Elaine smiled bitterly without answering and hugged her. “Still so young ... you shouldn’t despair so much for love, my girl. I know, however, that we cannot ignore what our heart tells us, but I cannot express myself on this. Love can be something beautiful or very painful and, in doubt, I feel indebted to it for never having taken me along.”
Selene caught something strange in those words. They seemed like they were formulations, fictitious. “You’ll have to risk if you want to know the outcome of its actions,” Selene replied.
“Not today, young friend. Not now.”
“I hope the rest of the time that must go by before I see him again goes faster than the last four days,” the sorceress wished.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep your days busy so you won’t miss him,” the woman ironized.
The student smiled back, then her eyes fell on a block of paperwork on a table. “You’re too tidy to leave all those papers scattered on your desk,” she observed.
“These are notes and studies Galaeth came up with a long time ago and I was trying to understand a bit more, if we could get to the bottom of the thing we could do many significant acts to fight against Zergh and it would give strength to the skills of the members of the Star.”
“What is it about, exactly?” the young girl inquired.
“Nothing you can understand, at the moment. I’d rather not go further, they are researches that the Star would be very devoted to in the event of positive outcomes.”
Selene seemed annoyed by the answer and resisted the instinct to give her a grim look. “Secret affairs, apparently. I’ll respect your privacy,” she concluded and then returned to her room.
She undressed and put on her nightgown, then she got under the sheets.
It took her a long time to fall asleep, trapped by the desire to know what her beloved Viktor was doing: that night she was unusually agitated.
After a few hours, even if she had fallen asleep and fought the sense of excitement that she felt, she woke up.
From thoughts of Viktor, she began thinking of Elaine and about what she had told her about the notes she had seen in the infirmary.
“If solving the question of those studies means helping the Star, I’ve got to find out what they contain. I could help Viktor and try to make things go better…and he will come back.”
She didn’t waste any more time and went out of the door of her room.
She made her way down the dark, stone street with unlit torches that transmitted a strong sense of anguish and claustrophobia.
The rune of light would have been very useful, but she wouldn’t use it until she got to the infirmary: caution could never be enough and in the halls she could come across a night patrol. She arrived at the infirmary and, slowly opening the door trying to make no noise, she slipped into the room, leaving the door ajar.
“Laina,” she said, illuminating the wooden desk where the notes were.
“I should have taken them off the desk, I figured you’d come,” a voice behind her said, catching her red-handed.
Elaine lit a candle on the desk and sat on one of the beds neatly positioned in the infirmary.
“I only wanted to help, forgive me,” Selene excused herself turning around to face her.
Elaine nodded. “Those studies show a new essence. A new mana you can get strength to increase the power of arcane arts from.”
Selene fell into an interior rapture, expressing it with nothing but an amazed and at the same time uncertain look.
“This … this would mean you could use a second essence in addition to the one that each individual has? Spells would take on unprecedented power, or their intensity could be limited to have a doubly wider range of spells.”
“Exactly. Above all the studies speak about the essence of nature, an energy not to be abused of, but that the planet itself regenerates. The reason why we mustn’t exceed in the use of this source of power is obvious: the world would be affected by it.”
“And what’s the problem if it is used with discernment?” Selene asked, getting to the point.
“The problem isn’t in using it with criteria, but in the capacity to use it. We don’t know how to expand our will in order to draw upon this arcane source. We’ve been working on it for too long now: it could be a great help to extend magical power in this way, but for now there’s no way to do it.
Selene looked at Elaine in the light of the dying candle and, after exchanging knowing looks, realized that the night was passing too rapidly and that they both needed to rest to face the busy day that was arriving tomorrow.
RUNNING BEYOND THE RIVER
T he crackling of the flames interrupted the death roar of the barglas.
Viktor opened his eyes and saw one of the two ravenous beasts fall to the ground, wounded but still alive.
“They’re tough, I’ll need to use too much mana to kill them,” Amir shouted grasping the boy’s arm.
In that moment the second bargla launched from the top of the hill against them.
“Hurry up!” the girl encouraged him, beginning to run across the plains that surrounded the hills.
Viktor followed her: he sighed in relief at having been saved in time.
“We have to reach the Anza River.”
Viktor asked no questions, then turned around to look at the pursuers.
The two barglas were angry because the black sorceress had interfered, but they didn’t give up and ran faster.
“They’ll reach us!” Viktor ranted.
“I intended to save energy, but I’m forced to fight them,” Amir admitted.
“No, wait! Let’s continue running, don’t stop … we can handle it!” the boy objected.
“What do you want to do?”
“Just buy time,” he said, suddenly turning around. “Seida!” he shouted, with his open hands behind him in the direction of his enemies.
At that moment, a wind from the spot where the spell had been casted clashed against the growling barglas.
The humans continued running towards the river when Viktor tripped. He immediately got up and saw the will of his rune fade as the spell began to wane.
