Indigo (NaNoWriMo13)

Chapter 43 - Failure

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Chapter 43 - Failure

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Athira felt Shift tense against her as the word 'rescue' dropped from Talia's mouth.

"I swear," he said. "If you're lying, Talia, if I find out you had something to do with this, I will personally--"

"Are you stupid?" said Talia. She had the nerve to look offended. "Wardens don't even recruit elementals! To them, we're impure! And then I tell you I'm here to rescue you and you start threatening me--"

She cut off as Shift continued. 

"I'm not done," he said, voice strangely calm. "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, Talia, but this looks bad. And if I find out you take this chance to lie to me instead of coming clean, you'll find out exactly how I deal with people who've hurt those I consider family. Understand?" 

The air was silent as Athira shut her eyes. Mentions of Talia's name was enough to set her teeth on edge. Seeing the name's owner was infinitely worse. The shock of Shift's hands against her skin had been enough to give Talon a chance to hold her colour back, but it was a tentative grip. One more glimpse of Talia's attitude ridden face would be enough to break free. 

"I understand," said Talia. 

Athira felt Shift move, fingers coming loose from her arm for the briefest moment to do what she assumed was gesture at Talia to continue. 

"As I said, I was attempting a rescue," Talia began. 

Her voice grew louder as she came presumably closer. That, or she'd managed to find a microphone and accompanying stage to prance around on. Athira wouldn't have put it past her. 

"My communicator wasn't working so I came back early from patrol to find the base empty. Lights off, doors locked, keypads deactivated. I had to rune the doors open just to get inside."

Inside Athira's mind, Talon was pushing memories, Talia and that other voice aside, drawing Athira away from the Owl calling to her, demanding that hell be unleashed upon those deserving. 

I don't know what that voice is or why I couldn't hear it until now, but it's stirring Rathe, he was saying. Rathe, the thing we're dedicated to stopping, remember? The Wardens are trying to help that, even if they're doing it the wrong way.

"Inside, everything was trashed," said Talia. "The furniture was flipped, there was blood on the front entrance floor and once I reached the common room, two figures dressed in white attacked me. My blue didn't work on them, but whatever colour repellent crap they were pulling didn't stop my elemental powers."

Talon's voice rocked Athira's mindscape gently as the image of Shift being carried out by the whites resurfaced with all the attached anger. Talon shut it down quickly, fading it into black. 

Rathe doesn't control you, Thira. No one does. Not that voice, not Rathe, not anyone, but you have to take it back. You have to be the one to harness that control.

Rathe prowled around the edges of her thoughts. She tried to ignore him, focusing instead on Talon's words and let the repetitive, soothing tones ring through her and drown out everything else. 

You have to control yourself, Talon continued. Just like you always have, even before the amulet and its runes came along. Before me. You're strong enough to do it. Concrete or jellybeans, it doesn't matter. You can do it. 

 "And what, you just made them tell you what they were doing?" said Shift. "Because those guys were pretty non-talkative when they were busy kidnapping us."