Part 5: Obsessed
Higgson knew he was in trouble as soon as he opened his eyes.
The center tine of a silver-plated trident rested at the base of his throat, covered in already congealing blood. The owner was a very pissed-off looking pale-furred Minotaur with three arrows still sticking out of him, whose red eyes glared at him with obvious distrust. Why wasn't he already dead? Minotaurs were not known for their mercifulness...they all seemed rather cranky usually. Must be the weight of those big horns he thought without realizing it.
"You must be wondering why you are not dead yet. Correct?"
The bandit swallowed noisily, tried to nod, and barely moved when he felt the Trident poke him in the throat. He could feel blood start to drip from the shallow cut. That thing was sharp. The unknown speaker then moved into view on the edge of his vision. The blue-robed Wizard from the Portal! Higgson must have been magically enspelled...to sleep? Guilt and depression overcame him as his shame only worsened. He wasn't even a very good bandit, much less a Knight or Paladin anymore.
"E...e...essentially." Higgson managed to finally stutter.
"Good. As I suspect by your garb and general...cleanliness?...you are not the average bandit or Fringer. Correct?"
The prisoner felt he better keep up the answers to these strange questions, or his life would be over too quickly to notice.
"Yes." His voice was stronger, and steadier he noticed. Did he still have pride left? No that was a sin, and he could never feel pride at what he had become. Could he? That would be a new low.
"Dishonored Knight?...or...a Fallen Paladin too perhaps?"
"Paladin." His jaw tightened visibly. He refused to use the other descriptor. Damnation was what awaited him, but that does not mean he has to acknowledge his failings openly to ridicule by others.
The mage leaned heavily on his Magestaff and smiled casually, "Tell me a story."
Higgson understood immediately and considered carefully. What was the harm? They would most likely kill him soon anyway. He might as well tell the story to someone who actually seems interested in his side of things. It could even be cathartic.
Without realizing he was going to say it, he replied without thinking first, almost defiantly, "Back him off first."
The strange white-haired mage smirked, as the Raven familiar from earlier landed casually on the head of the mage's staff and spoke.
"The rest are all very dead sir. Well struck on that last spell."
Waving the compliment away, the confident Mage spoke to his bodyguard.
"Back up a notch, Norch." The mage snorted quietly to himself as if the alliterative comment amused him, and finished, "He's harmless to us now."
"As you wish master."
The strange pale-furred minotaur then backed up a few steps to slam the butt-spiked end of his trident into the soil, sat on a fallen block of marble, and began the process of cutting the barbed arrows out of his torso and shoulder. He continued to eye Higgson as he did so. The creepy thing to the bandit was the fact the the Minotaur didn't even flinch or cry out at the additional pain he was causing himself. Just the occasional soft grunt issued from his nostrils, as his knife dug into his chest and shoulder.
Higgson tried to concentrate on the matter at hand.
"Thank you, Great Mage...?"
The strange Raven spoke again, obvious respect in his odd voice, "He is Vadicc the Blue Mage: Seven-time Arena winner and competitor for life of the Mage Wars in Victoriana, the greatest city of Westlock. He has earned the titles: Master of the Ornilith Tower, he is the former teacher of the Great Mage Yarsboro the Bloody, and was Mage-Knighted by the High King himself."
Higgson was speechless.
The old mage seemed non-plussed and pursed his lips in annoyance at the Raven.
"You forgot the Award of Valor I received. It was the last Naval Battle of the Yorkish Islands, were I helped them mislead the Goblin's Bloodhunter Fleet onto the reef. Fleet Admiral Y'Delsa pinned it on me herself. Her cutlass was still bloody after she neutered her counter-part, the Goblin Admiral Gunkker the Scarred. Did it right there on the deck of his Goblin ship Marrow-Hunter...but I digress."
A look of strange fondness, as if the memory was one he personally cherished closely, crossed the Mage's features. It was quickly removed by a scowl and a look of impatience. "Time to introduce yourself..."
Higgson smirked inwardly and quoted Sortilige's favorite adage to himself: 'Patience was only for the blind, deaf, and dumb....basically anybody who isn't a Mage.'
Squaring his jaw he replied evenly, "My name is Higgson. Actually, my full name is Wellart Higgson the Fifth. I was born of the true Westlock Higgsons, not those Sortilage betrayers. The bandits knew me as 'Vlad Higgson,' as I didn't want them thinking I was worth more as a hostage for my family than as a new Fringer."
The mage seemed unimpressed, so Higgson continued.
"My father is...was...Higgson the Fourth of course, and a great Knight of Westlock. You may have heard of him? He fought in the Red-Slime Orc Clan Battles nearly 30 years ago? His mounted combat prowess was thought to be unmatched by anyone's lance."
