The scent of tea and herbs floating around the room slowly pulled Kallen out of what was starting to look like hibernation. He latched on his awakening senses in a pitch-black ocean of emptiness, dragging him out of the dark water. Soon enough, he finally reached the surface.
He opened his eyelids to let the light passing through the skin blind him for a moment. As his eyes finally adjusted to the brightness, he was facing a wooden ceiling, definitely not the one he was used to. It was higher, with an old pine support beam hovering over his head. A single lantern was hanging from it, but the light and warmth he felt weren’t coming from up there.
He was strangely calm. For someone who had experienced the worst nightmare, it felt like he had just woken up from the most deserved nap. Intimately, he was still hoping everything that happened was a bad dream, but deep within, he knew better.
“Ani…the child’s awake.” A human voice was the first sound to stimulate his ears, a feminine one.
Back on his guards, the boy’s back rose from the bed in a hurry to scan who the other person in the room was. As he did so, pain traversed his body whole, paralyzing him for a moment of intense pain while he let a groan escape his vocal cords. Focusing back on the voice’s direction, he saw the back of a woman sitting on a rocking chair beyond his room's open door. She was facing a window, admiring the lush forest framed within.
Her lengthy blonde braid hung behind the chair’s back, gently swinging back and forth in rhythm, almost hypnotic. He was looking right at her, but it felt like she wasn’t truly there, like she was part of the decor. One stared at the other; the other had her gaze turned to the rising sun. The orange warmth invaded both rooms with its radiance. Somehow, Kal woke up alongside the rest of the world.
His room had a homely atmosphere. While not particularly spacious, it had enough space to contain a wooden nightstand next to the bed with a cup of tea on top of it. The subtle steam containing the aroma that woke him up and the stool nearby indicated that someone had been watching for him for some time.
He turned his head towards the bedroom window, curious to know where he was. Trees, an ocean of trees as far as he could see, all over a vast valley. The view made it seem like this house was floating high up in the sky, but from the frame in front of the silent woman, he could clearly see they were in the woods. Wherever this place was, Kallen knew he was very far from home, but the scenery captured his heart nonetheless. It had a special kind of purity to it. The type of beauty and harmony nature could only reach in the absence of man.
“It’s pretty aye? I can’t get enough of it as well. I would come more often if the homeowner weren’t this stuck up.”
Surprised to hear a new voice reach out to him this morning, the boy turned around in a hurry to see a black-haired young woman leaning against the door frame with a gentle smile. With pale, spotless skin, grey almond eyes, and those short braids, she was a northerner. The lady fit what Salma described as how she wished she would look as a grown-up years ago. As he started to feel intimidated, he could now understand why.
“…Where is my family…” The first sentence that came out of his dried-up lips. Whether it was his location or fate, nothing mattered more than this dreadful question lingering in his mind. Where were they? How were they? Safe? Alive? He needed to know.
“The right questions right away…Well, the short answer, they are safe. Safe but far away.” She responded with a warmth that could remind him of his own sister, but the gaze wasn’t matching.
“Far? How far? Where are—Where did you take them!”
“This was the short answer. I know it can be difficult to hear that right now but you just barely recovered. Manage your efforts. We don’t need another scare.”
It was challenging to take it in. How could he believe her words? Even though he felt grateful, the truth was that he was at the mercy of their words and wants at the moment. He knew he was still in bad shape, he could tell she was a Vessel. Though he never ended up rallying Naar-Aje, the ones he wished never to be separated from were still out of his reach. He who had to depart now felt like he needed to be on the chase.
Looking down to inspect his state, he was surprised to find his arms, once covered in scales and fire, full of small scars with tiny broken black shards still nested in isolated parts of his skin. He was a beast no more.
“It took some time for the scales to wear off. Rare are those who recover from Beastification once it starts; the few lucky ones who do end up still looking like monsters to some degree. Of course, you're an exception. Don’t worry, the horn will fall off on its own.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Unaware until this information came out of her mouth, Kal’s hand reached his forehead in a flash. Shorter, but still there, the horn of the monster he used to be. His memories of this night were still hazy. However, how he felt when the flames took over, he remembered vividly. The bloodlust, the hatred, feelings he never experienced before, or at least not to this extent.
Disgusted. In a dangerous situation, he was thought to at least try to find a way to get his family and himself removed from the problem if the obstacles were neutralized or in a moment of weakness. But he cared about none of that. Not about danger, not about Kara or Alm, who could have been prey to his flames taking over their living room. He wanted to hurt. Kill. He let them down. And beyond all that, he went against their mother's one rule he thought was ingrained within him:
“If one-day life forces you to steal and kill, even if I am far away, never forget that each lives as weight. Keeping track of the balance is what separates us from beasts. Whether we are forgiven or not.”
