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  THE REDEEMER

  Book Two Of The Temple Of Empia Saga

  By M.C. Glan

  Prologue

  Twenty years ago…

  Cassandra Wynstrom moaned and shifted into a more comfortable position. Except for the nurse going about preparing for the birth, the house was quiet, a place she had discreetly bought after the previous owners – Nancy and Gerald Wynstrom – had passed away.

  Cassandra ran her hand over her belly, swollen from its ninth month of pregnancy. She thought about Ayella and the visions she had of her. Over the last eight months, Cassandra understood her ancestor’s torment, and had gained empathy for Ayella’s reluctance to bring forth an offspring that could be mankind’s greatest foe…or greatest gift. It was this dichotomy of one’s perspective towards a child that could drive a parent insane.

  But unlike Ayella, Cassandra would not kill her own child.

  No, I won’t do that. I never will. I will love you and have faith in you.

  Cassandra smiled at Abigail. The nurse smiled back and sat by the kerosene lamp, its reflection glowing in her blue eyes, the only thing colorful about her: she wore a black dress, the same bleak tone as her headdress, garments worn by the Sisters and Brothers of The Form. Cassandra had requested the service of one devoted; a blessing wouldn‘t hurt with bringing forth life into the realm.

  But what will my child become?

  Pain seared through Cassandra as if the Gods answered by slicing her belly with a serrated knife, wanting to extract the horror inside her before she could let it loose into the world. Worse, her memories returned, which brought on another grief, one that was emotional: Audray had disappeared from her life after Cassandra refused to rid of the infant.

  A child Audray had called an abomination.

  Liquid flooded out from between Cassandra’s thighs and she cried out in surprise.

  Abigail hurried to her side. “I think your baby is anxious.”

  Nurses rushed into the bedroom with washbasins, towels, forceps, surgical tools, and hot water. She wished her child waited until the morning when the sun could grace them.

  Not long after, the Sisters’ words were true: her baby was eager indeed. Cassandra felt happy and hopeful; it was a good sign, and not a bad omen that her offspring would cause excruciating, unimaginable pain and troubles.

  Abigail held up Cassandra’s child wrapped in white cotton. She took the bundle and gazed into her son’s face.

  He stared back at her in wonder, with the backdrop of the evening behind him. The window was dark with night, yet the moon glowed in its entirety.

  ☼

  Audray knew it was a dream, but it held her soul captive by these demons that tortured her with the same visions: the tunnel ahead of her threatened to swallow her up in its swirling darkness. It reverberated with her own heartbeat, hammering and pounding around her. She ran and ran, seeing no end in sight. Behind her, as always, the grotesque creatures chased her.

  She didn’t know how long she’d been running. She willed herself awake, but could not. The tunnel opened at last – no longer squeezing her in its suffocating embrace - and she saw light. Audray stole a glance back: the monsters snarled at her. She realized then they were Kins. They came to a dead halt, seeing something ahead.

  Audray followed their gaze: there was a small figure at the end of the channel, its silhouette only noticeable because of the bright light shining from behind him. Audray scrambled to a stop, avoiding a collision with him.

  Behind Audray, the tunnel churned from hunger, inhaling the Kins, their screams slicing towards her until it raised the hair on her skin.

  She understood why the Kins feared him: he was silent, unmoving, waiting. She couldn’t see him with the blast of rays blinding her, but his energy possessed a fierce power. The light diminished until it was just a speck. The boy looked up at her with frightened blue eyes. He backed away towards the flickering ray.

  Audray bit her lip and reached out for him.

  The light disappeared and darkness swirled around them. A hand shot through the swirling smoke and took hold of the child’s shoulder and pulled him back, away from her.

  NO!

  The boy retreated, but a pair of glowing silver eyes watched her.

  Audray woke up with a scream.

  “It was just a dream.” James Richmond gathered her into his arms.

  It was no dream; it was a nightmare. She shuddered. These reoccurring visions had always haunted her, but this time she saw something she had never seen before: Cassandra’s son.

  Not even her lover’s embrace could penetrate the chill that founds its way deep into her soul.

  ☼

  Jim Bluefeather walked through the main town of Maquan territory called Ni’Qush, where houses lined the dirt road, muddy from the rain. Sometimes he slid on the mud, but always he maintained his focus: straight ahead. His people left their homes or their cook tents to watch him, nodding. He headed into the surrounding forest, the blue feathers of his necklace dancing from wind. The Great War was over, but he had to be sure.

  The elders were waiting for him in the woods where the energy was the strongest; the conduit to the gods. An immense fire burned, and as he got closer, its warmth caressed his cold cheeks.

  Most people knew of the magic of the elements, and how to manipulate them. What most people did not know, was that it could also be absorbed, and thus be manipulated by it.

  Jim Bluefeather stopped short of entering the fire. He closed his eyes and the essence of the flames entered him. And with it, the divinity of its message.

  A moment later, the flames left his body. His eyes flew open and his scream sliced into the trees. The birds fluttered away. It wasn’t the blaze that hurt him; it was the vision he had seen.

  Part One: The Moon

  May your feet ever walk in the light of two suns...and may the moonshadow never fall on you...

