ASKELADDEN: The Tale Of The Golden Quill

8. A New Path II

  The rider finally came to an abrupt halt a few feet away from where the travelling duo stood, hurriedly dismounting his horse almost immediately after it stopped and ran towards Orion.

  “AIDAN!!" 

  “ORION!" 

  Upon immediate contact, Aidan locked Orion in a tight, emotional embrace, both parties bawling their eyes out, snot and all.

  “I thought you were dead, Origami”, Aidan finally said as he partially broke away from the embrace, panting heavily in the process.

  “Your crystal didn't particularly shatter, but for some reason, it dimmed out completely. Emitted no form of light, signifying zero amount of life force. I immediately panicked. I was already on my way back after receiving the news, but I doubled, if not tripled, my travel speed. Are you alright, Gami? You look strangely fine to me.”

  “I thought I was never going to see you again, Aidy. A whole lot has transpired in your absence, but one part of me is glad you weren't here. I might've had to watch you die too”, Orion sniffled, wiping his tears but rapidly tearing up again.

  "I told you. You aren't getting rid of me that easily, Gami boy", Aidan said between a weak chuckle, managing to slap on a shaky brave smile.

  “I was in this town called Pompeii. Just over the Aventine Mountains, on the outskirts of the Emain Macha province. That was when the news of the Dumnonia incident reached me. As of the time the news got to me, I was already too late. Deep regret and anguish filled me to the brim, as all I could think about was the chance of never getting to see you again, and the gruelling despair of not being able to do anything about it that was going to haunt me all the days of my life.”

  "News sure does travel incredibly fast. I'm sorry I worried you that much, but it was hell, Aidy. Extreme hell", Orion said shakily, fighting back hot tears welling up in his eyes.

  “Come on, Orion. Tell me what happened. All of it." 

  Orion heaved a deep sigh of anguish as he slowly sat down on the lush riverbank by the wayside, patting the space beside him, signalling Aidan to take a seat beside him as he began his story.

***

  "I watched her die, Aidy. In the most gruesome way possible. She was skewered mercilessly like a piece of meat. Six swords poked out of her as she hung mid-air, limp and lifeless, her blood trickling down as it stained the ground dark crimson. She was slaughtered like a human sacrifice. She didn't deserve to die like that, Aidy. She didn't. She was the sweetest soul I've ever known. She–" Orion choked with tears, his body trembling with visible terror and anguish in his countenance as he relived the tragic loss of his town and, most importantly, his mother.

  Aidan was petrified. Too shaken to move, too dumbstruck to speak. What he just heard was too heavy to process. He just sat there, unable to focus on anything at all. Not even the sound of Orion wailing right beside him. Sir Kael had paced on, tending to the horses a couple of yards away in a bid to give the boys space to grieve.

  "You will never get away with this. All of you, Black Disciples! I will come for you all, your leader in particular! I will never stop until I deliver to you a heavier amount of pain and agony than you have caused me. I will destroy you, even if it's the last thing I do!" Orion swore as he dried his eyes. His expression was no longer one of pain and terror, but one of insane rage, veins popping out on his forehead and his eyes red with fury and steeled resolve.

  “It will be alright, Orion. As much as you need to avenge your mother and thwart the vices and evil doings of the Black Disciples, I hope you don't stray too far from the right path", Aidan said solemnly as he finally managed to gather his thoughts and words.

  “Don't worry, Aidy. With you, Lady Astrid, and Sir Kael by my side, the chances of that happening are lower than the possibility of the Earth splitting in half by midnight." 

  “Lady Astrid? Who's that?" Aidan questioned, furrowing his eyebrows in curiosity.

  “Oh! I haven't told you about what happened after the whole massacre." 

  “Yes, lad. You haven't", Aidan said, giving Orion an impatient stare.

  “And while you're at it, explain how and why, on my way to Dumnonia, your life force suddenly vanished, but immediately after I crossed the border into Central Dumnonia, the glow on the crystal was brighter than ever.

