The slave woke up.
Still drowsy, she saw Marianne beside her and got scared, tried to run away from her but stumbled and fell to the ground.
"No! No! Please don't rape me, please no!" She yelled desperately trying to crawl away.
"You don't need to worry about that, I'm a woman like you," Marianne said, showing the shape of her chest inside the cloak.
The slave looked confused, what was a woman doing there? Then she remembered the warrior who had saved her, it must have been her!
"Put this on, you'll be more comfortable," Marianne said, throwing her a long shirt that had belonged to the camp guards, given the small stature of the slave it would fit her like a dress.
"If you want to talk I'll wait for you outside," Marianne said and left the tent.
The slave put on the shirt, and it fitted down to her knees, she wanted to escape from that place, so she dug the ground under the edge of the tent and managed to get an opening, when she was getting ready to get out through it she heard a voice coming from the other side: "if you want to become stronger, that's the wrong way."
She didn't listen, didn't care, just wanted to get out of there.
She was about to go over the edge when some words made her stop: "Don't you want to stop feeling... afraid?"
The slave's hands shook... she gave up on running away, she remained prostrate on her knees for some long moments looking at the dirt floor.
Suddenly she turned and headed out of the tent through the normal entrance.
"I hate you! I hate you!" she yelled at the woman who was sitting outside the tent on top of a severed log.
"You stole my chance to get revenge on those fuckers," she screamed furiously, then picked up a stone that was lying on the ground and threw it in the direction of her savior to show how much she despised her.
The woman sitting on the log made a robotic gesture with her hand and caught the stone in mid-flight right in front of her face.
"I like your attitude, so far you haven't shown much of it. Forget revenge child, just worry about surviving."
"Don't call me a child! You don't look much older than me!" The slave replied.
"I didn't mean to offend you, it's a strange habit I have."
"Why are you even helping me? What's in it for you?" The slave asked suspiciously.
"I don't need to earn anything, I'm trying to free this world from the tyranny of the oppressors, you have a strong spirit, you could help in this task if you wanted."
"Really? So let me see if I heard correctly: I can contribute to freeing this world. Are you crazy or what? Have you taken a good look at me? I'm pathetic and fragile, I can't even free myself, let alone others!"
"Look at yourself, didn't you notice anything strange?" The woman asked, pointing to the slave's body.
"Hmm, is there something strange with my body? I don't see anything..." the slave said, feeling her body with her hands.
"Well, that's right, there's nothing strange about your body, do you feel your skin? Is it sore? Does something hurt? Do you have any bruises?"
Now that she realized it, the slave found it strange that her hand didn't feel any pain in her body, the last time she remembered there wasn't a single place on her body that didn't hurt, what had happened to all her injuries? She felt nothing when she touched it with her hands.
She touched the genital area with her hand and felt a touch of pleasure, but there was no pain, that was where it hurt her the most before.
"What the fuck? How long was I unconscious? It must have been months..."
"You've been sleeping for two days..."
"But what are you saying? Two days?! The wounds I had wouldn't heal in two days..."
"The wounds you had weren't going to heal, you were going to die from the infection, well, if you were a normal human being that is..."
The slave was speechless, that couldn't be true, wasn't she a normal human being? She had never heard such nonsense.
"You have a powerful spirit within you, it just hasn't fully manifested itself yet."
"This is all bullshit, fuck you! Go to hell! Spirits don't exist, there are only the strong and the weak, and I belong to the last of the last."
"I can prove to you that spirits exist," the woman said, rising from the log seat.
"See that tree over there? I'm going to hit it with your stone," she said, pointing to a hill outside the camp.
The slave looked in the direction the woman pointed, there was a tree on a hill outside the camp, it must have been a good half mile away.
"That's ridiculous! It's too far away!" The unbelieving slave barked in disbelief.
The movement took the slave by surprise, the woman threw the stone towards the tree outside the camp, she did it with so much energy that the stone not only reached the tree but also pierced it and got lost in the sky.
The slave had fallen to the floor, now she was trembling at the glimpse of the power displayed by her rescuer.
The woman's arm that had been used in the throw was now covered in a mesh of black lines, the muscles were tense, and the slave had never seen a human arm like that.
