Chapter Thirty-One: Fell Words
Arthur was obviously in pain, but not a sound escaped his pursed lips. Slowly the blackened skin on his arm began to spread to his hand and up to his elbow. Reanna mercilessly held him in an iron grip, surprised that he wasn't even trying to fight back. All she cared about was that she was hurting him, who had hurt her, her mother, her grandmother, and most especially her father.
Though his hand had not ordered her father's death, it had provided the means for it, and that she could not forgive. Never. She fully intended to burn him to a crisp slowly, so very slowly, as she was doing now. She knew that she couldn't let her control escape her, for if she did the manor would disintegrate in a fiery conflagration and much of the town would likely follow it.
She would not endanger innocent lives. Not for the like of him.
She was vaguely aware that the guard Arthur had called in earlier had left the room in a hurry, leaving Devon to witness what she did here. She wasn't much surprised when she heard--detachedly--the running footsteps of several men coming to the room. "Lock it," she said, her voice sounding dim to her own ears, so concentrated she was on Arthur and not letting her fire lore get out of control.
She heard the lock snick closed, and fell deeper into her concentration. Arthur moved his free hand as though to pry her grip from his arm, but she grabbed this arm as well, taking satisfaction in the way his eyes widened in fear, his lips parted as though to scream, though still no sound passed from his mouth. He knew he was dying, and knew that there would be more pain to come before finally he was embraced by Death.
Both of his hands were now completely charred, the skin wrinkling and peeling the way burnt wood did. His arms were blackened past the elbows as she burned him from the inside.
She thought she spoke, but could not be sure, so deep was she in herself, so intently watching Arthur's horror.
If she had been able to hear herself she would likely have quailed from words in a language that had long been unspoken on this world, words so weighted with power that they seemed to pull the very fabric of reality with them as they spilled from her lips.
She didn't even hear as a great pounding started at the door, she didn't hear Devon's gasp of fear, she didn't hear it when Arthur finally began to scream. All she knew was what she saw directly in front of her, the power burning just beneath her skin, coursing through her veins and making her heart continue beating. She was no longer of this earth, she became something other and far more dangerous than anything the mortals had ever seen.
**
Y'lorani started out of her meditation, sweating and shivering from the vision that had beset her. She knew not whether it had been a vision of present or future, but it had shown her exactly where Reanna was.
Reanna had been missing for a week now, and Devon had been missing with her. The crew of the Black Pearl had searched for her, but there had been no sign of their captain. Y'lorani had sought her out through vision several times since, but had not been able to find her. For the first time, Y'lorani cursed the protection that kept Reanna hidden from Sight.
Now, however...something dreadful was happening, some power was awakening. The words of power Reanna had spoken had nearly shaken Y'lorani's soul from her mortal body. Reanna had flared into her vision of a sudden, nearly blinding Y'lorani with her brilliance and for a moment only showing her everything that was happening where she was.
Reanna had been holding tight to a man's arms, and he was being burned alive by her touch alone, as though her skin were fire while
Devon looked on dispassionately, soaked with sweat as the room grew hotter and hotter, he gasped in shock and fell, hands clutching at his ears as the words reverberated through the room and
the men pounding on the door ceased suddenly, the door having grown warm, and when the words were spoken they fell screaming to the ground as well, their bodies horribly writhing as they began to burn from the inside as well.
In the stone dungeon a man that looked oddly familiar seemed unaffected by what ailed everyone in the upper stories of the house. This man seemed to know no fear, in fact he seemed happy that everyone upstairs was dying. There was no one with him and he smiled grimly in satisfaction, seeming to know that to leave the dungeon now would mean his certain death.
He grew alert suddenly and for a moment his gaze fell upon her, his eyes widening in shock, and she knew that he saw her and did not know who she was. "Who are you?" he had asked.
It had been then that she had come out of the vision, a part of her tied to Reanna and inorexably drawn to her, compelled to join her. Y'lorani did not know what had happened for Reanna's power to suddenly increase tenfold, but she had suspicions.
For now, she resisted the pull of Reanna's power, not ready yet to face her with what she thought might be true.
**
"He is dead, will you not let go now?" asked a voice directly beside her, pulling her out of her trance and cooling the burning rage that had nearly consumed her. When she looked at the blackened corpse she still held to, she shuddered in revulsion and let it go, her sudden movement making it fall to a heap of ashes at her feet. She shuddered again and backed away until she reached the wall, hardly believing what she had done.
She fell to the ground, only then realizing that she was trembling quite uncontrollably as she stared at the pile of ash.
"So. You know now why I suppressed your power. You reached far and gathered much of the heritage that your mother passed to you and caused great damage. No, I speak not only of this man, but the ones in the hall as well. Are you satisfied in your revenge? There is still one who has not yet suffered your wrath, would you kill him as he did your father?"
"No," she croaked, her throat parched. "No, I'll not kill again."
"Yes, Child, you will. You will kill again, and again, and again, but only if you let your rage take control of you like you did here will you kill so painfully and mercilessly. You will have no choice but to kill again."
It was only then that she looked up at Him, her eyes empty of all emotion save horror. "Why?" she whispered.
Tears came, then, a balm to her singed soul, and He took her into His arms and comforted her as a father would.
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Ye gods, what damage she did...I was interrupted at the end of this chapter, and I hadn't realized just how into it I had gotten. *rubs eyes*
Elkengrove: Well, she did it! Burned him and most of his lackeys to a crisp...
Rin: I'm glad you're so excited about a fourth story! A set of four stories is called a quartet, I believe.
Nikee: Lol, bummer about your e-mail. Glad you reviewed, though!
Thanks all of you!