Goraeth

Chapter 3

Years passed after Girath left. Coraim remained at her school and village. Girath seemingly stopped existing after he left. Nobody spoke of him, nobody wanted to. No news of his travels passed over the borders of the village and entered any of the ears of the adults. But in fact, he did travel. He traveled from his village all the way to Mordem. He made it to the capital of the Buhtali.

It took him 9 years to finally get recognized by the community. Before news of him finally travelled to this tiny remote village. But it didn't take long for an unfamiliar face to travel to his place of origin. It was still him, but many things about him have changed after the years of not being at his village. His hair no longer curled as it used to, it now lay straight. Black streaks of hair mixed with the red. He walked into the village, and all the doors shut, the kids were rushed inside.

He walked down to his old school and saw the new kids playing around. A frown creased itself on his face. He didn't like to remember his childhood. His fingertips started to become a shade of black as the thoughts ran through his head. He shook his head in defiance of his feelings before turning away from the old building before him. Suddenly, however, he heard a little voice behind himself.

"Mister?"

He turned around, "Yeah?"

It was a little girl, "Do you want to play with me?"

"I don't know how to play."

"Here! I'll show you!" She handed him a ball, and she walked over to the wall, "Watch this!" She propelled herself into the air with water magic. He thought in his mind, the kids in this village sure have changed, haven't they? She yelled out to him, "Throw the ball to me, mister!"

He took the ball in his hand, and flowed the dark magic into it. He got into a pose to throw the ball and suddenly the air reverberated as the ball was simply flicked out of his hand. She caught it mid-air but it made her do a few spins because the force was so much. She safely brought herself to the ground with her water magic. She started to cry as the blood in her hands welled up. He walked over to her and patted her on the head.

The teacher ran out of the school to see where the cries were coming from. Her voice entered the air, "Corain!"

That name sounds vaguely familiar to him as he looked down at the girl, she didn't look like a girl he used to know. She was cute, however. But not like this girl he was trying to remember. Suddenly, the teacher was over to them, staring at the girl's hands in horror. She asked what happened and pointed up towards Girath. The teacher had the look of hate in her face. She pushed the little girl inside and took out a sword.

"What did you do to my kid?"

"I played with her."

"Why does she have blood on her hands then?"

"Because I played with her."

"What is your sick game about?"

"She wanted the ball, so I gave it to her."

"How does a simple thrown ball do that much damage?"

"I'm sick of your questions." Girath's hair turned blue with the black remaining black.

Her voice stuttered a bit before finally spitting out her simple word, "G-Girath?"

"You know me?"

"You're Girath? Aren't you?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It's me!"

"It's who?"

"Coraim!"

The name didn't stick at first, then suddenly it clicked. He had a great revelation. And suddenly it hit him again. His heart started to ache. Not with love. But with memories. He felt all the memories well up inside of him, before he finally remembered why he loved her at some point, and those feelings started to rush back as well.

"Coraim?" He said, the love beginning to well up inside him.

"Yes! It's me!"

"Wait, " He stopped for a moment, "is that your kid?"

"Uh, kind of?"

His heart began to tear a little, "She's cute."

"Corain! Get out here!" The little girl left the safety of the school and produced herself next to her mother.

"I wish she was ours."

"What? Wait, no, she not my actual child. She's just adopted."

"Uh, oh, uh, I didn't say anything." His heart pounded extremely hard and his fingertips began to turn black. His dark magic had become so attuned with his body, that his emotions caused different reactions to occur when in combination with his dark magic. Like when he is embarrassed or scared, his fingertips are filled with dark magic. When he becomes angry, his right eye becomes infested with dark magic.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, but why did you name her really close to your name?"

"I didn't name her, she was given her name before I adopted her. So, it's more of a coincidence."

The little girl looked up to her adoptive mother, the blood smearing on her mothers dress as she tried to pull her closer to protect her from the man in front of them.

"It'll be fine Corain, he's here to help us."

"What does that mean?" Girath said.

"What does what mean?"

"That I'm here to help you, what does that mean?"

"I just assumed you are here to finally help us out with all of our problems."

"What problems?"

"The problems with our food. Girath, you know this, you've lived here before, this village doesn't have enough food for the snowy months "

"Well I just assumed that the village solved its problems with food."

Girath kicked the dirt and started to walk away. She quickly followed behind.

"Girath, why did you come here?"

"I came here because I needed to remember something important."

"And what is that?"

"I needed to remember you."

