The Forgotten Light

45. Fairlight

Two more days passed, during which she had been helping Amaris as much as she could and creating freakish objects for Thandor that had always disappeared after a while. Once again he had the crown created for him, and when there was no trace of it left after the fifth time, she had had to bring it into existence once more, and then watched it slowly fade until finally its existence had come to an end. Thandor made her realize how useless her power was.

Fairlight knew that the King would eventually run out of patience.

Eventually he had pooped out about the crown for a while and told her what to create. He had wanted to see if the girl had any limited capabilities, limits she couldn't cross.

Those had been very long two days.

But it had been just the beginning.

She was exhausted. The Invicta part in her allowed her to use such power, but the human half wasn't as strong and made her tire quickly. Creating knives, swords, armor, jewelry, precious treasures and whatever else Thandor had in mind came with more and more difficulty. Her head was already starting to spin, and then Invicta gave an order that was beyond her capabilities.

"It's time for you to do something more useful," the King declared from his chair. "What I'm thinking is that even Invicta can't heal that fast."

Fairlight felt her own fear sober her up.

"So confess your secret to us, Ivy. Or even better, show us how you heal your wounds."

She didn't even dare glance at Darksen, but from the corner of her eye she saw that he was standing tense. How could he be sure she wouldn't give his Beast away.

"I can't heal anyone's wounds," she said bluntly.

Thandor stood up slowly and leaned with his hands on the wall around her. "Create a knife. Cut yourself. Heal."

He said this as if there was nothing easier. But she really couldn't do it.

Not knowing how to act, she didn't even move.

"Really, I'm already starting to get tired of you only listening to Darksen. You'd better start thinking about your friends, because as soon as this magic wall is broken, I'm going to get everything out of you," he snapped in a way that sent shivers through her.

For the time being, she was safe, but she knew very well that this would not last forever.

She clenched her fists so tight that her nails dug into her skin. Forming a knife in her mind, she imagined burying it all the way down the handle into the Invicta King's chest.

Too late she stopped the thought and before she knew it, the blade was already flying through the air. It hit the glass at the level of Thandor's heart and rebounded, flying straight at her. Weakened, she caught it, but in the wrong place and re-cut her just healed scar. She hissed through gritted teeth and dropped the knife.

The King looked at the cracks on the glass for a moment, then sent her that nightmarish smile of his and chuckled, "The essence of a mirror, Ivy. Remember? These were your words."

She ignored him and focused on the wound.

If she didn't even try, who knows what would happen to her when the mirror around her disappeared? What would happen to her friends living in the wild?

She closed her eyes and searched her head for any image of blood, tissue and skin. She held her hand raised with the insides up and felt a throbbing pain, nothing else. She furrowed her eyebrows, keeping her thoughts precisely on that pain, because it was the only thing that made the wound real.