A few stood back and claimed him to be mad, or with fever. He took them, one by one, and placed his hand over their eyes and showed them what he had seen. In the vision given by Zenith, they each saw his son commanding thousands of thousands with his left hand. In his right he held a vile of black substance.
“In his left, he shall have power and authority over the earth. Armies and governments shall bow to him, and he shall hold in his left hand the key to his power. This vile and its contents have not of yet been revealed to me, but I hope to end his life tonight, that what you and I have seen shall not come to pass.” After Zenith had revealed his visions and the interpretation, there were still others who did not believe his words.
“How are we to know for a surety that what we have seen has come from the Faye and was not a construct in his mind that he has placed upon us?” Lucent asked. “Did he not recite unto us the governing rules, stating that one should not kill without sufficient reason for good, be it survival or as a means for preventing greater harm? He has gone mad believing that killing a child who is full of innocence would be for good.”
Zenith then left the school and made his way to the tavern where he had celebrated his day of birth. He asked the owner where he could find Anna, and was given directions to the brothel house. It was towards the mid-afternoon when he found his way to the brothel house, and was there greeted by one of the women who attempted to lure him.
But Zenith straightway dismissed the invitation.
“Woman, tempt me not. I have come in search of Anna, for it has been shown me that she has a son, who is of mine own flesh, and I have come to take him.” Then the color vanished from the harlot’s face.
“How did you come to know of this thing?” she asked. “We have told no man or woman, save it be those that have worked within these walls, of the child.”
“How I came to know is of no importance. Now go woman, fetch me Anna and my son that I may take him.” The woman went into the house and returned with Anna, and her son. Anna looked at Zenith and shook her head. Tears traced muddy trails in her dusty cheeks.
“These years I have told no man or woman, except those that work within these walls, of our child. I pray tell me who told you that I may know who has betrayed my trust.”
“No man or woman told me of our son. He is the flesh of my flesh, and blood of my blood and that is reason enough for me to know that he has lived. I will take him and raise him that he may grow and become a man of reputable nature. Surely you do not wish for your son to continue to be known as the son of a harlot, fatherless and without skill?”
“I do not wish for my son to continue to grow within these walls, or for others to know that he is here, for the son of a harlot does not fare well in this world. I do wish that you would take him, and raise him as your own, and teach him to forget all that he has known here.”
Zenith took his son and returned to the school. When he entered, he was greeted by the Assistant as well as a small number of teachers. These teachers conspired against him while he was out that they would remove him from the school and save the child, disbelieving the words and the visions which he spoke of and showed to them. Zenith knelt and leaned into his son’s ear.
“These men seek to kill me and take you as their own. I have a room prepared for us that will keep you safe from them. Stay close to me.” Zenith stood and addressed the teachers. “Brothers, why hast thou come to me at this hour? Have I not shown you what is to come to pass?”
“What you have said, we do not believe, for we fear you are mad,” Lucent said. “We have come to take the child from you and remove you from our school. You have no place here.” Zenith looked down at the child, then back at the Assistant.
“You have not yet learned all the words of the Unspoken, how are you to lead and carry this school?”
“The words which you have taught me I feel are enough, but I do not know for myself if what you have taught is true. Can you prove unto me that the words you speak are true?” Zenith agreed and called for parchment, ink and pen. When it was brought to him, he handed it to the Assistant. “Upon that parchment, write the words of the Unspoken which I have taught you, that you may understand. If the parchment holds, then you shall know that I am a liar and I will cast myself out from among you, but if the parchment does not hold, then you shall know that I have spoken the truth.”
The Assistant then loaded the quill with ink and began to write the words of the Unspoken. But as he wrote them, the tip of the quill became fire, and the parchment burst into flames.
“And how are we to know that it is not some trick by which you have deceived us?” a teacher asked.
Zenith breathed in, and channeled the Faye into his body. Filled with power, he stretched forth his staff, and pushed the group of teachers back, pinning them against a wall. He then took his son by the arm, and ran into the library. At the entrance, other teachers were waiting with large batches of sticks and tinder.
“Follow me,” he said to them and the teachers followed him. He continued to run until he came to the entrance of the room with the altar and torch which he had created. He spoke the word of the Unspoken and the door appeared. They entered in and as the last teacher entered the room, the door and entranced concealed itself as stone and brick. The teachers laid the sticks and tinder around the altar and Zenith laid his son upon the altar. There, the boy struggled. Zenith breathed and channeled the Faye a second time. He placed his hand upon the child’s face and spoke the words of the Unspoken for silence, binding, and sleep.
As the boy slept, Zenith took the knife that was at the base of the altar and cut his hand.
“The blood of your blood and the flesh of your flesh,” Zenith said as he dripped his blood upon the child. “These are the only things that can harm you, and so do I do with my own blood, sealing the future peace of our people.” As Zenith spoke, the child stirred. Zenith, seeing that his son was waking, took the torch from the wall and thrust onto the altar.
