Of Heroes And Villains (Book 4) (25 page)

“And you expect us to just do that? You shouldn’t even be alive.”

“I have you to thank for that, don’t I? You may be weak, but your strength was sufficient in beating Thorn. Something that even we could not do. For that also, I spared you. You have my thanks.”

“You killed my students,” James seethed. “You don’t get my gratitude.”

“They would only get in the way of our conversation, and you still have a purpose to fulfill. You will help carry out my wishes throughout the Kingdom.”

“I will do no such thing,” he said, clenching his eidolons tight.

“Does the deaths of your students make you that blind? You are on the verge of attacking me despite what you have already seen. Fine. If it will still your spirit, you may choose one.”

“What?” James said, snapping out of his rage.

“Choose one. Four have died, but the other four are only on the
verge
of death. They are still holding on, using the Quietus regenerative properties to keep them from crossing the line. But heed my words. Choose only one. Any more than that, and I will chop off one of your arms and continue to do so until you can’t regenerate it any longer.”

James studied the Sage’s face. He was deathly serious. James looked behind him at the fallen bodies and waved his eidolons toward them. Four were still alive, barely conscious, and only aware enough to concentrate on healing. The loss of blood was interfering with their focus though, and it was getting harder with each passing second to keep up the vicious cycle of healing then tearing. James knew he had to choose quickly, but which one?

Kao, the Langoran/Sage who had a knack for expanding his eidolon to massive heights?

Stephanie, the tactician with historical knowledge of all the Kingdoms?

Shanelle, the one who could dissect anything’s composition with incredible accuracy?

Or Max, the dual wielding warrior with a knack for taking massive amounts of pain?

James could tell that Max was certainly holding on the best, but he still wasn’t sure who to pick. This was one of those moments Arimus had talked about. He had to make a decision, and there was no telling what—

“—choose wisely,” Lakrymos said. “Your choice will affect the future.”

“Shanelle,” James said quickly, pointing over to her. “That’s my choice.”

“Then go to her, and help any way you can.” James ran over to her, sheathing his eidolons and falling to her side. The thought that Lakrymos could kill him crossed his mind, but he certainly had the chance earlier.

“Come on, Shanelle,” James said, pressing his hands against the deep wound in her abdomen. “Just concentrate. It’s like putting back together a puzzle. You have all the pieces in your hand, just focus on where they go. Listen to my voice. Don’t think about anything else. Heal.
Heal
. Just thinking about
healing
. I’m right here.”

Eventually, her eyes fluttered open, and her stomach began to come back together, as if an invisible hand was sewing it up. James talked to her the entire time, and Lakrymos watched from a distance, taking it all in. When the worst was over, James propped Shanelle up against one of the fallen houses.

“Stay here, and keep on healing,” he said. She just nodded. Her long braids covering up her face. “I’ve still got some business to attend to.”

He rose to his feet and glanced over at the others. He searched them for vitality, but by helping Shanelle, he had all but secured their fate. Lakrymos nodded from where he stood.

“It’s good that they died in time. I know that you would have taken the chance on saving them, and my steward should not have to lose his arm so early in our relationship.”

“I am nothing to you,” James said, walking toward the Sage. He reactivated his eidolons. “I’m going to stop you here. Whatever you are.”

“I am alive, just as you are,” Lakrymos said. “The flesh that surrounds you is nothing more than a shell. Should I remove it from your bones, your soul will seek shelter elsewhere. When Thorn was killed, my soul, along with many others, was freed from our prison. Nearly all were retaken by the hands of Oblivion, but I, and a few others, were strong enough to fight against it. We were able to wander this world, looking for a way to return. That opportunity was afforded to us when we came across Ephai. We guided him through our completion by finding the new stones of power, and then teaching him to manifest new forms for our souls to inhabit. A type of possession.”

“But if Ephai is killed, then you will no longer exist,” James smiled slyly. “His manifestations will disappear, and then you’ll just be a soul without a body again.”

