“I’ve never heard of her,” Drim inquired about the aunt that he never knew he’d had.
“Yes, that is by design,” Eleen admitted. “Your father and I never mentioned Writ to anyone. As far as the world is aware, Relyk Drazah was an only child with parents who had died out at sea, leaving him abandoned and alone until he had a fateful meeting with the girl Eleen. At least that’s the story we wanted to weave through history.”
“Your sister knows about her now, though. She came and asked me one night when you were sleeping. Apparently finding out we were related to that thief Fiend sparked her interest in uncovering our family tree. So I told her what I could since there was no more reason to keep it a secret, though I couldn’t say everything because the parts pertaining to Rathe were still censored. To keep it simple, all I said was that she died shortly after we met.”
“But not all that we spread about our past was lies. The part about his parents, your grandparents is true. He and Writ lived alone in the house they’d left them—more of a seaside shack. Both of them had dropped out of school when their parents died so that they could support each other, planning to follow in their family’s footsteps and become fishermen. Relyk was going to be the navigator with Writ as the captain.”
“They found me lying in the sand when they returned from one of their first fishing trips, a rather unsuccessful one might I add. Writ was immediately friendly and concerned for me, but Relyk found me suspicious, which I can’t blame him. Yet in the end, they offered me a place to stay, and in turn I offered to help out with their work as a deckhand until I could get my head on straight and figure out what to do next.”
“And that’s when our simple life began. We’d spend almost every day fishing, sometimes spending a few at a time out on the water, sleeping on the boat. And the days we didn’t, we’d take the money we’d earned and make repairs and modifications to the ship and their shack, trying to improve our quality of life.”
“I couldn’t tell you when, but at some point Writ and I fell and love and became a couple. Relyk never approved, scoffing and stomping off whenever he saw us acting lovey, but he never tried to put a wedge between us either. Honestly, it was the happiest I’d ever been. It got to the point that I didn’t actually want to remember everything and go back to my old life.”
“And with each passing day, my meeting with Rathe felt more and more like a fading dream. At some point, I’d likely convinced myself that it was all in my head.”
“But I’ll never forget the day it happened. The day she was taken from me, from us. It was a beautiful day with completely clear skies, and the sea had been good to us. Relyk and I were dragging up our catch, taking us a while since it was a lot heavier than usual. Writ had stayed behind at the dock to do some work on the ship, nothing out of the ordinary.”
“And then a single small cloud appeared out of nowhere and floated in her direction. As soon as it was above the ship, it turned black. Vicious winds howled at speeds of only the worst storms, yet it was centered entirely around the ship. At the same time, a tornado formed from the sky as a waterspout jutted from below. They lifted the ship into the air, holding it into place as our boat began to rip apart.”
“Relyk and I dropped our cargo and bolted towards the dock. But before we could barely take a few steps, and downpour of lightning fell from that cloud. It blasted what remained of the ship to bits. We never actually saw what directly happened to Writ, but the outcome was obvious.”
“Still, we tried to make it to her, but when we got close, I fell to my knees. That same familiar voice screeched into my head. ‘Don’t keep me waiting.’ That was all she said. Rathe could have killed Writ in any number of ways, I’m sure, but she wanted to make me see it happen, to know the consequences of defying her expectations.”
“I have a question,” Drim interrupted the story. “That day when we were holding interviews for new recruits, the first time we met Rezin, and he used his Curse on us to show whoever we missed at that moment. I saw a woman I’d never seen before, but now that I think about it, she did kind of look like father. Was that Writ?”
“Yes,” Eleen admitted, getting a bit choked up from the memory. “That was her exactly as I remembered her.”
“I see,” the woman’s son was appreciative now that he could put a face to the name. “She does seem quite lovely. I wish I could have met her, and I am very sorry for your loss, mother.”
“Thank you. That means a lot coming from you,” the dead tyrant was doing her best to restrain her emotions. “She was everything to me, and everything to your father. And that’s why, on that day, he and I swore a pact of revenge. Even though I couldn’t tell him who had done it, explain my circumstances, he understood my intent and what needed to be done.”
“You know most of what happened next since you’ve read the history books in great detail: The Drazah War. Relyk and I started by swaying some mercenaries to our side, catching fish for them when they were out of work and starving. And then we promised them that if they worked for us, they’d never go hungry again. Everything sort of snowballed from that point.”
