The flame

Chapter 14:

Chapter 14:

All she knew was darkness, she floated in something, nothing perhaps, can you float in nothing? Is it really nothing if you are floating? Slowly she regained consciousness of a body, parts that exist but do not respond, she was aware of her pupils, moving from one side to the other, looking for something that her closed eyelids hid, she tried to open them, they did not respond. Of course, that body was hers, those parts that existed but did not respond belonged to her, she could feel them, identify them, but no command could activate them, they lay flaccid on that nothingness in which she floated.

-Darius! You have to calm down! We knew this could be a possibility and yet you accepted.

That voice was familiar, it set off an alarm in her mind, a sense of danger invaded her body but she was still frozen, too tired to really run away.

-I know that, Rhaena. But can you really blame me? Seeing her like this, don't you think we've gone too far?

Another familiar voice. The waves inside her stilled as she listened to it. A sense of sadness and abandonment took over that false calm. It was clear that these voices belonged to beings she knew, but the information was sealed, hidden somewhere in her mind. Who were these people?

-Your daughter is a defective product, if we want the Cohen reign to continue this was necessary. We went together to see Cora, you heard what the witch told us. The potion was made thanks to agreements with the underworld, black magic is stronger than any contract, the dead no longer answer to anyone.

"A potion? For what?" her mind consumed what little energy she had trying to understand what was happening.

-The corruption of a soul is an extremely painful and even deadly process and the risk was doubled in her case. With all that she vomited the chances of the liquid remaining inside her are slim.

-There is only one way to make sure it worked, I will keep her here, asleep until we can do a pregnancy test. If she is pregnant we will only have to keep her alive for a few months and when the bastard is born we can get rid of her.

-You talk as if she were nothing but an incubator and not your daughter!

-Have you gone soft for her? You've been ignoring her all her life and now you care? -Don't look at me like that, Darius! If you got attached to the waste of genes we created it is not my fault, I told you so. Love doesn't exist for us, only duty. You knew it when you killed Cyrus, I repeated it to you when you married me. And I reminded you for the last time when your daughter was born.

-But...

-You're like me, Darius. Power is what makes us important, and you're not going to give it up. The lust to have people under your shadow and subject to your rule runs through your veins. The lineage must continue, and forcing a pregnancy on her is the only way. Now make yourself useful and give her that transfusion. With the amount of blood she will not survive if you do not.

"Someone is dying" a slight pang cleared her mind a little "ah, it's me". The events of the night came rushing back to her mind like an avalanche, the viscous liquid that was poured down her throat by her own mother had been a potion designed to corrupt her soul, break an unknown contract and get her pregnant. They planned to fatten her up like a pig for slaughter. Her mother's insistence on fulfilling her "labors" with Cutler were just the beginning of their plan.

-That's it

Darius sounded defeated. Sad even. "He's nothing but a coward." What kind of a father would condemn his daughter to this? Another puppet following orders, accepting a role imposed on him, corrupting everything in his path.

-Leave her, we'll come to make sure she's still alive in a few hours.

The fading sound of his footsteps and the creaking of a door was the last thing he heard before he returned to that nothingness.