Pandora’s Box - Part 2

Erica's POV:

The hotel had finally grown silent for the first time since my visit. The guests had all but left, and the only one remaining was me. Although that too would change after tomorrow evening. After all, I've stayed long enough and it was time for me to return to the hunt for Mithril and the giant's valley flower.

"It's been so long since I'd had such a hearty meal," laying the utensils down, I glanced across the table at the hotel's chef Maiko. "Had it not been for the urgency of my condition, I would've loved to stay longer and learn your methods of cooking."

Stuck between a smile and an awkward contort, Maiko lifted her head and nodded politely.

"And I would've loved to learn some of your magic as well," placing her fork down, she stared at me with a flicker of uncertainty. "If you don't mind, care to tell me how you got those powers? I've never seen a witch using as potent a magic as yours."

Her insistence on knowing my secret had been a running theme throughout my stay, although now that I was soon about to leave, it didn't feel right to give her yet another fabian response. Taking a deep breath, I steeled my heart to answer.

"In my world witches are rare, they're cursed and condemned, all seven of them," intertwining my fingers, my lips pressed shut for a second. I wanted to keep going to reveal more about myself, but all of a sudden Maiko cut in between the explanation.

"Only seven?!" She exclaimed; her eyes as wide as a gawking hawk.

Glancing across the table, everyone else seemed just as surprised. Rin the vampiress, Senya the demon, and even Cinder who was the nicest, all appeared to be in utter shock.

"Yes, and I'm one of them. Children of the red devil they call us, but not all of us worship him," the more I revealed about my world, the more I figured that it would be impossible to reveal everything since the world worked on such different terms. "Either way, my red eyes marked me as one of his children and my mother nearly tore off my skull when she first saw me. My father, however, cut her head off and his army was commanded to find a flower and some mithril to save my life by a sage." 

"An army?" Rin muttered; her eyes squinted in doubt.

"You said you were a slave, but how come our father had an army?" Senya asked, perhaps the same thing as everyone else was wondering.

"His kingdom fell soon after, and I was sold as a young slave to the last magus in our realm," that was all I could tell them, but even still my heart felt much lighter for having shared the truth with people who've helped me.

Contended I picked up my fork and knife to finish the rest of the meal, the moment I dug in again, however, Maiko jumped in with another question.

"If you don't mind, what exactly is the extent of your power?" Putting the utensil back down, I glanced over to her once again.

Leaning forward in her chair, her eyes were keenly fixed on me. The rest seemed just as curious, but this time, they were better off not knowing those limits.

"How about I show you?" Intending to give them a false display much milder than my limits, I lifted my hand slightly and took the glove off of my right hand. "Being an apprentice to the greatest Magus served me well, he even taught me how to breathe life into inanimate objects by infusing them with my own soul."

Looking over to Dandy sitting next to me, I figured they could easily deduce what I meant.

"But anyways, here let me show you," pointing a finger upwards, I swirled around to create a whirl of my tainted mana. Thick as dried oozing blood, it formed into a small tornado spinning atop my finger. "Now, don't freak out."

Snapping my finger, I made the tornado burst into a cloud of mist. Then giving it direction with my gaze, I had it travel across the dining to connect the minds of everyone present.

"So, what do you think?" I said to them without moving my lips.

"What happened?"

"About what?"

"What did she even do except create that bloody mist?"

All their thoughts flooded into my head at once, although I couldn't tell who said what since it was all a jumble.

"Wait–What the hell?!" Blinking her eyes dumbfounded, Maiko finally seemed to have realized what was happening.

We were all in each other's mind, the only thing different was that they couldn't probe into my thoughts but everyone else affected by the spell could probe into each other's. 

"The spell should only last a few seconds longer, so if there's anything you want to know about each other go right ah–" In the middle of the sentence a splash of blood, and a pungent place filled with rot and bodies jumped into my head. 

It was an image most disturbing, although not entirely a foreign sight to me. Turning to the ones with their thoughts filled with that damned place, my eyes were locked with Rin before swiftly moving into Senya. The two had something sinister in their heads, and from the look in their eyes, neither was too thrilled about me scanning through their memories.

"I–" Snapping my fingers, I quickly cut the connection to our minds. "I think that's enough."

"Yeah…" Her eyes fixed on me; Rin nodded in response.

There was no way she didn't know what I'd just seen in her mind. To think, even these innocent-looking girls would be capable of such murderous mischief. Thankfully, I wouldn't be staying here much longer.

Pulling my chair back, I turned my attention back to Maiko.

"Thanks again for the delicious meal," with those words, I took my leave and headed straight for my room with Dandy.

'Who could've thought that the woman who died was murdered by the very people sent to look for her in the woods?' A ripple of disgust washed over my entire being. 'I suppose this world is no less monstrous, after all.'

The comfort I felt staying here was no longer there, instead, I couldn't wait to get away from this place as soon as possible. Had it not been for my promise to Ken, my bags would've already been in my carriage. 

'Just until tomorrow, Erica, and you'll be back on Elturial soil.' Slipping into my room, I locked it with a charm so nobody else could enter. Even so, this wouldn't have been the first time someone slipped into my room with malice in their heart. 'Damn it all…'

Coughing all of a sudden, my mind began to grow weary. It seems my use of magic has started to have its usual effect on me. Surprisingly enough, I still managed to lay down on the bed before eventually consciousness slipped right out of my body.