The case of Eloisa Grey

A “Blood Bound” short story

22 years ago...

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Over the course of my life, I have done many things. Some were a testimony of pure brilliance, and others the stupidest shit I have ever done. Taking that book out of the Starlight academy remains the only that fits into both of these categories.
– Bluebird’s journal

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Eloisa shifted on the cell bed. This is where she will spend the rest of her life.

As a jail cell, the room wasn’t particularly bad. The walls were dry and enchanted to keep warm or cool depending on the time of the year. During the day, plenty of light came in through the large window with iron bars, and she could look at the starry sky during the night. She had her own self cleaning chamber pot, a somewhat comfortable bed, a small desk and a chair. They served her the same food everyone else ate, three meals a day. They even brought her a few books.

At any other time, she would be happy to hold them in her hands. Now, she couldn’t bare to look at them. Until yesterday morning, Eloisa Grey was the librarian in the Starlight Academy, the grand school for mages in the Western kingdoms. After graduating at the top of her class, she was hired first as a library assistant, then with her knowledge and loyalty earned the place as one of the three librarians who had the access to the forbidden section.

Eloisa spent the past years of her life surrounded by books. The things she loved the most in the world in the only place that ever felt like a home. And this morning she lost everything after being found guilty for the most heinous crime.

A crime she didn’t commit.

She kept thinking of two days ago. Playing the events of the day in her mind, over and over again. As always, she got up early in the morning. Had a quick breakfast consisting of a sandwich, some coffee, and a bowl of sliced fruit. She started her work in the library on time. Catalogued older editions, helped students find the scrolls and incantations for their classes, chatted with magistrix Lillandra about her research in ancient dark elf rituals. Around two in the afternoon she took a break to have lunch with her colleagues, and she spent the rest of the day placing the returned books and scrolls back onto the shelves. Her shift ended around five. Greta, Bert and Morris invited her for an evening in the park as they always did on a Tuesday. They had dinner there, shared two bottles of wine between them, then each went to their rooms. She went to bed on time, feeling only a little queasy from the wine.

All in all, it was a completely unremarkable day. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. There were no strangers, no accidents, no incidents. The next morning she was woken up by the guards and the magistrix breaking the door of her room. As much as she was shocked to see them, they appeared to be surprised to find her there as well. After a brief moment of confusion, they apprehended her, clasped her wrists in dimmer cuffs, and dragged her to be interrogated.

It didn’t take long to figure out this had something to do with the forbidden section. It wasn’t uncommon for students or rogue mages to try to break in. Due to the very dangerous nature of the books and scrolls held there, this was the most secured space in the entire academy. More secured than the jail. Two guards stood watch at any time during the day. The walls were warded from both inside and outside, to prevent anyone teleporting in. The entrance door was enchanted with blood magic, locked for anyone without the key. And the key?

The key was blood.

Everyone who earned the trust of the academy to gain access to the forbidden section had to go through a ritual that added their blood to the keystone. To open the door, all one had to do was to prick their finger on the little needle on the side of the door and offer their blood to the keystone. If it was registered in the keystone, the door would open. If the blood didn’t match, the alarm would sound off throughout the academy. This was a safety measure for cases where the guards would be away from the door. Which almost never happened.

This safety system, with the guards and the blood, ensured for centuries that only those with access could enter the forbidden section. And it was exactly this system that proved it was Eloisa who entered it that night. No matter how many times she repeated she was in her own room, sleeping, and had no memories of going there.

The two guards testified they saw her entering around midnight. She greeted them. Pricked her finger to open the door. Spent almost an hour inside. Then left the section, empty handed. The guards thought nothing of it at first. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to wander around the library in the middle of the night, even to go into the locked sections. It wasn’t until their shift ended that they heard another guard talk how Eloisa rode out on a fast horse right around one in the morning.

Following the protocol, a small search party was sent out to find Eloisa, while a couple of guards ent to rouse the magisters. After inspecting the library, magistrix Lillandra discovered that one of the blood magic grimoires has been taken out. She ordered two of the guards to accompany her to Eloisa’s chambers for a further investigation. Where, to everyone’s surprise, after bursting in, they found a sleepy, confused Eloisa in her bed.

