Chapter Forty Four
She came to cuffed to a table in an alcove of the large room. The band was still wrapped around her neck and her head felt like it was splitting open. There were unfamiliar constructs around her. She craned her neck back looking for Genji. He was still on the floor, he hadn’t moved.
“Awake then?” she heard Horan’s voice to her other side, “Good, I was hoping you’d be able to witness this.”
“Traitor,” she spat out at him and strained against the cuffs. “What do you think is going to happen? You’re in the middle of the force. Once the breach is stopped someone is going to notice.”
Horan laughed nastily, “Wrong, they’re all going to be dead and we’re going to walk out, taking you with us. That obnoxious subordinate of yours can stay here and rot.”
“That will never happen, we’re too strong. Jackass. They’ll win and then you’re going to rot in a cold, damp cell. If you even survive. I’ll tear you apart myself if Genji’s not alright.”
Horan leaned his face down into hers and sneered, stroking back a lock of her hair that had fallen in her face. “No, see, that’s why you’re here, you’re going to kill them for us.”
Dahlia laughed in his face, “You’ve lost it. Anything you do to me is a mere scratch compared to what I’ve experienced. You could never break me.”
Horan’s sneer broadened into a grin, “We don’t need your help, just your body.”
“Excuse me?” she snapped. “You really have lost it.”
“Quit toying with her Horan,” said a voice like a blade on a gravestone. Ahriman appeared holding more constructs. “I don’t blame you, girl. You’re just too limited to understand your own abilities.”
“I think I know them pretty well, thanks.”
“You know what they do but not why,” he said tonelessly, setting up the constructs around her. “Everyone focuses on the manifestations: your ‘puppets’, your ability to enter minds--yours and others. No one pays attention to why you have these abilities. You’ve even discounted your ability to amplify emotions as a minor ability, often a nuisance.”
Dahlia remembered the research journal. It had focused on that ability, but why?
“You look confused, don’t worry, it took me a while to make the connection, too. You have strong psychic abilities, nothing extraordinary on their own. I theorized that your strongest ability is actually the one that amplifies your emotions. It amplifies your psychic abilities as well. There are other people who have a similar ability, just much less so. I’ve been able to use them to amplify energy and create impressive results. The hole in the wall your comrades are currently defending was the result of that work. If they ever make it outside they’ll find a couple dozen bodies of the men and women my team used to amplify enough energy to break through that impressive wall. I imagine you sensed that amplification earlier, it would have given you a small shock.”
Dahlia panicked. If what he was saying was true she had been slated for a nasty death. One that, if Horan had been correct, would take her allies out with her. She struggled, reached out with her abilities desperately and screamed as the band burned cold into her neck. “Fuck you,” she ground out and pushed harder.
“Now you understand,” he seemed pleased. “Don’t bother fighting. And don’t worry, this won’t kill you. It’ll just hurt a lot. I’ll want to keep you around. Once you recover you’ll be a great asset. I came here specifically to get another magnifier so we could wipe out your force without sacrificing you.”
“Stop fighting, my ass!” Dahlia pushed harder, her vision starting to swim from the pain.
“Hush, maybe you’ll find this interesting,” he pulled out a small, gleaming gemstone of gold and green. “Draconite. Pulled from the head of a living dragon when he was held captive deeper beneath this room. I bet most people don’t even know it’s here, just that one mediocre researcher I had brought to me. I can distribute the energy through you first then through the draconite using these tools.”
Dahlia screamed as she struggled. She hadn’t been anywhere near the best in her training working with research and constructs, but she had paid attention and Ahriman’s team had been in charge. To negate anything, the theory went, all you had to do was store or ground it. Though actually achieving that was a complex undertaking they were only just starting to experiment with. Transforming psychic energy into pain and rebounding it against its creator should have taken extra effort. Ahriman had never been known to be sadistic. He was apathetic towards the pain of others but hadn’t been known to inflict it for pure enjoyment. So, her desperate theory ran, there must be a reason he made the construct hurt when she used her power. Either it could be overwhelmed or she could get around it. Hopefully.
