Cruel Empathy ✓

The Flame 🔥

***Mathan***

Something happened to Mathen when the girl touched him.

He went from feeling only fear and despair to feeling purpose and life. There was a flutter inside his chest where his heart lay. He couldn't even remember the last time he had felt anything at all. He wanted to cry. He wanted to laugh. There was a lightness in his soul that wished to fly before it would eventually be squandered again.

Like all of Solmin's warriors, he had been taken to train when he was only a child of eight summers. The things the warlord had forced him to do, and the things that were done to him would have broken the fiercest of men. But he had only been a child. The light had been taken from him, taken from all of them. Now, this slight girl has brought it back.

He heard her scream, "You are a poison! Why haven't these men teamed up and killed you yet? The fates-" Then he heard a gasp of pain. His warlord was hurting his light-bringer.

A knot formed in his stomach. When was the last time he ever cared about someone else? With just a touch, she had changed him, saved him. His body started to move toward her like a moth to a flame. He heard a man's voice asking for her to kill him. She wouldn't bring death, Mat knew. She could only bring light.

"The fates sent me to save you!" Her words pierced him like a sword. He believed her with every bit of himself.

When he finally came upon her, he was almost brought to his knees. She was curled up, holding her side.  A large man who had been badly tortured was on the ground, shaking and silently staring at the beaten girl. Casten, the warlord's brutal son, was kneeling, his head buried in his hands. "Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me." Casten repeated over and over.

Did he feel it too? Mat wondered.

"Get up, boy!" Solmin commanded his son. Casten lifted his head from his hands and stared emptily at his father. He did not get up.

"You there!" Solmin roared at another warrior. "Gag her, bind her, and place her in the wagon." Mat did not know this man. He was burly with a scar down the side of his face.  His right eye was scabbed over and missing.  Mat wasn't surprised in the slightest. That was a common punishment in this place.

The man leaned down and scooped the young mage up and cradled her to his chest. Mat followed him with his eyes as she was carried away.

He had thought she was unconscious, but he saw her hand move to grab the arm that held her. The warrior stopped and looked down at her, with what Mat thought was awe. The warrior quickly glanced behind him before he continued on. Did she ignite him with the flame? Mat wondered. He knew he would have to help her spread it.

With Solmin's order, the guard dragged the large prisoner back into the tent, and Solmin turned furiously at his son.

"Get up, I said! That girl has made you weak! I should have had you kill her!" Solmin's words slurred just a little as he spoke. That was the only indicator that he was drunk. There was an edginess to him that showed he was losing his tight control. Mat brought his hand to his mouth and smiled underneath it. The young woman had come upon them like a storm.

Casten slowly rose to his feet and stared unwaveringly into his father's eyes. "I will not hurt her again." Solmin's hand quickly grabbed Casten's throat and started squeezing. Casten grabbed at it, his eyes bulging from the lack of air.

"You will do as you are told," Solmin growled. "Yes?" Casten nodded his head frantically, and then Solmin let go, leaving him gasping for breaths. The warlord then turned and walked away, leaving his son wheezing behind him.

Mathen waited a moment before he approached the warrior mage. Casten was leaning over, still recovering from his father's attack.

"Sir." Casten looked up with surprise when he saw who addressed him.