Veyra shied away from the window as the loud cracking sound of a whip continued to ring out, each pop followed by an agonizing scream. She could not bear to watch anymore and stepped back against the wall beside the window.

  Forcing her eyes shut, she tried not to envision every strike or hear each scream that came after them. Though, the sounds continued to grow louder, soon becoming too much for her to ignore.

  “This is madness...” she said angrily, giving up and storming down the hall she had been standing in.

  “My Lady, would it not be best for you to—”

  “This has gone on long enough, Natalyn!” Veyra argued, turning back toward her maid, who followed closely behind her. The Vegan woman walked with her back straight and deep brown wings folded tightly behind her, making her look smaller than she actually was.

  Veyra led the way through the estate, turning down several different corridors until she reached a large pair of doors. The guards stationed on either side did not break her stride. Waiting until the last moment, they quickly stepped toward each other and pulled open the doors to let her and Natalyn pass through, stepping out into the bitterly cold air outside.

  “Enough of this!” Veyra demanded as the guards behind the women shut the door.

  The two Vegan guards in the middle of the courtyard, still holding whips, looked back at Veyra and Natalyn, then knelt, bowing their heads with their right hands drawn up to their breastplates, still clutching the blood-soaked whips at their sides.

  Veyra looked past the guards to see Vlad. He sat on his knees in the middle of the courtyard, leaning far enough forward that he could grip the stones that paved it. His large, tawny brown wings flared out to the side, exposing his back, marred with deep cuts. Blood streamed down his sides and along the base of his wings, connecting near his shoulder blades. The sight turned Natalyn’s stomach, causing her to look away as she and Veyra stood in silence for a moment.

  Veyra took in all the damage done to him, before noticing Naem finally raise his head. However, he did not look in her direction.

  “Why did you stop them, Veyra?” he asked, his tone stoic but hoarse, riddled with pain.

  Veyra clenched her fists.

  “This is absurd...” she muttered before looking back down at the guards, who still knelt with their heads bowed to her. “Must you continue? I believe this is beyond sufficient.”

  “I personally believe so as well, My Lady,” the guard on the left said, raising his head to meet her gaze. “However, our orders were to give him one hundred and thirty lashings.”

  “By the Spirits...” Natalyn whispered to herself in disbelief.

  “One hundred and thirty!?” Veyra asked, aghast.

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  “How many does he have left? And why one hundred and thirty!?”

  The guard on the left hesitated for a moment, leaving the other one to speak up before him.

  “Sir Vlad has received seventy-eight lashings, Lady Veyra. We were given strict orders to make sure he receives the full number of lashings...”

  Shocked, Veyra looked past them again to Vlad.

  There's no reason for him to be receiving this severe of a punishment... she thought to herself as she watched Naem breathe slowly but heavily.

  “Stop this for now,” she said to the guards. “I'm going to go talk to—”

  “No, Veyra...” Naem cut in, his head dropping back down again. “No more. Just leave so we can get this over with.”

  “But if I can get him to stop at eighty, then—”

  “I said no!” Naem yelled back, his hoarse voice cracking slightly. “He will just add to it... Now leave!”

  Veyra clenched her teeth, not moving but also not saying anything further. However, the guards did not stand to their feet in her presence.

  “My lady, we should just...”

  “Guards!” Naem barked again, prompting the doors to the estate behind Veyra and Natalyn to open. She looked back to see the two guards on the inside step out and move toward her, positioning themselves before her and the kneeling guards.

  “Lady Veyra, this way.” One of the guards said, extending his hand toward the door behind her. Veyra clicked her tongue in frustration before looking back at Vlad.

  “Come to your room when you are done. I will be waiting for you there.” She said, finally turning back toward the doors and walking toward them—Natalyn and the guards following behind her.

  “I'm sorry, sir,” she heard one of the other guards whisper down to Vlad.

  “Just continue with it,” she heard her brother say before the deep groan of the wooden doors drowned out the rest behind her. Though, even after they slammed shut, they could not keep out Naem’s screams.

  Veyra stormed furiously down the short aisleway in front of her, trying to get far enough away so that she did not have to listen to any more of her brother’s screams. She turned to the right to head back toward her room in the direction she had come from. Lost in her anger, she didn’t see her father standing just around the corner until she nearly plowed into him.

