by JD Franx
“A different dimension doesn’t mean a completely different reality from ours. There are dimensions within dimensions. For Talohna, that means the Paradise and Perdition realms of the afterlife.”
Excerpt from ArchWizard Giddeon Zirakus’
speech to the Wizard’s Council on
the emerging threat of demonic witchcraft, 5025 PC
WILDLANDS FOREST
It took three long, but uneventful days before Ember recovered enough to travel. It had taxed Yrlissa’s healing abilities to the maximum, leaving them both exhausted. Refusing to let anyone tell Ember about Kael and how he had passed through their camps, Yrlissa waited until she felt Ember could handle the physical and emotional stress. The night before they left the refuge of the cave, Yrlissa sat down with Ember and told her everything, from Kael talking to her while she was unable to talk or move because of the sleep poison, to Giddeon’s lies about her and Max’s arrival through the dimensional portal. Ember stormed out of the cave to confront Giddeon the moment Yrlissa finished telling her what had happened. She found him sitting at the fire with everyone else, except Max, who was on patrol out in the forest.
“I want you to answer something for me, Giddeon. Do think you can actually be truthful?” she asked, standing over him, her anger still under control.
“I can try.”
“What gives you the right to force your beliefs onto me or Max?”
Giddeon sighed, easing himself back against a log by the fire. “What makes you think I am?”
“You’ve been telling us since we arrived here that the man I love and have known for my entire life is evil, that he is corrupted by power we can’t possibly understand. That is your opinion, is it not?”
“You know it is. I’ve never hid it from you.”
Staring down at him, Ember resisted the urge to smack his smug face. “You are so afraid that a DeathWizard is going to force his beliefs and desires onto this world. Yet you’ve done the same thing to us from the time we arrived here. You honestly expect us to believe you are the good guys?”
“We are, Ember. We always have been. I think you know that by now.”
Ember bent down, glaring into his eyes. “When it comes to some things, yes, but when it comes to Kael, your own flesh and blood, you’re forcing the issue because you’re afraid you’ve been wrong all these years. So much so that you’ll try to kill him just to save your precious ego and from having to admit you might be wrong.”
Giddeon’s eyes flared with anger and Ember knew she’d hit a nerve. It was satisfying, so she pushed harder. “If you can’t face the fact that you’re not perfect, then do not, under any circumstances, make us or Kael pay the price for it. You will be the one to suffer for it in the future, I promise you.” Ember stood and turned to walk away, but stopped. “Oh, and Giddeon?” she added, while turning her head to look him in the face once more. “If you ever stop me from finding Kael, or stop him from finding us again, I promise you, I will jump all three of you to the Dragon Isles and leave your asses there in the Forest of Whispers without any of their precious binding stones. Even if it kills me to do it. Do you understand me?” she asked quietly, her voice held an edge of finality.
“I understand,” he said, leaning forward, “but you understand that before we are done and long before we catch Kael, you will see exactly what I already know. It won’t be long before he loses complete control, and when he does, many innocent people are going to pay the price. With their lives.” He stared at her hard. Ember shook her head as she walked away, knowing beyond all doubt that she, Max, and Yrlissa were going to have to fight Giddeon and the others in order to save Kael. It was something that no longer bothered her.
They packed their belongings before settling in for the night so that they could leave first thing the next morning. The plan was to get to Dasal to see if Kael and his female companion had stopped there to resupply before heading north to the Dwarven Mountains. Giddeon had made it clear to everyone that he believed Kael had no reason to lie about his destination so that was were they planned to start looking.
DASAL, FREE LANDS
Dasal’s high city walls were in view five days later. The group reached the gates just after dawn and were granted access by Master Wizard Seifer Locke, one of Giddeon’s oldest friends.
“ArchWizard Zirakus, I hope you’ve been well,” Seifer asked, giving Giddeon an official greeting as he shook his arm. The welcome quickly transformed into a hug that only friends, brothers, could share. “Kasik, Saleece, it’s good to see you also,” Seifer added as he let go of Giddeon. “All has been well, I hope?” They both smiled as Saleece handed the reins of her horse to Kasik and stepped over to Seifer, hugging him.
