Prophecy of Light - Unleashed

by RJ Crayton

  I laughed. “I was just waiting for you to finish,” I said. “I didn’t mean to stare.”

  “But that’s just it — if we do it, some part of us means for it.”

  I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t it the mood for words of wisdom about hidden intentions. But I tried to push that thought from my mind, as I needed Akilah to help me out with The Dark Road: Mages Gone Astray.

  I was about to speak when Akilah smiled. “Have you noticed that I’ve been gone a lot?”

  I nodded. She’d been very absent from the room recently.

  “Well, I can tell you where I’ve been disappearing to,” she said, with a huge grin. “I have been creating something, something you inspired me to create.”

  I pointed a finger at myself and she nodded. “What did I inspire?”

  “A new glyph,” she said. “I’m decently good at creating glyphs. Not every mage can create a symbol that is imbued with magic and that will work universally for spells. But, those who have that ability, like me, are very good at it. One of the things I do is work with Master Shanzu on updating the known glyphs registry and adding new ones to it. Well, you asked me the other day why we couldn’t use glyphs to create portals. And I realized there was no good answer. So, now there’s a portal glyph.”

  My eyes widened. I couldn’t believe my luck. “Are you serious?”

  She nodded. “It’s a bit complicated, though. Creating a portal yourself requires both the actual creation of the portal as well as directionality, so it knows where to go. Glyphs work best for a single specific concentrated things, whereas this is two things, and even though they’re related, it’s hard to pin down into one glyph.”

  “But you did?”

  She laughed. “I did not, in fact,” she said.

  I could feel my face screw up in confusion.

  “Don't look at me like that,” she said. “I decided to use two linked glyphs. And that works.”

  I smiled. “How do you do it?”

  She pulled out her ketesh, stood and then reached out her hand, indicating I should come over. I took a few steps and was next to her a moment later.

  “Two glyphs,” she said, and she drew them in the air. The first was a circle that looked like a portal. That seemed pretty obvious. And the second was three horizontal squiggly lines. “You’ll say ‘Yaa-Traa’ and write the first symbol, and then say ‘Pra-Kaa’ and write the second symbol. After that, you say the place you wish to go, and it will take you there.”

  I nodded and looked up at her. “You're sure this works?”

  “Yes,” she said. “So sure, we’re going to do it right now and we’re going to go someplace we totally shouldn’t.” She smiled and raised an eyebrow. “By the way, you can say the place you want to go inside your head, too.” With that Akilah, held out her staff, whispered, “Yaa-Traa Pra-Kaa,” and the glyphs shimmered gold in the air. When they disintegrated, their bits didn’t float away — they formed a small, shimmering pool. The pool began to widen, growing longer and taller, and soon it was the standard portal.

  I grinned and nodded. “This is perfect, Akilah.”

  “Yes, it is. But first, let’s make sure it takes us where we need to go.” Akilah grabbed my hand and pulled me inside the portal. It was the typical tempest inside, but brief. A moment later we emerged in a room, and I saw Jasper, shirtless, jump from the bed mat he’d been meditating on and take several steps backward as he watched us emerge.

  “What are you doing here?” he whisper-shouted.

  Akilah shrugged. “You said it would be alright if I stopped by later,” she said.

  “I meant the normal way,” he said. He looked at me, then back at her. “You’re allowed to stop by. She’s not.”

  “Why is she allowed, but not me?” I asked, a bit miffed I was being singled out.

  “Even though I’m living in student quarters, I’m not technically a student,” Akilah responded. “Mukaat level and above are allowed to visit opposite-gender student quarters.”

  I kept forgetting that Akilah had privileges students didn’t. I looked back at Jasper, who’d reached down and found a cloak to put on. I’m glad we didn’t find him in further state of undress. That would have been inappropriate, and Akilah should have thought of that.

