FIDGET, BATRISHAN PRINCE OF DARKNESS
Bartok
About a month since Fidget's visit at Flourish & Blotts
The Valley of A Thousand Whispers was having another one of its dreadfully hot temperatures. It was a miracle that the endless heat the sun emitted didn't kill any of the vegetation in the sole oasis that stood at the heart of the subtropical desert that was well hidden in a mountain range so dangerous that only the most daring nomads ever bothered to travel through.
Bartok Ashiva Rex grunted as he pulled the rope up from the well in his small green patch of a garden. Despite the straw hat he wore above his bat-like head, the former prince of the Batrishans felt like he was sweating all of the water he had within his body. The sweating only increased by the time he managed to grab hold of the bucket full of water and started bringing it inside the old Arabian house made of sedimentary stones. The albino Batrishan sighed once his body contacted the fresh air that the house contained like holy water.
"I got the water from the well, Jasmine," Bartok said. He placed the bucket on the table once he stepped inside the small kitchen. Jasmine, a young woman who was probably in her early twenties and dressed in a violet bedlah outfit due to the Valley's drastic temperature, was in the middle of pulling out recently baked khubz bread from the oven when Bartok said it.
"Did I get enough?" Bartok asked as Jasmine placed the bread on the table. The only answer he got was a quick kiss on the lips from her dark lips.
"It's perfect, my love. Lunch will be ready soon," she said. Jasmine gave him another kiss before going back to her cooking, making the Batrishan sigh happily until his ears perked up. The whispering winds blew a distant, yet approaching noise. The noise of a traveling caravan was the noise.
"I hear a caravan approaching," Batrishan said. Jasmine stopped in the middle of cooking the rice.
"It must be my father's caravan!" She said excitedly. Her hands grabbed Bartok's in excitement. "He must have learned about our engagement!"
Jasmine was the daughter of a leader of traveling merchants. Despite her father's wealth and the promises that a nomadic caravan offered when it came to seeing the world, Jasmine only wanted to settle down and start a life. About three years ago, their caravan got stranded in the Valley of A Thousand Whispers. With supplies, most importantly water, running out more quickly than the valley's winds from travelling away from the nearest town, the caravan got lucky enough to find a lonely oasis in the desolate valley, and its sole occupant, a hermit Batrishan named Bartok Ashiva Rex, the former prince of the Batrishans who abdicated his throne and obtained immortality in order to see what the world contained in open arms.
The Batrishan had been kind to them and offered them supplies and shelter. The merchants had been amazed by him, for they had heard the tales of the glorious Batrishan civilization and desired to witness their wonders. Unfortunately, they had also heard about the Batrishan Genocide and had pity towards Bartok: he lived since the Antiquity, had witnessed things he regretted seeing, set himself into exile, and was rather mourning over his people's certain extinction.
Before the caravan had left, Jasmine's father had asked Bartok how they could ever repay him. Bartok had denied wanting anything, claiming he had everything he needed in his small sanctuary. Then Jasmine stepped in and asked the possibility of the oasis having a new resident. It seemed tough at first: Jasmine might never see her people again and Bartok had had a bad history of companions, but she desired to settle down from the constant traveling, her father wanted her to be happy, and Bartok had to admit that at least one companion in his small hermitic sanctuary wouldn't be of any harm.
So while the caravan left and came to visit once every year as promised, Jasmine stayed with Bartok in his house, helping him around with the chores and the farming, and as time flew slowly, their growing friendship had turned into eventual romance until Bartok finally had the guts to propose to Jasmine, who accepted happily. After sending a falcon message to her father, asking for his blessing and coming as soon as possible to the Valley of A Thousand Whispers.
Half an hour later
The caravan had settled down at the oasis. While the troop was busy setting up their tents, Bartok and Jasmine went to reunite with her father Hamed.
"I thank Allah for this wonderful day!" He said tearfully as he gave the couple a giant group hug. "You two will be very happy together! I'm sure we have plenty of supplies necessary for a wedding ceremony!"
"We just want a simple wedding, Papa..." Jasmine said calmly, but her excited father cut her off.
