Blessed are the Punished: Chapter 2 – Never-ending Struggle

Chapter 2 – Never-ending Struggle

Gad, Dan, and I go to the nearest proper dark elf city. The buildings are like trees in that their tops are like hands reaching toward the sky and have a gothic, churchlike appearance. Since most of the land in Abaddon is swamp land, some of these buildings are leaning down slightly. It’s honestly refreshing to be back in a civilized society after skulking through the deep swamps and settlements created by the depraved and lawless. My fellow agents and I walk the city streets and eat our fill at the nearest inn.

“It feels like I’ve never eaten proper food after all these months of eating the slop served out there. Let me tell you. They serve some of the strangest dishes. One time, I had to eat a rat the size of my head to infiltrate their secret room,” Gad says.

“Are you sure you didn’t eat any ratmen infants?” Dan asks.

“Huh, what? I don’t think I did. Why?”

“Ratmen infants are a favorite dish of scum who want to grow their hex magic and closer to demons. They also serve the dish to initiates to see if they are worth trusting and you’d know you were eating an infant if the rat had humanlike features on their face and chest.”

Gad seems to have realized something as he coughs and then runs off to the bathroom.

“You’d think after hundreds of years, my brother would be less of an idiot.”

“We’ve all hardly changed over the years,” I say.

“True, but with my brother, I’ve been hoping and praying that he’d change, especially since he’s lost all his wives to either death or them leaving him.”

“But all his children still live, so he has a reason to be as absent-minded as he usually is. That’s a blessing, at least.”

Gad comes back trying his best to smile and not look upset despite his skin looking more white than grey.

He sits down and says, “Okay, change of topic. After hearing your report, you should be looking for a new wife, Peter. I hear that dark elf women are into dark elves like you with dark blue hair, grey skin, and crimson and black eyes. I think I even saw the ones by the bar looking at you.”

“Dating is the last thing you should be thinking about,” Dan says.

“Why? I mean lots of women of our race like my grey skin, black hair, and black eyes. As for you, brother, I heard that black skin, white hair, and white eyes is an appearance that most women are bored of.”

“And yet, I’m the one whose wife hasn’t left him. No offense, Peter.”

“None taken,” I say. “Regardless of what you think, Gad, my wife is my responsibility and I still love her despite what she’s done.”

“Your wife seems to be beyond saving judging from what you told us. No one will fault you for leaving or killing her,” Gad says.

I slam the table with my hand.

“I won’t hear any more of this! I’ve made up my mind, I’m going after her, and I will save her.”

Gad looks at Dan who shrugs.

“If you end up failing or dying, no one will say you aren’t one of the most faithful husbands ever,” Dan says while searching his bag. He takes out letters and maps, some of which we collected from the stone temple. “We’ve circled the places where we found the necromancers, most of which we’ve cleared out or reported to our superiors so a military unit could do the clearing for us. With the new information you’ve discovered for us, I think it’s safe to assume we’ve found a few new places to investigate.”

As Dan marks the new locations on the map with an X, one place sticks out to me the most, a garden that’s close to a cemetery.

“Of course she’d go there. I’m heading out,” I say.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Gad asks.

“The place where I met my wife.”

“Hold on. You don’t know if she’ll be there for sure and if it’s just going to be her. You could encounter more trouble than you’re looking for.”

“Heh, my wife is more than enough trouble already.”

“Did you actually crack a joke? Hey!”

Before Gad and Dan can follow me, I head out on my horse on my own to the garden where I first met my wife. I hardly need to reference my map since I’ve traveled these roads so many times with her to get there over the centuries. Sure enough, when I arrive at the cemetery, I see Leah there touching the flowers and smelling them with our boys in those accursed shells.

“Did your father and I ever tell you that we met here? We also kept coming back here to renew our vows after each of your older siblings died,” Leah says. “This colorful place never lost its beauty and always seemed to me to be a promise that everything will be okay.”

“It still is and that promise is still in effect,” I say as I walk in front of Leah.

“Peter! I told you to never chase after us!”

“You are my responsibility. I can’t abandon you to damn yourself.”

“What about those other necromancers you killed? You had no problem killing them.”

“The only responsibility I had for them was the handling of their just execution, but as for you, I have to save you. I’ve learned over the centuries when a person can be reasoned with and when they are beyond reason.”

“Perhaps you’re also deluded by the way you think and your so-called love for me.”

“Perhaps. Every time we renewed our vows to each other in this garden that we would make it through life, I meant it and I’m here to show you that I still do.”

“Are you really? By your own logic, you’ve failed me and our children, and our two boys beside me mark your final failure since you believe them to be dead.”

“I can still save you and keep true to our promise. I’ve gone from a criminal doing the dirty work of lords of wealthy men to being a faithful soldier of God’s Church, so you know I can change and I know what it’s like to go from being depraved to being virtuous. Here, in this garden, you killed that old, sinful part of me by vowing your love for me despite my past, and now, I’m hoping to do the same for you. You only need to renounce your ways and take my hand.”

Leah looks at me in silence for a few seconds before backing away.

“No, no, no. I’m a different person than I was before and so are you. There’s no going back from this. I will save our family whether through evil or good.”

Using her hex magic, Leah conjures a grey and black fog that I can’t go through as touching it feels like walking through blades suspended in the air. Meanwhile, the dolls of our two boys approach me with their usual disturbing smiles and looks on their faces.

“Mother is dedicated to and loves us more than you do,” they say. “Why don’t you see that what she’s done for us is for the greater good?”

“Get behind me, Satan. I’ve come prepared this time,” I say as I splash holy water and throw holy salts at the dolls that I got from Gad and Dan.

The dolls scream with a noise that unnerves me and makes Leah run to them, yell something at me, and then run away on her bone horse. This scream has also made the necromancers come out of the mausoleums in the nearby graveyard with their puppeted dead in tow that are hardly able to stand up thanks to their controls being in distress. Seeing as how I’ve made my mark on Leah and she’s too far away now to catch up to, I enter the darkness and kill the necromancers here to free the dead they’ve desecrated. While doing so, I can’t help but laugh, not just because I can’t control it, but also because I know I’ve gotten to Leah. Her pause and admission that what she’s doing is evil proves her conscience is still alive.

In addition, the holy salt and water should free the skinned corpses of my boys from their shells or at least make it harder for the demons to use them. Leah has also touched the sacramentals, which will weaken her hex magic and the hold that her demons have over her mind. With my job here done, I run back to my horse and follow my wife’s tracks. Her redemption is close at hand.