Slowly his eyes opened, he couldn’t feel anything but when his vision opened he was facing the ceiling and Erica,Glibert,Fiora,Gus and Irena were leaning over him and watching him, he saw he was surrounded by all the faces looking curiously at him.
(Arwin)dear god not again
And then he fainted again, others saw he him pass out again and looked at each other.
After some time his eyes opened again, this time he was seated in a chair and he saw no one was infront of him, he took a breath of relief,
“oh thank god, it was dream i thought those idiots were just waiting for me to wake up” he spoke to himself, but then he realised he was in familiar building, “oh wait i am still in the guild—”,
Someone smacked him on the head from behind, “Damn right you are”said gus, as everyone was standing behind him all the time, then they walked infront.
“Ooww...”,then arwin looked at himself he was covered in bandages, his forehead wrapped and the bottom of him left eye was also bandaged, he wasn’t feeling any pain at the moment.
Now everyone was standing in front of him, “how long was i passed out”asked arwin
“since last night probably”replied Erica” looks like you have some explanation to do”
“yeah i don’t think so”he said “i have to go now”he said
“go ahead, try it”she said
he tried to get up from the chair and suddenly sparks of pain went through his body and he moaned and fell back into the chair, then the events of that night flowed into his head, he placed his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes as they became moist.
“hey! You think this is your personal whorehouse, than you come in anytime and fuck around and leave as you wish”said gus angrily “why were you fighting one of the council heads, explain yourself!”
“there is nothing to explain!”yelled arwin in return, “he killed my friends and i intend to exact vengeance upon him, that’s all.................. I was a guild mage once and Vincent Klaus was the leader, one day he just killed everyone but i survived, that’s why i want to kill him”said arwin
A moment later Gilbert’s fist landed on his left side of the face,
“great, hit an injured man, very nice of you”said arwin
“you motherfucker, you risk the lives of people for those who are already dead. Have you rocks in you head instead of a brain!?”said gilbert
“this has nothing to do you people, this is my personal matter” said arwin
“and you think the council will not suspect us of being involved” said Fiora
Everyone started arguing what consequences arwin’s action would lead too and everyone’s conclusion came with arwin being guilty and placed blame on him. All were shouting abuses and insults, they tried to come up with a solution for the situation, in which every solution ended up with arwin being handed over to the council.
“enough!”came the guildmaster’s voice from behind as he walked in, “everyone go back to your place!, we will decide what is to be done when we receive the council’s response tomorrow”he said, one by one they started leaving. Gus came to arwin and grabbed him by the collar,
“if we receive a threat from the guild, no matter what anyone else says, the first thing i will be doing is kill you”he said and pushed him back into the chair.
Marco eyed arwin, he said nothing and ordered Irena to place him in the guest room for the time being and then left.
Irena came to arwin and help him stand on his feet, “wait, how did i get here?”he asked
“that boy brought you here”she said pointing towards a kid standing by the door, he was around twelve year old, he was wearing a white puffy shirt, with a short dark red coat with black borders and golden linings, he wore brown pants and blacks boots. His dressing was almost as that of a noble.
Arwin immediately broke away from Irena and approached the boy, he directly caught the boy’s coat and dragged him outside in the yard and threw him against the wall.
“who are you!? and how did you find me?”he asked
“i am the one who saved your life, so i’d appreciate if you show some respect”he said, even though a kid his tone was that of a young adult.
“i have never seen you before, how did you know to bring me back to this place?”he asked, arwin was getting a strange feeling from the boy, he suspected him to be a wizard of some sort but he was definitely not a normal kid.
“when you were lying there infront of me at the brink of death, i looked into your mind and went through all your memories and though you had planned never to come here again after your battle, but as you were dying, i thought this was the best place to bring you to save you”said the kid
“what are you?”said arwin in panic
“i am a spirit from “The Other Side”, and you summoned me into this word, you are my master”said the kid
Arwin’s started having a headache, for a moment he simply stood there trying to figure out what was going on, “wait, you looked into my memories?”
“yes and you have quite an interesting past, it made me laugh so much when you were beaten like a prisoner in your own house and that time when you-- ”
Arwin quickly caught him by the collar and held him up against the wall, “i don’t know what you are and where you came from, but you utter one word to anyone around here and i’ll make sure you are forever stuck in this world”said in a threatening voice.
“relax, i cannot discuss my master’s secrets without his permission”he said, then his eyes started to glow red like rubies and his canines grew out of his mouth,
“now if would you put me down”
Arwin quickly released him and stepped back “begone demon and do not return until i call for you”said arwin
A black arrowhead tail popped out of his pants from behind, he shook the tail and then his body melted into the air and he disappeared into thin air. After that Arwin went back in to get some rest.
Next morning.......
