Just as always, that quiet fury that had whispered in her ear, telling tales of snakes hissing behind her back, slipped within her once more. Karma won’t say that she doesn’t enjoy the look that overtakes people’s faces when they realized they’re outmatched.

She won’t say that she doesn’t enjoy the sound of bones crushing and skin tearing, that she doesn’t absolutely love the sound of her casting language swishing around on her tongue. But she will be the first to admit that once her anger leaves her, she is sometimes left with a nasty feeling in the back of her throat.

Karmic had praised her cold anger. He had stoked it, provoked it, rewarded it. And because of his intervention, that fury had personified, becoming something separate of herself. And she hated it. It was the one thing that she had little control over.

She supposes that’s why she can no longer meet the eyes of her three coerced travel companions. She had not wanted to cross them, but it told her that if she did not, she would fail at her mission. And she hates failure more than she hates a lack of control. “You three should eat. I will keep my distance during this short journey.”

Karma walks back to the place she sat before, attempting the blink away the edges of black that curl around her vision. All magic has a cost. Casters and conjurers, because of the nature of their magic, usually pay a higher price than the other castes. What that price is, varies from sourcer to sourcer, and it is usually a well-hidden secret.

If anyone were to find out what a sourcer’s tithe is, it could lead to blackmail or extortion. Karma swallows as darkness overtakes the entirety of her vision, blinding her. She extends her aura, as she doesn’t know when her sight will return to her.

Karma is cursed.

She is cursed with hatred and fury.

She is cursed with pride and greed.

That is why her magic is so deadly, even more so than her father’s. Because it takes on the shape of her affliction. Her power to curse people, with both minor and major adversity, has a high price. And her pride, her need to be the strongest, the fastest, the most powerful, has led her to give up her very life for it.

What no one can know, what she will never allow another person to understand, is that curses that end in death make her more powerful, while the minor ones suck years off of her lifespan. Just cursing someone to trip every time they see her could take five years off her life.

But one death… taking a single sourcer life… it could give her decades.

That is why she chose her position as Overseer of the prisons. She isn’t the strongest physical fighter; her powers didn’t manifest like that. So, she would have been no good on a battlefield like her brother. But executions and assassinations were her specialty. And no one blinks an eye at the death of a prisoner.

A small smile takes up residence on her face.

Karma has killed many of people. She’s gathered quite a lot of chi in the process. If she were to guess, she would say she’s currently at a life span of twenty-six high mages. If she were to live a peaceful life, she would outlive everyone in this current world.

Of course, she can never give up using her magic for little things.

A sigh leaves her as she feels someone step over the boundary of her flowing chi. “There are a few ways to get out of this situation,” She starts. Even her magic has loopholes should the outcome not arrive quick enough. “If you have no problem carrying a decomposing body around, you could kill me and take my remains to the place I need to go.”

That wouldn’t work, simply because they have no idea where she really must go. Million stiffens behind her. “You could also try doing something like cutting out my tongue, so that I can’t cast. But if you do that, Hunts will still have to fulfill his promise. That doesn’t really provide any change to the situation.” It would leave them a few steps behind where they need to be.

Disabling Karma would be worse than killing her. If she were to return home after that, King Karmic would do more than just raise hell. Life will be hard enough for them as it is, as they’re already convicts. Why would they want the crown personally searching for them? “You all could split up. Though that wouldn’t eliminate the problem either.”

She already has their persons inside of her, filed away like a note of debt owed. No matter how far they run, her magic will find them. And Hunts will still have to fulfill his duty if he wants his friends not to die. “Or you can go eat and allow Hunts to do what he had promised to do before you arrived.”

Though she cannot see him, she can feel his chi struggling. He wants to kill her. Violently. Her grin widens. Karma’s fondness for him might have just increased. An angry man is one thing, but a powerful man is another. Million has a peculiar power in him. “Please, just come sit, Million. There’s nothing we can do right now.” Mallie, ever the persistent people pleaser, tries to cox her brother into submission.

And Karma knows that he will give her the illusion of it. But she can feel something familiar tumbling within his aura. She can feel his pride, and that is enough to tell her than she must stay alert when he is around.

Before long, the male twin will strike.

Oddly enough, the day comes faster than she imagined it would. The sun has risen, its heat warming her exposed face. In the years that had passed, she had almost forgotten what direct heat stroking her cheeks feels like. Karma had casted again, within the folds of darkness, so it will likely be a few more hours before her vision returns to her.

The threat of Million coxing the earth into swallowing her whole was too pertinent, so she made the decision to curse herself to never require sleep. But a curse is still a curse, even on herself. It required a payment. In return for this, during the darkest hours of the night, whenever she closes her eyes, her worse fear is played beneath her eyelids.

Last night was heinous. Though blind, she still needed to blink, and because she could nary tell the difference between open eyelids and closed ones, she spent the entirety of the night fighting against her rushing heartbeat and her childhood fears.

But that was the price she had to pay for the smallest peace of mind.

Karma can tell the exact moment when Million wakes up. That anger and pride springs up into the air like a freshly discovered aquifer, the magnitude somehow stronger than it was the night before. It seems his resolve has strengthened. Perhaps he dreamt up a plan to dispose of her. She smiles into the darkness.

