Roots - Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One: The Truth

“My reasons for lying were reasonable and you know it, Briar. I would not have chosen it this way if it had been in my power, but as it was not—“
“I don’t care whose power it was in!” Briar interrupted without missing a beat. “It is unethical and unnecessary to lie to the one we are meant to protect!”
“But it was for his protection that I lied!” Garen retorted. “They swore me into it with a vow. I had no choice but to agree. And you don’t tell a city full of elves no.”
Aldon felt his face go numb, or at least more numb than usual. He had not only become aware of one his oldest friends’ true identity but that there is a city full of elves.
Or at least were.
“What elves? Where?” He blurted, meaning to have waited his turn. The adults looked at him exasperatedly; strained and pale. Took sat off in the corner snoozing peacefully as if he were back in the Brosco.
“Wait, Aldon. I’ll make sure Garen tells you the whole story. Just let him speak.” Briar said in a calm assuring voice. His demeanor had relaxed and lost all rigidity as if he needed to hear what Garen had to say to make sense of things. “Go ahead and fill him in now.”
All eyes were on Garen as he sat up straight and cleared his throat. He glanced at Aldon for a brief second before staring out the black window. His face went blank as if he were picturing everything he was about to say. “My real name is Garen Wreathmen. I went to the spiritblade academy to train under Ruhtra Gnik where I met Briar. We became friends for a time before he left after the fall of our master to the Daemon. I continued to train for a time until completion, and ventured out to gain yet more knowledge. So I travelled for years until I at long last found the home of the elves. They took me in warmly, seeing my potential, and trained me as you guessed, Aldon, in the ways of the arcane.”
Aldon’s eyes bulged wide in utter shock. He was sure his chin must have bounced off his knees as it gaped in awe.
Even after all these years of guessing, I still can’t believe it. This is incredible!
“I lived with them for several years until something happened. An elven army marched to battle against many fiercesome foes, and united with men to stop such a plague from growing in these lands.” Garen stiffened visibly and shook off some chill. “The battle was thought to be won and our people rejoiced. For it was that day we also had some children to be born to the victorious captain of the army, Iyeldn Sungblade of the Eighth Order and his beautiful wife Aryel. But she died giving birth to her two children. He, in an act of a broken heart, disappeared with his army, vanquishing all of their foes at once.” Aldon was slightly alarmed at how quickly Garen’s face had turned grave and depressed, his thick eyebrows drooping low above his pale, icy eyes until they were nearly hidden. “None know how, but I believe he found no reason to continue living with her gone; and not knowing his children were born, used his very essence in battle and destroyed everyone in an unimaginable force.
So I came to the children after the funeral to learn of their futures. One was to be taken to a small village and live a calm life until another matter was taken care of. The other was to stay with his kind in the hopes to be contained.” His eyes hovered in Aldon’s direction yet again. “I was told of another threat making a name for himself; a magi by the name of Mortan. They said he had consumed every dark power of old until his body became ravaged by such evil it couldn’t be contained. I was told; somewhere he hid his true form and all its terror within a vault of sorts. We hoped he would stay within, but news soon reached us of his actions spreading across the land, forcing nations to join his alliance.
In the end, it was decided he would soon come for the elves and their vast knowledge of power. I was chosen as bearer to watch over the child until he was old enough to fully comprehend the terrible danger he is in. For you see, Aldon, that babe was you. You alone have become a priority target to Mortan for one fact none of us could ever hope to change.” He stared hard at the floor with a scowl stretching across his face. “He found them because of it, and so he will find you.”
Aldon backed against the wall and felt for something to support himself. His head was buzzing with voices and memories he had no recollection of. He could see himself walking with Muren, no taller than his knee, and staring up at the giant of a man Garenford, or Garen now, in a forest he no longer recognized.
“Did I ever return to them with you? Or with..” He found it hard to say both emotionally and physically. “With Muren?”
Garen scratched at his beard for a moment before speaking without looking up. “We never found it again. It laid across the continent on the other side of Hromen and the Land of Old. Never could we have gone that far together the three of us. Muren was much too lazy and you too young. However, I did bring you to the Brosco once before as a small child. Muren found it pleasantly silent meanwhile you were transfixed. You would climb the trees and speak to them in full conversation. It was quite extraordinary and I knew you would have a hard time fitting in with humans. You are an elf, Aldon Sungblade of the Ninth Order your mother named you.”
