Hail's Disciple

by A. J. Morton

  Book 1 in the Disciples Series

  Hail's Disciple

  A. J. Morton

  Chapter 1

  A pale girl with snow-white hair and cloudy gray eyes...

  Strange. I felt like I should know the girl standing before me. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't put a name to her face...

  These three words slowly began to escape from her mouth. "Xander Faust... Awaken."

  I woke up from my dream, sweating and gasping for air. I swept my eyes across my room and sighed. I’d frozen everything over in my sleep again. Not surprising. The same thing happened whenever I had a nightmare. But this one felt different… more real than a dream.

  I began to shiver. I dismissed my thoughts, banishing the ice around my room with a single snap of my finger.

  I rolled my eyes. The “blessing” of the goddess of ice, Glacia. The power to “control” the cold. Every major island in the world of Ubiaxus had a patron god. And mine just so happened to be the worst.

  I looked in the mirror at my cloudy grey pupils, one of them obscured by my long snow-white hair. Gray pupils and white hair were a sign of the followers of Glacia. Everyone in Ubiaxus agreed that the Glacians, the followers of Glacia, were the strongest. So, they gave us our own island out of respect. Or at least that was the reason at first. After a while, they made it clear that they didn’t give us our own island because they looked up to us, but because they feared us.

  We weren’t allowed to leave the island. We were basically prisoners. Even the weakest among us were considered a threat.

  And who better to speak about weakness to me, the one outcast for his lack of power? That’s right. Even at age 17, at the cusp of adulthood, I was unable to manage even the most basic of spells. I was weak. Worthless.

  I exited the room, grabbing a dull pair of daggers as I left. Despite my weakness, I’d had to accept that I was alone in this world. Even my own parents had abandoned me after they found out how weak I was. I was the only friend and the only family that I had.

  Well… Maybe that was a touch dramatic. There was one person…

  A tall, muscular, light-skinned man with clad in armor of blue leather was waiting outside my door, a large axe strapped to his back. “About time you showed up, Faust!” He said, pulling me into one of his infamous noogies. “I was about to bail on you and do the hunt myself!”

  I rolled my eyes, smirking. “Like you have the stones for it, Travis…” I replied. Travis Bronwyn was my best and only friend. He was about three years older than me. He hadn’t developed any power of his own, so he was in the same boat as me. Or at least he would have been, were he not as strong as 10 men. He could do without magic what even the strongest mages in the village were unable to, so they kept him around the village just for that. “Or the brains either.”

  Whenever there was a hunt that had to be done, they paired the two of us together. Travis may have been as strong as ten men, but he couldn’t navigate his way out of a paper bag. That’s why I was always there to help him.

  “So, what’re we hunting today, Travis?” I asked him as we trekked into the forest.

  “Not quite sure myself,” he replied. “Some kinda bird. Shouldn’t be that hard, right?” He handed me a picture. A raven. Really? Just a plain old raven? I can’t see what threat this thing could possible pose upon either of us, much less an entire island of elite mages.

  I read the description of the bird’s features. That’s when I noticed something strange. It said that the raven had a 5-foot wingspan… but the common wingspan of a raven is really around four at max. Also, it had red feathers with slightly yellow tips instead of pure black ones… in short, this wasn’t your average raven. But… What else could it be? Ravens were the only birds we ever saw on the island.

  I suddenly heard a croak overhead, interrupting my thoughts. I investigated the sky and saw our target soaring over the trees above us.

  I was awestruck at what I saw. A creature with beautiful red wings circled above Travis and me. Travis was already drawing his axe as our raven glided down to us. I was about to do the same with my daggers, but I then noticed something odd about the way the raven was flying.

  The raven’s glide was beginning to turn into a fall. As it descended, I got a better look at it. It’s wing had a long, bleeding gash on its side. It was injured.

  Its descent began to speed up. Without thinking, I ran to catch the raven. Despite how fast it was falling, it fell as gently as a single feather into my arms.

