Lionheart

Kraven

"I am the reason your father died" these words kept resonating in Linley's ears and his mind as he walked the stranger to his house.

In an attempt to start a conversation the man said "my name is Maud" to a bit of his surprise Linley answered "Mr. Maud you say you were my father's duo right" in a faint voice he said "yes", "then I bet you know a lot about him" Maud smiled and said "I know a lot about him" this was quite what Linley was expecting to hear , he always wanted to know more about his father , that was that how he was as a mage , people gave him little information and normal people were not allowed into the academy thus this was his best chance to talk about it .

"Please tell me about my father" said Linley "I will son but this is something for later lets go to your home then I'll tell you all you want to know iff you listen to me first , Ok? " Linley thought for a moment and said "As you wish Sir".

They walked for sometime none of them spoke they were as quiet as a grave, then they reached Linley's house and he said "we are here" the man looked at the house and said "this is Carson's house isn't it" Linley was shocked and said "Yes, it is but how do you know this?" The man looked at Linley and said "Because he was my friend when I studied in the academy ".

The man stopped as they reached Linley's house, Linley opened the door and called for his aunt Jean "Yes Linley" and he saw her coming and she saw Maud she said "Maud.....could it be " an expression of shock clearly appeared on her face and she rushed inside calling for her husband who did not take much time in showing up , Maud and Carson exchanged glances for a few seconds then the silence was broken as Carson laughed and said "You've grown skinny " and both of them started laughing heavily Carson seated him and said "Bring us some tea please " pointing towards Jean , she quickly went to the kitchen and brought some tea, Linley stood there confused and thought that if Carson knew of him why did he not tell me before, a lot of questions came to his mind at that time .

As he stood there thinking his uncle called him "Come here and sit Lin " Linley hesitated then sat amongst them Maud looked at him and said "Linley I know you are small to know of this but still you have the right to know it " wrinkles appeared on Carson's forehead as he heard this and he said "Are you sure Maud , he's still a kid " Maud seemed as if he was in deep confusion, looking at him Linley said "Know what Mr. Maud? " Maud looked at him and said "About your father's death Linley" .

Linley was shocked he thought that he had always wondered of this and now he had the opportunity to know of his father so without thinking any further his gaze plodded towards Muad and he said "I want to know , please tell me ". A dull expression appeared on Carson's face and he said "Very well then but let me apologize first Linley for I knew and never told you" Linley shook his head and said nothing further but looked at Maud impatiently waiting for him to start.

"Ok, then let me start, mages in a duo when graduate from the academy and prove themselves are assigned on quests , me and your father were exceptionally good with our quests so one day the director asked us that if we would accept a tough mission , me and Kraven had never failed a mission thus we were quite overconfident and said yes without thinking.

Our mission was to check out the spiritual disturbances that had been occurring frequently throughout the village, handling spirits is very tough as one wrong move and the spirit would possess a mage and siphon his life force until there was nothing left. Me and Kraven knew it, but still we were not cautious. When we started our investigation it looked like a normal spiritual disturbance, but as we moved closer to the source we were taken aback to see that the reason to those disturbances was actually a Forsworn mage, we thought of reporting it to the Head Mage but It could be too late as we suspected that the mage was trying to summon a shade spirit and use it to devour the souls of the people and with that he could wreck havoc , we knew every second counted as it had already been three days since the spirits were sighted if he summoned enough spirits he would soon attract a shade .

Kraven and I thought for a moment and straight away engaged the mage,Kraven was really strong but in his comparison I was frail , but he never thought less of me he told me that once he would distract the mage I was to destroy or teleport the spirits away from there , I accepted , he and the Forsworn mage battled fiercely, we both knew that on seeing the disturbance other mages would soon join him but then as I was destroying the spirits,

the Forsworn mage saw me and sent a high classed dark spell towards me I knew I could not stop it but so did Kraven he came in front of me and used all his might to stop it but as he finished he was weakened to an extent that he could not move, the Forsworn mage took his scythe out and slashed at Kraven he was too weak to move and I did not know what to do so I tried to block it with magic but as the Forswrom mage saw so, so instead of Kraven he slashed at my hand , I lunged back to avoid his next attack but I was not his target and he in front of my eyes beheaded my duo"

Linley looked at the man and Carson both had tears in their eyes the man pulled up his sleeve and said "Look, this is the scar" Linley had seen it already but not this up close he looked at it and thought how much it would've hurt then he saw the mage as he wiped his tears and said "If only I had been stronger.....if only I had been braver Kraven would have been alive " as Linley heard this he was surprised to see that his own eyes were filled with tears , the man looked at Liney and said "Forgive me son, for now you know I am the culprit for your father's death, I am the reason that the great Kraven died" and there was only silence thereafter.