I marched out of the heavy Bureau doors, pulling Alta along until we reached a relatively secluded, shaded bench near the edge of the 8th District square. I collapsed onto the wooden slats, my commoner dress settling around me as Alta stood anxiously in front of me, her deep male voice contrasting sharply with her beautiful, feminine frame.
"Eirene, please, you have to tell me what happened to you," she pleaded, leaning in close to inspect my scarred face.
As she got closer, her sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the dangerous, ivory tips resting against my lower lip.
"And what is up with those teeth? Don't tell me you're wearing fake costume fangs made of silicon gel to look intimidating. That's completely unlike you."
Before I could push her away, Alta reached out a slender finger and brushed it against one of my protruding canines. She flinched, pulling her hand back instantly as a tiny bead of blood welled on her fingertip. The fangs were completely real, razor-sharp, and designed for the sole purpose of tearing flesh and sucking blood… a monstrous mutation that had hidden beneath my gums back when we fought in Rebelbub Village, only fully developing after my transformation.
I wanted to snap at her, to explain the brutal reality of what I had become, but I was entirely out of paper. To finally make her understand my silence, I looked directly into her eyes and opened my mouth wide.
Alta gasped, taking a sharp step backward as she stared into the hollow cavity. There was no tongue inside… just healed, jagged scar tissue. The horrific realization that I was entirely mute finally washed over her beautiful face.
Desperate to tell the rest of the story, I raised my single right hand and made a frantic, rhythmic writing gesture in the air. Understanding my silent plea, Alta quickly looked down at the official Neospider contract in her hands. Without a second thought, she tore off the blank, unprinted back half of the parchment and handed it to me along with a charcoal quill from her dress pocket.
Resting the torn paper on my knee, I began to write furiously, listing the dark chronology of the absolute mutilation my body had endured over the last two weeks:
Left arm: Pulled completely out of its socket and severed by the Goblin King.
Right eye: Gouged out completely by a stray iron arrow fired by ruthless bandits.
Glasgow smile: Deep scars carved across both sides of my cheeks from a thorned whip lashed across my face.
Left leg: Several severed toes, a lingering reminder of a brutal torture session.
Tongue: Brutally cut out during that same torture session, the captors using rusted shears to silence me forever.
Tanned skin: A permanent mutation. My skin has become profoundly sensitive to the sunlight; even when completely covered in my heavy canvas cloak, the harsh desert sun bounces off the environment and burns right through to my flesh. The deep tan is a direct byproduct of that vulnerability.
Alta stood frozen in absolute horror as she read the bloody list, the parchment trembling slightly in her feminine fingers. The proud, whole girl she had fought alongside two months ago had been systematically broken and torn apart piece by piece, remaking Elias's little sister into the scarred, single-eyed weapon currently sitting right in front of her.
Alta stared down at the handwritten list of my mutilations, her beautiful face contorting as a chilling realization began to dawn on her.
"Wait... so you have all of these horrific injuries, real fangs, and you are profoundly sensitive to the light? Eirene, don't tell me you're joking with me right now."
Seeing the deep skepticism in her eyes, I decided to give her the objective, undeniable truth. I leaned slightly out of the cool sanctuary of the bench's shadow and deliberately extended my right index finger directly into a bright beam of morning sunlight. The moment the sun hit my skin, a sharp hiss filled the quiet air as my flesh immediately scorched and blistered, the intense heat causing me to pull my hand back into the darkness.
Alta gasped, her hands flying to her mouth in absolute shock. The grim reality that we were both monsters hiding in plain sight within the capital hit her all at once.
"Oh my god... with your severed arm, these terrifying mutations, and your hatred of the sun... you... you must be the Crimson Phantom."
Before she could spiral further, I quickly flipped the torn piece of the Neospider contract over and furiously penned another short directive in the charcoal ink:
Touch my back.
Alta looked at the paper, then back at me, her fingers trembling slightly with intense curiosity. She stepped closer and gently slid her hand down the back of my commoner dress, pressing past the fabric. The moment her palms brushed against the heavy, hidden musculature of my back, she felt the unmistakable, rigid bone structure of my massive, tightly folded blood wings.
She violently shook, taking a frantic step back onto the cobblestones as her deep, masculine voice cracked under the weight of the discovery.
"Eirene... you are the Crimson Phantom! The blood-sucking winged demon that the entire capital is hunting down with a fifteen gold coin bounty on your head!"
Hearing her blurt out my identity so loudly in the open district, a sudden, lethal spike of adrenaline shot through my veins. My first instinct… honed by weeks of brutal survival, was to reach at my back, pull out the Death Chant Shotgun, and blow her head off right then and there to permanently silence her. But I quickly checked my dark impulse. I wasn't insane enough to slaughter a trusted old comrade who had stood by my brother and me in the trenches of Rebelbub Village.
Alta noticed the dangerous flash in my single jade eye and immediately raised her hands in a peaceful, grounding gesture, lowering her voice to a desperate whisper.
"Okay, okay, Eirene, listen to me, I know your brother, and you are one of the only people alive who knows my true Chimera form. As fellow monsters trying to survive in this cruel kingdom, we need to keep our secrets safe. To be completely honest with you... I was actually actively hunting you down right now to claim that bounty. But seeing that it's you? Don't worry. I will absolutely not kill you. I swear I will protect you and keep your secret safe, just like your brother kept mine."
I extended my right hand from beneath the tattered edges of my canvas cloak, and Alta gripped it firmly, our palms meeting in a silent, binding pact. A deep sense of relief washed over me, despite my monstrous transformation, the bond we had forged in the blood-soaked trenches of Rebelbub Village still held true. She was a trusted friend, an ally who understood the heavy burden of hiding a beast within a world that would happily put us both to the sword.
Alta pulled her hand back and glanced down at the torn parchment of the official hunting contract, her stunning, feminine features hardening into an expression of raw, predatory determination.
"We're monsters, Eirene, and monsters look out for each other. Now, let's go deal with these neospiders ourselves."