Thus it is written, and thus it behoved her to forget, and to rise from the dead the thirteenth day.

- Andanian Chronicles

“Please! No more… mercy… just kill me…” Naomi whimpered helplessly. Never in her entire fleeting life as a slave did she realize that the human body could experience such pain. Forget all the cruel and unusual punishments meted out by her often sadistic supervisors or even death by a thousand cuts, an incredibly merciful fate in comparison, the agony that was flaring through every pore of her skin made even the worst Saadian torture seem like a minor discomfort in comparison. And there was just so much blood, the vast ten thousand square meter space they were enclosed in was already pooled knee deep with the red torture dripping slowly from the ragged wounds in her body. But the witch’s magic had kept her fully conscious throughout the entire horrendous experience where she had bled out a hundred times as her organs had been harvested repeatedly before they were regrown with magic.

“Hearts, livers, kidneys, spleens, stomachs, intestines…” The princess of Andania examined the carefully categorized mountains of pulsing innards as she continued to hum happily while ignoring her adorable puppy’s ridiculous demands. “Almost done with the preparations!” Lily exclaimed encouragingly, “Once we have accumulated an adequate supply of spare parts, we can finally begin the magic upgrade project! Don’t worry, with this many spares, there’s no way in Krall that your life will be in any danger. You are in Teacher’s perfectly safe hands.”

“You haven’t even started yet!?” Naomi moaned as she struggled to break free from the irons crucifying her against the rectangular surgical table. But the slightest movement ignited an incredibly powerful burst of torment in her entire being and she was forced to experience the full brunt of her disobedience as the witch’s magic prevented her from drifting off into the humane bliss of oblivion. “Help… forgive me…” Naomi croaked as her body convulsed involuntarily and fanned the surging wildfire of cruciation into a maddening crescendo that tore at her already tattered sanity.

“There, there… I know that you’re eager to help, but you have to be patient. The entire process should only take thirteen more days, then we might actually be able to play fun games together without accidently breaking you.” Lily giggled innocently with excitement.

“Please… Honored Princess Lily! What did I ever do to wrong you? No more, I’ll repent of all my sins… I’ll do anything you want!” Naomi begged.

“Sins? What sins?” Lily frowned in bafflement, “You’re my cute little apprentice! How could you ever offend me?” The princess kissed her willing pupil tenderly on the forehead even as she tore yet another heart from her body in a spray of gore. She nodded with satisfaction as she eyed the healthy beating organ even as she judiciously applied another regenerative talisman on Naomi’s tattered body.

Naomi’s eyes widened with perfect terror, “If I haven’t wronged you… are you just torturing me for your own entertainment? I always knew that witches were evil, but you’re worse than I’ve ever imagined! Just kill me already! Please…”

“Entertainment? You have the weirdest ideas about fun Naomi. I’m really trying my best over here, you know.” The witch wiped at the blood that had splattered onto her face as she sawed a sharpened blade methodically through her pupil’s body to extract her gut. “Oh, are you hungry? I can ask one of the truth-finders to get you some dinner…”

“Why… why are you doing this to me?” Naomi wept hopelessly, “It hurts, it hurts so much…”

“Huh, isn’t that obvious? The experiments… no upgrades might get a little unpleasant later. And I’m collecting replacement parts so that I can fix you even if I’m unable to restore you with magic alone. Erm what hurts? I know that mundanes conceptualize pain differently from witches, but it was just a couple of organs and I healed you immediately after that, right? Wait a minute, I made sure to do it exactly like the truth-finders’ memories advised, is my technique still incomplete?”

“It gets much worse?” Naomi let out a small despairing scream.

“Of course. I never said that the improvements would be easy, did I? A couple of organs is nothing, see?” Lily reversed the blade in her hand and thrust it into her own chest without batting an eye. She sawed swiftly even as her wounds began to regenerate and tore out her own bloody heart. The witch tossed the beating organ on to a nearby desk as the ragged hole in her chest sealed itself. “Piece of cake! I didn’t even require any magic to fix a harmless scratch like that.” The witch demonstrated absently, as she placed an activated talisman into the large boiling cauldron that she had been stirring. “Now, time for the real thing,” she instructed as she ladled out the black squirming liquid, “drink up now. Be a little braver, we are just getting started.”

“Arrgh…mercy!!! Gugugu...” Naomi opened her mouth to scream preemptively but the steaming vicious fluid Lily decanted down her throat silenced her before her cries could further terrorize all the Saadian prisoners within earshot. Her eyes widened with expectant distress but a soothing warmth spread swiftly through her body as the potion’s effects were manifested, “What? It doesn’t hurt at all?” She muttered with a mixture of confused relief and hesitant hope.

