The disease lets the dust crumble away so Ice can breathe.

Since he's smaller than Ky or Phoenix, I can pick up and carry Ice with some level of ease. He remains limp in my arms. No 1 looks twice. In my mind, the snake's eyes twinkle with amusement when I wonder what Bryant has planned for Ice. What? The snake doesn't give me any form of response. What does Bryant want with Ice?

It isn't until I've left the White Tent Sea and begun making my way toward Bryant's castle that I start to get questions and looks of confusion.

"Hi, Dust Devil! Might I ask if that is Ice?"

"Yeah, this is Ice."

"Dust Devil! It's an honor to see you. What are you going to do with Ice?"

"The King of Ragdon requested for Ice to be brought to him." I keep walking, hoping that will get the message across that I don't want to talk.

And it seems luck is in my favor.

"Oh, my deepest apologies, Dust Devil. I won't keep you any longer."

"Thanks." I duck my head in farewell.

By the time I'm walking through the doors to enter Bryant's castle, I've been stopped by several more groups of Guard and Soldiers. I adjust my grip on Ice. He hasn't moved since he collapsed except for the slow, even rise and fall of his sides. Whatever the disease did to Ice, it certainly knocked him out thoroughly.

I fight back the pang of guilt that lances through my heart when I think about that. Bryant asked for Ice to be brought to him, so I will carry out his wish.

It's as simple as that. As simple as that.

My arms are aching and begging me to set Ice down as I walk through the halls of Bryant's castle. I pick up my pace. It isn't much further, but it feels like an eternity passes by for each step I take.

The 2 Soldiers standing guard at the double doors to Bryant and the Amethyst Throne stop me before I can enter.

"State your business," 1 of them barks.

No... Come on. I was really hoping to just walk on in there and set Ice down!

"I was told to bring Ice to the Amethyst Throne." Let me in!

"By who?" Whom, I silently correct, though I don't say anything.

"My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV."

"You sure?" The amethyst eyes of the snake in my mind harden, and a deep purple swirls in their depths. My heart sinks as the disease takes over my mind, leaving me at its mercy.

"Yes," I growl, voice deepening with the snake's rumble and veins spreading up my neck and running from my eyes like black tears. Horns curl from my head as dust rises from the ground.

"Now," I say. "I'd really like it if you opened the doors so I can bring Ice to our King of Ragdon."

"Uh, y-yeah. Lemme just open up the doors." The Soldiers quickly open up the doors. I see sweat sparkling on their skin.

"Dust Devil! You're back!" Bryant pushes him up to a seated position and moves the purple pillow he had been laying on so it's supporting his back. I stop a few paces from the foot of the Amethyst Throne.

"What would you like me to do with Ice?"

"You took a while."

"Hmm?" Tell me where to put Ice, please. My arms are killing me.

"You took a while. It's been, what? Like a whole lot of hours?"

"My deepest apologies. It seems Ice had been traveling with Dove and they only arrived very recently." Bryant stares at me for a few moments before replying. I can almost see the gears turning in his mind as he ponders over my words.

"Fine. Put him next to the Amethyst Throne. I don't appreciate him escaping from me."

"Of course." I take the few steps it takes to the Amethyst Throne and set Ice down. His head falls to 1 side, but he doesn't move any more than that.

Then I see the scars. 2 circular scars on the back of Ice's neck, still red. They haven't faded yet.

A snake slithers out from the side of the Amethyst Throne. Sunlight glints off its silver body and amethyst eyes. Its body is made from a chain. My stomach drops. It's the snake in my mind.

The snake hisses softly when it's close enough to Ice that it can lift its body off the ground and lunge.

Its mouth opens, revealing 2 fangs that are spaced the same distance apart as the 2 scars on Ice's neck. Ice groans when the snake bites down on the back of his neck, and he starts to wake up.

What have I done? Horror washes over me as I watch the snake shift, curling up across Ice's back, fangs lodged deep in his flesh.

I just got Ice chained to the Amethyst Throne. Again, if my guess is correct. What is Bryant going to do to him? Please, don't let it be killing Ice. I don't want another life gone because of me.

