by A. J. Morton
I rose to my feet and drew one of my daggers, a blue light engulfing it as its short blade turned to a long sword. All my anger turned to a calm determination as I walked toward the Umbran.
The fact that the Umbrans didn’t even notice me approaching them is what upset me the most. My grip on my sword tightened as I walked towards them. Not anymore. I felt power coursing through my veins. I wouldn’t allow my feelings to be ignored today.
The Umbran leader landed blow after blow to the same spot on Strelitzia’s ribs. All of the Umbrans’ eyes were fixed on her.
I had the urge to yell to them, but my voice came out calm and colder than ice. “You,” The Umbrans lifted their heads and turned their gazes back to me. “I would like for you to turn around and leave.”
The Umbran leader laughed at me. That shrill, harsh sound. “Leave? And what if we don’t?”
“I will have to force you to suffer the same fate as all the people you have wronged today.” Although the words came out of my mouth, they didn’t feel like they were mine anymore. I could see and hear everything I said and did through my eyes, but I didn’t have any control over it.
I calmly waited a few moments for them to leave. Instead, they laughed at me again.
I sighed. “Fine,” I said. “I gave you all the mercy you were due. This is the part where you all suffer.”
I charged at them. At least that was my original goal. I quite literally ran straight through the crowd in an incredible, almost invisible burst of speed. I could feel my new blade cutting through their flesh like butter. I narrowly avoided decapitating Strelitzia as I rushed past.
My sword turned back into a dagger. I turned around, looking at what I had done. At first, there was nothing, as though the world itself were too shocked to respond to the damage I had just done. But then an icy burst of wind swept past them all, a slipstream of frozen destruction. All of the Umbrans’ bodies were frozen solid, the ice stained with blood. I then took one final look at their leader’s face. The expression of joy on his face was gone, replaced with one of pain and terror.
Strelitzia lay on the ground, coughing up blood. I intentionally had avoided her. The damage was to her ribs. When I was about to run to her, my body stopped. The cold left me, as well as all my strength. I fell to the ground, completely spent. Everything began to fade to black as my eyes began to close...
* * *
I found myself back in the presence of the silver-haired maiden. She smiled at me as I rose to my feet. I looked around and saw that we were in a completely white space, a blank canvas, nothing as far as the eye could see.
“Why hello there, Xander,” The silver-haired maiden said, sitting alone at a table for two, the only thing in the nothingness, drinking a cup of tea. “Take a seat.”
I hesitantly took a seat in front of her. “Where are we?” I asked after I sat down. “And how do you know my name? Who are you?”
Her smile faded as she looked off into the empty expanse before us. “The first question I answer will likely answer all three,” She replied. “We wandered the lands of Ubiaxus long before you…” Her voice drifted off. “Wandered its beautiful plains… Swam in its glorious lakes… Alas, we gave all of that away to give it life. This is all that we have left of our sacrifice. Nothingness.”
I vaguely recalled a story that my parents used to tell me before they abandoned me. The story of the gods. How they wandered Ubiaxus for 1000 years before they used the last of their power to create their followers.
“Are you… Glacia?” I asked the lady before me
“Yes,” She replied. “I am the goddess of ice, Glacia. And you, Xander Faust, are my chosen Disciple.”
So Strelitzia was telling me the truth… I really was one of these… Disciples. “So what I just did, that was…”
“Correct,” Glacia said. “That was my power coursing through your body. In the exact moment that you made the decision to protect Strelitzia, you became the embodiment of your essence. The essence of my domain itself: the essence of the Defender.”
“The Defender?” I inquired. “What do you mean?”
“Every element has an essence,” Glacia began. “The essence of a mage is fragment of their patron god’s soul contained within the body. It is because we have given so many people our essences that we are so weak. Power doesn’t come without sacrifice. But your people… their power came from our sacrifice. The essence of my element is the desire to protect everyone around you. The desire to defend. I’ve given the largest piece of my soul to you, which is why it’s far more untamed and difficult to control. The fact that our souls are intertwined on this level is how I’m able to commune with you on this level.”
