Chapter Forty Impossible Decisions #2
Harithi and Hasan flinched simultaneously.
They exchanged a glance, both of them on the same page: This was the wrong time to tell Paranjay about the hostage negotiations and Zeyar’s betrayal.
In the prolonged silence, Paranjay’s expression morphed into wariness, his weakened frame tense as he braced himself for bad news. “Did something happen to him?”
“No,” Harithi answered quickly. “He’s fine. But he didn’t come with us. This was not supposed to be a rescue mission. What are you doing here, Paranjay?”
“To be honest, I’m not even sure where we are,” Paranjay said. “They put hoods over our heads until we got here. Am I in the courthouse?”
“No,” Hasan said. “You’re not here to be tried for smuggling opium.
” Briefly, he explained the concept of the Registry Act to his brother.
“You’re here as a prop,” he theorized. “As proof of how dangerous daivyakt are. Each one of you in this cage has likely committed some kind of crime using their daivyakhi, which supports the rationale behind the bill.”
“When are they voting on it?” Paranjay asked.
“Today,” Harithi said.
“But you have a plan to stop it, yeah? That’s why you’re here.”
Hasan and Harithi exchanged a glance.
Paranjay repeated the question, this time uncertainly. “You have a plan to stop it, right?”
“We did,” Hasan said. “We were going to burn this building down, with everyone in it.”
Paranjay laughed. When neither Harithi nor Hasan joined him, his chuckle fizzled out. He paled. “Oh. You were serious.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Hasan said. “Where’s the lock on the cage?”
Paranjay pointed. “Over there.”
They followed him around the perimeter of the cage, where a dense padlock had been bolted to the door.
“Has no one tried to open it with daivyakhi?” Hasan asked.
Paranjay shook his head. “None of us has made a sacrifice in some time.”
Hasan hefted the complex lock in his palm, feeling its weight.
It would take an extraordinary amount of heat to melt it—daivyakhi he couldn’t spare, not if he wanted to burn the building down too.
Even with his most recent sacrifice, he wouldn’t be able to do both.
He wasn’t even sure if he could do this.
“Well?” Harithi sidled up to him, keeping her voice low.
“If I do this, I won’t be able to burn the building,” he muttered. “Did you bring matches?”
“Of course I didn’t bring matches. And even if we used them to start the fire, you’d need your daivyakhi to escalate the intensity and kill the representatives fast, before help arrives.”
Hasan closed his eyes. He could use his energy to try to rescue the prisoners, but he would damn the rest of the country’s daivyakt residents.
Or, he could burn the building down as planned.
In the end, there were only a dozen or so Virians inside the cage, and tens of thousands of innocent people out there who would suffer if this bill was passed.
Logically, the right choice would be the one that helped the most people.
If he made decisions based on his own whims instead, how did that make him any better than Zeyar?
If it had been twelve strangers in this cage, Hasan knew what he would have done.
“Hasan?”
He opened his eyes to see Paranjay looking at him.
Concern creased the lines of Paranjay’s face, but his jaw was clenched in fear.
Revulsion rolled in Hasan’s stomach, and he shook his head furiously, trying to clear his mind.
In the end, his choice wasn’t oriented around justice.
Paranjay would have justified his choice by saying Hasan had prioritized family, but deep down, a doubt lurked, a self-awareness that he was not ready to confront.
A suspicion that perhaps his decisions had never been about doing what was right, so much as justifying his means to achieve his ends.
“Step back,” he warned the Virians inside the cage. Paranjay lifted his arms, shepherding the other prisoners backward, as far away from Hasan as they could get.
Hasan released the padlock, pointing two fingers directly at it.
Concentrating hard, he released the daivyakhi within him.
A stream of blue fire engulfed the padlock.
At first, nothing happened. His face contorted as he dialed up the intensity.
The flame flickered from blue to white to blue again, wavering with his strength and concentration.
He’d never summoned a flame this intense before.
Though he could make himself immune to fire when he used his daivyakhi, the flame was so bright and hot, his eyes watered looking at it.
The lock warped, but it wasn’t melting fast enough. The divine energy bled from Hasan faster than he could melt the lock. No, no, no. His power couldn’t fail him now. He pushed, pointing the fingers on his other hand at the lock, adding a second stream of fire.
