• Chronicles of the Cardinal Blade

    Chapter One: The Kyuigetsuboh(q-e-get-sue-bow)

    I've found myself wandering as of late, a near constant search for nothing, thought running rampant in my mind, the need for combat ebbing away at my sanity. My sword, Felgrand, felt the need, and was always ready to be unsheathed and readied for battle. It was late fall, in the forests of Japan, near Oda(now Tokyo btw), when it happened. My travels hadn't been for long, after a night's rest, before I found my match. I'd fought over a hundred battles, all victories, but it seems that it stopped that day. As I paced through the trees, dense and thick with the fallen leaves like padding on the hard forest floor under my feet, I began to catch sense of a nearby foe. I say foe, because of the type of aura I felt coming from them, dark, deep-seated in hatred and pain. It was this pain that led me to raise my guard, ready for whatever may come, but not really. All at once the aura died, leaving me in a shaded spot, eyes flying to and from, looking around,  Felgrand drawn and at my right side. Suddenly, I jumped forward and spun, looking behind myself. Before me stood a woman, adorned in the garb of a Priestess, very beautiful, her skin pale and perfect.  "Halt young warrior, I be not a foe of yours." she spoke, a very polite manner from her voice, her graceful body swaying softly. She gave me a curtsey, and smiled. Her smile was impeccable, I had to stare.
     "If ye not be foe, then why reside in a forest known for bandits and demons?" I
     replied, bowing to her, a gentleman's gesture. I may have slain countless foes,
    but I could still be polite. "I reside here for you, Cardinal. Ye have slain the son of a wealthy lord, whose power is far greater than your own, and for this you will pay with your soul." her voice was soft, until she hit the word 'lord'. After that, her voice was the dark, seated in hatred and pain voice that I felt as an aura near me. She held up a mirror, its reflection as beautiful as she was, and I met my own eyes, soft crimson, like flames that dance upon a daft of wood. "Now seal! Kyuigetsuboh!" she screeched, her body glowing an eerie black. All at once, my body became immobilized, my eyes tightening into dot   "Wha-what have you done to me!?" I howled, pain taking my body over. All at once the world went black, and nothingness was all I knew. That is, until the idiot successor of mine, a thousand years later, uncovered and gazed into the mirror.  

    Tokyo, November 22, 2007
    The Phlak Residence
     
    The heavy “BLAM BLAM BLAM!” of the alarm clock awoke me as usual, my eyes opening rather slowly to the dim light of the morning. I sat up finally, and clicked the clock off. Looking at the time told me it was merely Six Thirty, way to early(in my opinion at least) to be awake on a Saturday morning, and on my birthday no less. Eh, I'll live.
    I stood and grabbed a change of clothes, my 'street clothes'; White undershirt, Green Jersey, dark blue Jeans, the works. I stepped out of my room to find my mother, her bright smile my sunrise in the mornings. He face had much more color today than normal, her fight with cancer coming along very nicely. We hugged it out, and exchanged our good mornings, and then I stepped to take a shower. After that, I stepped downstairs for a bite to eat, but I never knew I'd be eating death. I came into the kitchen, a rather small nook in the back of the house, to find my mother, the color in her cheeks gone, her body cold as the winter air, her eyes half open and starting to glaze. I'd only taken twenty minutes to shower...how is it that her body was so cold? I rushed to her side and called an ambulance, hefting her head into my arms, begging for her not to leave me.
    "Mother please, you gotta pull through; I can't do this without you!" I pleaded, my tears streaking down her face, the warmth rising as faint steam from her face. Was it that cold in the house? I felt really warm, but steam? From tears? It was all a jumble. She cracked a smile, and spoke in return.
    "Auron honey, you're gonna have to be the bigger person, and stand firm okay? I won't be able to look after you physically for much longer. I love you, and I'm sure you can handle it. You're an adult now, and I know you can handle the household. I've saved up money for three years to give to you on this day. Please...you must...stay.....strong.....for.....me....." Her eyes closed, and her body became heavier, her passage complete. I screamed as hard as I can, the banging at the back door, just feet away from me the only reality I came to, the medics screaming to be let in. I went with them to the hospital, where they pronounced her dead, at Seven Twenty-two.
                                      ***
    A couple days passed, and the funeral was held, the whole extended family showing up to honor the deceased, and to give me a general check-up, offering me a place to stay if it got too hard, general things a family does in mourning, keep each other strong. I wept, but not at the funeral, I'd shed all my tears in the preceding days. Now I stood over her gravestone, my eyes dry, having shed all their droplets of pain beforehand. We dispersed, and I went back home, my uncle Kain gave me a lift, his usual quiet nature gone, his eyes leaking tears as he drove. He dropped me off and we said our goodbyes, then I went inside to sit at the kitchen table. Again, I wept, my eyes drowning my cheeks with the same pain from before, though I've never understood why it was I never wept before my family. After about twenty minutes of that, I straightened up, and began the Cleansing. Something no one wants to do, but everyone does. I erased my mother from the house, leaving only keepsakes, not her scent, not her belongings; they would live in the attic, where I never went. This whole process took me about a week; given that I was alone, and had to work my job as well (I was a clerk at the local library). After the house was cleansed, I began to store the remnants in the attic, a very large room, filled with boxes and such. I found, underneath a cloak of dust, a small black box. On this box was a keypad. The only keys that had markings on them were the letters M,Y,D,E,A,R,S,T,H,U,B,and N. At first, my eyes didn't make the connection, then I face palmed and groaned. I put in the letters "My dearest husband" and the lock clicked, hissing as the box came open. Looking in, my body seemed to float, a sense of utter vertigo so strong I felt like I was free-falling for miles. All at once...everything went black....