Making a Statement

Aris started stirring a few hours later, the sun shining through the window and into his eyes. His head was pounding, flooded with everything that he had seen and heard yesterday.

'There's no way all that's real... The dragons, the mythical creatures... My amulet!' Aris felt around his chest, trying to feel for the amulet and feeling nothing. Aris heart started pounding, his blood rushing through his body the only sound he could hear.

'Relax, I'm still here,' a familiar voice sounded in his head. Aris continued looking around, trying to determine where the amulet was.

'You're not going to find me if you keep looking over there. Look closer to yourself.'

Aris, confused and picking himself up off the floor, walked in front of the mirror hanging on the wall. On the right side of his chest, stretching from his shoulder to just below his sternum, was a tattoo in the same shape of the amulet. Unable to believe what he was seeing he ran his fingers over it, trying to see if it rubbed off. When he took his fingers away there was no change, it was in fact now a part of him.

'I'm confused... What happened? You're the amulet from before?' his mind was flooded with questions, trying to decipher what exactly happened.

The amulet replied, sounding almost proud of itself. 'After looking through your memories and the feelings you felt while looking at the feats your ancestors accomplished, I decided you're worthy of being cultivated with my help.'

'What do you mean you'll help cultivate me? What, like so I'll be able to do what all those people did in what you showed me? I'll be able to slay dragons and monsters?' Aris was getting more excited with every passing moment, the thought of wielding that sort of power, the thought of being near invincible had him shaking with excitement.

'I'll explain later, for now you should get ready, Roland is on his way to fetch you.'

With that Aris quickly got dressed, looking at himself in the mirror. His brown hair now hung down to just above his eyes, the sides shorter than the rest. Looking at his eyes he noticed a few flecks of color had appeared among the brown. A few blemishes marked his face, drawing a sigh from him. 'I really wish those would just disappear already.'

'Really? That's what you're worrying about? Unbelievable.' The amulet sounded like it was irritated and suddenly the black tattoo glowed a faint blue, warmth spreading through Aris chest up towards his face.

What Aris saw he couldn't believe, as he watched every blemish disappear right before his eyes. He ran his hand over his face, feeling for any bumps, but to his surprise there was nothing. His skin in a matter of seconds had become perfectly smooth.

He didn't get long to look at the changes though because at that moment there was a knock on the door. Answering the door, he was greeted by the large frame of Roland who was waiting to guide him.

"Morning Aris. Lord Redmont is waiting for you in the dining hall." With that the large man spun around without waiting to see if Aris was following him.

Aris hurried down the hall after him doing his best to keep up with the knight's long strides. Along the walls of the hall were portraits of what he could only assume were the prior Lord Redmonts. Each of the portraits had a similar frame to the paintings downstairs but also had red gems inlaid all around.

Aris mind was wandering and thinking of everything that had happened over the past couple of days. The thing occupying most of his thoughts being the fact that he most likely wouldn't ever see his grandfather again.

Tears welled up, blurring his vision and threatening to fall. He hurriedly wiped them away before anyone could notice.

'I can't be weak here. I don't know anyone here or what they're after. Them taking me in still seems strange.'

After following Roland through the house for a few minutes they finally arrived in the dining hall. Lord Redmont was seated at the head of the table already eating.

"Come! Please! Have a seat!" A smile crossed his face that made Aris shiver. He waved towards the seat next to him.

Aris took the seat that he had waved towards, the hair on his neck standing up. The room itself felt like it had grown colder. Redmont stared at him, to Aris it felt like he was staring straight into his soul.

Redmont slowly placed his glass down on the table before turning to Aris. "I must say, I'm very intrigued about that amulet of yours. It's the first relic of an ancient family that I've ever seen in person. Tell me more about your grandfather and how you obtained it would you?"

Aris stared at Redmont, his brain scattered as he thought it over.

The amulet quickly spoke up in a manner I can only portray as him sweating... if an amulet could sweat... 'Aris don't give away anything. Something doesn't seem right. Give the bare minimum of details you can give and then if you can, check to see if he has a library or study you can read in. I want to check something.'

Aris took a drink of the water sitting before him and then gave a simple answer. "My grandfather raised me after my parents passed away in an accident when I was young. Before I came here I was with him in the hospital, he's been sick lately and was on his last breaths."

Redmont continued staring straight into Aris' soul, his fingers drumming away against the wooden table leaving visible marks. "And about the amulet?"

Aris just shook his head and shrugged. "I've honestly got no clue. My grandfather gave it to me and told me to keep hold of it. Then he shoved me through the vortex."

Redmont sighed hearing this and motioned to two guards standing in front of a twin door. At his motion they opened the door and a third guard led a man out who looked like he had been starved for weeks, his skin clinging to his bones. He was forced down to his knees with an audible thud, his teeth cracked against the table chipping one of them.

Redmont cracked his knuckles and approached the guard. He drew the sword from the guards sheath on his waist and pressing the sword against the neck of the kneeling man. The sword sharp enough that at the lightest touch against his skin it drew blood.

"I'll make this very simple for you. You see this man? He also had something I wanted but he decided to take a stand and deny me what I wanted. Tell me, what is it you think I want from you?"

"I-I'm guessing you want the amulet."

"You're an intuitive one, I'll give you that. You have 24 hours to decide whether you'll hand it over or not. Choose wisely." With that he snapped his fingers and Roland returned to the room, gripping Aris' shoulder with an iron grip and leading him back towards the exit.

"Oh and Aris one more thing," Lord Redmont called out. Roland forced Aris to turn around, his eyes returning back to Redmont and the man on the ground.

As soon as Aris had spun around Lord Redmont swung the sword, slicing through the man's neck with ease. A horrifying grin spread across the face of Redmont as he watched Aris helplessly dry heaving.

"Don't disappoint me."

Roland once again lead Aris back through the halls to the room he had been in on the second floor, tossing him inside and slamming the door shut.

Aris sat on the ground and shook uncontrollably. His eyes had taken on a glassy look and didn't hear the amulet inside his mind until about 10 minutes later.

'Breathe Aris, I'll get you through this. You have to do EXACTLY as I say or things will go poorly. Do you trust me?'

'Compared to the mad Dr Jekyll and his alter ego Hyde? I'd trust a starving hyena over these lunatics every day of the week.'

The amulet flooded Aris' mind with words, teaching Aris the first basic step of cultivating his mana. For the next 6 hours Aris sat on the floor of what had now become his prison cell, focusing on the air around him and feeling the density of the mana. The room he was in acted as a bit of a dampener but every time the door opened it would allow the mana from outside to flood in, giving Aris a bit of mana to absorb.

'Now that you've absorbed some mana you need to rest. Tonight is going to be long and hard, you'll need your strength and wits about you to make it through.'

After the morning Aris had had and the draining process of absorbing the limited amount of mana in the air he put his head down into the pillow, drifting off into a restless sleep, preparing for the night ahead.