Afaris: Shadows on Aora

by Ciubotaru, Tudor George

  ‘So, there are two possibilities’ Afaris said. ‘We either eliminate the source of this pest or find a cure. Become immune.’

  ‘Right. But time is not on our side. What if the incident with the Nymph occurs again? What if tomorrow we find an Aorian on the street slaughtered by our kind? I tell you, you cannot do anything. The fear you have had so far will enter everyone, irreversibly, and if you use your imagination just a bit, you will see how fast panic and madness will set in. Eventually, nothing will remain.’

  ‘So what must we do now?’

  ‘Now? We will go down to the library and you will insert all your uncensored feelings you had for me in a crystal. If any of your siblings does not believe in my prophecy, I will kindly ask them to glance into the crystal. And this is just the beginning’ Saraf answered enthusiastically.

  He was full of hope, suddenly his anxieties and fears had been removed and Afaris could see and feel it. His father finally had a plan.

  ‘What do you want to do next?’ Afaris asked.

  ‘I will try to persuade all my children to support me. First we need to avoid that energy, then seek immunity from it and eventually, alone if I have to, I need to find a way to seal those cursed pits.’

  Saraf grabbed Afaris’s shoulder and they stepped to the pit brim.

  ‘Let us go to the library. I advise to now calm down and gather your thoughts. Tomorrow morning we will have a council and I want you to be present.’

  ‘Why do you want me to come?’

  ‘Two persons who argue something are more persuasive than one. Anyway, I want you to pay attention and learn something new.’

  ‘Very well, I’ll be there.’

  ‘You do not need to say anything. If you have something on your heart and wish to share, I will ask you to.’

  The two reached the pit brim where they left themselves carried downwards by the energy flow to the last level of the tower in the library.

  Just like the ground floor of the tower, the library was packed with Aorians unable to find the answer to the crisis situation in the crystals.

  Noticing Saraf and Afaris, Urfius, who was sitting on a braided tree, stood up and came before them.

  ‘Afaris, am I glad to see you! It’s been so long.’

  ‘Greetings, brother, I’m glad to see you, too.’

  ‘I even forgot the last time you dropped by my Menom. Maybe you’ll pay me a visit one of these days.’

  ‘He will’ Saraf assured him. In the meantime, son, let us show you something.’

  Saraf raised an empty crystal lying in one of the nearby trees and flew it to his hand. He caught it mid-air and handed it to Afaris. He took the crystal carefully, closed his eyes and relived the moment his father had caught him spying on him. Every thought, every anxiety. Even if it was all in his mind, you could see his lower lip shaking, his feet restless and his face turning red. Finishing telling the story into the crystal, he gave it to his father and wiped the tears flooding his eyes. Lived again, with a clear mind, the moment was more powerful and more disturbing.

  In the meantime, Urfius looked at Afaris patiently, but with curiosity.

  Saraf gave Urfius the crystal:

  ‘Open hearted, clear minded’ Saraf spurred him.

  Urfius nodded and closed his eyes, focusing on the energy stored in the crystal.

  A few moment later he opened his eyes in a state of shock:

  ‘I see’ he said.

  ‘What do you see?’ Saraf asked him.

  ‘What has been and what will be. The impact of this energy on us. Father, you fear a war, but I think it has already broken out.’

  ‘I believe so, too.’

  Saraf stretched his hand to Urfius and spurred him to grab his wrist. Urfius did so and Saraf conveyed him his thoughts, plans and what needed to be done.

  After the information transfer, Urfius placed his hand on his forehead and growled:

  ‘Ahhh, I’ve never enjoyed this experience.’

  Saraf smiled at him:

  ‘Maybe if you had trained more diligently, you would think otherwise.’

  ‘Afaris, does he nag you the same?’ Urfius asked smiling.

  ‘Hmmm, sometimes he does.’

