The Guardian's Grimoire

by Oxford, Rain

  I hesitated for a second, wondering why he was drained of energy. I hadn’t taught Dylan that kind of spell, but he was the only one who came in contact with Shio since Shio tried to take him to the dungeon. Maybe an accident? No, not this powerful a spell. Perhaps Divina helped him. It didn’t matter. I pushed nominal energy into Shio and converted it into physical energy. He started to wake within moments and when he opened his eyes, they filled with fear. He knew what was about to happen to him. Not enough.

  “What are you going to do?” he asked in Chreun, the main language of Mulo.

  His voice made my chest burn; hearing it after so long, yet distorted with fear. I didn’t want to hear fear in my brother’s voice or see it in his eyes, but Shio deserved every ounce of fear I could give him.

  I picked him up by the front of the shirt and shoved him into the wall. “I have not decided yet. Something painful and slow, but not too slow. Maybe I will cut you into pieces and use magic to keep you from bleeding to death before you can die of pain. You will die of pain because you are weak.”

  “Can you cut your own brother’s body? I can release this body anytime I want, and then all that damage would be wasted.”

  “What makes you think I would let you go? I am far more powerful than you. You are nothing. I want to burn, freeze, cut, and melt you. Make you scream in pain for mercy. I can reach into your chest and squish your heart, but it is too quick a death for you.”

  I was almost shaking with anger. I wanted to kill him in so many ways I couldn’t move for fear of ending him too quick. He had to die for murder but for me, he would beg for death. He didn’t take an innocent man’s life; he took Ronez’s. Ronez was my brother for more than two thousand years and a slimy, disgusting excuse for a man took him away.

  “I was just doing my job.”

  “Do not anger me more than I am already.” I wasn’t staring into my brother’s eyes; these eyes were cold and weak. He didn’t look or feel like my brother. “Perhaps I will start by cutting off body parts. Your hands and feet. I do not have the patience to start with your fingers, so be thankful for that. Maybe I should cut off your ears first.”

  “Please, just do it. It cannot be any worse than what Vretial would do to me for being defeated by that little human.”

  “Dylan did drain your energy then?”

  “Yes. He even had one of those energy shielding charms so he could not draw in energy. He must have had it stored up. Stupid human.”

  Again my anger started to fade into worry at the thought of my apprentice unable to use even the magics he knew. “Was he injured at all?”

  “No, I do not think so. He even got the damn charm off. Next thing I know I am waking up with you standing over me with death in your eyes. You cannot do anything worse to me than what Vretial would.”

  “Vretial could not get nearly as angry as I am.”

  It was surely my anger that clouded my vision, for I didn’t see him move until his boot slammed into my knee. It wasn’t painful enough to make me drop, but it was surprising enough to cause me let him go. The instant his hand was free, he pulled out a dagger and tried to stab me. I was faster. I pulled out my sword in time to block his strike.

  Shio was a scavenger and sneak, no match for a Guardian. I gathered my energy into my fist. I was a little dishonest with Dylan when I indicated that I needed a storm to draw lightning. In full power, I could create lightning. Shio dropped his dagger and cowered.

  This was the man who killed my brother? He was weak; Ronez shouldn’t have been killed by such a weak man. But the fact was, my brother was already gone. In the face of such surrender, I couldn’t bring myself to strike.

  Guardians were created to protect our books and our people. It was unnatural for us to take life; it was the last resort. Shio was thoroughly scum, but it was my brother’s body. To destroy it further would be an act as vile as Shio wearing it.

  Sago believed people looked in the Land of the Dead as they did when they died. Before the Reformation, a person who committed an act foul enough to be put to death for were scarred with the name of their crime across their forehead. The idea was that in life or death, everyone would know them for their sins. Since the end of religion as law, such punishments were deemed unorthodox, but people still went to great lengths to preserve the bodies of their loved ones.

  In my hesitation, Shio had his chance. Knowing he could never defeat me, he took off down the hall. Right towards the trap.

  “Shio!” I yelled. He turned to look at me, but kept running. I turned away an instant before I heard the metal scrape and his short scream. I went to him when I heard the spikes retract.

  Ronez and I really hadn’t seen each other as flesh in years, so it was odd seeing his face and missing him. He used to tell me he didn’t care too much for his body and that if he were to exchange it, he would want to be some very hot girl so he could be happy with himself. He said the worse part about it was that there was another exactly like it. After so many years we stopped noticing each other’s appearance on the outside, because if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to fight so enthusiastically. It was much easier to physically fight out all our problems than to let them emotionally break us apart. Still, there was something lonely about looking into his lifeless face. It wasn’t a goodbye, because he hadn’t just died. I hadn’t really said goodbye.

  “I thought I should let you know that your apprentice beat the evil girl quite easily. You should go and clean up,” Divina’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

  Maybe I had said it.

  * * *

  I found an “X” on a door with Dylan’s scent on it, so I pushed the door open. Lying on the only piece of furniture in the room, a bed, was the little girl I had seen on Earth and in my vision. What do Dylan and Divina expect me to do with her? I don’t baby-sit.

  “Sago! Let me go,” she demanded.

