Aug isn't determined by physical ability, neither is it increased by training's outward progress- getting bigger muscles. Anyone can just happen to get that. It is called morale or discipline, making the physical training for increasing it equal between genders. However, apparently women have more powerful aug than men, because of how they mature.
-From Acacia's Journal, Month of Akavish, Year 2498
After dismissing her rope from the railing, Gelland slammed the balcony's sliding door to the side. She stepped through, child in hand. She spotted the two surprised and drowsy men that were guarding a large double door. She attacked. She formed the Wind and Line signs with her right hand and aimed the two shots at both of their heads. Show restraint, Gel. They might not be in on what this man did, but at the same time I can't have them getting in the way. The shots slammed their heads against the stone walls behind them, knocking them out. She stormed into the room. The woman wasn't there, just the dog. She left him the same as the guards, binding their hands with their own clothes and gagging the three in their separate rooms.
She had torn a piece of the cloak and tied it behind her head, making a black veil. Gelland used her heat vision with her eyes closed. She saw outside of herself, and checked beyond the wall and into the stairwell. Her stomach clenched again, and she had to release the vision. That was new.
Walking down the stairs, she noticed maids and servants cowering on the far end of the long room. "Where is your master's wife?" she demanded. They started. "Where is this child's mother?" she said more forcefully.
One of the servants whimpered, "Are you here to take them away? I won't let you!" The maid got out a small knife and held it towards Gelland.
"Who is 'them'?" Gelland asked.
A male servant in the back noted, "That's not them, I don't think. I don't recognize her." The maid still gripped her blade with trembling fingers.
"I don't know what you all are talking about. Your master tried to kill this baby, and you will tell me where the mother is!"
The girl looked up, the orange glow of her face lighting up. "Come downstairs with me." she said with more confidence than before. "You all, leave through the downstairs and I'll lock it all up when I come out. Don't say a word to anyone about this, you know what they'd do." They all swiftly obeyed after they got down to the bottom level.
Gelland raised an eyebrow in surprise. The girl led her and the baby to a door far back in the lowest level. "This is it. Prepare yourself, after you see this, I won't let you go back." Gelland looked in the girl's eyes and nodded. Unlocking the door, she ushered Gelland inside the reeking chamber. It smelled sour, the mixing of sweat, blood, and bile. She pushed part of the veil over to see normally with one eye.
There, in a corner, were a cluster of girls holding each other and sobbing. They frightfully turned shielded eyes at the light, and Gelland saw their faces. She ground her teeth and held the baby more firmly. Master, what is this? she thought. Their faces were mottled purple from bruising, and she could see on several of them the teeth that she shared with them. Hals. In the middle of the cowering girls was another with longer hair than the rest, eyes down turned and distant. The blood was fresh around her mouth.
"Who's ba-" she was cut off by a sound that split through the sobs. The baby was crying. Turning with bewildered eyes, the long haired girl looked longingly towards Gelland. "I guess that answers my question." she laughed with tears streaming. She went over and knelt, placing her lively friend in her mother's trembling hands. "How?" she asked.
"My Master saved her. I just happened to be the person they used to do it. What is your name?"
"Your..." she trailed off in a whine, "what?" Still looking puzzled, she answered, "My name's Heruth."
Gelland turned to the honey haired girl still standing in the door. Her jaw was clenched. "Speaking of masters, I have to deal with their former one. Are there clothes and shoes you can get them from here? Sacks of food?" Gelland asked. The others looked up at her with wide eyes. The girl gestured to the others to follow.
"Clothes, yes, for the most part. Makkus has many in his room. I'll get food from the kitchens. I need to get them wet rags to wipe themselves, as well."
"Okay, let me worry about the clothes then."
They nodded to each other. I like that one. Gelland thought to herself. She returned about ten minutes later, a carrying a large bag full of clothes and a black canvas pouch. Its form hung square with the weight of the heap in it, mostly silver ripl and some gold siel, all connected by their magnetic ends. She set the first on a table and had the girls quickly pick through the lot. She got out the last four pain reliever pills that the apothecary had given her. She had four of the girls take them, the ones with the most bruising. A minute after taking them, the purple bruising progressed to a green tinge. It was the most that could be done for them in the moment, but their faces relaxed visibly.
"What is your name?" she asked the blonde girl. She was helping wipe one girl's grime off her face.
"Now's not the time for chatter."
Gelland cocked her head. She wasn't wrong, but it would've been nice to know who she was working with. You're wearing a veil, Gel. she reminded herself.
