Mortality: The Story of Mortanius

Chapter Twenty-One

It was high summer and the heat was unbearable. Mortanius sweated like a pig under his black cloak, and he assumed Moebius was equally uncomfortable, although he knew his friend would never admit it. In public, Moebius worked to maintain a detached and mysterious demeanor, rarely letting his feelings show. Although he was younger than Mortanius, his thin, frail frame and bald head made him appear much older, and when he walked, he used his magic staff almost like a cane to further give off an image of infirmity. It was all an act, though.

At the moment, they were both riding in a cart down a winding road toward an isolated village called Mirkwater, a days’ ride east of the Pillars. Marching on each side of the cart was a squad of soldiers wearing stiff leather armor dyed red. They carried swords and maces, but also had long wooden lances and spears. They were the military arm of the Sarafan.

An unexpected consequence of their rebellion against the vampires was the growth of a competing cult that viewed the vampires as living deities. While it was true that many people on Nosgoth feared and hated the vampires, it was equally true that others believed the vampires were holy figures to be respected and even worshiped. The death of the vampire Guardians ignited a backlash that Mortanius had not anticipated. He and Moebius were deemed traitors and heretics, and a sizable minority of humans actively opposed their control of the Pillars.

The leader of this new faction was none other than Vorador, the first human to be turned into a half-breed. He gathered other half-breeds and they initiated a small rebellion of their own, fighting against what they viewed as a campaign of murder and oppression. These acts of resistance only motivated the Sarafan, led by Moebius, to crack down on the half-breeds. Within a few years, the fighting became so bad that it was an almost constant threat. Hence, the armed guards protecting them as they traveled down the road.

Mortanius did his best to stay out of it. He had long since abandoned any position of leadership in the Sarafan, and mainly focused on preparing for the new Guardians and continuing his own private lines of research. He delved into vampire records, trying to solve the many mysteries that still remained, and worked to advance his knowledge of his own powers and limitations. He also worked to know as much as possible about the other Guardians, in order to better train and mentor the new Guardians when they came of age.

Finding the new Guardians was a considerable challenge. Soon after the rebellion, they sent word all across Nosgoth to keep track of any children who were born at around the same time. However, tragically, some of those children died in childhood from accidents or disease, and it was not always possible to track down different children who were born at the same time the others passed away. And to make matters more complicated, they saw nothing special about any of the infants they examined in the months after the rebellion, leading Moebius to speculate that a link to the Pillars did not truly take hold until the child was well past infancy.

Worse possibilities existed. What if Mortanius and Moebius were simply incapable of recognizing the new Guardians at all? Maybe it was something only a vampire could see? Maybe the vampires had lied about it and simply chosen children at random, although Mortanius doubted that. If they could have chosen whatever child they wanted, they would never have chosen Moebius.

But the longer it took to find a new Guardian, the more Mortanius and Moebius began to worry. What if they couldn’t find them? They debated performing the Pillar ceremony on a random child, or even an adult, just to see what would happen. They had been searching for more than ten years, and they had not discovered any of the new Guardians.

Until now, that is. In his travels a few weeks prior, Mortanius spotted a young girl in the village of Mirkwater. She would have been indistinguishable from thousands of other dirty blonde village children all over Nosgoth, but when Mortanius looked at her, he saw a glowing blue aura, and he knew instinctively that she was one of the children they had been looking for. The Sarafan quietly kept an eye on her until a special trip could be arranged. They kept her existence a secret out of fear that the half-breeds led by Vorador might try to make a move against her.

They rode into Mirkwater with as little fanfare as possible. The Sarafan soldiers quickly set up positions around the village as Mortanius and Moebius climbed down from the cart and walked toward the house where the girl and her family lived.

“You’re certain?” Moebius asked for the hundredth time.

“When you see her, you’ll know.”

“I’m actually nervous to meet her. Can you believe that?”

“Just think, she’s only the first,” Mortanius said. “We have six more to find.”

By the time they reached the girl’s dwelling, a few dozen villagers had come out to see what was going on. The Sarafan had already informed Moebius that there were no known half-breed sympathizers in Mirkwater, so they didn’t expect any trouble. But the soldiers stood on guard, ready to fight if anyone tried to interfere.

