by M. M. Reid
Chapter 4
My eyes snapped open and a muffled groan came from my lips. What had just happened? Where was I? In the dark, I could barely see where I was. I was sitting up and leaning on the side of a moving vehicle. Ben was next to me. Trosian and Lee were facing me. My heart was beating so quickly I thought that it was going to break free from my chest.
“Where. Am. I?” I suddenly found words but they came out broken and fragmented.
“In a car, Augrais,” said Ben. “We didn’t think you’d make it. That thing was strangling you for about ten minutes. We were surprised you pulled through.”
“I don’t feel well.” I said, the dream replaying over and over in my mind.
“I can imagine,” said Trosian.
“No, I don’t feel well.”
“We heard you the first time, buddy.” Ben said.
At that moment, vomit poured from my mouth and struck Lee.
“What the hell?” were the last words I heard.
When I awoke again, I was on soft cushions. My body felt like it had completely healed, though I was told later that I hadn’t liked being in a moving vehicle.
“Ah, Augrais, you are awake,” came a familiar voice. I was still feeling groggy.
“Where am I?” I asked, my tongue thick in my mouth. The world around me was still blurry and words spoken sounded like they were coming through a long tube.
“In my home. Have no fear, you are safe.”
“Lokus?” I knew the voice now. He came around the sofa to face me.
“Yes, it is I.”
“Where are the others?” The world was starting to steady, but I winced as I attempted to sit up. We were in a vast room, at least twice of the size of my old childhood home. It was filled with books, desks, and paintings with colours I had never seen before. The furniture and floors were made of a dense, red wood, the smell reminding me of the forest.
As Lokus gently pushed me back into the soft cushions, my muscles seized. I gripped his shoulder tightly, partly because of the pain shooting through my body but also to centre my thoughts on what I needed to know.
“Where are they?” I spoke more forcibly, my fingers ripping into his vest.
“Outside. Training.” Lokus was no longer looking at me, but through me as if straining to see a coin in a rippled pool of water.
“And my father?” I strained, my voice sounding hoarse and weak.
Lokus quickly passed a small glass of water to me and I gulped it down greedily, chilling and soothing my dry throat.
“Just rest.” Lokus stood up slowly, heading away from me to a lone box across the room.
“Where is he?” My voice haunted the old man as his steps froze in place.
“I’m sorry, Augrais,” Lokus’s voice echoed about the room. He did not turn about, nor did he dare look back at me.
“What are you saying?” I sat up again, ignoring the pain. I felt as if my stomach had dropped to my feet.
“Your father…”
As I reached to stand, I noticed the bandages on my forearms. The memories came racing back to me. They did not stop me from flinching even though I knew the answer.
“…is dead.”
There was a long silence. At first, I wanted to brush it off as if it was nothing. After all, I tried to convince myself that I hated my father. I had wished to escape away from him so many times, but those memories seemed to fade away now. What replaced them was a feeling of emptiness, a black hole. As much as I wanted to hate him, as much as I pretended to, all I wanted was my father back. I looked up at the wooden ceiling, blinking back tears, determined not to allow anyone to see the whirlpool of pain now dragging me to the depths of sorrow.
We were on the outer reaches of the estate, Lokus and I. Father had just been buried a few hours prior, leaving me to simply stare at the freshly turned earth and a sapling we had planted over his grave. The tree served as the last reminder of my father’s existence in this world. I silently promised myself that as long as I was alive, I would protect it. The weight of silence became overwhelming as my lower lip trembled uncontrollably and tears fell onto my legs.
“I’m sorry, Father. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough. If I had been there, if I had come sooner maybe…”
Something heavy dropped into my hands, interrupting my thoughts. “All things die, Augrais. It was his time,” Lokus said, his voice low as he knelt next to me. “And though there is nothing you could have done to prevent his death if you stay here and train, I promise I will give you the power to protect those you care for most in this world.”
I looked at Lokus. This was my father’s sword: Balmung.
The elder placed his hand on my shoulder. “Become the warrior your father wanted you to be.”
As our eyes met, I reflected on my own life. I never chose to become a Mystic. I didn’t just decide one day to pick up a weapon, my energy, and fight for the Mystic cause. They had chosen me. But it was different now. This was my path by destiny and, now, by choice.
Lokus’s estate was a small acreage surrounded by thick northern forests. The smell of pine and sap was nearly overpowering as I stepped through the back door and into my new home. The house itself was two stories, equipped with five bedrooms, a library, a study, kitchen, and entertainment room. You can imagine my wide-eyed expressions as I took my first tour with the other three boys. Everything was so new to me, so foreign, but to the others it was just another day in their life. Determined to stay in the lead, I struggled to memorize every word: television; boom box; video game. I can still feel my embarrassment as Lee and Ben laughed at me for not knowing what a computer was.
It was nearly a week after my father’s death before I decided to continue my training. I had not been able to face the loss of my father so I chose to bury it in countless hours of studying this new world I was just beginning know.
