The Sons of Animus Letum

by Andrew Whittle

  “Nor do I,” Odin fired back. “But another of your steps promises my action.”

  Odin tightened his grip on the dagger.

  Unimpressed, Usis stared into Odin’s eyes.

  “You’re forcing my hand, brother,” he said.

  “No, Usis,” Odin mourned. “You have forced mine.”

  Usis hated that Odin was present. His worlds had collided. Nevertheless, Usis could not allow Odin to stop him. He was too close.

  “I do not believe you will act,” Usis said as he pressed his neck into Odin’s blade.

  “Try me,” Odin invited.

  Usis continued to advance on the blade until blood ran down the side of his neck.

  With tears welling, Odin’s eyes were begging Usis to yield, but Usis would not comply.

  “I’m sorry,” Usis said. “You shouldn’t have been here.”

  With a quick swat, Usis displaced the blade from his neck and turned Odin’s arm back. As Usis held Odin in submission, he ordered his men into action.

  The men quickly sprang upon the monks of the Throne’s Eye. Galian used his power to elevate five of Usis’s men into the air and then slam them powerfully into the Throne’s Eye wall. Even with Galian’s added strength, the monks were heavily disadvantaged. Bravely, they employed their skills in Raeman’s defence. But their disadvantage proved too much, and each monk, including Galian, was quickly subdued. With hate brimming in his dark eyes, Usis handed Odin to one of his men and approached Raeman.

  The Justice totem, alone and at the mercy of Usis, would prove to be no match for the traitor. Raeman cried in agony as Usis rained down ferocious blows onto his head and torso. Even as the helpless and beaten Raeman fell to the courtyard floor, Usis refused to relent.

  “He is your brother, goddammit!” Odin screamed.

  Usis ignored Odin’s cries, and with ferocity he continued to thrash the Justice totem.

  Finally, satisfied with the damage he had dealt, Usis drew a dagger from his belt.

  Raeman managed to wipe the blood from his battered face and look up at Usis.

  “You’re lost,” he wept. “You’re lost and you don’t even see it.’

  “That’s a matter of perspective,” Usis asserted. “Not all of us see by the Throne’s Eye.”

  With a salivating grin, Usis drew the dagger back to strike Raeman down. With a desperate shove, Odin broke free from his captor and charged his shoulder into Usis’s back. As Usis jolted from the force, he dropped the dagger, and with a quick stab, Odin snatched the dagger from mid-air. After altering his grip, Odin cocked back the blade and poised himself into a defensive position.

  The man who had been holding Odin tried to reclaim his grip, but Usis’s eyes shot down his ambition.

  “I will handle this,” Usis said sternly.

  With arrogance, the traitor turned his eye to Odin

  “Heroic,” he assessed of Odin’s actions, “but futile.”

  With his eyes locked onto Odin’s, Usis wrapped his hands around Raeman’s skull, pulled back his head, and then snapped his neck.

  “No!” Odin screamed.

  As Raeman’s lifeless body fell to the courtyard floor, Odin began to scream even more wildly.

  “God damn it, Usis! Look at what you’ve done! We can never go back!”

  Usis’s stride turned to a fervent pace.

  “You don’t know what I know!” he yelled back.

  Usis was trying to hold to his composure, but his voice began to break with emotion.

  “You weren’t supposed to be here,” he cried. “I’m not the villain.”

  “The blood is on your hands,” Odin ruled. “You did this.”

  Usis’s pacing came to an abrupt halt.

  “No!” he screamed at Odin. “The Throne’s Eye did this!”

  Odin shook his head in disbelief.

  “You are mad. You’ve lost it.”

  “You’re wrong, Odin,” Usis said coldly. “You don’t know what this monastery has done to me.”

  “What could it have done to justify this?” Odin screamed. “You tell me!”

  “They killed my parents!” Usis cried.

  Odin’s neck craned backwards. “I don’t believe that,” he said. “We protect, we don’t destroy. The Metus Sane killed your parents. You heard the story just as I did.”

