Alice Angel of Mercy

There was no information attached to the choices so I had to try and take an educated guess. ‘Bind’ to me indicated restriction. But if that was the case did it bind me, or would I be able to bind others? Either way, I did not want to be the person that would restrict somebody else’s movement. I’ve been there. I didn’t know if it was something else but I was not going to take that chance. I moved onto awaken and absorb. Both could mean a multitude of things. For example awake; but awaken what? Was it some type of power inside me, perhaps I could awaken the potential of others or I would get an aura that could wake people up. Absorb could mean anything from absorbing others powers to simply absorbing my food from breakfast. There were so many variants that it was pointless to put too much thought into the selection. Whatever God that gave this was being vague for a reason. Probably just to make fun of me at a later point but a reason none-the-less.

I selected *Awaken*. Out of those two choices, it resonated more with me. I just went with the feeling so I clicked it. The power I absorbed from the crystal started to pulsate as it seeped into my blood. It moved around my body. Repeatedly circulating again and again. I don’t know how long it went on because as it made its round it stopped and started within my pelvic region making something in my body tingle and vibrate. It wasn’t unpleasant. Far from it actually. It hummed, vibrated, and moved a little under my skin causing little bursts of pleasure every time it stopped. A gentle warmth spread along the tattoo and the vibrations became a little more insistent. I didn’t know what was going on but it was super embarrassing. It was the first time I had been turned on in this body without being charmed and it definitely felt different. Unlike in my male body, this one felt as if there were electrical currents that tightened my muscles and my body began to feel hot. Thankfully, it ended before I made a fool out of myself.

So many things just happened that I was confused on how I should feel. I needed to find a private area. My underwear felt damp and because of that it was a bit uncomfortable. Did all women get this wet or was this a bi-product of being a Holy mage? I looked around like a guilty convict and saw the men were all busy scooping up the broken crystals. Only Frigus seemed to be staring at me, waiting. “Alice, I upheld my end of the deal. I have to go now.” As if answering her, a black portal appeared behind her and the emo teen stepped out of it. My face was already red. I would like to think it was from embarrassment but knew that was only just part of it.

I walked over trying to pretend that whatever just happened, never happened. Now that I had more time, I looked over the teenager. He was a bit skinny for this worlds standards of “Handsome”. He’d be a star in my old one though. He’s was definitely pop idol material. I wanted to make our parting quick because Frigus seemed to be in a hurry for her date . “Thank you, I know you are busy but can I at least get your name?” I asked him. Quick or not, I should at least know who saved my life.

With a smile he answered, “My friends call me Mort.” I nodded and gave Frigus a tight hug.

“Thank you Frigus. I hope you get your umm… reward.” I finished lamely. She was so malnourished that I was afraid Mort was going to break her during her “reward”. Still, she saved my life multiple times I couldn’t bring myself to crush her hopes. “If you need me to help you later, let me know, ok?” I could at least heal her after the fact. My offer at least made me feel better about it. I still felt that I was letting a big bad wolf take her away to eat her up.

“My lord always fulfills his promises. I will get what he offered.” Her normal dead pan expression lit up like she was going to get her favorite candy and I turned back to Mort after I let her go.

“I got to go help them get the crystals. Again, thank you.” I turned to face the others in my group with the thought of ‘if I don’t see it, it won’t be as bad’. Instead, I saw James facing me with his eyes wide, mouth open, and his face pale white. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at me but behind me. I spun around. Was something still around that could harm her? But… The spot was empty. Well, mostly empty, Frigus’s clothing was laying on the ground. I guess she didn’t want to wait. No wonder James seemed shocked. It isn’t everyday a thirteen to fourteen year old strips naked in front of you and gets carried away by an ‘adult’, at least by this worlds standards.

“Frigus…,” James started.

I cut him off. I was already feeling bad enough, “It is what she wanted.” I left it at that and moved to scoop up the crystals. We only had so much time now that the core was broken. I could already see that the blue veins that ran throughout the cavern were already beginning to dim. The crystals looked familiar. It took me a minute to realize that they were what was being sold in the shops. Most of them were that neon green but there was a few different colors mixed in. I bent down to grab a few and felt my damp underwear bringing me back to my current dilemma.

I wanted to change. I looked around and found a slight indent that, while not great, was at least usable if I was careful. That was assuming that nobody tried to peek. It would have to do. I went over and pulled out a spare pair of underwear. I changed a bit slowly. I didn’t want to flash anybody but I also wanted to see what was going on down there. The only change was the heart tattoo. Behind the interwoven roots I could see a multi-colored gem. At first I thought it was another tattoo but as I looked at it I saw it slowly spinning, showing me a multitude of sides. It had a lot of facets but there were only four colors; amber, green, gold and black. The glow from it highlighted the roots with the exception of when it turned to a side that was all black. When the gem hit that side, it turned the heart completely black like a one-dimensional ink tattoo.

