Chapter Nine

There was a girl, an older teen, an Akeefa warrior from the looks of her clothing, with a mess of curly red hair and skin so pale it hardly looked real, laying in a pool of blood. The source of the blood, from the looks of it, was her left arm where her hand seemed to be...missing.

The mages stood there for a second then ran up to her. She was shaking ever so slightly, sprawled there on the ground. Jake took off his light summer cloak, wondering if it would help to wrap it around her wound, but she had lost so much blood, there was no way she would make it alive. Neither did he know any spells that might save her.

Zavier took off his cloak as well, setting it on the ground then coming over to where the girl lay, "What happened?" he asked quietly.

The girl opened her eyes with much difficulty "w- who are y- you?" it was hard for her to muster the energy to speak.

"I'm Zavier, and my friend Jake's here too-" Jake joined him by the girl "who did this to you?"

Muriel looked up at them and they could see the pain and hopelessness in her eyes. She spoke softly "It is too late. I cannot explain. There is no time" she winced and the boys looked at each other, unsure what to do. Then Jake noticed the little shard of rock sticking out of her leg. He pulled it out and she shuddered horribly. "What's this?" he asked.

"No time," she said again, her eyes beginning to close, then suddenly opening again, for she'd seen something. Yes. Both of the boys' arms had colorful spiral designs on them, similar but not identical. This could mean only one thing.

"Why, you two are mages!"

"Yes. We are" said Zavier, the girl's eyes were suddenly alight with hope. "Why?" asked Jake.

"There is" started the young woman, "something important...something only I know. I- I cannot l- leave th- this world" a tear rolled down her cheeks and the mages looked away. "I cannot go without passing on th- this information. Y- you are m- mages. C-can you perform Servadem?"

Servadem. A spell that preserves a human's last words in a magician's mouth, so that the next time the magician speaks, the human's words will come out of their mouth. But the magician can only share the words once, and then the spell will be over and the words gone, so the magician must not utter a single word until they have finished sharing the human's last. The spell only begins after the human has died.

"Uh, I think so…" said Zavier

"Hey, that's genius!" said Jake, "only, Zavier should be the one to do it."

"What? No, you do it!"

"Time," whispered Muriel. "I want this information to go to my friend, an Akeefa warrior like myself. She looks rather like me, tall with red hair...grey eyes. Her name is Istelle, and she has the Mark of Fire embedded on the back of her left hand. You will need to find her, and give it to her. As long as you haven't found her, you must not speak the words. And I will not utter a sound after I say them, so that they will have been my last."

"And this is really, really important information?" asked Zavier.

"It concerns the war. Very important."

"Okay. Jake, do it."

"Whaaat noooo," Jake was adamant. " I can't. Didn't you hear her? This is important! I'd mess up the spell, start talking and ruin it. You do it Zavier."

"You—" started Zavier but Jake interrupted him "You know I'm right! I'd mess it up so bad!"

"And I—"

Muriel's eyes had closed, it was too exhausting to keep them open. She had stopped shivering as well, and her heartbeat had started slowing.

The two boys looked at her, then at each other.

It was now or never.

"Fine." Alekzavier consented.

Jake nodded, taking his cloak and walking away, finding a spot to sit behind a tree about thirty feet away. For Servadem to work, there could not be anyone watching except for the human and the magician.

Alekzavier inhaled deeply. He had never really performed this spell, it had only ever been described and acted out for him.

"Are you ready?" he asked quietly. Muriel gave the slightest of nods, beginning to tremble again. "As soon my hand is off your mouth, start speaking. Okay, here we go."

Alekzavier began by running his right hand all along his left arm, right over the spiral designs that showed he was a mage.

When he reached his fingertips, he jerked his hand away, making it into a tight fist. "Servadem!" He shouted the word as loud as he could. It would be the last thing to come from his mouth for a long time.

He slowly released his fist, then placed his open hand on Muriel's mouth, fingers spread wide apart.

After two long seconds, he began to slowly, steadily withdraw his hand, as if he was pulling something out of her face.

In a whisper, Muriel spoke her last words.

"South West of Atzigul, past swamps and in the middle of a field of tall grass is a lake in which dwells a water spirit by the name of Cyan."

