Chapter 25: Clivent’s Bane

Darkness, drifting off into the darkness, back into the darkness. Thoughts could not stick, Ideas would not stay, was I even awake? Who am I? What am I? Where am I? It's not so bad, maybe I’ll stay here and finally get some rest. It's nice here. A dream of nothing. No, nightmares disguised as dreams ruining a much-needed rest.

What day will it be tomorrow? What is life anyway? What do I even have to live for?

*Bing!* [You have found your Life’s line Nothing acknowledges your lines Inexistence and {Oath}]

“Clivy, what's it like growing up?” He asks and I am to reply.

“Ah, so it’s Clivy now what happened to the title of Mr.?” What’s wrong with me? Why do I feel this way?

“Dada would have your head for sleeping in the same bed. Take it as a favor, moving on to a first-name basis.”

“Would he now, a Human killing me.” He can read minds but he’s never learned of the system? Inconsistencies.

“You’d be surprised. Now, answer the question.” So impatient.

“I’ll answer only if you let me call you by a pet name.” Why did I want this?

“I’ll let you call me by a pet name if you agree to be my pet?” Ridiculous, he asks too much. What's wrong with me? Why do I feel like this?

“Deal.” I have no shame.

“It's that easy huh? Fine, just call me Adi. Now answer the question. what's it like growing up? How do you do it?”

“That sounds reasonable,” A reason... I need not a reason.

“It doesn’t feel one of a kind, Clivy is that the problem” He countered, making me laugh. "Have I ever laughed before?" A breeze blew through my chest. Something inside of me found an escape. I never could escape.

My voice was a gargled mess, but it was mine.

“Come on, I know you know, it would be impossible if you didn’t. Almost one hundred and eighty years old. All that time and you never grew up?” Innocence, but the back of my mind senses more. He still doesn't feign it. How peculiar.

“A boy full of secrets, how did you know?” How is he able to do that?

“I'm the special boy and everyone has them, even you. Now answer the question little doggy” Secrets, he wants a secret. A secret, not that one.

“I never "grew" up.” I tried so hard. Both of my classes were dedicated to finding Life's line and protecting it, but nothing ever came of it except a tiresome life. A life I'd seen as not worth living.

“People talk and laugh, they love, hurt, have pups then die,” I added my reply to our daily conversations of give and take.

“That sounds boring.” Unbearably, but what should I say-

“Immensely. Why do you ask?” Life is often "boring", as he puts it.

“No reason.” If only a question was asked without.

“A lie.” His first, children often tell them. But this is his very first.

“I was just curious. Talking is overrated and you laughed not long ago, Clivy’s on the right path won't be long before he grows.”

“What was that?” the son of two bards?

“A rhyme.” So quick to reply.

“I like it.”

“They all do.” Is he an arrogant child?

“Who's they?” Curiosity killed the wolf.

“Papa, Dada, and Adena.” How simple.

“Oh." A six-year-old’s life. What was I expecting?

“Were you jealous?”

“Yes.” The truth and nothing but, for him.

“Always such a straightforward Wolf.”

“You are wrong.”

“About what?” he asks.

“I have never talked or laughed. This doesn’t count. It's not real.” I wish it was. You can't restore, what was never there.

“Is that so, then I guess your feelings aren’t real either.”

“I miss Adonin the clueless." He keeps staring.

“DOGGY Speak!!” My ears shoot up in surprise at his change in tone. Eyes wide, I stare at him in confusion and silence.

“I said, Speak!” He rubs my stomach. No one has ever rubbed my stomach. No, one ever touches or tickles me, nor ever she who is hidden by the mist.

“Stop with the sad stuff dogs aren’t sad when they play, now speak!” Adi demands it, so I speak.

“ARH ARHOOOOOOOO!!!” I had never howled. I was alive. It felt- It felt good.

“I didn’t say howl, I said speak! little doggy!”

