Clemency

chapter twenty-five | beholder

Before Lana could give a response, she was interrupted by the steady sound of cloth sweeping the floor. We immediately turned to look at the source of the sound which apparently was from a staircase nearby.

A dark figure emerged from the darkness of the staircase's hallway. The hooded figure's face seemed to have been covered to an extent where we could only see his mouth stretched in a thin line. His hands were hidden and joined by the long sleeves of his cloak which seemed to be sewn together that seemed to have covered most of his appearance. I couldn't help but wonder how he managed to hold things if his arms were trapped in those conjoined sleeves.

"Hello there. Long time no see, boy." His dry and raspy voice greeted Reaper. It was as if he hadn't spoken for years. It must have been quite a while since anyone had entered the citadel. "...Who are these people?"

"These are my guildmates- Kaito, Waterfall, and Lana. We've come here to ask you to get back Kaito's memories." Reaper nudged Kaito, showing Jeremy who he was referring to.

"Hi, Jeremy! Nice to meet you!" Kaito chirped. With a grunt of acknowledgment and a sweep of his cloak, Jeremy moved off to exit the room we were in to another room after descending from the spiral staircases.

Without using his hands, the hooded man pushed through a pair of red curtains, disappearing behind them. I parted the curtains to let the rest of us in. Looking into the room behind them, my eyes widened when they caught sight of a black circle giving out black light. Four smaller circles were conjoined with it- Each with a different colour. One was yellow, the other was red, the next was green and the last was pitch black.

"Step into the circle," Jeremy ordered. Kaito hastily stepped into the circle, his eyes darting around the place, nervous on what was about to happen.

"I won't die or anything, right?!" He asked desperately.

"Kaito, why would I bring you here in the first place if that were to happen?" Reaper sighed, the exasperation in his tone distinct.

The metal mage took a deep breath and let it out.

All of a sudden, any remaining light in the room was now extinguished, leaving only the dim black, yellow, red and green lights that only allowed us to see just in front of us, at most.

"One wilt findeth what one hast hath lost.

Oth'rwise th're shall beest a did cost. 

Haply big, haply minute. 

But one needeth, so I wilt calleth. 

Repeateth till one rememb'rs what one hast f'rgotten."

A sudden gust of wind erupted from the circle, shocking all of us except for Jeremy who kept his stoic composure. The same sharp pain stabbed at my right temple, making my hand reach out to it in an effort to soothe the pain.

THUD

My head whipped back at the circle to know what happened, only to see Kaito crumple to the ground in a dead faint.

"Wh-?" I exclaimed as a midnight blue mist slowly formed on top of him as an image of a house collapsing took shape on it.