As promised.....

Chapter Twenty Two - Suffer The Children

*** Adrian McGlothin ***

“My lord,” a messenger bowed before. He had arrived earlier in the day but my brother, the king, was busy taking care of other issues to deal with the messengers.

I took it upon myself to listen to them.

“Proceed,” I nodded looking down towards the kneeling man.

“My lord I bring a series of accumulated messages that have reached me in the last few days,” the man explained. “I wished to deliver the message earlier, but the messages were harder and harder to believe until I received the last report from Turanta.”

“What messages?” I inquired.

“They are reports from several parts of the country my lord,” the man replied.

He took a moment to clear his throat.

“From the pirate port off our southernmost harbor,” the man said. “In Tulakish, a ship dwarfing our own massive galleons in size arrived and from its crew, the presumed captain or commander, entered the city. It is reported that he created some sort of disturbance in a tavern, but all evidence was destroyed. The guards and knights sent to stop them, among them were a few capable of some level of lesser magic, were all burned to ashes.”

He revealed then a list of the dead.

“From there it is reported that the same individuals and vessel were spotted off the port city of Bosonsia,” the messenger continued. “Another battle took place here, the entire pirate fleet that took port there were destroyed, all the pirates were killed down to the last man, the foreign vessel then took

port. It is assumed that the vessel was after the pirates under the command of Captain Morgan Castle.”

“Ah,” I nodded. It had been some powerful kind of news that Captain Castle, Morgan Castle, was making a name for himself after he had managed to commandeer two of the navy’s finest vessels. They had plundered many of the northern and southern coastal ports before an entanglement that cost them half of their fleet. There was a task force out there set on sinking them, but I could not imagine that such a report could be issued from them, a vessel dwarfing the galleons? “Well I can only smile as an enemy of the country is delivered such a grand blow, but where is he know? Where is the one who destroyed his ships?”

“I am afraid you assume wrong,” the man responded. “I have to say that there is someone out there worse than he is, the man that destroyed him, not only destroyed the fleet of the pirate captain but also killed the very pirate.”

Worse how?” I asked, confused. Was not someone who was willing to hunt down a pirate and kill the individual...wait…hold on…my political mind came into perspective. How dare a foreign ship capable of wiping out an entire pirate fleet dock in foreign lands, even more the very vessel allowed its personnel onto the land, the very action was an act of war!

“The last and final report comes from Turanta,” he man said. “The city…the city was delivered an incredible blow. The…”

The man had a difficult time arranging his words but after a time he spoke again.

“Turanta was largely burned to the ground in one day my lord,” the man replied with a steel strong mask, his faced revealed only unwavering resolve. “There was a path carved into its gates, the gates themselves were shredded, then the path continued on further. The path was easily seen from the towers of the city, the path was literally burned into the ground as building and edifice was either buried or burned until finally the devastation ended, the path was retraced by whatever force caused it in the first place. I would like to say that the report is nothing more than tales but…I cannot. I witnessed the burning city. I could not trust the message to another and had to see it for myself.”

Devastation of this level was on par of mages of old, mages of history and folklore…and to that measure…many mages combined! The gates of that city have always held strong, they are famous across the land, magic both of dark and light protect it. For the gates, and even the city, to fall means that a force akin to that of nature’s mightiest forces were involved.

“What happened afterwards?” I asked wondering if I even managed to keep my voice steady.

“There are no reports after that my lord,” the messenger replied. “As swiftly as the storm came it too dissipated. There are reports of a man screaming on a hill on the hour every day, but such a thing is most likely falsehood.”

*** Leo Cazador ***

“The waves my lord!” the man begged. He was the ever faithful navigator of the vessel. “The ship cannot take much more of this!”

The waves that now crashed against the ship, the Mors Mortem Murialis, were of my doing.

I couldn’t control myself anymore.

Just breathing was a hard enough a task.

Ever since I had rescued Sophia…no I didn’t rescue her…Why! The force of my mana rippled through the ocean again. I lost myself again.

“My lord!” the navigator begged, if I had grown close to any under my command it had been him, if only because I had spoken to him the most. He was a man of medium height and good looks. He was a young man with blonde hair. This man now begged. “Please!”

