A/N: All I can say is read on.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
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Arra wanted very much to scream out in pain but found herself unable to. She had not known there was a point where pain became so unbearable one could not even scream. But she knew it now and it was not at all kind. Pain hardly ever was.
Zedar kept her under the strong hold of pain for a while more, letting tendrils, threads of it leak down her back and shoulders. Zedar pulled back, she was still in pain but it was the way a cut hurt two days after received and it was more bearable. Arra took a glance at Liam. She had never seen him cry before. His eyes were not red, nor was his nose or cheeks; it was only a few tears. He made no sound but she couldn't be sure if that was because he couldn't or because Zedar's dark blue magic bound him completely.
And she herself was incapable of speaking simply because at the moment rage made that impossible.
And she could not understand why he would be crying either. Was Zedar's Gift hurting him? But his hazel eyes were locked on her.
"Where to begin?" Zedar's voice snapped her from her thoughts. No, snapped wasn't the right word, it pulled her from her thoughts. Arra at least tried to stand. She was shaky and tired but she tried. Zedar pressed down hard again with his Gift. "We'll have none of that."
He was still a distance away but he crouched down as if the reach the same level as her for only a moment. "You should have died long ago. " He hissed. "I don't know how you did it but suddenly there was a barrier and I could no longer reach you."
For one disoriented moment Arra hadn't the least idea what he spoke of. Then it hit her. The illness. It was him. But how did he . . .? Numair put a barrier against his magic.
His green eyes glinted dangerously. "Gift calls to Gift, sister. It was only a matter of time before I could overcome that shield."
Had he heard her thoughts? She didn't care. She was too tired to care. Something in the back of her mind fought wildly still. It was the constantly sane part of her. She was letting go too easily! Was he taking away her Gift and life force even then like he had been with the fake illness?
Languidly, her eyes passed over the room again though she deliberately skipped over Damien's body. There was nothing she could use here. Nothing. She had never felt so powerless before. Fighting skills would do nothing for her here, Damien's death proved that. Again her eyes stung with obvious tears. But even with her mind in such a chaotic state she knew now was not the time to cry.
"Why?" She croaked. Her vocal cords finally worked if not that well. "Why me? Why would you want me dead?"
The grin he gave was feral. "You are a very straightforward one aren't you? I suppose its too late to try and break you of that."
"Answer me!" She demanded, something inside of her flared. Zedar winced momentarily before regaining composure and glaring. He didn't move a finger but the pressure of his Gift pressed on her again.
"All I wanted was Karucia." He said. "And I knew, I knew, you would be trouble. I could feel it." Zedar stopped and shoved pain through her body like a spear. When he spoke again his voice was deadly quiet. "And you ruined that. At first I thought maybe you would do something like that on purpose, but now I think it is just part your existence. Killing you would be best, I think."
Arra heard harsh laughter only to find it coming from her. "You aren't possibly saying I'm the mistake?"
"Oh, you are a quick one." He said with one of his cruel smiles. "That is exactly what I'm saying."
She laughed in the same harsh manner she'd never known herself to spew before. "ME? The mistake? Oh, no. I have made mistakes, and I've made a lot of them. Because of one of my mistakes you were even born. If anything it was you who should have never--"
But before she could finish a pain unlike the others filled her skull, expanding and expanding. It grew until the sharp pain seemed to want to tear through bone and muscle and flesh. She was almost convinced that if she tore through her forehead with her bare hands it would feel better. Finally the pain melted away but Arra was still left gasping. She reached up to her forehead with shaky hands half-expecting it to come back soaked with blood. But her hand was as clean as before.
"You have no right." He said slowly, his voice took up a steel edge.
And you have the right to talk about me? Arra thought but said nothing. While her tolerance for pain was unusually high compared to other people, it didn't mean she liked it.
Zedar blinked for a moment, Arra could still see the crazed look in his eyes. It was something he could probably not throw off at this point. Maybe he had always been crazy. He cleared his throat. "About time we resumed your education of certain . . . matters."
He had stood up in his moment of anger but now her returned to the crouching position. "Now that ruling by inheriting Karucia is out of the question I'll have to find other means."
Arra pondered on that for a while. All he had to do was kill her and he was still in line to rule. Not that she much liked the idea of being killed but why didn't he just do that and be done? Why didn't he just kill her silently, make it look like an accident and go on? That more than anything told Arra of his loss of sanity.
Suddenly, he spit on the ground. "That father of ours, I must tell you, is one of the stupidest men I have ever met."
Arra felt possessiveness and anger grow inside of her. How dare he?
"But it doesn't matter. He'll no longer be sharing his stupidity with the world." Arra's head snapped up and she met his sharp green eyes. "Yes, you know what that implies don't you?
