Betrayal rips out the soul and is the quickest path to madness.

~Arawn, God of the Dead

Crow had become used to waking up with Mara’s face practically in his. He could feel her warm breath and stray strands of hair tickling his face. He realized it wasn’t an unpleasant experience, even if she was a little out there. Trying to tame her, or that beast of hers, caused him no end of headaches, but both tasks were enjoyable, though. She changed him on some levels because he felt like she relied on him and her on him.

Her finger reached out and tapped the tip of his nose, but she appeared to be sleeping still. A smile danced across her face, and she looked… relaxed and happy. Despite the warmth and enjoying this feeling, he had guard duty, so he climbed out of the tent to stretch. Ryan nodded to him before heading off to his tent.

On top of the wall, he faced outward and looked over this quiet little valley. Sentry duty was getting harder and harder as the days went by, mainly because nothing happened. Crow would prowl around the outside of the wall and move around a bit, only to help him stay awake.

Some nights he’d hear sounds and even suspected an elder had entered and was nearby. At times he felt like someone was watching him too, which was a hard feeling to shake. Toutou started rattling around in his cage, which caught Crow’s attention. Beasts were far more sensitive to danger.

Plop!

Crow’s head snapped around, and his bow came to hand with an arrow already nocked. Typically, a sound like that wouldn’t have caught his attention, but a combination of factors made his skin crawl. He edged back toward the entrance of their camp and could hear Toutou fidgeting even louder now. Fear crept in, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since he was a small child. Ever so slightly, he felt his hands shake, and only through willpower was he able to keep them steady.

“Alert,” Crow called out loudly. It didn’t matter what he said, they were all sensitive to changes in their environment, and any word should have brought them running.

“Even if that worked, you’d be condemning them to death.” A rasping voice, like that of old parchment, entered the Crow’s ears. His eyes scanned the darkness, looking for movement.

“Who are you?”

“Your courage is commendable. It took a lot to find you. Not a simple person to locate—”

“That’s not true. You’ve been here since day one,” Crow retorted, his arrow swaying back and forth looking for a target.

Chuckling answered his response.

“Very well, I’ve been here a while. I was curious why he sent me to dispatch a child.”

The shape of a man appeared at the camp entrance wearing a crimson robe with the hood hiding his face. Crow released the arrow without hesitating and drew and released another one just as fast. The man didn’t even dodge. Before striking him, the arrows splintered and broke. It was like the laws of the world took apart the projectiles. The scraps that reached their target would have bounced off of a baby without harming it.

“Impressive, not many would have had the nerve to fire, but you didn’t hesitate.”

“By your robe, I assume Gideon sent you?”

The robed man stopped in his tracks. Stunned would be an appropriate reaction. “How—”

“So it is him, then. Why does that bastard keep coming after me? He’s already taken everything away from me. What more could he want? Why does he want his own grandson dead?”

“G-grandson?” It was the first time Crow felt the man’s frustration.

“He didn’t tell you? Ciara is my mother.” Crow told him. He had no idea if it mattered, but there was no way to fight this guy. Token! He moved one hand away from the bow and reached towards his pocket ever so slowly.

“It doesn’t change what has to happen,” the man sighed. “If you are willing to listen, I can explain. Postpone your death for another few minutes.”

Crow felt something give inside him. The last barrier holding him back. Strange how fear affected people. His fear of dying held him back, but realizing its inevitable pull, he became calm. Not that he wanted to die, but that he lacked the power to protect his life. Accepting death allowed him to break free from a mental shackle.

“Tell me this tale, then.”

“Ho, ho. You really are interesting. Where to begin? Your grandfather—”

“Let’s just call him Gideon.”

“Very well, that’s fair, all things considered.” The red-robed man paused a few feet from Crow, and he could make out the bottom half of his face. “Gideon loved a woman, an extremely powerful witch that, but it went sideways on their first night together as husband and wife. The night his beloved became pregnant with your mother, she had a powerful vision and screamed out in fear. It sapped most of her vitality, and she barely held on to give birth to your mother. However, you grandfat—Gideon was relentless and obsessed about his death. He forced her to perform more scryings until she died. A witch’s ability uses their vitality when they try to look into the future.”

“That’s it, she saw his death, and he lost his mind?”

“It wasn’t just his death that rattled him, but the hand that would take his life. It would be someone related to him, but not his daughter.”

“Fate doesn’t work that way. His obsession is likely to bring that vision to reality.”

“You aren’t wrong, and he is obsessed. He formed an entire sect, but that isn’t a story you need to know. Just know that its creation is related to this vision.”

“Are you aiming for my sympathy?”

The man said nothing for a while, but then let out a barely audible sigh. Crow’s entire body froze, confined by some power he didn’t see and only felt. In that short time, the man plucked out the wooden token.