  The bird passed out the moment it landed. I pulled its folded wings aside and saw the bleeding gash on its left side. “Travis!” I called over to Travis, who had been frozen in shock since the moment the bird entered my arms. “Do you have any banda-”

  Before I could ask Travis for some bandages to wrap the raven’s wing, something incredible happened. I blinked; my eyes were forced closed by a brilliant scarlet light that shone from the raven.

  When I opened them, the raven was no longer there. A beautiful young woman with bright scarlet hair dressed in vermillion robes stood in its place.

  “Are you… Xander... Faust?” She asked weakly before falling to the ground, unconscious.

  “What just…” Travis looked like he was about to say something until he saw the state of the girl before us. We both exchanged a look before nodding and lifting her off the ground.

  * * *

  Later, we arrived back at my cottage, Travis almost effortlessly carrying the girl slung over his shoulder. I placed the girl gently onto my bed and placed some bandages on her wound.

  “That’s the best we can do for now…” I told Travis after I was done. “I don’t have enough medical supplies to do much more.”

  “Why don’t we just take her back to the village?” Travis asked, scratching his head in confusion.

  “Out of the question,” I replied, shaking my head. “Can’t you feel it? Her aura is far different from the rest of the mages.”

  Aura was the invisible force that shrouded every being in all Ubiaxus. It was another aspect of the blessing of the gods. You could feel a person’s aura the moment you touched them. My aura was cold to the touch. Travis’s aura had no real feeling, perhaps because of his lack of aptitude for magic. But hers… It felt warm.

  The only mages that this logically made sense for were the mages of Pyros, the Kingdom of Fire. This was only reinforced by her scarlet hair and her brilliant vermillion eyes. So she was from the mainland. And the people of the village were just as scared of people from the mainland as they were of us. Odds were that they would try to kill her the moment they saw her hair. “We can’t take her to the main village,” I told Travis. “They wouldn’t even give her a-”

  All of a sudden, I heard the girl cough, interrupting me. Her wound was closing on its own, bathed in flames. Soon, the gash was completely gone, as though it had never been gone in the first place. The girl coughed a few more times, before sitting back up.

  “Wh-where am I?” She asked. She looked in my direction and then at Travis and back to me again. “Wait… Are you Xander Faust?”

  “Y-yes,” I answered. “You were injured so I took you to my cottage.”

  “Thank the gods…” The girl breathed a sigh of relief, smiling. “And I assume that makes you Travis Bronwyn?” She gave Travis a glance.

  “That’s right…” Travis nodded. “But how do you know our names? And who are you?”

  The girl’s smile faded. “Yes… I guess I do owe both of you an explanation of our current situation…” She took a breath. “My name is Strelitzia Cadenza, first princess of the kingdom of Pyros.” She glanced at the flame on her side, still flickering and licking the area where the wound used to be and pat it out with her hand.

 
“A princess?” I exclaimed, shocked. And for good reason too. “What’s a Pyrean princess doing in the Glacian kingdom?”

  “Looking for the two of you, although that much should be obvious.” Strelitzia seemed to notice the expressions of confusion on our faces. “You see… I was recently visited by lady Krysta Tanda, the Seer for the island of Kronos.”

  Kronos… the kingdom blessed by the god of time. His followers were able to see into the past and the future as well. All possible futures. “What did she have to tell you?” I asked her.

  “I guess it’s true… The Glacians really don’t have any idea of what’s happening on the mainland…” Strelitzia clenched her fist. “Ubiaxus is at war, Xander.”

  “War?!” Travis shouted.

  “Yes. War.” Strelitzia replied. “The empire of Umbra, the goddess of Darkness, has begun its reign of terror once more. And it won’t be long until there’s nothing left to take over. They’ve already taken control of the Kingdom of Ventus.”

  Umbra… Centuries ago, before the Glacians were exiled, there was a war that nearly tore the nation of Ubiaxus apart. And the Umbrans were the ones responsible. Their empire was banished, just like our kingdom.

