A Small Sun

Azu gathered her last scrap of strength and willed the magic stone necklace to break. It shattered in her fist.

From the broken stone, a crimson sphere no larger than a pebble appeared.

Despite its tiny size, it blazed with a brilliance that flooded the cavern with light.

Everything that had been shrouded in darkness was laid bare.

For one fleeting moment, the Giant Centipede stared at the crimson sphere. Then it flung Azu aside and fled at full speed.

Azu hit the ground hard. Pain and impact pinned her in place.

But in that same instant, an enormous magic circle bloomed from the sphere, then collapsed inward.

Cracks webbed across its surface. Compressed heat erupted outward.

A magical barrier materialized around Azu. Everything beyond it was consumed by fire.

The Giant Centipede couldn't outrun it. The flames swallowed it whole.

The fire filled the cavern without slowing, turning upward and melting through everything in its path.

The raw power was staggering.

In moments, it had bored from underground to the surface, erupting in a pillar of flame that reshaped the terrain entirely before finally dying out.

Where the cavern had been, sunlight now poured in. The cold, hard stone had liquefied like magma, and only the area around Azu remained untouched.

Azu simply sat and stared at the aftermath.

By the time she regained her senses, the molten stone around her had cooled and hardened.

Only then could she take stock of herself.

Her face was a wreck of tears and snot. Her body covered in cuts.

Her lower half was soaked and freezing.

The residual heat still warmed the air around her, so she probably wouldn't catch cold.

Her breathing steadied, and her panicked thoughts began to settle with it.

She was alive. Yes, alive.

The Giant Centipede that had nearly devoured her was gone without a trace.

Battered and broken, but she had survived.

She hugged herself.

Tears came again. Earlier, they'd been cold with fear. Now they burned, overflowing with the sheer relief of being alive.

She picked up the ruined necklace at her feet.

Honestly, in that moment when she thought she would die, part of her had resented Master.

But the necklace had far exceeded anything she could have imagined.

He'd said three gold coins. No way. It had to have been worth far more.

Probably worth more than Azu herself.

And he'd entrusted it to her for protection. Right now, she felt nothing but gratitude.

In this moment, she felt truly cared for.

Never mind that he was also the one putting her in these situations.

She looked herself over and sighed. A terrible state.

She stripped off the soiled undergarments.

She dug a towel out of the battered rucksack.

She wet it with canteen water and wiped her face first, then her body.

She wrung it out, re-wet it, and repeated the process until the canteen ran dry. Finally clean.

Whether out of thoroughness or foresight, Master had packed a change of clothes in the rucksack.

She put on fresh underwear, then a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

The filthy towel and ruined garments she left behind.

She shouldered the rucksack. Only then did she finally feel like a person again.

The surrounding stone had cooled enough to walk on.

Ah, her shoes were ruined too.

She was looking for a way to climb out when something fell near her feet.

It was the centipede's head.

Azu tensed, but the centipede was already dead.

It slowly crumbled to dust and vanished.

Azu could only watch.

Then she felt it. A massive surge of power flowing into her.

Because Azu had used the magic stone to slay the centipede, a portion of its strength had passed to her.

Where the head had been, a single sword lay on the ground.

She'd been taught at the guild that powerful monsters sometimes dropped weapons. So this was what that looked like.

Her own weapons and armor were all destroyed.

Azu picked up the sword.

It had heft, but thanks to her newfound strength, it didn't overwhelm her.

She swung it with both hands.

The blade sang as it cut the air.

She couldn't judge a sword's quality yet, but it had to be a good one.

If she brought this to Master, would he be pleased?

Right, she also needed to collect the burning stone.

She fashioned a crude sheath from a towel, lashed the sword to her back with rope, and climbed.

The numbness in both hands was gone.

She scaled the melted, uneven wall slowly and carefully.

The surface was hot to the touch but not enough to burn.

One handhold at a time, she made her way up and emerged onto the surface.

The sun was already past noon, evening creeping in.

Azu looked back at the massive hole the fire had carved.

This was probably going to cause a commotion.

But she'd had no choice. Without the necklace Master had given her, she'd be in that monster's stomach right now.

She'd just have to tell Master the truth. To soften the blow, she gathered the burning stone she'd left behind and headed back toward town.

The gate was shut for the night by the time she arrived, so she sat against the outer wall, drew her knees up, and tried to rest.

It felt familiar. It reminded her of the nights she'd been kicked out of the house for failing at something, forced to sleep outside.

Curling up tight made the cold a little more bearable.

She could see a few other figures nearby doing the same thing, probably adventurers who'd missed curfew too.

Some noticed Azu and started to approach. She made a show of gripping the sword on her back, and they backed off.

… The world was cruel. Before Master bought her, she would've been assaulted for certain.

But things were different now. She had the means to defend herself.

Being a slave was, for Azu, far happier.