“I suppose I should. But wouldn’t that make me a
bigger target? If I bond with more worlds, and the enemy can use my magic,
wouldn’t they in turn have the magic of the worlds I bond with?”
“Now you’re getting it. That is exactly what could
happen if you were incompetent. In which case, I would not let you near my
book,” he said, holding his book out to me. I hadn’t seen where he drew it
from.
I took it hesitantly, as if Vretial would suddenly
find me and appear beside me. Opening the cover and flipping through the pages,
I could see that his had fewer names than Edward’s. It took me a moment to
realize what was so creepy and familiar about the language used most commonly
in the book.
“This is Futhork! There’s Bobileth in here, too.”
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“Before I decided on psychology as my major, I was
considering something involving ancient scripture and languages.”
“Perhaps at another time, you would like to visit
Dios. Our technology is no better than Earth’s, but our magic is great and our
cultures are mystical. Consider this an open invitation.” He handed me a quill,
and like the pencil Edward used had no lead, the quill had no ink.
I found a page with several signatures and signed my
name. Dark red ink appeared out of the white paper into my loopy, not-feminine
script. I handed him the book and he examined the signature. As he did, it
started to change into a dark blue.
He frowned. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“What?”
Suddenly, just like when I signed my own book, pain
erupted in my chest. This time, my back arched and body convulsed as my head
throbbed and light flooded my vision.
It was much worse than when I signed Edward’s book. I
couldn’t breathe, and I didn’t want to. My body felt too tight, my blood too
hot, and my head pounded like nothing I had ever felt. I could feel my pulse
throughout my entire body, but I could only hear a ringing in my ear, like when
I turn the television on a channel I don’t have. My mind wasn’t frantic. I
didn’t panic and fear death. I’m not sure I was able to think at all.
I felt Nano pull me into a sitting position. My body
was sluggish, as if I had slept for days, but the pain was gone. The blinding
white light faded into the blue sky, only to be blocked by Nano’s worried
expression. A part of the skin on my arm was stinging, close to where Duran’s
mark was left.
“I’m not sure that was supposed happen. Are you okay
now?” he asked.
“I think so. I can’t tell. Everything is working. My
heartbeat is slow and my breathing is normal. My whole body is tingling from
blood flow. I feel weird. Slow. And gross.” I realized I was covered in sweat.
“I’m gonna…”
Kiro
In my many years, desolation and fear were rare emotions for me to
experience. With knowledge and power comes control, and I was comfortable being
in control. Having a child is, in a way, giving up control when I needed it
more than ever.
Dylan was missing. How foolish was I to let him out
of my sight, but as a fully grown man; he should have been capable of following
me. Had someone taken him? Dylan was no child, and he had no enemies on Duran
as of yet, but Anoshii was not the safest land for a wizard. Terrible
situations ran through my head, each more horrible than the last, followed by
few solutions. Divina, lazy as she was, focused her attentions on calming me
rather than finding my apprentice, only succeeding in irritating me further.
“He’ll be fine. You would feel it if he were in
danger.”
“I would feel when it is too late to help him. You
may continue with your more pressing matters, Divina, while I look for him.”
She glared at me, but the chill in her eyes was
useless against the adrenaline coursing through me. “Don’t act like I don’t
care about him, because I do. I just don’t feel the need to freak out the
moment he goes missing. He probably got caught up watching the sights and is
now sitting in an alley somewhere, waiting for us to find him. I’m sure if you
just calm down and feel for his mind, you can find him.”
So I did, thankful to feel him close. While I could
feel that he was worried, I also knew he wasn’t panicking. Surely that meant he
was safe, just as Divina had said. I focused my mind into his, which was more
difficult by far than the average person. Pushing away his emotions, I focused
on his thoughts.
“Dylan. Divina and I will find you soon, so stay
where you are,”
I told him, using English once again. I waited for
surprise, relief, and the jumbled questions I had come to expect from his
thoughts. I got nothing.
“Dylan? Can you hear me?”
Again, he gave no
sign of hearing me. Now my relief was draining away.
“Well?” Divina asked.
“Something’s wrong.” In the next instant, I was in
emptiness. I couldn’t contain my growl of frustration.
“Are you growling at me, servant?”
Erono’s
voiceless ire sounded in my head. If my senses were not blind, I would probably
have been shivering.
“No, of course not, but I must beg your understanding
that I be returned to Duran at once. My apprentice is missing.”
“The boy is not missing; he is being taken care
of. You will go to Earth.”
“But Dylan---”
“I will not repeat myself. As his master, you now
must take care of Earth as he should be doing, as well as Duran. I do not care
what happens to him, but Tiamat is insistent that her world have an able
Guardian.
