Incense

  hung thick in the air, my bedroom having been converted to some dark

  and mysterious ritual chamber over the past hour or so. It seemed

  almost counter productive to me as the heady, cloying sent of exotic

  woods and herbs created a warm, comforting environment and it quickly

  became

  difficult to resist the urge to close my eyes and lounge for even the

  briefest of moments.

  The

  wise woman had come prepared with a knapsack full of all sorts of

  candles, incense, scented oils, and various bits of decoration that

  she was hanging in carefully chosen spots all around my room,

  including carved wooden symbols that I could not even begin to

  recognize. Standing on her tiptoes, careful not to lose her balance

  and topple over on top of me, she hung two recently harvested boughs

  of pine on the wall directly above my head, their scent clean and

  fresh, cutting through the smokey, heady scents already filling the

  room.

  "That should do,"

  she murmured, slowly turning around the room to check the placement

  of all the items, "now the girl and Jon just need to return and

  we will be ready. Hopefully she in particular took to heart my

  insistence that time is of the essence."

  "When she does return,

  what will happen?" I asked

  I considered if it was

  perhaps better to not know ahead of time. Sometimes the dread of a

  situation occurring was worse than actually going through it, but the

  anxiety of the unknown was too much, my mind wanted to fabricate all

  sorts of terrible things that might befall me. Most of which, I

  hoped, would turn out to be worse than what my future actually held.

  The wise woman gave me an

  appraising look, as if she was not sure how much she should divulge

  ahead of time.

  "First I will make a

  simple poultice to place on your abdomen, then I will brew a potion

  for you to drink, and once you do we will begin a ritual to heal your

  wounds. If all goes right, you will then get a good, restful night of

  sleep and be much back to yourself by morning," she said calmly.

  I gave her a wan, half-smile,

  it was glaringly obvious that she was leaving out much in an effort

  not to scare me. However the fact that she felt the need to shield me

  from what was going to happen scared me most of all. Now I wanted to

  know everything so that I could steady myself and prepare for the

  worst.

  "I should have figured

  that a Yser would not be satisfied with a glazed over answer,"

  she said with a light laugh. "Do you truly want to know? I think

  it might be somewhat better for you to simply be healed then move on

  and forget this happened. The less you know, the less worry you will

  have."

  "No, I think now that I

  know there is something to worry about, I will worry all the more for

  not knowing," I replied.

  She gave a nod as if she

  expected the answer and sat on the edge of the bed next to me,

  placing a hand back on the spot where she had injected her magic into

  me earlier.

  "Your awakened magical

  abilities reside in a place within you that defies any physical

  reality, but the unknowable potential coalesces about here and here

  is where the creature of the void claws to drag you down."

  The hairs on my entire body

  stood on end and my stomach felt sick. "Creature of the void?"

  "It has attached itself

  to you, called to you by the dark influence of your blood and your

  suffering. At least I assume you have suffered a great deal recently,

  that is what most often calls these kinds of dark, vile creatures. It

  would have caught onto your scent very strongly at the first hint of

  your anguish. Their kind adores to revel in dark bloodlines."

  "By suffering, do you

  mean the beatings at the hand of my aunt?" I had not known great

  suffering before their arrival.

  "Has that been the

  greatest suffering of your life?"

  "Yes, very much so,"

  I answered, "but my aunt told me that it was my fate. That I was

  blessed by the divine to follow the path of the martyr, that to

  unlock my true power suffering must be experienced and endured. She

  insisted that the divine would shower blessing upon me for accepting

  my path and that only good would light my way after the process was

  complete and I would no longer know suffering. She also told me to

  minimize telling people what was happening to me if questioned about

  it, that sharing my suffering with anyone would only stray me from

  the true path of the martyr."

  The wise woman let out a

  shrill chuckle and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her

  chest. While she looked amused by what I had been told, there was

  also a worry in her eyes that belied there was a great danger in what

  I had been exposed to. "I assume this aunt is a Yser from your

  mother's side?"

  "She is, and a cleric in

  the Great Church."

