EaC! Side Quest: Smolders (Patreon)

Shackles clinked around Ravyn’s wrists and ankles as she shuffled across the floors of Queen Melasia’s dimly lit dungeon. Two guards flanked her as they led her down the path, each of them with a firm grip on her arm. Torches flickered from their sconces, casting an orange glow against the finely carved walls of stone. Catgirls snaked their arms through bars of black iron, pleading quietly to be released. The guards ignored them.

“Here,” the guard on her left said.

Keys jingled in the other guard’s hand as they came to a stop. With a delirious rise of her head, Ravyn slowly turned toward the cell while her captors fiddled with the lock. The key clicked in its chamber, and the guard pushed the door forward.

“Welcome to your new home, traitor,” the guard said.

The left guard yanked Ravyn toward the cell and shoved her from the back. Ravyn tried to catch her footing, but the binds around her ankles wouldn’t give her the room she needed. Her feet wriggled helplessly as she tumbled forward, and a raspy yelp escaped her lips as her face collided with the floor. Pain exploded in her vision.

The hinges whined as the cell door slammed shut. “You should count yourself lucky. If it were up to me, I would have executed you on the spot,” one of the guards growled. Ravyn didn’t look up. “Scum like you doesn’t deserve to live. Maybe the queen will soon see reason.”

At that, the guards marched away, leaving Ravyn alone with the pain blossoming across her head.

For a few minutes, she just lay there. It must have been true what the guard had said. If it weren’t for her, Finn would still be alive. He’d still be fulfilling his role as San Island’s man, protecting his people and siring their children. Yomi would still be by her side, encouraging her to carve her own path.

If she had never agreed to Finn’s idea…

She tucked in her legs and covered her head with her hands, allowing the tears that she’d been holding in for days to flow free. Her breathing came in rasps. After a while, she slightly extended her hands.

“[S-Summon Familiar],” she coughed.

Nothing happened.

She should’ve known. The collar around her neck was sapping away her Myana constantly, powering the sapphire inlaid at its center. The moment she’d feel even a hint of her magic return, it was taken away. In this cold cell, where she couldn’t see the sun’s warmth or feel the wind’s breeze, there would be no company. Just her and her thoughts.

Rehabilitation.

What a word it was to describe what was more akin to torture. The first night was terrible and cold and lonely, yes. But she would pine to be left alone by the time they were done with her. They would cut her hair, remove her nails, beat the soles of her feet with sticks while she lay strapped to a table nude, and sometimes they would even remove her collar and throw her into an Enchanted padded room, which would shock her anytime she tried to use her magic.

Every day forward was another day she had wished she’d never agreed to Finn’s ridiculous idea to run away. With so many of her days spent in silence, spent without anyone to share company with, she began talking to the walls like they were childhood friends. Scratches left behind by catgirls before her helped give identifying markers to the disembodied voices of her imagination.

“Carly, did they tear off your nails as well?” Ravyn whispered to a nick in the stone. A drop of water slid down the wall into the groove, then stopped at the lip of a brick. Ravyn turned her hand around. Her beautiful nails were gone. Left behind was tender flesh and blood, bubbles and pockets of pus around the corners. “Tina, has your hair come back?”

Strands of hair stuck out of Ravyn’s head like blades of grass in a field. She pinched a lock of her hair, gently running her fingers down the threads. When she pulled her hand away, a few strands came with it. It wasn’t enough for them to shave her head bald or cut her hair short. No, they made it quite clear during her torture that they enjoyed knowing that they took away her beauty, and that all that remained were these ugly, errant weeds.

“Mine hasn’t,” Ravyn said as she brushed the hairs onto the floor. A couple of weeks had passed since they’d cut it. Soft patches of fuzz had started to grow where her bald spots were, but it would take at least a year before it would become long again. “Finn really loved it.” She smiled sadly. “Yomi was always so envious of it. She would brush it on the weekends when we relaxed at home.” Then, after a pause, she added, “I really miss them.”

Time was a foreign concept within these halls. Most days were spent in dark cells, where neither the sun nor the moon ever cast their gaze on her. She rocked back and forth on her cot, arms around her legs, picking at a nub of nail that had begun to grow back.

“It’s all my fault,” she whispered to herself. Finn’s face had resurfaced. But whereas before she would imagine him in intimate situations, his face warm and soft and full of love, she now only saw him as he was when he perished. Eyes burned out of their sockets, flesh seared to a crisp, clothes tattered and devoured by the very flames he had concocted. “I shouldn’t have told him to throw it. I shouldn’t have.” She nodded. “It’s all my fault,” she repeated.

The shuffling of armor pulled Ravyn’s attention to the bars of her cell. One of the [Crusader]s arrived. Ravyn squinted at her captor with chapped lips and wild eyes. She couldn’t discern anything about the woman. “How are you feeling?” the guard said with glee. “Your hair looks wonderful.”

Ravyn bowed her head in shame.

“It suits you,” the guard continued. “Now you’re just as hideous on the outside as you are on the inside.” She chuckled. “How appropriate.”

“I’m sorry,” Ravyn said.

“Did you say something?” The guard sounded amused.

“I’m sorry,” Ravyn said a little louder. Until now, she had refused to rescind her love for Finn. Even after everything they’d done to her, she still pined for his touch, his voice, the Party they once shared alongside Yomi. When she’d first arrived, she couldn’t imagine betraying his memory. But she had reached her limit. She could bear their torture no longer. “I made a terrible decision to leave with him.”

