The Accursed - Chapter 1

Author note: Ok, so I've decided that occasionally on weekends I might post the concept chapters I've written for other stories for everyone to read just so you guys have something on weekends. They are in no way full stories, and this is the last in my backlog of concepts, but I do generally write plenty of first chaps just to put words to paper and get ideas out of my head. Anyway, enjoy.

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Every great story begins with a day unlike any other, an inciting event. Sometimes, it’s a fated meeting or a happening of chance. Other times it’s a world-shattering cataclysm, maybe even the death of a loved one.

For me, it was a day like any other. It was perfectly ordinary. Until, well, it wasn’t.

Priests. A lot of them. That was what was my ‘inciting event’ was. They had come uninvited and shipped me away to the capital. My father and mother gave their protests, but they didn’t truly matter in the grand scheme of things. I had been called upon by the crown to serve a higher purpose, for I had been chosen by the gods.

Chosen as one of four Heroes.

It wasn’t exactly news to me at the time. Every century, something similar happened. Heroes were chosen and blessed with powers usually unbefitting of them, destined to go off and beat back the Eldritch in the east.

Horrid things they were, misshapen and gluttonous. The beasts were a scourge on the Earth, bent on the corruption and consumption of the mortal plane. There was no true way to defeat them, at least from what I had known then, only to slaughter the hordes and force the Rift shut for another hundred or so years.

Certainly, it was half a solution.

But back to what I had been saying; inciting events, rare happenings. Not many have had the pleasure of saying that they have experienced two in their lives. I had, unfortunately. And quite the event it was.

Quite.

It had been three days after the four of us had put a sword through the skull of the big bad Eldritch Spawnlord and sent his hordes packing. Spirits were high, pride was brimming, and the amazement of it all was positively blinding.

We’d just returned to the capital of Zenaka, our ‘mighty fine’ kingdom. Well, it had been a kingdom at one point. It was rubble now. I’d made sure of it. The citizens had been awaiting our arrival and cheering for our victory as we finally walked down the main street, parading our achievements like fools.

As I had mentioned previously, there were four of us; Gallahan, Analise, Felicia, and myself, Arius. Gal, as we called him, had been our leader, brave and charismatic, and always at the forefront of the battle protecting others.

Analise, was the healer, kind but rather soft. Complicated emotions were involved with her, I will say, though they were mostly on my end. Felicia was quick on her feet and her blade was yet quicker. An assassin some called her, others a rogue. I called her a bitch.

Because she was one.

And me? Well, I was the mage, lanky and practically made of glass. If not for Analise’s potent healing, I’m sure I would have been dead long before we managed to defeat the Eldritch. I wasn’t exactly the most skilled of our bunch, I wasn’t charismatic like Gallahan, or reliable like Analise was.

I wasn’t even all that powerful either, unable to break past the fourth spell tier, even with hero’s blessing I had. In the end, all I was, was the lucky one.

**

I strolled down the halls that fateful day, feet stomping velvet carpet and eyes admiring the overuse of gold on every aspect of the hallway, my companions by my side.

“We did it guys,” Gallahan said, his pearly teeth put on display as he gave one of his trademark charismatic grins, “We actually saved the kingdom.”

Felicia snorted, spinning her dagger around her fingers like it was a child’s toy, “Well, we did. Dunno what Arius was doing.”

I sent her my most scathing glare and she sneered at me. Analise pouted and made to stand in between us, “Can’t you two get along? We just saved the gods damned kingdomtogether, and all you can do is fight? Come on!”

Clicking my tongue, I crossed my arms, “Felicia started it.”

My voice was barely a mutter, but the target of my words still heard it, and she laughed. I sighed.

As my attention wandered to the gold framed portraits of long passed royalty and the marble pillars speaking of obnoxious riches, Gallahan clapped me on the shoulder comfortingly, “It’s alright. My ma always said that if a girl was mean to ya, it meant they liked ya.”

He chuckled. I grimaced, “Uh… I’m sorry, but I really hope your mother’s a liar.”

Felicia’s eyes glazed over for a moment as she seemed to consider something in her head. The next moment, she shuddered with obvious disgust, “Gross.”

I couldn’t wait until we no longer had to walk around tied at the waist.

Tonight – thatnight – was the fabled Feast of Triumph, a buffet held specially to celebrate our victory over the Eldritch forces. It was a night of fun and reflection. I had never spoken to another hero from the past, back then at least, but it was well-known that the dinner was something to remember. I couldn’t help but be excited.

And afterwards, we would have served our duty and would be free. Free to travel to world or return home. I was particularly favoring the latter at the time, as I hadn’t seen my parents in the six months our little war had taken, but life happened to have a way of tearing up your plans and shitting on them.

Finally, after another five minutes of walking through a space that was clearly large for the sake of it, we arrived at the doors to the feasting hall. They were massive, stretching up high past our heads and tickling the roof. Polished oak wood was studded with gold and lined with shining platinum, creating two doors.

“Please,” Analise spoke, making sure to give a meaningful glance to both Felicia and I, “be on your best behavior. Don’t fight. Not while we’re celebrating.”

She beamed. Her eyes flashed with an emotion I had never seen in them before, though it was too quick to catch, “and make sure to enjoy the wine. I hear it’s the best in the kingdom!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Felicia rolled her eyes and pushed the doors. They rewarded her with a creak and opened slowly.

As one unit, we stepped through.

