Around the corner of the door, Hilda cooly stepped into view, keeping her gaze on the floor.
“It is Divine Ruhiel. His previous two administrators and I have been confirmed records indicating that he is indeed incapable of magic.” She said, maintaining a neutral tone.
Ruhiel maintained her white-hot gaze as she stared deep into Keldon’s eyes.
“Which administrators?”
“178 and 61 Divine Ruhiel”
A moment passed.
And another.
Then, Ruhiel loosened her grip on Keldon’s shoulders, giving them a gentle pat before returning her own arms to her side.
“Well then, my apologies Keldon. Your story seems to line up with all the other testimonies so i hope you can forgive me for testing you. I’m sure you can understand my passion in the face of blasphemy,” she said as the flare faded from her eyes.
She forced out a slight smile before turning to walk away. “If you remember anything else, please be sure to inform me.” And as suddenly as she arrived, she vanished in a burst of wind, taking off to the sky.
Keldon trembled, his muscles shaking from the adrenaline as Hilda slowly walked up to him.
“You alright?” she asked, taking out her skill orb and healing the bruise left from that monster’s grip.
“I’m fine. Is Bertram okay? Was he one of the survivors?” Keldon said with a note of worry in his voice.
“Why don’t ya ask him yourself? Come out here Softie.” She said, turning back towards the door.
Bertram hobbled into the room, leaning against what looked to be a cane carved out of the gnarled lumber they normally throw away in the Hissings.
“Shut yer mouth Hilda before I shut it fer ya.” Bertram grumbled.
“Maybe if you catch me first.”
Where Bertram’s leg used to be, a small wire contraption of steel and wood took it’s place. Keldon’s heart sank, He couldn't do enough, and his powerlessness could cost Bertram his place here at the Hissings.
“Bertram I-“
He whipped his head to Keldon, flipping him off.
“You shut yer trap too, I want none of that pussy shit about how yer’ sorry you couldn’t help me.”
Fire flared in Keldon’s chest as he leaned forward. He couldn’t take it anymore
“ No YOU shut your mouth Bertram!”
Hilda took a step back in surprise.
“Do you have ANY idea about how frustrated I am?!! I have ZERO fucking clue what’s going on anymore. “
“Time and time again, I try and keep the people around me alive, but each and every time I let them down. The only reason i stay at this Gods-forsaken mine because it’s the only fucking place where I can have even an iota of a chance of saving anyone. Still, I’m worthless Bertram. I can’t even save people right, and each time they die, they take a part of me with them.”
Keldon leaned back into his bed and stared at the ceiling.
“I didn’t even ask for their names this time… and now, they’re dead.”
The ancient voice’s words from his vision echoed within his mind. “You must return him, The Master of Names must be returned to rally against the Final Calamity.”
Keldon’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“I can’t even keep a small group of idiots alive. How am I supposed to bring someone back and stop whatever-the-fuck the final calamity is. “
He turned his head to Bertram and Hilda who bore solemn faces.
“Magic or not, I wouldn’t be able to save anyone anyways. My father was right Bertram. If I do something, I need to do it right. So maybe I just shouldn’t do anything at all then anymore. At least that way if they die, they won’t be able to pin it on me."
The three of them sat there, Bertram and Hilda stunned in silence.
“…Hilda, give us a moment will ya?” asked Betram. She met his gaze and hesitated for a second before nodding and walking around the door, still within earshot.
Bertram pulled up a nearby stool, sighed and sat down beside Keldon’s bed as he looked away, refusing to meet Bertram’s gaze.
The two of them sat quietly for a few minutes
.
.
“I’m sorry Bertram, that was unfair of me” Keldon said, finally breaking the silence. He turned back towards Bertram
“I just can’t do anything right, and I-I’m SEEing things Bertram, and it’s not just Hissing’s hallucinations this time. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s frightening. And I don’t think they’re just dreams.”
Keldon was rambling and frustrated, something was going on and he was completely powerless in the face of it. Pulled around by someone… something else’s whims like a leaf in the wind. And even if he tried to do anything about it, he was probably just going to get someone killed. Again.
So why bother.
Keldon buried his face into his knees. He should just curl up and die, at least he could join his friends again.
Bertram squirmed in his seat before meeting Keldon’s eyes once again.
“Well… I ain’t gonna understand if yerr gonna keep yer mouth shut.” Bertram said with a concerned look on his face. “Think ya could at least try for me then buddy”
“It’s not going to do anything Bertram, it never has.”
“Didn’t it though?” Bertram said, scooching closer to him.
“ Sure I’m missing a leg, but I’m alive buddy. Doc said that if somebody hadn’t patched up my leg when they did, I would have bled out there on that there field. And I’d be damned if a tar-eyed would have patched me up before you did.”
Keldon sat still in silence for a moment.
“…More would have survived without me.”
“Would they have though? Cuz I reckon if you hadn’t moved them out of the way, same thing that happened to my leg woulda’ happened to their skulls. Fate just had a bone to pick with that lot was all.”