The flames licked the sticks around the altar and the fire grew. The child awoke as the fires burned him. He stood on the altar and leapt at Zenith, catching him by surprise. Zenith aimed for the child’s throat, but missed and sliced the boy’s arm. The child wrestled the knife from Zenith’s hand and stabbed his father straight through the heart. As the boy leaned over his dying father, a necklace fell out of the child’s robes that Zenith had not seen before.
On the end of the necklace was the vile he had given to Anna on his birthday. The boy withdrew the knife from Zenith’s chest. The fires on him and around him subsided as he ran out of the room. Out of fear, the other teachers ran from the room, and the boy followed.
“Murderers, they have killed my father, murderers!” the boy cried.
The teachers that planned on banishing Zenith heard the boy’s cries and laid hold upon the teachers the child was pursuing.
“What is this thing you have done? Have you murdered Zenith?” asked Lucent.
“We have done no such thing. Zenith was to take the child and burn him but the child stirred and fell upon Zenith and slew him with the knife he now holds.” Then Lucent took hold of the boy and looked at the knife.
“Is this true?” He asked.
“They are full of lies. My father, as a demonstration of his power, placed me on the altar to show that he could protect me from the flames.” As the boy spoke, the memories of those around him changed. Lucent no longer thought that Zenith was going to kill his own son, but do what the boy had said. “But when I arose unharmed, they were afraid, killed my father and fled.”
“He lies! He took the knife from Zenith and slew him.” One of the other teachers cried out. “The blood is upon his hands!”
The child clenched his hands, gripping the blade tightly. Before the Assistant to the Head could turn to look, the blood was gone.
“They are as mad as my father was. Banish them!” the child cried. His cries were not the cries of a child. Hi
s words were words of power and Lucent banished his fellow teachers, men and women he’d known for years, and cursed them as Nameless.
Zenith, with his last breaths, saw a trace of the boy’s blood on the ground next to him. Carefully, he wiped the blood with his fingers and mixed it with his own. He channeled the Faye to create this book from the mixed blood. He placed within this book his knowledge and teachings of the Faye as well as the ability to absorb the knowledge from other writings around it.
He also placed upon the book a spell that those who looked upon it would not be able to read its words and the pages would appear blank. Only those who were flesh of the Dark One’s flesh and blood of the Dark One’s blood would be able to read the book. For it is only by the flesh of his flesh and the blood of his blood that he can be destroyed.
The boy was taken in by the teachers who remained and they taught him all that they knew. Eventually the child grew and became the Head Teacher and using the darkest words of the Unspoken and his own cunning, killed other teachers, one by one, and drained their blood, and concentrated it into the vial. He very well could have killed all of them, but instead, named himself as the Dark One and said that the time was not yet at hand for the School to be destroyed.
The teachers retaliated and tried to destroy him, but his power was too great. No channeling of the Faye could harm him. The teachers, defeated and fearful, asked him what he wanted.
“I want to see my mother,” the Dark One said. As he left, his white hooded cloak turned to black and he disappeared in the night wind. The Teachers that remained ran to the brothel and each begged to see Anna. One of the women there said that she fled the week before with a child in arms to Noiknaer.
“She saw a man who was a client of hers frequently,” one of the women said, “begging in the streets for food. When she visited him, the man did not know who she was. She returned here, took her son, and fled. We pressed her to know why she was leaving.
“She said that she had a dream. In her dream she saw a man that she had known often, but the man did not know who she was. She heard a voice in her dream that was as loud and soft as a distant waterfall. The voice told her that when this should happen, she was to take her child and flee to Noiknaer and leave the child at the Capital Barracks.”
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The words faded and Kosai took a deep breath, taking in all of the information. The words from the story stuck in his mind like dried honey. Each section seemed like a vivid memory.
He discovered who his mother was, and in that instant, was grateful that the Captain kept it secret from him. He tried to imagine a life working the gates, or in the mines of Linnouse, and shook his head. The Dark One could only be destroyed by him. He was his half brother, and though half, he was still the blood of his blood, and flesh of his flesh.
CHAPTER 17
It took Kosai the rest of that day, the whole night, most of the next day, and more turnip soup before he was fully recovered. He did not dream of the beach, or the naked man, or any of the events that happened during his Awakening, but slept a dreamless sleep.
When he finally recovered, Mearto wasted no time in starting him back on his studies. The first two hours of the day were spent reading on what “Channeling the Faye” meant, how to do it, and what you could do once you channeled the Faye. Kosai learned the theory behind spells, incantations, and circles of power. Kosai turned to all the pages that Mearto had written down, but consulted the book, which pulled the meatier portions out of the text. Some of the books Mearto brought up contained paragraphs about the Dark One and his past and the School of the Faye in Anteperil before it moved to Noiknaer. Other sections were portions that Kosai remembered from the “Enlightenment and Damnation of Zenith”.
After the four hour study period, there was a fifteen minute walk to and around the Oasis. After the fifteen minute break, Kosai was to spend two hours meditating and communing with the Faye. Lunch was next, followed by a four hour practice session in the arena. The day ended with a two hour study session.
