Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) (15 page)

‘Hello?’

Seb’s voiced echoed back
at him from all angles. The brazier had burned out, and all of a sudden the
training chamber seemed strangely ominous. It was too easy to imagine all kinds
of horrors lurking in the darkness that seemed without end.

Pull yourself together
.
What did he expect to find down here?

‘Caleb?’ he said. Caleb
hadn’t been at breakfast so he’d assumed he’d come straight to training. It
wasn’t the first time he’d had an early morning errand that took him out before
the sun was up.

‘Caleb?’

Nothing.

Seb gave one last
half-hearted squint into the darkness before turning to leave.

Cade stood right in front
of him.

‘Shit!’

‘I thought Caleb had been
teaching you Sentio?’ Cade said as he moved past. He held a flaming torch which
he dumped into the brazier. At once a warming orange light filled the room,
pushing the darkness to its outer reaches.

‘What? He had, why?’ Seb
said, shaking the shock of Cade’s abrupt appearance away and turning back.

‘Well, if he had, why did
you not know I was there?’

‘It takes a lot out of
me. I don’t keep it active all the time,’ Seb said.

‘It’s not good if you use
it sporadically,’ Cade said, walking towards the centre of the room. He held
something under his other arm, something long, wrapped in a dark cloth.

‘What is that?’

‘What?’

‘Under your arm.’

Cade looked down. He
grunted and raised an eyebrow as if he didn’t even know the object was there. ‘This?’

‘
Yes,’
Seb said.
He followed Cade back to the centre, his attention piqued. ‘Have you banged
your head or something recently?’

‘Funny.’

‘What is it then?’

Cade threw the bundle to
the floor. Something hard clanked as it hit the stone.

‘Caleb asked me to do him
a favour.’

‘Why does this sound
ominous?’

Cade smiled. ‘You’re
learning quickly.’

‘Go on, put me out of my
misery.’

‘Training. Specifically,
combat training.’

‘What? Is this part of
Sentio?’

Cade squatted. He took
hold of one loose end of the bundle. With one tug the bundle unrolled onto the
rug, revealing four short wooden sticks.

‘Part of your fast track.
Combat training for the magi,
if
they do it, combines both Sentio and
Avatari. By utilising both enhanced senses and physical ability, a mage in
theory would become an unbeatable warrior.’

‘You don’t sound
convinced.’

‘Let us just say that the
Magistry hasn’t been particularly stringent with this particular discipline in
recent years.’

‘Why not? I would’ve
thought now more than ever would they need skills like this, especially with
this whole sheol business.’

‘You’d think so, wouldn’t
you?’ Cade said. He picked up two of the sticks, one in each hand, and took a
step backwards. He nodded downwards, motioning for Seb to do the same. He
picked up the remaining sticks and twisted them around in the air.

‘What are these?’

‘They’re called rattan
sticks. A weapon used by the martial art eskrima.’

‘These are weapons?’ Seb
said. It was hard to believe. The sticks were light, their weight almost
imperceptible. How were these weapons?

‘Very effective ones in
the right hands.’

‘Why don’t you use guns?’
Seb said, voicing a question that had been bothering him for days.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Against the sheol? What’s
with the daggers and throwing stars? With
these
?’ He waved one of the
sticks at Cade. ‘Why not just shoot them?’

‘When a sheol possesses a
human they impart certain physical changes to their host.’

Black eyes. Dagger-teeth.
Seb shuddered as the images came to mind.

‘Yeah, I remember,’ he
said.

‘You do?’

‘I remember those freaks
when you picked me up from the hospital. And then the old couple that just
turned right in front of us. What is that about, Cade? Why don’t we see that in
the everyday world?’

Cade dropped to the mat
on the floor and lowered his sticks to one side. He motioned for Seb to do the
same.

‘The sheol, at least the
sheol here on Earth, exist as wraiths, spirits even. They cannot take a form of
their own. The Consensus prevents it.

‘Instead, they prey on
the weak minded. Those who are fearful, depressed, clouded in negative emotions
are most susceptible to possession.’

‘That sounds scary.
Everyone has those to some degree. How come these possessed aren’t running
amok?’

‘The Consensus,
historically, meant that little if any sheol wraiths could make it into this
Shard. Those that did were weak, malformed, and often died with their host.
These possessed would appear simply insane, babbling nonsense and with little
or no control of their vessels.’

‘But now?’

‘Now they are more
numerous. Possessions were rising already, we knew that, but still it was
difficult for a sheol to possess a human, only those at the most extreme depths
of despair were susceptible. And most of those were only ferals.’