“It is so good to see you again, Uncle,” she said, her smile turning to a laugh as he lifted her off the ground and spun her around as if she were twelve.
“Gods, I missed you. How is my favourite niece?”
“I’m all right, Uncle,” she said, sincerely, but her voice had a hollow echo to it. “I’m just glad to see you again.”
“You don’t sound all right,” he said, lifting her chin and forcing her to look in his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re fine, girl. I can see the pain in your eyes. Giddeon, what’s been happening?”
“Is there somewhere else we can go to talk, Seifer? There’s much to discuss, but not out here,” Giddeon said, glancing around, clearly looking for prying eyes.
Putting his hand forward, Seifer offered, “Of course. Follow me. We can speak in my office.” Pointing to two guards on the left, he nodded towards the group’s mounts. “The guards will take your horses to the stables. Come.”
They spoke very little as they walked to the city guard barracks and Seifer’s office. Saleece introduced Ember, Yrlissa, and Max, but offered nothing else. Not in public. Arriving at his office, Seifer closed and locked the door, putting up a warding spell to stop prying eyes and ears, a common practice whenever high ranking wizards spoke.
“So, Giddeon, what happened? I can see the shadow of agony and the essence of powerful magic in Saleece’s eyes.”
“We just came from the Wildlands,” Giddeon answered, as Kasik put his arm around Saleece. “We spent almost a month as captives to the Taktala tribe. Saleece suffered the most.”
Seifer put his arm on her shoulder. “I’m sorry...”
“I’ll be fine, Uncle. Thanks to Ember,” Saleece said offering her friend a smile.
“In time, I have no doubts. Stay strong and lean on those who will help you,” Seifer said, getting a nod in return. He hesitated for several seconds, as if checking to make sure Saleece would be all right before he continued. He turned to Giddeon. “I guess you should know that a courier was here yesterday with a sealed letter for you. He also delivered a public missive from King Bale stating that a mature DeathWizard is alive and to be killed or captured at all costs, by anyone with the ability to do so. We were given the first name of Kael. How is your son back? After all we... All those lives lost... It wasn’t supposed to be possible. After everything we went through to get him to a magicless dimension alive. Now there’s a kill or capture order? Why?”
After months of hearing such things, Ember’s anger had tempered, but she still rose from her chair in protest. “I promise you, Master Wizard, no one is going to be killing Kael. Not if I can help it. You may also want to reconsider sending any soldiers after him as well.” The implied threat was obvious.
To her surprise, Seifer agreed. “I happen to be in total agreement with you, Miss Ember. No soldiers or bounty hunters—or anyone else for that matter—will leave from this city to hunt for Kael. You have my word.” Ember laughed in disbelief at the unexpected reaction, but it turned into a slight smile as she caught a glance of Giddeon’s angry expression.
“What in the Nine Hells of Perdition do you mean you’ll send no one after him? He can’t be more than five days from the city!” Giddeon said, shouting as he stood up from his chair. It crashed to the floor behind h
im.
“Oh, I happen to know he’s only two days from here—exactly two days, in fact, but I won’t tell you the direction. You heard me right the first time. I will not send anyone after them. Though if you plan to follow your king’s orders, Giddeon, I just might send some of my soldiers to help defend him,” Seifer stated.
A strange, relief-filled laugh rushed from Ember’s mouth as she eased back into her chair. “Thank you,” she gasped. “Finally.” Taking a deep breath, she looked up at Yrlissa and Max, laughing. She could see Giddeon was incensed as his face turned red with anger.
“What is wrong with you, Seifer! You know what he is. It’s our duty, your duty. We are brothers, you know what we were taught, what we experienced ourselves. The last DeathWizard nearly killed me... You were there!”
