Chapter 10: Sicarius

I looked around the room we were in; the floors were made of wood and the walls and ceiling were made of a pale stone. In the center there was a normal sized bed piled high with nature themed blankets and pillows, along with a few stuffed animals. At the end of the bed was a trunk that looked like it was made of dark oak with gold and ivory accents. The bed frame, along with the few chairs in the room, seemed to be made of the same materials.

There were a few large candles throughout the room that lit up the few areas of the room that the light coming in from the windows didn’t reach. The curtains draped across the rafters, along with carpets across the floor, gave the room a warm, cozy feeling. There was a dresser and bookshelf shoved in the back of the room, along with a small desk that was covered with stacks of paper.

Something about the room made it feel enchanting. The room didn’t seem to have its own magical feel. Yet, at the same time, it felt like the natural energy all around. Though this energy suggested that the room was never inhabited. It was a little messy, a book here, some papers there, but nothing seemed out of place. It gave me an uneasy feeling, but it was comforting at the same time.

I turned my attention to the outside. There was a beautiful garden just outside the windows that was in perfect harmony with nature. Even as I watched elves pass through the area, none of whom acknowledged us, the orchard remained untouched by their energy. Normally the natural energy of the world is affect by the creatures around it. However, the plants and animals of this garden repelled the energy of outside interferences, almost like the room we were in.

The garden and the room gave me an uneasy feeling. One that I couldn’t really explain or feel, but something that was definitely there.

“Something wrong?” Magia’s voice brought me back from my thoughts.

I looked across the room to where he was sitting, “Not really. It’s just something about this room, it’s weird.”

“Thank the Lords.” He said “I thought I was imagining it.”

“Imagined what?” Toby asked, he’d been looking out the window.

“The energy here. The room feels uninhabited, but we can clearly see that someone has been living here regularly.” Magia said.

“And the garden outside feels as though it’s never been touched by a living soul, even though we’ve seen elves passing through it.” I finished.

“Really!” exclaimed Gildar, he popped up from behind the bed, “I wasn’t getting that at all.”

“That’s because you’re a potions wizard, you can’t sense energy.”

“Yeah, well, you can’t smell magic!” Gildar retorted.

Magia hesitated for a moment, “Neither can you!”

They continued to argue but something about Toby had caught my attention. He looked confused, and kept glancing into the garden like he was expecting to see someone there.

“What’s up?” I directed at him.

“Huh, oh.” He looked down, “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. You’re acting paranoid, and when you’re paranoid about something you’re normally right. Now spill.”

He looked over me for a second, “Something about this place isn’t right.”

“Yeah, that’s what we were just talking about.” I said.

“No, it’s not the magic. It’s like there’s someone out there, watching us. I can feel it, but every time I look there’s nothing there.”

“Strange.” I observed the grove closer, looking for any sign of invisible life. Even with my trained eyes, I saw nothing but normal forest animals and vibrant flowers that swayed in the wind. A knock at the door brought Toby and mine’s attention away from the outside.

Magia was the closest to the door, having moved to a bookcase by the entry way after his conversation with Gildar. He opened the door slowly and peered outside.

“Oh! That’s weird, I couldn’t sense you, but I was wondering when you would be joining us.” He grinned and moved to the side, revealing Xanvan standing at the entrance, accompanied by a young looking blond elf.

“Thank you, Merial.” He nodded as the elf departed.

“Alright.” I said, bringing everyone’s attention to me, “You failed to tell us anything relevant on the trip over here. So now’s the time to talk.”

He seemed resigned to what he had been putting off. “What do you want to know?” He inquired as he sat down at the desk.

“Let’s start with why we’re in elven territory when any small misdemeanor on either of our sides could start a war.” Magia interjected.

“While the tension between our people and elves has been high for a long time, there’s a deal between myself and the head elves of this village. There came a point in my life when I was cursed by a reaper for an event that I caused. I traveled here to ask if there was any way they could help me. They told me the curse was permanent, but they could dampen some of the effects with a counter seal. In return for their aid I had to promise to bring them any Reapers I found, or else their seal would be broken.”

