Cursed Children of the Night

Just how many things had he called since the last Major War, the things that had been added since he left Jagwin. What once had been praised, would be used to discredit and smear his image, discredit what ever he said about what was going in Jagwin and Jagwanguk. So many things such: Traitor. Backstabber. Disloyal. Missing Soldier. Monster. He just didn’t leave Jagwin behind, he had also left his friends, family and clan. Left the Aetos Clan, had allowed family ties to be severed completely, not they had been rotting since the end of the war and when that woman behind the leader of the village, became the Master of the Army and could chance the law to fit her whims. Not that her father before her was any better, since he had been the one who had started the last two Major War, losing both during his life span. When it came with his friends, they fall into one of two categories. Some are happy to bury their heads in the sand, like Tityrus had done, even after his uncle -Nikasios- had been executed for helping Mages escape. Even when his first team’s Mage, Penelope Alexopoulos, disappeared never to be seen again. Even when his own students had gone missing and he barely gave them a second thought. Nikasios Aetos was part of that second group. He had been a better man than he could ever dream of being, he had been his first team’s leader, the first team had been placed in after he had finished the Academy. Had been the one who taught him how to survive in the freezing cold of Nildisi’s winter, even the thick of it with layers of thick snow falling from the sky. It had been eleven years since he had learnt how to make the smokeless fire, watching the snowstorm raged outside the same cave he had hidden in all those years ago. Eleven years since the m******e of the Thochautho Mage Village happened, six years since the creation of the Mage and Warrior Peace Council. It hadn’t just been Jagwanguk that had attacked Thochautho, no, Cogia, Almia and Thangia had also attacked, they also had to pay the same price for losing the war that Jagwanguk did. The price being that their village’s army had be limited to certain numbers that would reviewed every two years, they had to pay the Council for the rebuilding and upkeep of Thochautho, an island that been abandoned since the attack. You had killed children, babies and mothers. The thought had crossed Tityrus’ mind so many times for the last years since that fateful day two years ago when he was returning from a normal border patrol. It was that day he had been called into clan’s head’s office to be told the news. The news being that the head of the Aetos Clan removed his brother and sister-in-law from the clan’s registry before he could be murdered for harbouring a dangerous weapon, told him that he wasn’t going to risk his life and the life of the entire sect for mere branch members. Like he wasn’t talking to someone who was also a branch member, that he wasn’t talking to someone whose immediate family had been left to fend for themselves. His parents must be rolling around in their graves, they had given up their lives for this man only for them to kick out their son and daughter-in-law. And when the man told him what the weapon was, Tityrus felt like his life flashed in front of his eyes and before he could think his decision through, he had put his sword into the man’s heart. He had called his twelve year old niece a weapon. Twelve year old adopted niece. None of them cared that she wasn’t related to them by blood, she had been their treasure since she had been found abandoned. Tityrus hadn’t cared where they found her and they didn’t care to explain. She was a dangerous weapon. She had already been tested to see if she had any magic before the war had even began, all of them tests had come back negative. … his clan had abandoned them … … his family had been abandoned … They had already been taken away without a fight, without question. Because that man didn’t think they were worth protecting. After stabbing his Clan leader, bolting out of the village with the man’s blood on his clothes without caring about the people looking at wide eyes. It didn’t take him long to find the location they had dumped in it, it wasn’t far from the gate and wasn’t that deep in the forest. There had been so many bodies, it had been hard to find his brother, sister-in-law and niece. They had been dumped in a clearing, barely covered in vegetation and executed like they were nothing more than rabid dogs. Denied cremation to release their spirit’s ties to their bodies instead they had been left for the vultures to feast on. He had burnt down the clearing, fleeing the country and thinking about it, that he truly started to understand where that woman was taking the village, taking the country since he knew that she had the King and Queen wrapped around her finger. It was her policies that had caused it to happen, her venom slowly blindfolding people’s eyes and making them think one thing about an entire group of people, it wouldn’t take her much to add another group to that list and he didn’t think anyone would question her. It was those possible changes that Tityrus was running from. Would continue to run from. No one would believe him if he told them what was happening in Jagwin, he didn’t trust anyone would hear him out before removing his head from his shoulders. Life was a blood mess, Tityrus thought. Closing his eyes, he tried to shove his thoughts and tried to forget the clearing, the smell of burning flesh. He slowly allowed himself to detach from the word around him, it was hard to explain. It was like his soul was sitting in front of him and he was just watching his body. That thoughts and feelings were allowed to float down the river without him having to knowledge him. “Three blind rats, Three blind rats Three blind rats, Running around the farmer’s mill,” a soft voice sang. The strange melody brought him back to the present with the hairs on his neck standing up, it was out of place