Chapter 8 Vaxan #2
Then I swept my power over them, and a moment later, they wrapped around me, and I chained myself, binding my thighs to the floor, then my arms as I leaned forward and slid my hands into the nexus.
They tightened around my wrists and even delved a little into the channel itself and screwed into the bedrock inside, anchoring me there.
Upon completion, I felt a flicker of Syde’s power, and then I was wrenched further downward, just shy of smashing my face into the floor at the edge of the opening, as he tightened the chains unnecessarily.
I swallowed a grunt, and caught sight of the petty fool sneering at me.
Shouts and calls of indignation from the crowd had him startling and taking an unsteady step back. Zayn almost bolted off the chair until he registered the shaking of my head.
“Enough,” Norla admonished Syde.
Indeed. They couldn’t seem to see it for what it was yet, but their every action today was compromising their authority, their own people’s respect for them as rulers.
Norla settled onto her throne, then snapped her hand up and commanded our people, “Begin.”
I swallowed thickly and forced myself not to tense too much. That really wouldn’t help matters. I needed to accept the offering, the more my body resisted, the harder it would make the entire process.
I watched ripples begin weaving through the air toward me, translucent disruptions to the atmosphere, what the vibrational resonance ability looked like when employed above ground.
Only a handful of ripples came my way, and as they sank into me, there was only a slight pins and needles sensation.
They were trying not to hurt me, wishing to deliver it to me bit by bit, instead of through overwhelm.
“It must be a collective force,” Norla spoke. “Otherwise the resonance threads will not cure as one properly within the vessel.”
Vessel. Of course that was what I was in this instance to her.
When they hesitated—well, resisted—she called out in that all too familiar fiercely uncompromising tone, “Either see to it as I’ve instructed, or rescind your votes, and take your leave.”
Nothing happened. No further resonance was sent my way.
“Now. See to it!” Norla yelled, actually yelled, her usual stoicism and collectedness failing her.
No response.
No movement.
“It’s not the only way,” somebody spoke up, startling me, her, Syde, and Zayn.
“Nor is this public spectacle a necessary component,” another called.
Murmurs and a cacophony of talk and hisses followed.
I caught Zayn’s eye and he was smirking like a beautiful little devil.
Norla stepped forward. “The only other method involves me curing a gradual, sporadic influx of resonance myself, where I will need to draw on my full power to see to it, something that will compromise me significantly. Do you really want your sovereign, your guardian against the unforgiving outside world incapacitated, while we stand on the verge of war?”
Yes. I’d known she could do that, could spare me this version of the process.
And I’d also known that she wouldn’t offer it as an option.
What I hadn’t foreseen, however, was her admitting to that and even now trying to justify herself.
She was afraid.
Her control was slipping.
More notably when it came to Basilisk nature, she was losing their respect.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t allow her to be pushed and challenged further currently, or she would escalate, clamp down, and our people would be punished.
“It’s all right,” I spoke to the crowd.
The room quietened.
I lifted my chin at them. “This needs to be done. I’m willing to accept this method. And I thank you so very dearly for offering me your trust with this. I will hold it well.”
Moments passed in weighted silence.
And then… they rose.
Every single one of them present rose to their feet.
If I hadn’t been deeply touched and stunned already, what they did next certainly clinched it.
In perfect sync, they all held their fists to their chests and uttered on a collective rumble that reverberated through the room, “Vaxan.”
“Vaxan. Vaxan. Vaxan.”
It was a vow, a prayer, bone deep affirmation.
I couldn’t… it was a lot to process.
I gazed out at them in wonder.
In my peripheral vision, I saw Norla and Syde panicking, the former inching back to her throne, while Syde shrank into his seat.
I thought I heard whooping from Zayn, but then—
It happened.
A mammoth collective rush of the vibrational resonance shot toward me.
The moment it hit, it shook my entire body, making me convulse uncontrollably as it poured into me.
