(Jacob, 17)

Cages arranged in three rows line the left-hand side of the row, ten cages long, stacked four high. Nearly every last cage has a child or a young adult inside of it. The oldest could not possibly be older than me. Most are boys, with only a few girls, and the lower in the cage level they are, the worse their condition is, with feces, urine, and vomit from the upper levels having fallen down to them, while they themselves are forced to sit in a thin layer of it.

The smell itself is rancid, and I immediately use a wind spell to protect my mouth and nose and stop my automatic gagging. A glance at Alex and the resistance members reveals they are unaffected, suggesting they already used similar spells of their own.

With how Alex is acting at the moment, I doubt he intentionally neglected to tell me. The strain in his eyes tells me just how much he hates this. Alex wants to fly into a rage, and I can understand why. In both this life and the last, he feels an overwhelming protectiveness for children. The youngest in here cannot be older than five or six.

Turning my gaze back to the room, I see tables set up on the right-hand side. Some are covered in healers' instruments, while others contain jars, bowls, or baskets of items. Strapped to a table is a boy no older than eleven or twelve.

Unlike the others, he has been washed clean of any feces, urine, or vomit, his ruined rags discarded of. Not that it matters, though, as much of his skin has been carefully pulled away from his body, pinned against the table. Magic must be used to support his life, but two questions come to mind.

Who did this, and why?

"To make it worse, Jacob," Alex approaches the boy, looking down at an exposed organs, muscled moved out of the way as well. "That ain't a human's lungs."

I approach the table and look at the exposed organs. The boy's lungs are steadily expanding, then deflating, and I know that it would cause the rise and fall of the chest a person has. His heart beast slowly as well, pulsing before my eyes.

"What do you mean?" I ask, noticing the resistance members remained outside of the room, probably having seen enough already. "Something you know from-"

"No," he interrupts. "I mean, sort of. But no. There's a guy here who takes recently dead people, pays off their families or gets 'em from executions. He does live dissections for people to watch, and is mapping out the human body and various things. It's something that happened around this era back on Earth, so it ain't surprising to Jason or me that someone's doing it here, now. Anyway, I've seen a few of his demonstrations, and read his notes so far. The most recent dissection was on lungs. By the way, your papa approved of it, so it ain't like he's doing something strictly illegal. They're already dead, the families are compensated, and it's being used to progress our knowledge of the human body, which can help to progress our knowledge of how to heal things easier, with or without magic."

"Okay," I force myself to continue looking at the boy's organs. "And these lungs in him are not human lungs?"

"Correct, Jacob," Alex says. "I can't exactly explain the difference without a demonstration, and I ain't going to do that. They've transplanted the lungs of something else into him, and are keeping him alive through magic. Ya ain't able to see 'em, but I'm sure there are runes enchanted onto the table to protect his life. He and the other rats are under the influence of a mind curse to keep 'em sedate. They ain't even aware we're here."

"Where are the people doing this?" I ask.

"Ain't sure," he answers. "They weren't here when the resistance found this, and weren't when I got here. They ain't here now, either. Or in the other rooms."

I look to the door on the back of the wall, nervous to find out the horrors beyond. Then something Alex said registers, and I look at the cages.

"Rats?" I ask. "These are street rats?"

"Yes," he answers. "Street rats. All of 'em. And there are more beyond. Those ones ain't under the influence of the spell, but we didn't stick around to ask why or what's going on. The Keepers' Resistance contacted me, showed me, then I contacted you."

"From down here?" I ask.

"From the tavern."

"Just how far is your range with mind magic?" I ask.

"Depends on what I'm doing," he answers. "I already knew ya were in the area, though. My crew saw ya earlier and were tailing you just to see if the guards would stop 'em."

The fact that the Royal Guards did not concerns me, and I will be sure to have strict words with them after this incident ends. For now, however, we must deal with what is going on here.

