23 :: Broken Bonds

They were getting bigger. An eight year old Nora stood outside the front of her house. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was parted to one side, and her bangs held back by a barrette. She wore a pale blue knit dress with leggings of a darker shade. The child was staring intently at a point that appeared to be in midair. She watched the light curve around the point as she moved her head back and forth in different patterns. The colors spun like a kaleidoscope.

This distortion had appeared a little over a week ago. Originally the size of a softball, it had nearly tripled in size since then. Nora didn’t know what these points were, but lately they had been appearing everywhere. She reached out a hand hesitantly. She wanted so badly to know what they felt like, but every time she got close, something inside held her back. This time, as always, her delicate hand dropped back to her side, unfulfilled.

“Nora!” a voice shouted from behind her, snapping her out of her trance. She jumped in surprise before turning to face the newcomer. A boy about Nora’s age with shaggy, black hair sat on a bicycle with one foot on the pavement. It was a nice bicycle. One of the newer models with a flashy red paint job. “You’re doing it again,” he scolded, hopping off the bike and letting it crash carelessly to the ground. He marched over to where Nora stood and stared intently at the place she had been observing.

“There’s nothing there!” he exclaimed angrily, gesturing at the open space. “Just like always, you’re being weird. You need to stop staring at nothing.”

“I’m sorry, Ben,” Nora muttered, bashfully. A pink hue flooded her cheeks. She knew that it wasn’t right to see things that weren’t there. She tried so hard to ignore them, but she couldn’t just ignore things that she clearly saw. Besides, the little warps in the air fascinated her. Regardless of the circumstances, she was embarrassed at having been caught once again. She stared firmly at the ground and hoped that the boy would leave soon.

“You’re such a freak,” he taunted with a scowl. He reached out a hand and twisted his fingers into a chunk of her hair. She tried to slap his hand away, but he began to pull.

“Stop it!” Nora shouted, grabbing higher up on the section he was pulling to ease the pain. “Leave me alone! I didn’t do anything wrong,” she whined, tears budding in the corners of her eyes.

“My parents said you’re crazy!” he announced, releasing her hair. “I don’t want to be in a class with a crazy girl!” Stepping forward, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed. Nora fell backwards, her feet twisting beneath her small frame in an attempt to keep balance. As she regained it for a moment, he pushed again.

“Stop it!” she shouted, but her eyes were no longer on the boy. They were fixated on a place behind him where the little ball of twisted air had grown yet again, reaching almost two feet in diameter. Again, she felt the pressure on her shoulders as she was sent flying. Fear and anger welled up inside her. Why wouldn’t he listen? She had never seen a point grow this large and it was scaring her. Couldn’t he see that there were bigger problems? Of course he couldn’t, and the world spun again as Nora stumbled, blind with fear and growing dizzier by the minute.

“STAY AWAY!” she screamed. This time, as the boy’s frame entered her line of sight, she raised her own hands. Her bare toes sank into the lawn as she pushed off. Charging at the boy with all her strength, for the first time, she shoved back. It was in the brief moment of clarity immediately after she struck the boy, that she noticed the growing anomaly behind him. Her eyes shot open. The boy known as Ben staggered backwards, swinging his arms to keep balance. Nora thrust her arm forward, trying to catch him, but it was too late. As his back struck the space, he vanished into the spinning colors.

“NOOOO!” she wailed, sinking to her knees. Her eyes blinked in disbelief, launching tear after tear careening down her cheeks. She raised her trembling hands, frantically edging them closer and closer to the place where he had disappeared. No matter how hard she tried, her fear paralyzed her and prevented her hands from reaching their destination. Her shoulders shook as her hands fell limp beside her.

Just then, she heard the sound that she most feared. The screen door on the front of her house swung open with a groan. Two faces, filled with concern, emerged from within. Seeing the state their daughter was in, their expressions of concern quickly turned to those of fear.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” her mother gasped, leaping off the front porch.

“STAY AWAY!” Nora screamed, louder than ever. The air between Nora and her mother spun menacingly, growing even larger. If they kept going, if they came near her, the tragedy would be repeated. “STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!” she wailed over and over, swinging her arms, as if to keep them back. As her parents continued their race across the lawn, Nora threw her body against the grass, kicking her legs wildly, trying to escape. It was going to happen again. They wouldn’t listen to her, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Nora’s hands flew to her face, but they didn’t quite make it to her eyes. The child watched in rapt horror as her parents vanished, one after another, into the whirl. Tears fell from her eyes like a faucet as she stared, slack-jawed, into the void.

***

Nora woke from the dream with tears spilling down her cheeks. She had a vague feeling that she had been shouting something in her sleep, but wasn’t cognizant enough to know what that was. A groan from the floor drew her out of her ruminations and lit a spark of recognition in her as she realized what she had done.

“No! No! No!” she mumbled as she flew to where Kurt lay curled on his side.

His arms wrapped tightly around his chest and his entire body tensed in pain. Nora placed her hands on his back where she could feel his brands burning through his shirt. Kurt winced at the pressure and let out a sibilant gasp. Nora whipped her hands back immediately, unsure of what she could do to help.

