The Mystic Returns

Jason had not spent three days in jail since he was a teenager.  Ironically, the last time, it was Colin and he for petty thievery on a shop down near the docks.  The store keeper, catching them red handed had them locked up, and then waited the maximum before deciding not to press any charges.  It was a lesson to be learned he told them both afterward.  Those three days were long and boring and these current days were no different.

Now, he signed for his personal affects and was walking the corridor to exit on the back side of the city's keep.  He was not alone the entire time, Blade showed up with Patch a couple of times, and Norrelle brought Lillian by to visit once.  Lillian, his daughter, something he still needed to get his mind to grasp.  How was he to raise a child alone at times like these?  How was he to raise a child at anytime?  Especially now, he thought, that he was truly alone.

The people he came to depend on, and actually have any feelings for were now missing or dead.  Fiona, Cat, and Shae, all out of his life now, forever.  In his life, he missed two people with all his heart for a period, which was Evy and Fiona.  He eventually got over each, but now he did not know how.  Missing Fiona again, seeing her face in Lillian every day was hard and actually plagued him with guilt.  Then Catherine, died saving him and the city.  He never told her his heart could be hers, now he never could.

He wiped his cheek as he nodded to the guard that let him exit the prison area of the keep.  Get it together Shadowgrass; he thought to himself, it was unlike him to cry.  The last tears he had shed were when his foster mother died a few years back.  He shook his head, the last few weeks have changed his life and he was unsure if he was ready to accept those alterations.  There was a reason for his cold-heart exterior, life for him was hard, he covered it well, and his heart and body became a shield against the dark blows that life gave him.  Allowing everything only to anger him, drive him.

Now, he almost thought of himself as sappy.  Yet he did have a lot he needed to feel.  He did not wish Lillian to be as cold as he was, or have the life hardships that he had.  No, he wanted the best for her, and for that beautiful little girl to keep her mother's loving outlook.  For Jason to achieve that, he too would need a different view point on life and be a little less difficult to reach emotionally.  This was not going to be easy, he thought.

"Jason," the yell snapped him back to reality.  Stopping he spun around to see Colin Brevor shake himself loose from the guards that were escorting him into the very door he had just came out of.

Jayce crossing his arms, stood as Colin attempted to move closer.  The city guards did not allow, but he shrugged them off a bit, they halted their progress to take him into the prison.  "I want to apologize," Colin said.

"Why?" Jayce asked.

"The last several years, I haven't actually been the friend I once was," he looked to the sky, then down to his feet.  "I've been a bit of an a*s."

Jayce chuckled, it seems the last few weeks did not just affect his views on life also; it seems that Colin too realized that life was too short to waste on petty vendettas.  Jayce himself knew that he too was being a fool, tossing away years of friendship and now some of those connections will never be made again.  "Me too," he answered, surprising himself at the comment.

"I should have known Laurel would need better comfort than I could give her, I've always been a bit of a b*****d."

"Yes Colin you were," Jason walked closer.  "She did look to you for security and love."

"I know, so I don't blame you if she turned to you for a moment. . ."

Jayce's laugh cut him off, "to me?  She never turned to me Colin.  Her heart always was torn between two men and either of those was not me."

"Then who?"  Colin paused himself, then closed his eyes and shook his head.  "Blade, Kaynan belongs to Blade," he said with a sudden realization.

"Yes, she knew he was not ready to be a parent, nor was he able to settle down.  It took him a bit longer to grow up I guess, if he has even yet," he laughed.

"He was not conceived after our marriage then."

"No," Jason answered as the guards decided his time was up and started to pull him toward the gate.

"Jason," Colin yelled again, "I'm sorry about Erin."

Jayce turned away, he was unsure how he felt about the girl's murder, even the fact that Colin did it to get to him.  A mere few weeks ago he was looking for away to get the lass out of his life, so in essence Colin and Stephan did him a favor.  Yet she was young and full of life, with much still ahead of her.  She did not deserve to die, not because of him anyway.  Damn, he thought, this was going to be hard.  Now he no longer knew how he should feel about anything.

He closed his eyes again, and then started to take a few steps forward when he was stopped yet again, this time by a young servant from Norrelle's house.  The lad was huffing as if he ran the entire way here from the manor.

"Lord Shadowgrass," he said breathing heavily.

"Yep," he answered.

"Norrelle needs you at the docks."

"The docks," he asked.

"Yes, the Mystic has just returned."

 

Jason stepped out of the carriage as it arrived at the docks as the Mystic was currently in the process of mooring to the pier.  Flipping the driver a few silvers, he quickly made his way through harbor master's gate, spying where Norrelle and the rest were watching the ship pull in.  Pushing his way through the crowded pier, he kept an eye on the Mystic's deck.

Jason's heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw a small woman walking toward the gang plank.  Her hair was black, and as she ran her hand through it, brushing it from her face, he got a glance of the familiar silver stripe that ran down the right side of Shae's hair.  Suddenly the world looked a little brighter.  She moved to a man with long dark hair, the man he knew to be Yassir.  It seems at least some survived the fight in the shadow realm.