“I remember,” Seifer said. “My magic kept you alive and then saved your life by boosting that healer’s power, but he is different. Kael is different. This city would be a smoking pile of death and rubble right now and a multiple murderer would still be on the loose if it wasn’t for him. The Suns of Blood had seven ships in our harbour because illegal slavers, Lircang’s men, kidnapped Captain Havarrow’s daughter. Kael and Kyah rescued her and gave us the proof we needed to arrest Lircang Yorcali. They saved this city from open war with the Suns. The creature we faced before is not what he is. The markings on his skin, his demeanour, his mental stability, all of it is different.” Seifer explained in great detail, clearly hoping Giddeon would see the truth.
Giddeon shook his head, his disbelief obvious. “We have our orders from our King. You know the treachery a DeathWizard is capable of. We have our orders, brother,” he repeated.
“Your orders!” Seifer snapped, losing the struggle to stay calm. “I live here, in Dasal. Joran Bale is not my king. We have no king here. We don’t even have a country, and the last forty years that I’ve been stationed here have opened my eyes to some things, things I should have seen long ago. Not everything is as we were taught. Kael is your son, Giddeon. I was there, right beside you when you walked through the portal to take him across. Oripar, our brother, gave his life for that crossing. Something happened to Kael while he was over there. I stood by his side in this very office three mornings ago as he suffered from injuries so severe that we had to help him walk, and still, his only concern was for the safety of others. He is not made of evil. He is not evil, and you saying he is over and over does not make it the truth! Neither does it make it right. I will not help you murder Kael, and you have no authority over the men here. Even if you did, they wouldn’t follow you, not to hunt down Kael. Every soldier and knight here knows that they’re not burying loved ones and friends today because of him. I’m sorry, brother, but get what you need from the merchants here and get out of my city.”
“Then we’ll do it on our own, and I am sorry to see a brother fall to the wiles of a DeathWizard so easily. Give me my letter. We’ll see to our supplies and be gone from your city in a matter of hours, you have my word,” Giddeon promised, as he took his letter and left. Ember, Max, and Yrlissa stayed behind.
Seifer looked at the three who stayed behind, carefully, before speaking. “I assume that you three are not in agreement with Master Giddeon?”
“No, we are definitely not in agreement with that goddamn fool,” Ember said. “I have known Kael my whole life...”
“Wait, what? What do you mean your whole life, that’s not even possible. Is it?”
“I can assure you it is,” she said, continuing. “Max and I crossed over with Kael from our world. We were with him when the vortex formed and pulled him in, and he in turn somehow pulled us in. Saleece managed to bring us through alive to Giddeon’s tower.”
“Of course, because Giddeon would have been watching for anyone to try bringing him back. Kael must have tapped his power out of desperation and pulled you two in with him. Amazing. You’re actually from another dimension?” Ember nodded at Seifer’s deduction. “You’re both very lucky to be alive.”
“That is what they tell us,” Max said. “So, we plan to use the chance we were given to help Kael. Jesus, he must be completely lost in this goddamned place. With only one arm, I have no idea how he’s made it this far.”
“I think you underestimate your friend, Max. He’s doing all right and I promise you he has the full use of both his arms, though he hasn’t had an easy journey. He was very thin and he’s scarred horrifically, both physically and emotionally.”
Ember and Max both stared at Yrlissa. The assassin shrugged. “Talohna’s magic must have healed the damage from when he was injured. I never even thought of that. In the Taktala camp, he was fighting with both blades, no disability.”
“Of course,” Seifer offered. “Upon his return this world would’ve restored his body to the condition it was in. When he left as a babe, there was no damage. It’s amazing. I spent a fair bit of time with both Kael and his wife when they were here. I didn’t notice any disability at all.”
Ember’s face turned white as she faltered and moved uncomfortably in her chair, Kael’s injury completely forgotten. “What? Wife? I’m his wife. We were married four years ago...” she said. The dead quiet that followed carried an aura of unease. Everyone could only look back and forth at each other, not knowing what to say.
“I... I...” Ember tried, her voice suffering a complete failure.
Max finally asked, “Did they act like a married couple, Master Seifer? I don’t understand why he would say that another woman was his wife.”
