Spirit of Vengeance - 16. EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Matty was troubled. Sam wasn’t acting like himself. He had known Sam for too long to not recognize when something was wrong... or when he meant something he said.

And Matty knew that Sam didn’t mean the hurtful things he said. The words were there but there was also a hesitation in his body. It was like he was trying to stop himself from saying those words yet he couldn’t.

Matty suspected what was happening to Sam but had no proof of it. He knew what it was like to have someone or something else control him against his will. It was, after all, the first ever experience he had as he entered Malden. He still had nightmares of that horrid skeletal face that seemed to snuff out his soul and put him under control.

Magister Aenhol freed him from that control. He was grateful to the mage who had returned him to his senses and he wished he could speak to him at that time. However, Magister Aenhol was not there. For that matter, Sam wasn’t either.

Nonetheless, Matty needed to speak to someone. He tried talking to Ernie about Sam but his good friend just shrugged him off as though talking about Sam upset him. Nathan wasn’t much help either as he seemed even more exceptionally fascinated with nature nowadays, sometimes going off into the forests around Malden by himself without Ernie or anyone else for company. Matty worried about Nathan too but Matty guiltily accepted that Sam was a much more important person to worry about at that time.

Matty approached the Arborium. He could think of only one other person to talk to and that was of course Sam’s uncle Master Archer. However, the man often scared him out of his wits. Master Archer was always so strict and demanding. Nonetheless, he mustered the courage to enter the Arborium to look for Master Archer. He cared too much for Sam to let his fear of Sam’s uncle get in the way.

He went through a side entrance, one journeymen often used to go in. He knew it was forbidden for him, a trainee, to be there. But he was at his wit’s end. He didn’t know what else to do.

The halls in the Arborium were eerily quiet. Nothing but the sound of trickling water permeated the air. Before, the different sounds of water would have calmed him. At that moment though, they sounded almost hostile, like they were scolding to him, tell him he wasn’t supposed to be there.

He made his way through the maze of hallways looking for The Lady’s chambers. He didn’t know where exactly Master Archer was. He was just told by one of the journeymen that Master Archer had entered to meet The Lady. He planned to wait for their meeting to finish and then to intercept Master Archer before he could leave.

As he walked along the empty hallways, he heard shouting coming from one of the paths. It sounded a lot like Master Archer’s voice. He followed it, wondering to himself if that was a good idea or not.

If Master Archer was not in a good mood, it made the prospect of meeting him doubly frightening.

When Matty had reached the end of the hall, he discovered it led to The Lady’s chambers, the very one he had been to when he watched Sam become a journeyman. Matty was frightened of what The Lady did to Lance but the pride he got from Sam becoming a journeyman overshadowed his bad memories of that day.

Master Archer was standing in the middle of the hall, shouting it seemed at The Lady. He heard Sam’s name getting mentioned.

Matty watched with wide eyes as Master Archer’s movements conveyed how angry he was. The Lady was always considered reverential among Water Mages. To see someone yelling at her was awe-inspiring. Matty leaned against one of the hallway’s walls hoping to listen without being noticed.

“Tell me!” Master Archer shouted. “I deserve to know the truth. After everything I have done for you. All the distasteful tasks you have had me do, I deserve to know this.”

The Lady regarded him as though he was some adorable child throwing a tantrum.

“Tell me,” Master Archer said in a more subdued voice. “Did you know about the attack that was going to happen at Alba? Did you know that Raezhul was coming for my brother’s family?”

The Lady stared intently at him. “Yes,” she said.

Master Archer closed his eyes as though his worst fears were confirmed. “For how long?”

“He has been coming to Alba every year,” she replied smoothly. “I have done what I can to protect them. But the Lord of the Dead had a new tool at his disposal this last time. My protection did not last.”

“The boy,” Master Archer said. “The one he took from the Battle of Arantiva, the battle you refused to help.”

“It was… an unfortunate loss,” she said. “But I did not know for certain that he would use the boy to take your family.”

“You’re lying to me again,” Master Archer said. “You have lied enough to the other mages of this city for me to know when you are lying and when you are telling the truth.”

