Emblems

Chapter 35: Compromise

"Nicholas," Daniel repeated. "Can you bring them back?" His voice sounded hollow. 

His slight smile faded into something even more serious than when they'd spoken in the cafeteria. "The Daron twins?" Lips flattening, he tilted his head and told him, "You know I can't."

Daniel. He glanced at her. It seemed that her mind was still open to him. She put more force behind her thoughts. They're dead, let go. You did it with me, and Nicholas. 

His face twisted. But now there's hope - a way to bring them back. I can't just— He cut off his train of thought when she gave him a deadpan stare. You're right. His shoulders slumped. I'm sorry. 

 

Don’t be, she replied. And Daniel? He looked at her. When it starts, don’t hold back with your magic.

 

There was a quirk in his lips. I won’t. Control over my powers is the one good thing they gave me. Adepts that murder each other are worse than Demons.

When she returned her focus to the situation, Leone was in the middle of speaking, “—selfless and sacrifice for the future by donating all the power that you have gained to the next generations of every race. This is what we stand for and what we ask you to do now. We have done our best to fulfill our part in this already.”

Daniel stiffened at that. “What did you do, apart from murdering our parents?”

“And killing Kayden,” Nicholas added his voice to the pseudo-interrogation.

“All these are well-kept secrets…” She paused, took in their icy looks and said, “Well, if you insist.” Leone smoothed down the floral print that was visible under her armor. “The Beast that attacked you in the tunnels to the Athenaeum was a Rogue that we hired to test you, but you should already know that, shouldn’t you?” she said right off the bat. Test us? More like to kill us. “Your aunt was a Vortex agent,” Leone told Amber, tone blunt. She blinked, stepped back, fists clenching and unclenching, not really knowing what to feel. So that hag was twisted up in all this too? Figures. But killing her seemed a little more okay now. Leone turned to Calida. “Your mother’s death was no robbery.” Her response was a low hiss.

“And your excuse for killing our families?” Nicholas coughed again.

“Criterion number eight,” Daniel said before Leone could answer. His voice sounded strained. “You took The Elemental Legacy in the most literal sense and treated our families like fuel to burn in a bonfire, giving us hardship and loss before anything had even started. You knew everything about us from the moment we were born.”

Leone shrugged, smiling, like she’d taken Daniel’s words as compliments, as if killing her own son for something bigger than us was noble in every conceivable way. She was insane, all of Vortex was. But she believed in her own sanity so much that she was willing to sacrifice everything for it, and expected others to do that same. She spoke again, "We simply hope that you will agree to sacrifice your lives for the sake of the power stream. If not, we will eliminate him by force." A Vortex member had already edged behind Nicholas, a dagger at his throat. Leone sighed, somehow managing to look helpless. "We've tried to obtain his acceptance, but his...unique abilities made him quite difficult to persuade. In this compromise, we no longer need him, as long as the three of you consent."