Legacy First Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 of the Legacy Series

by Ryan Attard

  “Yeah, we noticed,” I muttered.

  “Yes, I must apologize for that.”

  “What changed?” Gil asked.

  “I had a revelation last night. Thanks to Erik, I communicated with my brother for the first time in centuries,” he replied, smiling at me.

  “Brother?” I asked. Did that mean there were more of his type out there? Talk about your nightmares. One was already a handful—the last thing the world needed was two manipulating demons.

  “The cat,” Mephisto replied. “His name is Amaymon.”

  “Oh, yeah. He did mention he had an asshole for a brother.”

  “Yes, we disagree on most things. It is our nature. But we do agree on one: no one must tamper with our nature. Your father is changing me, turning me into a twisted version of himself. This will lead to a situation where, one day, he will completely subdue me, and that must never happen,” he said emphasizing the last few words.

  “In light of that, I managed to find a loophole in my contract with your father, and this is why I am here, now,” he continued.

  “Well, that’s nice and all,” I said, “but I’m more interested in the whole family secret thing.”

  “Yes, I was just coming to that,” the demon replied. “It all began in a time before time. These events occurred so long ago that most of them were not recorded, due to language having not yet fully developed. The magical community consisted of clans, large collectives of families who all had an ancestor in common. The Ashendale clan was a prominent clan of Warlocks, wizards who dedicated themselves to exploring the worlds beyond this one. They invaded and conquered wherever they went, often enslaving the population for their knowledge and powers. They established themselves as one of the most powerful magical clans in the history of this plane.”

  “Everything, however, changed at the height of their prominence. Nothing was documented about the world they invaded, save that many of those who returned called its inhabitants gods. The clan conquered a small fraction of this world before it began to collapse on itself. This was a fragile world, held together by a delicate balance—a balance that your distant ancestors upset. What followed next is highly ambiguous, and most of it is driven from speculation, but we think the so-called gods placed a curse on their invaders in retaliation. Your father is obsessed with finding out what this curse is. In simplified terms, all the power is siphoned from the elder members of the clan and passed through the younger generation as they grow. Eventually, the only members with any power would be the last generation, leaving the others as powerless husks of their former selves.”

  “So, this is what’s happening now?” Gil asked. “We are absorbing our Dad’s power?”

  “Your father has the collective power of all the previous members of the clan. He is the last Ashendale, now that your mother has passed. Your father made sure to eliminate any other members of the bloodline, monopolizing his power.”

  “That can’t be good news for us,” I remarked.

  “No. You are at the top of his list of people to eliminate,” Mephisto replied. “The Ashendale clan imposed two laws on its people. The first was that no family could sire more than one child. This made sure that the elder members would have some power remaining, even with the curse still active. The second was that Ashendale members had to breed with other members, so as to keep the powers within the clan.”

  “Ew,” Gil said with a look of repulsion on her face.

  “Now I know why we never had any black cousins,” I said with a grin.

  “It was a necessary survival tool,” Mephisto replied. “This situation is troubling for your father. Not only are his powers decreasing, but they are being split in two, because there are two of you.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?” I asked. “The less power he has, the less trouble he gives us.”

  “Yes, that would be the case, were it not for Alastair Crowley. That man is giving power to your father, supplying it like a drug. And once the Siphoning Ritual is complete, your father will become more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

  That pretty much silenced us.

  “Your father’s time is limited. He must complete the Ritual tonight, before his powers deplete to the point of uselessness. Crowley’s aid would only suffice for a few more weeks before taking their toll,” Mephisto said.

  “Why?” Gil slapped her fist on the stack of papers on her lap. “Why would a father want to kill his own children? What power could ever be worth all that?”

  “This one,” Mephisto replied without so much as a pause. “Imagine the power to reshape the world as he sees fit, to control everything and everyone. He could extinguish lives with a mere thought, and he could even resurrect the dead. He could resurrect your mother.”

  “And for that, he kills his children?” she screamed back. Gil had tears streaking down her face. Her knuckles were white as she slammed them on the papers before throwing them off her lap.

  “Your father is a madman,” Mephisto said.

  “And the worst thing madmen can have is power. Their worst nightmare is losing that power,” I said. “We are no longer important to him, Gil.”

  “And you can just accept that?” she directed at me.

  “Yes. Because he’s never shown any form of love or care towards us. He kept us simply to kill us when the time was right,” I replied, louder than I had intended. I took a few deep breaths. “I’ve seen what he’ll do to us.” I stabbed Djinn into the ground in front of us. “He’ll use that to stab us. He’ll start with you and make me watch. Then, he’ll kill me. All the while, Crowley is eating our mother’s corpse. You wanna know why I’m accepting this? Because if I don’t, the one person in my life that I truly care about will die.”

  Gil looked down and wiped her tears away. “When did you see it?”

  “The Baku’s poison. It’s a hallucinogen of sorts.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Don’t be.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I need you with me on this, Gil.”

  She nodded, her eyes hard.

