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Red Skys and Royal CardsA pulse of heat radiated through me. I snapped my eyes open and gasped as my body arched off the surface I was laying on. The blackness previously surrounding me vanished as the red haze of my core welcomed me once again. The border of my core was still burning away, more than half of it was already gone, but the pain wasn’t there any longer.
“You’ve finally woken up young Dealer.” The female voice spoke once again from beyond the perimeter of my core.
The male voice spoke in next, “They could have done it in a safer way, but at least they did something useful.”
“Who are you? Please show yourselves.” I called once again as I looked around. Trying to see through the large holes that continued to grow.
“We can’t.” The female voice answered with a sad twinge to her voice. “If we come too close to your core, or even break past it before it has completely vanished we run a very high risk of killing you.”
“That would be a very bad thing on our part to do, for our Masters would be very displeased if we became the cause of that.” The second voice added.
I pushed myself up as I looked around my core, the shadow and the red spot where still moving around outside, but that wasn’t what caught my eyes. The twelve bonds I shared with my Warriors were brighter and stronger that I’ve ever seen them, but it was the bases of them that drew my attention. The red and gold ropes branched out at the base like roots of a tree. They branched out towards the edge of my core but never reached past it.
“Those started growing when your Warriors performed and energy transfer with you to try and stop your core form fully vanishing. As you can see it didn’t work, but it changed things in a few ways that are quite intriguing.”
“Are they what’s going to kill me?” I questioned the two voices that seemed to know a fair amount about this.
The male voice sighed, “That we do not know, I’ve never seen this happen to a Dealer’s core before. Once your core has vanished the energy will kill you, that is what happens to Dealers that experience this.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked as I continued to study addition to the bonds.
“We’ve lived a long time and have seen this happen to other in the past.”
“Who are you?” I asked once again.
“I am Nyx, the other is Ember. We are your guardians for the time being while our Masters are unable to watch over you here.” The female voice - Nyx told me. “You are strong to have survived this long.”
“You may have a chance at surviving this child.” The male voice – Ember – reassured me. “What your Warriors did was different than what they should have done. They went further in the transfer than what they should have done to their Dealer.”
“What do you mean Ember?”
“They didn’t just give you energy to strengthen you, that would have been safe. No, your Warriors placed part of their power inside the energy they gave you and it’s changed part of your core that is still alive and it mat r may not be a good thing. Does anything feel different?”
I moved around between my bonds, making sure not to trip over the root like extensions as I thought over what Ember asked me. Other than what I could see did anything feel different and I really wasn’t sure, I couldn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary. I’ve been going through pain since I came in here so I can’t really tell what’s different.
I paused when I approached Tao’s bond. The red color seemed darker, a blackish tinge invading the red rope of the twisted bond. I reached out for the decaying looking bond before me in worry. Something was clearly not right, since his was the only one this was happening to.
Grabbing onto his bond I shut my eyes and tried to feel what could be wrong with it. In my mind’s eye I could see Tao curled up in the bathroom floor with Lay standing over him. The pain Tao was going through was clear on his face and I could feel it pulsing through his bond.
I could see Lay’s aura of malice surrounding him as he inflicted some of the worst pain on Tao possible without a care of what it was doing to his own brother. Tao was in agony and Lay only seemed to relish in it, he enjoyed the fact that he was killing the younger.
“No.” I growled as I watched as well as felt Tao’s life shortening because of one boy he should be able to trust his life to. The boy that should be keeping him alive not killing him. “Don’t you even dare.”
Opening my eyes I glared forwards before reaching my right hand out beside me and summoned Lay’s bond into my grip. I didn’t even think anymore, it was all instinct, all that mattered was saving Tao and stopping Lay before he managed to do something he was going to regret that was irreversible.
Ignoring everything happening to my core around me I focused on reversing whatever was happening to Tao through his bond. I’m not fully sure if this is going to work since I do not know if it’s possible to heal anyone from my core without be in contact with them but I have to try, I’m not going to let anything happen to my boys.
The black tint of Tao’s bond began to fade and revert back to the vibrant red like
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