Chapter 281: Shattered

"Cerlius Draken."

Cerlius froze. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. His heart beat louder than a war drum. Tears streamed down Olpi's face as she seemed to resign herself to her fate, covering her ears. The Watchmen repeated: "Cerlius Draken, son of Maximus."

'Maximus Draken?' Larque gasped. 'What the hell is going on? Cerlius, are any memories returning?'

Cerlius didn't hear a thing the demon said. He remained slack jawed, gawking at the Watchman as if it were a ghost: "Who am I speaking to?" The darkness seemed to clutch onto Cerlius's quaking body. "P-please. Talk to me. Please."

The Watchman's torso slammed into the broken counter as it bowed, making Olpi yelp. The voice continued: "I bet my little puppet scared the shit out of you little bro." Sudden tears streamed down Cerlius's cheeks, but he didn't know why. After all, it was just an unfamiliar voice that had relayed his familiar name. "That's what you and your friend Eric deserve after that little stunt you pulled."

Cerlius waited for a couple of moments. By now, Olpi had peeked her head over the counter. "Uh…hello?" she whispered. "Who was just talking?"

"Brother?" Cerlius asked as he stepped around the counter.

The Watchman remained still, not responding for several moments before a different, deeper voice emanated from the Watchman: "Doevm, I thought I raised you better than to torture your little brother with magic. Imagine if you were in his shoes. Also, no cursing young man."

"Sorry dad," the one referred to as Doevm replied. "But I'm not Cerlius, nor will I ever be. Besides, look at this: my newest echo enchantment. It can record sound and play it back! Isn't that cool?"

"It's…still on." The father responded. "But I like the concept."

"Oh damn…I mean dang it." Doevm responded.

"Hello?" Cerlius waved his hand in front of the Watchman's face, but it gave no response. "Can you hear me?"

Olpi cautiously stepped around the broken counter, slowly lowering her defensive posture. "Echo enchantments are old, and don't allow for two-way communication. This Doevm person invented it? I've never heard of him. This may be a recording from centuries ago."

'How is this possible?' Cerlius asked.

'I don't know.' Larque responded. 'I just assumed that you had taken on two different names, but now I think it's more than that. It's possible that you and Doevm may share more than a name.'

'No. That's ridiculous. No. I'm Cerlius, right? I can't be two people at once.'

"Cerlius," Doevm's voice continued. "if you're listening to this, it means that my little puppet tracked down your mana signature and you probably shi…crapped yourself. Please don't destroy this thing though, as it took a lot of effort. I don't even know if it'll work right. Just come get me and I'll take care of it. That goes for your friend Eric too, since I know how inseparable you both are."

"Do you want me to show you how to turn it off?" The father asked.

"But you don't know the enchantment." Doevm argued as several clacking sounds rang out.

"Enchantments and artifacts are both easy to learn and copy, if you have the skill."

"It's my enchantment." Doevm insisted. "Of course I know how to turn it off." Several moments passed before he followed up with "Well I'll figure it out, eventually."

"Figure it out quick," the father urged. "or just hide it."

"But why?" Doevm pleaded. "I worked so hard on it. Can you just picture the look on Cerlius's face. All the work on this puppet will be wasted if he finds out."

'It took me four months.' Cerlius thought. 'To make that puppet. Doevm...I waited for so long. Father hid it under the floorboards.'

"I'm sorry Doevm," father insisted. "but this is important. Both the War Monks and the goddess are coming to attend my lecture, and I would rather not have this thing barge in. Come, I'll show you a good place to hide this."

The Watchman reached forward, picking Cerlius up in an embrace. He didn't try to struggle. Now that he was pulled closer, he could hear the soft breathing of his father. The Watchman's cold, creaking arms didn't press to hard. The ancient enchantment barely held it together.

It hurt.

"This is heavier than I thought," the father continued. "Don't worry Doevm. I'm good at hiding things, especially when it's in our own home."

The last sound that came out of the Watchman was of a heavy door shutting. The Watchman released Cerlius as the last bits of Doevm's mana faded. Its arms fell, shattering into thousands of pieces, and bringing Cerlius's out of his trance. He reached forward, grazing the torso as it fell and shattered like everything else in Cerlius's life.

He fell to his knees and dug through the shards for…something. Anything. As he moved, some sort of liquid traveled along his arm, but it was too dark to tell what it was. "Olpi, don't just stand there, help me." He whipped around to find Olpi still crouching behind the destroyed counter, still with a look of fear on her face. "Help me!" He yelled as he began stuffing the pieces into his spatial ring.

"Cerlius," Olpi managed to say by the third armful of jagged stone. A strange bout of lightheadedness assaulted Cerlius but he kept pushing. He was already a fourth of the way done. "Stop."

"I'll find a spell to piece it back together." A fourth armful went into the spatial ring. Just a few more. 'Larque, tell me the spell to piece it together.'

"Cerlius!" Olpi yelled as she slapped the fifth armful out of Cerlius's hand.

Cerlius froze, the momentary pause allowing for the wave of emotions to simmer into a boiling rage. He jumped to his feet and pushed her against the wall. "What?" He snapped. "Why does it seem like everyone is getting in…" His voice trailed off as he finally took notice of the blood. It was all over the front of her robe, dripping and forming a small puddle.

"Look at your arm!" Olpi cried.

"My arm?" Cerlius tried to move his arm to inspect it, yet it didn't respond. Olpi grabbed one of the nearby light crystals and set it on the counter, shedding light on the dozens of gashes along Cerlius's forearm, both deep and shallow. The jagged stone had shredded the entire sleeve and stabbed deep in the muscle. Everything went black.