Chapter 9: Eternal Screams

Silver woke up to a throbbing pain in his forehead. Why was everything so dark? Silver groaned. Ria Above! The pain was killing him. He tried to rub his throbbing forehead, but he immediately pulled his hands back, wincing at the pain, motes of dried blood sticking to his fingertips.

What the hell happened to me. Where am I? 

Silver pulled on his grace and held and held that torrent of power within him; the power that allowed him to create and manipulate water constructs. Of course, the fact that he could pull on his grace surprised him. It could only mean that the summer solstice was over.

With the power of grace within him,, he could finally see his surroundings. When one pulled on grace, they would be surrounded by blue ethereal light that could illuminate the surroundings to some extent. He was greeted by walls of earth surrounding him. All the herbs he had picked were scattered around him. There was a stone with dry blood.

Who long was I out for, and why am I in the pit trap? Mother must be worried sick about me.

To make the matter worse, he recognised the pit. He had dug it himself hoping to catch a few magical beasts. Their meat was among the most delicious and healthy. Few foods were both healthy and delicious in this world. Silver concentrated hard to remember what happened to him as he collected the scattered herbs.

The memories came back, but it came back as a foggy dream. He remembered chasing after a magical beast; he didn’t remember what kind it was. It was about all he remembered. He must have fallen during the chase. Silver cursed at his own stupidity.

Once he collected all the herbs, he selected the right ones and began to grind them. Silver always carried the tools. As soon as he was satisfied with his work, he pulled on his spirit this time and concentrated on his deep desire to heal. While using Spirit, one had to focus on their intention. Silver imbued the paste with his Spirit. When the paste stopped absorbing the Spirit, he stopped using his Spirit.

Transmuting his grace into the water, Silver cleaned his wounds and rubbed the paste over them. His wounds instantly healed and the pain quickly vanished. It would still leave a scar; he had treated it too late.

Silver tried to crawl out of the pit, but it was too deep. What do I do now?

Silver did the only thing he could think of. He tossed the basket with herbs out of the pit, took a deep breath, and flooded the pit. He swam up to the water's surface and climbed out of the pit. When he looked back at the pit the water was gone and he too was already dry. The water was not real, just a construct of his grace, so as soon as he released the construct, it vanished.

Afterwards, he walked through the forest and approached the lake. There was no one in his sight. Children were not playing in the lake, men and women were nowhere to be found. It was completely isolated. It seemed as if once a lively village had now somehow died. Of course, it was past midnight or more, judging by the position of the moon. But there would at least be some guards.

Silver could not shake the restlessness that he felt. He climbed onto the rowboat and moved as fast as he could. When he reached the village, an eerie silence hung in the air, occasionally broken by crashing and tumbling of stones and metal.

As he moved deeper into the village, he saw that most of the houses had their lanterns on. The sounds of crashing and tumbling grew louder. He realised that most of the front doors in the houses were hanging askew, some windows were destroyed. One of the houses had a blasted out section in the wall. When he peeked inside, he saw scorched marks everywhere. It was as if the lightning had blasted through the wall.

Where is everyone?

Even if this was a raid by some foolish group, the villagers should be fighting them, not hiding from them. The water villagers weren’t weak. Even the children could defend themselves and fight to some extent. So where was everyone?

Even as the thought crossed his mind, he saw someone stepping out of the nest house carrying a shack hat rattled and clanged as he moved. And a lantern in his other hand. Silver knew at first sight that the man wasn’t one of the villagers. The clothing and the eye colour were all wrong. Water elementals had deep blue eyes, but this man had red eyes and like that of a fire elemental.

Those eyes could only mean one thing. Vampire. Of course, the vampires’ eyes were red only when they were feeling emotions. Silver dashed toward the figure, pulling on his grace, producing five water constructs. Before the man could do anything, Silver grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall.

The arrows of water loomed around the vampire, threatening to kill it with one wrong move.

“Where is everyone?” Silver snarled. His entire body shook. “What happened here? Tell me everything.”

No answer. One of the water arrows morphed into a small needle and lunged forward, stopping right before the vampire’s eyes.

“Ria gave you that disgusting mouth so you can talk. So, use the damn thing and talk.”

No answer. The needle rammed through the eye, blood oozing from it. The vampire screamed. Silver didn’t like the idea of torturing the answer out of someone. But it was either this man or the village. The answer was obvious.

“This is your last warning. Tell me everything.”

No answer. Silver took a deep breath and sighed. He increased the pressure around the vampire’s throat.

“You know, there is a downside to immortality,” Silver said. “People can be very creative to get the answer they want. What do thing will happen if I threw you into a vessel filled with acid and constantly supply you with human blood? You will never lose consciousness and will scream for the rest of your entire life. Which is forever for you. Screaming for forever is a very long time.”

The words coming from his mouth horrified even Silver. Silver smiled as coldly as he could.

The vampire gulped but didn’t say a word. His eyes were already healed up.

“I see. I am going to enjoy this,” Silver said with a gleeful tone as if he was looking forward to what he was going to do next.

“Ok! OK!… I will talk. I will tell you everything,” the vampire said, between gasps.

“Good.”