The Darke King

The tingle in his sweaty palms should have been a warning to the young Commander as he passed through the throne room threshold, but when the Emperor calls for you, there is no refusing. “Did you believe that there was any secret that I wouldn’t know about, Daniel?”

While he stood before his master, Daniel’s black hair fell over his eyes as he closed them and tried to silence his mind, but there was little use. The sneer that curled on the decrepit old sorcerer’s face revealed he had learned of Daniel’s treachery. “I can gaze through your mind, young witch.”

With his rotting, wrinkled fingers bending again and again, the old man motioned for his guards to bring the prisoner forward. The falling sensation in his hands and feet warned Daniel that his mother entered the room, and he lifted his eyes to find her hands bound as she kneeled before the Emperor.

From beneath the shadow of his gray hood, the Emperor glared at his protégé. “What shall I do with a traitorous witch?” The old wizard raised his brow as a smile crossed his evil lips, and he raised his finger to his forehead. “I know.”

A glint of the knife he took from his belt sent a shiver of icy pain through Daniel’s chest as the Emperor snatched the wide-eyed woman by her hair and sliced through her neck.

The delicate white dress she wore was soon drenched in crimson as blood poured down over her body and the spark of life left her dark eyes. The entire world collapsed on Daniel’s shoulders and crushed the once cruel man into nothing.

Her lifeless body slammed to the cold floor, and her blood splashed across the room and sprayed across the young man’s face.

The wicked giggle wiggled its way through Daniel’s devastation, and his eyes rose to meet the old man’s. “Did you really believe that I wouldn’t find her? Stupid, arrogant fool. Well, you were wrong, and now you will suffer for that egoism. Young one, you will bow to me and declare your undying allegiance, or you will suffer the same fate as this garbage at my feet.”

“I’ll fucking destroy you!” Daniel’s black boots beat against the slick marble floor until the Emperor raised his hand and froze him in place with his invisible grip.

The halted clicks and chokes of amusement gurgled in the villain’s nose. With a flick of his wrist, he flung Daniel across the room and sprung down from his throne. Pushing his cloak off his shoulders as he rushed to his apprentice, the Emperor held out his hand and stole the air from Daniel’s lungs.

Without even enough air to curse his murderer, Daniel clenched his teeth and stared him in the eyes until he crashed to the floor with the laughs of his master echoing around the sterile room. The ageless monster circled him and clasped his hands behind his back as he laid out his plan. “Now, I will reign down an era of torture upon you like this world has never seen before. By the time I am through, nothing will remain. You will disappear, and no one will even remember you existed. You were nothing when you came to me, and you will leave me as nothing.”

His trembling hands pushed against the cold floor as Daniel came to stand in defiance of the Emperor’s desire to listen to him grovel. “You can kill me, I don’t care anymore, but I won’t die on my knees.”

The wrinkly thin cheek under his eyes lifted as a smirk came to the old man’s lips while he imagined all the pain he would inflict on the boy. “As you wish.”

While the Emperor decided on his next move, a whiff of something beautiful swept across Daniel’s face, and his heart raced with a shot of life. A glowing form stepped from behind the monster and glided towards the doomed witch.

Her scarlet hair fell over her shoulder, and her icy blue eyes pierced through her brilliantly illuminated aura. She paused as she came to Daniel’s side, and the light drifted away, revealing her face. Her fingers wove together in front of her chest, and he could feel her fear in his gut. “Please save us, Daniel.”

His ears thumped with the pulsing blood through his veins as he reached out for her, only to slip through the illusion. While the last faint notes of her sweet voice left his ears, goosebumps rose on his arms, and his eyes snapped up to the Emperor. “I’m coming, my love."

With a new purpose filling the young man’s heart, Daniel felt a spark of ancient magic rising within him.

He looked over the old warlock before him as the side of his mouth curled and his hair lifted from his shoulders. Out of the palms of his hands, a blue glow rose from his pores and rushed over his body, inch by inch.

The hundred wicked whispers in his ears took control, and his arm flinched from his side then drifted upwards. The Emperor tried to break through the flames encompassing Daniel’s body, but not even the old warlock could stop the unworldly ancient creatures that favored Daniel at that moment.

