by Eric Vall
“Stop! Please! Don’t touch me!” the familiar voice cried, and, in the distance, I heard the sound of things crashing to the ground and finally, a heavy wooden table being overturned in the person's haste to get away.
I knew who it was immediately as the spot at the back of my neck began to burn, the exact spot where I had touched Haruhi to place my mark earlier in the day. I hastily jumped to my feet, and my minions woke with a start as I sat down before the fire, crossed my legs, and concentrated my magic. Haruhi’s screams echoed in my head, and I could feel her heart racing, could sense out what was happening before I even transferred my essence to Canarta.
“Master?” Annalise asked as she scrambled up sleepily, and I turned my head to look at her.
“Keep my body safe. I’ll be away for a little while,” I informed them, and each of my minion’s mouths dropped open to protest.
“What? No! What’s going on?” Rana asked in a hurry as she reached for me, but I placed a hand over hers and moved it away.
“I must go. The Holy Band of Mages is attacking Haruhi.”
Chapter Fifteen
A hush fell over my minions as I sat in front of the fire and closed my eyes. I breathed in deeply through my nostrils and felt the familiar rush and pull as my essence left my avatar. My essence turned in the air, and for a moment, I saw each of my women’s worried faces as my avatar went slack and fell backward to the floor of our tent. They rushed forward and cradled my body as I forced my essence away from them. I traveled through time and space as if it were sand slipping between my fingers. Colors flashed behind my eyes as I sped over the miles separating Haruhi from our party, and the faster I moved, the more urgent her screams became. Her heart beat in my ears like the steady pounding of a drum, and I pushed myself faster towards her location.
It may have taken a few seconds to move my essence to her, but with her frightened cries in my ears, it felt like years passed before I landed in Canarta. Using the Tichádáma’s power, I slammed into a suitable body to use to my will and opened the man’s eyes. The city streets of Canarta were dark like where I had been in Tintagal, and judging from the position of the moon in the sky, it was late. I turned and looked both ways down the deserted street then down at the hands of the body I had taken over. The man I had moved my essence into was burly, and his arms ropey with muscle though I wouldn’t need them with all the dark powers I possessed.
I listened hard to the thumping of Haruhi’s heart and the sounds of her cries. I was certain that I knew the cause of her fear. The Holy Band of Mages would pay for what they had done to her. I used the sounds of her heart and voice like a siren call and followed after them. The streets of Canarta were tight and winding, but the refreshing night air brushed against my face and calmed me as I sped closer. Canarta was everything that I had expected. Though the sun wasn’t up, it was still warm, and the houses here tightly packed together. The cobblestones at my feet shone brilliantly under my feet as I ran and it seemed as if an unknown force other than Haruhi’s voice was guiding me to her.
I came to a flight of stairs that wound up the city, and a few swatches of long grass billowed in the warm breeze and beckoned me upwards towards the sound of the cat’s screams. The moon was high in the sky as I took the steps two at a time and bounded up them in great strides. Haruhi’s heart pounded fiercely and though she was scared, I could tell she was putting up a good fight against the Holy Band.
Once I mounted the last step, I came into a courtyard filled with night-blooming flowers and their scents tickled my nose, but my eyes focused elsewhere. I didn’t have to look at the sign out front to know it was the library, not with the cries that rung in my ears like bells. The building was massive, at least five or six stories high and entirely made of marble. The four pillars above the front steps shone in the moonlight, and a single lamp swung outside the double doors.
I crossed the courtyard and, in a few strides, stood outside the door as I heard Haruhi’s voice rise and warble in pitch. I gritted my teeth, clenched my hands into fists, and pooled all of my dark power into a swirling orb in front of my chest. The orb shot forward at my growl and blasted through the doors so forcefully that one of the wooden doors came entirely off its hinges. I strode through the open doorway and felt the pulse of five hearts, one of them I recognized and the other four I did not.
The library was vast, and I swung my head to get a better sense of where they were. I lifted my head and saw that the library was six stories high like I had suspected, but now was not the time to admire the beauty of its architecture. Haruhi cried out once more. This time it was muffled, and soft voices spoke over her, but I knew exactly where she was now.