I realized I had lost myself again and strained to regain some semblance of control to calm the forming maelstrom.

The trauma Sophia suffered dealt a severe blow to her mind, while her body escaped physical harm at the hands of another, it suffered from having…killed the offender. Her psyche was in such conflict with what she had done that I was forced to use telepathy, black sorcery, to force her into a deep sleep as I attempt to melt the shattered pieces of her psyche and mold them into something whole again. The problem was that she would lose much of who she once was, my sweet Sophia.

It would take several hour long sessions across many days to bring her back. A part of me didn’t want to do it, I feared what would waken.

*** Sophia Cazador ***

I woke up with a start. Where was I?!

My eyes unfocused for a moment, I was not where I was from the point I last remember, I was somewhere else. The place was wrong, there was nothing I remembered present. Where were the frilly bed curtains? The painted walls of people doing adult things?

I raised my hand, predominantly raising the middle finger, I remembered, I needed to defend against someone. Who?

A hand took ahold of mine, it was a rough and strong hand.

I looked down to the hand holding mine and followed it up the arm and to the face, up the chin and above the nose. The eyes. The glowing red eyes.

My eyes watered.

“Papi?” my voice came out in a strained squeak. I couldn’t believe it was real. Those eyes, my Papi, he was here. Was he here. “Papi, please…Papi?”

“Yes my little one,” his voice reverberated in my ears and echoed in my soul. For the first time in a long time I felt happy again, his words lifted my sorrow. I could feel tears flow down my cheek, the cool warm sensation made me feel relieved, the sensation made all this real.

“I…I am so sorry,” his voice was as full of sorrow as my heart was, though it was slowly filling with warmth as Papi was now with me. “I…I should have…I am so very sorry.”

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards me, he didn’t resist, instead he moved forward with my pull and wrapped his arms around me.

“Uwah!” I cried biting down on his shirt. As my cries overwhelmed me, his shirt became a wet mess as my tears now flowed freely.

“Papi!” after that I couldn’t form a solid word as I released it all. “Uwah! Ehk ehk! Mm Hii!”

***

Her small arms drew me close with all her strength. As she cried in my arms she pulled with all her might as if trying to draw me as close as atomically possible.

I held her tightly until she finally calmed down.

She didn’t let me go, though, instead she continued to hold onto my shirt with one of her hands after situating herself on my lap. I cradled her much like an infant.

“I love you my little one,” I said kissing her forehead. Her eyes were closed but the strength if her small hand did not slacken.

*knock* *knock*

There was an interruption by a crew member, probably someone delivering a message from the navigator.

“Come in,” I consented.

“My lord,” the man said as he entered. “It is dinner ti…”

As soon as Sophia heard the man’s voice her grip tighten on my shirt as squirmed in my arms and attempted to bury herself into my chest. Her muffled cries were a testament to her fear and panic.

I raised a hand to the man and motioned for him to be silent, he tried to apologize but I gave him a glare that spoke volumes and could be translated into a few words, Leave or die.

“It’s okay,” I whispered to her. “Remember I am here now, I will always be here now. There is no one stronger than me. You are safe. He was just a man under my command. I will never leave you again.”

My words slowly calmed her down, though she kept her head turned towards my chest, hiding her beautiful face from the world.

We stayed like this for a long time.

Eventually I was able to bring her to grab a meal to eat, it was to see her reaction towards a ship crewed my only males. Aside from the fact that she would not leave my side, nor release my left arm, everything went well.

There was a peculiar and interesting development though, a few men tried making jokes about her and me but she glare at them and I could feel her need for me to silence them. My glare was enough alone to change some attitudes. By the end of lunch she was being treated like royalty, there was much bowing and respectful language, the crew even quickly displayed an understanding of her aversion to being touched that they would actively make way for her keeping as far from her path as possible.

I couldn’t discern if they were fearful of my reaction if she panicked or if they genuinely cared for her, it did not matter to me though. She was lively and happy enough that I would have leveled the world just to see her like this as she was now just after waking from her nightmare.