Haven's Addiction

I immediately sent out a holding spell that locked the limbs of Gerald, Boregard, and Vincent. Edic’s screams woke them all up with a start, only to be stuck in place unable to move. With them taken care of, I turned my attention back to Edic.

“Wakey Wakey, hands off snakey,” I taunted him. “Sorry to be so rude in waking you out of a dead sleep like that, but I just needed to make sure that I had your undivided attention.”

“What is the meaning of this?” Gerald demanded.

“Ah, tut tut gramps,” and I tightened up the spell to make his mouth locked closed. It turned out that I was a natural at this. All I needed to do was think it, and Barthandolous would make it happen. “This is between me and him,” I waved the pistol at Edic as he clutched at his wounded leg. “Although you may all find this to be very enlightening.”

“Now,” I crouched down by Edic, “let’s get down to business. I am going to introduce you to a few friends of mine. You’ve already met Punchy,” I held up the pistol. “Next I’m going to introduce you to Sparky,” I brought out the stun gun and set it on the ground beside me, “and Flicker.” I took out the lighter and set it down.

“Punchy is going to come into the conversation whenever you lie to me. He plays a little rough, and might kill you if we’re not careful. So it will be in your best interest to be completely honest. Sparky will join in if you try anything funny. Not Ha Ha funny, but if you try to get away, attack me, convince them to help you, or refuse to answer my questions. He won’t kill you, but it hurts like hell. I know, I’ve tested it on myself. And Flicker,” I took out a bottle of lamp oil and poured it on his leg around the wound, applying it liberally “He’s going to help cauterize that wound so you don’t bleed to death.”

I didn’t hesitate in lighting the oil. Edic screamed and tried kicking to fight off the flames, but there was too much oil. I quickly put a binding spell on his arms so that he couldn’t put out the fire.

“Oh, quit your whining or I’ll bring out Sparky.” The screaming stopped and he sat completely motionless while the oil burned away a large portion of his pants, the scent of burning cotton filling the air. He stared me down with a look of pure hatred that I had never seen before. I didn’t know that it was possible for someone to hate another person as much as he did me right then.

Eventually the flames died down, but I didn’t avert my eyes from his. We remained in a staring contest, a battle of wills like a twisted inside joke the others weren’t aware of.

While keeping my eyes on his I said, “Well, look at that. The wound didn’t cauterize. In fact the skin didn’t get burned at all. That’s amazing. You must be a lot tougher than you look.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but the look of hatred became even stronger. In one swift move he countered the binding spell with one of his own and kicked my legs out from underneath me, knocking me back. I didn’t lose my balance completely, but staggered back a bit. I expected as much and was prepared for it. I already had an energy shield put up, so when he brought out the weapon concealed within his clothes and fired a pair of red bursts of fire at me, they were absorbed by the shield. I returned fire by shooting him with Sparky. The diodes hit him square in the chest, and he fell to the ground twitching. I kicked the wand away and handcuffed his wrists behind him.

“See, you couldn’t just go down quietly, could you?” I taunted as I lay him on his side. I unhooked the latch on the back of his collar and it came right off. “Look at that, I guess that one was a dud. Let me fix that for you.” I then replaced it with my own collar, setting a command phrase.

“What is the meaning of this?” Boregard screamed.

“Aht, patience,” I held up my index finger. “Just a moment. The fat lady didn’t sing yet.”

I slapped Edic’s face a bit until he slowly regained consciousness. Once he reoriented himself, the look of pure hatred returned.

I held a finger up to my lips to signal silence. “Now let’s not do that again. Don’t speak until spoken to, ok?” The silence in the room spoke mountains. “You know, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I could use magical items sometimes without getting shocked. It turns out that the collar didn’t shock me directly when I activated them, but that the shocks were being delivered whenever you saw me activate an item.”

“Now I don’t have to use my Sparky. You get to play with your own.” I kept my eyes steady on him, my tone of voice lowered. “Let’s try this again. I have one question for you. Where’s Edic?”