  Urfius looked back to Saraf:

  ‘I’ve understood it all. I’m with you, Father, and soon we’ll all be. Worry not, soon the council will say you’re right and all Aorians will find out the gravity of this situation. The matter is as solved.’

  ‘Even though I admire your confidence, I do not share it entirely. As you have seen, the energy is perverse, who known what it has in store for us.’

  ‘When I go back to my Menom, I’ll summon all those who wish to help solve this matter and we’ll figure out a way to seal the pits for good, trust me.’

  Saraf nodded smiling. He was more reluctant and more calculated than Urfius, but maybe his son’s enthusiasm was what he had lacked that far. Anyway, the more people worked on finding a solution, the better, regardless the manner in which they did it.

  ***

  After the discussion with his father and Urfius, Afaris left the library alone, going to his room at the tower peak. Darkness fell outside and Ulmaf and Debiana were waiting for a sign from him. Even if he had just been caught red handed and it was a bad idea to pull another stunt, Afaris decided to leave on their little escapade in the dead of the night, guided by one sound argument: they all needed to see, feel and understand the hazard they were facing, regardless of the associated risks.

  ‘Are you ready?’ Afaris asked them.

  ‘We are. We’re at my home.’ Debiana answered.

  ‘Ok, I’ll be with you in a moment.’

  Saraf was still in the library and the way things looked, he would not leave it tonight. Anyway, from Afaris’s perspective, the council had already started, Saraf discussing with all his sons in turn as soon as they reached the town. The following day they would just establish what needed to be done and then he would put everyone to speed.

  Calis had gone to bed earlier so the coast was clear. His parents would not notice him missing. Yet, he had to sneak out through the entire town.

  Afaris left the house and ran to the tower edge. He glanced at the town to see whether anybody was there, and fortunately, the streets were empty. He threw himself with no hesitation over the tower edge, cloak waving in the air, while he was heading straight down. Through the power of his thoughts he slowed down his descent through a strong vertical air wave formed under him, landed in silence, and stormed towards Debiana’s house.

  The town was illuminated from the roads covered with energy stones which made it look very lively, yet, the people were all in their homes.

  To make his way safer, Afaris generated a small winged friend, similar to the bird with which he had raced his father and flew it up high to get a bird’s eye view so that no Arioan still awake should give him away.

  Soon he reached Debiana’s home without incidents. On the house windows you could see weak multi-coloured lights from energy stones used as lamps.

  Afaris ordered his little energy bird to enter through the window to Debiana’s room. It did so and landed on the window sill and through its eyes Afaris saw his friends anxious to get going.

  Noticing the little energy creature, Ulmaf and Debiana came to the window to greet it. They did not know for certain where it came from, but it could not be anybody else but Afaris.

  The bird took off and landed on the roof of a nearby house, monitoring the area so that nobody should show up. Casting a look at the street, the two noticed Afaris, who waved them to come down.

  Ulmaf jumped out the window and landed silently next to Afaris, and Debiana followed him.

  ‘Nice trip partner. It seems you’re also learning nice things with your father’, Debiana told him in thought.

  Afaris smiled and nodded.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Ulmaf asked.

  Afaris sat on his hams and urged his friends to do the same. He then broke the energy
connection with his bird turning it into energy dust and focused his entire energy on the ground. Sitting eyes closed and frowned, he waited. Some moments later, he opened his eyes.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Debiana asked.

  Afaris waved at her to sit quiet.

  ‘You’ll see immediately if it works.’

  While waiting, Afaris rebuilt his energy bird which took off flying above their heads. From there, through the bird’s eye Afaris saw that the energy stones had changed pace. From the tower base towards them. The stones were losing light for a second, then lit again.

  ‘It’s working’ Afaris informed them.

  From around the corner, from the tower, the stones starting going off like a wave of darkness heading towards them.

  When darkness reached them, Afaris urged to go along with him. Thus, they had the highest chance of leaving the town unnoticed.

  ‘That’s really awesome, how did you do it, Afaris?’ Ulmaf asked him while running to the town gate, surrounded by darkness.

