Prologue
A little over eighteen years ago…
Beep…Beep…Beep…
Mairya heard the beeping in the distance as she slowly began to drift into consciousness. Her mind was clouded with a fog that left her senses disconnected. She couldn’t think straight and all of her thoughts came in sporadic clips. She didn’t know where she was, what was happening to her, or even how long she had been this way. She tried to move, but her body refused to respond. Panic started to set in as she tried to get something, anything to move. A helpless feeling washed over her. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t feel anything! She had to get out, she couldn’t stay like this, she couldn’t die like this…
Beep…Beep…Beep…
The beeping broke through her state of panic. Beeping, she told herself, focus…beeping…calm. She took what she thought were a couple of deep breaths, but truth be told she couldn’t tell if her body was responding to the commands. She let that thought slip from her mind before the panic could return, and focused on the metronome like cadence of the beeping.
Beep…Beep…Beep…
Time passed. How much, she couldn’t tell – but slowly the fog started to lift and she was able to feel her body again. It started with her fingers and toes, just a slight tingling sensation, but it grew overtime and slowly the feeling returned to the rest of her body. After a short while, her other senses started coming back. She could smell some kind of alcohol, not the drinking kind, but the sterile kind used in medicine. Her eyes felt glued shut, and when she forced them open, she immediately regretted it. The light from the room burned her eyes and made her head pound with such intensity that it threatened to leave her unconscious again. She took a couple deep breaths, and could feel her body responding this time. Mairya opened her eyes again, and forced them to stay open despite the pain. As her vision began to clear, she was able to take in the room around her. It was a typical bedroom that could be found in any generic house with beige painted walls and a popcorn ceiling. The four walls were bare with nothing disturbing the smooth sheetrock except a door. A door that was closed and only allowed a trace amount of light to slide across the hardwood floor. The only furniture in the room was her bed and a small end table with a desk lamp on it. The lamp was the only source of light in the room, which despite the initial brightness gave the room a darker, almost sinister, feel to it.
She tried to pull her hands up to wipe her eyes, but suddenly realized that her wrists were bound by a one inch wide iron band, connected to chains that ran down until they were out of sight. She tugged on them sharply and felt a sting in her wrist. Corrupted iron, she thought. From her wrist, her eyes moved up and saw she had lines coming from the crook of each arm. One line led to a small (beeping) medical box with an IV bag connected to it, while the other led to a blood bag. The IV bag looked almost empty while the blood bag looked full. They are taking my blood? Why? She tried to jerk her hand again, but she was too weak to do anything other than hurt her wrists. The jerk, however, had a side effect of causing the sheet that lay over her to move and slide to the floor leaving her naked body out to the open air. Mairya looked over herself and her eyes widened in fear. Her body from the navel down was coated in blood as if painted on by a paintbrush, all except her toes. The blood was dark, almost black in the light, and dried in some places while thick and sticky in others. The sheet under her was saturated in it and it clung to her legs when she moved them.
She couldn’t stop the panic from overwhelming her for a second because it was so much blood. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes trying to get her emotions under control. Even if it was her blood, the wounds were healed. She needed to keep focused and get out of there. She didn’t know where she was, but it was now painfully clear that staying would be bad for her health. Mairya pulled on the restraints once again and the pain increased, leaving no doubt that her skin had opened up. She knew what she had to do, and it was going to hurt like a bitch. The bands may have been enough to hold a typical Paladin, but not her. She took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself, and then with all her might and willpower she pulled on the right one as if she was performing a curl. The band bit deeply into her wrist and caused blood to start to stream down to her elbow and drip onto the sheet. It didn’t matter, she knew she had to get out and pain wasn’t going to stop her. She kept pulling. A long steady pull that was finally rewarded with a sharp clink sound as one of the links finally gave way.
She laid back and gasped for air. She had been holding her breath the entire time, and she knew she was going to need it back in order to break the second one. She looked at her now free wrist and noticed the bleeding had slowed. It wouldn’t stop completely with the corrupted iron still in contact with it, but it should be sufficient until she could remove the cuff altogether. The band still had a couple of links attached to it, but she didn’t think it would impair her ability to fight if it came to that.
When her breathing was under control, she looked down at the remaining restraint. She closed her fist, muttered a curse, and with teeth clenched, she pulled hard against it. She knew this one was going to be tougher because her left arm was the weaker of the two, and she was still a little drained from the first one. Mairya refused to give up and reached over with her right hand to help pull. She wrapped her hand around where the cuff met the chain. With the combined strength of both arms, she was rewarded with a snap of a chain link. She fell back against the bed and felt a tear slip out as she took ragged breaths.
When she had caught her breath again, Mairya reached over with shaky hands and ripped the two lines from her arms, and then slid her legs over the side and pushed herself to standing. As soon as her weight was off of the bed and onto her feet, she crumpled to the floor. Her legs felt numb and weak from lack of use and refused to hold her weight. She knew the longer she waited the stronger they would get, but she didn’t know when anybody would come back to check on her. She put her hand on the floor to push herself up and immediately her hand slipped along the floor. She pulled her hand up, studied it, and realized it was covered in blood. At first she thought it was from her wrist, but there was too much of it. Her eyes shifted from her hand to the floor and noticed it was covered in blood. But instead of being random pools of blood, it was drawn out into intricate symbols and circles. The symbols held no meaning to her, but what she didn’t like was the fact that the bed she had been on was located in the exact center of the circle.
