Theurgy: The Journey's Dawn (Book One)

Chapter 3 The Path Paved

Lyse sat on the dirt road that led to what used to be his home. Now, it was a hollow shell of Ash and cinders slowly sputtering under the cold night. His lungs still heaved as if still filled with smoke, but he did not care enough to notice. His hands were still caked in his father's blood, and he stared into the burnt house where his body still lay. He did not look at his mother, her unconscious body still lying limp a few meters away. He was still trying to comprehend the past few hours. Was it even real? Of course, it is, he convinced himself. Not even in his wildest dreams could he conjure such things. The only question left for him to ask was why. Why did this happen?

He was so engrossed with his thoughts that he did not notice the call of his own name. Then, slowly, as if pulled from the abyss, he came to realize the wolf sage shouted his name, holding onto a wound on the side of his mother's gut with a determined look in her eyes.

"Pay attention," she told him. Then, she grabbed both of his hands and forcefully pressed them over her wound. "Apply pressure. Do not let go."

He didn't notice till then, but he had been crying this whole time. He looked at his mother's face as his tears watered it, and his vision grew bleary. She was strained, and her eyes fluttered beneath her lids as if she was witnessing her own nightmare. There was so much blood. The wolf sage pulled a large satchel from her back, setting it before her, and began rummaging the contents for supplies. She pulled out small sacs of powder and bones of some small petrified creature and a small ceramic bowl. She finally pulled guise, which he held while she began mashing the herbs in her mouth. She began mixing it all together, and she picked some with her finger. The wounds were bleeding horribly, even through the cracks of his fingers, and he could see his mother's face become paler and paler. He slowly lost his breath, his heart threatening to seize now.

"Please save her," he whispered, but the wolf sage did not respond. Every ounce of her concentration was poured upon this treatment. He wondered why she had not used that healing technique he used on him. But the thought was momentary in his scrambled mind. Lyse remembered who she was, she worked at the tavern don't not too far into town. He knew practically nothing about her, just she has been working there for a long time. To think she was capable of all this was just one among a sea of questions brought before him.

She began repairing and mending as best she could. She rubbed the paste within the wound, and Lyse saw as his mother's body lurched, and she groaned in pain. Lyse knew little of medicine. It was not something that he usually made himself familiar with, as it was something the doctors learned. But never had he felt the urge to learn something than watching his mother writhe in agony. She took the guise from his slack hands and instructed him to hold his mother up as she was done applying to the wounds. As she wrapped the snow-white bandages around these various wounds, they were quickly stained as they absorbed more blood. The bleeding did eventually slow, and he grew steady breath.

"Thank you," Lyse said to her. "Thank you so much.'

She looked to his house, a little out of breath herself now. She saw flames sputter about in their dances, not as energetic as before. Several bodies laid limp with slit throats and crushed skulls. These are obvious signs of a battle. She could smell the blood still. The mix of scents and pheromones permeated the air. The chaotic air was too complex for her to unravel. There was no way she could track down whoever was responsible. And because she followed his boy into the woods, she has potentially lost two people she was supposed to protect.

She stood up and looked down at Lyse with a fierce blue glare. It wasn't hated per se, but the next words made her emotion very clear.

"What were you doing wandering that forest?" she chastised. Her voice was a bit airy, words coming out in quickened clumps distinguishable for someone from Lykos. Lyse still sat on the ground, his hands on his head as his mind began pulsing angrily. Her focus seemed to drift from him back to something beyond the horizon slowly. "They planned this. They targeted Massia and you. They . . . "