Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 195

Chapter 195: A better world
“You can’t do that!” Anaisa felt a deep foreboding as she stared at Sanders. “It’s… it’s horrible!”

“Horrible to do the best for the world? You useless peasant, leave now. Tell your king I’ve no interest in his mundane kingdom any longer. I will rule the magical world and create a better society. If they will not use their powers wisely, I will do it for them.

“Crime will be swiftly punished. Wrongdoers eradicated. With all the powers of every magic user at my disposal, imagine the world I will make!” Sanders smiled softly to himself.

“A world without choice?” Trace glared at the product of his involuntary creation, lying on the ground where he’d dropped it.

“None of you make the best choices with your powers. I will. You will all learn to embrace it as I create a place better than you could have dreamed! You will see. I was truly without choice under that Count’s utterly horrible rule. I had to fight through loopholes to do the right thing. The rest of you… freely, do nothing good. Why should I leave you your choices?” Sanders shook his head, and Emily quivered.

“Sanders, this isn’t right.” His sister swallowed and shrank back from him.

“You’ll see.” He turned to her and smiled. “Everything will be better. No one can take you again.”

[Anaisa, I’m afraid. Please… go. Take Calvin and the baby. I don’t think Sanders is going to allow any of the magic users to leave.]

Emily’s frantic whisper in Anaisa’s head made her cast a look at the frightened woman. Anaisa shook her head. No, she couldn’t leave her husband behind.

“Don’t be afraid, Emily,” Sanders’ eyes became unfocused again as he watched her use her magic. Her whispers were no longer a secret; he could see and hear them all.

“Sanders,” Anaisa made her voice take on a softer tone. “May Deborah and Calvin go? You would have no interest in the man since he has no magic, but the baby… he cannot survive without food. Please let her go, too.”

Sanders eyed her for a moment, then softened.

“I am not cruel. I would not condemn a child to death. But he may not leave, I’m thinking, until the king sends every magic user in the kingdom to come submit to my rule. It would be such a chore to gather them all here… but what a society it will be! Plentiful food, and water, firelight… the cavern can be expanded and shaped to form houses around the tree. If only you could picture it as I do… but you will not be allowed to stay.” Sanders shook his head.

“I will live no longer without sunlight,” Emily whispered beside him.

“There will be sunlight! I can make it here, by bringing the right magic! But we also have the beauty and light of the tree of magic before us,” Sanders gestured at it. “Anyone who wants to join my perfect society need only to reach into its branches and claim some magic for their own, each person a new realm of possibilities!”

“I’m not staying,” Trace’s face hardened. “You cannot–should not–try to force people to live here against their will. It is no different than what Oakdown did. And holding a child hostage? Have you lost every bit of decency in you?”

The question was harsh, and Sanders reacted harshly in return.

“Whispers, every waking hour, whispers for freedom. Those who are mundane will always be jealous of those with magic. We cannot coexist. One side will be mistreated until the other rebels against it, back and forth in perpetuity. I’m doing everyone a favor, you see.”

“The power here is too much,” Trace broke in. “It is like a pressure on my soul to stay here, to have the weight of reality on my shoulders. I have borne it for the good of the kingdom, but I will not stay.”

“YOU WILL STAY!” Sanders lost his temper and turned on the man. “Do you not understand? I know everything. I know how to manipulate you, how to use your magic. I know more about what it does than you do. There is no point in resisting me.”

“You killed the man manipulating me, just to take his place,” Trace spat the words and moved Anaisa further behind him. “I don’t care if you stay here, but you will not trap others. You won’t keep me. I’ve learned my lesson on submitting to the threats of others, and I won’t be doing it again.”

“What threats? I have promises of a better world.” Sanders gestured around him. “Look! This cavern already has room for thousands! And when I send someone to retrieve that rock-changer you sent to Foundrel, imagine how comfortable we can make it! You lack vision, Trace.”

“I lack vision??” Trace stepped forward. “It is you who are blinded. You see so much that you have lost sight of your own humanity.”

Anaisa’s thoughts were racing. As the conversation progressed, Sanders was looking more deranged, not less. His eyes repeatedly wandered, and she had no way of knowing what he was seeing around him. If they could get him away from the tree, would his gentle nature return?

The rest of the group was watching with varying degrees of trepidation now. Deborah held Ewan close, and the doctor pressed his lips together.

“I see that humanity mistreats each other. Magic users are little better than the riffraff at present, but we can become better. With guidance. With training,” Sanders’ eyes began to flicker around in all directions. “The combinations—Did you ever consider them all? Trace, with Emily’s MindSpeaking combined with your mother’s control of sound perception, messages could be sent to dozens at once. An invading army could be struck down from inside their minds in one blow!”

“With infinite possibilities, the first combination you suggest involves killing hundreds of people?” Anaisa’s fear cemented into a fist of dread in her stomach. “Trace, let’s go.”

She reached for her husband’s hand, but an invisible wall suddenly formed between them.

“I told you. He. Cannot. Go.”