Chapter 79 - The Newly Forged Blade

Shockwaves of power rippled through the entire room, shaking floorboards loose and sending splinters flying through the air. However, they bounced back from a rich layer of green elemental power. It formed a perfect circle around Skyle as he crashed against it, cushioning his fall in a surprisingly gentle fashion.

Skyle looked around himself in a daze, still unfamiliar with the experience. Last time he had returned from Sanctuary, he had been unconscious. This time, he had felt every ripple of power passing through his body as he was transported back home through a tear in the fabric of reality.

He didn’t have time to even take stock of his situation before he felt arms rushing him into a familiar embrace. Skyle looked up just in time to see his mother’s relieved smile. The lines of her face were wan and waxy, and her puffy, red-rimmed eyes told Skyle of the anguish she had been through.

“Sky, my little Sky, you came back to me,” Adrienne cried softly as she squeezed her son to her chest. “Are you alright? Let me have a look at you.”

Adrienne ignored Skyle’s protests as she looked him up and down, constantly patting his face as though to reassure herself that he was here in truth, and she wasn’t simply dreaming.

“Ma, I’m alright,” Skyle lied, and though it was painfully obvious that he was anything but, for the moment both mother and son pretended this fiction was truth.

For a long time, they shared a moment of silence as they hugged each other breathless, both afraid that their world would irrevocably change once words were exchanged.

In the end, it was Skyle who broke off the hug first. He didn’t do so intentionally. Instead, he accidentally tapped into the True Sight. He had grown accustomed to not having this ability, so he was genuinely surprised when it came back to him as though it had never been missing in the first place.

What truly shocked him, however, were the massive energy fluctuations that surrounded his mother. Terrifyingly vast maelstroms of elemental essence spun in place within her core, easily dwarfing the auras of any mortal he had ever beheld. Almost, he could believe his mother was a deity, if he hadn’t had first hand experience in seeing an actual goddess’ aura. In terms of sheer elemental power, Adrienne Farrow was a true powerhouse that could likely tear mountains asunder with a single imperious flick of her hand.

The revelation that his gentle mother was in truth a wielder of the elements that would beggar the imagination of even the legendary heroes he had read about in his stories startled him so badly that he screamed in surprise at the sheer presence of her aura and he shrank back in spite of himself.

“Sky?” Adrienne murmured as Skyle drew away from her embrace, a hurt look upon her face.

“S-Sorry ma,” Skyle managed, his eyes still wide at the spectacle laid out before his True Sight. “I, ah, I’m not scared or anything, it’s just that..”

Skyle gestured vaguely in the direction of his mother’s aura, which encompassed the whole room and beyond. He could hardly understand how he could have missed it before, True Sight or not.

“You can see?” Adrienne whispered, her eyes going wide.

Skyle nodded numbly.

“Oh. I suppose that makes things easier. Here, hold on a second sweetheart,” Adrienne said cryptically. Just a moment later, Skyle stared yet again as that titanic aura slowly began to shrink back upon itself. It was no longer as imposing and eye-catching as before, but the compressed nature of the aura was like the folding of multiple sheets of paper upon itself. Eventually, the glow grew so dazzling that Skyle was forced to turn off his True Sight, lest he become stunned by the sheer complexity of the aura’s weaves.

Having shed himself of the True Sight, Skyle noted that the immense pressure he had felt before was now completely gone. Instead, only his mother stood at arm’s length, gazing at her son with a worried, hesitant look upon her face.

“Ma, it’s alright, I understand,” Skyle slowly stepped toward his mother, throwing his arms around her shoulders. “I just need to know, just what is Sanctuary, and what happened between me and Ria in the first place?”

Adrienne’s eyes grew turbid as her gaze grew distant for a moment, but then she quickly shook her head and nodded to Skyle.

“You deserve to know the truth now. How much do you know about Sanctuary?”

“Only that a Guardian dwells within, and some Goddess apparently rules over the entire place. Other than that, I only know that it is connected both to our world, and another world far beyond.”

Adrienne nodded slowly. “I see. Then I should start from the beginning. I will tell you as much as I dare to now, Skyle. This is because some secrets have power unto themselves, and you are not yet strong enough to bear such a burden. But it is only right that you should understand who you are, and why you are so special.”

Skyle nodded firmly.

“You know me as Adrienne Farrow, but in truth, before I was wed to your father, I was known as Arienne Lyrianis. I was the daughter of a powerful family in my old world. It is this world which lies at the other end of Sanctuary. This world is known by its people as Lyria, and is ruled by a single Empress who sits upon the Crystal Throne.”