"I need to let-"

"Your papa know," Alex finishes for me as he shakes his head. "No, Jacob. If he knows, Royal Guards will come flooding into these tunnels, making it much more difficult for the Keeper's Resistance to do their job. That's why they wanted my advice. Normally, they'd report it. Anyway, he and the Royal Guards already have their hands full. I'm sure he's made some arrangement with Jason for his help, too."

"What is it you know about that?" I ask as I notice a door beyond the tables, on the right-hand wall from where we entered. "You hinted before that you know what they are dealing with, which Jason would not share with me. He said I would learn soon enough."

"Nobody cares if rats die in an alley," Alex gives the street rats a sorrowful, pity-filled look. "Or if they disappear."

He looks down, sighing sadly.

"But when an entire crew simply disappears one night…" he trails off, staring at the ground for a few moments, before looking at me. "It's still ignored. Maybe they was taken out by another crew? Maybe they moved? Maybe they fell victim to a criminal organization. No one in power really cares."

"Alex, that is because-"

"I know why!" He snaps. "But then some unknown drug starts going through the streets, and suddenly, the guards are suspicious and investigating. They ain't even caring that the street rats started going into hiding a few months ago, nor that now, the only times they're even noticed is when they're stealing supplies, and in such a way that it's clear they're stealing for a large group, intended on surviving off it for awhile. Then they disappear, not to be seen until the next supply run. No one cares to check and realize that the street rats are actually disappearing, or that four whole crews vanished in the last three months!"

I am silent for several long moments after his rant, then I look down at the poor street rat strapped to the table, his skin pulled back.

"How many?" I ask, knowing Alex already counted. He does not respond, just turns his gaze to the street rat on the table as well. "How many street rats are down here?"

"The ones who ain't been experimented on yet?" He asks. "Three hundred, forty-six."

Three hundred, forty-six street rats. They are not all from Varilsy, some were brought in from other cities and towns, too. Otherwise, I would have become aware of the vanishings.

"That ain't counting the ones experimented on or dead, either," Alex tells me. "Who knows how many there have been, or how long it's been going on, unknown because they used an area not normally used by the Keeper's Resistance. And his lungs ain't the only thing they messed with."

"Are you certain?" I ask.

"Look at his muscles, Jacob," he tells me. "They look different than any muscles ya have seen on a human, right? I know ya have, since ya have fought before and no doubt seen humans sliced open."

I examine the leg in front of me, realizing as I do that Alex is right. The muscles, normally red, have slight streaks of black in them. Enhancing my sight, I see the telltale black and gold of curse magics.

Swallowing hard, I look at Alex.

"The true horrors," he tells me. "Ain't what happened to this boy. It's what they've done to others. The ones still around? They're beyond that door."

He points at the door on the side wall.

"They're doing experiments on humans, Jacob," he says. "On children and young men and women of Varil. They're taking rats off the street, draining 'em of blood, then turning 'em into horrors so terrible, even the Magus of Mind, someone who fought in the ancient war and has memories of some of the worst tortures ever can't handle it."

Alex is shaking, rage and horror in his expression, his fists clench. I look at the door, now uncertain I want to go through it. We might not have our past selves back yet, but we have become desensitized to things normal soldiers would have issues with due to some of the memories we hold.

If whatever lays beyond that door horrifies Alex, do I want to look? Would it be easier for me to handle were I my full self, the Magus of Light?

"Alex," I look at him. "You said 'draining 'em of blood'. What did you mean by that?"

Alex walks over to the door on the back wall and opens it, leading me through. Inside are hundred of cages. This room is larger than the other many times over, the cages a little smaller, with pots for crapping and pissing in within each cell. The children and young adults in here all have dazed looks on their faces, the effect of the curse Alex mentioned.

He leads me over to the work side of the room, where various alchemy instruments are set up, more than two dozen stations of them. He leads me to where large barrels are stored, barrels lined with glowing runes that I barely identify as some sort of preservation rune, keeping the contents inside cool.

