Sentinel

Chapter 12 - Windows

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Chapter 12 - Windows

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Kiarae woke from her involuntary nap as a rough hand grabbed her shoulder and shook it none too gently. 

She knew who held her without looking and felt no inclination to acknowledge his occupation of the space. She kept her eyes closed, feigning sleep in the hopes he'd leave her alone. 

It wasn't hard to do. By the Celestial, she was tired. The man had never let her rest for more than half an hour since his fourth interrogation, using other means to keep her awake while he rested. 

The demons Kiarae could deal with. Even Ebony's insistent voice she was able to drown out, but when she saw the husks of the beings, tainted and human alike, left over from the Master's attempts to create new shadow Sentinels... Oh, when they'd stumbled into her prison, their minds melted with uncontrolled magic flickering without command, she'd taken pity on them and put them out of their misery with the little energy she managed to hide from the Naclictite leeching it. 

Kiarae let her muscles slacken. The soul... such a fragile thing. Even those strong enough to contain the magic within themselves would be first shattered for such an unnatural thing to occur within them. 

"I know you're awake," said the Master's voice. Always the Master. Never anything else. "I can see your aura flickering around you. When you were in stasis, it barely moved all those months. I checked on you every single day." 

She ignored the sweetened words that once might have swayed her. Soon enough, one he finds will be strong enough to rebuild the pieces. Eventually, he will drag some poor soul into the corrupted shadow and anchor it there to the ether. 

Pressure formed at her eyelids. "Open your eyes before I do it for you." 

Reluctantly, Kiarae raised her lids. She didn't meet his eyes, keeping them focused on the skin of his wrist on her arm. To her somewhat surprise, there was no magic there, none of the tendrils he favoured using. 

"What is it you require, Master?" 

Always the Master. Never the name. 

He sighed. "Other than your co-operation?" 

His tone was mellow. Tired, like he hadn't slept any more than she. If that hadn't captured her curiousity, the Master then turned to sit beside her, his back pressed against the wall. 

Just like we used to.

From the corner of her eye, Kiarae saw him swivel to look at her. 

"Nothing, Kia. Absolutely nothing else. I thought you might just want to talk."

Kiarae's guard went up. "And how many lackeys did you bring with you for this 'talk'?" 

"Just me, Kiki." His head fell back against the wall. "I just... wanted to talk. Like we used to, before all of this happened and our souls were abducted by the deities."

"Abducted?" she asked. "Is that how you see it? Our magic was a gift--"

He snorted. "It was a curse that broke us apart. Broke this world apart."

"The corruption did that," said Kiarae. "Not the Sentinels."

"Didn't we?" he wondered. "This world might have been dark without them, but it'd be whole. Even you, little miss prodigy, have to admit--if we hadn't had magic, we wouldn't be here right now. We'd be under the dirt or galavanting around Lerelia as demons."

"What do you want?" asked Kiarae. The conversation was unnerving her. Having him storm in here, demand answers and inflict pain when she refused to yield to it was one thing. This casual conversation, speaking to her like he was... "What are you playing at, Master?"