L glyph [https://i.imgur.com/2vwU4yB.png]
Lorie stared at her brother, standing there in his ragged green dress covered with stone dust. ‘What do you mean, you have things to do? This place isn’t safe. We have to get out. We have to get back to the undercity.’
Sam’s expression hardened. ‘These people hurt Andra. They shut animals in little cages. They have to be punished for what they’ve done. They have to be stopped.’
There were two doors in the wall of the pit, two ways out, one open to a little chamber. Another dead man lay there, as if he’d been killed while trying to escape. His body looked wrong — all twisted and mangled.
‘I think you’ve done enough,’ Lorie said.
Sam shook his head. ‘I have to get them all. They’re evil. They deserve to die.’
‘And you’re going to kill them?’ This was Sam, her bratty little brother who climbed things and got into trouble and never did what he was told. This was Sam, calmly talking about killing people. ‘Sam, this isn’t you. That voice in your head, what is it telling you?’
She had a voice in her head, and she could do magic she shouldn’t be able to do. And now Sam had a voice in his head, and he could do magic. And she knew what it had said to her: To hurt those who deserve to suffer is not wrong. To protect the weak, to punish evil, this is not wrong.
She felt cold and horribly empty inside. ‘The voice is evil. You can’t trust it. Don’t listen to it.’
He frowned. ‘It’s not a demon. It says it was made by the Forerunners.’
‘Made?’
The Makers created Powers to serve them. I am part of such a Power. Your brother has the whole.
Lorie started. ‘What?’
‘I don’t know,’ Sam said. ‘It said it was made, that’s all.’
She glared at him. — What do you mean, whole?
You saw the inscription in the tomb. You remembered a part. I began to grow in you. But I was only ever a part, not the whole. Sam is a vessel of the Power of which I am part.
— He’s possessed?
He possesses the Power. The Power does not possess him.
An interesting distinction.
— Him and me, the same Power?
Yes. Though I am not the whole. Only a part.
Only a part, she thought, and at times she’d believed she was going mad, that she would burn things, burn people, without even meaning to. And now Sam—impulsive, daredevil Sam—had the whole thing in his head, and a voice telling him to punish and kill.
‘Sam, listen to me. This is important. The voice in your head isn’t good. It will try to make you do things, bad things. You have to come with me. We’ll go to the Wardens. Maybe they can exorcise it, or something.’
The Power can’t be removed by exorcism. Not by the Wardens, not by anyone.
— What? Well, how do I get it out of Sam?
The Power, once manifest in a vessel, is only destroyed by the death of the vessel.
— You mean kill Sam? No. Sam can’t die. Sam isn’t going to die. What else?
There is no other way to destroy the Power. It can only be transferred between vessels.
— Transferred between vessels… So he can pass it to someone else? And then he’d be back to normal?
Correct.
Sam shook his head. ‘I don’t want the voice taken away. This is the best thing ever. I can do anything.’ He waved his hand, and stones rose from the sand. Stones as big as Lorie’s head drifted through the air like thistledown. ‘See?’
‘It’s dangerous. You don’t really understand it. It feels good, and you think you’re in control, but you’re not. You have to stop, now.’
The rocks circled him, so he looked at her through a screen of flying gravel. ‘You’re the one who doesn’t understand. I can do anything, Lorie. I can fix everything. I can help people.’
He probably could. Light knew the world needed a lot of fixing. But this was Sam; she wanted him to be Sam. She wanted him to laugh and argue with Dad and grow up, and maybe develop a modicum of sense someday, but most of all, she wanted her brother to be her brother, not some sort of god on earth.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And there was only one to save him.
‘Sam, this power isn’t for you. You have to pass it to me.’
— Will that work?
Oh, yes. The part will merge with the whole.
Sam scowled. ‘Give it to you? Why?’
‘Because I say so.’ Lorie kindled fire in her hand. ‘I already have a part of what’s in you. You can be free of it, Sam. You can go home. Just give it to me.’
‘No.’ He crossed his arms. ‘Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do. I’ve got this, and I’m going to do what I want for once.’
‘For once?’ She laughed. ‘You always do what you want. Dad tells you no, Nana tells you no, and what do you do? You run straight off and do it anyway, because the rules never apply to you, do they?’
‘Dad always says no. He doesn’t really care, he just says no because it’s me asking. You’re the good one. Everything I do is wrong. Everything you do is right. It’s aways Lorie’s so clever, Lorie can do magic, Lorie’s so well behaved. It’s not fair. Now I can do something and you just want to stop me, because you want to be the special one. Well, too bad. I’m the special one now, and I’m not giving this up.’
She stared at him in disbelief. ‘Is that really what you think? I never had a choice. I had to be good. When Mum got sick, I had to look after her, I had to help Nana. You ran off and had fun with your friends, and I didn’t mind because at least one of us was happy. And then Mum died, and Dad was so sad, and the more you were bad, the more I had to be good. And all the while, you were the one Dad doted on. You were the one he tried to teach, and you didn’t even care. You didn’t even try to care.’