He sat staring at me, the hatred burning in his eyes, refusing to say a word. I delivered a shock to the collar just to see how it worked. It was surprisingly satisfying to watch him convulse on the ground in pain and know that I had caused it to him just like he had done to me multiple times.

“We can’t keep using Sparky because I haven’t got all day, no matter how satisfying it would be to watch you in pain over and over again,” I said as he came back to his senses. “And I have a feeling that if I use Punchy you won’t say anything either. So I’m going to use one of my other friends to make you talk. I call him Barthandolous.” I pulled the Orb out of my pouch. Instead of a red glow, the Orb now illuminated the room like an inferno of light and energy churned within, waiting to be released. His eyes widened in terror, as did those of the other three in the room.

“So you will either start spilling the beans, or I will let him extract the information from you.” My voice was bitter and serious.

Without warning a gout of flame spewed forth from Edic’s mouth that engulfed me.

I expected as much. When the flames dissipated I stood just as I had before without flinching. “Obviously Placidious never told you that being in possession of the Orb bestows you with the same immunities as the dragon within. Now, to answer my question. Are you going to spill your guts, or should I spill your guts after Barthandolous is finished mind raping you?”

Edic sat motionless, staring a laser hole through my skull with nothing but contempt. While he contemplated this I released Gerald’s mouth from the spell and reinforced the holding spell on everyone’s bodies.

“Do you have anything to say now, old man?” I asked him.

“This isn’t the way to go about this,” he grumbled.

“That’s why you’re still pinned down. If you sit still like a good boy in time out, I may just get the password to remove your collars.” I turned back to Edic. “If you’re ready to play ball, then I need you to show everyone else here what you really look like. I’m tired of being the only one here who can see your ugly mug.”

Begrudgingly, the faux Edic complied and transformed into his real form. The red hued creature cringed in pain from the collar as he did, yet his eyes didn’t divert from mine. His true form was slightly taller than Edic with long, spindly fingers. His blood red skin increased the intensity of his reptilian eyes. With the small nubs of horns on his forehead, he really did resemble that of a demon.

“What are you?” Gerald asked both in awe and disgust.

“He’s a Carnivex,” I replied.

“Ridiculous. The Carnivex don’t exist,” the old man jeered. “They are just propaganda for politicians to blame when their underhanded dealings go awry.”

“Shut it Gerard,” Vincent spoke sternly, astounding everyone. “They exist. I saw one once. I barely got away with my life. I still carry the scars,” he spoke in a distant ominous tone that gave me the feeling the scars weren’t all physical. “They are the true demons of Haven. They have convinced the realm that they do not exist.”

I smirked, but tried not to feel smug about it. I had been right and Gerald was wrong. ‘Hahahahaha,’ I chuckled to myself in melody. I turned toward the Carnivex spy.

“Where is Edic?” I was afraid to ask, but needed to know. He refused to answer, staring at me with the look of death. I held the blood red orb, the same hue as his skin, up directly in front of me. He cringed, terrified like I was going to hit him. I just about did.

“He is dead,” he replied. His voice gravelly and bitter, not at all like Edic. “I killed him after obtaining all I needed to know about him to impersonate him perfectly. His body lays in the smoldering remains of Placid, thanks to you,” he said directly towards me.

I cringed at that, wondering if I hadn’t picked up the Orb, would the devastation of Placid have occurred? But I couldn’t let that doubt show. I needed to be adamant and absolute.

“What was your mission?” I asked, biting down the anger.

“To stick with you, gain your trust, learn about your weapons, then kill you and steal them when the opportunity came.”

‘He is lying,’ Barthandolous said. I didn’t hesitate in sending a shock through the collar. As he began to regain his senses I kicked him in the gut as hard as I could, sending him sliding across the floor a few feet.

“If you lie to me again I will let Barthandolous have his way with your mind,” I screamed so loudly that it made my own ears ring. “I have been assured that it would be the most excruciating experience in existence. Considering what you did to Edic, I’ll bet you know it to be true.”

