Years went by, Carbel raised his son quietly, teaching him to use the powers he’d manifested early in his childhood. He trained him in hand to hand combat and the use of different weapons. When training was done he held his boy close to his chest as they lay in front of the fireplace in the tower they called home. Stroking his little Zillah’s hair silently, he would hum the lullaby he’d been singing to him since birth.
“Hnnn hnn nn… Quiet child, the shadows call out to reach, calling you down into sleep, My child, the shadows call out to reach, calling you down into sleep. Virtuous son, believe only in me, and oneday you will know your father’s deceit. You’ll never realize why you weep, but toward my voice will you always seek. Fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty only for me. Virtuous son, your spirit take flight, hold truth within my brother of spite. You will reveal his treachery for you are the proof he is not who he claims be. Fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty only for me. Quiet child, the shadows call out to reach, calling you down into sleep. Child, the shadows call out to reach, calling you down into sleep. Fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty only for me. Virtuous son, for every day you grow older, each moment my vengeance grows bolder. For the child of my soul, the blood of my flesh, will die in righting the wrongs he made known. Fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty, fealty only for me. Quiet child, the shadows call out to reach, calling you down into sleep. My child, the shadows call out to reach, calling you down into sleep. “
One such night it was currently, Carbel curled up around his son on the rug in front of the fire, arms wrapped tightly around him. Singing this lullaby quietly, when the song ended the son, with his tossled blond hair and dark skin, spoke softly.“Mother, why must I face my father one day? We train everyday and into the night sometimes too! is he that bad of a person? Why did he kill all the other children?”
Carbel sighed, running his hand through Zillah’s hair, kissing his forehead. They rarely had this conversation and he could not tell his child the full truth, the voices that whispered warned him against it. “Because, beloved boy of mine, your father is a cruel ruler, you said yourself just now, he killed all the other children, every Vampswill child born is far younger than you, he killed every possible friend your age you may have ever had.”
Zillah frowned, hugging his mother around the waist, pressing his face into the broad chest. “Sorry I asked mother…”
He shook his head, kissing Zillah’s hair as he rubbed his son’s back. “Worry not yourself over such a thing my sweet baby, you know your father is nothing but a shit stained streak upon this earth, all you need do is follow the voices within the trees, hone your magic skills, as they whisper to you, as they whisper to me, remember child...."
The boy looked up at his mother, the sound of sniffling had reached Carbel’s ears and he smiled softly as his child wiped his eyes quickly and reattached himself to his mother, determination burning in his dark orbs.
“Anything everything, every breath I take mother! nunne other, by my life and my sword, the magic that grows like wrapping tree roots from my very body! I will grow up to be strong just like you! and then I will grow to be even stronger than you! So that I can protect you and all the children that will exist when I am an adult. I will not let my vile father kill anymore kids! Not while I am alive! and…”
His voice grew soft, as he reached his smaller hand up to lace his fingers together with his silently weeping mother’s. “I won’t let him make you shed tears of such heartache, you are my everything...my beautiful mother, and one day, your heart will never feel pain again, for my father will be dead and I will be the only one within it.” The boy then ran his other hand’s finger across his mother’s eyes, to wipe away the tears that had gathered within them.
His son’s words touched his very core, he enveloped his small frame in his arms and held him close to his chest. “I love you so much, my little Zillah.” he whispered, kissing his child’s cheeks.
Zillah squealed in protest his mother’s hands moving to tickle him.
“I I am a man! I’m not little! one day, one day you will see mother!” he giggled in joy as Carbel stood up, scooping him into the air and placing him in his arms, rocking him before spinning him around, arms outstretched.
Their joyous laughter filled the normally cold and barren tower, “we shall see about that my little one, you will grow to be a mighty man will you?”
Zillah puffed his cheeks and chest out in an attempt to look intimidating even though his mother was holding him in the air. “Gaah! put me down! put me down! I can’t show off how manly I am while being twirled about like some child mother!”
Carbel chuckled, kissing his cheeks and nose as he set him to the floor only to pull him back down into another attack of tickles and kisses. “You can show off your manly skills once you master the art of the sword, your father fights dirty and will not hesitate to cheat, you must have a grip of your Vampswill skills! Remember my son, a Vampswill must see through deception”
Things calmed down after a while as they drifted into the serious subject matter. Zillah laid with his head against his mother’s chest, nuzzling his face into it while he wrapped his shorter arms around Carbel’s waist tightly as he normally did. “I know mother, a Vampswill’s path is to always walk through the shadows, casting our enemies unawares before they feel the sting of death. I know what I must do, I will never run or hide from my duty.”
He looked down at his son seriously, “What is your duty, Zillah?”
The son looked back up at his mother, eyes once again burning with a seriousness and determination that was far beyond his childhood age. In a clear and unwavering voice he spoke.
"To protect you, even though it means I will die one day. I must protect you at all costs mother.”
A frown found its way to Carbel’s face, “I know, that that is what the voices whispered to me, so many years ago, before you were born, that part within the lullaby...is..”
Zillah cut him off, speaking with a wisdom that one so young should never posses. “That part within the lullaby is my destiny mother, I accept that, I may be a child, but children younger than me have been fighting and dying at my father’s hands. I am not a coward, I would dive into hell for you, my beautiful mother….”
Carbel sighed, wanting to hear no more of his son’s chivalry or noble speeches this night. He pulled him closer and waving his hand over them both they were settled in bed. He felt Zillah yawn, snuggling closer to him beneath the covers. He let a smile play on his face, holding his boy against himself, his need for revenge now being challenged by his rising fears for his beloved baby….
But one day, Zillah would no longer merely the child of his body, the flesh of his soul, a life he could easily protect with a flick of his wrist…
No, Zillah would one day grow to become a man, and on that day,
Carbel would have no choice but to let fate drag him along with the thrashing tides it created. He would be but a character on a page of destiny and he already knew he would do all in his power to prevent the pages from rotting away with time.
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