5-50 Duress

5-50 Duress

There was a commotion but not big enough to invoke the presence of the town’s watch. Many witnessed the disaster that would have happened but since everything ended in an awkward silence, it was overlooked as a silly deed of a drunkard. However, the truth was a dire one and a pressing matter. Behind the tavern, in an alley where even the brightest of the day had trouble reaching, Amelia was tossed into such a place.

She went skidding across the wall before tumbling into the ground. Before she could recover her bearings and pick herself up, someone helped her to her feet but not out of compassion nor in a gentle manner. She was lifted like a random piece of object, without any regard for her comfort, and thrown into the wall. She was kept from falling back to the ground with a hand gripping around her neck, pinning her against the wall.

“You lied to me,” Erin said as she stared deep into Amelia’s eyes. Not a trace of warmth nor her usual composure could be found in her current gaze.

“I-I didn’t,” Amelia replied. Despite the grip around her neck, she wasn’t panicking or struggling.

Ruri, the Kirin, had climbed out of Erin’s pocket and onto her shoulder, hissing and glaring at Amelia. She appeared to be as enraged as Erin was.

“Why?!” Erin raised her voice but not too loud as to attract unwanted attention.

“The things we will do for love. I’m sure you can understand that.”

Erin gritted her teeth, looking for a retort, but she found none.

A storm of footsteps rushed into the alley. Erin paid no mind to those approaching presences as she already knew who they were and who they could only be.

“What happened?” Lyra was the first to ask, though Amyra was the first to reach. Aera was the last, trailing behind them as she struggled to keep up and catch her breath.

“That was an explosive tool, wasn’t it?” Amyra said. “I saw it with Appraisal before His Grace teleported away with it.”

“That tremor we felt just a few minutes ago must be Aedan with the explosives,” Nivia pointed out.

“W-will he be alright?” Aera asked worriedly in between her huffs and puffs.

“He’ll be fine,” Amyra assured. “It’ll take more than that to kill His Grace.”

“His powers and strength may be greatly inhibited at the moment but he is tough,” said Lilian. “However, what troubles me is the real intention of our friend here.”

All eyes turned to Amelia.

“For your sake, you better talk,” Nivia said. “Don’t expect a light punishment just because there are two Fae here.”

“They had my lover,” Amelia confessed. “I had no choice.”

Erin tightened her grip. “I don’t care,” the words came out as cold as the winter’s breeze. “It doesn’t justify what you did, risking the slaughter of hundreds.”

“I don’t care either. I would do anything for him. Alas, my lover is saved, but the same couldn’t be said about yours.”

Erin frowned. “What are you saying?”

“Whatever they want from him, it is nothing… savoury.”

“Tell me.”

With a regrettable expression, Amelia shook her head, as best as she could with the grip on her neck. “I can’t do that.”

“I can save your lover too if you just tell me everything.”

“You can’t. None of you can. They are an unrelenting force. You are only… three Apostles. They are… many.”

“How many?”

“More than you can handle.”

“But I can. I have overcome worse odds.”

“No… not this time. You can’t.”

“Erin, ignore this bitch,” Lyra spat. “Let us just go find Aedan ourselves. You and Amyra have a connection with him, no? Surely we can use that to find him, right?”

“The connection is gone,” Erin said grimly. “I can’t sense Aedan’s presence.”

“Neither can I,” Amyra added. “Whoever this charlatan here is working with, they are certainly well-prepared.”

“Then all the more reason that we need to go find him instead of just keep staying here and threatening this bitch.”

If they had been in a forest, Erin would be confident that they could track him down without using their connection. However, they were in a town and teleportation left little to no clues to follow suit. A brief moment of despair and sorrow crossed Erin’s face but only briefly.

What transpired next went against everyone’s expectations. No one could anticipate such a response and action from Erin, not even Lyra or Nivia. The Fox-kin let her seven tails free from their illusory bonds and sent two of them piercing right into Amelia’s palms. The latter let out a yelp but she managed to suppress the burst of pain.

Violet mist began to ooze from Erin. “Quit all this gibberish of yours and tell me the truth!” she roared.

Lyra stepped forward. “Erin, I know you’re angry but this is not—”

“Tell me!” Erin ignored Lyra’s words and snarled at Amelia.

“Forgive me,” Amelia said, her lips quivering but not her tone. “I will not. I cannot. One word and my lover’s dead.”

“No words and you will be dead.”

Amelia smiled wryly. “I am prepared to die.”

“Erin, stop this,” Lyra entreated. “This is getting out of hand. This is not how we—” A hand on her shoulder made her pause.

It was Amyra, shaking her head at Lyra’s attempt.

“She’s going to regret this later,” Lyra said.

“There’s no stopping her now. She sees all of you as equally precious to her. It’s only… reasonable to a certain extent, that she would react the way she did.”

Erin was deaf to whatever her companions were saying about her. She was focused on ripping the answer out of Amelia. “What will it be?”

Amelia swallowed a lump in her throat. “Just kill me.”

“No,” came a decisive and resolute response. It was from Aera of all people. A faint purple glow engulfed her in the same manner as Erin. She strode towards Amelia with everyone making way for her. “We will not kill you. It will be a blessing and mercy. You don’t deserve either of those, you lying sack of shit,” she growled.

Nivia was about to say something but Lilian stopped her.

