Dead King's Sword (Old Draft)

5. Hey, Sister

Erin

***

My cousin and I sat under the yellowed trailing leaves of a willow tree, watching the fading sunlight hit the ivory stones of our mansion. My fingers curled around my thumb. Unlike me, Krys was only half-vampire and didn't share my worries. Instead, she chewed on a brownie as she leaned back against the tree bark. Shadows mottled her olive skin and raven-black hair.

I thought of Zeren and the bumps that riddled her skin; it seemed she was also going through her own trials. The body swap had been temporary, but I had felt something wrong with her core; the magic wasn't flowing as it should have. Some of her major arteries had been closed, preventing her from channelling her power correctly.

While they were a few mages who specialized in the rotten field of magic disruption, they were mainly descendants of Shovek, who had nothing to lose and didn't mind tarnishing their reputation even further. I didn't understand what Zeren could have done to warrant such injustice, but life rarely functioned according to reason.

I could easily kill her in her broken state, but I didn't want to. Maybe I wasn't meant to be a clan elder.

"I can't do it," I told Krys after contemplating the matter for a few more minutes. If she knew my thoughts, my older sister, Odette, would probably kidnap Zeren and force me to slit her throat. I would drain Zeren of her blood faster than she could regenerate while staring at her dull, lifeless eyes and feel... empty. "I can't—"

Warm tears spilled down my cheeks as my breath hitched in my throat, and I started to choke.

"I thought you hated her. Think of it as stomping a bug. The quicker you get it over with, the quicker you'll be able to move on. If you become a clan elder, you would get paid as an employee, which would be better than a measly allowance of five thousand dollars a month."

I shook my head. I thought of Zeren wearing her stupid blue hat with the floppy rabbit hers. I thought of her offering to let me drink her blood, despite her worse fears. "I can't."

Krys sighed. "Then, what will you do? If you don't return to a size ten by the end of the month, the rest of the family will interfere. Wouldn't you rather take her life with your own hands than let them torture her?"

***

I sat on my bed, trying to think of how to save Zeren's life without disappointing my family. There was no way to appease both sides, and my rebirth only made things worse. As a clan elder in training, leaving the clan would be an act of betrayal punishable by death. So, my choices were either I kill Zeren and return my core to its prior size or... I glanced at the blood-red swirls sweeping across the walls. Though disconnected, they were carefully arranged to form blossoms. I thought of how Zeren and I had swapped bodies for a moment, and I had offered to cook for her sisters. They were a poor family, and if I took away Zeren, who was the only one with any real magic talent, they wouldn't survive the coming war.

Well, I supposed it wasn't just Zeren. Her youngest sister was sick with a fever that though incurable, was actually a result of the girl's core growing. I had touched her hot chest and felt the wild, magical current flowing beneath it. The magic would either stabilize itself, and the fever would ease, or Megu, unable to control her growth, would be overrun by tumultuous mana. Her organs, unable to bear the pressure, would slowly deteriorate. I could help them; I knew I could, but that would require me to leave my family.

There was a knock at the door, and my older sister spoke, "Mother requires your presence."

***