“I… don’t think I should kill you. I’m sensitive to my own karmic balance, and killing an innocent is likely to kick back on me. Gideon said to neutralize the threat, which gives me some leeway, but the second option is worse than death—”

“I accept it the second option,” Crow said immediately. No matter what, if he was still alive, there was a chance at survival.”

“Boy, you need to know that my second option is a curse. It would be far more merciful to kill you, but I will let you decide.”

“If I’m cursed, I have a chance of overcoming. Is it really a choice?”

The man sighed again, and this time Crow could sense the hesitation.

“If you are worried about the fates and karma, then you can balance it by doing two favors.”

“What two favors?” The man perked up with interest, and he found this kid’s sharp mind refreshing.

“The first is to tell me how you found me. The second… give me a gift, a memento of some kind.”

“Hmm, you sure you want to know the answer? It might shatter some of that willpower of yours.”

“I want to know.”

“Ask your team.”

Crow winced. He felt his world crumbling around him.

“All of them? And did they do so intentionally?”

“The tall boy, Lonny, he is broadcasting his location. Does he know? Probably, he is the only plant I know for sure, but he might not know why. The other one, I’m not sure, but they carry a trinket like this one. You can keep that.” The crimson robed man tossed over half of a pendant. “I sense it’s here, but it’s a generalized location, so I only know one of them has it. Once I’m in the area, it doesn’t need to be specific.” The man hesitated, not wanting to give the boy false hope, but could sense the turmoil within the kid. “They might not know why they are carrying it.”

Crow’s heart wouldn’t stop pounding in his chest. His body felt stiff, and he didn’t know what to say. He refused to break. He refused to make any rash actions. He refused to accept this.

“Kid, betrayal is part of this climb. Remember that. I thought of a gift. Take this vestige—it’s ancient, something I found in a small spatial realm a long time ago. It’s a technique but not suited to me, and to be honest, I’m not sure how to use it.”

Crow’s numb body reached out and took the item before putting it away with the still pulsing half a pendant. The glow of the last month faded from his eyes, and all he felt was… empty.

“Last chance, kid. Merciful death or a life of pain, misery, and possibly regret?”

“You make it sound like death is freedom. Curse me, give me the heaven’s calamity and stop stalling—wait, will the other person sense this half of the token on me?”

“No. One half emits a signal, the other receives it. You have the receiving side, so you can find the other one from anywhere on this continent, maybe a little further.”

“Do it.”

The crimson robed man activated a spell even he felt was cruel. He wasn’t even sure why he offered the kid this option. It was beyond merciless, and he could argue that he was giving the boy a chance to live, but it’s not what it felt like.

As the blood-red sigils lit up and floated in front of the robed man. He pushed against it, pressing the sigil against Crow’s chest. The man could practically feel the thing invading the boy’s soul. The curse was simple, but even the robed man flinched as he felt it take root. If Crow wanted to use his Source, he’d have to pull it through that curse.

Crow fell to the ground, his legs powerless to hold him. He was instinctively drawing on his Source and using it to power his limbs and protect himself. Except now, it caused his entire body to burn—the dark fire filled his veins. He screamed his throat raw and tried, again and again, to cut off his Source. Seal it from activating, but it took too much conscious thought.

On his hands and knees, his body drenched in sweat, he tried to breathe. All his muscles shook with fear and horror.

“I can still offer you death,” the man nearly pleaded in a soft voice, asking the boy to allow him to grant mercy.

“Fuck. Off.” Crow spat out each word through pain, his teeth ground against each other, nearly on the verge of breaking. “Tell. Gideon… I’ll kill him. I will. I’ll uproot. Take everything. Precious. Piss on his corpse. I’ll take back a hundredfold what he took from me.”

The crimson robe man was truly startled this time and almost killed the boy to prevent that kind of calamity. He stopped himself because they definitely had karma now, and killing him would expedite the boy’s vow. Heaven’s might be blind to the boy, but that didn’t mean that the boy was blind to the heavens or the people who wrong him. The balance was something that existed beyond this universe.

“Some final words for you. Your mother lives. She believes you are coming for her. Don’t let her down.” The man was unsure why he told him that, but maybe it could ease some anguish in his own soul if the boy had a bit of hope.

“For that,” Crow panted heavily. “I’ll spare your family.”

Once more, the man’s hand rose to strike but felt a growing sense of danger. The longer he was in this boy’s presence, the more powerful the foreboding became. “I’ll leave your token in the tunnel out of this valley.”

With that, the red-robed man turned and disappeared.

Crow watched him go and held on for several more moments before collapsing from the pain. Nightmares filled with black fire plagued him, and his whimpering finally alerted the others.