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…
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 know 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!”