He sees, knows what that means, and lunges for me again. I slice my arm away and turn before plunging the knife backwards, and it makes contact with his upper thigh.
“Arghh!” He stumbles forward, and I close the distance, standing over him.
He grabs my ankle with his hand, the contact jolting me, but I stay standing.
He’s lost his focus, and I sense the world coming back to our own timeline, but not before I push myself into his mind.
The ship, the maps, the people… it’s all a mix of images until...
We’re in the Great Hall, only it looks different. Odd. And I realise it’s because he’s never been in the room itself but musthave heard stories about it. He sits on a throne, the room filled with people, as I sit beside him, the statue of Aslendrix gone, and in its place, a golden sun shining on everyone in the room.
There are no Orders, no colours, just followers.
I stand, seemingly able to walk through the vision without Fenix realising. Is this a dream?
I slip through the crowd, and it continues outside in The Court. Hundreds of people line the spiral, cobbled street up to the Tower, only the walls of the city are no longer standing. Rubble decorates the land around it, the river now a marshy wasteland outside.
All I can see is destruction.
But this is different to when I slipped into Orion’s memory.
That was real. I could smell the burning. Feel it around me.
This is an illusion. A warning. Of what might come to pass if Fenix gets his way.
In the vision, I look out across the Ember, and I’m struck with more visions. More devastation. This time of Estereah. The villages and towns that once thrived are now barren and deserted as if a deathly illness has spread across them.
And chains.
People in service, all of Estereah put to the service of Kirrasians.
Those with power.
My hands are cold, cold with the fear of what I’m witnessing, and I pull myself away from Fenix.
With a few blinks, I clear the vision, and I’m returned to the small ring, where my blood has watered the sand, and my heart has been slashed from my chest, time and time again.
All this pain, for that? For power?
“That’s what you wish for? That’s what you want to do? You think our parents would have wanted that?” My words scold him. “You have twisted everything to suit your own narrative,the one where you feel hard done by and weak. You’ve decided to take what isn’t yours for your own gain. That isn’t noble or right.”
“It is time to put us first.”
“Us? Who isus? I refuse to believe you want me by your side. You need me, that’s all. And I’m beginning to think it’s because you can’t do this on your own.” I needle him with my words, poking him when he’s down and injured, but I don’t care. This is the first time I’ve seen a glimmer of hope that he is fallible, and that I can fight him.
As if my words taunt him, he snaps his wrist to the side, and the ropes of his golden power bind me, cutting off my shadows and keeping me immobile and paralysed.
“That’s enough.” It’s not the Usher’s voice, but Kalan’s.
From the corner of my eye, I see him walk up towards us. “I will not stand here and see you destroy each other.”
“You might have thought about that before keeping us separated, old man.”
To Kalan’s credit, he doesn’t back down from Fenix, who’s now sitting, the blood still oozing from his wounds as Kalan pulls the knife out of his thigh.
“Go and get healed up. The new moon’s tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” The days have grown so monotonous, filled with hopelessness and pain, that I’ve lost track.
