The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 08

"Go!" I commanded him, pointing toward the door.

He staggered to his feet, still dazed from his ordeal. He took a few steps back, as if expecting me to deal him a death blow any second.

"GO!" I repeated. He ran.

All was quiet again, except, of course, for Abel's dying gasps. I realized it wasn't too late to save him, too. I even considered it, but declined. Unlike the guards, who I had only attacked in self-defense, I had chosen to kill Abel, and I was still of a mind that he should die. There was only one other...

Right then, I heard a noise behind his throne. Shuffling, and a terrified gasp, somebody trying to quiet their breathing. Somebody was hiding back there! And I had a feeling I knew who it was.

"Come... out!" I commanded, angrily. There was murder in my voice. I wondered if I should tear him limb from limb, pulverize him, or just kill him quickly.

But it wasn't the vicar who stepped out from behind the throne. It was Susan. Having been in the witness chair when the violence started, she would have been on the other side of me from the exit. She had chosen to hide rather than run past me.

"You..." I said, more disappointed than surprised.

Susan said nothing, only offering a few pleading whimpers.

Her testimony had been exactly what Lord Abel had needed to condemn me to death. I didn't want her dead for that, but I was extremely angry at her all the same. I lifted her off the ground and threw her back into the witness chair, then fused her to it just like I had done with her tongue a month or two ago. The bond worked just as well through clothing.

"I'll be back to deal with you later," I snarled, then left the throne room.

What could I possibly do now? All I knew was that I couldn't be in that accursed throne room anymore. As I walked, I tried to come up with a plan. The rest of the guards were more than likely waiting for me outside. Maybe after firing a volley or two at me, they would finally get the idea that they couldn't kill me. Could I negotiate with them? Convince them to stand down?

And what then? I could leave Ash and live as a hermit, alone in the wilderness. It wouldn't matter, I could conjure all the food and other provisions I would need to live comfortably. Maybe I could find a new city to live in, one that I hadn't ruined. I could even change my face and be somebody new. Or maybe I could stay in Ash. Now that I had revealed my true power, maybe I could make them respect me at long last! I could be their queen!

But I wanted that least of all. I wanted to be loved, not feared. What I wanted more than anything was to have my old life back; when I had used my powers only for fun trivialities. Why did I have to seek revenge? I could have ignored all these slights against me and gone on living happily with my new friends. My revenge had cost me everything! My friends, even my own parents, would never regard me the same again. With all my power, I still could change the past or remove people's memories. What was done was done.

When I reached the main gate, I notice the portcullis was still open and the drawbridge down. Why wouldn't they have been, though? They had been fleeing the castle, not trying to defend it. I approached the gate. It was dusk, almost fully night now. The trial had gone on for hours. I tried to look out to the village to see what was going on out there. It was dark and empty: not a soul in sight, not a fire burning.

Then, as I foolishly stepped out past the portcullis and into the chill night air, I heard a shout come from above me.

"It's her! Now!"

I looked up at the parapet above me just in time to see a pair of guards overturn a large cauldron over the side. The next instant, I was covered from head to foot in boiling oil, and I knew that all the pain I had felt in my life, from being beaten with a fire poker to being shot with arrows, was nothing.

Never mind that I had made my skin impervious to spears and arrows. Nothing I had put in place did a thing to prevent the moisture in my flesh from evaporating. And the heat quickly penetrated deep, even down to the muscles, which I had not enchanted.

This was pain beyond what I even imagined could exist! I was on the ground, writhing and screaming blood-curdling screams, the likes of which had never escaped my mouth before!

Yet somehow, perhaps by a miracle, I kept enough sense to call out to the Oculus and point its gaze toward my brain: the one part of me I couldn't count on repairing with its power if it were to be damaged. The surface of my brain was already starting to heat up. Just in time to prevent serious damage, I willed a barrier around my skull to nullify any excess heat. I expanded it outward to cool the searing oil.

I had saved my brain, but for a moment I thought that had been a mistake. All I had done was preserve its ability to feel the unimaginable pain I was feeling. And remember it. With a single thought, I could have squished my brain into a pulp and killed myself as fast as the Captain of the Guard had died. The end of pain. The end of suffering. The end of the misery of being an unlikable outcast like myself. Surely, even Verus' unforgiving clutches would be kinder than this unfathomable agony!

