On Bated Breath We Wait

Chapter 6 (part 2)

The next day was different, as I woke up my mother and father were already having a discussion at the living room table. As I stepped into the room they both turned to me, waiting for me to sit down. My father began the conversation explaining to my mother what had happened while she was gone pride lit up her face as he explained in great detail each of my matches. As he got to the final match and explained who I was up against and what transpired she froze. She turned to me and asked if it was true. I nodded and she began to smile, laughing as she mentioned that she hoped it had turned out differently and I showed up Roxie.

Picking up from there my mother began to explain what happened when they were attacked. It was a setup from the moment they had left, they had problems with the trip. First, they had discovered that the amount of money they were given and what they were promised to spend during the mission were completely different, my mother estimates that about eighty or so gold was missing. I stopped her to asked, about the gold, “Eighty gold, thats so much. Why in the world did the mission need that much? A single gold is enough to feed a family for almost a year.” She explained that while outside the Temple shares the same coin is we do, prices within the Temple were drastically low, what someone could purchase inside the Temple for a few copper might cost a few silver out there.

She continued to explain that the gold they brought with them each mission had to feed the envoy, purchase the goods the Temple wanted, as well as pay the traders the envoy used on a yearly basis. Because not only did we pay for the goods, we also paid the Traders to begin to acquire the next future purchase. She commented, “After all time and effort is not free.” Rather than continuing to ask about the money I let her continue. Next, the traders they normally traded with had recently had issues with the local law, as they had helped someone get back on their feet after losing everything only to be betrayed by them. The local law had sent people to talk with the traders in order to track that man down but they were anything but kind. It was only with the help of her group and a wandering tradesman that they began to treat the traders correctly. After that she said that nothing else happened until they were on their way back. Small things kept happening, one of the wagon wheels broke, a flash flood took out a bridge they used, but as they continued to get closer to the Temple the more things happened. The day of the attack they were almost home, and my mother was already suspicious as everything bad stopped happening; not guarded but not knowing what would come next. As my mother described their attackers I couldn’t help but notice the similarities to Shadows, but as she continued to describe them they sounds like people not the lifeless things I knew of. As she finished talking about the attack she looked to my father and said, “It’s time, she needs to learn.”

As my father nodded in agreement, she pulled a book and a few trinkets. The book was similar to the one all those years ago. It's cover and spine worn smooth, yet somehow its pages looked clean and almost new. She passed the book over to me without a word. My father spoke up, “We will be your teachers in magic, but that book will be your guide. Before we let you read, first I have to first explain a few things about magic. First, magic uses a thing called mana. It’s like how your body needs energy to work, magic needs mana. Secondly, your body… No everything produces mana; the larger the thing the more mana is produced. There are exceptions to this, but we will not worry about them right now. Next there are limitations to what magic can and cannot do. Healing broken bones is possible, creating something out of nothing is not; and most importantly anything that is dead should say dead. While it is possible to bring someone back, but they will not be the same, and eventually their connection to the afterlife will drive them mad. Any questions?”

Eager to start I asked, “So how do I start?”

That is when my mother slid the trinkets over to me. Each trinket was unique. A small bell, a tiny white crystal, a black pebble, and an amber colored pearl just to name a few. She explained that each one of those trinkets could help me learn to sense magic. Sensing magic was the first step, she mentioned that because I had seen Shadows and are aware when they are nearby, we could skip seeing magic. She held up the bell and rang it; she paused before ringing it again. “Can you hear the difference?” she asked. I could not. She put the bell down and picked up the crystal before passing it over to me. As I felt it she asked, “Does holding the crystal make you uneasy?” I looked down at the crystal in my hand, and the more I paid attention to it bothered me; soon the crystal felt hot to the touch and I dropped it onto the table. The table began to smoke from under the crystal, my father quickly picked it up and placed it back down. My mother commented, “Okay, we can skip feeling magic also. Lastly…” her voice trailed off and she handed me the pearl. She instructed me to lick the pearl, confused I asked if I really had too.

Again, she instructed me to lick the pearl; as I held it up to my tongue and licked it I tasted honey. I uttered, “Honey?”

She smiled, “Oh, thank heavens. Teaching people to taste magic is nearly impossible, you either have it or don’t.”

As I put down the pearl, she gestured to the rock and asked me to smell it. It smelled like a fire, or at least like something was burning. I began to see if the rock was leaving any ash or residue on my hand. Nothing, my hand was as clean as every.

My father spoke up, “Well four out of five isn’t too bad this early on. You will need to practice hearing the sound of magic, or rather something being altered by magic to change it sound. It’s important that you can sense it, as if you can sense it you can also change how you hear it.” My father placed two fingers to the side of his throat and repeated what he just said, his voice now sounded like my mother’s. She began to glare at him, he apologized and began speaking normally again. He explained that when you have an understand of how to sense when something is making a difference sound because of magic you can have your ears do the opposite and make it sound like it should.

After that they left me to my own devices, it was still early in the morning and we each still had a lot to do. I rushed through my job, interacting with everyone as little as possible only to get home as quickly as I could. The book was interesting the first few chapters taught the reader how to sense magic, after that was a chapter called, Simple Application. I skimmed the section on how to hear magic only to see that it required someone who could use magic to alter an objects sound. Knowing I wouldn’t easily get my parents time, I moved onto application.

