So I've made my near annual return. I'm a bit late this time but times have been crazy since I last posted. A went through an entire relationship, ended that a few months ago and had to emotionally recover. A pandemic happened and now everyone is forced to stay inside. Sooo... things have been interesting to say the least. Here's my quarantine gift you to. Stay inside. Stay healthy.
I know that this chapter isn't what a lot of you came here for - so dont worry the next chapter is more Ben and Hope focused. This chapter is a necessary addition for the story to move forward. Next chapter is already written for the most part so it shouldn't take me too long to get up for you all. Thanks to all of you who are still here and reading!
-~Intermission~-
-~Chapter 9~-
Kursa
19 Years Ago
"Kursa!" my father shouts. "I told you to be patient with your magic. If you rush into things, you're only going to hurt yourself or the people around you."
"Urg… but you make me practice the same basic curses and incantations over and over again!" I complain, "Hope's dad let's her move on way faster that you! I'm going to fall behind!"
This isn't the first time that we've had this argument. In-fact, it's almost our daily conversation. Every day I try to perform some new trick… but every time my father stops me, claiming it's too dangerous.
"Kursa you need to listen to me." He starts, "one day you will surpass that over-glorified girl of Spellbinder's. You are powerful… too powerful for you own good right now."
Here we go again. He gives me this lecture every time, as per our annoying routine conversation.
"Your name represents our house and bloodline. That's why you have no first name, because you will one day represent the strength of the entire Kursa family. You will lead our house to greatness and topple that damn throne that the Spellbinder house has held for decades. And you will lead the Ledgerdomain to greatness under our name and blood." My father continues to lecture.
Father believes that I'm the great prodigy that my family has been waiting for. When I was born, I caused much chaos almost immediately after birth. Apparently, I, as a newborn infant was able to cast curses and spells wildly without any sense of what I was doing. They would just start happening without any sense of control.
I was born with a plethora of magic circuits, and a magic pool as great and deep as oceans. When I cried from my birth, all of that power ran uncontrolled. People were hurt, and damage was done.
Within an hour of my arrival to the world, my father was forced to seal off my magic and bind it away until I can properly control it.
From that moment on the entire Kursa house believed that I was the one to lead them to greatness and take the throne. They gave me no first name, allowing me to be called by our surname: Kursa.
For centuries the two houses of Spellbinder and Kursa have been rivals who constantly fought each other over the throne of the Ledger. My father particularly despised the Spellbinder house.
Every house of the Ledgerdomain specializes in some form of magic. Spellbinder shines in spells; Kursa excels in curses. The difference of a spell and a curse may seem thin, but my father taught me repeatedly that the differences are vital and important. Curses are usually long term, and spells are almost instant. Of course, Kursa's could use spells and Spellbinder's could use curses, but one naturally excels in their own element.
Both curses and spells have their uses, and both are exceedingly strong when used for their respected reasons.
"But Dad, me and Hope are friends…" I try to cut in.
"NO, YOU ARE NOT!" he exclaims.
"When the time comes for her to sit on the throne, she will do EVERYTHING in her power to keep you in second place! She will betray your friendship in order secure her house's position as the ones who keep the power."
I remain silent, but inwardly scoff.
I know Hope. She's a good person; a kind and caring one.
5 days before Present Time
"How many did we lose today?" I ask remaining make-shift House leaders.
Ever since Adwaita seized control over the Ledge Domain we've been in hiding. All Houses of the ledger were targeted and forced seek shelter and safety.
We fought back. Everyone did, amazingly enough. The different Houses dropped their conflicts with each other and banded together to fight the common enemy.
Even what little remained of the Spellbinder and Kursa Houses came together.
…
It still wasn't enough.
Our people were massacred. Cut down by the thousands every day. Ledger blood stained the streets.
All that's left of us is a small resistance and innocent people in hiding.
"You're not gonna like it, Kursa…" my second in command, Lyra, tells me.
Lyra is from the Hexta House of the Ledger, a smaller house that often allied with the Kursa House for support and protection. She's young. Only a year or two younger than I am.
I sigh. "Tell me…"
Lyra is hesitant to say anything but after a few moments clenches her fist and tells me.
"We lost the Western safehouse. Adwaita found it… there were no survivors."
I close my eyes and sit down at a nearby planning desk. Head in my hands as I think about all those innocent people just gone; executed for nothing.
Lyra speaks up again. "An estimated 407 dead and almost, if not all, of House Entra."
The room with just the two of us is silent.
The quiet is almost deafening as I feel my ears start to ring.
Everyone there was innocent. There was no resistance base, it was only a shelter for those who didn't have a place to go. Somewhere safe from him.
I finally open my eyes knowing that sitting here and doing nothing won't help them.