But in the end, the enraged animal within me won over, determined to continue surviving by any means necessary. I tried to open my eyes, but realized I was blind. I had to repair them. I had never operated on eyes before, and it was delicate work. It took me time to put everything back in place, more time than I had.

While I worked on them, I heard shouting from above me, and felt myself being pelted with arrows. My eyes still weren't able to see, so I had to look at my attackers with the Oculus. The top of Ash Keep was incredibly high up. Could it even see that far?

It could! That was another limit of the Oculus I had never bothered to test, because looking through the Oculus was nothing like looking through my eyes. It saw only logic. Its images were stripped of any human concepts such as beauty. However, it had no trouble identifying the parapets with armor-clad soldiers hiding behind them, all easily a hundred feet above my head.

I grabbed onto the entire top section of the wall and pulled with all the Oculus' might! The top third of the wall crumbled out from under the archers' feet, leaving them to fall to their deaths. Since I was already looking through Oculus, it made it easier for me to deflect any of the falling rubble that threatened me.

"Lord have mercy!" someone cried from the town square.

"Loose arrows! Now!" barked another, and I was hit with a volley of arrows too numerous to count. Twenty? The what remained of Ash's army must have regrouped in the town square and hid to ambush me as soon as I emerged.

"Keep shooting! Don't let her recover!"

Though the arrows weren't sticking in me, their impacts against my already agonized flesh made it impossible for me to concentrate on the delicate matter of healing my burns. Flailing, I lifted half a dozen large stones from the rubble around me and shot them in the general direction of my attackers. I threw them with more force than a catapult. Far, far more! I couldn't tell who I hit, but I heard screaming, and the arrows stopped. But for how long?

Thinking quickly, I lifted several dozen of the stones around me and converged them into a small wall in front of me, and commanded the Oculus to continue levitating them in place. I decided fixing my eyes was taking too long, and started restoring my seared flesh. Well over half my body burnt so badly the skin would die, the Oculus told me. It would be a death sentence if I didn't fix it soon. I had much more practice working with skin, so reforming it went much faster. As life was restored to my dying skin, the agony subsided wondrously! In thirty seconds, I had repaired my flesh as good as I needed it for now. With most of the pain removed, I found I could concentrate better on my eyes. In another minute I was able to see.

I dared to let my rock wall collapse.

"Loose!" their new commander shouted. A new volley of arrows came at me from behind the corners of buildings. These arrows were aflame, though it wouldn't have mattered. They bounced off my reformed flesh so quickly that even my oil-soaked clothing didn't catch fire. The arrows left nothing worse than bruises.

All it did was anger me further. If they wanted to use fire, I could do them one better. I wanted to really test the limits of the Oculus' raw power! I shoved the rubble aside, clearing a path for me to the drawbridge. Slowly walking towards my attackers, I lifted the two largest boulders I could find and let them hover on either side of me. I applied heat energy, more and more. The rocks began to glow. Soon, I had to shield myself from their heat. Was there any limit to how hot I could make them? As they glowed brighter and brighter, the arrows came at me less frequently as several of the archers froze in awe. The nighttime scene of Ash was now awash with an eerie, red glow as stone itself melted like sugar.

I loosed the molten globs at my attackers. The soldiers who were hit directly evaporated. Their armor melted. Those who were nearby were instantly charred to a crisp. Houses that were a good twenty feet away from the liquid hellfire smoked, smoldered, and burst into flames. Screaming erupted from everywhere. What soldiers were still able to run scattered themselves. Villagers emerged from the now burning houses they had barred themselves inside of, only burst into flames themselves once they were in direct sight of the still molten stone.

I had decided that I would hunt down and kill every last one of those soldiers for burning me with the oil. Walking wasn't fast enough, so I levitated myself a foot off the ground and floated the rest of the way into the main square. I passed craters in the ground where my first volley of rocks had hit. The raging heat of the fires hardly bothered me, as I was well adept at shielding myself from it by now.

As I progressed, I turned a corner and saw where the remaining soldiers had regrouped. All of Ash's army, those who had not fallen or fled, numbered no more than fifteen. They formed a line with their shields, spears and bows out and at the ready. What did they think they were going to do with those, anyway?

