Edited:

Dedicated to justawekwardwizard for her bright mind and creativity. Go checkout her books.

Asher's POV.

My father loved to tell stories. About our heritage, our ancestors, our uniqueness and our purpose. He told us stories about great warriors of the past, Devious princesses, terror traps, dreadful demons and those that remain hidden and lost forever. He told us about a tribe he encountered in the jungles of Inex. The loud city of Cantatrix and ours, the Aokian empire.

He was more sentimental about his past, how he fought along side kings and how he became one, how he was left alone in the desert to test his strength. How he found our mother, how he slaved to win her heart, how he tried to convince her father, granddad, to go ahead with the wedding. He once told us how his tongue got stuck in his throat when he asked our mother to marry him and how my brothers and I came to be.

  Andrew came first, he used to say, brawling like every normal  healthy child was supposed to.  With his face scrunched crying like there was no tomorrow. Then came Alex with a goofy smile and without a care of the world. That was until he got spanked. I don't blame the nurse, she thought he was dead.

It took hours before I came along, he said. I came out dazed, like I was in another world, as if I could see something no one else could. My father told us he knew, right then that I came into the world a seer.

I'm Asher Malone. People know me as the boy who doesn't speak unless spoken to. The boy with the cold heart and the guarded mind. The one who sees tomorrow as he remains in yesterday. The one who keeps to himself for he holds the key to the future.

I hold no key to the future. If I did, I would have been able to keep my parents alive and we would still be a family of five. I would have known what would happen before I made foolish mistakes. I hold no key, it's only a curse in my hands.

I'm an introverted sole.

I secluded myself from others including my brothers. They're the ones who're supposed to understand, yet they don't. They don't know how it feels to see the death in every eye you look at, before death itself takes them. To know the very next step your enemy takes, way before he takes them. To know the exact time your home crumbles and to see your love take her last sigh.

And there's nothing you can do. Nothing, only to watch as it unfolds, it can't be altered. I tried once, and it cost me a great deal. For my foolish mistake, I'm given a task.

A task difficult to complete yet not impossible. A plan set in place, only a few words to trigger it into action. And not to mention how riled up my brothers would be once they hear them. This was the first piece, how do I tell them?

How do I tell them I've done something that would change our lives forever. They have to understand, it's has to be done. It might seem selfish, but it's the only way.

It would have been easier if my powers weren't weak. I insulted time and those who'd tamed it before me, I abused my powers to alter time, to change it. It lead to this, time can change me, I can't change time. And I must pay the price.

With that final conclusion, I walked into the apartment of the motel I share with my brothers. The stale room had only one window, a lumpy chair, two lamps with one flickering and an old TV set. The toilet functions, thank Safar, other than the sleeping bags, camp bags and leftover pizza boxes, a moth eaten matrass unused by any of us, laid against the far corner of a wall.

It wasn't what you'll call five star or anything you'll want rate, though it's the perfect spot to stay unnoticed. Everyone had enough problems, why add extra?

Alex was busy trying to get the TV on, bless the lad. All he thinks about are the moving characters in that electric box thingy, if you know what I mean. His long hair was held tight with a rubber band and his tawny eyes concentrated on the screen as he flicked through channels, hoping to find one that doesn't show 'No or less signal'.

Drew, the eldest of us sat on the lumpy chair. His sea green eyes, which tends to change to that of gray, were glued on the pages of an enormously large black book, with the illustration of an hourglass in front. The title was written in Binex, the language of the people of Inex. I never bothered to learn it, didn't want to anyway. We where only taught the language of earth, the trade language of Cantatrix and that of our ancestors.

Drew loves learning new things. He spends most of his time with books after books. After all, a good mind desires knowledge. He Knows all the six languages in whole of the magical dimension. This comes handy, especially during missions and travels.

“I can feel your mind drifting off Ash, You're disturbing my memory lane.” Drew's voice rang through my thoughts. “Quit standing there with that zombie look in your eyes.”

My tongue felt slack, just imagine that you blew up a new library singlehandedly. That's how I felt. Drew's eye, now misty gray, lifted from the book to me. I had to look elsewhere to prevent him from searching through my thoughts.

