Gledonius

Kaellen lay upon his bed and blankly stared out the window, his mind lost to far-reaching places and mind-bending adventures. Ominous clouds blotted out the angelic stars and hid the moon in a murky cloak. A wind wafted into the room, heavy with moisture and carrying an organic, earthy scent.

“Hey Kael, what are you doing? Get ready,” Elden scolded, bursting into the room. “Damn, why are the shutters open?”

Kaellen awakened from his daydream and stared up at his older cousin. “I don’t think we should do this,” he muttered. “Something just doesn’t feel right.”

Elden scoffed, rolled his eyes and walked out.

With a sigh, the boy stood up and hesitantly began to ready himself for the hunt.

Days prior, a neighboring king had plodded into their little village, plundering and stealing from those too poverty-stricken to make it through the oncoming winter. King Wisre had declared war on Gledonius, claiming that the poor kingdom had been harboring criminals and stashing weapons to destroy the other four kingdoms.

Elden and Kaellen had been away at the time because they were bartering with a stubborn butcher but Elden’s father, Kaellen’s uncle, had been present when the Chiroe warriors invaded his home and stole what little food they had.

Rage boiled up in the boy of sixteen years and he snatched up his bow and arrow before heading outside to meet his cousin.

Elden was leaning against a battered wall with his arms crossed. A lock of curling hair had fallen into his deep brown eyes which were staring across the dusty road. His square jaw was working as he clenched his teeth together in agitation.

Kaellen followed his gaze and his features instantly darkened.

An elderly lady had been walking past when a group of noble’s stopped her by halting their majestic steeds in her path. They were jeering at her, prodding her with the horsewhips and spitting in her face.

“Hey, old lady, what’s that you got there in your arms?”

She clutched the bag tighter to her sunken chest and bowed her weathered head.

One of the royal’s, a tall boy, seized the sack and rummaged through it with a gleeful sneer on his narrow face. “What have we got here?”

The lady’s eyes were wide in fear as she pleaded with the Semnian aristos for her food back. Her frenzied begging was only met with laughing taunts.

“Please. It is the only food my family has.” Her voice was strained and tinted with desperate tears.

“Work harder peasant. Stop lying on your a*s all day.”

“It would be better if you starved. We don’t need scum in our kingdom.”

Kaellen cracked his knuckles as he began to walk over there only to be stopped by Elden. “No, we must leave. It will only give you a death sentence.”

“But…?”

“Let’s go,” the older boy hissed before grabbing Kaellen’s arm and stomping away. “I hate it too but it isn’t our problem.”

As the two boys ran away, the sounds faded away and molded into the gentle melody of swaying trees and sleeping grass.

“Where are we going?” Kaellen asked when they had stopped for a break. He focused on the night sky as he tried to catch his breath.

A hazy fog had blotted out his view of the moon but it had slightly rolled away to reveal the white orb which was staring down at the boy. Beware, it whispered. You should watch your step.

“You will find out when we arrive.”

The muddy clouds enveloped the moon, punishing it for the warning, trapping it in an airy prison.

Kaellen rolled his eyes and began to plod on after Elden, weapon draped across broad shoulders.

“Where we are going…will there be meat?”

“That’s why we’re headed there, is it not?”

“Uh…sure…”

His cousin turned and grinned. “Kael, relax. It will all be fine. It’s your first hunt, calm down.”

♦ • ♦ • ♦

The sky was still a dull black even though it had been an hour since the two had left the cottage. No noise was audible, not even the harmonious song of crickets. The air felt heavy and began to twist the boys’ hair into a mess of damp curls. Thick clouds blotted out all light except for the flickering lantern which came perilously close to dying more than once.

“Are we there yet?”

“Yes.”

Elden’s answer caught Kaellen off-guard, as he had been asking multiple times and received a negative answer.

He looked up and grimaced when the meager light revealed where they were.

The grass abruptly ended and towering trees abruptly started. The trees glared down at him, seeming to have a disturbing life of their own. Eerie sounds reached Kaellen’s ears and he looked doubtfully at his grinning cousin.

“For real?” he hissed questioningly.

“Oh yes, this is serious. I’ve been hunting here before.” His eyes became dreamy when he said, “There is so much meat.”

Kaellen rolled his eyes but his heart began to lurch in his chest, from nervousness or fear…he couldn’t tell. “All right,” he whispered gruffly. “But let’s make it quick. We do not want them to know we are in Semnian Territory.”

