The Sorcerer's Ring (Book 1) (15 page)

“Come back anytime,” Aline muttered as Remi stormed away from the table. Kace expressed his apologies for their sudden leaving and he quickly caught up to Remi, strutting down the dirt roads as if she had a purpose. He caught her arm just as she was about to turn a corner. There were only a couple people nearby to witness it, but they didn’t say a word. Strangers were best left alone.

“What was that back there?” he asked and she glared down at his grip.

“Let me go,” she demanded, but he kept his grasp firm.

“Don’t be like that,” he said softly, his eyes wavering.

“Let me go,” she said, and he did. She rubbed her arm vigorously and then clenched her fists. “What right do you have grabbing me like that?”

“I want to understand what happened back there.”

“They were insulting me. I don’t have to put up with it if I don’t want.”

“Not that. The thing about the Sorcerers. You want to find them? What for? Don’t give me any of that crap about being the best because you don’t care about that. Getting stronger, sure. But not becoming the best.”

“I need a purpose, and they should know what it is.”

Kace searched her eyes. She wasn’t joking. “They’re not all-knowing.”

“And yet, they are the closest thing to gods that we have. There is no Maker. There is no Dark One, but there had to be order before Paradise, Oblivion and Terra collided.”

“You don’t have to risk death in order to find out where you belong in this life. Most people try to figure out their purpose as they go.”

“And some never find it.”

“That’s because they either give up or get caught up in daily life. But that’s not you. That’ s not us. We’re not done with our travels.”

“I don’t have time to find my purpose,” she muttered.

Kace scowled at her. “And why’s that?”

“Because I could die before then.”

“Stop,” he snapped. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“What?” she said in shock.

“I said stop it. You’re being ridiculous. You told me last night that you wouldn’t let your illnesses dictate who you were and what you were about, but that’s what you’re doing right now. The Sorcerers might not even exist for all we know.”

“I know, but—”

“—you have to find a balance in this life. Yeah, you have to be happy, but you can’t just do whatever pops into your head either. Let’s say you do want to find these Sorcerers. You want to hear what they have to say about you and what you should be doing in life, but they may not have the answers, and even if they do…how are you going to ensure you get them? We’re not even in Paragon yet, and already you fight every day to not topple over from exhaustion.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’ll help you find the Sorcerers,” he said. “If that’s what you truly want. But we have to prepare properly, and that will take time. We should train for the travels ahead of us. Gather more information on who they are and what we’re dealing with. Maybe pick up a few allies that are willing to go on that adventure. Get more powerful so that we can at least escape from them if they are a threat. We can do this, but we have to do this right.”

Remi was taken aback. “You would come with me?”

“You assumed I wasn’t?”

“I didn’t think you would…I thought you would try to talk me out of it.”

“I still think it’s a ridiculous notion,” he said. “But…you were right about one thing back there. We have no allegiances, and we have no home. All we have is each other and the lands that lie before us. So…if we’re going to see the best of what life has to offer, I guess we better go big.”

“It will be exciting,” she said, trying to suppress her grin. “It might be years before we’re ready to look for them…but at least we have a goal.”

“A purpose, right?” he laughed. She nodded and gave him a hug. He didn’t hug her back, but he didn’t push her away either. “Remi, I’m with you…whatever you need. But remember that you don’t have to rush into anything. I want you to get this into your head: I am not sick. Repeat it each morning. Whisper it into your pillow before you go to sleep. Just keep saying the words. Because that’s how I see you. I know you want to do all you can before you…pass. But don’t run so fast that you can’t even enjoy the scenery.”

She pulled away from him, but she kept her arms still around his abdomen. She searched him for understanding. What was it he wasn’t telling her? What was he keeping hidden within the recesses of his mind?

