I came down through corridor whistling happily and rolling bundle of keys around my finger.

“Hello, Jason, ready to get out?” I asked

He looked at me like on ghost. Like on divine ghost. Like on avatar of love, happiness, tits and wine

“Pinch me…” “Oh, you little perv! We don’t have time for that, maybe later, for now I would just take it off your neck, if you would allow me…”

He quickly turned around giving me better access to padlock. Few fast moves as his chains felt on the ground.

“Magic… my magic.. I can feel it responding…” he looked at me “Thank you, thank you!” “Not yet. You will thank me all you want when we would leave this bloody castle behind us… leaving nothing but ruins and scorched earth.” “You want to conquer it?! Are you mad? The two of us and this lady would never… unless…” “Old Bob told me some spicy info, he thought that I would never use them… apparently we are nothing more but addition in this castle, the whole fortification was raised for somebody else. And I intend to find her. But first things first. Let’s get twins and Pyrox on our side..” “You know that Pyrox is a madman and twins are… weird.” “That’s great. I don’t want reasonable people right now. I need lunatics, madmen, filled with hatred, pain, agony, grief and madness to unleash on their enemies. Now, come on! Let’s do something crazy.”

I came to the cell of twins

“Hello sunshine. Come to me…” “Sister, sister, that’s funny man from before.” “Brother, brother, he is not wearing a collar…” “Clever you! Come to me and I will take it off you too!” “Mister, mister, why would you to that?” “Because I am a good guy! And nothing makes me as angry as seeing such a young and talented kids in chains. You are wonderful birds, yet foolish humans that can’t fly have tied your wings. And I, I want to see you soar high in the sky…” “Sir, sir, but we can’t fly… we can only make dolls.” “Dolls?” “Pretty dolls! I make them for my sister, but she keeps breaking them!” “Brother, brother, because they are dirty in their heads! I don’t want dolls with dirty heads!”

Psionics. With ability to control minds. Referring to controlled humans as dolls? Amusing!

“You know what? What if we would kept looking for finest doll for Daria?”

They nodded eagerly. Their collars fell.

And then I felt them messing in my mind right away. They had to be connected, working as one. Usually when same spell is being casted by two mages it means that two mages simply chant the spell – two sources of mana and control in one manifestation. Here, they worked different. Boy did first half of the spell, and girl other half.

Boy would dominate the mind, force it to submission, kept it occupied, why girl would enter into empty head and take control over body. Then boy would leave the mind of the host, as it would have nowhere to return. They could only watch as their body is moving against their will.

But, you took wrong target, my loves. Indeed, presence of boy kept me occupied, I allowed him to try his best…

And then girl walked right into sin’s lair. She screamed.

“Brother! Brother! There is a monster living in his head!” “That’s how you repay for my kindness? I am… sad, my loves. So very sad. Maybe I should put those collars back on you?” “No! Please! Big brother! No! We will be nice! We will be polite! Please!” “So you will behave?” They nodded eagerly “What do you think, Jason, what should I do?”

And once again, twins didn’t want to let somebody else decide for themselves. I once again felt them starting a spell, but this time directed at Jason. I wanted to intervene, but it wasn’t necessary. My roommate handled the situation.

“Brother, brother something is wrong.” “The way you use your magic is lacking. You need to see your target. It means, that such photomancer like myself can easily fool you. I can bend the light, right now between you and me there is a semi-transparent mirror blocking your radiations. Your magic is powerful, but it is useless when you can’t land it on your target.” “Isn’t that ,magic from light domain? What were you doing among witches?” I raised my brow “One. I refused joining hunters, two – I felt in love with witch. They found out and killed her. And I admit, I could react in not most peaceful way...” “Ok, stop right here. I am sure that’s a great story, but keep it for night around fireplace, we would have sausages and stuff and talk creepy stories. For now… Pyyyy-rox!” “I AM ALL FIRED UP! BURN! BUURN!” “Pyrox, you wanna burn!?” “SCORCH IT TO THE GROUND!” “You wanna cook some witch hunters?” “BUUUUURN!” “Not yet!” “No ka-boom? NO KA-BOOM?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY NO KA-BOOM!” “Listen to me, I am addressing thinking part of your overheated brain. What would you rather to burn? One inquisitor? Or two inquisitors?” “TWO! TWOOO!” “Two, or whole squad?” “SQUAAAD!” “Squad or whole castle?”

