A few brief flashes of waking lucidity pass while I rest. I don't know how much time has passed exactly, but these moments usually come when someone feeds me–just liquids–or checks my shoulders. Surprisingly, I don't mind the whole 'feeding me' thing. The shoulder touching, however, can touch grass. One morning when I wake up, the shoulder pain has faded to a constant dull ache instead of the stabbing, searing, peaking levels I was getting at first. My vision isn't as cloudy anymore either. I am actually able to see who I'm talking to. That's a nice development. I lie in my bed staring at the ceiling and inspecting the textured surface, making faces of the random patterns. I am still unsure if I will stay awake this time, so I don't want to commit too much mind power to anything yet.
(Master is awake?) I hear Brimstone ask. I move my eyes from side to side and turn my head only slightly, afraid to move too much.
I am. Where are you?
(Brimstone was being fed. Dog form has many needs Brimstone does not like…) They say. A thudding lope up the steps leads me to believe that they're on their way up.
Such as?
They nose open the door then growl their displeasure. (Pooping,) They say.
You didn't have to poop before? Everybody poops. Come to think of it. If I've been out for days…
(No, summoned creatures no have functions. Never ate food. Brimstone like food, but the functions…) They growl again and sit on the floor next to me, resting their head on the bed.
That's . . . wow. So– I start another line of questioning, but there's a knock at the door.
“Mikael, honey? Are you awake?”
“Yes,” I say aloud. It's not quite a whisper anymore, but it doesn't sound like me yet either. It is still clear that my throat is healing, it still feels raw. Right now, it’s very low and has a wheezing rasp to it.
“Can I come in?”
I clear my throat and it causes me to cough a few times. I have to wait for the more intense pain of tensing my muscles to pass before I can answer.
“Yeah, come in, mom,” I say, still wincing at the soreness that follows the fit. She walks in and sits on the bed next to Brimstone, petting them on the head.
“How ya doin', kiddo?” she asks, not fully looking at me.
I glance at the hand she's using to pet my Hound and see that the dark skin at her fingertips and even under her nails is black as coal. They all look charred. With an effort and a hiss at the soreness, I turn my hand palm up and move it toward her as much as I can. She thankfully notices the movement and moves her hand from the Hound's head to my hand. The touch doesn't feel like it used to, like it should. The skin feels too thin and is cold even to my nearly numb hands.
“What happened?” I ask, inspecting them. She doesn't answer so I look up at her. There's more of a change than I had seen at first glance. She looks older again. Like when my magic canceling void was spilling out of me. Her once smooth black skin is now more pale and showing fine lines. The normal sheen of her curly black hair has dulled and looks brittle and unhealthy. The normal alert but affable gleam in her eyes is absent as she looks down at me with a sad expression. Regardless of how she's feeling, tears stream down her cheeks and I can tell by the emotions in her aura, it's for me. She tries a couple of times to start talking, but has to stop and breathe through it.
“He hurt you so bad,” she finally says. More tears fall and she starts caressing my face with her other hand, “He was going to kill you.”
“What happened, mom?” I ask again, tears coming to my eyes. She wipes her eyes and turns her hands over and inspects her fingertips.
“I used too much. I'm paying the price.”
“What does that mean?” I start to sit up, damn the pain.
She pushes me back down. “I'll be fine, I just need time,” she says.
I don't feel any deception, but there's an odd look on her face. I don't like it. “I'll help when I can.”
“Don’t worry about it. Worry about you.” I start to protest, but she interrupts. “You're safe now.”
“Safe from what?” I ask.
She looks down at her fingertips. “From any of these full demons coming for you directly again.”
“Really? How?”
“What I did, I may be paying the price for, but it sent a message. And that message was, 'Don't.' Everyone of them that has come for you or been sent for you has been obliterated. They may try to send other beings after you, but you shouldn't have to deal with full demons until . . .” She locks eyes with me for a moment, and her expression changes from sadness to weariness
“Until?” I ask.
“Until you make your way to the Pit,” she says with a sigh.
“Alastor talked about that, too. I don't want that.”
“I know, honey. And I'm sorry for my part in this, but I can't stop their plans. You can see what taking down one of them who isn't even a Lord did to me. I've done what I can. I'm sorry.”
