“Florin, there are no major strings attached, I assure you that I am being more open and upfront with you as I can possibly be,” the strange creature said with a wide smile that showed far too many teeth to make me feel safe. “I am not someone to lie or mince words, you have all the cards shown to you, I assure you.”

The man who had identified himself as Feros was offering me something the wise woman had insinuated might take years, but done instantaneously, here and now, and only for the low price of some vague agreement that sounded, admittedly, benign. Since his arrival he had been very engaged on the idea that he held the key to me regaining my strength and use of my legs, but had left me to sleep in suspense, though he had been right outside my door, waiting for the first sign that I had awoken for the morning. From the very moment my eyes had open, I had barely gotten my arms stretched and risen up to be propped upon my pillow before he was in my room and offering his tantalizing deal. I had no doubts that he could probably make good on his promise. I had been shown a glimpse of his power, though my mind kept going back to the sinking feeling in the very pit of my soul and the crawling sensation under my skin when he had given me a taste of his true power, I was very certain that the source of his magical strength did not come from a place of light and goodness. There was something horrifically foul and wrong with whatever dark powers he commanded and I wasn’t sure I wanted anything to do with getting mixed up with them, though I did wonder if that was being silly seeing as I was demon tainted anyway. Granted, that demonic taint had never manifested as anything so offensive or off putting as what emanated from Feros. Perhaps the man in front of me was some other kind of creature far beyond the normal definition of evil or demonic.. That was probably it, he reminded me far too much of the shadowy creature that had tried to consume my soul and drag me down to the infinite, dark, depths of oblivion. Still… the offer was very good, almost too good, but I had to admit that I was willing to perhaps look past the warning signs to get rid of the paralysis.

“No major strings, you say,” I said uneasily, “but how can I trust you? I do not even know you. You are just some strange man who arrived with my sister and has since been doggedly insistent that you hold the key to my cure as long as I go along with your plans. You did stop my sister from killing me, so therefore you must think I fell into some plan of yours in an important way, but you will not tell me exactly what that plan is. It is hard to trust someone who does not willingly provide a clear picture of the deal they are offering.”

“Your sister trusts me, does she not?” he questioned with a shrug of his shoulders. “I know you might not be well acquainted with her yet, but she is of the Yser blood and therefore you must understand that she is a sharp person and very shrewd about who she takes into her inner circle. I am very much included in that circle, that must say something about me to you.”

“Or about her,” I countered.

The man’s hazel eyes lit up with amusement and somehow the grin that was already too wide for his face grew even more giving the impression that perhaps the corners of his lips were far too elastic and inhuman. Not that I wasn’t already certain that whatever he was, he was certainly not human, at least not fully.

“You are truly a Yser. Never trusting, but clever and cunning, your grandmother might have liked you despite her hatred of nearly every male she came across. Well, except for all those male slaves that kept to her bed.”

I recoiled a bit and looked at him with disgust, that was not information I really needed to know, especially not about my grandmother, whether I had ever known her or not. He let out a loud chuckle and shook his head like I was silly for reacting to his crude statement.

“Perhaps not a typical Yser in every way then.”

“You are getting us off track,” I said with a disapproving frown, I felt like he was intentionally distracting me from the line of thought I had been tracing.

“Look, the choice is rather simple if you ask me. You accept my help, I heal your magical conduits right here and now and you walk out of the room under your own power since you burned them shut. And in a fair exchange, you just agree to let me help you come into your potential,” he said in a smooth, even tone, far too charming and upbeat to not be a ploy to get me to let my guard down.

“That seems far too much of a win-win situation for me, it doesn’t seem like there’s much in this for you,” I argued.

“Oh I very much win, you coming into your potential plays right into my goals and eventually you will scratch my back as well. You will be there at the right place at the right time and pay me back in full, even without much effort on your part by my estimation. It will be a simple enough task, nothing that will be too taxing on you. All you have to do to be healed is just shake my hand and agree to be my representative when I require it of you.”

Certain that I would take his hand to seal the agreement, he outstretched it and gave me a cheerful, but meaningful look. It was a look that said his attempts at convincing me were finished and that I would either accept his help now or he would leave me to fend for myself and possibly be in this state for the rest of my life. However long that was if my sister had a choice. I could not overlook the fact that it might be essential to save my life to be able to run away or defend myself from Toria. Though I had handed over the kingdom on a silver platter, that important fact did not seem to hold much weight in her mind and I was still an annoying stain on her otherwise decisive victory. I could hold out for the wise woman to return, maybe have her advise me on what exactly I was dealing with but…what choice did I have? I could not simply walk away from having all of my pressing problems taken care of immediately and be restored to my normal self.

