Black Eyes

Chapter 9

The two continued walking attached to the perimeter of the Kwer. They would only have to pass the checkpoint for goods coming from the continent, guarded at night only by a Zarka guard.

With slow steps and suffocated by the pouring rain, it took the two of them just over five minutes to arrive at the checkpoint. Nakir's hair and clothes were completely soaked and stuck to his body. As well as those of Eva, who did not however wear clothes. The bun had come loose in the fight with Zayfir's android and she had lost her elastic. Even under the black hood of his hoodie he felt the cold wind whipping his locks in all directions. Eva was equally soaked, but she didn't seem to care. Her body, despite being "naked" didn't seem to have any problems under the waterfall that was crashing down on them. Nakir paused for a second to look at that masterpiece of biotechnology.

When they arrived at the guard post they saw a single lantern illuminating the checkpoint.

"It shouldn't be a problem for you, right Nakir?" asked Eva.

The boy noted with pleasure that she had stopped calling him dimjer. He replied with a nod of his head: affirmative.

He tried rubbing his hands to make the tingling appear, but nothing happened. The boy continued to rub them until they hurt.

"Maybe all this rain is interfering" he murmured in Eva's ear crouching next to her under the last huge flying buttress of the structure. Eva noticed a detail.

"What the hell is wrong with your eyes?" she asked furtively.

"Why?" Nakir replied, slightly alarmed.

"I don't know... you have some silvery veins on the sides" she continued uncertainly.

"I have no idea and I don't care. We have to get out of here" he replied waving his hand as if to swat an annoying fly. That detail had actually troubled him deeply. What was going on inside him? Eva focused her gaze on Nakir's hands.

"Come on" he growled through clenched teeth as he rubbed his palms together and suddenly realised that if he wanted to tap into that infernal power... he had to connect with his demonic side. He had to forget that he was half an elf and let himself be guided by the chaos and anger of the other dimension.

He took a deep breath. Inside him it began to grow like a small fire of black dust that slowly expanded throughout his chest. He had to find that thread of dust. Yet, he would have preferred anything but that, that painful connection with the part of himself that he tried in every way to repress.

He exhaled and inhaled again, holding the air, feeding that flame with oxygen. And then a strength he didn't know he had, a frightening and latent strength inside him began to move from under his sternum to go up to his hands and eyes. He had found the thread. It pulled from inside his chest as if trying to drag him towards hell.

His hands trembled and tingled under Eva's astonished gaze. Nakir's heart was beating so fast that the boy thought it would explode, connected to that thread of ash and dust that tied him to Xalitphi. He knew that every time he used his power, his father's influence became more and more present, more and more possessing and angry.

Nakir opened his eyes and as if the electricity had seen him and wanted to hide from that demonic gaze, the lantern bulb slowly burnt with a dim fade.

"Damn it" they heard the guard say in the pouring rain "Why did I accept this job?" he added before heading away towards the border barrier where the customs hut was located. He locked himself inside the small structure.

"Now" Eva whispered, then looked Nakir in the eyes. He looked stunned, his obsidian-black eyes now showing silver streaks almost to where the iris should be visible. Eva didn't know what that change meant and she honestly didn't want to know, not now. Now they had to run and get away from the Kwer.