Somehow I wasn’t dead. I had felt that explosion rip me apart, yet still I breathed. I was awake, though it had apparently been long enough for the sun to close with the horizon, and the colors of the sunset were all I could see above me as I lay flat on my back. I sat bolt upright as soon as it occurred to me that if I was alive, the dark rider very well might be too.
I didn’t see him anywhere, not even a corpse or bit of the large screeling he had been riding. As I looked around for a trace of him, I realized the town was on fire, and that I had been lying just outside of it for what must have been hours without anyone seeing me. My feet were moving before I even realized it, rushing straight to my family’s home. Oddly enough, my personal dwelling was on fire, but it hadn’t spread to my parents abode just yet. I saw the crusted blood dried in the entryway, and called out for my parents, fear gripping my legs and turning them to jelly. No one answered.
Slowly, I parted the fronds hanging in the door and entered the house. It looked much the same as it had when I had been thrown to my escape by my father, with a now dry trail of my sisters’ blood leading to their room. I dragged myself through the path, trying to avoid stepping on the blood this time. Now that I knew what it was, the thought of touching it turned my stomach. As I got closer I could see that even more blood had been spread throughout the room this time. There was nothing else.
The back wall of the room has been blasted out, so I reached out with my mana sense to see if there was some trace of my parents left. I felt nothing. A sick feeling settled into my stomach, and I tried to reach out with my manasense, only to stumble mentally. It was like I had miscounted steps and tried to step too far down only to find level ground beneath me. The more I strained, the more I realized I couldn’t even feel my own mana anymore. Panicking, I quickly tried to channel and fill my mana pool, only to stumble once again. My mana pool was gone. Nothing remained where once an entire extra sense had pervaded me before.
I cried out in horror and fell to my knees. Like a sick joke, that was when I finally found the only remains of my family I would ever see. My father’s dead, glassy eyes stared back at me from underneath the rubble of the collapsed wall. My wails must have surely quaked the heavens, as I cursed the name of every God I had ever known. I screamed until my voice cracked, dragging myself along the floor over to his remains.
Try as I might, I couldn’t shift the wall off of him. I scrabbled at the rubble until my fingers bled, unable to tear my gaze away from his sightless eyes. I’m not sure how long it took me to regain control of myself, but it felt like an eternity. When I finally calmed down enough, I moved smaller bits of rubble to cover the gap and continued to curse the gods who had allowed this. Then I just sat and stared at his makeshift grave for a while. Eventually, my stomach complained that the last time I had given it food had been last night, and I forced myself to start moving again.
Each step away, my heart hardened and my resolve firmed. This could not stand. The black rider must have had a purpose, or been given orders to attack my village like this. Whatever that purpose, whoever gave that order, I would destroy. I swore my vengeance on the blood of my family, on the ruins of my home. I would need power, training, weapons, and I would find them all. My stomach ignored all of this and informed me that food came first.
I entered my standalone hut and gathered the few scant belongings I had, using the sheet on my bed as a rucksack. I tore into the last of the honeyed jerky I had made to give father as a thank you once I had became a man, tears running down my cheeks as I realized he would never eat it again. Once finished, I moved to check the rest of the town, but the blazing buildings were putting out too much heat, even all these hours later, for me to gather much else. With a final stare at Qadira’s Fount, untouched even by the blood spilled all around, I turned my back and left.
A few hours later I was well on my way towards the nearest city of Toft, traveling down the rugged road out of the village. I didn’t care how dark it was, I needed to leave. A sense of urgency filled me for the first ten minutes or so, like I had to start training to get my revenge as soon as possible. After that wore off, I quickly realized I had no idea who or possibly even what I needed to get revenge on, and despair threatened to overwhelm me.
A howl from the woods to my left froze me in place for a brief moment, until my legs caught up with my ears and quickly steered me off the path and into the woods on my right instead. I climbed the nearest tree I could find, and then slowly and carefully worked myself across tree branches until I was a decent bit away and no longer within easy sight of where I had been. Hopefully even if they caught my scent, they’d leave me alone after they lost me at the tree. I was a little surprised the wolves were this close to the village in the first place, but after thinking about it for a minute, I realized they must have smelled the death and fire from the village.
