A tall, blonde man with blue eyes who looked to be in his late twenties walked down the road. He wore a set of steel armor that showed his standing as a commander of an army of knights, and had a war hammer strapped to his back. Everything about him from his strong and almost heroic appearance, to his polished armor that reflected the burning town around him gave away that he was a strong and well respected man. A man who was seen as a hero to the people that knew him, well, most of the people who knew him.

    The entire village around him was in flames. Knights were rushing through the streets and clashing swords with what seemed to be an army of bandits. It was easy to tell who was on which side, the knights were fully armored and had top notch equipment. And the bandits were dirty, smelly, wore torn up clothing and rags, and were fighting with weapons that varied in quality. As the two sides clashed and fought each other civilians were screaming and running from both the flames and the bandits. Seth was remaining completely calm and collected, despite being in the middle of a battlefield, his view shifted from one place to another. Glancing at the numerous bodies of civilians who were not lucky enough to escape, glancing at his groups of knights as they clashed with the bandits, searching for anyone who needed help, any knights who needed to be lead, or any bandits who weren't being dealt with already.

    On a nearby rooftop, a second man watched over the battlefield from above. The second man, known as Kaolin, was just as tall as the first and appeared around the same age, but they were vastly different. He wore a dirty and torn up black hooded cloak that had several old stains of blood on it. Kaolin kept his face and body hidden behind the cloak but if one would look closely enough the man under the cloak would appear to be very thin and frail, as if he hadn't eaten in months. He wasn't in anywhere near good shape, he was just as battered and worn as his equipment and looked like he had recently been on the losing side of several fights. This man looked very much like a thief or one of the bandits attacking the town.

    Kaolin was wearing a dented and worn metal gauntlet on his left hand. The metal gauntlet had a long blade sticking out of the side of it, starting at his elbow then running up the side of his arm and extending one foot past his fingertips. He also held a bow in that same hand. His other hand that didn't have a gauntlet was pulling back an arrow on the bow, taking careful aim at his target below. After a moment's pause Kaolin fired the arrow, piercing a bandit right through the back of the head and killing them instantly. He then switched the hand that was carrying the bow, so his gauntlet hand would be free, and jumped down from the roof. As he fell he landed on another bandit, stabbing the blade attached to his gauntlet through the back of the bandit's neck. Killing him without the bandit even knowing what hit him.

    Although, the brief victory over the bandits didn't last long before three more showed up. Seeing them Kaolin strapped his bow onto his back, and held his bladed gauntlet in a defensive stance. One bandit charged him, swinging it's sword for Kaolin's chest. But Kaolin caught the sword's blade with his gauntlet and spat a fireball at the attacking bandit. Forcing him to abandon his sword and jump back. Although Kaolin couldn't attack before the next bandit swung a mace at his head from the side, which Kaolin quickly blocked with the side of his gauntlet. Creating another dent in the already battered, dented and damaged gauntlet. The three bandits continued their assault on the man, rapidly attacking one after the other, not giving Kaolin a chance to swing back and forcing him t stay on the defense. They were all so caught up in their fight, they didn't notice that they were being watched.

    As Seth walked down the road he spotted the cloaked man fighting with three bandits. The cloaked man looked like a thief, but Seth was a noble knight, it was his job to stop the bandits who were burning the town. Even if it meant saving a thief in the process, he had priorities and could always just arrest the thief later. He grabbed his war hammer and started cautiously walking towards the four, unsure if the cloaked man would attack him or not. And... That cloaked man just spat fire, was he the one who had lit the town on fire? Maybe he was with the bandits and they turned on him? Seth would need to find out.

    After blocking the mace Kaolin still didn't get a chance to attack before the third bandit took a stab at him from behind with a dagger. Thinking fast Kaolin rolled forwards to evade the dagger, but as he rolled his hood came off. Revealing his messy black hair, brown eyes, and a face that was identical to Seth's. It was only for a brief moment before Kaolin quickly waved his hands upwards, making a wall of flames jump out of the ground to hide him from sight as he fumbled to pull his hood back up. Once his hood was on again he dispersed the wall of flames with a wave of his hand.

    Although, that brief moment was long enough for Seth to see the cloaked man's face. The face of his twin brother. His eyes widened, 'Kaolin? He's alive??' He thought, frozen for a moment in shock as he watched the bandits continue their assault on Kaolin. Attacking too quickly for Kaolin to get a chance to swing back. Seth gripped his hammer tighter and started running at the four people, seeing a much more urgent need to join the fight. Now that he knew that wasn't some thief, it was his brother, he had to get in there and help.

    Everything slowly started fading out to white. As the young boy dreaming all of this was awoken by a bright light shining in his face. The blonde boy squinted and sat up, thinking back on his dream. He didn't think much of it, to him it was just a cool dream where he had become a hero. He didn't know it was a brief glimpse at the future, and he didn't know the dark secrets behind his dream. Nothing was as it seemed.

 

– Next chapter: Chapter 1, Humble beginnings. A brief look into the brothers' childhood and their late teenaged years.

2: Chapter One. Humble Beginnings.

Author's note: I apologize, this chapter's a little slow.

--

    It was early in the morning and the sun was rising lighting up a small, quiet, medieval-like village. The village was up in the mountains, distant from it's neighboring villages and towns. The towns people where just waking up starting to go out to go about their daily business. The morning sunlight crept into the room of a young boy, shining in his eyes and waking him from his sleep.

    The young, ten year old boy was Seth, a small boy with short blonde hair. He sleepily opened his eyes and looked at the light coming through his window for a moment, giving the sunlight a glare as if it would make it go away. After a moment he sat up and stretched, then rubbed the sleep out of his blue eyes before he got up and got out of bed. Once he had gotten changed into his red robes he walked downstairs to find his parents.

    He reached the bottom of the stairs his parents where nowhere to be seen, but he heard some noise in the kitchen so he headed there expecting to find his parents. Instead he found his twin brother, Kaolin, who looked exactly like he did except with brown eyes and black hair. Kaolin was also wearing black robes instead of Seth's red ones. The boy with short black hair in the same messy style as his twin was standing near a counter, trying to reach the pots and pans up on the shelf but being just a little too short to reach. “Hey, Lyn. What are you doing? And where's mother and father?” Seth asked his brother.

    Kaolin turned around to look at his twin and pouted. “You know I hate that nickname.” He muttered and crossed his arms in front if his chest.

    Seth laughed softly, “Exactly why I use it.” He said as he walked over to his brother. “Ya know I'm just playing.” He said as he rubbed his brother's head playfully.

    Kaolin chuckled softly and fixed his hair. “I know.” He murmured. “Mom and dad had to go out to do a job late last night. I'm trying to make breakfast for when they come back. But with no one to help me up onto the counter I can't reach. And the chairs are too heavy.” The small child said. Making a few gestures as he spoke to show that he was too short to reach anything important.

    Seth smirked. “Let me help, we can do it together. I'm better with magic, so I'll levitate a rock for you to stand on. And you're better at cooking, so you can do the cooking and such.” He suggested. He knew his brother, despite being so young, took a liking to cooking and actually knew how to cook simple things on his own.

    Kaolin smiled and nodded “Yeah! Thanks” He said cheerfully. “We make a great team”

    Seth smiled and nodded, “We're twins, of course we make a great team” He said. He then quickly went outside and found a small, light, and flat stone that was big enough for his brother to stand on. He looked around to make sure nobody could see him, he didn't want anyone to see him using magic. Once he was sure he was clear he made the stone levitate with a quick wave of his hand and brought it back into the kitchen.

    Kaolin grinned and climbed onto the rock once Seth came back with it. “When we're older we'll become great mages, and we'll protect our village together. We'll be unstoppable nothing will get past both of us.” He said enthusiastically as he happily gathered the things he needed and began making breakfast for himself and his family. Smiling a little as his mind wandered to the idea of them being heroes saving the world from the bad guys together. A rather unrealistic expectation even with their magic.

    Seth laughed softly, “Yeah, we will. Our village has too few guards. But when we're older all they'll need is us to protect the village. Nobody will ever be able to defeat us while we're together.” He replied with a grin. He bit his lip and tensed a little as Kaolin climbed on top of the stone, it was hard for him to levitate heavy things. But he kept the stone levitating and moved it around the kitchen to help his brother reach everything he needed to. The two continued their cheerful and high spirited conversation while they made breakfast and set the table.

    Once they were finished they rushed t quickly hide the stone they where using, and managed to hide it and get back into the kitchen just in time for their parents to get home. They had to hide their use of magic, even from their parents, being a mage was forbidden and punishable by death. There was no tolerance for those born with the ability to use magic. The twins high-fived each other, glad that they made it in time, and went to eat breakfast with their parents who where very thankful and praising for their work. Another great start to a good day.

--

    Later that day, after the two had finished breakfast they went out to help out the other villagers with anything they needed help with. The siblings took on a lot of work helping everyone in the village out, despite being only ten. There wasn't a lot they could do but their parents thought it was a good idea for them to learn many different trades and skills this way and they both loved helping the villagers out. After helping everyone they could, the two of them would meet up with an elderly man and the three would go far out into the mountains where the villagers wouldn't find them. That was their usual everyday schedule.

    The old man was the only other mage in the village, mages where fairly rare to find. Most of the world saw mages as 'demons' and because of that the mages where normally killed, or at least pushed away. They where forced into hiding. But the old man knew the two boys where mages, he could sense it. So he took it upon himself to train them in the use of magic. The old man lead them through the training exercises, which where rather boring and monotonous. Simply lifting, carrying, and throwing rocks around with magic. Creating and controlling flames. Nothing overly interesting, until they got to sparring.

    Once they got to that, he waved his hand through the air, and two small, almost invisible bubbles surrounded the two children. The old man then handed them both a wooden sword and the kids stood about ten feet apart and bowed to each other. “Alright, begin. The best two out of three rounds wins.” He said. Giving them the instructions to start sparring, he would sit back and watch to make sure they didn't get hurt.

    Kaolin quickly began his assault by raising his hand, shakily levitating a watermelon sized stone and then pushing his hand forward, throwing the stone at Seth; Who easily dodged the stone. “Missed me Lyn!~” Seth called out playfully.

    Kaolin frowned “Quit calling me that, you know I hate that nickname!” He protested, magically throwing another stone at Seth and completely missing; Seth didn't even need to dodge as the stone flew off and hit a cliff in the distance. They where only kids after all, they didn't have great aim.

    “Oh! Nice shot Lyn. Ya hit that cliff real good, I bet that cliff will never mess with you again!” Seth teased, smirking a bit and not making an attempt to attack.

    “Knock it off!” Kaolin almost growled back, he started throwing many fist sized fireballs at Seth, most of which fizzled out before even getting halfway there, several missed, and Seth dodged the few that came for him.

    “Oh! You hit that rock over there! That was my one true weakness!” Seth cried out, purposely acting very badly as he dropped to his knees, “The pain! I can't take it!” He cried out, trying hard not to laugh as he limply fell over. “Lyn, how could you?”

    Kaolin puffed out his cheeks angrily. The child was quite annoyed that his brother wouldn't take the match seriously, or even use his proper name. He raised his wooden sword and charged head on at the blonde boy that was sprawled out on the ground, preparing to end the fight. There was no way he would miss with his sword.

    But right as Kaolin got near Seth, in a snap Seth suddenly jumped off the ground and thrust his sword into Kaolin's stomach, he moved so quickly Kaolin didn't have time to react and dodge. It was a wooden sword, so no harm was done aside from Kaolin being knocked back onto his butt. “Ha! Gotcha Lyn.” Seth laughed playfully.

    Kaolin glared and muttered something under his breath as the two of them got back into starting positions again, both getting into a defensive stance. “Will you stop calling me that and use my real name?” He protested, getting a little angry.

    “Kaolin.” The elderly man laughed softly as the young boy's naivety. “Seth is a natural strategist. He's teasing you like that to get you angry and make you drop your guard. Like you did last time. Don't let it get to you, anger and frustration will make you preform badly at everything.” He said softly. “Now start.”

    “Ooh... That's...” Kaolin murured. The young boy looking thoughtful for a moment as he worked out what had happened in his mind. Trying to learn from his twin. This was nothing new, Seth was the gifted one who was better at almost everything. Kaolin had always been just his brother's shadow, always following his brother around but never being as good as him.

    “Aww come on! It's no fun when you tell him.” Seth complained and raised his sword. “Come on Lyn, come at me again. You can't win I'm just gonna kick your butt, even without my trick.” He stated. Although he frowned when he saw Kaolin's eyes start to water. “Lyn? What's wrong?” He asked worriedly.

    Kaolin sniffled “Y-You're teasing me again... And calling me names... And... I asked you to stop... And... And...” The young boy said quietly before he sniffled again, eyes watering and looking like he was about to cry.

    “Kaolin...” Seth said softly, as he lowered his sword and walked over to his brother. Comfortingly placing a hand on his shoulder. “I'm sorry. I'm only playing around. Really. I didn't mean to hurt you.” He said softly.

    “R-Really?” Kaolin sniffled, wiping some tears from his eyes.

    “Yes really, I could never intentionally hurt my brother.” Seth said, patting his shoulder comfortingly.

    Kaolin grinned widely as he took his sword and quickly smacked his brother in the side with it, then quickly stepped back. The young boy started dancing around, while singing “I got you~ I got you~” And laughing playfully.

    “Hey!” Seth laughed, “No fair using my own trick against me.” He stated playfully.

    Even the old man was laughing a bit at the kids' fun. “Everything's fair in battle. Point for Kaolin.” He said, “Last round is the tiebreaker.”

    “Get ready Lin! You're going down!” Seth called out playfully as he charged at his brother, slashing at his brother's side. Although Kaolin quickly blocked with his own sword and the two jumped back. They circled each other for a moment, both twins grinning and still laughing lightly. After moving in almost a full circle the two of them both ran at each other to attack, clashing swords again. Although Kaolin didn't stop running when their swords clashed and he plowed straight into Seth, knocking them both to the ground with Kaolin landing on top of Seth.

    Kaolin raised his sword, ready to strike his brother for the win. Although Seth thought quickly and dropped his own sword, then started tickling his brother's ribs. Causing Kaolin to burst out laughing and drop his sword as well. “St-St-Stop” Kaolin laughed.

    Seth took advantage of the moment and pushed Kaolin off himself. Then quickly got up and threw a fireball down at his brother. The fireball was blocked by the nearly invisible bubble the old man had put around Kaolin. But it was Seth's win. “Got ya again.” Seth laughed, he stuck out his tongue and held out a hand to help his brother up. He won but he was still a good sport about it, there was no hard feelings between either of them.

    The two of them where always like this, they where very close to each other, never leaving each others side. They trained together in combat and secretly in magic skills too, following their dream of becoming knights and guards to protect their village. During their free time, they devoted everything they had to helping out the villagers in any way possible. Learning the outlines to many different trades. Not becoming particularly good at any specifically, but learning them. They lived like this for seven more years.

–

    Seven years down the line. The twins where now both seventeen but kept the same hair and clothing styles they had as children, Seth still wearing red robes while Kaolin still wore black robes, and they both had their messy blonde and black hair. The twins where up on a mountain, collecting firewood for a few villagers who where too sick at the time to get the wood for themselves. Having just finished collecting the logs, they where taking a break. Just sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the village. “Our training's going great, isn't it? I already feel like I could take on an army.” Seth said.

    Kaolin smiled a bit and nodded, “Yeah, I don't know about taking on an army but we'll be able to protect everyone in no time. That is, if we can't do so already. I hope to learn dark magic next, it seems fitting for me.” He said.

    “Ya know, the mages and books all say dark magic is bad, it's the magic used by real demons. That doesn't sound safe to use, messing with demonic stuff is never a good idea. I'm hoping to learn healing magic, not just for the body but mind too. So I can heal the wounded, ill, and even the mentally ill.” Seth said softly, smiling a bit as he thought about it.

    “Healing won't help us much in combat though. But I guess that's good too.” Kaolin said. “And dark magic isn't bad, I don't get why everyone thinks that just because demons use it. It's no different from any other magic. I've already learned a little” He stated.

    Seth shrugged “That's what the books say, demons are summoned with by the use of dark magic and they use dark magic themselves. The books haven't been wrong yet.” He said, but dropped the issue. He could never see his brother turning evil just because of a type of magic. “Makes it really difficult that we must hide our magic from the villagers though. I just don't get why they reject those of us gifted with magic...” He sighed. Most of the world frowned upon mages and there was heavy prejudice against them. The twins where afraid of even letting their parents know about it, in fear of rejection or worse. But that was why they where secretly trained by the only other mage in town, and everything had been going well. The old man who taught them magic who had passed away two years ago though, leaving them to train themselves, mostly from books.

    Kaolin shook his head at the mention of the villagers. “Yeah, but don't worry. Once we finish training and start protecting them, and after everything we've been doing for them all these years, surely we can change them to accept us as mages. I mean, we've devoted our entire lives to them, they have to accept our use of magic when they find out. Who in their right mind wouldn't?”

    Seth sighed softly and nodded. “You're right, they'd have to be insane to reject us after everything we've done for them. It'll never happen.” He said, smiling a little more. Although, he had his doubts, people often were dead-set in their beliefs and unwilling to change.

    Kaolin smiled, “Exactly, we have nothing to worry about.” He chuckled. But then he froze and his eyes widened as he saw something on the horizon. “S-Seth, what's that!” He said quickly, stammering a little in shock and squinting his eyes to try and see out into the distance. He pointed at a growing mass of what looked like people marching towards the village.

    Seth stood up as quickly as he could, also seeing it. He squinted his eyes, to try to see what it was. For a moment his eyes glowed green as he enhanced his vision using Aether magic, before his eyes turned back to their normal blue color. “Bandits! And a lot of them. We need to get to the village, now!” He said hurriedly. Raising his hand he made a stone platform lift out of the ground. “Come on!” He said as he jumped onto the levitating stone platform. Kaolin jumped on with him before the platform sped down the cliff and back to the village.

    The two reached the village in time. Once they got there Kaolin made his own stone platform and jumped onto it. Just like his twins, his stone platform levitated just inches off the ground but was shaky and not as stable as his brothers. Once he had his own platform the two of them sped off in different directions, shouting warnings to all the villagers and telling everyone to gather in the center of the village. They knew using magic in town was bad, but they had to spread the word, fast, and they couldn't move fast enough on foot.

    Once they had spread the word Kaolin and Seth rejoined each other in the center of the village. Watching as all the villagers gathered with a mix of confused, scared, and angry expressions on their faces. When it seemed everyone was gathered, Kaolin stepped up to speak. With a wave of his hand he made a tall stone platform rise from the ground under him and Seth, so everyone could see and hear them.“Everyone, there is a large group of bandits, who seem to have banded together approaching the city. We don't know why there's so many of them together, and we don't know why they're attacking us. We have no time to evacuate everyone, but they are just bandits. Bandits don't have much real fighting skill, most of them are no better then civilians. Everyone with even a little combat skill, grab a weapon from the blacksmith and help us drive them back. If we all work together we can easily stop them.” He called out to everyone, and watched as not a single person moved. The villagers where giving the two of them cold looks. “Come on guys, me and Seth can't take this many of them alone.” But still not a single person moved.

    Seth stepped up to speak instead. “Everyone just grab a weapon and stand behind us on the battlefield. Nobody has to fight, if me and Kaolin fight alone we can put a good dent in their ranks. If they see what just two of us can do, and then see the entire village ready to fight behind us, they will retreat! Nobody will have to fight except me and Kaolin.” He said. But again nobody moved, some people looked like they were considering it, most were looking at the people around them to see what everyone else was doing, nobody wanted to be the first to help. Everyone in the village had just seen that they where mages when they came in on floating platforms, and everyone either looked down on the people who used magic, or where too afraid to speak up against the people who hated mages since they were the majority.

    One villager stepped forwards. “You two are aspiring to be the village guards, are you not? You two go hold them off while we all evacuate. That's the job you're trying to get into, go start it now.” The man said. Followed by the agreement of several of the other villagers he had been standing next to, some agreeing nods from others, and a lot of unsure looks from the crowd.

    Seth was appalled by this idea, when his plan would've worked much better. They could have at least sent the other village knights to help. “You all can't be serious. We'll die out there! There's no way the two of us can do this alone. My plan will get us all out alive and safely!” He countered.

    “No, you two are village guards, starting right now, that was your dreams as kids right? Now go do your jobs.” The villager that spoke up before stated. “Everyone else, evacuate.” The man called out as the villagers hesitated for a moment, but then quickly dispersed and went to gather their things and leave the village. Even the knights who where stationed as the guards before today, turned and left. Leaving the twins to fight the hopeless battle alone.

    Seth was just dumbstruck by the villager's demands, he didn't expect to be greeted with open arms when the village fond out that they were mages, but being sent on a suicide mission? Kaolin placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, “Come on, we need to get out there and hold them off.” He said quietly, smiling weakly as he spoke. “We're unbeatable as a team, remember? Nothing can stop us while we're working together... Right?” He said, trying to lighten the mood. But it was clear in his tone he knew how grim the situation ahead of them was.

    Seth took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment to calm his mind. “You're right, nothing can stop us as long as we're a team.” He said, then looked at the leaving villagers. “But mark my words. If anything happens to my brother out there. You all will regret it!” He shouted angrily at them. Before he made another stone platform. “Come on, we'll get our weapons and head out immediately.” He stated firmly.

    Kaolin looked at his brother when Seth threatened the villagers. “Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Make sure you stay safe, it would kill me if you got hurt out there.” He said quietly and stepped onto Seth's stone platform.

    Seth bit his lip as he stepped onto the platform, rubbing his brother's head and smiling weakly. “Stop being so pessimistic Lyn. We're unstoppable as a team, we'll both be perfectly fine.” He said simply, hoping his words where true. The stone platform took off, heading to their home to grab their weapons, then off to the battlefield. Kaolin laughing softly and playfully shouting “Will you stop calling me that!” Could be heard as they left. Cheering up the twins for a brief moment before the coming battle.

–

–

– Next chapter: Breaking Spirit

3: Chapter Two: Breaking Spirit

    Seth and Kaolin stood on their levitating stone platform as the platform sped away from the village and charged straight at the approaching bandits. They were outnumbered there was easily a hundred bandits out there, but that didn't stop them from pushing the attack. Seth stood on the front half of the platform with a war hammer in one hand, the head of the hammer being almost the size of his own head, and a sai in his other hand. The three pronged dagger-like weapon wasn't sharp except for the very tip of the longer middle prong. It was a defensive weapon, meant for catching, countering, and breaking other people's weapons. A second sai was also attached to his belt.

    Kaolin was right behind his twin. He was wearing a pair of bladed gauntlets, a weapon he had forged himself while helping out the blacksmith in his teenaged years. They where metal gauntlets that protected his hands and forearms. But they each had a long blade attached to the sides of them, the blade starting at his elbow and going down his forearm, stopping one foot past the tips of his fingers. Allowing him to wield two blades and keep his hands free at the same time. He also had a bow and arrows on his back, he didn't think the bow and arrows would be of any use in this battle. But he had them on him just in case.

    “Get ready.” Seth said as they approached the bandit army.

    “Ready.” Kaolin replied, then took a deep breath to try and relax. As their levitating stone platform neared the bandits Seth started making the platform circle around the group of bandits, staying just out of their reach. As Seth circled them around the bandits, Kaolin bombarded the bandits with fireballs the size of his fists, taking down many bandits who just couldn't move out of the way in time. But it was hardly denting their numbers.

    After taking many hits from the fireballs, the bandits retaliated by having their bowmen step up and fire a volley of arrows at the twins. There was too many arrows for them to dodge them all so both twins jumped off their platform, they knew it's use was only good for the initial attack anyways. They let the platform fly off into the crowd and knock over some of the bandits while Seth raised his hands and made a stone dome rise out of the ground around him and his twin to protect them from the incoming arrows. The two of them silently stood in the dome, listening to the hail of arrows hitting and breaking on the stone walls around them. Kaolin took a deep breath as he waited and tried to calm his nerves, they were both tense and afraid of the outcome of this fight, they knew the odds were overwhelmingly against them. Although Seth didn't show it as much as Kaolin did, Seth seemed calm and confident on the outside. He didn't want to worry his brother by letting his real feelings about this fight show. They may have been twins, but Seth had adopted the 'protective older brother' role.

    Once the arrows stopped falling Seth made the dome break into many small and sharp shards of stone, and with a wave of his hand they were all fired at the crowd of bandits. As soon as the dome was gone Kaolin stepped forwards, pushing both of his hands forward and firing streams of flames out of his palms at the bandits in front of them. Several bandits where impaled by the stone shards, but most of them dodged or blocked with shields. And a few more where burnt by the flames but most dodged that too. The bandits began their assault. The ones in front charged at the twins, holding their shields up to repel incoming attacks while they charged. While the rest of the bandits moved in cautiously around the sides, surrounding the twins.

            Seth stomped the ground, making a stone wall jump up between the twins and the charging bandits, then pushed his hands forwards and sent the wall sliding across the ground at the bandits to push them back. While Kaolin continued throwing barrages of fist sized fireballs at the sea of bandits surrounding them, standing almost back to back with his brother. The bandits quickly became used to the fireballs and started blocking nearly all of them, so Kaolin then switched to throwing large stones the size of his torso at them with magic. He made the stones spring out of the ground with an upwards wave of his hand, then threw them at the bandits as he pushed his hand forwards. The stones hit and knocked over bandits, although Kaolin couldn't do much more then that with earth magic. He was skilled in fire and dark magic, not so much earth. It was Seth who was skilled with earth and aether magic.

            The bandits' numbers where thinning slightly, but there was still many of them there. They started moving in, closing in the circle around the twins they where surrounding and started attacking from all directions. The mages could easily cover an attack from one side each, but they couldn't keep the bandits back when they attacked from all four directions at once.

            Several bandits ran straight at Seth, one ran up to him and swung it's sword for Seth's head. But Seth blocked with his sai, catching and trapping the sword between the three prongs of his sai while he took his war hammer and slammed it into the side of the bandit's head. Killing the bandit and knocking him away. A second bandit slashed an axe horizontally at Seth's head from the side as Seth was dealing with the first. Seth gracefully flowed from one movement to the next, as soon as his hammer had hit the first bandit he crouched to evade the blow of the second one, then leaned in to elbow that bandit in the stomach as he crouched. On contact with the bandit's stomach a blast of flames fired out of Seth's elbow, burning clean through the bandit. Continuing in one swift, fluent, and elegant movement, after his elbow hit the bandit he spun around behind the bandit to evade another attack by a mace, staying crouched as he slammed his hammer into the knee of a fourth bandit with a bone-snapping crack. Then quickly hit the ground with his hand that was holding his sai, making several stone spikes jump out of the ground and impale the bandits near him.

           Kaolin watched for a brief moment as his brother took care of the bandits attacking him, he envied his brother's skills a little, before turning his attention to defending himself from his own attackers. The closest bandit to him slashed a sword for his chest. But the clashing and scraping of metal was heard as Kaolin grabbed the sword's blade in his metal gauntlet with one hand. Stepping forward and stabbing the bandit's chest with the blade attached to his other arm. He took the dead bandit's sword from him, still holding the blade, and threw it at one of the bandits that was charging at him. He had never been good at sword throwing though, and hit the bandit square in the head with the hilt of the sword instead of the blade. The bandit stumbled back from the hit, but was otherwise unfazed. Kaolin would've attacked him, but didn't get the chance before another bandit attacked from the side, bringing a heavy axe down at his head. Kaolin spun around, reaching up and catching the handle of the axe with both hands, struggling to hold it back. He flicked his wrist, using his dark magic to make several shadow-like spikes launch out of his shadow and stab the axeman through the heart, then shoved the now dead axeman off himself and to the ground.

           Kaolin clearly wasn't nearly as skilled at fighting as his twin, he didn't move as fluidly or gracefully. He was still a good fighter, but even the best fighters didn't stand much of a chance when they where this badly outnumbered. Another bandit stepped in and tried to bash Kaolin with his shield. Having nothing that could block a shield Kaolin was hit and stumbled back, bumping into his brother as yet another bandit stepped in and slashed a sword for Kaolin's throat. Kaolin barely regained his balance in time to grab the blade with both hands right before it cut his throat, being very thankful for having his metal gauntlets. He held the blade back and like a dragon spat a stream of flames at the bandit holding it, forcing him to abandon his sword and jump back. Kaolin threw the sword at the nearest bandit, again screwing up the throw and hitting the bandit's knee with the flat side of the blade, but it knocked the bandit over at least. Kaolin quickly made a wide sweeping gesture with his arms, causing a dome of flames to appear around him and his brother, then expanding the dome to force the bandits to back off and give them space. All the bandits near them quickly backed off to avoid getting burnt.

           Safe inside the dome, for the moment at least, Kaolin looked around at the sea of bandits surrounding them, they still hadn't even made a dent in their numbers. He turned to his brother, “Not even a dent in their numbers... We're not making it out of this... Are we?” Kaolin asked in a quiet and grim tone, taking a moment's break while the dome of flames kept the bandits back. He knew if either of them took one hit, it was over. One hit, one mistake, that was all it would take for them both to go down. They where only human, it was only a matter of time before they slipped up, and they were still outnumbered at least fifty to one.

           Seth attached his sai to his belt. Knowing they where safe for the moment.“Don't be so pessimistic Lyn” He said softly.

           Kaolin turned around to look at his twin and pouted. “You know I hate that nickname. We're gonna die, so could ya at least use my full name in our last few minutes alive?” He muttered bitterly.

           Seth laughed softly, “Exactly why I use it. We're not gonna die.” He said as he walked closer to his brother. “Ya know I always mean well.” He said, rubbing his brother's head playfully.

           Kaolin couldn't help but to chuckle lightly when his brother messed up his hair. He fixed his hair before looking back at Seth “I know you mean well.” He said quietly. Smiling weakly. He knew his brother was trying to lighten the grim mood, like they used to do as children. And it was working, he felt the mood lighten, if only for a moment. “But do we really even stand a chance? Honestly? I don't think we do. Its only a matter of time before we slip up, and then its over. We can't seriously take all these guys down without making a single mistake. That's impossible.”

           “We're unstoppable as a team, remember? We can't lose on our very first guard duty. Even if they did send us out here to die, we'll make it and get back to town with a heroic story of how we saved them all.” Seth said as he grabbed his sai again. Seeing the bandits getting their bows ready to fire through the dome of flames.

           Kaolin also saw the incoming attack and dispersed the dome of flames, knowing that lighting the arrows on fire wouldn't really help much. As the volley of arrows was fired at them Seth quickly created another stone dome around the twins to block the arrows, then once again broke the dome apart and threw the pieces back at the bandits once the arrows stopped falling. “Ya see? We got this, easily, they can't touch us.” Seth said, grinning a bit as he held up his hand for a high-five.

           Kaolin grinned back, feeling a boost in moral and spirits. “Yeah, we got this.” He said, high-fiving his brother back as they both turned to the quickly approaching bandits, standing back to back again.

           One bandit charged at the duo. Swinging a sword at Seth. Kaolin spun around in front of Seth, catching the sword in his gauntlets and then ducking as Seth bashed the bandit in the ribs with his hammer. Breaking his ribs and knocking him away. Another bandit threw an axe at Kaolin but Seth waved his hand and a small stone sprang out of the ground and intercepted the axe, allowing Kaolin to lunge forwards from his crouched position and stab the bandit in the stomach with the blades attached to his gauntlets. Kaolin rolled backwards to dodge a volley of arrows, while Seth waved his hand and had a volley of sharp stone needles fire out of the ground at the archers. Some archers dodged, some where stabbed and a few where killed.

           The twins moved in perfect unison, their movements perfectly flowing together without saying a word to each other. The space around the twins was quickly filling with corpses as the sounds of clashing and scraping of metal, stones moving, and flames exploding continued to fill the battlefield. The bandits numbers where thinning out, little by little, but there was still many more standing. Two more bandits attacked Kaolin; Kaolin quickly grabbed both of their swords, one in each hand, his gauntlets preventing the swords from cutting him. But before he could do anything a third stepped in and took a stab at Kaolin's back. A shadow-like hand quickly sprang out of Kaolin's shadow and caught the bandit's sword, stopping it from striking him, but Kaolin was pinned down and unable to move while he was holding back all three of them.

           But he had nothing to worry about as his brother was there to back him up, they always had each others backs. Seth stomped his foot and three stone pillars jumped out of the ground, jabbing the three bandits in the stomach and shoving them back. That gave Kaolin a chance to quickly shoot three fireballs at them to finish them off.

           Although, while Seth was doing that, another bandit came up beside him. Slashing his sword for Seth's neck. Seth acted fast and caught the sword between the three prongs of his sai, but this bandit was a little more experienced then the others. Most of the lesser experienced bandits had been killed off. The bandit punched Seth in the face with his free hand, knocking Seth to the ground. Then stabbed his sword down at Seth.

           Seth slapped the ground, making a small stone dome around himself to protect himself from the blow. But while his vision was cut off by the dome another volley of arrows was fired at Kaolin. Kaolin wasn't quite as skilled in earth magic as Seth was, he couldn't make a stone dome fast enough, leaving him with no way to block the incoming arrows. So instead he dove to the side to dodge, shouting in pain as one of the many arrows hit his leg, causing him to stumble when he landed.

           The pain from his injury stunned him for a moment as he stumbled. Giving another bandit enough time to bash him across the face with a metal shield, causing Kaolin to yelp in pain again and stumble back. They were severely outnumbered, there was so many attackers that getting hit once would leave them open to countless more attacks. Kaolin didn't have time to recover from the hit, a split second after he was hit and sent stumbling back another sword slashed him across his back and he was promptly kicked to the ground.

           “Lyn!” Seth shouted in a panic as he came out of his dome only to see his brother take several hits. He quickly hurled his war hammer at the bandit that was about to stab and finish off Kaolin. Hitting the bandit square in the head and knocking him out. Ignoring the bandits next to himself he ran to his brother's side, using his sai to quickly block a second bandit from attacking Kaolin. With a flick of his wrist the ground under where his hammer landed sprang up and launched his hammer back to Seth, who skillfully caught it as it flew past.

           Kaolin started shakily getting back up, having a hard time moving with his injuries but refusing to leave his brother fighting alone. Seth spat fire at the bandit who's sword he was blocking, turning to quickly bash the sword of another attacking bandit with his hammer; sending the bandit's sword flying away. Before blocking a third attacker with his sai and kicking the attacker in the stomach, a burst of flames blasted out of his foot and through the bandit on contact. Making a stone wall block yet another attack from behind, although with each attack he was getting worn down and was becoming slower.

           With the constant attacks, coming one after another after another, each one was coming closer and closer to hitting him. So when yet another bandit stepped in and took a slash at him, Seth was unable to block in time and was slashed across the chest. Causing him to shout in pain and stumble back, right into another bandit who immediately stabbed him with two daggers, once in the shoulder and once in the center of his back. The bandit then threw the stunned blonde boy to the ground, where another bandit plunged their sword down into Seth's stomach. Seth's body lurched forwards for a moment when stabbed, then limply fell back to the ground.

           “Seth!” Kaolin nearly screamed, praying his brother was alright, even though he clearly wasn't. The bandits turned on the wounded black haired boy, he was wounded, vastly outnumbered and surrounded; And now he was also alone. There was an eerie pause as it seemed both sides of this fight knew what would happen next. The bandits had won the second they landed that first solid hit, any further fighting was just a fruitless attempt to delay the inevitable.

           Kaolin wildly slashed his arms through the air, sending waves of flames through the air at the bandits in an attempt to take down as many as he could. Like a cornered animal he was lashing out recklessly and wildly, not even thinking about his strikes just trying to inflict as much damage as possible as he threw flames everywhere.

           It managed to kill off a few bandits and kept the rest at bay, but not for long. The bandits fired two more arrows, Kaolin managed to stumble out of the way of one but he yelped in pain as the other hit his shoulder. With the wounds he already had the hit was enough to knock him over, and he hit the ground on his back with a loud thud. He watched the bandits close in on him, knowing it was over, but refusing to give in. He was going to fight it out until the very end. He spat a fireball at the closest bandit, catching him off guard and badly burning him. Lashing out and throwing more fire at everyone who stepped near where he was laying on the ground. Until one bandit finally made it past the flames and stabbed his sword through Kaolin's stomach. And everything went black.

           Once the two boys where down, the bandits turned and resumed marching on the village as if nothing had happened. While the fight felt like it lasted forever, it had only actually lasted a few minutes. Most of the villagers didn't have time to escape.

           The bandits raided, looted the village. Once they took everything they could grab, they lit everything on fire. Anyone who had the misfortune of getting in their way was killed. Once they where through with the village they left and moved on.

–

–

Next chapter: The 'Demons' Return
(If you like the story, leave your thoughts/criticism/feelings in the comments. It helps motivate me to keep writing and lets me know people are actually reading it.)

4: Chapter Three. The 'Demons' Return

 Chapter Three. The 'Demons' Return

 

         Seth opened his eyes. By a miracle his injuries hadn't hit anything vital so as long as he didn't bleed to death he would live. He shakily sat up, alive but just barely, and as his vision came into focus he could see black smoke rising from the village in the distance. “No...” He said breathlessly, but the village was meaningless to him right now, there was something far more important he needed to take care of first. He struggled onto his knees, wincing in pain at every slight movement he made as he looked around the piles of bodies. He finally spotted what he was looking for, he was both glad he found it and at the same time his stomach twisted and he felt sick at the sight. He crawled over to the body as quickly as he could, gritting his teeth and pushing through the pain. “Kaolin? Are you alright? Please be alright.” He pleaded, his voice was panicked and wavering as he spoke. He wouldn't be able to bare his brother's death, the two of them where too close.

         Kaolin didn't move or respond. Seth could feel his stomach twisting into knots, but he forced himself to remain calm and quickly checked his pulse. His eyes started to water in relief, his brother was still alive. Seth was at a loss for words, he couldn't believe they had both survived, but he didn't waste time being thankful he quickly started treating his brother's wounds as best as he could to make sure Kaolin didn't bleed to death. Treating Kaolin's injuries before he went to treat his own injuries. Now that his worry and fears were settled, it left room for the rest of his emotions to start coming back to him. This was all the villager's fault, Kaolin almost died all because of them. “They will regret this...” He muttered, glancing back at the smoke coming out of the village, “If they don't already.” He murmured, wishing he had taken the extra time to learn healing magic sooner. But he hadn't, for now he had to settle with removing the arrows, cutting up the shirts under their robes and using them as bandages to wrap the wounds. That would help slow the bleeding at least.

