Spellcaster series #5: The Sage

Acceptance

TRISTAN

Captain Bells and her two detectives' cold gazes fell on me. Bells sat in the chair in front of me while the other two stood behind her. Casey's arms were folded across her torso while Payton's were loose by his sides.

"If your story checks out, Sir Tristan, we'll let you off with a warning," Bells warned. Her hands were on the table.

I responded with nothing. My hands were still cuffed.

"What happened to you, sir?" Her eyes were full and sympathetic this time.

I stared into the table. Its metallic sheen reflected her face and Casey's. Payton's Vampiric image was a blur.

"I know you won't leave a man to die unless it's to protect your family."

I shut my eyes and sighed.

"His wife lives with him," Casey voiced with clarity, "I'm sure of it."

Bells raised her eyebrows. "Then that makes a whole lot of sense."

"But Captain, we—"

"Leave us alone, detectives," the Captain interrupted.

Casey hesitated but Payton ushered her out. They left the interrogation room and it was just the Bells and me.

"I heard you gave up on your title before they took it from you. Is that true?"

I nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Bells nodded. Her tone was gentler. "Well, your secret is out. They know who you are now."

I remained silent.

"From the looks of it, you have thrown away more than just your title. You're throwing away your past."

"You're observant."

"I'm a Captain," she smiled. Then her tone became sombre. "You are a good man, sir. Whatever that haunts your past, I'm sure your present can fix it."

"What if I cannot?" I asked despite myself. "I opened a man's throat to save the one I love."

She shrugged. "Personally, I believe that's justified. But only because that man was Dean Ryans."

"He was a man nonetheless."

"And he was a man when he killed his family. I was on that case."

Bells stood up from her chair and walked around the table to me. Her brown eyes darted back and forth.

"Sir, you need to accept the past. Like you said, things happen for a reason."

"I never told anyone," I spoke, choosing my words carefully, "but I dream of his face every night."

She leaned against the table and folded her arms. "We all need to accept our rights and wrongs and see that our present selves can fix our self-inflicting punishment. Dean Ryans is dead and gone. And so is Heidi. But you're—"

I turned to her so quickly that she stopped speaking immediately. I frowned.

"Captain? What do you mean by that?"

She shrugged. "When we punish ourselves, we tend to—"

"No, after that. The one about Heidi."

There was a flicker of doubt in her eyes. "Sir, don't you remember her execution?"

I shook my head. "Captain, you must've been mistaken. I broke her out of prison a week before her execution."

"But...my former partner was there, he saw the whole thing! He said she died on the noose. Even the interim Sage was there."

I was about to ask her more when Detective Casey barged into the room. There was a commotion outside.

"Captain," Casey spoke, "that Vampire girl wants to speak to the suspect. She says it's urgent."

* * *

Flames engulfed the wooden cabin as thick smoke rose into the night sky. Hundreds of crows perched on the roof, black eyes on us. Captain Bells held her radio to her lips and spoke into it.

"The fire department is on their way!" She told me.

I ran up the steps and through the opened front door. The wooden roof above was caving in. I pulled out my wand and cried, "Frozium!"

The fires consumed my spell. Alicia appeared behind me.

"These are the flames of Synto's dark magic, it will absolve any magic you cast!"

"Where is my family?" I cried above the roaring flames.

She sped off in search of them. I scanned the living area and kitchen. All the bedroom doors were shut. I kicked Ada's bedroom door and coughed as I inhaled the smoke. I covered my nose and mouth with the sleeve of my coat. I kicked my bedroom door down and a burst of flames released outwards, knocking me back. I coughed hard and felt the smoke in my lungs.

"Sir! I brought your mother and daughter outside. They're safe!" The Vampire shouted above the roaring flames.

She held me up. I gathered as much energy as I could just to steady myself.

"Let's get out of here!" Alicia tugged my elbow but I shrugged her off.

I went further into the cabin. The basement door was shut. I coughed into my sleeve and breathed. And coughed again. I took a step back and booted the door, bursting it open. Alicia found Butters meowing frantically, eyes round and wide. She picked him up and darted out of the cabin.

"Heidi!" I yelled into the basement.

She was slumped by the wall as Khûl Nir, in its true form, raised its black claws.

The words of my mother echoed in my head; being a Sage wasn't a title. It was a birth right. I channeled my energy and all that I could gather inside me, the same way I did once some years ago when I faced Grand Master Ingram. In those seconds right before the djinn made its attack, I held out my wand and pointed to it as I projected all of my energy out. A massive lightning bolt shot out onto the djinn, constricting and holding it down.

After Heidi killed it with her blade, I coughed hard and pressed a palm on my chest, spent from having to use almost all of my energy for the Sage's elemental spell. Still, I gathered what was left it and raced down the steps to hold her. I tried to teleport us out of there but between my depleted energy and smoke inhalation, I could not channel anything inside me.

"Hang in there, Tristan," Heidi whispered into my ear and teleported us out just as the ceiling of the basement caved in.