The Magicians Redemption

Chapter Sixteen

 

      When I awake I'm greeted by nothing but a headache and a brief ringing in the ears. My mask is on my lap and I'm sitting up against a wall. I look over to my right and Dravon is sitting next to me, a dim orb of light hovers a but to his right, just barely illuminating the room.

"Varcha..." Dravon says. "He didn't mean anything he did back there, I doubt he's going to remember anything that happened after... after what happened to Mordok."

"Wh..." I clear my throat, it sounded dry and raspy. "Why is that?" I ask.

"If you haven't noticed by now Varcha's race, they're made for combat. It's said in the story carved in the walls of their ancient sacred temple that... that their race invented combat, after all their race existed far before humans. Their bodies evolved many times to specifically modify their bodies for combat, for example their shell." He explains.

"I figured that all out by now, what are you getting at?" I ask.

"It's common in his race to go through something called 'Combat Madness'. It occurs when a very traumatic experience suddenly occurs." He says.

"What like... him realizing he could possible be the last of his race?" I ask, bringing back a thought I suddenly remember from before.

"Exactly." Dravon replies. I look down at my feet and Dante is curled up in a ball, asleep like a dog sleeping at the foot of the bed, except in my book he would never be a dog, he'd be my best friend. I then look to my left and Kasandra is laying on the cement floor on her side, facing the wall, also asleep. Straight against across the room Varcha sits up agains the wall like I am except he's sleeping, letting his head dangle, I think he's more knocked out than sleeping on account of the combat madness.

"Where are we?" I ask, looking around at a plain empty cement room with no windows and only a single door.

"I don't know." He says. "It took us a while to find somewhere to hide that wasn't destroyed, there was so much gas, my mask was fogging up but I couldn't clear because that would mean taking it off. The gas... it... it crippled many instantly, they couldn't get up, but they didn't die... they just suffered, who knows how long until they actually died." He says. I look at his face and he's just staring off into space as he speaks.

"Their eyes." He says. "Their eyes were melting."

"Wait." I say. "Why didn't we go back to the ship."

"I... I couldn't think." He replies. "My heart... it was beating so fast I thought it was going to explode. Karda's soldiers were closing in, I used the... energy you gave. I fire one last wave of energy to knock them back so they couldn't see where we went. We only survived because the gas stopped them from seeing where we went... if it weren't for you we would be dead right now." He says.

"It was an... adrenaline spell. I picked it up from that book Dollie borrowed me... If only I knew where it was." I say, Dravon chuckles. "I wanna say I'll be able to pay him back."

"You will." Dravon says.

"I never thanked you." I say.

"For?" He asked, confused.

"For always having my back... or at least when you were able to." I explain.

"It's just what friends do." He says. "You know... I don't think of myself as your teacher anymore, I think you're the one that teaches me. You've done incredible things that I've learned from."

"How long has it been... since we first met I mean?" I ask.

"Psh... I don't know. At least a year I'd say." He replies.