  “I heard,” Usis agreed. “My mistake was that I believed. It was the Throne’s Eye monks who killed my parents.”

  “That’s a lie,” Odin yelled.

  Usis shook his head in frustration.

  “I don’t care what you believe. We are done.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Odin said.

  “Continue to hold that dagger,” Usis promised, “and my indifference to you will be proven quite clear.”

  “This dagger,” Odin coaxed as he held the blade in the air. “Oh no, Usis, this one’s staying with me.”

  “Fine,” Usis decided.

  Usis promptly drew another dagger from his belt and launched it at the dagger in Odin’s hand. The aim was to displace the weapon from Odin’s grip, but in the commotion, Usis’s usually deadly accurate pitch missed its mark. The dagger pierced Odin’s chest, and Odin fell hard to the courtyard floor.

  Usis’s eyes could not hide his alarm.

  “Odin!” he screamed.

  His panicked eyes scanned for any movement in Odin’s body, but there was none.

  The men with Usis began to sense the panic in their leader.

  “Somethin’ special ’bout that one,” one of them said sarcastically. “You need a moment?”

  Usis had to quickly make clear his allegiance. He couldn’t go back. With tears in his eyes, he turned emphatically to the remaining Throne’s Eye monks.

  “Let us be quite clear,” he raged. “I am the death of the Throne’s Eye. Who of you will rise to stop me?”

  There was silence in the courtyard until a voice broke from the heart of the monastery.

  “I’ll take that challenge, mate.”

  Usis, his men, and the monks of the Throne’s Eye turned back to see Raine, Igallik, and fifty monks standing in the center of the courtyard; twenty of the monks were armed with bows.

  “A little late,” Usis ridiculed his old mentor. “Two are already down.”

  “Not quite,” Odin corrected as he rose to his feet and pulled the dagger from the book Galian had given him.

  Usis frustratingly looked to Odin, and then back to Raine.

  “You’ll not win the war,” he vowed to all the monks within earshot. “I will deliver you all to dust. This night is but one leading to your ultimate demise.”

  “Oh,” Raine taunted, “you’re leaving?”

  “There will be another time for us to settle this,” Usis pledged to his old mentor.

  “Oh, no,” Raine corrected. “We,” he said as he motioned to the fifty monks behind him, “intend to finish this tonight.”

  With deadly eyes, Raine raised his hand into the air, and the archers drew back their arrows.

  “Your advantage is only in numbers,” Usis asserted. “Sleight of foot belongs to me.”

  “I still like our odds,” Raine replied.

  With that, the Aeris dropped his hand, and the archers released their arrows into their targets. In quick succession, each of Usis’s remaining men were fatally pierced by the arrows. Usis managed to dodge the arrows directed at him, but as the arrow attack ceased and Raine gave the order for the archers to reload, Usis had no choice but to recognize his defeat.

  “You best tuck that tail between your legs,” Raine yelled as Usis backed himself towards the Throne’s Eye gate. “Sleight of foot won’t stop this next wave.”

  “Take your consolation,” Usis reiterated. “You only prolong the inevitable.”

  Raine again dropped his hand and the archers released their arrows. Usis darted to avoid the arrows, and within seconds he had disappeared behind the monastery gates.

  Igallik quickly called out an order to all
the monks present.

  “Follow him! And when you catch him, kill him!”

  Immediately, forty monks sprinted in pursuit of the traitor. After the hunters filtered out of the gate, Igallik and Raine made their way to the sons of Animus Letum.

  Igallik turned first to Galian.

  “Welcome back, Seraph. Superb timing, I must say.”

  “I agree,” Galian smiled.

  “How did you know?” the head monk asked.

  “The reward of my resurrection is to see the future,” Galian said. “It allowed me to know the truth about Usis.”

  Igallik was shocked.

  “There is more,” Galian divulged. “When you get a moment, we should talk.”

  Igallik agreed and with his hands on his hips he looked over the courtyard. His posture sank when he noticed Raine and Odin standing over Raeman’s body.

  “Your brother,” Igallik asked, “will he be alright?”