While there has never been a time in her life when she wasn’t in danger, it has been quite a while since she was in a position that could lead to her death. Excitement tickles her, but that fury still bubbles in the back of her throat. The thought that this boy could possibly think he could take her out when so many before him had failed… It makes her want to teach him a lesson.

She has no time for teachings though.

Feeling around, she wraps her fingers around the strap of her bag and drags it towards herself. She riffles around until she finds the remains of her brittle bread. It would go well with venison stew. Her mouth waters at the thought of a warm meal, prepared by some of the nations most talented chefs.

She swallows her bread, annoyance filling the places where the baked dough cannot go. Karma had run out of water the day before, so she is forced to wash down her dry breakfast with her saliva alone. She will truly never take the kitchens in her manor for granted again. “Do you have something to say to me?” Though she cannot see, Karma feels someone’s eyes drilling into her.

“Here.” She doesn’t move, her unfocused eyes going to where the voice emanates from. “I noticed you weren’t drinking. Figured you might need some water.” Karma stops her face from falling into a scowl.

“You think me a fool, Mallie?” She’s temporarily blind, not stupid. Karma had bound their lives to her will. Million is quite obviously furious about this. And while the other sibling seems to be a more socially naive person, Karma would be stupid to think that she isn’t cunning enough to use her initial impression to trap her.

There are two naturalists here. One of them could have a specialty with poison, Million being the obvious choice. She will accept no food, water, or help outside of what her curse demands. Now that she thinks about it, she was too hasty in its creation.

Karma should have ensured that Hunts had a limited time to perform his obligation. Now he can stall for however long. Who knows how many other convicts they have hidden in these wildernesses. She had once again let her anger get the best of her. Maybe it is her that needs another lesson…

She shudders.

“Excuse m-”

“Just leave her be Mallie. Why would you want to help the bitch that’s holding us hostage?” Of course, Million decides that now is the time to speak up. Karma sucks her tongue. She doesn’t like being called out of her name. Not even if it’s sweet.

She stands, attaching her bag to her back. “Remember, Million’s mouth is what got you all into this situation. Do not let him be the reason that more clauses are added to your curse.” She removes her cloak, the heat finally beginning to get to her. “Speak to me properly, or don’t speak to me at all, dugger.”

The slur had fallen from her lips before she could even filter it. The intensity of Million’s chi increases, the air heating. Being called a dugger is a lot worse than being called a bitch after all. The naturalist slur originated a few hundred years ago, after sourcers began sorting themselves into their different castes.

A lot of people saw naturalists as country peasants that were worth less than the manure they used to fertilize the nation’s crops. They were denied entry so some of the top schools, as most thought education was wasted on them. Of course, naturalists are still sourcers though. They didn’t take well to the term nor their treatment. It wasn’t long after that when they revolted. Provinces began to crumble, sourcers turning on sourcers for the smallest morsel of food, as the hicks that they all despised ran them into famine.

It seemed that they were smarter and more wicked than anyone gave them credit for. “What did you just call me?” The ground beneath her begins to vibrate. She shifts to distribute her weight more evenly, not that it would matter if he chooses to crumble the ground underneath her.

“Broth-”

“Per usual, you start a problem and are too sensitive to handle the repercussions.” She sees this is a constant problem with him. He was incarcerated, then broken out by someone else. He ran his mouth off about her, then his friend was cursed. If he says another word to her… Things will not end well.

Karma had fought a naturalist. She has fought many, actually. It was part of her home curriculum. These fights have taught her many things. One of those being that they require more concentration than most sourcers when it comes to their abilities. They draw their chi from nature, but just because it is abundant doesn’t mean it is easy to acquire.

Nature does not like to bend to the will of others. “How do you plan to silence me, boy?” Her brow raises as her finger points to where the center of his energy is. He scoffs.

“Boy? I’m a grown man, an-”

A laugh leaves her abruptly. “What are you, seventeen? Eighteen? That is hardly a man.” The intensity of his chi decreases. Karma hides her smile. While she knows that when it comes to magical abilities, she has him outmatched, even she does not want to fight whilst they’re in his domain. So she will talk around him. While amplifiers are known to be simple, naturalists are known to be fair. Their grudges and their anger never last long.

Besides, Karma likes to fight from the shadows. She prefers her victims to have never seen her face in the first place. Something in his voice changes. “I’m- I’m nineteen!” Is he… embarrassed? How cute. Another laugh leaves her.

“Now that you’ve calmed down, can we begin our journey? This really is quite time sensitive.” Any day now her father will send a message to her, requesting an update on her progress. That thought chases away her lingering smile. She doesn’t have time for any of this.

Silence claims the air.

Hunts is the one to break it, clearing his throat. “Yes. There’s a river a few miles east. We’ll follow it up the coast of the Shal and Onq border. We should reach a good breaking point in four days max. Three if we can snag two small boats.” She nods her head. She should just barely reach her destination before the cutoff time for her travels.

She swallows, halting her fingers before they travel up to her chest. “Then, by all means, lead the way.”