Chapter Seventeen

The two mages began walking up the hill past the creek. Alekzavier rushed up, trying to scramble up the hill, even abandoning his walking stick. But Jake didn't rush. He walked slowly, trying to process and make sense out of what Soren had said so that he would be able to remember.

But the hill was not a steep one, and the two were soon at the top of it. The valley Soren had mentioned was more of a forest inside a large circle of hills. They looked around for the cabin. There it was, peeking over the trees off to their right. They slid down the hill and hurried up the next one, then down that one and up the next, and there they were!

They had finally made it! They high fived, grinning at each other until Jake looked at the huge, looming log cabin and had a thought. "If what Soren said about knowing things and not being able to warn us of them...how do we know what's really inside that cabin?"

They could hear the sounds of many feet and somebody yelling somewhere in the forest outside of the cabin.

Jake ran to the front door and knocked. Alekzavier followed him.

The door was opened by a tall younger girl in her young teens with short, straight, light brown hair. She raised an eyebrow when she saw them "Are you with the Ennell?"

"The what?"

"You know, the new army?"

A boy with long blonde hair and a girl with slightly darker skin and braided dark brown hair joined the first girl in the doorway.

"I don't know who or what you're talking about. Who are you guys anyway?"

Now an older wolf ashy, she looked about, or maybe older than Soren came over, followed by a smaller girl with long, light brown hair.

The wolf ashy smiled at them "Oh hello, did Istelle send you up here?"

"Uh, no. But we are looking for her. I thought she was here."

"Where are you from?"

"We are...independent mages. Neutral of the sides. I'm Jake, and this is Zavier." Jake gestured to Alekzavier, "we have messages for Istelle."

���From who?"

"I'm not sure if we're supposed to tell you. Who are you guys anyway?"

"I am Gwanywn, and that is Arin. These three are Lina—"

"Jude"

"Liz."

"Cool. Well, we got attacked by Griffins on the way here so like, this guy's got wounds and we've both lost shirts, obviously. Could you at least help him out?"

The kids looked at each other, then backed into the room behind them, leaving the boys with Gwanwyn and Arin.

"All right."

Gwanwyn led the mages into the large round room. A huge grey wolf was taking a nap on a rug to one side. It opened one eye when the mages entered and Zavier took a step in the other direction.

Gwanwyn told the two to wait at the table while she went into the kitchen, which they did. Jude, Liz, and Lina eyed them from the other side of the room.

"Zavier, come with me this way," said Gwanwyn, coming back out with a tray of leaves and other stuff she would need before things became too awkward.

As the silent mage and the wolf ashy disappeared into one of the doors on the side of the round room, the little girl Arin ran to the wolf and snuggled up with it. Jake stared.

Lina, the darkest of the three young teens, raised her chin and walked into another room, closing the door behind her, ignoring the others. Jude shrugged and followed her, while Liz smiled at Jake and took a seat at the other end of the table, looking at him.

"Hello," he said uncomfortably. Why was she staring at him?

"Hi!" she said brightly, "so you're really a mage?"

"Uh, yeah."

"So you can do magic. That's really cool."

"Thanks?"

"They've got some mages and wizards in the Ennell, but I never got close or saw them do magic."

"What's the Ennell?"

"And you got attacked by Griffins too, huh?" she asked, ignoring his question.

"What do you mean, 'too?' were you also attacked?"

"Nope. But some of the Ennell wizards have trained Griffins and they looked pretty cool."

Jake was about to ask again what the 'Ennell' was, but just then, Gwanwyn came out of the room, "Jake, Zavier won't speak. Is he mute or just stubborn?"

"Oh, haha, part of the thing we have to tell Istelle...he performed Servadem and the message is for her, so yeah, he's kinda mute right now."

"Ah. I suppose I'd better go get her then…"

"Yes please."

"Just wait here then."

She went back into the room and came out with Zavier, sat her at the table, then hurried out the door.

"What's Servadem?" Liz asked next, looking curiously at Alekzavier.

"It's a spell that means he can't talk until he's talking to Istelle."

"...Very specific."

Jake said nothing.

It took Gwanwyn a little while to return, but when she did, she wasn't alone. A pale girl, Soren's age, with an insane amount of long, bright red hair. She wore a light, sweaty Lette uniform and looked worried.

