Sineater

Alessa watched him fall.

“NO!” The princess ran over to her cousin and turned him over. The slot in his chest had stopped oozing blood. She could tell just by touching him that he was gone. She looked up at the monster that claimed he was her father. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!?”

“He drew a sword.” The monster looked at the bloody blade in his hand, then over at the Elves that were still in the room. A wicked smile parted his scraggly beard.

She’d spent too much time helping the Elves that had been hiding in the boxes to get out. Captain Garm and his crew were busy getting them out of the building. Talia had been right behind her as she’d come onto the main floor. It was a strange assortment of people, but they were risking the wrath of the monster to save Elves, which made them all saints in her opinion.

The hairless Gorgon knelt down beside her and offered her a rag for her face. There was concern on the other woman as she stroked the dead man’s face.

Alessa wiped her eyes, but that didn’t stop the tears. She’d just found her cousin the day before. Then she’d thought she’d found her father. But now she was alone again. She wasn’t even sure if Starna had made it. She hadn’t seen her one friend when she’d climbed out of the hole.

She jumped as an Elf screamed. The monster was stabbing Arkun, healing him, chasing him down and repeating the process.

“How are we going to stop him now?” She swallowed as she thought about her powers. She’d never been allowed to use them, since ‘scars were deformities that weren’t becoming of someone of her station’. She wasn’t sure if she could even heal anyone let alone stop herself from being drained like the monster was doing.

“We should get you out of here.” The Gorgon whispered in her ear. “He might not let you leave later. We should get you as far away from him as we can.”

Alessa resisted as the other woman tried to get her to stand. That monster was terrorizing her people. She wasn’t going to run and leave them to his sick pleasure while she was safe. That wasn’t what Sectum had done.

Tears started falling in earnest again. Alessa closed her eyes as she tried to think about what she could do. Everything she knew about a Sineater’s powers was theoretical. But she had read everything about Sineaters that she’d been allowed to have and other things that she hadn’t been given.

A Sineater’s power didn't stop with just taking and giving wounds. A Sineater could actually heal others with their very lifeforce.That was how the monster had recovered as fast as it had. It was what it was doing to its victims by draining that lifeforce.

There was one other thing that a Sineater could do. Something that was considered forbidden because of the price involved.

A Sineater could bring someone back who’d recently died.

The price was only their life.

There had been Sineaters in the past who had tried to use other people to fuel the exchange. She knew one of her ancestors had been doing this before the Great War. Though there wasn’t much available about that.

She looked down at her cousin, then back at the monster. She knew that as much life as that thing had gobbled up, a simple stab through the chest wouldn’t kill it. It would have to be stabbed after it had been drained of all of that excess life. She’d seen the thing absorb magic, so she doubted that even the Grim would be able to deal with the monster. They needed Sectum, not her.

Alessa put her hands on the wound and started focusing on her power. She could feel a small spark. Like she was striking two rocks together. The spark needed to be fed because when she stopped, it went out.

“What are you doing?” Talia looked down at her. “We need to go!”

The tears were still falling as she looked up at the Gorgon. “Tell Sectum…” Her breath caught as she started feeding the spark. “Tell Sectum that he’s going to make a great king.”