Chapter 15

Jethro,

You are a man of great promise, but I can give you an even greater one. The power over those around you, fed by fear and control. Why settle for being a lone soldier, when you could be greater? All you need is the vision to see a great future for you and the will to do what it takes to bring it to fruition. Understand that despite this power, you will serve me and will do so for all time. If you fail to understand that, I will not hesitate to rip your throat out, after I kill every person you love in front of you. I have only one task to give you, disrupt the life of a man named Davik at all costs. He will be returning to the town at some point. You are perfectly placed to ensure that his world is turned upside down.

Your goal will be to not only disrupt his life, but to see to it one of two things happens. The first is that he is arrested for a heinous act, all that he owns seized and his life ruined. The other is that he is ‘caught’ doing something that will force you to forcefully intervene, leading to his death. While he is skilled, he is not a risk - not like I am. I will wait to hear news or word from you directly in Revtan. I have a courier who will see to it that I receive the letter. Once you finish this letter, burn it to prevent anyone from knowing these plans. Failure will mean the death of everyone you know, everyone you love. Do not fail me, Jethro.

Blackheart

I looked up from the note at the man who had the document and watched his face visibly pale. I handed the note to the Patron and grabbed Jethro by the base of his armor. I squeezed my hand, the sounds of the metal warping from the pressure as I lifted him off the ground. I could hear his whimpers only slightly over the pounding of my heartbeat flooding my ears. A hand on my shoulder, pulled me out of the slowly building rage and I turned to see Liza’s pleading eyes. No words were said, yet I felt the rage leave faster than it had built.

“So, Edgar,” I asked softly, the anger still evident in my voice, “what should be done about Jethro, here? It sounds as though he was planning a coup, once he fulfilled the request of his master.”

Edgar looked up from the letter and had the same seething anger on his face that I had had. I could tell he was considering his options, given the details of the letter. Then, he turned to me.

“What would you suggest Davik? After all, you were the primary focus of his orders and his ire. Banishment? Prison? Death?”

I looked at the pitiful excuse for a person in my grasp, all the bravado, the arrogance gone. The realization that completing his task was no longer possible - defeat began setting in.

“None of them, Edgar. Keep him guarding the back gate and instruct him to harass us from time to time.”

Everyone, including Jethro, gave me a confused look. None of them understood the reason that I would make that decision.

“It says in the letter than failure would result in the death of everyone he cares about. I know from first-hand experience what Blackheart is capable of. If we do anything you suggested, Edgar, then everyone he cares for will wind up dead. The guilt of knowing that his failure was the cause of their deaths would destroy him. I will not have their deaths on my hands if I am able to prevent it.

Instead, he will keep up appearances, while working to rid us all of Blackheart. Blackheart has tormented this town, and me, for far too long, and this letter has given me my first clue on how to track him down.”

I slowly placed Jethro on the ground and took a step back with my hands raised. I hoped that the gesture would show that I no longer meant him any harm.

“You want to create the illusion that he is still working for this Blackheart, to protect his loved ones, until you can find and defeat this monster,” Edgar told him.

“That is correct,” I replied with a nod. “The acting Patron, Ruben, had been put into similar circumstances. There was the kidnapping of Liza - the woman who accompanied me here - as well as an attack on our return trip to Cartha. This Blackheart seems to have a grudge against me, but I do not know the reason.”

“Very well,” the Patron said with a sigh. “I will spare him for now, but if he steps over the line even once, there will be no other choice for me. The safety of this town is my priority, and I will do what I must to remove any threat to it, even you, young Davik.”

“I can understand that, Edgar, all too well. But be warned. I will not be intimidated or threatened by anyone. If I believe that I have brought a threat that I cannot overcome, I will happily leave to remove my enemy’s ire from Cartha.

“Also, I will want to speak with you tomorrow about the purchase of some more land, preferably near my current property.”

He nodded in response and I made my way back to the house, Liza following close behind me.

“Are you ok, Davik? I mean, I know that whatever happened the night you fought Ruben changed you, but are you okay? Your eyes when you had that idiot Jethro in the air ... they scared me.”

“What do you mean, they scared you?” I asked as I turned my focus to her. “My eyes are not that different than before my change.”

“That is just it, Davik, they are. You just do not realize it. After the fight - your injury, curse, whatever you wish to call it, you left. You then started to show abilities, ones beyond normal men, but something else changed, as well. Your eyes are changing color and I believe that, as your power grows, your eyes will continue to change even more.”

“In what way have they changed? I noticed that they have a few hazel or amber flecks in them now, but nothing else out of the ordinary.”

“Davik, your eyes were entirely blue when you left and when you returned the golden flecks had appeared. When you lifted Jethro up just now, your eyes changed. You seemed to be angrier than I had ever seen you, so I placed a hand on your shoulder in the hopes of calming you down. When you turned to look at me, your eyes were a bright golden color, instead of the blue I had been so accustomed to.”

“Okay,” I replied hesitantly. “So then, are my eyes still golden or have they turned back to the way they were?”

I stopped and let her give them a closer look. I watched as her eyes moved to different spots, searching my eyes for the answer.