When his finger came to his lips, a blackness crossed Daniel’s eyes as he shook his head, and the evil command fell from his tongue. “Shh!”

The fiery spirits flowed from Daniel’s mouth and engulfed the old wizard in their scalding embrace. He stood over the pile of burning flesh and bone and watched it until it smoldered down to ashes, then spat on the sad remains as his pointy teeth peeked through his smile. “I don’t bow down to any fucking body; I’m the Master of the Flames.”

His eyes fell to his mother as he shook off the beast inside him and blinked around at his destruction. The dream-like recollection of the past few moments passed before his eyes, and he raised his hands to his face as the long-forgotten feeling of amusement huffed from his chest. “What the fuck is happening?”

Even though she was the only person who ever gave him a second thought, he couldn’t shed a tear for the woman who gave birth to him. He crouched down and slid his hands beneath her body, then tugged her into his chest with a grit of his teeth. Not a soul dared question the man as the awe-struck soldiers parted, and he carried his mother out the gates of the fortress.

He entered the dead forest and dodged the brittle thorny branches that slapped and ripped at him. When the old remnants of life thinned into a clearing, he laid his mother on the rocky ground and kneeled beside her. His fingers grazed her icy hand, and he swallowed down all his regrets. “You were a wonderful mother; I wish I had been a better son.” His hand closed around hers, and he brought it to his lips, then placed it back across her chest and stood at her feet. “Goodbye, mother.”

When the prickly tickle rose from his skin and the tiny bumps spread through his body, Daniel brought his palms before his eyes. The blue flame ignited as the soft crunches of feet against the dead forest floor came to his ears.

With a shudder through his whole body, he glanced to his right in time to see the vision’s fingers drag across the charred bushes.

The once black stems sprouted new buds, and the ugly darkness that covered them was again lush with green life.

Like lightning flashing across the midnight sky, her light rushed his nerves when her fingertips grazed his arm, and the blackness retook his eyes. The hushed voices in his mind gave their directives, and as Daniel looked over his mother, he brought his finger to press his lips. “Shh!”

A brilliant flash of light swept across the woods, and when it cleared, the only thing that remained was the man dressed in black and the reignited army of demons that dwelled inside him.

On his hands and knees, high-pitched wheezes squeezed from Daniel’s body, and the tiny muscles between his ribs clenched his chest while his dirty lungs worked to catch his breath again.

When the whispers receded into his chest, the crunchy snaps of the dried grass breaking caught his attention, and he noticed the small, bare feet from the corner of his eye. Every step she took left a trail of fresh green grass and cooled the Firestarter’s spirit.

His eyes rose to meet the red-haired woman, and she bent her fingers as her head tilted away. “Come home, Daniel. We’re waiting for you.” The sweet, soft fragrance she left behind in her wake made him close his eyes and rub the space in his chest where it lived now.

The little smoldering pebbles that remained on the forest floor dug into his palms as he lifted himself from the ground. Like a puppet on a string, his wobbly legs stumbled after her. “Wait! Who are you? I know you, don’t I?”

She passed through the dead woods, and everything she touched sprung back to life until it gradually faded into a lush and vibrant forest.

The only world Daniel ever knew was dead, and when the colors of the wild things came to his eyes, it burned them with their intensity. Wiping his watery eyes with his sleeve, he almost lost track of the specter as she gave birth to everything beautiful with her healing hands. Little chirps and buzzes of the long-ago extinct birds and insects crawling around in the trees vibrated his ears, and the soft grass bent beneath his feet. “Is this real?”

The clean air that now fed his body sent a sharp bolt of electricity through his chest that followed the blood pumping into his veins until every cell pulsed with energy. “You’re doing this, aren’t you?”

The smog-filled sky hadn’t allowed the sun to grace the Earth for at least a century, and it now touched his pale face for the first time in his life. It sent a shiver through his entire body, and a sneeze shot from his nose so powerful that it took his vision for a moment. He closed his dark brown eyes to the warmth of the bright orb above, and goosebumps sprung up all over. His messy hair blew in the fresh breeze that swirled around him and tickled his slightly prominent ears.