The four of us walked outside in silence, towards the far end of the field. Lee was in the lead with Ben close on his heels and Trosian and I sauntering in the back. Trosian still wouldn’t speak directly to me. If he looked at me, it was always with a glare that could melt ice. I pretended that I could care less. Regardless of how I felt, this was the first day of my training, the first day of this new chapter in my life.
“What do you think we’ll get to do today, Trosian?” Lee asked excitedly, without turning around. “Climb a mountain? Learn some sweet new moves?” He took a strange martial stance and began to squawk like some sort of deranged bird.
“Or maybe we’ll get to fight a bear or something!” Ben said, with enthusiasm that matched Lee’s.
We halted as Lee suddenly stopped. Ben, without realizing, walked right into him. Lee whipped around, scowling at Ben. Trosian brushed past Ben, knocking him slightly off balance with a nudge from his shoulder, while his younger cousin took a threatening pose.
“Why are you even here? You can’t use Vitae,” Lee growled, bristling like a threatened animal.
Ben shrank like a wilted flower as I approached silently behind him. Without saying a word, I placed a friendly hand upon his shoulder while my gaze never left Lee. Lee’s eyes flicked to me for a split second, after which he snorted and turned heel, jogging after his cousin Trosian, and calling, “Wait up!”
Ben craned his neck to look up at me. “Thanks,” he said, giving me a toothy grin. I blinked, put off for a moment by his crooked teeth. After an awkward silence, I clapped him hard on the shoulder, signaling we both should continue on our way.
The fields of bladed grass danced around our legs as we waded our way towards the small ravine on the edge of the large meadow near the northern forest. Lokus could now be seen, patiently waiting on a dirt road leading down to the ravine. I felt a strange uneasiness in my stomach as the four of us approached. After of my father’s death, I felt a silent hostility towards the elder Mystic. I didn’t understand why. Lokus gave me no reason to believe that my thoughts had betrayed me and his constant small smile widened as we approached.
> “Good morning,” he said, his voice calm and confident.
“Morning,” Ben greeted him. It was Lokus’s only response.
The old man ignored our lackluster response and turned, following the dirt road without a word. We all stood there, waiting for some sort of command.
“Are we supposed to follow him?” Lee whispered after a moment.
“Naturally,” Lokus’s voice called from out of sight.
Like crabs caught out in the open, we scuttled down the winding dirt path. It wasn’t long before we caught up with him. The tight road opened into a large pit, most of it covered in four distinct lanes of very tall wooden beams, standing straight like trees without branches. Attached to them were what I would call a nest of chains, so dense that one couldn’t see through the other side.
“Four entrances,” Trosian murmured next to me. “Some sort of obstacle race?”
I eyed him questioningly and he responded with a glare.
“Welcome, gentlemen,” Lokus greeted us once again. “I hope you will find my humble abode accommodating for the duration of your training.”
“Humble abode,” Lee jeered from under his breath, mocking Lokus. “More like a mansion.”
Though his words were audible to the old man’s sharp ears, Lokus chose to ignore him. “Today is the first step of a long journey. And the first step is always the most important and the most difficult.”
Ben shifted next to me nervously and gulped.
“You’re going to teach us how to use our energy to rip through chains?” Lee asked.
I rolled my eyes. Though he often criticized Ben for his lack of knowledge, Lee clearly knew little more.
Lokus chuckled at this. “No, I will not be teaching you how to increase your strength, Lee.” Lokus turned his back to us, looking directly at the tangle of chains for a moment. Then he turned back and spoke, choosing his words carefully. “Today you will learn the most important lesson: survival.” Lokus’s face darkened as his smile evaporated. “It is simple. The objective is to get to the other side first. Succeed, and you will be rewarded with food. Fail and you will not be eating until tomorrow at dawn.”
My stomach growled in protest. We had not eaten today. Lokus had warned us not to start this hard bout of training on a full stomach. Bastard! I glared haughtily at the old man and made a mental note to never skip a meal again. Lokus smiled cheerily in return, clearly hugging himself over the trap we had fallen into.
“Pick a path and get started,” Lokus said simply as he trotted over to the side of the ravine wall and took a seat, motioning us casually towards the entrapment.
We looked at each other in awkward silence, none of us wanting to make the first move into the chasm.
“Oh, it almost slipped my mind,” Lokus said casually. “This is a contest. There can only be one victor. Only one winner and, thus, only one of you will get the reward.”
My heart leapt into my throat. He must be bluffing. I was already starving! How could he expect me to keep training after this if I were to lose? These thoughts ran through my mind like bolts of lightning, but I stayed uneasily silent. Ben and Lee, however, were a different story.
“Say what?” Ben exclaimed, dropping his shoulders and mouth in surprise.
“No,” Lee screamed at the same time. “You can’t be serious!”
Lokus clicked his tongue as he shook his head, “I suggest you stop wasting your precious time whining and start making your way into the maze. Especially since Trosian already has a great head start.”
Another surprise as I focused upon the maze, just to see Trosian enter it on the far right side. I sprinted to the far left, Ben and Lee in hot pursuit. I needed to be the best and I definitely couldn’t achieve that without any food.
