Pain.

Every part of her body screamed and protested against the violent abuse that was heaped upon it. Her broken arm was a wet, sticky fire that boiled, flaring up at the slightest jostle.

Though her memory was fuzzy, she vaguely recalled someone intervening in the beating. Leximea heard a faint rumbling nearby and tried to focus on it to distract herself from the pain. As her consciousness resurfaced, it felt like she passed through a murky film into the dark and dirty place called reality.

“And that’s what happened,” a familiar voice concluded.

Wasn’t that Ray, the immortal girl? Why was she here?

“Essentially, you attacked the son of a duke and stole his slave?” an unknown, female voice clarified.

“That’s right. Do you think we could get her healed?”

The other voice sighed and then Leximea heard a faint rustling of fabric, followed by footsteps approaching her. The unknown person stopped next to her.

“How barbaric…” she muttered. “I suppose I should heal her myself.”

“You can heal?” Ray interjected, her voice filled with amazement.

“Healing is elementary holy magic, and I am a High Priestess. Of course, I can heal.”

A High Priestess?! Leximea felt her heart beating furiously in her chest, the fur on her arms and neck bristling with alarm. She had to get out of here. This was the most dangerous place in the whole town… but the slightest twitch of her arm made her want to screech.

The High Priestess summoned her mana and the temperature in the room increased by a few degrees. Leximea felt sweat forming on her brow and unconsciously released her claws.

And then a gentle hand caressed her injured arm, bringing pure, blessed relief. The bone retreated beneath the writhing flesh. Her skin resealed itself and her arm snapped back into its natural position. New patches of dark fur sprouted and grew over the freshly healed skin.

The High Priestess then ran her healing touch over the other visible injuries. After a minute of careful observation and prodding, she paused and moved away.

“She’s completely healed. She should wake up soon.”

There was another rustling of fabric and then a soft collision.

“Thank you!”

“I have to ask though, why does she matter so much to you? Do you know her?”

No, Leximea was certain that they didn’t know each other.

“I think I saw her at the gate when I entered the town, but other than that, I have no idea who she is.”

“You would go this far for a stranger?”

It was certainly odd. Why did Ray help her?

“I couldn’t say that I will always do this much. It just bothered me, so I intervened.”

What? That’s it?

“That reasoning is a bit childish. Remember that being impulsive will hurt you at least as often as it helps you.”

“I’ll try to remember. No promises though.”

Leximea decided it was probably time to stop feigning unconsciousness. The High Priestess probably noticed while she was healing her. She opened her eyes and observed the people who saved her.

They both looked over as they heard a rustling sound from beside them. Leximea groaned as she sat up, her freshly healed muscles protesting as she stretched. She blinked a few times and her expression twisted as she took in her surroundings.

Her eyes settled on Ray.

She jumped back in shock and rolled over the back of the couch, crashing to the floor.

She was covered in blood! What happened to her?

Ray burst out laughing while the High Priestess covered her mouth to hide a faint smile. Ray walked around the couch and reached out a hand to help her up.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Ray.”

She stared at Ray’s extended hand for a long moment. Her eyes and mouth were both wide open, revealing her feline fangs.

She gingerly grabbed Ray’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled up to her feet.

“Leximea of the Bloodclaw tribe…” she mumbled. “M..my friends called me L..Lexi.”

“May I call you Lexi as well?” Ray asked gently.

Lexi looked up and met Ray’s warm, confident gaze. She couldn’t explain why, but an overwhelming sense of safety and peace filled her soul. She remembered hearing that her instincts would become sharper as her transformation progressed and she felt the changes keenly.

She instinctively knew that Ray was like a god to someone like her.

Without hesitation, Lexi nodded her assent.

Ray beamed with delight and Lexi felt her heart flutter as she observed the ethereal enigma before her. Why would a godlike entity descend to help her, of all people? There were so many other slaves outside, why did Ray pick her?

She looked down at the chain on her right wrist in confusion.

“I asked Sister Eileen to heal you,” Ray supplied.

“Sister Eileen?” Lexi asked.

Ray pointed towards the older woman standing behind her and the High Priestess waved in greeting.

“Hey, sweetie. You feeling better?”

Lexi scuttled behind Ray and gingerly peeked out from behind her. She gave a careful and deliberate nod. She may have healed her, but that didn’t change the fact that she was a High Priestess. She was the enemy.

