The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

MyCH FEUDING WITH FAMILY

Karstien had just arrived at the Palace when Kalen stormed up to him followed by Abe.

“Where is she?” Kalen demanded with tears wetting his cheeks.

The look of betrayal in his half-brother’s eyes broke Karstien’s heart but they could not discuss this in the open. “Come to my chambers, little brother.” He sent a thought to his sister to come to the castle.

“Brothers don’t keep secrets from each other,” Kalen shouted.

“Kalen, enough,” Abe interrupted, “This is a family matter and we need to talk about it in private.”

They followed Karstien to the Royal Family’s living quarters. Allura smiled in greeting, “Kalen, Abe, it is good to... what’s wrong, Kalen?” Her happiness turning to concern at the sight of his tear streaked face.

“Did you know too?” Kalen demanded.

“Know what?“ Allura blinked at his harshness.

“Yuri commed me to meet him at our manor with Kalen. He had this crazy story about Daisy being alive, he claimed that Karstien knew... he knew that Shadz and Asha had hidden her. He wanted to take Kalen with him to search, but I told we needed to talk to you as a family first, and he went on a rant about how we couldn’t trust anyone and left,” Abe explained.

Karstien pinched between his eyes. “Daisy is lost to us. Yuri needs to accept it.”

Allura read him in an instant, “But she is alive... She is alive, and you let us all think she died.”

“I thought she was dead too.” Karstien defended himself. “Asha put her in a healing sarcophagus for decades. It didn’t work, so Asha summoned me to see for myself. Daisy came back with more than physical wounds; her soul was broken. Her grief was killing her. The only way to save her was to make her forget. Being with us could cause her to remember. If she remembers everything at once, her mind would fragment. Her grief would overwhelm her again and she would die before we could stop it.” He put his hands upon Kalen’s shoulders. “I am so sorry, brother. But it was the only way to save her life.”

“But she’s my mom.” Kalen cried, then he punched Karstien hard enough to knock him against the wall. “She’s my mom and you took her from me!”

“Actually Kalen, I took her from all of us, so she would live.” Asha interrupted quietly. She walked over and bent down, putting her hand on Karstien’s jaw. The growing bruise faded as if it had never been. “You shouldn’t hit our brother,” she scolded as she helped Karstien up.

Abe had his hand on Kalen’s shoulder restraining him as he shook his head in disgust. “Would you have ever told any of us?”

“Our Daisy, the War Oracle died over thirty years ago when she used the Relic of Time to save the Remnant from the Cataclysm. Her body barely survived, her soul did not. The person who lives in her shell is not Daisy, and she never will be. To return to being who she was will kill her forever,” Shadz explained. “I know it is hard to accept that she is gone, but she is. It has been hard to keep this secret from all of you, but it must remain a secret and we must live as if she died because who she was did die.”

“It’s not fair,” Kalen sniffed. “Can’t I just see her? Just to see that she’s okay?”

Asha shook her head, “No, I’m sorry, little brother. None of us can.”

There was a knock and an attendant passed a note to Abe before hurrying out. He read it and frowned. “Regis commed the training center and left a message, Yuri was at the Academy. He told Regis the same as he told us, then he left. Please, if being with us could cause her to remember and die, then you need to at least let my brother see her and say goodbye properly. He has been slowly going mad without her.”

“I’m sorry, Uncle Abe, I don’t know where she is because I would be tempted to go see her. It is for her, to spare her life, that it must be this way,” Karstien announced.

Kalen glared at his brother and sister. “Will I ever get to meet my baby brother or sister? Uncle Yuri said he saw Mom with a baby and Fishlover.”

Asha’s chin trembled at his accusing tone. “No, but neither will I. And your nieces and nephews won’t either. Our Mom is lost to us.”

“Stop saying that!” Kalen shouted angrily then added, “Grandmother Mina always said, hope endures as long as love lives. Mom’s alive and I won’t give up hope. You can’t make me!” His eyes glowed with the power of his warrior magic as he stormed out of the chambers, slamming the door open hard enough to splinter the small table that was against the wall.