“Am I to understand that you acknowledge the weight of your sins?”

Ravyn nodded, refusing to look up at the guard. Every time she did, they sneered and laughed, and she just couldn’t take it anymore.

“Speak, heathen. I asked you a question.”

“Yes. I acknowledge the weight of my sins. What I did was wrong. I am ashamed of my actions. What I did was selfish and thoughtless. If I could do it over again, I would never have left.” Her heart hurt for what she was about to say. “I see now that I never felt anything. I was enraptured by the butterflies in my stomach and mistook it for something it wasn’t. The very concept of love repulses me.”

“Very good. However, I’m sure you understand that your word is not good enough for my ears alone,” she said. At last, Ravyn finally looked up. The guard turned on her heel to leave, then glared at her out of the corner of her eye. “I shall retrieve my captain. She holds the final say to your freedom.”

The guard continued down the hall. Ravyn listened to the sound of her boots against the stones the entire time, the pounding of her heart only letting up once she could no longer hear them.

Three days later, Ravyn stood before five guards. They were poised in an arrow formation, the foremost guard reading from a scroll.

“Henceforth, from this day forward, you are declared cured of love. In Queen Melasia’s name, I bequeath to you your freedom.” The [Crusader] stepped to her side and gestured to a [Cat Pack] and a handful of other supplies waiting on the table behind her. “This is your [Cat Pack]. A few of the items held within have been seized as evidence of your crimes.”

Ravyn’s eyes widened. “W-what items?”

“Silence,” the woman said firmly. Months of obedience sealed her lips and forced her gaze to the floor. “Everything else, including your Bells, has been left intact. There are letters from your mother awaiting you at the front post. If you require aid in returning to San Island, report to a guard outside the dungeon, and you will be assisted. That is all.” She rolled up the scroll and tossed it onto the table. “Take your possessions and leave.”

With trepidation in her movement, Ravyn stepped forward and retrieved the [Cat Pack] and the three pieces of folded-up paper. She knew what they were, of course. These herbs were her medicine. At first, she hated them. They took away her ambition, her intensity, her willpower. But after the first week or two, she grew to like them. They instilled within her a sense of apathy and acceptance. That no matter what happened, everything was fine. Nothing mattered.

Especially not the letters from her mother. Those could rot at the gate.

She clutched the herbs to her chest. “Where can I purchase more?”

A disturbing smile that stood between gentle and sinister tugged at the corners of the guard’s lips. “Our [Alchemist]s make these every day. If you wish to take more with you, they would be happy to make them for a nominal fee. Simply visit the shop outside to your right as soon as you exit the dungeon.”

Ravyn smiled. The voice that would normally combat this woman was silent. “Thank you so much for showing me the way. I’ll never forget this.”

“Neither will we. Walk in Saoirse’s light.”

“And you as well.”

Shulan was as bustling as ever. Women scurried along the streets in search of their next fool, peddling wares no one had interest in. Despite Finn’s absence, the catgirls seemed oddly content. Ravyn pulled her hat down to make sure no one could see the bald spots underneath, then made her way to the adventurer’s guild. She needed work.

Catgirls dressed in cloaks, armor, and tight-fitting leathers ran past her, no doubt eager to get outside with their newfound tasks. Ravyn’s chest tightened.

The adventurer’s guild was busy. A horde of catgirls were congregating around something at the center of the room. As Ravyn neared, she clapped a hand to her hat and craned her head over the crowd.

Her blood turned to ice.

Standing at the center of the unruly mass was a man. He wore a confident smile as catgirls fought one another to shower him with adoration. Ravyn couldn’t hear anything over the din of the mob, so she slithered her way through the throng, keeping a firm hand on the top of her pointed hat.

“Hey, no cutting!” one woman said.

Ravyn’s head sank between her shoulders. “I-I need to see who that is.”

The woman frowned with disgust. “You don’t know who that is? Were you born yesterday?”

Ravyn swallowed a sigh. “I haven’t been on San Island for months.”

“Oh. Well, that’s Cailu Raloquen,” the woman said in a dreamy tone. “San Island’s new man.”

“San Island’s new man,” Ravyn whispered. Her mouth grew dry. Her gaze swept over the crowd with disdain. How could San Island so easily forget Finn? He hadn’t died barely three months ago, and these women clamored at the newest arrival like they’d never seen a man in their lives.

She couldn’t watch this. She retreated from the crowd and barreled out of the guild, sidestepping a pair who were just walking in.

“Hey, watch it!” one of them cried out.

But Ravyn didn’t turn around. She kept running. Running as fast and as far as her legs would let her. When she stopped, she stood before the Lucky Star Inn. Her mind began to stir up old memories again.

“No,” she whined as she pressed her palms against the sides of her head. “No, no, no, no, no. Please, stop it. Get out of my head.” Even with the herbs, she struggled not to think about Finn and Yomi. Their laughs, their excitement, the nights they spent—

She needed a drink. Something hard that would knock her off her feet and make her forget she ever woke up. If she could combine the herbs with alcohol, maybe then the voices would shut the fuck up, and she could finally go on with her life. She marched up the stairs into the inn and beelined it for the bar, then slammed her fist on the counter to get the bartender’s attention.

“W-whoa!” the woman squealed, nearly dropping her glass. “A-are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Give me the hardest-hitting fucking drink you have.”