Past the prisoners, just a few winding halls over, Orvana led them down into a small room which eerily resembled a nursery. There were empty cribs and knitted dolls scattered around, wooden toy horses and frilly plush pillows sitting on blankets all decorating the room like staged ornaments. It was odd, and Lavimo couldn’t help but feel disturbed. Why did this woman have an underground nursery right next to a prison? And to make things more unsettling, looking around, he couldn’t find any actual kids… until Orvana clapped her hands once, and from behind the soft curtains that were hung up in the corners, mindless children walked out like zombies on leashes as the woman gestured, reaching out to ruffle the closest child’s hair.
“What… what did you do to them?” Lavimo wavered, the oldest of the children looking around seventy years old while the youngest was around three. Anyone under the age of one hundred was recognized as a child in their plane of existence, even if you stopped growing in your mid-twenties, because ever since immortality became a concept everyone practiced, the human brain began to develop slower and slower until the teenage years became prolonged by decades, sometimes even centuries. Lavimo had been told before that his mind was developing slower thanks to the trauma he bore from losing everything so young, and that by ancient human standards of a time before immortality was a thing everyone had, he’d be considered to mentally be around seventeen or eighteen years old. But all of these children were so much younger than him… all looking towards Orvana with blank faces, as if they ran on nothing else but her words.
Though the woman just laughed at his question, as if she found it stupid. Orvana twirled on her black heel as she swung her cane around, facing him with outstretched arms with a deceivingly benevolent smile. “Oh, haven’t you pieced it together already? Darling child of mine, my sweet, young, innocent Lavimo, have you not gathered what my power is yet? You’ve almost been ensnared several times, mind you.”
“Mind control,” Haven hissed out, instinctively going to harshly grab Lavimo’s arm as they dug nails into his dark skin, leaving indents in his flesh as if to make sure he wasn’t enslaved. “You have the concept of mind control.”
“Well, that’s not exactly what it is, but you’re close enough, I suppose,” Orvana laughed, moving to pat another child’s hair when she summoned her closer. “Honestly, why don’t I just go ahead and tell you? It won’t change the outcome I’ve seen of your futures. One of my many concepts, the one I have used to ensnare all these children, is known as the concept of the marionette. I insert my strings into the minds of the weak, and they become my precious dolls. And honestly, don’t you think children are so much easier to handle that way?” she sneered, snatching the head of a young child who looked not a day over fifteen, clutching him by the chin as she traced long painted nails against his throat.
“I… I thought you were trying to make yourself sound good! Didn’t you want to recruit me?!” Lavimo snapped, feeling completely sick as he looked around at all the children. Was there any way he could save them? Was it even possible to restore their minds? He didn’t know enough about how Orvana’s concept functioned. How did the concept of the marionette even work? She must need to meet certain conditions and criteria to plant the strings into the minds of unsuspecting people. But what could those be? He looked around desperately, meeting eyes with one of the children that was staring at him so dully, not a single thought behind their eyes.
But no matter how much pain he felt for them, Orvana still didn’t look all that bothered, shoving the child away by his head as he obediently walked a few paces back as she chuckled fondly to herself. “Oh, you are a foolish one, Lavimo. The goal today was never to recruit you. It was merely to start the chain of domino effects that I saw in my visions that all undoubtedly begin with you being here. I am the greatest oracle to have ever lived, after all, so I know for certain that you’ve already fallen into this trap of mine, and that you will never get out. You’ve already experienced what I wanted you to.”
“And what exactly was that?” Lavimo bit out through gritted teeth, mind still running for answers as he looked at all of the brainwashed children. How was he supposed to save all these people? The five prisoners, these kids… how was he supposed to do all of that? Maybe if Kallan and Artemis were also here... except he was alone with Haven. Could just the two of them accomplish all of those feats? Were these children even savable in the first place, or was it a pointless effort to even try? If only he knew more…
Orvana must've found his angry pondering funny, her cackling laughter shooting fury through him as Lavimo gave her a deep glare, the woman tapping her cane on the solid stone ground with dramatic poise. “You don’t need to know. But anyways, I was still talking. You must be wondering if these children can be turned back to normal, yes?” she smiled, as if reading his mind from its very core. Maybe he really was just that easy to read, and Lavimo held his breath as Orvana’s smile tightened. “Well, it is possible, yes. You must remove my strings. Do you want to know how to do that, Lavimo?”
“I don’t know. Are you going to tell me the truth?” he retorted, Orvana’s smile turning amused as she gestured to the closest child.
“Here. Let me show you how. Come look at me, my dear,” she explained, carefully caressing the child’s face as the young little girl turned up to look at Orvana, wide yellow eyes open and recipient as the woman itching under her chin. “Such a good girl you are. It’s a shame you’re so disposable, you could’ve grown up to be a beautiful and strong young woman,” she grinned, before her sharp black nail jutted from her finger and shot straight through the little girl’s throat. She must have only been seven or eight, still small and fragile as her soft tan skin got skewered, blood choking from her mouth as red trickled down her chin. And the moment her life started fading, a spark came back to her bright yellow eyes, the little girl suddenly looking around in terror as her arms moved to claw at the nail stuck in her throat, pained and gargled cries escaping her as tears slipped down her cheeks. All before the nail sliced her head clean off without any struggle, the girl’s body collapsing with a painful thud as blood pooled around her on the ground, the stench of iron filling the room while Orvana smiled.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
And Haven had to restrain Lavimo once again when he tried to rush over to help in any possible way, aggressively pulling the back of his black ponytail as they elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t be stupid! She’ll kill you if you go over there!! We’re here for information, not to save some damned kids!!”
