Rituals, Regrets, and Really Dumb People

Chapter 7: The Power of Friendship and Sugar Gliders, Part 1

I opened my hands up and tried to motion for Geraldine to stop. It was hard to do in these stocks. "Whoa now, Geraldine—"

"Don't you try to stop me, Sanguine," she told me as she jerked her club up and over her head. "I'm going to put your head on a pike. Your men came to Sanctuary's graveyard for more bodies, killed a few of my patrols and a few people on the outskirts. You monsters deserve to be sent to the lowest depths of Hel."

"It wasn't me!" I exclaimed. "I did not send them there, it was Typhous and Ishmael. I reject such actions."

"Yet they wore your colors."

"I am here in the stocks! Does it look like I had a hand in it?"

"We could talk to that Penitent monk, first," Tom Foole said, his arm raised to catch her own, to stop her from anything rash. "He did say that Sanguine helped them escape and the Radiant had plans for him."

"I still don't believe it," she told Tom. "I think he's casted a spell on Thimble."

"Wait," I exclaimed. "Thimble made it to you all? Was that woman with him? The one that was originally with me?"

They ignored me.

"Maybe so," Tom said, "but still—"

Geraldine gritted her teeth and slowly lowered her club down on Tom's behest. She placed the top to the ground, leaned on the weapon, and looked at her royal fool. "Go get him then, let's not make this take any longer than it should. Fools up in Brutality catch wind of us, they'll fortify the position and we've done good so far."

"Not many up there left," I told her as Tom stepped away. "Typhous took all that he could when they left."

"Typhous, your apprentice? Thimble and that Lilly was correct then," Geraldine said, some thought dawning on her. "Boy, oh boy isn't this a treat."

Here comes the gloating.

"Tables have turned, haven't they, Sanguine? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, pa always told me." She sniffled her nose and pushed her auburn hair back, leaning down to look me right in the eye. "You deserve worse."

"I don't disagree," I told her, "but, I mean, I got to live now. I gotta find that kid and get her back. Gotta get Dimitri back. They need me."

"Yeah, about that, who is that kid anyways? I keep hearing 'Seal' being used, but I don't get that magical nonsense."

My head wagged what little it could side to side. I mean, how do you explain to a 'normal' the bizarre world of metamagics, rituals, and really dumb people? "Well, the Seal—uhm—her blood is kind of key to—well—unlocking powerful spells."

"Spells?"

"Ones that may alter the world and humanity as a whole, unlocking a potential path through the arcanum to manipulate humanity's genetic structure. In essence, humans could become god-like, or if I had my original way, turned into—mobile slug people who worshiped me."

"You were going to do—what!?"

"Turn humanity into slaves and become a dark new god," I said before realizing maybe this wasn't the most optimal route to go to explain this. I wiggled my fingers and bunched my nose. "That was before I had a change of heart."

"You were going to use a kid's blood for a spell?"

"I mean, kill her, harvest her flesh and blood, but it was before I knew she was a chi—"

She smacked me. I deserved that. "Your evil knows no bounds, Sanguine, truly."

Week and a half ago, I would have taken that as a compliment. "Listen, I've changed! I want to get the kid back; I am to protect her! So many people depend on me. I have to get Dimitri back to his family. I have so much to make up for."