Warnings

I turned back to Esmeralda and continued, "including the ability to pull out secrets from not just people, but objects as well. Nothing is too deeply hidden for me to learn, with nothing more than a mere touch and a bit of concentration."

Esmeralda fearfully pulled back as I took a step toward her, "before I could truly receive the Ancient Ones' blessing to practice their craft, I had to make a sacrifice. That is the first reason why I will not put this piece of metal back," I held my hand for her to see the missing digit. "So, I gave them the last thing that reminded me of you; the last thing of any value that I possessed." She gasped in horror as her eyes continued to pierce my hand while I added, "if I still had this finger, would I want to learn the secrets that ring holds?"

I took a step back and looked at you, "Would it tell me something different from what I already know, my friend?" There was a second of hesitation in your eyes that betrayed you. In that moment, when you briefly looked at Esmeralda before returning your look to me, I lost any doubts that my mind could have possibly held.

I turned back to Esmeralda, "why would I ever want to go back to that cesspool of lies and betrayal." The fire around me increased in intensity as my anger threatened to escape from within, the beast with renewed fury demanded to be freed. With a small twist of my hand, the ring and necklace were surrounded by fire, the metal slowly heating under the immense temperature.

"You knew?" Esmeralda's hand moved to cover her mouth, "I am so sorry, it was a mistake. Please, forgive me."

I increased the intensity of the fire that was slowly gaining a red glow, "don't," I said. There was an internal battle taking place between the anger and the terrible sadness that grew within. Wounds that I had long thought completely healed, violently reopened. The metal melted together, the beast used the confusion to erupt from within me and used his control of my body to manipulate the metal.

"Don't what, Nicholas?" She regained some of her bravery, I remember that helped you gather your own.

"Don't you dare try to justify it," the beast's voice created an unnatural echo. The molten metal was shaped by unseen hands into a small needle-like blade. "You are guilty," the hands turned and twisted the blade rapidly in the air, the metal cooled enough to maintain its solidity. Suddenly, the knife launched itself and easily pierced through Esmeralda's chest, "and a worthy sacrifice."

The blade was coated with her blood, it had been sharpened enough that she felt little pain as it cut through her heart. I slowly turned to look at you, for the first time in your life the ground did not hold you in place. Did you really think that you would escape? That I wouldn't have tracked you down, and put you down like an animal? But the beast wanted you to suffer, as I had suffered over the years.

Do you remember the words, Baltazar? "May no food calm your hunger, nor drink quench your thirst. May you forget joy, happiness, and suffer no sorrow or loss. May no laughter brighten your day, nor tears calm your mood. Until the last of my breaths is expired, may you be cursed." Did your skin crawl as you read those words?

As I mentioned earlier, Baltazar, I have disciples that will carry on my works. They too have made the necessary sacrifices and have attained the level of power that I hold. My friend, I wish you could have seen it, I wish you could've stood beside me as I learned more powerful incantations. But now, the years are catching up to me and I am afraid that my time is ending. There are many things that I will leave undone, but many other tasks will be completed by my disciples.

The Ancient Ones will keep me alive long enough to make certain you receive this letter, and read its contents. I want you to truly understand what will happen next, my friend. You took my life from me, and forced me to leave my home not once, but twice. After our last encounter, I had to abandon that little village, I am sure that not even with all the goodwill I had gathered would have spared me from the murder charges. I truly was happy to hear that you had survived, I am sure the villagers had a difficult time digging you from your shallow grave. That happiness grew when I learned that you had formed a family of your own, and throughout the years I have made sure that you grew prosperous.

Did your lovely wife Grace tell you about that night your son was born? I truly hope that she did not, I had asked her to take that secret with her to her grave. You see, my friend, he had been born with a strange condition; while you were held up in traffic I was able to see your first born as his lungs failed him a little more each time he took a breath. Lovely Grace was devastated, she barely had the strength to hold her baby boy in her arms as he died. That is when I introduced myself, I was truly surprised that you had not spoken to her about me.

"Don't cry, child," I told her, "death is not such a bad thing, for someone in such pain."

"But he is just a baby," she pleaded, "he has not had a chance at life."

"Your God is cruel sometimes," I told her, "he judges harshly." I reached out and lightly touched her face, turning her so she would look into my eyes. "I serve a different Master, one who is not concerned with a young one's life."

