This is a stand alone short story.
Trigger Warnings: SA, Graphic Violence.
My footsteps sounded like thunder as I stormed through the halls of the citadel. Each time my cane touched down, cracks radiated out from it in the stone blocks of the floor. A red haze filled my vision as the rage threatened to overwhelm me.
Staff and students alike rushed to get out of the way. I paid them little attention as I made my way deeper into the citadel. The ones that did not move fast enough found themselves shoved aside by forces they could not see.
Cocooned within the conflagration of my power, I barely felt my dragonet’s claws digging into my shoulder. Two things made it past my rage. The first was pain and fear of my mate coming from somewhere deep under the public areas of the citadel. The second was the cold of the voidfrost that radiated out from the mana blocks that were locked around my forearms as they tried to contain my innate power.
Steps cracked under my feet as I descended deeper into the mountain that housed the citadel. Deacon had been antagonizing me for years, starting just weeks after we first met. I never cared why. Most of the time, I ignored him. Occasionally I’d have to teach him a lesson, and he would back off for a while. I thought he had learned his lesson.
As I turned a corner, I came face to face with three of the academy’s professors blocking the hallway. All three were people I had liked and respected.
“Move.” I said as I kept walking forward.
“Mister Drake, you will stand down this instant and report to the High Mage’s office at once,” Professor Borodkin said in a scandalized tone.
“I’m sorry, Professor.” I said as I lifted my cane and focused a sliver of my rage into the void ether crystal atop it.
A web of power woven from threads of the deepest black and the brightest white formed around the three mages, lifting them off the floor and pinning them to the wall.
Deeper and deeper I went, leaving a trail of shattered stones and academy staff pinned to walls. If Deacon had known about the bond I formed with my mates, he’d have never taken her.
I had now reached the levels of the citadel where only professors were permitted. I don’t know if Deacon thought that would keep me away. He was always arrogant to the point of foolishness. That arrogance would be his downfall.
The bond flared with pain and fear, and the last bit of restraint on my rage shattered. Cold radiated up my arms as the mana blocks struggled to do their jobs. In my second year at the academy, they locked the blocks on my arms when they discovered that rage fueled my power.
The bond led me to an enormous pair of celestial steel doors covered in glowing runes and sigils. I knew about the chamber behind the doors, but had never seen it in person. It was a containment chamber where they worked higher magics. It was designed to contain earth-shattering forces.
Another stab of pain through the bond strengthened my resolve. I held up my cane, with the void ether crystal pointed at the doors. Power erupted from the crystal, pure elemental void, so dark that it sucked in the surrounding light, plunging the antechamber into darkness.
It slammed into the celestial steel door with a roar that would send dragons soaring away in fear. One by one, the magical sigils blinked out as my magic overpowered them.
The doors melted under the onslaught of magic, and within moments, the molten steel vaporized and was drawn into the void behind my power.
I stepped into the chamber and realized I still had more rage inside me when I saw Deacon standing in front of Marissa, cutting her clothes off of her.
Manacles locked around Marissa’s wrists held her up, chaining her to a pillar in the center of the room. A gem-studded collar was around her neck. I didn’t know how he had managed to get that on my mate, but it was the reason she was helpless. It drained one’s mana, making them unable to access their magic. Storing it in the crystals so it could be used to power machinery or imbue magical objects. They used that type of collar on prisoners and slaves.
Seeing the collar and Marissa’s blood as Deacon cut her clothes off of her drove me far past my breaking point. A transparent golden dome surrounded them. One of the few things Deacon was good at was barriers and shields.
“You’re too late, mongrel.” Deacon snarled as he ripped the rest of Marissa’s clothes off. “Too late to save her, but just in time to watch me make this bitch mine.”
The air was filled with back-to-back deafening cracks as the mana blocks on my arms shattered and unleashed my rage.
“I will kill you.” I snarled as I threw my hands forward and a torrent of black and white energies slammed into the golden barrier.
I felt myself lifted off the floor as power roared through me. Inside the dome, Deacon dropped to one knee as he struggled against the onslaught of my attack. It took a lot less energy to maintain a barrier than it did to overpower one, but Deacon knew that if the barrier came down, he would not be able to best me in a battle.
From my shoulder, Zephyr let out a roar, and a beam of prismatic power shot from her mouth and wove around mine, adding to the attack on the dome. Zephyr loved Marissa as much as I did.
I felt the barrier sag under the attack, then it shattered, and Deacon slammed into the far wall with a sickening crunch. He coughed, and blood came out of his mouth.
I held him there with my power as I ran to Marissa and ripped the collar from her neck. Zephyr hopped off my shoulder as I vaporized the manacles holding Marissa up and lowered her to the floor. The Dragonet began licking Marissa’s wounds, and as I watched, golden light flowed into her injuries, knitting her skin back together.
I stood and approached Deacon, where he was held against the chamber wall. With each step, I sent a pulse of power down the beam that held him in place, each time making him cry out.
“You cowardly, sniveling, worthless piece of shit.” I snarled. “I could overlook your harassment, your petty annoyances, even your pathetic attempts at assaulting me.”
When Deacon opened his mouth to respond, I filled it with a ball of air, gagging him.
“Where you messed up,” I said as I sent my will through the energy holding him against the wall, snapping the bone in his left arm. “Was attacking my mate. Worse, you didn’t just attack her.”