“I’m making plans to ensure that we are taken care of, especially since he will not live forever, but…I will say this. You won’t find Ephai. Of that, I can promise you. I also wouldn’t bother looking if I were you. I have already displayed a portion of my strength. It is to let you know that if you get close to his whereabouts, I will ensure that you go no further. I want your trust, James, but I understand that won’t come right away. You will soon learn that I am your only hope in what’s to come. Ask of me what you will, and you will learn that besides Ephai, who is keeping me alive, I have nothing to hide.”

James wanted to assure Lakrymos that he would find Ephai, but he decided against it. There was so much more to learn. There would be plenty of time to search later on. “How did you know about these new stones? Where they would be?”

“It is common knowledge for the Sages of Old. In our time, we were able to explore and examine the world around us. Although the stones of power are mysterious, we learned that they are also alive. Of where they come from, we are not sure, but we do know this. There is always a set in existence. We are not yet sure of the purpose, but the set that you and your Queen once possessed was not the first. We learned through documented history that the set passed throughout the Kingdoms was set number
four
. There were three more before then. What happened to them and what it involved, we do not know. When your Queen destroyed the five in existence, we wandered the lands searching for the new five. We guided Ephai to them once they were located. He collected them, and we proceeded forward with our mission, knowing that we needed to ensure that more Sages were created in the future.”

“But why? For what?”

“For
them
,” he said solemnly. “
Them.”

Chapter 18 – Them

“I don’t understand,” James said, loosening the grip on his eidolons. “What are you talking about?”

“We wanted the stones of power in our possession before we had Ephai manifest our shells. The reason being that you and the other Sages would sense our power once we had our shells, and you would come after us. We had to ensure that we had what we needed before we met. But…now that you destroyed four of the five stones…we’ll have to find the new set all over again. We need Sages in order to survive. As many as possible. ”

“We? How many of you are there?”

“Once the Kingdom of Allay is in our possession, I will reveal our final number, but all you need to know now is that there is at least two of us. There is one other, a female, who has decided to wait until she reveals herself. When she is ready, she will have Ephai make her a form to inhabit.”

“Who are
them
?”

“They are called the Yama. You’ve never heard of them because they don’t live on our half of the world. As far as you know, they aren’t even part of this planet. They reside on a land accessible only by sea or air. There are other people there, like the Langorans, Prattlians and Quietus you have here. And those people…they have left us alone for a long time, but that time is over. They have been preparing for decades now to invade
this
land.”

“What do they want?”

“To enslave us all,” Lakrymos said matter-of-factly. “To take our Kingdoms, our goods, our stones. They want to utterly annihilate our way of life.”

“And why should I believe you,” James said. “You killed my students. You’re not a good person. If you were truly good, you wouldn’t have just been
freed
when Thorn was killed. You would have went to Paradise. But you didn’t. You were numbered with those headed to Oblivion.”

“I’m not a good person,” Lakrymos stated. “I never will be. But I am what is needed, if you are to survive. Once the Yama enslave you, I assure you, they will darken your hearts so thoroughly that you will be begging for Oblivion. I can prevent that, and I can show you what it means to truly be a Sage.”

“If you’re what a Sage is supposed to be, I don’t want to know.”

“That’s childish. You wouldn’t take a technique from your enemy, even if it would benefit you in battle? You are doing nothing more than limiting your potential.”

“Perhaps I don’t want to become what you are.”

“Then you are already dead. Then I might as well leave and watch you and all you love get massacred. I am being reasonable. I want full control of the Kingdom in order to turn you into the Sages you need to be. To prepare you for the incoming onslaught. They are stronger than I am, and I can’t do it alone. Neither can you. But I won’t be able to do my job if all we do is sit around and bicker on what’s proper.”

“If you know how these Yama operate, why couldn’t you launch an attack on them before?”

