“That is all I can tell you about the beginning of our world,” concluded Koeris. “So now, let’s move on to what we know for sure, if that’s alright with you.” The adolescent nodded and thought through the many questions that were jumbled about in his mind.
“There are several things I’d like to know,” he said finally. “First of all, I want to know about the elves and the dwarves. Why did they withdraw from the rest of the world?”
The monk turned to him with a smile. “First, come and see,” he said. The two approached a window that opened toward the forest that formed the eastern limit of the Known Lands. “Do you see these trees?” asked the man. “They are the home of the elves.”
“Hmm, like Oclin-Fer belongs to the dwarves,” replied the teen.
“Not exactly. Actually, the elves live in almost all of the forests and woods that are big enough to hide them. We believe that somewhere here they have a capital, or something like one. This is simply the main home of the elves.”
“I see,” murmured Glaide. He thought back to when Zorick had explained all of this for the first time. “You could say that the arctic belongs to the barbarians, the mountains to the dwarves, the forests to the elves, and the plains to men.”
“That’s basically it, yes,” replied the monk with a smile. “That is today, anyway,” he added, suddenly serious. “In the time of Dzen and Novak, all of the races lived together, and lived in harmony. The cities of the humans sheltered people of all of the races, and men, too, sometimes tried to live in the forests or the mountains.”
“So that brings me back to my question: why did they withdraw? I know that they could forge weapons able to use magic, and my master said that they began to disappear little by little after Dzen’s victory against Baras.”
Koeris sighed deeply, visibly saddened. “Kezthrem was right, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Galadria’s diversity is very important. Each race complements another, as each one has its own area of expertise. Magic, the art of war, culture, hunting, weaponry, and so on. The world we live in today perfectly illustrates the importance of each of those aspects of knowledge, because now that some have been lost, we find ourselves again at the mercy of Baras. But there is something more important than knowledge.”
“And what is that?” asked the boy.
“Aras, Glaide. Aras.”
“Baras’ brother? But what does he have to do with any of this?”
“Everything, or almost everything. Listen: the more worshippers a god has, the more powerful he is, and that is a fact. Today, our enemy has so many followers that he has succeeded at taking on a physical form. Aras could do the same...”
“If only everyone believed in him,” finished Glaide, as he began to understand. “And that’s why I am meant to intervene? To bring back their faith?”
Koeris let out a heart-rending sigh. “I don’t know, unfortunately. It’s possible, even if the Destroyer is above all a warrior with great power. His goal seems to be to destroy Baras, but who knows? Whatever the case, apart from a few humans, such as the ones living in this temple, the dwarves and the elves are the only ones who remain who believe in Aras. And there are certainly not enough of us to accomplish much.”
“What has Aras brought to this world?” Glaide asked, seeing there the answer to many of the questions he’d been asking since he’d arrived.
“To begin with, besides the power he could bring us during a battle, it is he who makes the land fertile, and most importantly, it is he who makes the rain fall.”
The boy felt his heart skip a beat at that; he was dumbfounded. So then, that was the source of the problem. In a few seconds he envisioned exactly what that meant: Galadria would perhaps not be lost if men once again put their faith in Aras. That would not solve the problem posed by the God of Evil, but the inhabitants of the world would finally have a glimmer of hope.
“What else can you tell me?” he asked feverishly. After six months of waiting, the mission that he and his friends had been given finally seemed to be becoming more clear. Here was a clue at last.
“The question,” the other man continued, “is why have men stopped believing in their god?”
“The nomads that I met told me that they had waited in desperation for a sign from him, but when they found they had to go into battle, they believed that Aras had abandoned them.”
“However, they weren’t able to recognize Dzen as that hoped for sign, and they instead preferred to deny the God of Good, without understanding what awaited them in doing that.”
“But the elves and the dwarves knew! Why didn’t they say anything? Why did they leave?”
“Those two things are connected, and the origin of it all has a name: the Necromancer.”
The adolescent drew in a sharp breath when he heard that word. Everything that Kezthrem had told him came to mind. He had mentioned just such a creature, and had said that it had been at the origin of sinister plans whose objectives surpassed the understanding of mortals, since they had been planned for many years, or even centuries.
“A necromancer allied himself with Baras back then,” announced the man. “He never acted directly, and never attacked anyone, so that in the end, no one really understood his role, at least up until today, five hundred years later.”
“That’s what my master said,” the adolescent commented, surprised to hear of that creature again. “Those creatures know how to plan for dozens and even hundreds of years. They are immortal...”
“And that is one of the reasons that the races of the Known Lands began to disappear, little by little. Listen well, now. After the victory of the humans, Novak and Dzen, it became clear to the peoples of this world that their god had chosen his favorite race: humans. These seemed so feeble, sneaky, and treacherous, and still, they had become the elite. Of course, the wisdom of the dwarves and the elves is such that, without subtle intervention by the necromancer, they would never have built up so much resentment. That creature manipulated them by making them think they no longer had any use in this world, and that there was nothing left to do but disappear. And his plan worked, though not as well on the barbarians, who still remain, though they are divided.”