“I…” I huff out a breath. It seems Alastor's declaration is binding. “I understand. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Her eyes search my face then move to my shoulders. “Do you need those re-wrapped?” she asks, moving to check them.
I reflexively back away and she creases her brow.
“Sorry,” I say. “The few times I've moved them, even by accident, it hurts.”
She nods her head. “That makes sense.”
An awkward moment passes, both of us look around the room but don’t speak.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me you had that kind of magic?” I blurt as soon as the thought crosses my mind.
“Honey, that’s a long story,” she says, rubbing a hand across her forehead.
“I’ve got time,” I say, glancing at my shoulders in turn briefly.
She sighs. “Not enough for me to get into that right now. You’ll have to be content knowing that it’s a product of where I’m from. We all have abilities.”
“Ohio?”
She chuckles. “That’s where this me is from.”
“Well, where are you really from?”
Her face falls. “Somewhere I haven’t been in a very long time.” Her lips briefly form a tight line. “I promise we will discuss it more later, but I didn’t come in here to hash this out. Everyone else wants to see you if you're awake and able,” she says. It’s a clear sign that she's trying to change the subject. “Do you want that?”
I watch her, my eyes flicking down to her hands, then back up to her features. I take another deep breath, a gesture I'm getting too used to, and let it out slowly.
“That's fine. I think I'm done sleeping for days at a time.”
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She touches my face again with her cold hand. Her bottom lip quivers like she's holding back tears. Then she gets up and leaves the room.
I lie my head back and stare at the ceiling again as my eyes well up with tears that don't fall until I blink. I’ve never seen her like this. Perhaps she’s just never let me see her like this. I don’t have long to ruminate before the sound of multiple sets of feet coming up my stairs mercifully pulls me from the thoughts I'd rather not think. Turning my head from side to side, I do my best to wipe the wetness from my face on the pillows before everyone comes in.
It doesn't work. It also doesn’t do anything positive for my pain levels.
“Mike,” Eph says with a quick head nod as he steps through the doorway.
“Hey, Mike,” Vithar says, stepping through as well. I wait for another person to step through, but no one else comes.
“Where's Reggie?” I ask, my voice still comes out gruff and raspy.
“He went back to the guild after healin' ya. Told us to wrap your shoulders and let your own healing kick in,” Eph says.
“How's everything going with that?”
Eph chuckles at my question. “Well, first they tried to get me to take over as the 'most senior wizard' at the scene,” he says.
I smile at that. Having worked for him for nearly a year, I know exactly where he told them they could stick their offer.
“And tried to get me to come back again,” Vithar says.
“Of course,” I respond. It makes sense.
“Your ma had already left by then though. I told her we could handle it after that archwizard was taken down and she didn't wait a second after that.”
“Tell me about what happened after I left,” I say.
“Well, that wizard summoned more of those things, and we had to squish 'em like you did.”
“We used earth magic though, brought two slabs of stone down on them and pushed them together,” Vithar says and mimics the process with his hands.
“The spud monsters? That's kinda cool,” I say. He squints.
“I'm sorry, the what?”
“Those things totally looked like giant lovecraftian potato-monsters and you know it. Don't take this away from me.”
The wizards glance at each other, shrug, then look back at me.
“Sure, buddy,” he says in a very patronizing tone. “Anyway, so Archwizard Falondrel comes down to meet us with yet more of the . . . uh . . . sp–spud monsters.”
“Thank you.”
“And utter chaos erupts. Amara, Ephraim and I are squishing and slicing these things apart while the other wizards are defending us from Falondrel's attacks. We each get some scrapes and bruises, but we manage reach a kind of a stalemate as more and more of these things keep falling from the floor above us. This goes on for, like, twenty minutes–although it seems like an eternity.”
“Then those creatures stopped flooding the area,” Eph says, “That old wizard was sweatin' when it happened and with the pressure off, it was two and a half against one.”
“Two and a half?” I ask.
“Well, yeah. The creatures didn't fully stop, so we had to break off here and there and take care of em.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
“So, Falondrel tried to open a rift but Ephraim stopped him, he tried to fly away and Amara stopped him. That rune on his forehead lit up and I tried dispelling it. He rose up into the air, and we were moving to follow when something shot through him from behind. A rift had opened and a wizard stepped through holding a sword. I mean, an honest to God sword! His body convulsed a couple of times and ripped apart but not from the wound.”