  ‘I can’t tell you exactly, I just ordered the planet and it obeyed. I thought that if I could get more energy from it, why shouldn’t this work?’

  Afaris’s bird continued to fly up in the sky, but at a small altitude, otherwise a lighted energy dot flying in the sky could make people curios.

  Close to the town gate to the mountain, Afaris waved his friends to hide on an alley.

  ‘There are two Aorians at the gate’ he said. ‘I think Father has sent them to watch over the mountain.’

  ‘We’ve lost the darkness wave, too. What now? We could sneak past them behind the houses, but they’ll see us in the field’ Debiana said.

  ‘We could go around the entire town, but it would take too long’ Ulmaf added.

  ‘I have an idea’ Afaris announced them. ‘Follow me!’

  He took his friends among the houses, at the town border. Behind the corner of the last house, to their right, some metres away, the two tired and sleepy Aorians were standing ceaselessly watching over the mountain and speaking every now and then.

  On the sky, to their right, Afaris’s bird popped out, illuminating more and more strongly. One of them noticed it and drew the other one’s attention.

  ‘What’s that?’ one of them asked.

  ‘No idea, I can barely look at it directly. It looks like an energy ball.’

  ‘What do you know, maybe it came out from the pit under the tower. I’ve seen all kinds of peculiar things coming out. I’ve once seen a similar creature, but it was bigger and had arms and legs.’

  ‘Now!’ Afaris spurred them and the three dashed to the forest, running as fast as they could, but keeping silent.

  Behind them … Afaris heard the two continuing the conversation:

  ‘You either imagined it or it was an energy entity, if it was important we would find out.’

  ‘Yes, eventually we all originate down there …’

  They managed to make it into the forest unseen or at least so they hoped. They entered deeper and Afaris created a new bird, shattering the other one to the amazement of the two Aorians. The bird was glowing strongly allowing them to see without them using their extra-sensorial perception.

  They continued to run through the forest, towards the mountain, guided by Afaris’s bird. For him, it was very tempting to leave them behind. He could see with his eyes and with the bird’s eyes and the pleasure to be flying among the trees at night was so great he was about to forget about his friends or even his physical body and dance as he pleased among the trees.

  Suddenly, strong wings beats came from quite far from them. The three came to a halt. It was probably a Nymph. Anyway, they were supposed to be spotted by nobody.

  Afaris broke the energy connection with his bird and immediately they were engulfed by darkness.

  ‘Can’t you reduce its light and use it to see where we’re going?’ Debiana asked.

  ‘No, as much as I would dim it it’s still a luminous dot in a black sea. We’ll use our senses and sneak past.’

  As they were avoiding the place to the right, they heard another wing beat and a sharp cry in the sky.

  ‘What are they doing?’ Ulmaf asked.

  ‘No idea, but there’s legions of them, we’d better go back’ Debiana answered.

  ‘No, we’ve made it his far, we’re going farther. I don’t think Father knows about their behaviour and I think it’s a good idea to find out.’

  At least this time he was positive he would not the mistake of being caught. It was not his father anymore and nobody was able to detect him, except if he made a colossal mistake.

  As they were going deeper into the dark forest, they could hear several Nymphs beat wings and crying.

  ‘They’re looking for somebody’ Afaris announced them.

  Debiana’s heart froze.

  ‘You don’t think it happened again, do you?’

  ‘I think we’d better return’ Ulmaf said.

  The three stopped, hidden behind trees. Afaris started to believe it was a bad idea to continue. He was convinced they could sneak past them unseen, but what if they were caught?’

  While waiting motionlessly, Afaris tried to capture several psychic waves of the Nymphs to see what was going on.

  ‘Three Nymphs are missing’ Afaris informed them.

  ‘Let’s go back, it’s really not our business’ Ulmaf said, obviously worried.

  ‘Ok, let’s do so’ Debiana took sides with him.

