Private Tales Of Times Long Gone

[Smiling One]

For the first time in about a year, Willis began to dream about something that wasn't his mother. He found himself under the night sky, the cold wind bristling against his dark skin. When Willis looked up he saw the blue and black sky blanketed by the bright white stars further illuminated by the warm embers of the campfire. Willis' mind was still swimming in a sea guilt and hope, an odd combination sure but looking back to who Willis lost: Clarissa Mejure whom he accidentally killed in the Savannah, her large bosom, the way she would seductively speak to Willis and the horror in her eyes when Willis stabbed her in the gut. He wanted to help her, he wanted to calm her down but when she tried to attack him.....

Willis shook his head his hands curling into fists, it was hard to forget and it was one of many that plagued him over the years. Sometimes Willis wondered if it was best if he struck out alone. The friends and lovers that he made, the breakups, the laughter, the bonding It made Willis realize that people weren't cruel like his mother was. It made Willis feel like that he found family people like Kikwi, Caliane Ruine, Lazule, Azulian, Eren'thiel Xyrdithas, Kiros Rahnel, Alistair Wren, Celestia and many more friends he made throughout his journey. Willis would fight and die for each and everyone them even if he wasn't sure that they would do the same.

The young man's gaze still lingered on the fireplace, watching the burning wood crackle and spark. He would even fight for Maho 'Jerik' Sparhawk as well. His heart skipped a beat when he though about him, it was scarcely a year ago when Maho attacked the school and killed many people. Willis couldn't quite believe his eyes when he admitted that it was a broken man bent on destruction. What happened to Maho during the Battle of Ningal Willis did not, but it transformed Maho into a self loathing, raging, beast bent on destruction no different from the Monsters Willis is paid to hunt.

The good man who saved Willis' life, whom Willis looked to for advice and was the closest man that he had to a father was killed and was replaced by this Jerik. It was though the God's loved to play tricks on Willis, setting up the stage to where Willis engaged Maho in a bloody duel surrounded by the burning College and the corpses of the young men and women whom Maho slaughtered. It ended with Willis' being defeated and mortally wounded, before he saw what Maho would do next, Willis blacked out, already feeling that he was dead. Maybe his mother was right, he was nothing more than a mistake, Willis' attempts at friendship was supplanted by his amoral, womanizing ways. The young man couldn't have things both ways, no matter how much he tried. But it was those contradictions that made Willis who he is today but there were times that Willis felt that he was at risk of losing it all.

Maho 'Jerik' Sparhawk

 

[Maho 'Jerik' Sparhawk]

Within the dark recess of Willis' mind, deeper still inside the dream floating around in his head, the campfire seemed to spit, its warmth growing ever so slightly.

By that fire, opposite Willis, a figure appeared. But it was no figure of bone or flesh, but just the barest shadow, floating along-side. It began to lower itself, crossing its legs on the soft, slightly damp ground. The eyes of the shadow were like the hearts of a star, peering into the fire with a deep respect and, more so, a deeper loathing.

The figure turned towards Willis, the eyes set onto him like arrows on a target. The figure transformed in a display of flame, seemingly turning to ash, and reconfiguring itself. Before Willis was the body of Maho Sparhawk, not as he died, but as he travelled the majority of his life; dark brown hair, an equally dark blue robe, and a short, unkempt beard.

"Hello Willis." The apparition spoke, Its eyes unchanging from before, still piercing red, glowing like a sky.

 

[Smiling One]

"That voice......"

Willis' blood ran cold to the point where he nearly shivered, he could feel the hairs on his arm stand up and his heart stopped for a brief moment leaving doing small gasp for air. It couldn't be him..... no he died in Amolt Kalit in front of his new family: The Empire. The good man known as Maho was killed a year ago replaced by that monster. Maho was thrown away the same way that Willis threw that boy behind in the docks years ago. That sniveling coward of a boy who cried for his mother, that name her mother gave him was discarded and placed with Willis Reede: A new man, a confident man..... or so he thought.

But Maho was a good man, he had his flaws yes but what person didn't have flaws? Willis wasn't a good person by any stretch of the imagination. Yet Maho was a warm soul who was willing to guide, to listen. Not since Captain Davis did Willis have a male influence as strong as Maho Sparkhawk. He comforted Willis, told him hard truths about life and guided him. It came to the point where Willis accidentally called Maho his father at one point. But that was a long time ago and Willis considered him dead at Ninagal, If only Willis knew that Maho was in trouble......

Willis slowly rose his head unable to believe what he was hearing and saw the familiar face and robes of Maho. Stone faced, his red eyes glaring daggers at Willis as though he was peering into his very soul. Maho could be doing it right now based on Willis was reluctant to move. "Maho?" the young man slowly got up his gaze trained on Maho. "Is that you? I thought..... I-I...."

The young man was unable to speak, words were stuck in his throat unable to leave his mouth. His eyes grew large and his mouth dropped a bit. Was this an illusion? Was Maho a ghost of some kind? It was hard to tell and it was harder to react as Willis found himself rooted to the ground waiting for Maho's response.

 

[Maho 'Jerik' Sparhawk]

"Yes. I'm using what little will I have left over to talk to you, Willis." He looked up towards the sky, at the stars that permeated it within Willis' mind.

"In my death I have learnt much of afterlife, as you might imagine. For I am in a permanent Hell, Willis. A hell that you cannot see or taste or touch, my very soul is gripped by a God, and I have no control over my own fate." He looked back down at his arms and hands, appearing as they once were, before they were stripped away.

"You must listen Willis. I know you must have questions, and I will answer them. Something is coming. You can feel it in the wind, Willis. Drakkomir was only the beginning. A great purge is coming, and it is larger than any of us. Larger than you, larger than the Empire. I fear what comes will prove recent events to be poultry. I have come to warn you Willis. It will scorch the sky." Fear was laced in his voice.

 

[Smiling One]

Willis grimaced when Maho said that he was in hell, he always imagined hell as a place of eternal torture and pain but what Maho was in sounded worse. A place where there is no laughter or sadness, a place where cannot taste or touch or feel and you are forever bounded with a God who looks at you as your plaything. "Of your will?" Willis said shaking his head. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

Maho was then rambling about a great purge heading towards Arethril. "Drakkomir?" Willis said his voice shaken and his face scrunched up with fear. "What are you talking about? That Dragon that killed you? What purge?" So many questions and half of them were pertaining to what Maho was warning Willis about. "Why the fuck should I believe you?!" He growled his hands curled into fists. "After the shit you pulled, you've killed all those people in the College of Elbion you tried to kill Kikwi, you tried to kill Alistair Wren, Phillipa Ebonheart and you tried to kill me. What the fuck happened to you that would compel you to nearly destroy your own home?!"