Application and its many ways to do it would take me months to perfect. From there I began to train my hearing, at all times of the day I kept the bell on me. Using application, I applied what little magic I had to the bell and rang it. Over time I could hear the difference, and I began to practice what my father had mentioned. Sensing the magic through hearing and instinctively making myself not hear the change proved to be hard and I decided to continue practicing to do so while learning further chapters in the book. The later chapters in the book were mostly advanced ways of application but I progressed.

By the time I finished the book and was able to do everything it taught, it was already nearing my twenty first birthday. Looking back I wondered where the past three years had gone. On the eve of my birthday, Nathan came to our home asking about what I was going to do. I mentioned becoming an envoy and that I had been training for a long time to be one. Only for him to ask me not to, “Meryl, I ask of you not to become an envoy. But an attendent, its exactly the job you have been doing for years. However, I can now include you in my plans. Something strange is going on at the Temple. Since before your birthday, I have been looking into this. Will you help this old man? I must warn you, if what I assume is true the closer we get to the truth the more dangerous it will be.” I asked if he could give me a day to decide, he agreed.

The day came and went and I racked my brained on what I should do, eventually he found me during my normal work. He asked for my decision, only for shouting to start in a nearby room. I rushed to see what the commotion was, as I opened the door I saw two researchers nearly at blows. Without a second thought I rushed between them, only for them to try to continue to fight around me; simultaniously I used both arms to jab them both in the gut. They crumpled over in pain, and as they looked up at me they realized who had tried to stop them. Still on the floor they apologized to me and helped each other up. As I turned to leave I saw Nathan was watching from the doorway. Once we left that room he began to explain that more often were fights like that happening, and that the Temple needed someone to protect everyone from each other. Knowing he was right, but reluctantly I agreed to proposed job and what it entailed.

The whole day, I was so focused on Nathan’s question I had forgotten it was my birthday. By the time I made it home, I noticed that no one was there and on my bed rested a gift. I could not tell what the gift was, but someone took their time to wrap it. A fine, linen ribbon wrapped a large amount of wonderfully soft cloth; as I unwrapped it two metal objects fell out. They were unusual, almost like a series of large rings connected together; as I ponder what they could be I noticed a small note. *To Meryl, use these to protect yourself and others*, it was signed Nathan Clearwater. Even the note gave me any idea to what these were, and on a whim I slid one of them onto my fingers. As it reached the base of my fingers, I was certain that this was their purpose. Clenching my fist around them, I felt as if I could punch anything without hurting my hand; little did I know how right I was.

The next few years were just as Nathan predicted, the amounts of fights and shouting greatly increased, even the smallest of problems quickly became a shouting match. Majority of the research groups separated, each person now working alone and everything was calm except for a few special times. First, was when a bear looking for food had began wandering into the Temple; the envoy experienced in wild animals helped led the bear out of the Temple without harming it. Second, was when the Temple of people of the Temple had started to grow bored of the sparring matches. A few of the regular combatants organized what they thought would be a fun event, arm wrestling. Needless to say, people trying to out do each other in pure strength quickly brought in the rowdiest people. Within minutes of the event starting several fist fights had began, and if it weren’t for myself and several other envoys being there who knows what would have happened. Lastly, were the Shadows to myself and others that could sense them we could tell something strange was happening. The shadows were clearly growing in numbers, places that once never had Shadows now had numerous amounts, and to make matters worst people were starting to hear them. With the help of all of the envoy that were in the Temple at the time, we launched a full scale effort to return the Shadows to their former number. Armed with mirrors, candles and torches we combed the Temple eradicating all the Shadows we could; but at a cost. As the other people within the Temple saw this and thanks to Nathan and my father, they were able to sell the lie that it was the envoys attempt to cleanse the Temple of bad spirits, only if they knew.

Of course it goes without saying that everyone was starting to notice that something was going on. With everything becoming more chaotic, so did my work. Most researchers had become recluses only leaving their homes, or research rooms for food or materials. Only a few researchers that I once helped welcomed me in anymore, the rest would only tell me to leave everything outside their doors. Donahugh thankfully was not one of these people; however he was extremely secretive, it was only every other week I could assist him when the chaos first started. Towards the time of the envoy eradication of the Shadows that became only once a month. I could tell this was weighing on him and Nikos; without each other they only focused on their work and ignored the rest of the world.

Then the worst thing happened, Donahugh had mentioned to me the prior day that he would need some writing materials for his research. But as I delivered his paper and ink, I noticed his door was slightly cracked open. Even when he wanted me to stop by and chat he had always kept his door locked; I opened the door to check on him and I found him. Books and papers were scattered everywhere as a bookshelf now rested on top of him, I rushed in to check if he was still alive but he was not. I looked around to see what had possibly killed him, but nothing had any evidence that it did. I began to check him for any wounds, or broken bones anything that would give me an answer of what happened. then I heard them the Shadows were talking, “She who attacks us with light, worries about the man in the shadows. We did not harm him, and we cannot say who did. Protect them or they will be next. Just as he died alone, they will too.” Their voices turned to whispers and then fell silent.

Without a second thought I replied, “I will heed your warning.” It felt wrong to leave Donahugh lying there, but I needed to inform the elders; as I locked his door for the last time I whispered, “I’m sorry.” The next few days I was an emotional wreck, it seemed like Donahugh’s death was the critical point that would change everyone’s lives. My friend Duran started to train as an envoy under the teachings of his mother. Nikos followed in the footsteps of his father, even gaining access to the very room his father died in. I couldn’t tell them that I knew where their paths led as it was not my place, but I can do as I always have and watch them from the shadows. But even that wasn’t in the cards for me, as our paths were closely tied together.