The first time the king had his way with my mom, he forced me to watch from the corner of the room. She screamed and fought back... the first time. The time after that her resistance waned, and the times after that she gave in to him willingly, completely disregarding the fact that I was in the room at all, moaning and grunting loudly like an animal. Once the act was done The King, Vetro would look back at me and say.
"She understands her place, so why don't you?"
It's been a few months since he stopped that routine. Yet I still have nightmares about it... My Mom sees me as someone sad and pitiful. Meanwhile, Vetro sees me as someone rebellious, who needs to keep their head down... Personally, I would rather be someone who felt nothing at all.
I met up with my brothers in the training hall, it was a usual day. Raijian sat on my right and Cera on my left.
"Hey, I figured out a game we can play," Cera whispered,
"What?" Raijian replied, pretending to be the perfect student when Ms. Tana looked in our direction.
"I'll tell you after class. Zai! You should join us this time." I didn't answer.
"What are you talking about?" Tana asked while squatting down before us and cocking her head to the side. Her wide eyes bore into us and my brothers yelped but I did not make a sound. She had marks from stitches across her face and many face tattoos.
"Nothing!" Cera lied. It was a pointless lie, Tana wouldn't care about some game. She smirked then walked away. Rai had always found Tana off-putting so once she was away he relaxed. She rebegan her lessons on the collection of power.
"Training works but progress is so slow and dull. In order to gain power more quickly you must make sacrifices... today we will sacrifice your rights. You can choose your right to see, your right to hear, your right to love, whatever you want. But as soon as you make this commitment there is no turning back, it is irreversible and you will die in more agony than you can imagine." If I could get rid of something, it would be my hate. Every moment that I'm alone I think of the king, wishing for a way to end his reign or I think of my mother and imagine skewering her so she can join my father. Symbols of our elements were drawn on our faces with paint, that smelled like a decomposing animal. Then Tana lit candles and began dancing to music only she could hear. She stopped suddenly with one leg lifted into the air and her back arched then said. "The time is now, hurry up and make your decision." Her voice began trembling and her speech slurred. I want my mind to be clear, I'm tired of thinking of Vetro every moment, of every day. "You're running out of time, you're all running out of time." I don't want to hate anymore. Then her head spun to me and she smiled. "I see... you're the first to take a step forward. You always amaze me, Zaikel!!" Why is she screaming at me? I lurched over and vomited blood. It felt like my blood had been replaced with acid. This must be it... the covenant. Tana sat beside me and whispered. "Control yourself." At that moment it felt like something inside me changed, the hatred inside me was gone and, replaced by emptiness. Two of my brothers, Netalai and Insinz, were unable to make a choice in time so Tana punished them by making them drink the paint and ordered them to come back at the same time tomorrow. The rest of us were sent to our rooms. We escaped into the halls when the maids left and Cera came from his room and dumped hundreds of Ice spheres on the floor.
"Is this your brilliant plan?" Raijian asked apathetically while staring at the marbles in front of us.
"Watch." Cera directed, then he kicked the ice marbles, and the ones that touched fused then doubled in size.
"OOOooo." Rytem said in awe.
"I figured the rules are, we only use our fingers and flick the ice, whoever makes the biggest orb in the end wins, then I'll start the game over."
"That sounds dumb and boring," Raijian noted but he was the first to try the game and he smiled, pleased with himself when he fused 3 marbles in a row.
"Hey, that's cheating!" Valin shouted as he joined in. I began flicking marbles as well. The concept didn't sound fun but it passed the time and I felt drops of dopamine each time my orb grew. It really was a nice distraction compared to sitting in my room, staring at the wall, and planning out ways to murder our father.