Abe scrubbed his beard in frustration. “Isn’t there any magic that could restore her?”

Shadz shook his head. “We have been through all the archives we have, there is nothing.”

“What about the magic of the Xelusians?” Abe asked.

Sighing, Shadz shook his head again as Asha answered, “Over the past thirty years, we have both read everything we got from Lord Odini on Xelusian magic and healing. There was nothing that could help Mom.”

Abe’s lips pressed together in a thin line then he asked, “Could Serapha look over the texts? She grew up in the temples, perhaps there is something you missed.”

Shadz snorted derisively, but Allura interceded, “I think that would be an excellent idea, Lady Serapha is our only living expert on Xelusian culture, she may not be the scholar she claimed she was but that does not change the value of her knowledge. Mage Shadz, you will grant her access to your library.”

Shadz’s jaw ticked like he was going to disagree, but Asha answered for him. “Yes, my queen, it would be our honor to have Aunt Serapha come and examine to books Lord Odini collected during the Xelusian war. As soon as my daughters are born, I am taking maternity leave, I would be more than happy to have her help. There is much we do not understand.”

“How many books are there?” Karstien asked.

Shadz gave him a bland look, “Over a thousand volumes in the ancient Xelusian Temple Language. Of the forty-eight Xelusians who were saved, none know the dialect. Since returning from that time, Asha and I have managed to translate fewer than one hundred, even though we have looked through them all.”

“I know all the ancient Aetherian dialects,” Karstien offered, “I could help.”

“They aren’t the same,” Abe said, “It was easier for me to learn four of the humans’ languages than it was to learn common Xelusian, even though it comes from ancient Aetherian. Temple Xelusian is almost a whole other language, they called it Bloodscript. Only some of the symbols mean the same between the two dialects, but in Bloodscript every word has multiple meanings depending on the words before and after it, and a numeric value that further determines the meaning of the sentence. It is as much mathematical equations as it is language.” His brow furrowed for a moment, sadness shined in his eyes at a memory. “Daisy learned in a month what it took Odini and Oren a century to comprehend. She always teased us that math made things easier.”

“Oren can read it?” Asha asked in shock. “You said he was a healer.”

“He is a healer.” Shadz answered, just as surprised. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

Abe shrugged, “Probably because the study of anything Xelusian was considered taboo and forbidden by the King’s Law. They were shocked that you and Daisy wanted to learn everything you could about the Xelusians. Odini tutored you and while Oren and Serapha taught her. King Xerxes could have had them put to death, and our mother for being able to read Bloodscript. Yuri was lucky Xerxes didn’t end him for reading a book on Xelusian mythology the night after the war began. You have no idea the freedoms you enjoy. We were born into a world where our magic determined our destiny, where you had no choice but to live what you were born to be. When Yuri found out he wasn’t an Oracle, he was almost suicidal. He worked thrice as hard to learn and master every trait of Huntsmen’s Magic, and when he had surpassed all the Master Huntsmen at the King’s Academy, they brought in Blood Brotherhood Assassins to train him.”

“We all have special training,” Shadz shrugged.

“Not like Yuri. The roles and rules in ancient times were very strict. You have no idea how much Odini paid to keep you as Oshay out of prison for not presenting yourself at court. We all had to obey or act as if we did. Regulus was the first Guardian in four generations to raise a nephew as his own son, which was considered radical. He secretly had a child with his sealed one. If it had been discovered, they all would have been killed. Guardians were forbidden to marry or have any sort of relationship.”

“Three would have been killed because of love?” Allura was shocked.

“All as in every living member of the House of Remus and Eonae’s House of Eir, and everyone joined into both, my niece.” Abe revealed to his shocked family. “The old ways were filled with classism and prejudice. If you were a royal, you were joined to whom to King and his advisers decided or you didn’t marry at all. Serapha and I were secretly joined for decades, we lived in fear that one or both of us would be ordered to seek a union with another. Only the Xelusian disdain for permanent unions spared Serapha from becoming a trophy on the arm of another royal and the rumors we encouraged that she and I were lovers and I was insanely jealous. My mother and Queen Eonae risked their lives announcing our engagement at the Autumn Equinox Ball without the King’s approval.”