He lost sight of the balance. He lost sight of his siblings. He might not have killed Aren, and the other two seemed to be safe, but inside, he couldn’t be forgiven in her eyes or his remaining loved ones.
As he suddenly felt warmth, he was shocked to find himself clutched in the arms of this mysterious lady. His expression exuded confusion, but he didn’t fight it. Her scent. It was one of those fragrances that was popular with the ladies from the city during festivals. He knew because he used to sell some of those. Somehow, this familiarity put him at ease.
“It wasn’t your fault. This wasn’t you. Most of us experienced Possesion at least once in our lives. Whatever you did or felt you did… It wasn’t on purpose.”
As she slowly released her grasp on him, his mind seemed to have stabilized. However, the shame that took over his mind for being handled so easily prompted him to take back his inquisitive tone from earlier.
“...Who are you…Where am I?”
“I’m Anya, but you can call me Ani. The grumpy lady in the back is Safia; we’re in her house.” She replied with a malicious smile, catching on to Kallen’s embarrassment. She then pursued. ” I won’t act like I don’t know your name, but how do they call you back home? ”
“...Kal…But that’s not what I asked…”
The young lady paused briefly, inspecting Kallen’s face as her own lost some of its brightness.
“...We, including the two who retrieved you, are some of House Bathory's many shadows. Spies. We are currently up in Sofra, far away from trouble.”
The boy's eyes opened wide. Bathory, Lord Ethan’s previous liege, High Lords of the Frontier. Those who waged decades-long series of open and shadow wars for the city’s control in their eternal struggle against House Rysoar, killing thousands in their wake.
Mazedwellers had a saying: ”Noble stories, noble worries.” Where he was from, getting involved with those who could crush you with a swing of the hand or simple words was frowned upon—part of why he struggled to accept the back-stabbing Swan in his life. You could only become something to be used for, not something to work with. Today, Kal crossed paths with the most ruthless of them all, sending a cold shiver through his already sensitive spine.
For the first time in his life, he got away from this familiar prison, Melhem. He was now up north in their territory, the last region separating civilization from the white continent’s creatures. Still, also disturbing, even from the adjacent Emerald Bay, he always heard it took a week-long journey to even reach Sofra, the nearest province.
“You’ve been asleep for ten days, little man. Your wounds were much harder to heal than the scales. Your sister fought tooth and nail not to leave until you got better.” Said Ani, while Kallen looked at her like she had read his mind.
“Where are they now? How far?”
“On their way to Belistad with the Captain, they’re under our protection…for now.”
The boy did not appreciate the ominous tone one bit. He was now sure of it. From the moment he crossed his home’s door back at the Hollow Tower, he lost control of his destiny. He mustered the strength to ask the question he delayed until now. The one he was afraid to ask as well.
“...What do you want from me…” He didn’t bother to hide his anxiousness. He wanted answers. The silence that followed only increased the tension in the otherwise auspicious bedroom.
“...Well—”
“Stop right there.” The first voice he heard today came back, ringing his ears. The lady by the window stopped swinging. She got up and turned around, revealing her face. She had blue eyes and a face many would praise for its fairness, even with the long scar from her nose ridge to above her right eyebrow. Despite the apparent youth, her authoritarian demeanor and expression exuded experience. She continued.
“I’ll join the others outside, I won’t get involved in any of Oslo’s bullshit. You would do the same if you knew what was good for you.”
“Too late~” Replied the northern woman with a childlike smile that could almost hide the melancholy in her voice.
This moment of brightness was short-lived as it ended the second Kal heard the closing door when Safia left the house. Anya’s expression changed completely as it grew darker. He couldn’t read her at all, instantly switching from playfulness to seriousness in a heartbeat, adding a layer of distrust to his assessment of her.
“Our lives might cross each other a lot in the future. You’re just a child, but I will do you a favor. What I’m about to say…these might be the most sincere words you will ever hear from me.”
A wave of dread flowed into Kallen’s mind. Even his young mind instinctively knew that the following words coming from this woman’s mouth would define the rest of his life.
“Please remove any feeling of gratefulness from your heart. I might not be qualified to discuss ethics and humanity, but even I feel bad for you. So listen well.” After a brief pause, she continued. “We didn’t save you. Honestly, it couldn’t be further from the truth as it will only get worse from now on. This is an abduction, you and your family are our hostages. Kal from Melhem, must die.”
End of Chapter