Path Of The Broken

7. Bound-3

Kyle brought himself back to the present. Being taken by another was not what he’d thought it would be, what his first experience had taught him it would be. At least, up to this point it had mostly been the exact opposite. No one had lost their life under his blades since. Joanna had explained to him that he would remain here until he regained conscious control. The problems stemmed from when he discovered the former queen wasn’t always quite sane.

Kyle remembered asking Joanna whether his brush with madness was purely due to transition or the combination of the toxin and Alyssa. He couldn’t understand at all how he could have gone from who he had been to the mess he’d become. Joanna believed in his case that it was both, although she knew nothing about the toxin used on him. The insidious effects of the drug and the mental control Alyssa had installed on him shocked Joanna, and indeed Edward. It raised considerable debate amongst them regarding the origin of the toxin. The group, with the addition of Kat and Cal, had questioned the role of the Order and their true purpose. Eventually they had settled the debate, believing it had just been that small cell of people, headed by Daniel, spurred on by fear and jealously. Since they were already dead, no further action was necessary.

Kyle did not agree with their assessment, but kept his opinion to himself. He believed Alyssa and the Order would have kept dosing him with the drug until he became addicted to it and unable to function without it. He would have succumbed to madness or Alyssa would have full control of his mind. Probably both; at that point he would have become her puppet.

Fortunately, a moment of sanity where he’d been able to break away had saved him. Jess had found him and called Alex. Kyle realised how lucky he’d been that Alex had broken Alyssa’s hold on his mind, even if he didn't know at the time what he was doing. He understood now that if Alex and Jess hadn’t put their own minds between him and Alyssa, it was likely she would have regained her hold on him.

Kyle chuckled, although it held nothing but bitterness. His friends had managed to break him free of Alyssa’s control of his mind. Almost the first thing he’d done was run to someone else and allow himself to be enslaved again.

Resolve firmed in Kyle’s mind: he would gain his freedom again. First, though, he needed to heal. He needed to gain control of himself and his powers again.

Kyle cleared his mind, sensed the veil around him, and released his breath. He wasn’t sure why the breathing exercise helped. He only knew it did. So it was an exercise he performed every morning and evening. His life was becoming routine, time slipping away, with nothing to indicate to him how long he’d been here. He was working on Joanna to allow him out into the world again, but he’d learned he needed to pick his moments. She confirmed to him she would allow him greater freedom when she judged he was stable and more accepting of his status. So he curbed his impatience and throttled down his anger at his own stupidity. He followed the instructions she gave him, the outward picture of obedience to her will. Any rebellious thoughts were exiled to the back of his mind.

He pushed aside other concerns and continued with the next phase of his exercise. Kyle concentrated as he drew in strands of power, selecting the ones he wanted with care, and he willed it to take form. A small flame appeared before him, dancing and flickering in the air at eye height in front of him, held there by strands of the silver-grey power. Manipulation of the two different powers to do as he wished took concentration. It was an observation that caused him to smile. Oh, he was aware that lighting a candle was possible. A lot of people had that skill even if they didn't flaunt it. But to control the flame, to have it appear in the air in front of him and stay there, with nothing for the fire to consume… A few months ago he would not have even thought it was possible to do such a thing at all. Yet it was a small thing from what he’d seen Joanna and Simon do. Their feats were beyond what his imagination could conceive.

Every day he practiced and every day he was closer to winning his freedom. The day he could fulfil his retribution against the Order moved ever closer.