Ignite the Sun
Chapter 57: A tale of two orphans

Chapter 57: A tale of two orphans

Calen looked at Cassian expectantly.

"Well? Show us the things you found."

His friend produced a scrap of paper from his pocket, while Maya took out a dagger from behind her belt.

He took the strange blade and weighed it in his hand, carefully inspecting the weapon.

"You said he opened a portal with it?"

"And maybe created a physical barrier, yes."

"Hmmm..."

It reminded him of sacrificial knives from ancient times, rough and large, yet with a strange elegance. The blade and the handle were a single piece, as if cast instead of forged - what was even stranger its metal surface was linked with uneven indentations and scratch marks, like someone carved it.

"The dagger isn’t enchanted, but there’s a strange power to it, probably whatever horrific equivalent of magic the Blightborn use."

"Can we use it somehow?" Maya questioned.

"I think we can stop Kalim from ever returning to Mountainfall, at least using this specific power." He put down the blade and looked at Isara who was studying the piece of paper. "You know the myth?"

"Sure do, you will as well." She handed him the message.

Calen sighed when he read the name

"Of course it’s this one..."

"I personally think it’s quite romantic." Elira commented.

"Because you weren’t told hundreds of cautionary tales about people trying to recreate it."

"Calen is right, whenever a mage loses everything they turn to this story and it always ends in disaster." Isara confirmed.

"Excuse me, but could you maybe tell us what the story is about for the two of us?" Maya interjected.

"Sure - it’s a myth about a time when the Moon Goddess died and the Sun God brought her back to life." Calen explained. "Without getting into details, during the war with the church of blasphemy the Moon Goddess got mortally injured-"

"Gods can die?" Maya asked in surprise.

"Of course they can, it’s ridiculously difficult to kill them, but it can be done - supposedly the younger the god the easier it is."

"...so killing a being like the Sun God...?"

"Would be nigh impossible currently, yes, but still theoretically doable."

"Yeah, that’s all nice, but I don’t think we’re currently trying to kill a god, could you please go back to the story?" Cassian asked.

"Yes, of course - so the Moon Goddess got wounded, and the Sun God couldn’t do anything to help her so she died soon after. Driven by grief the Sun God devised a magic circle that in exchange for half of his domain would revive his dead lover."

"So the magic circle worked?" Maya’s brows shot up.

"Quite the opposite, despite his many attempts, the Moon Goddess remained dead - It was only when the Higher Being heard his plea that something changed."

"I thought the Higher Being was made up?"

"It’s a myth Maya, most of it is made up." Cake coughed. "Anyway, the Higher Being bestowed a never seen before rune upon the Sun God, a rune of fate, which allowed him to recreate the circle and resurrect his dead lover."

"What about the circle that’s included with the story?" Cassian asked.

"That’s the sad part, it’s authentic - what’s more we have a full version, well we had the full version before the invasion, but people still try to recreate it on their own."

"Why?"

"Did you not pay attention to the story Cass? The ritual needed half of the Sun domain to work, that’s such a vast amount of divine energy it would disintegrate anyone who tried to wield it."

"Wait, so that ritual is real?" Elira looked astonished.

"Hard to tell since we don’t have anyone who’s even close to being able to perform it, but the results of people’s failed attempts at recreating it hint that it might be."

"How so?"

"Well countless mages tried their hand at remaking this magic circles - most only hypothetically, never going beyond drawing the circle. If you did however try to perform the ritual, you were lucky if it blew up in your face - the alternative was much worse."

He tapped the circle on the piece of paper.

"Those who ’succeeded’ in their attempts almost always gave up half of their soul for the circle to work, only to get flawed results - undead, mutated abominations, sometimes even soulless husks who couldn’t do anything beyond performing basic bodily functions."

"So to sum things up there’s nothing to be gained from following this lead, as it’s a situation that happened many times before." Cassian said.

"Meaning the only one left is the tailor girl." Calen looked at Maya. "Do you know her?"

"Not personally, but I’ve heard of her - she’s an orphan who tried to salvage her parents business after they died. The only notable thing about her is that she was once arrested for possession of highly combustible materials."

"...she made bombs?"

"No idea, she refused to explain herself so we just jailed her for a few weeks and then let her go."

"I suppose interrogating her is a good idea then..."

***

Cole told them Bella loved in one of the poorer districts, but if Calen was being honest, he couldn’t quite tell the difference.

The streets were just as clean, and the houses in a similarly good condition as the ones close to the fortress - the only noticeable difference was that the area was bordering the Pit.

"Right, so I’m going to knock and tell her the guards have some questions for her, but you’re going to lead the actual questioning?" Maya asked.

"Yes, if we just accosted her out of nowhere as some random people she would have never answered our questions."

"If you say so..." She knocked on the door. "Miss Bella? I’m this is the city guard, we’re here to ask some questions."

A few seconds later the door cracked open, letting the tailor peer out.

"Ask about what?" Bella asked in a shaky voice.

"We’re investigating Konrad’s case, and we’ve heard from Cole that you two used to go out together."

The tailor’s yes widened in alarm, but she dried to maintain a calm expression - she carefully slipped out of the building and closed the door behind her.

"Of course, what do you want to know?"

"This will be a rather long and private discussion, would you mind if we came in?"

"You can’t go in there!" She yelled. "Um, uh... I-It’s messy."

The group looked at each other, as far as excuses go this one was pretty bad."

"I assure you we’ve seen much worse places miss."

"You can’t." She covered the door with her body.

Maya sighed.

"I don’t want to do this, but if you don’t let us in I will force my way inside - your choice."

The tailor didn’t move for a few seconds, but then sagged and moved away from the door.

"Good choice."

She walked inside and then froze.

"I think you guys might want to see this..."

***

The insides of the small house were filled with sheets of material depicting different versions of the same image - attempts at completing the magic circle from the myth.

"Huh, so this is where he tried new designs..." Calen mumbled.

Bella was sitting on a couch with a dropped head, clearly expecting the worst.

"So, how did this happen?" He asked.

"What?" The tailor asked, clearly confused by the question.

"How did he come to test those magic circles in your house? I was under the impression that he didn’t know this circle was controversial."

"He was doing this for me..." Bella whispered.

"He wanted to resurrect your parents as well?"

"No, he wanted to bring back only my parents."

"What? He didn’t care about his own family?"

She shrugged.

"His family never cared about him, so neither did he - it was my family which took him off the streets and showed him true familial bonds."

"So when he became distraught that his family died...?"

"It was our family, not his biological parents. For all I know those fuckers might still be alive, drunk in some ditch, completely unaware of their son’s fate."

It certainly wasn’t a development Calen was expecting, but it did make sense - his motivation to bring back people who showed him love when his real parents rejected him would be very strong.

"Did you know that the circle wouldn’t work?"

"...yes."

"And you didn’t warn him?"

"Of course I did, many times in fact - but he didn’t listen. He was convinced that he would succeed where other have failed, that he would triumph where even the gods faltered."

"He had a superiority complex?" Elira asked.

"No, he was just believed that he couldn’t fail, because that would mean disappointing me, which was complete bullshit of course I would never turn on him for not doing the impossible."

"Why did you try to cover for him? Sorry to say it so bluntly, but he’s already dead, it’s not like we could actually punish him for what he did."

"And to be honest people might have been a little more sympathetic if they knew he did for someone else." Calen added.

"I... I don’t know."