Yla

Chapter 4: Ogami

A loud thunk echoed through the library of the Fiber Manor, heavy bounded books was scattered the floor and a twelve year old boy leaning on the wall preventing himself from falling to the ground. He felt his magic drain from his body and into the earth, it was not only him, the air, and the land felt heavy and dead. A significant amount of magic has vanished from the earth. Soon as he was able to regain some of his strength and composure the boy used his magic and sought all the Magical sources in existence in the country. In Coral Haven in the east was intact but it has now released and recycled more magic into the earth to balance, the Orb of Galaxia in the Capital of Auburn and in the south Isos Spring has done the same, he stretched and consume all his magic to seek the final source but no trace of it was found, he opened his eyes and his face was candle white, cold beads of sweat was at his brow, his whole being shook and he muttered, “Dead.”

His voice echoed through the halls, where the air felt heavy and his own body was like lead sinking in water, everything that surrounded him felt dead. He rushed out of the library to his study dragging his legs, he leaned on the glass wall and saw his reflection stare back at him, his silver blonde hair was disheveled, his deep back eyes fatigued his lips were shaking in worry. His name is Ogami. Slowly he felt magic being restored to his body, Isos Spring the closest magical source has finally balanced the sudden disappearance of the other magical source. 

As a being who can wield magic he is one of those greatly affected by the sudden disappearance of the magical source. These sources are either natural occurring places or artifacts that held a great amount of magic which they slowly release into the earth, cycling them. This cycle has allowed the earth flourish and grow giving rise to witches, warlocks, healers and mages. Bodies of these mortals gave them the ability to absorb some of the magic of the earth and manipulate it for their own will. As of the moment there are four known sources, but only three are present, while the fourth and considerably the most powerful one has vanished. The disappearance of the weakest source once spelled tragedy in the past, he can only imagine the calamity that this vanishing has caused. 

Isos spring has managed to create a semblance of balance and breathe back some life to the to the areas near it, Ogami allowed the magic to fuel him back to health as he studied the phenomena. 

Ogami spent the night pouring into his books trying to understand the crisis and a way to reverse it if possible, but the first light of dawn he put down his quill and raced towards the manor’s main door. A strong magic is approaching, but it was familiar, he allowed the heavy oak doors to fly open, with the rising sun behind him Ogami welcomed his brother.

“Agima!”he exclaimed, welcoming his brother with open arms, “Brother, bless the Beatitudes you’re back!”

Ogami wanted to speak with his brother immediately to inform him the crisis that occurred in his absence from Fiber Manor, and what they could do to find the disappeared magical source, but Agima merely gave him a look of acknowledgement, told him that he will deal with it in the afternoon, he then called Permilia to follow him.

Ogami saw her cringe at the pain as he worked on her wounds, “I’m sorry am i hurting you more?” she shook her head, “just endure it a little more this will finish soon.” She nodded and let the boy work silently.

“So...who died?” Ogami asked, judging by his brother’s anger it wasn't a small mishap, she saw her bit her lip, “should I say....who did you kill?”

She began to cry, color drained from her face, her hands grew tense and cold, she looked horrified by the question, “I’m just guessing here... but was it a person called Adda?” she nodded, her lips quivering, “so you killed the woman that my brother loves the most”, no wonder he was angry... Permilia was lucky to be alive.

“But.... It was an accident young master...” she whimpered, “it was that man’s fault.”

“A man?” Ogami looked at her, his eyes were like daggers piercing through her, “Master Nivek?” she nodded, “My brother’s best friend... you killed him too? You killed my brother’s two most important people in the world!” Permilia cried more

“Did he give an order to kill them?”

Permilia shaked her head, she just realized that the situation is much worse that it already is...she killed two important people in her master’s life... Ogami’s face was white, he took a deep breath and continued to heal her wound, “you should ice your cheek so it wont bruise,” he said as he wrapped her arms with bandages and finishing up.

“Master, do you think Lord Agima will forgive me...I have done everything he has required of me and yet he could let this small mistake pass?”

Ogami stared at her, “small mistake? You killed two important people to my brother and you call this a small mistake? No man in the right mind would let you off easily, be glad that my brother merely punished you and spared your life!”

Ogami felt tinge of his anger stain his magic, he tried his best to control it, because at the moment he knows that his brother needs him and help him cope with is loss. 

“Please forgive my disrespectfulness young master”, her tone changing feeling that Ogami was controlling his anger, 

Ogami finished up his bandaging and said in his usual calm voice, “rest for the time being, and do not show yourself to my brother until he calls for you, unless you have a death wish.  Now leave!”

Permilia bowed low and dismissed herself from Ogami’s view, she was crying when she left the room. Having full knowledge of what has happened Ogami understood that his brother attacked Fadia, and he needs to go there to see if his mother and father had survived the attack, he ran to his suite to prepare. He knew that his brother needed and wanted the Light of Fadia but never did her thought that he would purge the small village, but his brother always had a reason for everything, he will never do anything reckless, and despite knowing that his brother might have brought about the death of his parent he was still willing to support him and achieve his goals.

