Chapter 13

Miran was forced to sit down and listen to the false accusations against him. He felt like he was a child once more getting told off for sneaking of to play instead of doing his homework.

"Purposefully tampering with the security wards and endangering the security of your fellow Guardian and the humans employed in the residence,"

His grandmother made sure to phrase the issue in a way that made it worse than it already was. Miran knew he deserved what was coming, he had let personal matters come before his duty.

"Going out with a human who has a strong affinity for Darkness, with out any back up and absolutely no idea just how powerful she is. If something had happened to you because her who would have come to your rescue? If she had been sent to harm you and there you were running off to heaven knows where with her, who would you blame?"

The answer was no one. Miran shouldered his own consequences and he had to choke down his ego, preventing him from telling her just that.

"My apologies grandmother, it will not be repeated."

The words didn't have the effect they usually did. Instead of calming her down, they seemed to fuel her temper to the point of explosion.

"You should at least have the decency of looking at my face when you apologize and

you are right, such a thing will never happen again."

That caught his attention, he raised his head to look at his grandmother for the first time since they had entered the study.

"What do you I mean by that?"

" Well if you must know, a High council meeting was called for this morning and they have reached to an agreement that you my dear grandson, as future Leader of the Isle should start your long awaited training in matters concerning the Isle."

Miran didn't need to ask to know who had called for the meeting. His grandmother in her efforts to protect him, wanted to keep him under her strict watch. He had gone along with her demands and had understood the reason behind it. His mother's abrupt departure from the Isle had shaken the very foundations it was made of and had left them without any successor to the throne. Everything else he could bear with it but not this, they were trying to take away his freedom and chain him to the Isle, in the name of lessons he had been taking since he was a toddler.

"With all due respect, their decision is baseless and to confine me to the Isle is not a solution. As the future leader, they need to trust me and my decisions. If they can't believe that I would never put the Isle in danger then I would be happy to leave my position to someone else."

They were at a stalemate and Miran wasn't about to back down. Even if he knew that it seemed as if he was choosing to stay in the mortal realm, he still couldn't allow the politics of the council to interfere with who he was. If he did something wrong he was not ashamed of admitting it and accepting the correction but that didn't mean he was a pushover.

"Does that mean you are against the council's ruling?"

"Precisely"

His grandmother stepped closer as if to intimidate him and stopped right in front of him. She was a tall woman but still a head shorter than Miran, she always stopped a few ways to avoid raising her head to look at him.

"Well then if that is what you have decided, I have no other option than to accept."

She looked at his confused expression knowingly.

"What were you expecting, that I drag all the to the Isle in handcuffs?"

"More or less,"

What was she playing at this time?

"I am here as a messenger for the council, not your jailer. If that is you decision then who am I to refuse. You are a Leader, entitled to your own opinions and no one should intimidate you. Also I am proud that you don't allow those old coots to push you around."

Every defense he had built up in readiness to her words crumbled and he allowed himself to relax. He had passed this test too if her expression was anything to go by.

"Grandmother, thank you for understanding. I have a greater task ahead of me now, getting Reyna to trust me. It is essentially that she does, if this case is to end."

Miran dragged his hand through his hair, thinking of way to make the woman in question open up to him, enough to let him know what exactly happened when she was young. That information was important if he wanted to understand the woman. Why she suddenly appeared when he had never felt even a single trace of the Darkness energy while he was in the human world.

"That should not be too hard for you Miran, where is all that charm that gets most of my novices swooning at your feet?"

The teasing in her voice was evident and he couldn't help but take her hand in his.

"Reyna is different, I promise."

"Whatever you say. I'm sure you know what you are doing but hurry up, this old woman misses your young presence and I know some girls back home who would say the same."

"I'll come as soon as I can, I promise."

Miran kissed the top of her head and let go of her hand.

"Don't worry about me, I will just make a doorway here and leave in style, you go do what you have to do."

As he held the door handle to leave he heard the sound of the doorway opening and turned just in time to see a flash of his grandmother's white courtly attire. He had bought himself sometime but just for how long would it be until they were on his case again.

Seated on the floor on the other side of the door was Reyna. She stared at the floor but her mind was obviously far away. Miran wondered just how her face would look like if she was excited. Would it light up or would the indifference remain intact?

"Reyna do you want to see something amazing? Come with me I'll show you."

Her eye color never stayed the same, depending on the lighting it changed and right now it was a bright blue resembled lapis lazuli.

He turned to one of the walls and directed his energy to it with the place he wanted, in mind.

The doorway opened in a show of swirling light. Miran held out his hand for Reyna and she took it. He pulled her up and couldn't resist the smile that appeared on his face.

"Don't let go of my hand."

With that he entered. the doorway and pulled her along. Doorways were easy to navigate depending on where someone wanted to go on their energy levels. Guardians had access to the earthly doorways either from the Isle or the human realm. Only highly ranking Guardians could open doorways from the Isle as they took up too much power but even a novice could make one doorway on the earthly realm.

The rushing sound of a nearby stream told Miran than they were in the right place. They canopy of the forest they were in made it hard for him to tell the time in where they were. With Reyna's hand still in his, he moved through the trees and finally stopped at the bank of the river that cut through the forest cover. A waterfall emptied it's water from above and though the scene was beautiful to look at it wasn't what he wanted her to see.

"I found this place while I was still in training, my portal skills were low back then and I wasn't able to control my destinations. One day I ended up here and the Sage in charge of my training refused to send me back and said that maybe the thought of being stuck here would jump start my ability.

No matter how hard I tried nothing worked and in my anger a beam of Light hit the water right there and -"

Sending a stream of Light towards the water fall, Miran watched Reyna's face as she watched the colors play before her eyes. Her lips parted in wonder and her eyes reflected the rainbows that danced in the air. She raised her hand as if to touch them but instead a swirl of Darkness rose from it and joined the light show.

It was Miran's time to be amazed, the Darkness edged the rainbows, intensifying the colors and creating a background for them. It was pure magic and as he looked at Reyna he was surprised to find that the emotionless mask was back on and her high walls she locked herself in were fortified once more.