  She jumped back in surprise, catching Natalyn off guard as well, before she bowed and moved several steps back. Veyra stood up straight again, her head bowed, though the look of anger was hard for her to dismiss so easily.

  “Father...” she said in a greeting manner, though her voice was distant.

  “You are not to deal with Vlad in any way after this,” Valric demanded, his voice low and deliberate.

  Veyra widened her eyes. She quickly looked up to meet her father's gaze, which was peering down at her.

  “Why, Father!? One hundred and thirty lashings is madness! And for what!? He kept our house from—” Veyra was suddenly stopped as her father's hand slapped the side of her face with a loud pop that echoed throughout the corridors. The force of his hand pushed her head to the side and made her stumble back a little. She instinctively shifted her wings around to gather her balance.

  She stood there, recovering herself, letting the pain in the side of her face and ear linger for a moment before she willed herself to channel mana into the spot and take it away. She did not bother to look back up at her father as he stepped closer to her.

  “He stood up against me and against the name of our house. One hundred lashings is my mercy upon him,” he growled before reaching out and grabbing the underside of Veyra's jaw tightly, yanking it up so she was forced to look into his golden eyes. “And as for you, being my daughter means you are property of this house. If I allow somebody to take my property, so be it...!”

  Veyra’s heart dropped as she continued to look into her father’s eyes, his grip on her face tightening with every word he spoke. “You are not one to object or care about your outcome. Whatever happens to you, you should consider it a privilege to have been of service to this family.”

  Valric shoved Veyra forcefully away from him, his hand connecting with her throat, causing her to cough uncontrollably as she stumbled.

  “Naem should be getting the same right now, but I guess what was done to him was an adequate lesson. Maybe that will teach him a little about minding his own business and not that of others.” Valric continued, gathering his composure a little more physically, but his voice still as stern as ever.

  Veyra gathered herself before looking back up at her father, seeing the sternness etched on his face.

  “You should be thanking your brother,” he started again, his tone shifting from rage to something more calculated. “Not only did he save you from whatever the humans had in store, but he also saved you from punishment.”

  Veyra's frown shifted from one forced by anger to one that reflected more worry. “What do you mean...?”

  “On top of his one hundred lashings, he also asked for the ten that I was going to order for Naem, and the twenty that I was going to order for you for being defiant against the house.”

  “No...” Veyra said as she stepped back from her father, shaking her head. “Why!? One hundred lashings have already destroyed him; one hundred and thirty could kill him!”

  “Then he dug his own grave,” Valric said before starting to walk forward, continuing on his way, leaving Veyra standing in her place, shocked.

  No, no. I have to do something... I have to do something! she thought as her father passed by her. She bit her tongue, then fell to her knees, pressing her face to the floor with her tawny brown wings slightly flared to the sides, submissively.

  “Father, please... Please let me heal him, even if it's only a little bit. He is suffering the pain of his sins against you, as well as mine and Naem's. Is the pain he is feeling right now not enough of a punishment?” she asked, tears beginning to gather in her eyes.

  This is the least that I could do... she thought to herself as she waited for what felt like hours for her father to think and finally make up his mind. She heard his footsteps shift, but she did not look up toward him. She knew that if she stayed submissive like this, he would be more willing to accept her plea... or at least, that’s what she hoped for.

  “Fine...” Valric finally said, causing Veyra to look up toward him. “You can heal him. I'll tell the guards to increase his lashings to one hundred and fifty. Ten more lashings for you to heal him for Naem’s sake, and ten more lashings for you to heal him for your sake.”

  Veyra’s tears finally broke free and streamed down her cheeks, though she did not allow herself to react any further. She bowed her face to the floor again, hiding herself from her father.

  “Yes, Father... Thank you, Father...” Veyra sat there in the hall until she could no longer hear her father’s footsteps echoing throughout it. After she felt he was gone, she stood up and continued back toward her room.

  “Are you alright, My Lady...?” Natalyn asked worriedly, hastening her pace to catch up to Veyra, but received no response.

  Veyra could not hold back her tears, no matter how many times she tried to brush them away with the sleeves of her attire.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “God, forgive me,” she cried to herself.

