The Tower Of The Watchful Eye: The Legend Of Kairu Book 1 (9 page)

Did I do it
right?

It was hard to
tell because I don’t know what a successful version of the Exorcism
looked like. The fog around the clearing slowly started towards the
middle. I got to my feet and welcomed it.

***

I opened my
eyes and instantly regretted it. The light coming in from the
window was blinding and my head felt like the entire Tower was
resting on it. I reached up and grabbed my forehead and felt
something sticky. I pulled my hand away and it noticed a dark red
ring on my palm.

“
Right,” I groaned.

I grabbed for
the rag on the floor and knocked my hand against the mortar and
pestle. Pushing it aside, I picked up the rag and sat up. I
immediately fell right back down onto the pillows so I wiped off my
forehead while lying down.

I tried again
to sit up and after some straining managed to get myself upright. I
needed to clean up quickly before The Keeper entered and found
everything. I swung my legs off the bed and pushed myself into a
standing position. I stretched my stiff joints and found that it
helped slightly. Nothing I did helped ease the pressure in my
head.

I grabbed the
goat’s fur from the bed, dropped it on the floor and kicked it
under the bed to hide it. I picked up the mortar and pestle and
placed it with the vial of blood in my end table. The scroll was
rolled up and hidden under my pillow. They were good enough hiding
spots for now.

Ugh, a female
voice groaned in my head. I don’t want to do THAT again.

Wait a
second…Cathy?

Yeah
? She said.

How is this
possible? I thought I had accidentally killed you.

Close enough,
she answered.
I was trying to warn you. You didn’t have enough
power to do it correctly. The most that you were going to achieve
was to really weaken me and then my soul was going to bind to
something. Because I was already bound to the tree of
consciousness, I was just going to end up in your soul.

So why didn’t
you say something earlier?

I had to trust you,
she
answered.
If you had got enough power you
could have done it correctly. When you started it too soon I tried
to stop you.

So now you are
inside me?

Yeah
, she sighed.
I thought that I was still going to be too
strong, that our souls would be fighting and we’d end up in a coma.
But I have to give you some credit; you are more powerful than I
thought. It appears that my soul was able to find a ‘comfortable’
spot and we can both exist at the same time.

This isn’t
good. There are going to find out and kill me.

Quit being such a baby,
she
said.
Based on your memories, they don’t
care enough about you to notice anything.

My memories?
You can read my memories?

A lot more than that!
She said
excited.
I’m still learning everything but
I can see what you see. Hear what you hear and feel what you feel.
Speaking of which, what is up with our head?

Our?

She sighed.
Yes, that is the proper
terminology. We exist together as one person. We. Our. That’s the
correct term.

No, no,
no.

I got up and
started pacing around the room. My heart beating a mile a
minute.

Stop
, she said in a commanding
tone.
I don’t like this anymore then you
but it has happened. The sooner we accept it, the sooner we can get
on living. At least you get to be in control, I just have to watch
everything.

I sighed and
sat down on the bed. You are being pretty calm, considering you got
the shorter end of the stick.

Every Demon wants to exist on the Physical
Plain
, she explained.
This isn’t what I had in mind but I still get to experience
all the beauty in the world and all the emotions of being
human.

I chuckled.
Since when did you become a big softy?

I blame your human emotions,
she
answered.
It’s too much too soon. I’m not
thinking straight.

Didn’t you say
you’ve possessed people before?

Yes, but I was in control,
she
answered.
I could turn off or blank out
any emotion I didn’t like. Being in here with you, I have to
experience everything ALL AT ONCE.

Any
suggestions on how to get you out?

None
, she said.

What if…what
if we use that ritual for spirit transferring?

I’m all for it,
she
said
, if you have someone in mind that I
could possess.

Hmm, no, I
guess that won’t work. How about a dead body?

She chuckled
. If Demons could
possess a corpse, don’t you think you would be bowing to your
undead rulers by now?

Good
point.

Now
, she started,
are you going to do something about our head?
What is this feeling we’re experiencing?

Pain and I’m
trying to remember the spell to heal it.

Here
, she said.

A memory of an
old class on healing flashed in my head. Healing spells were learnt
early in life and I had to chuckle as I watched old me fail a
couple of times before doing it correctly.

Remember it now?
She
asked.

Yes, thank
you. You know, maybe this won’t be so bad. I can be quite
forgetful.

If it means you’ll stop moping, I’ll do what I can to help
you,
she said.

I placed my
two fingers on my temple and they grew warm as the pain receded
from my head.

Cathy sighed in relief
. Much
better.

I have to get
ready for the day before The Keeper gets upset again.

I could almost
feel her searching inside my mind.

Interesting
, she said.
Yes, we better hurry, judging by the sun we’ll be
late for the meeting.

“
Hey, Andy, you awake?” The Keeper called from the other side
of the door.

“
Yeah, just finishing getting ready,” I answered.

“
I thought you were going to sleep all morning,” he said
annoyed. “Hurry up.”

Time to
go.

I’m going to continue to learn more about you,
she said.
Don’t mind me
searching around.

Just be
careful in there.

She laughed.
Oh, what secrets could
you possibly be keeping? The fact that you’ve never had a friend or
up until a year ago you were afraid of the dark?

I have
legitimate reasons for both.

She continued to laugh.
Of course
you do.

