Chapter 63

Kendrick and Will both left in a scurry with Kendrick still looking incredibly uncomfortable and Will looking rather annoyed.

"That punk sure has some guts" Will scoffed recalling the way Cain stared down Kendrick with annoyance. It was admirable, but shouldn't men at least quiver in their in-laws presence?

"Does he love her?" Kendrick asked, knowing that the healer had an affinity to tell what everyone felt at the present moment.

Will's scowl softened.

"Yes. Maybe too much, but she loves him as well", he had said that for Kendrick's peace of mind. He knew him well enough to know that Kendrick did not stop at any obstacles if he didn't want something to happen. It was how the Empire avoided a full-scale demon war. So he didn't find it necessary to elaborate that at times Isabelle held contemplating feeling for Cain. Something her overall love seemed to place a bandage over, but it was such a large fostering wound that he knew he would have to consult her about it.

"Good. He's capable, but can we truly trust him?" Rick's eyes narrowed.

Will speculated. He knew the answer. It was glaringly obvious.

"He'll protect Isabelle at all costs. I don't think he means us any harm either, but I'll have to ask the old man to stop investigating".

"Hmm... Will, the duchess would've at least explained to her child about our history, right? even If it were right before her death she still wouldn't have kept it hidden from him, would she?" Rick's voice full of uncertainty piqued Wills interest.

"What are you trying to say?"

"That boy, I'm sure of it, he truly think I'm a mage".

Kendricks words stopped Will in his steps. He wanted to dismiss the thought, but when he reflected on the emotions of the boy... he realised that not once did he see Rick with any sort of contempt. He hadn't thought much of it since neither did Isabelle and she had seen his true form.

"You must be mistaken. The duchess wouldn't have not told him something like that, especially if she knew you would return one day" His words felt slightly forced and when he noticed he sighed, "He must have said something to you?"

Rick shook his head.

"He could've truly used it to his advantage on many occasions, but he has not. I assumed maybe he was just toying with me and planned to bring it up at a more crucial moment, but no matter how I look at it, he does not know".

"Are you saying the duchess died without explaining it to him? Because that would be truly absurd!" Will couldn't help but recall the woman at that moment.

She was the splitting image of the boy. Maybe shorter and feminine of course, but that woman could hold her ground with anyone. A similarity to her son from the looks of it.

Rick nodded at Wills words.

"It's also strange how he clearly has been self trained in the arts of witchery and not taught" His comment made goosebumps travel across Wills skin.

Because for a moment he came to an understanding that the woman and her son may have been much too alike.

It was roughly two decades ago when Lydia had fallen sick. Nobody knew what it was. Nobody knew that the beginning of a full scale plague was soon to hit humans. Something nasty that crawled in from the demon realms and would reduce population siginificantly.

Kendrick was terrified. In his arms he held his wailing child, as his wife threw up anything she ate, all of it coated in blood.

"Keep her away from me. She'll get sick Kenny!" she chocked out as he rubbed her back, balancing the child dangerously. She was the only person who called him Kenny.

"She'll be fine. Will said it isn't contageous" He knew he was lying, but he couldn't isolate his wife. Not when he felt the impending fear of her death. He would not let her die alone if it were the last thing he did for her. Just the thought shook him.

"Rick please. I don't want her to see this. Take her to my parents house, please Rick" Rick squeezed her hands.

"I'll take her there, but she'll be back the moment you feel better okay. She needs you" He coud still how much his throat hurt saying those words. How he could barely hold back from being a blubbering mess. He wouldn't break. He could not. Not when she was so weak.

She didn't get better.

Had it been a week later? or maybe it had been a month later when he stared at the hump of mud. He couldn't accept it. The idea that her smile and laughter would never meet his ears did not make sense to him at all.

He had yet to cry.

But he had screamed plenty. He had screamed at Will.

Will didn't deserve any of it, but he absorbed it all. He blamed himself for his sisters death. He was a healer. A healer, but he could not heal his sister. He couldn't even lessen the pain. He wasn't sure how the parasite had gotten to her. How it had deflected all of his mana. How any time he tried to heal her, her symtoms became so much worse.

It was later discovered that only an outstanding amount of heat could drive away the parasite. But the amount of heat required would result in peeling skin and exposed flesh. In all cases, blindness.

From then on, life for the two had become bleak. Will had returned to his village, where he spent his days locked in his room. It reminded him of his childhood which depressed him more as he realised the only friend he had was gone. And it was his fault. Or so he was once convinced.

Kendrick, on the other hand, didn't give himself a chance to think. He took job after job, relivig the days where he gruelled away at work and awaited the day he returned home to his wife. Because this way she hadn't died, this way she was still at home awaiting his return.

When he got a job from the Duke of Goldiar, to guard the mansion during the festival of his childs upcoming birth, he hadn't imagined he would find a method to bring her back.

The Duke of Goldiar, was a normal looking man. Handsome, though not outstanding and some said he was capable. He recently married a noble lady from the Jehan Empire, who was rumoured to be beautiful and elegant. Kendrick cared for neither and took the job that was both far from his current residence and should last a few days.

He hadn't noticed how beautiful the place was at the time. He didn't care for it. He barely spoke to anyone. He did his job.

