It couldn’t be that simple…
With a sharp, decisive yank, Jassyn wrenched the currents around the general, stripping the air from his lungs.
Elashor’s eyes bulged, his sword clattering to the ground. Essence flailed erratically around him as he clawed desperately at his throat.
Seizing the opening, Jassyn abandoned his shield and lunged, plunging his golden knife deep into Elashor’s shoulder. The blade punched through a gap in the plates of armor, sinking to the hilt with a jarring resistance. Elashor staggered back as his magic winked out, still gasping for air.
His portals snapped shut, cutting off the influx of soldiers. Jassyn tensed as the remaining troops surged past them, but they were clearly focused on annihilating the prince’s forces. Ironically, Elashor’s plight went unnoticed as they left the general to fend for himself.
With Elashor disarmed and struggling for breath, Jassyn struck again. Essence rippled like a shimmer of heat, coiling with menace as he twined a strand of telepathy across his fingertips, morphing it into something sharper. Darker. He slammed into Elashor’s skull, demolishing his barricade.
Power surged through Jassyn as he seized control over Elashor’s limbs, driving the general’s knees into the packed earth.
Catching his breath, Jassyn’s hands trembled, buzzing with the wild energy of victory. The crashes and clangs of battle faded to the edges of his awareness. For now, it was just him and Elashor.
The general’s face had turned a mottled shade of blue. Pursing his lips, Jassyn briefly considered letting him suffocate. He deserved no less—deserved far worse. But a trove of knowledge was locked inside his mind and Jassyn intended to claim it first.
With a flick of his hand, he released the surrounding air.
Elashor hacked violently, swearing between ragged gasps.
“You’re going to surrender every buried secret,” Jassyn snarled, his voice unrecognizable.
A thrill bolted through him at the thought of unraveling the general’s mind thread by thread. At last,hewas the one pulling the strings. No longer a pawn in the realm’s machinations, no longer shackled by its control.
“And no interruptions this time,” Jassyn added, weaving a crystalline shield around them as he recalled how the prince had intervened before.
Elashor’s chest heaved as he dragged air back into his lungs, his face twisting with rage. He opened his mouth but Jassyn punched a burst of wind down his throat before he could speak, a liberating rush taking flight as the general gagged on his words.
Wasting no more time, Jassyn channeled coercion, worming into Elashor’s skull, burrowing deep into his brain.
The general fought back despite the tether, not needing magic to raise twisting barricades like iron and stone—each path a maze concealing the truths Jassyn sought.
But he pushed harder. Reaching forward, Jassyn dug his fingers into the sides of Elashor’s head, the physical contact breaking through a layer of resistance, his magic plunging deeper.
Blood trickled from the general’s shoulder, streaking crimson down his armor. An unwelcome shadow of doubt flickered through Jassyn’s resolve. He could almost hear Lykor’s scorn, see the silent judgment in his eyes as he compared him to the king. The memory of that incinerating stare—so full of hate—haunted him.
But this wasn’t the same.
Elashor wasn’t a victim. He was a monster—a wielder of cruelty and destruction. Jassyn would demand retribution forevery life he’d claimed, every soul he’d shattered. The stakes were too high for second-guessing, too dire for guilt.
Jassyn shoved his reservations into the darkest corners of his mind. Vesryn was right—mercy had no place here.
His magic shredded Elashor’s dwindling defenses, the remaining foundation crumbling under his assault.
Show me everything,he demanded.
Time stretched between Jassyn’s heartbeats as he delved into the depths of Elashor’s mind, threading through the labyrinth of his thoughts. Rounding the first corner, the echo of a conversation with King Galaeryn drew him to halt.
The memory seared itself behind Jassyn’s eyes—the king, cold and commanding, ordering the construction of a harbor on the beaches of the southern realm—Serenna’s mortal home.
The vision shifted, dragging Jassyn deeper. He witnessed Queen Arianna of Vaelyn—Serenna’s mother—under Elashor’s control, her expression vacant as the general spun threads of coercion into her mind.
How long ago was this?Jassyn pressed, grasping for clarity amidst the deluge of revelations.
He sensed Elashor’s resistance rising, but the answer spilled out regardless. Decades of poisoning the mortals’ minds, but centuries of forging secrets in the shadows.
Serenna’s human bloodline, chosen for its ties to the ancient shamans. Queen Arianna, compelled to bear Elashor’s offspring, commanded to drain resources from her kingdom, funneling precious goods to Alari. A harbor commissioned mere weeks ago.
