RTYY 308 - Can and Can't Do

The sudden jolt of the cart forced him to hold on to the wooden bars so he wouldn't slam his head against them.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Things had just taken a turn for the worse. If he had known this was going to happen, he would have … what?, ZaiWin thought in defeat. Destroyed the entire inn and killed everyone inside it just so that bastard wouldn't capture him? He had no problems whatsoever killing those who had wronged him, or killing his enemies in battle. But using the lives of honest, working people just so he could save himself was out of the question. That fucking brat! He should have tied him up to the bed, before he went to sleep!

A sigh escaped his lips. Even though he knew he should, that he had every reason to, he just couldn't feel angry at him. Sure, he had gone and done something really stupid, and ZaiWin really, really wanted to spank him for that. But his growing concern for Snow's wellbeing was quickly overriding all that.

Anyway, where were they?, he wondered, taking a look at the tall, darkened trees flanking the road.

He was sure he had never been in this forest, or traveled this road. And he had traveled a lot, all over the Empire, doing the El'Dur's biding.

It was a wonder that the trees around them still had any leaves at all, he thought, noticing how even the dirt of the road was dark-gray. He had to get Snow out of there as soon as possible, he immediately decided, and was inevitably faced with the next question. But how?

Right now he couldn't even use his markings, not unless he was willing to kill everyone around him. The problem was that he wasn't sure that he'd be able to safeguard Snow's safety, if it came to that. He most certainly wouldn't be able to keep those kids alive. Not that he was particularly invested in keeping a couple of noble brats alive. But well, children were children. And, above all, Snow wouldn't like it if he were to just kill them. He also had no weapons, and those bastards didn't carry any that he could steal. From what he'd observed during the last week or so, they openly and heavily relied on their markings for everything they might be useful for. Which had also given him a pretty good idea of what they could and couldn't do.

For example, none of them had any fire markings, which meant that if they were of noble birth they must be from smaller Clans, with practically no blood ties to the Imperial family. In fact, he hadn't seen them use any elemental markings at all.

The tall, lean one that practically never spoke kept opening those passageways one after the other. Every time he did so, he exhausted himself to the brink of unconsciousness, having to spend the next two days basically sleeping on the back of his horse. That couldn't be healthy, ZaiWin knew. If he kept doing things like this, his markings would inevitably end up using his life force to replenish themselves, which would undoubtedly shorten his life span. On the other hand, because this was all he did, ZaiWin couldn't say if he had any other markings.

The bastard that had 'invited' him to follow him to that house, the one they called MaoHan, obviously had the ability to control ZaiWin's markings, even though he had never heard that such thing was even possible. Well, maybe control wasn't the right word to describe it. Suppress. He had the ability to suppress his energy, but not in the same way Snow had done.

Snow had simply … silenced the flow of energy inside his body. It felt soft and gentle, as if a part of him had been tenderly coaxed to fall asleep. Of course, suddenly being deprived of his source of power was a scary sensation, basically because he knew that there was no way he could defend himself from others like him. But it had also felt … freeing, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

What that MaoHan did to him was nothing like that! It felt domineering and restraining, as if he was constantly being forced to kneel and prostrate himself in front of him. And yet, he only did that to him. He had never tried to control Snow in that way. Which was strange. Wouldn't it have been much easier to simply force him into obedience like that? If he were to control Snow the same way he controlled him, there wouldn't even be a need to use those children as leverage to force him to behave. Which could only mean that he probably wasn't able to do it. As for the reason, ZaiWin could only think of two.

Either because Snow was Tien'Elhar, and somehow Tien'Elhar's markings were fundamentally different from other people's. Or that bastard could only do that to him. Which was a very, very scary perspective. Not that he thought of himself as someone special or anything, quite the contrary. It was just that … if ZaiWin was the only one he could control like that, that meant that his markings didn't allow him to control other people's daitai at all. in fact, what he was able to control was simply dark energy. And the fact that he was able to control ZaiWin's markings was a fucking, annoying fluke, derived from what had been done to him. A fluke that was presently, and unfortunately, screwing everything up.

Of the two women, the older, taller one had the ability to somehow poison living things. More than once, he had seen her accidentally kill some poor animal. Which meant that she wasn't completely able to control her markings. Maybe for that reason, everyone else tended to keep a certain distance from her, which in turn told him that she probably had to touch her victims in order for it to work.

The younger, annoying one was a strange case. She obviously took great pleasure in angering everyone around her, and she clearly had a natural inclination to say just the right thing to irk her companions. But, somehow, ZaiWin had the feeling that there was something more. Sure, she could be super irritating, to the point that, even though he had nothing to do with what they were discussing, even ZaiWin had wished he could slap her a few times. But, even so, the other's reaction to her words always seemed a bit too … strong, until they suddenly seemed to realize something, and mostly ended up angrily walking away. Only the little girl seemed immune to her provocations.

RimJan, they called her. And she was undoubtedly the strangest child ZaiWin had ever seen. Clearly too mature for her small age, RimJan looked like a delicate doll, and usually acted all sweet and innocent, to the point that it was actually hard to keep his objectiveness and simply study her the same way he studied the others. She smiled a lot and was constantly trying to hold hands with the others, as if she were just a small lost child. And that had been exactly what had captured ZaiWin's attention.

Sure, the others indulged her, most of the time, but he had also seen MaoHan roughly push her back when she had tried to touch him. Also, the things out of her mouth were hardly the words of a six-year-old. And she always seemed to know what the others were thinking. More than that, what the others were feeling. Up till now, she had always used that knowledge to actually help everyone get along a little bit better. She also regularly informed the others about Snow's state of mind, like if he was feeling tired, or hungry, which had become a constant in the last few days. But if ZaiWin was right and that was her marking's effect, she was probably one of the most dangerous members of that misfit group.

And then, of course, was that asshole that spent his days hovering around Snow, trying to talk to him, that deceiving smile on his lips. ZaiWin knew nothing about his markings, but, after the bastard MaoHan, RyuXin was definitely second on his death list. Thankfully Snow had apparently decided to simply ignore him, the same way he had been ignoring everyone else since they had left that house. ZaiWin would have probably lost it and decided to kill them all, if Snow had indulged that asshole.

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Things have just gotten a lot worse 😔

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