The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 50: Suspicion on Phlegethon

"Faster, Seraphin!" Leigh shouted at me and using his magic, his voice boomed right on my ears that I thought it would just bleed with the force he was using. "You're sloppy and lazy!"

I did not speak, just guided my sword through the path that Cocytus was forcing me to. Admittedly, I was not so great with a sword. The first time I held one, I was clumsy and it was for my luck that I did not cut myself accidentally lest Leigh would be adamant that I should not hold one ever again.

He said that having the light butterflies around me made me slack on my training. I did not even have to move when I command them nor would I even talk. I would only look and the light butteflies seemed to have read my mind already.

If I was being honest with myself, Leigh was right of course. I have been complacent about having the light butterflies when I know that they would protect me and do whatever I told them to do. I have been too complacent that I was not honing my skills as often any longer.

So Leigh was extra harsh and violent to me today.

He did not allow any of the butterflies to come near me to help me on anything. Once the butterflies did break that mandate and Cocytus, for the bastard of a person he was, told Leigh about the light butterflies. Their glow dimmed with just a step of Leigh's foot within our vicinity. With his glare, I think most of the butterflies tried to turn into dust but just flew away, frightened out of their wits which was quite funny to watch.

"Stop," Leigh told me.

With a heave of breath out of relief, I indeed stopped poking holes on Cocytus' body but the bastard still knocked me out of my feet with the back of his sword's blade, hitting me just bellow my collarbone. I went down the ground hard, a loud thump was audible throughout the room and air got suck out of my lungs with how unmerciful Cocytus with my fragile body.

I glared at him and tripped his feet up by sliding one of my feet below him but the bastard just quickly jumped as though he was moving out of reflex and evaded my attack. When I stood up, Leigh's face was so cold, even colder than the snow out of the house.

"You moved slower than before," Leigh remarked to me.

On a normal basis, I would say that my skills did not decline and it only looked like I was slower only because Cocytus just got faster, but then that would mean that I was still on the same level a month ago and that was not acceptable for someone, like Leigh, to even be uttered on his presence so I wisely kept my mouth sealed tightly.

"Allowing these butterflies to hang around you is a big setback of mine," he continued in the same stern voice. "It's not wrong to let the light butterflies do your job for you, but on a situation that you have lost contact with them or lost your magical energy, what do you think would happen? You would be helpless."

Deo has always treated me with either a cold shoulder or gentle care, having to meet Leigh's intense fire suprised me. Deo hated confrontations and I also hated those myself so it was natural for us to just sit and talk on what terms we were not agreeing. But then, I guess Deo did not really provide me that traditional training wherein I have to pass a certain test before moving on to another move or lesson. So long as Deo was satisfied with the way I learned, he was also satisfied and would move us to another lesson.

But Leigh was different. His method was vigorous and strict to the point that even my diet was monitored. He has a schedule already planned out and with the help of Eris' Sight, it was easy for him to foresee what would work or not.

"I understand," I said with indifferent while regulating my breathing.

"Take a break," Leigh said and threw a water tumbler towards me. I caught it with a hand and immediately uncapped it to drink. I was so thirsty and sweating even it was clearly winter outside and even the snow has started to fall.

"This is your childhood?" I asked Cocytus incredulously.

He shook his head and explained after also drinking from his own bottle. "My childhood consisted of visiting famous castles all over the world and going back and forth from Dalcanoraz to here. Leigh only started training me physically when I turned thirteen. He said that he valued my childhood too much to just lock me up in a training room and force child labor out of me so he didn't."

I nodded.

"That must have been nice," I said unconsciously while still looking at the falling snow.

Today is the last day of the last month of the year and I heard that Eris organized a little banquet for all of us like what Leigh did at Christmas. I did not hear any invites to any guests though so I guess it would only be the four of us. Right now, I know Eris was busy inside the kitchen while she supervised the preparation for our little banquet. When I passed earlier near the kitchen, I could hear her voice. She did not even see me with her Sight and just continued watching over the preparation.

I gave my thanks for what she was doing, I greatly appreaciated it. I have never remembered how I spent my celebrations of new year and so, I felt that it was the first I would be celebrating it.

"I understand that you can't remeber most of your childhood, right?" Cocytus asked and, again, I nodded without thinking about his question too much.

Before I knew it, I was already talking.

"I remember always moving in and out of places, like I do not belong," I said in a whisper.

"What?" asked Cocytus who probably did not heard what I said because I said it so low.

"Nothing," I said abruptly, pulling myself out of my own woolgathering. "Tell me more." Cocytus raised an eyebrow at me, asking me what I wanted him to tell me more about and so, I elaborated. "Tell me more about how you grew up under a Deity's care."

Both of Cocytus' eyes turned into slits before he responded. "Well, it is fun. You saw my uncle, Acheron, right?" I nodded as a response to him. "Leigh would often go about and bring the two of us together and grandmother would tag along. We even went to the Dancing Forest back in Dalcanoraz. It was also Leigh who taught Acheron and me how to read and write."

"So you're homeschooled," I said.

"Yes," Cocytus said, nodding along, "so we just traveled around a lot. Leigh also like to take Acheron in, but when he found out that the potency of the fairy blood was just too great for him, it was Acheron himself who turned down Leigh."

