More tears flooded to his eyes and he remembered some of the times they’d had. A scream of terror came from outside the temple. Aless had been exiled for this, so many years ago. He had been forced away, and he had confessed to being so grateful to be back in the monastery, so happy to see his old friends again, to resume his old duties.
Corin forced himself to stand up, ignoring the pain that rushed through his body. Serac’s blast of water had been more painful than he had expected, especially since Selena had always emphasized how weak the spirit was, even outside a vessel. The spirits were strong beyond his imagination. If even the weakest, trapped inside a vessel, was able to cause this destruction….
Corin began walking toward the temple door, seeing the entire training ground flooded with water. Mud was covering everything, destroying the grounds that had been around for as long as Corin could remember. Several students were decapitated on the ground, water having cut clear lines through their throats.
Corin stepped out, ignoring the disgusting feeling between his toes and the rain drenching him. He scanned the area, trying to search for Aless, but to no avail. The man had destroyed this area already. Corin turned and began to run away in desperation. He stepped over a corpse, cringing before he finally saw Aless in the distance.
He hid behind a nearby tree—one of the few that had yet to be cut down. He peeked his head out from around the corner. Aless wasn’t himself, Corin reminded himself, though from this angle he could only see Aless’s back. He looked just as he would’ve had he not been committing the heinous acts he was.
No one was coming to their aid and people were dying at such large numbers. A thin jet of water hit a girl straight in the neck—and she couldn’t have been more than twelve winters old. Corin shuddered, scrunching his eyes as tightly shut as he could. Where was Selena? She… she normally came to their aid—she was the only one who could deal with it.
Corin frowned. No, no she wasn’t. It was the only way to permanently solve the problem… or at least, if Faye’s previous sacrifice was to be believed, solve it for a long time. He bit his lip. He’d have to sacrifice himself to keep Serac under control.
He thought back to the other guardians. Cyril wouldn’t be able to lead the clan; Kateline would never lounge lazily in her library; Selena and Piers would never be together again, not in the way they were accustomed to, at least. Well, when Corin thought about it, not at all. Piers would be stuck under his temple and Selena would be stuck above it, feeling every moment of their separation.
Selena had protected him throughout the years, and although he had never felt anything besides platonic feelings for her, he did care for the guardian. She had so much patience when it came to helping him, and she always rushed to his aid, even if she was strict. She was like a mother to him, despite their similar ages. She’d be miserable without Piers, wouldn’t she? He had seen the way she looked at him, the way she looked now when she heard his name. It’d hurt her a lot to have him stuck down there….
And then there was Aless. Aless who hated what he’d done… Aless who held him, Aless who was so gentle, so kind… Aless who was now running around decapitating children….
Corin closed his eyes, tears leaking out the corners. He had to do it—he had to re-form the restraints. If not for him then for the others—the ones who had worked so hard to find a solution, who loved life enough to work day and night with their efforts. It was his destiny, he noted, smiling slightly. He had to.
“You can’t win, Serac!” Selena yelled, and Corin peeked his head out from behind the tree, seeing his mentor covered in a layer of blood and mud, staring down Aless with a passion in her eyes.
Serac smirked. “I’d been looking forward to a rematch,” he declared, shooting a jet of water toward the girl. “Your paralysis trick won’t work on me twice!”
Selena dodged out of the way, ducking down and pressing her hands against the ground, sending an infection through the soil. Aless shot another burst of water at her, and she rolled out of the way, sending a gust of wind to try to knock the spirit off balance.
Corin suddenly felt something pull him, and he rushed out of his cover, running toward Selena and Aless.
Selena instantly caught his eye. “Corin, don’t!” she yelled, focusing her energy and throwing another sharp gust of wind toward Aless.
Aless turned around, looking at Corin and licking his lips. “Well now, what a surprise,” Serac taunted. “Didn’t have enough of my spell, I assume?”
“You know exactly why I’m here.” Corin panted and stood a few feet away from Aless, staring down the spirit.
Selena took the opportunity, slamming her hands into the ground and sending the paralysis through the dirt. The rain had become thick enough to almost blind her, but she could still make out the shapes of Corin and Aless.
“And you really think you have the courage to do it?” he asked. “To give up your life? To be trapped?”
Selena pulled back, staring at Corin. “Give up your life, Corin? What’s he saying?” she asked, suddenly feeling panic flow through her. “Run! I can stop him for a couple of minutes!”
“No. Selena… I have to do this,” he stated. “Faye was the one before me… she created the restraints out of herself.”
“You don’t have to do this!” Selena yelled, suddenly feeling a bout of panic well through her. “I… I can trap him!”
Aless turned around, facing Selena. “I’ll be thrilled when I can kill you,” he teased, smiling. “You’ve been nothing but a pain to us spirits, and Zephyr will be thrilled to finally be free of such a bitch.” He hardened the soil at his ankles and stopping the paralysis from connecting with his skin.