“Aeh Gee!” It was humiliating. I was embarrassed and he could tell. My first words were hideous. A futile attempt at speech, how pathetic.

Turning to the left side of my bed I hide my face. I didn't want him to see me.

“Adonin’s the special boy, not Clivy. Not everybody gets things right on the first try.” Adi had hopped on my right side light as a feather. It was all fine until he yanked my neck with the force of an experienced warrior. It was just enough force not to break my neck.

He was standing over me, somehow managing to tower. For a second his hands felt strong enough to strangle a Wolf. It was just a thought, but something told me I shouldn't test or prod the matter.

A Human, muzzling me, why couldn't I see it that way?

“Try again, try again, try again!” A child's spirit, he wanted me to use my voice again, for him.

“Ae geeh”, I tried to speak his name, but the words wouldn't come out.

“The problem is you speak from your throat instead of using your tongue.'' He made it sound so easy. Maybe it was easy for a child who could learn to read and write, in three different languages, in three days but not for me. He and I are not cut from the same cloth.

"I'm the Special boy, say my name Clivy." A child speaks to me peering deep into my eyes. He made my blue and gray pale in comparison. His greenish browns held darkness to them, a depth you’d lose yourself to. I want to lose myself.

“Speak.” only one word left his mouth; it was enchanting. The room was silent as Fallohar's streets went on moving, the house apartments runes held. Adi’s words held power, it was magic of its own making. I had never experienced a voice that had the power to take away the burden of time.

He didn’t fill the emptiness. He replaced it. I’d do anything for him.

“Ah - doh - neen” he mouthed, his teeth white as the snow, and his k-nines shining more than mine ever could. I would do anything for him.

Humiliation, this I could bear, so I tried again.

“Adonin," What? My voice sounded nothing, nothing like the one in my head. Hearing it now, I was stunned, it had to be him. He was the cause, it had to be him.

“Now was that such a hard thing to do.” There was no surprise when he heard my voice, he didn't laugh at the scratchiness. Why was I still at a loss for words? Who wouldn't be at a loss for words, I can talk.

I can talk.

“Practice makes perfect Clivy, pronunciation is key, slow and steady.” He was palming my face in his hand rubbing his fingers against my fangs. My face was just an object, and my teeth were sharp toys.

He touched the tip of my bottom fangs with his two thumbs and what was once warm grew cold. His hands and fingers had become harder than a metal alloy as he tapped his right index finger across my bottom fangs. I was a toy to him. Consumed by him ever since he fell from the cavern brim. He was toying with me this entire time.

“Don’t be sad Clivey, you're a good boy. It's just love, it'll pass.” Tears rolled down my eyes and dried on against the dark blue and white fur underneath. This was, whatever this was. It was unfair, heavy, and unbalanced. It hurt. Nothing hurt more than this rejection. My feelings had been rejected before they even began.

“It hurt more than what she once took from me.” Shadows morphed into bars, as my place of rest became another cage.

“That’s all you have to compare your love to Clivy” Adi spoke as I cried by his side. What's wrong with me? How does he know!?

I tremble there's a force at work, I wish that it was magic but I see no such happening.

“Nothing's wrong, Clivy, you're growing up. The little Dog can do nothing but chase after his master. The master who will one day take his leave. Unrequited love and loyalty do indeed hurt. Luckily, we’re at a crossroads Clivy Why do you chase after me? Yes, I am a special boy but even I am not special enough to believe in blind devotion. Why do you try to keep me? Why will you chase me?” Adi was a child, but his words were knives wielded with deadly precision.

“He would cut the Line. No, he can't cut the line! Please don't cut the line!”

“The line? Clivy, is there something you would like to tell me?” As he asked, I turned to my right to face him in the fetal position. I was facing death, but death wouldn't call. I was at his mercy.

“Will you lie?” He asks as we look each other in the eye. My cold blue and pale grey are no match.