  “Well,” Mephisto said. “Now that you two are done with your heart-to-heart, shall we move on to the plan I devised?”

  When we said nothing, he continued.

  “Yesterday, I went to your father’s office after you broke in. It was a sloppy infiltration, mind you. I went there with the intention of removing any trace of sabotage. However, I discovered that a certain artifact,” he said pointing at Djinn with a gloved finger, “was missing. So, I made sure to cover Erik’s tracks and told my master that a mysterious person broke in yesterday. After outrunning me and knocking you out after entering your room by mistake, he disappeared. I then instructed you to hide in the forest for safety as I made sure that no further intruders were lurking around.”

  “And he bought that?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  “Yes. After he saw that the sword was missing he ceased to care about anything else,” the demon replied. “He has summoned you this morning for breakfast. I suggest that you hide that weapon, Master Erik, and both of you stick to my story.”

  “What is that sword?” Gil asked.

  “A very powerful relic,” Mephisto replied. “It was a channel, one of the special ones I told you about. It belonged to an ancestor from your mother’s side. And it is now Erik’s personal channel of power.”

  “Were you ever going to tell me?” she asked me.

  “I’m still trying to figure it out myself,” I replied.

  “Be that as it may, that artifact may no longer be used for the nefarious purpose your father planned for it,” Mephisto said. “But as long as he has Crowley to supply power, your mother’s corpse, and you two, he may still enact the Ritual.”

  “So, how do we stop him?” I asked.

  Mephisto stood up and picked up his jacket. “Play along for now. Go back home, act indifferent. Once you are finished seeing your father, meet me for a lesson. We will discuss a plan of action and examine t
he details of the Ritual.” His form shimmered and he transformed into a large, black dog.

  “Thank you,” Gil said as she stood and began gathering her stuff.

  The dog turned its snout to face us. “Everything in this world has a price,” it said with a low voice. “My services included.”

  Chapter 25

  “Daddy!”

  Gil ran the last few steps and threw her arms around our father. Dad hugged her back as she dug her head in his shoulder and began sobbing.

  It seemed a little over the top to me, but I suppose to someone who barely knew his own children, nothing would seem out of the ordinary. Gil was a good actress. Dad was completely taken by her performance.

  I lingered a few feet away, bending and trying not to fall down from exhaustion. It wasn’t completely an act. After an adrenaline-fueled evening, where I received a permanent emotional scar and a sleepless night in a forest full of lurking monsters, it wasn’t acting. I really was tired.

  Just not as tired and weak as I was letting on. When Dad came looming over me, I was down on one knee, panting hard. It was a psychological message—I bow to you, my superior. I hated myself for acting all weak and submissive, but it was vital for him to think that we were nothing but two teenage children with little control over our powers and no clue as to what was awaiting us once night fell.

  Dad placed his hand on my shoulder and helped me up.

  “Are you alright, son?” he said. I could see traces of concern behind his spectacles. Perhaps there was still some humanity inside him.

  “I’m fine. Just had a tough night,” I replied, without making too much eye contact. I wasn’t exactly subtle with my feelings. I was afraid of showing him too much, of giving off some signal that would jeopardize our faked innocence.

  “Understandable,” my father said. “Both of you need to rest after such a night. But first, go shower off the filth and join me for breakfast.” His tone was so sweet and caring. It shouldn’t be allowed. Bad people should just speak with subtle growls and no emotion. For a second, I couldn’t believe that this bespectacled, middle-aged, wiry guy in front of me was a psychotic maniac who was going to sacrifice his children for the sake of power. For the briefest of moments, I could actually believe he was a caring father, acting all concerned when his twin children showed up on his doorstep covered in grime and exhausted. I could believe that he was capable of something called love.

  Then again, crocodiles always smile as they bite your head off.

  Our dining area consisted of a huge room decorated with ostentatious, tall portraits of some very unfortunate-looking family members who were either naturally ugly or unlucky enough to find a dyslexic painter. The rectangular table was too long, enough to seat twenty people. I’m not sure why we needed such a table—we were just a family of four.

  I mean, three.

  And Gil and I never sat there. This room made me nervous. It seemed like something straight out of Macbeth, and we all know how well that ended.

  On this happy occasion, our father decided to open the tall windows on one side, bathing the room in sunlight. The white cloth glowed as if made out of neon. I picked the chair facing the window, with Gil sitting opposite me. Dad sat between us at the head of the table.

  The spread was fantastic, and it was the one thing I was actually looking forward to. Say what you will about rich people, they know their food. As soon as I sat down I drank an entire jug of water before wolfing down the pancakes with something close to a fervency. Anything within arm’s reach I clawed at and stuffed into my mouth. Fruit, pastries, cupcakes, you name it. Screw acid reflux—after the night I had, the deer population in Trinity Forest was lucky I didn’t gun for it.

  “So, yeah,” I said between mouthfuls. “I followed the guy as he ran out of your office. Didn’t get a good look though. That corridor needs better light. When I got too close, I got knocked out. Must have been some kinda spell or maybe the bastard had a friend around. When I came to, Mephisto told us to run for it and stay there until he came to pick us up. Said it was safer since someone got in without an invitation.”

