It had been just over one year since Sue been found unconscious and she still hasn't woken up. I was becoming frustrated with her. I knew she had no control over this, but her father was fighting with everything he had to stay alive for her sake. I was upset that she hadn't woken up yet because if he were to die before she woke up, then all his sacrifice till this point would be for nothing.
I may not be able to contact him, but I knew that he was living in hell right now all for the sake of our daughter and his family's legacy. this fact broke my heart, and it made it hard for me to see sense.
That day it happened. it felt like my heart was ripped into. I knew right away.
Theo was dead.
I woke up with a start, clutching my chest, tears streaming down my face and an endless flow. I heard Sue screaming bloody murder, but I couldn't bring myself to leave my room to attend to her.
I heard a rush of hurried footsteps as the rushed to take care of Sue. I payed it no attention for a was grappling with my own struggles.
I thought desperately to catch my breath, but I was unable to. Theo was gone. The love of my life was gone. The father of my children was gone. He was dead. I would never see him again.
I folded over, pressing my head against my sheets. I felt the hot tears continue to pour out of my eyes. I knew this was coming, but that didn't make it any easier. I hated that there was nothing I could've done to stop this.
Then I felt it. In the back of my mind I felt it's presence. The madness was coming to take me. I knew this was going to happen and I was prepared. It would take me, but I would make it a long hard battle for him.
Theo was gone, but what he left behind wasn't. I needed to ensure his legacy. That's all that mattered now. Nothing else mattered.
I was startled by a banging at my door. "Mother come quickly!" Mike screamed through my door. The panic in his voice was palpable. There's something seriously wrong with Sue we need your help, please wake up!"
I hurriedly put aside my own problems, wiped away my tears and rushed to my door as if my whole world had not just fallen apart. I quickly unlocked and opened my door to see my panicked son. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to Sue's bedroom.
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For the next few days that followed Sue's condition was rather frightening, but there was nothing I could do. As Theo had said, it was all up to Sue. I believed in her I was sure she would not let me and her father down.
A week after that fateful night, Sue started getting better and in a little less than a month, she woke up. The day she woke up, it was like I could breathe again for the first time in what felt like forever. Theos sacrifice was not in vain, and the legacy would continue. In fact now it seem to be stronger than ever.
I may not come from the Leighton family, but when Theo and I made our vows and I was joining to him, the mountain and the spirits, I gained all the abilities as someone of their blood that did not hold the legacy.
What that meant was, I could sense the legacy holders power. The boys could too, even though they didn't know what it meant, but I did. Sue was unbelievably powerful far beyond what her father could've ever hoped for. if Sue's father was like a strong summer storm, Sue was like a natural disaster. While I had some idea of what the magnitude of her power could was, I had no idea how much it could grow over time.
The day Sue left her room in the wheelchair was the day I started making plans. She needed to be given to the spirits for as long as it would take for her to learn and for her power to grow stronger. Theo had told me this method was forbidden, for it could produce monstrous power that one might not be able to control, but that didn't matter to me what mattered was following Theo's wishes. Theo had never told me to do this specifically, but he had told me to ensure that the legacy would be stronger than ever. I had decided that this was the best way.
This should've been my first clue that the madness was taking me over, but as I was no longer of right mind, I could not tell. I knew if the boys were here they would never let this happen, so I also begin making plans to get rid of them.
After Sue was able to walk on her own again, I brought her to the heart of the mountain where the spirits reside. this was the place where the forbidden method took place. I let her to the very heart where the legacie's successors were chosen. I walked behind Sue and pushed her into the darkness.
I smiled because with this, the legacies future was safe. I turned around and headed out of that place. I now needed to deal with the boys.
I had set my plan into action before I left with Sue. I had given each of the boys tasks and various places around our home. I did this to ensure that none of them would be aware of what was happening to the others.
I first went over to the chicken coop, where Ray was cleaning it out. I took a rag out of my pocket as I crept up behind him. I then pressed it against his mouth and nose. Shortly after he passed out. I had soaked the rag and medicine that would knock him out for about a day.
I then did the same to the other two boys. Ben was chopping wood behind the house and Mike was supposed to be scraping the moss off the well, but he was sleeping in his bed. for once his disobedience made things easier for me.
After all three of them were unconscious, I tied them up and put gags in their mouth. That way when they did wake up, they couldn't do anything. When I was sure they were secure, I loaded them into our cart that we used to bring remedies down the mountain and out the forest. I Stuff straw around them and then covered them with a tarp so nobody would know what was in the cart.
I hitched up the horses, and then headed out. It would take me a few days to get where I needed to go, so I had also put some food in water in the cart. It was enough to tie us over.
The trip went smoothly whenever the boys woke up I would just knock them out again after they ate and drink something. they were confused and upset, but there wasn't much they could do.
I was headed to a Lord's house. The same Lord, in fact that tried to take them back then. I had already made arrangements with him to send them off to war. This why they wouldn't be able to intervene with Sue training. She needed to be undisturbed until it was done.
Once I got to the Lord's house, I showed the guards my letter that he had sent to me and they let me through the gate. I left the boys with a servant like I was instructed and then headed inside the building where I was greeted by the lord.
"Thank you very much for this. The emperor is pressuring all the Lords to provide more men, but there's no more men to be had at least through honest means people like you keeping our empire alive by giving us more men." I highly doubted that his words were true. I knew very well that the Lord of territories got money for every head that was sent to war. this was so the Lord could use the money to help support the local communities while the men were away, but Lord did not use the money for such honest things. Not wanting this interaction to last longer than it had to, I just nodded my head.
"Not one for talking I see. Well, it doesn't matter here take this. It's the agreed upon payment." A butler came up to me, holding a tray with a sack of coins on it.
I took the sack bow to the Lord and said my thanks. The money in the sack wasn't even a tenth of what he would be getting for having my boys go off to war. Not wanting to stay any longer than I had to I bowed to the Lord and went back collected my horse and cart.
After that, I started back to the forest and to the mountain.