“I wonder every day what I did to earn the love of such an honest and beautiful woman like you…” He kissed her, laying her on her back. He kissed her on her neck, gently caressing her hips. “…and I would be lying if I said I have not been thinking about this moment for a long time…”
“Then let us not delay it a single moment longer…” Matryona whispered, guiding his hands up under her dress. They had to make love their first time on the bed the local priestesses blessed. It would ensure their long and happy marriage together, and that all their children would be healthy and successful their whole lives. It was the reason the vehicle also had a blinder as well, to keep their love from the driver. Matryona giggled with the joy of anticipation as she heard the lock pop open, but her joy seemed frozen in that moment forever.
A great shadow engulfed the entire vehicle, eclipsing the sun. They both gasped, seeing a giant alien monstrosity hovering hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air. They could barely comprehend what it was. A more foreign object had never entered their lives. Matryona looked up at it with stunned amazement, but every fiber of Alek’s being yelled bloody murder. Both knew it was man-made, but couldn’t understand how. Suddenly, a cluster of small object rained out of the bottom of the craft. They whistled and screamed like demons as they fell out of the sky.
Reality seemed to stop around them in a deafening din. Alek woke up in a bloody and burned pile on the ground. He felt his heart slowing and struggling to continue. His body felt roasted and seared from the blast of the bomb and the steam from the boiler. He tried to pull himself over to Matryona, who was lying on the ground in front of him, but his twisted flesh refused to cooperate. He snarled, forcing himself up off the ground. The land around him was the same burned and twisted wretch of its former self as he was. Matryona seemed to be untouched by the madness. She was absolutely pristine.
As he tried to crawl towards her, he started making out a ghostly figure standing over her. It was a tall, slender woman. She wore an elaborate but ragged coal-black wedding dress. It was dull, without a glimmer of life or reality in it. The specter had on long leather gloves that went up past her elbows. They were just as worn and old as the dress, grasping a tall scythe and a massive book with her arm around it. The book was bound in dark brown and ancient skin that Alek instinctively knew was human. It had a thick and heavy chain, shackling it to her wrist. On her waist was hung a simple but perfectly constructed hourglass, with the last few grains dribbling through its neck.
The woman herself was monstrously pale, telling Alek exactly who she was. She was death incarnate, likely just a hallucination from his injuries. He gasped for breath, trying to near her to see if she was just a figment of his imagination. She turned to him slightly to him as he squirmed towards her.
Alek shook his head, coming out of the slight trance. It was a minor annoyance he went through before every battle, made worse by his lack of dreaming the last couple of days with Lily. It didn’t help that he felt obligated to tell it all to Lily. Almost none of it was reported on in the media. The government purposefully censored it, trying to make it appear like Alek just arrived one day like as a gift from god, descending into the chaos that is the world.
Alek was in a troop transport vehicle loaded up with dead bodies collected by the government. They were all armored and armed as well as any living soldier, though they were giving old, out of date weapons and armor. No use wasting top-of-the-line tech on someone who’s already dead. It wouldn’t cost them anything if their guns broke down or if the enemy’s bullets weren’t stopped by their armor.
This group in particular was going to be Alek’s commandos. He’d expend more power on them to give him extra control and make them more skilled. Otherwise they’d likely just drop their guns in a feral and truly blind rage. On the battlefield, he’d raise any other fallen soldiers from both sides to back them up. They could be shock troops, controlled and directed like a raging river. They didn’t need weapons, being far more terrifying as they clawed, bit, tore, and ripped their way through their former comrades.
The troop transport, despite being for dead men, was one of the high-end transports the military had, a mighty vehicle that had wheels as tall as a man and weighed a hefty two tons. The military wanted to make sure Alek was rested and comfortable before he went into battle. They also wanted to guard him to make sure Alek wasn’t going to be stolen or destroyed somehow by the enemy. Alek didn’t complain, though the people who had the macabre duty of dressing, arming, and strapping the dead men into the vehicle.
Alek felt the troop transport come to a stop, hearing the faint sound of weapon’s fire through the hull of the vehicle. He unhooked his harness and stood up. He knew the exact place to stand in the transport to make the resurrections easier. He closed his eyes and stretched out his arms. He focused, feeling the energy start to flow from his fingertips. Slowly, from around his feet, his omen appeared, growing past his hands as he stretched them out. Bolts of energy flowed out of the omen and into the dead soldiers. They screamed and roared, fighting against their safety harnesses. It seemed to be instinctive. Nothing was supposed to come back from the dead, at least not like this.
What followed the resurrections was an eerie silence. The soldiers were raised, but they didn’t breathe or blink, sitting there in a dead quiet, just waiting for a command. Alek didn’t have to do anything silly like pantomime a command, just thinking what he wanted them to do. Almost completely in unison, the undead soldiers reached up and undid their harnesses. Alek had them stand up, pivot on their feet, and lock and load their rifles. He opened the door at the back of the vehicle, ordering them to run out into the battle.
As they started breaking the doorway, they opened fire on the enemy, each one picking their own targets. Alek walked out after he was sure they had secured a small area for him. He looked around, getting his bearings on the battlefield.
The modern battlefields, while still host to the atrocity that is war itself, are nothing compared to the battlefields of the Great War. There was certainly no joy in the air of modern battles, but the battles of old seemed to devour light itself. Alek didn’t miss the dread the old battlefields carried at all.
“Huh…She is nowhere to be seen…” Alek said to himself. “Good sign…” He stretched his arms and legs a little. He knew Lily was safe far away from the battle, so he figured he could take his time. Even if all the local friendly troops were killed, it was just more un-killable soldiers for him.
As Alek searched the battlefield for worthy targets, he heard a cheer and English shouting. He didn’t know what they were saying, but knew it well enough to realize it was a rallying cry. It had to be the big secret weapon they had been planning to use for some time. It had to be their attempt to replicate Alek. He was certain if that was true, it would more than likely take him to kill it.
Lily hated being left behind, even if she was still technically on the front lines. She could hear the sounds of distant gunshots and small quakes from the local artillery firing at the enemy. It reminded Lily of thunderstorms when she was a child, mostly because it had her just as on edge and nervous then as she was now. She wished it was raining or it was dark out so that she’d have something to distract her from it all.
Lily had already read the book Alek had with him cover to cover, and was reading a newspaper to try to kill more time. Alek hadn’t planned on her being able to read so fast, only having the one book for her to read. So, now she was doing her best to slowly read her newspaper. It had the best news outside of Rusinova than all the other papers combined. Lily had no idea how they got away with it. It just made her all the more determined to read it before it got shut down.
“Jimmy Pierce, age ten, heir of the Pierce Enterprises…” She read out loud because she couldn’t believe what it said, “…was witness to the brutal murder of his mother by his own father…His father, Kenneth Pierce, has been infamous for abusing his wife before, but he carried it too far Sunday night, beating her with a metal baseball bat.
“Supposedly, it was all started when Jimmy Pierce told his father he didn’t want to play little league baseball. His father ripped the bat from his hands and swung, breaking Jimmy’s right arm in two places. At this point, his mother, Maria Pierce, tried to stop Kenneth’s brutal assault and was the victim of a vicious assault. He repeatedly hit her with the same bat, leaving Jimmy to call the police. The New Atlantis police force arrived in time to stop the brutal assault, but Maria died in surgery early Monday morning.
“More bad news for young Jimmy has arisen since this tragic event, as Kenneth’s parents have refused to adopt him, claiming that the rumor from over ten years ago that Maria was raped and Jimmy is the child of that rape. The rumor may very well have been true, as a DNA test showed that Jimmy wasn’t the biological son of Kenneth, though in this reporter’s honest opinion, that may very well be a good thing, as living with the parents of the man who killed your mother, whether he’s your real father or not, would have to be incredibly traumatizing for anyone.
“Rumor has it that Carl Jones, founder of Jones Industries, Pierce Enterprises’ biggest competitor in New Atlantis, is attempting to adopt Jimmy and give him a safe home. Jones, whose wife died in child birth last year, said it would be what his wife would have wanted and that ‘after all the trauma Jimmy’s gone through in the last couple of days, the last thing Jimmy needs is to be bounced from foster home to foster home’, and this reporter is inclined to agree.
“A guilty verdict is all but certain for Kenneth for the murder of his wife, but what he will be sentenced to is still up for grabs. Polls at both this newspaper and other news stations around the city have found that eighty-five percent of citizens in New Atlantis have called for the death penalty in his case. While his lawyer is calling for a change of venue for his trial and sentencing, I don’t see how that would make any difference in this case.”
Lily reread the article a handful of times more to make sure she understood everything. It was almost too horrible to get her brain around. How could a father be so violent to his wife and son? Jimmy’s tragic origin was no excuse for his father’s actions. It saddened Lily beyond words, and actually made her thankful for her own parents. She couldn’t focus on that anymore, feeling like it was dragging her into a well of despair. She folded the newspaper up and dropped it on the table in front of her.
Lily got back up on her new prosthetic leg and her old leg, still getting use to standing without a crutch. It was weird, a sensation she hadn’t felt for years and years. It made what was left of her bad leg hurt, and it played games with her feeling of balance. She was use to having to lean and put all of her weight on her good leg and the crutch. Now, putting her weight across both her legs was disorientating. Still, she figured not only did she have to get use to it, it also freed up her hand for the first time in as long as she could remember. No more desperate fumbling with doorknobs to try to get them open. No need for people to close the door after her. It made her incredibly happy to finally have even that bit of self-reliance back in her life.
Lily decided to see if she could find somewhere in the base she could see the battle from. She knew they had several look-out posts around the base she could probably see for miles and miles from. She thought she might even be able to see the enemies and give Alek some back up with sniper fire.
Alek was able to follow a straight line to where the cheering was coming from. He had picked up a rifle from one of the soldiers he had risen as he followed his course and loaded it with a full clip. He didn’t have to tap his ever growing knowledge of foreign rifles for this one. It was a rifle native to Rusinova. Alek started shooting any enemy soldiers he saw, getting one-shot kills without too much trouble, at least until he saw him.
Alek had seen numerous things that seemed to be beyond the laws of man and nature, but this took the cake. The soldier the Atalanta Republics had made as a copy of him was wearing dark blue and black. He had armored gauntlets and boots, as well as an armored chest plate. His suit was all leather with a steel collar around the neck, but that wasn’t the strangest thing about him.
The man seemed able to launch himself great distances with large and easy bounds. As the Rusinova fired at him, he seemed to shrug for a minute, but keep going through the hail of bullets without even the slightest injury. He grabbed artillery pieces with his hands and threw them for yards and yards. He ripped guns out of soldiers’ hands, killing them with quick, almost un-seeable blows.
Alek decided he had to get this mysterious soldier’s attention. He aimed at the soldier’s head and fired, seeing the bullets hit with a harmless and small shower of sparks. Alek had heard a word the Atalanta Republics’ soldiers were shouting and cheering, knowing it had to be the name of the super soldier.
“AVENGER!” Alek bellowed while he continued to fire at him. The Avenger didn’t respond to the shots, so he decided to pick a better target. He fired at the soldiers around him, killing his friends to incur his wrath. “AVENGER!”
“Bastard!” The Blue Avenger yelled back at him. Alek wasn’t ready for his pure, blinding speed, taking a thunderous blow to the chin. It launched him backwards for what felt like miles, making Alek all but certain it would have easily killed any mortal on the receiving end of the punch. After skidding to a stop and hearing his uniform overcoat being torn to shreds by the crash, Alek stood off, dusting himself off. He pulled off his tattered overcoat and dropped it to the ground.
Now that Alek knew he could take the best of the Blue Avenger’s attacks, he could focus completely on his own attacks. He dropped the rifle he had, stretching out his arms and legs to get his joints reset. He could hear the vertebrae in his neck start to pop and slide back together. It hurt like hell to have them misaligned, so the short bursts of agony from it all grinding and snapping back into place were worth it and mild in comparison.
Lily managed to find a look-out post that had a step ladder instead of just poles so she could get to the top. It was a hard climb, making her break a sweat as she climbed. It made her ashamed of how out of shape she was. That was going to change now that she had her prosthetic leg. She stumbled at the last chair, almost falling on top of the sniper that was stationed there.
“Easy there, Miss Lufian.” To Lily’s surprise, the sniper was actually a woman. It was one of the few combat positions women could have in the Rusinova military, the other being pilots. Either way, while men were allowed to wear combat fatigues, women were forced to wear conservative and intricate uniforms even heavier and more complex than Alek’s. The government didn’t want sexuality to be a distraction on the battlefield. “You do not want to hit the grate flooring here with your knee.”
“How did you know my name?” Lily had to ask her. It was almost eerie that some random person would know her name without ever seeing her before.
“Everyone at this base already knows about the beautiful and incomplete doll that has stolen the heart of the legendary Alek Vanyusha.” The sniper said with a smile. She had several scars on her face, a crescent shaped one around her eye, a knife scar across the other eye, and little nicks and cuts all over her face. Clearly, she was an experienced and weather soldier. “What can I do for you?”
“Can you see the battle from up here?” Lily asked the moment before she saw the sprawling battle off in the distance. “Never mind…”
“Did you come up to see Colonel Vanyusha in combat?” The sniper picked up another sniper rifle, handing it to Lily. “Or are you here for some sport shooting?”
“A little of both, actually…” The sniper handed Lily a clip and helped her load it into the rifle. “Thank you.” She put it on the small ledge around the bottom of the look-out post. The sniper stopped her before she laid down in the prone position, taking her coat off and putting it down for Lily to lay on. “I cannot…”
“Think of it as doing me a favor. It is far too hot out for this whole uniform, so by laying on it, you are giving me a convenient excuse to take it off.” Lily smiled and nodded. The sniper reminded her of a combination of Alek and the big sister she always wanted growing up. She put her eye against the hard rubber eyepiece on the scope and saw the battle. It was uncomfortable for her to keep her eye against the piece, almost like pushing her face against a plastic ring. Still, Lily wasn’t about to take her eyes off the battle.
Alek was finally healed and took out his revolver to take some pot shots at the Blue Avenger. His revolver was the only gun he had specifically made for him. It was heavy, a forty-five caliber bullet. It was silver with a black ebony handle, and every inch of it was covered in a beautiful and intricate pattern. It was perfectly balanced and one of the most accurate guns in the world. Alek had been given the gun since the Great War, and it had proven itself the most reliable weapon he had ever carried. Now, it was showing Alek that while the bullets didn’t pierce the Blue Avenger’s skin, he was definitely feeling them. That told him he was definitely vulnerable, it was just a matter of overpowering.
Alek put his revolver in its holster, stretching his arms out. The Blue Avenger stood back, not sure what Alek was doing as lightning flowed from his hands. It didn’t fully sink in until the dead around him shrieked and rived.
“Stop!” The Blue Avenger bellowed in English, not that Alek would have cared if he could understand him. The Blue Avenger rushed Alek, punching him again and again, but it was no use. Alek was ready for him this time. “STOP, DAMN IT!”
Lily was speechless and panicked as she watched the beating the Blue Avenger was giving to Alek. What if he managed to kill Alek? He could find a way, she was sure of it. He could knock Alek’s head clean off his shoulders. There was no way Alek could regenerate from that.
The Blue Avenger grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up into the air. Lily had no idea what he was yelling at Alek, just knowing his seemed intent on doing him serious harm. She aimed square at the Blue Avenger’s head. She had never killed anyone before, but she couldn’t lose Alek. She grit her teeth, doing her best to steady her shot.
“Hey!” The sniper yelled, desperately trying to break Lily’s perfect concentration. “Do not have your eye against the piece when you…” The sniper didn’t have time to finish her sentence when the shot rang through her ears. Lily took her eye away from, swearing and holding the bloody wound the rifle gave her.
As the Blue Avenger held Alek up by the neck, pulling back for the punch he planned to finish him, he heard a sharp whistle. Suddenly, he dropped Alek and was thrown to the side by a blinding pain. Alek knew it had to be Lily acting as his guardian angel. He focused, bringing all of the dead he rose to attack the Blue Avenger all at once.
Countless dead in both uniforms started swarming over the Blue Avenger before he could recover. They clawed and slashed at him as he scraped off the bullet from his face. He started swinging wildly to try to get the undead to stop their relentless assault. They snarled at him with maws that dripped with foam and blood. He yelled as they bit and dug into his flesh.
The Blue Avenger grabbed the vicious attackers, throwing them away and into other attackers to try to get them off. He tried to jump away, but they grabbed him, dragging him back down to the ground. Wherever they could get their fingers into, they clawed and tried to rip him to pieces.
Alek thought the brutality was deserved after what he was doing to the troops, but also realized that it was going to take far more to kill him. He called over a few of his commandos with a small gesture of his hand. They came over, plunging their bayonets into the Blue Avenger, slowly grinding them into his body. He yelled at the top of his lungs and struggled as hard as he could, but it was no use. Soon, his strength drained, he gave in, but that didn’t stop the undead’s relentless assault. They tore him to scraps of flesh without devouring him. Alek had no desire to see that, and was completely unnecessary since the undead didn’t have to eat.
It was hard enough for the enemy troops to keep fighting when Alek was on the field, making them all terrified that he would kill them and then use their bodies to kill their friends. Then, when word of the Blue Avenger’s horribly brutal death got out, and that it was at the hands of Alek’s undead legion, fighting became impossible for the Atalanta Republics forces. Soon, the whole force was in full retreat, and Alek was sure they wouldn’t stop until they were back in the safety of their home nation.
It made Alek realize the truth of the matter; the only reason the Atalanta Republics forces invaded was they had their Blue Avenger. Maybe they were trying to test him, or maybe they were trying to use him while he was at his strongest to take down Alek and their nearest competition in Rusinova, but it didn’t matter. All that did matter was that Rusinova was safe again, or at least that was all that mattered to Alek. He knew the government might send their forces to attack and invade the Atalanta Republics, but it would end like it always did, in a stalemate between the two forces with nothing gained on either side. It was a waste of lives and resources, but it was also an inescapable fact of life.
A part of Alek hoped to be greeted by Lily’s smiling face at the gate after the ordeal he had in battle, but instead he was met by a man telling him Lily was in the med ward on the base. Alek couldn’t be stopped or even slowed on his run to get back to her.
He knocked over a nurse here and a doctor there to get into Lily. He didn’t care what he had to plow through to get to her. His mind was racing with what could be wrong with her. What if his almost always perfect measurements were off for her leg, and because of it, she slipped and fell and cracked her ribs? What if an enemy sniper had gotten to the base and shot her? He didn’t know what he’d do, which is why he had to know what happened. He couldn’t take not knowing.
Finally, he managed to find her in her own private room, he burst through the door, making both Lily and the nurse treating her jump about two feet in the air. One of Alek’s worst fears was confirmed as the female nurse was wrapping Lily’s chest to help what had to be broken ribs heal. Worse, she had stitches around her right eye. Alek knew it was because he measured her leg wrong. She slipped, hit her head on something, and then cracked her ribs against the ground. It was the only possibility. Still, he had to confirm what happened.
“How did you get so hurt?”
“…Gah…” Lily turned to her nurse. She had to collect her breath, the bandages slowly cutting off her air, or at least that’s what it felt like. “Does it have to be so damn tight?”
“Yes, I’m sorry dear…” Alek growled slightly that he had been ignored, and that the nurse treating Lily talked like a slave. He wondered why his clout hadn’t been able to get the best nurse on the base, instead of this nurse who was likely forced to be a nurse by her master.
“Ah…uhn…” Lily gasped for a little more air. “It’s alright…” Lily turned to Alek, biting her lip for a second before she spoke again. “You saw the rifle that hit that blue freak in the face, did you not?”
“Yes…that actually was you?” Alek had to ask, knowing she must have been pretty high up to pull that shot off against the Blue Avenger. “How the hell…”
“I found a look-out post that had a step-ladder instead of a pole-ladder and got to the top so I could watch the battle…There was a sniper up there and she gave me a rifle…” Alek’s jaw dropped ever so slightly. “What?”
“There was a sniper in the look-out post…that not only let you up there, but gave you a rifle you FIRED and hurt yourself with?” He gestured to the new wound around her eye that would definitely be a permanent scar. When Lily nodded, Alek dragged his hand across his face.
“Coming down the ladder, I got blood in my eye, and it hurt enough that it broke my concentration and I slipped down the last few steps and cracked some ribs.” Alek grabbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “What?”
“You are a civilian, Lily. Even though you are with me, even though I have a great deal of sway in the military, you are still a civilian…”
“So…what does that mean?” Lily had to ask. As much respect as she had for the military, she knew almost nothing about its rules and regulations. Alek, on the other hand, was intimately familiar with every single line of the regulations and could recite them if need be.
“It means your friend…the sniper…will be flogged.” Lily’s jaw dropped. “I cannot stop it, either. She will have to be punished…”
“But…but it was not her fault!” Lily panicked. What if the sniper was killed just because she had to see Alek in battle? She couldn’t live herself with that. “There…there has to be something you can do! Some string you can pull!”
“There is no way to keep her from being flogged, Lily…I am truly sorry. Even if we got you declared an unofficial member of the military, she would have STILL broken the regulations and…I really am sorry, Lily.”