The boys stood up when they saw her, Jake nearly knocking his chair over. "Istelle!"

She looked at him. "Do I know you?"

"No. But I and my friend here have gone through a lot to get some messages to you, and we're anxious to pass them on before another forest fire or Griffin attack stops us. Thank goodness we found Soren or we would've never found you."

"You found Soren?" Istelle asked, suddenly her attention was all on him. Liz looked interested as well.

"Uh yeah. Can we go somewhere private?"

Istelle stood up and motioned for them to follow her. She took them into a room like no other Jake had ever visited. Zavier looked just as amazed. "What is this?"

"This is the sky room. If you jump off, you'll never reach the bottom."

"Wow." Both mages backed towards the center of the 'room.'

Istelle sat down, cross-legged on the white floor. They joined her.

"So I guess I should start from the beginning…" said Jake, looking at the others.

"Yes please."

"Okay. So. Uh...Zavier and I are mages. And we just finished magic training, we were taking a walk in the woods. Akeefa territory. Then, we saw this girl, she looked kinda like you, but not as skinny, her hair wasn't so thick and bright, and her skin wasn't as pale. Well actually, her skin was pretty pale. But I think that's because she was dying."

"What?" Istelle sounded shocked.

"Yeah. She was laying in a pool of blood coming from her left arm, her hand was cut off. Also, she had a shard of poisoned quartz in her thigh. But she had a little energy, enough for Zavier to perform Servadem on her because she said she had some important info to pass on to her best friend, Istelle, another Akeefa warrior."

Istelle's eyes widened. "No...no...it can't be…"

"What?"

"My best friend...no...Muriel."

"Uh, okay. Anyway, we went to Atzigul to see if we'd find you there, but they said you and your lover went missing. So we decided to check the caves since that's a good place for a hiding person. We got stuck in a forest fire on the way there, but we got through it."

Istelle seemed to have recovered from her shock at least to listen.

"But instead of you, we found Soren."

Istelle went back into shock.

Jake paused.

"So he took us here, and on the way, we got attacked by Griffins and stuff, and Zavier got all wounded. Then Soren gave us some more information to give you. Then he left."

"What? Soren was right out there, and he left?"

"Uh yeah, he's kinda under a curse. Part of what we have to tell you."

"Okay."

"So...whenever you're ready to listen...this is really important information."

Istelle looked down at the ground, trying not to think about Soren, not to think about Muriel...she looked up. "I'm ready."

Alekzavier looked around the room. He smiled. He turned to Istelle. And he spoke.

Out of Zavier's mouth came Muriel's last words, in Muriel's voice. All the things she's said that day as Zavier had lowered his hand from her mouth, exactly as she'd said them.

Of the enchantress Cyan who was trapped in a lake by a wizard of white arts as she was on a quest to conquer the world, how she had been collecting the Symbols with the help of the young wizard Altair, how she was in possession of the Symbol of Air, how she had started this war between Lette and Akeefa. And how she planned to free herself from Veiled Lake and resume her quest for power.

There was a pause after he'd finished. Then Zavier coughed. "I can speak again!" He jumped up, whooping. Then he sat down again.

"I...I met this wizard," said Istelle. "He poisoned my friend. Then he sent thugs to capture me when I went to find a cure for her in the caves. Now I know why. He wants the Mark of Fire." She looked down at her left hand. "But I don't have it. I haven't had it ever since I appeared here, back to the past."

The mages looked at each other. "We don't know what you're talking about," said Zavier, "but there's a little more information we have for you, something Soren told us."

"Yes?"

"He said…" Zavier turned to Jake. "What did he say? Something about death and fate."

"Yeah…" said Jake, "he said to tell you that you 'died in that meadow to a Lette warrior'. He said he killed all your pursuers and now he's the 'heir.' And that he visited Cyan, and she told him his fate and now he's forced to live by it, there's nothing he can do about it. He said he might even know there's a hole in front of him and not be able to stop his foot from falling right into it if that's what fate wanted. He even knew about the Griffins going to attack but he couldn't warn us. And he said that the Akeefa are gonna win the war."

"But...the Akeefa...how?"

"How what?"

"How would he know? Isn't there a chance that…"

"I'd assume Cyan told him. And so far, everything she's told him has been true."

"Oh."

And suddenly, everything was clear to Istelle.

She stood up.