“Long ago,” he whispered to her. “When my people had their own Kingdom, there was another Kingdom known as Zen-echelon. It was a mysterious but brutal place in which anyone who sought out the truth behind it wouldn’t leave unscathed. Most were killed, and those that made it back to us were forever changed. Their minds were…gone. They became lunatics. And still, many Quietus would try again and again. Especially the young ones. They were ready to prove how great they were, even at the expense of their own lives, and they paid the price as a result.

“I’m telling you this story because not a single one figured out the truth behind Zen-echelon. No matter how hard they trained and how bad they wanted to know, it didn’t matter. They died. And where did that get them? Where did that get the Kingdom? So many young warriors were lost, and for what reason?”

“It was all meaningless,” Remi said for him.

“Yes,” Kace sighed. “That story was once told to hype my people up. To get them to do even more foolish things. But now it is taught as a lesson of caution. And that’s how we should take it as well. Let’s prepare to find the Sorcerers, but we can’t forget that in doing so, the journey will be more important to who we become and what we accomplish more than the end itself.”

“Got it,” Remi said, finally letting go of him. “And thank you for telling me how you feel. This is something I just decided on a whim…but the more I think about it…why not? Why not seek them out?”

“I agree,” Kace said. His face was more serious than she had ever seen. “As long as we prepare for it.”

“Definitely,” she said, taking his hand and intertwining his fingers with hers. Side by side they continued walking together, enjoying the sounds of the village around them. The drowned out conversations. The shouts of the merchants. The playing children and the sounds of footsteps on the dirt roads. Remi eventually shook Kace’s hand, desiring his attention. His face was no longer serious.

“Who eventually discovered the truth out about Zen-echelon? Did anyone?”

“You know,” he smiled, “the answer is very interesting. See, the Quietus were once the most powerful people in all the land, and yet, with all that power…they couldn’t accomplish their goal. In the end, the ones who found out the truth about that mysterious Kingdom was none other than a group of Sages.”

Remi eyebrows raised. “Sages, huh?”

“That’s right,” he chuckled. “Who would have thought?”

“Not me,” she admitted. Still, it gave her a fluttering feeling in her stomach—that rare feeling of excitement and anticipation. She was hopeful. Just a little bit more than she had been an hour ago. If a small group of Sages were able to do what a whole Kingdom of Quietus couldn’t…then perhaps there was more to her eidolon and her transformation ability than she originally thought.

A scream severed her thoughts.

Like a sharp knife cutting a cord.

She shot her head up and stared at the man in front of her. People were running away frantically on all sides, but she was frozen. Kace pulled at her arm, yelling at her to move, but she couldn’t budge.

She stared at his eidolon in the hands of her enemy. It was hot red like Olivia’s blade, but his sword was in the shape of a machete, similar to her Falchion. His sword was a lot more blunt than hers, or so it seemed. But she was sure it could cut just as well. He walked forward with confidence, and he was staring through her as if she wasn’t even there. It was like she was seeing a vision, but the screams around her let her know that he was very real.

He has an eidolon, she thought to herself. He has one like mine.

He had a smug look on his face as she remained in place as still as a statue. Kace stopped trying to move her along and instead stood by her side, waiting for the man to make a threatening move.

“Remi, are you okay?” Kace whispered, but she could barely hear him. She was still in awe over what she was feeling. The man before her didn’t just have an eidolon. He was radiating power. Raw, violent power. As if he had the authority to do as he pleased without consequence.

“He must be from Cimmerian,” Kace said in her ear. “And that’s someone we don’t want to deal with right now. Don’t you see what’s behind him? He killed those people.”

It was true.

There were several dead bodies directly behind him, severed either at the head or the waist. He was certainly dangerous.

So why didn’t she move?

What was keeping her stuck in place?

The young man took a deep breath and then smiled towards her, full of confidence.

Her lips parted, and she spoke before she even realized it.

“Who are you?” she asked. Whatever happened next, she had to know.

“My name is Dominic,” he replied sweetly. She didn’t recognize the name, but based on a few of the cries coming from behind her once he said it, the village must have known who he was. She sighed and furrowed her brow.

