Creatures of the Light

Seventeenth Light

Seventeenth LightCreatures of the Light

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##### Seventeenth Light #####

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Slender fingers like claws

Fair skin like scales

Oh how far is the inside

From what the beauty to become.

“How did you get out of the Abyss of Chain?” I still have time to investigate before I get on the other escaped prisoners.

The man with gills inhale deeply before his skin turns blue. It is his original skin color, I believe. He glares at me sharply, through it is hard to take him seriously when he is upside down, hung by a tentacle of my shadow up high. The other creatures with tentacles as hair only spat nasty curses, being the only sound produced in this dark alley. The ice echoes his rough voice, though I hardly believe that he will be heard far.

“Tell me and I might just be letting the two of you go,” I say. The octopus man spits black ink on my direction as a response, but I dodge before his saliva hits me. The blue skinned one, on the contrary, starts to trash around, thinking that he can slip from the hold of my shadow. His action only makes me tightens the long tentacle around their bodies until they are squeezed. The two winces in pain, refusing to growl to give me the satisfaction of victory, even when they already lost.

“Painful, isn’t it?” I ask them monotonously, making the hold tighter even more. “You can just give me a name and all of this will be over.”

“We will not tell you anything!” The octopus man shouts.

“Who freed you? From what I have heard, the Abyss of Chain is not just some random cage that any criminals can break through. Someone from the outside must have helped you. Tell me the name and this will all end soon,” I say to them again, before starting to crunch them in my hardened shadow that a few of their bones starts to break. They finally let that scream of pain out and pant heavily while still being upside down, which is something hard to do, especially since they are not in the sea anymore.

“Please.... let us go....” I can already tell that they have started to lose vision. It is getting really hard to maintain their condition like this. They will not die, but pain will surely be inevitable. They are trapped by the physical torment of their bodies, just like how Uly did when one of them decided to attack him with sharks and knives. I have no intention of letting them off before one of them speak, though.

“Alright, alright. I will tell you.” Surprisingly, it is the octopus. “I never met her, but she did approach our leader and offered help. She told him that she could let us out and show us the way to wealth, with a price.”

“What did she want?”

“We were restrained for too long that we almost agreed on anything. She wanted us to get rid of a few wizards. She knew that we are the kind that can go to land, which was why she came to us in the first place. We are labeled as criminals already. Killing will not be a hard task to complete. She did not tell us her name, but our leader described her looks to us. She was wearing a hood, though, so there was nothing much to tell. But there was one time when the hood accidentally dropped and he saw long blonde with a pair of big blue eyes. I swear, that is all I can tell.”

Blonde hair and blue eyes. My lips tighten into a straight line by the mention of those. My two prisoners are starting to catch on their breath as I do nothing when my consciousness slips and the shadow keeps tightening harder. It comes to the point when they passed out and I finally get them down. My shadow still ties them up, though not as strong. Then, summoning two smaller tentacles, I swim them back to whip them forward and slap the two creatures until they are awake.

Cursing again, they protest to me when I have not let them go.

“Tell me who she wants dead first,” I say.

“There was no name mentioned. All we know is just that they lived in a small town in America. A place called Redwood.”

I blink in recognition of the name. Redwood is one of the most common towns around. It is far from the big city and located closer to the forest. Only humans occupied the place, as far as I am concerned. There is no report of creatures preoccupying the area. So why would she wants to kill anyone who is living there, let alone people?

“Who are the humans she wants you to murder?”

“They are not humans, she said. They look like them but they are not one of them. They look just like you.”

“They are wizards?” I hitch in surprise.

“Yeah. The blackness and all. She got our leader their pictures so that we will not kill the wrong people. I just so happen to have the copies inside my pocket.” One of the smaller tentacles that I used to slap them slips inside his pocket pants and pulls out some folded papers. It hands the papers to me. I take it and unfold it, before raising my eyebrows.

Indeed, he is right. They do look like me, with the same characteristics of black hair and eyes. The colored photos clearly show that. But they are just children. Teenagers, at the youngest. Why would she want to get them killed?

“Is that all you know?” He nods, so I start walking away. “Hey! Wait! What about releasing us? You have promised us that!” His voice sounds demanding. I take a few steps forward before stopping and turn to them. They two are looking at me with expectation. Too bad I am about to crush it.

“I said ‘might’. Doesn’t mean I have to,” I say emotionlessly before turning my back on them and walk away, their curses filling my ears until I exit the alley.

The previous conversation I had with the two members of the White Lotus reminds me to ask my Grandfather about something, which is why I told everyone else to leave after the announcement, having only him and me in the meeting room.

“Grandfather, what do you know about these wizards?” I ask him when we are alone, showing them the picture I got from those sea creatures. I watch as his expression grows tense, and that is all I need to know to demand information.

“Who are they? Why do they have our characteristics? And if my suspicion is correct, why have I never seen them before in my entire life? Did you keep their existence a secret?” I ask rather urgently.

“I have never seen them before in my entire life, my granddaughter.” I do not believe in him even for a second. I see the recognition in his face. He knows something. Grandfather brings a hand up to his temples and massages it slowly. “But I think I have an idea who they are.” Now that is a much more relevant answer.

“I believe that they are Salizar’s descendants.”

“Salizar?” I think I have heard that name before, or probably read it somewhere.

