Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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When I had been reborn into this world, I had spent countless hours trying to sense the magic I knew I supposedly had. I mean it was magic. Something that I could only dream of having in my last life. Obviously since I had lived an entire life without it, I would obviously have an easy time detecting and controlling the foreign energy. Perhaps my sensitivity would even allow me to become a super powerful mage.
I had actually been excited at the prospect of having magic. But now? Now that I could finally feel the otherworldly energy coursing through my body?
I just wanted it to go away.
It wasn't the gentle hum, or the comforting warmth I had always imagined it to be. Instead it seemed to boil and buckle under my skin, a blazing heat pulsing from deep within my chest in its own rhythmic beat. Each beat of the ethereal heart sent fresh waves of pain through me. It would begin from deep within my chest and race outward all the way down to the tips of my toes. The only thing I could compare it to was if someone had replaced my blood with hot shards of glass, it burned as well as it cut.
I stared at the ceiling of my dark room sweat beading my brow and my breathing coming in labored gasps, writhing around futilely in some vain hope of getting the pain to lessen. But I knew nothing could help me except time ...hopefully.
It had been like this for nearly a week. One moment I would be fine, then suddenly the searing pain would rip through my body without any warning. The bouts of pain would disappear just as suddenly as they appeared. Luckily though I had noticed that they were happening with less and less frequency, the duration and intensity of the pain was much less than it had been at the start of the week. But perhaps even more luckily, was the fact that no one was around when they struck, it would have lead to questions I couldn't afford to have asked.
This whole thing had begun the night after I fell into that petricite fountain a week prior. My best guess was that the water must have carried particles of the white stone, and since I had swallowed quite a lot of it I must have ingested some. I could only hope the drop in frequency and length meant my body was working it out of my system.
Eventually the pain passed, and I was allowed to slump exhaustedly into my crib. It wasn't long before the sandman took me blessedly away.
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I stared at my breakfast blankly, I could hardly keep my eyes open. The previous night had been horrible, the pain had come multiple times leaving reprieves just long enough for me to fall asleep and then returning to viciously rip me out of dreamland. Granted the pain at this point wasn't even that bad, hardly even worth mentioning honestly, however it was still just painful enough to keep me awake. Judging by how I felt at that moment I would guess I had, had maybe two hours worth of sleep.
"Are you feeling okay Lux?" Mom's concerned voice cut through my fugue like a knife.
I shot her a smile that I hoped at least looked better than I felt. "Yeah, bad dream." I was for once thankful of the fact that as a one year old I wasn't expected to talk much, it allowed me to lie a lot easier.
"Oh? What were they about? You might feel better if you talked about them you know." Father cut in.
I shrugged non committedly at them. "Fountain." The one word was enough for them, seeing as how it had only been two weeks since the incident it was still fresh in everyone's minds. From the corner of my eye I could see my parents share a worried glance across the table.
"You know, when I was a child I used to have a fear of the dark." He paused, waiting for me to look up at him. "Do you know what I did to get over that fear?" I shook my head. "I locked myself in the basement and doused all the torches. The first hour was terrifying I will admit, but after spending three hours in dark I learned there was nothing to be scared of."
"Okay?" I wasn't really sure what that had to do with my situation.
"I know what happened to you was scary. But I'm sure if you spend sometime in the water you see it's nothing to be scared of."
I stared at him with furrowed brows, it took me a second to piece together what he was getting at. "I'm not-" I almost corrected him, but I stopped at the last second. At the moment they seemed to think I had some fear of water now and that was what caused my 'nightmare', which I supposed was an understandable assumption considering the information they had to go off of. I mentally shrugged and just went with it. I put on a frown and slumped to make the act more believable. "Okay" I agreed, making it seem like I was reluctantly facing my fears.
/
It took a total of three weeks for the attacks to disappear completely, and by the end the pain had hardly been enough to make me wince. I was happy, almost giddy in my excitement. But it wasn't because the pain was gone, well not entirely anyways.
While the petricite poisoning was undoubtedly painful, it had also given me a great boon. One that in my opinion, might have made those weeks of excruciating pain worth it.
I could feel my magic. Before the poisoning I couldn't feel even a hint of it, to the point that I had feared I might not have had the talent. But now? Now that I had felt it literally getting ripped from my body for weeks? If anything it actually seemed harder to not feel it.
The foreign energy seemed to pool and collect in my chest and on its own accord the energy would radiate outwards and distribute itself to the rest of my body, though it was always densest nearest to my chest. Every few minutes or so it would for a lack of a better word compress, when it decompressed a few moments later I could tell that there was just a bit more energy than before it moved. Everytime it compressed I had to fight the wave of vertigo that accompanied it. Since the magic permeated my entire body, the compression and decompression gave me a feeling of shrinking and unshrinking. And while obviously I knew no such thing was happening, my body vehemently disagreed.
