The Lost Scholar

CHAPTER: 12

THE JUDGEMENT

Gabriel’s eyes burst wide open, and filled in his lungs with the air he so desperately needed. A white light blinded his vision, it's warm and pure. As it dimmed and shaped into a familiar face, the boy’s body tingled with an acute spasm of pain. Screams caught up in his sore throat, only small groans and squeals squeezed through.

The pain slowly subsided as a large hand rested lightly over his chest. Small prayers filled his ears, they were the same prayers his parents recited every single night.

"Soul of mine, make him holy

Body of mine, be his salvation

Blood of mine, let him drink of the wine

Water flowing from the side of Christ, wash him clean

Passion of mine, strengthen him

Defend him from the evil enemy

And I will answer at the hour of his death

To the fellowship of our saints

That he might sing my praise with them

for all eternity."

After the prayer, the child could breathe and the face looking down at him was the grace of god himself. But it was Roy, Roy Firestorm. “Amen,” he breathed and the weight over his shoulders lifted. “Can you hear me, child?” the cleromancer uttered.

“...f-fortress,” the child stuttered quietly.

“What?”

“The witch…” Gabriel hummed, “is in the fortress…” The boy’s vision dimmed to black and slowly lost his breath again. He missed his father’s iron grip hugs and sweet motherly kisses. How could he save his mother and find his father if he couldn't save himself?

“Hey!” Roy slapped the boy rather hard leaving his skin an angry red, but also bringing light back to his eyes. “You die on me and your mother will have my head. Get your shit together!” the cleromancer threatened. He was also correct. Gabriel pulled himself up to sit straight—or rather, slouched over, shivering with pain. He gazed down at his limp hands, covered in purple gemstones. The boy lifted to examine them closely.

“That is a self-defense mechanism…” Gabriel looked up at Roy who took his little hands into his heavily calloused ones. “This was a trait the knightess of Amesthyn had. When she lost her legs, her powers of earth and crag sealed her wounds and created a new weapon and means of standing. Thus dubbing her Stalagmite.” The drunk man ran his fingers gently through the surface of the purple crag and they slowly retracted back into the boy’s skin. “It's why your aura is so powerful and acts like a beacon, leading to those who are looking for a powerful source of energy gravitate towards you.” Roy explains and crane’s Gabriel’s head to the side and inspected the wound.

“Why do witches need my soul--” the boy hissed at the sharp pain. “D-Didn’t Yuri say they were smart women…?” Gabriel added.

“I don’t like them. I really hate witches…” Roy spat as he cleaned the bite marks in the child’s skin, along with broken shards of quartz.

“Why do you…?”

“It pisses me off when they can easily kill and even torment a child. Whatever Yuri said it means nothing now. His kingdom is dead and should be that way.”

“But you were so adamant in finding it…”

"I am studying it because the Amesthyn era is part of Genesis. It was the remains I found gave me a thirst for knowledge."

"Remains?" Gabriel ticked his head to the side curiously.

"The scales of the Queen of the skies in Greece and the remains of Knightess Stalagmite in Jerusalem.”

“How do you know it was their remains?”

“The bones were amethyst stones. That silly thing, that at the time I assumed was a joke or decoration from a macabre religion, is what made me travel and be what I am today…” Roy sat beside Gabriel with the journal of the witch. “Anything I can learn to kick these women’s asses is welcome.” Before Roy opened the journal, he looked down at the child that didn’t move an inch. “Something is on your mind…”

“Yes, I just... I don’t understand,”

“You will say that a lot as we go in deeper in the investigation,” Roy replied.

“Not just that… I am having a hard time understanding this world. They keep saying what is wrong and what is right and expect everyone to tune into the same song. They keep saying god is the only way but they are murdering people without thinking, they keep saying witchcraft is the only way because they are humble and smart, but they do that Amelia and her father…”

“I said the world is gray.”

“Then why keep her there…?”

