Damian Black - The Order of the Night (English Version)

Memories - Chapter 16

"I should probably solve the paralysis." He and Aidan had been sitting side by side on the carriage for several hours, while Liz and Susy recovered in the back.
"If you want."
"Yes, if the others survived, they should be gone by now."
It was just a guess, but his magic still stole a lot of his power.
"Lýste ti mageía."
He exhaled tiredly, the energy he had before had been extinguished. He had seldom been so exhausted.
On the horizon he could already see the sunset, the beautiful red tones told nothing of the gray that had taken place a few hours earlier.
"Aidan, tell me what does it all mean? Did the hatred of people make me so strong?"
"No," he replied almost meekly. "Your memories, your knowledge, everything has been sealed. This destructive hatred was just the key."
"So is this prophecy true?"
"No," he contradicted him again. "It's all much more complicated. I'll set your memories free soon. Then you'll understand everything."
Damian yawned, despite what Aidan told him, it had been good to let all his emotions run free.
The next moment his thoughts jumped to Liz and again anger shot up in him. "Why don't you want me to hate this traitor?"
"Because she is the least to blame for all of this." He remarked dryly.
"How do you mean?"
"Liz, is nothing more than a puppet. Since she was a child, these seizures she has been due to her own will of trying to achieve freedom."
"That means everything she did ..." he paused and stared at Aidan.
"Yeah, was nothing more than orders she obeyed."
"That she saved me, betrayed me, set me free and betrayed me again?" "Exactly, but she resisted it incredibly with you. That's why all the seizures." Damian swallowed hard, so that meant that she actually wanted to protect him. The real her. A shiver slipped down his spine.
"That also means every conversation she had with me."
"Yes she was forced too, everything she said and did wasn't really her. Well except maybe for the selfhate."
He rubbed his chin.
"Aidan tell me all about her."
He demanded, the guy he should mistrust more than anyone else.
But with this magic he could kill him without any problems.
"Liz is not really daughter of the general and his wife."
He started the story.
"The priest brought her with him when he appeared in the Order. Since she could walk, her real self has been suppressed.
The memories rewritten and erased. Her character adapted and punished with these attacks every time she became rebellious.
On the day she killed her adoptive mother, she had over ten of these attacks, and almost died from them by herself.
As hard as the priest tried, it was no longer possible for Liz to kill people without having an immediate attack. She probably doesn't even have a personality of her own, let alone the will to live.
I have released all spells from her, it will probably take several days before she wakes up again. I don't know any more, I'm sorry. "
Damian had seldom been so speechless in his life, so Liz had only been a victim of this macabre game.
He clenched his fists.
"Wait a minute, the priest is incredibly old, how can Liz be fifteen when he arrived in the Order decades ago." "There are magicians who are very powerful. Like this priest, he regularly rewrote the memories of the people in the order so that Liz would not attract attention." Aidan explained.
"Liz was not only the adoptive daughter of the current general, but also of the three previous ones.
In addition, magicians hardly age outwardly. The man only looks so old because he wants it."
Who was she anyway, if everything was just an act.
Then who was the real Liz?
How old was she, where did this priest come from?
More and more questions shot through his mind. 'Please rescue me.'
He winced. His head shot again at Aidan who was still driving the carriage.
"In my dreams, I saw Liz, she told me to save her."
Aidan's head shot off the street and the two stared straight into each other's eyes.
"Well, that could be because you communicated with her subconscious through magical bonds."
A smile slipped over his lips.
"That would be impressive considering that your magic was actually sealed." He mumbled more to himself now.
"So are we all magicians?"
"Exactly."
"This darkness?"
"Caused by magic."
Oh man, he grabbed his head.
"What about the rest of the scouts?"
"All magicians, the warriors are only distant like us. They can just do eye magic, probably their ancestors from long ago were like us."
"That means Sasha, Marco and everyone else are against humanity?" "Very likely. I don't know Selim, the boy is a mystery to me."
"What's the real goal of the Scouts."
"Simple, fing other wizards and bring them to hate people."
"And why did you decide to betray this priest?"
"Because I'm an idiot." Aidan started laughing. It was an open and heartfelt laugh that he had never heard from him before.
"So you really hate people?" he inquired cautiously and Aidan's laughter stopped.
"Yes, I hated humans."
Before he continued talking, he turned into a forest road. "But today I realized that we are also monsters. You and these volunteers showed me that it is also possible to be friends with humans. Just because people were taken from you, you started to hate people."
He looked shyly at the path in front of him.
"It's such a stupid reason."
He sounded incredibly frustrated with what he said. Damian let his gaze slide through the forest, branches were everywhere and the ground seemed to be churned.
The smell of the forest tickled his nose slightly. In the distance Damian saw a forest hut.
"And why should I trust you now?"
He questioned Aidan's intentions. "Because otherwise I wouldn't have betrayed the priest."
He meant dryly.
"We must be out of this country in three months."
"How so?"
"Otherwise the master will erease all lose our memories and our power again. We are the traitors of our race." "The priest?"
Aidan shook his head in pain.
"No, Alajos Michaelis."
"Who's that?"
"As soon as we are in the hut, I will release your memories. Then you will have all the important information."
He replied instead of giving him a satisfactory answer.
"Well, I don't understand anything." Damian was startled when he heard Susy pulling back the cloth and peering forward at them.
"Magician, puppets, manipulation, are you sure that this is true and that you haven't lost your mind Aidan?"
She teased and began to laugh softly. But Aidan just kept quiet and pressed his lips together.
"Nice that you're awake again."
He greeted Susy and gave her a gentle but tired smile.
"What happened in the cave", she stopped and clenched her teeth. Nobody said a word anymore, everyone was aware of how cruel that had been. Not just what their opponents had done, but also what Damian had done. In retrospect, he was almost ashamed that he had lost control.
"Thanks Susy. For stopping me."
"You really scared me. You looked like a monster."
Susy shivered before a few tears ran down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry." Aidan's words made both of their jaws drop.
"If I would have acted earlier." He paused and visibly struggled with himself. "I'm sorry."
Now Aidan began to cry too, softly, barely noticeably. Only Damian himself was again in control of his own emotions.
"Aidan," he heard himself say after a few moments. "Don't give me my memories until tomorrow. It's all too much for me right now."
The last words came only softly from his lips.
The magician nodded without saying anything, tears still running down his cheeks.