Every word Muriel spoke, a little wisp flew from her mouth.

"Cyan is a powerful enchantress who was imprisoned in the lake by a wizard of white arts during a quest to conquer the earth."

Each wisp was a different color.

"Since then, she has been sending a wizard by the name of Altair to collect the four emblems that she believes will free her from the lake and restore and increase her powers."

The whisps combined together in a sparkly, colorful cloud.

"He was the thief of the Symbol of Air and she is the bearer of the Symbol. They are the true cause for the start of the war and Altair is trying to capture Istelle as the next in line Akeefa leader so that Cyan may kill her and obtain the Mark of Fire, awarding Altair for his help once she has gained control over the earth."

As Muriel finished speaking, Alekzavier finished lowering his hand. The cloud of color that had formed in front of Muriel's face now moved, shaping into one long, flowing line, moving, swaying in the air like a magical snake.

Then, it slithered through the air, moving towards the mage. It vanished, right through Zavier's closed lips without making a sound.

And with that, Muriel's breathing slowed to a stop.

She was finally at peace.

Her pain was over.

After lunch the following day, Istelle and Gwanwyn set out to begin recruiting an army, provisions and other supplies packed in bags on their shoulders.

They had decided the day before that to start out, it should just be the two of them. Lina, Jude, Liz and Arin would stay behind with Evan and Alistair at Greene's Cabin.

The girl and ashy decided to start by traveling to the very edge of the land, past the Lette and onto independent properties and see who they might meet. They'd see if humans were willing to join, and if not, maybe there were some magical creatures living in the dense forest that belonged to no one who might also be affected by the war and join them. Hopefully, by the time they started back, they'd have enough people, and/or creatures that some Lette townsfolk would even be inspired to join as well. It was worth a shot.

They avoided people, mostly sticking to sparse forests and going around towns.

They hiked for four hours then decided to make camp for the night. It wouldn't be dark out for several more hours but they decided to stop earlier so they would have time to make shelters and cook for the night while they still had light.

Istelle found two ditches to fit them, filling hers with leaves from the forest floor, then rolling a log on each side of her ditch and laying sticks across them and covering them in heaps of leaves as well. Gwanwyn did the same with the other ditch.

After over an hour of work, they each had cozy little shelters that would keep them warm during the night, just big enough for them to lay in and quite camouflaged.

They started dinner preparations, lighting a small fire on which to cook some greens and cured meat. Gwanwyn took the cooking upon herself while Istelle wandered off to get some small branches to put on their shelters to help keep any strong winds from blowing the leaves off. She returned not only with branches that she ceremoniously arranged on both shelters, but with some good news as well.

"Gwanwyn, there's a little stream down that way. Extremely shallow and also very narrow, but if I follow it down to where it widens out a bit, maybe we can boil some of that water and save what we brought with us?"

"Yes, that's excellent," the ashy answered, "I brought a good pot for boiling water with me, here, I'll get it out for you."

"Thank you" Istelle set off with the pot to gather some water.

She reached the stream and paused briefly to wonder whether she should follow it down or simply dig it out. She decided to follow it, otherwise it would be a lot of digging.

Istelle had been following the little stream down and around a small hill for about three hundred feet when she reached a larger part of the creek and she would have hurried over to fill the pot but she hesitated. Because there was already someone there.

A girl, tall and thin, with long brown hair and dark eyes. She looked about Istelle's age, and was dressed in a plain blue summer dress and was sitting on the bank, combing her wet hair that she probably had just finished washing. She was really very pretty.

When the girl looked up at Istelle, Istelle was taken aback by her dark eyes, they were very large, and also had something else...they were silvery, as if someone had taken translucent silver nailpolish and drawn over them.

She was alarmed to see Istelle, dressed in her Lette Warrior uniform, just standing there and staring at her.

Istelle could see that she'd scared the girl, and was also quite surprised to see her there herself.

"Good evening," Istelle smiled at the girl after a few seconds, "who are you?"

The girl opened her mouth, about to answer, when a look of fear took over her face and she let out a little scream "Behind you!" stood up, and took off up the hill.

