POV - Malay - the twisted god , in the garden of burden and solace
The night of calamities was upon us . The horrors of old in new flesh tore the murk of night . We huddled and subdued , crawled to our bunkers and prayed for it's passing. The Sparsely lit underground residence only had a few servants of the house and us , my unfortunate new parents and I . Daeva stones made pale islands of lights around the pillars , and we stuck to the lifeline of mage light for the days of fright and helplessness. My mother moved her tired blue eyes around the hall-like space and watched the cowed servants with either a subdued interest or just for a distraction. I couldn't tell . She glanced My way with a pained grimace and resignation. The burning hatred that used to grip her upon My sight was nowhere to be found now . My father leaned against the armrest of the sofa with much of helpless tiredness that he couldn't show out of this hated safe heaven , back on surface . His black hair with a few gray strands covered his face even as leaned back as he was . I was tied to their neck a few months back in summer , lyra left me to them with instructions. This night of calamities and the following purge , I was to weather with them to give my origin some legitimacy. My father as I had come to know him better these months was a patient man . After moving to this part of the kingdom, remote country as it was we had better access to the trade singer has arranged for my father and the imperial academy in nalanda. My father owed some favours to the Scourge , and in principle he was not against some of the endeavours they had taken upon themselves. It makes him a rebel and a patriot twice over . Even if it was a rebellion, I couldn't see the scope of what it can achieve. Back then blinded by the immensity of the story I was thrown in . I saw us as cogs in a machine . My father nothing but a man adopting a child , me nothing but a boy going to the imperial academy. All the instructions I recieved on my parting from the scourge were just for the benefit and betterment of my survival. I am still not sure what ronik had seen in me years ago, that he didn't speak of his purpose. No instructions to further his cause in some way . Had he known just by being who I am , tossed in the way I'll be a wrench and much of what we knew of the world will come undone . I have killed a princess to save a dragon , stole a world , broken an empire, killed beings closest to gods . I am the only man, or whatever I am now, to visit all the blighted boundaries of this cursed world. I look back at all this and see a boy fiddling with a book in the bunker . Unaware of the curse he is , or maybe I knew , didn't the priests at temple of knives call me the child of ruin . I sat there skimming through kirannavvi's , 'where myths fall short' , I was so lost in the book that I didn't notice when mother came to peek over my shoulders.
" Don't you have something better to read " she chided in a tone that hinted she wanted to be doing anything but this .
I looked up at her , and saw her eyes . No anger in them still , just something shy of contempt and bitterness . She used to be a sweet woman , and strong or so I was told . I could almost believe it too on the rare occasions when she smiled at her flowers or she talked of fahir . Her only child , dead now . I didn't say anything just slowly put the book down , and tried to make myself busy with something ,like I did often . But there was nothing to do .
" Here , read this . Better prepare for the test " she said , handing me a copy of principia magica . She tried to care for people around her , she really did sometimes . I was prepared for the entrance test by the scourge even before I came to live with my parents . I still took the book and flipped through it restlessly. I saw her grip tightening on the gilded backrest, fingers white and unforgiving. She opened her mouth to say something, but the languages fled her . Her face flickered between several shades of blankness and angst.
" Just take care , now and when you go . You don't need to do anything... Not really" she looked like she wanted to say more . Finally she glanced at father with that pleading anger and for a moment I couldn't understand. All these years later I still don't claim to know a corner of my mother's heart . I didn't know what to say . I just sat there . She made herself busy with books of her own . Days passed in the quiet terror of the things that roamed about on the surface . The storm passed on the afternoon of the fifth day . We crawled back up , but no one went out of the estate . Mouna also walked out of his personal bunker and checked the wards around the manor . When he came to report back to my father , we were already in the hall . I tried going up to my room but father stopped me . Mouna with his mostly gray hair , and aged lines on his face was one of the old breed of mages . A scholar of asymmetry , from before the conquest. I guessed he wanted me to have a conversation with mouna . I did look up to the mage , a scholar of any discipline is deserving of respect and veneration. He informed us that most of the wards are intact. The northwestern palisade did require some looking after and was still besieged by the monsters but nothing he couldn't handle . Maybe one of the villages north was caught unprepared in the storm ,because this far inland , a complete siege is improbable. The night of calamities that comes every few years does that , nothing is impossible on that cursed night . Whatever's caught in those storms unwarded , what crawls back out are creatures so foreign and foul , talk of them tastes like a ash . Mouna listed his requirements, daeva stones , some magical materials. When bidding farewell to him with a promise of all that was asked to be delivered, my father asked him to suggest some books for me , or things he deems useful for a young and upcoming mage . Mouna seldom looked at people directly, he looked as if he was looking past you or chasing something at the edges of his vision. But when he did look at me , his eyes, blue , piercing, wise and harrowing fixed me in my place . He looked at me as an interest of study and I couldn't but think maybe he's told not to look at people. But this is how most scholars are .
" He has enough, and 'principia magica' would do " he said . " Maybe look into 'natural and mystical laws' by galoy " he mumbled as an afterthought. I thanked him , although I had already read principia magica , and skimmed through galoy enough to know I didn't want to . He nodded , already lost and left to see to his duties .