Wanderer’s Eyes

Chapter II

Aubrey Ferinea and the Kyna Dagger

There once was a legend passed around between the Sorcerer clans that described a magical, supposedly holy, silver dagger held by the worthy heir of the Kyna line. If this mystic dagger truly did exist, Aubrey Ferinea had no trouble in deducting that Cassandra Kyna had it. It would only be fitting, he mused, for the youngest to hold the sacred gift. Stupid child, talking what should never have been hers, he would make her pay for that.

“You’re thinking about Sophia, aren’t you, Master Aubrey?” Seishou never missed a beat when it came to him. Aubrey even granted to concede from his prideful arrogance and meet Seishou’s eyes for a moment.

“Yes…Cassandra has no idea that Sophia was her sister, does she?” He questioned Seishou softly. “Does she not know that she is not the rightful heir to the Kyna line? That her mother banished Sophia for falling in love?”

“Master, is that what you did to anger Merriam Kyna? It had nothing to do with a village massacre; Sophia Kyna fell in love with you. She blames you because her daughter supposedly dishonoured her family.”

“Right again. You’re really getting too smart for your own good, Seishou.” Aubrey smirked at him. “Keep it up and I may just lock you up again.”

“You can’t.” Seishou’s face overtook a very odd look at Aubrey. “Or, rather, you won’t. I am the closest thing to Sophia you have. She gave you that spell to summon me, you won’t lock me away again…I know you better than that.”

“Wishful thinking.” Aubrey scoffed. But deep, down, he knew Seishou was right.  He never would lock him up again; he cared too deeply for the summoning. This fact drove him insane, every minute of the day. By simply caring about him, he had opened up a door for the Kyna girl to use him as a weakness against Aubrey!

Harsh, cold, laughter filled the air of the inn room. Cassandra’s body shook with the laughter coming from her.

“You foolish devil.” She whispered into her pillow. “Such thoughts only inspire me to kill you even more! I guarantee that your little servant shall be free before either of us leave this town.”

Rolling over onto her back she starred up at the ceiling. She had never really seen her Aubrey Ferinea’s true form. He was supposed to be of the shape-shifting breed. This simply meant that he would never take the same form twice. It had made it especially difficult to locate him, and now she would defeat him, or die trying.

“So, when are going to confront Cassandra, Master?” Seishou questioned the sorcerer, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not. Not yet, anyway. I’m going to do a summoning first.” Aubrey explained, removing a small, flawless crystal sphere. A flawless pale blue sphere, that is to say.

“But that’s-” Seishou’s eyes widened in recognition, “You’re going to summon Sophia, aren’t you?”

“Too smart for your own good…”

“Cassandra…” The voice was liltingly beautiful, yet it held an echo of someone from beyond her own realm. “Cassandra Kyna, open your eyes…”

“What? Why? I don’t want to open my eyes…” she did keep her eyes closed yet. If this were a Sending, she would be able to sense it’s magic. This must be a Summoning, a mortal soul torn from the after life by powerful necromancy. Only the Sending or the Summoning could create that cool breeze out of nowhere.

“Such a pity. I had wished to talk to you…of the Kyna Dagger.”

This did make her eyes snap open. How this a Summoning know of the Kyna Dagger? No non-magical spirit could possibly know of it…unless…

“Did Aubrey Ferinea send you? How? He’s not a necromancer!” Cassandra shook her head to clear it of any thoughts that might impair her judgment.

“He did, yet he did not need necromancy, for I came willingly.” The Summoning snickered a bit at the obvious confusion on the Huntress’s face. “Do you truly not understand, Cassandra Kyna?” it questioned her. “Are you so stupid that you do not understand a Daughter of the Kyna when you see her?”

“What are you talking about?” Cassandra shouted at her. “Why would you willingly come back from the after life? Especially for him?”

“She truly told you nothing of me, didn’t she?” The Summoning placed a finger under her chin and tilted Cassandra’s head up so that she was looking directing into its eyes. It appeared female, but these things were hard to tell. “I should have known, Cassandra Kyna. Merriam would never let me rest.”

“What does mother have to do with this?”

“Everything! She is after all, little sister, the one who banished me. All because my sweet Aubrey wasn’t quite who she wished for me to love.”