“I can’t regain control of the wind,” he admitted in a bitter tone.
“We’re at the river, leave them to me. We have the upper hand,” Amir consoled him without stopping.
Cursing against his poor control of the mana, the young boy was silent and continued running grasping Siride tightly in his hand.
Viktor and Amir managed to cross it thanks to some shallow points.
The river rippled when the two travellers slipped into its waters in search of shelter.
“Stop on the other side,” Amir ordered.
“What will you do?”
“I’ll stop them.”
The boy made sure of her intentions seeing her determined expression, then he treaded to the other bank where he let himself fall on the cold grass.
Dawn threw its first darts of scarlet light on the Grey Hills like catapults, when the barglas were now a short distance from the river.
Amir closed her eyes, sighed and then opened them again.
Concentric waves formed on the water all around the sorceress, whose body was pervaded by magic.
The barglas stopped at the riverbank, staring at the motionless woman.
“Druira!”
The two monsters suddenly jumped on their prey and in that instant, like an explosion of flames, the water lifted off the ground to burst in mid-air.
A wave descended on the plains, engulfing the creatures and taking them away towards the sea, while Amir remained focused on the enchantment.
The river dragged the two monsters away and, when they disappeared, the great wave of water began to come apart, falling back to earth.
The river gushed then calmed down again as the long magenta strands completed their descent.
“We ran here because you were thinking of saving magic energy. The spell you just practiced didn’t seem like a m
ild attack,” Viktor said, without hiding his admiration for such top-level magic.
“I was immersed in the element that I wanted to control, I just had to command it and I didn’t need to create it because it was already here. They are little tricks that you will learn to take advantage of.”
“Fantastic…”
“It is. As for you, you risked a lot to save time for us with the wind rune.”
Viktor took on a sorry expression: he knew his move had been too rash.
However, Amir added: “Risking is always the last thing to do, especially when it comes to you. But sometimes taking risks is the only choice you have: like when you jumped off the bridge in Beleth.”
The boy understood that the last sentence was a compliment pronounced by his travelling companion and this pleased him. In fact, he liked it because it was Amir who said it.
“Thanks for saving me before.”
“I guaranteed I would do my best to protect you.”
Viktor remembered the black shape he had seen running at his side in the undergrowth when a pack of wolves was chasing him and he now realized it was Amir.
“The wolves … I managed to escape going into the undergrowth…,” he said doubtfully.
“You escaped because I made them lose your tracks,” the woman explained in a pedantic manner, smothering the glory Viktor felt about that skilful, heroic escape.
“You’re cruel,” the boy mocked.
“Let’s go, the entrance to the desert is nearby,” urged the member of the Star.
“Wait!”
The sun radiated the sky full of white, stylized clouds and, just below, Viktor saw the sea extending as far as his eyes could see.
The bare stretches of the Grey Hills were on the southern border of Mirthya and the young adventurer felt his heart invaded by that sight.
He and Amir were on top of the promontory, on a hill.
Busy fleeing and blinded by the night, he hadn’t realized what was in front of him, even if he had seen it several times on his map.
“Is this under us the Crystal Clear Sea?”
“Exactly.”
The desert beyond these stretches, therefore, is so high above sea level? The earth it rests on is, in any case, wet by the water, how is it possible that over time a stretch of dry sand has formed on this same land?” he asked again.
“What once was tormented by war will never be able to become what it was before. Water is not always sufficient to extinguish a fire and, even when it does, there will always be burns that can’t be healed. Evidently there isn’t enough sea to cover with green meadows what has been a stretch of dead sand since the beginning of time.”
Viktor caught the sadness in the girl’s words so, without adding anything else, they set off again.
THE RED SEA
L ooking up at the sky, Viktor proceeded at Amir’s side through the stretch of grass.
As they moved away from the Grey Hills and proceeded towards the dangerous desert of Radaj, the land became barren patches.
Even the weather was changing: the temperature was rising and the heat became more unbearable with every step they took.
For a moment Viktor desired to return to the shadow of the high vegetation he had left behind.
“Beyond the Jerrall Pass, the territories that follow are called wild lands. Only the civilizations of the desert exist there, small villages hidden in the sand that are no larger than a district of Beleth. There are four villages in the desert of Radaj, but we’ll stop in the first one we find along our way: Mufàs,” Amir explained.
“Will we get there before dark?” Viktor dared hope.
“I don’t think so. Today we’ll travel all day long and tonight we’ll find a place to camp and wait until the last night star disappears; then we’ll move on again towards Mufàs.”
Amir’s answer didn’t cheer the young man up, who barely answered, approving with his hand.
The sand hills grew higher and wider, as if to cover an enormous snake hidden under the golden grains.
Rare puffs of wind made the ground move: struck by the orange light of the first sunrays, the desert seemed an immense stretch of ruby-coloured water.
