[Sara POV] Year 5, Day 207 (After midnight)
Sara circled over city. High enough nobody could see. Low enough Sara could watch everything.
[Need to calm down, think clearly, and plan properly. Anger is good and useful, but stupid anger makes mistakes. Sara is not stupid.]
The crying had stopped with tears gone and something colder and more dangerous replacing them.
[Sara really doesn’t want to be alone or wait a week until Dominos is back. Need friend, need someone who understands and accepts Sara.]
Dominos should still be over Riverton Station where they form convoys. Hopefully she can still come down there and Sara can go pick her up.
Pulled out magical message device. Wrote carefully.
“If you still can, down at rs1? Will come and pick you up.”
[Magical messages super easy to read. Anyone can intercept. So they agreed – use first letters of stop plus number to avoid duplicates. Professional caution.]
Sent message. Waited.
Answer came few minutes later: “Waiting you.”
[Nice. Sara was happy over it. Bit worried ship may already left. Would need to wait for next city where can come down. But friend agrees. Friend will wait. Good.]
Sara sent one more final message: “Need to handle some trash first, there in 2h or so.”
Mr. Evil Officer and his men were still moving through city. Terrorizing citizens. News getting out fast. Nearly had a battle at establishment. Everyone knew. Everyone scared.
[So everyone avoided them even more. Afraid of getting mixed into it. Don’t want problems with either side. Smart civilians. Professional survival instinct.]
Streets emptied before them. Windows closed. Doors shut. Nobody wanted to be seen. Nobody wanted involvement.
Sara heard Mr. Evil Officer talking—one insult after another, only about Sara, with various pissing jokes, crude humor, and mocking laughter.
[Clearly mad over the loss with not a single reference to the fair legal battle or mention that Sara won fairly. Bad loser. Well, Sara will teach him how bad a loser Sara really is.]
Sara also noticed a small airship landing at the landing pads and recognized it—Bunny and Nora arriving back from the merchant meeting at Greyhold.
[Good timing. They can handle the establishment. Sara has other priorities—personal and educational.]
And something else got Sara’s attention. The dwarf Sara saved earlier had placed a large bowl of cookies outside where he lived. An envelope next to it, plus a large box of coca-cola.
[Interesting. A gift maybe, or thank you? Sara is curious. Nice and grateful dwarf.]
Sara waited until nobody was nearby, then landed quickly and picked everything up. Tribute collection and efficient gathering.
The envelope contained some kind of magical diagram—complex and technical. Sara had no idea what it does.
[Stored into Item Box to figure out later. Maybe ask someone who knows magic better. Maybe useful. Never waste gifts.]
Also took cookies and box of coca-cola. Sara seen it many times before. People put coca-cola bottle next to cookies. No idea where it started. But Sara collected the drink happily.
[Good cookies. Good gift. Nice dwarf. Sara will remember this kindness. Sara remembers everything. Good things and bad things. Always.]
And this damn Mr. Evil Officer still hadn’t finished his trip.
Sara needed to wait another 30 minutes, following from above while tracking, planning, and calculating.
[Patience and professional patience. Wait for the right moment, location, and opportunity.]
Finally they arrived in front of the house they used as a base, far from everything. The city council had been forced to give them something, so they’d given them the most horrible location possible.
[But nice for Sara—far from everything with no eyes on it, no witnesses, and no complications. Perfect isolation and opportunity.]
Sara landed there right next to Mr. Evil Officer—sudden, direct, and inevitable.
“Hey, do you remember Sara, the failing servant. The improper one.”
Mr. Evil Officer was just watching Sara, same for all his men. They clearly hadn’t expected Sara there.
[Good. Surprise is an advantage and fear is a weapon. Sara will use both.]
Sara activated a spell—Darkness Dome. Creates a large black dome around the area for the next 20-30 minutes, blocking all sound and vision but can be easily walked through.
[Perfect for hiding things. Darkness spells like that are very popular for criminals. Sara knows many criminal tricks from centuries of assassination work.]
This got a reaction. Most guards reached for their weapons, combat ready with professional training showing.
But Sara had other plans—different and better.
«Blood!» Dress was eager, ready, and excited to help punish those guards.
Chains ran out—lots of chains, golden chains extending from the dress like living snakes, fast, efficient, and overwhelming.
Capture them all. No killing. They will not get off that easy.
Chains bundled up all the guards, similar to what Sara had done not long ago with the attackers—professional binding and secure restraint with no escape possible.
