The Forsaken Call

by Jamie Murray

  Glancing briefly back at Jameson for a little extra encouragement, Cyrus lowered himself down into the throne, cringing visibly as he did so. Jameson watched Roth flinch, but remain looking straight ahead.

  The Angel was ecstatic. "I must offer you this throne," she said gently as she reached out her hand for him. "Sit beside me. Stay with me when the others have already moved on."

  Cyrus immediately stood straight up and looked as though he might start ranting, but Jameson quickly interjected with, "Angel, you must already know that's not going to happen. You had to have seen into the future that he doesn't stay. Why would you even bother asking?"

  "I could easily force you to love me," the Angel said, ignoring Jameson.

  "I know you won't," Cyrus said confidently.

  "How do you know I won't?" she inquired curiously.

  "Because for you, that would be boring," Cyrus said. "Excuse me."

  He walked past Jameson and, without looking back for even a fleeting moment, he strode to the door and exited. Jameson paused a few seconds and looked at the Angel who only seemed entertained by the entire ordeal.

  Then her eyes fell on Jameson. "I am going to request you all stay a day to rest," she said in a tone which suggested it was not a request at all, but an order. "None of you have received a sufficient amount of rest since your return to this world, Jameson. You and I both know that it is in the best interest of everyone if you stayed a bit longer."

  "We appreciate your help, Angel," Jameson said. "But we'll be leaving as soon as possible."

  He turned to leave and, when he was halfway to the door, he heard movement. Unlike Cyrus, Jameson was unable to make a hasty retreat without checking behind him and, when he did, he saw the Angel was on her feet.

  "Can you afford to leave this place without your Resurrected Spirit?" she said.

  "What do you mean?" Jameson said. "What do you know?"

  "I'm afraid with all the excitement, I have forgotten," the Angel said in a mocking tone. "Perhaps if you ask me tomorrow morning, I'll have remembered the name of the one you must bring to the Shadow Shrine."

  "I don't want to play games," Jameson said, feeling frustrated.

  "No one wants to play games," the Angel said, lowering herself back into her throne, and then vaguely gesturing to Roth for him to do the same, which he did promptly. "But, if you stay, I will willingly give you the name and location of your Shadow Spirit. Of all your Spirits."

  "Of all of them," Jameson confirmed.

  Haltingly, the Angel smiled and nodded, then said, "Don't you deserve a moment to breathe?"

  40. I Don't Think I Said

  Chapter 40

  When Jameson returned to the room, Cyrus was already attempting to get everyone ready to leave. It took a considerable amount of convincing and assuring words in order to convince him to stay. The others were easier to win over once Jameson revealed that the Angel planned on revealing the names and locations of all the Resurrected Spirits to bring to the Shrines after resting; as far as they were concerned, there was no down side to the arrangement.

  The only one who was difficult to convince was Baloric who clearly stated that no reward could ever make him cheerfully stay within the Angel's complex. Thankfully, he was in no condition to get up and leave so, most unfortunately for him, his argument was not even part of the discussion.

  "He's gone to sleep," Johanna whispered quietly after some time as she backed away from the bed and went to the other side of the room where the rest of the group was waiting.

  "After the past few days, I don't blame him," Luke said.

  "It was weird to see him," Jameson said. "In that place with Lorne. He looked just fine when he was there. He said he probably wouldn't remember being there… it's hard to tell when he's like this."

  "So you actually spoke with the Ancient Lorne himself," Louisa said to Jameson in a tone of disbelief after he finished relaying the short diversion he had taken while unconscious.

  Jameson decided to only divulge certain specifics about his encounter. First, he actively chose to leave out the piece of information concerning his own whereabouts for the past ten years. Although he did not remember exactly what happened, he now knew the answer to one of their most pressing questions, but he did not think the others would like the answer when he himself did not like it. He also left out any mention of Walden and the realization that Cyrus was the true Protector from the Prophecy, though it was not his choice to keep that secret.

  He did tell them about what the Ancient Lorne had told him about the generation skip in the Prophecy, which sufficiently explained the reason for Jameson's young age when he first started his trip. He also did his best to describe what the Ancient One had said about the Resurrected Spirits but they had been mostly accurate in their original assumptions.

  "So that confirms it, then," Luke said. "It's really me. That's what I'm here for."

  "I guess," Jameson said. "But didn't we already mostly know it was true?"

  "Mostly," Luke admitted. "It does feel better to know absolutely, though." He crossed his arms. "It's kind of a heavy thing to just…suddenly have. A week ago, I was making arrowheads out of rocks in the Forest, thinking I'd be able to help the world just by killing a few Forces. Now there's all this."