"… A fucking massacre." I state just above a whisper.
"Do the people know?" I ask her.
She responds, "Only the scouts who went to check on the safehouse after we didn't hear from them for a while."
I sigh audibly, knowing what has to be done.
"It's better to tell them now, then to wait. There's no use in putting it off."
"Would you like me or another to break the bad news, Kursa?" Lyra asks.
It's a tempting offer. Nobody wants to tell people who are already discouraged that we lost another safehouse.
But I know that I have to. It's my job to deliver the good news… and the bad.
"Thanks Lyra… really, thanks… but we both know that it's supposed to come from me."
She nods her head in understanding.
"I'll tell the others and get the people to assemble for the news" she states before opening the secure door and walking out.
She pops her head back in through the door, "Hey, Kursa?"
"yeah?"
She smiles at me. "I know that you're doing the best you can to help get us through this… Thank you."
All I can do is smile, and she's once again gone from sight and the heavy door seals shut leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Present Day
Ledger Domain
POV: Kursa
I can feel it happening. For better or worse, my father's seal on my powers and magic is gone. Like coiled chains that's unwound from my soul and body.
I still struggle to use it, its more potent that any kind of magic I had ever witnessed before.
All I know is that I must learn how to master it. That is the only way that we will ever be able to end all of this.
*WHAM*
Suddenly the doors to headquarters barge open, slamming themselves into the walls.
"KURSA!" Lyra shouts entering the room with haste.
The sudden interruption from my thoughts alarms me and nearly makes me jump from my chair.
"Fucking Hell, Lyra… you scared the shit out of me!" I exclaim.
She laughs a bit. "Sorry, but Relay just picked something up that you'll need to see."
Relay is the dedicated department for each safehouse, they're in charge of communication between safe houses. They gather information and transmit it to other safe houses and pass along messages so that we can stay in touch and work as a unit, despite being separated.
"Well, what is it?" I ask.
She clears her throat. "It seems like someone is trying to contact us, but it's not any of our established safehouses."
That is weird… "It must be a group of stranded survivors or something along those lines, ask them for identification and where they are immediately."
She stops. "Actually, that the thing sir, they already have identified themselves."
"And… so who are they?"
Lyra shifts her balance. "Well, we have no way of confirming it… but… uh… They claim to be Hope Spellbinder and Hex Spellbinder… the inheritor of the throne."
…
"What?" I asked without even meaning to. It just slipped off my tongue subconsciously.
Hope and Hex were killed way back when all this first started.
…at least… that's all that we could assume.
There was no trace of them to be found. Like they just disappeared off the face of the Ledger Domain.
We searched and tried to find something, anything, indicating that they were still alive, but to no avail.
To us… the only conclusion that we could draw is that they were both killed in the attack with Spellbinder.
…But this could be something. It could explain a lot.
"I said that they claim to be Hope and H-"
"IS RELAY STILL HOLDING THE SIGNAL!?" I cut her off.
I'll have to apologize later, but this could be the difference between life and death for all surviving people of the Ledger.
Lyra almost jumps from my abrupt exclamation. "Uhh no. The source was bad from the start, they claim."
"Oh. Damn it." I clench my fist. I try not to show it to the people, but we're desperate for something to happen to give us hope again. We're surviving, and I'm doing my best. But every day is a risk and nobody knows how long we can actually hold up.
Lyra perks up, noticing my tension.
"BUT… the ones who identified themselves said that they would try and make contact again. They said something about being worn out and tired, but they needed to see if there was anyone to talk to that's left of us. They said that they wanted to speak directly to the person in charge.
Relay gave them pushback saying that unless they had undeniable proof that they are who they claim they are, they can't speak to you."
Damn it, Relay.
It's not their fault, they're just following protocol, but I wish that I was informed as this was happening.
"That's good, Lyra, thank you. I should be able to confirm or disprove the identity of Hope Spellbinder. It's been a while since anyone has seen her last, but…" I trail off into thought of our past.
We used to be such good friends, Hope and I.
Despite our family's ongoing feud with each other for generations.
"Well, if anyone can, I'm sure that it's you, Kursa." Lyra chimes in, bringing me back to the present world.
She continues, "They didn't specify when they could contact us again, so we should be on our toes at all times."
I smile, glad to have someone so reliable. "Thank you, Lyra. Go ahead and give the orders for me… I honestly don't know what I would do without you sometimes."
She smiles back and gives a nod. "It's the least I can do to help take some of the burden off of your shoulders, Kursa. Nobody else could lead us through times like these."
With that she walks out of room, closing the door to headquarters, leaving me in my prison of personal thoughts once again.
That Night
Kursa's Dream
"WE HAVE 2 OPTIONS!... WE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM… OR WE DIE AS COWARDS!