He sighed and responded with less deliberation than I expected. “I was to stay with you, earn your trust, and have your backing that I was the real Edic so that I could infiltrated the castle Gold.”

“See, that’s more like it.” I was still furious, but relieved to have made some progress. “You could have saved yourself so much more pain. Now, only one more question. How many people have you tortured and killed like you did Edic?”

“He was the thirty fifth,” he responded immediately with a twinge of pride in his voice.

“Good. Then I won’t feel guilty about this.” Without warning I touched the orb to his forehead. It only took a moment for Barthandolous to completely crawl all the way into his brain, obtain all the information he has ever known, and fry his mind. I’m sure it took significantly longer for the Carnivex to do the same to Edic. I also knew that what seemed like seconds to me was an eternity of torment to him.

When I took the orb away, the Carnivex drooled with his eyes rolled in the back of his head and his body convulsing. I didn’t know how painful it was for him or if he would ever recover. I didn’t take the time to concern myself with it, and shot him twice in the head with the pistol.

I put the Orb and the pistol away, picked up the Carnivex weapon which was still warm to the touch, and turned towards the others with fury still in my voice.

“Your holding spells will wear off soon, but not before I am long gone. Don’t come looking for me. I have no animosity towards you. Just stay out of my way.”

Nobody said a word, they just stared at me, awestruck. Unlike after the onslaught of werewolves where they were speechless from fascination, they were dumfounded in fear. Granted the Carnivex spy was an evil bastard, but that didn’t change the fact that I murdered him in cold blood. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel any remorse over it. I avenged Edic’s death, and it was satisfying. I know what my wife would have said if was there. Something along the lines of ‘an eye for an eye leaves both sides blind’, but at that moment I didn’t care. All of my anger and frustration over all the innocent people who died in the village of Placid, both past and present, greatly overshadowed any potential guilt that might result because of it.

I slung the bag containing the Grimoire over my shoulder and left the barn without saying another word as I headed back towards civilization.

The walk back to Basin City was long, but the time flew by. The first thing Barthandolous taught me as I walked away from the barn was how to craft a concealing Shroud. This wasn’t simply turning invisible as my cloak could do, but to completely shield me from any form of detection. They were all simple spells, but not something I was ready to handle in casting all at once. There was a spell to cover my footprints, to cover my smell, to make me invisible, a silencing spell, a spell to prevent the movement of air around me from giving me away, a spell to guard from tracking spells, and a spell to prevent my location from divination. I didn’t need to use any component, recite any phrases, or wave my hands around with gestures. The power for all the spells came directly from the Orb. All I needed was the proper visualization to make it happen.

I could have easily made Barthandolous summon a steed to get me through the wilderness quicker, but I wasn’t in much of a hurry to get anywhere. With the obscuring spells I could walk freely without drawing the attention of any beasts or potential enemies while conversing with Barthandolous. Mostly I just needed the walk. Whenever I needed to think something through, or work out a problem in my head, I went for walks. It drove my wife nuts some days when I would be gone for hours at a time. After seven years of it she learned to read me so accurately that she could tell about how long I would be out based on my stress level.

I wasn’t completely delusional about the new mission I set out on. With the Orb I had enough power to take on most enemies, but the people I was after also held similar Orbs that were equal in power. When it came down to a matter of brute force they would probably win because of experience. I couldn’t just run in and force it out of their hands, I would need to take it from them.

Those who owned the Orbs fell into three categories beneath its power. They either made pacts with the dragon as Placidious did to gain power but eventually trade places, they had no idea that the Orb was transforming them into a dragon, or they made a pact with the dragon to release the others. All of them sought more power, for whatever reason. All of them were dangerous.

With the power contained inside, and the dragons strong desire to be released, there was no way to avoid this fate once the Orb is picked up and used. One could choose to not use the Orb and ignore the call of the dragon within, as some of the owners apparently elected to do, but the moment you did you were hooked, and there was no letting go.

