They were standing on top of a hill, looking down on a small village though it wasn’t her own. The houses were burning, you could hear children cry and women scream out of fear. Soldiers were lighting more houses on fire, sometimes burning people along with it too. They were raping women while their children still clung at their mother’s arm. On the hill beside them was another group of soldiers. Cages were stationed in the middle of the group, the cages filled with animals and blood smeared people. Their faces were set in horror as they saw their homes being destroyed and their family and friends dying.

A girl who looked like a younger version of Akascha ran from the top of the hill to the littered streets. She avoided the rampaging soldiers and the dead bodies. The three followed Akascha with hard faces. Finally the girl seemed to reach her destination. She ran into the inn where they were staying, one of the few who hadn’t been set on fire, and there she found what she was looking for. A woman was lying in the middle of the floor, a huge slash from her stomach to her chest dominated her features. Blood flowed out the wound quickly and had already formed a puddle of blood around the woman. It was clear that the woman was dying and only had a few minutes remaining. The younger version of Akascha ran to the woman and fell on her knees beside the woman while she screamed mommy. The woman lifted her arm to stroke Akascha’s cheek but the hand fell down and the woman blew out her last breath. Akascha’s howl was heartbreaking and filled the heart of the two men who were warriors with pain.

Suddenly Akascha put her hand on the chest of the woman in complete desperation. A light started to flow from the girl’s hands, lighting up her mother’s body. The eyes of the woman suddenly popped open as she took a strange gasp. But instead of what the girl had wanted, her mother coming back to life and healthy again, the woman started to scream in agony, her body convulsing. The magic disappeared as the girl jumped back in horror and with one last shriek the woman died again. The three bystanders were pulled back out of the memory, leaving with the sight of the younger Akascha crying over her mother’s body.

When they were out of the memory, Akascha stepped back to sit on the couch again. Lestat pulled her on his lap and held her tightly. The two men looked at each other horrified and shocked. They even looked a bit awed: Akascha had brought someone back to life, even if it failed after that. Akascha didn’t cry, she just let her be cuddled by Lestat. This memory had already been played a hundredth times in her mind and she couldn’t cry for it anymore. Lestat kissed her forehead. ‘You know you never had a chance to save her and it was foolish to even try it?’ He said it softly, he didn’t want to hurt her more. He just wanted to let her know that it wasn’t her fault that it didn’t work.

She sighed deeply. ‘It could have worked… it should have.’ She added softly. ‘Stubborn like a little child.’ Alec said, sounding a bit harsh though it was the truth he was telling. ‘Do you know how many people are able to bring a human back to life?’ Akascha shook her head, only half interested in what he was about to say. And besides, nothing would change her mind. Her magic failed her, period. ‘Only one person, in hundreds of years, only one person has been able to bring back a human to life. Sure there are people who can revive a small animal, but nobody has enough strength for that. The effort alone would kill them. What you did is unbelievable Akascha.’ Alec continued, not done with his logic yet. ‘You may think your magic failed you, but it didn’t! You are the one who is wrong. You shouldn’t have demanded such a thing from your magic and from yourself!’

Akascha didn't reply, she knew in her heart that he was right. But still…! She made her mother’s suffering worse and let her die twice. ‘Maybe not the right timing. But you know, you’re very lucky.’ Akascha looked up to him, confused by what he was trying to say. ‘You have an unbelievable capability with your magic.’ Before Akascha could say anything about that she didn’t want to use her magic anymore because she didn’t trust it Lestat intervened. ‘Just use small amounts of magic at first. You used magic to let us see the memory, so your magic hasn’t abandoned you. If you let it, your magic will prove to you that it is worthy of your trust. Just give it a shot… please?’ Lestat asked seriously while looking into her eyes. She shrugged her shoulders and nodded in agreement. She didn’t want to make a fuss about this.

There was a silence for a few minutes before Akascha highlighted another subject, steering the course of the conversation in a different direction. ‘But you still haven’t answered my question Alec.’ He frowned, not really understanding what she meant. ‘Oh you mean about the walk? I wouldn’t mind taking you for a walk, I am still as quick as Lestat despite my old age. But can I suggest something? Maybe it’s better if you make shorter trips, three times a day running around the town for a few times. Maybe it isn’t much, but it’s better than waiting for one of us to have the time I guess. Perhaps we can even add you to the training of the adult wolves.’ Alec ended teasingly which resulted in a dark glance of Lestat.

Akascha rolled her eyes, she would probably never understand his protective rules and behavior. She just had to accept it or make a huge fuss about it later. But that’s a thought for later, she thought to herself. ‘But that’s a deal then.’ Akascha said though there wasn’t really anything to accept. She turned her attention to Lestat and put on the most innocent, most angelic face she could. ‘But Lestat, if it’s just a run around town I can go alone right? I mean, I’m almost not even out of eyesight.’ She then looked at him with her most sad and begging face. ‘It’s so little what I ask of you, can't you at least give me that?’ Lestat had no way of escaping her, she still sat on his lap and he could barely move his head. His face was hard but she could see that he had difficulty keeping his face straight and not just give in to her. He had two options: he would either give in to her which she was counting on or he could refuse her and push her away from him.

