Facing Destiny

Once his wits returned, he looked over to see her smiling at him. He stretched out his hand, and she laid hers atop it.

"That was wonderful," she said. "Thank you."

"I find my vocabulary quite lacking when attempting to describe..." He trailed off, shook his head, and said, "Thank you as well."

She moaned and fluttered her eyelashes at him. "I'm so glad I felt the call to dance in the field today."

"I'm glad as well."

"And glad it was you, who could see through my magic, but give me something even more magical."

His life's passion reasserted itself, and he asked, "I wonder if I might see that spell you showed me, and the others you spoke of?"

Her lips pursed, her eyes widened, and then she exploded into laughter.

"I... I don't understand," he said, confused.

"I'm sorry," she said. Another brief fit of laughter shook her, and then she continued. "It's just that every other man I've been with has been falling asleep by this time. The magic is truly your calling if you can even think about it right now."

"If it's customary to sleep, I believe I might be quite capable of that as well."

She rolled her eyes, gave him a playful slap, and then levered up on her elbow. "I'll show you, but I think we should go wash up a little first."

As soon as she mentioned it, he became keenly aware of the evidence of their coupling. The same breeze that had cooled them had also dried it, making it stiff and sticky.

"I cannot argue that wisdom."

Her strength renewed, she popped to her feet and said, "There's a place nearby where the stream is rocky. It's a perfect place."

Darkni rolled over and reached for his pants.

"Leave them. You'll just get them messy." She held out a hand to help him rise.

He swallowed hard, more than a little self-conscious about traipsing around naked through the woods — concealing magic or no. However, he couldn't argue with her wisdom on that point either, so he took her hand.

****

Darkni looked out the window of Destiny's quaint, one room cottage at the waning daylight and sighed.

Lying nude next to him in her bed with her head resting on his chest, she echoed the sound and affected a pout.

It had been an unforgettable few days. As soon as he could escape his father's clutches each day, he had made his way here. Destiny had proved to possess a remarkable collection of wizard spells, though most had to do either directly or indirectly with conceiving and raising children. Even if he never used most of them, they had a unique cadence and words he was unfamiliar with, so they could be useful for research.

It had taken the full duration of his stay in the area to copy them all due to interruptions. His education in her bed was far more varied and enticing than the magic she possessed.

"I have no desire to leave," he said while caressing her back.

"And I don't want you to go, but I know you have to." She peeled back the covers, slipped out of the bed, and stretched.

Darkni admired her body, feeling his ardor stirring despite having coupled with her only an hour or so before. He winced from the soreness that the blood rushing into his manhood caused.

"If you keep looking at me like that, I'm not going to let you leave," she teased.

"That's hardly discouraging," he commented as he too climbed out of the bed. "Unfortunately, my father will make my life difficult if I miss our evening chat."

Destiny put on one of her thin shifts, hiding the nudity that she preferred, but which she knew would make it more difficult for him to leave. She had learned much about him during their chats in the afterglow of lovemaking, and there was something she knew that she needed to say before he left.

Darkni dressed, and as soon as he stood from putting on his shoes, she swept in for a kiss. With no further preamble, she said, "You need to tell your father about your magic."

His arms wrapped around her, he said, "If only that were possible. My father made his position on my study of magic abundantly clear the day I showed him the first cantrip I learned as a child."

"You're going to regret it if you don't stop leading this double life and follow your calling. The magic is in your blood. It's the very heart of you," she implored. "I hid my calling for far too long because I was afraid of my parents."

He argued, "It's also a frightfully costly endeavor. Without my father's resources, I fear my advancement would be even slower, if not completely stymied."

"You think he would disown you? Kick you out for being who you're meant to be? You know I thought that my parents would, and I was wrong."

He held her quietly, considering her words. Though his father had said that he would not support the study of magic under any circumstances, the rest was more his own assumption than any certainty.

She fixed him with her awe-inspiring gaze and suggested, "At least think about it?"

"That, I can promise," he said, and then kissed her when she sought his lips.

"I'll miss you," she said when they broke from the kiss.

"I shall certainly miss you, and seek any opportunity that might bring me this way."

"I'd like that."

He glanced over his shoulder, out the window, and sighed again.

"Go," she said, releasing him from her embrace.

With the greatest reluctance, he turned toward the door.

****

"Your mother will, of course, wish to... Darkniciad!"

Darkni started when his father's raised voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "My apologies, father."

The older man sighed and rubbed his head. "You have been inattentive from the moment you returned this evening."

"Again, my apologies, father. The hour is late, and I have been considering something." It was the truth. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Destiny's admonition to tell his father his secret since the moment he left her.

"What is this conundrum that so distracts you?"

