Chapter 15

"Wake up," a voice said, causing the unconscious form of Safi to stir. "I said wake up!" the voice said again before a sharp kick to the ribs jolted her awake. Opening her eyes, she was greeted with the view of the cavern roof which was illuminated by the soft glow of a lit torch.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" she heard the voice ask again; this time in a harsher tone as the owner of the voice watched her struggle against the ropes that bound her arms and feet together.

"My name is Safi" she answered, scared of what the owner of the voice would do to her if she didn't answer the question. "I was looking for food and a place to stay" she continued, answering honestly, hoping that the owner of the voice would believe her. "There's a storm coming and I don't have a place to stay anymore" she finishes, her voice taking on a sad tone as she mentioned that fact.

After a period of silence, the owner of the voice stepped over to reveal a boy a bit younger than her with a set of onyx eyes and a dagger in his hand. As he leaned over to cut her bonds, Ozymandias watched the intruder close her eyes and tense her body, flinching away from his touch. Wondering what her problem was, he steadied her hands by holding her wrist, confident that he could overpower her once again if she tried anything funny. Cutting the ropes around her wrist, he undid the ropes around her ankles and sat next to her.

"You can stay here for a while" he told her, noticing the bruises and barely healed wounds that decorated her body. Reaching into the pouch strapped to his side, he pulled out some dried leaves and handed them to her. "Here" he offered the leaves to her, "For your wounds" he told her "You chew it and rub the paste on your wounds and bruises" he explained, seeing the confused expression on her face.

Taking the leaves from him, Safi chewed on the leaves slowly, her face contorting into one of disgust due to the bitter taste. "I know" Ozymandias laughed as he saw her expression "It tastes bitter, but it feels better when you rub it" he consoled.

Trusting him, she kept chewing until the leaves had been turned into paste before spitting some of it on her right palm and gingerly applied it to the freshest wound on her body; a barely healed cut which ran down her entire left forearm. As soon as the paste touched the wound, she let out a groan of comfort as the pain that had been plaguing her finally died down. Seeing that the paste was effective, she applied it over her visible injuries before stopping. "C.c.could, could you please turn around?" she asked the boy, intending to treat the wounds and bruises under her shirt.

Turning round to give her the privacy she requested, Ozymandias tried to initiate some small talk. "I'm Ozymandias" she heard him say as she applied the paste on the inside of her thighs.

"That's" she paused for a while, trying to find the right words to convey her thoughts while avoiding anything that could offend him, "An interesting name. What does it mean?" she asked, a part of her curious to know what it meant while thinking of what to say depending on the meaning of the name.

"It means He Who Breathes to Rule" he told her, feeling proud of his name.

"Rule what?" Safi asked, genuinely interested. She had heard a lot of names and their meanings, but none of them had been as arrogant.

"Everything!" he exclaimed. "I was born to rule over the lands, seas, stars, skies, everything!" his eyes burned with fervor as he imagined a myriad of beings kneeling before him as he sat on a large throne.

"Wow, that's" she stopped, unable to find any words to convey her thoughts. In all her life, she had never heard anyone name their child something so outrageous, arrogant, so hopeful. Staring at the back of Ozymandias, she felt the familiar feeling of jealousy creep up her chest.

"What about you?" she was brought out of her thoughts by the question, Ozymandias's back still turned to her as he waited for her to finish applying the paste. Pausing momentarily, Safi debated whether or not to answer. "S.s.safi" she stuttered out after a while. "My name is Safi" she said in a low voice.

"That's a nice name" she heard him say, his sentence causing her to stop in confusion. This was the first time someone had ever complimented her name, causing her to feel confused yet somewhat happy.

"What does it mean?" she heard him ask, the inquiry causing her insecurities to rise. "I. I'd rather not say" she stuttered, hoping that it would be enough to stop his question.

