"Where's Lyn," Kydyn asked. He sounded irritated, the way his voice just huffed out the words made it clear to Cinder.
"Should already be here," Jika answered.
They were standing off to the side of a huge dome like room. The lobby to the Capitol echoed with the whispering voices that didn't have the courage to rise in volume. Cinder shifted, his nerves dancing on end. He kept glancing at the two guards next to the front door where they'd come through. Dressed in black uniforms they looked far too intimidating to even ask for directions from. Swords were at their sides, but Cinder was pretty sure they'd never use the weapons. They were just there for looks and not functionality.
Apart from the stoic guards, there were two other groups in the huge dome, one on the opposite side of where Cinder stood with Jika and Kydyn. The other near a spiraling staircase that led up to a second floor with a balcony that hovered over the receptions desk. At the pearly desk was a pretty woman with blood red hair and eyes to match. She'd sent chills down Cinder's spine when they first walked in and asked her about seeing the council.
Apparently they already had an appointment thanks to someone named Lyn. Cinder grimaced as the woman looked up and caught his eye. She must have felt him staring at her. Turning away, he sought out something else to focus on and found himself staring at Kydyn. The warlock was dressed in all black again, just like he'd been the night before. Except replacing the long trench coat was a shorter jacket that only covered about half of his torso. Zippers and buckles laced the heavy material, adding to Kydyn's already intimidating appearance.
His pitch black hair was swept off to one side, accenting his pale features and his rich blue eyes. Cinder swallowed hard, remembering the way they pulsed with a different color the night before. He'd obviously powered up on something, but what that was, Cinder wasn't sure he really wanted to know.
"What are you staring at?" Kydyn snarled, but the angry tone shifted to something more sarcastic and playful a second after. The change was quick enough to have Cinder reeling from it. "Wanna play with me? I know. I'm hard to resist."
"Shut up!" Cinder snapped and his voice carried far louder than he'd wanted. If the initial blush wasn't hot enough, it certainly burned like a fire as the whispering quieted and the shuffle of clothes said people were staring at him.
Snickering, the warlock tilted his head back as he watched Cinder. He was highly amused and it was starting to piss Cinder off. Turning away, Cinder ignored the warlock and tried to make himself as uninteresting as possible so that everyone would stop looking at him. It took a while before the whispering started up again, filling the dome with its low drone of noise.
"There he is," Jika said, startling Cinder after they'd been silent for so long.
The dome room grew heavy, as if the air itself had weight to it. Looking up, Cinder found the once empty balcony filled with a handful of people. All four of them were dressed white uniforms, cloaks of pure gold hanging off one shoulder on each. Descending down the stairs rapidly was a young man who looked no older than Cinder. He was scrawny in appearance. Black hair that bounced around his face brushed into his equally black almond shaped eyes. He hurried over to their small group and flashed a cute smile. "Ready for this?"
"Yeah, what took so long, Lyn?" Jika asked.
To that, Lyn frowned, but it looked more like a pout on his child-like face. "You know them. Stiffs about everything. I'm so freaking tired I could drop dead right here. I've been up all night with those tight asses. Cut me some slack."
"All right, let's get this shit over with. I hate being here. So stuffy," Kydyn said as he tugged at his jacket.
They trudged up the staircase to the group of waiting men and women. The one that met them at the top of the stairs was old and wrinkled, but he looked warm. He gave Cinder a kind smile that Kydyn made a rude noise in response to. The old man ignored Kydyn and it seemed to be a thing that everyone did with the warlock. Instead, he offered a hand out to Cinder and he hesitated two steps down from the landing on the second floor.
"It is a pleasure. The last time I saw you, you were very little. I doubt you remember me."
Cinder stared at him. How in the hell did the old man know who he was when Cinder hadn't ever set foot in the Capitol building? It didn't seem to bother him that Cinder didn't reply. He leaned forward a little more, his hand extended still. Reaching up, Cinder took the man's hand. The council fell into step behind them as the old man guided Cinder into the room beyond the balcony.
As the door swung open, issuing a loud click as they came free from one another, Cinder found his breath taken away. What lay beyond was a spectacle of grand proportions. The huge ornate window was painted with a million different colors that sent an array of dancing lights through the room. An altar sat at the top of a dais with a red silken sheet spread over it. Candles lined the walls and filled the hollowed out area underneath the window.