These are the words that my father yells to the gathered crowd before him.
Mana can be felt thick in the air around us, filled with content and anger.
"FOR TOO LONG HAVE WE BEEN KICKED OUT OF OUR OWN HOME AND MADE FOOLS OF!"
The crowd yells back in agreement and anger.
The day has finally come. Our revolution against Adwaita.
With Spellbinder dead, my father was quick to take up the position of leader. He's been plotting this day since we we're forced to go into hiding. Everyone has been waiting for this day.
Surprisingly, my father kept Spellbinder in high regards. He even led a ceremony to morn the lose of the Emperor. He was respectful more after Spellbinder's death than when he was actually alive and breathing.
"WE FIGHT FOR US! THE PEOPLE OF THE LEDGER DOMAIN!"
The fighters yelled back again, and my father opened the portal and we all ran through with no intent of ever having to come back to this hiding place.
Kursa's dream
Sometime later
We stormed the streets with ease. A few of Adwaita's soldiers tried to stop us but were quickly dealt with.
More kept coming and a few of our warriors had to stop and leave the group to engage in magical combat.
Behind us we could we spells being casted wildly. Bolts of lightning, fireballs, beams of pure mana; just to name a few.
Finally, we reach the castle walls. My Father began uttering a curse.
Ancient rune symbols started to etch themselves onto the wall in front of us in a large door shape.
I feel a burning sensation on my forearms and grab them out of pain. The same symbols on the wall start etching themselves onto my skin like a tattoo.
When this happens, it means that a forbidden ancient hex is being used. It's one of the reasons why I'm believed to be 'the chosen one' of the house Kursa. Once one of these spells burns its way onto my body, I'm able to replicate it without any previous knowledge of how to use it. It's like I can just call upon it at my will.
The last of the rune symbols appear, and my father shouts a word that's incomprehensible to our language.
The runes begin reacting, swirling into each other and… out of existence, bringing the wall of the castle with them. Where the shape the runes made, was now an open hole in the wall.
Spatial magic.
One of the most dangerous types of magic known. It sends anything that it's allowed to another dimension unknown to anyone. Anything sent never returns. They say that only one arch-mage has ever mastered it and he could send anything anywhere to his will instantly, being able to control it completely.
It was declared too dangerous many, many centuries ago and became forbidden to use, despite the number of those able to cast it at the time being a small handful.
Nobody thinks anything of it at this time though.
We quickly rush through the new hole in the wall and begin our true assault.
The wall led us right to the courtyard, almost completely uncontested… there should have been guards stopping us at every turn in the castle…
Suddenly, the exits to the courtyard collapse, including the one behind us. We're trapped.
Adwaita's minions start pouring in from over the walls by the dozens.
"I already killed the one Emperor. And another rises up, claiming to be the way to salvation."
That voice… my stomach turns just hearing it.
Our small group forms a circle, shoulder to shoulder as we become surrounded by Adwaita's soldiers.
"Adwaita! Show yourself, you coward!" my father yells out.
"I know all about you, Rakem: Head of the House Kursa, rival of Spellbinder, self-proclaimed new Emperor of the Ledger Domain." Adwaita finally shows himself, standing on top of the castle wall.
"I have to admit that it's a rather bold claim to the throne when you've never even sat on it." He finishes.
"Anyone standing with me here has more claim to that throne than you ever will, you bastard!" my father growls.
Everything that happened next is a blur.
I remember seeing my father charge at Adwaita by creating stairs out of magic.
The mages next to me began incantations and using combat spells.
Everything from fire to flying knives to chunks of earth were wreaking havoc.
Adwaita's guards fought back.
One approached me, charging with a spear, glowing in with rune symbols.
I quickly summon 2 pure magic daggers and push his spear head away from reaching my body.
I try to slash at him, but the soldier jumps back out of my reach.
My daggers put me at a disadvantage. His spear has much more range.
"Exaltah!" the soldier shouted. The runic symbols on his spear burned bright with magic and a beam of light magic erupted from the tip of his spear.
I had little time to dodge with the beam moving at the speed of light.
Luckily his aim was poor, and it only grazed my left side.
It still hit me though. And it certainly hurt damn bad. But I didn't let it stop me.
"So, you want to play with light magic, huh?" I spat back at him, trying to ignore the pain. "Let's see how you like this."
"Nyx-noisiv-exa" I whisper.
For a second nothing happens.
Then, he begins to panic. I could see the curse taking effect. A blackness started filling his eyes like they were being painted over from the inside.
"I-I CAN'T SEE!" he screamed and dropped his spear to clutch his eyes, desperately trying to regain even an ounce of his vision.
