A man, a single man, could create Sybra? Could a man learn about Vatra? A man could create a huge language that produced magic with only the help of a few others? It all seemed hard to believe. Had this man dedicated his whole life to creating things like Jakost? “How did he discover all of these things? It seems like a lot to do as one person.”
“Ask Gem. I am sure he would be very willing to tell you. I, however, am ready to go. It’s a long and complicated story. I don’t want to accidentally mess up the details that might be important.” As she walked away, I realized that was the first time I had really gotten her to speak to me. Progress. I skimmed through the prophecy one more time, looking for any more hidden meanings within it, but found it difficult to pull anything more. It was just a bunch of vague words, in my opinion. I was about to head over to Emilie and Adam when Dominic joined me.
“So, you’ve read it?” He asked, motioning with his head at the prophecy.
“Yes.” I sighed.“It’s pretty disturbing. It just talks a lot about death, betrayal, and war.”
“Yes,” Dominic agreed, “But it also talks about a Chosen One. Someone meant to bring peace, I guess.”
“To be honest, I didn’t get much out of it. I tried reading it over, but it just seems like a lot of jumbled words. I’ve never been into riddles.”
“Same.” Dominic smiled at me, lighting up his face. “Either way, I think we should focus on the positives.”
“I want to,” I began, “But I’m worried.”
“What are you worried about?” His expression fell, and he stepped a little closer to me. I found my heart pounding in my chest, and my mouth becoming dry. I wish being around him didn’t have this effect on me, but it did.
“I’m just worried about the spy. What if it’s one of our group?” I looked down at the ground, my hands curling into fists.
“Natalie, we can’t know that. It’s impossible to tell, and it will drive us crazy wondering. Remember, James told us we need to be strong and unified. We can’t just think about the ‘what ifs’ because we really don’t know.”
“You sound like Emilie,” I said with a smile.
“You could use a little more positive thinking in your life.” Dominic winked at me, and I felt myself flush. Ugh. “I can’t help wondering though. What if one of us is the Chosen One? I mean, there are only ten recruits. There’s a really good chance it’s one of us.”
“I hope it’s not one of us. I don’t want anyone of the group to have to deal with that. I feel like being the Chosen One means your life is over; your freedom is over. You are stuck being in control of the Subdina Volcano and spending your whole life afraid someone is trying to kill you.”
“Dominic… if you had to choose one of us that could be the Chosen One, who would you choose?”
“That’s easy.” Dominic smiled at me, but it no longer reached his eyes. He seemed troubled by the turn this conversation had taken. “It would be you.”
“Come on… I can’t even produce magic.” I laughed uneasily before I realized he wasn’t laughing with me.
“Natalie, the Chosen One isn’t defined by their abilities. It’s defined by who they are as a person. Don’t you think?”
“But,” I gasped, “I’m nothing special, nothing. Be serious.”
“I am serious.”
“I’m just a normal teenager,” I muttered.
“As normal as you can be. Like all of us, one of our parents was a Ones of Within member. None of us is normal. None of those teenagers back on Earth even know about Aughmortor, let alone have Vatra’s.” Dominic was silent for a moment, lost in thought. “Who would you have picked?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you could choose which one of us would have been the Chosen One, who would you have picked?”
“You…” It was as clear as day in my mind. As much as I loved Kat and Austin, they didn’t seem as intense as Dominic and struggled just like I did with all the new stuff. It seemed like Dominic was barely phased by being in Aughmortor and all of the intense training.
“Well, now that we’ve got that settled, let’s go over to the others.” His mood changed in a flash, and he had that knowing grin on his face again. Still, there was something weird about the look in his eyes like something about the conversation bothered him. Dominic winked at me again and his shoulder lightly brushed against mine as he moved to a nearby prophecy.
I walked over to Emilie, who was laughing with Adam. Emilie turned to me when I joined them, her blue eyes sparkling.
“You read it?”
