Magic Spawn Origins

Magic Spawn: Chapter 37

by Meredith Skye

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Who was Aunt Aldena really? Was she even his aunt? Rian had begun to think that she wasn't from this world either, like Ehina.

Alien.

Yet she closely resembled his own father. So, they had to be related.

Rian paid little heed at first to which direction he ran. He was too upset when Aldena had said that his own mother wanted to drown Kyran as a baby. Unthinkable!

He paused to glance behind him. He didn't see Aldena running after him, nor hear a sound in the dark forest.

Must find Kyran.

Without pausing to make a decision, Rian headed towards the cemetery. That's where his brother ... who wasn't his brother ... would go. Somehow, he was sure of it.

The fog and dark obscured the trail so that Rian had to switch on the electric lantern again, which he knew would make him a bit of a target, but he was angry and almost didn't care at this point.

It wasn't long before he heard something behind him. Footsteps.

Rian stopped and whirled to confront whatever followed him.

"Rian, stop!" Aldena ran into the radius of light cast by the lantern and stopped. "We need to talk!"

"I don't want to talk," spat Rian, fighting to control his anger.

"Calm down and think!" she said quietly.

"Mother would never try to drown Kyran!" he argued.

"I didn't say she did," said Aldena. "I said she thought about it."

"My mother loves Kyran!" shouted Rian. But there had always been a rift between his mother and Kyran. A distance. "It's his fault," Rian said, continuing his line of thought out loud. "Kyran is a difficult child! No matter how hard Mom tries ... he's like a robot! He doesn't try ...." Rian's arguments trailed off as he reassessed every memory he had of his mother and Kyran.

Reality shifted.

Rian thought his mother had been hurt by Kyran's lack of affection and inattention; that Kyran thwarted her attempts to shower Kyran with love. But that didn't add up. The more Rian thought about it, the more he saw her as holding back, keeping aloof from Kyran, distancing herself from him.

Did his mother fear Kyran? Loathe him? It twisted Rian's stomach.

The world shattered as old memories took on new meanings. And Kyran, instead of being the innocent and helpless child, was actually a created thing, not even human, kept alive for some obscure reason.

"And you didn't think to tell me that my brother might be a monster?" demanded Rian, trying to keep his fury going, even though it was dying down as his rational mind took over again. "I loved my brother! Even if he was a freak!"

Aldena just looked at him silently, as if waiting for a tantrum to pass.

"Why keep him alive then?" asked Rian bitterly.

"Molan took your father's beating heart in order to cast the spell that created Kyran. It was possible, however unlikely, that some part of your father—my brother—might have survived."

Rian stared at her. "In Kyran?"

"Whatever of Kyran is human—is due to your father. Whatever is alien—is due to Molan. But there are ... blank ... places in Kyran."

"Blank?"

"That are neither human nor part of Molan. He is part magic-spawn, whatever that truly means."

"Part of his mind is blank?"

"Part of his soul," she said, almost too casually. How could she be so analytical about this? She continued. "Perhaps he filled it in with his own experiences and opinions; and perhaps he didn't."

It was hard to fathom. Still, it explained some things. Rian couldn't argue that there was something ... missing ... in Kyran. "So, you agree with Ehina then? You think we should kill Kyran?" demanded Rian.

He saw her thinking it over, as if it was a distinct possibility. "We may have to."

It wrenched his heart to think of it. The world felt askew. How did things get so messed up?

"Which way did he go?" asked Aldena.

Rian hesitated, still wary of trusting Aldena. But who else could help him, if not his aunt? "I think he's headed for the graveyard," Rian said at last.

"He mustn't join with Molan," said Aldena. "We have to stop him—at any cost." She turned and headed back down the trail that Rian had just come from. He followed her.

"Um, we're going to have to be careful. I kinda dodged Daren back at the camp."

Aldena only paused to give him a sidelong glance, then kept going. "He's an idiot."

He breathed a sigh of relief and followed her. He'd been afraid that she'd make him turn himself in. But Aunt Aldena had a chaotic side to her.

"But there's more. I'm afraid that Westin is dead," said Rian. "We went towards the graveyard and got attacked by ...."

"By what?" asked Aldena

"Some kind of huge flying cockroach mosquito," said Rian. He took a few minutes to fill in the details of the attack and Westin's change. How he seemed to forget who he was and attack them. And Ehina had killed him.

"This changes everything," said Aldena quietly. "Molan must have the magic-spawn already—"

"You mean Kyran," interrupted Rian, emphasizing his name. He wasn't ready to give up on his brother yet.

Aldena hardly paused at this. "Without him, Molan couldn't have done such a powerful spell. And with his help, Molan could do almost anything! Where is Westin's body?"

"His body?" asked Rian.

"You did burn it, right?" she insisted.

"Crap!" Ray had been right. "Of course not!"

"Show me," said Aldena.

"But, he was dead."

"That's how it starts," said Aldena, turned and motioned for Rian to follow. He sighed and complied. "We call them Battle Wights," she said. "They have twice the normal human strength and they're deadly quick."

Rian followed her as they headed back for the camp.

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Thanks for reading!

Come listen to my radio interview from October 2015!

THE SPECULATIVE FICTION CANTINA:

LINK: 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writestream/2015/10/30/the-speculative-fiction-cantina-with-meredith-skye-and-t-eric-bakutis