Ten Years Later
The whip didn't just cut skin; it bit into the soul.
Snap.
Dessy didn't scream. Screaming was a luxury for those who still believed in mercy. She stood on the black glass floor of the "Nursery," her knees shaking, her back a map of jagged, half-healed scars.
"Again," a voice purred.
The Lady of Thorns sat upon her throne of twisted iron, her violet eyes bored. She was a High Demon who had bought Dessy from a scavenger for a handful of soul-coins. To the Lady, Dessy wasn't a girl. She was a "blank slate"—a weapon with a high spiritual capacity that had been mysteriously wiped clean.
"You are hesitating, Number 19," the Lady said, flicking her wrist. A vine of black thorns erupted from the floor, wrapping around Dessy's throat. "In the demon realm, hesitation is the scent of a corpse. Kill the beast, or become its dinner."
Dessy looked across the arena. A Low Demon—a hulking mass of muscle and matted fur known as a Gnasher—was pacing the perimeter. Its eyes were milky white, and its jaw dripped with corrosive saliva.
Dessy reached for the rusted iron sword at her feet. She had no "power." No "magic." All she had was the instinct of a stray dog.
The Bond in the Dark
"Dessy, move left!" a voice hissed from the sidelines.
It was Kaelith. She was Number 22, a girl with pale skin and eyes that always seemed on the verge of tears. In the Pit, everyone was an enemy, but Dessy had saved Kaelith from a group of older "sisters" who had tried to drown her in the shadow-wells. Since then, Kaelith had become her shadow.
Dessy moved. She didn't think; she let the muscle memory of ten years of torture take over. She dived under the Gnasher's swipe, the wind of its claws whistling past her ear.
She felt a spark in her chest. A tiny, microscopic pinprick of heat.
The Seal.
For a second, the world slowed down. She saw the pulse in the beast's neck. She saw the fracture in its armor. She drove the rusted blade upward, through the jaw and into the brain.
The beast collapsed. Dessy stood over it, drenched in black blood, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
The Matriarch's Game
"Better," the Lady of Thorns said, standing up. She walked down the steps, her silk robes hissing. She stopped in front of Dessy and used a long, claw-like fingernail to tilt Dessy's chin up. "You have a fire in you, little pet. A fire that doesn't belong in a demon's kennel."
The Lady turned to the remaining thirty girls in the room. "The training is over. The harvest begins. I have received word that the Obsidian Spire is preparing for the Great Rebirth. The Demon King, Malphas, is entering his Havana."
A collective shiver ran through the girls. Malphas was the God-Tyrant of their world. To speak his name was to invite shadow.
"I need four daughters," the Lady said, her smile widening to reveal rows of needle-teeth. "Only four of you will be gifted with the 'Ruin Brand.' Only four will teleport to the human world to harvest the souls needed to fuel our entry into the Spire."
She looked at Dessy, then at Kaelith, who was trembling.
"The competition begins at midnight," the Lady whispered. "If you love the girl standing next to you... I suggest you kill her first. It will be more merciful than what the others will do."
The Night Before the Bloodbath
That night, Dessy and Kaelith huddled in their stone cell. The walls were damp, and the only light came from a single glowing mushroom in the corner.
"We can't do it, Dessy," Kaelith whispered, her voice trembling. "They're going to make us kill each other. I saw Vane sharpening her teeth. I saw Sora practicing her shadow-strangle."
Dessy looked at her hands. They were calloused and bloody. She felt the "box" in her mind rattling. She didn't know why, but she knew she wasn't like the others. When she touched Kaelith, she felt a warmth that the demons didn't have.
"I won't kill you, Kaelith," Dessy said, her voice hard as iron.
"But the Lady said—"
"I don't care what she said. We survive together, or we don't survive at all. If there are only four spots... then we make sure we are two of them. We kill anyone who tries to come between us."
Kaelith looked at her, and for a moment, there was something dark in her eyes not hatred, but a crushing weight of inferiority. "You're so strong, Dessy. I wish I had your heart. I'm so scared I'll do something... terrible... just to stay alive."
"You won't," Dessy promised, pulling her friend into a hug.
But as Dessy closed her eyes, she didn't see Kaelith. She saw a man in sapphire armor. She saw a golden manor burning. And she felt a hunger for a revenge she didn't yet understand.