  However, I admit that seeing Jasper shirtless was a different kind of surprise. He was actually stronger than I thought he’d be. He seemed more manly shirtless than he’d been battling in our normal tunics. I suppose he is a tad older than me at fifteen, but his body seemed to have fully endured the change from boy to man, and seeing his fit upper body simply drove that point home. I realized I was staring, so I looked down at the ground and said. “I’m sorry about intruding on you, Jasper. I didn’t realize we were coming.”

  “It’s alright,” he said. I looked up at him in time to see him glare at Akilah. “I know exactly who is to blame in this.”

  “Alright. Enough,” Akilah said. “I’m sorry. I thought it might cheer her up to know that she could make a portal, and what better place to portal to than here?”

  “You’ve mastered portals?” Jasper asked, a smile starting to form on his lips.

  I shook my ahead. “Akilah made a glyph I can use to create them.”

  Jasper’s smile faded, and he pursed his lips as he look at Akilah. “I’ve never heard of a glyph for portals.”

  “No, but I made one. I figured it will help her out if she doesn’t have to figure out portal magic. She can work on more important things, and then Pylum will let her go get her aunt.”

  Jasper looked skeptical. He hesitated, then asked, “Has it been through approval yet?”

  “What’s approval?” I asked.

  Akilah sighed. “This one worries too much,” she said.

  “This one worries too little,” Jasper said, a bit of exasperation in his tone. “Glyphs aren’t added to the registry until they’ve been tested and approved. There are masters at the different temples who test to make sure they work properly — not just once or twice, but hundreds of times. They check for linger effects, too.”

  I’d heard of that before. In Master Shanzu’s lesson. Linger effects were magic that stayed even after the glyph had disintegrated and done its work. Linger could be harmless, something as simple as the air shimmering for another five or ten minutes, or actual magic that hadn’t been contained. Without direction, it could follow the first impulse of the person who came in contact with it. And those were usually salabs, who simply wished for something and then had the thing happen, good or bad. “Many a nonmagical person has been injured by linger effect,” Master Shanzu had said.

  “But does that matter here?” I asked Jasper. “We’re all mages. We understand magic and we wouldn’t accidentally wish for something.”

  “They worry about the salabs, but it can impact us, too,” Jasper said. “Heighten the intensity of magic we’re trying to perform. Imagine if there’d been linger effect when you tossed me across the room. I could have been really hurt if any more power had been added to what you’d done.”

  I thought on it a moment and supposed he was right. “Has it been tested?”

  Akilah shook her head “Not officially, but I’ve checked and rechecked it and found no linger effect.”

  Jasper gave her a harsh look.

  “I should’ve ported to the library or something,” Akilah said. She grabbed my hand. “Let’s head back.” She looked scathingly at Jasper. “And I’ll just make a portal this time. No glyphs.”

  Akilah opened the portal, and this time we went through it again and arrived back in our room. I was a little unsteady as I exited it. As brief a trip as it was, the portal was stormier than ever. I wobbled, then plopped down on my mattress.

  “You really think Jasper worries too much?” I asked. “Or do you think you should let your glyph get approved before I use it.”

  “I think Jasper worries too much,” she said. “But, I don’t want you to worry. Get some rest. Practice, and I promise you, Pylum wi
ll take you to rescue your aunt. Just be patient and focus on what you need to do.”

  Chapter 20 - Real Nightmares

  I wondered if Hakari Ahet was simply a place that made you dream. I never dreamt with Auntie, but here I found myself wandering away in my sleep yet again.

  I could tell it was a dream by the feel of it: real, but not quite real enough. I was in Zygam’s temple. It was dark, and the walls were obsidian, like the night. I walked the dark corridors, which were lit only by torches in wall sconces.

  Even though the corridor zigzagged. I never felt lost. I walked and walked and walked and walked. Finally, I arrived in a room. The walls here were the same obsidian, but it was big and open. On a cushion on the floor sat Zygam. Next to him, lying on her back on the floor, was Auntie, still covered in white paint, but wearing a long yellow dress, similar to the robes worn here at Hakari Ahet. On the other side of Auntie was a mage in a long black cloak. He looked grim.

