Exquisite Pain (Garmau)

Chapter 32 Shadow Lessons

"I cannot kiss you, demon,
For you will stain my lips with the sins of your mouth."

"I knew not of love, creature of the light,
Until I saw it in your eyes,
Oh grant me my forgiveness with your lips."
~Daniel Saint
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(Aphmau's POV)

I stepped into the training room where my Father was waiting for me. I stood on the podium where I was supposed to, and waited for orders.

"To learn how to control the shadows, you must first learn obedience. You need to know the world around you. And most importantly you need to have total control of your emotions."

I nodded, refusing to answer out loud.

"Do you know why you must control your emotions?"

I shook my head.

"Because once you show emotion, your opponent will take advantage of that and manage to get inside your head, mess with you, hurt you, and in turn, kill you."

I nodded.

"Lift one foot."

I did as I was told.

"Lean forward."

Again, I listened.

"Now close your eyes, focus on nothing but your balance. You need to be in total control of every element you posses. Perfect balance."

I inhaled sharply and tried not to think of Garroth.

Whenever I closed my eyes, I always thought of him. Whenever I pushed away the real world, he was all that was left in my thoughts.

"Good."

I stood straight again with my eyes opened, and watched as my father collected some of the shadows in the room and let it rest on his palm.

"Hold out your hand."

I did.

He placed the small shadow onto my palm, and I winced a little. It hurt.

Not something you'd expect from a shadow, but it hurt quite a bit. It was like a snake bite, it stung and I didn't get used to it.

"Do you feel that? The power in such a small piece of abandoned light."

"It hurts."

"You'll get used to the pain, soon you'll crave it. I was just like you years ago."

My eyes stung as I remembered something.

I walked into the house and turned the corner to see Daddy wrapping his hand with something. Mommy was looking upset.

"Shad, you're playing with something more powerful than you. The shadows are not something to mess with."

"I can handle it, Irene. If you know light, then I can know shadows. We will be unstoppable," he seemed excited as he stood and held her arms gently.

"No, we do not need to be unstoppable, this could be the very thing to break you!"

"You just want to be stronger! Why can't you just understand that I'm doing this for all the divine?!"

Mommy stayed quiet as Daddy stormed out of the house. I saw what he was wrapping and it looked like some weird scar.

When my Father took the shadow back, there was a thin line forming. It was a purplish-red and looked just like every scar that littered his own body. It finally made sense.

He had always gotten those scars from messing with the shadows. They left permanent marks to let him know he was hurting himself.

"What's that?" I asked, even though I knew the answer.

"The shadow kissed you."

I narrowed my eyes at my palm that still burned like hell, and I never wanted to get used to the pain. I knew I never wanted to have to deal with the pain. But I knew he would make me, and that wasn't something I was ready to deal with myself.

After my lesson, I walked outside into the "garden" part of the castle.

Father had made it for me when I was much younger, before my immortality even. It was a room of real grass and flowers, and the glass was painted like the over world. I sat in the middle with my journal and wrote in it.

"I thought I'd find you here."

I looked up and saw an old friend.

(Garroth's POV)

I knew exactly who the two runaways were once the violent storm started.

Travis and Katelyn.

Travis always carried Katelyn when she had to make a storm, because she couldn't move on her own in her state.

But I lied. Father asked if I had a clue who it was, but I lied. I wasn't going to sell them out, I knew that I couldn't. They seemed like they were my real family, my real home was with them. They made me feel like a real person with a voice and an opinion that was valued.

I walked down the hallway and knocked on Vylad's door. He opened and inhaled.

"Vylad, we need to talk."

"Not here."

I followed him through the halls until we got to a dead end. Vylad pushed away a fake wall and we walked inside. He lit a torch after closing the door, and sat down on the floor with me.

"So why are you here?" He asked, removing his mask and leaning on the wall.

"Father threatened me. He said he's let Aphmau go if I came back. How is she?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "probably with her father."

"What?"

"Garroth, how stupid are you? You of all people should know that our father is a snake and quite literally made a deal with the devil, and he'll do anything for him. He's a puppet. And he played you."

"No. He said that-"

"He lied. The Shadow Lord gave him a pendent that led him straight to Aph."

"I'm an idiot."

Quickly, I had Vylad push away the door. I started to search the entire castle for a portal. Eventually I found a staircase that seemingly led to a storage room, but when I got there, it was empty. I looked for some kind of lever or anything that would help me. I was desperate at this point.

I froze when something stabbed through the bottom of my shoe and stabbed my. I hissed and cursed as I removed my shoe to look at what it was.

What I found was a purplish-black rock.

Obsidian.

I cursed as I realised he would obviously destroy the portal.

What have I done?

A/N "It's too early for Garroth to find o-" no it isn't. Garroth is smarter than to be another puppet for a long time, and also, what was I gonna do? Obviously the first conversation he had with Vylad would lead to him finding out, and Vylad was at the coronation, so we knew Vylad was home, and that would have been Garroth's priority to find out how Aph was. Trust me, I thought a lot about this. Look at me, I wrote two parts in one day :D I'm not completely useless! I love you all devils, byeeeeeeeeeee.