Chapter Thirteen

Everything hurts.

Liquid fire pumped through my body, scorching with every heartbeat.

It hurts to breathe, to move, to think. The only thing that staved off the pain was to hold tightly to parts of myself that make me. But I can feel them slip away every time I loosen my grip. Every piece lost, making me less of who I was.

Holding on was excruciating, the pain crawling and tearing at my mind. Never ceasing, never-ending, stretching time from minutes to years, yet the scorching touch abates and never wanes.

It steadily builds and mounds, exceptionally grinding myself, my soul to fuel itself.

Let go. Adalinda sang the pleasing tone of a mother lulling a child to bed. I promised you all you need to do is let go roâ.

She was majestic and horroric both. Big, easily the width of a house, and twice as long. Shimmering red and black scales that softly chittered and chimed as the giant creature moved.

You didn't say how it would hurt.

You didn't think it would? Change hurts roâ your body wasn't ready for my grandeur. It must be made so.

Your Grandeur! What does that even mean?

Roâ-

I don't know what that means. Stop calling me that!

Chi- Anna, I can stop if you wish. I asked if you were willing. Perhaps you were wrong. If this is too much for you-

It's not.

Daniel is still out there fighting. I need to be able to help, to fight. I'm sick and tired of being useless. If I have to suffer for it, fine. I just wanted to be told.

Now, what did you mean by not ready for your grandeur?

I could feel her delicately cup my chin with a large, scaled claw. Forcing me to stare into the white rings of her eyes as she peered into my mind.

You are likened to a pond; my grandeur is an ocean. She combed a claw through my hair. You can imagine what would happen if I poured myself into you without first widening and deepening your banks and shores.

It was hard to pull away from Adalinda's touch. Even through the pain, she radiated a motherly warmth. She made it so easy to want to let go… drift off… lean into her touch, and listen to the strong rhythmic beating of her heart.

I mentally shoved her away. Deep, ragged breaths escaped me as the hot air burned my lungs with every breath.

What was I thinking? I have to hold on for as long as it takes. I can't fade away. I have to remain me… cling to the pain, and… stay. Awake.

—

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I was moving before I even realized that I could again. It felt like something else was puppetting my body.

Numbly, my mind tried to understand what was happening as my body sped toward the paladin.

I think time skipped. Indistinct memories of something in the interim of when I first moved and what happened next.

My clawed hand eclipsed his head. The cool steel was soothing as it nearly instantly turned red hot. I don't know if the sound that exited the helmet was the man on the inside screaming, the water escaping as it was flash-boiled, or a mixture of both. But it was simultaneously piercing and haunting, ending in a faint pop.

Then, there was the surge of warmth as something ephemeral surged down my arm, settling in my chest. It lingered there, pulsing like an out-of-sync heartbeat.

"Anna?" Turning my head to face the voice, Daniel spoke again, "Are you okay?"

I craned my neck to look at his face as he limped over. He isn't that much taller than me. It took a moment before I realized I was on the ground, sitting on top of the paladin's chest, but I couldn't bring myself to move as I processed what was asked?

“Am I…?" Talking hurt, instinctively swallowing to get any moisture felt like glass crawling down my throat.

I slowly shook my head.

"Okay, um, wait here for a moment. I need to catch my breath." All at once, he collapsed onto his back. After a moment, he continued, "When did Lantos teach you to do that?"

"I didn't," Lantos says quietly, walking up from behind Daniel. "It would be quite difficult even for me. What she did isn't possible."

I didn't even know what I did. I just wanted to help, to be useless anymore.

"As much as I would like to explore how she achieved that, we need to move." Causally, Lantos moved to stand next to me. Kneeling down, he placed the tip of his wand against the neck of the paladin. Before I could gather the mental wherewithal to ask him what he was doing, a brief jolt of air snapped the corpse's neck. "Tellock, his head."

She didn't question the order; if she did, it was a fleeting thought. Tellock's weapon lashed out as soon as Lantos finished speaking. A spray of blood coated the corpse's armor and me inadvertently. The head barely moved by the motion.

It rocked in place for a moment, settling on its side. Staring directly at me as if it was some judge before the accused.

Tellock awkwardly held the head, picking it up before tucking it under her arm.

What followed after was simple, almost bizarrely so. The other Knights gathered their dead companion without fanfare. One of them slugged the body over their shoulder while another, similarly to Tellock, held the head of the Beast.

Then we left.

No one spoke. We quietly trudged back toward San'Hallon, the journey punctuated by the intermittent calls and screeches of Beast wandering somewhere in the darkness. Converging on where we fled.

We didn't have the energy for the rapid pace we left the city with, and while no one said it, we weren't going to stop to rest as before either. Nobody wanted to be out here even a moment longer than necessary.

But it was like we won Lo'on favor as the walk back blurred together, and soon enough, we arrived. Crossing the lit boundary and into the wheat fields. Night slowly melded into dawn as we came upon them.

Lantos stopped. I didn't notice until I nearly ran into him. Stopped only by Daniel holding me back.

"I wish I could say it was a pleasure, but this is where we part ways." He then gave an exaggerated but slightly sincere bow.

"We're nearly at the gates," I said, unable to keep the exhaustion and dismay out of my voice.

"I refuse to believe that a Paladin can operate here without the Margravine's knowledge. Incompetent as she may be. Until I determine her culpability, we're not entering that city."

He gestures at the knights, "And I'm sure they have no interest in any political situation that may or may not occur, correct?"

The leader, Vinshar, if I remember correctly, slowly nodded his head. "We have accomplished what we set out to do. What happens now is beyond us."

"So what now?" Daniel sounded as tired as me.

"We rest," Lantos said simply. "After that, we puzzle out Anna's situation.

Speaking of which, "What did I do?"

"You don't know? Don't answer that you wouldn't ask if you did." He suddenly seemed nervous, running his hand through his hair. " I didn't see you move. You were suddenly lunging at the Paladin. You managed to pin him down by surprise and started to claw at his face. After that… there's no easy way to say this. You summoned fire around your hand and boiled him alive."