Vretial’s servants are wreaking havoc on Earth, trying to draw
the boy out. Destroy them.”
“They know me as his master now! If they find out
that I am the Guardian of Duran, they will look there for Dylan!”
“Your growing concern for the Guardian of Earth is
not welcome. Your duty is only to train him, not to bond with him. If this
becomes a problem for me, I will turn him over to another Guardian to train.”
“That is wrong!” I yelled. It was far from wise to
yell at a god, but I knew that he wouldn’t hold it against me. I was back on
Duran before I could finish my outrage. At this point, I started yelling angry
words that should not have been uttered in public. “I have to go to Earth,” I
said, finally reining my words to an appropriate volume.
“I will find him. Right now. You go, and don’t worry.
You know you can trust me.”
I sighed and nodded. She hugged me quickly and walked
away. I checked on Dylan one more time to find that his worry was now joined by
wonder and curiosity. He had discovered something he enjoyed.
Hiding myself between two buildings, I closed my eyes
and concentrated. I could see clearly in my mind my symbol; the seal of my
world. My mind narrowed and the touch of power greater than my own body could
register wrapped around me. Erono was sending me where he wanted me. Just
before he pulled me under, I could feel Dylan’s sudden shock.
Krael
I never wanted a sister, but no one cared what I wanted.
My mother was a Tumordii Purist. The Reformation was a war between change and
tradition. Everybody had a side. She believed that the farming life was the
only right way to live. My parents had an arranged marriage and lived
peacefully on the farm. My father would teach me to read late at night when my
mother had gone to bed; she herself couldn’t read and believed I only needed to
read what was required for farming. I was taught to do as she believed men
should do, even when I couldn’t stand farming. My father told me it was an
acquired taste. Secretly, he wanted change, but he loved his wife and her
stubborn mind.
It wasn’t until I was about twelve that I started to
notice things happen. When I wanted something to grow fast, I would ask it to,
and then it would grow at an abnormal pace. My parents loved this, and said I
had talent. I did have a talent, it just wasn’t farming.
My powers were fully developed when my parents
announced that my mother was pregnant. I was surprised at my own fury. I told
them we barely had enough for ourselves, and that we didn’t need a bigger
family. Truthfully, I was worried about how things would change. I didn’t want
to share my parents, and moreover, I feared that the child would have the same
power as me. Even more than my parents, I cared about my power, and the thought
of anyone else having it was outrageous. It was mine. I was special, important.
And then Tomie was born. There were some
complications with the pregnancy. Mother became very sick and almost died
during childbirth. I took Tomie in my arms and cleaned her. Mother and Father
were too busy with their own concerns, so I took care of Tomie while Mother
recovered. Tomie didn’t cry, so I became concerned, and even pinched her leg.
Her healthy baby wails were a shocking relief. I fed her formula and put her to
bed in her crib. She watched me as if I were the most interesting thing in the
world. Not long later, I was awoken by her screaming. All night, I rocked her
and held her until we were both asleep.
This occurred every night for longer than I could
count. Mother never recovered. She held out long enough to hear Tomie’s first
words. When Mother died, Father started drinking. The farm was in ruins and we
were starving, but just like when she was a baby, Tomie never cried except at
night. She would sleep in my bed now, and only there would she sleep soundly.
It was at night that I discovered her powers. She
would get upset in her sleep and things would shake. While awake, when
something upset her, her powers were far more focused, and random objects would
easily explode. Father never noticed; he was too drunk and consumed by his
misery.
Tomie and I were starving. Winter was soon to arrive
and then we would be cold as well. I took Tomie and only what else I could carry.
We left for sea and easily used my powers to sneak onto a ship. After arriving
on Anoshii, I found a wizard who took us both in. He taught me magic and fed us
and in return, I did everything he asked of me. Things were very good at first…
but Tomie didn’t like the wizard. His magic irritated her, and she couldn’t
control her magic like I could.
The wizard told me to send her away to school. The
school sounded ideal, except that she would not sleep without me. I tried to
see if she could handle it by making her sleep alone, but I found now I could
not sleep without her.
And then she would scream.
Even worse than as a baby, she would scream and
thrash like a child possessed. The wizard had to use magic to calm her, but it
made her worse. She couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him from then on.
The wizard told me to send her away, that there was
something wrong with her. I refused, so we had to leave. Tomie trusted no one
but me. She never talked much, but she was brilliant, and her powers had
already surpassed my own. It wasn’t that she couldn’t control her powers, she
just didn’t care to. No one would take us in, and I was finally twenty-two; old
enough to take care of her on my own. I got a job as a blacksmith of all
things, and built us a house. People thought that she was my daughter with the
way I took care of her. I hired a tutor to teach her to read and to do math.
