LXI.

LXI.

The boy looked at his parent, whose face was a mask of rage and disappointment. He had failed yet another of his fathers many trials. It was nothing new, but somehow his father always acted this way, as though expecting the world from the boy, whose body bore no innate talent.

You are weak! Worthless! Unbecoming of what I have to teach you!

But father, I try and I try and I cannot do any better! he argued back.

You will try again! You WILL get this right!

Even after turning ten, the boy was still useless in the eyes of his father, despite having learnt everything that did not require him to cast spells or summon entities. His father was not impressed however and as punishment made him dissect his own pets or those few friends he had made in the villages they always moved around between.

Even when the boy tried to end his own suffering, his father brought him back with his talented hands and evil magic. He was destined to live out his divine punishment that some past lifes transgressions must have earnt him, but the boy never stopped dreaming of a time when he could escape his torturous nightmare of an existence.

One day, when the boy was no older than fourteen, his father told him of a way to make him strong and to make him capable of wielding the magic that he had been unable to cast for all of his life. But the boy knew that it was yet another lesson in pain that would await him, though he could not disobey his parent and his wishes.nove(l)bi(n.)com

He felt the moment acutely, when his soul was drawn from his body and stuffed into a puppet of flesh that had been formed from the bodies of seven different demons. As he began to feel the sensations of his new body, his father took his old body and carved it up before him, before adding his face to that of his new form.

But though his new body was strong and allowed him to shrug off all the pain he experienced, he hated it. Even though it allowed him to cast and memorise all the spells given for him to learn, he hated it.

The way the other kids looked at him in horror mirrored perfectly how he himself felt after seeing his reflection in the surface of a lake. He was so mortified by the sight of his horrifying new body, with all its curling stitched-up patterns and mismatching colours, that he cast one of the spells that his father had not taught him, but which he had discovered by himself.

He bade the entity he invoked devour him whole, but when it manifested into the world it seemed incapable of feasting upon him. The backlash of its wrath from being slighted made the skin and flesh on his body fall from his reinforced inhuman bones, but no sooner had it fallen off than new fresh matter began to grow upon his skeletal frame.

He called upon the entity again, but the same thing happened and after the ordeal he was one again still alive, even as the ground below his feet became a massive pond of bottomless black water.

When he attempted to call upon it a third time, no answering manifestation came, as though it had grown wise to his trickery.

Soon after his father found him and dragged him away.

Despite learning all his father had to teach him and mastering everything he was taught, as well as many things beyond the scope of his teachings, his father one day deemed him unfit to be more than a servant and began preparing to summon a child from beyond their world to become his successor.

Many of these children they called into their unforgiven world perished within their ritual chamber and his heart broke with each and every one of them.

Jakob looked her right in the eyes, putting the scroll back into the cart. He would not need to read it again, as he had already memorised its contents. Ciana flinched under the intensity of his gaze.

Jakob your eyes theyve changed.

Changed?

They look just like that eye you sacrificed.

Eyes that have Witnessed Divinity? he considered. In a way it made sense, but Cianas eyes remained unchanged.

Why did you ask Nharlla to make you undefeatable?

Because it was my greatest wish, she replied frankly, not knowing that her true wish had been offered up as an esoteric toll. I never more have to fear defeat. With the power I now possess, I can defeat anyone who tries to hurt those I care about.

Why didnt either of you tell me what the last toll was? Jakob asked accusingly. Heskels old memories still floated around in his head and his lungs hurt from all the pain that was interred within him, threatening to burst forth.

It wouldnt have changed anything, she told him. Thats what Heskel told me, when I asked the same thing.

We should have sacrificed you instead, Jakob said coldly.

An expression of incredible pain pinched Cianas face, then she answered, None of you loved me, so it would not have worked.

Jakob knew she spoke the truth, but he wondered if the sacrifice had not been greater than the reward, though he also knew that he could not have gained all the knowledge he now had, even if he had lived to the age of three-hundred.

Ill learn how to bring him back, he told her resolutely.

She frowned, but said nothing.

But first, there is something else I need to do.

What?

It seems that I have been tasked with giving life to something known as the Sovereign.

She looked surprised and revealed, I was told that I must help you create the Sovereign.

Jakob nodded. Once this task is fulfilled, we must seek out Grandfather. He has something that I seek.