[Mkguild] "To Steal a Soul" -- Part 8 of 8 -- (End)

[Kendo Virmir]

"To Steal a Soul"
Part 8


I watched the mammoth trees pass overhead as I rested my head against
my hand, gazing out the window.  Perhaps I was too quick to judge the
Glen in my exhausted and irritable state the previous night.  It might
have been the fox half of me, but the idea living so close to nature
did have a certain appeal to it.  Especially the tress...  I would
have liked to see what one of those tree houses looked like from the
inside.

There were so many people at Metamor Keep, and I hated crowds with a
passion.  In fact, I never left my room unless absolutely necessary.
Of course, Glen Avery had the opposite problem.  It was so small,
everyone knew each other and thus every resident was part of an
extended family.  Ugh... I could not live with random strangers
constantly barging in on my life...  They were the overly friendly
type too, I observed as a group simply stopped what they were doing
and waved as we passed.  Weirdos, the lot of them...

This is how the village near my childhood home was like.  Although we
lived far enough away not to be constantly annoyed by their bothersome
festivals, traditions and other nonsense.  Perhaps this wouldn't be a
bad idea.  To live somewhere out in the forest, not too far away from
civilization that necessities were impossible to acquire, but not too
close that I would have to deal with irritating neighbors.  Some place
where I could perfect my spells in peace.  I supposed it wouldn't hurt
to think about things like this for the long run... I was now a
permanent resident of Metamor Valley whether I liked it or not.  I
flicked my tail back and forth and sighed, thinking of home.  There
wasn't much left for me there anymore... but still, home is home.  If
only I could reverse my self-induced animal-hood, I could return, even
as a child...

But of course, that was impossible.  I had deduced that the child
curse of Metamor was laid on top of my spell, and the only way to
reverse it would be to break the curse first.  I knew that wasn't
going to happen.

The Glenners lent us a covered carriage (or Vale paid for it; I'm not
sure) for our trip back.  The ride was dreadfully bumpy, and I nearly
flew off my seat at several points from all the jarring.  Of course,
Emile loved it.  She crossed back and forth from window to window,
sticking her head out and gaping at the multicolored foliage on each
side, the wide boughs that formed a tunnel's ceiling over the road,
and the steep blue mountains on either side whenever the forest opened
up.  Ah, to be a child, and to gain such excitement from something as
simple and meaningless as a trip from one point to another. But the
valley was beautiful, I will give it that.

Vale tried to keep the girl in her seat, but she would not listen
until I told her the plant monsters would grab her through the window
if she didn't sit down.  This worked too well, as it scared her to
death and she took to cradling my tail like a stuffed animal.  Ugh.

Emile was under the assumption that we were all one "big family" and
we were all going to live together.  Oh, dear...  Using carefully
selected words, Vale explained that she was going to go live with
"lots of other kids her age" for a while until her parents came by to
pick her up...  Blast it, this was all going to come back and bite us,
I knew it.

The Keep was a sight for sore eyes... despite having only lived there
over a month, and hating it... its spires soaring majestically
skyward, the rooftops of Euper just barely visible in the shadow of
the hill the castle rested upon.  Our return from an eight-hour-scout
two days late and missing two party members caused quite a stir.

Emile's parting was quick and painless.  We explained her situation to
two castellan aides who said they knew the perfect home for her and
escorted the girl on her way.  She clung to me at first and would not
let go until I promised to visit her every single day... blast it...
One of the aides was a dog, so luckily his appearance was able  to
enchant her long enough for me to make my escape.

Questions, reports, examinations... Vale, Vincent, and I were hounded
to death.  Vale's description of the plant creatures threw them in a
tizzy.  Of course, I had to fill in the technical magical details she
left out.  The three of us were given a week's break.  Weather it was
a vacation or suspension, I don't know, but I was grateful for it.  We
were given the task of separately writing down everything we saw--
particularly underground.

As for what happened to Rufus, I have no idea.  I can only assume he
is still a feral boar, running around somewhere in the northern
forest.  A search and rescue team was formed immediately.  The pig man
irritated me to no end.  He constantly stunk of alcohol, was fat,
slow, and stupid.  But what that mage cult-- whatever it was--
intended to do to him, and what happened to him, no one deserved.

That is all I can write.  I am going to bed.

----

Grav ran his claws through the table again and again.  Blast it!
Curse those meddlesome Keepers...  He tore the oak to shreds, wishing
the flecks of sawdust caught under his nails were flesh from their
faces.  He hated them so much!

