The Gift of Good and Evil: Bound By Blood

Return of the Shadows

As Lesso severed the connection between your minds, you screamed in pain. "Fuck!" You yelled as you slammed your fists into the desk in the potions classroom. The wood splintered and split where your fists had landed, collapsing on the ground.

You stumbled backwards as the residual sting seeped into your mind. Your back landed hard into Sahar's cabinet, shattering a few empty potion bottles and making several of the others clink & clank as they jiggled around, hitting one another.

"Ah!" You whimpered as you grabbed your head with your left hand. Tears formed in your eyes as you tried your hardest to dull the pain. You hadn't expected Lesso to be able to force you out so aggressively. She had to have help; there was no way she would've been able to do that on her own.

Shakily, you used your magic to dull the pain. You knew better than to try and re-enter her mind. She had likely fortified it heavily, and it would only end up causing you more pain. Not like you needed the connection now anyway. You knew where they were and you'd given them fair warning you were coming; which you thought was rather kind of you.

Though it's not like your kindness would do them any good; they'd still perish at your hand.

Now you just had to make sure you had allies to go into battle with. It would be much harder to get to Lesso if you had to go through everyone else first. But leaving them distracted, having them engage with your soldiers...it would be much easier to get to your wife, and end her before she had the chance to end you.

"Alright," you sighed, as you stood, your head already healing from the magic you'd infused within it; though it was slower than you'd prefer. "Get your shit together Y/N," you demanded of yourself.

Stumbling forward, you swiped your hand toward the cauldron you'd used to spy on Lesso to figure out where she was. It emptied itself and once it had, you laid your hands on the edges of the rim, resting on it for a moment.

As you rested, you tried to calm your breathing. You shouldn't feel this weak; not with all this power you had. Your brow was sweaty, and your hands felt shaky as they held the rim of the cauldron; though even now, you could feel the blood magic attempting to help you return to full strength.

"Work faster dammit," you huffed desperately as you lifted yourself to stand tall. Though you hated to admit it, perhaps the blood magic was having a harder time fighting against your evil half than you thought it would.

However, after a few minutes, you stood tall, running your fingers through your hair as you let out a deep exhale. "Okay...let's figure out how the fuck Rafal managed an entire shadow army."

Snapping your fingers, you disappeared from the potions classroom, appearing outside in the courtyard in front of the entrance to the Blue Forest. For a moment, you simply stood there, staring at the landscape. It had been awhile since the forest had sounded so quiet; it was peaceful.

Closing your eyes, you tilted your head, extending your hands out as if you were feeling the grass or the air flowing through your fingers. After a moment, you opened your right eye. But to your surprise, nothing had happened.

"The hell?" You cursed to yourself as you opened both eyes. You had been trying to summon the darkness to allow the shadows to rise. Why hadn't it worked?

You thought about how Rafal could've done it. The shadows had been supplied by the rain, the lightning, the darkness.

Closing your eyes again, you attempted to call the rain; remembering how the thunder and lightning had crashed around you last year as you'd made your way to the tower, following after Lesso as she'd attempted to stop Rafal.