Forgotten Promises

Before Sodifery opened his eyes, he felt the wind brush across his face, the scent of flowers through his nose. The small of grass, oak, and the refreshing feeling that came with it. In fact, it was warm. Unlike the coldness of stone from the shade of the sun, he was basked in the world outside.

‘I’m not in the Den?’ After he thought so, his eyes snapped open, flinching at the flash of light as his eyes adjusted.

He found himself under the shade of a tree, everything before him were rolling hills filled with the same flower. Mana rose from the rug of plants like pollen in the wind.

He wasn’t dead, he wasn’t alive. Then, just where is he?

“Nice to see you,” A voice spoke beside him. He looked to his right to see a little girl leaning against the bark of the tree, hands behind her back, and eyes closed below the fringe. She beamed a smile, holding out one of her hands as she moved in front of him, leaving the shade of the tree.

“Are you-?” He asked, raising himself from the ground since the hand was too small to lift him.

The girl disappeared as soon as he blinked and a man of similar height stood next to him, facing the landscape.

“We’ve already met, yes,” He said, crossing his arms in a relaxed matter.

“I’m sure of it…” Sodifery said. He spoke with conviction, but the guy before him was contradicting what he remembered. His mouth clamped shut, retreating back out of suspicion. “You can’t be Yofiel, who are you?”

He grabbed at his waist, only to find that nothing was there.

“There was blood, so I changed your clothes.” At Yofiel’s words, he felt naked without his armour. “I could change it back if it makes you feel better but…”

Yofiel snapped his fingers and a wave of mana brought his cloak and armour. As soon as his sword was brought back, he brought it out of its scabbard and swung it at lightning speed.

Of course, he was no longer there.

Yofiel re-appeared as an old woman, some distance away, snickering, eyes remained closed.

“You can’t kill me, at least not in here.” She said. “I’m telling the truth when I say I am Yofiel. I know you saw her die. That was part of the plan.”

She whipped out a cloth with her mana, as if it was blown in the wind and she caught it with graceful hands. “I gave one to all of you, don’t you remember? I stitched the tracking spell in it myself.”

“What?” He asked through raising winds. “You’re not making any sense here.”

When the old woman turned around a younger woman looked back at him with a miserable face. Getting straight to the point, he asks again.

“Who are you?”

“I am Yofiel.” She said, the locks of her hair brushing over her calm face. “I am also the little girl who showed you to one of the villages, I am also the man of Darrakh Forest, every form I take before you, has always been me.”

“But…” She says, as a black blood fell down her nostrils. “I am also the Dragon you heartlessly stabbed.”

His face got lightly smacked, but it was a piece of cloth that flew into his face. When he removed it, blood was found at the centre of it.

When he looked up, he met the eyes of the other person, a haunting gaze and realisation washed over him shortly after.

“The eyes of the dragon.” He says slowly. The gaze alone seemed to have made him frozen stiff on the spot, with its four corners of a kite-shaped slits, and then the world momentarily darkened from day to night.

“Those who meet my eyes, are subjected to my control of the mind.” She says, a youthful serene voice echoing from everywhere.

“It’s nice to meet you again, Dragon Slayer.”

As much as he may want to deny it, all the presences that the dragon morphed into did not feel like people.

The little girl who knew the directions to the dogfight stadium, the old woman who asked for help for the orphanage but none who knew her name, and the suspicious doctor who lives in Darrakh forest. They weren’t exactly hiding their identity, but they never explicitly told him everything.

“I want you to tell me everything.” He demanded.

“We can’t.” Yofiel said without hesitation.

“Why not.”

“Well, we’re both in a deadly situation.” She said, rubbing the side of her neck, under the moon’s light, he could just barely make out the dark fissures growing out from there.

He also felt a small pulsating throb at the same place on his neck.

“We won’t die. But I know your friends might.” She said, and then closed her eyes, shifting the night back into day. “I need you to do me a favour.”

“I don’t do favours with liars.”

“That Light Deity you put such blind faith into, don’t you think you’ve already been doing favours with one this whole time?”

Sodfiery spoke carefully, the dread he felt earlier growing larger. “How do you know?”

“Take it from me who have been awake to watch it all for the past 100 years, when everyone thought I was asleep.”

“You managed to stay awake, from the last Dragon Slayer, I take it?”

Yofiel smiled in silence as a response. “You could say something like that, there’s only been one last time too.”

Sodifery grew more confused but moved on.

“What do you mean my friends are going to die because of the Light Deity?” He asked. As far as he knew, they were dead. “Are you saying they are all resurrected just like you?”

“That’s just what I remembered, the last time, after the fall of me and the Dragon Slayer, he sought out the other members and killed them in the Misty Forest.”

At the response, the both of them collapsed to both of their knees. When he regained some of his composure and his vision stopped swimming, he groaned,

“Why,” He wheezed, holding his head, and watched to see the exact same treatment being given to the woman in front of him, “…is this happening?”

“It’s complicated, but we’re both tied by the soul, a contract or agreement. It’s called Vitafodus.” She said, but with a voice containing some plead and restraint, “If you go back and confirm what the Light Deity had planned with Lopal and the rest, then kill him.”

“The Light Deity?”

“Yes, ’they’ won’t die either since I think he is also in possession of a Vitafodus. He already took some of my power, and a some of yours through that sword.”

“He took my power?” He said incredulously.

“It’s all my power that he’s absorbing but if you don’t kill him, he won’t be able to use my power to do whatever he wants.” She sighed heavily as she stood back up, her white gown befitting a picnic dirtied by mud.

Now that he thought about it, he had never seen this form before.

“If the Light Deity took the power from the both of us, then I don’t think I can win against him.”

“I’ll give you most of my power. You can kill him easily that way.”

“Won’t you die?”

“I have this Vitafodus between us that allows me to live even if 1% of my power is in my body. It’s a little different with you, since human souls can’t be split like water.”

The both of them staggered once more in sync. "Looks like time's running out. Take this with you.”

Before Sodifery could register what she meant, he caught something with his hand.

“Fight him with that.” She said. Sodifery registered a hint of amusement in her voice. “And once you make it out, I'll give you a surprise gift. Thank me later.”

“…This is just a butter knife.” But as he looked up once more, he was back at the Dragon’s treasury.