Another full day was spent scanning the barks and leaves of Coed’s Forest for any sign of the Dark Entity, though by this point Arwen was half-convinced the thing didn’t have a den or any sort of hiding spot when it wasn’t attacking the town. The mood of the group was very subdued, for the niggling doubts in their mind suggested the Dark Entity problem may have already solved itself, and most including Arwen missed their home in Cyfoeth dearly. The search was done, but without much vigour.

Afterwards, they had ate at the Inn, bathed, then quietly retreated to their rooms to sleep until the morning.

“Please tell me Hefin will meet today,” Cai begged Wynn when the professional man appeared during breakfast.

“He will,” Wynn confirmed. “He will meet you at noon, by the sundial.”

“Same as before?” Gwyn asked for confirmation.

“Same as before.”

-cut-

“Have you figured this out?” Hefin asked sullenly, sounding as though he didn’t particularly care what their response was. He wore the same plaited shirt, grey tunic, and dark trousers as he had on the last time they met and exuded an air of defeat with his hunched posture. His eyes were bleary and red, as if he had been drinking, and sweat stains adorned the undersides of his arms.

“We are very close,” Arwen took the lead this time and promised. “I just have one question for you.”

She reached into her pocket and clenched her hand around the Light Gem in anticipation. In the corner of her eye, Wynn, who was stood beside the mayor, frowned at her odd movement but didn’t raise any objection. “What’s this question, then?” Hefin looked up at Arwen to find the Princess gazing more so at his chest.

Deep breath in, and Arwen exhaled before laying on the question. “What happened the night your father disappeared?”

Wynn’s face creased firstly in confusion, then suspicion, for he recalled the Princess had already asked that question to the mayor. Hefin himself appeared to get slightly cross at the repeated question, too, but before any of them could speak, Arwen trapped him with her eyes.

A COLOSSAL CLANGING noise woke Hefin Mostyn with a start.

“Attack!” an unfamiliar voice screamed from their front door. It was muted and slightly muffled by Hefin’s bedroom walls, but he could just about make out the words. “The creature is back!”

Hefin rolled out of bed and began to scramble for his shoes. Thankfully, his eyes had already adapted to the grainy darkness of his room and he was able to locate the dark silhouettes of his boots easily enough. As he was tugging them on, he heard his father’s door swing open. “What’s happening?” the deep resounding voice of Myrddin Mostyn reverberated through Hefin’s bedroom walls.

“The Dark Entity is back!” the voice cried. Hefin’s spine tingled at the panicked tone of the man’s voice. “It broke through the wall just a few moments ago! It’s in Alaru!”

“Shit!” his father cursed. “Hefin!”

But Hefin had already emerged from his room. “Father. What’s happening?”

“We need to evacuate,” father told him. He grabbed Hefin by the arm and led him to the door. Outside, the cold air was permeated the shrieks and bone-jolting cries of the entity, whilst human voices distantly yelled commands and orders to each other. “Run to the town centre, by the sundial. I will be right behind you.”

“Dad!” Hefin called as he was pushed out by his father.

“Run! I’ll be there soon, trust me.” His father turned towards the man who had broken into their house. “Where’s Wynn?”

“He’s being awoken,” the man replied. “He should be out of bed by now.”

“Good, now go and help the soldiers defend the town!”

The man nodded and sprinted towards the chaos that could not be seen, only heard, between the small alleys separating the wooden houses that obstructed Hefin’s view of the wall. Chorus yells of “fire!” and the odd scream of agony grated his ears as he stood motionless, waiting for his father to join him in their evacuation to the square. But when father turned to him, he grew angry. “What are you still doing?! For God’s sake, run!”

Hefin was jolted out of his inaction. He started to jog deeper into Alaru, the town of which he had spent his entire life growing up in. The town of which he used to hunt for, provide for. Now, it was being attacked by a creature known as the Dark Entity, a being no one understood nor could hurt. The cold air whipped harshly across Hefin’s face as he went, the scrunching of the dirt road beneath him barely audible over the cacophony of shrieks and yells behind him. The darkness made it hard to see anything but shadowy shapes, for the stars and moon’s light was obscured by dark clouds overhead.

