Chapter 11: Nightmares Of The Past

 “You have a tick.” Cloelia randomly pointed at Harriette.

“Uh, I’m sorry. What?” Harriette eyes kept snapping between Cloelia and Aldous hoping one of them would clarify. Aldous shrugged to Harriette’s dismay.

“You have a Lotabilian Tick!” Cloelia pointed at her with her cane.

“I do? I can’t, I haven’t been to Lotabila since I was a sixteen.” Harriette shook her head in disbelief.

“Yes, you’ve had it for quite a long time, haven’t you?” Cloelia began to walk towards the table.

Narcissus tapped his fingers together. “Pardon me, but what is a Lotabilian Tick?”

“Oh right, you’re from another dimension.” I proceeded to explain to him. “A Lotabilian Tick is a parasite that lowers your hidden stats like strength and agility, even you power of your spells if it’s an adult one, which after ten years, I would assume it would be full grown.” I turned to Cloelia for answer.

“Oh, most definitely! Luckily, they don’t start reproducing until they are twelve, so none of y’all have to worry about an infestation. Now, let’s get this thing out of you!” Cloelia summoned a bag on the table and rummaged through it.

“This means, you haven’t fighting at your full potential. Honestly that scares me.” Aldous admitted to Harriette.

“Would me having this tick have affected my children’s health? I had the tick while I was pregnant.” Harriette asked Cloelia.

“No, your children and their stats are completely unaffected. The tick’s abilities only affect it’s host; it leaves any baby in the womb alone so it can be used as a host for it’s offspring. Ah ha!” She pulled out a strange device with claws on the bottom and a stone on top. She made her way back over to Harriette. “This will bring the tick to the surface, there will only be a split second before it burrows back in.” A pair of tweezers appeared in front of me, I caught them as they became victim to gravity. “Amice, I want you to catch it.” She motioned to Aldous, because he is slow,” she then motioned to Ignatius and Narcissus, “and they are idiots.”

“Right!” I nodded as I got ready.

Harriette sat in a chair, Cloelia put the device on the back of her shoulder and it immediately activated. Everyone in the room went silent, the only sounds was the small whir of the device. Without a moment’s notice, the tick appeared, I snatched it with the tweezers, the Harriette inhaled like she just came from underneath water. Cloelia took the device off, she motioned for me to give her the tick. I handed her the tweezers, she then titled her head back and ate the tick. “Ah! Nice and chewy.” She exclaimed. Everyone else shivered in disgust.

Harriette stretched. “Wow, I didn’t realize how much of my power I was missing out on. I should try this out.” This clearly scared Ignatius and Narcissus. Aldous was ready to grab her if she made any sudden moves.

“Well, that explains why you were defeated so easily during the seize.” I cooed.

“Hey Amice,” Harriette smiled sinisterly. “Are you full health?”

“Oh crap!” I turned tail and dashed out of the room. I could hear Harriette break the sound barrier as she took after me.

We weaved through the halls. The click of her heels let me know that she was gaining on me. I unfastened my skirt, letting it fly behind me, it only slowed her down slightly. I pivoted around a corner, so I was running backwards, I took my shuriken out of my hair and threw them at her. She tanked all five hits unfazed. I knew I was going to get beat when she caught me. We ran into the main dining room for feasts I jumped up on the table, as did she, then I leapt to the side and ran out another door. Harriette gracefully took to the air, she cast a spell shattering the chain that was supposed to prevent her from doing so. Her closed changed instantly into her battle armor. I grabbed a cross bow off the belt of a nearby boar monster. I shot off bolt after bolt. Harriette had summoned her sword to bat the bolts away. I ran down a hall and passed every door, I was going to run into a secret passage way, when I reached the end of the hall, I remembered that I had blocked it off with a really heavy table with some mostly useless relics on it.

“Ha! I got you now!” Harriette snarled. She threw down her blade and tackled me.

“Let me go, I yield! I yield!” I whined.

Ignatius, Narcissus, Aldous and Cloelia had teleported at the other end of the hallway. “Gah, what the heck! That chain should have held, how powerful is that woman?!” Ignatius screamed.

Cloelia handed him her stat stone. “This will tell you. I have upgraded it to show hidden starts.”

Ignatius held it to his eye. “Wha-, that’s, she, grrr.” He growled.