Yrlissa answered part of his question before Seifer could begin. “You mean you cannot understand why someone in his situation would look for comfort from another person, Max... Ember,” she said, her voice full of kindness. She carried on, as if carefully choosing each word with Ember’s feelings in mind. “It has been nearly a half year since you died, to his belief. He is here alone and was tortured for months, mai nahlla, and by Dead Sisters, women who breathe pain and exhale suffering. You cannot begin to imagine the horror or the desperation...” She stopped to take a breath as if steadying herself. “I’m sorry,” Yrlissa apologized, breathing slowly. “Suffering like that will break anyone and everyone. Perhaps she was just there to help when he needed it, nothing more. I know in your heart it is hard to hear. He loved you and still loves you, but he believes you are dead. You have Max and you have me, but he had no one, nahlla, no one at all.”
“Yrlissa is right, Em. Kael loves you, but remember who he is. We almost lost him when he killed that punk back home. A piece of garbage that was going to kill you, and he did it to save you, I know, but the guilt over the life he took tore him apart, you know that? God, you were the only thing that got him through it. Now he’s here, and everything he has gone through, and even worse now, he thinks we are dead and that he was the cause of it,” he finished.
Ember looked at him as she felt tears well up in her eyes, but she quickly choked them back, refusing to give in to despair. “Max, what’s going to be left of him?” she asked, feeling hopelessness creep into her soul.
Max coughed and turned around to leave. “I really don’t know, Ember. I’ll... ah... go look into getting our own supplies,” he sniffed and wiped at his eyes. “In case you decide we should go our own way from now on.” Stepping out of the Seifer’s office, he closed the door behind him.
“God, Lissa,” Ember sighed. “Why did Giddeon do that? Why would he tell Kael that we died in the crossover? Why? How could any human being be so cruel, especially to their own son?” she asked, more to herself than anyone else.
Seifer suddenly spoke up, as if not knowing what to say before. “I don’t know if this will help you or not Ember, but maybe it’ll tell you something. I thought it was strange at the time.”
With her arm around Ember for support, Yrlissa said, “Go on, Master Locke.”
“Please, both of you, just call me Seifer, there’s no need for more. The slavers in this city took a pirate captain’s daughter captive, remember I told you?” Emb
er and Yrlissa both nodded, not wanting to interrupt. “Kael and Kyah—the woman Kael claims is his wife—got Captain Havarrow’s daughter out of the slave cells by switching her with Kyah. Kyah then spent hours inside the cell while Kael took the girl back to the pirate ship and then waited ‘til dawn to report her missing, knowing that when we searched the cells we would find her and I would have the proof against Lircang Yorcali I have been trying to gather for some time. It didn’t quite go that smoothly, but close enough. Something else happened to solidify Lircang’s guilt, but I found it odd that any man would leave his wife in the hands of slavers in that situation. So many things could have gone wrong. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Seifer, I do,” Ember replied, “and thank you, it does help. Kael would never have risked my safety like that... ever. Any more than I would his.” Looking at Yrlissa with some hope, she carried on. “You must be right, Lissa, some comfort maybe... He’s lonely, you think?”
“I do, I really do. He doesn’t love her, he cannot, because he loves you,” she smiled, as Ember grasped her in a hug. Yrlissa mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to Seifer and he gave her a slight bow.
“She is very lucky to have a friend like you here, Mistress Yrlissa... I know it might not be as important now, but I feel should tell you anyway. Giddeon Zirakus is a good man, but years and years of always being right, of always being the smartest and most importantly, of being the only ArchWizard, a title that nobody will argue or speak out against you, have all contributed to the arrogance you both know is there. It will take a devastating event to convince him to change his beliefs, so please keep that in mind. I absolutely do not believe that Kael is evil, and I have always suspected there is more to the prophecy about him that we don’t know or understand. Please, do your best to help him, and to keep in mind that Giddeon only does what he thinks is the right thing.” he said.
“Thinking it doesn’t make it right, Seifer,” Ember replied. “Our world was nearly destroyed three times by men and women who firmly believed that they were doing the right thing. The first two times, the world came together to stop it. The third time was just before Kael and I were born, and it divided our world. A division that still stood the day we were brought here. I know he’s your friend, and I’m sorry, but men like Giddeon are dangerous. Only a fool thinks he can do no wrong.”