Kurt’s brands acted as an anchor that kept him prisoner in this world. If one who had been marked with imprisonment brands attempted to use teleportation magic, their body would be bound to their current world, only in places where brands marked skin. Nora’s dream had seeped into the real world, causing her to unconsciously activate teleportation magic that mimicked the portal that had claimed her parents and classmate years before. The resultant discord between body and brands had attempted to rend skin wherever the brands touched.

Nora knelt nervously beside Kurt and covered her mouth with a hand.

“I’m so sorry, Kurt,” she sighed, knowing there was nothing she could do to alleviate the pain she had caused.

“I’m fine,” Kurt gasped through labored breaths. “Just give me a minute.” Nora watched as his breathing began to calm and his muscle tremors ceased.

“That sure was something else,” he sighed, easing himself into a seated position, still on the floor.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to,” Nora apologized earnestly.

“I know, I know,” Kurt replied. “Most spatial mages awaken to their powers under unpleasant circumstances. It was your parents, right?” Nora’s eyes widened.

“How-,” she began, but was interrupted.

“It’s written in your personnel file,” Kurt without waiting to hear the rest of her question. “I looked into you right after you first arrived here. I wanted to see if I could corroborate your story by checking to see whether or not you were stationed here. I thought you might have been sent by headquarters to monitor me, or something,”

“To monitor you! Just what have you done that you think headquarters would send someone to monitor you?” Nora loudly inquired.

“Take another look at my brands,” Kurt suggested, pointing at his back. Nora shot him a skeptical glance, but still reached for the hem of his shirt, raising it up above his shoulders to expose the raw, reddened skin. Certain areas had begun to turn purple, providing evidence of internal bleeding. The area around the brands, themselves, was puffy and raised.

“There’s a lot of swelling here,” she muttered, guilt welling within her.

“Too much, I’d wager,” Kurt explained, “This isn’t the kind of result you’d see from the brands activating just once.” A look of realization dawned on Nora’s face. “This is something of a monthly ritual for me, you see? You’ve certainly hurried it on a bit, though. I still haven’t completely recovered from last time, but as you can see, headquarters has good reason to consider me a flight risk.”

“Kurt!” Nora gasped in disbelief, “How could you do such a thing to yourself? Surely, you know that the brands can’t simply be overcome with force! This isn’t a matter of magical power or willpower!” she berated him.

“That’s not entirely true!” He countered. “In theory, if you use enough magical energy, you should be able to overcome the force connecting skin cells and break free of the bonds.”

“Kurt!” Nora once again shouted. “That would mean ripping the skin off your back!”

“Naturally,” He nodded.

“Those brands go deep! You could die!” She scolded. He nodded again, acknowledging his understanding of the risk involved. Nora sighed, astounded by Kurt’s readiness to accept such a risk. “Why do you do it?” she asked, adopting a calmer tone. “Why would you go to such lengths to free yourself? What’s so important that you would risk your life and undergo this much pain, time and time again, just to leave this realm?”

Kurt hesitated before replying. In an uncharacteristically solemn tone, he began his explanation.

“That’s pretty personal, so I’m not going to go into detail, but it has to do with the reason I’m exiled here. My parents created a mess and since they weren’t going to, I took it upon myself to clean it up. I got caught before I could finish, but it’s something that absolutely must be done. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure it’s completed. The longer I wait, the worse it will get, so there’s no sense in waiting out my exile for another 20 to 30 years, or however long it takes for the council to absolve me. Drastic measures must be considered.”

Nora’s mind drifted to the contents to her storage dimension. If there was ever a time to use that, it was now. However, even if the timing was right, this latest revelation by Kurt, left her wondering if he could be trusted. After a moment’s consideration, her decision was made.

“I want your help Kurt,” Nora declared. “I need to track down this cult and find out what’s been happening to the wardens in the Outer Realms. I have a plan, but I’d like your cooperation. If I can find them, I can figure out what’s causing the spatial distortion and put an end to it. Then, I’ll be able to return everyone to their original realms. If you’re willing to help me, then I’m willing to help with this,” she offered, pulling a couple of sheets of paper from her storage realm and offering them to Kurt.

“These are-!” he shouted, aghast. The pages shook in his hands.

“These were included in the file about you. They’re instructions on how to remove the bonds keeping you in this realm, as well as how to bind you with mental magic to make you more susceptible to suggestion during the event of an emergency, which would essentially render you a slave. It looks like headquarters suspected that Iskam was going to be in serious danger on this mission. Using you as a slave would require the cooperation of a mental mage, but removing your bonds is something that even I, as a trainee, am capable of. Besides, I don’t think using mental magic to coerce you into helping me will be necessary.”

“Those bastards,” Kurt hissed. “You would free me?” he asked, his voice trembling. “If headquarters finds out you freed me without authorization, they’ll arrest you. This isn’t as simple as killing a man in self defense. They’ll know that this was deliberate.”