The Lady smiled. “Of course,” she said. “I knew he was coming for Samuel’s family. But, I needed Samuel broken. The spirit within him could not take control without aid. I tried breaking him during the Rites but it was not enough. I needed something more, something that would break Samuel’s spirit and allow my child that has remained so dormant within him to come into his full power on this world.”

“You…” Master Archer said with wide eyes. “You let them kill my brother and his family so that Samuel could be what… traumatized?”

“An unfortunate but necessary step I assure you,” The Lady said.

Master Archer shook his head. “All these years you have preached that we are here to fight the darkness, the evil, growing within our world. I had believed you all this time even if the proof sometimes showed otherwise. You’re just as evil as the ones you claim to be fighting.”

“Not evil,” The Lady said in a dangerous tone. “I am just willing to do what must be done. What are a few lives lost if we can save the rest of the world?”

“You’re a monster,” Master Archer said pointing a finger towards The Lady. “We look too far for evil not knowing that it’s at the very heart of this city. I am done serving you.”

“Done?” The Lady asked with an amused smile. “What? You will no longer kill in my name? Tell me, Master Archer, how many have you killed when I asked you to? How many of those were but children taken by the Undead?”

“Those were the ones that have fallen to evil,” Master Archer said but his voice seemed to hold the unasked question.

“Not all of them,” The Lady said. “Yes, most of them had been touched by the influence of the Undead. Yet some of them could have been saved. You had never questioned me about it before but I began seeing the doubt in your eyes when that friend of yours, Magister Aenhol, pushed the presence of Raezhul out of the boy named Matthew. Oh yes, I have been watching you. I knew you’ve begun to question the extreme actions I have asked you to do before.”

“You are evil and I will make certain that the world will know it as well,” Master Archer said. “No more will your followers obey you blindly. I shall show them exactly who it is they are serving.”

“And what?” The Lady laughed. “Expose yourself as a murderer?”

“It does not matter,” he shouted at her. “I do not care if they pass judgment upon me. I do not care if I have to die to expose you. Your secrets are done.”

Master Archer turned as if to leave but he had taken no more than a step before water burst from the stone at his feet and surrounded his entire body, wrapping him completely in water. The water swirled forcing him to face The Lady again. He struggled seemingly able to breathe but unable to escape his prison.

“You fool,” The Lady said. There was no smile on her face, just disgust. “You humans are always so unreliable. Do you know what happened to the one that came before you? The one who preceded you had the same weaknesses. I had sensed the power growing within her. I knew the child she bore would host Ho-o. I sensed Ho-o’s presence from the very womb. I had approached her, given her a chance to surrender the child so that she may continue to live in my service while the child was executed. She agreed and I believed her.

“And the very next day, she left. She left with her unborn child and took sanctuary among the Earth Mages. She knew it was the one place I could not touch her. But I wanted my revenge. I had told the Spirit of Earth who they were harboring in their city. I expected him to smite her as I wanted to do then. Ho-o has wronged us in so many ways.

“But my foolish brother did not,” The Lady continued while Master Archer was forced to simply listen while he continued to struggle silently against his watery prison. “He saw what was happening and instead fled his own city. He left and has remained silent since. Now, the Three Greatest Inari are on this world and the prophecy of old is coming to pass. The end is coming for all of us, all because she was too weak to kill her own child when it would have spared us all the trouble.

“If she had listened to me then,” The Lady spat, her eyes flaring with a storm, as though all her power was condensing within them, “Adam Lowry would have been dead the moment he left his mother’s womb. Ho-o would have returned to the abyss and the evil that now threatens our world would have been kept at bay. I should have just killed her when I had the chance. I will not make the same mistake with you.”

She thrust her liquid hand forward and suddenly the water encapsulating Master Archer exploded and he was hurled backwards. He rolled several times across the floor as he was thrown, his head lolling to his side as he finally stopped. His eyes were open and still.

Master Archer was dead.

Matty saw the whole thing and stifled with both hands the scream he wanted to release. He hugged the wall as tightly as he could, fearing any movement on his part would alert The Lady of his presence. He would not live to see another day if she knew he was there.

