The Regenerates

by Maansi Pandya

  “What is this?” Ven could feel his head spinning.

  “Hopefully it’ll go away in a minute,” said Elias. “You shouldn’t be feeling anything, though.”

  Ven tried his best to get to his feet. Elias helped him and together, they headed deeper into the forest. Something about this place frightened Ven, beyond the pindrop silence and darkness. The woods were beautiful, and yet he could feel his chest growing tight. After walking for several minutes, Ven found that something else was out of place. There weren’t any living things in this forest. He hadn’t seen a single bird, squirrel or even an insect.

  As they headed deeper into the woods, Ven could slowly make out shadows flickering about amongst the trees from the moonlight. He squinted his eyes. The shadows scurried around like rats and Ven couldn’t tell if they were people or animals. As he passed by some of them, he could feel an icy breeze pass through him.

  “I think this might be it,” said Elias, a few minutes later.

  He pointed straight ahead at a clearing. A towering, hulking figure was crouched, hovering above a dark shape on the forest floor. Sticking out from the center of the shape was a long blade.

  Ven lunged.

  “Ven, wait! That…that thing is–”

  Ven ignored him and continued running, holding out the dagger in front of him. Before he could reach them, Russell Stafford appeared in front of him and seized him by the throat.

  His eyes suddenly fell on the Magistrate’s Dagger. “I don’t think that belongs to you.”

  When he spoke, his voice was more terrible than anything Ven had ever heard. It was a dead, decaying voice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kayn, motionless, his head turned away. Ven struggled against Stafford’s vice-like grip. Elias rammed his small frame into Stafford’s side, attempting to throw him off balance. While Stafford was distracted, Ven lifted the Magistrate’s Dagger with all the strength he could muster, drove it into Stafford’s arm and pulled. Stafford let out a bellow and dropped Ven. Before he could attack again, Ven leaped to his feet, ignoring the pain in his throat, and ran as fast as he could towards Kayn. He could hear Elias calling out from behind him.

  “Ven, stop! He’s going to kill you!”

  When he had finally reached Kayn, he flipped him over and recoiled. Just like his father, Kayn’s face had become horribly disfigured and his skin was an ashy gray. Ven reached for his neck to check for a pulse, and his hand brushed something on the ground. Lying in the shadows by Kayn’s side was an arm.

  Ven cried out and fell back onto his hands. A pool of blood lay by Kayn’s shoulder where his arm had once been. Ven gingerly felt Kayn’s neck and detected a faint pulse.

  “Get up, Kayn. C’mon–”

  “Look out!”

  Elias was waving his arms around frantically, pointing to something behind Ven. Ven wheeled around. Kayn’s father grabbed Ven’s face between his palms and squeezed. Instantly, a searing, knife-like pain covered Ven’s skin. He screamed, trying to pry Stafford’s fingers off of him. Every muscle in his body twisted, trying to pull away. Ven could feel fire on his face…

  Russell Stafford let out another thunderous yell and leaped back. This time, Elias was holding the dagger, and had driven it into his back. Elias pulled it out and threw it back to Ven.

  “Elias, get over here!” said Ven, shaking as he tried to compose himself. He showed Elias Kayn’s disfigured form. A short distance away, Russell Stafford was still cowering in pain from the dagger.

  “What do I do?” he said. “Is there any way to fix this? His arm…”

  “If he gets out of here fast, he might still make it!” Elias said as he examined Kayn. “He hasn’t been here for very long, so we’ve got a chance.”

  “Why does he look like that?” Ven cricked his neck as he continuously checked behind them for Stafford.

  “I don’t know. I think it has to do with that sword. Try pulling it out.”

  Ven grabbed the hilt, still keeping a tight grip on the dagger, and slowly pulled it out of Kayn’s chest.

  Russell Stafford was on his feet once more. He slowly advanced on Ven and Elias. Ven positioned himself directly in front of Kayn and kept his feet rooted firmly to the ground as Stafford lunged.

  “Die,” Stafford snarled.

