Legacy (Daughter of War #2)

Chapter 18: Thinking

Music is nc17 from the Zankyou no Terror OST, composed by Yoko Kanno. Play it!

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The air around us seems to distill the shadows for a moment, drawing out their essence and suffocating the atmosphere with darkness. For that one moment, I lose control of my shadows. They shriek free of my grip, like beasts being released into the wild.

Then they return themselves to me. I suck in a deep breath, recovering myself from the brief panic that seized my heart. It's almost as though I've lost a limb, losing my shadows.

"You mean my siblings are all necromancers?" My voice is barely audible, even amongst the echoes.

"Well, they may be. They may be not," Alvina replies unhelpfully. "Potential necromancers would have to go through quite an ordeal in order to awaken their magic. And even so, most of them wouldn't manage it."

"I don't recall an ordeal of any sort to awaken my brand of necromancy," I say.

"Ah, but that's because you are the Deathslayer. Your magic works differently from the usual bunch."

Silence permeates my bones. I think about my siblings: Eric, Isolde, William and Ronald. If they are found out to have necromancy... Seven Hells, I don't know what I can do. Give myself up in their place? No. The Perinians would demand that more of us be executed, in return. However, one question tickles my mind. "So if they never awaken their necromancy, they can't be accused as necromancers?"

"That's the idea, yes." I sense Alvina casting me a side-glance in the darkness. "So long as you make sure that they don't go through trauma of any sort."

I carefully rifle through my memories, determining if there had been any incidents in the past which could have triggered my siblings' necromancy. Only one comes to mind—the one where Isolde had went straight to Diomedes in my stead. She'd seemed to be fine after that, if not a little shaken, but one can never assume. 

Then again, I wouldn't know if any of my siblings have gone through ordeals of any sort, since I'm not by their sides all the time.

Still, all is quiet so far. Even if one of them has had their necromancy awakened, he—or she—is doing a good job of hiding it.

"I'll make sure of that," I say quietly, more to myself than Alvina. Yes, I have to make sure of that—by taking care of this infection before it spreads.

I must.

To my surprise and slight irritation, Alvina chuckles. "Now you see why I have no desire to have children? Just the idea of them having necromancy, no matter how slim the chances are...I cannot live with this burden for the rest of my life," she says. "It was why Kendra didn't marry either. Only Marcella was foolish enough to fall into society's expectations of an intrinsic woman."

"Or perhaps she merely wanted to carry on her legacy," I suggest.

Alvina shakes her head. "Our cousins—your uncles and aunts—can fulfil that role as well. The Deathslayer abilities do not thin out with blood, unlike our magic." She sounds almost accusatory of my mother; I bristle as retaliation. We may not be as close as mother and daughter should be, but she is the one who gave me flesh and blood. "If she had managed to control her wild streak, she would have still been here."

My bristling dies down for a bit. Beneath the accusatory tone, I detect a hint of bitterness—but at what? For my mother, who'd abandoned her in this village? Forcing her to take up the mantle as the head of the Seers, a role she'd never expected? Or...for something else?

"If she had managed to control her wild streak," I say softly, "I wouldn't be here."

"Hmph. I suppose so." To my surprise, Alvina abruptly latches her hand onto my elbow. "Apologies, but I shall require your assistance to go through here. It's my first time traversing this path."