'Fixed' Hero Part 2
The Hero flipped through the book once more, her status granting access to forbidden sections of the library, but still there would be questions for why she was in this section if caught…
After searching the shelves for some time she removed a book, one she remembered well from time spent with Her Queen. Another squeeze of guilt… At least the church had merely decided to seal the grimoire away instead of destroying it.
As she flipped through the book an annoying voice in her head piped up
“We can’t do this, they’ll exile us!” Frankly, the Hero didn’t care anymore. The way she saw it they either accepted her. Or she’d slaughter them all for what they made her do. There are other footsteps here, best to leave now. She smuggles the book under her robes and takes her leave to her quarters. Sealed away in her chambers, she reads from the forbidden tome preparing a familiar ritual. She hoped she had tweaked it properly, using her own knowledge of magic, plus what knowledge The Queen had written down or blessed her with in their short time together. She rationalised that whatever the worst case scenario was had to be better than this she knelt in the middle of the circle and prayed… She was quickly answered by a white hot bolt of pain shooting straight through her heart She couldn’t help but cry out in agony. It took a moment for her to recognise this pain… The same pain she had fought when Her Queen had first fixed her. This time she leant into it, relishing it as a form of penance, the pain grew and she briefly feared that her heart would stop, Although that became the least of her worries as the heat started to spread across her body. Her skin had caught fire! Had she messed up the ratios? Had she forgotten an important ingredient? Had she- There was one last bolt of pain as she felt her skin crackle, and then it all became too much… She awoke hours later judging from the sunlight streaking through the windows She let out a sigh and tried to get to her feet, but was met with immobility… try as she might she couldn’t move. Her entire body felt as though it was made of lead, and in a moment of sorrowful rage she cried out in sorrow It was all for naught! In rage filled anguish she tried to slam her fist upon the ground and something shifted… the skin on her arm had cracked like an eggshell… She froze in place, hesitating briefly before trying again to move, there was resistance but it yielded once she put enough force into it, eventually she managed to fully breach whatever barrier was holding her in place, tearing through it as she climbed to her feet, shaking off the dregs of what clung to her. There, lying at her feet, was the husk of her old body, torn asunder so she could emerge from it, reborn. Although she was nude, covered in gore, and every muscle ached, she felt the best she had in a long time. She stepped from her discarded chrysalis to view herself in the mirror. What greeted her almost made her cry. Her body may lack the additions she had come to enjoy, but still, there she was… Not the Hero of Light But Her Queen’s Champion.
