Xal's breath caught in his throat as he finally, truly accepted the truth.
Xehelya didn't die.
She was murdered.
She was murdered.
She was… murdered.
A raw scream ripped through, and the skin broke where the nails dug into his fists. His body was on fire, heartbeat thundering in his ears. All he could see was red.
All these years, he had struggled thinking how unfair it was that she died, some cruel twist of fate.
But she hadn't died from natural causes at all. Someone had killed her. Someone had deliberately sent that thing to feed on his baby sister until there was no life left in her.
The grief had already twisted into a rage so pure it burned through his chest, ugly, vile.
Jaw ached as he forced out the words, "My sister died because of this bastard Khem!?"
✦ ✦ ✦
In Kian's vision, Xal was emitting darker energy than before. This really needed to stop.
Seeing that he was only getting angrier, Kian knew it would be stupid to ask him to calm down.
So he did the next best thing he could. Focusing on his core energy, he drew it out and draped it around Xal like a blanket to cover the negative energy he was emitting. He may not be able to dissolve the anger, but at least he can stop Xal's core energy from spiraling out, adding fuel to his rage, attracting trouble.
✦ ✦ ✦
Xal's voice dripped venom, and if looks could kill, Kian would be all bones right now.
Unintentionally, his anger was diverting towards Kian, in his eyes, who spoke without a speck of remorse in his voice, who acted as if her death was fucking normal, who was right there rather than toward Khem, whom he could not reach right now.
All he could think was that a person was standing in front of him who knew about someone who was killing innocent people, and he did not seem to give a rat's ass about stopping that thing.
"Yes," Kian said. The calmness of his voice irritated him even more.
"And you know all of this. You have some sort of magic power to stop him! And you are just waltzing around cities, pointing at fucking threads while people die out there?" Xal took a step closer to Kian as his blood boiled.
"Tell me where the fuck Khem is. I will rip him to shreds piece by piece, and I'll make sure he is breathing and awake till I'm done!"
"Whoa… easy there. I…" Kian sighed. "Listen, I know that you are angry; you feel it's unfair, and worst of all, you grieve your sister. But right now, I can't help you."
He clenched his jaw at that last sentence, and Kian continued.
"I don't have any solid information about Khem. No one else does either."
It felt as if everything stopped for a second. A manic laugh ripped through him because what the fuck!
"Was that a fucking joke? You know that thing's NAME!"
He was shaking his head. "No… no. Khem is the name I gave to this entity or the person when I saw it for the first time, the only time, 4 years ago. And another correction, I don't have a magic power to kill him. My ability is to cure spirit illness; the true form of it is to purge negative energy. That's my specialty, and that is not going to help me to help you find it."
"Wow! Means you are fucking useless. Great!"
He saw how Kian froze for a fraction before he inhaled deeply. "Yeah, I guess I am. So… since you got your answers, and then there is the fact that there is nothing you or I or anyone else can do about it, I'll be on my way."
Kian walked away and stood by the door as if he were contemplating.
"As difficult as it is, you should move on. For the sake of the people who are alive, and yourself." The voice sounded hollow.
And then he opened the door and left.
This time, Xal did not stop him.