Book 2: Chapter 14

Celestine heard the man’s voice and her shoulders tensed, momentarily freezing her motions, before she continued cooking with increased speed. Celestine said in a casual voice, “Almost done papa, please wait a while longer.”

Cyil frowned, his eyebrows scrunched together as he stared at the Celestine’s father. Cyil could feel the tense atmosphere that the fat man brought and he didn’t like it.

The fat man, known as Gokurk, turned his head to see Cyil standing next Celestine and his eyes bulged, before he shouted, “Who the fuck are you?!”

Gokurk instantly began to curse Cyil as he heaved himself across the room. “What have you done to my Celestine?” Gukork was eyeing Cyil’s bare upper body and all sorts of indecent images were already flying through his mind. Hot white steam seem to blow through Gokurk’s ears his breathing quickened.

Gokurk would have already taken Celestine’s chastity, but was saving Celestine for the mayor of Leydford. Just 1 more year, after she turned 16, then he could sell her off to the mayor and receive enough money to live lavishly for the rest of his life. Gokurk had never let Celestine out of his sights when they went out and had order her not to talk to anyone to make sure she would remain ‘pure’, but this vile vermin showed up out of nowhere and threatened his plans.

Cyil looked Gokurk straight in the eyes and shrugged.

When Gokurk saw how presumptuous and disrespectful the kid was, he roared and pounded down on Cyil’s head with his fat fists.

Cyil was prepared and he easily sidestepped the attack. “What was that about, old man?” Cyil mocked Gukork’s actions.

Gukork was enraged! “Fuck, you’re dead little bastard!” Gokurk punched out towards Cyil, but the attack was dodged once again. Every punch Gokurk threw was dodged with ease.

As Celestine watched what was going on she kept yelling, “stop’, but Gukork did not stop until he was out of breath. Then, heaving for breath, Gokurk thought of something and grabbed the knife from the counter, pointing it at Cyil. “I’ll slice you to pieces and feed you to the pigs!”

When Cyil saw this, he thought that the man was horrible. Gokurk was going to cut up someone simply because they displeased him in a minor matter; of course, Cyil had been unpleasant because he felt like it, but if that was enough to warrant his death then Cyil didn’t know what wouldn’t cause the man to kill.

The fat Gokurk wielding the knife was a comical sight to Cyil and Cyil wasn’t concerned in the slightest. Gokurk was slow and for some reason, Cyil felt that he could move faster, react quicker, and see things more clearly. For once, Cyil felt confident in his abilities to handle the situation.

At this point, Celestine was crying her eyes out as she thought of the mess she had made. She knew she wasn’t supposed to bring strangers into the house or even talk with people, but she had grown lonely. Everyone knew of Gokruk’s bad temper so no one dared to talk with her and being in such an isolated farmland didn’t help. Everyday, Celestine would walk around the farmland and talk to the animals she saw. It had been 3 months since the last time she went to Leydford city that she had seen another living person aside from her father. 3 months, until today where she had found Cyil.

Celestine felt guilt well up inside of her and she didn’t want Cyil to die because of her. Then, as she saw her father grab the knife from the counter, her face paled. When Gokruk swung the knife down to a calm looking Cyil, Celestine thought Cyil had accepted his fate and without hesitating at all she jumped to shield Cyil from the blade.

*Puk*

The knife slashed Celestine’s shoulder and ripped down her chest and pass her abdomen.

Cyil saw Celestine’s back block his view and smelled the blood spurting into the air.

Gokurk’s eyes widened and he dropped the bloodied knife, stumbling backwards and not believing what he had done. Years of efforts had been wasted. All his money was gone. Gokurk could see the wound and the sight of it made him faint. He was not originally a farmer and was just a traveling merchant. He only bought Celestine and her mother 10 years ago, before he slowly became bankrupt; luckily, he had manage to obtain the farm from the mayor of Leydford. Of course, in exchange for the farm, the mayor had had enough payments in the form of Celestine’s mother visiting his manor.

Celestine’s mother then died just two years after she was bought by Gokurk. The cause of death was unknown, but the shock that came with the death devastated Celestine’s growing mind. Since then, Celestine grew to rely on Gokurk and forgot her 7 years of life before. To Celestine, her papa was the only one in the world that had always been there for her.

“Papa,” Celestine managed to say before her body went limp.

Cyil quickly moved to catch Celestine’s falling body. Holding onto her, he could feel the heavy blood coat his palms.

“No,” Cyil shook his head. “No. Celestine.”

Cyil concentrated and began reciting incantations underneath his breath, directing the water particles in his body to flow correctly. Cyil had tried to use this spell on himself when he was injured, but had failed to cast it every time; now, he needed it to work!

Soothing Water!

A stream of water coalesced in front of Cyil’s bloodied palms and he gently moved the water to cover Celestine’s long gashing wound. Soothing Water was the only healing spell that Cyil knew and he poured all his elemental energy into maintaining it. Cyil didn’t even care about Gokurk who scrambled to his feet in fear.

“You. You’re a mage!” Gokurk had seen magic a few times before so he knew that what Cyil had just use was magic. This realization scared Gokurk witless and he did not hesitate to flee. He only had one place to seek refuge from because if a mage decided to kill him then it would be simple! Gokurk hurried out of the house and ran as fast as his flabby body could take him to the mayor’s manor. The mayor was a mage, too, so he could surely kill Cyil for him!

Cyil focused on keeping the spell Soothing Water active and although he knew it was used for minor wounds, this was the best he could do. He didn’t know any higher leveled spell nor did he know of any way to use herbal medicines to close the wound. Back in Fayburn, Grandma Sueta didn’t know magic but she could magically cure illnesses and mend wounds. Cyil wished he knew how to do that at this moment, but could only watch as his tears fell into the stream of Soothing Water.

