Lex Talionis
“May I?” asks Alastair solicitously, surprising me with his concerned tone.
I nod in response, bracing myself. He brings his hands slowly towards my sleeve, pulling the fabric to examine my wound. Wincing at the sight of my vermillion arm, where previously a knife took homage at, he wraps a wet cloth around it in an attempt to sanitize the gash. I hiss at the burning sensation that shoots up my arm when he wraps the wound in a bandage. Within seconds, the room starts spinning and everything goes black.
“Rise and shine princess” sings Alastair, a smirk etched on his face as he steps into the foreign surroundings, a questionable loaf of bread and a glass of water he moves towards me.
The world is still reeling and my mind is in a frenzy. The unanswerable questions from last night’s events have my head throbbing with an unbearable ache. Despite all of this, I compose myself and get ready to pounce on the psycho as soon as he comes close enough. I lunge at him with all my might, ignoring the open slash that has now started to bleed again. But, my efforts are proven useless when I am pulled back by the restricting shackles on my wrist and ankles that bound all of my movements.
“Ten years of friendship, yet you underestimate me Calypso” tsks Alastair, humor burning bright in his eyes.
“Ten years of friendship, yet you underestimate me” I mimic his words, clearly slapping the amusement from his face.
“Oh! Isn’t this delightful?” I drag the letters of my last word whilst rubbing my now free wrists. Whistling lightly as I stand up and look at Alastair’s aghast expressions, whose hands have now secured themselves around his swords sheath.
“Yo-you were-weren’t supposed t-to inh-inherit the p-powers!” he shouts when I pass my hand over my injury, blue flames and sparks beam, instantly healing it. I just grin wickedly and turn around to survey my surroundings.
Briskly I swing my arm behind curling my fingers around the blade Alastair hoped to drive through me. “I always knew you were the backstabber” I purr pulling away my crimson grisly hand which recovers straightaway.
“I-I am so s-sorry” he stutters when I turn around to face him.
“Now may I?” I ignore his faux apology and kick him in the chest, making him fall near the restrains I had melted earlier.
I pull him forward using his collar and focus my mind to fashion a knife from the metal around me. Smiling when the dagger looks exactly the way I wanted, I ram it into Alastair, just the way he had into my mother hoping that my necromantic abilities would perish along with her.
“Finally! The torture of his presence has ended!” I mutter, feeling the ends of my lips curl up.
Pushing my weight off the ground, I whisk towards my kingdom, ready to claim the crown now that I have avenged my mother’s death.
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Glossary- Lex Talionis: Latin for retributive justice Penmancy gets a small share of every purchase you make through these links, and every little helps us continue bringing you the reads you love!