Still holding one hand, Annala steered her towards the exit. She pointed to it and said, “First, we have to leave this country. I will show you wonders of this world and the many things you can do. I want to see you reach your full potential as an individual.”
Cinder clicked her bare heels while staring at the ground. “Could I become a lady?”
“Sure.”
“No! That’s impossible! Against the rules… I have bad blood and…and I look…”
Annala pulled a cloak out of a Zerofinite bag and wrapped Cinder up in it with one motion. Placing her hands on either side of it, she praised Lady Chaos and prayed for her blessing. Both it and Cinder sparkled and then a transformation occurred.
The cloak became a dark blue dress with long sleeves and an ankle-length skirt. A light blue gauze trailed over the latter. A bow of a third shade of blue tied itself around her waist. A second bow tied itself in her hair. A pair of stockings and slippers appeared on her legs and feet.
“You look like a lady to me.”
Cinder was too amazed to speak. Hesitantly, she touched the dress as if it were a daydream. Then she looked up to Annala with naked adoration.
“Could you teach me?”
“Absolutely. Teaching is part of my mission.”
Cinder hugged the older girl’s legs. “You must be my fairy godmother! My mother told me stories about how they would appear and make our dreams come true!”
Annala patted her head. “I’m more like your fairy godmother’s ally, but you’re close enough. You can tell me more about your dream when I am done with the others.”
Cinder looked up at her. “We’re not leaving now?”
Again, Annala tsked. “A lady is mindful of the needs of others.”
To demonstrate her point, she gestured to her companions. Throughout the facility, they freed elves.
With his Order Negator Gauntlet, Meza unlocked cages with a snap of his fingers. In a tone that brokered no argument, he instructed them to crawl out. They did and without hesitation. His air of authority and orderly power made him undeniable. At his command, they turned their backs to him. A mix of the gauntlet’s power, chaotic scripture, and his own spirit power hacked the collar. Then it was just a matter of forcing its control matrix to accept long, complicated and bogus legalese, and it unlocked. Then the former slave promptly fell in line behind Meza with the rest and he moved on to the next cage.
Sagart dispelled cages entirely with her crosier. One swing to the top of the construct forced it to fall apart. Then she accepted the “Contagious Contradiction” lock pick from Annala and removed their collars. Finally, the demeanor of a kindly but stern aunt convinced the cage’s former occupant of her good will.
Eric and Kallen easily cut through cages with their chaos spears. It was the next step that was difficult. The elves they freed were scared of them.
They grabbed their cages’ bars and loudly protested their loyalty to Order. At great length, they insisted that they wouldn’t dream of escaping. It puzzled Eric until he was kicked in the stomach by such an elf, who then apologized profusely.
“I get it; you think I work for Order,” Eric said. “That I’m only pretending to rescue you to test your loyalty, and if you come with me, you’ll be punished.”
The elf nodded.
“Don’t worry about that. I’m the real deal.”
The elf tightened his grip. “That’s what the last one said…”
Eric put his hands on his hips. “What about ‘Order does not abide lies’?”
“They say their uniform makes it obvious, or that it is a performance and their role is to say such things or they’ll say something that only sounds like a genuine rescue attempt from the perspective of an ignorant slave that wants to escape.”
Eric shifted from his human form to his grendel form. With his true strength, he ripped the cage apart and then twisted its bars into the Flower of Chaos.
“That’s a new one, but I’m still staying here.”
Eric tossed the twisted metal at the ground and said, “If you don’t come with me right now, then I will eat you.”
“I...” The elf gulped. “I don’t care.”
Eric’s lips separated into a grin and saliva dripped from his jaws. Kallen pushed a nutrition bar into his hands.
“Eat this instead.” Then she faced the little boy and placed her hand over her heart. “I swear by all that is orderly and lawful that this is not a play, a test, a drill, or anything other than a genuine rescue attempt. I am Kallen Selios, a Chaosist and The Trickster’s Choice. I promise that I will not turn you in to any authority in Latrot, nor any authority outside Latrot that is in any way affiliated with Latrot or Order.” She dropped her hand. “Still think we’re lying?”
