"You will bring about much death and strife," Delphi's voice echoed in Lucas's head. He couldn't believe what he'd done. In desperation he had accidently killed his best friend. Brecken was there one moment and gone when the prism exploded. When he realized what happened he took off full sprint towards the King. It was his fault. Brecken was dead because of Thalador, and he would pay for that.
Thalador stood motionless. As Lucas closed the gap, the King turned to him. Lucas jumped into a heavy punch, coming down with every bit of anger he had left. The King moved with speed unseeable to a normal eye, catching Lucas midair by the throat.
"Do you know what you have done boy?" He croaked. Somewhere in the distance Lucas heard Anai scream. She was somewhere out there with Ezra; he had lost track of them when the fighting began. The large hand grasped tight around his neck. Gasping for air, he fought against it. "I will make you understand!"
A force of Way energy flooded into Lucas. He felt his lungs scream but didn't hear the sound. A flood of memories that were not his own crashed into his mind like a hurricane. The entire life of the man holding his life by the throat. He saw the meetings about the coming darkness. The Destroyer. They needed an army. They needed control or everything living thing would be devoured. Thalador's mother, Elandra, dying in the mud from a fist of stone. The heart break as he fled the terrible aftermath of war. His trip through the storm, and his ship crashing on Elementis. The pain he held in him constantly. Everything Thalador was, laid bare in a torrent of thoughts and memories. The world flooded back into his senses as the memories looped back to the present.
"You have to listen to me boy. You now know my words are true. You have seen what I have seen, felt what I have felt, and lost what I have lost. They took everything from us. They took our families. They took our brothers and sisters. They took our mothers. All because they feared our power. They said nothing of what we did for them. They didn't know what we were preparing for. We couldn't tell them about the Destroyer without widespread panic. You must understand, we couldn't tell them. They are too weak to understand."
An explosion hit the back of the King's head, causing him to drop Lucas. Memories of pain and anguish, torment and hate, flooded Lucas's mind. Fear and pain and hate from every angle. Shame for who he was. Thalador was right, they had taken everything from him. There was an evil coming that was darker than anything Lucas could imagine. He could see the truth now; it was all so much bigger than he could ever imagine.
Suddenly Thalador lurched into the air. He looked down on his fellow human in terror. His back lurched and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. A new rush of energy crashed into Lucas's mind like another tidal wave. For what felt like an eternity, Thalador's memories and thoughts flooded back into him. This time, they did not recede. They tore a space in his head, filling it like wine in a cup. Lucas's was pushed to the ground with the force, but the physical pain was far outweighed by the mental agony.
With a loud crack, Thalador's head swiveled around, and his entire body fell limp to the floor. Frantically Lucas searched for Orhin, but found Brecken, standing where he had vanished, arms outstretched towards him. His tattered and bloodied clothes were replaced by trousers and a shirt whiter than anything he had ever seen. The Eartheye stood straight, completely healed from the wound on his side, and the punch the King landed on his back. He dropped his arms and ran to Lucas.
"You killed him," Lucas whispered as the Eartheye drew nearer. The memories of Thalador still swam in his head; an entire life he had lived through flashes. Pain and anger welled up inside him. He fell to his knees over the dead King. The only man who had ever understood the same pain that he harbored inside him for so many years lay dead on the ground before him. Thoughts rushed through his mind. Thalador's memories mixed with his own.
"Thank the Creator I got here in time. Are you okay? What did he do to you?" Brecken asked, bending down to Lucas's eye level.
"Kill them all Lucas!" A voice whispered in the deepest parts of Lucas's mind.
"Get out of my head," Lucas whispered.
"We are one now boy. I will live on through you."
"Get out of my head!" Lucas yelled, a wave of energy bursting out of him in all directions, sending Brecken flying away from him and slamming into the far wall. Anai and the others hung there with him, all pressed against it from Lucas's outburst. They yelled at him; faintly heard unintelligible yells the human couldn't make out.
"That's it. Crush them like the bugs they are!" Thalador's voice screamed in his head.
At the far end of the room, he could feel his friends fighting back against the waves of energy he was sending out unconsciously. Something inside him broke as he saw the terror on Anai's face. He pulled back the energy he was sending out, and it flooded back into him, releasing them from his hold. Confusion and panic came back with it. His friends feared him. They didn't understand. They couldn't.
"Kill them," Thalador whispered. Head throbbing, Lucas fought the overwhelming urge in him to do as the King said. Thalador's influence was too strong. He tried to resist, but the force was too great.
"Stop!" He yelled. Way energy flowed into his body, enhancing his legs. With their increased power he dashed towards Brecken at blinding speed, stone breaking under the ground where he stood. Thalador laughed somewhere inside of him. Fighting against it to no avail, he pulled back a fist to crush into Brecken's head. Closing his eyes to save himself the oncoming gruesomeness, he hit something more solid than any Eartheye could manage. Brecken had not only caught his punch but had counteracted the force enough to hold him horizontal in air. Their energy smashed into each other, fighting for control.
With a loud crack, a shockwave exploded from them, sending everything in the room, crashing into the walls or exploding out of what remained of the stained-glass windows. Lucas tumbled across the room, but stopped himself in a cushion of air, standing him up straight. The walls around them began to crack and crumble. A low rumble shook the floor.
A crack split the ceiling, sending a huge section of stone crashing to the floor between them. Lucas jumped back with only a foot to spare. Other pieces of the room began to split, crumbling around them. Through the wreckage, Lucas saw Brecken helping Anai up from the ground. Hurin and Ezra waved for Brecken to hurry and follow. Sadness racked him like the crumbling castle around him. Brecken turned and caught his eyes. For what seemed like years they stood, staring.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," Lucas said. Brecken looked back with confusion and pain, before turning to run with his friends.
The room collapsed into itself. Smashing through a wooden door, Lucas fled into a hallway. The rest of the structure seemed to hold despite the webs of cracks in them. Soon, the rumbling stopped, and the castle fell silent. Lucas sat, alone, in the darkened hallway. For a long while he sat in silence, knowing as soon as he stood, the end would begin. There was still some hope that his friends would come through the wreckage to find him, but he knew they wouldn't. They would hate him now, just as everyone in his life had before them.
"You are free from them boy. Now we can finish what I started."
Tears streamed down the Way mage's face.