“You… you don’t get it,” Lavimo sputtered, clutching onto Haven’s shoulder, but Orvana merely shook her head as she clicked her tongue.
“Actually, I think they get it far better than you do. The only way to free these children is to put them into a near death situation. Death is the only escape,” she smiled, before her long black nail retracted back into itself as she lifted it to her rosy glossed lips. “Of course, that also means that if you kill me, the children will be freed just the same. Without me to control them as my precious puppets, they will inevitably return to normal, just as they were before. So, my sweet darling children, do you think you can kill me? Do you think you have the skill?”
“We don’t,” Haven snapped before Lavimo could even think of saying anything, stepping in front of him as their vines continued to have a tight hold on his arms and waist, not letting him succumb to irrationality as they faced the cruel woman. “So why haven’t you killed us yet? You clearly can, and we haven’t teleported away. What’s stopping you?”
“Hahah… oh? What’s stopping me?” the grinned, tilting her face into her hand as she cupped her cheek, violet eyes staring slyly at them before she let out a long, dreamy sigh. “Oh, well… that’s because I need Lavimo alive. We all do, you see,” she relented, lips curving before she dropped her cane into the nearest kid's hands, the tall child taking it dutifully as she began walking herself forward, eyes becoming wider and more openly monstrous as Haven backed themselves and Lavimo away, the two taking quick steps backwards as Orvana came ever closer, before a clawed hand took Haven by their chest and threw them backwards, her long black nails cutting their vines to shreds before they were suddenly pinned against the wall, coughing and sputtering as their brain felt like it'd just been knocked around in their skull. And she leaned in as close to Lavimo as she possibly could, towering over him with her height as she retracted her nails and gently cupped his chin, eyes wide and soulless as she smiled cruelly, “Because you are the harbinger of corruption, my sweet Lavimo. You will destroy everything around you, and everyone you have ever loved will see you as an uncontrollable monster. You will walk the path of destruction and corruption, and everything you touch will turn to ash.”
“No… no it won’t—” he stuttered, somehow stuck in place as fear glued his feet to the ground, Orvana’s grip becoming tighter as her nails began to gently prick at his dark skin.
“Oh, but it will, my sweet harbinger. You will corrupt yourself and everything you touch, just as the future I have seen has predicted. There is no avoiding your fate.”
“That’s not true… I would never do something like that! I... I won’t do that, I wouldn't…” his mind stumbled over itself, visions shooting into his brain as he began to hallucinate.
His family... his father, his three older sisters, his older sibling… his mother who killed herself at the loss of so much of her kin... Osiris, the elder brother who he hadn’t seen in over two decades. He had been abandoned by all the family he had. His planet, ruined and broken, destroyed and corrupted, nothing left but a wasteland of black ash and white sky with a ruined landscape and a black sun… he had nothing left. No place to call his home. His title as the crown prince of his planet meant nothing, he wasn’t respected by his superiors, he held no weight in the world. His life meant nothing. If he were to die, who would be left to care?
Visions of his past flew into his mind of days when he was happy. Laughing with his father, sharing tea with his mother, wrestling with his siblings, being taught how to wield a sword by his eldest sister. So many memories, all long gone. Those memories belonged to a world that had been corrupted centuries ago, sheets of happy faces cracking in his vision. They no longer mattered now. He was the only one who remembered them, the only one who carried his family’s memories with him. He wanted to have it all back, to embrace his mother and be picked up and spun around by his father… to spar with his sisters, brother, and sibling one last time… to have them show him a new skill and let him win just to be kind… one last time, one last time… just once more, just one more time before he—
And he tore himself from Orvana’s hand and ran, the memories suffocating him as he crashed himself into a wall, stumbling over his twisted feet. He couldn’t even see two steps in front of him, fumbling down the hall as he escaped her hold, running from the memories that wretched woman was making him relive. Memories he’d been trying to forget, because he knew he’d never get them back. Because he knew he’d never be able to make new ones with those people ever again, which meant it was better to drown it all within the depths of his mind to fester and rot until looking back became too blurry to comprehend.
He was the sole survivor of his family. Even Osiris had been adopted. Lavimo was the only one remaining who carried Viscendant’s royal blood. And yet no one else found that important. No one else saw him trying to keep his family’s name and legacy alive. He was the only one who could do that, because he was the only one left. But no one saw that, did they? All they saw was the last person who had survived the collapse of a broken planet who was inexperienced and immature. They didn't see anything worth looking at in him. And as his hand brushed against the wall, Lavimo missed it when part of the stone cracked and turned black under his touch, ash crumbling off as he stumbled forward obliviously. Because no one had seen the signs. No one had paid him any attention. The sole survivor of a corrupted world… someone who’s life had been stripped away from them and replaced with broken things and a home long gone… was that not the perfect recipe for the concept of corruption to take root? Such a susceptible child, so filled with hurt, misery, and resentment… were those not qualities someone would need to develop such a destructive concept in the first place?
you think?
(This poll will not affect the plot in any way).
Should I give Lavimo more trauma or free therapy?