"Do you believe now? This is the power of a spirit, these exoskeleton lines give you superhuman strength," the woman said, showing her mighty arm.
The woman offered her arm to get up, it was normal now, the lines were gone.
"I can give you advice for you to have a chance to survive in this world, you just have to listen to me."
"O...kay..." the slave mumbled.
"Lesson number 1: Your spirit is not normal, it is the spirit of an ancient queen. If you can control it, you will be hundreds of times stronger than me."
The slave hardly believed her ears.
"That brings us to Lesson #2."
The slave was surprised when the woman hugged her, she immediately felt discomfort, her body was rejecting that touch, and she was shaking uncontrollably.
"What are you doing? Let go of me! You're hurting me..."
"No, I'm being very gentle, that's your body associating touch with pain, but not all touches need to be painful, some can be very rewarding," the woman said running her fingers through the slave's hair, gently cuddling the back of the head under the hair.
"Try to relax, this is lesson number two: having the spirit of an ancient queen is both a gift and a curse, when you feel that your humanity is being extinguished, that it is sucking your soul, remember this hug."
The slave tried to mimic the gesture and attempted to cuddle the woman's hair, but her hands found only bandages.
"Oh, sorry, wait, I'll get it out," the woman said pulling her hair out of the bandages with one hand, without breaking the hug.
The slave could then touch her savior's hair, it was long, soft, wavy, smooth yet wild, had a golden color, and was hypnotic, she put her hands inside it, that feeling was so different from the brutal touches that her captors had given her. A long bang of golden hair was leaning against her cheek, She could feel the other heart beating, the cozy heat of the bodies, the soft caresses on the back of her head, for the first time in her life she felt loved, the slave closed her eyes and cried, after the initial revulsion, she no longer wanted that moment to end.
Marianne knew she had made it. Lesson number two was the most important one in protecting humanity from her protégé.
The worst was soon to follow: lesson number three, reserved for her alone. She knew that embrace was immensely risky, being so close to such a powerful spirit was almost suicidal. However, that spirit had not yet manifested itself, which in itself was a total mystery. Apparently, the ordeal the slave had gone through wasn't enough to awaken it, could it be that those spirits were different? Did they require some kind of sacrifice or something? Marianne didn't know.
As far as she knew, the ancient queens had originally been human, they were original human spirits, who had taken over the world in an age when the spirits of the natural world were dominant.
The most powerful warriors possessed forest, wind, or fire spirits. One day the human beings that are now known as queens appeared and made everything else seem insignificant. At least that's what the legends said.
Spirits normally manifested at birth, unlike the spirits of the natural world, which were originally pure and later became malevolent under the influence of the wielder, the spirits of ancient queens were originally malevolent. If the wielder's original spirit was not strong enough, it was absorbed, and that person would lose all humanity, leaving only the essence of the invading spirit, these people would become cruel and merciless.
People who somehow managed to retain their humanity achieved something incredible: controlled power.
The fact of having discovered that spirit before it manifested itself was a unique opportunity to prepare the bearer before she lost control, it was too good to be true, Marianne was suspicious of such easiness...
Marianne scrutinized the slave's soul, looking for anything that stood out. She was ready to end that hug at the slightest sign of danger.
She suddenly felt a pair of hands come out of nowhere and grab her, shit, it was too fast, too without warning, Marianne knew she had made a terrible mistake. She should have been able to anticipate this outcome, how could she have thought that she could control that situation? That aura was beyond anything she had felt before, that queen was simply too powerful for her to toy with.
Marianne expected an instantaneous death of both her spirits and in consequence, of her physical body, somehow she did not have any regrets, her goal had been accomplished, and she was ready to die, however to her surprise, she was still conscious of herself. The hands had deviated from her sides and were now... hugging her?!
Just as she was hugging the slave in real life, she was also being hugged in that spiritual limbo.
She could see the form of the spirit, it was feminine, with endless long hair, and fine and elegant features: a timeless beauty. A residual image from when that being had had a physical body, hundreds of years ago.
Marianne seemed to hear a whisper coming from the end of time, that seemed to echo through all ages: "Oh...! So many... without seeing you…"
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