Jade POV
I opened my eyes to find myself in the middle of the chaos. I was behind Orion, who was shouting incoherently alongside various profane words. Each time he shouted, he blasted magic at one of the four trapped. Even Damien and Declan watched on in horror as this took place.
I got up quickly and hid on the side of the stairs, motioning for the two of them to come to me. Declan was the first.
“You want to prove yourself?” I narrowed my eyes. “Now’s your chance.”
Damien scoffed. “I will never fight with you.”
“Then fight with Orion,” I said quietly. “But I assure you, you will be taken down with him.”
Declan glared at Damien. “Help us. You know no matter what side you’re on, Orion will target you too. He needs to be taken down.”
I nodded, watching Damien. He walked away, joining forces with Orion, much to Declan’s surprise.
“He made his choice,” I said. I glanced at Orion. “Let’s go.”
We charged at Orion from behind, and I jumped on his back, breaking his shield and pulling him down onto the ground. Declan stood above him, blasting a magic attack between his eyes. It was meant to be fatal, but simply disoriented him, breaking the spell on the others.
Tears filled my eyes. I was the only one strong enough to end this. I motioned for Declan to take my place, and I knelt beside Orion, who looked up at me.
“But those things you said?” He asked, frantically.
I placed my hand on his head. “I meant them all.” I charged my attack. “Which is why I’m truly sorry I have to do this.”
I closed my eyes, unable to see what I was about to do. My magic quickly encompassed his head, putting him into a deep sleep. He wouldn’t feel the pain now.
I stood up as my tears streamed down my face. “I’m so sorry, my baby boy.”
And with that, I shot the final, fatal attack, killing him on the spot.
Putting my hand down, I turned away. What had my life come to now? I started as a spellcaster, eager to learn and aid in the dragon war. Now, here I was, using dark magic to kill my own son.
I fell to my knees and sobbed, crocodile tears falling to the floor in front of me. Caleb knelt beside me, holding me close and crying with me. I glanced back at Orion, but only a pile of dust remained where he had laid. He was the one who needed to die. His body had disintegrated, preventing any future revival attempts. He was gone forever. In a world where magic ensured that no death was truly permanent, my first born son would never return.
I realized Kyler and Ethan had disappeared. In their wake, Damien and Declan lie on the floor, motionless. They had also been killed, but why? Declan helped me. What happened?
The darkness was lifted. I realized this was how it was supposed to be. The threat had been lifted completely. The sages we’re now in control again. Including me. No. I didn’t want it. I couldn’t do it. Not anymore.
I stood up, approaching Morgyn with a blotchy red face and teary eyes. “I don’t want this anymore,” I said. “I don’t deserve to be sage.”
He looked shocked. “But, J-“
“I don’t want this anymore, Morgyn. I want to just be a regular spellcaster. I don’t want to be one in charge anymore. I’m done with this.”
He sighed and held out his hands, stripping me of my sage abilities, returning balance to only the three sages that had existed before me. There was no one in line after me. Marco and Jewel were untamed, and didn’t have the level of power I had. They couldn’t take my place.
Marco. He could come back! Without another word, I rushed off to the memorial room. There was now a simple plaque on the wall in Orion’s memory, amidst the shelves of urns and the one, single, preserved coffin that held Marco.
Kyler and Ethan stood before it, arms outstretched, attempting their spells to revive him. I soon realized that their efforts were fruitless. Not even Marco’s ghost was returning. My eyes widened as my hand flew up to my face. “No,” I whispered. I quickly ran between them, frantically shouting spells of revival, dark and light, all to no avail.
“This…this can’t be happening!” I screamed angrily, pounding my fist on the coffin. Ethen and Kyler left the room to let me be alone, knowing how upset I was. “No, Marco! You were supposed to come back to me! You weren’t the one to die! Where are you?” I cried harder, forcing open the coffin. Marco lie still, his arms folded in front of him, eyes still closed, skin still cold. I sobbed again, stroking his cheek. My voice was soft and pleading. “Come back to me…”
I placed my hand on his chest, attempting to give him some of my power, but it didn’t take, rushing back up my arm and into my core. I slammed the coffin shut and left the room angrily. I marched down to the lowest chamber, where the book of legends stood. It was still open to the legend of the first hybrid. Orion.
“We did everything!” I shouted. “The legend went the way it said it would. Where is Marco?” I demanded.
Kyler quietly came up behind me, handing me the book he found of just the hybrid legend. There was a bookmark in the middle of it. We weren’t done. There was more to fulfill? But how? The hybrid was defeated.
I opened the book, quickly reading through the pages.
“The restorer and protector must revive the realm to a neutral state. This won’t be easy as they will need enchanted ingredients from far off lands. They can be found only in the countryside, easily found at night. But beware, for wild animals guard the charms aggressively. The spellcasters must learn how to evade these animals to protect their own lives.
Only this one, or these two beings can see and extract these elements. They must search alone. They may not ask for assistance. No human will be aware of the plants’?; existence. No farms will hold these crops. No amount of power will aid these two in their endeavors. Absolutely no magic may be cast on the nearby wildlife, or the enchantments will disappear.
