The Power and the Glory

Book 4 Chapter II: Brother and Sister

And dark magic hung around him like a cloak.

"What is there to say?" Her voice seemed to come from very far away.

The stranger -- Imrahil? -- shrugged. There was something bizarrely reminiscent of Arafaren in the gesture. Abi felt as if she was looking at a curious patchwork of various relatives she recognised, all mixed up together in the strangest person she'd ever met.

"Aren't you curious about who am I? Or what happened?"

No, Abi realised with a dull sort of surprise. She wasn't curious. For the first time in her life she'd found something best left alone and had no desire to meddle in it. But this time it wouldn't leave her alone.

"Who...?" she began. Her throat closed up and she couldn't say anything else.

"Here I'm known as Lian. I've had many other names and lived in many other places before, but they aren't important now. As for what happened--" He abruptly held out his hand. Abi instinctively started back before she realised he was neither giving her something nor trying to strike her. He simply offered her his hand and pulled his sleeve back from his wrist. "Take my pulse."

It was a strange request. But this day was so surreal already that Abi, after considering it for a minute, decided it was harmless enough and she might as well do it. She reached out gingerly and pressed her fingers against his wrist. His skin was oddly cold to the touch. And his pulse... She frowned. She moved her fingers to different parts of his wrist. A horrible sinking feeling took up residence inside her chest. She looked at him and found him staring at her again.

"Yes," he said as calmly as if there was nothing unusual about a man walking around without a heartbeat. "Do you understand now?"

No, Abi wanted to say. But at the same time she was beginning to piece some things together.

Lian was surrounded by dark magic and had no heartbeat. It seemed impossible -- especially since all stories of creatures kept alive by dark magic described them as starving monsters like the parasite that had possessed Ilaran. However, she couldn't deny what she'd felt. From there it was easy to deduce Imrahil had done something involving dark magic that had led to him being presumed dead.

It seemed Abi had much more in common with her brother than she had ever suspected.

"And on that subject," Lian -- Imrahil? How was she supposed to think of him? -- continued, "I know why I use dark magic. Why do you use it?"

Abi stared at him. She felt a sudden wild and completely out-of-place desire to laugh. She restrained it because she had an uneasy feeling that if she started she wouldn't be able to stop, and this wasn't the time or place for a nervous breakdown. How was she supposed to answer? "I tried to learn necromancy and got two people killed"? Just thinking about necromancy made her feel sick. It brought back the memory of the parasite and the woman it killed.

"I'm not using it any more," was all she said.

She drank the rest of her tea in one go, wincing slightly at how it was now lukewarm, and got up abruptly. "I want to go--" Home, she almost said, but home was miles away. "I want to go back to the palace now. My aunt will be looking for me."

~~~~

Lian said nothing during the walk back to the palace. Abi was too caught up in her thoughts to speak and didn't know what she would say anyway.

They separated at the path leading to the guest palace where Aunt Jiarlúr and Abi were staying. Lian spoke up suddenly as Abi turned to leave.

"You may not be using it any more, but it's still part of you."