I’ve never met a predator too proud to turn scavenger at the thought of a free meal. After a few minutes had passed and I didn’t hear any motion or further howls, I decided to string up my blanket in the branches and make a hammock. I’d travel again once it was light enough. It felt like forever before sleep took me, and when it finally did, I was plagued with images of the screelings devouring my family right in front of me, while some unseen force held me back.
I woke with the birds, and they seemed particularly annoyed by my presence in their domain. Thirst wracked me, so I drained a small portion of the watering skin I had brought from the remains of my hut. I should be able to make Toft by late afternoon if I started out now, and another night in the woods was distinctly unappealing.
After my brief repast and repack, I was back on the path to the city. The road was empty, but that wasn’t surprising. The harvest wasn’t due for a few more weeks yet, and usually the village would be too busy celebrating our newly advanced adults to provide much in terms of hospitality.
Thankfully, this day was an uneventful one, and I made good time as I kept a quick pace. As the sun was just finishing it’s crest and beginning its descent in the sky, Toft came into view.
According to a few of the richer merchants who occasionally passed through, Toft could only barely qualify as a city in the first place, but it still struck me with wonder. Each of the buildings had been carefully crafted by some of the finest mages in this corner of the world, so while it wasn’t particularly large or grandiose, the craftsmanship was exceptional. The outer wall was over 25 feet high and completely spotless, the light-gray stone radiating solidity. The gates were currently open, showcasing the clean red cobbles lining the roads. The houses were mostly wooden, with the occasional signboard advertising an inn or shop of some kind.
A pair of guards flanked the gate, though they seemed to be facing each other and having a conversation rather than watching the road I was traveling down. They were outfitted with simple chain mail and an unadorned helmet each, as well as a pike. A short time after the city came into view, I got close enough that they noticed me and I saw an instant change overcome them both as they snapped to attention. Alarmingly, they both leveled their pikes at me as well. I glanced down at myself and realized why immediately. My clothes were torn and ragged, with crusted blood at the edges of both sleeves. I cautiously eased my hands upwards, palms out, and waited for the guards to address me.
“Not one step further vagabond!” the younger of the two shouted at me, causing me to wince and cringe slightly. Now that I was closer, he didn’t look much older than me, just on the cusp of his adult growth, with a light blond fuzz showing that he was trying to grow a beard, though it was patchy. His blue eyes were glaring at me as though he thought this would be his chance to practice his training.
“Easy now, Roderick. I daresay this one’s had the rough of it, and not the other way around, judging by the state of him,” the older guard had already lowered his pike at this point and was gazing at me with something close to pity in his dark amber colored eyes. His beard was a dark straw color, though it was starting to show some gray. It gouged at some raw part of me that he could glimpse even the tiniest portion of my pain.
“Easy now boy, we won’t hurt you. What happened? Are you all right?”
His gentle tone and question made my breath hitch for a moment, and the tears threatened to return. My mind flashed back to the sightless eyes of my father trapped under the wall. How could I explain? I still didn’t even know where the dark rider had come from, or why he had been there. The description of the screelings sounded like a childish nightmare. And what had that voice been? Where had the light that had flowed through me come from? Why couldn’t I feel my mana pool anymore?! I slowly mastered myself and found that the older guard’s gaze had progressed to full-pity, bordering even on remorse. The younger guard had lowered his pike as well.
“The village of Kvivik has been wiped out,” I stated plainly, though my voice hitched a little. Both guards gasped and it looked as though Roderick would begin questioning me, but the older guard waved him to silence.
“I think I am the only survivor. My family… my father…”
I wanted to say more, but my voice gave out finally, and the grief felt like a mule kicking me in the chest. The tears began to spill again, great gasping sobs, and the added shame of crying in front of these men made me clench my fists so tightly that I felt my fingernails cut open my palms. I tried to continue to explain to the guardsmen, but my voice simply wouldn’t allow it. Eventually, when I had calmed down a little, the older guard made a placating gesture to me when I tried to resume my tale.