As Kosai and Mearto were walking up the West Stair, Kosai stared at the ground, thinking about his relationship to the Dark One and the plot to end his life. What Principle Daius said made sense. They could train him, and use him to defeat another, greater threat, and when he accomplished that task, they could kill him. If Kosai didn’t kill the Dark One, more people would die from starvation or-- perhaps the Three Brothers were right, perhaps an uprising was coming.
“What’s on your mind?” asked Mearto, looking back at Kosai as they continued to walk upwards. Kosai stopped and listened. There was no one coming up the stair from the library and no one coming down the stair from the Oasis. Even though no one was close enough to hear him, he didn’t want to take the chance that someone may walk in on him mid-sentence.
“I have a headache. Is there a really quiet place in the Oasis?” Kosai asked, his firm stare indicating he didn’t have a headache at all. Mearto seemed to understand and nodded.
“Follow me.” Once at the top of the West Stair, she led Kosai halfway around the Oasis to the north east side.
“We’re safe here. What’s on your mind?” said Mearto as she kneeled on the grass.
“I know why Theo is trying to kill me,” he started. “Do you know about the other vision the Seer had?”
There was long silence. Mearto looked down at the ground.
“Yes,” she said softly. She looked in the distance. Bees buzzed about the hives, finding a way in, and then buzzed out to collect nectar from the flowers in the Oasis. “Though, I do not believe it. Since the Seer is betraying the routes, I can’t trust anything he says. He may want you dead. I don’t know why yet, but you can’t let that distract you. Do I believe that you are the one to kill the Dark One? Yes, because why else would he want to make you a Forced Conduit?”
“To remove one of the most talented guards the Barracks have,” Kosai said.
“There are easier ways to kill you than to waste time on teaching someone,” Mearto said firmly. “No. The Seer Saw you killing the Dark One. And even if he did See you against our school with another, the future, I think, is changeable and moldable, like water. It takes its course. When you alter the ground, the water changes where it flows. But that’s not all is it? You still look troubled.”
“No. I found out today why I am the one who has to and can kill the Dark One. It’s because of my mother.” Mearto pulled her attention away from the bees and looked at Kosai.
“The Dark One’s mother was Anna, and Zenith passed away long before your conception. I do recall that Anna went missing a few years ago, but there was time for her to give birth to you, which makes the Dark One your half-brother.” She paused for a moment. “And then who was your father?”
“The Captain is, or at least he is the one who raised me, but whether or not he is my biological father…” Kosai stopped midsentence, and stared at the buzzing hives. “It doesn’t matter. Ellene and the Captain raised me, and that’s the end of it.”
“But what does being the Dark One’s half-brother have to do with being the only one who can kill him?” Kosai thought how he would answer this question without letting her, or anyone who might ask, know about the book.t. The book had cautioned him against revealing it to anyone and he held to that warning. Kosai closed his eyes and he flashed backed to his encounter with the Dark One.
“When I first encountered him, he almost killed me. The Dark one took part of my sword and stabbed in my leg. When I pulled it out, my blood was on that blade and when I attacked the Dark One, it hurt him. I attacked him before when my sword was whole but it passed through him as if he were mist. His blood and my blood are similar, and that is what hurt him.” Mearto looked at Kosai and frowned.
“How do you kill him then?”
“I’m not sure,” Kosai shook his head and bit his lip. “He is impervious to the channeling of Faye. Physical attacks like swords and spears cannot hurt him. That has been tried. Th
e vial he carries, it is the source of his power. If I can destroy that, I will be able to use my blood to kill him.” Kosai thought about Zenith’s story and what the Women of the Water instructed. Zenith built the altar by way of the Unspoken, and attempted to kill the Dark One. Kosai wanted to know if the altar was still there, and if it was, if he needed to lure the Dark One to it in order to kill him. The possibility that the Seer was spreading false visions to place Kosai’s life in jeopardy only complicated things.
“Do you even know what to do with your blood? Do you just spill it on him and that’s the end? Will he just shrivel up like a salted slug? What do you need to do? You need to think things through,” Mearto prodded. Kosai sighed.
“What are we going to do about the Seer?” Kosai finally asked, putting aside thoughts of the Dark One for the moment.
“We do nothing. You continue your training until we figure out why he wants you dead. When we find his motive, then we confront him.”
“He wants me dead because he believes I am going to destroy the school!”
“And I don’t believe that he actually saw that.” Mearto’s voice was firm and orderly. Her tone again reminded Kosai of the Captain.
“And how are we going to find his motive?”
“Leave that to me,” she said slyly. “We have gone over your break time. Go find a quite place to commune. I will be close by in-case anything happens.”
Kosai veered away from the beehives and found a spot next to one of the many streams in the Oasis. There was a little flock of chickens nearby. They jerked their heads left and right, staring at him with each eye before continuing to scour the ground for insects. Little arms of grass reached up from the dirt and small, fuzzy patches of moss grew in small circles around him. He read about what meditation and communion was, closed his eyes, and went back to the beach in his mind.
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The naked man was lying on his canvass beneath a palm tree. He stood and greeted Kosai, shaking his hand. “Why are you the only one who can kill the Dark One?” the man asked.
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