Disciple of Vengeance by CC Rasmussen (phonics readers .txt) 📕

owe her,” Janis said. The rage that had been simmering bubbled up. He clenched his fist.

“She’s betrayed you. You don’t owe her.”

“She once said that I owed my family what I knew was best for them, not what they thought was best for themselves. For years we were all each other had. Us against the world. And she left me to die with the rest. Forced me to become this… thing to survive. All for a silly dream.” His fists trembled. “I owe her learning why, and stopping her for her own good, even though she’ll hate it. Even though she’ll try to kill me at every turn.”

Janis walked back to the wizard, dagger in hand, ready to plunge it into the man’s chest. Orinax inhaled and closed his eyes, awaiting deliverance. Janis was ready to give it to him when Ruck jumped between them. “Wait. You don’t want to do this. It’s just what he wants.”

“Get out of the way, Ruck.”

“No. I heard Sciana tell you she was staying to monitor you, to protect you from yourself. Well, she’s gone, but I’m still here, and I won’t let you become the person who thing wants you to be. Maybe he’s everything you hate, but it’s not worth killing him. Not now.”

The dagger shook in Janis’s fist. He glowered at the wizard. “Where’s she going?”

“The Pearl of Saurius.”

Pearl of Saurius… “Qestis?” Orinax nodded. It was where Brethor had said to meet him. The old man must have known more than he’d let on. “What’s her connection to the Society? Why were they helping you?”

“They have knowledge essential to understanding the Channeler’s real potential.”

Janis pushed forward, but Ruck pushed him back. He remembered seeing the wizard on the rampart with Renea before the two escaped. The onyx eyes watching him during his training. He’d always feared this man and what he could do. Now he was a puppet stripped of its strings. A tool and nothing more.

He played his role… He deserves death…

He did, it’s true, but what good did killing him serve? Renea had left him behind, expecting Janis to kill him. The smarter move was to commandeer him. To put him to better use.

He betrayed you... killed your family...

He helped betray them, but he wasn’t the architect.

Kill him… feed me…

The symbiote squirmed in Janis’s psyche. Its hunger was a bottomless well that plunged deeper and deeper. He’d come so far for this moment, and now it seemed so empty. Renea…

How could it be her? What dream could she have that would justify such a betrayal?

Feed…

Janis sheathed the dagger and backed away, his arm trembling. Orinax watched. “You aren’t worth my dagger,” Janis said. “But maybe, you’ll earn it by serving me.”

“Kill me,” Orinax yelled. He brought his head to the earth, bowing pathetically. Janis pursed his lips.

“Get on your feet,” Ruck said. Orinax lifted his head, still kneeling. “I said get up,” Ruck said.

“Shut up, boy. I’m here to die. Don’t you understand? That’s all I want.” He broke into frantic, soul-sucking sobs again. “That’s all I can do for her. To make her happy.”

Janis turned to him. “It won’t happen. Join me or leave.”

“No,” the wizard said, clenching his fists. As he did an image flashed in Janis’s memory: Orinax sneering at him from the rampart, Renea’s violet eyes regarding him from behind her silver wizard’s cowl, already steeped in sorrow but also filled with something he hadn’t noticed before: resolve.

“Fine. Ruck.” Janis motioned. The boy followed. Orinax cried as they walked away. Ruck looked back over his shoulder. Janis was going to do it. He was going to leave the pathetic wretch to live in the world he’d created.

No.

Janis’s arm reached out of its own accord, his mind encircling the man’s body with his power. Something opened within him and the symbiote bridged the gap between them as thick, ropy bands of pure void plunged into the wizard’s eyes and open mouth. Orinax’s scream was like nothing he’d ever heard. The wail of a banshee or a dying animal, the screech of a crashing coach - anything but the cry of a sapien. His body deflated like a crushed skein of wine, imploding into the bands of void as the symbiote fed until his physical body disintegrated in real time, peeling away in flakes and dissolving in the excess heat of the exchange. Janis watched as the man’s face exuded indescribable pain, his body disappearing through his own mouth as he regarded Janis one last time. Then his face disappeared through the same breach until even that peeled away. The void bands retracted back into Janis’s chest. He fell to the ground.

“Janis,” he heard Ruck call.

We needed him, the symbiote intimated. There can be no turning back.

Janis spasmed as he tried to breathe. He pushed the symbiote down within himself, controlled the surging passion. His rage had consumed him enough for the symbiote to ride that and use him to affect the world. Long enough to make him a mage and not a sorcerer. A host and not a partner.

He felt the power surge in him. He struggled to hold on to who he was. Felt his body moving, but he knew not where.

Who was he?

An Aphora, a Shadowstalker, a sapien, a brother.

A brother…

This was all who he’d been, not who he was now. Except for the last one. The last one still stood. But something new superseded it.

A sorcerer. A damned one. A disciple of vengeance…

Yes.

He could hold on to that. He could learn why he’d become what he was.

We will claim what is ours…

As he felt Ruck pull him up the hill, one thought consumed his scrambled mind.

What had he done?