"He's lying somewhere in a lonely corridor in a rather deep pool of his own blood."
Arra took a sharp intake of breath to hold back the tears. No, no, no it couldn't be true. He was lying. No, no, no, no . . .
He laughed loudly and to Arra, disgustingly. "Feran himself took care of it. I caught word sometime before you came stumbling in here that the deed was done."
Arra started lowly, but she was sure he heard her. "You are disgusting. What possible purpose could all of this have? Where does it get you?"
Zedar didn't even bother to put her through another round of pain, not yet anyways. "That's exactly right. It gets me nowhere, doesn't it? Father had ruined Karucia for me anyways, so in return I decided I'll ruin Karucia. I'll tear it apart. All of Karucia will be in shambles when I'm done with it. Every man, woman and even child will be either dead or wishing they were.
"And, dear sister mine, I'll make sure they know it all happened because of you. I'm sure you won't care, you'll be dead by then after all. But it will be nice to know that so many feel the same way I do. That it was one of the worst mistakes to ever occur in Karucia that you were brought into existence at all."
Did his words even make sense? Of course not! He's mad! She was writhing in pain just a moment later until it stopped suddenly. It seemed Liam had tried to make a stand against all of this but Zedar put more bindings on him that made him, if possible, more immobile. But he was still conscious and, in a way, he was forced to watch.
Her rage had withered and started to crumple under her sadness and despair but it came roaring back to life. He killed Damien! Her teacher for many years with whom she shared a bond. He killed her father! The father that had loved her. Arra looked down at her wrist, the bracelet was still there. Quietly as she could, she took it off and clutched it. It strengthened her.
Arra was too busy in her own thoughts to notice that Zedar had come a bit closer so she could hear his scathing whisper, "I will tear away everyone you love and then after that, I'll be kind. I'll send you to the Dark Realm along with them. Perhaps, next should come this man behind you, what was his name again?"
But then a voice that had been previously silent spoke out, "No, Zedar! Not him!"
"Zefra, please do tell me why," His voice was overly calm but still dangerous. He was angry that she had interfered.
"That is Prince Liam of Tortall." She said urgently, pleading. How had she known? How? Arra questioned silently.
He smiled down at Arra which made her shiver. "Oh, you have princely taste, I see." He stood and called the Gift that held Liam bound. Liam slid across the ground to him. He glared up at Zedar.
"Then what a death this will be!" He said excitedly. His eyes glittered madly. "A war with Tortall could help my plans for Karucia."
Arra noticed Zefra gasp. Then she spoke, "Zedar, you promised."
Arra was thoroughly confused by now. Maybe, just maybe, if Zedar was distracted by his sister she could . . . But his power slammed her down again. She hissed in pain.
"Zefra, plans change. Surely you can tell he could never be good for you. Never. He is weak." Zedar grabbed Liam's chin and brought his own face very close to his while Liam could only watch helplessly. He . . .he isn't . . .Arra began the thought. But then Zedar moved again crashing his lips down on Liam's. She could see Liam trying to struggle away but knew it would be impossible.
"Leave him be you disgusting creature!" Arra yelled on the verge of screaming. She noticed someone was sobbing. Arra searched out the sound and found it came from Zefra. She was kneeling on the ground her head in her hands sobbing and saying something that had to do with promises.
Zedar pulled away and let Liam drop at Arra's words. "Too bad he has to die. And you, I suppose there is no more delaying your death, let's get this done then."
This time she felt Zedar collecting his power for another blow and Arra, thinking with as close as she could get to a clear head, rounded up her Gift too. Zedar didn't seem to notice. Just as he released what should have been his final blow Arra released her Gift in a way that reminded her of the incident at Cragwey. No, this is different. I have more control over this. Yes, she had more control but she wasn't entirely sure it was complete.
Zedar growled as each of their powers met and repelled. Arra quickly shook her head as she involuntarily took a step forward. It was both repelling and attracting. What is going on? But it was too late to pull back now.
"Now we get some fight from you! I would have been very disappointed had you died without one." Zedar said, still in that madly excited way. His power rose and rose as he pulled forth more of his Gift. "Let's make this fun then!"
Arra didn't know if he did it on purpose or not, but as he pulled more of his power together it seeped away from Liam's bonds. He shuffled away from Zedar towards the opposite wall. She wouldn't bring attention to it.
For the first time in her life Arra made made the decision to do what she had always felt was a dangerous thing to do. She plunged into her crystal blue Gift. She plunged to the depths of it and didn't stop until she reached the bottom. Arra gathered it all, she would need it. She called it all out, a few times she feared it would get away from her but she clutched it tighter and reined it in until it obeyed for the most part.