"At least one tiny grand thing?" He nearly pleaded. "It's not everyday that you're only daughter gets married and I only see you once a year!"
"Okay, fine!" Jasmine sighed in exasperation. Hamed gave out an unmanly squeal of delight.
"Traveling all the way here wasn't too tough this time?" Bartok asked his future father-in-law. "We've heard from the few other occasional travelers that the Ogre Wars were raging in the Enchanted Forest."
"Oh dear, please don't tell me that you ran low on customers?" Jasmine came back with some homemade wine and began pouring it into cups that were eventually passed around.
"No, no, my child, business didn't slow down," Hamed assured his daughter as he drank some wine. "You'd be surprised, but many soldiers tend to buy nomadic talismans for good luck..."
"Did you also hear? Now they began drafting children in the wars!" another merchant said. Bartok and Jasmine gasped while some other nearby merchants made agreeing noises.
"Quite true," Hamed said solemnly. "They began drafting children by the age of 14 into the wars. Our caravan was passing by a town when the strangest thing happened: one man managed to put an end to the wars. He saved the children and his own son from fighting on the battlefield and ended the wars."
"Who was this savior?" Jasmine asked.
"The Dark One...ironically."
Bartok spit the wine out of his mouth. Everyone stared at him in confusion while he tried to avoid choking. The albino Batrishan was somewhat familiar with the Dark One. Matter of fact, since he was as ancient as the Antiquity, Bartok was actually rather familiar enough to know all the Dark Ones that ever existed from the first one, Nimue, to the current one, Zoso. He had known at least one or even two at every era.
"Since when does Zoso take interest in aiding children during wars?" he asked.
"Oh it's not Zoso anymore," one of the female merchants said. "It's a new Dark One. They say his name is Rumplestiltskin."
"He has a son...Baelfire they say," another merchant joined in. "They say Rumplestiltskin stole the power of the former Dark One and used it to save his son and the other children. Rather strange, isn't it? A former village spinster sacrificing his humanity into darkness to do a heroic deed."
Jolly, Bartok grumbled mentally. There goes another human crazy enough to succumb into darkness. He had had encounters with Dark Ones and each one kept telling him on how everytime there's a new Dark One, the darkness inhabiting the host had to then figure out who would become the next potential host, which usually meant puppeteering the unsuspecting host as he or she pursued the Dark One's malevolent career. Bartok was willing to bet that Zoso had 'planned' for Rumplestiltskin to become his next host; the Batrishan personally wished to not get involved with any sorcerer as bad as the Dark One.
"Ogre Wars and new Dark One aside, how was the trip here?" Jasmine asked. Before anyone could say anything, a loud noise was heard.
"Water...anyone have water?" What appeared to be a beggar got out of one of the tents. He was wearing a black-and-purple ragged medieval cloak that covered every single inch of him. His hood hid most of his head, but you could still see his dark-skinned face and notice that he was wearing a black blindfold over his eyes, thus indicating that he was blind. His gloved hands held onto a wooden cane that he moved ahead of him in order to feel where he was going. When you looked down at his oversized pants, you could faintly notice the peg leg hiding underneath the pants' right leg.
"Oh you poor thing!" Jasmine said as she helped the blind beggar sit down in a comfortable position on the rare green grass that grew in the oasis.
"We also ran into this beggar while we were on our way," Hamed added. "Can you believe society these days? Leaving poor people like him out on the street, covered in rags and with nothing but the leftovers of abandoned burned bread?"
"How sad," Jasmine said in a pitiful voice. The beggar was drinking the cup of wine she gave him in a rather slow motion. It seemed like you couldn't even hear the gulps he made as the liquid went down his throat. "I just made some khubz bread before the caravan arrived. Perhaps I should go get some for those who are interested."
Jasmine went back inside the house.
"Charming bride-to-be that child is," the beggar told Hamed. "Whoever she is to marry will most likely be the luckiest man on earth."
"Actually, the luckiest Batrishan," Hamed corrected. He pulled Bartok closer to him so that the two men stood in front of the beggar. "My dear Jasmine will be marrying the last Batrishan to walk the Earth!"
"Uh, Hamed..." Bartok began.
