One Shots

29. [Cruel Subjection]

I watched as my brother convulsed on the floor in pain. The chains that were holding his feet and wrists to the ground rattled like angry snakes, but I paid no heed to it.

I tapped my foot impatiently, scrunching my eyes in annoyance.

"Aiden, did you possess him yet?" I asked to the air.

"Leave kilik alone!"

That wasn't Aiden, but it was my brother's spirit, a woman named Angel. She was desperate to save her vessel, but I didn't care. That spirit was so annoying, I wish she would disappear.

"I'll cut your spirit ties with him if you don't shut up," I spat. "You don't want that, do you?"

She scowled at me, but that threat evidently loomed over her head enough to get her to stop. She knew that if I cut the ties, she would cease to exist.

"Good girl," I praised mockingly. "Now watch as the traitor gets what was supposed to have came to him a long time ago."

My brother let out a guttural sound as he tried to fight off Aiden trying to possess him. But he opened his eyes.

They were still amber, so Aiden had failed yet again. No matter, it would happen sooner than later. Aiden was stronger than he was all of those years ago.

"Y-Yuiko...stop..." he said weakly, trying to push himself off to no avail. I was given permission to do what I had wanted with my brother, and I decided to starve him for the better part of a week. It was kinder than what I would have wanted, which was death, but Lyren told me I couldn't kill him. He was still useful, apparently. But the starvation was one slow way of making him suffer.

"Don't call me that name, you don't have to right to say it anymore," I said loftily. "You, a Star Child? It's wasted on you. But that gift will wear away. There's only so much you can resist when your body starts shutting down. Why don't you just give in already? You'll be much more useful as a loyalist."

Him, a Star Child? It was almost laughable. But it was true. My brother, him of all people, was blessed by the gods themselves, and had gifts. According to the King, my brother had the gift of resistance: at least, to magic. None of the magic spells I used on him seemed to hurt him, and all the prior means of trying to possess him with Aiden failed. And a lot of the wounds he had by physical objects healed faster than I would have liked.

But I found its weakness.

With his physical body weakened, that meant his gift was weakened as well. It was only a matter of time before he would give in. I would try over and over again until that happened.

He gritted his teeth as I put my heeled foot on his head. It was surely hurting him, he must have been so light-headed that a single touch alone would have made him dizzy enough to go unconscious. But alas, he was still clinging on by the skin of his teeth.

I suppose he has gotten stronger throughout the years, too. But...

So have I. After all, I am the rising Spirit Priestess. Even if he managed to hone his skill in the art of spirits, I was better in every way. That's just how it was when you weren't a traitor.

"I..won't give in," he muttered. "You...you can't make me...I told you the-the truth. Lyren told me you were killed...that's, that's why I tried to kill him."

"A likely story, I'm not a five year old child, you insolent fool."

Aiden materialized next to me. For an army commander from 150 years ago, he still looked young in the form that he took around me. But all I could tell of his features were hazed in the blue mist of the spirits.