         Kaolin woke up shortly after Seth had finished bandaging both of them. His eyes fluttering open before he cringed in pain and weakly sat up. The brothers looked at each other and froze in disbelief for a moment, both of them seemingly shocked that they had survived. Then, suddenly the two of them almost lunged forwards and gave each other a hug in relief. After what felt like forever they broke the hug and looked back at the burning village. “The villagers... Are they safe?” Kaolin asked weakly, his voice clearly filled with pain. “Did we hold the bandits off long enough?”

         “Worry about yourself, not them. What happened to them is their own fault.” Seth muttered venomously, with just as much pain in his own voice. “This never would've happened if they would've gone with my plan.” Although, he honestly didn't know how much time had passed.

         “No, it's our job to protect them. Lets go do what we can.” Kaolin said, struggling to get onto his feet and stumbling a little. He had a deep slash across his back, a stab wound in his stomach, and stab wounds from arrows in his shoulder and leg. He could hardly walk with his injuries but wasn't going to let that stop him from doing anything he could to help out the village. The village meant so much to him, he would not give them up.

         “Kaolin, you can't walk. And I can hardly walk too, please just rest and forget about them. They left us to die.” Seth argued, biting his lip as he watched Kaolin struggling to walk. He himself has a slash across his chest, shallow stab wounds from daggers in his lower back and shoulder, and a stab wound from a sword in his stomach. He was right, neither of them were in any condition to walk never mind help the villagers.

         Kaolin shook his head. “I will not, I will do everything in my power to protect them. Our family's out there! And the villagers have practically become family after everything we've done for them.” He argued as he started limping towards the village, but the pain from his injuries caused him to fall after a few steps. He yelped in pain and cringed when he hit the ground, but struggled back onto his feet to continue walking.

         Seth closed his eyes and sighed softly, arguing with his twin was a fruitless effort. “Fine, we'll go help them. We'll bring the survivors to a neighboring village.” He said. Using his little remaining strength to lift up a large stone platform underneath himself, a platform that was big enough for many people to fit on. He made the stone levitate and moved it over to his brother. “Get on.” He said. Patting the stone next to where he was sitting with one hand while his other hand reached out to help Kaolin get up.

         Kaolin smiled and nodded, “Thank you.” He replied. He climbed onto the stone platform and sat beside his twin before they sped off towards the village. They searched the entire village for survivors, going into the burning buildings and moving rubble to find anyone who was still there, also stopping by their home to grab a few spell books and their things. They gathered the survivors onto the stone platform with them and once they had gotten everyone they could find, they made the stone levitate off to an evacuation point to meet up with the rest of the villagers who made it out.

         It wasn't long before they reached the evacuation point, both twins were exhausted, in almost paralyzing pain and hardly had the strength left in them to stay awake. But when they got there the twins received glares and looks of disgust from a lot of the villagers, even their parents who where still alive wouldn't face them. Seth was infuriated by the looks they had gotten, how dare these people give Kaolin those looks of disgust after everything he had done for them, today alone. He didn't care much about the looks he was receiving, these people were already all dead to him; had it been up to him he wouldn't have stopped the bandits and would have allowed everyone to die for refusing to help. But Kaolin? The boy had done everything for them, they just almost got him killed, and he is still doing everything he can for them despite his injuries.

         Seth returned the glares right back at them, malice clear in his eyes. Although Kaolin looked up at the villagers with a hurt and pleading look, his eyes begging to not be rejected. Seth spoke up to break the silence. “We've collected all the wounded and those who fell behind. We're all going to Oline village, it's big enough to offer shelter and protection for everyone here until things are settled.” Seth coldly stated.

         The villagers nodded and they all climbed onto the floating stone platform, it was a tight fit gettig them all onto it but they were all able to fit. The man who had spoken up before, telling the boys to go fight alone sat directly behind the twins. Then kicked both of the wounded twins off the platform, “You two walk, so the rest of us have more room.” He ordered. He actually received several glares and looks of disapproval from the other villagers. Sure, they frowned on mages, but some of them where sensible enough to understand that the man's actions where wrong. It looked as if many of the people on the platform were going to say something to the man, although no one found the courage to speak up.

         The twins grunted in pain when they hit the ground, it was only a couple inches drop but it was still painful with their wounds. Seth growled back at the villagers, and struggled back onto his feet. He was more then ready to grab his hammer and start swinging back at the man. Although Kaolin just whimpered in pain and didn't move, he was in too much pain to get back up; and the pain that hurt him the most was not from his physical injuries. Seth bit his lip to stop himself from saying something he'd regret, pushing down the growing anger inside himself as he picked his brother up and put Kaolin back on the platform. Shooting the man a deathly glare, “He's wounded, he stays on the platform.” He growled, his tone clearly full of malice and spite.

         “He's your brother, if you don't want him to walk, then you carry him. None of us want a monster on here.” The man sneered, kicking Kaolin right back off the platform.

         Kaolin cried out in pain when he hit the ground again and a few tears ran down his face, but he remained silent. Seth clenched his fists and teeth in anger, fuming as he glared at the man and the man just smirked back, looking proud of himself. The villagers on the stone looked torn, half of them seemed to agree with the man, while half disagreed with him and looked appalled by his actions. But still, no one spoke up. The people who disagreed with his actions where too afraid to speak up against the majority who hated mages, and held their tongues.

         “I-I can walk...” Kaolin said weakly as he started struggling to stand. His body was shaking from the pain and he could barely stand. He was quickly losing the will to carry on, and that was making his body weaker and less resistant to the pain and his wounds.

         “No you can not! You're hurt!” Seth snapped, but then cringed at his own harsh tone. “Sorry.” He added quietly, apologizing for his tone. He was almost as badly wounded as his brother, but he didn't care. He picked up Kaolin in a bridal carry and began walking. Making the levitating stone the villagers were riding follow him as he walked. He was far too exhausted and hurt to make a second stone platform for himself or Kaolin, it took too much out of him to make the one for everyone else.

--

         It was several hours of walking before they would reach their destination, with Kaolin protesting being carried the whole way. After the first hour Kaolin refused to burden Seth with carrying him and forced Seth to put him down and let him walk the rest of the way. Eventually they finally reached the village and the villagers got off the stone.

         “We're finally in Oline village....” Kaolin let out a sigh of relief, his voice was wavering in pain. He was trying to keep a tough look on his face, but it was clear he couldn't stand for much longer. He was at his limit and was hurting so bad, willpower alone was the only thing preventing him from passing out on the spot.

         Seth nodded, turning to the villagers, “You're all safe, it's up to you to get your own shelter from here. We still need to get our wounds properly treated. Come on Kaolin, lets go find someone who can help us.” He said as he limped over to his brother. He was faring much better with hiding his pain.

         Kaolin nodded and the two started walking to find someone who knew how to treat wounds. Although they where stopped when the man who had kicked them off the stone and a few others stepped in front of them. “Where do you two think you're going?” The man questioned.

         “We just told you where we where going.” Seth growled back, glaring up at the man.

         Kaolin comfortingly put a hand on his brother's shoulder, to tell him to calm down. He took a step closer to the man. “We're wounded sir... We really need to get medical attention.” He said quietly, gesturing to the wound on his shoulder.

         The man shoved Kaolin to the ground when he stepped closer, “We don't want you monsters here. We saw you use magic, you're demons.” He spat. “Get out.” He demanded. Although, only him and a few others seemed to agree, the vast majority of the villagers watched in disapproval and disbelief of the man's actions. But no one dared to stop him, everyone was too afraid to speak up.

         Kaolin cringed in pain as he hit the ground, yet again. Looking up at the man, with a very hurt look in his eyes. He was speechless, but Seth was not. Seth glared at the man, not even seeing the other villagers' reactions. He lost it there, “What the hell are you talking about!” He shouted venomously at him. “We're not demons. We're just as human as you are! We devoted our entire lives to you people, we just nearly died for you all! And you're throwing us out?!”

         “You should have died out there, we'd all be much better off if you did.” The man growled back. “Now get out or we'll force you out.”

         “You dare to say that! After everything we've done!” Seth nearly screamed in rage, he wasn't going to take this anymore, he grabbed his war hammer off his back and prepared to attack the man. Most of the onlookers gasped and began trying to back away, everyone knew how easily a mage could tear through a crowd of unarmed civilians, they feared mages for that very reason.

         “You see everyone, the demons are trying to attack and kill us! He drew his weapon first!” The man called out to the crowd, as they all fearfully backed off. “They are killers, nothing more! If we keep them here, who knows how long it'll be before they kill us all!”

         “Seth... Stop...” Kaolin murmured, his voice broken and wavering in pain. “Lets just go...”

         Seth growled at the man, gripping his hammer so tightly his arms were shaking. He turned to Kaolin when he heard his brother speak, and he could see the pain in his eyes. Both physical and emotional. “No, you need medical attention, we can't leave.” He protested.

         “Seth, we have no choice. Don't harm them, lets just leave...” Kaolin said quietly as he struggled to stand up, stumbling onto his feet. The people may have rejected them and thrown them out, but Kaolin still did not want to cause them any harm. Seth on the other hand, was fuming and more then ready to kill them on the spot for doing all that to his brother. Far too enraged to notice that only a select few where against them, he believed everyone was since nobody was saying anything.

         Seth turned to his brother. “You need medical attention, we can't leave!” He insisted.

         “Just drop it.” Kaolin said as he gently put a hand on his brother's shoulder. “We're not wanted here. Two wrongs don't make a right, there is no reason to harm these people.” He said in a soft but broken and weak voice. Without giving Seth a chance to argue further, Kaolin stood and started limping out of the town. His head stayed down as he left, to hide the tears in his eyes.

         Seth watched his brother go, then turned back to the man. “You will regret this. You all will.” He growled, before limping after his twin.

         The man just watched then go, grinning proudly as he knew he had just killed the two of them. Without medical attention, he was sure the twins wouldn't survive the night. The villagers were saved, all thanks to him, they wouldn't all be murdered by mages tonight! Although he turned to see the cold and distant looks he was receiving from the other villagers. “What?” He asked arrogantly, as if he had done nothing wrong. “I just killed off two mages, by myself. I deserve to get some sort of reward for getting rid of that scum and saving you all.” He stated. Although the villagers just shook their heads and silently dispersed to get to finding a shelter for themselves.

         All except one girl with chin-length brown hair and blue eyes. She looked roughly sixteen, just a year younger then the twins and had known them quite well. She watched them walking away, she wanted to help them and finally got her mother to stop covering her mouth to prevent her from speaking, but it was too late now. She took a step towards the direction the twins where walking in, considering following them or calling out to them. But before she could a female voice called after her, “Ella, lets go!” The voice called out.

         “But, we can't just let them leave!” She protested.

         “It's not our problem. We need to look out for ourselves.” The voice answered.

         “No! That's not right, they are just like us, what if this happens to us? We can't-” She started to protest, before she was cut off.

         “Ella!” The voice cut her off sharply. “I said lets go. We are not putting our family in danger for them, I'm sorry, they'll have to fend for themselves.”

         “Yes mother...” The girl sighed. Turning and walking back in the direction of the voice.

–

–

Next chapter: The Outcasts.

 

5: Chapter Four. The Outcasts.

Chapter four. The Outcasts.

 

     Kaolin and Seth limped out of town and off into the woods. Seth didn't even bother looking back although Kaolin did, he watched the people disperse and saw the girl there for a moment, before she too left. He could tell, at least one person had not wanted them to leave at least. A slightly comforting thought as the two of them disappeared from sight and limped off into the woods.

     Kaolin practically collapsed upon entering a clearing in the woods, yelping as the severe pain shot through him when he hit the ground. He just laid on the ground, trying not to cry or look upset; bottling up his feelings and taking on a blank, emotionless and vacant expression, becoming numb to everything around him. He was in unimaginable pain after being wounded so badly, then being knocked around and forced to walk so far; And everyone he knew, everyone he cared about except for his brother just abandoned him. He was just at a complete loss, it felt unreal, like a terrible dream.

     Seth was in the same exact situation, only instead of becoming upset and saddened. He had become enraged and spiteful, and he didn't bottle up his feelings he let them show. He needed to vent and began just kicking a nearby tree. “Damn them, throwing us out like that. How could they do that?” He growled. “I'll kill him... The second I get better I'm gonna kill him for what he's done. A man like that doesn't deserve to live.” His voice was wavering in anger as he kicked the tree again, hard enough to break off a piece of the bark.

     “Seth, calm down, please.” Kaolin said weakly. “Violence is not the answer... Violence is wrong. Yeah, we just killed some bandits, I know. We had no choice there. But these people are not attacking us, they are not harming us, we don't need to kill them. It's wrong to kill them.” He said.

     “Kaolin, don't you get it? They are attacking us! They are passively attacking us. They may not have thrown any punches, but they just tried to kill us, not once, but twice. And they almost succeeded both times. They know we'll die out here without medical attention. They sent us out here to die, again.” Seth almost shouted, he was holding back and trying not to shout at his brother. He reached into his robes and pulled out a book from an inner pocket, “But they didn't count on me having this. I grabbed it while we where rescuing the survivors from the village. It's that book on healing magic I got the other day.” He said.

     The black haired boy opened his eyes and looked up at Seth, “You found it?? So we won't die out here after all.” He said. “If that's the case, then there's no need to retaliate on the villagers. We'll live on our own, we're separate from them now. We need to put it behind us, we'll never see them again.”

     “Yeah, with our injuries I predicted that we may need it. So I grabbed it. And I was right.” Seth said. “There's no way I can fully learn this in one night. But I should be able to learn enough to heal us both enough to survive the night. I can learn the rest over the next month or so and slowly heal our wounds.” He said. Ignoring Kaolin's other statement.

     “Good, then we can put what they did behind us and move on once we're healed.” Kaolin repeated, trying to get the point across.

     “No. As soon as I'm healed, I will go back and personally kill them. They want a demon, I'll show them a demon.” Seth growled. Nobody gets away with doing all that to his brother, they would pay the price.

     “Seth! No. We will not harm any of them. Let. It. Go.” Kaolin said firmly, before coughing up a little blood.

     Seth let out a growl of disagreement, he was going to keep arguing but he realized he was only hurting Kaolin more by fighting like this. “Fine.” He muttered reluctantly.

     “And please do hurry on the spell... I-I don't mean to rush you, but I'm losing feeling in most of my body... And I am starting to lose vision, I can't really see much.” Kaolin added, his voice weakening as he spoke.

     Seth's expression softened and grew worried as he listened to his brother. He sat down beside his brother and began to intently study the book.

--

     Seth would learn the basics to the spell in a few hours. Healing them just enough to survive the night. For the next few months, day by day Seth would study the book intently. Slowly healing their wounds as they struggled to survive in the woods. The twins didn't do much, they just just made a camp and spent their time resting and hunting for food when needed. Day by day Seth learned the healing magic better and in time he was able to completely heal both of them, leaving them with just the scars.

     Although, as they healed their wounds enough to move about painlessly both of the twins secretly made trips back into Oline village. Seth snuck into the village at night, stealing money from anyone he could, and also stealing food and supplies so he would have to spend less money on such things. He refused to let his brother go without, Seth would get him anything he needed.

     Kaolin also snuck into town at night, sending letters and gifts to their family in a desperate attempt to gain acceptance, to be let back in... Or, to at the very least get a letter back saying they still cared. But no matter how many he sent, and no matter how many gifts he sent with them. There was never an answer. Despite trying to be sneaky, Seth was aware of what Kaolin was doing. While Kaolin was not aware of what Seth was doing.

     Unknown to both twins, Kaolin's letters weren't being ignored, they where being intercepted. The man from before had spotted Kaolin the very first time he walked into the town, and was taking the letters he left behind for his family, not wanting the twins to have any chance to get back into the city. The letters and gifts never made it to their family.

     It was clear that seemingly being rejected and completely ignored by his own family was slowly taking it's toll on Kaolin. As days and months passed he slowly was losing hope in everything, becoming depressed and empty as he retreated back into himself. But at least he still had his brother who was always there for him, that kept him a little happy and stopped him from completely falling apart.

     Seth noticed how hopeless and emotionally damaged Kaolin was becoming, and knew it was because of their parents and the villagers. He was slowly watching his brother change from a happy, carefree and cheerful person who cared deeply for everyone; into a hopeless and broken shell of his former self, watching him become numb and apathetic to everything. Knowing who was doing this to his brother, only fueled Seth's hatred for the people in the town, justifying him stealing from them. He tried everything to help cheer Kaolin up, from buying him nice things, to going out and doing various things together, he just wanted to see his brother smile again. But nothing worked.

      Seth was harboring a deep hatred for the villagers, he so badly wanted to go back and punish them for the wrong they had done. But Kaolin on the other hand didn't hate them, he had just fallen apart and lost hope for things getting any better in the future. The two cheerful boys they used to be where long gone. Seth knew he had to do something to get his brother's mind off the village and their family so one day he decided to move camp someplace else, far away from Oline Village. Hoping the distance would help them both put everything behind them.

–

      Kaolin woke up one morning a few months after they had been outcasted. His wounds where nothing but scars now after being healed by Seth. The black haired boy opened his eyes, he was lying on a bed of leaves in a small stone building they had been using as a shelter. He sleepily got up and stepped outside, looking over their campsite to see his blonde twin packing up their things. “Seth? What are you doing?” He asked quietly.

      “We need a change of scenery,  so we're packing up camp and moving far away from here.” Seth stated, not mentioning that his real intentions where to get Kaolin's mind off their family.

      “Oh... I see...” Kaolin said, his tone empty and emotionless as he walked to help out his brother.

      Although their work was paused when they heard something moving through the bushes towards them. They both turned to face the bushes expecting a wild animal or something to come out. But what came out was something completely different.

      A tall girl with shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair and green eyes stepped out of the bushes. The girl looked to be roughly eighteen, and was wearing brown pants with a brown vest and a red shirt. Clothes that where clearly meant for travelers, being made for comfort and not looks. Although for seemingly being a traveler her clothes where clean and new.

      The girl was followed by a short child, looking to be only thirteen. The boy had short dirty-blonde hair and green eyes like his sister's. It was clear the two where related, as the boy resembled the older girl and was also wearing similar clothes to his sister, except wearing a blue shirt instead of red.

      The girl smiled as she spotted the two guys, although the small boy shyly hid behind his sister's legs. “Why hello there guys.” She called out, in a friendly and cheerful manor.

      “Hello...” Kaolin murmured quietly. Although he smiled very faintly as he noticed the small boy's shyness, it reminded him a little of himself. “Don't be shy, we don't bite.” He said softly to the child, almost instantly warming up to the boy.

      “Hello ma'am.” Seth greeted, then chuckled lightly at his brother's statement. “No we do bite, but only on Wednesdays.” He said jokingly. “Who are you two?” He asked.

      “I'm Jasmine, and this is my little brother Samuel.” The girl replied in her usual cheery tone. Chuckling lightly at Seth's joke. “And you guys are?” She asked.

      “I'm Seth, and this is my twin Kaolin.” Seth said. “We're outcasts...” He warned, just in case the girl didn't know. “Nice to meet you two.” He said as he held out a hand to the girl.

      Jasmine smiled and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you too Seth, and Kaolin.” She said “And we're homeless, our home was attacked by bandits recently, the two of us where the only survivors. So we're living out our dreams of traveling the world!” She said in an oddly cheerful tone for talking about such a grim subject. “What did you two do to get outcasted?” She asked. “Wait, that's probably personal, never mind that.” She added.

      Kaolin remained quiet as he watched the two of them and he cringed at the mention of bandits attacking another village. It was really getting out of hand. Seth kept the conversation going. “Oh, I'm very sorry to hear of that.” He said softly. “Why don't you two travel with us? We where just setting out. Despite being outcasts, we're honestly not bad people. And yeah, it's a bit of a sensitive subject on why we're outcasts. Maybe sometime in the future I'll tell you.” Seth answered.

“Really? We'd love to travel with you guys, the more the merrier.” Jasmine said cheerfully, and without any hesitation. She didn't even stop to think about it, as if she had expected them to ask from the beginning. She nudged her little brother with her foot to get him to speak up.

“Yeah, thank you sirs” Samuel said quietly and shyly, from his hiding spot behind his sister.

“You alright with that quiet guy?” Jasmine asked Kaolin, looking over at him since he hadn't said anything in a little while.

Kaolin nodded, “Yeah, it's alright.” He murmured quietly. But he only said this because Seth agreed, he wasn't really alright with it. After the previous events in their lives he wanted to isolate himself from everyone, except his brother. He didn't want to have to deal with new people, and didn't trust them after everything that had happened. What would they do when they found out him and his twin where mages?

“Good. I'll discuss where we're going on the way.” Seth said as he grabbed their things and started leading the group away. With the three others following along behind him.

–

–

Next chapter: The Mountain Trek

6: Chapter Five: The Mountain Trek

~~ Chapter 5. The Mountain Trek ~~

      The group of four started walking through the woods, following a path that was overgrown and clearly wasn't used often. “We're going to go over the mountains, just to get to the other side for a change of scenery.” Seth said as they walked. Seth was leading the group with Jasmine beside him. While Kaolin and Samuel walked beside each other a few steps behind them.

      “The mountains?” Jasmine questioned as she gave Seth an odd look. “Haven't you heard the stories? People who try to go over the mountains never make it back. That's why everyone goes around them, never over them.” She said.

      “Well we're going over them. Is that a problem with you?” Seth questioned as he looked at Jasmine. “I'm not worried about rumors. Sure, there's likely something up there causing the disappearances. But we can handle it.”

      “Does it bother me?” Jasmine asked “Of course it doesn't, we're travelers, that sort of adventure is what we're out looking for.” She said. Smiling pleasantly back as Seth.

      Seth also chuckled lightly, “Good.” He said before stopping and turning to the others. “Do you two have weapons or something? And do you know how to fight?” He asked.

      “No, we don't.” Jasmine answered. “We'll probably need a weapon so we're not defenseless.” She said.

      Seth nodded in agreement, thinking over the weapons they currently had. They had Seth's sai and hammer, then Kaolin's gauntlets and bow. The sai where the only weapon Samuel could hope to use effectively. Since the hammer was far too heavy for the small boy; The gauntlets required good spatial awareness, and a sharp, combat-oriented mindset to use; And the bow required training to aim properly. So Seth crouched down and held out his two sai to the boy. “Here, you will need to stay back if there's a fight. I really hope you don't need to use these, but better safe then sorry.” He said, smiling at Samuel.

      Samuel nodded and took the sai. “Thank you sir.” He said quietly.

      “My name's Seth, you don't need to call me sir.” Seth chuckled, patting the boy on the head. “Those sai are meant for blocking. You can catch enemy weapons between the prongs to stop people from attacking. They are not so great for attacking, always stay on the defense when using them.” He explained before turning to Kaolin. “You'll need to give Jasmine a weapon.” He said.

      Kaolin took a step back, grabbing onto both his bow and gauntlets protectively. He didn't want to just hand them over to some girl he just met. Nor did he want the girl he didn't trust to have a weapon, that's just asking for her to stab them when she finds out they are mages. Although, he knew arguing about it was fruitless, and he took his bow off his back to give to the girl. Thinking strategically, with the bow she would have to wait at least one second before attacking when she found out they where mages; Since she would have to load the bow first.

      “Ooh! I want the gauntlets. Those look cool.” Jasmine said excitedly. Although she saw Kaolin's reluctance to give her the gauntlets. He especially didn't want to give her those, he made those himself and didn't want to lose them. “Come oonn~ Please? I don't know how to use a bow anyways.” Jasmine asked, in a slightly childish manor.

      “Kaolin? What's wrong? Just give her the gauntlets, we're better off with you using the bow anyways.” Seth stated, knowing his brother was a pretty good shot. He trusted Kaolin's aim more then the aim of a stranger.

      “Nothing's wrong...” Kaolin muttered quietly, taking his bladed gauntlets off and reluctantly handing them to Jasmine. Who happily took them and put them on her own hands.

      “Thank you Kaolin!” Jasmine said cheerfully. “Now all of us have weapons, we'll be all set for whatever lies ahead in the mountains.

      “No problem...” Kaolin muttered quietly, rather put off by losing his gauntlets. Everyone turned and resumed walking, reaching the base of the mountain shortly after and starting to walk on a path that went up part of the mountain. It was a very steep incline up the mountain, while the teens had no problem with walking up it, Samuel was struggling to walk up the incline with his smaller size.

      Kaolin stopped for a moment, “Need help Sam?” He asked the boy. “I can carry you for this part, get on my back.” He said, crouching down to give Samuel a piggy-back ride. The young boy nodded and thankfully got onto Kaolin's back, then Kaolin stood up and caught up to the others. “So, what did you and your sister do before your home was attacked?” He asked.

      “Our parents where farmers. We helped out on the farms and stuff.” The young boy said. He looked around at the mountains from on top of Kaolin's back, smiling cheerfully as he took in the view. Now that he didn't need to focus on walking he could enjoy the view.

      Kaolin smiled and nodded, “Me and Seth's parents where merchants. But we also helped out everyone around town, so we did a little of everything.” He said simply. "We did a little farming, it's a lot of hard work."

      “Oh cool! So you're good at a lot of things then?” Samuel asked.

      Kaolin chuckled “Not exactly. We know a lot of trades, but we didn't do any one of them specifically, so we're not great at any of them.” He said. “As the saying goes, a jack of all trades is a master of none.” He explained. The two of them continued their conversation as the group walked.

-

      It was getting dark as the group neared the peak of the mountain. The mountain wasn't small for a mountain, it would only take them two days to cross it. But rather suddenly their conversations stopped and the group fell silent, they could all sense that something wasn't right. The air was heavy and everything was eerily quiet.

      “Seth.” Kaolin addressed his brother. “We're not alone. Someone here's using dark magic, I can sense it.” He said rather bluntly. Being a mage he could sense the use of magic, and being experienced in dark magic himself he could tell it was dark magic. “Be on guard.” He warned, readying his bow. Everyone else nodded and readied their weapons as the group continued walking up the mountain.

      “Dark magic...?” Seth asked. “So is it a mage? Or...” He started saying, but got his answer before he could finish speaking. As they stepped around a large stone the group came almost face to face with a demon. It was only a lesser demon, thankfully;  Looking mostly like a human with red eyes, shark teeth, and disfigured hands that formed very sharp claws. Having small horns on it's head and black wings that where torn up and unusable. It was human in shape, but looked clearly demonic.

      They hardly had a chance to react to the sight before the demon opened it's mouth and spat a stream of pure black flames at the group. The group acted quickly and everyone jumped out of the way. Kaolin gently took Samuel off his back and put him down off to the side and away from the fighting while Seth and Jasmine moved in to attack. “Please stay back here Sam.” He said softly.

      Samuel nodded quickly “Yes sir. Please make sure my sister's okay.” He said quietly, worried about his sister who was off fighting the demon but remaining pretty calm for a small kid who had just come face to face with a demon.

      Kaolin nodded and smiled at the boy. “I will, I promise.” He said, patting the boy on the head and running to rejoin the fight.

      After dodging the initial darkflame attack Seth and Jasmine started fighting the demon. “Push it back onto the flat terrain a little ahead of us. We're going to have trouble fighting it on this incline.” Seth ordered. Taking a swing at the demon's chest with his hammer, not intending to hit it just trying to make it jump back and get closer to the flat terrain. As expected the demon jumped back to evade the hit and threw a pure black fireball at Seth, roughly the size of his head.

      Seth dove to the side to evade the fireball, slipping and sliding down the incline a little. “On it.” Jasmine called out. Jumping forwards and lunging at the demon, stabbing the blade on her right arm for it's throat mid-jump. The demon jumped back again to evade the hit and spat a stream of fire back at Jasmine. Jasmine continued with her forward momentum, her feet landing on the ground where the demon had been previously, only for a split second before jumping again; Jumping  forwards but at an angle to evade the flames. Moving incredibly fast, as soon as her feet hit the ground after dodging the flames she lunged at the demon again, trying to elbow him and hit him with the part of the blade that extended down to the elbow on her left arm. Once again forcing the demon to move back to avoid getting hit, moving onto the flat terrain.

      Seth got up, him and Kaolin quickly moved forward to catch up with Jasmine. “She's a really skilled fighter...” Seth mused. “Seems like she's just as good as us, only without magic.”

      Kaolin frowned a bit and nodded, Seth was right, she may even be better then them. And that bothered him, not because she was better, he didn't care that she was a better fighter. What bothered him, was where she learned to fight. She said they didn't know how to fight, and the boy said they where farmers, farmers shouldn't be that experienced in combat. And surely the young boy would've said something if they had combat training or when they were asked if they knew how to fight. But he said nothing about it. So where did she learn to fight? And if they did have combat training, why didn't they say so when asked? That bothered Kaolin, but he said nothing.

      Kaolin raised his bow and fired an arrow at the demon's left leg, aiming for it's knee in hopes of incapacitating it; But also being careful not to hit Jasmine with his shot. Although the demon quickly sidestepped the arrow and started running at Kaolin. Attempting to sprint past Seth and Jasmine

      Seth acted quickly, intercepting the demon before it could reach Kaolin. Stepping out in front of it and slashing his hammer at the demon's chest. The demon stumbled back to avoid the hammer and spat black flames at Seth. Seth didn't want to use magic in the presence of their new friends so he tried to dodge, but couldn't move in time and was hit with the flames. He was badly burnt and set on fire, but he hit the ground and immediately started rolling to put the flames out.

      “Seth! Are you alright!” Kaolin shouted worriedly, running a few steps towards Seth and crouching beside him.

      “I'm fine, just hurt. Focus on the demon.” Seth stated sharply.

      Jasmine continued her assault on the demon, not paying much attention to Seth or his injuries, she kept her focus on the fight and the demon in front of her. She ran at the demon from the side, slashing one of her bladed gauntlets downwards at the demon's chest. The demon jumped back to dodge the attack, but as he jumped backwards Jasmine lunged forwards and stabbed her other blade through the demon's chest while it was in midair and unable to dodge. Right as she stabbed the demon, she slashed the blade she had stabbed through his chest out to the side, cutting clean through the demon. In one final attempt to kill Jasmine, the demon took in a deep breath and was about to spit flames into her face at point blank range, but Jasmine was quick to send an uppercut to his chin, the punch forced his head to tilt upwards and making the flames he spat shoot up into the air. She knew the demon was about to die, that stab wound she had inflicted was lethal, and she knew what happened when a demon died. She quickly shoved the demon away from herself and jumped back right before the demon's body burst into black flames, almost like an explosion, it burnt everything within a couple feet of the demon.

      “Jasmine... Handled it already...” Kaolin said, watching her in disbelief. “You can heal those burns, right?” He asked quietly.

      Seth nodded, “Yes, as soon as she's not looking I will.” He whispered back. “Don't want them finding out about our magic so soon. We need to give it more time.”

      “As if that will help any.” Kaolin muttered. “You're just asking for a repeat of what the village did.”

      Seth gave Kaolin a stern look, but turned to see Jasmine running to them. “Are you okay Seth? You're not hurt too badly right?” Jasmine asked worriedly as she crouched down beside them.

      “I'm alright, I'm not hurt at all. I just need to rest.” Seth said softly, “We'll camp here for the night, please gather the things needed for camp. Start getting it set up in that flat area up ahead” He said.

      Jasmine nodded and turned to Samuel “Come on, lets go help set up camp.” She said “We already got most of the things needed in our bags.” She added as her and Samuel went to set up camp.

      "Seth, that source of dark magic I sensed earlier was not that demon we killed... It's still there, just a little north of here..." Kaolin said quietly. “I don't think it's safe to set up camp here.”

      Seth nodded, "Alright, we'll just need to be careful tonight then." He said. Kaolin hesitated, feeling uneasy about the situation but nodded and went to help the others set up camp while Seth secretly healed his injuries.

      The three of them worked together, setting up the camp and the campfire. Seth was finished healing by the time they where done and rejoined them at the camp, watching as Kaolin cooked their dinner on the fire. “Is it really safe to camp here if there was a demon here? What if there's more?” Jasmine asked.

      “No it's not safe at all. But, it's late and getting dark, this is safer then walking around the mountains in the dark. The last thing we need is someone falling off a cliff because they can't see.” Seth answered bluntly. “Especially if there's more of them, we don't want to be fighting them in the dark. That would be suicide.”

      “I'll stay up and watch over the camp tonight then.” Kaolin offered, looking over the group that was sitting by the campfire.

      Seth shook his head, he knew his brother well enough to know Kaolin would work himself to death looking out for others if someone didn't stop him. “You can stay up half the night and watch over the camp. I'll stay up the other half, you need some rest too Kaolin.” He said

      Kaolin sighed quietly, “Alright.” He answered reluctantly. He would've much preferred to do it himself, so his brother wouldn't be troubled by it. But he wouldn't argue.

      “What about us?” Jasmine asked curiously. Wondering if there was a way she and her brother could help out as well. Samuel nodded quietly in agreement from where he was sitting beside his sister, also wanting to help out if he could.

      “We'll think of that tomorrow, we have it covered for tonight.” Seth replied simply. Their food finished cooking and Kaolin quickly took it off the fire, then cut it into four pieces. Giving the two biggest pieces to Seth and Jasmine, the second biggest to Samuel, and taking the smallest piece which was hardly enough to be considered a meal for himself. The group was thankful and they all began eating.

      “So, Jasmine. What where you two before you set out to be adventurers?” Seth asked, to start up a conversation.

      “We where blacksmiths. Our family owned a forge and we often helped them make and test out weapons.” Jasmine answered simply.

      'Wait... Didn't the boy say they where farmers?' Kaolin thought as he watched the two of them quietly.

      Seth nodded  “That's good. Our parents where merchants, although we aspired to become knights to guard the village.” He said. “What do you think of the mages?” Seth asked curiously, figuring now was the best time to ask, without saying he was one. Just to get her view on them.

      Jasmine shrugged. “I dunno. We've never met one before. Everyone says they are these horrid creatures who only harm others, like demons. But I don't think it's possible for all mages to be bad like that.” She answered simply.

      Samuel nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we've never met a mage before.” The young and shy boy said quietly, just to get into the conversation.

      Seth smiled and nodded. “That's a very good way of thinking of it. No two people are alike, so it really is impossible for all of them to be bad.” He replied simply. He still wanted to wait a little before revealing their magic though. He wanted to gain their trust first.

      Jasmine chuckled “Exactly, it's just fear and envy guiding everyone's accusations about mages. I doubt they're anywhere near as bad as everyone says.” She said.

      Samuel nodded “Yeah, I think it'd be cool to meet a real mage. Especially one that uses earth or fire, those are the cool elements.” He added excitedly, as he spoke he looked straight at Seth and Kaolin, as if expecting them to do or say something. But they didn't.

      Seth chuckled, “You never know, we may meet some later on.” He said simply, smiling back at the boy. He finished about half of the big piece of meat Kaolin had given him, knowing Kaolin had taken a really tiny piece for himself. He handed the uneaten half to his brother, “Don't starve yourself Lyn.” He said simply, not giving his brother a choice he put the food into his brother's hand and got up. “I'm heading to bed, Kaolin wake me in four hours for my turn on watch duty.” He said before walking off to his tent.

      Kaolin stared confusedly at the food and blinked in surprise when Seth forced the food into his hand, and didn't have much choice but to take it. “Thanks... And alright...” He said quietly.

      “Aww, that was sweet of him. Giving up his own food so his brother wouldn't starve.” Jasmine cooed. “Anyways, comeon Sam, we need to get to sleep aswell. See ya in the morning Kaolin.” She said as her and Samuel got up and also went to their tent to sleep for the night.

      Kaolin nodded quietly, and kept watch over the camp. Finishing the rest of the food he had been given. He woke up Seth halfway through the night and they switched places so Seth could watch over the camp for the other half of the night. Thankfully, the rest of the night was peaceful and went by without any further problems.

–

–

Next chapter: Secrets and lies, targets confirmed.

7: Chapter Six: Secrets and Lies, Targets Confirmed.

~~ Chapter 6. Secrets and Lies, Targets Confirmed. ~~

      Seth was awake when morning came, still on his watch from the previous night. Nothing had approached the campsite that night, so both him and his brother had easy shifts where they didn't do much and just meditated.

      Kaolin was the first to wake up, nodding to his twin as he left his tent and went to go prepare breakfast. "Seth, that source of dark magic still hasn't gone away... And it hasn't stopped either, no living thing can keep continuously using magic like that for so long. Something's not right." He said quietly.

      "Want me to go check it out?" Seth asked, noticing his brother's concern and thinking that was the best option.

      "No! Most definitely not!" Kaolin quickly protested, before returning to the very quiet demeanor he usually had. "It could be dangerous... I do not want you to risk getting hurt." He said quietly. "If anyone goes I'll go."

      "No, you and I both know I'm the better fighter, in every way. You will not go after something like that alone." Seth stated firmly. "Please consider your own safety too Lyn, not just the safety of those around you."

      Kaolin frowned a bit. "My safety isn't important..." He muttered too quietly for Seth to hear. "Fine... No one will go after the thing then." He said quietly.

      Seth sighed and turned to see Jasmine coming out of her tent. "What's all the shouting about?" She asked sleepily. Yawning and looking around, but not seeing anything out of place or attacking. So she turned back to the boys.

      "Sorry..." Kaolin said quietly. "That was me..." He looked down a bit as he continued preparing breakfast.

      "No problem, we all have to wake up eventually." Jasmine said, smiling back at him. "What where ya arguing about though?" She asked.

      "Nothing important." Seth stated simply, immediately shooting down her question. They couldn't tell her that Kaolin could sense dark magic, that would give away that they where mages and she didn't seem to have noticed when Kaolin said it before. So he wanted to keep that a secret.