  It did not take the two of them long to make it back to her room. Veyra slid open the doors and began rummaging through it, leaving her maid to wait outside.

  “Natalyn, go and draw a bowl of warm water, and bring some cloth back to Vlad's room,” Veyra said, finally breaking the silence between them.

  “Yes, My Lady,” Natalyn replied before turning away from Veyra’s room and hurriedly running off to do as her master had commanded.

  After a moment, Veyra found all the materials she was looking for: a wooden dowel, two rolls of bandages, and a couple of vials of oil that she had placed high up on a shelf.

  She turned back and slid the door to her room closed before continuing down the corridor a little further to Vlad's room. She slid open his door and entered, respectfully. She took the materials she had gathered and laid them out on the table against his left wall, brushing aside a couple of the papers on it to make room.

  She could no longer hear his screams or the cracking of the whip. Though, she did not know if that was because she was deeper into the estate, where the sound could not reach her, or if he was finally done. Either way, she prepared the room as quickly as she could to make sure it was completely ready for him by the time he arrived.

  She stood back and scanned the room to make sure she had done everything that was needed.

  “I got the bandages, the oils... Natalyn's bringing the water and cloth, the stools are ready...” she murmured to herself as she listed all the things she had prepared.

  She was ready.

  There was nothing more she could do other than wait for Natalyn to return with the bowl of water and cloth, and then for Vlad, all the while hoping that they came in that order. She paced back and forth as anxiousness began to take control of her.

  Where's Natalyn with that water? she thought before clamping her eyes shut to try and focus on other things.

  She opened her eyes and began to look around, noting the couple of hand-drawn portraits on paper that Vlad had hanging on his walls. Most of them were from their time at the Vegan Academy, and all depicted him with one or more of his friends. She was in a couple of them, as well as a few professors.

  “My Lady...?” Natalyn called from the other side of the paper doors, drawing Veyra's attention quickly. She rushed over and slid open the door for her maid.

  She looked down to see the large basin of water that Natalyn had drawn, so big that she had to carry it in front of her with both hands, along with several rolls of cloth towels she carried in the crook of her arm.

  “Good,” Veyra said, pointing toward the table behind her. “Put them there and then stay and help me.”

  “Yes, My Lady,” Natalyn replied with a quick bow before hurrying over to rest the basin of water on the table, dropping her shoulders with a sigh as she took a moment to rest.

  Veyra stepped over and heaved the basin to the part of the desk she wanted. She then took the towels from Natalyn and stacked them neatly off to the side.

  “My Lady, if you don’t mind me asking...” Natalyn started as she stood back and watched Veyra work with the materials around the table. “Why do you need all this stuff? Can you not heal him by yourself? You are of the B-Ranking... You should be more than capable of working without needing any assistance from modern medicine.”

  “I can heal him just fine,” Veyra said as she stacked the last roll where she wanted it, then scanned the rest of the room to make sure nothing else had been touched. “But I can only work in certain parts at a time. I need this stuff to help with the areas I can't reach right away...”

  “You saw how bad he was, and he's only going to come back looking worse,” Veyra said, her voice growing distant. “I’d much rather be over-prepared than under.”

  Natalyn bowed her head in agreement and then stepped back into the corner of Vlad's room to stay out of Veyra's way as she paced back and forth.

  Several minutes passed, with Veyra making many laps back and forth across the length of the room, before she heard the echoing sound of footsteps walking in unison, growing louder from outside. She and Natalyn both walked over and slid open the doors to see the same two guards who had whipped Vlad, both holding him up on either side.

  Veyra glanced quickly as Vlad hung limply between the two men, who were covered in his blood. His arms were draped around both of their necks as they carried him.

  “In here?” the guard on the right said, nodding his head into Vlad's room, past Veyra and Natalyn.

  “Yes, hurry!” Veyra said, leading the two men to carry Vlad over and sit him on the stool she had placed in the center of the room.

  Vlad groaned with their movements but otherwise sat up on the stool, his hands resting on his knees.

  “Thank you...” Vlad said as the guards stepped back. They hung their heads low, guilt-ridden on their faces.