He could almost hear Destiny whispering in his ear, Tell him. The look on his father's face let him know that he wasn't going to escape the question by saying, It is of no matter, or something similar.

"I have been contemplating my future," he answered.

"In what way?"

His father's short tone raised his ire, and before he could think better of it, he said, "I'm not entirely sure I wish to take over the business."

"You think to seek your own venture? I am not sufficiently convinced you have the necessary knowledge to merit a loan for such an endeavor."

That stung even more. His father certainly considered him knowledgeable enough to frequently leave him saddled with the day-to-day business affairs and to take the lead on transactions.

"I have been considering a life that doesn't involve business at all," he responded in a tone more sharp than he'd intended.

His father threw a hand up in the air and said, "And waste all that I have given you."

Caught up in the tide of his frustration, Darkni snapped back, "You left me little choice. I've known that since I was a child."

His father dropped his head into his hand and groaned.

Darkni stood and said, "I can see this line of conversation will come to no good ends. With your permission, I will seek my bed." Without waiting for said permission, he turned on his heel.

"You think me a fool?" When his son continued toward the door without acknowledging the question, he said, "This is about magic."

Darkni stopped and turned around. "Perhaps it is. To paraphrase your own words, I'm not sufficiently convinced you have any logical reason to forbid me to study magic, or any knowledge in the area whatsoever."

"You think not? Kiraak Illum."

Darkniciad stood completely and utterly dumbfounded as his father spoke the words of magic that summoned up a ball of light to hover above his raised palm.

"If you think I don't know how brightly the magic burns in your blood, you are sadly mistaken." His father sighed, shuddered, and then closed his hand to dismiss the magic. "Please come and sit down."

Reeling from the startling revelation, Darkni returned to his chair.

His father drew in a deep breath and said, "I haven't cast that spell since before you were born. I've forgotten how it felt."

Darkni shook his head and said, "I don't understand."

"No, you don't. I've come to the conclusion that such was an error in judgement on my part. That is an error I shall rectify now. You know little of your grandfather. My father."

"That is true. You rarely speak of him, and I can't bear the pain in grandmother's eyes when the conversation turns to him."

His father nodded and said, "He taught me that spell, and a handful of others before he died. I was nine when mother told me he was gone."

"He practiced the Art?"

His father's eyes grew distant as he slipped into memory and answered, "Your grandfather was a powerful wielder of the Art. Wonders arose at his beck and call. Those who walk in the darkness feared him more than the rising of the sun. They spoke his name, Amril the White, as a curse when he was years younger than you are now. And yet, it was his doom."

Utterly engrossed in the telling, Darkni sat patiently as his father stared off into space for a second.

The older man turned his gaze back to his son and continued. "Others who knew him told me these things years later. Word reached your grandfather of a great evil — a vampire. The undead monster was terrorizing a village, stealing away people in the night, drinking their blood, and transforming them into vile mockeries of whom they once were — his vampiric brides and minions.

Your grandfather set out immediately. I remember the day he left. He promised to bring me back some trinket from his travels, as he always did. Little did he know that I overheard mother pleading with him not to go the night before, when they thought I was sleeping. She wanted him to give up the crusade and let others carry the torch so he could stay and be a father to me, but he would not be swayed.

I'm told that he found the monster's lair on the very day he arrived. Though the sun was sinking on the horizon, he was confident in his power, and his cause. He entered the cave, his staff ablaze with holy light, and cut a swath through the shambling zombies and skeletons that awaited him there.

The creature's vampiric minions fell next. One after the other, he destroyed them, freeing their souls to find their place in the afterlife. Then, at last, he faced the monster himself. It was then that he met his match.

The vampire must have been a student of the Art in life. In his unending death, he had grown even stronger. Time, which stalks us all, could not touch him, allowing him to learn all the magic that fell within his grasp. Your grandfather realized he could not defeat the monster, but refused to allow its evil to plague the world any longer. He took his staff, which was filled with great enchantments and blessed with holy power, brought it over his knee and broke it, releasing all that power in a cataclysm of retribution. He sacrificed his own life to ensure the vampire's end."

Darkniciad gasped, his heart racing from the tale and swelling with pride at the same time.

His father stared hard into his eyes and revealed, "He failed. His sacrifice was for nothing. Somehow, the vampire escaped. It was brought low by a paladin some six years later, but not before it had decimated the village and moved onto two more."

Darkni's shoulders slumped as he understood. "I had no idea. I didn't understand the pain that..." He trailed off and hung his head.

"Unfortunately, the sad tale of our line doesn't end there."

"Father, you don't have to. There's no need to relive this."