“Are you someone important to Cimmerian?” she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders as the eidolon in his hand hummed. “I guess you’ll find out.”

“Don’t take another step forward,” Kace warned him, but Dominic didn’t listen.

“Don’t bother,” he said, now only several yards away from them. “Nothing you say will stop me. I’ve been waiting too long for this.”

“For what?” Kace asked, but Dominic didn’t respond with words, just his blade. With his eidolon raised high over his head, he brought it down in slow motion, and then in an instant, he disappeared. Remi snapped to attention, immediately summoning not only her eidolon but her white Sage robes as well. Kace also dropped to all fours and prepared to go into his full Quietus form when his ears perked up.

“He’s not here,” he said, and Remi knew it was the truth.

“Why would he leave us alone?” she asked, but Kace was too busy scanning the environment. Another blood curdling scream echoed through the streets from behind them. Kace and Remi took off running to the source, even as mobs of people began turning back the other way and going in the direction they had come from.

Remi gasped when she saw Aline’s mother under a table—the exact table she had left her at. Her daughter was nowhere to be found and she was grateful for it. Aline’s mother had been sliced into three large pieces and it was obvious from the clean cuts and her seared flesh that it had been Dominic.

“We have to find him,” Remi whispered, putting a hand to her mouth. The way Kace was trembling, he was more furious than she was.

“Hey,” Dominic called from across the street. He was standing on top of a merchant’s rooftop—a cabin with a low rectangular roof. Once Remi faced him in her full Sage garb, he crossed his arms and nodded his head as if he was impressed. “Now, now. This is definitely interesting. I didn’t expect to find a Sage here, though…I don’t recall having any information on you. Died before the Great Collision?”

“No, I was born here on Terra,” she said. “After.”

“Right,” he laughed. “That would make you special though. And I know you’re not that. That’s the reason I passed by you earlier. You and the Quietus weren’t worth my time. You’re not even from this Kingdom.”

“We’re not,” she shouted to him. “But that doesn’t mean you should underestimate us. I won’t allow you to hurt anyone else.”

“So you’re going to stop me?” he asked, pointing the tip of his eidolon towards her. “You have what it takes? I don’t know what you’ve faced so far, but I’m far beyond any of it. Are you ready to cut your journey short?”

“You sure you want this?” Kace asked, and Remi scoffed at the idea of running.

“Yeah I do,” she said, running toward the cabin he was on. She unsheathed her eidolon and with one spinning strike, she sliced through the pillars holding up the roof. Dominic leapt off and onto the dirt floor where Kace was waiting for him. Now in full Quietus form with scythes and all, he leapt towards Dominic, but the Cimmerian Sage easily sidestepped him and hit Kace on the back of the head with the hilt of his eidolon. Kace swiped back at him with his claws but Dominic parried his opponent’s arm away with the surface of his blade. Then he hit Kace on the forehead with the bottom of his hilt once more. Before Kace could respond, Dominic kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying into the restaurant he had eaten at earlier.

Remi reached Dominic and swung toward his legs but he parried the blow easily, forcing her blade to go to the right. Dominic stuck the tip of his eidolon just an inch before Remi’s throat and then changed the trajectory at the last moment, letting her stumble from her already thrown off momentum. She caught herself but Dominic kicked her in the back, sending her face first into the dirt.

“Hmph,” Dominic said as Kace suddenly connected with a punch to his face. Dominic rolled into the dirt and then stayed on his back. Kace shook his head as he approached the Sage’s fallen body, but a shout from above stopped him in his tracks. He looked up to see Tyuin’s guards leaping from the roofs.

“We’ll take it from here,” one of them said to Kace as the others ran over to Dominic. “Good work by the way.”

“I didn’t do a thing,” he growled. Remi came to his side as she wiped dirt from her face.

“You got him?” she asked.

“You tell me,” he asked, pointing to Dominic, his limp body now being lifted up by several guards. “I punched him in the face once. Do you think he would go down from that?”