Hopping off the chair, he hobbled to the center of the room and tried
to regain his composure.  His head still throbbed, and his chest still
burned... Blast it!  No one but his master ever hit him like that!
The impact actually cracked the wall!  Curse that short one!

Grav only hesitated because the imposter resembled his master...
Blast it!  The short one was the same size as him.  He should have
known Master was not that small.  Argh!!

Now what was he going to do?  The last two souls had escaped!  How in
blazes was he supposed to find two more before Master returned?!
Blast it!  He was in so much trouble...  Just before he left, Master
had scolded him for having to round those same two up and specifically
told him to give them special attention.  Oh, gods...

And the Vegicid imps were becoming more useless every day.  Soon they
would not even be able to move outside at all, and they'd have to wait
until spring to grow more.

He was so dead...

But wait!  Grav grinned widely, his jagged teeth reflecting yellow in
the lamp light.  With Master gone, he was in charge...  He was the
highest rank... He owned everyone else... for now.  All he had to do
was order a subordinate to take the fall and then leave, claiming that
he had to report back at the Keep for an emergency and had nothing to
do with it.  Yes, that was so perfect!

Extending his claw, he levitated his staff to his hand and hobbled
over to the door, the click-click-click of his toes echoing throughout
his chamber.  Oh, wait-- he was getting too hasty.  Obviously he could
not go back to the Keep like this!

Casting aside his ebony robes, he donned the leather armor of a scout
and the thick animal furs required for him to survive in the frigid
fall weather.  He hated the cold so much.  Master said one day all the
land would burn.  He so looked forward to that.

He took the stool from the corner and placed it before the dresser,
standing up upon it so he could get a good look at himself in the
mirror.  Blast it, Master said he'd make him taller if he did well.
He hoped Master would never find out about his blunder...

Looking into the mirror, Grav gave a wide grin and admired his scores
of sharp fangs, flicking his scaly brown-green tail behind him.  He
loved those gifts from Master dearly, as he did his claws, but he had
to make them go away in order to fit in at the Keep.  Reaching out to
the four edges of the rectangular mirror-- North, South, East, and
West, he scratched out the runes of concealment with the tips of his
claw.  Any mirror would do, but he used this one so much that those
points were marred. Once the runes glowed blue, he whispered the
incantation and enjoyed the warmth that took his body.

Of course his reflection did not change.  That was his true self, and
he loved it.  He simply had to avoid mirrors, which was quite easy to
do considering how rare and expensive they were.  But now he knew that
outside of reflections he appeared as a simple salamander morph, his
oversized teeth and claws invisible to even the finest of mages.

Chuckling to himself about the nefarious deed he was about to
perform-- and get away with, he took up his staff and strode out the
door into the hallway lined with hazy blue light.  One good thing had
come out of this whole ordeal...

At least he had killed that idiot human girl that had fired her arrow at him.

----

Claudia had a family.

Young children clustered around a large bear morph and an old man, all
wailing in agony. I could only assume they were her siblings, as she
seemed rather young to have had children.  So young...

Vale went over to offer her condolences, and they all broke down together.

I simply remained seated on the bench with Vincent like an idiot, my
tail and legs dangling over, too short to reach the ground to sit with
dignity.

Vale said Claudia was of the Patildor faith, and thus so was her
funeral.  There was no funeral pyre, but rather her body was placed in
a box to be buried underground. I could not possibly imagine why they
would do this to her.  Was their heaven underground, instead of the
sky?  And not to mention the slow deterioration.  It didn't make sense
to me.

A child priest stood before an altar and went on at length about
Yashua, who was apparently a half-god of some sort (they only worship
one god, though they talk about the half-god a great deal more).  I
tuned him out a few minutes in.  All religions are the same.  It is
all about the afterlife.  About living beyond one's mortal bounds.  It
is impossible for the human mind to grasp the concept of not existing
any more.

It is a horrifying thought, simply ceasing to exist. I am sure that is
why there are so few in the world that choose not to believe in
something, anything.  But it is not for me.  I gave up the Teragran
faith my first year in the Academy.  I was truly alone sitting there
amongst the Patildor and the Lothanasi.

But there was one thing that united us.  A heavy heart saddened by the
loss of a life.  We were all cursed, and we all had a home to protect.

I guess I'm a Keeper now.

END


-- 
- Kendo Virmir
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