Nameless Ghoul

Pep Talk

Itzal walked through the gardens of the Abbey in a daze. His mind was reeling from what Secondo had just told him. The idea needed a lot more research and planning, and they weren’t even sure if it would definitely work. Secondo had wanted to keep Itzal in the loop about it because, ultimately, the decision was his if he wanted to go ahead with it.

The only way out of his one-on-one bond with Santos was death. If one died, then the other would follow. According to the Ghoulish scrolls that Shay provided, after Itzal's death, the magic that bound the collar to him using his life force would cease to exist. The collar would then split, falling from his neck, ready to be used for the next unfortunate ghoul to be enslaved by the Santos dynasty. He knew this already, though. Santos had educated him on that much, at least.

But the Emeritus dynasty, being the heads of the Clergy, had skills. Each Emeritus brother had a power given to him by Satan himself on the day of his ascension to Papa.

Primo could command the elements in his locality, the weather, the earth, and the water. He was so attuned to nature that he could make plants grow with a mere thought.

Secondo had enhanced magical abilities when compared to his brothers and rumour had it, he could read your thoughts, which Itzal could easily believe.

Terzo - as he had already demonstrated - could command Hellfire and electricity.

But Papa Emeritus IV was the key to their plan. His skill was necromancy, and he could raise the dead. Secondo’s master plan involved Itzal becoming very dead. He would then be turned over to Papa, who would, all being well, bring him back to life again. A bonus side effect of this would be that when Itzal died, so did Santos, and thus the threat to the Emeritus dynasty would be neutralised.

Their only hesitancy was that something like this had never been attempted before, as far as they knew. Therefore, there were several unknown variables that they couldn’t predict.

Firstly, when they broke Itzal’s bond, would the summoning be reversed and would he bounce back to his home dimension immediately? Or would he remain here? Shay wasn’t sure, but they thought he would likely be sent home.

Secondly, because his summoning and binding were not the standard ritual, the bond may not behave in the same as they’d seen previously. They did not know what fail-safes Santos had built into his ritual. He had access to hundreds of years’ worth of dark magic tomes running right back through the Santos family. The spell he'd used to bind Itzal could have different rules and behave differently than that of a normal binding spell.

Thirdly, and this was the most important of the variables, Papa had never attempted to bring a ghoul back from the dead. He had reanimated small animals whilst practicing, and he and the witches had brought back his brothers after the unfortunate business with Sister Imperator. So far, though, ghouls were an unknown territory. They possessed a soul, which was the main thing needed for bringing something back from the veil, so everyone was hopeful.

Itzal wasn’t sure what to feel about it. For so long, he hadn’t cared whether he lived or died. If anything, the option to die would have been preferable. But now? Now that he was staring death in the face, he was hesitant, scared even. What if they couldn't bring him back? What if they could?

He found himself in the herb garden, which was what eventually brought him to his senses. The smell of the familiar ritual herbs brought him back to Earth with a thud. He quickly turned around to leave and get somewhere away from the scents that set his nerves on edge.

As he was walking, he saw Omega sitting on one of the stone benches that were dotted around amongst the plants, smoking a cigarette. Omega looked up and smiled at him, motioning for him to join him. He greeted him and sat down at the other end of the bench. The bigger ghoul offered him a cigarette and he gratefully accepted it.

Omega frowned at him.

“What’s troubling you, my friend?” he asked. Itzal sighed and explained Secondo’s plan. Omega looked thoughtful. “It all depends how much you desire freedom. This is your chance to be truly free, Itzal. How often have you dreamed of being free of Santos?”

Itzal smiled a humourless smile as he thought about that. He opened up to Omega once again, and he realised he'd begun to think of him as a friend.

“In the beginning, when I was first summoned, I thought of freedom constantly. I still had hope then. I was young and I believed that someone would come and rescue me or that maybe Santos would make a mistake and I’d be able to escape or overpower him. As the years went on though, I realised it was never going to happen. The hope died out and I stopped thinking about freedom because it just became too painful for me. I was only torturing myself, thinking about freedom. I preferred to stay numb to everything. I had nothing to cling onto. I just existed. It was easier than actually living through it all.”

Omega nodded sadly.

“There is always hope, but nobody can blame you for losing yours.”

Itzal rubbed his hands down his face and blew out a harsh breath.

“It's just so hard to let myself hope again. Secondo just dangled hope in front of me and it scares the absolute shit out of me. I’m so tired of it all. A big part of me wants to say just don’t bother bringing me back.”

Omega chuckled.

“And what do you think Sunshine would have to say about that?” Itzal wasn’t so sure about that, and Omega must have picked up on his uncertainty. “Okay, seeing as you’re doubting her wrath, I’ll spell it out for you. There is no hiding anything from that ghoulette. I’m going to make an educated guess and say that she already knows you better than you know yourself. Sunshine's got an eerie ability to figure people out. That’s why she puts up with Alpha’s shit. She knows exactly how he feels about her, and she feels guilty that she doesn’t feel the same. But you, for whatever reason, she’s decided that you are worth all the stress and the pain and the heartache that she already knows you’re going to bring her. I’ve been around a while and I can see things that others can’t, and you two? You just fit together. I can see a bond there. Even if it doesn’t exist yet, I know it will. Hell, anyone can see it. It’s that obvious. You need to get past all that shit, Itzal. Sunshine already knows that you come with more baggage than your average ghoul. She knows what’s happened to you. Life is never going to be easy for you both, but she doesn’t care about that. She’s picked you and if you just give up on your one shot at freedom? She is going to be pissed. That slap that she gave to Alpha today? That was nothing compared to how she’ll be," he said as he shook his head. "Her mother is a fire ghuleh so she gets the best of both worlds. She gets the sight and the intuition of an air ghoul, and the red hot temper and the lust for life of a fire ghoul. So you’ve just got to cut the shit and go for it. It works both ways. I can see that you don’t want to admit it to yourself. It’s a defence mechanism thing, I get it. But you can’t hide it that well. This is definitely a mutual thing between the two of you. Don’t piss Sunshine off, for the sake of us all, please.”

Itzal stared open-mouthed at Omega. He knew the ghoul was astute, but hearing that come from someone else was like being doused with a bucket of iced water. Omega laughed when he saw Itzal’s face.

“Sorry, but it needed to be said. Just try to keep her happy, will you?”