Chapter XVII
At first, he’d told himself to spit in Nigreos’s face the next time he saw him. After all, the man had to be crazy to think he’d ever want to be anywhere near him again, let alone sit down and have dinner with him. Eric had considered himself lucky that, in the two months since arriving in Ijiria, he hadn’t seen Nigreos or Album once. He’d avoided them and they hadn’t made any move to interact with him. That was how he liked it and he’d hoped that the next time he saw them, it would be the moment they died. So he almost decided to send the squire back to Nigreos to tell him that he wouldn't come, yet in that moment, he made a sudden decision to do the opposite. He told the young man to inform Nigreos that he’d be there, then headed into his quarters to prepare himself, and the reason for that was because he knew he couldn’t allow his emotions and hatred to get in the way of a prime opportunity to get some information.
For better or for worse, Nigreos was my mother’s friend and, according to Ryokumo, he was one of her closest. There’s a lot I might be able to learn from him. Not to mention, he’s also the one who killed her. He was there the moment she died…
“All we know is that one day, our mother departed for Noctalus on what she claimed was a very important trip and never came home.”
Arisa’s words from earlier caused him to grit his teeth in anger.
Noctalus. If Nigreos killed her then that means he was in that city. Is it possible that he might know why she went there? Could he have a piece of the puzzle that the others don’t? I know he’s claimed not to know, but…
He recalled how Nigreos told King Markreas that he never knew Eric existed despite having met him the day he retrieved his mother. At the time, his actions had confused the boy, and ever since, he had failed to understand just what Nigreos’s motives were.
He’s already proven to me that he’s willing to lie to the king, so it’s possible he knows more than he lets on. This dinner… It’s too important of an opportunity to pass up.
With that in mind, Eric quickly changed from his travel wear and into a lighter tunic and pants, then departed his quarters and began making his way toward where the Master of Darkness lived, though not without leaving a note telling Ryokumo where he had gone. All of the Masters had their quarters on the same level of the Citadel so the walk was barely five minutes long, and when Eric arrived, he found the front door no different than his own. He took one last second to collect his thoughts and come up with every possible question he could ask, then knocked a few times.
“It’s open!” came the call of a voice that caused shivers to run down his spine.
Eric then went inside and found himself in a room that was almost identical to the main living space of his quarters, though Nigreos’s lacked a kitchen, leaving him to assume that the Master typically ate in the dining hall. Eric’s eyes slowly shifted to the far left side of the room and in that moment, he found his fists clenching almost on their own. Nigreos Noctis was sitting at a small, wooden table that was placed just beside a window, watching him with his piercing white eyes. He wasn’t wearing his typical black suit, instead having replaced it with a black, silk robe with a sash tied around his waist.
“Good evening, Eric,” he greeted, an uncomfortably pleasant tone in his voice. “Please, take a seat.”
Nigreos indicated the chair across from him and Eric silently obliged, crossing the room before sitting down at the table. Right in front of him was a plate with some gravy-covered meat that resembled steak, as well as a salad on the side. There was also a glass of what looked like wine, though Eric wasn’t certain exactly what it was. The room was lit by balls of fire magic that were floating around the ceiling, blinking occasionally and casting a rather dull and depressing orange hue.
“You know, I’m surprised you actually came,” Nigreos said with a chuckle. “I’d considered this a long shot, to be honest.”
Eric narrowed his eyes as he regarded the man—the very man who took his mother and his friends away from him. He was about to share a meal with the Master of Darkness, but he told himself to power through his disgust for the sake of his goals. If all went well, this man could be dead within a month. He had to keep reminding himself that or else he wouldn’t be able to focus.
“Then why’d you ask?” he grunted. “Why invite me here?”
Nigreos shrugged, then indicated the plates of food. “I promise you that this is nothing more than what it appears to be. I simply wanted to have dinner with you and check in on you…and potentially come to some sort of understanding.”