“Easy lad, easy. If Kvivik has been destroyed, the mayor will need to hear your tale anyways. My name is Geoffrey, and I would ask you to please wait here with Roderick until I get back from the nearby barracks. Okay?” The older guard asked me, gesturing towards the city. When I nodded, he turned to Roderick.
“Don’t badger him now Roderick, I’ll make sure they send replacements for both of us, so you’ll get to hear his tale in due time, alright?”
Roderick sheepishly nodded, and Geoffrey took off at a brisk walk into the city. Now that the grief had died down my palms were stinging fiercely, so I sat down and pulled my ragged shirt off while pulling out one of the spares I had packed and donning it. I tore a sleeve off the old shirt and turned it into strips, tying it around my palms. I looked up to see Roderick looking at me with a strange expression I couldn’t quite identify. It made me uncomfortable, so I took my waterskin and pooled a little bit into my hands and wiped my face, using the last pieces of the sleeve to towel off. Now mildly cleaned up, I stood and waited for Geoffrey to return.
“Why don’t you have any mana?” Roderick suddenly blurted at me. “Are you really even human?”
“What? Of course I’m human!” I shouted a little louder than I intended back at him, then winced at my outburst. I was a man now, I shouldn’t allow such ridiculous statements to phase me. But even as I told myself this, a voice whispered in the back of my mind that he was right. What kind of person didn’t have mana?
“I don’t understand what happened… the dark rider showed up as soon as I finished my Trial and people starting dying.”
I understood his suspicions, as before now I had never seen or even heard of anyone born without mana. It was like hearing someone was born without a head. Other deformities could occur. Our world was no stranger to babies born blind, deaf, or mute. Mana was a constant force in every human being, without exception.
I realized a crowd was starting to gather just inside the gates, with several people gesturing at me. I flared with embarrassment, hoping they hadn’t heard what Roderick has just asked me, or my outburst. Luckily, I also saw Geoffrey returning with two other guards in tow. I breathed a quick sigh of relief, knowing that I wouldn’t have to worry about the crowd or the townsfolk soon. My worry crept right back when I realized I would have to try to truly explain yesterday’s events when I was taken to the mayor, however.
“Okay lads, we’ll be back once the mayor has decided what to do,” Geoffrey told the new guards, then turned and gestured for Roderick and I to follow him.
“Sorry we can’t show you more hospitality and comfort, but until the mayor has heard your story and we know if we need to prepare for some threat, we’ll need to move quickly.”
He immediately suited words to actions and started striding towards the center of town, marching at double time. Roderick, taller than both of us, fell into step next to him easily enough. I was forced to do a sort of half-jogging skip to keep up. The streets weren’t crowded, but it was just after lunch so there were a decent number of people about. We received a few inquisitive looks, but no undue attention as we moved through the city.
I had never been permitted to come to Toft with my parents before, as children were rarely permitted to leave the village. Once you had passed your Trial and you’ve learned a few spells, my father had always told me. Now I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to cast spells again. Every attempt I had made to channel mana had failed. My mind skittered away from these thoughts again, unable to cope with the thought of never being able to feel mana again.
Instead I immersed myself in the sights and smells around me, the thousands of things I have never seen momentarily overwhelming my trauma. I smelled bread baking and meat grilling from a few of the taverns and inns we passed as they prepared for the dinner rush. I saw light fixtures charged with bright white mana stones, an expense my mother had always called foolish, but each one caught and through it’s gleaming light in different fantastic patterns on every street corner. Father had told me that when dusk fell they shifted through the colors of the sunset, and that the sight alone was worth the expense.
The buildings were mostly two storied, though there was the occasional three story or larger building. Every so often there was also a squat little stone barracks with guards training out front. I began to wonder what those merchants considered a true city when we had been walking for a little over half an hour and still had not arrived at the town center yet, when we reached the inner city.
Here, as was immediately obvious, was where the true mages lived. In the outer city, there had been the occasional spell for simple chores, such as small earth and wind spells that several of the busboys had used to move patio furniture while sweeping under them. The first spell I saw was being conducted by a gravitational smith, in an empty lot that must have existed for just such a purpose, who condensed the entire contents of the lot into a small silver ring. An impatient noble held out a hand to accept the ring and swept off through the streets afterwards, leaving his attendant to settle the matter of payment.
