Selfless Love

Missing Pieces

"They, um," Matthew muttered, almost timidly, "they overheated?"

He said this more like a question than a statement, as though he still couldn't decide how to explain what had happened.

It was then that Grayson looked back at the children. They stood still as stone, eyes shut, concentrating. The longer he looked the more he realized they were...glowing? No, not the children themselves, but the air around them. The air buzzed, almost crackling with energy as the light grew bigger and brighter by the second.

"Don't you touch her!" they screamed.

Without warning the light around them brightened to the point of blinding the eyes of anyone who tried to look for too long. And then with a loud, pained shout, the children released their mana showering the alleyway with unyielding light.

Grayson heard someone scream, whether it was his own voice or someone else, he couldn't tell. He had never heard the sound of dragon fire destroying everything in its wake but he imagined this is probably what it sounded like. This kind of wild destruction that left your ears ringing for days.

His back collided with the large crates stacked on the right side of the alley as he was thrown through the air. He felt something slam into him and he tried to shove it off fearing he would be crushed. When the light faded he saw Maximilian laying on the ground in front of him. The shallow but steady rise and fall of her chest told him she was still alive. She must have been what crashed into him during the explosion. The lady must have hit her head after he shoved her as she appeared to be unconscious.

He watched as though in a daze as the children ran forward dropping to the ground by her side. They were shouting something at her but his ears were still ringing too badly to hear them. The children looked dazed and utterly exhausted and soon they lay fast asleep from mana depletion.

As the ringing in his ears finally began to fade he took a moment and looked around as he lay in the shards of wood that had shattered behind him. He saw that their mana destroyed everything in its path, with dark scortch marks stretching more than halfway down the alleyway.

Grayson released an uneasy breath. He tried to shift his weight to roll onto his side, all in vain. The clanking of armor grew closer, louder and louder as the seconds passed by.

He glanced at the men who had helped him attempt to take his revenge. They hadn't moved since the explosion and there was a slight odor wafting from their direction, a horrid stench of burned flesh. They had been closest to the explosion. For the briefest of moments he took pity on them. Despite having lost his faith years ago, he prayed they weren't dead, not for his sake or for the sake of the mission but for the sake of the children. It was an accident. They were trying to protect each other as well as their mother but he was certain they didn't intend to take the lives of others. They were far too young to carry that burden.

Loud urgent shouts drew him out of his thoughts. Several angry male voices echoed through the alleyway as the Remdragon knights arrived. Grayson's eyes grew wide and his body twitched trying to move away as he gazed upon the man leading the knights.

Death itself didn't scare him but the look on the Commander's face certainly did. The Lord of Anatol was an imposing figure but what truly frightened Grayson was the cruel truth that he recognized that same anger and rage in himself. The unbridled fury he had felt when the world turned its back on his daughter. He knew that feeling of bloodlust all too well and he saw it now burning in the Commander's eyes.

The Lord looked as dangerous as the monsters he had sworn to destroy. It was all a lie of course. An act. The Lord and Lady don't give a shit about their people, if they did then Isabella would still be alive.