  Strelitzia continued. “Lady Krysta told me that the Umbrans have grown even more powerful than before, and that there is only one group of people that can defeat them.” She looked at the two of us solemnly. “A group of nine mortals who have enough magical power to be considered direct descendents of the nine gods themselves. The Disciples. You two and I are among their number.”

  I fought back the urge to laugh. “Us? You almost had us convinced until that last part,” I sighed. “I can’t even control my magic and Travis doesn’t even have any.”

  Travis shrugged. “It’s sad but true.”

  “It might be because you’ve simply never known about the nature of the power you possessed,” Strelitzia told us. “The power of the Disciples isn’t like that of average magic. Regularly, magic is summoned from the power of a specific, strong emotion. But the magic of the Disciples comes from the emotions of the gods themselves. I could demonstrate right now, but I’m fairly certain the people of the village nearby won’t take kindly to having the forest we’re in burned down.”

  “Xander… Travis… Touch my hand,” Strelitzia stood and extended her arm to the two of us. The two of us hesitantly placed our hands on hers.

  I could feel her aura just like before. But this time it felt like her aura was wrapping around my own. I also noticed something… odd about her aura. It radiated with a distinct sort of power. Her aura, her power, was spreading through my entire body. I could feel the warmth of Strelitzia’s aura entangled within the cold of mine. A few moments of this went by before she moved her hand away from us.

  “Wh... What was-” I stopped mid-sentence as Strelitzia looked as though she was about to collapse again. I caught her before she fell to the floor. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine…” She replied. “Your auras were out of control with power… I just used mine to calm them down.”

  Travis seemed confused again. “But… I don’t even have an aura…” He informed her. “What even was there for you to calm down?”

  Strelitzia sighed. “You seriously don’t even know what type of mage you are?” She turned her attention back to Travis, visibly annoyed. “You’re a Disciple of Terra, the earth goddess. Their auras are faint, almost undetectable, but they are most certainly there. As for how an earth mage ended up on the Isle of Glacia… I have no idea.”

  Travis… was a Terran? I looked at him and he genuinely seemed to be as shocked as I was. It was then that for the first time, I looked deeply into my best friend’s eyes. They were brown, rather than the typical gray of a Glacian. I knew that Travis was an orphan, but the fact that he was a different type of mage altogether? That was news to me.

  After the wave of initial shock was gone, I saw an unusually serious expression appear on Travis’s face. He seemed to understand the weight of this development instantly. “All my life, I’ve wondered why I couldn’t use magic…” Travis’s voice faded, before picking up again. “Is this the reason why?”

  “Most likely, yes,” Strelitzia answered. “You’re an orphan, yes? My guess is that your parents left you here because of the current conditions in the Dominion of Terra.”

  “Conditions?” Travis seemed unusually desperate for information at this point. “What conditions?”

  Strelitzia looked annoyed again for a second, but her expression seemed to soften upon seeing the desperation writ clearly on Travis’s face. “The kingdom of Terra was nearly destroyed about 17 years ago…” Now her own voice was beginning to fade. “The work of the Umbrans… As a result, the land was rendered uninhabitable…”

  Travis clenched his fists. “If I go with you… To save Ubiaxus from the Umbrans… Will I be able to find out where I come from?”

  “Travis…” My voice faltered just as his and Streletzia’s did. “You can’t seriously be thinking of going with her-”

  “AND WHAT IF I AM, XANDER?!” Travis yelled, stomping his foot. I could hear the floor beginning to rumble as he did so. I could almost swear that in that moment, I could see his eyes shining brighter. He instantly calmed down. “I… I’m sorry.... I just… don’t know who I am… And I feel like this is my best shot at finding out… And if I don’t know who I am… Do I really have any purpose? Do I have any reason to exist?”

  Travis took a moment to close his eyes and compose himself before he nodded. “Xander, you know I would never force you to come with me… But if this is really my only shot at finding out who I am…” He swallowed. “I’m going with her.”