Aldous took the stone to see for himself. “Oh. Harriette, you are stronger the Ignatius, not by a lot, but if we were doing bets, I’d bet on you.”

“Huh, really?” She let me go. I quickly took off my knife and hid it under the table, hopefully no one lifted the tablecloth.

“Yeah, I’d honestly like to spar with you some time.” Aldous chirped.

“It’s a date!” Harriette said without thinking. “Wait! No!” She blushed. “It’s not a date!”

“It should be!” Cloelia waved her cane between the two of them. “When are you two getting married? I want grandkids!” She cawed.

“We are not getting married!” Aldous and Harriette yelled in unison.

Now that we knew we had the all powerful Cloelia on our side, Ignatius and I called out; “We think you should!” We were both promptly hit on the head, Ignatius by Aldous and I by Harriette.

“No!” Both Aldous and Harriette screamed together again.

“Why not?” Cloelia raised an eyebrow. “You are already co-parenting, clearly you two are think similarly, as you just demonstrated. I may not have found true love, but I know when two people should be together.” Harriette and Aldous exchanged a look. “Also if you don’t, I’ll have it so you’ll be going on a quest to find the twins that I will make go missing. Don’t test me.” She then started walking away.

“Don’t you dare bring them into this!” Both yelled again.

“You two are very loud.” Camillus stated, having come down from his tower to say that. “Who is the crone?”

“She is my mother.” Aldous growled.

“Oh, I didn’t know Esmee and Biff had any living grandparents.” Camillus stated.

Aldous kneeled down to the boy’s level. “Uh, Camillus, I’m not their father.”

Camillus put his hand in his chin. “Oh, I guess that makes sense, they are blonde, I thought it was just a recessive gene on your side, since some of your sisters are brunettes. Then, why are Esmee and Biff saying that you are their dad if you are not?”

“Uh, could you repeat that?” Aldous wanted to make sure he heard that right.

“The twins, Esmee and Biff, children of Harriette, are claiming you are their father.” Camillus stared at him coldly.

A few nights passed, only one thing exciting. Cloelia made Ignatius and I swear loyalty to her, in exchange she wouldn’t expose our little bet, or simply kill us herself. She didn’t have to worry about Narcissus and Camillus, one was terrified of her from the get-go, the other, learned to fear her when he witnessed a powerful ghost conjuring spell. There are two ways to summon ghosts, one that only requires the right materials, it requires no MP and simply allows the caster to commune with the dead for the next eight hours. The other, the one that Cloelia cast, uses ten thousand MP and allows complete control over the undead. Poor Camillus had developed a fear of ghosts. Also, because of Cloelia showing off her ability, Ignatius and Narcissus noticed I have the same colour eyes as the undead. I don’t know if that woman is working against me, or with me. Maybe it was her way of saying that I’m running out of time to decide who’s side I’m on.

Luckily, something that I found entertaining happened in the night. I was sculking around the halls, as one does, when I noticed that Camillus was slowly creeping down the hall, he was obviously scared. Ignatius was coming up the hall from the other side. I took a step back, then held still, hopefully he would be too distracted by Camillus to notice me. “Huh, Camillus, what are you doing up so late?” Ignatius barked as he walked past the smaller hall that I was in.

Camillus grabbed his hand. “Come quick!” He pulled him along. I silently followed. Camillus took Ignatius to Narcissus room. Ignatius burst open the door, “Narcissus! Are alright?!” He shouted.

“Huh!?” Narcissus head snapped to the door. He was reading a book in his bed. “I was? Are you alright?”

“Um, yeah.” Ignatius scratched his head as Camillus ran passed him and climbed onto Narcissus’ bed. “Why did you bring me here?”

“I’m scared. They are going to come for me, they are going to make me stay with them, I’m going to burn, because of what I did!” He grasped onto Narcissus arm. “I need you two to protect me, I like it here! Don’t let them take me back!” He cried. “I went to King Aldous’ room but the door was locked. I went to Harriette’s room but she was gone! Amice can’t protect me, she has no magic, and Lady Cloelia scares me!”

Narcissus disregarded his book and hugged the boy. “Who? Who is coming after you?” He asked while Ignatius closed the door and came over. I watched through the peep hole.