“Come and sit down. We have a lot to talk about,” Eileen invited with a motion towards the couch.

Lexi looked up at Ray and their eyes met.

Ray nodded with a smile.

They both sat down while the High Priestess poured a cup of tea and offered it to the young beastkin. Lexi flinched, her eyes never leaving Eileen as she scooted closer to Ray until their legs were touched. There was no way in hell she was touching that tea. What if there was poison in it? That seemed like something a human would do.

“I’d love to hear your story but before that, we need to figure out how to get you two out of trouble.”

“What do you mean?” Ray asked as she accepted a cup.

“Miss Ray, you seem to think that you heroically rescued this girl from her captor. From what you’ve told me, it seems that you slightly bruised his body and violently shattered his pride. Gods forbid he ever recovers.”

“He deserved it,” she added.

“Now, I can’t do this every time, but I do have a solution to get you out of trouble,” Eileen continued. “I am prepared to purchase Lexi from this ‘Jantzen’ and turn over ownership to you, Ray. Would you be willing to accept this responsibility?”

Ray pondered for a long moment as she sipped at her tea. Lexi stared at her nervously, unsure what the godlike entity was thinking. She seemed somewhat uncomfortable, but Lexi hoped she would accept. She would rather serve her savior than an immature manchild like Jantzen.

“If we do that, could I pass that ownership on to Lexi?”

What did she just say? Lexi’s eyes widened with disbelief.

Eileen tilted her head in thought, her eyes gleaming with a peculiar light.

“You mean, Lexi would officially be the owner of her own slave contract? I’m not sure. To my knowledge, no one has thought to try it.”

“It would be for the best. Lexi needs to wear the collar to walk around town normally, right? She can pretend to be my slave but really she’ll be free.”

Eileen pursed her lips as she considered the idea.

“Yes, I think that could work.”

Lexi’s confusion grew with every added sentence. Just a short time ago she was being violently beaten and now she was in a strange place with people she didn’t know discussing her freedom.

“Excuse me…” Lexi interjected. “Why are you helping me?”

Ray leaned over and grabbed Lexi’s hand.

“Will you be my friend?” her eyes full of earnestness without a single hint of deceit.

Lexi flinched. She examined the woman in front of her carefully. Her instincts screamed that she should do whatever this great personage commanded but she shook that off and nodded stiffly, her confusion slowly filtering into disbelief.

Though she couldn’t truly relax yet, for the first time in over a month, her eyes began to water.

Her vision blurred. All the rage, guilt, and pain of the last month simmered and a small portion of it drained away.

Eileen offered her a tissue and Lexi blew her nose. After a long, uncomfortable pause, Lexi finally broke the silence.

“I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how the two of you expect me to repay you, but I have a goal that I must accomplish no matter what.”

Ray tilted her head when she felt the atmosphere around her new friend change.

“Tell me,” she urged.

Lexi raised her gaze to look at her savior and their eyes met. The ethereal and beautiful woman had a sharp gaze unbecoming of her appearance. If this lady was what she seemed to be…

The young slave cut off that line of thought immediately. Fighting back the faint, impossible hope that this person would help her, she cleared her throat.

“I suppose it's only fair to tell my rescuers how I came to be in this situation…”

***

Leximea Bloodclaw was born into the Bloodclaw tribe as the youngest daughter of Chief Bloodclaw. Her early years were filled with playful memories and the vibrant love provided by stable friends and family.

In her seventh year, her life was visited by tragedy.

---

“Lexi, take your brother and run!” her mother ordered.

A loud explosion resounded outside, and the entire house shuddered, scattering dust into the air.

Lexi reached out and accepted her newborn brother into her arms. Her mother gave her one last hug goodbye before she turned and left to join the battle. Lexi turned in the opposite direction and ran out the back door. She bolted through her yard and leapt over the fence in a smooth motion. She ducked low on the other side to help avoid the invaders' attention. She hugged her baby brother against her chest, praying silently that they might somehow win.

This was the fourth time the invaders had come. No matter how many times they killed the humans, they just kept coming back. Every time they invaded, more valiant tribesmen died and now there weren’t enough people to repel them.

Her father fell during the third invasion and the people were still in chaos trying to choose a new Chief. Normally, her older brother would have inherited the position, but he panicked and lost control of his inner beast. Having transformed into a feral werecat, he attacked his fellow tribesman and fled the village after being severely wounded.