Celestine’s wound was too large and some of her organs had been punctured by the knife; Soothing Water was not enough, and although water mages were second only to Life Saints in healing, Cyil would at least need to cast the rank 5 level 3 water spell: Calm of The Morning Dew, to have a chance to save Celestine. As things stood now, Cyil was only prolonging the inevitable.

Half an hour went by and Cyil had already overdrawn his elemental energy. He was prepared to burn his life force, but didn’t know how and as the last of his elemental energy left his body; Soothing Water vanished and Celestine’s peaceful face cringed, the pain having increased and returned to her.

Celestine’s tan face was now pale as her blood began draining out faster. Celestine struggled to open her eyes and when she finally managed to she felt Cyil’s tears hit her cheeks like a light rain pattering on a flower’s petals.

Although Celestine could no longer see things clearly, the light in her eyes dimming, she could make out a fuzzy figure crying over her. Grunting through the pain, Celestine managed to spit out a few gurgled words:

“Thank you, Mr. Pervert.”

Afterwards, Celestine smiled her first true smile since her mother had died and she let go, on a journey to reunite with her mama and her real papa….

Cyil stayed there for a long while, his tears dried out like his elemental energy. He was reminded of Betsy’s death and Cyil became despondent. Celestine was a good person-- she didn’t ask for any of this. If only he had left and not followed Celestine home. Cyil began to feel like he was a curse that brought disaster to all those near him.

“Celestine. Celestine. Celestine.” Cyil repeated Celestine’s name but she did not respond.

In the pool of blood Cyil sat, as a darkness unchained itself deep within him.

***

Gokurk ran the most he had ever in his life. Halfway to Leydford city, Gokurk managed to catch a ride with a traveling merchant and persuaded the man, with some silver coins, to travel faster.

When they finally reached Leydford City, Gokurk went directly to the mayor’s manor where he was stopped by the guards. After waiting for the guards to relay his message, Gokurk was invited into the manor.

Gokurk was then escorted to the Mayor’s study, where he was left alone with the Mayor who was called Estan.

Estan was seated on his chair as he gestured for Gokurk to speak.

Gokurk tried his best to calm down and slow his breathing before saying, “Your highness, we have a problem.” Although ‘your highness’ would only be used to address royalty, Gokurk knew Estan like being addressed this way.

“What problem?” Estan said, after scanning through some beast skin reports for a while.

“Celestine. Your Celestine is dead. She was murdered by a mage!” Gokurk spat this out with contempt, but couldn’t hide the fear in his voice.

When Estan heard this report his eyes immediately flared up in anger, but he kept his cool and promptly asked, “Why? What mage? Tell me exactly what happened!”

Estan wanted to know how or why the mage would kill a commoner. This was capital punishment if the mage killed a commoner without just cause. If the mage was stronger than him then Estan would make a plea to the kingdom, which would contact the mage association and they could handle the mage. But if the mage was weaker than him, then Estan would take care of the bastard himself!

Estan had been particularly looking forward to having Celestine and had invested a lot in her. Estan had to supply Gokurk with all sorts of money and favors just to make sure he didn’t hit her and continued to pretend to be her father. Estan had a fetish in that he liked having pure young women because they always ‘tasted’ the best; it was all that he lived for now that he had reached his limit of a rank 3 level 10 mage. Estan would never again advance his mage rank so he settled for becoming the Mayor of Leydford and living a life of pleasure.

When Gokurk finished telling his gory story about how the mage had barged in the house, raped Celestine, then killed her, he didn’t forget to include the part about his heroic actions of trying to fend off the mage.

Estan got up from his seat, tossed the beast skin report he was reading on the table and said to Gokurk in a cold voice, “get your fat ass on a horse and lets go.”

Gokurk was startled at how Estan addressed him, as he would usually be treated with some degree of respect, and realized that he now had no value to Estan. In the past, Gokurk had been a bad merchant, but he could still read a person’s mind and attitude and he knew that regardless of how things turned out today he would not fare well…

It took Estan and Gokurk only an hour on horseback to reach Gokurk’s farm and the wooden hut where Celestine had been killed. When the two arrived, Gokurk hid behind Estan’s back as they entered the wooden hut. Estan proceeded with caution and was prepared to use his innate earth spell: Rocky Shield at a moment’s notice, because he couldn’t sense any mage’s aura in the hut. This meant one of two things: that the mage was of a higher ranking and level than him or that the mage was already long gone.

Gokurk had said it was a boy who was the culprit so Estan didn’t think the former option was true, but if the mage was stronger than himself then Estan would not hesitate to run. Earth mages were recognized for their strong defensive methods so Estan had a chance of escaping mages that were a few levels higher than himself. Still, Estan was sweating bullets as he pushed the door open and glanced around the house.

When Estan saw that no one was inside, he frowned. The entire room had been ransacked with every cupboard and cabinet searched through. There was a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, but Celestine’s body was gone, bloody footprints leading up to the door.

Estan relaxed his guard and he sighed, glad that the mage had indeed ran away. This meant that the mage was of a lower rankings and level than him. Turning to Gokurk, Estan said, “that little bastard mage ran quicker than expected. Stay here while I chase after him. If I don’t find him then we’ll return to Leydford and pay an artist to make a sketch of his sorry face. Let’s see where he can run to then!”

Just as Estan finished speaking, he felt a tingling sensation shoot through his body, an alarm going off in his head.

“Danger!” Estan instinctively looked up towards the ceiling of the wooden hut and his eyes widened. A shining knife held in both hands by a bare-chested youth with a deranged look in his eyes plummeted straight down towards Estan’s skull!