Chapter 24 The first step into the darkness
Nikolai noticed the frozen expression of his sister. She probably thought she would never see him again and then in the castle of fathers enemy. Well she thought wrong and Nikolai almost smiled that the surprise worked perfectly. Father would be so proud of him if he could see him now. It wasn´t like he didn´t know that she was still alive and took shelter by the enemy. Vilandra was an easy target, she didn´t even notice that he sucked important information from her mind when they kissed. She was so obsessed with finding Mr. Right that he hadn´t to do much to satisfy her. He played the perfect boyfriend pretty good and nobody realized it.
" You don´t seem to be happy to see your brother, do you?".
Marianna tried to quell her fear. But it was not easy when she felt the cold he was emitting. Something he had in common with her father. " What are you doing here?".
" I was invited ", Nikolai couldn´t contain his smile any longer. And it grew wider when he saw the quick flicker of fear in Mariannas eyes.
Marianna didn´t believe that. Who would invite the enemy to a party which was only for the people of the kingdom? But then something clicked in her brain and the person who would do that popped in her head. Vilandra. " You are Vilandras boyfriend then, or not Davico".
" Really good. You´re smarter than I thought", Nikolai knew that she would find it out eventually. But he didn´t think it would be so soon actually. He wanted to tease her a little before he would drop the bomb on her.
Marianna observed her surroundings with her eyes. She was looking if somebody noticed their weird behaviour towards each other. " What are you up to?".
" What kind of question is that? I´m just here because Vilandra wanted me to meet her parents and her friends", ok that was a lie. But who cared about that. Nobody would know it. Not until it was too late.
Marianna detected a strange twinkle in his eyes. That meant trouble usually. " Why don´t I believe you?".
Nikolai shrugged carelessly with his shoulders. It didn´t matter if she believed him or not. " Because you worry too much".
" Maybe the reason is that I know you too well", Marianna slowly got her backbone back. The fear made room for another feeling. The feeling of absolute hate and disgust. He obviously had another reason to be here, aside the fact that he was invited from Vilandra. He had something planned, just she didn´t know what. But she would get to the bottom of this.
Nikolai was amazed about the hatred which was sparkling in her eyes. Maybe she wasn´t that different from him. " Relax, would you? Enjoy the party, sister dear" with that Nikolai turned around.
Marianna couldn´t get her brother away without a warning. With a fast movement she grabbed him at his shoulder and pulled him closer to her. Then she put her mouth at his ear. What she had to tell him nobody should hear. " If you hurt Vilandra or any other member of my family I will personally rip you to pieces. Slow and extremly painful. And believe me that wasn´t an empty threat".
Nikolai faced his sister and stared scared at her eyes that were changing from light green to almost black. Without acknowledging her words he made his way away from her really fast. Before she decided to kick his ass in front of all the people.
Marianna watched after the retreating back of her brother. For the first time she felt strong and powerful. She finally accomplished to stand up to him and make him a bit scared of her. But then she remembered that Vilandra didn´t know about the true identity of her new boyfriend. And a new question rose in her. Why didn´t Nikolai use his real name if he was so supposedly in love with Vilandra? No, there was more to it than meets the eye. Vilandra had to know the truth and maybe she could convince her to break up with him. Marianna quickly scanned the crowd with her eyes to look where Vilandra was. But there were just too many people to identify someone. Therefore she had no other choice than lifting her skirt and go looking for her. She started with the food table, where she last saw Rath and Larek standing and stuffing their faces with food. However when she came to it, they were gone. At their place stood now a elderly couple and tried a piece of everything. Frantic she took a look around and thankfully she spotted Rath talking to someone. Immediately she scurried by all the people which were standing everywhere. Slightly out of breath she stopped in front of him.
" Have you seen Vilandra?".
Rath stared at her confused. " Not since she just disappeared and abandoned me".
" Where could she be?", Marianna asked more herself than Rath. Slowly the nightmare she had the night before came back to her, together with the feeling of helplessness and deep rooted fear.
Rath seemed to notice that something was going on. To anybody else it would look like she just was searching for Vilandra. But to him she was like an open book now. He saw that something wasn´t right in her eyes. " What is going on?".
