Xoris

Chapter Twenty Eight

Alaina was in the room in an instant, throwing aside the woven tarp over the door. Xoris immediately jumped back, lifting his hands far away from the structure. Then, it ground to a halt as soon as it had begun, becoming a lifeless object once again.

"What happened?" Alaina asked, gaze piercing through the both of them, hands on her hips. "I thought you said that it was too heavy for it to move with just majik manipulation alone?"

"I did, and it was, until Xoris touched it," Merkos explained, eyes flicking back and forth between the two before settling on Xoris. "Can you do it again?"

Xoris took a deep breath, ignoring the twitch from Merkos as he shifted the purple eyes on his cheeks over to focus on the artefakt. Despite his vendetta with the Fae, he agreed with the ruler on one thing. This room was filled with heka, agitated and feisty as it fought against the presence of the two majes in a way that was almost painful. The way the white crystal had been carved, imagining how much metal had been pulled from the rivers to form its legs... An ache had begun to form in his heart, beating sorely just from being near it. He didn't want to touch it again, but Merkos had asked him too, and it wasn't as though he didn't want to help. "All right." He nodded, reaching out with a shaky hand.

The first thing he felt was the soft touch of the porous, white crystal, but within moments, it was replaced by an intense surge, much more potent than his first brush with it.

Why? Why do Humans do this?

The words weren't said, but the pure emotion of wanting everything to end flooded Xoris' mind, feeling so foreign, yet entirely his own. It felt like his own body was being dug into, torn, ripped, his skull about to split in two. It burned. It burned so badly as the two conflicting energies of the structure coursed through him, begging for an outlet to be released. Tears sprung to his eyes and, unable to take it any longer, he let go, his fingertips throbbing from rushing blood as the connection broke.

"Xoris! Are you all right?" He felt Alaina's hand on his back, and he winced as her fingers poked an eye underneath his tunic. Without waiting for an answer, she whipped on Merkos. "You made him go through that again? He's getting hurt and for what? It didn't even move!"

"It wasn't like that the first time. I swear!" Merkos stood on tiptoes, trying to reach Xoris' bent height to inspect him with concerned, black eyes. "I didn't know it would do that..."

"You need to stop throwing everyone at this project of yours! It's your job to provide for the High Court, not mine, and not his!" Alaina rebutted. "I already have to stay up long after the sky closes doing nothing but filtered barrel after barrel of water shipments. I don't have time for this, and now you're making him hurt himself just because he might get it to work?"

"Alaina stop," Xoris pleaded, finally able to get a hold of himself. His arm still twitched from the contact, but he wrestled to get it, and his mind, back under control. "As he said, he didn't know. I'll be fine."

Merkos winced, looking down at the floor. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I just... I don't know what to do. Imy Azjuri gave me a deadline, and I know I can't continue to ask you for help, Alaina. I already feel guilty as it is, but I can't afford to let the High Court down! We haven't been able to provide protection after the Warden's... incident, and if the fort can't provide for the war, the High Court will stop paying for our services and..."

"So you throw it at him instead? Is he the one who signed up to be an advancement maje? No!" Alaina shot back.

Xoris thought on it as they continued to bicker. To most, travelling was a dangerous endeavour, and the brave few who were forced to for work were paid most generously for it. Even a simple letter could cost an entire Crack's worth of wages depending on how far it was between one keep to the next. Xoris had grown up with travellers like that, always in and out of the fort, bringing one thing, taking another before moving on, but after the Warden had been injured, they hadn't been able to promise the same level of safety since.