“So this place was the only place you could bring the reaper.” Magia trailed off in thought.

“Even with the current situation how it is, if I didn’t bring Scy here I would have suffered from an unescapable torture.”

“My turn. What happened a hundred years ago?” I asked.

“Can you be more specific?” Xanvan probed.

“Well, there’ve been vague mentions of a purge around that time, did that have anything to do with why you were cursed?”

“You’re clever.” He smiled at me.

“Thanks, it’s something I pride myself on.” I said flatly.

He scowled at me for a second “The Purge has everything to do with why I was cursed. Almost a century ago, when I first became Grand Wizard, my mind was twisted by Madagran’s spirit, although I didn’t know it was him at the time. Over a couple of years he placed ideas inside my head that had me waking up from nightmares daily.

“I didn’t know what his plans were, but I tried to avoid doing anything that I thought he would want me to do. In the end however, I did exactly what he had planned. I figured the visions he was implanting in my mind were supposed to make me stay away from the reaper society, so I ordered the full eradication of their species.”

“The Purge.” I stated plainly.

He nodded, “As a result, Madagran’s body was released from where it was sealed in the Reaper Caves and he became a tangible being again. On top of that, I was cursed by a reaper to live for an eternity.”

This time Gildar spoke up, “Living forever isn’t that bad of a curse. Doesn’t that just make you an eternal like those three?”

“While it doesn’t seem like that bad of a curse, it’s actually a form of torture or punishment for causing the Purge. When a human like creatures kills a reaper they gain all the reapers emotions. But, because reapers are such an archaic species, they don’t experience what we know as emotions. They experience true emotions-”

“What are those?” Toby asked, cutting Xanvan off. He got a stern look from Magia, but ignored it.

“It’s the purest form of any feeling. No matter what the emotion is, any human that has felt these true emotions has wished for death. That’s where the real curse of eternal life comes in. Not only does it stop my ability to age, it also stopped my ability to die. So not only was I cursed with pure emotions, I wasn’t given any way to escape them. That’s what makes the curse horrendous.”

“Damn, that’s dark.” Toby exclaimed.

The Grand Wizard laughed. The room’s energy was slightly shifted by Xanvan’s magic, but it reverted back only seconds after. “Life has a way of doing that. An eternal as old as you should know how dark our lives can get.”

“Wait, how do you know how old Toby is?” I inquired.

“Ah, well, this isn’t exactly the first time I’ve ‘worked’ with Xanvan” Toby stammered, “I met him shortly after I left Eden. But I lost contact with him a few years ago.”

“A few years! It was over a century and a half ago.”

“Well, time flies when you’re having fun.” Toby defended.

“Still,” Xanvan had adopted a more serious tone, “The fact that you didn’t tell them about reapers impresses me.”

“There wasn’t really anything to tell because I don’t know that much. Eden is an eternal village, so only eternals live there. My parent’s never really talked about Reapers, not that I can remember anyway. And when I first left the city the reapers were still a recluse civilization, so I never met any of them.”

“Xanvan made them out to be really strong and important, but from your point of view it sounds like they were insignificant.” Magia specified.

“The truth is, if I hadn’t of know about them before hand, I probably never would’ve noticed they were missing. But that’s only from my point of view. Records before the Purge theorized that Reapers could have been one of the first great civilizations.”

“The first great civilizations are only a myth.” I said. I had found a record in the assassin’s library a few years ago that theorized the existence of four civilizations that existed before time. They all lived together, but they were broken down into strict groups. The first were the keepers of time, the Clock Work Wizards. The second were the keepers of memories, the Galadrics. The third were the keepers of the soul, the Ayasians. The final civilization was the keepers of death, the Reapers.