What did it mean? I did not have the luxury of time to figure it out. We all needed to leave and the sooner we did, the easier it would be. I already felt guilty for taking time to change and check myself out. It probably could have waited. I hurried back only to see them ready to go. “Sorry,” I quietly uttered to nobody in particular and for once Bill managed to not make a snarky comment.

Getting out wasn’t much of an issue. Most of the undead crumbled into dust and while there were a few trees that had fallen along the path leading out, we were all fit enough to make it over them without much issue. Bill and James may have given me a boost or two but for the most part… Ok, fine I got out because of them. It wasn’t that I was tired. In fact, I was energized. I think it had to do with that blue energy. What little was left of the blue wisps that floated in the air came to me as if I was a magnet. Sadly, it did not make me stronger and I didn’t feel like field testing a new spell like ‘Animalistic’ that may do more harm than good. Who knew if I would grow an extra set of spider legs or hop off course and end up in the haunted forest? There was also not enough space once you were in the pathways to fly, so that was out as well.

So why I may have slowed us down a little, we made it out to the base camp after about four hours. The guards were still in place but they seemed to know that we broke the core. We were not allowed past the first check point. Even though they kept us there, we could tell that the guards were more relaxed. We spent ten minutes before more guards came over and separated us. I had two females lead me to a separate area. They were probably the only two here. They inquired about anything I took while inside, searched me and then ran a purple crystal rod around my body like a metal detector. We had gone over this in class, so I wasn’t surprised by the process.

The rod glowed over my pouches and ring. I had already said that I had crystals and materials inside so it wasn’t unexpected. I took it all out. They wrote it all down, twice and had me sign after they did. They then swept the rod over me one more time. If anything was found on the second sweep that person would be in trouble. After it was all done I was asked if I wanted gold or material back for my cut once everything was collected from the others. It made me wonder how the illiterate adventurers handled this but that was way down on my list of things to find out.

I could already see some of the guardsmen starting to breakdown their camp by the time we were cleared to leave. I had to slip my illusion ring back on because something weird was going on. I started to pick up the thoughts of some of the men around me. It only seemed to be those within eight feet of me and even then it was only a handful. For the next few hours, while we were standing around, I saw myself being used as the main lead of their fantasies. Not very pleasant ones, where I was concerned, since force or punishment was generally the main theme. They were hazy and sometimes they would stop abruptly. By the time we were ready to leave, I had basically learned to tune them out as background noise.

If that was the only thing going on, that would be fine. Sadly, my diagnosis window seems to have gotten a weird add-on. Some of the guards had ailments that I could heal, from simple bruises to a broken rib. When the diagnosis window popped up describing their wounds, another showed up alongside it. A “Video” would then play in the new window showing ‘first aid’. It was a step by step instruction guide on how to treat the injury but the methods shown were brutal. They always started off gory. Then if I continued to watch the same person another would play that was less so. This would repeat until the most basic treatment was shown. An example of this was the guy with the broken rib. The first movie showed hands slicing into him and removing the rib, while by the fifth one, it simply showed his ribs being wrapped. In theory, both would work but only a lunatic would go with the first option.

I can only thank the internet for making me a bit jaded to porn and horror movies. While I had no idea why I got these abilities at least the surgery videos were educational. I will just try and ignore the other ability until I can figure out what it was for. I had already learned that most ‘Blessings’ in this world were two edged swords and the more useful ones were even more so. Therefore, I was hoping that it really was something good and not just a joke.

More amusingly, was the grass around the base. I don’t know if they were influenced by the guards but I kept hearing battle reports from them. Most were casualties from ‘blunt force trauma’ but as the guards packed up in different areas I could hear cheers of “you can trample us but we will grow again”, “Our roots run deep”, and “We will bend but we’ll never break”. Their chatter took my mind off of everything and I just enjoyed the sun for a while with my eyes closed, just waiting to set off.

***

The King faced a full length mirror but an ancient white haired man stood in the place his image should have been. “Your Majesty, we are trying to stop the spread but the darkness is increasing through the right most link in the ‘Chain of Light’. So far, we have only been able to slow it down but cannot stop it.”

“Thanks Meathos, I am still looking into this. I will send more mages as soon as possible.” The link cut out after that. The energy requirement being too much for pleasantries. Just send more?! As if it was only that easy. He looked at the map that now had twelve big red dots on it; six of which were inside his kingdom. ‘Perhaps we reached too high,’ he thought. He downed a glass of wine and then got up to try and gather more mages to send into the central dungeon. What a mess!

***

“I don’t know Ernie. I know you need money but where do we even begin to look for those missing women?”

“Ralph, I have it all planned out. Just follow me and that reward money will be ours.”

“Ok, but we need to be careful.” I just couldn’t say no to a man desperately trying to raise funds for his family. Especially since the last mission of searching the girls’ dorms failed miserably.