Camillus was hesitant. “My family and my village. It’s my fault. I wasn’t scared of dying before, but, I don’t want to leave this place, everyone is so nice. When I saw those ghosts the other day, one of them was, was my father. He was so mad, he is going to take me away.”

Ignatius touched the boy’s head. “He wouldn’t dare. You belong to Aldous, king of all demons, if he tried to take you away, he would have to deal with all of our forces.”

Narcissus then pried. “What do you mean it was your fault? What happened?”

Camillus was hesitant but decided to confess. “Magic was forbidden in my village. I was taught that from a young age, if I used magic, I was evil, any that I would lose my soul and end up in the bad place when I die. If any decided to sacrifice themself and use magic to help someone else, then the person they were trying to help would also end up in the bad place.”

“So, you think you’re a bad person for using magic?” Ignatius asked.

“Not just that, I need to finish my backstory.” Camillus then snuggled into Narcissus more. “Anytime anyone would find any books that contained magic, not just spellbooks, but even history books that mentioned magic, were burned in the town square. Anyone that touched the books were to burn their hands on the pyre to ensure that all the evil would be gone.”

Camillus continued. “One of my friends became sick. With every passing day, she was getting sicker and soon she would die. One day, a traveling merchant came, he sold the usual things, clothes, different seeds, I was hoping to buy medicine for my friend, but when I went to talk to him, a lady noticed he was selling spellbooks. He was chased out of town by an angry mob, calling him a demon trying to take their souls. I told my parents I was going to make sure he was left and wasn’t going to try hiding out in the woods. I was able to catch up to him, he was kind to me, despite what my village had done to him. He told me that he didn’t have any medicine I could buy, but he sold me a spellbook that had a spell that could cure my friend. He showed me all he had to offer, and I let temptation win and I bought a bunch of spellbooks. I secretly studied them for hours every night after my parents had gone to sleep. I heard from my friend’s parents that my friend would die in by the end of the week, so that night, I broke into her house. I cast a spell to save her, and she instantly got better. I apologized to her, but I told her that I couldn’t just let her die. She forgave me.”

“What happened next?” Ignatius asked.

“It took a few days, but my friend ended up making a full recovery. The villagers called it a miracle, a gift from the gods. We lived in peace for a few months, I still kept up my magic studies at night, I even started teaching my friend. We planned on running away together when we old enough. I read in one of my books that there was a wizardry academy a two hundred kilometers from our village. Unfortunately, we would never get to live out that dream. I woke up one morning to the smell of smoke. I went to my window to see my dad holding a torch, my mom crying next to him. He had lit the house on fire, to destroy me and my spellbooks. I looked out to the town square, two figures were being burned on the pyre, judging my the sizes, I figured one was my friend and the other was the merchant. In my grief, I cast a spell, I formed a barrier around myself, I took control of the flames that were meant to kill me, and I destroyed the village.”

“Oh.” Ignatius and Narcissus sighed.

“I was left with nothing but ash. So, I wandered, not caring if I lived or died. The next day, you guys found me, you know the rest.” Camillus took a deep breath. “So can I sleep here tonight?”

“Of course.” Narcissus helped Camillus get into the bed next to him.

“Ignatius needs to stay too.” Camillus added when he was settled.

“Ugh, fine.” Ignatius walked over to the other side of the bed and laid down. “But don’t get mad when I fall asleep.”

Camillus then went to sleep in between Narcissus and Ignatius. Narcissus then whispered to him. “Thanks for being so nice about this.”

“Eh, being mean about this won’t do me any good. If worse comes to worse, I send his dad’s ghost back to the underworld. I’ve been bored anyway.” Ignatius put his arms behind head and closed his eyes.

“Yeah, his parents are dead. We should become his guardians.” Narcissus blurted out.

“What?” Ignatius eyes snapped open.

“I’m just saying, if we become his parents, I-I’m not saying we become a thing, but he needs to know that he is safe and cared for. We should adopt him.” Narcissus watched Camillus sleep.

“Yeah, sure.” Ignatius rolled over to see Narcissus better. “It’ll keep assassins away, they won’t try anything with the son two dukes. I have one condition; he becomes my heir. You have your niece, so I want him to be my heir.”

“Deal.” Narcissus extended his hand.

Ignatius shook his hand and went back to relaxing. “You just made a deal with a demon.” He laughed. I was done eavesdropping and left to go to bed myself after that.