Stepping next to Norrelle, she smiled at him, placing a hand on his shoulder as Dajmal, Yassir's trusted captain, nearly ran to meet the plank as it met the dock.  Lillian came up to Jason, grabbing his left hand; again his worries seemed lighter somehow.  He glanced down at her; she smiled back with wide green eyes.  "I missed you daddy," she said.

"And I you," he said honestly.  He was about to speak to her when a hush fell across the pier and wharves.  Looking around everyone was looking up at the Mystic, Norrelle squeezed his should to get his attention.  He chuckled, though he was unsure why, as he saw Connacht escorting King Richmond slowly down the plank.  He gathered he reacted with the silent laugh in anticipation to seeing Stephan's face when he saw the king ride up to the keep.  Again, things grew even brighter.

One word that came next changed him at that very moment.  It was a simple word from the mouth of his little girl, nearly a whisper at first for only him to hear.  She said "Mommy."

Something snapped in him at that second as he watched Fiona's long red hair wave to him in the wind as she walked down the plank, Shae holding her hand.  This could not be, not to him.  His life was full of loss, hardship, and pain.  Now as she slowly descended he felt his knees buckle, he let go of Lillian as she cried out "mommy" for all to hear and ran full speed to greet her.

He did not move as everyone around him rushed King Richmond, dock guards and Norrelle's personal guard quickly surrounded him as others greeted him, Norrelle included.  He only glanced in that direction, his eyes fixed on Fiona walking toward him, Shae helping Lillian up into her arms.  Shae stopped several feet from him, smiling as Connacht wrapped his arms around her.  Winking at him, she too seemed so much happier now than she had ever since he has known her.

Again, this was a brief glance, his eyes shifted back, meeting Fiona's green eyes.  She was tired, he could see that in her face, but there was a joy there as she held their daughter.  She stepped up next to him, mere inches away, letting Lillian slide to her feet.  Before he realized what was happening she wrapped her arms around him, he did grab her in return and pulled her in tight.  Whispering into his ear she said, "I've missed you, and I never stopped loving you."

Holding her tighter he became aware that he now was crying.  Jayce did not try to fight it now, he did not want to let go, he wanted this moment to last forever.  Cat was gone, but Fiona was here, she always was here, what a fool he was.  He felt guilty falling for Foster the way he did, but he wanted to be loved, needed, and he wanted to love.  At that moment, Jason Shadowgrass acknowledged that Jayce Shadowgrass, the man he was for the past eight years, died that moment on the docks.

* * *

"Lift his feet!" Constance yelled at him. Kaynan struggled, but used all the strength his eleven year old body could, lifting the feet of the dead man that Constance said was her twin brother Cameron.  The boy, now confused, knew the man by another name, Stalker, and could not comprehend how this older fellow could be her twin. To get home, he need her help, and before she would show him out, she asked for his.

Kaynan was a bit charmed also, the girl was cute, and her hair flowed gently around her smooth face.  Her pale blue eyes hypnotized him.  He was at the age where he found girls mystical and charming.  Kaynan knew a few, from school, and some others down near the docks, but none quite this strange and yet beautiful.

He huffed as he let go of Stalker, dropping the huge man's feet to what Constance said was an altar to her goddess.  He was not sure what she was planning to do, she just sort of went crazy after they watched her mother get killed by the dragon man.  They ran through the dark labyrinth that the girl calls home and found this body in a stone sarcophagus.  She said they need help to fight the dragon man and that Cameron could, but he was dead.

Constance said that the dark goddess could bring him back, sort of.  He would not be alive, but not dead either.  This confused him more; he just wanted to go home.

He slid down the marble altar, the short sword she gave him clanked as it hit the stone floor.  Now, watching Constance dig through books and scrolls he rubbed his tired eyes.  He had not slept in a long while, it felt like days, but he knew he must have dozed off sometime after her mother killed her not dead, but dead brother.  She called him a lich, though he was not sure what that meant.

 The lich Arzalus told him he was an old elf wizard that gave up his living body to live for all eternity.  Kaynan laughed though, 'cause it didn't work, the old skeleton man died anyhow.  This was indeed a strange place; much like his mother and father warned him it would be.  "Never venture over there," they always said.  Now he missed them a bunch.

Constance returned, pushing him away from the altar.  "Get up!"

"Why," he said.

"Because, you need to stand away."

"Fine!"  He slid up the stone altar and walked behind her.  "You seem to know a lot about this for being only 'bout twelve."

Turning to him she said, "I'm two hundred and fifty-eight years old you idiot!"

"Okay, but you look twelve," he said backing away.

Reaching her arm out toward him she made a gesture as if she was really grabbing his shirt, and then jerked her arm down.  Unwillingly, he slid backward and then fell hard into a stone pew.  His eyes widened as she turned back to the altar, she never touched him, and she was a witch like her mom.  Now he knew he had to obey her, lest she change him into something or worse, make him her mindless puppet.

Reviews

[James Watts]

So far so good. I am going to send this to some folks. Nice read.