“Never.” As I am, incapable of lying to him. Of telling the stories usually told to children.

“Continue.” He has grown colder ever since he looked into my eyes. I wanted to give myself to him and be unburdened but he wouldn’t have me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It hurts!

“Orgh” I whimper a broken voice.

“The truth?” He asks as if it is inconsequential.

“I don't want to live.” The words burned, a poison I had been fighting ever since I could remember.

“Why not?” He didn’t seem to care, looking me straight in the eye as a child, a child unfeeling. Was he always like this?

“Nothing matters, nothing has mattered, nothing ever mattered, no matter how much I try to find the line. It never leads me anywhere, so I ended up here.” My thoughts weren't my own during our conversations. He picks up on my movements and facial expressions. An empath? Why can't he be explained? He reads my thoughts as if they'd always belonged to him. Yet there still seems to be no magic at work. I should get a grip before-

“Why here in Fallohar?” he asks.

“You’re here!” I say it, unable to hide the words oozing of desperation and despair. We live atop the "Sleeping Mountain", there's a reason Fallohum went by that name. This is where old dogs come to lie or die.

“We met four days ago. Why live for a stranger you've just met.” As he spoke, I couldn’t detach my gaze from the darkness in his eyes.

“You're all I've been led to.” I thought, but my thoughts were his. No thought would be concealed not when I was giving myself to him.

“Is it a skill?” he asks.

“Yes, [Life’s Line]," A skill, if only.

“Who are you to follow me around Clivent Bane.”

“The Runt.” I had answered unsure if he was even asking me a question or telling me off.

“Are you living through me or for me?” he asks.

“I live for myself, but I don’t think I can live any longer without you.” The truth.

“One day I may leave. What’ll happen to the line? And what’ll happen to you?” He wanted to know, and I couldn’t think of an answer.

“I’ll follow you or die trying.”

“Is that the truth?”

“I Promise.”

“Clivent Bane the Runt in name wants nothing more than Adi, time is not on his side because no one can have me. The Runt has talked and laughed; he professes love when asked. The pain of life is nothing short of an endless task. No babies will be offered, will love ever be returned? He will most likely die following a boy to his death with nothing gained and nothing earned.” A rhyme or riddle I didn't know but I cried.

“Clivent Bane, will you live for me, without expecting anything in return?”

“Yes.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes, you are my [Life’s Line].”

“Fine, I have nothing better to do now anyway.”

“It’s okay you can laugh” he knows me.

[You have found your Life’s line Nothing acknowledges your lines Inexistence and {Oath}]

“You’re all that matters,” I whisper falling asleep, eyelids growing heavier by the second.

I finally would have my chance.

But Adi crawls up to my head using my neck as a bridge to whisper something into my left ear.

“No, Clivy Nothing Matters.”

=======

[You have found your Life’s line Nothing Acknowledges your lines Inexistence {Oath}]

“Adi” I whisper...

*Ping* [Life’s Line] is maxed!

The line was transparent, but I could feel it, wrapped around my neck making its existence noticeable if I forgot, I would never forget.

It's not a leash, it is a thread caressing my arms, protecting what's between my legs. I can never pull it off or unwrap the thread. At first, I thought the kill was useless. I could never see the thread before he fell from the sky. A thread, unattached. I couldn’t see it completely, but I could feel it. Whenever my will to live wavered, when nightmares of a burning village haunted my waking moments, when I could feel phantom pains below my legs, when I would wake up in a cold sweat screaming from a lack of mana, scared she would come in the night.

[Life’s Line] Would tighten and warm me leaving burns along my fur. I would be dead by now without my body's invisible thread.

The world was out to get me, but my mind would’ve done me in before any monster or man got the chance. I am nothing without my line, without it I'm as good as dead. It’s what keeps me alive. I'll never regret choosing the Class. I'd do it again if I had a third chance. This darkness whatever it is, wanted me to forget. It wanted to keep me confined and unaware. Even now I felt as if I were forgetting something crucial.

