The Poison Princess (13 page)

The city was quite dark, but the same glowing
orange mushrooms that she had encountered in the tunnels
illuminated what they could, and there was also a bit of light
coming in from beyond the water. Though all she could see was a
reflection on the water’s surface, it was the only daylight she had
seen in longer than she could remember. The sun of her dreams was
far different, she now realized. She cried a greasy black tear at
its sight but wiped it off and choked away the needless emotion
before Scarlett took notice.

Buildings ranged from ramshackle huts to
elaborately constructed mansions all within the same view. There
were rich and poor within eyesight of one another, and no one
thought anything of it. In open display was the opulence of the
wealthy, adjacent to penurious people, struggling to put food on
their tables, roofs over their heads, and tattered robes over their
children. The setting was far different than anything Ruby had seen
at home in Lavidia. There, everything had been segregated. The
conditions seemed much more cramped here though.

The smell of the city was a rather unique
combination. The sea’s salty waters mixed with the filth of the
people living there to form something altogether new but nothing
desirable. Ruby, however, didn’t have the same olfactory senses she
used to, and it didn’t bother her like it once would have.

Gloomport was a city full of criminals and
rogues. There was no law or order beyond getting away with what you
could. It was who you knew and how you were connected that
determined an individual’s place in the city. Gangs controlled
everything, and there was no true leadership beyond them.

Thinking of where the city was on a map,
Gloomport was farther away from her home than she would have liked.
The subterranean city was far to the southeast, along the coast
there. The best path would be to get transport to Elythine and then
go north to her home. This presented a problem, because coin was
king in Gloomport, and Ruby had nothing to trade. Getting out of
the city might be just as difficult as anything she’d faced as of
yet. Swimming was out of the question, as the edge of the city was
littered with jagged rocks protruding up from the surface, and the
tide would crush them against those rocks before they could make it
to land. What she really needed was a ship and crew.

Walking into the city, Ruby began to ponder
how she was going to make that happen. Despite her ghastly
appearance and Scarlett’s demonic form, the people they passed by
didn’t really pay them the attention the princess would have
expected. Though the city had a heavy criminal nature to it, that
didn’t mean that there weren’t typical civilians there. She passed
by small shops and storefronts like she would have seen in Lavidia.
Everything about them seemed very normal, and not quite what she
suspected the dark city would contain.

Shattering the momentary comfort, a young
woman’s shrill scream echoed through the streets. No one walking by
paid it any notice, continuing with their own lives and ignoring
her calls. The girl cried out again in protest to something.

“What is that?” Scarlett asked the
princess.

“I’m not sure,” Ruby replied. “But I don’t
like it.”

She followed the loud calls into an alleyway
behind a tailor’s shop, where she found a man dressed in dyed red
leathers raping a young woman against a pile of stacked crates. The
girl pleaded for him to stop, but her cries were only met with
vicious thrusts. When she still wouldn’t be silent, the man smacked
her across the face, splattering the blood from her nose against
the wood of the boxes and bricks of the building.

Rage seethed through the princess like she
had never felt before. Her body burned inside. The poison, which
she had held in check, began to drip once more from her mouth, and
not only from there. It oozed from each of her eyes, out her nose,
from her hairline and ears. It was everywhere, and it was a color
darker than she had ever produced before.

Ruby was behind him, before she even realized
she had moved. She placed one hand on his shoulder, and with
strength she didn’t know she had, she threw him off the young girl.
The rapist landed in a pile of discarded trash beside a door
leading into the shop. He seemed more confused by the interruption
than anything else.

Looking up at the princess’ oozing form, he
asked, “What… are you?”

She dripped the sludge onto one of her hands
and walked over to him. Grabbing the man’s still erect member, Ruby
spit at him, “I’m the poison princess!”

She let go of him, as the man screamed in
horror and grabbed himself. Ruby watched as the flesh grew dark and
rapidly decomposed. That which had marked him as a man rotted off
and fell to the ground. Despite the horrors happening to him, the
rapist grabbed what was left of it and somehow managed to get up
and flee the alleyway.