" I can´t tell you yet. I have to find Vilandra first", without further explanation Marianna took off again and let him rather bewildered behind.
However Rath didn´t want to be left without some kind of answers, at least not this time. He didn´t push her because of her nightmares, he thought she would talk to him eventually when she was ready. But he would push now, because it seemed to be important and maybe she needed his help. Therefore he excused himself from his dialog partner and followed Marianna. Unfortunately he didn´t get around to do it for long, because his father intercepted just in that moment when he lost her blond head in the mass.
" Great. Just the person I wanted to have here. The king will make his announcement in a few minutes and he wants all members of the royal family with him when he spreads the news".
Rath only half listened to his father. He had other problems at the moment, namely looking for Marianna. " Sorry. But I have to find Marianna".
" Good. And when you found her you can tell the other they should come to the stairs", Mael was so excited about the news that he even notice the paniced state his son was in or else he would have asked what was going on.
Rath was actually glad that his father didn´t detect that something might be wrong, because he didn´t have the time to explain the situation to him. Technically he didn´t understood the situation himself, it was just this bad feeling and Mariannas paniced eyes that told him something bad was coming their way. So without a word he continued his search for Marianna.
Marianna meanwhile had found Larek, who told her that he saw Vilandra a few minutes ago out on the balcony. She said she was hot and needed fresh air. And now Marianna was on the way to the balcony. She passed many people and she had to side step a few, but after a while she finally arrived there. Immediately she scanned the place for a blond head or even Nikolai. However nobody was present at the moment. Just her and the moon, which was full tonight, were still outside. For a few moments she leant on the railing and breathed deeply serveral times. Maybe she overreacted in there and made a big fuss about nothing at all. Or her instincts were slowly forsaking her duty and let her go loopy. Marianna debatted a little longer with her mind before she decided to go inside again and find Rath. But just as she pushed herself away from the railing movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention. At first she thought it were the guards, who protected the palace. Still she took a closer look, because there were too many. Usually just two guards were patroulling at night, tonight it were two at every side. Strange that she saw more than that. And then something caught her eye. The moonlight shone directly at one of the men, who was sneaking crouched in her direction and in that moment she identified the crest of the armour. That were no soldiers of King Salem but of her fathers army. And they were preparing themself for an attack. Instantly Marianna turned around and ran into the ballroom again. She had to warn everybody and bring them to safety before someone got hurt. However in the minute she stepped foot inside, the king called the attention of everybody because he wanted to make an announcement. Immediately all the people started getting closer to hear what he wanted to say better. Unfortunately for Marianna they were standing shoulder on shoulder like a wall between her and the king. Actually she could have screamed that they would be attacked, but that would have caused a panic by the many people and she didn´t need them to run around like flushed chickens who were trying to get to the door and hurt to many others in the process. So there was just this one option for her. With all her might she pushed her way through the crowd and used even her powers to move men twice her size out of her path. Even so it progressed to slowly for her and she had to do something really fast. She had to cause a panic after all, maybe she could at least save as many people as she could with it. In exactly the same moment she opened her mouth to shout a warning, the king told proudly of the upcoming marriage of his son with Ava and her words were swallowed by the loud clapping. Desperate Marianna was on the brink to panic when a loud explosion rocked the whole palace. Everybody was overthrown or shredded from the shock wave. Screams and cries were heard through the noice of blast and gunfire. Marianna, who jumped on the ground and protected her head with her arms during the explosion, looked up. Shocked she witnessed something so horrible that it was hard to put it in words. People were lying on the ground, most of them weren´t in shape to be regnorized anymore. Limbs and other things were scattered around the room and the floor was flooded with blood. Here and there sat injured people, who mourned the lose of a family member or their spouses. Others were trying to get to the door and didn´t even took regard to the people beside them. Children were crying for their parents or were trying to find them. And in all the midst was a battle starting. On the one side was King Salems army and at the other were the men of her father. Slowly Marianna arose from her position on the floor and tried to overlook all the dead or the blood or the missing limbs. Carefully she checked herself for any kind of injury. Except for the massive shock she received nothing was hurt thankfully. After that she went to the few lucky people who survived the attack relatively unharmed. With a little persuasiveness she managed to get them out of harms way. When she saw that the innocent bystanders were safe she noticed that she missed two of them. In crouched position she sneaked at first to the girl. A few times she had to duck or she would have been shot.