His eyes widened and he started gasping.

“Listen to me, my little rampaging fire brother. We can make this whole place sparkling! But that requires you to be calm! At least for a moment or two. Can you promise me that? I will give you a sign, and then you can turn this place into hell!” “That’s… that will be…. SMOKIN’! So very HOT! You tell when, and Pyrox brings party! YOU DA BIG BOSS!” “Good boooy! Nooow, in that moment I introduce to you my sweet assistant, without whom this stunt could not be possible, Ay, honey, mind showing us the castle map?” “Stop talking to me like that! You will make me blush! It was nothing, I just had to steal the plans from other castle, fake myself identity and stole nun cloths, so they wouldn’t suspect a thing… speaking about nun’s robes, they are so bloody uncomfortable! And their underwear? A nightmare! It was stinging me in my butt… sooo, as outcome I am not wearing any pants! But that’s a secret so don’t tell it anyone!...” “Ay… plans.” “SILLY ME! Right here!” she put a piece of paper on the floor between us “As you can see, the castle have five blocks, sections or call it however you want. A – for pussy magician, caught merely on tricks with coins, B – magicians. Shitty, but magicians, C – here fun starts, can do a mess D –dangerous guyz, and S – crazy lunatics, monsters without sanity, kind of guyz you want to never meet…” “Ay, we are block S.” “I know! What, I said something untrue?” “Just… just continue.” “These section are making outside walls of the castle, creating such funny shape! Then, there is inside part of the castle, there are quarters of guards, kitchen… ya know, all those shits needed to life and prosper, and in the middle a chapel! As in every goddamned city of holies! They are so fucking bor…” “We are looking for the place where you would capture probably the most dangerous witch. If not in S block, then where?” Jason asked “Wait. Where would you locate prison?” I noticed something weird “In the middle. So prisoners, in case of escape would have hard time running away, could be seen by guards from all directions and…” “So, what were we doing on the outsides? If we would have a way, we could just jump off the walls and be free. Isn’t that…” “Weird.” “At least… wait what if… Ay, do you have something to write with? Coal, ink?”

Assassin moved her head few times as if trying to remember, then with [A-ha] she shoved her hand into her bosom and took small piece of ink vial with a feather

“…really?” “The feather tickles funny when I move and…” “I don’t want to hear about it! Anyway… look..” the outside walls – the blocks were forming something shaped like… pentagon , and torturer’s rooms were placed in the vertexes of the construction. If we would connect them in right order… “You see what I see?” “Pentagram… a force symbol. Those fuckers were using dark magic all this time! HAHA! Oh irony! It would mean that tortures rooms were being used as…” “Altars. They were feeding something with our pain… that’s blood magic, isn’t it?” “I am pretty sure… so, the question is, what our agony was fueling?” “Magic from vertexes of the pentagrams are usually transmitted to the middle… and in the middle is…” “Chapel. Of course. They hide a real prison in the middle, as they were supposed to. We really were but addition. Food. Fuel. To power a seal.” Jason was angry. Actually he was furious. But let’s just roll with word [Angry] “So, the holy-fucking priest used purest blood magic to keep a witch in check? Now tell me, who wants to meet her?”

I raised my her with excited grin… yet I was alone in my eagerness.