The creature let out a happy chuff of air and clamped my hand as I outstretched mine. The feeling of everything wrong and slimy krept up from my hand through my arm and to the very core of my body, making me feel sick all over again, but this time the feeling did not subside and instead searched deeper, flowing down into the depths I had only felt the terrible evil creature of the voice dwell in before. With a loud, choking gasp I felt a series of loud pops from inside my body and then searing pain that made my eyes water and roll back into my head. Perhaps most strangely was the sound of chiming, discordant bells that seemed to be ringing from a distant bell tower, but they had been intentionally set out of tune in a way to make the worst sound possible. The strange man’s grip on my hand became like an iron vice as I struggled to get away from him, anything to get him to stop making me feel and hear the things I could not escape. Holding firm through my agony, my free arm clawed desperately at his hand to release me, even drawing blood as my mouth bobbed open and closed as I wordlessly tried to beg him to make it stop. My senses were too overwhelmed from pain to make any sounds, I could not even find the strength to scream, it was far beyond any pain my aunt had ever inflicted on me and I had been sure that had been the pinnacle of what a person could endure and survive.

The next moment I could consciously recall I was on the floor, breathing hard like I had just gotten done with an intense circuit of strenuous exercise, my nostrils filled with the terrible, acrid smell of burning hair and flesh and a deep, evil stench that I could not seem to clear from my sinuses. Once I somewhat had my wits back about me, I lifted my head to look around and the man was gone, not a sign in the room that he had ever been there at all. I considered perhaps that this had just been a terrible nightmare and I had merely woken up by falling out of bed, but without thinking I began to move my legs to rise and before I had processed what had happened I was on my feet. Gingerly, I raised each foot off the floor and found that I felt stable and after a few cautious steps I could not find any evidence that I had ever been paralyzed at all. He had been true to his word and I was cured, he had fixed all the damage I had foolishly caused myself. I should have been full of happiness, but instead my heart was full of dread. Despite his half-hearted assurances that I was making the right choice and no ill would come of me because of it, the truth of the matter was he had caught me between a rock and a hard place and knew that I was willing to agree to almost anything. The vague promise to come into my potential and be his representative echoed in my mind and I felt a cold chill down my back as I realized that now he had fulfilled his promise that it meant I was not bound to mine. The fact that the awful scent of burnt flesh and hair was fading, but the horrific smell of evil and mischief that clung to him was not fading one bit made it all the worse.

There was a soft knock on my bedroom door and I told whoever it was to enter out of habit. I immediately regretted it, but much to my relief it was Clara bringing my morning breakfast. Her eyes widened and sparkled with joy as they fell on me standing up under my own power. With a skip in her step she rushed to my desk to set the tray down so she could excitedly talk with her hands without spilling anything. I was not exactly sure if it was some kind of compulsion or just a quirk of her personality, but Clara seemed to only be able to fully express herself with her hands were gregariously punctuating her points and clarifying her emotional state.

“I knew you would get better!” she said excitedly as she clasped her hands in front of her with glee. “Did you just wake up and you were all better?”

“Something like that,” I lied with as convincing a happy smile as I could manage. Surely she would be suspicious if I did not seem over the moon with joy about being cured, who wouldn’t be?

“You must be so relieved,” she continued, throwing her hands to the side and wriggling her fingers like she did when something really delighted her. “I wish I would have been here to see it. I’m going to let the kitchen staff know that the future king will need a special meal made in his honor and we should celebrate his triumph!”

If she noticed the wan smile creep across my lips, she did not say anything and the delight did not fade from her features. She must have not heard the gossip yet that I was sure was spreading across the castle like wildfire. My sister was quite obviously not a subtle person and I was sure that everyone who crossed her path was left with no mistakes about who held the rights to the throne. I felt like perhaps I should have corrected her and explained what had happened, but I couldn’t bear to see her smile falter and fall. If she would get a few more moments of pleasure out of thinking that everything was wonderful and fine, then I could not take that away from her.

“This is so amazing!” she called out with glee one more and bounded forward to envelope me in an exuberant hug.

As soon as her skin touched mine, she recoiled and a gasp of surprise and horror ripped from her lips. She stumbled back with a look of confusion tinged with fear on her face. Her eyes squinted with uncertainty as she studied my face, like she was certain that it could not actually be me and that it was some imposter standing in my place instead. Wordlessly, she shook her head, put a smile back on her face and stepped forward to hug me again but it ended up with the same result, she flung herself back again with a disgusted expression on her face.

“I… um… I should get going and let the kitchen know,” she said quietly, her hands oddly still for once. “Enjoy your breakfast for now.”

She gave me one last, long look like she was wracking her brain to figure out why it felt so wrong to touch me, then left the room with hurried steps. It was obvious that she couldn’t wait to put distance between us.

My heart was in my feet and dread slithered from my heart to cover my body in a cold sweat. I knew it had been too good to be true, of course there were going to be dire consequences he had not told me about. I had a feeling the stench within would not fade and that I had become tainted by whatever the man carried within himself, forever stained and unpleasant to any decent person. I had been healed, but at what dark cost?