Elden laughed and shoved his cousin playfully, pushing him into the gnarling trees. The darkness enveloped the two boys and seemed to swallow them whole, absorbing their life force and creating blood magic.

Kaellen shivered as he thought about the twisted, disturbing type of magic. Mages, witches and wizards all had to give a sacrifice to the Gods of Life, the celestial beings that provided the gifted with magic. When the blood sacrifice had been completed, blood magic was then able to be used until the sacrifice was claimed void and thus another must be made. Those who went over the blood sacrifice allotment suffered injuries and sometimes death. Unlike paying with the blood of others, they must pay with the blood of their bodies, their own life force.

The only exception to this magic was sorcerers. It was allegedly declared that their magic came from the Gods of Death so sacrifices did not have to be made. It was said sorcerers were once blessed above all and contained the most powerful magic across the realm.

As Kaellen walked beside Elden, he recalled a story he had heard long ago and began to say it out loud, ignoring the windy whisperings of unease.

“Long ago, magic lived in everything on the earth and everyone contained some trace or another. The mages, witches, wizards and sorcerers live in harmony and no blood sacrifices had to be made. The only requirement to use magic was to exclusively worship the Gods of Life and follow the strict rules.

Elden put a finger to his lips but Kaellen ignored it. His heart jerked in his chest and his breath began to quicken. No light was seen but from the small lantern which Elden grasped between clenched fingers. Shadows slithered over their feet and black phantoms darted above their heads, cackling to each other.

“One mage though, Aosam, felt cheated that this magic was spread equally among the skilled and the inexperienced so he made a bargain with the Gods of Life. As long as one was killed, another could gain magic more powerful than any others had experienced in their lifetime. But the Gods of Life realized the wrong in their decision. Mages began a war against the world. Mountains ruptured, grounds cracked and the sky boiled in rage. The Gods of Life pleaded with the Gods of Death to help them, since the powerful Aosam began a war against them as well.”

Elden glared at Kaellen but did not speak.

“The Gods of Death helped. They saw goodness in the sorcerers and allowed them to have free magic as long as their mortal body could withstand. The sorcerers rose up against the mages, the witches and the wizards and overtook them but the balance of magic was unable to ever be achieved. It is said two sister sorceresses exist to achieve this delicate balance and return the world to its fullness but until these siblings show themselves, our lives will steadily decline until nothing exists. The Gods of Death bring hope. The Gods of Life bring destruction.”

“Where did you hear that?” hissed Elden angrily.

Kaellen shrugged his shoulders. “I know not.” He looked around at the suffocating darkness. “I must have heard it when I was a boy and my parents still lived.”

Elden stopped crunching across the dead foliage and stared down at his cousin, fire in his eyes. “You must never repeat that…that blasphemy again. You know that no such story is true. The Gods of Life are wise in their knowledge and the Gods of Death are selfish fools.” He licked his lips and his eyes began to nervously dart around the Forbidden Forest before crossing himself with the Protection, motions believed to ward away evil “And all sorcerers are malevolent monsters that deserve to rot in hell. They have made our deteriorating planet what it is and the mages and the witches and the wizards have saved us.”

Kaellen shrugged his shoulders again. “Just telling you, I heard it somewhere yet I do not know where exactly.”

Elden began to walk again, deeper into the greedy blackness. The lantern’s light created a circular halo around the two boys and beyond that illuminating halo nothing existed as far as the eye could see. “Yes, well forget about-”

A snap cut him off and both boys were instantly alert, their eyes wide. Elden blew out the lantern with a quick breath and then terrifying, complete blackness enveloped them.

Another snap ran across the now silent terrain.

Something is not right, Kaellen thought and his mouth became a swollen desert.

Elden grasped his wrist and clenched it tight. Minutes passed before Kaellen could see that he was pointing at something and his hand fell to his side in relief.

He looked to see the blurred figure of a deer grazing on the invisible grass. With quiet skill, he snatched at his bow and deftly put an arrow in it, his fingers grazing the twine. He grinned at the thought of so much food, ready to let the arrow hit its mark when something happened.

Something utterly wrong.

The deer stared up at them.

And then its head fell off.

It rolled across the ground and under a dark bush before something hit Kaellen’s booted foot and he looked down, horrified. The deer. Staring up at him. Blood trickling from its severed head. Elden stared down, equally horrified.

“Uh…” he stuttered, terror twisting his features.

