Viktor

by Francesco Leo

  Daylight was reflected off the surface of the water, which drew wide curved, undefined lines on Devanorth’s face, while blue blurs stood out on different parts of his body and the lake rippled at the touch of the morning breeze.

  Vroel stood up and watched his companion until he disappeared forever and his eyes, human again, could no longer see him.

  ******

  Two days went by before Viktor and Selene got ready to leave Placym.

  The surviving villagers had restored the guardhouse to protect the inhabited centre and the main food stores. Besides part of the roof destructed, the inn could still accommodate who was without a house. The innkeeper had let the disadvantaged stay there until they could return to their normal lives again.

  With a bit of regret, she gripped Selene’s hand tightly as she had hoped that she had not perished during Turin’s attack.

  Before leaving the village, the couple stopped to say goodbye to the owners of the fish shop who had given Viktor the opportunity to work, and it seemed they hadn’t suffered much damage.

  Vroel, still shaken, barely greeted the two boys when they joined him at the edge of the village.

  Viktor and Selene, understanding his state of mind, condescended to his silence turning to reserve a last farewell to the melancholy village on the lake.

  QUESTIONS, RUNES AND DIVINATION

  T he journey over the plains was heart breaking and monotonous. With Vroel at their side, the two youths didn’t have to use Viktor’s new map nor, thankfully, their arms.

  A few miles from Beleth, the vampire had preferred to go further and go directly to the Den. He had granted rare stops to save time, but that day, considering it was nearly dusk, the three stopped to rest.

  The air was fresh, full of the scents of nature and the grass reflected all the strength absorbed by the great, bright sun of the day that had just gone by.

  The diffused light of a long strip of milk-coloured clouds accompanied the trio, who was setting up camp tents to prepare for the night.

  “The tents are a good idea,” Viktor said.

  “I took a couple of them from Placym, to camp. Certainly more useful than the blankets you carry with you,” said Vroel.

  “Can you keep them in your saddlebag thanks to magic?” Selene inquired.

  “I thought the reduction spell I used was obvious.”

  “We knew there might have been more to it, but I didn’t think of any kind of magic,” Viktor said.

  “Perhaps because you barely know the runes of the principal elements that rule the world,” Vroel suggested. “You still have a lot to learn.”

  “I’ve never doubted it,” he asserted.

  Devanorth had always said, regarding Vroel’s severity, that it was only a way to encourage them to do more, but his ways made them feel constantly under pressure.

  The wind, light and discontinuous, nonetheless gave relief to the travellers.

  “Vroel, aren’t we too exposed camping here?” Selene asked.

  “You’re right, it isn’t very safe. That’s why I had the intention to leave during the night. We’ll have a cold meal so we don’t have to light a bonfire that could attract attention, then you will rest and I will stand guard outside. When the night is at its apex, we’ll resume our journey towards the nearby mountains.

  The youngsters nodded then they indulged in the view of the panorama at the foot of those hills.

  When the sky began to darken, the group ate a quick dinner of cheese, herbs and dried meat.

  Once in the tent, Viktor laid down beside Selene, enveloping her in a protective embrace. It didn’t take long for Selene to fall asleep while Viktor couldn’t sleep at all even though he so was exhausted from the journey. The boy loosened his embrace until he freed himself and he turned to his bag.

  He took out his old leather diary and flipped through it; he had the sensation that he was forgetting something important. He tried for a while but no idea came to his mind so he let himself be captivated by the reading

  “On a stormy day I apologized to destiny.

  I regretted not having immediately followed the principles that my family had given me. The Star had chosen me, yet I was still hesitating about what to do.

  As a child, my parents had started training me pretending they were games that I obeyed in silence and, since then, in the depths of my soul, I had the feeling of being important to someone. Never would I have thought that the Star would chose me.

  I don’t know if it was fear or the obsession of ineptitude that made me think that none of the events that happened were real. And you, Lenia, encouraged me to move on when yet again I was afraid to take the necessary step and accept reality. You were the evidence of my mistakes.

  I know that you will read these words, but one day, when you are with me in Valhalla, you will understand why I hid this diary. I was full of anxiety and fear for myself, for you and for everyone and the reading of this manuscript would have done nothing but create other fears in you in an unfair manner. So, as I apologized to fate some time ago, I’m doing the same with you now, hoping that you will forgive me and fulfil my wish leaving this diary to who comes after me. But be careful: protect it with magic so that time won’t deteriorate it and promise me that you will come to Galaeth waiting for the day when the one who will take my place comes.”

  When his eyes slipped on the empty, yellowed page under the italicized paragraph, the chosen one closed the diary and put it back in his saddlebag.

  “Lenia could be his beloved. Perhaps she is also the woman who appeared in my dream the night in the forest of Miür?

  In addition to these questions, the text once again referred to the Master of the Star Organization. The possibility that Galaeth himself had been living for more than eight hundred years anguished him.