“I can’t answer that because I honestly do not know why she was kept in a rotting corpse. But I am sure we can find the answers to Grizelda’s salvation and many others in this book of shadows.” Finally, Roy turned the cover finding a seal in the first page. Roy scoffed and yanked the page, “If you will draw Satan’s crest, do it correctly…” he muttered mockingly.

Gabriel saw the first pages of the journal and they seem to be normal girl thoughts. They spoke about her insecurities, her day, her dreams and her sister. “‘...Amelia is being praised again for literally doing nothing. I don’t get it why do my parents love her so much? I bet it is because she is pretty...’” the boy narrated. “‘Stupid brat. She is the illegitimate child my mother had due to a rape and my father loves her all the same. I hate her guts, and I hope she gets so sick she needs to depend on me for the rest of her life...I find it ironic a child so like her was born from an ugly event.’

“This… This looks like… a dedication to everything she holds in the name of hatred...” Gabriel flipped the page after. “They told me about the rumor of the contract you make when you sign your name in blood in the pillar in front of the fortress. They say in the olden days, witches gathered to worship their god. I explored it but found nothing, eventually I returned home, but, something was luring me in.

‘I bought one knife with me and pricked it to make my blood available as ink, I thought maybe if I do it and see no results I can finally put this anxiety to rest. To my surprise, nothing had happened. I went back home and slept,”

“That moment when a rumor is just that…” Roy comments in a mildly sarcastic tone. He stood up to dissecting the doll Gabriel found. Hidden inside were gemstones and a black rotten heart saturated in scented oils. “Keep reading,” he commanded.

Gabriel nodded and did just that, “‘I saw my best friend Helga at the inn with my soulmate, Gunther, jealousy filled my core, I hate them being together.” Gabriel turned another page. “‘I returned to the fortress again, and it was open. Inside I find a god. A god who taught me the ancient art of the craft--’ She must talk about the God of Stars and Dreams,” Gabriel theorized.

“I bet so too,” Roy agreed. “‘He taught me to use my voice as a tool of destruction, whatever I call out will occur, in return I had to give him the taste of flesh, and my body to him; my skin burning with want and passion. His fingers explored inside me--? What?” Gabriel looked up at Roy who refused to look at the child, but the boy knew he was flushing red. The cleromancer cleared his throat. “Continue.”

“...Till my body convulsed and shivered in pleasure I never thought I could experience. Every night I could hear him and dreamt of him. Each night of passion growing in scale. I had confidence and desire for more. He granted me confidence to tell the love of my life what I feel!’

“Months pass and Cider came saying she was pregnant, and that Gunther was the father, they were to marry. She was so happy and I lost it.

I poisoned her drink hopefully trying to kill her and her stupid child, but it did nothing, Grizelda saved her. I was so angry at that harlot--,’ M-mom…?” Gabriel felt a chill down his spine when he read his mother's name in red ink. When Gabriel looked up, he saw Roy stop doing whatever he was doing to hear him. The boy took the silence as a queue to continue. “‘... but to what extend? One day, Cider was giving birth, it wasn't due till another five months and she herself was having bad health, thanks to the poison. She gave birth to an abomination with no eyes, thanks to that, they condemned her of being a witch. They stoned her and her child to…’” Gabriel couldn't even finish. He remembers that day, and it was a horrible thing to imagine. He also remembered his mother suffering and kicking herself for not trying hard enough.

“That is brutal…” was the only thing Roy could say. Gabriel doesn't blame him.

"She--... Amelia can't have the heart to do this, Amelia was sweet and gentle. Not a depraved human."

“I think it is more than obvious it wasn't Amelia. Let's keep reading, maybe she is also guilty of other murders.”

Gabriel nodded with determination and skipped a page. "I confessed to Gunther and undressed before him to show him what I learned, but he pushed me away telling me he couldn't see me that way, he was always in love with Cider. He was a fool… Cider was nothing but a pretty face. So the next day I served him his meal with enough poison to silence him forever, and gifted it to the man in my dreams.”