So did the mages. They followed her out the door and back into the main room "It's time for a meeting."

***

Forty minutes later, Istelle, Talion, Gwanwyn, Pendre, Nayana, Evan Greene, Liz, Jude, Linaria, Arin, Alistair, Jake, and Alekzavier were gathered together in the living room. Arin played quietly with Alistair on the big rug, Gwanwyn standing nearby to make sure they weren't distracting. Talion stood off to one side, Istelle stood in the middle of the room, and the others sat at the table, looking expectantly at her.

"I think we should start by making sure everyone knows who everyone else is," she said. "Evan is the owner of the Cabin, he is a wizard of white arts. He's been taking care of Arin" she gestured to the girl on the rug who raised her head when she heard her name, "since she was three years old when her mother died. Gwanwyn has lived here with them ever since she left her village at age sixteen." Gwanwyn nodded.

"And Alistair has also been living here," she turned to Evan. "For four years," he said, "and he and Arin have become inseparable."

"Yes." Istelle continued. "I am Istelle, a former Akeefa warrior and daughter of the Akeefa chief." She looked at Evan. "My past is somewhat confusing, but I believe I somehow died here, and was reincarnated into the future, until the Amazara visited me and brought me back here with a mission of ending this war that is the beginning of one still fought in the far future. I was placed back into this body, and have been trying to help the Lette win the war since I arrived with my friends Jude, Lina and Liz who are thirteen, twelve, and thirteen."

This brought some interesting reactions from the parts of Istelle's audience who hadn't already known all this reincarnation stuff.

"With the help of Nayana, Pendre, Talion and Gwanwyn, I have recruited and am now training an army called the Ennell." Jake nodded, understanding, and glancing at Liz.

"So today, Jake and Zavier arrived at the Cabin. For the past days, they have been on a journey to find me, ever since receiving some extremely useful information regarding the war. They have also been in contact with Soren."

Istelle and the mages told the group everything they had talked about in the Sky Room.

"I think Muriel's final words were pretty clear," said Istelle when they had finished laying everything out, "but I think we should figure out that last message from Soren."

There was a murmur of agreement.

"So that first part. That I died in 'that meadow.'" Istelle turned to Nayana, "we had a conversation last night. You asked when I'd last seen Soren, and I said it was during my last battle for the Akeefa, in a field."

"Yes," said Nayana.

"Then you asked what happened next. I said I didn't remember...maybe this is why…"

"That would make sense," said Alekzavier, "if you saw him in the meadow. He told us that he watched you die."

Istelle turned and looked out the window. The group watched her. She turned back to them. "Okay. The next part is that he killed my pursuers and is the heir. I think it's pretty clear, he must have arrived after I'd...died…" she paused, "and killed my killer. That means he is now the bearer of the Mark of Fire. I suppose Cyan doesn't know that though, or she would have killed him when he came to her, meaning she still thinks it's on me, and is still trying to capture me. So he visited Cyan, and she gave him his fate...well, I guess she is an enchantress...so now he knows everything that is to happen. And according to what Cyan has told him, Akeefa are to win this war."

Evan stood up, suddenly, startling even Istelle. "Are you all right?" she asked him.

"I am well. But there is something I haven't yet told you...until today, I had not thought about it…"

"What is it?" The others were all looking at him curiously.

"The wizard who imprisoned Cyan in the lake...his name is Evan Lloyd Greene."

"What?"

"No, really?"

"That's…"

The news took everyone by surprise.

"She was young then," he said thoughtfully, "her hair was long, longer than yours Istelle, but not nearly as thick, and as black as the night. But her skin was the palest I'd ever seen and ever have seen since, though Gwanwyn wasn't so dark herself when she came to me, hadn't had much exposure to the sun…" he trailed off.

"How old were you then, Evan?" asked Istelle.

"Twenty four."

"Uh, okay."

The wizard seemed to snap back to reality. "Istelle. The battle is not lost."

"No?"

"Not yet. There is a way for the Lette to win."

"But Cyan made a prediction. And her predictions always come tru—"

"The fate Cyan predicted will come true."

"Exactly."

"Let me finish."

"Sorry."

"The fate Cyan predicted will come true, unless we kill the predictor of the fate. If we want to remove this curse that has been forced upon us and end the war and save the lives of so many in the future, we must first bring an end to Cyan."