by Quil Carter
Ben’s heart jumped into his chest, the excitement almost making him drop the goblet. Quickly he walked back into their bedrooms, seeing Teal peeking over Malagant’s shoulder.
“What does it say?” Ben almost shouted, taking a seat beside Malagant.
Malagant’s tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as his eyes scanned the page.
“Journey on with the heir of the fire manes. Stand tall for the black shadows stalk thee. Be unmasked, for the blue shadows will not find thee, no matter how loud the tortured scream.”
“Bloody gods,” Teal whispered, “our first prophecy passage. I can’t believe it.”
“So…” Ben swallowed a lump forming in his throat. He had known for quite a while now that they were a part of the new prophecy, that their journey was one that had been written specifically for them. But it was still rather sobering seeing the black text written on the crisp page. “So… this book is going to tell us what to do? Besides what we already know?”
Malagant nodded. “We know we have to get to Garas and this book is going to tell us how to get there properly and, hopefully, safely. Who to travel with, what we should look out for… it’s kinda supposed to help us. Or at least that’s what my father always taught me.”
Remembering the water, Ben grabbed the forgotten goblet and handed it to the hung-over Malagant. Malagant gave him a thankful smile and downed it in one gulp, but it did little to bring the colour back to his face.
“Dad said the book talks in riddles… but this one isn’t much of a riddle; it’s simple actually,” Malagant said. “Travel with the heir of the fire manes. That’s Lord Gorat and Lordling Grady. So I suppose we’ll be journeying with them until they get back to Rhastt. It’s in the same direction as Lazarius.”
Teal picked up Malagant’s goblet and tried to find a couple droplets to wet his own throat, then he slowly lowered it with a furrowed brow. “What about the second part? Do you think the black shadows are in reference to King Erick and his loyal?” he asked. “But it seems to contradict itself.”
Malagant started to recite it again.
“Be unmasked, for the blue shadow will not find thee, no matter how loud the tortured scream,” Malagant repeated, his face creased in thought.
“It’s about Nyte,” Ben suddenly realized. “The prophecy is saying we don’t have to worry about Nyte anymore. No matter how loud the tortured scream. Maybe it means our location won’t be given again even if the elves who know where we are, are being tortured?”
Teal and Malagant stared at the open book for a moment before they both nodded. “Benny’s right,” Malagant said. “And the second part makes even more sense. While Erick was trying to find Calin and torturing and imprisoning those who wouldn’t tell him… it was said that the highborns couldn’t reveal the secret of Calin’s location even if they wanted. It was rumoured to be the works of Kelakheva and it looks like they were right.” Malagant’s chest rose and fell as he gave out a relieved breath. He took a kerchief Teal handed him and wiped his face with it. “This is good. This means we can tell Gorat and Grady who Ben is and what’s going on without worrying that our location and our identities could be compromised. We have help, finally.”
“What a relief,” Teal said quietly. He rested a hand on Malagant’s shoulder when he squinted his eyes and held a hand to his head.
“Sorry, Mel, I know thinking hurts,” Ben said with a sympathetic smile. He took the book from Malagant and looked down to re-read it again, when suddenly he froze.
Oddly, there was another passage underneath the one that Malagant read. Ben looked at it curiously, wondering why no one else had noticed it.
Then he read it.
‘There is nothing home for you, godless one. No one wept for you; no one longs for you. He has moved on, and so shall you.’
Like he had gotten smacked in the face Ben visibly recoiled, even going as far as to pull his fingers away from the pages. Not just from the words though – but the fact that the voice that had read the passage to him in his head… was none other than Kelakheva.
Because that passage was only meant for me? Ben asked himself. He looked around the room and up at the ceiling, expecting to see the demigod standing right in front of him – but there was no one but the three of them, and the echoes of Kelakheva’s voice.
“Ben?” Teal’s voice said behind him. “What’s wrong? You look spooked.”
Like it had suddenly caught flame, Ben put the book down. He stared at it as the shock sunk into him before, unable to stand it any longer, he rose to his feet.
