(Ch 44)Questions and Answers

The guard's earnest words lessened Eshir's worry a little bit but she was still a little taken aback by their actions. Out of the legions of the royal knights guards the commanders were the second-highest authority, only second to the elusive grandmaster of the order.

"I'll just have to take you at your word then" Eshir heaved out, while Faith inspected the knights with renewed vigour.

'they all seem so powerful and despite his age, the commander is the most so' Faith noted, tempted to poke one of their armours and inspect what it was made of.

'Well they are the elite of the elite, it shouldn't really be that surprising that they are each a walking power house' Luna added, poking her head out of Faith's pocket and drawing the attention of some royal knights guarding the spatial gates around them.

The Rexel itself had been a big factor in the rise of the faction that believed Faith, half-blooded as he was, still worthy of being the crown prince. Rexel's themselves were a mysterious race that's ancestors could be traced back to divinity thus making the act of forming a bond with one quite the feat.

It was another thorn in the backside of the faction disputing Faith's position, headed by other branches of the royal family itself.

'Hey, why do you think they're at me?' Luna asked, slightly nervous. The image of Fadil would often converge with people as they stared at her like he once had over the grave of her father.

Luna recoiled a little after asking, going back into Faith's pocket as she kept herself as close as she could to his chest, his heartbeat bringing her calm and tranquillity. The memories of her father brought out a lot of emotions in Luna but she was always able to find solace in the boy who's soul space was connected to her own. Every-time the memories shifting from the minotaur standing tall over her father, to it burning in those pitch-black flames that seemed to swallow it whole. Yet they didn't feel evil, nor did they look through her moon vision.

The flames looked not like they wanted to devour the light but rather that they wanted to become like it, to gain its substance. Unlike normal darkness that simply watched over light, these flames choose to follow it, desperately holding on from behind in fear of falling into the void they had come from.

'They certainly carried malice and rage towards the minotaur but more than anything else they looked… sad' Luna thought, keeping this particular one to herself.

'They probably are amazed by how cute you are, like "Damn she looks so huggable" you know' Faith replied through his soul space bring Luna back to reality.

Luna laughed a little at the joke, her pact's bright personality finding a way to lighten her mood even when it was soured by those terrible memories. The problem was Faith was being completely serious at felt a little insulted by her laughter.

"Come on my little devil, we'll be late if we delay any further. If that happens Exodus knows how many complaints we'll have to deal with" Eshir said, pulling Faith along with her into the recently built spatial gate furthest from the door in the rather large room.

Faith found the design of this new spatial gate surprisingly different from the last one. That one looked old and was white in colour, while this one was blue like the rest in the room. Its runes were also clearly different and as Faith inspected them he came to a surprising conclusion.

'Luna is the familiar forest in a separate dimension?' Faith asked.

'Yeah familiars are a separate existence, after all, we can't exist in your world without a pact as an anchor' Luna replied, confirming Faith's theory on spatial gates and their colour.

Dragons could not use magic spells related to runes but they could understand runes that functioned on the basis of spells they had already created and understood themselves… like Faith and his Shadow space.

While that spell or rather ability was largely dependant on Faith himself being a shadow dragon he could still recognise the runes for creating a bridge between two separate dimensions. It seemed that while the familiar forest's spatial gate did so as well, normal spatial gates instead simply connected two separate points in space rather than dimensions.

While crossing through the spatial gate's surface that felt like breaking through the surface of water Faith wondered more about the magic and Runic theory, all the while noticing his mana reserves being almost emptied as he found himself in…. A wasteland.

"What the fuck" Faith spoke aloud, breaking his normal childish character in favour of this strange and rather ominous visage.

All around him was a wasteland littered with bodies, most of the soldiers looked like humans with a few exceptions of strange races Faith couldn't remember nor recognise. Some of them had been stabbed or slashed, all by a blade of some kind. But most had their bodies decayed and mutilated.

