The Allure of Darkness

5

Azia

I can still hear the wind through the tent. That's all I can focus on. Anything else is better than my reality.

Emrys walks towards me, knife in hand. He is twirling it on his finger like this is a preformance. Like this is a game to him.

It's a small knife with a blue handle. Nothing special.

"I've always had a problem with symmetry and perfection, isn't that right brother?" Emrys says as he's suppressing a laugh. "That no matter what happens, it has to be even."

Loki nods. Just his forehead tilting down far enough so Emerys knows he's listening.

"Loki if you want to leave, I won't hold it against you. This time"

And with that Loki walks towards the tent opening. His right foot is dragging against the floor. Against the pig skins.

He doesn't look back as he leaves.

Emrys shifts towards me. Knife in hand.

"I would love for you to reconsider. It would be a shame to ruin such beautiful skin. What a shame it would be."

oh gods. i want to say yes. and tell the information. yes. yes i want to do that.

"You have to say it, out loud Azia."

"What is it.... the information that you want?"

He steps towards me. Lifting my chin up. My eyes meet his. He holds it there for what feels like minutes.

He lets go of my chin. But I hold his stare.

"It's nothing big. The guard just wants to know if any one has information about magic wielders. The king likes to have a collection of them."

"None that I know of. No one tells anyone if they are a wielder." It's the truth. It's a death sentence at camps if you have magic. They throw you out.

"How old are you, Azia."

"Sixteen. Almost seventeen."

"So you're almost of age to see if you have magic. Are you excited to see if you do?" He's toying with me. What does he really want?

"I already told you I want. Almost all the kids that we took are barely ten. We only have a few older people that we took that range for 30 to late 60's . Just for show, of course. What we really wanted was you and all of the people who are about to come of age of magic. But your camp only had five. Other camps had more. We have fifthteen in total. Fifthteen chances for someone to have magic."

He takes a step towards me.

"So what I really want to know is, is does anyone from camp wield magic?"

You already asked that question

"I did but you already proved once to be a liar. Liars never change."

I turn to leave. I need to get out of here. I walk close enough to the opening of the tent so that I could touch it.

Emrys grabs my shoulder, tight. Pain lashes out through my shoulder.

I whimper. My breaths are shaky. I turn to see how he could inflict that much pain. A knife. A KNIFE STICKING OUT OF MY SHOULDER.

"I always have to mark my own." Emrys says as he pulls out the little blue knife from my shoulder. A trail of blood falls down my arm.

Emrys steals another look at me and shoves me out of the tent.

I land on the ground. With flowers all around me. Suffocating me. The pain in my shoulder is excruciating.

"Here, this will help with the bleeding." Someone says from behind me.