“What caused it?!” I ask, enraptured by the events. It's like a timed event in a video game.
“He started cacklin.' The blood from the wound dropped to the ground and little creatures came out of it, swarms of 'em. They weren't strong, just a lot of em. So I told your ma to go and that we'd handle it. The guy that stabbed Falondrel was one of the wizards that we thought might’ve been lost in those hallways.”
“Oh yeah, what happened with them?” I ask.
“She was confused. Grateful to be alive, but confused as to why a demon would come and help them,” Vithar says.
“Yeah, I get that a lot. Doesn't stop the next batch from wanting to attack me though. Anyway, what happened next?”
“Well, I could tell other guilds were coming to help after that so, once they did, we skedaddled,” Eph finishes.
Throughout their retelling, their eyes keep moving from my face to my shoulders. I know they want to ask about it, but I feel like they aren't sure how I'd respond.
“That's wild guys,” I say.
“Right?!” Vithar responds. Eph just nods like it was a normal day. And for him, maybe it once was. I don’t know his story.
“Well, I almost got my arms ripped off. So, samesies,” I add, and stare at them.
They both frown, then study the floor. They are completely unable to hide the disappointment in my condensed version of the story. I laugh to myself and give in.
“I'm just kidding guys,” I say and give them the story from the point I left, only omitting a few details. Mostly just the part where my demon ate pieces of Rhal.
“That's the same one you maimed last year?” Eph asks once I've finished my retelling.
“Yeah,” I say, my eyes wide and my head bobbing.
“Jesus, boy, and he was healed already? I haven't seen too many that strong even in my lifetime.”
“Just lucky, I guess,” I say with a sarcastic smile.
“Lucky, huh?” Eph says flatly. “So lucky you can't wipe your own ass.”
My face gets so hot. I really hope that's a joke.
“Is that a joke? Please tell me it is.” They both look at each other again. “Stop doing that!”
“He's just joking, Mike.” Vithar says. Eph hits him on the arm and spreads his hands.
I have to change the subject immediately. “So what did the guild say about the rest of the society?”
“They were pretty tight-lipped about it, but said this wasn't an isolated incident. The team that came to us had already put down three other intra-guildhouse wars. They said that every one of the leader's they'd dispatched all said the same thing. That someone had accelerated their schemes and they lamented the ill-planned coup attempt and blah blah blah,” Eph says.
“That's weird. I may have to talk to someone on the other side soon about this.”
“Like, have a conversation with your dad again?” Vithar asks
“Or something like that,” I say with a deep breath. “As soon as I can move normally again.”
“Reggie said it'll be several months before that happens, but that you should have limited use by now.”
“Like I can wipe my own ass? Cuz that's top tier for me,” I say, and Eph chuckles.
“You get some rest and get those arms workin' as much as you can. We'll be around.”
“Thanks guys,” I say, “I'm glad you both are still here with me after what I've dragged you into.”
“No thanks necessary, Mike. You freed me from what could've been my death in that guild and gave me a place to stay. As far as I'm concerned, anything you need, we're good.”
With everyone having said what they needed to say, there's an awkward silence until Eph just grunts again and walks out through the door, followed by Vithar.
I continue to sit in silence, running through everything that led me here, with Brimstone's heavy breathing the only thing I hear.
You still resting?
You ok?
So, what does that mean? I didn't know that was a thing.
Right, he kept it in that stone that Christine stole.
And that's why you bit Christine when she was dying?
How did you know this?
The void?
That's not fair, that only raises more questions . . . Hello? Other Mike?
My other self is leaving me on read. The audacity.
(Brimstone is here for you, My Lord.)
“Yeah, I appreciate that buddy,” I say, moving my fingers slightly to pet their snout.
(Matriarch says that no more strong ones will come. Is My Lord unhappy?)
“No, I was actually unhappy about what she did to herself to save me.”
(Brimstone is happy she did,) they say, their tail thudding against the ground.
“Yeah, I suppose you would be. Is Anna still here?”
(Human went home. Said she has not been in days.)
“Good, I'm glad. She probably needs to decompress. It's been a hell of an introduction into my world for her. At least things have calmed down for now.”
(Master doesn't think it will stay that way?)
“Oh no, buddy,” I say, painstakingly scratching under their chin and patting their head. “No, I think everything is just beginning.”