[Sara prefers those brainwashed attackers though. More unified. All screamed the same thing. These guards? Everyone cries different things—death threats, illegal abduction, asking mom for help, and 100 other things. Sara’s head hurts just listening to so many different things. Too chaotic. Too individual. Too messy.]
Dress chains also dragged out everyone who was inside the house—got a lot more, mostly sleeping guards. Sudden wake-up and horrible surprise.
[Good work, dress. Such a good boy helping Sara properly with efficient and perfect assistance.]
Sara pulled out a massive collection of slave collars from her Item Box. She started collaring all the guards, moving the collars with psychokinesis in an efficient assembly-line process.
«Blood blood!» Dress was happy to help Sara punish those guards.
Chains started dragging things off from the guards—items, clothing, and everything they carried.
[Sara doesn’t want to risk anyone having items they could use. Remove everything and leave nothing. Professional security with no chances or mistakes.]
Sara collected all items to her Item Box—weapons, armor, magical devices, money, and personal belongings. Everything.
[Never waste anything valuable. Professional looting and efficient collection from centuries of practice.]
Soon in front of Sara was the entire City Guard—naked, collared, bound in chains, helpless and pathetic. Not so mighty anymore.
Many of them, including Mr. Evil Officer, were screaming at Sara with threats, demands, and legal citations.
Law. This gave Sara an interesting idea.
[Sara sends them all to school—law school of horrors and snakes, and Dominos can be inspector. They clearly need some legal education after earlier mishaps.]
After that idea, Sara tuned them out. Nothing they said had any importance or mattered—just noise, trash talking, and meaningless.
[Your words mean nothing. Your threats are empty. Your authority is gone. You are Sara’s prisoners now, Sara’s property, and Sara’s toys.]
Sara took flight. But damn, hauling like 200 people after you in chains takes a lot of effort—massive and exhausting.
What usually would take Sara minutes of nice calm flight from Borderwatch to the cave now took nearly two hours. Sara was really tired when she finally arrived.
[Sara is not built to haul this kind of massive load or designed for cargo transport. Needed to flap wings like crazy and use active magic to compensate just to stay in the air all this time. Everything hurts and Sara is tired. But worth it, totally worth it.]
And because of those evil guards—Dominos still waiting. Friend needs to wait longer. Sara felt bit guilty about that.
The snakes were there, looking at Sara and the guards bound in chains. Heads tilting, eyes tracking, and bodies shifting uncertainly. Confused by this strange sight, very confused.
[They’re probably wondering what Sara is doing, why bring so many humans, and what the purpose is. Snakes don’t understand yet.]
And Sara had no idea where to put them now. She’d been so mad that she hadn’t really thought it fully through. There were also so many—if they all ran, some might actually get away.
[Need secure storage, a prison, and containment facility. But where?]
Sara had an idea—brilliant and practical.
[Mana snakes all do magic with different affinities. Over 37 snakes, nearly every possible affinity is represented—earth, graviton, and other useful magics. They can help and build.]
Sara pointed at the side of the large rock face where the cave was. “Snakes, can you please create a second cave there? Just far from Sara’s home, something where we can store those.” She pointed to the bound guards. “Prison cave for secure holding.”
The snakes nodded with understanding, agreement, and willingness to help.
Those who could use earth, graviton, or other magic useful for digging rock started to work—professional excavation and monster construction project.
[Snakes probably never dug a hole in rock before. Not their usual activity. Learning a new skill and practical application of magic.]
So it actually took quite a bit longer—a lot more time than Sara expected.
Sara ended up sending Dominos new message: “Will be later, sorry.”
[Friend will understand. Friend is patient. Friend knows Sara has important work.]
Like three hours later, the snakes finally had the second cave ready—deep, secure, dark, and a perfect prison.
Sara stored the guards there, all except Mr. Evil Officer. He gets special treatment, attention, and punishment.
Several snakes took guard positions in front of the cave. No escaping with professional security—monster guards and apex predators watching the prisoners.
[Good and reliable snakes. Sara trusts them completely.]
This Mr. Evil Officer didn’t look that mighty anymore—not confident, proud, or superior.
[He’s also a failure who had some serious accident by the looks of it. Naked, collared, bound, helpless, and pathetic.]
Sara picked on him a bit. “So Mr. Evil Officer, you don’t look that proper either.”
Mr. Evil Officer responded with standard threats. “Release me you monster, you know who I am—” Authority voice. Command voice. Legal threats.
Sara totally lost any interest listening to him. Tuned out. Ignored. Irrelevant noise.