"A Batrishan?" the beggar tilted his hooded head. "How can it be? My eyes may be blind, but I could have sworn that there are no other Batrishans in the world."
"True, but Bartok here has lived since the Antiquity," Hamed continued.
"Bartok Ashiva Rex? The former prince?" the beggar sounded surprised. "The one who gave up his throne after going after an elixir that helped him abandon his royal duties?"
"The one and only." Hamed kept bragging proudly, not paying attention to what the beggar had just said.
"Wait a minute." Everyone turned to see Jasmine, who just came out of the house. Her hands were clutching the tray full of cooked bread that she just made while her face was growing with suspicion. "How on Earth do you know about the Elixir of Nine Lives? Bartok has never told anyone else but me about it and I vowed never to spread a word to anyone in the caravan..."
A scream, followed by several others, cut her off. Next thing she and Bartok knew, all the members of the caravan began to fall on the ground, clutching their stomachs and screaming in pain. Hamed fell into Bartok's arms.
"Papa!" Jasmine cried. She rushed towards her father.
"What did you do to them?" Bartok got up in order to confront the beggar. He stopped in his feet when he sensed a powerful flow of energy that reawakened a force he had taken in his youth. Somehow, the last four sips of the Elixir of Nine Lives he had refused to take were present...and agitating the five sips Bartok himself had taken.
"You drank the remaining four sips of the Elixir of Nine Lives," Bartok gasped. "Who the Hell are you?"
The beggar gave a smug grin as he got up on his feet and used only one hand gesture to completely get rid of the rags that completely covered him, revealing to be a person no older and no younger than seventeen years of age in a black-and-purple uniform that Bartok instantly recognized as the one that Aldoradian military officials wore. The only difference was that the young person had modified the uniform into a semi-armor like appearance, his skin was darker than night itself, his fingers were slightly clawed, his dark hair flowed down to his waist, his peg leg was real, and his eyes were yellow with crimson red irises that could have been from the eyes of a demon. But the most outstanding traits were the bat ears and wings (the right wing being half-mechanical) that his body also included.
It felt like looking in a dark reflection of Fidget.
"That...that can't be!" Bartok stammered at the sight of the Batrishan.
"What? I'm just from your species, no big deal," the dark Batrishan rolled his eyes.
"Excuse me? It's almost been 22 years since the Batrishan genocide, I've heard nothing from any Nomadic Batrishan or survivor, and you're here? And you drank from the remains of the Elixir?" Bartok then spotted something golden shining from the sunrays. Bartok grabbed what turned out to be a pure golden Batrishan medallion from the dark Batrishan's collar. "And you're a Batrishan priest's child? Just who the hell are you?"
"Let's just say my most common name is Fidget the Bat." Fidget slapped Bartok's hand away from the medallion and tucked the jewel back underneath his shirt. "Look, I don't have all day, so I'll make it quick: give me the formula for the Elixir of Nine Lives and I'll give you the antidote for the poison that I put on the merchants." He pulled out a black vial from his pocket and showed it to Bartok.
"Never!" Bartok growled. "I made the mistake to pay the price of that elixir even from taking five sip! Nobody must ever get his or her hands on the formula! I know you took the last four sips, so take my advice and don't repeat my mistakes! Now give me the vial!" Bartok aimed for the vial, but Fidget dodged his attack and started walking towards the well in the oasis.
"Let's be honest, you don't really have a choice," he told Bartok. "I mean, would you rather let your bride-to-be's family die before the marriage even started in order to protect one formula? Oh well, I guess I'll just go ahead and dump the vial into the well..."
"NO!" Bartok exclaimed in defeat. "Alright, I'll give you the formula..."
"Bartok, no!" Hamed coughed out blood from his mouth. "He fooled all of us with his beggar masquerade! Don't let him fool you too!" He kept coughing in Jasmine's arms.
"I swear on the River Styx that I'll give you the vial if you give me the formula," Fidget added extra pressure, for no one could break a deal done by the River Styx.