“No way,” she said, turning to the guard by them. “We didn’t stop him. He’s faking it.”

“Doesn’t look like it to me,” he responded. “But what I do notice is that you broke a very important rule of Tyuin’s.” He turned to Kace. Though no one could see him past the slits in his steel helmet, she was sure it was a disapproving glare. “You turned into a full Quietus. What are we supposed to do now? If anyone has seen you, it will bring down morale, when we need it more than ever after this attack.”

“Sorry,” he said. “But it was either that or watch people die.”

“Well, as you said. You didn’t do anything, so I’m not sure it was worth the risk.”

“Wow,” Remi said as the guard walked off to join his comrades. “That was rude.”

“It’s okay,” Dominic said as his teeth began to lose their edge. His hair popped back into place. “I’m more concerned about what Dominic is doing.”

“Yeah, he’s not unconscious at all. He still feels dangerous.”

“The question is, if we’re going to stick around to see how this all plays out, or if we’re going to move on. We don’t have any allegiance to these people, remember?”

The guard who spoke to them earlier approached them in a jog.

“We’re going to be taking you to Tyuin,” he said. “You have no choice.

*              *              *

“Thank you, I’ll be fine,” Tyuin called out to the guard as he pushed Remi and Kace into the large room they had met with the King in earlier. Without even being asked, they took the same seats they had been in earlier. Tyuin sighed and clasped his hands together.

“I need to ask you two a couple of questions. Simply as a precaution.”

“Go ahead,” Remi said. “We have nothing to hide.”

“Do you know the Sage that killed some of my people?”

“Not at all,” she said truthfully. “I never heard of him.”

“How about you?” Tyuin asked, turning to Kace. He shook his head. “Next question then. Are you sure you don’t have any alliances with anyone?”

“Not at all,” Remi said. “I came from a small town near the edge of Cimmerian, but we weren’t affiliated with them. My people would go there on raids to get supplies, but that was as far as their relationship went. And even if they did have some kind of agreement with Cimmerian, I left that place for good. So that says a lot about me.”

“And you disobeyed my one order,” Tyuin said to Kace. “I asked you not to reveal your nature.”

“It was either that or watch your people die.”

“Yes, I figured as much,” he said. “But I wanted to hear your reasoning. I can’t be too careful from here on out. I’m not surprised that Cimmerian sent someone to our doorstep, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

“They might have been watching the Kingdom last night and saw that everyone was celebrating.”

“True,” he said, closing his eyes. “We lost eighteen people today. That’s not going to help with morale, but there is always a way to turn a bad situation around. I would like to enlist your help, and in exchange I will ensure that when you leave here, you will be given enough supplies to take you the rest of the way to Paragon.”

“What do you need?” Remi asked, feeling anxious. After her embarrassing fight with Dominic, she was hoping he wasn’t about to put his faith in her fighting prowess, because it was a mistake. Kace had been right. What was she thinking when she suggested they go look for the Sorcerers? She couldn’t even take down a rogue Sage.

“I want you to help me interrogate Dominic. With your eidolon out, you can tell if he’s lying or not.”

“Dominic confuses me in general,” she said. “I didn’t even know Cimmerian had Sages on their side. I thought they were all a part of Paragon.”

“Unfortunately, no. There are Sages fighting for both sides. And that’s another reason they aren’t seen as beacons of light amongst my people. I’ve personally had a lot of run ins with them, and that’s why Dominic’s arrival disturbed me today. Because I knew that you had Sage abilities, and the very next day, he appears. I was wondering if you two were working together but your answers have calmed my troubled mind.”

“But how do you know we’re not lying?” Kace asked.

“Trust me, I have my ways,” Tyuin said with a smile. He unclasped his hands and stood up from his seat. “Now…we should be getting to the dungeon so that we can talk to Dominic. He’ll have vital information for us, I’m sure.”

