of water with one finger. In an instant, he felt the magic suffuse his body, ripping his mind from it's stupefaction.

The blood that had soaked his clothes and pooled around him began to stream back into his open wounds, creating a web of crimson around him. The blade seemed to eject from his wrist, and he felt the bones clasping together like magnets. Forms of coruscating silvery gold writhed everywhere on his skin. It almost appeared to be a solid light emanating from him, they were burning furiously.

The two women were stunned into silence. They only stared at him with eyes so wide they seemed on the verge of bursting. Sam basked in the glorious power that flooded him. He didn't even care once the wounds were healed, he just wanted to let that ecstasy take over. He felt so alive.

The blonde haired woman was the first to break from her stupor, and she pulled another knife out of the wide sleeve of her robe. Sam thought he might have seen a slight tremor in her hand before she slung the blade at his chest. It sunk into his heart with the painful sense of being sat on by an elephant. It shot out just as quickly, leaving nothing but a hole in his shirt. He almost jumped in surprise when the knife clattered against the ground.

He reluctantly released his grasp on his magic before it began to take him again. The other woman shook her head and her eyes seemed to become much more alert. "Alyenda, we need to flee! This one is more than we can face alone, we must go!" She said, frantically tugging on the other woman's shoulder.

The woman named Alyenda responded by pulling out two more knives. Her eyes were harder now, the mocking look receding to be replaced by determination. When she spoke, it was just louder than a whisper, "You may go if you fear so, but I will not abandon my duty."

Sam unsheathed his sword with a soft grinding sound as she stepped forward, brandishing the knives. The other woman just continued gaping at her, mouth opening and closing like a fish as she tried to speak. Sam felt awkward holding the sword for some reason. So different from the previous times he held it, but he couldn't pick out why.

Before he had the chance to blink, Alyenda lunged. By the time he managed to move, she was already inside his range. He felt a flurry of sharp pains as she stabbed him rapidly, dodging away as his sword came down clumsily. The impact sent sparks up as it clanged against a uncovered stone.

He instantly embraced his magic again and stepped back warily. The forms were more settled now, not giving off the same bright light. His feet felt like they were made of lead in that moment as she lunged forward again, striking too quick for him to keep up. He grunted with each blow, and let go of his sword with his right hand. As quickly as they were made, the wounds were repaired, but the pain stuck with him every time.

Sam couldn't move his legs by the time her gleaming red blade darted for his eye. He screamed as the blade pierced his eyelid, skewering his eye. In a fraction of a second it would penetrate his brain. He tried to will his arm to move faster, and it seemed to work, if only by a little. The impact of his fist on her shoulder stopped the blade where it was. He felt his knuckles snap and mend in a fraction of a second. Alyenda was sent spinning as she fell backward, she groaned loudly.

Sam cried out as he slowly pulled the knife free from his eye. He was blind for a moment, then it healed and he sighed with relief. "Help me, Deanne!" Alyenda said sharply, and the other woman flinched. She stood she clutched her limp arm, gritting her teeth against the pain. "It still isn't working for some reason."

While he still had the small advantage, Sam struck. The lightweight sword whipped in the air, heading straight for Alyenda's neck. Sam gasped as she easily deflected his strike with her knife, then countered when he was thrown off balance. The blade sunk into his stomach and pulled away as she jumped back to dodge his sword. The tip of the blade clinked softly as it grazed the cage of her mask.

'Why do I feel so sluggish? It's like I'm trying to swing through water,' Sam thought calmly, his mind somewhat cleared by the magic. 'I need to escape. I can't fight one of them like this, let alone both. I think she was aiming for my brain. It would be foolish to assume I could walk away undamaged from that, if I could walk at all.' He began to shuffle backwards, holding his sword toward them threateningly.