The Lost

Ginny had been left alone for so long. Doom had never returned to tell Helios to stop and when the others had been broken out, no one could overpower Helios so she had been left behind. They brought her food and water which Helios would **** feed her as part of Doom's instructions not to kill her. Her body hung limp between Helios and the wall as he continued to pump into her. Her entire lower body had gone numb at some point and she no longer felt pain from the constant pistoning of Helios' cock into her body.

She hears a voice and it barely registers in her mind, "do you hear something? Kind of rhythmic... clanging?" the voice speaks. Ginny is basically braindead at this point, having retreated so far into her own mind she is basically a simple shell.

"What the fuck!" one of the voices speaks as they enter the prison area and see her, Helios still pumping into her.

"Oh my god is she alive?" the other asks.

"She is..." the first states approaching warily and moving a hand to touch her neck, feeling a pulse.

"How do we save her?" the other asks.

"I don't know... Let's get the Queen!" the first yells and they leave.

They come back a bit later this time with Alkadabuki accompanying them. She takes one look at the situation and then cleaves Helios in half. As Helios finally shuts down and his pumping cock stops Ginny lets out a groan, the cessation of what had been a constant finally shaking her from her shell, just slightly. She feels hands grab her and then she's held in a grip. A pair of soft and large breasts pressing against her as she's carried.

"Get a healer," Alkadabuki states as she cradles the tiny halfling woman in her arms, "she's going to need a lot of help,"

Espia Lanoche had packed a bag and was ready to get out of the city. It wasn't safe here, the place was crawling with Alkadabuki's horde and while for the moment no one suspected her she didn't want to stay here for long. She headed out towards the gate, stopping for a moment to marvel at it. It had been broken so completely, she couldn't believe Alkadabuki's strength. She proceeded forward and was stopped by the two barbarian men at the gate's remains.

"Where are you going, girl?" one asked her and she responded calmly.

"To Lar Imara. I'm from there. Initially I fled here when it was conquered and ended up trapped in the city when the darkness' forces took over. I was hoping now that things were fixed I could return home," she lied easily. She had chosen the name of the city attached to the Western Stronghold after all she had claimed to come from there to trick the soldiers of Saluma initially, no reason to change her story now. The Barbarians look at each other.

"Right, you're the one who showed up... the... escapee who warned the city of the coming invasion," one says and Espia tenses imperceptibly. They know about the story she'd told, she'd have to be careful.

"I... thought I'd escaped, yes. I've since realized that I had been manipulated, they had allowed me to escape, seemingly intending to trick the Royal Army out of Saluma. I feel guilt for my part in things, but I hadn't realized. I was just **** and scared," she explains, sprinkling in some truth to bolster the lie. Casting her glance aside to play up her sense of guilt.

"You know... Come with us first. We need to talk to you a bit. We just want to get the full story," one of them says and Espia inwardly curses as she outwardly nods and follows the two of them to the guard post. She's taken inside and brought to a room with a table and two chairs. She is told to sit and does so as one of the barbarians stands behind her and the other moves to sit across from her.

"I'll be... happy to tell you anything you need to know," she says and the barbarian across from her nods.

"Glad to hear it, we only really have one question," he says and Espia inwardly begins to panic. Her hand moves to her lap, squeezing her thigh nervously.

"What question would that be?" she asks.

"Why did you open the gate for the invaders?" he asks casually.

"Excuse me?" she asks.

"Oh please... You think no one saw you?" he asks, "you're not that good,"

She sighs and leans forward placing one hand down on the table, "I didn't think no one saw me. I thought everyone who saw me was dead," she responds, dropping the act.

He laughs, "Well the person who told us about you said he was a guard on the wall. I guess you and your friends missed one," he says and Espia glances aside as she squeezes her thigh again harder, her nails digging into the skin and drawing blood.

