The Legacy

Kain stood in front of the fireplace of her personal chambers, gazing down at the pieces of skin in her hand. Why she kept the pieces was a question she couldn’t answer. No matter how hard she thought about the familiarity of the symbol, the answer just didn’t want to surface as to why it seemed so familiar. She would have given it to Gavin, but he was still busy at the lab. They were still running tests on the black substance found around the gaping wounds of the bodies. It was unlike anything anyone has ever seen and many of the Academy’s hunters had seen a lot of things. Instead, Kaon decided to hold on to the skin pieces a little longer. She hadn’t told Gavin about the tattoos yet. She didn’t feel like she should, it felt like a secret she wasn’t permitted to share. It wasn’t like she was keeping it hidden like some secret affair. No, this was a secret she was allowed to keep to herself. Somehow it did feel personal to her. Too personal to share with her boyfriend slash best friend.

The orange gleam of light flickered on her face. Her eyes focused deeply on the black symbol inked into the skin but not seeing it. Somewhere in her mind she heard the faint cries of pleading. Somewhere along the distance there were screams of terror. She couldn’t just hear them. She could feel the terror within their crying pleas. It didn’t feel right. It felt dark and menacing. A warning. A distant memory. It was a feeling that bothered her. The last time she felt this way was the first time she arrived at the Academy just after Abbadon had picked her and a few others as new trainees. Kain used to endure nightmares for years before it finally stopped. Always the same. She didn’t remember that until now.

Through the faint sounds she heard a woman’s voice. A motherly voice. Talking to her. The voice was telling her not to be afraid. To be brave. The haze shifted and she heard a child’s voice pleading for her mother to return, to stay. Then there was a second motherly voice begging her to take care of someone, someone important. To protect them. A shudder ran violently through Kain. The sense of death hanging over her, pressing down on her shoulders like it was something she had experienced before. The voices had a strange accent to them, an accent Kain had never heard before but still it seemed familiar to her. It contained that feeling that meant ‘home’. Like it was a part of her she was missing but desperately needed.

She focused on the symbol again, her eyes burning. In that small vision, that earie feeling, she knew what this symbol represented by its lines. The familiar curves sent shivers down her back. Kain lifted her head slightly, staring into the burning fire. The familiarity was daunting but what was worse is the translation of it. She knew what this symbol meant, and she doesn’t understand how she knew. Kain threw the pieces into the fire before she could think twice about keeping the symbol any longer or giving it to Gavin. She glowered at the sizzling pieces as if that would remove the thoughts from her head. The smell of burning flesh momentarily rose into the air before it disappeared through the open window. She was feeling flustered and exposed to something dark and sinister. Something that woke up in the dead of night because of a symbol that was inked into dead flesh.

A knock sounded at her door. Kain slightly jumped at the sound. She turned towards the door and forced to compose herself. The screaming, pleading voices vanished along with the last sign of burning skin. “Who is it?” she asked loudly, hoping that the person on the other end of the door didn’t hear the break in her voice. Kain turned her back towards the door again. She tried hard to make the burning sensation in her eyes disappear. Blinking fast, she stopped the tears from stinging at the edges of her eyes. She could have beaten herself for the shakiness she felt all over. Her chamber doors opened with a heavy groan then closed again. Footsteps announced the presence of one person who stopped a few feet from where she was standing. “I got the results back on that black stuff you gave me,” Gavin said from behind her. Of course, it was Gavin. Only he was fool enough to enter her chambers without her okay.

She turned around and faked a smile, “oh really,” she sniffed involuntarily, “that’s good,” she added with an unconvincing nod. Gavin frowned as he moved around her couch and walked towards, her. One thing Kain wasn’t good at was acting and she was doing a particularly bad job at it this moment.

“Hey, are you okay?” Gavin asked with a worried frown. His discovery temporarily forgotten. She should have known that she wouldn’t fool him. He knows her too well.

Kain breathed heavily, “That’s the second time you asked me today,” Kain breathed, “I’m fine, Gavin!” she lied, hoping to avoid explaining to him what she was feeling. She wasn’t ready to share her secret yet. It would raise too many questions which she wasn’t too eager to answer, and not just because she was unable to answer them herself.

“So, the substance?” she asked, changing the subject. Gavin frowned at her, unconvinced that she was fine, but didn’t push further on it.

“Yeah. It turns out that the substance is poison. A kind of paralysis poison,” he explained. He held up a small glass phial which contained a thick mass of black liquid. Kain nodded as she thought about the dead bodies. “That explains their stiff postures. And the lack of defence marks,” she noted out loud. Gavin nodded in response, handing her the phial.

She turned it over in her hand, “why though? This stuff was all over the open wound of each body. And why take the liver?” she asked. Her mind was spinning as she tried to make sense of the past five murders.