  Gil nodded a lot and quietly drank her juice. Dad pushed his coffee cup against his lips and took a tentative sip.

  “Well, an investigation is underway,” he said. His eyes twinkled. “I’m glad both of you are safe.”

  “Did they take anything?” I asked, casually spearing the pancakes with a fork.

  “Just a very precious and sentimental artifact,” Dad replied. “I will get it back, don’t you worry.”

  There it was. A small sliver of hatred in his eyes, peeking out from behind the mask. Anyone else would have chalked it up to being pissed off at the robbers. But I was looking for something, anything, to silence that hopeful voice in my head that kept telling me that it was all a dream or a misunderstanding. That glimpse into the darkness inside my father renewed my conviction. I nodded and dug my head behind my pancake. Anything not to look in his direction.

  “But do not worry about such little things,” my father continued. “In fact, how about tonight we have a light snack instead of a dinner and spend the night watching the stars? It’s a moonless night tonight, but with some luck we can still get a starry sky. Did you know that this area is one of the last few areas in North America where you can actually see a full starry sky and not just a few constellations? We should spend some time together, make up for all the times I was too busy.”

  Gil looked at me with a confused look. I suppose Dad’s charms worked better on her—she hadn’t seen what I had after all. I stared back at her with a hard look and turned to our father.

  “That sounds nice, Dad,” I said. “We have a lesson this afternoon. How about after we finish?”

  “Yes, of course. I look forward to it.”

  Breakfast didn’t last much longer after that. We remained at the table for ten minutes, eating at a slower pace now that we were no longer on the verge of starvation, and after a while we excused ourselves.

  ***

  “That was… different,” Gil said, the moment we were alone in our study.

  “He’s a bastard, Gil. It was a mask, a rehearsed speech,” I retorted. “No second thoughts,” I added.

  “I wasn’t having any,” she replied coldly.

  “Good, because we have a lot of work to do,” came a cold voice behind us. Mephisto loomed into view and sat down.

  “I managed to get a sample of the chemical Crowley is providing your father, as well as more details on the Siphoning Ritual,” he continued. “It seems that your father requires both of you as well as your mother for the Ritual.”

  “Yeah, we already know that,” I replied.

  “What you don’t know, Master Erik, is the reason why. The spell requires a blood bond, and there is no bond more powerful than that between mother and child. Magic such as this requires nothing but the strongest elements. His blood alone, it seems, is not sufficient.”

  “Yeah, I remember reading something about blood bonds in Erik’s copy,” Gil commented.

  “And you never mentioned it?” I directed at Gil.

  “What did it matter, Erik?” she coolly replied. “Either way, we die and our dead mother gets desecrated.”

  “Don’t you start turning morbid, Gil,” I said. “Let’s not mess with our system. You do the thinking, I do the killing. So, you tell me how to kill it and step back. You do not get to hit anyone, especially our father.”

  “And why not?” She stood up and kicked the chair. Mephisto’s eyebrows rose an inch.

  Gil never loses her cool. That was my thing. She never wants to hurt anything that doesn’t deserve it.

  “She’s my mother, too, dammit. And he’s my father. So, why shouldn’t I get to dirty my hands? Why do I always have to watch?” she screamed.

  “Because I can’t have you break down on me!” Before I knew it I was standing too, screaming back at my sibling. “Because you will freeze up. Because you cannot kill him. You don’t hate him en
ough. You will freeze and he will kill you, and then I’ll have to bury three family members instead of two!”

  “And what makes you so damn special that you can just shut off the fact that he’s your Dad?”

  “I saw him kill us,” I said. “I saw him stab you and then stab me. All the while Crowley was eating our mother’s corpse. So, whatever love I had for him disappeared the moment I saw that journal with his plans scribbled all over and our dead mother stashed in his office.”

  Gil buried her head in her hands and sat back down. I could hear her taking deep breaths.

  “Speaking of Crowley,” Mephisto said. The demon had remained motionless during that spectacle, with only a faint smile on his lips. “I have news regarding him. The drug he is providing your father with is a unique blend of some of the rarest materials and minerals in the world. Indeed, this is quite innovative.” He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a small vial of clear, violet liquid. “This may just change the magical world as we know it.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “This concoction forcibly channels magic through the wizard’s core. Sort of a pump of magical currents found naturally in the body. It is designed for short-term use, granting temporary boosts. Too much use of it may result in permanent loss of magic. One can literally burn out one’s pathways, so to speak.”

  “I guess that’s not a problem for Dad since he’s losing magic either way,” I said, looking at the repulsive violet liquid slowly rippling inside the vial.

  “Yes, I suppose that would be the mentality your father is going with,” Mephisto said. “But I’m afraid there is more to it than that. The formula can be improved. Crowley has managed to infuse your mother’s DNA with the chemical, making it a hundred times more powerful. This new formula is tailor-made for your father, who is a descendent of the Ashendale bloodline, the same as your mother.”