Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 9: Letter of Consolation

Toren Daen

The woman attacked with far more speed than the teen had before. Fire burst from her feet, launching her toward Norgan. My brother barely managed to deflect her first blow, staggering back from the force.

The woman jabbed with absurd speed, lightning coating her fist. I tried to push her hand out of the way with a burst of telekinesis, but a tendril of the lightning shrouding her hand sparked, lancing off and shattering my spell before it could have an effect.

The blow collided with Norgan's jaw, an audible crack of thunder and bone echoing across the dim alleyway. Norgan flew back, nearly colliding with me. I screamed, hurling a slew of rocks with a telekinesis-enhanced throw at our assailant.

The woman waved her hand nonchalantly, lightning snaking out and striking each of my pebbles before they could hit her. They burst on contact, causing small puffs of dirt-brown dust to pop in the air.

Undeterred by being blown across the alley, Norgan rocketed forward once more in a gale of wind, trying to land a hit on the woman. He threw a flurry of wind-pushed punches and kicks, becoming a whirlwind of force. The woman ducked and weaved around him, not even striking back. She was toying with Norgan.

I searched the alleyway desperately for something I could use, finally remembering the metal brooch I clutched desperately in my hand. It had drawn blood from how tight I had been gripping it.

I let that anger fuel me. I concentrated my telekinesis rune as much as I could, trying to shrink the surface area of my push as much as possible, which would simultaneously increase the force I could apply. Several seconds passed as I focused more intensely than I ever had on my spellform.

"Norgan!" I screamed over the roar of his wind, "Strike two!" I yelled, hoping he would hear me. We had developed codes for different formations, and I damned well hoped he remembered them now. If he didn't, we were dead.

My brother disengaged quickly, allowing me to finally see his jaw. It was clearly dislocated in some way, painfully set to the side. Blood trickled from his mouth in several places.

My years of experience at the Healer's Guild surfaced as I looked at his jaw, a dozen different ways to set a dislocated joint flashing through my mind. I banished them all.

With a cry, I hurled the brooch, the spiked end aimed straight at our enemy. A glinting blur was all I could see over the flash of blinding white mana.

I exhaled deeply, most of my mana expelled in that single pulse of telekinesis. I had never tried to channel the area of my push to such a focused point before, and I was feeling the drain.

I slumped against the brick wall as my vision cleared from the flash. I heard a flare of wind as Norgan skidded to my side. Did I get the woman with that brooch? Were we safe?

When my vision finally cleared, what I saw caused my heart to sink. The brooch had embedded itself all the way into the woman's left shoulder, causing a small stream of blood to leak down her black clothes. Lightning crackled around the metal, clearly having pierced whatever electric defenses she had. The woman was looking at the brooch in shock, clearly in disbelief that I had managed to hurt her.

But the strike was too high. If I had aimed a bit lower, it could have nailed her straight in the heart. The woman growled, glaring back at us. Slowly, she began to pull the brooch from her shoulder.

Norgan rushed forward, refusing to allow the opening I had made to go to waste. He yelled, a strained, awkward thing with his crooked jaw, but it was full of desperation.

The woman didn't let him.

She ripped the spiked brooch out in one fluid motion, spraying blood across the ground. In a painfully smooth act, she withdrew the stiletto on her belt, and with speed beyond anything I had seen before, rammed it toward my brother's sternum. She was fast as lightning, but I could swear she moved as slow as water as she drove her blade into Norgan's chest.