Poems of hope part 2

Rufus eventually decided to leave the dungeons. He wanted to show this new person, who his friends had invited, the door. He was in no mood for another failure and wanted them to leave.

He stumbled through the stairs. The light shined between the boards nailed in front of the windows, shedding light on Rufus's long, greasy, unwashed beard and hair. He walked like an old man through the hallway that used to be clean and kept but now had a heavy layer of dust.

He went to the throne room, where he had many memories. Where he met many people and even faced once the king of the Jacob kingdom. He opened the large door and went in.

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"Harley?"

Rufus saw Harley right in front of him. The sun shined through the one window that wasn't nailed shut.

"Harley? I ain't no Harley."

Rufus thought for a second this girl was Harley, his big sister, but she was someone entirely different. The girl, though, had many similarities with her, with long hair and similar facial features.

"Suomi. What have I told you!? You can't wander off alone like that inside a king's palace?"

"But old man Väinämöinen. This room would be perfect for the ritual. It has so many divine winds from many different beings and emotions."

An old man rushed in, carrying an instrument from a pike fish's jawbone. Behind him were all the friends of Rufus.

"Ahh, Rufus. This is the person we were talking about," Doreen explained.

Rufus didn't even look at the old man, and he kept staring at the girl, who had an uncanny resemblance to Harley.

"Mmmmm...Is this old man okay? I'm not really into old guys," Suomi said as she looked uncomfortable with Rufus ogling her.

"Suomi! He is the king who we are supposed to meet!" Väinämöinen yelled in a scolding tone.

"Well, don't really care either how much he makes. My future man has to be handsome, gallant, rich, BUT NOT OLD," Suomi explained in a completely oblivious tone.

"SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUP!" Väinämöine yelled.

"Chill, master....." she said, holding her hands high like trying to surrender.

Väinämöinen sighed and apologized.

"I am sorry, your majesty. This is where my apprentice Suomi Varpu. She is impulsive and reckless. But she is a good girl, I promise," Väinämöinen pleaded with Rufus, fearing that he was a ruthless king.

"Don't worry, old man. Rufus, though now a bit scary looking. Is in many ways no way resentful," Edward explained with a smile.

Rufus snapped out from glaring at Suomi and said, "No. I mean, I am sorry. Your apprentice just had an uncanny resemblance to someone I knew."

"Who?" Suomi asked.

"SUOMI!" Väinämöinen yelled like he couldn't believe she kept talking.

"No, it is okay. She looked like my sister."

"Haley? Really?" Joan asked, as none saw much resemblance.

"No...my big sister."

~~

Mage, shaman, conjuror, but the most common term was a sorcerer. Väinämöinen was one and so was Suomi. The rarest type of being in the entire universe. One was born maybe only one in a million, and even if they were born, the chances they would live their life as an ordinary mortal were high.

A normal divine being, like a noble of a kingdom, could manifest his or her inner divinity to use a certain kind of power. People say only their imagination and determination to get stronger were in their way. They had a certain amount of divine power to use, that could be increased through training and time.

On the other hand, Sorcerers had no divinity in them but could control the divine winds that flowed through the universe and bend it to their will. They born in a way that they were loved by the wild divine winds, so they allowed them to feel their presence much stronger than any other. To control it, they had to fathom, understand and comprehend what they were trying to do in every way.

When they had, they would use a sort of tool or speech to spell the ritual, hoping it would bring what they wanted into reality. In a way, a sorcerer could, in theory, even be a god if they had enough knowledge. Still, as they were mortal, few had the time to grasp the understanding to control such powers.

Rufus had the crystal brought to the throne room, sealing his sister. The place was also to Väinämöinen's preference as the divine winds in the room he sensed had memories of many occasions. As he tried to explain it and the different types of divinities that circulated around all of creation, it was like explaining theoretical physics to an illiterate person. Sorcery was the highest grade of discipline one could study, which combined natural sciences, mathematics, and the divine powers that governed the entire universe.

"Did you know Rufus had an older sister?" Amala asked Doreen.

"No, not really. How about you, Edward? You have known him and Haley longer than I did," Doreen asked.

"Well. Not really. I had heard Rufus wasn't really blood-related to Haley and the he was raised by Old man Haufen and his wife, Mrs. Jean," he explained.

"So you mean Haley was, in a way, the last piece of a family he had left as he never had one in the beginning," Joan questioned.

"Why didn't you ever mention this to us?" Amala asked.

"Not my place." Edward explained.

They all understood now why saving Haley met so much to him. But still didn't forgive him for all things he had said and the ignoring.

Väinämöinen was writing with chalk on the floor. It was divine text. He constantly pondered for a moment before he wrote down a symbol. One wrong move could cause the spell to fail, or worse, the divine winds would do something dangerously unexpected. It was like wiring an explosive.

"So, how does this work?" Doreen asked Väinämöinen.

"First, I have to determine what this is. This scripter, combined with my magic, will help me to understand what I am dealing with," he explained.

"What you dealing with is my sister. Remember that," Rufus said, ensuring he understood the situation's seriousness.

Väinämöinen nodded and then proceeded to finish the divine text on the floor.

When finished, he took his instrument and opened his throat by coughing. The room was quiet, as everyone was waiting anxiously for how the ritual would go.

Väinämöinen started to pull the strings slowly and created a beautiful melody. The sound soothed everyone's hearts as it was so calming. The sound entered their bodies, slowed their heart rates, and decreased their pulses. For a small moment, all the worries left their bodies.

The song got the divine winds in the room to move. The divinity loved the melody so much, that it looked like it was dancing. Each sound he made was an instruction, and the melody was a string of mandates. If one sound was off-tone or not on rhythm would cause the entire spell to fail.

The divine powers started to gather around the crystal. The scripter on the ground peeled off and began to float in the air. The symbols attached to the crystal and moved around it.

None had seen a sorcerer before, let alone doing their magic. Seeing someone controlling the divine winds to such an extent was unworldly. They never understood how much divinity was around them, unused and uncontrolled.

For Rufus, though, this looked familiar. How the divine winds came together to be controlled by another being. It was like a scene from over thirty years when Haley controlled the divine winds and grew in strength so fast. Haley didn't have to use any divine text nor incant out any spell.

The ritual was over, the crystal was intact, and everyone was waiting for the verdict.