“I’ve been trapped here for five hundred years. I’ve died tens of thousands of times, many times from starvation, most from thirst. Many from suicide…” As the streams of tears on his face began to thicken, his voice showed signs of instability despite having regained its youthful vigour. “But no matter how many times I’ve challenged this damned curse, it’s always led me to the same realization.” Growing quiet for a moment, he whispered into the perturbing silence, “The curse of immortality can’t be broken.”
“Why paralyze me?” Alistar’s voice was anxious despite his efforts to keep calm. “So long as you break the seal on this cave, you can leave! Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“It’s nice to get a clear look at you. I had a feeling you were a handsome lad.” Gnashing his teeth together and looking away in shame, Aglain wept for a few moments before he regained a bit of control over his emotions. “I really did appreciate you. A wonderful person, just like your ancestor. Just like Dalia.”
Alistar was filled with dread. “What is this, Aglain? What about our agreement? You’re supposed to help me save my friend. You…you’re making it seem like you plan to go back on your word!”
“I never planned to help you, as much as I wanted to. Honestly speaking, I really am fond of you, as if you were my own flesh and blood. I really am. And yet…and yet…” He trailed off into another shaky stretch of silent tears.
“What do you plan on doing?” Glancing at his hands, Alistar cursed himself for having worn his limiters for this of all visits. Even if he wanted to break the spell that was holding him in place, he would never be able to do it so long as Aglain was in possession of the ancient crystal.
“I plan to remove this horrid curse, once and for all.”
“I thought you said it couldn’t be broken?”
After another brief silence, Aglain let out a self-depreciating whimper. “It can’t.” Looking around the cave that had tortured him for countless decades, his gaze became indescribably pained. “I wish I had it in me to help you, Alistar. I wish I had the courage to fight the battles that surely need to be fought, to save the people of this world regardless of the fact that they believe me a villain, but Aglain of Lahn died a long time ago. There’s no longer a place for him in this world. After all I’ve been through…I just want the suffering to end.”
A great amount of energy suddenly poured out of the crystal in Aglain’s hand, so much that it gave life to a strong wind that was made all the more violent by the size and shape of the cave. Without hesitating, he tossed it into his mouth and swallowed it down, causing the windstorm to die away.
“Don’t you want to find out why your wife settled in this area?” pleaded Alistar, who got the sense that he was in imminent danger. It had been difficult, but he’d regained his composure after forcing himself through the meditations that Tramon had drilled into his head. “Don’t you want to get revenge for what happened to you?”
Voice ridden with guilt and self-disgust, Aglain said, “You’ll understand after you—once you experience it for yourself.”
With the man’s words ringing throughout his head like the toll of an alarm bell, Alistar struggled with all of his might to move his body but found no success. Making use of as much inner energy as was available to him, he attempted to disrupt the spell that bound him in place but only wound up causing a terrible, burning pain to erupt all throughout his body. He had never suffered such a magical backlash before, but it was to be expected considering that the binding spell was fueled by a powerful source and that the level of magic at play was likely to be incredibly high. Another consequence of his struggling was that the flames that he’d summoned earlier were suddenly dismissed as he lost hold of the spell that had kept them in place.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Without warning, Aglain fell to his knees as a globe of dark, crimson light leaked out of his chest like water seeping through a sponge. The strange energy immediately began to swirl around before forming an ominous orb that glowed dimly in the blackness. This made things all the more frightening, as the only thing Alistar could now see was Aglain’s conflicted expression, an empty look that told of an immense amount of mental damage.
“Just cleanse your mind, Aglain. Cleanse your mind and you won’t want to do this!”
“Some minds can’t be cleansed, lad. Not fully.” Speaking quietly so that his voice was no more than a whisper, he continued, “Or have you forgotten that you’ve already used a cleansing spell on me? All it did was allow me the chance to…” He shook his head, holding his hands out so that his palms walled in the strange, eerie light. Tears falling in full, Aglain fixed him with a deeply apologetic look. “Take the rest of my things. You’ll surely need them… You’ll…”Choking on his words, he said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
Striding forward, Aglain extended a lean, muscled arm and pressed the globe of light against Alistar’s chest, his appearance hauntingly framed by the eerie light and flickering shadows. The handsome man continued with his apologies as he guided the sinister energy into Alistar’s body, which caused an indescribable, mind-breaking pain to take hold of him.
Alistar began to scream.
It wasn’t just his body that felt as if it had suddenly been doused in hot oil and set aflame, but his mind as well. Migraines were suddenly pleasant and desirable in comparison to the terrible sensation that seemed to cut down to his very core, as if someone had hammered a large nail of ice directly into his skull.
It wasn’t until a few minutes after he fell to the ground that Alistar realized that he had regained control of his body, but he could do nothing about it as the unspeakable pain continued to torment him. Meditations were useless when his mind was blank and burning, and so too were his senses. All he knew was pain, and all he felt was fright.
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”
Aglain’s whimpering voice had regained its aged rasp, though Alistar couldn’t see him now that the fires had been extinguished and the light of the man’s spell had disappeared. Not that it mattered, for he was so far lost in the throes of agony that it wouldn’t have made the slightest difference to his perceptions.
Writhing around on the cold floor of the cave while screaming at the top of his lungs, Alistar finally fainted from the torturous feeling, his heart hammering in alarm as the blackness took on a sudden, sinister silence.
***
Alistar awoke to a merciless headache that stole away all of his focus from the moment that he blinked open his gunk-encrusted eyes. His belongings lay scattered about, tossed around by the windstorm that had taken hold of the cave in the nightmarish moments before he had lost consciousness.
His body no longer hurt, but his head felt as if it had been grievously injured.
“Ah,” he cried, unable to keep his eyes open long enough to see the state of things around him. “H—help…”
Alistar had never been so scared in his life, which was a significant fact considering all of the terrible things that he had survived through. He would never forget the pain that had stolen away his consciousness, or the fright that he’d felt when Aglain’s demeanour had taken a sudden, disturbing turn.
Without registering that sunlight was pouring in from outside of the cave or that the forest was now visible beyond its mouth, he forced himself to his feet and fled at a slow, stumbling run that saw him face-plant into a patch of bluegrass that lay just outside of the threshold. Ignoring the sensation of hot blood gushing out of his nostrils, he stumbled out into the forest and began to flee in an aimless direction. His legs felt as if they were made of the densest of metals, his skin numb and unfeeling as he strode through a thicket of barbed red thorns.
The severity of the pain in his head was too prominent for him to maintain any sort of rational thought, and it threatened to render him unconscious again at any moment. Knowing that he was incredibly vulnerable and in grave danger, the only thought on his mind was fleeing the forest and all of the potential predators within it.
Fueled by mindless fear, Alistar continued to drag his feet forward in frantic flight, leaning on tree trunks at every opportunity and falling to the ground quite frequently as he pushed himself onward despite his failing faculties.
He needed to flee as far away from Aglain as possible. He needed to go home.