Light of the Dark

by N. Saraven

  She left her chosen family completely behind. The companions did not know why she acted the way she did and took the neglect badly.

  On the other hand, there were tasks that needed to be done. Time was short, so all had to dive into the work. One night, however, when the companions dined together, Neila had a little surprise for them. They were just discussing when Halgor should begin the expansion of the Mist when she interrupted. She talked with a soft voice, yet everybody fell silent the moment she opened her mouth.

  Neila said that expanding the Mist was not enough; Varomor had to move for good. And just when this stunning information sank in, Enargit added—to the other side of the Anaca-lake. The others could only stare at him, some opened-mouthed as their forks stopped in mid-air. The dragon then told the story about the lake. Afterwards, some of the companions exchanged unsure looks, which Neila willingly dismissed.

  Halgor tried to complain first—to make Neila slow down the preparations—unsuccessfully. She seemed not to hear anything the elven said; she asked only how much time would he need to prepare for the move. Of course, she only meant herself and Halgor, since nobody else had enough power. Or, in Enargit’s case, was in harmony with them.

  The Masters needed to work together harmoniously for such a powerful magic, and even they would most certainly become utterly drained afterwards. Together, yet completely separately because the spells could not be mixed.

  What Neila wanted had never been done before.

  She not only planned to teleport a huge building and everybody in it to an unknown, faraway land, she wanted to make changes in it at the same time.

  The first part, namely the teleporting, was Neila’s job.

  According to the textbooks, teleportation could only be done to a place that the mage already knew. If they were familiar with the place, they could easily recognise its unique energies in the rivers of the World’s Power.

  Technically, every teleportation spell was a smaller and simpler version of the Rims—these connected two distant points in the World’s Power, which points the mage specified. Some Rims of two points were used so many times that they became more and more easy to create, or to find, if somebody did not already know them. In a way, they became stable. The two points could be changed if the mage was qualified. With the proper amount of energy, any two points could be connected by a Rim, or if the distance was small, by teleportation.

  Of course, every worthwhile mage had a deep knowledge in how to use the World’s Power. They gained their power from it, so it was essential for them to sense, know, and read it. Not to mention use it. For a good magic-handler, the simpler things should not take more than a few moments and should be almost as easy as changing the rhythm of their breathing.

  However, some limits existed, which not many dared to challenge. Some said those lines could not be crossed by any mage, or at least, nobody could imagine how immensely strong the magic-user must be.

  Teleporting Varomor to an unknown place should be considered one of these things by any sane mage. But at the moment, Neila could not care less. She had a theory how it could be done, so she wanted it to be done.

  According to the Master, using the World’s Power as a route during the teleportation should make it possible to follow the streams wherever they wanted to go. And because Neila had felt the energies around the Anaca-lake, she had an idea of what rivers she should follow.

  When she discussed it with Enargit, he could not think of enough good reasons why this should not work. However, it still remained something which had never been done before.

  No place left for mistakes.

  As for the second part of this huge move, namely the expanding of the Mist and some other little changes around the Tower, Halgor ought to work things out too. Like how to make this work during the teleportation. Even if it was considered to be the easier task of the two, he still had a terribly difficult job. He locked himself in his room, or in the study, or wherever he wanted to make preparations. The dark mage needed a few days to get himself in the right mind-set, after he worked out what and how he ought to do it.

  On the other hand, nobody saw or knew of any similar doings of Neila …

  Tension started to fill the Tower. Everybody became nervous as the day of The Move crawled closer. When it finally arrived, everybody was told to stay put. Moving of any kind was forbidden; even breathing was restricted. The apprentices had to confine themselves in their rooms, shielding their own powers away. They ought to be as neutral as they possibly could. It was better for them to do nothing than try to assist with their mind-set or helping thoughts. Nobody wanted to accidentally ruin everything, in spite of their best interests, nor did anybody want to take any chances …

  In truth, however, when The Moving actually started, nobody wanted to do anything but survive those moments.

  Rita would never forget that time that she had to spend in those complex spells. She was teleported before, of course, but this time it was nothing alike. Usually while teleporting, everything went dark before her eyes for a few seconds, her body felt somewhat different, but before she could comprehend any of it, the spell was over.

  But now … it seemed that she was stuck in that ‘different’ state.

  Everything fell apart in her mind. She could hardly make any sane thoughts, nor comprehend what her body was feeling. Closing her eyes did not help either, as she discovered.

  Rita became stunned as she acknowledged that she felt and did not feel her body at the same time. As if she existed and did not. Her mind seemed to jump all around, lacking the ability to actually understand the happenings. She thought she saw colourful words flickering in the air, bursting out from her head. They all tasted different, and from what she could tell, she sensed with her eyes and saw with her ears.

  And this was only the beginning of things.

  Rita lost every sense after a while. She did not know what was she seeing, or hearing, or smelling, not to mention touching. She became unsure where her body was, if she had a body at all. She completely lost all reality. Everything cracked, vibrated, and felt numb around her. Maybe there was no Tower at all. She would not be able to tell, even if she tried to.

