by Matt Taylor
The words of his father helped calm his nerves and reinvigorate his focus. He pushed away all thoughts of darkness and only focused on what was good and right. Then imagining his soul leaving his body, he felt again as if a part of his soul seemed to rise up above his body. After it exited, the strangest feeling overcame him. He felt his natural body, with his regular thoughts focusing on the task at hand, but he also felt as if he had gained a new ethereal body that could not be seen, floating above him in the air.
Slightly startled, Sylas opened his eyes and looked around. He felt as if he was controlling two persons at the same time. His physical body turned around, and he saw the trees and land around him, but his ghostly body also turned and saw from a different angle the exact same scenery just from a different point of view.
“Well done, Sylas! You have successfully opened your second mind.”
With eyes glowing, Sylas turned back to Uthren with both his physical and ghostly head, still trying to make sense of what exactly he was feeling.
“Concentrate upon the second mind that you have just opened Sylas, try and think with just the new mind you have opened. What differences can you gather between those thoughts and the thoughts of your normal mind?”
Sylas concentrated upon his newfound ghostly body and honed in on its desires and thoughts, trying as best as he could to ignore the thoughts and feelings of his mortal body.
“I feel like it’s me, but not entirely me… almost as if it’s half of me and half of something else…”
“That’s exactly what it is. Your second mind is an extension of yourself, with the addition of the living element that you have conjured. It’s not visible, but it exists none the less and can be independently controlled. Half of it belongs to you, and the other half belongs to the Light. They are combined to make one person, and that person is an extension of your physical self. You are now two instead of one, and your second self is shared half and half with the Light.”
As confusing as all of that sounded to Sylas, it actually made perfect sense to him now that he was feeling it. He felt as if he could control his body just as regularly as ever, but at the same time had the ability to control this new ethereal body to do something completely different at the exact same time. This new body, however, seemed much different than his original. It was both attached to his normal body but also able to act and do whatever he wanted on its own. It also had different desires than he usually had. He felt as if he were righteous, holy, and justified in all things and refuted everything that was evil, unholy, and dark.
“I feel… good. And by good, I mean, holy. Like I’m righteous, and it’s my duty to banish evil from existence. I also feel like I want to help people and smite those who would cause evil and destruction.”
“Yes, that’s because your second mind has been bound to the Light element, and those are the feelings of Light mixed with yourself. Light would normally have an even greater self-righteous desire and demand for justice, but since it’s only half Light and half you, those feelings have been toned down. The same thing goes the other way as well because you are bound with the Light your normal desires have been amplified towards the good and banishment of anything dark or evil. You are doing very well in recognizing these feelings.”
Sylas looked over at Samara to see that she had also broken the symbol and was watching him.
“The hardest part is complete, now you can cast your first spell.”
Uthren took a knife out of his pocket and unsheathed it. He then placed the blade on the palm of his hand and slowly slid it across his skin. He winced slightly, and a thin line of blood covered his hand.
“Now, come over here and place your hand upon mine.”
Sylas watched with his invisible body as his physical body moved towards Uthren. When it had moved a short distance, he found his new, second body drifting towards his physical body as if it were attached by some invisible rope. He kneeled down in front of Uthren and placed his hand upon Uthren’s.
“Now, I’m asking your physical self, the Sylas that’s kneeling in front of me. Do you want my hand to be healed?”
Sylas nodded, “Yes, of course.”
“Good, now I’m asking your second mind. Do you want my hand to be healed?”
Sylas felt his second mind grow ecstatic as the answer clearly flooded over his thoughts, “I need to heal you! And I will punish the blade that caused you injury.”
Sylas opened his mouth and responded, “Ohh, wow, yeah, not only do I want to heal you, but I also want to destroy your knife along with it.”
Uthren chuckled. “As you learn to control your second mind more, you will be able to temper the desires of the elements. They can be overbearing at times towards what they want to do. The more you can persuade the elemental half of your second mind, the more powerful of a mage you will become as you will be able to control your desires and passions towards your end goal with greater success. Try that now by using both your first mind and the half of your second mind that is you to persuade those feelings that although the knife did something unjust, that it’s not in your intent to destroy the knife, only to heal my hand.”
Sylas focused upon the feelings of his second mind. The desire for righteous vengeance was still strong, but he reasoned with himself that Uthren was the one who cut himself, it wasn’t the knifes fault.
After some time debating, the desires of his second mind calmed down and resolved that they wanted to only heal Uthren’s hand, for now.
“Alright, we’re one in our desires.” It still sounded weird to talk about himself as not one but multiple in personality and being, but it was accurate…
“Then will it to be done,” Uthren responded.
Sylas focused on his desires and then felt the warmth of the Light fill his hand and radiate into Uthrens hand.
Their hands glowed with a brilliant light for a moment, until it dissipated and returned to just a soft glow in Sylas’s hand. Uthren wiped the blood from his hand on the grass and then raised his hand and showed it to Sylas.