  I knew why she was repulsively evil; she was a child with no conscience or innocence, trapped with an underdeveloped brain yet stripped of all things that make a child able to bear it. Vretial had given her magic and taken away her mortality, and time took everything else.

  “Divina… you’re much more powerful than you let on, aren’t you?” I approached the bed slowly, cautious of her power.

  “Yes.”

  “Can you help me to remove this girl’s immortality? Do you know how?” I sat down on the bed and the girl glared at me.

  “What are you waiting for, let me go!”

  “Yes, I can, and I do,” Divina’s said, not in my head but from the doorway.

  I looked at her. Unlike with Ronez, I always noticed Divina’s physical appearance, because she was someone so beautiful it would be a waste not to. Her power, on the other hand, was even more striking. She glowed with an ancient, divine power that I had always known was unusual.

  Like Ronez, I was a person who needed to figure everything out. I didn’t particularly enjoy the mystery as he had, but I needed to know. The exception was people; I never cared to learn everything about them, so I never tried to figure Divina out. She didn’t want people to figure her out, and her mystery was part of her charm.

  She went over to the little girl and placed one hand on her forehead and the other on her stomach. The girl started thrashing and I held her legs down. It reminded me of an exorcism. Divina drew in more energy and the girl slowly settled down.

  “This will remove a lot of her power as well,” Divina said. The little girl tried to protest but she was already mostly unconscious.

  “She won’t need it,” I insisted.

  Divina’s hands started to glow. She lifted them slowly and in their place rose black flame, dark and soft looking. She brought her hands together and the fire followed. When she separated her hands, the flame shot through her stomach and out the door. I could tell she didn’t like it when the flame went through her.

  “Your turn.” She sat on a chest next to the bed… the chest that wasn’t there before.

 
I put my hand on the girl’s forehead. She looked so delicate without her immortality. I gathered my energy and focused it on her memories, her experiences. Anger, hate, pain, time, power, hunger, loss, self-loathing, loneliness… she knew nothing good or happy. I took her memories away; erased them entirely. Memories like that didn’t belong in a little girl. When she would awake, her innocence and conscience would return.

  “You’re not sago, or human,” I said to Divina. She shook her head. “Are you alive?”

  “My body is.”

  “But you’re more than that. Your body dulls your power, right? Can you fight Vretial? Do you have a chance of beating him?”

  “Of course I do; I just have to find the right way. My body does hinder my power, but if it’s destroyed, I’ll regain my full potential. Vretial would try to destroy me, not my body. Are we going to be different now?”

  I sighed. “I’m afraid so.”

  “Too bad. I really loved our easy relationship. You were one of the few who didn’t try figure out my secrets. Ronez didn’t try… but he still figured it out. That’s why he left.”

  It wasn’t really surprising. Divina was divine, but I never saw her like a god, and it was still hard to do so. She always acted just a little like a child, and she probably was a child in a god sort of way.

  “And then Dylan figured it out,” she said. “Like Ronez, he wasn’t willing to trust me on blind faith.”

  “I spent a lot more time with you than them, so I learned to trust before I had to deal with faith. After how we met…”

  “You will never tell Dylan that, will you?”

  “I will if he asks,” I answered. She groaned. “We have been through a lot. You’ve always had a natural talent for getting out of dangerous situations. When you defeat Vretial, we need to take this girl with us. There has to be someone on Anoshii who would adopt her.”

  “Things are about to get sticky. Check on your apprentice,” she said.

  I reached out instantly and felt Dylan. He was talking to Vretial! My apprentice was alone with a dark god.

  What does Vretial want with him? What is he saying? Is he hurting him? He doesn’t seem to be in pain. I had to be there, but there was no direction I could walk to get there. “Divina! Can you get me to him?”

  “Yes. Protect Dylan, but I also need you to distract Vretial,” she said.

  I nodded. My vision was filled with a blinding white light and the room became uncomfortably warm. After a few seconds, the light and heat evaporated.

  Chapter 16

  Ronez and I didn’t have much time to talk before I felt a sudden pull of gravity. The dark halls grew darker and Ronez called to me worriedly, but the darkness consumed everything. I felt great pressure for an unknowable amount of time before it relented and the darkness evaporated. I found myself in the room where most of my visions took place… with Vretial standing a few feet in front of me.

  Ronez was nowhere in sight, for which I was thankful. He already died once.

  “Dylan Marcus Carter or Dylan Reyd Toka Yatunus-tai.”

  Perhaps I had unknowingly adapted to the high level of energy swarming the place, because his aura was not so overpowering. Even after the visions, it was daunting being alone with him, but in the visions, I was never the center of his attentions. “So you know me. I know you, too.”

  “Oh? I suppose you think that I’m Vretial.”

  “Well, yes,” I said, not quite startled.

  “Good, then you’d be right. Let’s move on. Tell me, boy, how is it you wish to die?” he asked casually.

  That was an easy question to answer. “Old age.”

  “You poor child. And you gave that up by accepting your book. You can’t die of old age, so how do you want to die now?”

  I thought about it. I needed to think of something he wouldn’t be able to do, at least not now. “I… want to die peacefully in my sleep the night I tell my sixth hundredth son that I am ready.”

