A Court of Heritance and Destiny

Chapter 4 Orion

The Court of Nightmares they called it, the place that had inspired the Deceiver when she built her own court over a century ago. Its darkness was of a different kind, far from the calm that rested over the mountains at night. It was also not a secure safe darkness, the one that one found in their room at night.

This Darkness came from the deepest pit of nothingness, a place where the sun had never touched it, the place that birthed the Darkbringers powers, his own people. Or what he could call it.

He had never grown up here, Velaris and the Town House had been his home. But he had trained here, not in the mountains, in the dark belly of the mountain had he trained. Just like this.

He stood in the middle of a dark room, letting his powers rest just under the surface, ready to strike. Five others stood in this space, all novices, here to train for themself. Orion smiled, waiting for the signal. They could try to take him down, try being the important word.

"Begin." It was just a whisper, but Orion was ready. The few torches that gave the dark room a silhouette burned out, throwing the room into total darkness. Orion let out five small tendrils of power, there and ready to strike. He could sense the larger amounts of power that moved through the darkness, large and clumsy. Oh so clumsy. Orion took a step to the side, stepping out from the coming attack.

Easy. He moved one of the tendrils towards the attacker, taking him out in a simple move, making him deaf and blind unable to right back as the next strike came, taking him down in pain. Orion moved again, sensing the upcoming attack from behind. Covard. He let the tendril he had out there grow larger, blocking the attack, pushing it back towards him. The short surprised scream from the novice made Orion recoil. He hated loud noises. They took him out of it the moment. Maybe one of them noticed, or maybe the distraction was so large that he missed the oncoming attack, the novice went for his eyes, taking away his sight in a pitch black room. Bad move. Orion didn't need light to see, he felt them, he knew exactly where to strike.

Three more short strikes, and the training session was over. The blindness lifted and soon the faraway torches lit up again, giving the room a haunting yellow glow.

"I asked you to train them, not beat them." The head trainer said, crossing his arms. "Again."

"No." Orion started to walk away, doing his best to hide the slight wobble in his legs."I will not lower my own standard to give them a chance." He was halfway out of the training room.

"Orion!" He refused to walk back, refused to do it all again. He might be the most skilled one, with more control than anyone else, but that one hit had taken a toll on his body. He held his head high but he was tired... His legs felt like led, and even if the blindness had been brief, his sight was not completely focused.

Growing up in a house filled with Warriors, the best of them best, how could he not try to be just like them? Even if his powers were limited, and his lack of Illyrian wings, he did try his best to be the best he could. To find a place and be accepted within the Court of Dreams. He had asked to be trained in the art of torture, to follow in his fathers footsteps. He was not a scholar like his mother, nor a spy like his sister. No Illyrian, no warrior. So he took what he could and did his best.

The place he stayed in while visiting Hewn, was a larger apartment, one with his own dining room, kitchen, living room. But the most precious part of the apartment was the bedroom with the glass ceiling, giving him a clear view of the night above him.

Orion took off his shoes and shirt, laying down on the plush bed. Above him it was only a late afternoon, a light autumn rain had started to fall, he closed his eyes, hearing the nervous pattern from the rain drops. He tried to breathe through it, letting the sound just escape into the background, but it turned more to an annoying reminder that his precious silence was not there. But it was better than loud noises or music.