by J Hawk
He slowly sheathed the sword again, and looked at Ion with a strange look in his green eyes.
“After hearing of the tale you told me,” he said. “I’m led to conclude that … you’re now alone?”
Ion felt his mind flash back to the event a few days ago. The fateful event. And his insides seemed to squeeze painfully. Alone…
He forced the word out: “Yes.”
Blinking back tears of grief and fury, he looked up, and saw that Jedius was gazing at him with a gentleness in the endless depths of his eyes. He nodded slowly and said, “Not anymore.”
Ion raised an eyebrow.
“You have suffered much, Ion.” said Jedius. “But put the past aside, and arm yourselves for events of the future. You have mystic powers, but I can teach you, guide you to use them better … and in a way that will help our world.”
Ion felt like he was hearing the words from the end of a long corridor. He let his jaw hang briefly, before slowly saying, “You’re saying … that you wanna accept me … as a disciple?”
Jedius’s smile seemed to radiate warmth right through Ion’s bones, dispelling the chill and the numb feeling he had been carrying in them for days now.
“I’m … overwhelmed.” he managed, shaking his head. “But why?”
“Because you remind me of a person I knew once,” said Jedius, giving a silent sigh. “A person whom I had lost … Me. And I intend to regain the side of me that I lost, through you. I failed to help this world, Ion. Failed to put my powers to the noble use I could have. But I see now, that I have a chance at redemption. And it is you. I will teach you all I know in the hope that, through my teachings, you help our world. The way I would have, if I had another chance at life.”
Ion was temporarily speechless. After a long moment, he gave a nod.
“I promise me will.” he said softly. “Because you just saved my life two days back.” And you’re doing it again right now.
The present
Two years…
But it felt like a mere flash ago, when he had been learning deeper about his mystic powers with Jedius. The man who had made all the difference to his life. Ion fought back a well of emotion, steadying himself.
With Ion’s powers already developed, his training with Jedius had to last only for a short span. Less than a few months ago, they had parted, with Jedius having concluded his teachings. Having imparted all the knowledge had carried to his new student … and blessing him to use it for a noble means. And so, Ion had gone out to amend the evils of the world, and had taken up his primary target to bring down. Grando. An enemy whom he owed greatly. And today, he had payed him back in kind, and had erased his evil existence out of the world for good.
As Ion sat back and floated back to the memories of his master, he felt a pang of grief. Parting with Jedius had not been easy. Jedius had been a light like no other, and he had helped him in the darkest period of his life. And his presence had been a beacon to Ion’s mind, warding off the demons of the dark, which had preyed on him long and hard. And now, with his master gone, Ion almost felt weakened. Diminished. Vulnerable. Jedius’s presence was a great strength to him, and he wished he had that strength with him always…
He lay back against the tree trunk, staring up at the stars. Letting the heavy emotions pass. And as they did, he felt himself drift off … drowsiness overcome him. And before he knew it, he was asleep.
For the first time in so long, Ion re experienced true peace in his sleep. For the first time in so long, Ion re experienced the beauty of his sleep.
A dream…
He had had this dream before, and every tine he did, he wished he could seal himself in it … and live within it forever.
Pain and distortion like nothing else. And then, as clarity fell, the searing pain all over slowly subsided. And he saw, through his blurred vision, hovering over him … an angel.
“I’ve healed most of your wounds,” she said, gazing down at him as he lay with half his body aching and searing.
It was just as blissful as it had been that day, when the dream had actually been reality.
When Ion woke a few hours later, he found that the world he was in was suddenly a fleetingly brighter place…
7
The twelve men seated around the room all wore sagging, grim expressions. At the centre of the room lay a large circular table with a prominent emblem engraved over it.
Mantra stood at the front, opposite to the semi circular arrangement of seats. His back turned to the twelve others, he gazed out the window in front of him. A lush greenery spread outside, with a dense canopy of trees lined against the horizon. The sun rested right over the line of trees, the sky around it painted with a faint pink haze. The evening sky bore a faint reddish hue, streaked with occasional gaggles of birds that came flying across.
Mantra had his arms folded behind his back, his brow angled in a mild frown.
The rest of the twelve men sitting around looked at him with the same intensity mirrored in all their faces. Finally, an Iveling with tidy maroon hair rose from his seat, and broke the silence.
“I’m sorry for asking this,” said Galinor. “But before we do anything … are you certain of this?”
Mantra looked at Galinor and slowly shook his head.
“No. I am absolutely certain.” he said. The air in the room seemed to constrict upon them all as he said it. “There is no doubt about it. I know what I sensed. But now is not the time for fear or wallowing. Now is the time for action, gentlemen. It’s now or never. The brotherhood of Nyon needs to act. We need to act immediately.”