  "After I gathered all the bodies, both complete and not so complete, I used a fire spell to cremate them and a wind spell to scatter their ashes, as they had no one to give them a proper funeral. It would be a stain to my pride to let them just rot away in the open or have their corpses desecrated by wild beasts. Immediately, I rounded that up. I saw Lady Phoebe's grave, which confirmed the fact that you were alive. So I tracked you down with a locator spell via the crystal. And here you were." 

  “Thank you very much for that, Aidan. Must've been a whole lot of work to take on. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the right frame of mind or physical capacity to bury anyone else besides my mother.”

  "I understand, Orion. I absolutely understand”, Aidan said softly, as he grabbed and gently rubbed Orion's shoulder in a bid to comfort his dear friend.

  “Now, get to it. What happened afterwards?" 

  “Okay, okay! Slow down, Aidy!" Orion chuckled weakly, then began.

  “So after the Leader of the Black Disciples tossed me to the edge of Dumnonia, I was on the brink of death, and one of my legs was shattered. That's probably when you noticed the complete depletion of my life force. In a last-ditch effort to save my life, for some reason, I started crawling towards the World Tree, hoping for a miracle.

  "After I touched it, one of its leaves broke off and stabbed me in the chest, sending me into a trance. In that vision, I met Lady Astrid, the guardian spirit of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. She then explained to me what the Black Disciples are all about and what they're after. She also told me that the leaf that stabbed me in the heart was an extension of her, containing more magical power than even the Fruits of Yggdrasil. 

  "So the bottom line is, I'm now a vessel of Yggdrasil and a portion of her magical power is flowing through me, unlocking my innate abilities and granting me infinite potential due to the blood of a god in me. That's pretty much it. I woke up afterwards, and that's when I met Sir Kael.”

  Aidan was starstruck yet again.

  "Helloooo…Earth to Aidy?” Orion called out, waving his palm in front of Aidan's eyes, which were widened in extreme surprise.

  "Woah, woah, woah…Orion!! Are you trying to tell me that you're now a vessel of one of the most powerful and most revered beings on Earth after the gods?!" Aidan blurted, regaining his sense of coordination and comprehension.

  "Yes. Basically.”

  "What the…" Aidan gasped in further bewilderment. He couldn't believe his ears.

  

  “Can you try not to make more of a big deal out of it?” Orion subtly reprimanded.

  "It's already a heavy enough knowledge to process. I'm still having a hard time getting it into my head that this is real ever since. So don't make this any harder.”

  "Oh no no, Origami. I'm not appalled or anything of that sort. As much as I'm flabbergasted, I'm extremely excited for you. Now, we'll get to explore a whole lot of this world together. Whooo!" Aidan howled loudly in excitement.

  “But first, you've got a whole lot to learn to figure out what and what you can do." 

  “Yeah, I know that. Trust me, Sir Kael has already laid out a long checklist of all the things I need to learn and master." 

  “Perfect! I guess we're going to make a good team guiding you, and I might just learn a couple of things from him, depending on how good of a sorcerer he is, though. But he doesn't look or seem like much, Gami boy. Are you sure you can trust him with your life?" Aidan questioned, revealing a bit of concern mixed with pondering in his countenance. 

  “I won't say I can completely trust him with my life just yet, but I'll get there eventually. He's proven himself already. Having an extra ally is not such a bad idea, is it?”

  "I happen to agree with you on that. I'll keep an eye on him along the way. Until he's proven his worth to me." 

  “Wait…Aidy, does that mean you're coming along with us on our journey?" Orion asked, almost bursting out in excitement before receiving an answer to his question.

  “Obviously, slowpoke. Keep up, lad!" Aidan scoffed playfully, rolling his eyes in false disappointment.

  “Now life just got a whole lot better. Yesssss!!!" 

  "Ha! The little lad just got giddy”, Aidan chuckled.

  "Where did you say you both were headed again?" 

  “No particular final destination exactly, but our next stop is the Port of Armorica, the seaside city in Southern Dumnonia." 

  “Unto Armorica then. Saddle up, Origami!"