Restricted Magic - Arc 3

Part 5

"Aren't you going to invite me in?"

General Roderick smiled, the expression, although normal appearing, caused nothing but dread for Erin, who could see it was not reflected in his eyes. Every breath he took seemed to steal the oxygen from the room. Erin felt suffocated, desperate to escape but her only path to freedom was through him.

She forced her face to remain calm, carefully hiding all the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her with just the sight of her father.

"I wouldn't want to waste your time." She responded politely, but still rejected his request. His eyes narrowed, and Erin felt herself break out in a cold sweat as the sense of being near death was present.

"You rejected my summons."

"I didn't think we had anything to talk about." Erin was struggling to maintain her composure, but succeeded.

"Good." His smile broadened, and he chuckled, the sound raising the hairs on the back of her neck. "You've grown a backbone."

With that he pushed past her, the slightest brush of his hand on her arm making Erin want to jump out of her skin, and sat on a chair at one side of her room. His posture was relaxed, casual, but nothing could obscure the sharp sense of purpose that hung around him. He was not someone to idly visit.

"Unfortunately you are wrong, however, we have a great deal to discuss." He gestured to the chair across from him. "Sit."

Erin stayed where she was, considering her options.

He had stopped blocking the door, she could run away. She could ignore him and remain standing, able to flee at a moment's notice.

...

She could kill him.

Erin felt all the hatred and rage she felt towards him surge through her, screaming silently in her head to kill the man in front of her. The man who tortured her. The man who threatened her friends and loved ones.

The man who murdered her mother.

She had gained a great deal of power and experience lately, perhaps if she surprised him...

General Roderick stared at her silently as she struggled, before throwing his head back and laughing.

At the sound of genuine amusement, Erin was startled. When had she ever heard him make a sound like that before? As she puzzled over this, however, his next words terrified her to her core:

"Hasty." He stopped laughing, his face disappointed. "You have been many things over the years, child, but hasty is not one of them. You'll never achieve your goal at this rate."

He hadn't moved, but it felt like he was holding a knife to her throat. Erin swallowed uncomfortably, wanting to back up but unable to.

"Goal?" She was proud of how unconcerned her voice sounded.

"What do you know of the origin of magic?" Changing the topic abruptly, he leaned forward, his gaze focused.

"The origin?" Erin shook her head. "Magic has always been here. As far as I know, it didn't originate from anywhere."

The corners of her father's lips tipped up. "Right and wrong. Magic has always been here, but it has not always been in the form we are used to."

Erin sat down, confused.

"Currently, magic is separated into different types, different levels. It makes it easy to determine the strong from the weak. Magic is filtered, allowing easy access and use, and the current world as we know it is kept safe." General Roderick's expression was mocking. "But it was not always that way. Pure magic not restricted by any level or type once existed. A magic with the power to change the world."