Emerald- Good and Evil

by M. D. Grimm

  “You didn’t have the balls to come after me without the stone,” I continued, my heart pounding fast. “You played games, you set traps. You’ve always been a spineless weasel, Lazur, greedy and worthless. So desperate for wealth, power, to getting what you thought you deserved. Trust me, you bastard, all you deserve is a hole in the ground. And I’ll be happy to give that to you.”

  Lazur’s breathing turned heavy, his eyes fairly popping from his head. Control wasn’t his—not anymore. Maybe if I caused him to lose focus on controlling Ellegrech, I could overpower him.

  “I am your father—”

  “One who thinks he’s strong when torturing a child,” I said. “Did that make you feel good? Did that make you feel proud, abusing me as you did?”

  “Every dog needs to be trained.”

  My gut burned as if he’d poured acid into it. “Well then, congratulations. I’m about to show you what your training has accomplished and how hard this dog can bite.”

  He shifted his foot, and I realized what he was about to do the instant before it happened. His lips moved with a word and the emerald glowed bright. The earth cracked, split, creating a chasm that spread, speeding toward me. I took a deep breath and moved my own foot, my hands, yanking at the magick inside the earth. Even as the crack sped toward me, I changed its direction, sending it sharply to the left.

  “It all began here”—his voice was barely more than a snarl—“it can all end here.”

  “I agree.”

  He flung wind at me, the fierce gale whipped my jacket back and my stance nearly shifted. I leaned into the wind and caused the earth to jut up in a sturdy wall in front of me. I glanced back to see Aishe on his knees, crouched in a ball that would have stood against the wind. Aishe lifted his head, saw my wall, and sprang to his feet.

  A fiery blast blew my wall apart but I anticipated that. I brought up my shield, the shards of rock bouncing off it. But at the same time, I flung out my right hand and let force move the burning wood behind Lazur. I yanked my hand back and a large clump of wood slammed into his back. He staggered forward and I dropped my shield. Clouds rolled in over us, dark and gray, the rumbles of thunder growing closer.

  We fought, he and I. We threw spell after spell. Lazur really had done his research. Bastard. He wasn’t better than me, hell no. But I couldn’t attack him head-on because of Ellegrech. That damn emerald gave him a full-body shield, causing me to attack differently than I would have normally. If I could disrupt his stance, his focus, or simply club him unconscious, that would be enough, just enough for me to yank Ellegrech from around his neck. But he was a block of stone and fucking hard to move. I couldn’t wear him down since the magick came from the emerald, and though he might not have my skill, he had brute strength, and in some ways, we equaled out. Don’t think that didn’t insult and burn my ass.

  How was I to defeat him? How was I to get the stone from him?

  We destroyed the land as we fought. The earth would never be the same. I drew water from the clouds above us and he drew the wind. We both used fire. It enraged me such a creature as he knew the ways of magick. He hadn’t earned that knowledge, he didn’t deserve it. He hadn’t sweated and bled and ached for it. The emerald gave it to him for free. I loathed those stones.

  I heard Ellegrech during the fight. It was, in fact, a major stone. From the moment he stepped out of the house, it simpered, it beckoned. It wanted to be wanted. Gleefully, it helped Lazur. It wasn’t war hungry like Rambujek. It didn’t feed on destruction. No, but it wanted to help, it wanted to be useful. But it was hard for me to listen too closely with all my attention focused on the duel. I had to find out the secret of the emerald if I was to get it away from Lazur. Rambujek loved betrayal and bloodshed and loved to be the cause of it; Amesulech, the amethyst, loved domination and the gain of territory. Dilacheuj, the diamond, proclaimed it wanted peace, but it was always peace through bloodshed. None of the stones were good, none of them wanted anything decent or happy. They tricked, they cajoled. They wanted power, and they wanted to align themselves with those who had power.

  So why did Ellegrech choose my father? He was a brutish seela with no magickal gifts.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” Lazur taunted. He panted, sweated, his color high. We stood across from each other, crouched, the land scorched and broken around us. “I expected more from the seventh son of a seventh son.”

  I bared my teeth and stared at him, into his eyes—eyes he’d given me—and felt something rise inside me. Something I hadn’t known was there... A question hidden, buried deep inside my mind. My gut. My bruised and battered heart.

