Chapter 15: Turn in the Tides
Kaylee had been observing her brother's behavior as he worked with Harrison to get the poison out of Roxas' system. He seemed much more confident than usual—meaning he had any confidence outside the lab. Now, if she hadn't heard about a potential suicide attempt that Dorian saved him from, she would be thrilled that he was a little more confident. But Dorian had obviously gotten involved, so this was clearly a bad thing.
"A bad thing?" Kaylee whirled around and saw Dorian behind her, "What? Were you not expecting me? We have to share information somehow, now don't we? And seeing as I have upheld part of my end, I think it's time you returned the favor."
Kaylee looked around, seeing everything was frozen around her, and growled in Dorian's direction, knowing he was only taking the parts of her mind and soul that couldn't attack him. It was moments like this that she really hated magic.
She then found herself in Dorian's home and watched him like a hawk. He stared at her with a small smile, cocking his head in a way that would be considered innocent if she was dealing with pretty much anyone else. But she knew this gentleness was all a facade, much like how the Wicked Queen disguised herself as an old hag to lower Snow White's guard, or maybe he was the apple itself, with poison to its sweetness.
"What did you do to Jared?" She asked angrily, watching his movements, keeping her guard up, noticing a lever in a small hole in the ceiling, which was high enough that only he and his stretching limbs could reach it. What did the switch do?
Dorian drank something out of a mug, and Kaylee noted it was an abnormal red color. Was it an energy drink? She doubted that, but snapped up to watch his eye movements as he nonchalantly replied with, "I upheld part of my end of our bargain, as I said, I made sure your brother didn't blow his brains out."
"And made things far worse." She retorted, and Dorian raised an eyebrow.
"Far worse? How so? I erased the more painful memories and influenced him to be more confident. If you love him, you should be happy for him. And who knows? It's no secret that Victoria is interested in him, maybe he can score a date." He looked at her before his grin grew mischevious, "Oh, I see. You figured it out already?" She didn't need to ask to know what he was talking about.
"Alexa isn't your daughter."
"Ding ding ding! She gets it right!" Dorian shrugged, "Nope, she's not mine. Everything she knows and fights to have back is a lie. I never married the woman she called 'Mom.' Maegan was actually just my stalker who I put up with since I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and the girl she called 'sister' was Maegan's child, not mine. Don't worry about DNA tests or whatever, I'll tell her when it's convenient. But right now, she's too useful to me, thinking I'm her father. But I mean, really, the life she would have led without me sounds pretty miserable."
"The Blackwell Coven."
"Bingo! Do I need to give you a gold star?" He asked sarcastically, and Kaylee clenched her fists, making it clear the fact he had enough power at the moment to prevent an attack was the only reason she hadn't snapped his neck—if that was even possible with how he could move. She hadn't felt this helpless since the Kingsman Outbreak years ago, unable to stop what was happening. So she did what she could to get to know her enemy.
Dorian seemed to be watching her curiously, "Do you want anything? I don't have much, but I can take you down to the town if you want. I don't want to be just the bad guy, maybe we can be friends. If things were different, that is."
Kaylee thought about this. She wasn't against throwing civilians under the bus, so this might be the chance she needed to see what makes him tick. And even better, she could use the fact she didn't technically have a body right now to test the limit of Dorian's powers.
It was strange to her how he was laying his cards out. When he said he'd give information, she had expected workings of the soul and such, which was information she still wanted, but it was interesting how open he was about his evil plans. It wasn't quite monologuing, because she wasn't exactly in a trap, and he wasn't saying his whole scheme. It was almost as though he had already executed the plan associated with this, so it didn't matter if she told Alexa the truth—though, to Dorian's credit, life with the Blackwell Coven back then sounded terrible, so maybe he really did save her. She shook herself as she decided that the moral grey area of kidnapping a child from Regina was a topic to take up with Amelia later.