  -Robert Fanney

  A song she heard

  Of cold that gathers

  Like winter's tongue

  Among the shadows

  It rose like blackness

  In the sky

  That on volcano's

  Vomit rise

  A Stone of ruin

  From burn to chill

  Like black moonrise

  Her voice fell still...

  -Robert Fanney

  Chapter One

  Cassandra skipped down the stairs, humming a happy tune. She paused at the kitchen doorway: her son ate a late lunch as he scrutinized over his notes.

  Ryan’s brows furrowed in concentration as he moved a strand of dark hair away from his forehead. He grabbed bread from the basket and bit into it, his strong jaw flexing as he chewed.

  She smiled, leaning against the wall.

  Her days of remorse from losing Lharkin were replaced with the joy of raising Ryan.

  But in the beginning, it was not easy.

  Cassandra hid in the shadows of existence until she was sure her child wasn’t evil, as Audray had warned he would be.

  Cassandra had left Langharn and headed northeast to Draven. She discovered a beautiful secluded location called Sun Valley south of the main township, on the outskirts of Maquan territory. She moved into the cottage and lived meagerly, quietly, careful to ration out the fortune she had found in her grandparents’ home: a box of jewels.

  For the first five years she raised Ryan on her own. She would scoot into town on her single horse-drawn carriage whenever she needed food or supplies, careful not to draw attention to herself.

  The Maquan Natives watched her, but never imposed on her. Until one day they greeted her and taught her how to fish, hunt, and adapt to emergencies only using the land. She even learned how to make a diaper out of moss. She asked if they coul
d help dye her hair brown and they showed her how by grinding plants and flowers into paste. When the natives weren’t watching, she snuck blood into her son’s milk bottles or jars of baby food; Ryan didn’t use any powers – at this point he didn’t seem to have any – but sometimes he got pale and tired. Whenever this happened, she would give him blood. When the Maqua finished showing her everything she needed to know about living in the wilderness, they left her alone, but not before giving her a quiet, lingering contemplation. It relieved her: she could live her life without having to look over her shoulder anymore.

  But Cassandra was sure the natives were observing her from a distance.

  Time had flown by, and she knew these would be the most cherished five years she would ever have. The days were always busy, yet peaceful. But at nights it was difficult; memories from long ago would visit her. Luckily, Ryan was an anxious boy, not wanting to sleep much, thus keeping her distracted.

  Seeing he was an otherwise normal child, she introduced him into society. She bought a house closer to Draven so he could go to school and make friends. Before his first day of class, Cassandra stopped him at the front hall of her home. She kneeled down in front of the eight-year-old and fixed his light brown hair.

  “Darling,” Cassandra said.

  “Yes, mommy.”

  “You know how we are a little different?”

  “Hmm-hmm.” He put down Max, his toy puppy.

  “Please promise me to tell no one about our special story; it’s our secret.”

  His eyes dimmed. “But mommy, we’re not supposed to keep secrets. It’s like lying.”

  Cassandra groaned. She stood up and straightened her dress. Her son was right and she wondered how does one justify being a hypocrite to a child?

  “Sometimes, little lies like this are necessary, because…they stop from hurting someone, or they hurt no one…a lie that doesn’t matter…”

  He looked up at her with bright blue eyes and a big frown.

  However – perhaps her intuition had been warning her – her advice to her child was a decisive one after all because of what happened later that day. She was at home, preparing dinner when she had an unexpected visitor. She opened the door to find the perplexed teacher. It shocked Cassandra to see her son in his teacher’s arms, pale, with a tinge of gray on his skin and in his hair. He was hyperventilating.

  Marlina Bale explained how both Ryan and his classmate were being scolded for arguing and nearly getting into a fight. She had taken a ruler and whipped Ryan’s knuckles to discipline him. Ryan had grown upset, saying it was not his fault, that it was unfair that he was being punished. Shaking from anger, Ryan grabbed the ruler and broke it in half. Marlina said it wasn’t the kind of ruler a young child could break. While the teacher had revealed this, her lips and hands trembled. Miss Bale said before she could do or say anything, Ryan dropped to the floor. She dismissed the class and took him home.

  Cassandra snatched Ryan from her arms. “Your conduct, Miss Bale, is inappropriate, and he is no longer your pupil.”

  “But ma’am that is school regulation -

  Cassandra shut the door before she could finish her sentence.

  She carried Ryan to his room, laid him down, and pulled his blue covers over him. She hurried to the cellar to fetch bottles of blood, her hands shaking. On her way back, she held on tight, afraid she would spill it; she not only rushed, her nerves were bad, never having seen her son appear as he did today. She had suspected that at some point his Empian side would come out, but she didn’t expect it so soon.

  Cassandra gave him blood and watched in fascination as his pallor returned to normal. Whenever he needed blood, he would appear pale. This time, he appeared fragile and gray color spiked up from his Empian roots.

  The Night Empian side.

  This happened because he was angry, she thought.

  That day she pulled him out of school, moved out of the house, and returned to the cottage. She understood then it was possible for someone to get hurt.

