The Swords of Memory: Second Chances

Chapter 28

Zara woke up barely able to contain her scream. Her heart was racing and she felt out of breath. She kept trying to tell herself that she was safe but her body and mind refused to listen. Instead of calming down and slowing her breathing she continued to gasp for air. Seemingly against her will she thrashed around in her bed, throwing the covers everywhere. When she was finally free of them she resorted to hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. She couldn't get herself under control. Every time she blinked she felt like she was back in that place again. It hadn't been the place that was bad, but what it meant. Aaron. And the sword.

Zara hated herself for being so weak. She regretted using the sword but she couldn't help it. Aaron didn't give her any choice. She could have held out longer if Aaron hadn't come to the realization before her. He had realized something she was too afraid to admit, a flaw in her power. She was addicted to healing people, to taking their pain into herself and experiencing it as it faded. She had even been that way before getting a power. She drew strength from helping Warren deal with his parents. But it was so much more dangerous now that she had a power. Aaron's power could be used against anyone's power, including hers, but he had found a better way to take advantage of her power.

She was ashamed to admit it but she had looked forward to Aaron hurting Daniel so that she could feel the rush of healing him. When Aaron realized it, he hurt Daniel even more and Zara relished the chance to heal him. Then Aaron had stopped hurting Daniel. Zara's skin had nearly started to crawl in wanting someone to heal. That was when Aaron had told her that he would only hurt Daniel if she would access memories from the sword for him. Zara gave in right away and took up the sword as she was released from her shackles. She felt darkness inside it. It was darkness that she knew though, it was her own, not just the darkness that had already been living in the sword. She couldn't stop her power from taking it in. The darkness filled her and she forced it into a small corner of her mind. It was smaller, but it was what she had been freed from when she entered the portal game.

Zara could only access the sword's memories when she was honestly fighting so she and Aaron fought. He far outranked her and it was always a losing battle but memories still came. They were usually just random facts. She had no way to really determine which memories decided to reveal themselves. After each fight Aaron would put her back in shackles and drill her for what she had found out. Then he would hurt Daniel and let her heal him. This happened once every hour. When the second time to fight came Zara was ready, until she found that the sword once again held some of her darkness. She was forced by her power to absorb it before fighting Aaron and reliving the memories. She learned a lot about the portal game from them but it was never worth the cost and she never found information about where the powers were.

The hardest part was the beginning of every battle when a new wave of darkness rushed through her that she had to struggle to take control over and lock away. It took longer each time to regain control and by the fifth time she wasn't able to fully lock it away. Instead it drifted through her. It filled her with sadness, self-doubt, self-loathing, fear of people, and most of all, nothing, an overwhelming sense of numbness. When Aaron saw that she was suffering from the fights and wasn't recovering he brought her the power core. For some reason he wore gloves but it was such a small insignificant fact Zara barely paid attention to it. Its close proximity helped her recover slightly but as more fights ensued, her condition worsened still.

Finally, she blurted out "Why is this sword always filled with darkness when you bring it to me?"

"So that's what had been happening to them." Aaron muttered under his breath. "This sword seems to be the only weapon that works against the shades. They get sucked right into it when it cuts them, at first at least. It only works on about ten of them and then stops. It started working after each of our fights, but I didn't realize you were doing something to the sword. You're healing it aren't you? Are you truly so desperate to heal something that you will attempt to heal the remains of a shade and an old sword?"