Zenora, The Dragon's Fury

Emily’s point of view:

Cirilya had arrived the castle in the middle of the night, so after a good night’s rest and breakfast, we planned a meeting in the war-room. Brock, Nicolai, my dad and me, were sitting in chairs around a table, waiting for Cirilya to talk while she paced in circles. She couldn’t get her mind at ease, and I tried to read her mind, but she was thinking about several things at the same time, not making any sense to me at all.

I stepped from my chair and walked over to her, touching her shoulders.

“Cirilya, look at me.” I said while raising her chin with my hand.

“Tell us, what is so bad about this?” I asked her.

She looked me in the eyes and I could tell that she was contemplating how to tell the information she had. I saw several images in her mind, some horrible ones with Ruth in it, others with people getting tortured and blood being spilled everywhere.

“No! Don’t read my mind! Those were all bad thoughts!”

“Well tell me the good ones then!” I yelled to her.

Cirilya sighed, but started to talk. I went back to my seat and pointed for Cirilya to sit too. She told us that the situation Ruth was in, was not a voluntary one. This was done by someone who casted a spell on her.

“There are no good images… these sort of spells are so dark, that hardly anyone knows about them. Besides that, these spells require a lot of energy to cast. So, if someone were to cast it, he or she would probably die from exhaustion. But…”

She stopped talking for a moment. Wouldn’t it be good if this specific mage, who cast this spell, would be dead? I mean, this would be a one-time only threat right?

“But the spell is still active, so the person is not dead.” Nicolai said, filling in her uncompleted sentence.

Cirilya agreed to what he said and explained to us, that a longer lasting spell will get interrupted when the caster dies. But since Ruth has been traveling for several days with the two arguing men, and as Natalya had said that she got the burn marks on her back three days ago, the spell was still active, and thus the caster still alive.

“For that caster to remain alive, they must have figured out a way to keep themselves filled with energy. Probably by using even more of those same sort of spells.” Cirilya said.

“What kind of spells are we talking about then? What is so bad about them?” I asked her, but I got a cold shivering feeling down my spine, already dreading the answer to that.

I looked into Cirilya’s mind and saw the same images of wounded people and blood splattering on the floors and walls. Then other people drank the blood from vials and flasks, laughing menacingly while casting their spells. The mage’s eyes turning black and veins in there faces turning black too. Turning them into these horrid zombie-like creatures.

But the images got even worse. The black mages walked over to the already bleeding people, and started to bite them and tear their flesh from their bones, while they were still being alive!

“What the hell!” I yelled to her, turning my face away from her, not wanting to see more of it. Suddenly my stomach started to twitch, and I unburdened my stomach with releasing my breakfast next to the chair.

Brock stood up from the chair, coming to my aid. “What did you see?” Brock asked and my dad looked in my direction as well.

I didn’t want to say it, nor could I, as I was just feeling completely sick with seeing those horrible images. All I wanted was to get those images erased from my mind, but there was no way in hell possible, to burn away that vision from my soul. The vile and horrid feelings that I felt from these creatures, were just beyond comprehension. Call me naïve, but how desperate must you become to even think about drinking blood or eating raw flesh from living people?

“She saw Dark Mages, using blood magic.” Cirilya said, and Nicolai sat in his chair, looking stoically, straight forward. Clearly he had seen these images too and was just as appalled from them as well.

“I’m not going to explain what they do, all I want to say, is that they require blood to cast the spells. And the more blood they use, the longer the spell stays active. The moment they stop drinking the blood, they end up dead which also ends the spell. So, they have to sacrifice themselves eventually, for using a blood magic spell.”

I remembered the spell that Markus wanted to cast, to get my powers. He was drawing blood from me too, and licked some drops from my arm. Was he casting one of those spells? Wouldn’t he have died after using the spell too? But what would be the use of it then, for having my powers for just a slight moment of time?

I asked Cirilya, and she acknowledged the fact that he was indeed using blood magic, and that all my powers would have kept him alive, even without drinking more blood.

Wow…

I knew my powers were strong, but keeping someone alive, even at the brink of death is not something that I thought could be possible.

But what about Ruth? How are we going to get rid of the curse that was placed on her? As apparently the caster of the spell, clearly wanted to kill Brock and kept himself alive with drinking more blood.

“Kill her.” Nicolai said, snapping out of his stoic gaze.

“NO! She has been tortured enough! I’m not going to kill Ruth!”

“Then I will.” Nicolai said again and stood up from his chair.

I walked from my chair and faced Nicolai, pushing his chest with my hands, begging him not to do it. It’s not her fault that she has this curse, she can’t help it. And even though I can’t read her mind, and even though she is a threat to my husband, I know she is a good person. Her anger towards someone that looks like Brock, killing a female she knows, points out that she is a caring person wanting to take revenge for the dead girl or woman.

“Love, she has been threatening my life, a general’s life, so that is the death penalty according to our laws.” Brock said to me with a solid tone.

“I know! But she is not a bad person! Someone did this to her! I can’t bear to know that we are going to sentence someone to death, only because she is cursed! Hasn’t she been punished enough already with her being a slave? I’m not going to allow you to kill someone, after me rescuing her from that man!”

I looked over at Cirilya, but she turned her head down. She couldn’t intervene with the laws of Terralon, as she isn’t an actual citizen from it. But, still she could have helped me with standing my ground!

“I’m sorry love, but what will happen if she attacks you? Or being a danger to our boys? She will be sentenced.” Brock said again, with pleading eyes.

I know where he is coming from, I don’t want my children to be in any danger either, but still this didn’t feel right. There was something more about her, more behind the reason as to why she has this curse. Who is targeting Brock? Who is targeting us?

“Could we at least try to lift the mind-block? To maybe find out more about who cast the spell?” I asked everyone, begging for them to see it my way, hoping that one of them would concede.

“What about you dad? Can you really sentence a woman to death while knowing that it isn’t her fault?”

Everyone turned their faces in his direction, waiting for an answer. I could see him thinking, looking me straight in my eyes.

“There might be a way to lift the blockage, but you’re not going to like it.” Cirilya suddenly said.