It took him ten seconds of jogging to realise he couldn’t hear a second set of footfalls behind him. Hefin slowed to a stop and turned around for his father, expecting to see him a few dozen metres behind. Instead, there was nothing.

A crying woman sprinted past Hefin, holding a screeching child in her arms as she desperately made her way to the town centre. Another man ran past, though Hefin knew by his build and bald head it couldn’t have been his father. Just where was he?

His chest heaved as he tried to make out the indescribable silhouettes in the darkness. He could not make heads or tails of it. Dad did say he would be running behind him, right?

And then he saw it. The dirt path Hefin was on gave him a direct sightline towards its accompanying outpost, where a torchlit gate leading to the forest lay as the only source of light in his field of view. Pushing past a running man, Hefin watched the unmistakable frame of his father enter the firelight at the gate and begin to pull at the chain to raise it.

“Dad!” Hefin screamed as loud as he could, but either his father didn’t hear him, or he ignored the call from his son. To this day, Hefin still didn’t know which was true. “Dad!”

He watched in horror as his Dad lifted the gate just high enough to squeeze through before extricating himself from the town’s walls. Then, without so much as a single look back, he ran into the darkness of Coed’s Forest.

“Dad!” Hefin screamed again, but instead of his father, a heavyset woman grabbed a hold of his shoulders.

“Run, dear!” she yelled at him. “Come on!”

She pulled Hefin by his arm, just as his father did when he had first woken up in this nightmare, but this time Hefin resisted as he pictured the last ever memory of his father, running away into the forest and abandoning his son.

How could he? How could he?!

Arwen was jolted out of the memory. The heavy emotions that weighed on her during the recollection combined with the suddenness at which she was yanked out of them never failed to freeze her mind for a spell.

She was facing Hefin when she had dived into his memories, but this time was different. This time, neither Wynn nor her retainers stood by.

“What happened?” Hefin was on the verge of panic. “Where are we?”

Arwen had half-expected this. The Light Gem was a healing artifact after all, and though she used it mostly as a tool for information, she knew that there was a good chance Hefin was still in a deep state of grief over his father.

She stared at Hefin, who was hugging himself and throwing jittery glances around the featureless plain of whatever dimension the Light Gem had placed them in. She felt calmer, oddly enough, unlike the first time she found herself here with Eryk. This time, it felt… right.

“Don’t panic,” Arwen tried to calm the disgruntled mayor down as she spied someone standing behind him. “There is someone waiting for you.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What?” Hefin stepped closer. “What do you mean?”

She had recognised him instantly. The man from the forest that she had seen was invisible to everyone but Arwen, but seeing him inside the Light Gem’s dimension confirmed his existence.

Arwen, to put it simply, had seen a ghost in the forest.

The Light Gem seemed not to need physical contact to project the ghost of Myrddin onto Arwen. Her second-best guess was that it required proximity to someone who had previously made use of it, or maybe a small window of closeness was required? Either way, Myrddin Mostyn, the previous mayor of Alaru and father of Hefin Mostyn, had returned.

Arwen pointed behind the panicked man, who whirled around and let out a loud gasp at the sight of the salt-and-pepper haired man stood mere metres behind him. “F-father?!”

“Hefin,” Myrddin’s voice was mournful as bridged the gap to his son and placed a hand on Hefin’s shoulder. “How have you been?”

Arwen watched from the side-lines as Hefin cringed away from the physical contact, causing Myrddin to appear somewhat hurt by the movement. He lowered his hand in silence. “Father… what are you doing here?! I… I thought you were dead!”

“I had left Alaru,” Myrddin’s eyes filled with pain. “But I have come back to meet you, son. I’m truly sorry for leaving you so suddenly…”

Hefin looked an equal mixture of shocked and uncomprehensive. “I- I don’t know what you mean…”

The new mayor’s father closed his eyes and clenched his fists, the weight of his own words bearing harshly on his form. “Son… I am no longer alive. I think you knew this by now, but I lost my life to the hands of what the soldiers called the Dark Entity the very night I left. What you are seeing now are the last vestiges of my soul.”

Hefin stiffened and forgot to breath. Arwen almost reached out to offer support, but she withheld, wanting to give the two their space. A tear spilled out of the mayor’s eye. “W- What happened to you?” he raised his head and grew angrier. “What happened to make you leave your son all alone?!”

