Emblems

Chapter 34: Shake and Tremble

Chapter 34: Shake and Tremble

"CRITERION NUMBER EIGHT," LEONE SAID slowly. She stood away from where the non-Human Delegates had been slaughtered. The reference almost stumped him, till he went back to before his training had started, when the four of them had agreed to become things that they had never understood, to bear a burden so warped by time and twisted ideals that they were breaking under it. His hands clenched into fists on his sword hilt. Leone continued, "The Emblems must go through hardship, sacrifice and loss to realise their potential. We simply sped up the process."

"Process?" came a low growl. Calida almost sounded like Amber. "We didn't ask for this." She rose from where she'd been kneeling next to her fallen tutor. "If you want it so badly, I'll show you hardship and loss!" With a snarl, she launched herself forward, mocha-coloured skin suddenly red and glowing from the inside. Streams of fire burst from her fingers, splitting around her weapons and cutting through the air to cover the distance between the Delegate and the Emblem. Leone pulled water from the air to meet the flames head on and where the elements met, the air erupted into hissing clouds of steam and fog. 

Through the mist he headed to where he'd sensed Calida's mind, then put a hand on her shoulder just as she raised an arm to fire off another shot at Leone. A whoosh of air cleared the fog from the training grounds, revealing Amber with her hands stretched out and standing behind Leone, an unconscious – or maybe dead – Janna slumped at her side. Leone, standing between them, looked from her to him. When the rest of the Delegates caught sight of the Mind Adept keeled over on the ground, they started forward, weapons bristling, and Leone raised a hand, this time to stop them.

A stalemate – no one moved. 

His hand tightened on Calida's shoulder as she shifted her grip on her foil. "I get why you did this, if only for the most practical of purposes," he admitted. 

Calida turned to him, eyes narrowed. "You're just saying that because you didn't have any non-Human tutors. You got brainwashed by Leone and her pack of bloodthirsty murderers!" She wrenched herself out of his grasp, and he saw her grip tighten around her weapons, though she didn't attack.

A motherly smile spread across Leone's face. She looked proud. "I knew you would understand, Daniel. This is the kind of attitude that we hoped our Emblems would adopt over time." Her gaze shifted to Amber and Calida and the bright sheen in her eyes dulled. "If the both of you cannot adopt our ideals, then I fear that—”

"You didn't get me," he interrupted before she could get any further. "I said that I understand; that doesn't mean I agree. All three of us will never conform to what you want, especially since you're not the Delegates." On Leone's other side, Amber shot him a strange look. She hadn't figured it out yet? What had happened just now wasn't just because of tensions between the three races. Janna killing Felix had proved that. 

Leone nodded, as if carefully considering something. "I suppose," she said, "that it is time to reveal ourselves, since the Delegates are no more. We are an entity existing inside the Delegates, consisting of trusted Adepts that believe in the same cause." He didn't want his suspicion confirmed. Not after his training with Leone, not after all the time he'd spent in the Athenaeum and definitely not after all the conversations he'd had with the Delegates he knew. But the words he dreaded came anyway: "We are the Vortex organization, though I'm sure you've already guessed."