  “How could you do this?” I screamed.

  Lazur blinked and tilted his head.

  If looks could kill, he should have been dead already. “How could you do this to me? To your own flesh and blood? To my brothers, my mother?”

  He looked at me as though I turned dumb. My throat felt scraped raw, my fists tightened until my fingernails dug into my palms.

  “We were your children. She was your wife. Was power so important to you that you truly cared naught for who you destroyed? The lives you broke, the bodies you violated? Was it all worth it, you sick, twisted bastard?”

  Matylde and Lorelei’s faces leapt into my head; Olyvre, my other brothers, my poor, wretched mother. Their faces flashed, along with the shadows of unknown victims bloodied or murdered by his hands.

  I came from him. My blood was his blood. He’d contrived my birth.

  My eyes burned, not with tears but with fury. “Mother damn you to the underworld, you filthy, shit-eating lunatic! I am your son!”

  “You are my creation!” he said, voice booming, his face a furious thundercloud. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled around us, above us. It was as if nature itself decided to leap into the fight.

  He pointed a finger at me. “I created you, you ungrateful little maggot! You wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for me and some sorcerer whore! Your mother was the vessel, but I was the true creator. Your creator. And you turned on me. You’re nothing but a mistake. A mistake I will destroy!”

  That was it. That was the answer. It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.

  His voice and his words mixed with others I had heard for my entire life.

  Abomination.

  Villain.

  Monster.

  Useless, worthless.

  He should be destroyed.

  Seventh son of a seventh son, you know what that means.

  He will become the Destroyer, it’s his destiny.

  My creation.

  A mistake.

  Your eyes...you’re Lazur’s child.

  I gripped my head and gritted my teeth against the scream that shrieked inside my mind. I was born to be a tool, labeled as a villain, and destined to be a destroyer. Never loved, cherished, or seen as a child. I never had a family, never had a home...not until I created those things myself. I came from misery, pain, and hatred. My fellow mages thought I would bring such things to their world, and nothing I did, nothing I said, would ever change their opinions.

  I was born to be hated, lived to be reviled.

  Because of him.

  I stared at my first tormentor, my first enemy. I snarled. A mistake, he said. He didn’t know how right he was.

  “The mistake was yours, Lazur.” I lowered my hands, firmed my stance. “Your mistake to think you could ever control the third seventh son of a seventh son.”

  I dug into one of my pouches, grabbed a handful of small, brown balls, and tossed them at him. They exploded in midair around him, sending out large clouds of smoke plus an amazing stench that would curl the nose hairs of a revenai. Lazur coughed and staggered, waving his arms around. I knew his eyes would sting and water, blinding him. His lungs would hack, the air he breathed polluted. It was a good distraction. I looked up at the sky and prayed to the Mother for wisdom, the Hunter for strength. I prayed to the true mother and father of us all. They’d both visited me once,
helped me. I had to believe there was a reason for it.

  I raised my hands to the stormy sky. The thunder rumbled, the lightning flashed. I looked at Lazur as he tried to stumble away from my stink pellets. The emerald flashed but it couldn’t help him if he wasn’t able to steady himself enough to direct it. I looked back at the sky, inhaled deeply, then sent my magick into the storm. I gripped the electricity and it snaked and jittered against my magick. It burned and tingled but I never flinched, never hesitated. If I doubted, I would die. I yanked the storm’s energy down, and it descended as a bolt of lightning. I lowered my right hand, pointed it at Lazur. My left hand remained vertical, my fingers pointed up.

  I spoke the word, the lightning struck my fingers, and the blast should have sent me to my knees. I rode with it and used my magick to insulate me. I used it to guide the lightning through my body, barely bypassing my core, then along my right arm, through my fingertips. It burned, it burned painfully, intensely. It was similar to the time I disrupted one of Kayl’s spells, the small sun he’d been about to toss at Aishe. But this was so much more, this was raw nature, raw force of the Mother. I used it the best way I knew how. I sent the bolt right at Lazur.

