The Relistar | Ch. 9

0 0 0
                                    

A chuckle rumbled in Cedric's mind.

  He pounded a fist against his head, shuffling and shivering through the knee-high results of the blizzard.

  The rush of the Relistar's teleportation still rattled his skull.

  IT WAS FUN, WAS IT NOT?

  Cedric said nothing.

  DON'T YOU MISS THE ECSTASY OF IT ALL?

  "Shut up." he growled.

  YOU CAN'T RESIST YOUR LUST FOR WARFARE. FEW SOLDIERS CAN OUTRUN IT...

  "I'm a pacifist–"

  Serkukan chuckled again, ONLY BECAUSE I PERMITTED YOU TO LIVE AS SUCH. FOR A TIME.

  "Clearly you're through permitting me anything other than torment."

  With a swift summoning of Serkukan's reality-weaving magic, his armor and satchel were right back upon him in a blink.

  The rain had cleared again to make way for snow, and it had become impossible to tell that it had ever rained at all beneath the dense frost. His leather kit and the clothes underneath were useless against the frigidity. He reached for his amulet every few minutes, forgetting that it had shattered, either during the fight or from when the churning magic from his crimson gemstone cast him away into the forest.

  He swallowed his guilt again. The same guilt that he had been swallowing for hours since waking, and would swallow for hours more until his death.

  "Why do I see that vision every time I use the crystal?"

  Serkukan did not respond.

  "Nelreign." he glared at its highest stone tower, barely visible in the distance, while the rest of the castle hid behind snow-topped pine trees. Blue banners dangled down from the curved windows, with gold accents and sigils to signify the lord of the castle. "That damn place... if only I had let Rog take the crystal, I wouldn't be in this mess..."

  YOU'D BE DEAD. AND THAT IS NOT HOW THE RELISTAR FUNCTIONS.

  Cedric rolled his eyes and dropped down against the base of a tree. "Then why me?"

  WE'VE BEEN THROUGH THIS BEFORE, BOY. I DO NOT KNOW. PERHAPS IT SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST QUESTION TO LLESTREN'VATIS ONCE WE MEET HIM.

  "While I'm at it, maybe I should pluck his damn wings off..."

  THEY'LL GROW BACK. BUT IF YOU SO BADLY WANT ALGIRAK TO WIN, I CAN KILL US BOTH RIGHT NOW.

  The Relistar grew hotter in his pocket.

  He kicked the snow at his feet. "It's just talk. Just empty, meaningless words. Of course I'm not going to let Algirak win... What's the point in that? Not like I can help it, anyway..."

  The silence embraced them then, and he felt a strange unease against the hairs of his neck.

  "Light me a fire," he commanded.

  In a single instant, the snow ahead cleared to make way for a stone-ringed bonfire. He shuddered, startled by the stillness of the leylines around them. A magic with its own source of energy... the Lunars were right...

  He stared off into the distance for a long time without moving. His eyes did not seem to interpret much, until they suddenly recognized the outline of a spiked figure of ice about the height of a man, which had been creeping up on him for as long as he had been drifting off. "Frost cacti, and we're hardly even north yet..."

The RelistarWhere stories live. Discover now