Not a portal.
Not Kitsune teleportation.
A fracture.
Kyren saw somewhere else.
Riss sat at a table.
Eria carried soup.
The image was too familiar.
“No.” Riss looked toward his wife.
“How much longer?” The scene repeated.
Words.
Anger.
A slap.
Kyren tried to step backward.
The alternative reality moved with him.
Another image formed through it.
A city.
Human.
Black iron towers rose behind walls covered in religious symbols.
Human children stood in lines.
Knights dragged some toward carriages.
A golden throne occupied the centre of a square.
An obese priest sat beneath a diamond cross, Apostles beside him and black-armored knights surrounding the crowd.
Bodies already covered the ground.
Kyren did not know whether he had been transported, was seeing the future, another reality, or somebody else’s stored memory.
Then he was inside it.
Darcelle.
Neida.
Aiko.
The children ran into the city screaming for help.
Hundreds of Humans stood in the square.
None moved.
“Help!” Darcelle shouted.
“There are Jorogumo!
Delasai is burning!” The crowd only stared.
Kyren pushed forward.
Human children were crying near the carriages.
Some were being separated from parents.
Others lay motionless beside knights.
The priest noticed them.
His voice was thick and bored.
“Ah.
We were missing three.” Kyren’s stomach turned.
He vomited beside the path.
Neida dropped to her knees.
“Please listen.
The forest—” Laughter erupted among soldiers and Apostles.
“Forest monsters!” “Children’s stories.” “Stupid little bastards.” The crowd turned its anger toward the children as if fear required a smaller target.
The priest raised one hand.
Silence.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “you’re slightly late.” A knight carried two sacks forward.
Kyren’s mind produced a thought before he could stop it.
Not mine.
The sacks landed.
Please.
Something round rolled from the first.
Not my family.
A severed head.
Anyone but mine.
Kyren hated himself instantly.
The second sack opened.
Darcelle screamed.
Neida screamed with her.
Their parents.
The girls ran forward and collapsed beside the heads.
Kyren remained where he was, horrified not only by what he saw but by the thought that had entered him.
Anyone but mine.
For years afterward, even after becoming something capable of extinguishing stars, he would remember that sentence.
For years he would punish himself for it.
Fifty lashes some days.
Not because anyone demanded it.
Because he had learned that ego could appear even inside terror: let someone else suffer if it means I don’t have to.
The priest watched the girls cry.
“Test them.” Knights pulled Darcelle upright.
“No!” One forced her to kneel beside a golden chalice.
Another cut her arm.
Blood fell into it.
The priest examined the liquid.
“Talent…” Light spiraled.
His mouth spread into a smile.
“Charm.” Darcelle looked confused.
“Excellent,” the priest said.
“We’ll earn quite a lot from you.” Two knights seized her.
“LET GO OF ME!” Neida ran at them.
One knight backhanded her across the face and pinned her down.
Darcelle was thrown into a carriage.
Kyren rushed forward.
A spear stopped at his chest.
“Next.” He was forced to kneel.
Blue liquid fell into the chalice instead of blood.
Every Apostle leaned forward.
The priest’s amusement disappeared.
“Talent…” The liquid darkened.
“Darkness.” Another pulse.
The chalice trembled.
“Hatred.” The priest’s eyes widened with interest.
“How unusual.” Kyren was dragged aside.
Neida was forced forward.
Her blood entered the cup.
Nothing happened.
The priest waited.
“Talent…” Silence.
“None.” Neida looked up.
“What?” “Discard her.” Kyren’s entire body went cold.
“No.” An Apostle drew an axe.
“No, wait.” Neida turned toward Kyren.
“Please!” Kyren crawled forward.
A knight kicked him down.
“You can’t do this!” The Apostle raised the axe.
“PLEASE!
I’LL SERVE YOU!” Tears ran down Kyren’s face.
“I’ll do anything!
My whole life!
You can have me!
Just don’t—” The axe fell.
Neida’s head struck the stones.
For a moment Kyren heard nothing.
Then something inside him became larger than his body.
“I hate you.” The priest frowned.
Kyren’s eyes began bleeding blue.
“I HATE YOU.” Darkness erupted upward.