And then there was movement near Master Archer. Matty looked to see if his former teacher could be alive. Yet, the movement wasn’t coming from Master Archer himself. Instead, the water that had spread all over the floor was combining, turning murky as though mud was forming in the water. Something was forming near Master Archer’s corpse and it looked like a giant, horrible creature made of mud, snow, ice, and twigs. It stood up with thick limbs and a featureless face.

Matty did release a tiny gasp as the creature turned its eyeless face towards him. The creature stood still as though staring at Matty and then suddenly a horrid mouth split across the empty muddy face and it smiled.

“What are you doing here?” The Lady said with obvious disgust. Matty’s body stiffened and he prepared to bolt the moment she tried to cast any spell at him.

The creature turned towards The Lady. “Why not? Can I not visit my dear old mother anymore?”

“I am busy,” The Lady said with obvious annoyance. The Lady looked towards Master Archer’s corpse. “I must look for his replacement.”

“And whose fault is that?” the creature asked as though amused.

“Do not test my patience, Antios,” The Lady said. The waterfalls all around the room seemed to surge at her words.

“Peace, my Lady,” Antios said with hands raised as though in surrender. “As it happens, I do have news for you. I have found at last the boy you are searching for, the brother of the one who has been turned.”

The Lady seemed pleased with the news. “Where is he?”

“He is at the borders of the Southern Territories and the Free Lands,” Antios said and then paused as if only noticing something at that moment. “Where is your prized pupil by the way? The one called Samuel. I cannot sense his presence within the city.”

The Lady smiled. “Samuel is soon to be no more. The spirit within him is free. With enough time, Samuel’s essence will fade as my child grows stronger. I have sent him to recover the sword for me.”

Antios frowned. “My Lady, as powerful as your child within Samuel is, we both know he is no match for the Darkness in that weapon. He will most certainly lose.”

“Yes,” The Lady nodded. “In all likelihood he will die but I do not need him to recover the blade himself. He just needs to weaken Adam Lowry enough that I can take it for myself. No human can be trusted with the knowledge of that weapon. The incident in Arantiva has proven that. Once all this is over, I will kill Samuel myself if he doesn’t get himself killed first.”

“Oh, you are despicable,” Antios said with a smile.

The Lady stared at him as though trying to determine if he meant anything more by his words. “You have wasted enough of my time. Show me the boy you have found.”

“I can,” Antios said. “But it will take your awareness away from Arantiva. He is far from us. Some of your mages are placed there which you can use. But even so, it would be quite a stretch of your power. In order to sense him from this distance, you would be blind to anything that happens here during that time.”

“Do not lecture me on what I already know,” The Lady sneered. Whatever beauty Matty had seen in The Lady before was gone. All he could see were scowls and sneers that marred a sharp and angry face. “My mages here will take care of the city while I am away.”

“It’s brilliant what you’ve done really,” Antios mused like he was already used to The Lady speaking to him in such a condescending way. “Giving a bit of your essence to every Water Mage that joins your Circle. It allows you to extend you power anywhere one of your mages are. Fascinating that your brother and sister have not done something similar by now.”

“It has its risks,” The Lady said and as though realizing she had said too much turned with a glare at Antios. “Come, time is against us.” She turned and her form dissipated, melding with the waterfalls all around the room.

Antios turned once more to stare at Matty whose eyes were wide as saucers. “Oh yes,” he said as though he was talking to Matty, “time grows short for all of us.” Slowly, his body melted as though the magic holding it together was released. The mud and snow collapsed on the ground leaving Matty alone in the large hall with no one but Master Archer’s corpse.

Matty needed to tell someone. He stared at the body that was left forgotten on the floor. Someone needed to know. But what would happen if he did tell someone about Master Archer’s body. The Lady would obviously know he was there. He wasn’t supposed to be in the Arborium at all as a trainee. It wasn’t safe to tell anyone in Malden.

You would be blind to anything that happens here during that time, Antios had said to The Lady. The Lady will be away from Malden for some time. And Sam. Sam was in danger. He was unlikely to live against the enemy The Lady had sent him to fight. Even if he did, he would return and simply be killed.

Matty could not let that happen. He couldn’t let Sam die no matter what.

“I must find Sam,” he whispered and steeled his resolve as he headed out of the Arborium.

That night, Matty fled the city of Malden, never to return again.

THE END