So does that
mean I get to search your memories?

I wouldn’t recommend it,
she
warned.
It’s not pretty. Now go, we’re
late.

I jumped up
from the bed and raced from my room.

Chapter 8

I quickly sat
down beside the Keeper as Master Baker entered the meeting room.
Master Larose and Master Gerth were already seated and looking
through their notes. It appears that Master Pryce still wasn’t
here. Seeing as it is his floor, you would have expected him to be
here first.

He’s just being lazy,
Cathy
said.

When Master
Pryce finally entered the meeting room, Master Larose looked
clearly annoyed but remained silent. The bitterness between them
seemed to grow in large quantities by the day. Keeper Anderson said
this was normal but how long was it going to be before something
snapped?

“
Let this meeting be recorded on the 17th of Sun’s Peak in 412
of the 2nd Era,” Master Pryce said as he sat down. Keeper Anderson
started writing in his scroll. “Keeper Anderson, could you please
tell us where we last left off.”

Is it really that date?
Cathy
asked.

The Keeper
moved the scroll he was writing on aside. “The Nesqa – Balendar
conflict: stalemate on the vote for peace negotiations. The Evenawk
Uprising: stalemate on the vote for extermination of the
Evenawks.”

I mean wow,
she said shocked.
I thought it would still be 325 of the 2nd
Era.

“
The Nesqa – Balendar conflict has changed,” Master Pryce
said. “I have already sent my Mages to bring Larose’s
back.”

Time is a crazy thing,
she
said.

“
You’ve what?” Master Larose barked.

You are being
distracting.

Sorry
, she said.

“
You acted out of order on this,” Master Pryce said calmly as
I refocused.

“
The issue was suspended until today,” Master Larose
responded.

“
I didn’t send the Mages until this morning,” Master Pryce
stated. “And the issue we voted on was whether we should help in
the conflict or not. Recalling your Mages wasn’t the issue, I have
acted reasonably in this.”

“
Sure,” Master Larose sarcastically, “until the dead bodies of
my Mages show up on my doorstep.”

“
What are you implying?” Master Pryce said
offended.

“
That not everyone is blind to your methods,” Master Larose
said. “Mark my words, if anything happens to those Mages, I will
not hesitate to call The Ousting Clause and remove you from
power.”

“
The only one that will be removed, will be you,” Master Pryce
said darkly.

Finally, some real action
, Cathy
said excited.

“
Settle,” Master Baker said. “What is done is
done.”

“
Your Mages will be back, Larose, but we still need to figure
out what we are doing about this conflict,” Master Gerth
said.

“
Our best course is still an investigation,” Master Pryce
explained. “We need the reason for the sudden conflict so we can
solve it THEN sit down for a peace treaty signing.”

“
You’re right, Master Pryce,” Master Gerth said. “We’ll follow
your plan.”

“
So for the record,” Master Pryce smirked, “all
for?”

Master Pryce,
Gerth and Baker raised their hands.

“
Then it’s settled, moving on,” Master Pryce said as the
Keeper wrote on the scroll.

“
You may have won this, but I will keep my word if any harm
falls on my Mages,” Master Larose said coolly.

“
You have nothing to worry about,” Master Pryce
smirked.

“
My position still stands on the Evenawk Uprising,” Master
Larose said calming down and getting back to business. “We simply
can’t exterminate an entire species.”

“
We can’t just sit back and let them kill our Mages,” Master
Gerth said.

“
I agree,” Master Larose said. “Their little rebellion has
gone too far. We will increase the amount of Mages we have out
there and give them orders to be more aggressive. It is time we end
this BEFORE the need to exterminate the species arises.”

“
But aggression isn’t the best response,” Master Baker
countered. “If all you ever do is put down aggression with
aggression you will never solve anything permanently. We have to
show the Evenawks that there is a different way to show
displeasure.”

“
But once you open the floodgate they will complain about
everything,” Master Gerth said.

“
They won’t listen to reason or peace talks anyhow,” Master
Pryce said. “All they know is violence and that’s how they should
be dealt with.”

“
They have never been given the chance to prove themselves
otherwise,” Master Baker said. “Allow me a chance to send some of
my Mages to talk with them. If I can’t bring an end to this then we
can entertain aggression talks.”

Master Pryce
sighed. “The time for that has passed, all in favour of sending
more Mages?”

Master Gerth,
Larose and Pryce all raised their hands. Master Baker just shook
his head.

“
This is only going to make things worse,” he
warned.

“
We have tolerated this for too long,” Master Larose said. “I
don’t need to remind you of how it all started.”

“
No, you don’t,” he said weakly as The Keeper shook his wrist
before writing on the scroll.

“
Are there any new topics that we need to discuss?” Master
Larose said.

“
Yes, actually,” Master Pryce said. “We have received
complaints from the Balendian farmers close to the Szwen forest
that there have been attacks on their cattle.”

Master Larose
sighed. “When will the Balendar folk learn to not aggravate the
Nao?”

“
Surely they don’t expect us to openly attack the Nao?” Master
Gerth added.

“
If you are done, I could finish my report,” Master Pryce said
coolly.

“
Sorry,” Master Gerth muttered.

“
The tracks left behind are unlike anything we have
encountered before,” Master Pryce continued. “They look similar to
wolf tracks but three times the size. All reports confirm that the
tracks lead from and back to the forest.”