Chapter 147

Wutke has arrived." Nortze whispered.

"What are they turning into?" terrified Jehaule asked.

"To anything likely to kill our family," Nortze observed the twitching men on ground from the battlements, "whatever we are most vulnerable against."

Nortze noticed movement of trees near the horizon. He opted out of the discussion going on among those three and watched the trees which were shaking. Sound of leaves moving made a sound resembling to wind. But there was not even the slightest gust of wind for everything seemed lifeless. Trees trembled more and dust rose from the forest. He could see the forest getting covered with the yellow dust rising from the ground.

The noise amplified. They came to their loudest point and declined. Then followed human shrieks.

Yells of men, women and children. Those cries continued until they worsened. Those cried then turned coarse – somewhat beastly. Silence ruled the surrounding for a brief moment. Yet, nothing appeared to have come back to life.

Tramps came from distant villages and forests but it did not strike natural to Nortze. The number of tramps he had heard, before screams, tripled.

A loud howl made Nortze look down at the ground under them.

Nortze’s heart sank to its deepest when he saw werewolves, in armors, around the castle premise. They howled, increasing the pace of footsteps in the forest. Guards turned werewolves began scratching the castle wall which protected them. Their resilient nails scraped big chunks of concrete with each stroke of the paws.

To their misfortune, they were very few compared to the guards present inside the castle.

Saer also happened to be looking at the same place. He took long time to notice that Nortze's eyes had shifted away from the yard and were now locked at him.

When Saer turned his head at his direction, he saw a look of plead on Nortze's face. For a while, he thought Nortze was lost in his imagination until he realized he wasn’t.

"Save my son." Nortze said.

"Gervase?"

Jehaule, who had his head hanging down the battlement said, "Do some sorcery, Calajhan. This castle won't hold these werewolves for long."

Nortze motioned him quiet.

"I am sending you to Deragra. Only you can leave Winstrova. Lacroix's curse will not let anyone amongst our family to leave. And you didn’t come with us to decide the wedding."

Jehaule nodded, confirming all of the reasons Nortze had given were true.

"Guard Gervase there." Nortze said, "I will try to defend rest of my family here."

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Jehaule came forward but did not join the conversation.

Nortze squinted to Jehaule's hand, "Give me your ring." he said.

Jehaule took it off and gave it to him.

Nortze held the ring infront of his head, "Gold. Fragile. This will offer you at least two teleportations."

Colour of the ring started to change. Golden smoke rose from near invisible pores on the gold surface and a thick cloud circled around the ring.

Nortze blew the smoke away.

What remained in Nortze's possession was a ring black as a charcoal.

"You are a low blood." Nortz said, "Hence, you have lesser things to sacrifice."

"I need to sacrifice something to achieve teleportation?"

"Sacrifice something significant."

"My sword."

"Name something else."

"I am a cut-throat. I have nothing."

"Don’t limit your ideas to physical objects." Nortze said, "Wealth cannot be barter for everything."

"My nostalgia."

The ring illuminated a little.

"Not enough."

"My happiness."

It glowed bright but kept fluctuating.

"Unstable."

"My sadness."

"Unstable too."

"My name?"

"Names can't charge magic to a teleportation metal."

"Myself?"The luminosity was the brightest ever since Saer had started to speak. Even when the light shrunk, it possesses light of a flickering candle flame.

"Be precise." Nortze said.

"My nature."

Nortze could hear a sound coming from the ring. The ring heated and two beams dispersed from there. One light was red and the other was white.

"I will think more -"

"You don’t have your complete nature with you." Nortze mumbled.

"What does it mean?"

"The ring emitted two lights. Red is yours and white is of somebody else. You are co-existing with the person who has this white energy."

"We all co-exist, don’t we? The choices we make affect others -"

"Nature should be a separate entity for everyone. I am baffled you are still bringing physicality here."

Saer shook his head since he did not want to hear more.

"My life." Saer said.

A dazzling ray of light, way brighter before, erupted from the ring. The light also had some kind of energy in it which all of them could feel on their faces. It left Saer and Jehaule blinking even after the light had settled.

"You shouldn’t have traded it." Nortze's jaw dropped.

"I should have named this a long ago."

Saer took the now silvery ring from Nortze and wore it.

"This ring will allow you to teleport twice. Gold is a weak element. If you attempt third teleportation then probably -"

"I will die."

"One rub for teleporting to Deragra -"

"Same for returning."

Saer stroked the ring from his thumb.