“There’s one thing you can do, Mistress…” The slave nurse spoke up. She spoke timidly in front of Alek, but didn’t want to stay silent and see Lily so upset. “…If you interrupt the flogging, you can take her flogging as your own…”
“Damn it!” Alek snapped, knowing it was right but wanting to keep Lily from danger and harm. “You are a NURSE! Do you not have to follow the Hippocratic Oath!?”
“It goes either way in this case, since one or the other has to be flogged…It’s BARBARIC either way.” Alek snarled, but Lily put her hand on his.
“I do not want her to suffer because of me…” Lily reassured him, but Alek still wasn’t considering it as an option. He didn’t want to have the haunting memories of Lily getting flogged and then all the horrible aftermath of trying to clean them and get them to heal properly. He would literally remember them forever, and he knew Lily would too. “Alek…The most painful thing in my life was losing my arm and leg…No matter what they do, it cannot hurt as much as that.”
“But I cannot be there to hold your hand. You will have to bear this alone…” Lily nodded, telling Alek there was no way he could talk her out of this. Still, he had to think of something. He was searching his nigh-infinite knowledge of the regulations for any way to get around it.
The sniper Lily met earlier was stripped down to just her dress shirt and pants. They were marching her out in front of everyone, a menacing drum beat making her more and more tense. She couldn’t take the waiting. The actual pain would only be a temporary feeling that died over time, the waiting could very well stretch into infinity.
They slammed her into a massive wooden support pole the was topped with the base’s ancient and archaic weather equipment. They lashed her wrists together with an extremely coarse and painful rope, pulling them so tight that it felt like it was going to cut her hands off. Her arms were barely long enough to get around the pole, making them feel like they were going to be pulled out of their sockets just from her heart beat. She had no choice but to have her chest and face against the ancient splintering wood. She figured she’d probably end up jamming them into her cheek or other unfortunate areas of her body.
The heaviest, most muscular sergeant on the base walked up behind her, ripping the back of her shirt off. She yelped slightly, knowing it showed she had been flogged before. She had a fine webbing of scars across her back from her vicious training and a case or two of insubordination. Now, she was going to make it far more intricate. They were going to give her thirty lashes for everything that happened. She took a deep breath, waiting for the first crack of the whip and searing pain to come. She heard the drawback of the whip, but before it came forward, she heard a scream.
“STOP!” Lily screamed at the top of her lungs, rushing out as fast as she could with both her arms outstretched. Alek was standing off to the side, still desperately trying to think of some way out of this for everyone. He was coming up with nothing upon eternity. “I was the one who took the rifle from her, I was the one who snuck up the ladder, and I was the one who fell down it! I should receive the punishment you are going to give her…”
“Little sister, no…” The sniper spoke through grit teeth. Lily turned to her, giving her a look that told her she had suffered enough.
“I am Colonel Vanyusha’s lover. She assumed I had the right to be there, and I did not correct her…I should have NEVER have put her in that situation to begin with, and I cannot just let her take the penalty for my own ignorance…”
The sergeant holding the whip looked over to Alek first, but then looked at the base’s general and commander. He nodded, and the sniper was cut free. Lily was pulled over to the post. They didn’t know what to do since they couldn’t tie her wrists together. They came up with the clever solution of tying Lily to the pole around her waist, making it so tight she could barely breathe. The sergeant didn’t want to rip the back of Lily’s dress off, leaving it to the medic that would have treated the sniper. She was barely strong enough to do the task, struggling with it briefly.
“The penalty for you digressions and trespassing is thirty lashes.” The ancient base commander spoke. His accent was almost as ancient as him, from a part of the country that had since seen indescribable growth and change since he was a child. It gave away that he could likely say he remembered when the entire area was all farm land and not just be using it as a cliché. “Sergeant, when you are ready…”
Lily heard the first crack then, moments later the incredible blinding pain. It was unbearable, ripping the breath out of her body and making it impossible to scream. It ripped the bandages off her back and made her broken rips grind together. She gasped for breath as the whip slice across her back again. She started feeling numb to the world, but the world made itself known to her with the third strike. Finally, at the fourth, she couldn’t contain it anymore. She screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping it would frighten off the pain.
Alek couldn’t think any more. Every strike across Lily’s back hit him with the same intensity for him as it did for her. How much more would Alek’s mere presence cost Lily? It had already caused the tragedy with Aleksandra’s master, now this. She was going to literally be scarred for however much longer she’d survive with him.
That’s when he thought of it. Lily relied on him for almost everything. Money, food, shelter, and more. It could get him a technicality to save Lily from the full brunt of the flogging. He thought about it for a second, realizing that it could make Lily furious with him. Still, if it meant saving her from this torture, he didn’t care how mad she got.
Before the sergeant could whip her for the eleventh time, Alek stepped in front of him, blocking the whip with his arm. The whip coiled tight around his arm and with a smooth pull, he ripped it out of the hands of the sergeant. He pulled it off his arm, tossing it to him.
“That is enough!” Alek yelled at him. It was an open act of defiance that would likely get a regular soldier shot. “Cut her loose…”
“You do not have the authority to order that.” The base commander spoke firmly but not angrily at Alek. Alek was almost certain he was older than the general, though they had kept Alek’s rank low to keep him as a field unit. Still, that meant he didn’t necessarily have direct command over generals. “She has twenty lashes left…”
“She is UNCONSCIOUS. Even if you whipped her, she would not feel them.” Alek slipped off his coat and put it around Lily. He took a knife off his belt, cutting the rope with a small flick of his wrist. He caught her, seeing she had a couple of large splinters in her face and neck. Her fine, smooth skin didn’t offer even the slightest resistance to them. It was more small scars that he wouldn’t forgive himself for. “I am taking full responsibility for everything that transpired. Lily’s essentially my slave, I should have informed her of the regulations and laws on the base.”
“Are you saying…”
“I am saying you have punished her enough. I will take the remaining lashes for myself.” He walked over to the General, staying a healthy distance away but getting close enough that he could still whisper something and only the general would hear. “Think about it, sir. Actually flogging ME? You would be legendary…I will make sure you suffer no ill effects from this. Consider it doing me a personal favor.”
“Alright…” The General growled back. “Sergeant, have Colonel Vanyusha prepared to be flogged.”
Everyone around the base was silent with disbelief. Alek was prepared the same way as the sniper, his hands tied tightly around the pole to give him no hope of dodging or diverting the force of the blow. Alek was able to take the force the blows with only grunts and groans. It was far from the most painful thing he had suffered in his life, and he had learned how to tune out severe pain like this. Taking the blows for Lily made it that much easier to bear.
Lily woke up with sharp blades of agony stabbing into her chest from laying in a bed on her stomach. She could feel the wounds on her back still weeping scarlet tears, wondering how long it would take for them to finally heal. Worse were all the little wounds across her face, shoulders, and neck. Their scars would be harder to hide.
Lily was afraid to move, scared that any movement would cause all the scars on her back rip open like splitting seams. She realized she passed out after the seventh or eighth strike, but she didn’t expect that to stop her flogging. Did they have mercy on her? She knew she was famous now for being Alek’s lover, but would that really save her? She didn’t think so.
“Do not move too much…” A voice said from the blind spot behind her. She couldn’t turn enough to see who it was, but knew who it was. It could have only been the sniper. “You are too kind for your own good, Miss Lufian…”
“Yes…” Lily grit her teeth, her words seemingly making her wounds dance and part slightly. “I know…but I could not let you suffer for my mistake…I did not know it was going to be so damned painful, though…”
“I brought something that might help with that.” The sniper removed a tall bottle from a velvet bag, setting it down on an end table next to Lily’s bed so she could see it. Lily smirked. It was a topflight bottle of vodka. It was instantly recognizable that it was from Smirnoff. “It is the best vodka in the world. It is so good, even their super spy novel hero James Bond drinks it.”
“I should warn you…” Lily was distracted for a second as the sniper put down glasses, “I am a light weight because of my missing limbs…”
The glasses were cheap, smooth, water glasses, made of a cheap and slightly opaque glass. They clearly weren’t crystal, but Lily wouldn’t complain out of respect. She also wouldn’t mention that she was a couple years younger than the drinking age, out of respect as well.
“Ah, then it will be all the more effective…” She poured a glass for Lily and a glass for herself. “This cost a lot of money…but you should enjoy it. It is worth every penny if it eases your pain.”
“I have to ask how much it was…” Lily took a drink. She had sneaked small of her father’s low-quality vodka, but it was bitter and stung her throat all the way down. This vodka was entirely different. She could still slightly taste the alcohol, but it was practically a faint imagination. It was as smooth as water otherwise. “…and your name…”
“My name is Dominika, or Dom for short. As for the vodka…I do not want to say, for fear I might go ‘HOLY GOD, I spent that much money on ANYTHING!?’ and ruin this for both of us…”
“Alright, Dom…” Lily took another drink and felt warmer and number. She knew by the time she finished the whole glass, she’d be well past tipsy and probably be officially drunk for the first time in her life. “Why did they not finish with my punishment?”
“I told them you were my slave.” Alek answered as he came into the room. He decided to come completely clean with Lily. “I took your last twenty lashes myself. I hope you are not angry with me, but I could not let them destroy you any further.”
“Why would I be angry?” Lily felt her entire face blushing, not knowing it covered almost her entire body. “You lied to save my life…As long as you do not actually make me your slave, it is fine with me…” Lily finished her glass of vodka. “Though I would have to thank my master with whatever he desired tonight…”
“I could not ask for anything too wild from you…” Alek carefully eased himself into a chair and back onto his wounds. It gave him a sharp pain in the back, but he was able to get pass it and ignore.
“Then I will have to surprise you…” Lily smirked at him slightly. Alek didn’t feel comfortable talking about his desires in front of Dominika. Dominika was already laughing at it like it was a dirty limerick. Lily fixed her hair before she spoke again. “Can we leave here as soon as possible, though? This whole place has me on edge…”
“We can leave first thing in the morning.” Alek sat down on the foot of Lily’s bed. His bones and joints were still repairing and realigning themselves, making it uncomfortable to even exist, but Alek was use to it. What he wasn’t ready for was how to treat Lily with her injuries. He was repeating how fragile she was in the back of his mind so he wouldn’t be too rough on her in any way. “I was wondering, after I take care of my assignment, would you be interested in meeting my friend Illyana?”
“THE RADIATION ELEMENTAL!?” Dominika blurted out without thinking. Illyana use to be a common name, but not since Illyana became famous as a ‘radiation elemental’. It went from being a proud, strong name to meaning ‘poisoner of the earth’. “How could you even get Lily near her without literally COOKING her!?”
“I would not have her there for too long…” Alek hated when people pointed out the obvious like that, especially interrupting him to do it. He hated it even before he had any authority or power. “Besides, I can get Lily a radiation suit, so she can stay as long as her air lasts. It would just be briefly and it would mean the world to Illyana. She has only been able to talk to me for years and years…”
“I guess it would not be a problem, though I would probably need help getting around in the suit. I imagine I would not be able to fix my new prosthetic leg if it got messed up inside the suit…” Lily realized her prosthetic leg was actually in the corner of the room and not still on her. She knew it had to be an attempt to keep her in her bed. Lily was mad because they should have known she had common sense and wouldn’t get out of it unless it was absolutely necessary even if they left it with her.
“Would having a pen pal help her?” Dominika poured Alek a glass of vodka as she spoke, then topped off hers and Lily’s. Lily didn’t think she’d be able to finish another glass without getting completely drunk, but she didn’t mind. “I might not be able to see her, but I could at least give her some contact to the outside world.”
“Alright, but I must warn you, she is very…eccentric from her years of forced solitary confinement.” Alek didn’t want to tell Dominika that Illyana had decided she was a lesbian, worried it would blow Illyana’s chance of getting another friend. His admittance of her being ‘eccentric’ was the best warning he could do.
“I do not mind…though I imagine her outgoing letters might be…what is the word…”
“…Irradiated.” Alek had experience with it, getting a crash course in radiation safety after accidentally giving people radiation poisoning from not going through a thorough enough decontamination procedure. He hadn’t made that mistake since. “Do not worry. They would put the letter through decontamination procedures, so it would add a week or two to the time it would take to get the letter, but it would be fine after that.”
“Good, because I hope to have children one day…” Dominika took a deep drink of vodka. Alek was already planning on giving her four times what the bottle cost before he and Lily left the next day. He was extremely generous, and since he had near-infinite resources from the government, he hated getting gifts. He didn’t need gifts, after all. Still, for now, he would just drink with Lily and Dominika, trying to distract himself from his own pain and how much his mere presence seemed to be costing Lily. He could only hope that it didn’t cause her any more harm. He didn’t know how much more he would let her get hurt before he’d forcibly remove himself from her presence, but he worried that he’d find out soon.
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Necromancer - Ch. 2
One of Alek’s few friends was a woman named Illyana. That was the tricky part of Alek’s relationships. He had countless people who would say they were his friend, but he would only return the favor to a handful of people. Illyana was different, though.
Illyana had been put through a program by their government to replicate Alek’s powers. They had isolated a unique energy signature in his cells and had managed to replicate a number of times. It was a radical and exotic radiation shower that few survived, but Illyana did. And what did Illyana’s astonishing luck get her? Horrible, agonizing experiments to see just what kind of weapon they could make her into. Like Alek, she seemed to be immortal and contain unbelievable healing properties, but unlike him, she couldn’t raise the dead, making her ‘worthless’ as she was.
That was what made Illyana unique. They had implanted uranium in her body, using what mystic rituals they had to bind her very being to it. It left her in a constant wasting condition, much like people who suffer from tuberculosis. She even had the same coughing fits, horrible pale and sickly skin, and was always dewy with sweat, but couldn’t die, forever caught in her hellish life without death. To make matters worse, she had a constant cloud of radiation around her, forcing her to live in isolation. It even made her impossible to use in combat, as her mere presence would likely kill friend and foe alike.
All of it made Alek like her more and feel like a kindred spirit. Both would view death as a friend, and had their unfortunate circumstances forced upon them. They had tried to be each other’s lovers for a time, since Alek was just about the only man on the planet that wouldn’t be killed by her radiation. Unfortunately, before things got far enough for along for Illyana’s liking, they discovered he couldn’t touch her without severe radiation burns. Quick kisses and embraces were all they could achieve before the burns set in. The radiation even seemed to bleach the color out of her clothes. The dress she was wearing now had started out as a vibrant, full yellow, now reduced to a faded out white with a ting of yellow to it, much like the long, flowing blond hair that went halfway down her back. The only things around her in her massive mansion that had any color still were her beautiful emerald eyes.
“So, the young woman that got on the train for you…” She took a trembling sip of tea. Illyana spoke in a slow, methodical and proper manner. She spoke weakly and quietly, but fortunately, Alek had excellent hearing. He did have to speak up for her, sitting across a large room from her to keep contamination low on his clothes. “Tell me every little miniscule detail or your love making. Do not be shy. You know it is all I live for.”
“I do not know why you like hearing about the women so much. Does it let you picture yourself in their shoes?” Alek spoke and took a sip of tea. He had to wonder about Illyana, like how she was still sane after being alone for all these years. Even when their government’s men dropped off supplies in their biohazard suits, they would rarely talk to her. “I would not blame you, but…”
“Actually, I have decided if I am going to love anyone to death, it is going to be a woman. I am so much fonder of our shapes compared to yours…” Illyana spoke with very little fear in her voice. She wasn’t going to worry about what other people thought about her, even Alek, the only person in the world who’d really speak with her. “I assure you that it has nothing to do with the fact that the only body I have access to is my own, female body.”
“That would explain all those art books you have…” Alek chuckled under his breath slightly. Now that she had said it, it was incredibly obvious to him. He took another long drink of tea to give himself some time to process it, though he already knew how he felt about it.
“Alek, I hope this will not prove to be a problem between us, but I…”
“You like adult women, correct?” Alek interrupted before she could say that she was sure she couldn’t change. He knew that had to be where she was going, having known her for years. It was as intimate as anyone knew her.
“Yes…appropriate women, as loosely as that fits in this scenario…” Illyana chuckled again. “It is…one of the few decadent eccentricities I allow myself…Woman-love, exotic teas that made it out of Hayabusa before the…incident, dark chocolate, commodore’s private stock spiced rum, and ripe strawberries…”
“That is a good list.” Alek joked with her. “It keeps it almost literally a handful of excess.”
“The best part is, should I be able to get near another woman without killing her, I can easily combine all five…” She laughed again. “You will forgive my failings, I take it?”
“When you have lived as long as I have, you learn that there are more important things than what gender a person happens to be attracted to.”
“That is good…” Illyana had a small but violent coughing fit. She had them periodically through the day and was use to quickly getting them under control. Still, she always gestured for Alek to stay back. “Now, will you please describe the girl in enough detail to easily fuel my twisted fetish for women?”
“I do not know if this one would be your type. She was younger than I usually care to go…but she was incredibly radiant with her youth.” Alek put down his cup. “There was nothing particularly large about her body, but every inch was supple but strong…And it all tasted like the finest, most pure vodka I have ever tasted.”
“And I take it you drank deeply of it?” Illyana smirked. “You will have to literally draw me a picture of her, since you cannot bring film near me without erasing it…Though I am not sure if photographs would be erased or not by my mere and pathetic presence.”
“It would not erase developed pictures, so I am sure I can get you a photo of her.” Alek wiped his mouth on a handkerchief from his pocket, getting a few drops of tea that escaped his lips. “I will spend the money to make sure it is a color photo, because to have her in anything less would be a travesty…I honestly loved her, but how could I condemn her to life with me?”
“Should that not be both of your decisions, not just yours?” Illyana had to ask. Unlike Alek, she easily remembered being mortal. Alek wished he could, grinding through existence one day at a time. Life and emotion lost their meaning when you know it will never end. Immortality was a curse no one would want if they gave it any thought. “If it makes her happy, why not do it? You are not wasting your own infinite time, after all. And who knows, maybe you would actually enjoy companionship.”
“Illyana…”
“Not all women are as frail and useless as I. She could be useful as something other than a living sex-toy.” Alek knew Illyana was right in her normal blunt and unafraid way. That seemed to be the only purpose women would play in his life, though he rarely used them for that anymore either. Illyana was just about the only person he spoke to at all outside of work. “Though if you would not mind feeding my vulgar imagination with a few more sordid details…”
“I have actually written them down in a small journal for you…” Alek reached into a satchel and pulled out a small leather-bound notebook and placed it on an end table next to him. “It felt more dignified than speaking it, and I wanted to record every detail of it for myself actually. This is just a copy, but it is identical, I assure you.”
“…Why are you so damned adorable, Alek?” Illyana said through a series of uncontrollable chuckles. “You know that it is important enough that you will want to save it through the grind of our eternity…something which, as I recall, only Matryona invoked in you before…yet you deny yourself what will most certainly be a period of ecstasy and love that will stretch that gorgeous girl’s long and fruitful life…”
“Illyana…”
“I imagine with a good man to take care of her, she could crest eighty before she had any serious decline in her faculties…” Illyana was definitely over-estimating the probable age before Lily would start giving up the ghost just to try to convince Alek to go back to her. The average life expectancy in Rusinova was around sixty depending on where the person lived. Since Lily lived in a small town, she wouldn’t be exposed to the constant stream of toxins the wretched factories in the cities put out. That would add roughly ten years to her life as long as her mind didn’t go out first. “And so what, you might have to deal with losing her some day. You would be no worse off than you were before. Plus, with her not by your side, she becomes Schrödinger’s cat. She is either alive or dead at any given moment if you cannot say for sure either way.”
“I will make a deal with you.” Alek thought of a way to buy himself some peace and quiet from Illyana. It was a desperate plan, but he hoped that it would work. “Should I ever run into Lily again, I will confess my literally undying love to her and we will spend all our time together, making love whenever possible, until…we can no longer be together for…some reason…”
It may have been sad to some people, but Alek actually hoped to die some day. It would be a massive relief to him. He had made sure Illyana and the few he had would know to be happy for him instead of sad if he died. It wasn’t really the end anyway, he knew that well enough. So, even if he died, they’d meet in the afterlife, unless either he or whoever would be joining them angered god in some way and literally went to hell.
“Alright, but if I find out that you have lied to me, I will find you and I will cook you until you glow in the dark…” Illyana was always true to her word. Alek wasn’t sure if she could literally make him glow in the dark, but he was sure she would do her best. “…All I have is people’s word, Alek…That and my imagination…”
“I am still looking for a cure for you. You know that, right?” Alek had to reassure her, as he had done countless times before. He had travelled the world for her, looking into every possible way she could be saved. One option he had learned about was bathing in the blood of virgins in a special ritual that he dared not tell Illyana about. It wasn’t even a relatively small amount of blood, either. It would require a large tank filled with what would likely be every last drop of blood from at least thirty girls. To say it was horrific would be one of the greatest understatements in the history of mankind. Alek didn’t know that while he was travelling the world, Illyana was following in books. She had heard about the ritual and already decided against it. She couldn’t take the life or freedom from one person just to have her own.
