The Dark Side of Power

Mutation of Power

Staring at a full moon, sat on her windowsill, Awen hugged her shawl around her shoulders. It wasn’t a cold night, by any stretch of the imagination, but it made her feel better about not being able to sleep.

She rested her forehead on the glass, staring down at the castle grounds below her window. On nights like these, she loved to sneak out and take walks around the gardens, falling in love with the silence and peace. But not tonight. Emyr was focussing on his daughter’s coming out ball, throwing everything he had into it, and was expecting Awen to do the same, which meant no more midnight walks.

She looked over to her bed, knowing that she should at least try to sleep, considering she’d be up at sunrise, but she wasn’t at all tired, so it would’ve been pointless. Awen smiled softly as Lanzijm’s voice echoed in her brain, telling her it was pointless to be sleep deprived in the morning, that even just trying to sleep would help.

Climbing down from the window ledge, she crawled into bed, rolling over and staring at the moon shining through her window. Awen wondered briefly if her mother was doing the same, but quickly pushed that thought away; she really didn’t want to go back down that path after keeping it buried for so long, so she focussed instead on the scrap of paper lying on her bedside table.

Rio.

He’d asked her to write to him, as they’d left the castle in Oce, though she wasn’t entirely sure if she should.

“You hardly know me, why would you want me to write to you?”

“I think you’re interesting. Do I really need more of a reason?”

“Rioghan-” Awen sighed, looking down at the scrap of paper in her hands.

“I prefer Rio.” He shrugged, walking away. “Anyway, keep it. Just in case you change your mind.”

Awen closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about that, not when she was trying to sleep. Maybe tomorrow, if she had the time, though what she’d write, she wasn’t entirely sure. Nothing really interesting ever happened to her, and she wasn’t entirely sure what Rio would like to know. Nothing about her family, she hoped.

“Awen.”

Awen turned, coming face to face with her mother. “What are you doing here, you can’t- they’ll kill you.” She tried to push her mother back towards the entrance of the castle.

“I’ve come for you, Awen. You can’t stay here forever, they’ll murder you. Are you tired of it all?”

“Mother, you have to leave.”

“Not without you. Come home, Awen, it can all go back to how it was.”

Stopping, she stared at her mother. “No, it can’t.”

“Awen!”

She turned to find Emyr standing at the end of the corridor, staring at them. “King Emyr-”

“What is this, you’re not welcome here.” He yelled, his voice echoing around in her brain. “Awen, what are you doing?”

“Not welcome,” her mother scoffed, “I’ll show you not welcome.”

“No- Mother stop!” She screamed, raising her hands in defence. “Please, don’t.”

She didn’t listen, raising her arms above her head. “How dare you-”

Awen screamed, pushing her hands out to her mother, using everything she had to stop her from destroying her home. “I said stop!”

Her mother turned her attention to Awen. “You dare betray me. Your own mother!” Her eyes turned dark with rage as she drew up all of her magic, staring at Awen. “I’ll finish what I started, you’ll regret this.”

“Mum, stop, please,” Awen begged, tears streaming down her face, “please don’t do this.” The witches stared each other down, the world just melting away around them. “I don’t want-”

“Ahhhh!” She screamed, directing everything she could muster towards Awen.

Awen cried, raising her arms, and expelling a storm of fire towards her mother. Tears streamed down her face as she burned her mother to dust. “I’m sorry,” she collapsed to her knees, flames still licking across the stone walls of the castle. “I’m sorry.”

“Awen!” Lanzijm roared.

She startled awake, screaming as she came to, finding her room ablaze. “Lanzijm!” She screamed, feeling the flames curling around her body, curling up and making herself as small as possible to try and avoid it. “Lanijm help!”

He stood in the doorway, trying to see a way through. “Awen, stop!”

“I’m not doing anything!”

“Lanz, move!” Sion yelled, pushing his mentor out of the way before unleashing a tsunami into Awen’s room in an attempt to calm the fire.

Looking down, she noticed the flames curling off her hands, and fear took hold. Awen screamed again, trying to shake it off, but it just made it all worse, causing more fires. She looked at Sion, who was doing his best to quell the fires she kept creating, trying to make some sort of path through to her. “What is going on?” She whispered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut.

Breathe, Awen. It’s your magic, reign it in. You have control.

She took a shaky breath, her mother’s voice going around in her brain on repeat. “It’s mine. Control it.” She whispered, repeating it to herself.

“Awen,” Lanzijm broke through her fear. “Awen, you’re ok.” He wrapped his arms around her as she opened her eyes.

The fire was gone, though the stone walls looked charred and she could still feel the heat everywhere. Sion had collapsed against the wall, head resting back on it as he tried to catch his breath.

“What happened?” She couldn’t take her eyes off the damage done.

Lanz looked to Sion who shrugged, still not quite able to speak. “I don’t know, Suavis. I think you had a nightmare.”

Awen shook her head. “No. No, I’ve had nightmares before, and I’ve never… I’ve never lost control like that.”

“I’ve never seen anyone do anything like that before.” Sion looked at her, not quite sure what to think. “I’ve never seen you… Awen, that was the most powerful magic you’ve ever done.”

She frowned, looking down and hugging her knees to her chest. Then she noticed her arms. “Lanzijm.” She held them out, staring.

“Oh, f**k, Awen.” He gently lifted one, studying the burn marks spiralling up her forearms from her palms. “That’s not good- How did your magic burn you?”