It became addicting beyond belief, worse than any drug. The raw power made you feel invulnerable, and you desired nothing but more of it. I was a willing participant. I knew that I would need to act fast in order to release The Twelve before I was completely overcome with the lust for power. I knew the risk when I accepted his tutelage. I may not have known exactly how severe the consequences would be, but they would most certainly exist. I had no choice now but to locate The Twelve and release them.

Fortunately I didn’t necessarily need to take the Orbs from their owners. Those who made a pact with the dragon inside would likely be thrilled to learn that there was a way to cheat imprisonment. Those who sought to release The Twelve would be immediate allies with a common goal. Those who became power hungry and oblivious as the dragons within manipulated them to the Nth degree, could possibly be enlightened. Either way, anyone who was simply after power would be a challenge. They weren’t going to give up their Orbs for anything. I would have to force their hand, possibly literally. That wasn’t a pleasant thought, or one that would be easy, but after acquiring a few Orb carrying allies I would stand a pretty good chance.

At least two of the Orbs lay buried and dormant. We would just need to find them. This wasn’t as easy as it sounded. The only way to track them was by Barthandolous communicating with the other imprisoned dragons. The dragons senses were limited to what could be seen around the Orb, peering from the inside looking out, or through the eyes and senses of their owners. If they were buried somewhere without any owners, they had no idea where to direct us to.

My best bet was to seek out the owners of the other Orbs, introduce myself, and determine whether they would be a potential ally or not. Once a group of us banded together we would be able to more aggressively convince other Orb owners to cooperate. The addicting nature of the Orbs played to my advantage. The power hungry wouldn’t dare trust others enough to form an alliance, for fear that their allies would take it from them. So forming any alliance, even if a single person, would be a recipe for success.

Through my mobile training sessions I had more spells thrown at me than I though it possible to learn. At first they were mundane spells that seemed of little use, but as I marched through the wilds I thought up all sorts of unique ways to utilize them, ways that even Barthandolous marveled as having never heard of.

‘You have dark and twisted ideas that lurk in the depths of that mind of yours, my friend,’ he would comment. Coming from one of the most insidious creatures ever to grace Haven, that carried a lot of clout.

I learned attack spells, defensive spells, elemental spells, charms, invocations, divinations, illusions, and even death spells. What fascinated me most of all was the potential that the simplest of spells held. My mind raced with how to use it to my advantage so much that there would be gaps in Barthandolous’s teaching.

Learning the spells was unbelievably easy. It’s not like I learned how to cast magic spells, more like the Cliff Notes version. Hell, it wasn’t even that challenging. More like listening to it on audiobook. Barthandolous cast all the spells from within the Orb, channeling it through me. All I had to do was summon forth the spells in mind that I wanted him to create. Granted, the spells had to be in his own personal repertoire, but so far that seemed to be a limitless supply. Being the most powerful red dragon in existence when he became a member of The Twelve, and the amount of magical knowledge gained since then, made him a resource of magical knowledge that rivaled the Gold library.

Most of his teaching focused on what spells could and couldn’t do. He would start teaching me about fire spells and I would be riddled with questions like a little kid. Can you heat up only part of an object? Can you make it burst into flames? What about materials that are resistant to fire? What about its effect on water?

The questions went on and on. Surprisingly, he never seemed annoyed with my questions. He answered each one with the patience of a veteran mentor. I still couldn’t discern his intentions. None of my questions were stupid, even if they were inexperienced, and were with the intent of learning more. I grasped the concepts he taught with surprising ease, and even left him wondering the answer at times. When he wasn’t certain, we would test the spell out. I learned more about magic in the next few days than in my entire time in Haven so far.

I continued walking through the wilderness conversing with Barthandolous about the ways of magic, Haven, the Graxis, The Carnivex, The Twelve, and the Gold clan.

