Shadow Rising -- epilogue

Epilogue

One month after the fall of Titan.

I looked over the table at my father. “You’re sure that’s what he was making you do?”

He nodded, his face pale in the feeble candle flickering on the table between us. The room was otherwise completely dark. It had strong spells covering it to make sure no one could hear us, nor get in. Blaze Thunderthorn stood guard outside, just in case.

“He never specified,” Malistaire explained, speaking of Titan, “but judging by all the research and spell casting he had me do, I’m pretty sure he was searching for... them.”

“Banes,” I whispered.

He nodded again. “Yes, Banes.”

I shook my head, my black hair falling over my shoulders. “There are so few of us left. Was he searching for one in particular?”

Again, my father nodded. “Specifically, I believe, he was looking for the High Bane, but then again, it’s impossible to say for certain. There are fewer than fifty Banes left. There hasn’t been a High Bane since the Reign of the Silverwillow’s.”

I shuddered. Few knew and remembered the terror the Silverwillow family brought the Spiral, from a time long before even Titan was born.

“I suppose he thinks the High Bane is hidden somewhere in the Spiral?”

“Yes.”

I bit my lip in thought. “Then... Whoever Titan was working for will strike again. When is the only question.”

“In the past, the Banes made many enemies.”

“Yeah. Just a few,” I replied with bitter sarcasm.

“Titan mistook you as the High Bane,” my father said suddenly.

My breath caught. “H-he - ”

“Because you have both telekinesis and portaling, it makes you very powerful indeed.”

I shook my head. “I barely control my portaling. The last time I opened one for a mere three seconds was when I was met Blaze at the Seven Schools Party, before I came here.”

“But it was enough for Titan’s Master to assume you the High Bane. Now that he knows you are not he will focus his search elsewhere.”

“But I thought you said the High Bane was in the Spiral?”

“I stated, but I do not assume.”

I groaned softly. He had that way was talking and always being right.

“Are you going to make me search for the High Bane as well?” I asked.

My father shook his head. “I’ll make you do no such thing. If this is an important part of history, then let history play itself out. We both know what happens when we meddle with destiny.”

I didn’t linger on the thought, not wanting to remember the Dark Epoch, the prime example of what happens when you meddle with destiny. “Alright, fine. You said you had two things to tell me about, and one was about the Banes. What’s the second?”

Malistaire took a breath. “Suriyah, it’s all my fault. I’ve done something terrible.”

“Haven’t we all?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, it’s something that has happened that is linked directly to both the Dark Epoch and the fall of Titan.”

“Yes, but I killed Titan.”

“But if the Dark Epoch hadn’t happened, then Titan wouldn’t’ve died.”

I sighed. “Go on.”

“Because our world, the Spiral, was thrown into such catastrophe during the Dark Epoch, it created a universal shock wave, dominoes per say, and there were several worlds that were affected. Greatly.”

“Which?”

“Libyllria, the World of Thunder, and Earth, the World of Industrialism. However, that’s not all.”

“Oh great.”

“Titan was acting as a guardian. For what I don’t know, but when you killed him, whatever he was ‘guarding’ can now escape. He was a linchpin, and a mighty powerful one at that. What led to release of his linchpin, her say, was the Dark Epoch. In a sense both were linchpins. Titan’s Master had good reason to make him as such, but whatever Titan’s exact role was is now gone.”

“And this is... bad?” I suggested, unsure of what he was getting at.

My father said nothing for a bit. Finally he spoke, his voice sounding hollow and worried, but also tinged with fear: 

“I don’t know.”

By
Emma Dawnrider