  I rushed over to see what was happening. Zygam spoke. “I have used Moon Magic before,” he said to the other man. “I have held people in stasis for longer than this, as long as a decade, and it has never caused anything like this. It has never caused what’s happening to her.” Zygam bit his lower lip, then asked, “What is happening to her? Why is she getting weaker? I’ve done nothing but try to amplify her life force. I’ve even put these sun robes on her.”

  The man looked down at her. “I believe she knows what you’ve done. You’ve bound her magic, yet amplified her connection to the girl. She knows that as long as she lives, the girl will never be able to fully use her magic. I think she’s intentionally slipping away.”

  “Damn her,” Zygam spat in disgust. “Even now, she tries to thwart me. Fatima would never simply quit trying to live just to thwart me.”

  The man raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

  Zygam looked down at her. “How much longer can you keep her alive?”

  “It’s clearly against her will, and she’s powerful. At some point, there will be nothing I can do, but I think if I keep infusing her with this salve, she’ll live two more days at least, possibly up to a week.”

  Zygam cursed and then stood. “I’ll try to get the girl to come, but if I can’t convince her, I’ll …” he started. He stopped and took a deep breath. “Stay with her and call me if anything changes.”

  I awoke with a start. I had to leave. I had to get my aunt NOW. I couldn’t wait for Pylum to change his mind. I had to help her right now.

  I sat up, looked out the window at the moon in the sky and knew I had to leave. First, I needed a ketesh from Master Shanzu’s store of loaners. And I had to get out without waking Akilah. And then I’d use her portal glyph, whether there was linger or not.

  I pulled on a dark cloak and was quietly heading toward the room door when Akilah sat up. “Where are you going?”

  “Bathroom,” I whispered as I opened the door.

  “Why are you dressed like that?” she asked.

  “Go back to sleep.”

  I pulled the door open wide enough to step through when it suddenly closed. “Where are you going?” This time she was loud and firm.

  “I had a dream about my aunt,” I admitted. “Well, not a dream really. A vision of what’s happening at Zygam’s temple. She needs my help.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “You were screaming a few minutes ago, but then you stopped. I thought you’d gone back to sleep until I heard you rummaging around.” She stood up. “We should tell Pylum. You can’t go running off. You remember what happened last time?”

  “I didn’t know about my magic then. And Pylum has already said he’s not going to take me unless my magic is at some unattainable level. I need to go because I know where she is in the temple. And she’s sick. We have to go tonight.”

  Akilah put a hand on my shoulder. “If you explain to Pylum ...”

  “He’ll lock me in a room somewhere and let Auntie die,” I shouted. “I need to go now. Okay? I’m not putting my faith in Pylum. This is too important.”

  She bit her lower lip and looked like she was trying to think of a retort.

  “You said your parents abandoned you. What if you found out they were being held somewhere against their will and if no one came for them, they would die? Would you take your chances with Pylum, or would you go yourself?”

  Her brown eyes were looked stormy as she pondered my question. Finally she said, “Fine, you can go, but I’ll go with you.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock. “Really?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I can help you get your aunt, and it won’t risk the temple at large. Pylum said he was worried about leaving Hakari Ahet undefended. If it’s just the two of us, that means all the mages here will be safe and have the strongest masters available to help them.”

  I was grateful for her agreement, but worried I’d asked too much. “Akilah, I don’t want you to get hurt. If you don’t want to come with me, you don’t have to.”

  She smiled and made that clicking noise with your tongue. “Little one, I’m always up for adventure. And if things go bad, we can always call Pylum.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  She pulled up the thin chain she always wore around her neck. The ugly little stone at the end dangled before me. “It’s actually a trace stone. Pylum gave it to me a while back. I’ve never actually needed it, but I’ve always kept it with me.”