With another flex of power and the bones in the hand he had held the knife in snapped, one by one. Sounds of snapping bones and muffled cries of agony filled the now mostly silent chamber.
“You kidnapped her,” I explained. “You led me right to you. I know where my mates are at all times.”
This time his left femur snapped.
“I can feel their pain and their emotions.”
His right femur snapped.
“You kidnapped her. You put her in a slave collar. You cut her. You were going to rape her.”
Another bone snapped with each accusation.
“Now, you worthless excuse for a mage, you will die.” I said as I sent more power at him.
The tendrils of power wrapped around him tightened, squeezing him tighter and tighter. More bones snapped as the power crushed him.
“Please stop, my love.” A gentle voice said from behind me at the same time a hand touched my shoulder. “A quick death is better than he deserves.”
“You’re right,” I said.
Deacon looked relieved until I glared at him.
I focused on him, not with my eyes, but with my senses. I sought his mana font. The center of magical power each mage possesses. I found it deep within his spirit. It was larger than I had expected. Deacon never lived up to his potential. I sent more and more power into him, wrapping layer after layer of energy around his font, then with a flex of my will, I crushed it.
Deacon lost consciousness and sagged against the magical bonds that held him up.
I turned my back to him and pulled Marissa into a hug.
“I’m sorry I let this happen to you, my love.” I whispered as I held her.
“Oh, love, no,” Marissa whispered. “You didn’t let anything happen to me. You stopped something worse from happening.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I said as I took her hand.
A familiar weight settled on my shoulder, and I felt Zephyr lick my cheek as we left the ruined chamber, Deacon’s unconscious body being dragged along behind us by my power.
Once back in parts of the citadel where we might encounter other people, I waved my hand over Marissa’s naked body, and a cloak of woven shadows wrapped around her.
Marissa gasped when we came across the first group of professors and students that were still held up against the wall by my power.
“What happened?” She asked, eyes wide.
“They tried to stop me.” I said as I turned to the more reasonable-looking one and relaxed the bond over her mouth. “I will release you. If you attack me, it will not end well. Understood?”
“Yes, Mister Drake, I understand,” Professor Crane said, and the other two nodded as much as they could in their bonds.
“For what it is worth, I regret having to bind you.” I said as I let them down.
We repeated this six more times as we climbed our way up to the entry level of the citadel. By the time we reached the great hall, a small army of professors followed silently behind me, each of them casting uneasy glances at Deacon’s unconscious body as it floated along behind me.
I came to a stop in the center of the hall, as the professors moved around me to join the rest of the staff, who stood shoulder to shoulder facing me. From my shoulder, Zephyr let out an annoyed chitter and let out a colorful jet of fire to express her displeasure.
High Mage Ambrosius glared at me from where he stood two paces in front of the rest of his staff.
“Would you care to explain yourself before I have you sent to prison?” High Mage Ambrosius demanded, his voice full of wrath.
“Oh, can it, you blind fool!” I snapped as I sent Deacon’s unconscious body tumbling into the teachers behind the high mage. “If you want this pathetic excuse for a human to live, I suggest you take him to the healers, and if I ever see him again, I will kill him.”
“You dare threaten-” Ambrosius started before I cut him off.
“Yes, Arnold, I fucking dare. I tried playing by your rules. For years I tried. I only defended myself when attacked. I reported the attempts on my life, on the lives of my friends.” I snarled. “What did that get me? Nothing but excuses. I misinterpreted, misheard, misunderstood. Boys will be boys. It’s a simple schoolyard fight. It got me excuses, justifications, platitudes. It got my powers bound. It got my friends hurt. Well, guess what?”
I held my hands up, the sleeves of my robes sliding back, exposing my bare forearms.
“Your leash has been destroyed. All because your precious golden boy never received a day's punishment in his life.” I said. “This didn’t have to happen, Arnold. If you had seen that he was punished for his actions, he might have thought twice before kidnapping my mate and trying to rape her. He might not be lying there with half the bones in his body shattered and a void where his mana font used to be.”
“You did what?!” Arnold snapped.
“Oh yeah, he won’t be able to channel enough power to light a candle ever again. He shouldn’t have touched my mate.” I said coldly.
“Your mate?” Albert asked uncertainly.
“You really are a blind fool, aren’t you, old man?” I chuckled. “You never stopped to wonder where my power came from? You slapped your little leash on me and ceased to care about my existence. Do you understand how you screwed up? Have you figured it out yet?”
“You, you can’t be.” Arnold said, sounding worried for the first time that I’d ever seen.
“Why? Because I don’t come from a prestigious family? Because I am a nobody? Do you really let your prejudices blind you?” I taunted. “Yes, Arnold. I am. I am a soul mage. Do you think if your nephew there knew that, he’d have known better than to attack one of my mates?”
“One of?” Arnold asked, the color draining from his face.
“Yes, Arnold, one of.” I said. “Now, before I leave this place, let me make two things very clear. If I ever see Deacon again, I will kill him where he stands. And if you send anyone after me or my mates, or try to interfere with our lives in any way what so over, and that includes not giving them glowing references should future employers of theirs ever contact you, I will tear this citadel down stone by stone, is that understood? I will do what it takes to protect my family.”
As I talked, four of the professors and two more students crossed the hall to stand alongside Marissa and me.
Without waiting for a response, I led my family out of the hall, the crowd of professors and students parting before us. Once outside the protective spells of the citadel, I opened a way, and we left the academy behind for good.