“Maybe.”
Kallen scoffed, grabbed him by the ear, and dragged him out of the ruins of his cage. She tossed him to Eric, who held him down while she unlocked the collar with the “Contagious Contradiction” lock pick that Sagart handed to her. Then Eric tossed the kid to Annala, who had a steadily growing following. They trailed her like ducklings as she moved from cage to cage. Another group of slaves scowled at them.
Though they no longer wore collars, Order still controlled their minds. They distanced themselves from the other slaves and called them “troublemakers” and “ungrateful.” Eric was surprised they weren’t shouting to raise an alarm.
“Order did a number on them,” he muttered.
Meza snapped his fingers and pointed at them. At once, his own group of former slaves grabbed the reluctant and dragged them to Annala. At her feet, Meza’s group forced them to kneel. Flustered, Annala looked uncertainly at Meza.
“They need your grace,” he said. “They’ve been here too long to wash away Order’s influence on their own. I can’t help them with that. My chaotic ordercraft only goes so far. They need you to save them.”
Annala nodded. Cutting off one strand of hair after another, she passed it to those nearest, who in turn passed it further back. When all of her group held a strand of hair, those in Meza’s group forced open the mouths of those on their knees. In went the hair. They didn’t have to swallow it. As soon as it touched their tongues, it worked its magic.
Their eyes focused. They swallowed on their own initiative. With their hair growing and their ears pointing again, they better resembled elves. Then Meza snapped his fingers again and his group allowed them to stand.
There was still one group left. They were all old, even by elven standards, and instead of looking gaunt like the others, they appeared instead as lean. It was as if they had passed some event horizon where Order’s presence made them stronger instead of weaker. When offered Annala’s hair, they chorused, “We must not look at goblin men; we must not buy their fruits. Who knows upon what soils they’ve fed their hungry, thirsty roots.”
“So that’s why I was muttering that...” Annala mused.
Meza commanded his followers to restrain them as well, but their resistance was greater than the previous group’s. This time, it was Meza’s group that was forced to kneel and Meza himself had to step in. He held all but one of them back with a Lawful Shield while all of his followers converged on the remaining one. They successfully held that one still enough for Annala to force a lock of hair into their mouth. It was spat out at her feet.
“We must not look at goblin men; we must not buy their fruits!” this elf said defiantly. “Who knows upon what soils they’ve fed their hungry, thirsty roots!”
At Meza’s command, another elderly elf explained that these elves were born into slavery from parents who were also born into slavery and thus they were heavily indoctrinated in addition to Order’s supernatural brainwashing.
Annala raised her right hand to her chin. “Then why didn’t Cinder repeat it?”
“Fluffy,” Cinder herself said while petting Perrault. The wolf wagged her tail in response. “I could pet you all day long.” The wolf rolled onto her back to encourage this idea.
“That’s it!” Annala exclaimed. “Children don’t listen to anyone, including their parents, and are more easily distracted. This is especially the case with elven children. As said by Fredrick the Freak, ‘Child comes from Chaos and old comes from Order.’”
Annala clasped her hands and bowed her head. Cinder immediately stopped petting Perrault and copied her motions, and when Annala prayed, she repeated as best she could.
“Lady Chaos, we are your grandchildren, but sometimes we lose the mentality of a child that connects us to your essence. Please help me restore it to those who have lost their way.”
Her paidrin shined. Raising her head, she used the holy necklace to direct the light at the enslaved elves gathered before her. All of them shrank as their ages reversed. When they were Cinder’s height, Cinder invited them to pet Perrault. As a creature of fluffiness, she was enticing to them. For the first time in their lives, they giggled and enjoyed themselves. Then something came over them and they bit Perrault.
Annala winced in sympathetic pain while her familiar endured the real thing. The children swallowed her fur and shimmered with the power of their grandmother. Their ears repaired themselves and their hair grew back. They returned to their normal age, whatever that was, and said, “Thank you for your blessing, Godmother.”