A block farther in, a wind mage was imbuing kites and the front of his store writhed with lifelike motions of paper dragons, birds, and sea creatures. Past that, an earth mage was shifting loose dirt into marble while also forming it into the most lifelike statue I had ever seen, and then accenting it with strands of silver and gold in the statues clothes.
Each corner held another mage doing some incredible feat, but after the first few blocks I was too overwhelmed to pay attention to them all anymore. This entire stretch of city housed mages that would make my village’s best look like… well the backwater bumpkins we were I supposed. I scowled at that thought, and then my anger turned into anguish as I realized that there no longer were mages in Kvivik at all. I ignored the remaining blocks as we continued towards the mayor.
When we reached the town square, I didn’t even register it. There was a fountain, and while it was a beautiful fountain complete with ornate statues, it paled in comparison to Qadira’s Fount. But the buildings surrounding it were incredible. I had never seen such massive solid buildings, and I knew immediately that the same earth mages that had built the wall had built these. They were the same light-gray markless stone of the walls, and they radiating power and somehow time.
The middle building was on a diagonal and took up the entire corner of the square we had walked into, easily the tallest of all the buildings I had seen since entering Toft. It had a large clock-face hovering in the air, and a large bronze bell behind it. There was no clapper in the bell, nor were the arms on the clock-face. There were only shadows instead, and I realized that the entire clock-face was actually made of light mana. It was such an extravagant display that I was frozen solid when I first noticed it, and it was not until they had reached the steps of the same the building that they realized I was no longer with them.
Geoffrey called out to me and finally broke me from my reverie. I rushed towards them and we went into the building that must contain the mayor. We walked up the steps of the incredible building, and the large banded wooden door was pushed open, my meeting and fate that much closer.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
As we entered the building I noticed strange glass lanterns on the walls, but the lights inside were too bright for me to tell what they were. Some new kind of mana stone? Most light mana stones would burn out within a day, surely this city wasn’t so rich that they could replace a buildings worth of stones every day? Confused, I shifted my focus to the rest of the interior of the building. The walls were more of the same light-gray stone I was already familiar with, with sconces holding the mana stones every 20 feet or so. It was as bright as the midmorning sun despite the total lack of windows. The entryway was a small hallway, leading to a room with a desk that sat a very bored looking young woman behind it.
She had magenta hair down to her shoulders, and her eyes were a steely flint color. There was a large tapestry behind her that showed the city surrounded by beasts, its defenders casting spells down from the wall. The room was triangular, with the entrway funneling into the room at one point, and two more hallways sweeping back at the other two points behind where the desk was situated. The doors at the ends of the short hallways were just as stately as the front door had been.
Geoffrey turned to me and motioned towards a bench along the wall that faced the desk. I nodded and went to sit down, thinking about what questions the mayor might ask me and trying not to cringe at the memories. I shied away from the future as well, not wanting to even imagine where I could go from here. Couldn’t focus on the present either, with my sense of mana and my own mana pool still completely eluding me. So instead I intensely studied the tapestry behind the desk, trying to identify the beasts besieging the city. Luckily none of them were six-legged red-skinned monstrosities.
As I settled down to wait Geoffrey talked quietly with the girl behind the desk, whose bored expression evaporated instantly. He gestured at me once or twice and she asked a few questions, but he shook his head and she hurried off down the hallway on my left. Roderick muttered something under his breath to Geoffrey after she left, looking at me while he did it. Geoffrey cuffed him lightly and growled something back, but when he turned to look at me I saw a deep sadness in his eyes.
My fears overwhelmed my poor attempts to ignore then and ran screaming through my head, gibbering at me that Geoffrey knew what had happened to my mana pool. Dark thoughts of being unable to ever channel again drew my focus until Geoffrey shouting from across the room broke me from my unpleasant reverie.
“Boy!” his strong bass timbre carrying a note of annoyance, showing this probably wasn’t his first attempt to get my attention.
“Come, the mayor wants to see us immediately.”
