by Logan Jacobs
“I see.” I nodded. “So, do you think we can try this same approach this time around?”
“Yes, but Syros was the weak family member,” the alchemist continued while he dusted some powder into a vial. “He wasn’t born to be powerful, but even so, he was. Ignis, however, is a different breed of titan. He is of the same blood as Helios, so it was always written in the stars that he would be a fearsome titan.”
“So, defeating him…” I trailed.
“Will be harder than defeating Syros,” the alchemist finished. “Ignis can turn his opponents into ash, so he is not someone who should be taken as a joke, but he is capable of being defeated. Your biggest challenge in facing him will be living long enough to kill him.”
“I’m sure I can do it with the proper preparations,” I reasoned. “Any assassination, no matter the target, only needs some careful planning and a well-informed mind behind it.”
“I’m inclined to agree with you,” Xerzor chuckled. “If anyone can manage it in this kingdom, then it probably is you, Dex.”
“Do you have anything that might be able to help me?” I asked. “Something you can brew, maybe? I know it’s difficult with tainted weapons, so maybe you could make something even stronger.”
“Ahh… that does bring us to the fine print of it all,” Xerzor muttered under his breath.
The alchemist had an uneasy look on his face, and he turned to consider his shelves filled with different herbs and mixtures. He placed his hand underneath his chin and cocked his head to the side, and he shuffled along the row. He took out some glass vials and clasped them in his hand, and they made soft, clinking sounds as he shuffled them in his palm. Then Xerzor took the vials over to the table, and one by one, he held them up to his eyes and took a closer look.
“So… to answer your primary question of the day, yes, I do know of a concoction that is perilous to these titans,” Xerzor sighed. “But it is, of course, terrifyingly dangerous, and if anyone knew I was brewing it, then I would be exiled to the bleak lands beyond the mountains.”
I nodded slowly and considered this.
“Even though it might be the only way to stop the threat?” I asked. “Surely, the king would give you leeway.”
“Highly unlikely,” the alchemist grimaced. “This particular brew is so potent that one wrong move in the making of it could destroy the entire kingdom.”
“Well, that is already a possibility, regardless,” I returned with a sarcastic smile.
“Not because of me, though,” the alchemist chuckled. “I doubt the king would be pleased to hear of yet another cataclysmic occurrence taking place within the boundaries of his kingdom.”
“I’m sure he would,” I agreed.
“However, as I find myself saying quite often lately… because it is you I am speaking to, I will do it,” Xerzor said as he placed some of the glass containers back.
“Not because you want to survive?” I chuckled.
“Oh, Dex, there’s five fires,” Xerzor hummed. “Just five. I’d say we have plenty of time. Anyway, I’ll make it, but I don’t trust anyone else with this mixture, so you can’t speak of this to anyone.”
“I would never,” I promised. “When do you think it could be ready? Because those five fires are very likely to increase.”
“It takes a while,” Xerzor admitted. He clicked his knuckles one by one and pushed his bat-winged sleeves up to his elbows. “I guess I could get it done within twenty-four hours.”
“And could I lace my arrows with the concoction?” I inquired.
The alchemist laughed. “In all honesty, there is an issue with heat. The arrows would have to be made of something almost fireproof.”
“That’s fine,” I replied with a nod. “I’m sure that’s not going to be too much of a problem. I have someone I can always rely on for exceptional arrow smithing.”
“Alright,” Xerzor said. “I’d best be getting started, then.”
“And in the meantime, what are we going to do with the druid?” I pressed.
“Change the outfits and leave him here,” the man returned. “I’ll tell him I found him unconscious in the street and dragged him here for safe keeping. It might even endear me to him.”
“Thank you, Xerzor.” I smiled. “I owe you.”
I put the druid’s garb back on him and left him slumped on a chair, and then I donned my traveling cloak and grabbed my satchel. I waved goodbye to the old alchemist on my way out the door, but he was already too busy even to look up as I left the shop.
Then I made my way through the more derelict area of town until I reached the edge of the paths that were filled with people.
The king must have finished his speech to the rest of the kingdom, but it didn’t seem to have calmed the general populace. Humans and creatures alike were bustling around on every street, and they all looked nervous and full of frustration.
I started making my way over to the southeast quarter of the town because I needed to find Myokos. I hoped my trusted blacksmith already made arrows that were as the alchemist described, but if not, I knew I could rely on him to help me find a solution.
Along the way, I looked to the south, beyond the crowd, and out across the Forest of Hud. I was trying to see if any more fires had erupted, or if they had gotten more unruly, but everything seemed as it had been before. An eerie reddish haze permeated the sky while five shafts of smoke billowed from the woodlands, but so far, it didn’t seem as if the ember fields had flooded.
My heart skipped a little at the thought.
Cinis must have survived her uncle’s wrath.
I found myself striding more confidently as a grin hitched on my lips, and I was suddenly more determined than ever to handle this Ignis business once and for all.
Then screams started sounding in the kingdom, and I whipped my head toward the south again to see a huge shaft of black smoke had erupted at the forest’s edge.
