A Bored Lich

Chapter 282 - Assembling The Pieces

Author's note: Edited last chapter to reduce confusion (although not eliminate it). Please reread/skim.

"Damn them," father cried out. "Damn them. Damn them. God of Evil. I invoke your name in hopes they will be slaughtered by your hand. Spare none of those hypocrites. Those fucking humans, they'll pay."

The same nightmare greeted him. Cerlius was nothing but a consciousness floating in a dark, bloody ocean. The waves would rise and fall. He would sink and rise. The voices would scream and writhe, two of them in unison.

"Cerlius." Cerlius opened his eyes to see Olpi's bloody face. "Thank the goddess that you're alive." She tightened something around Cerlius's arm and scooted back against a broken counter. Several broken light crystals around the room flickered, weakly fighting against the natural darkness of Mage's Shadow. She let out a long sigh and put her head in her bloody hands. "Please don't scare me like that."

"What happened?" Cerlius asked as he tried to prop himself up but Olpi gently stopped him.

"Don't sit up," Olpi warned. "You'll get lightheaded. As for what happened, you passed out from blood loss." Both she and Cerlius glanced at a pile of broken stone. "What happened with that Watchman? I only heard the second half but it was talking about the War Monks and the goddess."

"I…have been trying to figure that out." Cerlius responded, slowly gathering himself. "Thank you." He glanced down at his arm, which had been bandaged and stitched. Now that the shock had worn off, the searing pain shot through him, making him let out a groan. Although it was constant, he had other things to worry about. "Where did you learn this?"

Olpi looked away for a moment and bit her lip. "The healers got tired of dealing with Demis after instructor Jersin began his punishments." She tugged at her sleeves, hiding her scarred wrists. "We don't know healing magic, but I found a torn book in the library by a man named Marble. I became the unofficial healer, among other things."

"I appreciate it," Cerlius moved for the pile of rubble and took a heavy journal out of his spatial ring to act as a broom. "I wouldn't think in a thousand years that I'd act like such a child."

"It's fine." Olpi shrugged. "We're all people. We all make mistakes." Cerlius opened his mouth to retort, but after that humiliating display, he just lowered his head.

'Larque?' Cerlius thought. 'Are you there?'

'You may have done your best to kill us both,' Larque replied. 'But I'm still here. Are you…you?'

'That's redundant.' Cerlius thought. 'Because I am Doevm, and Doevm is me. Something happened to me Larque, something that turned me and my brother into a single being: a Lich. My father knows what happened but he's gone.'

'All records of Maximus Draken are destroyed. You won't find anything by looking him up.'

'Right. The only lead left would be my dear friend Eric, the War Monk and the first principal of the Magic Academy.'

"Cerlius," Olpi waved a hand in front of Cerlius's face. "Enloa to Cerlius. Is anyone home?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Cerlius shook his head. Olpi gently helped him to his feet and threw his undamaged arm around her shoulder.

"Yeeaahh. No. I'm helping you back to your room. No arguments. If you pass out again, I'm going to have a heart attack."

"Be honest," Cerlius chuckled in his lightheaded state. "Would you really care that much?"

"Of course." Cerlius stopped himself at the doorway and looked over his shoulder at the pile of bloody stone on the ground. "They will search through your spatial ring and find the old rubble." Olpi said as if she had read his intention. "The magic faded anyway. Whatever was there is now gone."

Cerlius stared at the rubble for a couple more moments. "You knew the enchantment. Is there any possible way of restoring it?"

Olpi rubbed the side of her temple. "Not really. I think that you students are supposed to learn how to construct artifacts and enchantments in the second semester but I just have a strong feeling that we can't restore something that old." She looked around the dark space and frowned. "We can't stay here for very long, since the students' rooms are routinely checked."

"Fine," Cerlius sighed. "Let's get out of here." They slowly meandered back, having to stop several times when Cerlius got bursts of lightheadedness.

"Did you know that thing?" Olpi asked halfway to the entrance. "It certainly seemed to know you."

"I don't know," Cerlius's head kept throbbing with each heartbeat. Simply talking increased the strain. "Everything is just a tangled at the moment, and I can't figure out how to untangle it. I need to get into the jar room. If I can gather the pieces first, or maybe the library." Another intense throb made forced out a pained groan.

"Take it one step at a time," Olpi warned. "You don't have to figure this out in a day."

Cerlius stopped and took a long look at Olpi. "What do you stand to gain out of this?"

Olpi raised an eyebrow: "Excuse me?"

"Look at you," he gestured to her bloody robe. "Look at where we are." His hand swept around Mage's Shadow. "And now you're helping me back to my room. What's your game?"

"I-I'm being nice?" Olpi shrugged. "I mean, you did help me, or rather Menla. It's only fair that I help you in return."

Cerlius shook his head. "I once knew someone who claimed to be friends with me for that exact reason. I may have forgotten almost everything about him, but I do know that he wasn't what he said. What do you want from me?"

"Nothing," Olpi insisted. "I might ask for help with another spell in the future, since we're friends, but I'll always make sure to help you in return."

Cerlius shook his head again. "Olpi, are you happy here?"

Olpi's grip faltered for a moment. "I mean…this life is all I have. It's not perfect but I have friends and a life that I can live with."

"Are you happy?" Cerlius repeated. "If you were given the option to get your memories restored, would you take them back?"

"W-well Demis aren't exactly looked at with a good light," Olpi said. "If I left this place, I'd probably just end up at somewhere called the Underground. I hear that's where most Demis come from."

"Are you happy?" Cerlius repeated one last time, putting emphasis on each word.

Olpi opened her mouth to say something else, but slowly, her head wilted. She gave a faint smile as she looked him in the eyes and said: "This is probably the most Human I've felt in a long time, to be able to talk to a human on even ground. I don't have to put on a smile. No, I'm not really happy."

"Then why haven't you tried to escape?" Cerlius insisted. "You have detailed information about this place. You have a lot of friends among the Demis." Olpi averted her gaze, and Cerlius's eyes widened: "You've thought of this before, haven't you? Tell me how to get out."

Olpi let out a long sigh: "You don't understand. The Demis, they need me. We rely on each other too much. With the threat of the demon war approaching, the instructors keep passing more duties onto us Demis. If I leave, my family will be slowly beaten to death, one by one. I don't know what you plan to do here, and I don't want to know. I'm not going anywhere. I'm content with my position. That's enough for me but that's everything for them."