She enjoyed learning, but even more than that, she enjoyed when I taught her
magic. She was a prodigy. And then she became sick.
Mother had passed onto Tomie what gave her death and
I could do nothing. Duran had the medical technology to help Tomie, but I
couldn’t afford it and Tomie couldn’t travel. I tried to help with magic, but
it did no good.
That was when Vretial found us. A god, deceitful and
terrible, they said, offered us eternal life and health in return for servitude.
Tomie was too weak to make a decision, and I would have given my life in an
instant to save hers, so I accepted his offer.
He took us to his world and made Tomie well again…
Except Tomie’s wounds were never just physical. He took away her pain; he made
her unable to feel the hurt of being abandoned by everyone but me. Unable to
make her happy myself, I didn’t discourage this. After so little time, I began
to lose my individuality and will. Vretial was my master and my only purpose
was to serve him. After trying so hard to escape being a farm boy, I became
nothing.
Tomie’s powers grew even faster, guided by Vretial’s
teachings. I never believed magic could be evil, only the one who cast it, but
the things he taught her could be used for none other than malevolence. She
lost her curiosity and her love of learning. Vretial provided her with shelter,
food, and magic. She didn’t need love because she could no longer feel it. She
stopped sleeping in my bed. She no longer needed me.
* * *
“Krael, what are you doing?” My sister’s voice, full
of artificial curiosity, broke me from my thoughts.
I looked up at her from my bed and smiled as I
stashed my book under my pillow. “You would think me foolish if you knew,
sister, so why would I tell you?”
She rolled her eyes and plopped down on the bed
beside me. After so long in life, her body and mind remained that of a child.
It was almost heartbreaking, seeing her like this for eternity and never having
my sweet little sister back. I missed her.
“I already think you are foolish. Now tell me what
you were writing or I will not tell you what Vretial is making Shio do.”
I frowned. “If you must know, I was writing of our
past.”
“Our assignments?” she asked.
“No, from our sago lives. Do you remember then?”
“I remember starving, and our father drinking. Why
would you write about that? It was a horrible life before Vretial saved us.”
“You do not remember it as I do. I remember the
morning you were born, and your first words. I remember that you hated Wignot,
and fish. Whenever you got a cold, you would only eat fruit.”
“It sounds like I was a real problem. I have not
needed you for a long time now,” she said, as if that is what I was worried
about.
“I know. Now tell me about Shio, and why Vretial
would send that incompetent fool to do anything,” I said.
She grinned, my concerns forgotten. “Vretial is going
to be more powerful. He sent Shio to find the other books of the Noquodi.”
Vretial was the most powerful of the Iadnah, but it
seemed he would not be happy until all were under his power. He was certainly
displeased when the other Iadnah decided they would control him by working
together. However, Vretial never had to waste his energy to fight them; he knew
them too well. They could not work together for long, and he knew they would
soon enough focus on each other, while he carried out his plans unnoticed. He
could turn them against each other by fear and mistrust. He had already started
turning them against their Noquodi by revealing that he knew more than he
should have.
Vretial was uncertain about one thing, though it was
merely a rumor. He’d heard the other Iadnah were worried about a child. This
child was supposed to become incredibly powerful. I listened to Vretial’s plans
about how he could use this child against the other Iadnah, whether or not he
was as powerful as they feared. I was intrigued. Maybe the child would be a
prodigy like Tomie. The Iadnah were wiser about this secret, though, and
Vretial never found out who the child was.
“Why would he send Shio instead of me? He knows I
make a better hunter.”
“You should find one. Go to Vretial and ask him to
let you find a Noquodi.”
“I want to stay here. I needn’t prove myself to
Vretial; he knows I am more competent. Besides that, I have no qualm with the
Noquodi, and neither does Vretial; he only wants the books. There is no reason
for me to kill the Noquodi when I need only to take his book.”
“Then do so,” said an all-too familiar voice behind
me. We turned to see Vretial standing in his semi-mortal body before us.
It was not a real, or permanent form, but it appeared
as such. We’re not sure how he chose that image, or why, but it seemed to suit
him, with dark auburn hair and light brown eyes. His body never aged, and
looked slightly less than a middle-aged mortal. While we knew mortals could
hardly stand his overwhelming aura and weak beings would go insane from such
raw power, Tomie and I were unfazed. The god was too powerful to worry about
striking fear in the hearts of anyone.
“Assist Shio in finding the book and kill only if you
desire it. Find a book fast, or I will be cross with you,” he said.
This was the side of him, the personality, that I
dreaded the least. He gave simple, executable orders and made sense most often.
I rose from the bed and bowed. “Yes, master.”