Bartok gave in. Fidget tossed the vial to Jasmine, who instantly began pouring some of the antidote in her father's mouth, and twenty minutes later, after she finished the vial from giving the antidote to the rest of the merchants, Bartok had reluctantly and honestly given the sole handwritten copy he had to Fidget. The dark Batrishan was much more clever than Bartok had anticipated: knowing that the albino Batrishan didn't want anybody to get their hands on the Elixir, he managed to lock up all the ingredients that were needed in his basement. Bartok watched regretfully as Fidget gave the final touches to the Elixir and burned the empty ingredient containers, creating a bonfire in the oasis.
"All I need now are the souls of heartlessly slaughtered innocents," Fidget said gleefully as he held a cup full of nearly completed Elixir.
"You know you're insane, right?" Bartok said. "You're willing to drink the five sips you need in order to get eternal immortality that will only guarantee you a lifetime of misery."
"On the contrary. You spent your entire life wasting time on exploring trivial things; I, on the other hand, have a bigger ambition."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"PAPAAAAAA! NOOOOOO!"
"Jasmine! Hamed!" Bartok rushed to his fiancée, who was holding her now-deceased father in her arms. "It can't be!" Bartok flew to examine the rest of the merchants, who were all lying dead on the ground. "The antidote should have..." They noticed a green glow, and when they turned their heads, they saw Fidget finishing to drink his cup full of now green-glowing elixir. The couple watched in horror as he threw away the empty cup and licked his lips with greed.
"You killed my father!" Jasmine exclaimed in anger. "My entire family! How could you?"
"Fidget! We had a deal! You were supposed to give them the antidote..." Bartok shouted.
"Correction!" Fidget held his finger up. "I swore I'd give you the vial, not the antidote. Good thing that Zoso the Dark One gave me that magical poison of his and a tip involving a caravan heading to the Valley of A Thousand Whispers in exchange for giving a certain Duke some 'professional military advice' and start drafting children in the Ogre Wars. Bet you didn't know I used to be a Navy Sergeant back in Aldorada."
"So you helped Zoso achieve his scheme to get a new host for the Dark One!" Bartok was boiling in anger. "You nearly got a thousand children killed just to help Zoso ensure that Rumplestiltskin would become the next Dark One!"
"But if the vial had the magical poison, then why was my family acting ill before then?" Jasmine asked.
"Eh, I just put a few tummy-aching herbs in their soups on the way here," Fidget shrugged. "It was nothing. Oh, and one more thing." Faster than a blink, he threw a sword with an odd bat-wing designed cross-guard at Jasmine. A fatal scream came out of her mouth as the blade pierced through her midriff.
"Jasmine!" Bartok cried as Jasmine struggled to breathe once he removed the blade from her. "Why are you doing this? She did nothing to you!"
"You're sparing yourself from paying the price of the elixir," Fidget said as he picked up his sword and used a handkerchief to clean the blade. "Losing the sole people I loved made me go on this task to finish the Elixir of Nine Lives. I don't have anybody to love, so I don't have to pay the price." He then glared at Bartok. "Plus, it's not fair. Why should you get to marry your love and live happily while mine got impaled barely a bit after our own engagement, which eventually led to my world crushing physically and mentally and for me to desire nothing more than to get revenge on the one who started everything?"
"Look, I know you're just as stabbed as I am about the Batrishan Genocide..."
"BAH! What could I possibly care about my origins? My birth parents ditched me, a goddess placed me in front of a human chapel, my foster parents were nobles, my kingdom was great, my love was a princess, the one who destroyed everything used to be the best friend I could ever truly connect with, and now look at me! I'm a wreck! I've got artificial limbs! You think I got my life ruined by an event I don't even recall? Really, your mind is way down in history!" Fidget scoffed before taking off. Bartok watched as the handicapped, yet rather capable dark Batrishan flew into the horizon until his mere silhouette disappeared.
"Jasmine...this is all my fault..." He whimpered over his dying love.
"Bartok, I...I'm happy to have loved you during this life," Jasmine quietly said. "I'll still love you in another life..."
The young woman eventually died in the former prince's arms. The latter broke into endless sobs and eventually gave the corpse a heartbroken kiss before proceeding to the burial of his would-have-been family-in-law, wishing to never again encounter Fidget the Bat.