“How would we open it?” “We would pull the door’s handle!” “I am asking seriously.” “I answer seriously! Seriously? None of you read book about basic of magic?” “We were raised in this kingdom. Good luck finding a book about actual magic…” “Ah, I see your point. You see, imagine door shut by log, or a chair. You can’t open them from one side, because each time you push the door, they meet resistance of the obstacle, but if you would approach same door from other side, you simply remove the chair and pull it. This is same mechanism. It was made to not let the witch out, it has no restriction against letting people in.” “So… it would be that easy?” “You will have to deal with eight squads of witch hunters equipped with gear covered in white onyx…” Ay purred near my ear “Why did you say YOU, aren’t you in party with us?” “FORGET ABOUT IT! I am an assassin! I won’t mind killing thousands!... but one at time please! Also, I could kill one, two of them, MAYBE three… but then they would discover bodies and sound the alarm. I don’t like working in the heat of the moment! Also… may I ask you on the side?” she leaned to me and whispered to my ear “I wouldn’t rely on them, these guyz are clearly insane…” “Look who’s talking. But Ay is right. We can’t storm the main plaza. Not with just five of us… yes, I am counting you, Ay… Ok, this is what we will do. Ay, Jason you go in direction of blocks A and B, I twins and Pyrox will take C and D, we will meet in the middle. Free as many as it is only possible and tell them to wait for a sign. We would have the walls, wit help of those dozens mages we will turn it into one sided massacre. We will just shoot them down.” “You are leaving lady with man she just met? That’s so nasty of you! What would you do if he would deprive me my chastity?” “It will be hard, but I will live with that. Also, can one of you take care or twins of Pyrox and ensure that they won’t rampage?” “… on the other hand, this plan sounds good.” “Ok, squad… see you in an hour.” “Sooo you are photo…shmoto… something bender?” “Yes, it liteally means that I can create pretty decent illusions… not only, but that’s all you have to know…” “So, couldn’t you just hide us in illusion box and let us get undetected to the chapel?” “No. Restrictions, there are too many of us, they may have measures against such childish tactics… But I could hide you… Wanna take walk among guardians slicing some throats?” “Oooh, you know how to spoil a woman! I am aaaaall in!” “Sunshines… can you control some guards?” “Mister, mister, it will be hard.” “Mister, mister, they have those helmets…” “Mister, mister, it is hard to look in their heads…” “Mister, mister, we won’t be able to catch all..” “Mister, mister, maybe two of them…”

I asked that question as we were getting closer to the group of six guardians patrolling corridors.

“On my sign. Control the two at the back, and force them to stab those in the middle…” “Mister, mister, what with those on the front?” “I won’t let you have all fun for yourself silly!” “I am all fired up!” “No, Pyrox, not yet.”

Now… come on, rusty me, show me that those days of sitting on the ass didn’t make me useless!

Shifting in process

That’s what I wanted to see! My muscles got bulked up, my body got covered in fur, my bone structure changed, bit from wolfs, bits from insect… bit from fiend… bit from lizards… and voila! A perfect nightmare fuel!

“Brother, brother, mister have turned into a monster.” “Sister, sister, I find him cute.” “Brother, brother, may we cuddle with him in bed?” “SPICY!” Pyrox growled

I jumped on the wall and started walking on vertical surface, creeping toward the guards, I moved on ceiling. Dull [taka-taka-tiki-taka] sound followed, barely hearable

“Hey didn’t you hear that?” one of the guards asked “Hear what? Mark, the hell did you drank this time?” “Nothing, I swear that I heard something…” a liquid dropped from ceiling on his arm. It was dense and sticky “Ugh! For all devils! What this time…” “Don’t call the devil’s name.” “Or what? They would answer? You still believe in what your mother told you when you were five years old?” “In very tale is a grain of truth…” I growled from above “Who said that?” “The devil.” “Funny, which one of you playing this prank?” another dose of liquid dropped on his arm “For fuck sake!”

He brought his torch higher to light up the ceiling, just to see me, with long, thin body wolfish head partly covered in scales with open mouth revealing razor teeth. The liquid that dropped on his arm was my saliva.

“Next time listen your mother.” I dropped from the ceiling opening my mouth even more biting a guard in half. Rest of my body pinned second guard to the ground.

Inquisitors in the middle tried raising an alarm, but they comrades behind them pierced their chest, then they pulled their swords off bodies and killed themselves.

“Mister, mister, did we do good?” “Mister, mister, are you happy with us?” “Yeah, you did good.” “Mister, mister, will you snuggle with us in bed?” “Later, my little evil seeds, we still have job to be done.”