"I-I..." Liam remained speechless as he turned, mouth agape as in his iris reflected total waves of red power crumbling the surroundings...
It's bright blight blinding while the world fell silent. His heart was racing as his mind kicked into gear.
The guards... total devastation.
He knew she wielded great power, but this...
this was more than that.
A gust of wind pushed at them, to which Liam
braced himself from the after effects of what just happened, and through it, Aloysia running toward them.
Something was off, she was visibly shaking as her face projected uneasiness.
The twins were near him, shielding from the wind with their cloaks; daggers a bloodied mess.
"Shit..." they harmonised in unison, eyes staring at the damage.
He could say the same for her own appearance.
"Liam!" She called, voice strained at her obvious expenditure of power, "are you hurt?"
He shook his head, running toward her.
She froze as he drew closer, pulling her stained hands out. "Don't come near me... I- I could hurt either one of you!"
She was shouting through the blown up smoke caused the by the chaos. The look on her face... it was so vulnerable, even with her eyes hidden.
Maybe she didn't even know she could do that?
"I- I need you to follow the twins, they'll keep you safe"
"What?" he bellowed, arm raised to shield his eyes. "I'm not leaving without you, we go together!"
Zillah heard this, stepping to Liam with a swallow so deep he could tell that they were running out of time. "Please..." He didn't want to shout her name, "Don't do this to yourself"
Coming to a full stop, Aloysia hunched over, holding herself as she peered down to the floor, eyeing her own palms coated in the blood from those soldiers.
They were violently shaking as was her body.
She couldn't swallow, the guilt pouring into her was tipping her over the edge.
Her mind was playing her for a fool...for in her eyes her filthy, muck covered palms were clean; only a pure crimson liquid trailing her fingertips... the blood... the expense of their freedom.... all of it ran down her palms.
"Come on! We don't have that much time!" She heard him squeak from the distance, the fog slowly giving up.
Time was cruel.
But in her vision, that blood was all she could see... why did it effect her so badly? Her breathing escalated, eyes slamming shut as her legs buckled beneath her.
"Aloysia!"
Liam was by her side in an instant, kneeling in the ground with a firm hand on her shoulder; Zillah and Zelek coughing from the smoke. They were cautious on when to move, but their time was up, the barrier of chaos was diminishing, and they had no choice but to retreat, leaving the two stranded in the open.
"Zelek! Zilla-" a hand shushed him, marking a stain on his face that he quickly wiped, exasperated.
"They need to leave, they'll be seen otherwise" she murmured.
"But they can't just leave you he-"
"They can, and they will, you were right Liam"
"What?"
Each breath was a struggle. Worry filled his mind as she outstretched her palms to him, trembling, and lifting her head slowly.
Her bottom lip was torn from her teeth sinking into them out of guilt, and a new dark scar forging itself into her skin. "We need to stick together, that's why they will be alright, and I will protect you"
Liam was taken aback. His eyes searched her face, finally reaching her tearful eyes, on the brink of spilling. His heart clenched, he couldn't bare to see anyone like this- at their most vulnerable state. He could see the worry in her expression, her words carrying little re-assurance.
Aloysia felt like shit. How, after all she had done, after all the murders, the assassinations, did she suddenly feel its toll? Was it the emergence of the stone? Was it playing with her? Changing and moulding her into something she didn't want to become? Her mind couldn't tell the difference as to who was controlling who...
"What did I just do?" She cried, latching onto him for stability.
"Pardon?" he breathed, feeling the clothing stretch beneath him as she twisted to look away.
Her hands dirtied his attire, yet he did not care.
"I do not even know my own strength, and I have become something I feared from the very beginning..."
Time was so abominably cruel.
"No longer can I sit on the side-lines and shift the blame to the stone, its all on me... Each and every ounce of blood spilled is done by my own hands... I was never ashamed of who I was, because I had no say in it all, but now... I have grown weak, fearful of myself... what is happening to me Liam?"
She shook him, nails digging. "What is happening to me?"
"You didn't and still don't have a choice when it comes to your-"
"I did!" She roared. Liam paused, blinking back the slight fear as he composed himself.
"If you had fought them off individually, we wouldn't have had enough time to get across" he assured her, "more would have come for us... for-for you"
She had heard enough lies, enough words attempting to convince her...
"What I did... was not only murder" She sucked in a breath, "but something far worse than that"
Liam couldn't think of anything to comfort her. Instead, he carelessly kneeled further down, and using two fingers, brushed her chin to gently tip her head to face him, murmuring slowly, "You are stronger than you know, you, the assassin who saved my life in that alley, you the princess who my mother saved with her life, you, the sister those two adore so very much... You are more than just that stupid stone"
Aloysia closed her eyes, listening and reeling into his words.
"The more you fear 'it', the more you fear yourself, and that can only lead to it having more control over you"
Aloysia steadied her breathing.
He was right.
"You're right" she exhaled.
No matter how those events unfolded, she had felt the building of a mass amount of of power soaring through her. She had almost expended her flames in the wagon.
There really was no other way...
Shifting her eyes to his own she sighed gratefully, yet a hint of self-inflicted anger directed at her own mind glinted in the sunlight.
As much as he grit his teeth in agreeing with her, he knew Aloysia was correct. During their time running from that tyrant, the stone had grown exponentially, making it harder and harder for any sort of firm grasp over controlling it... ultimately ending as the once fearless assassin, become -of herself- fearful.
Whatever that stones capabilities were, they both knew this was just a scratch of its power, it's potential, and for it to cause so much change in someone in such a short period time was almost scarier than the damage.
"Liam, we need to keep moving, we need to get out of this fog before it clears"
She arose, scouting with her crimson eyes ahead, "but first, we need to fit in"
"W-what about the twins?"
"They'll be fine, I already told them where I plan to go in case we did have to split up"
Lets just hope they would get there alive.
Liam nodded, slowly hoisting himself up as he turned to face the damage the women stood next to her had caused. Fear was one emotion, but awe at how powerful she really was deemed respect.
She saw his glance, regret crawling under her skin but she shunned it away.
She had enough pain tormenting her.
"It won't be easy, but no matter what it takes, I will do as Celimine wanted, and learn control over my own gifts..." she stared down at her palms, a shift of wind edged from it, a slither of the red mist taunted... "It will no longer be my burden to carry alone"
That was the first time she had referred to the stone as a gift... for it held too much darkness. But she was right. This was just the start.
The sincerity of her words moved him, the new scar, at a tangent to her bottom lip darkened as her face became serious.
Even with her blonde hair tangled, soaked through with blood, with each strand that fell onto her filthy skin she still looked stunning.
Mesmerising as her crimson eyes danced in it own flames.
They captivated him each and every time he saw them, which -to his distaste- always brought out a warmth within him.
Smiling genuinely, he voiced, "No matter what happened, or is yet to come, know that my mother would have wanted us to save her kingdom"
Aloysia nodded, turning slightly and whispered to herself, "And her son"
Liam meant every word. He knew that crossing the border would only lead to more trouble and re-occurring problems, but they would face them. Standing strong together.
He would fulfil his mother's wishes...
She would fulfil her Celimine's wishes...
Gathering crowds began approaching as the smoke floating within the winds began to disperse.
Need to get to cover, now.
And so they did, darting through the light fog slowly clearing away until their feet felt a different grounding... the heat surrounding them becoming intense and humid... and the sounds and smells confusing their foreign senses.