Chapter 11: Recovery

Simon woke up in the hospital, familiar with his condition. He sat up and stared at the door, feeling someone staring at him. He got up, being sure to not disconnect anything from the equipment, and went to the door. He opened it and saw the nurse standing right outside.

“Simon! What are you doing out of bed?” she asked.

“I thought I heard something,” he said.

“Get in bed!” she said, pushing him.

Simon got himself back in bed and waited for the nurse to finish what she was scribbling on the sheet of paper. He looked around for Yuelia, but she wasn’t there.

“She went home,” the nurse said.

“Oh… thanks,” he said, laying back.

A few minutes went by, the only thing to be heard was silence. He looked out the window at the small town. He never realized how small it was until then. It may be small, but it’s important. The town was one of the biggest parts in the world's trading routes, helping sailors rest up, cleaning their ships, everything that could be of service, the town did it.

I wonder how the dock is doing now, he thought.

With the damage it had taken, he wasn’t sure if it would still function.

“How’s the dock doing?” he asked.

“It’s functioning…. Barely,” the nurse said, not looking up from her clipboard.

“Barely?” he asked.

“The raid took it’s toll, making the clean up difficult for the workers. Why do you ask?” she said.

“I work there. I just wanted to know if things are alright,” he replied.

She stopped writing on her clipboard and placed her hands on his shoulders. She started to mumbling something and her hands started to glow with a pale green light. Simon started to feel somewhat better after a few minutes. After a while, she took her hands off of him and picked her clipboard back up.

“You’ll be ready to go in a few minutes. Your clothes are right here,” she said, pointing to a stack of neatly folded clothes, “I hope you enjoyed your stay.”

She left the room without saying another word. Simon got up and changed his clothes, removing equipment. He walked to the door, noticing a limp in his step. He left the hospital and walked to the docks.

“Hey guys,” he said, waving.

“Why did this happen again?” Kyle said, sadly.

“I don’t know,” Simon said, walking up to him.

“Simon! Are you okay?” Kyle said, looking at him.

“Yes, I’m fine. Have they come back at all?” Simon asked, looking around.

“No. I haven’t seen them since you were put in the hospital,” Kyle said, walking towards a busted crate.

The metal container was nearly torn in half, as if it were paper. The contents were gone, the only thing remaining was a few small piles of whisper dust, the purple piles blew away with the wind. Kyle shook his head with his hands on his hips.

“Why? Why this harbor?” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

Simon was thinking the same thing; Why just this harbor? They haven’t received any reports of attacks from other harbors. In fact, they seemed to be working properly, but that doesn’t answer the question.

Is there something special about this one? We are the best in the trade, but that doesn’t really matter. Maybe it’s because we have the largest supply of whisper shards? No, that can’t be it. They’re not really useful. Maybe it’s-*..., He thought.

Then he realized why it was getting attacked; it was him. Simon was the reason why the pirate kept coming back.

Pendant spawn…. Is that really what I am? He thought, looking down.

He was different from everyone else, but that was mostly due the fact that he was albino. But could he really be a Pendant spawn, whatever that meant.

“Hey, Simon!” one of the workers said, “Help us lift this!”

“I’m on it,” Simon said, getting in the crane.

The day was long and no cargo came in. The clean up didn’t take long, but the workers were exhausted and everyone left early. Simon and Kyle were the only ones that stayed.

“You don’t have to stay,” Kyle said, checking all the crates.

“I’m staying. I’m going to wait here until they come. Then I’ll ask them a few things,” Simon said, sitting in the crane.

Kyle nodded his head and headed home after counting the remaining crates. A while later, a ship came into dock and two people came off of it. Simon climbed down from the crane and walked behind them. It didn’t take long for Shards to turn around.

“I just want to talk,” Simon said, putting his hands up.

Teebs jumped and turned around, looking as if he’d been spooked.

“Don’t do that!” he said, grabbing his chest, “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry. I want to ask you a few questions,” Simon said.

“Go on,” Shards said, looking from behind her hood.

“Why are you attacking the harbor?” Simon asked.

“Well, we need the whisper shards for something,” Teebs said.

“For what?” Simon said, “If you want them, there are caves almost literally everywhere in Zenith.”

“We didn’t know,” Teebs said.

Shards shook her hand a little and said, “Ehh…”

“We didn’t know where they were,” he admitted.

