Blood & Shadows

Six

This isn't the death I expected to participate in. As the light goes out in those garnet eyes, I find myself moved by his last moment of penance. It strips a bit of the breathless awe that overcame me moments before.

"Always twist the blade," Vrythien adds, rocking the blade from side to side before withdrawing it. Blood pools on the floor at our feet. The smell of it is sweet and so very intoxicatingly delicious. It makes my mouth water as my hands tremble with need. As Vrythien eases the last of the blade free, I yank it from his hand. A Blood Sorcerer's heart blood. The power on the blade is so great it will linger. But the blood? In that sanguine ichor is the remnants of his power that I can make my own.

Vrythien doesn't stop me as I lick the blade clean, my tongue tingling as that power washes over me. I kneel in the blood and lap it up, scooping up handfuls as I bring it to my mouth and the shadows echo with my power drunk laughter. I want to roll in the blood, coat my body in it and have Vrythien hard and deep as I seal this grand power as mine own.

I could make Vrythien mine eternal. Bind him to me in ways he'd never untangle himself. He'd serve well.

No! I can't do that to someone. That would make me no better than HIM.

"Darling, are you still there?" Vrythien keeps his distance and looks mildly ill as he waves his hand in front of my face. I'm coated in blood, like a drunken vampire at a feast.

"I... yes." I force a smile and stand, staring down at the friend whose blood I just gorged myself on. I do him the kindness of shutting his eyes. Silence settles in, the groans and moans of the totems are all quiet now as they slipped into death with their creator.

"That was too good of a death for him," Vrythien mutters staring at the corpse.

"Oh? Why not dismember the corpse? Piss on it? Feed it to dogs?" I shrug and he lulls his head to the side.

"Mm, I would if I didn't have the strangest sensation that such a thing might haunt me later. I'll be outside. And you may want to clean yourself up. I might not mind that you're coated in blood, but our dearest pious friends might." He quickly exits in a very un-Vrythien way leaving me with the dagger in hand.

Panic. Shame. Fear.

Emotions that aren't mine taint this moment of power. Reaching out to my power I shut out the invader's thoughts. The only thing that's left behind is my numbness.

I feel nothing standing over the corpse of my friend, covered in his blood and holding the weapon that took his life.

Surely, I should feel something.

Can I feel anything? Or was that taken from me too?

Shaking my head I glance down at my bloody hands, my power cocooning around me as it takes the blood away. With a breath I draw the last of the blood sorcerer's blood out of the corpse and compress it with my power into a gem. It almost looks like a garnet but at its heart it glows ruby red. Raising my hand I strip the gold leaf from the wall. Using it I fashion a chain and setting with magic and fasten it around my throat. The thumbnail sized gem sits right at the dip in my collarbone. My gaze settles on the ruby at the sorcerer's ear, is it the same? The last power of his father's power if what he said was true. I could take it... No, I'll leave him with it.

Clean and clutching the magic infused dagger I walk through the palace and leave with a strange sense of finality settling into my bones. At the threshold I pause and turn, looking back at the corridor and the curving stairs that lead above.