Free Web NovelChapter 11: Withering Blue Rose [1]
The very next day after Liren’s birthday.
The plague descended on Silverbrook Town.
It started with children.... a little boy who was playing near the river clutched his stomach and collapsed as his skin bloomed with strange purple blisters.
By midday, the cries of mothers started echoing through the valley.
By evening, every child under twenty lay fevered as they trembled in their beds.
Cael, her little brother, was also one of the victims.
She stayed by his side all night pressing cool cloths on his burning forehead as she sang lullabies for him.
His small hands clutched her hands desperately.
"Liri... Mom... it hurts..."
"I’m here, Cael. I’m right here"
She couldn’t help but hug him softly as her heart twisted, watching her brother’s suffering.
Dorian Voss, the wandering doctor, moved through town like a saint as he brewed potions, applied salves, and spoke the words of reassurance.
Yet.
Nothing worked.
The children’s conditions continued to worsen as their blisters spread all over the skin and fever climbed high beyond anything he had claimed to have seen.
One by one, everyone below the age of 20 slipped away.
Cael, Liren’s little brother, died on the seventh day.
Liren held his cold little body until they pried her away.
The grief, unlike anything she had experienced before, struck her. She screamed until her throat bled as she rocked on the floor of his room.
The sorrow crushed her chest, stealing the air out of her lungs as every memory of his laughter sliced through her.
Soon, the sound of tiny coffins being nailed shut became the new rhythm of Silverbrook instead of Liren’s violin.
Liren, for some unknown reason, remained untouched by the plague.
At first, the townsfolk called it a miracle.
"The gods protected the Mayor’s daughter"
But as the graves multiplied and the silence grew heavier.
Their gratitude began to curdle into suspicion.
Whispers began to follow.
An old Widow named Margret spoke aloud in the town square as she pointed her trembling hand at her.
"It was all because of this girl! She walks among us untouched...! while our children burned from the inside out. I saw her with my own eyes; she was cradling her little brother’s body, and still the plague did not take her. She must be the one responsible! It all started after her coming-of-age ceremony!"
The words spread like the plague itself.
As people started throwing stones at her.
One hit her square in her forehead as she stumbled from there.
But the curses grew louder.
"Vessel of evil!"
"She’s possessed by an evil god!"
"Burn the witch!"
Liren would return home with bruises hidden beneath her sleeves, her long hair, as she forced a smile at her parents.
"It’s okay. They are just in grief."
"It will pass."
Her father’s eyes, which were once warm with pride, now carried shadows.
Her mother would tremble whenever she looked at her.
After a few days.
The crops began to fail. Fields that had always yielded golden grain now withered to black husks overnight.
Slowly, the adults began showing symptoms as well.
The purple death had no mercy for age anymore.
Soon, the fear started turning into fury.
The townspeople gathered outside the Mayor’s estate one storm-lashed evening as the torches flickered in the rain.
"Burn the witch!"
"Burn the witch!"
"Burn the witch!"
"She brings ruin upon us all!"
Liren’s parents stood in the doorway, their faces turning pale.
Her father’s voice cracked as he tried to reason with the growing crowd, as her mother wept openly, her sobs swallowed by the crowd’s rising murmur.
In the end, they made one terrible decision to lock her away in isolation without food and water instead of burning her alive.
They dragged her to the small basement beneath the estate.
The room was barely larger than a cell, with damp stone walls, no source of light, no food, and no water.
They threw her inside as the heavy reinforced door slammed shut and the bolt slid behind her.
Liren ran and threw herself against the door.
"Father! Mother! Please!"
"I haven’t done anything!"
"Please believe me! You know, I’m scared of the dark, please! It’s so dark in here!"
She screamed and pounded her fist on the door till her fist bled as her fingernails splintered against the oak.
"I loved Cael more than anything! I would never hurt him! I would never hurt anyone! Mother! Father! Please!"
She begged till her voice cracked, yet no answers came from the other side.
The first night, she cried until exhaustion claimed her.
The second, she whispered every prayer she knew.
By the third day, hunger gnawed at her like living teeth.
But the torment that gnawed deeper was the Betrayal.
Betrayal from your own loved ones.
The people she had grown up with... the ones who used to stop just to listen to her violin...
Now, those same people saw her as a... a vessel of an evil god... a monster.
Her own parents had chosen the town over their daughter.
The pain of it was unbearable, almost soul-crushing.
Every happy memory of her family twisted into knives.
She relived Cael’s death a thousand times in the dark, each wave of grief hitting harder than the last.
Until she felt she was drowning in sorrow.
"Why?" She screamed at the dark stone walls.
"What did I ever do to deserve this? I only ever tried to be kind... I never even did anything bad to them... So why?"
"Why did I deserve this?"
She curled into a ball, her body shaking with sobs.
Her chest hurt.
’It hurts so much.’
Hours blurred into days.
She sometimes spoke to herself... talking to Cael as if he sat beside her, apologizing for not saving him.
Begging her parents’ forgiveness for whatever sin they believed she carried.
A week passed.
Then two weeks.
She grew weaker; she should have died without food and water withing a week.
Yet she didn’t for some unknown reason, as if something inside her refused to let go.
The hunger and thirst became a distant ache, the cold a numb companion.
In her delirium, she thought perhaps the gods were prolonging her suffering as punishment.
