Guardian (Part I): Last Winter

Chapter 41: Finn

I had a feeling we were drawing closer and closer to the summit of Soareus Peak as we came out of the woods where we fought Arion. Once we were clear of the trees, I saw a great stone tower beyond a ridge, but it was still quite a distance away. Still, I couldn't complain, since we had very little left to go.

"We're almost there," I whispered, then I turned to Mom to say something else, but she was gone. So was Haemon. I couldn't sense their radiant auras anywhere, but I still sensed Ruth, and still saw her when I looked all the way around.

"Mom?" I said. There was no response.

"Mom!" I shouted. "Haemon! Where did they go?"

"I don't know," Ruth answered. "Wait."

"What do you mean 'wait'!?" I screamed. I silenced myself to concentrate, even though my heart was beating fast enough to where my sweater was bouncing off of my chest. I began to sense an aura of darkness from the direction of the stone tower. This one wasn't as powerful as Arion's, but it felt familiar to me. Impossibly familiar.

"Someone must have pulled them through an Alear glyph," Ruth guessed. "Or a dark portal of some kind."

"To there?" I asked, pointing to the tower.

"Most likely," Ruth answered. "We can save them if we get up there now."

"Wait a minute," I halted. I thought about what to do. If who I thought was in the tower was in the tower, and they had my family imprisoned, then they were doing it to draw me in there. They would probably be waiting for me, but not for Ruth. I had an idea, then. I bent down and dug two of my fingers into the snow, shoveling it with my hands until I reached the mud beneath it.

"Listen," I said, to Ruth. "They're expecting me, not you." I rubbed my fingers against the mud, enough to get it to stick to my fingers.

"Whoever's up there, I'll get their attention," I declared. "You find my mother and brother and get them out of there. This will hide your aura. Mine's on my neck."

"A sigil or something?" asked Ruth.

"Yeah."

Ruth bent down and tilted her head away from me, and I rubbed mud on the side of her neck in the pattern of the same sigil that Ina gave me and Mom. To the best of my memory, anyway.

"Ocula," I whispered, and then I felt Ruth's aura disappear. It worked!

"Good luck," Ruth wished, then she held one of my hands and promised, "I'll get them out of there."

"Thanks," I said, and she walked off. Ruth was more than capable of handling herself, but I still had some worry. Not for her, though. Mom and Haemon were being held captive to get me to come to them, then they would do whatever they wanted to them in order to draw me there. I couldn't sense that they were in pain just yet, but I knew that they would be if I didn't get to them fast. They would be tortured, or even given slow, painful deaths. I knew what I had to do. I had to save my mother and brother. I formed my aura blade and rushed up the rest of the slope of Soareus Peak. This aura of darkness grew stronger with every step I took forward, and I began to recognize it more. It was a Shadow's, but I wouldn't believe which Shadow. I could have sworn I killed him a long time ago. I eventually reached a path laid out on the ground with stone bricks before a short, but wide staircase that led to a roof in the cliffside that had stone pillars supporting it. This Shadow's aura was coming towards me, now, and he came out from under the roof. I couldn't believe who I was looking at. He was supposed to be dead!

"Declan?" I gasped.

"Hello, Finn," Declan growled, forming his broadsword-shaped dark aura blade.

"Where are my mother and brother?" I demanded.

"You shall join them soon enough," Declan snarled, stepping down the stairs. I reminded myself of why I was there. I was to distract him for Ruth to extract Mom and Haemon. I would have guessed he wanted to kill me for killing him, which couldn't have given me a more perfect chance to draw out a fight long enough for Ruth to do what she needed to do.

"Fight me," I challenged. Declan rushed at me as fast as he could with his dark aura blade. I parried his swing with my own sword, only for him to bring his blade around for another swing. I warped backward, then warp rushed past him, swinging my aura blade. My sword went cut his dark aura shield, enough to nick his arm. When I was behind him, he threw a dark aura blast at me, but I only staggered a few steps backward. His blast didn't knock me down, but I was out of my stance long enough for Declan to take another swing at me. I wildly raised my aura blade to block his attack, then I saw him warp away, and I turned around to block a swing from behind before I warped backward again.

"Why does Camnora's King want to kill me?" I demanded.

"Don't know, don't care," Declan spat. "But I get to kill you, and that's perfectly fine with me."

"You have to stick the right end of the sword in its target, first," I teased. I sensed a rush of anger from Declan as he rushed towards me, roaring with that anger. He jumped into the air and rolled sideways to swing his dark weapon, which I parried, then threw him to the stairs with an aura blast. For some reason, though, once he landed, there was lightning crackling around his body. I did more than throw him. I electrocuted him! I closely looked at my hand. It was crackling with lightning, too. I found myself thinking back to the cave with the cerberus. I somehow pulled an aura dome over myself when I would have been killed, but I shouldn't have been able to do that, or use any sort of magic. Could I do what a Ranger, Defender, and Sorcerer class Guardian Knight could do? As I thought further, I suddenly felt a sharp pain pierce through my chest. That pain went through my entire body, and I began to shake. Blood was pouring through my mouth, and I looked down to see Declan's dark aura blade coming out of my chest. He had stabbed me in the back while I was distracted. I saw an evil grin on the Shadow's face. Seeing me bleed from a wound caused by his sword brought him the satisfaction that only a monster would want to have from killing someone. He pushed me off of his blade, and I landed in a pool of my own blood. I left my eyes open, but didn't move them as I saw Declan's feet as he passed me. The blood that I landed in returned to my wound, and I slowly rose to my feet as the wound itself closed, with flames engulfing my forearms.

"Declan!" I shouted. The satisfaction that I sensed from him turned to a feeling of immense terror. He turned around, with his eyes widened, and his face pale with dread. He must have stabbed me right through my heart, but I was still alive.

"How can you be..."

"I will free them," I swore. "But I'll kill you first, and make sure you stay dead."