“I… I need to go for a walk,” he managed to stammer.
Teal and Malagant both looked at him, alarmed. The confusion obvious on them at Ben’s sudden change in demeanour. Malagant even picked up the book and glanced down at it as Teal rose to try and prevent Ben from leaving.
“There… it’s just the passage I read,” Malagant said, confused.
Ben shook his head, feeling flustered. He turned and headed for the door, but Teal grabbed onto the sleeve of his surcoat.
Ben jerked him away and opened the door to the hallway.
“Please, Ben. What did you read?” Teal said, Malagant appeared behind him, book in hand. “Tell us – we’ll talk about it. What is it?”
“I just need to be alone… for – for a moment,” Ben said, and when Teal grabbed his coat again Ben whirled around and faced him. “Let me go, Teal. I’m asking you nicely… I just need some time to myself. I – I don’t want to talk about it.”
Teal’s face dissolved but he said nothing else, he only whimpered before turning and walking back into their quarters.
Ben left and started walking down the hallway, a thousand emotions and thoughts felt like they were hatching from infected eggs, spreading through his mind to devour all of the good he had in him.
All the good memories he had… of Tav.
Ben’s eyes closed for a moment, his lips pursing to try and force back the burning rising to his face. The sadness and despair were quickly overshadowing the confusion he had felt initially reading that passage, and he knew those emotions would be like a permanent stain on Tav’s memory.
You don’t miss me?
How can you not miss me?
Ben’s throat tightened, he wished dearly that all he felt from this new information was anger over Tav’s feelings towards him… but it would be nothing but an uttered lie to appease the intense betrayal he had inside of him.
With no direction and no place to be, Ben walked through the corridors. He didn’t know quite where he was going, only that he wanted to be alone even if his dark thoughts were not proper company.
How can this be true? I don’t – I don’t understand. Not even my other friends miss me? Was it just like when Erick was gone? With no one being surprised and several people even being happy? I missed my brother but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t expected it to happen; I’d been preparing myself for it for years.
I thought I was different – that I was a better person than Erick, but maybe that was my own delusion.
Ben sighed, turning down a dimly lit corridor with no paintings on the walls or hanging banners. It was as barren as Ben himself felt.
“You realize you had to read that?” Kelakheva’s voice sounded inside of his head; Ben closed his eyes at the sound of it.
“No, I didn’t,” Ben said quietly to the demigod. “I was fine.”
Then Ben felt a weight in his trouser pocket. Curiously he slipped his hand into it and grabbed the object.
When he pulled out his red stapler Ben just stared at it.
However the blank stare was broken by a slight smirk, followed by a smile, then suddenly Ben let out a nervous, anxiety-filled laugh.
Ben pressed the stapler’s front, making a staple pop out, and at this, he laughed harder.
The first object from his old world that he had seen since coming here. The damn stapler that he had traded food for; the red fucking stapler that he had accidently
carried in his pocket when he’d fled work.
But why was it here? Why did the damn demigod have to taunt him with things from his old world? With that damn passage in the prophecies meant only for him?
With a sniff, Ben clutched the stapler to his chest and sunk to his knees. What he was feeling in that moment he didn’t know, there were too many emotions mixed into one nauseous feeling that it was impossible to pinpoint. All Ben knew was that he was on the verge of another anxiety attack, possibly a full-on meltdown.
“Why did you do this to me?” Ben whimpered out loud, his faint voice echoing in the quiet and empty corridor. “To tell me I have nothing to go home to? That Tav has already moved on and forgotten about me after such a short time?”
As Teal had said, the timelines between Elron and Earth were different, maybe he had been gone for longer than he thought? But it couldn’t have been that long, it didn’t seem like that much time had passed between when Teal had left his world and when he’d brought Ben back.
Am I that forgettable?
“It is your right to know what would be waiting for you if you did decide to return home. You could return, and as you had said to Teal, you could try and bring Tav back to Elron but you’d only be forcing him, and it is best he stay behind. You should know this information; so I decided to share it.”