Istelle whirled around, but she could see nothing wrong. The only thing behind her was more forest. Setting the pot down by the water, she ran after the girl. She quickly caught up, this girl was no runner, but she followed her through a bit more forest on top of the little hill until they reached a little camp with a tent that the girl dove into.

Istelle stared.

The tent was a light structure of sticks and grasses woven together to make a dome with beautiful shawls and scarves of different shapes, colors and patterns covering it all over and one like a curtain for the opening that was the door. It looked very pretty, certainly very colorful and also roomy, but it didn't camouflage with the surroundings at all, and neither would it hold up well or protect her against cold, wind or rain.

Istelle opened the door curtain and peeked in. The floor of the dome was also covered in beautiful patterned blankets and shawls, and the light came through the scarf walls, making this a very cozy looking and beautiful structure.

The girl was curled up on the side, wrapped in a blanket.

"Excuse me, what's wrong?" asked Istelle, completely bewildered.

The girl slowly lowered the sheet she had been wrapped in and stood up.

"A monster." Her voice was soft, shy, tentative, fragile and frightened. Istelle couldn't help wondering what she was doing here in this tent in the middle of the forest. "I didn't see anything...what is your name?"

"Nayana. You?"

"Istelle, pleasure to meet you. Did you make this tent? How long have you been here?"

"I…"

"Are you ready for the night? It may be cold."

"I have some blankets," Nayana said helplessly.

"And food?"

"Not much…"

"Why don't you come with me? I have an ashy friend waiting with food if you would be interested in joining us for dinner. I also have some water to collect for her. We can exchange stories around the fire."

Nayana looked unsure, but Istelle smiled warmly, "There are no monsters, don't worry."

The girl grimaced, not looking very reassured, but followed Istelle anyway.

The forest had become dark as they made their way down the hill back to the stream and Istelle filled Gwanwyn's pot, then led Nayana around to the fire where the ashy sat. The night was coming. Gwanwyn was adding wood to the fire when they arrived. The food sat just close enough to the flames to stay warm.

The ashy sighed with relief when Istelle stepped into the circle of dancing light emitted by the fire "I was wondering what was taking you."

Istelle smiled, "I met Nayana here," she gestured to the girl following her and Nayana stepped beside her, "Yes, hello. I am Nayana."

Gwanwyn quickly overcame her surprise, "good evening, I am Gwanwyn. Are you joining us for dinner?"

"Yes," Istelle answered for her, "she is."

The three settled down together and spent a few moments in silence, eating their food before Istelle asked "So Nayana, did you make that dome up on the hill?"

"I did."

"It's very nice."

"Thank you."

"When did you do it?"

"Several days ago…"

"What do you use it for?"

"I live in it."

This surprised Istelle "Why?"

"I...ran away from my home."

"What! I mean, how come?"

Nayana sighed. "I have this condition. Kapworky. It causes me to have illusions and see things others can't. Because of this, my older brother and sister have always sheltered me and tried to keep me from going places, new places bring new illusions, they are big and small, some very frightening. It could drive a person mad. My siblings have to take care of my younger brother and old mother besides me, and things have never been easy...when my father died in the war, I left. One less person to provide, one less person to provide for. It will make things easier for them.

I chose to go to the woods, where the singing of the birds and the calm breeze has always brought me comfort, I have the fewest and smallest illusions when I am here."

"Oh…" Istelle didn't know what to say

"I'm sure they're very worried and wonder where you've gone," said Gwanwyn. "Maybe they thought an illusion chased you away."

"I left them a note," said Nayana, "I am certain they are better off without me. I cannot go back."

"Then perhaps you might join us where we are going," said Istelle. "Our mission...is a bit ambitious. We are trying to help the Lette win this war by gathering an army of our own. We are planning to call it the Ennell. And we will fight for the Lette to end the war. See if the Akeefa win, they take over the Lette and eventually the Lette will only rebel and the war will continue. There will be peace if Lette wins."

"Then I will join you."

"Really?" Istelle was surprised.

"Yes. There is nothing for me here. I will gather my belongings and we will set out tomorrow."

After dinner, Istelle walked Nayana back to her dome on the hill and promised to come get her with Gwanwyn the next morning.

"Goodnight!"

"Until tomorrow"

And Istelle made her way back to camp.