The library’s bookshelves opened up in the middle to form a central atrium, a clearing in the forest of books, and above my head was a stained glass dome. From the floor, a massive tree grew and stretched upwards until some of the branches brushed the glass, but my eyes were not drawn to its gnarled bark or limbs but instead to the second landing. A flickering lamp burned on the second landing, and I could make out the shapes of people as the flame danced. Haruhi’s cries were softer now, and from the jerking movements of one of the shadows, some of the Holy Band members attempted to hold her down as she struggled viciously to break away.
I moved my dark power around my feet, and it pooled and shifted into a disk to raise me into the air. I blasted upward past the first landing, and the only things I saw there were the darkness and shapes of aisles of books. The disk lifted me higher, up to the second landing, and I stepped off it onto the sturdy wooden railing.
Haruhi was there, backed into a corner, her fluffy white ears laid against her head as she pulled back her lips and hissed threateningly at the four men robed in white that surrounded her. In one of Haruhi’s paws, she held the dagger she’d told me about earlier, and when one of the Holy Band stepped forward to grab at her, she swiped at him with the silver blade. The blade cut through the member’s white robes and barely missed his pale flesh as he jumped back just in time. Another one of the members stepped forward, and Haruhi pressed herself tighter into the corner.
The sage’s hazel eyes swiveled over the Holy Band then found mine over their shoulders, and we stared at each other for a few passing seconds. Her supple lips opened as her eyebrows furrowed, and she nearly lost her grip on the dagger.
“Dimitri?” the librarian called in a confused voice, and I assumed that was the name of the man whose body I was currently inhabiting. I shook my head once, and recognition and relief swept across her face. “M-Master?”
I nodded through a broad smile as I stepped off the railing with a loud clatter as my boots hit the marble floor. All four of her attackers turned, and I saw their faces for the first time. I didn’t recognize them, the mages who trapped me in my dungeon so long ago should be dead by now, but each of the mage’s youthful faces bore the same markings as my dear Morrigan. That only served to remind me of what thay had done to my second wife. I wanted them dead not only for my lover’s sake but for also attempting to harm Haruhi.
“We came looking for information on the beast, and the beast has shown himself to us,” a man whom I assumed was the leader said as he stepped forward. “How lucky we are.”
I studied his face as he came nearer. His features were soft and rounded almost like a baby’s, but his nose pointed out like a beak as he tilted his head at me and took me in. He, like the others, was clothed all in white, and as Haruhi had described, the Holy Band of Mage’s sigil prominently displayed on the chest of his mantle. One of the men turned and grabbed onto the leader’s arm, his face a portrait of concern and fear.
“I think we should leave,” the second mage said in a frightened voice as he backed away with the leader in tow. “We can report back to the Holy One, and then they can send out reinforcements.”
“You’re not leaving,” I growled as I slunk forward and formulated a perfect plan to take out all four without even breaking a sweat. “Not alive, three of you a
t least.”
I grinned hatefully at the mages, and each of their faces fell as I took my first step forward. Behind me, the enormous tree shifted slightly, the branches stretching as if testing their strength, something that only Haruhi seemed to notice. The Holy Band members fanned out in front of me in a formation, and each of them placed their body and hands in a different attack position as they summoned their power. All of them were men, and for a moment, I could almost smell their blood before it spilled out on the marble floor.
Time moved slowly as I channeled the forest god’s power more, the creak of wood loud in my ears. A hefty branch of the mighty tree slammed through the opening between levels, snaked through bookshelves and wrapped around the leader of the mages like a kraken’s tentacle.
He screamed and struggled against it but couldn’t break free despite his frantic efforts. His eyes widened as I clenched my fist. The tree branch mimed my motion to squeeze the mage nearly to the brink of death. Blood spilled from his lips and out of the corners of his eye sockets, and I watched with glee as the other mages rushed over and attempted to free their leader to no avail. I slammed my hand out in the air, and silence filled the air as I pulled it back. The branch holding the leader ripped back into the foyer then tossed him through the air like a rag doll.