"Thanks a million, Dust Devil."

"You're welcome," I murmur, though my voice sounds like someone else's.

"You can leave now. Ice will remain here for now."

"Alright. Let me know if you want me to do anything else."

"I will. Now go. Have fun for the rest of your day, Dust Devil. Thanks for finding Ice and bringing him to me!"

As I turn and make my way toward the double doors, I see the teal cat. His mouth is still shut tight with a strip of leather and a buckle. He's pressed against the wall, and he almost seems to disappear into it.

Without thinking it through, I curl my fingers in a gesture to follow me. To avoid questions from Bryant, I don't look back to see if the cat is following me.

xxxx

I shut the door to my room behind me. When I turn around, I see the cat. He's crouched under my bed, eyes wide as he trembles. His ears are flattened against the sides of his head, and he's hunched up, as if he were trying to fold in on himself.

"Hey," I murmur softly.

I sit down on the opposite side of my room, deciding that the cat would probably be more comfortable with more space. Neither of us moves for some time.

"Can I take that off of your mouth?" I break the silence. I creep closer. At first, the cat moves further under my bed, remaining sideways to me.

"S-sorry," I murmur.

The cat watches me for a few moments before inching a little ways back out from beneath my bed. He lets me get close enough that I can wrap my fingers around the leather strap.

The buckle doesn't move when I try to open it. What's going on? Why won't it move?

Seemingly sensing my confusion, the cat jerks his head back and curls up, looking away from me.

Why can't I get a simple buckle undone? It doesn't make sense. Undoing a buckle shouldn't take any effort. I look at the cat out of the corner of my eye, trying to figure out what made it so I was unable to free him. My eyebrows furrow. The cat's eyes remain fixated on the wall beside him. He stays motionless, body tensed.

"Was it the King of Ragdon?" The cat's body locks up at my question, and his head jolts off the floor, though he doesn't look at me.

After a moment, he nods, just enough that I can see his response but nothing more.

The snake slithers forward in my mind. Its head tilts to the side. Its eyes glitter in a kaleidoscope of amethyst.

When the disease presses forward in my mind, I let it take over. My hands reach out, fingers wrapping around the leather strap again. The cat tries to pull back and wrestle his way out of my grip, but I hang on.

"Don't," I murmur.

At first, the buckle still doesn't move. But then it starts to give.

I manage to unbuckle the leather strip. The cat doesn't move when it falls away, freeing him from the muzzle. Only after a few moments does he open his mouth.

"I-I, uh. What are you doing?" The cat's voice is scratchy, as if it hadn't been used in years.

Maybe it hasn't. Maybe he hasn't spoken.

"How did you do that?" The cat trembles. His eyes are wide with fear.

"Do what?"

"Take that off." He jerks his muzzle toward the strip of leather.

"I-I..." my voice trails off, and I fall silent.

"The Amethyst Throne did something to you, didn't it?"

"Yeah, I became the Dust Devil." I keep my voice doing nothing more than simply stating facts. No emotion in it.

"Hmm."

"What's your name?"

The cat narrows his eyes. "Lynx. You?"

"The Dust Devil, I guess."

"What's your real name?"

"Luke," I say after a few moments.

"Why... why'd you lose the ability to speak? If you don't mind me asking." Lynx looks down at the floor.

"I saw and knew things I wasn't supposed to, and I ended up like Ice."

"Ice?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I knew what the King of Ragdon was going to do." Lynx freezes as soon as the words are out of his mouth. He faces slightly away from me, and he looks around me but never directly at me.

"You knew what he was going to do so the Amethyst Throne cursed you, like it did with Ice?" I briefly wonder what would happen if someone came to the door right now, what they would say. I know Bryant wouldn't be happy with Lynx's story coming to light. But I push the thought away, ignoring how I know I'm supposed to be tracking down Wolf and killing her.

"Yeah."

"It took away your ability to speak?"

"I tried to tell Ice that the King of Ragdon was going to go to the Amethyst Throne since Ice was the King of Ragdon's closest friend, so the Amethyst Throne made it so I couldn't tell anyone. It made it so I couldn't speak and I couldn't be seen, unless someone felt as invisible as I was. Only then I could be seen. You could see me and Ice could."