“Understanding?” Eric spat the word like a poison. “What’s there to understand? I think I understand everything perfectly. You’re so dedicated to your duty that you’ll do whatever you’re ordered to, no matter how wretched of an order it is. You can defend your actions all you want, but I’ll never forget what happened in Wilham. I’ll never forget how you butchered the innocent people at that diner, or how you erased high schoolers because they happened upon magic that you failed to keep contained in Ijiria. I understand you perfectly.”
He saw Nigreos’s jaw tighten before the Master awkwardly cleared his throat and turned to gaze out the window to his right. “Be that as it may, I still do not wish to argue with you. Rather, I would like to get to know you, so please, enjoy the meal I prepared and let’s just talk.”
Eric scoffed then looked once more at his food with a cocked eyebrow. “Is it poisoned?”
“No, it’s not poisoned,” Nigreos snapped, the first hint of frustration poking through. “Why would I poison it? Don’t forget that you’re an apprentice of this Citadel now, so killing you is treason. What kind of fool do you take me for?”
Realizing that he had a point, Eric begrudgingly picked up his fork and knife and began to cut at the meat. While he wouldn’t have said so aloud, he was surprised at how good it was. It tasted as if his guess about it being steak was correct, but he still couldn’t identify the gravy-like substance on top of it. It gave it a very savory taste and as he chewed, he realized just how hungry he had been. He also realized that the “wine” was actually a fruit juice, and he wondered if there were laws against underage drinking in Ijiria. Either that or the Master was just familiar with Omaruan laws, Eric supposed.
Despite Nigreos’s request to talk, they ate in silence, the only sound in the room being the clinking of their silverware and their chewing sounds. Every once in a while, Eric would look up and watch the Master as he enjoyed his meal, though Nigreos never looked back. Instead, he seemed lost in thought and Eric couldn't help but wonder what could possibly be going through the mind of someone as monstrous as him.
Nigreos picked up his glass and downed the last sips of his juice, then exhaled softly and spoke. “So how have your studies been?”
Eric shrugged nonchalantly. “They’ve been fine. Master Mackia is a great teacher, and she’s probably more lenient with me than she should be. She’s…a good person.”
“She is,” Nigreos agreed. “In her own twisted way, that is. Under that mischievous and teasing persona, she’s not a bad individual, and I do not think you could have asked for a more knowledgeable teacher when it comes to the history of this world.” The Master folded his hands on the table and smiled. “And what about Ryokumo? How has it been living with him?”
“Also fine,” he muttered. “He’s treated me well and I like him enough.”
The Master of Darkness nodded. “That’s good. Ryokumo is an honorable man and he was a good friend of your mother’s. I would trust him with my life, as should you. In fact, I’ve known Ryokumo just a bit longer than I knew Abi.”
Eric kept his face from showing his surprise, but he was shocked to see just how much Nigreos trusted a man that, not two hours prior, had declared his intent to kill him. In fact, considering how little Album trusted the Master of Wind, he had expected a similar level of suspicion from Nigreos.
But Ryokumo’s managed to manipulate him. He’ll never see it coming…
The thought of being able to puppet Nigreos like Ryokumo wanted to made him anxious to finally go after him, but he knew they couldn’t be hasty, and thus, he kept his feelings as far inside of him as he could.
“Both of you talk about my mother,” Eric began, “but you’re never very specific. How did you know her? What was your relationship like and…why would you ever murder somebody you speak so highly of?”
Nigreos flinched at his final question. “Our history is…complicated, to say the least. I met Abi at the Academy of Erika, where most mages who are worth anything are trained. She, Ryokumo, Album, and I were all very close friends…and we weren’t all that different from your Magic Club.”
He couldn’t imagine Nigreos ever being a student nor was he able to contain his surprise at the thought that Album could have ever been close to his mother and Ryokumo given how cold she always acted toward them. In some ways, the Master of Light was the biggest enigma of the Citadel to him.
