Legacy of Death: Revenge (Legacy of Dreams Book 2)

by Thomas J. L. Green

  “She’s fine… mostly. She will come soon, Zerae is almost finished for now,” Leena replied calmly, “how are the wounds?”

  “Annoying,” Elizabeth sighed, “I can’t do anything other than lie in bed… which is boring!”

  “Well, that’s how being wounded is… nothing can be done about it,” Leena remarked soothingly.

  “Give Astril some time to be here! She is fun!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

  “Alright… I will talk to Zerae and see if we can figure something out,” Leena proposed.

  “Good!”

  Elizabeth settled in the bed and waited.

  “Water…”

  “By the Goddess! Astril! What did they do to you?” Elizabeth shouted in horror as she saw Astril crawl into the room on all fours.

  “It’s… fine…” Astril breathed in a hoarse voice and continued making her way to the bathroom.

  “It doesn’t look fine,” Elizabeth exclaimed and tried to sit up. Simultaneous bursts of pain from all over her body reminded her why she is bedridden.

  Astril finally made it to the bathroom and just sat down under the waterfall. SSSSSS echoed through the room as she used her flames to turn the water into steam. “That’s better,” she breathed, “my coochie feels like she wants to jump out, punch me in the face and go on a vacation to the sea.”

  “Why do you let them do this to you, Astril? This is inhuman!” Elizabeth asked.

  “I had it coming… wanting to have them on my hoard of gold was a bit risky, in retrospect,” Astril replied.

  “Still, they have no right to do this to you!” Elizabeth insisted.

  “It’s fine, it makes them happy, which is good,” Astril contested.

  “What about your own happiness? You are the one who deserves to be happy the most!” Elizabeth didn’t let up.

  “I’ve given up on that a long time ago,” Astril sighed.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Sometimes, someone needs to do bad things. That someone ended up being me,” Astril revealed.

  “Why you? What happened?” Elizabeth pried.

  “Because I could. Remember the wall of wishes back in Voidspire? I’m the one who reads them… and then does the ones that need to be done,” Astril replied.

  “What wishes? What are you talking about?”

  “Our matron loves to torture whoever she deems a criminal. I hate that, more than anyone. So, when someone does something bad and the matron’s people are looking for them, their closest friends or family put it as a wish on the wall. I seek that person and give it a choice, either leave the city through my secret way out, die by my blade or be handed to the matron. Most choose to leave, but some choose to die. I hate doing it… but it’s better than watching them get tortured to death,” Astril explained.

  “They say our Goddess takes them to their realm, protecting us from the ones who had lost their path. Are you the one actually doing it?” Elizabeth breathed in amazement. “That’s… amazing.”

  “All things said to be done by the Goddess are done by some of us. Leena fakes the dreams and visions; Elaine etches the writings into walls, Sibyl does most of the diplomacy,” Astril stated.

  “Why… why would you do that? Why would you tell me all this?” Elizabeth exhaled.

  “Because we can. Because we must. We, Faye, come in two breeds, pure blooded and the rest. The five of us, with Zerae included, are the pure blooded Faye. Rest is not. If we don’t guide our people, who will? I tell you because you are pure blooded as well,” Astril announced, “but Zerae refuses her heritage, so she isn’t a part of this. She doesn’t know. She must not know until she takes off that stupid collar.”

  “Pure-blooded? What are you talking about?”

  “I saw you on the battlefield. You had horns. That’s what we pure bloods do. In time, you will realize just how strong it makes you,” Astril laid out, “and you will need to use that strength for something. Something good.”

  “You have horns too?”

  Astril rose from the bathroom and walked to the bed.

  “Don’t shout,” she smirked. Two sharp horns sprouted from her forehead.

  “What’s with all these scars? And your eye?” Elizabeth was horrified as she saw her. Scars covered the normally pretty Asril. Horrendous scars. She had a broken lip and scars everywhere she looked, including the face and a bloodshot right eye.

  “This is what I actually look like,” Astril smiled sadly. There was a swift burst of yellow flame around her and her skin and eye were back to normal.