“Son,” Myrddin looked so desperately like he wanted to reach out to Hefin, but he remained stood in place. “Listen carefully. Whether or not I died on that night never mattered. Fate had me marked from the beginning… my life was already fading.”

“No!” a sob escaped Hefin’s lips. He shook his head, hard, as if trying to rid himself of his own emotions. “You’re lying!”

Myrddin took a deep breath, if such a thing were even possible for a spirit, or ghost, or whatever it was Myrddin classified as. He began to speak, his eyes never once straying from his sons, even as tears began to brim onto his stoic face. “Son… I have no more reason to lie to you anymore. The beginning of my end started nearly five years ago when I spied a small mark upon my skin. I noticed it growing larger and more painful… and when I saw Jac, he… he confirmed that I had been marked by the Dark God. I soon realised that I had little time left. I- I couldn’t believe that I had been living life as I had been, unknowing that my days were slowly counting down.”

“Why are you telling me this?!” Hefin cried. Arwen knew where this was going, but the mayor’s agitated state was obscuring clear thought, masking the connection he needed to make to see the relevance. She placed a comforting hand on his back.

“Let him talk.”

“As the years went by,” Myddin continued despite his son’s distress, “I began to have troubles breathing. I developed a never-ending cough and lost my appetite in random bouts. I knew that I didn’t have long left when even my bones, the very foundation of my body, began to ache and shudder at the sheer weight of the Dark God’s assault. I… should have resigned as mayor, but I didn’t want Alaru de-stabilised during a time when stability was so direly needed in the war. So instead, I continued on while Wynn trained you for the position. I was mere days away from resigning when the Dark Entity first attacked…”

“You’re lying!” Hefin suddenly spat the words, sending flecks of saliva onto the ground where they intermixed with the thin layer of water lapping gently against their boots. “I would’ve noticed the signs! Jac would’ve told someone, word would’ve gotten around!”

Myrddin shook his head slowly. He was keeping a neutral expression, but Arwen could tell just how much emotional pain he was in. “I hid the signs from you. From all of you. Not even Wynn knew of my sickness, nor could Jac tell anyone. He’s a doctor, sworn to secrecy, and I made him swear on his mother’s life that he not spread a single word. He knew what was happening… the doctor… but there was little even he could do.”

“Why then?!” the tear-streaked mayor stepped forward aggressively towards his father. “Why not tell me?!”

“I was too prideful,” Myrddin finally averted his gaze. “And I found I couldn’t. My son knowing his old man will soon pass but not knowing exactly when… it would’ve been hell, Hefin. I couldn’t bear to impart such a burden onto you.”

“So, why run?! You could’ve stayed with me, yet you ran away like a coward!”

Myrddin closed his eyes and sighed deeply. The emotional toll the conversation was having on the dead man was evident in the slight loosening of his grand posture, the tightening of his moist eyes, and the weight of sadness lacing his voice. “That night, when the Dark Entity attacked, I came to a decision. My symptoms were worsening with every passing day, and I knew I had less than a few months left of life. I took a chance on saving the entire town, and abandoned you and our people to face the entity alone.”

A deep, weighted breath split up Myrddin’s story. “When I ran outside of those gates, I found the Dark Entity wondering just outside of the wall. The guards had done an admirable job in forcing it outside of the town once more, but they failed to give chase in stead of continuing evacuation efforts. I looted an axe off of an unfortunate soul who must have perished earlier that night to that evil beast, and threw it directly into the thing’s back.”

Hefin took a step back and shook his head wildly. He couldn’t fathom the words coming from his dead father’s mouth, it was too much for him to bear, yet he tried to make sense of it regardless. “You tried to fight it on your own?”

“No,” Myrddin denied the accusation. “When the axe buried itself into the entity, it turned and set its sights on me. I then spent the rest of the night and the entirety of the following daylight luring it deeper and deeper into Coed’s Forest, where I knew its slow, rambling movements would buy Alaru some precious time. The ordeal was painstaking, for the entity was slow and kept losing interest, but I had figured out that throwing stones at it set it off into a rage, thus inciting it to pursue again. I kept leading it, deeper and deeper, hoping that it’d never find its way back to Alaru ever again once lost in the depths of the forest, until I was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion. My final memories were of luring it into a rocky cave somewhere within the forest. I don’t know how deep I ventured into the cave, for my memory ends there, but I presume I eventually lost consciousness and either died, or was then killed by the Dark Entity.”