“My..my mother.” A hard lump formed in Aldon’s throat until it was hard to breath and his eyes stung. He had never had a mother. Muren’s wife had passed years before he showed up, and no one had any idea of who his family was until now. He wanted more than anything to know she was real and had truly existed; that someone had loved him and cared for him in such an irreplaceable way. But the moment was wrong, an inopportune time for irrelevant question no matter how intensely they burned within Aldon’s chest. “Perhaps in another time and place I could have wept for her and begged for more information. But now, I must know: what happened to the city of my kind?”
Garenford stood and opened the door, pointing to the crackling inferno of the bonfire. “Mortan struck in the night, and asked for a full surrender of the city unto his control. The elves, with their captain gone and his army vanished; the elves had no option but to agree. Those who would fight stepped outside and did battle with the dark magic wielder, who had come alone, only to fall against his onslaught. The elves were powerful in their own right, much more so than most humans; but he was neither human, elf nor any race of this earth. He had become an abomination. A sick mutation of nature that he twisted with the arcane in such devious ways no one could ever hope to unweave his tangled web of enchantments and curses he placed on himself. He gave up everything for the raw power to rule and destroy. Yet it is he who was destroyed and ruled when the darkness consumed him and fed on his soul.
I do not know if he can be killed.”
The room fell silent aside from the distant clamor of thunder and hammering of rain. The world seemed so peaceful at the moment with nature washing away all the turmoil that stained her surface. But war was a nasty cut and still bled; staining her more every passing second. Aldon couldn’t help but wonder how many people were dying each minute.
Finally, Briar broke the silence.
“So Mortan, this all powerful devil bringer has his eye set on Aldon, just because he’s an elf?” Briar collapsed against the wall and slid to the floor with his elbows resting on his knees; chin in hand. “I don’t understand what he could possibly want with him.”
“It is because he is an elf. Because of their best kept secret.” Garenford stated quietly with eyes closed once again. He could have been sleeping or better yet dead with the state of him. His skin still sagged and had a sheen blue color to it like a corpse or someone with leprosy. “Every elf is born with a doppelganger..”
Aldon was feeling very faint now. He struggled to keep his brain working and soak up what knowledge Garen was saying, but it didn’t seem to function properly anymore. It just gave him brief flashes of sound before cutting out to the howling wind outside.
“..I mentioned Aryel’s two children before did I not..”
The sky was pounding down on his eardrums like a thousand tiny fists as the sound of slopping footsteps slurped beneath him.
“..one of light and one of dark. Though neither are evil or good, they will have a natural tendency to one than the other..”
Voices muttered behind him and cursed of such things as the damn rain, soaking all of our weapons; they’ll be slick and hard to use now. And hush it up back there; we’re close. Close enough for that elf to hear us already. Draw your torches and light ‘em.
“..we had believed Aldon to be the one of light; however recent incidents have said otherwise..”
A loud whoompf blazed beside Aldon’s face like rushing air followed by several others behind him.
“..Aldon’s brother or doppelganger has been within the city of the elves since its’ siege and remains there doing work under command of Mortan against his will..”
A snickering laugh like a choking dog wheezing came out from next to him. On three.
“..he remains loyal however to the elves and has discovered a profound profession in the alchemy of light magic..”
Three.
“..that is extremely rare and difficult to fathom for someone supposedly attuned to the darkness..”
Two.
“..meaning you, Aldon, are the dark one and must be trained to stand against evil so that you are not easily tempted..”
One.
“..for you would be a great ally to—“
Every fiber of Aldon’s being screamed to get down, jump out of the way, run; just do something. But his feet remained planted as if frozen against his will. His eyes rolled back and his head lolled to one side on his shoulder. He stiffened and collapsed backwards off his feet to the dark abyss below. A bright flash cascaded glass across the room. He could hear yelling and the sound of metal scraping together. Several loud collisions rumbled the wooden floor beneath him until they died away and were replaced by more shouting. Something wet splashed across his face and a rustic smell filled his nostrils. He looked over with his eyes, rolling back and forward in their sockets, until he was face to face with a blank gaze watching him without seeing, arrow protruding a few inches lower.
Aldon wanted to cry then as images of the bodies he found in Town filled his vision before he succumbed to the pressure on his head. He could feel it growing until he was sure his eyes would jump out. He wanted to help and save who he could, fighting for those he cared for. He needed to learn more and become something. Something more than a casualty turned liability.
Something more.