Summer Garden

Luna

Luna looked at the silver cuffs around her wrists and the smoke as she burned.

The man in the shadows spoke quietly, "Why did you visit them?"

She shrugged, "Well, I've been having some problems with my love life and thought they could give me a hint or two."

The princess winced, coughing as the truth spell tightened around her aura, trying to strangle her as the man increased the flow of mana. "There is no need for this, simply tell me what I need to know."

"I did." Luna hissed through her teeth, feeling a muscle in her cheek spasming. "I spoke with F'rir. About a boy I can't get out of my head, but he hasn't even noticed me."

The shadow laughed softly, "You expect me to believe you like the mortal? When your sister has imprinted upon him?"

"She always takes what I want." Luna hissed, spitting a ball of blood to the side, and then her eyes flashed silver as she looked into the darkness, and revealed the Fae hiding there. His face was protected by a series of spells, but the man shifted uncomfortably at her gaze.

"Why did they accept you, and not attack?"

Luna laughed, "Attack? Of course they did. They damn well tortured me, and a good sight better than you are. I had to live out my destiny. My death, over and over. Better than your torture. Because I know it will happen. My inevitable end."

"What end is that?"

The princess shook her head, "No, bastard. That one is mine and mine alone."

The spell twisted around her dug itself into her nervous system and ignited. It attempted to force her to speak, burrowing through her brain's matrices and keeping the pathways for pain open, adapting them whenever her brain adapted to the pain, keeping her in horrifying screaming agony until her sense of reality began to slip away. She felt the spell pull back slowly, and she breathed heavily, blood dripping from her mouth onto the ground.

"You are quite resilient." The man spoke, impressed, "Few Fae are able to resist speaking the truth when presented with the Derran Spellvirus. It is capable of killing you, but it is a time-consuming process. Yet, I do believe you would be able to survive it to the end."

Luna didn't respond, her brain sluggishly trying to find itself in the storm of agony that had just been thrust upon it. Her own thoughts seemed to spiral away before she could finish them. It was just so hard to concentrate. Light. A pinprick of light inside her head.

The princess snapped upright, hissing angrily, her wings unfurling and breaking the chains holding them, "Get out of my head!"

The man was tossed backwards in the shadows as the spell fractured, splintering into dozens of streams of haphazard magic. He held his face, which was smoking and raised a hand towards her, "That was a mistake, Luna. Attacking your interrogator isn't a wise choice."

Luna shook her head, "You're the idiot, Rendi. For attacking a Council member, even if it was on the direct order of the Arbiter. I am the Guardian of the Shrine."

Her torturer looked at her in surprise, unsure how she knew who he was. She could see him checking his glamour spells and other protections were still in place, and she shrugged, breaking the cuffs around her wrists, before standing and stretching, arms overhead. "I've let you have your amusement. I've answered a few of your questions."

Rendi braced, moving into a fighting position, "My orders were specific."

"I am the Crown Princess." Luna glared, "Heir to the throne. Do you really think torturing me is one of those ambiguous parts of our laws? You have committed treason. Even the Arbiter can't protect you from that."

The man was surrounded in black clouds of dust, and Luna rolled her eyes and twitched her hand. The magic dust dropped to the floor inert, "I am also the Shadow Knight of the Evening Realms. Can you explain to me what that means, Rendi?"

He looked at her in horror as all his protection spells slowly dissolved, "Black magic. It comes from you."

"That's right." Luna growled, bearing her fangs, "I am the source of all darkness. As much as my sister is the light of the world, I am her opposite. You have used my magic all your lives. You have served the Arbiter as his first, executing our own, and torturing those under our care. The Arbiter protected you, as is his right, until now. Janus has overstepped."

Rendi went to move his wrist and Luna glared, freezing him to the spot, "Suicide is not an option, boy. You don't get to escape by ceasing your own existence. You have claimed my magic as yours all your lives. I claim that debt. You are now my slave. Your soul can no longer take an action that is contrary to my interests. You are mine."

The assassin dropped to one knee, holding his hands out, "I am yours."

She felt a twinge of guilt at that, but it was the only way she knew of to stop Janus. The man would have taken precautions, ones she couldn't anticipate. But not this. No one could stop this kind of debt. His soul really was bound to hers and her will. He would seek to do what she wanted. He could no longer think of opposing her or her will. Rendi was hers, mind, body and soul.

"Call the Council." She whispered, wiping blood from her mouth with her sleeve.