Twenty Four
The Heartless Swamp
The troubled apprentice, Micah stirred on the lumpy couch that served as his bed.
The dank shack around him moaned in the wind, a maddening leak from the rusted roof often kept Umbra up at night.
But Umbra wasn't there anymore.
Micah was left alone with his vile master & her sycophantic pet.
Relentlessly the whippoorwills and sinister creatures of the swamp belted their cacophonous wild chorus. Micah didn't even notice it, but rest was no harbor anymore.
Every night while he slept, Lady Crow leant over him, whispering sinister hexes into his dreams to unravel her apprentice's sanity.
Umbra wasn't around to stop her- he had outlived his usefulness to her and was discarded like so many servants before him.
Now the real work can begin. Lady Crow would have her instrument, wielding a powerful artifact on her behest.
As he shuddered every night in his vivid nightmares, Micah clutched his wooden pendant tightly, gifted by his sister, trying to gleam whatever protection it could still offer.
The matching half to the pendant his sister wore, even now; he knew as long as she had it, there was hope for her.
In an unfamiliar city, a bricked square amongst a tangle of streets and tile-roof terraces, he found himself, the same nightmare he relived every night now. It was night overhead, but all was not well in the city, bluish flames licked the skies in his peripherals- the city was under attack.
Nearby homes, with their desperate inhabitants had attempted to barricade their doors with anything they could find to endure the threat.
But as each dwelling was torched by the marauding enemy, their hopes were snuffed out.
A familiar black-hooded maleficus stormed through the streets, burning everything around him in blue sorcerous fire.
Some were dragged into the streets to be burned alive by the rampaging monster. Others were simply burned alive in their homes, helpless to flee, while some were ripped from their dwellings and hurled into the air with telekinetic ease.
The ghostly blue fire was unmistakable- Umbra's brand of sorcery, it permeated throughout the slaughter.
Micah could feel the heat enveloping him and the smell of burnt flesh.
Micah could do little but observe this doomed city burn away, and the victims pile up.
The visage was definitely Umbra, but the murderous rage was out of character for his departed friend.
A familiar pale woman ran towards him through the flames:
His sister- Lydia, still vampiric but noticeably more human and still wearing her medallion.
But this respite would be short, as he reached out to his fleeing sister she was ripped apart by blue flames, her lifeless form collapsing in an ashen pillar.
Micah could feel the warm blood run down his cheeks, or perhaps it was a tear, he couldn't be certain.
As Umbra himself approached, his devilish grin and icy demeanor was frightening.
So, called...
Friend... Souldrinker whispered.
It was then Micah would be ripped away from the carnage to rise from his troubled sleep. There he lay- breathless and damp.
His recurring nightmares were getting more intense every night.
While he toiled away in the mucky mire and sparred with rotten wooden sparring dummies, his thoughts always returned to his nightmares.
He eventually would confide in his master- the closest thing he had to a friend now.
Lady Crow always told him to trust his instincts and his dreams were surely premonitions.
Now Micah did his best to avoid long rests, practicing swordplay into the night all the while accompanied by the disembodied whispers of his sword.
But as fatigue wore down his resolve, the whispers from Souldrinker eroded his sanity further.
Micah was in a tailspin, whispers tormenting him in the day and nightmares plagued him as he slept.
Lady Crow was breaking him down and Umbra was not around to interfere as she spun her deceptive webs.
Now Micah woke exhausted as he drudged through each fencing match with Cassius who actually triumphed on occasion.
Typically, he would just hack Cassius to pieces and then sew him back together afterwards while Lady Crow refused to lift a finger.
Even the ritual circles Micah drew were sloppy and crooked, rarely even working when empowered.
I must be strong enough to confront Lydia by now he thought.
If she is still...
Alive... Souldrinker whispered, mocking him.
Lady Crow watched patiently, knowing her instrument would soon be ready.
Suspiciously, Cassius was absent one day.
When Micah alerted Lady Crow, she simply told him to focus on his training, he was almost ready.
Micah was at the mangrove training spot toiling away one day when Cassius returned in a frenzy.
Micah planted his sword in the soft ground and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyelids feeling heavy.
Cassius stumbled through the roots, Lady Crow following deftly behind him. The old Malefica's stony face was strangely sullen today.
Cassius fell at Micah's feet, a smell reminiscent of Micah's nightmares clung to the fetid familiar.
In a rotted hand of mismatched fingers, Cassius presented Micah with his grim message. "He is on a rampage, he is hunting..."
Micah noticed the singed pendant in the rotten hand. "...Vampires," he finished. He snatched the pendant; it was surely Lydia's. Sure enough, despite the blood and scorching it remained intact.
It looked the same as it was when he carved it years ago, only now blue cinders flickered on it- the aftermath of blue flames.
Umbra's blue flames.
Micah fumed. He didn't want to believe he was living through his own nightmares. He searched mentally for why Umbra would commit such acts.
Go...
You must...
Souldrinker whispered in his ear, its runic blade flickering in the filtered sunlight of the tangled canopy.
"I'll kill him!" Micah erupted, calling the blade to his hand and clutching it tightly.
Cassius, a hidden half-grin on his face chimed in: "He is stronger now, stronger than you, I think."
Micah could feel the power in the blue cinders, the familiar was correct.
"How did he surpass me so quickly?" Micah's frustration apparent.
Lady Crow tilted her head as she leaned on her cane. "I think you must meet my contact. He can get you what you want."
She knew her raging apprentice would take this bait.
"Where is he? I want justice! I want payback!" Micah exclaimed.
Lady Crow weaved the location of her informant, a surviving vampire into Micah's thoughts with a twirling mist. "Go to him, see this through to the end."
"Oh, I intend to," Micah assured her with murderous intent.