  “What? Are you hiding how you look with your flame?”

  “Mmhmm… I do. My yellow flame lets me make illusions, especially of myself. Don’t tell anyone, only Leena knows,” Astril remarked, “and well, it’s not like I never get hit when I fight. Of course, I do. I just hide it.”

  “Come here,” Elizabeth whispered, “I want to hug you, but I can’t get up.”

  Astril got down and hugged her.

  “Pure blood… pure blood from who?” Elizabeth asked softly.

  “I don’t know. We don’t come from demons, humans or anyone like that. But whoever we come from came together with the demons, because there were no Faye before The Upheaval,” Astril revealed, “and whoever that is, your father must have been one of them.”

  They stayed like that for a long while.

  “Meh, I will need to go soon. The girls gave me only an hour break,” Astril breathed.

  “You don’t have to do this, Astril,” Elizabeth tried.

  “I know… but I have nothing else. My best friends have all left; Leena and Zerae are the only ones who remain.”

  “What happened?”

  “We used to have a queen. She was a mean bitch who would reduce you to tears whenever you crossed her, but we loved her for it. We respected her. But she left; she left to stop a civil war between her followers and those of the other matrons. Soon afterward others left as well. We had a squad, Killer Eight. They left, only I stayed. Leena wanted to leave as well; she stayed only for me. I’m guilty of that too,” Astril described.

  “Why did you stay?”

  “For Zerae. She needs me… I owe it to her.”

  “I thought you love her, but this doesn’t sound like love,” Elizabeth observed.

  “I do love her… I guess. But I had also done something to her, something unspeakable, something that forces me to be with her, no matter what,” Astril remarked, “something that will make her hate me forever if she ever finds out.”

  “That’s horrible,” Elizabeth breathed, “anyway before you go… you know… I’m still bandaged like I was yesterday.”

  Astril smiled warmly as she enjoyed watching Elizabeth’s face turn bright red. “Sure, but don’t get used to it.” She slid down the bed and tossed up the feather beds.

  62

  Lucas

  Lucas ran out of the caves and looked over the battlefield.

  What happened to that mountain? There is a part missing… anyway, the battle’s looking good. Remains of the demons are holed up in the city, but it’s borderline indefensible since the walls are breached at multiple locations and the keep is collapsed. The sky is completely clean, so Kayleanne’s demons have either escaped or died. This will take couple more days, but our losses should be reasonable. Now, to more pressing matters, Zoey has at most a couple of hours.

  Lucas had her wrapped in cloaks and carried her in his arms. He blasted off in the direction where he figured the camp for the wounded would be. It took way longer than he had hoped. The medical camp was much further in the back than he had hoped it would be. He found a small tent by the side of the camp, chased the people out and put Zoey on the table. Her eyes were rolled up; she was shaking in a seizure.

  Looks like Raven did remove the acid, but couldn’t do anything about the poison. Fuck.

  “Benedict, Vincent, with me. Someone fetch Galen, tell him to get me six vials of Faye blood and send him to the lone tent by the southern edge of
the camp,” Lucas ordered the young healers as he popped inside the main medical tent. Something in his tone made everyone shut up and do what he said. He went back to Zoey. Benedict and Vincent soon caught up to him.

  “What’s the situation?” Benedict asked.

  “Massively perforated abdominal wall, stomach, pancreas and transverse colon, stomach acid floods entire abdominal and lower abdominal area. The subject is poisoned by a category two poison,” Lucas revealed.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand half of that… what’s transverse colon?” Benedict breathed.

  “The middle part of large intestine… nevermind, she was pierced by a poisoned spear through her stomach and splashed by a strong acid in the same area,” Lucas rephrased.

  “I am… not sure we can handle that,” Vincent remarked.

  “I can. I will tell you what to do,” Lucas rejected and led them to the tent. “Remove her armor, clothes and clean up the stomach area. Once done, strap her to the table. Benedict, I will need to you to block pain and sustain consciousness, exclusively, focus your magic on nothing else. Vincent, you will be cleaning out the insides, prepare to take out all the spilled stomach acids and whatever else she has inside which shouldn’t be there. I will be back in a few minutes,” he ordered. They nodded and got to work. Lucas walked out of the tent.

