The Rising Sun: Episode 2

by J Hawk

  Ion trotted over to the other end of the room, gazing out the glass door of the balcony. They were now at the deepest stage of the night, with the darkness at its pitch. He leant by the side of the wall by his right, his gaze revelling in the beauty of the starlit night through the balcony outside.

  “This is hardly the place.” came a voice out of the darkness in the rest of the room.

  With an electric jolt, Ion whipped around to face the other end of the room, his heart hammering his ribs.

  And then, movement slowly moulded out of the stillness at the dark end of the room. A figure was slowly emerging from where he had remained, hidden in the darkness all along. As the man walked over to before the balcony’s entrance, the starlight glazing this side of the room struck his face, bringing it to complete clarity.

  “This is hardly the type of place where I hoped to find you.” repeated Jedius.

  12

  The two of them stood there, master and disciple, grown man and youngster, Elfling and Fyrling, staring at each other for what could have been a few centuries.

  The warmth of Jedius’s smile seemed to dispel the gloominess of the room.

  Ion needed a heavy effort to break from the shock and find his voice again.

  “Master?” he whispered.

  Jedius patted him gently on the shoulder.

  “Nothing could have gifted me more happiness than finding you in a healthy and happy state, old friend.”

  Ion looked down the other end of the room, where his master had evidently been skulking, in wait of him.

  “How long where you here, waiting for me?”

  Jedius laughed softly. “The first lesson, as you well remember me teaching you, is patience.”

  As the shock faded, emotion welled within Ion at the sight of his master. And only now, after finally seeing him after so long did he realise how much he had missed Jedius … and how much he had craved to meet him again.

  “How?” he gasped, finally able to blurt his confusion.

  “How did I manage to find you?” asked Jedius. “That shouldn’t be of significant concern right now.”

  He walked forth and patted Ion warmly on the shoulder. “I just thought I would drop by to see how things are running with a disciple, and an old friend. So tell me, what’ve you been upto, lately?”

  It had been a few months since they had parted. But as the two of them stood in the balcony outside, it felt like the gap had never happened: Ion recited all that had happened to him since he had left Jedius. He told Jedius about how he had managed to track and bring down all the criminals he had crossed in his past, and how he had concluded with Grando just earlier on this day. He ended the tale, his tone now pitched in shock, of the startling event which had found him just a few minutes back. Of how the members of the revered brotherhood of Nyon had found him, and had asked of him to join them.

  “They’d been keeping a track on me!” said Ion, his own voice thick with disbelief. “I was being watched by the Nyon, can you believe it?”

  “Did you ask them why?” inquired Jedius. “What did they find in you, to interest them?”

  “They thought I had the qualities they were looking for in their initiates, and they’ve been running very low on initiates. So when they discovered me, two years back, they thought I’d be a good candidate to join them. And had a tab kept on me … until they lost me somewhere in the middle.”

  As he did for most things, Jedius showed little reaction or surprise at this revelation. He stood by the door, just as still as ever, watching Ion as he strode up and down the balcony while he spoke.

  “They were watching me,” went on Ion. “until they lost my trace for some reason. But there’s something I can’t understand fully.” He came to a halt in his pacing and rounded towards Jedius. “But when they discovered me two years back, how did they keep me traced?”

  Jedius was quiet, seeming to chew all of this for a meek moment.

  “Through me, of course.” he suddenly said.

  Ion stared, feeling his jaw slack open.

  “You?” he asked.

  Jedius nodded, still smiling.

  “You’re one of the Nyon!”

  “Yes, Ion.” he said. “But not in the sense that the other masters are, including the ones you just met.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I had been with them for a long time.” he explained. “I was a member in the brotherhood for many years, struggling their struggle. Trying to do noble things, and build something good out of this world.” His voice now sounded distant and lost. As if reconnecting to a pain that had he had felt a long time back. “It wasn’t easy, Ion. everything was in chaos. The brotherhood had come to a stage where we were hardly able to help the world: unable to find mystics to aid our cause, we ourselves were about to fall. I wanted to serve the world. But I realised that I was serving nothing … I found no meaning in it. I found no meaning in the life I was leading, in the cause I was serving. Because that cause itself was about to fall, soon. But it was then that I realised it, that I found it.” He turned slowly, facing Ion. “I found my purpose.”

  Behind him, the first traces of dawn were beginning to descend from the heavens.

  “And it was not in doing noble things. It was in helping others do noble things. It was not in using my skills to aid the world. It was in stepping back, and guiding others to aid the world better than I ever could.” His gaze over Ion seemed to grow deeper. “And so I found you.”

  “Me?”

  “That day,” said Jedius. “After I saved you, and after I saw what you were facing, I realised that there was hope after all, for our brotherhood … and for our world. And that hope was you, Ion.”

