David Bishop and the Mystic of Creation

by T. C. Crawford

  “I know, it’s just…” he started, struggling to find the words to say to her. He knew she was frustrated with his unwillingness to tell her what he was thinking, but he was only trying to protect her.

  In truth, David wanted to tell her how much he loved her, how much she had come to mean to him, but he knew that if he were to do so, it would only make things that much worse…that much harder, when the time came. But Erin didn’t know any of this, how could she?

  She leaned in and quickly pressed her lips against his. At first it seemed as if he was going to resist, but he eventually gave in, returning her kiss passionately in kind.

  They stayed locked together for what felt an eternity, until finally their lips parted, and their heads rested together, reveling in the moment.

  “David, I love you.” said Erin softly.

  For a fleeting moment, David hesitated, unsure if he should tell her how he felt, but he quickly gave in deciding it was better for her to know, than for it to remain a mystery forever and risk breaking her heart even more.

  “I know…I love you too, Erin. I’ve known for some time now. You are an amazing woman…” said David, looking into her big blue eyes. He could see the light of the fireflies, reflecting dimly in her pupils. She looked so beautiful, like always. So strong, yet so delicate. His love for her was so fierce it felt like it was burning his insides and would explode if he let it.

  He leaned in and kissed her again, slowly, gently, then turned and leaned up against the rails, watching the fireflies as if seeing them for the first time.

  “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” he asked, watching the little lights blip in and out throughout the canopy.

  Erin nestled up next to him as he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in close. She had her David back again, and she planned on relishing it as long as she could.

  They stood there for some time, enjoying each other’s company while watching the fireflies and basking in the light of the stars.

  Chapter XXXI

  Over the course of the next day, the remaining forces of men, being led by King Reximus Kane of Ravenfell and King Eldergate of the Northern Kingdom, along with a great host of men from the city of Brineport who had agreed to come along and fight by their side, began pouring into the valley between Draco’s Pass and the Forest of Immortals.

  As the day waned on, the Dwarves began filing out of their tunnels from deep below the surface, marching in long lines down the mountainside before joining in making camp with the rest of the human forces.

  By the end of the day their forces filled the entire space between the forest and the mountains, and with what remained of the Elven forces, hosted a combined might of a few hundred-thousand strong.

  When David, Erin, and Tyrius saw the masses gathering they decided to go and meet the others to catch up on all that had transpired since they last saw each other.

  They walked to the large central tent that had been put up as a command post in which the Kings and Generals gathered to discuss the final plans for the coming battle.

  When they entered the flap, they all turned to watch David as if he were some reverent king who had returned from a faraway journey.

  He ignored the looks and instead walked right up to the table where Rex and Orin were standing near General Ryan and General Owen who were looking over the battle plans.

  They turned and looked up to see David approaching and big smiles stretched across each of their faces, especially Orin’s.

  “David, my boy! How good to see you again!” he said, wrapping his old, frail arms around David’s neck. Despite his frail appearance, the old mage was much stronger than he seemed, and his embrace nearly took the breath from David’s lungs.

  “And Erin dear, you’ve been gone for so long!” he said, giving her an equally strong embrace to which she finally escaped, gasping for air.

  “Orin, good to see you!” said Erin and David, smiling and rubbing their necks where he had been squeezing.

  Shortly after, a set of powerful, muscular arms wrapped the two of them up in a great big bear hug, squeezing the breath out of their lungs once again.

  “REX!” they shouted through gasps, “We can’t breathe!” they said together.

  When he finally put them down, they all started laughing. It was good to be together again, and for the first time since he had left the Crystal Caverns, David felt like his old self again surrounded by his old friends.

  They broke away from the planning, leaving it to Gilric and the others to continue while they sat down and enjoyed a few drinks and shared tales of their adventures.

  Rex gave a very lively reenactment of their battle of Ravenfell, with Orin helping out here and there and paying particularly more attention to his battle with General Krauss. When he finished, he puffed up his chest and said loudly that he was the true hero of the day while Rex just laughed and agreed, remembering how he had indeed saved them from the powerful General’s attacks.

  David, Erin, and Tyrius caught Rex and Orin up on their adventures through the Southern Kingdom and the Dwarven mines, going over David’s capture by Jakob Zander and their roles in the uprising in Brineport before finishing off their story with their journey by boat up the coastline to the Crystal Caverns.

  “Ahh, so you’ve finally reconnected with the orb, just as we had hoped would happen!” said Orin as they finished their story.

  “Yeah, you could say that.” said David, suddenly remembering why he had been so down lately.

  Sensing she was about to lose him again to the dark mood that had been hanging over him, Erin changed the subject to the coming battle, “So, now that we’re all together again, what’s the plan for stopping the army headed our way?” she asked.

  “Yes…David said he saw a vision of the army amassing at Eldergate. It is troubling indeed, but if history is any indication of our strength when we unite as we are now, I have no doubt we can take on this army and come out victorious!” said Orin confidently.