  Afaris continued to listen. We knew his friends were right, but something else pushed him to go on. Curiosity? His wish to help? Whatever it was, he decided not to listen to it, the risk was too great. If the incident reoccurred and they were at a crime scene again, nothing could prevent a conflict between Aorians and Nymphs.

  Behind them, in the forest, they heard branches crack. They stopped breathing listening with their hearts pounding out of their chests, but heard nothing. They remain silent for some moment, still nothing.

  ‘Good, let’s head back to the town carefully, I’ll show you the pit some other time’ Afaris said.

  They started together, one behind the other, moving on the hams and senses wide open, while every now and then Nymphs were flying past them.

  To their left, from between the trees a loud sound was heard. A quite big Nymph landed knocking down several branches and maybe even trees. Ulmaf stumbled against a fallen branch and hit the ground.

  On hearing the noise, the Nymph shouted sharply and started among the trees to the sound place.

  ‘Run, run, run!’ Afaris cried in their minds and Ulmaf stood up immediately dashing away with Debiana and Afaris, ignoring the noise they were making.

  Right behind them, the Nymph took off and started chasing them, and some other Nymphs joined it. It was obvious they were closing down on them and would eventually catch them. If they separated, any of them would be caught eventually. If they stopped and hid, they would eventually be found. For the moment, they were too far away for the Nymphs to make them out among the dense and dry trees, but the sound gave away their position.

  Panicked, Afaris thought what to do. He had an idea. He focused his entire energy to create a new energy bird. He wanted to try to draw their attention away. Instead of a bird, it took the form of something much bigger. It had arms and legs, but no face. Some moments later, an Aorian creature, made of pure energy, was running to his right. It was completely controlled by Afaris’s mind, yet he could not believe he was capable to create and maintain such a complex energy creature.

  Leaving surprise aside, he guided his new energy partner perpendicularly from his direction, illuminating among the trees farther and farther from them.

  The Nymphs took the bait and started chasing the silhouette illuminating strongly among the trees, while Afaris and his friends were running their fastest to get out of the forest.

  ‘The two will see us coming!’ Debiana told them.

  Afaris broke the connection with the energy entity; Afaris’
s energy ego disappeared with a big bang in an energy explosion.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, we can handle them’ Afaris replied.

  The three got out of the forest and continued to run as fast as they could to the town, even though they felt their leg muscles give in. Running on the field, they just glanced behind from time to time to make sure no Nymph was chasing them. To their relief, they were safe.

  Reaching the two Aorians on guard they stopped and fell to the ground, exhausted, while the two were looking at them puzzled.

  ‘What happened?’ one of them asked.

  None could answer as they were marked by the events. The two continued to ask them what had happened.

  ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘Don’t say a word to my father’ Afaris begged them, panting.

  ‘Isn’t he with you?’ one of the Aorians asked.

  The three looked at him in amazement.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Afaris asked.

  ‘Well, earlier he went to the forest, shortly before you arrived.’

  Afaris stretched his back and sighed, anxiously:

  ‘Did he say anything about us?’ he asked.

  ‘No, he greeted and headed towards the forest. I think he went to the energy pit or … I don’t know. Anyway, this night is very odd; at first we saw a strange energy ball floating next to us, then heard a bunch of angry Nymphs in the forest. What happened to you?’

  Afaris understood there was no alternative except for the truth:

  ‘We sneaked out of the town. I wanted to show them the energy pit, persuade them about Saraf’s concerns. However, we ran into many Nymphs. They were looking for some of their lost akin so we gave up and ran back before being seen. We nearly got caught.

  The two Aorians were puzzled. One asked:

  ‘And you don’t know Saraf left after you?’

  Afaris shook his head.

  ‘What do we do? Debiana asked Afaris.

  ‘Not much to do but wait for him to return. Most certainly, he will find out more about the matter.’

  ‘What if something bad happens to him?’ Debiana asked again and Ulmaf laughed, slightly amused.