Chapter 3

I woke up in a strange place before I could open my eyes I felt myself laying on something soft and warm.

It was a bed, though I was sleeping on my front side my back was still stinging from pain.

I tried to wake up but heard a gentle voice saying.

“You need to rest little boy; your wounds have yet to heal.” She said. A woman that I didn’t who she was.

“Where am I?” I asked

“You are in the manor of Master Yo Ling. He took you in until your wounds are healed, you should be grateful.”

“I am, I really am…” I said as I thought about what happened then.

I then drifted back to sleep.

The next time I woke up I was feeling better, I managed to stand on my own, though there was some pain it was tolerable. I stood up and looked at the room I was in.

The first thought that came to my mind was

How the hell can someone afford to equip a room like this?

Jade vases, murals, weapons of all kinds on the walls and a carpet that was smoother than silk. The bed itself was huge, I even felt afraid that I might have dirtied it.

However looking at my appearance, I was shocked to see a new me,

I looked at an enormous mirror on the wall and saw myself.

I was dressed in a white shirt and pants, my skin was paler than I remember, but not the bad kind of pale. My hair was cut short and handled with care.

My face looked much better than the last time I saw it…

I had a slim face, looked like a triangle, a small scar on my right cheek, barely visible, probably from a beating I took when I was younger, my eyebrows were rather thick, but my eyes were black as night. my nose was not too long or too wide, just about right. All in all… I honestly looked alright…

Is that really me?

A shadow passed behind me as I saw it in the mirror and turned.

“You seem to be admiring yourself, I would never have thought that under all of that would lay a handsome young man.” said the same womanly voice that I heard before.

“You are?”

“I am the head maid in this house, I took care of you on the orders of the master.”

“Thank you for your hospitality and sorry for the inconvenience!” I hastily said as I bowed in respect to the treatment

“Don’t worry about it. It was master’s orders. He also said that if you do feel better, then you should meet him in the courtyard.”

“Right away” I replied

“You should wear something more formal than that. You don’t want to meet the lord dressed in sleeping clothes.”

They consider these sleeping clothes? If I owned these clothes, I would treasure them…

“I am sorry to inform you, but I don’t think I have anything else to wear, the last thing I had was torn by some guy…”

“Don’t worry about that, I already prepared something for you to wear.”

“Really? Thank you!”

I said to her then I just remembered… who the hell dressed me?

“You should wear this,” she said as she handed me a set of clothes.

They were…a set of black cotton pants and a long sleeve shirt to match with shoes and a pair of socks.

“Are these for me?”

“Yes, now hurry up, there will be a maid in wait to accompany you to where the master is”

“Alright, mam…” I said as I waited for her to leave the room.

She took notice and smiled bashfully... yet she didn’t say anything and left.

I think I know who changed my clothes… I thought to myself as my face heated up a bit.

Putting on the clothes and leaving the room I met the maid that was waiting for me.

She, however, unlike the gentler looking head maid was rather stoic and cold, she had a tall frame, her face was oval face along with a small nose and high cheekbones. She wore glasses and a long hair in braids. Her face was rather… emotionless, but you could clearly see her beauty and elegance as she moved leading the way after signaling me to follow her.

As I did I admired the scenery, the long hall was decorated with all kinds of portrays of people and battle scenes, even some had the picture of a dragon, a red mighty looking dragon.

I felt like I was taking a walk in history. But the walk soon ended as we reached the next corner where we were supposed to go down a long set of stairs.

The whole place was marvelous and whoever was responsible for decorations didn’t spare a single coin to make it look more refined.

A girl then walked by. She was not a servant as she was younger, she wore elegant clothing. She had a fiery orange dress that had long sleeves and covered her back and would only show a bit of her neckline, she had a bright red hair color that looked like if it would burn any that touched it. She looked to be in her youth, probably fifteen years of age…

However, she was not smiling, and signs of clear exhaustion could be seen on her.

“M-Melinda,” she asked

“Yes my lady!” said the woman who’s cold expressions changed to those of worry the moment she saw the girl.

“I need more ice…I can’t take it anymore… it's too hot.”

Too hot? The weather is actually rather nice I thought to myself.

“Right away! She said, and she turned to me saying with a cold tone.”

“Don’t move from here and wait until I come back.”

I was then left alone with the ‘lady’ who was sitting on the floor with clear signs of fever.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked

The girl looked at me and said

“Who might you be? I never saw you before… are you one of the servant’s relative?”

Though she tried to say that in a dignified manner, the fever made her efforts go in vain as she was clearly suffering from something.

What a terrible feeling I am feeling right now.

If only I could do something to help this young girl… but it seems that the maid will be bringing help to her.

“Akari!” cried the old man as he ran towards the stairs and up to where we were.

That old man’s gentle look changed instantly to those of worry and panic. The master of the house Ling worried over this girl.

“F-Father!” she cried out

So she is his daughter!

The maid called Milenda then came with many other servants holding buckets of ice.

“Hurry up!” he said as they began pouring ice on the girl.

I looked at what was happening and noticed that the ice itself would instantly melt the moment it touches the girl causing large amounts of smoke to rise.

She was like a burning inferno.

“God damn it… Hold on a little longer my daughter, it won’t take long before the side effects are gone… just a few more days” said the man clearly out of the conviction of his own words.

“What is going on here?” I asked

“Ah, you are here lad… This is a family business you don’t need to bother yourself with it…”

“Ah sorry to intervene in your family business, but I thought I could help…”

“Help?” said the maid “The best doctors and medics, mages and saints came here and were unable to do so and you orphaned beggar think you can help?”