in the cave and the sound was echoing around him. Slowly coming back to himself, he pulled out two daggers out of the holster on his thighs. Taking a few steps back from his fire, keeping the cave wall to his back. Looking around he couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from while it was quite midnight, it was still late enough that he could only see with the light that the fire brought. “If you could see how they run, see how they run Into the miller’s kittens See how the kittens play the kittens play Have you ever seen something So tragic in your life? As the end of three blind rats.” While the tone sounded like something his parents would have sang to him while he was young, the words were chilling and sounded like a warning more than anything else. “Who’s there!” Tityrus demanded. “Unwanted baby left the doorstep Here comes a man with offers so grim Hush little baby Your not long to live Hush little baby Dangers in sight Hush little baby There’s nowhere to run.” Tityrus tightened his hold on his daggers, something about their voice made him think that they were a young female. It meant nothing to him apart from how likely this was to be an attempt on his life versus someone just trying to scare him out of the cave where they took their last breathe. “See the mountain top, See the sea shore See the ring of crimson roses in the snow See the children dance See the elders fall See the ring of crimson roses in the snow.” “You think this is some kind of prank? That it’s funny? Why don’t you come out and we can have a long conversation about it.” Taking a deep breathe in, he knew he had to be prepared. While he hoped that this was one giant prank, which would be annoying to the point that he would feel wrathful, inflamed and ballistic. He wouldn’t act on it… just in case their goal was ending in his life. Was this a new style of psychological warfare? Were the whispers and rumours true? Was there truly a hunter hell-bent making their targets think they had gone insane before killing them? That they were losing their minds? That their senses couldn’t be trusted to discern what was going in? Was the Bloody Maiden more than a horror story told around camp fires? He guessed it was a mistake to ignore the warning… he would give himself some slack since the warning had come from a Hunter from Jagwin’s Hunter’s Unit? Another warning came from a member of Nildisi’s Hunter Unit, a rare sighting of mist the colour of old blood and the sound of a sweet voice. “Sweet little Belle le bell How does your garden grow? With skeletons of missing souls? Of the young And old Missing lovers And broken souls Enemy or ally So Belle le bell How does your garden grow? With disappearances Whispers And tears.” The songs were going to send him bonkers if they continued. Wait a minute, he thought. Looking towards the end of the cave and he could see something appearing in the corner of his eyes and it was a creature that sent chills down his spine. He had seen the creature before, going after one of his clan members, it had been a Spirit Mage’s spell. The creature made from his shadow and it would continue hunting him down until he was dead. Only then would it disappear. The creature could pass as his shadow with a toothy grin, each tooth curved and he threw his dagger at it before picking up his sword. The creature moved at the last second, he threw the other dagger but missed the creature of an inch. “Missed,” the singer mocked. Tityrus barely had time to stop the creature from digging its teeth into his shoulder. “Xyaldir,” Tityrus hissed. The creature had broken the blade of his sword with its jagged teeth. The creature stared at him. Tityrus frantically looked around, picking up his bag and throwing it. Bolting without looking back to see it the bag had hit its target, he could only hope that it had stunned the creature enough to get the nearest river to follow advice. Stories said that shadow creature couldn’t cross moving water; he preyed that piece of advice held true even if the water source was frozen. He was close to the The Sorrows, meaning he bolted in the opposite direction. The river he had been collecting water… it hadn’t taken long to get there when he was calm and with his heart racing he was sure he could get there faster. He was unsure if he could outrun the creature…. Its haunting sound echoed through the forest drowning out the sound of his footsteps, darting between the trees to get to the tree’s edge and river. “Come all you fair and tender girls, who flourishes in your prime, beware, beware, keep your garden fair Let no man steal your thyme Let no man steal your thyme From where your thyme is gone and past He’ll care no more for you And in this place your time was waste.” It had to be the Bloody Maiden, it just had to be. He didn’t know of any other Hunters who would use such tactics, or if they did they would be called the same thing. It had happened before with the Wind Blade Hunter. That nickname had turned out belonged to five different Hunters, all of them died years before anyone knew that fact. A known Hunter was a dead Hunter. Who would know, like the Wind Blade Hunter, none of the Bloody Maidens targets ever escaped her…. him? The point was, none of them escaped long enough to tell anyone their tales. And the dead only spoke to Spirit Mages, it was unlikely that he would ever find out, even if he had stayed in Jagwin. The Bloody Maiden had a clean record. That fact that was coming to bite him in the bottom, since no one knew what type of magic -no one knew what element- the Bloody Maiden used. It shouldn’t matter to him at the moment, he had to get to the river to lose the Shadow Spirit following him. Spotting said river, he made a sprint for it. He hesitated at the edge. Would it work if the water was frozen, was the ice thick enough to walk on without falling through. If he did, then that would be the end of him. Looking behind him, he could see that the creature was slowly coming to the last tree of the forest and