Ruby turned back and tried to calm herself.
Her breathing slowed, and soon, the poison ceased dripping from her
various orifices. Scarlett walked up to her, brandishing a tissue
from seemingly out of nowhere and wiped the sludge from the
princess’ face. Once she was done, it vanished similarly. At that
point, the girl who had been attacked stood, having covered herself
back up.

“Why did you do that?” the girl demanded
angrily, tears streaking down her face. “Why couldn’t you just
leave it alone?”

Ruby looked over at the woman. “What are you
talking about? I had to do something.”

“Do you not know who that was?” the girl
asked.

“Does it matter? He got what he
deserved.”

“He was a member of the Underlaw. He’s going
to have us all killed now.”

“What is the Underlaw?” Scarlett asked.

“You’re kidding,” the young woman said.

Ruby and her horned servant exchanged
nonplussed glances.

“You’re not kidding,” she stated.

“Who are they?” Ruby asked.

“You’re not from around here, are you?
 Can’t imagine how you’d end up in Gloomport without knowing.
They take what they want. Anyone who stands in their way, dies. I
didn’t want him to…” she looked back to where she had been
assaulted. “But it was better than them doing it anyway and then
killing my whole family afterward. You’ve ruined that. Now, they’re
going to kill us.”

“I…” Ruby started.

“There is one rule in Gloomport!” the girl
screamed. “Keep to yourself!” She walked forward, past the princess
and Scarlett and entered the tailor shop.

Ruby turned and watched the girl go inside,
to see an older man comfort her. The princess had to assume that he
was her father, and that he knew what was happening in the alley.
What kind of city was this where a father stood by while his
daughter was raped? Who were these men called the Underlaw that
ruled with such fear? Ruby was not content to sit idly by and watch
them destroy lives like that. She had been given power in the form
of her poison, and it would be irresponsible to let it go to
waste.

The princess followed the girl into the
tailor shop and asked, “They’ll be coming back?”

The young girl wiped the tears from her eyes
and turned around. “What?”

“You said they would kill your family,” Ruby
explained. “I take that to mean that this Underlaw will return. Is
that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then we will stay. I’ll make sure you’re
safe.”

“You can’t make us safe. Don’t you
understand? No one stands against them. This city is theirs.”

“Not anymore,” Ruby said. “I’m changing the
way this works.”

“You really think you can stand against
them?”

“I do.”

“Then you’re a fool.” The young girl stormed
up the stairs of the shop and slammed a door. Through the ceiling,
her cries could still be heard beneath.

“She’s not wrong,” the older man said before
sitting down in a creaky old chair. “It is a fool’s errand to
resist the Underlaw.”

“Why? What will they do?”

The old man stared blankly at the racks of
clothes in his store. “They’ll kill us all.”

Ruby could see that the man was not going to
be too interested in conversation. She looked at the contents of
the store and then down at herself. She had gotten so used to the
hardened poison covering her bare skin, that she forgot she was
essentially naked.

“What was your name?” Ruby asked the man.

“Luther.” He pointed upstairs, his eyes
remaining transfixed on the nothingness in front of him.
“Daughter’s name is Clare.”

“Luther, could I ask you for one of your
dresses?”

The man waved his hand dismissively,
indicating that he did not care at all.

“Thank you.”

Ruby began to look through the racks of
clothes, while Scarlett followed her.

“Why did you do that?” the demon asked
her.

“What?”

“Save that girl. Offer to help them. Why do
you concern yourself with their troubles? You have your own
problems to confront.”

“I can’t walk away from injustice,” Ruby
explained. “This place is wrong, and I have to put it right.”

“The world’s problems aren’t yours, my
princess. It is alright if you let some go.”

“Not this one. I can repair this.”

“Do you understand the cost?”

“What is your meaning?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Scarlett said.

Ruby frowned and pulled a dark purple dress
from the rack. She walked back to the man, still seated in his
chair.

