I looked at her trying to comprehend what codex just told me. Woman called Morgana seem overjoyed, then her expression turned to be bit more grim, then annoyed.
* “So… I am a little dense cunt?” Ok. Ok, ok ok! Let’s play it cool for now
* “Till you won’t introduce yourself properly I will keep giving you nicknames. You are little – that’s the fact, you seem to don’t understand when I kept telling you that I don’t know you nor Balthazar – which means you are dense, and you act like arrogant ungrateful bitch despite the fact I woke you up from everlasting curse, which means you are a cunt. Combining all three we got little dense…”
* “Name is Morgana. All you need to know is that I was pretty much one of a kind and I dedicated my life to bestow magic upon other individuals. Unfortunately I failed, my husband – Balthazar sealed me when I was performing a rite. He used my own spell against me – it was supposed to free the magic and breath it into living, yet he reversed so instead of releasing it sealed the magic. It sealed me.”
* “The words of cruse said that you never felt in love, having a husband would somehow proof it wr..”
* “Political marriage. I would believe that magic somehow can be used by people, but if you would tell me that rich parents are no longer using their kids to get political advantage… I would call you a liar.”
* “Nope. That thing pretty much is still the same. Ok, Jason, we are done here. Let’s leave this place.” I gently put her head off my lap and wake up.
She has been sleeping for gods only know how long, she could barely move her lips and she certainly won’t be able to stand anytime soon, not to speak about climbing ladder.
* “Wait, are you going to leave me here?!”
I only smiled and leaned to her
* “Something wrong? Your arrogant attitude is gone? Do you need something from me?”
* “…”
* “Well, in this case… see you later!”
* “W..Wait!... help me.”
* “That’s not how you should ask for help, there is a very powerful spell-word, that can make people do as you wish if they would feel like it. It is called [please], give it a try!”
* “I will kill you and burn everything you treasure…”
I turned around and started walking toward the ladder
* “You are bluffing! You wouldn’t leave me!”
* “If I may…” photomancer started “… he definitely would. I don’t know him for long, but he is kind of a man unaffected by the logic.”
* “HEY! That’s not true at all! It quite the opposite! Her is a witch that claims to be the firstborn! Which means that he should be quite strong, now – instead of being thankful, or at least pretending to be so she act like arrogant spoiled brat – that would means she is someone I can’t rely on. She also just threatened me! If she really would do as she said then this is yet another reason for me to go as far as it is only possible from here before she would regain her strength. I have enough enemies. I have enough of hiding… I am not even safe in my own home… I don’t want to stay in kingdom that hunts witches longer than it is required. I just hoped that I would help another one of my kind before leaving, yet it seem I have open Pandora’s box. Whatever she wish to do from now on, it is not concern of my.”
I brought the topic of witches being hunted for a reason. Indeed, magic can be used by many, but this is not witches Eden you have been praying for.
* “If she not only can’t us help, but also threatens us… Do you agree with my reasoning, Jason? We have enough troubles. Come with me. I have no idea when would some military group approach, yet I have no desire returning to the torturer’s room… Actually, after stunt we pulled off I thing they would sent us straight on the pyre.”
* “… what do you mean by torturers and pyre?” She asked
* “Right now we are on territory of so called [Holy Kingdom], my love, ruled by Church which recognize every form of magic except one related to Light as heresy. If they would ever catch you lighting up a candle without using your hands or even making a trick with vanishing coins… You are captured, send to facilities like this one, tortured and eventually killed as crowd is watching. But this place was but different, you know? It was because they needed to fuel your seal to keep you here. They were torturing us to extract our pain and blood to keep spell running.” I rolled my shirt revealing fresh scars “Jason has same, and three guys that are waiting for us above are not much different. Two of them are still kids! Now pardon me, but I am not letting any madman with sharps tools near me. We will take our leave…”
* “This is not kind of world I was hoping for…”
* “I am sure it’s not. You could have partake in bringing magic to the masses, but you would never change nature of intelligent races. They are desperately looking for their own identity. We are similar – so we form a group, they are different so they formed another group. BUT OUR GROUP IS BETTER! Those different one can’t live a better life than we!... and so on.”
* “… Don’t leave me here… Please…”
Together with Jason we looked upon each other
* “You won’t try anything funny?”
* “No. Balthazar kept telling me that people are not ready for magic, that they would abuse it…”
* “Magic is power, Power is source of depravation. Humanity would never be ready for any source of powers without regulation. Abusing it is a core of their existence.”