" Hey. You have to go. It´s not safe here".
The girl turned around and looked at Marianna with red rimmed eyes and an expression that was heartshattering. Shocked Marianna realised it was Vilandra. " I can´t leave my mother here. We have to help her".
Marianna looked over Vilandras shoulder and saw the queen lying lifeless on the floor. They couldn´t help her anymore, she was already dead. For a moment Marianna was thrown back to the death of her own mother and the picture of her unmoving body sprung to her mind. It was like a nightmare she was trapped in and she had to relive the death of her mother over and over again. With every feeling she felt that day. All the pain and the sorrow and the what if´s. " I´m sorry Vilandra. We can´t help her, it´s too late for that. But I have to get you to safety".
" No, you´re lying. My mother isn´t dead. She´s just knocked out", Vilandra shook her head vigorously and more tears were leaving her eyes. No that couldn´t be. Not now.
Marianna understood the feeling. If she would have had the time she would have been denying the death of her mother, too. " I promise that I´ll bring you mother away, you just have to promise me to go to the other survivors. Their on their way to the dungeons, where they´re safe for the moment".
" Are you serious?", Vilandra glanced at her like a little child who lost his favourite toy.
Marianna nodded at her. " Of course. But now go".
Vilandra embraced her mother a last time and gave her a kiss on her cold, blue lips before she took off. Marianna watched after her until she was out of her sight. Then she made her way to the last survivor. She identified him already from far away. The royal cape gave him away. Still in her crouched position she went to him. Always on guard and ready to use her powers if she had to. When she arrived by Zan he was almost lying on someone and was crying his eyes out. Without looking Marianna regnorized the blue dress of Ava. Marianna tried to keep her tears at bay, but it was just to sad to see all this death and the destruction. Slowly she kneeled beside Zan and tried to pry him away from the corpse.
" No let me. I can´t leave her alone. I promised her that I would never leave her", Zan was struggling against Marianna and held tighter on Ava.
Marianna needed all her strength to keep her hold on Zan. She knew his pain, but they were in the middle of a battle and every moment some of the soldiers could detect them and attack. She didn´t want to lose more of her family. " She already left. You can´t save her anymore".
" I know".
Marianna heard a shot, which was hitting something near them. They didn´t have much time left. " Zan I beg you. Follow the example of your sister and take shelter with the others in the dungeon".
" Vilandra is alive?", Zan seemed to notice for the first time that he had still other members of his family besides Ava.
Marianna did something she swore she wouldn´t do anymore. But she had no other option left. " Yes. She and your parents are waiting for you there". Ok she lied. So sue her.
Zan came finally to his senses again and with a last goodbye to his beloved Ava made a dash for the door on the other side of the room.
Relieved Marianna could at last draw her attention to important matters. Namely finding a weapon and putting into practise what she learned all those years. She passed over so many broken bodies and seperated body parts that she almost lost her stomach in the process. Thankfully she didn´t got around to eat something at the party, because it would have been a waste now. Slowly she searched for something that she could use as a weapon no matter what. The main thing was that it could cause much damage or at least hurt a lot. On her way through all the carcasses she discovered two other members of the royal family. King Salem seemed to have tried to protect Abidale from the explosion. Too bad that he couldn´t either save her nor himself. Marianna stopped for a few seconds to mourn the loss of such great persons who took her in althrough they didn´t know her. Especially Abidale, who gave her the feeling to be part of a loving family again. She would always be grateful for all they had done for her and she swore to take revenge for their deaths. Just as the thought was over a laser bullet flew directly past her arm and grazed her skin. Startled she looked at the spot and saw blood oozing from a little wound there. Thank godness it was just a grazing shot and didn´t hurt that much yet. But she had to be more careful from now on or the next time the shoot would hit something vital. Cautiously Marianna eyed her surroundings, when she noticed that a soldier of her fathers army was targeting her with his laser gun. That bastard was the one who hurt her arm and destroyed part of her dress. Quick she tried to activate her strength and send a powerful blast at him before he could even pull the trigger. However her mind was in a overload, because of all the things she saw tonight, that nothing was happening. And then Marianna heard a shot ringing in her ears and saw the bullet flying exactly in her direction. Just as she wanted to evade to the side, a body hit her really hard and threw her to the ground. A few seconds she stayed there with closed eyes, because the fall knocked the air out of her. When she opened them again she identified the body, which was half lying on her and half lying on the ground beneath her, as the body of Corly.
