Alma hesitated again, but then waved to the door. “Just try to avoid getting in any scrapes with orocs for a while.” As they stood, joking with one another, he caught Tetra’s eye. “Tetra, a moment if you would?”
Tetra lingered as the others filed out. Once alone with Alma, the healer clasped hands behind his back and took a deep breath.
“I don’t admit this often but …” the healer lowered his head, “I was wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“About you. About what you were capable of. About your friends still being alive. About your being able to save them.” He gave a lopsided smile. “About most everything, where you’re concerned. Here’s the thing, when you leave and find your way out there, there’s going to be many more who will decry you. They’ll be so set in their convictions, so engrained in their old ways that you’ll have to prove them wrong, forcefully. Some of them won’t like that. They won’t enjoy being shown the error of their ways. They’ll fight back. They’ll try to make you stumble and fall. Just promise me this …”
He clutched Tetra’s shoulder. “When you believe something, when you know it to be true, don’t let anyone ever sway you from that path, no matter the cost to them or you. Do you understand?”
Tetra tried to sort through all the advice, giving it the regard it deserved. “I think so.”
Alma smiled and dropped his hand. “That’s the most I can hope for. One other thing. I know you’ll all be leaving soon enough, and …” the healer cleared his throat, bracing himself, “I’d like you to take Kafa on your journey.”
“What?” Tetra looked to the dog, who wagged his tail furiously. “Really?”
“He’s been a good hound, but he’s too cooped up here in the castle. He deserves to see a bit more of the world before he gets too much gray in the muzzle. Besides,” Alma tousled his own gray locks, “I’m not too lively a master these days. You two make a fine pair, and my guess is he’ll be good company on whatever adventures are in store for you.”
“I’d be honored to care for him.” Tetra frowned. “But are you sure he’d even come with me?”
Alma gestured to the dog. “Why don’t you ask him?”
Tetra knelt and scratched Kafa’s ears. “What do you think? Want to join me, whatever comes?”
The hound’s ears perked. Then he lunged in and slobbered across Tetra’s face. Tetra laughed, wiping the drool off on a sleeve as he rose.
Alma’s grin made him look ten years younger. “Take care of him. I’m sure he’ll return the favor.”
“Thank you.” Tetra headed for the door. “Come on, Kafa.”
The hound looked from him to Alma, and the healer made a pushing motion. Kafa wriggled in excitement as he followed Tetra from the infirmary, and his ceaseless energy matched Tetra’s own hopes for the future.
***
Chapter Sixty-four
Halli Bicks
Halli and the other Academy candidates gazed over the ruins of Jaegen. Most of the buildings had collapsed, the foundations now filled with the growth of late spring. Nature, it seemed, remained willfully ignorant of the atrocity committed there.
A cemetery full of unmarked graves provided the final resting place for their families. The Seven stood in a line before it, silent as a gentle wind stirred the grasses and wildflowers. Andros waited a little ways back, standing with the trader he’d hired to bring them there.
They left the cemetery, one at a time, and wandered along the overgrown paths. Memories played through Halli’s head as they made their way their way to the village green, now a lush mound with the bottom half of the shattered Heartstone pole still thrusting up in the middle. They stopped, taking in the burned shell of the Bicks home and the remnants of the healing house.
Malec was the only one with any family left, as his father had been out on a year-long post. He had sent word that he would see Malec soon since he had been given leave from his post several months prior and traveled ever since. The rest of the children had been sent to an orphanage in the nearby town of Dreslin.
“It still doesn’t seem real,” Laney said. Sven put his arm around her.
Kafa bounded through the tall grass in the green, chasing after grasshoppers that buzzed away from him.
“I don’t care if it was a mistake,” Kat said. “I hope they hang all the orocs back at Drayston.”
“If there’s any justice, they’ll burn them,” Tetra said. He waded into the grass, plucking blades as he went. He wore his mace and sword everywhere now, as if fearing another attack at any moment.