Abe shook his head at them memories. “My father’s belief that a person’s worth was not in their birth but their heart, and that they could seek happiness beyond their destiny, made him a radical and an apostate. My mother’s belief that anyone should be able to come to the Temples of Light, and that the Scared Relics were to be protected from those who would use them for selfish purposes, made her many enemies and kept her from being made high oracle despite her rank and power. The beliefs in Light, duty, and compassion that Aetherians held so strongly to were corrupted and the reason the Devourer and his followers were spared in the First Great War. Arrogance masquerading as mercy brought our ruin. Ignorance allowed our enemies to infiltrate our War Counsel during the Second War, and even got many of the Royals, including the King, to use blood magic despite the laws making it illegal. Immorality and corruption was allowed in the name of tolerance.”

“High Lord Adamos’ allies fought those who wanted to bring those warped ways back when the City of New Hope was founded. They moved to the Western Kingdom after the family was nearly murdered. My great-grandfather, King Zeus tried to bend the rules, he faced three coups. When my grandfather, King Darius did away with mandatory court attendance, alliance joinings, and allowed for Aetherians to be joined to humans who would have equal rights, it got his family killed, including my parents. I thought things were difficult in the court I grew up in, but I did not realize how bad it was in the old court,” Allura frowned.

“Comply or die... Yuri hated the power plays and deception of court life. His integrity wouldn’t tolerate being a party to any of it.” Shadz made a scoffing sound at Abe’s words and the Protector turned on him viciously. “Kaleth showed me what you faced in the City of Hope, Shadz, you had it easy. If you had faced what we did, been forced to go to war at 220 because of politics, you would hold the same views as we do. Almost every person Yuri trusted betrayed him, including our parents. In the war, half of them tried to kill him. Our own King had him abandoned on the battlefield more than once and hated him for loyalty his skill earned. Yuri bought the victory at the end of the war with his own blood so his life was spared. When the next war started, I honestly believe Xerxes planned to kill my brother and Queen Eonae as martyrs, and claim Fleur for himself as queen, he was mad for the power in her blood and her light.”

“Yurieth hated Fleur, he could have just let the King have her and been rid of her,” Shadz sneered. “You forget, Abe, I was there. I saw it and felt her pain as she used her light to keep me alive.”

Abe clenched his fists at the memory of that year and how close to failure they came. “You felt her pain but I felt how much Yuri loved Fleur then and can assure you, he never stopped. Even when his warrior’s honor hated that she was a dark magic wielder, I could feel how much he loved her. When Yuri had to use blood magic to help rescue the Remnant, it violated everything he believed, but he did it for her because he loves her still.”

“He isn’t capable of love,” Shadz growled.

“Really, nephew? All those years Yuri stood silently by to allow Daisy time with Kaleth was because he loved them both. He had witnessed Regulus’ agony and loneliness, and Yuri felt it was his honor to let his brother, a Guardian, have love even though he knew Kaleth would die, he waited so they could be happy. Don’t ever scoff about my brother’s ability to love or his will to do what is necessary and right, Lord of Odini, or I will forget you are family.”

Shadz’s eyes narrowed as he deeply intoned, “Forgive me, Lord Abrieth. But our perceptions of your brother are very different. I see a person who deceived everyone around him for over a century, a person who chose cruelty over love, and who viciously mocked a soul freely offered to him. I overheard you both one night at the Winter Castle, he took the fragments of her memories and twisted them to fit his own narrative of hate rather than ask for clarity. Don’t defend him. I saw you seeking the truth, I heard you defending her, and asking the hard questions. You cannot tell me that you were not as appalled as I by his actions.”

“I was, but I do not hold it against him now as you do.” Abe elaborated. “Because I know my brother’s heart.”