  He turned and looked at the city sprawling beyond the balcony.

  “Two years back, after you met Vestra, she brought us everything about you … she recounted her meeting with you, and she expressed her belief that you were someone who would be of aid to us … with the right input.” He paused for a moment. “She told us that she truly believed in a good side resting in you. And I realised what needed to be done. What was needed at that hour, was the guiding of a younger generation in our ways, to keep our ways alive. And I knew that I had to do it through you. I found you, and I decided to train you, in hopes of making something good out of you. It was in those two years, when we were training, that the Nyon kept a watch on you through me. but after we’d finished, I realised that we now needed to give you your personal space … I saw that there were things in your life that you needed to test and discover by yourself, things from your past that you needed to set right.”

  Ion knew he was referring to all his criminal rivalries which he had spent the past months scoring out, including Grando.

  “And so, I decided to loosen the reins on you, after our training was done.” said Jedius. “I convinced the Nyon that you had to be allowed to tread your own path for the time being … so that you could do some things for yourself. And I knew that was imperative before you did anything for us. And so, after our training finished months back, I decided to let you off the Nyon’s track. And that was what Mantra and the others were meaning when they met you earlier on: they lost track of you because I let them lose track of you. But today, when you showed up on the Naxim’s database, we were alerted of your presence … at a time where we most crucially needed it. At a time where we desperately needed help from outside of our brotherhood. And so, Mantra and the others decided to approach you to ask you for the favour they were confident you would not deny them … as was I.”

  “But how’d you know?” inquired Ion.

  “When they were alerted of your presence here, they informed me as well before approaching you. Mantra is an age old friend of mine, and he led the information to me instantly. And I came here in hopes of renewing my duty as a master … and as a guide to you.”

  Jedius heaved a silent breath.

  “We need you, Ion. we really do. And at this desperat
e time, noble hearts such as yours are hard. The Nyon approached you for that one reason. I can’t imagine why you would see fit to turn them down.”

  “Why?” Ion gave a soft laugh. “You know why.”

  A few seconds of silence breezed between them.

  “Yes I do.” Jedius said finally. “You are searching for revenge.” He shook his head. “But you will never find it. You can’t. And you yourself know that.” He bent down before Ion and whispered, “What you are doing is not bravery, but cowardice, Ion. you are not searching for the one in the poster, you’re hiding from him. Hiding from reality … trying to outrun it. But you can’t.”

  Ion looked away, his teeth gritted. As much as he yearned to deny that … he couldn’t.

  “You can’t outrun me, Ion. I am a part of you.” The voice from his dreams echoed within him.

  Jedius placed a hand on Ion’s shoulder. “I know you have much anger and guilt. And that what you are doing now, is trying to vanquish them. But you have to learn to bear them and do what must be done. You are struggling with the past, Ion. And as an effect, you are compromising on the present. You need to forget whatever happened, and move on.”

  Ion gazed at the line forming the horizon, where the first lines of stars were beginning to fade.

  “And this will be the greatest good you can ever do, Ion.” said Jedius. “The Nyon need you … but not as much as you need them.”

  His words came with a quiet power. “You need to give yourself this chance, Ion. in all your strength and growth, give yourself the chance to be a part of an ideal greater than yourself, and endure the cost that it puts in your way. You’ve grown strong through my teaching, Ion. And you’ve learned to put your pain aside for others’ sake. Now, take this final leap for yourself. But if not for yourself, do it for someone else who needs it.”

  “Who?” asked Ion, perplexed.

  Jedius was silent for a moment, his eyes unmoving from Ion’s face.

  “The same person who brought you to us.” he said softly.

  But the discretion in his tone held no bars for Ion. The realisation came like a crash of concrete, taking his breath off.

  “Vestra…” he breathed.

  He locked eyes with Jedius again, and his master gave a soft nod.

  “Yes, she was one of the two students sent for this mission.”

  Ion stared at Jedius in overwhelming disbelief. “Is she … all right?”

  Jedius looked past the sprawl of buildings again, unable to hold Ion’s eyes.

  “Master, is she?”

  “I don’t know, Ion.” Jedius replied softly.

  Ion’s inner turmoil melted in the span of an instant. And a blazing sense of purpose awoke within him. Purpose stronger than all else. Because now, he saw that there was something far higher than himself at stake here . And at that very instant, all personal woes and sufferings vanished like a flash of light clearing a dark room.

  “I’m going, then.” he said. “Mantra told me the planet’s name. I’ll head there right now … if she isn’t still alive, I’ll punish every one of the rebels for it. Because it was my fault at the beginning, to not have heeded Mantra and gone as soon as I could.”

  Jedius continued to look at him, a strange new light dawning over his features. Ion felt something strengthen within him as he gazed into his master’s eyes. He remembered those two years, those two years of peace he had found under Jedius.

