A/N
VOTE AND COMMENT. NEW CHAPTER EVERY SATURDAY
Egon Wood ( E Gon )
Theresa Ashdown ( Tha Ris A )
Rayner Moonfall ( Ray Ner )
Pet: Bear ( Ar Es )
Ceridwen Vix ( Care A Dwhen )
Pet: Owl ( Snow )
Mali ( Mal E )
Mace Kane ( Mace )
Duzna ( Duz Na )
Vestomer ( Ves Tom Ear )
Adisa Rathmore ( A Dis A )
Salina Mortem ( Sa LI Na )
Lilith Calarook ( Lie Lith Cal A Rook )
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Chapter Four: Secrets to Be Kept
"Rayner!!" Ceridwen yelled as she watched Theresa drop to the ground. Rayner, Ceridwen, and Egon, who had just reemerge from the forest, rushed over to the fallen Magic Born.
"Pick her up." Ceridwen spat commands to the boys, like a commander in the army. Rayner and Egon lifted Theresa's lifeless body and laid it atop the blankets. Ceridwen closed her eyes and mumbled under her breathe. "I promised I'd never do it again."
Rayner and Egon starred at her for more demands.
"She overloaded her body with all that power, she's used too much energy, and she could die from exhaustion." Ceridwen informed.
"Is there anything we can do?" Egon begged for an answer.
Rayner and Ceridwen locked eyes, and he shook his head in refusal.
"There is one thing" Ceridwen finally said.
"Well what?!" Egon yelled
"Ceridwen, NO!" Rayner roared.
"If I don't she'll die!" Ceridwen demanded.
"If you do...," Rayner's voice trailed off. "You don't want any more blood on your hands!"
"I have to, Mali is counting on us, and I'm not letting him down," Ceridwen countered.
"You know the consequence! It's not a gift, it's not meant to heal, it's meant to harm." Rayner bellowed.
"Rayner, you're not stopping me! I'm healing her!" Ceridwen ended the argument.
Egon stood in utter confusion, waiting for them to help Theresa.
Ceridwen told them to step back and she lifted her hands. Her eyes glowed the color of the sun's core and Theresa's body rose into the air. Ceridwen's hands sparkled in an enchanting white, as if snowflakes were zipping through her fingers.
Theresa's hair trailed behind her like the train on a wedding gown, as the fragments from Ceridwen's fingers incased Theresa's body. There was a hushed silences, only the sounds of the bird's morning song could be heard, and then Ceridwen let of a painful cry. Her glowing eyes turn from day to night in an instant, and her presence made Egon's spine tingle.
"No!" Rayner wailed.
Ceridwen seemed to have all the tormented souls of hell swirling in her pupils. Suddenly Theresa's body hit the ground and her brown eyes shot open. She gasped for a breath. After taking in her surroundings, she turned ghost pale.
Ceridwen stood in front of everyone, and the darkness inside her subsided. Egon raced over to her. As soon as he got within two feet of Ceridwen, she screamed.
"Get away!! Don't touch me!" And she dropped to the ground, crawled to a nearby tree, and covered her ears with her hands.
Rayner let a tear fall, and quickly wiped the rest away. He felt sick to his stomach, seeing his closet friend in pain, again, made him wince.
"Egon, leave her be," Rayner said softly.
"But she's hurting! What happened? How did she do that? Is she ok?" Egon spat out a storm of questions.
"She'll be fine! But, it's important no one touches her." As soon as the words left Rayner's lips the grass around Ceridwen turned black and the tree she leaned against began to die. The braches shriveled up and the leaves turned to ash.
"What is happening to her?" Theresa cried, tears rushing down her face.
"It's time I tell each of you." Rayner motioned for them to sit. "Long ago when Adisa Rathmore was to be executed, she begged Duzna to spare her, for she could be his servant."
"We already know that!" Egon butted in.
