The first thing Myrae noticed was the bright lights hanging above her head, their sterile white light illuminating her surroundings.
The humming faintly above her, small flickering of the lights was just enough to be unsettling.
Every part of her body hurt, but not in the ways she expected, there were no wounds, the bloodied gashes covering her flesh were gone, not even a single scar remained.
She sat up, slowly, pulling the thin sheet away from her. Beneath it, she was still dressed in the same clothes she had been wearing before, her body had been bandaged with a precision that made her stomach twist.
She quickly looked around in a panic searching every corner of the small room.
Her familiar was nowhere in sight.
Her neck felt stiff and unatural as she felt around her neck she finally noticed it, a tight and seamless, cold metallic band was fitted around her throat.
Just from the touch of the metalic surafce she knew what it was, a device used on Guild controlled Bleeders. A Leash.
Her breath was caught in her throat, she knew now what this meant for her she may have not been dead but so.e would say this was even worse.
The room was clinical, steel walls, low-noise emitters, a single mirror built into a wall, and a set of heavy metal doors.
Slidding open with a hiss, the figure that stepped through wore segments of heavy armor chased with gilded lines and the sigil of the Gilded Thorn Guild — a twisting rose made from gold.
Holding a small metalic slate in on hand, with the other bybtheir side.
"Bleeder number 639"
His voice was cold and stern, he didn't wait for her response.
"You were recovered during a Category Two Tear event within the Scarfront's western block. We have Confirmed the presence of a Familiar as well as a singular Growth."
" You were unconscious and upon extraction. Three unidentified civilian corpses confirmed near your position. None appeared as allies."
He scrolled something on the pad.
"Your Familiar has been processed and confirmed. You are currently being held in a Gilded Thorn regional stabilization site. Movement outside designated areas of this facility will trigger containment protocols."
Mirae's mouth twitched, as she listened to the man, a small frown painting itself on her face.
The Handler didn't care to notice the change.
"As per government regulations, article three, section four any Bleeder recovered during an unregistered Tear is immediately assigned to the recovering Guild unless claimed within seventy two hours. You have not claimed."
He paused just long enough for the weight of it to settle.
"However under section two you have tge following choice, either accept working for us, becoming a field assest for the Guilded Thorn, or have yourself and your familiar destroyed after growths are extracted for further examination."
Mirae looked at him, a dark gleem shining in her eyes, looking staright into his eyes.
She stared for a moment longer, then gave the smallest shrug.
'It's better than being taken in by the Pale Choir at least.'
His eyes narrowed before giving her a small nod,
"Very well, please follow me to the examination field, you will reunited with your familiar and be furthrr assessed there."
Taping something into the tablet he gestured for her to stand and follow behind him.
Following behind with her hands hanging low by her sides, all around her similar doors to the one that lead to her room covered the walls.
The walls were bare of decoration, being made from the same materials from her room, sterile grey walls with humming lights hanging above.
They walked for some time, until they finally arrived at a set of heavy black metal doors with guards standing either side, the guards and the man escorting her exchanged few words before they opened the doors allowing the two to enter.
The room was a large circular chamber with glass panels linning the walls, people of all types stood behind the glass, all of them watching Myrae with uninterested gazes.
The door closed behind them as the man spoke again.
"Please enter the centre of the room, you will be briefed before you are reunited wuth your familiar and expected to showcase your abilities."
"Please do not disappoint us."
She looked back at him with distain, she took several long breaths before walking towards the raised black disk in the centre of the room.
Not long after she arrived in her place a cherry womens voice called out from all around her.
"Good evening Bleedder 639, I am director Hana, You will be in my care today, now please state your name for the record."
A sigh escaped her lips before she spoke with a frown still sitting across her face.
"Myrae, spelt M,Y,R,A,E, Myrae."
A few seconds past before the voice spoke out again;
"Wonderfull, thank you Myrae."
"First of all let me ask you something, how much do you know about the different types of growths?"
Myrae took looked around before shaking her head;
"I know there's four different types and that each person's familiar has an affinity to one or more of those categories."
A small laugh camd through the mic before Hana spoke again,
"That's correct! It seems like your smarter than you look, do you know the names of each type of growth?"
Myrae only shook her head at this question.
"Oh well, looks like I spoke to soon, the four types, from the most common to the rarest are,Thorn-Maws, Ash-Bones, Gravekins and Howlseeds."
"Thorn-Maw growths provide the weider with physiological enhancements such as claws, enhanced muscles, or mandibles."
"Ash-Bones allow a weirder to manipulate their bones in one way or another."
"Gravekin allow for the control of their local environments within Tear zones."
"Finally Howlseeds provide the user with some form of psychic ability.
As well as this each individual growth is ranked on two adjacent systems both by name and numerical. Currently your growth is at the Situe classification, otherwise known as tier one. Only by consuming suitable growths can you increase the power of your own or even gain new ones in rare cases."
A faint whistle could be heard reverberating through the chamber, as suddenly a leathery bat like creature was dropped from a small box above.
Myraes familiar fell to the ground in a graceless heap, picking itself up it chirped witg its in the air before finally turning to and walking towards its master as if it did't just fall on its face.
Now please describe your passive ability to use then perform a fusion and showcase your active ability I'd you will.
A thrown still littering her face.
"Sure, my passive seems to affect my vision in some way I haven't been able to determine what it does exactly but from what I understand it seems like I can see both worlds at once. For simple terms I can still see our world underlayed when I was within the bleed."
Hands voice chimmed out in her usual cheery manner.
"Ah thank you, we can perform future tests to see if your vision holds anything else, now please perform a fusion and activate your growth."
Myrae looked around at all the eyes staring at her from the glass before she looked down at the creature by her side, scratching it behind the ear before willing their flesh to become one.
The pulsating flesh of her familiar quickly merged into her arm, the mass of flesh and bone moving up her body like a living tumour, she could feel her bones and muscles tearing apart before reforming themselves into a form that felt both foreign and comfortable, now standing at two and a half meters tall she one again passed the form of a Bleed-spawn.
She felt the power surge throug her like nothing she felt before.
It felt intoxicating, a level of strength a normal person could only ever dream off, however she knew better than to dwellnon this strength, she quickly gained a hold of herself and focused herself on her large singular eye on her face.
It was strange, she could feel power leaking from her eye, escaping from her like a torrent, but nothing appeared to happen in the world around her.
As she stopped funneling her power a blinding pain shot from her eye, causing her to fall to her knees, the pain was so intense she bond between herself and the familiar became stained to the point they both feel apart.
Both falling to the ground next to each other, panting heavily she could still feel the pain, it took some time until her vision returned and once it did, the light around her was blinding.
"Thank you, it seems like some type of emitting type ability, most certainly of a Howlseed origin."
"That's all we need from you for now, one of the guards will escorting you back to your room, thank you once again for your time."
Myrae was still staggering on the ground as she felt an arm wrap around her own as she was dragged back to he ce...room, there on the cold floor she was left to fall into the oblivion of sleep with her faithful companion by her side once again.