In the thick, black fumes, a face appeared, and it was so grotesque and fiery, I assumed it could only be Ignis. His face was joined by other smokey skulls with their mouths wrenched open wide, and as more and more skulls flew into the sky, so did the screams.
That’s when I realized the screaming I heard wasn’t coming from the people this time. Instead, it seemed to be the black smoke that was screaming.
The sound was a chilling and torturous tune, and all the screams merged together until it was almost unbearable.
I clutched my ears and gasped at the sight, but I tried to remain calm. It was still only another isolated fire, and only the sixth to arrive so far, but I could see the people around me were horrified as they started to run away.
The area closest to where the fire erupted looked to be in absolute chaos, and residents of the city ran in all different directions while the animals in the streets snarled at them all.
Even the beasts flying in the air above the forest were roaring over the screams, and I had never seen such absolute mayhem in Ocadia before.
But no ember flood added to the chaos, so I could find some scrap of relief in the situation. I tried to focus on the thought of Cinis still being alive rather than the screaming, demonic faces forming in the smoke above Ocadia, and then I started to run, too.
I had to remind myself not to hold my breath as I put one foot in front of the other. The streets were too wild, though, and by the time a seventh person rammed into me, I decided I’d had enough of trying to plow my way through the masses.
I looked around to see if there was any transport, and then I remembered the stream that was nearby. I raced over to it, and I found exactly what I needed.
Slopped on the side was a giant water salamander. They were the quickest mode of transportation in the whole kingdom, and although there were loads that hung around the stream, it wasn’t certain that I’d find one on the banks. Its brown, slimy body was camouflaged into the mud on the side of the stream, and it had darkened patches plastered all over it, and small, beady eyes. The aquatic beast wa
s the same size as a horse, but five times faster, and I quickly ran down the slope to meet it.
I hopped onto the thick-bodied amphibian, and I hunched over to wrap my hands around its neck. Salamanders were awfully hard to keep a hold of once they got going, so I leaned on its back and pushed my palms into its side.
With one short push from me, the slick salamander rolled off the bank and slid into the water, and then it shot forward. The large creature darted through the water and sliced through rippling waves like a scissor cutting through paper, and my hair flew back as I tried to hang on. Within a matter of minutes, I was already near the estate, and I halted the salamander, waited for it to slump up onto the banks again, and quickly skipped off.
I ran down the street, past the deserted coven, and even past my estate until I reached the blacksmith’s shop, and I tried to enter, but the door was locked. Then I peered through the sooty glass, but nobody was inside. I guessed Myokos was either at the town centre, or heading home to see his family, and I decided I’d just have to speak with him later about the new arrows I’d be needing.
I turned back up the street and ran for my own estate, instead.
I still hadn’t returned home after everything with Cinis had unfolded, and I still hadn’t told the Master about what happened at the Ardere of Ignis. Part of me was nervous to see everyone, and I wondered if everyone in the house already knew it was me who had a hand in this chain of events.
Did the Master already know I couldn’t stop Cinis from going to her uncle, or that I didn’t kill her in the first place?
My boots pounded up the worn walkway to my estate entrance, but when I tried to open the door, I couldn’t enter.
“Let me in!” I hollered as I pounded the door with my fist. “It’s me, Dex!”
I tried to twist the knob again, but the ivy wouldn’t budge, and it was like it was shutting me out on purpose.
“Hello?” I shouted. “Someone? What the hell is going on with the door?”
Suddenly the door wrenched open, and in front of me stood Mazne. She grabbed me by the cloak, and then she dragged me through the door and shut it behind me again.
“Mazne?” I asked as I tried to work out if she was scared or just very annoyed with me. “Mazne, what’s wrong?”
Mazne burst into tears and threw herself against me, and she sobbed into my chest for a full minute while I confusedly held her in my arms.
“Mazne, this is all going to work out, okay?” I assured her. “We’re not going to get defeated by some fire titan, I’ll make sure of it. It’s not the end of the world.”
The receptionist kept crying while I held her, and I waited for her to calm down, but she didn’t seem anywhere close to stopping. Eventually, I had to gently nudge her off me so I could look her in the eyes, and she was red all over while she blubbered some more.
“It’ll be okay,” I said gently. “Truly, it’s only a small fire or two, we can defeat this. I just need to speak to the Master, and I’m sure he will help us get through it.”
Mazne’s face scrunched up, and she shook her head.
“But he’s… he’s gone,” she croaked.
My body went rigid, and a cold sweat broke across my forehead. Mazne started wailing against my tear-soaked cloak again, but my arms were too numb to hold her this time.
“What do you mean?” I asked as my pulse quickened, but I had a sinking feeling I already knew the answer.
Chapter 11
“He can’t be dead,” I said as I stared at Mazne.
“See for yourself,” Mazne whimpered and wiped some snot on her sleeve.
“Where?” I demanded.
Mazne wordlessly turned to the corridor, and I followed after her. The doe-eyed woman led me down the tapestried hallways toward the Master’s office, and she didn’t speak a word while I tried to steady my racing heartbeat.
