Blood of Mages (Rift of Chaos Book 3)

by A. J. Martinez

  “I am sure Serena is desperate to see her mother,” Akielas said. “She will want the love you never gave. Don’t deny her or you will break her heart even more.”

  “I do not deny. I am just shy but I do want to give her my love,” Zarviack replied. “I hope she accepts it and yet I deserve to be rejected.”

  “You are depressing me. Let’s go find them.” Akielas took her hand and commenced to walk through the canyon. “I am sure Serena will love to see you. Give her the opportunity to see her mother for the first time. It is the least you can do for the girl.”

  Zarviack allowed Akielas to lead her. Her body protested but her soul wanted the princess she left behind. Her soul wanted the opportunity to be a mother and so she trekked into the forest with Akielas with shyness, embarrassment and love in her heart.

  Serena

  The giant bird shrieked as they arrived at the frozen ivy forest. She could already feel the chilly winds giving her goosebumps. Auron squinted at the horizon wondering when they would arrive and Eckxio flew behind them in his shining armor. Auron’s Eedahlan slightly descended, flying over the canopy of the forest, trees streaming below. This was the first time that Serena was visting the frozen forest after decades of hearing so many tales about it. Now she would finally see what it was like. As a child she had read about the south glacier, a land covered in snow with no greens in sight. She had read about the winter season in other countries and how ice fell from the sky. Serena wondered if the frozen forest would be as described in the books she read. Her father rarely allowed her to leave the capital city and the only places of joy she had seen were the beaches of Maer Weeyar.

  “Everyone, I think I see it, up ahead,” Eckxio called out.

  Serena squinted, unsure of what she was supposed to look at. Her gaze was interrupted when Garuda started shaking unexpectedly. Serena felt as though she would fall off the bird and wrapped her arms around Auron’s belly as she sat behind him in the saddle.

  “What is happening?” she asked.

  “Garuda, what is the matter?” Auron asked his summon spirit.

  Garuda replied with a low shriek then its flight became very unsteady going down as if to fall and rising with much struggle.

  “It’s becoming weak,” Auron said.

  “What do you mean?” Serena asked in deep concern.

  “Garuda is vanishing. Returning to limbo from which it came,” Auron explained.

  “How can it leave now? We are almost there,” Serena said.

  “ It is not leaving by choice, but by force. Something is forcing it to return to its world,” Auron replied. “This is not good.”

  “What does it mean for us?”

  “It means that…”

  They both fell before Auron could finish his sentence. Garuda’s body disappeared into limbo, leaving behind a cloud of golden dust. Serena screamed as she fell and Auron tumbled next to her. The forest was not so far below and she was sure to crash into the branches of the trees. In a flash, Eckxio swooped and grabbed both of their arms and ceased their fall. He descended with both of them and landed gently on the forest floor. Serena fell to her knees, panting and sweating.

  “Are you alright?” Eckxio asked patting her back.

  “I am fine,” she replied and breathed heavily. “I thought I was going to crash and die. I have never fallen from that high up before. That was terrifying.”

  “Well princess, if you want to join our cause then this is the kind of thing that will happen every day,” Auron stated but it did not make Serena feel any better.

  She stood up with legs wobbling. Eckxio caught her before she could fall again. She commenced to walk and on her third step she gazed upon the forest and her jaw dropped.

  There it was. The frozen ivy forest. Like nothing she had ever seen before. She stood on the green side with trees spreading wide with branches and fruit hanging. On the other side of the forest, about thirty feet away from her, it was all covered in ice. Tree trunks cloaked in thick layers of ice, naked branches and water frozen in the midst of falling turned into spikes of ice. The floor was nothing but a sheet of white and it was foggy beyond where she could not see. Her eyes swelled with astonishment and her mouth gaped.

  “Well, let’s move,” Auron said. “We don’t want to stare at it all day.”

