CHAPTER 11: The Price of Past Sins - Part 3

  Following a knock on the door, the physician entered with new medicine. “Apologies for disturbing. Master Lorn, you must take this pain reliever on time.”

  The physician placed his tray at the foot of the bed, arranged pillows to support Lorn’s body, then turned to retrieve the tray. That’s when Lorn suddenly coughed, his eyes bulging as if about to leap out.

  “Master Lorn!”

  “Father!” He hurried to the bedside. Lorn's face tensed, his entire body rigid as a board. He could neither speak nor breathe.

  The physician pushed Varne aside and pressed on Lorn’s chest. He kept calling his father's name. But death is punctual, never delaying its duty for pleas.

  Varne collapsed beside the bed.

  “I apologize, from the beginning, Master's injuries were too... Forgive me.” The physician stopped his words and left the room.

  Varne stared at his hard, calloused hands. They were powerless. He could not do anything. His father’s eyes gazed at the ceiling, his pupils round and black as if his soul was evaporating from them.

  He embraced Lorn as the warmth left his father’s body.

  He took care of the body that very day. As he wiped the body with a wet cloth, he found unhealed tear wounds all over it. Guilt and anger turned his blood into molten lead, burning through his body. It pained him, and at the same time, hardened him.

  Then, as he turned the body over, he saw burns on his back from a past Arcanzite incident.

  Varne shivered. His heart, muscles, and joints played a discordant orchestra. Each merely hammering its instrument as hard as possible.

  He carried the body himself to the large river in the forest. Lorn’s shirt sleeves and trousers dangled. His father was so light.

  There, Lorn had hidden a raft he had built. He once said that preparing one's own death was his organization’s habit, so as not to burden their comrades.

  Varne placed his body on the raft along with his broken sword. If Dorian followed the Wyndor tradition, then Lorn followed the Arvane tradition. He looked at Lorn’s face one last time before cutting the mooring rope and letting the river current carry him to the Inner Sea.

  Watching the raft shrink with distance, he contemplated the loss of Dorian, Eiran, and now his father. Before he knew it, he had no one.

  Varne did not leave his room for a whole day. When he came out, the physician was still there.

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  “Master Varne, come, I have prepared some food.” The physician served a slice of mushroom and chicken pie. Varne pulled up a chair. This table and chair were Lorn’s own handiwork.

  The physician sat across the table, holding his back. “Master Varne, this might be for the best. Given his injuries, Master Lorn wouldn’t have lasted much longer. He held on only to wait for you.”

  Tasteless. The pie was far from Lorn’s cooking. He now understood when Eiran said he needed no words of comfort.

  “I understand, what that person did was indeed cruel.”

  His head straightened. “You witnessed it! Who? Tell me!”

  “Master Lorn didn’t tell you? I was at home when this man appeared using Transference and abducted me. When I reappeared, I was already in Master Lorn’s yard, bound by black mist.

  “Master was skinning a monster. The man approached him, they talked about something but I couldn’t hear. Then the man attacked without provocation. Master Lorn grabbed his sword and fought like ancient heroes but he was eventually overpowered. He stepped on Master’s chest and started to mutilate–”

  Crack! Varne’s hand broke the edge of the table.

  “Master physician, may I know the name of that gentleman?” His tone was so calm it surprised even himself.

  “Master Lorn addressed him as Margivaz.”

  “Where can I find him?”

  “Apologies, but I’m unacquainted with any Margivaz. If you wish to find him, I suggest going to the information city Orfia. Margivaz’s ability to perform Transference is not common and might be recorded in the information city.”

  Varne set down his fork, returned the chair, thanked the physician, and went back to his room. He had just found his life’s purpose.

  He left the house the next day before the sun lit the western mountain peaks. His left wrist wore the Arcanzite, the Sky Core stored in a leather pouch, and a pair of stone necklaces hung around his chest.

  His goal was simple. Margivaz. Either that bastard or he would die!

  ***

  The physician waited in the yard until Varne disappeared. He was relieved not to have to maintain this disguise any longer as his back started to ache like the character he portrayed.

  He straightened up, aligned his shoulder bones, and breathed without worrying about his chest appearing too prominent. Changing his facial muscles with Prana to appear old made his face numb, but soon his skin sensation returned to normal.

  Incognito was watching Lorn under orders. Yet he had not anticipated Margivaz’s appearance and certainly not able to oppose him, not even attempting to try. The man ordered him to keep Lorn alive at all costs.

  Incognito had a hunch that he had stumbled upon something important. He cared for Lorn while trying to uncover the secret of the Cores as his Master desired. But Lorn kept silent. His chance came when Varne returned.

  When Lorn instructed him to fetch the mahogany box, the shock nearly exposed his disguise. The Sky Core! He never expected to find the Core just like that, especially in this house.

  When Lorn asked him to leave the room, he stuck a needle in the door. This needle was connected by a wire to a listening device in the form of a miniature bowl disguised as a shirt button.

  His Master’s suspicion that the Cores was more than it seemed was correct. He still did not know its secret or the roles of Lorn and Margivaz. That was what he needed to investigate. That was also why he frowned at the direction of their conversation.

  If they went into hiding, the Core and the chance to uncover its secret would be lost. The best step was to make Varne seek revenge, and in the process, unravel the secret of the Cores. Varne was connected to the Inquisitors; there were things only he could reveal.

  The only obstacle to Varne was Lorn, so he removed that obstacle. Simple, single needle jab in the nape while adjusting the pillows settled everything.

  After Varne sent off Lorn and saw his face twisted in anger, he knew it was time to help him make the right decision.

  He told the truth because Varne needed accurate information if his search was to end in the right place. Not everything was revealed, of course, because he needed him to focus on the Core, rather than colliding with parties too dangerous and ending his search before it even began.

  This was all part of his dedication to his Master.