THE SIGMA'S MATE

CHAPTER 17 -CHAMPION

ALARIC

I leave the young princess deep in her own thoughts, safely occupied in my personal library while I search for the instructor Kaye. So much to do and so little time to accomplish it before I must leave with Morr. I have no choice, I cannot delay my departure for much longer. Who knows how long she shall keep me this time? Frustrated and eager to take it out on somebody else, my thoughts turn to the ice bender. Pity, they are so hard to come by. Sayla is being detained for her insubordination, cast into a cell beneath the earth's ground and below in the basement warded with spells and charms so powerful that the inmates seldom require supervision or the cell's maintenance. A prisoner could go for months without seeing a single living person. As I pass the rows of empty barred prisons, my mind swims with the thoughts of my earlier discussion with Lyra. I know she is suggesting that there is more between her and the prince's rat than there truly is. Still, she taunts me so easily she might as well not even try. Black veins streak their way along the length of my body, visible on my thick arms, neck and large hands. A telltale sign that the beast is clawing to get out. If I lose control - if I give over to that animalistic side that lusts after her… well, there are far worse things than death. Sayla has the unfortunate luck of meeting with me while I'm in such a terrible mood. She sits with her knees pressed to her chest, sobering quietly into her hands that rest on top of her legs. The floors are solid concrete, plain and grey is colouring, however, all around her ice freezes the floor as if to provide her with comfort. Perhaps others would take pity, perhaps others would care. However, her behavior is inexcusable and dangerous. I cannot have loose cannons under my command. Lyra might think that I am soft, that I am too lenient. That I am nothing like her fierce brother and she would be right. I am worse. She has no idea who she is playing with. Sayla swallows hard, a look of pure misery on her face.

"Her family is responsible for Ben's death. It's their fault and no one is going to make them pay for it. No one is ever going to hold them accountable for the things that they do. For the life's that they take." She says with a trembling lip and a tear-stained face.

I understand her. I understand perfectly her reasoning behind the attack. It is not a matter of whether she is deserving of punishment or not but rather that she acted against me and mine.

She tries again to right her wrong, to talk her way out of the mess that she is in, "I have fought hard for you, watched my friends die for you. I am loyal. I made a mistake." She says and her eyes plead with their own secret message.

"I don't care."

I snap my eyes closed in concentration and when they open, the girl's face pales and her lips part in a silent scream. I snap my fingers and the shadows of the cell swirl and grow into life. The room around us warps and the barriers between worlds thin and disappear until Sayla and I stand in a dead world where all life and light has been bled dry. An eerie blue sun with white shining cracks along its surface hangs in the permanent nighttime sky. The harmless shadows from before snarl and shriek as they twist into the decaying bodies of soulless creatures that bare their rotting teeth. The foul creatures pass right through me, however Sayla is far from untouchable. She screams with all the air left in her lungs as the creatures slither closer and closer until they are stretching their taloned hands out for her. She screams my cover-name as they draw blood, swarming her until there is neither bone nor tooth left of her previous form. Another shadow joins the army of the dead in eternal servitude. My left arm burns and blisters in the spot her mark, her tattoo used to be. However, her soul will never be free of me even here. It hangs around in its new form even when the foul shadowy beasts have left in search of anything else that is living and unfortunate enough to have gotten stuck in this world. The shadow makes a horrific noise, sinking in on itself on the dusty and cracked ground.

"I am the champion of the goddess of war. I don't forgive mistakes." I tell the shadow.

Closing my eyes again, I feel the change - the oxygen entering my lungs here is clean. Now back at the Elite View, I set out in search of Kaye.