      Jasmine shrugged and stretched a little, "Okay... Well what's for breakfast?" She asked, turning back to kaolin.

      "Eggs I got at the market before we left the woods." Kaolin said quietly. "Seth timed that really well, we left right after I got more food from the market, but it won't last us long. We'll need to stop in another town soon." He said quietly.

      Seth chuckled, "That's exactly why we left when we did. There's a town right on the other side of this mountain, we should be reaching it tomorrow. I planned that out for us to reach the town one day before we run out of food." He said. “Gonna need to move faster now though, since with our new companions the food will only last half as long.”

      Jasmine chuckled, "You plan way ahead." She observed as she sat down next to Seth, beside the fire. “And sorry about that.” She added.

      “That's Seth for ya. Always has a plan, always has a backup plan, and always has about fifty more backup plans for his backup plan.” Kaolin chuckled, shaking his head a bit. He finished cooking the eggs and passed them out to Jasmine and Seth, and then went wake up Samuel.

      “So what's the plan for today? Just getting off the mountain?” Jasmine asked Seth as the two of them received their food and started eating.

      “Yes, just walking over the rest of the mountain. Then setting up camp in the woods on the other side. That will be enough work for one day, don't want us to exhaust ourselves.” Seth answered simply. Glancing at Kaolin when he mentioned everyone exhausting themselves. He knew his brother meant well, but Kaolin took too much onto his own shoulders; Seth worried about him for that, he knew Kaolin would take on too much and break himself if Seth didn't stop him.

      Jasmine noticed Seth glancing at Kaolin, but didn't think much of it. “Alright, sounds like a plan. Hopefully we don't run into any more demons on the way there.” She said.

      Seth nodded, “Yes, hopefully. But do not let your guard down.” He said. “I've got a hunch there's more of them on this mountain. That's probably what makes everyone disappear” He added. His hunch was Kaolin telling him there was more, but Jasmine didn't need to know that just yet. He still wanted to gain their trust before showing them their magic.

      Kaolin and Samuel returned to the group, “So you sleep well?” Kaolin asked, seeming slightly happy instead of being in his usual apathetic demeanor he grew into after they where outcasted.

      “Yeah! I slept really well.” The young boy said cheerfully as the two of them joined the others by the fire and Kaolin handed Samuel his food.

      “Samuel, we're going to resume walking once breakfast is done. You up for it?” Seth asked the young boy. “Also, Kaolin eat. Don't think I didn't notice that you haven't eaten anything.”

      Kaolin sighed lightly and got himself some breakfast before he sat down and started quietly eating. Samuel turned to Seth briefly “Yeah I'm up for it!” He replied cheerfully.

      “Someone's in a good mood today.” Seth said, smiling a bit at the boy who seemed to have stepped out of his shy shell.

      “Yeah, he's been much less shy since I woke him up.” Kaolin said softly, “Dunno what it was, but either way it's a good thing.” He said.

      Seth nodded in agreement. “Yeah, definitely good that he stopped being so shy.” He replied, playfully rubbing Samuel's head.

      They continued their idle conversation as Kaolin and Samuel finished eating, then everyone packed up the camp and put out the fire before setting out again. Having more idle chat about nothing important as they walked. But as they walked Kaolin remained quiet, he was focusing on sensing their surroundings. Keeping track of that source of dark magic he sensed, and looking for any more of them that may be nearby.

–

      After walking for a while, Kaolin stopped and pulled his brother aside. “That dark energy I was keeping an eye on... It just... Split into two?” He said, very unsurely.

      “What? That doesn't make sense.” Seth replied. Giving his brother an odd look. Seth believed him, Kaolin had no reason to lie, but that still didn't sound right.

      “Wait... it just split again, another one split out of the original so now there's three...” Kaolin said, then his eyes widened. “No, four now... Five, six... Seven... They just keep coming out of the original source.” He said worriedly.

      “How is that possible?” Seth questioned, but then thought about it. “Unless, that first source of magic you sensed wasn't a living thing... And was a portal.” He murmured under his breath, “That would make perfect sense, why you could always sense it using magic, why so many more are coming out of it. It must be a portal.” He said.

      “Hey, what are you guys doing?” Jasmine questioned, watching the boys talk in hushed voices to each other, she wondered what they were saying and why they were talking about it secretly.

      “What do we do? If it is a portal we can't just leave that up there, who knows how many more demons could get through if we leave it.” Kaolin questioned, then suddenly went pale. “Everyone watch out! They sensed us and are coming!” He called out, nearly shouting.

      Kaolin and Seth jumped back just in time for two demons to jump out of a shadow on the ground, narrowly missing them with their claws. Another two stepped out of a shadow near Jasmine and Samuel, while two more crawled out to join the two by Kaolin and Seth. Thankfully they where all only lesser demons, human-shaped demons who had small horns on their heads, torn up and unusable black wings, with sharks teeth and disfigured hands that looked almost like claws, along with a demonic appearance.

      The demons didn't waste a second before going on the attack, the two near Jasmine and Samuel lunged at Jasmine, who quickly and nimbly jumped back to evade their attacks. While Samuel ran back to get out of the fight, for safety. The four near Kaolin and Seth all spat a stream of black flames at them, like four fire hoses only with flames instead of water, forcing the two of them to separate and jump in different directions to dodge the flames. There was so much fire from the four demons combined that it was so hot it scorched the twins even though the flames missed. Two of the demons singled out Kaolin while the other two ran after Seth.

      Seth quickly pulled his hammer off his back, bashing the first demon to charge at him in the head and knocking it out of the way. Although the demon simply cracked his neck and got back up before resuming his attack on Seth, shrugging off the blow to the head. The second Demon slashed at Seth, but Seth blocked it with the handle of his hammer and jumped back to evade the kick that followed that demon's slash. Only to have the first demon spit a fireball at him and force Seth to dive out of the way without getting a chance to attack.

      The two demons charged at Seth again, both lunging at him when they got closer. One lashed out with it's claws at his chest the other tried sinking it's claws into his legs. Seth again jumped to the side to dodge, but one of the demons stopped their attack and swung their other claw at him while he was in mid-dodge, hitting and leaving a deep gash on his chest. Seth yelped in pain and cringed, but he pushed through the pain and counterattacked by trying to slam his hammer down at the neck of the demon who had missed his legs. But the demon rolled forwards and evaded the attack.

      'These lesser demons... They may be the weakest form of demon but even so, just one can easily tear apart any normal human, nevermind two. And without using our magic we basically are normal humans... But we can't use our magic in front of Jasmine and Samuel... We don't have their trust yet, if they find out we're mages and don't trust us, they could turn on us in the middle of the fight... What do we do...' Seth thought.

      Kaolin stumbled back after dodging the flames of the demon's initial attack. He readied his bow, but the demons moved too fast and where close to him before he could fire it. One demon spat another stream of black flames at Kaolin while the other circled around and slashed at him from the side, Kaolin dove diagonally backwards to dodge the attacks. The demons were too fast, there was no way he could shoot them before they were on top of him and the bow was useless once they were at point blank range. He strapped the bow onto his back and grabbed just an arrow, holding it like a dagger. It wasn't a real weapon, but since Jasmine had his gauntlets and his bow wouldn't work in close range, the arrow was the closest thing he had to a weapon.

      Kaolin was silently cussing out the fact that they couldn't use their magic in front of Jasmine and Samuel in his head. He had to jump back again when the first demon stepped forwards and slashed for his chest, followed by the second demon who swung his hand through the air and sending a thin disc of flames at Kaolin. He quickly ducked under the flames and took another step back. 'At this rate I'll never get a chance to attack... And I can't dodge forever...' He thought, taking note of the fact that he was dangerously close to a steep cliff. 'Definitely can't keep dodging, they have me backed into the cliff... I need a plan...' He thought. And to make matters even worse, he could sense the energy from the portal in the distance growing stronger, getting bigger, something was happening.

      Although the two demons weren't going to give him a chance to think about it, they continued their assault. One demon waved it's arm upwards, making a pillar of black flames jump out of the ground under Kaolin's feet. Kaolin only just barely moved out of the way fast enough, and was lightly burnt by the flames and the front of his cloak caught fire. Then the second demon lunged at him again, he tried to dodge once again, but couldn't get completely out of the way and the demon's claws dug into his left shoulder, making him yelp in pain and stumble back. As he stumbled and tried to regain his balance his foot slipped and he nearly fell off the cliff, but he regained his footing really quick. Not fast enough though, his eyes widened as he saw the first demon wave it's arm upwards, making a large wall of black flames spring out of the ground infront of Kaolin; the demon then pushed it's arm forward, making the wall of flames start sliding forwards towards Kaolin. The wall was too big to get around and it was moving too fast, there was no way he could dodge it. So, he took a step backwards, stepping right off the edge and letting himself fall off.

      The two demons watched Kaolin fall off the cliff, they both stepped forward and looked down the side of the cliff. It was a very long fall they couldn't even see the ground at the bottom of the cliff clearly, no one would survive it if they fell all the way to the ground. They didn't see him hanging onto anything, nor did they see him falling. They presumed he had fallen to his death and was too far down to see, so they both turned their attention to Samuel and ran at him instead.

      Samuel's eyes widened as the two demons ran at him. The first demon threw a kick for Samuel's head, but he ducked under it and stabbed one of the sai into the back of the demon's ankle. He aimed it perfectly to cut the tendons in the demon's ankle, rendering the demon unable to stand on that leg. He rolled out of the way when the second demon threw a fireball at him. Despite only being thirteen years old, he was fighting with the skill and experience of someone who had been trained their entire life.

      Although even his seemingly impossible skill in combat wasn't enough. The first demon threw a sweeping kick for Samuel's legs, causing him to jump to avoid the kick; at which point the demon grabbed Samuel out of mid-air by his throat and held him off the ground. The second demon moved in closer to them creating a flame in the palm of it's hand as it prepared to finish off Samuel. “Sis! Help!” Samuel screamed in a panic.

      Jasmine was fighting with two more demons, rather far from where Samuel was. One demon slashed for her head, but she ducked and slashed her gauntlet back at it, giving it a grazing cut across it's chest. The other demon went to kick her from the side, but she blocked the kick with the blade on the side of her other gauntlet; cutting into the demon's leg but also knocking her over and making her slide a few feet across the ground from the force of the kick. Jasmine immediately flipped back onto her feet and held her gauntlets in a defensive stance. She saw Kaolin fall off the cliff, but didn't react to it, then a moment later heard her brother call out for help. She looked up to see Samuel grabbed by one of the demons. Her eyes widened in a panic, she was too far away there was no possible way she could run over there in time to save him. She hesitated for a moment, but then she stopped and seemed to on something. She held up two fingers and a bolt of electricity spiraled down Jasmine's arm from her shoulder down to her fingertips. She pointed her fingers at the demon holding Samuel, but before she could do anything Seth acted.

      Seth had also heard Samuel shout, and noticed he was in danger. Seth knew he had to use his magic to save Samuel, but he was not going to keep his magic a secret if it was going to cost the boy his life. He quickly stomped his foot and a stone pillar jumped out of the ground next to the demon holding Samuel, hitting the demon square in the head, causing the demon to drop Samuel and stumble backwards.

      There was no point in hiding his magic anymore, since he had just used it in front of them. So Seth turned back to the two demons fighting with him, just in time to dodge another fireball. The second demon charged at Seth, but he dragged his foot across the ground, making the ground under the demon's feet twist and causing the demon to trip. As the demon fell, Seth waved both his arms outwards, causing the ground under the demon to open, and making spikes protrude out of the walls of the newly created hole. Once the demon fell into the hole, Seth clapped his arms together and the hole in the ground slammed shut, impaling the demon on the spikes and crushing it; the ground closing as if there was never a hole there.

      The last demon fighting Seth spat a stream of black flames at him. But Seth countered by spitting normal flames back, the two streams of flames clashed and canceled each other out. Seth didn't see what happened to Kaolin, or where he was, but was counting on Kaolin to protect Samuel since he was busy with the demon attacking him.

      Jasmine's eyes widened as she saw Seth using earth, and then fire magic. 'Earth and fire magic... These guys are definitely the right ones...' She thought, then smirked. She extinguished the bolt of electricity that was gathering at her fingertips and turned back to the two wounded demons she was fighting. One of them threw a fireball at her, so she jumped diagonally to the side to dodge and to close the distance between them. Then did something unexpected; she slashed her bladed gauntlet at one of the demons, despite being just a little out of reach. But in the middle of the slash, she slipped her hand out of her gauntlet, throwing the gauntlet blade-first into the demon's head then jumping back as the demon exploded into black flames and disappeared. The right-handed gauntlet that had impaled it's head also disappearing with it. Jasmine wasn't really bothered by losing one of Kaolin's gauntlets she knew she wouldn't need them for much longer, and neither would he. Although she did consider keeping the one she had as a souvenir, she did quite like them. She turned to the other demon, raising her gauntlet into a defensive stance again.

      Once Samuel was dropped by the demon holding him, he ducked under the fireball that had been thrown at him by the other demon. Taking advantage of the demon that had been disoriented from being hit in the head, he spun around and threw both sai at it with perfect accuracy. One sai piercing it's throat and the other hitting it's forehead, sadly the second one was not sharp enough to pierce the demon's forehead and bounced off. Samuel then jerked his hands backwards and both Sai flew back into his hands as the demon who had been stabbed in the throat choked for a moment, before it also combusted into black flames and disappeared. Leaving just three demons left, one fighting with each person. All three of the teens continued fighting, only Jasmine being aware of Kaolin falling off the cliff, but she was still doing nothing to help him with that. She was just shrugging it off as if it hadn't happened.

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- Next chapter: Chapter 7: A real demon.

8: Chapter Seven: A Real Demon

~~ Chapter 7: A Real Demon ~~

      Seth, Jasmine, and Samuel stood up on the mountain. The three of them facing the three remaining demons. It was a brief pause in the fighting where neither side was attacking, and Seth used the moment to look around the battle field, to make sure his friends where alright. Although, he couldn't see Kaolin anywhere, Kaolin still hadn't been seen or heard from since he fell off the cliff. “Guys, where is Kaolin?” Seth called out.

      “I saw him fall off the cliff.” Jasmine replied casually. Before she ran at the demon in front of her, throwing a sweeping kick at it's legs and forcing the demon to jump to evade the kick. As the demon jumped it spat a stream of black flames down at Jasmine, but she just rolled out of the way and jumped at the demon while it was in mid-air. Stabbing her bladed gauntlet through it's chest, then kicking the demon away before it combusted into black flames and disappeared.

      Seth froze for a moment at that news, but shook his head. 'What am I thinking? Kaolin can use earth magic, and there's earth everywhere around here. Surely he caught himself with his magic before falling too far... But why hasn't he come back up?' He thought. 'Unless... No! He didn't go after the portal alone, did he? Please tell me he didn't!' He thought.

      But then Seth was knocked out of his thoughts by the demon attacking him again. Seth quickly raised his hammer to block the demon's claws and stomped the ground, causing a stone spike to jump out of the ground and force the demon to jump back to dodge it. “Everyone, take care of these last demons quickly! Kaolin may be in grave danger!” He called out. 'Kaolin what are you thinking? This is dark, demonic magic you're working with, it's not to be messed around with. And it's to risky going alone to a place where more demons could be... Please tell me you didn't really try this...'

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      Seth's assumption had been correct. When Kaolin fell off the cliff, he had made a stone hand reach out of the wall and caught himself. Then he pulled the hand and himself into the wall to hide from the demons when they looked over the edge. From there, he got out of the wall, and went after the portal.

      Kaolin was quietly creeping up on the portal, trying to be sneaky and keeping on the lookout for any other demons that may have come out of it. But so far the coast was clear, it seemed like those six where the only ones coming out of this portal. 'Well, this is turning out to be much easier then expected. We just can't risk more of these things coming out while we're fighting the first wave of them...'  He thought.

      Kaolin quickly ran up to the portal, his curiosity made him consider sticking his head through it, just to see what was on the other side. Presumably the underworld, but he still was curious about what it looked like. Although he thought twice about doing that, he was rather attached to his head and didn't want to risk losing it, so he kept it on this side of the portal.

      He had learned a lot about dark magic since he left the village, despite Seth constantly nagging him about it being evil, uncontrollable magic that shouldn't be touched. Kaolin never had a problem controlling it, and he used that as a basis for telling Seth it wasn't evil magic. Dark magic was the magic of demons so by studying it he knew their ancient language, and could remember a few chants and rituals from the book. He was pretty sure he remembered the right one for closing a demonic portal.

      He pressed his palms together and closed his eyes, focusing on the portal. A black aura of dark energy surrounded him, connecting Kaolin to the portal. Once the connection was made kaolin started quietly chanting in the demonic language, slowly becoming louder.  As he chanted the aura around him became darker and denser. About halfway through the chanting, Kaolin took one of his arrows and used it to lightly cut a star shape into the palm of his left hand. Cutting just deep enough to bleed a little, but not enough to leave any scars.

      Kaolin then held out his cut hand, palm forward towards the portal. The energy from the portal was drawn to his hand, looking like a black mist was being sucked out of the portal and into his palm, disappearing on contact with his hand. As he drained the portal the black aura around Kaolin grew bigger and even darker and the portal started to shrink. 'It should just take a few seconds for me to absorb all the demonic energy that's keeping this portal here, once that's gone the portal will close. Then I just need to dispel the energy...' He thought.

      The portal continued to shrink, until it had nearly disappeared. Although, then the worst possible thing happened. A large, red and muscular hand that was twice the size of a human's hand reached out from the portal. Tearing the portal open again, then the demon it belonged to stepped out of the portal. As soon as it stepped out the portal snapped shut and closed, being too weak to stay open any longer.

      Kaolin's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. 'N-No... That's... A real demon... There's no way I can fight that... And If it sees me, there's no escaping it either...' He thought. Kaolin looked up at the demon in pure fear. It was ten feet tall, and was rather large from being nearly pure muscle; With large horns on it's head, long and very sharply pointed teeth, red skin with useable wings and sharp claws that could easily cut through metal.

      The demon smirked and turned around to face Kaolin, who was frozen in fear. It chuckled darkly, “I can hear your heartbeat human. It gives away your fear.” It stated in a very deep and demonic voice, grinning and bearing it's sharp teeth. They both just stood there, staring at each other. Neither of them moving, but both of them knowing exactly what would happen next.

      After a long moment of silence, the stillness shattered in an instant. The demon made the first move, it threw a fireball that was almost as big as a human at Kaolin. Kaolin panicked and quickly made a stone wall in front of himself to block most of the fire; some of the flames flew past the sides of the wall and they where so hot they scorched Kaolin without them even touching him. Kaolin cringed from being scorched, 'If that fire touches me at all, I'm dead... I'll need to be very careful.' He thought.

      The demon just smirked as it lunged forwards and punched the stone wall Kaolin was hiding behind, shattering the wall and launching Kaolin several feet back from the force of the blow. The demon then started walking towards Kaolin, slowly. It wasn't taking the fight seriously and was getting enjoyment out of playing with it's first victim. “You can't defeat me human, it took three entire armies to banish me the first time and only one person survived. You alone stand no chance. End your life now, to make it less painful.”

      Kaolin shakily sat up, trying to regain his bearings after being knocked so far back. He thought about his options and the demon's proposal. Trying to think of a strategy to win. But then sighed and pulled an arrow out of his quiver. “Fine, I admit defeat. I can't win. But I have a request before I do this...” He said as he then held the arrow's point to his own throat.

      The demon looked surprised, amused, and disappointed, all at once. “You're actually admitting defeat and killing yourself?” It questioned. “Alright, what's your request? I'm not likely to do it, but I'll hear what you have to say.” It said, giving the smaller guy a curious look.

      Kaolin let out a long sigh and tightened his grip on the arrow at his throat. Focusing for a moment. He had the demon's attention, the demon believed he was going to kill himself and let it's guard down.  “... Please die.” He said, unleashing the demonic energy he had gathered from draining the portal. Using that demonic energy to give a massive boost to his dark magic for one attack. In a split second hundreds of shadow-like spikes launched out of the demon's shadow, all launching at the demon from behind and impaling every part of it's body.

      The demon eyes widened and it let out a grunt of pain, before dropping to it's knees then falling onto it's face. Kaolin watched the demon for a moment, panting heavily. 'It's... Dead? I killed it? I can't believe that worked.' He thought, although his body was shaking a little after letting out all that energy at once; but now both of his problems where solved, he defeated the demon and he dispelled all that demonic energy he had absorbed. Not to mention he closed the portal too.

      Kaolin got up and started shakily walking away, returning to the others. He glanced back as he left, to make sure there was nothing he missed, and as soon as he turned around what he saw made his heart jump into his throat and made him scream. The demon wasn't dead, it was now within two feet of him and in the middle of throwing a kick at his back.

      There was nothing Kaolin could do to dodge the kick, it was too late for him to move. The demon's foot impacted Kaolin's back with a bone-snapping crack. The kick was strong enough to break several of Kaolin's ribs on contact, and sent Kaolin flipping and skidding several feet across the ground, stopped only when his back slammed into a stone. One of Kaolin's arms was broken as he went flipping across the ground, and one of his legs broke as well from hitting the stone wrong. To make matters even worse all his arrows had fallen out of his quiver and where now scattered on the ground.

      Kaolin squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth in pain, in his mind he was shouting every curse word he knew at the demon. The demon laughed darkly. “Naive boy. Did you really think you could kill me that easily? With demonic magic at that? Who tries to kill a demon with demonic magic?” It laughed, although the demon was limping and clearly badly wounded, by the looks of it the demon was bluffing and had only just barely survived. “But, I will admit. I underestimated you, you managed to hurt me, I'm impressed.” It said, chuckling as it watched Kaolin with interest. One person bringing down a demon was unheard of, it normally took several big armies to bring one down. So just wounding it and almost killing it was an impressive feat. “You amuse me, so I think I'll leave you alive for now. If you can survive your injuries.”

      Kaolin gave the demon a questioning look. “I amuse you...? What are you talking about?” He questioned.

      “I am a greater demon, my powers are beyond that of you humans. I can see into your mind, I can see your past, your emotions, your thoughts and feelings. A human, mistreated and stepped on to the point where he snapped and ripped out all of his own emotions, feelings, hopes and dreams. Everything. Or so you thought. You really only bottled them all up, they are all still there, waiting to burst out of those bottles and explode when you're pushed just a little too far.” It started to say.

      “You resent living in your brother's shadow, you hate always being the weak one who constantly needs help and constantly needs to be saved. You desire power, for the sole intention of being stronger then everyone else; just to not be the weak one anymore.” The demon stated, causing Kaolin's eyes to widen. “The demonic powers of darkness are well placed in your hands, learn more of it and learn how to use demonic energy on your own, then you can achieve that power you seek.” The demon said with a grin.

      “Y-You're wrong... I don't seek power... I don't care if I'm weak and stepped on... And I'm fine with my brother being stronger...” Kaolin said unsurely.

      “In due time... Everything will change and you will want to be stronger then your brother.” The demon replied simply. Although it was then hit in the side of the head by a large boulder that seemed to come out of nowhere, knocking the demon over. Kaolin looked over to see Seth, Jasmine, and Samuel coming in to join the fight.

      They had defeated the last lesser demon, and as they where walking here Seth healed the team's injuries, so they where all up and ready for a fight. “Lyn, are you alright? Looks like we got here just in time to save ya.” Seth said, letting out a sigh of relief. “You have to be more careful and stop doing these crazy things!” He scolded.

      Kaolin frowned a bit and looked up at Seth. 'I didn't need saving... I was fine since the demon stopped attacking...' He thought. But he shook it off and stopped frowning. “I'm fine, thanks for the help.” He muttered quietly.

      Samuel and Jasmine where staring in disbelief at the demon. “That's... A real demon? Do we stand a chance to beat it?” Jasmine asked, fear being clear in her voice.

      “Sis... We have our secret weapon... Theoretically it should work on a demon since demons are made from magic... Sure, we'd be wasting our best plan for our job, but it would help us survive.” Samuel whispered quietly.

      Jasmine paused for a moment, “You're right, but use it only as a last resort.” She whispered back.

      Samuel reached into his bag and pulled out a dagger. The blade was pure black, and the handle was a very dark red with gold painted along the edges and creases of the handle. “It wouldn't look right if I was holding onto it, they may get suspicious. You keep it for now.” He whispered. Jasmine nodded and took the dagger after he said that, hiding it in her bag.

      The demon groaned and stood back up, growling as it turned to the others that had shown up. Upon looking at them for a moment, it grinned. “Your friends are just as amusing as you are boy...” It laughed. Turning to face Seth, “You must be his brother. You too have been mistreated and stepped on to the point where you snapped. But you also carry the burden of watching the one person you care about the most go through the same; you had to watch him be hurt so much he was emotionally and morally destroyed and turned nearly inhumanly cold. You desire power too, but you also seek revenge on those who hurt your brother. You desire power to kill those who have harmed him... But you hold back, because of him. Is it really fair to deny yourself the things you want because of him? Is it alright to let those people get off with no punishment, just because he says so?” The demon smirked, it loved causing strife.

      It then turned to Jasmine and Samuel. Both of their eyes had widened in fear when they heard it speak about Seth. “And you two, I don't even know where to start.” The demon started to say.

      “Sis, we need to make the thing shut up before it says something about us. It could spill all of our secrets.” Samuel whispered urgently. Although, his words where unneeded as Seth did exactly that.

      “What I do is my own choice, if my brother doesn't want those people harmed I will respect his wishes.” Seth growled, the demon's words had invoked all of the anger and hatred from everything in his past that he had been holding back, for a brief moment. The demon was right, Seth didn't think it was right or fair for those people to get off with no punishment. But he would respect his brother's wishes and bite back on his own feelings. He shook off the thoughts and threw another large boulder at the demon's head.

      The demon was paying attention this time, and just swatted the boulder away without much effort. “You really want to fight me boy?” It questioned, it may have been nearly dead after Kaolin's attack, but it was still a force to be reckoned with. The demon waved a hand upwards and several shadow-like spikes came out of it's shadow and fired at Seth. Who quickly made a stone wall to block the spikes, although he was fighting a powerful demon and was unsure if the wall would work. So he also dove to the side to dodge the spikes, and he was correct, the spikes pierced clean through the stone wall as if it were paper. Just barely missing him when he dodged.

      Samuel and Jasmine just stayed back and watched the fight, not daring to interfere. Kaolin was too wounded to fight, so he had no choice but to sit on the sidelines for now. The demon made a large fireball appear in it's hand, then threw the fireball at Seth, But Seth just used aether magic to disappear in a bright flash of light, teleporting behind the demon and holding out his hands as he fired a stream of flames at it's back.

      The demon was wounded from Kaolin's previous attack and couldn't move as fast. So it was hit by the flames and burnt slightly, but it otherwise shrugged them off. It waved it's hand upwards and two shadow-like hands reached out of Seth's shadow and grabbed him by his legs. Pinning him to the ground as the demon turned around, then created another fireball in it's hand and threw it at Seth while he couldn't move.

      Although, being the genius he was, Seth thought of another way to dodge the flames. If he couldn't pull his feet off the ground he'd just take the ground with him. He quickly raised his hand, making a small section of the ground his feet where pinned to lift up, he then waved his arm to the side, throwing the section of the ground and himself with it to the side and away from the flames.

      “There's no way he can win this fight... He can hardly even hurt the demon, and if the demon hits him once it's over...” Samuel whispered, then sighed. “If he dies now, we'll die too... We'll have to put off our job for now and use the dagger.”

      Jasmine sighed, “You're right, and this would've been a golden opportunity to finish the job too...” She muttered quietly as she took out the dagger. “Seth!” She shouted and held up the black dagger. “Take this! It's an enchanted dagger, it will absorb and seal away the magic of the first person it stabs. Since demons are made from dark magic, it should absorb and seal the demon too!” She called out.

      Kaolin narrowed his eyes at her. 'Something's not right... They said they had no weapons when they joined us. They lied about their family's profession... And on top of that, what is a blacksmith, or farmer, or whatever they really are doing with such a powerful weapon; specifically designed for killing mages? It doesn't make any sense...' He thought. 'They're hiding something... I knew we couldn't trust them... I knew nobody could be trusted...' He thought.

      Seth lit his legs on fire for just a brief second to burn away the shadow-hands. Since fire created light, and light pushed away shadows the flames burnt the shadow-like hands off his legs and freed him. The demon ran at Seth and went to punch him, but once the shadow-hands had let him go he disappeared in a flash of light again and reappeared next to Jasmine. “You sure this will work?” Seth asked.

      “No, not really. But it makes sense, so it might work. Demons are made from dark magic and this dagger can seal away magic energy, which means the magic that made the demon should be able to be sealed away, which hopefully will seal the rest of the demon away with it.” Jasmine replied simply, placing the dagger in Seth's hand and giving him a gentle push towards the demon. “I believe in you, I know you can do it.” She said encouragingly.

      Seth sighed, “It's worth a shot.” He said before he ran straight at the demon.

      “Stupid boy! Are you really going to run at me head-on?” The demon questioned, then spat a large stream of flames at Seth. Seth cussed and quickly made a stone wall spring out of the ground to protect him from the flames, but there was so much fire Seth was completely engulfed in it and could no longer be seen. When the flames dispersed only a severely burnt stone wall stood where Seth had been. “Ha! The flames where so hot, there's nothing left of him.” The demon laughed, believing it had won.

      Although just seconds after it said that, there was a flash of light behind the demon's head and Seth appeared where the flash had been. He quickly stabbed the dagger into the back of the demon's neck. “One thing all you demons have in common. You're cocky and stupid.” He stated, smirking at the fact that his bluff had worked.

      The demon suddenly felt itself being sucked into the dagger and it's eyes widened. “It actually worked!?” It said in disbelief. It hadn't expected the dagger to actually be able to seal a demon. Although then it smirked. “You're all fools! I grow stronger with every kill I get. If you seal me inside a weapon like this, I'll get stronger with every person the user kills! I'll eventually grow strong enough to possess the user and escape! You can't stop me like this!” It called out, before being sucked into the dagger and disappearing.

      Seth smirked as he looked at the dagger. “I knew that already.” He said simply. He walked over to the large stone Kaolin had crashed into previously, and with a wave of his hand the stone opened up and he placed the dagger inside, then waved his hand again and closed the stone, sealing the dagger inside it. “And now you won't come back, since no one can find the dagger.”

      Seth then sighed and turned to Kaolin. “Now you, I told you not to go after the portal alone, why don't you listen?” He scolded, then crouched down and started healing Kaolin's injuries.

      “Hey! I closed the portal. If you had let me go sooner this never would've happened.” Kaolin argued.

      “If you had done as I said we could have closed it together, and you wouldn't have gotten hurt.” Seth countered. “You could have died! You almost did die.”

      “Who knows what would've happened by then!” Kaolin argued. “I can make my own decisions, and I decided to fix it as soon as possible. And we're lucky I did, if we had waited any longer that demon would have gotten out and I wouldn't have been there to stop him.”

      Seth growled, “I know you can make your own decisions. But I expect you to do as I say when I tell you to do something.” He stated. “Drop the issue, we have bigger things to get to. Once you're healed we need to make our way down the rest of the mountain, and set up camp in the forest.” He said.

      Kaolin looked away, “Fine...” He muttered.

      Samuel turned to his sister, the two of them keeping their distance from the twins. “What do we do now sis?  Got a backup plan?” He whispered.

      “Of course. Now that we have the information we need, we can set it into action. I'll do it when we get to camp.” Jasmine whispered back. “You'll know it when I do it.”

      Samuel nodded, “Alright. Hopefully this works.” He whispered.

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– Next chapter: Driving the nail

9: Chapter Eight: Driving the Nail

~~ Chapter 8: Driving the nail ~~

      It wasn't too long before Kaolin's injuries were healed. Once it was finished both twins stood up, wobbling a bit due to them both being very tired and worn out from everything they had done. “Lets get moving, quickly. I really just want to rest right now.” Seth said. “Since you two know we're mages now, there's no point in walking anymore. Everyone hop on.” He added, before raising his hand and making a moderate sized stone platform raise out of the ground.

      Everyone got onto the stone and sat down. “Hold on.” Seth said before he waved his arm forwards and made the stone speed off, just going straight down the side of the mountain. Ignoring any cliffs and drops that may have been in the way, making it almost into a roller coaster ride. “I apologize for not telling you two we where mages sooner, but we didn't want to scare you away. We planned to tell you later on, when you trusted us more.” Seth explained to their friends.

      Jasmine nodded, “It's alright, we understand.” She replied simply. “Soo... Since you two are so tired can I make dinner tonight?” She asked.

      “Don't worry about that... I got it.” Kaolin said quietly. He actually enjoyed cooking, and saw it as solely his job to do that for everyone. So even if he was tired he still wanted to do it, and also felt like he had to do it since it was 'his job' in his mind.

      “You're tired, both of you should go rest and just leave that stuff to us.” Jasmine replied. “You guys have done enough for today, let us help out.”

      “No really... I like cooking, I can do it.” Kaolin argued quietly. “That's my job to do anyways.”

      “It's not your job, none of us really have jobs here. So come on, let me do it, just once.” Jasmine insisted. “It won't hurt you to let me cook one time.”

      “But... Why? I always do the cooking, and I like doing the cooking... Why do you want to do it so badly...?” Kaolin asked.

      “It's a surprise, and I know you guys will love the surprise. So just let me do it this once.” Jasmine replied. “I swear, this will be the biggest surprise you guys have had, and you guys will love it.”

      Samuel looked up at his sister, catching the hidden meaning in her words. “Yeah, please let us do this one thing for you guys. For saving us on that mountain, we never would've survived that without you guys.” He said.

      Seth nodded. “Come on Kaolin, it won't hurt you to give her a chance to cook once. You can do it tomorrow.” He stated. “A surprise sounds nice, go ahead Jasmine. You've got me interested in this now, it's just dinner, what could be so special about it?” He mused.

      “Can't tell or it would spoil the surprise.~ You'll see when it's done.” Jasmine said in a sing-song tone.

      Seth chuckled lightly, “I guess we will, we still have a short ride to the forest ahead of us though.” He said simply “I'm surprised, you two are so calm around mages. I mean, most 'normal' humans fear them, but you two aren't bothered by us.” He said, stressing the word normal.

      Jasmine chuckled, “Well, I guess we're just not normal then. Right Sam?” She asked, turning to her little brother.

      The young boy looked up at her and chuckled as well, “Yep, we're different from everyone else.” He said. “We think mages are just like everyone else, they can be both good or bad. You never know until you get to know them. He said.

      Seth smiled at Samuel and nodded. “Exactly. All living things, even those that are not human. Can be both good and bad, so nothing can really be judged without getting to know it first.” He said. Looking forward as they reached the bottom of the mountain and headed into the forest. Seth was carefully weaving the stone everyone was seated on around the trees as they moved through the forest.

      Samuel smiled and nodded a bit, “Yeah, that's what we believe in too.” He said.

      Kaolin huffed quietly and looked away, 'Yeah, right. That's totally why you guys where hiding a weapon designed for killing mages... It makes perfect sense, that they where carrying that anti-mage weapon around because they love mages oh so very much.' He thought bitterly. Remaining silent and staring down at his hands on his lap.

      Seth nodded. “Although one thing's been bugging me. Where did you two get that dagger?” He asked. “That's not something a normal person would have access to.” He said.

      “Oh? That? Our father was a mage, but the abilities didn't pass on to us. He gave us the job of bringing that to our uncle in the next city over.” Jasmine replied simply. “Guess we kinda had to use it before we could deliver it. But I'm sure my uncle will understand.” She said.

      “Oh, alright, that sort of makes sense.” Seth said unsurely, it didn't really make any sense but he didn't want to be rude. He looked around for a clearing in the woods they could make camp on.

      Kaolin, being paranoid that everyone was against him, had been closely listening to everything they said since they met. So, of course he instantly spotted the contradiction, and called them out on it this time instead of keeping quiet. “I thought you said you left home because your village was destroyed by bandits and there was no survivors beside you two?” He questioned sharply.

      Jasmine's eyes widened at that question, but quickly shook it off. “W-Well yeah...” She hesitated. “My village was destroyed and all...” She hesitated again.

      Kaolin pressed on and continued sharply questioning her. “If your village was destroyed, and everyone died including your family, that means your father didn't send you out to meet your uncle then, he couldn't have. And why do you hesitate.”

      “Kaolin.” Seth stated firmly. Not wanting his brother to upset Jasmine and Samuel.

      “Her story has holes in it! She's lying about something.” Kaolin countered.

      “Kaolin, you're being paranoid, leave them alone.” Seth argued firmly. “Not everyone is like the villagers. And even if she is lying, it doesn't make it okay to question her like that.”

      “Just look, she's not answering the question. It's because she can't answer it.” Kaolin countered again.

      Jasmine bit her lip and tightly closed her eyes, a single tear running down her cheek. “My father gave us the job and had us leave right before the bandits attacked... It's what saved our lives. I can only imagine, he knew the bandits were coming and gave us this job just to get us out safely. He probably thought he could take them on alone, and lost.” She said quietly, her voice sounding a little shaky as she fought back tears. “I didn't answer because it hurts to think about it. Everyone I know, all my friends and family, were killed.”

      “That's a little too coincidental, don't you think?” Kaolin questioned, everything about these two made no sense to him, from their fighting skills, to their story, to the lies he had caught them in. He was not going to believe in something that sounded too good to be true.

      “Well that's how it happened! You don't need to be such an ass about it!” Jasmine countered, she looked down and more tears started to run down her face.

      “Kaolin! Knock it off. Now.” Seth demanded firmly, giving his brother a stern glare.

      Kaolin was about to argue but when Seth spoke up he bit his tongue and looked away at the passing trees, grunting quietly in disapproval. 'I know she's lying... I'm not an idiot... I'm not falling for the fake tears.' He thought.

      “Jasmine, it's alright. I'm sorry about my brother's actions, I don't know what's gotten into him.” Seth said softly, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “I'm sorry you lost your family, but you have us now. We're all sortof like a family now, right?” He said in a soft, comforting tone.

      Jasmine nodded a little, still crying as she said “I'm sorry... It's just so hard to talk about... And I just feel attacked...” She said quietly, leaning against Seth's side.

