In some ways, I think this was inevitable.Maybe my fear manifested it.Am I to blame after all?
Once upon a time, our elder angel told us that angel magic isn’t meant to be split.It’s meant to be contained in one vessel.
Oneangelic body.
That when it’s divided between two, it doesn’t always divide equally.
Sometimes, one angel goes bad.
I spent my life thinking Interitus was the bad angel.That I was full of goodness and light and possibility.
Of all the possibilities I could conceive, never in a millennium of time would I predict that the bad angel would be me.
I tried so hard to be good.
Gave Interitus everything I had.
And still it wasn’t enough.
I was all of the things an angel should be… until she broke me.Destroyed all that was positive and possible inside me.
Perhaps what our elder forgot to highlight is that no matter how the magic is divided, each twin has the capacity for both good and evil.
One might have been born bad, but the other can choose it.
I leave Gellara’s body and face Interitus.
I’m not sure what my expression is, but I am aware it’s violent.Enough that for the first time in our lives, my sister baulks at the sight of me.
I inhale, and as I do, I draw every ounce of power I can in.
I steal it.
Take it.
Demand it.
She takes one significant step away from me.And then halts as I unleash magic.It tunnels through the ground and locks on to Interitus’s ankles, imprisoning her.
Hesitation bleeds into the lines on her forehead.
Good.She should be afraid.Very, very afraid.
I throw my arms out, no longer caring for the innocents or the land.
My light has gone.
My love stolen.
And now I choose to ruin it all.
My skin trembles as I draw in more power from the land.The grass by my feet fades, the green wilting to ash.It spreads further and further.
I want it all.Sinuous black threads lift from the earth and vanish into my body.
I take it all: the energy the land has to offer, the souls from the mortals stood behind me and Gellara’s magic drifting listlessly in the air.
The mortal screams grow frantic for a while, a shrill melody.Then they quiet, whispers and whimpers until they grow utterly silent.