“That is good to know…Though I should tell you…” Illyana had told Alek about her officially being a lesbian, but that was just sex. This was something much more intimate. “…I have thought about increasing my radiation field on purpose…frying the convoys that drop by to give me supplies…see if I could starve to death…”
“Illyana…”
“I have not seen another living soul…like…really seen, met them, and gotten to know them since I was sixteen and ‘volunteered’ by one of the government’s old Amot seers…I barely had my first kiss before that. I have never even felt another warm body pressed against mine.” Illyana hung her head. “I have not known any pleasure other than the kind I shamefully bring on myself…so please, go to this girl and tell her what a colossal ignorant jackass you are and that leaving her was the single biggest mistake you have made…which is actually saying something for you…”
“Hey…” Alek paused for a moment, thinking things over. He knew they both completely agreed on some of his massive mistakes, but this had to be the worst. Now, he was haunted by Lily. After all, she saved herself for him specifically, and he just used her and dumped her. He tried to ignore the fact that he was obsessed with her, but he knew it would just be a matter of time before he would be kicking himself over the whole thing. The worst part was that he had literally all eternity to dwell on this massive mistake.
“Just do not make it so poor Lily spends the rest of her life like me…with only fantasy to keep me warm at night and fulfill my desires.” Illyana finished the last bit of tea in her cup. She looked over at her antique grandfather clock. She was use to keep track of time for Alek. He had been ageless for so long that he could easily lose track of time if he wasn’t paying attention. “You said you had a train to catch a quarter past eleven, correct? If you leave now, you will get through decontamination with plenty of time to catch your train…”
“You know I do not mind rushing a bit for you.” Alek reassured her, but she just shook her head in response.
“If what I have heard is right and the Atalanta Republics are actually invading us, then our military will need you to show them the errors of their ways…” Illyana poured the last bit of tea out of her pot and took it off the ancient hot-plate she had underneath. It barely had enough for a full cup, but she lived by the ‘waste not, want not’ creed. “I know you ‘raise the dead’, but you really should try not to wait until they have built up a sufficient supply at the battlefield…”
“Alright, if that is how you want it…” Alek stood up and got his coat off the rack behind him. He dusted it off with a couple quick smacks. He put it on, quickly tugging the sleeves and collar to make it tight and neat. “I will be sure to send you any interesting medals the ARA soldiers have on them.”
“Look for their coins and guns as well…Since they stopped using silver for their coins, I cannot convince the importers that I plan to use them as jewelry any longer…As you can easily guess, I have fallen flat on my back when it comes to collecting…” Alek was going to ask why soldiers would have their own money on them in a foreign country, but let it go. It wouldn’t hurt anything to tell the soldiers to keep their eyes opened for things like that while they were burning the bodies of the soldiers.
He hated that they burned the bodies instead of sending them home to be buried. It was the government’s paranoia that prevented it from happening. They worried that if they were able to replicate the energy in Alek, the ARA could do the same after examining soldiers resurrected and controlled by Alek. They weren’t sure if it would lead to the ARA to making their own necromancer, or if it could help them develop a treatment to prevent him from controlling their own soldiers. They weren’t willing to take the chance either way.
“I will visit you again on the return trip, Illyana, so…”
“Do not waste your time…” Illyana pled with him. “While we both may have an eternity to waste, I know you have better things to do than keep me company…” She took out an ornate ivory pipe from a small chest next to her chair, tapping tobacco into it. It was a half-and-half blend of tobacco and marijuana. It didn’t get her high. It just numbed the pain from everything. It was far healthier than drinking away the pain, or at least that was how she viewed it. “Besides, the longer you stay away, the more you will have to tell me next time…”
“Alright…” Alek smirked slightly. “I will be able to spend more time with you in a month anyway. I am sure I will have the ARA retreating by then.”
“Cocky and sure as always…you never disappointment me, Alek.” Illyana watched as Alek walked off into her huge, dusty mansion without saying goodbye. Neither one would say it to the other. After all, neither could die, so it was definitely never the last time one would see the other.
Once Alek was completely gone from sight, Illyana slumped down into her chair. She no longer had to pretend to be strong and sure any more. She wasn’t willing to let the only person she could talk to think she was weak or depress him with her constant abysmal health. Alek knew she was hiding it, but let her play the game. Image was everything to Illyana.
Alek got to the train station with well over an hour to spare. The decontamination procedures were easy for him, just a change of clothes and a shower. Still, it gave him time to think. Once again, he wondered if it was truly impossible for them to make love. Since both were impossible to kill, he thought he might be able to build up his tolerance for her radiation. Maybe he wouldn’t even get burned after a while. More than likely, he wouldn’t be allowed to be with her. The government wouldn’t risk Alek being irradiated long term and not able to join the troops without making them sick. They would never want to give him more ‘troops’ that directly.
He knew he would have to vain like he was actually looking for Lily. He already decided he couldn’t damn her to a life with him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be pen-pals with her. He knew it would probably do him some good to have someone else he could talk to. Right now though, he was focused on reading his mission briefing for after the battle. A rich man had bought enough favors to borrow Alek’s services momentarily from the government. He hated doing stuff like this, bringing back the dead as false hope so the government could make a few cheap bucks.
Suddenly, he felt a familiar presence and looked up from his briefing. He saw her radiant face crushed with sadness and rage, but instantly knew who it was. He didn’t get to say her name before she slapped him with an incredible strength that left him reeling for a brief moment. He refocused in an instant, seeing Lily standing on her new prosthetic leg. Tears were pouring down her cheeks, forming waterfalls like she was a goddess, reforming the world with her sorrow.
“Lily…” Alek was relieved to see her again. The instant she was near, the part of him that was saying to spare her the torment of life with him instantly and permanently silenced by the rest of him. He didn’t regret it for a moment. “Lily, what is wrong?”
“I…I should hate you…so…so much right now…” Lily sobbed, trembling with rage that was dissipating into an unbelievable and euphoric joy that engulfed her whole body. “But no matter what…I will always love you, Alek Vanyusha…”
“I tried to deny it…but I love you as well, Lillian…Lillian…” Alek stopped, desperately trying to dig through his memory and to find Lily’s last name buried in the mines of his mind. He went through, atom by atom, scouring every resource he had, but turning up nothing. He stuttered for a second, but Lily didn’t let him spin his wheels for long.
“It was Lufian…and I did not tell you, because I am hoping it will be Vanyusha soon…” Lily sniffed, trying to stifle back her tears but to no avail. Alek put his arms around her, holding her close. She put her hand against his chest, her bad arm attempting to do the same. “I…I have something horrible to tell you…but you have to swear you will not hate me after I tell you…”
“I could NEVER hate you, Lily…” Alek assured her. After all, they were clearly fated to be together if they should just randomly run into each other again. He didn’t know that Aleksandra had told Lily where she needed to be to get to him again. It didn’t matter, though. He had fallen hopelessly in love with her the moment their eyes met again.
“Fine…just promise me that you will…still love me…after I…” Alek put a finger over her mouth to silence her. He didn’t like it, but it did stop her frightened rambling. It was still a far too dominating gesture for his liking.
“Lily…” was all Alek had to say to reassure her again. Lily knew he wasn’t the type to mince his words, and trusted him completely. She felt completely safe in his arms, like he could shield her from flames and Death herself. “What happened?”
“There was a slave girl…” Lily looked around, tears still showering from her eyes. She was scouting the area, realizing just how surrounded by the public they were. Alek didn’t go anywhere without attracting a cloud of people. It was the cost of being a hero, sacrificing any privacy he had in the public. “Can we…can we go somewhere…anywhere…other than…”
“Of course.” Alek swept Lily up into his arms, a grand heroic gesture he was used to making. If they weren’t the center of attention already, they certainly were now. Lily blushed a bright red, just glad to be this close to Alek. The embarrassment of everyone seeing her flaws, her freckles, and her missing leg as she looked like a helpless, lost little girl being carried off to her mother by the legendary hero was something she was willing to put up with for it.
Lily held nothing back when she told Alek about what happened. She could only hope that Alek wouldn’t deem her unworthy after everything that Aleksandra’s master did to her and made her do to buy Aleksandra’s freedom. It gave her unbelievable joy when, instead of casting her out like a leper, he suggested they ‘purify’ her by doing everything she and the master did and more.
After they had spent many countless hours enthralled in passion, they laid spent in bed. Alek kept his arms around Lily, holding her close. He didn’t want to hurt her, pretending to be exhausted to give her time to rest. The only thing that really sapped his strength was raising the dead. Even now, that was becoming less and less of a problem. Remembering to have limits, especially now with Lily, was the biggest problem he had faced in his memory. He could easily spend an eternity finding what solace he could in Lily’s body, a deadly truth for her.
Alek had watched her sleep on their train ride to battle for a few hours now, mesmerized by the gentle cresting and falling of her chest as she breathed. It kept him from drifting off into one of his waking dreams over night. He knew it was only a matter of time before they started again, though. His mind could handle the lack of sleep, but not the lack of dreams.
He took a deep breath, accidentally stirring Lily from her sleep. This was a happy accident at least. It told Alek that Lil was a reasonably light sleeper, and would prevent him from accidentally waking her up in the future.
“Morning…” She sighed a happy and contented sigh. Alek had promised her he would never leave her again, which to her meant they’d never be apart again. She rubbed up closer to him, wishing she could just melt into him. “Do you think we could…one last time…”
“We do not really have the time.” Lily was a little crestfallen to hear that news pass her ears. Alek rubbed her arm. “I do not want to rush things between us…I want every time to be glorious and legendary, not just a cheap thrill.”
“Alright…” Lily smiled. She did want every time she and Alek made love to be special and not just a way to kill time. She rubbed up against Alex again, deciding to just enjoy being close to him. “At least this train’s a LOT cleaner than that piece of crap train last time…”
“Being on that train was a run of bad luck for me until you came along, to be perfectly honest. I think that bastard purposefully arranged things so that I would be on his train AGAIN…” Alek shuttered slightly. Aleksandra’s master was obsessed with him to say the very least. Alek viewed it like her master had a school-girl crush on him. He wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to spy on him while he was taking showers. Now though, it was far beyond just a creepy thought in the back of his mind. Alek had to wonder how many of his previous lovers fell victim to him like Lily. Whether or not Aleksandra’s master had done the horrible crimes Alek imagined didn’t matter, though. He had to pay for what he did to Lily. It would only take pulling a few strings to see that the man was entirely broken and destitute before the end of the week. “Do you want him humbled or broken completely? Because I can do either.”
“Punishing him…” Lily took a deep breath and closed her eyes, not believing what she was about to say herself, “…will not change what he did to me…no matter how excessively you do punish him.” Lily rubbed her eyes, giving herself time to think. There were times to be calm and times to strike with the wrath of God. “I did volunteer for everything, after all…despite wanting with every inch of fiber of my being to have you be the only man I…knew in my lifetime…” Then, Lily remembered it. Her fury was ignited and in full force, crushing all the barriers of understanding and tolerance she had in her mind. “But…he RAPED Aleksandra…”
“So, what level do you…”
“Burn him to a CINDER!” Lily snapped. The rage felt good, giving into it feeling like submerging her whole being in a hot spring. It soothed a pain Lily had developing in the pit of her stomach since it happened, denying the rage that was slowly devouring her. “Be sure his slaves find good homes, though…Aleksandra said…said that he was using them as his personal brothel…”
“Unfortunately, most slave masters do…” Alek had always avoided buying slaves just for that reason. Having complete control over someone’s life was a seductive power to say the least. Many slave masters even used it to make more slaves to either sell or keep and start the process all over again. “I may have an idea…”
“What’s that?” Lily had to ask. She idolized Alek so anything he thought up clearly had to be brilliant. She waited on pins and needles to hear what he had to say.
“After I break the master, we can send his slaves to nunneries…” Alek heard the words leave his mouth and couldn’t believe he was saying them. Still, it was the only option and he knew it. “They might be able to heal them there…undo the horrible damage he has done to them…”
“That’s not too bad an idea…” Lily sighed, coming to the same conclusion Alek did. Nunneries were the only place they’d be safe from slavers looking to put them back in the market. It would definitely be hard for some to get use to the life, specifically the ones that were the master’s willing partners. Giving up all physical pleasures was a price both Alek and Lily would be willing to give up for freedom, but could they count on the slaves to do the same? “I hope you do not mind…but I set up Aleksandra with an expense account…like you gave me…using the authority you gave me when you…You get it…”
Lily always tended to ramble when she was confessing things she thought she would get in trouble for. It was actually what kept her out of trouble most of the time. She was too afraid she’d start confessing things that weren’t even related to what happened.
“That is fine.” Alek stretch slightly now that he didn’t have to worry about waking Lily up. He had lived with a severe pain in his legs since about four o’clock in the morning. “I have an unlimited account, after all. It could support Luxemburg with it without noticing.”
“That’s good.” Lily stopped when she realized she was using contractions, biting her lip. She realized she had to have picked up the habit from Aleksandra. She hoped that Alek had somehow managed to not notice, but he soon dashed that hope.
“Why are you shortening everything?” He had to ask. From what he had learned about Lily before, she was always very proper when she spoke. It had only been a couple days since he had left her. How could she have changed so much in so little time? Alek did realize he was exaggerating when he said she was shortening everything, though.
“I spent a LOT of time talking to Aleksandra…She’s a fascinating girl…and it does take a lot of the frustration out of saying ‘is’ every two seconds.” Lily sat up slightly. “I do not think it’s disrespectful, even if it is a ‘slave’ habit…I guess sort of a ‘if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me. She’s gone through all this hell…and somehow survived it…I think…now that she’s away from her master, she will be fine. She might even get to be happy one day…have a nice big family.”
“I thought you said you did not want children.” Alek had to say, worrying Lily was telling him whatever she thought he wanted to hear just to get to sleep with him. It wouldn’t be the first time he was tricked, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last.
“I do not, for me at least…” Lily smiled and shook her head slightly. “Did I not tell you about how I was adopted and wanted to adopt a child?”
“Oh, I remember now…” Alek got up out of bed, looking around for his clothes. He was sure he was going to be late because of Lily, but he didn’t care. She brought a spark of hope to what had been a bleak black life. To top things off, he knew the military would give him preferential treatment, not wanting to anger their secret weapon. As long as he arrived and won the battle, they’d be happy no matter how many casualties there were on their own side. “…though it is going to be a long time before I ever want a child. I have gotten use to the fact that I would never have a child of my own.”
“Do not worry too much.” Lily stretched out herself. She loved that Alek was one of only a few people she knew that didn’t look at her like she was insane when she stretched her bad leg and arm. No one stopped to think about the fact that what was left of both still had muscles in them. She was a little bothered by the fact that he seemed to be staring at her horrible scars. “I am still in that phase where kids annoy me more than anything…There are kids, then really bad colds, and then unforgiveable perverts as the top three things that bug me to death…”
“Well, you do not have to worry about catching colds from me. I cannot carry any sickness, fortunately.”
“Hey…” Lily had had enough. She couldn’t take Alek’s constant staring at her scars. “I get they are gross, but could you please stop staring at them…”
“They are not gross. They add to your beauty if they do anything…” Alek gently caressed her bad arm, leaning in and kissing the big disfiguring scar at her elbow. Lily was speechless. Most men had forced her to hide it in ridiculous ways. Her own father made her get what were basically socks to put over her knee and elbow. “You do not have to hide anything from me, Lily. Nothing about you could be foul or disgusting to me…”
“Alek…” Lily sighed and kissed Alek passionately. For a second, Alek was drunk with passion again, caressing her until the harsh reality of duty flashed into his mind. He pushed her away gently, seeing the same look of disbelief on her face that he knew had to be on his.
“After the battle, we will have plenty of time for love. It can be glorious and triumphant in victory…” Alek told Lily while telling himself the same thing. He didn’t have a single idea or decision made about what Lily was going to do during the battle. He didn’t want to risk Lily in any way, but knew she was too strong to listen to his pleas to stay behind in the nearest town or military base. The field hospital was far too grotesque a place to subject her to, but where else could she go? “I have my own barracks at the base nearest to the battle. If you do not mind waiting there, I could…”
“I could not stand to be that far away from you…Not during battle…” She sat up, finally not worrying about modesty any longer and letting her bed sheet covering her fall away. She didn’t care if Alek saw her anymore. She’d almost be willing to damn all modesty and walk around naked if that was what Alek wanted. “Besides, I have told you, I am a very good shot…”
“There is a difference between hunting animals and clay pigeons and taking a life, Lily…” Lily bit her lip and looked away, blushing ever so slightly. Alek knew something had to be haunting her, already learning the minor habits of her body. Lily didn’t bother trying to hold back what happened.
“I am…almost an old maid in my village. Most girls…get married as soon as their bodies start blossoming into full womanhood…”
“I am…familiar with that practice…” Alek didn’t mean to interrupt, the words just commanding their way out of his mind into the real world. It was worse in his day, girls married off at ten or eleven tended to dominate the society. They spent the next few years as what most people would consider house slaves, learning exactly what their husbands expected of them. They wouldn’t consummate the marriage until usually the fourteenth birthday, which would actually signal that the rough times for the wife were over. Alek couldn’t help but remember that if it weren’t for Matryona’s angelic singing voice, she would have been married for four or so years when she finally came back into his life.
“I told you that no one wanted a cripple for a wife…Well, that was not completely true…” Lily didn’t like to cry in front of Alek, but she couldn’t stop a small trickle of tears coming out of her eyes briefly. “There was a wretched man…one of the local policemen, actually…who always just had all of their horrible acne sores on his face and all this dry and almost like…blistered skin under his stubble…and he was easily three times my age. My parents tried to make me like him, since he was the only man in town to show any interest in me at all. Well, I finally completely rebuked him…and he…he was not going to take no for an answer…He started trying to force himself on me…He tackled me and was sitting on my legs…and started ripping off my clothes…threatening me with a knife that if I did not give him the key to my chastity belt, he would slit my throat…I panicked…and…and grabbed the pistol off his belt and emptied it into him…and a few imaginary bullets after that…I almost think killing him was worse…worse than letting him rape me…”
“Do NOT think like that!” Alek snapped, walking back over to her with his uniform on perfectly. He had put it on so often that he could put it on more precisely than a general in his sleep, not that Alek had to sleep, of course. “The ONLY thing you should regret was that you did not give that son of a whore a slower and more agonizing death.”
“Thank you…” Lily kissed Alek. “You have no idea…how much…” she had to stop talking for a minute, fighting back her tears, “…how much that has haunted me and how…how my parents…” Lily couldn’t control her tears anymore, starting to cry uncontrollably. Alek embraced her, letting her bury her face in his chest for a moment. “My parents told me if I had just accepted his proposal…he would not have attacked me and I would not…would not have had to kill him…My father went into a rage because of the whole thing…would not let me leave the house for months…”
“Do not worry. Everything is going to be alright…” He rubbed her back slightly to try to calm her down. He stopped when he realized that it was what his mother did for him when he was a toddler. He decided to just hold her close for a minute until she was calm. “Trust me when I say time heals all wounds. Someday, you will look back and think to yourself ‘how did I survive this?’, but it will not haunt you like it does now.”
“I can only hope that you are right…”
Illyana had been put through a program by their government to replicate Alek’s powers. They had isolated a unique energy signature in his cells and had managed to replicate a number of times. It was a radical and exotic radiation shower that few survived, but Illyana did. And what did Illyana’s astonishing luck get her? Horrible, agonizing experiments to see just what kind of weapon they could make her into. Like Alek, she seemed to be immortal and contain unbelievable healing properties, but unlike him, she couldn’t raise the dead, making her ‘worthless’ as she was.
That was what made Illyana unique. They had implanted uranium in her body, using what mystic rituals they had to bind her very being to it. It left her in a constant wasting condition, much like people who suffer from tuberculosis. She even had the same coughing fits, horrible pale and sickly skin, and was always dewy with sweat, but couldn’t die, forever caught in her hellish life without death. To make matters worse, she had a constant cloud of radiation around her, forcing her to live in isolation. It even made her impossible to use in combat, as her mere presence would likely kill friend and foe alike.
All of it made Alek like her more and feel like a kindred spirit. Both would view death as a friend, and had their unfortunate circumstances forced upon them. They had tried to be each other’s lovers for a time, since Alek was just about the only man on the planet that wouldn’t be killed by her radiation. Unfortunately, before things got far enough for along for Illyana’s liking, they discovered he couldn’t touch her without severe radiation burns. Quick kisses and embraces were all they could achieve before the burns set in. The radiation even seemed to bleach the color out of her clothes. The dress she was wearing now had started out as a vibrant, full yellow, now reduced to a faded out white with a ting of yellow to it, much like the long, flowing blond hair that went halfway down her back. The only things around her in her massive mansion that had any color still were her beautiful emerald eyes.
“So, the young woman that got on the train for you…” She took a trembling sip of tea. Illyana spoke in a slow, methodical and proper manner. She spoke weakly and quietly, but fortunately, Alek had excellent hearing. He did have to speak up for her, sitting across a large room from her to keep contamination low on his clothes. “Tell me every little miniscule detail or your love making. Do not be shy. You know it is all I live for.”