"Oh yeah baby! Take that you earthling technology." Alex rejoiced at his achievement of finally getting the TV to work. My attention was on the two heavyweight men in their underwear trying to push each other out of a ring.

“If you've got something to say, better spit it out, you're irritating me with your nervousness.” I tried to move my mouth, and was suddenly interrupted. Another shrilling sound escaped Alex. I gave Drew the 'should I do the honours' look, and he replied with the 'be my guest' look.

I sneaked behind Alex quietly. Just like most siblings, we love to piss each other off, and I could see he was so engrossed with the wrestling match. I carefully removed some strand of hair from its hold and yanked it.

"What the actual... You." He pointed at me with a killing look for ruining his show. "You... You did this... You, you idiot. I was about to see Death X defeat Skull Crusher."

"I don't have time to waste on unprofitable shows." I replied back.

"Mongoose nose... I was really into the show,” he said rubbing his scalp. “And you almost took out my babies.”

"Oh piss off, that rubber would have done more damage that I did."

“Why you little...”

This went on for a while until we were silenced by Andrew, though I wished it went longer. "Knock it off guys, Alex you can always watch the show later. In fact that's enough for today."

"Hey but it's almost finished!" Alex whined, "you're not the boss of me."

"Oh shut up." Drew snapped back, taking the control, and turn the telly off. "Make yourself useful by clearing up those pizza boxes, and as for you spit it out already, I loosing my patience here."

Alex diverted his attention towards me, those golden eyes narrowed and his lips formed a smirk. I could smell sarcasm, he was reeking of it. "So Asher has decided to grace us with his words, how time flies."

"When I'm done with your face, there wouldn't be any words for you to grace us with." I said through my teeth. Just because I'm the youngest, they like to treat me with no respect.

"I said knock it off, and Asher quit stalling." I wasn't stalling, okay maybe I was. "So what do you want to tell us?" Drew asked again.

And I told them. I had to besides, they had a right to know.

"I sold the Inn."

There I said it.

That's the sentence that has been keeping worked up. Four words, eleven letters. I thought the load would be lifted off from me, judging by their facial expression, I felt sixty dumbbells added to my predicament. I'm in deep sh*t.

"You did what?!" They both asked in union. Before I could repeat myself, I was punched by a force causing me to be flung across the room. Why didn't I see that attack spell coming? I thought as the room spinned.

"How could you." It wasn't even a question and to say, I didn't know who it came from. The words I'm mean, the Sylvester's punch spell was obviously from Drew, besides Alex's never good with attack spells. He's just too scattered brained to perfect one. Look at me comparing my brothers, must be the effect of the spell, maybe he added a tint of delusion, creative.

I tried to lifted myself only to fall back down again. Yep, more like a dose of delusion. "When did this happen uh?" Alex asked, waiting for me to speak. "Answer me you idiot up piece of a brother, or are you even our brother." Ouch that hurts, I deserved that.

"Three years ago." A book came flying at me, missing me by a few inches. “I was going to tell you.”

"When where you going to tell us exactly." Drew dived at me throwing punches, this the with his fist. "You know that's the only place Aunt Mary would live in." He said between punches

"Guys?" Alex called out, but he was ignored.

"You knew Aunt has no where to go. She wouldn't live anywhere, cause that's the only place that makes her happy. That place means a lot to her. And what about the people there where will they go? Answer me."

"Guys the book!" Alex shouted at us again and was still ignored.

"I'm sorry." I screamed though it was no use. The metallic taste wasn't going well with my system, and my head felt heavy.

"You're sorry? So now you're sorry? You do things, stupid things without our knowledge, ever since mom and dad died. You've been moving further from us emotionally. You've finally become the black sheep haven't you? Which part of the inn and to whom was it sold to?!"

"Conan King, and it's a..."

"You sold it to that m*therf*cker. You son of a... Never mind. Which part? Which part of it? And don't tell me the whole town cause I'm going break you and rearrange that mind of yours, so answer me."

"Guys, it's glowing!"

"Not now Alex." He said to shut the other brother up. "Cant you see I'm busy?"

"Okay it's not all of it, since you asked." Sarcasm noted, that's when I regretted ever saying that.