“Okay. Just find a map and look. Okay? Stop attacking the harbor,” Simon said.

“Is that all?” Shards asked.

“No. Why are you attacking me?” Simon asked, “Other than the fact you think I’m going to end the world.”

“We’re testing your endurance. Your passing so far,” Shards said.

“Testing my endurance? You gotta be kidding me,” Simon said.

Shards shook her head.

“Why? What ‘big and special event’ are you guys ‘testing my endurance’ for by nearly killing me?” Simon said, almost yelling.

“Calm down, kid. We can’t tell you just yet, but we have our predictions,” Teebs said.

“Predictions!? What’s that supposed to mean!?” Simon said, electricity sparking from his arms and hands.

Shards noticed it and whispered something to Teebs. Teebs saw it too and reached for the sword on his back.

“Well?!” Simon said, waiting for an answer.

“It means that there are multiple outcomes to this. One of them is you destroying everything. Another is you kill everyone, yourself included. Neither one of those sound good to any of us,” Teebs said, grabbing the sword’s hilt.

“Okay, so? Stop trying to kill me!” Simon yelled, the sparks getting bigger and brighter.

“Okay! Just calm down!” Shards said, raising her hands towards him.

The sparks died down a little and Simon slowed his breathing.

“What is a pendant spawn?” Simon asked.

Shards gave Teebs a look and he gave her a nod. He took his hand away from the sword and shoved them in his pockets.

“What is a pendant spawn?” Simon repeated himself.

“A pendant spawn is a child born of pure magic. The very heart of it,” Teebs said, “The magic used is called Blood magic.”

“To make a pendant spawn, you need three things; The blood of the two parents, the Blood Pendant, and time,” Shards said, crossing her arms.

“There’s a small chance that the pendant spawn will be human and a big chance for it to be an abomination. You are the first one to turn out as a human,” Teebs said, walking around him.

“That started a chain reaction in Blood Magic history. There has been an increase in human pendant spawns, but none like you,” Shards said, walking around him too.

“Stop talking as if I already know it! Just tell me!” Simon yelled.

“Your mother and father were thought to use Blood magic. Especially with a Blood Pendant,” Shards said, crossing her arms, “And with their success with you, others have created more pendant spawns, each one more successful than the last. But still, none of them are better than you somehow.”

“And you think I’m going to destroy the world because of that? You guys must be inane,” Simon replied.

“Maybe. But the legends never lie,” Teebs said, shrugging.

“Legend?” Simon asked.

“That and the research we did,” Shards added.

“What are you two talking about?” Simon said.

“We researched this and the chances of you killing everyone and yourself are pretty high,” Teebs said.

“Okay, so? That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. And besides, what makes you think it’s me who’s going to kill everyone? If what you said was true, then there are plenty of other pendant spawns!” Simon said.

“Well, you were the first. That means you’re more likely to do it,” Shards said,

“How?” Simon said.

“You’re less human than you think. If you were human, then you’d already be dead. You are something special,” she said, pointing at him.

Simon was having obvious trouble understanding this. How could he NOT be a human? Both his parents were human… or so he thought they were anyway.

“How am I not a human?” Simon asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“Your mother was a human, but your father was something else. Something bad,” Teebs said.

“Okay, can you guys quit with the riddle talk and just tell me? You can probably tell that I’m not getting any of this, so just spit it out, okay?” Simon said.

“Fine. Your father was undead. Kinda like the zombies that roam around at night, but he had the weird ability to absorb knowledge by just being around it. He didn’t even had to read. He and your mother got together and used Blood magic to make you. That better?” Teebs explained, crossing his arms.

“Okay, thank you. That wasn’t so hard,” SImons said, “... Wait my dad was a what?”

“A zombie! Undead, resurrected, brought back from the dead!” Shards said, “It’s not all that hard to understand!”

“Can we leave now? We came and did what we wanted to do,” Teebs said.

“Yeah. I didn’t really expect it to go on this long,” Shards said.

“Wait, hold on. How do you know this?” Simon said.

“They wrote a book on it,” she said, “But the magic is forbidden, as you should know.”

“Farwell, pendant spawn! Until next time!” Teebs said, blowing wind into the sails.

He forgot to untie it from the dock, but Simon ran over and did it for him. They were annoying, not his mortal enemy. That’s how he saw it. Simon walked home with this new information about himself.

Am I going to destroy the world? He thought.