  As Kayn’s father got closer and closer, Ven tried to remember the few combat techniques he had learned so many days ago. Maybe I should aim for his eyes…I need to distract him…

  Stafford was now inches from them.

  With one hand, Ven madly swung the larger blade. Stafford dodged, and when his head was ducked, Ven slashed at his eyes with the Magistrate’s Dagger and drew blood.

  Stafford screamed in pain, throwing his hands over his face. “That dagger…is Cor’s weapon…my weapon…”

  “Whatever monstrosity you are, you have nothing to do with Cor. This isn’t yours, it’s your son’s.”

  Without warning, Stafford seized the blade from Ven’s hand and brought it down on an invisible space by Ven’s feet. The silvery-white life cord appeared by his ankle. Stafford leered, lifted up his blade and sliced it.

  Ven’s heart stuttered in his chest, and he braced himself as he collapsed to the ground.

  Nothing happened.

  “What?” Stafford looked back at Ven, who quickly turned to Elias.

  “I told you,” he smiled. “it isn’t easy to break.”

  Before Ven could leap triumphantly back to his feet, Russell Stafford seized Ven’s arm and twisted it back sharply. Ven screamed as he heard a pop and felt his left shoulder dislocate. The Magistrate’s Dagger fell from his hands.

  “Ven!”

  Elias rushed forwards but Kayn’s father kicked him and sent him flying, and he crumpled onto the forest floor.

  Ven clutched whatever was left of his arm, got to his feet and slowly backed away, closer to Kayn, who was beginning to stir.

  Russell Stafford reached out, grabbed Ven’s maimed arm and pulled, grinning. The pain was immense, blinding. Elias was saying something in the background but Ven couldn’t hear…

  Ven fell back, eyes watering, as Stafford closed in on him. Ven scanned the ground for the dagger. Kayn’s father bent down, as though to lift something up off the ground. Before he could do so, Kayn grasped the Magistrate’s Dagger in his remaining hand and limped towards Ven. His eyes were hideously narrowed and his teeth blackened like his father’s.

  “No, Father,” Kayn whispered. “This is actually mine.”

  Ven fought to ignore the pain in his arm, cold sweat running down his face. From behind him, Elias whispered something in his ear.

  “Drive the dagger into his skull,” Elias said softly, clutching at his chest. “Whoever he is, he’s being controlled by something. Haze reacts to certain parts of the body, and control comes from the mind, the brain.”

  Ven nodded and repeated this information to Kayn, who handed him the dagger, panting heavily.

  Keeping his left arm limp at his side, he used every ounce of strength to ignore the pain and kept a tight grip on the Magistrate’s Dagger in his right hand. “Come on, then, Lord Magistrate, if you can still call yourself that.”

  Stafford raised his eyebrows. “Lord Magistrate? I haven’t been called that in a while. I quite like the sound of it.”

  “Do you? Do you even know where you are?”

  Stafford stopped.

  “How did you die, Lord Magistrate?” said Ven.

  “It was from an illness,” said Kayn, who had reached Ven’s side. “Mother cried for days. She wouldn’t be happy to see you like this, Father.”

  Ven stepped closer and closer as Kayn kept his father distracted.

  “Did you know she left Cor a few days after your death? She couldn’t bear it anymore. She didn’t want me to become Grand Magistrate, because she believed it was the job that had killed you, and that it would kill me, too. She’s living somewhere by the ocean, under a different identity. She loves you more than anything, Father. And I know you
feel the same.”

  Stafford said nothing. His face was inscrutable. Ven was worried that he hadn’t registered a single thing Kayn had said. He was only a few inches from Ven now…

  Without wasting another moment, Ven leaped into action and drove the dagger into Stafford’s heart. Stafford cried out and fell to his knees. This time, Ven lifted his hand and aimed at his skull. A petrifying scream reverberated through the otherwise silent space. Russell Stafford’s graying face shattered into a million pieces, followed by the rest of him.

  Beside Ven, Kayn was shaking, clutching at his side.

  The silence returned. Ven was panting. Elias walked up beside him and grinned.

  Suddenly, the smile was replaced by a look of pure terror. In an instant, Elias vanished.

