Whispers of Power

3

image [https://i.ibb.co/9gP5RS6/toppng-com-line-dividers-png-1000x200.png]

A haunting laugh echoed across the deserted tennis courts. A girl, her eyes glowing a violet madness, pinned another beneath her. Sickly purple mist swirled around them both. It tightened with each laboured breath, a slow, agonising song of suffocation.

Eydis licked her split lip. It wasn't pain that bloomed in her eyes, but amusement.

Tiffany, violet eyes bulged with a mix of confusion and rage, snarled through gritted teeth. "Crazy bitch! What’s so funny?"

Eydis, her chest heaving, fought for air. "This is... exhilarating."

The blonde recoiled. This wasn't terror reflected in Eydis's amber eyes. It was something far more unsettling — a dark, twisted joy. Unlike Jillian, who begged for her life, Eydis seemed to be… enjoying it?

“You’re a real freak, aren't you?” Tiffany spat, but the venom lacked its usual bite. Unease churned in her gut. Her eyes darted around, searching for any sign of movement. Was she being watched? Had Eydis set some kind of trap?

"You don't… understand power at all, do you?” Eydis rasped, the smoke swirling around her like an embrace. “Let alone the seductive whispers of darkness.”

The smoke constricted again, draining the air from Eydis's lungs. It lingered for a long moment before releasing her with a hiss, a malevolent game of mock-suffocation. Eydis gasped, a sliver of air flooding back into her starved lungs. But even as she fought for each inhale, her eyes glinted with… delight?

Tiffany's retort came out as a strangled shout, "You know nothing! Nothing about MY power, nothing about ME!"

But a seed of doubt, planted by Eydis's words, had taken root in Tiffany's eyes. The smoke's hold on her mind, once absolute, wavered with each flicker.

Eydis chuckled, a sound that scraped against Tiffany's sanity. "Naivete suits you, Tiffany. You believe you control this power, but it controls you. It's a leech, consuming you from within. And what’s left…” she paused, her eyes transfixed Tiffany, spearing her like a struggling insect. “Just an empty shell, a puppet discarded when its strings snap."

“Shut up. Shut UP!” Tiffany screamed, her voice cracking. Every word Eydis spoke felt like a hot iron searing away her delusions. Maybe power did cost something, something she'd given freely. But a tiny voice whispered - was she still in charge?

Was she?

The smoke, sensing its weakening hold, writhed in the air in a frenzy. The once unified voice fractured into a discordant chorus in Tiffany's mind: 'Don't listen! Don't listen!' But the whispers were drowned out by a horrifying realisation — the power she craved, the voice in her head... it no longer felt like hers.

Eydis's predatory grin widened. "What good is power when you're too dead to use it?" she taunted.

Tiffany clutched her head. "Lies! Lies!"

The Queen pressed the attack, each word a silken whip leaving a mark on Tiffany’s sanity. "You know it's true, don't you? It's a parasite, feeding off your insecurities, your darkest desires."

Tiffany, overwhelmed, dug her nails into her forehead. "Lies! All of you are liars!" she shrieked. The smoke, its tendrils growing more erratic, pulsed with a dark urgency.

"Including yourself," Eydis breathed. "Be honest. You’re no longer in control. And deep down, you know it’s true.”

The smoke's seductive facade shattered completely. Exposed, its telepathic whispers morphing into a cacophony of shrieks that echoed off the empty tennis court.

"Doubt! Weakness! Lies!" it screeched. "This power is YOURS, Tiffany! Command it! Take control!"

A desperate cackle, fractured with fear, erupted from Tiffany. "Mine... You're right!" she rasped. "You’re a liar, Eydis! Think I'm a fool don't you. Forget the torture, kill her NOW!" She lunged forward but her attempt to slap Eydis was halted by an unusual strength gripping her wrist.

The smoke, revitalised by Tiffany's renewed conviction, surged towards Eydis. The dark wave crashed against her chest, only to be met by a blinding flash of white light — a protective spell erupting in response.

Eydis's eyes, usually sparkling with mischief, now tinged with cruelty. "Took you long enough to speak.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

She slammed her hands onto the ground, an arcane chant spilled from her lips, a blend of mathematical symbols and forgotten tongues. The words seemed to bend reality with their power. The very stones beneath their feet trembled.

A sigil—an intricate mandala—flared to life. Each line was etched with cryptic symbols that pulsed with emerald light. The air thrummed with a mechanical rhythm as a thousand tiny gears ground into motion, the very essence of magic taking form.

Tiffany, only then, saw the circle, drawn by grey chalk around them. It was a beautiful cage, a masterpiece of power that promised only her doom.

The smoke recoiled in fear. Its wispy tendrils whipped around like burnt paper. Trapped inside the glowing circle, its tormented wails pierced the night.

Eydis's amber eyes now blazed with a molten gold fire, power radiating from them. "This power? Yours?" she tilted her head, a sly smile playing on her lips. "It was always mine."

Tiffany's pupils dilated with fear and confusion. "What do you mean...?"

A flicker of a memory danced in Eydis's eyes — the day she'd discovered magic existed in this world. It was the same day the fundamental truth struck her — the laws of mathematics were universal.

Unlike her own mana-fuelled magic, these sigils were hungry beasts feasting on the world itself. They thrived on meticulously crafted equations where the language of magic danced with the cold logic of numbers.

