InkSkin

Death Rite

Alsuha made her way to the main courtyard where she assumed the assassin's body had fallen based on where she had stationed herself. Her stomach churned sickeningly at the thought that she had killed one of her own kind for LuSol. Again. It was odd how guilt gnawed at her with this killing as opposed to the others. She couldn't even recall feeling satisfaction or shame or anything with the other kills. She wondered what that said about her and why the death of this one Ink'd pulled at her so.

She felt LuSol's constant presence in her mind flare with concern for her and she shoved at him angrily. Her guilt deepened as she felt him flinch. Haku's laughter filled her mind and she flushed with shame.

She rounded a corner and came to a sudden halt. There was a group of people impeding her progress; they were standing around something yelling and shouting. They seemed to be throwing things at whatever was in the center of their circle.

Alsuha's Ink burned painfully and her keen ears picked up a soft moan, so soft she thought it had been the wind. Realization hit her painfully and left her gasping for breath in her anger. Alsuha knew who and what the mob had surrounded and her Ink flared with her anger. Without thought she Drew.

The mob seemed to be pushed outward by an unseen force. The people themselves seemed frightened; not knowing what forced them to draw back. They all forcibly moved as one, opening the circle down the center, making a path for Alsuha. She hemmed them all in so that none of them could run.

Alsuha made her way through that path, looking at every man, woman and child. Some dropped their gazes, whether out of fear or shame Alsuha did not know nor did she care. Still others glared at her, defiance and hatred filling their eyes. Alsuha walked on. She felt as though someone else were guiding her. As if someone else had taken over and she was merely observing from the outside. She had the vague sense that this moment would mark a turning point of some kind. She shivered at the unknown.

Alsuha finally came to the center of the mob and what she saw had her slamming into herself. Rage burned through her Ink. Where the assassin had fallen these people had pummeled the body with stones, rotten fruits and vegetables; anything they had had at hand. The fall, surprisingly, had not killed her. The slight moan Alsuha had heard had come from her. She knelt beside her and gently turned the woman onto her back. Eyes so pale a gray they appeared almost white stared up at her. Alsuha lifted her up into her arms.

"What will you bring us next?" The words fell from torn and bloodied lips.

"I do not know."

"Do not give me water upon my death, Bani. I have lived a life of fire. I have burned." Pride filled and strengthened her broken body. Alsuha's eyes ate up the other woman's Ink greedily.

"And you have, Char. You have burned brightly." Alsuha did not bother to hide her tears. She cried for her sister who lay dying in her arms, her Ink slowing.

"I have heard so much... of you..." Char coughed a wet sound. "You burn, Bani, and you flow and grow but there is more in you." Char gasped as her pale eyes traveled across Alsuha's skin.

"I was wrong about you."

"What do you mean?"

"You will give us freedom."

"Not like this," Alsuha choked out as she drew Char closer. "Never like this."

"Let me burn, Bani. It is my right. Draw for me. Burn for me," Char wheezed as blood trickled down the corners of her mouth. Alsuha read what she wanted in her Ink. Her Death Rite. Alsuha closed her eyes and shook her head.