Lily clapped her hands triumphantly, “That was the anesthesia, I’m glad it works. Here we go then!” The witch bit her lip to draw a single bead of blood as she stuck a midnight stained healing charm on Naomi’s chest, “You can have my life, one minute.” Lily commanded moments before she locked her moist bloodstained lips against Naomi’s and fed a single drop of her blood down her eager puppy’s thirsty throat. The witch’s cells were stimulated by her higher magic and multiplied swiftly within the horrified child even as they began fusing together with her defenseless body on a genetic level.

Cataclysm, fatality, tribulation. It was impossible to describe with mere words, what Naomi experienced as the willing witch’s power infected her body. Did her body meld with the witch's? Or did the witch devour her body? Either way, the net result was utter maddening excruciation like never before as her flesh was assimilated and transformed, cell by cell, from the innermost depths of her being. It was at that very moment, as the first agonizing changes swept through her body, that Naomi understood the vast asymmetry between all of humankind and the alien horror leaning against her. Then the child thought no more as she opened her mouth and screamed. And screamed.

…

“Fishes… many happy fishes…” Mirror mumbled hopefully as she snuggled between the sheets and rubbed her head drowsily against the sleeping prince’s chest.

“Laura!” Aryan jerked upright tearfully as he grasped the purring naked kitten by the shoulders. Then the faint flicker of hope faded as his face was etched with disappointed sorrow, “Oh, it’s just you, Mirror. Didn’t I ask you to refrain from breaking into my room while I’m sleeping?”

“But I was cold and lonely, Aryan is warm.” Mirror pouted as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, “And I’m hungry, feed me Aryan.” For a moment, the prince opened his mouth as if to deliver a heated retort, but he sagged back into the sheets instead and wept bitterly as he cuddled her tightly in an embrace. Mirror groaned as she stuffed a feathered pillow into his snot encrusted face, “Stop slobbering all over me again! I already spent all morning grooming myself.”

“I’m sorry,” Aryan muttered as he dabbed at the tears trickling down his cheeks, “but I just can’t help myself!” The prince bawled loudly as he buried his face into Mirror’s carefully combed hair.

“Eww… sticky icky Aryan!” The kitten squirmed away desperately as a slimy blend of tears and mucus dribbled against her scalp. She rolled swiftly off the bed before he could tug her back into his arms and scampered out of an open window before climbing onto the palace’s curved rooftop. “This is even worse than I thought it would be,” Mirror sighed unhappily as she stretched out and allowed the midday sun to bake warmly against her exposed skin, “Aryan’s completely broken. And it’s already past lunchtime!” The kitten sighed, “At least I had food and some cuddles when the evil witch was with him,” she mused absently as she stared out towards the city’s distant outskirts. Mirror closed her eyes and spread her limbs apart as she rolled over to recline against the heated tiles, “Today’s the thirteenth day…” she mumbled as she snoozed, “maybe the witch will finally fix Aryan when she wakes up… zzzz…” the kitten muttered softly to herself as she drifted off into a moody dreamless slumber.

…

Deep within the cool unfeeling embrace of earth, on the sparsely populated outskirts of Calcutta, a tiny fragment of Krall’s tentacles twitched back to life within the broken body of a still silent girl. The cells multiplied swiftly within the moist acidic environment of her belly and began devouring her remains for nourishment. But the foreign invasion was halted when the girl’s body detected the incursion and martialed its innate defenses to resist the incursion. Her stomach growled with awakened hunger as a fresh infusion of digestive juices gushed out to consume Krall. For a brief moment, the balance of the battle within her body oscillated precariously between the invader and the invaded, but the girl’s vast numerical advantage finally won out over Krall’s small potent force, and the starving girl digested the fragment of Krall trapped within her body. Fueled by the catalytic source of energy, a raging warmth spread swiftly from her core to the rest of her body, and a single heartbeat echoed softly within the polished stone casket.

“Bleah…” The girl groaned as her crystal blue eyes snapped open to stare into the silent darkness surrounding her, “Where the Krall am I? What was I doing? And… who am I?” She moaned as her damaged body was writhed with a wave of agony and she convulsed helplessly against the unyielding stone prison entombing her. As she splayed out her hands to grope desperately at her surroundings, her scarred fingers were thrust into a sticky gooey substance. The girl recoiled in surprise and sniffed cautiously at the unidentified substance, then she stuck out her tongue and licked at the gel oozing slowly down her palm.

“Is this sweetness?” The girl sighed contentedly as the pleasurable flavor spread gently across her tongue, then she stretched out to snatch at the stale partially decayed pie placed beside her. “Is this happiness?” She gasped questioningly as she chomped down curiously and swallowed a generous mouthful. Almost immediately the girl felt strength gush back into her arms and she smiled as she wolfed down the entire pastry. Then she fumbled about eagerly for more and quickly discovered an entire stash of stale treats around her, the girl smiled with relief as the worst of her hunger was quickly satiated by the nourishing warmth of the snacks she had consumed.