Ben looked up; the voice of the demigod now right in front of him instead of inside his head. Sure enough, before his eyes was the silver-haired demigod he had seen during the blizzard. Now dressed in a white leather doublet and trousers, with the same circlet of purple and blue jewels across his forehead and, in his ring-adorned hand, a staff of white burl that clutched in its grip a glowing white orb.
Kelakheva smiled down at him, his deep purple eyes sparkling with white flecks that seemed taken from the stars of the universe.
“You’re trying to tell me you’re doing me a favour?” Ben said, wiping the corners of his eyes. He was embarrassed by the fact that they had started to fill with unshed tears, if there was anyone in the entire world he didn’t want to breakdown in front of it was the demigod.
I could bring him here… but it would be against his will. I could go back to earth… but I would have no one to go back to.
My choices are all drying up around me.
Kelakheva nodded. “It would be unfair to give you hope of what would be a false reality upon your return to your world,” he replied simply. “I see no future for you there and no future for Tav here. You have a future here with Teal Fennic and Malagant Avahlis; you should stay here and make your demigod’s wish something else. Leave what belongs in your world, in your world.”
Ben’s face crumpled, like the demigod’s words were physical blows. How could the demigod say these words with such fluidity when they felt so caustic against Ben’s ears?
“Why doesn’t he miss me? Why wouldn’t he want to come? How could he have moved on so quickly?” Moved on so quickly… Ben felt angry at himself for the way he phrased it. It wasn’t like Tav was ever his. He was his roommate; they’d never even kissed or approached the idea of dating. So Tav moved out of the apartment and found a new roommate, what else was he supposed to do?
“I have no answer for that,” Kelakheva replied. He rested a hand on Ben’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Your focus needs to be on your prophecy and what dangers await you in Alcove and beyond. There is no place in your heart or your mind for that boy, or your old world. There is nothing for you there Ben Zahn, but there is everything for you here. Become an Elronian, become the hibrid and shed this old skin, it is of no use to you.”
A hand of flawless pearl, with slender soft fingers appeared in Ben’s vision before gently picking up the sapphire pendant Ben held around his neck. “Grasp this jewel. You have maegic inside of you and you shall use it. Send your thoughts out to your friends; they are your true friends.”
With a sniff, Ben put his hand over the demigod’s. He didn’t know what maegic he had inside of him, or how to even summon it, but as he closed his eyes and searched inside of him Ben felt the demigod guide his mind.
It was like Kelakheva was leading him with his own thoughts, gently directing him until Ben brushed against something odd. It was like an intangible energy store, a pool that, as of now, was shallow but the basin it was inside of had the potential to be gigantic.
“There we go,” Kelakheva said approvingly. “Push that energy store into your jewel and let it gather, then push your thoughts out to your fellow pendant carriers.”
Ben nodded and took a deep breath. He drew on the store and pushed the cold energy into the sapphire jewel. Then, oddly, he felt his mind open up, like he was inside of a small room opening a door that lead to an empty universe.
“I’m somewhere in the east wing, can you try and find me?” Ben called into the empty abyss, then he released his hand from the jewel and opened his eyes, not even realizing he had closed them.
Kelakheva was gone, it was just him in the barren hallway.
Ben got up, and with an ache inside of his chest, he started walking back to his quarters; not entirely sure the direction, he had been wandering aimlessly since he left.
Ben’s hand held the sapphire, feeling strangely comforted by the seemingly living jewel, though the pain in him was still like an open wound.
“Ben! Ben?” Teal’s voice rang. Ben had just turned a corner and Teal and Malagant were at the other end of the hallway.
Ben forced a smile but as Teal ran towards him he slowed to a stop. “You look upset… what happened?”
“To hell with what happened – how the hell did you manage to talk inside our heads?” Malagant said as he crossed his arms. “Is the demigod letting you pick up malkah magic?”