I thought about this for a few moments. In that moment in the village… I had acted on instinct alone. On a pure desire to defend everything I stood for. My home… My best friend… The princess who told me who I really was… “So, if I go on this journey…” I started. “Will I gain the strength to protect everything and everyone I care about?”
That’s all I wanted. After today, I had lost my village. All the hopes and dreams I had of coming back to the village and finally having someone respect me were gone. I needed a new purpose.
Glacia’s smile came back to her face. “Xander, you already have that power… You’ve seen it. All you need to do is awaken it,” Her eyes became solemn. “However, I must warn you that this journey won’t come without its sacrifices. You will feel pain along the way, the likes of which you have never experienced before. I can’t guarantee that after all this unfolds you will be the famed man that you hope to become. Knowing this… Will you accept this path?”
The answer to her question escaped my mouth almost instantly. “Yes,” I answered. “I’m not letting anything else I have be ripped away from me.”
The goddess Glacia beamed. “An answer befitting the Defender.” She seemed genuinely relieved. “From this moment on, your desire to defend shall be your power. You shall not err so long as you hold onto this fundamental desire with all your might. I bestow my full might upon you so that you might conquer any foe. You have transcended mortal flesh. You have become a shield to repel all. This is my gift to you, my Disciple. This is our contract. You are now free to set off on your journey."
Xander Faust… Awaken!
Chapter 3
I awoke from my dream, panting and sweating as I was the morning before. I sat up slowly, exhausted. I tensed, receiving a sharp pain in my temple. Must have been the feedback from using that much of my essence the night before. When I looked up, I saw that I was on a small canoe with three seats, the endless blue sea surrounding me. The sun was shining, so I assumed it was morning. Travis was at the front, steering and Strelitzia was in the middle, sleeping.
I rubbed my aching head. “Morning…” I didn’t say it as much as much as moan it.
Travis turned his head to me, a grin appearing on his face. “Xander!” He exclaimed. “You worried me!”
Travis’s loud voice seemed to awaken Strelitzia, who rubbed the sleep from her eyes before turning to Travis and then to me. She smiled. “Thank the gods…” She sighed. Suddenly, her voice turned stern. “While I’m thankful that you saved me and you seem to be okay, I need you to promise me that you will never do something that stupid again.”
I nodded weakly, Glacia’s words to me still hard on my mind. Strelitzia seemed to notice my expression. “I assume you had a vision of Glacia?”
“How did you-”
“I, to, have had a similar vision,” Strelitzia answered before I could even finish asking. “Of the god of fire, Pyros.”
“Ah…” I explained the contents of my dream to Travis and Strelitzia. As I neared the end of my explanation, a thought crossed my mind. “What’s your essence, Strelitzia? And do you think you might know what Travis's essence is?”
Strelitzia hesitated before responding, as though taken aback by the question. “Mine is the essence of the Just,” She stated. “As for Travis, he li
kely possesses the essence of the Warrior.”
A confident smirk formed on Travis’s face. “Warrior?” He chuckled. “I like the sound of that!”
I gave this some thought. “Can you explain to me what 'the Just' and 'the Warrior' mean?” I scratched my head. “They’re a bit vague.”
Strelitzia shrugged. “I suppose they are,” She seemed to contemplate the best way to explain her essence before proceeding. “I’ll begin by explaining mine. In ancient times, fire was used as a method to punish the wicked. My essence is activated when I see someone doing a wrong and I instinctively wish to deliver punishment. The same happened with the Umbrans earlier, remember?”
I recalled another of the lessons that I received from my parents before they’d abandoned me. That out of all the elemental nations in the mainland, those in the kingdom of Pyros hated us the most. But thinking about the two of our essences, the Defender and the Just, I couldn’t help but realize just how similar we were. She wished to find justice for those who had been taken away from her and I wished to defend those who were going to be taken away from me before they could me.
