Chapter Text
Red.
And dark.
It’s all they could see.
Their wrist hurt, and they could barely move, let alone breathe.
And then-
They opened their eyes.
Raine blinked, trying to tell if they still had their glasses or if Kikimora had broken them in a moment of bitchiness. They wouldn’t put it past her to do that, so it was a nice surprise to find their glasses still intact. Their instruments, however, had not.
They groaned at the splintered wood poking into their skin- it wasn’t surprising at all that their instruments had been broken, but it still hurt. Seriously, couldn’t they have left them a flute? The bars were probably blocking their magic anyway, Raine realized as they glanced at the dungeon they appeared to be in. Clearly the one in Belos’s castle- they had been down here once before, when they got their tour the day before they officially became a coven leader.
The fact that that had been less than a week ago was a little stressful, to be honest. Seriously, couldn’t they have at least waited a little bit before planning more rebellion?
Raine kicked the remaining red vines off their legs, warily eyeing the tiny red plants still growing from their coven tattoo.
They glanced around the room. No windows, that was annoying. There was some light coming from the corridor, and it wasn’t too dark, so that was nice. Clearly a chandelier of some sort hanging from the ceiling. The rest of their cell wasn’t too bad, to be honest. A rock pile for some reason, a blanket lying on the ground, the typical straw pile that was in literally every prison here for some reason. Raine shakily stood up, kicking some straw out of their boots. Their legs ached- actually, their whole body did for some reason. Probably from being wrapped up in Kikimora’s vines for ages, they figured. However, they weren’t hungry yet, which was either a result of them just waking up or possibly the result of their capture just being an hour or so previous.
They were thirsty, though, their throat dry from breathing the dusty air. They moved around the cell, trying to get to a point where they could see how far away from the dungeon door. Only one cell away from freedom- well, not counting the cell they were in, of course. And the heavy layers of security that surrounded the dungeon.
“Hello?” they called, listening for any other voices. “Anyone else there?”
There was no response. Shoot, none of the other BATTs were there- though, that was probably a good thing. Raine didn’t want any of them to get into severe trouble- at worst, they’d be in the conformitorium, and that place was pretty easy to break into. At least, Eda said so.
Eda.
Oh, crap.
Their mind raced- was Eda ok? She’d gotten out of worse before, Raine knew- but she had been alone in the woods, powerless. Something had happened to her magic, Raine knew that. Even without the corruption her bard magic caused, she clearly still wasn’t able to cast spells on her own anymore.
...She was ok. She had to be.
Raine sighed, plopping down on the ground and drawing their knees to their chest. Might as well try to get some rest, they figured. Not much else to do- and if Kikimora came down, they sure didn’t want to deal with her bitchiness fully awake. Sure, dealing with her crap half-asleep would definitely be worse, but at least they would get sleep beforehand.
They sighed, lying back on the surprisingly comfortable blanket that was resting on the ground. There was a spiderweb on the ceiling, they noticed. Cool.
It didn’t take them long to fall asleep, surprisingly, a lullaby tune stuck in their head from when some of the BATTs couldn’t fall asleep at night.
When they did wake up, there was a tray sitting just outside their cell- Raine wasn’t entirely sure there even was a door, to be honest.
On the tray was a glass of water, and a small bowl of what looked like griffin eggs. Good enough, they supposed.
Getting the water and food into the cell was, in fact, a little more difficult than they would have liked.
The cup was just a little too wide to fit through the bars the normal way, so they had to twist it and squeeze it through, their palm getting wet from stopping the water from spilling.
The bowl, they decided with a single look, was going to be impossible. So instead, they sat next to the bars and very unceremoniously crammed eggs in their mouth with their hand.
It wasn’t as embarrassing as it sounded, they swear.
They sipped the water- Kikimora had said they were still needed, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t willing to resort to starvation. She probably wasn’t the one in charge of feeding them, though, and Raine knew most of the other coven members wouldn’t starve anyone without being forced to, so. There wasn’t really any danger of going unfed.
Still, they only drank and ate around half of both the water and eggs, just in case they were hungry again later.
Standing up, they stretched a bit, wandering around the cell. There weren’t any visible loose stones in the rocks making up three of the dungeon walls, they noted. Keyword, “visible”. They would have to check the stones out later once they got their first visit over, they figured, hearing a door click open.
They stood in front of the bars, arms crossed. Waiting.
There were the sound of cautious footsteps down the corridor, then someone who looked like a twelve-year-old poked their head around the corner. “...Hello.”
Raine frowned. “Hi?”
The kid stepped around the corner a bit more, and then- "Grimwalker!"
The grimwalker frowned. "I- what?"
"You're a grimwalker."
"...A what?"
Raine shook their head. "Sorry. Nothing- I just wasn't expecting that. The Emperor isn't crazy on wild magic, after all."
That somehow made the grimwalker's expression even more confused. They shifted slightly, revealing the cardinal palisman hidden behind their back. "...I'm going to pretend that you're talking about him."
"Ok." Raine sighed. "Sorry, I- it's nothing you should worry about." No use in telling a grimwalker they were one if they had been led to believe they weren't- not that it made any difference. This kid still wasn't gonna free them.
“...Nice talking to you.”
The kid awkwardly started to walk away, which was when Raine noticed the coven tattoo (which looked… a lot more like a brand, they realized, growing concerned. Though that did make sense- Grimwalkers were made of palisman wood, so.) on his wrist. “Hey- wait, how old are you?”
The kid turned slowly. “I… don’t need to tell you that.”
Raine sighed. “Ok, yeah, you don’t. But it would be nice if you did- not much I can do with that information anyway, so…”
The kid hesitated for a second. “I’m sixteen.” Without saying anything else, he quickly walked away, shrinking his palisman into a simple wooden cardinal and hiding it under his arm.
