Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

Thor returned to the bunker with a flash of lightning through the entrance. Gust stirred dust across the concrete floor, and after the blue-white glare faded, Thor was standing inside again in her familiar armor.

The Hammer of Force hung by her belt and the stolen modern clothes were gone as though she had never worn them. A small paper bag hung from one hand.

Caelem lifted his head immediately. ”You came back.”

Muskard looked at her then urgently at Linzley. ”Good. She’s getting worse.”

Thor’s eyes moved across the room before she approached them. The chains were exactly where she had left them. Caelem remained fixed to his pillar, Muskard to his, and Linzley still sagged in the metal chair with her head tilted too far to one side.

Thor had half expected some escape attempt while she was gone, though she was not sure what three exhausted Summoners in Gracebreakers could have accomplished besides injuring themselves.

Linzley blinked when Thor crouched in front of her. One swollen eye barely opened, and a thin trail of saliva ran down her chin as she muttered, ”Mummy said the ceiling has teeth. Don’t let Sunshine bite the yellow one.”

Thor frowned and opened the bag.

Caelem pulled against his chain enough to lean forward. ”That’s medicine, right?”

”Yes.”

”Then give it to her.”

Thor turned her head. Caelem immediately sat back. ”Please.”

Thor took out the internal-bleeding potion first and inspected the label exactly as the healer had shown her. She uncorked it, slipped one hand behind Linzley’s head and raised her gently.

”Drink.”

Linzley’s eyes drifted toward her without focusing. ”You have shiny hair.”

”Separate your lips,” Thor asked again. She held Linzley by the jaw, raised her head and placed the bottle against her lips.

Linzley tried to turn away but Thor’s strong grip held her steady. ”Drink,” she repeated.

Something in the Valkyrie’s voice still reached whatever part of Linzley’s mind could understand orders. She swallowed once, coughed and then drank again while Thor tipped the potion slowly enough to keep her from choking.

The effect came quickly.

A pale light spread beneath Linzley’s bruised skin, beginning at her throat before moving down through her chest and stomach. Thor could not see the damaged organs, but she watched the tension leave the girl’s body as whatever bleeding remained inside began to close.

She followed with the soothing potion. Thankfully, Linzley swallowed that one more easily.

”Sweet,” she mumbled.

Thor did not say anything.

The swelling around Linzley’s face began to ease after another minute. Her breathing settled, and the trembling in her hands slowed. Thor opened the packet of tablets, read the instructions twice, then placed one in Linzley’s palm.

”Swallow this.”

Thor gave her water from a bottle in the bag and waited until she swallowed the tablet. By the time she finished, the healing potions had already reduced the worst of the bruising, and the red haze beneath her skin had faded to ordinary swelling.

Caelem and Muskard watched every change, making sure not to say anything until Thor was done and Linzley could sit straight on her own.

She blinked several times, looked at Thor and then around the bunker.

”Why am I tied to a chair?”

Caelem released a breath and Muskard lowered his head briefly.

Thor sat back on her heels. ”Do you remember what happened?”

Linzley touched her face and winced. ”A man punched me.”

”Four times,” Caelem said.

Her eyes widened. ”Four?”

Linzley rubbed her swollen cheek. ”My head hurts.”

”It should improve,” Thor said. ”If you begin vomiting blood or losing consciousness again, I will find a proper healer.”

Linzley stared at her for a moment, then gave a weak smile. ”Thank you, Lady Thor.”

Thor stood.

Muskard bowed his head as far as his restraint allowed. ”Thank you.”

Caelem grudgingly added his own thank you.

Thor looked at each of them, but said nothing. She seemed to want to be in any other place but there.

Muskard gave Caelem a look and cleared his throat. ”Ngh ngh!”

Caelem ignored him. Muskard cleared it again, louder. Caelem’s silver-grey eyes snapped toward him and he shot Muskard a look. Muskard shot him one back.

Caelem glared at him for several seconds before finally looking at Thor. His pride fought every word before it came out.

”The Serpent Society was probably going to kill us.”

Thor’s eyes moved to him, wondering where this was going.

Caelem continued, sounding more and more honest as he went on. ”Or torture us. Whatever they were planning, it wasn’t good.” His mouth tightened. ”So I suppose I owe you my thanks.”

He paused.

”And Lancet too, for sending you.”

Thor gave a small nod.

Muskard spoke without needing encouragement. ”Lancet has every reason to hate us, yet he still intervened. I won’t pretend I understand why, but I’m grateful.”

Linzley lifted one cuffed hand. ”Me too.”

She looked toward the door as though Lancet might walk through it.

Then Muskard’s expression changed. ”But, I was curious. How did he even know?”

Thor did not answer.

Muskard looked at Caelem. ”The Serpent Society is very secretive. Did Lancet join them so he could destroy them from inside? That’s the only way I can think of.”

Caelem looked toward him. ”Pfft. Have you already forgotten who Lancet is?” He did an eyebrow raise, an expression that was half-spite and half-respect. ”He knew a lot of things back then. Things a kid like him shouldn’t even know.”

Muskard’s eyes sharpened.

Caelem continued. ”He knew who we were before we properly introduced ourselves. He knew about the Society. He knew Clevus was using us. He kept talking like someone who had already seen what we were about to do.”

Muskard remained quiet.

Caelem frowned at the memory. ”That kid was always weirdly informed. Annoyingly sure of everything too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow knew this was coming.”

Thor watched them speculate and gave them nothing. Lancet’s secrets were not hers to explain.

Instead, she stepped closer and made sure they understood something first. ”The Serpent Society was not going to kill you.”

All three looked at her.