A huge red sea.
Just breathing they seemed to burn from inside out.
They walked for hours, until the fatigue and lack of sleep began to take over: Viktor repeatedly had hallucinations of seeing a civilization a few steps away from him, but each time he only found a new valley of sand.
The sun was destroying the young travellers and the heat became unbearable; the gusts of wind that they loved and desired became less and less frequent.
“I’m afraid we’re lost. Everything seems too damned identical,” Viktor worried dragging his feet across the sand.
“I was born in Seth, one of the four desert civilizations. I’ve lived here in the desert long enough to remember the main routes, don’t doubt about why Galaeth sent me with you,” Amir warned, annoyed by the chosen one’s statement.
They went up and down dunes several times until late in the afternoon, when Viktor began to surrender to the idea of being overwhelmed with hallucinations.
When he saw a large conglomeration of rough, sharp rocks against the sky, he thought he was in the throes of another hallucination.
“Those rocks are real,” Amir said as if she had read his mind. “We’ll stop there and leave shortly before dawn. We will have the chance to regain our strength.”
They were just a few steps from the place indicated by the sorceress when Amir fainted because of the unbearable heat.
Viktor leaned down to help her get up, but he didn’t know how to behave. Taken aback, he carried her on his shoulders and with the last strength remaining managed to reach a shady corner between the rocks where they could stop for a while.
******
Amir woke up and it took her a few moments to focus on the scene; above her, the evening sky had already taken possession of the world.
A wet rag was resting on her forehead and a blanket covered her up to her waist.
She slowly turned over and saw Viktor in deep sleep, curled up on the sand.
She covered him with the blanket he had used to keep her warm, then she moved a few steps away from him.
“Gaedra,” she said, using the earth rune to dig a small hole in the sand.
“Are you feeling better?” she heard a voice behind her.
“Thanks,” she answered.
“I think it was because of the burning sun, you fainted.”
“Flama,” she evoked again.
“With your continuous magic your essence to light a fire will end before the night is over,” the boy said worried.
“Not for a basic magic that keeps a flame alive and warm. I can keep the spell active even when I’m sleeping, now I no longer need to concentrate my will on this type of magic, it continues to work in my unconscious, even when I’m sleeping.”
“Well, it’s certainly useful,” said the young man.
“Continue training and you will soon succeed. The nice thing is that the essence is restored during your sleep. This means that the fire will continue burning until I extinguish it.”
Viktor noticed that the girl was particularly pleased in being so pedantic and appearing superior to others.
Perhaps it was a mask that protected her from what she really was, defending her from something in her past that she had never accepted. For this reason, the young boy thought, she tried not to bond very much with those around her.
Through the light of the magical flames, Viktor watched the dark sky.
“You should rest,” Amir suggested.
“You should too. What troubles you?” The young boy replied.
“So much to do and so little time. It’s obvious I’m worried. In times like these only the unaware or fools dare not fear what will come: even if I’m sorry to admit it, you are the only chance of salvation from destruction. Zergh won’t be long now, he will re-emerge with his dar
k hordes of living dead and abominations of all sorts to destroy everything and get his revenge against the gods.”
“I’ll do my best to avoid a catastrophe, you aren’t the first to tell me what I’m up against and, above all, don’t think I ignore it,” the boy replied.
“I don’t want to live a second era of Oblivion: another war, another death cycle,” Amir admitted.
“I will make the world remember this period as a Cycle of Rebirth. The era when Zergh will be defeated definitively, and will never return again”.
Amir frowned at him and Viktor understood even more the references in Xemnath’s diary about stopping the sacrifice of souls.
“You don’t understand … we can’t allow Zergh to return stronger and stronger jeopardizing this world; we can’t expect the Prophetic Star to snatch other people from their lives to train them and send them to war against evil. Every living being should live his life as best he can and not one that has been imposed on him.”
For the first time Amir seemed to thoroughly understand the boy’s words and she felt distraught for having treated him like a fool.
“If we knew a way to stop him forever we would have done it. Unfortunately Arald’s seven elements can only move him to a dimensional prison: remember that the deities cannot kill each other and that the gods forged the sword of destiny. By using the power of the seven, darkness can be appeased but not dissolved.” Amir explained.
“We’ll invent something,” Viktor said.
“Are you trying to convince yourself?” the girl smiled.
The boy was silent and for a long time the two didn’t say a word, their eyes on the incandescent, magic fire.
“When I was a little girl, my grandmother often told me stories in front of the fireplace, a hearth no bigger than this,” the woman recalled.
“Did you live with her? Did you have a good relationship with her? “
“My grandfather died of an illness. Since then, my grandmother lived with my parents and me: when she died too it was difficult for me to bear; she was more a friend than a grandmother. I was a child but I remember the time I spent with her more than with my parents.
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