The Four Territories

by Stevie Collier

  Without saying anything more, Esh turned and sat his buttocks on the table and laid back on it. The buckles slid over him with a mind of their own and clasped him in very tightly, to the point in which he thought he might puke up his lunch.

  I hate doing this to you, Esh,” the Elder said, stretching out the young male’s left arm and carefully sticking in a very thin syringe which was connected to a clear bag by a tube. Xep walked over and poured a violet liquid that glowed in the semi-darkness of the room.

  Esh watched the liquid make its way down the see-through tube and felt it penetrate his arm. He immediately felt his limbs grow heavy along with his eyelids. He felt like he was sinking into the table.

  “Anything… I need to know?” Esh asked drowsily.

  The Elder bent over him and Esh’s vision began to fade as his eyelids closed on their own. The last thing Esh heard was the Elder telling him to stay strong.

  23 - Esh's Trial

  He was in the middle of a village, the same village he had imagined his father had been in protecting the elves who ran from the fires. Except this time there were no fires, only peace. The elves went along with their daily affairs, not even noticing that Esh was there watching them. He could see one tall elvish female buying a piece of something soft and edible looking while kids swung high in the air on long vines that grew from the trees.

  Esh hated all of them.

  He wanted to pin them all down, one by one and yank out their teeth and soak himself in their blood. He wanted their heads on spikes. He wanted to see if their bodies moved without their brains attached. He wanted to be noticed.

  No matter how angry he got, no one seemed to care or even see him. They just carried on.

  Esh discovered that it was possible to yell and so he screamed out loud his frustration, and he learned that he could also now move his body. He strode over to the tall elvish female and pushed her to the ground as hard as he could. Her face was emotionless as she picked herself up and continued with her errands. Esh called upon the darkness and the black goo formed around him. He commanded it to form a knife and he stabbed the elvish female in the back with it and she died.

  No one cared.

  He began killing everyone in the village. He didn’t bother to torture them, he just killed them. He was becoming angrier and angrier because no one was acknowledging what he was doing. It wasn’t until he made his way to the school filled with elvish children that he heard the Elder’s voice telling him to stay strong.

  He shook off the words and slaughtered the children. He was still angry.

  “Stay strong,” he heard the voice say and he noticed the village was alive again with all the humanoids he had just murdered.

  He screamed and began kicking humanoids over, just for them to stand back up and walk away from him.

  “Stay strong.”

  He grabbed his head and howled at the sky trying to drown out the voice that kept making its way into his brain. All the world spun around him, turning into a spiral of colors above his head before pouring into his eyes and mouth. Then there was only darkness.

  But he wasn’t alone.

  Esh felt a presence behind him and he whirled around to see a clone of himself drenched in foreign blood. His shoulders were hunched over and moved up and down with his heavy breaths.

  “What do you want?”

  His darker self did not answer but started to walk in a slow circle around him, sizing him up.

  “Why are you here?” Esh asked the dark one again, making sure not to let the clone get out of his sight.

  Still no answer. The dark side of him only bared its teeth and grunted. The red in his eyes was so intense that it drained from the corner of its eyelids creating a majestic violet ambiance.

  “I asked you why you are here,” exclaimed Esh, this time louder.

  The dark one, the Wisp, made a leering gesture with its arms, tempting the honest Esh to come at him.

  Then, Esh had an idea.

  “You are not part of me, but a mere guest! An outsider! A slave to my will! I order you to answer me!”

  The dark one stopped his trance like walk and stood up straight, his head hunched forward in a beastly fashion.

  It spoke slowly in a voice that did not at all Esh’s own, “Ahh, you have finally gotten wise as to my… predicament.”

  “What predicament?”

  Silence.

  “I order you-.”

  “You were supposed to be mine! Ours!”

  Esh decided to take a few steps towards the dark one. “If you say that I was supposed to be yours then how come I am my own? How has it come to be that I control you?”

  It hissed and gritted its teeth, hating itself for having to answer such questions that were beneath it, “You… defeated me.”

  “How is that possible if we have never fought?”

  “Not you… of course not you…” it said, “a barbaric lava male and a filthy elf female.”

  “They’re dead!” Esh cried, knowing exactly whom it was talking about. It was referring to his parents. But it wasn’t possible! They had died long ago, leaving him in a dirty orphanage.

  The beast gripped its own hair and ripped it out, screaming as it did so. It fell to its knees and banged its head on the black ground in a frenzy but no blood came from the wound. A pink slither of flesh fell from its mouth having bit off its own tongue. Blood poured continuously from its smiling mouth for only a few seconds before a brand new tongue took the old one’s place.

  “What!” it cried.

  It preceded to pluck out an eye with one pointed fingernail. It was trying to kill itself to escape from this interrogation. However, all attempts were futile. The eye quickly grew back into place before the dark one could pierce its own brain.

  “Stop that!” Esh ordered, and the Wisp listened. It fell to the ground and cowered, holding its knees to his chest. “I don’t care what your plans were before! You are mine now and you will do my bidding until the sun-cycle I die!”