  “He will be,” Galian affirmed. “But it is time for him to know what we know.”

  Igallik’s eyes shifted in deliberation.

  “If you’re sure,” he finally consented, “bring both him and yourself to the High Temple in one hour.”

  “I will,” Galian agreed.

  As the true weight of the night hit him, Igallik gazed across the horizon. His studied gaze was that of a man looking for answers. But instead, as the head monk’s eyes fell back onto Raeman’s dead body, he had only a question.

  “This was inevitable, wasn’t it?”

  “There are many factors,” Galian answered. “Though, I am certain it was inevitable tonight.”

  Igallik exhaled deeply.

  “One hour,” he reminded as he patted Galian’s shoulder.

  After another mournful shake of his head, Igallik turned and began a slow and contemplative walk towards the High Temple. Galian watched the head monk for a moment and then walked calmly to Raine and Odin. As Galian came within ear shot, he could hear the pain in his brother’s voice.

  “It doesn’t make sense. He was my friend… my brother.”

  “I don’t know what to say, mate,” Raine admitted. “It breaks your heart…”

  Galian arrived between the two monks and turned first to Raine.

  “If you could, Raine, we need to prepare Raeman for his final respects.”

  A tearful Raine was thankful for the interruption.

  “Will do, mate.”

  Galian then turned to Odin.

  “It will make sense soon. It will still hurt, but it will make sense.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We need to talk,” Galian said. “We’ll clean you up, then we’ll go to High Temple.”

  Odin nodded, but then shook his head again.

  “I can’t believe it,” he whispered.

  “Neither could I,” Galian confessed. “But it is done. Come, let’s go clean you up.”

  Odin seemed to concede, and after Galian wrapped an arm around him, the two brothers began the kind of walk that destiny required of them – a walk dependent on each other.

  27

  One hour later, Galian led Odin into the High Temple. Igallik was sitting on his totem throne, and at first sight of the twins, he motioned for them to join him at the front.

  “First, let me apologize to you both,” Igallik said as Odin and Galian sat down. “Today should have never happened.”

  “If you are apologizing on behalf of Usis,” Odin said plainly, “there is no need. It was Usis, and Usis alone, who killed Raeman.”

  Igallik dropped his head. “But I did play a part in Raeman’s murder,” he said. “I withheld information from Usis. From almost everyone. When Usis left on his quest three years ago, I sent him off without the complete truth.” Igallik tugged on his beard for a moment. “Odin,” he said, “the worst is true of what Usis said we did to his parents. We did kill them.”

  Odin could not remain silent.

  “But why? There had to be a reason.”

  “There was, Odin,” Igallik said. “Please believe that.”

  Igallik shook his head, battling his guilt as he replayed the events that had led to Raeman’s murder.

  “Do you remember the story Usis told of how his parents died?” he asked.

  “I do,” Odin said. “The Metus Sane killed them. They had intended to kill Usis, because they believed that he was the spiritual vessel of Malum Ludus, but they only managed to kill his parents.”

  “This is almost true,” Igallik revealed. “The Metus Sane were going to kill Usis. But, the whole truth is that Usis’s parents were the leaders of the Metus Sane. They were going to sacrifice Usis on his fourth birthday – his own parents were going to kill him.”

  Odin was speechless.

  “What were we to do?” Igallik said. “We had to intervene. Raine, Raeman, and a few other monks arrived in time to act. And they did.”

  The head monk stroked his beard, his eyes shooting around the room as he tried vainly to swallow his regret.

  “We should have told him. Tonight could have been prevented.”

  “So he found out the truth during his quest?” Odin asked.

  “It would appear so,” Igallik concluded. “But someone or something has twisted the truth to suit their needs.”

  “Something?” Odin repeated.

  Igallik nodded. “Did you ever wonder how Usis was able to know when you were afraid?”

  “All the time,” Odin said.

  “You see,” the head monk said, “the Metus Sane weren’t far off in their assessment of Usis.”

  Odin flexed back. “You mean he actually is a vessel of Malum Ludus?”