I used a blindness curse. It's an uncommon curse that's tricky to learn and can backfire on the user if not done properly. Because of that risk, it usually makes mages shy away from even trying it.
I take advantage of the opportunity and rush the blinded soldier. I quickly get behind him and kick out his knees from behind, so he sinks to the ground.
"Please no! I can't see!" he begs.
His words fall on deaf ears and my knife slides across his throat as blood violently leaks from it and the soldier fails to find the ability to plead.
He falls limp to the ground.
I glance upwards and see my father in a deadlock with Adwaita.
I hear a scream from one of our allies and see him on the losing side of a dual.
"Terao" I cast at the soldier about to strike at my ally.
Suddenly, the stone beneath Adwaita's soldier shoots up and encases his leg. He's stopped in his tracks and can't budge from his leg's stone prison.
My un-named ally quickly regains his composure and strikes his magic-enriched sword through the soldier's chest. He quickly dies and I get a 'Thanks' nodded to me from the man I saved.
I hear a yell of pain from the direction I fear the most.
Adwaita's struck my father and is rapidly gaining the advantage in their fight.
I drop any previous thoughts I had and form a magical tether to Adwaita's arm as he was going in for a killing blow on my father.
The tether stops him in his tracks and allows my dad to regain his composure.
"You fool Kursa! Stay out of this!" My father yells at me.
I ignore him and pull the tether trying to restrain Adwaita.
My father unsheathes the family sword: a short blade, only about a foot in length with runes engraved on both sides running from tip to hilt.
The Kursa family's heirloom. The leader of the Kursa house's most grand possession. Anyone cut by the blade is cursed by every previous Kursa house leader's magic. The curses are strong and deadly. Other houses can only speculate exactly what kind of curses plague such a blade. Rumors say that those cut suffer from deadly diseases that have no cure, blindness and loss of balance, constant memory loss, torturous pain that seems to have no reason or relent of stopping and much, much more.
I've never seen my father use it, saying that there is no evil in our time that requires such use. Some other houses said that such a blade itself, must be evil.
My father, not wasting a second, plunges the blade into Adwaita's chest.
He screams out instantly with pain. A crimson red aura forms around Adwaita as the curses plague themselves onto him.
Despite the horrific scene, Adwaita grabs my father, pulls the Kursa blade from his chest and slashes blindly at him.
In a flash of my eyes, my father is slain with a deep wound in his gut.
My father clutches his disemboweled gut and collapses to the ground
I rush to help him.
Adwaita drops the blade as the curses begin to really set in and take effect.
He clutches his head in anguish, screaming profusely. The visible red aura around him seems to almost be attacking him in some sort of indescribable way. His eyes grow dark, a blackness filling them. All sources of his natural magic seem to have instantly disappeared. Sores open up on his skin like a leper.
And while Adwaita was out of the fight, his soldiers began to surround us. More and more, seemingly out of nowhere now encompassed my dying father and me. And it was becoming more apparent that we were not going to make it out alive.
I try and search the bloodied courtyard for our allies but can only find their slain bodies and a few stragglers still fighting off the seemingly endless amounts of soldiers.
"Kursa…" my father says hoarsely. "You are the heir now. You are the heir to Kursa and the last hope of the entire Ledger."
Tears begin to unwillingly form in my eyes as I try to prop his head up.
He grabs my arm and whispers something that even I do not understand.
Suddenly a line of runes began to etch themselves up my arms, burning into my skin and all I could do was hiss at the pain.
They glowed a deep red like embers from a fire.
The soldiers surrounding us did not wait for the ordeal to finish, however. They began charging, weapons ready with intent to kill.
My father whispered "Go."
The runes began to burn more, and brighter than before and did not stop.
I could feel them working their magic into my veins and bend reality.
My vision was fading as I clutched my father desperately in my arms.
Then everything went black.
Dream ended
I wake up, not with a start. Not this time.
I've had that same dream too often. The reoccurring nightmare of how everything really came to be.
The death of Rakem Kursa, my father.
Apparently after I had blacked out, I had somehow unlocked the key to Arch-mage level magic. It was my father's doing. He undid the restraints of my full potential he had placed on me as a baby.
I had managed to create a rift in space and teleported myself and my deceased father back 'home' to out bunker, where I had then stayed unconscious for day.
The news of my father's death spread fast.
The rumor of Adwaita's death had spread equally as fast.
It was only a few days later Adwaita made it known that he was still alive.
He lives in pain and agony. Every day tortures him. A plague of curses affects him at every moment. He is scared and hurt and damaged, but lives, nonetheless.
And that news spread even faster, delivering a wave of sorrow and sadness to every Ledgerian.
And that's it.
New chapter coming soon. I already have most of it written.
Stay safe and healthy during these crazy times.
-The Dark Arrow