‘Well, I don’t care. I want this power. The world can be better. I can make it better.’
‘Sam, this isn’t an argument where you whine and shout and eventually I give in because I’m tired. This is me telling you how it is.’ Fire rolled down her arms and outward in waves across the floor. She didn’t want to hurt him, but he was being stubborn. A shock might get the message through his thick skull.
The flames flowed and split to encircle Sam. He grinned. ‘Do you really think that will scare me?’
Her anger pulsed the fire higher and hotter, until Sam’s halo of flying rock skimmed through the flames. He spread his arms; the rocks sped, twisting the fire into a tornado. A stone broke formation and flung itself at Lorie’s head.
She ducked. The stone whizzed past and thumped into the wall behind her. Another one like that might kill her, and throwing fire around wouldn’t help — the rocks were volcanic, she’d just make them hot. Short of burning Sam, which she didn’t really want to do, she had no defence.
Or did she? When she’d lit the lamps, she must have opened the gas valves. Maybe she could do other things if she tried.
— Can I stop him throwing rocks at me?
He has more power.
— But can I?
The answer arrived, not in words, but a sense of movement and knowledge, a shape lodged in her mind.
‘Stop that, Sam.’
‘Make me.’
Another rock looped toward her, but she knew how to deal with it now. Force wrapped it, wrenched it round and spat it back at Sam faster than it came. ‘Shall we play catch?’
The rocks dropped to the ground, the flames died to embers. An unseen force seized her body in a vice-like grip. She couldn’t move. Slowly, her spine began to bend backward, further and further. Pain rippled from over-strained muscle and bone.
She concentrated, searching for the means to resist. Once more she felt a door open in her mind, limitless treasures laid out for her, but there was no time to examine anything in detail, only to snatch something that might serve. She focused, and pushed outward.
The stress relented, barely. She sucked in a breath. The stretched muscles in her chest hurt. Fear coursed through her. She pushed as hard as she could, but it wasn’t enough to break free. Sam was stronger. He could snap her in two, if he chose.
‘Sam…’ she whispered.
At the red-tinged edge of her vision, Andra moved. She slapped Sam: one hard blow that rocked his head and drew lines of blood across his face.
He stared at her in shock. ‘Ow. What was that for?’
Andra pointed to Lorie. ‘Stop.’
‘Oh,’ Sam said.
The force holding her vanished. Lorie collapsed to the ground and lay in a heap, filling her grateful lungs with air.
Sam loomed over her. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just got mad.’
She dug her fingers into the coarse black sand and sat up. ‘You were right. I can’t make you do anything.’
His face was slashed open. Blood wept from the parallel cuts. He wiped his face with his hand, looking puzzled.
Lorie glanced at Andra. Her hands had claws — big curved black claws. No wonder Sam was hurt — if she’d hit him much harder, his face would be hanging in strips.
She took another shaky breath. ’You didn’t mean to hurt me, but you did. With so much power, it’s so easy — you get angry, and someone dies. Maybe it’s a bad person who dies. Maybe it’s just someone who got in your way. Is that how you want to live your life?
‘I know it’s a hard thing I’m asking you. It may be the hardest thing you ever have to do. But I have to ask, because it’s the only way I can help you, and I promised Dad I would. But I’m not telling you, I’m asking you. Sam, please give me the power.’
‘Well, if I do, what will you do with it?’
She thought. ‘Save Dad’s life, if I can.’
‘Oh.’ Sam frowned. ‘You should have said. All right. What do I do?’
‘You’ll do it?’
‘Yeah.’ He offered her his hand. ‘You are the smart one. I’d probably mess it up. I do everything wrong.’
‘Don’t say that.’ Lorie stood. Her legs trembled and every muscle in her chest and back ached. ‘You get the important things right.’
— How do we do it?
He must will the Power to you. You must accept it.
— That’s all? Will he be all right, after?
There may be transient effects. He hasn’t carried it long enough for serious damage.
— Damage? You mention this now?
She held out her hand to Sam. ‘Will the Power to pass to me.’
‘Do we have to hold hands?’ He shrugged and gripped her hand again, then closed his eyes.
She closed her eyes too, and took a breath, imagining herself as an empty well waiting to be filled. — All right. I accept the Power. I want it. Give it to me.
A glyph [https://i.imgur.com/ZLENX3y.png]
Sam sighed and crumpled to the sand. Lorie still stood with her eyes closed but twitching, as if she slept and dreamed standing up. And then she opened her eyes.
Her gaze settled on Andra, and behind her eyes was Lorie, but also not-Lorie, as Sam had also been not-Sam. ‘Andra,’ she said. ‘Will you look after Sam? Get him somewhere safe, if you can.’
Andra moved to Sam’s side. He was unconscious, but breathing easily. ‘I will. And you?’
‘I have things to do.’ Lorie gestured to the balcony over the pit. The stone tumbled and folded downward into a neat stairway.
Andra watched her climb, and then she sat and waited for Sam to wake.