THREE WEEKS AGO
The four looked at me as if I was mad. "What do you mean?" Was all Litton could ask.
"I met him. But that man was not Master Garduin. Not anymore at least." I spoke again. My heart began to calm down. These people, here, in front of me at least, are the ones I remember.
Nane stood from her chair. "What makes you say that?" She tried to ask gently.
I had to think for a moment. Although I was sure, without a doubt, the person claiming to be my Master, Garduin, was not, in fact, him, I hadn't thought of a reason. If I had to think of one though. His eyes. They were not his. They showed something. Something evil.
"He had black eyes," I muttered. "Master Garduin does not have black eyes. His eyes are blue."
They looked at me with disbelief. Such a minuscule difference couldn't possibly be enough to warrant suspicion, could it? What if I got it wrong and he had black eyes all along? No. I don't think I got it wrong.
Litton walked closer to me and knelt before me. He placed a hand on my lap, "Ela, I need you to be more specific. Tell me what happened, in detail," He asked gently, "Please."
I began to recount the incident. It wasn't, of course, just the black eyes that seemed odd. He acted differently. Indifferently to be precise. Master Garduin, was my instructor, and my mentor. He taught me how to become a powerful enchantress, who could also stand side to side with my peers. I respect him for this. My family and I were never very close. Being the only daughter of a wealthy merchant family, they never accepted my aspirations to graduate from the academy. But Master Garduin was different, he always accepted me for who I was, and pushed me to reach my goals.
This is why I know for a fact, that was not my master. Not anymore at least.
When I arrived outside the town hall, I was excited, to say the least. I walked up to the steps and knocked a few times. It was rude to enter without an invitation, even though it was a public place. After a moment, an attendant came to the door.
"Ela? What can I do for you today?" She asked while positioning herself between me and the doorway. Something about her seemed off, but I didn't think much of it.
"My master," I spoke. "Could you take me to him please?"
She looked me up and down. "I'm sorry but I do not know what you're talking about. There is no master currently in our care."
I didn't believe that for a moment. Without hesitating, I pulled a seal from out of my coat pocket and showed it to her. The Elderdusk family sigil, stamped on a small white rectangular card, with gold and blue linings. The identification of an apprentice.
Even though we were still in schooling, we had special privileges in the village. This fell in with those special privileges.
The attendant looked at the card in my hand. "Of course. Right this way"
She held open the large wooden door of the town hall, and I slipped in. Shortly after, I heard the door slam shut behind me.
"His condition is... Unstable, at the moment." She said as I followed her into a back hallway.
"What do you mean 'unstable'?" I asked. We passed by various paintings hung on the walls of the hallways depicting the past and present elders and chief. I noticed Litton's mother and father on some of the paintings.
"Well..." She stood next to the door to his room. It was labelled with his name on it. "It would be easier to show you than to describe it... Although I still don't think it's wise for you to see his current state right now."
She pushed open the door and held it for me as I walked in. The room was large. It had an open window nestled in the back wall. The window blinds waved with the wind. To my right, was a large bed that took up most of the wall, with a small nightstand resting next to it. On the other side of the room, to my right, was a large bookcase that spread throughout the wall, with a variety of history books categorized numerically by year.
In front of the bookcase was my master. His slender image which betrayed his strong name in all its glory. He was reading a book, on shadow magic. I recognized it. It was the first grimoire I ever studied, as well as the last. I didn't realize the town hall had a second copy of it. Usually, there are very few. Shadow magic, was completely controlled by my family. Anyone who knows shadow magic knows it through the Elderdusk family.
Perhaps I should've told my father that there was another copy. I wonder how he would've reacted.
The master turned to us as the door opened, and saw me standing in the doorway.
Black patches of skin scattered all across his face. "Who is this?" He said, glancing between me and the attendant.
She sighed, as she looked downwards at me, and then back to him. "Do you not recognize her?"
He stared at me for a while, his black eyes, completely different from the brown I remember, seemed to swirl and change ever so slightly. It was nauseating to look directly into them. He scanned me quickly and then resumed reading the grimoire in his hands like I was nothing more than a passing stranger. "I do not."
I walked forwards slowly, into the room and stood next to the bed. I placed a hand on the frame of the bed and rested it there. "Master Garduin... Do you really not remember me?" I asked.