A promise of servitude or dedication, a profession of love maybe. Yes, I can’t explain it but it's all I have to live for.

'Adonin’s all I ever lived for, I won’t forget now that I’ve found him. The line burns when I forget. What is warm and comforting can be cold and merciless. What I burn and yearn for will sear my flesh and mark my fur only when vows are broken, let’s not break those vows.'

Just when I was closest to forgetting again it flickered, vibrated, and burned. The line held strong. Pain jogged my memory. It was worth it; nothing was worse than forgetting.

[Life's Line] could be seen. I could finally see what bound me to this world.

'Let's not lose the line again.' I need to find him. A pulse of heat lit up the threads that were vibrating to the rhythm of what I assume to be Adi’s heart; it was always in sync with mine. The threads outlining my body were no longer transparent. Smoke filled the space I was encased in giving shape to a lidless coffin.

[You have found your Life’s line Nothing Acknowledges your lines inexistence {Oath}]

The same message again. Each time the notification pops up memories come back to me. Memories, that I didn't know how much I needed to remember.

After I was pierced by ice to protect Adena. I had lost my train of thought again. Adi usually had something to do with forgetting what was happening right in front of my eyes.

'Ahhh I'm growing accustomed to these transactions' I can't wait to see him again.

[Life's Line] is Maxed!

How long has it been since I checked the description for such an important skill?

[Life’s Line] ~ The meat and bones of the Class Searcher of Life’s Line. The Line is a thread used to keep Clivent Bane alive; he will be bound to the only lifeline whatever it may be—used to curb and distract from suicidal thoughts. Other uses have not been found. Nothing matters more than Life’s Line. Scales with all aspects of the status menu. Syn. {Found}

I need to get out of here, I'm becoming more careless. And I'm starting to see things that aren't there.

'Adena was under attack!' I started punching at the stone. Only for my fist to pierce straight through. It collapsed with the slightest touch. Why the hell was it even up if it was so unstable? Someone needed to work on their earth magic.

Blinking excessively from the library lights. The room smelled thick of mana and blood. Scales lay across the room along with other organs. Getting up as quickly as possible wood breaking and giving way.

There Adena sat on the wet floor with her knees beside each other. An inefficient sitting position even for a Human. She appeared all but lost.

What the hell happened here!? Walking over to her. She wasn’t just sitting there in blood, her face gaunt, an unmoving vegetable. Her aura was frayed, and her heartbeat slowed considerably. Trying to get a good look at her before doing anything I recalled Adonin’s words “Don't touch her unless it's life or death.”

So I took to walking around careful not to disturb whatever state she was in.

As I recalled the signs and symptoms, I moved to act. What was once Olive had gone pale as if she’d been lying at the very top of the Mountain, her eyes were blue and clouded over with cataracts, her mouth agape to the point where you would wonder if anyone was home.

I scooped her off the floor. Thinking only of how Adi would never forgive me. Why was I crying? A Wolfman shouldn’t cry it was unmanly. Biting the inner filling of my mouth I found focus. I had seen a case like this before treated by Ilveen.

I had just found him! He would never forgive me for this!

Up the stairway, I ran. The door had been blown apart. I was already ignoring the smell of blood since Adena seemed unharmed but the brain matter on the staircase. Foretold a grim story. Me and the girl weren’t the only two people attacked, the culprit must have been trying to possess Adena as we speak. How did they even spiritually weaken a girl so willful? In the seven hours that we'd known each other. I had deciphered some truths. She was his kin, “A special boy had to be akin to a special girl, right?”, And the girl was special.

How could this happen!? 'Clivent, how much time does she have left? Think!' I looked at the wooden tables blown to the corners of the Guildhall. I couldn't recall how long it had been- Activating my skill [Time’s tail]. A start, the girl had no signs of possession before the attack. Our attacker hid behind bookshelves, and I hadn't noticed his presence before we entered. How was that possible?

