Young Writers Society

Chapter Twenty-Five: Rift

My hand breaks into a horrible, convulsive shudder, starting at my shoulder and racing down to my fingertips, until the leather-wrapped hilt of the sword rattles against my palm and slips from my grasp. My knees give out as if my legs were broken, and I hold my hands out to break my fall, a reflex, nothing more. My palms sting as they hit the ground, but I barely notice, don’t even care. A cold breeze, out of season, stirs the tips of each blade of grass, a tiny drop of crimson clinging to one of them slips off and falls onto my hand.

Staring at that little crimson fleck, unable to pull my eyes away. My stomach revolts, I feel bile rise to my throat. Another horrible shudder, running all through me from somewhere deep within my core, making my arms and legs weaken, my eyelids flutter, my teeth chatter as if in cold, and I throw up all over the ground. I haven’t the strength to get back on my feet, at least I don’t think I do. I can’t concentrate on anything, except the little vermillion dot in my hand, its shape and color, warm but growing cold.

I hear footsteps behind me, quick, running. Attaraya. Kagami must have released her from the beast manipulation spell. Haha, there’s some irony for you. I’m a murderer, but Kagami can keep his word.

I feel a little patch of warmth and pressure as Attaraya presses a hand to my shoulder, trying to pull me to my feet. “Emma? Emma!”

“Don’t interfere, human,” Kagami says quietly, and I feel a rush of wind and a bright flash of blue light, and Attaraya falls backward with a cry. She doesn’t get up again, either unconscious or otherwise, and all around me is silent except for the distant call of indignant birds and the cold death rattle of the dry grasses in the wind.

“A splendid performance, Miss Bering,” the low quiet voice slices through the silence, “You managed to come around much more quickly than I expected. I thought we would be here discussing this for days, but clearly I underestimated your intelligence.”

Well, look at that. Turns out I’m more violent and cold-blooded than even Kagami could have imagined. Just wonderful. Tears of frustration sting my eyes, but won’t fall. Just goes to show how heartless I am. I’ve just killed Koreth, just sliced his throat open, for God’s sake, and now I can’t even cry for him.

Eri is fighting to reach me, to talk to me, but I shut her out with all the strength of my mind, an iron wall between the two of us. Not listening, I’m not listening. Not after what she did, not after what I did. I can’t forgive her, and I can’t face her.

“Do look at me when I’m speaking to you, Miss Bering. You’re being quite rude.”

“Shut up,” I mutter, without the energy to speak any louder.

“Speak up, please. I’m afraid I can’t hear you.”

“You can hear me just fine, I said shut up!” Kagami’s voice grates on my last nerve, wearing my thin patience to its very end. My hand moves along the ground, reaching for my sword. My fingers close around the leather-wrapped handle, drawing some bizarre confidence from the feel of a weapon in my hand. Kagami just stands there, observing with his cold eyes, and at the thought of him I feel anger surge through me as, weakened and sickened and guilty and covered in blood, I tighten my grip on the sword. It was Kagami’s fault. Kagami’s fault. Kagami killed Koreth, I decide. Not me, Kagami. Kagami who now stands so impassively over me, speaking again in his horrid voice.

“My, my, you really need to learn some respect for your elders. This is becoming ridiculous. For one thing, stand up straight and look me in the eye, please. All this sulking on the ground of yours is starting to irritate me. For another, do stop slinging all these poorly conceived jibes, it insults your intelligence, low as that may be–“

”I SAID, SHUT THE HELL UP!”

I leap to my feet, sword in hand, raised and ready, I jump into the air, totally and completely prepared for a killing strike, and another, and another, and another, a veritable rain of blood. He’d deserve it, every strike, every strike, because he’s Koreth’s killer. Not me. Him.

But my blade is blocked, the force of striking against that magical shield knocks me back to the ground, banging my head against something. I feel hot blood running through my hair down to my shoulder, but I ignore it, don’t even feel the pain. The pain isn’t important just now anyway.

I know it’s futile to try and find a hole in Kagami’s defense, but I can’t think of anything else to do, can’t think of anything at all, except how much I hate him, how badly I want revenge. Koreth’s killer. I can’t focus, even my vision blurs in and out, but I can’t tell if that’s something serious like the injury to my head, or if it’s just the tears in my eyes, which I can’t fight back against.

I charge at Kagami again, blood pounding in my ears, and see a flicker of irritation cross his features, before being replaced by the usual mild expression.

“If an attack doesn’t work the first twenty-seven times, it will hardly work the twenty-eighth, Miss Bering. Honestly, I’m disappointed in you... letting your emotions rule you to this extent...”

He doesn’t move at all to block the strike, but instead, snaps his fingers, and I feel the marionette strings draw in around me. I could fight back before, of course, but now... I’m just too tired, in mind and body, to do a damn thing.

“Let’s try that charge again, shall we?” Kagami says, a touch of theatrical amusement in his voice, and I feel myself step back, then lunge forward again, the blade slinging forward in a direction off to the side, completely off from where Kagami’s standing. “Much better. Your speed and strength are above most humans, I suppose... your real problem, Miss Bering, is that you haven’t actually got any skill to speak of. You’ve fought a couple of dumb, confused animals, and it’s given you undue confidence in yourself. Sickening, really. Shall we try that again?”

I’m helpless, totally helpless, and I hate more than anything the glow of amusement in Kagami’s eyes. I knew he was stronger than me, of course, but this is ridiculous. He’s toying with me, for pity’s sake, like a cat plays with its food before killing it. I can’t fight, I can’t do a thing, I’m helpless, I’m just too–

“Weak, Miss Bering. Very weak.”

