The Legend Of Black Eyes

Not too far away from us, my brother was still preparing for battle. According to Raiya, Adwer must have had something that stores essence within it. It was either that, or my brother had some fragment we didn"t know about. We decided to wait for him to make the first move though. Neither one of us was in good shape to fight him anyway.

"I don"t know," Raiya said. "You can try it on smaller life forms. It will work on them, but I doubt you can do it for yourself."

"Why is that?" I asked. "I don"t see any other way now. Are you ready to let go of what you cherish most?"

"I told you," Raiya met me with the same level of exasperation. "You can try it, but I doubt it"ll bear any fruit."

"That"s why I"m asking you," I said, almost shouted. "You know more about time spells and time manipulation than anyone else."

"You just can"t rewind time on yourself," Raiya said. "Let me ask you this. When you use the time shield, why don"t you get slowed down by its effect?"

"Because I"m the owner of the fragment," I said.

"Exactly," Raiya said. "That"s also why you remember everything from your time adventure."

"But I could stop my bleeding once, even slow it down," I protested. "Why can"t I affect my entire body?"

"You didn"t reverse any effects though," Raiya retorted. "You only slowed down the inevitable. You"ve lost that leg, Myles, might as well chop it off now. It"s disgusting to look at."

"No," I said. I couldn"t accept that. "How about I rewind time to the point when we were about to storm Bodrick"s house?"

"That"s about three hours ago," Raiya said. "Have you ever rewound time more than a minute?"

I shook my head.

"There"s nothing you can do Myles," Raiya said. She looked at her missing right arm and heaved a long sigh. "You can travel to the past, but you"ll still have that leg. Rewinding time is an option, but can you do it for longer than three hours? Or at least to the moment before you lost your leg?"

I fell silent. Rewinding time was the only spell that affected my body as well. It"s a spell that, if witnessed from a distance, would look like people acting in reverse. I"ve pulled it off many times, but never for longer than half a minute. It wasn"t a matter of available essence though. It was more related to memory.

"No," I mumbled. "There has to be something else."

"Well," Raiya said. "It appears we"re both in luck."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"If you"d remembered the song from your hometown, you would have known the moment I mentioned Abrath," Raiya replied.

"I used to sing it when I was a child," I said. "Father always complained about it. He even forbade me from singing it until I forgot all about it. What"s so special about this song anyway?"

Raiya chuckled, which earned her a new coughing fit.

"You"re not well Raiya," I said. "Stop joking around."

"You won"t understand," she said after she wiped more blood from her mouth. "But I"ll tell you what the song"s about. Abrath, the king of beasts, is known for its potent venom. One drop can kill a dragon. However, if you get the beast to willingly offer it to you, its properties change. The venom becomes an elixir of life. It can even restore limbs, regrow organs, cure the incurable."

"How do you get Abrath to give you the venom then?" I asked.

"The same way you escape from him unharmed, you pay his price," Raiya replied.

Before I could ask some more questions, a huge spike in energy from my brother"s direction caught my attention. I extended my senses toward him. It was my brother"s energy, only this one was a hundred times greater.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Your brother"s been pulling his punches," Raiya said. "Only a Stalwart can have this monstrous well of energy."

"Would you mind using words I would understand?" I asked.

"It"s very much like having a Fragment. You can use both energies to fight. Your brother doesn"t have a Fragment though. It"s something most Stalwarts have. They can store more essence within their souls for a rainy day. It"s called the Stalwart curse," Raiya replied.

"There"s a name for that?" I said. "Why is it the first time I hear of this?"

"You should ask your parents," Raiya said then immediately tensed up. "I didn"t mean to…"

"It"s alright," I said. "What"s Adwer planning anyway?"

"He"s clearly willing to fight the monster ahead of him," Raiya said. "He probably doesn"t know it"s Abrath. They don"t usually dwell in caves you know."

We both had our senses extended at that moment. We felt my brother move forward, toward the beast"s lair.

