GILT

Esoterically Speaking

The Gate. Artūras gathered he would know all his brother's intentions when they arrived. Yet already mid dark forest, traversing fell tree and mossy stone, hardly a word had been spoken aloud. Vivid auroral streams of light told of its close vicinity. The emerald ribbons carried with them a foreboding air he couldn't shake. They morphed into an intense yellow that shot right through him. Rare apprehension snapped at his bones, slowing his already off kilter pace.

His brother sensed it too. The seal crafted from a powerful spell, emitted an aura that lit the dismal path they followed. The Gate in any space is extraordinary. This location grew thick in greenery and twisted tree, forming the perfect unperceived portal. Though through their immortal eyes, the surrounding spell light was akin to sunshine in the middle of night. Immensely spectacular yet innately unwelcoming, meant to drain pursuers of will.

Ludovic pivoted atop a grassy mound to adjust the heavy cloak cloying at his neck. He needed a moment.

"We're close." He announced, stalling to study his brother's stern face.

Artūras deserved clarification. They may have to make sacrifices to enact the plan. To bring him out of hiding. To finally rid the Eternal world of their father and the wanton dereliction left in his wake.

"I'm ready, Ludo." Artūras affirmed a false confidence.

"I'm not." Ludovic stared into the light before them. His body steeled.

Artūras halted in the path with a flimsy grin.

"We have everything we need to bypass the seal. What's to worry on about, Brother?"

"Old debts might arise to be paid. I may be beholden to acquiesce."

"Beholden? What exactly does that mean?"

He pushed his brother for the words long weighing on his mind. It was well before his time, but Atūras knew of The Queen. Not of the means, but of the pain that haunts Ludovic still. How it shaped the man he met those many years ago.

His whole being wanted to prod at the wounds in Ludovic's heart to know the truth. Instead, Artūras again resigned in gouging his own.

"Have you not had my unending loyalty from the first fateful evening we met? There is no eventually you will meet that I will not."

Ludovic glanced at those erratic blue eyes and deflected the hurt radiating off Artūras. How could he prepare his younger brother for the possibility of an existence without him? How could he prepare himself?

"I agreed to this mission because of my trust in you. I know we travel here for the book that ritual was cut from." Artūras pointed a finger into the chest pocket his brother used to conceal things of importance. "You seek what we have always sought, to end the evil he started."

"Many Eternals will die in the process, all of our would-be brothers." Hinting at the severity, Ludovic extended a hand through his dew slicked hair. He had yet to find if his soul was included in those to be rescinded.

"And our Father?" Artūras scrutinized.

"Yes, him as well."

"That's all I care of, Ludo. His followers be damned." Artūras took in the slack expression staring back at him.

"They are no brothers of mine."

Ludovic's metallic eyes were illuminated in the yellow spell light, mimicking his internal strife. He managed over the centuries to save many of these deprived souls who had no guide but that of their corrupt father. Though in doing so, he lost just as many to that same hateful Eternal they fled from. All painted a moving target. Each hunted down behind the eyes of beasts. All defected or dead, all but Artūras.

"Grim judgements on the lost, Brother." He lamented.

"They're not lost, they are the damned. The old crow too easily made them his soldiers. You and I have fought all these years because we were never meant to serve him."

"You're right." Ludovic shuffled to the side. The light filtering past his dark figure blinded Artūras.

With great distinction between pride and guilt, Ludovic elaborated on his past he never wanted Artūras to know of.

"I should have stopped him long ago, knowing of his unfailing mercilessness. Though his dark soul was infectious. I did not serve him, brother. Through blinded eyes and guided hand I forcefully led his legions. His faith in me, like yours, was unfettered and unyielding."

Artūras smiled at the admission, unscathed. He often felt the immense power brimming right beneath the surface, never questioning his brother why he suppressed it.

Ludovic regarded his gifted slight a variant of his fathers, one he vowed never to use again. To control the will of any mortal and that of any Eternal is dangerous, amoral, and highly addicting.

"When I finally saw our Father for what he was, I knew the only way to defeat him was to turn my brothers against his rule. I had the power to reach them, but one obstacle remained. She was his slave."

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