She stopped following him, he kept walking. It took a minute or two for her to finally realize why he needed to remember her. She ran after him, leaving her child behind. Girath looked back at her as she started to run. However, he started to turn black, she slowed down a bit, before finally the red strips in his hair turned blue. Girath looked like as though he was preparing himself to run, before finally booming past her with a single step.

The single step left a huge foot-like mark in the ground. The air almost tore off her dress as he zoomed past in a single stride. She screamed in terror as she looked back and saw Girath holding her little girl. The little girl was shell-shocked, unable to express any emotion in the current state of terror she was experiencing. But suddenly, she regained control over herself and blasted the man holding her with ice cold water.

The water didn't touch him at all. It was shooting out of her hands and it wasn't touching his face at all. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. He was using dark magic and anti-magic at the same time, which should generally be impossible. He set down the little girl. His legs turned black again and he blasted himself towards Coraim. He tackled her onto the ground. She couldn't believe what was happening.

"I come for noone, but yet, I felt so enticed to come back here and experience your touch again, when I could hold you again. This is something I have never felt with anybody since our first and last day interacting."

"I fear you, Girath! So, let me go!"

"No, I feel at no point that I will let you go and leave you vulnerable to the outside world."

"Why do you torture me like this, Girath?"

"Come with me. That kid can follow us, too."

"I don't want to go anywhere with you!"

His voice turned dark and demonic, "Don't make me say it again." His vocal cords turned dark as they reverberated a very dark tone of voice, unknown to her ears.

"Fine, where shall we go?"

"To Mordem, where I will participate in the yearly Buhtali tournaments."

"Those tournaments are really real?"

"Yep, for every year, I watched each Buhtali tournament."

"How do passive magic Buhtali get chosen then?"

"They get chosen after specific tests of their skills."

"Fine, we shall go." Her voice appeared happy, possibly to finally leave this place? He thought about whether or not she was happy to leave.

"Bring the child, too, she seems interesting."

"Of course I'll bring her."

"Good."

~

He walked off for a day and a half until he finally returned with a cart and some horses. They loaded up their stuff and traveled to Mordem the same day. They didn't talk until about half of the journey passed by. She looked over to her companion and her adopted daughter and decided to ask him something.

"Where have you been the past few years?"

"Nine long years, I know. But this is the story of a lifetime, let me tell you where I've been."

He started off short and simple. He left for Mordem, but he got sidetracked. He was actually brought over to the nation of Grom. Just a few miles away from Mordem's borders. After he had left the village and the nation of Nanikul, he was robbed. He didn't want to use his powers in fear of being tracked down by Girath. "Soon enough, " he says, "I realized that Girath doesn't really care about things like dark magic, let alone he even knows about its existence within me." He stayed on track with his conversation and returned to the prospect of how he actually acquired transport to Mordem. "It was a long few nights before I found a caravan that actually went to Mordem." He says.

He finally made it to the point in his story where he made it to Mordem. He called it a very sprawling city, even with how few its citizens are. He continued onto the first Buhtali tournament, he almost joined, until he saw the power of the people fighting. They are way beyond his power. But ever since he arrived at Mordem's capital, he took a job as a blacksmith's apprentice, he lived a nice fine life there until he turned 15, the time when most young people join the military of whatever nation they are currently employed in. He was pushed by his master to join the military, and so he did, but with only returning favor. That he would be taught how to use anti-magic, a forbidden magic, one that uses the inner-magic of someone and draws out their life essence.

Magic in the world of Mordem doesn't have any drawbacks, besides that it is incredibly hard to learn and if you aren't blessed with the ability to use it when you are younger, you can never use it. There is two states of magic, inner and outer-magic. Inner-magic only has 10 states, the eleventh one being the rarest and most commonly thought as an unattainable form. Dark magic pretty much nullified all other magics besides anti-magic. The only other magic that someone with anti-magic could attain is dark magic. But dark magic turns the persons inner-magic to darkness and destroys the person from the inside-out, Girath being a special case. The only magic that anti-magic can't nullify is dark magic, both magics are extremely rare and unwanted by many, but Girath's mentor used to be an old anti-magic Buhtali.

It took him 5 years to get, way shorter of a time than his master when he tried to learn anti-magic, it took his master 40 years to learn. His master, after becoming a Buhtali felt as though he couldn't do anything in the council and so he quit. The mentor, however, saw the potential of his apprentice and taught him everything he knew. And so, one day, while going through the market, he heard a scream, and sought it out. It was in a dark alleyway and a woman was being mugged. He quickly ran into the alleyway and punched the guy in the face. The guy, of course, went through a wall. He felt the exhilaration of saving someone again after years and years after the day of saving Coraim. He got memories of her again and sought her out at the village, not actually remembering much of her.