  And this impossible atmosphere seemed to last forever.

  Abruptly, everything stopped being so unrealistic. From one moment to the next, all had returned to its original place and form, as if nothing had happened. Rita felt as if she were in a speeding car which suddenly stopped. The magic spells’ somewhat slowly evolving were in total contrast with their rapid ending.

  Rita felt sick—her stomach turned upside down, her mind fell apart, she could not put together a single thought. Her senses also went crazy, as if they did not know what to do so just tried out everything they could.

  Her body was not meant to go through stuff like this.

  It was of small or no consolation that everybody else in the room with Rita looked the same—terrible. Moans, sighs, babbling, and other voices filled the room. It took awhile for the companions to sleep off this … experience, as they later called the Move. It was the worst for Kira. Even days after the spell, she tumbled while walking, and her shade form seemed to flutter.

  As time passed, everything became in order again; Varomor had moved away successfully. The garden now was doubly larger than before; its diameter was around five hundred and fifty feet. It was still surrounded by the Mist, as a billowing shade-fence.

  After everybody regained their strength came the difficult part, as Enargit called it. The Tower now stood in the middle of an unknown territory, some kind of a strange forest that needed to be charted. This presented the perfect situation for Enargit to create some order and discipline amidst the dragons. So, silver lining after all.

  Although it was a complicated enough task. The shadows behaved wild, like every other animal living free. They terribly enjoyed the whole moving, especially in Silumar’s company.

  The kinwa somehow got into Varomor, despite the strict prohibition of the
Masters. He probably jumped on Goldenrain when the army fled Lexénia’s stronghold. So the little fellow was teleported wherever the sunlit was—in the middle of the garden of the Tower. Then, of course, he disappeared in the chaos, so nobody discovered him for a while.

  How he managed to stay hidden for such a long time, nobody knew. Especially since, as it turned out, he passed the time by talking to the shadows. On the bright side of things, he became the main reason that the dragons kept their calm as they waited for the Masters to prepare themselves for the Move.

  Finally, Sil was caught by Veilon, who then thought it would be better for Neila not to know about the kinwa. So when the kobold let Goldenrain go home to the paragon capital through a Rim, he sent Sil with him.

  The dark mage then sighed in relief and got on with his chores, which were quite a few in those days.

  The new terrain needed to be discovered, and the firsts of the firsts always were small teams of mages. Then, when they did not stumble upon anything lethal at first sight, could the shadow dragons go out. Although soon after a little looking around, the leaders drew an invisible line around Varomor, which nobody could cross without permission. Especially not the dragons.

  As it turned out, there was nothing particular about the place, if the terrain itself did not count—everything about those lands looked different, utterly unknown by any of the inhabitants of Varomor. So they had to be careful.

  Meanwhile, Halgor had another task, given by Neila: he had to pay a visit to the Elven Homeland to ask whether they would join them against Indrek or not. Although the dark mage needed eight days or so to recover after the Move. And when he decided to go, he still did not regain his full strength. He did nothing other than rest during those days, arguing loud and clear about his lack of sleep whenever somebody asked him for something.

  But the most interesting thing about this whole ‘visit the Homeland’ deal was that the Master obeyed without any complaints. The elven said nothing about it, nor tried to stall, even though he seemed unsure when he left. Nobody could guess why the mage stayed silent. If anybody, he could have raised a voice against Neila.

  Although many understood his decision when they saw Neila herself.

  The Master had slowly turned inside out since Cameron’s betrayal. And the situation only worsened from there.

  Before, Neila was friendly, although severe; always cautious, yet sometimes made crazy plans; open-hearted, but liked to be alone at the same time. She always liked to be around others, to tell stories, laugh about something, or solve the mysteries of the worlds. She founded Varomor’s one-and-only ‘discussion night’, when she and some apprentices got together, talking about whatever their hearts desired—the meaning of Life, why magic existed, and so on.

  But now Neila became somebody who spoke to almost nobody, wanted nothing from anybody. She lashed out at anybody who tried to get close to her, even if they only asked how her night was. She spent her days and nights mostly alone, doing and probably thinking about mysterious things. At least that was what everybody said to one another. She disappeared so often that after a while, some said she left Varomor, although she never actually did.

  Only one exception existed from all this—Enargit. The shadow Leader somehow managed to stay close to the Master, even after everything that happened. He was the only one who could come and go as much as he wanted in her room.

  The friends took this badly, although Rita tried to soothe them. She said that she could understand Neila because she had lived through a less severe version of this herself right before she joined the three worlds. She talked about how furious she felt all the time, just because she was annoyed, or sad, or lonely. It did not matter what the original feeling might have been; it almost always turned to aggression.

  If the friends understood or could accept it, they did not say. In any way, they tried to do as much in as little time as possible, without her specific orders. Enargit translated her wishes sometimes. He said that most of the happenings he discussed with Neila, and she gave him the authority to do as he saw fit, after a little talking over.