      Seth comfortingly wrapped one arm around her waist when she leaned against him, “It's alright, I'm going to have a talk with Kaolin afterwords. He won't do that again.” He said softly as the stone they where riding on floated out into a clearing in the woods and stopped. “And it's okay to cry, I know it's hard. The same has happened to us... Just let it out and try to cheer up.”

      “I know I need to just let it out... It's just easier said then done...” Jasmine said quietly, wiping a few tears out of her eyes, but she remained leaning against Seth.

      “I know, but you have us here to help you out now.” Seth said softly. He started moving his other hand in a few sweeping gestures, moving the earth in the clearing to form two stone huts that the group could use as shelter. There was no need for tents when they could just use earth magic to make a stone house. Once the stone huts where made Seth made a stone fire pit rise out of the ground in the middle of the campsite.

      Kaolin got off the stone and walked off to the camp silently, gathering some wood and starting the fire. Samuel glanced at his sister for a moment, giving her a worried look before also walking to the campsite. Kaolin glanced up at Samuel, 'Talking about their past and family makes his sister so upset, but not him? He doesn't look the slightest bit bothered by it... And he's just a child... He's the one who should be the most upset...' He thought, becoming even more suspicious of the two of them, he was sure they where lying and didn't care if his brother called him paranoid. He just huffed and let it go for now though, returning to starting the fire.

      “You feeling any better Jasmine?” Seth asked softly.

      Jasmine nodded and sat up, “Yeah, I'm feeling a bit better now. Thanks.” She said, giving him a weak smile as she stood up and got off the stone.

      Seth nodded and also stood up, placing a hand on her shoulder for a moment. “If you're ever upset or need to talk, I'm here for you. I'll listen and try to help, alright? And if my brother gives you any more trouble just tell me.” He said.

      Jasmine nodded, “Alright.” She said quietly. “Thank you.”

      Seth smiled for a moment, before he turned and walked over to Kaolin at the campsite. Who had just gotten the fire started, simply by piling up a bunch of sticks and lighting them on fire with magic. Kaolin looked up at Seth, “Yeah, yeah, I know. We're gonna talk.” He muttered Sighing as he stood up and started walking away from the camp. Seth nodded then followed his brother away from the camp, to talk in private.

      Jasmine walked over to Samuel, sitting beside him in front of the campfire. “That was a close call sis. They almost got you there.” Samuel said once he was sure Kaolin and Seth where out of earshot. “But of course, you're as good at acting as ever, nice one.” He chuckled.

      Jasmine let out a sigh of relief, “We're not out of the water yet though. The black haired boy didn't buy it.” She said, shaking her head a little before she reached into her bag and took out a quill, some ink, and a paper. Then started writing.

      “Writing to mother again?” Samuel asked. “Is there any news on how she's doing? Is she okay?” He worriedly asked as he leaned over to read what his sister was writing.

      Jasmine nodded, “No, there's no news, but no news is good news. No news means she's still alive. I'm writing to tell her this job is pretty much finished, it'll be done by tomorrow.” She said.

      “So mom will be okay? She's going to be okay, right?” Samuel asked.

“Yes, this is the last job we need to do, once we collect our pay from this we'll have the money we need. Then we just go back to town and pay that old hag to heal mom's illness. She will be okay, don't worry.” She said softly, placing a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder. She shook her head lightly and sighed, “I still can't believe how much she's charging us for this... I mean, it's not like it takes anything for her to use her healing magic, and mother will die without it... Yet she charges a fortune.”

      Samuel sighed lightly, “People will do anything for money... Just look at us Jas. We're killing people for money. People who may not have even done anything wrong...” He said quietly. “I do wonder why that man from the village wanted them dead so badly though... They don't seem like bad people.”

      “You say that as if I enjoy or want to kill people. It's not like that at all, I hate this.” Jasmine countered, “We just don't have a choice... It's the fastest way to get the money. And no I don't know what that guy's motives were.” She said, but shook it off. She finished writing the letter and a bolt of electricity ran down her arm again. She touched the paper and made a lightning shape scorch mark on the bottom corner of it before dispersing the electricity on her arm. It was just a seal she used so her mother knew the letter was really from her. There weren't a whole lot of lightning mages who could do that. She then put the letter in an envelope and sealed it before handing it to Samuel. “Alright, send that out to mother.” She said.

      Samuel nodded, he focused for a moment, then the letter flew out of his hands and up into the air. Taking off into the sky and flying away to it's destination. “It's sent.” He said. “And whether we like it or not isn't the question. What I was saying is we're not much better then the old lady. Playing with people's lives for money.” He said. “... Does... Does that make us bad people too?” The small boy quietly asked the one question only a child would think of asking.

      “No Samuel, that doesn't make us bad people. We're only trying to save mom, we don't have a choice. We are good people, the hag who refuses to save mother unless we pay her a fortune is the bad one.” Jasmine reassured him.

      “But we are killing people. People who have been nice to us, and may be good people...” Samuel countered. “Isn't that what bad people do? And maybe she is forced to charge high prices, she needs money to live... She didn't say 'go kill people to save your mother' she just put a price on her skills...”

      Jasmine hesitated and took a moment to respond. “No. We are only doing this because mother is sick, because she'll die if we don't pay that healer to save her. We are good people, we are protecting mom. And the guy who hired us said that these two were criminals, even if they seem nice they could be faking it like we are.” She stated in an unsure tone. She started cooking dinner, taking some meat out of their supplies and cooking it over the fire. “Anyways, get me the vial I have in my bag, in the secret pouch. We end this tonight so we can get back to mom quickly, we don't want to waste time.” She said.

      Samuel nodded, he heard her words but he didn't feel like they were good people and he could tell that his sister was unsure about it too. He went into her bag and got out a small vial of clear liquid. Then handed it to Jasmine who took it and poured the entire thing onto the meat. “Um, Jasmine? That stuff's really potent, it only needed a few drops to be lethal.” Samuel said unsurely.

      “Yeah, but don't you remember what the guy who hired us said about them? They have cheated death several times already... Best not to take any chances, and once this is over we'll have no need for poisons anyways.” Jasmine replied simply. “Now, to make an excuse for us not to eat any...” She murmured as she cut the meat and placed half of it directly in the fire. Making sure half of it was badly burnt and inedible, while being careful not to burn the other half.

      Samuel nodded as he watched. “Alright, that should work. We just need to wait for them to come back and get their surprise then.” He murmured quietly.

      Jasmine nodded and resumed cooking the meal. “Remember, as soon as they realize it's poison, the blond one will try to heal it. Strike him down first, to stop him from healing.”

–

–

      Kaolin and Seth walked through the woods together. “What's gotten into you Kaolin? That was completely uncalled for.” Seth growled,

      “I didn't trust them from the start! And-” Kaolin started saying but was cut off by Seth.

      “I know that! You made it plainly obvious, but you're being paranoid. Not everyone is out to get us, we got away from the villagers, Jasmine and Samuel are not affiliated with them. So there's no reason not to trust them.” Seth stated angrily, but firmly. His pent up anger was seeping out of him in waves.

      “Everything about them is just way too coincidental!” Kaolin stated. “They just happened to be the only survivors of a bandit attack? Just happened to find our hidden campsite, just happened to be incredibly good fighters for no reason,  just happened to have a dagger meant specifically for killing mages, that they wait to show until after they know we're mages.” He stated. “You can't say that's not all incredibly coincidental, too coincidental to be true.”

      Kaolin took a breath before continuing. “Not to mention their attitude towards us makes no sense. We told them upfront we where outcasts, we could have been murderers, criminals, anything as far as they knew. But they where unfazed by that and followed us anyways. They kept discreetly digging at our past, and almost trying to push us into telling them about our magic. They even specifically said they where really interested in earth and fire magic! But when we use it in front of them they suddenly don't care anymore. You think it's just yet another coincidence they just happened to pick out the forms of magic we knew?” He argued. “And they've lied several times too. Please tell me you at least noticed they where lying!”

      Seth sighed lightly, taking a deep breath and trying to repress his anger again. “Yes, I know. I noticed all of that as well. But honestly, what's the worst they could possibly want from us if they really are lying? Stealing some money? Or our possessions? Not like we have much to lose. Not like they can kill us, they are just two humans.” He stated. “And if it turns out they weren't lying about their past, then you just really hurt her with what you said. So we give them the benefit of the doubt and believe their story, even if it is full of holes. We weren't exactly being honest either, we hid our magic.”

      “But it's obviously a lie!” Kaolin countered.

      “I don't care!” Seth angrily snapped. “They are being nice, friendly people to us and that's all that matters. Now, they are making us a special meal. When we go back, you're going to apologize and be polite to them. Understand me?” He said firmly.

      Kaolin growled quietly in disapproval, “Fine...” He muttered.

      “Good, now lets go back for dinner.” Seth said. “I'm sure in time you'll realize they aren't as bad as you think.” He then turned and started leading the way back to camp, with Kaolin following right behind him.

–

–

Next chapter: Breaking point, the last straw.

10: Chapter Nine: Breaking Point the Last Straw

~~ Chapter 9: Breaking Point the Last Straw~~

      Kaolin and Seth walked back into the camp after having their talk, Kaolin was still looking rather bitter and annoyed but he covered that up when they arrived. The two of them sat by the campfire with Jasmine, Samuel was not there. Seth gave the half burnt meat they where cooking a curious look. “It looks just like ordinary meat, I'm curious as to what this surprise is.” Seth said. “Thank you for cooking you two.” He added. Noticing that Samuel wasn't at the camp, but presumed he went to do something.

      “Oh, you don't need to thank us. It's not a problem at all. It's a special ingredient we added to the food, trust me you guys will love it.” Jasmine said, putting the burnt half of the meat aside then cutting the other half into two pieces.

      Seth nodded, “We don't need to, but it's polite so we did anyways. We do appreciate this.” He said. With a wave of his hand stone plates and utensils came out of the ground and into Seth's hand. He then used magic to light all the plates and utensils on fire for a moment, burning off any dirt that had been on them. Then he put the fires out and handed them to Jasmine. “Here, use these. No worries, they are clean.” He said.

      Jasmine smiled and nodded, putting the two pieces on two of the plates. “I accidentally burnt half of it, so there's not enough for all of us. You guys eat this and I'll make something new for me and Sam.” She said as she handed Kaolin and Seth the plates of poisoned food.

      Both twins took their plates, Kaolin skeptically eyed his plate, while Seth turned back to Jasmine. “That's not fair to you two, here, take mine and I'll just have the second meal you make.” He said softly, handing the plate back to her.

      Jasmine's eyes widened when the plate was handed to her, looking at it as if it was going to bite her. She knew very well that if she ate that she would die, she had to convince him to eat it instead. She gently pushed it back to Seth, “No, really. I can wait. You eat it.” She said, smiling kindly at Seth.

      Seth shook his head, “No I insist, I don't want you to be left out.” He said simply, handing the plate back to her.

      “No, no no no, I'm not being left out. Don't worry about that, just eat” Jasmine said, pushing the plate back to him.

      Seth sighed, then cut his piece in half and put half on another plate. He then handed one of the plates to Jasmine, “Then I'll compromise, we'll split it. You have no reason to say no to splitting it.” He said simply.

      Jasmine bit her lip, he was right she had no reason to say no to splitting the food, but she had to do something to avoid eating it. She hesitantly reached out to take the plate. “Ahchoo!” She faked a sneeze, swatting the plate to the ground and making it look like she accidentally did it while sneezing. “Oh, oops. I dropped my half.” She said quickly. “Don't worry about it, I made it specially for you, so don't worry about me and just eat your food.” She said.

      Seth gave her a questioning look, starting to suspect something, but he didn't show it. “Why are you so insistent on me eating it? It would make me feel terrible if I ate and you didn't.” He said softly.

      “Because... I made it specially for you.” Jasmine said softly, Glancing at Kaolin who was poking at his food suspiciously, as if he was expecting it to jump. She moved closer to Seth and leaned against him a little, “Don't tell Kaolin... But I didn't really make it for both of you. It was a special treat I made just for you, Seth. I wanted to see if you like my cooking... It means a lot to me.” She whispered softly. Lying through her teeth, but keeping a straight face as she spoke.

      Seth sighed lightly, 'They've been nice and kind to us, and they didn't lie about anything important. Give them the benefit of the doubt...' He thought. “Well, I'm glad my opinion means so much to you.” He said, smiling a bit and patting Jasmine's head lightly before he turned to Kaolin. “Lyn, stop playing with your food.” He stated.

      Kaolin poked at his food one more time. “I am not playing with my food!...” He countered. “I'm inspecting it...” He murmured.

      “Well if you're not going to eat it, then share it with Jasmine and Samuel, whenever Sam comes back from wherever he went.” Seth said. He then began quietly eating his dinner, eating a small mouthful, then speaking once his mouth was empty again. “It's really good Jasmine. Maybe just a little plain though.” He said honestly. Then resumed eating, since he knew he wasn't going to win the argument with Jasmine.

      “Yeah, here.” Kaolin murmured, handing his plate to Jasmine.

      “And thank you that means a lot to me! I just ran out of spices, so it's a little more bland then usual.” Jasmine added cheerfully. She looked at Kaolin's plate, “It's alright, you can eat it. I'm going to make something else for me and Sam.” She said.

      “I'm not going to eat it, there's something wrong with the food, I can tell by your actions.” Kaolin said. Pushing the food up near Jasmine's face to prove his point, and making her back off. “You won't touch it, and look at it as if it's a snake that's waiting to bite ya.” He stated.

      “N-No, it's nothing like that.” Jasmine said quickly, “Just eat.” She said.

      “That, and you're pushing us to eat it too much, more-so then normal.” Kaolin added. “Something's not right.” He stated, ignoring Seth's previous request for him to keep his mouth shut and be respectful.

      Almost as if on cue, Seth grabbed his throat and started choking. Kaolin's eyes widened, then he glared at Jasmine before he quickly turned and went to rush to Seth to try and help him. But before he could even take a step closer to Seth there was a loud crack of thunder and he had to jump backwards, away from Seth to dodge a bolt of lightning that narrowly missed hitting him in the head. He immediately spun around to face the source of the lightning, which was Jasmine. Who now stood in a defensive fighting stance, Kaolin's bladed gauntlet on one arm, and a bolt of electricity running down her other arm.

      “Sorry boys, we don't know what crimes you committed. But we've been hired to kill two criminals. To save our mother.” Jasmine stated. “Our targets have been confirmed. You two die here.”

      Kaolin looked from Jasmine, to his brother Seth who was choking on the ground from the poison. He grabbed his bow and an arrow and again tried to walk towards Seth. His suspicions that Jasmine and Samuel where out to get them where confirmed. But, this was completely different then what he had thought. The way Jasmine worded that made it sound like her and her brother had been forced into this to save their mother. Kaolin turned back to Jasmine “What are you talking about?” He questioned. Readying his bow, but not pointing it at her just yet. He wasn't going to attack her if she was being forced into this.

      “A man from Oline village hired us to hunt down two criminals who escaped the village. Twins who used fire and earth magic. The money he's paying us will be all we need to save our mother.” Jasmine answered. “Now, I don't know if that man lied about you two being criminals or not. But it doesn't matter. If we have to trade your lives to save mother then so be it. You're outcasts it's not like anyone would miss you.” She said as another bolt of electricity spiraled down her arm.

      Seth took his hand off his throat and slammed it into the ground as hard as he could at the mention of the man from Oline village. “That asshole!” he choked out in rage, gritting his teeth as nothing but pure anger and hatred showed in his eyes. Seth had let it go when the villagers sent them to die against the bandits. He begrudgingly turned a blind eye to their actions, when they terribly mistreated him and his twin the entire time they where saving the villagers. He bit his tongue when, after going through so much pain and trouble to save the villagers, the villagers outcasted him and his twin. Seth had repressed his rapidly growing anger and hatred when the villagers continued to mistreat and emotionally tear apart Kaolin, the one person Seth cared about more then anything. And now they send an assassin? This was the last straw. Seth was not going to just sit back and take this anymore, he swore he would make those villagers pay dearly for the things they had done.

      Kaolin frowned a little, inwardly being very hurt that the villagers had sent an assassin after them. But he shook it off, knowing it hadn't been the entire village it had been just that one man. “We're not criminals. Please stop this, I do not wish to fight, you don't need to do this.” He said. He understood Jasmine and Samuel a little better now, they didn't want to go through with this, they where being forced into the assassination. While he held bitter feelings towards them, he was a pacifist, he never wanted to harm or kill them. He especially didn't want to do that now that he knew they where only trying to help their mother.

      “If you don't want to fight then hold still. We have to do this.” Jasmine muttered as she pointed at Kaolin, firing a bolt of lightning for his chest. Kaolin quickly dove out of the way of the lightning, but had to dive further away from Seth. Once Kaolin dove out of the way Jasmine took the opening to sprint at Seth, and aimed to stab her bladed gauntlet down at him while he was choking on the ground.

      Seth quickly crossed his arms over his chest, making a stone dome come out of the ground and cover him. Protecting him from the attack, and giving him cover as he tried to heal the poison and get it out of his body.

      Jasmine growled when Seth protected himself, she placed her hand on the stone and poured electricity into the dome. She could hear Seth scream in pain as he was electrocuted. It was only a matter of seconds before Seth retaliated by making long and sharp spikes jut out of the stone, stabbing Jasmine's hand with them. Jasmine let out a yelp of pain and staggered back, cradling her wounded hand.

      Kaolin took his chance, knowing they wouldn't stop attacking. He raised his bow and fired it for Jasmine's shoulder. Aiming to hit the shoulder opposite of her wounded hand, in hopes of just incapacitating her so they could talk her out of fighting and heal her later.

      Although, Kaolin's arrow stopped in mid-flight. It then turned back around and was then fired back into Kaolin's leg. Causing him to drop to his knees, hunch forwards and shout in pain. At that point, Samuel dropped out of his hiding place in the trees. Landing on Kaolin's back and slamming Kaolin's head into the ground while stabbing the two sai into the back of his shoulders. Causing him to cry out in pain as Samuel jumped off his back and took a defensive stance with the sai.

      Jasmine knew attacking Seth again while he was inside the dome was a lost cause, so she turned her attention to Kaolin instead. She ran over to him, then grabbed and lifted him by his neck before pinning him against a tree. Hesitating to kill him for a moment. “Jasmine you don't need to do this! We can help you! For free!” Kaolin pleaded.

      “There's only a small chance you're not a criminal and are telling the truth. While there's a one hundred percent chance that even if our employer is lying, we'll get paid for our job and be able to save mother. Saving our mother is the only thing we care about, so stop and think about which option we're going to choose.” Jasmine growled, inwardly hating that she had to do this. Several bolts of electricity ran down her gauntlet covered hand as she poured it into Kaolin, causing Kaolin to shout in pain as he was electrocuted.

      Kaolin struggled to collect himself through the intense pain, but mustered up enough energy to look up and spit flames at Jasmine's face. Forcing her to drop him and jump back to avoid getting burnt. Kaolin limply fell to the ground when Jasmine dropped him, panting and gasping for breath as his body trembled slightly from the pain.

      Another bolt of lightning spiraled down Jasmine's arm as she prepared to fire it at Kaolin. But before she could do so a stone pillar jumped out of the ground and hit her in the stomach, knocking her onto her back. Seth's stone dome burst open as an infuriated Seth stepped out of it, having removed and healed the poison in himself. He grabbed his war hammer from the campsite and ran at Jasmine with it, ready to strike.

      Samuel quickly moved in front of Seth to protect his sister, the small boy threw one of the sai for his throat. Seth just bashed the sai away with his war hammer, but with a wave of his hand Samuel used his telekinetic magic to make the sai turn around and fly back at Seth again.

      Seth growled in annoyance and waved his free hand upwards, a stone hand reached out of the ground and grabbed the sai out of mid-air and pulled it underground. Then with another wave of his hand a large boulder was fired out of the ground close to Samuel, slamming into the boy's chest. Causing him to cry out in pain as he dropped his other sai and was knocked back into the trees. Once Samuel was out of the way and likely incapacitated, Seth turned his attention back to Jasmine and sprinted at her.

      Jasmine's eyes widened when her little brother was hit, she watched as he was slammed back against a tree and pinned between the tree and the boulder. She grit her teeth as she saw his body go limp and prayed that he had just been knocked out from hitting his head. But she was worried, she didn't know if the small boy's body could withstand the blow from the large boulder, and she couldn't go check on him. She quickly turned to Seth and braced herself. Seth ran straight up to her and swung his hammer as hard as he could for her head, Jasmine caught the hammer with her gauntlet. But Seth took advantage of the fact that her other hand was wounded and continued his attack by throwing a punch at her face with his free hand. Causing her to stumble back from the blow. Seth followed up by stepping forwards and swinging the hammer for her head again, blinded by anger every attack was thrown with the intent to kill.

      Jasmine quickly recollected herself just in time to duck under the hammer and stab her bladed gauntlet into Seth's side. Causing Seth to shout in pain. But he pushed through the pain and brought his hammer down hard onto her back, slamming Jasmine down into the ground. Jasmine tried to slash at Seth's legs with her bladed gauntlet. He knew he couldn't dodge with his injury, so with a wave of his hand he made the ground underneath her reach up and pull her gauntlet arm underground to pin it down.

      Jasmine's eyes widened in fear when she was pinned down. She watched as Seth stepped forwards again and raised his war hammer, slamming it down at her head.  If that hit her, there's no way she'd survive the hit, and she couldn't move out of the way, or block it while she was pinned like this.

      But a stone wall jumped out of the ground at a slanted angle that covered Jasmine's head. Blocking the hammer from hitting her. “Seth no! Killing is wrong don't kill her!” Kaolin called out as he struggled to stand up. “They are not even bad people, they are being forced into this!”

      Jasmine let out a sigh of relief when she realized her life had just been saved, by the very person she had nearly just killed. She struggled for a moment to pull her hand out of the gauntlet, abandoning it in the ground as she then got up and jumped back. Trying to rethink her strategy for taking the two of them down. Things where not going in her and Samuel's favor, it was now basically down to just her versus Seth, and they where both evenly matched. But Seth's magic was more versatile and better fit for direct combat then hers, plus he had a weapon and she now didn't, he had the clear advantage.

      “I'm done living in your fantasy land Lyn. It's time to wake up!” Seth growled back. “They are trying to kill us, you will not stop me from killing them both. It's kill or be killed.” He stated.

      “Kill or be killed? That's a horrible way to live!” Kaolin protested. “You don't do that! It's wrong!”

      “Welcome to the real world.” Seth growled back as he stomped his foot on the ground, sending several stone spikes out of the ground at Jasmine. He had found the Achilles heel of her magic, if she didn't have direct contact it took a moment to charge before she could use her lightning. If he just kept pressing her from a distance and didn't give her time to charge it up, her lightning magic was useless.

      Jasmine jumped back to dodge the spikes, but as soon as her feet touched the ground a spiked stone pillar sprung out of the ground behind her, aimed for her back. She yelped and dove to the side to try and evade the pillar, but as she was in mid-dive the ground infront of her turned into a bed of sharp, short stone spikes. It was impossible to dodge now, she screamed in pain as she landed on the bed of spikes and was impaled by countless spikes all down her arms, chest, stomach, and legs. They weren't long enough to be lethal, but she had been stabbed in so many places. Fighting through the pain she pushed herself back onto her feet. She was covered in blood now and barely able to stand, but she had to protect her brother, she had to save her mother, she couldn't just let this end here.

      “Seth! No! You're going to kill her!” Kaolin shouted frantically at his brother as he watched what was going on. He was too badly wounded to interfere.

      “I know.” Seth replied “It's about time I stopped biting my tongue and holding back. I told you, I'm done living in your fantasy land where everyone's friends. I'm not sitting back and doing what you want anymore. People are going to be punished for the things they do wrong. Starting with them!” He growled.

      With a wave of his hand Seth made another spiked stone pillar spring from the ground, aiming to stab Jasmine's lungs. As she saw it coming she managed to jump back and evade the blow, with her wounds it was a miracle that she could still stand, never mind dodge. Sheer willpower alone was keeping her on her feet, she refused to let her mother die, she refused to let her brother come to any harm. She refused to lose. She focused for a moment, she knew Seth was trying to stop her from using magic by forcing her to keep dodging instead of letting her focus on channeling her electricity. She knew an attack was coming, but this time she did not move. A few tears began running down her cheeks, real tears this time. She simply hoped Samuel was just knocked out and could get out from under the rock by himself when he woke up.

      Seth raised his hand and made a large stone spike raise from the ground. “Seth stop it!” Kaolin nearly screamed at his brother. But when Seth ignored him and continued attacking, Kaolin had to act. He cringed in pain as he waved one hand upwards, levitating a small stone out of the ground and throwing it at Seth. Hitting him in the back and knocking him over, right as Seth was about to throw the stone spike, causing him to miss and strike Jasmine's shoulder with the spike instead of striking her heart. It was still a large spike though, and it had been launched with such force that it pierced through her shoulder, pushed her backwards, and nailed her to a tree.

      Right as the stone spike hit her, Jasmine blasted a powerful bolt of electricity from her fingertips at Seth. But she missed because Kaolin's boulder had knocked Seth over right before her bolt of electricity would have hit him. At this point she was getting lightheaded and her vision was starting to fade away. She was losing too much blood, her clothes had almost completely turned red by now, she was going to pass out. She was fighting it tooth and nail with all of her strength, still hanging on and through sheer willpower alone was staying awake.

      “Kaolin!” Seth shouted. “What do you think you're doing?” He struggled to his feet, the stab wound on his stomach slowing him down and making it very hard to move. He noticed that Jasmine was nailed to the tree by his stone spike, he noticed that she was still alive and was trying to remove the spike from her shoulder. With a growl of annoyance he waved his hand upwards and made a large boulder rise from the ground, then hurled it at Jasmine with the intent to crush her with it to finish her off.

      But Kaolin slammed his fist into the ground, which caused him to yelp in pain from his injuries, but also made a stone wall spring out of the ground to block the boulder. With Kaolin's lack of skill in earth magic, his stone wall was weak. The boulder shattered his stone wall and went straight through it. Jasmine screamed as the boulder came flying towards her, then there was a loud 'crash' as the boulder hit Jasmine and the scream was instantly silenced. As the boulder rolled away, Jasmine was just limply hanging there. It was unclear whether Kaolin's efforts had been able to save her or not.

      Seth turned to Kaolin. “Kaolin! Again! What do you think you're doing?” He shouted angrily. “You attack me and then try to save the people trying to kill us! Who's side are you on?” He questioned. He assumed Jasmine was dead, he didn't think the stone wall could have lessened the impact enough to not crush her completely.

      “I'm on our side! But that doesn't mean we can go around killing people.” Kaolin protested.

      “They. Tried. To. Kill. Us. First.” Seth argued, saying each word slowly, loudly and clearly. His hand began to emit a blue glow as he started healing his injuries. “What don't you get about that? We can't just sit back and turn a blind eye to all of this! And I am not going to just lay down and let people walk all over us anymore. I'm done doing what you want.” Once he finished healing himself he walked over and started healing Kaolin's injuries.

      “They were forced into trying to go after us! They where only trying to save their mother, that's not a reason to kill them!” Kaolin argued.

      “I don't care what their reason was, they still attacked us. They started it, they threw the first punch. That justifies me killing them. You had no right to stop me.” Seth argued.

      “No, that doesn't justify anything!” Kaolin argued. “Violence is never the answer, it only leads to more violence.”

      Seth finished healing Kaolin's injuries. “Well then, you just said it there. Violence leads to more violence. Thus, if people are violent towards me, I'm being violent towards them. Starting with that damn village.” He growled at the mention of the village. “Lets go, we're burning that entire village to the ground, with everyone in it. I'm sick of this, and I am not putting up with them anymore.” He ordered as he started walking away.

      Kaolin quickly ran in front of Seth and held out his arms to block his path. “You will do no such thing! Not all of the villagers there are against us, only a very small group.” He argued.

      “No, they are either with us, or against us. And I don't see a single villager standing up to that guy, or even trying to defend us. So they are all against us, and they will all die.” Seth growled. “Now get out of my way!”

      “I will not! I will not allow you to kill a single person in that village.” Kaolin argued.

      “Out of the way Kaolin! You will not stop me from giving those people what they deserve.” Seth growled, grabbing him by the shirt and tossing Kaolin out of the way so he could continue walking. “Someone has to enforce justice, and punish these people for the things they are doing.  Clearly no one but me will step up and do it.”

      Kaolin got back up after being thrown, and quickly ran back at Seth, shoving him to the ground. “Will you stop and listen! I will not allow you to harm a single person in that village!” He argued. “If you even try, I will stop you.”

      Seth grit his teeth and glared up at Kaolin from the ground, growling in anger. “I get it now, you're on their side aren't you?” He hissed at his twin.

      “What are you talking about? That's ridiculous.” Kaolin argued.

      “No, it all makes perfect sense now. Even after everything they did, you're still on their side. You're protecting and helping them, you're not really with me, you're against me. You care more about that village then you do me.” Seth said, shaking in anger as he tightly clenched his fist. He cared about Kaolin more then anything. Everything he did was for Kaolin. He took all of this as Kaolin stabbing him in the back and siding with the village, after everything the village had done to them.

      “No! Of course not!” Kaolin argued. His pacifist nature made him opposed to killing anything. Unless there was no other choice, or it posed a threat to other people. And he was afraid Seth may get hurt, or worse, if he tried to take down the entire village. Not to mention all the innocent who would be killed in the process.

      “Yes you are! Don't lie to me I can see right through you!” Seth shouted, then in a flash of light he teleported back onto his feet and inches away from Kaolin. Punching Kaolin hard in the face and knocking him straight to the floor. “I figured everything out, you've never been on my side? Have you? You've always been siding with the villagers. Those horrid monsters who call themselves 'human' and 'normal.' Those are the real monsters in this world, and you side with them.“ He growled.

      Kaolin yelped when he was hit and was knocked to the ground. He rubbed his face and looked up at Seth, “No, I'm not! It's not at all like that!” He protested. “I don't want you or the innocent people in the village getting hurt! And violence is wrong!”

      Seth stomped his foot and made stone chains come out of the ground, then made the chains wrap around Kaolin and pin him down. “I'm going back to the village. And I'm killing every. Single. Person. There.” He growled. “Don't you dare even try to stop me. They all brought this upon themselves. They are all monsters who have done countless horrible things to us, and no doubt others as well, for no reason. They all deserve to die!” He nearly shouted in anger. Before Seth then turned and started walking away.

“No! They don't! It's not all of them, only a select few who did this! And that doesn't make it okay to kill any of them!” Kaolin argued. But his words fell on deaf ears as Seth just kept walking, he picked up his sai then disappeared in a flash of light. Teleporting closer to the village.

–

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Next chapter: Dual Subversion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Think about it:

“... Does... Does that make us bad people too?” - Samuel

Who do you believe is in the right here? Who's the bad guy? Who's doing the right thing? Who's doing the wrong thing?

 

Are Samuel and Jasmine bad people for what they have done? Their mother doesn't have much time left to live, the only way they can make money fast enough is to take on these assassination missions. They only assassinate criminals. Does that make them bad people?

The old lady who is trying to make a living off her healing magic, is she a bad person for charging them to save their mother? She has to make money somehow, she needs money to live.

Is Kaolin in the wrong for being too passive? For refusing to kill the people that are clearly only out to hurt him.

Is Seth right to try killing Jasmine and Samuel? Is Seth right to march off to kill the villagers for the things they have done?

What about the man from town? Living next door to a mage is roughly the equivalent of living next door to someone who owns a ton of guns and bombs in the real world. No matter how friendly they seem, it doesn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling when you see them playing with bombs that could blow up the entire street right next to your house. Almost everyone fears mages. Was the man wrong for kicking them out of town?

Answer in the comments if you like. :)

11: Chapter Ten: Dual Subversion

~~ Chapter 10: Dual Subversion ~~

~ Part 1: The Story of David.

      A boy in his mid teens woke up and walked out of his room. Going about his morning as usual, getting ready for the day, eating breakfast, and preparing to go out to hunt for food since his father was too sick to do it himself. As he was heading out to hunt he was met at the door by his mother, greeting him in the way she always did.

      “Good morning Dave.” His mother would say.

      “Morning mom.” David replied. “I'm just on my way out to get dinner.” He said, gesturing to his bow and arrows.

      “You could just buy the food from the market.” His mother replied simply.

      “Nah, I'd rather learn to hunt. It will save me a lot of trouble when I'm older.” David replied simply. Smiling lightly and placing a hand on the door.

      “Alright. But remember, stay far away from those mages. They are all terrible people, who do terrible things. I don't want to see you get hurt.” His mother warned in a worried tone.

      “Ma. You've been telling me this every day, since I was a little kid. I know.” David chuckled lightly.

      “I know. But I worry about you and want to make sure you don't get hurt.” His mother replied. She stood up on her toes to kiss David's forehead. “Good luck, and be safe.” She said before opening the door for him.

      David chuckled again and quickly wiped off his forehead. “Ma, I'm not a little kid anymore.” He protested. “Thanks though. When father wakes up tell him I'll be back shortly, and that I hope he gets better soon so we can hunt together again. I miss doing things together already.”

      His mother smiled. “You will always be my little kid.” She said. “And I'm sure he misses it just as much. But I will tell him.”

      David nodded and grabbed his bow and arrows, before he walked out of the house and off into the woods to hunt.

--

      Hours passed, and soon David was walking back into town with a small deer over his shoulder. Smiling at the success of his hunt. Although that smile almost instantly faded as he looked into his village and saw smoke and fire everywhere, with bodies covering the streets. Mostly of strangers, but some of them were people he knew from around the village. He dropped the deer and made a mad dash for his home, praying his family was alright.

      When he arrived, what he saw both relieved him, and terrified him. His mother was out on the front yard, alive and unharmed. But she was standing in front of a man who held a magic flame in the palm of his hand. She was begging and pleading with the man to not harm her, and to leave them alone. Offering to pay him money to just let them live.

      The mage didn't care about her offerings though. The flame in his hand grew bigger and he then threw it at the terrified mother. David shouted for his mother to move and in a flash ran out in front of the fireball to protect her. His mother panicked when David stepped in front of the fireball and she quickly grabbed David, tackling him to the ground to protect him from the flames. Although, they couldn't move fast enough and both got grazed by the fire causing severe burns on the side of them that was hit.

      The mage chuckled lightly at their attempts to protect each other. With a wave of his hands the two where surrounded by a thick circle of flames that was slowly closing in on them. He then pointed at their home and it was engulfed in flames. When he was finished, the mage simply turned and walked away. Leaving the two to burn.

      David and his mother panicked a little, but David was a smart man and knew a way out. “Come on! We need to just run through the fire. It's the only way out.” He called out. His mother thought about it, but nodded and took his hand. The two of them ran through the flames together to get out of the circle. Once on the other side they dropped to the ground and rolled around to put the flames on their clothes out. They were very badly burnt from doing this, but it saved their lives.

      The two panted and looked at each other to make sure the other was alright. “Where's father?” David asked, a very fearful and worried tone in his voice.

      His mother's eyes widened and she looked up at their home which was completely covered in flames. “He's still inside! He can't get up with his injuries!” She said in a panic. Both her and David jumped up to their feet and ran to the front door. Ready and willing to brave the flames in the house to save him.

      But they were already too late. As they approached the door, the house collapsed from the flames and made it impossible to get inside. The only thing they could do now, was watch the house burn to the ground. “No!” His mother screamed, staring at the house in disbelief.

      Neither of them wanted to believe what happened. They wanted to believe his father somehow survived, even though it was obvious he didn't. After a long moment of silence, tears started to fill both of their eyes and they turned to hug each other, for comfort.

--

      Several years later. David and his mother where in a new home, in a new village. Where they had been living for years. They heard someone outside shouting for everyone to meet in the center of the village, because of an emergency. So they did.

      David and his elderly mother gathered in the center of the village, with everyone else, and looked up at the twin boys who called everyone there. The two of them where standing on floating platforms, it was obvious they were mages. David looked down at his mother and his thoughts went back to that night his father died. Remembering how both his parents warned him of how bad mages where every day, until that night proved his parents where right. Countless people had died, due to that one mage. He looked up at the twin boys and grit his teeth. Never again. He would not let something like that happen again. He would make sure he protected everyone from these two mages. In his eyes they where nothing more then weapons of mass destruction, ready to go off and kill thousands at any moment.

      His elderly mother was shaking in fear, whispering “More mages...” Under her breath. She pressed her hands together in prayer, looking down a little as she began very quietly murmuring her prayers. “God please save us. Pleas help us. Please get rid of these mages. Don't let all these people die at the hands of these mages!” She was terrified, memories of her old town and her home in flames flashing through her mind.

      David bit his lip and placed a comforting hand on his mother's shoulder. “It'll be okay. I'll get rid of them.” He said softly, then he turned to look up at the twins to see what they wanted.

      The boys where trying to rally the villagers into fighting back against an incoming bandit attack. When those boys where clearly much better off for fighting the bandits then the villagers were. “You two are aspiring to be the village guards, are you not? You two go hold them off while we all evacuate. That's the job you're trying to get into, go start it now.” David demanded. Presuming they would die while fighting the bandits. And the villagers agreed.

      “You all can't be serious. We'll die out there! My plan will get us all out alive and safely!” The blonde twin countered.

      “No, you two are village guards as of right now, that was your dreams as kids right? Now go do your jobs.” David stated. “Everyone else, evacuate.” He called out as the villagers quickly dispersed and went to gather their things and leave the village. Then he personally lead the evacuation out of the city.

      It was only minutes after the twins left before the bandits reached the city, and David presumed the twin mages hadn't even tried to stop the bandits, they hadn't held off the bandits at all. He did everything in his power to protect the villagers, but he was only human, and could only protect so many of them.

      To his disbelief, the twin mages came back and met up with him again afterwords. The only explanation he could think of, was that they got wounded and fled the battle. Letting the bandits come kill off the villagers, to save themselves. He would never forgive them for that, what kind of a monster would sacrifice the lives of hundreds to save themselves? As soon as he knew the villagers where safe in the new village, he made his move. He wasn't going to let any more lives be lost to these two mages.