“But how can you be so sure, master?” inquired a middle aged Elfling sitting by the corner of the ring. “Forgive me, you are old and wise, and our brotherhood has great respect for you. You have a revered ability to sense the shifting currents of energy in the spectrum. But does that form your sole basis for what you’re now proclaiming? Are you merely sensing this, or do you have something solid to support what you’re now saying?”
Mantra allowed the man a hollow smile.
“It gives me more pain than you would know when I say this,” he said softly. “But I do have something solid. Proof to base what I’m now saying.”
The masters looked around, fear rising in their eyes. They were all afraid of what was about to come next. The elder council, the entity governing the brotherhood of Nyon, was shaken for the first time in eight thousand years.
Mantra put his hands behind his back and turned slowly to look at the men seated before him.
“It had just broken through in the news: just less than a day ago, there had been a terrorist attack in the planet Cransof. An attack that left the King and his council dead … an attack confirmed to have the involvement of mystics.”
A tense silence gripped the room as he finished. Nobody moved, nobody shifted, and Mantra knew that some of the masters had abruptly stopped breathing too.
“And the attack co incides with the turmoil raging within me.” went on Mantra, his calm voice betraying little of the anxiety rushing through him now. “It is a mirror of the agitation within me, and I know what that agitation means … what it conveys.” He stopped for a sigh. “It is incontrovertible, my fellow Nyon. Undeniable. This is truly our worst fear realised. It is the return of our ancient enemies … the Order of Xeni. They are rising again. The attack on Cransof was no doubt conducted by them.”
Some of the masters exchanged fleeting glances and quickly turned back to Mantra. Their faces were all silent translations of the same panic and dread.
“Like I said,” Mantra’s voice sounded amplified through the stiff silence. “we need to act now.”
His words made their effect, and a sharp urgency replaced the tension in the room. And then a Brownling with golden hair, seated right opposite to where Mantra stood, rose and addressed the elder council.
“But your plan,” Dantox said, heaving a deep breath so his brown fur rippled. “Your plan is impossible. You k
now the Naxim has all of us in their hitlist. We were lucky to evade the raid they placed a few years ago, but not that lucky: they’ve marked us as their priorities, and the new device they’ve just come up with –”
“New device?” cut in Galinor, turning to Dantox as he asked it.
“It’s a mystical energy detector.” said Dantox, his voice grave.
Galinor’s eyes widened. “What? A mystical –”
“That’s right.” Dantox nodded. “It’s a device that has the ability to sense mystics through their energy fields.”
Some of the masters gave soft gasps, while others let their jaws land. Mantra could sense the spark of fear that had kindled inside them now. He couldn’t blame them. Things were gravely bad enough for them already with the Naxim’s hunt for them, without this brand new innovation.
Dantox turned back to Mantra. “The mystical energy detector would have been specially ordered only for us, Mantra. The Naxim’s been trying to get all of us for long now. And entering the inner spectrum could well be the last thing we would do.”
Mantra gave himself the space of a moment to heave a deep, long breath. “Now there’s the part that I didn’t fully explain yet. It won’t be us going into the inner spectrum for this task.”
As his words made their effect, a shock welled through the silence.
Galinor had his mouth slightly ajar, looking at Mantra with a look of disbelief. The rest of the masters had sat up straighter, and exchanged the same looks of surprise. That quickly turned to disapproval.
“Are you implying,” said Dantox slowly, looking to build the words carefully before speaking them. “That we’re going to send them? For a task like this?”
“I was more than just implying it.”
Galinor shook his head, the disapproval now clear in his voice. “Mantra, we can’t send them for something like this.”
“They are not what you perceive them to be, Galinor.” said Mantra. “They are skilled and able, and they are definitely capable of this. I believe so. And even if I didn’t … we are not left with too much of a choice.”
The discussion was now centering around two of their Nyon’s students. The only two students. The brotherhood had come to a steady decline for millennia, since they had sealed themselves in hiding. These two new young initiates themselves were a hard fetched find, which had found them years ago. It was even surprising that the brotherhood had endured this long, after the fall of Sirengard and the Naxim’s iron hard anti mystic reign.
“The Naxim has all of us in their key list.” went on Mantra. “They have our faces, our details…” He looked at Dantox. “And now, with this new mystical energy detector, they would have our mystical aura as well. There definitely is no chance that we would survive a trip this deep into the inner spectrum. Especially this planet. Radioc is the planet that tops the Naxim’s priority list. It’s tightly rigged with anti mystic security. This is the single most dangerous planet for a normal mystic to enter, let alone a Nyon marked in their priority list. We cannot dare tread into that planet for this task. But the two students … they were not present with our brotherehood when the Naxim’s raid happened to us a few years ago. And so, the Naxim’s got not a clue about them or even their existence. They’re completely off the grid of the Naxim. They can enter the planet without setting off all of the Naxim’s alerts. They are our only chance of getting this task done. And we need to face it, as much as it pains all of us.”