“What does Aubrey Ferinea have to do with this?” Cassandra’s eyes were blazing with hating power. “What do I have to do with this?”

The summoning’s eyes narrowed slightly with a playful evilness.

“My name, Cassandra, is Sophia, has Merriam never mentioned me to you?” She watched sadly as Cassandra shook her head slowly. “I should have known.” Sophia pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead. “Will she never forgive me?”

“No…” Sophia’s head snapped up to stare at Cassandra, who was avoiding her eyes. “Mother will never forgive such a sin…”

“I committed no sin!” Sophia contradicted her. “All I did was fall in love!”

“That will not matter to mother.” Cassandra redirected her eyes further down at her mattress. “All she cares about is that you have committed the ultimate crime in her eyes.”

“So, Lady Sophia was banished from the Kyna line because you two fell in love with each other?” Seishou inquired softly.

“Yes…and I shall never forgive myself for that. The Huntress Line is just as brutal as any Slayer Lineage or Vampire Clan. Merriam Kyna killed Sophia for falling in love with me.”

“Is that how you were able to Summon her?”

“Too smart for your own good, Seishou.”

Seishou just gave Aubrey a sad look and then, once again, looked down at the yet-to-be-bandaged gash-like cut on his master’s hand.

“You should really clean and bandage that.” He stated, gesturing to his master’s hand.

Aubrey looked startled and glanced down at the bleeding wound. He hadn’t even noticed it, yet the shard of glass still protruded from his pale and already scared palm.

“I didn’t realize,” he murmured staring down at the remarkably large and cracked wedge of glass. “I really- I didn’t know-”

Seishou closed his hand over his masters and gently plucked the glass out of his palm. His vivid green eyes were a shocking contrast with his fiery red body, Aubrey noted, dazed with the lack of pain that he had felt when the glass had been removed from his palm.

“You’ve been forced to endure far too much.” Seishou stated, pulling back from Aubrey quickly. “Your palms have grown hard and numb.”

“Oh, yes.” Aubrey too pulled back and stared at his hand, which had already begun to heal. “They are numb, aren’t they? Horrible things, my hands, all scared and broken.”

“They aren’t so horrible.” Seishou contradicted. “Beautiful hands, in fact. Simply lovely, simply in need of care.”

The summoning’s eyes lit up and he grabbed a small cloth towel and began to dab at Aubrey’s maimed hand. The blood soaked through the pale lavender towel, Aubrey felt the vomit rise in his throat. He never had appreciated blood as much as one might think. Sorcerer or not, he still had a rather weak stomach.

“Beautiful hands.” Seishou repeated softly. “Beautiful master.” He winked and vanished in a blaze of fire.

Aubrey shook his head and pulled his cloak on. The fire summoning was almost unnaturally affectionate toward him. Aubrey simply brushed it off as being female in another life, or simply liking to speak to him that way. He didn’t need to worry for his servant, for it was only he that Seishou spoke to that way. But, for now he was hungry, for food, and for the Kyna dagger.

“You told me you wished to speak of the Kyna dagger with me.” Cassandra spoke to Sophia briskly. The family reunion had been short and hurried. “Please hurry, I wish to catch Aubrey today and I can sense he is moving again.”

“If you would just look at him, you would know why I fell in love with him.” Sophia told her. “But, yes. The dagger. You are not the rightful heir to it, Cassandra. Aubrey knows this. He will hunt you down and kill you. But it is not Aubrey you need fear.” Sophia murmured, then she stopped and eyed Cassandra with soft iridescent green eyes. Would-be mirrors of her own, Cassandra noted sadly. “Beware the Fire Summoning Kasai Kuro Seishou.”

“Kasai Kuro Seishou? That monster is Aubrey’s Summoning?” She all but shrieked. This was not good. Seishou was said to be deadly in his loyalty toward his master. She had no idea that his master was Aubrey Ferinea.

“Kasai Kuro Seishou cares very deeply for Aubrey. Almost to the extent that I did, that you will. Almost. Not quite, but his passion for bloodshed, the passion that only Aubrey can satisfy, rivals my own feelings of love. Good luck on defeating him, good luck with killing one who is already dead, Cassandra Kyna.”