      He walked right up to them, noticing that they where going straight to heal themselves. Not even trying to check if the villagers where alright first. “Where do you two think you're going?” David questioned.

      “We just told you where we where going.” The blonde twin growled back, glaring up at David.

      The black haired twin comfortingly put a hand on his brother's shoulder, to tell him to calm down. He took a step closer to the man. “We're wounded sir... We really need to get medical attention.” He said quietly,  gesturing to the wound on his shoulder.

      David grit his teeth, the twins acted as if he and the other survivors weren't also injured. All because these two ran away from the battle they should have stayed in. Or so he thought. He lost his temper and shoved the boy to the ground when he stepped closer, “We don't want your kind here. We saw you use magic, you're demons.” He spat. “Get out.” He demanded. In all honesty, who would want a mage living in their village? Who would want to live in a village, knowing that if their next door neighbor got angry one day, that they could blow up half the village and thousands could die. Could any of them really be to blame for not wanting that kind of risk?

      “What the hell are you talking about!” The blonde boy shouted venomously at him. “We're not demons. We're just as human as you are! We devoted our entire lives to you people, we just nearly died for you all! And you're labeling us demons and throwing us out?!”

      “You should have died out there, we'd all be much better off if you did.” David growled back. In his mind, they where responsible for most of the deaths in that bandit attack. And as long as the twin mages stayed here, the entire village was in danger. “Now get out or we'll force you out.”

      “You dare to say that! After everything we've done!” The blonde twin nearly screamed in anger, pulling his war hammer off his back and preparing to attack.

      “You see everyone, the demons are trying to attack and kill us! He drew his weapon first!” David called out to the crowd, who all backed off. Simply wanting to show them how easily these mages could be provoked, and how provoking them could end up getting countless innocent lives killed. He quietly watched as the twins argued with each other, ending with them finally giving up and leaving the village. David couldn't help but to grin proudly as he watched them leave, knowing he had just saved the lives of everyone in this village. Sure, he had to sacrifice the lives of the two mages. But everything came with sacrifices, and in the end, the lives of everyone in the village where more important then the two boys.

      But, there was one unforeseen error. The boys didn't die, and they kept coming back despite being outcast. The man could only assume the two of them were planning something, why else would they return to a place they where outcast from, in the middle of the night, every night. In fear of the village's safety, David intercepted their letters to try and figure out what they where doing, looking for a hidden message somewhere in the letters, but finding nothing. He was sure they where up to something though, so he hired some assassins to quickly go take them out. He wanted to make sure his village was safe, and would never have a tragedy like the one he faced again.

      And now, he just waited at home with his mother for the confirmation that the assassins took down their targets.

–

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–

–

~ Part 2: A fork in the road.

      David was quietly sitting in his home, his mother was asleep upstairs and he was just finishing with cleaning up the house and was preparing to go to bed. Then, suddenly there was a loud, wood splintering crash. David spun around to face the source of the noise only to see that his front door had been kicked in. and standing in the doorway was a familiar face. A tall, blonde hair, blue eyed man in a red cloak. He recognized Seth right away, the assassins he had hired had clearly failed. “You roaches just won't die, will ya!?” David growled. He was not in the mood to be polite.

      “No! But you will!” Seth hissed. In a flash of light Seth teleported across the room and in front of David, grabbing the man by his throat and slamming him into the wall behind him.

      “I'm only looking out for the safety and well being of the village!” David stated. “You two were a massive threat to everyone here, countless lives were in danger because of you two. Who in their right mind would want to live next to a person, that could destroy the entire village if nudged the wrong way!” He protested. “That's why all mages need to be outcast and kept away from everyone else, or better, killed. For the safety of the normal humans. You want to live in a village, make your own with only mages so the innocent humans don't get killed when you demons get ticked off.”

      “Lies!” Seth hissed. “The village was safer with us here! You unjustly outcast us, and tried to have us killed repeatedly! Now, I'm done with this, you and all the other villagers will pay for what you've all done.” He growled.

      David's eyes widened. “What?! No! I don't care if I die! But don't harm the rest of the villagers.” He said quickly.

      “They are all just as much responsible for everything as you are. So they will all pay the price.” Seth growled as he shoved David to the ground in the corner of the room, then grabbed his war hammer.

      “No! Don't harm them! They just didn't want their lives to be in danger every single day, what's so wrong about that?” David pleaded, although he noticed his words fell on deaf ears. Seth wasn't listening. “At the very least, spare my mother, she's upstairs. She had nothing to do with all this, and she's been through enough.”

      “No. Everyone here has done wrong and will be killed for what they've done. She was with everyone else who did those terrible things to us. She's just as much of a monster as you, and every other person in this damn village! You're all responsible for the terrible misdeeds that were done. And not a single person will get away with it. Not anymore.”

      “You can't!” David protested, trying to get back up. But Seth merely kicked him back into the wall and slammed his war hammer down onto David's head, killing the man on the spot. Once the man was dead, Seth turned and walked out of the house. Spreading fire everywhere in the house as he walked out of it, then engulfing the house in flames once he was outside, not caring that David's mother was also still inside. Quite the opposite actually, just to spite the man Seth blocked the door with stones to make sure no one escaped the flames. With that said and done he marched down the street, he would set fire to the houses he passed and wait for the unsuspecting family to come running out of it. As soon as they all grouped up at the door to escape, Seth shot them down with boulders, sharp stones, and spikes, killing them before they could get to safety. Men, women, children, didn't matter, they were all monsters, they were all horrible people, they all died. Seth called it justice for their crimes.

      The village was filled with all humans, and most of them had no idea what was going on until it was too late. So Seth didn't have much to stop his attack on the village. Slowly, more and more of the village was going up in flames. The flames serving as a mark for the parts of the city where everyone had been killed.

      Another house went up in flames, and Seth watched as the family all came running out the front door. Then with a wave of his hand a volley of stone spikes where fired out of the ground at the unsuspecting family, they hadn't seen it coming until it was too late. They where all hit by the volley and killed, nailed back to their burning home by the stone spikes. Seth then turned to see two guards without their armor running at him with swords drawn, they must have been neighbors who heard the commotion. He strapped his hammer to his back and took out his sai.

      The first guard ran straight at him and slashed for his ribs, using the training and skill most guards had. Although even with that training and skill, it was a severely one sided fight, fighting against a mage as an ordinary human. Seth caught the sword in his sai, then spat a fireball into the guard's face. Forcing the guard to jump backwards to avoid being burnt. But as the guard jumped back a stone wall of spikes sprung out of the ground behind him. The guard had already jumped and couldn't see the wall, there was no way for him to stop or evade it. As soon as he was impaled on the spikes, Seth waved his hand and made the spiked wall slam flat into the ground, crushing the man.

      “No!” The other guard shouted, seeing her friend hit the spiked wall, she also ran at Seth slashing her sword for his ribs. Although just like before Seth caught and trapped the sword between the prongs of his sai. But the guard had expected that and quickly swept Seth's legs with a low kick. She was not falling for the same trick her friend did.

      Seth fell to the ground on his back and the guard quickly went to stab her sword down at him. But with a flick of his wrist a melon-sized stone launched itself out of the ground at the guard, hitting her in the side of the head and knocking her over. Seth flipped back onto his feet and quickly threw one of his sai at the guard while she was down, with deadly accuracy at her throat. The guard could not move fast enough to evade or block it and was struck with the sai. Seth brushed himself off and waited for the guard to die from the fatal injury before he went and retrieved his sai. Then he simply turned and was about to resume burning the village, but he was stopped by something else.

      “Seth!” A voice shouted venomously from behind him. Seth didn't get a chance to turn around before he was shoved from behind to the ground. Looking up to see none other then Kaolin, who was exhausted and panting heavily from racing all the way across the mountain to get back. “What do you think you're doing!” Kaolin practically screamed at him.

      “I'm ridding the world of these corrupt monsters that live here. I will not sit back and allow them to just kill off mages for no reason. We weren't the first and we won't be the last if someone doesn't do something. So I'm going to put an end to all of this.” Seth growled back as he got back onto his feet.

      “You're the monster here.” Kaolin growled. “You're killing innocent people.”

      “There are no innocent people in this village Kaolin. Everyone here tried to kill us, so everyone here is a murderer. I'm not killing innocent, I'm killing murderers.” Seth growled back.

      “They are not murderers! Not all of them were against us!” Kaolin argued. “And by killing them you make yourself into a murderer!”

      “Yes. They are all against us, not one of them stood up to help us. And every one of them agreed with that man.” Seth growled. “And I don't care anymore. If I have to become a murderer to save this world from the horrid monsters that live here, then so be it. The world will be a much better place when I rid it of these people.”

      “No, the world won't be any different if you kill these people. People all over the world are against mages, the vast majority of humans hate them. For good reason!” Kaolin argued. “All you will accomplish is giving the rest of the world more reason to fear and hate mages! And there are mages out there who are prejudice against humans, what about them?”

      “I don't care. It won't end with just this village then. I'll change the entire world if I have to! I won't stop until I remove all of the corruption from the world.” Seth argued. “Even if I have to burn the entire world to the ground and start over. I will fix this world and rid it of these monsters.” He growled. “And I know that plenty of mages are just as corrupt as these people, those mages will receive the same judgment and punishment as the 'normal' people.”

      Kaolin's eyes widened. “No. I will never allow you to do that!” He nearly shouted. He grabbed a sword from one of the fallen guards and pointed the blade at Seth. “I will not allow you to kill all of those people.”

      Seth narrowed his eyes and glared at Kaolin. “So what, you're going to kill me? You wouldn't kill the man trying to kill us, but you'll kill your brother?” He growled.

      “That man wasn't about to kill countless other people!” Kaolin argued. But bit his lip and shrunk back, he really didn't want to have to fight his brother. That was the last thing he wanted, and he would give anything to make it not have to happen. But Kaolin couldn't live with himself if he just let Seth go, and Seth killed all those people. “I don't want to, but if you don't come to your senses and stop this, I will have no choice.” He stated.

      “So, you'd rather defend these people. The ones who kill, torture, berate, and mistreat others; just for simple differences in beliefs, race, or appearance. They do these horrid things to others and believe it's justified for these stupidly petite reasons. And it's okay? But me doing the same, for a damn good reason isn't?” Seth growled, “I don't care if you think I'm right or wrong anymore. I know I'm right, that's all that matters. When I make this world into a better place, you're going to look like a fool for opposing me.” He stated as he picked up the other guard's sword off the ground.

      “You are wrong, the world is just fine how it is. Sure, there's a lot of bad people. But there's plenty of good too. You can't kill the bad without killing the good with them, and killing both is just wrong.” Kaolin stated. “I'm sorry, but I will not allow you to kill anyone.”

      “So be it.” Seth stated coldly. There was a long moment of silence as the twins just stared at each other. Neither of them honestly wanted to go through with it, but neither would budge on their morals. Kaolin would never allow the innocent to be killed, and as he looked into Seth's eyes, he could tell. Something had snapped inside of his twin's mind. Seth had been pushed too far, he wasn't himself anymore and was not going to change his mindset either.

      The silence was finally broken when Seth made his move. “I hate to do this Lyn, but if you're going to try and stop me. Then you have to die too!” Seth called out as he charged at his brother, slashing at his brother's side. Although Kaolin quickly blocked with his own sword and the two jumped back. They circled each other for a moment, both twins glaring back at each other. Kaolin remained silent, there was nothing more he could say. He could only think back on their childhood together, before everything fell apart.

       The two of them both ran at each other to attack, clashing swords again. Although Kaolin didn't stop running when their swords clashed and he plowed straight into Seth, knocking them both to the ground with Kaolin landing on top of Seth, who responded by dropping his sword and grabbing Kaolin by his throat. Pinching both sides of his windpipe to stun him, then throwing Kaolin off and to the side. Seth quickly picked up his sword again and jumped back onto his feet, then thew a fireball down at Kaolin.

      Kaolin only just barely dodged the fireball by hitting the ground and making the ground under him shoot upwards, launching him into the air a little. He landed back on his feet and threw a fireball at Seth. Who simply blocked it by making a stonewall jump out of the ground in front of the fire. Seth had always been, and still was, by far the stronger fighter out of the twins. Kaolin knew this, and was trying to think of some way he could win.

      But he couldn't think of anything that would be enough to win. He dashed at Seth and swung his sword for Seth's neck. Who blocked it with his own sword, before Kaolin made shadow-like spikes launch out of his shadow at Seth. Causing him to jump back to avoid the spikes. Seth then disappeared in a flash of light. Kaolin let out a yelp of pain as he felt Seth's sword slash across his back, and then he grunted as Seth kicked him to the ground from behind.

      'I can't win... He's still better then I am... My only hope of winning right now, is running away and coming back to stop him some other time... When I am stronger...' He thought. 'But he won't just let me walk away... I need to trick him so I can escape...' He was broken from his thoughts as Seth walked closer. He quickly looked up at Seth and spat black flames up at him, Seth didn't have dark magic, so Kaolin was using it as much as he could to try and get an edge.

      Seth hadn't expected that and was slightly singed by the flames, which caused him to stumble backwards. 'I got it! I know how I can escape, I know how I can trick him!' Kaolin thought. He suddenly lunged off the ground, stabbing his sword at Seth's stomach, knowing Seth would stab him back. As Kaolin had predicted Seth saw that coming and quickly stabbed his own sword back at Kaolin.

The two of them clashed.

      Kaolin had aimed at Seth's stomach, the only vital area he could've reached from the ground. Seth had aimed his blade for the heart, but Kaolin shifted in an attempt to make the blade miss his heart and stab somewhere else. There was a brief pause as both of them stabbed eachother and they both recoiled in pain, then Kaolin suddenly burst into black flames like the demons did when they were killed. Sending fire everywhere and badly burning Seth from their close proximity. When the flames cleared, only a badly wounded and burnt Seth remained. The two bloody swords laid on the ground beside him with their blades crossed over each other. Kaolin was nowhere to be seen.

      Seth grunted in pain and looked around. “I knew it... He was using that demonic magic so much it must have possessed him. That's why he opposed me, and that's why he died exactly like the demons. He must have become one of them. I told him not to mess with demonic things.” He growled as he struggled to stand up from his severe wounds. He looked around for a safe place to hide while he healed himself, and could hear the marching of metal footsteps approaching. Not just one pair, but many. 'The army is here already?' He thought, he didn't stand a chance against all of them at once. Then a thought hit him.

      Seth reached into his cloak and pulled out a book. He wiped a little blood off the cover and read the title. “Aether magic: Volume seven, Healing - Mental illnesses and conditions of the mind part 2”

      A smirk crossed his face as he looked up at the army then back down at the book, opening it to the chapter about how to cure amnesia with healing magic. 'I think I know how I'm going to save this world, and destroy all the corrupt monsters within it.' He thought.

–

–

Next chapter: The Aftermath.

12: Chapter Eleven: The Aftermath

~~ Chapter 11: The Aftermath ~~

      Seth put the book on Aether mental healing magic back in his cloak. He healed the internal damage from his injury, but left the external damage there, so it would still look like he was wounded when he really wasn't. He took a deep breath, and put on his best act as he limped out to the knights who where now scattering and searching the streets for the attacker.

      “Halt!” One knight called out upon seeing Seth. Seth smirked to himself, but complied and stopped. Holding a hand over his wound as if he where badly injured.

      “Sir knight, are you searching for the demon who attacked this village?” Seth asked him. “If you are, you need not worry. I have killed the demon and saved the village already.” He lied smoothly, gesturing to the bloody swords on the ground, and the black flames where Kaolin had once been.

      The knights looked at the black flames, they where indeed the same flames a demon made when they died.  But they skeptically looked back at Seth. “How did you kill it? You're just a normal civilian, are you not?” They asked.

      “I have trained for many years to hopefully join the ranks of the knights some day. So I know how to fight, and managed to best the demon with just a sword.” Seth lied. It's not like they had any way of knowing he was a mage, or that he lied about it being a demon who attacked. “Can you take me to your medic, I am in need of medical attention.” He asked kindly.

      “I'm not sure if we're allowed to take anyone back.” The knight replied uneasily, a single human defeating a demon was almost unheard of. It wasn't impossible though, and Seth seemed to have proof that he was telling the truth.

      “But, I'm very badly injured.” Seth said, faking a cough. “I mean, can't you make one exception, for the hero who saved the village? Well, saved some of it at least.” He asked weakly, looking from the destroyed half of the village to the untouched half, then back to the knight. “And, once we get there, I wish to pursue my life dream to join the knights. So I have to go there anyways.” He said.

      The knight hesitated, but relented to taking Seth with them. “Alright, fine. Your story checks out, since there clearly was a demon killed here, and the attacks seem to have stopped. We'll be camping nearby the village in case another attack starts. You can come with us for now.” He said.

      Seth inwardly cheered, but outwardly kept his weak and injured act up. “Thank you kind knight, you won't be disappointed, I assure you. Once I heal up, I'll have what it takes to become a great knight and join your ranks.” He said, smiling a bit.

      The two knights lead the way to a large campsite set up not far from the village. Seth quietly followed behind them, plotting things out in his mind. 'It all makes so much more sense now... That dream I had as a child, marching through the streets of a burning village. As a commander of an army of knights... I never did understand why I had that dream of leading the knights, when my goal was to be a normal town guard. But now I know... It was a vision of my success.' Seth thought. 'It was telling me, that this plan will work. Tonight, I join the knights, by tomorrow, I will lead them.' He thought.

      The knights lead him into the camp, and over to the medical tent. Where the medic there treated and bandaged his wounds and burns. Once he was all patched up, they sent him to rest in his own tent while the rest of the knights finished their patrols and returned to their tents to sleep for the night. Leaving only a few of them awake, guarding the campsite.

      Seth smiled, he was alone in his tent. Just what he needed. He reached into his cloak and pulled out that book on advanced healing, for healing mental illnesses, and opened the page to the part about healing amnesia. He thought back to a conversation he had had about those books. With Kaolin, up on the mountainside the day of the bandit invasion. The day everything fell apart.

–
          Kaolin smiled a bit and nodded, “Yeah, I don't know about taking on an army but we'll be able to protect everyone in no time. That is, if we can't do so already. I hope to learn dark magic next, it seems fitting for me.” He said.

          “Ya know, the mages and books all say dark magic is bad, it's the magic used by real demons. That doesn't sound safe to use, messing with demonic stuff is never a good idea. I'm hoping to learn healing magic, not just for the body but mind too. So I can heal the wounded, ill, and even the mentally ill.” Seth said softly, smiling a bit as he thought about it.

          “Healing won't help us much in combat though. But I guess that's good too.” Kaolin said. “And dark magic isn't bad, I don't get why everyone thinks that just because demons use it. It's no different from any other magic. I've already learned a little” He stated.

–

      Seth chuckled lightly to himself. 'Kaolin... You had been so wrong. About everything. I will never protect those monsters. The dark magic really was evil in the end, it turned you into a demon and I had to kill you for it... And this healing magic won't just help in combat... It will be the key to the entire war.' He thought. He laughed lightly. 'What was I thinking? Using this mind-altering magic for healing the mentally ill? I'll get nowhere with such thoughts. If used correctly it could just give me the leverage I need to save this world from the monsters in it.' He thought. He immediately began studying the book, having already read most of it before. Although he had never tried using this magic before, but tonight he had an entire platoon of knights to test it on.

      A few hours passed, before another knight stepped into Seth's tent. Seth quickly hid his book and looked up at the knight who entered, going right back to his fake wounded act. “Oh, hello sir knight.” He said weakly “Is something wrong?” He asked.

      “No, nothing's wrong. You're just in my tent. I've already been told of the situation, I don't mind sharing a tent.” The knight replied. Setting up a makeshift bed on the opposite side of the tent. “I'm instructed to keep watch on you anyways.” He added.

      Seth nodded “Oh, alright. I don't mind it either. Goodnight then.” He said, laying down and pretending to sleep. He was inwardly cussing out his luck though, having someone sharing his tent would mess up his plans. He considered killing the man, but then realized that if anything happened to him, it would be obvious Seth had done it. For now, he couldn't touch this knight and would have to work around him.

      It wasn't long before he could hear the knight snoring in his sleep. Seth smirked and sat up, then carefully slipped out of the tent. He knew it would raise suspicion of him if he went after the knights nearby his tent, but he also knew it would raise suspicion of him if he went after the knights that where furthest away from him too. So, he moved to the middle edge of the camp and began testing his magic. Being very careful to avoid being spotted by the patrolling knights.

      Seth poked his head into a tent and saw the sleeping knights inside. There was three of them in this tent. He smirked and stepped inside, placing a hand on the forehead of a sleeping knight and getting to work. He would never be able to do this while they where awake, it took too long for it to work. But while they where asleep they where easy targets. His hand glowed a blueish color as he held it to the knight's forehead. Using his aether healing magic on the knight's mind. The magic he was using was meant to be used for curing amnesia and other memory related mental problems. But Seth was using it in reverse. To erase memories and manipulate the memories the knight had.

      Although, Seth had never used the healing magic in this way before. He was inexperienced in it, and accidentally applied too much stress to the brain. Killing the knight he was working on. Seth cringed a little when he notice the knight had died. Killing people who hadn't wronged him still didn't sit well with him. But he pushed the feeling down, if he was going to save this world from corruption and evil, he had to get used to killing.

      He moved onto the next knight, but unintentionally killed that one too. So he just moved onto the next, and the next, just continuing to try until he got it down. He was beginning to understand why no one used this form of magic, the experience required to use it came at a heavy price when you didn't have someone to teach you how to do it correctly. Seven knights had been killed, before Seth learned to control the magic enough to use it effectively.

      But, Seth did learn to use this magic effectively. Once he had learned it, he looked outside to see he still had time left in the night. He hid the bodies of the ones he killed underground. Then got to work on warping the minds of the knights in the group, changing their memories to forget their current commander, and instead remember Seth as their commander. He filled their minds with countless memories of him saving their lives on the field of battle, and always being there for them. Memories of him always being right, when everything pointed to him being wrong, memories of personal things such as them going out for drinks together and having fun, and memories of him being practically best friends with all of them. With all those new memories, he'd have their complete trust and loyalty. Or, as close to that as he could get, he tried his best to make himself appear like the absolutely perfect best friend and hero in their minds. To make sure they never questioned him or his motives.

      By the time he finished, it was in the very early hours of the morning. He fully healed his wounds, since he didn't need to use it as a ploy to get close to the knights anymore. And approached the tent that belonged to the leader of the knights. It was guarded, of course, by the only two knights he had not been able to reach with his mind altering magic. So Seth used his short ranged teleportation to teleport into the tent, finding the leader to be asleep inside.

      Seth checked to make sure he could find the leader's armor before turning back to the leader. He raised his hand and several stone hands tore through the bottom of the tent and reached out from the ground. One after another the many stone hands grabbed onto the leader of the knights, covering his mouth as they grabbed him. His eyes shot open from his deep sleep in a panic as the stone hands started slowly pulling him into the ground. He struggled against them, but it was no use. He tried to scream out for help, but his mouth was covered. He looked up as he was slowly being swallowed by the ground under him. The last thing he saw was Seth standing over him and smirking as he sunk into the ground and disappeared from sight. It wouldn't be long before he would suffocate from being trapped underground. There was no way out either, being an ordinary human he couldn't do anything to save himself. He was as good as dead.

      That just left the two that were outside, which was a simple enough task when they were not attacking him and were just standing still. He opened the tent behind them so he could see, then with a wave of his hand stone hands sprung out of the ground underneath them and grabbed their legs. They both screamed, most likely waking the other knights, but it didn't matter now that Seth had converted everyone. The stone hands yanked their legs down and dragged them underground. In just a matter of seconds they too were swallowed up by the ground and their screams could no longer be heard. A few knights came running out with their swords drawn to see what the noise was, but Seth simply shrugged and said “I don't know what that was, it seems to be all clear though. Head back to sleep.” The knights looked around for a moment to make sure but then nodded and followed his orders, he was their commander after all, and went back to bed.

      Seth smiled to himself, a job well done if he should say so himself. Part one of his seven part plan was done. In a few months he could get part two finished and then finish off the rest of Oline village. But for now, his job was done and he went to get some much needed rest. There was only a couple hours left until he'd need to wake up in the morning.

--

      Seth woke up the next morning, and put on the knight's armor that once belonged to the commander of this platoon of knights. Shining and reflecting his standing as the new leader of these knights, just like in that childhood dream. He attached his sai to the belt of his armor. Then strapped his war hammer onto his back and walked out of his tent to see his plan in action. The entire platoon of roughly thirty knights, with their memory warped to remember him as their leader. Their minds warped to believe he was their best friend and the leader they gave their absolute trust and loyalty to. It wasn't an entire army, yet, but soon enough it would be.

      Although now, he had to keep his magic abilities a secret from those around him. No one would suspect him of anything if they all thought Seth was a normal human. And normally, only humans were allowed into the ranks of the knights, so he had to make sure nobody knew or his cover would be blown.

      Seth stepped up onto a rock, so he'd be standing above all of the assembled knights in front of him. “Knights.” Seth called out to the platoon, who all respectfully bowed their heads to their supposed leader. “I've recently heard some rumors that bandits are gearing up for an invasion on this village. I want everyone to group up in teams of three, for safety, and spread out to search the area for any bandit activity. Report anything you find to me, be back by sundown.” He ordered. He was lying, there had been no rumors of any bandit activity, well not that he knew of, but the knights didn't know any better.

      All of the knights nodded and spoke in unison. “Yes sir!”

      “Good. And I need the messenger boy up here. He will be sent to the castle in the main city, there he will report the rumors of the bandit invasion and request a list of all reports and information on bandit activity in this region. It is vital to figuring out their moves, since we could have another army of bandits on the move if they really are grouping up again.” Seth added.

      The messenger nodded and got out the things required for Seth to write a letter, bringing it to Seth. Who quickly wrote about the fake bandit invasion and requested all of the information they had on the bandits in the region. Once that was done, he signed it. But not with his own name, he signed the name of the previous commander. Seth hadn't wiped the memories of the people in the castle, only his small platoon. So he had to be careful when dealing with them and make them believe the previous leader was still alive, for now. With that finished he looked up at the knights again. “Alright, dismissed.” He said, and the knights all dispersed and formed into groups to follow their orders. He then handed the letter back to the messenger boy and sent him off to the castle to get the information he needed.

      Once everyone was gone Seth stepped into his tent and took off his armor, he began going through the supplies the old commander had as well as his own supplies. He glanced down at the red cloak he was wearing and bit his lip. He was still wearing the same cloak his brother wore, only Seth wore a red cloak while Kaolin wore a black one. It reminded him of his brother, seeing it brought up all sorts of hurt and bitter memories. Seth still hadn't completely let go of him, he still couldn't believe Kaolin was gone, that it had come down to the two of them against eachother. But he was working on crushing those feelings as best as he could. He was sure Kaolin was dead now anyways, he had watched his brother disappear in a burst of black flames like every demon did when they died. The dark magic must have turned Kaolin into a demon if he would try to kill his brother who cared about him so very much. Right? That was the only explanation Seth could think of. It gave him a little comfort believing that Kaolin was already dead when they fought, believing that he had been fighting a demon who had taken Kaolin's body instead of fighting Kaolin himself. And he was sure that was what happened.

      He hid the armor underground, then left his tent. He was the only one in his group of knights that was alone while searching for the 'bandits.' That allowed him to leave the group and do other things to further his plans, without the knights noticing his absence. Not wanting people to see his knight's armor where he was going, but also not wanting the knights to notice he was leaving without his armor, because that would raise questions as to where he was going.

      For the next few weeks Seth prepared everything for the next step in his plans. He stole large portions of gold from the castle, simply by getting a map of the castle then teleporting right into the rooms that stored money or valuables. He would grab what he wanted and teleport back out, then return to camp. He kept his knights stationed outside of Oline village, as the village was slowly being rebuilt. Making sure to always keep his face covered while in the village, since the people there could recognize him. His knights were still searching the area, on a hunt for this made up bandit invasion. And over the next few weeks that messenger Seth sent out returned with all the information the knights had on the location of the bandits.

–

–

      Far away from the knights amongst the ruins of Belesara village, Kaolin and Seth's home village, was a small army of bandits, roughly forty in numbers. All of them where gathered in the center of the destroyed village, looking up at the man standing on a podium above them. The man wore a black hooded cloak that covered his entire body and hid his face. Making it impossible to tell who was under it. He looked out at the bandits assembled in front of him. They were all getting restless and wouldn't wait any longer for the man to do something. Bandits where never known for their patience. “Where is the gold and riches we were all promised!?” One of them shouted out, followed by the others joining in.

      “Quiet!” The man in the black cloak shouted out to them. “The riches you've been promised are here.” He said gesturing to a large stone block beside himself. With a wave of his hand, the stone block levitated over the bandits, then broke apart. Showering the bandits with a small amount of gold coins that had previously been filling the block. The bandits where nearly sent into a frenzy by the sight of all the gold, and scrambled to pick up as much as they could. Something as simple as that was enough to spur them into fighting eachother, but they stopped when there was no coins left and turned back to the cloaked man.

      “Now, I have a deal for all of you.” The cloaked man said. Reaching into his bag and pulling out a crown that was covered in many incredibly valuable jewels. “I'm sure, you can all recognize this as the king's crown. Do you all know how I got this? I took it from the king himself, can you imagine what it's worth? And that's not all, I can give you this and free access to the king's treasury. If I can steal the crown off the king's head getting into the treasury would be an easy job.” He said, smirking under his hood, as he now had the bandit's full attention. “I'll give you all that, for just one small task.”

      “In Oline village, there is a small platoon of knights. Kill the leader of them, and this will be yours. I have a personal grudge against their new leader but I can not kill him myself, do not ask why. But, if you follow my plan, you can win without any trouble.” The man in the black cloak said. “First, attack and start destroying the village, kill everyone there. And of course, you're welcome to loot everything while you're at it. That will draw out the knights and get their attention. Once you've gotten their attention, follow this plan of attacks to kill their leader.” He said, as he gave them a complicated set of tactics in combat for taking down the new leader of the knights, who he knew was Seth. “Whoever lands the killing blow, wins the king's crown. Plus, if he dies all of you get free access to the treasury.”

      The bandits looked up at him unsurely. “How can we take on the knights ourselves?” They asked.

      “You won't. I'll be there to help you. And I'm not your average thief.” The man in the black cloak said. Deciding to show them rather then tell, with an upwards wave of his hand he made two stone pillars rise out of the ground. Then he created two fireballs in his hands and moved them around a little as he put on a small fire show for them, ending with him lighting the stone pillars on fire. “I am a mage, using both fire and earth magic. With me by your side, a few knights will be nothing.” He stated. “Worst case scenario, if the knights are too overwhelming. Just fall back and retreat. We have infinite chances to go after them as long as you don't die.”

      The bandits grinned widely. Sure, there was prejudice against mages. But they were bandits, all they cared about was the riches, they didn't care who or what it came from. And with the reward being something worth far more then any of them could dream of spending, they were all more then willing to follow the cloaked man's lead.

–

–

- Next chapter: The destruction of Oline village

13: Chapter Twelve: The destruction of Oline village

~~ Chapter 12: The destruction of Oline village ~~

      Inside one of the houses in Oline village, was a small family, a young man and woman, with their five year old girl. They were not refugees from Belesara village, they were people who had lived in Oline village their whole lives. The young man had messy, dirty blonde hair that was just a little long for a guy, and green eyes. He had an athletic build, being a little on the strong side since he was a hunter. Then their daughter, the five year old girl had her mother's long brown hair and brown eyes.

      The family was happily talking to each other over dinner. “So daddy, did you ever hunt a bear before?” The young girl asked curiously.

      The man chuckled and shook his head. “That would be very dangerous Tia, I'm not gifted with magic like you and your mother are.” He said softly. “I just hunt the deer, there's no need to hunt anything bigger.”

      Tia smiled, “Well when I grow up I'm gonna hunt a bear and bring it back!” The little girl said, wanting to impress her father. “I can catch it with the new trick mother taught me!” She said cheerfully.

      Her father chuckled lightly. “What trick is that? Why don't you show me.” He asked.

      “Not now Verheli, it's bedtime for her.” Her mother said softly. Getting up once dinner was finished and clearing the table.

      Verheli helped his wife clear the table, then quickly moved and crouched down beside Tia. Looking up at his wife with the puppy dog eyes, “Aww come on, it's just one trick it will only take one second.” He said, nudging Tia playfully to get her to play along.

      Tia giggled quietly and also looked up at her mother with the puppy dog eyes, “Yeah, it will only take one second to show him. Pleeease?”

      Their mother looked down at the two of them and smiled, shaking her head a bit at their silliness. “Alright, but we need to go do it outside, and make sure nobody is in the area.” She gave in. Leading the way she opened the door and the three of them stepped outside.

      Once outside Tia looked up at her mother, “Can you do it with me? It's more fun to do it together.” She asked.

      Her mother smiled and nodded, “Of course.” She said softly as they both stood beside each other in the yard.

      Verheli moved off to the side to get out of their way. He was a normal human but despite that he still loved his wife and daughter who were both mages. They had a very close-knit family

      “Take a deep breath, and focus. The same pattern that we practiced.” The mother said, before they both took in a slow, deep breath. Then Tia nodded when she was ready.

      The two of them then dashed alongside eachother using their air magic to create a wind current that pushed them forwards, making them move incredibly fast. Then they both dashed in opposite directions off to the side, almost flying across the ground at the speeds the wind was pushing them. Once moving a short distance away they both jumped up into the air, propelling themselves up a good thirty feet with a strong gust of wind. The mother did a few flips as she jumped up, although Tia wasn't quite skilled enough to do that and just jumped straight up.

      Once high up in the air, the two of them used another gust of wind to push themselves up a little higher, and towards each other. They both grabbed each others hands and started gently floating back down, holding hands and twirling as they slowly drifted down like feathers. Just for added fun, the mother used her wind magic to pull a few colorful fall leaves off a nearby tree and made the leaves spiral around the two as they descended.

      Verheli smiled widely as he watched and applauded them when they reached the ground. “That was amazing girls, you two did great.” He said, honestly quite impressed by the performance even though it was relatively simple.

      “Did I do good daddy?” Tia asked cheerfully, running over to Verheli and looking up at him.

      Verheli smiled, he knew her mother had been helping her with most of it. But he nodded “You did great Tia.” He said kindly, ruffling her hair. “Now, it's time for bed.” He added. Although he was interrupted by a loud crash and a scream from a nearby house. He quickly and protectively pulled Tia closer.

      He turned and looked in the direction of the scream, and his eyes widened when he saw what had caused it. Bandits were flooding into the city in force, it was a small army of them being lead by a man in a black cloak.

      “Burn Oline village to the ground! Kill everyone inside and let no one escape!” The man in the black cloak called out, “That will surely draw out the knights so we can kill their leader.” He added as he marched down the street, throwing fireballs into the houses he passed, making the homes around him burst into flames.

      “The village is under attack again? We need to get out of here, now.” Verheli said hurriedly as he picked up Tia and started quickly running away from the bandits.

      “Wait, no. Maybe I can stop them. We found out too late last time, maybe this time I can help.” The mother said “You two get out of here, I'll see what I can do.” She added before running after the bandits.

      “Hey! No! We're not leaving without you!” Verheli shouted back, but she wasn't listening. He hated the idea of letting his wife fight alone but he had to stay with Tia to protect her. So he had no choice but to stay back and out of the fight. He picked Tia up and quickly ran into the house, grabbing a few of his hunting knives, his bow, and arrows. Then quickly ran back outside. He crouched down behind some bushes where they'd be hidden and not far from her mother, and put Tia down beside him. He took out a knife so he'd be able to protect his daughter if they were found and worriedly watched his wife, making sure she was okay.

      Tia was terrified, she was shaking, breathing heavily, and was too scared to speak. Verheli noticed this and gently hugged her, to try to comfort his daughter. “It will be okay. Mommy is going to chase the bad guys away with her magic. And we are right here to help her if she gets in trouble.” He reassured Tia. “We'll be okay. Me and mommy will keep the city safe.”

      Tia's mother ran at the bandits, she pushed her hands forwards and sent a powerful gust of wind at the group. Pushing them backwards and knocking them over.

      The cloaked man was also knocked over by the wind, but he quickly jumped back onto his feet, glaring at the woman who was mucking up his plans. He knew the bandits weren't good enough to take down a mage, so he sent them away.  “Bandits, scatter and continue the attack. Leave this one to me.” He called out. None of them wanted to fight a mage, so the bandits did as he asked and scattered, leaving the man in the black cloak alone with Tia's mother.

      He stepped forwards and threw a large fireball at the woman, without thinking much about it beforehand. She immediately sent another strong gust of wind at the fireball, the gust of wind fed the flames and made them bigger, while also blowing them back at the cloaked man who yelped in pain as he was burnt and stumbled backwards. Tia's mother then lunged forwards, using the wind to propel herself forwards much faster, she was able to move thirty feet closer in just one second. Although the cloaked man saw her coming and made a wall of spikes spring out of the ground in front of her while she was in mid-jump. Seeing the spikes, she quickly redirected the wind to blow herself away from the wall, narrowly missing it.

      The cloaked man quickly darted at her, pulling out a sword and aiming to stab her. But with a flick of her wrist she blew him away from herself again and almost knocked him off his feet. She wasn't really much of a fighter, but she knew how to use her wind magic to her advantage. This man's earth magic was too slow to hit her, and his fire could just be blown back at him. So even if she didn't know how to fight well, she had the advantage.

      “I will not allow you to destroy this village!” Tia's mother declared. She held up her hand and made a powerful, constant gust of wind to push the cloaked man back.  He held his ground but he was struggling just to stay on his feet and not be knocked over by the wind.

      “You can't stop me!” He called out. But she only made the gust of wind even stronger, causing the man to start to stumble backwards. The man quickly stomped the ground and made a stone wall to shield himself from the wind.