“So, that is why you disappeared that night? To try a desperate gambit at saving your people.” Arwen summarised Myrddin’s story for the sake of his son, whose lower lip was trembling while he stared wide-eyed at his father.

Myrddin, for the first time since his appearance, turned to the Princess and acknowledged her presence. “Yes, it was… I was a dying man who had nothing to lose.”

He turned to his son and visibly steeled himself against the onslaught of emotion that threatened to break his resolve. But he needed to be strong for his boy. “I knew the cost of my sacrifice, for I would bring great dishonour to both me and my brave, good boy. Hefin… my son,” Myrddin’s voice broke, “the people are right. I am a coward. I was too scared to tell you of my illness. Too scared to see the pain in your eyes as I faded away. I was too scared to confront the others of my plan, made in the heat of the moment that very night. I couldn’t bear the thought of arguing with them, with you, to let me give my life for the sake of Alaru’s. I am a coward, my boy, but you are brave. Please… with the remaining vestiges of my dignity, I am very, truly sorry. Do you forgive me?”

The words beset a silence broken up only by Hefin’s racking sobs. The mayor’s shoulders heaved and wrenched as he gathered the strength to speak up without emotion rendering his speech unintelligible. Myrddin and Arwen waited in that silence patiently, expectant of the mayor’s response to the enlightening of the story behind his father’s disappearance. Finally, Hefin looked up and stared directly into his father’s eyes. “Go away,” he sobbed lowly, “and never come back.”

Myrddin visibly reeled, and the look the crossed his face was that of such devastation that Arwen was convinced that any of the man’s hopes for redemption was instantly crushed. Her eyes began to brim with tears as she watched Myrddin’s face fall in anguish. He looked utterly drained by his son’s contempt, but forced himself to speak with a great deal of effort. “Hefin,” his voice was on the urge of breaking, but he remained resolute for the sake of his son. “I will always be with you.”

The previous mayor then turned around and, without hesitation, begun to walk away into the infinite landscape of the Light Gem’s dimension. His boots sloshed calmly among the water as he went, contrasting the harsh and ragged sobs and hics emanating from Hefin’s tear covered lips. A bright light shined ahead of Myrddin and, as if unseeing of its blank depths, he continued into the light and cast a deep black shadow behind him as he walked deeper and deeper. He never once turned around.

“I hate you!” Hefin suddenly screamed at his father’s retreating form, growing exponentially smaller and smaller amongst the white expanse of the pulsating light. Tears and other bodily fluids dropped into the water below as he took a deep, shaky breath, before letting loose a final throat-scratching shriek at the light which had encapsulated his father and began to fade into nothingness. “I HATE YOU!”

Arwen inhaled an unsteady breath, unused to such an outcry of emotion around her. She was too-used to the stoic and formal nature of Cyfoethian royalty and its associated diplomacy. She tried to fight the tears, but she could barely stop the tide as they begun to flow from her eyes. Even as the mayor fell to his knees and started a loud, echoing wail of sheer negativity against the still air of the alternate dimension, Arwen stood crying besides him, trying to wipe the never-ending tears from her eyes.

After what felt like a solid hour of small sobs, her only company the incoherent Hefin, the mayor finally wrenched himself to his feet and considered the Princess with puffy, bright red eyes. His face looked as though someone had poured water over it so fully that it clung to it like a sheen of sweat. Arwen remained mum, her face looking a near image of his. “Will he ever come back?” Hefin finally spoke in a raw, scratchy voice after a few awkward seconds of staring. “Will I ever see him again?”

A rivulet of tears poured down her cheeks. Arwen opened her mouth to speak, but then decided a simple shake of the head would suffice.

“Good,” Hefin nodded. “Good. I never want to see that coward again. Now… how do we get out of here? I need to go and forget this entire thing.”

“Hefin…” Arwen started, but changed her mind. “Okay, we’ll leave,” she looked up towards the infinite white sky, as she had done the last time with Eryk, and said aloud. “Let us go.”