I flew toward them, and set my feet down on the ground ten or fifteen yards in front of them. I began walking toward them, debating in my mind how I should end them. They lowered their spears toward me as their terrified eyes reflected the inferno of Ash behind me.

"STOP!" a young man screamed, suddenly, from the side of the street. A figure ran out from an alleyway and stood between me and the soldiers. He outstretched both arms, one palm facing me and the other facing the soldiers, as if trying to hold us apart.

"Please!" he pleaded. "Don't let there be anymore killing tonight." I recognized Joseph's voice.

"YOU!" I screamed, angrily at him. "You traitor! You testified against me!"

"I was trying to help you! Don't you understand that?"

"You said I was disturbed!"

"That doesn't mean you are evil. I was trying to say you needed help, not punishment!"

"Get out of my way!" I growled from between clenched teeth.

"No! I can't! They're just soldiers. They aren't the ones who tried to hurt you." He turned to look behind him. "And lower your god damn weapons, for Christ's sake! They aren't helping!"

"THEY TRIED TO COOK ME ALIVE!" I screamed at him!

"That was the Magistrate's order, not theirs."

"You weren't there for the searing hot oil they poured on me! You've never felt such pain in your life! GET OUT OF MY WAY, JOSEPH, OR I'LL KILL YOU TOO!"

"No," he said with otherworldly calmness. "No more killing."

Joseph faced me square on and planted his feet defiantly. He looked upward toward the heavens, as if making his peace with God. His arms were raised only slightly to either side, palms open and facing me, as if to show me he was unarmed. He seemed ready to martyr himself.

With a thought, I snapped his neck like a twig.

The boy slumped lifelessly to the ground. Then there came a tragic wail from the alley he had emerged from. Even in my psychotic rage, the sound of that scream curdled my blood. It was the sound of absolute despair! The sound of all hope being crushed. It was the worst sound I had ever heard in my life, and it still haunts me to this day. It must have been Rebecca. I had killed her husband right in front of her eyes.

I stood there, stunned by what I had just done. The remaining soldiers turned and fled. I let them go. I didn't know what to do now.

"Joseph... JOSEPH, NO! I'M SORRY!" I screamed as soon as I was able to move. I ran over to him and crouched over his body. I heard desperate footsteps as the woman in the alleyway turned and ran. I rolled him onto his back. His neck was crooked in a way that turned my stomach. I reached out with my mind and reset the broken bones, then rejoined the severed nerves. I put everything back as it should have been. But Joseph didn't move.

"Come on, Joseph! Wake up! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" I gently slapped his face a few times. I jostled him. I reexamined him through the Oculus to see if anything was still broken, but I couldn't find anything. Why wasn't his heart beating? Why wouldn't he breathe?

You could lay the perfect fire, but it still wouldn't burn without a spark. Maybe if I started him up, I could get his lifeforce working again! I moved his blood in his veins. I pushed fresh air into his lungs. I shouted at him and shook him. He wouldn't respond. The intricate web in his brain showed no activity. No thoughts. No sensations. How could I spark that into motion? I had no idea! The human mind was the one thing too complex for the Oculus to understand. I tried and tried to restore life to his motionless body, anything I could even think to try, but nothing I did worked. I could create nearly any wonder imaginable with my power, but I could not create life. No, I could only destroy it. What power was this even? What was this power but a curse?

Some wounds heal, and some wounds fester and only worsen. I had thought I had known true pain. No, in time, even the horror of the boiling oil faded. But the guilt of killing a man I had loved by my own hand has never diminished.

If I have ever insinuated that I do not believe in God, I apologize. I do, just not as the Bible describes Him. For right then, it began to rain. It was a good thing, because the fire had been spreading quickly throughout Ash, and if things had stayed as they were, I think I might have let the fire engulf me this time.

Just as the cave had communicated wordless thoughts to me before, such thoughts came to me now. But these were not the thoughts of the cave. This were something distinctly different: something much more real. I realized that Joseph had departed, and no part of him would ever tread this world again. And where he was going, he would be regarded as a hero, so I should not despair for him. The pile of flesh and bones before me, though immaculately beautiful, was now no more meaningful than the rind of a fruit consumed. It had served its purpose, and it would do me no good to dwell on it.

