Idiome

A few hundred meters away, Clarine and Kei, holding hands, continued their walk quietly, enjoying the serenity that permeated the place and the mildness of the weather. Kei closed her eyes and took long breaths, smelling the light and flowery perfume of the air.

"It's so good!" he exclaimed in delight.

"Isn't it?" the nature witch comforted, turning to the young blond mage and smiling warmly. Kei returned her smile and looked around.

"Oh" Kei shook his head to express his overflowing emotions, "it's really fantastic here. I didn't think there were such places and after all I've seen since my release. What is the name of this place?"

Clarine took a few seconds before answering, which surprised Kei.

"Idiom."

"Oh, an original name." the young mage noted, aware of the strange emotion of his beautiful witch. He understood the reason when she continued.

"Idiom is the name of the most precious jewels in the entire magical world, and it exists only in my native land - Esis. A simple but sublime name that means in the ancient Esian language - unique. As much as this place, hence the reason why it was also named after it.

"Whatever this person did, he was right to do it."

Despite his curiosity and his chest pricked with sorrow, Kei did not try to know more. For he has long understood that the greatest secrets must be revealed by will.

"But, it's strange," he continued.

"There is really no one! It's so quiet you'd almost think you were the only people in this world."

Except for the creatures that were frolicking here and there, playing with each other or lazing in the warmth of the sun, the place was completely deserted.

"That's normal," the witch explained with explicit gestures, having regained control of herself, "it's a very popular place of residence for very rich people, but of very high class, which are, to my astonishment of a very limited number, and so, most of these so fabulous mansions is empty."

"And in other words, they're empty."

"Exactly!"

"Oh, you hear that Miron?" exclaimed Kei playfully, his face bright and mocking as he turned to his friend, "Those mansions that seem to have had the power to move you are for sale, so you..."

But Kei finally had to stop when he noticed that his best friend was no longer behind them. And it even seemed to be the case for some time. Kei, his eyes wide with surprise, looked around again, then turned back slightly to see if Miron had not stayed a little behind, still staring lustfully at one of the mansions that occupied the square.

It was then that he felt this sensation. Kei stopped dead in his tracks, making sure he hadn't made a mistake. He narrowed his eyes, still waiting before finally admitting the truth, he lowered his head, observing the ground which seemed to thicken with dust before darkening, then the surroundings, the trees, the plants, especially the creatures undoubtedly lost their quietude and now trembled with all their limbs, groaning with fear and pain, unable to flee or protect themselves, totally paralyzed in this unknown and considerable mass of power. The whole place seemed to have lost its magic and light, and was undoubtedly plunging into a deep, patent darkness.

"But what is happening?" Kei murmured, not understanding anything.

He then turned to Clarine, and his concern increased enormously by seeing the state in which the latter was. Turning as pale as she was, he ran to her and supported her as best he could.

"Clarine!"

The latter had brought her hand to her chest and sobbed, torn with pain.

"Ah, Kei, I'm cold. So cold."

Kei held her in his arms, shivering like her, lost in this raging ocean of cold.

So shining as he could, the young blond mage communicated to his beautiful witch so adorable, a large part of his magic so that she would at least stop hurting. Unfortunately, this was not enough, but at least her unbearable shaking stopped for a while. Then he took her by the hand and led her towards him in the direction of Miron.

The worst thing would be if all this, this unspeakable desolation was his doing, Kei thought. And he soon found out that it was, despite the fact that, deep down, he already knew it.

"Miron..."

There the young mage was, standing under a gigantic archway and facing a vilely ugly creature with its slimy, inky black body and bulging eyes of astral clarity. But the most terrible thing was the repulsive and disastrous sensation that emanated from the whole body of this unsightly being.

But of course, as vile and powerful as his powers were, they were no match for those of his opponent, who stood straight in front of him, neither trembling nor emitting the slightest bit of fear, even sizing up the foul beast with dead eyes as if its very existence was of no value.

The spy too, having felt the ambiguous and almost artificial emotions of the young prodigy, felt lost in this collision of power of which he was visibly the defeated. He even trembled soon of all his body, oppressed, crushed by this immeasurable weight of power that never in his existence dedicated to the crime, he would have suspected. He thought he had become a tiny, insignificant defenseless creature facing a titanic monster with abysmal power and an icy, unsustainable gaze.

He threw his head back with difficulty and exhaled a brief sigh of agony and amusement.

"I see. So that was what you wanted me to see and feel through my own body, this power that is beyond even my imagination. Yes, you were telling the truth, Master. And I had to know it. Thank you."

The spy nodded, looked into the clear eyes of his enemy, and smiled.

"I can't do anything now. But I'll be back. However, you are of such splendor that the light will never be able to do you justice or offer you all that you desire."

So with these final efforts, the creature managed to break free of Miron's unbreakable chains but at the terrible cost of all his blood.