“Stop!” Annala exclaimed while tugging her ear. “You’re all older than I am!”
While they crowded to shake her hand or kiss her robes, Meza did another sweep to make sure they didn’t miss anyone. He found cages that were busted, melted, torn apart, and most importantly, empty. Then he found Annala lecturing chaotic theology to the former slaves while waiting for him.
They paid rapt attention. The young soaked it up like their favorite show and the old nodded their heads in agreement. Meza attracted Sagart’s eye and the elderly priestess smiled.
“Your new lives begin outside this building,” Annala told her flock. “Let’s go together.”
They walked straight into Meza’s subordinates, and the Ordercrafter Hunters startled the elves just by saluting. A couple ran back to their cages, but Sagart snagged them midstride. Perrault herded them into a circle while Annala assured them that the ordercraft soldiers worked for Meza, not Epideus. To assist her, Meza told his subordinates to stand at ease during their report.
“This town officially has an aging population,” Fergus stated. “We rescued every child under the age of the four.”
“All of them are free of Order’s taint?” Meza asked. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“They range from seventy-five to ninety-six percent, sir,” Heather said. “A couple days on a sage tree diet and they’ll be good as new.”
“Any trouble?”
Gust showed him her left hand. There were teeth marks in her skin. “A couple of them bit me, sir. They were the seventy-fives.”
Eric’s pupils were slits and his fingernails were claws. With his Magic Sight, he spotted two Zerofinite bags on each elf’s waist.
“Do you mean to say that you kidnapped all of this town’s children?”
“No, I do not,” Fergus said. “I recall using the word ‘rescue.’”
Eric seized the elf around the throat. His arm from the shoulder down was that of a grendel’s. Caught unaware, Fergus gasped as Eric lifted him off his feet.
“The parent-child bond is sacred. Do not interfere.”
“Annala...” Meza growled. “Five seconds.”
“Eric, we can explain!”
Fergus’ feet returned to the ground as Eric’s arm returned to human form. He turned to face her and his eyes were still a grendel’s.
“It’s the merciful thing to do,” she said. “These children are innocent and have not been afflicted with Order’s domination. They have a chance to live freely.”
She pointed to the obelisks all around them. She gestured to the Eye of Order symbol on every building. She didn’t need to point out the oppressive atmosphere.
“They face a life of slavery,” she continued. “Whether or not they wear Subjugation Collars, they are still slaves of Order. The girls have it even worse because Epideus is a misogynist. He twists Order’s Law into the suppression of females. They are treated as dangerous, dimwitted, overly emotional, and wicked; the worst aspects of chaos.”
“But to kidnap them from their families?” Eric asked. “That’s extreme and cruel. I lost my family as a kid and it screwed me up.”
“So did I,” Kallen said, “and so did my sister. I was given to a loving foster family and now I am a successful and well-adjusted young adult. Ariel was given to a royal ordercrafter and now she’s a domesticated pet. With all you know of Lunas, do you think he has respect for her? For her body, mind, or soul?”
At the Mana Mutation Summit, Lunas freely admitted that he kept Ariel Selios as a “pet.” Based on what he knew of Lunas and the exploitable nature of Subjugation Collars, Eric doubted anything they did would be safe, sane, or consensual. He shuddered just thinking about it.
“Exactly; we’re saving them from that.”
“I’m saving them from you.”
All heads turned towards the voice, but it was nowhere to be found. The recently freed elves feared it was Order and the less hardy of them were already begging for forgiveness. Sagart and Annala were immediately at their sides and consoling them, while at the same time scolding them for their lack of faith. Meza checked his gauntlet and shook his head.
“It’s not Order. It’s—”
Out of thin air, a stark black and grey door opened behind Eric. It was the portal through which all souls leave the world and travel to the Abyss. It was the corridor by which reapers traveled Noitearc. From within the Door of Death came a creature with murder in his eyes.