I always thought you'd change, seems to me that you never will. How could you be so selfish." His voice harsh and laced with hatred, the conflicted look in his eyes says otherwise.

“I'm disgusted by you.”

As those words left his lips, I new things will never be the same. It's wasn't supposed to be. Some things are just beyond my control.

"What's done is done." Alex gasped, his attention no longer on us, no, it was drawn to the book. Something came out of it.

Something I've seen once in a book and wished never to see again. It had a face was covered in multicoloured scales in the shape of a human head. No eyes, no nose and no mouth. Just plain blank face, it was human and not, reptile and not, ghost like and not. It doesn't have a precise shape except the head. And that creature is none other than, a Shill.

"Alex did you... You know, open the book?" I asked, my voice shaking as I felt the hair on my arms rise.

"No, what do I want to do with that thing. It's dangerous you know." Yeah what isn't. So Mr perfect finally slipped off. If this were another situation I would have made a snark comment, not this time.

"How did that thing get out?" Alex asked, before I could answer, it attacked.

"Look out." I yelled to no one in particular as it glided towards us. We split up preventing it from making contact with any of us. The thing about shills is that when they do make contact with anyone, that person turns into one of them.

It turned around and charge at Drew, luckily, he was prepared. That's what I thought before he used the 'hit block spell'. Two huge blocks formed around his hands, as the shill came close enough, he hit it with his left blocked hands sending it swaying left to right continuously like a madman, way past his drinking limit.

After it regained its balance, it let out a piercing scream and multiplied into three. "What the heck?!" Andrew groaned out realising his mistake.

"Chabuya!" Alex exclaimed jumping out of no where, shooting arrows at the figures that stood before us, using the archers spell. Each arrow met it's target, as before, they multiplied.

"Stop you're not supposed to..." I tried informing them, as one was come towards me. Shills are only activated by hate, it makes them stronger and their only weakness is anything that has to do with love. Apart from being hit and multiplying, they can also shape shift. This is dangerous, you might have been living with a shill for twenty five years and you'll never know.

I quickly dodged it, grabbed a pillow and flung it, the shill dodge it. "Don't let it touch you." Andrew yelled as he dodge another.

"Of course I'm not gonna let that thing touch me. Safar knows I don't want to be one of them." Alex yelled back as he reached for the main door, another mistake as two flew out of the room.

"How did they even come out?" Andrew called out trying to hit one making it multiply again.

"You should know since you were reading the book earlier, besides I was calling your attention yet you decided to play ignore your brother Alex." Alex snapped back

"It's not my fault, he sold the inn." Drew shouted back as he knocked over his bottle of cologne. It crashed on the marble floor releasing it's fragrance, one by one each shill bursted and disappeared into thin air.

That was still the beginning.

Screams were coming out of the door as people were running for their dear life. Since I was closer, I ran out the door.

Everywhere was a catastrophe. If some go left, the others go right. They were like ants when the first drop of rain falls. What caught my attention, was a girl at the corner of the hall cowering. She couldn't be more than five or six and a shill was approaching her. I had to act fast.

I close my eyes and my heart and broaden my mind for I was about to cast a protective spell 'the glass bubble'. A strong electric force flowed through my vanes as I felt sparks radiating out of the tips of my fingers.

When I opened my eyes, I was relived that she was safe and sound, trapped in the invincible shield. As for the shill it had bursted and disappeared, I guess perfumes and cologne are related to romance or love.

My brothers came rushing out. They came closer and were gasping. "The book," Drew said in between breaths, "It's gone." A horrific feeling passed through me.

"What do you mean it's gone?" I asked my voice quivering.

A screeching sound broke lose and it was coming from my protective bubble. The girl that I took the pain saving, my time saving was gone only to be replaced by a shill.

“Sh*t!”

It was waving the book. The book that started it all, the book seemed to give is a false sense of hope. The shill broke out of the protective bubble and vanished, taking that one book that caused so much pain. The book that controlled the conduct of two opposite worlds.

The book of The Lost Spells. Looks like we do need Aunt Mary after all.

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C

opyright 2018© Soffiyah Orewole.

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