Unspeakable Secrets The Alchemist Series (A Dark Medieval Progression Fantasy)

Chapter 47 Rage

Rage boiled like fire in Connor's veins as sweat crept into his eyes. They were the only thing he could move now. The only thing he could feel. And they burned from the salt.

Absolute darkness surrounded him so utterly that even his enhanced eyes failed to penetrate it. It drowned him.

The heavy sensation like a demon sitting on his chest added to it.

He roared and screamed within his mind, straining with all his will to force his body to move even as his blood burned hot from the fresh betrayal, making the darkness seem almost red through the heat of his anger.

But, only a calm, steady, traitorous breath passed his lips. Deep and even it sounded incredibly loud and peaceful in the darkness. Like some great slumbering beast.

It only made him angrier. Not even his breath was his own now.

His fury strained so tightly against his steady breathing that it likely would've made his ribs ache if not for the numbness that drowned out most sensation.

A soft, steady hum filled the air. His only companion in the darkness.

Drool trickled down one corner of his mouth. He tried to stop it, but no matter how he struggled... he couldn't so much as twitch his lips.

The container jostled again. It seemed to be doing so more frequently now and it sent him sliding helplessly across the smooth floor.

It hadn't been long since Vadik had betrayed him. Betrayed them all. At least, it didn't feel like it'd been more than a few hours at most. But who could tell like this?

He wanted to know why. Why Vadik had done this. They'd known each other for years. Drank together. Fought together. Bled together. They'd grown to be the closest of friends. At least... that's what Connor had thought.

Had it really been to control the city and the thieves' guilds like the robed man said? Was that it? Was that how little they'd meant to him?

If we ever meant anything at all... Connor thought bitterly. It felt like a veil had been ripped from his eyes. Everything he'd ever thought of Vadik, revealed to be nothing but an illusion.

Part of him still hoped that Vadik's betrayal itself was a deceit. That Vadik had somehow been working with Victor and all of this was part of a grander plan to infiltrate the Syndicate that Connor wasn't privy to.

A vain hope. A childish, innocent hope. And it was drowned out by the burning rage and gnawing guilt in his gut.

It was my decision to trust Vadik... I handed the city to The Syndicate on a silver platter... I lost my chance to free Victor.

This mess is my fault. I'm sorry, uncle. I failed you... failed everyone. Adelia, Maya, Korvac, Illyan, the thieves, and their families. The city...

His thoughts turned to the countless hammers falling upon hot metal... the weapons of war being churned out beneath Zauberer in incredible quantity.

Perhaps I failed the world itself.

The agony of betrayal and the price of his failure cut deeper and more painfully than any knife. And his flesh had known many over the years. Amidst it, he found himself wondering where Adelia was. What they'd done to her... what they would do with her.

Images flashed in his mind's eye of her chained, beaten, and battered. Stripped of her precious mask and staring at him with accusing, violet eyes.

He blinked the thoughts away, but the self-loathing remained. Of all those he'd led into a trap tonight it was her he hated himself over the most.