Severed

Chapter 21

I followed captain Wendyn up the dungeon stairwell, the temperature rising as we did. The captain's unnervingly black hair was all I saw when he announced, "you may continue to see the girl, but /never/ interrupt her interrogation again". Knowing that was the best we would get, I stayed silent, but Kay gave an incredulous gasp from behind me. I stopped her from saying more with a wave from my hand though it didn't stop her from slinking along unhappily the rest of the way.

The walk home was dreadful. Sad and cold and with an air of defeat. Thankfully, Kashina was silent the entire trudge home. Good, I didn't want to argue with her. Especially about the magic dealer.

The rescue had been an absolute disaster, Hallie left to be tortured and us unable to help her. The lanterns lit up the cloudy Erus sky as they did every night, only this time the light seemed to be watery and vague. A few tiny flakes of snow drifted down, landing scattered along the dark path home. Even with the cold, I could practically /feel/ Kashina's brooding stare burning into my back.
"Why did you leave her there?" A quiet question.
I sighed. I didn't have to explain myself to her; she was bound to me, she had no choice but to follow me.
"I didn't want to, Kay. The captain ordered me to" I answered anyway.
"How could you just walk out of there? How could you leave knowing what they were doing to her?"
Letting lose a breath, and reigning back my temper, I said, "she's a magic dealer Kay".
"So what? I don't give a damn what she is. She shouldn't be tortured, no matter what"
My anger broke. "How can you say that Kashina? How can you, knowing what Magic did to my family? To my brother! Anyone who deals with magic is just scum who don't deserve to live"
She didn't like that one, but struck back without so much as a breath. "Yes, I know what Magic did to your family, but do you know what it did to /mine/? It created us, Lee. My entire family, my species, was created by Magic"
She made to storm off, but I grabbed her arm. "Don't go back there, Kashina" I said coldly, "it won't change anything".
She just viciously yanked her wrist from my grip and turned away.

I was back at the house in no time, though I didn't expect Kashina home anytime soon. The flurries had picked up to a full on snowstorm, the white obscuring my vision of the capital and casting those famous lanterns in an eerie glow. Mindlessly, I started a fire to warm up and make some tea. For not the first time that night, my mind drifted to the magic dealer. She was probably freezing in that cell, that is, if she wasn't being tortured. I quickly shut down the thought and searched for something to eat.

Kashina came back late in the night, not bothering to eat before she shrunk and bedded down inside her tiny house. It had gotten chilly, the snow unfaltering throughout the night, so I stoked the fire again. I pulled some thicker blankets out of the closet and plopped them into my bed across from the fire. I didn't bother getting any for Kay since she had her own stash inside her doll house. She didn't wake up when I shifted the wood in the fireplace and then plopped back in bed. I just hoped she wasn't still mad at me.
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Another uneventful month passed without so much as a whisper about the magic dealer. No new cases came up at the IRMPA and Kashina still kept her distance. Yet I hadn't forgot about her, Kashina or the magic dealer. I often wondered what the magic dealer knew about the uprising in Zeneth. Then I'd force myself to remember that she didn't. That she knew nothing of her past. That that part of her had died when I chopped her hand off. That all this? All this was my fault.