Then we reached the doors of Master Abbot’s office, and I found myself staring at the woodwork for a long moment.
I had never entered the office before without his consent, and it didn’t feel right, but I took the handle in my hand. When I stepped over the threshold, the fountain had stopped trickling, and the water was halted midstream. Everything seemed like it was stuck in time, and the air was stale. Even though the Master’s valuables were still stationed in the same places, the room felt strange as if every item around me was holding their breath.
I felt a choke in my throat as I looked around the room, and then I spotted the Master’s chair. The back was facing me as it sat beside the fountain, and Master Abbot appeared to be strewn in it.
Mazne leaned her head around the doorframe, and she looked concerned. Her motherly instincts seemed to have taken over, and instead of crying, she gave me a look that asked if I was okay.
I didn’t say a word to her, I just hurried over to the chair, but when I saw the Master head on, my grief went stagnant in my chest. Suddenly, rage swept through me instead.
This was no natural death.
The Master was slung back in the chair, and his weathered face was as frozen in time as the rest of the room seemed to be. His expression was twisted in fury and pain, and I had never seen a corpse maintain such a look after death before.
I turned up the sleeves of his robe to see if he had been restrained at all, but there was no sign of a struggle. If it wasn’t for his face, then I would have thought he had just died peacefully, but something much darker was at play.
“Who found him?” I demanded of Mazne.
I looked over to the young, doe-eyed woman, who sheepishly stood just in front of the doorframe with her hands clasped in front of her and a thin-lipped smile on her face. She was clearly trying to keep her composure, but her eyes kept trickling with tears.
“It was Elis,” the receptionist admitted.
“Shit.” I looked up to the ceiling and shook my head in disgust. “That kid already has enough darkness to wrestle with.”
“It was only for a second,” Mazne returned. “He opened the door and saw him slumped and called me straight away. I don’t think he even saw the… face… if that helps.”
“I guess so,” I said and started pacing around a bit. “Something is off, Maz. Someone did this. I don’t know how, but the Master was murdered.”
“I think you’re right,” Mazne said in a lower tone. “Elis, he… he said he worried something was wrong in there just before it happened.”
“What?” I asked and immediately stopped pacing.
“I asked Elis why he just entered the Master’s office,” the receptionist explained, “and he said it was because he knew something bad was going on, so maybe you’ll want to talk to him about that.”
“Yes, I want to talk to him about it,” I growled and beelined for the door. “I’ll go speak to him now.”
Mazne quickly held the door open for me, and then she locked it behind us and pushed the key deep into her pocket. Before I could barrel through the hall, though, the young woman called me back.
“Dex?” she whimpered.
I turned around, and Mazne wrapped her arms around me. Then she started crying into my tunic again, and I held her in a firm hold while I took a few deep breaths.
“I will address this,” I promised her. “Don’t worry about anything. Our house is resilient, and we are a family that sustains.”
Mazne pulled herself away again, ran her sleeve through her wettened face, and nodded.
“Family,” she repeated in a steadier tone.
“I need to talk to Elis, now,” I told her. “But you know where to find me, and in the meantime, keep this door closed. There is much to examine about this situation.”
Mazne nodded vigorously, and then she turned and made her way back to the reception desk.
I was left with a wet patch of her tears on my torso, but I wiped the spot with my cloak and started toward the outdoor training ground. My hands kept clenching and unclenching as I took long, tense strides through the silent house, and I briefly wondered
if all the assassins had been informed yet.
I couldn’t focus on that concern just now.
My mind was fixed on the realization that someone, somehow had managed to murder the most formidable assassin in the entire kingdom.
During the same period of time when I’d been set up to kill a woman and start a false war for a fallen god.
Master Abbot may have been rapidly aging lately, and I suspected his defenses were slipping a bit, too. Twenty years ago, the setup with Ignis and Cinis never would have happened to us, but this was no excuse for him ending up dead inside his office.
Our estate was always a safe haven for us all, and if the Master was murdered within our walls, the situation needed to be dealt with immediately.
“Elis,” I shouted to the boy when I found him training in the fighting area out back. “I need a word with you.”
The boy put down his sword and immediately walked toward me. He didn’t look particularly sad, but his skin had lost all color, and his eyes were wide with fright.
“Yes, Dex?” he asked and climbed on top of the ledge.
The boy sat and dangled his legs over the pit, and I joined him so we were sitting next to each other.
“Mazne told me you said you knew something was wrong with the Master before he died,” I spoke. “Is this true?”
The boy bowed his head and nodded slightly. “Yeah.”
“What did you mean by that?” I frowned. “You can see the future? Is this some aspect of your powers?”
“No,” Elis hummed. “I was just getting the training swords out for the morning like I always do, and I heard some shouting.”
“Who was shouting?” I asked.
“It was the Master,” the boy continued. “He sounded mad.”
“What did he say?” I pressed.
“I couldn’t tell, really, I was down the hall, and he sounded muffled from there,” the child spoke. “He’s usually quieter when he’s in his office so early, so I thought it might have been an assassin getting yelled at because he failed on a task that night, and I…”