“So that is why Gardock, the dwarfish king, believes he’s obligated to patiently await their final hour.”
“Which makes it all the more evident that the Necromancer expected Baras to return, because now his plan is revealed in all of its darkness. Today, we need all of the inhabitants of the Known Lands, but they are no longer here.”
The two sat for a moment in silence, their eyes fixed on the ground. Then, slowly, Glaide lifted his head. His eyes blazed with new determination.
“I’m here,” he murmured. He stood up and began to pace as he summarized everything he had just learned. “So, now I know that it is Aras that makes the rain fall. For that to happen again, there have to be enough people who believe in him, while today, only a few humans, the elves, and the dwarves do. It must be thanks to those remaining believers that there are still rivers that remain, and that the grass of the plains still remains healthy. If men have stopped believing in Aras, it is because they think he abandoned them five hundred years ago, which is wrong, because he was the one who sent Dzen, the Destroyer. However, instead of showing that to the humans and proving that Aras had helped them, the other peoples decided to live as recluses, persuaded that the same god had forgotten them, instead looking to men, because it was from them that he had chosen his savior. In reality, though, the one responsible for putting those thoughts in their heads was a necromancer who’d allied himself with Baras, with the goal of harming the generations to come.... Us.”
“Exactly,” replied the monk.
A dark smile settled onto Glaide’s face. “It seems that he forgot one detail, one grain of sand: me. I know what I have to do now. I have to find my friends, and the four of us will have to speak to the people of Galadria. With them following us, we will bring hope back to humanity. Then, we will have
to find where Baras has hidden himself and kill him, and for that, I will need Dzen’s katana which, according to Ralon, is in the hand of the descendant of Novak. And I must learn if our enemy is accompanied by the necromancer this time.”
Koeris let out an admiring sigh. “What a plan.”
“To say the least,” murmured Glaide. With that, he said farewell to the monk and left. His mind was in turmoil, and instead of returning to see the soldiers, he decided to find a place to lounge about in the clearing behind the temple. He’d only just settled in when someone came to bring him refreshments, which he accepted joyfully. Then, he let his gaze wander, first toward the forest to his right, then the mountains to his left, until he finally lost himself in the immensity of the sky. A turquoise sky without a single cloud...
“It’s strange,” thought the young man. “It’s February now, and yet the weather remains the same. Always the same temperature, and the same perfect sunny weather, such as one only sees during the spring back home. How long has the weather been disturbed like this? One generation? Two? The powers of Aras didn’t disappear overnight, but I suppose, bit by bit, the inhabitants of Galadria saw winter shrink, until it disappeared entirely.”
He let his thoughts wander to what would happen in the weeks to come. His training was drawing to a close, and he would have to return to traveling. That idea both enchanted and disturbed him. He wasn’t against a bit of action and the unforeseeable, but once again, he would be setting out blind, with no idea where he would find his friends. He thought for a moment that he could return to Shinozuka, but if he knew his friends, Gwenn, Jeremy, and Emily wouldn’t have stayed there waiting for him.
“Emily would certainly have protested, arguing that it was dangerous, and that their chances of finding me were slim,” Glaide thought with a smile. “Then, Jeremy would have probably replied that he was good enough with the sword to protect the two of them, and Gwenn would obviously have added that she wanted to see the world. Hmm... Perhaps Emily would have thought that if I could go alone, searching for a ghost, she could do the same? Oh, my friends...” sighed Glaide. “How I miss you all...”
Then, his thoughts became more vague, more muddled. He saw Tyv and Paeh, the magg and protector that had accompanied him back to Yzur, once again. Then, the face of the dragon, Ayrokkan, appeared, and the young man remembered what he had said. Soon, the face was replaced with images of the places he had seen, and the monsters and men he had met. His hand went to his neck, and he felt the chain of mithril that the king of the dwarves had given him. His time with that people seemed so far away that he began to doubt what he had seen.
“I’ve met so many people,” he murmured. “When I think of everything I’ve experienced since the beginning of July, I can’t even begin to understand what it all means! Galadria—another world—with men and women living their lives, while I live mine. Me, the so-called Destroyer, and my friends, with magical powers. Magical powers,” he repeated the word softly. “Magic. How incredible!”
For a moment, he felt himself propelled to that first moment in the Forest of the Worlds, his three friends unconscious nearby. In that moment, how could he have imagined just what he was getting himself into? Perhaps he couldn’t have known, but one thing was certain. Today, he felt no regret. Finally, he dozed off, a small smile on his lips.
Chapter 16
“GLAIDE!”
The young man opened his eyes, but the sun, still high in the sky, blinded him, and he squeezed them shut again. Though his training had taught him to be ready at any time of the day or night, the serenity that reigned in this place had relaxed him so much that he’d slept very deeply.
“Glaide! Glaide, where are you?”