  "Ah, that makes it all a

  bit more muddled and a bit more clear at the same time," she

  said with a click of her tongue. "I suppose that someone with

  demonic blood might be inclined to believe that attracting such a

  dark entity to enhance power might be an overall positive as long as

  it is kept at bay, however I find it hard to believe that someone

  from the Church, especially someone of a high rank, would think it

  was a very good or pious thing to do. The path of the martyr... it

  certainly sounds like she likely knew exactly what she was trying to

  achieve in you and surely she has enough magical prowess at that

  level to understand the implications. If you were not already aware,

  I do not think your aunt cares for you much at all, or at best sees

  you as someone expendable."

  I let out a long sigh. "That

  does not come as a surprise. I was never under the impression that

  she ever cared what my fate ends up being as long as I serve the

  purpose she wants me to in the end, I have always had the sense that

  our familial connection means nothing to her. I think she has always

  just intended to use me as a puppet for the Church."

  "The Church or for

  herself?" There was a smile tickling at her lips though she was

  trying to keep a straight face. "That is something that is often

  very clouded for people with any real power in that particular

  organization."

  "She seems very pious,"

  I offered with a shrug of my shoulders. Why I was defending her on

  even the lowest of levels was baffling to me, yet I felt a small tug

  in my chest to do so. Perhaps I still valued her as family even if

  the same had never been extended to me from her.

  "Yes, they all do, do

  they not? Members of the Church pride themselves on large displays of

  pageantry of their pious ways, whether those flashy shows of devotion

  have any truth to them or not... well that is an entirely different

  thing." She cocked her head to the side and bit her bottom lip

  slightly like an idea had just dawned into existence in her mind. "I

  am just now realizing that you have just said that your aunt, a Yser,

  is a cleric in the Great Church. That is very... very interesting

  news, I would have never dreamed that anyone in the Church leadership

  would allow a demon blooded to join their ranks and certainly since

  it has happened despite that, I find it very peculiar that it has not

  made the gossip rounds with the peasants. I am in and out of peasant

  homes all the time and very few of them are tight lipped, I am

  certain I should have heard about this long ago. Your family is very

  famously whispered in hushed voices in many different stories and

  rumors about dark witches in a nearby, but mysterious kingdom."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Taking a moment to think over

  what I had been taught about in regards to the Church and their

  beliefs, it suddenly seemed strange to me as well. I had fully

  accepted that she was a righteous and pious woman in tune with the

  divine and a model member of the Church because that had been what

  was presented to me, but by their own teachings both of them should

  have been seen as abhorrent and unfit to be in any position of power

  or even spoken to at all.

  In fact, the Church, if they

  knew about my bloodline, which I was beginning to suspect they must,

  they should have shunned me from even having a chance at the throne

  if they truly had a grip on it. They would see me as permanently

  tainted and should have cast me aside for their own, more pious

  candidate, so the fact they did not outright made me feel very

  uneasy. I already figured there was a lot of political movement going

  on that I was being prevented from having input with, but this felt

  deeper and darker. Combined with my new knowledge about their

  tendency to hide things away from each other in ridiculous ways, my

  eyes were beginning to open in regards to how much I thought I knew

  and how much had been intentionally kept from me and everyone else.

  "I suppose it is a deep

  secret," she mused, a slight smirk on her lips, "fitting,

  they have so many other secrets. I am not actually sure why I felt

  any surprise at all, many people of the Church who hold any power are

  exactly the type of people to break bread with demons while

  condemning a peasant woman to an eternity of suffering for having a

  child out of wedlock. It is about power and appearances, not saving

  souls or following the path of the light." Her eyes suddenly

  opened a bit wider and a look of discomfort crossing her features. "I

  may have let me mouth spill my inner thoughts without thinking, my

  lord, forgive me if you adhere to the Church and their teachings. I

  had not stop to consider if perhaps you might find my lack of belief

  and scathing opinion of them offensive."

  I shrugged and inclined my

  head towards her. "I do not know what I believe, but I do not

  think I am very inclined to be offended by someone talking negative

  about them. They have not been a very bright spot in my life as of

  late."

  "Ah, I suppose that is

  true, I am bad at biting my tongue sometimes. It is easy to get me

  worked up given certain topics. This has often lead to me fleeing a

  kingdom or having to talk my way out of a dungeon or worse. Anyway,

  regardless of my personal feelings on the matter, a member of the

  Church should never have encouraged you to attract such a creature

  into yourself, it goes against the very basic tenements of their

  faith and, quite frankly, should go against any decent person's

  morals."

  "That bad?" I asked

  with a scared groan.