  Lucas leaned on a tree and reached into his dream pocket. He pulled out a few inches long white cylinder with a half-an-inch orange end and a small brown box. He pulled open the box and took out a piece of wood with a dark brown tip. Lucas put the cylindrical object into his mouth with the orange and struck the piece of wood by the side of the brown box. It caught up on fire. He moved the burning end to the far end of the cylinder and breathed in. Familiar taste filled his mouth and lungs. He made the box disappear and exhaled a cloud of smoke. It calmed him down like nothing else. He stood by the tree and kept inhaling from the thin cylinder and exhaling smoke.

  “PREPARE THE MEDICAL TENT, THREE URGENTS INCOMING!” thundered from the side of the camp. Lucas went on to check what’s happening. A unit of soldiers was bringing in three people on stretchers. White cloth covered them.

  “Hold,” Lucas said as he teleported to them. He went to the first one and pulled away the cloth. It was Merewen. He put the white cylinder into the corner of his mouth and quickly examined her.

  Bent in armor around the knee and on the chest, the bones underneath are likely cracked but not shattered. The stabbing wound in her side runs only through the small intestine, the broken nose is ugly but not life-threatening and the stab in her arm didn’t hit any major vessel. Nothing my healers couldn’t handle, she will have a serious headache, but recover without much issues.

  He covered her and went to the second one. On the way, he inhaled and exhaled a large puff of smoke and knocked off the ash from the tip of the white cylinder. The person on the second stretcher was Miranda.

  Light cut at the arm, uninteresting. Slightly caved-in stomach, likely from multiple kicks… that explains the bloody foam at her mouth. Slashed chest… not too deep, good. The shattered jaw will hurt like hell. Stabbing wound in the chest, it seems it went through the right lung, this one will suck. The healers won’t manage this, but they can start with the simpler stuff and I will get to her later. She isn’t in a critical condition, unlike Zoey.

  “Tell the healers to fix the crushed organs in her midsection, jaw and the smaller cuts. I shall handle the stab in the chest myself later,” Lucas ordered. The soldiers looked confused but nodded.

  Lucas repeated the ritual with the white cylinder and went to the third stretcher. It featured Luna.

  She’s covered by so much blood that I can’t tell the wounds apart…. Not from the lack of amount though, because she’s got enough wounds to kill a dozen people.

  Lucas put a hand on her chest and focused.

  “GAAAAAAAH!” Luna woke up, grasping for breath.

  “Lie still, your regeneration will get you out of it, but you will have the backlash of your life,” Lucas announced.

  “Is Miranda alright?!” Luna exclaimed.

  “She will live. Now focus on resting, you will be able to talk to her tomorrow,” Lucas replied.

  “Thank you,” Luna breathed, visibly calmed down. She sagged down to a stretcher. She was utterly exhausted. Her skin started turning light blue. The backlash from overuse of magic had arrived.

  Lucas teleported back to the tent by the side and leaned back on the tree. In a minute, the white cylinder burned out to the orange part. Lucas threw it away and re-entered the tent.

  Vincent and Benedict had managed to undress Zoey, clean her up and were no tying her to the table. She was still shaking in the seizure.

  “I’ve brought the blood,” Galen had arrived.

  “Put one vial on the hanger, rest by the side. Get ready to use your magic; I need you to get her out of the seizure,” Lucas commanded.

  “Sure… but, frankly speaking, this isn’t healable,” Galen breathed as he saw Zoey, “nobody can heal this.”

  “Luciande can fix this with a wave of her hand. Nash would have needed a few hours, but he healed stuff like this routinely. Then there a few others who can heal wounds like these, but that doesn’t matter much since they aren’t here. We are here, we will have to manage with that,” Lucas smiled. He took out a white cap from the dream pocket and caught in it his hair. He proceeded to pull out a half face mask to cover his mouth, long pristine white apron, double magnifying glass on a coronet which held it in front of his left eye.

