35: A buried history

A buried history

It was only hours before when Adela thought she could put an end to the enmity between the de Lanarks and the von Conradies, but putting herself physically between her father and Egon felt like giving her back to an exploding volcano in an attempt to face a destructive tornado.2

Let no blood other than mine spill here tonight... 

She was unable to see what face Egon was making right then, but the heaves in his chest that brushed over her backside had started to become demanding. Whereas her father's mouth was set in a thin line.

Bloodlust filled Kaiser's blue eyes as the will of Extremizer submerged his, the desire to use his unsheathed sword like a madman was independent enough to influence him. However, the Archduke was never unaware of the precious being holding his arm like a lifeline.

"Go ahead. Throw your weapon at me!" Egon barked from behind her.

The words sounded all wrong, for they were not the ones the lady currently feared the most. Her eyes tried to make sense of her father's following actions seeing how the Archduke's face went blank before he obeyed the strange prompt he had received.

Kaiser threw Extremizer at Egon, the latter grabbed a hold of the heavy weapon effortlessly, he pushed the Archduke's test beyond swinging it twice in the air, never breaking eye contact with Kaiser.

He sneered, "Satisfied?" 

It was as if the storm within the Archduke had subsided, a somber Kaiser went around his daughter and snatched the sword away from Egon's extended hand.

He looked down at his daughter's muddled face, "Let's go back home, Adelaide,"

"It's my turn to speak," Egon objected quickly, a frown creasing his forehead. "Seeing how you are done with what you came here to do tonight, you would allow me that much, wouldn't you?"

Kaiser's eyebrows pulled together. He took Adela's good hand and pulled her to his side.

"I am listening,"

"Shapeshifters obey their Alpha… But whose orders do these organized armed forces in your forest follow?"

She watched as the blood drained away from her father's face. Studying Egon's face after, his frown was as hard as ever, nevertheless, it was the calmest she had seen him in the presence of the Archduke. 

Egon stood with crossing arms over the ripped shirt he put on again, "Ask yourself... Or is it that you already have that answer, only it would cost you too much to admit it... Kaiser de Lanark,"

Rendered speechless, all the Archduke could do was gape. 

Throwing one last regretful look at Adela's injured hand, Egon walked where his horse was treading back and forth, digging his hooves in the mud anxiously as if aware of the seriousness of the situation.

Father and daughter followed with apprehensive eyes as Egon mounted Xavier. It was then that Kaiser's pride finally made a comeback.

He took one step forward, "You seem to know an awful lot about monsters!" He shouted.

Egon feigned obliviousness to what the Archduke had said.

"How did you survive them that day…" Kaiser murmured to himself.

Egon stiffened for three long seconds before galloping on a bareback Xavier and disappearing from sight.

Kaiser tugged at his daughter's good hand, "There is nothing here for us anymore,"

"Wait," she let out a soft request and tugged back at his hand, "What was all that about calling the rebels of the forest armed forces?"

She uttered what had confused her last, but there was a list that preceded it.

Kaiser left her hand to hold his left arm when it throbbed painfully.

"Are you All right, father?"

He was not all right at all.

"Lanark's Forest… It was home to shapeshifters a long time ago,"

Home? He made it sound like shapeshifters were civilized enough to form a community.

"Back at the age of the empire, drawn boundaries were non-existent, natural ones defined a tribe's territory. Man lived in small villages by the water, shapeshifters inhabited the woodland, and right where mana stones manifested, there thrived the groups of wizards and witches,"

"Father," Adela breathed, only realizing how tired her father must have been once he started inventing things.

"Do not look at me like that," he reprimanded, "It is but our buried history... Mana stones were the result of deliberate manipulation, crafted by those who could bend laws of nature, the rarest of them all were gifted, withdrawn, and sacred, they scattered here and there and became leaders once discovered..."

Adela waited patiently for the episode to end. 

"...History called them Healers, for their pure disposition had a way of spreading to those around them,"

Her neck prickled; she wondered if the day her father spoke of earlier that evening was already here. Did the events of the day tamper with the Archduke's mind and shook his sanity?

The glint of light left Kaiser's blue eyes as he gazed in the direction of the forest as if seeing it.

"It was theirs, Adela. Until our ancestors decided they were entitled to the water... Their packs immigrated out of the continent, but one refused to leave and made a treaty with mankind instead: no human was allowed on their soil in exchange for a promise never to step foot outside of the dark side... They lived in total isolation, a mutated harmony of what had been before...And humans who crossed over to the west side of the forest knowingly? They received what they asked for..."

Adela's heart skipped. 

"They never got out," Kaiser whispered. 

Adela shuddered. The helpless as Egon called them. Her stomach turned realizing that he was talking about his father back then, she shuddered further as the source of the unusually large and continuous scars on his body became known.

Shapeshifters.

"Adelaide…There is no way…Absolutely no way for a child to have made it out alive, not in a human state,"

"Egon is…"

Kaiser shook his head.

She covered her mouth with trembling fingers. At this point, she would have been surprised if Egon was a normal man.

"He is not a shapeshifter," the Archduke spoke confidently. "The ring you have on you would have shone when he…" He looked down at her bandaged hand meaningfully.

"His hands are always gloved," She murmured.

The Archduke shook his head again, "It is irrelevant, the magic in that ring goes deeper than any skin. Only outmatched by the magic in this sword," he pointed with his eyes at a now sheathed Extremizer. 

"But it is not just him… His brother was a baby back then..."

The Archduke frowned in pain.

"A baby died in that forest that day?"

"…No, I met him today,"

Terror filled Kaiser's widened eyes.

"Your Excellency!"

Adela flinched before whirling when Gustav yelled from afar.

"It is an emergency! The knights…They have fallen ill in masses!"

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