" Corly? Can you hear me?", Marianna shook her and tried to get any reaction out of her.
Suddenly she touched something wet on Corly´s back. Slowly she took her hand back and looked at it. Horrofied she saw that it was blood. Corly was hit from the bullet which was intentened for her actually. Promptly Marianna rolled them around so that Corly was now lying on her back and Marianna was hovering over her. Thankfully the bullet went right through her belly. But the many blood was worrying Marianna a bit. Paniced she tore a piece of her skirt off and pushed it on the bleeding wound.
" Why did you do it? Why did you risk your life for me?", Marianna didn´t understand why someone would do something so brave for someone he didn´t even know that well. It was absolute crazy.
Corly opened her eyes slowly and looked at Marianna with a small smile on her face. " Because I couldn´t let them kill my sister".
" What?".
Corly had slight problems with breathing and the blood that came pouring out of her mouth was alarming. " Khivar is my father, too. Ask my mother. It´s true".
Mariannas first reaction was to not believe such a lie. But her heart told her that it was true and Rath told her just this morning that she should listen to it, because it spoke the truth. However that would mean she could lose more of her family. No not anymore. She couldn´t save her mother or the others because she was too late. But Corly was still alive and she deserved to keep her life longer. She saved her life and now she would do it in return for her sister. Roughly Marianna ripped Corlys dress open and placed her right hand on the wound.
" Look in my eyes. I´ll try to heal you. But you have to help me do it. Can you do that?", Marianna never tried to heal someone and she didn´t know if she could actually do it, but she had to at least give it a shot.
Corly nodded her head and held eye contact with her sister. " I trust you".
Marianna breath deeply in and out a few times before she closed her eyes and concentrated on the wound and what was damaged internally. Slowly the noises around her were fading into absolute silence. She just heard the sound of her heart beating and the air that was pressed out of her lungs. Within a few seconds she felt like she left her body and went with her mind to another place. It was stuffy and tight in there and it looked disgusting. Then she saw something rather disturbing and knew where she was. She was in Corlys entrails and noticed the path were the bullet went through. With all her strength she concentrated a little harder to heal the damage. Halfway there she was thrown out of her concentration, because she was hit by something and it startled her. Immediately her mind was returning in her own body again and the force of it was tossing her on the ground. Somewhat confused and out of breath she crawled to the spot where corly were lying. To her surprise she discovered that Corly had her eyes closed but she was breathing normal again. The wound was still there, but it stopped bleeding. Marianna could have cried of happiness, but she knew that there was still time when this all was over. With the thought that Corly would live for another few years Marianna tried to stand up on her feet to finally find a weapon. Unfortunately her feets couldn´t support her body, because the healing took more out of her than she thought and she was on the brink to crash back to the floor, when she felt two strong arms holding her upright. Amazed she turned her head and looked in the eyes of Mael.
" I´m so glad you´re alive", Marianna turned around completely and threw her arms around him. Finally someone who wasn´t dead or close to it. Tears of joy were flowing over her cheeks and sobs were wracking her body.
Mael held tightly onto Marianna. He already thought that nobody of his family was still alive. He found his wife, his brother, his daughter and his sister in law lying dead on the floor earlier and he believed that everything was over. But then he saw Rath fighting in the midst of the crowd and he regained new hope. Not everything was lost yet. " I can say the same about you". Carefully he pushed her tenderly off of his body and faced her. " Have you found survivors?".
" A few. Among them were Vilandra and Zan. I send them all to the dungeon. I thought they were safer there than here".
Mael stroked gently her head. He didn´t want to know what she went through tonight and how much of her innocence she lost in the process. " You did good. I knew that I could count on you".
Mariannas eyes filled with tears again. " Don´t. I don´t deserve that. I couldn´t save the king or his wife or your family. I failed and so much is lost".