‘Ferals?’

‘Sheol come in many forms.
The vast majority are wild, uncontrolled. They are driven purely by the need to
kill, to spread chaos and fear. Lesser in number are those that manage to
retain some degree of intelligence when they possess a host, such as those who
attacked you at the hospital. The ones who possessed the old couple were
ferals.’

‘And they were drawn to
me because I am Latent?’

‘Like sharks to blood
they were drawn. The Weave pulls them in like a beacon. All Latent are at risk
from sheol possession, they feed off the Weave-energy these individuals emit.’

Seb nodded. It was all
coming together now.

‘Hence the need to
develop my shield.’

‘With it up they cannot
detect you, or more importantly, possess you.’

‘And what about
Clementine?’

‘Who?’

‘The one who killed
Sarah.’

‘I’m not sure, if I’m
honest. I only got a brief look at him before he fled. He’s not one I’ve
encountered previously.’

A thought struck him
then. He flinched back, frowning.

‘What a minute, you were
there?’

‘Of course. How else do
you think I got to you at the hospital?’

‘Right. I didn’t think
about that.’

‘Don’t worry. It was a
traumatic event you went through. It is fortunate you survived.’ Cade rose and
picked up his weapons.

‘Now, back to your
question as to why don’t we shoot the sheol. The act of possession also
increases physical strength, endurance, resistance to injury. Bullets, whilst
damaging the host, don’t do enough to stop them. Instead we use weapons made of
silver or iron. The sheol are vulnerable to these elements.’

‘You could use silver bullets?’

Cade frowned. ‘We do.
Sometimes. Unfortunately the nature of our work requires that discretion is
mandatory. Firearms are loud, clumsy, and attract attention.’

That brought another
question to mind.

‘Why do you work for
them?’

Cade’s eyes narrowed to
slits.

‘What?’

Oh-oh
.
‘I didn’t mean anything by that,’ Seb stammered. ‘I just meant, why do the
Brotherhood report to the Magistry? I know you’re not magi, even my shitty
sense can tell that. You’re obviously connected to the Weave in some way. I just
don’t get why you work for them?’

The silence that followed
drifted easily into awkwardness. Cade, jaw clenched, seemed about to respond
before seemingly thinking better of it. Instead, he raised his sticks.

‘We’ve done enough
talking. Now, show me what you have.’

Before Seb could even
draw breath, Cade leapt forwards.

‘My,
my, someone’s been working hard,’ Caleb said, his glasses dropping as he peered
up from the open book in front of him. Seb limped past him, step after
agonising step. He collapsed into the armchair, the soft leather a comforting
arm that absorbed his aching muscles.

‘I think I’m dying,’ Seb said. His muscles
throbbed. His bones felt like they’d been broken and reattached.

‘Cade put you through the ringer, did he?’

Seb sat forward, wincing at the twinge in
his back. Did he even have muscles there?

‘The guy’s a machine.’

‘He’s one of the finest the Brotherhood
have,’ Caleb said. He rose and went to the kettle. He clicked it on then
half-heartedly rinsed two cups in the sink.

‘Oh yeah, that he is. That reminds me.
Next time I go anywhere with the Brotherhood remind me that it’s not wise to
ask them why they report to the Magistry.’

Caleb stopped mid pour. ‘You asked that?’

‘Yeah,’ Seb said, absently rubbing his
right forearm which still shook now, an hour after Cade’s onslaught.

‘Ah.’

‘No shit.
Ah
.
What’s the
deal there?’

Caleb shuffled back over. He placed one
cup in front of Seb and retreated with the other. A smell of stewed grass rose
from the mug.

‘What is this?’ Seb said. He lifted the
mug, wrinkling his nose as the aroma assailed him.

‘Drink it. It will sooth the aches.’

Seb took a sip. It tasted as bad as it
smelled. He suppressed a gag reflex as the foul liquid poured down his throat.

‘God that’s vile.’

‘Give it a chance. You’ll thank me for it
tomorrow.’

‘I’ll hold you to that,’ Seb said. He
leaned back in the chair. A warmth had poured into his limbs and the pain had
decreased to an ache.

‘So you want to know about the
Brotherhood?’ Caleb closed the book and moved round. He dropped down into the
chair opposite Seb.

‘I think it might be good to know. At
least what it takes to stop me getting a beating in training.’

Caleb smiled, ‘I don’t think Cade will be
any different regardless. He’s always fought with that intensity, ever since he
was old enough to throw a punch.’

‘Who are they, Caleb?’

‘You remember what I told you about the
Great Crossing?’