“I do not know why you like hearing about the women so much. Does it let you picture yourself in their shoes?” Alek spoke and took a sip of tea. He had to wonder about Illyana, like how she was still sane after being alone for all these years. Even when their government’s men dropped off supplies in their biohazard suits, they would rarely talk to her. “I would not blame you, but…”
“Actually, I have decided if I am going to love anyone to death, it is going to be a woman. I am so much fonder of our shapes compared to yours…” Illyana spoke with very little fear in her voice. She wasn’t going to worry about what other people thought about her, even Alek, the only person in the world who’d really speak with her. “I assure you that it has nothing to do with the fact that the only body I have access to is my own, female body.”
“That would explain all those art books you have…” Alek chuckled under his breath slightly. Now that she had said it, it was incredibly obvious to him. He took another long drink of tea to give himself some time to process it, though he already knew how he felt about it.
“Alek, I hope this will not prove to be a problem between us, but I…”
“You like adult women, correct?” Alek interrupted before she could say that she was sure she couldn’t change. He knew that had to be where she was going, having known her for years. It was as intimate as anyone knew her.
“Yes…appropriate women, as loosely as that fits in this scenario…” Illyana chuckled again. “It is…one of the few decadent eccentricities I allow myself…Woman-love, exotic teas that made it out of Hayabusa before the…incident, dark chocolate, commodore’s private stock spiced rum, and ripe strawberries…”
“That is a good list.” Alek joked with her. “It keeps it almost literally a handful of excess.”
“The best part is, should I be able to get near another woman without killing her, I can easily combine all five…” She laughed again. “You will forgive my failings, I take it?”
“When you have lived as long as I have, you learn that there are more important things than what gender a person happens to be attracted to.”
“That is good…” Illyana had a small but violent coughing fit. She had them periodically through the day and was use to quickly getting them under control. Still, she always gestured for Alek to stay back. “Now, will you please describe the girl in enough detail to easily fuel my twisted fetish for women?”
“I do not know if this one would be your type. She was younger than I usually care to go…but she was incredibly radiant with her youth.” Alek put down his cup. “There was nothing particularly large about her body, but every inch was supple but strong…And it all tasted like the finest, most pure vodka I have ever tasted.”
“And I take it you drank deeply of it?” Illyana smirked. “You will have to literally draw me a picture of her, since you cannot bring film near me without erasing it…Though I am not sure if photographs would be erased or not by my mere and pathetic presence.”
“It would not erase developed pictures, so I am sure I can get you a photo of her.” Alek wiped his mouth on a handkerchief from his pocket, getting a few drops of tea that escaped his lips. “I will spend the money to make sure it is a color photo, because to have her in anything less would be a travesty…I honestly loved her, but how could I condemn her to life with me?”
“Should that not be both of your decisions, not just yours?” Illyana had to ask. Unlike Alek, she easily remembered being mortal. Alek wished he could, grinding through existence one day at a time. Life and emotion lost their meaning when you know it will never end. Immortality was a curse no one would want if they gave it any thought. “If it makes her happy, why not do it? You are not wasting your own infinite time, after all. And who knows, maybe you would actually enjoy companionship.”
“Illyana…”
“Not all women are as frail and useless as I. She could be useful as something other than a living sex-toy.” Alek knew Illyana was right in her normal blunt and unafraid way. That seemed to be the only purpose women would play in his life, though he rarely used them for that anymore either. Illyana was just about the only person he spoke to at all outside of work. “Though if you would not mind feeding my vulgar imagination with a few more sordid details…”
“I have actually written them down in a small journal for you…” Alek reached into a satchel and pulled out a small leather-bound notebook and placed it on an end table next to him. “It felt more dignified than speaking it, and I wanted to record every detail of it for myself actually. This is just a copy, but it is identical, I assure you.”
“…Why are you so damned adorable, Alek?” Illyana said through a series of uncontrollable chuckles. “You know that it is important enough that you will want to save it through the grind of our eternity…something which, as I recall, only Matryona invoked in you before…yet you deny yourself what will most certainly be a period of ecstasy and love that will stretch that gorgeous girl’s long and fruitful life…”
“Illyana…”
“I imagine with a good man to take care of her, she could crest eighty before she had any serious decline in her faculties…” Illyana was definitely over-estimating the probable age before Lily would start giving up the ghost just to try to convince Alek to go back to her. The average life expectancy in Rusinova was around sixty depending on where the person lived. Since Lily lived in a small town, she wouldn’t be exposed to the constant stream of toxins the wretched factories in the cities put out. That would add roughly ten years to her life as long as her mind didn’t go out first. “And so what, you might have to deal with losing her some day. You would be no worse off than you were before. Plus, with her not by your side, she becomes Schrödinger’s cat. She is either alive or dead at any given moment if you cannot say for sure either way.”
“I will make a deal with you.” Alek thought of a way to buy himself some peace and quiet from Illyana. It was a desperate plan, but he hoped that it would work. “Should I ever run into Lily again, I will confess my literally undying love to her and we will spend all our time together, making love whenever possible, until…we can no longer be together for…some reason…”
It may have been sad to some people, but Alek actually hoped to die some day. It would be a massive relief to him. He had made sure Illyana and the few he had would know to be happy for him instead of sad if he died. It wasn’t really the end anyway, he knew that well enough. So, even if he died, they’d meet in the afterlife, unless either he or whoever would be joining them angered god in some way and literally went to hell.
“Alright, but if I find out that you have lied to me, I will find you and I will cook you until you glow in the dark…” Illyana was always true to her word. Alek wasn’t sure if she could literally make him glow in the dark, but he was sure she would do her best. “…All I have is people’s word, Alek…That and my imagination…”
“I am still looking for a cure for you. You know that, right?” Alek had to reassure her, as he had done countless times before. He had travelled the world for her, looking into every possible way she could be saved. One option he had learned about was bathing in the blood of virgins in a special ritual that he dared not tell Illyana about. It wasn’t even a relatively small amount of blood, either. It would require a large tank filled with what would likely be every last drop of blood from at least thirty girls. To say it was horrific would be one of the greatest understatements in the history of mankind. Alek didn’t know that while he was travelling the world, Illyana was following in books. She had heard about the ritual and already decided against it. She couldn’t take the life or freedom from one person just to have her own.
“That is good to know…Though I should tell you…” Illyana had told Alek about her officially being a lesbian, but that was just sex. This was something much more intimate. “…I have thought about increasing my radiation field on purpose…frying the convoys that drop by to give me supplies…see if I could starve to death…”
“Illyana…”
“I have not seen another living soul…like…really seen, met them, and gotten to know them since I was sixteen and ‘volunteered’ by one of the government’s old Amot seers…I barely had my first kiss before that. I have never even felt another warm body pressed against mine.” Illyana hung her head. “I have not known any pleasure other than the kind I shamefully bring on myself…so please, go to this girl and tell her what a colossal ignorant jackass you are and that leaving her was the single biggest mistake you have made…which is actually saying something for you…”
“Hey…” Alek paused for a moment, thinking things over. He knew they both completely agreed on some of his massive mistakes, but this had to be the worst. Now, he was haunted by Lily. After all, she saved herself for him specifically, and he just used her and dumped her. He tried to ignore the fact that he was obsessed with her, but he knew it would just be a matter of time before he would be kicking himself over the whole thing. The worst part was that he had literally all eternity to dwell on this massive mistake.
“Just do not make it so poor Lily spends the rest of her life like me…with only fantasy to keep me warm at night and fulfill my desires.” Illyana finished the last bit of tea in her cup. She looked over at her antique grandfather clock. She was use to keep track of time for Alek. He had been ageless for so long that he could easily lose track of time if he wasn’t paying attention. “You said you had a train to catch a quarter past eleven, correct? If you leave now, you will get through decontamination with plenty of time to catch your train…”
“You know I do not mind rushing a bit for you.” Alek reassured her, but she just shook her head in response.
“If what I have heard is right and the Atalanta Republics are actually invading us, then our military will need you to show them the errors of their ways…” Illyana poured the last bit of tea out of her pot and took it off the ancient hot-plate she had underneath. It barely had enough for a full cup, but she lived by the ‘waste not, want not’ creed. “I know you ‘raise the dead’, but you really should try not to wait until they have built up a sufficient supply at the battlefield…”
“Alright, if that is how you want it…” Alek stood up and got his coat off the rack behind him. He dusted it off with a couple quick smacks. He put it on, quickly tugging the sleeves and collar to make it tight and neat. “I will be sure to send you any interesting medals the ARA soldiers have on them.”
“Look for their coins and guns as well…Since they stopped using silver for their coins, I cannot convince the importers that I plan to use them as jewelry any longer…As you can easily guess, I have fallen flat on my back when it comes to collecting…” Alek was going to ask why soldiers would have their own money on them in a foreign country, but let it go. It wouldn’t hurt anything to tell the soldiers to keep their eyes opened for things like that while they were burning the bodies of the soldiers.
He hated that they burned the bodies instead of sending them home to be buried. It was the government’s paranoia that prevented it from happening. They worried that if they were able to replicate the energy in Alek, the ARA could do the same after examining soldiers resurrected and controlled by Alek. They weren’t sure if it would lead to the ARA to making their own necromancer, or if it could help them develop a treatment to prevent him from controlling their own soldiers. They weren’t willing to take the chance either way.
“I will visit you again on the return trip, Illyana, so…”
“Do not waste your time…” Illyana pled with him. “While we both may have an eternity to waste, I know you have better things to do than keep me company…” She took out an ornate ivory pipe from a small chest next to her chair, tapping tobacco into it. It was a half-and-half blend of tobacco and marijuana. It didn’t get her high. It just numbed the pain from everything. It was far healthier than drinking away the pain, or at least that was how she viewed it. “Besides, the longer you stay away, the more you will have to tell me next time…”
“Alright…” Alek smirked slightly. “I will be able to spend more time with you in a month anyway. I am sure I will have the ARA retreating by then.”
“Cocky and sure as always…you never disappointment me, Alek.” Illyana watched as Alek walked off into her huge, dusty mansion without saying goodbye. Neither one would say it to the other. After all, neither could die, so it was definitely never the last time one would see the other.
Once Alek was completely gone from sight, Illyana slumped down into her chair. She no longer had to pretend to be strong and sure any more. She wasn’t willing to let the only person she could talk to think she was weak or depress him with her constant abysmal health. Alek knew she was hiding it, but let her play the game. Image was everything to Illyana.
Alek got to the train station with well over an hour to spare. The decontamination procedures were easy for him, just a change of clothes and a shower. Still, it gave him time to think. Once again, he wondered if it was truly impossible for them to make love. Since both were impossible to kill, he thought he might be able to build up his tolerance for her radiation. Maybe he wouldn’t even get burned after a while. More than likely, he wouldn’t be allowed to be with her. The government wouldn’t risk Alek being irradiated long term and not able to join the troops without making them sick. They would never want to give him more ‘troops’ that directly.
He knew he would have to vain like he was actually looking for Lily. He already decided he couldn’t damn her to a life with him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be pen-pals with her. He knew it would probably do him some good to have someone else he could talk to. Right now though, he was focused on reading his mission briefing for after the battle. A rich man had bought enough favors to borrow Alek’s services momentarily from the government. He hated doing stuff like this, bringing back the dead as false hope so the government could make a few cheap bucks.
Suddenly, he felt a familiar presence and looked up from his briefing. He saw her radiant face crushed with sadness and rage, but instantly knew who it was. He didn’t get to say her name before she slapped him with an incredible strength that left him reeling for a brief moment. He refocused in an instant, seeing Lily standing on her new prosthetic leg. Tears were pouring down her cheeks, forming waterfalls like she was a goddess, reforming the world with her sorrow.
“Lily…” Alek was relieved to see her again. The instant she was near, the part of him that was saying to spare her the torment of life with him instantly and permanently silenced by the rest of him. He didn’t regret it for a moment. “Lily, what is wrong?”
“I…I should hate you…so…so much right now…” Lily sobbed, trembling with rage that was dissipating into an unbelievable and euphoric joy that engulfed her whole body. “But no matter what…I will always love you, Alek Vanyusha…”
“I tried to deny it…but I love you as well, Lillian…Lillian…” Alek stopped, desperately trying to dig through his memory and to find Lily’s last name buried in the mines of his mind. He went through, atom by atom, scouring every resource he had, but turning up nothing. He stuttered for a second, but Lily didn’t let him spin his wheels for long.
“It was Lufian…and I did not tell you, because I am hoping it will be Vanyusha soon…” Lily sniffed, trying to stifle back her tears but to no avail. Alek put his arms around her, holding her close. She put her hand against his chest, her bad arm attempting to do the same. “I…I have something horrible to tell you…but you have to swear you will not hate me after I tell you…”
“I could NEVER hate you, Lily…” Alek assured her. After all, they were clearly fated to be together if they should just randomly run into each other again. He didn’t know that Aleksandra had told Lily where she needed to be to get to him again. It didn’t matter, though. He had fallen hopelessly in love with her the moment their eyes met again.
“Fine…just promise me that you will…still love me…after I…” Alek put a finger over her mouth to silence her. He didn’t like it, but it did stop her frightened rambling. It was still a far too dominating gesture for his liking.
“Lily…” was all Alek had to say to reassure her again. Lily knew he wasn’t the type to mince his words, and trusted him completely. She felt completely safe in his arms, like he could shield her from flames and Death herself. “What happened?”
“There was a slave girl…” Lily looked around, tears still showering from her eyes. She was scouting the area, realizing just how surrounded by the public they were. Alek didn’t go anywhere without attracting a cloud of people. It was the cost of being a hero, sacrificing any privacy he had in the public. “Can we…can we go somewhere…anywhere…other than…”
“Of course.” Alek swept Lily up into his arms, a grand heroic gesture he was used to making. If they weren’t the center of attention already, they certainly were now. Lily blushed a bright red, just glad to be this close to Alek. The embarrassment of everyone seeing her flaws, her freckles, and her missing leg as she looked like a helpless, lost little girl being carried off to her mother by the legendary hero was something she was willing to put up with for it.
Lily held nothing back when she told Alek about what happened. She could only hope that Alek wouldn’t deem her unworthy after everything that Aleksandra’s master did to her and made her do to buy Aleksandra’s freedom. It gave her unbelievable joy when, instead of casting her out like a leper, he suggested they ‘purify’ her by doing everything she and the master did and more.
After they had spent many countless hours enthralled in passion, they laid spent in bed. Alek kept his arms around Lily, holding her close. He didn’t want to hurt her, pretending to be exhausted to give her time to rest. The only thing that really sapped his strength was raising the dead. Even now, that was becoming less and less of a problem. Remembering to have limits, especially now with Lily, was the biggest problem he had faced in his memory. He could easily spend an eternity finding what solace he could in Lily’s body, a deadly truth for her.
Alek had watched her sleep on their train ride to battle for a few hours now, mesmerized by the gentle cresting and falling of her chest as she breathed. It kept him from drifting off into one of his waking dreams over night. He knew it was only a matter of time before they started again, though. His mind could handle the lack of sleep, but not the lack of dreams.
He took a deep breath, accidentally stirring Lily from her sleep. This was a happy accident at least. It told Alek that Lil was a reasonably light sleeper, and would prevent him from accidentally waking her up in the future.
“Morning…” She sighed a happy and contented sigh. Alek had promised her he would never leave her again, which to her meant they’d never be apart again. She rubbed up closer to him, wishing she could just melt into him. “Do you think we could…one last time…”
“We do not really have the time.” Lily was a little crestfallen to hear that news pass her ears. Alek rubbed her arm. “I do not want to rush things between us…I want every time to be glorious and legendary, not just a cheap thrill.”
“Alright…” Lily smiled. She did want every time she and Alek made love to be special and not just a way to kill time. She rubbed up against Alex again, deciding to just enjoy being close to him. “At least this train’s a LOT cleaner than that piece of crap train last time…”
“Being on that train was a run of bad luck for me until you came along, to be perfectly honest. I think that bastard purposefully arranged things so that I would be on his train AGAIN…” Alek shuttered slightly. Aleksandra’s master was obsessed with him to say the very least. Alek viewed it like her master had a school-girl crush on him. He wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to spy on him while he was taking showers. Now though, it was far beyond just a creepy thought in the back of his mind. Alek had to wonder how many of his previous lovers fell victim to him like Lily. Whether or not Aleksandra’s master had done the horrible crimes Alek imagined didn’t matter, though. He had to pay for what he did to Lily. It would only take pulling a few strings to see that the man was entirely broken and destitute before the end of the week. “Do you want him humbled or broken completely? Because I can do either.”
“Punishing him…” Lily took a deep breath and closed her eyes, not believing what she was about to say herself, “…will not change what he did to me…no matter how excessively you do punish him.” Lily rubbed her eyes, giving herself time to think. There were times to be calm and times to strike with the wrath of God. “I did volunteer for everything, after all…despite wanting with every inch of fiber of my being to have you be the only man I…knew in my lifetime…” Then, Lily remembered it. Her fury was ignited and in full force, crushing all the barriers of understanding and tolerance she had in her mind. “But…he RAPED Aleksandra…”
“So, what level do you…”
“Burn him to a CINDER!” Lily snapped. The rage felt good, giving into it feeling like submerging her whole being in a hot spring. It soothed a pain Lily had developing in the pit of her stomach since it happened, denying the rage that was slowly devouring her. “Be sure his slaves find good homes, though…Aleksandra said…said that he was using them as his personal brothel…”
“Unfortunately, most slave masters do…” Alek had always avoided buying slaves just for that reason. Having complete control over someone’s life was a seductive power to say the least. Many slave masters even used it to make more slaves to either sell or keep and start the process all over again. “I may have an idea…”
“What’s that?” Lily had to ask. She idolized Alek so anything he thought up clearly had to be brilliant. She waited on pins and needles to hear what he had to say.
“After I break the master, we can send his slaves to nunneries…” Alek heard the words leave his mouth and couldn’t believe he was saying them. Still, it was the only option and he knew it. “They might be able to heal them there…undo the horrible damage he has done to them…”
“That’s not too bad an idea…” Lily sighed, coming to the same conclusion Alek did. Nunneries were the only place they’d be safe from slavers looking to put them back in the market. It would definitely be hard for some to get use to the life, specifically the ones that were the master’s willing partners. Giving up all physical pleasures was a price both Alek and Lily would be willing to give up for freedom, but could they count on the slaves to do the same? “I hope you do not mind…but I set up Aleksandra with an expense account…like you gave me…using the authority you gave me when you…You get it…”
Lily always tended to ramble when she was confessing things she thought she would get in trouble for. It was actually what kept her out of trouble most of the time. She was too afraid she’d start confessing things that weren’t even related to what happened.
“That is fine.” Alek stretch slightly now that he didn’t have to worry about waking Lily up. He had lived with a severe pain in his legs since about four o’clock in the morning. “I have an unlimited account, after all. It could support Luxemburg with it without noticing.”
“That’s good.” Lily stopped when she realized she was using contractions, biting her lip. She realized she had to have picked up the habit from Aleksandra. She hoped that Alek had somehow managed to not notice, but he soon dashed that hope.
“Why are you shortening everything?” He had to ask. From what he had learned about Lily before, she was always very proper when she spoke. It had only been a couple days since he had left her. How could she have changed so much in so little time? Alek did realize he was exaggerating when he said she was shortening everything, though.
“I spent a LOT of time talking to Aleksandra…She’s a fascinating girl…and it does take a lot of the frustration out of saying ‘is’ every two seconds.” Lily sat up slightly. “I do not think it’s disrespectful, even if it is a ‘slave’ habit…I guess sort of a ‘if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me. She’s gone through all this hell…and somehow survived it…I think…now that she’s away from her master, she will be fine. She might even get to be happy one day…have a nice big family.”
“I thought you said you did not want children.” Alek had to say, worrying Lily was telling him whatever she thought he wanted to hear just to get to sleep with him. It wouldn’t be the first time he was tricked, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last.
“I do not, for me at least…” Lily smiled and shook her head slightly. “Did I not tell you about how I was adopted and wanted to adopt a child?”
“Oh, I remember now…” Alek got up out of bed, looking around for his clothes. He was sure he was going to be late because of Lily, but he didn’t care. She brought a spark of hope to what had been a bleak black life. To top things off, he knew the military would give him preferential treatment, not wanting to anger their secret weapon. As long as he arrived and won the battle, they’d be happy no matter how many casualties there were on their own side. “…though it is going to be a long time before I ever want a child. I have gotten use to the fact that I would never have a child of my own.”
“Do not worry too much.” Lily stretched out herself. She loved that Alek was one of only a few people she knew that didn’t look at her like she was insane when she stretched her bad leg and arm. No one stopped to think about the fact that what was left of both still had muscles in them. She was a little bothered by the fact that he seemed to be staring at her horrible scars. “I am still in that phase where kids annoy me more than anything…There are kids, then really bad colds, and then unforgiveable perverts as the top three things that bug me to death…”
“Well, you do not have to worry about catching colds from me. I cannot carry any sickness, fortunately.”
“Hey…” Lily had had enough. She couldn’t take Alek’s constant staring at her scars. “I get they are gross, but could you please stop staring at them…”
“They are not gross. They add to your beauty if they do anything…” Alek gently caressed her bad arm, leaning in and kissing the big disfiguring scar at her elbow. Lily was speechless. Most men had forced her to hide it in ridiculous ways. Her own father made her get what were basically socks to put over her knee and elbow. “You do not have to hide anything from me, Lily. Nothing about you could be foul or disgusting to me…”
“Alek…” Lily sighed and kissed Alek passionately. For a second, Alek was drunk with passion again, caressing her until the harsh reality of duty flashed into his mind. He pushed her away gently, seeing the same look of disbelief on her face that he knew had to be on his.
