Syndicate of tyranny

Chapter 21

~Everything burns...you just gotta know what kind of fire to set.~

Tyro's POV
I had left King's room a while before. I was simply just lying awake in my bed, welcoming the dark. I wasn't scared of the dark, it's quite comforting. Yet, falling asleep has always been a struggle for me. I closed my eyes and dived into my sea of thoughts.

"Tironai, get in here!" My father called from his office; I wasted no time scurrying there. "Yes papa?", I meekly replied as he looked at me, scrutinising my every move. "Did you clean the house?" He asked, his voice becoming more menacing by the second. "Yes papa", he grabbed my ear and growled "don't lie to me boy!". I whimpered at the pain shooting through my body, he slammed my head on the table and pointed to a small patch beside me. "You see this, this is not clean" he spat, referring to the tiny blotch of dust that I missed. Suddenly, I felt my body spark up with pain. He'd whipped me and I could feel the cuts and wounds from last night reopening.

I woke up with a start, the sun was peaking over the horizon as the birds started to wake up. I walked up to my mirror and turned around to peer at the scars on my back. It was like a map, filled with distorted shapes and thin lines. I smiled at the picture; this is what made me who I am. My parents called me Tironai for a reason after all.

(A/N: Tironai means Tyrant in Albanian (according to Google translate), lots of their names are different languages so search it up (keep in mind some of them are English names))

I groggily got into the shower and wished it would wash away my troubles. But it didn't. This world was against me and so I hate everyone in it for that reason. I made my way downstairs and heard the eerie silence as I reached the bottom. Where is King? I looked in the kitchen, she wasn't there. In her room? She was not there either. In the training room? Nowhere to be seen. "Yo King? Where are you?" I bellowed; I received no reply. I initially didn't care but there was a disturbing feeling buzzing in my chest. I ran out into the garden and found her lying on the ground.

After carrying her up to my room, I tried waking her up. She stirred but didn't open her eyes, she is alive. I wrapped her in blankets and went to make her a hot drink, she was quite fond of herbal tea, I noticed that. She was sitting up by the time I got back. "Why were you outside?" I questioned as I passed her the mug. "I went outside to get fresh air then something hit me, knocking me out", it was then I noticed something on her neck. "Tracker" I whispered. "They are coming, and they know we will run, they are tracking you now", "take it out then!" She demanded, "it's in your neck, if I cut it out it's going to hurt", "bring a knife, I'll do it myself" she insisted, now I don't care if she dies but this is a pretty dumb way to go. I brought her the knife regardless. She felt around for the miniscule lump and made a small incision. She used her index and middle finger to grab the small black ball that had been put in her neck. "How about you use that pyromaniac side and burn this to ashes?" She smirked as she passed me her blood soaked tracker, "wash it first you half-witted fool" I scowled, she rolled her eyes but chuckled anyway, "you are getting creative with these insults" she chuckled, "well, just fighting fire with fire" I responded with a discreet shrug, "and you love that, don't you?" she mumbled under her breath as she stood up to wash the tracker in the bathroom. "What an arsonist thing to say" she continued, aware that I was listening even though she was in my bathroom. She came out with a wet but blood-free tracker, sitting on her palm.

We made our way to the garden, and I gathered flammable items from my room, I always keep some spare kindling with me, just in case. I started the fire and threw the tracker in, but beforehand I had dosed the tracker in oil just to make sure it burns extra well. I sat in front of the fire for a good hour, though the tracker had burnt down to less than ash by now, I just enjoyed watching the flames dance in the sky. King had left a while back probably to tend to her neck that had soaked her neck and shoulder of her clothes in blood. "Beautiful, isn't it?" I uttered as I felt a presence behind me, "more fascinating than beautiful" I heard the deep voice of King reply, "what's fascinating about it?" I asked, still in my calm, dream-like state as I stared at the dancing flames in awe. "The way something so lovely and comforting can do so much harm" she replied, her voice trailing off at the end, "are we still talking about fire?". I tore my gaze away from the amusing flames to glance at King, she held an amuse smirk on my face yet shrugged.