”Nor were they planning to torture you. At least not in the way you mean.”

Muskard went still. ”Then what were they going to do?” Caelem asked.

Thor looked at each of them before replying. ”You were going to become experimental subjects. Lab rats.”

The bunker became silent.

Thor continued. ”They are trying to force humans to use Gloom. Their scientists have been taking Awakeners, draining and breaking their channels, then forcing Gloom into their bodies to see whether human’s magic bodies can adapt to it.”

All their faces lost color as they looked at each other, all in utter disbelief.

”The subjects keep dying,” Thor said. ”Their bodies reject the Gloom so their channels rupture and their organs fail. They wanted stronger bodies and more powerful cores and you all have reached Radiant Rank.”

Muskard understood. ”So they chose us because of that?”

Caelem stared at her.

”Not just that,” Thor replied. ”In their eyes you are nobodies. You were discarded by the Academy, imprisoned and separated from your Summons. If you disappeared during transport, who would search hard enough to find you.”

No one answered.

”The Serpent Society saw three strong bodies that the world had already thrown away.”

Linzley’s fingers curled around the chain across her lap.

Thor’s mouth tightened.

”If their experiment failed, your bodies would have been taken behind the laboratory and dumped beside hundreds of dead subjects and chemical waste.”

Caelem stared at her. Muskard’s face had gone completely still. Linzley whispered, ”Hundreds?”

Thor looked directly at Caelem. ”You do not merely owe Lancet your lives. You owe him your dignity and freedom.”

Caelem opened his mouth but nothing came out. The three sat in silence while the bunker’s old lights hummed above them.

Linzley looked at her cohorts then fell her face. ”So that’s all we were.”

Muskard looked toward her. She rubbed at the blood dried beneath her nose. ”Lab rats.”

Caelem’s head lowered. Muskard leaned back against the pillar and closed his eyes.

”We should have known.”

Caelem looked at him sharply. ”Known what?”

”That they never wanted us.”

Caelem’s face twisted. ”That’s not true.”

Muskard opened his eyes again. ”They sent us after Lancet because we were disposable. They let us believe we were proving ourselves. When we failed, they disappeared.”

”We were going to become members,” Caelem said.

”No we weren’t,” Muskard said without raising his voice. ”We wanted to become members.”

Caelem stared at him. Muskard looked down at his Gracebreakers. ”Those are different things.”

Linzley rested her head against the back of the chair. ”Everyone always thought we were weird.”

Thor’s eyes moved toward her.

”It’s been the same from the moment we awakened their powers in the Awakening Hall. They never said it but we could see it in their eyes, just as we saw ourselves in each other’s eyes and knew we had to stick together.”

Thor remembered them at the Academy. Loud. Cruel. Proud of frightening anyone weaker than them.

Caelem laughed without humor. ”If people weren’t going to accept us normally, then fine. We decided we would become strong enough that they would have no choice.”

”Respect through fear,” Muskard said.

Caelem nodded. ”That was the idea.”

Linzley looked down at the chains.”And the Society seemed like the best way to do it. They were outcasts, just like us.”

”So we chased them,” Muskard whispered.

”And they too didn’t want us,” Linzley said, her head falling again. ”Nobody wants us.”

They were all silent, the words sitting there until Caelem rested his head against the pillar.

”I think maybe we should just admit it.”

Muskard looked at him. Caelem’s voice came quieter than Thor had ever heard it.

”We are actually terrible.”

Linzley stared at her cuffed hands..Caelem continued. ”Not the name. Us.”

Muskard said nothing.

”We’re unlikeable. We hurt people who had nothing to do with what happened to us. We followed anyone who promised to make us important.”

His eyes closed. ”I wish they had killed us in that prison. At least then this miserable life would have ended before we found out even the Serpent Society thought we were trash.”

Thor’s fingers tightened around the handle of her hammer. ’What is this? Why are these idiots acting all remorseful now? Is this...’

Her eyes widened a bit. ’Is this what Astensia means when she says people deserve a second chance? A chance to repent, to come out of the other side of past failures and become better people?’

The golden knight always spoke about justice as though punishment and mercy could exist in the same hand. Even after someone did wrong, Astensia believed a person could choose something else if given the chance.

Thor had argued with her more than once.

Whenever people made their choice, they deserved the result. Simple as that.

But she looked at Caelem, Muskard, and then Linzley, whose face was still swollen from being beaten unconscious by the very people she had once wanted to impress.

Thor frowned.

’Dammit, Astensia. When did you start growing on me this much?’

With a sigh, she walked towards them. Caelem opened his eyes when she approached.

Muskard and Linzley straightened and looked up as Thor stopped in front of them.

”You are not terrible,” she said.

Caelem’s brows rose, he was instantly struck by the warmth and directness of that statement. He didn’t know why.

Thor’s jaw tightened slightly, as though the sentence itself annoyed her. ”Or unlikeable. Or worthless.”

”You made a mistake. You allowed anger to decide what kind of people you would become, and when someone offered you a path that rewarded that anger, you followed it.”

She looked at Caelem..”That does not erase what you did.”

Then Muskard. ”And regret does not make the people you hurt forget it.”

Finally Linzley. ”But it means you understand enough to choose differently.”

She paused, allowing her words to sink into their heads. They continued to stare at her, their pupils quivering at her thunderous glory.

”Lancet will come here soon,” Thor said.

Caelem’s expression tightened at the name, but he did not speak.

Thor looked across all three. ”And he will give you a chance to choose again.”

She lowered herself until her eyes were level with theirs. The Terrible Three watched her in silence.

”This time, choose wisely.”