[mystogan]

sorry for the late update, there has been a lot of things going on in life and couldn't write because of it also this chapter was difficult to write, but thank you for the constant views
sometimes the chapters might be late to come but i will definately write it, not leaving this story unfinished, i'll try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible.
for now here is the 23rd chapter

"Chapter 23: Hangover"

Spoiler for Chapter 23: Hangover:

The next day early in the morning arwin came to guild extremely hung over. There was no one in the guild, only Irena cleaning up the bar counter and arranging the bottles of liquor accordingly. Arwin entered and came to the bar stumbling and fell into a chair. He wore a white soiled shirt and muddied pants, his hair were messed up and there were dark circle beneath his eyes.

“you look terrible, rough night?”she asked while putting a roll of cloth into wine class to wipe it.

“my head is exploding!, give me a drink to stop my senses.......or a loaded crossbow to shoot myself between the eyes”he said in a tired voice, “.... i have to stop this now”

“stop getting drunk?”she asked

“no, stop getting sober”he said

“looks like you are still drunk, why don’t you try drinking water” she said

Suddenly a hand came from behind and grabbed his collar and pulled him, arwin stumbled almost falling to the floor and saw gilbert standing infront.

“what are you doing!?, you mad?”said arwin, gilbert grabbed him by the shirt’s collar and dragged him outside, “Leave me!, you fuck. What are you doing!?”, gilbert took him into the yard and from there into the woods in backside of the guild. He pulled him and threw him against a tree,

“you motherfucker!, how dare you touch her” yelled gilbert, he was furious, “she was trying to help you and you hit her!?”, for a moment arwin stood breathing heavy and holding his head.

“so she sent you, what are you her lap dog?”he said

“just shut your gob” said gilbert “have you gone completely mental?, getting drunk and behaving like this, can’t you see you are hurting others”

“hurting others!?, let them get hurt!, what of me!?, i am hurt i am in pain, nobody sees that!”he said

“i don’t give a shit what your problem is, it does not give you any right to take it out your anger and frustration on others”

“of course you don’t, nobody does. i know why you are here, i hit her in the face, may be that caused some problem when you were stuffing your cock in her mouth”

Gilbert quickly swung his hand and slapped arwin with all his might, arwin fell on the ground holding his right cheek, cowering and almost sobbing.

“say that again and i will rip out your tongue”said gilbert, “all you have ever done is cause problems for us, you are nothing but nuisance, an utter and complete failure”

Arwin was still lying on the floor, he sat up and rested against a tree, “what do you know about failure, you are the fucking Flame Wizard who ended the noble war in Isengard and saved the city, what could you ever possibly understand!?”

“hey!, you think others don’t have any problems, you think i don’t have any problems? that girl serving drinks at the bar doesn’t have any problems?, we all have our issues and you must deal with them yourself” said gilbert “Fiora is the one who patched you up when that kid brought you to us half dead, you should be grateful to her but instead you behave like a total asshole and hit her, don’t you have any shame?”

For a moment arwin din’t had anything to say,

“stop acting as if you’re the only one who is going through hardship”said gilbert

“easy for you to say”said arwin

“you know what your problem is, you act all tough and cool infront of others while in truth you are weak and insecure and you want other people to be sympathetic to you about your problems and when they are, you like to show them as if they are idiots who can’t understand anything. You just like to live that moment where you show off others where you have gone through lot of hardship and suffering and that they cannot understand it.”said gilbert

“what is wrong with you?, do you have rocks in your skull?”he added

Arwin couldn’t think straight anymore, listening to gilbert made his head pain even more but he started to think that if that is really how he behaved like gilbert said, the more this thought came to his mind the more anger started to boil within him

“just fuck off” he said

“and i thought that you were a smart and clever guy”said gilbert

“clearly you don’t know shit about me”said arwin with a hardening expression

“there it is again, ...huh, do whatever the fuck you want, but stay away if this is how you are going to be.......”he said and turned around to leave

“Mark my words, the only reason of your suffering is you”said gilbert

“NOOO!!!!”yelled arwin and quickly leapt at gilbert,

gilbert turned and caught arwin’s hand, he got behind him and locked his hand at his back, he place his leg between arwin’s and pushed him, arwin tripped and was slamed on the ground. As soon as he hit the ground an immense burst of pain rose from his lower back at the spot where he was stabbed.

“truth isn’t the only thing that hurts, is it”said gilbert with and walked away.
while arwin lay in the dirt sobbing, then the liquor from the last night came into effect and he threw up hot vomit which was mostly stomach juice.