Halli watched him go, torn. His body had healed, but his spirit was dying. What Gnarrl and the orocs had done may have been unforgivable, yet she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for them. They’d suffered just as much, if not more in some regards. While their terrible actions gnawed at her, the killing had to end sometime; but she worried it had only just begun.
“I don’t understand why they picked Jaegen,” Pavil said.
“We were the closest large village,” Sven said. “Small enough to be undefended, big enough to be an example.”
Tetra reached into the grass and lifted the top of the broken Heartstone pole. He grasped the shard still affixed to it and worked it back and forth until it came free. Dropping the pole, he strode out of the grass.
“What do we do now?” Malec asked.
“They took away our old lives.” Tetra handed Malec the shard. “No point trying to get those back. But we still have each other, and that’s all the home we need.”
Malec handed the shard to Sven who handed it to Laney and so on, until it came to Halli. She accepted the shard, completing the impromptu ceremony.
“We carry on where we left off,” she said, giving it back to Tetra. “We make new lives for ourselves. Better ones. Jeagen will live on in the Seven.”
His smile had an edge of iron to it. “And we don’t let anyone stand in our way.”
***
Epilogue
Petrius Alma
Petrius finished organizing the last of the infirmary supplies. It had taken several months after the oroc attack to restock the essential items that had been depleted treating the large number of casualties. Good to know they were prepared to do so again, though he hoped they never had to.
He locked the supply room doors and took his inventory sheets to his desk. With this matter settled and a little luck on his side his leave request should be approved, and he’d be able to return home for a few weeks to see his new grandson. He hadn’t even known of his daughter’s pregnancy until he received word of the birth. She likely hadn’t told him so he wouldn’t worry. She knew him too well.
He sat and started double-checking his figures.
“You let them go, Petrius,” a smooth voice said behind him.
His scrawling stopped. He placed the quill back in its inkwell.
“None of them showed the signs,” he said, keeping his gaze ahead.
“That is not important.”
“They’re just children,” Petrius said.
“That changes nothing.”
“It changes everything. I will not murder children.” Petrius lifted his chin. “There’s already been enough death and I won’t be party to more.”
“Then you are no longer useful. Pity.”
Pain ripped through Petrius’ neck as a blade thrust out the front of his throat. Blood washed over his hands as he tried to cover the wound, though a detached part of himself knew it to be futile. He fell from his chair and lay choking as his vision narrowed and grayed.
“The world is at stake, healer. The Quantus must again be found and destroyed, whatever the cost.”
***
Codex
The Places
Academy – training center in Aldamere for the instruction of young humans in use of their affinities.
Aldamere – capital city of Promencia
Castle Drayston – center of governance for Jaegen and surrounding villages
Jaegen –
small village on the border of the Rocmire in Promencia
Kestalt – neighboring village to Jaegen
Promencia – country with the capital of Aldamere
Rocmire Forest – immense forest, home of orocs, bandits and ravagers.
Ulfast – neighboring village to Jaegen
The Humans
Bealdred – Graviton, Dreadknight at Castle Drayston
Calhein Drayston – Magnus, lord of Castle Drayston
Cathereen Heiml – Psion, lieutenant in the Castle Drayston garrison
Draden Greenwald – retired Drayston guard who helps search Jaegen
Dreadknights – twelve near-mythical soldiers, each represents an Aspect
Alleen Faulk – Volcon, corporal in the Castle Drayston garrison
Halli Bicks – Geist, member of the Jaegen Seven
Katerine Svelt – Volcon, member of the Jaegen Seven
Kellian Mikkels – Tidus, corporal of the Drayston garrison
Laney Corlin– Vorten, member of the Jaegen Seven
Leesa Svelt – Katerine’s little sister
Leta Bicks – Geist, lead healer for the village of Jaegen, mother of Tetra and Halli Bicks
Malec Haldenfeld - Magnus, member of the Jaegen Seven
Malthius Reynolds – Tempest, sergeant in the Drayston garrison
Pavil Serevin – Pathos, member of the Jaegen Seven
Petrius Alma – Geist, Healer for Castle Drayston
Proumin Bicks – Prios, Jaegen elder, grandfather of Halli and Tetra
Rein Glause – Tidus, Alma’s assistant
Saimun Illamer – Pathos, Lord Major in the King’s service
Sven Malschev – Tecton, member of the Jaegen Seven
Tetra Bicks – Graviton, member of the Jaegen Seven
Viktor Bicks – Prios, patriarch of the Bicks clan, father of Tetra and Halli
The Orocs
Argant – oroc shaman for the clan Bearoak
Bearoak Clan – clan of orocs in Rocmire
Bullvine Clan – clan of orocs in Rocmire
Furl – Gnarrl’s offshoot
Gnarrl – harvester of the clan Bearoak
Kunat – harvester of the clan Bearoak, Gnarrl’s friend
Maraco – harvester of the Bearoak, Gnarrl’s friend
Morag – harvester of the Bearoak
Mrgle – harvester of the Bearoak
Orocs – living plant clans formed by Trocus and Azaria in the creation of all things, live in forests
Stonewolf – clan of orocs
Surro – harvester for the clan Bearoak
Uargan – Battle-Chief to the Bearoak
Other Species
Dracus – reptilian creatures formed by Vox and Opion in the creation of all things; fly the skies.