  Ven blinked. “Elias?”

  He looked around blankly for a moment, but Elias was gone.

  Ven heard a rush of sound. This time, Kayn was by his side. The overwhelming blackness and mind-numbing pressure had returned.

  Once more, it disappeared. They were in a forest again. The moon reflected in the fog of the forest floor, sending waves of ghostly light flickering around them. Ven grasped his limp arm. Beside him, Kayn was looking around, confused and breathing heavily.

  “We need to get you out of here.” Ven lent Kayn his shoulder for support.

  His eyes suddenly fell on something in the distance amongst the trees. It was a man.

  Ven couldn’t make out his face. The man was lanky and looked barely older than Kayn. He was dressed in a worn-out Coran worker’s outfit. Ven tried to inch closer, narrowing his eyes. As the man’s appearance slowly became clear, Ven shrank. The man didn’t have a face at all. There was nothing but a smooth surface of pale skin on a blank head of light hair. Ven could not take his eyes off the disturbing figure before him.

  After a minute, a pair of eyes suddenly appeared on the man’s face. They opened unnaturally wide, bright and glaring, as though they had just seen something shocking. Ven began to shiver. There was still nothing else on the man’s face; no nose, no mouth, just the terrible eyes.

  Then everything turned to fear, fear so powerful that Ven was rooted to the earth. He forgot where he was, who he was.

  For the first time, Ven wanted nothing more than to stop feeling.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  All Ven could see was death.

  He saw his own death, the death of his mother, of Coralie, of Hans and Florentine. He was in hell. Screams filled the air. He was no longer in his body, but simply a presence, a meager and insignificant presence completely overtaken by the being before him. The man’s gaze bore into him, more powerful and frightening than anything he had ever experienced. He wanted to die, for it to be over. Every single terror he had ever felt was suddenly real. His own screams mingled with those in the air.

  Let it be over. Just end it, I’ll do anything you want, just please let it end…

  And then it stopped. Ven was back in the forest. The horrible being edged closer and closer until he was less than a foot away. Kayn was unconscious beside him. When the being reached Ven, he bent down and picked up an invisible object from the ground. As his hands closed around it, the silvery-white cord slowly became visible. The almost faceless man stretched the cord with both his hands, continuously pulling in the opposite direction.

  Ven could only watch. He was grateful. It was going to be all over, soon.

  The man’s abnormally large eyes narrowed. With one final stretch, the cord snapped in two.

  The next few seconds felt like several hours. Ven’s eyes widened.

  Then everything vanished.

  ***

  “Shall death take this one?”

  “Death takes everyone, eventually. This one is no different.”

  “He saw Novus, the one who has entered the Keeper’s Realm. It was he who sent him here.”

  “Novus killed another some time ago. Should we summon him? I have questions to ask. The two of them may help to solve our problem.”

  “We do not spare anyone from death.”

  “But I did. I gave Markis a choice. He failed because Novus was too strong.”

  “If he failed, it means he was not meant to help.”

  “No. He has helped. He has made an interesting decision with this one.”

  “There is no decision. This boy is a nobody. He is weak and foolish. He is an act of impulse by a fool.”

  “Markis was not a fool. I made the right choice. I do not regret my actions. Let me speak to them.”

  “Very well. If this doesn’t go as planned, then Cor can no longer exist.”

  “Then Novus will get what he wanted all along.”

  “So be it. The human world is not worth risking the balance of our realm.”

  ***

  Ven was floating. Or at least, it felt like he was floating. It was as though he was weightless, nothing more than an entity hovering in the air. He opened what he assumed were his eyes and looked down at his body. Slowly, the feeling in his limbs returned. His arm was throbbing slightly.

  It took several seconds for him to fully accept his surroundings. He appeared to be underwater. Ven flinched and tried to cover his mouth with his hands. He looked up, searching for the surface, but all he could see was endless, deep blue. When he calmed down, he realized that he could breathe. The water was light and tranquil. Ven looked around till his eyes found the silvery cord, snapped in two.