His bones crunched and snapped as multiple tree limbs came up and hit him higher and higher until he nearly brushed against the stained-glass dome. The other mages watched in horror as one of the larger branches grabbed him again, wrapped around his entire body, then slammed him down to the marble floor. The impact of the mage's body made Haruhi shiver from the corner, and when I glanced over the railing, the leader’s head had exploded out in a fan of blood and gray matter towards the door.
The branch retracted and snapped through the door as it reached up to the second floor for another victim, and I chuckled to myself as the remaining three mages broke formation and scurried away in different directions. I chased after the most frightened one with a wicked grin on my face as I summoned the puppet master god’s power.
I dove deep into his consciousness and ripped through his memories with my bare hands. I tore each one that flashed before my eyes like paper, and as I followed, the mage slowed to a trot then a walk. I plunged deeper into his brain in search of anything useful and tore everything that wouldn’t aid me to shreds. With no real mind in his head, it rendered his entire body useless. The mage stared down at his feet for a moment before I reached him and he struggled to move forward, but without the memory, his body forgot how to walk.
I grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed him downward. His collarbone snapped under my force, and muffled cries erupted from his lips as he forgot how to speak. I glared down at him with my wicked smile still in place. He was still conscious, but his body held no muscle memory to move away from me or fight back.
I kept plunging deeper into his mind. I destroyed every memory he held that didn’t give me information about the Holy Band of Mages and what they were doing to stop me. This man was lower in the inner workings of the Holy Band, and I didn’t get as much information from him as I had hoped. His watery brown eyes stared up at me, and I could tell he had no idea who I was and what was happening around him. I almost felt sorry for him, but he and his brothers attempted to bring harm upon Haruhi, and for that, I couldn’t forgive him. I brought my hand down on the crown of his head, and soft whimpers croaked up from his throat. I pushed my dark power through Dimitri’s arm, and his muscles responded to me immediately.
My power was strong even in this form, and it moved like water as I channeled it into the crown of the mage’s head. The man below me stayed completely still, his mind senseless. I clenched the mage’s head, and a loud crack lifted into the air as the skin and bone broke and tore from my supernatural power. I tossed the bone and scalp away, and it skittered across the floor in a trail of blood. I glared down into his skull cavity, and the still intact membrane encasing the gray organ. Red, black and white veins worked their way through the brain, and I smiled to myself at the visible marks on the outer surface where I tore through it.
I moved my power through the mage’s body, and slowly, the brain began to lift from inside the open skull and float in midair, still attached to the spinal cord. The mage was still very much alive, and his muddy brown eyes rolled in their sockets to watch as the organ lifted from the surrounding bone. I glanced down at him, and his eyes drooped, not entirely conscious anymore, and with a backward slice of my hand, the spinal cord and brain separated. Both the body of the mage and the floating brain dropped to the floor with moist plops as I sought out the next mage. His scuttling feet down the stairs rang out loudly as he made his way to flee the library.
One had already gotten away, but that was what I wanted. I wanted him to scurry back to the Holy Band of Mages and tell them the tale of how his comrades were slaughtered, and he had narrowly escaped from my clutches. They would know that I was coming after them, and no one would survive my wrath, especially when they put one of my women in danger.
I flew down the stairs after the fleeing mage, and my feet barely touched the stone of the stairs as I tracked down his pounding heart. I turned my head as the tree in the middle of the room stopped, and all branches pointed in his direction. The man slipped in the blood of his brother and nearly fell but managed to turn towards the door still hanging limply from its hinge. I smiled to myself as the branches flew through the air, all of their tips pointed out in a mass of wooden daggers. The mage was dead before he could even realize it as the branches slammed into his back and came out the other side dripping with blood.
