27
Kora
Aryn sat beside Kora as she sank into a maroon leather chair, with a high back and wide armrests.
It swallowed her frame as Sirona stood beside Aerion, her nose upturned.
Raiden lingered behind Kora, and Skylar leant against a bookshelf on the other side of the room, pulling at her gown, fidgeting beneath the layers of cream skirts.
Indeed, ballgowns were in Kora’s fuck-no list. Behind Skylar were gaps in the bookshelf, books missing from periods of history about Galen, pirates, and Devania. This had to be Aerion’s study, and her chest warmed slightly that he’d donated her books from his private collection.
“Are you comfortable with everyone here?” Aerion asked, as his fingers leant on the open folio. His eyes flickered to Aryn briefly. Kora paused, stunned at the consideration, and she slowly nodded. It couldn’t be that bad, right?
The atmosphere was thick, the silence dreadful, and Sirona’s cold smile added to the tension. She radiated with glee at the dark look shadowing Aerion’s face. Her eyes repeatedly marked Raiden, purposefully dazzling at him, as though she were screaming her intentions.
“What’s going on?” Kora asked as Aerion swallowed, his eyes flickering over the report repeatedly. “I’m not . . . ill, am I? I feel fine. I don’t think I’m ill.” Thanos had declared her fate, she couldn’t be dying already, surely?
“I sent our healers to check you over that first day. You’d been suspended in a state verging on death for a long time, such a thing can do a lot to someone’s mind and body.” Aerion’s methodical voice unnerved Kora. This was a side of him she hadn’t seen before. This was the prince.
“They decided you were clear, with some minor side effects from the suspension that will fade. However, they noticed something deeper, and that’s why they kept returning to you.
” Aerion flipped a page, and Kora’s stomach soured at the number of notes and scribbles that filled it.
Sirona rocked on her heels, positively vibrating with energy.
“Something happened, when Barron first corrupted your mind.” Aerion gestured to the scar lining Kora’s face. “I’m not sure how to explain this, but when he severed your memories, he didn’t erase them, but rather tainted them, warping them until they became a kind of parasite in your mind.”
Kora recalled the void she’d travelled when she’d met Raiden, how tendrils of darkness hissed at her.
He’d called them a disease left behind by Barron.
Even again, when Thanos encouraged her to recover her memories, her mind was always unable to reach the end, always met with that familiar inky magic, twisting and reshaping the memory into something . . . else.
That something else had taunted her with visions of Agatha. She was sure of it.
“What are you saying? There’s something in my head?” Kora’s quiet voice seemed loud in the silence of the room.
Sirona scoffed. “No, don’t be silly. You’re not infected. Simply put, Barron created a split within your mind. Your old self, Kordelia, trapped behind his power, and your new self, Kora, filling the gap he left. He couldn’t erase your memory like he wanted to, so he severed it.”
“What?” Aryn whispered, his jaw slack. Skylar stood straight, her sharp stare narrowing on Kora. Raiden cursed under his breath behind her, his hands tightening on the high back of the leather chair.
“You mean . . . I’m somehow two people?” Kora’s throat dried.
Her water beast within scratched at the walls, and she was suddenly all too aware of the moments an internal voice whispered to her—nothing like Raiden’s—encouraging her to do dark things, to kill.
How it felt like she had two selves warring for control, for their own desires.
How a secondary blue skin had almost ripped from her that day Raiden found her.
Had it been . . . could it be?
“Kordelia’s trapped inside there?” Skylar asked. “She’s inside her mind?”
Sirona hesitated, her pert mouth parting as Skylar strode to the desk, kicking her skirts out of the way.
“In a way. Beneath the magic left by Barron, she’s in there .
. . but also isn’t there. We call it a fugue state.
” Pity briefly passed over Sirona’s face, and gods-damned that made Kora feel sick.
“What do we need to do to release her? How do we get her out from Barron’s trap?” Skylar rambled. Panic swelled within Kora, the water beast within crying, desperate to be heard.
“It’s not as simple as that.” Sirona pointed to the swirling letters of the folio, the harsh lines blurring together as Kora teetered on the edge of a fathomless abyss.
“Our detection is that this secondary entity is dark. It’s not natural, and that’s how we managed to locate it.
It’s feeding on her, slowly gaining control. ”
“You said it was Kordelia. That she’s in here. Just get a magtrate solution or something!”
“Skylar,” Raiden warned.
“Sister,” Aerion added calmly. “This isn’t Kordelia. It’s something that thinks it’s her. Barron’s magic resides within Kora, and it’s assumed the identity of that he tried to erase.”