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His face suddenly turned determined after a few minutes of silence as he made up his mind. Even his eyes turned a bit cold as he pushed her of his lap. She tripped and fell with her butt softly on the table that was behind her. ‘No is no!’ He said harshly though it looked like he had difficulty saying that. She blinked her eyes in surprise but then she felt anger coming up. He had stood up and was walking to the kitchen, maybe to get something or just be away from her. She softly growled and jumped up. She grabbed his arm and jerked it towards her so that he faced her. He blinked a bit surprised as he felt her strength. ‘What the hell is your problem?!’ She almost shouted. ‘I get it that you want to protect me, but don’t dare to forbid me something like that.’ Her eyes were hard and they were beginning to look animal-like.

He answered on a cold voice, drained from all emotions. ‘This discussion is over, you’re not going to run by yourself nor are you going to practice your magic alone. You will be under either mine or Alec’s supervision.. I don’t care if you don’t like it, deal with it.’ He turned around and started to walk to the kitchen again. He walked away! He just pushed her around and forbade her things and he simply walked away? She growled. Hell no, she thought furious. In one step she was in front of Lestat, using her magic without even realizing it. He stopped and took a step back while he blinked again. She ignored all the signs from her own mind that she was starting to lose her self-control, she couldn’t care less at the moment. ‘Now you listen to me. The only reason I’m here is that it’s just convenient. I’m here of my free will and I’m not going to let you boss me around!’ He opened his mouth to say something and raised his hand to speak but he wasn’t given the time for it. She hit his hand away to make her point but she wasn’t aware that she had again laid magic into her actions. He twisted around and almost fell on the ground if Alec wasn’t there to catch him. Alec let Lestat go again and took a step forward himself. His hands were glowing though they weren’t raised at her. ‘Listen to me Akascha, calm down a bit. You will hurt yourself or us if you go on like this.’

Alec took another step forward as he finished his sentence and he was almost nose to nose with Akascha. Lestat had composed himself completely and was standing beside Alec so that Akascha was driven against the wall. ‘I’m not the one who started this.’ She hissed at Alec, like hell she would take all the blame. She was feeling uneasy, the two men towered her and were ready to use magic against her. ‘You were the first one to use magic, so you’re the one who should calm down.’ Alec said calmly but with authority. He did lower his hand, though magic still flowed softly from his hands, ready to be used. Lestat stretched his hand a little bit to her. ‘Shall we just sit down and calm ourselves?’ He felt uncomfortable pinning her against the wall like that and frankly he didn’t know how she would react. It was his fault too, for reacting like that when he knew this was an issue with great value to Akascha.

Lestat’s magic disappeared while his hand was still stretched out to her. She took it, looking wary at him expecting still an attack or something. Alec sighed deeply and let his magic disappear too. He walked to the couch though still looking back at the two. Lestat carefully wrapped his arms around Akascha as she took his hand though she didn’t return the hug. She wasn’t so easily convinced or that easy to calm down. This wasn’t over yet. He let her go and took her hand again, pulling her softly to the couch. He sat down and he was trying to pull her back on the couch but she had other plans. She pulled her hand free, standing half a meter away from Lestat. She didn’t want to sit down, she was too… restless at the moment for it, her magic wanted to do something. ‘Come on Akascha, don’t be so childish.’ He patted beside him on the couch, inviting her to sit down again. Alec shook his head and said something to Lestat which she didn’t understand, it wasn’t a language she learned when she was a child. But then again, her study wasn’t so thoroughly. Lestat was nodding understandingly at Alec but Akascha didn’t really pay attention to it.

She was focusing on herself or better said, her flow of energy that ran strongly and eagerly through her veins. She knew she couldn’t stop it, the magic needed to be vented, but she didn’t have a way. She managed to get it under control, at least it wouldn’t burst out of her without her approval. She doubted her self control would last long, especially if they would start nagging about this issue. Apparently they were done talking because Alec was starting to walk to Akascha with a sighing Lestat behind him. Without saying anything, Alec grabbed Akascha’s arm tightly and started to pull her to the door. Akascha’s questions about what the hell he was doing were being ignored and it was harder and harder to control her magic. But why should I control it? She thought to herself, they are wrong this time. She pulled her arm free from Alec’s hand but her other arm was now grabbed by Lestat who was walking behind her. She snarled and her hands were glowing while a little burst of magic made sure that Lestat would release her as his hand almost got burned.

‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Akascha asked growling while she moved a step away from the two. Her human side was pissed off, it wanted to hurt someone. Her wolf side was saying she should run away from the danger in front of her since she was probably not match against two adult wolves who had years of training. ‘Just come with us, then we can see how strong you really are.’ Alec added something else which she couldn’t understand and suddenly some ropes appeared, binding her arms and legs together. She toppled over but was caught by Lestat. He lifted her up and they started to walk again, they still hadn’t reached the front door. Alec’s magic was strong, but it wouldn’t hold a pissed off Akascha down that easily. She began to struggle as they reached the front door and where walking down the road, seemingly unnoticed.

The few people they did encounter didn’t even look in their directions, they were oblivious to the fact that they were walking there. Akascha hissed, feeling the ropes bruise her skin. With another outburst of magic she freed herself from the ropes. The shockwave knocked the two men over, all three of them falling on the ground. Akascha was the first one to stand up and she immediately backed away from them. She crouched, ready to run or attack if necessary. She didn’t do anything though, she waited until they would make the next move. Even though they had attacked her first, Akascha didn’t really want to attack them back. But it was wrong for her to think she could just stand around and wait. Suddenly she fell face down on the mud with Alec on top of her back. She hadn’t even seen him move. In that moment she made up her mind: she would ran if she had the chance, a bit afraid of what she could do if she would use her magic on them.