Irena helped arwin to clean his wounds and change his bandages, she helped him out of the guest room. Everyone was already present in the lounge. Arwin took and seat, stings of pain went through his back when he bent to sit. For a few moments everyone was silent, then a raven flew in carrying an envelope, it dropped the envelope infront of irena and flew outside. Irena picked it up and opened it
“read it aloud”said the Marco
Irena read the letter, “this is to notify that Vincent Klaus, one of the main head of the council of mages has resigned from his post for the well being of his health and to continue his research. All of his official matters regarding the mage guilds will now be assigned to other head members.”she spoke, “ that’s all it says”
“what happened?”asked Erica
“looks like it was not brought into the council’s notice”said marco
“are you sure?”asked Gilbert
“if it was reported then they would have taken immediate action” said marco,
“even back when arwin first attempted to assassinate him, Vincent suppressed the matter and no action was taken by the council, looks like he did the same again. And now that he has resigned, this thing might not be a problem for us now.”
Everyone took a breath of relief, for some reason arwin was sitting there in shock. Marco came to arwin,
“promise that you will not do anything like this again and if you honor that promise you can stay as a part of this guild”said marco
Arwin stood up struggling with pain,“ i promise, thank you very much and i am sorry for the trouble i caused”
“apology accepted”said marco and went into his office. Everyone got back to their usual self and their hostile vibe towards arwin changed back to normal.
Irena threw something at arwin, he caught it and saw it was his wrist band with the guild’s insignia in it., “as long as you are here, you might as well wear it”she said to which he simply nodded and put on the band.
“that was a close one mister, be careful from here on”said Irena to arwin.
Gilbert and arwin just shared a look and nodded to each other which was worth more words.
Fiora came to arwin holding something in a cloth “listen arwin there something else you should know”, then pulled away the cloth and gave him the two broken pieces of greywand, “the boy who brought you here gave this as well”she said
“yeah it was broken during the fight, it’s just scrap now” he left the pieces on the table. He walked up to irena, “can i have that”he said pointing to the note. Irena handed it to him, he took it and went straight out without any word.
He spent the entire day locked up in his room in the dark, without eating or drinking. He was lying on his bed his hand placed on his forehead across his eyes, then a drop of tear came from his eyes and went sideways on his cheek followed by more others.
(Arwin)He is gone now. i had once chance to get my vengeance, to set things right, to finally let go of the burden and i failed. Now the burden just seems to grow. I should have prepared better, it wasn’t suppose to go this way, all these years i had only one thing on my mind, that was my purpose and now it’s gone, it’s lost forever, i won’t find him again. I have failed myself.
He stayed like that for a while, after some time he woke up and hurried out of the bed he went to the table and picked up a knife, he placed the knife at his wrist to cut his vein. He pressed the knife against his skin, he tried to swipe it but just couldn’t, the blade cut the top of his skin forming a band of blood around his wrist and dripping drop by drop.
“Ahhhhhh!, damn it”he threw the knife aside and ran and jumped out of the window. he climbed on to the rooftop and went on.
Later than night Fiora was going through the street back at her place, she turned into an alley taking the shortcut, a sight caught her attention. At the end of the alley beyond which was the river canal, a man sitting with legs spread and back rested against the wall. Four or five bottles of various alcoholic drinks were lying around him, his clothes were simple and soiled, his hair covered the upper half of his face, it was unable to see his face in the dark, but he wore a band in his hand with Dragon Nest Guild’s insignia. Erica went near the guy and lifted up his face from his chin and saw it was arwin. she saw his face was blank and his eyes were open but as good as dead, he was lifeless.
“dear god arwin, what are you doing here?, ah!, you reek of liquor”she said, then she saw the blood around his hand, “what happened to you?”
“uhhh, l-l-let go of me”he said, and then tried to get up. She held his hand and tried to help him, but he pushed her hand away, “i don’t need your ......h-h-help”he said while stumbling but somehow got on his feet.
“your’re drunk!”she said, “you’ll hurt yourself”
“oh yeah!, whats it to you bitch!, you are good with your friends fluttering around, what do you care if i live or die, you Fucking! Ugly! Whore!”he shouted at her
“i am telling you for the last time let’s get you out of here and back into your senses” she said
“i don’t need you!, leave me alone!”he yelled and pushed her.
“bastard!”she said and slapped him, he whimpered for a moment then yelled in anger and punched her in the face. She fell back against the wall, he came close to her and hit her again. He went for another hit, she caught his hand and punched in his face and he fell to the ground.
“fine!, then rot here”she said, a red mark was forming on her cheek, she spit blood beside him and went away.
He crawled and sat against the wall, his back was hurt and paining, some of his wounds opened up and started to burn, he picked up a bottle around him and took a sip but he bottle was empty, he screamed in frustration and smashed the bottle against the wall. He lay there for the rest of the night.