  He had also had several drinks by this time and was smiling much more than normal, which was a lot for Orin. Erin suspected he may indeed be slightly drunk.

  “I agree,” said Rex, equally as optimistic, but unlike Orin, very much in control despite having had several pints already. “The combined might of our forces will be a formidable match for any army, no matter how large. The demons fight ferociously but recklessly, and that is their weakness. They aren’t very skilled, and without caution or fear of death, they make mistakes that expose their weaknesses far too often. We used this to our advantage in the battle of Ravenfell, and we will do it again in the coming fight.” he said, slamming his mug onto the table, sloshing the foamy liquid over the sides.

  “Agh! Another drink wasted!” he said angrily, as he got up to get another.

  Erin and David shared a mutual look of amusement before continuing their conversation with Orin.

  They talked and laughed long into the evening until they finally decided to turn in for the night, knowing that in the morning they would begin their long march over Draco’s Pass and into the Great Plains below towards Eldergate, where they would face off for the final battle. The battle that would ultimately decide the fate of Hurea.

  Erin and David walked back to the White City hand in hand and made their way to the hallway before Erin’s quarters that the elves had prepared for her the night before.

  They stood outside the doorway in silence for a long moment before Erin finally spoke.

  “David, I want you to stay with me tonight.” she said, looking up at him and searching his eyes.

  “I don’t know…” he said, worried it would only make things worse and still uncertain of how to tell Erin the full truth of his vision.

  “I don’t want you to hold anything back from me,” she said strongly, “Whatever it is, I can take it. I’m strong enough.” she said, tears building up in her eyes.

  David tenderly caressed her cheek with his fingers and kissed her gently before wiping away
her tears.

  “I know you are…and you’re right. You deserve to know the truth.” he said finally.

  He took her hand and led her into her room, sitting beside her on a bench near the window at the back of the room.

  After a long moment of trying to sort out his thoughts and carefully choosing his next words, he began revealing the rest of his visions.

  “Erin, I’m not of this world” he began.

  “I know, you’re from your world” she began, but he put his finger up to silence her, indicating he wasn’t finished.

  “I’m not from that world, either.” he said, “In fact, I never was. That world was an illusion, created by my Father to give me a sense of being. An illusion that would give me the necessary humility and, in the end, lack of attachment, to do what was necessary when the time came.” He let those last words sink in a bit before continuing with his explanation.

  “When I was in my trance, and speaking with the Creator God, He revealed the truth of my origins to me. Erin, I am His son. He created me for the purpose of filling the void left by the other Mystics of Creation. The void that was created when they willingly gave up their lives and their powers to ensure the survival of this world. They too, were His children, and when their brother died at the hands of the Defiant One, it created an imbalance in the world.

  “I am the answer to restore that balance. They knew that I would come, because they understood that balance was necessary for life to continue to exist.” he said.

  Erin searched his eyes, trying to understand how his words were going to ultimately lead to the sacrifice that he had mentioned was necessary to regain his full potential.

  “When I discovered the truth, it all started to make sense. That is why I never knew my parents, because if He gave me parents to remember, I would have never wanted to leave them. That is why he made me from another world that had nothing for me, because if it did, I would have never wanted to leave it so eagerly behind for this one. My Parent has always been there watching me, guiding me, directing me towards the final goal of finding the Orb and uniting with its power to take my rightful place as the Final Mystic of Creation. There is one thing, however, that He didn’t intend. He didn’t intend for me to fall for you.” said David, his eyes starting to well up with tears.

  “I can feel His presence more each day, but the more I drift towards Him, the further I feel myself drifting from the life I’ve come to cherish, the life I’ve come to want more than anything to be real…and the more I feel myself drifting from you.” he said, the tears starting to fall from his eyes.

  “David, I won’t let this affect what we have, I promise!” said Erin quickly.

  “You don’t understand, Erin.” said David, regaining his composure. “In order for me to gain my full powers needed to confront the Defiant One and seal him back within the Dark Abyss, I need to give up everything that holds me back from becoming the final Mystic of Creation. I can’t be a Mystic and a boy that’s madly in love with a girl – that reluctance to leave you would prevent me from accessing my true powers, because it would be accompanied with a fear of losing you, a fear that would always keep a part of me focused on protecting you instead of giving myself completely to the sole duty of protecting the world of the living.”

  “No…no that can’t be. By protecting the world of the living, you are protecting me, David. The two are one and the same. You can have both!” said Erin, fighting back the tears.

  “I tried to fight it too. I questioned Him over and over again, but He always had the same answer. ‘No David, you can’t have your life as a human, and a Mystic. You must choose, and the fate of the world will be determined based on your choice.’ I spent what felt like an eternity going over everything He said, but at last I finally realized that it was useless. He was right, how could He not be? He is God, after all.” said David, slumping his shoulders in defeat.

