The marketplace was bustling, though Kade moved through the crowds with ease as they parted around his tall frame. It was unclear whether they moved for him due to his intimidating stature, or because of the naturally dark, brooding stare his face naturally fell into. Golden eyes scanned the crowds, if only to gauge the reactions around him. He slipped in and out of the mind of a man, already drunk for the day and vulnerable to Kade's prying mind, retrieving a snippet of useful information. Veins of luminescent blue flashed in his eyes as he pulled the tendril out and touched the amulet at his throat, allowing it to absorb the small secret.
Kade was always fascinated by the threads connecting people to one another, and just how interconnected all minds tended to be. The thread of secret from the drunkard had eagerly yielded information connecting through to the goings-on of a visiting nobleman. Information which could easily come of use to him down the road, although he wasn't currently working a job.
The glow from his amulet flickered only briefly, absorbing the secret and storing it and its power. Kade had created the amulet to better access and harvest his djinn bloodline, allowing him to grow in power. His powers without the amulet were stronger than they should be for a man of only quarter-djinn blood. His powers with the amulet neared the powers of a minor full-blooded djinn. It gave him control and power over the world, and allowed him to walk where others could not. It allowed him to escape his darker past, while still embracing his darkness. The amulet was a source of the chaotic, a delicate balance between both light and darkness. Running a finger absentmindedly down the amulet, he withdrew it and continued into the crowd towards the herb cart.
He was currently working on a potion that would allow him to go undetected among his enemies. Although he was adept at slipping silently into places, it would make it much easier if his enemies could not see him at all. Reaching the cart, he began to inspect the wares, focusing completely on the task at hand, not paying attention to the chatter around him...
It was enough to give the tiny woman the opportunity to leap at his back, yanking the leather throng his amulet hung on hard enough to make him have to swing around to avoid being briefly choked. Reaching a hand up to his neck and bent over, he felt a rage swell up in his chest at the receding back of the small woman.
Eyes narrowing and burning blue, Kade took off after the woman. But to his frustration, his effect on the crowd was the exact opposite of hers. As people scattered to get out of his way they swallowed her into the crowd, letting her pass between them like a little shadow of a thing. It didn't take her long to lose him, but with a sinking feeling he knew it wouldn't take long for him to find her again. Separated from him, the barriers of the amulet would weaken. Slowly, quickly, or all at once, he didn't know, because nobody had ever dared to steal it from him before. Most were fearful of djinn magic, and the madness that came with it.
It wasn't long before there was a soundless explosion, a wave of power only clearly seen by him, though felt by others. His eyes looked skywards above the buildings of the city, watching as a stream of dark forms interspersed with small tendrils of light burst exploded up into the sky like a dark cloud. As he ran towards its source he began to spot the dark forms taking shapes, knew that the dark secrets he had kept were manifesting themselves into demons and dark spirits.
Reaching the source, he found the woman knocked unconscious, the amulet clutched tightly in her fist. Striding quickly towards her, he knelt and pried her fingers open, grabbing the amulet. The repurcussions of the amulet's release brought him to his knees, a terrible unearthly scream issuing from his throat, all of the veins in his body burning a bright, vicious icy blue, bright enough to block out anything but the light around him. The demonic yell extended as he pulled back what he could of the escaped demons, his free arm holding down the forearm of the arm which held the amulet. Sweat beaded on his face, the pupils of his eyes receding until all that was left of his eyes was the same bright blue.
He took all that he could handle before cutting the flow off, shaking fingers tying the amulet back around his neck. Leaning forward on the palms of his hands, chest heaving, he retched up what was left of his breakfast, and then dry heaved. The light of his veins dimmed, pulsing blue as he struggled to win control over his djinn blood... In that moment he fully understood what it would mean if he lost control and became full-djinn. He would be consumed by it, his partially human body would cave beneath the stronger blood of the djinn and he would become unstoppable. His power would be a terrible thing, and in that moment he knew he had the potential to wipe out an entire population of people.
His throat elicited short, panicked, pained groans which were half demonic, half human sounding. It felt like eons before the blue light flickered out and his vision began to return to him, and when it finally did, he was faced with the terrifying consequences of the actions of one foolish girl. Those demons had to be recaptured, or they could wreak havoc on a level even he could not fathom. And as djinn magic often worked, the one to release it had to be the one to recapture it, once the flow was cut off. When the demons had still been connected to the amulet and his power he had been able to retrieve them, but the countless demons and spirits which he had not been strong enough to pull back in would need to be retrieved by the one who had released them.
He looked down at the unconscious girl. He could not risk her abandoning the task that needed to be done. Closing his eyes, he dove into her unconscious mind, walking through the mess of emotions, thoughts, intentions, and memories until he found the secret he needed. The source of her power. Opening his eyes, he reached forward and tore the pearl from her neck in a similar fashion to how she had torn his own amulet from his neck. He wanted to kill her in that moment for what she had done, but knew he could not.
And so he waited for her to return to consciousness, the flickering of his veins continuing like waves receding from a beach for low tide, hand gripping tightly to the pearl.