“Because of Thorn,” Lakrymos said with disgust. “He ruined everything. While we were distracted by our efforts to fight the Yama, he had the Quietus Siege take place. The story, however, is not as your history books tell it. They don’t tell you that we destroyed nearly half of the invading army, and they don’t tell you how we drove them away. How we chased them through the forests and that’s where it all went wrong. We sought revenge too quickly. Thorn, with his manifestations, killed our army slowly—one by one in our sleep. We didn’t know it was Thorn until after our souls were his, but the ordeal was maddening.

“We would chase the Quietus for a whole day, just to rest and wake up to find our numbers had dwindled. We thought it was the Quietus the entire time, catching us off guard. But no matter how powerful you are, you still have to sleep. I was killed by one of his Reds, as you call them. Not the Quietus King. The Quietus King did not have my power. He just knew Thorn’s secret—that we can all fashion eidolons and heal and so on. But you can imagine our frustrations. To learn that one of our most trusted allies killed us all for his own gain, forsaking the well-being of his people. I will rectify the problem.”

“We don’t even know if these Yama exist. Do you have any records of them?”

“None that we could keep. We didn’t want our tactics getting back to the Yama.”

“And why haven’t the Yama attacked yet? Or back then when we were most vulnerable?”

“Because slaves work harder when they’re healthy,” Lakrymos seethed. “You don’t understand. They will slaughter you if you don’t have an army to meet them. They have abilities you know nothing about. They will destroy you inside and out for decades, but they will not let you
die.
Oblivion will be a vacation after what they do to you.”

“Then why don’t you go back there, and let us handle this threat?”

“Because you won’t succeed. It is my duty to show you the path.”

“No,” James said adamantly. “I won’t allow you to take the keys to the Kingdom off of an idle threat and an invisible enemy. It might be honorable that you decided to come back and save us all, but you have to let us handle it. Unless there’s more you’re not telling me. Thorn sought immortality. Why wouldn’t you not be seeking out the same?”

“Can I speak to him?” a small, sweet voice said from behind James. James turned to see a short, toned girl. He assumed it was the female Sage that the Quietus had mentioned earlier. She was in a black robe too, but she was certainly less intimidating than Lakrymos. Her face was innocent and her big brown eyes were big and doe-like.

“If you like,” Lakrymos said, folding his arms. “He won’t hear what I have to say.”

“My name is Orchid, but to get to the point, what Lakrymos says is true. The Yama will be arriving to this land within a year. That will barely be enough time to even hope for victory. Immortality is not our concern. Carrying out our mission is. We as Sages died in the midst of our prime, and now we have an opportunity to save you all from destruction and perform out duty. I won’t lie to you and say that we also don’t want the power of ruling a Kingdom. We’ve often dreamed about it, even when we were alive. Our decisions might seem strange or immoral, but I assure you that our intentions are for the greater good. Once the Yama threat is dealt with, we also have to determine the purpose of the stones. Doesn’t their reappearance bother you? Who is doing it? Where do they come from? These questions need answering.”

“How many of you are there?” James asked, unfazed by her speech.

“Four,” she said quickly. “Lakrymos didn’t want to tell you earlier because he feared we would be overcome by numbers. Though we are strong, we are no match for the three remaining Kingdoms’ collective power. We won’t underestimate you like Thorn did.”

“Your speech sounds pleasant, but you’re still hiding something.”

“We don’t need immortality since we have Ephai. Before he dies, we’ll be sure to make arrangements with someone so we’ll always have a body. In a sense, we already have immortality.”

“That’s not reassuring,” he said, looking at her, and then back to Lakrymos. “Look, there’s no way Catherine will give up the crown willingly, and neither will I. Even if what you’re saying is true, and you’re trying to save us, that’s admirable, but we can’t give you a Kingdom. You can come with me and prove yourselves. You can gain our trust. But nothing more than that.”

“Then the discussion is over,” Lakrymos declared. “If you won’t give us the Kingdom, we’ll have to take it by force. You can’t stop the Yama, and if you’re Allay’s strongest warrior, then the Kingdom of Allay has no hope. As promised, you and the cadet you chose will survive long enough to deliver the message, but after that, there will be no courtesies.”