“I always feared women, I am glad I am a degenerate and attract none…” Roy said jokingly. Gabriel found this statement ironic. “If looks could kill…” Gabriel whispered. Roy had golden threads as hair, and blue eyes with pale skin, this man makes the perfect husband. “What?” Roy asked. Gabriel feigned ignorance and continued. ‘I went to “aid” the midwife nurse some of her patience back to good health and fed them poison after she medicated them. This time when they all died it would be her fault. Maybe then she will stop interfering.’”

“I… I can't read this,” Gabriel set it aside, “they dedicate this entire book to murder and blame my mom!”

“The question is, who?” Roy raises a fantastic point, Amelia couldn't have done something so horrible.

“I don't know. I know no one. Maybe it was Lady Lillian…?”

“...Do you not remember where you found this? Let's keep reading… Maybe the answer is there.” Gabriel needed to speed up the process and skipped several pages before he found jittery calligraphy. “‘...I have grown tired of the constant interference of Midwife Amesthyn, and her nosy brat of a child--’ I am not nosy!”

“You kind of are.”

“Mngg… ‘But I know her secret, she can't hide it from me any longer. I confronted her about what she kept in the basement--’...” Gabriel ceased reading and looked up at Roy who also shared the same concern.

“‘...For many days, I have been feeding his soul with the deaths I caused. Children are the easiest of targets. Some parents are even grateful I took the burden off their shoulders. I lure them near the forest promising the candy and toys and they would eat that up.’

‘By far the most complex target had been Gabriel, He never walked towards the fortress he just stands there idle— S-she… Was trying to lure me…?”

"It would make sense. You did made it pretty far off the forest," Roy thought. "Continue..."

“Okay.” Gabriel pointed where he left off, “‘My love warned me about that fiend and how hard it would be to extract his soul. The first attempt was through his eternal sleep, and I failed because his mother cast my shadows out."

‘Another problem was that stupid cleric… My god warned me to be careful of his presence.' She calculated the entire thing and we don’t even know where she is or how to stop her…” Gabriel spoke with a worried tone.

“Yeah well she's getting harder to kill, and she is the one behind the murders and children disappearance. We have to find a clue, we know that she is a resident of the village and she is fairly young…”

“Maybe I can find a clue in her writings, a location.” Gabriel went page after page repeatedly and nothing. She was careful not to give up any information. But, in one page he skipped ahead earlier, he found something disturbing, so he narrated again,

“‘...I cursed Amelia’s beauty every day with my voice. ‘Let the hard winter prick tiny holes and pepper rouge tones onto flesh,’ and it happened! I destroyed her eyesight with the spell, ‘dull the colors of the sight and never see through the other side.’

‘My sister is so frail and only recently she had lost her eyesight. And even then whenever I am near her she would tell me there is a demon with me. I don’t know where the little cunt got the information, but it got me frightened.’

‘The church was investigating the string of deaths and that is where it hit me, I gave my little sister to the church. I told them she had a diary where she confessed to the use of witchcraft. And so, they came at night and dragged her out into the cold. She didn’t cry she only smiled when she looked at me…’

“I gave her up to continue my work and even then she continued to love me, What an idiot. Her final words before she hung were; 'I l-’”

Gabriel refused to continue the image was heartbreaking enough. Roy was also in silence. The child couldn’t fathom who could be this selfish. He was having a hard time dealing with his feelings and he barely even knew the girl that suffered in the narrative. It was obvious it was a sibling, but he never knew them till recently and he would have to interrogate them again. He thought it was Lilian, but she was just a victim as everyone now he realized these women would have been all right if he wasn’t a target, Matilda’s death was his fault. A mother losing her child and her free will was all because they want his soul. He wanted to step in the gallows.

Roy took the book and read the last page. "'I will run away tonight with my god and future husband in tow to faraway lands. But I must serve one last person to my god…'" Roy showed the page to Gabriel for him to read. His eyes watered and his teeth clattered. No amount of pain could compare to the knot in the pit of his stomach, "...G-Grizelda Amesthyn."

"You still think witches are a godsend...?" Roy remarked in a mocking tone.