Lexi heard another explosion in the distance. The battle cries of her people filled the air as they sought to defend their homes and their lives. She leapt over another fence as tears filled her eyes.

“Why…” she whispered. “Why do the humans hate us so much?”

Lexi slowed to a stop as she neared the edge of the village. She sensed people walking towards her from outside. Before her eyes, a wall of fire blasted through the weak fence and a dozen humans entered the village from behind the defensive line.

They saw her. One of them pointed, shouting to the others. Lexi turned and ran in the opposite direction, back towards the center of the town. She could try to escape in another direction, but she wasn’t confident that she could get away anymore. Besides, she needed to warn the others that they had been flanked.

“I’m sorry, Mynn,” she whispered to her baby brother. “Looks like we might not get out of this one.”

Neremynn looked up into her eyes with the incomprehension of a three-month-old. Lexi continued to cry as she entered the main road and approached the final defensive line.

When she saw what remained, she fell to her knees.

There was no more defensive line. Her mother was being restrained by a group of male humans who were laughing as they prodded her with their weapons. Several other female catkin were in the same boat. The younger ones were being herded into cages while the older ones were being dragged away to alleyways and houses.

The men chasing her from behind caught up and surrounded her. Lexi hugged Neremynn close with her left hand and raised her claws with her right. She had heard stories of what would happen to her if she ever got captured by humans.

She would much rather go down fighting.

Lexi jumped forward and swiped at the nearest man with her claws. He laughed as he caught her by the wrist and lifted her in the air to examine her.

“She looks young enough - maybe fifteen or sixteen? Good for selling.”

Lexi snarled at the man and bit his arm through his shirt. She drew blood but the man didn’t even flinch. He held her out.

“Hey, Travis, she’s got a baby beast with her. You want to get rid of it?”

“Oy oy, why do I always have to do the dirty jobs?”

“I can give it to Henrick. He enjoys tearing apart the little buggers.”

“Nah, I’ll do it. They may be cursed, but even they don’t deserve what that guy does to ‘em.”

Travis reached out and yanked Neremynn out of Lexi’s arms. Lexi tried to fight back but he was much stronger than her and she barely put up a fight before her brother was taken.

Being separated from the safety of his sister’s arms, Mynn began to cry.

“Would you like to watch?” the man holding her whispered into her ear.

Lexi shook her head, trembling.

“Sucks to be you then,” the man replied as he grabbed her by the back of the neck with his grubby hand.

“What should I do?” Travis mused as he looked around.

He saw an empty bucket lying on the ground and smiled.

“I’ve heard that cats hate water. How about we give him a bath?”

Travis picked up the bucket and tapped it with his finger. The bucket filled to the brim with pure, clean water. He held Neremynn up over the bucket. Neremynn continued to scream defenselessly, unaware of the fate that awaited him.

“No, no, no, please don't!” Lexi screeched.

She clawed in desperation at the arm holding her.

“You monsters! How can you do this?”

“We might seem that way to you, but the gods tell us otherwise. Males don’t sell well, and we don’t need babies,” Travis explained as he grabbed Neremynn by the head.

Lexi wailed as she desperately tried to free herself.

They were going to kill her baby brother.

The men around her all merely laughed. They laughed and laughed. The man holding her leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

“You shouldn’t have been born a beast. You should have kept on running. This is your fault.”

Lexi sobbed as her world crumbled around her. She never once looked away. She stared at each person in the circle and seared the faces of every one of the laughing monsters into her mind.

As she was carried away amidst the screaming of her fellow female catkin, black fur slowly sprouted along her neck, back, and arms.

***

That evening, Eileen waited anxiously in her designated meeting room. After her earlier meeting with Ray and Lexi, she had been busy arranging to purchase Lexi. She paid more than twice the price of a young, pretty slave, but she had no issues with that. The other party raised the price because he understood that she wanted this whole situation to remain quiet for as long as possible.

She knew that she could trust the duke. He never reneged on their deals in the past.

Finally, the long-awaited knock came, and Sullivan opened the door to admit the three people she had been dying to see all day.