“But what if I didn’t free you?” Nora asked, picking intently at a stray thread in the sofa’s upholstery. “What if Iskam realized his life was in jeopardy and released you to act as a bodyguard? What if I found you in Iskam’s realm and released the mental magic so that I could properly question you and find out what happened?”

“Hah!” Kurt chuckled, startling even Nora. “That could work! I’m surprised to see that you had such a conniving side to you.”

Nora blushed with embarrassment and shot him a glance of disapproval.

“Pleasantly surprised!” Kurt added, to correct his previous statement. “That will serve you well if you nurture it!” Nora rolled her eyes.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a compliment when it’s coming from a criminal like you,” she teased.

“Be that as it may, something made you trust a criminal like me,” Kurt shrugged. “Anyways, let’s get started on removing these bonds, before I convince you otherwise.”

“You want to do it now?” Nora asked with concern. “You aren’t exactly in peak condition. We can do it, but there will be more than a little pain.”

“I can take it,” Kurt assured her. “Pass me that,” he ordered, indicating a tall glass bottle half-filled with a clear liquid on a nearby shelf. Nora fetched the bottle and handed it to Kurt. He took a deep swig before returning the bottle to her.

“That should dull the pain,” he chuckled. “This should take some time, so let’s get started as soon as possible.” He passed the sheet containing the instructions for removing his brands back to Nora.

“Nonsense,” Nora scoffed with a slight smile, setting the sheet aside. “Brands are made by inserting magic into the skin along the lines of certain formulas. I just have to remove the magic from your skin. I can have this done in under an hour as long as you hold still.”

“Woah there!” Kurt protested. “You can’t just pull all of the magic out of my skin. It has to be done in a certain order. You have to follow the instructions. They put traps in these things to make sure that they can’t be removed by just anybody. If you make a misstep, you might release a spell that attacks my organs. I might actually die from this. Are you sure you’re actually capable of performing such an intricate operation?”

“I can see the formulas, Kurt. You don’t have to worry,” Nora retorted, helping Kurt off the floor and guiding him to the bed. Kurt turned to stare at her as he stumbled along at her side.

“You can actually see it, see it? Like, visible light? Like, with your eyes?” Kurt descended into a seemingly endless line of questions translating to roughly the same thing. As he did so, he removed his shirt, revealing the mess of bruising skin and the dark curves of the bonds that laced across it.

“Yeah,” Nora nodded, helping him lie down. “It takes some serious focus if I want to use it outside of my personal dimension, but I can see it just fine.”

“You know that’s pretty rare, right?” Kurt queried. “Even among those with high sensitivity to magic, there aren’t many who can actually visualize it. Most just get a strong feeling or see vague clouds of light where magic is present.”

“I know it’s rare,” Nora nodded, climbing onto the bed and taking a seat by his side. “One of my instructors told me that less than 1% of Wardens could see the lines that make up formulas.”

“But you didn’t tell your instructor that you were among that 1%, did you?” Kurt asserted. “It would have been in your personnel file if you had. Why not?”

“Honestly, it was only because I hated that instructor,” Nora confessed. “She was a vile old woman who found fault with everything I did. Formulas were the only thing I was good at. I didn’t want her to know it was only because I could see the paths of the magic within them.”

“Cheater,” Kurt smirked.

Nora smiled, ignoring the taunt to begin treatment. As she focused on the shape of the brands, little golden threads of light began to take shape within them. They wove through the fabric of Kurt’s skin, occasionally dipping deep down into the muscle tissue beneath. The lines glowed like the filament of a light bulb, and though, Nora could not see the threads themselves once they vanished beneath Kurt’s skin, she could still see the glow of the light they emitted. Using her own magic, she began tugging on those threads, slowly unraveling them.

“Hey, Nora. Is it okay if I talk?” Kurt asked, suddenly, his face half-smothered by a pillow.

“Go ahead,” Nora responded, never breaking focus. She leaned over Kurt’s prone form, her face less-than a foot from his back as her fingers worked deftly at controlling her magic.

“I’m really glad that you decided to trust me, but why did you?” he asked solemnly. “I just got done telling you that I’d rather rip the skin off my back than wait out my sentence, so that I can finish the very business that got me exiled. What makes you think I won’t run off?”

“I don’t trust you,” Nora replied simply, “But, I have a hunch,” she continued. Kurt let out a gasp as her fingers prodded a particularly sore patch of skin.

“A hunch, huh?” he frowned. “A hunch about what?”

“I can’t tell you,” Nora answered. “I’m waiting to see how it plays out. Telling you would spoil it. Besides, it doesn’t matter whether or not you betray my trust and run off and fight your own battle. If you were my enemy, you’ve had plenty of chances to sabotage my investigation. At the very least, I don’t think you’ll get in my way.”

“You’re no fun,” Kurt grumbled. “I will help you, though. I swear it.”

“You don’t have to swear,” Nora smiled. “Just wait until I’m finished and show me.”

“Okay,” Kurt replied with a smirk, “Try not to kill me before I can show you,” and with that, he buried his face back into the pillow and fell into silence.