" Don´t say that. You saved a few people. That´s more than others would have done. They would have saved their own asses and wouldn´t have stayed back like you", Mael was proud of her. She risked her life for others. She knew how dangerous it was and she still took the chance to get shot or worse, because she wanted to help the few lucky people which survived the explosion.
Marianna shook her head. No matter what Mael told her, she was a failure and was not worth to become a leading commander. " Great. I saved a few people. But I should have save everybody. My job is to protect my family".
" You can´t always save everyone. That´s not possible. You should know that there are casualties in a war and sometimes we can´t do anything to prevent that. Your job is to try your best and nothing more", why couldn´t she understand that. Besides Mael should protect his family, too. And he failed like Marianna. But to succumb to self pity wasn´t good at all. After all there were still people who counted on them.
Marianna wanted to reply that she didn´t try hard enough, when she noticed movement beside her. But in that moment it was already too late. Before she could utter a word or react, someone put his laser sword in Maels back. Immediately Marianna sent a blast at the attacker, which wasn´t really powerful, because her energy wasn´t fully loaded again. The attacker was just knocked to the ground a few feets away from them. Then she became aware that Mael was in the process to fall over. In an instant she was by his side and tried to support him. The plan would have worked, if her strength would have been back by now. Unfortunately it wasn´t the case and both crashed to the floor really hard.
" Oh god. I´m so sorry. I didn´t see him", Marianna kneeled beneath Mael, which was lying on his back with his eyes closed and blood was dripping from his mouth.
" Pity that he died so quick. I wanted him to suffer a bit before I finally killed him", a voice startled Marianna in her mourning.
Slowly she turned her head in the direction of the voice. Her eyes were sparkling dangerously at her brothers smiling face. He seemed to be proud of his action, althrough it wasn´t big to kill someone who wasn´t ready or didn´t see it coming. No he had nothing to be proud of. Without averting her eyes, she looked for Maels weapon with her right hand. " Pity that you can´t enjoy your victory".
" Who should me keep away from that? You? That´s a laugh", Nikolai observed her the whole evening. She had no weapons and her powers were at a low. It would be easy to kill her. He wouldn´t even need his laser sword for it.
Marianna finally found Maels laser sword and gripped it tightly in her hand. Then she arose with the drawn sword. " Yeah. Laugh it up. But it will be the last thing you do tonight".
" Really? I´m scared out of my wits", Nikolai wasn´t impressed about the bravery his sister was showing. What could she really do to him in her condition? She had no powers and no one who could help her.
Marianna should have commented that. But it wasn´t worth it to say something. She wanted to save her breath for important things. So without a word she attacked her brother. The rage was giving her a new boost and some of her powers came back. With all her might she waved her sword through the air and hit Nikolai by the way on his cheek. He wouldn´t accept that and striked back with his sword. However Marianna could dodge it easily and all he hit was her sword. The sparks were flying when the laser blades were crashing against each other.
" Is that all you got? No wonder you were always one step behind me", Marianna knew that Nikolai was driven by his anger and that let him made mistakes. It was good to know your enemy. A advantage he didn´t have anymore, because she change since she came to this castle.
Nikolai felt unbelievable rage rose in his body. She wanted a real fight, then she should get it. " I just wanted to give you a chance. But if you don´t want it. Fine".
Marianna saw the change in him. His complete body language was revealing him and his intentions. So without giving her brother a chance to react she beat her sword over and over again on his. He had difficulties to keep up with her, because she had a lot of strength for a girl. Marianna changed her angle from time to time and she got Nikolai to it to yield back from her. What led that she had him almost pinned against a wall that was behind them. She wanted to corner him and then she would slice him up piece by piece with all the time in the world. She always wanted to know how much pain a body could stand before it collapsed. And she had found her perfect object for that. But there was one thing she hadn´t reckoned with. Namely that Nikolai guessed her intentions and bolted out of the castle with quick steps.
" Oh no. You gutless bastard. You´re not getting away that easily", with that Marianna chased after him.