She watched him put on a scarf, but no jacket. The only purpose she could think of for putting on the thin scrap of blue cloth but nothing to cover the rest of him was hiding the black veins on his neck. He turned to her,
"It's well below freezing out here, do you want to jacket?"
"Didn't you say I'm not actually here?"
"Well, kind of. Your mind and soul are, so you can still feel cold, and people can see you if I will it so. Let me put it this way, you're a puppet with a mind of your own, and I've let go of most of the strings. If you want a jacket and boots, I can give you such, same way I took all of your weapons, which are still lying next to your unconscious body at home. See? As I promised. Now you know some things about my powers. But I do want to know what you already figured out about me because no doubt you have spoken to my former friends."
Kaylee noticed a jacket and scarf had found themselves on her, and as little as she liked it, thought it best not to complain since he wasn't hiding the fact he could probably destroy her at any second.
"You have the power of the peridot, that much is evident from your abilities and the glowing green streaks in your hair. You also have the power of elasticity in your limbs, likely from a genetic mutation, meaning that power is a little more like the X-Men, with mutants over straight magic."
"Never thought about it like that," Dorian bit his thumb, and Kaylee instantly noticed his other hand was in his hoodie, fidgeting with what was probably the disguised form of his scythe, "7309."
"Huh?" No matter how many possibilities her analytical power thought of, there was seemingly no reason for him to say such an obscure number. What was 7309 supposed to mean? Was he just weird and sprouted random things? No... this was something much more sinister and somehow connected to his powers.
He looked down at her curiously, looking towards the moon rising, peaking through the mountains. The stars were already visible, and they were stunning. If she weren't standing right next to someone who wanted to murder her and her friends, she would have let herself relax, but that whole mass murderer thing and cryptic numbers really ruins the moment.
"You underestimate me, Kaylee. Did you know that when a stone wielder comes into their powers properly, given time, they can be granted unlimited magic, the only restriction being powers of other stones?" Kaylee blanched at what he was implying that he was much more deadly than she'd imagined, "Kelly, my other half, was lucky. He was given the more passive powers and was spared from having the weight of borderline omnipotence. He did get a fair share of our abilities, but I guess my curse just... clicked with the magic of a stone." He chuckled as they went down into a tavern, "But I went to many lengths to break this enchantment, fighting to the bitter end from the moment I realized what had happened, so I grew stronger." He sat down at a corner table, which had the best viewpoint of everything, and sat Kaylee down across from him. She noticed how abnormally quiet it had become when they entered.
Dorian smiled to the people, but she could tell he was revealing his true nature to these poor folks. From what she had gathered, he was capable of at least pretending to be friendly, but the better description for his docile state was "soulless, a little creepy, and fundamentally wrong."
To her surprise, he didn't order or even get a menu. The food and drink were brought straight to him, and then the server made a break for it.
Now, there were two options over 5% as to how this was possible. Either Dorian had spoken in some minds, or he had some sort of routine and ate the same thing. But it was no secret that even the huge guys in the corner—some of which put Psychic Jared to shame and seemed perfectly capable of ripping someone Dorian's size in half without breaking a sweat—were dead terrified of this crazy bastard.
Dorian ate his food quietly. It wasn't much, just the same fish that most of the other people had. It wasn't anything fancy like the fear would suggest, and the drink didn't seem to be anything more than water with a lemon on it. He used the lemon on the fish and ate. He didn't even look all that frightening. If she was seeing a picture of him with no context, she would think he was just a guy with intriguing hair. But being here somewhat in person made it clear the aura of malice and pure wrongness that was being around him.
Perhaps that was the thing that unnerved her the most about Dorian. For how normal he looked and acted at a glance, he clearly knew how to command respect and instill fear. Or maybe it was how, according to Alexa and her brother, he could go from zero to murderous in a matter of seconds.