Shrugging, she turned her arms around, following the burns, trying to see where they stopped. “They’re up to my elbows. I… Has that ever happened before?” She looked at Sion, who shrugged.

“I’ve never done that. But, you’re stronger than me and that… well, whatever that was, it was stronger than anything you’ve ever done before.”

Awen shook her head, “it can’t be. I’m not like you, I can’t become stronger at magic over time. What I have is what I’ve got for life.”

Sion raised an eyebrow but didn’t correct her. They both knew Awen didn’t practice Dark Magic anymore.

“Awen, are you sure?”

Sion nodded, “She’s right. Witches can’t… well.”

“Mutate?” Awen rolled her eyes sarcastically.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Sion grinned, “but yeah, I guess it fits.”

Awen sighed softly.

“Suavis… Are you ok?”

She thought about it, still staring at the burns down her arms. “This could put me in a lot of danger here.”

Sion frowned. “I’m sorry.”

Lanzijm looked over at him. “Why are you sorry?”

“Well… I never really got it before, why you were so… why you are like you are about Rhodri. I kind of get it now.” Sion stretched his legs out on the floor. “If he finds out, I doubt he’ll let you stay much longer, regardless of what Emyr says about it.”

Awen smiled softly. “It’s ok. Thank you.” She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall. “I’m… I’m so screwed if this is actually happening. Which, I’m not convinced it is.”

Sion laughed quietly as Lanz grinned. “Trust us, Awen. You’ve never done anything as powerful as… well. Your magic literally burned you, that’s how strong it was. When was the last time that happened?”

“I don’t… Never? I don’t know.”

“Never as long as I’ve known you.” Lanz pulled her to his side. “I think you might need to accept that this is a real thing, Awen.”

She turned away, anxiety turning over in her stomach. “It’s nearly sunrise, I should probably get ready.”

Lanz sighed softly. “Ok, Suavis. You know where we are if you need us.”

The two left, closing the door softly behind them.

Awen took a deep breath, looking around at the damage caused. Rio’s address. She turned, slightly panicked, but relaxed when she saw it there untouched. Laughing to herself, she shook her head. “Well, I guess that answers that question.”

She sighed, leaning back against the wall again. Mutation…

It’d never been heard of before - Awen knew that for a fact or her mother would've been obsessed with it. Awen’s breath caught in her throat as her mind went back to the nightmare she’d been having. There was no way she could tell either Lanzijm or Sion that part about it. She couldn’t tell anyone.

She sighed softly as the sun started filtering through her window. Here we go, time to not get executed for whatever just happened. She got up and stared at her wardrobe. The burns limited what she would wear without hurting herself further, so she’d probably be relying on glamours to cover them; the last thing she needed was questions about what had happened.

“Awen, hurry up, Emyr is already asking for you!” Lanz called through the door.

She sighed, deciding on one of her short-sleeved dresses before layering glamours over to make it appear like she was wearing long sleeves before emerging.

“Here- oh, could you remove them,” he gestured to her arms. “I’ve got some salve for the burns.”

“Is that going to work? They're magic burns, not normal ones.”

Lanz shrugged. “Better than nothing.”

Awen obliged, removing the glamours so he would see what he was doing before putting them back. “I’ve gotta get to Emyr, I’ll see you guys later.”

Sion waited until she’d closed the door before speaking again. “Ok, so I have a theory.”

Lanzijm sighed, laughing as he sat in the armchair by the blackboard. “Well, this should be interesting. Go on.”

He grinned, “Ok, I know it’s insane but just hear me out, ok?”

Lanz nodded.

“So Awen lost complete control, right? Assuming that was an emotional response, Awen keeps a lot inside, she just bottles it up. Maybe it got too much and it literally burst out of her in the form of her magic?”

Lanz frowned, “believe me, if that were the case, this would’ve happened a long time ago.”

Sion laughed, “ok, point taken. I can’t lie, this is a first. I’m not sure if I’m going to find anything relating to this in the library. Or, anywhere, for that matter.”

“You’re… researching this?”

“Yeah? Well we both know Awen is going to try and ignore this and I don’t know if that’s going to make it worse or not. At least someone here should know something about what’s going on, and why not me?”

“Fair point.”

“Do you… Awen never talks about her parents. Do you think it has something to do with them?”

Lanz fell silent. “She doesn’t know anything about her father, apparently he left before she was born. But her mother… Well, she practised Dark Magic, we both know that. But she stole a lot of magic, so she’s a lot stronger now than she used to be. That’s about all I know about it.”

Sion leaned back in his chair. “He was a warlock?”

“She doesn’t know. Her mother always shut the conversation down when she tried to bring him up.”

Sion sighed softly, staring at the ceiling. “So it could have something to do with her parents.”

“Probably not. She’s stronger than her mother.”

“How do you know?”

Lanz laughed, shaking his head. “I just do.”

“Hmm. Anyway, I’m going to go stare at useless books that will tell me nothing for a few hours.” Sion stood, stretching.

“Oh, if you're going to the library, could you take those back? Awen forgot them again.” Lanz gestured towards a pile of books on the table behind Sion.

“Sure.” Sion scooped them up. “Why… I thought you told Awen everything about your bond?”

Lanzijm shrugged. “You know Awen, she likes to do her own research. And since I hid the thing from her, she’s been obsessed with knowing everything about it.”

He smiled a little. “Makes sense. Ok, you know where I’ll be if you need me. And don’t tell Awen?”

“Yep, I was thinking the same thing.”