As Cinder was directed forward, he found himself staring at the glass, trying to make out what was painted on it. The colors all mashed together, but there was a pattern to it. Slowly he could make out a circle of figures down at the bottom, all kneeling as if in prayer to something above them. It looked like a tall figure with arms spread and covered in a sheet of color. There was no face.
"Come, sit upon the altar. We're going to undo the seal that suppresses your power. Do you remember who put it on you?"
Dragged out of his awe, Cinder looked to the old man and shook his head. "N-no. Sorry. I don't remember."
"What about your parents?"
"I..." Cinder paused and looked away. He stared at the floor beneath his dangling feet as he sat on the altar. "Vaguely. It's hard to picture them. I know that something happened, but I don't remember what. Just that it was awful."
He nodded. "I see. I'm Odain, it's a pleasure to meet you Cinder. More formally that is."
Cinder offered a smile but as Odain left his side, he was filled with a horrible kind of dread that pulsed through him. The remaining three that had followed them into the room surrounded him in a semi-circle. The memory of the night before pushed to the front of his mind and he shivered. The three of them joined hands and a low hum began to pulse through the room.
At first, Cinder felt nothing and he began to relax. He watched the people in front of him. Their eyes had the same pulsing that Kydyn's had the night before. Except theirs were different colors where Kydyn's had been purple. He was drawn into the strange flashes of color through their irises until he felt a pressure begin to fill him. Cinder closed his eyes and clutched at the edge of the altar he sat on.
For a while, the pressure stayed the same and he figured it was just a part of what they were doing to try to undo the seal. He chanced opening his eyes again, but pain burst through him as something cracked. Cinder gasped and swayed on the altar. Every muscle began to lock up and he let go of the edge to wrap his arms around himself as the snapping proceeded.
Each tear had him jolting and a few times he almost fell from his seat. Panting, he fought to stay upright and to ignore the agony as the hum grew a little louder. Cinder curled in on himself, shuddering while they tore at whatever was protecting him. He almost wished they'd stop and leave it alone. Had he known it would hurt so badly, he wouldn't have agreed. But then, Jika had assured him it wouldn't. So what was going on?
"Idiots!" Kydyn's thick accent tore through the haze of pain. "Move."
Cinder looked up to see the warlock yanking aside one of the council members, nearly breaking their connection with his rough treatment. He moved to stand in front of Cinder's trembling body. Reaching down, Kydyn lifted him up and laid him out flat on the altar so he wouldn't fall off. The humming had lessened and it helped Cinder focus on Kydyn who hovered over him.
"Concentrate on me, nothing else," the warlock ordered. One hand pressed against Cinder's chest while the other brushed across his face and held the side of his head, fingers tangling in Cinder's brown hair. His pretty blue eyes were pulsing with the purple lances of electricity again.
It captivated Cinder enough to help ground him. He stared as the humming resumed. The low monotone voices that uttered a string of words that just turned into a nonstop sound tore at the seal again. The cracking of each piece still made Cinder jump with the pricks of pain, but it wasn't as awful as it had been moments before.
Cinder panted as he clutched at his sides, nails digging into his hips. As the seal was torn apart, he could feel something else taking its place. A raw, unbridled feeling of energy. Like searing heat beginning to take over the cold. He wasn't sure if he was comfortable with it or not. It seemed untamed and that simple idea scared him. He could feel the last pieces of the seal breaking apart and it was worse than before. Cinder arched off the altar as every inch of his body was ignited.
"Kydyn!" He managed the single cry right before he fell into a wash of images, fear, rage, and an array of emotions that he hadn't thought were possible to have all at once. There was fire crackling all around him, the orange light lashing out as if to wrap him in its claws. Horror washed over him as he watched the shadows dancing on the wall up on the second floor of his house.
He could remember those red velvet covered steps. The mansion that his family lived in, passed on from one generation to the next. The banister's cherry colored wood was beginning to boil from the heat, the strong smell of paint mixed with the ash that billowed all around. Plumes of black smoke obscured his vision for just a moment and as he could see again, the railing at the top of the second story shattered as two bodies fell. Tangled together it was hard to tell who they were, but Cinder screamed anyway.
Both bodies hit the floor with a sickening crunch. He screamed again, and for some reason there was a terrible sense of loss. The fires erupted, enveloping the two who had fallen. Tears streamed down his face, drying quickly against the hot flames. Frozen in fear, he cowered against the wall even as the raging heat threatened to consume him.