His father pointed at him and said, "Yes, there is. You must know the truth. The whole truth." He settled his hand on the table again. "Your grandfather took up his cause, the one that ended his life, as penance for the sins of our blood. You know of the Great Crater, and I'm sure you've heard of the tale of how it came to be."

"Of course."

"Your many times great grandfather was Dark Obsidian, the wizard whose wrath and disregard for life brought about that devastation and death. Death that continues to this very day as creatures from the lightless underworld find their way to the surface to spread it. Those are the sins of our blood that I sought to spare you from. Magic has brought us nothing but pain, death, and despair."

Darkniciad sat back in his chair, trying to process the enormity of it all.

After a couple of minutes, where he appeared to be in his own state of contemplation, the older man said, "Now you know. Whether you agree with me or not, I believe I had more than sufficient reason to deter you from this path."

"No, father, I cannot fault you for your decision."

"Now, I will ask a question of you. Answer me truthfully. Have you pursued the study of magic despite my objections?"

Fear gripped him as Darkni considered whether to do as he had been told, or to continue to keep his passion hidden. In the space of a single breath, he flipped back and forth multiple times between the two choices, backing them up with equally powerful rationale. Then he suddenly realized this was the moment he had to face his future — his destiny.

"Yes, father, I have."

His father nodded. "I feared as much. I tried to convince myself your absences and curious behaviors were the result of seeking the company of women — a perfectly natural occurrence at your age, if an often foolish one."

Darkni prayed the warmth he felt in his ears wasn't visible, considering he had been doing exactly that for the last few days.

"However, I believe I knew the truth," his father continued. "If you have continued your studies, I fear there is little that will deter you. The reason I have not used magic since before you were born is because every taste makes me hunger for more. Even now a part of me wants to demand your spellbooks that I may devour what is within."

The older man took a moment to master his passion. He squared his shoulders, cleared his throat, and continued in a more familiar tone. "To those ends, I will make a bargain with you. I will reduce my dependence upon you in the business so you may have time to pursue this path. You will continue to receive your share of the profits, as usual. In exchange, I never want to hear or speak of magic again."

"Of course," Darkni quickly agreed. "Had I known the pain it causes you, I would have never broached the subject."

His father waved a finger at him. "That is not all. It is your burden to find those who will take up the duties that were meant to be yours. It is your responsibility to see that the business does not suffer in your absence. There will come a time when I am too old to shoulder those burdens myself. If you have not prepared others, those burdens will be yours."

"I understand, and agree," he said. Though he knew it meant he would not be able to immediately seek a full time tutor or mentor in the Art, it was a reasonable demand. As luck would have it, a few names sprang immediately to mind. There were men within the company whom he believed were underutilized in his favor. They respected their place and rarely complained, but given the opportunity to advance, he believed they could very well excel.

"Know this... Despite my misgivings, I wish you well. If this is your true path to satisfaction and success, then I hope what I have tried to teach you aids you along the way. My only desire has always been for you to have more than was provided to me."

Darkni smiled at the unexpected show of affection. "Though I surely rankled under your instruction at times, I know that it will serve me in whatever path I choose. Thank you."

The rare, faint hints of a smile touched his father's face as the man lifted a hand, and extended it across the table. Darkni took it and shook as he would with a customer.

"The deal is done," his father said as their hands unclasped. "Now, we have an early morning departure, so we should seek our beds."

Darkni stood and said, "Of course. Goodnight, father."

"Goodnight."

Darkni stepped out the door and turned toward his own, his mind awhirl. He had to speak to Gerard and Willan to determine their willingness to take on the necessary duties. Provided they were amicable, there was the matter of providing proper training, experience, and compensation. The last of which would need to come from his own share of the profits.

As he laid a hand on the door to his room, it struck him that he was more engrossed in matters of the business now than at any time in his life. No doubt, his canny father had anticipated that. Perhaps he had even hoped it might awaken a different passion in his son.

At the very least, it probably amused him.

Darkni chuckled and shook his head as he unlocked the door. Well done, father, he thought. There was always an option — another path to achieve your goals.

It was one of the lessons that he knew would indeed serve him well as he took the first step into his new life.

****

Hope you enjoyed this look back into Darkni's history. There's at least one or two more stories I want to tell from his past, so they'll show up in time.

This is the earliest story in the Nobles by Deed series at this point, because Darkni is about 20 years older than all the other companions. You can find timeline information in my Bio, if you're interested in how all the stories fit together.

For those who may be curious, I started writing on SOTM Ch. 19 again. It's doubled in size over the last week or so from where it's sat for far too long. It's hardly earthshattering news, but at least it's progress.

Do take a moment to vote. ( only once per reader ) That's the fuel that keeps me writing. Comments, favorites, and follows are also a nice boost.