She pushed her body to its limits and ran like something was after her. Her brother couldn´t simply run away from her and expect that she would let him go. Not after what he had done to her. This time she wouldn´t show mercy. This time his last hour had come and she would enjoy every pain she would cause him. But her pursuit was abruptly stopped just outside the outer walls when a arm shoot out of nothing and knocked her off of her feet. For a moment Marianna didn´t know what happened, until she looked at the barrel of a laser gun. Shocked she let her gaze wander to the owner of the gun. However her attacker was hidden behind a helmet and she couldn´t identify him. All she could see were two light pools of green through a slit in the helmet. Those eyes were familiar to her somehow, she knew them. But damn she couldn´t remember from where. Then something strange happened. Her attacker seemed to be shocked to see her actually. She could detect it from his eyes, which were stunned looking at her. The hand in which the gun was started to shake and Marianna used her opportunity to slap it out of his hands. With a jolt she jumped to her feet and drove the laser sword through his lower body, before he could do something. Weakened he fell firstly on his knees and then on his back. While the attacker laid there and waited for death to come, Marianna regnorized the symbol on his armour. Tears sprung to her eyes and she immediately kneeled by his side. Carefully she took the helmet off in hope to be wrong. But her suspicion was confirmed when she could see his face. She had killed her mentor and surrogate father Hewik.
" Don´t die. Please. I´m sorry. I didn´t want that", Marianna laid her head on his chest and cried. Why didn´t she identify the eyes sooner? She could have prevented this all. And why didn´t he say a word to her?
Suddenly Marianna felt something touching her hair. Startled she looked up and gazed in Hewiks face. His left hand was stroking her head. " Don´t cry, Angel".
" Oh Hewik. Why didn´t you say something? You could have stopped me".
Hewik tried to smile, but the pain was holding him back from it. " You were too fast for me. I hesitated too long and you took advantage of it".
" Why did you hesitate? You taught me that you shouldn´t give your opponent the time to react", Marianna didn´t understand it. Everything she learned she had from him. He showed her how to outsmart the enemy with simple moves. Why did he make such a mistake?
Hewik was surprised that she could still remember what he told her. Actually he shouldn´t, because she was his best soldier and the smartest kid he knew. " I thought you were dead. And then you were lying in front of me, just like that. It was a bit of a shock for me".
" I´m sorry. You´re the last person I wanted to harm", Marianna felt horrible that she killed her first person and then off all people the only living soul who treated her like she mattered, beside her mother. She knew that she wouldn´t get this picture out of her head ever. It would probably haunt her for the rest of her life.
Hewik pulled himself together and embraced Marianna tightly. There was so much he wanted to tell her actually, but he knew that he didn´t have the time anymore. Death was coming and he could feel it. Strangly he wasn´t afraid or angry. " Don´t be. You did what you had to do and I´m so proud of you. I´m glad that you ended my life and nobody else. And remember that I´m not angry or dissapointed in you. I love you and I will always look over you, no matter where I´am".
Marianna couldn´t contain her tears. She never would forget all the things he taught her or the lessons she learned or the lectures she got from him. He was the one who made what she was today. " I love you, too. And I want to thank you for everything you did for me".
" I have to thank you", Hewik had difficulties to breath. His lungs were slowly filling with blood and hindered them to function properly. He had to say one last thing before he died. Marianna had to know his secret and with that the truth about herself. " Listen. Khivar is not...is...not".
That was the last thing Marianna heard before Hewik closed his eyes forever. His hands were sliding from her back, but she held on. Hopefully he had a better life wherever he went. And maybe he meet up with her mother there and they could protect her together. Someday she would see them again, of that she was sure. Until then she would do everything in her power to make them proud of her. She had promised her mother to take revenge for her, but she wasn´t ready then. Now it was something different. She had nothing to lose anymore and her hate hit a new level. She would put all her energy in eliminating her father and blow his kingdom to another planet. Even if it meant she would die also, but she would take care that she wasn´t alone. Suddenly her gaze fell on the laser sword in Hewiks belt. It was familiar. Carefully she pulled it out and smiled. It was her sword that she got from him.
" I´m so deeply touched from this scene that I almost had to puke", Marianna didn´t have to turn around to know who was behind here. Nikolai finally decided to take action. Alright. She was finally ready for him.
Slowly Marianna arose from her position and faced her brother with both hands armed. " Aha. The coward finally comes out of his hiding place. How long did you stand there and listen".