“When I wed your father and conceived you, I ran afoul of the Crystal Throne. For you see, Lyria is ruled by the power of the bloodlines, and of the three major Houses, mine is the most ancient and exalted of all. For thousands of years, the power of our bloodline let our House prosper beyond all others, but such dominance came at a steep price. No male heirs were ever permitted to be born from our House. Upon birth, any males would immediately be put to the death, while girls would be trained since they could walk in order to learn to control the gift within our blood. For such is the power of our bloodline, that males would eventually be driven mad by its call.”

“I was given a choice, my little Sky. I could either allow them to reap your life, or drink the Aktaris and become a Gestahl - a barren one. Aktaris is a mystical plant which holds miraculous healing properties when processed properly. However, when drunk in its purest form, it is the most feared poison in all of Lyria, as well as its most incurable one. Aktaris sears the talent from the veins of any person who consumes it, rendering them unable to wield a wick of elemental talent. Beyond that, it also shortens a person’s lifespan by half, aging them before their time. There is no cure, and the process is irreversible once it takes root.”

“As you can guess, I drank the Aktaris, and was immediately banished from my own House. I found it strange then that we were allowed, even encouraged to find our way to Sanctuary, where we thought we would find a way back to your father’s world. Our enemies did not pursue us, and thus I thought our hour of greatest peril had passed. Only later would I realize it was all part of our enemies’ plot.”

“Upon our arrival in Sanctuary, I realized that my life had irrevocably changed. I was surrounded by danger, yet I could not rely upon the powers I had once taken for granted. Only your father’s ceaseless efforts saw me overcome those long days of suffering. However, in the end the siren call of the elements proved too strong. Night after night, I would cry softly to myself when your father left to hunt and care for our needs. It was only then that I would give voice to my grief over my inability to reach out to the elements. In the end, I resolved within my heart to take the coward’s way out. I decided that I would take my own life as soon as you were born, for a life without the elements seemed too bleak and harsh a world to my immature, privileged self.”

“It was only after the first month in Sanctuary that I began to feel a remarkable change upon my own body. I began to feel my talent returning, slowly but surely. Both your father and I foolishly thought it was some innate property of Sanctuary - perhaps the crystals we used to fuel our magic - acting to counteract the effects of the Aktaris. During the months that followed, my talent returned to me, even stronger than before I had taken the poison. It was an unprecedented miracle, but my joy quickly turned to despair when you were finally born.”

A hitch in Adrienne’s voice forced her to pause in her tale, but after a moment to compose herself, she continued.

“You were born whole, but broken, my little baby. Your skin was wrinkled before its time, dark veins spread all across your body from the Aktiris’ taint. It was only then that your father and I realized what had happened.”

“Little Sky, it is said that babies from our bloodline are gifted with cognitive powers from the very moment of conception, so strong is the power in our blood. You must have heard my bitter cries and suffering, and somehow began to draw all the poison in my body into yourself. Even before you were born, you decided to sacrifice your own life so that your mother could have her selfish wish to have her gift back.”

“Such terrible poison, how could a mere babe survive its wrath? Not only was the talent completely burned from your veins, you were born with the wrinkled, spotted skin of an old man. Your eyes were blind, and your voice cracked with the first cries you let out.”

“You don’t know the regret that burned my heart then, and the love that humbled my heart when I saw what you had done, and the pride I felt at the kind of soul my son had. I was so proud, and yet so broken. I wished then that I could give all my talent and life to nurture you back to health, but it was impossible. I watched as you began to die right in front of my eyes.”

“It was then that a child arrived. She spoke little, and only because of the gentle love I could see in her eyes did I allow her to approach you. She took you in her arms, and miraculously you began to heal, your skin restored to a healthy pink glow. She explained then that she was a wisp of the goddess’ will left in Sanctuary. She said that it was her duty to defend Sanctuary from the taint of the Aktaris, and its seed of darkness. This seed of darkness is the deadliest tool the Daemon Horde uses to enslave the worlds they seek to conquer. To our dismay, the child explained that a daemon taint had awakened in your blood. It was made worse after absorbing the corruption of the Aktaris, and its power grew from the divine power used to heal you.”

“She said then that the Aktaris used upon you was of a special breed. Aktaris was the key ingredient used by the Daemons to corrupt the hearts of men into their willing puppets. However, this seed of darkness used upon you had been especially forged with their foulest rituals knowing the potency of your blood, and that your father and I would try to take you back to Aeria with us. In one swift blow, they took me down, one of the most powerful young elementalists of Lyria, and at the same time sent a deadly gift to Aeria through your blood. They had assumed that you would be born with the dark taint of this special breed of Aktaris. This seed of darkness would feed upon your bloodline, and thus give birth to a daemon puppet of unprecedented power. They would create a dark emperor as the heir to their wicked legacy, and construct a new dreadgate for the Daemon Horde to invade Aeria once more.”