It is nowhere near as sophisticated as Sageson Magical Technologies' cooling enchantment, and requires mana crystals to supply.

Alex flicks a wrist, and the lid of one of the barrels opens up, revealing a dark liquid inside. Rather than using the ladle on the table nearby, he gestures again, using water magic to lift the liquid out, then allows it to stream back in. A dark red liquid.

Blood.

"I checked the minds of a few of them," Alex says, his voice soft, and he replaces the lid. "Every couple of weeks, they're forced to bleed into bowls. The bowls are poured into barrels based on several factors. During the days, that's when all of this happens. At night, it's quiet and they're under the effects of the curse."

Taking in a shaky breath, Alex walks over to a group of crates and opens one, then pulls out a smooth, small wooden box from within. He opens it, revealing… something I cannot identify. They are small and round, like marbles, only smaller. Maybe the size of a pea, but perfectly smooth. Each one is a perfect sphere, dark red in color with golden flecks and violet swirls.

"I present to you," Alex says. "A Crimson Pearl. The very same drug your papa, the Royal Guards, and Jason are currently caught up with. Or more specifically, one variant of it, the pearl version. There's also the liquid version and the powder version."

Alex sets the pearl back into the box, which he closes and returns to the crate, which he then seals back up. Then, he looks at me.

"Pills," he says. "That's why they're called. Pills. But the name of the drug is Crimson Pearl. Most folks ain't able to identify curse magics, what with most of it being illegal and all, so they ain't realizing as they use it that the drug has it."

"I have yet to hear of it," I say. "Why would Papa be looking into it? And with the force of the Royal Guards and Jason?"

"It's been going around for a few weeks," Alex tells me. "He and the Royal Guards have been trying to keep it a secret as they investigated. They ain't been able to find the drug itself, not even on its victims. 'Cause of that, they've never actually seen what it looks like. They ain't even aware they're looking into a drug."

"What are they investigating, then?"

"The result of its use," he tells me, then starts swearing up a storm.

I watch and wait for him to finish his rant, knowing he needs this. These are street rats being used for the drug, and he himself is a street rat at the very core. I do not claim to know much about the inner workings of street rats and their crews, but I do know enough to know that even rival gangs would work together to deal with something that threatened the crews as a whole.

Each crew is akin to a family, but the entire community of street rats is just one larger community, one that sheds the blood of other branches as rivals most of the time, but on the rare occasion, protects the blood of the others as brothers and sisters.

"What happens when the drug is used?" I ask. "Is it like the ones which send people into blissful states?"

"Like opiates?" He scoffs. "Nothing that weak. It makes 'em a little stronger, a little faster, enhances their senses just a little bit. Not enough anyone would think much of it. 'Oh, they're just working out' or 'oh, they're probably enhancing themselves with magic'."

"Strength-enhancement drugs?" I ask. "Those are extremely illegal. They have ill effects and cause other problems."

"These ones ain't got that," Alex tells me, and I make sure he knows I do not believe that for a single moment. "Whoever made these was a genius, from what I could tell of the few times I saw them in use. How it's used determines if it gives that enhancement or not. It can also be smoked or snorted for a sort of bliss, like what you're talking about. It lets 'em feel like they're younger, the same age as the ones whose blood was shed for it. Though they ain't aware of that. Mixing the blood keeps 'em from suffering ill effects, or knowing the truth of how it was made. It prevents memories from coming to 'em, and their appearance is back to their own youthful days, but as their ideal appearance. A pimply, overweight kid? Nah. He's athletic, fit, perfect to be a Slayer who goes out and saves everyone. A scrawny girl who lived in poverty? Nah, she's beautiful, admired by her classmates. The drug messes with their heads when taken that way, lets 'em relive memories, but to their dreams."

