“Isn’t it painful?” asked the wizard.
“Yes. Almost unbearably so. And it just keeps getting worse the longer I resist.” Uriel winced even as he spoke.
“Ah… that’s the way the curse mark works. After enough time has passed, the pain becomes so terrible that the wearer would rather die than continue to endure it. They’ll either go to the original owner to stop the pain, or commit suicide.”
The wizard slowly walked to the center of the room, and glanced around him.
“May I begin, then?” His eyes settled on Apollonia.
Perhaps because Sid was by her side, she wasn’t afraid of Uriel. She strode into the room without hesitation, and stopped short right in front of him. This was the first time the two had faced each other since their first meeting.
“Are you ready?” she asked him. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it had a powerful, commanding presence.
Uriel was having trouble concentrating on her words. It didn’t help that she’d come so close to him, either. She continued speaking to him, as if she didn’t feel awkward about the situation at all.
“I must warn you once more: you have no right to refuse this. If you still want to die, even after the tattoo has been removed, tell me, and I will make it happen.”
Her explanation was simple, straightforward, imperious, as though she expected Uriel to refuse to undo the curse.
“…I’m… not going to… refuse…”
It took a lot of effort for him to force the words out of his mouth.
“Good choice.”
Apollonia nodded, as if that were enough. If Uriel refused to promise her his loyalty, she would still kill him. She didn’t threaten him with that, though.
The wizard made eye contact with each of them, slowly, then began to shout out the spell. Strange words flowed from his mouth in a constant stream. He drew something on the floor with the cane he had brought. There was nothing on the cane, but following the curve he drew, a faint light formed into a pattern on the floor.
Beads of sweat rolled down the wizard’s face, puckered in concentration. Uriel could hardly breathe as he watched him. When the complex form of numerous curves and straight lines was completed, he beckoned Uriel to stand in it. He didn’t stop reciting the spell, though. He reached out and poked Uriel’s tattoo with the tip of his cane.
“Ugh…!”
The instant the tip touched his flesh, blood-red light burst from his neck in a blaze of fire. Uriel shreaked, and fell forward to one knee. He frantically tried to cover the tattoo with his hand, but the wizard knocked his hand aside with the cane.
“We need the key.” The wizard turned to Apollonia. Sid offered her a silver dagger. He’d been watching the situation from the sidelines, unfazed. She picked it up and slowly approached Uriel, who still knelt shaking on the ground. She gently patted his shoulder.
“Hang in there.”
He flinched at her touch, and gritted his teeth. He was trying, but it was nearly too much for him to bear. His senses had been amplified a thousandfold. Even her simple touch felt like a sledgehammer.
Shuk! Apollonia stood next to Uriel and sliced her finger with the dagger. Blood welled out of the cut, and began to drip down to the floor.
“Libertem Vitam Semper. Eternal freedom to you.”
The wizard recited the ancient spell, explaining its meaning. Apollonia was able to copy him easily.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
At the direction of the wizard, Apollonia placed her blood-stained hand on Uriel’s neck. The two of them chanted the spell in unison.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
Uriel trembled in pain. It seemed like all his senses were awakening.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
Apollonia’s touch on the back of his neck was burning hot. He could almost feel his flesh sizzling from the heat. Yet beneath the pain, her touch was soft.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
He heard no doubt in her words. She was fully confident that the spell would work. He began to feel a strange sensation; an intense itch crawling across his neck. Beneath it all, he could still feel the softness of her hand. It was his anchor.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
And in the span of a single moment, the spell shattered. Shocks reverberated through his body. He was free.
Yet in the same moment the spell broke, he began to feel the start of another kind of bondage – one he’d never felt before.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
His new master.
“Libertem Vitam Semper.”
It was Apollonia.
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