“The child goddess explained that she must stop this seed of darkness at all costs, else not only Aeria, but all of Sanctuary, and by extension even Lyria might fall under the Daemons’ ploy. Still, she admitted that she had sensed your spirit the moment we crossed over into Sanctuary from Lyria. She watched you grow, and saw the selfless, brave soul that you were. She did not wish to take your life, and proposed to sacrifice hers instead.”

“It would not be a true death, she explained. This is how she explained the process. She said that as a wisp of the Goddess’ will, it was within her powers to create a separate realm within Sanctuary. There, she would seal away the part of you that was tainted by the darkness. Only a thin connection would remain between your mortal body and this incorporeal self. So long as your mortal body did not stray too far from the rifts connecting Sanctuary to Aeria, this bond could be maintained. She would watch over you in that separate dimension, fortifying your will and nurturing your soul while stretching time for years far beyond our measure. Meanwhile, she tasked us to nurture your mind and body, that you may one day grow into a brave, capable man who would fight against the darkness within your own blood, and the threat of the Daemon horde besieging Sanctuary.”

“In the end, she said, you would one day awaken. It was our hope to delay that day as long as possible, so that you would enjoy as much of a normal childhood as we could give you, before you had to take up this long, exhausting fight against your own blood and the enemies who would seek to destroy you or control you. From the look in your eyes, I can see the child goddess has fulfilled her word.”

Skyle nodded then, and though his mind was still processing all these revelations, in his heart he could only think of the selfless sacrifice Ria had subjected herself to all these years.

“She told me once to give you a message, should you awaken and return with that hollow, desolate look upon your eyes. She said she would wait for you, and that she would always believe in you. She said you would understand.”

Skyle nodded at this. He did understand. He was now past tears, past grief and onto a new path he would forge for himself out of the blood of his enemies and the love of those closest to him.

Skyle was no longer a child, for he had sacrificed more than most adults ever had to, and seen horrors that would drive lesser men insane.

The time for games was done. He was now a warrior of this world. He would defend Aeria and Sanctuary from the Daemon threat, and would never relent until his foes lay vanquished at his feet. Most of all, he would once again be reunited with his love.

“ Ria, I will never let go.”

He would now become a newly forged blade, red hot from the heat of the crucible. He had been hammered, he had been tempered, and now his true grit would be tested by the blows and vicissitudes of fate.

He had the Desolate Star Technique in his mind, he had Moonshadow by his side, but most of all, he had Ria forever dwelling within the innermost sanctuary of his heart.

He was Skyle Arrow, and he would let the world know of his legend.

Fierce fighting intent blossomed from his heart, and a thick sea of shadows eddied in the air around Skyle as his eyes promised bloody vengeance upon any who would stand in his way.

“Sir, the storm approaches,” Talon said as he finished smoking his last cigar. He threw it down and crushed it beneath his heel.

“That it does. It will be the mother of all storms, mark my words,” Kendric said, his gaze scanning the distant horizon.

Talon could only nod his agreement. “This time, it is not only Shadow that has been mobilized. The Free Duchies are planning to flood these woods with their men of war, using the Draxas boy as an excuse. The Church has already assigned two other inquisitors to investigate and oversee the situation, along with their Papal Corps. The Conclave Arcana has sent word to the Imperial Court that a full team of grand magisters will be conducting their research in the area. The Linden Republic has mobilized their National Security Bureau, no doubt looking to squeeze whatever profit they can from the chaos that will ensue. Even the barbarian tribes of the North Wastes are sending their war parties - those hounds of war, they smell the blood in the air and are already baying for the hunt to begin.”

Talon shook his head as he turned his grim regard upon his master.

“Sir- No, Master Kennar, this time, not even the Empire, much less I, may be able to shield you and your family from the winds of conflict and war. Would you not consider moving, even if only for the next few years? The whole area will become a bloodbath sooner rather than later, even if our worst fears prove unfounded and there is no otherworldly invasion on the way.”

Kendric exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, rolling his pipe in between his teeth.

“So, it is all to become one massive clusterfuck, and the whole world is out to get us. So, what else is new?” He chuckled darkly.

Almost as if to answer his words, a thick killing intent could be felt from within the house. Being veterans, both Kendric and Talon could feel it radiating an aura almost like the hot smell of freshly forged steel and the heat of the fiery crucible that had birthed it.

Immediately afterward, a sense of unease filled their hearts as a shadow briefly passed over their heads, as though the grim reaper itself had just hovered with its life-reaping scythe on top of their fates.

The feeling was gone almost as soon as it came, but the unmistakable feeling of deadly peril had Talon reaching for his weapon once more.

“Sir, what was that?” Talon asked.

Kendric threw a glance over his shoulder toward his house.

“Oh, that’s just my son. Looks like he’ll pull through alright, after all. Lucky me, right?”

The grin Kendric displayed then was all teeth, and once again Talon reflected that his master never did anything by halfway measures.