Of course, only she knew about the fifth murder. She didn’t have to check the fae’s body to know that her liver would be missing as well. Each murder was undeniably identical. Which means she knows what killed the victims. She knows but she can’t tell anyone. She can’t tell anyone because she was fool enough to feel bad for the fae that had died. She could simply lie about it, but everyone knows she is a bad liar. Gavin plunged down onto the couch, spreading his arms over the back of the couch in a flayed manner. “That’s the thing. It remains a mystery. One we would hopefully be able to unravel quickly,” Gavin sighed, “Abbadon is growing restless,” he added through a long yawn.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Kain commented, falling onto the couch next to him. She allowed him to drape his arm around her. “It seems so wrong in so many ways, though. Like something isn’t adding up in the right way,” she added quietly. They were silent for what seemed like a long while. Both were still exhausted and this whole murder thing is taking a lot of energy out of them. The only sound came from where the flames crackled in the fireplace. Kain got that strange kind of sensation that told her Gavin was looking at her. She turned her head toward Gavin who was staring at her with unreadable eyes. They are darker than they were this morning.

“What?” she asked very self-aware and slightly pulling away from him.

“Are you sure that there’s nothing bothering you?” he asked gently, turning his body towards her while moving his arm back to resting it on the back edges of the couch.

“I’m fine, I promise.” she said, unsure if her voice sounded as unconvinced as she felt. He leaned in closer towards her, brushing her hair away from her cheek and tugged it back behind her ear which caused her to shiver slightly. He leaned in even closer until she was able to feel his minty breath on her lips. Her heart beating thunderously inside her chest. He hovered for a moment, just a few inches from her lips. Then he seemed to change his mind, “you should get some sleep, Kain,” he whispered against her lips, before pulling away and making for the door. Kain sighed as she sagged back into the couch.

A ruckus from outside floated through Kain’s open window. Gavin stopped in his tracks as Kain turned her head back towards Gavin with a frown. Mirroring her frown, Gavin made his way towards the open window and peered down. Kain got up and started to move towards the window as well. “What is it?” she asked, peering out the window beside Gavin. He didn’t need to answer though. She saw the answer all on her own.

Down in the courtyard, there were two figures walking over to the gate. The figure in the front kicked angrily at the grass and punched the air while the other figure followed, hastily trying to catch up to the first. Kain could tell that the second figure was a girl. She seemed to be trying to reason with the first. Kain watched as she stumbled in her haste to keep up. “Is that Collins?” Kain frowned down at the first figure who had reached the gate and was punching the wall. Gavin nodded, “and Sophia,” he added, looking down at the second figure, who had caught up with the first. Kain watched as Sophia grabbed Collins’s hand, which he had used to punch the wall with. The several head-bounces from her and the angry gestures of Collins clearly indicated that they were having an argument. Kain started to move away from the window, her hand on Gavin’s elbow. She wanted to pull Gavin away to give the two down in the courtyard some privacy when Gavin leaned closer to the window.

“He’s pointing towards the Academy,” Gavin whispered, his eyebrows furrowing together. Kain turned back to the courtyard a saw that Collin’s was indeed pointing towards the Academy. “What do you think they are arguing about?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know, but he sure looks worked up about something,” Gavin answered distantly. Kain turned away from the window and moved back towards the couch. Gavin followed her.

“I’ve never seen Collins so angry. I wonder what happened,” he said, looking at Kain. Kain shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t in the mood to think about other people’s problems when she can’t even figure out where her own problems begin and ends. Gavin shook his head as if to wipe the scene from his mind. He pulled Kain closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. He tightened his grip into a bear hug. Gavin murmured a soft “I love you” into her hair. Kain squeezed him once then lifted her head up towards his lips. She gave him a soft, quick kiss before letting go.

“Me too,” she whispered with a slow smile.

Kain sat on the couch, staring at the closed doors for quite a while since Gavin left. She and Gavin had always been friends. They were best friends. Even before they were together. A smile crept over her lips, of course she wouldn’t change anything. There was nothing to change between them. He makes her happy and she can trust him with anything. Her smile faded. If that was true, then why couldn’t she tell him about the attack or the symbol she had found? Why not tell him about the strange dreams she had been having or the strange images she hallucinated?

A whisper brought her attention back towards the flames. As if on que to her mingled thoughts. At least she thought it was a whisper. She watched the low flames flicker in the fireplace. She was imagining things. It is the only explanation she could think of. It was just her tired mind playing tricks on her. She was about to stand up from the couch, turning away from the fire when the whisper came again. Frowning, Kain slid down from the couch and crawled towards the fire. She moved her head to the side then tilted to the other side. There in the centre of the flames she thought she could see a face. It was a faint image, but the more Kain stared at it the more she could make out the features of the face.

The face was staring at her, its lips moving with strange sounds coming from it. It took Kain a while to realize that the strange sounds were words spoken in a different language. A shudder ran down her spine. She might not know what the words mean but she knew the accent of it. It’s a fae language. It kept on repeating the same words repeatedly. With her heart beating faster, Kain leaned in closer to the flame. The flame wasn’t hot. She could see the orange glow of the fire but there was no heat. Her frown deepened as she tried to catch the words.