A moment of silence went by. Travis was the one to break it. “While we’re on the topic, what does my essence mean?” I nodded. In a sense, all of the Disciples could be described as warriors. So what made Travis so special?
Strelitzia furrowed her brow. “Unfortunately. I have no idea.” She said. “The gods only tell us the true meanings of our essences directly. So, you’re the only one who could possibly know the answer to that question. Typically, when the time is right, the gods will come to you in a dream, telling you the meaning of your essence. Judging by how oblivious you are, I assume that hasn’t happened yet?”
“Nope…” Travis sighed, frowning. He’d been doing that a lot throughout the boat ride now that I thought about it. Far more than ever before, certainly. At that moment I realized that even though Travis was my best friend, I didn’t really know him. All I knew was the friendly man who came to my house every day to give me my missions. I never even noticed the color of his eyes, much less who he was. It never dawned on me that Travis could be just as hurt as I was, not knowing my place in the world. Or even more so.
Travis’s frown disappeared, replaced by his usual smile. “Welp. I’m bound to have one of those visions sometime. Just a matter of waiting for it to come.”
A smile came to my face as well. That was the Travis that I knew. “I hope it comes sooner rather than later,” I said.
“One more thing…” I started, looking at the rising sun ahead of us. “Where exactly are we headed? If I remember from my lessons, the kingdom of Pyros is to the west of Glacia. But the direction we’re heading in is east, judging by the sun.
“Oh, yes, I almost forgot to tell you,” Strelitzia said. “While you were out, we received word from lady Krysta Tanda. She’s managed to locate the Disciple of Lumos, the god of light. Lady Krysta awaits us in the See of Lumos to greet us with more details.”
The See of Lumos… I sighed. The largest city in all of Ubiaxus. Trying to find a single person in a city like that would be next to impossible. “So, we’re gonna look for a single man in the biggest city in the world. Sounds simple enough.”
“Woman, actually, and yes,” Strelitzia responded. “The woman we’re looking for is named Dia Luz. And she should be easy enough to find.”
“What makes you say that?”
“According to Lady Krysta, Diana is a priestess at the Church of Lumos in the center of the city,” She answered. “Finding her will just be a matter of going to the Church.”
Travis chuckled. “Sounds like a piece of-” He stopped and looked ahead. “Land ho!” I was awestruck by the kingdom ahead of us. There were massive castles as far as the eyes could see. As we sailed closer to the kingdom, as though by magic (It dawned on me later that it probably was magic.), the ocean ahead began to glow, as if the kingdom itself were emitting light.
“What do you think?” Strelitzia smiled at our stunned faces. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
All I could do was nod my head as we moved closer to the kingdom of Lumos. We sure weren’t in Glacia anymore.
* * *
With Strelitzia’s instruction, Travis steered our canoe into a harbor. Once we were docked, we exited our cramped vessel and jumped onto the dock.
Awaiting us nearby the exit of the harbor was a petite lass who didn’t seem as though she could be more than 11 years old. She was a short girl wearing a long, violet cloak and had short, black hair that framed her face. But although her face was without a single wrinkle, something about her eyes made her seem decades older.
“Ah, lady Krysta,” Strelitzia knelt at the girl’s feet. It took my brain a few moments to process the fact that this small girl was the seer of Kronos.
Strelitzia gestured for Travis and me to kneel as well but Krysta stopped us, darting her head to the left and then the right. “Not now,” Krysta said in a surprisingly curt tone. “Bowing here and now will draw too much attention.” She uttered a short incantation, before snapping her fingers.
It happened gradually. The noises around us began to become deeper. All the voices of the passersby seemed to lose volume. The horses galloping down the street began to slow. Everything around us started to stagnate until it came to a complete stop all around us. Krysta’s aura began to glow around her in a vibrant shade of purple.