  “We're sorry, Sir,” the guard on the left said before the one on the right continued.

  “Never have I heard of a punishment worth over one hundred lashings... That is barbaric!”

  “It doesn't matter now,” Vlad said, his voice barely above a whisper as he did his best to hold himself upright, watching as Natalyn scrambled to wet the towels in the basin of water.

  Veyra looked over at the two men beside her scornfully, trying to keep her posture as straight as possible. “You two can leave now. Go and wash yourselves.”

  The two guards bowed their heads, drawing their right fists up to their breastplates before turning and exiting Vlad's room, pulling the door shut behind them.

  Veyra looked back down at Vlad, trying to pick out the worst of the damage so she could focus on it first, then work through the rest. But it was harder than she expected.

  The damage was so great and extensive that she could see the column of bone that made up her brother's spine in more places than one, nearly as clearly as if she had used a scalpel to fillet the skin of his back herself. Pieces of his back hung in chunks, refusing to stop the flow of blood.

  “Rare to see you cry,” Vlad noted weakly.

  Veyra looked up to see him glancing back over the tops of his wings. The whites of his eyes, which peered back at her, were completely red, as were the blood-stained tears running down the little bit of his nose she could see.

  Veyra shot her brother an exasperated glance, but he turned away before she could say anything.

  “Please... don't let me hold you back,” he said, shifting his stance to lean forward further, resting his elbows on his legs with his head in his hands. “If you don't mind...”

  “My lady,” Natalyn said, rushing over and handing Veyra several wet cloth towels. Veyra took the towels and stretched them out across the upper sections of Vlad’s back and around the base of his wings, which were also cut very badly.

  Vlad let out grunts and stiffened each time Veyra laid a cloth or moved one she had already placed.

  “You need to stay still, or these will fall off,” she said, taking a vial of oil from Natalyn and pouring drops onto the broader sections of the cloth.

  “Well, sorry... I'm an inconvenience,” Vlad replied between grunts.

  “You're a moron. That's what you are,” Veyra said angrily as she laid another cloth. This one, she placed a little more forcefully than the rest, causing a reaction from Vlad. He said nothing.

  “Why would you take on more just for our sakes? He wouldn't have given us lashings. We would have gotten some other form of punishment.”

  “Well, originally, it was just going to be one hundred and thirty,” Vlad said through his teeth, fighting back the pain.

  “Even still, you trying to be the hero is going to do you no good if you end up dead!” Veyra snapped back before she knelt on the ground and began to force her healing mana into her hands at the base of Vlad’s back. The mana ignited into a bright green light in the space between her hands and the cuts she was trying to heal. Moments later, the blood around the cuts stopped pouring out, and they began to knit themselves back together.

  Vlad laughed forcefully, even though it only caused him more pain. “Something as minor as this won't kill me.”

  “You think of yourself as one of the Great Spirits, but you're not! You’re mortal. You bleed, and you can die just the same as the rest of us.”

  “As if I believe I'm one of the Spirits...” Vlad said, his voice growing more tired as the pain Veyra was working on began to fade. “The only difference is that I believe the Spirits have more in store for me. I can't believe that God would allow me to die from being whipped. If such a thing ever happened, I would want people to spit on my grave! Such insults would be acceptable if I put in as much work as I have throughout my life, only for it to end like that...?”

  After a moment of taking in everything her brother had said, Veyra let out a deep sigh before pinching a muscle on Vlad's side, causing him to jerk back.

  “Ack! What was that for?!”

  “For talking about your death and how you would want people to insult you afterward...” Veyra replied, her voice as stuck-up and proper-sounding as she usually forced it to be. She peeled off one of the cloth towels right above where she had finished working and began to work on the next section.

  “You boys are all the same. You have as much power as you do, and yet you want more. And you think you're not good enough... Naem gets it, honestly, I swear...” Veyra said softly, shaking her head. She could tell her words hit Vlad in some way after he let out a soft sigh and relaxed back onto his elbows.

  The two of them sat in silence after that. Vlad let out a grunt here and there as Veyra peeled the next section of cloth off his back so she could work. She handed the cloth to Natalyn, who discarded it and laid several others in places still needing attention.

