Abyssal (ManxMan)

Jealousy and Envy

Jealousy and Envy

Marius wondered what it was like to love your own mother. He failed to relate with the distraught Astria prince who was greatly upset at the mere notion of the tiniest harm coming to his birth mother, let alone losing her. Then again, his relationship with the merwoman who birthed him was not exactly what you'd call conventional. Not by a longshot.

A strange sensation nagged the cavity of his chest. It wasn't a feeling he often experienced, so it was difficult for him to identify it at first. When he finally found a name by which to call it, he suffered momentary disbelief.

Him? Experiencing such an emotion? Impossible.

Then he recalled that he was not one to shy away from the truth, no matter how brutal it was.

Marius was envious of Kai's relationship with his mother. He'd never known anything like it, yet a part of him (which he thought long dead and buried) wanted to experience this sacred bond that had eluded him all his immortal life. He hadn't once imagined that he'd ever feel something as pathetic as jealousy and envy directed at the half-breed. Other than the Spirit of the Sea, he didn't think the half-breed had anything else he wanted. It chafed his pride to be so mistaken.

He supposed it wasn't just a human thing; an offspring's love for their mother extended to all races and species. It was simply his particular situation that was strange.

He eyed the Astrian merman holding Kai's mother by her raven black mane. The illusion spell he'd cast upon the human was broken by the attack -it was unlikely that it had simply worn off on its own. There was horror in her jade green eyes -so like her son's- mingled with confusion.

Marius abruptly decided that he was going to break the traitorous Astrian's hand in five different places. Along with the blight on this planet that was the human race and Astrians, Marius absolutely detested traitors. And that was what the attacker was: a rotten traitor for attacking his own nation's Prince. But it was just like all Astrians, he supposed. They were backstabbing, lying, power-hungry lot.

"Release her and I'll spare your life." Marius lied. A traitor deserved no honesty; he had no honor to begin with, so Marius owed him no honor in return.

The attacker pursed his thin lips, his eyes narrowing at Marius in blatant disbelief.

So, he wasn't as foolish as he looked.

Was he smart enough to teleport out of the dome and escape Marius? He hoped not, for his sake as well as the half-breed's. He'd just gotten him to agree to cooperate; if his mother was kidnapped or killed, that would certainly put a dent in his plans. And his plans were time-sensitive. The ocean couldn't handle any more abuse. The Dark Zones were expanding faster than ever before, and the diseases they caused were spreading like a pandemic, ravaging not just his people, but all merpeople. Except, of course, Astrians.

The time for idle fun was over.

Marius lifted a black-nailed finger, flicking it upward. Since the day he learned to cast spells without uttering them, Marius hadn't spoken a word when casting.

The ground underneath the attacker melted, turning to soft mud instantaneously. But instead of him and the human sinking into the ground as if it were quicksand, the mud climbed up the two, covering them up to their necks in a second.

The human screamed in fear.

Ignoring her, Marius went straight for the attacker's exposed and defenseless jugular. He ripped it out with his elongated nails, then stepped back before a drop of the Astrian's filthy blood touched him.

The human screamed louder, blood going into her gaping mouth.

As he floated away from the spewing blood, Marius wondered why Zolban would send such a weakling to do his dirty work. Was he hoping the meager distraction the General and the Mage were would be enough to draw his attention away from his prize, the Astrian Prince? It wasn't Zolban's modus operandi to be so trusting in others' potential.

The half-breed ran past him in a burst of red hair. Marius was surprised when he ran past his own mother, leaving her in the clay prison. He was headed for the house. He was running away- No, he was running toward something.

Alert, Marius squinted his eyes and spotted something that was not there before. Or was concealed, even from Marius.

"Fuck."

How could he have missed it? How could he have missed Zolban standing just a few feet away? He'd cast a spell, feeling for any hidden objects and merpeople, but other than his soldiers on standby, he'd feel nothing -and no one.

More importantly, how did the half-breed detect him and he didn't?

The half-breed was finally using his powers, it seemed. Was the Spirit of the Sea guiding him, dictating his actions? Worse, was it controlling the body of its host?

Oh, dear. Had the blood gone to the half-breed's head, making him charge like a lunatic? Marius wouldn't put it past the red-haired fool.

Marius needed to intervene before Kai got himself captured by his worst enemy -his true worst enemy.

An invisible barrier shot up between him and Kai, trapping both of them in their separate sides. The half-breed was in Zolban's side.

*~~~~~~~~~~*

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