After a few hours of quick riding, Markus noticed a large stone arch off to the side of the road. People seemed to appear from nowhere in the middle of it and then walk toward him. His father had told him about these ancient portals that brought someone from one place to another, but Markus had never seen one working. The Council of Light sought to limit their ability to move about quickly, so they sabotaged them. Apparently, this one still worked. He pulled off behind some bushes and formed a dark sphere. He mimicked the actions of Death, hoping it’d temporarily erase the lines around his eyes. Without a mirror, he had no idea if it worked, but went ahead and directed the horse to the arch.
As he approached, he scanned the crowd of people for someone to ask about the arch. He found a family of four, walking in his general direction and slowed when he reached them.
“When did they fix the arch?” Markus asked, hoping his magic worked on his eyes. The family looked at him and didn’t flinch.
“It’s not normally working, lad. The folk of Waernell pay a master wielder from the Order of the Ox to repair it once a month as shipments arrive. It helps keep the perishables from going bad before we make it to Darfield. It won’t be on much longer. Once everyone is through, the wielder breaks the arch on the other side, cutting it off again. We all take the long way back.”
“Thank you,” Markus said and nodded his head. He took off and tried to make it through before the door closed. As he got within a hundred paces, he looked beyond the arch and the coast appeared in the distance. It was like looking through a foggy window. It began to wobble and wiggle. Markus formed a small red sphere and singed the horse. It sped up and closed the distance within seconds. The horse came to an abrupt stop and got up on only its hind legs. It let out a whiny and turned away from the portal. Markus jumped off the horse and ran towards the disappearing view of the coast. He started to see the field that lay behind the arch had it not been activated. His legs pumped up and down and his arms did the same. His muscles burned from their use at Darfield, but he refused to give up. Men near the stonework began to yell at him to stop, but Markus jumped through, gritted his teeth, and closed his eyes, taking the risk.
He found himself an inch-deep in sand. He checked himself for any wounds, but found no pain other than the ache in his muscles. He stood up and dusted off the sand that stuck to his clothes. Before him sat the Sea of Sorrows. Waves formed a hundred paces into the water and grew to twelve feet before they crashed down on to the shore. Beyond that a wall of tumultuous water stood fifty feet high and blocked any view of Thurus. The water at the base of said wall looked nothing short of deadly. It twisted, turned, chopped, and splashed. Markus didn’t know how to swim.
After the Kingdom ended the way with the Decayed, the Order of the Eagle created this wall. They meant to discourage civilians from visiting the island that held the Decayed headquarters and to contain any remaining enemies that might still live there. It had the negative impact of cutting off good, civil people who lived on Thurus from trade and family that lived across the sea.
He looked back at the arch and a chunk was missing from the left leg of the arch. He glanced around for the wielder and a blue cloak swayed in the distance, heading north.
Markus walked south toward the bottom of the continent. The wall stretched as far as he could see, but he continued that way for a few hours. Even from its distance, Markus found himself wet from the cold spray of the water. He licked his lips, wishing for some fresh water. Yet, without fail, the wall remained and the torrential water never ceased. He retraced his steps until he reached the portal again. Thankful, that he’d gained a day’s worth of travel he followed the coast in the other direction, hoping to find a small city to provide him with some food. He’d initially went the opposite direction from the wielder, hoping to avoid any more conflict. Markus would rather face normal men in a fight than a master from the Order of the Ox.
So, he took his time. It’d be better for him if he reached a city after night fell. Oddly enough, the city was called just that and he found another low-light tavern to visit. With no city gates, Markus had a clear view of the Sea of Sorrows from the window near his seat. The wall of water stood far enough away from the coast here, that the city caught fish in the area between the wall and the coast. The barmaid brought him a fish with vegetables. He devoured it. She offered him ale, but he asked for a large mug of water instead.
“Need a place to stay for the night? A place to dry your clothes?” the barmaid asked him.
Markus surveyed the tavern. The crowd had smiles and spoke with laughter. He hadn’t much money left, but could use a warm, dry bed. “How much?”
“Fifty coppers, dinner included.”
“You have a deal,” Markus hoped he’d find a way across to Thurus in the morning and that they still had food on the island. He needed a good night’s sleep to clear his head and prepare for whatever came his way tomorrow.
“Do you have an Amanuensis?”
“Nope, nearest one is a day's walk west of here. If the portal is open, Darfield is closer, but that won’t be working for another month.”
Markus nodded. She left to make her rounds. She came back with a key. Markus finished the water and found the stairwell. He unlocked the door and entered. The room was just as small as the one in Darfield. His candle cast a small light around the room, allowing him to see the bed and a blue closet. After closing the door, he began to undress, hanging his wet clothes wherever he could. Just as he went to remove his underclothes, he heard a whoosh. He paused and turned around. The master wielder from the Order of the Ox stood where the blue closet had been.
Day 8 Afternoon
“Who trains you?” Linette asked Joshua.
They ran side by side on their usual path toward Castle Claybury. The sun beat down on them. Because of that and the desire to converse, they maintained a slower pace.
“Master Dulius. The one and only.”