  “Mother, what are you doing?” Ryan stood up, brushing crumbs off his black suit.

  She looked up at her son towering over her.

  “Just reminiscing,” she answered lightly, taking a seat in the wooden chair he had pulled out for her.

  “Well, there’s no time for that,” he said, sitting down. “Today is my only day free in a long while and the day is already half gone.”

  After they finished eating, Ryan sat back and studied her.

  “Why don’t you join me at the conference? I know there’ll be plenty of opportunities for you to meet someone; there will be at least fifty doctors attending.”

  Because for years I’ve tried drowning the memory of your father with the tears I’ve spilled.

  She was glad her son couldn’t read her thoughts like his father had been able to.

  “I apologize. I didn’t mean to push on that again. But it’s been twenty years, mother. I’m sure my father would’ve forgave you if you lived a little.”

  “Maybe I will.” She reached across the table and placed her hand on his forearm. “Son, do you think you should attend this engagement? You may be looked upon with ridicule.”

  And unwanted attention.

  “I have a gift that could help save lives. I can prevent death by seeking it in advance. After I prove myself at this seminar, I’ll be the most popular, most demanded man on this side of the world.”

  Cassandra fidgeted with the silverware. “I wanted us to live quietly.”

  “In the shadows of existence?” Ryan exhaled. “I can help people.”

  She looked away.

  Ryan moved to the window. “Look outside, mother. There’s nothing out there but trees. You live in complete isolation. When was the last time you went out shopping in town? Three years ago?”

  She shrugged. “That’s my life now.”

  Ryan turned around. “Yes, and this is mine. I’m getting busier by the day. Soon, I won’t be able to go to the market to run errands for you.” He studied her for a moment. “Come with me into town and let’s have dinner.”

  Cassandra sighed and looked down at the wooden floor. She ran her bare foot over the woven area rug. She had never revealed the true extent of their past to him. Only that their ancestors were related to a good race of Light Empians, from where she had acquired enough jewels for them to live comfortably off of for a long time. She always reminded him not to let people find out about their true background or they would end up discovering the bounty at the island.

  Cassandra wondered if any Kins had survived the war twenty years ago. They would be very interested in them; they would use Cassandra and Ryan to open the Dark Chamber at the temple because of their Empian heritage.

  But there was a worse threat: Queen Theresa’s incessant search in finding Cassandra and opening the Light Chamber’s power for her.

  “What is it, mother?”

  “Just be careful at that conference, son; there are many people out there who seem to not have any purpose in life but to harm others.”

  “And you, mother dear, need to learn to look at the brighter side of life. Now, let’s go.”

  Chapter Two

  Ryan Reyn – as their surname had come to be known despite Cassandra’s initial refusal to accept it – sat, straps in his gloved hands, as his carriage brought them south through the outskirts of Sun Valley. The area was stunning; the sun was setting on a fall evening yet warm in its final moments of the day, illuminating the purple leaves of Moringue trees. The area was named appropriately; around them the ground inclined where once there was a river.

  The area opened to flat, grassy land as it led them into Hadenfield. Streetlamps lit up as if the town was happy that Cassandra had finally returned. Since she had last visited, the buildings had become taller, more jumbled together, fighting to be amid the prosperity and to not be forgotten.

  Inns, shops and homes lined the large town, busy with carriages of single or double riders trying to make
their way to shop or hurry home from work. In some ways it reminded her of High Fernan, but on a grander scale. High Fernan was now a lifetime away; she had never once visited since leaving Empia twenty years ago.

  They dismounted and walked down the cobblestone sidewalk towards Ryan’s clinic.

  “I thought this was your day off.”

  “I forgot some patients’ files in the office,” Ryan said, pulling out a key from his pocket.

  Ryan hurried in through the door where a simple sign hung: Esoteric Consultant. She tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear as she looked around. The shops windows and streets looked glassy from the last rays of the sun. The town was full of business where nobody knew who she was.

  But soon, everybody would know who her son was: Ryan would become popular; despite Daigos’ Sadarian inhabitants that were known empaths, his gift was the strongest.

  Ryan wasn’t normal like the rest of the world: he had a unique perception others didn’t have. He was able to see things with his hands whenever he touched something or someone, whether it was their memories or their illnesses. Once, when he was little, he touched a rock at a park and was so revolted by it that he cried uncontrollably. He said a lady got hit repeatedly on the head with it and saw her screaming face in his mind all day. He ended up having nightmares for a week. Cassandra searched all of Daigos’ towns for help until she came upon a Sadarian woman named Clarice who knew of the forgotten arts of clairvoyance. Cassandra paid her handsomely for the special gloves laced with herbal threads that blocked his psychic ability. She then paid the woman double to keep her quiet about their transaction. Ryan’s visions disappeared. At least to her knowledge; knowing he couldn’t always wear his gloves, she wondered if he was hiding things from her.

  But you’re hiding things from him, her mind spoke back.

  She never told him she added blood in his health drinks. She made him drink the ancient remedy that kept one young and strong. There were two problems with that: he continued to age, which meant he wasn’t immortal like her. One day she would have to let him go, and thus reveal how he was part vampire and needed blood to survive.