Amyra took Lyra and retreated a few steps away from Amelia who was now surrounded by two Apostles of Nyx, one of Lust and one of Wrath. Even Ruri read the room and quickly leapt onto Amyra’s head.

Without a word, Erin released Amelia and let her fall to the ground.

Aera picked her back up by her right arm. “Last chance. Talk.”

“...Do your worst,” Amelia forced those words out of her lips.

“I won’t but we will get there eventually,” Aera said and slammed Amelia to the ground. She then brandished her dagger, which Erin had given her as a contingency, and chopped off the tip of Amelia’s thumb.

Amelia burst out screaming at the top of her lungs. She began to flail but Erin was there to keep her as still as possible. Her tails alone was enough to keep Amelia from thrashing too hard and struggling free.

Nivia, albeit dazed by the scene, had the sense to use her Wind Magic to prevent any noise or sound from escaping the alley. She prayed in her heart that this would be over as fast as possible.

Without giving Amelia a moment to breath and think, Aera chopped what was left of her thumb.

Another scream shot out of Amelia’s mouth but Aera didn’t care.

Using the flames of her raging aura, Aera cauterised Amelia’s wound, not fully but just enough to stop the profuse bleeding. “This isn’t my worst. Far from it.”

“Kill me!” Amelia shouted, pleadingly.

“You don’t deserve such mercy.”

Aera’s tone froze Amelia’s nerves. She could tell the girl in clerical cloth had no intention of being lenient. It was no bluff.

Aera moved on from the thumb to the forefinger. “You know…” Aera brushed Amelia’s finger with the edges of the dagger. “Your forefinger is longer than your thumb. Which means, I can spread this torment into more parts. In turn, you will suffer more.”

Amelia kept her lips sealed and met Aera’s eyes with a hardened gaze. The quivering of her lips spread to her cheeks and shoulders. Fear was evident in her but she refused to budge, all for the sake of love.

Aera scoffed. “Don’t worry. You will talk eventually, as my father had repeatedly taught me so when he and his friends tormented my mother and the other mothers and daughters in the village.”

Amelia’s eyes widened. She saw the madness writhing and squirming in the inner recess of Aera's soul through her eyes.

It wasn’t just Amelia. Even Amyra and the others were unnerved by Aera’s history. They knew about her circumstances but not in detail, and they were now more afraid than ever to know more about Aera’s story.

Aera brought her dagger down, chopping half the tip of Amelia’s forefinger. The latter squealed agonisingly. “Oops,” Aera muttered. “A shallow cut. I planned to make it three cuts but now, there will be four. So, four times the pain. Four times the agony.”

Tears overflowed and trickled down Amelia’s cheek as the redness of her suffering encroached on her eyes.

Aera brought down her dagger again, chopping off the rest of the fingertip. Without giving Amelia a rest or cauterising her wound, Aera continued the torture and began cleaving her forefinger without stop, all the while Amelia screamed and screamed, and floundered like a fish out of water.

Eventually, Amyra was at her limit. She saw plenty of atrocity and insanity in her adventures but it didn’t make it any easier for her to witness them, especially if these vicious deeds were committed by her very own companions. She stepped forward and grabbed Aera by her shoulder. “Stop this, now,” she commanded.

Ruri leapt off of Amyra’s head and landed on Lyra’s shoulder next, and quickly burrowed herself into the chest pocket.

Aera snapped around, battering the Augur’s hand away. She then lunged at Amyra with her fist raised.

Amyra easily caught the punch but the force behind it was enough to drive her a few steps back. “Damn it, Aera! Come to your senses! This is not you!”

“She hurt Aedan!” Aera yelled and threw another punch.

Amyra parried the punch with a backhand and went for a tackle.

Aera received the Augur’s weight but they did not tumble to the ground. Instead, Aera lifted Amyra off her feet, swung her around, and threw her into a wall. “Stay out of this!”

Amyra was immediately back on her feet. “Aedan would be disappointed if he knew what the two of you had done.”

“He will,” said Erin. “But it doesn’t matter. As long as we can find him, I’m prepared to do even worse.”

“You can’t be serious, m’lady.”

“I am,” Erin answered and moved her cold gaze to Amelia. “This will truly be your last chance. Tell me everything or when I find your lover, which I will, he shall—”

“I'll tell you! I'll tell you!” Amelia immediately surrendered and shouted. “I’ll tell you everything! Just leave him alone!”

Hearing her words, Aera stood down and the flames on her dimmed but yet to die down.

Erin grinned. “There. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now, who did you work for?”

“The Rust Faith.”

Everyone felt a chill upon hearing that. Siv’s reaction was even more profound. She rushed forward and stood menacingly before Amelia. “You… worked with the murderers of my brother!?”

“Oh dear, this is getting worse,” Lilian mused.

“The Rust Faith, huh…” Erin pondered.

“I don’t know why they want him but they seem very desperate,” Amelia said.

“Their reason is obvious but it’s not the reason that I want. It’s their whereabouts and how I can find them and Aedan.”

“There’s an abandoned cathedral, east from here, a day away from the town. Built by a river. You can’t miss it. There is where they will bring the dragon to. But be warned, there are a lot of them and all of them are infused with a least some degree of demonic essence. My lover is there too, in their hands. Please… just make sure he’s… safe.”

“As long as Aedan’s safe, your lover will be safe too. So, pray that nothing grave befalls onto Aedan.”