DIVINE WRATH

Ring of blood

It was not advised to reopen old scars. It hurt more. But I needed to reach to as much blood as quickly as possible. I was almost closing the blood circle. I dripped around the statues. My legs were bobbling. My arm was trembling so hard that I had to caught it with the other hand.

Una had tightened the reins of the Pegasus nearby. She stood at the beginning of the line. She was holding a canteen in front of herself. As if to incite me to make faster those final steps that would close the blood circle. I would have liked to make weapons from thin air as Max. I would have made myself a cane, to prompt myself off.

"There you go. There isn't that much left. You can do it."

She stood in her place. Her feet did not move, but she was straining her entire body towards me like a willow brought to life. She could not interfere in a bloodletting trail.

I closed the circle. I took the canteen. I stopped myself from gulping down mouthfuls. It would not be that nice if I were to drown on land. The pain will be more than unpleasant and giving my current state, an unnecessary addition.

Una took it back.

"You are sure of this."

She said it like a statement, but it sounded as a wanna be question. The way glinted on the jaw line of my sister. The part that was visible, because a good part of her face was covered by my mother's embrace.

"Did the others finish?"

My voice sounded raspier than I would have expected. I had to ask Una because I was to dizzy to propery feel if the earth was moving under me or it was just my bleeding taking its tool.

Una had let down the canteen into the box from which she took the bandages. I stood there motionless, I let her bandage my arm. Hopefully, the next moves will not exhaust me like that. It was harder to do it all while trying to keep myself undercover.

She patted the ground.

"It seems so. You have the opening."

I sighed. That was good news. I watched my fingers. Six? No, there had to be just five. I was seeing more fingers that I should be. I closed my eyes. I opened them again. Seven.

All right.

There was no time.

I raised myself in two feet. I entered the circle. It closed after I crossed the blood line. I had to release them from the bond that I forged decades ago to protect them. The solution that proved itself a curse.

Bloodletting was more dangerous than I could have ever predicted. The Emperor had told me as much.

I nudged a small ridge in their stoned bodies. I crammed the tincture. I said the right words.

"I am so sorry."

I kissed father's stump. His arm that had been smacked down with the blunt sledgehammer a long time ago. This moment, this was what I have been waiting for since the war finished.

It hurt. The numbness took my fingers, first. The sting went under my nails. It was like somebody was hitting my fingertips with a long ruler. The pain reverberated to each of my nerve ending. My heart was racing. It pounded hard. My eras buzzed. My saliva petrified. I bit my tongue between my teeth. I tried to unclench my jaw, not to cut it off.

My skin was being pulled off. Bones switched. Flesh stretched. I did not even have water enough to wet my eyes.

My pupils burned. They felt as if they would leak out of my skull.

Once again, I was reminded how death was forbidden to creatures like me. How release will not be given to me. My head was beyond aching. It drummed. My ribs moved.

I howled.

I hand bound myself to them and now I had to release them. It had been hard the first time, now it was excruciating.

But, they gave in. It was faint. Their life essence. But it was there. I grasped at it. And I pulled.

The stone fell. It fell into rumble. It cracked on their skin like they were hatchlings, trying to get out of their eggshell.

I could not move to catch them in their fall. I could not even stare at them. I had no eyes, no nose, I was just feeding the raging earth with my divine power. I was fueling the flame that helped me burn their cages down.

I heard their breaths. Just then I knew that I could stop. Those three beating hearts were music to my ears. It crushed me to the bone. Even the earth could open and swallow me whole now.

But it did not want to drown me anymore. It poured under me. It wanted to be stroked. The earth was tamed. At least, the piece under were the circle had been made.

"Let me in."

Una was banging at the walls. I dragged myself to the edge of the circle. With painstakingly force I let myself on my hands. I stuck my tongue out. I liked the line under me. The blood tasted familiar.

I barfed all over it.

Una punched the breach that was formed were the shield was weaker. My puke weakened the barrier.

"More. Let me more."

She was trying to push the shield as if on one side and the other would have been sliding door.

I threw my arm over another part of the line. It seared through me. The pain made me convulse.

"Hurry."

I groaned between bites. Una worked quickly. On one shoulder she had the limp body of my sister, on the other that f my mother. She dragged them at the edge of the line and she quickly returned for father.

She barely made it out when the barrier shut down. I was inside my own bloodied doom.

"Take them."

I made her the sign to leave. She hesitated. She kept looking back and fro between my family and me.

"I need to shed my cover off."

I shouted, hopping that she heard me through the harrowing buzzing.

Finally, Una shook herself and she began dragging my family to the carriage.

I turned away, in the fetal position. I took my arm off the line.

//15.09.2020//19.19//