Chapter 17 - Verus

Amy watched Joe walk away with a very heavy heart. She knew he would not take it very well, even if it was Joe. But she had hoped he would at least take it better than that. She had this strange feeling that if she came back, Joe wouldn't be her friend anymore. It was a feeling she absolutely hated. But she had to get back, otherwise something bad might happen, so she left right away.

When she got back, Takuta asked her how it went. She just stared at him for a second and continued walking. That was actually a pretty stupid question. He should have known how it would have went without asking her.

Amy decided to walk around and familiarize herself with the area, and she also thought it might help her feel better. But, it didn't make her feel much better.
She was walking down a normal-looking hallway when she heard someone talking. She looked toward where it seemed to have come from to see a room with someone locked inside.

She stared at the creature for a few seconds, wondering why they were there. But instead of her asking, the creature did.

“Why are you here?” the asked. “Are you one of the humans who are supposed to be helping Sakra?”

Amy looked a bit surprised. “Do you know Sakra?” she asked.

“Not personally,” the creature said, “but I admire her very much. I'm a scientist, like her. After she found out about the Command Law, I researched it a lot more thoroughly. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have nearly as much knowledge as I do.”

Amy blinked. Another scientist? And they admired Sakra? Sakra must be literally one of the best scientists, then.

“Why are you here?” the creature asked again.

“Takuta gave me an offer I ended up accepting,” she responded.

“What would that be?” the creature said. “Threatening that if you didn't come with him and obey him like a beaten wolf he would sick Verus on you?”

“No,” Amy said. “He said if I came here he wouldn't hurt my friends.”

The creature laughed. “You came here for no reason. Even if he would have promised, he's still going to hurt them. He'll probably end up just using you as bait or blackmail or something.” They seemed to think for a few seconds. “What's your authority where you live?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you a commoner, or a princess, or what?”

“I'm... a princess.”

“No wonder he wanted you to come...”

“What does that have anything to do with here?”

“First, let me introduce myself. My name is Bram, the scientist specialized in the Command Law. Takuta forced me to tell him everything I knew about the Command Law so he would know ways to get around it and who to focus on getting around when you humans came here. Then he locked me up in here so I couldn't warn anyone.”

“Well, then why would he focus on me? That is, if this has to do with the Command Law. Although Sakra did tell us that it has something to go with a strong will and heart...”

“It has everything to do with the Command Law. Although, it doesn't have anything to do with strong will or hearts. My researched revealed that, depending on who someone is in their society, the Command Law varies in affect on us. If a human is just a poor peasant with no family and has no influence in their society, the Command Law will be least affective on us from that person. However, if someone is of a high authority, such as a royal family, the Command Law will be at its worst. So, he wanted to get to you so you would be out of the way where this is concerned.”

“How would I be out of the way if I'm right here?”

“The more a creature shows authority over a human, the less the Command Law will work. So, if he has you doing things for him all the time and he orders you around, the Command Law will not affect him so much where you are concerned.”

“I had no clue about that...” Amy said.

“Well, now you know. But I guess there is nothing you can do about it now.”

“I can only go back if he hurts my friends. If I disobey him, they will probably be in even more trouble than they are now.” Amy remembered something she's been wondering, and thought Bram might know, depending on how long he has been held prisoner here. “What exactly is Verus? I mean, how 'powerful' is he, I guess you could say.”

“Verus?” Bram said. “I've been threatened to be killed by him multiple times. Verus was originally a very peaceful creature. But he accidentally wandered onto this island, and Takuta mutated him. Verus is basically a walking virus, hence the name 'Verus.' If he scratches or bites someone hard enough to break the skin, they will become very sick. So sick that if it doesn't get cured, there is a very likely chance you will die. The only way to cure it is to drink fluid from the inside of a Healing Pond Flower Lily, found only at the Healing Pond which is on this island.”

Amy became scared. She better be really careful with what she does because if she doesn't, who knows who Takuta will have Verus kill?

“If you do what you know is right,” Bram said, “I'm sure you and your friends will be fine.” It almost seemed like he was listening to her thoughts. “Now you'd better get going. You don't want to get in trouble, do you?”

Amy was still trying to soak all of this information in. Takuta must be really good at lying and persuading, since Amy believed he really was telling the truth the other night.

Amy walked back to the room Takuta gave her to sleep in. When she was almost there, Takuta intercepted her to give her a list of things to do before she could go to sleep. The list contained pretty simple things, but a lot of them. And he expects her to wake up at dawn, too! Well, hopefully she will be able to find a way to safely get out of this.

While she was doing her tasks, she thought of something that could possibly get her out of this situation. Although, it was very risky. She had no idea how much these tasks would affect her role in the Command Law towards Takuta. If they affected her enough, she wouldn't be able to do what she thought of. Well, at least she wouldn't with it working in her favor. But, if she couldn't find any other way to get out of this, she would have to try it.

One of her tasks had been to clean the room Bram was in. When she went in the room, he said, “I see he's already trying to get rid of your affect on the Command Law.”

Amy ignored this comment and kept cleaning.

“So, that's it?” Bram said. “You're gonna give up? Not try to fight your way out of this?”

Amy put the cleaning utensils down and glared at Bram. “Give up?” Amy said, mad. “I don't give up. I am just trying to figure out how to get out of this while staying out of trouble with Takuta.

Bram half-smiled. “Well, you should figure out soon how you are going to get out of it,” he said. “It actually doesn't take very long for the affects to wear down, even if you are a princess.”

“I'm working on it,” Amy said.

They didn't talk again until Amy was leaving, when Bram said “Oh, and by the way, I think you might end up finding it interesting to know that Verus is completely under Takuta's control. He doesn't do anything unless he is told to by Takuta.”

Amy nodded her head as a “thank you” remark to this information.

Amy was now done with her tasks for the day and headed to “her room”, which actually wasn't too far from Bram's room. Amy was very tired and tried to fall asleep as quickly as possible, despite her fear of what might happen to her while she was sleeping. From what Bram told her earlier, she believed there was a good chance she would be kept safe.

But she was woken up during the night by a lot of noise coming from the direction of Bram's room. She got up and went to his room. He had evidentially made a lot of noise on purpose to wake her up. He said one word, “Verus,” and she understood exactly what he meant.

She left immediately, knowing where Virus was going. She practically ran toward where the barrier was. She had no clue how fast Verus could move, so she tried to make it there as fast as possible.

It took her a very short time to get to the barrier, but she had still been beaten by Verus. As usual, the four creatures were all standing guard while the others slept. But, instead of sleeping, Joe was sitting at the side, just like how Amy had been several nights before. The only difference was that he was looking at the scenery because he was sad, not happy. He looked like he had spent a bit of time crying within the past day.

And sneaking up behind Joe was Verus, with his claws out. He was very good at hiding, so even if anyone were to look over at Joe from where they were, they wouldn't be able to see him; only the angle Amy was at could see Verus.

As soon as the information processed into Amy's mind that Verus was about to attack Joe, she yelled his name. Joe, along with anyone else that was awake, turned toward her. “Move, Joe! Look out behind you!”

But he didn't move fast enough. Verus scraped him right on his arm, and he cut through the skin.

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