I quickly shot up, almost losing my balance as I moved too quickly to heed his words. I blushed and felt it rise into my face as I hurried across the room, looking down to avoid their eyes. Thus, I didn’t notice that they must have started walking down the hallway before I even got there. When I realized, I scrambled after them, half-jogging to catch up and blushing even deeper. I needn’t have worried, as now that we were on the way to the mayor my three escorts were all hurrying on ahead.
We entered the door at the end of the hallway, which revealed another corridor, though this one had rooms all down its length. There were stone plaques painted with the names of departments on each one. I shook my head in amazement when I realized that they needed entire departments to handle the operations of the city, especially after reading things like the Manascanning Department on one of the very first few doors.
Geoffrey called out from further down the hallway, and I realized they were waiting on me once again. We continued down the hallway which dead-ended into a staircase. Here, it was as though Geoffrey remembered himself and he gestured for the receptionist to lead the way. He waved me up after her and brought up the rear with Roderick. The blush returned slightly to my cheeks when I realized it was probably to keep me from stopping to read the signs again.
I followed the woman up five flights of stairs until we finally reached the top floor and proceeded through a hallway lined with yet more doors along one wall. The other wall was one incredibly long sheet of glass, and I would have stopped to stare in awe if not for Geoffrey’s polite prodding to continue. I tried to look out the window while we walked along, but the only details I could make out were an inner courtyard that seemed to take up half of the block that the building sat on. I thought I saw some practice dummies lined up along one of the walls, but I didn’t have enough time to focus on them and find out.
Just like that we were at the most ornate door in the building. It seemed to be the only door that also wasn’t designed with defense in mind, as it lacked the iron banding present on every other door we had passed. The receptionist knocked on the door and after a brief pause, just long enough for me to take a deep breath, a gravely woman’s voice told us to enter.
The door pivoted easily on its hinges and for once, the interior of a room of this building wasn’t the gray of the natural stone. Instead, the walls were a pastel blue and the floor was adorned with a multicolored rug. There was a finely crafted wooden clock on the wall with two long pendulums hanging underneath it, as well as a few paintings depicting forests and fields. At the far end of the room there was a massive desk that somehow conveyed the gravitas of the mayor’s position. Behind her on the wall were 5 portraits of people I didn’t recognize, three women and two men all in their middle years, the cities founders perhaps.
Seated at the desk was a matronly woman with steely gray hair tied back in a bun. Her eyes were the most vivid violet I had ever seen, and she was staring straight at me. I was instantly reminded of my mother in her stern countenance, and that thought almost betrayed me by threatening to unleash the grief burning in my chest. It must have shown in my face because something passed behind her eyes and her gaze softened. She turned to look at the receptionist and motioned for her to leave.
“And close the door on your way out please, Alice,” she said, turning her attention to Geoffrey after dismissing the receptionist.
“Have you sent men to search for survivors and verify the boy’s story already, Commander?”
I swiveled to Geoffrey, shocked to find out that someone of his rank had been on simple gate duty. It would have been like finding my father greeting people entering the village, and I wondered briefly if somehow the city had been involved in the attack on Kvivik. Had this been a mistake somehow? The commander had seemed kind and sympathetic, could this have been a trap somehow? My thoughts took darker and darker turns, but in the end it didn’t matter. If it was a trap I was already within its jaws.
“Yes ma’am, when I was seeing to replacements for our watch I instructed a full battalion to be formed up and depart as soon as possible. If they’re not already on their way, they will be shortly.” Geoffrey replied.
“After seeing the state the boy was in when he arrived at the gate I felt I could do nothing less.”
“I think a full battalion may be a bit overkill, Commander, but clearly the boy has been cleaned up a bit since you saw him,” she shifted her gaze to me and continued.
“Now boy, I am Mayor Fram. What is your name?”
“My name is Zakai, ma’am,” I told her, bowing slightly. “Forgive me, but I passed my Trial of Adulthood yesterday. I am no longer a boy.”
“Very well, Zakai. Forgive me, you must be very talented for your parents to have allowed you to attempt the Trial at your age,” She nodded at my statement.
“Now, please, tell us what has happened to Kvivik. Are we under threat of an attack?”
