By Heaven, My Soul is Purged from Grudging Hate

Althea felt Durai's body press against hers harder. Every squirm she made to escape from beneath him only excited him further, and she could feel it as tears continued to roll down her face.

"What shall we do with you so you don't lead more men to their deaths?"

Althea seemed to lose her strength to fight, if only for a moment. Then from somewhere behind her closed eyes, deep within her mind, and from the truest place in her heart, she heard a familiar voice. "I came here because of how proud I am of you. I don't blame you for a single thing in life. Not now, not then. You are finally free of the hold the past had on you. And I love you, sis, just as much now as I did back then."

In the darkness where she found herself, in the place where one goes when hope begins to die, she saw Baldrik's face. He seemed far away yet close at hand. He was with the same heavenly light as in her dream and held the same loving, forgiving look. If she had ever thought to see an angle in life, she believed she was seeing one now. She remembered then all he had said to her in that dream. How far away that dream had seemed. She recalled his words, and all the pain that lifted from her. It was the same pain that Durai tried to burden upon her once again.

Her eyes flashed then with realization. That was his power all along. That was the key to his hold over her all this time. He took her greatest fears and made her believe them to be true. He looked into her heart and twisted her intentions into something grotesque. Durai's perceptive nature saw into the treasured parts of her soul, and he used it as a weapon against her spirit.

"I'm proud that you are turning to fight. Just like I always knew you would."

The voice within her heart reached out to Baldrik then, "I won't let you down. I won't give up."

"Never once doubted it."

Though still roughly pinned to the floor by Durai's body, Althea opened her eyes with her newfound strength and will to keep fighting. Her eyes were once again glowing white with the extraordinary power she was drawing from within herself, from those she loved, from the very earth, and from the elements of all the heavens. "Your control over me has ended. These deaths were not of my making. Your forked tongue can no longer have me believe your lies and guiling tricks. This ends now!"

Durai saw the conviction in her expressions and believed the truth of her words. Truly now the time of manipulating her into a prison of her own making was ended. The command he once had over her guilt and the nature of her giving heart was gone. Enraged by the realization, he lifted one hand off of her shoulder and struck her unimaginably hard across the face. Despite all the power that Althea was drawing from, Durai was drawing from just as much power but from a darker, more malicious source. The blow to her face seemed to knock her out of her own head and her sight began to double in a daze. Before she could shake off the pain, her face received another strike with the back of his hand. She felt blood dripping down from her nose warm and thick.

"Althea!"

The battling pair both heard Mireya's voice coming from the doorway. Durai turned his head in surprise that his Queen had walked in on this scene. He was stunned momentarily realizing he had lost more than his power to control Althea, but his facade before Mireya was lost as well.

In that moment, Althea took a free hand and placed it on the side of his face. Lightning flashed and thunder struck in the same instant. Swirls of light both white and red flowed from not just her outstretched hand, but her entire body. It encircled Durai and bound him motionless to resist her hold. Durai could only turn his head to look at her head on, but his limbs were bound tight by the energy held within the Magic and lights. And as he looked into her eyes, he saw that they not only glowed with the white light as before, but it flickered with electricity just as the storm was beyond them.

Althea still kept her one hand besides Durai's face as she wiggled herself out from under him. His eyes were alight with rage that she held him powerless.

"I have made peace with the shadows in my past," Althea said with that same deep, elemental voice. "Can you say the same?"

With that, she placed her other hand at the other side of his face. Wind blew fiercely into the room, and as the air passed them both the lights and images rushed into both of them. Althea saw the room where Baldrik died just as she knew Durai would conjure. This time, however, she pushed past it. She could feel him resisting, but she didn't care. She had this one chance, and she knew she was not assured another one. She could feel small beads of sweat forming on her forhead as she fought against his defenses.

"I am the keeper and defender of light. And I will light the darkened places you do not wish to see!" One final push and she was able to barrel through the walls of his mind and moved through them as easily as water.

The images terrified her. They were violent, manipulative, and sickening. She forced him to see his father as he beat his mother on countless occasions. Each occurrence was more heinous than the last. She listened and watched as Durai used his cunning, scheming speech that brought his mother to her doom. Durai's mother had managed to escape, come back for her son, and then was guilted into staying. Then the images of the last beating, the images of her broken body, and the sight of his once vibrant mother full of life and love laid hollow before the alter of the burial within an empty church.

Durai began to shake and tremble at the images played back for him with calculated clarity. The images were not in a sudden flash like the last time; instead they were played back for him in agonizing slowness. In the end, he heard Althea's powerful voice disembodied within his mind, "You twisted her mind. You learned your terrible power of control then, and you liked it. You shamed her into staying, and it cost your mother her very life. I see your heart – you didn't even feel sadness."

Durai struggled against her words. The truth that she spoke was almost more painful than the images alone. Within his mind he tried to put his hands to his ears to keep from hearing her voice, but the voice was within his soul.

"Aren't you ashamed?"

Finally Durai's resistance overpowered Althea's diminishing strength from holing him in place. The light flashed through the room once again as their connection and contact broke. Everyone present flew backwards as if struck down by a mighty wind. Althea was the first to come out of the daze, and she quickly scrambled to her feet and prepared to defend herself.

But no attack came.

She saw Durai on the floor curled into himself trembling. She carefully walked over and saw him clutching at himself as his eyes looked distantly to the horrors she brought forth into his mind. Slowly drool started to escape the corner of his mouth. He had been stunned and incapacitated by his own horrors.

"Althea!" Mireya yelled from the door. She was far too terrified to cross the threshold of the room. Althea turned at the sound of her sister's voice and ran to her with all the strength she had. Their embrace was like the singing of the earth emerging from frozen winter. They were two parts once again joined feeling whole.

But Althea knew the moment could not linger. Who knew how long Durai would be like that. She looked down at Hemele on the ground and the soldier she had remotely recognized from the village. "Quick," she said at Jian, "which way is it to the temple? The one where Durai works his Magic?"

The urgent sound in her voice brought both Mireya and Jian out of their joy and grief respectively. They looked at her and saw that she was convinced this was not a safe place to stay.

"I'll escort you there," Jian said as he lifted himself from the floor.

"Please hurry. I may only get this one chance. If he gets up…"

At that they all three looked at the pathetic heap on the floor. But none of them felt relieved. They all knew that at any moment the spell could be broken, and what might emerge could be even more terrible than before. At any moment, he could emerge from his own ashes and bring forth such fire in his vengeance.