The room fell silent again as multiple pairs of eyes swivelled to Kora.
Kora regretted allowing everyone to remain in the room. Aryn peered at her as she panted, the panic surging as her heart thundered. Raiden rounded the chair, crouching down to look at her. Her heart raced, her mind roared, her water beast had crawled so far up she practically choked on it.
And there, deep within, the darkness writhed.
Cold, unrelenting darkness. Faint whispers, coaxing her to destroy, to lash out with violence.
It sang with revenge, it fuelled the red haze that blanketed her mind, it provided the mask to keep her emotions at bay.
And it laughed, an unworldly tone that caused Kora’s flesh to prickle, the voice similar but not quite the same to her own.
It was god-like, with a swaggering confidence built on a foundation of hatred.
And it stroked the inside of her mind, creating a vibration down her spine.
Kordelia had been there all along. She’d been the cold captain, the revenge, the suppression—the gods-damned unrelenting drive to feed an endless pit of revenge.
“Look at me.” Through the hurricane of panic, that white lifeline burned as Kora’s focus gravitated to Raiden, securing her in the present. In her world.
“You’re here. It’s okay.”
Kora nodded, unable to speak as Aryn stood. “Stop this now,” he barked at Skylar as she continued to probe for answers for recovering Kordelia, refusing to believe she was lost. “Skylar, she’s not there. I know I said she may have been, once. But if Barron’s magic lingers, we must be careful.”
“We’ll refer to this thing as Kordelia for ease.
She may disappear in time.” Sirona shrugged casually like they were discussing dinner plans.
“But she’s strong. Something has boosted her within the mind.
Aerion told me you had contact with Barron’s magic recently.
Kordelia could re-assume, with Kora’s memories as fragments, like she’d watched them through her own eyes. ”
“If this is Barron’s disease, please stop calling it Kordelia,” Skylar demanded. “Kordelia was never dark.”
“I don’t want to be erased,” Kora whispered so quietly, but Raiden flinched.
“This is too dangerous. I’ve been inside her mind, Barron’s grip is strong, but the memories he tainted are already fading away.” Raiden’s jaw clenched.
“If Kordelia is fading, then we need to act now!” Skylar turned, reaching for Kora. “We can get her back. We can save her from his darkness.”
“It’s not her!” Aerion interrupted, his brow furrowing as his fingers glided over the notes. “Barron’s magic has corrupted Kordelia. Whatever’s left will be dark. She will be a shadow of her former self. She may destroy us all.”
“Not if we hurry!” Skylar pleaded, grasping Kora’s arm with an iron grip. “I just know she’s still in there. I can feel it.”
“Skylar, no!” Raiden reached forward and Kora’s water beast pounced at the contact.
A shrill cry rang from her lips and her fingers flexed.
Pain consumed her as the castle shuddered and Skylar staggered back.
The rear doors flung open with a gust of wind, and water followed from somewhere, shooting into the room and wrapping around Skylar’s legs with frightening tangibility.
Kora roared. Skylar wanted her erased, her very being to vanish.
Her magic rose in response, and Sirona screamed as it crawled up Skylar’s body, reaching for her mouth like a viper.
Air pushed back, but Kora gritted her teeth, her veins pulsing with the old-age energy she’d grown to miss.
Her water beast rejoiced, delighting in being released, whilst the darkness cried for more.
“I will not let you destroy me,” Kora vowed.
Skylar choked as she wrestled against Kora’s power, and at some point, Aryn had rushed to Aerion, shielding him.
She wouldn’t stop, her essence fuelled her power, a constant flow of energy as she set her sight on preventing Skylar from erasing her existence. Sirona had confirmed herself that Kordelia was fading away, her existence tainted by Barron’s dark magic. Why was Skylar desperate to resurrect that?
A large form with striking eyes blocked Kora’s view of Skylar. They dazzled with hues of amber before turning a lapis lazuli blue. Kora blinked, as her own eyes stared back at her.
“You’re not the monster you think you are.” The silken voice trailed over Kora, and she shuddered in response. “Release my sister, before you do something you regret.”
Regret. Kora had so many regrets already. All at once, her power evaporated, leaving her core bone dry as her energy plummeted. It was too much too soon. Too much power to summon when she was still so weak.
She tumbled forward, crashing into a pair of warm, strong arms. They lifted her up, and she hummed at the scent wrapping around her, cushioning her terror with strength. As Kora faded from consciousness, an unwelcomed voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Weak, pathetic human.