  I didn’t want to involve Pylum, but this was sort of a last resort measure, and that was fine by me. I smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Chapter 21 - The Moon Temple

  Having Akilah with me had been invaluable so far. She had ported me to the ketesh room and then, again, down to a garden. All we’d had to do was walk outside and beyond the borders of Hakari Ahet and she ported us to the sand-laden dessert we’d been too once before. It was the same this time, a feeling that I was drawn to this place. And despite being in the arid desert, it was shrouded in mist.

  We walked toward the temple, and as we did, the mist evaporated and we were on the temple grounds. I turned back, and looked beyond the mist. I could see the desert, bleak and seemingly unending.

  Akilah didn’t speak, but her face was a grim line. She seemed unsettled by the place. I leaned close to her and said, “I can go the rest of the way alone.”

  She shook her head, but said nothing. This temple was similar to Hakari Ahet in that it was surrounded by gardens. The building itself was more angular than the Temple of Light. Our temple seemed to have softer edges, rounded archways and conical towers. This one was all sharp angles and seemed to go straight up. It was much taller than Hakari Ahet. Its base was rectangular, and we were on one of the short sides. I considered walking around to one of the longer sides to get a better look, but something told me my time would be wasted.

  Instead, I forged straight ahead, through a garden surrounded by green hedges carved in the shapes of the different phases of the moon. We walked until we were at the outer wall. But it was completely solid. I saw no place to enter, yet, something inside me told me this was the entrance. Frustrated, I closed my eyes and thought of Auntie. I need to get in, I told her in my mind.

  There was no response. Had she died already?

  I shook my head. I couldn’t think like that. I leaned on the obsidian wall. It was cool to the touch. And when I did touch it, I felt miserable. I felt like I was on a hopeless mission, like this would never work. I wanted to lie down and cry. Then Akilah yanked me away from the wall. I instantly felt better once I was free of the wall.

  “What happened?” she whispered.

  “I’m not sure,” I told her, explaining how I’d felt.

  She put a hand to her chin. “It must be enchanted against intruders. We need to find another way in.”

  I shook my head. “This is the way.”

  She gave me a skeptical look. “It just wants you to think that so it can get you to touch the wall and get all weak again, maybe even die.”

  I consid
ered what she said, and while the wall may have been a trap, I was sure this was the place to enter. Perhaps the trap was here to stop people who’d seen others entering from trying to find the actual entrance. I took a step back from the wall and thought. I looked up to see a crescent moon over head. It gave me an idea.

  I searched my mind — the locked part. Yes, I know that doesn’t make sense, but I was trying to call forth parts of my memory that were locked. I knew I’d been here before. I just needed my brain to get the information I needed. And then, in a flash, it came to me. I lifted my ketesh and whispered, “Al-kalil.” A silver crescent moon appeared above me and flew to the wall. A moment later, a door appeared in the wall and opened.

  I smiled at Akilah. “I told you this was the place.”

  She bit her lower lip, and I could see the muscles tense in her neck and shoulders. “Stay alert,” she said.

  I nodded, and we entered. It was a dark hallway lit by torches, just like in my dream. From memory, or the same force that pulled me through in my dreams, I followed the path to the room that held Auntie.

  As we got to the doorway, I stopped and looked at Akilah. In my mind, I spoke to her. There is a man in there with her. I believe he is a healer. We will need to deal with him before we can take Auntie.

  She didn’t reply in my mind; she simply nodded. I wasn’t entirely familiar with the limits of Akilah’s magic. I wondered if she lacked the ability to communicate back telepathically, or simply did not wish to. I suspected the former; however, I wished I’d learned the answer before tonight.

  Akilah held up three fingers and then closed them one by one in a countdown. As her last finger slumped, she pushed the door open, her ketesh outstretched and ready to battle, but then she stopped. I stumbled in after her to find an empty room.

  “Camel spit,” I murmured under my breath, then remembered that Auntie didn’t like it when I muttered Halcyon curses