Kaellen felt sweat trickle down the side of his face and bead upon his upper lip. He felt his breath catch in his throat as two other very wrong something’s occurred.

The deer body disappeared, just vanished but the head remained staring up at Kaellen.

A deep growl echoed around the clearing.

He felt like he had to puke.

It spoke in a language the boys couldn’t understand but Kaellen recognized it as the Ancient Language or Language of the Gods. He couldn’t determine how he knew but he knew and with this knowledge, he knew who�"or what�" was speaking.

“A magic possessor,” he hissed in Elden’s ear.

Suddenly light flared up all around them. Dozens of lanterns ignited into existence as their owners spoke collectively.

“Ignatum,” they seemed to say. The light revealed sparkling faces.

The two boys whirled around only to meet the soulless black eyes of the mages. They were trapped within the human�"mage�"circle and confusion etched itself across their features.

A blackly clad mage stepped inside the circle and began to speak, his eyes glinting from beneath his hooded cape.

“I am Tenebris, advisor to the king, High Mage and messenger of war. You are…?”

Kaellen answered first even though fear had squeezed his heart in a cold, iron grip. “I am Kaellen, son of the deceased Aimon and Lailah, nephew to Lyron, cousin to Elden and lowly servant.” He bowed deeply, hoping the High Mage would grant them freedom to run back to their land, tails between their legs.

This is your adventure, a voice exclaimed within his mind. You have always wanted more than farming and failed hunts. Well here you go.

The mage pushed back his hood to reveal a grin of sharpened teeth and sunken cheeks. His hair was blood red and long, falling past his shoulders in wisps and hidden beneath the black cape. “Kaellen?” he asked in his deep growl.

Instantly, Kaellen felt sick to his stomach and as the mage continued to stare at him and lick his lips. The boy unwillingly collapsed onto the ground. He seemed to be suffocating but he was breathing. He seemed to be dying but he was living.

“Is it really you? What a delightful coincidence!”

I think not.

Nausea welled up in him and he heaved up bile, his intestines twisting into a painful knot. He kept heaving and Elden collapsed beside him, doing the same. Between the overflowing fluids, he barely choked out, “Do I know you?” and Tenebris cackled with glee.

Nothing came up now but the two boys continued to hurl air. Their throats began to burn and their eyes watered from pain. The only sound was the miserable, pathetic noise of them choking on air, the second life force.

Blood was the first. Air was the second. Magic was the third. The gods, some said, were the fourth.

Bullshit, Kaellen thought before the sickness had been alleviated with a swish of Tenebris’ clawed hand.

“Well, since you know me not, I may ask a question of you.”

Kaellen and Elden lay collapsed on the ground, curled up into tight balls. “Yes?” Elden managed to gasp.

“What are you doing in my land?” he spat down at the boys.

Neither answered. They were in too much pain and had too much fear to be able to talk any longer. The mages around them took two steps inward, menacingly closing in.

With a low grunt of anger, the High Mage stalked over to Kaellen and lifted him off the ground by his blonde locks. His serrated nails dug into Kaellen’s scalp, producing divots of bloody skin. The blood matted with hair and the boy grit his teeth, urging himself not to cry out.

Pain overtook him.

He did.

And Tenebris laughed cruelly.

“Brothers,” he shouted, spinning in a circle, Kaellen still dangling from his clawed hand. “These trespassers are from the damned lands of Gledonius, the kingdom in which war has been declared. The answer is simple. They. Must. Die.”

Great, Kaellen thought. Great way to end.

“But how?”

Nasally whispers came from the hooded figures as eyes glittered hungrily. They took another step in and began to toss ideas around.

“Cook them alive and eat them,” one hissed.

“No, torture is always a fun alternative.”

“Yes but they most likely won’t last a day. I say, kill them here and now…but slowly.”

Kaellen wanted to vomit again but his stomach had been emptied. He closed his ears to the whispers but the pain would not go away.

Tenebris silenced them all with a wave of his hand. “My friends in the Forbidden,” he looked at Kaellen pointedly before continuing. “Forbidden Forest are hungry. Tonight, they will feast upon tender flesh. It is not our meat to dine upon but the beasts that dwell within.” He held out his hand and a dagger was placed in it.

In one hand, he held Kaellen and in the other he held the dagger. No matter how much the boy kicked and thrashed, he did not fall and the knife came closer.

Abruptly, Elden lunged up and shoved the High Mage onto the ground. Kaellen was free and he scrambled upwards, toward his bow. Elden unsheathed his sword and began slashing all around him. The mages were caught unawares and two went down before order was regained.