  “It could only be him if he were an elf ... the older ones go beyond the threshold of a thousand years. But Galaeth? He is a human, I saw him ... I would have noticed, damn it! No, it must surely be another person. What if it was just a name given to the person who leads the Organization? »

  Unable to sleep and with more thoughts than before on his mind, he decided to go out to stretch his lazy legs.

  “Erendil hit Turin before he hit Devanorth. When the snake finally fell into the waters of Mephis, he brought the spear with him. Now weapon and master are together again in eternity,” Vroel’s voice said in the distance.

  He sensed it in the distance, and it seemed to be proof that the mental training he was undergoing had begun to develop his senses.

  He turned and found him immediately, sitting on the ground peering at a bluish light on the ground.

  As soon as he went by the two tents, Vroel noticed Viktor’s presence and cut his words short making the light that weakly illuminated the grass under him disappear.

  As soon as the chosen one was close enough, he realized that the light emanating from the earth was actually coming from a very thin oval form suspended a few inches above the ground, and the inside of it could be compared to a body of water.

  He only had a few seconds to concentrate on the bottom of the suspended mirror, noticing the blurred features of a person disappear with the rest of the figure.

  “What was it?” he asked.

  “Oh, I was in contact with Galaeth. What you saw is a divinatory mirror, it can be used to dialogue with someone who is far away. A divination will be more or less complicated depending on where the person you want to get in touch with is. “

  “Are you saying that I can talk to anyone here?”

  “It’s not that simple ...” Vroel refuted; Viktor sat down next to him, looking towards the mountains of Jerrall in the distance.

  “What do you mean?”

  Vroel concentrated and clarified: “Divination is a kind of spell that allows you to see and hear another person, who may or may not know it.

  The interlocutor can hear when someone is trying to get in touch with him only if he knows magic; at that point, he ca
n accept the link between two minds or reject it. This is an incantation that in times of war was also used to spy on the actions of the enemies, but it takes skill to establish contact and not be discovered by the interested subject. We at the Star use it to communicate, nothing more. “

  “It seems fantastic. What do you need to know exactly?” asked Viktor enthusiastically.

  “No runic word, just the desire to get a contact and the right use of mana. Keep your strength, now ... you’ll try it later,” Vroel concluded.

  “The idea of a contact with someone thousands of miles away from you is something fantastic!”

  “Have you ever thought of magic? I refer to your life as it was ... “Vroel asked.

  Viktor was surprised by the question, since Vroel had always preferred not to talk about matters that didn’t concern the Star’s assignment.

  “No, never,” he admitted.

  Vroel nodded and Viktor asked another question: “What do you know about the runic language? Knowing it means having immense power ... I was wondering if you knew its origins.”

  “The runic language includes all the primitive words. These are nothing but the real sound of every existing action element. Everything or every movement has its own runic translation and knowing the word that indicates its true essence is the only way to be able to tame it. The language was discovered, in ways that I ignore, by those who wanted to control the space and the substance that surrounded them, thus giving rise to the first wizards. Unlike the language of the extinct dwarves or the Undir’s elves, it is a language without grammar and still today, as always, it is only used to work with magic. That’s all I know,” Vroel summed up.

  Viktor fantasized for a long time during and after the explanation of the member of the Star, until he decided to return to the tent to rest for a few hours.

  So the two slipped in the warm shelter of rest, calm in the clear night.

  THE STONE TUNNEL

  D uring the night, the mountains changed the sense of greatness into a feeling mixed with fear.

  The jagged, majestic peaks and dark furrows made them seem more and more like a large mouth with imperious jaws over the world.

  The three had just put all their belongings in the saddlebags and eliminated every trace of their passage.

  Selene was still in a daze after the few hours of sleep, but she didn’t lose heart and tried to keep her head clear with all the strength she had.

  They walked like thieves in the night, without saying a word, walking as fast as they could.

  Vroel, thanks to his nature that was manifested when the sun disappeared in the far west, was able to see in the night as if it was midday; when he speeded up, he had to slow down immediately, noticing how difficult it was for his two companions to do the same.

  He motioned for Viktor and Selene to stop, his vampire eyes glowing in the night.

  Viktor raised his head towards the man. “What’s up?”

  Vroel approached and whispered: “Over there, at the foot of the mountain,” he pointed to a spot at the end of a passage of plants and trees.

  The boys followed Vroel’s forefinger and saw the great rock face of the mountains rising from the earth to the heights of the sky.

  The clank of iron that Viktor perceived far off, sharpening his senses as he had been taught, aroused him.

  “They are awake and descending from the mountains because of the negative energy flow emanating from Zergh. They cannot be anything other than goblins ... they are dangerous, they move in groups.”

  “Goblins?” Selene frowned.

  “Yeah. Small, agile, green skin and big yellow eyes: you have certainly heard a few stories about them when you were at a more tender age,” Vroel asserted.

  “Yes, but ... I thought they were nothing more than ‘stories,’ in fact.”

  “Taken individually, they are weak, even if they are shrewd, but in a group they are a considerable nuisance,” the mentor explained.

  “What weapons do they use?” asked Viktor.