  He sighed, but smiled patiently. “I’m going to kill you, and I’m going to do it now. Listen carefully. How do you want to die?”

  “Why are you going to kill me?”

  “Because you don’t fear me, and you don’t want to. I want to make everyone content, but you don’t want that either.”

  “That’s my choice. I have free will and I have every right to be upset about whatever I want to be upset about. I may be miserable, but I am also happy. There are ups and downs in my life. It’s interesting. Without free will, there is no reason in the world to live. People invent things and build things to make life easier. If they’re content, there’s no incentive to do anything. They’d all just lie down and die.”

  “If you’re content, you don’t need a reason to live. I wouldn’t leave the people to themselves; I will keep them going,” he said, then frowned thoughtfully. “Let me show you what I mean.”

  Before I could stop him, not that I could anyway, everything glazed over.

  I felt nothing, not happiness, nor despair, nor fear. I was just there. Being there was nothing but enough. It was fine, but not good or bad. I didn’t feel hunger or cold or soreness in my muscles. Nothing looked interesting or boring and the colors were indistinguishable. Just as quickly as it had arose, the glaze of nothingness was gone and I was flooded with the fear and desperation I really felt. He grinned as if he had already won.

  “Now, wasn’t that better?”

  “No. It wasn’t right or real.”

  “That doesn’t matter. You didn’t care. My worlds will be content. There will be successful communities. No one would feel strong pain or emotions, like hate or loneliness or desperation. People wouldn’t make mistakes because their family and jobs would be chosen for them based on logic. There will be no war. People will follow strict rules that will protect them. No one will go homeless, thirsty, or starve. The weather will be strictly controlled, without the radioactivity of the sun and terror of natural disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes.

  “I cannot remove human nature, so when I take Earth, the beings will be the same. Then they can never shun another for being different. For the sago, who strive to be the best they can be and favor individuality, I will strip them of their pride and individualism, and give them community. I will unite them all under the same form of controlled government and religion. They will fear me as their one powerful, strict, and fair god.

  “The worlds will be joined and there will be one language. Colors, smells, and tastes are unnecessary, and only cause greed and pickiness, so they will be removed. Health will be easy to obtain because without taste, people will eat what their bodies need, and without pain, they will exercise.”

  I sighed. “It would never work. I shouldn’t have even bothered thinking that you knew what you were doing.”

  He frowned. “It’s not nice to insult a god. And why is it you don’t think my plan will work?”

  “Well, I don’t know enough about the sago to speak for them, and I know nothing about the other races, but I do know the humans; I am one. We’re not the most respectful or wise race, but we are stubborn, and we are violent.

  “We have what’s called the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. This is the definition of a human. Care and love are in there, too. We are emotion. We are what you want to take away.

  “The Christian religion worships the man they call the son of God; the man they killed. They celebrate his death because they believe his death made them better people. You’re not a hero unless you die for others. The people that humans assigned to help everyone only do things that benefit themselves, no matter how much it hurts the people depending on them. This is for one reason; they’re human. You can’t take away what makes a human a human and still call it a success. Whatever you have left is not human.”

  He looked bewildered. “Are you against humans, or for them? I can’t tell.”

  “There are also people like Vivian. There are people who would work their entire lives to help
others. Humans are stubborn and most work hard their entire lives for freedom, pride, or love. I mean, love is huge. People live for it, die for it, and sometimes kill for it. They love themselves, their cats, cars, and each other. Everything we feel, good or bad, whether it kills us or gives us a reason to live, it’s ours. Our emotions, our lives, and our right. You can’t take that.”

  “Spoken like a true Guardian of Earth.” I turned to see Ronez standing behind me. “You could be a little more optimistic about humanity, though.”

  “I grew up with and without my mother; I can feel however I want to about humans.”

  “Hello, dead Noquodi. I’m in the middle of something right now, but as soon as your son and I are done, I will be glad to talk to you.”

  “Well, actually, you interrupted us. We were in the middle of something,” Ronez said.

  He had no fear for the dark god; like me. Either our instincts were fantastic, or we were both idiots. Vretial frowned thoughtfully.

  “Oh, you’re right. Please, continue,” he said.

  Ronez nodded and turned to me. “I wanted to discuss your girlfriend, Vivian. She’s not good for you.”

  “What? One; she’s not my girlfriend anymore, two; she’s brilliant, and three; have you seen her? Especially in that red tank top.”

  “She’s annoying. She’s academically intelligent but that’s it. There’re also prettier girls out there. If you wait, they will find you. They’ll be drawn to your wise intellect and your---”

  “Are you gonna kill me or what?” I interrupted, looking at Vretial.

  “Are you going to accept my way and fear me? What I’m doing is uniting all of the worlds under my power. There will be no reason for fighting or pain.”

  “I know. You’ll end wars and fear and murder. What you’re doing isn’t wrong. But it isn’t right.” Vretial wasn’t evil; he just had a different point of view.

  “There is no right or wrong. There are only opinions. Mine matters more than everyone else’s because I have more power than everyone else. What would you say if I made you a deal? If I let the other Guardian go and you give me your soul.”