"Why not? It's not like your name is who you are"

"That's easy for you to say!" she snapped at him, her timid nature giving way to the rage she had age as she put on her shirt and tackled him to the ground, her fists raining down on his face as tears fell from her eyes. "Your parents believe that you can do great things and they didn't name you trash!" she wailed as her assault on Ozymandias continued. "Useless, trash, failure, mistake, worthless" she cried, each word followed by a punch to Ozymandias's face as the memories she tried so hard to repress surged forward. "That's what my name means!" she screamed.

Safi had spent every day being reminded by the townspeople and their children about how worthless she was. Every night she cried herself to sleep whilst laying on the mud-covered hay under her home while other children got to sleep in actual beds. She had tried so hard to prove them wrong, to prove to them that she was more than a failure or trash, but everything she did always ended up proving that she truly was defined by her name.

Now she was being told by this boy whose name meant that he was destined for greatness that names didn't define who you were. Who did he think he was lying to? How dare he give her the hope that she could be more!

"It's not fair" she suddenly sobbed, her punches losing their momentum as her rage gave way to her sadness and pain. It wasn't her fault that she had no talent with weapons or magic. She tried so hard to be useful during the hunts and in preparing meals, so why was she the only one who couldn't be of any use to anyone. "I just want to prove that I'm not useless" she sobbed as she sat atop Ozymandias, tears and snot running down her face.

She soon felt two arms wrap themselves around her body and pull her down into a hug. "It's okay Safi" she heard, "You're not trash, you just haven't found anyone that sees how valuable you are" his hands gently stroking her hair with the care that she had been searching for all her life. "I don't care if others think you're trash or a failure," he continued, "You're my friend, and that makes you the most valuable thing in all the nine realms."

"Friend?" she asked, pulling back so that she could look at his face while her mind tried to process what she heard. Someone had called her a friend and meant it. Someone called her the most valuable thing in not just the world, but in all the nine realms.

"Yeah" he smiled at her awkwardly at her before his expression suddenly changed into one of fear.

"What's wrong?" Safi asked, getting off her new friend and examining his body. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Its not you" Ozymandias reassured her as he got up and hurried over to a barrel. Twisting the lid open, he pulled out a bag with a single strap and placed it on the floor before bringing out two more and closing the barrel. "Mom sent me to bring more stuff so we could make dinner and we have to get back before…" his next words were cut off as a massive pressure pressed down on the two of them, forcing Safi to her knees while Ozymandias remained unaffected.

"Safi are you alright!" he rushed to her side, knowing exactly what she was going through. Safi was currently experiencing the force of his mother's pressure and from the looks of it, his mom was extremely pissed. If he didn't do anything, she would either die or end up having her mind broken.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he released his own ūru to act as dampener, lessening the pressure on Safi. "Are you okay?" he asked as he gently picked her up and placed her on his back, her arms tightly wrapping themselves around his neck as she shivered in fear. "I'm sorry about my mom" he began, walking towards the bags he dropped. Putting the straps over his head, he began to walk towards the exit, his ūru still on full display. "She can be a bit scary when she thinks I'm in danger"

'You call that a bit!' Safi wanted to scream, but her mind was still suffering from the pressure. It felt like she was standing before a creature that commanded her fear, a being of pure malice and destruction. The scent of blood wafted into her nose as pain filled screams rang in her ears. Opening her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of countless dead bodies, each one savagely torn and mangled by an inhuman force. As she watched, the bodies began to crawl towards her, each one eager to tear her apart and add to the landfill of corpses.

The worst part of all this was that despite the carnage she witnessed, the madness and fear that ate at her mind and slowly stripped her of reasoning, she was filled with the undeniable urge to worship the carnage and pray to whatever it was that created this carnage. Just as she started muttering the first few words of prayer, Ozymandias's voice dragged her back, his ūru retracting and wrapping itself around her, lessening the effects of his mother's ūru on her.

"It's okay Safi, I'm here" she heard Ozymandias call as he opened the door leading to the outside, blasting the two of them with the frigid winter air and revealing a massive figure with crimson eyes.

"I'm in so much trouble" was the last thing she heard as her consciousness faded under the combined pressure of fear, madness and reverence.