"And that is why all of their subjects are children or young adults?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "That's 'cause the drug starts having ill effects if made with blood from older people. Seventeen is the cutoff, roughly. Well, it's when they're nineteen, but they stop it at seventeen just to be sure. Anyone in a crew who's older than that goes straight to experimentation. They get parts replaced with beasts' parts, pumped full of experimental liquids, and other stuff. Turned into mutant freaks."

I think over that as I stare at the crates. This is what Papa and them are investigating. But what makes it so dangerous that the Royal Guards and Jason are involved after just a few weeks?

"What is the bad part of this?" I ask. "The one that makes it so severe, Papa himself has called a meeting with Jason and the Royal Guards and Sages?"

"The worst part?" Alex asks, then shakes his head, looking at the street rats in the cages. "It's that it latches a curse onto them. A nasty, severe curse that can't be detected because it's barely there, at least at first. The more they use the drug, the stronger the curse grows."

"And when it activates?" I ask.

"The curse?" He asks, and I nod. "When it activates, their body erupts in a burst of corruption. Normally, it would need to be manually activated, but if someone consumes too much Crimson Pearl in too short a time frame, then they might activate it early. If the curse is weak, it might just make 'em ill for a long time, but the strong point of it causes them to erupt in the burst of corruption I mentioned. However, for the intended effect to work, the curse needs to be there. And the curse fades over time."

"So they need to keep consuming the Crimson Pearl," I conclude.

"Correct," he nods. "And it's addictive, which ensures they do, and do so enough that it grows stronger. From that, its manual need to release, and the horrors of the experiments, I think someone is planning on releasing an attack from inside of Varisly, Jacob."

An attack seems plausible. Secret tunnels, monstrous horrors, a drug which turns people into explosions of corruption.

"What happens with the corruption?" I ask.

"It causes a decay," Alex tells me. "Upon anything it touches. The stronger the curse, the worse the decay. The reason your Papa started taking it seriously is 'cause a lesser noble got affected by it. They were being visited by a friend of theirs who serves in the palace, and offered them some Crimson Pearl to smoke. The servant declined, and as the noble was smoking it, he exploded. The servant was barely able to say what happened to the Royal Guards before he finished decaying."

"This is serious," I tell him. "We need to-"

"No," he shakes his head. "We can't, Jacob. Without the Keeper's Resistance helping, your family won't stay in power. The two of us, we can handle this. Right?"

Maybe, especially with Alex being as powerful of a mind mage as he is.

"Right," I nod. "Show me the room of experiments, Alex. I want to see that before we come up with a plan. You said their minds told you it is quiet at night? That gives us plenty of time."

"This way."

Alex leads me back to the original chamber, then to the other door, opening it. The room here is illuminated as well, with cages all around the walls, but not in the center of the room. Outside of the cages are… shadowy people. That is the best I can describe them as. Vaguely humanoid, of varying sizes, but made of shadows.

"They're docile," Alex tells me. "I ain't sure, but I think they ain't doing stuff unless commanded. Their minds are… strange. Disturbing."

He shudders, and I turn my attention to the cages. Some of them have what were obviously once street rats, twisted deformities with decaying bodies or growths on them, fur or scales or tails, their bodies bleeding, frail. Some of the things in here are less humanoid in appearance, more monster.

Everything in here, other than the shadowy people, seem to be decaying or breaking down, their bodies unable to handle this treatment. The room smells even more rancid than the other, and I increase the strength of my wind spell to block it out.

The true level of horrors in here makes me nearly vomit, and I can understand why Alex is bothered by it. I doubt we could handle this even if we were our past selves.

"There's more," Alex says quietly, then leads me back out of the room.

"More?" I ask as he leads me to the drug room again.

"Yes," he answers. "I guess ya didn't notice it, but there's another couple of rooms connected here."