[Your position means nothing. Your authority is gone. Your threats are empty. You are trash now. Just trash.]
Sara had a really evil idea—perfect and poetic.
[Let’s level the playing field. Make him understand. Make him experience. Make him FEEL what Sara feels. Or well, Sara feels nothing about it, so he can understand that at least.]
She took a pair of panties and dress from her Item Box—the same set Sara had used for testing in the seamstress place. Sara had trashed it quite badly back then, torn and damaged, but the enchantments still worked. The waste management prototype and “improper” equipment.
She indicated to Mr. Evil Officer. “Put those on.”
Mr. Evil Officer just watched Sara like she was a crazy person, refused, and shook his head in definite refusal.
“Well,” Sara said calmly with professional and clinical calm. “Cooperation is not really needed anyway. Would make your life a bit easier, but your choice.”
She rose Mr. Evil Officer up using psychokinesis, lifted him, positioned him, and dressed him up herself, forcing clothes onto his struggling body with professional efficiency.
She said loudly so his men would hear, “If you remove those, snakes will take one of your men at random and torture them to death, and then dress you back up. If you destroy those, snakes will take fifty.”
Panic spread through the guards immediately with fear radiating and understanding the threat.
Sara asked Mr. Evil Officer directly. “Do you understand?”
He answered through gritted teeth, “Yes.”
Sara leaned close with a quiet and dangerous voice. “Now you wear improper equipment. Now you walk around with waste management enchantments. Now you experience failure. How does it feel, Mr. Evil Officer? How does it FEEL?”
As Mr. Evil Officer said some bad things about Sara—cursing, threatening, insulting—Sara touched the slave collar around his neck. She used a more fancy model for him and changed some settings with professional collar programming.
As soon as it was done, Mr. Evil Officer had a serious pain reaction—screaming, writhing, and suffering.
Sara explained to him clearly, directly, and educationally. “Sara was really kind to you. Used a nice and fancy collar on you. So from now on, each time you try to say something, the collar will block it and give you some pain. You talked too much. Ruined Sara’s dreams. No more talking needed.”
She took an item from his item box—a small device with magical construction—and gave him a command. “Think something while holding it.”
Mr. Evil Officer thought “test” while holding the device.
Sound came out, but it was funny—high-pitched and squeaky, like a chipmunk speaking. Completely ridiculous.
Sara couldn’t help it and laughed a bit. Same with many of the guards watching, and even the snakes seemed to find it amusing with heads tilting in what looked like amusement.
Sara explained with satisfaction. “This device is named Fool’s Box. It’s actually a legendary item that was used by a joker in royal court. Basically, it takes whatever idea you send into it and outputs it in super funny sound.”
She ended with a statement. “As you’re such evil, from now on your talking will be funny for everyone.”
Sara took blankets from her item box, placed them on the ground, and dumped on top a massive collection of books and papers—Sara’s entire legal library, a literal mountain of legal knowledge.
Next, Sara took a collection of random shelves she’d collected over time and gave Mr. Evil Officer a command to guide his men in placing the legal books and papers onto those shelves to create a proper library in this prison cave.
Everyone watched Sara like she was an idiot. Even the snakes.
Sara explained. “Mr. Evil Officer clearly had holes in his legal knowledge, so his men can become better now. Sara will send them all to legal school.”
Sara went in front of the cave and placed a large box of devices there.
Then she demonstrated to everyone how those worked—magical legal question test devices that had cost much more than the library itself.
“Push some mana to device. Question comes. Several buttons on the sides. Press correct answer—green light. Wrong answer—red light.”
She explained the rules. “Mr. Evil Officer will select every hour a few better students who come to testing. Snakes can’t read but can separate green and red lights. Five questions. If you get all right, you can go back to cave. If wrong, you will help snakes in their school of torture.”
She placed several boxes of various healing potions and supplies outside also. “Better chance to survive punishment from snake school.”
Sara could see panic among the prisoners, with Mr. Evil Officer perhaps the most panicked—he would have to select who went to near-certain torture. His men would probably hate him soon for sending them there.
Sara then added, “If you do not select, snakes will select at random and in larger numbers. And then ten questions to get right.”
Mr. Evil Officer tried to explain, “You can’t be serious—”
But the sound that came from the Fool’s Box was so funny Sara laughed. Several of his men also laughed despite the seriousness of the situation.
Sara smiled. “You made a fool of Sara. Sara returns the favor. Plus this legal training will be useful for your men, and snakes need some training dummies. Should keep them motivated to learn hard.”