I grit my teeth, fighting against the spell now. I’m not going to sit here and act pathetic, swinging at nothing for this asshole’s cruel amusement. Not if I can help it.

In the instant when I snap free from the spell, Kagami is distracted, a temporary opening, spilt second. With a quick, sharp, and badly aimed thrust, I hurl the blade at Kagami, missing his heart but hitting his shoulder. I pull the blade out with some difficulty, and dart back to the (relative) safety of standing a few feet away.

I hit him! I actually hit him! And the wound is deep, he won’t be able to fight the way he was before–

“Looks like I’m not so weak after all!” I shout.

Kagami looks almost confused. “What? Oh,” he glances at his shoulder. “The scratch?”

“Scratch...”

He raises a hand to the gash in his shoulder, and I see... what? Almost a soft blue glow, the glow of Healing magic...

When Kagami moves his hand away, the wound is gone, and there’s no sign even of the blood that was soaking his shoulder before.

“But I... but... you... that’s impossible...” I mutter, bewildered. “A Healer can’t do anything about their own wounds with magic. The energy...”

“Cancels itself out, correct,” Kagami says, a self-satisfied smile spreading across his face. “You’re right, it is impossible– for a human Healer. Human lives are short, and their minds are weak. Perhaps weak Kuarthians are the same... but I am different. I have lived seven hundred years, Miss Bering. I’ve had plenty of time to learn how to outwit the laws of magic. And even in the beginning, I was more powerful than any other Kuarthian who ever lived.

“You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Miss Bering. By surviving at Yoake and Chiren, you’ve gotten caught up in what is quite possibly the greatest event of this century. And you’ve become a vital part of it. And yet you still can’t seem to understand the forces at work here...”

Kagami stops, seeing me swing the blade at him once again, desperately, lashing out like a wounded snake.

“Pathetic,” he says quietly, and with scarcely a flick of his wrist, sends the blade spinning out of my hand to land almost ten yards away, far out of my reach. “Truly pathetic.” He raises a hand to shoulder height, then strikes abruptly through the thin air. A line of light, following the path of his hand, shoots toward me at impossible speed, slicing a gash in my side as surely as though a blade had cut me. My knees tremble and give way, I hold a hand up against the wound, feeling the blood run out of me. I’m defenseless, here, I need my sword... I try to crawl over to get it, but Kagami moves his hand again and my body freezes, covered by an odd green light, I’m unable to move.

Kagami repeats the gesture and a horrible spasm of pain runs through me, than a succession of quick, sharp, pinprick pains all over me. These, too, bleed freely, like razor cuts. A small, choked cry fights past my lips before I can fight it away. Then it’s over, and shuddering and sobbing I resume my struggle to reach the weapon just a few feet away.

“Well, at least you’re trying. I’ll give you that. Arrogant, stubborn, and stupid you may be, but at least you aren’t a quitter. One as weak as you... the Kuarthians of my time would have been ashamed to call you one of them.”

Just a few inches more and– yes! The blade is in my hand, I grip it tight and struggle to my feet to face Kagami.

“A moment, Miss Bering, before you launch yet another pointless strike at me. Instead of wasting your strength on futile attacks, why don’t you look up?”

Look up? What the hell? I turn my eyes up to the sky, but there’s nothing special up there. Just the clouds, tinted in the bright light of the slowly climbing sun.

“Observe.” Kagami raises a hand, using a spell that I recognize as Sae’s wind spell, but much, much more powerful. Powerful enough to shift even the clouds, so far away.

And what I see as the cloud moves away... I can’t describe it.

“This is it, Miss Bering. It’s the reason you’re alive, the reason I’d need a fool like you to carry out my plans. This is what I’ve spent the past six hundred years working at.”

It’s like... it’s like the sky has been ripped open. It’s bizarre. The blue of the sky gives way to a jagged, dark gash across the heavens, which I can’t see through, but can sense something from. It’s clear to me that it’s full of a huge amount of magic, though I’m not sure why that’s clear. But strangely enough, just looking at it, I feel stronger. Much stronger. My injuries all seem to have faded, I feel power coursing through me, and suddenly I’m a lot more confident in my ability to win, to beat Kagami, I can do it, I know I can.

It doesn’t last long. Quite suddenly, the feeling of strength sours and I feel ill, too late, I remember Iarin mentioning that it can be dangerous for a Kuarthian to absorb too much magical energy. I try, desperately, to cut off the flow of magic, but it won’t stop, until every cell in my body feels about to burst and I fall to the ground, in pain and totally helpless.

“Even less than I expected of you,” says Kagami softly as I struggle to stay conscious. “I’ll be leaving, now, I think. I’ll return once this is worth my time.”

Kagami walks away, I can hear his footsteps retreating. My eyes close and I feel an odd sense of finality, as if I won’t open them again for a long, long time. Distantly, my mental defenses down, hear Eri call out to me.

Emma?

What? What the hell could you possibly want now?

You were... brave, you know. Really brave. We did what was best. You did, I mean.

Now that’s a laugh. I’m the biggest damn coward there ever was, I think, before, beneath a sky streaked with sunlight and torn in half and soaked in blood, the darkness swallows me up.

* * * * *

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[A/N] Okay, just the epilogue left now. XD We're getting there, slowly but surely. The epilogue might take a while to do, because I... er... haven't written it yet. XD I'm a whole book ahead of myself.

In any case, tear this second-last increment of Book One up to bits, and thank you for sticking with me for so long. ^_^