Ifrahn – dervish creatures formed by Volterus and Agleiopan in the creation of all things; live in the deserts.
Kafa – dog
Lelwyn – watergoing creatures formed by Emascodeus and Empirious in the creation of all things; dwell upon islands and sail the waters of the world.
Shikara – shadowy creatures formed by Tachondrus and Megathia in the creation of all things.
Velnites – subterranean creatures formed by Emascodeus and Empirious in the creation of all things; live in the mountains and caverns of the world.
The Aspects and their Magic
Agleiopan – Aspect of raw force (Energy).
Archmage – highly powerful human magicians
Archons – people with affinity for the raw force of motion
Aspects – creators of the world, gods and parents of the seven races
Azaria – conscience aspect of spirit
Emascodeus – energy aspect of density
Europina – material aspect of water
Empirious – conscience aspect of emotion
Geists – healers and spirit workers, able to feel life around them
Gravitons – people who can affect the mass of objects
Heart of the World – the gem comprising the twelve aspects that formed at the beginning of the universe.
Magnuses – people able to manipulate and influence metal
Magethia – energy aspect for love of metal
Mentak – conscience aspect of will
Opion – conscience aspect of perception
Pathos – people able to influence another’s emotions
Psions – people able to influence another’s will
Prios – people able to amplify their perceptions
Tachondrus – energy aspect of passing of ages.
Tectons – people with affinity for earth
Tempests – people with affinity to manipulate time
Tidus – people who manipulate water
Trocus – material aspect for earth
Volcons – people with affinity for fire
Volterus – material aspect of fire
Vortens – people with affinity for air
Vox – material aspect of air
***
About the Authors
Peter J. Wacks is a bestselling cross-genre writer and Novelist. He has worked across the creative fields in gaming, television, film, comics, and most recently, when not busy editing, he spends his time writing novels and there are over 3.5 million copies of his stories in circulation.
Peter started his career in the gaming industry when he created the international bestselling game Cyberpunk CCG. Being convinced that no one reads these things, he will now also mention that there is a full sized TARDIS sitting in his office. Once it is operational, he intends to travel back to Victorian London to check out the local scene.
He has been a panelist, guest speaker, and Guest of Honor at a combined total of over 250 conventions, Trade Shows, organizations, and Colleges – including GAMA, Mensa, & UCLA.
Mark Ryan grew up in the great plains of the Midwest where he developed his love for music, science fiction, fantasy, and basically any form of storytelling. He chased his dream of music for most his early adult life, performing theatrically and touring, and winning a handful of awards for his singing talents at a young age. He also loves growing/preparing food, and during his time as a professional musician he was blessed with the opportunity to work with and learn from many talented chefs in the Boulder and Denver areas. Mark has written since before he was a teenager and continues to do so daily. Bloodletting is his second work of fiction, co-authored with his friend, literary mentor, and fellow conspirator, Peter.
***
Bloodletting Part 2 Page 25