  “Do you not see the wonder,” Serena said and gestured at the frozen side of the forest. “Look at it. Everything is covered in ice and white and emptiness. It is so… beautiful and yet…terrifying.”

  “Come to my country and you will see winters as bad as this. I promise you,” Auron joked and laughed.

  “Come now, my lady. Careful not to slip,” Eckxio said.

  And so they entered the frozen ivy forest. Auron stepped in first then Serena and Eckxio behind to keep an eye on the princess. She was barefoot and walked on a mushy white cold sheet that reminded her of powdered milk. She scooped up a handful and tasted it.

  “What do people call this in your country?” she asked then licked it.

  “We call it snow. Same as here in Maer Weeyar. Think of ice magic as an extension of hydromancy,” Eckxio explained.

  “I have used ice magic before but I have never seen this much covering the land,” Serena said. “I have never been so cold in my life. My feet are freezing.”

  “So then how did you learn ice magic?” Auron questioned.

  “From the sages in the water temple,” she answered. “Although I rarely leave the capital city, many of our ice mages have traveled to the South Glacier. They had studied cryomancy from the people in that area and returned to Maer Weeyar to share the knowledge. All the magic I learned was from the sages but I never left the country. Maybe one day you guys will take me to the east side of the world.”

  She walked through the frozen forest shivering from the temperature and walking barefoot made it much worst. Auron had offered to carry her but she refused. Despite the cold she was enjoying it. The fog of her breath, the snow and how the trees looked coated with ice. All the trees had naked branches. Nothing green in sight and she noticed footprints in the snow trailing into the haze ahead.

  “Must be Akielas’ footprints,” Auron assumed. “Who else could have walked through this frozen wilderness?”

  “We won’t have much trouble finding him then,” Eckxio stated.

  “What could be keeping him here for so long?” Serena asked.

  “The man is trying to get his magic back. It can’t be very easy. Maybe he is still learning,” Auron guessed.

  “He told me that he was going to find a mage that would show him the art of deevinacy,” Eckxio recalled.

  “Look!” Serena shouted and pointed at a silhouette in the haze ahead.

  They ran towards it and drew their weapons. That was when Serena realized, Oh no, I forgot my spear. I was so excited to come here that I completely forgot to bring a weapon. Well then, I will just have to rely on my magic.

  “Who goes there?” Auron shouted at the silhouette with his falchion at hand.

  There was no reply and so they got closer slowly stepping towards the silhouette only to find that it was a frozen animal.

  “A bear?” Serena raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Its…it’s frozen.”

  “By the looks of its position it seems like it was caught off guard,” Auron analyzed. “Probably waiting for something.”

  Serena kept walking ahead and found more animals frozen in a running position. Panthers, rabbits, deers, wolves, foxes and it seemed that birds had fallen from the sky after being touched by the ice spell. There were apes paralyzed, hanging from trees. This is a curse, Serena thought. Could it have been you, mother, using the sapphire jewel? She did not want to believe it was someone of her own blood. She shoved the thought away and continued walking amongst the frozen animals.

  Suddenly, she heard a hissing sound coming from above. She ran back to Auron and Eckxio and the three of them began to scan the canopy.

  “You heard it too?” Auron asked
as he eyeballed the tree branches above.

  “The hissing sound of a snake. It was unusually loud,” Serena described.

  “I get the feeling it is no ordinary snake,” Eckxio said.

  “Back to back everyone,” Auron strategized.

  They formed a triangle with their backs facing against each other as they scanned their surroundings. The hissing sound echoed louder this time and it was no longer coming from above but from somewhere low among the trees.

  “It’s something big,” Eckxio said. “But we have fought worse things. How bad could this one be?”

  “It has no maju. I can’t sense its presence,” Auron said.