“Y-yeah…” Ben said, wiping the corner of his eye. “I saw Kelakheva. He – he talked to me about something I read in the prophecies and I suppose as an apology for breaking the news that I have nothing to go home to in my world… he taught me that neat trick.”
Teal’s face fell, for a moment he seemed stunned, but to his left Malagant was already holding up his jewel with a furrowed brow, no doubt trying to make it project his voice.
“What did he say?” Teal whispered. The three of them started walking back to their quarters. “What did you read?”
Another jolt of nauseousness went through Ben; he didn’t want to tell his friends but he found his mouth forming the words anyway. “Tav’s moved on… Kelakheva wanted me to know what I’d be coming home to I guess.” Ben shrugged. “No one misses me apparently; no one cared. My friends don’t care and the boy I thought I might love didn’t give two sheks either. If I brought Tav here… I’d be forcing him to be here.”
Ben felt two hands on each of his shoulders; he smiled as Malagant and Teal patted them. “You don’t need that asshole here, Benny,” Malagant said, shaking his shoulder. “You have us and you don’t need to go home – even if it was only temporary to bring that eegit back.”
Ben sighed and nodded. “I know Tav wasn’t my boyfriend.” he said. “But I still thought… I thought he’d miss me, you know? I have – I have nothing there now.”
Then Malagant put his hand over Ben’s. Ben thought for a moment he was trying to be supportive but then Malagant raised Ben’s hand… the one holding the stapler.
“By Lelander…” Malagant gasped. “What is it? Is it an airy-plane? Is it a basketball?”
“It’s a stapler,” Ben said and handed it to him. Then, if only to cheer himself up, he decided to be a bit evil to his friend. “Put it on your hand and press down on the top really hard; it’ll play you a song.”
Malagant, looking enchanted, put the stapler on his hand and with the other he tried to press the top part. He wasn’t doing it hard enough, so Ben reached over, and with a hard slap he slapped the stapler down onto his elf friend’s hand.
Malagant yelped and jumped back, his eyes wide with bewildered shock. The stapler fell to the ground with a clatter, just as Ben and Teal burst out la
ughing.
Ben smiled as Malagant clutching his hand, stared at the stapler like it had grown wings and fangs.
Perhaps staying here without Tav… with just the three of us, wouldn’t be too bad. I feel closer to these two than I did any of my friends back home… maybe Tav included.
“Look…” Ben reached over and tried to grab Malagant’s hand, but Malagant recoiled, an intense look of mistrust on his face.
Ben laughed, and he tried to grab Malagant’s hand again. “Look at your hand, really, look. It’s neat.”
“You’re an evil hibrid, Ben Zahn,” Malagant said. Then he looked at his injured hand. Malagant’s opened his mouth in shock when he saw the shiny little staple imbedded in the soft flesh below his thumb,
“A stapler is used to bind parchment,” Ben explained. “I used it a lot in my job. That’s a little piece of metal.”
“Fascinating!” Malagant pinched the piece of metal and pulled it out of his skin. He brought it up to the luma lamps they were walking past and examined it. Then, as if remembering Ben’s trick, he glared at Ben. “Perhaps you should go back to your world, you evil sneak. But leave my stay-beller behind.”
“You can borrow him whenever you like,” Ben said, as they continued walking back to their quarters.
Even though Malagant had done a good job trying to cheer Ben up, when he got back to their room he found himself crawling back into his bed. He laid his head back down on his pillow and watched Malagant stoke the fire.
Tav’s image was in the forefronts of his mind, an impression, or perhaps a stain, that Ben knew wouldn’t be washed off easily. In truth though, his face had been dimming, replaced with the wonders he had experienced since coming to Alcove, but he was still a prominent thought inside of Ben’s head.
The entire time here, the one thing that had given him comfort in the dead of night was that one day he’d be able to see Tav again. That once he was there he would tell his roommate how he felt, ask him if… perhaps he wanted to become Ben’s chaylen.
No, no… my boyfriend. Ben sighed internally. He was even starting to talk like an Alcovian in his own mind.