Beast Tamer's Damned Regression

Chapter 5: The Throne of Bones

The day passed in a raced by so fast, Varek stayed in his room throughout. He told Marta he was still feeling unwell from the nightmares. She brought him soup and bread at noon and he ate because his body needed strength, not because he was hungry. The Gnarl stayed curled on his pillow, its red eyes closed, its breathing slow and even.

But inside his skull, the vision of his death kept playing over and over. The burning city, the broken spear. Aurelius touched his forehead with two cold fingers and said to him “You were never going to win.”

It was not enough to know how he died but he needed to know why this time, he needed to understand what Aurelius was building and see the end of everything.

When the sun went down and Marta's candle went off and everywhere went dark, he sat up on the bed, the Gnarl opened its red eye immediately.

[You want to borrow again.]

"I need to see it again. I caught a glimpse of the throne and the bones when I first woke up, but I need to see it clearly. I need to understand what he is doing while the world burns."

[You have already borrowed twice in two days. Your body is weak, if you push again this soon, the damage could be permanent and very severe. ]

"What damage?"

[You could lose memories you did not intend to trade, pieces of yourself that you cannot get back. The Regression Gift is not gentle. It digs into your mind and takes whatever it wants.]

Varek thought about his father's voice that he had given up on the altar. He could not remember the sound of it anymore… It was already gone. The thought made his chest ache.

"I do not have a choice," he said. "If I wait until I am ready, I will never be ready. I need to see what I am fighting. Just show me how to reach it and I will take care of the rest."

The Gnarl was silent for a long moment. Then it crawled onto his lap and pressed its cold nose against his hand.

[I will hold you here but when it hurts, do not fight it. Let it take you, fighting makes it worse.]

Varek nodded and closed his eyes to reach forward.

The pain was immediate, way sharper than before. It felt like something was clawing at the inside of his skull, digging through his thoughts, searching for something. He gasped and his hands gripped the blanket. The Gnarl's claws pressed into his arm, anchoring him.

Then the vision hit and everything went dark.

He was standing in the Capital again but not on the streets this time. He was somewhere high, looking down at the city from above. The sky was purple and red and full of cracks. The buildings were crumbling. Fires burned in every direction. The screams floated up from below like smoke and there in front of him was the throne.

It rose from the highest platform of the ruined palace. A massive thing made of fresh bones. It was white, wet and gleaming in the firelight. They were stacked ten feet high, piled on top of each other in a heap that looked like a mountain of death. Skulls stared out from the pile with empty eye sockets… human skulls… Tamer skulls. The small round skulls of children who had never even learned to summon.

Varek tried to turn away but the vision held him in place.

On top of the throne sat Aurelius.

His white robes were perfectly clean, not even a speck of ash nor a drop of blood. His dark hair was combed back and touched with silver at the temples. His hands rested lightly on the arms of the throne. His face was way too calm, his eyes were soft and he was smiling.

His smile was not that of cruelty, nah… it was worse. It was the smile of someone who had worked very hard for a very long time and was finally watching his labor come to an end, it was the smile of a farmer looking out over a ripe field ready for harvest.

He lifted his hand and Varek saw the key.

It was silver and small and it glowed with a sick pale light that made Varek's stomach twist in a bad way. Aurelius turned the key in the air like he was unlocking a door and with every turn the screams grew louder. The cracks in the sky grew wider. The beasts pouring through the cracks grew thicker and darker and more twisted.

He was feeding on it, every death in the city below was flowing up into the throne. Every memory, every scream, every final breath… they all streamed into the bones like water into a cistern and Aurelius sat on top of it all smiling.

Varek tried to move, he tried to strike at him but he had no body in this place. He was only a watcher and he could not do anything.

Then Aurelius turned his head and looked directly at him.

The devilish kind eyes found him across the impossible distance, his smile widened just a little and Aurelius spoke to him.

"You see it now, Varek Soren. You see what I am building, you have been peeking into my future for days. I felt you… everytime you borrow a memory, I feel it. You are like a moth tapping at a window… you know what that means lost soren?"

Varek could not breathe, he tried to move but he could not move at all.

"You think you can stop this," Aurelius said gently. "You think your little regression and your little beast are enough to challenge me, I have been planning this for centuries. I have killed your father and your grandfather and every Soren who came before them. You are the last of them and when I find you, I will take that creature inside you and I will use it to finish what I started."

He leaned forward on his throne of bones.

"Keep borrowing memories, little moth. Every time you do, you come closer to me and when you arrive, I will be waiting patiently."

The vision shattered after that…

Varek fell off the bed and hit the floor hard. He was gasping for air, stretching his hand like he wanted to grab the air with his hand. His whole body was soaked in cold sweat. His hands were shaking so badly he could not push himself up. The Gnarl crawled down beside him and pressed its cold body against his cheek.

[Breathe Varek. You are back and safe now… breathe young master, i am with you.]

"He knew," Varek choked out. "He knew I was watching. He spoke to me, he called me a moth."

[What else did he say?]

"He said every time I borrow a memory, I come closer to him. He wants me to keep borrowing. He is using the visions to track me."

The Gnarl was silent for a moment.

[Then we must be more careful. You cannot stop borrowing entirely because you need the knowledge but you must learn to shield yourself first. You must learn to look without being seen.]

"How do I do that?"

[I do not know yet but I am older than the System. I am older than the Lightbringer, I will find a way.]

Varek lay on the cold floor and stared at the ceiling. His heart was still pounding profusely and his head was still throbbing badly but behind the fear was something else. He started gaining courage, strange courage from nowhere.

"He knows about you also," Varek said quietly. "He knows everything about us. He said he has been killing my family for centuries."

[Yes and you are the first one who survived long enough to fight back.]

Varek sat up slowly. He looked at the Gnarl, its red eye glowing in the dark room.

"Then I will not waste the time he has given me. Tonight we will go to the graveyard… you need to feed and I need to learn how to fight and defend myself, we need to start growing stronger before he finds us."

[I agreed but first, you need an absolute rest. Rest for just a few hours then we start. You will not survive the graveyard if you cannot stand.]

Varek wanted to argue but his body was already dragging him down. He climbed back onto the bed and the Gnarl curled against his chest. The red eye stayed open, watching the window.

Sleep came slowly and when it came, it came full of bones, silver keys and a gentle smile that promised only death.