“Yes. It’s interesting.” I wasn’t sure what to say. It was hard to understand the meaning of most of the prophecy and hard to believe a single man had created all of them years ago.
“You’re doing it again.” Adam laughed.
I frowned, confused. “What do you mean, doing it again?”
“You always disappear into your thoughts,” Emilie explained. “I wonder what you were thinking about this time.” She looked, pointedly, over at Dominic, who had his back turned to us. I found myself getting red again and vowed to spend less time around him for the next couple of days. She laughed at my expression. “No worries, Natalie, your secret is safe with me.”
Adam looked confused at the words, totally oblivious to what Emilie was talking about. Thankfully, he was just as clueless as most guys were.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Anyways…” Emilie changed the subject, thankfully. “Ready to head out? I think dinner should be ready any minute.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” The blue lighting in the room was starting to irritate my eyes, and all of a sudden I wanted to be anywhere but where all these confusing, mysterious texts were. I was more than ready to move on. I didn’t want to spend any more time worrying about the ‘what ifs’ today. Whatever was in store in the next few days, I would manage.
Chapter Fifteen
The day was so familiar to me, and the memory brought back a tidal wave of fear. It was a memory that I never liked to remember and one that came to me too often. I was sitting on the stool, a coloring book in front of me sprawled upon the new table. It was just the right size for me, and since it was out of the way of my parents, no one expected me to clean up the mess I left on it. I liked my table very much because it was mine and I didn’t have to share it with anyone else. I had a blue crayon in my right hand, and a green one in my right. I was barely five, so the coloring book page was hardly a masterpiece, but I did a decent job coloring near the lines.
Today, I hadn’t let the dark lines hinder my creative expression, and crayons marks covered the whole page, barely leaving white space leftover. I was so proud of my creation, though because it looked so nice to me. I had managed to color a bit of green and blue on my white table, but I didn’t mind, and I hoped that no one would notice it. I rubbed it with my hand, trying to undo it with no avail. It was still early in the day, but it was bitterly cold outside now that it was winter, so I was more than willing to stay inside for it. I had plenty of things to do inside, far away from the nipping cold. Usually, the temperature was nice and comfortable even in winter, but today it was surprisingly bitter.
I still had a whole pile of toys that I still hadn’t played with from my birthday. It had only been a week ago, and I had played with almost three-fourths of my birthday gifts so far. The coloring book had been my favorite, even though I had many coloring books. My breakfast of french toast drenched in syrup had been a few hours ago, and I was starting to get hungry again. My mother liked things neat and very clean at all times, so I made sure to keep clean during breakfast and not spill anything on my clothes or in the kitchen. Luckily, she was in her room where she could not see the mess I was making on the floor with broken crayons. I found it hilarious to make a mess of things even though it made her very angry. I ripped my drawing out of my drawing book, leaving half of it in the coloring book, while I walked over to find my mom
.
I wanted to show her my beautiful creation. If I was lucky, she might hang it on the board in her room. She hung some of her favorite pictures I had drawn in my coloring book there. Even though I knew she was in her room, I took my time getting there, although. I was excited to give it to her so I could continue with my weekend. I walked towards her room, confused. At this time, she would usually be up and walking around. My dad had already left for work so that she would be cleaning the rooms.
“Mom?” My voice was young, and pitiful, as I recognized now. I was too innocent to know what was coming. I opened her door, feeling a strange feeling of dread and disappointment. I could hear her talking to herself. Inside, a big black suitcase lay on the floor that was already half-full with clothing. She was putting a shirt on it. I recognized some shirts, pants, and some strange objects that I couldn’t recognize objects that I had never seen before. Where had she gotten these objects? She slammed the suitcase shut before I got a good chance to see what the objects were.
“Mom, what’s going on?” My voice rose, so it almost sounded like shrieking. I was only five. Were we going on a vacation? My mother’s dark hair was messy, not sleek and straight like it usually was. She turned, her features contorting in frustration. I cringed, not understanding what was wrong.
