Chapter 26 — The Three Winds

The eyes of the night could behold the mist, but no other eyes could see it. There were three sisters apart from the mist, and in the middle of the street, they took a stroll in the halt of time, and with everything in suspense. The darkness was around them, the chill that came with ghosts lingered in the unmoving air, and in this state, they couldn’t breathe, but could outlive everyone here.

“We should do this more often,” Janice said, looking at her sisters like one would for approval.

Vivian was thrilled by the night, and the feel of darkness around her that once she smiled, time unfroze, and the humans whose lives were bound to time began to move about their daily lives. “That was fun.”

“You think Chadwick has attained this state, the ability to move in the halt of time?” Susan asked.

“I think so,” Vivian said with a grin. “Janice would know.”

Susan looked at Janice. “Care to say?”

Janice smiled at Susan and looked ahead. “I should be grateful to you for killing us. We wouldn’t have been able to see so much. We know of your encounter with Eleanor.” She glanced at Susan. “Now, you wield her powers. Mind sharing with us?”

Susan couldn’t believe what Janice was asking. “It’s sad we may really never come to an agreeable conclusion.”

“We are here, Susan, aren’t we?”

“But I didn’t call you.”

The smile on Janice’s face broadened. “As the weapon to the blood sea, it is our duty to protect you. Mother thinks with the stolen power of Eleanor, you can defeat Chadwick alone.”

“We all know how that went last time,” Susan said. “We were three against one.”

“What if I told you, you were the strongest bloodstone that ever lived?”

“I would call you a liar.”

“But it’s true,” Vivian said, turning to look at Susan. “What Janice says is true.”

Susan paused walking, and so did Janice and Vivian.

“What’s wrong,” Vivian asked with a frown.

Susan looked into Vivian’s eyes. “I sense danger, which is odd since I don’t normally sense it.”

“What kind of danger?”

“The mild kind, and it’s coming from the other street.”

Vivian and Janice both wore strange looks as Susan showed them what street with her mind. No bloodstone had ever done this before.

With light speed, and in the halt of a second, they were in the street Susan had just shown them, and there stood the ghost figure of a man.

He was in a black robe, two gleaming swords in his hands, and dead bodies lay around him.

The sisters stood together, their gaze to the man.

“Who are you?” Janice asked.

“Someone you wish not to know,” he said.

Susan whispered to her sisters, “He’s an associate of Chadwick. He was sent to test us.”

“Best we make sure he doesn’t return with a bad report, or best, to make sure he doesn’t return at all,” Vivian said.

“I like the last option. Should I go first?” Susan asked.

“No,” Janice said. “I and Vivian should go first. You! Heal and wake up his slain victims.”

“First, let’s see how fast he is,” Vivian said.

Time stopped.

Janice and Vivian walked forward, the man split himself into two. Swords appeared in Janice and Vivian’s hands, they charged at both figures of the man.

Susan moved unseen with the speed of light, she healed the injuries of the dead. She returned life to their bodies and distanced them from this street, whilst returning to stand at her initial position.

The two engaged figures of the man knew something was wrong when he looked around and didn’t see his dead victims, he glanced to see Susan hadn’t moved, and he wondered how they had vanished.

Susan saw the man met the speed and deadly blows of her sisters for he was fast as light, and she wondered why he nor her sisters had seen her when she moved to help the dead. They had seemed slow…too slow to her. This could only explain one thing. This power she had from Eleanor either enhanced or had altered her powers and had turned her into something worse.

Mother had sent Vivian and Janice to protect her. Why? If she was that strong, was she that vulnerable too?

Someone appeared next to Susan, and she didn’t need to ask who or turn to see who it was. “Eleanor!” Susan acknowledged.

“What you feel is normal, and it could be destructive,” Eleanor said. “Your body has accepted the role of power, and since you weren’t born, but fashioned to be a powerful tool, this power is adjusting itself in you, and from now on, you’ll feel the itch to destroy anything, even what you love.”

“Meaning, in other words, I’ve intensified my curse?” Susan looked at Eleanor whose eyes met her gaze.

“Yes. It won’t be pretty. But the earlier this power does house itself in you, the better.”

Susan looked forward to her sisters battling the split, strange ghost figures of this man. “What should I do to him?”

“If you let him leave, he would return to Chadwick and tell him what he’s seen,” Eleanor said. “If you destroy him, and any others Chadwick would send, there would be no words to send to the enemy.”

Eleanor disappeared.

Susan’s form split in two, swords graced her hands. She vanished, temporarily appearing that same time before both ghost figures of this man, and sending her swords into their hearts, she disappeared and appeared behind his split forms to lop off both of his heads, she returned to her position like she hadn’t budged one bit. Both of her forms became one.

Janice and Vivian were stunned, they watched the man’s form come together to become one, and turn sand, then they turned to a smiling Susan who made a slight head gesture and arched a brow.

“Took you both long enough,” Susan said, and looked up at the night sky. “I’ll be waiting, Chadwick.”