"So, what happens now?" she asks and he nods to the other one and she feels hands grip her shoulders tightly and she pulls her hand back from her thigh, trails of blood following her hand and in the air the blood turns into darts that suddenly launch at the barbarian across from her. He is surprised and the darts hit his throat stabbing in and he coughs and chokes as the blood darts sink into his neck. The one holding her is stunned by what just happened and she uses the blood leaking from his friend's neck to create scythe-like blades that launch at the one holding her. He releases her to dodge and she stands and blood swirls in the air around her as she turns to him.

"What the fuck are you?" he asks staring at her in confusion and fear. She puts out a hand and the blood forms a dagger in her hand as she approaches. He draws a sword and slashes at her, but the floating blood creates a shield that blocks the blow as she slashes the dagger across his throat.

He drops to his knees clutching his throat, "I'm a spy," Espia states and the blood falls splattering on the ground around her as she walks past him and exits the building. She walks with purpose, wanting to get out of the gate as soon as possible now.

She escapes from the city and heads a distance out into the desert before it hits her. Blood Magic is a forbidden magic and there are repercussions for its use. She drops to her knees and hugs herself as she feels pain lancing through her. Blood Magic requires channeling mana into the blood being used. As a result it's considered unsafe to use your own blood, mana can affect how the blood travels through your body. Right now Espia is suffering the side effects. She feels the pain settling in her hand and holds her hand out, watching as it rapidly grows pale and becomes numb. She shudders knowing that her hand is effectively dead now, it's better than the alternative. If blood flow to her brain or heart had been affected she'd likely die without medical attention. She lets her arm fall to her side, ignoring the awful sensation of being unable to feel her hand and continues out further into the desert looking for somewhere safe to stay.

Isidora stands, feeling the uncertain wood of the trap door beneath her feet and the coarse rope tied around her throat. On the gibbet with her are Maja, Ina and Lara. Meya and Liyu are also here. Maja looks out defiantly at the crowd. Her chest pressed out proudly. They'd gagged her after she wouldn't stop screaming insults. Ina looks scared. She has tears in her eyes. Lara looks confused and scared. Ever since Raig died his charm has vanished from her. She has no memory of how she got here and it seemed no one was willing to listen to her pleas. Meya was still trying to beg through her gag, she'd yelled that she was a child of Runa, a friend of the light, but they weren't listening. Liyu was just staring down, resigned to her fate.

For her part Isidora just thinks about her mother. She never knew her actual mother. She had been born in an Orc warren shortly before it had been raided by servants of the light. Led by a heroine named Clara Maple. After all the orcs were killed they found baby Isidora all alone with her dead mother. Most of them wanted to simply kill her, but Clara decided to take her and raise her as her own. She'd named her Isidora Bell Maple and raised her as her own daughter. Teaching her to fight and she'd even accompanied her on a few missions, helping to slay the creatures of darkness.

No matter what she did, however, the people never trusted her. They believed that she was just an orc. A violent and bloodthirsty monster and she always would be. Only her mother, Clara Maple, believed in her. Isidora loved her and she saw the things they fought. Creatures that would **** and **** indiscriminately. Her mother found Isidora one day. Crying and bloodied, some of the children in the village had beaten her and she asked her mother why they hated her and Clara had explained it to her.

Isidora learned about Orcs, learned that she was born to creatures like those they had been killing. The people believed that it was in her nature to be the same, a monster, but Clara told her she wasn't, she didn't have to be. Isidora had cried for a while after that, she wasn't sure what she was. She wanted to be the person her mother thought she was. A hero like her, but... she couldn't shake the feelings that welled up inside her. She grew angrier and every time she was bullied she had to resist the urge to kill them.

One day she did fight back and easily broke one of the other kid's arms. This didn't exactly help her reputation in the town. Her mother understood, but explained that she couldn't do that anymore and when Isidora asked what she was supposed to do, her mother couldn't give her an answer. This uncertainty unfortunately just fed the anger and confusion inside of Isidora and she became something of a delinquent. She lashed out at the people around her and the growing rage and confusion inside of her and simply hurt her reputation further.