"Listen!" Rayner snapped. "Duzna wanted Adisa to prove her worth and loyalty. So he had her pick a villager from the crowd, she choose Ceridwen. Ceridwen was not a Magic Born, she had no powers, no abilities, and Adisa loves easy prey. She cursed Ceridwen, with the power to heal. But whenever she heals someone, her body takes the pain out of the person and turns it vile. Ceridwen fills the pain until someone or something touches her. And then they die. She first time it happened, she tried healing her ill sister. And when she was done, her brother and sister hugged her."
Rayner stopped and looked away another tear trickled from his eye.
"Mali and I are her only family now."
Theresa and Egon stood, awestruck and speechless.
"This is my fault. If I hadn't used my powers to stop those men-" Theresa was cut off by Egon.
"They would have killed you. You had to use them," He reassured her.
Ceridwen cried in agony, she grabbed ahold of the tree and it turned to dust. Her eyes regained their mossy color; she was no longer in pain. Ceridwen stood, stomped over to Theresa, and pulled her up off the ground.
"You powers have a price! You could have died!" Ceridwen roared.
Rayner stepped between them. "But she didn't, thanks to you."
Ceridwen scoffed and trudged over to the branch Snow was perched on. She stroked the bird, ignoring the others.
Theresa gazed at the ground and sorrow filled her heart.
"She only says that because she cares. She doesn't want any of us dead because she'd blame herself." Rayner brushed Theresa's hair out of her eyes and pulled her chin upward. He peered into her tear-filled eyes and smiled, "Now, come on, let's have breakfast."
After the lot had cooked and consumed Ceridwen's kill, they packed up and set off for the Mountains of Water.
***
"How much longer?" Egon pondered aloud.
Rayner rolled his eyes and, under his breath were no one could hear him, mumbled "What a child." Egon glanced at him for an answer. Finally Rayner spoke up and said. "We'll be there by sundown." Theresa dragged her feet at the end of the pack, still filling guilty for the burden she placed upon Ceridwen. Choosing between saving Theresa's life and endangering everyone else's, or letting her die, was a tough decision Ceridwen had to make.
Ceridwen slowed her pace and waited until Theresa and her were side by side.
"Hey, I'm sorry I snapped earlier. I realize now, you didn't plan to use your powers. It was self-defense, instinct. I had no right to do that to you. Please, forgive me?" Ceridwen meant every word she said, now she needed Theresa to believe her.
The shackles incasing Theresa's heart were shattered at the sound of the apology. "Yes!" She beamed. "Now, will you forgive me?"
"For what?"
"For putting you through all that suffering. When you saved me, you felt my pain, and I'm sorry," Theresa said.
"Absolutely!' Ceridwen brightened her expression and continued up the side of the mountain along with everyone else.
Theresa faked a smile until Ceridwen was no longer chatting with her, and then the same grim look from before swallowed her face. She couldn't shake the images from her brain, the images of the men she killed, their features, their voices, their smells, everything. She had killed three men today, one escaped, but no one seemed to care. The others blew it off, like slaughtering those men was okay. Even though they were going to harm Theresa, it didn't feel right, it made her sick. And she felt as if she would never recover.
***
Finally the moment came, and Rayner said,
"We've arrived." Their eye level rose to gaze over the summit.
The land atop the mountain was a luscious green sea of grass speckled with small buildings here and there. There were four buildings to be exact: a massive wooden framed structure sat in the middle of the lot, a smaller one, almost identical, was placed on the left, to the right was a barn, the doors were open and Egon could see two horses within, and the last building seemed to be a residents.
Two figures stood just outside the doors of the large building. Egon guessed the taller one to be Mali, but he hadn't heard of another person living here.
"It's beautiful." Theresa said in wonder. Rayner motioned for them to follow him. Ceridwen broke off from everyone and strolled toward the barn. Snow, who had flown ahead of the group, was already waiting inside.
As they gained ground toward the center building, the taller man began to walk in their direction.
