Circumvents Valefor's master orders

Valefor had gotten into earshot, and apparently that was all he needed.

I was having trouble thinking straight. Paralysis seemed to freeze my thoughts as much as it did my body. I'd dealt with it for two years, being unable to move under my own weight. The need to move became something fluttery in my chest, which fanned the swell of nausea.

It felt like colors were different, as was the clarity of my vision, as if I had someone else's eyes. I was acutely aware of the feeling of my clothing on my skin, every breath and how they weren't measured to the breaths before or after them.

No powers, he'd said. I couldn't bring myself to fly. I couldn't bring the wretch out. I glanced at Love Lost's group. They'd been bound by words in the same way.

I looked down and tried to focus.

***

Another compulsion. Then and now, when I'd hit my limit, frustrated-

He reached up to my cheek, and gave it two sharp pats, audible. "Good."

Anger became indignation, enough to choke me, together with the irregular breathing and the nausea. My head shook a little, my vision grew dark around the edges, and I teetered slightly.

I tipped over the brink, past the point where the use of my power was willful and wanted and at the point where it was something I had to hold back.

In surrender rather than intent, I lashed out with fear and self-admiration, and I let the Wretch loose, with Valefor in arm's reach, in that order.

Had it been the other way around, the Wretch might have gotten its hands on the man. But intimidation took hold, and Valefor was assisted by his manservant, who hauled him back and away. He sprawled in the grass.

The manservant was slower to get back, his attention on helping Valefor. Compulsion, possibly. An invisible hand struck him in the arm, and the arm folded backward, wrist slapping against elbow, skin tearing from the blunt impact and the bones cutting him from within.

- Shadow 5.10