Chapter 8 – Deadly truth

Reaper guessed the baby was him, he never met another person with eyes this black, but he couldn’t understand who was the woman, and why he and his mother were related to her death? He tried to explore the soul many more times but still couldn’t understand the relation, but he couldn’t give up, so he reached deeper for his connection with the death element, hoping to improve his abilities until he felt the deadly ancient intent, it made him scared but he could only endure it.

‘Cofiwch Marwolaeth.’

The death energy around the soul stirred, the memories slowed down and became clear as the world around him faded. Reaper wanted to back down but the voices coming from the memories captured his attention.

“Mistress, please… I don’t want this anymore… It’s killing me…”

A thin pale young woman laid in the bed pleaded to the Duchess, but she just ignored her. Outside the room, the Duchess instructed the maid:

“Increase her meals, we need to keep her alive for a few more months… If she doesn’t want to eat just fed force her…”

Time seemed to pass fast while the sick woman got even paler and thinner. One day, the maid had to exchange her bedding, Reaper couldn’t miss the black crystals placed under the covers, the maid had to use a stick and cloth to move it. He couldn’t understand why they were keeping her resting on top of the death crystals and how was the woman still alive.

Time continued to pass, the maid continued to care for the woman until she couldn’t even open her eyes. When she drew her last breathe, the maid was there to pray for her soul. After that, the Duchess came to the room and nobody entered it again. Reaper thought the memory was over and the dead woman was the soul that deeply hated his mother, even though he couldn’t comprehend what they were doing with her.

But other memories appeared, some time passed again. The maid, the Duchess and one of her attendants talked outside of the closed door, where the woman had died.

“She is the last one Mistress… The others… Failed…”

The maid tried to push back a vomit, while other servants cleaned something putrid from the neighboring rooms. Somehow, Reaper could also smell it and had to suppress the urge of throwing up, but that was before they reopened the room, the image of the decomposing corpse laying over the bed, made him and the maid both throw up. Neither the attendant nor his mother seemed to care, he moved forward with a cloth covering his nose and started to mess with the corpse. The maid couldn’t look anymore and the memory fade, but soon, Reaper heard a baby cry. The memory cleared, the attendant was holding a small weak-looking baby covered in blood and black residue. They left the gruesome room and the Duchess hastily said:

“We need to test the baby, quickly bring the crystals…”

A servant came forward holding a dim black crystal wrapped in cloth, she held it near the crying baby and it shined. The baby was passed to the trembling maid, she moved to a clean room before starting to clean the baby with water and cloth. Reaper finally saw the baby had black eyes and hair, the baby was him. The memory continued but he couldn’t take it anymore, pushing the soul back, Reaper grasp for air while stumbling back. Shadow circled and licked him while he could only stare into nothing, shocked.

Reaper swung his head, trying to push away the thoughts, he couldn’t afford to think about it, he didn’t want to. But the questions fought their way to his mind, disregarding his will completely. What were they doing with the woman? Who is the baby? Is he the baby? Who is his mother? Is that how a death Mage is born?

“Who am I…?”

Pain, agony, hatred, self-hatred and more pain. Reaper laid on the dirty mortuary ground, an image stuck on his mind, the woman’s face, his mother’s dying face.

He was a killer, even before been born he had already made his first victim and many would follow. Why didn’t he died? Was he a weapon in the Duchess’s hands? For the first time, Reaper considered his future, his mother, no, the Duchess had paid a lot to use him. Should he destroy her plans right now and die?

The tears stop flowing, he replaced the pain with hatred. They should all pay! He got up and moved towards the maid’s grave, reaching for the restless soul close to it. Without considering or pausing, he absorbed the energy until the soul was no more, then he left.

.........

“Mistress…ah…”

Clarissa had to dodge the bubble that welcomed her face when she entered her Mistress’s room. After training for less than two weeks, Alice could already form floating bubbles, next step was to control the bubbles midair, which would take a lot of affinity control. Either way, she could already be considered a genius, progressing more in two months than most Mages would do in years of training. However, a strange feeling was growing in her heart. The dreams of what she called the bubble world, have been coming frequently to her sleep and every time she was more certain that it was a representation of her real life.

The desire for freedom was taking over her, every now and then she would be caught by Clarissa staring at the horizon, dreaming about traveling through the world. But how could she? She was one of the Duchess’s tools, a lot of investment was made in her training and advancement. Alice was an orphan, they told her that she was the daughter of one of the House’s Mages that died during her birth and her father was never in the picture. Although she stopped believing in the tale when she got older, the chance of her parents being alive and she finding them were practically zero. Thankfully, she passed the phase of needing to know her origins and was truly over it. Different from the shielded Reaper, she was only a hybrid Mage under the House’s care, not a noble, so she had learned her place early.

Maybe she should run… Being truly free would be an interesting experience, where would she go? The Democracy was a must, a place where many races lived in peace and people were focused on jobs seemed like a true wonder. The Cian Kingdom also didn’t seem like a bad choice, their ships are rumored to be unparalleled and they have more martial worriers than Mages, it would be a good change of scenery. Now, the places that truly drew her attention were the Elven Kingdom and Sorcerer’s Island. Unfortunately, the Elves had closed themselves to the rest of the world and Island wasn’t an easy place to enter…

If she ran away, would Clarissa follow her? How about Reaper? He was her only true friend… Clarissa was great but she was a servant, bound by contract to serve Alice, she didn’t have a choice and had to like Alice, but Reaper was different, they choose to befriend each other, he was someone Alice wanted to protect… The pain of leaving was something to consider, the people and the comforts she would leave behind. Alice wasn’t a spoiled noble, but she grew used to the comforts, she never had to clean a room or her clothes. Actually, she could order new garments and jewels without even considering the price.

.........

“Auuu…”

The wolf let a pitiful cry before dying, Reaper pulled his short sword out while moving his other hand to drain the death energy from the dead beast. Soon, he finished and let the soul return to where it was so supposed to go, after a lot of training in the graveyard he was capable of easily absorbing the death energy without touching the soul. The instructor looked suspiciously at Reaper’s change of attitude, it was too sudden, but he didn’t care about suspicions, if they wanted for him to be heartless he would be.

Reaper was focused on advancing, once he did, they would feel his wrath…

.........

“… I think he’s ready, your Grace…”

“Hmm, he changed his attitude very fast… Anyway, we shall move to the next phase… It’s time to arrange his first mission and … his first kill!”