“No ma’am, at least I don’t think so.” I answered her second question first, trying to gather my thoughts without letting grief take control.
“It was the morning of the Trial and we had gathered to take our tests…”
I related the tale to her, but omitted the portion about my meeting with the Gods. I still wasn’t sure what to think of it myself, and since no one else seemed to remember what had happened during their own Trials I still wasn’t sure if it wasn’t just a dream. I told her of coming back, and even mentioned my unusual results, though with no pride in it. I think I was hoping she might have heard of something like it before and it might be related to my lack of mana pool. I told her of the screaming, and the beasts, and the dark rider. When I got to the portion of the tale where I needed to relate my family’s fate I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. I burned with shame and averted my eyes to the floor as I haltingly tried to continue, but she interrupted me.
It’s okay, son, take your time. Losing family hurts long after the wounds fade,” she told me. Suddenly a stone mug started forming in front of me and then filling with water, causing me to jump. I hadn’t felt even the barest whisper of mana, and this was the first time someone had performed a spell directly in front of me. It was very jarring. A second later I remembered my manners and thanked her before drinking the water she had just conjured for me.
After a few moments, I had settled down and steeled myself enough to continue. Voice creaking under the strain, I related to them how I found my mother being eaten by one of the monsters, and my father’s efforts to save me. I bitterly voiced my cowardice at being unable to force myself to try to go back and help them, and my flight from the town. I told them of the dark rider, and then the light coming from the sky and the beam that came out of me. I avoided mentioning the voice at the time, unsure if it was tied in some way to my meeting with the Gods.
“When I awoke, the dark rider was gone, as were all the screelings. The town was burning and when I returned to my home, I found my father buried under the back wall of the same room he had thrown me from. I had to bury him by covering him up with the loose rubble around him,” I clenched my fists nearly to the point of breaking the skin again at the memory, but forced myself to continue.
“I gathered what little I could from my hut and tried to check for survivors but the heat from the fires was too great for me to search the town. I fled the village and was forced to hide in the forest after hearing wolves in the night, but came straight here.”
They were silent for a few moments while they processed my story. The mayor had a worried and dark look about her, Geoffrey was looking at me with pity and remorse again, and Roderick just looked scared. Eventually Mayor Fram looked up from her desk and asked me a question.
“You called the beasts ‘screelings’, where did you hear that name, Zakai?” she asked me with an intense look on her face, the sternness returning to her countenance.
“I— I must have heard it from my parents, ma’am,” I stumbled at my mistake. She was silent for a few more moments and then finally asked another question.
“Have you been able to channel or sense mana since you woke up after confronting this dark rider, as you called him?” The same steel in her gaze, implying that these questions were very important.
“N—no ma’am, I haven’t been able to even feel the presence of mana at all ever since then. Have you seen this before? Will it wear off, or is there some way to fix it? Please,” I begged her, tripping over my words in my rush to clarify my hopes.
She stared at me over the tops of her clasped hands for a bit, and I could tell she was weighing what to tell me. She then turned to Geoffrey and started issuing orders to him, and I almost cried out at her ignoring my pleading.
“Commander, if screelings were truly involved then it seems your caution was not only prudent but also didn’t extend quite far enough. Send a message to dispatch a contingent of mages with the soldiers at once. Make sure Duncan goes with them. I don’t care how promising that vein of Vanadium they’ve found is, he is to scan the area personally. Make sure Boyd is with the contingent as well, just in case there are any of the demons left.” She fired off at the man, then dismissed him and Roderick. She turned back to me once again.
“I’m not sure how to tell you this young man, so I’ll just say it. From what you describe, it sounds as though under the stress of the situation you channeled all of the light mana around the area at the screelings’ summoner. Doing so must have burned out your mana channels and destroyed your mana pool. It doesn’t happen often, but its not the first case I’ve heard of. There is no way to fix it. I’m sorry.”
Just like that, the hope that had been propping me up was yanked out from underneath me. Burned my mana channels? Destroyed my mana pool? How could such a thing even happen when I didn’t even know how to cast a spell? What had really happened to me? I felt numb, but she wasn’t done yet.