  Horror surged through every part of him. He was dead. Wherever this was, he was never going to get out. He would never see Coralie, or his mother or the others again. How quick his death had been. He had barely even realized that it was happening. But the horror he had seen before was enough for him to be grateful for relief.

  “This is almost nostalgic.”

  Ven jumped. The lightness of being underwater sent him floating almost half a foot before he returned to the ocean floor. A strange, silhouetted figure appeared before him. Its voice and appearance was androgynous, just as the other Keeper’s had been.

  Ven didn’t know what to say. His mouth hung open.

  “At least Markis didn’t die right away. You died within seconds.”

  The figure looked like a gray shadow that could walk. Where its face should have been, there were dark, empty sockets.

  “I…what?” This couldn’t possibly be… “Wait, are you the one who–”

  “Yes, I saved Markis’ life. Not that it did any good; he still died. I suppose we underestimated how powerful Novus is. Markis really did a number on you, though, didn’t he?”

  “Novus?”

  “That terror back there, the one who killed you.”

  He went numb. So he really was dead, after all. “What’s going on? Why are we underwater?”

  “The ocean is one part of the human world that has always fascinated me. This is my attempt at recreation.”

  “So what is this place, then?”

  The Keeper’s shadowy mouth smiled. “Let’s call this place After. You are in my kingdom. There are things I need to explain to you.”

  Ven was thoroughly confused, but he didn’t ask any more questions.

  “Something has disturbed the balance between the Keepers’ Realm and the human world. It is a disturbance so powerful that for the first time in centuries, we are forced to intervene with your kind. Whoever Novus is, he has a vendetta against Cor. He has tapped into the knowledge of Haze, and of our realm, knowledge that we were sure was kept secret from humanity, and has used this knowledge to cast a curse on Cor.

  “Those of us here in After are in charge of ensuring that no harm comes to our realm. We cannot just sit by when we discover that a human has managed to enter our realm and use our strength for his own personal means. We took the help of a human from Cor who would not be afraid to defy his city, someone who would potentially be able to relay useful information to us about who Novus is and how to stop him.”

  “Markis…” said Ven.

  “Yes,” he no
dded.

  Ven tried to soak in the information. “What connection does Novus have with Cor?”

  “We only know that he was once a Coran, which, based on his actions, isn’t hard to believe.”

  “What’s special about Roth’s Tomb, then?” said Ven.

  “Many years ago,” the Keeper continued, “Roth and his army were heavily outnumbered during the Battle of Justice. He was losing men by the hundreds each day. One morning, he displayed a brute strength that seemed to come out of nowhere. The enemy was vanquished. The Battle of Justice became a topic of discussion. How could a seemingly powerless leader suddenly lead his troops to victory after suffering countless losses? Theories of black magic and sorcery began to emerge. Patriotic Corans believed that their initial losses were the result of black magic cast by the enemy. Those who were slightly more rational believed otherwise. It is our belief that Roth and Novus had a meeting. How is still unknown to us, but it is safe to say that Roth’s win is because of Novus.”

  Though no one ever spoke of it, there had been a shrouded rumor in Cor for decades that Lord Roth had sold his soul to a Keeper to help him win the Battle of Justice. The idea that the rumor could be true made the hairs on Ven’s neck stand up. What else had Cor been wrong about?

  “The curse on Cor is connected to the deal that Roth signed with Novus,” the Keeper said. “We believe the Magistrate’s Dagger is involved in that deal somehow.”

  “Why aren’t you able to get rid of him yourself? You are powerful enough, aren’t you?” said Ven.

  “Novus has made himself immune to our interference. He has managed to create his own private Keepers’ Realm, where he holds the souls of the previous Grand Magistrates. We cannot enter there. Earlier, I said that Novus had tapped into knowledge about Haze that we believed was hidden. There are secrets about Haze that you would be unable to comprehend. I will not divulge them to someone like you.”

  “But Roth was the only one who sold his soul. The others have nothing to do with it.”

  The Keeper’s brow furrowed. “It appears that Roth sold the souls of every single Grand Magistrate in the Stafford bloodline in exchange for power to win that war.”