Lily's POV (Unnamed Sorcerer)
I woke up groggy and parched. My throat was scraped raw, with a massive headache pounding behind my eyes.
I tried to sit up but winced as a sharp pain stabbed into the crown of my head.
"You're safe," Priya's saccharine voice pierced through my haze, my vision suddenly becoming clearer. She was bent over my injured body, running her glowing palm above it. It shone with a dull golden light–the hallmark of Reversed Cursed Technique.
I opened my mouth to speak, but only a hoarse nothing came out.
"Drink," she said, offering me a cup of water mixed with honey. It slid down my throat, providing instant relief.
I groaned.
"Take your time," Priya said, and I did.
"W-What happened?"
"You got your ass handed to you, is what!" someone chortled from the opposite side of the bed. He was leaning against the private room's wall. George Keller. I turned my head and flipped him off. He was a teeanger a year older with jet-black hair, a swimmer's physique, and more power than sense. An eyepatch covered his left eye.
"I can't believe you got stomped by a fifteen-year-old baby sorcerer."
Priya shot him a stern look. "Fetch her a plate. She needs her strength back."
George blinked. "Fat chance."
Priya's eyes only grew harder. "If you insist on restarting your juvenile mudslinging the second she's awake, the least you can do is make yourself useful."
George opened his mouth but shut it.
Priya was the first of the devotees. Artisan had recruited her in Japan, of all places. Her father had been in the American military stationed there when Artisan found her.
Priya never fit into Japanese society for obvious reasons—pigmentation. They weren't subtle with their racism. So, when she put a knife through the eye of some rich industrialist's son who'd tried to rape her, Priya expected to spend the rest of her life in prison. There hadn't been much her father could do either.
But Artisan showed up the night before sentencing, offering her a lifeline. She took it. That was nearly twelve years ago.
She'd become the de facto matron of our little outfit. The woman in charge when Artisan was otherwise preoccupied—which was often.
Growing up, she'd always insisted she wasn't much of a fighter, but I'd seen her decapitate ten men with a single swipe of her scalpel. Her technique was a death sentence once it touched you. And though George, like the rest of us, got drunk on his own power, none of us ever dared challenge her.
"Fine," he finally muttered. "Can't keep ragging on her with an empty stomach."
He stomped off.
"He stayed by your side the entire time," Priya said once he was out of earshot. "He and Gina checked in on you every chance they got. Misha and Aidan too."
"Nothing from Shelim, huh?"
"Artisan has him very busy," she said. "She has us all busy. Blockbuster Venom was successful. Recruitment is ramping up. You should all receive your physical enhancement any day now."
"I bet that has George doing laps," I snorted.
"Aidan tries to hide it, but he's excited too," Priya said with a warm smile.
"Boys and their muscles."
"Says the girl who could've used more of it herself."
George returned with a tray, his twin sister Gina trailing behind him. She was the superior Keller in so many obvious ways. Raven-black hair, flawless face, dynamite figure. She even made the eyepatch covering her right eye work for her.
There was a softness in her piercing blue eyes that made me dizzy, and I was only half-sure it wasn't just the healing.
Not wanting to seem eager, I turned my attention back to George.
"Eat a dick. The intel said he was Second Grade. I was going to a city. I thought Kathy and Tobey should've been enough."
"Then what happened?" Gina asked.
"And don't say some bullshit like he hit a Black Flash and got an epiphany," George said, setting the tray in front of me. Chicken soup, some veggies, Jell-O, and orange juice. "Shelim is already gassing the kid up."
My cheeks flushed in embarassment, anger, and a bit of regret. I took a tentative sip of my soup. It was a far more appetizing prospect than explaining what happened.
I took several more sips before George lost his patience, a vein bulging out the side of his neck.
"Well?"
Just to spite him, I took a long sip of my juice.
"Funny you should mention Shelim, but he was right," I began slowly. "The kid is a freak. His developed an extension technique right in front of me, and his Cursed Energy control reched the edge of Second-Grade during our fight," I said, "but that wasn't what tripped me up, it was everything else about him. He knew about what happened between Artisan and his dead father."
George and Gina exchanged looks while Priya blinked.
"I can see convincing him would prove difficult..."
"I'll say," George snorted.
"His technique was also a lot better than I anticipated. It withstood a full roar from Kathy, and almost didn't break. I've leveled buildings with that kind of force. But it was his ridiculous grab-bag of weapons that made the him truly dangerous."
Gina remained inconvinced. "All things you should've expected from somebody with his pedigree," Gina said. "You're special Grade, you could've ended the fight with one move."
"And I would've...if I caught the Venom in time," I said slowly and Gina and Priya made a face.
"He injected himself with the unrefined formula?" Priya seemed repulsed. "The damage it wreaks on the psyche alone."
"He took to it like fish to water," I said, bitterly. "It was like fighting a first grade after that."
George barked a laugh. "Fucking smart. Would've done the same thing."
"I can see why you could've struggled briefly, but you had Kathy and his enhancement would've lasted minutes at most."
"He had a grenade waiting, and a seemingly endlesss supply of medieval weapons," I said. "Kathy went down fast." I narrated the rest of the fight, giving them the play by play, even admitting my own mistakes. Priya, in particular, seemed impressed that that he'd managed to hold on so long after I tore out his guts, and Gina was more impressed by his Cursed Energy Reinforcement and recovery.
"He was something else," I muttered. "It was like what I imagined fighting the founder would feel like..."
I'd spoken before I could stop myself.
The Founder was taboo.
Only a few in the organization had met him, and they belonged to the First Generation—the First and Second Grades Artisan created before she started pushing for perfection.
Before us.
"You've had a long few days," Priya said quickly, alleviating some of the quickly mounting pressure. "I think you should rest."
"Come on," George rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me we're doing that thing again where we pretend some dead guy's the devil. So what if his kid is half-decent. He doesn't have Six Eyes or real world-shakers like we do? If anything, we should be glad he's good. All the better for us when we break him and drag him over to our side," he grinned, cracking his knuckles. "After Blockbuster Venom, it won't even be fair."
I allowed myself a small smile as Gina slapped her brother's shoulder. "He's not yours to break. He's Lily's."
George looked at me and, in a rare show of solidarity, inclined his head. His cheeks flushed. "Uh...Naturally, you get first dibs. But I'll be happy to share."
My lips curled into a full, deep smile. "Don't worry. I'll leave enough of him for you to take turns. I'm going after him with my strongest beasties. The empathetic approach was clearly a mistake."
"See that you succeed this time," Priya said, rising from her chair beside me. "There will be no third chance."
Her words hung above me like a guillotine. I was sure nothing bad would happen to me. After all, I was too valuable, but still I feared the consequences of failure.
Artisan wasn't the forgiving sort and neither was Priya.
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