Chapter 10: Tainted - II
In one blink of a god's eye…
Scenes of carnage and ruin flooded everyone's mind.
Corpses piled high, children orphaned, cities laid to waste…
Ursan's cities…
The sounds of wailing and the gnashing of teeth.
The scent of rotting flesh and rancid blood…
Nuriya saw an army of centaurs ravaging everything in their path, a string of headless crowns, and the great shadow looming over the land and blotting out the sun as thousands of wyverns howled and slashed through the skies.
At the center of it…She saw a mountain. Dark and ominous.
She was in that mountain…Sitting on a tall black throne with a dark figure standing beside her.
There they were…At her feet…Kneeling before the throne…
Monsters…
Monsters she saw would one day level kingdoms and empires to rubble and pave a road of conquest and destruction using the blood and tears of their countless victims as they marched through all four corners of the world.
And the moon…turned blood red.
Such was the vision everyone saw inside the black orb.
Ul-Sasan met Isetzar's gaze head on.
"You knew this…and you didn't care," said the old man. "How…could you be so heartless?!"
"...."
Isetzar smiled. "Again, how did you find out?"
"..." Ul-Sasan explained. "By accident. Two years ago I checked to see what had become of an old friend. The seeress who foretold Nuriya's first fortune when she was born and the second fortune when she first "bloomed red"…"
"Oh…"
Isetzar put a hand on his nape and stretched his neck. "That…"
"Yeah. I did an investigation. She died. Under mysterious circumstances…The same time your father did."
Isetzar could only watch.
The game was up.
Ul-Sasan knows everything now.
"Being born a mage has its perks. One of them is access to reliable divination," Ul-Sasan continued, his hands now behind him. "I remember what the seeress said when Nuriya was born. Destined to be a "Lady of Light", she said. Mother to a dynasty of heroes, kings, and emperors! Ah, I was so proud!"
The old man shook his head as his mouth curved into a sad grin.
"But?! Just last month? I found out your father, my son, once the pride of our family? MURDERED THE SEERESS!
"!"
The family, already beaten raw with these new revelations, took another heartbreak.
"And then? I found out the reason he did it: It's because the 'Nuriya' we know, and loved, and watched grow up? Wasn't the same girl who received that wonderful reading at her birth. And he was desperate to hide it."
"What?!" yelled Arbaz.
Everyone stirred into attention.
"Grandfather…What do you mean?" asked Baratzar.
"Nuriya? Isn't 'Nuriya'," answered Ul-Sasan. "She is the actual Nuriya's nameless twin sister. The one your uncle Mitraz was supposed to send back to the gods."
Isetzar listened on.
Nuriya?
Just coming back to her senses...
Felt her like her heart stopped.
Twins have always been a subject of misfortune when it comes to mage clans.
Even from as far back as Isetzar could recall, there have been too many tales and too many examples of tragedies around the birth of twins. As a smith might do with a pair of really good swords made from the same piece of steel, mages will choose one to raise and the other is "sent back" to the gods. So that they may have a new turn around The Wheel.
"I didn't even know he had twins until I started asking questions. Mitraz? Like any dutiful mage, originally intended to get rid of his nameless daughter. But around the time he was to do so, his wife died in an airship raid that left no survivors."
Ul-Sasan turned to Isetzar now. "I now believe…Your mother, Iseliza, carried with her the true Nuriya whose fortune reading I was present for."
"When she died with the rest of the ship? Your father was heartbroken. And knowing that his daughter died with her? He couldn't bring himself to get rid of the only one left to remind him of both."
Ul-Sasan shifted his gaze towards Nuriya, whom he noticed was listening.
"Nuriya…Poor girl forced to wear her dead sister's name. Your life is a lie. The stars you thought were yours belong to someone who went to the gods in your stead."
"!"
Nuriya tried to yell and lift herself up, but her body was still too weak.
"Those thorns earlier sucked out much of your magic. You're drained, child. Even after they're already gone you won't be able to cast much in the way of spells."
Ul-Sasan continued. "So Mitraz passed his nameless daughter as Nuriya. And for a while? It worked. And had things continued? Perhaps none of us would have ever known nor cared enough to discover the truth…
…Until her second fortune reading."
Nuriya put together the pieces inside her head.
The Second Reading.
The one a mage-girl gets when she first blooms red to glimpse into her path of womanhood.
It was supposed to be a momentous event too. Nuriya could recall a feast and some cake being served after hers.
But apparently her blooming was the reason her father died…
The reason her grandfather is trying to kill her…
And the reason her brother now stands with that red axe in his hand.
"Tell us, Nuriya. Did you know your brother was a harqa?"
"...Yes."
"And like he hid your father's sins regarding you, you also hid his secret from us?"
Nuriya was too weak to respond properly but the look in her eyes made the answer apparent.
"My children…I had no idea the two of you were this utterly selfish."
Even after he tried to kill her earlier, Nuriya couldn't help but feel the sting of her grandfather's words.
"And tell me, oh ancient one, who exactly is Nuriya to you that you defend her this way? Despite knowing what's in store for the world if she lives? Because after seeing this? I wonder...I know she's not a harqa, but, ohoh, I'm sure your soul recognizes her! Who was she? Hmm? My…Don't tell me she used to be your–"
"I don't have to answer this," said Isetzar as he pulled Nuriya up to her feet with his off-arm--he made her lean on his body for support and kept his arm on her to make sure. "Gramps? You already gave me everything I wanted to know. And you've already explained why you need to do what you do...Now? I'm done. I want to leave."
"How many lives have you lived so far? Judging by how old you seem to be…I figure you've come back in…four, maybe even five incarnations? Surely it can't be six, that's waaaaay too excessive."
Isetzar smirked and told the truth.
"Oh…Probably about eleven times now?"
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