'Darkness magic… no shadow magic' Faith thought, recognising the effects and lingering scent of shadow magic that was tainted by a metallic smell. It reeked of piss and shit meaning these men clearly had died in fear, sending cold chills down Faith's spine.

"Luna, what do you think happened here?" Faith asked… and found no reply.

"Luna?" He asked again, searching for her through his soul space.

But he found nothing.

He looked around some more only to find a familiar blade resting in his hand, humming with a dangerous glint. It didn't have a drop of blood on it but Faith could literally feel the violence it had committed. A sword that would only listen and could only be used by him had done this. Shadow magic used to the extent Faith knew only he could achieve had done this.

But the telling sign was the smell in the air that accompanied all the others, one that he knew all too well. It smelled of violence, bloodshed and fear but mostly… it smelled of despair.

"I did this" Noah spoke aloud surprised by his own words as the realisation hit him, stumbling back in horror at it.

He fell onto another pile of bodies that laid to the side of him, making Noah reel back in horror. His hands dropped the blade that simply fell back into his Shadow space while Noah tried to flick off the blood that now drenched most of his arm.

"Oh… gre..at one. P-pleas-se spare us" A voice came from behind him.

Noah turned around and met eyes with a small, little girl. She was bloodied and bruised, missing a few fingers as well but her pleading and hopeful eyes. Those eyes that resembled so much someone he once knew and absolutely could not remember made Noah even more terrified.

"T-this… cant be real," Noah said as the girl vanished in front of his eyes, swallowed by a darkness that had festered out of nowhere.

"This can't be real" He shouted cradling his head as the bodies around him slowly started to vanish, being swallowed

'Faith?' A voice called but it too was drowned out by the darkness that had started to swallow him too.

"Please just leave me alone!!!" Noah shouted, begging the darkness to leave him alone.

"Faith!?" A voice shouted waking Faith up from his delusion as he found himself on a brilliant marble and stone floor, entwined with lines of silver and gold.

He could hear the sounds of people and party coming not far from him and Faith could even spot the lights of extravagant chandeliers hanging from the hallway. Faith found himself barely two feet outside the spatial gate, his mother standing beside him with a scared and worried look on her face. When he met her gaze he saw love, fear and worry.

He had no idea what just happened but seeing fear in his mother gaze scared him and made Faith feel a choking feeling in his chest. Ruby and amethyst just watched, ruby curious while amethyst was bored.

"Sorry, I'm fine" he replied, smiling at his mother.

Eshir's expression lighten up as she embraced her little devil. Not but a second after they'd gotten out of the Spatial gate Faith had collapsed, cradling his head in fear while mumbling to be left alone. She had to shake him more than once to pull him out of whatever delusion he'd been sucked in to.

But that wasn't what frightened her, nor made Eshir worried.

'I've seen that before… but I never thought nor wanted to see it in Faith' Eshir thought standing up to grabbing his hand as she guided him towards the party, noticing immediately that Faith grip instantly tighten as if he was holding on for dear life.

"It's alright sweetie" Eshir said caressing his head before guiding him down the hall with her.

The Royal knight captains all exuding Aura's of refined power followed behind, their white plumage contrasting well with their blacken armour. They hadn't seen it though, which didn't bring Eshir any comfort as she was sure that she was the only one to catch it.

When Faith had come back to his senses just for a second she had seen it. His eyes seemed to be filled a neigh endless despair, rage and hatred. Yet his smile was so genuine it scared her. It was a sign she'd seen amid harsh battle only a few times but not nearly to this extent.

A sign of contrasting character, polar opposite feeling at the same time.

The sign of absolute and unadulterated insanity.

It scared Eshir not because she was frightened of Faith but of what could have possibly happened to make him that way despite all she did to make sure he was safe. While they walked towards the gathering hall in this glorious marble gold and silver building, Eshir grip slowly squeezed back.

Now was not the time but after this, she would ask him directly. Eshir enjoyed knowing that she knew her son best and wanted things like this to be completely transparent between them.