Now even more determined to get out, Mairya pushed herself off the floor and stumbled her way to the door. She studied the doorframe quickly to insure there was no alarms set on the door. When she was satisfied, she slowly twisted the handle and pulled the door open a crack. The hallway light poured into the room as she moved her eye in line to get a look. The hall was empty with two other doorways along the walls. It led to a kitchen that seemed to be empty as well. She opened the door the rest of the way and crept slowly down the length, pausing only to look into the other doorways. The door on the right seemed to be another bedroom that was empty, while the door on the left was a small bathroom.
When she got to the edge of the kitchen, she heard voices coming from the living room causing her to stop and crouch lower. She moved close to the wall that led to the living room, and snuck closer to try and make out what was being said.
“I have to go check on her.” A feminine voice said.
“She’ll be fine. I promise. We’re only going to be alone for a few hours so we might as well make good use of it.”
“Yeah, but if she wakes up or something goes wrong, it’ll be my head.” She responded with real fear in her voice.
“Bah, none of the others woke up. Don’t be so scared.”
“You don’t understand. He is always here when –“
“And it isn’t your fault he wasn’t here this time. He can’t blame you because it happened sooner than expected. You called immediately and he’s on the way. There isn’t anything else to do but wait.”
“Yeah, but -“
“But nothing.” The sounds of kissing started. After a few seconds, she risked a glance around the corner and saw two figures in various stages of undress on a sofa. The guy was between the woman’s legs and had her hands pinned above her head as they made out like two teenagers.
She was grateful they were distracted, but irrationally pissed that they had underestimated her. She looked across the kitchen hoping for a backdoor she could slip out. Unfortunately, while there was a backdoor, it was boarded up with thick two by fours across it. While she could easily break them off, she couldn’t do it quietly, and in her condition she didn’t know if she could take both of them head on. She looked around the kitchen for a solution and found a block of knives on the table.
As the noises from the living room kept intensifying, she figured her best chance was a sneak attack that took out at least one of them quickly. She moved silently over to the knives and pulled the biggest two and the smallest one from the block, and thanked the Heavens that the handles were made of wood. She took the smaller knife and used it to carve symbols into the handles of the other two while softly speaking a blessing. The symbols were from various religions around the world; a Cross, the Star of David, the Star and Crescent, and an Aum. The blades wouldn’t be as effective as real Blessed Steel, but it would do in a pinch.
She put the small knife on the counter and moved back to the door and peeked around the corner again. The guy was now in a very precarious position that would work well for what she was about to do. The woman had her eyes closed and seemed oblivious to the world around her. She moved back, took a deep breath to steady herself, and then placed the smaller knives’ handle in her mouth. With everything ready, she moved quickly and quietly over the couple on the couch and without pausing gripped the man by the hair and yanked his head back. With his head back, she slammed the blade straight up under his chin. She dropped him quickly, and moved on top of the woman who had let out a frightened scream. She pulled the knife from her mouth with one hand while her other hand covered the woman’s mouth and turned her head to the side. The second blade flashed down and embedded itself into the temple of the woman.
She caught her breath as adrenaline coursed through her body. It was easier than expected because they must not be warrior class Blackguards. Most likely analyst and guard classes. Which, while she was grateful for the lack of security, was slightly insulting to her. She was one of the top Paladins, and demanded more security measures. Yeah, if I’m so good, how did I get kidnapped, she thought with derision.
She looked both of them over and realized there was a good chance that both of them would heal from the wounds if the blades were removed in time because they were not Blessed Steel. She needed to figure out a way to kill them permanently. She moved quickly back to the kitchen while keeping an ear out for any other Blackguards she might have missed. She dug around the drawers quickly, but found nothing she could use until the stove caught her eye. It was a gas stove and she moved over to it quickly, praying that the gas was turned on. It was. She turned all the burners on high and went back to the living room. She picked up the woman’s discarded clothes and pulled on the pants, shirt, and shoes. She returned to kitchen that was now slowly filling with gas, and located the matches and candles she had seen earlier. She moved to the front door, opened it, and peered out. It was completely dark with nobody in sight except a small nondescript sedan. She went back to the guy’s pants and dug out the keys. She then used the matches to light the few candles throwing them back around the living room as she slammed the door shut behind her.
Unknown to Mairya, while she was running around the house, in the small room off the living room was a sleeping baby in a bassinet. He was only a few hours old, and had been taken from his mother immediately after birth. The front door slamming startled him awake causing him to cry out, but it was too late as his cries went unheard.
She ran over to the car and jumped in. It cranked easily so she threw it in reverse, backed out down the road and waited. The wait wasn’t long and after about five minutes the house went up in a fireball. She let out a sigh of relief as she watched the flames knowing that whoever was coming would be slowed down from following her and without any answers. She threw the car in drive and sped off into the night trying to leave that nightmare behind her.
