”I’ve broken people like you before.”

He was hired by the king. Of course he had crushed people like her. It was what people like him did for entertainment. Sasha held the ball off energy. It hurt in her stomach. She was restraining herself and looked down to the ground, feign submission.

”What gave you the biggest kick? That you could do it, or the fear you saw in their eyes when you broke them?”

The man had been about to turn away, he would have let her go, but now his eyes scrutinised her. They were wandering from her bowed head to her feet. Sasha was looking at the tip of his sword, now stuck against her bare feet. 

”Who said anything about enjoying it?”

Sasha swept away her coat. She laid her hands on the bare hilt of his sword. Before he had the time to react she had taken half a step forward. She had to tilt her head upwards to meet his eyes. They were the most yellow colour she had ever seen, and so close she could see his inner iris shine in greenish.

”I said”, she answered and pushed the energy she had kept still inside her out of her palm. She melted the sword in front of her. The magic poured out of her. The man ought to recoil, cover his burned hand, she had counted on it. Instead he pulled his arms around her waist and lifted her upwards. Where the sword hit her stomach she felt the warmth of it. It stung.

”Fear”, he whispered in her ear, the air breezing her chin. “I do it for the kick of fear.”

”Say my hello to the king.” She forced her body backwards, to create a gap between herself and the man. The swords still glowed like red magma burning her skin, the man in front of her not even noticing. ”I will come after him”, a small smile formed in the corner of her mouth. ”Ask him if he remember what fear feels like.”

”Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Sasha had enough of playing. He was a rat. It was time to stop this. She wriggled in his hold. The sword dropped to the ground, the sound hollow. Around the man a lilac shimmer started to spread, with its centre coming from Sasha’s hand. Sasha licked her lips, drawing out his essence with her magic. It was an unusual strong colour, the purple almost black. She bent her head backwards, and with one smooth movement she forced forward, releasing the entire pint up energy and knocked him.

He fell to the ground without even getting the time to put up his hands to defend himself. Sasha laughed wholeheartedly. It poured out of her from the anger being released. She bent down and put her hand around a purple ball in front of the man.

”You shouldn’t play with the face of stone, you cute yellow kitten.” She stroked the man over the chin. They had warned her of this man. She couldn’t understand why. It was an exceptionally beautiful orb.