Indigo's Owl [Indigo Rewrite]

Chapter 11 - A Line Once Crossed

Athira couldn't make herself move as one thought spiralled through her head.

Snuff out the light.

Reader chuckled from where he knelt on the ground. "The Owl seems far more reluctant with an audience, I see."

Athira's attention snapped back to him. While she still held his head, her grasp on his mind had slipped — and not only that, so had the thin layer covering her hand that protected her from Reader's mental probing.

A dark night. Lethargy in her bones. A girl with a white-blonde ponytail, dragging her forward — her sister, screaming at her to move. The splash of water. A last, defiant stand. The icicle buried in her neck and the muddied, golden chain still around it despite the blood, the rage—  

Reader's eyes gleamed with Purple. "And with such a high cost for failure, too. You'd think one would be less distracted when Rathe wants that 'one, last piece' finally destro—"

The tendrils around Reader tightened, cutting him off and leaving him gasping for air. Athira jerked back his head. She shoved her Black back into his mindscape, far rougher than before. There were no more chances. Just one, last blow that should have been her first.

Before she could strike, Zoe was beside her.

Zoe grabbed Athira's arm and pulled her away from Reader. "What in the hues are you doing, Thira?"

Athira tore her gaze away from Zoe, trying to concentrate on Reader. She didn't need direct contact to get into his mindscape, but she did need to be focused. "What needs to be done."

Athira reached out a hand, loose flecks of Black drifting from her fingers. Zoe grabbed her wrist, shoving it down. Athira attempted to shake her off, but Zoe just held on tighter, forcing Athira to face her.

"Thira!" said Zoe, her forest green eyes filled with far too much worry for someone like Athira. "Talk to me! What are you doing?"

"What I have to," hissed Athira. She was vaguely aware of a blunt nausea in the back of her throat that marked an oncoming Surge, but she hardly noticed. The Black no longer burned. It flowed through her, smooth and unrestrained, misting off her skin. "He knows something. He had his chance to tell me."

"Whatever he knows, it's not worth killing him over!"

Athira's gaze slid to Reader, on his hands and knees, forehead against the ground, chest heaving. A choice between him or Zoe. That's what he'd given her. "Yes, it is."

Zoe hesitated, glancing at the runes blazing along Athira's arms. "Your runes — is this the monster again, like in the training room?" Yellow light flared at her hands. "If it is, I can —"

"This isn't the monster's influence," said Athira. "This is entirely my decision."

"I don't understand, Thira," said Zoe, her fingers squeezing Athira's. "Why on Thols would you need to —"

"I'm doing this for you," said Athira, not quite able to pull herself away. "For everyone on this damned rock of a planet, because I'm out of other options. If Reader wants to be a stubborn idiot, fine. He'll break, along with everyone else who wants to stand against me."

In spite of everything, Athira found herself with a small, desperate hope that Zoe might understand. That she might still trust her enough to believe in her, to stay on her side when the rest of the world was against them.

Instead, Zoe's mouth set into a hard line.

"If you kill him like this," Zoe said quietly, "you'll be standing against me, too."