What We Do to Survive

“Hey guys. Sorry I’m late.” Hanging my bag off the back of the chair, I took a seat at the last open spot at the small table.

Alan looked up from his work, “Oh, hey Orion. Wasn’t sure if you were going to make it this week. We’ve missed you the last few times.”

“Things have been… busy. Some personal research has been taking up a bunch of my time and between that and classes…”

Alan waved me off, “Don’t worry about it, it happens to everyone. I wasn’t here last week either and Camille missed the week before that. We’re third-years now and I hear classes only get more intense from now on. Still, it’s good to see us all here this week.” He nudged his brother, who was intently studying a diagram in the book before him, with his elbow. “Ey chucklehead, Orion’s here.”

Ulan jerked up at the sudden contact, “Hm, what? Oh! Hey Orion! Cam just stepped out for a second to grab some reference books, she should be back in just a minute. What’ve you been up to these days? Don’t think we’ve seen you a single time outside of class this month.”

“Oh, nothing too exciting. Like I was telling Alan, I’ve just been really busy.” He seemed to accept that, which was good because I had no plans to elaborate. I wasn’t a very good liar so it was better to avoid explaining anything in the first place.

I busied myself digging out my notebooks and some references I’d brought with me. Ulan and Alan returned to staring at the book between them, occasionally jabbing at sections of the diagram as they silently ‘discussed’ the material.

It was always odd to watch the two communicate. They had some sort of mental link, I knew, though it was somewhat limited. As their magic improved, they’d gotten much better at using that link to communicate. Last year, they’d been limited to emotions and brief flashes of memories. Now, I knew they could pass thoughts back and forth along the link, though they hadn’t exactly told me how extensive that was. That wasn’t the sort of secret Avalon students would share lightly.

It was a fascinating ability. Mind to mind links were high level magic, typically only possible with the use of sixth circle or higher spells. Even then, that sort of thing was terribly limited. I’d heard that extremely powerful mages could even push past the natural interference of the soul in order to read the minds of their lessers, but I had no idea how that would even work. There was a high level elective on the subject, but it was only available to sixth and seventh year students. Maybe I would give it a look then, but for now that sort of thing was still far out of my reach.

It was a shame. It would be convenient to know what Mistletoe and now Verdan were thinking, but I didn’t dare remove their gags. They were both decades my senior with who knew what sort of knowledge and information locked up inside their minds. Unfortunately, that also meant they might be capable of some rather unpleasant spellcasting if I gave them the ability to speak. Mistletoe’s demon summoning attempt had nearly killed me and she’d only been able to barely move her arms to manage that. Though I’d never seen one, I’d heard that there were some spells that could be cast purely with somatic components. It was too much of a risk for now.

Camille came back just as I was done getting settled, carrying a stack of books tall enough that it nearly blocked her line of sight. “I got all the ones you mentioned, and then a few more that looked interesting. There was a treatise by Archmage Elpho Aric tucked away behind some of the textbooks that looks really interesting!” Setting the books down with a loud thud, she finally seemed to notice me. “Orion! You came! I didn’t think you would show up this week, it's been ages!”

Taking her seat, she pushed the books and papers between us to the side and leaned forward. “How have you been? You’ve looked so busy these last few weeks, always running around and holed up in one of the practice rooms or the library. I walked past you a few times in here but you didn’t seem to notice me.”

She seemed oddly upset about my behavior which felt strange, but I wrote it off as Camille being her usual overly-positive self. “Could have been worse. I’ve just been very busy, some personal projects have been burning through all my free time and on top of that, I spent a few weeks tutoring a student in one of my other classes.”

“Oh? Do tell, that doesn’t sound much like you. Someone I know?”

“Maybe? Janna de’Floris, I think you guys are from the same region maybe? She got me some alchemical ingredients I needed for my experiments and I just helped her out with some mana shaping. Like a dozen half hour lessons or so, across a few weeks.”

For a moment, Camille’s face twisted into a look of annoyed anger. Then it vanished, replaced by her typically faint smile. Camille started to ask me another question, but was interrupted by Ulan shoving an open book in front of her.

