The sound of the door opening wide made Tristessa wake with a start. A silhouette standing on the first step was staring at her, the light from the kitchen filtering in around her, forcing the girl to squint slightly.
"They're here," the silhouette's voice said, laced with unbridled hatred. "It seems you were honest about the date of the attack, witch."
"So it didn't change," Tristessa thought, finally having a reference to place herself in time. "The time has come..."
Perhaps due to a lack of perception, and Tiara's infrequent and arbitrary visits to feed her, she had been unable to cope with the passing days. And that almost drove her mad...
Fortunately, she no longer had to suffer in the solitary darkness.
Tiara's uneasy face became visible once she reached her side, and she felt her rough handling as she cut the ropes around her ankles with a knife, but not those around her hands.
"You look better since last time," the woman mocked her, perhaps attempting to calm her own nerves, as she yanked one of her arms to force her to her feet, causing her weak, bruised body to burn with pain from every limb and joint. "I can't say the same about your fingers."
"Fuck you..."
With the passing of torture-free days, Tristessa's face had deflated enough to regain a shred of the normalcy Tiara had brutally kicked out of her. A tiny shred, as her vision was still somewhat obscured, the bridge of her nose was disfigured, and her fractured right cheekbone was a pulsing purple stain.
And now, a trickle of fresh blood began to flow from the spot on her neck where Tiara had perilously placed her good, old knife. Tristessa had no choice but to submit to her fate and walk toward the stone stairs.
"Come on, you have lives to save, heroine."
Stepping out of the warehouse and into the light of the kitchen lamp was absolute blindness that lasted for several seconds, like a bat thrown into daylight.
"Keep walking."
Tiara pushed her, putting pressure specifically on her bound hands, and instantly, waves of mind-shattering pain flowed through her entire arm, parting from her fingers fractured in two distinct places after so many days of numbness and harmless throbbing.
"Ugh!" Tristessa stifled the scream that sought to escape from the inside of her throat and bit down hard, distributing all that pain between her broken teeth and dry lips. "Ah...ah... What are you going to do to me?"
"Give you your moment of glory. Didn't you say you wanted to save us all?" The way she whispered behind his back, Tiara was brimming with sarcasm. "This is your moment."
"…we are all going to die."
Tiara didn't respond and continued to guide the crestfallen girl without lowering her threatening weapon. It was already nighttime, and the atrium had become a war zone: illuminated by power crystals placed at strategic points; the glass cabinets had been torn down and placed as barricades, far from the main door, with antique rifles, single-shot pistols and light-weight swords waiting on the floor for anyone who sought protection behind them.
They had only moved two of the cabinets to the sides of the door to use as defenses, making Tristessa wonder why they hadn't blocked the entrance yet. Perhaps it was because of the large number of thaumaturgy runes etched along the door's wooden surface, shining like a Christmas tree as she remembered from her life on Earth.
On the other hand, from one of the windows that hadn't been totally boarded up, Jin kept watch outside with his trusty rifle, to which he had attached a very old-fashioned telescopic sight.
"Jin!"
Tristessa couldn't help but exclaim his name, and the man, just hearing her voice, turned around quickly, his focused eyes diluted in surprise.
"Tristessa!" The hunter left his rifle against the wall and lunged at her, enclosing her in a hug that forced Tiara to release her and take a step back, lest she accidentally stab her husband. Jin's beard tickled her, and he soon let go, more interested in seeing her physical condition and getting an unpleasant surprise. "Oh, by the Goddess. I-I have no words for..."
"If you apologize, I'll headbutt you in the face," she warned him, smiling for the first time in so many days. "Don't say anything. Not for you or your wife... Nothing matters anymore."
"…"
His wild face was able to hide his emotions, but not his honest eyes, which betrayed the lack of optimism he felt about the situation.
"Where is Lucahn?" she asked, only to receive a slap from Tiara that left her unbroken cheek burning. It was inconsequential compared to the rest of the pain she felt constantly since that night of torture.
