Private Tales Prove Your Humanity

[Sabrina]

"Mmm." Sabrina acknowledged that Vittoria was speaking to her, unable to form words when she put too much pressure on the leg. It was obvious, even without words, that she was struggling. From the way the color had drained from her face to the way she shivered like her body had gone cool. She fought more than anything not to allow that nauseous feeling to overpower her as Vittoria began tracing shapes on her forehead.

Vittoria would probably snap her neck if the starry eyed girl projectile vomited on her from the pain.

As the water glowed and faded, wetted than dried, Sabrina allowed herself to put a little weight back on the leg. It was still painful, but it felt slightly more stable. She knew Vittoria would never be so kind as to actually help her. This was probably some part of an even greater plan she had.

Sabrina hated her for that. She hated her. Hated. A word she never thought was possible to feel over a person.

She had never been known to be hateful. In fact, she was teased relentlessly for always trying to find the good in people. And in most people, she could find it.

But not Vittoria. Not this demon in a teenage woman's skin that Sabrina followed behind as she led her to their next location. Limping, wincing, Sabrina followed. "Where are we going?" Her voice was strained, throat burning from the bile that singed it.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

There was finally something alive in those eyes of Sabrina's. Something that filled her enough that Vittoria felt a surge of pride as she registered there was something akin to contempt in that sweet face.

She turned before Sabrina could see the wry smirk at her lips, instead leading them both out the door again. Vittoria's hands rolled at the wrist, weaving a web of magic that kept them concealed from sight once more. They moved slowly, but at a measured pace despite the slight fix to Sabrina's leg. "We need to go to the clock tower. A Dreadlord will be there to receive the information we have come across and detail the next step. Chin up, Sabrina dear. Perhaps we may get to return home soon."

After all, their mission had been fulfilled.

 

[Sabrina]

The pain did not cease. Each step sent a lightning bolt shooting up and down the shaft of her bone making her wince. But she kept quiet, altering her steps to soften the sound of her antalgic gait as each foot hit the floor. The only words that kept her from succumbing to the pain was that almost-promise. Perhaps we may get to return home soon.

Though, with each step she seemed to recall less and less of what transpired between her, Vittoria, and the man. She hoped Vittoria may be able to relay it all, though of course she would omit how it ended. How his flesh and blood Sabrina had inhaled and swallowed, drowning in the water. The broken bone...she wondered how to explain that one. Vittoria had probably already come up with some horrid lie to cover her own tracks.

"I can only move so fast." She broke her silence, speaking through tightly clenched teeth. Sabrina refused to look at Vittoria, staring only straight ahead. Even with her naturally increased speed, she still struggled to match Vittoria's pace. She prayed that the woman would just leave her behind. Let her go home, back to her parents. "Can you not just go by yourself? I feel I am no longer necessary to deliver information that you seem to have more of."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

"Would you rather be hunted down and die, Sabrina? That is the condition of having two Initiates walking together." A broken leg may just prove useful to their cover before meeting with their handler. With a gentle sigh, Vittoria went to assist the girl.

Lifting an arm across her shoulders, the Unmaker gave Sabrina a better support to walk on.

"We must keep up appearances. If any suspicions about your absence derails this mission, then I cannot have my involvement questioned." She had never failed at a mission before, nor did she ever intend for such a thing to happen. It was important to her that she would be optioned for many things in her career, and if she had to work with others, then they needed to step up too.

 

[Sabrina]

Would you rather be hunted down and die, Sabrina?

She only looked at Vittoria for a moment before responding. "Yes." Reluctantly she used the girl as a support to assist her. "I would rather die than be here."

The girl who had been teased for her never-ending positivity had her light snuffed out by the looming darkness of the woman beside her.

"You seem like you'd be fond of lying for enjoyment." Sabrina grunted, flinching as she lifted her leg too high to compensate for the uneven terrain. "Why not say I was eaten by a stray animal? Or tell whoever cares that I went home to see my family?" Then Vittoria could enjoy the glory of a successful mission alone. She could see the clock tower in the distance, looming over the town. Her leg ached. "Tell them you killed me for abandoning my duty. I do not care. I have been able to find the good in even the most awful of Dreadlords, Vittoria, but I can see nothing in you. I do not want to be with you. You are unkind and it terrifies me that you enjoy it so much."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria ground her teeth listening to the runt speak.

Even as she spoke words that normally would make her bare her teeth in a smile, it only angered the girl having to deal with this incompetence all herself.

"King and I were going to kill you once before, remember? Before the revolution." Vittoria murmured, now dragging the girl to their meeting point. "You begged us, and never before had I seen someone unworthy of serving the Great Houses like that. You were weak, and you still are. Your bones break so easily, your resolve fractured and growing." Only when they were at the side door did Vittoria shove the girl into it, away from herself.

