“I am not a Lich,” repeated for what seemed to be the fifth time, Edwin. He received the same answer as always. A snort.
“Look, I knew there was something different about you. You are a Boliarin, true, but you are too young to be one. My bet is that king Valyr knew you were a Lich, but did not tell you, so he wouldn’t have to deal with missing people. Probably he wanted you to starve,” the stairs seemed unending, but the further down they went, the more orange light spread in the staircase.
There were even scones with candles on the wall now. Edwin realized with a start that he hadn’t needed them, and that Sebastian hadn’t explained to him why was that. But, he had more pressing issues now.
“King Valyr gave me his son to raise,” Edwin knew the sour taste of denial, and he was feeling it now. Still, he persevered.
“Elidys is a bastard, and the king can remarry. He is a spare, Eddy, and you are the spare of the spare. Face the truth, will you? What did I tell you about daydreaming?”
Edwin refused to believe that the king would discard Elidys. The little boy was a copy of him. Then again, a treacherous voice in the back of his head began, he did leave the boy with a necromancer. Possibly, a Lich.
“How did you figure out that I am a Lich,” Edwin needed to know Sebastian’s reasoning before he gave himself to the cold, hard, realization that he had become what he had frowned upon all his life.
“You have no cold tolerance,” began Sebastian. He reached out to one of the scones and took a candle. Edwin mirrored him. “You need more blood than the average vampire. More than me, at any rate. Why? Because you need to make up for the lack of nourishment that your Lich side is experiencing. I think you are the first of your kind, by the way.”
“There are many Liches out there,” Edwin knew that he was arguing for the sake of arguing, but he couldn’t help himself. He had to distract himself.
“I mean, a vampiric Lich,” corrected himself Sebastian. “Never heard of one, which means, you may still reverse the Lich transformation. Think of it as a sickness. Find the symptoms and treat them.”
“That is not how a sickness is treated. You have to find the core of it and treat that. Treating the symptoms is like pissing in fire,” Sebastian turned around with a raised eyebrow at the crass words.
“You are really shaken, aren’t you? You know what I’d do, if I were you?” Edwin did, but he shook his head regardless.
“I will eat the souls of powerful animals. Do you know how hard it is to destroy a dungeon core the normal way? Eat the soul of that thing and its mobs and grow stronger. Be prepared to bring about a new age with violence, if need be.”
“But I don’t want that!” And Edwin spoke the truth. He wanted to avoid killing, maim or torture. He wanted a movement, not a revolution.
“But the world is not pink, Eddy,” there was pity in Sebastian’s voice and Edwin’s nose scrunched up by itself. “And the sooner you realize that, the better.”
“The world is not dark either, where there are shadows, there is light to make them,” argued back Edwin.
“Did you just hear what you said? You just admitted that light, good intentions that seem to sprout from good, morally abiding people, create dark situations,” Edwin had not meant that.
“I wanted to say that eventually, shadows give way to light,” he corrected himself.
“But you did not say that. I think you know how Adosinda works. You just don’t want to live in it. You are just like Harry. Like two peas in a pot, with a couple of millennia worth of age difference,” if Sebastian’s face had been anything but grim, Edwin would have taken it personally. Instead, he recognized the lesson the vampire was attempting to teach him.
“Can’t I try my own way?” Edwin’s voice came off as weak. As if he was asking for permission. He realized his entire life he had been asking for permission. Even when he had stood his ground at the exam, he had chosen to pack up and leave without so much as arguing. Because no one gave him permission to be himself.
“You can, but should you? Tell me, when healers go out in the streets to protest. And, don’t mistake me, they will. Because they want to be able to heal and do so outside adventuring parties without politics hanging over their heads. When that happens, what will be the response of, let us say, king Valyr?”
Edwin could imagine the rage that will boil down to coldness. More healers will be allowed to graduate to make up for those who would be killed off in the streets. Edwin bowed his head.
“Precisely. So, those healers need backing. From someone powerful, not just idealistic. I have seen Karl Lambert in action during the liberation war of Duria, he killed without blinking an eye. I saw Aleric Stormcrow fight off elves to keep the last dwarven bastion just that. People cheered when he asked them where their cemeteries were, something I have doubts you will do. I have seen the vampire council, your grandsire Paul chief among them, standing up for vampire rights with a dagger pressed to another’s throat. These are successful people. Be like them, Eddy.”
“If I change, how can I still look at myself in the mirror? How do I face my children?” Edwin was shedding his humanity with the admission that it needed to be shed. But, he required the last nail in the coffin.
“Is that the important thing? Or the betterment of the world? Because if it is, then you, Edwin Roberts, are a liar and a thief. You lie to yourself that you can change things, and you steal the opportunity that could have been presented to someone else. After all, there can only be two champions of Harika. And neither of us are going to give up our spots.”
Sebastian stepped down the last step, and Edwin followed him into the orange glow of the new cavern. Fake light to shine upon a fake old skin that he shed and left at the base of the stairs, the shadows welcoming him finally in their soft embrace.
