Afaris: Shadows on Aora
Page 4
He didn’t know what to do, charge, defend or flee. He looked at his father before the two Nymphs reached him; Saraf too was watching the scene terrified.
‘What do we do?’ shouted Afaris.
The time was short, and any decision Saraf made would alter the future for good. He risked a war or losing his son. His mind sharpened to the maximum, his senses were operating perfectly, yet a new feeling penetrated him. Fury. All of a sudden, the glass that had so far been filling drop by drop, fuelled by the stubbornness of his advisors and sons who were not willing to obey him, the tens of Aorians who regarded him with scepticism, and now his son’s life threatened by the stupidity of a Nymph, spilt.
There was no decision to take. He had to protect his son at any cost.
In a split second, his wound healed, the bones restored and his energy was livelier than ever. With a simple gesture he shot a shock wave which struck all the Nymphs, blowing them from the sky and smashing them to the ground, and some of them lost consciousness.
With another thought he took control over the bodies of the Nymphs who were attacking his son and smashed them to the ground, head first, leaving a crater. They were still alive, but suffered severe injuries. One of them remained on the ground paralyzed, while the other was screaming in pain.
Afaris was amazed by his father’s skills. With some small gestures he had obliterated an entire hoard of Nymphs. And he was certain this was a mere proof of his power. If he wanted, he could kill them all.
‘It is your ignorance that killed your son!’ Saraf screamed while pointing to the dead Nymph, but keeping eye contact with the father who was trying to stand up, powerless because of his broken limbs.
‘How dare you accuse us?’ the Nymph shouted back, standing up slowly and menacingly. ‘How could we harm one of our siblings? A son! Tonight you have revealed your true soul, Saraf! You’re a murderer!’
The Nymph’s harsh words shook Saraf, but he was determined to impose his point of view:
‘Me? A Murderer? I am the one who tried to warn you all from the very beginning. Yet nobody listened to me. Why do you find it so hard to believe? This energy is guilty for everything! Unless we do something now, the war will break out!’
‘You are right, the war will break out, but we have not started it’ the Nymph replied.
‘Neither have we. The reason why I am here with my son is that we have discovered a source of strange energy on this mountain, close to the top. It is the exact energy we spoke about a long time ago, but it is not far from Aora, but here, among us and within us! It is flooding our mind and soul. This cursed energy is accountable for what happened here.’
The Nymphs who were not busy with their wounds were listening to Sarah with great interest. Either an excuse, a lie or the naked truth, they had to observe his say.
Saraf, realizing the terrible situation many of them were in, redirected his energy to them in an attempt to heal them. Bones were cracking while put in place, and the painful screams were tormenting his soul. Saraf could not believe how far they had gotten.
Some wounds were so severe that they dried his energy, but soon he managed to heal them all. The Nymphs, even still dizzy from the shock, felt relieved and somehow grateful.
‘Your son is the first victim of this war, and if we start fighting each other this war is lost for we are not enemies, but allies in this battle. Do you want blind revenge? Fine! Let the land soak in Nymphs’ and Aorians’ blood starting tonight!
The Nymphs stayed put. Saraf’s words were effective. At last, the question Saraf had been waiting for started to germinate in their mind: ‘What if he’s right?’
They heard a soft flutter of strong and massive wings coming towards them. On the sky, the outlines of several Nymphs appeared, among which one of a truly gigantic Nymph. It landed heavily to Saraf’s right, while the other Nymphs continued to fly. It was Akdarosif himself, the Nymphs’ rightful king.
‘Death foretells death, Saraf. I heard your voice from the distance and read your soul’ the King addressed him, then turned his look on the other Nymphs: ‘Saraf is not your enemy. He’s probably our most valuable friend in the dark times ahead.’
Suddenly, as if all the spirits that had been agitated and thirsty for blood calmed down on hearing the strong physic voice of their leader.
‘How can you stand up for him? We may as well find the corpse of another child of ours tomorrow. Maybe that energy exists and it’s affecting them. How do we know that they will not be the ones to start the war?’ one of the Nymphs addressed his King.
‘That energy exists, I now find it obvious. Look at you, look at you all, you are all thirsty for blood, no matter whose.’ Akdarosif answered in an imposing voice.
All the Nymphs went silent. They realized he was right. Suddenly, Saraf’s words no longer seemed meaningless. Maybe he was not guilty, but actually the only one who could set things straight.
‘Who’s our enemy in this case?’ asked the Nymph who finally regained calmness.
‘We are fighting an enemy we cannot see, but sense. From what I can tell, when we feel it, it is already too late. It is already inside us, clouding our reason. Corrupting our feelings.
Saraf paused and resumed his sentence with an even sadder tone.
‘I am afraid I do not know how to fight it. All we can do is stay strong, not let ourselves be influenced and most importantly, support each other. We need to continue what the King did before when he eliminated your destructive impulses. Support each other and trust our kin.’
Afaris joined his father, convinced that things could no longer degenerate. The situation had cooled down. He was so happy, it could have been much worse.