If the extractions are successful, a spell can be created to restore the realm. If this is not achieved, the balance will never fully restore. Any spellcasters lost while the realm was in darkness cannot be revived. Nothing will be the same, and the realm will slowly fade, becoming a mere memory to those who used to visit it. As such, these plants must be found quickly. The situation is dire.”
I stopped reading and glanced up to see Kyler and Ethan had already gone. Henford-on-Bagley. That’s where they were. But I couldn’t go. I couldn’t help. No one could. This was up to my sons, and my sons alone.
And if they failed, I would lose them too.
“God dammit!” I cried, slamming both books shut and knocking the book of legends off of the pedestal. A single slip of paper fluttered to the floor. I picked it up, unfolding it quickly. It was blank. But slowly, letters began to appear. Names were spelled out. This was a list.
Marco Lew
Orion Hunter-Vatore
Damien Parker
Declan Walker
These were the names of the dead. But why? Why did I need to see this?
It continued:
K-Y-L
And stopped.
“No…” I shook my head.
More letters on the next line, without Kyler’s name being completed.
E-T-H
“No!” I cried, crumpling the paper up. The wad hit the floor, but quickly vanished. I stared at the floor, shocked. “Wh-what?”
After a moment of just blankly staring, I went upstairs again. For now, there was nothing to do here. Without a word to anyone, I left, heading home to the apartment I shared with Marco and our sons.
“Marco, talk to me,” I said, lying in our bed, pulling the blankets up. “You stopped guiding me after my near death experience. Please, talk to me.”
I laid, waiting for the sound of his voice. Nothing.
“Please?” I asked, tears filling my eyes as a lump formed in my throat. “I need you. Please don’t leave me.”
Still nothing.
I closed my eyes as my tears fell, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
I went back to the realm the following day, ignoring everyone and moving straight for the memorial room. While I walked in with a rush, I simply sat, locking the door behind me. I didn’t know what else to do. It was too quiet at home. Too sad everywhere else. I felt truly alone. My sons had already left on their endeavor, without a word to anyone. I didn’t know when they would return. Or even if they would.
I sighed and rested my hand on Marco’s coffin. “Everything is falling apart,” I whispered as tears filled my eyes. “I lost you. I killed Orion, because I had to. Declan fought with me, but he perished too. Now our sons have gone to do what they are destined to: save the realm. Restore it. But they can only do it together, without magic, and without help. They could die too, Marco. And if they do, I can’t revive any of you.” My tears fell and I sobbed. “This is bad! So bad! We did everything right! Didn’t we? Did I do the wrong thing? I had no choice!” I cried harder, my voice fading to a near whisper. “I had no choice.”
I felt a hand on my shoulder, but I knew it was my imagination. Still, I touched “it” and closed my eyes as more tears fell.
“Reach for me,” I heard, like a faint breath around me. It was like a whisper. I didn’t even know if it was Marco.
“Reach for you?” I asked, standing up. But, I heard nothing else. I waited a few moments longer, hoping. Sighing sadly, I walked out of the room and went to the room I shared with Marco. I couldn’t be bothered with the mind tricks. I was breaking. No. I was already broken. I was alone. I felt a sadness I had never felt before. Ever. How much more of this could I take? Was I really going to lose everyone?
I felt myself growing angrier. I slammed my hands down on the mattress. “What did I ever do to deserve this?” I roared. I buried my face in the pillow, holding it close to me as I cried harder than I ever had before. My tears soaked it quickly, and more kept falling. This was it. It was the end of my life, wasn’t it?
I tried several times to remind myself to stay strong. Everything would work out, right? It always did.
This time, I wasn’t so sure.
——————————-
Kyler POV
“Dad, wherever you are, you owe us the biggest pepperoni pizza you can find when we revive you,” I growled as I shivered. Traveling through the vast countryside of Henford-On-Bagley in the middle of a blizzard wasn’t exactly something I had on my bucket list, but here we were, freezing our asses off to find some batch of wild, magical plants and restore the realm, as well as bring Dad back. Quite a bit of responsibility for a couple of older teens.
“We should probably set up camp until the weather calms,” Ethan said, to which I nodded.
“Good idea.” I glanced around. We were surrounded by endless plains, right when trees may have been helpful to us. I sighed. “But we can’t. Not right here.”
Ethan turned around and continued walking. “Of course.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
He turned to face me. “Kyler, no. Don’t be sorry, little-big bro. We will make it through this. It’s just a blizzard. We survived Orion.”
I laughed softly. “Okay, yeah.”
But the trip and circumstances around it started to drive us crazy, making us long for warmth, a bed and a roof. Even after the blizzard, the temperature and wind chills were bitter, nipping our skin like needles as we trekked the winter wonderland ahead of us.
Ethan fell in front of me, and I picked him up, wrapping my arms around him as we shivered. Looking around, I finally saw the entrance of a forest to our east. Another night was falling, and the sunset cast a glow on them. A picturesque landscape in the midst of this horrible trip.
We weakly made our way to the forest and set up camp, lighting a fire to warm ourselves as we got into our tent and covered ourselves with our sleeping bags. We ended up huddling for extra body heat, while making jokes to curb the awkwardness. However, despite how awkward it was, we were comforted and fell asleep quickly.