“From what I can see, your eyes are back to their normal blue, but the golden color has spread a bit more.”

We continued our walk back to the house as I thought upon what Liza had noticed. It seemed when I used my abilities, it resulted in my eyes changing color and losing more of the blue when they returned. I would need to talk to Celka about this development - along with the letter Jethro had - relatively soon.

No words were exchanged between us for the rest of the walk home. I figured that Liza knew I needed to think things over on my own. When we arrived, I said thank you for her support and that I would see her for dinner. I was given a quick hug and smile before she made her way back into the kitchen. I, on the other hand, went looking for Celka. There were too many things on my mind I would need her help working out.

I first checked her room and found it empty, then I searched the other rooms of the house, but could not find her. I went out to the back and there I found her working with Trina, tending to the various crops that were being cultivated. They were currently working on a patch of herbs that I had suggested, as they were like the ones my elder mother had grown. I figured they could prove useful to us and the clinic, as they were not readily available without searching the deep forest for a few days. I approached the ladies, who were deep in discussion while checking the leaves and stems for signs of bugs or sickness.

“Hello, ladies, could I trouble you to borrow Celka for a little while? I need her help with a few things.”

Trina nodded and thanked Celka for her assistance before returning to her task of checking the crops. Celka got up, dusting herself off quickly, before making her way over to me.

“I decided to occupy myself out here until you came back, I believe we have quite a bit to discuss with one another.”

I nodded and followed her into the house and up to her room. As I entered, I noticed many of the books we had collected from the shop in Fardun. They were lying open in various spots in the room, cluttering the area and living very little room to move or sit.

“As you can see, I have been busy going over the books that you found. May I ask, where is it that you found all of these books?”

“The books were found in Fardun,” I replied. “Prior to interacting with my father and Ruben, Brenson was the village leatherworker. He had a shop that also had a living space attached to it. We found them on a bookshelf inside. I noticed the language was like that of some of your books and Lillian quickly filled a pack with them.”

“I see,” she softly replied. “Well, from what I could ascertain, most of these books are from my land. The various tomes speak of the Voguel and of the various times they had appeared throughout history. It seems that the Voguel had come and gone every century or so, over the last millennia. Each time they were driven back and thought to be eradicated, each time proving false. It seemed that they were mistaken and one or two would go into hiding until they were a mere legend. The attacks would vary in the province where they would happen, adding to the myths over the centuries.

“However, the most recent appearances did not account for how far we had come. It would explain why my brother decided to come here, as there was no travel across the lake during the last resurgence. The rest of the province’s borders, that do not run along the lake, are surrounded by impassable mountains. The province was effectively cut off until three years before their last return.

“Based on his journals, he had not even been bitten until he was about to make the crossing. He was on his way into the port town, when a giant wolf burst out of the forest with hunters on its trail. They were on horseback and the beast looked to have multiple arrows in its torso. Just before it collided with him, a hunter let loose an arrow that pierced the back of the beast’s spine, just below the base of its skull. The beast dropped, and the men turned to leave as fast as they came. Since most Voguel change back after their death, there is no hide to collect, so the hunters left it for the town’s soldiers to deal with. They did not realize that the beast had not started to revert before they hurried away, nor did my brother continue into the town.

He went to inspect the remains, as he had never seen a wolf this big, let alone a Voguel, before. Once he was close enough, the beast’s eyes opened, and it quickly bit him. Due to the size of the animal, the wound it left from a canine tooth looked like a knife wound.

“My brother was not aware that the wound was enough to infect him with the curse. He paid it no mind and, when he was asked by a healer, said he slipped, and a branch had pierced his leg. He was already on this side of the lake and living in a small village, when the blood moon hit, and he had his first change.

The town had been lucky, as he was in the middle of a hunt when his first change hit him. He spent a bit of time thinking about the change and what it was like to hunt as a wolf. He was able to get enough kills to impress the village and allow him to stay. He would move every few years, to keep suspicion away from how he made his kills.

He also described the various dreams he had after the change. Apparently, the wolf that bit him was an old one that had survived the purge of thirteen seventy-two. Apparently, the aging of a Voguel is dramatically slower than that of a normal person. All the plans that had been thought up by this ancient hunter had almost worked. The methods we developed during the last resurgence were the only reason his plan did not work. The speed at which his forces were depleted was greater than the speed with which he could turn to Voguel. The issue, of course, lay in the fact that only one of five bitten would survive the curse and make it to their first change.

“If Brenson’s sire had gotten to one of the other provinces, where you knew nothing of his kind, he could have created an army of them. He could have then expanded to the other provinces and then with vast army, he could have finally conquered Vishant and have dominion over the entire continent.

“Based on the last few entries, prior to running into Stevan and Ruben, he was leaning towards that goal himself. There were logs of his attempts, people whom he had found and taken as his beast and returned to his shop. But each became a failure.

“He mentioned a ritual that he learned through his dreams that was believed to help the curse succeed. I think that your father and Ruben were his first and only successes, that is, until Brant. He would have had a success far sooner if he had not been consumed with vengeance.”

“How do you know that it was for vengeance?” I asked, intrigued by her suggestion. “How did you know that he had taken them? I thought only I knew those particular details.”