One of the masters spoke without standing: “Mantra, you are referring to the only two students our brotherhood now has. They are young and inexperienced. We can’t send them for a task like this. Because firstly because there’s very little chance they would succeed and fetch us what we want. And secondly and more importantly, because we cannot afford to lose them.”
“We will show them exactly what they’re up against,” clarified Mantra. “And obviously we will not send them against their will.”
“Those two are not going to decline a chance at something like this,” said Galinor, shaking his head. “You well know that, you know them!”
“And that’s exactly why I’m asking you to give them this chance.” said Mantra, carrying his gaze around the room. “Because I believe they will fetch us victory in this task however bad the odds may be against them. We need to have faith.”
“Our worries are not only for the victory of the task.” said Dantox. “Our worries also centre around the fate that befalls our two students. We can’t rest knowing that we had sent two inexperienced members of our brotherhood for a task beyond their capability and had them killed because of it!”
“I do not expect you to rest,” said Mantra, his tone grave. “as neither will I. This is definitely a gamble. And the two lives here will definitely be placed at risk. I don’t dare expect any of us to take pleasure in placing our two young students on the line for this.” His voice softened, but a new steel rang through it. “But we have to. And you all well know why. Because we don’t have a choice. This is a risk we must take, for the greater good. The good of our entire world!”
The masters sank back to silence, all of them looking deeply thoughtful. Dantox slipped back to his seat, his hands on either side of his face as he contemplated the situation. Galinor continued to stand there, looking out the window behind Mantra.
After a while, Galinor looked at Mantra and said, “Fine, maybe this is the only way. But if they fail…”
“Then they will go to their graves with the knowledge that they stood up for a greater cause and that,” Mantra gave a nod. “is something that we should rejoice for, in their part.”
Before the other masters remonstrated, he went on: “But as for me … If they fail and die trying, I will take responsibility for it, and the guilt as well. For their lives.” He looked about the masters.
Finally, through a thought absorbed silence, one of the masters stood spoke. “Very well … I agree that this must be done. As grievous as it sounds.”
He looked about the room. The rest of the masters nodded slowly, one by one.
“Then do I have all of your backing on this?” asked Mantra.
The rest of the elder council nodded as one.
Mantra smiled, looking at Galinor. “It’s done then. Bring the two of them.”
__________
Vestra and Qyro wore looks of hardened resolve the whole while, as the plan was being explained to them. They were both standing attentively, their youthly fervour showing in their postures.
Qyro had his arms folded in front of him, his bronze hair shabby and unkempt as usual. The light from the dying sun, from the opposite window, cast a livened touch on his red fur.
Vestra was standing beside him, her hands behind her back. Her waist length black hair was tied in a ponytail. Her skin was coloured light brown, and there were no special features demarking the unknown species she belonged to.
“The village that you need to enter,” Galinor was explaining, while he stood with his hands on the table with the Nyon emblem on it. “has been overrun and taken over by a bunch of rebels. Now, these are terrorists controlling the village. They will have a close watch on it, and ensure that no outsiders get anywhere within it. But the leader of the rebel is a man known as Razvol. He stays inside the village all the time, and you will have to find him.”
“Find him?” Qyro asked slowly. “So we don’t know where he is, in the village?”
The masters looked about each other uncertainly. They were clearly still unconvinced about sending the two students for a mission this difficult…
Mantra shook his head. “No, we have no information of our target, Razvol, other than the fact that he stays in this village. And that he’s the leader of the rebel organisation. That’s all we know.”
“Don’t worry, master,” Vestra assured. “We’ll handle it when we get there.”
Mantra couldn’t help feeling proud at the resolve they displayed.
“Yes, I believe you will.” he went on. �
�So your target, Razvol, is currently in possession of a certain object. This object is the reason you’re now going on this mission. You need to find this object, and procure it from him.”
Mantra beckoned to one of the masters, who rose and came forward with a z-com in his hands. He placed the z-com on the table with the Nyon emblem, and pressed a button on it. A holographic screen came to life above the device, holding the image of a small, thin object. It was made of crystal, and resembled nothing more than a splinter of glass.
The two students stared at the object in the screen for a long, quiet second.
Qyro slowly shifted his gaze to Mantra, looking perplexed. “You’re sending us halfway into the inner spectrum, to the most dangerous planet possible … to get hold of a toothpick?”