that meant he didn’t have time to be thinking about crossing the ice too deeply. Or else his unwanted tag-along would catch him and that sounded more painful than freezing to death or drowning. “Cross the ice,” a voice said. It sounded familiar, but he had no time to think about it. “It won’t be able to pass,” the voice added, “the dead can’t pass running water, it doesn’t matter if it’s frozen on top.” But the creature wasn’t dead. “I know that,” Tityrus shouted turning around and steeping onto the ice, taking a deep breathe. He started walking across the ice. “Be careful,” the voice said. He looked up, staring at the young girl standing at the edge. Most likely the spirit of a girl long dead going by the colour of her skin, it wasn’t light enough for someone to be native to Nildisi but it looked like it belonged to one of their allies. She was no older than fifteen. Her brown skin and golden eyes that would make her stand out in Nildisi… but then, she could also come out of the Red Light District. Half-way across the ice, his leg plunged into the freezing temperature. He cried in pain when the ice scrapped along his leg, the ice quickly froze around his leg and he stared at the girl. She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t among the number of women, men and children he killed over the years. “You aren’t dead,” Tityrus muttered to pull his leg out of the ice but it wouldn’t budge. He turned his back to look at the creature, it was at the ice’s edge. Maliciously grinning, it worked since it couldn’t cross the ice but he couldn’t move either. “What in the Diamantina,” Tityrus said. He looked back around, he saw her cross her arms and turning her head, straight black hair pulled into a high ponytail. “Diamantina,” he whispered looking at his leg, spotting shackles around his free leg and around his hips, along with his wrists. It was chaining him to the icy surface, he could only move his neck. “You summoned the creature,” Tityrus said. “I may have,” she said looking at him. She wasn’t from Jagwin at least, they wouldn’t have allowed a Mage into the Hunter’s Unit. If she wasn’t with Jagwin. “You’re from Nildisi’s Hunting Unit?” Tityrus asked narrowing his eyes. If she was part of the Hunter’s Unit, that meant she was older than she looked and that had worked to her advantage. “Water Mage,” he huffed. “Nope,” she cheerfully said, “just an annoyed Spirit Mage.” Wait, if she was a Spirit Mage,then that meant there was a Water Mage nearby. Were they a duo from the Hunter’s Unit. “Tityrus Aetos,” she said a staff appearing in her hands. That made him narrow his eyes, why worry about another Mage when the one in front of him was about to end his life? “The cries of your victims have summoned me to bear witness to your crime, their words have been judged by Kaluwalhatian and Kasamaan, along with Sidapa,” she continued looking at him with disgust, “you have been found guilty of murder.” “Yet, no trail?” he asked. “Gods and Goddess have no use for such human complications,” she huffed, “even the Spirits of your family have found you guilty. They mourn since they didn’t think you would hurt innocent with your sect leader giving you commands; such a shame that they were wrong and your life has come to this… you know, both Heliodora and Hemera begged me for your worthless life -” “Leave them out of this,” Tityrus snapped. That’s not good, he thought, he had just showed her where his raw nerve was and how to touch it. “Hemera, your little niece, she looked up and idealised you and now she knows what type of monster you truly are,” she said, “I already knew before the spirits of your latest victims came to me. Child-killer.” “I’m no child killer,” he snapped. “How sad, the fact that you can’t see them as human,” she scoffed. “What do you want?” he asked. “I would like peace from revengeful spirits. To be allowed to study The Sorrows in peace and find a way to remove them,” she said titling her head, “and the reward placed on your head will be a wonderful bonus.” “You gorgon,” he snapped. “Your the one who can not see a human being for who they are, but it makes you grew up in Jagwin after all,” she said, “never seeing travelling merchants as human, for the simple fact that they travel place to place, just because their life-style means that they don’t stay in one place.” “It’s not natural,” he said cutting her off. “Just like your not natural,” she said narrowing her eyes, “after all, it’s not normal for one to be as stupid as they are tall, or their IQ to be lower than their shoe size. BUt here you are, taking up space and air.” “I had no choice,” he replied defeated. “No choice, you had no choice,” snapped spirit fire appearing around her feet, it was unnerving looking into the silver flames, knowing they could burn him alive in seconds. “There’s always a choice,” she growled, “and you choose to pick a group that your village leader deemed not to be human. Despite losing family members for that reason, you didn’t think that maybe your village’s list of those they deem non-human might not be worth following? That every single group on that list is just as human as we are? Or does that only work when it’s your family, your clan in the firing range?” “I -” “Do not bother to defend yourself, you will pay the price for painting the snow red with their blood, what was the word that you used before your sword went through their elders heart?” she asked cutting him off. “I -” “Oh, I remember now,” she said pointing her staff at him, “Gypsy, that’s what you said before massacring them, butchering them alongside their children. Babies! Toddlers, barely walking and small children. Just because their definition of home was different than yours. You didn’t care about what was happening in Jagwanguk, no until poor lwttle Hemera was killed.” “Who in the Diamantina are you?” Tityrus hissed. “My name is Ligaya Mendoza,” she said, “I’m not your judge nor your jury, I am your executioner.” With a wave of her hand, his neck snapped and the world went black.