Surrender (Book 1 of The Baneseeker Project)

Chapter 6 - The Swap

Lyna released her grip on time and changed her vision, willing it to see auras. A bright white emanation with wisps of vivid green surrounded the small body. Danor had a good heart, his intentions virtuous. Auras did not lie. Returning her sight to normal, Lyna carefully pulled the boy's hand and wrist from under his belly.

And here it was.

The bracelet.

Pulsating black wisps of corruption. Burning not to the touch, but to the spirit. A cursed object that should not be.

A bane core.

Deftly, Lyna slipped the bracelet off and replaced it with the newly crafted replica.

The boy's eyelids flickered and his eyes suddenly opened wide... Lyna immediately flattened time, forcing the boy into immobility. She had been careless by not using her ability.

She still held the boy's wrist between her fingers and his eyes, unmoving, were fixated on her face. She could not erase her sight from his memory, but it did not really need to be. For him, her image would be fleeting, like the flash of a shooting star in the dark sky.

Lyna tucked back his wrist and slid away, down the ladder and out of the shelter. She grabbed her things and faded away from the building. She kept her hold on time during her whole escape, and longer, stretching it further as she went, frustrated... conflicted.

She kept seeing the boy's eyes on her, and in it, impossibly, a plea for help. She did not mind that he had seen her. They had talked a few days ago and he would associate seeing her with that encounter, probably think he had dreamt her up.

What worried her was how much she had come to care for the boy.

☼

Argon almost did not see her. His attention was on the door, which seemed the only logical path she could take to exit the building. But he did not see her slip out.

Instead, he noticed her as she passed at arm's length in front of him, before grabbing a bag from the other side of the one-wheeled cart behind which he was hiding. The only reason she might not have seen him was that he had called upon the shadows and was shrouded in darkness. Also, she seemed in a hurry.

As Lyna made her way down the hill, Argon followed. The shadows stayed with him, forming a black mist that blended with the surroundings. For the magic to work, Argon had to stay where shadows could breath and multiply. It was not a difficult feat at this hour of day and in a place like Tanazu, which seemed to breed darkness..

High above, Luna appeared as a perfect white sphere. Thin clouds were moving across the pale moon, whipped ahead by high winds.

Suddenly, Lyna turned left and started to make her way toward the north. Argon tagged along, keeping to a safe distance.

It wasn't clear to him what Lyna was doing in Tanazu. Onthar would have preferred not to pry, but Argon had no such reservation. Both had agreed that she wasn't herself and that something was burdening her, maybe even having some control over her. They worried.

If he could discover what she was up to, Argon figured it might help decide if they had to step in and offer support.

She moved extremely fast and Argon was now certain that she was manipulating time, just like he was able to do. He had lost her momentarily when she entered the shelter and as he followed her, he lost sight of her now and then. When this happened, he quickened his pace, knowing that time was slower for him than it was for her and that she was covering much more ground than he was.

As she reached the crest of a hill, she stopped and Argon quickly made his way to a nearby tree, crouching behind it, shadows wrapping themselves around him and hiding him.