“Who’s yelling so?” With a grumble, the boy opened his eyes again. He forced himself to sit up, then turned around. Ralon saw him then and exclaimed, “There you are! Kezthrem has been looking for you for over an hour. You missed lunch!” The monk approached, handing him an apple with a wink. “I don’t know what he wants from you, but you’d better eat this quickly, so you have the strength for whatever it is.”
“Does he... Does he want... to train?” the boy asked with a yawn, still half asleep.
“Who knows? He’s waiting by the front entrance.” Then the man wished him luck and left.
“That doesn’t bode well,” Glaide said, frowning slightly. “Whatever does he have in mind?” Despite his fears, he headed toward the entrance, devouring his meager meal on the way. Kezthrem was already there when he arrived, a sack at his feet, appearing to be in the middle of a discussion with one of the guards. The young man approached, while his master fixed his eyes on him. Glaide felt a bit ill at ease.
“What a pleasure to see you, master!” he said. His master smiled, a deep and genuine smile unlike any the young man had ever seen on his face before.
“The same to you,” he replied. The boy could see a distinct change besides the inhabitual facial expression on the man’s face: the dark eyes still showed an inky depth, but he looked as though a weight had been lifted. The boy could no longer see the shadow of permanent sadness that he had noticed so many times before. “Could Koeris have been right?” he wondered. “Did my master finally find absolution?” Though he couldn’t know for sure, he knew one thing: Kezthrem wasn’t waiting for him for some kind of training session, but simply so that the master and the disciple could spend some time together. And the boy certainly wasn’t going to complain about that!
“We’re going to leave the temple for a few hours,” announced the man. “I have some food along,” he added, pointing to the sack. “We’ll be back after sunset.” The guard nodded to them, then opened the gate. Kezthrem stepped out, followed closely by his student, and the two quickly drew away from the temple.
Glaide, looking about at the vastness of the hills, realized then how much he’d missed them. He had only been there for a few days, and he would leave again soon, but even their return trip would not be enough to appease his reawakened thirst for adventure. Kezthrem, walking in front of him, was silent, so the boy took the opportunity to plunge into his memories. The first to come to mind were his own travels, from before he’d met his master. He knew that that time hadn’t always been a joyous one, and at times, he’d felt desperately lonely, but in this moment, as is often the case, only the good moments came to mind. Even his chance encounter with the ghosts seemed charming.
“A penny for your thoughts, Glaide...” Kezthrem turned to look at his disciple. The smile still remained, and it seemed contagious to the boy. His reply came in cheerful tones.
“I was just thinking that I was missing adventure a bit.” The man laughed at that.
“What part are you missing so much?”
“The open road, the uncertainty, the unexpected, all of it.”
“It’s true that once you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to give it up,” he replied with a little sigh. “But don’t forget that if adventure offers joy, dreams lived out, and a chance to meet new people, it also offers the chance of death and pain.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind, master,” replied the boy, feeling a bit unsettled.
“Good.” The two continued on their way until they reached the edge of the forest, where the orks had set up their ambush before they’d come. The man spoke again.
“Our little trip has several purposes, my young disciple. First, we are to inspect the area around the temple. You know that we leave two days from now, and I want to be sure our enemies have abandoned their pursuit.”
“You think they might still be nearby? But if that were the case, why wouldn’t they have attacked already?”
“They could be waiting for reinforcements. Who knows?” The second reason has more to do with you directly. I’d like to discuss what you are planning to do next, and I’d like us to evaluate what has happened so far, since you and your friends arrived on Galadria.”
“Excellent,” agreed Glaide. Kezthrem glanced around, but no signs of dang
er were visible.
“Since it seems the monsters aren’t particularly near,” he continued, “let’s keep walking. He pointed to two small stands of trees a mile or so away. “If they’re anywhere nearby, they’d have to be there. Those trees could hide about a hundred soldiers, and it’s possible they might be gathering there. While we’re walking, we could start by discussing your plans, if you like.”
With that, the two started moving in that direction. This would be a good opportunity for Glaide to clear his thoughts concerning the rest of his training. Kezthrem had told him before that once they returned to the dojo, he would have little more to learn. In a few days, or two weeks at the most, Glaide would be ready to return to the road. Once more, the man added that to really master the technique, it would take more time than that, but that in their case, they simply didn't have time to practice for so long. He added that he and his disciple would meet again soon, once he’d found his magg again, because the most important part of his training—the part involving white magic—still remained.
That declaration reassured the young man. He feared the time when he would have to leave his master, because he knew that many things would happen soon, and that he’d have front row seats to it all. As long as he had Kezthrem by his side, he would be safe, he wouldn’t have to make decisions, and the world around him would be limited to a fledgling village and a nearby house. He felt himself torn between two contradicting desires: on one hand, he wanted to see his friends again, and depart, seeking adventure, while on the other hand, he feared the solitude and the possibility—though he tried to chase it from his mind—that he might not be able to find them, or that something might have happened to them.
Chronicles of Galadria III - Lessons Page 12