      Tia's mother growled quietly, making the wind even stronger. It sounded like a tornado was hitting the place, anything that was in the path of the wind was being thrown against the house behind the cloaked man, even the plants and bushes nearby were being yanked out of the ground by the sheer power of the wind's current. “I already have, you're trapped now. If you step out from behind that wall the wind current will blow you away and pin you to the house behind you. And once you're pinned my husband will have an arrow in your head before you even know what hit you.” She countered. She kept the wind current going, while walking over to the stone wall. Bending the wind to go around her so she wouldn't be pushed. “And take off that hood! It's no use I'll find out who you are anyways. Only a coward would hide their face.” She stated as she stepped around to the other side of the stone wall. But the man was gone.

      Her eyes widened and she hurriedly looked around. “Where'd he go?” She said panickedly Taking a more defensive stance. But nothing happened. 'Did he run away? Did I win?' She thought. But not a second after the thought crossed her mind, the ground next to her opened up. Flames fired out of the ground, catching in her wind current and becoming stronger. She let out a scream of mixed fear and pain as she was suddenly engulfed in the intense flames.

      “Mom!!” Tia's voice screamed out in terror as she watched her mother suddenly disappear in the explosion of flames. In an instant Verheli was on his feet, bow in hand and ready to jump to her aid. But a split second later Tia's mother could be seen quickly launching herself up into the air and out of the flames with her wind. She landed safely beside her family, but she stumbled and dropped to her knees when she landed, severely burnt and wounded. The cloaked man crawled out of the ground, stumbling and limping a little from his own burns. But he raised his hand and a stone spear lifted out of the ground, pointed at Tia's wounded mother. Preparing to hit her while she was wounded and would have difficulty dodging.

      “No!” Verheli shouted as he quickly rushed forwards to try and block the stone spear with his own body. Although he was a little too slow. Someone else beat him to the punch. A girl with chin-length brown hair and blue eyes quickly jumped down between the cloaked man and Tia's mother and with a wave of her hand a jet of water burst out of the ground and knocked the stone spear away. The girl looked about sixteen, just a year younger then Kaolin and Seth were.

      She held out her hand at the man in the black cloak, firing a jet of water at him. Catching him off guard and knocking him off his feet. “Mrs. Simnel are you alright?” She asked worriedly, turning to Tia's mother.

      Tia's mother looked up at her and nodded. “I'm alright, thank you Elladine.” She said softly. Shakily getting back on her feet and moving away from the stone spear. “Where are your parents?”

      “Just call me Ella, my full name sounds too formal.” Elladine replied, repeating it for what must have been the millionth time. She bit her lip at the mention of her parents, looking away a little and wiping her eyes, “They didn't make it...” She said quietly. She took a deep breath and pushed the emotions down, replacing the tears with a fake smile and turning back to Tia's mother.

      Tia's mother placed a hand on her shoulder in a comforting way. “I'm sorry.” She said softly.

      “It's alright, it's not your fault” Elladine replied quietly, her voice wavering a little. “When I lost them I came to find you guys. You guys are my only other friends, and the only other mages in town. Us mages need to stick together. So what's going on?”

      Verheli and Tia ran over to them as Tia's mother spoke. “This man seems to be leading the bandits in their attack. I don't know what he's after, but I tried to stop him.” She said.

      “You're not fighting anymore.” Verheli stated firmly. “You're hurt, you and Tia are evacuating the village, now. I'll hold him off as long as I can and meet up with you after, Ella you need to get out of here too.” He said.

      The cloaked man stayed back and watched. He was shocked that there was two mages here, he hadn't thought any would be here. They must have done a really good job of hiding their magic. And he recognized one of them, Elladine, as someone from his old village. He had never known she could use magic. For now, he kept his distance and didn't attack. Not wanting to fight three on one, that would be a very risky and dangerous fight, especially with his burns.

      “I can handle myself!” Elladine protested. “You don't have magic, you should get out.” She argued.

      “You're just a child, with no combat experience. You're not staying to fight him.” Verheli stated.

      Elladine growled quietly “No, I'm staying as long as I can. I'll back off if things get bad.” She stated as she turned back to the cloaked man. He seemed oddly familiar to her.

      Verheli sighed, knowing she was too stubborn to listen. He turned back to his family. “You two get out, we'll be right behind you.” He ordered, handing Tia and her mother two of his knives. He prayed they didn't need to use them, but gave them the knives just in case.

      Tia's mother sighed, but knew she couldn't continue to fight with her burns, she took Tia's hand. “We'll be in the next village over, waiting for you. Please be safe.” She said softly and worriedly, before the two of them ran off into the woods.

      The cloaked man saw them running, 'No, there will be no survivors.' He thought as he darted after them, throwing a large stone at the mother and daughter from behind.

      “Look out!” Verheli shouted as him and Elladine ran in to cut off the cloaked man.

      Tia's mother heard him and quickly scooped up Tia. Then jumped forwards, using a gust of wind to propell them into the woods and out of sight in the blink of an eye.

      The cloaked man cursed when he saw the other two escape, then quickly turned to his two new attackers. Throwing a fireball at Verheli. But Elladine quickly stepped in front of him and raised her hand. Making a wall of water jump out of the ground to block the fireball.

      'Black cloak... Uses both fire and earth magic... Looks familiar... Could it be?' Elladine thought. She looked up at the cloaked man. “Kaolin! Is that you?! It better not be you!” She called out. The Kaolin she knew would never do this. She didn't understand it, but everything pointed to him or Seth. And she remembered that Kaolin wore the black cloak while Seth wore red. But, from what she remembered they were both nice. And she remembered that Kaolin was a pacifist, it didn't make sense, why would he be doing this? It couldn't be...

      The cloaked man froze in place for a moment. 'W-What? That means she recognizes me too... She must remember me and my brother... I can't speak or she'll know exactly who I am... She has to die! If she figures out who I am my entire plan is ruined!' He thought.

      Elladine's eyes narrowed when she noticed the man freeze in surprise. “I'm right, aren't I? It really is you... Your reaction gives it away.” She said disheartedly, she had really hoped it wasn't him.

      “Who is Kaolin? A friend of yours?” Verheli asked cautiously.

      “He was a friend of mine... From my old village before it was destroyed.” Elladine murmured quietly. Sighing lightly. “He always came to the shop to help me and my mother cook... We sold food there. We taught him how to cook and bake... He was outcast from the village with his brother for being a mage, during that time my mother forced me to keep quiet and not tell anyone I was a mage as well... He has a twin brother Seth, but Kaolin was the one who always wore black, and Seth always wore red. Aside from their hair color, eye color, and voices, that was the only way to tell them apart.”

      Verheli nodded “I see, we've had to keep our family's magic secret too. But if he's here killing people, we don't really have a choice but to stop him Ella.” He said softly. “I'm sorry, but your friend needs to die.”

      The cloaked man swallowed hard, trying to think of something. He had to kill them, now. He couldn't afford the risk of letting them escape. He raised his hand and shot a pillar of flames into the sky then took a defensive stance again.

      Verheli looked up at the flame the cloaked man shot into the air. 'Why did he do that...? Unless... Was it a signal?' He thought, then his eyes widened. “Ella we need to run.” He said quickly.

      “What? Why the fight just started?” Elladine argued.

      “He just signaled for his bandits to come. Get out of here before they show up. I'll hold him back.” Verheli stated firmly.

      “But-” Elladine started to say but was cut off.

      “No buts! Go!” Verheli ordered. He didn't want the young girl getting hurt, and was only looking out for her safety.

      Elladine hesitated, but sighed. “You better come back alive.” She said firmly. Before she too turned and ran for the woods to escape.

      'No! I am not letting another one escape! Especially not her.' The cloaked man thought as he made a few hand gestures, making spikes and walls spring up in her path to try and stop her. But she was nimbly evading them all. The cloaked man sprinted after Elladine, sword drawn and ready to attack. He ignored the hunter, not seeing a normal human as much of a threat. His focus was entirely on stopping the girl that risked recognizing him, and that gave Verheli just the opening he needed.

      Verheli acted quickly, grabbing a handful of sand and throwing it up into the cloaked man's hood as he ran past, knowing the man would just block it if he attacked with the knife. The sand got into his eyes and blinding him for a brief moment, which allowed Elladine to escape. While the cloaked man was blinded and staggering back Verheli quickly pulled out his last knife and lunged at him.

      The cloaked man had predicted an attack, and made a stonewall to block the attack. Once he got the sand out of his eyes he growled loudly, fuming that another had escaped right under his nose. He turned to glare at the human who had saved the girl, he was as good as dead now. The cloaked man had lost his temper and just started throwing fireball after fireball after Verheli.

      Verheil quickly dove out of the way, the cloaked man's aim had gotten worse in his rage. And thankfully, the man didn't seem to be very good with fire magic. Verheli had a plan, he too ran off into the woods. Expecting the man to follow him.

      Leading the way through the forest, he used the trees as cover from the barrage of stones and flames that were being thrown at him by his pursuer. Verheli ran to a rather large tree and quickly dove behind it, crossing his fingers and hoping his plan worked.

      The enraged man was right on his tail, sprinting straight after Verheli to the tree. But as he stepped near the big tree, there was a quiet snap of rope being cut. Next thing he knew, a net had sprung off the ground under his feet, catching him in the net and lifting him up to hang from the tree.

      Verheli was a hunter, after all. So of course he had numerous traps set up in the woods for hunting animals. He knew the trap had worked and quickly jumped out from behind the tree. His bow and arrows in hand. He pulled back the arrow and aimed it at up the cloaked man's head as he struggled to get out of the net.

      The cloaked man knew he couldn't burn the net, it would burn himself if he tried. And he didn't have time to cut it, the arrow would hit him in less then a second. But with a quick flick of his wrist the ground under Verheli's feet sprung up and tilted backwards, making Verheli miss his shot and causing him to stumble back. As Verheli stumbled backwards the cloaked man spat a stream of flames into Verheli's face, and Verheli was unable to dodge the flames. He cried out in pain as he was burnt, closing his eyes and trying to cover his face with his hands. A split second later a fist sized stone launched out of the ground and slammed into the back of Verheli's head, knocking him to the ground.

      Verheli opened his eyes, but everything was still black. After a moment he sat up. 'I'm still awake? I didn't pass out? But I can't see... Why can't I see?' He thought. Between the flames burning his eyes, and the stone striking his head so hard, it had damaged his vision and blinded him. He could still hear the man struggling to cut himself free of the ropes, he knew there was no way he could win now, so he took the opportunity to run while he had it. Verheli turned and darted off into the forest, tripping over a few things on his way, but running out of sight. There was a loud crash of a boulder striking the ground right behind him as he fled, by a stroke of luck he narrowly avoided being crushed.

      The cloaked man watched this, shouting loudly in frustration when yet another person escaped. He couldn't even stop the human from running away. After a little struggling, he cut himself out of the net and marched back into the village. Looking around he noticed that the entire village had finally been destroyed. 'At least one thing worked out... Only four people escaped... Then I have the ones the knights rescued to deal with.' He thought. Then promptly left the village right after walking into it, his job was done.

–

–

      Meanwhile, the knights at the camp had noticed the smoke. “Hey, the village is under attack. Where is Seth?” One knight asked.

      “He went out to search for the bandits and hasn't come back. The village is under attack?” Another knight asked.

      “Yeah, all that smoke isn't from nothing. They must have came in on our blind spot.” The first knight said, pointing at the smoke in the distance.

      “What?! How did they know our blind spot? We'll have to go in without Seth!” The second knight nearly shouted as they hurriedly rallied all the other knights. Then marched into the town to take care of the bandits. The knights were late, and unable to save the village in time. It wasn't until after the entire village had been destroyed that Seth finally showed up to lead the knights. After the bandits had already started retreating and the leader had disappeared from the battlefield.

      Seth lead the knights to victory over the remaining bandits, commanding the knights to perfectly counter the bandit's strategy, finding every weak point in their attack within seconds and pushing the bandits that hadn't retreated back.

      Once the battle was over, Seth and the knights rounded up the survivors that the knights had protected. They planned to escort the survivors to another nearby village, since Oline village was completely destroyed in the battle and no one could live there any longer. Seth kept track of the very few survivors that the knights rounded up and planned their escort to the city, to make sure they got the care they needed later. The survivors were grateful for being saved, calling Seth a hero for bravely leading his knights against the bandits. Although, their escort was attacked by bandits on the way to the city and none of the survivors made it back alive.

      With the battle over and the villagers lost. Seth and his knights left, and began hunting for the surviving bandits from the attack. Seth began his new life as the leader of the knights, and stck to his plan to rid the world of corruption and make the world a better place.

–

      Seth would continue this for ten years. Leading his knights in skirmishes and battles against the bandit armies. The man in the black cloak continued leading the bandits through bribery, collecting more and more of them into his forces and launching attacks on other villages. But every time the bandits attacked, Seth and his army just happened to be in the area and showed up just in time to drive them off and save a small portion of the village. There were always countless villagers killed in the crossfire when the knights and bandits clashed in the villages. But Seth's leadership skills lead the knights to victory almost every time, while the bandits had to flee most of the time. The man in the black cloak did not show up in many fights, but he was still clearly leading the bandits from the shadows.

      Seth quickly became known as a hero amongst the villages for the countless lives he saved after each battle. Seth used his new status as a hero, to convince more knights to join him in his ranks since most knights were honored to leave their platoon and join a great hero. Seth gained a couple full platoons of knights when they came to help and their leaders were singled out and killed by the bandit leader. Seth wiped the memories of all the knights who joined him, as he had done with all of the others. Slowly starting to amass a small army.

–

      Tia and her mother waited for Verheli to return, but he never did and was presumed dead. Over the next ten years, Tia learned from her mother how to use magic, and taught herself how to hunt and fight. In hopes of someday becoming a knight like the ones who were protecting the world from these bandits. Also holding hopes of finding her father again some day, she knew he was out there... Somewhere. She refused to accept the fact that he was gone, she was so sure that her father was too tough to die, she stuck to that belief and clung onto the hopes that he was still out there just waiting to be found.

      Elladine met up with Tia and her mother, assisting them in getting a home and getting settled in the new village. After that she set out to be an adventurer and explore the world. Her family had been killed in the bandit attack, and she held a strong grudge against the bandits for that. She hoped to find the bandits in her travels, partially because she wanted revenge, partially because she wanted to protect everyone, but mostly because she had to prove to herself that Kaolin was not the leader of the bandits. She had seen it with her own eyes but she was in denial, she didn't want to believe that her former best friend had really become mass murderer. And if it really was him, she wanted to find out why, and was prepared to put an end to him if she needed to. Although much to her dismay, she never found the bandits. So she continues to explore the world and train herself.

–

–

Next chapter:  The dark and grim future

Author's note: Last major timeskip, I promise. As said in the description, first part of the story is their teenaged years leading up to the war. Second part to the story, were we are now, is in their early adult years during the war, where the prologue took place. :)

14: Chapter Thirteen: The Dark and Grim Future

~~ Chapter 13:  The Dark and Grim Future ~~

 

      A tall, blonde man with blue eyes who looked to be in his late twenties walked down the road. He wore a set steel armor that showed his standing as a commander of an army of knights, and had a war hammer strapped to his back. Everything about him from his strong and almost heroic appearance, to his polished armor that reflected the burning town around him gave away that he was a strong and well respected man. A man who was seen as a hero to the people that knew him, well, most of the people who knew him.

      The entire village around him was in flames. Knights were rushing through the streets and clashing swords with what seemed to be an army of bandits. It was easy to tell who was on which side, the knights were fully armored and had top notch equipment. And the bandits were dirty, smelly, wore torn up clothing and rags, and were fighting with weapons that varied in quality. As the two sides clashed and fought each other civilians were screaming and running from both the flames and the bandits. Seth was remaining completely calm and collected, despite being in the middle of a battlefield, his view shifted from one place to another. Glancing at the numerous bodies of civilians who were not lucky enough to escape, glancing at his groups of knights as they clashed with the bandits, searching for anyone who needed help, any knights who needed to be lead, or any bandits who weren't being dealt with already. He felt the strangest sense of deja-vu, but continued on with his mission.

      On a nearby rooftop, a second man watched over the battlefield from above. The second man, was just as tall as the first and appeared around the same age, but they were vastly different. He wore a dirty and torn up black hooded cloak that had several old stains of blood on it. The man in the black cloak kept his face and body hidden behind the cloak but if one would look closely enough he would appear to be very thin and frail, as if he hadn't eaten in months. He wasn't in anywhere near good shape, he was just as battered and worn as his equipment and looked like he had recently been on the losing side of several fights. This man looked very much like a thief or one of the bandits attacking the town.

      The cloaked man was wearing a dented and worn metal gauntlet on his left hand. The metal gauntlet had a long blade sticking out of the side of it, starting at his elbow then running up the side of his arm and extending one foot past his fingertips. He also held a bow in that same hand. His other hand that didn't have a gauntlet was pulling back an arrow on the bow, taking careful aim at his target below. After a moment's pause he fired the arrow, piercing a bandit right through the back of the head and killing them instantly. He then switched the hand that was carrying the bow, so his gauntlet hand would be free, and jumped down from the roof. As he fell he landed on another bandit, stabbing the blade attached to his gauntlet through the back of the bandit's neck. Killing him without the him even knowing what hit him.

      Although, the brief victory didn't last long before three more showed up. Seeing them the cloaked man strapped his bow onto his back, and held his bladed gauntlet in a defensive stance. One bandit charged him, swinging it's sword for his chest. But the cloaked man caught the sword's blade with his gauntlet and spat a fireball at the attacking bandit. Forcing him to abandon his sword and jump back. Although the man couldn't attack before the next bandit swung a mace at his head from the side, which he quickly blocked with the side of his gauntlet. Creating another dent in the already battered, dented and damaged gauntlet. The three bandits continued their assault on the man, rapidly attacking one after the other, not giving the man a chance to swing back and forcing him to stay on the defense. They were all so caught up in their fight, they didn't notice that they were being watched.

      As Seth walked down the road, looking for a bandit to attack, he spotted the cloaked man fighting with three of them. His eyes widened 'What? The leader of the bandits... How is he here? That's not possible...' He thought. Then he smirked 'But, this works out perfectly for me. Seems like the bandits already know...' He thought. He grabbed his war hammer and started cautiously walking towards the four, unsure if the cloaked man would attack him or not.

      After blocking the mace the cloaked man still didn't get a chance to attack before the third bandit took a stab at him from behind with a dagger. Thinking fast he rolled forwards to evade the dagger, but as he rolled his hood came off. Revealing his messy black hair, brown eyes, and a face that was identical to Seth's. It was only for a brief moment before he quickly waved his hands upwards, making a wall of flames jump out of the ground to hide him from sight as he fumbled to pull his hood back up. Once his hood was on again, the wall of flames disappeared.

      Although, that brief moment was long enough for Seth to see the cloaked man's face. The face of his twin brother. His eyes widened, 'Kaolin? He's still alive??' He thought in surprise, as he watched the bandits continue their assault on Kaolin. Attacking too quickly for him to get a chance to swing back. Seth gripped his hammer tighter and started running at the four people a bit faster, seeing a much more urgent need to join the fight. Now that he knew that wasn't some thief, it was his brother, he had to help. There was no way those bandits could take Kaolin down themselves, even if they had Kaolin stuck on the defense for the moment.

      Once the bandits saw Seth closing in on them, they scattered and ran off. Not wanting to fight both a knight and a mage at the same time. Seth smirked a bit at that, it made his job much easier. He quickly ran at Kaolin and swung his hammer for Kaolin's chest. Who retaliated by jumping back to avoid the hammer and throwing a fireball back at Seth. Unaware that Seth knew who he was.

      Seth quickly jumped to the side to evade the flames, his armor making movement a little more difficult. “You're still alive? After all these years?” He growled. “I thought I killed you!”

      Kaolin cursed quietly, knowing Seth must have seen his slip-up. “I faked my death.” Kaolin shot back, “I'm not a demon Seth, I'm not going to die like a demon. I knew you would be too conceited in your ideals to realize that.” He said as he threw another fireball at Seth, who again jumped out of the way. “And over the years, I figured something out.” Kaolin added. “This entire time you've been leading the knights, you haven't told them you're a mage. That means... You can't use magic to fight against me, or you blow your cover.” He stated with a smirk.

      He let that sink in for a moment before continuing. “You can't beat me without your magic. You depend on it too much. Checkmate.” Kaolin stated firmly. With a quick wave of his hand he used dark magic to make a large, shadow-like hand that was bigger then a human reach out of his shadow. The large shadow-hand lunged forwards and tried to pin Seth to the ground. But Seth dropped his hammer and grabbed onto two of the fingers, struggling to hold it back.

      Seth growled, “I give you some credit there Lyn. That was a smart idea.” He muttered. “But attacking me, with my entire army nearby, was a very stupid move. I may not be able to use my magic here, but I am anything but vulnerable. And I know you, you're a pacifist, I know you will not kill the innocent knights who don't know what the are doing, you didn't think this through did you?” He laughed. He glanced around while struggling to hold back the giant shadow-hand, not seeing any knights nearby he made a quick burst of flames come out of his hands. The light created by the flames caused the shadow-hand to disperse.

      Kaolin also yelped in pain as the shadow-hand was destroyed by the light of the flames, he looked down to see that his own hand had received burns in the places the shadow-hand was hit. “You are vulnerable, don't say you're not! You can't win like this.” He argued, ignoring the comment about his pacifist nature because he knew Seth was right about that. But then his eyes widened when Seth grabbed a small war horn from his belt. Kaolin knew exactly what that was, it looked almost like a wooden animal's horn, but it was clearly man-made, hollowed out with holes on both ends.

      Kaolin cussed lightly, knowing exactly what Seth planned to do. 'No! I can not let him use that!' He thought. He immediately stomped on the ground and made a stone launch itself out of the ground at Seth. But Seth had predicted that move and quickly dove out of the way, then blew into the horn as hard as he could. The loud blare from the horn could be heard throughout the entire village. Seth then looked up at Kaolin and smirked, 'I could kill him now... It would be easy to just kill him right now... But no, it'll make my plan go along much more smoothly if he's still alive, and if the knights see us together. And, it's not like he even poses a threat to me now...' Seth thought. “Give up Lyn. You can't win, I'm better then you are. I always have been, and always will be. I'm stronger then you, I'm the better fighter, I'm better with magic, and I'm smarter. You don't stand a chance, even with your pitiful plan to try and attack me at what you thought was my weakest time.” He stated.

      Kaolin growled lightly, knowing all the knights in the village had probably heard that horn, and where probably coming now. “No you're not! Not anymore! I've been training.” He countered defensively. “You aren't better then me anymore!”

      “Oh, but I am. No matter how much training you do, you can never surpass me.” Seth stated. “You'll always be second best. You're my shadow, the one always following me around, the one always trying to be like me but failing. Nothing more.” He stated. Seth didn't need his magic to win, he didn't even need a weapon. His words where far sharper then any sword, and he knew exactly how to play at Kaolin's insecurities and cripple him with his own emotions.

      “I am not your shadow! I've trained hard over the last ten years! I must have surpassed you by now!” Kaolin nearly shouted back, gritting his teeth and growling at his twin. Blinded by his insecurities and anger he recklessly sprinted forwards at Seth, slashing his bladed gauntlet for Seth's head. The only part of him that wasn't armored, since the bladed gauntlet wasn't powerful enough to pierce armor.

      Seth gracefully ducked under the reckless swing and jabbed Kaolin hard in the gut. Kaolin gasped and lurched forward from the strike, and before he could move Seth brought his elbow up, smashing his elbow into Kaolin's chin. As Kaolin was stunned and stumbled back from that blow, Seth followed up with a front kick to kaolin's gut again. The kick knocked Kaolin back a few feet and onto the ground. Kaolin grunted in pain as he hit the ground, then looked up at Seth, a mix of anger, surprise, and emotional pain on his face.

      Seth looked up to see his knights rushing down the streets, the ones who weren't busy fighting bandits had come to the call of the horn. “I win again Kaolin.” Seth stated. “I told you, I'm better. You can't stop me.” He turned to the knights when they arrived. “I've found the leader of the bandits, the man in the black cloak.” He called out, pointing down at Kaolin.

      Kaolin's eyes widened, “Wait, what? Leader of the bandits?” He asked, not having a clue what Seth was talking about. He scrambled to his feet, and watched as the knights quickly started surrounding him. 'I can't kill them... These knights are not bad people... They are just mislead, I will not kill the innocent...' He thought, then looked up at Seth and glared at his twin. 'And he knows I won't attack them... He's using my own morals against me...' He thought, growling quietly in frustration.

      'I have no choice but to run again... I'm still not good enough to stop him...' Kaolin thought. He sighed in defeat and bit his lip, before he just fell backwards to the ground. Although, he didn't hit the ground, when he would have hit the ground he fell right into his shadow as if it where a hole in the ground and disappeared. Leaving only his shadow where he once was. His shadow then darted off while the baffled knights watched, unable to do anything to stop him.

      Seth watched, and smirked a little. 'It seems he really has been training. He's learned some new dark magic. That demonic magic won't be able to stop me. But still... I should be more cautious, never hurts to be too cautious.' He thought. “Knights, he has escaped. There's nothing we can do now. Clear up the rest of the bandits and lets get going.” He ordered.

      “Sir.” One of the knights said. “The majority of the bandits have already been driven back or killed. There's this one girl in the middle of the village who is making short work of them all, on her own.”

      “What?” Seth asked in disbelief. “Alright, I'd like to go meet her then.” He said unsurely. 'If this girl is that good, she may make a good addition to my army.' He thought.

      The knights nodded, “Right this way sir.” One said as they lead the way back to the girl. Leading the way to the center of town where a short girl who looked roughly 15, with a lean build, long brown hair, and brown eyes was fighting several bandits by herself. She was just wearing a casual white shirt and blue pants, clothes that were simple and easy to move in.

      'That girl, she looks familiar...' Seth thought. Watching the girl for a moment. She was fighting with just a hunting knife, but there was about twenty bodies of dead bandits around her, she was clearly winning.

      One bandit slashed a sword downwards at the girl, but she swiftly sidestepped the attack, bringing her knife up to slice the bandit's wrist. The bandit stumbled back and panicked when he realized the artery in his wrist had been cut and blood was suddenly pouring out of his arm. In the bandit's panic, the girl pulled her hand towards herself. Making a strong gust of wind pull the bandit off his feet and right to her as she stabbed her knife into his neck. Then used another gust of wind to push the bandit's body at the second bandit that charged at her. Knocking that bandit to the floor.

      A third bandit ran at the girl, but with an upwards wave of her hand he was thrown a few feet up into the air. When he came back down the bandit landed on his face and the girl simply stabbed him in the back of the neck. The second bandit had gotten up and cautiously approached the girl and as he approached several others moved in to surround her. Once she was surrounded, several of them charged forwards to attack her. There was no way she could protect herself if she was surrounded and attacked from different sides all at once.

      The girl simply launched herself up high into the sky with a strong burst of wind, then used another gust of wind to push herself away from the circle of bandits before gently floating back down. She pushed both of her hands forwards and a very strong gust of wind knocked all of the bandits to the ground, making them tumble and skid across the ground as the wind pushed them a few feet back. The bandits, knowing they couldn't win, scrambled onto their feet and started running away.

      The girl let out a quiet sigh of relief, watching them run away, she hadn't really wanted to kill them. Then, there was a brief moment of silence.  Broken when Seth finally spoke up.

      “Impressive, for someone your age.” Seth said as he approached the girl with a couple of his knights just a few steps behind him. “What's your name?” He asked.

      “Oh! Thank you sir.” The girl said. “My name is Tia. Tia Simnel.” She answered him. “I've been training for almost ten years, in hopes of joining the knights someday.” She said.

      Seth smiled softly, he remembered that name. 'So, this is that little child who escaped that night... She has her mother's magic...' He thought. “Nice to meet you. I'm Seth, the commander of these knights.” He said. “I'm curious, why you're so interested in joining the knights?” He asked.

      Tia's eyes widened. “Seth? The hero who's been saving all these villages?” She asked in disbelief,

      Seth chuckled lightly, “Yep, that's me.” He said.

      Tia was shocked, she was meeting a hero in person! But she quickly composed herself and answered his origonal question. “I want to help make the world a better place. By protecting everyone from the bandits and driving them off once and for all. Plus, if I can make myself seen as a hero, like you, I may be able to get people to accept mages. Since I am a mage myself.” She answered, giving him a sheepish grin when she mentioned being a mage, half expecting him to be angry or yell at her due to the way mages were treated. “That, and I hope to find my father. When my home village, Oline village, was attacked ten years ago he stayed behind to protect us. He never returned. But I know he's still alive out there, somewhere.” She said quietly. “I hope to run into him on my travels as a knight.”

       “That is a very noble cause. I'm sure you can fulfill all of those dreams, surely once you are a hero people will accept mages.” Seth said softly. “You know what, you inspired me. I want to help you find your father, and take down these bandits. How about joining me, you can be one of my knights. I don't mind having a mage join, it will only make us even stronger.” He said as he held out an armored hand. He had a plan for her, he needed someone who was powerful and skilled in the use of daggers for the next step of his plan.

      Tia's eyes lit up “Really??” She asked in disbelief.

      Seth smiled and nodded. “Yes. I promise, I will train you to be a great knight in my ranks. You're deeds will be known by everyone in the world. And I promise, I will help you find your father.” He said softly. “Just join me, and I can make all those dreams of yours come true. Easily. I am a hero after all.”

      Tia smiled widely and took his hand, shaking it lightly. “Thank you! I'd be more then happy to join you.” She said cheerfully. Then frowned a bit,  “Mother hasn't come back from her hunting trip yet, she might not allow it.” She added quietly as the thought just came to her mind.

      Seth shook his head. “Just leave her a note saying where you went, and leave before she gets back. Only you can chose what you want to do with your life.” He said simply. Tia hesitated, being unsure about that. “It's not her place to stop you from achieving your dreams. She'll look silly when you become a hero, find your father, and save the world from the bad people.” He insisted.

      Tia hesitated again, but nodded. “Okay.” She said unsurely. She was talking to a hero after all. It wasn't everyday you met someone who had saved countless lives, and this was the second time Seth and his knights protected her and her village, they had to be good people, right? That's what she thought at least. “I'll just go pack and leave the note. Then I'll sneak out to your campsite.” She said.

      Seth smiled and nodded, “We'll be awaiting your arrival then.” He said simply. Before turning to walk back to the camp with his knights. The rest of his platoon was just finishing up driving the bandits back and would also be returning shortly. 'I'll have to wait before I wipe her memories. I shouldn't do that until I recollect that dagger and give it to her.' He thought. 'I left it up in the mountains, right? Yeah, that's where we ran into those demons.'

–

–

Next chapter:  Crossroads. Mistaken for a monster.

15: Chapter Fourteen: Crossroads. Mistaken for a Monster

~~ Chapter 14:  Crossroads. Mistaken for a Monster. ~~

        A man in a black cloak quickly scurried through a village. He stopped in a nearby alleyway to clutch his growling stomach for a moment, before shaking his head and sighing lightly. He gave his hood a tug to make sure it covered his face, then he darted out of the alleyway towards the market.

        Elladine was in the market, looking through the stalls and shop windows as she bought more supplies for her trip. She was cheerfully talking to the guy behind the market stand. “Thank you sir.” She said before turning to leave. But out of the corner of her eye she spotted the man in the black cloak shifting through the crowds in the marketplace. She grit her teeth and clenched her fists. Remembering that night she fought him at Oline village, how bandits lead by a man in a black cloak had killed her parents and countless others in the village under his orders.

        She reached up to grab the large, round shield that was on her back. But, before she could do anything the cloaked man suddenly lunged at one of the market stands. A stone wall gently pushed the guy who owned the stand to the ground, being extra careful not to hurt him. Then the man in the black cloak grabbed as much food from the stall as he could within a few seconds before he fell into his shadow as if it were a hole in the ground. Disappearing from sight. Elladine could only watch as his shadow darted away with the food.

        “Hey! Get back here!” Elladine shouted at the cloaked man before running after his shadow. The shadow moved too fast though, and it was out of sight in seconds. Elladine sighed and walked back into the market, 'There's a cave out here, that I used as a shelter last night. I bet he's hiding in there while he plans his attack on this village.' She thought bitterly. She then turned and looked at the blacksmith in the market, biting her lip a little. She knew she needed a weapon to kill him with but she had never taken a life before, just the thought of it was making her feel uneasy, especially since she thought it was her former best friend. But she stepped into the blacksmith and bought a cheap dagger.

        Elladine looked over the dagger as she walked out of the blacksmith. 'Am I really going to kill him?' She thought. 'Of course I am... He's killing countless other people, if I don't kill him I condemn countless innocent lives to death... That makes it okay to kill him, right? He's a bad person, I'll be saving more lives then I'll be taking...' She thought, the idea of taking a life made her uncomfortable, but she knew it was for the greater good so she shook off the feelings and marched towards the cave. 'He's a bad person, it's okay...' She thought. Part of her hoped she was right and hoped she would find him in the cave, although part of her also hoped she didn't find him there.

--

        The man in the marketplace that had been knocked over during the theft got back up and brushed himself off. He went to check and see what was stolen, but noticed a message carved into the stone under his feet. The cloaked man had quickly used earth magic to leave a message behind when he ran. The message was two simple words. “I'm sorry.”

–

        It was almost nightfall before Elladine reached the cave and her suspicions were proven true, the front entrance of the cave had collapsed. It wasn't like that yesterday, the cloaked man must be hiding inside, and using his earth magic to make the cave look collapsed so others don't find him. 'Clever, but not clever enough.' Elladine thought before she focused. Her body turned into water and slid into the cave through the cracks in the rocks, before reforming back into her normal appearance.

        Just a little ways into the cave she could see a small campfire with the stolen food beside it and the cloaked man asleep on the ground next to the fire. Elladine grit her teeth and pulled out her dagger, before silently walking over to the man. She again thought back to the night she fought him in Oline village, remembering how his bandits had killed her parents under his orders, trying to use those memories to give her the strength to just kill him. But also remembering that the man seemed so much like he was her childhood friend, Kaolin. She couldn't believe that the man who had killed countless people was the peaceful and friendly boy she used to know. But all the signs pointed to him.

        She gripped the knife tighter and crouched down beside him, holding the knife over his heart. But was struggling to bring herself to do it. The thought of it possibly being Kaolin made it harder for her to kill him. She kept trying to remind herself that it couldn't be him, that he wouldn't do these things, but she had a sinking feeling it was. She sighed, 'I can't do it... I have to check who it is first... Surely it's not him... There's no way he would ever take an innocent life...' She thought.

        She reached her free hand over, slowly, and grabbed his hood. Her other hand firmly gripping the knife and holding it to his chest, just in case. She had to know who it really was, she just couldn't do it without knowing. She very slowly started pulling back his hood, being very careful not to wake him. Then, suddenly the man took a deep breath and gently swatted her hand away. Her eyes went wide as she yanked her hand back and tightened her grip on the knife, but he didn't wake.

        Elladine let out a shaky breath and placed her hand over her heart for a moment. That had scared her half to death. Once she calmed her nerves she cautiously took the man's hood again, and slowly started pulling it off. She gasped and quickly jumped up to her feet when she saw that her fears were true. She couldn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it, she took a step back.

        She looked down at the twenty seven year old guy with black hair and brown eyes. Just as she remembered him, it was Kaolin, there was no doubt in her mind. But for the life of her she couldn't understand why he would do this. The Kaolin she remembered was her best friend, a boy who would sooner die before he ever took an innocent life.

        Kaolin groaned and his hand moved up to rub his face, but he hadn't opened his eyes yet. As soon as Elladine saw him move, she realized her gasp had woken him up. “Oh crap!” She cursed quickly as she panicked a little. Thinking fast she stepped forwards and kicked Kaolin in the groin as hard as she could to make sure he didn't jump up and attack her.

        Kaolin's eyes shot open as he shouted in pain. Within a second Elladine had grabbed her shield and dropped on top of Kaolin. Pinning him to the ground with her shield while holding the knife to his throat. “Why did you do it!? Why did you kill my family! And all of those people!” She practically yelled in his face.

        Kaolin yelped in surprise and shrunk back a little, looking up at her like a hurt and scared puppy. He had no idea what was going on, all he knew was that he had woken up and was suddenly in a lot of pain. He looked up at the woman and realized that she looked oddly familiar. She looked to be about twenty six, with blue eyes and chin length brown hair, an athletic and slightly muscular build, and was wearing brighter travelers clothes. But he couldn't put his finger on where he knew her from. “I-I d-don't know what you're talking about.” He said quietly, his voice laced with pain. It took a moment, but as his mind slowly came into focus after waking up to such an unpleasant turn of events, he eventually realized where he recognized her from. 'Ella? It couldn't be... Why would she be here?' He thought. Although he was relieved to see his friend had survived the destruction of Oline village.

        Elladine pressed her shield harder into his chest and growled, tears forming in her eyes and running down her cheeks. “Don't even try that one Kaolin! I saw you, the man in the black cloak, leading the very bandits that killed my family! I fought you, myself. I saw you using your magic and knew it was you! You even froze when I called you out by name! So don't lie I know you did it!” She argued. But quieted down a little so she at least wasn't shouting in his face.

        Kaolin froze when she said her family had been killed. He had liked her family, they taught him how to cook and he had spent a lot of time helping them with the shop and bakery. “I'm sorry, very sorry... But Ella... It wasn't me...” He murmured quietly. “Come on Ella.. You know me better then that.”

        Elladine paused for a moment, biting her lip to try and hold back her tears. She threw her dagger aside and wiped away her tears, before getting up and getting off him. She turned her back to him but held out a hand to help him get back up, muttering a quiet “Sorry.” She still didn't completely trust him. Everything pointed to Kaolin being the cloaked man, and he had no alibi. But, because of their previous friendship she dropped it, for now.

        “It's alright... It's not your fault.” Kaolin said quietly. He took her hand and she helped him get onto his feet. “I'm very sorry about your parents, I honestly tried to protect the village. But I lost...” He murmured.

        Elladine quickly spun around and punched Kaolin hard in the stomach. Knocking him straight to the floor again. “That's for making me worried to death when you and your brother left the village, I was so afraid you two died out there. And for making me think it was you who hurt all those people.” She stated. Then paused for a moment. “Sorry, needed to vent. And you deserved that...” She added. Holding out a hand to help him up again.