A full month dragged by in that suffocating darkness.
Then.
One evening, the bolt suddenly scraped back.
Liren slowly lifted her head as a fragile hope flared inside her shrunken eyes.
Tears began streaming down her dirt-streaked face as the door creaked open.
"Mother...? Father...? You believe me now? Please... take me home..."
A silhouette of a man filled the doorway as he stepped inside.
It was Dorian Voss, as he carried the lantern in his hand with a pleasant smile.
It was the same smile he had worn the day he arrived in Silverbrook.
But there was also something different about it... something colder... darker.
He closed the door behind with a deliberate softness.
"Hello, Liren."
She quickly shrank back against the wall as confusion and fragile hope warred inside her.
"D-Doctor V-Voss...? Did... did my... parents s-send you?"
Her voice stuttered from hunger and weakness.
Dorian chuckled softly and kept the lantern down.
"In a manner of speaking, though, they are nothing more than fools who swallow every poisoned word I feed them."
Liren’s heart stuttered in her chest.
"What... what do you mean?"
Dorian crouched before her, studying her with clinical fascination.
"You see, my dear, the plague... it was never a plague at all."
His smile slowly widened, savoring her emotions.
"It was my little gift to Silverbrook for these wonderful 3 years. A special blend of my own creation, slipped into the food at your lovely birthday banquet. Everyone eats so eagerly, toasting to your coming of age. How touching."
Liren stared at him as the words refused to settle in her mind at first.
Then her eyes widened in horror as her chest burned with raw fury and betrayal.
Nausea churned inside her.
"You... you poisoned them? The children... Cael...?"
"Every last one. I watched them wither so beautifully. The purple blisters, the screams... ahhh exquisite."
"You know, I was very puzzled when I saw you. And I questioned myself, why was the Mayor’s precious daughter still untouched by my poison? It took me some time to realize you had awakened a day before your birthday."
"A-awakened...?"
"Yes, awakened. You probably never noticed, what with all the death and chaos and everyone you love abandoning you. That was also probably the reason why you’re still alive. freewebnσvel.cøm
"But really, who could have imagined anyone awakening in this miserable backwater town? And not only that, but you also awakened an ability that resists poisons or maybe... other elements too. Who knows?"
"Pity it didn’t protect you from anything that actually mattered."
He tilted his head, studying her reaction with hungry, predatory eyes, savoring his prey’s final struggles.
"I was the one who spread the rumors about you, of course. Told them you were a vessel of an evil god. I even claimed I had contacted the Church for aid."
He laughed in delight as if he had told the funniest joke.
"They believed every word. Your parents most of all. They didn’t even hesitate to lock you away. What loyal citizens. What terrible parents."
Liren’s body shook uncontrollably as the pain of his words cut deeper in her heart.
Every happy memory... of her father’s proud smile, her mother’s gentle hands braiding flowers in her hair, Cael’s laughter.... twisted into knives that stabbed again and again.
"Ahhh!"
Dorian moaned in pleasure as he watched her despair.
"Such magnificent despair... I’ve fed on despairs for longer than you can fathom, but never.... never anything like this I have experienced before."
"It was the reason I selected you. You see... It’s probably your curse-- it magnifies your every emotion."
"Your anger, you sadness, your fear.... even your despair."
"Hahah!"
"To think I’d stumble across someone like you. The God Korr’vak has finally blessed me."
He looked at her, watching her, confused, angry, fear, and several other expressions.
"You see, I also have an ability. The ability that lets me feed on despair. The more despair I consume, the stronger I become. I’ve destroyed several villages before, burned them from the inside out with their own grief and fear. But this one... Ah, this one was special. Of course, it had you--- a feast unlike any other. But the people themselves... they were truly fools. So trusting. So easy to guide. The way they turned on their own golden girl, the way your parents chose the mob over their own child... perfection."
He stood as he brushed dust from his coat, lifting the lantern.
"Well, it was lovely playing with you, little Liren. But I’ve prepared something extra special before I move on to the next village. One final act, just for you."
He moved with surprising speed and bound her wrists tightly with the rope.
Liren didn’t resist, nor did she have the strength to.
He snapped his finger, and a big red magic circle appeared beneath her.
"Oh, right, I almost missed this."
From within his coat, he took out a crown of blue roses bristling with thorns as he placed it on her forehead.
"There... the roses you loved so much."
The barbs pierced her scalp as warm blood trickled down her temple.
She didn’t feel any pain.
It was nothing against the chasm of betrayal her curse had carved inside her.
He pointed at the magic circle below her.
"The magic circle below you is special. My own creation, you see. The flames will continue for more than a day. Your ability probably gives you resistance to the elements. But being resistant didn’t necessarily mean you’re immune, and you wouldn’t experience any pain at your lowly Tier 1 Rank."
He snapped his fingers, and the pillar of flames erupted from the magic circle as it consumed her.
He stepped out and closed the heavy doors behind him.
"Too bad nobody will be able to hear your sweet screams. The whole town has already moved on to somewhere else."
Liren screamed as the heat engulfed her.
Her awakened Ability protected her from instant death, but it did nothing to spare her the agony.
The pain was unbearable, intensified to a level that shattered her mind.
She felt the flames eating at her skin, her hair, her clothes.
Yet she lived through it, trapped in what felt like an eternal torment.
*****