The festival was to last a few days and everything was going smoothly until the final day of the festival. Rick noticed something was off immediately. The guards were lessening in numbers and nobody seemed to notice. He imediately ran to inform his superior, who so happened to be dead, with the perpetator kneeling above his body, knife in chest.

Kendrick unsheathed his sword and swung at him before he had a chance to notice his presence. Blood splattered. The body fell with a groan.

'Not dead. Thank god' he thought as he lifted the man's head.

"Tell me what's going on and I'll spare you" He must have said this sentence a hundred times already.

The man spat at him, blood mixed in the spit.

Kendrick sighed. Normally he'd ask again, but he cared no longer. So he lifted his sword to stab the man, who looked startled.

"We're 'ere to kill the witch's baby" That was all he got out before Kendricks knife pierced his neck. The man's eyes still wide in terror as the blood gushed.

Understanding that the child was in trouble Kendrick left his station to run for the child quarters, informing knight after knight there was an infiltration and they should inform the duke.

He didn't bother thinking what the man meant by the 'witch's baby'. He only cared for his job.

He cut off assassin after assassin. None expecting him so it worked to his advantage. The closer he got to the nursery the more that appeared. Eventually word had spread that a crazed knight was on to them, alongside the other knights and he was cornered just outside the nursery. He heard a woman cry from inside - the duchess no doubt - and realised he would have to do this fast. He couldn't get past them all.

For a moment he fantasised his death. The end of it all. Maybe Lydia was waiting for him? What if she wanted him to join her?

Maybe it was fate that he heard the babies cry. How familiar it was.

The fantasy ended as fast as it began as a beam of light blinded the assassins and himself, since he was used to fighting in total darkness, he grabbed the handle of his sword and cut down the assassins. And then ran into the nursery where the light came from.

He hadn't expected to see who he did.

The duchess clutched her baby tightly, her hand outstretched into what looked like a barrier and before the barrier stood man. Feautures the exact replica of the duchess, but wrinkled and aged. The man clicked his tongue at the sight of Kendrick and that's when Kendrick recognised him.

"Commander Blain, third in command of Jehan Army".

He had once gone to Jehan for a mission set by the man. It was top secret and not trusted to Jehan's adventurer's guild as they tend to publicise available work. The work in the Aldrich Empire was handed more discreetly and usually agreed to before details were dispersed. Because of this many foreign officials have work done through the Aldrich Empire.

"Oh, I recognise you" He smiled, as if glad to see Kendrick, "Well this works in my favour. Why don't you leave before I have to kill you. You know I can kill you easily" He teased the hilt of his sword with his fingers.

Looking back on it. Although his decision had lead to unsavoury consequences he didn't think he would have changed his decision.

He stepped forward, sword in his hand as he looked at the Commander.

Blaine wasn't wrong. Kendrick didn't stand a chance against him. The fate of this fight was set in stone. But that was only if Kendrick fought by himself. He glanced at the duchess, her face worn as she glanced towards him. There was a subtle smile on her lips. As if she understood what he was doing. She didn't nod, nothing obvious.

'Smart'.

Kendrick lunged for the man. He saw the sword dissapear from Blaine's sheath and dogded under his right arm. A wild guess that he was right handed that saved him from decapitation. The fight was far from over. Kendrick managed to make a single shot before he saw a strike coming his way, before he could dodge where he planned to, there was gust of wind that staggered him towards the attack, leaving him no choice but to defend with his sword.

'What was that?' He cursed, feeling himself getting crushed beneath the force of the commander, 'He isn't a mage. There is no knowledge of him being a mage'.

"Dodge Left!" he didn't think before acting on the words called by the duchess.

If the duchess hadn't told him to dodge to the left he would have never found out what the commander was. In the spot he once stood was a mark of black soot. He felt that heat of fire but saw no flames.

'This is not magic'.

He could see something dark conjuring behind the Commanders eyes. Something that planted his feet on the ground even though his mind screamed to run. If this was at all similar to magic then Kendrick concluded that the Commander should feel drained after using it enough times, but he realised he was even more disadvantaged than he originally thought.

Then it happened.

While the Commander looked to clearly be summoning something, he suddenly staggered forward, spell cutting off as he turned to the duchess behind him. A large spear covered in the foulest smelling substance protruded from his back.

"The spear of the great whale..." He said in astonishment, "You told me you could not summon!" He yelled as his legs gave out. The colour draining from his face.

"It was better you thought me weak now wasn't it, father?"

"You will bring ruin upon our bloodline if you allow the birth of that child - what witchery did you use to make yourself fertile after all that poison we fed you" He spoke as if he wasn't supporting himself on all fours.

"This child's birth was to happen regardless. This is his fate. This is yours" She let out a laugh that sounded too sweet to be in such a place, "You should have killed me at my birth, father".

"It is blasphemous to mix the great blood of the Jehan nobility with the kind of the Aldritch nobility. You will regret this woman. That's no child! That is a monster!" His voice died with a last shout before his eyes rolled and he slumped forward.

The duchess' legs gave out and Kendrick managed to catch her. Taking hold of the child from her after setting her safely on the groud. She held her head in agony.

Kendrick came to realise many things at this moment. One of them was that the Commander Blaine was now dead. The second was that the duchess had just killed her own father. And the third was that he cared for neither of those facts.

"You" He immediately addressed her while she held her head, "You are a witch"

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