Wishmaker Chapter 22: Chapter 22

Read chapter 22 of Wishmaker by Larch on NovelPedia.

"Lady Aurora!" A knight said on the side, saluting her approaching figure along with the others. Noah and Lillith froze for a moment before doing the same, standing out from the lined knights thanks to her laugh having broken the somber silence. Aurora sent them a dismissive glance, putting everyone at ease as they returned to standing still and monitoring the children; however, she did not go away, coming closer to Noah, who tried to avert his gaze. "I see your mind is full of doubts." She glanced at Lillith, who turned pale at her golden gaze. "Even so, do not cause any commotion; we have to be quiet so as not to disturb the little ones' efforts." "Have you forgotten what your duty as the Sky Rose knights is?" "No, ma'am." The two of them said in unison with almost robotic precision. She looked over them with a thin smile before turning around and looking at the fire before them intensify. "This year, we have chosen to do it in public for a multitude of reasons." "The selection is a sacred ritual that everyone must follow when being blessed, so who can judge us for simply watching?" She paused for a moment before placing her hand on the pommel of her thin rapier, lightly wrapping her fingers around it. "There have been some troublesome reports coming in lately. Words of beasts that came from deep within remnants of ash had started spreading throughout the Cradle, ambushing the believers, stripping them of their own worlds." Noah's gaze shook briefly at her words, which she noticed, smiling at him. "Those are not the beasts you have encountered before, Noah." "How do we know that?" He suddenly asked, prompting Aurora's lips to curl up from amusement. She pointed at one of the children, the one closest to them, who seemed to be struggling, sweat dripping down his burning skin, which had begun to crack faintly amidst the crackling flames. "Those children who have been newly blessed are not in pain because of my cleansing flames; they are fighting something within them, a dark force that has been born along with the blessing." "Does that mean..." "Yes." She nodded. "The Charred. They learned how to infest fresh minds and spread their seed inside them." As she finished, the struggling child began to spasm uncontrollably, drawing attention from the startled knights. Her eyes opened and rolled back into her skull; blood started to seep out from her eyes and nose, turning into ash the moment it came into contact with Aurora's brilliant flames. Her skin cracked and popped like ice, twisting and wrapping over itself to create an outer layer of burned flesh and charcoal. From the child's mouth, a dry shriek of charred flesh washed across everyone present, giving birth to a beast shedding tears of ashy sorrow. Crack! Grit! Twisting its stiffened limbs, it stood up with its arms as another set of legs; the previously clean nails were now as sharp and brittle as burnt wood, leaving traces on the light stone. "A Charred? " Someone muttered, looking at the beast. Standing at slightly over two meters tall, its eyes rolled back down, looking at the row of Knights with a burning amber glare. Clatter! One of the Knights dropped his sword; the steel scraped off the polished stone. "S-sister?" His voice shook with emotion; a name came out of him, slurred, impossible to understand. His body, trembling, started taking slow steps towards the creature made of scorched wood and dry blood. Its form became clearer, with two deer antlers sprouting from its forehead and glowing cracks spreading across its body's surface, glowing with faint searing heat. The charred skin breathed clouds of cold ash, dying the ground beneath it in different shades of black and gray. As the knight entered its range, he outstretched his hands towards it, trying to embrace whatever remained of his long-gone relative. His hands passed through it. Like ice, his body came in contact with the beast and shattered into pieces, scattering across the ground without a sound. In an inst