“If you guys want to catch up, we can grab dinner later or something. For now, I have another two hours of study time blocked out and I don’t want to spend it listening to you two. Cam, did you get the array book I asked for?”

Blushing, Camille slipped a thick, yellowing book out from the stack beside her and passed it to Ulan. “Yeah, here it is. I got the other two volumes too in case it’s not in this one.”

“Good thinking. I’ll let you know. Oh!” He leaned to the side, reaching into the bag beside him and pulling out a thick stack of papers. Dropping them on the table, he slid them over in my direction. “Here’s the notes from our last few meetings. I’ve been holding onto them for you.”

Picking up the stack, I leafed through the pages of diagrams and carefully jotted explanations in the boy’s neat, square lettering. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Happy to help. You’ve gotten me out of a jam a few times last semester, it’s the least I can do.”

We spent the next two hours in pleasant silence, occasionally asking each other questions about the material but mostly focusing on our own work. It was… nice. I didn’t often work with other people, even before coming to Avalon I had preferred to do my own thing most of the time, but I’d never had any issues with this group. We covered each other’s bases well and none of us felt the need to fill the silence with pointless chatter.

Towards the end, as we were all getting ready to go, Camille called me over. “Oh, Orion, I wanted to let you know. I know you don’t really pay much attention to what’s going on, but I wanted to warn you about some recent events that you should probably know about.”

Oh? I hadn’t heard anything, but then again, Camille was right to say that I didn’t pay much attention to the social climate of the school. Miranda kept me mostly up to date with everything, but Camille had definitely given me some helpful hints in the past. It had been her advice that had helped me capture Mistletoe actually, so maybe this would be something helpful as well?

“Some second year girls got ambushed a few days ago. There was a first year with them, one of their cousins I think, and he wasn’t hurt at all but the other ones were either killed or kidnapped. I’ve heard it was probably a third year student who did it, a powerful first year wouldn't have left their classmate alive and I don't know any second years who could have taken that sort of group on, so it must have been one of our classmates.”

Oh. Oh… That was… Awkward. “Do you know who it was?” I asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it anyway.

“No, I haven’t heard anything about that. There are a few names flying around, but nothing definitive. You should be careful, I know you usually wander around on your own, but if this monster is willing to attack a bunch of second year girls, they won’t think anything of ambushing a lone third year in the hallways.”

I nodded, hoping the bubbling laughter in the back of my mind wasn’t visible on my face.

“No, Orion, you don’t understand! Whoever did it, they’re dangerous! The girls had an elf with them, and I’ve heard the other two weren’t pushovers either. Promise me you’ll be careful!”

Raising a hand, I tried to calm the increasingly frantic girl down. “I’ll be careful Cam, I promise. You’re overreacting, Avalon’s always been a dangerous place and I’ve done well enough so far.”

“I know, I know,” she said, deflating slightly, “but I worry about you sometimes. I try to stick with Alan and Ulan, or some of the other girls when I’m going between other classes, but you never go along with anyone! You don’t even let us walk you back to your room after classes. I… I know how dangerous it is for students like us. We don’t have backers and reputations to protect us, so we have to be twice as careful as everyone else, but you’re too proud to let other people help you.”

I was honestly somewhat touched by the exclamation, though I couldn’t really tell how heartfelt it actually was. Camille had always worn her heart on her sleeve, but she was a third year at Avalon now, so I couldn’t imagine she really was as vulnerable as she made herself out to be. Still, if she wanted to do it like this, I could play along.

Reaching out, I gently put my hand on top of hers. “Thanks Cam, it means a lot that you care. I promise, I’ll be more careful. Let me know if you hear anything else about these rumors, it's always good to be forewarned.”

Camille smiled brightly, “That’s all I ask. Take care of yourself Orion.”

On the other side of the campus, a small stone-walled room echoed loudly with agonized screams. Cayla and Briella hung limply facing one another, arms pulled up cruelly behind their backs and fastened with chains to hooks set into the ceiling. Their legs were similarly fastened to hooks in the floor, toes just barely able to brush the floor, offering a tantalizing relief to the pain in their shoulders. For the first time in several days, their blindfolds had been removed and the silencing enchantments in their gags disabled. Orion had decided it might be effective to let each girl see what was happening to the other.