The room was dark. The only light coming from the eerily dim fire glowing beneath him, melting and glistening on his legs, surrounding him in a sphere shape, it hardened into a glass ball, his Summons were needed for Aubrey to call him now. Only Aubrey could perform his Summons, he was the only one strong enough.

“So at last we meet, Cassandra Kyna.” Aubrey murmured under his breath. There was a girl with obsidian black hair, just a bit past her shoulders. The girl had her eyes blind-folded. This meant one of two things, either she was blind, or she was trying to hide the Kyna eyes…those eerie, glowing, iridescent golden eyes. “It has been too long since I’ve met with a Daughter of the Kyna line.” 

Cassandra shoved Sophia’s words to the back of her mind. All that mattered now was killing Aubrey. Perhaps she could even do it before he could perform the ritual Summons to call out Seishou. He wasn’t following his master so, if Sophia had indeed been correct in saying this, he had enclosed himself in his Holy Sphere. Only the proper Summons could revive him now. Riding on the urge she grabbed an apple off of the breakfast bar and hurled it at Aubrey. The fruit hit the sorcerer square on the nose.

“Never let your guard down, Aubrey Ferinea.” She told him grinning sourly.

Aubrey glanced up as though the apple had snapped him out of a deep train of thought. A small trickle of blood ran down the short area of flesh between his left nostril and his lips. He cringed and choked as it passed over his upper lips and entered his mouth. Cassandra raised an eyebrow and shook her head forcing the thought out of her mind. Surely the great Aubrey Ferinea was not afraid of a little blood.

“Orior Kasia Kuro Seishou!” he choked out around the disgusting metallic copper taste in his mouth. “Tui fidelis formo diffama!”

“No!” Cassandra gasped in horror. Aubrey was performing the ritual Summons for Seishou!

“Eradico tui hostium vaco!” He continued, ignoring Cassandra’s pleas. “Adhuc proficio mẽ!”

He removed a small crimson crystal sphere and began to squeeze it. If that ball broke, giving the automatic blood sacrifice that would come with the glass cutting into his flesh, Seishou’s Summons would be complete.

“Don’t crush that ball!” she screamed at him. “You’ll hurt yourself and Sophia she- wouldn’t want you too…” Against all her will power and training she felt the odd and unfamiliar, vague sensation of tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. “Don’t do that to her…don’t make her go through that again.”

“So at last the great Cassandra Kyna doth shed tears?” Aubrey mocked her.

 He dared to mock her! Cassandra felt the annoying sensation of tears leave her as anger set in. Was this, perhaps, what Aubrey had been wishing for to happen? Whatever he wanted, she would not let him release that Summoning! Throwing herself onto him she wrenched the sphere away from him, tucking it safely into her outer robes. Wishing only to hurt Aubrey for all he had done, which must have been more than simply having Sophia fall in love with him for Merriam to hate him so, Cassandra rammed her knee into the first place she reached. A small smirk of satisfaction crept onto her face as she heard Aubrey choke below her and felt the small hitch in his normally smooth breathing patterns.

“Feeling the pain of your victim yet, Aubrey?” She hissed into his ear. Aubrey shivered as he felt her breath tickle the inners of his ear. The Kyna seemed to have that effect on him; he really had no idea why.  “You should. I am going to force you to endure all the pain, and more, that you have caused your victims.”

“Poor naïve little Kyna.” He wheezed out around the obvious pain of her well-placed knee. “You truly have no idea of the pain I’ve caused. I’ve stolen their money, their lives…” he paused and eyed her in a strange way. “Their virginity. I am afraid, little one, that you can do none of the above.” It was Cassandra’s turn for her breath to catch in her throat as he cupped a hand around her cheek. “A sorcerer has no need for money, I have already given my virginity to your sister long ago, and I fear you have not the strength to kill me.”

“I will kill you! Before either of us leaves this town you will die, Aubrey Ferinea!”  She had intended on continuing her little rant, had Aubrey not taken the opportunity to press his lips against her own. Cassandra gasped in disgust and pushed him off of her.

“Freak.” She murmured softly, her index and middle fingers pressed lightly over the place on her lips where Aubrey had kissed her; removing them she noted the light blood stains on them, Aubrey’s blood. “Nothing more than a bloody freak.” Cassandra then turned around and began to stalk away. She would kill Aubrey some other time.