Abased - The Exiled Warrior

Chapter 17.2 - Rebirth

"What? Where..." Tajar looked around frantically, dragging in breath.

"Tajar!" Alam grabbed his arm. "What's wrong?"

Tajar screwed up his face and slowed his breathing. "Oh, Alam, thank goodness. I have been dreaming for years. Such strange dreams..."

Clarisai leaned past Alam and gently cupped her hand over his shoulder. "We were so worried about you. We thought you were dead for a while."

"Dead? Maybe I was. Or maybe it was just dreaming. I don't know. It felt so real."

Tajar ran his hands over his eyes and turned to Alam and Clarisai.

"Damn! Your eyes! Why are they glowing, Clarisai?"

Clarisai quickly covered her face with her hand and looked down.

"I can fix it," she replied in a tone that did not sound convincing to Alam.

"It doesn't look natural to me," Tajar pressed.

"I agree," Alam nodded.

"It's like you're some kind of demon," Tajar scowled and slid himself so his back was against the pile of gravel next to him. "Maybe you are a demon!"

"I'm not a demon!" Clarisai bristled.

"Don't be stupid, Tajar," Alam said. "And keep your voice down!"

Tajar lowered his voice to a hiss. "She can do magic - crazy, powerful magic - and now she has glowing eyes. Just because she's pretty doesn't mean she isn't a demon. Stories say that sometimes demons make themselves look pretty to lure us mortals in and then, Bam! They cut your throat, force you to get them pregnant, and eat your intestines!"

"Yes, she can do magic. Yes, her eyes are glowing in a frightening way. And yes, she's pretty," Alam argued back. "But that doesn't make her a demon."

"Show me your teeth," Tajar hissed at Clarisai.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"Demons have sharp teeth. Show us your teeth!"

"This is ridiculous," Clarisai muttered yet opened her mouth and pulled back her lips to show her very normal looking teeth.

"Hmm..." Tajar deflated. "It is dark in here, I can't really see properly, but they look kind of normal..."

"The reason my eyes are glowing is that I have absorbed far too much life force," Clarisai explained. "As I told you before, there must be balance, an exchange. It is dangerous, and potentially immoral, to take life force without giving it in equal measure. We transfer it through us, from one place to another, as a hollowed reed can move water through itself without absorbing it."

"But you have been absorbing life force," Alam stated.

"Yes. When there is a large amount of energy, or when I am distressed, I can not seem to channel it through me properly - like yesterday when I placed my arm in the fire. Afterwards Alam noticed my eyes were starting to change."

"But why are they red now?" Tajar asked.

Clarisai's voice dropped to the faintest of whispers. "I panicked. Alam was about to be killed by that grag. I broke one of the fundamental laws and tried to transfer its life force to me, but my panic magnified it a hundred-fold, perhaps a thousand-fold. The grag died, hundreds of dargu died, you died, Alam almost died, and Sapphire said the black dragon died."

"His name was Grathjusash," Tajar supplied.

"I tried to return your life force, Tajar, and it looks like at least that worked, but I am still left with the stolen life force of hundreds of creatures. I murdered all of them in an instant. After everything my parents taught me, I am no better than the Morcham sorcerers who steal life force by killing slaves."