An Affliction of Pain

Albert Ashbourne's affliction first began on the day after he left the Imperial Palace. He had successfully reported his discoveries in the woods regarding the undead creature Feeral without exposing the truth that he had found a girl lying beside it.

When he was on the carriage on their journey back to the manor, Albert had a small attack. Gilbert was alarmed and changed the carriage's course to go find a doctor to help cure his dear friend. However, the findings of the doctor was a mystery as Albert was without any wound nor infections. Rather, he was as healthy as a horse, making his sudden screams filled with pain a mystery to all.

Fortunately, the first attack stopped minutes after the doctor had arrived. He was asked about it, however, Albert was even more confused and shocked of what had happened to him.

What happened didn't occur again and they completely forgot about that incident as well. But after only a few months of his stay in the manor, the painful affliction he felt returned. This time around, the amount of pain doubled. Albert was just a few steps away from his own death just from the painful experience he was suffering from.

But as everyone had expected him to be dead the next morning, Albert miraculously pulled through it. He had survived. But he knew it was not a miracle. Because even though he was in extreme pain, his consciousness at that time was still wide awake.

That was when he first witnessed Talia easing the pain from him. Albert didn't know how she did it and what she did. But after that near-death experience, he became afraid that he would influence and transmit the affliction to her. Thus, he strongly forbids her from helping him again.

…

Talia pressed her hand on his forehead and closed her eyes. She felt the pull of her power inside of her, but she had to be careful. If she were to use it wrongly or provoke it, who would know what it would do to her and Papa?

She didn't want to risk anything. However, she also didn't know what she was exactly doing. With her lack of understanding of her powers and still knowing how dangerous it was, Talia knew she had to be extremely cautious when she called upon her power.

Soon, the familiar feeling of her powers rushing through her veins as if it were hot boiling water slowly moving throughout her entire body was felt. Talia held herself together and forced herself to not scream. Oh, how she wished and desired to shout.

But she couldn't have everyone in the manor rushing through the room when they heard her scream. And so, she could only bite her lips until they bled and tears spilled on the corners of her eyes.

Then, a small white tendril of smoke formed into a circle on the tip of her fingers before slowly disappearing into Albert's forehead as if he was absorbing it.

And as quickly as the white tendril vanished into his skin, the pain that Talia was feeling multiplied. It was like being cut through with knives that dulled all of her senses but her sense of pain. Over and over again. The pain intensified one after another. She knew already that what Papa had been feeling was now what she was currently going through. The pain had been completely transferred to her after she eased his pain.

Talia weakly moaned as she pressed her face against the bed and screamed. Thank god that the bedding was thick and muffled her screams, but it didn't help lessen the pain.

It wasn't the first time for her to go through the same kind of pain. The first was when she previously helped ease the pain on Papa. However, this… this kind of pain was too much even for someone who had gone through her real father's punishments back in the castle.

Talia held on until her entire body gave away.

…

In a place where light could never enter and shrouded with darkness, a man who sat in his throne with his eyes closed suddenly woke up. The mist-like shadows that moved along the ground stopped when the man's eyes opened before it gathered to form into two creatures with ears, fangs, and body of a beast.

The two beasts stepped away from the blood underneath their feet to sit beside both the man's legs.

"Milord, were we too loud and disturbed your sleep?" one of the beasts spoke with the same roughness and monstrosity as it appeared. But the fear that was laced in its voice gave away how terrifying the man who was sitting on the throne was to the beast. They had been feeding on the prey they had caught under their Lord's order. But it seems that they were munching on their prey a bit too loudly that had their Lord wake up at the sound of it.

The man who sat in a throne that was composed of piled bones and swords, moved his eyes to look down at the beast who had just spoken. Upon receiving his Lord's attention, the beast lowered its head even more as though it would bury its heads on the ground as long as his master orders it.

The beast could sense that his master had no intention of harming him, but it still didn't change the fact that his master's face was now mantled with pure intense anger and pain. Pain? Just when did his master ever feel pain? There was no way that was possible!

"Has something happened, Milord?" the other beast on the man's left leg asked after seeing the expression on its master's shadowed face. Unlike the other beast, he was more careful with his words and actions, taking in his master's tone and movements in his eyes in order to not make any mistake.

"It's my Mate. Something or someone is hurting her," the man said as he growled. His eyes glowing in the extreme darkness that surrounded the entire place.