Path Of The Broken

12. Consequence-3

Alex smiled at Isabella’s joke. They had retired to a private, cozy sitting room at the back of the inn with a decanter of wine and food, to talk in private about the veil and its uses. Given its location in a border and merchant hub, the inn maintained several rooms where the merchant class could discuss business. He and Isabella had fallen into a pattern with an ease he didn't share with many people. For the most part Isabella let him explore and discover his abilities by himself. Then they would meet up in sessions like this and discuss any issues he might have. As a mentor she was excellent at explaining the subtleties of using the veil. That was a skill he didn't quite have the knack for yet. More than anything, she had proven to be remarkably good company.

As he felt that tug of the veil on the edge of his mind drawing his attention, he stiffened and placed his goblet on the small table beside him. That signature was Kyle. A series of images came to him of his friend fighting, outnumbered, against those with power. Not waiting to explain to Isabella, Alex pulled himself into the veiled paths. His arms wide, fingers splayed, he drew power to himself as he rushed though the veil, closing the distance between himself and Kyle. The outside world blurred, but Alex paid it no mind, intent on his goal.

Alex materialised, placing himself between his lifelong friend and his attackers. The force of his arrival caused a shockwave of power to roll out, with him at the epicentre. Alex raised his head to pin his shocked opponents with his gaze. With a predatory grin, he reached out as far as his senses would allow and drew in even more power. In his eyes he could see the multiple thick bands of power arcing though the air, striking him one after the other.

Alex saw two of his enemies flee, there one moment then gone the next, before he blocked the remaining Kin from leaving. He saw their eyes widen in shock as they tried to leave but found they couldn’t. Alex shaped the power he’d gathered and with a snarl hurled it at the four men in front of him. His power sliced through their attempt to erect barriers with ease. Then, with little time for their eyes to widen in shock and pain, just like the boulder in the clearing, they exploded. What had once been human disintegrated into ash, scattering in the wind. The stark silence that followed the explosive crack of power was absolute.

Alex relaxed with conscious effort, allowing the excess power to drain from him. He knew he would pay the price for his excessive display, but he’d sleep later. Alex's lips twitched as he turned to face his friend, standing there looking at him wide-eyed. Alex thought he might need to pay more attention to Isabella; he needed to learn some subtlety. He had to learn how to fight while not giving in to the anger that flooded his mind. He had to learn he didn't need to use every bit of power he could draw, pushing aside caution or any thought of consequences while he was at it.

Alex let the calm of the veil wash over him and let his anger at those who had attacked his friend drop away. It helped that the miscreants were dead or had fled on his arrival. He would deal with the ones who ran later. It was a puzzle he still had to solve. They were not Sundered, their mind signatures too controlled, too calm. They had also not been like himself, slowly healing from madness. At least now he could maintain conscious control of himself, even if he was still inclined to be ruled by his emotions.

“Brother, you know how to make an appearance.”

Alex laughed and hugged his friend before stepping back. He ran his eyes over Kyle, assessing him both visually and with the veil. He was a long way from the man who’d been losing himself in a downward spiral to confusion and madness. Alex recognised now that his friend had been exhibiting some of the traits of the Sundered.

“Yes, well, I knew you were in trouble fighting and outnumbered. I have a feeling I’ve had a little more practice fighting than you have of late. You shouldn’t play with them, Kyle. Just kill them.”

Alex looked over his friend again with his other sight, then froze. It was almost second nature for him to check for signs of those malignant bonds in his friend after the mess with Alyssa. He stepped forward, grasping Kyle by the shoulders.

“What the hell, Kyle? Who’s done this to you?” As tired as he was with his overcharge display, Alex drew in power, intending to take Kyle with him back to safety.

Alex staggered back in shock as multiple blows struck him and a sword plunged into his abdomen. He pressed his hand to his stomach and looked up at his friend, and saw him drawing power, ready to strike again.

The power seemed to gather around them both with the entire sky above them blocked out by the writhing mass, the crack of power rolling through the air. Alex hastily drew in power himself, throwing up a barrier between him and his friend. He held back his instinct to fight back.

Kyle, please. This isn’t you, fight the control.

Kyle’s only answer was to draw more power and launch it toward him. Alex deflected the blows, which exploded into the surrounding ground, with earth, rocks and grass flying up and out giving testimony to the strength of the power being used.

“You’ll not take him! He’s mine!” a woman’s voice shrieked at Alex, almost unrecognisable in its fury.

Alex froze, staring at his friend. He had a moment to wonder why pain flashed across his face before he turned and caught sight of the woman—the one who his mind remembered talking to him, reassuring him, chasing away the nightmares since he was a child.

His mother.

Alex swallowed, his brain shrieking at him with instant recognition. Of all the people to have enslaved his friend, he hadn’t expected to see her. He felt like he’d been hit again when he recognised she was being restrained by Edward. Her madness hammered at the shield on his mind as the power gathered and swirled around her. He’d known that his mother was alive but he’d never expected to see her alive in circumstances like this, certainly not with his uncle being present as well. Edward must have known all these years that she was alive.

“Why?”

Alex heard the anguish, the pain in his own voice. He didn’t doubt what he was seeing. For once he welcomed the blackness that rose, and fled into the comforting darkness of the veil.

* * * *

Kyle's relief at seeing Alex alive and well was momentarily replaced with horror when Alex realised that he was under control of another. As Alex’s power surged, his intent to take Kyle somewhere safe to deal with Joanna’s bonds surged in his mind.

Kyle tried to struggle as his own will was thrust aside, compulsion driving him.

Joanna, no! Stop it.

He continued to struggle against her control as he felt himself draw power and in a deft, practiced movement his body lunged, plunging his sword into Alex’s abdomen. Kyle screamed, aware it was only in his own head as he drew power and attacked Alex, who only threw up a barrier in his own defence.

Edward struggled to restrain Joanna, conflicted and not wanting to hurt her yet watching the unfolding drama with a pained expression on his face.

“You’ll not take him! He’s mine!” Joanna screamed, her eyes burning in anger.

Kyle continued his futile struggle against Joanna’s control, a part of him dying inside. He’d just committed one of the very acts that had given him nightmares before he’d submitted to Joanna's control: attacked his own friend, consumed by madness. Yet that madness beating through his brain wasn’t his own.

As Alex called power and disappeared into the veil, Kyle slumped in relief as Joanna let her iron control of him ease off.

“Damn you, Joanna. That was Alex! You made me stab your own son!” Kyle’s voice was raw with emotion.

He saw the moment his words and pain penetrated Joanna’s madness, as she wilted in Edward’s grip.

“No.” The mad light retreated from her eyes, her head shaking in denial.

She covered her face, great wracking sobs shuddering through her slight frame. Joanna sank to the ground in Edward’s arms, crying like a woman who’d just lost everything.