Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

FIVE

The whole dungeon dropped into an uncomfortable silence as Kyra stared at the restrained woman and she returned the favour with one of her own, only more unnerving. The fear which had gripped the Soul of magic had vanished at that moment, giving way for a different but equally intense emotion; anger.

Kyra was angry and it showed. She was angry at the Dark Hearts Coven for all the trouble they had put her through, she was angry at the wizards for allowing to become pawns in a game that would serve their. But even more than that, she was angry at herself.

The Soul of magic believed it was her fault that the alliance was in jeopardy. Perhaps if she had displayed her power more, if she had shown the people that she truly was capable to help them beyond just ensuring that magic survived the great conflict; then perhaps, the wizards wouldn’t have gotten themselves mixed up with the Dark Hearts Coven. But she hadn’t and so, everything was as it was.

However, Kyra put all that aside and calmed herself before opening the door to the cell, stepping inside to face the woman squarely. Richard wanted to follow her but she stopped him with the raise of her finger. "This is something I have to do alone," she said to him, and meant it too.

"Are you sure?" he asked, obviously not sharing her certainty. "Kyra, you don't have to do it alone if you don't want to."

"I appreciate the thought, Richard, but I'll be fine," she replied, facing him so that he could see her sureness. "I've got this, I promise."

Knowing that there was nothing else he could do about it, the king gave her a nod of understanding and encouragement before going away to give her the privacy she needed.

"Awwn! So sweet," the woman said as soon as Richard had left, making no effort to hide the mockery in her tone. "You two are quite the pair, aren't you?"

Kyra knew the woman was only trying to goad her into losing her head; just like the Dark Hearts Coven had done at every turn over the course of the months. Their goal wasn’t just to destroy the alliance but the Soul of magic along with it; and not wanting to give them the satisfaction of seeing that happen, she ignored the other woman’s words and took a seat on the only bench available in the cell instead. Then, she launched into what had caused her to stay instead of leave like a portion of heart was telling her to do; getting answers.

"Who are you?" she asked, making her eyes tell the other woman that she was concerned about nothing but the subject matter.

"My name is Isidora," she replied, surprisingly sounding corporative. "I'm a member of the famous Dark Hearts Coven."

"Infamous, don’t you mean?" Kyra returned, making her voice sound as nonchalant as possible even though her anger was welling up again at the mention of the coven's name. “I mean, the actions of the Dark Hearts Coven don’t exactly spell benevolence for the realm.”

“I would argue that we’re benevolent in our ways, Saviour,” Isidora replied, winking just to annoy Kyra. “But I know that you didn’t stay just to argue adjectives with me. So, what do you really want to know?”

"First, how do I know you're not just feigning to be a member of the coven? You certainly won't be the first."

Isidora laughed at the Soul of magic’s accusation; but she indulged it. Gesturing to her right hand, she let Kyra roll up her sleeves to reveal the picture of a heart enclosed in a pentagram and surrounded by thorny vines tattooed on her skin. It was the exact replica of the symbol of the Dark Hearts Coven which the Soul of magic had been seeing all over for the past months since she started her quest to stop the coven. The tattoo pulsated with a purplish energy when Kyra touched it and she knew without a doubt that it was created with bond magic. Bond magic was a type of magic in which members of a particular coven could share and combine each other’s powers for powerful spells; the tattoo ensured that bond and it was only given to fully initiated members of the coven.

"I think you already know by now that it's genuine," Isidora said when Kyra went back to resume her seat. "And that's why you have to listen to me when I say that this pathetic alliance of yours with the humans is destined for failure."

"And what makes you think that I'll listen to anything coming from you or that mad coven of yours?!" Kyra returned angrily, shooting Isidora a murderous glare that would have frightened anyone especially as her eyes had turned all-white, but dark witch didn't even flinch.

"You can't see it even now, can you?" she said again, smiling in such a way that only served to infuriate Kyra more. "Think about it, Saviour. How did some puny humans manage to capture a dark witch with bond magic and keep her locked up in a dungeon without even a single guard on patrol?”

And it was then that Kyra looked and noticed the necklace hanging around Isidora's neck. The Soul of magic had initially thought it was just a jewellery but on closer inspection, she realised that it had a stone pendant attached to it. The stone was so crimson that it looked like it was covered in blood.

All of a sudden, she began to hear whispers in her head from the stone; it was talking to her.

As if by compulsion, Kyra put her hand to the stone and immediately on contact, her hand seared like it had been burned with fire and she jerked away. And it was in that moment that the Soul of magic truly recognized that the stone for what it really was. "Bloodstone!" she gasped, moving as far away from the object as she possibly could.

Thing is, Bloodstone were weapons that only particular group of people in the realm had the knowledge to wield. Anti-magicians.

***

The Anti-magicians became rampant in the realm after the end of the Great Conflict. Despite all of her best efforts, Kyra was never able to understand how they came to be; the only thing anyone could tell about them being that they had the ability to temporarily take away a wizard's power- although there had been few reported cases of permanent losses- by somehow channeling the energy inside a Bloodstone to block the wizard's own.

No one in the realm loved the Anti-magicians. They were a nightmare and not just to a wizard. Everything they did, they did for a fee; and not usually affordable ones.

They sought out wizards, violated them, blocked their powers so that they could rob; and some of them had even gone as far as stealing a wizard’s power and storing them in Bloodstone vials to be sold to the highest bidders, but magic could never be transferred and whoever bought from the Anti-magicians usually ended up killing themselves discovering that.

Aside from the Dark Hearts Coven, the Anti-magicians were the people that Kyra despised the most, and now, Richard, her own friend and ally, was working with them.

"This cannot be happening," the Soul of magic whispered to herself, unable to believe it even though the Bloodstone glimmering around Isidora's neck countered her that it was.

"Tell me Kyra, how long will it be before he finds a way to take away your own magic?" Isidora asked, using Kyra's confusion to further her attack. "He's capable of more destruction that his father could ever muster, you should know that by now."

"Richard is not like that!" she returned in the king’s defense, but she wasn't so convinced of that idea any longer.

With a mixture of anger and confusion, mostly at Richard for putting in the position she was, Kyra burst out of the cell and went in search of him.

He was in the throne room discussing with some of the law collation and enforcement officials from the great house of Balzar when Kyra barged in.

Immediately Richard saw the Soul of magic's face, he knew that something was wrong. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to ask as she rushed at and slapped him in a movement so fast and unexpected that he yelped in surprise.

Gasps went round the room at the scandalous action: it was against the Cyriani custom, and that of most of the other established human states of the realm for that matter, for a ruler to be struck in public; and the lords would have immediately called the guards on Kyra to jail her for the insult if not that Richard stopped them with a raise of his finger just in time.

"Everyone, please give us a moment," he said, his look clearly conveying to them that nobody did anything besides what he said. "The Soul of magic and I have something important to discuss."

With a respectful bow, the lords took their leave, their looks portraying their displeasure at Kyra as they left.

As soon as the door closed behind the last of the lords, Richard turned back to face Kyra who was still nowhere near calm. "What in the world did you do that for, Kyra?" he asked, his displeasure vividly on his face although a small part also conveyed worry.

"Is it true that you hired the services of Anti-magicians to help you capture that woman?" she asked and the king's displeased look immediately dissolved to take on a surprised one; he definitely hadn’t seen that question coming.

"Yes," he finally replied after a while, sighing as he realised that the conversation he was about to have wasn’t going to be a pleasant one. "Yes, I did."