“What’s your name?” When he opened his eyes, the scorched remains of the woods surrounded him again, and he shook his head as he turned and searched for her. “No! No, don’t leave me behind. Please!”

His heart raced as he brought his hands to his face, and he could still smell the relics of the clean world on his skin. The vibration in his ears gradually gave way to the whispers again, and when the blackness overcame him, he called out the words they murmured to him. “Gabh liom ó thuaidh.”

The words spilled off his tongue, and a glowing portal appeared before Daniel. It warped the space around it and moved like water in a pool as it danced on the air and bent the light. The gateway rippled, and Daniel’s whole body hummed as it reached out to him.

A tingle in his fingers drew his hand closer to the portal as it wiggled its way to him. When the forces collided, it swallowed Daniel whole, and the gateway instantly sealed behind him.

The hateful voices that circled him in their hot arms were a whirlwind of whooshes and screams that crushed him and sucked the air from his lungs until the only thing left was his own heartbeat and darkness.

On the other side of space and time, the ancient gate guardians built up around him piece by piece as the entire world came back into order. His trembling knees gave way as he reached out to the statue to ground him. The cold stone underneath his palm sent a shock through his fingers and a vision through his mind. “I know this place.”

His black boots scuffed across the cobblestone path and the mists of the waterfalls splashed across his face. He lifted his eyes to find the little homes built into the cliffs, and just over the hillside sat the blue sea. The warm setting sun peeked over the water, casting long shadows against the ground until it eventually disappeared over the horizon in a pink and orange spectacle.

It was like a dream he couldn’t place, and Daniel wiggled his fingers and pointed to his right. “This way. You’re this way.” Every step he took felt right and more familiar until he came to the Great Hall.

From the long stone staircase on the other side came a man in green and gold long robes with long black hair and a braided headpiece encircling his forehead. “Welcome, my son. I am Nicholas, Lord of the North Woods. I’m glad that chose us.”

Daniel tipped his head to the ancient sorcerer. “Thank you, Sir, but where exactly am I? I…I know I’ve been here before, but I can’t seem to remember.”

Blue eyes that Daniel recognized from his visions darted around the lands as a warm smile came to the old man’s face. “This is the Realm, child. You are home.”

The fresh smell of crisp Autumn air blew through the open windows while Daniel walked beside Nicholas and his eyes examined the murals and statues that lined the main building’s halls. “Why did you bring me here? How did you know where to find me?”

Nicholas motioned to the distant hall past the library with his hand and an amused smirk curled up on the old warlock’s mouth. “I didn’t bring you here. Even the wisest among us cannot travel through time as you have; you did that all by yourself.”

His eyes scanned each room and hall they came to, and a sinking sensation rose from his gut. “Where’s the woman? The one with red hair. She’s the one who showed me the way here; I think she’s in trouble.”

Before a rounded wooden door, Nicholas stopped sighed through his nose. “She will be along in time.” His skinny finger rose between them, and his pointy black brow arched. “Now, while you’re here, you will train in the old ways. You will learn how to fight as we do, to live as we do. We are a community, Daniel, everyone does their part, and you will serve in the city’s defenses to earn your keep, for now.”

Daniel nodded in regard to the ancient man and dropped his eyes to the floor. “I understand. It would be my honor to learn under you.”

When Nicholas opened the door to his new home, Daniel ducked his head and stepped inside. An uncomfortable huff of a laugh sprang from his chest when he saw the bed with fluffy pillows in the corner near the balcony. “I don’t understand why I’m here. Not that I’m not grateful, but what did I do to deserve this?”

The old wizard’s arms wove together across his chest, and he shrugged a shoulder. “This is your Fate, Daniel. Some things are meant to be.” With a pat of his hand against Daniel’s back, Nicholas nodded to the door.“ Dinner is at sundown, which, by the way, is now. Clean yourself up and come back to the hall where you entered. You will hear us.”

Nicholas pulled the door shut behind him, and Daniel rolled his eyes as he looked over the faded old murals that lined his new home. “My Fate. Right.”

His hand slid across the soft blanket, and he thought of the smooth curve of her cheek. An ache rushed through his fingertips and made him ball his fist. “Where are you?”