It was an incredible thing to witness. And I expected nothing less from the Seer of Kronos. Her magic gave her complete mastery over time. She could reverse it, stop it, make it go faster, and see into the past, present, or future.
She seemed cross, especially with Strelitzia. “You were supposed to avoid confrontation with the Umbrans…” So, she knew about that. Not surprising. Her mastery over time allowed her to know anything she wanted to.
Strelitzia’s face turned a bright shade of red. “I… Apologize…” Strelitzia shook her head. “My rage overtook me.”
Krysta sighed. “Well there’s nothing we can do about that now.” She shifted her attention to me and Travis. “I am Krysta Tanda of the isle of Kronos. You can spare me your introductions because I already know who you are. Xander Faust and Travis Bronwyn.”
She looked into the city, which was now frozen in time. “The lady that we’re looking for is somewhere in the city, on the move,” She said. “For some reason, I can’t tell her exact location using my powers. Every time I try seeing into any timestream that regards her, my vision of it is heavily obscured by a bright light. All I know is that she’s strayed away from the center of the city.”
Travis shrugged. “So, do you think that we should split up and look for her?”
Krysta contemplated Travis’s idea for a few seconds before she nodded. “That seems like the best option. I’ll take the northwestern part of the city, Strelitzia will take southwest, Travis will take the northeast, and Xander will take the southeast.”
I shuddered at the idea of Travis trying to navigate this massive city when he could hardly navigate the forests of his own home. “Can Travis and I go together? The man gets lost very easily.”
Krysta shook her head. “That won’t yield results.” She thought about this for a few seconds. “Just… Trust me. We’ll split up just as planned and meet up back here in about two hours. Everything will work out more serendipitously that way.”
Travis chuckled and patted my back. “Don’t worry Xander. I’ll be fine.”
I nodded. Krysta didn’t give us much of a choice. And she was the one who could see into the future. So, Krysta gave us each a map of the town and we all headed to the part of the city that we were instructed to.
* * *
Okay. The first thing I’m gonna admit is that I was wrong.
The city wasn’t just huge. It was colossal. And the map didn’t make it much easier. If you imagine walking through a maze with a map, it would still be a maze. This place was the same. Large houses and castles cast massive shadows over all the roads. I
soon realized that there was no fast way to get around. People traveled in horse-drawn carriages across the roads. I, meanwhile, was stuck meandering around the sidewalks.
Some people were offering to give rides on their carriages for the price of ten Ubiaxian gold pieces. However, the Isle of Glacia was a bartering nation, so I had no money.
So, I was stuck walking on the sidewalks of Lumos on my own. I compared this to trekking through the forests of Glacia on my hunts with Travis and I most certainly would rather do the latter. But for now, I was stuck doing this. I tried to summon some of my essence to gain the impossible speed I’d displayed during the battle with the Umbrans but I couldn’t tap into it. I felt the cold bubbling on the surface of my chest, but it wouldn’t come out.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a lady’s scream to my right. I stopped in my tracks. The screaming had come from a nearby ally.
I felt the bubble of cold in my chest suddenly explode as I surged with power. It felt slightly weaker than the power I had used on the Umbrans, but the general idea was the same. My only assumption was that my desire to defend that woman fueled my essence, at least for that moment.
I ran in the direction of the scream, with less speed than I’d used when fighting the Umbrans, but still far faster than normal. I pulled out a dagger, it’s length increasing to the size of a longsword. Upon turning into the ally, I saw a man clad in a dark cloak cornering a lady with almost radiant platinum blond hair. The man held in his hand a scythe, seeming ready to use it to kill her. It was clear to anyone who could see it who was at fault. I charged at the man with blistering speed, effortlessly cutting off the man’s arm.
“This is a warning,” I told the man in a voice so cold that even I started to get unsettled by it. “Leave this woman be or you’ll lose more than an arm.”
