| Seer stepped into the tiny cart she shared with Kelnai and was immediately accosted by the shorter woman. "You were out there with them an awfully long time." Kelnai spoke accusingly, standing with her hands on her hips. "They wished to talk." Seer rolled her eyes, and stepped past Kelnai tiredly to her pile of blankets. "I'm not in the mood for this right now, Kelnai. Go to sleep. You have work to do tomorrow, and faking sickness again will not get you out of it." The glance she threw Kelnai as she undressed for sleep was full of disdain. "I wasn't faking," Kelnai said through her teeth. "That smell makes me ill." "That smell is death, Kelnai, and there is more coming." Seer spoke with her back to Kelnai. "The Acharya struggles to maintain order, and resistance is growing. Sometimes, I wonder what these people are thinking... I fear that the work will only get bloodier from here. You are a Mage. Act like it." The Magi were supposed have steel stomachs, nerves, and hearts. "I can deal with it," Kelnai muttered. "But I do not have to revel in the kill, as you do. I've seen the lustre in your sadistic eyes as you rip the resistance limb from limb. There is a euphoric peace on your face that I never see any other time -" she smiled. "Save when you are around Dharin." Seer spun to face Kelnai, swinging as she spun. Kelnai fell to the floor, crumpled under the force of Seer's blow. "Leave him out of this." Kelnai laughed, holding her cheek and obviously struggling to fight back a tear of pain. "So there's a weak spot in that armor you've built. What's wrong Seer?" Kelnai taunted. "I would think that the second most powerful murderer -" she laughed, starting to get to her feet. "Forgive me, the second most powerful Mage in the world, would have learned to harness her feelings ten years ago, with that first kill." Kelnai had been there, standing in the streets of Kilara with her mouth hanging open. She had been awed by the power of the Cleansers: Seer, Jenya and Dharin, standing together to quell a resistance. They had all seemed so much younger then. They had marched through the streets, proud amidst all the death and destruction, and Dharin had smiled at Kelnai... Seer laughed, breaking Kelnai's train of thought. "Almost a hundred died that day." She pulled Kelnai halfway up by her hair, once again amazed by the strength rage afforded her. "But that wasn't the first time that I have killed, and I guarantee it will not be the last." A slight fear crept into Kelnai's eyes. Usually the Mage did not truly frighten her; the being of light that appeared in her dreams managed to make Kelnai feel that no harm would come to her. "If Acharya knew what I knew," Kelnai stuttered. "That you told them about the Cerdaiya, he would probably take your life, and those of Jenya and Dharin as well." The day before they were allowed to leave the Spires of Trinlayra, every Mage was forced to swear never to divulge the insights their Magi abilities had afforded them. The penalty was usually Silence. "You were listening to a private conversation between your superiors?" She dropped Kelnai back to the floor. "If Acharya knew," she repeated softly, fearfully. "Petulant child," Seer sneered, kicking Kelnai in the side with a bare foot. "If I thought you were capable of threatening me," Seer mused. "I've never killed a Mage. I've never wanted to," she knelt to whisper into Kelnai's ear. "Until now. I consider them my brothers and sisters. But you, Kelnai-" She paused, taking in a sharp breath, seething with rage. "I would love nothing more than to peel your skin from your screaming form in tiny strips, under Acharya's orders. I'm certain that if I thought about the matter enough, I could find ample justification for the cessation of your annoying heartbeat. For example, the Acharya dislikes when his pupils shirk their duties, and you have managed to avoid any semblance of work since you joined Jenya, Dharin and myself." "You would kill one of your 'sisters?' " Kelnai backed away from Seer, scrambling on the floor. This fear she forced herself to play at, this helplessness was truly becoming old. "I already have, thirteen years ago," she smiled, standing. "My birth family, not my chosen family. All dead, by my hands." Kelnai's eyes widened as visions passed through her mind. "But, why?" "It was the Acharya's will, and my sacrifice for power. I enjoyed flaying the hands that had beaten me since the day I was born. The day before I left for Trinlayra," she paused. The name still made her shudder. "My parents, my sisters, my brothers; they all convulsed, skinless at my feet. I have never heard more satisfying pleas for mercy." Kelnai began weeping, cursed by the Acharya's "gift" of empathetic vision. Her tears were viscous, and a milkier shade of the shimmering ruby colour of her hair. Seer made a low, guttural sound in her throat. "You disgust me," she turned away from Kelnai, and finished undressing for sleep. "Weep not, weak Mage. You'll see the sunrise yet." Laughing softly, Seer settled among her blankets, losing consciousness as the rage faded from her body. Kelnai sat on the floor for a long time, trying to wipe away the sickly tears that stuck to her face. She loathed Seer for taking such glee in playing a bully, and she hated Kashan for sending her here to watch over the Cleansers. Sight or no, that man would be the death of her. Failing to remove the tears, she stepped outside the tiny cart, grimacing as the smell of death filled her nostrils. Moving slowly past all of the carts, avoiding the gazes of the servants still scuttling about, she looked for the messenger birds that had been promised to her when she left the walls of Morantfel. She was far away when Seer awoke and Called to the Acharya, and fell back into sleep again. |