The search party was called off. Eloisa was interrogated, then swiftly put on trial the very next day. Even though she denied the accusations, claiming the last time she was in that section was over a month ago, all of the evidence pointed to her being guilty. The guards who witnessed her entering the forbidden section. The examination of the keystone showing she was the last person to unlock the door. The still fresh pin prick on her finger she couldn’t explain.

That very morning, Eloisa Grey was sentenced to spend her lifetime in the jail cell in the east tower. There was still the matter of the missing book and its location, as it wasn’t found anywhere on the academy premisses. Eloisa insisted she had no knowledge of where it could be. For now, the council decided to grant her some time to think and offer up the information on her own. The search for the book continued in the outside world. If neither Eloisa spoke up nor the book turned up within the next few days, the council would be forced to use more drastic measures of interrogation.

Eloisa hoped they would order her to take the truth serum which would finally show them they made a mistake. In the meantime, she busied herself trying to remember as much as she could of that day. There must be some clue to what happened.

The only solution she could come up with was that someone stole her identity. Pretended to be her. But everyone knew that was impossible. An illusion spell could grant you the appearance of someone else, but you couldn’t become them. Your blood would still be yours. And it was Eloisa’s blood that was used to unlock the door. The drowsiness from the wine… It was possible someone had drugged her. Pricked her finger to take the blood while she slept. Yet, that couldn’t explain what the guards saw. And they saw her pricking her finger on the notch, offering the blood from that pin prick to the keystone. Is it possible they were somehow tricked?

A quiet clang of the window bars jolted Eloisa from her thoughts. There was no bird on the ledge. Maybe a loose pebble that fell from above? Didn’t they enchant the walls so this never happened?

Maybe her tired mind is playing tricks on her. She eased back onto the mattress.

Light tapping came from the window again. Then a squish. Like someone was spreading something around. What was going on?

Eloisa bolted up from the bed, and approached the window in quick strides. She pulled up the chair to climb on, so she could look out. Only to be met by a young woman staring back at her. The bottom part of the stranger’s face was covered with a dark bandana.

“Hi,” the stranger greeted her.

Eloisa stumbled from the shock. She quickly grabbed onto the bars as not to fall from the chair. Her mouth opened without a sound.

“I wouldn’t call the guards,” the stranger spoke in an oddly familiar voice. “I mean, you can if you want to, but I’m actually breaking you out. Which is not something I can do if you call the guards.”

Recovering from the shock, Eloisa took a good look at the stranger. From what she could see of her face, she looked familiar. Yet, she was unable to place where she might have met her before. She was wearing a blue cloak, clasped by a silver pin in the shape of a bird that looked like a sparrow. Underneath the cloak, she seemed to have a reddish leather vest over a grey shirt. The pair of gloves she wore seemed to be made from the same leather. A silver chain hung from her neck, but Eloisa couldn’t see what was attached to it from this angle.

The stranger was currently applying some sort of pungent paste to the bars, while apparently just hanging outside the tower window located high above the lake. She seemed unperturbed by the fact, and was currently talking without a pause.

“And you know, I usually wouldn’t be doing this. But I met this guy. Such a cliché, I know. I know. But he’s such a good man. I mean, yes, he’s not doing a reputable job, neither am I. But he’s one of the honourable ones. You know what I mean? If there’s a burning house, he rushes right in to save the kids kind of a guy.” She paused in thought for a moment. ”Or, well, more of a make sure the kids are outside the house before setting it on fire kind of a guy.”

“Who are you?” Eloisa finally manages to speak.

“Hm? Ah. Well,” the stranger pauses once more. “I’m the one who got you into this mess. So now I’m getting you out of it. But like I said, this generally isn’t what I do. It’s just that I’m trying to do better now. Be a better person.”

“You broke into the library!” Eloisa hisses out.

“Guilty as charged.” The stranger shrugs, wiping the last of the paste onto the corner of the window sill. “I’m really sorry, but we kind of need the book. Don’t worry. It’s in good hands, for a good cause, and I was planning to return it.”

“What?!”

“I know! It’s ridiculous. Do you have any idea how much that kind of a book goes for on the Dark market? I could live comfortably for decades to come! Love makes us do the craziest things.” As if to emphasise, she shakes her head in disbelief.

Fueled by rage, Eloisa raises her hand to burn this horrible person into a crisp. She says the incantation, yet nothing happens. There’s no pull of that force through her body, no sparks at the tip of her fingers. The dimmers sitting tight around her wrists still effectively prevent her from using magic.