Another essential thing to find out was his reason for striking now. Yes, he had gotten lucky with one of the sources of his annoyance right at his door, and he snapped. But was this a one time "fuck it, I'm gonna kill you all," kind of snap, and any docility was a facade? Or was it that he only ever struck after a new round of losing his shit? That would explain why he was so calm and okay with telling her his plans now when that could really screw him over later. Of course, she also hadn't even mentioned Gina or Roxas' poisoning, both of which she was positive he was involved in. Would he be so open with distinct schemes?
With Gina, she could tell the revival had been to cause tensions to rise drastically until eventually, someone, probably Joselyn, disemboweled her. With what she's been through, Kaylee couldn't quite say she'd blame Joselyn if this happened. Still, the consequences that would inevitably follow would be disastrous, and potentially destroy her relationship with Psychic Jared.
As for Roxas being poisoned, she had to admit it was a smart move on Dorian's part. Even without his powers, Roxas was a skillful fighter, and with his abilities, he was invincible in pretty much every sense. However, he was young, and his biggest weakness was trust in his family and friends, who she suspected could easily be controlled for a few moments by Dorian, just long enough to totally screw Roxas over.
However, the comment Dorian made earlier suggested that Kelly had been the one with the power to control others, and Dorian got forcefields and the other abilities associated with the term "psychic." But he had also mentioned getting stronger...
She had to see for herself how Dorian killed and what set him off. She could tell he liked to analyze people, but was that actually required to kill them?
"Can I get a drink from the bar?" He looked up,
"Aren't you a little young?"
"Drinking age on Blight was seventeen, so that's basically the accepted age on Alynthi, seeing as Zoe was probably drinking before she could walk, and that's a bad example." She wasn't actually planning to drink alcohol, but she had to get a moment distanced from Dorian, so she could throw some people under the bus to see how he reacted.
But she realized that bringing up Zoe was somehow a screw-up when Dorian brightened, "Kelly's girl? I assume the eldest. It doesn't seem like him to let his child drink so young, he always drank sparingly in our teen years, preferring coffee over all else after damaging his adrenal gland."
Well, that was some intriguing information about the dead mage which she hadn't known before. But the look in Dorian's eyes made her wonder if he knew Kelly had died years ago. More importantly, she didn't know how he would react to the news if he didn't realize it. He had been willing to call Harrison and Amelia "former friends," but she could tell there was something about Kelly that rendered Dorian unable to hate him.
"Yeah, Zoe's the oldest. Eden's the middle child. Joselyn's the youngest. I don't know many details, but Zoe's drinking seems to be the fault of trauma, and someone called Millie."
"Fireheart, Tigris, and Anije e Iku."
Mention of that unusual title for Joselyn brought momentary pause. The only reason she hadn't gone for the drink was the fact she felt herself forced to sit by a now very much invested Dorian. She was still ready for him to pounce but unfortunately knew there wasn't much she could do unless she could somehow earn enough of his trust to talk him into letting her come in person instead of as a weird spirit.
"Anije e Iku. How can someone tell that's who Joselyn used to be? She's addressed herself as such, but I haven't heard it before."
"Anyone who's sensed Iku's power can sense when she's resided in someone. But for it to happen, you must feel her magic outside of a vessel, or if you are that vessel."
"And when have you felt Iku's power?"
"Twice, long before Joselyn was born."
"What doesn't exactly answer my question."
Dorian put a finger to his lips, "I can't tell you all my secrets, because then life is boring. I've been giving you hints, and Amelia might remember the first time. The second time... the last person I saw then was Alexa, the night her spark ignited."
Kaylee grew morbidly curious of what Dorian could have possibly done to traumatize the child he kidnapped, yet have her so passionate to find and help him—but she also wasn't to Kaylee's knowledge Dorian's mindless servant. Then again, morbid curiosity was the main thing she felt around this man. As creepy and dangerous as he was, she couldn't deny he was interesting. Not the weirdest phenomenon of personality that she'd ever encountered, but most likely in the top three.
