Chapter 11

"And just like that, your mom and dad left the mage life behind and decided to move to this city where they raised both of you." Alexander concluded.

The brothers lay there in silence from the story they just heard, still trying to process everything.

"This doesn't all make any sense." John was the first to speak. Alexander recoiled back into the chair with a smirk as though he had already expected the denial.

"Magic isn't real, I should know, I'm a magician." John continued.

"But not a mage." Alexander countered with a pompous look.

"Mage, Magician, same thing we both use optical illusions to fool people into thinking stuff." John continued then he had a serious face on.

"Don't tell me you're just a comedian the hospital hired to cheer my brother and I up cus our parent's deaths isn't something to joke about." John snapped at Alexander.

"If I'm a comedian, how do I know their names?" Alexander countered again.

"It's boldly written on their graves."

"All that snooping around to tell one joke?" Alexander raised an eyebrow which made John realize how stupid it sounded. Alexander then got up and looked out the door to see if anyone was approaching, then he shut the window blinds, all to the curiosity of John. He waved his hands in the air and little manifestations of phoenixes appeared which amused John who then looked at Will whom all this while wasn't all too impressed.

"Bro, are you seeing this?" John asked with glee.

"So, the greatest mages in the world were killed by a mere fire?" Will asked with a disappointing look. The question shocked both Alexander and John for different reasons; Alexander because he didn't expect Will to demean the image of his parents so easily and John because Will took the phoenixes so casually.

"What do you mean?" John questioned his brother.

"I mean that mom and dad were so powerful but they got killed by a fire that YOU started." He snapped at John.

"Hey! Don't be like that." Alexander tried to pacify Will.

"Don't be like what? You claim to be their close friend especially to mom but I didn't see you come rescue them the day they died." Will shouted at Alexander who carried a look of utter disappointment.

"You can't just waltz in here, telling us stories that our parents had different lives in the past involving magic if it's only a stupid trick that killed them in the end!" Will was almost getting teary eyed.

"I didn't know where they had been all these years, they covered up their auras so they couldn't be traced…" Alexander tried to explain.

"I don't need any excuses." Will snapped at Alexander.

"Yo, you need to calm down, we've already been over this." John tried talking calmly to Will.

"I'm sure all this amuses you, cus all you've always loved was magic." Will said with a scorn on his face.

"But you loved it too and that's why you followed me to work at Dave's." John replied.

"I HATE MAGIC!" Will yelled. There was a brief silence in the room as Alexander and John both sat in shock.

"I've hated it since the day mom and dad died but somehow it always finds a way to get back to me." He continued.

"It was with me as a kid cus you loved it, after they died you took it up as a night job to feed both of us and now here we are with another magician in front of us, another reminder of how pathetic everything about our parent's death really is." Will said as he sniffled and then cleaned his face with the bed covers.

Alexander stared at the floor after hearing what Will had to say. John sat cross-armed on his bed also trying to process all the things his brother had laid out.

Alexander then got up from where he sat and walked to the space in between the brother's beds. He then turned and looked at Will who was looking outside the window so as to avoid eye contact with either of them.

"Look, I loved your mom and respected you dad. If I could turn back time I wouldn't have let them leave the mage life behind but they had bigger dreams for the both of you, a life without having to experience the violence which I did as a kid, which they did." He said also getting teary eyed.

"That's why I am here, to take care of the legacy your parents left behind in both of you and to investigate why the greatest mages of their time were killed so easily." He said as he looked to John who apparently agreed with what Alexander had to say.

"Please, John, Will, there's a lot we need to discuss, a lot is hanging on the balance and the world as we know it is at stake." Alexander placed both his hands on the brother's beds.

"Help us." He concluded. Will didn't flinch but John looked at Alexander and then at his brother before nodding in agreement. Alexander let out a brief sigh before wiping his eyes clean of tears.

"Ok, so I will be here when it's time for both of you to be discharged so that I can take you to the mansion." He said.

"You guys have a mansion?" John asked to which Alexander nodded and then smiled.

"See you guys later." Were Alexanders words before he exited. John then looked at Will again who was still looking out the window, so he decided to relax his eyes.

***

"King Helgart's offspring is showing a lot of promise." A ghoul guard spoke to another in front of a room which was manned by him and a fellow guard

"True, he has to, he's going to be the vessel for HIM when the time comes." The second ghoul guard replied.

"Not only that, but after he attains the powers, he's also going to be the ghoul king."

"I thought that was already established."

"But I thought the strongest ghoul in the realm would be the one to rule as per the preference of the king?"

"After the boy attains the power he is preparing for, do you think another will be able to oppose him?"

"You've got a point"

"And you both need to focus on your duties and keep such petty talk out of your mouths." A young voice spoke behind them, it was that of Helgart's offspring.

"Oh, my liege, we did not hear you open the doors." The first guard said as they both dropped to a knee.

"You both really never hear anything if you keep gossiping like that." The young boy said. He has already morphed into a teenage look in a matter of days, his chest had formed up a bit and some abdominal muscles peaked out his net tank top.

