My mind switches fully and I am now aiming to kill, this is my ultimate mission, do or die. Thus I take a risk, in a single second, I drop my swords, jab her gut, swipe away her feet. In her momentary unbalance, I grasp a sword back and draw it across her thighs. Gen manages to barely remain standing and even to dart away, come in, and slice my shoulder further.
No, block the pain. It won't kill you. It doesn't matter right now. The stings fade from existence, with a dive and simple pivot, she has lightly sliced at my Achilles; if she had taken longer and made the wounds deeper, she would have had a serious injury to the throat. Instead, Gen was smart and safe.
Her eyes now appear softer or is my mind simply harder. Gen seems far more hesitant now, uncertain, curious, or skeptical and confused. In this moment of weakness, I dive in at her, beholding now both swords, I dart to the left, then to the right, now practically at her side, then swerve over, shoot around and slash her back before she can think to move. This caused a knee to dislocate in order to perform such intricate and purely precise movements, but I easily knock it back numbing my own pain.
With this, I shoot away to recover and she stands again, having stumbled. NOW! This is my chance!
She can't defend herself. I put all my energy into speed, then leap straight at her, my sword begins piercing her flesh and she gasps, making a last effort and hitting right where my neck and shoulder attach before again falling.
Wait. How did I not kill her? How did my sword suddenly stop? I then notice Aegis next to me, his eyes narrowed and gleaming brightly in emotions I cannot in this mind read. He's dangerous. Without another thought, I bounce away from him, but not after Gen deeply slices through my Achilles.
In the tree, I hide, before dropping hard towards Aegis. BAM! Huh?
I seem to be...floating? Confused and baffled, I glance and notice it seems the tree reached out and grabbed me, holding me in the air sternly. No matter how hard I try to squeeze out or slash at it, I cannot escape. Aegis used his powers.
"Bastard," I whisper, then my vision changes, no longer focused on killing, no longer creating a grey background, no longer pouring a single beam of energy on a target. Slowly and gradually, it all shifts back. Oh my gosh. I was so wrong, so terrible and so cruel! What was I thinking! How could I have allowed this to happen!
Now I find Gen sprawled in the catnip, unmoving...
"Nichele!" The cry is unstable and trembles with horror. Is the beast of memory or the beast of forgetting and being told worse?
Everyone glances at me, not understanding the meaning of the name. Except for Gen. She sits up immediately and stares at me wide-eyed. After sparring her, there is no doubt in my mind it is her.
"So you know. For how long?" Rin is supporting her, trying to lay her down, Phoenix is inspecting the wounds and starting to heal them.
"I suspected since I first saw your face, what happened to your eyes? What made them so dull?" the words are quiet and intense, yet not with hate, just a sadness to see that such things happened to such a beautiful soul.
"I could ask you the same. Did I really do this to you? Did I create such a monster?" I believe only I hear her mutter though I am furthest away. My eyes widen and my heart gives a pang, my legs feel weaker and heavier.
"I know what I am. I know I'm a beast. I know..." The pain is complete and ultimate, the tree crumbles away, yet I feel too dull and defeated to break the fall. I deserve the pain. Have I been running away from this pain?
"Disgraceful. You turned all I taught you into this! How could you Claire! Tell me! WHO DID THIS TO YOU!" Nichele yells, Nichele the one I viewed as my mother, Nichele the one who treated me as a daughter, Nichele the one who taught me all I know, Nichele the one who was always gentle when scolding.
"I'm sorry..." I see the tears of her torn and shattered heart and it breaks me. "I'm sorry..." regret fills me.
"You idiot...You're grown up now, no more soft scolding. You were a daughter to me...and I left, and this is what happened to you. I left you all alone in a hard place you could not escape. I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THIS, I THOUGHT YOU WERE STRONGER AND SMARTER! Misusing all I taught you! I taught it to you because you wanted to change the world. But it seems the world got to you too soon." Her voice is angry and anguished.
Still, I lay in the grass, not letting tears escape, just to watch them evaporate and my heart tries to harden. However, it does not work and the streams trickle heavy down my face while the rest of my face remains dull and defeated.
"Come here, Claire!" Nichele yells and I feel like that innocent little girl in the mountains, in that bamboo training arena, back in that school hidden away. But no longer am I clean nor innocent. It takes all the energy I have left to drag my seemingly useless body over to her, and I feel like ripping myself apart and tearing at my flesh in my anguish and regret. Phoenix leaves and Rin follows him, Nichele uses all she has to sit and face me.
Her hand slaps my face, it tingles but still is numb. "How could you let the people do this to you, you dumbass." Her tears are thick and it seems she is barely able to hold herself together.
Again, I sit, silent and unmoving, with nothing to say. Ashamed and wanting to disappear.
"Oh child, come here, let me hold you once more. Please." Nichele reaches out her arms and pulls me close to her, she holds my head and my limp body with great care and love, and still, anguish. "I missed you, my dear, dear daughter. I'm sorry I wasn't there, to stop the world from breaking you. You poor, poor thing..." Nichele sobs into my shoulder. My face still numb, my limbs still lifeless, this warmth is new and takes a few minutes to sink in, to be felt.
How long has it been since I felt this? This safety and this love that is undeniably real?
"I know about the war, you broke my heart, but I love you too much dear child." she sobs more and wraps arms around me firm and tight. In this moment, I know she won't let anything hurt me, nothing can touch me, she will always be here.
"How, how are you alive..." I whisper and she sniffs.
This is proof beyond doubt to confirm for me that family has nothing to do with blood relation. Because I and Nichele are family but share no blood.
YOU ARE READING
Tyranny: Onwards
FantasyThis is Part 2 of the book Tyranny (The Key). They have yet to find Blaze and Dagwood, to reach the other Wizards, and get to the Sword of Siron. But this is just the beginning of what they must do and what they will end up attempting. Cover Picture...
