Brandon frowned, sensing Ann’s growing sorrow as the woman’s fists balled into her ruined dress and her brown eyes just got darker and stared further away then the flames into the cold unchanging past.

“You said she was murdered...playing the Game?” Brandon quietly asked.

“Yeah...” Ann stiffly said, looking at him then back down.

Then Brandon prompted her. “But from what I understand about the Game its like a formal challenge that can be resolved by dominating or killing another Alchemist. But mostly its all about power and status. The Game is used to establish hierarchy in the Brotherhood but why on earth would kids need to be playing the Game...not to mention...”

Ann chuckled cutting him off. “Brandon...” she softly called. “There isn’t a child alive in this world who doesn’t crave power and recognition. There isn’t an orphan that doesn’t desire intensely to be seen as special or exceptional in some way and in the society of our people, an Alchemist that can out maneuver, out think and manifest more Mana then their peers is seen as a superior Child of the Sun...” Ann’s lips twisted in distaste as she finished. “A powerful Mana User was a child specifically touched by God Bane....our dark Scion. Extraordinary. Special....”

Brandon squinted at Ann, then he looked at the flames and he said with a dark smirk. “So...what happened to Melda? How did she die, was she not special enough?” the question came out snarky but he hated to hear anything having to do with the Bane and the Brotherhoods blind faith in the disgusting creatures masquerading as the God of Mana.

Ann didn’t take offense to his question, probably because she was too busy casting him a dark smirk of her own before she scoffed. “Melda was a stubborn little idiot...as I said before she was more like a scared little puppy to me....” Ann rolled her eyes. “She was only a few months younger then me, but I always had to care for her. I had to help her reach things, or carry things. She was always begging to climb into my cot at night and she would constantly cry about leaving the Base because she didn’t like it when we got hit or lashed by a foul tempered Brother or Sister in our classes. She became especially hysterical when...”

Anns voice faltered and the woman’s eyes closed tight. Brandon saw her work her throat as if fighting vomit, but after a second or two she continued. “...when we started receiving our blessings from the Bane himself after out 11th birthdays.”

To say that Brandon was disgusted and horrified at this revelation....would have been a complete understatement. Far in the back of his mind the Druid remembered the utter violation he had experienced at the hands of the Bane when the creatures had taken hold of the Mana in him and twisted the vibrations to release an avalanche of vile pleasure that had left him feeling utterly defiled in the end. The way it had felt when Aron had taken him against his will as a boy...ravaged and spoiled by the beasts trapped in the body of the Ghoul.

Oh god...

Brandon shuddered and reeled back in his mind.

Oh god did those EVIL bastards do that to children...to Ann and Eric when they were only kids...?

Honestly it made total sense that the Bane had done it to all the Mana Users even the Children because how better to engender such manic and indoctrinated followers then to rape them all of their lives and tell them its love.

And it not like the Druid needed more reasons to but he definitely felt his hatred for the sick beings grow just a little more intense.

Suddenly Ann laughed again, but it was hard and sardonic. “She used to get so upset and cry like a baby, but we were told that it was a good thing when the Bane came to us. I wanted to be loved on and given Gods pleasure. It felt good and I liked when God moved in me so I couldn’t understand her and her insipid tears just made me so angry...and confused!” her voice rose as she expressed frustrated anger, but Brandon sensed that she was just hiding her own grief so he cut in.

“Ann sstop...its okay...” Brandon called over her. His teeth clenched hard on fury but he tried not to show it. “Just stop...we don’t have to talk about this please....”

“Fine...” Ann stared at him, her brown gaze just as unflinching and cold as always but the tightness in her shoulders did flee as she stiffly nodded once, gathered a breath and she started up again. “Suffice to say Melda was a weakling and she wasn’t exactly adjusting to our new lives a Children of the Sun...”

Yeah...I mean who doesn’t want to live under the ground and be fed a steady stream of genocidal hate speech about Shifters and also get raped by an invisible God they cant see. Sounds like heaven on earth!

Brandon held in the snarky thoughts, mostly because he knew they were grossly inappropriate and also because he knew that Ann was just a victim in all of this and his anger was not at her for drinking the cool-aid as a child, but at the Brotherhood that had hurt her...and hurt him.

“But you know what...Melda always stayed by my side.” Ann suddenly smirked. “As much as she frustrated me and her weakness disgusted me...she had a strange loyalty to me and wherever I went she was determined to follow...even thought she was weaker, and slower and stupid...”

Ann’s voice cracked and she shook her head as if to clear her mind. The Mana User brushed at her arm as if dashing off a bug, sniffed and refolded her arms over her legs so she could look back to the fire. Brandon shifted up onto his elbow and rested his chin in his right palm, watching her around the side of the fires glow.

“Melda used to tell me “We’re Sisters so I have to take care of you...” Ann scoffed. “We weren’t related by blood. I honestly wonder if she just stayed around me because she knew I was stronger and I kept the other girls from eating her alive...”

Brandon went to intercede at this point. “Ann..” he started to argue, knowing the woman was just speaking cruel and hiding her feelings.

“Regardless...” Ann quickly called over him casting him a steely look. “Soon enough two years had passed and it became clear that I was exceptionally gifted in the Manipulation of Mana and when it came to the my future in the Brotherhood I was slated to be one of the strongest Sisters in the Base, and just above me in power and status there was Eric Aron...the Grand Masters chosen protégé and adopted ward....”

Ann’s face clouded and her eyes danced with sadness. “I don’t know what came over me when I met this one boy, but I swear it was like all my priorities shifted...” Ann sighed hard and flexed her hands in a half shrug.

“I am not so foolish to say it was love at first sight or anything like that...but when I saw Eric and witnessed his power and station even at so young an age I felt great...greed overcome me. I wanted to stand equal with him. I wanted to be just as popular and respected as Eric, and because I was so strong we both became fast friendly rivals....But behind me trailed insipid little Melda, and Melda was anything but exceptional. In fac, as if she wasn’t already a waste of Mana, Melda had decided that she refused to use her Mana at all!”

Uh-oh...

Brandon thought privately not liking where this story was going at all and even though it was clear that Ann’s childhood friend had died long ago, he still felt great tension growing as Ann told the tale of her demise.

“Eventually there came the time when in order for us to determine the physical power of Novices as well as determine who would be taken by which teachers to trained in more advanced level of Mana, which meant that we had to establish power among us thus....the First Game of our lives was launched...”

“The Games were celebrated by the blood of children spilled...”