“Eventually, your uncle Harth found us and joined up. But even he never knew the full truth. No one did. We spread the lie of world domination, to give those on our side a reason to fight. That just ended up being the easiest way for us to achieve our goals. Maybe it became the truth at some point, for us to rule over the world, but that was never our ambition.”
“All we wanted was power, to form the strongest army possible. The Drazah War was just a prelude for the real fight to come. Once the world was conquered, we were going to set our sights on Rathe. With that many resources and skilled individuals that we’d recruited, it would be an inevitability that we would find her again, and then we would devise a way to kill her. We wanted revenge for Writ, and to save the world from a tyrannical ruler who could so easily destroy it and everything we loved. It sounds ironic, I know.”
“Wait then… the bomb testing,” Drim started to put some pieces together. “It was never about a show of force or easy wins, was it? You were testing their potential to be used against Rathe.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Eleen looked a little proud that her son had picked up on it, yet regretful at the same time. “There were tests on empty land, but they quickly became insufficient. The best way to get sufficient data was to test them out where they’d do damage. Originally, we tried to only pick targets that our consciences could live with. That’s why Ledmer was the first. To this day, I’ll still testify why it was worth bombing them. The world is better off without that wretched place.”
“But the rest that followed after it, each one got harder to justify. We did a lot of things we regretted during the war. And at some point, we really did lose ourselves in the role we were trying to play. We kept having to put on more and more demonstrations of power in order to keep everyone in line. By the end, I can’t say that we weren’t just as monstrous as the being we were trying to stop.”
“Though, I’m not ashamed of everything that happened as a result of war. Even if it was born of lies, the relationship I built with your father was of a lot of comfort to me. I still can’t say for certain, however, that he ever actually harbored any real feelings for me. We only got together because that was the better story to sell, a powerful couple with a shared dream. And it also did us the favor of warding off any schemers who would want to try and secure a political marriage, as you experienced yourself with that Victori girl.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“The other thing I can say I’m proud of is the two of you, though it was never initially in the plan. I can’t say either of us had any desire for children whatsoever. Phon was born out of necessity rather than love. As our empire grew, our followers started to dread a potential collapse if either Relyk or I were to die—far more concerned about it than either of us were.”
“They wanted an heir to ensure that the great Drazah bloodline would continue. And in an effort to placate them, well, we made it happen. There were grand plans by others to raise Phon from birth as a supreme dictator that would one day become the greatest ruler in history, or some such nonsense. But we put a stop to that quickly. The heir existed, so that was all the influence we were going to allow them to have.”
“Truthfully, we wanted to leave Phon out of it entirely. Since our plans weren’t a lasting dynasty, and our goal was to end our vengeance with our generation, the hope was that she could live a normal life and become whatever she wanted. And with her birth, I honestly changed far more than I expected, wanting to actually be a mother. I’m pretty sure your father, reserved as he was, even felt some genuine parental affection beyond the ruse.”
“It really hit me the day that Phon went through Premature Cognition herself. At first I was terrified, thinking that Rathe was repeating the cycle and would try to make Phon her next crusader. But thankfully, she shared none of the same signs of hearing voices that I did, and we were confident it was due to entirely unrelated trauma.”
“After all that time, Rathe had actually left us alone. Maybe from her point of view, it did look like we were accomplishing the mission she gave to me, though probably through a more destructive route than she would have liked. I can’t say for certain if she ever actually caught on to our intent. Well, I guess you could say she did, since she judged us as evil when we died to make you two into the first Fiends.”
“But when I thought I was going to lose Phon to her, I guess you could say that’s when I really became a mother, and would have done anything for her, for both of you. Though you were… unexpected, I guess you could say. We never had plans for a second child or heir, but we couldn’t help but love you from the moment you were born—even if you didn’t quite feel the same way.”
“So The Drazah War really was all a ruse,” Drim leaned back in his chair, trying to process all the information, matching it up with the fake history he’d known all his life. “I can’t say I don’t empathize. Ruses run in the family, I suppose. While I’ll never be able to accept all the atrocities you’ve committed, at least now I understand why.”
“And I understand your warning about Rathe,” the king got back to the more important issue. “It does seem like she’s someone we’ll struggle to convince and sway to our side. I can’t promise you your vengeance. If we really can strike an accord with her, that is the route we’ll take. But we’re also determined to forge our own path, whether she likes it or not. And there are a few things I’d like to see her answer for myself.”
“Thank you for sharing all this. It should be instrumental in us finding her, and we now have a better understanding of her powers if it comes down to a fight—which is starting to seem inevitable. Please let me know if you think of anything else that might be useful.”