"Take his name out of your rotten mouth," the woman warned her, before turning to her husband and saying with a heavy heart: "You, return to your post."
Without saying anything back but glaring at her for a moment, Jin obeyed. Coldness, a broken relationship.
"My Aegis glyphs are still intact. It seems the bitches noticed the defenses, but I don't understand why they haven't started attacking yet. This is not good, my friends… I should have come visit more prepared, at least with a couple spirit potions under my…"
Someone came down the stairs, a man with long crimson hair that made Tristessa's chest fill with butterflies, condemned to live one day and die at the end of it. Their eyes met, and instantly the blood elf, Severus Malak Drakan, tilted his head slightly to the side, filled with curiosity.
"Well, well, well. When you said you had a servant of the Shadow Queen imprisoned, I thought you were playing a joke on me, Tiara."
The woman grumbled and took hold of a pistol, the easiest weapon to use without unduly compromising her belly, which she had been caressing nonstop since freeing Tristessa.
"My, she's quite an ugly young woman, and she smells so much of Discord that I'd rather stick my nose up a Baphonos's anus after a full day pulling its carriage."
Disgusted, Severus used the collar of his shirt to block half his face as he finished descending the stairs and found the girl so close to him that she couldn't stop looking at him, wanting to cry. Not because of the insults he'd said to her, but because of how much it pained her to see him like that, without knowing who the hell she was.
And that made him stop playing dumb and give her his full and serious attention, with that hint of hostility he displayed when dealing with matters related to the Dark Lady.
"What, is this the first time you've seen an elf?" he asked, as cold as he was irate that Tristessa couldn't stifle a sob. "These witches these days… Younger, more insane, and more disrespectful… Let me tell you, the demoness you worship has its days numbered. If not me, some other blood elf will tear off her cursed head and impale it on the ruins of Yuradynnas of the Frozen Plateau, so that the furious, restless souls of my ancestors can finally have peace."
"S-Severus…" she stammered, finding the courage to at least say his name.
"Huh? You know me? And why are you crying?" Tristessa took a tentative step toward him, wanting to close the distance, to find some of the warmth that elf had transmitted to her in the nonexistent past. But what she received was a glyph of elemental electricity appearing out of nowhere and blocking her path, dangerously close to her face, while Severus's fingers were ready to snap her like a pancake. "Stay away from me and don't even think about touching me, if you know what's good. I don't want to ruin Tiara's plan by killing you myself."
The blood elf made the blue glyph disappear and walked past her to the door and check the runes he had clearly manufactured. Disheartened and unable to wipe her tears, the girl had followed him with her eyes and watched as he took a violet crystal from one of his pockets and touched each of the runes with its tip.
"Love at first sight?" Tiara asked, placing her free hand on his shoulder, never to let go again. Tristessa didn't even bother to deny it; it wasn't worth it. Nothing was worth it, now that everything was lost. "You're really a pathetic girl, you know that?"
"Yes… I know."
Knowing this was the end, Tristessa let Tiara push her toward the door. Without a word, Severus opened it, and Jin closed his eyes in deep pain as he watched her pass, lowering the barrel of his rifle slightly until it rested against the broken window frame.
"Nahalith, Lady and Angel of the Hunt, I beg you, protect Tristessa from all evil…"
The girl only heard the beginning of Jin's prayer before the door slammed shut behind her. Outside, her fate awaited her, foretold by an unknown enemy leading that group of dark silhouettes. Standing nearby, perhaps ten or fifteen meters away, were dozens of them, forming a circle that enclosed the house and its entire perimeter.
Women with blindfolds, black suits exposed to the elements, and malicious madness carved into their smiles, exposing their missing or rotting teeth.
The transcendent siren that the Empire of the Night's Watch broadcast began to sound throughout its territory. The coincidence was fulfilled, and with the dark skies turning red, everything was playing out the same way as in the previous timeline, albeit with a different development.
Now, Tristessa only had to wait and see what her new Death would be like.