Ogami understood the exhaustion that his brother must be dealing with, as he used a large amount of magic to move his men for battle, and as he sensed his brother’s magic it was depleted almost to a point where he was about to consume his life force to perform any spell he might conjure. This coupled with the disappearance of the source his brother must be at the point of collapse.

For the rest of the day Ogami monitored his brother’s magic until it was finally back to normal levels, this is what wielders called Sensing. It is an ability that not all wielders possess and those who had it had to cultivate it from a young age. He was able to practice this ability when he began learning more about magic, and now Ogami is able to seek, assess, and sense any type of magic wherever it may be, but it relied heavily with the magic of the earth, and as a result he was greatly weakened by the sudden change. 

He was on his way to meet his brother when a sudden surge of energy was released, a powerful attack was made, he ran towards its origin and arrived at the manor’s garden. There stood his brother and Permilia, on the earth we burning grass, and on the manor’s stone post was burn marks. Permila stood by the post was missed by a hair.

“Leave!” he growled at her, “Do not come to see me until I call for you!” his voice was shaking with anger, his face was red, and sparks were coming from his hand, an aura of mercilessness and pure hate was surrounding him, if anyone was close they might have choked by the malice in the air. Ogami shivered to the core, but in all the darkness that surrounded his brother there was a small speck of sadness that was the center of all his emotions and it was the driving force of the magic that was around him. Permilia ran out of his sight crying, her arms we bleeding and was trailing blood behind her, she was obviously beaten and punished, whatever she did or failed to do it was definitely the reason for the outburst.

Ogami followed her and intercepted her, he prevented her from running away from him, her eyes were red and she shuddered at the sight of him, after all Ogami was known to the Country of Clest as the Prince of the South, and he was also the young master of the manor.

“Lets clean out your wounds Permilia”, he said to her, she nodded and followed him, it was not a good day for her. They arrived in the Manor’s infirmary where she was asked to sit down as the young master collected herbs and medical paraphernalia to treat her. Ogami worked in silence. It was unnerving for her, this was the first time she had interacted with the young master since she became one of Lord Agima’s commanders, and this boy who was more than ten years her junior gave out an aura of authority without even trying or doing anything. He sat in front of her and he smiled as he took her arms applying salve and then healing them with magic, even her face wasn't spared by his brother, his left cheek was swollen and had a cut from one of her brother’s rings. 

He was about to leave when his brother walked-in to his suite, he looked worn out and tired, his eyes had dark circles and he was bleeding from his right shoulder. “I was looking for you at the sick bay but they said you were here”, his brother said, his face was etched with sorrow that was incomprehensible for Ogami’s young mind.

“Are you leaving brother?” he noticed his satchel across his body

Ogami nodded, stunned by Agima’s appearance he dropped his bag on the floor and went to his side helping him to the nearest chair.

“Where were you going, Ogami?” he said in pain

“Brother, your bleeding, what happened?” he exclaimed as he sat on the nearest armchair, blood was trickling down his arm staining the navy colored chair. Agima smiled and tousled his brother’s hair.

Immediately Ogami began healing the wound, it looked awful, parts of the flesh were festering as if it was cursed and/or poisoned, but his healing wasn’t working. “You didn't answer my question Ogami, where were you going?” Agima asked again.

Maintaining focus on his healing Ogami answered, “I was going to check up on Mama and Papa back in Fadia. What in the world why isn’t this working?!” he exclaimed as the wound continued to bleed, “I can visit them later, I must first deal with this!”

“Nivek stabbed me with the blade I used to kill Adda’s mother, this is my enchantment, it's stubborn like me.” Agima forced a smile but he was losing so much blood and Ogami was left with no other choice. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he began to channel magic directly from the earth and manipulated it to reverse the effect of the enchantment and to stop the bleeding of the wound. As he worked his spell a blinding light burst into the room and vanished quickly as it came. Agima felt a surge of magic course through his body, healing and repairing his wound and soon as the light vanished. Breathless after the rapid healing Agima stared at his brother who was equally breathless, “it all gone now brother”, ogami said and suddenly collapsing onto his brother’s arms. 

When Ogami has came back to his sense Agima has already in his change of clothes, he was sitting in the chair beside his bed, Ogami bolted up looking at his brother relieved that he was okay.

“Ogami... I need a favor from you”, Agima said looking serious.

“Anything within my power brother”, Ogami responded, ready to aid his brother

“Can seek the Light of Fadia?”

Ogami couldn’t bring himself to answer and just shook his head, “why are you shaking your head? What’s wrong ogami?”

“I can’t find the Light of Fadia brother... yesterday a great amount of magic vanished from the face of the earth, and sought all the magical sources in the land and all but the Light of Fadia can be found. I tried multiple times...but I couldn’t find it... the world has been thrown out of balance and the other sources has released more to compensate to put order.”

Agima was dumbfounded, “It couldn’t just....disappear... was it stolen? I wasn’t on Adda during the battle.”

“Brother if it were stolen I would have been able to find it... it’s still traceable if it were stolen. But I think... it's dead. I could no longer sense any trace of it in the entire world. The source and it's magic has disappeared completely... The light of Fadia died with Lady Adda.”

Agima felt nauseous... it can’t be... he killed the Light of Fadia.