“She introduced herself to us just now as the Demigod of Haste. From your account, I believe we can take her at her word. She also gave us the same warning, ‘Don’t keep me waiting.’ Since she made good on that threat for you, we can assume the same for us, and we won’t doubt her impatience. We really have to find her soon, or who knows what could happen.”
“Ahk, but I wish we had any sort of definitive clue,” Drim was starting to get frustrated again thinking about it.
“Damnit, I wish I could provide more insight,” his mother joined in on his frustration. “She must have used her powers to purposely make it impossible for me to find her again. And as a divine being, she could feasibly be hiding anywhere.”
“Wait… Divine…” the king suddenly got hung up on that word, the wheels in his head starting to turn. “You… You’re listening, right? Hand Guy? Shortly after we moved here, you referred to your assistance as a divine service. So you must have some connection, right?”
“I originally thought you worked for Rathe to provide me extra protection and service. But over time, as we’ve talked, I’ve begun to suspect you work for someone else entirely, don’t you? Still, though, could you take us to Rathe? The requirements of your deliveries is that there’s a clear recipient in mind. Now that we know who she is, you could take us there even if we don’t know the location, right?”
“I’m afraid I must disappoint you,” the familiar disembodied voice spoke from the ether. “While my express orders are to provide you with any delivery that you may require, you can consider that demigod out of my delivery zone. So no, I’m afraid that I cannot take you to her.”
“And now additionally, I’m afraid that I must disappoint you a second time. As you suspect, my employer is a being other than Rathe, one that wanted to offer you additional assistance. However, they are now conflicted as they have a relationship with both parties. Since things appear to be leading towards confrontation between you and the demigod, for now at least, they want to remain impartial.”
“Truthfully, my take is that they want you going nowhere near her. As such, my service to you is being temporarily suspended, and my employer is now recalling me to their side so that I can’t further sway the tide. I regret that I could not be of assistance to the end of my contract.”
“I understand,” Drim was mournful, only now fully appreciating all that Hand Guy had done for them. “Thank you for all you’ve done for us, truly.”
There was a moment of silence, and the king was starting to think that the friendly voice had vanished, never to be heard from again. But then he spoke one more time. “Might I ask a favor? During my service, only my hand has ever entered the physical realm. As such, you could say it’s a bit less hygienic than the rest of me. I’d like to be in my best condition possible before presenting myself to my employer. May I use your sink to wash up before I depart?”
“Umm, sure,” the king was taken aback by such a meager request, but had no real reason to refuse him. They heard the water in his bathroom sink turn on, and there was no further contact after that, so the mother and son went back to speculating about the demigod’s location.
“Wait, did he leave the sink on?” Eleen pointed out after a few minutes, shutting up for a moment so that they could better hear the water.
“How odd,” Drim wasn’t really bothered by it but still speculated as to the reason. “Maybe after his hand was clean, if he touched the handle again to turn it off, he’d think it was dirty again.”
“I suppose, but I expected better from him,” the ghost was disappointed by the man’s rudeness. “I’ll turn it off since I should be able to handle that much. You go ahead to bed. I’ve kept you up long enough with my story. We’ll talk more about how to find her tomorrow.”
Her son didn’t argue. At this point his body was desperate for even a modicum of rest, even if he’d never actually fully fall asleep. But right when he finally laid down and closed his eyes, he heard a yell from his bathroom.
The man jumped out of bed and rushed right over. Perhaps his mother had been unable to turn it off and just got frustrated as she often did when she failed to touch something. And Drim would rather just take care of it himself than listen to her suffer.
But when he entered the bathroom, the surprises of the night never ended. Water was still flowing as he expected, but Eleen wasn’t even trying to turn it off. Instead, she was staring at it with intense eyes while her hands wrapped around her skull, as if she was having a major migraine.
“Are you alright?” the king asked as he reached for the faucet to turn it off.
“No, don't!” She screamed, even sending a hand out to stop him. “The water, look at it! How it’s flowing! I, it’s, it’s coming back to me!”
Drim stared at the sink, confused and a bit unimpressed. The water was acting normally, spinning a few times in the basin before it sunk into the hole.
“I remember!” Eleen was suddenly extremely elated, only making her appear even crazier. “I know it. She’s there. I know where Rathe is! That Cosdamned mawhger did it on purpose. He left us a clue!” the woman frantically pointed to the water in the sink once more. “That’s where she is! Rathe is at the bottom of The Drain!”