“Come on,” he growled, but the lock didn’t give.
It continued to melt at a slow, leisurely pace, taunting him with its resilience.
How could he be losing to a hunk of metal?
He put one last burst of energy into it, the flame flaring white—right before his daivyakhi ran out.
Hasan swore. For a moment, the flames faltered.
He couldn’t stop here, couldn’t admit defeat.
Not when he was so damned close to freeing Paranjay.
Just two more minutes of power. That’s all this will take.
If he had to draw it from his own body, then so be it.
The flames started back up as he reached inside, pulling from his very core.
An ache started in his head, but he ignored it.
His fingers spasmed as a spike of pain rippled down through his body.
The kanusakhi ground at his bones as it tore free from the marrow, squeezing every organ as it drew from his life force.
Just one more minute. One more minute.
“Hasan,” Harithi said. “Hasan, stop.”
He ignored her. “I’ve almost got it,” he said. His words tasted like rust. A quick swipe of his tongue over his upper lip confirmed that blood was dripping from his nose.
“Stop!” Paranjay said. “Hasan, it’s not worth it. We’ll figure it out. It’s fine.”
Hasan ignored him too. He channeled more kanusakhi, pins and needles tingling in his fingers and toes. His vision flickered. For a moment, he became deaf, Harithi’s demands and Paranjay’s pleas cutting out altogether.
The flames died as his knees gave way. Harithi caught him with a grunt. His head spun, colors blurring in front of him, but he could still make out the molten lock. He scraped together an ounce of strength, reaching for it one last time, but Harithi seized his hand and wrenched it away.
“No,” she said, restraining him. “It didn’t work. You have to let it go, Hasan. We need to get out of here. Both of us are defenseless now.”
“I can try something else,” he rasped, throat raw. His body throbbed, broken and tender, as though he’d been beaten by a crowd of fifty men. “Give me five minutes.”
“Hasan, it’s okay,” Paranjay said. He reached through the bars, putting his hand on top of Hasan’s head. His fingers trembled against his hair. “I don’t want to see you arrested. If you end up in prison with me, I’ll never forgive you. Go.”
“Damn it, Paranjay, I can’t abandon you.” He locked eyes with his brother, gripping the bars hard. “I could never—”
“I know,” Paranjay said gently. “I know who you are, Hasan, better than you know yourself, even if you don’t like it. But you have to go now, okay? The last thing we need is for them to catch you and imprison you too. We will talk about it later, I swear.”
Harithi pried Hasan away from the cage, dragging him out of the room. Hasan kept his eyes on Paranjay until he could see him no more.
Later.
As Hasan and Harithi fled the House of Representatives, that was the only thing keeping him going. The promise of later.
· · ·
Crackdown on Unnatural Population: Bill 201 Receives Royal Assent
Early Monday morning, the House of Representatives met to vote on one of the last bills in this year’s legislative session. As a response to the uptick in crime over the last decade, Lord William Montrose III introduced Bill 201, or An Act to Register Unnatural Persons.
The bill states that the use of magic is rising again, due to lax regulations around it.
Until this point in time, being an unnatural was not a crime in Viryana’s criminal code, though the glorification and promotion of heretic magic was.
“Unnatural criminals have exploited this loophole for years,” Lord Montrose said in his statement to the press.
“The greatest victims are the innocents, those with no arcane ability to defend themselves. I am pleased that this colony’s lawmakers are standing up for this country and its vulnerable population. ”
When asked what the government might do with such a registry, Lord Montrose said it would be up to those who administer the law.
“The purpose of this bill is really to allow us greater visibility on the kinds of people who walk among us,” he said.
“Right now, the size and distribution of the unnatural populace is a blind spot. You could be putting yourself in danger every time you engage with a new person.”
In Monday’s afternoon session, all four members of the Council of Lords applied their signatures to the bill.
It was then sent to the desk of the viceroy, who has been vocal about his support for the bill.
“It is certainly a step in the right direction,” the viceroy said when asked for comment.
“By providing my royal assent on behalf of the emperor, I am doing my part to protect my citizens. Let me make this clear: There is no room for magic in this country. Those who wield it must learn to respect that, or there will be very, very grave consequences.”