For my friend

It all started a long time ago on a cloudy day. I walked to a town searching for a dangerous woman from the lizard folk. That clan knew how to cast spells by using blood in a special kind of way. They could just look at somebody and bend the blood of the person they were looking at. They were dangerous people, but not all of them were evil. One of them built a country in the desert and used their power only to protect their people. That lineage became a respectable power by itself. But this isn't relevant to this story.

But this one I was looking for wasn't one of the good kind. The one I was looking for was using random people to their amusement, whenever they pleased. She would often cast a curse to someone's blood and when the time was right, the curse killed the target in various ways. Blood would stop moving, blood would start to go in the opposite direction and blood would form tiny blades inside the body. Worst was when the body of the cursed person died, the curse would be transferred to other people around them via the magic emanating from the corpse. The curse would dissipate over time, but often not fast enough.

She would put one of her curses to a random villager and let the curse destroy an entire village. She would do these experiments as she pleases. She would watch an entire town be turned into chaos and later to a ghost town in less than a week. She would be overjoyed, when the curse would travel to another town or a village. Transfering from person to person like it was a disease.

The tracks have led me to this town specialized in mercantile. I stumbled upon an inn to ask questions about anything fishy. All I get is general problems every town has. Magical beings wondering about and thieves. Until I saw this person sitting alone at the table, drinking something. My intuition told me this person can lead me to my target and I sat with that person and ordered a drink for both of us.

The person didn't seem to be bothered about me ordering a drink for him and sat silent. When the drinks got to the table, I decided to ask him about anything going on in the town. The person sat in silence for a while and then said.

- I don't plan to drink alcohol today.

I told him that it was a shame.

- I don't know if anything is going on in this town, but I'm hired to escort a merchant to another town today. I'm only here to catch a breath before we are sent off.

I asked him if he lived in this town and he answered.

- I do happen to live here for now, but due to me having no other job than being a hired mercenary I don't tend to get to stay here enough to know the place. So if you are asking for a guide or something, I am not someone you can rely on in this town.

I asked him about where the merchant was heading and once he told me where, I told him that is where I was headed, so that I could tag along with him for a while. My sight was on to this guy for some reason and I wanted to know exactly what was his deal. I asked him if I could accompany him and the merchant and with some talking, he agreed to let me join them.

I finished the two drinks I ordered earlier and we headed out to meet this merchant. When meeting the merchant I saw nothing special about him and his company so I just played along and had some business in the next town over. The merchant seemed quite skeptical about having someone random to accompany him out of nowhere, but I managed somehow to cool off his suspicions. And then we headed out.

The first day was peaceful and I got to know the guy quite well during this trip. I came to know his life's hardships and how he had lived his life until now. I also told him about my life and it's hardships to even the score.

The second day we encountered some bandits, but due to him and me being there, there were no problems. First couple of bandits I let him deal with himself to see how well he does in the fight. He seemed to use both sword and magic to defeat them. When I was satisfied, I decided to finish the rest of the bandits together with him. He was a bit annoyed at me for not doing anything about them in the first half. But when I convinced him that I was on watch for anyone behind us or anyone who might get past him, he calmed down and apologized.

After the situation calmed down, I saw a grim look on his face. I asked him what's wrong and he told me that he simply feels odd when he has to kill people. I told him that he should worry too much and asked if he had killed anyone else before. The silence was my answer. We then started to move forward with the cargo. The rest of the day was silent.

The third day when we were taking a break I saw a little girl walking around. She wasn't one of us that we were introduced to so I was on guard and asked her who she was and what she was doing here. Immediately she was surprised and started running towards the group. I didn't see a point in capturing such a small girl, until I noticed that she was of the lizard folk with crimson red eyes and my mind started to wander. Before I knew it she was yelling for her father that appeared shortly after her yelling. It was the merchant.

I asked him why I was not informed about another person coming with us. Then he said,

- I couldn't trust you. I couldn't trust anyone to know. She must be protected.

It appeared that the main reason for our trip was to move her to the town we were headed. I asked if this was true and he said.

- We had to stay quiet about this. We had to get her as far away as possible from her mother. She is too dangerous.

I inquired about the details and it came more abundantly clear that the mother was the person I was searching for. The details they told me made them look like they were living in a realm of a demon prince. When I realized the gravity of the situation I asked them.

- Do you have any idea how meaningless it is to take her away from her mother? There is no way that the mother hadn't put some tracking spell on her child. I'm sure that when she noticed that her child was being taken away from her, she would make sure to travel to the ends of the earth to find her child.

Upon saying this, the merchant's eyes became devoid of life and said,

- What have I done.

I told them that it was only a matter of time before she would catch up with us and we should be ready. When the merchant asked me "ready for what?", I simply said that "we are going to end this. Once and for all".

We decided to wait at our current spot for the mother to come. We were setting an ambush. Due to her abilities, no normal person could escape her vision. But thanks to my ability to become unnoticeable, I could get past her defenses. This of course would mean I would need my friend here to akt as an opposing force to lower the mother's guard. This was a dangerous gamble for him, but he decided to take it anyway. He told us.

- If my life is the cost of improving these people's lives, it is worth it. I don't want to see an innocent child's life be turned into pure anguish.

I don't completely agree with his mindset, but I thank him for taking the risk. Then we started waiting.

It took a couple of hours until I sensed someone sinister coming our way, so I notified the others and I separated from the group.

Soon after, I saw her. She was approaching them with a face of an unpleasant kindness. Then she started to speak.

- My, my. There you are. I was worried sick when I noticed you were getting farther away from me. But it is okay. I'm here now. And now that I'm here, we can be family again. Right dear?

The look of both the merchant and the child was as grim as it gets. But then my friend pointed his sword at the mother and immediately he started spewing blood from his mouth and fell to the ground.

- Don't you dare to get in the way of a family's beautiful reunion! Now where was I. Oh yes. Aren't you happy that we are together now again dear?

The voice of the merchant was trembling as he said.

- O... of course my... my love. Sorry we surprised you.

Then the mother spoke coldly.

- Let me just make sure this person, who tried to get in between us, is disposed of properly.

When the mother started to do her spell, I decided to strike. Simply stabbing her heart won't do the trick. Her healing power is too great for her to die from it. I needed to cut her head with my spear.

With a blink of an eye I strike and the head starts falling to the ground. I waited for a while to make sure she died. Then I saw the face that was left on her face. The look she had was of utter disbelief. When I didn't sense her presence anymore, I looked at the faces of the merchant and the child. They also were in disbelief of what just happened. Then the merchant started crying.

- Is... is it finally over? Can I finally live in peace?

Then I realized that my friend was still dying in front of me. He started to stand up again in pain. I realized that it was possible that the mother planted a lingering spell on him, so I asked the child if she could detect anything from him. It was a long shot. I didn't know if she had any grasp of her abilities. After a short pause she told us.

- There is some kind of power lingering inside the mercenary's body, that is similar to mother's magic. Is it bad?

I realized what needs to be done. If we healed him, then the spell would get transferred to multiple hosts and it starts another disaster. I had no other choice but to kill him right then and there. I was informed about the likelihood of this and then my friend said.

- Do it. It is better to make sure. I was prepared for this when I signed the contract. As well as when I felt her power. It shall end with me.

I looked at him with sorrowful eyes and told him.

- May your soul be transcended to a place worthy of your sacrifice.

Then I stab him in the heart with my spear and then I take my spear out of his chest. He falled down instantly and his final words were.

- I had an interesting life.

With a final smile on his face, he passed on. A moment of silence.

I vowed that I would never forget him.

Never.