The Phoenix Ring(29)

Timothy just nodded his head towards Aidan’s left hand.

There, sitting on his finger as if it had always been there, was the Phoenix Ring.

“How?” Timothy asked, a little bit of awe and something else, maybe jealousy, creeping into his voice.

“I... I don’t know.” Aidan answered. “I tried to attack the rider, and then the ring slipped on, and then I was speaking to…”

He paused, not sure how to word what he was going to say.

“To who?” Eleanor asked in a voice too calming to be natural. “You can trust us.”

“Please stop trying to use magic on me.” Aidan said.

“Oh, I thought you’d like it. Sorry.”

“No I do like it, it’s just a little creepy and I need to focus right now. I think I was talking to… Marcus Thunderheart.”

Aidan expected Timothy and Eleanor to be surprised, but instead they seemed disappointed.

“Amilech and Bartemus said you might be a little delusional when you came to. Don’t worry, it will all make sense in a little while.” Timothy said, pushing some magic into his voice the same way Eleanor had.

“Stop doing that!” Aidan said, feeling the anger well up. “I’m not insane. I went into the ring, I did some sort of test, and then he showed up. He showed me how to beat the dragon, if I didn’t then you would probably be dead!”

“That is actually probable.” said a voice from behind Timothy. Master Bartemus was holding an ink quill and a scroll.

“Marcus never found his attribute, though I think it may have been life energy itself, Arror. There were a lot of experiments at the time that had to do with transferring your Arror to a different person or object. If anyone was going to be successful with them, it would have been him.”

"Is there a way I can talk to him again?"

"Probably, but I have no clue how. There are a few tricks I could teach you, but first we have to have a talk. Would you two mind…" The warlock said, gesturing towards Aidan's friends.

"Oh sure." Eleanor said, helping Timothy to his feet. The young boy leaned on her a little as they walked away.

"Are they alright?" Aidan asked.

"They're fine." Said Bartemus, sitting down. "She got a little bump on the head and his hip was shattered, but it was nothing a little magic can't fix. The residual pain should be gone in a few days."

"Did Timothy tell you about Edwin?"

"Yes he did. And you did too. You talked the whole time you were sleeping. It is quite troubling, and it is one of the things I need to talk to you about. Edwin has always been a master of the mind. He was able to put an entire sentence into someone's head when he was just eighteen. As you probably know, it is hard to give anyone anything more than an emotion. However, through a series of tests, Edwin was determined to try.

"The only problem with his experimentation was a lack of subjects. He made his first two go insane, and after that there was a lack of volunteers, so he ended up trying out most of his experiments on himself. He must have gone too far, because at some point during the war he started to sympathize with Malcommer. It was just little things, like talking about how wrong it was that we had to kill the goblins when they were only defending their home, but it scared some people. The council removed Edwin from the fighting. It was a tough blow for him. Malachi, Marcus, and myself had always been his friends, and we did everything together. After the war we tried to make up, but he blamed us for Marcus’s death. He had, while we had been gone, managed to build up quite a lot of political power for himself, and was only a few steps away from being in the council.

"He was kind at first, but eventually his heart became harder and harder, until he was willing to do anything to get what he wanted. You saw that with young Gerang."

"But why didn't you stop him?" Aidan asked, his anger getting stronger.

"Malachi and I tried. We have brought our case before the council multiple times. Unfortunately, Edwin himself is a councilor and every time we challenge him he has friends that back him up. If we had known what would happen to Gerang, we would have fought much harder, though that doesn't make it right."

Aidan pushed his anger down. "You said that was one of the things you wanted to talk to me about, what else did you need to say?" he asked.

"The biggest issue is the staff you used. We kept it for you right here," The warlock said, pulling out a long object wrapped in sheets.

"This staff belonged to the most powerful sorcerer ever known."

"Let me guess," Aidan interrupted, reaching his hand towards the scepter, "Marcus Thunderheart?"