  Veyra worked her way up Vlad's back until she reached the base of his wings. She paused for a moment, biting her tongue before letting out a shallow breath.

  “Thank you... again,” she finally said, breaking the long silence that hung in the room. She didn’t wait long before starting to peel off the cloth wrapped around the base of his wings, studying the damage she needed to undo.

  “Mm-hmm...” Vlad replied shortly after, not bothering to say much else as he sat unmoving on the stool.

  Veyra paused for a moment but then returned to what she was doing. She didn’t expect him to say much more after all he had been through—especially for something he should never have endured.

  “The worst of it was definitely further down your back,” she started as she continued peeling off the cloth around the area. “I can heal all of this, but I can do nothing about the feathers that are broken or missing. You know that though...”

  “Yeah, it doesn’t matter.” Vlad said as he stood to his feet, not wanting to sit any longer.

  Veyra began to work again. However, after a minute, she tilted her head to the side, trying to get a better look at Vlad's face. He continued to look forward out the window in front of him, watching as the last bit of sun disappeared over the wall in the distance. She remembered the blood that had filled his eye and poured out like tears when he had looked at her before and wanted to do something about it before it started to clot and harden.

  “Vlad,” she said, narrowing her gaze as she began to reach up towards the side of his face. “Look back at me.”

  Vlad looked back at her, showing that the whites of both of his eyes were completely filled with blood. Trails of blood also formed in several lines running down the sides of his face, mostly coming from the corners of his eyes.

  “What's wrong?” he asked.

  Veyra shook her head before taking her hand and placing it across his eyes. “Nothing bad. It just looks... disturbing.”

  After a moment, she took her hand away to see that his eyes had returned to their normal color. However, the bloodstains that had dried on his face still remained. She returned to healing at the base of his shoulders, leaving Vlad rubbing his eyes in confusion.

  She forced mana into the palms of her hands, allowing it to spark into a powerful green light. But shortly after, her concentration broke. Her body fell still, as did Vlad's and Natalyn's.

  The sound of horns and bells began to ring out through the window.

  Everybody stood still and silent for a moment before Veyra and Natalyn locked eyes with each other, making sure they both heard the same thing.

  Vlad walked forward. He stood before the window and pushed it open, allowing the sound to fill the room from the outside, almost as if it was sucked in with the rest of the cold air.

  “There’s been a breach...” he said before turning and walking past Veyra to a cabinet in the corner of his room behind her.

  “And what do you think you're going to do?” Veyra asked accusingly as she watched her brother open the cabinet and pull out a folded pair of clothes.

  “What do you think?”

  “I’m not done with you yet! You won’t get very far in the shape you’re in!” Veyra barked as she stormed over and jerked her brother’s shoulder to the side so he would face her.

  “I am much better than I was. Thank you,” Vlad replied before attempting to put on some form of covering.

  “This is exactly what I was talking about earlier! You’re always trying to be the hero!”

  “There’s not much that can be done when the kingdom is under attack, Veyra!” Vlad argued as he continued pulling the clothes over his head and wings. “I honestly can't really feel the pain now. Besides, Naem is still out there, as well as the rest of the people and my men.”

  Vlad turned and looked at Veyra, standing frustratedly beside him. “I swear, I’ll be careful. We can continue where we left off when I get back...”

  At that moment, Vlad’s door whipped open, and several of the Vegan guards knelt to one knee in respect.

  “Sir, the kingdom is under attack,” one of them said before they all stood back up, awaiting orders.

  “I’m aware of that. Take care of her and get her somewhere safe, as well as my mother,” Vlad said as he walked over, picked up his sword from the foot of his bed, and slipped its scabbard under his belt, all the way up to the hilt. “I’m going to aid my father and brothers. They might have already resolved the issue by the time I get there.”

  “Let’s pray that’s the case, Sir,” one of the guards said, and another added,

  “May God be with you, Sir.”

  “I have faith...” Vlad said as he walked toward the window and stepped up to it.

  “Vlad...!” Veyra called just before he was about to leave. She stayed silent until she saw him look back at her. “...Find Naem and be safe...”

  She watched her brother smile before giving her a curt nod, then launching himself out through the window. His wings stretched wide as he ascended into the sky and slipped out of view.