1 day left
Avso held up the amulet. It was a deep, dusty, golden shined dully in the light.
They were in a dusty underground room. A slender slit in the ceiling, through which a beam of sunlight dared to penetrate the gloom, cast a golden, ethereal glow that danced with the floating dust motes. The air was thick, laden with the musty scent of earth.
They had fought long and hard. They had traveled into the Guha Labyrinth and fought against demons that infested its deepest areas. The fight had been challenging due to the sheer number of demons they had to fight. At one point, Uk had to save Avso.
When they had defeated all the demons, Skamtos wanted to kill them all. Avso had told him to show mercy. Skamtos thought he was crazy for that.
Kraz was sitting on the ground. Somehow, he managed to make sitting on the ground look regal. Uk also sat on the ground, twitching erratically.
“A-are you OK, Uk?”
“Y-yeah … I just over-exerted myself—used too much Otu …” Uk said.
“Well, thanks for saving me back there …”
“N-no problem …” Uk stared at the wall.
“That’s it, then,” Skamtos said as he grabbed the Amulet from Avso. “We found it.” He examined the Amulet.
“How do you use it?”
“You just put Otu into it and focus your thoughts on the target,” Skatmos said.
“But how does the—?”
“Stop asking so many questions!” Uk yelled in a sudden rage.
Avso whipped around, about to retort when Uk’s rage disappeared—replaced with regret.
“I’m sorry—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I just used too much Otu … I used way too much.” He rocked back and forth.
“Are you OK?” Avso asked, suddenly very concerned.
“Yes …” Uk said, then his expression twisted. “No … I’m not. I can’t control it … I can’t …” His voice sounded pained.
Kraz sat up slowly. Avso noticed Kraz wince as he walked toward Uk. “You’ll be fine,” he said soothingly. “Just focus on what’s in your control. You can control it.”
“What’s going on?” Avso asked.
Uk trembled so severely, and his voice shook so much that he was barely understandable. “If I use too much Otu … I can’t … Control myself … It’s what happened … At Ohvocdu’s … Execution …”
“What do you mean?” Avso asked.
“SHUT UP!” Uk suddenly screamed. “You stupid idiot! You don’t understand!”
Uk fell silent.
Kraz whispered soothingly, “You can control it, Uk. Just focus on what’s in your control. You’ll overcome it.”
“I won't,” Uk’s voice came out as a cry. “It’s not possible.”
“It is. You can do it,” Kraz whispered.
Uk suddenly seethed in anger. “I. Hate. You,” he said to Kraz, staring at him. “Get away from me.”
“Uk—” Kraz said.
“I said, GET AWAY FROM ME!” Uk pushed Kraz away.
Kraz backed up slowly. “Uk, you’ll be fine. You can do it.”
Avso’s eyes were wide, and he stared at Uk like he was crazy.
Uk looked at Avso, body shivering. “Stop looking at me like that.”
Avso backed away slowly.
“I said, STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!”
Uk shot up from the ground and, in a single leap, was on top of Avso.
Avso crashed into the ground, and Uk immediately started slamming fists down to his skull. Pain exploded across the sky.
Avsos’ world went black.
Avso awoke to pain and blurriness. He cried at the pain in his head. He felt wet hotness everywhere on his hands and his body. He was dying; he knew it.
His vision cleared, and he saw Skamtos pinning down Uk. Kraz was hovering over Avso, looking worried.
He said something, but Avso couldn’t hear.
He seemed to blip in and out of existence. What seemed like an hour later—or maybe a second later—Uk was hovering over Avso, crying. He hovered his hands over Avso’s body, and Avso felt his pain disappear.
I really am dying … Forgive me, father.
Avso awoke again. His head was no longer in pain, and his body was dry of all blood. He looked around and saw himself in Kraz’s basement once more.
Uk was on the floor, passed out. Kraz and Skamtos immediately came to Avso.
“Avso,” Kraz said. “How are you feeling? Are you OK?”
“Yes … What happened.”
“Uk attacked you. But after he did, he healed you.”
“How did he heal me?”
“He used the very last of his Otu to heal your body. It’s a part of his specialty. After he did that, he passed out. He’s currently replenishing his Otu.”
“How long has it been?”
“Not too long. You’ve only been out two hours.”
Avso nodded, but it suddenly made his head hurt. “That’s good,” Avso said. “We need as much time as we can get.”
“It is good. But we need you to rest as much as you can. Both you and Uk need to be in fighting condition when we attack the Emperor.”
“Ok,” Avso said. “Can I see my father?”
“Why?” Kraz said.
“I just want to see him.”
“OK …”
Kraz sent Avso in a carriage to his father’s house. Avso limped out of the carriage and toward the door when he arrived. He needed to see his father, and his father needed to know that Avso had found the Amulet. His father would be proud. Avso knew he would be proud.
Avso opened the door and went inside. No one was there. He went to the dining room, and his father wasn’t there either.
Avso went to his father’s room. The door was closed, and Avso hesitated before knocking on the door. He did so anyway.
“Coming, my love,” his father said. The loving voice made Avso’s heart twinge, but he pushed his pain away.
His father opened the door and stopped when he saw Avso. His slight smile faded into a look of outright anger.
“What are you doing?”
“I wanted to tell you that we got the Amulet.”
“I told you, you are never to come to my door.”
“I … I’m sorry … But, father, we got Tesro’s Amulet. We got it.”
His father’s expression soured. “Why are you bloody?” he growled.
“I …” This was not the reaction Avso had expected. “Uk attacked me. I almost died, father—”
“Are you stupid?” Frauza seethed. “What do you mean you almost died? Why would you put the mission in jeopardy by almost dying? What were you thinking?”
“I—”
“Oh, I know! You didn’t think!” His father's jaw was clenched so hard that Avso could see every muscle strand.
“Father, I—” Avso felt tears sting in his eyes, but he forced himself not to cry.
“You are an impotent idiot. Do you even understand what’s at stake here? Do you?”
Avso would not cry in front of his father. He could not.
“Yes—I understand—”
“But you don’t! You don’t understand; if you did, you wouldn’t have gone off and almost killed yourself! The entirety of Murkali and every neighboring nation is at stake here—all of them! And one idiot with golden hair almost got them all killed!”
Avso couldn’t stop the tears from flowing from his eyes. He quickly wiped them. “I—I didn’t—It wasn’t my fault—”
“Leave me! Fix your error, and do better.”
“Father, I—”
“Leave!” His father slammed the door in Avso’s face.
Avso stood outside the door. It was silent except for Avso’s slight sniffles. Tears trickled down his cheeks.
He slowly walked away and toward his room.
The other children were outside the hallway, looking curiously at the source of the yelling. When they saw Avso, their faces turned to disgust. Avso wiped the tears from his face.
“What were you doing? Why’s father mad?” Ecrine asked.
Avso just shook his head and walked past. He walked to his room—the smallest, dingiest room in the house—and laid on his woven bed.
I didn’t even do anything … He just … He just hates me …
Avso wished for nothing more than for his father to love him. But at that moment, he wished his father didn’t exist. His life would be much simpler if he could just … exist on his own—without needing to make his father proud.
Why did he spend so much time and effort trying to please his father? Avso had always known his father didn’t love him—and that he might never.
I don’t know why I spent my life fighting for his approval. Maybe life doesn’t need to be that way. Maybe I can live for other reasons …
Maybe …