A middle-aged woman walked out in front of the house, dressed in a shabby gray dress, her dingy blonde hair tied with a strip of brown cloth. She carried an infant in her arms and looked fearfully at all the people surrounding her house.

“What’s going on out here?” she asked.

Moebius put on his most reassuring smile. “It’s all right, my dear. Everything is fine, I promise.”

“Who … who are you?”

Mortanius answered. “My name is Mortanius and this is Moebius. We are the Guardians of the Pillars. We’d like to talk to you about your family.”

“My husband isn’t … he isn’t here,” the woman said, staring at them with wide eyes. “He’s in the fields right now.” The baby in her arms, perhaps picking up on his mother’s fear, began to cry and she tried to shush him unsuccessfully.

“We can wait for him if you like,” Moebius said. “You have an older daughter, is that right? About eight or nine years old?”

“My daughter? Yes, she’s ...”

A girl appeared in the doorway of the family’s house. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and large blue eyes that glared suspiciously at the strangers in the front yard. “Momma? What’s going on?” she asked as she gripped the edge of the doorway. The hem of her simple brown dress was frayed and dirty.

“Oh, my,” Moebius breathed.

A beautiful blue halo that only Mortanius and Moebius could see hovered around the girl’s body, sparkling like gemstone dust. It was undeniable. The girl was a Guardian.

Mortanius knelt down on one knee and held out his hand. “It’s okay, child. Come here, I’d like to talk to you.”

“Momma?”

“Come on out, honey” her mother said nervously, trying to muffle the cries of the baby in her arms. “These men are very important people.”

The girl hesitantly walked out. Everyone in the entire village seemed to be there, all of them looking at her. All the villagers saw was a plain-looking child, but Mortanius saw something much more than that. He realized that the shimmering blue aura was the same color as the symbol on the Pillar of Balance. She was the Balance Guardian, the one born to take the place of Aleph.

“What’s going on?” she asked sullenly, glancing around at all the spectators.

Mortanius smiled. “You’re a very special little girl, do you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there’s only a few people like you in the whole world. I’m one of them. My name is Mortanius and that other man over there is named Moebius. We’ve come all the way from the Pillars to meet you.”

The girl stared at him, utterly fearless. “Why?” she asked.

Her mother stared in shock and then spun her head around to gape at Moebius, who leaned on his staff with a blissful smile on his usually-stern face. “What do you … what do you mean?” her mother stuttered. “What do you mean, special? She can’t be … you can’t mean ...”

“Do you know what the Pillars are?” Mortanius asked, ignoring the girl’s mother as she babbled behind him. “Have you ever heard of the Guardians of the Pillars?”

“Sure, I guess so.”

“Well, I’m one of the Guardians, and you’re one of the Guardians too.”

“Oh!” the girl’s mother cried out, and a few other villagers had to run over to help her before she fainted. One of them took the crying baby and tried to calm her down. People started whispering and murmuring to each other, pointing at the child in excited tones. The Sarafan soldiers kept the villagers from coming forward, and thankfully none of them tried to. Everyone seemed thrilled and surprised, but Mortanius didn’t notice, because he wasn’t looking at them. At the moment, he only had eyes for the person in front of him.

“How would you like to come to the Pillars with us?” he asked.

The girl thought about it. “Can my momma and poppa come too?”

“Of course they can. Everyone is welcome. We’ll have a big feast and a celebration just for you.”

“Because I’m a Guardian person? How do you know that’s what I am?”

“Trust me, I can tell.”

“Okay,” she said, but she didn’t sound like she believed him. Mortanius remembered back to the day that the vampires came for him. He had been much like this girl, respectful but stubborn, decisive and opinionated. He could tell right away that this child was going to want answers, and he could only hope that he had the answers to give her.

“What’s you name?” he asked.

She crossed her thin arms and stared at him with penetrating blue eyes. “My name’s Ellendra.”

“Well, Ellendra, it’s very nice to meet you.”

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