She handed her the pouch of heap. "Take this. I suspect you know the city better than I do. They need a place to stay for the night, and in the morning they'll need to be guided to wagons taking people out of the city. Do you understand? They're Hals, they can't stay right under the Takutahn's nose."
She regarded the bag full of heap. "You're so strange. Where did you come from, and why help them?"
"Idle chatter, remember?" She found pen and paper and jotted something down. "Take this too. Don't look at it until they're safely on their way. I'll be near the gates overseeing their departure from a distance."
Gelland turned towards the girls. There were eight in total. Gelland gave them a warm smile, pulling up the mouthpiece. "I've never met another Hal. I'm glad to meet you. Sisters, again, your new Master has freed you. I don't have the time now to tell you how, but seek The Master while They may be found. If you ask, They will open the door. Don't be afraid, They will fight for you." she assured them. This was the third time she'd just blurted something out of compulsion. But they were true words.
"What will you do with Father," Heruth said, then vigorously shook her head, "with Makkus, I mean? Will you kill him?" she asked, jaw clenched.
"I'm not an assassin, Heruth. I'd rather not kill people if I don't have to. Besides, that man is no father. You and she have someone different looking out for you." Gelland got a Likeness of their group. Not only to remember them by, but to use. "Whatever I figure out for him, I'll make it count."
The blue eyed, honey haired girl just shook her head. "Foolish."
Heruth clutched her little girl. "Fine. But make him remember us."
Gelland approached Heruth and laid a hand on the baby's cheek. "Take care of yourselves. I'll be there in the morning watching over you."
One of the girls eyed Gelland. "Does your master have a name? What's his purpose? Don't you think he's just using you?" She said it with a sharp tone.
"We'll just have to trust that They know best, I-"
"Shows how much you know. He's as selfish as their master. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing." she smirked. Gelland caught the outline of the girl's eyes inspecting her and then trailing up, as if following something.
"Berdine, what's gotten into you? Give our savior some respect!" one of the girls rebuked, nodding to Gelland.
"Don't call me that." she snapped, a little more forcefully than she'd intended. "Sorry, but I'm not anyone's savior. Anyways, you must be off now."
"I hope we see you again someday!" Heruth added before the blonde ushered them out the door. Me too!
Gelland tensed, rushing back up the stairs. She stalked into Makkus' chambers. Makkus grunted and flailed against his restraints, hands and feet tied behind him by sheets, slumped in a corner next to his bed. Gelland unstuffed the sock from his mouth. "Is she gone? Where have you been? I could've died by now!" he said. Then he lifted his head, and his eyes grew wide.
Makkus had combed, short brown hair with silver highlights on the sides. Silver, a characteristic normally found in Civiti peoples. She growled at him, "You failed, that child's safe, now."
"You wh-" Gelland slapped him him across the mouth.
"You will answer my question: Why did you do this? Who said you could keep us like livestock?"
Makkus inspected her for a moment. "The livestock was more entertaining than wine. I had to cut back. A friend of mine offered me a proposition and I obliged. A good substitute." He smiled a deep grin. "I've never felt better in my life! Those Hals give me all that I need, and they even profit from my hospitality."
Gelland clenched her fists. "You're saying that the precious lives of others are just a substitution for a drink? Swapping one addiction for another isn't even a solution! You're more of a slave than they were!" she heaved in big breaths.
His grin widened. "So what will we do now? Are you going to kill me? Go ahead, end it! I have no regrets!"
She turned away towards another corner, trying to compose herself. "We're just monsters to everyone!" she voiced to Master.
"What'll it be, slag?" he chided.
Gelland whipped around examining the room and spotted it on a nightstand next to the bed. Pinning him with her boot on his chest, she stuck her thumb into the lit candle on the nightstand, solidifying the flame into a sharp point to wrap around the tip of the thumb. He called her a slag, a term from Civitas for whores.
"No regrets. Addiction leaves a nasty imprint on the body, didn't you know?" she said with a forced laugh. "A slag, huh? Well, you can't have them anymore, so you'll have the pleasure of having me instead!"
His grin turned to horror as she bent down, grabbing his face in her left hand and slid her thumb through his skin like butter. The putrid smell was matched by the equally foul names he shrieked at her, and the first nearly made her sick. But she ignored his terror, his writhing and bucking, though it pained her to do so. Her thumb sometimes grazed the skull, but the heat would close up the wound as soon as it was made. She finished, inspecting what he had wrought upon himself.
