The Elder's Path (19 page)

L
yn stood suddenly. "This is all so ridiculously complicated and unnecessary. Why are your kind even here in our world?"

"Do not forget that we do not come in to your plane uninvited. We are summoned here, by your kind."

Lyn had forgotten this, in fact. The realization stunned her, and she sat in silence until it sank in.

"Who summoned Umbra then?"

Marcho cocked his head very slightly at her. "That is a difficult question to answer. As I mentioned to you previously, Umbra is something of a special case. No one summoner can be held accountable for it."

"So it's true, what Umbra said? It's immortal? It can't be banished?"

"No. Not technically true."

"Technically. I'm getting caught up on 'technically'. Explain."

"I explained before; Umbra draws its power from the darkness in humankind. Since there is no shortage of this, Umbra will be difficult to displace. Its particular method of operation and influence leaves a possibility that there will be...remnants."

"Remnants. Of what?"

Marcho did not answer. A spike of fear shot through Lyn, and she could have sworn she heard a muffled whisper.

"With your permission, I can put a piece
of my consciousness within you, for when Umbra visits again this night."

Lyn did not even hesitate; relief flooded through her
. "Yes, please. Maybe you can get him out of my head."

Marcho did not reply, but his crimson eyes glinted. As Lyn stared in to them, she felt a slight pressure in her head, and then nothing. Blinking, Lyn shook her head and was about to ask Marcho if it h
ad worked when his voice spoke quietly in her mind "
yes
". Lyn squealed, and then clapped her mouth shut. It was going to be a strange night.

Despite the fact that Marcho was riding along with her, Lyn still dreaded returning to the nightmare that awaited
her. Disappointingly she did not see Siege that evening, but she shrugged it off thinking that he was probably tracking down a lead on his brother. The sooner that he could get that over with, the sooner they could leave, Lyn thought. She prepared herself for bed, forgetting for a moment that Marcho shared her mind space. Once she laid down, her thoughts began to wander to personal things, her memories, hopes, fears, and thoughts. She inevitably found her thoughts wandering back to Siege, and her burgeoning feelings for him.

"
Ah, there is the greatest strength of your entire race."
Marcho's quiet voice echoed in her mind.

Lyn squealed again and yelled out, "
Marcho that was private!"

He did not respond, and after a moment, Lyn had to giggle at herself. How
strange it would have sounded if Siege had walked by her door just then, hearing her yell out some stranger's name. Before long, she found herself drifting off to sleep, the weight of rest pulling her eyelids closed.

Her respite was not long lived. Lyn f
elt as though she had just closed her eyes and suddenly she was staring at the ceiling, the heavy silence pressing in on her from the empty room.

Something felt different this time; there was no knock at the door, no creak in the hall. In fact, it was muc
h darker than it had been before. She quietly whispered Marcho's name, hoping he'd be with her, but there was no response. An icy feeling gripped her heart as she stood and moved to her door. She slowly turned the knob and stepped in to the hallway.

This
time, no torch lit the hallway; it was dark, empty, and insidious. While Lyn did not bother to check Siege's room, she was much more fearful to go downstairs than she had been before. She took the stairs slowly, hoping fervently that somehow Marcho would pull her out of the dream before she had to face the demon.

Alas, it was not to be; as she took the last stair, she looked about to find the place in shambles. Tables overturned, wood chipped and cracked, glass shattered on the floor. The place was filled
with heavy air, as though she was breathing through a mask.

"I smell your fear," a guttural voice uttered through the empty room. Lyn stood frozen, not moving. The malice was palpable in the air. The laughter of a young girl filled the cluttered space, an
d a matching voice whispered to her, "Are you beginning to understand? You are mine, Lyn. You and everyone you know. Everyone that is, was, or ever will be. They belong to the darkness in their hearts."

"Any time now," Lyn muttered under her breath. Darkn
ess swirled violently in front of her like a cloud and formed into a silhouette. It shifted constantly as Lyn looked at it; she could never make out if it was man, woman, or child. Just vaguely and eerily human.

When it spoke,
its voice sounded like a multitude of people all speaking at once. "Everyone has a shadow. It is your only constant companion. And when darkness falls, your shadow has free reign. Have you not ever wondered why humans have feared the setting of the sun? It is because you all know that as soon as the light fades, your true selves come out to rule the night."

Lyn said nothing, simply stood still waiting for it to be over. The obscure figure shifted and moved unnaturally, swimming around through the smoky air to sidle up alongside her.
"Darkness is in the nature of every human. You deny yourself by restricting each other with rules and order. You feebly attempt to stem a tide that will overwhelm you. Stop fighting it; embrace it. You are tired, I can see it in your eyes. Just...let go."

For a moment Lyn was sorely tempted; she was indeed exhausted. Exhausted from her journey, from the torments and worries and the weight of her responsibility. She just wanted to close her eyes to sleep, and never wake up.

But then the moment was over, and she felt rage building from deep within her, pulling as if from a great angry chasm in her heart. The demon Umbra could sense the change and shifted uncertainly in the air.

Suddenly a splitting pain started on her forehead, and Lyn screamed in anguish.
It felt as though someone were cutting her head open slowly with a hot knife. She fell to her knees, clutching at her face. To her horror, she felt and
saw
a third eye open on her forehead, just like Marcho. The room blurred in front of her and tears streamed down her face, but her cries now were no longer in pain, her tears were not agony. It was fury, pure blind fury of an ancient hatred. She felt something leave her, and from her third eye a billowing black cloud began to form. It writhed and twisted itself into the shadowed silhouette of a great wolf head, roaring alongside her at the now cowering Umbra.

