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"You've seen my plans. My real plans," Sliske said while he seemed to almost reel in shock.
It was an understatement honestly, Blaire had seen a lot more than his plans; his recent thoughts on them being the world guardian, his apparent centuries long obsession with them before they were even born, and the fact that someone had known their name hundreds of years ago.
Unable to quiet get to back to their feet yet they settled on smirking up at him, "What's the matter? Don't like it when someone can actually play your game?"
In hindsight it wasn't the best time to taunt him.
"You're not allowed to see behind the mask. Nobody is."
"Listen if your just gonna throw a tantrum every time someone starts to get an edge on you I don't see how your game is gonna be all that entertaining," they paused to finally stumble back to their feet not yet noticing the lasting effects of the spell he was trying to use on them.
Taking another chance Blaire added, "I'm gonna call this one a tie and get out of here while I'm ahead if that's cool, Linza can you-"
"YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE THAT!" Sliske suddenly yelled interrupting.
Expecting more of the usual banter Blaire had no real idea how to respond to his outburst and settled with, "Uhh."
"You're! Not! Allowed! You're just another pawn! Pawns don't get to play the game by themselves!" Sliske continued.
All at once his smile was back and he raised the staff again. This wasn't right. This wasn't how it happened. The pain was back in full force, suddenly real again.
Blaire shook awake gasping for breath. Every inhale hurt. The physical bruising on their ribcage was one thing but the piece of them that was missing made them nearly delirious. They'd lost limbs before dying before. The wrongness and the feel of something missing was only a start to describing how having a part of your soul ripped from you feels. Worse than just losing it, having it in the possession of a madman who was using it in his creepy experiments.
Blaire ruffly rubbed at their chest as if it would help with the pain at all, agitating the physical wounds in the process.
They could still feel it a bit. A part of their consciousness was still trapped there with him. He was doing tests with that part of them. All of them invasive and awful if not painful. This one was. Blaire knew he didn't need sleep and now that this has taken his interest he likely won't stop until he's figured out whatever he was trying to. Until then there would be no relief. Knowing what they did about him there probably wouldn't be any after either.
Suddenly, the pain from the piece with him ebbed away. Taking a shaky breath in relief they sat up in bed hoping to steady themselves in what was sure to be a momentary respite.
He was doing something again. Cold. It was so cold all of a sudden. It felt oppressive. Worst of all it felt like it was bleeding into the soul fragment unlike everything else until this point.
"What is he doing?" Blaire gasped out to nobody, clutching their chest as if they had any way to stop what was happening.
It clicked in their head what he was doing and in a panic they scrambled out of bed onto the floor, opening a gash on their arm while they were at it.
Ignoring the fresh blood dripping onto their nightshirt they started babbling, "Oh Guthix, no not this. Please not this."
But Guthix was dead and the Mahjarret who killed him was playing with a chunk of their soul.
He was testing their soul against his own. Or maybe he was subsuming it. Trying to corrupt it? It hardly mattered considering all they could do about it was sit and wait for it to happen.
What would happen to them if they even got it back now? They could practically see it, next time they had to face him he would say, 'I'm done with this, you can have it back."
Maybe the corrupted fragment would take over. Or maybe it was just to give him control. Maybe he really had no plan and would just break it down to leave them that much weaker. Can someone even break a soul? By the way they were feeling now they guessed yes.
Taking deep breaths they tried to stop panicking. In time with the ticking of the clock they layed on their bedroom floor breathing and silently praying to Guthix and after the sunlight began creeping through the windows and a bit of sense began returning to them, to Zaros.
The feeling wasn't going away this time. And they had spent the night awake on the floor.
"Guess this is my life now," Blaire mumbled to themselves.
Grasping the side of the bed they pulled themselves to their feet and closed their eyes to keep from crying.
Making small deliberate movements they dressed in their clothing first and then even more laboriously, their armor.
Walking outside they stood at their portal that would lead them back to Rimmington for a moment.
"Can't let them know how badly you're hurt. Guthix trusted you to be the world guardian. Show them all you can walk it off," they thought this to themselves, began to repeat it like a mantra and stepped through the portal.