Selena looked at the dirt, noticing the mud she had been sitting in was now alarmingly dry, trapping her where she sat. She tried desperately to move her arms, but found herself deeply imbedded in the rock hard soil. She smiled for a second, allowing tears to freely cascade down her face. She was going to die now, she realized. Serac had caught her despite her best efforts. The other clan members were doomed. Serac was loose and there was no one who’d be able to incapacitate him. Selena felt how strong Serac had become, and he’d caught on to all of their tricks. She looked to his ankle once again, confirming her infection had stopped. Despite the rain pouring down around her, the soil surrounding her didn’t move an inch.
Corin finally sprang forward, leaping onto Aless’s back and wrapping his arms around the man’s neck, leaning his head onto Aless’s shoulder.
He froze, wondering just how he would proceed. He had no idea how to seal the restraints, he realized in alarm, trying to think back to what he had discovered. He flared up his mana, hoping it would buy him a little bit of time.
“Brat!” Serac screamed, flailing and trying to throw Corin off his back.
Corin remembered the final line on that text. Faye had said it when she created the restraints a thousand years ago.
“I love you, Aless,” he whispered, tears flowing down his cheeks, as he tried to flare his mana as high as possible. He shouted the words from the text at the top of his lungs.
Suddenly Selena noticed a bright white flash. She closed her eyes, desperate to avoid being blinded. Serac gave a loud scream, clutching at his head. A loud high-pitched noise filled the air, painfully tightening around his neck, arms, legs—
And then Aless woke up.
Chapter 29
ALESS stared around the marshy training area with confusion.
The last thing he could remember was going to bed with Corin, but the current scene was nothing like what he had done. He was standing in the middle of the drenched training ground covered in water and, what he hoped wasn’t his, blood. Rain poured from the sky. He focused his energy to dispel it from the area.
He hesitantly reached up to his neck, feeling the silver collar covering his neck before noticing Selena a few feet away, trapped in some hardened soil and sobbing.
Aless ran over, rehydrating the soil and staring
at her. The girl instantly flung her arms around Aless’s shoulder, leaning onto his shoulder and sobbing, clutching his shirt with desperation Aless never suspected she could muster.
He took a moment to pull away from Selena, examining her. She was covered with mud, her dress and legs were stained with blood, and her arms seemed to have all sorts of cuts and scrapes littering them.“What happened?” he asked, feeling Serac unable to even speak. “Did we solve it?”
Selena took a few deep breaths, hardly able to keep herself composed. “W-we did….”
“That’s great news!” Aless exclaimed, pulling her close once again. “Where’s Corin? Surely he’s thrilled by this!”
Selena stared at the mud, standing up and moving over to where Corin had been standing, reaching into the pile of mud. She pulled out another silver set, carefully latching it on herself before grabbing the others, clutching them tightly in her hands.
“Selena,” Aless persisted, tilting his head to the side, “where’s Corin?”
Selena turned around, tears still flowing out of the corners of her eyes. She opened her mouth but couldn’t muster the will to speak. She lowered her head, hesitantly pointing to the restraints she held.
“What?” he asked.
“H-he’s…,” Selena replied, turning around, “he became the restraints.”
Aless rushed up to her, jaw dropping. “W-what?”
“He’s gone.”
THE two walked in complete silence from temple to temple, each time repeating the same process. They’d approach a temple, push the podium off the center, paralyze the guardian and fill the well up with water, causing the paralyzed guardian to float to the top, when they’d finally snap the restraints on. The others seemed to sense something was wrong, noticing Selena’s bloodied clothes and Aless’s solemn expression, choosing to follow the duo without uttering another word.
It was a long, arduous process, and despite the joy Selena felt upon seeing the other guardians she still felt a heavy pain in her heart. Corin had been like a little brother to her. They’d spent every day training together, and now he was gone. Aless was staring ahead of the group with a solemn look upon his face, and Selena felt for him. Out of everyone, they’dbeen the closest to Corin, after all.
After all the guardians had been successfully restrained, there was an unspoken agreement to enter the meeting hall. Selena and Aless walked side by side the entire time, a sense of camaraderiebetween the two. They had both lost someone very dear to them, albeit special in different ways.
When they entered the room, Cyril took the head of the table, allowing the others to choose from the other seats available. Selena sat between Piers and Aless, leaning her head onto Piers’s shoulder, tears still flowing freely down her cheeks, combining with the mud and dripping down Piers’s chest.
Cyril cleared his throat uncomfortably. “This is clearly a tough time for both of you, but I would appreciate if you could tell us what happened.”
Aless looked down at his lap. “He’s gone.”
Selena looked up, closing her eyes. “He… C-Corin let Aless out of the Water Temple. And Serac ran around… he… he killed a lot of people,” Selena explained, taking a deep breath. Piers moved an arm around Selena’s shoulders. “Corin came out and…. He was chosen by Llubla, so… he said he had to. He turned himself into the restraints. Serac was about to kill me before he did.”
Kateline bit her lip, staring at the document still on the table. “It’s completely black.”
“Pieces of it were revealed every time a restraint broke,” Cyril explained. “The final piece must’ve been how to form new restraints.”
“So many people died from them,” Selena muttered. “Serac killed many students, Petra managed to take down more than half our scribes…. We’re lucky Alvah wasn’t loose, ever…. And we’re lucky Corona was quick to contain.”