  Abruptly, something leapt out of the snow from Serena’s side. She was going to cast a spell but the creature was too fast and she screamed instead. In a flash, Eckxio rapidly jumped in front of her and plunged his blade into the head of the giant pale snake. Eckxio’s sword barely pierced the skin of the creature, its scales were rough but he managed to stop it. The giant snake then bashed the Elf into a tree with its head, cracking the ice and making icicles fall from above. The Elf crashed hard into the tree, fell and moaned while attempting to get back up.

  “Frostass shazt!” she yelled, created an ice spear with her maju and hurled it at the snake.

  The spear shattered after colliding with the snake’s rough skin. The snake turned around and loomed over Serena and Auron, standing up to twenty five feet tall with its red eyes glaring down at Serena. Its body was as thick as a tree trunk and she felt it could swallow her whole. She caught the gaze of the snake and her body became stiff.

  “Don’t look into its eyes!” Auron yelled.

  The snake hissed with its crimson eyes glowing red. It leapt towards Serena with its mouth open. Auron bashed into the snake before it reached her.

  “Get a hold of yourself!” Auron yelled at her as he battled the white snake.

  Serena struggled out of the paralysis. She exhaled frosted fog on herself from her nostrils and her body began to budge. She used the temperature to trigger her body to shiver and managed to break free.

  As Auron fought the giant snake, his fingers chirped with lightning. Unfortunately, his lightning strike did not work against the snake. The giant snake lashed out at Auron with its tail, sent him flying and he crashed on top of a frozen fox. The snake turned and faced Serena again. She avoided its eyes and took steps back trying to find a way to fight against it. Water and ice has no effect on it. Lightning does not work either. I don’t have my spear with me so I can’t penetrate its scales. How am I going to fight against this monster?

  From behind the giant white snake a blast of fire engulfed it and the beast shrilled, a sound so high pitched that it almost damaged Serena’s ears. The snake flailed with scales melting on its body. It turned around and saw the one responsible for setting it on fire.

  “Akielas,” Serena said, flabbergasted.

  Akielas raised his sword bathed in flames. The giant snake pounced, Akielas leapt forward, rolled on the snow then rose with a flaming slash that divided the snake’s body and set it on fire. Akielas turned around and released one last blast of fire on the monster. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at Serena.

  “Sir Akielas!” she shouted and ran to embrace him.

  “By the gods, you hug like a bear,” he groaned as she hugged him tightly.

  Serena let him go and bowed to him. “I am sorry, sir.”

  “No worries,” he replied.

  “Always here to save the day,” Auron commented as he approached.

  “Just in time,” Eckxio added as he trudged through the snow, coming from Serena’s left.

  “What have you been doing all this time?” Serena asked.

  “You seem different,” Auron said. “Your maju feels more…robust.”

  “Sir Akielas, we missed you,” Eckxio added.

  “I love all of you,” Akielas replied. “I was busy trying to get my magic back and I feel stronger than ever.”

  Akielas then eyeballed Serena from head to toe and asked, “Aren’t you cold wearing so few clothes?”

  “I wish I had come more prepared but I will be fine. I am a water mage, remember,” Serena answered.

  “Sir Akielas, so, did you do it? Did you find the mage?” Eckxio asked.

  “Indeed I did,” Akielas replied, looking back into the forest behind him. “Actually, here she comes now.”

  Serena and the others followed Akielas’ gaze. In the haze of the forest there was the silhouette of a person approaching. The trudging sound of the person echoed in the snow.

  “Who is it?” Serena asked.

  “You will see,” Akielas answered.

  Serena had a hunch of who it was but she dared not say anything and get her hopes up. She watched as the stranger approached and as the stranger got closer she noticed that it was a woman. Her heart hammered in her chest, knowing very well who it was. The stranger had blue dreadlocks just like her. The woman wore a blue tank top and short skirt. Her body was tattooed with fish scales and ocean waves. What proved she was right was the diamond spiral on the woman’s forehead.

  “Serena,” the woman said, standing a few feet away from her. “You have grown into such a beautiful woman.”