  “He is,” Igallik answered sombrely. “For a long time I had to fight the evidence. And believe me, Odin, I fought. But my efforts were based on hope, not truth. It was on the day of the Blood Cael that I could not deny it anymore.”

  Odin had thought a lot about that day.

  “Because the Blood Cael stopped when it saw Usis,” he remembered.

  “It didn’t just stop, Odin: it was about to bow.”

  “Bow?”

  “Yes. The Cael recognized Usis as its master. In the afterlife, the Blood Cael was Malum Ludus’s bodyguard. In fact, when Ludus was at his most powerful there were eight such beasts labouring under his protection.”

  “So Usis was born this way?” Odin asked. “This was inevitable?”

  “Is it inevitable that the Lyrans reclaim Animus Letum?” Igallik asked. “No. Such a task requires choice and effort. Usis is no different. Unfortunately, he has contributed a large effort to a poor choice, and as we stand he has decided to become Malum Ludus’s apprentice.”

  Odin was hurt. It would have stung less if Usis were dead.

  “So what do we do?”

  “Our first act is to track Usis,” Igallik replied. “We need to find him.”

  “We will fail,” Galian signed. “He evades us.”

  Initially, Igallik was stunned by Galian’s statement, but after realizing he had never encountered a phenomenon like Galian’s new power, he became curious about its lengths.

  “I must ask, Galian, how far can you see into the future?”

  “I have not investigated fully. But I can judge by milestones. And there is no sign of Usis all the way until Odin and I are twenty years old.”

  Igallik’s eyes grew wide in disbelief.

  “Galian, that is in three years.”

  Galian smiled. “Hell of a gift, right?”

  “My God,” the head monk marvelled. “That is truly amazing.”

  “Three years?” Odin said. “And no Usis?”

  “There’s even worse news,” Galian signed.

  Odin turned to his brother in alarm.

  “What news?”

  “In three years,” Galian said, “you’re still an idiot.”

  Odin fought against the smile surfacing on his face, but he eventually broke.

  “Should have left you in the coma,” he muttered.
<
br />   The head monk looked skywards, sighing as he let his shoulders slump in defeat.

  “For heaven’s sakes,” he said, “couldn’t they just say they missed each other?”

  Neither Odin nor Galian would admit it.

  Igallik shook his head. “Dumb and stubborn,” he said. “You can both leave. It has been a hell of a day, and having two idiots at my side offers me no advantage in deciding our next move.”

  Odin was the first to break. He rose quickly to his feet and turned towards the exit. As he looked back, Galian was still seated.

  “Go ahead,” Galian encouraged. “I just had a two-month sleep.”

  “It didn’t look peaceful,” Odin said wryly.

  Galian met Odin’s eyes. “I need a couple of minutes with Igallik,” he said. “I’ll meet you in my quarters.”

  Odin scratched his temple for a moment.

  “Seraph stuff?” he presumed.

  “Very much so,” Galian signed.

  After another nod, Odin turned and ambled out of the High Temple.

  The moment Odin disappeared behind the Temple doors, Galian turned his attention back to the head monk. A grave look had taken over the quiet monk’s face.

  “I need you to know something,” he said. “I lied to you. I have determined how far I can see into the future.”

  “And how far is that?” Igallik asked.

  “Three years,” Galian restated. “But that is only my sight.”

  “I don’t understand,” Igallik said. “What else is there?”

  Galian did his best to explain. “There are two elements to my ability: the first is sight, but the second is feel. I can feel the energy in what I see. I feel happiness in some visions, in others I feel pain. I feel beyond three years,” Galian signed. “And what I feel brings great concern.”

  “Why? What do you feel?”

  “I feel excruciating pain, like being tortured… and then nothing.”

  “Nothing?” Igallik repeated.

  “I assume it is death.”

  Igallik swept his hand through his long gray beard.

  “Tell me this,” he enquired. “What is the very last thing you can actually see from the future?”

  “I see Odin enter an old white carriage before a mercenary mission.”

  “And you can only feel pain beyond that image?”

  Galian nodded.