Threads of Fate

Chapter 12 ~ The Strain of a Mind

    Two days went by, traveling at as fast a pace as the horses could manage with short rests in between, and weariness was starting to strain them all. Tissaia had barely been able to stay awake for her watch the previous night, and she hadn't put up much of a fight when Talarion all but forced her to go to bed and let him take part of her shift.

    He'd traded back off with Azael again before allowing Kaius to take his turn. The Phoenix had grown steadily quieter over the passage of the days and his nights were increasingly restless. Tissaia knew the only reason her brother had agreed to let him take a watch the same night he forced her to sleep was because Kaius had woken up anyway.

    She'd been briefly startled by his shout when he emerged from a bad dream. Not a vision, he had assured them. The vision had come last night, when she was on watch, and Talarion and Azael were out scouting. They had only been gone for fifteen minutes after the male fell asleep when Kaius's twitching began.

    Tissaia had ignored it at first, guessing it to be just another bad dream, but then the male's eyes opened, flooded with that same white light as before. His teeth had clamped together before the tension spread to the rest of his body, locking his limbs into place. Any words he'd been trying to speak only emerged as strangled sounds clawing their way up his throat.

    Tissaia still shuddered at the memory. No wonder Talarion had been so fearful when he'd woken her in the palace. She had tried everything she could think of to wake Kaius. Smacking him, dousing him with water, using her magic, but his head had only continued to twitch from side to side, his body shaking violently despite being rigid.

    But when saliva had begun to drip from the sides of his mouth and she saw blood appearing between his teeth, Tissaia had nearly abandoned all reserves. She would've ignored the risk of their enemies overhearing her and screamed for her brother, or even Azael, at the top of her lungs. Thankfully she had been spared from having to.

    Almost as soon as the last strange symptoms began, the light had faded from Kaius's eyes and he'd gone limp. He managed to open his mouth and whisper a familiar name, and she'd seen the source of the blood he'd been drooling. He'd bitten his tongue when his jaw locked, and honestly, she thought him lucky for not having bitten it off completely.

    She had healed the slight wound while Kaius recovered himself. When she'd asked about the vision though, his eyes had grown wide and glossy, and he'd begun to shake once more. Tissaia hadn't pressed further.

    Instead, she'd pulled the male upright and hugged him tightly, not letting go until she heard Talarion and Azael's footsteps returning. Her brother had taken one look at Kaius's pale face and knew what happened. Azael had been the one to forbid him from taking a turn on watch, and that action granted him the smallest amount of her gratitude.

    After both of the other males had fallen asleep once more, Tissaia told Talarion exactly what happened, but still, neither of them were able to determine why the visions claimed Kaius in such a state. They'd never heard of it happening before. For those gifted with Drenusha's Sight, visions often came as more of a trance-like state, Tissaia knew.

    She'd seen a few Elders wandering around with their far-reaching, clouded gazes, and knew the moment when their eyes cleared that they were released from the vision Drenusha had chosen to share. Why couldn't Kaius's come as peacefully? Hadn't Drenusha assured him that she could give him warnings like those Elders?

    All she and Talarion could think of was that perhaps Kaius's visions were a different kind. More real, and thus harder for his mind to take in. Or perhaps his mind wasn't meant to be receiving such detailed warnings of the future. She had heard the note of fear in her brother's voice when he continued to detail the theory.