Dark Memories

Nicholas looked at the man carefully, his reaction was not what Nicholas expected of someone who had just been caught spying on a prince of Merlen.

The man was calm and carried a determined look that Nicholas could see from his eyes.

"I wonder," Nicholas took a step forward, waiting for the man to react. "Are you a spy for my brother Owain, or did one of my brother's pay you off to spy on Owain for them?"

The man remained unmoving, not reacting to Nicholas' words.

Nicholas grabbed the man by the chin and made him look directly into his eyes. He knew that the white and gray irises of Coporali mages bothered most other mages. It was seen as other worldly, as if the Corporali mages did not belong to their world.

As their eyes met, Nicholas' vision changed as another memory surged forward.

Unlike the others, this one was not from a distant past. He could feel that these memories were more recent.

He could barely see, his eyes were covered in what seemed to be blood. Whose blood? He didn't know.

Nicholas tried to wipe the blood from his eyes but it just got worse, as if it was meant to dull his vision.

"I heard you're the weakest prince, my master paid a good sum to corner you and incapacitate you." A man's voice said as Nicholas did his best to look up and see the speaker's voice.

"You're quite easy to take down, you aren't as careful as your brothers." The man laughed as Nicholas felt the man press the cold steal of a knife on his neck.

"You don't want to do that." Nicholas said in a cold tone, catching the man off guard.

They had always seen Prince Nicholas as weak and silent, but the man in front of him now seemed to be the opposite.

Nicholas slipped off one of his limiters and allowed the aura of his true power to flood out, making the man flinch as he felt the strength of Nicholas' magic.

Before Nicholas could do anything, however, another man arrived, hitting him hard on the head.

"The master asked you to do one thing." The other man said as Nicholas felt himself losing consciousness. He knew he needed to fight.

A surge of energy suddenly flowed through Nicholas as he managed to stand up and fight.

He quickly punched the first man, somehow stopping his heart and killing him. Nicholas had no idea how he had done it, but when he turned to deal with the second man, a wave of energy hit him.

Magic that he recognized to be Cruor magic, meaning one of his brothers was around and that they had just struck him.

As he finally lost consciousness, he got a good glimpse of the man who had initially attacked him. It was the same man that was now tied and gagged before him.

Nothing much had changed about the man, indicating that this memory was very recent.

"My prince. . ." The man said to whoever was standing behind Nicholas before he finally passed out and was brought back to the present.

Nicholas staggered back as his mind released him from the memory.

Everyone else in the room looked at him with a confused expression.

Nicholas quickly recovered, making it seem like nothing had happened.

"You work for one of my brothers." Nicholas hissed. "I've seen you, you've seen what I can do."

Suddenly the man's expression turned fearful as he realized that Nicholas had changed in an instant.

Nicholas couldn't help but wonder if the brother that had attacked him knew he had lost his memories, making him confident that he wouldn't be caught.

"Get me a knife." Nicholas called out to Dion who bowed and left the room.

The man froze in his seat as Nicholas asked for a weapon. Nicholas could only assume what was running through the man's mind.

Dion returned with a crystal encrusted blade, as Nicholas reached for it, he felt an emptiness on the hilt. It was cold and seemed to demand for him to fill it with mana.

He looked up at Dion and gave him a questioning look.

"It's yours." Dion simply said, knowing that Nicholas was confused by something about the blade.

Accepting Dion's answer and assuming that his memories would soon shed light on the mysterious blate, Nicholas lifted it to the light.

"Will you tell me who you work for?" Nicholas asked the tied up man without looking at him. Nicholas was still studying the curious blade.

The man vigorously shook his head.

Since he was gagged, Nicholas wasn't sure if he was shaking his head to say he wouldn't speak or if he were attempting to escape.

"Take the muzzle out of the dog." Nicholas ordered Regan who quickly undid the cloth that acted as a gag on the man's mouth.

"You will never get anything out of me." The man said as he spat at Nicholas.

To everyone in the room's surprise, Nicholas began laughing like a mad man.

Nicholas took the blade and placed the sharp edge against the man's arm, the cold steel touching his skin. He could feel the mana flowing beneath the man's veins, the blade seemed to enhance his ability to feel a person's magic and mana.

"Don't test me." Nicholas threatened, making everyone in the room shrink back due to the power and authority in his voice.

"My loyalty is to my prince and my price alone." The man remained stubborn as he refused to answer Nicholas.

Annoyed by the man, Nicholas used the knife to break through the man's skin, drawing a line from just below the elbow to the wrist.

What seemed to be a simple cut suddenly had the man screaming in pain.

"No! No!" The man shouted as he paled, tears fell from his eyes as his shoulders slumped, a sign of his weakening resistance.

Dion's eyes grew wide as a malicious smile spread across Nicholas' face.

The prince could feel as he not only drew on the man's mana, but on his life force as well, weakening him.

"You say you are loyal, I wonder how loyal you will be when you are at the threshold of death." Nicholas hissed as he took more and more mana from the man.

"I will tell you, my prince, my prince-" The man was not able to say his final words as Nicholas took the knife in his hand and slit the man's throat.

"Your highness!" Dion said with a gasp as it was way too late to save their prisoner.

"He was not going to tell us who he serves." Nicholas told Dion and Regan as he wiped the blood off of his knife on his pants and placed it on the table. "He was going to lie, I could feel it in his soul." Nicholas declared.

Both Dion and Regan were shocked by Nicholas' actions. It wasn't because it was not how he normally behaved, but rather it was because Nicholas had somehow snapped back into his original personality.

A cruel prince that had one goal in mind.