Someone turning down a Deity, how interesting.

After our fifteen minute break, we continued our training. Leigh was extra vigorous towards to me since I was also training my magic. He said that the extra lessons I have spent my time on would not be on waste since it would definitely help me recover my memories.

With that talk with Cocytus, I became suddenly curious about my past and my childhood. I remembered my father and mother, of course, but the images I have of my mother were conflicting with each other. There were times that she was cold to me, pushing me off the edge just to grasp what power and influence my name entailed. At the same time though, the image of that loving wife and mother I had when I remembered that little snippet of memory of my father kept on bothering me.

It was very confusing.

I knew that I spent the greater part of the last decade with different strangers in different and as equally strange houses, but there was also those years that I have spent with my parents... with those people that were supposedly my family. I had memories of playing with Caspian and Zachriel, then meeting Hermes and Hazel every once in a while.

But those were just snippets, like a teaser of a trailer of a movie. I felt distant from those memories. They did not happen to me, my mind kept on saying those to me— whispering and nagging me. But I knew in my mind that they did happened and that I was only feeling detached from those very memories.

"Leigh," I said after our training. He turned to me and waited for whay I wanted to say. "What happened on that day, I felt that I was more powerful than befote," I stated. "And you never explain anything to me."

Cocytus, after hearing that we were talking about magic and seals, went out of the training room with a white towel hanging on his shoulder and a bottle of water on his right hand. I still saw the curiosity on his eyes though, but he knew that it was my own issue and he was not involved.

Leigh's face did not change, but I felt the increased tension on his shoulders. He knew what I was talking about.

"Blood magic is forbidden," he said with a very cold tone, his eyes were in slits and he seemed to be scrutinizing me. "Why are you asking? Or is it that..." he paused, "you are asking about the thing I'm thinking you are asking?"

I was not idle while I was within the Amitiel. Since barriers and seals were strengthened after the attack on me, the Amitiels and Leigh himself made more in the premises. I used that chance to examined what has happened that day, on the day of my accident.

Deo was a Deity and, unlike mortals like me, he and his light butterflies have an immense power so it was truly a wonder to me why would he not be able to save me that day. Since Leigh has often ordered me and Cocytus to roam around and patrol the academy's premises, I have the perfect opportunity to observe and investigate.

And what I found with my initial investigation was a seal was performed on that day. But a simple seal would not be able to contain an all-powerful Deity like Deo so it must be from something great and the one who performed it must have also great skills.

Deo taught to me that the more profound the materials used in a seal, the greater its power of holding would be. And there was only one thing, one material used in that ceremony of sealing, that was knocking at the back of my mind.

Blood.

Blood was the only thing that has the power to be greater than anything else when it comes to sealing, but it was erratic and immoral for most magicians. It was not like I was not told by Deo that blood magic was prohibited, in fact, he emphasized that I should not be pushing the limits of the magic I possess.

Blood magic makes the Mages irritable and easily affected by emotions, similar to demonic magic.

It was immortal and cannibalistic, Deo said with a rigid voice.

It was not natural.

And so, it must be the only thing that have kept Deo away from me and Zachriel that day. But simple blood would not suffice, it should be from a greater source so I was looking at Leigh with steady eyes, asking him. I knew that I was not allowed to do that, but I never knew that one incident would make a big change within me.

And that also made me realize some things. When I asked Leigh about it, he would always evade me and would not meet my eyes. The marks on my left arm has not fully disappeared, but it has faded slightly. He would not talk to me and not even acknowledge what had happened. Not even to berate me on using blood magic.

Cocytus would only look, but he would not get himself associated since it was obvious that Leigh was angry.

"A Deity has lend a Mage their blood to create a seal that would entrap Deo," I said with indifference like I was only asking him how was his day.

"And you are suspecting me?" he asked me with the same indifference. There was not the hint of betrayal that I thought there would be, but then again he was a Deity and he must have known that I would be asking this of him. "How impudent you must have been. If I wanted you dead—" I felt a force within my chest that compelled me to walk towards him, before I knew it I was already kneeling before Leigh "—I would not even hesitate and I have all this time to do it."

I looked up to him.

"Then someone have done it," I told him.

"Does my dear Seraphin thinks that Deo didn't know that?" he demanded to me. "You think that I didn't know that, my dear? Fighting with one another within the Deities is a very dangerous game for us and someone out there was having the time of their life, mocking Deo and I. Does my dear Seraphin thinks that the other Deities weren't aware of how Deo has taken a liking of a mortal Mage in a princess-like stature? Of course, they did. They are waiting for us to let our guard down to take a look at you."

My eyes were wide as I looked up to him. It was the first time that Leigh used his powers to overcome me and I felt like I was powerless and small beneath his power.

The weight on my chest was suddenly lifted and I was able to breath more loosely. My knees, that were earlier compelled to just kneel, was let go of that compulsion. Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face with pain to the point that although I was not kneeling, my body still refused to stood up, twisting on the ground, and I was heaving huge gulps of air.

"You should first think before provoking a Deity again," Leigh told me, giving my forehead a faint kiss that I did not almost feel, "rest well, my dear."