The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 17: Assassination

Penumbra looked up at the Nameless One. She could not tell if it was a he or a she, or even what it was. Though it stood like a pony, it was much larger than one. Just barely, she could see the very tip of its face. It was not quite a pony face, as Penumbra could have sworn she saw tiny white scales tipped with purest gold.

Then as soon as he or she had come, the Nameless one departed- -and Penumbra awoke.

The first thing she became aware of was pain. The second was not being able to breathe. Penumbra gasped and tried to cry out, but could not. She tried to flail, but found that her hooves were held tight by something thick and strong. It was not quite rope, she realized, but tendrils of something fleshy that reeked of chemicals.

She was still on the floor of her room, but the tendrils had still found her, wrapping themselves around her limbs- -and her neck. Their grip was strong, and they snaked over her body, their grasp growing tighter. The smell of chemicals grew even stronger, and Penumbra felt her vision going dark. She was going back to sleep, but was distantly aware that she had to try her hardest not to. If she went now, something bad would happen.

“Help...me...” she gasped.

Her room was suddenly flooded with blue light. Thirteen dropped in, not even registering the teleportation as her horn immediately shifted spells. Several bright blades of light shot from the tip of her appendage, severing the tendrils that had ensnared Penumbra. Penumbra shot up and tore the one around her neck free, gasping as she did.

It felt disgusting, and as she held it, it began to boil. The flesh of the tendril bubbled away as it rotted, revealing that inside it contained both flesh and bone, although those too were gone in a matter of seconds. The stumps wailed quietly and squirmed their way back through thin cracks in the crystal, vanishing to wherever they had come from.

Thirteen immediately raised a shield around herself and Penumbra, sealing the room in a glow of blue light. By this time, the crystal nurses had awakened and came racing toward the room.

“Princess? Princess!”

One of them stood on her hind legs and pounded on the shield spell. “Lady Thirteen! Please, open the shield!”

Penumbra looked up at the nurses, but she was still choking and coughing. She could not yet speak, and her head ached badly.

“Let us in- -she’s choking! We have to help her!”

Thirteen did not respond. She did not even look toward the nurses. Her eyes were focused only on Penumbra and the area around her- -or, more specifically, at the data-readouts from the inside of her helmet. Not once did she allow the shield spell to falter, not even slightly. There was far too much at stake to allow that to happen.