“After the battle, we will have plenty of time for love. It can be glorious and triumphant in victory…” Alek told Lily while telling himself the same thing. He didn’t have a single idea or decision made about what Lily was going to do during the battle. He didn’t want to risk Lily in any way, but knew she was too strong to listen to his pleas to stay behind in the nearest town or military base. The field hospital was far too grotesque a place to subject her to, but where else could she go? “I have my own barracks at the base nearest to the battle. If you do not mind waiting there, I could…”
“I could not stand to be that far away from you…Not during battle…” She sat up, finally not worrying about modesty any longer and letting her bed sheet covering her fall away. She didn’t care if Alek saw her anymore. She’d almost be willing to damn all modesty and walk around naked if that was what Alek wanted. “Besides, I have told you, I am a very good shot…”
“There is a difference between hunting animals and clay pigeons and taking a life, Lily…” Lily bit her lip and looked away, blushing ever so slightly. Alek knew something had to be haunting her, already learning the minor habits of her body. Lily didn’t bother trying to hold back what happened.
“I am…almost an old maid in my village. Most girls…get married as soon as their bodies start blossoming into full womanhood…”
“I am…familiar with that practice…” Alek didn’t mean to interrupt, the words just commanding their way out of his mind into the real world. It was worse in his day, girls married off at ten or eleven tended to dominate the society. They spent the next few years as what most people would consider house slaves, learning exactly what their husbands expected of them. They wouldn’t consummate the marriage until usually the fourteenth birthday, which would actually signal that the rough times for the wife were over. Alek couldn’t help but remember that if it weren’t for Matryona’s angelic singing voice, she would have been married for four or so years when she finally came back into his life.
“I told you that no one wanted a cripple for a wife…Well, that was not completely true…” Lily didn’t like to cry in front of Alek, but she couldn’t stop a small trickle of tears coming out of her eyes briefly. “There was a wretched man…one of the local policemen, actually…who always just had all of their horrible acne sores on his face and all this dry and almost like…blistered skin under his stubble…and he was easily three times my age. My parents tried to make me like him, since he was the only man in town to show any interest in me at all. Well, I finally completely rebuked him…and he…he was not going to take no for an answer…He started trying to force himself on me…He tackled me and was sitting on my legs…and started ripping off my clothes…threatening me with a knife that if I did not give him the key to my chastity belt, he would slit my throat…I panicked…and…and grabbed the pistol off his belt and emptied it into him…and a few imaginary bullets after that…I almost think killing him was worse…worse than letting him rape me…”
“Do NOT think like that!” Alek snapped, walking back over to her with his uniform on perfectly. He had put it on so often that he could put it on more precisely than a general in his sleep, not that Alek had to sleep, of course. “The ONLY thing you should regret was that you did not give that son of a whore a slower and more agonizing death.”
“Thank you…” Lily kissed Alek. “You have no idea…how much…” she had to stop talking for a minute, fighting back her tears, “…how much that has haunted me and how…how my parents…” Lily couldn’t control her tears anymore, starting to cry uncontrollably. Alek embraced her, letting her bury her face in his chest for a moment. “My parents told me if I had just accepted his proposal…he would not have attacked me and I would not…would not have had to kill him…My father went into a rage because of the whole thing…would not let me leave the house for months…”
“Do not worry. Everything is going to be alright…” He rubbed her back slightly to try to calm her down. He stopped when he realized that it was what his mother did for him when he was a toddler. He decided to just hold her close for a minute until she was calm. “Trust me when I say time heals all wounds. Someday, you will look back and think to yourself ‘how did I survive this?’, but it will not haunt you like it does now.”
“I can only hope that you are right…”
The Necromancer - Ch. 1
Most people don’t realize what a brief and serene gift a happy, beautiful and calm life truly is. They divide their past by the wars, but always view the current as a calm, mirror smooth pond. A utopian future was a blind fantasy whether people would admit it to themselves or not. Newlyweds almost believed that their love would protect them from the evils of reality.
One couple dared to believe it was true for them. Since they met each other, they seemed capable of repelling any misfortune that blundered into their way. They lived in a relatively small village in their massive nation, but it was still on the cutting edge of technology. That wasn’t saying much for the technology of the time, though.
The newlyweds were riding a steam-powered horseless carriage lent to them by the kindly resident millionaire of the village. It was massive, almost the full length of a locomotive engine, with massive ornate brass wheels that stretched more than twice the height of the tallest man in the village. The machine didn’t go very fast, crawling along like a paddle boat on the ground, but it didn’t matter. Speed wasn’t the key. The crawler had a romantic, almost fairytale look to it. Its boiler looked like a massive metal pumpkin. It had curved railings that bowed and flowed in waves around the golden and silver land ship. The couple sat on a bed covered with flower petals sprinkled across it.
The wife’s dress was pure white, embroidered with intricate floral patterns over the whole surface. It was complicated and done by hand, her mother and sisters working on it around the clock for months. It was very tight, a corset holding her form in a perfect hourglass shape. The intricate pattern made the dress very stiff, making it even harder for her to breathe. She was fine with it, though, wanting to look absolutely perfect. Her skin was alabaster smooth and ivory pale. Her natural beauty shone without the slightest bit of makeup. She didn’t have to fight to control her hair. It lay perfectly smooth and shone like strands of gold. She had a vale down over her face, her eyes cast down in solemn thoughts of her future. She couldn’t help but smile, all her wishes for the day coming true.
Her husband sat next to her on the bed. He was wearing a flat-black suit. It was a fine suit, though nowhere near the exceedingly superb quality of his wife’s dress. He didn’t care, it was her day. He spent every dollar he had saved since he was a little boy to make the day perfect for her. He had loved her since they were both children. He had even put far more effort into his appeared, shaving far more carefully than he had before. He couldn’t have a single knick on his face today, no matter how small. He treated his black hair so that it was smooth and had a slight sheen to it. He combed his hair so that it wouldn’t block his brilliant blue eyes.
He could barely keep his hands off his beautiful bride. He raised her vale and kissed her delicious red lips when the driver wasn’t looking. His bride blushed a bright red, a burning cherry that covered almost her entire face. It was only the second time he had ever kissed her, and the first since the ceremony. She sighed as he put his hand on her hip, holding her close to him. She turned to him, putting her hands against his chest.
“Alek…” She whispered with her quietest voice. “Can’t you wait until we’re alone?” Her voice was lyrical and beautiful, despite the harsh guttural sounds of their native language. She was almost the exact opposite of her blacksmith husband, whose voice couldn’t help but bark out his thoughts. Her name was Matryona, and she was a famous opera singer legendary for her angelic voice. She was famous around the world, singing for world leaders and millionaires. She was quite rich herself, stunning everyone when she announced she was going to marry a lowly blacksmith. Even Alek was more than a little surprised.
Matryona was easily rich and beautiful enough and travelled the world enough that she could literally have her choice of any man on the planet, yet she chose Alek. They knew each other from kids and had always had secret crushes on each other for years. Despite being apart from each other for years, neither of them had forgotten the other.
One day, a horse with a thrown shoe at the exact right moment in a tour brought them back together. Alek was still surprised he had the courage to even speak to her again, little-lone confess his undying love for her. He could swear he felt his heart stop for a second when she told him she felt the same way back. She had even kept herself chaste since they last saw each other just for him, on the miraculous chance that they might meet one day. They were both young, still in their teens, just barely in Alek’s case though Matryona was just cresting her mid-teen years.
“Promise me that I’m really awake.” Alek always asked himself if he was dreaming. There was no way in his mind that a beautiful goddess would choose to be with a grungy, dirty blacksmith instead of a prince. He kept his hand on her just to make sure she wasn’t just some illusion that would disappear with a wrongly timed blink. He went to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she turned away slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“The Great War…” Matryona cast her eyes down in solemn respect of the event. It was an alliance of two ‘medium-level’ nations, Duchard and Hayabusa, that suddenly made incredible and almost impossible leaps and bounds militarily. Their power seemed unholy, like it was causing the world to hemorrhage just from its mere existence. It was enough to make their home country, Rusinova, cooperate and fight alongside their long time mortal enemy, the Atalanta Republics Alliance. They had been at each other’s throats since Atalanta Republics broke off from Albion. It was horrible, causing the peoples of the world to have unspeakable nightmares.
“On my way back from my last tour, we passed through a battleground…It was horrible…Dead farther than my eyes could see…Except for one man…He was older than us…probably older than both of us together…” Matryona looked down, biting her thumb. There was something about the battles, seeing them or passing by felt like it was scarring the soul. Innocent and naïve souls like Matryona were especially damaged, like putting too much stress on a beautiful glass sculpture. “He was the only person on the entire battlefield still alive…His ribs were split open. I could see…inside of him…his beating heart getting slower and…and…and he was begging for us to kill him...”
“Matry…” Alek tried to calm her down, every word getting harder and harder for her to say. Every syllable was making her slowly rattle apart at her seams. He caressed her hip, trying to calm her down. “…do not worry about it…even if he died, he is in a better place…”
“It is not that he died…” Matryona bit her thumb too hard, causing a small trickle of blood to drip onto her pure white dress. She started to cry, wishing she could do something to undo her mistake. She wanted her wedding dress to go down her family, to all her daughters as far as it’d last. Now it was going to be stained because of her bad habit, advertising it to the world. “He was in such bad shape that I…I asked if Basil would not…would not mind doing him the favor of…of…” She turned, burying her face in his chest. “I am sorry…I should not be so sad on our wedding day…but I…I might as well have killed him myself…”
“I have seen men like that before…” Alek spoke quietly, trying to keep her at ease. He carefully took the hand whose thumb she bit. He tore off a small piece of his sleeve, carefully bandaging her thumb to keep her from bleeding on her dress anymore. He knew how important her wedding was in her mind. She had dreamt of this day since they were five, having small little ceremonies with her dolls at every opportunity. Alek had to help her fix a carriage for her newlywed teddy-bear couple. She hugged him and gave him a smile he could never forget, even if he wanted to. He kissed her on the cheek, just a quick, reassuring peck. “…It is doing them a favor. Even if you got him to a doctor, he would just be miserable and wishing he could die, even as the doctors did everything they could to save him…”
“I love you, Alek…” Matryona kissed Alek, the first kiss she had initiated between them. She smiled and blushed, feeling like she may have pushed the kiss far harder than she should of. Her mother always told her to be dainty at all times, and kissing Alek like that didn’t seem dainty. She scooted an inch or so away from Alek to try to be proper. Alek pulled her back, kissing her on the neck. Matryona blushed across her entire body; face, neck, shoulders and all. “Alek, stop…I…I cannot breathe…”
“Do not worry. He cannot see us…” He reassured her, kissing her on the shoulder. There was a large half-dome to act as a blinder. She trembled, pushing him away again. She hated to do it, but it was necessary. She reached for the fine buttons on the back of her dress. “Oh god, I should have been paying more attention…” He helped her carefully unbutton the back of her dress. As soon as he had enough undone, Matryona gasped for breath. “I am so sorry…”
“No harm done…” She took a deep breath. Smiling, she tugged at the long necklace she had around her neck, pulling a small key from its hiding spot in her dress. She closed her hand around it, giving it to Alek. “Do you know what this is?”
“Yes.” Alek nodded, taking it into his hands like the treasure it was. “…It is the key to your chastity belt.”
“…The key to my chastity belt, though I only wore it for tradition’s sake…” Matryona looked down at Alek slightly. “I did not need it…I have known from the first second I saw you that you were to be my husband…and I never doubted it…”
“I wonder every day what I did to earn the love of such an honest and beautiful woman like you…” He kissed her, laying her on her back. He kissed her on her neck, gently caressing her hips. “…and I would be lying if I said I have not been thinking about this moment for a long time…”
“Then let us not delay it a single moment longer…” Matryona whispered, guiding his hands up under her dress. They had to make love their first time on the bed the local priestesses blessed. It would ensure their long and happy marriage together, and that all their children would be healthy and successful their whole lives. It was the reason the vehicle also had a blinder as well, to keep their love from the driver. Matryona giggled with the joy of anticipation as she heard the lock pop open, but her joy seemed frozen in that moment forever.
A great shadow engulfed the entire vehicle, eclipsing the sun. They both gasped, seeing a giant alien monstrosity hovering hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air. They could barely comprehend what it was. A more foreign object had never entered their lives. Matryona looked up at it with stunned amazement, but every fiber of Alek’s being yelled bloody murder. Both knew it was man-made, but couldn’t understand how. Suddenly, a cluster of metal tears rained out of the bottom of the craft. They whistled and screamed like demons as they fell out of the sky.
Alek ‘woke up’ on a train that reeked of coal dust from its foul fuel. Alek was unable to sleep as mortals understood it. He had to close his eyes and pretend to sleep as he once did, imagining comforting dreams. He didn’t even remember if that was what really happened, his dreams being flow-of-thought memories, the small details slowly being blended together like all the colors of the spectrum becoming white light. Was Matryona even the woman he married that day? How many ‘Matryona’s had gone through his life? Three? A dozen? A thousand? He could no longer be sure.
He couldn’t even relate to time any longer. The years no longer marked his development, but rather the decay of the universe around him. His national alignment never changed, though his uniform had evolved over the years. It was now a smooth black with deep blue piping around the edges. It was incredibly intricate, with two columns of buttons. It kept him warm in the bitter winters of his homeland, though warmth and cold didn’t mean much to him anymore. It couldn’t do any last damage to him. He could break through the ice on a frozen lake and casually stroll to shore or even sit in the center and wait for the ice to melt come a distant spring.
Alek’s government wouldn’t allow him such leisure, though. He had followed through with his plan once, burying himself alive to see if he could convince his body to die. He remembered the embrace of the infinite dark for an all too brief eon before waking up in a lab. It had the undesired consequence of the government trying to replicate him, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Alek befriended many of them, mainly because he was often the only human contact any of them had outside of doctors.
As the monotonous grind of the train ride continued, Alek didn’t pay enough attention to feel it come to a stop. It was a small town, with no one of importance by the government’s standards, used as a refueling station. Alek tried not to notice towns like this, where its value was measured by its location and function, not by the number of people in it. The people in it only mattered when they were drafted into the military, a reminder that no one could truly escape war. Rusinova’s habit to grab any man capable of merely holding a rifle to go to war had cost them dearly once in recent memory. A man who became famous as a technomancer had defected to the Atalanta Republics, giving them a great technological advantage.
Alek didn’t notice the train’s stop until it started again, jostling him slightly. He had been reading a rather lengthy book, doing his best to stay focused on it rather than the thin layer of soot that covered almost everything on the train. It was a history book, going over the Great War. It romanticized his role in the war, over valuing it and making his own abilities far more miraculous. Everyone heard that he was the great necromancer, able to bring the dead back to life, but that was oversimplifying it. It was far more complicated than that.
A knock on his door kept him from getting any farther into the fairy tale book. It was a gingerly knock instead of a pound, a clear sign of a woman at the other side of the heavy wooden door. Men always hit the door like they were almost trying to break the door down to announce themselves. It was almost like they were trying to intimidate him to make him less likely to intimidate them back. Women were often shy of him, worried that they might anger him. It was the unfortunate fact that got worse and worse as time went on.
Because there was likely a woman on the other side of the door, he decided to open the door himself. He put a handkerchief down so the book had a clean resting place and went to the door. He was use to the doors on train sliding into the wall, but this one was out of date, swinging into the room. He dodged its filthy edges, but was stunned into letting it hit his shoulder by the striking woman on the other side.
She was slightly taller than most women, though still shorter than most men, and possibly only a year older than Matryona was. She had golden brown hair, making it impossible to tell if it was blond or brown. Her eyes were deep blue that he could stare into for years and never see the bottom. Her dress wasn’t very striking, not horribly elegant, but likely the best a commoner girl like her could afford. It had no design on it, not even dyed onto it. It was a light blue fabric across the entire thing, with very little intentional variance to it. Still, that was barely noticeable compared to the girl’s most striking feature.
The girl was missing both her left leg about halfway up between her knee and hip and left arm shortly after her shoulder. He recognized the scars from it. He would have likely suffered the same amputations if not for his gifts and a certain amount of luck. The poor girl hadn’t had the same luck, though she did have to be almost invincible to not die from infection afterward. The pain from the surgery alone would have driven a lesser woman insane, especially since a common family could never afford anesthesia and no doctor was likely to donate any. Even using alcohol wasn’t likely available with a commoner’s budget, and would have been dangerous anyway, risking alcohol poisoning on top of blood loss. She probably had a leather strap to keep her from biting through her tongue and a hand to hold, but that was likely it.
“May I come in, my lord?” She asked in a slightly timid voice. Alek nodded, doing his best to help her walk though she barely needed it. Even though her crutch was rough and obviously cobbled together from whatever her family had on hand, she still managed to get around rather easily. He took his coat off and put it on the sofa for her to have something clean to sit on. A beauty like her shouldn’t have to wallow in filth. “Thank you, my lord…”
“You do not have to call me ‘my lord’.” Alek did his best to not sound intimidating, as he usually spoke in a dark and gravelly voice. He did his best to smooth it out, giving the effect of a calmed storm. “Despite what I have done, I am no better than you, so treat me like…”
“With all due respect…” She looked down at the ground, blushing brightly. Her healthy and ever-so-slightly tanned skin seemed to blush the perfect amount for her. She gathered her courage briefly. “I owe you the honor of calling you my lord…I am honored to just…look upon you one more time if nothing else…but I was hoping you would do me the honor of…”
“Look, Miss…” Alek knew where things were going with the girl. It was far from the first time virgins from the cities he went through offered themselves to him. It was a novelty at first, a perk of the job. Soon, it got tiring and he began preferring girls with more experience. It was more enjoyable for all parties involved.
“Lillian, but you can call me Lily…” Lily spoke incredibly timidly, her voice trembling from the beating of her heart in her throat. She couldn’t believe she actually had the guts to talk to Alek. She was a mere mortal after all, and he was the stuff of legend. She wasn’t even sure if she could look directly upon him without bursting into flames. “I am not insulted that you do not remember me…I am sure you saved far more lives than just mine…”
“I saved your life?” Alek had to ask. It was impossible to remember everyone he saved, especially since his ‘unit’ would save countless people before. Still, he was sure he’d remember saving a girl as beautiful as Lily was.
“Yes…” Lily rubbed the stump of her left arm. “It is how I became so injured…and I remember it like it was just yesterday…”
“It was about eight years ago in another three months…I was eight, and I remember the exact day. You came to our village to perform one of your miracles for the mayor whose third wife had died in childbirth. Unfortunately, we were close to the border with the Atalanta Republics…and they must have heard you were coming, because they launched a vicious barrage against us…
“My house was the first one hit…It was our ancestral home, made of thick but weak mud bricks…I was playing with my little sister Anya up in her room when were heard the first blasts. It sounded like distant thunder and it was dreary cloudy day and I would have given the sound to the clouds…except for the lack of lightning…
“The…the horrible concussion…The roof and the rooms were burning, the outside walls crumbling like brimstone…It threw Anya like one of her rag dolls…and knocked me to the ground…I should say, it knocked me to the floor and then the ground as the wooden floor splintered and gave out under me…The whole house was starting to burn and fall apart…I could hear my mother and father screaming outside…My mom’s voice popped and gave out…and I was about to give out myself…I couldn’t move…my left arm and leg were mangled really badly…I…I wanted to die, to completely give in so I wouldn’t have to bear the pain anymore…but that’s when I heard your voice…
“You rushed into my burning house to save me, with no care about your own safety…You put your coat around me and carried me out to my mother…As I recall, you were severely burned…but it did not stop you from holding my hand while they…they cut off my arm and leg…” Lily took a deep breath, doing her best not to cry in front of Alek. She remembered Anya. She was far younger than her, only two at the time she was killed. Lily’s name was actually her first word. “I am sorry…It is very hard to talk about my childhood…and…and no one in my village…no one in my village wants to take a cripple as a wife…but that is alright…I live for you.”
“Look, Lily…” Alek realized he had to handle the situation with more delicacy than he usually did. Other girls he could just tell to get lost, and they might go crying home, but there was usually someone waiting for them. Lily had gotten on the train at the last stop, clearly thinking there was no chance of rejection. Lily probably had nothing to go home to. “You are a beautiful…gorgeous young woman, and I am sure you have a long, happy life ahead of you…”
Alek had realized why he didn’t remember Lily now. Times where he was put in severe pain sunk into the recesses of his mind. It created the damnedest loses in his memory, but it did serve a purpose. No matter what, his wounds would eventually heal and not scar, and the rapid healing to do it was mind-numbingly painful. If nothing else, it made him forget the horrible pain of his existence.