The flame gave a sudden burst of heat which made Kain jump back. The face was gone. Kain gave a shudder as she felt the side of her face. A bit of her hair was scorched but nothing unmanageable. She looked back at the burning flames. Her eyes wide as she gave a shudder. She managed to hear what the face said before it disappeared. The foreign fae words spoken by the face was enough to keep her awake. The words it kept on mumbling over and over, made a cold prickle run through her veins. She didn’t know how, but she understood the words. She knew what the words meant and that chilled her even more. Whether she imagined it or not, the feeling of foreboding she had been feeling all day, felt stronger in this moment.

The fire, burning with completely normal flames now, left no evidence of the face that spoke the haunting whisper. Kain rubbed her eyes, hoping to rub the images away. Maybe she did just imagine it. Maybe she was hallucinating because she was exhausted. And maybe the secret she’s so desperately keeping is the reason fae are haunting her. Still that pesky foreboding feeling kept nagging in her gut.

A loud rap on the door made Kain’s eyes fly open instantly. She hadn’t bothered with changing out of her clothes last night. She frowned down at her drool covered pillows. She can’t remember that she had fallen asleep at all. Last she remembered was the creepy feeling she had last night. She wasn’t tired, nor did she have the intention to fall asleep. Yet here she was. Covered with drool and sleep in her eyes. Kain shifted in her bed. She stared at the cold, grey ashes as the memories of last night repeated in her head.

The previous night seemed like nothing more than a strange dream now. Kain rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. that must have been it. She hadn’t imagined anything at all. It was just a dream. One that seemed awfully real but only because she was exhausted. At least that was what she tried to convince herself to think. She knew better. It wasn’t easy for her to imagine things. As a hunter you were meant to only think logically and be realistic.

The loud rapping nose came again. With a groan, she slid from her bed and opened her chamber door. Gavin leaned against the side of the doorframe with his elbow against the side of the threshold and his hand hanging lazily over his head. She could tell that he was freshly showered by the wet sheen to his hair and the crisp cleanness to his skin. Kain looked down at her own clothes. She was still in yesterday’s clothes. Her hair uncombed and her teeth unbrushed. She began to blush as she stepped aside. “Hey,” she greeted, she had to put her hand in front of her mouth as a yawn broke through.

Gavin gave her a sly smile, “slept in, I see,” he mocked before pulling her in to his arms. He gave her a gentle peck on the mouth before letting go. Kain rolled her eyes as she stepped back again and allowing him to follow her inside. She went to her dresser and started to comb out the tangles in her hair. Kain tried very hard not to look at Gavin’s reflection as she swiftly braided her hair over her shoulders.

Gavin shoved his hands into his pockets as he stood behind the couch. He seemed to be avoiding her gaze as well. “So, what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you this early in my chambers?” Kain asked, breaking the awkward silence between them. After tying her braid, she went into her bathroom where she quickly brushed her teeth. “Abbadon summons us to the Rec-hall,” Gavin said flatly. There wasn’t a trace of teasing in his voice now. Kain glanced at her reflection in the small sink mirror. She still looked tired.

“Oh? What for?” she asked, re-entering the room. Kain faked a confused look, but her heart hammered inside her chest. Abbadon couldn’t possibly have found out about the secret, could he?

“Dunno, but I’d hold off on the changing of clothes for now. We all know how he loves waiting,” he said with slight sarcasm as Kain opened the drawer of her dresser. Kain froze. She turned back towards him, eyes asking the question her mouth can’t. “He wants to see us this moment,” he added. He was oblivious to her inner panic. She watched him for a moment then took a deep breath, “we shouldn’t keep him waiting then, now should we?” she said, closing her dresser.

They entered the Rec-hall, walking behind a couple of other students also filing in. Abbadon stood on a small stage. His muscular arms folded over his chest, and his eyes focused on his shoes. Kain could tell he was irritated. He wasn’t the kind of man who liked waiting. He only lifted his head when everyone was seated and quiet. Kain and Gavin found an empty spot against the back wall. She was glad because she was slightly concealed from Abbadon’s view.

Abbadon stepped to the edge of the stage and went over everyone’s faces. “Last night, I had two students on watch!” Abbadon started. His eyes still went over all the faces, looking at everyone and no one at the same time. Kain noticed that he looked angrier and darker than usual.

“Neither of whom came back yet!” Abbadon carried on. He flexed his jaw before continuing, “I need everyone to pair up and spread out! Finding them is our number one priority! I want everyone back by dawn! Is that understood?” Abbadon instructed loudly. Murmurs of agreement rippled through the room. Abbadon pressed his lips together tightly, “What are you still sitting here for? Get a move on!” he shouted irritably.

The room filled with scraping chairs as everyone stood up and paired up in one notion, before heading out to the armoury. Kain stared at Gavin questioningly. He just shook his head and shrugged before propelling her out the door with his hand pushing on the small of her back. She knew who he suspected it was, but she didn’t push him for confirmation. Maybe it was because of the sick feeling she felt in the back of her stomach. Last night came rushing back to her with a sharp stab to her gut. Try as she might, she was unable to push the haunting words out of her mind. The sick feeling grew stronger as they made their way down the hall. She wanted to be wrong. She wanted her gut to shut up because there was no way, no way that what she suspected was true. It can’t be. It is not linked.

But what if it is?