Liam hissed as the magic came out. It was raw magic, Arra knew, and that's what made it most dangerous. "Liam," She found she had to shout. "Get out now!"
"No!" He shouted back.
Arra growled. When had he become so stubborn? She would have pushed harder for him to go but the magic was becoming unbearable. Edges of both dark and light blue Gift were burning away at each other. Arra had never heard of something like this. Zedar pushed his power against hers and Arra pushed back with everything she could muster.
It would be a battle of will. Zefra and Liam would probably not be able to intervene even if they wanted to. Could she do it? Could she really overpower Zedar? He may be four years younger than her but he'd been trained to use his Gift for all of his life while she had not.
Crystal blue fire wrapped around her comfortingly in accordance to her subconscious. It would protect her.
The pressure in the room from both Gifts filled the room.
Arra took another step forward and gave her magic a shove. She added more power and rammed it again against his defenses. Zedar's eyes widened and Arra had a feeling it didn't have anything to do with her attack.
In the midpoint between them, where their Gift's met a white-hot light shone. She then noticed the stance he took. He was leaning away, his heels digging into the ground. Arra looked at her hands, crystal blue fire was sinking back into her skin and as it did it pulled Zedar closer.
Now there was fear on his face. "No," He whispered. "NO!"
Thick vines of her Gift moved without her orders they lashed out growing as if they were real plants. Some wrapped themselves around Zedar and pulled him and all of his own Gift towards her. The vines twisted and grew longer, thicker. They snapped and slashed at anything. One hit Zefra across the face leaving a nauseous looking burn.
And all the while Zedar came closer and closer. Where is his Gift going? Arra didn't want to think about it.
Arra almost lost control completely when one of the vines reached out and slammed Liam against the wall. He slid down leaving a blood trail on the wall that Arra couldn't handle along with everything else. She yelled her fury and despair and yet Liam sagged against the wall unmoving.
But her Gift fed upon her raging emotions and grew.
Zedar's green eyes were wide now, he was almost within reach of Arra.
"Stop!" He shrieked. "Stop now!"
"I'm not sure I could if I wanted to." Arra said coldly and would later swear she sounded nothing like herself.
The flames fell around her, through her and out. They even fell from her eyes, or were those hot tears?
Zedar was still sliding steadily towards her. Her Gift grew and grew feeding off of her emotions. It was free. It was finally free and it would give Arra what she needed. And while hers grew, Zedar's shrunk into nothingness.
"NO, NO!" He repeated over and over. "NO!"
Finally, he was within her reach. Something told her to reach out. Just reach out and touch him.
Slowly she lifted her hand, her fingers were trembling. Still very slow she brought her hand closer and closer to him.
"Don't!" His craze-wide eyes looked at the oncoming hand in terror. "Don't do it!"
He could feel something would happen if she touched him now. Arra could too. Her skin finally met his as she pressed her hand to his cheek. Arra screamed, louder than she could ever remember even wanting to scream. Power flew away from Zedar through the connection of her arm and to Arra's horror it came straight to her . . .and stayed.
His power, his Gift, his life force dwindled. His eyes started to close and Arra knew if they closed completely they would not open but she could not pull her hand away.
No! I don't want to kill him! I don't! But the power came still from him. It came and came and didn't stop. Zedar looked like he wanted to sag and fall to the ground but the only thing that kept him up was Arra's hand on his cheek.
The flow of his power slowed and finally stopped altogether. Zedar exhaled one last time and fell to the ground leaving Arra's hand free.
"What did you do?" Zefra whispered. She tried to run to her brother's side.
"Don't--" Arra tried to warn her. Her Gift was still flailing around her. It speared through the young princess. She shrieked and tried to claw at the thick vine but only ended up charring her hands.
"Stop!" Arra commanded her Gift. It pulled out of Zefra but it was too late she fell just as her brother had. Arra shook her head in horror. She tried to call back her Gift but it didn't want to. "Come back. It is done."
The Gift quivered under her command and finally listened. It sunk back into her body. And she finally collapsed but remained conscious. She was sprawled on the ground unable to move because of the weariness that was bone-deep.
Her Gift ran unrestrained under her skin, she could feel every move it made. It pounded in her skull. But still she could not move. Arra pressed her will to it and it calmed but not by much, she didn't have the energy at the moment, her Gift had grown and she had barely been able to control what it had been before.
But when it calmed it stopped feeding from her emotions and gave them back. Now, she remembered Damien, and Emereth. She remembered that they had died because of Zedar. And I did away with him.
And she remembered Liam. But that had been her own doing. Her own Gift who had harmed him.
She remembered it all and sobbed in her immobile state on the floor for there was nothing else she could do.
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A/N: Its not over quite yet though very close. If you want the next chapter out soon I may be more inclined if you . . .
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