Caecius raised his hands, an invisible tempest of blades swirling around them.
"Be a good girl and come with me," he said to Nu, "don't you grow tired of destruction?"
"I do, but," Nu responded patiently, "I know what you intend to do. I've told you I can't take us back home. I can't command the Aeth—"
Caecius growled and shook his head in irritation. He swiped at the air violently, sending a vicious gust towards Nu to show her what he thought of her excuses. The blade of air came dangerously close to an eye. Blood seeped from a tiny cut on Nu's cheek.
"Yes, you can!" shouted Caecius with absolute confidence.
Nu raised a finger to the injury and a drop of blood fell between her fingers.
"Bastard!" yelled Van as he flew between them and aimed his gun.
"Van, don't!" pleaded Nuallis. He'll kill you ... if I lose you ...
The blast from the gunner's weapon was seasoned with ember and flame.
Caecius crossed his arms and the air gyred to meet the metal ball. Whether the bullet was faster than Caecius anticipated or he was just unlucky, the ball struck his belly, knocking the wind out of him. Had he not slowed it down, Nu mused, he'd be much worse off.
"You ... " grunted Caecius, his clothing singed from the bullet's burning bite, "of course." Caecius bristled, his aeromancy charging around him. "Don't think you'll land another," warned Caecius to Van.
Nu didn't hear Van's retort. She was lost in her mind with all the terror around her and the terror to come. The death of friends. Their screams. To see their life's blood leave them. She would be spared Jayden's demise, taken off somewhere far away to fight his twin unless Cordis would be cruel enough to brag about it when he returned. If he returned. Why, thought Nu, why does it have to be like this.
Something in her sturred, and she screamed as tears rolled down her face.
"ENOUGH!" The healer's birthmark felt as if a hot iron was pressed against it.
She conjured up a storm of her own. Glass from the huge window that looked out into the town shattered to let the living mist enter and incur its wrath.
"Nu?" muttered Van.
"Nu," she heard Magpie call out, "are you alright?"
"Curses," uttered Gideon as he frowned at his suit, "I had just found a clean one."
"So she's not useless as I thought," said Ladnavia with faint amusement.
Words vanished behind the rush of sour water. Unlike in her first fight in this realm, she found the ability to control the water. Drops directed themselves like a swarm of flies, then merged. The acid burned holes in the furniture and carpet.
"That's the power I want to see," mused Caecius as his captive winds lifted him slightly off the ground, "but clearly, you must be tamed."
"Why ..." Nu questioned once again, "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE US ALONE?"
The two storms tangled themselves within each other.
ns 172.70.131.97da2