"I guess you're not completely useless," I said as a compliment to Cera,
"Was that supposed to make me happy or something?" He retorted huffily but then he smiled slightly, proud of himself. We kept playing for an unknown length of time, and my orb was now the size of a melon. I concentrated on the last ice marble across from me, using my ability to strengthen my fingers, but I used too much strength so it shot across the room and smacked into the barrier door that keeps us all contained. "Oh, crap," Cera stated, worry in his voice. My lightning swirled around the ball of ice and it began spinning rapidly, then the door flung open and I saw light coming in from the outside. There are no windows in our rooms, and only dim candles lit the hallways... this is the first time in years that I've seen the sun. Raijian got up and walked outside first, I soon followed and the rest walked out after me, even Netalai who hadn't joined our game because he arrived late.
"We're free?" Valin noted while looking around. There was sand at our feet and I could see the beach not too far away. "Wow, Zai! You broke the barrier! Where were you hiding all that power?!"
Raijian walked off on his own that day and met a woman named Aluma. The palace guards tracked the rest of us down and brought us back to our rooms. The King interrogated us about Raijian's whereabouts, in person.
"Who broke the barrier?! Which one of you dared..." He screamed. We were all hunched over, faces towards the floor.
"There was ice found in front of the door, Shelia's son is the likely culprit." One of the maids informed. When Vetro looked at Cera, Cera's eyes filled with tears. The King began walking towards him and he looked so frightened that he would probably piss himself if I don't intervene,
"It was me!" I shouted and rose to my feet. "I broke your stupid barrier and I told Raijian to leave and never come back to this disgusting place!" I spat in the King's direction. His attention left Cera and he moved on to me.
"Since you're eager to take the blame, you can have it; all of it. Whip him until he faints and then take him to Tana's quarters... tell her to make this one obey me, by any means necessary."
"F**k you! I hope you choke on your own saliva and die!" I shouted as the servants dragged me into the corner. They were quick the chain me up with suppressors, and whip me in front of the others. my wounds healed in less than a second but those wounds were replaced by new ones just as fast. It must have been hours later when I finally grew dizzy I fell flat into a pool of my own blood.
I jolted awake the next day and found myself lying in Tana's cot. She was sitting next to me humming and mixing something in a bowl.
"Oh, you're awake!" She greeted, tossing whatever was in the bowl to the side and laying down on top of me. I was still bound by the suppressors so I wiggled and said,
"Yeah ... can you please get off of me?" She didn't move. I don't like this... feeling of powerlessness. Tana made circles on my chest with her fingertips then whispered,
"I'm on your side... I can give you power... enough to overthrow the king... I just need one thing from you." She whispered.
"What do you need?" I asked. The driving force behind my lust for vengeance was gone, but that didn't mean the king's suffering wouldn't delight me.
"I need... your virginity." Her offer didn't shock me, I read books on all the rituals the grand sorceress has done. I know for a fact she's not trying to trick me, but...
"I wouldn't want to do it while I'm tied up." Her eyes lit up happily and she hurried to undo my binds. It was a relief to feel my power returning to me.
"How is that?" Tana asked, eagerly, staring at me with hopeful eyes.
"Much better." She smiled, pleased with herself then twirled her hair around her finger as if she was a shy young girl and said,
"I can grant you power, unlike anyone else you could choose to mate with, but I must admit, I'm also quite enamored with you." Tana placed her hands on her cheeks and then looked away from me bashfully, "From the moment I first saw your frightened face, covered in gore on the day of your arrival, I fell in love; and you continue to impress me every day, Zaikel. The current King doesn't deserve his position. I truly believe that you should be sitting in his place." She coo-ed sweetly. I sighed and also hung my head as I began speaking
"I'm too sad to do anything right now and, to be honest, it's hard to believe you love me when those servants who tortured me are still alive." Tana began mumbling something incoherently then she hugged me and said,
"Don't worry... I'll make everyone who has hurt you today, pay... so please... give me a chance." Then she planted a kiss on my lips. At that moment, I felt numb, even watching her squeal for joy after our kiss didn't invoke any emotion in me. The next morning the servants who had whipped me were found dead. Their bodies were found decapitated, and their heads were never recovered. When this news was given to me, I finally felt something, the feeling was bliss, finally a win, finally! I have a way out. The only downside is, now I have to do what she wants. Even so, I felt like smiling every day since then.