Strena The Youngest Dark Lady Arc Part Three

 Forging A Dark Side

Strena woke the next day. She, at first thought that the day's events were nothing but a strange dream. Her hand touched her chest, still feeling it around her neck. Yet upon feeling that there was nothing there,she knew that it was not. The Artemis necklace was gone! She smiled, finally glad that she was free of it. After all these years she was finally free from Zaryb's control!

Not quite yet. I still have one or two steps to go. One, I still need to get this cuff off and then I need to kill Zaryb amd Grasharlo. But I need to take everything one step at a time. Just play along. After all, she must have a way to get this cuff off. I just need to find it. No. I have to kill Grasharlo first. Then get the cuff off and then kill Zaryb. Then I can finally go home and tell the whole of Merth that my name is Arielsa Zuvé and not Strena Azlok.

She heard a knock on the door. She looked up to see a beaming Grasharlo looking at her. There was an arrogant, entitled look in her eye. Part of her suspected that she knew what she was thinking about, just now.

"What is it?" She mumbled sleepily.

"Come with me. Breakfast is ready."

They soon walked down the stairs and she spotted Zaryb and that there were heavy bags under his eyes. His cotton white was messier than usual. He looked away from Grasharlo with shame in his eyes. In fact if Strena did not know any better, she would have thought that he was on the verge of tears.

She sat down and ate her breakfast. Yet she could not help but wonder what was wrong. Not out of concern but curiosity. Yet she decided against it. Which was why she ate and finished her breakfast in utter silence.

Then Grasharlo brought out a toad.

"Am I supposed to turn that into a handsome prince?" She asked mockingly.

She smiled and laughed.

Oh! Dear no! Now come over here."

She got up and walked to her, knowing that there was no other option.

"Now I would like you to learn, when you hurt someone, to like it."

Strena felt her blood run ice cold as she looked at her shocked. Yet she remembered how she was able to get Darkector then the creatures she had slain.

She wants me to do what?

Grasharlo walked behind her.

"Now drive all of that to the toad in front of you."

She looked at the toad and willed, with all her emotions into the toad. She felt with every part of her body. Soon the toad buckled and croaked and croaked out of pain. It struggled and struggled and soon the croaking became a scream. Yet upon hearing this and fearing what the pain the toad was going through, she stopped.

She collapsed, panting and shaking.

"Good, good girl. Now run along to the library. It's just through there to your left."

She nodded and once she was in the library, she read the first book that caught her eye. There she stayed until Grasharlo came in three and a half hours later. 

"Time for lunch."

She looked up in dread.

"What will we be doing after lunch?"

"You will be doing to, what you did with the toad, with a mouse. I caught him last night in Zaryb's room. He can be such a nuisance. Eating all my food, nibbling on my precious potions. That sort of thing."

"Oh." She said, trying not to expose her dread.

She saw Zaryb in a chair. He was sleeping deeply and took heavy laboured breaths. He was covered in sweat. There were traces of blood on him but there was not a cut on him. She wondered what was going on, but she knew that she needed to focus upon what was a head. She did not have time to focus upon him. Especially as she was about to torture a mouse. 

She knew that she had to play this part. Play it, until she has the chance to strike. So letting herself get distracted by Zaryb was the best that she could do. She had to bury all those emotions. She could indulge in them later. Now she had to put on the mask of cold-heartedness and do what Grasharlo wanted her to do.

Her eyes slid to the mouse. She looked at its tiny brown body and its long worm-like tail. Then the tiny set of black bead-like eyes. They looked up at her. Even though they probably knew nothing about what was about to happen, the mouse's eye looked pleadingly at her, almost like the mouse had an inkling of what she was about to do.

"Go on. Do it."

She looked down. She shook her head. The image of the toad became very clear in her mind. She suddenly felt like she felt like she could not do it. She looked back at Grasharlo, almost pleadingly for her not to ask this of her.

"Go on. Just do it. You don't have to do it for long. You can do it just a little."

She suddenly felt strangely reassured by her words somehow as she returned to the mouse. She remembered all those times she killed and how easy it had been. She had even killed animals yet, for some reason she could not muster up the will to do it.

That was when Grasharlo pulled out a dress. It was royal purple with a golden rim with a golden belt with strange runes going all around it. With rubies, diamonds and emeralds embroidered into the collar and rim of the sleeves.

"Do it and I'll give you this!"

Her eyes widened. Then she turned back to the mouse. She then closed her eyes and drove all the pain that she could into the mouse, with all her will that she could muster. Then she heard the first squeak of pain. She stopped. Then she heard a voice inside her head saying.

No, continue. Earn that dress.

No! 

Do it! 

No! 

Go on!

No!

Imagine that mouse as Zaryb. That might help.

She closed her eyes and imagined it as Zaryb. She felt all her hatred of him run throughout her body. Every vane became consumed by the hate that her heart had for him as it pumped it through all of them.

She then pushed with all the will she had into then mouse. She did to that mouse what she wanted to do to him. She then heard the squeaks of pain again. She did all that she could to ignore the sounds. She pushed their cries for her to stop out of her mind and drown them out. The next moment she was on the ground, shaking and had tears running down her face.

She felt a hand pull her up. She looked up to Grasharlo.

"Here. Put it on. Don't worry, he'll be asleep for a long time."

She nodded as she pulled off her clothes and put on the dress. She then was guided to a mirror. She looked at the girl in the mirror. She really did look like a princess from her native kingdom. She even looked like a normal girl. She even  felt like an ordinary girl.

Yet she then was brought back into reality by that scar. That scar not only broke the illusion of the normal girl but also reminded her of everything that Zaryb had done for her. Everything that he made her do. Everything that he turned her into.

She saw the girl in the mirror as the girl she should be. The girl that she always should have been. The girl that she should have been raised to become. This girl that she should have been raised as. This girl is what she wanted to return to.

She looked at Zaryb. Her eyes ablaze with rage and anger. She hated him. She hated him more than she had ever been in her life. He was the one that killed her parents. He forced her to stop using her real name. He forced her to go by the name Strena. He forced her to become a bounty hunter. He was the one that forced her to become an assassin. He put blood on her hands before she had the chance to fight back. He carved that scar into her cheek,marking her forever as a killer. He turned her into his slave. He forced her to become a slayer. All of the pain that she had experienced over the last seven years was because of him.

She wanted him to feel a little of it. She felt with all her will that she wanted to hear his screams for once. She wanted him to cry for once. She wanted him to be at her mercy for once. So she drove it all into him. Soon he started to groan and then he woke up. He let out that scream, as she drove the pain into every pore of his skin. He started to sweat as he screamed and screamed and screamed. 

He looked up at Grasharlo, who was smiling. She looked at the girl.

His eyes widened in shock. Yet he buckled and screamed more.

She suddenly felt a dark joy run throughout her body. She knew that it was not good for her but she did not care one bit. She liked this. She liked this feeling. It was addictive. It filled her with a dark thrill as she found herself smiling. Yet she wanted more. She wanted to see his tears. She wanted him to beg her for once. Then she saw the tears. She felt a rush of satisfaction run throughout her as she enjoyed her power over her tormentor. She let out a laugh.

"Stop! Stop! Stop it!"

"Did you?" She asked in a malicious voice that seemed alien to her.

He looked down as she continued.

"I'm sorry."

Then she stopped.

"All I wanted to hear."