“Well done.”
His hand was completely healed, a small white line spread across his palm the only sign that damage had been there just moments ago.
“That was excellent Sylas, you can now break the connection with your second mind. To do that, just allow your ethereal body to enter into your physical body and then release the connection that you have to the Light.”
Sylas floated with his second mind into his physical body and felt the Light bid him a noble farewell as it left. His vision and other senses went from two back down to one, and the feeling of the Light Magick flowing within him retreated back into his pool of inner life in his stomach and finally subsided completely. Sylas sat back on the grass and took in a deep breath.
“Wow, that was crazy!”
“You have a gift, Sylas. There are not many who are able to progress with the speed and success that you have just demonstrated.”
Uthren looked at both Samara and Torren. “Don’t feel bad that you weren’t successful this morning. It’s not an easy task to learn how to tap into your inner life and ultimately open your second mind. We will continue to work together and help each other.”
Torren cleared his throat, “Uthren, I think I’ve decided that Samara and Sylas can go ahead and learn how to use Magick, but I think I’d rather do what I’m already good at. Would you teach me more on swordsmanship and hand to hand combat?”
Uthren smiled, “of course, Torren. There are many advantages of knowing how to defend yourself with a sword. I’ve been in many situations where I had to rely not on the elements, but on my physical abilities. I will teach you what I know, but Geode would be better suited to be your master, as he has much more experience than I do. When he returns, I’ll let him know your desires, and he can teach you. You couldn’t ask for a better master as his skills are excellent.”
Torren smiled and jumped to his feet. “Alright!”
Samara stood and extended her han
d to Sylas. Sylas received the gesture as she helped him to his feet.
“Good job, Sylas! That was amazing! Maybe you and I could talk about what you felt and how you did it? I could probably learn something from having more than one person explaining the process to me.”
Sylas grinned. “Yeah, of course! I would love to help in any way that I can.”
“I would expect nothing less,” Uthren said, rising to his feet. “Help each other to learn. We are all in this together, and there’s no room for jealousy or hoarding of secrets. The only way we’re going to be able to find all of the stones, enter the Vault of Kings, and ultimately stop Maelos is by using our strengths to help where others are weak. Now, get your things together, let’s pack up camp and move downriver.”
chapter 6
Warning to Shilvrst
Gah! Piece of garbage!”
Thren put the tip of his left thumb into his mouth to try and soothe the throbbing pain. He looked back at the nail, and though it was now stuck in the wall, it bent to the left defiantly. Tossing his hammer on the ground, he picked up the last slice of bread he had been eating for lunch and ate it with a scowl. He looked back at the nail and asked, “Why? Why won’t you just do as I ask?”
The nail stood just as still as ever, ignoring any and all comments directed towards it. Thren sighed and sat down on the ground. He had been working on patching a hole in the wall of his chicken coop all morning long, but due to his shortage of good nails, he was forced to use some old rusty nails that had been laying in a pile outside his house for who knows how long. Taking his last bite, Thren scooped a nail off the ground and rose to his feet.
“Now listen here…”
“Are you talking to that nail?”
Thren spun around and saw Iriana standing behind him; her hand was over her mouth, trying to suppress a smile.
“I… No, I wasn’t talking to the nail, I was just, umm.”
Iriana laughed. “Ohh alright, I must be hearing things is all.”
She smiled and walked up to Thren, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“How is it coming along?”
Thren looked back at the bent nail and almost thought he saw a malicious grin rusted into its side.
“It was going alright, but I’ve run out of good nails and am having to use some of these old ones that I found by the house, and they aren’t cooperating with me.”
“Well, shame on them, don’t they know who you are?”
Thren smiled. “Exactly, you’d think they would show me more respect.”
Iriana laughed again, “Come on back to the house, Geode is here, and he said he needs to talk to you. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad, he assured me that Sylas is doing fine and that they have had no incidents thus far.”
Thren’s hands began to sweat. Why would Geode be here and need to talk to me if nothing has happened? Surely that can’t be the case, he thought to himself. Masking his worry, Thren agreed and took Iriana’s hand.
“Let’s see what’s going on then.”
As he and Iriana approached the house, he saw Geode sitting with his eyes closed on the front steps.
“I found him Geode, he was working with some rebel nails.” She said, winking at Thren. She then started off towards the back of the house. “I need to finish hanging out the clothes, I’ll be just around back if you need me.”
Geode thanked her and gestured that they should go inside. Leading the way into the house, Threns mind spun with possibilities of horrible things that could have happened to his son and the others. Anger and sadness wrestled inside of him, combated by a small sliver of hope that Geode did indeed tell the truth to Iriana and that they were all still okay.
Subconsciously he led Geode into Sylas’s room and shut the door. Pulling up a chair and bracing himself for the worst, he cleared his voice.
“What’s this all about Geode, I know you wouldn’t be here if something hadn’t happened. Is Sylas alright?”
