Introduction
This is a continuation of the Mortis Custos Part 46 by @lex-zaiya.
To start at the beginning of the story please see the links provided at the end of this post!
Viewer discretion is advised due to gory violence! Undead! Swords! Death! Beware!
Part 48
Magna's eyes bored into Adiran. She was beyond furious. Every single time there was yet another secret to be held and she was always the one who did not know.
"I..." Adiran began and then stopped. He seemed to be milling around, seeking an explanation that would in the end not tell her anything.
"Stop trying to lie to me!" Magna said, she stood up and pushed him off her, slapping the hand that was stemming the bleeding. Bright crimson blood began to ooze from the strange welt on her wrist. It looked as though it had been burned and cut all at the same time. Whatever had held her had been hot but had also been unwilling to part with her.
She slapped a hand down on the wound.
"You really need some help with that." A voice said, the voice grim and heavy. She looked upwards to see the helmed revenant knight staring down at her. She was glad that his helmet hid his withered face, dead eyes and teeth. "Your blood must not needlessly be spilled. You need a hand to bind that... do not fear. I do not need any blood at this moment. All is well... and I am sorry..."
She stared up at the Death Knight. She accepted his explanation, she merely nodded. Despite his condition, he had no more reasons to lie to her.
"Carry on with your line of questioning," Mortis told her as the knight took out a roll of bandages and first made a pad large enough to overlap her wound. "This is going to hurt." With a fingertip glowing with magic he pressed it to her wound. It was hot but somehow Magna felt that the heat was inconsequential. If it had not been for her previous encounter, it would have given her a searing pain that would have made her cry.
Does he mean that the wound will hurt or that the truth will hurt? I could command the truth from Mortis... but I want my uncle to be the one that tells me the truth!
But it did not feel like much at the moment. Compared to what she had been put through already. Her attention turned to her uncle again while the knight stopped the bleeding and then covered the wound in a dressing.
"You may be my uncle." She said. "But maybe that is a lie." She looked at the revenant. "But you are family because he is bound to both of us."
"I am related to the House of your father yes." The mage said finally. "I grew up in the castle. Your father was as my brother."
"How can that be? If you had a twin sister?" She saw him falter.
"It is difficult to explain." Adiran said and then his face hardened. "And the mission here has been to save your brother's life. It is just..."
"I do not understand that." Mortis said. "Why is that something that you keep saying? You are desperate but... is the result not a garuantee?"
"What does that mean?" Magna demanded. "Do you know who he is Mortis?"
The helmeted head nodded. "Sort of, but I am not sure any more. He discovered my secret, but he is a Mage of immense skill and power, he might have known something all along. I know he is your family and you are correct. He is of the Blood of Drakenspoort. His blood is the family to which I am bound. My family. Yet, at that time I also discovered something about him. Adiran had aksed me that he be the one to tell you."
She was furious, but it was what she actually wanted. "I am always the last to know." She grated.
"Well, it was not like I was not already keeping the full truth from you." He pointed at his own helmeted head. She knew what was behind that steel mask. "It was really in the interest of the mission and your sanity as was Adiran's secret.
"We need to get out of here Magna." Adiran said, pleadingly. "We are so close to finding your brother. His soul was severed from his body. He needs to be assisted in getting back into his body before he loses that connection!"
This was the only thing that made her anger subside. She looked at her surroundings and realized that they were in a landscape that looked somewhat familiar.
In the distance, she could see a city and a massive castle behind it. "We are back home?"
Adiran shook his head. "Not our home, but the version of it where your brother is right now. If I am correct, he may be in great danger. The forces that seek him out will not stop. We cannot allow him to be captured."
The landscape was easy to see, but it seemed gloomy. It was then that Magna realized that there was neither a sun nor the moons in the sky. There was light that made everything somewhat grey and colors were somewhat bleached. Not even a star twinkled in the heavens.
Mortis was rubbing his helmeted head with his gauntlet as though forgetting that he had it on. There was something strange going on.
"What forces?" Magna said. "Surely you can tell me that?"
"Adiran!" Helga interrupted them. "Look!" The harpy was pointing with her one good wing.
Far in the distance, over the waters of the grey sea was a beam of bright red light, smothered in smoke and debris. It just seemed to come from nowhere, neither travelling upwards nor downwards.
"Oh no." Adiran said. "He's coming."
"Who is coming?" Magna yelled. "Answer a damn question! Any question!"
The Mage looked back at her with fear and worry on his face. "Well it is all going to be revealed soon I guess. But we really need to hurry. Magna, when I came to get you earlier... you were touched by the... divine." He spat the last word.
"Magna met one of the Gods?" Helga exclaimed.
"Not one, but both of them." Adiran said. "In their most primordial form. Come to think of it..." He pointed at the red beam over the sea. "It is probably his doing."
"How are you so sure, while you don't seem to know what is really happening here?" Magna asked. The more she asked questions, the less things made sense and the more questions she had. Things were never properly explained.
Adiran set his face grimly. "I really wanted things to be different. But I have failed. I guess it is because I have not changed much... I know because I have seen it before... sort of. I was very young and I do not remember everything."
Just then a beam of red energy shot out towards the party. There was almost no warning and yet Adiran had his hands up and had stood between the party and the flash of energy.
The energy dissapated against a disc of blue and yellow energy. The Mage hardly seeme to hesitate after the beam stopped and shot a beam of similar size towards the energy hovering over the sea.
The bolt was blue and yellow and it collided head on with a second bolt of red and black energy. The bolts exploded and energy rippled backward on the beam until it hit Adiran's body.
The Mage was flung backwards but Mortis threw himself into action and caught the Mage. The two of them slid along the hard ground, the knight's armor taking the brunt of the damage, the Mage in his lap.
Magna looked towards the line of red energy over the sea and saw that it too had taken damage as it faded and flickered and was no more. The two had just about canceled one another out.
"Adiran!" Helga yelled and ran towards the Mage. Magna was faster than the injured harpy and got to where the two figures had stopped. Mortis still held the Mage.
Adiran was passed out cold, his body bruised and his robe shredded. A large patch of skin on his chest was exposed and something caught Magna's eye. She knelt beside the Mage and before anyone could stop her, she parted the robe more.
Magna gasped and stared at the scar tissue.
Helga came to kneel on the other side of the Mage. The harpy gasped as well. "What did this?" She asked Magna. "I have known the Mage many years but I did not know he had been injured so severely."
Magna's fingers traced the shape of the scar, it was massive and covered most of the Mage's sturnum and a part of his abdomen. She knew it very well. It's image had haunted her dreams and memories.
She blinked a hot tear of sadness, rage and fear. She cupped Adiran's chin and looked at his face in a new light. "It happened when he was very young."
"Then how could you know that?" Helga asked. "You were not there."
Magna looked at the harpy through the tears that were streaming from her eyes and down her cheeks now.
"Because I am his twin sister."
Wrapup
Well then... it has happened. I hope you enjoyed that @lex-zaiya.
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