I stood up. The screams and commotion had long since stopped. Every survivor in Ash surely must have fled by now. I don't know how I knew this, but somehow, I knew that Gaius had, on his own accord, lead the evacuation of Ash. He had been the only soldier that day that had carried out his duties. And by that I don't mean carried out the orders of his commander. No, he had served a higher purpose than that. He had carried out the true, unspoken duty of every soldier, and he had saved hundreds of lives in doing so. These thoughts being revealed to me had a sort of solemn calmness to them, and I was calmed as well. Not just my rage, but also my despair, subsided. No, these were nothing like the thoughts from the cave, which roiled my blood. Thoughts from the rain, maybe?

I turned around and looked behind me. The flames billowed higher than before, towering above the fragile shops and houses, licking at the starry sky. It didn't matter. There was nothing left here to save. Just like Joseph's body, all of it was but a husk. My destiny and Ash's destiny would never converge again. What, then, was there for me to do?

Suddenly I knew. I needed to face the Adversary.

...

I few across the night sky, above the treetops. Rain hit me in the face as I sped through the air, chilling me to the bone. I hardly cared. In my right hand I held that accursed thing, which I had retrieved from the remains of my house. It was no surprise that the fire hadn't touched the stone. It remained unblemished, despite the fact that I had retrieved it from the ashes of what used to be my bedchamber. It wasn't even tarnished by soot.

I had made this journey in my youth more times than I could count. Though it was the dead of night, and had only ever seen the way by foot, it didn't take me long to find the place to set myself down.

I approached the mouth of the cave, accursed object in hand. I was terribly frightened, but then again, I had nothing left to live for.

"TAKE IT BACK!!!" I screamed, and threw the Oculus in as far as I could. I heard it clatter on the floor of the cave and roll farther in, though how far I couldn't see. Everything past the mouth of the cave was pitch black.

"YOUR 'GIFT' WAS A CURSE! I NEVER WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!"

There was silence. Was that tacit acceptance? After a few moments of nothing, I turned to walk away.

"A shame," came Verus' unearthly voice at last. Even having 'heard' it several times before, it chilled me to the bone, this time more than ever. "And right after you did so well with it. You were just starting to impress me."

"GOD DAMN YOU, VERUS!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was beside myself with rage.

Then there came the feeling of laughter from the cave, conceited and amused. "Do you even know the meaning of those words you speak? Can your mortal mind even grasp such concepts as 'God' or 'damnation?' From you, those words are nonsense."

"I'm not here to play word games! I'm here to give you back the Oculus! I DON'T WANT IT! I'M NEVER TOUCHING IT AGAIN!"

"But it's still connected to you," came Verus' immaterial voice. "You should know by now that you are the epicenter of its power, not the rock. The rock's physical location is of no consequence whatsoever. You might as well keep it. As a reminder."

"As a reminder of what?" I sneered.

"As a reminder of me! And, of course, the pact that binds us."

"TO HELL WITH OUR PACT! YOU LIED TO ME!"

There was the feeling of laughter again. "And how do you think I lied to you in such a way that invalidates our deal?"

"YOU TOLD ME THE WHOLE TOWN HATED ME!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "ALL MY LIFE, YOU TOLD ME THEY SCORNED ME BECAUSE I WAS BETTER THAN THEM! But I know that isn't why they hated me now. It was a few personality flaws: FLAWS I COULD HAVE FIXED HAD ANYONE BOTHERED TO TELL ME ABOUT THEM! BUT YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO FIX ANYTHING, YOU WANTED ME TO STAY A PARIAH! YOU WANTED TO NURTURE MY RESENTMENT! And then, when I finally found friends of my own, with no help from you at all, YOU TURNED THEM AGAINST ME! I KNOW YOU MANIPULATED THEM!"

"Clever girl! Perhaps I did. Perhaps I gave them a little... push... to act on the feelings they already harbored against you. I'm used to humans giving me their complete trust, surrendering the last of their willpower to me. You turned out to be more willful than I had counted on, so called on the help of a few others to help me remind you of the crusade for justice you seemed so eager to undertake when I first revealed myself to you.

"Justice? JUSTICE??? MY ENTIRE TOWN IS DEAD! YOUR 'JUSTICE' DESTROYED EVERYTHING I EVER LOVED! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED? IT WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT YOUR MEDDLING! You're the one that made these things happen! So as far as I'm concerned, you are the only one responsible. You're the only one who deserves any justice!"