“I have no time for you right now, Natalie! Out of my way!” The rage in her eyes frightened me. She took a step in my direction, hand raised.
“I’m scared.” My big eyes were filled with innocence. This was so unlike the mother I was used to. She was strict, but she never got angry like that even when I did something bad.
“Get out!” I took one last look at her face, and the drawing fell out of my hands.
I hurried out of her bedroom, my hand reaching to shut the door, but my fingers never hit the doorknob. My mother slammed the door on my hand. It wasn’t intentional, but it hurt. My face screwed up in pain, and I had to bite my lip from screaming. I didn’t want to make my mother any madder, and she usually brushed off my injuries anyways. I quickly slid my fingers out from between the doors and stumbled into the kitchen, trying to reach my hand up to the faucet. I gave up, ignoring the throbbing in my hand and mumbled incoherent words as I walked back to my desk. I sat on the seat for a few minutes, looking at the half of my drawing that remained in my coloring book. It didn’t look so special now.
It took a few minutes before my mother came out of her room. She carried the big black suitcase with her. She reached over to touch my hand, but I flinched away from her. Our eyes met blue and gray. “Natalie, I’m leaving you with your father.” Her words weren’t sorrowful, just full of finality. They just felt cold.
“Why?” I asked, the tears threatening to spill from my eyes. I didn’t want her to leave at all, but I truly did not understand exactly what she meant by leaving. I figured she was going on a short trip or going to the store. Not leaving me forever.
She ignored my question as though she hadn’t heard it. From her hand, dangled a beautiful golden necklace. It glittered exquisitely in the sunlight that streamed through the windows. I stared at it wondrously, my eyes as wide as saucers.
“Keep this. Wear it at all times. It is your protection.” My mother put the necklace over my neck. Its charm fell against my stomach, and it was much too big for my small frame, but I loved it all the same.
“Of course,” I mumbled, wondering what I had done to deserve such a gift.
She rolled her suitcase down the hall, in the direction of the garage, where her car was.
“No!” I darted forward, my little steps making me reach her at the front of the door. I couldn’t comprehend what was going on. It was as though my brain couldn’t process the information. Maybe, somewhere deep in my childish mind, I knew that this wasn’t a normal leaving. I grabbed her shirt and tugged it a few times. My mother turned her head towards me, and she bent over.
Her cool lips pressed against my cheek before she extricated her shirt from my grasp.
“I love you, Natalie, but I have to go.”
“When will you be back?” I asked, my eyes staring hopefully up her.
She picked up her black suitcase and towed it out the door. As the door closed behind her, so did my last image of her, an image of a retreating back. She didn’t even look back.
I jolted away from the old memory and let out several curse words, realizing for the third time in the past week, I was up in the middle of the night due to nightmares. It had to be around two in the morning again. The past few days, I had been so exhausted that training was miserable. With a sigh, I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep for a while, so I decided to take a walk. Zipping on my jacket, I headed down the empty halls of the Kartica. The building was so different at night; during the day, it bustled with people, and there was never a dull moment. No one had told me I couldn’t explore the Kartica at night, so I figured I was fine. I didn’t know my destination, but for once, it didn’t matter. I could just enjoy walking around and calming my beating heart.
All hallways end eventually, though, I noticed with bitter amusement. As I walked towards the other side of the room, I noticed the prophecy room door was slightly ajar. Blue light trickled out of the room, bringing my attention to it. At night, the prophecy room was even more mysterious than it was during the day. There was someone bowed in front of the prophecy, the Secret of Words. For a second, I wondered if I should leave. But, as the door closed behind me and the head turned, I sighed out a deep breath. It was Dominic- I could recognize him from anywhere. His eyes seemed blurry and distant as though he hadn’t gotten any sleep, and his hair was an utter mess, sticking up at all angles around his head.
“Dominic?” I whispered, wondering why he was here and why I was here at the same time.
