The King's Remorse

Freedom Was Dead. Should've Stayed That Way

But then a creature comes sprinting to me, black eyes wild. She's got the head and forelegs of an elephant and the mane of a lion, but then the rest of her is a rainbow of colors with two huge wings, eagle feet, and a dragon-like tail covered in feathers at the end. She skids to a stop when she finally notices me, jerking her head to get a better look at me. I jump back to avoid getting gored on her massive tusks. The two metal spikes attached to her tail carve deep scores in the ground. She keeps twitching and she shifts on her feet, as if she cannot stay still.

"Are you ok?" I ask, eyeing her warily.

"I told you, Dove. Freedom's been rotting in the ground for the past, like, what? Thirty years or something? And that includes her brain. I doubt she's capable of much more than the bare minimum of brain power required for life."

"Phoenix!" Ky gasps, looking at his brother in horror.

"What? It's true. You can't say she hasn't been decomposing in her grave."

"I know that she has been dead for a long time, but you could at least be a bit more respectful- Freedom's right here! Be nice!"

"Are you alright, though, Freedom?" I turn back to her.

Freedom continues to twitch, and I get a better look at her. Holes riddle her body, most small but some are much bigger. Little insects and maggots crawl through her fur and across her skin. One of her ribs sticks out from her flank.

"Y-yes," she replies, and her voice is hoarse. "Why did I come back to life? Who did this to me?"

"I don't know. Arcane blinked a couple of hours ago, and now everything's been screwed up."

Freedom's forelegs give out, and she crumples to the ground, rolling over and revealing the wound on her shoulder, the one that started off King Garonda XIV's corrupt reign. If it was ever healed before Freedom overdosed on Arcane's healing power, it has now broken back open, revealing the muscle beneath her flesh.

"Arcane died? That's what brought me back. His life or mine- one of the two has to be gone." Freedom rises back to her feet, but it takes a few tries.

She chuckles a few times, the bouts of laughter turning to a cackle which dies off after a couple of moments. A clump of her flesh on one of her elbows tears off, bringing with it a few maggots and insects.

"Yes, Arcane died. But you've just come back to life? How did that work?" Ky's eyes light up as he awaits his answer.

Anything to learn more about Midnight Wolves.

Freedom's eyes twitch and her muscles spasm, causing her head to rest at an angle. She sits down, but I can tell there's little control in her movements. Ky's answer comes after a minute or two of silence.

"Yeah," Freedom says. "Looks like Freedom's come back to life. I don't know why Arcane put in the extra effort to find my body and bring it back to life. Freedom was dead, and it should've stayed that way." She snorts in her cackling laughter.

"Arcane found you? Whoah."

"Yeah," she repeats. "He clung onto the strand of life that kept him in the space between life and death long enough to search for and find my body. I wouldn't've come back to life if he had simply just shed the Midnight Tear. But what am I doing here? I clearly wasn't supposed to come back."

"I didn't realize Midnight Wolves could do that." Ky smiles, delighted that he had learned something new.

I take another deep breath. Let's not lose it since you're not searching for Wolf- remember, Dove, she can hold her own. Who knows, Freedom might know something that'll help you track her down.