Mortality: The Story of Mortanius

Chapter Five

It was apparent to Mortanius that his parents never expected him to return home after his stay with the vampires. When he did return, with two vampires accompanying him, his father looked as if he had seen a ghost and his mother cried openly, although Mortanius didn’t dare ask if they were tears of joy or tears of despair. If they just expected the vampires to kill him or change him into one of their own, Mortanius never learned. His return completely stunned them.

But after a few days, they seemed to accept that he was not any different than he had been before he left. He told them vague explanations to satisfy their restrained curiosity, that the vampires believed he was special for some reason and had initiated him into a strange society revolving around their magical Pillars. But once initiated, they let him return home and would not bother him. He was not turned into a half-breed or otherwise harmed, and as far as he knew, the vampires would never bother him again.

His father checked him out thoroughly though, despite his reassurances. He checked for bite marks, saying it was for his son’s own good. They kept a careful eye on him for the next few days and nights, but eventually were satisfied that he was okay. And gradually, his life returned to normal.

He tended the garden. He helped his mother with other chores and taught his sister how to tend the garden, even though she was not yet old enough to do it by herself. His father began teaching him more about the crops, how to raise the animals, how to plow the field after the winter, how to sort good seeds from bad.

He also taught him the fundamentals of fighting with a sword, after Mortanius had innocently expressed an interest in it one afternoon. His father was no swordsman, not by a long shot, but he enthusiastically taught Mortanius everything he knew. He told Mortanius that it was always a good thing to know how to defend yourself, because thieves and brigands constantly roved the countryside and preyed on farms like theirs. Mortanius suspected that he also feared the vampires might come back some day and wanted his son to be able to resist them. Unknown to him, it was Mortanius’s desire as well.

And so for almost three years, his life affected a peaceful normality. He grew up and grew taller, building muscle on his skinny frame by his physical outdoor work and nightly sword practice. His sister took over responsibility of the small garden and Mortanius helped in the fields exclusively, learning more and more about farming as he worked side-by-side with his father. Just as his father had once learned from his father, Mortanius learned and felt pride in what he accomplished.

And in those years, he gradually learned more about his other abilities as well. Sometimes, his parents noticed a peculiar sadness in him when one of the family’s animals died. Sometimes, they noticed a strange interest. Mortanius could shift his vision into the netherworld almost at will, and he could sense the presence of souls around him even when he could not see them. If an animal was sick, he was able to tell if it was going to die or not by feeling out its soul. And at times, when he looked into the netherworld and saw a human soul, he could concentrate and feel a glimmer of the soul’s former life invade his own vision. He knew if the person had been male or female, young or old at the time of death, and even could see bits of their life if the soul was fresh. He wisely kept any knowledge of these supernatural powers from his parents.

So much time passed that Mortanius almost forgot about his other life with the vampires. His powers became so natural that he didn’t actively think about them anymore, and he tended to forget that he was a Guardian of the Pillars. He wasn’t the Guardian of Death anymore, he was just Mortanius, a simple farmer like his father.

And then the vampires came back after all.

Mortanius was walking back towards the house from the fields when he heard his father’s cry. He dropped the hoe he’d been carrying and ran to the house and to the front yard in a sudden panic. His father had heard rumors that some bandits from the nearby mountains had been attacking local farms recently. Had the invaders come?

In the front yard, his father was holding a pitchfork up like a spear, waving it threateningly at the trio of vampires who stood by the dirt road. Mortanius slowed and regarded them carefully. His father noticed him standing there and shouted at him, pointing at the vampires. “They’ve come for you again! I always knew they would come back! Get out while you still can!”

The first vampire had not changed at all in three years, but then again, Mortanius would not have expected him to. It was Janos. With him were Aleph, the silver-haired Guardian of Balance, and a third vampire that Mortanius didn’t recognize but suspected was a warrior or bodyguard.

“Hello, Mortanius,” Janos said calmly, with a thin smile. “It’s good to see you again. I see you’ve grown up a bit since we last saw you.”

“What do you want?” Mortanius asked, his voice cold. His father smiled at that and thrust his pitchfork at the vampires, although Mortanius didn’t believe for a second that the vampires were at all threatened by it.

“He doesn’t want anything to do with you!” his father shouted. “Now get out of here, all of you!”

“We would like to speak to him,” Aleph said gruffly, stepping forward. “He is a Guardian of the Pillars. We would never do him harm.”

Mortanius had several battered wooden practice swords lying around the property. One of them was sitting in the grass beside the house, and he picked it up casually. “You might think that’s true, Aleph, but I believe otherwise,” he said, hefting the sword in his hand. It was more for effect than anything else. The sword’s dull wooden blade wouldn’t cut anything. “Now what do you want from me? You promised you wouldn’t bother me.”

Janos held out his arm to hold Aleph back. The Guardian of Balance did not have Janos’ skill at speech and persuasion, and they both knew it.

“We have discovered the new Guardian of Time,” Janos said. “A human, like you, but he’s only seven years old, even younger than you were when we found you. He’s very scared, Mortanius, for reasons you well know. We would like your help.”

“How could I help you?”

“The child doesn’t understand what we tell him, or at least he chooses not to. Even Lora and Romanen cannot comfort him. You’re not as young as he is, but you’re young enough that maybe he will listen to you. I won’t ask you to help us, but help the child.”

Mortanius thought about it for a few moments. He had no desire to return to the Pillars, but at least this time he was not completely helpless. If we went back this time, it would be as an equal, not as a kidnapped child. And he certainly did know what the child must be feeling, he had lived through the fear and the confusion as well. And he had been ten, old enough to handle his fear, while this child was only seven, barely old enough to take care of himself. Mortanius could only imagine how old terrified the child must be, surrounded by the monstrous vampires and forced into their strange religion.

His father must have noticed his consideration. “Mortanius,” he asked nervously, “You aren’t thinking of going with them, are you? They’re trying to take you away again. You can’t trust these creatures.”

“What do you say to that, Janos?” Mortanius asked. “Can I trust you?”

Janos smiled and spread his clawed hands. “I have never lied to you. And you know that what I’m saying must be truth. We would not come here otherwise.”

Not yet, anyway, Mortanius guessed. He was still only thirteen, and Romanen told him the vampires did not plan to change him until he was at least thirty. That was a long way to go. And if the vampires meant him harm, they would have come for him in the night, not in the middle of the day.

“When I was taken, I would have appreciated someone my age to talk to. I’ll come with you, Janos, to help you with the new Guardian.”

“Thank you,” Janos said.

Mortanius pointed the end of the sword at them. “But afterward I’m coming back here and you’re going to leave me alone. I’ll stay two days, no longer.”

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