  "Well, we'll know the Shadow Spirit guy pretty soon, so you'll have someone who knows what you're going through," Johanna offered.

  "How will we do it delicately?" Cyrus questioned.

  "Do what?" Louisa asked.

  "Luke is right, this is a very heavy load to have so suddenly," Cyrus explained. "When the Angel gives us the names of the Resurrected Spirits, how do we approach them?"

  "'Hey, you've got this destiny, so come on,'" Johanna tried. "Something like that?"

  "That's pretty much how it went when Louisa told me about my destiny," Jameson said jokingly.

  "I did not sound like that," Louisa said adamantly. "I was very considerate."

  "Somehow, I doubt that, Louisa," Johanna exclaimed loudly. As soon as she laughed, she knew she had been a bit too loud and quickly checked back to see if Baloric had woken up.

  He didn't move.

  "Sorry," she mouthed to the others.

  "Maybe we all should get some sleep," Luke said. "That's what we're here for, isn't it?"

  "That's probably best," Erestina added passively as if, for some reason, she was under the impression that the idea of resting was not a topic she should bother mentioning. Jameson looked up at Cyrus, and easily concluded that, between paranoia and the constant job of protecting the princess, it was likely he rarely slept well anyway.

  "I wonder if there are other rooms with more beds we could use," Louisa mused as she began wandering towards the doorway.

  "I don't think we should do anything which would involve reminding Joy Angel of the fact that we're here," Cyrus said immediately.

  "If she has one room like this, she probably has more," Louisa said, leaning out the door. As soon as she did, she sighed and stepped back in the room, gesturing towards the door with an annoyed expression on her face.

  Seconds later, William stepped into the doorway, looking ashamed that he had been caught, rather than ashamed that he had been eavesdropping.

  "William, you look all better," Johanna said, though perhaps her statement was slightly exaggerated.

  "Do you need something?" Louisa interjected. "Or do you just like standing out in the hallway listening to other people's conversations?"

  "I just want to talk with Jameson," William said.

  "What can't you say in front of us?" Louisa questioned.

  "Louisa, it's all right," Jameson assured her.

  "I don't think we have any reason to give this child whatever he wants just because he asks for it," Louisa declared.

  "She's right, Jameson," said Cyrus. "You don't know what the boy is planning."

  "Guys, William risked his life for us," Jameson pointed out, going towards the doorway where William was waiting. "He didn
't have to do it. Don't worry about me."

  "I'll see if I can get you more rooms," William said, bowing his head slightly to Louisa who threw her arms in the air in frustration.

  William and Jameson went into the hallway and William awkwardly tried to find a natural position for his arms.

  "First, I just wanted to thank you," William said.

  "Thank me?" Jameson repeated. "You're the one who—"

  "You didn't have to rescue me back there in the maze," William interrupted. "A lot of people would have just left me there and you saved my life. So thank you."

  Jameson knew the correct response, but somehow it felt lost on him. "You're welcome," he said finally.

  William nodded, satisfied. "And that man," he continued. "The one who was lying on the bed. The one you all came here for. His name is Baloric?"

  "Yes."

  "I heard one of your friends call him Baloric," William said as if Jameson had denied the name.

  "Yes, his name is Baloric," Jameson clarified cautiously.

  "That can't be true," William said accusingly.

  When he did not elaborate, Jameson questioned, "Why's that?"

  "Because I'm Baloric," William said. "It's my name."

  Now Jameson was really stumped, but William was looking entirely serious, staring right into Jameson's eyes. For a few seconds, Jameson's mind raced with possible explanations though, in the end, all he came up with was, "Isn't your name William?"

  "My family name is Baloric," William explained. "You're not Gislan, so maybe you don't know. The family name is given to the oldest son, and that's me, so all those outside the family are supposed to call me by that name."

  "There must be another family called Baloric," Jameson reasoned.

  "Then why will my sister not even come in this room?" William said. "She refused to even look at him."

  "I don't know what to tell you. Baloric's a good friend of mine, but frankly I don't know much about his family life." Or much about him at all, Jameson realized after the fact.

  "I don't like it," William said, his eyes darting back to the doorway and then to Jameson again. "That's all."

  With that, he angrily turned around and stomped off as if Jameson had smacked him upside the head and offended him. When Jameson turned around, he saw Louisa standing in the doorway, having observed the entire interaction in surprising silence.

  Jameson didn't know what to say, so he only shrugged. "How am I supposed to know, right?" he said, laughing slightly.

  Louisa, however, did not look amused. "What did you say the sister's name was?" she asked quietly, leaning on the doorframe and staring at the floor.

  "I don't think I said," Jameson answered.

  "Was it Raven?"

  "Well…yes."