"I... I'm sorry." How do I reply to that?

"It's alright."

"Can people see you now?"

"I don't know."

We fall into silence. Lynx keeps his head on his paws, glancing over at me every so often. He hasn't relaxed any more, though he doesn't tremble as much. I lean back against the wall of my room.

"Why did you free me?" Lynx looks up, though he doesn't look directly at me. I don't reply at first.

"I don't know. It just didn't feel right."

Why did I bring Lynx here and try to figure out what was going on?

"Hm," Lynx murmurs, almost silent, before adding on. "What's it like being the Dust Devil?"

"It's an honor. I was chosen to become the Dust Dev-."

"What's it actually like?" How did he see right through that?

"I-I. What do you mean?"

"I've been silent and invisible to all except 2 for the last... who knows how many years. I've lost count. You learn to know when people are lying." I sigh.

"I don't know what it's like. It's an honor to have been chosen." Lynx doesn't ask any more questions.

Why do I keep answering his questions? I don't know him.

"Dust Devil?" Someone knocks at my door.

When I turn back, Lynx is already gone, almost having disappeared into thin air. A wisp of teal hovers in the air for a moment before vanishing.

"Yeah?" I open the door and am greeted by another Soldier, 1 I've never seen before, though that's not uncommon with Bryant's massive army.

"My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV has requested that I remind you that he would like Wolf's head delivered to the foot of the Amethyst Throne and that he is not patient."

"Well, uh, thank you. I'll get on that."

"It's an honor to be able to talk to you, Dust Devil."

"Thanks." I nod, holding back a grimace at what the Soldier had said.

Oh, how I hate the name Dust Devil. I'm Luke, not the Dust Devil.

When I close the door and turn back, Lynx is nowhere to be found. "Lynx?"

I sigh when no 1 answers. Where'd he go?

xxxx

Why did I bring Lynx to my room and set him free?

I don't know why I did that. I didn't know Lynx other than the fleeting glimpses I got of him in Bryant's throne room.

Maybe I just wanted so desperately to find someone like me. Someone who felt as invisible as I did.

I run my hands over my face.

I can't go anywhere without being seen.

Everyone sees me; I'm the Dust Devil, I'm hard to miss. People flock around me, wanting to say hello. But all they see is the Dust Devil, never me. I'm only seen as the Dust Devil. I haven't been seen for me, the person I want so badly to be again, since right before I became a Soldier. From then on, I trained and trained and was then placed on a pedestal and became something that people should aspire to be. I never felt special.

Maybe that's why I brought Lynx to me room so I could try to set him free. An awfully selfish thing to do.

The model Soldier I became wasn't who I wanted to be. Why am I thinking these things? My heart pounds in my chest. The thoughts come, 1 after the other after the other, and I can't stop them.

They have to be all lies.

But I know they're not.

The model Soldier was a mindless follower, someone who never questioned anything, didn't have a backbone unless it came to his King, didn't have any opinions except that his King was the only 1 to listen to, didn't have a life outside of faithfully serving his King.

The model Soldier seemed an awful lot like a dog serving his master.

The model Soldier was never me, no matter how much I wanted it to be. I was trying so hard to become what people thought I was, hoping they never knew anything different from the model Soldier. I thought it was who I was supposed to be, and then I thought I was supposed to be the Dust Devil, the King's faithful right hand man.

Why? I'm not supposed to be thinking this. If Bryant finds out...

But I didn't want the blood on my hands from when the disease took over my mind. I didn't want the guilt from brainwashing people and making them think things they didn't believe. I didn't want to be responsible for making people relive things they wanted so hard to forget.

"I don't want to be a Soldier," I whisper.

Thanks for reading! Please comment and leave a vote if you enjoyed the chapter!

Oh, wow! A lot happened! 

What do you think of Lynx?

What's going to happen now that Luke realized he didn't want to be a Soldier?

Is that going to change his search for Wolf?

I hope you are staying safe and healthy during these crazy times!

-Werewolf14-