Until this point, I hadn’t heard of any of these species or civilizations actually existing. Which is why the book had ended saying that the civilizations were just a legend that the older species believed in.

“What do you mean before the Purge?” Magia questioned over my comment.

Toby was looking outside again, his eyes shifted over to my brother, “What? Uh, Xanvan can handle that question.”

We all turned our attention to Xanvan, except for Gildar who was busy poking through the papers on the desk.

“Well you see, shortly after the Purge almost all the records on Reapers vanished. There was a fairly large section in the Wizard’s library, but that section is completely empty now. If you check later, Sicarius, you’ll probably find that books about reapers can’t be found within the Assassin’s library.”

“That’s assuming the library had records about reapers before the Purge.” I countered.

Xanvan looked smug, “I assure you it did. After all, reapers where the founders of the assassin community within humans. Besides, any information regarding the first civilizations would undoubtedly mention reapers. And I know that the assassins were very interested in the Firsts a few years ago.”

I thought it over for a second. It made sense. The assassins had done extensive research into the period of time known as prehistory, but nothing conclusive had ever come out of it. The only substantial evidence we had were faint whispers of names in certain old legends.

“Hey, one question.” Gildar interrupted my thoughts.

“What?” Xanvan responded.

“You said we were taking that reaper girl to a healer, right?”

“Yes, one of the best healers of the elven realm. Why do you ask?”

“Who is it?”

“I guess I never did tell you who it was did I. It’s a high elf named Ethla-”

Before He could continue the sound of footsteps stopped in the doorway to the room. Toby and I quickly turned to face the new comer. A tall woman stood at the entrance to the door. She had dark emerald eyes, long, straw-colored hair, and wore a simple brown tunic. Just like the chamber we were in, as well as the garden outside, I couldn’t sense anything unnatural about her, she only exerted natural energy.

“Xanvan…” She trailed off in a soft, gentle voice, “Did you just call me a high elf?” Her eyes glided over everyone in the room. There was something about her that made me lower my gaze when she looked at me. Even Xanvan had averted his gaze.

The elf took note of this and seemed confused. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m still resonation with nature, aren’t I?” She closed her eyes for a moment and focused. The natural energy around her dissipated and I was able to look at her directly.

Xanvan recovered, stumbling over his words, “What. No. It’s just that, I-”

“Because that’s pretty rude for someone like me.”

“If you’re not an elf what are?” Toby asked.

“Of all the people, I expected you to know.” She responded, “I’ll give you a hint though, I’m technically a dual-species, but my people existed long before elves did.”

We were all speechless.

“Really? No one? Not even you Xanvan? Wow, almost a century of being the Grand Wizard and you’re still a failure.” She purred over the last few words.

“It’s not my fault you never tell anyone about yourself. How am I supposed to know what you are when you never leave this sanctuary of yours and you never tell visitors what you are.” He quickly defended.

“No need to get so defensive, it was just a joke.”

It was at that moment that I saw a tabby coloured cat tail flick out from behind her. “Half feline?” I muttered to myself.

“See, she’s starting to get it. Half elf and half feline…” she led on.

“A half breed” Gildar blurted out.

She looked at him, “While not wrong, completely incorrect, and very offensive.” She turned back to Xanvan, “I lied, I wasn’t joking when I called you a failure. I’m a Galadric you numbskull.”

The name instantly clicked in my head. “You mean Galadric like the species from the first civilizations?”

She looked at me with a surprised face, “You know about us!?”

“Not, really. I know the name Galadric and that you’re supposedly guardians of memory. Other than that, I don’t know anything.” I admitted.

She smiled at me, for the first time I noticed how friendly her face looked, “I like this one. She’s smart and pays attention. Unlike some people. Anyway, what’s your name?” She asked me.

“Sicarius.”

She hesitated, “Oh. That would make you Magia wouldn’t it? This just got really awkward.”

“How do you know who we are?” Magia and I asked in unison.

