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Myco · 5 February 2023

I never continued where i left the story back when I wrote it (around December 2021), no idea why though. Reading through it again though makes me want to pick it back up but I'm too lazy..

The Blood Warden

She looked disgusted as the city guard burned another woman alive, the third one of today. Her screams were unbearable as the flames engulfed her body. Manu had never heard so much terror in one's scream, the other two kept to themselves, while still wincing and crying, it was nothing you could even be prepared for in the slightest.
The street was full, the crowd Captain Alexander amassed when announcing today’s punishment, began pushing forward while shouting in unison for her to burn, with a hatred that came from the deepest parts of their souls, citizens standing on the hand railings of stairs from entries to stores and apartments trying for a better view of this woman’s demise.
One of them was the “Locks in Gold'', a hair salon for Women, where in an alley right next to it, Manu had set up her sleeping camp, if you can even call it that. Out of all the homeless people, she was one of the lucky ones to at least have a mattress to sleep on, however it had a wet and moldy smell, that Manu had long gotten used to, due to the many rainfalls occurring in the city of Roxten.

The smell of the burning flesh, hair and clothing and the rotting away of the other 2 corpses by now was enough for Manu to finally want to get out of here. However, this proved to be more difficult than she thought. The pushing crowd seemingly almost engulfed her like the flames had done to the burning woman, with her ears ringing from the screams and shouting of the mass, still able to slither back like she’d be nothing but a shadow. Manu still got a few too many elbows into her ribs and somehow a knee to her behind. She started to panic, breathing in a quicker rhythm, more sweat building on her body, feeling soaked in it due to the heat emitting from the crowd itself.

Manu had to be quick if she didn’t want to be the another victim of today’s punishments, the guards would be able to pick up the strong scent of blood if she used her power to a longer extent. Without much thought she took the vial of blood she had hidden in her hip pouch and left out a small flow of blood, enough for her to control and bend to her will. She used it as a guide, once it hit a surface, Manu would know to change directions. That’s how she got by in this city. Manu was blind, from an accident that happened when she was a child. She knew the city of Roxten by memory alone in the time she’s been living here but a bit of extra security with her method never hurt her.

She crouched down, trying to get into a position for the guards to not notice her immediately. She wasn’t far away from the alley she slept in, the crowd was the only obstacle making it harder to reach. Trying to hurry she started moving forward, now in a crouched position more likely to get hit in the face by knees and feet moving around, the cost of a broken nose she had to take in order to get to safety. Manu was able to keep the blood droplets in front of her for most of the time despite the increasing feeling of distress, she did hit a few legs with it, leaving a trace of it behind but able to maneuver around the thick jungle of moving legs where she did get hit a few times to the point where her nose was starting to bleed. She was lucky the crowd was too focused on what was happening at the front, another woman being dragged out to be burned alive. Almost reaching the alley, the guards finally started to pick up the scent of the blood, with their weapons held high above their heads, a few started to make their way into the crowd, they did have some humanity, not wanting to hurt anyone else in the crowd as they were searching for Manu, they weren’t so ruthless to just cut through the crowd, killing anyone in their way, or so she thought.

As a last effort Manu, who now stood in front of the alley, used the blood droplets she left along the way as well as the drooping blood of her nose to scatter the blood everywhere around and inside the crowd.
The city guards were looking around confused as the blood spread everywhere, having lost the main trace the search for Manu was in vain.

Manu immediately started to turn around and move forwards through the alley, she stopped and turned around for a few seconds after hearing how the city guards started screaming at the crowd, noticing how rough they began to inspect them. What she thought were seconds turned into minutes as she realized more people were being dragged to the front. Manu backed up in shock, running towards the entry she came from, only to see that they now lined up several more women from the crowd. She knew what was going to happen. The guilt ate her from the inside out. She knew that every single one of them was going to be burned as well.

@Lovely_Cornchips @Vikki @Yili @Tsukino, I would tag more friends but I feel like 90% of them changed usernames rip