“And his heart isn’t listening to the facts that Daisy’s condition could kill her if he reminds her of all she has suffered,” Shadz snapped.

“Yuri would never hurt her,” Abe insisted.

Shadz’s eyebrow shot upward. “He made that promise before.”

“It is a promise he will keep.” Abe assured them, he looked at Karstien, “Just let him see her, let Kalen see her, once they understand her condition...”

“No,” Asha interrupted. “Mom could sense them, and she would wonder about the familiar presences. If she tried to sort it out, it could trigger the Memory Cascade Syndrome that would kill her. Uncle Yuri needs to let her go, so does Kalen.”

Abe held out the paper in his hand to Karstien, “If he contacts Regis or I again, we will tell him to come home but I don’t think he will listen. You should have told us the truth from the beginning, instead of playing the royal game.” He turned on his heel and stalked out.

Allura gave Asha, Shadz, and Karstien a withering look and walked away.

“This could not have gone more wrong,” Karstien announced tiredly.

“I’m sorry, Kars,” Asha said quietly, “I didn’t know what else to do to save her.”

“No, I am the king and head of the family, I told you to do what you must. The blame is mine. Go home and rest, it has been a long morning.”

“My king, Lord Yuri cannot be allowed to...” Shadz started.

Karstien’s glare cut him off then Karstien muttered, “You need to forgive him, Shadz. Hiding Daisy is about protecting her life, not hurting the Huntsman. Take care of my sister, I need to make things right with my queen.”

As he walked away from them, Asha wiped the tears that escaped her eyes. She whispered, “I was just trying to save her, and I hurt our whole family.”

Shadz took her in his arms. “We made a hard choice and sometimes they hurt.” She leaned into him and he pressed a kiss into her temple.

As they walked to the portal station, Rheema walked up to them in the main marketplace. “Is it true, Asha?”

Asha bit her lip as Shadz answered for her, “The Oracle is lost to us, Rhee. She can’t be healed, we did what we had to do.”

Rheema ignored him, glaring at her best friend since childhood. “You could have told me. I would have helped.”

“The more who know a secret, the more it isn’t a secret,” Shadz retorted.

“Go dust yourself, Shadz!” Rheema snarled.

“Rhee, please...” Asha begged. They stared at each other in identical poses, two heavily pregnant women, each with a hand resting over their bump. One’s golden jade eyes begged for understanding; the other’s brown eyes hurt by betrayal.

“Would you have told me if Regis wasn’t my sealed one? If he wasn’t Yuri’s best friend?” Rheema demanded. “We’ve had lunch every other week since she died or whatever she did.”

Asha shook her head slowly, “No. I didn’t even tell Karstien until a decade ago.”

Rheema’s tears flooded her cheeks, her chin trembled as she said, “You were my most trusted, I thought I was yours.” Slowly, she turned to walk away.

“Rhee, I need to see you tomorrow for your pre-delivery check-up,” Asha called after her.

Rheema rotated slowly to face them again, her eyes were cold. “No thank you, Master Healer. I would prefer if Healer Oren delivered my children on Meridian. I have no reason to return to Aetheria except to see my aunt and cousins.” She bowed slightly to them, “Good day, Lord and Lady Odini.” Then she hurried in the direction of her aunt’s home.

Asha choked on a sob, before her expression became passive and controlled.

“My golden one?” Shadz looked down on her with concern.

“Just take me home, Mine.” She murmured softly.

Together, they left the Crown City, and returned to their school at the Southern Castle.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and then years since Yuri disappeared. Asha and Karstien’s relationships with their younger siblings remained strained. And, except for the gifts for his nieces and nephews that appeared on their birth anniversaries and the Eve of Light Returning, no one in the family admitted to seeing Yuri. Occasionally there was a sighting, of Yuri on Jura where Jenna lived, or in some remote settlement, but none of them could be confirmed.

Colby and Shadz were beyond frustrated with trying to track him. When they confronted Abe, he just shrugged and said, “My brother is the greatest Huntsman who ever lived; he always went where he wanted and no one could find him if he didn’t want them to.“