* “… but is seem wrong to let them suffer.”
* “We shouldn’t be the one to decide what is wrong and what is right, what is just and what is wicked. What is good or evil. Everything depends on perspective… or this is what I wish to believe in.”
* “… Are there many countries that hunts magicians?”
I looked at Jason
* “Kingdoms? No. This is the only Kingdom on whole continent with politic to burn and kill witches. But there are other fractions, guilds, individuals. Some may carry a personal grudge and pay mercenaries. On the other hand I heard that Neira is pretty much ruled by magicians… Zari, you are coming from Neira, is that true?”
* “That’s half true. It is ruled by legal King, but council of mages acts as counselor… also they have quite the impact on market, science and industry progression, so council indeed can… induce… king to do as they please.”
* “Neira… sounds nice” Jason smiled “Would like to visit it.”
* “Be my guest. I am going there right away… or wait, actually I still have something to do here. Miss, I hope you would behave?”
She just nodded. I came back to the pedestal and helped her getting on my backs
* “You aren’t going to fell off?”
* “Just shut up and carry me away from this place…” I looked back on her “ I mean… could thou be kind enough to cease asking redundant question and focus thy attention on the ladder in front of thee… Please?”
* “My my, such a complex words, kids surely learn new things quickly.”
I started climbing up. Jason waited on the bottom, just in case miss Morgana would somehow fell off my back. In moment after he followed us. I decided to introduce her to the rest of the team
* “Ladies and gentlemen let me present you the reason why we were tortured here, why our muscles were tore with hot pliers, why out nails were pulled why we were burned and bruised and…” Jason cough “… Team, this is Morgana, Morgana, this is the team. Get along nicely, please…. And as we would still have some time to get along better… guyz, you are free. Any ideas what are you going to do?”
* “I WANNA BURN MORE! Flames are great! SO HOT!” Pyrox started
* “Mister, mister… we just want to find a doll for my sister” Darik said still holding Daria’s hand
* “And I told you. I just want to visit brothel and bar to forget about what happened here.”
* “… So, why won’t you become an adventurer?” I asked. I looked at Pyrox “You would be able to get on quests. On quests you would be able to burn things. And you would be paid for it, sounds nice, don’t it?”
* “SMOKIN’ HOT IDEA! I AM ALL FIRED UP!”
* “You are looking for dolls, aren’t you?” I said in direction of twins “As far as I know humans failed to meet your requirements… so many you would try your luck with monsters? There are more of them than you can count! Why not try all of them?”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
* “Sister, sister, what do you think about it?”
* “Brother, brother… as long as it would be ok with you…”
* “Sister, sister, making you happy is what I want to achieve!”
They looked at me and nodded in perfect synchronization. I laid my eyes on my last target
* “I wanna hookers and whiskey. You won’t force me into working.”
* “Both hookers and whiskey requires a coin.”
* “… fuck.”
* “Fuck indeed. But lucky for you I know both guild master and brothel-mama. You can be sure I would make you rank up quickly to do better paid quests and to have discount in Pink Ether.”
* “You had my curiosity but now, you have my attention. Let’s roll with that.”
* “On the other hand you have nothing in sayin’ in that matter” I smilled to Morgana “… But Neira would be best place for you to learn about politics, culture and history. I think you have quite studies to be made.”
* “Indeed. I know nothing about world around me. I will first look into places that you would advise.”
* “Just one tip. Avoid council. Right now you are defenseless yet posses great knowledge, they would trade their own mothers to lay their hands on your spells.”
* “Humans will always keep looking for advantage, will they? So be it. I shall stay cautious.”
* “Very well. Ay, you may now tell us how we are going to leave this shithole.”
* “Fear not, everything is planned! In five days we will have to get to the port-city on the North-East. There a smuggler would take us to the no one’s land on the north. Some traveling and Ka-BOOM we are back home!”
* “KA-BOOM?!” Pyrox raised his head
* “No, Pyrox! No Ka-BOOM for you!”
* “She said Ka-BOOM! Where Ka-BOOM?!”
I looked on Ay irritated
* “Watch your tongue on the future. Pyrox, she meant that you can give one last manifestation of your affection on the castle walls…”
Excited pyromancer run toward part of the castle that somehow still was standing and begun coating it on fire.
* “We are moving out as soon as he is done.”
We moved bit to the south and east, mostly to eventually fool forces that could be sent after us. We traveled for few hours till the night approached, we set up a camp few hundred meters from the trade route, so no one would find us.