I experienced overwhelming confusion as I smacked headlong into a jungle of steel. The chains were incredibly dense in front of me, overlapping and tangled like a spider web. What was strange, however, was that I could clearly see the others, since each lane was only barred enough so that we couldn’t squeeze through.
Trosian was now struggling in a mess of metal as Ben and Lee were bickering outside about who would enter one of the lanes first.
“Shove off, Lee,” Ben said, his voice quivering. “I got here first.”
“Awww, baby going to cry,” Lee mocked as there was a scuffle for only a moment before Ben walked to the lane to the right of me. With an embarrassed scowl, Ben stood there for a moment, sniffing, a small trickle of blood coming from his nose.
Lokus did not intercede.
As I struggled to slip into the labyrinth, I suppressed my wish to help the frail Ben. This was a contest and he was the competition.
An hour passed and no one had moved forward a millimeter. Ben and Lee were trying to pry their little bodies through any small hole, only to be stopped by another chain they could not have seen through this optical illusion. Meanwhile, Trosian was now seated, staring into the chains, reading them like they were some ancient language he did not quite grasp. It was clear he was becoming frustrated since the veins on his forehead were throbbing with rage. He simply could not find the clear path forward. I, on the other hand, had tried a different approach. Every so often, half out of frustration, half from pure boredom, I would back up a few dozen metres, raise my energy as high as I could, and fling myself furiously at the net of chains like a wild animal freshly caught by a hunter. Each time I would fall flat on my back, deflected by the strong iron.
Another two hours passed and we still hadn’t moved. My stomach felt like it was a pile of smoldering embers, praying for just one more piece of food to consume in its heat. Lokus was sitting against the wall, his eyes closed. Ben had now given up and was sitting with his back to me, still sour from his earlier confrontation with Lee.
“Hey Trosian,” Lee abruptly called out, backing away from his failed attempt to weasel his way into the maze. “Are you having any luck or do you want to switch?”
Something happened to Ben as his adversary stepped back. His head slowly cocked to the side and he gasped suddenly as he realized something we didn’t.
“Hey Lee,” he called, his voice cracking.
Lee deliberately ignored Ben’s feeble voice. “Trosian? What do you think, buddy?”
“Lee!” Ben’s voice was becoming louder.
“I don’t think that will do much of anything,” Trosian stated, not moving and not letting his concentration waver from the puzzle before him.
“Seriously, Lee!”
“What is that annoying sound?” Lee turned his back fully on Ben. At that point, I felt great anger towards Lee.
“Must be an insect,” Trosian said offhandedly.
Lee let out an exaggerated laugh.
Rejected, Ben’s head hung low. This surprised me. I would have gone into a rage and attacked Lee for his disrespect, but Ben seemed to be content to submit, assuming that’s just the way things were.
“So—” The young bully resumed his previous conversation.
“Lee,” I interjected.
“What is it, Augrais?” His tone was still condescending. Unlike Ben, however, I was not going to simply roll over and take it from him.
“Do you like your limbs, Lee?” I asked, almost sweetly.
The boy looked questioningly at me then responded with a confused laugh. “Yeah. What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
My Vitae oozed from me as my rage began to climb. “How would you feel if they were forcibly removed?” I asked darkly, staring fiercely at the junior Mystic.
My threat was clear. Lee did not respond, but I could see him begin to feel fear. Trosian’s head whipped over to look at me. He was clearly ready to defend his cousin. Lokus was now interested and watching intently. Neither of them rose to defend the silent Lee.
“Shut your mouth and listen to Ben,” I commanded, enunciating each word clearly and slowly.
Without a retort, Lee turned back to us, now scowling with his arms crossed but clearly pa
ying attention.
Ben, in turn, got to his feet. “Thanks Augrais.” He whispered quietly enough so the other two couldn’t hear. Then he turned to Lee. “I don’t know if I should be telling you this or not. But since none of us are moving at all, look there.” Ben pointed to the bottom right corner of Lee’s pathway. “There’s a little, itty bitty hole that you could probably squeeze through.”
Lee looked from Ben down to the area he was pointing to. “I don’t see anything,” Lee said slowly, unsure of whether he should trust Ben or not.
“Try it,” Trosian instructed, now leaning against Lee’s chains, straining to see what Ben saw.
Slowly, Lee knelt and reached one hand forward, expecting resistance any moment. Sure enough, Lee’s hand reached the barrier of the chains, hesitated for a moment, and then passed through! The excitement flowing off everyone was palpable. Lee was perhaps the most excited of us all as he gasped, wide-eyed. The small boy could actually begin to squeeze through.
“Lee, wait!” Trosian’s deep voice rang out and his younger kin froze. Trosian knelt down, then leaned to the side, looking much like some sort of snake poised to strike. Then after a moment, “Ben, to your far left. You can proceed through there.”
Ben walked up to the chains and began to shimmy his way in. Like a broken mirage, the chains opened. It all clicked. To the person facing the maze, the chains seemed like an impassable wall of metal. However, another person in one of the other paths could see the opening from the right angle. I searched frantically in Trosian’s lane, my eyes darting to and fro. Sure enough, there was a small hole just above the ground in the centre, just large enough for something or someone to slip through.