It moved backwards, still admiring Miron who did nothing to stop it, although he could easily have done so and they were both aware of it. The wounded spy shook his head, laughing weakly but with delight.

"Ah, young mage, I am so envious of all those who serve you. If only you knew how much."

"They don't exist yet."

"But they will exist," the creature assured him as he slowly sank into a pool of shadow. "It can only be so, your majesty."

And he bowed deeply before disappearing completely.

Miron immediately dispelled the massive magic he had generated in his merciless fury, and everything slowly came back to life.

"Miron?" shouted Kei as he ran towards him, still holding the witch by the hand. The latter took the young mage in her arms and hugged him tightly.

"Miron, are you okay?"

"Yes." he assured but with an expression that clearly revealed that the question was simply absurd. "And you?" he bothered to ask.

"Yes, us too," Clarine replied, noting with concern that Kei wasn't going to leave it at that. She was right.

"We're really okay, Miron, but thanks for forcing yourself to ask, even though we all know you don't care! But you do realize what you've done! If you'd only tried a little harder, you could have killed us all. Clarine almost fell into a hypothermic sleep, along with all the innocent living beings around us! You would have made this wonderful place a hecatomb!""Uh, it's nothing, darlings. It's just that I haven't been exposed to magic like this for long enough, so..." Clarine tried again to intervene, but it was a waste. The two boys were not paying any attention to her. And Miron replied to Kei as if she hadn't said anything.

"That wouldn't have happened. You know me! No one died that I know of, not even the weakest."

Kei shook his head, distraught and defeated.

"Well, I see that nothing can ever really touch you. But tell me, what was that abject creature?"

Miron shrugged, unmoved.

"I don't know. He followed me for some important reason, no doubt, and tried to tell me, but it was of no consequence to me.

"What!" cried Kei again, overcome with anger. "Miron, some things, despite your mind and powers, do! You had to know!"

"What for? This kind of thing so harmful will do nothing but clutter my mind dedicated only to things that satisfy me. This little monster like the rest must remain only in its place."

"You're completely insane." That was the only remark Kei could spout. "However, you could have at least stopped him!"

"No," Miron categorically refuted in a voice that made his two companions shudder, "he was in that form so weak that it would have displeased me to destroy him so. And also, I sensed despite his satisfaction, his deep desire to return to his master. I must admit, however, that he was right in one respect.

"In what?" muttered Kei, completely lost.

"That I hate daylight."

"Then let's go home quickly," Clarine suggested hastily, taking him back into her arms.

But Miron refused, shaking his head.

"No, I don't want to touch any more lights, no matter how beautiful they are. They have hurt me enough."

And he remained in the shadow of the vault, near the only two beings who counted for him, until the night fell.

***

"Oh my friend, how you are wounded, what has this being done to you so disproportionate that you return to me thus? "

The spy returned to the manor of the lakes, to his master as Miron had allowed him. He dragged himself, almost breaking even on the marbled floor, leaving a trail of his black remained blood in his wake, to come and lay his head on the lap of his one and only sovereign. They were in the room that this one liked the most, the room of the spells. A vast room covered on one side by a large library where every book that was stored had its great utility, and the other by large moving paintings of various cities of the magical world through which he could cross to go there, but the reciprocal was impossible, because it was too risky.

"Master."

"Yes, tell me. I am listening."

"You were right. It is as he had imagined at first sight. And more."

"I see. How did you describe him."

The creature lifted his head and looked into the eyes of the being that caressed his battered body.

"As far as I can make it, unique, and alone in its greatness. So alone. He would have loved this mansion your lordship."

The mansion was a castle with a sumptuous decor, divided between night blue and amber, but where in every room, on every object present reigned the penumbra, and surrounded by deep lakes so cold and smalt blue that at every nightfall let glimpse the massive and moving forms of the devouring and wild creatures that populated them.

The mage nodded and said, to his general's surprise.

"To tell you the truth, I would have preferred to have been wrong in the end. But all the wishes and fears in the world won't change reality. So I might as well face it. But perhaps, if you had been in your original form, you would have been able somehow to annihilate it."

The creature answered only by shaking his head, not taking his eyes off his master's.

"I'm sorry your lordship."

"Don't be. However, I will still cause some stirring to ensure that this masterful power is not just an explosion engulfed in a sea of ice, and that it is revealed to me in all its indelible beauty.

He regarded for a moment in a strange way the creature that lay in his lap, and bent slightly to kiss the stained forehead of his best general.

"Until then, sleep well, Udariv."

Udariv, who had already fallen into a restful sleep, last remembered Miron's face with its indefinable expression when the latter decided to let him return alive to his master and confessed to him in a veiled whisper.

"I too have the feeling that I have known this, this irrepressible feeling of wanting to return to the person who matters most. Only, unlike you, I ended up forgetting it."