Jason started preparing pieces of cloth that we took from castle and intended to use as beds – no one likes to sleep on hard, cold, wet ground! Twins were collecting wood for fireplace I went to hunt something and Pyrox was desperately trying to not set nearest trees on fire.
It was done in a jiffy. Fire (that Pyrox lighted up) was cracking happily, the meat was of deer I brought up with myself was being roasted slowly as everyone were easing their nerves after not happiest past.
* “You know what, we should start telling something about ourselves… we are about to spent some time so we could get known each other bit better.” Jason finally decided to do something about an awkward silence
* “So you can start.” I said while checking when the deer would be ready
* “… Well, there is nothing much to say. I was born here, and lived quite happy life. When I was kid I was told to have [unusually high predisposition to use light magic] I could play with it. I was pranking my colleagues with illusions and such… I got better education provided by church and they tried recruiting me to the Church. Witch hunter, priests, inquisitor… if I would agree on lessons of swordsmanship then they would allowed me to paladin’s order… when I kept refusing over and over again they tried making me a scholar. But all I wanted was to lead an easy, peaceful life far away from politics, scheming and backstabbing. I became a merchant. Lessons provided by church and illusions were very helpful! You know – lessons taught me to count, and illusion make merchandise look better! I could have earn 50% as much by sealing lower quality goods!” He took a break to laugh “… then I met a woman, I married her, we were expecting baby. Later on I found out she was a witch. I tried everything to hide this fact from everyone… but pregnancy can have many effects on woman’s body. There were times when she couldn’t control her forces. Nothing much nor dangerous, but was enough to make dishes flying. Aaaand someone must have seen this. The inquisition came to our house and took her. We both tried to fight back but… She was burned in the very next day. Both she and our never born baby. I couldn’t even say my farewells… all this time I was locked in the cell. When they released me I went to get drunk. I next day I did the same. And in next. And in next too. Yet whisky didn’t help at all… so I went to the building of local inquisition… and played with light. I focused it on one point, things started burning pretty quickly. That fire was beautiful. It wasn’t fire, nor orange. But blue and white. Later they told me how many I killed. I didn’t even bother to listen… so they transported me to castle where we all met. That would be… six years ago? Seven? All I know that Pyrox was already there.”
* “Speaking about Pyrox, mind sharing your story?”
Punk looked away from the fire in the middle of the camp.
* “I like burning things! The guys came and told me that burning is bad! So I burned them too! So next guys came and told me that burning things and burning people are bad things to do! So I burned them too! But then people in weird suits came! They wouldn’t burn as nicely as the others! This is why Pyrox burned only half of them! Then bang in the head and Pyrox woke up in cell! Couldn’t burn! No fire! No warmth! But big boss came and let Pyrox burn! Big boss is best!”
* “And… something about your past? When you used you magic for the first time? Where you grown up?”
* “… Pyrox don’t remember… Pyrox only remember the clearing, Pyrox was already burning! Pyrox knew that he is Pyrox and needs to burn! Burn the villages! Burn cities! Burn people with necklances!”
* “Necklaces of sun?”
* “YES! BURN THEM ALL!”
* “It’s just my lucky guess, but apparently he had some kind of trauma that made him lost part of his memory, yet his grudge toward those… as you called them – inquisitors remained.”
Morgana said from other side of the camp
* “Kids?”
* “Mama and papa were bad people…” Darik started
* “… and would tell us do things we didn’t wanted to…”
* “…they would bit us…”
* “…they wouldn’t gave us food…”
* “… but I couldn’t let them hit the sister!...”
* “… I couldn’t watch them hurt brother…”
* “… so we prayed to the angles…”
* “… and we prayed to the devils…”
* “… but none answered…”
* “… so we started praying to each other…”
* “… because only we heard each other out…”
* “… then we started talking to each other without moving mouths…”
* “…then we could make people be nicer to sister…”
* “…they would treat brother better…”
* “…they were being nicer…”
* “… everyone but not mama and papa…”
* “… so we asked mama and papa if they could die…”
* “… they did, mama stabbed papa…”
* “… and papa smashed slashed mama throat…”
* “… then people kept coming, they wanted to harm brother…”
* “…They would do bad things to sister…”
* “… so we asked them if they could die too…”
* “… we kept asking everyone that would come same thing…”
* “.. but then people came with those weird hats…”
* “.. it was harder to ask them to do thing…”
* “… they refused…”
* “… they put same hats on ours head…”
* “… I couldn’t hear brother!...”
