Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (23 page)

I
snuck between the span of student homes as almost everyone was already asleep for the night. I made my way over to Maaryn’s home, my path lit by nothing but the moon and countless stars that twinkled overhead. When I reached her home I knocked on the rough bark on the side of her doorway. It took a while for her to answer. Her eyes were bloodshot and half closed.

“Jas? What is it?” She asked, slurring her words, and almost missing the wall as she tried to lean against it.

“I need to go to the dream world,” I said, sounding almost desperate.

“Why?”

“There’s someone I need to see.”

She waved me inside and closed the door behind me
. Her place was decorated with many dream catchers. They were made of sticks that were tied together to form a circle, then a web made of string in the center with various items placed within. They all had several tails coming out of the bottom with feathers at the end. I recognized them from some of the fortune tellers that would come to Saltren on occasion. I found her choice in wall decorations amusing.

“I’m really tired and don’t know about coming in there with you, let alone feel safe about it. Can you just wake me in my dream when you are ready to come out?”

“Okay,” I said, already taking the magic I needed from her. I waved as I entered the dream world. I was in a bit of a hurry to see Edgar before the night was over and he woke up.

Once inside, I realized I was not entirely familiar enough with
the dream world to easily trace down Edgar, or Saltren for that matter. I could shape this world to be whatever I wanted, so maybe I could just make it look like the real world, and start at the school. I concentrated on Maaryn’s home, and a hazy version of it appeared before me.

“Not bad,” I told myself. “Now time to find my way back to Saltren.”

The world outside the school was somewhat obscure due to my fuzzy memory of its finer details, only the areas I had spent a lot of time at were clear. I manifested the horse Maaryn had shown me before and mounted her and we rode off to the trail I had taken when I first arrived at the academy.

I imagined it was daytime too, making it easier to find
my way through the forest. I knew the rough direction to go, and used the mountain range to the North to track my rough distance. The ice-peaked giant mountain just North of Saltren was coming into view in the distance. I applied a little more pressure to the horse with my heels and her gallop increased to a furious gait. Trees blazed by us as she soared through the forests with an unrivaled grace.

The world around u
s became a blur as she traveled; her pace so swift it blew my hair straight back, trailing behind me as I struggled to stay on. The forest became more familiar the further I went, until I recognized where I was.

I pulled back on the horse's reigns as we reached the walls of Saltren, and she slowed her pace to a trot as I did. We entered the city gate and I dismounted. I started sorting through all the smoke stacks
from people’s dreams in search of Edgar. I looked for all the ones that originated from the streets rather than houses, knowing the rough area to look around. I came upon four dreams coming from an alleyway we had often called home.

I used great caution as I peered into the dreams, the first one was Ralphs. I cringed and pulled away as fast as I could. The
second one I tried was, fortunately, Edgar’s. His dream was a peaceful setting, outside of a small farm house just outside the walls of Saltren. The flickering of candles shone through the dirt-encrusted windows.

From inside I could hear shouting. I
crept towards the house, remaining as quiet as a mouse, taking slow steady paces up to one of the windows and listened in. There was an older man shouting.

“You worthless brat! Why can’t you be more like your brother?”

Then I heard the violent sound of an open palm slapping skin that reverberated in my heart
.
The door burst open and Edgar went running out past me, sprinting off into the forest. I chased after him. No one followed us from the house. I must have stumbled into the nightmares Edgar lived, and hoped he wouldn't be upset with me for seeing into his inner torments like this.

I c
hased after Edgar. He was quick and hard to catch up to. In his dream it seemed as though I was forced to live by his standards. It became apparent that movement was harder than normal here, and no matter how hard I strained, I couldn’t seem to keep up with Edgar.

After
what felt like a lifetime, he stopped and sat down beneath the cover of a tree, tucking his legs into his chest. I cautiously approached him; I didn't want to frighten him. I sat down next to him, but he didn’t move. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and pulled him over to me.

“It’s just a nightmare,
” I whispered.

His eyes were watery as he looked up at me, “Jas?”

“Yes, I'm here. You're dreaming, but I really am here.”

He looked at me confused, “What?”

“You’re having a dream. A nightmare, actually. I didn't mean to interrupt, but I really wanted to see you.”

I could tell he did not believe it was the
real me. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It tickled my skin, like a butterfly resting on my arm, and set my heart a flutter.

“Thanks for be
ing here for me. You always are,” he said.

I realized my appearance as a shoulder to cry on in his nigh
tmares was a regular occurrence, and I would have to find another way to convince him that I was really here, in a realm of existence where I can enter his dreams. This probably won’t be very easy.

“Edgar, I'm not lying, it's the real me. I'm at the mage academy now.”

“What? It can’t be you. The mages academy is so far away from here.”

I found it curi
ous he knew about it at all. “How did you know that?”

He hesitated, wiping
away another tear that had built up in his right eye. His voice was shaky as he spoke, “My brother, Yurios.”

Yurios? I pulled away and looked at him, “Your brother is Yurios?”

His eyes widened, “You know him?” He was starting to believe me now.

“Yes,” I shrugged.
“I'm afraid he doesn’t like me very much though. I took his place for apprenticeship with one of the elder mages. But yes, I know him. He helped me escape slavery.”

“Slavery? Escaped? Apprenticeship? What've you been doing this whole time?”