But magic resonated with this realm's arcane tongues, one Eydis painstakingly learned to decipher. Fuelled by this revelation, she spent countless nights devouring the ancient texts in the library. Each translated syllable, a key unlocking a new thread of possibility.

The protection sigil, a first step, gleamed with defensive potential. But the true prize lay beside it — a binding sigil, a cage for something far more formidable.

There was just one final piece missing.

A name.

Eydis's voice dropped to a low growl, "You've been a naughty girl, haven't you?”

"W-What are you talking about?" Tiffany whimpered, panic rising in her chest.

“I wasn't talking to you,” Eydis’s gaze snapped towards the trapped smoke, a dangerous glint in her golden eyes. She commanded, "Rise, and bind yourself to me! Remember your master! Thy name I call forth. Show yourself!"

The sigil pulsed with a malevolent green as Eydis whispered, a single final word: "Envy!"

The smoke shrieked in agony as it coalesced, twisting unwillingly into a graceful serpent she envisioned. The resulting creature was magnificent, its obsidian scales gleaming with an otherworldly purple.

"Q-Queen of Shadows?" it rasped, surprise twisting its serpentine face as memories of its original owner flooded back. "Y-Your Majesty?”

"Forgotten me so soon?" Eydis growled.

The serpent writhed pathetically at her feet. "Forgive me, Your Majesty! I... I couldn't recognize your energy. Our binding was severed the moment we... Without a master or memories... the only thing that kept me on was... sustenance." Its voice trembled with fear.

"Are you sure?" Eydis's hand shot out, tightening around the serpent's throat. "Do you recognise me now? Slow suffocation... you did seem to enjoy it so much before."

The fear in the serpent's eyes melted away, replaced by a twisted form of affection. It wriggled free and coiled around her arm, its obsidian scales cool against her skin. "It is you! Your Majesty. But your touch... needs work."

The audacity almost earned it another squeeze. Before Eydis could react, Tiffany’s voice ripped through the conversation.

"Sustenance?!" she screamed. "I'm your MASTER!"

"Master?" The serpent hissed, its forked tongue flickering in contempt. "You? You're a pathetic marionette dancing on the strings of your own delusions. My loyalty lies with one mistress, and one mistress only: Her Majesty. Now bow, you insignificant insect, before I decide to rid the world of your irritating presence."

Eydis clamped her hand around the serpent's neck once more, her voice a honeyed threat that sent shivers down its reptilian spine.

"Envy, how touching," she purred sweetly. "Such loyalty, considering you were this close to constricting me moments ago."

Envy writhed in her grasp, its tongue darting in and out in fear, its scales seeming to dull with shame.

“W-When I awoke, Your Majesty, I was adrift. This world… it felt alien, my mind was empty. I was famished, so hungry… And what a delectable morsel I found—a heart overflowing with bitter envy, a feast that sustained me for so long.”

Tiffany's face crumpled. A strangled cry tore from her throat. "Liar! LIAR!" Tears streamed down her face. "You chose me because I'm special. I am special!"

A slow, cold smile spread across Eydis's lips. "Special indeed, Tiffany. You fuelled a creature born of envy. It made me wonder which one possessed you more — Envy or Pride?" She gestured towards the ground, where another intricate sigil lay dormant. "I even prepared for both eventualities."

"But the moment you opened your mouth, Envy, your putrid essence filled the air. There was no mistaking you."

Eydis shot a sidelong glance at the sheepish serpent.

"We seem to have gotten sidetracked, haven't we? Farewell, Tiffany. May you find solace in the emptiness you've created." Eydis silently siphoned the remaining violet mist from Tiffany's body.

Tiffany watched in horror as her power seeped out, flowing towards Eydis and reawakening the magic in her fingertips.

"No! No! It's mine!" she pleaded, clinging pathetically to Eydis's leg. "Give it back! Freak... I mean Eydis, please!"

Eydis stared down at Tiffany. "Entrusting the likes of you with my power? That's like asking a toddler to fly a spaceship. Don't you think? Did I use that analogy correctly?"

The Queen freed herself from Tiffany's grasp and began to walk away. Silently, she willed the serpent to erase the sigils with its scales.

As the last vestiges of the mist abandoned Tiffany, her eyes glazed over, and she crumpled to the ground like a broken puppet discarded in the dust.

Eydis didn't spare her a glance. A spark of magic danced on her fingertips, a promise of power slowly returning.

The serpent shimmered, its form dissolving into invisibility. "Your mastery of sigils remains unmatched, Your Majesty.”

"You mentioned my energy being disorienting. Explain," Eydis demanded.

"Your arcane energy, a beacon guiding us. But when I awoke, it was... muted. Disjointed. Even now, you feel different, Your Majesty."

"Powerless?"

"No," the serpent hissed. "Different. This vessel you inhabit... its arcane signature clashes with your own. It makes locating you... difficult."

"So the rest of my power is scattered here, in this city? Not recognising their master?" Eydis clenched her jaw. "Then we have much work to do. Otherwise..."

"The Pandora's box will be pried open, and the consequence…" the serpent whispered ominously.

“The consequences would be catastrophic,” Eydis finished. Her footsteps fell silent on the damp grass, swallowed by the night.