“Luther, is there somewhere I could get
cleaned up?”

He pointed to a doorway.

“Thank you for your generosity, Luther.”

The man offered little more than a grunt.

Ruby began to walk toward the room, when
Scarlett asked, “Will you need a hand, my princess?”

“Stay here and keep them safe,” she
replied.

“Are you absolutely sure I can’t help you get
clean? Give you a proper lather?” Scarlett called after her one
more time.

“Stay here. Watch after them.”

“Rats.”

“Maybe next time,” Ruby said turning back to
Scarlett with a raised eyebrow, before she closed the door. “Maybe
next time? Why did I say that?” she whispered to herself
frantically. She was sexually attracted to a demon from the nether
realm. Scarlett, her seductress, was growing closer to her with
each passing day, and she didn’t think she could resist her for
much longer. She didn’t think she wanted to anymore. She was going
to have to admit that to herself sooner or later, but it wasn't
only that.

Ruby was starting to lose herself in the
persona that she had adopted, this poison princess. She had
attacked a man and turned his manhood into a rotting, festering
mass of disgusting flesh, and then guaranteed the safety of a pair
of strangers being threatened by a violent gang. Who had she
become? Could she actually stop what was coming for this innocent
tailor and his daughter? Was the poison princess enough to protect
them? She didn’t know, but there was a certain level of confidence
building inside her.

Ignoring all of that, the princess laid out
the dress on a table and then stepped inside the cold water of a
wooden tub situated near the center of the room. Bending over in
the water, Ruby cupped the water and rinsed it over her skin. She
had to scrape and scrub fairly rigorously to get some of the
encrusted poison off of her, but after a short while, she got to a
point where she was feeling clean enough to put on the new dress.
Stepping out of the dirty, black water, Ruby found a towel and
dried herself off.

She picked up the dress from the table and
examined it. The fabric was certainly of a lower quality than that
which she was used to in the castle, but she didn’t mind. Unlike
Scarlett and her predilection for nudity, Ruby felt that any
clothes would be a comfort at that point. The dress was dark purple
with black stitching at the intersections of fabric and looked nice
enough. The strings at the back proved difficult to tie herself, so
she opened the door and called for Scarlett to give her a hand.

There was no response, so she went out to
find what had happened. The princess found Luther still seated in
his chair, and his disposition was the same.

“Luther? Where is Scarlett?”

“The other? She’s gone out.”

“What?” Ruby asked. “Where did she go?”

“Didn’t say. Said that thing…” He pointed to
Sniggle. “…would protect us while she was out.”

Ruby scoffed, “That’ll be the day.”

In a way, Gloomport reminded Scarlett of
the nether realm. Of her home. Dark. Dirty. Ruled by the strong.
She knew she could fit in there for however long she and her
princess would be there. It was a place where you took what you
could get and damn those that got in the way. The demon didn’t
understand why Ruby wanted to save those people from their own
choices, but she also realized she wasn’t going to change her
princess’ mind on the matter. Only time and tragedy would do that,
and they would surely change her by the end. She looked forward to
the woman she would inevitably become, but in the meantime, she had
to make sure that Ruby made it out of Gloomport alive.

That meant making sure her princess had the
poison she needed. If the Underlaw were as much of a threat as the
tailor’s daughter seemed to indicate, Ruby would be putting herself
in a dangerous position and likely hurting herself in the process.
Scarlett therefore would need to be there to mend those wounds, so
she had left the shop in search of a source of poison.

The demon was new to Nabiria, but if
Gloomport was anything like other towns in Ruby’s world, she
suspected that there was an alchemist of some sort nearby. The
craft had the vaguest touches of magic in its work, so she
understood the profession’s desire. Alchemy was a way for those
without an inherent ability to shape magic, to still touch
greatness. It was weak, of that, she had no doubt, but in its own
way, it was still admirable and certainly still useful. Something
about humanity’s desire to always reach farther than their own
grasp was intriguing to her. Amusing if nothing else anyway.