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"Is she going to be alright?" Ozymandias turned to look at his mom who was currently standing over Safi's unconscious form, his entire body wracked with guilt and apprehension. He had personally witnessed grown men and women being reduced to blabbering toddlers with zero control over their own bladder after being exposed to his mother's ūru.

"For the twelfth time Stolt, your girlfriend will be fine. Now get to cooking" she shooed him out of his room as she undid the mental damage before healing her wounds.

"She's not my girlfriend!" he protested as he turned to face the fireplace where a pot of stew was being heated. Taking out a chunk of dried meat and some vegetables from the bags he had brought back, he carefully cut them into small pieces before throwing them into the pot.

"First you let her into the storage, then you spend over two hours doing who knows what, and then when I show up, you protect her and beg me to help her" Ordria listed as she came out of the room, wiping her bloodied hands on her shorts before sitting down next to the fire. Lifting the pot off the handle that kept it suspended above the flames, she poured out its contents into the two bowls her son had brought before placing the pot to her lips and greedily drinking its contents.

"I didn't let her in, she got in by herself" he tried to defend himself, only for his mom to laugh at him.

"You did well on the stew" she complimented, licking her lips in satisfaction before placing the pot on the stove for it to heat up "You'll make a decent husband for your new girlfriend" she teased, "And an even better dad when you two fill this place with tiny runts of your own"

"Mom it's not like that!" he cried out again, trying and failing once again to get her to see reason.

"Sure it isn't" Ordria laughed, taking the pot off the flames with her bare hands and emptying its contents into her mouth, chewing happily.

"So will she be alright?" Ozymandias asked with concern, still trying to find out Safi's condition.

"You can ask her yourself" Ordria sighed, pointing her thumb to his room door where Safi was standing and watching them, a hungry expression in her eyes as she stared at them, more specifically the bowl and pot.

"Safi this one's for you" he called to her, raising the second bowl for her.

"A.a.are you sure?" she stuttered, unsure if she should accept the bowl from him.

"Of course, I kept this one for you" he smiles at her, patting the spot on the floor next to him and a smile on his face.

Leaving her spot next to the door, Safi walked towards him, her eyes never leaving Ordria's form as she cautiously walked around her, the memory of what she did still fresh in her mind. Sitting next to Ozymandias, she took the bowl from him and tried to take a spoonful, only for its contents to spill due to her shaking hands.

"I'm sorry" she apologized, placing the plate on the floor, her eyes watching Ordria for the outburst of anger and slap that always followed whenever she made a mistake like this. Watching Ordria get up, Safi began to tremble as she began to imagine what she would do to her. Staring up at the massive woman who was glaring down at her with crimson eyes, Safi closed her eyes, curled used her arms to shield her face and then curled herself into a ball as she waited for the pain.

"It's alright," she heard Ordria tell her as she felt a massive pair of arms wrap around her and press her against a warm and firm surface. "You're safe here" Ordria reassured, crossing her legs around Safi and gently rocking her, her motherly instincts having taken over when she saw the fear in Safi.

Caught off guard by Ordria's display of motherly love, Safi's body froze momentarily before she found herself relaxing in Ordria's grasp, tears falling from her eyes as she buried herself deeper into the hug. They maintained this position for several hours, the silence occasionally shattered by Safi's sobs and Ordria comforting her as Ozymandias cleared away the dinner things and began cleaning their home.

By the time he had finished, Safi had fallen asleep in his mother's arms, her arms wrapped around Ordria's torso, unwilling to let go of her for even a second. Quenching the fire in the fireplace, he and Ordria made their way to his parent's room. Laying on the bed with Safi, Ordria slowly pushed her kjarna into the girl in her arms, repairing her body and curing her of the various diseases she was afflicted with, her crimson eyes glowing with restrained fury as she wondered who or what would do this to a child.

Turning her attention to Ozymandias who had somehow found his way into her arms and had fallen asleep with his arms wrapped around Safi, Ordria found herself wishing for the first time in a while that she hadn't chosen this path.