“After graduating, we fought together as a group for quite a while until your mother left for Omaruo, and we had our fair share of dangerous encounters,” Nigreos went on. “In fact, we were there when…” He paused, as if trying and failing to recall certain details about his past. “...when the Battle of Stellaried took place.”
Eric frowned, trying to recall what the Battle of Stellaried was, before deciding that Iris must not have covered that topic yet. He made a mental note to ask Iris or Ryokumo about it another time since he didn’t trust Nigreos to give him an accurate telling.
“We were inseparable,” he whispered softly, his eyes glazing over for few seconds. “All four of us…”
The boy snorted, knowing he shouldn’t antagonize him but feeling himself unable to hold back. “Then why’d you do it?” he demanded sharply. “If you were so damn close to her then why did you kill her?”
Nigreos averted his gaze and stared down at his mostly empty plate. “When Abi came back from Omaruo, she was never the same. She treated us well, but she was always distant. It was far from the loving and close relationship she had with us before. As Master of Nature, she was beloved by the commoners and her Children of Reiner became quite famous around Erika. Everybody loved her, but she was closed off. Then…she rebelled.”
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The Master slowly turned to stare out the window again, stopping for a moment to watch as the sun slowly moved behind the nearby mountains. “Without any sort of warning, a small army of rebels led an assault on Noctalus from the inside. Skirmishes erupted in the streets and in the midst of it all, we got wind that Abi was the one behind it. I’d been in the city at the time with Ryokumo and Album and when I heard, I…”
He swallowed back the pain that the story was clearly causing him. “I had to confront her. I had to know for myself…and she admitted to it without any hesitation. I begged her to stand down but she wouldn’t. Things escalated and soon we were in open conflict, and…when I realized she wouldn’t relent and that the only way to stop the attack was to kill her, I… I did what had to be done…”
The last words were barely a whisper and his eyes were wet with tears he was fighting back. It was the first time he had ever seen such emotion in the man and yet, he found himself unable to trust him. There was something wrong in that story, and he couldn’t pretend to accept it.
“My mother…would have never done such a thing,” he growled.
Nigreos smiled bitterly. “I know that, Eric, believe me I do. For three goddamn years, I’ve been trying to understand why it came to that. I wanted to know why she would rebel against her country, but I can’t figure it out. When I confronted her, she wouldn’t tell me.”
Eric grit his teeth, his rage growing further beyond his control as the conversation progressed. “Then why kill her? Why not take her captive? Why not question her? Why did it have to come to murder?”
“I didn’t have a damn choice,” he breathed. “She…was too strong.”
“Too strong?!” he spat furiously. “Don’t give me that shit! I’ve seen what you can do! I’ve seen your power firsthand! There’s no way you couldn’t have used your magic to contain her!”
“You weren’t there,” Nigreos uttered. “You didn’t see…what I did. You didn’t know your mother like I did.”
Eric smirked irritably, speaking through clenched teeth. “I don’t need to! You could have found some other way! My mother didn’t need to die, and you failed to find a way to prevent that! If you were truly her friend, you wouldn't have let it escalate! If you cared for her like you say you did then you could have figured out something else! But you stooped to murder! You killed her, you fucking monster.”
“I LOVED HER!”
Without warning, Nigreos jumped to his feet, his features contorted in utter fury. Eric jumped up as well, his mana instantly at his fingertips while the sudden movement sent the small table toppling over, the plates crashing into the ground. The fireballs floating around the room all flickered at once before stabilizing while the shadows on the wall all started to move.
“Your mother meant the world to me!” Nigreos snarled. “I was in love with her! I would have done anything and everything for her if she’d asked me to! But she chose to betray this country! She betrayed me! She chose to turn traitor and lead the first assault on Noctalus in centuries! I wanted to spare her! I wanted her to live, but I had no choice! Do you hear me?! I had no choice!”
The Master was shaking with rage and Eric half-expected him to attack, yet he never did.
