Still not processing what is happening, Alexander takes a look at the floating mass of what seems to be blue gas. Could it really be Mikola he was talking to right now? The King of the Black Board? Why would such a powerful and important member of the board suddenly die? There were so many questions that he wanted to ask, but Mikola was quicker to continue with his own.
"Where are we?"
"In a small village to the south of Targoviște," Alexander responds, shaken up by the sudden break of his train of thought.
The shape that would make Mikola's mouth turns from the performative smile of a vendor trying to swindle you, to an unapologetically upset frown.
"Ianos is the sovereign of the area, right?"
"Yes? Why do you ask?"
Mikola starts moving around the tent back and forth, looking deep in thought.
"He is very resourceful, it'd be very hard to take him on with a novice caller. Or, boy, have you channeled a ghost before?"
Alexander opens his mouth, but before anything could come out of it, Mikola continues his monologue.
"No of course not, if Ianos found out you were a caller you'd already be a slave to the village." He stops pacing for a moment and looks Alexander up and down. "You should also take off that necklace and any other metal hidden on your person."
Reflexively, Alexander starts feeling his pockets, questioning why he was told to do so only after placing his palm on the necklace.
"Wait... why... this was given to us by Ianos... I don't understand! 'Take him on'?! Why should we take him on...? And why take this off? I need to understand."
His anxiety was getting the better of him. Touching the necklace that he was supposed to take off made him realize that Sophie might need to take hers off as well. But why? Why was it so important that he should take it off? His eyes instinctively move to the tent exit, then back to Mikola. He needed answers, and he is the only one right now who could provide them to him.
"Magnetism." Mikola answered, making sure to keep a calm tone, as to not escalate the situation. "He is able to concentrate or dissipate any metal object relative to the center of a sphere. He controls the position and size of said sphere. We need to form a contract quickly-"
Screams interrupt the conversation. Alexander quickly rushes to the tent's exit, unveiling the same flames that engulfed the village all those years ago. Cries of agony, accompanied by the black smoke of the burning fields and houses that masks the faces of the dead.
Without a second thought, Alexander breaks away from the tent. He makes a run for his sister's house.
"Boy, wait!" Mikola's voice could be heard behind him.
Alexander looks around himself while making his way to their house, hoping he doesn't find her outside her home. He sees the caller, who earlier was tending to the plants, being surrounded by the non-caller guards. Of course they are targeting him first, callers would be the biggest threat to them. Scattered throughout the village, the rest of the guards break their way through the houses' doors, muffled screams making themselves heard from the open doors and windows.
Alexander's gaze moves once more to Sophia's home, petrified to see Ianos, bent under the doorframe. He was making his way out of the house, chains dangling from all over his body. Beneath the chains, small pieces of leather would cover parts of his body.
Alexander drops to the ground, trying to hide among the grass. He was mortified. He wanted to rush to the house right now, but then he would die in the process. He looks up to see Ianos moving towards the surrounded caller. While taking big steps, he raises his chains in the air, the same way an animal would try to intimidate another by making itself bigger. Once close enough, the soldiers blocking his path get pushed aside by Ianos' power. Ianos says something, but the screams around the village make it hard to understand what he said. The other caller bends down and touches the grass with the palm of his hands, drying it. Ianos looks satisfied and disappointed at the same time. He points one finger towards the person who is now begging for their life.
The necklace starts wrapping around the caller's neck. He starts pulling on it with his fingers. It wraps itself tighter and tighter. His mouth opens, trying to gasp for the air that could never make its way inside his lungs again.
Silence.
Alexander's ears were now ringing out of fear of what might have happened to his sister. He stumbles up from the grass patch he was laying on, running towards the home that felt colder and colder the closer he got to it. He trips on something. Decapitated people around the village were now the only thing Alexander could make out of his surroundings. The severed head of the caller, now behind Alexander, was rolling on the bloodied patch of dried grass.
Alexander slams himself onto the wide open door of the house, unwilling to stop by any other means. The light coming from the flames outside was casting a single shadow. Alexander's shadow. He stands there for a few seconds unable to acknowledge Sophia's lifeless body. The necklace of their 'protector' had left its mark around her now bloodied neck. It only took two steps inside the house for Alexander to collapse to his knees. Now with his shadow no longer covering his sister, everything is laid bare. The shine of her tears running down her purply cheeks and the ripped clothes... Whatever was left of the facade he was sluggishly keeping up was gone. His hopes of Sophia getting up and telling him 'I'm fine' were gone. His vision becomes shaky. He can feel himself blanking out. Starting to look through her. As if she wasn't there. Because she wasn't. She was gone.
The void could not protect him from this, he was there. He starts slapping his neck and chest, barely missing his necklace. He finally grasps it with his hands. He pulls on it once. Pulls on it twice. Again and AGAIN. Harder each time, pulling his neck along with it, digging inside his flesh with it. It was so hard to breathe, his eyes felt as if they were popping out of his head. His ears were still ringing, they never stopped. He didn't even realize his tears were already dripping on the floor, but he still couldn't scream. It was not the void this time. It was himself. He couldn't.
He didn't want to see which would break first, himself or the necklace. He wanted something else. He was not allowed to die here, he wouldn't want her to worry. He couldn't let her worry. He takes the necklace off his neck. He gets up and walks towards his sister, unable to move his eyes away from her. He kneels down in front of her and softly moves his hand to feel her cheek. The warmth had not escaped her body yet. It was all too sudden. He moves his hand to her nape, removing the necklace in the process. He throws them both aside and closes Sophia's eyes with his hand. He kisses her on the top of the head as a final farewell. He would come back to bury her, but he had something else to do before that.
With Alexander now exiting the house, he sits in the doorframe with his gaze fixed on Ianos. Alexander takes a deep breath, preparing to make himself heard anywhere in the village.
"I call upon thee! Mikola the Bloody, King of the Black Board!"