“I’m not sure if you’ve really told me the whole story, or maybe your innate talent for mana was enough to enable you to cast a spell that massive with no knowledge of spells otherwise. Casting a light spell against a dark summoner as well speaks either to the luckiest of circumstances, divine providence, or facts that have not been revealed,” she still had her stern visage locked on me, and inside I quaked that she might level some punishment on me for hiding things from her.
“However, the fact is that you’ve also been through a situation so traumatic and horrible that I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. You’ve also warned us of an incursion of demonic beasts a little less than a days walk from our city. Therefore, while you are here you will have my full support. I will see to it that you have food and shelter, as well as access to all levels of our library and research departments. I’ll be here to discuss your options whenever you need, but I suggest you get some rest. I’ve signaled Alice to take you to my family’s estate.”
Clearly dismissed, I waited a few short minutes for Alice’s return and then followed her out of the building. She seemed to be relishing the opportunity to be away from her desk for a short period, and I was too unfeeling to particularly care where we were headed or how long it took us to get there. She tried to point out a few sights and buildings on the way, but after getting no reaction from me she seemed to give up, and then picked up her pace.
It took us almost as long as it had taken to get to the city hall from the walls, though I had no clue what direction we had been traveling. We arrived at a gated area that was almost as large as the city hall building had been, with a path leading through a well-tended garden.
This building had clearly not been built by the same utilitarian minds as the wall and city hall building had been. It was finely crafted marble with fluted pillars and large windows. The entrance way was a large double door, framed by an ornate awning with incredible statues holding it up instead of the pillars.
“Wait here for a moment please, Zakai,” Alice had me stop before we reached the gatehouse while she went to talk to the guard inside. She had a short conversation with him and then came back to me.
“The mayor actually houses some of the orphans of the city here, so there will be some kids your age. I’ll escort you to the door, and then the butler will show you to you rooms.”
“I’m not a kid.” I told her, though it felt hollow and fake. “I passed my Trial.”
She turned back and gave me a strange look, but she didn’t say anything else as we crossed the garden. When we arrived at the door, she pulled a rope hanging to the side of the door and bells could be heard chiming inside the manor. A few seconds later a woman with cerulean hair wearing a gray uniform opened the door. She seemed to recognize Alice and she curtsied slightly towards her.
“Naomi, good to see you. This is Zakai, he will be staying here for the foreseeable future. Mayor Fram asked if you would make him feel at home and ensure he gets some rest, he’s had a very rough go of it.” Alice said, gesturing towards me and smiling at Naomi. Just then my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten anything other than jerky since before all this happened. Both women were slightly startled by the noise, but then Alice chuckled.
“Apparently, he needs food as well. Now, Zakai, Mayor Fram will also be sending you a few documents telling the city guards that you’re allowed into places like the library and research departments, please wait until those arrive before venturing out of the manor’s grounds. I’ve got to get back before she starts thinking I used this trip as an excuse to take the rest of the day off, but you’re in good hands with Naomi. See you both later.”
Alice nodded at both of us and then went back the way we came. Naomi curtsied to me this time and then motioned for me to follow her. She led me to the kitchen without a word, and then got the cook’s attention. She gestured at me and the cook just nodded and started making some kind of sandwich. When he finished I ate it quickly since they were both watching me, but I didn’t care how it really tasted.
Naomi nodded when I was done and proceeded to lead me through the rest of the house. We passed room after room, the manor was probably large enough that it could have housed half of Kvivik comfortably. That thought raked its nails on the stone of my spine. We went all the way to a corner of the building and she opened the door to a room that was bigger than the entirety of my hut had been. She gestured inside, and then finally spoke for the first time since I had entered the house.
“This will be your room while you’re here. Any clothes that need washing should be left in this basket every morning. The kitchen is always open to you, but I will show you the dining room tomorrow if you wish to eat with the rest of the children of the house,” Her voice was melodic, putting me in mind of a songbird.
“Feel free to explore the house or the grounds at your leisure. Please pull this rope when you have finished resting, and a member of the staff will see to your needs and show you the bathing room. Do you have any questions?”
