The Jade City

Chapter 30: Confession

Morro's POV

"You know what's weird though?" Lloyd asked after he finished telling us everything he'd gone through from the moment he woke up in prison to when we reunited.

"Go on," Cole said. He sat cross-legged around the fire that Lloyd had created and leaned back on his hands.

Apparently Lloyd said he'd somehow gotten fire powers after we lost Kai, which was why Chrysanthe thought he was the Chosen One. He'd been very careful in conveying the news, as he was probably scared of how Nya would react. Thankfully, she handled it quite well and only nodded, though I did notice how her movements slowed and the way her gaze lingered on a point in blank space.

Since Lloyd had already gotten the Crystal Blade, we figured that a break was well deserved and made camp early. We didn't have much to do, since all our belongings were somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Shortly after we'd arrived on land I had another outburst, and the others had had to explain it to Lloyd and Ruby.

I hated those tantrums where I would suddenly lose control of my body, as if I was someone's puppet, and even though all my senses were intact there was nothing I could do. It was like some sort of malevolent spirit had ripped my essence out of my limbs so that I couldn't reach them no matter how I tried.

Harumi was never scared during those times, and I believed that it was because she trusted me enough to not hurt her, which was not true in the slightest. She probably thought I was fighting some sort of inner demon and would regain control if I tried hard enough. I was frustrated that I wasn't able to fend it off, especially since I'd previously been able to possess Lloyd (though he had been weakened by grief). Every time I thought back to those stupid fits I wanted to punch someone. Though I acted indifferent to them, the mere idea just made me want to strangle whoever responsible, in this case the Shadow Knight, with my bare hands.

I was supposed to be in control.

Ruby sat between Harumi and me around the fire. I acted like her staring didn't bother me even though it really did, so I just had my long hair hide the side of my face that she could see. There was something about her that just didn't feel right with me but I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. I disliked Ruby from the start, and truth to be told, I was only being nice to her for the sake of her sister, who I somewhat pitied.

She was so lost, and though she'd recognized the crimes she'd committed, the way she was coming to terms with them was inherently destructive in the way I could see the self-loathing grow. Harumi reminded me of myself, in a way, except that Wu explicitly forgave me before I died and Lloyd hadn't done the same for her.

"Isn't it weird that there was a test designed specifically to make sure you're not going to give the sword to the Shadow Knight?" Lloyd asked, sitting on the other side of Harumi with an arm around her, "Like I get that they wouldn't want this super-powerful sword to fall into the wrong hands, but isn't that a bit extra?"

"You have a point," Nya agreed, "Why would any Shadow Rider go through so many lengths just to retrieve the one weapon that could defeat their master?"

"It would be far more logical to prevent others from finding it instead," Zane added.

I stared at the sword, which lay on the ground in front of Harumi. "You know," I said, "I expected it to look... different."

"I did too," Lloyd admitted, "And there was this voice that said 'Whatever you do, don't let it fall into the wrong hands' or something."

"What are you talking about, it looks great! It's blue!" Jay said. Cole rolled his eyes and flicked Jay's arm. The latter let out a yelp.