Killing Tashau with ormé alone would not satisfy him now. He wanted to hear Tashau’s blood splatter the ground and revel in the visceral sensation of his death. Of course, the dagger was in Tashau’s possession, but with a body comprised of refined matter, Anoth didn’t need one to pierce through this mortal’s soft flesh.

Anoth’s hand flexed, knuckles popping, and he leapt and swiped at Tashau with splayed fingers, intent on severing the whelp’s jugular and bathing in his blood. But Tashau ducked away from the slicing fingernails just in time, leaving Anoth with only a lock of dalanai hair for his effort. This was a skilled and nimble mortal, but he couldn’t hope to survive much longer.

Tashau quickly formed an array of thin ice blades, which he shot at Anoth like arrows, but his attempts were weak and amateurish. Anoth smashed each bolt with a flick of his wrist, turning them back into spiraling flecks of primal matter. A moment later, Anoth turned his fingers upward, causing the ground beneath Tashau to crack and buckle.

When Tashau fell to his rear, Anoth tackled him hard, catching his wrist and wrenching it, forcing the dagger to fall. He then struck Tashau in the belly, eliciting a most satisfying scream of agony as his fingers dug into the little worm’s gut like a fan of knives.

“No!” Sorai wailed, rushing out from behind her tree. She jumped onto Anoth’s back and pummeled him with her fists in vain. He simply tossed her aside like a cloth doll.

Anoth stabbed his fingers through Tashau’s gut again and would have continued to do so all night long had he not heard the shouting of the guards. They were very close, and while he could easily dispatch them, he wouldn’t risk Sorai’s safety. He plucked the dagger from the ground, listening as that damnable sazi led the guards on. Cursing his luck, he left Tashau to bleed to death as he went to retrieve his bride, yanking her up by her hair.

“S-stop!”

Anoth looked back and scowled. Somehow Tashau had managed to pull himself up to stand, despite the blood pouring from his wounds in thick torrents.

Anoth tightened his grip on the struggling Sorai and lifted his other hand, palm facing Tashau. The air sizzled at the tips of Anoth’s fingers, making an awful crack upon the pattern’s completion. It blew Tashau off his feet and hurled him against a tree, which splintered on impact. Tashau fell in a silent heap.

Sorai howled and tried to tear herself free, but Anoth maintained his hold on her hair. “No! You killed him!”

“I’m sure he’ll be missed,” Anoth muttered. Verahi would be satisfied with this turn of events. Anoth may have deviated from the original plan, but this emperor’s death would be a warning to the other empires. Neither he nor Verahi were to be defied. Anoth looked down at Sorai for a moment, then lightly tapped her temple with a finger. The pattern at his fingertip took immediate effect, and she fell limp. He threw her body over his shoulder and rushed to the southwest wall of the palace complex, scaling up and over it with ease. In the distance behind him, he could hear the sazi’s mournful cries.