Another door on the back wall in this room, and another on the right-hand wall. Alex leads me to the one on the right-hand wall, and we step into another illuminated chamber. In here are several men and women. I would put the eldest, a woman, around maybe twenty-two or twenty-three, while the youngest is a man of around eighteen or nineteen. The body of each prisoner has been shaved of all hair, and they are suspended in the air by rings of light that does not touch their body.

The rings of light do, however, spread their arms out, keep their heads upright, and their legs spread as well, their bodies not touching anything at all. Their bodies are covered in markings cut directly into them, and the men and women seem to be unconscious.

"They ain't got the luxury of a spell keeping 'em docile, sedated," Alex says. "They're unconscious from the pain of having runes carved directly onto their bodies. They were too old for the drug, so they're used for… this. Something separate from the experiments."

"What is it?" I ask, a vague memory of leather with crimson runes etched onto it coming forth, though not much else. "I seem to remember something like this."

"It's forbidden magic," Alex answers, his voice quiet. "Notice how there are gaps? Perfect for cutting off the flesh and creating strips or squares or rectangles of skin. Skin that's then turned into leather, these bloody runes already on them. The wounds don't go all the way through, so it's just on one side."

"Human leather?" I ask, horrified by the thought.

"Yes," he answers. "Human leather. It ain't just forbidden, though. It was we who forbid it, Jacob. During the war. It was something taught by demons. Dark magic, forbidden magic. Hell magic."

"There is a demon around?" I ask, feeling myself growing anxious, my volume rising against my will. "Would not Jason notice and deal with it? He has some way of monitoring the entire world!"

"Not a demon," Alex shakes his head. "At least, I ain't thinking so. I think whoever is doing this, they discovered the rituals. Somehow, some of the information was kept. It might be incomplete, though. They might be attempting to figure out the rest on their own."

"Why let it heal?" I ask, examining one of the men. "The wounds are not that old, maybe hours at most."

"I think," Alex says. "They're just being given until tomorrow, then it's being pulled off and turned to leather. The victims will probably be turned into horrors, too, once their flesh is gone. Did ya notice? Some of the monsters in there were missing their skin. Their muscles were exposed."

I did not notice that, but when I try to remember the room, I realize that he is right. Several of the humanoid horrors were skinless creatures.

"To keep from having the runes messed with," Alex says. "These magical binds are used to suspend them in the air. It also gives the bastards more space for carving runes, since they ain't needing to have their wrists directly held by the cuffs."

"We have to free these victims first," I say. "Heal their bodies and wrap them in cloaks. If the group doing this follows the pattern you said, then they will not return until morning. That should give us more than enough time to deal with all of this."

"Yes," Alex nods. "We can discuss a plan after pulling these guys down."

"How do we do that?" I ask. "I have never heard of bindings like that before."

They are strange. How is magic being supplied for this? For all of the spells for this place, actually?

Alex walks over to the wall on the left, then pulls out a knife and rams it into a brick. Immediately, the glowing rings disappear and the prisoners fall to the ground. None wake up from that. Their exhaustion from the carving must be great.

"How did you-"

"Know what to do?" Alex asks as he returns to me. "The brick has a runic circle painted on it, nearly the same shade as it."

I look at the brick and enhance my sight again, seeing the runes. If I recognize them correctly, they make up a binding rune, linking to other things. Alex stabbed it right through the center, breaking the rune.

"Okay," I nod. "Let us start on healing them. Neither of us are Tasha, but we should be able to manage."

Alex and I begin working on healing the prisoners, sealing up the injuries. As they are only cuts, we can handle them, even if they are several hours old. It takes the two of us nearly an hour to do so, and we wrap each one in a cloak Alex pulls from his spatial storage after they are healed.

"Why do you have so many cloaks in there?" I ask.

"I had 'em when doing my stuff as Leviathan, too," he says. "The crew and I always have a bunch on us, in case we come across someone who really needs it."

"I see," I say, then a thought comes to me. "You seemed to know a lot more than I would expect a couple of prisoners to know."