The problem was she was funnelling everything she had and was getting nothing but pain for her effort. She only had so much power she could draw on.
She screamed again as the band grew still colder and seared beneath her skin. She focused everything she had on it. Every instinct and desire aligned, she poured every drop she could into the damned band.
She felt Horan smash the back of his hand against her mouth and she tasted blood as her lips split. “Gods you are irritating, stop it.”
“Horan!” She heard a voice ring out.
Damn it, no!
“Traedon, go!” she screamed.
“Oh ho ho, look at this!” Horan laughed loudly. “Your lover’s come to save you. Or is that Ravin now? I can’t keep track.”
“Back down, Horan,” Traedon ground out as his demon pack appeared around him.
Horan didn’t even look at him. “I’ll be right back,” he told the woman strapped to the table. Then he bent down and pressed his mouth painfully to her bloody lips and slid a hand to her hip.
Dahlia bucked her head forward, trying to smash into him but he moved quickly back, smiling with her blood on his lips. “Doesn’t matter anyways, they’ll both be corpses by the time dawn comes.”
The first of Traedon’s tigers darted in, testing Horan. The captain spun and sent a shot faster than it could dodge. The beast vanished, split in half.
“No, Traedon, go!” she begged him. Traedon was strong but he was facing two men that had been leaders in the force. Against those odds he couldn’t hope to win.
Horan’s next shot was straight at the lieutenant. Unable to block a shot that was purely compressed air, Traedon was forced to dodge but his tigers circled their opponent. Ahriman simply ignored them as he continued with his preparations.
Dahlia’s breath was a sob as she fought against the pain and her own limits to overcome the band on her neck. She saw Horan forming a wide scythe of compressed air Traedon would be hard pressed to dodge.
He shot it at Traedon and the lieutenant threw himself over it as two of his tigers rushed in from either side. One of them caught a chunk from Horan’s thigh, but the captain had thrown a second blast as Traedon hung in the air that sliced through the man’s dominant sword arm. Blood spilled from both men as Traedon landed on two feet and the hand of his uninjured arm. Horan whipped his sword through the beast that had just bit him and it dissolved. Three more set on him but with a motion a sharp gust propelled the captain up over head where he hung for a moment and fired another blast. The three tigers got out of the way and Traedon closed in, but it was obvious that Horan had the advantage.
He landed on both legs, ignoring the injury Traedon’s tiger had caused, and locked blades with the lieutenant. Two tigers jumped at him but with a wave another scythe appeared and ripped through them. Traedon took the sacrifice to his advantage though and slammed a kick into Horan’s injured limb.
Horan pivoted back, alleviating some of the force of the kick, brought up a shield of his compressed air against another tiger, and caught Traedon with a slash to the top of the shoulder of his injured arm. Traedon took the blow in stride but it was easy to tell that it hurt him. He held the blade with both hands and went for a lunge. Horan feigned a dodge to the right and instead brought up another blade of air from the ground. Hastily formed, it didn’t have enough power to cut, but Traedon’s head was knocked back and he took a slice on his forearm from Horan’s sword as he blindly blocked the cut coming towards his throat.
“Tsk, tsk, I imagine Horan’s going to kill him. Pointless, but that’s what you get when you ally with soldiers,” Ahriman mused.
Dahlia felt something in her snap and she drain everything left into the band.
“I keep telling you not to do that,” Ahriman rebuked her, “you’re going to pass out and I’d prefer you awake.”
“Fuck you,” she spat blood at him and continued. Her vision started to go in and out. She heard a thud and Traedon coughed raggedly. It sounded like Horan had hit something internal.
No, this isn’t happening, I refuse to accept it.
She felt tears in her eyes as she fought against the pain of the band burning deep into her muscles. Her throat felt like cold fire was burning her from inside out.
No...I have to have the strength to…
Her vision faded to black.