While I was sure my body would grow accustomed to the sensation eventually, it was still rather frustrating as I was sure it would do a good job of keeping me up well into the nights to come. It seemed I was destined to lose sleep thanks to my magic.
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"Evil mages! I shall defeat you and keep Demacia pure!" Garen shouted, his ever loyal soldiers charged forth with his battle cry. They pressed ever onward, utterly ignoring the magics raining down on them.
"Defeat me? Impossible! Come forward and meet your doom, Demacians!" I spoke the last word with as much spite and hatred I could muster given the situation. I watched on in shock as Garen boldly charged through my ranks, his armoured form knocking everything out of its path, and watched with even more shock as he ran me through in the same charge.
"…Garen..." My voice came out a strained whisper, my breathing labored.
He leaned closer to hear me.
"What in the name of Runeterra was that!" I shouted with all the strength my three year old lungs could muster directly into his startled face. "My mages shouldnt be knocked aside like that! They should at the very least last a few seconds! They have MAGIC Garen. M-A-G-I-C! You cant just charge straight through them, you would get blasted to ashe after your first step."
Garen laughed at my outraged expression. "Yeah but Mages are evil. And everyone knows the Hero always wins." As if to accentuate his point he knocked over the rest of my clay figurines with his metal crusader.
The casual way he brushed me off, added to the fact that his line about mages had hit way too close to home. I grew angry, it grew so fast that I had hardly even registered the way my magic had swelled and flexed from the sudden and ferocious nature of my chaotic emotions. By the time I had realized what was going to happen, it was too late. Far too late.
It burst from my chest in a sudden and brilliant flash of light. One so bright everything in my sight had been washed out by white, as if a dozen camera flashes had gone off in concert. I heard a scream, and when the light faded a few seconds later I could see my brother on his back, his hands clutched at his eyes in pain.
"Garen!" I rushed over to his side, fear and panic thick and nauseating in my stomach. What had I done? I could hardly do more than touch his shoulder before the door slammed open, I looked up to see my mother's panicked face.
She practically shoved me out of the way in her haste to check on him, he proved to be unresponsive except for the occasional whimper of pain. Seeing no obvious wounds and realizing Garen couldn't or wouldn't respond she turned to me. "Lux, what happened?"
My mouth opened on its own and words poured out almost on its their own accord. "We were playing with our toys, then Garen started cheating, and-" I hiccuped "-and then I got mad and I lost control of it. Which is weird cause I never los-" I froze as I realized what I had just said aloud. My eyes widened in horror as I saw Moms posture stiffen.
"You lost control?" She said slowly, her lips pursed. "What was it you lost control of Lux?" Her eyes were searching as they bored into my own.
"I-" My vision grew blurry as I tried to speak, and my throat felt like I had a whole apple stuck in it. "I-I, I'm a-" Tears streamed down my face as I broke down. How was I supposed to tell her? I knew she would hate me, that the love I always saw shining in her eyes every time she saw me would assuredly disappear. I had grown to love this woman, to truly see her as my new mother. I couldn't even bring myself to look at her as I cried uncontrollably, instead opting to look down at my clenched and shaking hands.
Suddenly I found myself being pulled towards her. Warm arms encircled me, and a hand brushed through my hair. "Its okay Lux. Everything will be okay" The words that were whispered in my ear made me cry even harder, this time in relief from the crushing weight being removed. I hugged her back, sobbing gratefully into her chest. After a moment she pushed me away her arms keeping me at length. "Now. Go to your room. I will take care of this." Her gaze flickered to Garens groaning form.
I swiftly left the room, my relief at her acceptance and my guilt for what I had done to Garen at war with each other.
This day was one I was sure I would remember for the rest of my life. Afterall, this was the first time in the two years I had access to it that I had any genuine fear of my magic. The first time I had lost control of it...and I had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't be the last time either.
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AN: Yo! I really appreciate all those that have followed and favorited the story. Like REALLY appreciate it. It motivates me to keep writing, so thank you!.
Someone PM'd me the other day saying I exaggerated the effects of petricite. But honestly I didn't, the greymark is essentially a badge the size of a deodorant stick made from petricite that mageseekers carry around, according to the lore it causes pain/weakness from proximity, and can bring a mage to their knees from pain with contact. Same thing with the petricite water, in the lore there is a "cure for magic" it's essentially water mixed with petricite powder, it's described as giving the drinker bouts of excruciating pain.
If you guys have any comments, questions, ideas, or just want to chat, PM or Review. Hell I even like getting complaints as it lets me know if there is something wrong with the story, after all how can I get better if I don't realize im doing something wrong/bad.