  The beast shrieked in the dream world but Esh did not cover his ears. The beast’s clothes then vaporized into the air and it laid naked and shivering in front of the true Esh. Chains whipped out of nowhere and clung themselves to the false one, binding him completely.

  The monster writhed and screamed as it fought against the chains. It tried pulling and twisting; it even tried to chew its own wrist off.

  Esh could feel the monster battling him through sure mental power alone! He could feel his willpower slowly draining which became visibly apparent as the chains began to bust loose from the beast as it gained power.

  Stay strong, Esh heard in his head.

  “You will no longer move or think on your own terms!” Esh found himself saying, but nothing happened. He repeated himself but this time he put all he could into the command, “You will no longer move or think! You are mine and not your own!” The beast screamed again as the chains that had broken clasped back onto it. “In fact! I relinquish you of all choice and thought! Your power is mine! You will be my slave for eternity.”

  Half of the beast’s brain exploded from the back of its head and shot off into the void forever lost. The dark Esh’s eyes were blank and it drooled over its knees as the back of its head regenerated. Its skin turned white, muscle mass and fat left its body and its hair vanished leaving a sickly looking demon child.

  Esh walked over to it and placed his hand on its head. The dream zoomed past him and everything disappeared.

  He woke up.

  His eyes slid open and hunger was the first thing to hit him. He could not see properly and felt eye crust keeping his lids half shut. Something heavy was on top of his stomach. Once his eyes adjusted he saw that it was a sleeping Elder, his mentor.

  “He’s awake,” said Xep from behind.

  Rift jolted with a start and looked up at Esh who was smiling. “Is it you, lad?”

  “Have any rektops meat for me?” Esh asked, and the Elder hugged him.

  24 - The
Training Begins

  They had to flip him over onto his stomach in order to take care of the bed sores his body had accumulated during the sleep. Xep made a potion that burnt like fire and he counted each time they put the brush to his back. By the time the agonizing treatment was over he had counted twenty-four sores.

  Once that was all done, he asked for food. They refused. Then he started to plead but they still told him no.

  “Your stomach isn’t used to whole foods yet,” Xep had told him. “We will have to introduce solids to your system very slowly.

  So there Esh was, sat up on the table, his back throbbing from the medicine and his stomach growling. His arms were surprisingly smaller and much paler than what he remembered them being. He looked like a skeleton of his former self.

  The Elder took a seat a cross from him as did Xep.

  “So… How was it?” Rift asked, his arms folded across his chest.

  Esh’s mind was still very fatigued from the month long sleep but he could still easily recall what had happened. Whatever he had gone through did not seem like it had taken a whole month but it had! Seconds in the dream world must have been minutes or even hours in the real world!

  “Well, I remember watching the demon kill off all these elves in a village,” he said, taking a large sip from some soup Xep had left out for him. “The village you described in your story. The one my dad helped.”

  “You were watching the demon? From a third humanoid position?” Xep asked, stroking his beard. His eyes were hidden behind his hood making it hard for Esh to read him.

  “Exactly. It was like I was hovering over him. He would kill all these elves and they wouldn’t even care! And then they would just come back to life as if nothing happened at all.” Esh poured the rest of the soup into his mouth.

  Xep and the Elder looked at each other with concerned faces. They then stood up without saying a word and charged at him, pushing his shoulders down to the table. The belts came to life and held him tight, tighter than the first time.

  “Who are you?” the Elder demanded, whipping out a dagger and placing it to Esh’s throat.

  “What? Woah, what’s going on!?” cried Esh, trying to wiggle out of the tight embrace of the table. Xep was in the corner pouring vials into a cauldron, black smoke rising from the concoction.

  “If it is a Wisp, it won’t reveal itself to us, Master,” Xep said, finishing up with his work with one more final grinding of something between his fingers. He filled a small vial with the liquid from the cauldron and brought it over to Esh. “We will know for sure if he drinks this.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” Rift asked him, still holding the dagger to Esh’s neck.

  “Stop this! I’m Esh! You would know if I were—”

  “Wisps are more deceitful than that, I’m afraid.” Xep forced Esh’s mouth open with two fingers and poured in the black liquid. “This will sting a little.”

  Rift let his pressure go and stepped back from Esh, the dagger still in a defensive position. Xep unsheathed two of his own daggers holding them out in front of him, readying himself for someone or something to leap at him.

  “Why don’t you guys trust me!” Esh cried, coughing up droplets of the disgusting black liquid. He could feel it eating into the sides of his mouth.

  “No trial has ever showed… murder,” replied Xep. He pulled back his hood and his eyes were alive, ready for a fight.

  “You said it yourself! My situation is different!” Esh tried to explain his case but they had already stopped listening. He would have to show them that it was him, the true Esh.

  Minutes passed and nothing was happening, yet Xep and Rift did not let down their guard. Esh was starting to get bored when black foam formed inside his mouth and his stomach felt like it was going to pop.