I walked to the bed while she was explaining all of this and sat down, putting my pack on the floor next to it. It was the softest bed I had ever experienced, I sank down several inches as soon as I sat on it. I couldn’t muster the energy to answer her, so I just shook my head while staring off into the distance. A few seconds later I heard the door shut behind her as she left.
For the first time since the forest, I was truly alone with my thoughts. A crushing black weight settled down in the pit of my stomach and I slumped onto my back on the bed, hoping for the oblivion of sleep. A few minutes later I was still staring at the ceiling, trying to hold back the tears. My family was dead. My village was razed. My mana pool was gone and my mana channels destroyed. The tears started and I sobbed myself to sleep.
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I found myself in a dichotomy of space. On my left, nothing but the blackest pitch aside from a perfect circle of white. On my right, only white containing a perfect circle of black. The closer I looked at either circle, the more fuzzy their shape became. Suddenly both circles resolved into wolves, one of pure darkness, the other of blinding light. And they began to circle me, while the backgrounds they existed in followed them.
“We’ve finally found him, sister,” the black wolf growled out, causing every hair on my body to raise.
“He ran quickly but his scent is still so obvious, especially in this little asshole of the world.”
“Yes, brother dearest, we’ve tracked him down,” the white wolf almost howled out, and my skin crawled.
“The little lost lamb ripe for the eating is right in front of us.”
At first, fear crawled all over me, running its hands through my hair and whispering that it would finally be over once they just closed in and ate me. Dread came along for the ride, giggling that at least it would all be over. Gloom poured itself into me from the tips of my feet to the strands of my hair. I felt despair swallow me and waited for the killed jaws to find their way into my throat. Then, the wolves started laughing.
“Oh dear brother, he truly is a lost little lamb,” the white wolf truly did howl this time, with laughter ringing through her repulsive voice.
“What luck! He doesn’t even have the will to fight us before we eat him!”
“Does the poor little lamb want his momma sheep to come save him?” the black wolf apparently found his own joke hilarious, as he started laughing so hard he actually quit pacing for a brief moment.
“Too bad little lamb! We already ate mommy, and daddy, and both of your little sisters too!”
Something clicked in my thoughts at his callous talk, and suddenly their voices resolved in my mind. Varyk and Trakaris. The twin Gods who had presided over my Trial of Adulthood. I turned slowly and locked eyes with the black wolf, with Varyk. My fists clenched and my breathing became ragged. He saw my attention turn to him in the midst of his disgusting cavorting and his giggling reached a fever pitch.
“Oh no! Did I hurt the little lambs feelings?” he choked out.
“Enough Varyk. As fun as this is, we can’t waste too much time here or one of the others could discover what we’re doing. Let us devour his soul and be done with it.” Trakaris’s voice cut through his laughter and left it dead.
I swiveled to look behind me and locked eyes with her as well. The cruelty I said seen in the testing chamber lay bare this time, the veneer stripped away. I had never seen such unfathomable hatred and sadistic pleasure combined, and it almost made me quail. My father’s face suddenly sprang into my thoughts, looking down on me with pride, just as he had when I had returned from my Trial and my godly talent had been revealed. Pride I would never get to experience again. Pride that had been torn from me and left buried under the ruins of my family home.
I was barreling across the expanse surrounding me when my thoughts had cleared enough to recognize anything other than the red haze of wrath and bloodlust that now colored my world. The white of her fur was dyed a bloody red in my gaze and it reminded me of my little sisters’ blood trailing to their room. I was screaming hatred and defiance, my voice briefly the deep baritone it would become before cracking and rising into my childish tenor.
If I had not been focusing so intently on Trakaris as I charged, I might never have noticed that a spark of fear passed across her bestial, wolven face before being masked by mocking cruelty once more. At the sight of that fear, my very soul cried out with me from deep in my core. A flash of light passed over me, and suddenly my body was surrounded by a constellation of stars. They resolved instantly into the form of a tiger, and suddenly I was mounted on its back. The fear returned to Trakaris’s countenance once again, and this time she yipped like something had struck her.
“NO!” A voice as much force as noise thundered. “THIS CANNOT COME TO PASS. NOT IN THIS PLACE.”
The very air itself rent apart and the void swallowed everything.