  Travis looked at me with sincerity. I knew instantly that there was no changing his mind.

  Strelitzia nodded and turned back to face me. “It seems that Travis has made up his mind. What about you?”

  I had always dreamed of the day I would be accepted back into the village. I still held onto that hope to this very day. And leaving the island was forbidden. If I went with them, that dream would never come true. I held my eyes closed for a few moments, deep in thought.

  I then thought of all the other kingdoms in Ubiaxus. If Strelitzia was telling the truth, then they needed me. And then I thought of Travis, the one person who was always there for me. I couldn’t let him go without me.

  It was upon thinking of these things that my decision became obvious and I said it without thinking. “Lady Strelitzia… I’m coming with you. When do we leave?

  Strelitzia breathed one final sigh of relief, thanking the gods under her breath again. “We’ll leave now, if that’s alright,” She replied. “We need to hasten to assemble the rest of the Disciples. We never know when the Umbrans will attack next. Don’t worry about packing. My castle staff has already picked out clothes for the both of you.”

  Travis’s eyes widened. “C-castle?!”

  “Well I am a princess, after all.” She smiled at the two of us.

  From a cottage to a castle… Everything that happened today was starting to feel like a fairy tale. The three of us left my cottage and headed towards the port in the village, where we could steal a boat. Night had already come. Strelitzia summoned a flame to illuminate our path.

  After a while, I realized something. “Nighttime already?” I looked around. “Wasn’t it just early afternoon a few moments ago?”

  Strelitzia blinked and then a panicked expression appeared on her face. “Oh no… Not here, not now…”

  She began sprinting d own the path to the village. Travis and I exchanged a glance and took off after her. Within a few minutes, we arrived at the village. I could barely stand to see what lay before us.

  The entire village was burned to the ground. Flames licked at what remained of houses. Corpses were scattered on the ground. And the only ones still standing were five men clad in pure black.

  Travis fell to his knees in shock. Even though it was me and Travis’s village, Strelitzia was
the one who was starting to cry. And it was at the moment I saw the first tear roll down her face that I knew exactly who the men in black that tore apart our village were.

  Soldiers from the Umbran Empire.

  Chapter 2

  It only took a few moments for Strelitza’s despair to turn to rage. As the Umbrans departed through a dark portal, she screamed in outrage. “HOW DARE YOU?!” Her eyes began to literally blaze with hatred.

  The Umbrans turned their gazes to the three of us. The man who appeared to be their leader was the last of them to turn. His gaze barely passed over Travis and I and stopped at Strelitzia.

  He began to laugh, a harsh, shrill sound. “Oh? And what have we here?” We could vaguely make out the expression on the Umbran’s face, dimly lit by the fire around him. I was sickened when I saw it. A twisted and yet genuine smile, an expression of sheer joy even after what he had done to our home. “The first princess of the kingdom of Pyros? On the Isle of Glacia?!”

  “You… How could you do this to them…” Looking around at all the damage, Strelitzia faltered. “They were innocent… They did NOTHING to deserve this!”

  Strelitzia suddenly charged at the Umbran, her body covered in enchanted flames. She attempted to deliver a flaming punch to his face, but he grasped her fist and pushed it away with ease. He kicked her stomach hard enough to knock her off her feet.

  “Is this the best that the kingdom of Pyros has to offer? I was hoping to enjoy this fight!” The Umbran walked casually to Strelitzia and kicked her ribs. She cried out in agony.

  I felt an indescribable rage begin to fill me, watching all of this unfold. Looking at the ruins of the village. My best friend’s home. The expression of elation that never left the Umbran’s face.

  I then began to feel a harsh pain within my chest. Shouting out in pain, I got to my knees. A chilling wave spread from my chest to the rest of my body, the pain fading as it passed through. I could feel the presence of my own aura becoming colder than it had ever been, the air around me turning to an icy mist.