“Do you realize how much it’s tormented me?” he hissed. “Do you realize how many nights I’ve woken up in a cold sweat with the image of her bloody corpse burned into my eyes? I can’t forget it! I can’t change the past no matter how much I wish I could! I killed her… Her blood is on my hands and no amount of scrubbing will ever make them clean again. I know I failed her and I don’t need a child who hardly knew her to tell me that!”
Eric took great joy seeing how worked up Nigreos became and, despite knowing he needed to deescalate the confrontation, he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “I’m glad,” he whispered. “I’m glad she still torments you…and I hope you continue to suffer for what you did until the day you finally die.”
Nigreos smiled bitterly. “You need not worry about that, boy. There’s no doubt in my mind that I will.”
After that, the two of them stood in silence, glaring across the table at each other before Eric finally snorted and backed away. “I guess this is as good a time as any to leave. Thanks for the meal, you bastard.”
Wanting to be anywhere but there, Eric turned and stalked toward the door, but to his dismay, Nigreos still had one more thing to say to him.
“Don’t think this changes anything,” the Master called after him. “Even if we never see eye to eye, you’re still her son and I won’t ever forget that. Protecting you is the only way I can ever atone for what I did… It’s why I lied to Prince Reigious about knowing you existed. I’ve been protecting your ass for years.”
The boy snorted. “Do you think I care? I’d have preferred to get erased with the rest of my friends than get stuck here with you. My blood magic never saved me. It just condemned me to live alone, always remembering how I failed them. If you protected me only for me to wind up like this, then I wish you had just sacrificed me to Ijiria.”
Eric refused to turn around so he didn’t know what Nigreos’s face looked like, but when the Master spoke again, his voice was weak, as if all his previous rage had left his body.
“Please, Eric. Whatever you do, just obey Ijiria. Hate me all you want, but I beg of you… Don’t put me in the position where I would have to kill you, too. I can’t…have your blood on my hands, as well.”
Eric never replied, instead pushing through the door and leaving Nigreos behind. If anything, he hoped Nigreos would be the one to kill him should Ryokumo’s plan fail. If he had to die, then he wanted his death to drive that man so insane that he would never be able to move past it. He wanted Nigreos to suffer for all the misery he inflicted on him.
But with any luck, I’ll be the one to strike him down, Eric thought. I want to see the look in his eyes when his entire world falls apart. But to do that, I need to practice light magic like Ryokumo ordered me to. The pieces are being put in place…and I couldn’t be happier.
Eric grinned. Vinny, Damien, Liz…Lilly. I’m coming to save you. Just…wait for me a little longer, okay?
***
“Well, it sounds like your ridiculous little dinner went just as I expected it would,” Album mused as she fiddled with one of the forks still laying on the table.
Behind her, Nigreos was pacing around the living room, his features twisted in disappointment. He didn’t respond to her, so Album merely brought her mana to her fingers and began using her magic to repair the broken plates and glasses that had fallen off the table. At the same time, she brought the few scraps of food off the ground as well, but knew that it would take a bit more effort to scrub the juice from the carpet, so she decided to leave that particular task to Nigreos. It was his room, after all, and the only reason she was bothering to clean up was to entertain herself while waiting for her partner to pull himself together.
He should have known it was only going to end like this. I’m just surprised Reiner showed up in the first place. If I were in his position, I would have laughed in Nigreos’s face. So…since the boy actually showed up, he must have believed he could gain something from this particular interaction. Album narrowed her eyes. I wonder what that was…
“I wish…things could have been different,” Nigreos murmured after a moment. “I want to help him, Album. I want him to be happy here…but I just can’t get through to him.”
She laughed mockingly. “Of course you can’t. Snap out of it, Nigreos. You're usually far more logical than this! Do you not realize that by doing what we did, we’ve essentially broken the boy. He’s lost everything with no hope of getting it back and in his eyes, the blame falls on us. He will never move past that. He will never see us as anything other than killers.”
