Servitude: The Hydrangea Chapters

Chp 69: An Orchestrated Strike - Part 2

'A Colonial with the Touché Family's Golden Claws. It may have been just a glance, but there's no mistaking it. All of their bloodline should have fallen during the Siege of Maydra, and any of the Family's magic tools would only bind to someone with Tactile Magic in their blood. So, who is this?'

"Who are you? How is a Colonial the God of Fire?" Ervin asks, trying not to move. With the helmet on, the pounding of his heart thuds in his ears and reverberates through his migraine.

The teeth of Kanaka's club press a little more.

"Goddess of Fire." He corrects.

"What remote obligation would I have to explain that to you? I think you should be more concerned about your current predicament than that," Adelina tells him with sternness.

Ervin carefully swallows, sweat already forming on his skin from the suit, as Adelina and Kanaka's heat radiates from them. Now, the inside of the helmet is being warmed by his heavy breaths, making it hard for him to breathe. His hand is near his whip, but he knows any movement will have the obsidian tear into his flesh. If they had planned this counterattack, then they must have been aware of the first time he passed over the Wall and waited for him.

"We have something to discuss, Ervin Sullivan. You violated my law regarding the use of my Wall, and I do not take that lightly. My men, who monitor the Wall and its surroundings, observed several sleds leaving and returning to your opiate facility, although not all of them, along with a strange sound passing overhead twice. What I've been wondering is why you would go to such lengths to build a flying machine and disguise yourself and a small unit of sleds for such a brief journey that couldn't have been accomplished by following my regulations. It's because you sneaked something past my Wall that you knew I would disapprove of. "

Ervin is silent. 'This is a significant oversight. I never considered the possibility that the God of Fire might be a Colonial, let alone one connected to the Mage Families. That's how every assault upon the Wall had failed in the past.'

"Well, do it already then," Ervin utters, seeming that his punishment is execution.

There is only a moment when the teeth are pulled away from Ervin's neck, and the tip of Adelina's Claw slowly and firmly trails along the front of his neck.

The slice feels clean, deep, and his breaths immediately change to gasps, his hands go to his neck, his legs become weak, and he collapses to his knees.

'This is what it comes to? Bleeding out on the ground like a stuck pig?'

A minute passes. Then another. Then a third. But he's still smothering under the pressure of his situation. His chest feels wet, but he doesn't slip into unconsciousness, his migraine still thundering in his skull.

"Now, why would I make an example out of you and rally the ire of the rest of the Colonies in retribution?"

Ervin lowers his hands, only seeing a glimpse of his clean hands in the narrow gap beneath the helmet.

'That was... Tactile Magic?'

Even if it was a trick to his senses, his heart is still pounding in his chest in distress as if he were bleeding out. The wetness of his chest is from his own sweat. When her finger trailed along his throat, it felt like the sharpest blade was dragged across his skin, and his body reacted accordingly. How frightening.

"Then where does that leave things?" Ervin asks, the stress still in his voice.

To keep him still and on his knees while Adelina speaks, Kanaka places the teeth of his club to the back of his neck this time.