Title: The Hero of Skill- Reaver
Setting: Oakvale. Shadow Court. Albion. Fall.
Genre: Tragedy
Rating: T
Summary: Reaver lives for the big life, but one must be young to enjoy it. Fear and selfishness pick at his sub-conscious until he finally wishes for a cure for aging in the Shadow Court.
I stared out of my window. Beyond them villagers bustled and hurried to get the fall harvest finished. The weather was fair today. The sun was shining as colourful leaves descended gracefully to the ground. Winter had yet to grasp Albion. The breeze off of the ocean made it chilly enough for the villagers to wear shawls and jackets. It was a fine day for Oakvale.
All of the villagers were smiling. Yet they were dying. Slowly, minute by minute, death was tightening his grip on them. Even I was slowly dying. And it terrified me. Time was a disease. An incurable disease. I myself, could feel times effects, and I was only thirty-five. I was dying. But I could avoid it. I had the book that would summon the Shadow Court to do my bidding.
I push my silken brown hair out of my face as I moved away from my window. I did not wish to watch people die. Instead, I collect my summoning book and put on my jacket. Evening was fast approaching, and it was a long walk to the Shadow Court's hiding place.
I searched for years around Albion for this book. Some man who's name I cannot recall had it in his tower somewhere. It wasn't difficult to steal it. The fool wasn't even home or had guards when I arrived. I walked in, scourged the tower until I found the book, and left without leaving anything but the book out of place. It was too simple. Then again, everything was simple for me.
Darkness fell, covering Oakvale in a veil of Shadows. With ease I navigated my way to the main chamber in the Shadow Court. Once there everything worked on it's own. I summoned the Shadow Court without any thought.
I was surprised when it worked. Was I expecting it to fail? Did I expect I would go home disappointed and still completely mortal? I was unsure at this point, but there was no way I would run now. How foolish I would look if I had. I am not a chicken. Silently I watched as the three Shadow Judges appeared. Some part of me, in the back of m mind, screamed at me to run, for as long and as fast as I could. But I couldn't. I was so close to eternal youth that all other reason was ignored. I stared at the Shadow Judges, who were just that, shadows. They were translucent figures with haunting red eyes. I knew the image of them would forever by burnt into my memory.
"What…" started the first Shadow Judge "Brings us to this world?" Fear consumed me for a few short moments, but I worked around it.
"I wish for a cure." I almost stumbled over my words. My voice cracked ever so slightly. "I wish for a cure against time."
"A cure? You should realize that we will not grant you that for nothing…"
"I'll give you everything! Anything!" Fear pushed me to say this. Besides, I did not own anything in the first place.
"Everything?" Asked the second Judge. I nodded eagerly.
"Anything?" Chimed the third.
"Of course!"
"Take this seal. Every five years send someone to this very place with this seal. They will become your sacrifice." I took the seal that appeared out of thin air in front of my. "We shall also take this "everything" of yours. Just say the word, and your cure will be yours." I could feel the seal cutting into my skin as my grip on it tightened. I had succeeded. Youth was mine. "When five years pass the seal will arrive at your door, and if you fail to give us a sacrifice, well, your soul will be ours to take."
"Deal!" I shouted. "It's a deal!"
I wanted to get out. The Judges gave me an awful feeling, which is what I should be feeling the least, since I got what I came for. I jolted to life when they said the bargain was done and I sprang into a run. I was out of the Shadow Court in no time.
Screams filled the air. That uneasy feeling increased in the pit of m stomach tenfold and I rush toward the direction the screams emitted from. I am stopped along the way, too frightened by the sight in front of my to continue. Shadow creatures run rampant all over Oakvale. People are dragged from their homes screeching in agony, only to have there intestines pulled out and sliced. The creatures set flame to everything. Buildings, crops, the dead, innocent, living people, even children. Nothing was spared. Those who aren't burned are stabbed and cut his black swords. Body parts litters the ground, blood soaks into the earth. And I can do nothing.
So I run. As far and as fast as I can. Across streets, across fields, until I reach home. I do not enter my once safe haven although it has been untouched. Why is this happening? I can't understand why!
She screams. It is high-pitched and blood curdling. She continues to scream until her voice is hoarse and dry. Then it stops. Only the screams of others fill the air, and all I can think is not her. Anyone, anything, but her. She is dead. I had not noticed I was running toward her screams, but when I arrived upon the scene I already knew it was hopeless. My stomach lurches into my throat when I find her limp carcass on the cold ground. She is lying in a pool of blood, her innards yanked from her mid-section, her mouth open as if she were still screaming, her beautiful brown eyes are missing. I fall to my knees. Tears fall without restraint from my eyes. Why her? She loved me, despite my selfishness, despite my arrogance, she loved me. Why her…? I screamed out in agony.
Then it dawns on me. It was my fault. My home was burning to the ground because of me. My friends and fellow villagers were killed because of me. She died because of me…I gave the Shadow Court everything. Everything is gone.
Self-hatred consumes me and I run. Out of the village. Out of this hellish place. I run until I pass out.
~*~
I awoke from the nightmare again. On would think that more than 200 years would suffice to blunt it's steel, but still I see Oakvale devoured by Shadows. Still those shrieks fill the air. How much longer must I live before they fall silent? Such dreams belong to another time, for another man! One who would recoil from the things I've done since that night. Who might even care about all the sacrifices I've offered out to the odious judges over, over how long? Hundreds of years. I see that man as he was back then. As beautiful as me, as fiery as me, but so…delicate, so breakable, and so afraid of death. I see him summon the Shadow Court into this world, oblivious to the consequences. He asks them for an immunity for the disease of time and death, and they grant it. Then I see him running madly through fields, the realization of just what price he has unwittingly paid. Hanging like a tragedy mask from his face forced to his knees before the town he once called home now a dark circus of screams. Hers is among them and he can do nothing to stop them. What a weak, despicable man he is. But I am not he. I am Reaver. And I will sleep much better after this chalice of wine.