"I'm off to my father's quarters, I need to ask him some questions." The boy said as he left toward his father's room. The guards insisted they followed but he ordered them not to. In fact, he wasn't entirely going to see his father, he actually wanted to go and watch the TV in his chambers. For weeks, the boy had been gaining knowledge of the outside world in secret from the device. He was intrigued by the way the humans lived and how it was so different from how the ghouls operated.

As he walked passed a hall which was close to his father's room, he caught a glimpse of Lady Koraq looking at the red sun of the dark sky. She often loved to bask in its rays as though it gave her some sort of power. The boy quietly sneaked into his father's room and as he expected, his father was not around rather he was in the central of the city probably sampling lady ghouls he would bring home.

The boy shut the door behind him and turned on the TV to a nature channel which he loved watching which showed the different animals he had never seen before. He brought out a pen and paper and wrote down the names of any animal he saw. Today was about the blue scorpion. He watched on as the voice over explained how the female blue scorpion would lure the male into its chambers and would have sex with the male after which it would devour the male. All this information intrigues him and he then wrote down the name of the animal he just witnessed.

"I reckon all female species should be like that." A feminine voice startled the young boy who tried to hide the pen and paper but dropped them in doing so.

"Do not be afraid little one, it is only I." Lady Koraq said as she locked the door behind her.

"Uhm, Lady Koraq, I had seen you down at the courtyard but did not wish to disturb you." He tried to explain. Lady Koraq then came closer to him till she was only a foot away, staring at him in the face which made him uncomfortable.

"My, My, you have really grown." She said as she took the remote and turned off the TV.

"You do know your father will be very disappointed if he knew you were here snooping on that thing instead of training." She said as she walked toward a window and sat on it.

"Well, he doesn't know and I hope to keep it that way." The boy said with a stern look at Lady Koraq.

"I will refrain from telling him if you can tell me two things, first, what is it you gain from the shows you watch." She said with a calm smirk.

The boy was hesitant to speak for he didn't still quite trust Lady Koraq or anyone in the ghouls' realm. Lady Koraq then understood what was going on in his mind and even instantly knew why he watched them.

"You are confused as to why your life is like this in contrast to the life of children you see in the TV?" She asked to which the boy gave a slow nod.

She then let out a little giggle, one which the boy or anyone in the realm hardly ever sees her do.

"Your father, the ghoul king, as dim witted as he appears to be… was the witness to something pivotal to this realm that happened over ten years ago." She began as she stood up and sat on the table beside the bed and beckoned him to come closer which he did.

"Your father was the last-born son of the ghoul king before him. He was steady fastened to his training like you were though his elder siblings were already pushed into battle. They fought back the mages which terrorized our existence with a show of power they had come to possess. The last war they fought was a tough one, even the strongest of the ghoul warriors, Xorgon was killed by two twisted mages who showed no mercy to anyone they had faced. At the heated point of the war, a power was bestowed upon the ghoul king at the center of the ghoul realm, a power so great it tore through time, space and reality." Lady Koraq paused at the site of shock which the boy had on his face, this made lady Koraq give a smirk of confidence.

"Your grandfather, the ghoul king of then, led his army with this great power into the battle against the twisted mages, while we watched from the portion of the realm which had been torn off. Your father, Helgart believed so deeply in the power of the ghoul king he was bold enough to step through the rift to witness what he thought was imminent victory."

"So, did my grandfather, the ghoul king… Did he win?" The boy asked with glee but Lady Koraq responded with a sigh.

"Sadly, the Human mages proved too monstrous, employing forbidden magical techniques to seal away your grandfather and the power was dispersed, never to be seen again." Lady Koraq said with a look of sadness which disappointed the boy.

"But, your father came back to our realm and used his ethereal powers to try to come in contact with the power once more and even though he hasn't had a meeting with the power he has a sense of when the power will return. Now he wants to learn from his father's mistake not to harness the power in a vessel that isn't fit for battle but to place the power in a body which has been trained in the ways of combat, a young body, your body." She concluded while looking at the boy who felt the weight of importance he had on his body.

"So, I am to be the next vessel for such power?" he asked as he looked at his hands.

"Not only that, you are to become the strongest ghoul king this realm has ever witnessed, the one to eradicate all of the twisted human mages of this world." She said with a smile. She then looked at the TV and then again at the boy.

"Do you want to go into the human realm to see for yourself everything that you witness on the TV?" she asked. This made the boy's face light up with joy, an opportunity to be feel the world which he saw on TV.

"Yes, I would but, father would oppose." He said.

"Not to worry, I have a way with Helgart." She said with another smirk.

"Thank you Lady Koraq!" the boy said bowing his head.

"Do not thank me just yet, just promise me one thing." The boy looked on with a curious face.

"Do not forget your purpose." She said before he beckoned him to leave the room before his father came. He made his was for the door but stopped to ask.

"What about the second thing you wanted to ask?" he reminded her.

"Well, that will be spoken about in due time." She said as she gave him a smile and he exited the room.

She then got up from the table and put on a straight face.

"You can come out now." She said and from behind the table, a smiling Helgart materialized from thin air.

"You are a genius Lady Koraq." He said as he tried to hug her but she pushed him back.

"I told you I know how to keep him in check, all I needed to do was win his fragile trust." She said.

"Now all we need to prepare for, is the next phase of our plans."