"What have you done?" Umbra shouted in panic. "What have you
done?"

Chapter 12

24
th
day, 12
th
lunar cycle, 700
th
age of Arc

"My nightmare last night was a strange one. Marcho finally faced the demon Umbra, and it seemed to feel real fear. I have not yet spoken to Marcho again, but after last night I feel like intent has been declared, and the hunt officially begun. I have never seen Umbra outside the dream world; I do not know how or when it will appear in actuality. I hope that Marcho knows what he is doing, because I certainly do not. I still have not seen Siege, but there is a feeling of bated breath in the air, as if before a great storm. I can feel the pressure, and I know that the storm will be coming soon. Today I will go out to find Siege, and see if I can't convince him to leave this place with me before the thundering of fate sweeps us away. However did I get involved in all of this?"

Lyn
could not find Siege nearby, and no one had claimed to have seen him recently. She began to worry; she knew he was enraptured with the search for his brother, but he had not checked in and she was concerned that he had gotten himself into trouble. Or he could still be upset at her for her drunken fit. She wasn't sure which worried her more, Siege being in trouble or her being in trouble with Siege.

Finally she came
across someone who said they had seen him leaving Range, and pointed her in the direction he had gone. When she asked after him, the person said that he seemed very distracted, and in a rush. Lyn, throwing back a hastily thank you, was already on her way.

The weather in Range was much better than it had been on her way up, and luckily
it was not a largely traversed town. As such, she was able to find Siege's large boot prints in the snow and track him. But as she did so, she grew increasingly concerned; another pair of large boot prints met up with Siege's a while out of town, and it seemed as though pacing changed drastically after that. Longer spaces in between the footprints with deeper imprints indicated a chase.

Lyn followed closely, moving around bent nearly double as she studied the prints. A large area roughly circular was worn down where
no prints could be made out. Lyn's brow tightened as she concentrated, trying to make something out.

"They clashed here," a voice said behind her. She jumped and turned about, her knife out of the sheath and at the ready. Marcho stood behind her, off to t
he side where he would not disturb the tracks.

Lyn bared her teeth at him in anger. "When will you
stop doing that?" she asked rhetorically.

Marcho sat passively, unmoved by her outburst.

She grunted, and turned back to the disturbed snow. "Do you know who this was?"

Marcho watched her, and then inclined his great head slowly. Realizing he wasn't going to say anymore unless pressed, Lyn dropped it. She figured she would find out soon enough, anyway. There were no blood spatters or missing pieces of anyt
hing, so Lyn suspected that the two combatants both came away relatively unharmed. Turning away from Marcho once more, she traced the footsteps. One set led away, and another kept going into the trees and snow.

Lyn stood, rubbing the back of her head. "I'
m not sure which one of these is Siege," she said offhandedly.

The Voidwolf came up beside her and put his nose to the
tracks with a sniff. "This way," he said, leading her forward.

They walked in silence as a light snow began to fall upon the erstwhile
trackers. There were no sounds of animals or wind, just an untouched quiet as the snow gently fell around them. Lyn's breath fogged the air in front of her, each inhale bringing the crisp air into her lungs. This quiet was the same that she had experienced on her way up the mountain; an unforgiving, harsh silence. A silence that told her she did not belong there. The world holding its breath as if in great anticipation.

As the two
continued along, a noise met Lyn's ear; it sounded like ragged breaths. Rushing forward, Lyn saw Siege leaned up against a tree, his great sword propped up against it. He was leaning forward, his blonde hair cascading down to his knees and blocking his face. His armored form moved up and down slightly, and his breathing came loudly.

"Siege!" Lyn called to him as she came to his side, but he did not respond. She reached out to touch him, but pulled back, instead venturing quietly, "Siege?"

Still, he offered no response. She turned and saw to her surprise that Marcho was still present, watching the two closely.

"What is the matter with him?" Lyn asked with a sharp edge of panic to her voice. She could not tell if he was injured, but the sound of his breathing made her suspect he was.

Marcho did not approach but he did answer her with, "He has been touched by the darkness."

Lyn shot an unappreciative look to the great black wolf. "Marcho this is no time to be cryptic. Please, is he hurt?"

"No."

"Then help me lift him and we'll get him out of here."

"No."

Lyn turned back slowly
to face the demon. "Marcho," she said quietly, meeting his eyes with intensity. "What are you doing?"

"Serving my purpose
," he replied simply.

"We need to get him to safety. If he has been touched by Umbra as you claim, he will be vulnerable like this. Y
ou yourself said we should get away to safety."

"It is too late, now."

She took a hard step towards him, her fists clenched. "You helped me, help him! Get inside his head like you did mine, expel Umbra!"

"I cannot." The great wolf shook his massive head
slowly from side to side.

"Why?" Lyn yelled, her concern becoming anger. But the wolf remained where he was and said nothing for a few moments.

Finally he said slowly, "You do not understand. His connection to the darkness is not the same as yours was. Umbra was testing you, toying. Nothing more. His hold on this man is much deeper, and much more complexly manipulated. I can do nothing short of exterminating the demon itself."

"Then why are you still here? What are you doing following me around? You fou
nd what you've been looking for, leave us alone!"

Marcho's lip twitched,
revealing the steely teeth beneath. "I am still here because the situation is not so simple. I am still here because this man's brother is Umbra."