Kaellen rapidly loaded his bow and the arrow was free, silencing through the air before it found its mark, embedded in an unlucky yet deserving heart. He did this again and again and three more mages fell from his accurate aim.

Three more, he thought. And Tenebris.

Kaellen glanced around for the High Mage but he was gone. He let free another arrow and a scream pierced the night air as a mage collapsed, writhing on the ground before dissolving into a black puddle.

Another mage was fighting with Elden and flashes of light burst from his fingertips. Each burst was blocked by Elden’s blade but it was pushing him backwards, toward a steep drop.

Kaellen grabbed another arrow from the quiver and loaded it, pulling back on the twine. He narrowed his eyes, trying not to hit Elden when sharp nails reach around his waist and dug into his stomach. The arrow flew out, askew and worthless. Elden hit the edge, his feet dancing on the cliff.

Kaellen punched his elbow backwards but hit air and Tenebris, arms still clutched around the boys waist, ducked low to avoid it. He kicked backwards and this time, he hit and the arms loosened. Kaellen whirled around and began to throw punches, clumsily but effectively. Tenebris raised his hand and muttered something inaudible but nothing happened.

Useful blood magic, aint it, Kaellen sarcastically thought.

The High Mage cursed before whirling around and dashing away. “You are of no use to me dead, boy,” he screamed at Kaellen before being eaten by the thick, towering trees.

Coward.

He didn’t pursue the mage although his senses urged him to. Instead, he hurtled over a rock and bolted toward his cousin.

The other mage was perched on the edge, glaring down into the abysmal blackness and Kaellen feared the worst, unable to see Elden.

As he ran closer though, he managed to make out a hand grasping the edge and relief thudded into him, leaving him shaking. He stumbled closer, swiftly, silently. A plan formed in his mind. He would push the mage over and pull Elden up then they would walk home from this, laughing at their daring attack and near escape.

A twig snapped under his foot and the soulless eyes turned to stare at him beneath the black hood. Kaellen did not think but lunged forward, his arms outstretched. He pushed the mage over the edge, stopping just in time to avoid going over himself.

Now for Elden.

He reached down for the hand to find it had disappeared. Worriedly, he groped along the edge but it was not there. He then stared down the cliff and saw not one but two figures clutching at each other, trying to save themselves from the futile ground below.

His blue eyes began to water when he realized what had happened.

When he threw the mage over, he�"it�"grabbed at Elden, dragging him down with it, down toward the rocky water.

Kaellen dropped to his knees as he watched the struggling figures grow smaller and smaller.

Dawn had begun its beautiful assent into the sky. The pink and yellow pastel rays began to unfurl themselves from sleep and they glowed down, revealing the falling figures.

Kaellen stared on fearfully, enraptured and scared.

The two bodies fell and dashed against the pointed rocks. The water swirled a dark pink and Kaellen knew, the blood was not just the mage’s.

Elden was dead.

Dead.

The words rang hollowly throughout his head and he didn’t understand them. It is not true, he thought. I will turn around and Elden will be behind me. It was just one person. The light is dim, maybe I was mistaken.

He turned.

The Forbidden Forest glared back at him cruelly.

Cruelly.

Ever so cruelly.

A debilitating numbness gripped his frame and he stared down into the murky water, unable to make out the shape of floating bodies.

Elden was dead.

Dead.

No mercy in this world.

Tears streamed down his dirty, bloody face and he just wished that he would wake up from this horrible nightmare. He would wake up and Elden would be glaring down at him, pissed that Kaellen had slept late.

“Come on cousin,” he whispered over the edge. “You saved me once, please save me again. Wake me up.”

A strong breeze whipped the knotted hair around his face.

The silence was still earsplitting.

“Wake me up!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, staring up at the sky.

Dawn awoke with more strength yet Kaellen didn’t wake up.

Because this wasn’t a dream.

Because he was awake.

And because Elden was dead.

♦ • ♦ • ♦

Hours after the…fight…Kaellen finally stood up and stretched out the cramps that had begun to cripple him. The tears and blood had long since dried and he no longer felt any sorrow, any pain.

He only felt unbridled anger and rage and hate toward the mages.

This is Semnian though. It is their reputation. You should have known something like this would happen to you.

When Kaellen was younger, he believed he had contracted a curse. A curse of death.