“Impressive.”
“I didn’t ask for it. I think he saw something in me when I first started. He brought me into his office and wanted to know what I dreamed.”
Linette spoke between breaths. “And you…,” Breathe in. Breathe out, “told him your goal.”
“Yes.”
The Portcullis came into view and they slowed to a walk. “Does he help to put you into situations that will allow you to progress?”
Joshua tilted his head. “Sort of.”
They both paused to catch their breath. “What do you mean?”
“He tests me but makes it clear that most of them are to teach me to be a better wielder overall and will not necessarily help me reach the next progression.”
Now that they had slowed his eyes lingered on her face longer than while running. It made Linette self-conscious of her appearance. She imagined a beet-red face and hair stuck to it from her perspiration.
“Does that bother you?”
Joshua looked toward the castle for a few moments before looking back at her. “Sometimes. I want to beat Knilin’s record but I see the benefit of taking time to reach my goal.”
They stopped at the drawbridge and faced each other. He stared at her lips. She looked back at his. He showed no reaction to it but her face already felt red from her run.
“Tonight, can I steal a little of your time to show you something?”
Linette smiled. “Yes, I’d like that.”
“Tonight, then.” He took off running back to the Order.
She went to the Amanuensis and asked if she had any messages. She did not. She updated Winthrop with her latest findings.
Linette left for the library. She flashed Viola a fake smile and walked toward the Decayed section. On her way, she saw Falen.
“Hi, Falen.”
He nodded as he fixed the binding on the book he held. The blue light glowed bright. She continued and unlocked the gate. Once inside, she fetched the book by Higel and began to read. She re-read the two rules and pondered them. The Order of the Eagle didn�
��t have rules so far but they emphasized hard work. Her experience with them remained limited, and she didn’t know if they had families. Joshua was young, so it wasn’t unusual for him to not have children already. Yet, Knilin and Dulius weren’t married or had kids as far as she knew. It was something she might ask Joshua later.
This idea of having a Keeper also seemed foreign. She read on to learn more. In the beginning, Higel left a section that included his overall author notes. One of the first topics was the Keeper and that the Order of Man had agreed to allow him access to their people and archives but the Keeper didn’t agree to this. He noted that this left his research incomplete and that he included whatever details he found on Keepers, even if insignificant. Linette found it odd they wouldn’t take part.
The few bits she found in the first chapter on the Order of Man is that every single one had a Keeper and that they remained protective of them in every encounter he had with a member of the Order. That is, until the night of sorrows. Higel discussed a period before that night where the Order cut-off all contact with him. Then, they murdered the Council of Orders—the name the Council of Light used prior to the Decayed turning against them—and took over Mapleglen.
Thomas kept his secret well. No one knew. Knilin had mentioned that Thomas’ records showed that he showed no talent for magic when they tested him many, many years ago. Did Thomas have a Keeper?
Running short on time, Linette flipped randomly through the book and skimmed here and there. The word “progression” caught her eye, and she continued reading. Higel confirmed that the Order of Man sought the last progression and had been for centuries. They’d hoped Higel would discover it but he wrote that he never found anything useful, once again, leaving his research incomplete. Linette could almost feel the pain in the words. She felt similar in her pending failure at determining out what Aurora had found in the library.
She closed the book, locked the gate, and left. She smiled, thinking of her time with Joshua later. She found the courtyard and escaped to her running path back to the Order. When she came back, she’d find a maid or scribe, someone that knew Thomas and might give her some hint to unlocking who his Keeper was.
19 years ago…
Soon after Thomas murdered Carel, the third boy from his youth, he’d noticed the faint, dark lines that seemed to shoot out in several directions from his eyes. Shortly after that, the Order of Man turned violent and malicious. People began to refer to it as the Night of Sorrows.
What have I done? Did something change with my Order or did I cross a line? He’d poisoned Vil, expecting to feel the surge of power rush through him later that night. It hadn’t.
It happened two weeks later.
A week after that, the woman from the bar pulled him into an alleyway while he ran errands for Higel. With no pleasantries, she cut to the point of her trip to Thomas’ home of Kirean: she wanted her mother to die in an accident and wanted Thomas’s help.
Aurora quickly accused Thomas of poisoning Vil. When the man did not die during the night, she followed him. He made it as far as Gluon when he began to sweat profusely. He died a few days later. Other people contracted the illness from his party and some from the town.
Thomas decided to not deny her accusation, but he refused to help murder her mother. He failed to understand it but Aurora remained insistent. She claimed Belinda ruled over her like a tyrant and Aurora sought freedom. Aurora joined the Order of the Ox and her mother sat in a key leadership position in there. Belinda used her position to hold Aurora back from growing in her magic. She tried on more than one occasion to force Aurora into marriage and insisted she pursue interests other than magic. In the end, Thomas still declined to help her. She left frustrated.
The following year, Thomas caught up to Carel and murdered him too. He found him in Cordun and used the same poison. Learning his lesson from Aurora’s tale, he decreased the amounts of magic and rat poison. Many people still fell to the illness and died but that only bothered Thomas like running into a swarm of gnats and swallowing a few. In time, he’d perfect the concoction.