“There are three brothers of this dark family, Arsene. There is me, the first born, followed by Salomo, Eleanor’s grandfather,” I blink hardly by the mention of my cousin’s name, “and then there is the third. His name was Salizar Noirmelns.”

Ah, the family tree. That must be where I read the name before. I remember now. But his line ended with him. There is no record of him marrying anyone or having any children like his brothers.

“But granduncle Salizar was dead before he even married. I saw the family tree. The fire in his candle was gone.” I come down to the underground room to check the altar once in a while. Sometimes I just stare at the beauty they behold. Sometimes I just let myself know of how many lives that are in my hands since I became Queen.

“That was because he detached himself from the clan.”

“Detached? Is that even possible?”

“We, me and Salomo, decided to limit that kind of information only to the two of us. Others who noticed this knowledge had have their part of memories being removed. We agreed that it was best to not let anyone else know about this before some of them started to leave the family. We even destroyed all records that are involved in family member’s removal.”

This makes sense. Granduncle Salizar was able to figure out how to detach himself from the clan, yet still able to live even after his candle has died down. There is no record of him or the appearance of other candles that represent his descendants’ lives since they are never brought to admission. When Granduncle Salizar removed himself from the family ties, he must have also made sure that none of his descendants will be involved as well. But why?

“For what reason did he do that?”

Grandfather rises from his chair and walks toward a tall window, looking out at the sight of twinkling stars at the dark sky and the sea of dark, dry trees. “He wanted a life away from the family and the cold war we had been having. That is, until you and Valline suddenly announced your marriage.” He turns to me with a smile, showing the wrinkles on his skin in the progress. “I was rather surprised myself when I receive the news. Though I gave you my blessing, sometimes there are also wars at hearts. Not everyone can still accept the news. They might pretend that they are alright with it, but some might be plotting against you for this. They have been in this cold war for too long, my dear.”

“I am fully aware of that, but thank you for your blessing. I am sure Valline will be happy to hear that. I am sorry that I have to do it without saying anything, but it has to be done secretly, or else there will be no other time when we can.” I walk to the tall window as look outside as how Grandfather turns his head back to it. “So the boys in the pictures are Granduncle Salizar’s descendants? Why didn’t you tell me before, though? I am Queen now. Didn’t you think that such information is an important thing for me to know? What if something awful happened because of my lack of knowledge? I will be responsible for their lives.” I can not help but to let that bitterness slips through tongue.

“I apologize for my lack of wisdom, Arsene. Time has made me forget more important things, you see. That was one of the reasons why I stepped down from the throne,” he chuckles awkwardly. “But I did not regret one thing, though. You make a great queen, Arsene.” There is proud in his eyes when he turns to look at me. I smile back at him.

“But you know, this only means one thing. I have to leave the castle again.”

“Why didn’t you just send the others for outside mission, Arsene? You know that they will listen to you.” He folds his hand on his chest.

“Because old habits die hard, Grandfather. And mine is even harder to erase,” I simply reply.

I call for the presence of Valline, Artro and Link after we have finished our conversation. Grandfather returns to his room minutes before the three enter.

“What did you and Grandfather talked about?” Link asks straight away, approaching the desk.

“Something that involves our upcoming mission,” I answer. “Turns out we have more cousins that we thought we have.” I show them the pictures and explain Granduncle Salizar’s disappearance.

“Now this is unexpected,” Artro mumbles when he sees the pictures on the desk. “I have no idea that such a thing is possible. How did he leave the family alive when his candle has slaked?”

“Grandfather did not mention about that. Afraid that more of our family members will detach themselves, he and Granduncle Salomo,” I explain.

“What are you planning to do, then?” Valline asks me from behind, before joining the rest of us to circle around the edge of the desk and puts his hand on my waist.

“We need to see how they are doing. Perhaps offer them to come back, if they want to. They might not be safe outside the walls of this castle.”

“Why even bother? If they wanted to, they would have come back years ago,” Link says harshly.

“There is a possibility that they might not know about us. I mean, Granduncle Salizar might be keeping secret of our existence to them,” Artro chimes in.

“How come they have stayed undetected this whole time, anyway?” Valline wonders.

“Redwood is not exactly a very big town. It’s very small and segregated. No one would pay attention to what is going on in it,” I say to them.

“Are you going to the town, then?” Link turns his head to me.

“Yes. And I will need company. This is the first time since forever that I visit human residence. I will need help to get through the stress while keeping in track of the mission.” Then I land my eyes on Artro. “You are coming with me. It will be easier to gain their trust when you are also a man that looks their age.”

“Hey, how about me?” Link asks in protest.

I stare at him. “We will need someone to handle the things in here to keep running as they are suppose to be. Also, someone to teach yours and Artro’s new recruit to help. The assignment is perfect for you, since you showed yourself to be able to juggle with Castle and Sorcier life so well this past year.”

“How do I come in this as well?” Valline inquires.

Clenching my jaws, I slowly turn to him. “Do you remember when I said that I needed to take care of something at our honeymoon?” He nods. Then I tell him about what happened. “The members of the White Lotus said that someone with blonde hair and blue eyes helped so that they could kill those teenagers. Of course you know who this will be, if she is a wizard, don’t you?” Valline begins to understand where this is going.

“You want me to investigate whether this is one of my family members’ doing, don’t you?”

“I think it will be best if you are the one who handle this,” I admit honestly.