"Yeah," he nods. "I've been investigating the drugs, too. A crew the Leviathan's got friendly with mentioned one of their younger members was addicted to it, so we started looking into it. And I've got a couple of friends who know about investigations and stuff, and they let me know about the noble. My investigation is about two weeks old."

That makes sense. If someone is putting the street rats on drugs, Alex would want to investigate it, and he would do so with a fervor.

"Okay," I say. "Alex, I know the reasons for not reporting it to the Royal Guard, but you called me, the Crown Prince, down here to help."

"No," he shakes his head. "Jacob, please. It's to protect your family. I know we've had our differences in the past, but please, trust me. We can get all of the prisoners to safety, destroy the monsters and the labs and all of that, and then I can release them from the spells and do something ya won't like to ensure they don't know about this place. But I can leave in the memories of whoever did this, so when the Royal Guard talks with 'em, they at least remember that much."

"They will know it was us," I tell him. "Even if you remove that memory from their minds, they will at least know it was you. There are not any other mind mages both powerful enough and talented enough to do what you are proposing."

"I'll handle that," he tells me. "Will ya please just help me? I've added a sleep spell to these guys, so they won't wake while we're at work. I'll do it to the other prisoners as well. Ya can get to work destroying the stuff as I do that."

Alex pleads me with his eyes, and I give in. The two of us, together, can handle this in a way that protects the Keeper's Resistance. I feel certain Alex already has a location in mind for where to take the street rats after we leave here, and how to bring them there without us being noticed by anyone who would remember it or call for guards.

"Okay," I tell him. "Let us begin our work, then."

(Jason, 16)

Jacob calls me almost as soon as my gate fades, and I roll my eyes, then answer the call.

"Yes?" I ask, Mama Elena giving me a curious look.

"Jason, what is it?" Jacob asks, and I know he's asking about what's going on.

"Uh-"

"Are you hearing voices again?" Mama Elena asks.

"No, I'm talking to Jacob," I tell her, and Uncle Zach snorts.

In my defense, there actually were voices to hear. I wasn't insane.

"I do need to go, Jacob," Jason tells me. "Your papa will tell you soon enough."

"Is he asking about the meeting?" Uncle Zach asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "He wants to know what the meeting is about."

I sense a moment too late what Zevenas is about to do, but I try to stop him anyway, shifting my body and holding up my hands.

"Zevenas, no!" I exclaim, but too late.

He plucks the comm cuff right off my ear and swallows it in one gulp. It's unretrievable now, and will be digested completely by the dragon's stomach acids.

"I'll make a new one tonight," Papa Jared tells me.

"Thanks," I sigh, then bop Zevenas on the head. "Bad! Don't eat my comm cuffs! Why did you do that, anyway?"

Zevenas gives me an apologetic look. He hadn't meant to swallow, just hold it in his mouth and tease me until I managed to pry his jaws open and pull it out. But as a baby dragon, he has a hard time stopping his swallow reflex when something's in his mouth and his mouth is closed.

I sit on a couch, and Zevenas jumps onto my lap. Mama Elena, Mama Alyssa, Mama Elizabeth, and Papa Jared are here, sitting on other seats, and Uncle Zach and Lina are sitting across from me, Tasha sitting beside Lina.

"I do not feel right," Lina says. "Doing this."

"You know why this is a secret," Uncle Zach tells her. "And we are going to count on you and Tasha to keep him occupied tomorrow, outside of the palace. We also need you here to help us plan."

"I know," Lina sighs. "But I know that Jacob will feel it is a bit much."

"It might be," I say. "But he deserves it. He's worked hard for Varil ever since the assassination attempt left Uncle Zach seriously wounded. Even when he's here, he's filled his time with business, with dealing with helping run the kingdom. That's why we're doing this."

"Now," Tasha smiles. "Let us begin planning the banquet to thank Jacob for his efforts in keeping our kingdom running and safe."