"Could he help my son?" Oh, your Grace was such a caring creature, her words warmed my heart.

"He could," I replied, "if you so desire. But such things come with a cost, child."

"I'll pay anything," she said, "my husband is a very important man. Please, just help my son."

"It is not money that my Master demands," I calmly replied, "just a promise of servitude in the next life."

"Yes," she quickly replied, "anything, just please, help my son."

"All contracts must bear a signature, child," I told her as I moved my face closer to hers, "this one is no different." Instinctively, she closed her eyes before our lips met. I took some of her breath and breathed it into the young one's lungs. Before the look of confusion disappeared from Grace's face, your son's screams shook the room's halls.

"How?" Lovely Grace asked.

"As I said, child, my Master does not concern himself with such a young life," I slowly moved my hand from her face, "your husband may not agree with the stipulations of our contract. Nor in the way that it was sealed."

"He won't," Grace suddenly looked worried, seeing her beautiful face twisted by such horror truly delighted me.

"Then speak no more of this," I replied, "to not another living soul. We may meet again, I hope."

"Thank you for your help, mister..."

"Don't worry about my name, Grace," I replied just as you entered the hospital, "unnamed secrets are easier kept." She smiled as she looked at her son, I was long gone by the time you found the room. She would see me again when your second son was born, and one more time when you welcomed your daughter. Each time, the cost of the contract stayed the same, and Grace gladly paid in full.

I know its not the same, my friend, not truly an eye for an eye. But it did bring me a sense of satisfaction to know that your wife so willingly gave pieces of herself to someone else. To know she willingly kept such a series of secrets from you. I saw as the years of emptiness took their own toll on you, you aged far more than your years should have allowed. But your children, they grew to become stars, politicians, and even far more successful scientists than you. I know that is every parent's dream, for their children to surpass them, perhaps taking that from you in the manner that I have is a far more fitting sentence.

When your lovely Grace passed away, I know you tried to feel. I saw the struggle in your face as you looked at your children, the devastation that their mother's death brought to them. No, my friend, I had nothing to do with her passing, her time had simply ended. But rest assured that she has been well looked after in the after world, as was the terms of our contract. She will spend eternity and one thousand years bound to me, even when we return to this world.

She never did ask me how the incantation of the Breath of Life works, but out of respect for our long friendship I feel that I should explain it to you. Grace thought that I had given her children life, but that was not the case. The Breath of Life is given for only a time, in your children's case they would hold life so long as the two breaths they received continued to exist. Once my last breath escapes me, so will theirs.

Your children will join their mother in the next world, each bound in servitude to me as well. So I will enter my next life beside my new servants, they will not remember you of course. My disciples, they will make sure that their children face similar challenges, and are forced to take similar contracts on their own. Little by little, Baltazar, your family line will become my servants. Little by little, your name will be forgotten by history. You, my friend, will continue to live for many more years. That was the least that I could do for the great service you and your family have provided me.

The last thing that I will do for you, my friend, is to free you from my curse. I will do so with my last breath, of course. The emptiness that you have felt all these past years due to my curse will also disappear, and all the emotions that you could not feel will return. I am sure you are familiar with how the human brain processes emotions, chemicals released by certain parts of to elicit a particular response to the stimuli at hand. An incantation cannot prevent those chemical reactions from taking place, they simply hold back the effects.

Think of it as a dam that completely sealed a river's flow, and with my death that dam will break. Years upon years of emotions will be released at once, and the long years that you will continue to live in this world will be spent as a prisoner in your own mind. My disciples will make certain that your mind remains intact, that you experience each missed emotion that had been suppressed over these long years. However, they will be unable to prevent the expected physiological responses that your mind must take to preserve your life. History will not want to remember a great mind that went insane, all your great work will be attributed to someone else. When your time comes, Baltazar, you too will join us but unlike them, you will remember everything.

The night approaches, my friend. My eyes grow weary, and my voice is breaking. We were supposed to change history together, but instead you chose to make us enemies. Your betrayal cut me the deepest, and so your punishment is fitting. In another lifetime, sometime in the very distant future, you and I will be pulled together into the same path. It is an unfortunate byproduct of the incantations, as long as they exist our life paths are destined to cross over and over again. For your sake, I hope things will be different next time our paths cross. Until then, my friend, farewell.

Your friend,

Nicholas.