        Kaolin groaned quietly in pain as he took her hand again and stood up. “It's alright... I'm used to it.” He muttered quietly. 'That much of her hasn't changed...' He thought. Since they first met as kids, Elladine always had anger issues and often vented her anger through hitting things. He clearly remembered that much. “But you should've known that man wasn't me... There wasn't anything I could've done to stop you from thinking that.” He said softly.

        “You could've been a better person. Like your brother, Seth. Don't you know? He joined the knights and is a hero now. Not some dirty thief.” Elladine said rather sharply. “Why aren't you more like him?” She questioned, in retrospect she hadn't worded that very well, but who can word things perfectly when they are dealing with a mix of hurt, confused, and happy emotions. She just didn't understand why one brother became a great hero and the other became a thief when they had presumably been together the whole time.

        Kaolin grit his teeth and looked away. “Seth is no hero...” He muttered quietly. “I don't understand what he's doing with those knights... But I'm completely sure he's up to no good.”

        “What are you talking about? He is a hero, he's saved countless lives. He's protecting many people, and risking his own life to do so! Unlike you, you're hiding in a cave and stealing from people.”

        “He's just not a hero. I can't accept that he's doing good, I know he has to be doing something bad. There has to be something we're not seeing...” Kaolin countered. He refused to believe Seth was helping people. The things Seth had done before they split up, the way Seth was acting when they parted ways. There was just no way he was doing good now.

        “Why can't you accept it? Your brother is a very good and selfless person, you should be more like him.” Elladine stated firmly.

        “I will never be like that monster!” Kaolin protested. “And I just can't accept it. I refuse. He's a bad person, a monster with a sick and twisted mind. I don't care what everyone else says, I say he's not protecting anyone. It is a trick of some sort, I just know it.” He said.  'She'll never believe me if I tell her Seth was the one who attacked Oline village the first time...' He thought.

        “You're just jealous that he's a hero. That's why you can't accept it, he's become a better person then you.” Elladine argued.

        “I am not jealous!” Kaolin pouted. Growling quietly when she said Seth was a better person. He actually was jealous of Seth, but jealous of different things, and that was the last thing he wanted to hear, again.

        “You are too! I can tell just by your reaction, you're pouting like a child.” Elladine countered.

        “I am not!” Kaolin argued.

        “Are too!” She countered without missing a beat.

        “Am not!” He protested almost instantly.

        “Are too!” She again countered immediately. “I can keep this up all day.”

        Kaolin huffed quietly in protest and turned away again. Although Elladine responded to that by huffing back at him, louder then he did. Making him turn back to her and stick out his tongue in defiance. But she just replied by sticking her own tongue out right back at him. Kaolin pouted, then stuck out his tongue further, then Elladine did the same. Their argument quickly changing into a contest of who could stick out their tongue the furthest.

        Their contest resumed for a little before they both stopped and laughed lightly. “There we go, that's more like the Kaolin I remember. The cheerful and playful boy. Not the moody angry guy” She said. “What happened to you? Why aren't you with Seth? Did you two fight?” She asked.

        “... Exactly how many questions are you going to ask?” Kaolin asked. “Are you going to give me a chance to ask questions?”

        “About a million. I haven't seen my best friend in years, of course I have a lot of questions. Especially with the situation you're in.” Elladine stated. “And yes, I just let you ask two, now get to answering.” She added.

        Kaolin sighed, “Yes, me and Seth had a fight.” He said, opening his cloak and pulling the collar of his shirt down a little to reveal the scar from the stab wound on his shoulder. “I lost.” He stated.

        Elladine gasped and her eyes widened, she never would've guessed they had been in a physical fight. But she waited for him to answer the rest of her questions.

        “I needed time to recover after that fight so I went into hiding.” Kaolin said quietly. “I've been recovering and training. I'm sure you know, from what happened in the village, that I'm a mage.” He said quietly. “I think the bandits are going to go after this village soon, so I came here to try and head them off. Then, for some reason the animals in this area have fled... I can't find any of them anywhere. So I had to steal food... I didn't want to... I had no choice...” He murmured.

        “Well now you got me with you, so I can buy us food and supplies. I have a little money.” Elladine said simply.

        Kaolin shook his head. “No. I travel alone. I need to stop Seth before he does any more harm...” He muttered. “I may even have to kill him.”

        “Whoa, whoa whoa, slow down there buddy.” Elladine said. “First off, I said I'm with you. I didn't ask if I could join you, you don't get a choice. Secondly, there will be no killing or stopping of your brother. Just because you're jealous of him doesn't mean you can just kill him. If you're even going to think of that, you have to come up with a really good reason for it.” She stated firmly.

        Kaolin growled quietly in protest. But Elladine just growled back at him louder then he did. “You're not coming with me.”

        “You don't have a choice. Don't make me tie your arm to mine again, you know I will do it.” Elladine countered. “You need my company so you don't become a cranky old man again. Plus, you have to prove to me that you're not the bandit leader.”

        Kaolin gave her a rather annoyed look when she called him a cranky old man. “How do I prove that?” He muttered quietly.

        “Simple. You're going to stay with me. If he attacks while you're with me, you have an alibi. Also, we are going to burn your cloak, and get you a new one in a different color so you don't match the bandit leader.” Elladine said cheerfully.

        Kaolin sighed in defeat and fell back, landing on his back and just lying on the ground. “Fine...” He muttered. Knowing there was no way he could win an argument with her, she was even more stubborn then he was.

        “Good!” Elladine chirped cheerfully.

        Kaolin glanced at the entrance of the cave, remembering he had collapsed it. “How did you get in here anyways?” He asked.

        Elladine chuckled lightly. “Took ya long enough to notice that.” She teased. “Actually, it's a kinda funny story. Me and my family were mages too, it seems we were both mages and we were both keeping it a secret. Guess your secret got out first.” She said.

        “Really? Wouldn't the old man have said something?” Kaolin asked in disbelief.

        “No, my family made him promise not to tell anyone.” Elladine said.

        Kaolin nodded. “What elements do you use?” He asked curiously.

        “I use water, like my father did. Although I'm starting to learn a little Aether magic, but I'm not good at it yet.” Elladine answered. “I'm sorry, I couldn't stand up to the villagers with you. But my mother forced me to keep quiet.”

        Kaolin shook his head lightly “That's really surprising. But nice and a bit funny that we never knew” He chuckled. Although he yawned after saying that. “And don't worry about not standing up for us, I understand.” He added quietly.

        “Yeah, I wonder if things would have been different, if we had known.” Elladine mused. Then noticed him yawn, “Are you tired? I'm sorry for waking you, you can go back to sleep.” She said softly. “I promise I won't kick you again as long as you promise not to scare me again.” She added, trying to make light of the situation.

        Kaolin sighed lightly, but nodded. “Yes, I am exhausted.” He said. “I think I'll take you up on that offer, we can talk in the morning.” He said softly before closing his eyes.

        Elladine smiled and nodded. “Goodnight then.” She said, getting up and moving to the other side of the campfire, before she took out a small mat from her bag and laid it down on the ground. Then laid down on the mat.

        “Goodnight.” Kaolin murmured sleepily, already drifting off to sleep.

        Elladine looked at Kaolin through the campfire between them and chuckled lightly. 'He's already falling asleep.' She thought. She laid on her back and looked up at the ceiling of the cave. Before closing her eyes and also falling asleep.

–

–

Next chapter: Revisiting the mountain.

16: Chapter Fifteen: Revisiting the Mountain

~~ Chapter 15:  Revisiting the Mountain. ~~

 

        “Knights! Assemble!” Seth called out. He was standing on a small stone in front of his campsite, in the early hours of the morning. Beside him was Tia, the newest addition to his knights who was timidly standing there and watching the knights line up. Seth waited for his knights assembled in straight lines in front of him, once they were all there he spoke.

        “Everyone, this is the newest knight in our ranks. Tia. Now, I don't normally introduce the newest members but this one is different.” Seth said. “Unlike all of us, Tia, is a mage. But even though she's the only mage in our group, I expect all of you to treat her with full respect. Any signs of racism or hate towards mages will be dealt with severely, understood?” He said, in a loud commanding and stern voice.

        There was a little hesitation from the knights, but after a moment they all nodded. “Yes sir.” They called out. The answer Seth already knew they would give, since he had already warped all of their minds and removed any hatred of mages they once had.

        Seth nodded “Good. Now me and Tia are going on a special mission up into the mountains. You knights are to wait here until we return. That is all you are all dismissed.” He ordered.

        The knights nodded and gave one last “Yes sir” before scattering and going about their daily business.

        Tia curiously looked up at Seth, both a little happy he had told the knights not to bother her about being a mage, and confused by his mission. “Why are we going to the mountains? And why just us two?” She asked unsurely.

        “Because, I've got reports that a group of bandits is hiding up there. We're going there to test your abilities. And it's faster to travel with just two people” Seth answered simply. “I'm going to get ready, head to your tent and prepare for the mission.” He added, before turning and walking into his tent.

        “Erm, alright...” Tia said unsurely, then thought of something. “Hey wait!” She called out and quickly ran after him into his tent. “What do I need to...” She started asking as she stepped into the tent and looked around. “Bring...?” She finished, a very confused expression on her face as she looked around the empty tent. Seth wasn't there, there was no trace of him anywhere. Sure, the tent was big enough to stand in, and was spacious, but there was no place for him to hide in it. He was just gone.

        'I'm sure I saw him go in here... Where did he go?' Tia thought, but hesitantly left the tent and headed back to her own to get ready.

–

--

        Deep in the woods, the bandits sat around their campsite. There was a bright flash of light, and the man in the black cloak stepped out of the woods, approaching the bandits. “Bandits! Assemble!” He called out. “I have new information on the knights.” He said as he watched the bandits group up in front of him. “It would seem that Seth, the leader of the knights, is taking one new recruit and is going to the mountains alone. It's just him and that new recruit, an easy target for assassination.” He said.

        “And don't forget, that reward that still stands on his head. Whoever can kill the leader of the knights, gets more riches then they could possibly imagine.” The man in the black cloak said. The bandits all grinned widely at the thought of the reward, and the easy kill they were presented with. Without waiting for the order they all scattered to grab their weapons and ran off towards the mountain.

        The man in the black cloak sighed when they rushed off without letting him finish, then turned and started walking away. “Well, what can I expect. They are bandits, they aren't going to be as obedient as knights or anything.” He murmured to himself. He waved both of his hands upwards and made a stone box around himself, hiding himself from sight as he took off his cloak, then disappeared in a bright flash of light.

–

--

        About an hour after Tia had gone to her tent to prepare. Seth came back out of his own tent. He walked over to her tent and waited outside the doorway, “Tia, are you ready?” He called out.

        “Yeah, where where you?” Tia called back as she stepped back out of her tent with a small backpack and her knife strapped to her belt.

        “I had some knight duties to attend to before we left. I took care of all that, and as long as you're ready to go we can go now.” Seth answered.

        “What were those knight duties? I thought I saw you go into your tent, but when I looked inside you were gone...” Tia murmured quietly.

        Seth frowned a bit, “It would take too long to explain. And I never went back into my tent, you must have imagined it. Don't follow people into their tents though, what if I was changing or something?” He said sternly. “Plus it's a bit rude, some people may want a bit of privacy.”

        Tia bit her lip and shrunk back, she hadn't really thought of that. “Sorry.” She murmured quietly.

        “It's alright, lets go.” Seth said as he started walking out of the camp and towards the mountain. Gesturing for Tia to follow him.

        Tia nodded, “Alright.” She said quietly and quickly followed along behind him.

        “So, where did you learn to use a dagger? It's not too common of a weapon amongst anything but thieves.” Seth asked “Not that I'm calling you a thief, it's just an odd choice of weaponry.”

        Tia placed a hand over her dagger, “My father gave it to me, before he disappeared. So the dagger is very important to me. I would never use another weapon, so I just taught myself to use it.” She answered simply.

        Seth frowned a bit when she mentioned never wanting to use another weapon. “Well, this trip to the mountain is a little more then just a bandit hunt.” He said. “There's also a treasure here that we are after.”

        Tia raised an eyebrow and looked at him, “A treasure? Come on I'm not a child.” She replied.

        “I'm completely serious.” Seth stated. “There's an ancient relic here. A weapon left behind by an old hero of the past. It's said only the chosen one can pull this magic dagger from the stone, but I have good reason to believe you're the chosen one.” He said.

        “What? That sounds like a made up myth to me.” Tia scoffed. “And I have no need for another weapon, this dagger is just fine. I'm never using another one.” She countered.

        “What if that dagger breaks? You said it was special to you, didn't you?” Seth countered. “Weapons break quite often in combat, if you use it to fight too much, you will break it.” He said smoothly.

        Tia gasped quietly and lightly gripped her dagger. “I... Hadn't thought about it that way....” She murmured quietly. “I'll consider it... But it still sounds like a fake story.”

        Seth chuckled lightly, “It's not a fake story, trust me. This is the real thing.” He said. They approached the base of the mountain and he looked up at it. “It's near the top, mind using your magic to get us up there faster?” He asked.

        “If you say so.” Tia said in disbelief. But she then nodded. “Alright, but this will be a little rough, I'm gonna have to throw you up there.” She said before jumping up. Using a powerful burst of wind to launch herself and Seth up the mountain. Then used an upwards current of wind to slow their fall so they could land safely higher up in the mountain. It took them many jumps before they finally reached the top, but it turned a two day trip into a few minute trip.

        Once they were at the top Tia looked around at the general area, the mountainside was covered in old scorch marks from fire, claw marks and old blood on the rocks, some of the earth around the area had been shifted and moved around. It was clear there had once been a battle here, many years ago.

        Seth looked around the old battlefield, it was exactly as he remembered it, after him and his brother had fought the greater demon here ten years ago. “Come Tia. The dagger is here.” He said.

        “It's here?” Tia asked, then looked around again. “I don't see it.” She said. “And what happened to this place anyways? It looks like a battlefield.”

        “This is where a battle took place. Between the previous hero and some demons.” Seth said. “The hero single handedly killed all the demons, except one black haired demon that got away. Then left behind his magic dagger for the next hero to complete his mission.” He said, completely making up the story on the spot.

        “His mission?” Tia asked curiously as she looked up at Seth.

        Seth walked over to a tall stone and nodded. “The hero was trying to bring peace to the world. Demons have found a way to make themselves look like humans. They are the cause behind all the prejudice against mages. The old hero was swiftly killing those demons off.” He lied smoothly.

        “Come on. You expect me to believe that demons are hiding amongst the humans?” Tia scoffed. “This story sounds more and more made up the longer you explain it.” She muttered.

        “I know. But it's true.” Seth chuckled. “Just place your hand on this stone, and the dagger will reveal itself to you. If you are the chosen hero.” He said with a smirk. Before holding his hands behind his back and watching.

        Tia rolled her eyes a little, not believing him. But did as he asked and placed her hand on the stone. When she did so, Seth made a quick hand gesture behind his back and used his earth magic to make the stone crack open. A large crack ran down the middle of the top half of the stone, before the top half just broke apart into small pieces and fell to the ground. Revealing a dagger that was stuck in the stone. The blade of the dagger was pure black, and the handle was a very dark red with gold painted along the edges and creases of the handle. It was exactly as Seth remembered it, from when he sealed the demon within it.

        “You see? It's not a joke, everything I've been saying is true. You really are the chosen hero, destined to save the world.” Seth said to the wide-eyed Tia as he gestured to the dagger. Although as his hand came close to the dagger, he could feel the demon's malicious and demonic energy seeping out of it. He quickly pulled his hand away from it. 'I must be careful, and make sure not to touch that... Last thing I need is the demon possessing me instead...' He thought.

        Tia was still in a little shock that it had actually worked. But she reached out to take the dagger. She hesitated when her hand got near it, she could feel this evil and malicious energy emitting from the dagger. Her instinct told her to run as far away from the dagger as she could, but Seth was telling her to take it. She thought about it for a moment, debating on whether she should trust her instincts, or her leader who was also a renowned hero.

        “There's no need to hesitate Tia, you are the real hero. The dagger was put there just for you.” Seth said softly. But she still hesitated, sensing that something was wrong with the dagger. “You will save so many lives, everyone will look up to you, and once that happens getting people to accept mages will be easy. Your father will be so proud of you when you find him.” He added, trying to push her into taking it.

        Tia bit her lip, it did not feel right, something was wrong. But, as the mention of her father, and the mention of being a hero, she couldn't help but to smile as she thought about it. She grabbed the dagger and as she grabbed it Seth made another hand gesture behind his back, using his magic to make the stone loosen around the dagger so she could easily pull it out.

        Tia yanked the dagger out of the stone as hard as she could, stumbling back a little and almost falling over when the dagger effortlessly slipped out of the stone. She hadn't expected it to be so easy. She looked over the black dagger in her hand curiously, inspecting it. Aside from the strange malicious aura it gave off, it looked and seemed like an ordinary dagger. “So, this is a magical dagger? Used by a hero?” Tia asked. “Why is it black?”

        Seth shrugged. “Yes, it is a dagger used by the past hero. A real hero, not just someone who's called a hero like I am.” He lied. “And I dunno, maybe the old hero liked black? Or maybe it's made from some special black metal like obsidian?” He said, shrugging it off.

        Although, he stopped talking when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eyes. “Couldn't have timed that any better.” He murmured. “Tia, those bandits I mentioned being on the mountain. I think they are here now, I just saw a small group duck behind those rocks. Why don't you go try out your new weapon?” He whispered. “Remember, you don't want to break your old dagger in combat, so just use this new one for now.”

        “The bandits?” Tia murmured, then glared at the pile of rocks Seth had spotted them behind. “I'm on it.” She said before darting off towards the bandits. Something was off, she felt angrier, she felt more impulsive, the soft girl who didn't want to kill seemed to be pushed down a little by some part of her that wanted to kill the bandits for what they had done. Seth followed Tia, but he wasn't really trying to keep up, and with his clunky suit of armor he couldn't run nearly as fast as she could anyways.

        Tia turned the corner and saw the five bandits, it was very clear they were bandits by their clothing and weapons. It was unlike her to throw the first punch, but she didn't waste a second before attacking them. Using the wind to push herself further and faster, she lunged forwards and closed the large gap between them in a split second. Catching the first bandit off guard and stabbing the demonic dagger into his neck. Upon landing a killing blow on the bandit, a white mist was drawn out of the bandit's body and absorbed into the dagger. Tia didn't pay much attention to this at the moment though. But she made a mental note to ask about it later.

        Seth sat back and watched as the second bandit came up behind Tia and swung a club for the back of her head. But, somehow Tia could sense him there. She ducked to avoid the club, spinning around and stabbing him in the ribs to wound him. Although she didn't get a chance to go for a killing blow before the third bandit attempted to stab his sword down at her from the side.

        Tia quickly rolled to the other side to evade the sword, throwing her dagger at the third bandit and stabbing him square in the forehead with it, before using her wind magic to pull the dagger back into her hand. Again, when she landed a killing blow, a white mist came out of the bandit's body and was absorbed into the dagger.

        Right as she caught her dagger, the fourth bandit fired a bolt from his crossbow at her. In the blink of an eye, Tia used a gust of wind to push herself away from the incoming crossbow bolt, and at the wounded second bandit. Although the fifth bandit saw that move coming and hurled his thick metal shield at her, hitting Tia in the side and causing her to yelp in pain as she was knocked to the ground.

        Tia groaned in pain and stumbled back onto her feet, one hand briefly feeling her side and checking to see if her ribs had been broken. They weren't but it sure felt like they were. Although before she could get up and regain her bearings the fifth bandit had run over to her and stabbed his dagger down at her head. Tia quickly blocked with her own dagger, but the bandit retaliated by kicking her in the stomach to knock her back onto the ground again.

        The fourth bandit again fired his crossbow at Tia while she was on the ground, and Tia had no way to dodge the shot. Although, suddenly her shadow became solid and three dimensional and it stood up as if it were a real person. Her shadow walked in front of the Tia and blocked the shot with it's own body.

        The shadow, looked like any ordinary shadow. It was completely black, with no color or anything to it. It was shaped almost exactly like Tia, only it had demonic horns and claws for hands. It stumbled back a little when shot, but then took a swipe at the fifth bandit, the one with the dagger, to force him to back off and stop him from attacking Tia again. Giving Tia a chance to get back up. Once Tia was standing again, the shadow sunk back into the ground and returned to normal.

        'What was that?' Tia thought. 'My shadow... Just moved on it's own? I didn't do that...' She thought. But shook off the thoughts and returned her focus to the fight, she didn't have time to think about it. She pointed at the bandit with the crossbow and then pulled her hand towards herself. A strong gust of wind pulled the crossbow bandit right to Tia, where she quickly stabbed him in the throat. And just like before, upon killing him a white mist came out of his body and was absorbed into her demonic dagger.

        Tia turned back to the remaining bandits, every move she made was making her ribs hurt and making her cringe in pain but she was toughing it out. There was just two left, one wounded bandit who was staying back due to his injuries, and one with a dagger. The one with the dagger rushed Tia, slashing the dagger for her neck. But Tia blocked with her dagger and threw a punch for his throat.

        The bandit jumped back to avoid her punch and threw his dagger back at her legs, aiming to cripple her before he finished her off. But Tia used her wind magic to propel herself into the air to avoid the dagger. She landed beside the bandit and lunged at him again, stabbing her dagger for his chest. The bandit quickly grabbed her wrist and pushed the dagger away from himself, although she thought quickly and dropped the dagger. Using her wind magic to push it into her other hand before stabbing him in the neck with it. Just like every other time, when she landed the killing blow a white mist came out of the bandit's body and was absorbed into the dagger. By now, the wounded bandit had fled and was no longer in sight.

        Tia looked over her surroundings making sure there was no bandits left, before walking back over to Seth. Seth could see that Tia's eyes had darkened a little and knew that was a sign that his plan was working. “Seth, every time I killed those bandits. A white mist was pulled out of them and into the dagger. Why was that?” She asked. She knew something wasn't right, that was not normal.

        Seth looked puzzled for a moment. He knew the dagger had been originally meant to drain magic from the person it stabbed. But now that he had a demon sealed inside of it, he assumed that was the demon stealing the souls of the people Tia killed to make itself stronger. He wasn't completely sure, but that was his guess.

        “Remember, before? When I told you the demons have figured out a way to disguise themselves as humans?” Seth asked. “Well, every time that dagger kills a demon, the demon is sealed inside of the dagger. That white mist you're seeing is the demons. All of those bandits must have secretly been demons.” He lied. “That would explain them all grouping up and trying to kill everyone. Just think about it, they tried to ambush you here, where the hero's dagger that was made to stop them is. Clearly they were demons and didn't want the hero to find this dagger, why else would they be here protecting it?”

        Tia thought about it and nodded. It made a little sense, not much, but she trusted Seth so she believed him. “Alright. What do we do now?” She asked.

        “We should get off this mountain, before more show up.” Seth said. “We may not be ready to take down more then just a few at once. We got the dagger, and that was our priority.”

        Tia nodded. “Alright. If you say so.” She said quietly. “When we get back to camp, can I take some time to go look for my father?” She asked.

        “Again? You just searched the area for him yesterday, and this morning.” Seth asked. But started walking back down the mountain.

        “Yeah, but before I joined the knights I was going out twice a day to search for him, I still want to keep doing that if possible.” Tia said quietly. Following along behind Seth as she again looked over the demonic dagger.

        'She really cares a lot about her father...' Seth thought 'That is a problem, that could turn her against me... I'll need to fix that quickly.' He thought. But nodded “Of course, look for him as much as you want.” He said softly. “Just make sure you're safe.”

        Tia nodded quickly. “Thank you. And of course I will.” She said, smiling a bit as she followed him back to the camp.

–

–

Next chapter: The blind hunter.

17: Chapter Sixteen: The blind hunter.

~~ Chapter 16: The blind hunter. ~~

 

        Elladine woke up the next morning, the fire had gone out leaving the cave rather dark for being daytime. Kaolin had already been awake and was gathering his things together, getting ready to leave.

        “Where are ya sneaking off to?” Elladine asked. Sitting up and curiously watching him.

        “As I said yesterday, I'm after my brother. I need to stop him and put an end to whatever he's doing.” Kaolin replied.

        “You still going on about that? Drop it.” Elladine stated. “Your brother is a good man, he's saving the lives of countless people. Making a name for himself, as a hero, and doing good for everyone. Why would you want to stop him from doing that?”

        Kaolin growled quietly. “He's not a good person... I know he's up to no good. I don't know what he's doing, but I know he's not really doing good.” He muttered. “I don't care if it looks like he's a hero, or if it looks like he's saving people... The Seth I saw that night... Was not a mentally stable person, his mind was warped and twisted. Thinking he was doing good as he killed countless innocent people, I was there, I saw it. I'm sure he still has that warped mindset... So I'm sure there's something we're not seeing...” He said. “How did he even become a leader of the knights? And why is it that right after he does, bandits show up. With the exception of that one attack on Belesara village, which was probably a fluke, those bandits weren't attacking anything else before... And he just happens to be where they will attack, every time? There's something we're missing here...”

        Elladine got up and swiftly smacked Kaolin over the back of his head.  Making him stumble forwards. “Will you stop thinking bad things about your brother?” She stated in an annoyed tone. “You can't say he's a bad person just because you 'think he is' his actions prove he's a good person.” She scolded. “Maybe you saw him wrong that night, maybe there was something he knew that you didn't. I can't see Seth killing any innocent people without a reason. Just like I can't see you doing it either.” She argued his first point. “He became a knight when he helped defend Oline village that night. And has since worked his way up the ranks, are you not paying attention to the things he does? Everyone's talking about it.” She countered his second point. “And the bandits are obviously trying to kill him, it's clearly been said that the leader of the bandits wants him dead. So of course they showed up after he became leader, and of course he happens to be where they attack every time. He is their target!” She growled. “Stop and think about things before you just label people bad and go after them.”

        Kaolin huffed quietly and started walking to the entrance of the cave. “You are not my parent, leave me alone. I know what I'm doing is right.” He muttered. Raising his hand and making the collapsed entrance to the cave lift back up and repair itself, before he walked out.

        “And I know what you're doing is wrong! I will not leave you alone until you realize how stupid this is and stop.” Elladine countered as she ran after him. “Come on, this isn't like you to act like this.”

        Kaolin growled quietly when she followed him, he didn't want her to come with him. She could get hurt, or worse, he wasn't even expecting himself to make it out alive. He was fine with sacrificing himself to stop his brother, but he did not want Elladine, his closest friend, to get hurt. And on top of that she wouldn't believe him about Seth. Although, that much he could understand, he knew he couldn't prove it, he only had a gut feeling Seth was up to no good based on the way Seth had acted that night they fought. “No, I travel alone.” He muttered “And I know this isn't me. You try cheating death four times, being outcast by everyone you cared about. Then have the one person you care most about, the only one who's stuck with you throughout everything, stab you in the freakin back and go crazy in front of your eyes. Then tell me what kind of a mood you're in, surely not a pleasant one.”

        “All of the people I cared about died in the attacks on Oline village.” Elladine snapped sternly. “Except for you and Seth. And I thought you two were dead until I saw you, or a look-alike of you attacking our town! And I'm in a perfectly fine mood. What happened, happened, nothing can change that. Now grow up and start acting like your normal self again.” She ordered firmly.

        Hearing her firm tone Kaolin shrunk back a little and lowered his head slightly in a submissive manner, “S-Sorry.” He said quietly. Doing his best to bottle up his negative emotions again. Of course she didn't change his mind, he was still dead-set in his beliefs, but he just shut up about it.

        Elladine smirked at his submissive reaction. She had always liked how she could do that to him so easily. “Much better.” She said simply. “Well, it's a start at least. Cheer up.”

        “You must be upset about all that though... Right?” Kaolin murmured quietly. He was worried about her, he knew she didn't have anyone to turn to for comfort when everyone died.

        “Of course I am. But I don't linger in the past, I look towards the future.” Elladine said, then noticed his worried look. “Don't worry about me. After the fight in Oline village, I escaped with the Simnel family, you don't know them, they were this family in Oline village. The mother was a mage and her daughter Tia was also a mage, but her husband, Verheli, was a normal human. They were one of the happiest families I have ever met. They were all so close-knit, even though Verheli was a human he loved them both dearly. Verheli stayed behind in the fight to save me and his family, and he never returned, I can only assume he died fighting the bandit leader. But the mother and the little girl Tia gave me comfort and a home for a few years until I left to be an adventurer. They are incredibly kind people.” She said softly. Frowning a little at the mention of Verheli, she felt responsible for his death.

        Kaolin smiled faintly and nodded, “Ah, that's good to hear.” He said softly. “Well, that they were so kind and helpful. I can't believe there is a family out there where a mage and a human are married though. That is a shock.”

        Elladine nodded, “Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. Now back to the topic. Where are we going next?” She asked.

        “I already said you can't-” Kaolin started saying, before he was cut off.

        “No, no no. I'm coming with you, no questions asked. You still need to prove to me that you really aren't the cloaked man who's attacking everyone. Plus, someone needs to stop you from hurting Seth.” Elladine cut him off, speaking firmly to him again. She knew that with his submissive nature he had a difficult time arguing with people who were firm. “You already agreed to it yesterday.”

        “We didn't have an agreement... You forced me to say you could come... It doesn't count.” Kaolin muttered quietly.

        “A forced yes is still a yes. So you're stuck with me.” Elladine chuckled. “Come on, you act like being stuck with a pretty girl is a bad thing.”

        “I didn't say it was a bad thing... I don't want you getting hurt...” Kaolin said quietly.

        Elladine smiled a bit at his concern, and decided to tease him. “Hey! You just called me pretty. You didn't disagree so that means you agree.” She teased and stuck her tongue out, trying to get him into better spirits and cheer him up a bit.

        Kaolin blushed faintly and pouted. “I couldn't disagree... I do value my life you know...” He countered in a tone that gave away that he was just joking.

        Elladine laughed lightly, hooking one arm around his neck and pulling him against her side as she ruffled his hair. “Smart boy.” She said simply.

        “Hey!” Kaolin chuckled. “Don't mess up my hair.” He protested, trying to pull away. But the boy was weak and frail from being nearly starved for ten years after his brother wounded him. He lacked the strength to pull away.

        “I will mess up your hair all I want. You can't stop me.” Elladine teased, but straightened his hair again and let him go.

        Kaolin chuckled lightly and took a step away from her, before he resumed walking into the forest. He had given up on telling her not to come, it was obvious she wouldn't listen. He'd just have to protect her, even if it cost his life. “True.” He mused. But his attention snapped to the bushes nearby when he heard something move in them.

        In the blink of an eye, an arrow came flying out of the bushes, aimed perfectly for the center of Kaolin's forehead. Kaolin's eyes widened, but before he could do anything Elladine had dove in front of the arrow and her shield blocked the arrow. In an instant she pulled the shield off her arm and hurled it into the bushes then ran after it.

        There was a loud metallic pang and shout of pain from the bushes, as the man who fired the arrow was hit square in the face with the heavy metal shield that was nearly the size of his torso. Elladine darted into the bush right after her shield, sweeping down to grab the stunned man by his throat. She effortlessly lifted him off the ground and slammed him into a nearby tree, pinning him to the tree. She was much stronger then she looked. “Who are you? And what are you doing?” She demanded.

        Kaolin had almost forgotten how good of a fighter his friend was, she could be quite scary if you were on her bad side. He kept quiet for now and stayed back, letting the two of them work things out themselves.

        The archer grunted in pain as he was slammed into the tree. “I'm a hunter. That man you're with is the leader of the bandit group attacking the villages. I recognize his voice!” He stated.

        It took a second, but Elladine quickly recognized the man. His athletic build, his dirty-blonde hair that was a little long for a guy and green eyes. “Verheli?” She questioned. “And this man is not the leader of the bandits. He's in the middle of proving that to me.”

        “Oh, I am very sorry then. I was sure it was him from the voice, it wasn't perfect, but it was almost the same, just a little softer. And yes, I am Verheli.” Verheli answered.

        “Verheli Simnel?” Elladine questioned, loosening her grip and putting the man down.

        Verheli nodded “Yes, that's me.” He said, he looked down at Elladine as she spoke, but it seemed like he was looking right through her. His eyes seemed spaced out and inattentive to everything around him. “Who are you? You sound familiar but I can not place your voice. I assume you know me?”

        “Where have you been? Tia and your wife have been worried sick about you!” Elladine questioned him, shocked but very happy that she ran into him. “It's me, Elladine.”

        Verheli frowned and looked down at the ground. “I can't find my way home.” He said quietly. “After you left the fight, I took on the cloaked man by myself. I lured him into a trap and almost killed him. But he pulled a fast one and got me.” Verheli said as he gestured to the scars from the burns on his face. “I was blinded, and have been lost since then. I've been trying to find my way to you guys, but when you can not see there's no way to tell which direction you are going in. I walked in the direction I thought would lead me to them, but after walking for a while and not finding town I set up camp here in hopes that they would find me. Thankfully my skills as a hunter have kept me alive.”

        “Oh, I'm so sorry. I really should have stayed to help.” Elladine said softly. She felt responsible for his blindness even though it was him who made her leave.

        “Don't worry about it.” Verheli said softly. “Is there any chance you could lead me to my family? Do you know where they are?” He asked. “I really just want to go home and be with my wife and daughter again.” He said quietly.

        Elladine nodded “Of course we can. I wouldn't let you stay out here like this.” She said, “And incase you were wondering, my quiet friend here is Kaolin.” She introduced her friend.

        “Hello.” Kaolin said quietly “Elladine was just telling me about you guys a little while ago. It's nice to know that there is still good people in the world.” He said softly.

        “Nice to meet you Kaolin. I apologize for the misunderstanding earlier.” Verheli replied.

        “It's alright.” Kaolin answered. “Nice to meet you.”

        “Good, now that we all know each other lets get going.” She said cheerfully as she started leading the way. Verheli listened to her footsteps and followed Elladine, with Kaolin following right behind him.

        “Oh, and Lyn. Burn the cloak.” Elladine stated. “We don't want anyone mixing you up for the leader of the bandits. I'll get you a new one in town.” She stated.

        Kaolin sighed lightly, pouting at the use of his childhood nickname. But he took off his cloak leaving him with just his travelers clothes. He tossed the cloak to the ground and made it burst into flames, burning it until there was nothing but ash left. He followed along behind the others, quietly wondering how he went from traveling alone, to traveling with two others. It definitely wasn't in his plan. But he simply couldn't win an argument with Elladine.

–

        The group walked for the rest of the day, the walk was mostly filled with Elladine and Verheli idly talking about Verheli's time in the wild, and Elladine catching him up on his family and what he missed while he was gone. By the end of the day they finally reached the village and stopped in the market first to pick up a new cloak for Kaolin. It was simple enough to find someone who made clothing, and cloaks were popular enough that they found a few of them. Kaolin began searching through the choices, but Elladine quickly pulled out a bright pink cloak and held it up to show Kaolin. “Here, this one should fit, and there's no way the bandit leader will copy you if you're wearing this!” She said teasingly.

        “Over my dead body.” Kaolin growled as he pulled out another black cloak.

        “You're no fun.” Elladine complained as she put the pink one back. “And no black. The whole point is to wear something different from the bandit leader.” She stated, before grabbing a violet cloak. “Found one for ya, we only need one so lets go.” She said as she went off to pay for the violet cloak.

        Kaolin pouted a little “That one is a girly color too.” He protested.

        Elladine just shook her head and pulled the cloak over his head. “Yep, but I know it's your favorite color. You often wore violet shirts but hid them under your cloak.” She said simply. “I did notice these things ya know, and I didn't forget anything about you.” She stated. “You remember mine?” She asked curiously as she paid for the cloak.

        “Your favorite color? Of course I remember, it was blue...” Kaolin murmured. Although, after thinking about it he did wonder why he remembered that detail. It was so small and irrelevant, and from such a long time ago. He remembered almost everything about her, just like she did for him, it was almost as if they hadn't just been separated for ten years. He didn't say anything about her other statements, other then saying a quiet “Thank you” when she bought the cloak. She was right and he didn't want to admit it.

        Verheli just smiled a bit as he listened. He didn't want to intrude, when he first met them it seemed like they didn't get along with their constant arguing. But, after spending a bit of time around them, he was starting to notice that it is quite the opposite, he noticed that they get along very well but just express it differently. Once their brief shopping trip was over they headed straight to Verheli's home, to reunite him with his family.

        It was just a short walk from the market. Once they arrived the group knocked on the door,  and after a moment a woman answered the door, it was Verheli's wife, and she was crying. Her eyes widened when she saw Verheli and Elladine, she didn't recognize Kaolin so she didn't really care much about him. “Verheli! You're alright!” She said in relief, and in an instant she was hugging him tightly. “Where have you been?”

        Verheli tightly hugged her back. “I was blinded in the fight, and was unable to find my way back. More importantly, what's wrong? I can hear it in your voice, you're crying and upset.” Verheli asked promptly. Worried about her, he knew she wasn't one to cry easily.

        “It's Tia, she's gone and left a note saying she left to join the knights.” The woman answered in a shaky voice. “The knights all left, I don't even know where they went.”

        Verheli's face paled, “Stay here, I will go find her and bring her back.” He said. before turning to his friends. “You two, I must ask for your help. Can you be my eyes and help me find the knights? I'm a hunter I can surely track them down.” He asked. “Please, I'll give you anything. Just help me keep my daughter safe.” He nearly begged the two of them.

        Both Elladine and Kaolin nodded. “Of course we will. We're going to find the knights for our own reasons as well, so you can just tag along.” She said softly.

        “Yeah, we're more then willing to help.” Kaolin said. He could tell how much this man cared about his family, and from what he had heard this family had helped out Elladine and saved her life. He felt obligated to do something.

        “What about me? I can help.” Verheli's wife said. “And you just said you are blind, you should not be going anywhere.”