Between the two dangling figures stood Rea, a bright smile on her face as she looked back and forth between the captives. Despite her slight figure and cheery disposition, both shied away from her gaze and flinched back whenever she moved towards them. After all, in Orion’s absence, it fell to Rea to pick up the slack.

Briella shrieked into her gag, arms and legs thrashing as best they could as Rea pressed the tip of the iron rod she was holding into the pale flesh of Briella’s thigh. Red-hot metal, heated to a cherry glow with an alchemical burner, sizzled against delicate skin, the odor of burnt hair and charred meat filling the air. No matter how Briella thrashed, there was no escape. The short chains were far too strong for her, holding her in place with barely any slack. Her movements only made things worse, shifting the tip of the iron against unburnt skin.

After a few more moments, Rea pulled the poker away, setting it back into the flame to reheat. Whistling a jaunty tune, her fingers trailed across the table of tools until they settled on a leather crop that she’d found tucked away in one of the chests of miscellaneous junk under Orion’s bed. She gave the crop a few gentle swings, then spun around and struck Cayla on one of the burn marks scattered across her olive-skinned breasts.

Cayla squealed into her gag, loud whimpers turning into muffled screams as Rea continued to rain blows down across her body. Though she was unable to hit half as hard as Master could, she made up for it with enthusiasm and careful aim at all of the dangling girl’s most sensitive areas.

After a few more strikes, Rea set the crop back on the table and took up the poker once more. It was by far her favorite of the tools Master had shown her how to use. It was a surprisingly versatile implement that could cause great pain without too much effort on her part. Her only complaint was that she had to be very careful when using it; any damage she could cause with a crop or whip or even the skinning knives Master had given her was not particularly hard to heal. On the other hand, broken bones and serious burns, while painful, took Master much longer to deal with. Her Purpose was to assist and support Master, not create more work for him.

Screams turned to shrieks once more as Rea dispassionately jabbed the flattened tip of the poker between Cayla’s legs. After holding it for just a few moments, she pulled it away and turned to face a wide-eyed Briella. The dangling student futilely tried to scramble away, but chains and a lack of leverage ensured she had nowhere to run when Rea delicately repeated the same action on her.

Sniffing slightly, Rea wrinkled her nose at the unpleasant scent in the air. That was unfortunate. She only had another half hour before Master was slated to return, and it would be unseemly to have him return to a stinking room. Hopefully, it would be enough time for the air circulation enchantments to deal with the smell, but she would have to turn to other forms of persuasion for the rest of her time.

She sadly set the poker aside and turned off the flame, biting her lip as she wondered what to try next. She had no formal training in how to torture someone, so she improvised while working around the strict rules Master had left her. It helped that spells on her future slave-sister’s bonds ensured they couldn’t pass out from the pain. Else, she would have had to be much more careful.

Her fingers landed on the hilt of one of the small, flexible knives on the table and her eyes lit up. What had Master said on the best day of this slave’s new life? It was hard to remember details from before he remade her, like thinking past a thick fog, but that day was still clear in her mind. ‘Peel off her skin like an apple’, she remembered it clearly. That had potential. If it was good enough for Master, it was more then good enough for his lowly slave.

Nimble fingers wrapped around the knife’s handle. She hadn’t peeled many apples in her life, the fruit was a rare sight in her home nation even if she had seen them before, but she thought she understood the goal. She’d done a lot of peeling and chopping under Senior Cook. How different could this possibly be? Just in case, she would start somewhere unimportant. Master would be disappointed if she messed up and damaged his property.

After laying out a few towels and a weak healing potion (just in case something went wrong), she crouched down beside Cayla and took a firm grip of the struggling girl’s toned calf. She carefully positioned the knife just above the metal shackle around her ankle and took a deep breath. Nice and steady, don’t cut too deep or you’ll ruin the produce. Just like Senior Cook had trained her. She would make Master proud.