Lord Maxwell Rovar, Siegfried Lancaster, and Quincy Rambalt

Max was wearing his typical black leather jacket over a t-shirt and dark pants. His eyepatch and red hair contrasted with the dark hair of the other two. Quincy was greasy and unkempt, as usual. Siegfried wore his tank top that showed off his muscular frame.

Sullivan stepped back into the shadows and disappeared as her guests entered the room.

“Come in, brothers, and take a seat.”

“I assume you took the usual precautions?” Quincy muttered as he and the others found their way to the comfortable couch.

Eileen offered each of them a cup of tea but only Max accepted.

“Of course,” Eileen replied as she poured the tea.

“Good,” Quincy replied. “Now tell me. Where in the Dark Lady’s holy abyss did you find that girl?”

Eileen giggled.

“Would you believe me if I told you that she just walked in here? She respawned in the temple two days ago and walked back in yesterday.”

“Pffft, you expect me to believe that there exists an Overseer that would let one of those things respawn?” Quincy scoffed.

“It’s true,” Max supplied. “I was there when she woke up. She seemed confused.”

“She seems to have lost her memories,” Eileen supplied.

“I’d believe it. The damned beast asked me how to summon mana! I had to teach her how to control it before she leaked too much and gave herself away. Still, I wonder how such a blessing fell upon us? I was beginning to think we would never find one...” Quincy mused, scratching at the stubble on his cheek.

“What name was on the register?” Siegfried asked.

Quincy, Max, and Siegfried all leaned forward.

Eileen paused uncomfortably.

“You’re not going to like it. It’s a name that all of you know. We can’t be sure that this isn’t a trap.”

“Tell us the damn name!” Quincy spat out.

“Please,” Max added while giving his grungy colleague a sharp glare.

Eileen let out a deep sigh.

“It’s her. The Queen of Vampires. The most legendary and powerful assassin.”

Quincy, Max, and Siegfried all froze. They looked at each other before Siegfried leapt to his feet, crying out jubilantly.

“That young lady is Evelyn Raymond?! We got our hands on the Monarch of Ages?!”

Eileen smiled as she saw that Quincy was tearing up. He noticed her staring and rubbed his eyes, glaring at her as if daring her to mention it.

Max leaned back into the seat of the couch. He collapsed into the cushions weakly, and all the strength left his body.

“Humanity's greatest enemy... The Queen of Vampires is now my student…” Siegfried muttered in amazement.

“But why did Evelyn Raymond respawn in the temple with no memories? Why did she suddenly get younger? Why did she lose her fighting techniques and ability to control mana?” Max muttered.

His eyes scrunched with worry.

Eileen shrugged.

“We’ll have to see if we can figure all of that out. What matters is that she is a blank slate right now. If we are careful, we can paint her in any color we want.”

Each of the three men nodded in agreement.

“If we can train her to a sufficient level, then we can continue this shadow war for as long as we need to,” Eileen continued. “Ray has no memories, so I don’t expect that she could perform at the same level as the esteemed Evelyn Raymond yet, but she is still one of the legendary immortals and I want each of you to carefully raise her. Max, I want you to protect her. Siegfried and Quincy, I want you to help her become our most powerful weapon. By the beginning of spring, she needs to be ready to fulfill her role.”

Each of them nodded, accepting their respective task.

“Are we definitely leaving by spring then?” Quincy asked.

Eileen grimaced, her displeasure showing on her face.

“That’s what Phineas ordered. He received a divine revelation saying that if we haven’t found the core by spring then we won’t be able to find it here anymore.”

“Phineas…” Siegfried sighed. “If he’s the one saying it, he’s definitely right, as much as I hate to admit it. We’ll make sure our little ‘friend’ is ready by then.”

“Make sure of it,” Eileen ordered. “The most important part is to gain her trust without raising the suspicions of the other students. She must trust us wholeheartedly if we want the greatest results.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us about her?” Siegfried asked, his eyes filled with determination.

Eileen thought for a second.

“Let’s see, she attacked two of Quincy's other students earlier today to rescue a catkin slave. Also, I investigated an attack she apparently received yesterday. She seems to have fought with an adventurer team and killed two of them. One was another of Quincy's students and the other happens to be one of Rick’s students.”

Siegfried and Quincy shared a glance.

“She attacks and kills her fellow students and we have to gain her trust without raising their suspicions,” Quincy summarized.

Eileen smiled.

“Doesn’t she sound perfect? I leave it in your capable hands.”