‘When the magi fled to Earth? During the
fall of Temperos? I do indeed,’ Seb said, almost smugly.

‘Ah yes, I’ve heard that you’ve been seen
around the library. I assumed you’d just gotten lost.’

‘Very funny.’

‘During the One War, as this conflict was
called. The magi knew that their numbers were too small to defeat the sheol.
One thing that Danu noticed was the fact that the sheol had an almost natural
affinity for the Weave. They weren’t trained, they couldn’t read Runic Script,
yet they had
sense
, they had a form of
avatari
. In an attempt to
learn about their source of power, Danu captured several sheol. He conducted
experiment after experiment, desperate to find something, anything, that would
help in the conflict.’

‘What did he find?’

‘It was the blood. Sheol blood. Something
in it literally absorbs the Weave.’

‘Where do the Brotherhood come into it?’
Seb said, although an uneasy
knowing
was making itself felt.

‘Danu wanted to create an army, loyal to
humanity, but with powers that would match the sheol. He believed that by
combining the blood of the sheol with humans loyal to the magi he could produce
a force that could resist the sheol.’

‘Let me guess. None volunteered.’

‘He appealed to his finest warriors. All
refused. The most loyal simply refused to be contaminated, whereas others began
to openly question Danu’s sanity. Ingesting the blood of fiends? Of their most
mortal enemies? What was he thinking?

‘No. Instead he was forced to turn to
others. He turned to those who perhaps owed Aura a penance, those who had no
real future, those who’d perhaps give up their own lives in exchange for
freedom.’

The answer came to Seb like a shot.

‘Prisoners.’

‘You are perceptive,’ Caleb said. ‘Yes.
Danu offered prisoners the chance for freedom. Not just any, of course, some
would die in the bowels of Labyron for what they’d done. Others though, they
had simply taken a wrong turn in life. Crimes of passion. Smuggling refugees
across the Borders. That kind of thing. There were many who were fit, strong
and willing to give their all in exchange for freedom.’

‘So how did it happen? Did they just drink
sheol blood and they came…what’s the term?’

‘Imbued.’

‘Yes. That. Was it that simple?’

Caleb frowned. He drained his mug. ‘No. It
was not. They quickly found that ingesting sheol blood was a risky process.
Many became possessed themselves, others simply turned insane. In either case,
the magi were forced to kill those who could not take the Bloodrite.’

‘Obviously some took to it though?’ Seb
thought of Cade and Silas. Those yellow eyes and shadow melding abilities.

‘Aye. Eventually. They found that it took
individuals of a certain mental and physical disposition to handle the ceremony.
These brothers of the blood became Imbued. They combined the abilities of the
sheol with their human natures. With that, the Brotherhood was born.’

‘What? That’s it?’ Seb said. Something
didn’t make sense. ‘That just begs more questions. Why did the magi still lose?
Why is the Brotherhood still obeying their every order?’

‘Alas, the siring of the Brotherhood came
too late in the war. By the time the first legion of Brothers were ready for
battle the forces of Nazgath were at the gates. No, instead the magi and the
Brotherhood made the Crossing together. To here.’

‘Why though?’

‘Why? It beat staying. To the sheol and
humans alike the Brotherhood were the worst kind of abomination, a corruption
of their purest forms with their worst enemies. Fleeing Aura was their only option.’

‘Maybe so. But why are they still obeying
them now? Once they were here why didn’t they just go their own way? Chalk the
whole thing up as a bad experience?’

‘And that is where we come to the final
thing.
This
is what you need to be careful with. It is a source of much
tension these days.’

‘What is it?’

‘The Oath. The oath the Brotherhood made when
they swore eternal loyalty to the Magistry. In exchange for safe passage from
the wand the Sharding, the Brotherhood promised their lives to the magi and
their descendants.’

‘Let me guess. It made perfect sense at
the time. But now, hundreds of years later, not so much.’

Caleb nodded, the twinkle fading from his
eyes.

‘Like many things that made sense in those
days, the world we now inhabit isn’t exactly viewed as it once was by certain
parties.’

‘You mean by the Brotherhood.’

‘Amongst others.’

The men fell into an easy silence. Seb
sank further into the chair. The aching had faded. A heaviness pulled at his eyelids.

‘It’s working?’ Caleb said. A knowing
smile on his face.

Seb shuffled onto his side. ‘I might just
rest my eyes, just for a minute.’

‘Of course. You need the rest. After all,
you do it all again tomorrow.’

Great
, the word, his
last thought, flickered briefly in his mind before a heavy sleep took him into
its arms.