He looked up from the grimoire again and turned to me. He scanned me indifferently. "Who are you?" He asked. He placed a hand over his heart. His breathing increased, and he looked ragged. Why does this vessel react so strongly to you? Within a moment, he lost consciousness and his body fell to the floor like a rag and began to shake violently. The black spots disappearing and reappearing all over his body repeatedly.
I started to panic, and the attendant at the door quickly rushed into the room. She began to shake his body. "Makroth! Master Garduin! Are you there?"
"Makroth?" I questioned. "Who the fuck is Makroth?"
I was beginning to let my emotions spill. I kneeled beside Master Garduins shaking body and placed a hand on his chest. Tears began to spill from my eyes.
"Makroth is what he told us to call him. When he returned." The attendant said while trying to stop his shaking.
She quickly stood up and ran towards a nearby shelf, which had an assortment of leaves, herbs, and flowers on it. She grabbed a glass jar of a pasty looking blue mixture. I recognized it, thanks to a colleague of mine, it was a sedative, used by rubbing the paste on the person's forehead.
She brought the jar and a small, flat, wooden stick which she then used to rub the paste evenly on the forehead of Master Garduin. Within moments, the shaking stopped.
She was about to stand up when Master Garduin's eyes shot open, his hand immediately reached out and grabbed my wrist. I shrieked out in fear, but immediately that was replaced, with security. I looked into his eyes and recognized my Master's deep blue eyes. Nobody said anything, and nobody moved, but I could feel tears welling.
"Ela." He said at last.
I couldn't stop the tears coming out of my eyes. "I was so scared" I cried. "I thought I was going to lose you."
He pulled me in for a hug, but quickly pulled back. "Listen to me Ela, there isn't much time."
I shook my head in affirmation, and I tried to hold back my tears, but I couldn't.
"The other masters, are badly wounded. They likely won't make it back home if adequate help isn't delivered to them soon." He began.
"Then-" I was about to reply before he cut me off.
He grabbed my head and levelled my eyes to his. "You cannot leave the village. It is not safe." I had never seen him so serious. It was scary. "None of you can leave the village. We did everything that we could." He paused. "Myself included. I made a deal with an entity you never make deals with. This is the price." He said while motioning to himself.
"What happened out there?" I asked in a panic.
But he just waved off the question. "Ela that's not what's important here! Promise me that you-"
He went unconscious again.
"Master Garduin? Master Garduin!" I called out.
His eyes opened again, shortly after. But they were not the familiar blue eyes from before. Those were instead replaced with the twisting, spiralling black eyes. "Makroth..." I whispered.
He looked toward me and stood up properly. I stood up to match him.
"Ah... The apprentice." Was all he said, but his eyes seemed as if they were mulling something over. They kept darting between me and the grimoire which was now laid on the floor. "What was your name again?"
I was frightened by him. His face was that of my master's, but the person I was speaking to, was definitely not him. It was terrifying, the atmosphere around him seemed completely different. "E...Ela..." I said after a moment.
"Your full name, miss." He said without hesitating. The air began to tighten in my throat. It was as if he was projecting his own will across the room like a demand. I couldn't say no to it, as badly as I wanted to.
"E...Ela... Elder...dusk..." I said, terrified.
"Elderdusk... Elderdusk..." he whispered the name to himself. "Thank you, Ela. This has been quite... informative."
He walked beside me, and picked up the grimoire he had previously dropped, when my Master took control again, and then began to read it again as if we didn't even exist. The air became calm moments after, I could breathe normally again.
He bit his nails as if he was worried over something, and then he smiled sinisterly, turning the page within the grimoire.
I locked eyes with the attendant, who was too scared to even move right now and darted out of the room. She tried to run after me to make sure I was alright but quit after only a moment.
I was scared. Terrified in fact. I felt so powerless. The way he repeated my family name made me sick. I ran, out of the town hall, and didn't stop running. My heart was racing, and all I could think about was making sure that Master Garduin was okay. But how could I? How could I do anything against that monster? Just being in the same room as him was suffocating.
I ran through the makeshift tunnels of snow and ice, passing by many onlookers, down until I found a road leading to a lonely residence on the eastern side of the village.
I passed by Elder Graham, who tried to stop me. "They're waiting for you." He said as I ran passed him.
I was still crying. I didn't know what to feel. I was panicking, scared, sad, and had a throbbing pain in my head