Humans leave traces that can be wiped away by skill or spell. No magic besides the Guild's wards had been detected. The odds of there being a fight in the Guild Hall under Gatarn's watch, that was unlikely no one would dare.

There was no trail left that I could see. The room smelled of fish, off to a start. Amongst the human brains, what did I see? Fish scales, think damn you! There were too many variables to choose from. 'I'm out of my league.' Out of my league while residing in the place people of all species and race were supposed to come together.

[Time’s tail] ~ A skill used to enhance the body's five senses to uncover the truth and or search for clues. Scales with all Aspects of status. Syn.

'Where is everyone!!!' I wanted to shout but my voice wasn't ready for that type of strain. He would be angry with me for losing our progress. Finally getting up the stairs the Adventurers guild had been cleared out. Everything looked the slightest bit off-center. Muges had been abandoned, coin had even dropped.

Why? Shouldn’t there be at least a couple of members left on standby?'

I put my Snout up into the air, getting a peak at some of the Guilds' greatest Captures hanging against the Hall walls.

I took a whiff of the Hall as its doors were flung wide open giving me a view of the city from the hall's incline.

A smell, the smell of Blood was in the air. I'd awoken to the smell of blood, but this wasn't the same smell from a minute ago of Fish and Dwarf. Kin, I was sure of it the amount had to be uncountable. The city had been attacked. Where was Gatarn? I know he hates his job, but this is anarchy. I cautiously made my way outside. As I was making my way outside the guild hall. I could see the citizens battening down the hatches while I was debating on who knew sign language.

I had not a single foot on the ground, I needed information, but more than information I sought expertise. Someone with a clue as to help the girl. "The smith!? that's it!' He was the best option, I have to take a gamble.' A gamble that would have to wait my arms were growing cold.

I laid the girl down on the hall steps to see if I could give her any aid, it was paramount that she maintained a temperature close to the living. I wasn't as accomplished as Ilveen but I could help just a little to prolong the girls' fight. Placing one hand on Adena’s torso and another on her eyes [Hands of the hearth] activated and my mana was emptied the healing warmth was snuffed out by something chilling. My magic had to be of some help. She had regained warmth in her face but that was the extent of my magic.

[Hands of the hearth] ~ A skill from the branch of light healing. Created and passed down by healer Ilveen, a descendant of the Priestess of the purge. The hands of the heart can be used to heal, warm, and relieve. Can scale with Intelligence, Dexterity, and the status aspects of mana. Syn

A powerful magic wielder was trying to claim the girl. I could not and would not utter the words but deep down I felt she would lose. The temperature around her was dropping and I was no help whatsoever.

If I brought her to the guards, they would probably kill her. We hadn't taken care of her citizenship and possession of this caliber required treatment that couldn't be found in this city.

Now wasn't the time to think about running.

Adi is close by. 'I can just feel it. No, what If’s.' Putting Adena back into the crook of my arm, I ran for the smith. He may be unbearable and hated by all who come across him, but the old man was wise beyond his years however many they were.

I started a jog making sure the girl was secure. A [Leap of faith] is all it took, and I was off onto the spine of Fallohar. While gliding through the air I observed the scrambling citizens taking safety precautions. Safety from something that put fear in the hearts of Dwarfman and Lizardman alike. I smelled for the coming enemy while looking out for the unlikely ally.

“Achoo!” I sneezed; I wasn’t sick in any way, not after- My mind drew a blank.

'Cold' the girl was cold. The cold? Was that snow? It never snows here.

Kicking into overdrive when hopping back into the air, I braced for an attack that never came. 'It’s snowing,' there was no enemy just snowfall. I spared a worried glance at the girl freezing in my arms. Onward I leapt for the Smith, a smith who could save her life. Someone had to know what was going on, someone like him.