Creatures of the Mist

Fifteenth Mist

Fifteenth MistCreatures of the Mist

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##### Fifteenth Mist #####

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The rain falls as dark features. It must mean the Capital of Evil.

I put both of my palms in the sides of Carvel’s face as he trembles on the chair. His milky blonde hair start sticking on his face because of so much sweating, and his light skin eventually turns paler and paler because of fear that is running through his veins. I’m sure he knows what I’m about to do, and there is no escaping from it. Soon, the trembling disappears, leaving only a silent obedient in him. His set of gemstones of unnatural dark blue eyes is still open, but quite.

A dark brink of ink appears from the center of his eyes. The ink is contagious, and will stain anything that it meets until everything is dark and only dark. My eyes also react the same way as his; they turn black right from the core and to the corners. When both of your eyes turn completely black, without even a brink of light, I can start searching through his mind.

Let’s see the truth in you.

Using my memory track by force, I dive into his head and let flashes of images run past my eyes. I want to know the antidote of that poison you made. I want to know your deepest fears. What is the antidote? What is that poison even called? What are the answers to my questions that I desire to know? Come on, pull out what you fear the most.

The core of his memory lane finally appears once the flashes stop.

It’s once dark, and then comes the motions. So many of them come and then crashes upon me, forcing my eyes to feed on them. Everything moves so fast, until suddenly they all stop and finally makes sense. Now, I know the answers.

Once I’m satisfied, I pull away. But not before making sure that Carvel relives the worse experience that he can ever have. And that is to remember vividly of his most worst nightmare and make it come to life inside his head.

His body jerks a little when the traumatizing event sinks into him. Freeze. But then he starts to shake vigorously through his entire body.

“G-get away from me!” He reacts when I let him take a break from my memory tracking.

He jumps back from the chair, falling in the process. He keeps backing away from me until his back hits one side of the wall of this closed prison. Sweat comes more from him, as his eyes came back to its dark blue shade. I know that he’s feeling very afraid right now, and he can scream all he wants because no one will ever hear him.

This prison was built for sound proof, after all.

I smile at him, but not feeling sorry at all. He should have known what will come after what he did to my family. He shouldn’t even be here in the first place. And now, he’s going to pay the price with every inch of what he has got. A Blancort like him have to be taught more than just a lesson not mess with me.

“Sadly, I can’t,” I answer coldly. “Even after the real-life nightmare that I’ve forced you to go through, I still have one more thing that I need to do to you.”

Carvel finally breaks that painful howl from the top of his lungs, sounding so desperate and fearful. I step closer until we are a meter away, making sure each step will raise another level of horror in him. My eyes are taunting for him, dark as always. Finally, I rise my hand to end this all.

When I crack open the gates of Hell, I have to inhale death and evil.

For breathing in such dreadful air, I have a very strong reason. Inside Carvel’s mind, I found out that in order for the victims of Poison X to recover, they have to obtain a cure from the Demon of Bay. Of course, that is only what the old book that he and his family discovered a month ago said.

It took them a whole month to almost emerge their plan. First, they have to gather all various different ingredients that are hard to find and extremely rare; some are even very risky to gain. Two weeks after that, they finally able to cook the ingredients into poisonous liquid for a whole week. It took them a real great effort to do it, since it required a full participation of a dozen wizards to make this toxin. And after that, there was also an attack plan that they have to discuss before launching themselves in the battlefield.

But surely, all of those turned to effortless doing. I have to stop them before they do anything stupider on my family.

Demon of Bay, like his name, has a skin of reddish brown. The skin itself is very thick and unpierceable, making it the most ultimate shield of himself. Bay is also known to be very powerful, old, and, like any other typical demon, easily gets irritated. So before I even ask him for the antidote, I have to be very careful in choosing my words. And to get something, I have to give something back.

So why don’t I offer him a Blancort to play for? Besides, it’s not like I can keep him around. My family members would have protest for his presence if they known about Carvel’s whereabouts, even if I do able to kill the rest of the attackers and somehow gotten the antidote.

Both of my feet can stand perfectly on the front heated ground of Bay’s lair despite the thick, killing air. Any other wizard won’t last very long in this pressuring atmosphere, but I’m a totally special case.

Well, at least one of the cases.

“Demon of Bay, I have an offer for you,” I say, getting right to the point because I know that he can hear my arrival even from miles away.

I don’t pay much attention to my surroundings, much because I simply don’t have much time in this urgency. But I have to make sure that I do not get lost on my way, so I picked the closest gates to The Lair of Bay. Although I can still feel the heat of magma that is eventually surfacing from the crater from time to time.

“What do you want?” His voice comes out raspy, heavy and very rude already. Moreover, the demonic tone gives me the full chill-down-the-spines along.

“I need a cure to Poison X, in exchange of ─ ”

“You can have it.”

“Yes, that is why I want to offer a Blanc ─ ” I stop myself. “You’ll give it to me? Just like that? You haven’t even heard my of ─ ”

“Here,” he cuts me.

Demon of Bay tosses a glowing little crystal blue bottle out from the mouth of his cave and I catch it.

“Apply to the infected ones for a drop only and no more to no matter how much damage the poison has caused. Now get lost.”

I stand in front of the cave for a moment, stares at the small crystal blue of a bottle in my hands, before stepping away from Hell.

Who would have known that a Demon of Bay will be so kind to give something as precious as a super rare antidote for free? But even this unexpected kindness makes me doubt whether the cure is the real thing or not.

Link and Artro are fine again after I give the antidote to them. The family members are still in panic, but it's good that they were able to obtain Raion unharmed, much because of my intervention. None of them know about what I did to those who dared to threaten us yet, but I'm sure they will learn the truth soon even without me telling them.

I still can use the card I have. I haven't traded Carvel with the Demon of Bay, but I still can use his existence for something else. And that is when I decide to use the dirty white-blood to be traded with something from the Blancort—Valline.

"It's your choice, really. If you agree, your family will have him back," I say one day in front of the Blancort Residence. Valline and his guards are all surrounding him, while I'm surrounded by my own. His family protests against my deal, of course, but Valline replies with something rather unbelievable.

He agrees.

"Alright, I'll do it. I'll surrender myself in exchange of my cousin, Carvel."

I thought he'll decline, considering his place now and all. Things has turned much better than I can think off, which is bad. I might go to tip off the balance if we let this trade happens. Without their leader, the light will be vulnerable for the darkness to consume.

My family almost proclaims victory, until I changed my mind.

"I change my mind." They look at me instantly as if they want me to disappear. But no matter how much they hate me right now, they'll thank me later. If they can even realize what I just saved them from. "I want a treaty to replace my previous request."

With blood vows, none of the family shall fight again.

Carvel was able to attack my family before, much because of the blood vow I had with Freddrickson when Valline kidnapped me. None of the Blancort family members can do what Carvel did since the blood vow prohibits those who are involved to contravene. But he did anyway. And soon I know how.

Freddrickson died.

Just the night before Carvel and his minions entered our territory.

I have a lot of suspicions that they killed him.

But then again, it might just be a coincidence.

The protest grows strong from both sides, much because those who break the rule shall die on the stop the second they commit it.

But it's too late for stopping anything right now. As I hold my bleeding finger with Valline's bleeding one and chant the spell that will bind the vow, the treaty is now done and a new shape of peace is made.