He started asking questions about the Carpenter girls, but Kelly was still a touchy subject since she wasn't entirely sure he knew. She suspected there was a deep love there than not even the curse could corrupt, and she didn't want to risk severing his one tie to sanity. Making him snap for a test was one thing, but destroying his last fragment of hope might unleash something infinitely more dangerous if he lost a reason to even pretend he gave a damn for anyone except Kelly.
Trying to gauge his reactions for even a hint of him understanding Kelly was dead was like she imagined trying to figure if a friend had had that talk because you didn't want to burst their bubble, but also wanted a feel for what you could and couldn't say. He might have been just screwing with her, because his responses were short and not all too helpful, mostly interested in what she was saying about Zoe, Eden, and Joselyn. Because it was part of their bargain, she was forced to tell him this information, and she hated that fact.
"And Kelly?"
Shit. Dorian didn't know. Though, judging by how nervous he suddenly became, he at least suspected what had happened. She instantly realized after a flash of vulnerability from him that he knew Kelly was dead but hadn't been officially told, so he was clinging to hope that it wasn't true.
"He... died three years ago. During the Tragedy." She looked up almost nervously and noticed his grip over her was gone. It was almost as though he was telling her to go get that drink so he could have a moment alone to process this information.
She shook herself as she walked to the bar for some water, glad to have some tangibility. This newfound emotional distress would help see what his limit was before going murderous.
Fortunately, she didn't need to try hard, because one of the men grabbed her arm—not threateningly, she could tell. Otherwise, she would have beaten the guy into a pulp herself.
"Hey, why are you with Dorian? He's nuts, you need to get out while you can."
"I know," she whispered, "I'm trying to help my friend." Technically the truth, because Dorian's love of Kelly might cause him to go after the Carpenter girls and their kids. Though, Kaylee was still trying to figure out whether Felix would prefer to be kidnapped by a psycho in love with his grandfather, or stay with his fiancé and her mother. The fact she had to ponder that for even a second was worrisome. But if she could get to know Dorian, she could find out if Felix was in any danger.
The guy once again tried to convince her to run, and she wanted to tell him she was physically incapable of doing that. But all she had to do was raise her voice, demanding this man leave her alone, and she had caught Dorian's attention. She mentally apologized to everyone in this tavern as Dorian's smile grew demented in every way, to the point it sent a shiver up her spine.
The man she was talking to took a couple steps back, but Dorian didn't move an inch. All he did was raise a hand as though he wasn't going to do anything. His terrifying smile vanished.
"W-What are you gonna do?" The tavern owner asked, looking as though he was about to or already had peed himself, and he looked towards Dorian's potential target.
"I'm not going to do anything." Was Dorian's reply and Kaylee saw his sclera and irises became black, and his pupils turquoise. And then the biggest wolf Kaylee had ever imagined came tearing through the wall. The wolf had matted black fur and blood-red eyes, and it was the size of a muscular shire horse.
Did Dorian command that thing?!
Dorian started laughing maniacally as the wolf bit the head off of its target and then started beating the shit out of everyone in a fifteen-foot radius. He took Kaylee's hand, no longer laughing, and left the tavern as it burst into flames and collapsed in on itself. Now he just chuckled,
"Bummer. That's gonna take a while to rebuild. They need to learn not to anger me or bother my guests." He looked up and smiled as the snow started becoming a storm. Seeing as she hadn't so much as suspected he had some other insane ability like that, she wasn't entirely sure if the storm was his doing or not. Kagami's power is controlling the elements, not directly weather, so it was possible.
"Did you do that?" She asked, unsure of whether she was asking about the storm or the wolf.
He turned to her, "The storm? I wiped the mind of a snow queen and turned her into a Darkling, so she only answers to me and keeps things nice and cold here. As for the wolf, that was my doing. Remember what I said about Iku? The power granted to me by Iku was to control anything but never be controlled myself. Too bad the curse only counts as an influence, and I haven't mastered the controlling of magical humanoid things all too well. I need to have a direct link with someone, such as a stone wielder if I am to control them."