The King looked at the dead Nymph and sighed:
‘There’s nothing we can do’ he said. ‘We’d better go to our families, before anything else happens. Saraf, I advise you to make a stand, even if we don’t know what we’re dealing with, we cannot overlook the events tonight.’
Saraf nodded.
One of the Nymphs who seemed very young judging by his relatively small size, asked Saraf:
‘You have delivered us all from sufferance with a mere thought, Saraf. Why can’t you bring our brother back to life?’ the Nymph asked in a voice full of hope.
‘A soul, once lost cannot be brought back, regardless of the power of he who summons it.’ Akdarosif replied. ‘It’s one of the unwritten rules of the Universe. Tomorrow we’ll head for the Lake of Mirrors. There we’ll offer our brother a dignified funeral. It’s the best we can do.’
Silence enveloped the valley, the only sound was the wing rustle of the Nymphs who were watching the discussion from the sky.
‘I think it is time for us to get going and return home’ Saraf said.
‘Indeed. We’d better deal with our fallen brother and see what we need to do next’ Akdarosif answered.
The Nymphs obeyed their King and took off in turns. Two of them gathered the remains of the deceased Nymph and carried them in their claws towards the forest.
Saraf bowed his head slightly to the King, thanking him for his help and left with Afaris, through the forest, back to the town.
He could hear the King’s thoughts coming from behind:
‘We shall speak when I return...’
***
The two kept quiet on their way back. They were running through the dark forest, back to Saraf-Menom. Afaris was trying to recover after the shock of the evening’s events. He was trying to grasp the gravity of the situation and what the future held in store for them. Saraf was also drowned in thoughts, but pleased. Things had evolved in the direction he wanted. At last, they had started listening to him again. At last, he felt there was hope.
Even if irritated with the fact that an innocent creature had to die to reach this point, he was perfectly aware that there was nobody to blame. Something which only he could grasp was perceived as insanity by others.
On exiting the forest, at the edge of the field, Saraf decided
to pause briefly and sat down in the grass, watching the town illuminating in the distance.
Afaris sat down next to his father, enjoying the moment of rest.
‘What now?’ he asked.
Saraf nodded, lost in his thoughts.
‘We must inform everybody about what happened. And we need to ready ourselves.’
‘You mean find a way to fight the energy?’
‘Not only. We must ready ourselves for the worst.’
Saraf stretched his left hand to Afaris and urged him to grab it which he did by the wrist. All of a sudden he could not see with his eyes, but mind. He could read Saraf’s mind, his memory:
It was light outside, at noon. And what was around him horrified him. He was standing in the middle of a landscape of destroyed houses and covered with tens of corpses of Aorians, mutilated, torn to pieces.
He looked around. Saraf was next to him, eyes to the ground, refusing to recall that landscape in his mind.
Afaris burst into tears.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘I do not know, but we can draw numerous conclusions from here.’
‘Is it what’s bound to happen or what could have happened?’
‘That is what the future holds in store for us. It seems the Nymphs’ doing, but I could not say for sure.’
Afaris knelt and covered his eyes with his hand. He no longer wanted to see, but the corpses’ reek was merciless.
Saraf lifted his arm and looked at him. Afaris was taken aback, scared of what he had seen. He was panting.
‘That is what we must ready ourselves for’ Saraf told him. I do not know from where or who this destruction is coming, who started this war, or who is wagging it. All I know is that unless we do something now, this is what the future has in store for us.’
The image of the corpses continued to torment him.
‘What I saw …was it the outcome of the battle between Aorians and Nymphs?’
‘That is very likely.’
‘But … if that is what the future has in store for us, why don’t we act now? Why don’t we attack first?’
‘Because I am not certain who wages this battle. Insane as it sounds, it is still likely that we will kill each other.’
That was unheard of. Aorians fight each other?
‘Do you think that energy will make us kill each other?’
‘I am afraid what we saw tonight is just the beginning.’
Afaris sighed while looking at Saraf-Menom, eyes in tears.
‘Which town did I see?’ he asked.
‘I think it is Urfius-Menom.’
Urfius-Menom was the closest town to Saraf-Menom, to the west, the town of Saraf’s last but one son. In the evening, you could see the light of the energy pillar rising in the town centre. It went without saying, if the war broke out, it would affect the entire planet.
‘But it’s just a prophecy, isn’t it?’ Afaris asked his father in a hopeful voice.
Saraf nodded approval.
‘That means it can be changed. It is just a possibility, things can develop differently if we know how to tackle it.’
The trust Afaris radiated with his words impressed Saraf, but his sad face remained unchanged.
‘Anything is possible, but, as I said before, we must ready ourselves for the worst.’
Saraf stood up and shook his cape.
‘I will summon a reunion with my advisors and then one with all my sons and daughters, the Menoms’ rulers and we will see what we need to do. In the meantime, one thing is certain, I must teach you how to fight. Your life and that of your loved ones may depend on it.’
Chapter 5
Energo-spirits
Afaris left the town and headed for the rally point on the plain next to Saraf-Menom, where he was supposed to meet Debiana and Ulmaf. More than 20 days had passed since the incident, but the situation was still tense. All Aorians had learnt of what happened and opinions were more and more complex. Some of the Aorian towns’ leaders had already arrived in Saraf-Menom and were waiting for the others to sit down at the council table hoping they would reach a solid conclusion about what needed to be done.