Again only silence except for the Minotaur’s occasional soft grunt.
Slightly disappointed, he again continued, although with less enthusiasm. He felt drained before he even spoke.
"My real sins started when I aspired to be a Paladin and tried to overshadow my father's accomplishments. I went on to be accepted to the Temple for training to be a Paladin's Squire. It was the greatest day of my life. Another sin there: Pride. It was always my worst enemy and now my biggest reminder of how foolish I was."
His repressed memories flooded him suddenly, and the torrent seemed to push words out of his mouth as if he couldn't stop himself.
"It was the beginning of the end really. It was the second day I was there that I met the beautiful Marana Esterwine, an acolyte Priestess herself. She was so very strong in her faith and the unknowing owner of my heart. We secretly became close friends during our training, something the Faithful would never have allowed normally. When the day came for me to take my vows of Poverty and Celibacy, and granted a true Paladin of the Faith to be my teacher, my heart was nearly wrenched from my chest. We met, in secret, and fell to our passions. Once. Just once. Such a sin: To deflower a potential priestess before our vows were taken."
He felt horrible baring his soul to the strange Mage, but he couldn't seem to stop.
"Hating myself for falling into such a sinful act, I threw myself into my training and in record time finished my squire-ship in six months. We were helping the army track down Orc Raiders and bring them to justice those many months when my teacher quickly felt I had earned my spurs and Armor of the Faith finally through my heroic acts and deeds. In truth I was just responding to my guilt, but he had not known that."
A tear begin to crawl down his cheek: a single tear of pain.
"We had just finished the ceremony of my Paladin-hood, and it was then the Goddess quickly taught me her final lesson."
Higgson looked straight into the Blue Mage's unforgiving eyes under his bushy white brows and said with obvious pain in his voice.
"I got a letter from the High Priestess herself, detailing the final result of my sin. Marana had gotten pregnant, refused to take her vows, and killed herself in grief. It was my fault. My sins! She...she was just a young woman who loved too much. For that...I am Fallen."
Not being able to hold the Mage's icy gaze any longer, Higgson looked away.
"I walked away into the wilderness that night, never to look back. That was four years ago. Here I am now. Was that a good enough story? Did you enjoy my pain Sir Mage?" He tried to wipe away the tear, casually as if it didn't matter.
Silence, except for the various insect buzzing and animal calls of the nearby Fenne, descended.
"Do you know where the ancient Fenne-Witch Nespa, also known as the Shadow-Taker, currently resides?"
Higgson startled and looked back at the Mage upon hearing that name, knowing it too intimately. Frowning, he suddenly knew that he had just given up any chance of hiding that knowledge with his exposed body language.
"Yes...Unless she has moved again."
"But even if she has, you can find her current position. Right? I know she leaves signs for those she deals with on regular occasions so they can find her again."
Frowning worse, he replied acidly, "Yes."
A smirk passed the Mage's lips then.
"Good. You get to live after all."
The Blue Mage turned dramatically, his spindly arms in the air and his staff flailing wildly. This caused the Raven to take off suddenly and caw with annoyance. The mage began to walk off with his arms still flailing.
"Familiar! Norch! You should thank him. This man just saved us a week's walking blindly in the Darkfenne."
The raven flew off into the darkening night but the Minotaur stood, stared at him and stepped up, then reached out a fur-covered hand covered in bandit blood mixed with his own. Rumbling in his deep voice, "Thank you Sir."
Higgson couldn't believe it. He lived, for now. Maybe the Goddess hadn't forsaken him yet...
Taking the offered hand, he realized ironically that he might just be entering his final phase of divine punishment too.
"I guess asking for my sword back would be a bad idea huh?"
The bodyguard Norch shrugged, turned, retrieved his trident, and walked away after his master.
The Mage's voice carried back from some distance ahead in the ruins, "Good story by the way Sir Higgson! So how does the story end? Please let me know when you do! I'm dying to hear how it all turns out!" The mage chuckled loudly at his own dark humor.
Picking up his sword and longbow from a pile of the bandit's things, Higgson started walking after the strange group.
"What in the Goddess's name have I fallen into?"
A bare whisper in the wind seemed to come from the ruins themselves, sounding like his beloved lost Marana: 'The Path of Truth...lies ahead...'
Higgson's mouth flopped open like a hinge. He looked around quickly and found nothing. He closed his mouth, and furrowed his brow in sudden thought.
Quickly slamming his sword into his sheath, he turned and hurried after his captors. They had witches to find and places to be, and maybe...a path for him to follow.