I laughed, knowing it would take far too long to explain all that had happened to me during my travels. “I’ll explain that some other time. I came here to see you. It had been too long.”

“How?”

I could tell that now he knew it really was me. We could have the conversation I was so desperate for. “I traveled through the dream world. I know a mage that can…”

“How are you doing? Is everyth
ing going alright for you? We’ve all been debating over what you're doing these days. Ralph is sure you're just traveling around as someone’s pawn. Tori and I are convinced you’re making something of yourself and you would come back to see us someday. I take it we're right.”

My
story seemed more compelling to me now, and the idea of telling Edgar about everything I had been through, but in this moment that wasn’t important to me.

“I'm doing well, and you and Ralph were both right. But that’s not important. That’s not the reason I came.”

“Then why?” He looked confused.

My heart raced, I knew the true reason I had traveled this distance to see him, and there was no turning back now. His hair blew like
short blades of grass over his forehead, and the moonlight sparkled off of his beautiful reassuring blue eyes. I placed my hand on his cheek, my thumb caressing the welt where he had been slapped. I leaned over to him and placed my lips against his, kissing him.

He wrapped
his hands around the back of my head, his fingers laced through my hair as he returned the kiss, his lips pressed firmly against mine. I had always suppressed my feelings for him, but no longer did I feel as though I had to, much less like I could contain it. He had held back from me as well, it seemed.

Our lips parted as he pulled away, “When will you be coming back?”

I turned away, not wanting to answer, just happy to enjoy the time with him. “I don’t know… I fear not for some time.”

“Why?”

“There’s a war coming to the North, and I'm not sure what’s going to happen. The enemy is supposed to possess powerful mages. They need me.”

“What? You? Jasminis
, you're still just a kid, how can you be expected to help fight a war?”

“My ability. With it, I can make a mage more powerful than they ever could be alone. They feel I could turn the tides of this war.”

He pulled my face back towards him. “You have changed a lot since you left, haven’t you?”

I nodded, pain coming into my heart as I
remembered that I wasn't really here with him. “I’ve grown up some, caught up to you.”

He laughed.
“You didn’t have any catching up to do. I’ll wait for you to come back someday. Just keep in contact, if you can. This way is perfect,” he said as he brushed my hair aside, kissing me once more.

I knew some time had passed now. Day would be coming and he would soon be awakened by the rustling of the streets. “It’s be
st we say bye while we can. I’ll be back again, someday.”

He nodded and held me close one last time, kissing
my cheek before he let go. “I’ll see you again.”

I left his dream and returned to my horse that waited for me in the dream world. We had a journey ahead of us back to
the mage academy. I hadn’t gotten any sleep tonight, and knew I would feel it tomorrow, but it was worth it. I made my way back East, the horse going at a more hurried pace as she knew the way back well now.

We arrived back at the valley in half the time it had taken us for the first part of the trip. When I entered Maaryn’s dreams
, she was in a very deep sleep, and her dream was pitch black. I found it difficult to grab her attention and had to hit her to get her to respond. She wasn't coherent as she allowed me to channel magic from her and bring myself back. I gave her a very drawn out, thankful hug and left her to sleep the last bits of night that remained and returned home to do the same.

I awoke to find Tevon shaking me in my bed
. He reminded me that Helendra had requested my presence in the tower this morning, which made me get up in a hurry and get ready for the day. We once again made our way up the long spiral stairway. I had only been up it a handful of times, but already I had grown tired of it.

We were greeted with se
rious expressions as we entered, and we took our usual seats. To my discontent, Yurios was seated next to me, a brief glare shot in my direction. Helendra and the other mages wasted no time getting to business.

Helendra stood up
, as she often did, and said softly, “It's time we prepare the people for war. We must make sure every city possible is aware of the situation. While the war is still a little while away, it is very likely we will be seeing more of these ‘messengers’ sent our way. We can only begin to imagine what form in which they will arrive. Tevon, Jasminis, and Yurios, we'll be depending on you three heavily.”

My heart grew numb. Did she intend for Yurios to work with me in some way?

Helendra continued, “We would like you three to begin training together. You will be the flagship for the academy. Tevon,” she said as she turned to him, a look of reverence on her face, “you are well respected throughout the lands. See if the people will listen to you; show them what benefit there is to be on our side.”

Tevon stood up, “With all due respect, Jasminis is not re
ady to be sent out yet. She needs much more training.”

It stung a bit, to hear Tevon express such a lack of faith in me like that, but I knew that he was right.

One of the other mages stood up and interjected, “The timing is unfortunate, we agree, but we need you out there as soon as possible. How long until she is ready?”

Tevon leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, “It's up to you, how long do you think you need?”

I wasn’t sure how long until I would feel comfortable, or if I ever would. I responded with the only dimwitted estimate I could conjure. “One week,” I whispered back.

“We will need one we
ek to prepare,” Tevon announced.

Before anyone else could respond
, Helendra spoke, “One week it is then.”

“Where should they start?” One of the mages added.

Another one added—I had yet to learn most of their names—“I think we need to prepare the Southern most regions first. They will take the blunt of this war. They'll need our help most, and we'll need their cooperation equally.”

“The empire of Ordana should be our first target. They control a large portion of the Southern border; we will need them m
ore than any other,” the eldest female mage added, her voice as uneasy as ever.