Taylor had just finished cleaning the deer and was setting it up on the spit to cook it when he realized he wasn’t in mana synch and quickly entered it.

“About time,” Gaia said as his mana form leaned on him, “nice boy she brought, he seems to be one of the good humans.”

The male elf agreed nodding along, but as he spread his mana toward the town he stopped moving. He felt a mob of people heading toward the forest, enough to be at least half the town. Did Atreus do something?

“Melody!” Taylor called as he stood up, “I’m heading out for a bit, we might have some visitors. If they make it here be nice to them unless they do something first.”

Becca and Jacob turned around at the announcement looking confused and concerned. “I’ll keep the house safe!” Melody promised.

Without so much as a goodbye Taylor turned and stepped through a portal and right in front of the mob of humans. The mob slowed to a stop as the Jacob’s father stepped forward.

“So what’s this all about?” Taylor asked placing his hands on his hips.

“The other elf boy said to go this way. Something about soldiers and only promising to buy ten minutes.” The blacksmith explained.

Taylor’s eyes widened in alarm, “keep going to the tree, I’m going to handle this.” As he raised a hand to open a portal.

The humans looked around at each other as he disappeared through the hole in space and they continued their march.

• • •

Taylor stepped out to see the town in ruins, bodies were strewn around the streets and buried beneath crumbling buildings. The ground was ripped up and a few weapons along with armored bodies were strewn here and there.

Further into the town he heard fighting and he jumped in that direction, easily able to clear the buildings heights he was able to see the battle going on. It was only a glimpse as he fell in their direction but he did understand what he was seeing.

Atreus was surrounded by three humans who were holding spears and were capable of casting magic. Atreus had cuts all over his body and had a large burn on his back. The skin having been not only burnt but burnt down to show his exposed muscle. As one of the humans went to thrust his spear toward Atreus, the battle left Taylor’s line of sight and he hit the ground.

Not even a second after he hit the ground he pushed off jumping the rest of the way to Atreus. As he was coming down he watched as Atreus crushed one of the soldiers heads between his palms as the other two impaled him on either side. One spear puncturing from his back right going through his king and out the other side. The other spear hitting true as it went through close to the middle left of his chest from the back and through the other side.

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Atreus opened his mouth as if to gasp but nothing happened. He fell to his knees only being held by the soldiers who still had the spears in their hands.

“Atreus!” Taylor screamed in rage and despair.

The mana around his body thickened to become visible and turned a mix of purple red and blue, covering him in a ghastly aura that emitted a sense of doom.

He gathered his mana and used as many offensive single target spells that he knew, fire, ice, earth, and many other elements gathered into spears that he twisted together into two spears of swirling rage.

The spears flew toward the humans who had turned to look at the source of the voice and were impaled in the head simultaneously, knocking them backwards and sticking them to the ground as the elements ravaged their bodies tearing and rebuilding them as the matter that composed them began to fall as just dust until the whole top half of their bodies were gone.

In a few strides Taylor got to Atreus, “come on boy, shrug it off,” he said as he began to cast healing magic.

Atreus was calm for a moment but as soon as Taylor’s mana touched him he began to scream and writhe. As the two wounds began to turn a sick shade of green, then purple, then black. Panicking a little Taylor reached to touch one of the wounds and the part that had turned black crumbled at his touch.

“No,” he whispered, “no, no, no, fuck! FUCK!” He canceled his magic and just stared at his adoptive son while his body became infected with this curse. The curse that so strongly resembled what he did to the soldiers.

“A-Atreus,” he whispered as tears quickly filled his eyes, “I’m s-so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Atreus managed to croak out, “it… was…” he stopped saying anything as he struggled to breathe.

Taylor just kept apologizing as he watched the life leave the young man’s eyes, the power he worked so hard for completely useless to help his family yet again.

Taylor picked up what remained of his fallen son, the spears falling out with a clatter as he walked out of town leaving the one spear that pierced his heart on the floor. On the spear was three word etched into the handle in an unknown language: Curse of Decay.

Taylor decided one of his punishments for accidentally killing Atreus was to walk home. No magic, not today, the only exception would be to float the body across the lake so as to not allow it to be washed away in the water.

He made his way across the land and into the forest, all the while thinking of his failures. It had been eleven years and he hadn’t made any real progress to getting his earth family back. He raised two elven children and accidentally killed one of them by trying to heal them while still enraged.

The kingdom did this. It was that damn king. That damned royal family. They would pay if it was the last thing he did. They were at fault for all of this, for his summoning, for Atreus, for the town. Who knows how many other horrible things they’ve done. Something needed to be done.

Taylor approached the water as people began to crowd the other side. Becca wasn’t able to see past the group of townsfolk but Melody had been in the front of the pack.

Her hands flew to her mouth as she saw the unmoving body in Taylor’s arms, “no,” she whispered.

Roots came out of the water as Gaia took Atreus from Taylor to ferry him across as the broken shell of a man walked into the water until he had no choice but to swim. He made it to the other side before he realized it he had to look to see Melody standing beside the crouched form of Becca as she wept over the deteriorated form of her brother.

Taylor stood at the waters edge still dripping from the swim, his mind blank as melody approached him eyes filled with tears. “It’s my fault,” he said quietly, “I tried to heal him but, but it didn’t…. I couldn’t…”

He fully expected some sort of outburst, for her to hit him, to yell at him, to hate him. But instead she hugged him and cried on his shoulder. He stood stunned for a moment, and then wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. He wasn’t the only one who was hurting, he had to remember that. He looked to see Becca, still grieving, with Jacob rubbing her back. He was silently crying but it wasn’t any sort of extreme emotional response.

Taylor wanted to hate him for it, but he overthinks things a lot and that leads him to understanding things he didn’t want to. He knew the boy hadn’t even met Atreus, he only just heard that he even existed. But he still wept because it was Becca’s brother, and that the loss of life is never not sad or traumatizing for those close.

Taylor was doing his best to keep his emotions in check. He had powerful magic now, and he didn’t know what could happen if he let rage or sadness get the best of him. Worst case scenario is he might end up accidentally killing someone else. He hated magic, loathed it. But he needed it for a few things before he could stop his damned studies.