  If the companions had doubts, they could do little about it. The Leader did have good suggestions, orders, or plans about how they should proceed with their tasks. So in a way, he became something of a respected leader in Varomor also, not just amidst the shadow dragons.

  Anyhow, he and Agony took over the dragons’ training, including teaching them the common tongue. The reptiles did not speak anything other than their own language, so they had to learn something else if they wanted to communicate with the others.

  However, this task proved to be even harder than the other, and that was not as easy as pie either. Because of the dragons’ lack of discipline of any kind, they could hardly do anything right, at least in the warrior’s eyes. The shadows gladly tried everything, jumped into every task they could get; however, their wild nature always took over after a little while, ruining everything. They enjoyed themselves, yes, but nothing was ever done.

  As time passed, Agony sometimes wanted to strangle a few of the younger dragons, just to let out some steam. Or knock their heads together, only a little, he said, to beat some wit into their thick skulls. In these times, Enargit was the one who smoothed the feelings—mostly the warrior’s feelings, because the reptiles enjoyed themselves every single moment.

  Overall, if a dragon could actually finish their task, Agony could not praise them enough. If they did it in time, the warrior almost jumped out of his skin, laughing. Eryn once saw him in the garden, hopping around a young dragon, patting him on the back or neck in his excitement. However, when Agony saw the wraith staring at him with widened, surprised eyes, he restrained himself immediately and asked the apprentice not to tell anybody about that. Eryn could only nod.

  On the other hand, once it happened that a young reptile could not do her tasks, no matter how hard she tried. It even caught Neila’s attention, who one day visited the shadow, asking her to try a little harder. But the utter nothingness which she emitted shocked the reptile completely. The poor thing just curled up under a tree, shaking for days after the Master’s visit. She often mumbled something about an empty, golden gaze, which chased her in her dreams, trying to swallow her alive. She could never escape …

  The only good thing that came out of this was that, from that day, everybody got really serious about everything. They focused all of their energies on their tasks, whether they were learning, teaching, hunting, scouting, or resting. The older students took over the less experienced ones’ teaching, while they learned as well. Others made lists, drawings, and notes about everything that the scouts brought in and put those papers where anybody could find them. It was important to know about the new plants, animals, and everything else. What was edible? What could be used for healing or paints? What proved to be poisonous or venomous, or had some other special quality? These were the most asked questions in Varomor around that time.

  The Tower itself became almost totally under Eryn’s control. The wraith took over when neither Halgor nor Enargit was available. He did not consider Veilon as a suitable candidate for the task, even though the kobold had the strongest power after the Masters, and decided to stay with them. But he was not a caste-member by any means.

  Agony wanted nothing to do with the apprentices since he loathed magic, Talek could not care less, so Eryn had to step up, even though he was not a full mage yet.

  Not that the others had nothing to do …

  Kira mostly assisted in the library, making sure that everything stayed in neat order. She even managed to improve the ordering-system there. Talek helped wherever he could in his condescending manner. The soldier had great experience, so many turned to him for advice, Agony most of all. When the paragon’s help was not needed, he took over Rita’s education about archery.

  Neila once mentioned that Rita should really learn everything essential, so the companions rather worked the girl to death than to have the Master unsatisfied. Rita had t
o learn about hunting, through weapon usage to knowing all species, and what they were actually like. Not to mention history.

  Rita sometimes dropped half-dead in her bed in her room, which she shared with Kira. They became friends soon after she utterly became a part of the three worlds, so it seemed a good solution. Their neighbours were Talek and Agony, who also had to share a dorm. The friends often spent time in one of their rooms, talking and sipping wine.

  “I cannot take this anymore!” moaned Rita in dismay as she lay back on her bed, massaging her aching arms.

  She learned archery during the whole day with Talek, who turned out to be a surprisingly good and patient teacher. Rita considered herself a good archer back on Earth, but here she discovered what real archery meant. Back home the modern bows had pulleys helping to bend the bow, giving more strength overall when the arrow was released. The arrows, too, were designed to be as perfect as possible.

  But now … she felt a complete failure, even with the best kobold bow. She had a really difficult time just stringing it, not to mention bending and actually hitting something. As it turned out, she was too weak.

  They say you should work harder when you have sore muscles. Well, that works while working further, but after, it’s the same friggin’ pain! she cursed to herself, massaging her arms.

  “Just be patient.” Agony tried to soothe her while sitting at the end of her bed, leaning against the black wall. Across from them lay Kira on her bed, while Talek sat at the little table, overseeing the drinks and bites to eat. He smiled apologetically at Rita and shrugged.

  “Speaking of learning, who teaches you about the worlds?” asked the kobold, who poured another glass of light wine and took a little something to munch.

  At the very beginning, the companions went out to scout the new terrain the first time and discovered a few seeds, berries, and such to eat. Although the fruits then became scarce in the Tower, since Neila knew about them. She had a weakness for fruits, leaving little for the others.