"Welcome children." He extended his arms for an embrace, and Rayner accepted the man's kind gesture.
"Mali, this is-" Rayner began to introduce Theresa and Egon, but the old man already knew them.
"Yes. Theresa Ashdown and Egon Wood. I have been waiting for this day a long time, my dear Rayner." Mali reached out and placed his hands upon Theresa's face. She flinched and backed away.
"Do not fret my child, I only intend to see you." Mali reassured her. Just then Theresa noticed he was blind. Where his bright irises should be were snow white, as if the clouds have taken shelter in his eyes.
She took a breath and closed her eyes. Theresa stepped forward, and Mali consumed her features as he rubbed his wrinkly hands across her face. After he did the same to Egon, Mali picked up their hands and lead them to the house. As they reached the entry way he stopped.
"This is Mace Kane, He's one of my students, as you will be."
"Nice to meet you." Mace extended his hand. Egon's stomach did a summersault, and he almost through up. The venison he had eaten, earlier that morning, clawed its way up his throat. That voice, he had heard it before, that sickening voice.
Today, when he left on a hunt, the attacker. Egon was positive that's who he was. Although Egon had never seen the attackers face, Egon was one hundred percent sure Mace Kane had been in the forest earlier, at dawn.
Mace gazed at Egon. They locked eyes, and he quickly looked away.
"Now, why don't you all follow me inside, after dinner I will show you to your quarters." Mali hobbled through the door, followed by Theresa and Rayner. As Mace was headed into the house, Egon grabbed him by his arm.
"Wait!" Egon demanded
Mace Whirled around and his eyes were a dark void of blue, not like Egon's, no, more of a black. Like the ocean during a traitorous storm.
"What?" Mace's voice was a toxin.
"Don't play games with me." Egon barked back. "It was you, today in the forest, wasn't it?"
Mace's smirk turned into a grim seriousness. "Yes, it was. And I meant every word of it." He jerked out of Egon's grasp and continued through the door.
Egon felt the cold fingers of death tickling his spine as he relived the scenario, through his thoughts, earlier that morning.
***
After everyone, but Ceridwen, who still resided in the barn, had finished their dinner, Mali escorted them to their sleeping quarters.
Egon, Mace, and Rayner bunked in the building that sat on the right of the main house, and Theresa in the structure on the left. Ceridwen didn't accompany her, she was alone, and the only light was the faint flicker of the torch Mali had left for her. She curled up on top of three burlap sacks filled with hay and grass and drifted off to sleep.
Egon walked over to the corner of the building, there he took place on the hay covered ground. Mace did the same. Before Rayner laid down to take rest, he lit a torch that was hanging from the wall.
"Tomorrow we start training. Rest up boys, you'll need it," Rayner said.
***
Theresa tossed and turned as a dream formed in her sleeping mind. This time she wasn't in the castle, she was in a valley overlooking a lake.
Theresa gazed into the crystal clear lake. She smiled at her reflection, and then a perplexed expression surfaced upon her face. She tilted her head to make sure her mind wasn't deceiving her. A pale, bloody hand was reaching up from the water. No sooner than she blinked, the lake was no longer full of water, but mangled bodies. Crimson blood was their only clothing. Seated upon the pile of the dead was Vestomer, the king of Magur. Theresa's eyes burned and her skin crawled as the scene before her sunk deep into her bones. She cried and raced into the sea of the dead shouting curses at the evil king who laughed, untouchable atop his throne of bodies.
"You will never succeed Magic Born. Death is upon you, and you will not escape."
She awoke with a scream. Theresa cried and cried, as the memories of the dream stained her brain. She didn't feel like these were dreams anymore. She curled up in the corner, lips quivering. This time Egon wasn't here to calm her fears. This time her fear multiplied, and she violently shook, wiping the tears from her trembling cheeks with her black hair. This time no one was there to tell her everything would be okay. She was alone, and she didn't dare fall back asleep.