“…You would not be happy with me.” He looked into her eyes, wondering how much of his real story she knew, and how much she was going off just his legend. “I will live far beyond the time you die…and I will hardly age a small handful of years for your entire lifespan…”
“I do not mind that.” Lily spoke honestly. She could actually see many advantages of Alek staying the same age for the rest of her life. He’d always be capable to defend her, and wouldn’t suffer any of the failings of getting older himself. Or would he? Do minds fail because of the brain aging and wearing out, or is it that they get filled beyond capacity and give way? If the latter was the case, he’d fail as he got ‘older’ too. Lily still wanted to be with him no matter what. “I’m actually a very good shot with a pistol…and if I have a stand, I can…can shoot a rifle very well.”
“Lily, you could never live a full life with me.” Alek decided to be honest with Lily, tell her a few things he had told anyone before. “You understand that when I ‘resurrect’ a being, I do not honestly give it new life, right?”
“Yes.” Lily nodded with a little smile. “I remember you saying that it was only God or the universe that could truly give things life in an interview you did…But the people you resurrect…”
“The problem is I cannot create life. Period.” Alek tried not to yell at her, just wanting to spare her feelings. “I can NEVER give you a child, healthy or otherwise.”
“I do not want children…I could not stand to be pregnant. I would go insane.” Lily spoke honestly and didn’t hesitate. She could only imagine how hard it would be on her leg to carry the whole weight of her pregnancy. It’d be even worse if she had to be wheelchair bound for the last few months. Then she would be risking her leg atrophying and a long hard recovery while trying to keep up with her new baby. “I do not think it would ever be a problem…Truth be told, I was adopted…so I know what good it can do and would love to give a child a chance for a far better life.”
“I can still not force you to live the life I do, my dear. I have no home, I never stop moving. If I am not going to a battle, I am on the way to another job either ordered by my superiors or as part of my mercenary work.”
“Why do you have to bear it alone?” Lily had to honestly ask. No one in her mind needed to be alone, and though she could easily understand the want to be alone temporarily, no one should want to bear eternity alone. This seemed to be literally the case for Alek. After all, he had barely aged a day since she had seen him last. “If I cannot convince you that we are kindred spirits, please take whatever comfort you can find in my body as a sign of my eternal gratitude to you…so you will know you never HAVE to be alone…”
“Lily…” Alek whispered to her. He ran his fingers through her wavy hair slightly, finally just giving into his desires for her. She reminded him so much of Matryona, both equally beautiful in his eyes. Still, he’d try to focus on her and not Matryona, feeling that he owed an innocent and pure beauty like her his full attention. Lily closed her eyes, almost like she was afraid that if she watched her first kiss she’d be blinded by its radiance. It was her first kiss and she couldn’t have been happier with it. She didn’t fumble with it at all like she had worried.
Alek carried her to the bed he had further back in the car. He had the whole car to himself. It was to provide him unmolested privacy, though now it was making it intimately isolated from the rest of the world. His bed sheets were the only thing without even a hint of coal dust on them, which was a small miracle due to their softness and pure white color. Alek carefully put Lily down on the bed, being needlessly careful with her. Lily didn’t mind, glad someone treated her like a woman for a change.
Alek ran his hands down her hips as he kissed her over and over, like he was trying to memorize even the slightest curve in her body. It had the added bonus that it distracted him from the age difference between him and her. He was old enough that he could be her father, maybe even grandfather if parentage was rushed. He kissed her neck and shoulder as he slowly unbuttoned the back of her dress. Lily smiled and blushed as he slowly slid it down her body, revealing her pure white bra and simple, undecorated chastity belt.
Chastity belts had fallen out of style for a while, only really coming into play when a woman swore that she’d be strictly devoted to a man. Unfortunately, they had fallen into use again after soldiers, both foreign and domestic, had begun raping women in the nation’s remote villages where they’re superiors would hopefully never hear about it. Often, if an ARA general found out about one of his men committing this atrocity, he’d sentence him to a firing squad. If a Rusinova general found out about it, he would often view it as the least the village could do in return for their protection. That is, unless it was someone of importance.
Alek took a moment to take in Lily’s beauty. There was nothing particularly large about Lily’s body. Her bra was simple and pure white, hugging her freckled bosom ever so gently. He caressed it, feeling that it was just as smooth as her perfect skin. For a second, he wondered why it had a small zipper in front, forgetting that Lily had only one hand. He was too focused on what was so perfect about her body, ignoring what were relatively minor flaws she could do nothing about anyway. He slipped her bra off her, finding the key in the strap across her back. It was small and barely noticeable in the hope that anyone not knowing it was there would look it over without a second thought.
As Alek slipped the key into the small lock on Lily’s hip, she started fumbling with the buttons on his shirt to get them undone. The whole thing was making Lily’s entire body dewy with sweat. Beads of sweat made small little paths across her chest, revealing a secret she was trying to hide with makeup. Alek stopped, running his fingers over it slightly to reveal it more clearly.
“Lily…” Alek spoke calmly, not over-reacting to the situation. “What is this?”
“…I was trying to hide my freckles…” Alek handed her a handkerchief out of his pocket. She rubbed the makeup off her chest, shoulders, and face. She had far more than just a few random spots like it looked before, revealing she was speckled with clouds of freckles. “I am really sorry…I know they are hideous…but I cannot hold a parasol and my crutch at the same time, so whenever I went outside…”
“It is alright…” Alek rubbed a little bit of makeup she missed off her cheek with his thumb. He knew the stigma attached to having freckles. It meant that you were poor and had to work in a field all day, from the first fingers of sun in the sky until the last sliver of the sun disappeared over the horizon. It was far worse for women, meaning they were too slow to do proper woman’s jobs. Being crippled just made things worse, telling the world even the jobs she could do despite everything, she couldn’t do well. “You are beautiful despite any of your small flaws…”
“Alek…” Lily whispered in an almost silent hush, guiding his hand back to the lock. The lock popped and the whole thing fell away from her body. She kissed him and started trying to unbutton his shirt. Alek kissed her along her newly revealed freckles and started helping her unbutton everything.
Even though it was just after noon when Lily came to meet Alek, they made love well into the night. Alek had almost infinite stamina, which he could easily forget. Outside of the hunger, Lily didn’t mind. She wanted to remember what it felt like to be so close to Alek at all times. It was all she had wanted for almost as long as she could remember, and it was everything she dreamed it would be.
Alek didn’t need sleep, taking the opportunity to watch Lily sleep in her utter contentment. Her skin was glowing slightly in the pale moon light. He didn’t think it was possible, but she was actually smiling ever so slightly in her sleep. He gently brushed a few stray hairs aside on her face and gave her a faint kiss on the cheek. He didn’t want to accidentally wake her up, but he couldn’t help it. He also couldn’t help but think of the kind of life she’d have with him. It might seem relatively easy at first, but Lily would soon find he was mostly emotionally dead inside. She may have managed to briefly reignite what was left of his emotions, but that would soon go out. It always did. Could he crush her life with his drab, dead soul for simple physical pleasure?
Lily woke up late into the day, her hunger making harder to sleep than the sun. Sleeping in Alek’s bed was the most comfortable night of sleep she had had since she was a child. However, there was one fact she couldn’t ignore; though she had spent the whole night with Alek’s arm around her, he was nowhere to be found now. She hoped he would be to help her get redressed. It took forever for her to do it on her own.
“Mhmmm…” She moaned slightly, stretching between the bed sheets. They were unbelievably soft, something that a man in Alek’s position could easily request. Still, Lily didn’t know that anyone in Rusinova could make something so perfect. That’s when she saw the tag. They were made in the Atalanta Republics, making them highly illegal contraband. Alek could easily get away with such a thing, though.
“Mistress…” A young girl’s voice echoed in from the doorway. Lily quickly pulled the sheet around herself to get covered up. The girl, wearing the plain and lightly dirty clothes of a maid, giggled, covering her mouth to try to avoid any insult to Lily. “Don’t worry, Mistress…I’ve seen far worse sights than your modest nudity…”
“Does…Master Alek get a lot of women through here?” Lily had to ask. It was driving her insane whether or not her giving her virginity to him would mean anything in the long run or not. Would she be just another notch on his belt, or a fond memory he’d hold close to his heart?
“He’s quite…popular, if that’s what you’re asking…” The maid spoke in contractions, confusing Lily ever so slightly. It wasn’t proper for people to talk like that. It was supposedly a lazy way to talk, demeaning both the talker and the listener. “He even gave me my first kiss…”
“…but you are…what? Thirteen?” The girl blushed, making Lily worry for a second that she had accidentally insulted her. Lily herself was familiar with the bitter sting of people guessing her age to be far under reality. The older women in her life told her to take it as a compliment, to view it as lucky that they guessed younger instead of older, but they didn’t understand the bitter sting of being told they still looked like a child.
“Yes…” the maid’s admittance of her real age put Lily back at ease, though it made her wonder if Alek preferred younger girls over women his own age briefly. “It was only a…brotherly kiss on the forehead, but it meant a lot to me…Usually all I get is a taste of a boot or worse…Far, far worse…”
“Like what, dear?” Lily had to ask, sitting up in bed but wearing the white bed sheet like a toga. She was doing her best to hide both her bad arm and her bad leg from her, but it was useless to try to hide something that big.
“My…owner makes me…service senators, generals…people of importance that prefer little girls like…like me…” The maid started crying and trembling, something Lily recognized from herself. She was trying to convey a pain that was beyond all reason and words. “If you wanted, I would…I would be forced to…to…”
“Oh, come here…” Lily put her good arm out to the maid, hugging her and holding her close. She would let her cry as long as she needed to comfort her. She rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. “It…it may take me a long time, but I will find a way to save you from this, alright? You just…you just have to hold on, and I will save you from this…I swear…”
“But you…but you don’t even know my name…” The maid wept out through her tears. Her voice was cracking and popping, making her even harder to understand on top of her use of contractions. Still, Lily assumed she got the gist of what she said. “I can see why Master Alek loves you so much.”
“Not to call you a fool…but if he loved me, why would he leave me?” The maid looked down and blushed again slightly. “Do not tell me this is all…just a…just a HUGE misunderstanding…”
“No, he did leave you…early in the morning…” She cleared her throat, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a waxed-sealed envelope from her pocket that was slightly dirty from her work. Lily didn’t mind, just glad that she got it. It had Alek’s symbol pressed into the wax. It was called his ‘omen’, a strange circle that would appear on the ground around him when he raised the dead. It was an arcane circle, made of swoops and curves. It was strange, causing fear like a natural reflex almost like an ancient fear, but eventually people could teach themselves to like it. “This is for you…”
“Thank you…” Lily turned away from her slightly in case her sheet-toga fell away from her while she read the letter. She opened it slowly and carefully, trying to preserve the seal. It was a futile effort, the wax stamp dissolving into dust from the mere act of opening, to prevent someone else from reading the letter and resealing it afterwards.
‘Dear Lily,
I am sorry I have to leave you, but it is just a fact of my existence. I age so slowly that it is almost non-existent, so while you could spend the rest of your days with me, I would not be able to spend the rest of my days with you. No matter how much I tried, even if I tried to kill myself to join you in death, it would be futile. I could not bear to see you decay with age, and so I have taken the coward’s route and left you. Still, I want to know you are safe and sheltered from the horrors that surround all of us, so I have arranged it so you have access to the nigh-infinite resources the government allows me. Absolutely anything you want will be yours, as long as it is not me.
Know that I will never be able to forget you,
Alek Vanyusha
P.S. – I could not help but measure you for a prosthetic leg while you were sleeping. Fortunately, from my life at a blacksmith, I am an expert at measuring to within a half-millimeter with no tools. The finest prosthetic leg producible will be waiting for you in the train’s next stop. I hope it will make your life that much easier.
“So he decided for both of us that we should not be together?” Lily trembled, not sure if she was going to cry and sink into a deep depression or scream and rage until reality itself collapsed around her. Neither would bring Alek back into her life. “The arrogance of that man…”
“It is not arrogance, Mistress…” The maid sat down on the bed next to her, straightening the heavy, cheap material her dress was made out of. It made burlap look like silk in comparison, but it kept her warm in the bitter winters. “Master Alek could have had me as a great-granddaughter if he could have children…He would be able to watch his wife, their child, then their children, and even me wither and die of old age before even hitting thirty…I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t bear eternity like that, so whatever it takes for him to ease his passage…”
“I know you are right, but…”
“That doesn’t make it any easier…” The maid finished Lily’s sentence for her. When you’re the only person in the world that doesn’t slowly shuffle along the mortal coil, you’d want to distance yourself as far as possible from those that did. “It’s a good sign that he cares about you. He’s never shown concern with anyone else outside of a one night stand…Maybe you’re fated to be together…”
“I guess I will know if I find him again…” Lily was morose about the whole thing. She hadn’t been this depressed about a boyfriend since she was a little girl and gave a boy a flower just to have him stomp on it. It dashed out her hope for him and most boys for quite some time. Alek was the first man in years Lily had feelings for.
“I’m sure you’ll meet him again…” The maid turned away from her slightly to give her some privacy. “I’ve always wanted to see Antosha…this time of year….the twentieth is supposed to be the very best day of the year…”
“Ah…” Lily got what she was saying. With Alek’s resources at her disposal, she could follow him forever if that’s what it took. She’d either convince him to be with her or follow him until she died. It was the commitment she’d be willing to make. “This might be a little awkward…but can you help me get dressed?”
“It’s not a problem, Mistress.” The maid spoke with a smile. She honestly didn’t mind helping people like Lily, who genuinely needed help. Lily was so kind to her, talking to her and letting her talk back without being constantly told when she could and couldn’t speak.
“You do not have to call me that…” Lily said getting tired of being called mistress. She was far too young for the formal meaning, and didn’t want to be anywhere near the slang meaning. She put her right hand out to the maid for a handshake, making her worry for a second that Lily would hit her. “My name is Lily Lufian. Pleased to meet you, Miss…?”
“Aleksandra Rochenko…” The maid blushed after she said her name, telling Lily she was embarrassed by it. She didn’t know why. It sounded like a perfectly fine name to her. “As you can guess…I was named after Master Alek…and my last name is my…master’s last name.” She spoke with a sigh. She was bought when she was very young. There was no way for her to know what her last name was, just that money was more important to her parents than her. That may not have been the case, she may have been an orphan or her parents may have sold her into slavery rather than have them all starve to death.
“How much does your master give you to live on?” Lily had to ask. The State had preferred to not call it slavery, saying it was just ‘indentured servitude’. It wasn’t true slavery in that they were required to provide more than just room and board, but most slave owners found ways around it. Many who owned female slaves and had daughters would spend the money on their daughters, spending it on clothes that were too big or too little for their slaves ‘unintentionally’ and clothing the slaves with whatever they had. It was likely the reason Aleksandra was wearing the burlap type material.
“One hundred rupees…” Aleksandra whispered in shame. She couldn’t stand having such a cheap owner. The only reason her dress didn’t say potatoes or turnips across it was they had sewn it so the labels would be on the inside.
“One hundred rupees a month? That is not too bad, but I get why you are…”
“A…a year…” Aleksandra stuttered out. Lily went slack-jawed at the news. It would be insane to expect someone to live on that small of a budget. At less than ten rupees a month, it was easy to understand why Aleksandra was such a waif. She almost looked like a stiff wind of any strength would send her tumbling across the plains like a leaf. “I think the only reason…he doesn’t let me starve to death…is he likes me…likes me better…than his wife…”
“That is IT!” Lily shouted at the top of her lungs, almost completely blind with rage. Aleksandra’s voice told Lily everything she needed to know. It seemed like everything in Aleksandra’s life was forcing her into sin and debauchery. It had to end. “Is your Master on this train?”
“Yes…He always travels with me…and especially when Master Alek rides as well…” Aleksandra sighed and trembled, trying not to collapse in a crying heap. Her Master never travelled with his wife specifically so he could have access to her. He treated her relatively nice, far better than the rest of his slaves, until she turned thirteen. Once she was thirteen, though, things changed.
Her Master revealed he had barely been able to contain himself while she was growing up. Now, she had hit that ‘magic age’ where she was fair game. Given the choice between reenacting all of his sick pleasures and being starved and worked to death, the only decision was obvious. Aleksandra could barely live with herself afterward. She’d have gladly killed herself to spare herself the shame and pain of her everyday life if suicide wasn’t one of the unforgivable sins of her religion.
“His car’s the furthest one back…the caboose…It’s the quietest car since it’s the furthest from the engine, and the only one people don’t have to go through to get to other parts of the train…” Aleksandra trembled slightly. If she went back to the caboose, and only her master was there, the results would be disastrous. She didn’t know how much more she could take.
“Take me to him…And try to keep me from beating him to death…or not.” Lily spoke with genuine hate curling on her lips. She wanted to spit on just the thought of her master. Only god knew what she would actually do to him when she got the chance.
“Wah…why would you want to see him?” Aleksandra stuttered out. She couldn’t understand why Lily would want to see him. He was a disgusting toad of a man. He wasn’t too fat, but the roundness of his body made him seem much fatter than he actually was. His skin always seemed to be fairly oily, almost as if he was in a constant acne-ridden puberty stage. To top things off, he smoked herbal cigarettes that gave off a foul, stinging odor and made his eyes bloodshot morning, noon, and night.
“I told you I am saving you from this life. I know I have not known you for terribly long, but I…well, I love you like my little sister.”
“You…love me?” Aleksandra couldn’t believe it. No one had ever said she loved her outside of taunts or manipulation. Now Lily loved her. Like a reflex, she threw her arms around Lily and kissing her deeply. Lily had rarely been kissed like that before, not knowing what to do. Finally, she just decided she had to push her away. “But I thought you loved me…”
“Like a sister…and I would never kiss a sister like that…” Lily was far more than a necessary amount of angry at Aleksandra. Homosexuality in any way shape or form was taught to be one of the worst, most unforgivable sins man could commit. Few were able to break out past the brainwashing, unfortunately. “Now…take me to see your master.”
Aleksandra’s master spent most of the day in an alcohol-induced haze. It was a thin veil he kept around his reality at all times. It use to start only at night, a habit to shield him from the bitter-cold nights with his wife. Unfortunately, like all bad habits, it slowly found its way into the rest of the day. Now, it was lucky if he didn’t have a drink in his hand by lunch.
His wife was forced into their marriage at a very young age, almost the day after she started puberty and was able to bear children. He blamed her for his inability to give her children, and lost all interest in her when she started to look like a woman instead of a girl. Now, he only even kissed or embraced her when he was absolutely desperate and blind-drunk. She refused him even the slightest touch now, knowing he was also forcing himself on Aleksandra and his other young slaves.
Aleksandra walked into the room, holding her hands folded over her heart. It would keep his wandering hands away from her chest. It was one of the little self-defense habits she learned the hard way over the year. This time, though, he strangely didn’t leave his chair. He lit one of his herbal cigarettes, sending its putrid smoke to the ceiling before he spoke.
“You did not tell me when Vanyusha’s stop was coming up.” He kept his eyes shut, grabbing the bridge of his nose behind his glasses. “I did not even get to see him…”
“Yes, Master. Sorry, Master.” Aleksandra shot out in two quick snaps. She had to appease him as quickly as possible to keep her master from flogging her immediately. He wouldn’t hesitate to hit her even for just the most fleeting insult or mistake. “But he was running late…a gorgeous lady attracting his attention until he almost missed his stop. I am sure you would not blame him for that…”
“And how do I know that is not just a lie to save your skin!?” He got up out of his heavy wooden chair. To make his rage clear to Aleksandra, he kicked the chair to the wall. It left a visible crater in the wall, a scar that’d cost hundreds of dollars to replace in the fine material. “A noble man like Vanyusha would never be distracted by a WHORE like some commoner…”
“She is right outside the door, Master!” Aleksandra shouted over him. She was terrified of him beating her to a bloody pulp right there, or worse, what if he would rape her and Lily were to see? She could never live with the humiliation. Worst of all, he liked that she was the only one of his slaves that resisted him and screamed. Aleksandra trembled in fear just from being around him, giving him the feeling of dominance that he couldn’t live without. “Hurr…Her name’s Lillian Lufian, and I know for a fact she spent the night with Colonel Vanyusha…and she asked me to bring her here.”
“Well then, send her in and get out before I…” Aleksandra didn’t wait for him to finish, rushing to the door. Her master was surprisingly silent when it came to Lily, stunned by both her beauty and her missing limbs. He could see why she would be such a distraction to Alek, and was lost in the beauty of her youth himself. “Come in, my dear, and feel free to take a seat.”
“If you do not mind…” Lily hobbled into the room on her crutch, “I would much rather stand.”
“What can I do for you, Miss Lily?” He said walking over to her. Lily could barely stand to look at him. Knowing what he did to Aleksandra, it was all she could do to keep herself restrained. She didn’t care if he could beat her, she just wanted to make him feel all the pain she could.
“It is Lillian to you. And I want to make this quick…” She took a couple of steps towards him, making sure her crutch made loud thumps as she went. “I am not letting you keep Aleksandra. Name any price, I will pay it, but you are NOT keeping her.”