“That’s one thing that concerns me,” Kace said. “Dominic is faking. He didn’t get knocked out earlier, and it’s obvious he got captured on purpose. Having him in the dungeon…you have to assume that’s all part of his master plan.”

“I’m fully aware,” he said, ushering them to the door. “Don’t worry. Even now we have guards all over the Kingdom keeping a lookout.”

“It won’t be enough,” Remi said as they walked out the door and down the hall. “The people…they were running from Dominic, not standing up to them.”

“Cowardice is nothing new,” Tyuin replied as they reached the dungeon door. “But as long as the majority stands strong, we’ll be okay.”

“I hope so,” she said as Tyuin slid back the locks and opened the door. A flood of light engulfed the room and Remi winced once she saw Dominic chained to the wall. It was as if every inch of his body except his head was covered in steel. After his eyes adjusted, he smiled with his full set of teeth.

“Is it lunch time already?” he asked, then his smile dropped once he saw Tyuin. “The King himself? Wow. This is an honor. And I admire your work ethic. Not too proud to serve the prisoners, huh?”

“I have nothing kind to say to you,” Tyuin said, “especially considering who you work for. But you will answer our questions.” Tyuin nodded towards Remi and she pulled her eidolon from out of her hip. The dark purple Falchion radiated as she pointed it towards Dominic. She could hear his heartbeat and when it picked up in tempo. She could count his breaths and sense his emotions.

It was like reading someone’s body language but now her senses were enhanced. Since she had believed Sages and eidolons to be weak, she hardly played around with it unless it was to hit something, but once she gave it time to breathe and explore the world around her, she saw that it wanted to learn just as much as she did.

And why not? It was her soul after all. Once again she saw the importance of standing back and stopping to enjoy the moment. Her mind was still her greatest asset, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t learn anything from giving in to her emotions from time to time. She had taken a chance with Kace and that had worked out so far. What other feats could she accomplish by focusing on that balance between logic and emotion?

“That’s unnecessary,” Dominic laughed. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“Call it a precaution,” Tyuin said, clasping his hands together. He cleared his throat. “Why are you here? Did Cimmerian send you?”

“Yes,” he said truthfully. Remi nodded, confirming his intentions. “I’m here to lead an army through your borders. Allay has to fall. Once and for all.”

“So you have an army nearby?”

“Yep,” he said. “They should be attacking any moment now.”

“We have guards all around the wall,” Tyuin said. “How will they get in?”

“Underground,” Dominic replied, and Tyuin’s eyes went wide. “What? You didn’t think of that? Yeah, it takes a while, but you have to remember that we have our friends, the Langorans, at our disposal. They know a few things about digging intricate tunnels.”

“Excuse me,” Tyuin said as he left them all. “I have to tell the guards.”

“That was quick,” Dominic chuckled as Remi realized that they were all alone with the prisoner. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Why are you doing this?” Remi asked in disgust. “Killing people…it doesn’t make sense.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said low. “You didn’t grow up here.”

“And you did?”

“Long time ago. Can I ask you something? Do you know James? Or Catherine?”

“I’ve heard of Catherine, but I don’t know her.”

“I’m sure you’ll come across them at some point. Be careful of them. They’ll betray you when you’re at your weakest.”

“That’s not how Tyuin talks about Catherine.”

“Tyuin was friends with the Sages so it’s hard to trust what he says. You know, it’s not too late to come over here and free me. You could join Cimmerian, which would be pretty smart because we’re going to win anyways.”

“I don’t want to choose sides.”

“Yet, you’re working with Tyuin, who works for Paragon.”

“Just for now. I have no allegiance to him.”

“You say that now, but you’ll choose a side before long. You’ll have no choice. And you should really join Cimmerian. I see the potential within you. Why do you think I tried to leave you and the Quietus alone? It’s because I can see your strength.”

“You’re being deceptive,” Remi declared, her eidolon humming in response. “You’re not lying, but there’s something hidden behind your words.”