Out of the orange and red demon, a woman stumbled. Her pretty green eyes were a reflection of Cinder's and he knew instantly that she was his mother. He screamed again as she stumbled for him. Blood soaked her blouse and skirt. Dirt streaked her face and her skin was turning red from the heat. Dropping down next to him, she forced a smile and wrapped him in her arms. She was sweltering to the touch, but he didn't care because he wanted her to hold him.
There were words, he knew she'd said something to him, yet he couldn't hear them. She pushed him away and he struggled to stay with her, but she held Cinder's small body at arm's length. Her eyes sparked, flashing at him as she muttered something to him. Cinder felt something wrapping around him, a tightness that constricted his chest to the point of having difficulty breathing. When she finished, she staggered to her feet and pushed him toward a door. As it burst open, she threw him out first into the icy chill. He fell into snow, but it did little to ease the heat.
In the next moment, an explosion rocked the air, the house rumbling with it and fire erupting through the front door where he'd been thrown out. The force of it flattened him into the snow and pieces of wood went flying through the air, most of it snuffed out by the white fluff that surrounded his home. Cinder's heart wrenched in an awful way and his screaming could barely be heard over the roar of the flames.
The memory faded and he was brought back to the altar. The pain was still raw and his crying voice was louder than anything else. It drowned out the hum of the three council members as well as Kydyn who was shouting at him. Cinder felt rough denim underneath his fingers and realized that he was holding tightly to the warlock.
Blinking several times, he cleared his vision of the remnants of the memory and found Kydyn hovering over him. The warlock had gotten up on the altar and was straddling Cinder. His hand on Cinder's chest was hot and pulses of light were rippling all along both of them. Cinder stared up at Kydyn who was panting just as hard as he was.
"Cinder."
"I. What happened?"
Kydyn let out a sigh and pulled his hand away. The strange feeling of suppression left Cinder as the warlock braced himself on the altar. He looked exhausted. Kydyn shook his head, eyes closed as he leaned over Cinder. It was like he was struggling. Cinder stared at him in worry and the worry spiked to fear as blood slowly welled and trickled from Kydyn's nose.
"Kydyn! What happened? Are you—" the words ended in a shout as the warlock toppled over. He fell off the altar and hit the marble with a solid thud. Cinder threw himself up and off the altar, following Kydyn down to the floor. Grabbing his shoulders, Cinder shook him. "Kydyn!" He shouted the warlock's name several times over, but got no response. Horror was brimming. Turning, he frantically sought out Jika. He was a druid, he could heal Kydyn of whatever happened. "Jika!"
"I'm here, I'm here," his deep voice was a relief to hear and the warm hand on Cinder's shoulder helped to calm his panic, even if just a little.
"What happened? Is he okay? Why is he bleeding?"
"Just, calm down. Kydyn's fine. He just pushed himself, that's all," Jika reassured him, but Cinder wasn't feeling it.
"Why!"
"You were exuding mass amounts of power, Cinder," Odain said. "It was shaking the room. We were certain you'd tear it down. That was when the warlock wrapped you in his power."
"What? How? That still doesn't explain why he's bleeding from his nose and unconscious!"
"What did you see, Cinder?"
"That has nothing to do with this!" Cinder shouted and got to his feet. He leveled the old man with a nasty glare, a growl to his tone of voice as he balled his hands into fists. "What happened!"
"Cinder—" Jika started to speak but Lyn cut him off.
"All right, I think play time is over. Thanks for unsealing him, we'll be going now. Kydyn needs rest and I think our dear magus here has had enough stress for one day. Don't want to be tipping him, now do we? That could be bad. Come on. We're getting the hell out of this joint!"
Lyn pushed past Odain and linked his arm with Cinder's. He flashed a wild smile before he looked down at Jika and nodded. The druid gathered Kydyn up so that he was held securely against him and started chanting in the strange language that Cinder had heard Kydyn using. He stared in awe as the pair was covered in what looked like a black velvety sheet. As the sheet fell to the floor, the outline of their bodies went with it until it crumpled in a heap and then disappeared.
Lyn started the same chant as Cinder stared at the empty spot. Odain's voice took his attention as Lyn's chanting began to wrap them in the same blanket. "Cinder. I can answer your questions, just return here and ask for me. I look forward to speaking with you again."
Cinder took a deep breath just as the blanket dropped him and Lyn into the pitch black void. He knew better than to try to breathe that time and the passage through was much easier. However, his mind was rife with chaotic thoughts. What happened to Kydyn, and why was Odain asking about what he saw? More importantly, how did he know that Cinder had seen anything at all?
ns 15.158.61.7da2