The mage gasped for air once, then his soul lifted from his body and drifted into the darkness of the night. The branches pulled back together, and his empty corpse fell forward into the doorway. I turned as I retracted my power from the mighty tree, and all the limbs returned to their rightful places. The leaves rustled and shifted in a breeze that rushed through the door, and I sensed magic in the air around the tree. For a second, it seemed that even if I hadn’t placed my power within its bark, the tree would have helped us anyway. I drew my attention away from the tree as a soft sniffling reached my ears, and I pounded back up the steps to the second floor.
I came around the corner, and Haruhi pressed herself even farther into the corner as I came into view. She quickly relaxed as she realized it was just me. I rushed to her, and she fell into my arms. Time stilled as I held her and felt her heart thumped against my chest. I pressed my lips to her hair and kissed her softly as she calmed down. I breathed her in, and she smelled wonderous to me, like fresh rain and eucalyptus. I stroked her hair and the soft fur of her ears as she sobbed into my chest which made me hold her even tighter.
Her pain was my pain, and her fear was my fear, as it was with all of my other minions. I knew at this moment that I couldn’t return to Tintagal just yet. I had to make sure that Haruhi was all right first before anything else.
We stayed like this for a long time, and I shared my warmth and love with her until she was ready. The lantern that I had seen earlier had gone out, and we were bathed in shadows and darkness. Haruhi’s hands moved over my back and scrunched up the shirt this body wore in her tiny fists. Haruhi was much smaller than most of my minions, even smaller than Carmedy, but her body was full and curvy as it pressed fully against mine.
I hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face to mine. Tears wet her round, freckled cheeks, but she stared up at me with such sincerity that it shocked me for a moment. I took in all of her beauty quietly, and we stared at each other in near silence, the only sound we heard was the whisper of the wind as it shuffled through the open doors below.
Haruhi’s long nearly black hair curled, though it wasn’t as tightly coiled as Rana’s nor as pitch black as Carmedy’s. Her large tilted eyes behind the glasses sparkled with drying tears in the darkness, and the depths of their color sucked me in. I lifted her round glasses and slid them back into her hair as I looked even
deeper into her eyes. She wore a long cream-colored dress that brushed the floor, the sleeves fitted snugly against her arms, and the neckline came down and exposed a good bit of her ample cleavage to me. She was very appetizing, and I wanted her, not only at this moment but also in the future. I wanted her to be mine, no one else’s, and I would make her so, as much to fulfill the desire in her heart as my own.
Haruhi blinked up at me for a moment, and her plump red lips opened and closed as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how. Suddenly, the petite librarian lifted up on the toes of her shoes, wrapped her hands around my neck, and kissed me. I breathed in deeply as my lips moved against hers, and my arms moved from her shoulders down to her tiny waist. I pulled her to me, and she happily obliged as both of her legs lifted from the floor and wrapped around my waist. I set her down on the edge of a table behind us and began working at the fastenings on the back of her dress. My fingers moved deftly, and with each loosened ribbon, the dress peeled itself away from her lithe body. Haruhi looked over her shoulder at me as I finished, and then she stood from the table and let her dress fall away.
I came towards her but Haruhi lifted her hands into the air to stop me, and I gazed at her curiously as she spoke, “Wait... Master... I want you.”
“I’m right here.” I chuckled to her as I gestured to the body I’d borrowed but the sage shook her head vehemently.
“No, I want you, I want your body on mine, not his.” Haruhi said with a wave of her hand to the body I inhabited. “I want to feel you, the real you on me, not a proxy in your place.”
I understood what she meant and stepped away from her as I pulled my immense power around me. I’d grown stronger, and my power reached heights that they couldn’t earlier when I first met my minions. When I’d met the other four, I was weak compared to what I was now, and I didn’t need my nexus to craft a new avatar for myself. I slipped out of the body I’d borrowed and it fell to the floor unconscious. My essence floated in the open air and Haruhi took a few tentative steps forward as she reached out to me. Her hazel eyes were wide as she took in my massive essence and suddenly, she plunged her hand deep into the swirling mass of my consciousness. She was so beautiful to me, and I concentrated hard as I pushed myself to create a new avatar here to keep Haruhi company when I was gone.