Her words actually made me feel hurt. However I could not blame her, I am not from their world. They must have lived in great wealth and in a higher position in society, so why should she even consider one of a lower class, and more so, why should she even consider an orphaned ‘Beggar’s’ feelings…

The girl looked to be in more duress than it seems as her facial expressions conveyed pain and agony, it was rather painful to look at. To look at someone that weak and that exposed while no one could help.

“What did you mean by you could help?” asked the old man, at tear point.

The strong, powerful hero of flame, the one that is the richest within this city and most influential looked meek and powerless at this point… what a sad thing to see…

“Sir, he is but a nobody, I know of a strong fire magician that can probably help, he is one of my relatives, and I think he would be more willing to help us with his vast knowledge, it would take just a few days for him to show up.”

“She doesn’t have a few days,” I said

They then looked at me with anger

“You are looking at the situation from the wrong point of view,” I added

“What do you mean?” said the old man, a bit interested, yet with a hint of hidden anger to his tone.

“I-I somehow am able to see the magic that is running rampant within her… what you all did was that you are tired to suppress it, block it and let it die out… the ‘fire’ within the girl is out of balance, she must reach for balance.

‘the hell am I saying? Where did I get such knowledge over such thing?’

“Balance? What is balance?”

“She needs to surrender to the flame, the more she fights, the stronger it will get until she is able to resist no more. The more she struggles, the less power she will have when the flame takes over, and if she doesn’t have enough, her body will die…” I said

“How would you know such a thing?”

“For one to hold power… one needs to be in the balance… that is what my book said, and that is what my instinct is telling me.”

“And how do we reach for balance?” said the girl in a weak voice.

“You can’t…” I replied

The others felt the world crashing on them once I spoke the words…

“To reach balance you must be in perfect harmony with your body and soul, you are struggling tired and exhausted, you will never reach such a state alone… but I can help” I said

These words I said, I knew not why I said them or why I was saying them or what guided me to say them. Yet they were spoken without my will… what followed soon made me tremble…

I raised my right hand, and the black book appeared from thin air. It floated, and the pages turned until an empty page was left.

Two words were written

“Give blood.”

And I did, as I grabbed a sword from the ones within the walls and cut my right wrist, However, unlike the first time, the cut was significant, and a huge amount of blood poured down my wrist.

Though I was disgusted and afraid, I had no will or control over what was happening.

I tried to will my hand to stop but it didn’t, and then I heard.

“Don’t struggle master!, don’t be afraid, we are one, and I shall be your guide

Once the blood poured down the pages of the book, a new page filled with scribbles appeared.

The cut on my right hand was sealed

“Blood magic!” cried a maid and the old man was alerted, he even tried to stop me with force. However out of nowhere

“Don’t disturb me!” I spoke with a vicious and ancient voice, a voice that was not mine.

Red thorns of blood, much larger much stronger and much too scary appeared from the ground and sealed the movement of everyone present, the long spiky thorns made sure that no one was going to move.

“Holy shit whoever you are, and whatever you are trying to do, please stop! That guy is the lord of this city, and you are going to get us killed, if he gets pissed he will turn us to ash!”

“He won’t dare do such a thing, we have his daughter under our control.”

“What the hell are you doing you fiend!” cried the man but he couldn’t move

“I will burn you to ash if you don’t stop what you are doing!”

“Try it, it will only lead to the death of many innocent lives, I am trying to help you. Don’t do anything you will regret.”

“Holy shit! You are threatening the lord! You will get us killed!”

“I fear not death.”

“But I do!”

“With me, nothing should terrify you, have faith,” he said as he dropped to his knees or, our knees.

The girl in question looked terrified, wet and unable to speak or move, she would look at her father with eyes filled with fear, but he couldn’t move as the thorns were on his skin, making it bleed a bit.

“Don’t touch her!” he cried

I moved my hand forward and said the word

“Sleep!”

And she fell unconscious,

My right hand began channeling the energy within her, making it move towards different spots within her body. As I Looked, the fire was gathered within her abdomen, now with the guidance of my right hand, it moved towards every place within her body; Through her chest, her head her members and everywhere in between. The torrent began to settle down, and her face began to feel at ease. She was recovering

“This should do it… the flame of a dragon needs not to be imprisoned by a weak-willed being else it would devour its wielder” I said as I stood back up. I looked at everyone who was still shocked at what just happened and willed the thrones to disappear, all of this happening without my accord.

“What did you do?” asked the old man who was clearly seething with rage.

Yet before I could answer him, I fell face first….

My mind went into darkness as I was unable to register what happened, the last thing I heard was the sound of the book falling near me as I drifted once again into unconsciousness.

Darkness welcomed me, I felt afraid yet somehow familiar with this darkness, looking around I could only sense that there was something old and terrifying, yet it was not trying to harm me, no it was beckoning me… calling for me… asking me to go forward and reach for it.

So I plunged into darkness, moving forward until the darkness suddenly disappeared by the appearance of a glowing white orb that turned the black domain into a white void.

The glowing orb then became a huge black throne made of bones, and a figure sat on it.

He was huge in size to match the throne he was atop, as I barely made it to his knee.

The man or thing had its whole body covered in a long black cloak with a hood to cover his face. Only two dark red pupils could be seen through the darkness of his face. Behind him and atop the throne lay a giant scythe, its wooden part was made of an old looking dark wood, while the blade was made from some sort of dark blue metal the bladeless part had spikes growing on it.

It looked like It would cause a lot of pain if one was struck with that thing…

It got its face closer to mine and said

“Greetings Master, you seem to have picked up my Book, or that the Book had picked you. I am Nocturne, As for what am I, this shall be divulged once you uncover more of the Book’s secrets… Kekekeke”

He said as he began to laugh frighteningly chilling manner.

I probably need an exorcist…I think I was possessed by some sort of grim reaper…