        “You stay here just in case she comes back.” Verheli said, “I'm sorry for not coming back sooner, but promise I will make it back quickly this time, and I will bring Tia with me. With my new friends I will be fine.” He said softly. He gave his wife a quick kiss goodbye and turned to leave with Kaolin and Elladine. He hated having to leave so soon after getting back, but he had to find Tia before something bad happened to her. He had a gut feeling something was terribly wrong.

        “Please be safe.” His wife said, before begrudgingly watching them leave. Her hand shaking a little from how hard she was gripping the door. She trusted Verheli to be safe and bring Tia back, but she was still very worried about them both.

        “Reports put the knights near the mountains back by the Oline city ruins. We should search there first.” Kaolin said quietly.

        Elladine nodded. “Alright, that sounds like a plan.” She said, leading the way in the direction of the mountains.

–

–

Next chapter: Confrontation

18: Chapter Seventeen: Confrontation

~~ Chapter 17: Confrontation ~~

 

      Tia slowly crept through the woods, she was alone on one of her search and rescue trips, trying to find her father who she still adamantly believed was alive and out there somewhere. As she walked she heard a rustling in the leaves off to the side and quickly pulled out her father's knife, the only thing she had brought with her for this trip, despite Seth's protests she always left the other dagger behind. It was a hunting knife her father had made himself, the blade was almost pure white while the handle was gray, and there was golden designs that went down the handle and blade. It reminded her of her father and made her smile a little when she looked at it, she believed it would be a good luck charm and lead her to him. But then she took her attention off the knife and turned to the direction of the sounds she heard.

      Slowly, she moved towards the sound, peeking her head around the trees and preparing to attack. But it was just a bird, as her and the bird spotted each other the bird flew off and Tia was alone once again. Tia sighed softly, glancing back down at the black, demonic dagger she was holding in her hand. 'Wait,' Tia thought to herself 'Something isn't right here.' She looked down at the black, demonic dagger, something felt different, as if the dagger had changed, something felt so wrong about it but she could not figure out what. 'This is... My father's dagger, right? The dagger of a hero, passed down to me before he left... Right?' She thought, although as she thought about it she suddenly got a terrible headache. Something wasn't right, she clearly remembered her father giving her this black dagger, she clearly remembered him being a hero who slayed demons. But something was wrong, these memories felt like they were all wrong and the more she tried to figure out why the worse her headache got.

      She cringed a little and placed a hand on her forehead, giving up on figuring out why these memories felt incorrect. When the headaches lessened she sighed softly and resumed walking through the woods. After a few minutes of aimlessly exploring the woods she heard familiar voices.

      “Mom? Dad?” Tia nearly gasped, recognizing their voices instantly. She took off, sprinting to the voices and there they were. A tall man with an athletic build, dirty blonde hair that was just a little long for a guy, and green eyes. He had his hunting bow on his back with a hunting knife on his belt, and was wearing travelers clothes that were a mix of green and brown. She instantly recognized him as Verheli, her father. And standing beside him was his wife, the tall and lithe woman had long, straight brown hair that reached her mid-back and brown eyes, with a soft and gentle expression. She wore a long and modest white dress and looked just like Tia, only older. She did not carry any weapons.

      Tia's eyes went wide and she ran straight to them, running straight into Verheli's arms as they both hugged each other tightly. “You're alive! I knew you were alive!” She cheered, just at a loss for words. She was so happy to see him again that a few tears began running down her cheek.

      When they finally let each other go Tia took a step back and looked up at him. Just how she remembered him from when she last saw him ten years ago, a tall and strong man with short brown hair. 'Wait, that's not right' Tia thought, but as soon as the thought came to mind she was met with another sharp headache, causing her to grab her head again as she cringed.

      “We've been looking all over for you Tia. We were worried. Are you alright?” Her mother asked in a soft tone, gently placing a hand on Tia's forehead.

      “I'm alright, I just have a headache.” Tia said as she looked up at her mother, smiling softly.

      Her mother smiled back and nodded, “You have a slight fever” She said worriedly. She took a step back to stand beside her husband.

      Tia's father chuckled softly and reached over to gently brush his wife's chin-length blonde hair out of her face, to stop it from covering her blue eyes. “Your hair is in your eyes again love.” He said softly.

      Tia's headache sent another pang of pain through her head as she looked at her mother's short blonde hair, but she shook it off. “I should be alright. But if you are worried, maybe we can go home and just spend the day together? It's been so long since we've all been together... Now that father is back, it might be nice to just take a day to relax...” She said quietly.

      “What do you think Max?” Tia's mother asked her husband.

      “Max? Who is max?” Tia asked.

      Tia's mother chuckled softly, while her father smiled a little and shook his head. “Come on Tia, don't tell me that the blow to the head made you forget my name.” He answered.

      “But... your name... wasn't it Verheli?” Tia murmured quietly. It hurt her head so bad to think about it, but she bit her lip and toughed through the pain as she tried hard to remember, putting all of her effort into bringing up the memories of her father... But they were gone, she couldn't remember anything at all about him. Then one by one memories started coming back to her. Memories of her father, Max, the great knight and hero who slayed demons with her mother fighting by his side. “Oh... Right... I am sorry, I don't know what has gotten into me. You're right dad.” Tia said softly. “But, who was Verheli? The name feels so important, but I don't remember who it was.”

      Max chuckled softly and rubbed Tia's head, making her close her eyes and look down for a moment, then when she opened her eyes and looked back up both of her parents were wearing a full suit of matching knight's armor, carrying swords on their belts and shields on their backs. “Tia, that blow to the head must have really scrambled your memories. That's probably causing your headaches.” He said softly. “Verheli is the name of the demon lord, the big boss demon we're on our way to fight. Are you sure you are feeling ready for this?” He asked.

      “Ready? To fight a demon lord?” Tia gasped, she looked down and realized that she too was wearing a full suit of knights armor, matching that of her parents. It felt weightless, and it seemed out of place. But she remembered that she had been wearing this the whole time so she didn't question it. “Y-Yeah, I think I am thinking clearly now, I am ready.” She said.

      “Good, we set out at once then. We need to stop this demon lord before he kills more innocent people.” Max said. “Come on Christie.” He added, speaking to his wife, who nodded and followed him. The three of them walked off towards the mountains, time seemed to fly right by because seemingly in seconds they were at the top of the mountain and there was a massive demon standing there. The demon was easily three stories tall and barely looked human, it had four torn up wings on it's back, a dog-like face with sharp shark-like teeth, large horns on it's head, red skin, very long claws on it's hands and feet, and a long tail that came to a sharp point.

      The demon let out a terrifyingly loud roar that shook the ground, and with an upwards wave of it's arm it made a massive pillar of black flames burst out of the ground under the feet of the three heroes. Thankfully Tia and her family were fast, and dove out of the way before the flames could hit them. But then the demon reached out and made a motion as if he was grasping something, and suddenly the bright mountain side became pitch black.

      “Human, how do you know what my full form looks like?” A disembodied, demonic voice spoke.

      “None of your business.” Seth's voice stated.

      “Tell me human. Or I will wake her.” The demonic voice growled. “I may not possess full control of her body, but I have gained some control. I can, and will wake her if you do not answer me.”

      The blackness of the battle faded away as Tia's eyes opened, her vision was fuzzy and her head was in extreme pain. She was in her tent, lying in bed. Everything was so blurry it was hard to see, but she could see Seth standing beside her bed, with his hand on her forehead and his hand was emitting a blue-ish glow. Standing beside him was her shadow, standing up as if it was a real person again and still looking demonic with its horns and claws, only now it also had red eyes.

      “Hey! Quit interfering or I will kill both of you.” Seth snapped at the demon, “I did my research, and I prodded into her dreams and memories. You showed yourself in her dreams shortly after she grabbed the dagger.” He hissed.

      The shadow-Tia smirked “Clever, human. But I still do not understand you, you do know that when I possess her and take control, that I will kill you, right? I know you're not stupid enough to think you could control me.” It stated.
      “I know I can not control you. I never planned to. When you awaken and fully possess the girl, I will not be there. While you destroy everything around you I will be far away, waiting for you to finish destroying everything before returning.” Seth's stated. "If you are going to be up and about, stop being a nuisance and do something useful. Destroy this, make sure there's no trace of it left." Seth stated as he handed the demon Tia's hunting knife.

      "The dagger her father gave her? This holds a lot of sentimental value to the girl, it is very important to her." The demon spoke, but smirked cruelly and crushed the dagger in it's hand. "And they say demons are the bad guys" He chuckled. As he spoke Tia's vision went black again.

      Before she knew it, Tia was back on the battlefield, her parents were still fighting the demon but they were losing, the demon was just too strong. “What just happened? What was all that?” Tia thought, but as she tried to remember what she had just seen and heard the memories one by one slipped away from her until she could not remember any of it. She remembered the demon turning everything pitch black, then there felt like there was a gap in her memory, and then suddenly the darkness was gone and she could see the battle again. She tried to force the memories to come back but it hurt her head so bad she screamed in pain and tightly grabbed her head in both hands. Then, suddenly she was snapped out of her thoughts when someone else shouted.

      “Tia!” She heard Max shout, and she looked up to see a black spear flying straight at her head. Then, before she had time to move, Max dove in front of the spear and it stabbed his chest, straight through his armor and his heart.

      “Dad! No!” Tia screamed, as she jumped up to her feet and rushed over to where Max's body had landed. She grabbed him by his armored shoulders and rolled him over, only to see the lifeless look in his eyes. He was dead, there was no doubt about it. “Father! Wake up! Please don't die!” She nearly shouted at him, why did it feel so weird and wrong to call him father? Tears were flooding down her cheeks as she looked up to see her mother still fighting the demon, struggling to survive.

      Tia stood up and was about to go and help her mother but there just was no chance. The demon was too strong for anyone to face alone. The demon slammed it's fist down at Christie, but the agile woman dove to the side and evaded the blow, slashing the demon's wrist with her sword as she dodged. Then the demon tried to sweep her feet with it's fist, but when she jumped over the fist to dodge several shadow-like spikes sprung out of her shadow and pierced through her body.

      Tia's eyes went wide, “No...” She could barely even speak, her body was starting to shake, watching her parents die in front of her. She collapsed onto her knees, in too much shock to stand or even move as the demon turned and began approaching her. She knew she stood no chance, she knew she was as good as dead, she couldn't stand, she couldn't move. Tears were filling her eyes, making the approaching demon look like a blur. She looked down at the ground, accepting her fate and not wanting to watch as it killed her. She could hear the massive demon stomping towards her, she could feel it shaking the ground with each step.

      And then, suddenly, the demon let out a loud roar of pain and there was a loud, earth shaking crash as it hit the ground. Tia looked up to see what had happened, there suddenly was blood everywhere, the demon's massive severed arm was lying on the ground a few feet away. Tia looked around and spotted the demon lying on the ground, struggling to stand up with a blonde armored knight standing on it's head. The armored knight looked tiny in comparison to the demon and was smashing it in the head with a hammer.

      The demon roared in pain with every hit, then after a few hits seemingly gave up and turned into a shadow on the ground and bolted away from the battlefield as fast as it could. With the demon gone, the knight who defeated it turned and walked over to Tia, holding out his hand.

      “Don't worry Tia, you're safe. I'm here to protect you.” A familiar voice said.

      Tia looked up to see that the knight was Seth. “Seth?” She questioned.

      “I'm sorry, if you told me you were going out to search for your parents I would have come to help sooner. I am so sorry I couldn't save them.” Seth said as he took Tia's hand and helped her to her feet. “But, you are alive and that is the important part. You are the hero, you must not die.” He said softly. “Don't worry, their deaths will not be in vain. We can avenge their deaths, we can kill this demon, Verheli, and all of his underlings. We can get revenge, and save the world from these demons.” He told her. “I promise, we will win this war against the bandits, and these demons. You are the hero, the hero will always save the day.” He continued talking in a soft, soothing voice. Not letting her speak and repeating things a few times to make them stick.

      “Your parents died, but we will avenge them. I promise.” The words seemed to echo through her head as the world around her faded away.

–

–

      Before she knew it, she was lying in bed in her tent. Seth was standing next to her bedside with a concerned look on his face. “Tia? Are you alright?” He asked. “You were screaming in your sleep, I was concerned.” He said softly.

      Her head hurt and was throbbing, but she sat up and looked around. “What? I...” She paused for a moment. “I had a nightmare that my parents died.” She said quietly.

      Seth frowned and shook his head. “Tia, I am sorry. That was not a nightmare, that was a flashback. Your parents died fighting the demon lord two days ago. You have been having flashbacks of it every night since then. You're in shock.”

      Tia gasped and bit her lip, she didn't want to believe it but she knew he must have been right. She clearly remembered it happening, and remembered having these nightmares. It felt wrong, the memories felt incorrect, but there was no way her memory could be wrong, right? Tears began falling down her cheeks. “I-I... I need to be alone please.” She said quietly.

      Seth nodded, “I know, it is hard to lose those you love. But remember, you are the hero, we need you to stop the demons.” He took her hand and placed it on the handle of the demonic dagger that she had left at her bedside. “Don't let their deaths be in vain. We can avenge their deaths. They didn't die for nothing.” He said softly. But then he turned and left the tent to give her some space, as she had asked.

      As he walked back towards his own tent he was approached by one of his knights. “There you are sir! We've been looking all over for you.” The knight said.

      “Why? Is something wrong?” Seth asked.

      “There is three people at the west side of our camp, they are trying to get in. Our knights stopped them, but one of them is demanding that we return their daughter, Tia.” The knight stated.

      Seth's eyes went wide, but he quickly shook it off and frowned. “It's an imposter, possibly an assassin. Tia and I saw her parents die in battle two days ago.” He stated. “Let me handle it, and do not tell them that she is here. We need to get the assassin off her back.” He added as he turned and rushed to the west side of the camp.

      “That's not all sir, the leader of the bandits is also-” The knight started but Seth was in such a rush to get there that he didn't even hear it.

      Seth made it to the west side of camp where several knights were blocking the way in and arguing with the people there. “Knights, fall back. Let me handle this.” Seth called out, making the knights back off and walk away from the people. As the knights walked away Seth's eyes widened as he saw three people he had never expected to see. Kaolin, Elladine, and Verheli. 'Her father survived? I guess that's not too surprising, at least I won't need to fight her mother again. But why is Kaolin and Elladine with him?' He thought. “What is the problem here, everyone? Have you two come to turn in the bandit leader?” He asked as he gestured to Kaolin.

      “Give Tia back, now. My daughter is not going to become a soldier.” Verheli demanded.

      “I don't know anyone by that name.” Seth replied. “You must have the wrong knights.”

      Elladine frowned and spoke up. “Seth, she left a note saying she joined the knights, and you are the only knights in the area. You were also stationed outside her town when she left.”

      Seth simply shrugged and shook his head. “I am sorry, but she is not here. Maybe she lied in the note and went someplace else.”

      “My daughter would not lie.” Verheli stated firmly. “You, however, are lying. I can tell from your tone of voice. If you will not bring her out, I will go in and search your camp for her myself.”

      “I am sorry, but she is not here. I am not lying. And I can not allow you to search my camp, you are traveling with the leader of the bandits, the most wanted criminal in this region, changing the color of his cloak will not fool me. I can not simply allow you into my camp, you could be an assassin.” Seth stated simply. “I will, however, gladly accept you turning in the bandit leader to me. I appreciate you bringing him to me and I will schedule his execution accordingly.”

      “You and I both know I am not the bandit leader.” Kaolin growled.

      Elladine was genuinely shocked, this was not the Seth she remembered. She was taken aback for a moment, but then spoke up again. “Kaolin is not the bandit leader, he is your brother and I am your friend. You know damn well we are not assassins. At least let me go search for Tia.” She stated.

      Seth shook his head. “He is the bandit leader. He has you fooled. I would arrest him right here, but I know I can not catch him with his shadow magic, and I do not have a weapon on me to kill him.” He stated, although in reality he was not attacking because he did not want to fight against both Kaolin and Elladine, two mages, while he was in front of the knights and unable to use his own magic. “I can not allow you to enter the camp, and Tia is not here.” He stated.

      “I am here, what am I needed for?” Tia asked as she approached Seth and stood beside him, giving the three people standing in front of Seth a confused look. As soon as Tia came out Elladine glared at Seth, that was the last straw for her, she did not trust Seth anymore and believed what Kaolin had said, Seth clearly was up to no good.

      “Tia!” Verheli nearly shouted in relief. “Thank god I found you, your mother is worried, lets go home.” He said.

      Tia frowned a little as she looked at Verheli, biting back tears as he mentioned her mother. “My parents are dead, who are you?” She questioned. Something about him seemed familiar, and it made her head hurt when she tried to think of where she knew him from. But she had no memory of him, and did not recognize him anymore. Elladine also seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen Elladine before either.

      “Tia... It's me, Verheli, your father. I am finally back. Your mother was so upset when you just left home like that, I came to get you and bring you back home.” Verheli stated.

      Tia's eyes went wide when she heard the name Verheli, she remembered that name. “You... You are the demon that killed my parents.” She gasped

      Seth placed a hand on Tia's shoulder. “Tia, it's not only the demon, it's also the bandit leader and an assassin. We are not ready to fight them yet, we are not strong enough yet. They are only here to kill you, you're the hero. Run away, if you escape they will leave. We will find you when we move the camp later.” He stated.

      Seth focused on something for a moment, and unknown to everyone else a stone hand sprang out of the ground inside of his tent, tearing a hole in the tent. The stone hand grabbed Seth's hammer and yanked it underground.

      The three of them were shocked as Seth spoke, and Elladine was beyond pissed off by now. “Kaolin was right about you. I didn't believe him, but he was right, you are no hero Seth.” She hissed as she grabbed her huge shield and charged straight at Seth.

      Seeing her run in, Kaolin grabbed his bow and arrows and took aim at Seth, prepared to bring Seth down right here and now.

      Verheli also grabbed his bow and pointed it at Seth. “Tia do not listen to him, he is lying to you. I am your father, don't you recognize me? Run to me.” He called out.

      Tia's head was hurting so badly she couldn't think straight, but she knew one thing. She remembered what her father looked like and it was not Verheli. And Seth had saved her from that demon! She trusted Seth, “Please be safe.” She said before she turned and in a flash ran away. Using her wind magic to run incredibly fast so nobody could follow her.

      “Knights, we are under attack!” Seth called out “Surround them!” He saw Elladine charging him and noticed that the two archers were aiming at him, he knew that if he tried to dodge Elladine he would instantly be shot down as soon as his feet left the ground. He braced himself and stayed where he was, keeping Elladine and her huge shield between him and the archers to block their shot. As Elladine tried to ram him with her shield he tried to shove her shield back, it wasn't the most effective move but it was all he could do without leaving himself open to the archers' fire.

      The two of them clashed, but Elladine outmatched Seth in a battle of head-on strength. She shoved him and made him stumble back but he clung onto the shield to stop her from pushing him too far away. Elladine growled quietly, the shield was far too big for her to throw a punch around it so she started trying to shake him off the shield. But when it didn't work and she couldn't get him to let go she simply slipped the shield off her arm and shoved it back. Throwing both the shield and Seth backwards and charging at them as soon as the shield left her hands.

      Seth fell onto his back with the shield falling on top of him, he shoved the shield off himself and saw Elladine charging in right behind it to attack. Thinking fast he made a quick and swift kicking motion to sweep Elladine's legs out from under her and flipped back onto his own feet.

      Elladine was not knocked over for long though, as soon as she hit the ground after her feet were swept she rolled backwards and was right back on her feet, and was charging him head-on once again.

      Seth considered picking the shield up but the thing was incredibly heavy, unreasonably so, it was a huge shield but shields that size normally weighed about twenty pounds, hers was closer to eighty pounds. He was shocked that she could carry it and swing it around seemingly easily. He made a quick decision, deciding that it was far too heavy for him to use effectively and didn't bother to try. He was thankful for one thing though, she may be strong and skilled, but she lacked in combat knowledge, tactical skill, he could tell when she charged him head-on yet again. He at least had that advantage. He braced himself and made sure to continue keeping her in between himself and the archers.

      Elladine saw the knights from the camp coming, they were seconds away from joining the battle but it did not stop her from charging at Seth. She threw a right-handed hook for his head when she got in range, but expecting it Seth grabbed her wrist and pushed her arm away. Elladine responded by throwing a left jab but Seth just repeated the action, grabbing her other arm as well and shoving that one out of the way too. He knew he was not going to win a battle of strength, so he had to act fast before she overpowered him. With both of her arms restrained he went to kick her, but she did something unexpected. She grabbed onto Seth's arms and spun herself around, lifting Seth off the ground and throwing him back towards Kaolin and Verheli.

      Seth's metal armor was clanking and scraping against itself as he tumbled and skidded across the ground. Leaving him open and a clear shot for Kaolin and Verheli. Both of the archers fired their arrows at Seth while he was disoriented and on the ground. He couldn't save himself with his magic, all the knights were coming, so thinking fast he hugged his knees to his chest, using the metal armor and his legs to block the arrows and prevent them from hitting anything important. And it worked, the arrows pierced his armor and his legs and stopped there, he shouted out in pain and was rendered unable to stand for now, but he was alive.

      Seth reached down into a dip in the ground, where his hand was out of sight. As he reached down his hammer popped out of the ground, a subtle move he didn't think the knights would see, he grabbed the handle of the hammer and suddenly pulled it up and flung it as hard as he could at Verheli, knowing that the man was blind and would not see it coming.

      And he didn't, but Kaolin did see it coming. He quickly shouted “Watch out!” as he shoved Verheli out of the way, narrowly dodging the blow. It accomplished what Seth wanted though, it stopped them from shooting him again. Both of them readied another arrow, preparing to finish off Seth, but it was too late now. Seth had bought enough time for the knights to grab their weapons get to the battle. Five armored knights rushed past Elladine and ran to Seth's side, one of them grabbed Seth and began carrying him away from the fight while the other four held up their shields and formed a wall, protecting Seth from any further attacks.

      Elladine was not faring well either, in seconds she was surrounded by the knights. She grabbed her shield and held it up in a defensive stance, but there was at least twenty of them around her, she could not hold them all off herself. The first knight ran straight at her but she blocked his sword and shoved him backwards with her shield. Another knight ran at her from behind but she pointed at him and made a stream of water blast from her fingertips to shove him away, while she spun around to bash a third knight away when he ran in from the side. She had her magic, but she wasn't particularly skilled in the use of it.

      Things were not getting any better either, more and more knights continued joining the battlefield, and Kaolin did not want to harm any of these knights. They were good people, being mislead by a bad leader. He did not want to harm the innocent, and it was not a battle they could win anyways. Knights were much more skilled then bandits, and were much stronger foes. Plus with their armor Elladine couldn't really harm them, she had no weapon, the best she could do was knock them around a bit. Things were going bad, fast.

      “Hold onto me. I am getting us out of here!” Kaolin ordered as he grabbed Verheli's arm, and then suddenly both of them fell through the ground, as if their shadows were a hole. Once they had fallen completely through the ground, the shadows merged into just Kaolin's shadow, Verheli's disappeared.

      Kaolin's shadow slid across the ground as it rushed to Elladine, then his hand suddenly reached up out of it and grabbed her leg, pulling her down into it with them. With everyone in the shadow it suddenly darted off into the woods, using the shade cast by the trees to hide from sight as it ran away.

–

–

      The shadow came to a stop in a distant clearing after about thirty minutes of fleeing, just to make sure they were a safe distance away from the knights. Then suddenly all three of the people who had been in is just sort of sprang out of it, all holding hands and standing beside each other. They let go of each others hands once they were out and looked around. “Where did you take us?” Elladine asked. But, the only answer she received was a loud thud. Wondering what it was she turned around to see Verheli standing beside her, and Kaolin collapsed to the ground. “Kaolin?”

      “I think he collapsed.” Verheli said, “Or dropped something. But by the lack of response I'd say collapsed.” He said as he crouched down and placed a hand on Kaolin's back. It took him a moment to figure out where Kaolin's neck was, but once he found it he checked for a pulse and nodded. “He's alright. I've seen this happen to Tia before. He exerted too much energy and passed out.” He said.

      “Idiot...” Elladine sighed, although despite her words she was thankful that he had done it. “Come on, help me set up camp. Get him in a bed and make sure he's alright.” She said. Her mind was racing, she couldn't believe everything that had just happened. “And I am sorry about Tia, we will get her back, I promise.”

      “I need to get my vision back... I couldn't do much in that fight while blinded. Do you know of anyone who can use healing magic? Maybe they can restore my vision, and we can return ready to fight?”  Verheli questioned.

      “Seth was the only healer I knew. But I am sure there is one out there, somewhere, we just need to find them.” Elladine assured. “We will look for one while we search for Tia.”

–

–

Next chapter: The Lost Child.

19: Chapter Eighteen: The Lost Child.

~~ Chapter 18: The Lost Child. ~~

      It wasn't long before the group had set up camp, Verheli was stacking logs in a pile to set up a campfire and Elladine was laying Kaolin down in a bed, hoping he would wake up soon. Once Kaolin was all set Elladine walked over to the soon to be camp fire and sat down on the ground. “What do we do now?” She asked. “I thought Seth was a hero and doing good things, but that was kidnapping. And when I found Kaolin the other day he was so adamant that Seth was doing something very bad... I didn't believe him at first, but now I kinda do. What do we do? Do we just run in there and kill him? That seems, extreme, and what if he really is doing good and we just aren't seeing the whole picture?” She sighed softly.

      Verheli shook his head. “Running in to kill him would be extreme and wrong. We don't know for sure, even if it seems like he is doing wrong.” He stated. “Honestly, I want to kill him for taking and misleading Tia. But, I know it would be the wrong thing to do.” He sighed softly. “We need to investigate this, and find out what is really going on.”

      “After we get Tia back.” Elladine added.

      “Yes, after we get Tia home. Do I look different? Why did she not recognize me?” Verheli questioned.

      “No, you do not look different at all. Well, you look older obviously, it has been ten years, but you still look like yourself. I don't know why she didn't recognize you.” Elladine answered.

      “Then something is definitely wrong with her.... What did he do to her?” Verheli murmured in a quiet, worried tone.

      “I don't know, but whatever he did we will fix it.” Elladine said. “Don't worry, she will be fine.”

      “Well, at the very least it seems he wants to keep her around, so I know he won't get her killed.” Verheli murmured. But then suddenly his gaze snapped up to the bushes on the side of the camp. “Someone is coming.” He said.

      “What? How do you know?” Elladine questioned as she grabbed her shield and stood up.

      “I can hear them. Being blind for ten years made my sense of hearing much stronger.” Verheli answered. “And shh.” He added. He listened in as the movements came closer and closer, he reached for his bow but before he grabbed it he stopped. “It's small... And humming... I think it's a child, what is a child doing out here?” He questioned.

      “Seriously?” Elladine questioned in disbelief. But, just as she spoke the humming was getting close enough for her to hear, and it really did sound like a little girl who was just strolling through the woods while humming a happy tune. “Is this some kind of trick? There's no way a kid could survive out here, we are way too far away from any villages.”

      The bushes on the very edge of camp began to rustle and suddenly something small popped out of them. It was a little girl, she looked to be only five or six. She had red eyes and long, messy white hair that reached her knees and looked like it hadn't been cut in a while. She was wearing a long pink dress that came all the way down to her ankles, but the dress was very dirty and worn. In her arms she was hugging a small teddy bear to her chest, the bear also looked old and worn, it was covered in patches where holes in it had been sewn up with other pieces of cloth. The little girl looked up at the two and tilted her head to the side, curiously watching them for a brief moment before smiling widely. “Helloo~!” She called out in a cheery sing-song tone with a big smile on her face. Waving to them for a moment before her arm went back to hugging her teddy bear.

      “Erm... Hello.” Elladine replied, giving the girl a half-wave back. She was very confused, the last thing she expected to run into was a little girl when the nearest village was a two day walk away.

      “Hello there.” Verheli greeted warmly. “Where is your mother?” He asked.

      “Mom at home, she said I can go to the outside and play. I never been to the surface before it is so pretty!” The little girl said cheerfully. “But it so cold here, where is the fire?” She complained, pouting a little as she spoke.

      “I don't think your mother wants you wandering the forest by yourself. Where is your home? Do you know? Your mother is probably worried about you.” Verheli said.

      The little girl shook her head. “Mommy not worried, she said she would unlock the door and come get me when she wanted me to come back.” She said. “It is okay, I have patches, he will protect me.” She added as she held up her teddy bear to show Verheli.

      Verheli sighed softly. “Yeah, patches looks tough. But it's still not safe. I don't think your mother wanted you to leave the yard.” He stated. “Do you know where your home is?” He asked again.

      “I not know where home is.” Serra answered.  “I had to leave the yard, I was hungry. I tried wait, but long time passed, it got dark then it got light, then it got dark, then it got light light, lots of times, and I got hungry. Patches bring me food, and take me here.” She explained.

      “Wait, Patches is the bear right? How did he bring you food?” Elladine asked, struggling to understand the girl's broken English.

      “Yes, I told you this is Patches.” The little girl repeated as she festured to the teddy bear again, seemingly angry that she had to repeat herself.  “I don't know how he get food. Patches, how did you get the food?” She asked, then paused for a moment as she looked at her teddy bear. “Patches say he hunted food on the surface.” She replied. But then she frowned a little and glanced down at the bear again, after a moment she let out an annoyed sigh. “Patches said he hunted the food on the surface. That's what I said, I said it right. No, say and said same thing.” She argued.

      While she was arguing with her teddy bear, or herself, about her grammar verheli turned to Elladine. “She doesn't know where her home is, and by the sounds of it, she was abandoned. What do we do?” He questioned.

      “I don't know, we can't just leave her. She can hardly speak clearly.” Elladine stated.

      “We will have to take her in then, for now at least.” Verheli replied. He turned back to the little girl, “What is your name? I am Verheli, this is Elladine, and the sleeping man over there is Kaolin.” He asked as he began starting the fire.

      “Call the sleeping guy Lyn though.” Elladine interjected. “He hates being called Lyn.”

      The little girl giggled quietly at Elladine's comment “My name is Serra.” She replied “Why does he no like the name Lyn? It sounds pretty.” She asked.

      “Because Lyn is a girl's name, and he is a boy.” Elladine answered simply. “You can come over here, we don't bite, I promise.” She said.

      Serra chuckled softly and nodded “Ooh, it's a girl's name. That's why sounds pretty.” She mused, but then frowned at the invitation to join them. She looked down at her Teddy bear again. “... Can I?” She asked quietly. Then was silent for a moment, before she looked back up at Elladine. “Patches wants to know if you have food.” She asked. “Enough food for everybody.”

      “We are out of food right now, but I am going to go hunt some in a minute and will bring back more then enough for everyone.” Verheli replied as he lit the campfire and watched the flames spring up.

      Serra hesitated, and nodded a couple times before saying “Alright, Patches says he trust you and I stay.” She said. Her eyes widened when the fire suddenly sprang to life, as she watched the flames come to life she grinned widely. “There's the fire!” She cheered as she ran over and knelt down as close as she could get to the flames.

      “Don't get so close Serra. You will get burnt.” Elladine warned.

      “But fire is warm! The surface is so cold.” Serra complained.

      Elladine sighed softly “Just don't touch it.” She said.

      Verheli picked up his bow and arrows, then stood up. “Will you be alright watching her? I need to go get some food.”

      “Of course I can watch her, but shouldn't you stay here? You are blind.” Elladine questioned.

      “I am a hunter, I have the best chance of bringing us back something to eat. Plus I've been doing this for years, being blind has not stopped me.” Verheli answered. “And don't worry, I won't get lost again. I learned how to sort of figure out which direction I am going in. I won't go far.” He said, then began walking out of the camp.

      “Alright, good luck.” Elladine called out after him.

      “Good luck!” Serra cheered. “Where is he going?” She asked.

      “He's going to get us some food.” Elladine said softly. “So, Serra, can you tell me about your home? I know you don't know where it was, but do you know what village it was in? Or what was around your home?” She asked.

      “My home was not on the surface, it was warmer there. I do not know if I can go back, Patches does not know where the gate is.” Serra answered.

      “What about your father? You only talked about your mother.” Elladine asked.

      “Feather? I do not have feathers, and my mother did not either. Her friend did though.” Serra said simply.

      “No, father. Your dad.” Elladine repeated.

      “What is a father?” Serra asked, looking genuinely confused.

      “Erm... It's like your mom but a boy instead. You are supposed to have both a mom and dad.” Elladine said.

      “Oh, I no think I have one.” Serra said quietly, frowning a little and looking down. “Patches says my father was a man but he not know who.” She added. But right after she spoke she frowned a little “That's what I said! A man, you not know who. I not say it backwards, you did.”

      “Who are you talking to?” Elladine asked. Clearly the girl was talking to her teddy bear, which Elladine knew could not talk back to her, which left her wondering why the girl seemed to be arguing with it. How could she argue with something that could not speak?

      “I talking to Patches, duh. He the only one talking.” Serra stated matter-of-factly.

      Elladine shook her head and chuckled softly. “Silly me, sorry I should have known.” She said simply. The girl was an odd one, that was for sure. “You keep talking about the surface, what is the surface?” She asked.

      “The surface? It right here, we is on the surface” Serra answered simply.

      That didn't answer her question at all. Elladine sighed softly and decided to stop pestering the girl for now, she didn't want to annoy the little girl by bombarding her with a million questions right away, and she wasn't getting anywhere with figuring out where the girl came from. “I see.” She answered softly, then sat down by the fire with Serra to wait for Verheli to return. She kept glancing back at Kaolin every once in a while to make sure he was alright, but he was not waking up. She just remained quiet for the time being and watched Serra huddle up to the fire to make sure Serra didn't get too close to the flames.

      It was about an hour before Verheli returned, he had a dead deer slung over his shoulder and a small bunny that was fearfully shivering in his arms. “I caught a deer in the woods. Also caught a bunny in a trap, but the thing is too small to eat. Figured Serra could play with it.” He said.

      Serra sprang up to her feet and her face lit up with a huge smile. “A bunny?” She gasped as she ran over to Verheli to get a closer look at the small, fluffy white bunny. She was nearly bouncing with excitement, it was as if she had never seen a bunny before.

      Verheli smiled a little when he saw how excited she was, he carefully placed the little bunny in Serra's arms. “Be careful with it, the little guy hurt his leg in the trap. He is scared, so be gentle.” He said softly.

      “Thank you! I have always wanted a bunny, Patches says they are delicious!” Serra cheered as she darted off to play with the bunny in an open area of the camp.

      Verheli gave Serra a concerned look and turned to Elladine who returned the very confused and concerned look. “Serra, play nice with the bunny. We will have food ready in a little bit.” Elladine spoke up. She stood up to help Verheli bring the deer over to the campfire.

      “I will~” Serra cheerfully called out. She put the bunny on the ground and crouched down beside it. The bunny tried hopping away, moving pretty slowly with it's wounded leg. Serra mimicked the bunny and hopped alongside it, giggling happily as she did so. Whenever the bunny got too far from the camp she picked it up and brought it back.

      “Your friend has not woken up yet?” Verheli asked Elladine. Who simply shook her head. “He should be up soon then.” He added as he began preparing the deer for dinner with a little help from Elladine. “While I was out in the woods I did some scouting work, no bandit camps in the immediate area, unless they are really quiet camps which I doubt.” He added.

      Elladine nodded a little, appreciating the fact that he went out of his way to make sure they were safe. “Thank you.” She replied. “I've been thinking about it, I remember hearing some rumors about a priestess in the next city over who has been preforming miracles. Curing people of their injuries and illnesses with “God's divine powers.” I didn't buy it at first, but the more I think about it the more I think we should check it out. Maybe she is really a mage and passing off her use of magic as God's work? Either way, maybe she can fix your eyes.” She said.

      “Sounds like a good idea to me. If there's a chance it's worth a shot, since we have no other ideas.” Verheli replied simply.

      “Pffff! Yuck!” Serra shouted out “Patches! You lied to me! Bunnies are not delicious. They taste like hair.” she angrily pouted as she spat on the ground a few times.

      “Serra, you alright?” Elladine asked as her and Verheli turned to the little girl, when she saw Serra she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand for a moment. “Serra!” Elladine nearly shouted.

      “What?” Serra asked as she turned around with a mix of blood and white fur on her lips. The bunny was limply lying on the ground in a small pool of blood, with a big bite taken out of it's neck.

      “What happened?” Verheli asked.

      “She killed the bunny! She just bit off a chunk of it's neck.” Elladine said quickly.

      Verheli's eyes widened and he sprang up from his seat when he heard what had happened, quickly scooping up Serra and moving her away from the corpse of the bunny.

      “Serra! Why did you bite the bunny's throat?” Elladine questioned a bit louder then she needed to. She watched Verheli move the girl away, she was just in shock and unsure of what she was supposed to do.

      “Isn't that the best part?” Serra asked in a confused tone. “Mommy used to go up to surface all the time. She would find boys and bring them home, and when they got home she bite the neck right here,” she gestured to her throat, “but then they go sleep and she bring them back to surface because they forgot how to wake up. I ask her why she bites their neck and she say it is the best part.”

      The two of them were just in shock, and did not know what to say. “I do bad?” Serra asked worriedly. “I sorry. I do not mean to.” She murmured quietly, looking downwards at the bunny with a rather sad expression on her face.

      “Erm... It's alright Serra... You didn't know” Elladine said softly. “Just please never bite anyone's necks again, that is very bad. Lets go eat. Then it's bedtime for you.” She stated uneasily.

      “Sorry...” Serra said quietly before she slowly walked over to the fire and sat down beside it, hanging her head a little as she walked.

      “We need to talk...” Verheli whispered as he pulled Elladine aside. “This girl is a sociopath. There's something really wrong with her.” He said quietly.

      “I can tell that something is very wrong with her, but what can we do? We can't just leave her here.” Elladine whispered back.

      “I don't know, but we need to make sure we keep watch on her. And we need to figure something out.” Verheli stated. Then turned and joined Serra by the fire for dinner.

      Elladine shook her head a little, this was just crazy and she didn't know what to do. But she too joined the others for the meal. They would all go to sleep afterwords, trying to be well rested for tomorrow's walk.

–

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Next Chapter: Messenger from the king.