At five years, his parents had mysteriously perished and he had been passed on to a distant aunt. She was kind and sweet but did not pay much attention to the boy in her care. Summers later, she died from a disease known as the black ghost, for it was sudden and unforeseen.

He had then been passed to a second cousin before the man snapped his neck in a horse race.

Now he was with Uncle Lyron and cousin Elden…or had been with cousin Elden… (How does that work?) and the curse was back after multiple summers.

He walked around trees and bodies covered in flies, grabbed his bow and quiver and shuffled away from the grisly scene.

♦ • ♦ • ♦

Kaellen walked for miles. He trudged through the forest, through a creek, through a meadow, toward home. No one interfered with him or asked questions. Nothing stopped him. He kept walking.

He had trapped himself within his mind, trying to recall memories of Elden. He had entered a dreamlike state and walked as if in a trance.

Elden was dead.

Screaming tore him from his thoughts, abruptly rupturing his picture of Elden. He looked up and thick smoke billowed on the horizon. Kaellen bolted into a run and the numbness had ripped away, molding into fear. A burning scent wafted into his nose and his jaw jerked with fear.

One thought ran through his head.

No. Please no. No. No. No. Nononononononononono!

He reached the clearing and he saw the cottage.

Lyron’s cottage.

Orange flames licked at the blackening sky and leaked from the window. The wood crackled and snapped as the blaze hungrily ate the planks. The piles of straw instantly incinerated, emitting a sweet yet scorched fragrance.

People were gathering in front of the house, screaming as the inferno twirled with the wind and sparks ignited a nearby house. More terrified screams mingled with the cracking and popping.

Kaellen ran to a gawker and grabbed her by the bony shoulders. “What happened?” he yelled, trying to be heard above the roaring flames.

“A man,” she screamed back. “A man cloaked in black came and held his hands up. The house went up like tinder and-”

Another cottage caught the merciless fire and the woman shrieked, running to it with her arms waving wildly.

A bucket brigade had remarkably assembled but the pathetic splashes of water did not vanquish the starving flames.

Kaellen looked around; searching for his uncle but Lyron’s rugged frame was not to be found. With horror, he knew.

Oh yes, he knew what the High Mage had done and he knew where Lyron was.

He cried out in anguish and ran at the house but the violent wall of heat propelled him back, stunned. It seared his face and hair.

He grabbed another bystander and gripped his arm. “Was anybody in there? Did anyone get out?”

The man pulled his hand free, shaking his head. “I didn’t see anyone. I only came when I heard screaming. The fire had already started.”

Kaellen circled around the house, trying to find a way in but the people were thick. They unconsciously drove him back but he continued to push forward, hands held up against the blistering heat.

He would get his uncle out or die trying.

Suddenly, large hands grabbed him around the waist and pulled him backward. “Are you trying to kill yourself boy?” he hissed into Kaellen’s ear.

“My uncle!” He struggled futilely but the blacksmiths grip was too strong.

“It is too late son. I’m sorry but it is too late.”

Kaellen kicked and writhed and thrashed but the grip did not loosen. He imagined the screaming was his uncle’s and the blowing black ash, his remains.

“No!” he screamed at the black sky. “Not this. Not him! Oh god no!”

♦ • ♦ • ♦

The glowing embers leaped and twirled in a fiery dance, twinkling like little stars in the hot swirling air before cascading down to earth and blackening on the burnt ground.

Kaellen had struggled but the stranger’s grip on him did not loosen and so he lay limp with tears streaming down his grimy face.

Even as the flames began to die, sinking back within the earth, the blacksmith held on.

Finally, when the screaming had stopped and the heart wrenching crying had begun did he loosen his vise-like grip. Kaellen ripped free of his grasp and dodged away, not wanting to look at his captor’s face.

His heart was stuck in his throat as he stared at the smoldering ruins in front of him. The walls were gone. The roof was gone. The inside was bared for all the world to see, a cacophony of charred furniture and black rubble. The vague form of a table still stood, wobbling on the unstable ground. Pots made of dented metal lay on the embers, forlornly gazing at the broken-hearted boy. He gazed back.

He found the body.

Even the extreme heat had not fully incinerated Lyron. His skeletal form was tiny. His mouth was open in a silent scream. His teeth were white against the boiling blood and the bubbling muscles. A finger twitched, beckoning.

Kaellen let free a roar of anger and sadness. I am going to kill you, he promised to himself. I will hunt you down and you will wish you had never been born.

His cousin.

His uncle.

His life.

This day has really sucked.

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