✧✶Julianna Valentina De La Bellam
¹⁴.⁶ ᵖᵃᵍᵉˢ
"Advanced Teleportation: Properties"
Complex sigils. Illegible runes. Tongue torturing incantations. Not to mention the meticulous selection of offerings which must be pieced like milk puzzles. Various illustrations of teleportation methods spanned the length of the faded roll from simple to complex—chalk outlines to intense ceremonies.
The blueprint of an intricate sigil comprised of three interlaced bubbles and curvy runes bled into the paper with dark ink. In one bubble, eight items sat in a circle formation. In the other bubble, more sigils but with sharper lines and depictions. The last and largest bubble was empty.
Julianna gently set the scroll aside. Who wanted to be teleported so desperately they used a Mickey Mouse head with the Disney font in some serious ceremony? She popped her knuckles and winced. Well, she was.
After bolting with Grim, Ace, and the others who she had yet to formally meet but knew from the game—Deuce, Jack, and Epel—they split apart. She and Grim charged down one hall while the others split off either for class or to hide. Seeing as Grim and Julianna both holed up in Ranshackle for the time being, you know what they chose.
But not before sneaking into the infirmary and stealing stitches, of course. Lilia couldn't stop her now.
She giggled and moved onto the next scroll. They laid hidden in the building because they sounded interesting, but she originally planned to just hide them to be a pain in the ass before leaving.
"Volume One: The Blot Experiments"
She massaged the dull ache in her chest just above her scab. Her chest hurt tracing those words...
She shook it off.
Compared to the last scroll, this one ended lackluster—kinda a waste of time, honestly. In book terms, this scroll was a pamphlet. It vaguely covered the subject, or, what S.T.Y.X. allowed and forced on their "experiments"; endless cycles of casting and emotional manipulation until the examiners pushed too far and the subjects exploded. "Typically tougher qualities". Poking and prodding against the laws of human rights. Literal torture. The usual. Casualties. But both sides suffered losses.
She frowned and stiffly tossed that one aside. Magicians overblotting due to extreme pressures and traumas, she'd seen. She played the future and she studied the wikis until fiction became gospel truth and she could preach it like a flat trumpet: the boys in NRC had issues. Her heartstrings stupidly pinched knowing their dumb futures, but they had help, they wouldn't die horrible gruesome deaths. Or... wind up as experiments...
She pressed the heel of her palm to her skull. It hurt...
Well, today was a lot. At this point, the list of absurdities hit the floor and rolled down her stairs. It'd be easier to count what went right.
Absolutely nothing. In the end, Diasomnia won. They trampled the competition and used her team as a distraction, then they took Savanaclaw. And she got injured.
"Sorry." Grim rolled over at her sudden break from broody silence. "I... failed the contract."
She wiggled her tongue, feeling as though it had been cut. Failed. Failure. It'd been so long since she had to admit something so–
"Ya should be sorry," Grim tettered to his paws and waddled over. He sat by her head, his tail draping over her neck, "Ya didn't rely on your lord enough."
She blinked.
"Nya ha ha! Ya get it now, dumb Henchman? Insteada looking to the Great Grim for help, ya ran off on your own n' gave us the little jobs. Ya were stupid n' got yourself too hurt ta continue! So feel sorry, ya better not fail me again. Got it?"
YOU ARE READING
Twist of Fates
Fanfiction"I see," The Mirror of Darkness' tone commanded silence and received it in waves. His deep treble bounced uncharacteristically: a subtle smirk within his mask. "An innate ruinous soul b'rn to ign'rant human flesh... such disastrous possibilities..."...
