Two small beady eyes were staring at me from the floor.
It was a rat. A small spectral rat with a bitten ear, standing on its hind legs, tilting its head at me and Liam.
“You said there was none here,” I said slowly to the soul on my shoulders, keeping my gaze on the rat.
“Oh, that? That’s Hector, I think. One of her pets. I thought you asked about Ester.”
I kept my gaze on the animal. It was weak, barely had a presence. I took a step in the direction of the cell’s door, but the rodent stood there unmoved.
“Are they her helpers? Did they try to attack you when you were here?” I asked, not sure what to do about the critter.
“No, they sometimes tried to bite me, but then Ester would come and tell them off.”
“Tell or scare them off?” I asked.
“Tell. Why?”
“Ah, shit.” I moved my mana.
Casting in the astral state was strange. Just like the natural, instinctual movements done by the body needed to be rewired or controlled directly, so did magic.
I concentrated on my mana and moved it, sensing even the most minuscule flow to make sure the spell wouldn’t get out of my control.
Force.
I fired it into the rat and started running toward the cell doors.
The creature flew back as it hissed at us. I was not interested in learning what would happen if I got a rat bite on my soul. But then I saw another pair of beady eyes looking at me.
And another, and another.
Only now did I pay attention to the many small cracks in the walls from which more and more rodents scurried. I started running forward in the direction of the doors from which I came as the rats bolted at me. I strained my spiritual muscles and almost tripped as I felt Liam’s soul grow heavier. He noticed the sea of spectral fur following us, despair now heavily weighing him down.
“Hey, not a time to give up, for fuck’s sake!” I screamed at him, but it didn’t help much.
I almost wish I were a social caster right about now.
I continued to run as the scurrying noise grew louder and louder.
And I realized.
We wouldn’t make it.
It was a run in a straight line, but I was simply not faster than the rodents on four legs, especially as I saw some of them crawl out from cracks next to the entrance.
I felt a rat clamping onto my leg. Thankfully, with a soul attribute difference this high, it was not able to bite into my spirit, but it was firmly latched onto me.
I started casting as I swerved to the left into the first open cell door. As we went through them, I finished the spell.
Force
blasted the critter off my leg and others in the doorway.I managed to slam the doors shut just as a few rats were trying to make the jump. As I thought, even though the bars were wide enough for the creatures to squeeze through, they couldn’t, as some force was keeping them out.
I looked at Liam, whose soul was spasming, trying to cry without all the necessary equipment.
I looked back at the rats. They were gathered in front of the cell doors, churning and squirming over each other like a big living mass of see-through black fur. I didn’t want to know how many there were. I knew the journals mentioned that Ester killed and catalogued rats, but the number was unexpected.
I guess that’s what obsession does to you.
But now I needed a solution. This was not the best place to be.
I could cast a big spell before opening the doors, but would that be enough? I went over my magic. Flames of Purgatory would be a very good choice here, but the problem was that the spell created a single flame exploding upon contact, not a jet of fire I could use right now.
Adjusting the flame was a possibility, but I was not sure I could pull that off in this state, and having my spell explode in my face was not the best option here.
Hellfire would be the best, but pulling it off in the real world was tough. I could forget about it here.
I needed the rats out of the cage. We were only a few steps from the doors, and I only required a few seconds to make the run.
I sat down next to Liam, who was slowly stopping his spasms. Confusion and fear were coloring his spirit, as if someone had added a black dye to a see-through water container.
What did I know?
They listened to Ester, seemingly enough for her to stop them from following their instincts to feed. Ester also didn't eat them. Was it because they were so small that they managed to hide from her? Or simply not worth the effort. So what was their objective?
They followed me here, watching my actions, but didn’t try to attack just because I trespassed. They waited until I got close to Liam. Only once I tried to carry him did the rat show itself, blocking, if one can call it that, the cell door. So they probably tried to keep Ester’s new friend from leaving.
I was still looking at the door when Liam finally regained enough control to speak once again.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“We are never leaving this hell, aren’t we?”
“Not with that attitude,” I answered, not turning to him.
“Can you kill us?” he asked after a bit of silence.
I raised my non-existent eyebrows and looked toward him.
“I could, but that would make escaping hard.”
“You don’t want to be here when she returns. She–”
“–is dead,” I finished his sentence. “She is gone. Now I’m here to do something about my client’s younger brother’s soul.”
Liam stayed silent this time, but judging by his soul, he didn’t seem to believe me much. I turned to ask him a few questions. He tried to lift his eyes to me, finally managing to move his head up high enough. I could see even more panic practically explode from him when he looked at me.
“W-what are you?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Are you a monster like Ester?”
I furrowed my eyebrows and then realized what he was talking about. This was the first time he managed to get a look at the whole of me. My contract was deeply ingrained in my soul, so some manifestation of it should be visible.
“What do I look like to you?” I asked, curious.
“L-like you have a hole in your abdomen and something is coming out of it, but I-I can’t look at it.”
Interesting, but sadly, the rats seemed too stupid to understand that they shouldn’t approach me.
But why didn't they react to it?
Now was the problematic part, the doors. Some of the rats were still scurrying about as they slowly realized the thing on the hook wasn’t Liam.
I stepped over a rat.
Now my leg was in the doorway, but the little thing froze.
“Shit,” I swore, ready to make a run for it.
It raised on its hind legs.
I moved forward another step, now almost entirely through the cell door.
And then it happened.
As I was ready to make a run for it, the little furball I had just stepped over started screeching. The whole colony turned to me as if on cue.
I fired a Force spell at the doors, attempting to close them, but with the casting delay, I only managed to squash some rats that were already leaving the cell, which prevented the doors from closing.
Not having the time to cast another one, I bolted to the exit. The cell doors swung wide open under the pressure of the swarm.
I felt the tiredness grow with every step, from casting to carrying a panicked Liam, and now the run. But the door was so close.
I felt a bite. Something had latched onto my leg, making the run even harder.
Another step, and another rat managed to jump forward.
I was only two steps from the doors.
I heard more screeches as a few more critters leaped into the air.
I took a gamble.
I lowered my hold on Liam, now holding him only by his ankles, as his head almost dragged against the floor.
It worked. The rats didn’t want to bite into him. The commands still kept their instincts on the leash as they bounced off the boy.
One more step.
I could hear a louder, enraged screech, which I recognized as Hector's.
He was trying to attack.
I took the last step as I was practically in the doorway back to the house.
As I turned, I saw the rat flying right onto my face.
My last cast.
Shield.
The spell blocked the way as the creature slammed into it.
I jumped backward, and both of us went flying into the room.
I was in no state to operate the artifact now. I dropped Liam, who was now hovering over the cube, and went to repossess my own body. As always, the feeling of wearing myself wrong assaulted me as my limbs started moving awkwardly, but I didn’t need them. Now, once everything inside me worked more or less as it should, with a flex of my will, I closed the cage.
I swear I could hear the sound of something slamming into the door.
And then the room went silent.
We made it.