Vittoria towered over Sabrina, something more than predatory in her eyes. The cadence her voice spoke with laced with ferality.

"If you wish to die, then I should be kind in doing such a service to you." Her fingers clawed at the small of her back, digging into the magic waiting for her there and produced a large knife. It was long, only able to be housed with concealment magic at her back. "I do not need to lie if you truly are weak enough to continue on."

 

[Sabrina]

"You should have done it the first time I begged." Sabrina hissed, grabbing her thigh with one hand as a sharp pain shot through her into her spine. "You wouldn't have had to-" She hit the side door with a quiet thud and looked up at Vittoria. She gave a look back at her, which coming from someone so not hateful probably looked comical. Like a child pouting when they didn't get their way.

She clenched her jaw, not allowing the words to continue. She did not give a shit about the great houses. Why would she? They had not given anything to her. Her parents had paved their way without the aid of coin and power.

Sabrina cursed the tears that spilled down her cheeks from the pain and she briefly contemplated letting her end it all there. Contemplated, and immediately regretted her own voice as she declined. "You never intended to kill me," She shoved Vittoria away from her. "You would have done it by now, but that would be too easy for you." Her tone was mocking, and Sabrina had wondered if she lost her mind with each word.

"But you like the begging, don't you? Torture is what gets you psychopaths off, isn't it?" Sabrina started walking away, back to their destination. Her voice trailed off at a borderline frantic pace. "Wretched. All of you. Fucking wretched."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria stepping back a few steps after being shoved by Sabrina elicited a feral smile on her face, her eyes watching the other girl as she continued to speak in a way that made Vittoria want to encourage her to feel those frustrations, to feed it to her magic, and use it.

Sliding her knife back it it's spot at her beck, Vittoria loosed a series of eerie chuckles before opening the door she had pinned Sabrina too moments ago. "If you do not wish to complete this mission with me, then I will not take you to a healer. Proctor Urahil will exert herself trying to fix you."

No more chances.

Vitt gave no warning when her magic took to the Starry One's bones again. It fed on the broken bone found their already, and pressed at it to made the girl buckle with pain. Her magic undid the mild healing spell she put on that same leg, ravenous to obey the command given by the Unmaker.

"Turn around now, or else I am breaking the bones in your hand next, one by one."

 

[Sabrina]

There was no sign that Sabrina was affected by any of Vittoria's torture, save for a slight increase of the shimmering stardust that always seemed to coat her. It wasn't a shield, no. It was only in response to the pain she still felt with each step.

"Proctor Urahil is not the only healer." Sabrina grumbled, mostly to herself. If she could make it until nighttime, she could heal herself. "And I'm fine enough to get myself to any heale-" Sabrina doubled over, clutching her thigh. She clenched her jaw, only to stop herself from screaming at the searing pains shooting up and down her leg.

Her vision went wholly black.

Vittoria had been pushing her, one excruciating step after another, towards her breaking point. Sabrina tried desperately to reign it in, grasping for something she could feel in her suffocating darkness. If Vittoria was breaking her bones, she didn't feel it. She couldn't feel anything at all.

The lights beyond the door Vittoria had opened went out, the flames pulling towards Sabrina as she drew in whatever surrounding light there was. She looked up at Vittoria, navy eyes now glowing like the stars- a radiating light that mimicked the building energy she had no control over.

Deep breaths, Sabrina. In... Out...

She followed the silent voice in her head, trying to cool the raging fire in her, but the pain had won. She looked away from Vittoria and down into the hallway and unleashed a wave of radiance, burning hotter than fire and as intense as the dying stars. The door turned to ash. Sconces melted into distorted shapes. Stones were charred.

And Sabrina...had returned to how she looked before. Panting, clutching her leg. Ready to submit herself to whatever Vittoria had planned.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

She pushed through the open door and beckoned for the weakened Sabrina to follow.

Dim, the promise of dawn casting a blue light that would begin to yellow and warm once that sun broke past the horizon. Dust swept all around, as if they were the first to disturb the space in a number of years.

"They should be here." Her gaze hardened, her expression turning to steel as she walked further into the room. "Close the door behind you." She ordered Sabrina.

A Dreadlord was supposed to be here, waiting, to collect the reports and go on their way, while the Initiates made their own way back to the Academy.

But the room looked as if no one had yet arrived, and they were most certainly late to their scheduled time.

At last, dawn broke and a slice of gilded light crowned Vittoria's brow. She could see the dust rise and fall in the sliver of gold, but her eyes went to the window, to the street they both had walked up to get here. Blood. How had they not seen that? And for a moment, her frustration, her sheer mistake is not being aware of her surroundings, were turned to Sabrina.

"I should have let you drown in that bath."