The stranger simply raises her eyebrow. “Rude.”

“You-” Eloisa starts, before being interrupted.

“Do you want out or not?”

“I want my name to be cleared!” Eloisa hisses back.

“And you think that will happen if they catch me?”

“Yes!”

“Wrong.” The other woman is infuriatingly calm. “You could call them, but they won’t catch me. And then you’d be in a much worse predicament because you’d have to explain why I was trying to break you out. They would think we’re accomplices.”

“That’s-”

“True and you’re smart enough to understand it. Now, I suggest stepping away from the window and getting ready to bolt out because once I blow this baby up the guards will be on us within minutes.”

“What?!”

“Move,” the stranger firmly speaks as she pulls out a tiny bottle and pours it over the paste. The mixture begins to sizzle. A split second after Eloise steps off of the chair, a loud explosion rings out from the window.

The alarm rings out through the corridor.

“Come on!” The stranger calls for her, hanging in through the whole in the wall where the window used to be. Eloisa climbs back on the chair, grabbing onto the wall. She tries to shove the stranger out of the way. The other woman firmly grabs her wrist before shoving a thin metal rod into the lock of the dimmer cuff. Before Eloisa can figure out what’s going on, first one then the other cuff is unlocked and removed. She is finally free, and she can feel the magic flowing through her again.

Yelling and footsteps can be heard from right outside her cell.

“Come on,” the stranger pulls her up. Eloisa looks down the window. Panic takes over as she stares into the restless waters underneath them. There’s no rope hanging anywhere, suggesting this mad woman climbed the tower all the way up here.

“I can’t,” Eloisa stutters. She can hear her cell door being unlocked. The guards about to burst in.

“Rude. I went through all this trouble and you want to stay inside?” She calmly states this while holding onto the stones. How does she do it, Eloisa wonders.

“I can’t climb the walls like you!”

“Oh! Who said we’re climbing down?”

“We’re jumping down?!” The door bursts open, the guards rushing into the cell.

“No, dummy. Teleporting.” Behind them, one of the guard lounges at Eloisa.

“Wh-“ and before Eloisa can finish saying a word, the stranger grabs her by the robes. Feet planted on the wall, the other woman drags her fully out the window, plunging them both into a free fall from the tallest tower of the academy into the cold waves of the lake.

Out of habit or maybe great training, Eloisa’s hands move fast, she speaks an incantation, and a portal opens up right underneath her to fall into.

She topples onto the ground on the other side of the portal. Landing on the shores of the lake. The stranger follows right behind, graciously landing in a roll forward that she unfurls from into a standing position.

“Good job!” She claps her hands before helping Eloisa to her feet. The mage dusts off her robes, still in shock from everything that happened.

“I would suggest getting on the move. Fast. They’ll be on us like hounds within minutes.” And just as the stranger says it, the two of them can see the flashes of light in the distance of many mages teleporting in an effort to find them.

“They’ll catch me…” Fear grips her along with the realisation.

“Sure, if you just keep standing there.” The stranger checks all of her clasps and ties. As she straightens up, the light flashes over the jagged looking medallion she’s wearing. It’s an ancient looking thing, with a blood red stone in the centre of it. Eloisa can feel the twisted magic coming off of it.

“Where will I go?”

“As far away from here as you can.” The woman puts her hand on the mage’s shoulder. “Just open a portal and don’t look back. I’ll lead them off the trail for you. Should give you enough time to lose them.”

Eloisa nods, accepting her destiny. A life on the run. Not a good life, but in this moment she would rather choose that than never to feel magic again.

As the pursuit draws near, she opens up a portal. She steps through, before remembering she never asked the stranger for her name. The woman is already stepping away in the other direction.

“Wait!” Eloisa calls out through the still open portal. “You didn’t tell me who you are.”

“Oh, over the years I had many names. And many faces,” she says with amusement in her voice. “But these couple of few days…”

Eloisa watches in shock, through the closing portal, as the woman turns to her and pulls down the bandana to cover her face.

“…I’m you.”

Eloisa’s smirking face stares back at her for the brief moment. The last thing Eloisa sees before the portal closes is the thief bolting for the trees as the mages draw close in pursuit.