Kaylee glared darkly, "You mean like removing the memory of a suicide attempt from my brother? What's the matter with you?!"
"So many things. But yes, exactly, though all that does at the moment is allow me to give your brother confidence boosts and make sure he doesn't pull that again, the link isn't too strong right now."
"And I'm guessing you have the same influence over Alexa?"
"Surprisingly, no. I would be perfectly happy if Alexa had died back then, but seeing as she's a skilled assassin now, she could be useful. Or maybe I don't want to deal with the spawn of my tormentor, you have no way of knowing. But if she dies, I did it."
They entered his home, and he poured some unusual white-blue drink for himself, and some cocoa for Kaylee. She had watched his every movement and knew he hadn't done anything to her drink.
"What are you drinking?" She asked, gesturing to the strange concoction. He held it up,
"Uh... a soul and a ton of chemicals. Yes, one can consume souls, and it gives you the powers of that person. It's how Iku got stronger within Joselyn, and Joselyn has actually kept the physical skills she gained, none of the magic. Still, she can use any tool, and could probably dominate even you in a fight."
"I doubt that."
"Ah, humble, are you? She's eaten millions of souls. Of course, at the time, she thought it was for her own survival, not the Enchantress she didn't know was inside her. Once she realized Iku existed, she stopped."
A part of Kaylee wanted to spar with Joselyn now and see if it was a challenge.
"Where did you get the souls? Do they have to be stored?"
"Depends. But I usually get the souls from villains who I found irksome because you have no idea how many of them will come looking for me for recruitment. I send them to my basement, and that takes care of it. See, Kaylee, if I wanted to kill you and gain all your fighting skills, I'd send you to my basement, and that would be that."
That was unnerving, but she also wanted to know what he kept down there that could separate souls from their bodies. She assumed the lever was the key. However, how many souls had he already consumed, because that could be another reason he seemed so much deadlier.
"How many souls?" She asked, and he shrugged,
"Not many. I have hundreds of thousands, but I usually only eat them while experimenting with them. See, I spent enough time with Harrison to have an interest in science. I've made countless enhancements to my scythe over the years and testing what chemicals enhance the powers of the soul. I've actually found mixing magic and science can create all sorts of fun things."
"That sounds dangerous without proper testing in a lab."
"I'm a villain who lives alone in a mountain and for the last fifteen years had my memory a jumbled mess where I couldn't remember the one I love most, what do you expect from me?"
"So, you do understand that you're insane?"
"Well, insane people don't realize what they're doing is crazy. I am fully aware what I'm doing is fucking nuts, so logic dictates it can't be that bad."
Kaylee didn't have a response to that, but she noticed his voice had cracked as one would when they were gonna cry. She hadn't seen his reaction to Kelly's death, so maybe this was it, he would react now that they were alone.
"Are you..."
"I'm fine." He stood up, looking at that thick book she had noticed earlier, "He's really gone. And it's my own damn fault." He turned to her, and she saw his eyes were swirling more than usual, "But that's fine. If I am really so evil as to accidentally inadvertently kill him, I might as well always be the villain." He wiped his eyes, "You should probably go before people worry."
"Kelly was the one you love, but how could you possibly be involved in a death you didn't even—" she coughed as he sprayed her in the face with something, and she smelled it, her nose crinkling a little in both disgust and confusion, "Is that axe body spray?"
"Yes, the purest form of torture. Before you ask, the only reason that I know this is from the experiments I've conducted in my basement. But no more questions, it's time for you to go!" He snapped his fingers, and Kaylee shot awake in her own body.
She found herself in her room, and saw her brother hug her,
"I'm glad you're okay. You collapsed. Everyone was worried you got your soul snatched or something."