We were awakened the following morning to the sound of a threatening growl. We were surrounded by wolves. Of course.
“Oh shit,” Ethan whispered. I quickly turned my head, holding my finger to my lips. He nodded.
We stayed completely still and silent, listening as the wolves rummaged through our bags for food. Great. That was all we had. I wasn’t about to wrestle them. We would find another way.
When the animals were satisfied, we heard them walk away.
“I think they’re gone,” Ethan whispered.
I nodded, pulling my hood over my head again. “Alright. We will have to just leave everything but our canteens here. We can survive on just water for like, what? Four days? I guess we’ll find out.” I sighed. “On the count of three, we grab them and get the hell out of here, okay?”
Ethan nodded again, nervously.
“One…two….three-” I had barely gotten the last number out before we made a quick run for it, grabbing our canteens in the process and abandoning camp. “We can come back later for our stuff!” I shouted as we ran. “Come on!”
But, we soon heard the loud roaring of angry wolves. What the hell was I thinking, shouting? I gasped. We had five or six wolves quickly catching up to us as we attempted to run through the deep snow.
“Run!” I cried, grabbing Ethan’s arm. “Faster! Run!”
Not that it mattered. The wolves wouldn’t stop chasing us. We were in their territory. We needed to get the hell out of here!
As we made our way out of the forest, we were immediately blinded by the morning sun and all of the snow it reflected off of.
“Kyler!” Ethan cried. “Look!”
“Now’s not the time for sightseeing, brother.” I panted.
“Our farmhouse, Kyler!” He said. “Dad still owns it, right?”
I followed his gaze to see the most welcoming sight I had in a long time. It was indeed the old farmhouse! “I think so? He’s had a caregiver on the property for a long time.”
“Let’s go look,” he said, suddenly sprinting faster than me. He was right though. Dad still owned it. He had to have. We still went there from time to time, just not as often. I glanced behind us. The wolves had gotten distracted by something and were much further behind us. We still moved quickly toward the house, quickly stepping up to the door and knocking.
A woman answered. “Boys! Oh my, it’s been so long!”
I smiled.
“Come in, come in! You look exhausted!”
We stepped in, immediately feeling the warmth of the house and smelling the familiar scent of, well…home.
“Where’s your father?” The woman asked, grabbing blankets and handing them to us.
Ethan immediately looked saddened. “He’s…”
“He and mom are taking care of some things in the realm,” I said with a smile. “We were just…exploring the countryside and stumbled across this place.”
She glanced out the window. “Good thing too. There are some wolves sniffing about.”
Ethan and I breathed a sigh of relief. We were safe.
But not for long. We still needed to find those plants. Sitting around and chatting wasn’t going to help us. As the woman, who we found out was named Elizabeth, went to read a book, we headed upstairs to look for anything we could find to pack up more supplies for the remainder of our trip. We would leave when Elizabeth went to bed so we didn’t need to explain where we were going.
We found some markers we had initially bought to place in the ground around the farmhouse so we wouldn’t get lost as kids, but Dad quickly pulled them out of the ground when we learned the landscape faster than he expected. It was a shame we couldn’t remember now. We packed them up to put them down as we left, in hopes we could find our way back.
We found old backpacks and stuffed them full of food, batteries and a few flashlights we found. In Mom and Dad’s room, we found oil lamps. We grabbed them and a nearby bottle of oil to keep them fueled.
“Ethan, you saved our lives,” I said, smiling happily. “If you hadn’t pointed this out, who knows what would have happened. And hey, now we don’t need to go back to that camp and risk our lives again.”
He looked at me, sadness in his eyes. “Kyler, the book. That was our guide to finding these damn plants. Without it, we are just two boys on a crash course to nothing.”
I patted his back and smiled, reaching into the pocket of my snow pants. “Good thing I have big pockets, huh?” I pulled out the book and waved it happily, to which his eyes brightened.
I sat down, thumbing through the pages. “So the plants are in seclusion, but guarded by several animals. I assume this means these animals are guarding them as a food supply, and not for their magical worth.” I continued skimming. “We have to head north. Almost due north from our current location.”
“Think we’ve got a compass in here?” Ethan glanced around.
I laughed. “Doubtful. But, we can run into town to get one at the antique shop. I know my way there from here.”
He nodded, setting down his bag. “Canned food, a can opener, batteries, flashlights, protein bars, our canteens, the book and lamps with oil.” He sighed. “But no pop up tent or sleeping bags.”
“I packed a couple of blankets,” I said, still glancing between pages. “It looks like it wouldn’t be too far from here.”
“Far enough to be surrounded by vicious, wild animals!” He argued.
“Shh,” I hissed, shaking my head. “Let’s not let Elizabeth know what’s going on, okay? Too many questions I don’t feel like making up lies for.”
Ethan was about to speak again, when we heard shouting from downstairs.
“Maw-maw!” We heard a female voice say. Ethan peeked out the door, but of course, he saw nothing.we put our bags and lanterns into the spare room, tossing our snow pants on the dresser to dry.
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