Champion

Chapter 27

"Where are the rest Octavius?" she asked him. "I see that Farat and Dorn are with you, though I don't know who that fourth man is. Where are Broast, Dalmer, Andre, Farris, and Gaius? Where are the rest of the men who killed my father?!"

Remembering the story that Astinus had told him the previous evening, David suspected he knew who the woman was now.

"What's it to you woman?" the man immobilized by her magic blustered. "I don't know you. I don't know your father. And I never murdered no one."

Her eyes narrowing, she muttered a quick chant, and his limbs seemed to stretch further from his body. Octavius began screaming in pain.

"They're dead you crazy b***h. They're all dead now. Does that make you happy?"

"How did they die? When?" she asked coldly.

"I killed them," David interjected. "Three days ago. They had waylaid a woman travelling in the mountains, and I killed them to prevent her r**e and murder."

Turning her head, she gave him a coldly appraising look. "I see," she finally said.

Returning her gaze to the captive man before her, she seemed to contemplate him for a moment before reaching a decision.

"Then it seems my search for my father's killers has ended," she said calmly. "Now it is time for justice to be done."

She began chanting slowly and softly, but picked up the pace and volume as the man began to scream. Building to a crescendo she shouted the final words of her chant, the first time that David had heard the language of magic spoken loudly enough to make out the words. And the words were in English!

He barely had time to register her words "RIP HIM APART" before their meaning became messily apparent. Octavius's legs were ripped from his body, followed by his arms, then his genitals, and finally his eyes, ears, and tongue. His torso and mutilated head fell to the ground, released from her magic, and he gurgled his last sounds as he bled to death and asphyxiated, choking on his own blood.

*** Aftermath ***

132108MAR13 DW

Wolfsvale, Erosius

The worship service ended, and the attendees cast cleansing spells on themselves and their areas. Astinus thanked them, and bade them all good night as they left. When Dawn approached him he asked Laurena to take over, and guided the young woman toward his office at the back of the temple. Timothy volunteered to help the acolyte put out the fires in the many fireplaces, and organize the robes while he waited for his wife.

"I did not wish to alarm your husband earlier, but I actually wanted to talk to you, Dawn," Astinus explained when they were finally settled in his office.

"About what Priest Astinus," she asked, now nervous.

"When I read your husband's aura, I noticed he is very worried about you of late," the priest began. "I also saw your fears in your own aura. Why do you think you cannot bear him children?"

"Because I can't," she exclaimed, breaking out in tears. "We have joined nearly every night since our wedding two winters ago, and I am still without child. I have never known a woman that could bear children to go so long without their first. It is me, I know it. I cannot bear his children, and when he finds out he will no longer want me as his wife."

"My dear, what do you know of having children?" Astinus asked her consolingly. "I know that your mother passed before your fourteenth winter, but surely your father explained some of these things to you?"

Shaking her head, she began crying harder. In between sobs she tried to answer his question. "Father couldn't...couldn't talk of such things...after mother died. I tried to ask him...once... but all he said was 'your mother was supposed to have...supposed to have this talk with you'...and he started crying. I couldn't bear to ask him again. That's why...why I asked him to bring me to services; so that I could learn from the other women how to please and keep a man. And I paid very close...attention. I always keep myself clean, before and...and after, and attend to my husband's needs each time. He enjoys his nights with me so much, and I enjoy what he does too. He...he is so loving and gentle when I need it, but passionate as well. I love him so much, and I don't want to lose him!" she wailed, lapsing into an unbroken fit of sobbing.

Standing from his chair, Astinus knelt beside her and hugged her crying form, stroking her hair and whispering comforting words. Once she had begun to calm down, he explained to her something very important that she did not know.

"My dear, you mentioned that you use a cleansing spell before and after joining with your husband," he began inquiringly.

"Yes. It is what I learned here at the temple."

Sighing, Astinus lifted her chin with a gentle finger so that she was looking into his eyes.

"I am so sorry my dear. The process we use here at the temple is done to ensure that women do not become pregnant from participating in Eros' Blessing," he apologized. "If you cleanse your husband's seed from your womb every time you lay with him, it can never take hold with your body and produce a child. If you wish to become pregnant, you must not use a cleansing spell after you join with your husband. Instead use a clean cloth to wipe yourself, and wait to cleanse until the following morning."

Her face beginning to fill with hope, Dawn admitted to him sorrowfully, "I never knew. Is that why I have not taken with child yet?"Yes my dear. Mothers explain this to their daughters before they wed; and I assumed that your father had taken over that task, as he had taken over so many other tasks after her death," the priest apologized.

"It is not your fault Priest Astinus," the young woman said, "nor is it my father's. If I had just trusted that my husband loved me, I would not have insisted that we miss worship for so long, and I would have learned this long ago.