“I know,” he grumbled. “But…maybe if I keep trying…”
She shook her head. “It’s a waste of time. For the moment, you should leave him to Caeli and Mackia. For better or for worse, they’re the ones in charge of him, and if he’s taken a liking to them then we should rely on them to keep him from doing anything stupid.”
The Master of Darkness stopped his pacing and turned an irritated glare on her. Expecting him to continue to argue against staying away from him, she was surprised when that wasn’t what he said.
“Ryokumo,” he snapped. “For god’s sake, Album, his name is Ryokumo! You’ve known him for years so I don’t understand why you insist on being like that! Stop calling him ‘Caeli’!”
Album grit her teeth, a million different retorts coming to mind, but she refrained from speaking any of them, knowing that she didn’t have the option.
“I’ll do as I please,” she growled threateningly, warning him not to correct her again. “You can go on ahead and be best friends with him, but I have chosen not to. I do not trust Ryokumo Caeli, especially not with Reiner. I wish anybody else could be watching over him, but since Reigious refuses to listen to reason, there’s nothing I can do about that.”
“Why?” Nigreos demanded. “What changed between the two of you? I’ve been asking you for years and you refuse to tell me! Is this not the greatest opportunity to mend our friendship? Eric Reiner is her son! If we take him under our wing and guide him in Ijiria, we can make up for our mistakes. Ryokumo, you, and I have a chance to put the past behind us, but you keep standing in our way! You slander Ryokumo in front of the Masters and you refuse to give Eric a chance! It’s like you’re trying to prevent us from fixing everything!”
Album smiled bitterly. “I’m not preventing anything. I’m just the only one of us two that’s logical enough to realize that it can never be fixed. You’re stuck in the past, wishing it to come back, when there’s no way it ever could! Abi is dead and you can’t replace her with Eric! Come back to the present, Nigreos, and take a good look at the world around you! This is what our actions brought us and there’s nothing we can do about it!”
Trust me! If I could tell you, I would, but there isn’t any way to bring the past back! We can’t trust Ryokumo! We can’t trust, Reiner! I just wish you could see that!
“Why are you so pessimistic?” he snarled.
“Why are you so idealistic?” she retorted.
Nigreos exhaled softly, his body shaking. “I’ll never understand you, Album.”
No, I know you won’t…
“Anyway, enough of this nonsense,” Album snapped irritbaly. “Were you able to get any information out of him regarding that damned pocket realm? Was he the one who put it up?”
The man’s lips tightened in frustration. “No, unfortunately the conversation deteriorated before I could ever get to that point, but I honestly doubt it. Reiner is good, but everything he learned was from his mother’s spellbook, which wouldn’t have anything about pocket realm creation.”
Album sighed. “That, I agree with, but it’s possible he knows who was behind it. There wasn’t a soul in Omaruo that had the power to do something like that, which means somebody was trying to aid him. And if I had to make a guess, that person might be related to whoever gave Abi guideship. We have to know if Reiner knows anything.”
“Well, by all means, talk to him yourself,” Nigreos muttered. “After tonight, he’s not going to come by for a long time.”
“Ha! As if that would work. I think he’s less willing to speak with me than he is with you,” she said, cringing at the memory of their fight outside Harper’s apartment. Her left hand slowly raised to grip her right arm, which was sensium from the elbow down. “And I would rather not go anywhere near him…not while that blood magic remains.”
She turned and gazed out the window at the city lights down below. There was so much to think about and she found herself wishing that Eric Reiner would just vanish. She wanted nothing more than to erase him and send him somewhere she would never have to see him again. The amount of stress his existence caused her was getting to be too much, and his connection to Abi would only cause more chaos.
He needs to die. We need to get rid of him somehow, but I’m the only person who shares this sentiment. Nigreos, Ryokumo, Reigious, Piura… They’re all blinded by his last name, and I’m powerless to do anything about it. And I can’t help but feel that if they don’t come to their senses soon, it’ll be too late.