SLAG
The word was emblazoned on his forehead and stuck out like a ruby crown. No blood dripped from the wound. Taking her foot off his chest, she had started sweating. He was as well, and nearly unconscious. She wondered if she'd gone too far, but just as with killing Lixo, she found she had little else she could do. Once you got into certain positions of "power," most people stopped holding you accountable. This way, people would at least know that those who dealt in devastation had it paid back to them. But she also wondered how this violence reflected on her kind. She let the flame flicker away from her thumb and slapped him with the other hand.
"Listen," she said, his eyes slowly met hers, "you'll never get rid of this. No doctor, no sign of man can heal you! Remember us!" She beat her chest as she said it.
He gave pained, slow nods, tears and sweat mixing in his grimace. She turned to leave. She stopped right at the door.
No Gel, don't do this- don't tell him. He doesn't deserve it! she plead with herself.
She turned and said in a low voice, "If you do ever come to regret it, seek me out. I hold the power to healing you."
He mentioned another person talking about these women, and the servants seemed to know of others as well. It looks like I know what I'm supposed to do. How does that saying go? "The unseen shield is better than man's sharpest sword." I will be that shield for these girls! She immediately shook her head. No, Gel! As heroic as that sounds, you are not the shield. Submit to The Only One that can help them, that's our best shot.
Without looking back, she left, taking the long way to her apartment.-
The honey haired girl had done even better than what Gelland had asked her to do. The girls had left the night before without shoes. In the morning, they all were shod in boots. They needed shelter, and she had checked them into different inns two at a time so that they wouldn't look suspicious coming in all at once. They departed in relative safety, bag full of food, headed to somewhere south the girl had designated. She had even kept the instructions of not reading the paper until it was done, and they took her to a pond where Gelland now sat on a boulder, veiled.
"I was very impressed." Gelland said.
"Really?" she asked, watching Gelland. The girl leaned against a tree.
"You didn't seem to have a problem helping Hals."
"Let's just say I'm a bit of an outcast as well... but not as much."
"That's good. No, not good, excuse me. It's good that you know that pain." Gelland said. "I trust that you can keep a secret?"
She nodded.
She removed her veil. "My name is Gelland."
"The girl from the posters?" she gasped. "I knew you were somebody special. What were you doing saving a baby in the dark?"
Gelland chuckled. "I'm trying to wrap my head around that as well. However, I just told you that I'm a fugitive wanted for 'murder' living in the capitol. Shouldn't you be acting scared or threatening to turn me in?"
The girl shuffled uncomfortably for a few moments. "The Augments. I'm a Breaker, I just need to learn the Tethering arts. Please. Please teach me."
Raising both eyebrows she stared at the girl. Here was someone unafraid of Gelland, willing to help people, and seemingly capable. "I could." Gelland paused. "So what is your name? You said you're a Breaker? I don't see a divot on your chin."
"Acacia is my name. So I don't really know why. I've had no noticeable mark like others for as long as I could remember. But I am one, really."
"That's a pretty name. I will teach you, and I'll learn more about why you want to after we go get something to eat!"
Acacia jumped a little. She really hadn't expected Gelland to agree to her plea. "Really?!"
Gelland smiled at her. Yes, she would. She thought on part of what the girl Berdine had said. She didn't mind being used, in fact, she craved it. Like a starving man seeking bread. But she craved use from Them, for this was a Master worth serving.
BETA READER: I associate Aug with the power just previously displayed in the last chapter as I read. I love seeing this metamorph skill displayed! Show me more of it throughout the MS or for the rest of the MS. It intrigues me and draws me in to the story world. Is Gelland using deception or sincerity when talking about saving the baby? What emotion does she hope to convey with passage? Unnecessary to tell me Gelland is thinking when words are italicized; it pulls me out of the story world to wonder why the author is telling me the character is thinking. Paragraph sizes smaller and better paced in this chapter, but bigger ones still better broken up for reader aesthetics and pacing. I like the Civiti accent. What does it sound like, I wonder? Are the girls actually Makkus's prostitutes or sex slaves, or is he just insulting/demeaning her? Does imprinting physically or emotionally hurt Gelland? Justice for the down-trodden with imprinting on Makkus! Yes! Is the italicized paragraph "He mentioned another person..." from the Voice or Gelland's though? Why is the whole paragraph italicized? Ooh! A Breaker! Are Breakers also Hals? Can anyone learn the Augments? What are all the tethering arts? How many of them exist? Tell me more. I love the dialog at the end; it solidifies the different arts and their purposes and their difficulty for me as a reader.