  “Scraps of metal stolen here and there, to which they then give little personal touches.”

  “Can’t you get rid of them?” Selene asked Vroel.

  “Of course I could,” he confirmed, glaring at her.

  The girl regretted having doubted the half vampire and was silent. “Getting rid of them will only attract other inconvenient attentions,” he explained.

  “What are you planning to do? We cannot wait until they leave, we’ll spend the whole night here and having left early would have been useless,” said Viktor.

  “Not to mention fatigue ...” sighed the aspiring white sorceress.

  “Amir and Kanda have taught me some black magic trick that might come in handy,” said Vroel.

  Viktor instinctively put his hand on Siride’s hilt.

  The member of the Star listed a series of runic words unknown to the youngsters, who turned to see a dense, silver smoke column rising from the ground.

  The coils of smoke whirled slowly around the magical substance that was gradually coming to life, assuming the aspect of Viktor more and more: a simulacrum.

  “Why me?” asked the chosen one as he shuddered.

  “If they are under the influence of Zergh, as soon as they see you they will start hunting you down. Your simulacrum will distract them for a while, until we reach the entrance at the back.”

  “What entrance?”

  “Straight in front of us, on the rocks of the mountain: an old inscription will show us the way. Now follow me, quickly, but without making a noise,” Vroel ordered.

  With a nod, Vroel moved his creation and Viktor saw himself running towards the goblins.

  As soon as the boy’s simulacrum disappeared among the trees, Viktor sensed the interruption of the noise of scrap metal that the goblins wore.

  Disturbing sounds and laughter grew closer while the copy of the chosen one ran swiftly in the opposite direction, followed by a good number of monsters.

  “Now, quick!” Vroel exclaimed as soon as the noise subsided. Viktor and Selene ran after their guide and reached the foot of the mountains.

  “The light…,” Vroel murmured.

  “What light? asked Viktor.

  “Look at the rock better,” Selene interfered, aware of the inscription on the hard, millennial rock.

  At that point, Viktor too leaned forward to observe it more closely.

  “Not for whoever, neither the moon, nor the stars, nor the planets require light

  Nor the sun, but the sound that leads to it.”

  “Requires … light?” Viktor grumbled as he read the inscription again.

  “Exactly,” Vroel confirmed.

  “What’s the problem?” Selene asked.

  We of the Star have always materialized outside the Den and vice versa to go back, but now that we can’t release such a large quantity of mana in the air or they will find us, I realize that I don’t remember the solution to the inscription. Everyone knows the entrance, but no one told me how to get in,” Vroel admitted.

  “Soon Viktor’s simulacrum will disappear and the goblins will understand the deception! We have to move ... Galaeth sent us someone who does not know how to bring us back to the Den?” Selene pricked in dismay.

  “Because of my nature, Galaeth does not trust me to go around, especially if I’m alone. In fact it was only the excuse of your training to get out in the fresh air. However, he didn’t send me alone for obvious reasons. Devanorth was to guide us from here on, but I didn’t know a password was necessary to proceed.”

  “Well, the Star wouldn’t have allowed anyone to enter the Den. Can’t you divine Galaeth to explain the situation to him? I’m sure he would reveal the solution to this enigma,” Selene suggested.

  “To create the simulacrum I used a large amount of mana; moreover we don’t have enough time to establish a contact,” Vroel answered distressed.

  “The only way is to resolve the query,” Viktor asserted.

  “It se
ems clear that the entrance requires “light” to be able to go on, but what light? Neither the sun, nor the stars, nor the moon, nor the planets nor any known celestial body…” Selene began to reflect.

  “The sound that leads to it is an obvious reference to light, but what sound can create or bring light?” Viktor wondered.

  “Create light … bring light …,” Vroel repeated again and again, then he smiled.

  A smug smile that underlined how embarrassing it was not resolving the solution immediately.

  “Of course!” Selene exclaimed. “The sound that leads to the light is nothing but the sound of its rune,” she added shortly after.

  Viktor raised the palm of his hand and placed it on the inscription.

  “Laina,” he murmured.

  The stone seemed to vibrate for a moment, but soon all fell silent and went back to normal.

  “It isn’t possible … I was sure this was the solution …”

  “We were too,” Selene agreed.

  “We’re missing something,” Vroel suggested.

  “I don’t want to believe there is no sense in all this,” Selene said reading the inscription again for the umpteenth time.

  “Here, it must be this part,” Viktor pointed to the beginning of the inscription.

  “Not for whoever…this? Selene asked for confirmation.

  “Vroel, you must be the one to summon the rune. The inscription must refer only to the members of the Star, delegated by magic to open the passage,” Viktor proposed.

  Vroel looked away from Viktor and put the palm of his hand on the rock, then he stopped with his eyes wide open.

  “What’s the matter?” Selene asked.

  “Viktor’s simulacrum… it was too far from me and the spell has dissolved. The goblins know of the deception and are coming back here, I must hurry!” The half vampire inhaled deeply and then evoked: “Laina!”