  It struck him dead center. His eyes popped open, he screamed. The force flung his body backward. The energy left me and I exhaled sharply, collapsing to one knee. I gasped in breath, sweat pouring down my face. Aishe called my name, but my eyes stayed on Lazur. I watched the white light flash around him, like a serpent coiled around his body. But I knew the moment the stone protected him. He gained his feet, his eyes dark with hatred and bloodlust. Ellegrech glowed brilliantly and seemed to devour the lightning, leaving Lazur alive.

  I growled and stood up. But I wasn’t fast enough to block the blast. Pure force slammed into me, from head to toe, and I flew through the air. The pain intensified when I slammed into the ground. I rolled, tumbled, my limbs flailing uselessly, my magick undirected. My head took a good knock.

  It took me a moment to realize I’d stopped moving, since my brain and eyes still thought I was. My magick flared, flashed, and I grabbed onto it, using it to settle me. Before I could even sit up, there was pressure around my neck, and it quickly pinched off my air. My eyes bugged and I gripped my neck. I slapped my hand onto the ground and thought a word. The ground rose on all sides around me, but the pressure never lessened. I sat up and moved to my knees, but I still couldn’t breathe. My mind spun through my spells but none could help me. A blast suddenly ripped through one of the walls and I flinched, covering my head. Now my lungs burned, and my head throbbed. I needed air, dear Mother, I needed air!

  I gaped and clawed at my neck. I could literally feel my brain dying. Footsteps faintly sounded over the loud drumming of my heart.

  “I will take great pleasure from seeing the light die in your eyes.”

  I looked up. Lazur stood over me, his smile smug. The fact Aishe wasn’t rushing at the bastard meant he’d done something to my mate. Fear made me fight, made me claw, but I was rapidly becoming weaker. I wouldn’t be conscious much longer.

  I collapsed onto the ground. I’d lost. After everything...I’d lost.

  That was when I heard it: Ellegrech’s voice, clear as a bell.

  She sang to me, like a sweet lullaby. She felt my pain. She felt my helplessness. She pitied me. A desperate plan formed during my last moments of consciousness. I stopped fighting and stared at the stone around my father’s neck, stared hard...and spoke back. I’ve never done that with a stone before, but this one was different than others I’d encountered. She wanted to help the helpless, to give strength to the weak. She’d come to Lazur because he’d needed her, in his twisted way, and she felt his pain. She’d answered him.

  Would she answer me?

  I brought up my memories, my childhood nightmares. I remembered my pain and my misery. I stared at the emerald, feeling my life ebb, and let her feel my pain, my need for her. I didn’t know what would happen if I did, but she was my last hope. With the very last of my strength, I lifted my hand and held it out to her.

  Please, please help me.

  What happened next completely shocked me. And Lazur.

  Ellegrech snapped free of the chain and shot right into my outstretched hand. As the cold stone smacked into my palm the pressure around my throat disappeared. I gasped, coughing and hacking. I heaved in sweet, sweet air, even as Lazur stumbled back with a strangled cry.

  I had called the stone to me. I called her. And she’d come.

  Her cool smoothness glided over my palm and gave me strength. I thought Atcoatlu’s voice and promises had been strong, but that was nothing compared to Ellegrech. Her power and her promises flashed into me, and she caressed me and my magick, my essence. She reassured me that now I was protected. No one could harm me as long as she was with me. The hated words thrown at me, the disgust and hatred I saw in the eyes of every mage when they looked at me, didn’t matter anymore. They didn’t matter. The only important thing was that Ellegrech wanted me. While part of me knew she was full of bullshit, the other part was lulled by her promise and her strength. She was better than a breath of fresh air.

  Suddenly, Lazur pounced on me. His beefy hands gripped my arm, my hand that held the emerald. He squeezed, clawed, his massive weight holding me down.

  “Give it to me, she’s mine! Give her back!” He yanked at my arm, twisted it. I suddenly, acutely, remembered the first time he’d carelessly broken my arm. The snap, the sick burn, the way my stomach pitched.

  I’d been three years old.

  “Get off!”

  Pure force blasted out of me, amplified by Ellegrech. Lazur went flying, smashed through what remained of my earthen walls, and landed in a heap not too far away. I still needed to gasp in air, so I lay there a moment, the emerald fiercely clenched in my hand. She continued to croon.

  “Morgorth!”