He was squat and broad in bulk. His skin was pale, molting, and rotten. He wore an oversized and threadbare black robe through which ratty black bat wings emerged. The robe’s hood concealed his face except for his long and liver-spotted nose. Low-grade divinity shined within him and cast his decaying essence forward. His scythe was a worm-eaten wooden pole with a bronze blade coated in patina. He raised this blade in a sweeping motion.
“No one sees Death coming.”
He drew back his scythe just as Deathkiller pinged in Annala’s hands. She pushed Eric out of the way just in time to avoid the swing. Then her familiar’s fangs sank into the divine flesh at the back of his neck. The reaper screamed and reached for her, but no matter how he stretched or shook, Perrault did not let go. The struggle dislodged his hood and Eric saw his face.
“Gruffle! What the Abyss are you doing here?”
The troll-reaper finally got a hand on Perrault and tossed her into a nearby building. She smashed against it with enough force to break a mortal wolf’s spine. Then he took his scythe in both hands once more.
“The Abyss is exactly why I’m here.”
Skin worn away, muscles atrophied, and bones exposed, his hands resembled that of a decomposing corpse. One quarter of his face was gone and revealed the skull underneath. Its only sign of life was the intense malice in his eyes.
“My dying wish was to kill you, Nulso, and Lunas. You stole one kill already, so I have all the more excuse to cut your head off!”
Annala nocked an arrow in his direction. “Don’t even think about it, grunt.”
The troll’s eyes flashed a red light. “It’s Gruffle.”
“I call it like I see it.” Her magic circle shimmered. “Go back to the Abyss before I send you there myself.”
Gruffle leered. “Are you still mad about how I fondled you, stole hundreds of years of kon from your body, and used you as bait for your boyfriend? You looked ravishing in that wedding dress, by the way.”
Annala released the arrow, but it only hit the air. Gruffle had zoomed behind her during the arrow’s flight. Deathkiller pinged a second time and she spun to parry his attack on Eric. She glared at him. He grinned.
“It’s too bad you won’t get to wear it for re
al, now that Eric’s mortal again.”
He zoomed a second time. Perrault sniffed and then leapt to Kallen’s defense, knocking Gruffle over as he prepared to cut her down. He vanished and Annala intercepted another strike aimed for Eric. Gruffle floated away and had himself a merry laugh.
“Power tripping jerkass!” she spat. “Just because they’re mortal doesn’t give you the right to abuse your Silent Kill authority. You’re the kind of reaper that gives Death a bad name!”
“On the contrary, I’m delivering my own brand of mercy.”
Annala blocked his strikes and counters until Gruffle grabbed her throat. He quickly aged her into an old woman, but her Seed of Chaos restored her youth just as quickly.
“I could do this forever; literally forever. It would be unpleasant because it would never kill you. Death removes people from bad situations.”
Eric and Kallen flanked him and lunged with their chaotic spears, but he zoomed away before their attacks landed. The two demons stumbled through their move’s follow through. Perrault lunged a third time and he backhanded her. Then he pulled Annala’s face close enough to his own that she could feel the otherworldly air of the Abyss coming out of his mouth.
“Everyone in this country suffers enslavement greater than yours. If they died, they would be reborn in better circumstances, for what could be worse than living under Order’s eye?”
With those words, he disappeared and Annala fell on her butt. Her familiar licked her cheek while her boyfriend and adoptive sister grasped her hands, but she stared into space.
“—alright?” Eric asked. “ANNALA!”
She jumped and saw the concern etched into his face. She smiled and said, “Yes, of course. My Seed of Chaos protects me from any and all necrocratic powers and curses.”
Eric helped her to her feet and she dusted off her dress. Perrault wagged her tail. Kallen, however, pointed at Meza and spat out, “You were no help.”
Meza replied distractedly, “I was busy coordinating a withdrawal. I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted by something that’s not a threat.”
“He’s a vicious god of death with a personal grudge. How is that not a threat?”
Transcending Limitations Page 18