…

“Hey did you hear that?” A guard muttered nervously to his companion.

“Hear what?” His companion yawned as he answered with a mildly annoyed expression, “Don’t tell me you actually believe in ghosts or the undead or something equally ridiculous? Concentrate, we were posted here to guard against looters, and not to jump at every little imaginary sound.”

“THERE! You must have heard that! It came from right over there!” The guard gasped with fear as he gestured at where the princess of Andania had been buried.

“It’s just your nerves. What’s so special about that lousy grave anyway?” His companion sighed as he wandered over to study the inscription carved on the tombstone, “Here lives Laura of Andania…” he muttered to himself with a confused frown, “lives? Surely they meant ‘lies’? Damnit, someone must have defaced this grave! The guard captain isn’t going to be very happy about this…” His companion groaned as he retrieved his notebook and began drafting out an incident report to his superiors.

“Tetetetete! Yarrrrrr! Aiiieee!” Blood drained swiftly from the guard’s face as he eyed the quivering mound of earth and backed away uncertainly from the grave.

“Oh shut up, you coward! I’m trying to concentrate on the report.” His companion retorted as he turned to scowl at the man behind him, “What in the name of Dagon are you…” But his irked admonishment trailed off into an unseemly squeak of shock as a hand shot up from beneath the earth and clamped tightly around his knee.

“Moore fooood!” A chilly voice laced with what seemed like pure malevolence spoke from beneath them as the grave was split open.

“Help me! Undead rising! Demon!” The man screamed desperately as the earth exploded behind him to reveal an emaciated soil encrusted wisp of what had once been the body of a beautiful teenaged girl. But his partner had long since fled the scene and the man’s eyes bulged with unrestrained horror as he stared at the scarred hideous creature clawing up his body.

“Food! Give me food!” The apparition demanded desperately.

“Please don’t eat me!” The man trembled uncontrollably as his breeches were moistened with a mixture of piss and excrement.

The girl wrinkled her nose with disgust and released the man with a sigh, “Just get me some food, anything will do…”

“Arrgh!! Undead demon!” The guard twisted away desperately and drew his sword before burying it repeatedly into the girl’s malnorished body. “DIE! Take that! And that! And that!” The man yelled desperately as eighty centimeters of cold unforgiving steel ravaged through his target’s already battered frame.

The girl whimpered helplessly as she curled up into a weak defenseless ball and absorbed blow after blow from the terrified guard. Just as she was about to flee back to the relative safety of her grave, the violent assault ceased abruptly and her body was bathed suddenly with a sticky red fluid. Despite the sudden warmth, the girl shivered instinctively as she raised her eyes slowly to gaze at her savior. The ancient wrinkled man looming over her reeked of decay and dark magic, but he seemed somehow familiar to the girl who had lost all her memories. “Food! Please…” The girl begged miserably as she trembled from her freshly inflicted wounds.

“Here, eat this.” Her savior tossed the severed head of the guard before her. The guard’s mouth opened and closed with muddled disbelief as tears of despair trickled down his cheeks.

“Is this also food?” The girl frowned with hesitant confusion.

The smiling weasel’s teeth gleamed brightly as they reflected the pale unfiltered rays of the full moon hanging above them, he snapped off a single finger from the guard’s still quivering corpse and popped it into his mouth. The weasel smacked his lips together with satisfaction as he crunched down noisily before swallowing the boney morsel whole. “Human, best food!” He prodded the head towards the hesitant girl even as he struggled to keep his true emotions in check.

The girl nibbled tentatively on the edge of an ear and she gasped with pleasure as a fresh meaty ecstasy from that tiny morsel filled her mouth with unimaginable pleasure. “Best food!” She nodded with agreement as her initial inhibitions were banished and her pearly teeth tore swiftly through the skull of the guard with gusto and she supped eagerly at the mushy whiteness within.

“There’s more.” The weasel shoved the headless corpse of the guard before the drooling witch, “Here. Eat, drink! Sate your hunger.”

The girl moaned and it was as if something within her had snapped, she darted forward and buried her head into the body to feast like a wild beast upon its warm tender innards. Then she screamed with pleasure as she gnawed fiercely at his limbs and swallowed chunk after chunk of nutritious flesh. In a short span of mere minutes, the guard’s body had been reduced into a ravaged assortment of scraps, and the still famished witch twisted her head around desperately as she searched for her next source of sustenance.

“Many more fresh tasty snacks just hiding over there!” The weasel goaded deceptively as he pointed to a small dingy cluster of huts located at the edge of the city’s slums.

“Foooddd! Moore fooodd!” The girl drooled excitedly as she staggered forward to the nearest building and punched straight through the flimsy walls to dine upon the best feast she had ever known. And the sound of horrified screaming began reverberating through the once silent night.