  “Put these on,” Lucas threw Galen and Vincent same looking cap, mask and a pair of gloves, “then sit by the far side.”

  They both did as instructed. Lucas went to teleport around a few stools and motioned them where to sit. Benedict went to sit behind her head.

  “Now, get her out of the seizure,” Lucas commanded, “Benedict, once she starts screaming with pain, numb her down to the point where she feels nothing, but stays conscious. You must keep her that way until we’re done, no matter what.”

  He nodded and sat down. Galen put his hands on Zoey’s chest and started working his magic.

  Soon Zoey’s eyes turned normal, “aaa… aaaaaAAA…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” she started shrieking with pain and terror. Benedict put his hands on the sides of her head and sent a slow and steady current of magic into her. Her screams soon died out.

  In the meantime, Lucas pulled a long half transparent catheter. He attached a broad needle to it, re-strapped Zoey’s left arm to the side of the table and carefully inserted the needle inside the vein. He fixated it in position using a strap of leather and put the other end of the catheter down above a bucket. Crimson blood started immediately pouring through it into the bucket. Lucas moved to the other side, took out a second catheter and put it into the vial of blood. He attached a needle to the second end and fixated it into Zoey’s right hand. He flipped the vial and blood started flowing through it into her.

  “What… is… going… on?” Zoey breathed as the magic calmed her down.

  “We shall be doing a reconstructive surgery on your upper abdominal area. Sit tight, this night shall be long,” Lucas announced in a calm voice and put on a pair of fresh gloves. He sat down on a stool by her side and adjusted the magnifying glass in front of his left eye.

  “I will be opening the wound area, Vincent, prepare to start draining the invading liquids. Slow, steady, controlled. Make a single stream that shall not move,” Lucas instructed.

  A short, sharp blade appeared in his hand. He went on to cut the edges around the wound which were burned out by the acid. He removed the neighboring skin and flesh. He extended the wound with a couple of precise cuts and moved the skin apart. A couple of metallic clamps appeared in his hand as he used them to catch the skin, getting a good view of the insides. He motioned Vincent to start working on the draining.

  “Galen, we shall now start with the reconstruction of her organs. We shall be using this,” Lucas made a s
mall dark red mold appear in his hand, “it’s demonic tissue with great regenerative ability. The way we do it is that I shall be putting it by small pieces to the damaged areas, you shall pour regenerative magic into it and it shall adjust itself into the tissue of the organ.”

  Galen nodded breathlessly.

  Lucas made the short blade disappear and instead summoned a couple of forceps. He used the wide one to make space between the damaged organs, caught the red mold with the thinner forceps and put it to the damaged pancreas. Galen used his magic and it did exactly what Lucas described. He proceeded to summon another small dark red mold and repeated the process.

  “How do you… know all this?” Zoey breathed.

  “Long time ago, I was a different man. I used to save lives instead of taking them. The items you see are relics of who I used to be,” Lucas replied reassuringly, “now sit back and relax. We shall talk later.”

  Zoey closed her eyes and tried to relax. She did what she could to not watch the blood flowing into her vein. “Thank you… for saving me.”

  “It’s not a big deal, really,” Lucas remarked.

  “It is… you abandoned your plan… just for me… thank you.”

  Lucas just smiled. Piece by piece, little by little, Lucas continued to remake her nearly destroyed organs. It took them the rest of the day and the entire night.

  “Alright, this should be it,” Lucas breathed as he put the cut skin together again after he removed the clamps. Galen ran his magic through it and the wound closed. They were all exhausted. Lucas went to remove the needle from Zoey’s right hand and made it plus the catheter disappear. He did the same with the rest of his equipment.

  “Please give me back the things I gave you, I have a limited supply and might need them sometime in the future,” Lucas turned to his colleagues. They all did as he asked. “Let’s go throw the stuff; then we go to the main tent. Benedict, knock her out so she can sleep.”

  Benedict just removed his hands from her head and Zoey instantly fainted from the exhaustion.