  “Quick! Turn his head over!” Xep cried, sheathing his weapons and running back to the cauldron he had left on the ground. He poured a few more drops of something else and this time Green gas erupted from the top.

  Holes formed on the top of Esh’s stomach and black smoke rose from his stomach. A vile death like stench filled the secret room. The Elder did what Xep asked and turned his head sideways, the foam falling out of the side of his mouth and onto the table.

  Xep sprinted back and tilted Esh’s head back, quickly pouring the now Green liquid down his nose. What was going on! Esh started to cough from the black foam and the liquid running down his nose and down his throat. The mixture of the two serums was utterly disgusting and the pain made the experience so much worse.

  After a few seconds the pain ceased immediately and the holes in his stomach sealed themselves showing only his large slanted scar.

  Nobody moved and the room was silent.

  “Can I please be released?” Esh asked through heavy breaths.

  “Of course.” Rift waved his hands over the belts and they released.

  Esh jumped off the table and nearly fell over when his legs gave out beneath him. It was the Elder who had caught him under his armpits, steadying him straight.

  “Why does every sun-cycle have to come with so much pain!” Esh sobbed, tears of frustration forming. “I don’t want to be scared, but now I see every coming sun-cycle in my future to be filled with some sort of torture!”

  “I’m sorry, Esh. We had to be sure,” Xep said, cleaning up the mess on the table. Obviously, this was a normal occurrence for him.

  “Pain is common in this line of work,” the Elder said, “but you’re right, this amount is rather uncommon for a lad so young. But as you said, you’re a special case.”

  “What was that stuff? The stuff you poured down my throat.”

  “Poison,” answered Xep plainly.

  Esh gripped the bridge of his nose to stop the tears form coming. He looked at Xep, “What kind of poison?”

  “We call it the Plague. It is a rather simple poison to create and it kills almost anything. Concocting the Plague will be part of your studies I’m sure. We used it on you to see if you were you or not.”

  “How does poisoning me have anything to do with finding out if I’m me or not?”

  “It has everything to do with it,” chimed Rift, “When Xep said that the Plague can kill almost anything, we mean it can kill everything but a Wisp.”

  “So, you were seeing if the Wisp inside me would overtake me and kill off the Plague?”

  “Precisely,” answered Xep. “But once we saw the black smoke we knew you were going into cardiac arrest; your body was failing you. The Plague only takes a mild sterilizing boon antidote to be cured and that is why many assassins choose other poisons, ones that cannot be so easily cured.”

  “Ok, I get it,” Esh said. “Now what do I do?”

  “You rest.” Rift picked up his mentee with ease and carried him out of the secret room. “Congrats, Lad. You’ve done it. A chip off your old father’s block, I’d say.”

  It wasn’t long after Esh was allowed to eat regular foods that he felt himself gaining his strength back. During his rest, Rift would come and bring him different books from the secret room and ordered him to read them. It wasn’t a problem for Esh because the books turned out to be fascinating. By the time he was ready to get back into physical training he had finished books titled ‘Why a Spear is More Useful Than a Sword,’ ‘‘How to Domesticate Most Animals of Reah With your Eyes,’ and finally ‘How to Punch,’ which had been his favorite.

  Xep had been coming and going throughout Esh’s rest period checking on him. One sun-cycle Esh had heard him asking the Elder if it would be possible for him to teach the kid the ways of Alchemy as a kind of favor to Barda. Rift had agreed.

  So now every morning Esh was met with Xep sitting on the side of his bed looking straight ahead. He would always say, “Alchemy is best taught first thing in the morning, before breakfast and while the mind is free of other thoughts.” He would then give Esh a book and have him read it in front of him. Xep would read his own books and answer any questions Esh had. This w
ent on for a couple of weeks until one sun-cycle Xep appeared in front of Esh’s bed without any books in his arms.

  “Time for your first lesson.”

  “What do you mean? Haven’t we already begun our lessons?”

  “Yes, we have started the basic foundations of Alchemy. However, you can’t truly start unless you have an idea of the sorcery that has created this world and surrounds every single thing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let me start from the beginning.” Xep waited for Esh to pull out a notebook and a writing utensil. Esh nodded his head when he was ready and Xep took a deep breath, “We are not sure exactly how this world was created, but we believe it had to have something to do with sorcery. There are four types of sorcery, and as you may have guessed, they revolve around the four colors of our world. Red, Green, Blue, and Purple. Each color has their different spells of assault, defense, and healing. Each color has its own strengths and weaknesses. Take Blue for example. Amazing healing capabilities but not so great in deadly potions. Are you with me so far?”

  “Yes, but what does this all have to do with Alchemy?” Esh asked, taking his utensil off the pad and looking up at Xep.

  “It has everything to do with it. Now that you know each colored territory has a different source of power you may have already figured out that the Alchemy is different for each of the four lands as well.” He paused, waiting for Esh to write everything down. “However, the humanoids of any land are not restricted to only their color. Alchemy is universal.”

  “So that Green fire, the cold fire, is that—”

  “Yes, that is an alchemical creation from the Green territory.”

  “But what about me?”