“I couldn’t sleep,” He said softly, his gaze forming on my face. He appeared to be half-asleep but was starting to slowly become more awake with my presence. “What about you?”
“Nightmares again.” I was hesitant to walk up to him for some reason. It was two in the morning, of course, but there was something about Dominic’s expression that made me think he didn’t want my company. “I can leave if you want me to.”
“No, I don’t want you to leave,” Dominic said firmly. I stood where I was, wondering if he was going to say anything else. “I was just reading the prophecy again. Trying to find some meaning in it.”
“Dominic,” I murmured, walking over to him and crouching beside him. “You don’t have to look for the meanings.”
“I don’t?” Dominic asked bitterly, “I wish that was the case.”
“The Ones of Within will be fine. It’s not worth worrying about. Remember what you said to me the other day?”
“Is it a good thing that the Ones of Within win?” He asks me before shaking his head. “Just ignore me, I’m still half-asleep.”
“Your opinion matters to me.” I sighed because it mattered more to me than it probably should.
“Why couldn’t the prophecies be blunt and straightforward?” Dominic said to the tablet. “He couldn’t just write the outcome and leave it at that.”
“That would have simplified things, that’s for sure.”
“I just wish we could fast forward. Get this chapter of our life done.”
“Why?” I asked, surprised. I thought he was enjoying training and getting to hang out with the other members of our group. Sure, he was somewhat enclosed within himself, but so was I.
“I don’t know. I can’t explain it, and I just feel stuck here.”
“Don’t you think eventually once the war is over that the Ones of Within would no longer need us?”
“Are you sure about that?” He asked, his eyes distant and sad. I found myself moving closer to him, step by step. “I feel like the Ones of Within will always need us. Even if they end up winning the war, who will protect the Chosen One? Who will protect the cities? Who will lead the lands?”
“They can’t need all of us,” I protested.
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br /> “Look, I’m just saying that I don’t know what will happen. Who knows if the Ones of Within will win? The prophecy could be about the Larta creating peace instead. Or, maybe, this war will be the end of the Larta. Hell, I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to go to war,” I said softly. It was true; all of this training led us the right to the battlegrounds. While I enjoyed training, I didn’t look forward to the idea of fighting and killing for the Ones of Within. I knew I had to for the protection of the Ones of Within and Earth. Right?
“I wish we had a choice,” Dominic whispered, and his head fell down, his shoulders slightly slumped. I had never seen him like this before, and it frightened me. Silence fell between us and I found myself wanting to comfort him in some way, anyway I could.
Slowly, I stepped next to him, so our shoulders were barely touching and I slipped my hand into his. A faint smile crept onto his lips as he looked down at our entwined hands. I don’t know how long we stood there, unwilling to break the moment, but there was something calming at looking upon the prophecy with his hand in mine.
Chapter Sixteen
“Natalie, I want you to try something.” Aaron’s voice was losing patience. After two weeks of training, I had still not managed to hit a single target in archery. His voice was kind of like a broken record; it just continued to give criticism to a deaf ear. I knew I needed to improve my archery, and he wasn’t helping. At all. Tomorrow was my birthday, and even though I was looking forward to it, I was nervous about what it would be like. It would be my first birthday on Aughmortor, obviously, and I hoped it would go well, but I hadn’t been very well informed on the system of celebrations here yet.
I stared at Aaron’s face helplessly as he droned on and on about tips to improve. “Whatever you like,” I said respectfully, dipping my head. I made sure to be polite to the instructors even if I was frustrated. Aaron pulled out a few daggers from his belt. The pommel of the daggers were all encased with an iridescent jewel. Seeing the daggers in his hands gave me a flash of misgiving, which I buried. Like Aaron, my instructor would try to stab me with a dagger: since when had I been so superstitious? The sleeping problems and the overhanging threat of a traitor amongst us was getting to me more than it seemed to be getting to anyone else other than possibly Dominic. We hadn’t talked much since the night in the prophecy room, but it made me feel comforted that at least somehow shared my worries.
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