  I already knew the answer. I

  had heard the creature's insane ramblings inside my ears and all but

  felt it's rancid breath on the back of my neck. Whatever it was, it's

  intentions were anything but pure.

  "Unfortunately so,"

  she admitted. "It is not a demon, instead something that even a

  demon would think twice about dealing with. There are things that are

  not of this world or any world that resembles our own. I have never

  seen one personally, but I have seen what they do to people. They

  consume them from the inside, gnawing away at their souls until there

  is nothing but a fleshy husk that remains. If the person afflicted is

  lucky they pass away quickly. If not, well, they are little more than

  an animated corpse, crying out pitifully for their humanity to return

  to them. Nothing I have ever done has ever helped them besides a

  merciful knife slid across their throats."

  My heart skipped a beat in

  sheer terror, perhaps the wise woman had been right in her initial

  assessment that it might be best for me to not know what was

  happening to me.

  You can get rid of it though,

  right?!" My voice was unusually high pitched with panic

  strangling my usual calm tones.

  "That is what I am going

  to try to do," she said, placing a soothing hand on mine and

  giving it a firm, reassuring squeeze. "It seems it has recently

  broken through, have you heard it speak to you before in your

  dreams?"

  "No, no, not at all,"

  I said, "it didn't happen until I used my power on my own for

  the first time."

  She raised an eyebrow and a

  smile alighted on her lips. "Ah so the son of Yser has come into

  discovering what your powers can do. May I ask what they are?"

  It was a bit comforting that she was so willing to change the

  subject.

  "I am not really sure, I

  was just learning to expand them and explore them while she was here.

  Now that she is gone I have been left with the injuries she has

  caused me on the path of the martyr and there was something about the

  power inside me that made me realize that I could divert it into my

  injuries and perhaps help, so I did. I healed my legs and for a bit

  it was like I was perfectly healthy again."

  Realization poured over her

  features and she gave a firm nod of her head. "Ah so you did not

  know your own strength. This is a common issue with people first

  flexing their magical muscles, they often over do the first time they

  try their power's full extent and injure themselves in the process.

  Hopefully we can get your legs healed once we are done with the

  creature in your core, you have probably shredded the muscles with

  the magic trying to clumsily knit them together."

  "This will not be

  permanent?" I asked hopefully.

  "I should hope not,

  though I will not go so far as make an assured promise, sometimes

  people do end up destroying their bodies on accident, but you are

  young and have a good chance of recovering."

  Before I could worry too much

  on the lack of a promise that I would be alright, the door to my bed

  chamber opened and the healer entered the room wearing the dark green

  robe the wise woman had sent him off to put on. He was also freshly

  scrubbed clean, his skin pink from rubbing a cloth vigorously over

  his arms and face by her request. In his right hand was a large woven

  basket filled to the brim with various herbs and flowers, something

  in the basket was so aromatic on its own that its cloying, floral

  scent was able to pierce through the incense musk clouding the room.

  "I found the girl on my

  way back," he explained, placing the basket on my desk, "I

  told her to wait at the end of the hallway and shoo away anyone who

  dares try to come disturb us. She has promised that everything on the

  list is in the basket."

  The wise woman gave my hand

  one last squeeze then rose to check the basket, pulling out each

  bundle and inspecting it quickly before setting it aside and moving

  on to the next. "I will need to find the girl and compliment her

  on her thoroughness, it looks like everything is here. We are able to

  begin now and with no time to lose. Jon, are you prepared?"

  "Of course," he

  replied.

  "This is going to be a

  complicated process," she said in a very serious voice, "I

  cannot tell you exactly what is going to happen before it does or the

  process will be spoiled, but I need you to understand that this is

  not something to agree to lightly."

  "I have always been

  willing to help you before, Maeve,” the healer assured, “I trust

  you."

  "Then while I prepare the

  poultice and elixir,” she instructed. “I need you to take the jar

  of honey from my bag and apply a thin layer to your torso under your

  robe then take these lavender flowers, crush them in your hand, then

  adhere them to the honey."

  The healer looked a little

  confused by the request, but took the offered bundle of purple

  flowers and retrieved the jar from the wise woman's bag. "This

  is one of the stranger starts to a ritual that I have done with you. "This is only the

  beginning, I hope you keep remembering just how much you trust me."