“Has she been telling lies about me again?” He chuckled, knowing whatever Aleksandra told Lily was the god’s honest truth. His attraction to her was strange in that he knew it was wrong. It was an uncontrollable addiction that was his secret shame. He didn’t bother hiding what he was doing with his other slaves. They worshipped him like a god, and were willing participants. He wasn’t the only man in Rusinova who treated all his female slaves as his personal harem. Still, he thought he was the only person in the world who was raping a girl who had no way of getting away from him and surviving on her own. “She has quite the imagination on her and…”
“I have seen the bruises on her legs and arms…” Lily spoke strongly and slowly. She knew he had to know how he hurt her. It would be all she’d need to at least cause some problems in his life if nothing else. She knew he wasn’t likely to go to jail for what he did to her. She was literally his property, after all, but everyone would know what he did. That would let the populace decide his fate. “How many children would you have by her if you were not sterile?”
“I am NOT sterile. I would have many children now if I could find a woman capable of bearing them!” He snapped at her. Lily smirked, knowing he got under his skin. Now, the question was did she want to keep drilling, or leave well-enough alone? “And you…you could not HOPE to buy her from me.”
“Colonel Alek Vanyusha has given me access to his infinite resources. I can pay and will pay ANY price as long as it saves her from you!” Lily realized she shouldn’t have snapped at him like she did. He could say no to the whole thing and have Aleksandra flogged or even just beat her to death himself. “So, what will it take…to make you give her up?”
“Oh, I do not think you would be willing to pay what I really want…” Aleksandra’s master crawled his eyes over every inch of her body. It made her feel dirty and itchy at the same time. “You slept with Colonel Vanyusha last night, did you not?”
“Not that it is any of your business…but yes…” Lily answered with a growing sense of dread. She could practically read Aleksandra’s master’s mind, not that it was much of a challenge. If his mind was a book, it would have been less than a hundred pages, with letters that would take up half the page.
“And he was the only man you have lain with?” Lily’s throat started to close up with panic at what he was going to ask her to do. She was completely committed to getting Aleksandra her freedom, no matter what he asked. “I will ask for no money or any physical object if I can spend one night having sex with you. That is all I will accept for her.”
“Wuh…why?” Lily stuttered, her brain trying to tell her she was surprised. She knew the price for Aleksandra’s freedom had to be high and that her master had to be a horrible monster. She clenched her fist and trembled with rage. She wanted Alek to be the only person she would ever know. Though. It was all she had dreamed about since she was a little girl.
“Well, what is your decision, wench?”
One couple dared to believe it was true for them. Since they met each other, they seemed capable of repelling any misfortune that blundered into their way. They lived in a relatively small village in their massive nation, but it was still on the cutting edge of technology. That wasn’t saying much for the technology of the time, though.
The newlyweds were riding a steam-powered horseless carriage lent to them by the kindly resident millionaire of the village. It was massive, almost the full length of a locomotive engine, with massive ornate brass wheels that stretched more than twice the height of the tallest man in the village. The machine didn’t go very fast, crawling along like a paddle boat on the ground, but it didn’t matter. Speed wasn’t the key. The crawler had a romantic, almost fairytale look to it. Its boiler looked like a massive metal pumpkin. It had curved railings that bowed and flowed in waves around the golden and silver land ship. The couple sat on a bed covered with flower petals sprinkled across it.
The wife’s dress was pure white, embroidered with intricate floral patterns over the whole surface. It was complicated and done by hand, her mother and sisters working on it around the clock for months. It was very tight, a corset holding her form in a perfect hourglass shape. The intricate pattern made the dress very stiff, making it even harder for her to breathe. She was fine with it, though, wanting to look absolutely perfect. Her skin was alabaster smooth and ivory pale. Her natural beauty shone without the slightest bit of makeup. She didn’t have to fight to control her hair. It lay perfectly smooth and shone like strands of gold. She had a vale down over her face, her eyes cast down in solemn thoughts of her future. She couldn’t help but smile, all her wishes for the day coming true.
Her husband sat next to her on the bed. He was wearing a flat-black suit. It was a fine suit, though nowhere near the exceedingly superb quality of his wife’s dress. He didn’t care, it was her day. He spent every dollar he had saved since he was a little boy to make the day perfect for her. He had loved her since they were both children. He had even put far more effort into his appeared, shaving far more carefully than he had before. He couldn’t have a single knick on his face today, no matter how small. He treated his black hair so that it was smooth and had a slight sheen to it. He combed his hair so that it wouldn’t block his brilliant blue eyes.
He could barely keep his hands off his beautiful bride. He raised her vale and kissed her delicious red lips when the driver wasn’t looking. His bride blushed a bright red, a burning cherry that covered almost her entire face. It was only the second time he had ever kissed her, and the first since the ceremony. She sighed as he put his hand on her hip, holding her close to him. She turned to him, putting her hands against his chest.
“Alek…” She whispered with her quietest voice. “Can’t you wait until we’re alone?” Her voice was lyrical and beautiful, despite the harsh guttural sounds of their native language. She was almost the exact opposite of her blacksmith husband, whose voice couldn’t help but bark out his thoughts. Her name was Matryona, and she was a famous opera singer legendary for her angelic voice. She was famous around the world, singing for world leaders and millionaires. She was quite rich herself, stunning everyone when she announced she was going to marry a lowly blacksmith. Even Alek was more than a little surprised.
Matryona was easily rich and beautiful enough and travelled the world enough that she could literally have her choice of any man on the planet, yet she chose Alek. They knew each other from kids and had always had secret crushes on each other for years. Despite being apart from each other for years, neither of them had forgotten the other.
One day, a horse with a thrown shoe at the exact right moment in a tour brought them back together. Alek was still surprised he had the courage to even speak to her again, little-lone confess his undying love for her. He could swear he felt his heart stop for a second when she told him she felt the same way back. She had even kept herself chaste since they last saw each other just for him, on the miraculous chance that they might meet one day. They were both young, still in their teens, just barely in Alek’s case though Matryona was just cresting her mid-teen years.
“Promise me that I’m really awake.” Alek always asked himself if he was dreaming. There was no way in his mind that a beautiful goddess would choose to be with a grungy, dirty blacksmith instead of a prince. He kept his hand on her just to make sure she wasn’t just some illusion that would disappear with a wrongly timed blink. He went to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she turned away slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“The Great War…” Matryona cast her eyes down in solemn respect of the event. It was an alliance of two ‘medium-level’ nations, Duchard and Hayabusa, that suddenly made incredible and almost impossible leaps and bounds militarily. Their power seemed unholy, like it was causing the world to hemorrhage just from its mere existence. It was enough to make their home country, Rusinova, cooperate and fight alongside their long time mortal enemy, the Atalanta Republics Alliance. They had been at each other’s throats since Atalanta Republics broke off from Albion. It was horrible, causing the peoples of the world to have unspeakable nightmares.
“On my way back from my last tour, we passed through a battleground…It was horrible…Dead farther than my eyes could see…Except for one man…He was older than us…probably older than both of us together…” Matryona looked down, biting her thumb. There was something about the battles, seeing them or passing by felt like it was scarring the soul. Innocent and naïve souls like Matryona were especially damaged, like putting too much stress on a beautiful glass sculpture. “He was the only person on the entire battlefield still alive…His ribs were split open. I could see…inside of him…his beating heart getting slower and…and…and he was begging for us to kill him...”
“Matry…” Alek tried to calm her down, every word getting harder and harder for her to say. Every syllable was making her slowly rattle apart at her seams. He caressed her hip, trying to calm her down. “…do not worry about it…even if he died, he is in a better place…”
“It is not that he died…” Matryona bit her thumb too hard, causing a small trickle of blood to drip onto her pure white dress. She started to cry, wishing she could do something to undo her mistake. She wanted her wedding dress to go down her family, to all her daughters as far as it’d last. Now it was going to be stained because of her bad habit, advertising it to the world. “He was in such bad shape that I…I asked if Basil would not…would not mind doing him the favor of…of…” She turned, burying her face in his chest. “I am sorry…I should not be so sad on our wedding day…but I…I might as well have killed him myself…”
“I have seen men like that before…” Alek spoke quietly, trying to keep her at ease. He carefully took the hand whose thumb she bit. He tore off a small piece of his sleeve, carefully bandaging her thumb to keep her from bleeding on her dress anymore. He knew how important her wedding was in her mind. She had dreamt of this day since they were five, having small little ceremonies with her dolls at every opportunity. Alek had to help her fix a carriage for her newlywed teddy-bear couple. She hugged him and gave him a smile he could never forget, even if he wanted to. He kissed her on the cheek, just a quick, reassuring peck. “…It is doing them a favor. Even if you got him to a doctor, he would just be miserable and wishing he could die, even as the doctors did everything they could to save him…”
“I love you, Alek…” Matryona kissed Alek, the first kiss she had initiated between them. She smiled and blushed, feeling like she may have pushed the kiss far harder than she should of. Her mother always told her to be dainty at all times, and kissing Alek like that didn’t seem dainty. She scooted an inch or so away from Alek to try to be proper. Alek pulled her back, kissing her on the neck. Matryona blushed across her entire body; face, neck, shoulders and all. “Alek, stop…I…I cannot breathe…”
“Do not worry. He cannot see us…” He reassured her, kissing her on the shoulder. There was a large half-dome to act as a blinder. She trembled, pushing him away again. She hated to do it, but it was necessary. She reached for the fine buttons on the back of her dress. “Oh god, I should have been paying more attention…” He helped her carefully unbutton the back of her dress. As soon as he had enough undone, Matryona gasped for breath. “I am so sorry…”
“No harm done…” She took a deep breath. Smiling, she tugged at the long necklace she had around her neck, pulling a small key from its hiding spot in her dress. She closed her hand around it, giving it to Alek. “Do you know what this is?”
“Yes.” Alek nodded, taking it into his hands like the treasure it was. “…It is the key to your chastity belt.”
“…The key to my chastity belt, though I only wore it for tradition’s sake…” Matryona looked down at Alek slightly. “I did not need it…I have known from the first second I saw you that you were to be my husband…and I never doubted it…”
“I wonder every day what I did to earn the love of such an honest and beautiful woman like you…” He kissed her, laying her on her back. He kissed her on her neck, gently caressing her hips. “…and I would be lying if I said I have not been thinking about this moment for a long time…”
“Then let us not delay it a single moment longer…” Matryona whispered, guiding his hands up under her dress. They had to make love their first time on the bed the local priestesses blessed. It would ensure their long and happy marriage together, and that all their children would be healthy and successful their whole lives. It was the reason the vehicle also had a blinder as well, to keep their love from the driver. Matryona giggled with the joy of anticipation as she heard the lock pop open, but her joy seemed frozen in that moment forever.
A great shadow engulfed the entire vehicle, eclipsing the sun. They both gasped, seeing a giant alien monstrosity hovering hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air. They could barely comprehend what it was. A more foreign object had never entered their lives. Matryona looked up at it with stunned amazement, but every fiber of Alek’s being yelled bloody murder. Both knew it was man-made, but couldn’t understand how. Suddenly, a cluster of metal tears rained out of the bottom of the craft. They whistled and screamed like demons as they fell out of the sky.
Alek ‘woke up’ on a train that reeked of coal dust from its foul fuel. Alek was unable to sleep as mortals understood it. He had to close his eyes and pretend to sleep as he once did, imagining comforting dreams. He didn’t even remember if that was what really happened, his dreams being flow-of-thought memories, the small details slowly being blended together like all the colors of the spectrum becoming white light. Was Matryona even the woman he married that day? How many ‘Matryona’s had gone through his life? Three? A dozen? A thousand? He could no longer be sure.
He couldn’t even relate to time any longer. The years no longer marked his development, but rather the decay of the universe around him. His national alignment never changed, though his uniform had evolved over the years. It was now a smooth black with deep blue piping around the edges. It was incredibly intricate, with two columns of buttons. It kept him warm in the bitter winters of his homeland, though warmth and cold didn’t mean much to him anymore. It couldn’t do any last damage to him. He could break through the ice on a frozen lake and casually stroll to shore or even sit in the center and wait for the ice to melt come a distant spring.
Alek’s government wouldn’t allow him such leisure, though. He had followed through with his plan once, burying himself alive to see if he could convince his body to die. He remembered the embrace of the infinite dark for an all too brief eon before waking up in a lab. It had the undesired consequence of the government trying to replicate him, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Alek befriended many of them, mainly because he was often the only human contact any of them had outside of doctors.
As the monotonous grind of the train ride continued, Alek didn’t pay enough attention to feel it come to a stop. It was a small town, with no one of importance by the government’s standards, used as a refueling station. Alek tried not to notice towns like this, where its value was measured by its location and function, not by the number of people in it. The people in it only mattered when they were drafted into the military, a reminder that no one could truly escape war. Rusinova’s habit to grab any man capable of merely holding a rifle to go to war had cost them dearly once in recent memory. A man who became famous as a technomancer had defected to the Atalanta Republics, giving them a great technological advantage.
Alek didn’t notice the train’s stop until it started again, jostling him slightly. He had been reading a rather lengthy book, doing his best to stay focused on it rather than the thin layer of soot that covered almost everything on the train. It was a history book, going over the Great War. It romanticized his role in the war, over valuing it and making his own abilities far more miraculous. Everyone heard that he was the great necromancer, able to bring the dead back to life, but that was oversimplifying it. It was far more complicated than that.
A knock on his door kept him from getting any farther into the fairy tale book. It was a gingerly knock instead of a pound, a clear sign of a woman at the other side of the heavy wooden door. Men always hit the door like they were almost trying to break the door down to announce themselves. It was almost like they were trying to intimidate him to make him less likely to intimidate them back. Women were often shy of him, worried that they might anger him. It was the unfortunate fact that got worse and worse as time went on.
Because there was likely a woman on the other side of the door, he decided to open the door himself. He put a handkerchief down so the book had a clean resting place and went to the door. He was use to the doors on train sliding into the wall, but this one was out of date, swinging into the room. He dodged its filthy edges, but was stunned into letting it hit his shoulder by the striking woman on the other side.
She was slightly taller than most women, though still shorter than most men, and possibly only a year older than Matryona was. She had golden brown hair, making it impossible to tell if it was blond or brown. Her eyes were deep blue that he could stare into for years and never see the bottom. Her dress wasn’t very striking, not horribly elegant, but likely the best a commoner girl like her could afford. It had no design on it, not even dyed onto it. It was a light blue fabric across the entire thing, with very little intentional variance to it. Still, that was barely noticeable compared to the girl’s most striking feature.
The girl was missing both her left leg about halfway up between her knee and hip and left arm shortly after her shoulder. He recognized the scars from it. He would have likely suffered the same amputations if not for his gifts and a certain amount of luck. The poor girl hadn’t had the same luck, though she did have to be almost invincible to not die from infection afterward. The pain from the surgery alone would have driven a lesser woman insane, especially since a common family could never afford anesthesia and no doctor was likely to donate any. Even using alcohol wasn’t likely available with a commoner’s budget, and would have been dangerous anyway, risking alcohol poisoning on top of blood loss. She probably had a leather strap to keep her from biting through her tongue and a hand to hold, but that was likely it.
“May I come in, my lord?” She asked in a slightly timid voice. Alek nodded, doing his best to help her walk though she barely needed it. Even though her crutch was rough and obviously cobbled together from whatever her family had on hand, she still managed to get around rather easily. He took his coat off and put it on the sofa for her to have something clean to sit on. A beauty like her shouldn’t have to wallow in filth. “Thank you, my lord…”
“You do not have to call me ‘my lord’.” Alek did his best to not sound intimidating, as he usually spoke in a dark and gravelly voice. He did his best to smooth it out, giving the effect of a calmed storm. “Despite what I have done, I am no better than you, so treat me like…”
“With all due respect…” She looked down at the ground, blushing brightly. Her healthy and ever-so-slightly tanned skin seemed to blush the perfect amount for her. She gathered her courage briefly. “I owe you the honor of calling you my lord…I am honored to just…look upon you one more time if nothing else…but I was hoping you would do me the honor of…”
“Look, Miss…” Alek knew where things were going with the girl. It was far from the first time virgins from the cities he went through offered themselves to him. It was a novelty at first, a perk of the job. Soon, it got tiring and he began preferring girls with more experience. It was more enjoyable for all parties involved.
“Lillian, but you can call me Lily…” Lily spoke incredibly timidly, her voice trembling from the beating of her heart in her throat. She couldn’t believe she actually had the guts to talk to Alek. She was a mere mortal after all, and he was the stuff of legend. She wasn’t even sure if she could look directly upon him without bursting into flames. “I am not insulted that you do not remember me…I am sure you saved far more lives than just mine…”
“I saved your life?” Alek had to ask. It was impossible to remember everyone he saved, especially since his ‘unit’ would save countless people before. Still, he was sure he’d remember saving a girl as beautiful as Lily was.
“Yes…” Lily rubbed the stump of her left arm. “It is how I became so injured…and I remember it like it was just yesterday…”
“It was about eight years ago in another three months…I was eight, and I remember the exact day. You came to our village to perform one of your miracles for the mayor whose third wife had died in childbirth. Unfortunately, we were close to the border with the Atalanta Republics…and they must have heard you were coming, because they launched a vicious barrage against us…
“My house was the first one hit…It was our ancestral home, made of thick but weak mud bricks…I was playing with my little sister Anya up in her room when were heard the first blasts. It sounded like distant thunder and it was dreary cloudy day and I would have given the sound to the clouds…except for the lack of lightning…
“The…the horrible concussion…The roof and the rooms were burning, the outside walls crumbling like brimstone…It threw Anya like one of her rag dolls…and knocked me to the ground…I should say, it knocked me to the floor and then the ground as the wooden floor splintered and gave out under me…The whole house was starting to burn and fall apart…I could hear my mother and father screaming outside…My mom’s voice popped and gave out…and I was about to give out myself…I couldn’t move…my left arm and leg were mangled really badly…I…I wanted to die, to completely give in so I wouldn’t have to bear the pain anymore…but that’s when I heard your voice…
“You rushed into my burning house to save me, with no care about your own safety…You put your coat around me and carried me out to my mother…As I recall, you were severely burned…but it did not stop you from holding my hand while they…they cut off my arm and leg…” Lily took a deep breath, doing her best not to cry in front of Alek. She remembered Anya. She was far younger than her, only two at the time she was killed. Lily’s name was actually her first word. “I am sorry…It is very hard to talk about my childhood…and…and no one in my village…no one in my village wants to take a cripple as a wife…but that is alright…I live for you.”
“Look, Lily…” Alek realized he had to handle the situation with more delicacy than he usually did. Other girls he could just tell to get lost, and they might go crying home, but there was usually someone waiting for them. Lily had gotten on the train at the last stop, clearly thinking there was no chance of rejection. Lily probably had nothing to go home to. “You are a beautiful…gorgeous young woman, and I am sure you have a long, happy life ahead of you…”
Alek had realized why he didn’t remember Lily now. Times where he was put in severe pain sunk into the recesses of his mind. It created the damnedest loses in his memory, but it did serve a purpose. No matter what, his wounds would eventually heal and not scar, and the rapid healing to do it was mind-numbingly painful. If nothing else, it made him forget the horrible pain of his existence.
“…You would not be happy with me.” He looked into her eyes, wondering how much of his real story she knew, and how much she was going off just his legend. “I will live far beyond the time you die…and I will hardly age a small handful of years for your entire lifespan…”
“I do not mind that.” Lily spoke honestly. She could actually see many advantages of Alek staying the same age for the rest of her life. He’d always be capable to defend her, and wouldn’t suffer any of the failings of getting older himself. Or would he? Do minds fail because of the brain aging and wearing out, or is it that they get filled beyond capacity and give way? If the latter was the case, he’d fail as he got ‘older’ too. Lily still wanted to be with him no matter what. “I’m actually a very good shot with a pistol…and if I have a stand, I can…can shoot a rifle very well.”
“Lily, you could never live a full life with me.” Alek decided to be honest with Lily, tell her a few things he had told anyone before. “You understand that when I ‘resurrect’ a being, I do not honestly give it new life, right?”
“Yes.” Lily nodded with a little smile. “I remember you saying that it was only God or the universe that could truly give things life in an interview you did…But the people you resurrect…”
“The problem is I cannot create life. Period.” Alek tried not to yell at her, just wanting to spare her feelings. “I can NEVER give you a child, healthy or otherwise.”
“I do not want children…I could not stand to be pregnant. I would go insane.” Lily spoke honestly and didn’t hesitate. She could only imagine how hard it would be on her leg to carry the whole weight of her pregnancy. It’d be even worse if she had to be wheelchair bound for the last few months. Then she would be risking her leg atrophying and a long hard recovery while trying to keep up with her new baby. “I do not think it would ever be a problem…Truth be told, I was adopted…so I know what good it can do and would love to give a child a chance for a far better life.”
“I can still not force you to live the life I do, my dear. I have no home, I never stop moving. If I am not going to a battle, I am on the way to another job either ordered by my superiors or as part of my mercenary work.”
“Why do you have to bear it alone?” Lily had to honestly ask. No one in her mind needed to be alone, and though she could easily understand the want to be alone temporarily, no one should want to bear eternity alone. This seemed to be literally the case for Alek. After all, he had barely aged a day since she had seen him last. “If I cannot convince you that we are kindred spirits, please take whatever comfort you can find in my body as a sign of my eternal gratitude to you…so you will know you never HAVE to be alone…”
“Lily…” Alek whispered to her. He ran his fingers through her wavy hair slightly, finally just giving into his desires for her. She reminded him so much of Matryona, both equally beautiful in his eyes. Still, he’d try to focus on her and not Matryona, feeling that he owed an innocent and pure beauty like her his full attention. Lily closed her eyes, almost like she was afraid that if she watched her first kiss she’d be blinded by its radiance. It was her first kiss and she couldn’t have been happier with it. She didn’t fumble with it at all like she had worried.