.................................................. ....

At the magic council,......

At twilight after his evening tea Ewen was headed to the Gareth’s office which was on the second highest tower of the main building structure of the council in Agarat. When he entered he saw gareth sitting at his desk making some notes in a ledger who saw the young wizard entering. He took off his reading glasses and rested his quill in the ink bottle.

“good evening master”said Ewen

“good evening to you too”he replied “what speculation have you come up with this time”

“do i really need one to meet my mentor”he said, then gareth looked at him with an obvious expression, “but there is something i want to ask”he said

“there it is” said gareth,“go ahead what is it?”

“its about master Vincent, he resigned a few days ago suddenly, he told that he wanted to dedicate his time to his research”said Ewen

“yes, a pity though he has been at it for years even before he joined the council but hasn’t yielded any real output from it”gareth explained.

“his research is really something though, he has been trying to use alchemy to heal the human body. if he creates a new spell or method to do so, it will revolutionize the medicine with the use of magic, right now the only magic that can at the most heal injuries is by using Zaiphon and it is limited to only those wizards who have been practicing it for years”said ewen, “however my curiosity is, won’t it be easier for him to do his research here at the council, is this really the only reason he left?”

“we all have our secrets ewen, i can understand your curiosity, but unless it concerns with the council or the magic world, what he does is none of our business”said gareth

“i understand”said ewen

They talked some more as the moonlight was now shining over the main towers of agarat, later ewen left the main towers of the council and went to his quarters.

........................................

One week later......

The guild was as usual, usual people working, drinking and hanging out with an exception of a certain person missing.

“have you seen him anywhere?”asked Irena

“the last i saw any of him was like almost a week ago”said gus, “so what did he quit or something?”

“oh he better not, he has bills pending here to be paid”said Irena

“he is probably locked himself up”said gilbert

“locked himself?, the last time i saw him, he came here drunk early in the morning and you took him somewhere, what did you do to him?”

“nothing, we just talked”said gilbert

“the way i saw it you started talking with your fist, so now it makes me wonder if he is lying somewhere with a broken jaw”

“he is fine”said gilbert.

Later than noon Irena took a trip at arwin’s apartment, with a gift basket covered with cloth, she came to his apartment and found a staircase from the side that led upstsairs, as she went up and came near the door to arwin’s room, she could smell a foul odour.

(Irena)what the hell is this?

She knocked but first but no answer came , she knocked again and said her name still there was no response. She twisted the nob and pushed hard with her shoulder and door popped open and she entered. His place was a two room apartment with a connected study and bedroom so it looked like a one large room. The room was dark and the windows were closed shut, she somehow saw a lamp nearby, she twisted the circular ring over the lamp until it was glowing sufficiently to lighten the room, she looked around and everywhere saw stuff lying around, clothes, food, books, apparels, accessories etc. The room was still having a dense layer the foul smell, she went to a window and knocked it open, with a cloud of dust falling outside. The entire place was one big mess, but she couldn’t see arwin anywhere.

She went towards the bed and at the other side of the bed hidden from view was a figure sitting on the floor rested against the bed in a pile of bottles, with his head hanging downwards and his hairs covering the face, Irena came closer, she was nervous as to if he was dead which would explain the smell in the room. She moved arwin by the shoulder and called his name, he slighty moved as if waking up from sleep. She was relieved to find out he was still breathing, she moved his hairs aside and held his head upwards, she was taken by surprise and she pounced backwards with a yell.

“who are you!?”she said

“ugh.....”he coughed first, “.......it’s me”

“arwin?, what have you been smoking in here, have you taken a look at yourself?”, she looked around and saw the mirror was shattered with blood dried around the cracks.

“what happened to you?, are you alright?”she asked, arwin’s skin had become pale his hairs were hanging more lower around his face and he had big dark circles under his eyes. He looked weak and sick.

“i have never been better”he said, as he was stumbling and moaning in pain from his back as he tried to get up on his feet while he was half asleep.