Sara then took flight. Time to go pick up Dominos.
Without having a massive load of guards behind her, the flight was fast, easy, effortless, and pleasant.
[This is proper flying and what Sara was built for—fast travel and efficient movement, not cargo hauling. Much better.]
As usual, there were a lot of airships over Riverton Station high in the air—the main place they form convoys to inner areas of the Republic. Busy hub and major transportation center.
Lucky 32 that Dominos had used seemed to be gone already, probably somewhere deeper in the Republic with the convoy departed and schedule maintained.
Using the soul tracking talisman made it easy to find Dominos. She stood in an empty back alley, waiting patiently and trusting Sara would come.
[Evil guards forced Dominos to stand in dangerous back street. Refused proper accommodation. More abuse. More cruelty. Standard behavior from them.]
[Dominos probably not in danger that much. You don’t survive centuries in the assassin guild without a reason. And with the snake gift of so much mana, she’s quite dangerous. Especially if you don’t know what she can do, and she looks harmless. Anyone attacking her would have a bad time. Very bad time.]
Sara landed there with a careful and quiet approach.
When Sara arrived to pick up Dominos, her friend was clearly worried, having never seen Sara like this. Her expression showed concern and maybe fear—not for herself, for Sara.
“Are you alright? Sara, you don’t look well.”
Sara just took her friend into a princess carry—gentle and protective hold. Then she flew off quickly, escaping from the city.
After they were away from Riverton Station—properly distant, safely separated—Dominos asked again. More insistent. More worried.
“Sara, is something wrong? You are making me worried.”
Sara collected herself a bit, organized her thoughts, and started talking—everything that happened, complete story, and full confession.
She started from the attack with the mind-controlled mob, Sara’s defense, capturing attackers alive, legal battle won, and victory achieved.
[Everything good so far, successful, and proud-worthy. Sara was a hero, saved everyone, and won fairly.]
Then darker topics. Much darker topics. Horrible topics.
How Sara is improper. How waste management enchantment marks failure. How everyone who knows sees it. How Sara wears permanent marking of not belonging. Forever. Can never fix. Can never change. Can never remove.
How Sara captured entire City Guard. Collared them. Hauled them to cave. How she sent them all to legal school with bad students helping snakes as test dummies in their trainings. Everything. All the revenge. All the darkness. All the monster behavior.
Friend was very understanding—listened without commenting or judging, just letting Sara rage about all the bad things that happened, the pain, humiliation, and loss.
[This is why Sara needed friend. Friend understands, accepts, doesn’t judge, and just supports. Always.]
Sara talked until words ran out, rage settled, and exhaustion replaced anger. Just flying, holding friend, and existing together in the night sky.
Dominos finally spoke softly, gently, and carefully.
“What does Sara want to do with them? The guards? The officer?”
Sara thought about that. Long thought. Hard thought. Important decision.
[What DOES Sara want? Revenge yes. Justice yes. But what exactly? What’s appropriate punishment? What’s satisfying conclusion? What makes this right?]
“Sara doesn’t know yet. That’s why Sara needs friend. Friend knows pain. Friend knows suffering. Friend knows how to make lessons stick. Friend will help Sara plan. Together we make something… educational. Something memorable. Something permanent.”
Dominos nodded with understanding, acceptance, and professional interest showing.
“I will help. Whatever Sara needs. This is what friends are for. Always.”
Pause. Then Dominos added, “But Sara should be more proud of herself. This school of horrors was quite creative.”
Sara felt something warm. Friend being proud of Sara. Friend supporting Sara’s dark creativity. Friend understanding Sara.
[Yes. This is belonging. This is acceptance. This is family. Not human family. Monster family. But family. Real family. Best family. Only family that matters.]
Sara flew toward the cave, toward home, snakes, prisoners, revenge, justice, and whatever came next.
[Sara tried being good, fitting in, and belonging with humans. Humans said no, said Sara is a failure and improper. Fine. Sara accepts it. Sara is a monster and belongs with monsters. And monsters don’t forgive, don’t forget, and keep promises. Always.]
The night welcomed them, the darkness embraced them, and the cave waited ahead.
Professional education was about to begin with Mr. Evil Officer’s real lessons starting soon, very soon.
Sara smiled—real, genuine, and happy.
[This will be fun, educational, professional, and perfect. Sara is a good teacher with centuries of experience. Sara will show Mr. Evil Officer what a real monster looks like, what real failure means, and what real improper behavior is. Looking forward to it. Very much looking forward to it.]