Now it led back here. He trailed off with a few sentences and then the conversation ended thusly. However, after talking so much about himself, he wanted to get to know her some more. He looked over to her daughter and looked up at her.

"So, what have you been doing the past 9 years?"

"Oh, me? Uh, nothing much."

"Go on, tell me."

She started to talk but the dust from the trail made her throat congest a bit. She cleared it, then began her short story. It started off with her still being a child at the village. Apparently nobody noticed that she was gone and she returned with almost no questions asked of her. In the school, she was already really quiet, so nobody noticed her disappearance. Her parents didn't realize that she was gone. Being as they aren't home a lot, and they work on the farms a lot more than they would originally have liked.

She got high grades in all of her academics. So it was pretty easy to become the teachers apprentice at age 15. She quickly learned all that she needed to do and became the teacher a few years after. At about age 19, she was very fond of the kids, so she wanted a kid of her own. No man in the village really wanted her, and most of the time, all the young men used to be her students.

Many villages have ceremonies that include other villages, where the villages come together and switch females. She never participated in those ceremonies, so she never had a chance to find a man. She even stated that she was still a virgin.

She wanted a kid and she couldn't have one. So she waited until one of the kid's parents died in an accident involving the kid, where the kid accidentally drowned her parents. Using water magic of course. She didn't know how to control it and it went out of control. She was only 8 at the time. All people who are able to use magic have at least one innate magic ability. Some aren't able to control it very well, resulting in accidents. With Girath, it was a different prospect. He knew fully well how to use it, it's just that it took him over and he lost control.

So, she found this kid all alone and didn't want to give her up, and so she took her in. The kid was possibly named after her because she taught the parents. But after all, the parents were dead, so she couldn't ask them. So far, the kid has learned how to use her magical powers a little bit more after killing her parents, able to do tricks, like propel herself into the sky and give herself a safe landing. So here she is now, on a journey to Mordem.

Girath laughed at the last part and looked at the kid, ruffled her hair a little bit and then kept looking forward into the abyss that is the road ahead of them. It took a couple more days of travel before they finally made it to the capital. They entered the city with their horse and carriage and saw the sites to see. Big building that towered above them, the huts back at the village were way shorter than the buildings, probably a foot taller than Girath. And Girath is no tall man, he has been stunted in growth after 15 when the dark magic fully changed his body. But more on that later.

They finally made it to the Colosseum, where the fights would take place during the middle of Norath. It was now the middle of Ath, the light filled months. They would have to wait for about 4 months until they could finally see the fights. But until then, Girath walked into a large building with many windows, he made sure that his followers saw him enter building. They did see him, and they followed along. He walked up the flight of stairs and they followed closely behind until he got up to the fifth floor. He led them into his room and it was a big apartment. Big enough to house Girath and two more people, which was lucky for him.

He led them around his apartment, showing them everything they needed to know. Finally, he showed them the bedroom, which had a king sized bed. He told them that it was the only bed in the apartment, but Corain was free to sleep with them.

"Wait, " Coraim begins to say the rest of her query, "so what your telling me is, is that I am going to sleep in that bed with you, no matter what?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, I can't much argue with that, seeing how the only other place to sleep is the couch. And I'm guessing that's more for Corain?"

"Yep."

"I guess I'll have to sleep with you." A smile decided to makes its place on her face.

Girath noticed the smile and the love inside his heart forced him to smile back at her. It was getting pretty late so they decided to go to sleep. Girath tore off his clothing, making Coraim blush emphatically. She slowly undressed in front of him, him not really caring at the site before him. Her blushing turning into a frown, as he wouldn't stare at her. Then she slapped her cheeks. How could she be thinking like this? He's a threat to her. But something inside of her won't let him go. The primal lust for the strongest kept rearing its ugly head.

They finally entered the bed, both half naked, Girath not really caring, while Coraim is blushing her face off. Girath falls asleep with almost no effort, while thoughts of Girath enter her mind. She can't control herself. She rolls over on her side, facing Girath, thoughts keep rolling through her mind. She slowly starts to move herself towards him. His breathing getting louder in her ear. It brought tingles up her spine. She got as close as possible and felt at peace for the first time in a while.