“Corona dealt his own brand of hurt,”Piersargued, pulling Selena closer to him. “I’m so sorry….”
“I already forgave you,” Selena replied, burying her face in his chest.
Aless stared at the wall idly, unable to look at the couple without feeling a tinge in his chest. He… Corin was gone. Corin would never be like that with him because Corin wasn’t here. He never even got a chance to say good-bye, Aless thought.
Kateline stared awkwardly around the room, finally fixing her gaze on Cyril. “So where do we go from here?” she asked. “If what you say is true, and I saw the bodies, I’m not calling anyone here a liar…. What do we do?”
Cyril sighed, looking between the guardians, all so torn up from the events. “We rebuild,” he declared. “We rebuild and record all we know to stop this from ever happening again.”
Epilogue
SELENA smiled, placing her hand onto the door of the monastery and releasing some mana, smiling as the doors parted.
Rebuilding had been brutal during the past winter. Due to a lack of available students, scribes, really, anyone with a substantial amount of mana she, along with Kateline, Piers, and Aless, had left the monastery to travel, gathering potential students from various cities around Nier. They had even pulled off a few daring rescues, she remembered with a smile, stealing captured mages from the various militaries.
Cyril had opted to stay behind, and Selena felt as though that was for the best. Even though she had accepted Alvah into her body, she really was not prepared to become the clan leader, especially when the monastery was in such a state of chaos. Besides, travelling with three other guardians was the safest they could be while still leaving the monastery reasonably guarded.
She turned around to the other guardians, as well as a few students they had gathered from their most recent outing to Far South, smiling as she did so. “We’re here,” Selena announced.
Kateline stepped forward, turning around to look at the group. “Feel free to enter the monastery right now, I need to have a word with my fellow guardians before we do so.” She declared, gesturing for the students to enter the monastery. When the last one slipped in, she closed the gate, turning back to Piers, Aless, and Selena. “It’s been far too long,” she declared.
“It has,” Selena agreed, giving Kateline a confused look. “So why are we waiting? I don’t really see why you’re keeping us out here.”
Kateline giggled, walking behind Piers and shoving him forward. Selena looked at Piers with confusion. He didn’t normally blush this much, she noted, and she had definitely never seen him this nervous.
“I think,” Kateline began, “that Piers has something he wants to ask you.” Kateline gave Piers another shove forward.
Piers blushed, staring at Selena and kneeling, reaching into his coat, “I… uh,” he began, “Selena, I’ve loved you for a really long time, and we wouldn’t have had this option before or while we were traveling, but—”He took a deep breath and pulled a ring out of his coat. “Selena… would you marry me?”
“Oh… oh, by Alvah, of course!” Selena exclaimed, flinging her arms around Piers’s shoulders. The older man pulled away with a smile, grabbing her hand and sliding the ring onto her finger, looking down at her.
Aless smiled at the couple’s display. Throughout their travels, he had finally been able to really meet Selena. The girl had been far calmer than before, though she still retained that spunk Aless assumed had caused Piers to pursue her in the first place. The two were an adorable couple, he’d admit, and he could tell that his best friend loved her.
“Congratulations, you two,” Aless began, stepping forward and patting his best friend’s back, giving them a small smile.
He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness at the situation, though. It had been almost a full year since he had seen Corin, and he missed the young man with all of his heart. During his travels he had felt it, particularly through Central and Far East. He had gotten desperate enough to visit several brothels, as humiliating as it had been, just to see if he could find anyone who looked even close to Corin.
Selena c
aught his eye during her celebrations, stepping away from Piers and Kateline. “I’ll meet you two inside the monastery later,” she declared. “I need to talk to Aless.”
Piers smiled, giving her a quick kiss before opening the gate, walking inside the monastery with Kateline, closing the gate quickly behind him. Selena stared at the gate, waiting until she couldn’t hear the noises of bustling students.
“It’s been a year….” She began, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah,” he replied, looking toward the ground.
“Are you okay?” Selena asked, biting her lip.
“He’s really gone.”
“Yeah,” she replied, placing her head on his shoulder, allowing a few tears to spill from her eyes.
“I never got to say good-bye,” Aless continued, pulling away from Selena.
“You were really quiet when we travelled,” Selena mentioned. “Piers was getting worried.”
“He doesn’t get it,” Aless replied, “because his lover is still here. Mine isn’t.”
“He doesn’t get it,” Selena agreed, “but… even though Corin wasn’t my lover, I miss him.”
Aless frowned, looking away from Selena. “Yeah.”
Selena awkwardly shifted her weight. “I know you don’t want me to say this, but… Corin would’ve wanted you to live.”
“What?” Aless asked.
“You’ve been sad for the entire year,” Selena replied, fidgeting, “and Corin wouldn’t have wanted that. It’s like you told me a year ago after Piers’s restraints broke. He wouldn’t have wanted to see you like this.”
Aless frowned. “And you’re telling me this because…?”
“Corin gave himself up to let us all live,” Selena continued, “and you’re not living.”
“You’re out of line,” Aless declared, glaring, “and on today? It’s been a year, show some compassion.”
Exile Page 19