“…”
“Yerr a good man Keldon, don’t let your noggin trick you otherwise.”
“…It’s going to happen again Bertram. I’m going to get the people I try to help killed again. It’s easier to just go back; back to running away."
“ Yerr not an easy sort of man, Keldon. You dive into the abyss tah’ try and yank some poor saps out.” Bertram said sternly. “So, if Lady fate’s got em in her sticky black hands anyways, what’s the harm in reaching in and tryna steal a couple of em out.”
Keldon paused for a moment, before lifting his head to look at Bertram.
“That guilt don’t quit buddy, I know first-hand. It’s like a claw that scratches at the back of yerr heart. But if you quit now, yerr never gonna save anyone mopin’ around with yerr thumb up your ass.” Bertram shrugged, “Plus, if they’re dead anyways, they ain’t gonna get more dead if you save em.”
Keldon cracked a smile as he looked at Bertram.
“You’re pretty shit at consoling people, you know that?”
Bertram shot him back a grin.
“It’s a damn shame you have to be right though.” Keldon said with a sigh.
“So ya gonna tell me what’s going on now then?” Bertram asked.
“…Yeah. Okay.”
As Bertram pulled up his stool closer as Keldon began to tell him his story.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
“….. Good Gods, holy shit” said Bertram, finally breaking the silence that was created when Keldon finished telling him the story.
“ So to chalk it all up; you suddenly can use magic , yerr dreams are trippin’ out and blending together and ya think someone’s givin em to ya to get something done ?”
“Yeah that’s about the gist of it.”
“so what now?”
“That’s the thing. I really don’t know what to do Bertram, I don’t have control over when I have these dreams and I usually get killed before I can figure anything out.” Keldon said frustrated
“There’s nothing about them in any of the books in Mortimer’s shop and if he doesn’t have them, then nobody else here in Greenhearst is going to either.”
“…so why not leave?”
Keldon paused.
“What?”
“You heard me Varmint. Leave. Get out of Greenhearst; you’ve been in this damned place long enough. Because from what you’ve told me, if these visions you’re telling me have any sorta truth to em, then you’re gonna hafta do a hella lot more than stop these buffoons from sniffin’ fumes to stop whatever the hell’s goin’ on there.”
Keldon looked out the door to the mud pits and ash of the place he had called home for the last 6 years.
"Who'd help the new recruits though?"
"They're pausin' new recruitment 'til they can find out what in the tarnation happened to the Aberration. So they'll be fine for awhile"
“Leaving Greenhearst huh... Where would I even go?”
“Lookin’ for information right? How ‘bout the Grand Academy?”
Keldon eyes widened.
“W-what??! The Grand Academy?? I can’t go there Bertram! They only take the best of the best and need I remind you Bertram, that the magic I use is illegal. What am I supposed to say? “Why yes sir, I may or may not be able to use magic skills but if you don’t let me in, there MIGHT be an apocalypse” Which, by the way, we don’t even know if it’s real or not.”
“As an apprentice scribe, shit ferr brains.” Bertram said, shaking his head.
“Only nobility, the ultra-rich, or someone with a hell of a connection can even take the entrance exam. Everybody wants to become an apprentice scribe at the Grand Academy, even if you never get past being an apprentice scribe, you’ll still be set for life."
“I know a brat who'll sponsor you.”
“What do you mean?” Keldon said, turning towards Bertram with a funny look before it clicked in his mind
"You know someone that could get me into THE grand academy?”
“Mhm” Bertram mumbled. “I’ll write him a letter to tell him yerr comin’ so you best get ready to leave. You’ll live with him for a few months beferr entrance exams start. He’s a bit of a Slimy Varmint but he keeps his word, he owes me a few favors so he’ll happily sponsor you to get rid of ‘em."
Keldon clutched his sheets, feelings welling up in his chest. Sniffling and wiping his eyes, his voice warbled as he said “Thanks Bertram… for believing me.”.
Bertram shrugged his shoulders in a false nonchalance, “ Saved my life buddy, least I could do.”
“Plus, if it turns out yerr a loon, ya could always come back and sift through dirt with tar-eyes again.”
Bertram stood up, and took a big stretch, almost stumbling over on his new leg but catching himself at the last moment.
“You got two days. Ya’ leave with the prison cart to the capital.”
Bertram walked out the door, kicking Hilda who had fallen asleep around the corner as she jolted awake, immediately beginning to yell at Bertram about consideration and how he needed to be more gentle as Keldon’s father figure. However, none of that had even registered with Keldon, because he had already lost himself, deep in thought.
I’m fulfilling your dreams after all Luther… Tianna… Baby Aisha.I get to attend the Grand Academy Keldon thought. However, the dark clouds that Bertram pushed back slowly crept back into Keldon’s mind as his mood darkened, thinking about the past.
But... do I even deserve it?
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