A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 40 Powers and Ties

       

Chapter 40 Powers and Ties

Callin could feel Ahleena's confusion through the link. She was beyond shocked that Callin knew this Rift Wraith. Although he felt like he hardly knew Mirage now. Callin wondered what else had happened that day so long ago, that day where he now realized was the beginning of the end of the Mirage he knew and loved.

Everything after that day had shaped her, changed her, leading up to this creature that now stood in front of him, as if he was seeing one of her own images, one of her tricks, the ones that gave her the namesake of Mirage.

"I used to wonder what they did to you, to make you the way you are. Now I wonder, is the real question what have you done to yourself?" He asked, his voice coming out as a choked whisper.

Words that were choked as they crawled up past the boiling, bleeding wall of pain-wracked memories. Memories of the Mirage he loved. Memories he couldn't bear to dwell on as he now stared at this dark creature in Mirage's skin.

Mirage's eyes darkened, and Callin thought he saw a flicker of hurt in her before she assumed icy indifference. That coldness she had always been so good at. He had never imagined he would be on the receiving end of that pitiless gaze.

"Everything I did, I did for you." She said flatly.

She angrily tossed back her brilliant, flame-red hair over her shoulder, another familiar nuance that dug deep into his memories and sent pain blossoming throughout him. How many times had he seen that angry dismissal when Mirage faced down their tormentors, the guards?

"Callin, who is this?" Ahleena asked, her swords held ready, an outward reflection of the cutting focus of the Ninja.

Mirage looked at Ahleena's swords, then up to her eyes. Then she smiled. A smile so confident, so cruel, it made Callin crouch in readiness.

"Hello, Rift Rent." Mirage said, all false sweetness, and ever more menacing for it.

At those words, Callin felt the coldest wave of ice wash through the link, as if Ahleena had just stepped outside of reality and become something less than human. He managed to tear his eyes off Mirage long enough to glance at Ahleena. And his jaw sagged open.

Tears were pouring down her face, her skin was leached of all color, and her swords were trembling in her hands. She was the picture of abject terror. It was terror so deep he could feel it through the link, like a mind about to shut down.

"Didn't know your lady friend was Rift Rent, did you? I wonder whose dirty work she did?" Mirage mused.

Callin locked his eyes with Mirages, bringing the full force of his will to bear, silently commanding her to listen.

"What does Rift Rent mean?" He said carefully.

His voice had a hint of a rasp behind it, as in the back of his mind the beast began to wake. His fangs and his claws felt like they were heating up, a spiraling mix of cold and burning heat in their core, rising as he felt his control slipping. He wondered if seeing Ahleena like that was bringing the beast out sooner than normal, wondered at the lashing power he could feel within rising with it.

Mirage leisurely looked him up and down, her strange eyes bright with an unreadable emotion. It was so alien, to see Mirage, to speak with her, and not understand her. It felt like a twisted dream, like a demented other reality where anything right had been sickened, fouled, turned wrong.

"That Weaver tried to bond with a Rift Wraith. I have no clue as to when, but I would guess it was when she was just a child. Undoubtedly he used her like a puppet, like an extension of himself, to do his dirty work. She is Rift Rent, the essence of who she is has been torn by a Rift Wraith. It's what happens when a Weaver is forced to act like a Flayer. Then her Rift Wraith cast her off, left her alone in the Fraying. I can't imagine how she has survived so long."