She felt awful every time she saw the disappointment in her mother's eyes. Someday even she would give up on her she thought and that only made her more angry.

One day one of the kids who bullied her was found murdered. Immediately everyone in the town blamed Isidora. She was **** to flee from the town. She hid in the forest nearby for a bit. Time passed as she hid in the forest and the people found her. She spotted them moving through the forest searching for her and leading them was her mother.

Her heart broke. Her own mother was leading a lynch party to come kill her. It had finally happened, her mother had lost faith in her. With that her rage overtook her. She grabbed her sword and attacked in a blind rage. She caught them by surprise and killed some of them before they were able to even realize what was happening.

"If they all believed her a monster then she'd be one," was her thought. She saw the look of shock and horror on her mother's face as she recognized her and then their swords clashed.

"Isi, stop!" her mother commanded, but she was too far gone to listen and she continued to attack. Her mother was focused on defending herself and refused to attack or counter and eventually Isidora pushed through her mother's defenses and plunged her sword through her mother's chest. As the blade sank into her, Isidora's senses returned and she looked at her mother, impaled on the end of her sword. She let go of the sword and staggered back, horrified by what she'd just done and her mother dropped to her knees, "I... Came to find you..." she said weakly as Isidora merely stared in horror. "It wasn't you... I knew it wasn't you," she continued.

"M-Mom! I'm sorry I didn't mean too!" Isidora screamed as she ran to her mother's side.

"I know you didn't mean to... I know... this isn't you... You're not a monster... You're my little hero..." she said and then died. Isidora had killed her mother. She learned later that they had discovered that the kid had actually been murdered by one of the townspeople, a serial killer. Her mother had been leading some of the villagers to come and **** them to apologize to Isidora for wrongfully accusing her.

Isidora took her sword and her mother's and left. She didn't want to live anymore, despite her mother's words she couldn't think of herself as anything else, but a monster. She threw herself into combat, killing monsters, humans and anything else in between. Truthfully she was just looking to die, but she also enjoyed fighting. Giving in to her rage lets her forget her guilt and sorrow. Eventually she became a soldier for Drakmir and that eventually led her to this moment. She sighed as she looked at the executioner. The punishment she'd waited for her whole life was finally upon her. The screams and jeers of the crowd echoed in her mind until one voice called out above the others.

"Wait-" and then the trapdoor below her feet opened and she fell, feeling the rope tightening around her neck.

Olivia was breathing heavily as they came upon the wrecked remains of the southern Stronghold. Autumn and Seraphine looked equally startled by the destruction. "What could have done this?" Autumn asked horrified and Olivia didn't have an answer. There were corpses around, but it was arguably a good sign. They seemed to be Drakmir soldiers, so hopefully whoever did this was allied with the light. Regardless it meant there wouldn't be any more obstacles on their way to Mnemaria. Olivia smiles.

"This is it then. You can safely get to Mnemaria from here. There should be an outpost not far from here. Good luck," Olivia says to the two women.

"You're not coming?" Autumn asks and Olivia hesitates and slides open her robe showing her chest. The skin is red and raw there, tears starting to appear in the flesh, her beating heart almost fully visible.

"I'm not going to make it much longer..." she admits and Autumn and Seraphine both look horrified.

"Thank you... for everything," Seraphine says and then puts her arm around Autumn and begins to walk her through the broken gates towards safety in Mnemaria. Olivia sighs and turns back to the broken stronghold and heads to the commander's office. She goes to the bed and lays down on it, thinking about the lovely nights she'd spent with Ursa in her own bed at the western stronghold. She feels tears in her eyes as she touches her hands to her chest and her fingers sink into the weak flesh there. Her hand reaches in and touches her heart. She can feel it beating and knows the damage is too much, it won't beat much longer, she can stop it right now. She begins to squeeze and feel pain rush through her. She grits her teeth and tries to continue, but eventually she stops. She can't do it. She lays instead on the bed and simply waits for her body to finally die.