Alek carried her to the bed he had further back in the car. He had the whole car to himself. It was to provide him unmolested privacy, though now it was making it intimately isolated from the rest of the world. His bed sheets were the only thing without even a hint of coal dust on them, which was a small miracle due to their softness and pure white color. Alek carefully put Lily down on the bed, being needlessly careful with her. Lily didn’t mind, glad someone treated her like a woman for a change.
Alek ran his hands down her hips as he kissed her over and over, like he was trying to memorize even the slightest curve in her body. It had the added bonus that it distracted him from the age difference between him and her. He was old enough that he could be her father, maybe even grandfather if parentage was rushed. He kissed her neck and shoulder as he slowly unbuttoned the back of her dress. Lily smiled and blushed as he slowly slid it down her body, revealing her pure white bra and simple, undecorated chastity belt.
Chastity belts had fallen out of style for a while, only really coming into play when a woman swore that she’d be strictly devoted to a man. Unfortunately, they had fallen into use again after soldiers, both foreign and domestic, had begun raping women in the nation’s remote villages where they’re superiors would hopefully never hear about it. Often, if an ARA general found out about one of his men committing this atrocity, he’d sentence him to a firing squad. If a Rusinova general found out about it, he would often view it as the least the village could do in return for their protection. That is, unless it was someone of importance.
Alek took a moment to take in Lily’s beauty. There was nothing particularly large about Lily’s body. Her bra was simple and pure white, hugging her freckled bosom ever so gently. He caressed it, feeling that it was just as smooth as her perfect skin. For a second, he wondered why it had a small zipper in front, forgetting that Lily had only one hand. He was too focused on what was so perfect about her body, ignoring what were relatively minor flaws she could do nothing about anyway. He slipped her bra off her, finding the key in the strap across her back. It was small and barely noticeable in the hope that anyone not knowing it was there would look it over without a second thought.
As Alek slipped the key into the small lock on Lily’s hip, she started fumbling with the buttons on his shirt to get them undone. The whole thing was making Lily’s entire body dewy with sweat. Beads of sweat made small little paths across her chest, revealing a secret she was trying to hide with makeup. Alek stopped, running his fingers over it slightly to reveal it more clearly.
“Lily…” Alek spoke calmly, not over-reacting to the situation. “What is this?”
“…I was trying to hide my freckles…” Alek handed her a handkerchief out of his pocket. She rubbed the makeup off her chest, shoulders, and face. She had far more than just a few random spots like it looked before, revealing she was speckled with clouds of freckles. “I am really sorry…I know they are hideous…but I cannot hold a parasol and my crutch at the same time, so whenever I went outside…”
“It is alright…” Alek rubbed a little bit of makeup she missed off her cheek with his thumb. He knew the stigma attached to having freckles. It meant that you were poor and had to work in a field all day, from the first fingers of sun in the sky until the last sliver of the sun disappeared over the horizon. It was far worse for women, meaning they were too slow to do proper woman’s jobs. Being crippled just made things worse, telling the world even the jobs she could do despite everything, she couldn’t do well. “You are beautiful despite any of your small flaws…”
“Alek…” Lily whispered in an almost silent hush, guiding his hand back to the lock. The lock popped and the whole thing fell away from her body. She kissed him and started trying to unbutton his shirt. Alek kissed her along her newly revealed freckles and started helping her unbutton everything.
Even though it was just after noon when Lily came to meet Alek, they made love well into the night. Alek had almost infinite stamina, which he could easily forget. Outside of the hunger, Lily didn’t mind. She wanted to remember what it felt like to be so close to Alek at all times. It was all she had wanted for almost as long as she could remember, and it was everything she dreamed it would be.
Alek didn’t need sleep, taking the opportunity to watch Lily sleep in her utter contentment. Her skin was glowing slightly in the pale moon light. He didn’t think it was possible, but she was actually smiling ever so slightly in her sleep. He gently brushed a few stray hairs aside on her face and gave her a faint kiss on the cheek. He didn’t want to accidentally wake her up, but he couldn’t help it. He also couldn’t help but think of the kind of life she’d have with him. It might seem relatively easy at first, but Lily would soon find he was mostly emotionally dead inside. She may have managed to briefly reignite what was left of his emotions, but that would soon go out. It always did. Could he crush her life with his drab, dead soul for simple physical pleasure?
Lily woke up late into the day, her hunger making harder to sleep than the sun. Sleeping in Alek’s bed was the most comfortable night of sleep she had had since she was a child. However, there was one fact she couldn’t ignore; though she had spent the whole night with Alek’s arm around her, he was nowhere to be found now. She hoped he would be to help her get redressed. It took forever for her to do it on her own.
“Mhmmm…” She moaned slightly, stretching between the bed sheets. They were unbelievably soft, something that a man in Alek’s position could easily request. Still, Lily didn’t know that anyone in Rusinova could make something so perfect. That’s when she saw the tag. They were made in the Atalanta Republics, making them highly illegal contraband. Alek could easily get away with such a thing, though.
“Mistress…” A young girl’s voice echoed in from the doorway. Lily quickly pulled the sheet around herself to get covered up. The girl, wearing the plain and lightly dirty clothes of a maid, giggled, covering her mouth to try to avoid any insult to Lily. “Don’t worry, Mistress…I’ve seen far worse sights than your modest nudity…”
“Does…Master Alek get a lot of women through here?” Lily had to ask. It was driving her insane whether or not her giving her virginity to him would mean anything in the long run or not. Would she be just another notch on his belt, or a fond memory he’d hold close to his heart?
“He’s quite…popular, if that’s what you’re asking…” The maid spoke in contractions, confusing Lily ever so slightly. It wasn’t proper for people to talk like that. It was supposedly a lazy way to talk, demeaning both the talker and the listener. “He even gave me my first kiss…”
“…but you are…what? Thirteen?” The girl blushed, making Lily worry for a second that she had accidentally insulted her. Lily herself was familiar with the bitter sting of people guessing her age to be far under reality. The older women in her life told her to take it as a compliment, to view it as lucky that they guessed younger instead of older, but they didn’t understand the bitter sting of being told they still looked like a child.
“Yes…” the maid’s admittance of her real age put Lily back at ease, though it made her wonder if Alek preferred younger girls over women his own age briefly. “It was only a…brotherly kiss on the forehead, but it meant a lot to me…Usually all I get is a taste of a boot or worse…Far, far worse…”
“Like what, dear?” Lily had to ask, sitting up in bed but wearing the white bed sheet like a toga. She was doing her best to hide both her bad arm and her bad leg from her, but it was useless to try to hide something that big.
“My…owner makes me…service senators, generals…people of importance that prefer little girls like…like me…” The maid started crying and trembling, something Lily recognized from herself. She was trying to convey a pain that was beyond all reason and words. “If you wanted, I would…I would be forced to…to…”
“Oh, come here…” Lily put her good arm out to the maid, hugging her and holding her close. She would let her cry as long as she needed to comfort her. She rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. “It…it may take me a long time, but I will find a way to save you from this, alright? You just…you just have to hold on, and I will save you from this…I swear…”
“But you…but you don’t even know my name…” The maid wept out through her tears. Her voice was cracking and popping, making her even harder to understand on top of her use of contractions. Still, Lily assumed she got the gist of what she said. “I can see why Master Alek loves you so much.”
“Not to call you a fool…but if he loved me, why would he leave me?” The maid looked down and blushed again slightly. “Do not tell me this is all…just a…just a HUGE misunderstanding…”
“No, he did leave you…early in the morning…” She cleared her throat, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a waxed-sealed envelope from her pocket that was slightly dirty from her work. Lily didn’t mind, just glad that she got it. It had Alek’s symbol pressed into the wax. It was called his ‘omen’, a strange circle that would appear on the ground around him when he raised the dead. It was an arcane circle, made of swoops and curves. It was strange, causing fear like a natural reflex almost like an ancient fear, but eventually people could teach themselves to like it. “This is for you…”
“Thank you…” Lily turned away from her slightly in case her sheet-toga fell away from her while she read the letter. She opened it slowly and carefully, trying to preserve the seal. It was a futile effort, the wax stamp dissolving into dust from the mere act of opening, to prevent someone else from reading the letter and resealing it afterwards.
‘Dear Lily,
I am sorry I have to leave you, but it is just a fact of my existence. I age so slowly that it is almost non-existent, so while you could spend the rest of your days with me, I would not be able to spend the rest of my days with you. No matter how much I tried, even if I tried to kill myself to join you in death, it would be futile. I could not bear to see you decay with age, and so I have taken the coward’s route and left you. Still, I want to know you are safe and sheltered from the horrors that surround all of us, so I have arranged it so you have access to the nigh-infinite resources the government allows me. Absolutely anything you want will be yours, as long as it is not me.
Know that I will never be able to forget you,
Alek Vanyusha
P.S. – I could not help but measure you for a prosthetic leg while you were sleeping. Fortunately, from my life at a blacksmith, I am an expert at measuring to within a half-millimeter with no tools. The finest prosthetic leg producible will be waiting for you in the train’s next stop. I hope it will make your life that much easier.
“So he decided for both of us that we should not be together?” Lily trembled, not sure if she was going to cry and sink into a deep depression or scream and rage until reality itself collapsed around her. Neither would bring Alek back into her life. “The arrogance of that man…”
“It is not arrogance, Mistress…” The maid sat down on the bed next to her, straightening the heavy, cheap material her dress was made out of. It made burlap look like silk in comparison, but it kept her warm in the bitter winters. “Master Alek could have had me as a great-granddaughter if he could have children…He would be able to watch his wife, their child, then their children, and even me wither and die of old age before even hitting thirty…I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t bear eternity like that, so whatever it takes for him to ease his passage…”
“I know you are right, but…”
“That doesn’t make it any easier…” The maid finished Lily’s sentence for her. When you’re the only person in the world that doesn’t slowly shuffle along the mortal coil, you’d want to distance yourself as far as possible from those that did. “It’s a good sign that he cares about you. He’s never shown concern with anyone else outside of a one night stand…Maybe you’re fated to be together…”
“I guess I will know if I find him again…” Lily was morose about the whole thing. She hadn’t been this depressed about a boyfriend since she was a little girl and gave a boy a flower just to have him stomp on it. It dashed out her hope for him and most boys for quite some time. Alek was the first man in years Lily had feelings for.
“I’m sure you’ll meet him again…” The maid turned away from her slightly to give her some privacy. “I’ve always wanted to see Antosha…this time of year….the twentieth is supposed to be the very best day of the year…”
“Ah…” Lily got what she was saying. With Alek’s resources at her disposal, she could follow him forever if that’s what it took. She’d either convince him to be with her or follow him until she died. It was the commitment she’d be willing to make. “This might be a little awkward…but can you help me get dressed?”
“It’s not a problem, Mistress.” The maid spoke with a smile. She honestly didn’t mind helping people like Lily, who genuinely needed help. Lily was so kind to her, talking to her and letting her talk back without being constantly told when she could and couldn’t speak.
“You do not have to call me that…” Lily said getting tired of being called mistress. She was far too young for the formal meaning, and didn’t want to be anywhere near the slang meaning. She put her right hand out to the maid for a handshake, making her worry for a second that Lily would hit her. “My name is Lily Lufian. Pleased to meet you, Miss…?”
“Aleksandra Rochenko…” The maid blushed after she said her name, telling Lily she was embarrassed by it. She didn’t know why. It sounded like a perfectly fine name to her. “As you can guess…I was named after Master Alek…and my last name is my…master’s last name.” She spoke with a sigh. She was bought when she was very young. There was no way for her to know what her last name was, just that money was more important to her parents than her. That may not have been the case, she may have been an orphan or her parents may have sold her into slavery rather than have them all starve to death.
“How much does your master give you to live on?” Lily had to ask. The State had preferred to not call it slavery, saying it was just ‘indentured servitude’. It wasn’t true slavery in that they were required to provide more than just room and board, but most slave owners found ways around it. Many who owned female slaves and had daughters would spend the money on their daughters, spending it on clothes that were too big or too little for their slaves ‘unintentionally’ and clothing the slaves with whatever they had. It was likely the reason Aleksandra was wearing the burlap type material.
“One hundred rupees…” Aleksandra whispered in shame. She couldn’t stand having such a cheap owner. The only reason her dress didn’t say potatoes or turnips across it was they had sewn it so the labels would be on the inside.
“One hundred rupees a month? That is not too bad, but I get why you are…”
“A…a year…” Aleksandra stuttered out. Lily went slack-jawed at the news. It would be insane to expect someone to live on that small of a budget. At less than ten rupees a month, it was easy to understand why Aleksandra was such a waif. She almost looked like a stiff wind of any strength would send her tumbling across the plains like a leaf. “I think the only reason…he doesn’t let me starve to death…is he likes me…likes me better…than his wife…”
“That is IT!” Lily shouted at the top of her lungs, almost completely blind with rage. Aleksandra’s voice told Lily everything she needed to know. It seemed like everything in Aleksandra’s life was forcing her into sin and debauchery. It had to end. “Is your Master on this train?”
“Yes…He always travels with me…and especially when Master Alek rides as well…” Aleksandra sighed and trembled, trying not to collapse in a crying heap. Her Master never travelled with his wife specifically so he could have access to her. He treated her relatively nice, far better than the rest of his slaves, until she turned thirteen. Once she was thirteen, though, things changed.
Her Master revealed he had barely been able to contain himself while she was growing up. Now, she had hit that ‘magic age’ where she was fair game. Given the choice between reenacting all of his sick pleasures and being starved and worked to death, the only decision was obvious. Aleksandra could barely live with herself afterward. She’d have gladly killed herself to spare herself the shame and pain of her everyday life if suicide wasn’t one of the unforgivable sins of her religion.
“His car’s the furthest one back…the caboose…It’s the quietest car since it’s the furthest from the engine, and the only one people don’t have to go through to get to other parts of the train…” Aleksandra trembled slightly. If she went back to the caboose, and only her master was there, the results would be disastrous. She didn’t know how much more she could take.
“Take me to him…And try to keep me from beating him to death…or not.” Lily spoke with genuine hate curling on her lips. She wanted to spit on just the thought of her master. Only god knew what she would actually do to him when she got the chance.
“Wah…why would you want to see him?” Aleksandra stuttered out. She couldn’t understand why Lily would want to see him. He was a disgusting toad of a man. He wasn’t too fat, but the roundness of his body made him seem much fatter than he actually was. His skin always seemed to be fairly oily, almost as if he was in a constant acne-ridden puberty stage. To top things off, he smoked herbal cigarettes that gave off a foul, stinging odor and made his eyes bloodshot morning, noon, and night.
“I told you I am saving you from this life. I know I have not known you for terribly long, but I…well, I love you like my little sister.”
“You…love me?” Aleksandra couldn’t believe it. No one had ever said she loved her outside of taunts or manipulation. Now Lily loved her. Like a reflex, she threw her arms around Lily and kissing her deeply. Lily had rarely been kissed like that before, not knowing what to do. Finally, she just decided she had to push her away. “But I thought you loved me…”
“Like a sister…and I would never kiss a sister like that…” Lily was far more than a necessary amount of angry at Aleksandra. Homosexuality in any way shape or form was taught to be one of the worst, most unforgivable sins man could commit. Few were able to break out past the brainwashing, unfortunately. “Now…take me to see your master.”
Aleksandra’s master spent most of the day in an alcohol-induced haze. It was a thin veil he kept around his reality at all times. It use to start only at night, a habit to shield him from the bitter-cold nights with his wife. Unfortunately, like all bad habits, it slowly found its way into the rest of the day. Now, it was lucky if he didn’t have a drink in his hand by lunch.
His wife was forced into their marriage at a very young age, almost the day after she started puberty and was able to bear children. He blamed her for his inability to give her children, and lost all interest in her when she started to look like a woman instead of a girl. Now, he only even kissed or embraced her when he was absolutely desperate and blind-drunk. She refused him even the slightest touch now, knowing he was also forcing himself on Aleksandra and his other young slaves.
Aleksandra walked into the room, holding her hands folded over her heart. It would keep his wandering hands away from her chest. It was one of the little self-defense habits she learned the hard way over the year. This time, though, he strangely didn’t leave his chair. He lit one of his herbal cigarettes, sending its putrid smoke to the ceiling before he spoke.
“You did not tell me when Vanyusha’s stop was coming up.” He kept his eyes shut, grabbing the bridge of his nose behind his glasses. “I did not even get to see him…”
“Yes, Master. Sorry, Master.” Aleksandra shot out in two quick snaps. She had to appease him as quickly as possible to keep her master from flogging her immediately. He wouldn’t hesitate to hit her even for just the most fleeting insult or mistake. “But he was running late…a gorgeous lady attracting his attention until he almost missed his stop. I am sure you would not blame him for that…”
“And how do I know that is not just a lie to save your skin!?” He got up out of his heavy wooden chair. To make his rage clear to Aleksandra, he kicked the chair to the wall. It left a visible crater in the wall, a scar that’d cost hundreds of dollars to replace in the fine material. “A noble man like Vanyusha would never be distracted by a WHORE like some commoner…”
“She is right outside the door, Master!” Aleksandra shouted over him. She was terrified of him beating her to a bloody pulp right there, or worse, what if he would rape her and Lily were to see? She could never live with the humiliation. Worst of all, he liked that she was the only one of his slaves that resisted him and screamed. Aleksandra trembled in fear just from being around him, giving him the feeling of dominance that he couldn’t live without. “Hurr…Her name’s Lillian Lufian, and I know for a fact she spent the night with Colonel Vanyusha…and she asked me to bring her here.”
“Well then, send her in and get out before I…” Aleksandra didn’t wait for him to finish, rushing to the door. Her master was surprisingly silent when it came to Lily, stunned by both her beauty and her missing limbs. He could see why she would be such a distraction to Alek, and was lost in the beauty of her youth himself. “Come in, my dear, and feel free to take a seat.”
“If you do not mind…” Lily hobbled into the room on her crutch, “I would much rather stand.”
“What can I do for you, Miss Lily?” He said walking over to her. Lily could barely stand to look at him. Knowing what he did to Aleksandra, it was all she could do to keep herself restrained. She didn’t care if he could beat her, she just wanted to make him feel all the pain she could.
“It is Lillian to you. And I want to make this quick…” She took a couple of steps towards him, making sure her crutch made loud thumps as she went. “I am not letting you keep Aleksandra. Name any price, I will pay it, but you are NOT keeping her.”
“Has she been telling lies about me again?” He chuckled, knowing whatever Aleksandra told Lily was the god’s honest truth. His attraction to her was strange in that he knew it was wrong. It was an uncontrollable addiction that was his secret shame. He didn’t bother hiding what he was doing with his other slaves. They worshipped him like a god, and were willing participants. He wasn’t the only man in Rusinova who treated all his female slaves as his personal harem. Still, he thought he was the only person in the world who was raping a girl who had no way of getting away from him and surviving on her own. “She has quite the imagination on her and…”
“I have seen the bruises on her legs and arms…” Lily spoke strongly and slowly. She knew he had to know how he hurt her. It would be all she’d need to at least cause some problems in his life if nothing else. She knew he wasn’t likely to go to jail for what he did to her. She was literally his property, after all, but everyone would know what he did. That would let the populace decide his fate. “How many children would you have by her if you were not sterile?”
“I am NOT sterile. I would have many children now if I could find a woman capable of bearing them!” He snapped at her. Lily smirked, knowing he got under his skin. Now, the question was did she want to keep drilling, or leave well-enough alone? “And you…you could not HOPE to buy her from me.”
“Colonel Alek Vanyusha has given me access to his infinite resources. I can pay and will pay ANY price as long as it saves her from you!” Lily realized she shouldn’t have snapped at him like she did. He could say no to the whole thing and have Aleksandra flogged or even just beat her to death himself. “So, what will it take…to make you give her up?”
“Oh, I do not think you would be willing to pay what I really want…” Aleksandra’s master crawled his eyes over every inch of her body. It made her feel dirty and itchy at the same time. “You slept with Colonel Vanyusha last night, did you not?”
“Not that it is any of your business…but yes…” Lily answered with a growing sense of dread. She could practically read Aleksandra’s master’s mind, not that it was much of a challenge. If his mind was a book, it would have been less than a hundred pages, with letters that would take up half the page.
“And he was the only man you have lain with?” Lily’s throat started to close up with panic at what he was going to ask her to do. She was completely committed to getting Aleksandra her freedom, no matter what he asked. “I will ask for no money or any physical object if I can spend one night having sex with you. That is all I will accept for her.”
“Wuh…why?” Lily stuttered, her brain trying to tell her she was surprised. She knew the price for Aleksandra’s freedom had to be high and that her master had to be a horrible monster. She clenched her fist and trembled with rage. She wanted Alek to be the only person she would ever know. Though. It was all she had dreamed about since she was a little girl.
“Well, what is your decision, wench?”
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