Cheers resounded, far too many for us to make out what was being called out. Pride, joy, relief. I felt all those emotions swirling within me as I walked into the room, my comrades by my side. I now know that all three of those emotions can be boiled into one; naivety.

We each took positions upon a luxurious table, one longer than anything I’d seen before. Along it sat hundreds of nobles and knights. At the very end, not too far from where we were, sat the king on his golden throne, surveying us all with a critical eye. It was like he was sizing each of us up. Calculating our worth.

In a way, now that I look back, that was exactly what he was doing.

He spread his arms wide, and the idle chatter that had consumed the venue quieted down until the entire room was deathly silent. The man beamed, his greying beard parting to reveal his golden teeth, “Our brave heroes have returned. They’ve saved us from our mortal enemy and bestowed us another century of prosperity. Rejoice, for tonight…”

“We feast!” his declaration was met with cheers, and a stream of servants burst out of the side doors, carrying platters of various foods. The scents were delectable.

At the time though, I had been focused on something else. The fact that the king’s speech seemed so… rehearsed, like he had said it dozens of times. It was common knowledge that the king had lived seven generations already, though no one knew how, so I had just assumed that he probably had said that speech a dozen times.

The mind-bending scent of roast lamb hitting my nostrils took my attention away from it immediately after. The meat looked so juicy that my mouth threatened to water.

I glanced at my wine, red and rich with mana. The others were chugging the stuff with relish, savoring every sip. I wasn’t really much of a drinker myself, so I decided to abstain. Analise seemed to notice, and she shot me a pointed glance as she took a swig of her own. Her cheeks were already flushed red.

“Arius. Drink up. You’ll regret missing out on it if you don’t-“ she finished off the rest of her wine and a servant swooped in and poured her some more, “this stuff is super expensive, you know?”

Under that beautiful emerald gaze, I couldn’t help but crumble. I grasped my flute and took a swig, albeit a small one. It tasted sour and made me want to gag. Needless to say, on that night, Gallahan ended up drinking my share of the stuff along with his own.

As I said before, I was just the lucky one.

The festivities progressed, and things got rowdy among the nobles. Gallahan was loud and almost blackout drunk by the second hour despite his powerful metabolism. Analise had passed out long before that, and Felicia was sipping her drink with dignity, although her cheeks were flushed, and a dumb grin had spread across her face.

I was rather subdued, though I too had reddened cheeks. Purely, it was out of embarrassment for the actions of Gal. He quickly went to snoring.

Eventually, Felicia passed out as well, and I was the final one of the four remaining conscious. Oddly enough, however, I was beginning to feel my head bob and my consciousness slip. I was certain I hadn’t had any to drink – or at least enough to have an effect – yet there I was, slowly drifting off.

And it was at that moment – I remember it oh so vividly, the emotions, the realization, the pieces clicking together, even now, years later – I realized that something was wrong. Very wrong.

I snuck glances at the nobles around us, and I noticed the covert glances they sent my way. The joyful chatter had also appeared to have died down a rather considerate amount.

Almost hesitantly, I looked over to my companions. Analise’s chest wasn’t moving. Felicia’s wasn’t either. Gallahan’s was, though it was weak and in sputters. It didn’t take me being a genius for me to figure out they weren’t breathing. That they were dead. I felt my heart constrict in my chest.

That dread I felt then, it was so powerful that it almost made me crumple.

I tried to resist, though my head kept drooping, and my eyelids kept inching downward. From the corners of my eyes, I saw the guards and servants creep closer. I heard the king’s rowdy laughter as my head hit the table and my eyes slammed shut. Darkness began to slough over my thoughts.

As hands grabbed my shoulders and I plunged into the void of unconsciousness, I heard the king snort a single word. That one word stuck with me and clung to my mind for years upon years.

“Pathetic.”

**

From what I remember, it was the stench that hit me first. That roused me from my slumber. The pain was next, the sweet, sweet agony. It consumed my entire body, flaring to the beat of my heart and threatening to knock me unconscious once again.

Once I got over that, which took quite a while may I add, I began to notice other things. Something was hard underneath me, angular and tough, like plates of armor. Yet in other places, it was noticeably softer.

Curious, and ignoring the staleness of the air and the strong scent of blood, I mobilized my mana and formed the spell matrix for a simple Fireball spell, one of the seven I knew. A second later, it flared to life in my palm, blazing brightly and illuminating the surroundings in shades of orange and red. As my eyes adjusted, my shoulders slumped. My eyes shook.

I didn’t know what to think in that moment. Who would? There were corpses. Dozens upon dozens strewn about at random over a clearing several meters wide. Some of them were intact, others had been smeared across the rough stone flooring of the place like strawberry jam, chunks and all.

Other corpses were bent and broken in places, their backs or spines twisted in directions that certainly weren’t survivable. Blood was splattered across every surface, mostly dried and browned, speaking of their immense age. Over to my left, I spotted Felicia, her lifeless eyes gazing up to the darkness stretching far above us.

Well, what was left of her at least. There was more mush than person. I vomited, sickly fluid splattering off to the side and draping itself over the stone. I felt sick. So sick.

Glancing around, I couldn’t spot Analise’s corpse. Nor Gallahan’s. Then I remembered the hard ridges that felt like armor beneath me. I knew only one person that wore armor that bulky.

Slowly, I forced my anguish consumed body to sit up and turn around. My flame glowed pleasantly, illuminating the face of Gallahan, his throat slit and his dull eyes frozen with what looked like betrayal.

I vomited again.