“ lets get you seated” she pulled him and placed him in a chair along the line of a closed window. She placed the basket aside and went inside the door opposite to the bed, she came back with two wooden buckets filled with water and splashed the water in his face, he jumped and yelled in surprise

“what the....”grasping for air, then she splashed another bucket at him, and he reacted the same again, “ok! ok!, i am awake now!”he said

“what are you doing here?”he asked tiredly, “....are you here to lecture me”he said


“i am not here to lecture you, you have bills pending at the guild that you must pay”

“so that’s why you are here”

“doesn’t matter and you are also my friend does that mean anything to you, i’d like to know you are wasting your life soaked in liquor”

“yeah right, why would you even care?”he said

“well i did come here and went through the trouble of waking you up, so i am not leaving without an answer”, he din’t say anything for a moment.
She picked up a small bottle from the floor and smelled it, “what are you even drinking, this not even alchohol”

“it was lying on the street and i needed some booze, so i just picked it and drank in one gulp”

“it is a laxative medicine”she said

“ah, that explains that unexpected session in the toilet the other day”

“i’d rather not hear it”she said with a gross expression. She took out a bottle from the basket with a dark green liquid in it and offered him, “here, this will make you feel good”

“oh thank you so much, give it here”he plucked the bottle from her hands shamelessly, he opened it and started drinking it and suddenly sprayed it all out.

“what the fuck is this?”he said and spat particles and drops of the liquid from his mouth.

“you actually din’t think i would give you anymore alchohol, did you?”she said with a chukle, she got up and opened the window. Hot and bright rays of sunshine came in and fall directly on arwin.

“oh! holy mother of...... stop it,please!!”, then she closed the window and came and sat infront of him.

He looked at her and she was waiting to listen to him, “fine!, you want to know!?, then listen” and then he told her about the events from 4 years back, how he met Sabetha and Vincent and how it turned his life upside down, however he completely left out the part that he had ran away from home as it was a living hell for him there. After an hour of the unpleasant story the way arwin told it, he finally finished it. Irena thought for a moment

“look i understand you are trying to avenge your loved one, but it’s was not your fault, you---”

“woah, hold on, loved one?, i did not loved her, i am doing this only for my sake and nobody else’s”

“what?”said Irena in surprise, “so you don’t love her and yet you put your life on the line for her?”

“not for her i want to avenge myself”he said

“ok listen”she said “you are a very confused kid, you think it was not love because she was your mentor, but from everything you told me, looks to me you loved her”

“see this is why i din’t wanted to say anything!, you all!, you make your own assumption and won’t ever try to understand my side”

“ok what is your side?”

“i never loved anyone, when Vincent killed everyone and set the town on fire, i ran like a coward. The reason i want to kill him is to rid myself on this burden, that i was incompetent, that i couldn’t do anything, that i failed!”, his eyes became moist as he said it.

She din’t say anything for a few moments, then she spoke

“that is the most stupidest thing i have ever heard”she said “you failed?, you survived, be happy for that and besides you fought him now, you got your chance, clearly i don’t have to explain you the difference of skill and power between you two, then why are you still fixated on this”

“because i failed again, i did not killed him and he wound me and let me live, and the worst that he has left the council. Now i have lost every link to him, he disappeared so that i keep suffering because of it forever. My struggle for all these years have been soiled over, i can’t let go of that so easily, but i have lost him for good, .........i have nothing left” and then he left silent, a drop of tear rolled down his right cheek.

“who said that you are a failure?, you are the one who is tagging yourself that, can’t you see that hell that you say you are living is that of your own making. You battled a member of council and not just survived but got away clean with it, that itself is an like an achievement and you have potential do much better things, just let go of things that are way too far for you and focus on the things that are present around you”

“how is that not the same as giving up, i do not give up and i do not get by on just surviving, i aim for higher and Vincent has hurt me personally, why should i not pursue him” he said, “huh, you speak the same as gilbert, all of you, none of you can understand anything”

“this is what i am saying, you are so obsessed with this stupid mindset of yours that you have made, you are losing all the good things around you that are right now. Ok, you have some issues and i am not in the position to tell you what you should do?, but all i am saying is that you not lose the companionship of good people around you right now just for the sole purpose of killing someone who hurt you many years ago.”

“and what good will it do?, it’s not like anyone actually cares for someone else?”

For a moments Irena was silent when she heard those words from his mouth

“excuse me asshole, then why do you think i am here?”she asked

“to be honest, i have no idea”he replied

Her jaw dropped to the surprise of arwin’s insensitiveness, “do whatever you want......”she said and got up and walked towards the door

“stupid, mean, bastard.......” she murmured as she went out and slammed the door behind her.

Arwin sat there alone in the chair, he placed his elbow on his knee and rested his for head in his palm, his head started to ache from the unpleasant talk. he searched the rubble on the floor and picked up another bottle of liquor and placed it on his lips.