* “… I couldn’t sense sister despite the fact she was standing next to me…”
* “…then big brother came…” Daria pointed at me
* “… then big brother took hats off…” Darik followed
* “… we wanted to thank big brother!...”
Wait! This is not how I remember things!
* “As I recall you wanted to mess in my head.” I smiled
* “We wanted to make big brother feel good!”
* “We can make people happy!”
* “If they would deserve it!”
* “But no one before big brother deserved that before!”
They stopped holding each other’s hands and rushed in my direction. Each of them sat on my side and hugged me.
* “You have quite a hand to the children, hm?” Morgana teased me
* “Actually, no. I don’t really like kids, especially those spoiled one… But I think that I can tolerate those two.”
I patted their heads a little
* “Morgana, your turn.” I ordered
* “Why is that so?”
* “Because I told you to.” I shove her my evil grin “Till you regain your powers I am boss here, or as Pyrox said, I am da Big Boss.”
* “… I have no idea why, but I replenished barely any mana, just few drops…”
* “You have spent god only knows how long in cave of white onyx. My guess is that it affected your body. It will take some time, or rituals to bring you back in shape…. Answer, Morgi”
* “Call me that one more time and I will kill you! I may not have mana but I swear – I will find a log and break your head open!... I told you most. I lived in the times when mana was…. Untouchable… Only few could use it – those personally touched by goddesses. Like the teacher. I am half blood, no demons nor elves wanted to have anything in common. He found me starving, dying on the road. He asked me if I wanted to live. He brought me to some small hut. There were ingredients on the table and a rabbit in the cage. He told me to kill it with bare hands, take off its heart and eat it raw… then he thought me about alchemy, about magic… even later he gave me codex… same you have…” she pointed at me “… I memorized every spell, every rite, every part of knowledge… then he took six more students.. a warlock, a sorceress, a necromancer… we were like a family, but we were still bit lonely. We were treated like freaks and were feared… for a reason. Then one things lead to another… I married local hero and king – Balthazar to gain support for our desire, start experimenting with transferring magic into living being… and when I was just a step from achieving it… my husband messed the structure of spell. And in next moment I woke up with my head on your lap. The end.”
* “Ok, now as we all know each other…”
* “Not so fast! Your turn.”
* “I am smart, clever, sly and so very handsome. With me on your side you don’t have to worry about everything. The end.”
* “Not the end. Keep talking.”
* “I am also not satisfied with your answer.” Jason stretched his arms while saying that.
* “We want to know something about bring brother too!”
* “TELL IT, BIG BOSS!”
I sighed
* “Once upon the time – exactly one year and few month ago, in the forest far, far away… about two days of travel from here… an extremely handsome was born. He already looked as you can see him now… maybe his hair were different and he had few scares less. He only knew that he had to survive…. And then…. BANG!” Next part I said almost on one breath making barely any spaces between word “He became a witch by great pain, walked west, found a village, in village there were two witches that took him in, there was a Codex, old witch said [Hey kid, don’t touch that Codex], a monster appeared and started killing left and right, kid touched a Codex, Codex turn him into a monster, he saved a village, village casted him away for he was a monster, boy went back to the forest, but people felt the magic of codex and started looking for a boy, he was asked to the capital of Neira, became as adventurer, have wonderful life, found a woman he loved, then he went on another quest but BANG! It was an ambush! He got captured and transported to the castle where we all met…” I inhaled loudly “Satisfied?”
* “… you are one year old?”
* “Yup.”
* “Sister, sister, does it means that big brother is actually a little brother?”
* “Brother, brother, Big brother still appear to be bigger…”
For a moment longer we kept having discussion about our lives. Ay refused telling anything. She just said that if we would know too much she would have to kill us, this time no joke nor laugh followed her speech. This one time, Ay was serious. But nothing last forever and we got back to scheming.
* “So we still have couple of days till smuggler would take us away, what would we do? Kept our head low and be quiet?” Jason suggested
* “Pardon me, but I still have few things to do… this is why we are about to do the opposite. We gonna poke the wasp nest… We have to visit some local inquisition office. There are data that I need to collect… also, I have to leave a message. I forgave them once and killed only those who were send after me. This time I am going to punch where it hurts. Tell me, does any of you have some moral restriction from killing civilians? Innocent bystanders?”
I asked titling my head and smilling.