  Louisa sighed heavily and then ran her fingers through her hair several times.

  "What's the big deal?" Jameson prodded.

  "Do you remember ten years ago when we came into Gislan for the first time?" Louisa asked, still not making eye contact with Jameson. "We stopped at a traveling village and Walden stopped to get some information about the Shrine and the Shadow Stone?"

  "I guess," Jameson said. "I mean, but not really."

  "And a little girl came running out and asked us to keep an eye out for her older brother because he had left to go to the Shadow Shrine a year ago?" Louisa continued.

  "Oh yeah. And that was Baloric. Turned out we talked to his family."

  "You remember the little girl's name?"

  Jameson did not remember; not at first, anyway. But it didn't take him long to piece together where Louisa was going with her explanation, connecting in his strange conversation with William along with his sister's apparent aversion to seeing Baloric.

  "Raven," he said finally, feeling halfway horrified and halfway overjoyed.

  "Yeah," Louisa said harshly. "Raven. And she had a baby brother and his name? You remember?"

  "William," Jameson said. He gave an exasperated moan and threw both hands over his face out of frustration. "What are the chances of that?" His voice was muffled through his hands.

  "No chance, Jameson," Louisa said, her tone still sharp. "There are no chances and there are no coincidences. We were supposed to meet them."

  "I spent all day with that kid. How did I not notice that?"

  "They don't really look that similar," Louisa noted. "Daigh strikes me as someone who looks more like his mother."

  "You don't remember what his mother looks like."

  "But he seems like someone who looks like his mother," Louisa said defensively.

  "Baloric never came back to his family in ten years?" Jameson questioned, trying to get back on track.

  "He never wanted to be in Gislan again," Louisa said. "He hates it here. I'm sure it had nothing to do with his family. I'm sure he loves them very much."

  "The kid doesn't even know Baloric exists, or at the least, he thinks he's dead."

  "William wasn't even born when Daigh left home," Louisa reminded him. "I'll bet whatever circumstances brought them to live here somehow discouraged Raven from discussing family in general."

  Jameson put his hands in the air. "So what now?" he asked. "What do we do?"

  "Well, first we have to talk to Daigh when he wakes up," Louisa said. "I'm sure he won't expect something like this and probably have some opinions on the matter." She, too, let out an exasperated sigh. "Why'd they have to turn up?"

  "This means Baloric's parents are dead," Jameson reported somberly.

  "You know that?" Louisa said.

  "William said his parents were killed by Forces when he was a baby," Jameson said. "That's why he and his sister live here. He said the Angel took them in."

  "And enhanced their magic, no doubt," Louisa added. "Daigh's magic was so weak when we first met him. It's only because of the powers from the stones that he was able to do basically anything. But, from what I've heard about the maze adventure, little William has quite the control of his own magic."

  "It's got to be intervention from the Angel," Jameson said, looking down the hall in the direction of where the Angel's throne room was. He shook his head and turned back to Louisa. "I don't want to see that woman any more times than I have to. I'll ask her the next time she makes me see her."

  "Well, didn't it turn out in the end that the Angel was a good guy?" Louisa said.

  "That's what she says," Jameson said. "But I don't know. Whether she let us escape or not, she definitely didn't make it easy. She separated us from you and she ended up sending the guards after us anyway. That's when Baloric got shot by that arrow, which led us to meeting Quinn and her sisters and then…so on and so forth."

  Louisa wrapped her arms around herself as if she was trying to keep warm. "You killed Quinn, didn't you?" Louisa asked.

  "Yeah, she's gone," Jameson said.

  She blinked hard and sighed. "I wish Walden was here," she revealed. "Things wouldn't be so hard, I know it. And then, the right person would have taken the Fighter."

  Jameson had to actively keep himself from telling her, actually, the right person did take the Fighter. Cyrus was the one from the Prophecy. And, as he stood before her with his piece of information on the tip of his tongue, he understood just why Cyrus recommended keeping it quiet. He wasn't sure how Louisa would react upon finding out the truth.

  "I guess," he went with instead of a lengthy explanation.

  "Yeah," Louisa said.

  "So, when Baloric wakes up, do you want to tell him or should I?" Jameson asked.

  "I'm not good at explaining things or being tactful, right?" Louisa said, sounding a little accusatory. "You do it. He's going to want to have a conversation with you anyway. Maybe you should have whatever conversation he wants to have, and then wrap it up with: 'By the way, your parents are dead and your sister and brother work for the Angel and they're right in front of you.' You think that would go over well?"

  "Probably not," Jameson said. "That's why I'll be the one telling him."r />
  "Exactly right," Louisa said. "Give me a hug, all right? I'm exhausted."