  It was like staring into a mirror. How could anyone in Maer Weeyar look just like her? The same narrow eyes, the same tan skin, the same height and same beak nose. While most of Serena’s tattoos were located on her right side, this stranger’s tattoos were located on the left side of her body.

  Tears left her eyes and she started to sob.

  “Mother.”

  ********

  Her name was Zarviack. A name she had been hearing since the age of five. Her father mentioned her name many times. The maidens that helped raise Serena in the castle had whispered the name of the woman who vanished after the last war between her people and the Laguans. It shocked her to see how much her mother looked like her. They were almost identical, like twins. For so long she wished to see the person who gave birth to her and for so long her father avoided talking about her mother. Every time Serena would ask her father about her mother he would dodge her question or answer with, “It was thirty years ago, it is hard to remember.” Now her mother stood beside her, so beautiful. Serena had so many questions but did not know where to start. However, Serena was sure that she would find out the truth as to why her mother had left her. There was no more guessing and no more mystery. She was not sure when but her mother was going to tell her and she was ready to hear it. Nothing could hurt her now. She was an adult and the years she spent alone had given her strength.

  Zarviack took them to her domain in the ice canyon. It was a dead end with two caves high up on the wall of the canyon. The entire time that they walked her mother was silent. Akielas spoke of how Zarviack had helped him regain his magic but the awkwardness was in the air. Serena would look at Zarviack, she would smile and then frown. A part of her was happy and the other part angry.

  At the dead end, Zarviack cast a pillar of ice that brought Akielas, Eckxio and Auron up to the cave in which she resided. When Serena was finally alone with her mother the time came to ask the question.

  “So, mother, you already know what I am going to ask, don’t you,” Serena said.

  Zarviack sighed then turned and faced her. She looked at Serena so distraught and a tear left her eye. Serena came over wiped her tear and hugged her.

  “It hurts to talk about it,” Zarviack said. “I do not have any right to receive your love, no matter how much I want it now. It is true, I left you behind…no…I abandoned you.”

  “Why,” Serena whispered.

  “Because it was the best decision at the time,” Zarviack answered. “Maer Weeyar was at war and during the middle of battle the Sapphire Cosmo Jewel had chosen me. It summoned me and on that day, thirty years ago, I vanished from the capital city and journeyed south to be alone and protect the sapphire jewel. Without the jewel the Laguans and our people had nothing to f
ight for. I knew the fighting would never stop. If no one could have the jewel then there would be no reason to fight. It was better if no one knew where I was. I gave up everything to end the war and according to my visions there has not been a war in thirty years, am I right?”

  “That is right,” Serena agreed. “But, why didn’t you take me with you?”

  “Please, don’t be silly,” Zarviack replied. “I did not want you to live in these conditions. I wanted you to be around people and be happy. I wanted you to find love and get married one day and have children. I wanted you to live a normal life in the castle. Also, I would not be able to raise you all by myself. The best decision was for you to stay with your father. I gave up the opportunity of being a mother and created this frozen sanctuary to find enlightenment and continue my work of connecting with the realm of light, which is how I helped Akielas regain his magic.”

  Everything that her mother did was for her country. Serena could not blame her mother for what she did and now that she understood, it was time to let it go. She embraced Zarviack for telling her the truth and cried on her shoulder.

  “A hug?” Zarviack was surprised. “All this abandonment and I get a hug. I don’t deserve it.”

  “Thank you for telling me the truth,” Serena said as she sobbed. “There were many times that I wanted to leave home and search for you but father would not allow me and I was scared to go on my own.”

  “Leaving you was my way of protecting you,” Zarviack explained. “I wanted you to live in a world without war. During the time that I grew up in there was death everywhere. Many children did not live to be more than fifteen years old because of the war with the Laguans. All for a sacred jewel of the dragon god. After I left I understood why the sapphire jewel chose me. I was the only one who truly believed in a peaceful world.”