It took Thomas by surprise when he began to have bouts of rage hit him without warning. That and the dark lines began to form. At first, he tried sleeping more but when they became more defined rather than blotches he suspected something had changed. He began to apply powders to his face to hide the lines.
One day, Higel mentioned some oddities about the Order of Man. He’d heard reports of accounts of violence and other reports of people disappearing in some bigger cities. When Higel showed him a letter with a depiction of a man with dark lines spreading outward from his eyes, Thomas decided to take a leave of absence. He lied and told his parents he required a break from research to find a wife. Thomas went back to Mor on the off chance he might find the right woman but he needed time to figure out what was going on with himself and the Order of Man. He began to correspond through the town’s Amanuensis with every scribe he knew in Thurus, hoping to learn something new. He heard something about a mass grave but it wasn’t clear who had been slaughtered. Otherwise, they provided scarce details of little use. That is, until the Order of Man attacked the castle at Mapleglen and killed the Council of Orders along with the King.
Thomas was both shocked and not at the same time. He knew the process that the Order of Man went through to reach each of their progressions. They seemed like good people with a little cloud of mystery around them. Yet, he knew the truth. They were murderers and sought to became conquerors.
Unsure of the dangers facing the world, Higel called Thomas back home. He powdered his face and entered.
“Welcome home, son. I’m glad you’re safe,” Higel said with a solemn voice. They embraced and Higel led him to his study.
“What’s going on with Mapleglen? Can we reclaim it?” Thomas asked.
“My associates believe we can but it’ll take some time. Recall what the Order of Man is capable of. They kill with ease and our men haven’t faced magic like this before.” Higel snorted. “Our kingdom hasn’t seen a war in centuries. Today’s wielders are untrained for battle.”
“What can we do? Have you provided your research to the other scribes?”
“No. Had I known of this attack I would have. It happened so fast. The men on the front lines already know the Order of Man’s magic is deadly. Now, we discover their last progression and stop them from finding or using it.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “Father, we’ve searched for over twenty years. It hasn’t been documented.”
Higel looked at him and a smirk cracked his face. He held a parchment in his hand.
“You found something?” Thomas reached to grab it but Higel’s face turned sour and he pulled it back. He pivoted around facing away from Thomas and took a deep breath. His father turned back toward him.
“How long Thomas?”
Confused, Thomas failed to understand. “How long what, Father?”
“When did you learn magic?”
Thomas coughed and gasped like someone had punched him in the stomach several times without warning. He hesitated and after keeping this secret from his father for over twenty years; he let the floodgates open.
“The magic I discovered soon after we met Fiona but there’s been a darker side to me ever since my youth. I tried to ignore it but I did not resist its calling. When we first learned these hard truths about progressing within the Order of Man, I thought I’d found a place to call my own. I considered joining them but I knew they’d never accept me. I can’t create it myself. I think my lack of fingers won’t allow it. I struggled to fight it and instead thought if I followed you in this hunt, I’d become more like you. You are who I wish I was.
“I had stolen extra vials from Fiona. Later, I stole a keg of magic from the vineyard at Mapleglen. Some progressions I achieved without knowing I’d completed the relevant steps. Others, I learned from our research. It wasn’t until last year I began to see the lines from around my eyes. Something has changed with the Ord
er. Now, fits of rage hit me unexpectedly and I can’t control the anger that surges through my body. I wanted to tell you but I couldn’t bear to see the look you’re giving me now. As I progressed, the power I gained when I used vials of magic felt like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Yet, I held shame about how you’d feel about me. I’m sorry, Father. I’ll stop pursing this magic.”
And he truly was. Thomas didn’t want to lose him. In that moment, Thomas found he was willing to give it all up to keep his relationship with his dad.
Higel appraised him. It was a look that Thomas had seen nearly every day as his father contemplated new discoveries. It took several minutes before he spoke and felt like an eternity. Water filled his father’s eyes. Nothing came out, but his father neared letting tear drops fall. “Son, I forgive you.”
Thomas looked at him and began to weep. Higel came around and hugged his son. Tears fell, blurring his vision. He blinked a few times to clear his sight. Thomas thought he’d seen a flash of green light but not knowing what it could be, disregarded it. Nothing mattered more than knowing his father loved him.
After some time when they’d finished their embrace, Higel sat down behind his desk and looked at his son.
“Thomas, I’ve found a significant clue about the four rules. I don’t know the seventh progression and I think it best if no one ever finds out. We are putting an end to this search.”
He handed the parchment to his son upside down. Thomas took it. Higel gestured to the small fire below the chimney to his right. Standing up was easy but walking over to the flames and dropping the paper into it became a test of pure willpower. Before he dropped it, Thomas rubbed his fingers over the impression left by a stamp and he brushed his fingers over it for clues. Then he stopped himself and chose to give this life up. It felt like killing a part of himself; like losing two fingers.
“Now, Thomas, wipe the makeup off your face.” Higel handed him a damp cloth.
The Orphan's Discovery Page 11