  I turned my head slightly. Aishe came jogging toward me. He was limping slightly. His lip bled, his face sweaty and sickly pale. A black eye formed on his face. I snarled, wrath burning. He knelt beside me as I sat up. We both looked over at Lazur as he stirred.

  “Morgorth, what happened, what—” He saw the stone in my hand. “How did you get that?”

  “Help me,” I croaked.

  He pulled me to my feet, and I leaned heavily into him for a moment. Then I straightened and rubbed my neck. I looked down at the emerald, and she pulsed like a heartbeat in my hand, her power something far more than I’d ever experienced. Had I truly denied myself this glorious energy, this raw force? I thought of all the stones I had in Geheimnis. I could only imagine what ecstasy I would feel if I claimed all of them. But why imagine? After I was done with this scum, I could release the others. Why deny myself anymore? They weren’t all that bad, not really.

  I smiled and stroked Ellegrech. She continued to sing that lullaby. She knew my pain and my suffering. She would help me find justice, vengeance. I looked at Lazur as he sat up, staring at me. He was pale and fearful, his hand gripping his leg as if it pained him.

  I took a step forward. Aishe grabbed my arm. I snarled and whipped around. Aishe’s eyes were somber and tired when they met mine.

  “Morgorth. My love. Please listen to me. You need to let go of the emerald. You don’t need it.”

  “What do you know?” I jerked my arm away, turned back to Lazur. What did that stupid dialen know? Nothing. I needed Ellegrech. She gave me strength I didn’t have otherwise. I couldn’t do any of this without her. I couldn’t face my father, my nightmare, without her.

  Aishe grabbed my arm again and this time stepped around to the front, blocking Lazur from my sight.

  I bared my teeth, knowing my eyes were amber, my skin hot. “Get out of my way.”

  “Never.” He grabbed my face and met my eyes, his own green flame.

  I gripped one of his wrists, and I knew he felt the heat and the burn. How dare he touch me! But Aishe never flinched, never wavered.

  “Morgorth, you don’t need
the stone. You’ve never needed the stones. You’re strong without them. You’re stronger if you don’t use them, if you don’t use the emerald. Don’t trust what it’s saying to you, my love. Don’t be like your father, Morgorth. Don’t give in. Don’t surrender who you are.”

  His words seemed to cut through a fog surrounding my mind, one I didn’t know was there. I blinked several times, feeling slightly disoriented. But then Ellegrech surged up again, thickening that fog, crooning and promising.

  I closed my eyes, my grip on the stone tightening. I still held his wrist, and I tried to push him away. “Just let go of me.”

  “Never, Morgorth. I will never let you go.” He hugged me hard despite my magick, my heated body, and I felt him tremble. Or was that me? “Morgorth, my heart, let it go. It has no loyalty. The emerald will betray you as it betrayed him. You don’t need it. You never have. Let the emerald go. For me, Morgorth. Let it go.”

  His words pounded in my mind, doing battle with Ellegrech’s voice. “Who am I, Aishe?” I whispered.

  He tightened his hold. “You are Lord Morgorth and my mate, and I need you back.”

  I didn’t know how long we stood there but between one heartbeat and the next, Ellegrech slipped from my fingers and fell with a soft thud to the ground. Her promises and crooning couldn’t hold up against the true love of my life. My need for her would never compare to my need for him; a need that had grown exponentially the moment I received Olyvre’s letter, the moment my father had given me his answer. The moment I realized the life I lived before him had been nothing but hollow and hateful.

  He saw me, for me, and he loved me anyway.

  I shuddered hard, once, then gripped him close. He let out a choked sound, one I took as relief. Then I pulled back, and our eyes met again. I worked up a smile for him and touched his cheek.

  “Where would I be without you?”

  He made a sound that sounded like a swallowed sob as his hand covered mine. “Let us never find out.”

  “Agreed.”

  I noticed the slight burn on his wrist and winced. Had I really done that? Had a really marked him? Pressing my lips to the hurt, I sent a quiet surge of healing magick to make it disappear. He shuddered out a breath. I lifted my head and glanced down at Ellegrech before forcing my eyes away. Aishe stepped aside and I walked to my father. My will hardened and my wrath flared. I knelt beside him, reached over, and plucked a single strand of hair from his head. I twirled it between my forefinger and thumb as I watched him turn gray.