Miroslav slid silently into the study.

He knew she was there.

He'd heard sound in here only moments before.

It made sense. A place where she planned out everything.

But she was hiding.

He spun around in the dark, trying to figure out why she didn't just attack now. From what he knew, she was as batty as they came.

And then he tripped, sprawling into the floor.

He heard a soft pop behind him.

So that was her game.

This was not good.

Miro had heard that soft pop only once before, when his father had wanted to punish him.

It had been an extreme spell, hard to hold, but it was impossible to work ice against it. A clear bubble made of hardened gas would allow for airflow. If he pushed his ice against it or even tried, his passageways for oxygen would become increasingly smaller. The ice would not leave the hardened air, thus cramming the space.

"Come out, Sorgina! You have me. Show yourself." Miroslav snarled.

The lights flicked on and Miroslav blinked.

"That was too easy, Miroslav. Really. A Teague such as yourself, walking into that?" The voice in front of him crooned.

Not the Sorgina.

Passix Ore.

"Where is she?" Miroslav growled.

Passix chuckled.

"Really. That old bat? She isn't here. Not even in the Kingdom. We have a business deal of sorts. I provide her what she wants, and she let's me do my business in the Northern Kingdom."

The maps were burned into his brain and some of them began to fit together.

"You're mining their Earth. Sucking it dry of Magik. That's how you have power at all." Miroslav realized.

The Northern kingdom was mostly desert, but it was covered in hidden Oasis territories, the plants growing through a Magik that no one had figured out. At least, no one outside of that Kingdom.

It was one of the most treasured parts of the Northern Kingdom.

Either the Northern Kingdom didn't know about that, or they couldn't fight of Passix.

Miroslav hoped it wasn't the latter.

"What are you doing in Buhari?" Miro growled.

Passix shook his head.

"Nothing. The Middle Kingdom has been having, let's say, it's own problems for years, staring with the disappearance of their Crown Prince."

Miroslav studied the walls around him.

Passix might let him go.

"I'm going to kill you." Passix informed him, cold eyes swirling with black.

There was power that wasn't Gifted.

He'd Taken it, and Taking was unstable.

"You see," Passix continued,"I've been running Elurra for more than a decade. And you want to take that from me, so I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen. Starting with your death. For real, this time." Passix cackled.

"What do you mean, this time?" Miroslav asked.

"I had nothing to do with the crumbling of the Kingdom. Not until the end. You were all so weak, and I was strong. If I used the power I found, I could just take it. Put everything where it belonged. Fix the Kingdom. Rule it better. So twelve years ago, I killed your father. It was so easy. So so easy. And once I had him, I went for you, but you were gone." Passix spat.

"I'm just, finishing what I started."

A knock sounded on the door.

"Ah, our guest for the party has arrived. Now we can finally wrap this up." Passix's eyes swirled, and for a moment, the white around his pupils disappeared.

Passix opened the door and a man came in, dragging a girl in a headlock.

Miroslav sucked in a breath as her mask was wrenched off her face and thrown to the floor, her chin forced up to look at Miroslav.

Quinn.

Things were not going well.

Quinn was snarling, sputtering and kicking.

Passix turned towards her, the black swirling, his mouth stretching into a horrifying grin.

Miroslav reached for his Other Gift.

The one that wasn't his.

He couldn't do it.

"Passix! Leave her alone!" Miroslav shouted.

Passix leaned close to her.

Miroslav could see his sick eyes reflected in Quinn's frightened violet gaze that was still forced toward him.

"Leave her alone, you bastard!" Miroslav roared, his fists bouncing uselessly off the hardened air around him.

Then Passix reached out, his hands skimming her skin.

As soon as his fingers made contact, Quinn thrashed, jerking away, senseless.

His mouth twisted into a horrible grin and he grabbed her arm.

And Quinn reared up, shrieking.

Miroslav watched her eyes flash black and she screamed, the sound horrified.

Terrified.

Piercing.

In unimaginable pain.

He squeezed his shut.

Reaching.

Unlocking the huge power that rivaled his own, feeling it lash forward wildly.

He felt tears slide down his cheeks.

He didn't deserve this power.

He didn't want it.

But right now, he needed it desperately.

He threw his hands against the air wall around him.

Quinn was still screaming, but her voice was going hoarse.

He pushed against the wall and let loose the power that he had tried so hard to crush.

It came rearing out of dormancy, sliding through his veins like an old friend.

The warmth sped through him, so different from ice.

His hands lit on fire.

And the air around him did nothing but feed it.

He felt the bubble shrivel, hiss, and burn, before a tearing sound dragged from the wall as the air gave in to the burning, splitting open.

Miroslav stumbled forward and shot out a dagger of ice, killing the man holding Quinn with deadly accuracy.

Passix turned, suprised.

Miroslav felt his doubled power pushing, itching to be free. He threw out an ice wall, wrenching Passix away from Quinn.

He threw fire towards Passix.

The smell of rotting flesh.

Burning skin.

And Passix walked through the flames.

Miroslav watched his face bubble and deform, but his expression stayed hungry, sick.

He didn't even feel it.

Miroslav encased the man in ice, horrified.

He turned to Quinn who was shuddering violently.

Her eyes were flashing black and purple.

The ice behind him cracked and shattered as it exploded outward.

Passix stepped out, his body deformed.

Miroslav threw ice, but Passix had made it to the window.

He was going to jump.

The fall was gigantic, but Miroslav wasn't sure that he couldn't survive, not with the Taken power fueling him.

"You won't waste time fighting me." Passix declared, smiling.

"Because she doesn't have that much time."

Passix pointed behind him, where Quinn dropped, convulsing onto the floor amongst ice shards.

Miroslav threw an icicle behind him, but when he twirled around, Passix was gone, a strip of fabric from his coat was pinned by an icicle to the window frame.

He ran to the window and leaned out, but he heard a gagging choke and spun around again.

Quinn was vomiting, her eyes still rolled back.

Her body still locked into a convulsive fit.

Black oozing out of her mouth.