" Long enough to witness the tragedy of this spectacle. It was heartwrenching to watch you two", Nikolai touched his chest at the place where usually the heart was.
Marianna raised her right eyebrow. " And since when do you have a heart? Did I miss something?".
" I´m offended. How can you say something like that about your brother?", Nikolai acted like he was shocked. What a bad actor. But then he seemed to have forgotten something. " Wait. I´m actually just you´re half brother".
Marianna was confused. What did he just say? Half brother? But that would mean that they had only one parent in common. " What?".
" Didn´t you listen to Hewik? He tried to tell you something with his last breath. Too bad that he didn´t get around to vocalize it fully", Nikolai enjoyed this moment very much. He would give Marianna the finishing stroke before he killed her finally.
Marianna got more confused the more Nikolai said. What did he try to tell her? What had Hewik to do with it? She didn´t hear anything that would give her a clue." What are you talking about?".
" He wanted to tell you that Khivar is not your father. You see Hewik was in love with our mother since he started to work as a leading commander. Mother began to like the attention she was getting and fell in love with him, too. One thing lead to another and then you came into the picture". Nikolai loved to torture Marianna. It must be devasting for her to figure out that she killed her father. And he knew the truth all along together with his father.
Marianna thought about the things her brother threw at her. Hewik was in love with her mother and how she understood it she was the product of this love. But that would mean she killed her biological father. " You´re lying!".
Nikolai just shrugged. " Believe what you want. But I told you the truth".
" If that´s the case, why didn´t fa..I mean Khivar kill him?".
Nikolai smiled and he looked more scary than the trees Marianna had faced in the forest. " Because he needed him to fullfill his evil plan. Besides it was more fun to see him die from your hand. Father will love that twist".
Marianna suddenly noticed that something changed in her. She felt all this energy in her body and she started to glow. The wind, which was blowing balmy that night, evolved to a storm. The trees around them bent dangerously to the ground and thunderbolts were flashing the sky. On of them striked directly in their midst.
Nikolai jumped back startled. He never saw Marianna like that. Her body was emitting this bright light and her eyes were changing from green to black. He didn´t know that she possessed such a great deal of power. He was so sure that she didn´t have that much strength anymore. But the hate must have fulled her energy level dramatically. If he thought he had the slightest change to win against her before he knew that he could forget it now. Stunned he saw how Mariannas hand began to change their colour from white to red and she let her weapons abruptly falling to the ground, just like they had burned them. Then she turned her gaze in his direction and looked in his eyes. Hypnoticed he just stood there and held the glance. Until a blast hit him square in his chest and he was flung at a tree. He painfully dashed against the trunk of it before he crashed hard to the ground. But Marianna didn´t give him a break and the next thing he knew he was thrown through the air again and hit the next tree. For a few minutes she tossed him around like a doll and let him crash against each thing that was hard enough to withstand the impact of a body. The rage drove her further into her obsession to destroy Nikolai. While he fought against the upcoming blackout Mariannas powers conked out and Nikolai fell midair to the ground. His body felt like a walking wound. Every part hurt like hell and there were probably a few broken bones. If there were even bones left in his body. The moment he tried to get back on his feet Marianna crashed on her knees, drained from the use of her powers.
" Is that actually all you got? I expected more from you", Nikolai stood up with shaky legs. His face was bloody and bruised badly. He would look hell in the morning. But that would fit because he felt like that tomorrow.
Marianna looked up at that and a smile broke out on her face. She didn´t kill him but she sure had kicked his ass good. " Oh my. I like your new face. Looks better than before. Too bad that I have nothing to keep that picture for the afterworld".
" Oh you think you´re funny. But we will see who laughs last", Nikolai could barely stand on his legs and he was bent slightly to the side. His right arms was pressed at his side and every step he took seemed to be painful. At least judging after his contorted with pain face.
Marianna needed more time than usual to arose from her position, but when she stood her legs didn´t give away. That meant she had still enough strength to finish this. " I can tell you that already. It will be me".
Before Nikolai could reply something a blast shot through the dark and hit Marianna in the back. She flew through the air like her brother earlier and bounce with her left shoulder against a big tree, where she then fell down. With her head directly on a hard stone. Lifelessly she laid on the ground and didn´t notice two persons running away.
TBC