Raine heard the door click shut, and then groaned. Great. Great. That was just great. Belos employing grimwalker children to do his dirty work? That was just fantastic.
Absolutely nothing wrong with grimwalkers, obviously. They just weren't super common, and usually knew they were grimwalkers. Capable of the strongest magic, and only created by those who had strong enough magic to create them. They were entirely the same as the other witches on the Boiling Isles, except for not being biologically made and also ridiculously full of magic.
And the Emperor had one, possibly more, in his ranks.
Great.
Despite the possibility of gaining a powerful ally to break them out, Raine kind of hoped the kid didn’t come to visit them again. They didn’t need to get an already-untrusting child in trouble, and having a familiar face to fight in the inevitable battle that would happen would be difficult.
Raine rested their head against the wall.
Somehow, they doubted their wishes would be listened to.
***
And, unsurprisingly, their wishes were not listened to.
Kikimora came first, with two other coven members trailing her. The Golden Guard was there too, though he was silent throughout the whole thing, holding his stupid staff. Interesting- Raine had thought his mask and cape had been destroyed in Latissa. Apparently, they had been remade.
Kikimora had said some shit about them being a “traitor”, and how she had “never trusted you anyway”.
Crap like that.
Raine just rolled their eyes and didn’t say anything, and that eventually seemed to tick Kikimora off enough that she left, fuming. The three others followed her, none of them having actually said anything the whole time, except for glancing at Kikimora in mild concern at some parts of her rant.
The kid had shown up a few hours after that, and Raine had been kind of glad that they did, because they were getting bored out of their goddamn mind.
“Hey,” said the kid, sounding a bit more relaxed this time.
Raine just grumbled out something unintelligible, staring at the teen. “What d’you want?”
The kid shrugged, plopping down on the dusty floor, palisman not present this time. “You’re a traitor,” they said.
“...Kid, literally everyone in the Emperor’s Coven knows that by now. Your point?”
They shrugged. “I dunno. Why?”
Raine blinked. “Why’d I betray the Emperor?” Without waiting for a reply, they answered on their own. “Because he’s a dickface.”
The kid looked like they weren’t sure how to respond to that. Finally, they said, “...Ok? I mean, that’s not a real answer, but sure. I don’t have to listen to you anyway.”
“Then why are you here?”
They seemed conflicted at that. They eventually shrugged. “No one wants to talk to me. It’s boring.” He looked down. "Also, I got kicked out of the library."
Raine sighed. “Welcome to coven life, kid. What do you even do, anyway? Just hang around the dungeon all day and get kicked out of libraries?”
The kid seemed to freeze up a bit. “I don’t have to tell you what I do.”
“Nope. You sure don’t. In fact, I bet you’re just a nameless coven guard. Actually, I think you just repair uniforms, don’t you?”
The kid frowned, puffing out their chest a bit and looking utterly ridiculous while doing so. “Excuse you, I have a high rank!”
“Right. And that’s why I didn’t see you at my inauguration.”
The kid scowled. “Hey, I-” they froze again, and angrily covered their mouth with their hand. There was a slightly muffled, “I hate you.”
“Sure.” Raine leaned forward. “And that’s why you haven’t left yet.”
The kid let out an angry yell, and Raine laughed. Taunting children was surprisingly fun.
“I gotta go,” the kid muttered after a while, hand still muffling their words. They stood up, and looked like they wanted to say something else- they didn’t, but they still hesitated. Eventually, they shook their head, and walked off.
Raine watched them go, and said nothing as well.
***
“I got you a book,” the grimwalker said, and Raine blinked at the sudden light.
“You could wait till I’m awake before you barge in,” they grumbled. The kid shrugged, and slipped the book between the bars.
“It’s just a cookbook,” he said nonchalantly, “but these people put the weirdest stories before they put the actual recipes.”
Raine smiled slightly, picking the book up and setting it on the blanket. “Thanks.” They eyed the fresh tray of food and water that had been set out for them, just outside the bars. “Any chance you can help me with that?”
The kid looked at the food, then at the bars. He frowned, clearly thinking.
This was the fifth visit Raine had had with him, and they were slowly beginning to piece bits of his story together. A coven member, one that ranked a bit higher, clearly. Been with the coven for a while, if his memories were anything to go off of, and for some reason hadn't been told he was a grimwalker.
Their thoughts were brought back to their head when the kid “ahemed”, sounding rather pleased with himself. Raine looked back, and-
And the entire tray was inside the cell, no water seeming to have spilled.
Raine glanced up at the kid. “How did you-”
The teen grinned, the first real smile Raine had seen on him. “I’m just special.”
Raine rolled their eyes, a smile on their face as well. “Sure.” They took a bite of the apple they had been given before setting it back on the tray. “Have you… heard anything about The Owl Lady lately?”
The kid’s smile instantly turned into a scowl. “No, why?” He seemed to process their question a little bit more before he spoke again. “She didn’t get captured too, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Raine breathed a sigh of relief, though they did frown as well. “She better not come looking for me,” they muttered to themself. “Crazy owl’s gonna get herself hurt.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Raine sighed, standing up and facing the kid face-to-face. He was kind of tall, for a sixteen year old grimwalker, but he had been getting progressively skinnier every time he visited, which was every few days or so now. Raine didn't even know that grimwalkers could gain and lose weight- Belos must have used some of his weird magic on the kid, just to make life a little harder for him. “Hey, kid?”
“...Yeah?”
“What’s your name?”
The kid paused for a second, likely wondering if it was worth risking telling them. Finally, he sighed. “...Hunter.”
Raine smiled, and reached through the bars to shake his hand. “Nice to meet you, Hunter.”