“Yes, Sylas is fine, I promise. Although I can’t tell you that we’ve been without incident so far in our journey. But you should have expected this, we knew that sooner or later we would be discovered and people would be sent to find us.”
“Yes, but this soon? You’ve only just left! How could Maelos possibly know what we are doing already?”
“That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. Has anything strange happened in Shilvrst since we’ve been gone?”
Thren pondered for a moment and then shook his head.
“Not really… there was a slight influx of guards the morning that you all left, but it was just for a while. They all of a sudden left that evening, so that was a bit strange… why do you ask?”
Geode sat down on Sylas’s bed and thought for a moment. “I think that there is a connection between the Stone of Darkness, Maelos, and your son.”
Thren’s heart began to pound slightly faster as he scooted his chair closer to Geode.
“How so?”
Geode recounted Sylas opening his second mind and having the vision attack as well as the details of the vision. He also reminded Thren that Sylas had already had a vision before when he first found the stone in the Ancient Crypt. He then recounted the details of their encounter with the black hand and what Raymond had told them.
“Maelos knew that the stone had been found, I’m guessing at the exact same time that Sylas had his first vision at the crypt. That’s why I think there were more guards the next morning. Raymond said that Maelos had told them where the stone had been found, and the times match up almost exactly. He also knew that it was near the river at precisely the time that Sylas had his second vision. That’s most likely why the guards left Shilvrst, he knew that he didn’t need them here anymore and sent his black hand to come and get it from us. I believe that when Sylas has these visions, somehow, Maelos is notified and knows exactly where it came from. I don’t know how that is, but I’m going to bring it up with Uthren, and after we make it to Gelendor, I will bring it up with the queen there and see what she thinks.”
Thren slouched back in his chair, his nervous sweat now giving him chills.
“Is he in danger then? Maelos will know exactly where you are at any given moment! He could come down himself and kill you all and take the stone.”
“He could, but I don’t think that he will. While I am certain that he wants the stone, I don’t think that he would personally pursue it. At least not yet. No, I think he will just continue to send his henchmen after it. That being said, he won’t always know where we are, he just knows the locations where Sylas has the vision, and only when he has them. I think it’s just a momentary signal that he gets while the vision is active. If not, he would have sent the black hand after us as we were leaving the town. Also, I think that we can help Sylas to be able to control when he has the visions. I think that it stems from him opening his second mind. The first time it happened was most likely due to a spell that was cast upon the stone when he found it, but I’m mostly certain that from here on out they would only be triggered when he is opening his second mind, and we might be able to help him avoid letting that happen again. The other thing that concerns me is what he has seen in his visions. You haven’t gotten any impression of an invasion of any kind upon Shilvrst have you?”
Thren shook his head. “No… things seem normal here. Besides the guards coming and then going so quickly, nothing strange has happened.”
“Good. We’ll have to hope that it continues to be that way. Just in case, though, do you think you could round up some people to be on alert for anything like that to happen? We want to be prepared just in case the vision does come to pass.”
“Yes, of course,” Thren replied. “There are several men that still live here that I worked with while in the king’s guard. I’ll let them know, and we can be on the lookout for anything suspicious or dangerous. Besides that part of the vision, do you know what any of the other things Sylas saw mean?”
“Yes and no. We know that the door
he saw was the Vault of Kings, that part is almost certain. And I’m pretty sure that the tree that he saw is referring to the Tree of Life, which is located in Gelendor, but that’s not guaranteed. Why he saw all of those things, and their order and significance, your guess is as good as mine. We just want to be sure that there are capable people here that know about the possibility of Shilvrst being attacked in case it does come true.”
Worried about the news of possible destruction but relieved that Sylas and the others were still okay, Thren let some of the tension that had been building up in his body be released.
“Was there anything else that you needed to tell me?” He asked.
“No, I just need you to understand the seriousness of the situation. If Sylas’s vision is indeed something that is to come to pass, you need to know so that you can help prevent it from happening. Also, you must be sure that anyone you tell this information to thinks that It was I who saw the vision and not Sylas. There are people familiar enough with Magick to believe that I was the one that saw it, and we don’t want any chance of more details about Sylas having possession of the stone getting out to Maelos.”
“I’ll make the necessary preparations and be sure that word doesn’t get out about Sylas, you have my word,” Thren said.
“Thank you Thren, you don’t know how much Uthren and I appreciate your willingness to allow Sylas to leave you and your family, and for your steadfastness in helping us to defeat Maelos.”
“I wish there was more that I could do…” Thren replied longingly. “I am a warrior, after all, I feel like we should be fighting back, and I want to be in that fight!”
“We will fight back soon enough,” Geode replied. “But both you and I know that right now, we don’t stand a chance against Maelos and his armies. We need an edge to defeat him. You have my word that when we are ready to confront him, we will push his influence back and out of this town and all of our sister cities until we can ultimately kill the Dark Mage.”