  With this, Erin had heard too much, and she collapsed into David’s arms sobbing uncontrollably. She couldn’t stand to hear it, to bear the thought of losing him after all they had been through together. He had become her best friend, her confidant, and she loved him too much to let him go.

  “I can’t lose you, David, I just can’t!” she said through chest-racking sobs.

  David held her in his arms, tenderly stroking her hair as tears fell freely down his face.

  They sat together for a long while and cried together, holding each other until the sobs finally subsided and were replaced with a deafening silence.

  Erin finally sat up and looked into David’s eyes, her beautiful face red and puffy from crying.

  “I stand by what I said. Stay with me tonight? If I can’t have you forever, let me at least have you tonight.” she asked, looking up at him eagerly.

  How could he deny her such a thing? David smiled and nodded.

  That night they spent together, that last night, Erin would cherish for all eternity.

  Chapter XXXII

  The next morning Erin and David set off through the forest and into the campground to find the others. The morning had come for their march to battle and they were as prepared as they ever would be.

  They found Rex and the others in the command tent, each dressed in their most splendid armor and prepared for the coming battle as if it were their last – and it would be. Whether they won and the Defiant One was sealed away once again, or they lost, and the world was destroyed – one way or the other their time at war was about to be coming to an end.

  When they saw the look of resolution on David and Erin’s face, they knew the time had come.

  Together, they marched their army of men, Elves, and Dwarves up the Great Road towards Draco’s Pass and over the snow dusted mountain. When they reached the crest of the pass, marking the divide between the eastern and western sides, they got their first look of the amassing army of demons far below in the Great Plains. They were marching from the Outer Woods near what remained of Eldergate, flowing across the great grassy fields like a black flood of death.

  Their masses covered the landscape for miles between the edge of the tree line to the north and the foothills of the mountains to the south, while the air above was littered with winged beasts of war, circling above like vultures, ready for the coming battle.

  David and Erin shared a look of determination before pressing on to the other side of the pass, heading down the mountain path and into the Great Plains below.

  The once green, grassy field had now turned to dry grass from the changing seasons, mixed with trampled muddy ground from the hundreds of thousands of marching feet that had been crossing back and forth on its surface over the past couple of weeks.

  The air was cool and dry with the sky mostly overcast to match the gloomy atmosphere of the pending battle below.

  The allied forces reached the bottom by mid-day and gathered into three great divisions at the foothills of the eastern slopes. Each group had two battalions of Dwarves in the front lines with their great halberds and lances standing at the ready for the coming charge, standing behind two long rows of mounted warriors with long spears and short swords on their hips.

  Behind them stood several battalions of men and elves, laden with the decorative armor of their respective kingdoms and each carrying their preferred weapon of war. The rear of each battalion consisted of several companies of archers from all of the races, prepared to release volley after volley of magically crafted arrows designed specifically for the demon horde that would fly farther and faster than ordinary arrows - allowing them to soar through the air to their target from the safety of the rear. They were ordered to focus first on the flying enemies to protect the others from being picked off by the winged beasts before targeting the masses on the ground.

  Each division was being led by one of the Generals or Kings of each race. The left division would be led by Kings Eldergate and Reximus Kane, with their Generals Nathaniel Ryan and Cornelius Owen at their sides. The middle division would be led by Prince Gilric
Ellisar of the Woodland Elves. And the right division would be led by King Tybrin Hammerclaw of the Dwarves of Emerald Keep. Together, they made a formidable force, but before the great sea of darkness, their numbers were but a fraction of the size and paled in comparison. It would be a desperate battle indeed.

  The plan was for the main forces to keep the demons occupied and at bay long enough for David to find the Defiant One and take him out. Once he did so, he would be able to unleash the spell of banishment, sending the Defiant One back into the Dark Abyss, along with the remaining forces of Demons and undead soldiers. In order for the spell to work, the Defiant One would have to be in a weakened state, and they knew this would be no easy task - even for David with his newly regained powers.

  Their whole plan rested on David’s success. If he failed, or if he took too long, their defeat was all but certain – it was a risk they were all willing to take.

  Seeing that the fight was about to begin, David and Erin took one last moment to say goodbye and wish each other luck in the coming battle.

  David leaned in with a passionate kiss before parting for the last time.

  “I love you, Erin Alderan. I always will.” he said, trying his hardest to smile and be strong while fighting back the tears.

  “And I love you, David Bishop. You have come into my life and changed it for the better. I will never forget you, and I will carry you in my heart forever.” she said, smiling as tears welled up once again.

  “Now go and save the world!” she said with a weak laugh, wiping away her tears and trying her best to look strong.

  David smiled in kind before he took off towards the middle of the central group. Erin watched him disappear into the ranks of men before she finally gathered enough strength to turn away and join with Rex and the others on the left flank.

  It was one of the hardest things she had ever done, for she knew in her heart that things would never be the same again.