Kaylee rubbed her head, looking at him, as though looking for any physical sign that Dorian was doing something to him. If she didn't know better, someone giving him a confidence boost would be a good thing, but Dorian was going to abuse this. He was actively trying to piss her off, and that was a death sentence if he wasn't so careful. She'd have to find a way to train with Freya or someone to get past that so she could still fight him.
She cursed herself for not trying to ask about Gina or Roxas, but then again, she didn't expect an answer about that. She looked to Jared, "How's Roxas?" Jared shrunk down, sighing,
"Not good. Not dying, we managed to stabilize him. But he's in a lot of pain. The poison was a ground-up Phoenix eye, so it's excruciating for him right now. Harrison's working on an antidote, and I've been sitting with you. Kaylee, what happened?"
She didn't want to tell him about her deal with Dorian, but she had no qualms with telling him some things. Either he was under Dorian's control and already knew she knew, or this was new information for the family, "Dorian wanted to talk to me."
"Dorian?!" Jared's eyes widened, grabbing her shoulders with terror in his eyes, "Did he hurt you?!"
"Hurt me? No. A tavern full of people, using the most massive wolf I have ever seen just because some people talked to me? Yes." Jared was hugging her,
"Kaylee, don't fight him, he's insane!"
"I've spent the last couple hours with him, I'm pretty sure I figured that out already. And he's in love with Kelly, and only now processed that he's dead."
Jared nodded to himself, "Which means he probably wasn't the one to poison Roxas."
"Or turn that on his head, and he now wants to destroy the rest of the family too." Jared shrugged,
"I suppose you're right." He sighed, "Well, it's not like Zoe's going to leave her son's side, and Eli's watching Aelin. Danielle's powers are uncontrollable, so Dorian going after her would be a suicide mission. But..."
Kaylee jumped out of bed and threw on her leathers, "There's nothing to stop him from going after Felix!"
OoOoO
Felix had been learning some spells with Hatsune when the alarm bells went off. Both of them looked to each other in panic and ran down the stairs, looking for the cause. Typically it's wise to flee from danger, but this might be the chance to prove that Felix could take care of himself if he was the one to handle an intruder.
But he didn't find one. What he found was so much worse.
There was blood everywhere since clearly there had been a struggle. But in the center of it all as Valeria, who was distinctly lacking a head. It looked as though her body was used as a weapon against guards, seeing as bones were out of place. There were also unusual teeth marks on the body.
Kyra and Amaya both came in, gasping at the sight. Hatsune pointed to the wall behind him,
"G-Guys..."
"Speak when spoken to!" Amaya snapped but did turn, also gasping.
There, written in blood, was a messy message.
The world is mine.
Felix's eyes widened as he turned to Kyra, who just smiled, not grieving in the slightest. She whispered in his ear,
"Want to update our bargain to keeping Amaya distracted instead of mother? Or are you ready to put up with her on your own?" Felix was unable to respond, having been grabbed by Amaya.
"Servant! Take Felix to his room to protect him from intruders. Sister, go with them, I know you can't fight all too well anyway."
Kyra nodded, "That's true." She smirked over at the body, and Felix felt his blood run cold. He looked to Hatsune, whose eyes were like dinner plates.
"Who do you think did this?" Hatsune asked, shuddering. Kyra chuckled,
"Does it matter? Mother's dead, and now Amaya is going to be even worse. Besides, worst case you get kidnapped."
"Speaking of which, you rather lack in kidnapping attempts to get me out of here," Felix replied, and Kyra shrugged,
"You have your aunt. Don't worry. Though I have no reason to do that now, not only will it make your life worse, but our bargain was terminated when Mother died." Felix looked at his palm and saw the tattoo was gone.
"I don't want to do it again," Felix said, "Valeria is dead, and it's not like you can stop Amaya anyway. Let's just hope this goes smoothly until Kaylee can come to save me."