  He remembered how he had found hope and direction when his mind had lost its own.

  He remembered how Jedius had filled the loss of his family, by giving him a new one … how he erased all the darkness of his past, and gave him a new future. Forged a brighter, newer destiny…

  He remembered it all.

  “I’ll devote myself to this.” Ion said softly. “I’ll join the Nyon and help them through this struggle. But there’s only one reason if I do.” He drew a deep breath. “And that reason is you. Those two years I lived under your mentorship, they were the most beautiful years of my life. I remember your pain. How you tried to bring goodness in this world and failed, and decided to pass the task on to another person. I was lucky enough to be that person. And so, I’m going to forget my struggle, and instead help you find the answer to yours: the struggle for a better world.”

  Jedius stood there as still as ever, making no response. But there was a warm glow in his eyes.

  “Then may peace be with you.”

  He looked out the balcony, watching as the first rays of dawn lit the horizon.

  “Never despair, Ion.” he said finally, and Ion heard something strange in his voice. Something transcending the normal tone it used to be. “For always remember that we are not so apart as you think. When you move forth in this path, remember me and my teachings will illuminate the darkest of times.”

  For some reason, as he spoke, Ion’s flesh prickled with a strange foreboding.

  “But … where’re you going?” he asked. “Surely you’re also going to be with the Nyon through this, right?”

  To his surprise, Jedius shook his head.

  “You’re not?” asked Ion.

  “I already told you, Ion,” said Jedius. “My purpose, as I realised, was that of a guide … meant to shape those who will help us in this time, and I think I’ve done my job fair enough.”

  “But … where’re you going?”

  As orange light bristled from over the horizon, Jedius’s eyes seemed to shimmer in the light.

  “Nowhere too far.”

  Ion stepped back a few feet, feeling slightly scared. “What do you mean?”

  “My work here is done, son.” said Jedius. “I’ve imparted everything to you … everything I was meant to leave behind. And now, it’s your duty to carry what I leave behind forward.” He turned and faced Ion.

  “But there is one final thing I will impart, which will aid you just as well.” He put his hand into his robe pocket and drew an object in his clenched fist.

  Ion held his hand out, and Jedius placed what looked like a large, disfigured, fang like object on his outstretched palm.

  “What the heck is this?” he asked, looking at the strangely shaped fang.

  “Nothing more than a token.” said Jedius, smiling. “A token to remind you of me, and everything I’ve taught you.”

  Ion was intrigued at the choice Jedius had made for a token. But right now, there was a far heavier worry that clutched at him.

  “Master … where are you going?” he repeated.

  Jedius merely gazed at him, his green eyes as tranquil as always. And as gold light from the awakening sun streaked him by the side, he suddenly seemed to shimmer … his entire form seemed to distort very slowly, turning blurry.

  “Like I said,” he said, and his voice came as a resonating hum. “my job here’s done…”

  Ion knew at once what was happening. And as he did, at that particular moment, an overwhelming stillness drew over his mind. It was an emotion that more powerful than any he had ever known. A terrible, crushing emotion…

  “You’re … leaving.”

  Jedius’s smile grew longer, while his form continued to go blurry by the moment, and his voice reached Ion like an echo across a giant distance.

  “I’m not going too far, Ion, I assure you that.” he said.

  As the flecks of light seeped through his faded form, he was turning ghost like, translucent.

  “The reason I was here is fulfilled … and I’ve left behind what I need to. It’s now your job to ensure that what I leave behind doesn’t go in vain.”

  “I won’t.” whispered Ion.

  “I know you won’t.” answered Jedius. “And so, I leave in peace. And may my peace remain behind to aid you always. Farewell, Ion. And always remember … you will find my voice in the gravest of times, for I ever remain in you as the strength of endurance and courage.”

  His last word extinguished in a dazzling blast of light that emitted from where he’d been standing as
a faded, ghost like form. It was like the light of a thousand suns compressed and allowed to set loose in the span of a mini second. And then, as the light vanished the next second, Ion found himself alone in the balcony, with the dawn’s blue sky mounted over him…

  He stood there for many seconds, clutching Jedius’s fang token in his right hand. His entire body felt strangely unreal, as did everything else around him, while he continued to stare at the spot ahead of him, where his master had been…

  Before Ion knew what he was doing or why, he had collapsed to his knees before where his master had been, and was shaking with silent sobs.

 

  13

  In the darkness of the oval chamber, only the faint outline of a black cloaked figure could be seen. Zardin kept his posture as still as the stone wall behind him as he sat cross legged. His silenced mind was attuned to the energy flow of the world outside. His meditation drew him to the most peaceful state of his inner realm … one where he could feel his being meld with the cosmic reservoir that the world outside, the entire universe himself, spawned from…