As promised, Saraf started teaching Afaris how to use his powers in a way he had never imagined: to obliterate and kill. In the past few days, Afaris had trained together with his father inside the tower and on the plain around the town. At first, his father taught him to enhance his powers, then control them and, as he advanced, the ways in which he could use them.
Ulmaf was lying in the middle of the field, enjoying the sun, and Debiana held her head on his chest. The two did not notice Afaris until his shadow stretched over them.
‘Greetings’, Afaris said.
Ulmaf and Debiana greeted him back, rising halfway.
‘How’s training with your father?’ Ulmaf asked.
‘Quite well, but still too slow if you ask him.’
‘C’mon, he’s training you in a completely new area and he expects you to move fast. Anyway, I think it’s ludicrous’ Ulmaf stated.
‘I fail to understand something’ Debiana said ‘Saraf has led Aorians since the beginning of time, without a single mistake in our evolution and development. How come, out of the blue, when the first crisis occurs, people started doubting his wisdom?’ she said turning her head to Ulmaf and fixing him with a sharp glare, while he shrugged his shoulders.
Afaris knew the answer to this question. It was the exact fear his father had spoken about. But he had no intention to answer. People needed convincing with solid arguments and proofs. Invoking the fear and that odd energy was pure suicide. More than half of the Aorians did not believe in them, and the rest did not know what to believe. Only those who had felt its chill were aware it was real.
‘Because they will not accept change. They have grown used to this lifestyle and refuse to accept another one’ Ulmaf answered. ‘I, for one, am ok like that, we all are.’
‘Yes, but what if this lifestyle is jeopardized and we cannot protect it?’ Afaris asked.
‘Our way of life is already under attack, Afaris’ Ulmaf replied angrily ‘firstly by your father. He’s spurring us towards these changes and if we accept change it will entail the loss of the prosperous and peaceful culture we’ve had so far and we will end up like in your father’s stories about other civilizations, blood-thirsty barbarians. Admit it, if we leave things as such, nothing will happen.’
Afaris frowned on hearing Ulmaf’s harsh words.
‘Moreover, why should he teach you to fight? When did you ever need it in your life?’
Ulmaf was right, but not entirely. He was only contemplating the past, not the future and did not consider the risk factor, either real or imaginary.
‘And if we all agree we don’t need to do anything, the Nymphs don’t agree’ Debiana stood for Afaris’s defence. ‘Regardless how much you or anybody else deny it, they are restless, agitated. They seek justice, revenge. What if tomorrow they take Akdarosif down and start a war against us?’
‘Well, apparently we have a very strong weapon to fight them: Saraf. He knocked down a dozen without blinking even, didn’t he, Afaris?’
Afaris nodded.
‘You see, why must we all undergo these changes, when we have people like Saraf and many of his children who can protect us? Anyway, having seen what he’s capable of, not even the strongest Nymph would dare wage a war on us.’
‘There are two more options, the war can break out between Aorians or it can come from outside’ Afaris added.
‘War between Aorians? Maybe there are not numerous differences in ideas, but I don’t think this could generate a war. As for an invasion, I’ve studied enough crystals to know that nobody has the necessary force or nerve to wage a war on Aorians or the Nymphs.’
Ulmaf obviously had his beliefs which could not be altered. Debiana, however, was neutral. She did not want to take sides, not because she had no opinion of her own or did not know what to believe, rather she had no wish to be
in a conflict of ideas with anybody. Yet, even if Ulmaf’s reasoning was good, she knew Afaris. She knew his father, too, and knew their words should not be mocked about.’
‘I think we’d better wait for the council’s decision’ said Debiana. ‘Willy-nilly, what they decide becomes binding. Nobody will dare say it’s not good.’
‘Yes, if the council decide that we should all start killing, most certainly we’ll go for it with no opposition.’
‘That won’t be the case, Ulmaf. Father said that what he teaches me is solely because he wants me safe. He won’t impose anybody to alter their lifestyle so radically. Moreover, all my siblings know how to fight, and this has never changed anything.’
‘Do you know what I think?’ Debiana said ‘I think this period will pass quickly and things will go back to normal. I think we all worry too much for nothing.’
Ulmaf nodded delighted that his girlfriend suggested the same thing as he was: not do anything.
‘And that energy pit on the mountain … your father said he would deal with it and find a solution to seal it.’
‘Unfortunately, it seems it is not the only pit. Father told me Urfius found another such pit next to his town. Who knows how many they are on Aora.’
‘Anyway, as soon as he finds a way to seal one, he will seal them all.’
Afaris nodded, but had no idea what to say. His father had visited the mountain countless times in the past days, analysing the energy flowing out of it. All he could say was it was becoming ever-stronger. And when he tried to seal it, he felt like stopping a river from flowing, even if he did block its way, it would cut a path around the obstacle.
‘I have an idea’ Ulmaf said. ‘Let’s climb the mountain and see exactly what this is all about.’