"Do you want to watch?" Raiya said.

"Watch what?" I asked.

"Once you enter Abrath"s domain, no living soul can follow you," Raiya replied. "Abrath creates this ethereal barrier that blocks any newcomer. You can watch, but you won"t hear anything they discuss."

"Are you sure it"s wise to make our presence known?" I asked. "There has to be another way out of here."

"If there was," Raiya said. "We"ve already buried it when we fell down. Besides, don"t you want to have your leg back?"

"At what cost?" I asked.

"You will only know when you get into Abrath"s domain," Raiya said. "Whether you"re willing to pay with it or with your life is up to you then."

"Are you willing to sacrifice what you cherish most for an arm?" I asked. "He will ask something else of us to leave, you know that."

Raiya nodded. "You can go back if you wish," she said then walked on ahead.

I looked behind me. I came from an empty cave then traveled through empty tunnels. Raiya was nowhere in sight at that time. I couldn"t even sense her when I stretched my senses to their limit. When she showed up, however, she was missing an arm. She said she had to chop it down, but she wasn"t carrying any weapon.

Something wasn"t right. I let the witch advance then stretched my senses backwards. Most tunnels were filled with the small creatures Raiya identified as bats. I would take hours for me to find an alternative route. I wasn"t even sure I would survive that long. I decided to follow Raiya, but to keep my guard up.

She was definitely hiding something.

When I caught up with her, Raiya was sitting right before the entrance to a cave. I couldn"t see what was beyond it, only darkness. I approached her. Raiya had leaned against a wall and closed her eyes. She looked as though she was sleeping, or dead. Her energy reading, however, told me she was still alive.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We"re here," she said. "You can go any further."

I looked at the cave in front of me. It just looked like a hollow hole underground. There was no sign of Adwer or Abrath.

"What"re you talking about?" I asked. "There"s nothing in there."

"Precisely," Raiya replied. "Just sit tight. It"ll start in a minute."

I tried to go in, but I hit something solid and invisible, like a wall. My forehead stung then I lost balance and fell on my a.s.s. Jolts of electricity traveled through my body, reminding me to be careful.

"I told you," Raiya said. "You can"t go further."

So we sat there, waiting for the darkness to lift. Moments later, something happened in the cave. A bright light appeared, chasing all the darkness aside. It felt like the invisible wall was made of gla.s.s, and that the gla.s.s was dirty. The light had come to swipe it clean, and we were suddenly able to see what was happening inside the cave.

Adwer was kneeling before the beast. He was holding a curved sword on one hand. The other he had placed on a keg. In front of my brother, a formidable beast stood on its hind legs. It had the face of a lion. Its mouth was slightly open, revealing its long, sharp fangs. It had snow white fur that covered its entire body.

Although the beast"s body had humanoid features, it was nothing like a human. It was four times the size of a regular human. It had a large torso with defined pectoral muscles. Its front legs, although arms would be more precise in this matter, were larger than my body.

It had sharp claws that glistened against the light from the glowing mushrooms on the cave walls. Atop its head, it had a multicolored crown made out of feathers. I could also see its barbed tail swinging playfully behind its gigantic body.

My brother held the sword high in the air then, with a quick swing, cut his own arm off. I saw him fall to the floor. I saw his face contort in pain as he screamed, but no sound reached my ears. I saw blood gush out and paint the barrel red. My brother screamed on and on, until he could no longer save breath for it.

Then I saw him pa.s.s out. The beast scooped him up with is gigantic front paws. It brought its free paw on my brother"s body, and the latter disappeared without a trace. The beast diverted its feline glowing eyes toward us. The invisible barrier that kept us at bay shattered, and we could finally hear the beast"s voice.

"Raiya O"Cheran," the beast said. It sounded majestic, like how I always imagined G.o.ds to sound. It turned to look at me. "Myles Stalwart, oh how this one longed to finally meet you."