No, not poured. It was more akin to a violent invasion.
Tearing through flesh and bone, deep into my veins and cells, searching for that hook to cling onto—my own vibrational resonance ability, but all the threads fighting to connect at once and latch on.
What had initially been merely a pins and needles sensation graduated to the feeling of thousands of razor-sharp blades. Burning blades. Like venom being poured into open wounds. Over and over and over.
A charge of it burst out of me, shooting through my fingers and into the nexus as my body fought against it, trying to reject it. I’d expected that, it was why I’d been chained this way. But I also had to minimize how much was lost.
I had to… guide it.
I couldn’t let the rest follow suit.
Stop.
Fuse. Fuse with mine.
Strategy flew from my mind as the pain escalated viciously, giving me no time to acclimate as it shot to such overwhelming heights.
I gritted my teeth, fighting not to cry out.
My skin tried to scale up, but I somehow managed to hold it off—it would break the process.
And then it worsened further.
Violent vibrations wracked my insides, threatening to implode my organs. I could feel it tearing them already.
A roar finally ripped from my throat as bones shattered, crumbled.
My blood began to boil.
The resonance was destroying me from the inside out.
The immense agony made it near-impossible for me to control any of it. More bursts of resonance shot from my fingers into the nexus.
But I couldn’t—
No, I could.
I didn’t waver.
I didn’t fail.
I wouldn’t.
I clenched my fists, forcing the resonance to remain within me, blocking any further exit.
Then I fought to focus on the connection to make the invasion of so much actually fuse with mine.
But the struggle against the agony was—
A soothing rush coursed through me.
When more bones shattered, I only felt the motion of it, my body writhing and jolting in response. There was no pain that went along with it anymore.
The blazing burning became numbness.
And then I felt it.
Zayn’s protection.
Winter’s magic.
It flooded my system, spreading with a discernible urgency.
Little death.
Emotion welled, threatening to get the best of me.
Since Winter had been abducted, I’d been trying so very hard to compartmentalize where that was concerned.
We all had.
But now feeling him through me… it was a great deal to reconcile.
A tear trickled down my cheek and I blinked the rest away.
I drew in a steadying breath, panting a moment later, though.
Sweat trickled down my back.
Damage was still being sustained so very horrifically.
But I latched onto only what mattered.
All that could matter.
Seeing to it that this worked.
There!
The connection sparked and I pushed, sending out a roll of my own vibrational resonance internally and externally.
A transparent film enveloped me, vibrating carefully, controlled and steady.
Like an inescapable gravitational pull, the threads were guided to it, connecting and remaining so.
Panting, sweating, I pushed harder, collecting it all.
Then with a bellow and mammoth burst of my strength, I wrenched myself free from the chains and the nexus.
Collective gasps sounded.
In my mind’s eye I saw Norla and Syde move to intervene, but Zayn shocked them by throwing up a raging wall of his Ifrit flame.
Still holding the film steady as the threads of my people collected rapidly until I held thousands, I staggered to my feet, faltering a bit because I wasn’t fully cognizant of which bones were currently shattered.
I managed it, leaning heavily on my right leg, though.
I thrust my hands out either side of me, grabbing hold of the edges of the film, the physical manifestation I’d forged of my own vibrational resonance.
Then I drew them back abruptly and smashed my palms together.
The film gluing all the vibrational resonance offerings to it shot inside me all at once.
But now in a settled state.
I choked and staggered back as it flooded through me, little vibrations emanating.
And then everything stilled.
No more cracking. No more vibrations. No more… anything.
Applause erupted.
I’d done it.
And then I collapsed.
I never hit the floor, though.
Zayn was there wrapping his arms around me.
He wasn’t the only one.
The crowd rushed forward and in moments my people were gathered around, some cheering, some talking excitedly, some tending to me.
Even in my current state, it was a phenomenal experience I wanted to treasure.
It was the last thing I registered before I passed out.