“Well, easy answer, I know your parents. That’s actually the same way I know Toby as well. Small world we live in.”

“Who are you?” Gildar burst out.

“Did Xanvan not tell you?” She asked innocently.

“It’s not like you really gave me time to…”

“I’m Ethla.” She said proudly, “Definitely not a high elf and probably the greatest elven healer of the century.”

“What’s the difference between you and a high elf? Since you said it was offensive to call you one in the same.” I said.

“Well, socially, were the same rank. In terms of biology, I descend from a long line leading down from the first great civilizations. While a high elf is an elf that has pure blood from a subspecies of my ancestors. So, if we’re going off of technicalities, I am a greater species than a high elf.”

“That seems really convoluted.” Magia stated.

“Oh it is.” She responded happily, “That’s why we just say we’re the same rank, makes things easier.”

Another elf walked up to the room and whispered something to Ethla in a language I couldn’t understand. She nodded quickly and disappeared through a door to my side. A few minutes later she emerged with a set of clothes folded in her arms.

“Sorry I didn’t get them right away, I got talking. Send Scy my apologies.” She said as she handed the piled of cloth off to the elf.

“So Scy is the name of the reaper?” Toby confirmed.

Ethla brought her attention back to us and the elf vanished down the corridor. “Well, it’s not her real name, but it is the nickname she goes by now days.”

As the rest of the group continued to chat, my focus wandered back to the energy of the surrounding area. I found that if I focused hard enough I could almost make out the sound of breathing from the forest. Although it was faint it was definitely there, and it sounded like it was getting louder. I could feel traces of movement in the forest where I had previously sensed nothing. Something was beginning to stir in the forest, and I figured Toby could feel it as well.

“If you have any other questions I’ll gladly answer them. If not, we should be getting ready for the dinner tonight.” Ethla said.

My mind immediately snapped back to reality, “Ethla?” I questioned.

“Yes?”

“Is there something living in that forest, something that a normal person couldn’t see?”

She looked shocked, “Why? Did you see something?”

I shook my head, “No, but Toby said he felt something watching us. And when it comes to his senses I normally trust them.”

She looked over at Toby, studying him for a brief moment, “Yes, I guess you would’ve been able to feel it. What you were sensing is commonly referred to as a Chosingie. That specific one has been missing for almost a hundred years.”

“What’s a Chosingie?” Toby asked.

“Well, culturally, they’re accepted as Gods or Spirits. But we normally just called them forest guardians. They’re the reason parts of the forest feel untouched by outside energy.”

“But I though you said the Chosingie had been missing for a hundred years?”

“This particular one has, but not in a normal way. She just refuses to show herself, so her power is still affecting the area, but people can’t sense her existence.”

“Then how come I can?” Toby was staring though the window again.

“Well…” Ethla trailed off.

 “It’s because you gained your mother’s abilities,” A young voice sounded from the door way, “Even though you bear a striking resemblance to your father.”

Ethla didn’t move while we all turned to see who the newcomer was. I was surprised to see the reaper standing in the door way. She looked, and sounded, much different from before. Her ginger hair draped over her shoulders like water cascading over a cliff, coming to an end at her fingertips. Her hair, skin, and eyes looked softer than they had originally, almost like they were radiating renewing energy.

Opposed to the black shirt and tunic she had been wearing, she was now dressed in an elven training garb. A forest green shirt with quarter sleeves was covered by a sleeveless light green tunic with brown accents. The accents were complimented by her now brown pants, which tucked nicely into black boots.

“Glad you could join us Scy. Sorry though, that old tunic is all I had that I thought would fit you.” She turned towards Scy with an apologetic smile.

“It’s fine,” She smiled back, “I don’t really care what I wear. By the way, do you think you can braid my hair for tonight?”

A smile crept across Ethla’s face, but it seemed sad and distant, “Sure, I would love to.”

Author's Note

Again, does it feel weird at all?
What do you think of the overall story so far?