I learned that Drognaus’s grandfather, Draco, was one of the conspirators who imprisoned The Twelve, and that his followers had since dedicated their lives to obtaining the Orbs and locking them up. The Twelve were too powerful to be left unchecked, and couldn’t be killed, so their only option to rid the world of the tyrants was imprisonment. They yanked the dragons souls from their bodies and imprisoned them in the Orbs. They didn’t realize at the time, however, how dangerous the eternal dragons could still be. The Orbs were encased in a tomb, but were eventually stolen and dispersed throughout Haven.

Drognaus himself had once been a human just like me. After loyalty of service to the goal of seeking the Orbs, they used the Grimoire to transform him into a dragon. That made Draco his half/grandfather, or something like that. His brother Placidious, however, really was his brother from before the transformation to a dragon. Placidious followed in his footsteps, but strayed from the goal. He became jealous of his older brothers success, betrayed them, and was kicked out of the order.

They were having difficulties locating the Orbs, and Placidious learned, just as I did, that they could know the exact locations by using the Orbs. The Gold clan refused to resort to any such tactics because doing so would compromise the integrity of their goal. They felt it would defeat the purpose. Placidious argued that many of their people died trying to take the Orbs by force since none of the Orb owners would give them up willingly. Without the power of an Orb to counteract it, more lives would be lost needlessly. Placidious continued to disagree and even went so far as to attempt stealing one of the Orbs that lay in the Gold clan’s vaults within the castle. He was caught and exiled.

Placidious then sought power in his own way. He went to the Gold clans enemies and made allegiances with them, resulting in a war that brought the death of the majority of the clan, including Draco. The defenses of the castle were still too formidable. Placidious then betrayed his co-conspirators by trying to steal one of their Orbs to breach the castle, and was met with similar results. They weren’t as righteous as the Gold clan, and instead of banishment tried to kill him. He barely got away with his life and went into hiding, slowly building his power base until he was finally able to steal Barthandolous’s Orb from a merchant who didn’t fully realize what he had.

With the Orb in hand Placidious made a pact to allow Barthandolous to turn him into a dragon in exchange for enough power to overthrow the Gold clan. He grew so hateful of his brother that he would just as soon see them destroyed. In the end, Placidious had second thoughts.

He stole the Grimoire presumably to build his own dragon army, at least that was what he told Barthandolous. He didn’t need the book because he was already becoming a dragon through his pact with the Orb. As it turned out, the real reason to acquire the Grimoire was to draw out his brother into conflict. With his new dragon form he stood a chance at being victorious, but they still weren’t evenly matched. Drognaus was stronger with more experience. Deep down Placidious knew he would lose, but managed to keep that fact from Barthandolous. At the last moment when he knew that the battle was lost, he killed himself to be free of the Orb. His hatred for his brother became so intense that he would choose death if he couldn’t bring an end to him.

Three days after leaving the barn outside Placid, I reached Basin City. All in all I had been gone from the city just over a week. With magically enhanced speed I got there relatively quick. I stopped to rest on occasion, but wasn’t sure if I had actually slept. So much knowledge was crammed into such a short period of time that basic necessities like eating and sleeping were hazy. When I stopped to rest it wasn’t because I was tired, but to try out some of the spells we discussed. I didn’t doubt that Barthandolous had a hand in that. In fact, the entire time I was in possession of the Orb, I never felt hungry. I would eat on occasion, but more out of habit. During those few days my mind raced in a manic state with a desperate hunger to learn more, much like my legendary week long stint in the Danger Room.

Now came the true test. I walked into Basin City, one of the most lawless and dangerous places in all of Haven. I was still angry for being brought to Haven, for being taken away from my family, for being manipulated by the Carnivex, and for being used as a tool by the Gold Clan. Most of all I was angry because I just wanted to get home, and anything that got in the way of that, I saw as a potential threat.

I walked into Basin City looking for a place to vent my frustrations, as well as test my new power. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of trouble I could cook up.