Call of Ring(Compleled)

39 Power Within

Blake couldn’t believe his eyes. It was the first sight of books he had seen since the early days of time spent in the underground cave with Gaius and Dorkus. He momentarily forgot that he was with the others. He was lost in a moment of overwhelming splendor. Blake began wandering closer to one of the shelves, wondering to himself which book he might be led to pick first.

But a voice shook him from his momentary escape where he wished to be left alone.

“Blake!?” came the voice of Sadie gently.

It was the first time Blake could remember not feeling warmed by the sound of her voice. Instead, he felt angry at the intrusion.

He must have been jolted by the whole situation because Sadie did not waste more time waiting for a reply. Instead, she spoke first.

“I have seen you spend time with your eyes closed before,” she said gently ensuring that no one else could overhear her. “But I’ve never seen your eyes glaze over like this while they were still open. I’ve come to understand, respect, and even admire the way you lean into your senses, but this was altogether different. What happened to you?”

Blake fought for some semblance of composure, knowing he had to make a somewhat intelligible response for her.

“I’ve never taken the chance to share with you before how much I love reading. Since we’ve met, I have not been afforded an opportunity to do so. Before I met you, there was a place, but I must tell you more about it later in private. Not here, not now. Just know that a place like this is heaven for me.”

“I suppose the beauty of this place far surpasses my own. If someone holds up a shiny object of a book, then I will quickly fade for you and simply be an unimportant piece of décor in the background?” Sadie stated with surprising tones of hurt in her voice.

“No! No!” Blake clamored to try to redeem himself.

“My thirst for knowledge feels like it can only be quenched in books. A library such as this is akin to a well that never runs dry. But as for the beauty of a woman, I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone like you.”

         “Fine. I will let you have your privacy in this library, as long as you promise me that you won’t claim a desire for privacy later today at the bath house!” Sadie replied with more anger than seduction in her tone.

         “That sounds like a great way to put it,” Blake replied hoping that he had satisfied both his personal desire for further knowledge and her personal need for affection by him.   

         Blake didn’t even see which way she went. His eyes quickly turned from hers and began a methodical scan of the books within his proximity. It seemed as if his hands moved by some other power toward a specific book. He grabbed it and flipped through a few pages. He stopped suddenly on a page that had a painted portrait of a ring. It looked like the Ring of Cora. Blake closed the book quickly and looked around the library, suddenly remembering that he was not alone. Sadie had drifted to another corner of the library, feigning interest in a collection of books. Mage Zenith was standing just a few feet behind her frozen in a not so subtle stare at her back side. Natan had a book open in his hand but was facing the other corner, adjacent to where Sadie stood. Blake looked to the far side of the library and spotted a single, eclectic looking chair. He found it odd that it was the only piece of furniture in the large expanse of a room. Normally, he would give deference to age, offering the Grand Master a place to sit, but Mage Zenith’s mind was elsewhere, thoroughly distracted by the beautiful body of Sadie.

         Blake made his way to the chair and sat down. He opened the book to the page he had previously seen with the illustration that looked like the Ring of Cora, and he began reading. He tried to rock the chair gently, hoping to add to his enjoyment of reading. But the chair moved only slightly appearing to be caught by something firm under one of its rockers. Perturbed by yet another intrusion to his attempt at euphoria, Blake closed the book. Peering under the chair he hoped he could find and remove whatever object was obstructing the chair from rocking. He was surprised to find it was a small wooden stick. The library was otherwise tidy, organized, and clean.

         “What is this stick doing here?” he thought to himself.

         Blake removed the obstruction and began rocking while inspecting the stick.

         “Why does this look so familiar?” he asked himself, again silently.

         Blake closes his eyes as he kept rocking.

         “What do you hear?”

         I hear nothing. Silence. Wait… ‘I do hope she’ll be at the bath house tonight. Such a shame for her to be covered by that simple white gown…’

         Gross! How is it possible that I’m hearing what Mage Zenith is thinking right now!?

         “What do you feel?”

         I feel that this library contains much more than just books. There is palpable power in this room. It needs only to be discovered.

         “What do you sense?”

         This stick is the same one I used to heal the Princess Sophie’s leg back in the desert after he was attacked by the large fish beast in the pool at the Oasis.

         Blake opened his eyes, thankful for what he had discerned. Sadie was approaching the place where he sat. He was also thankful that this time she had not been the one to interrupt his meditation.

         “Look at what I found hidden in a book that I randomly chose,” said Sadie handing Blake a necklace with a unique pendant at its center. The stone looked identical to the one in the Ring of Cora. Only it was larger. A green stone with amber tones. As Blake held the necklace and pressed his fingers up against the stone, feeling its texture, warm sensations began to cross all over his body. He handed it quickly back to Sadie, saying,

         “I sense that there is great power contained within that stone.”

         “I was wondering the same thing. Did you have a funny sensation pass all throughout your body as you held it?”

         “Yes, I did. You must keep this necklace,” Blake insisted.

         “Help me put it around my neck?” she asked Blake politely.

         Blake rose from his chair without asking any questions. He waited for Sadie to lift her long brown braid up, so he could reach behind her attach it carefully. As he was fastening the clasp, Sadie straightened the upper portion of her gown tugging it forward.

         “I think the necklace is long enough where I can easily conceal the stone between my two breasts. See?”

         Because he was directly behind her and significantly taller, she had no need to ask if he could “see”. The tug of her gown had exposed her entire upper body to him in that moment. Blake tried to close his eyes upon her words, but instead, they remained in a frozen stare with eyes wide open.

         Knowing exactly what she had done, she took a small step back into Blake and nuzzled in close so that he could feel her, but she somehow moved so subtly that no one else took notice of the intimate moment that was taking place between them. She then turned slowly and stared into his eyes.

         “Thank you Blake. I hope you felt the power in that moment,” she said. She then winked and left him to wander further in the library. Blake couldn’t believe what had just taken place. He stood there feeling like he was an ice sculpture, frozen by her spell, and stuck in time. Blake’s eyes finally left the figure of Sadie as she walked away seductively and moved to find where the others stood in the library. Natan was now approaching Blake.

         “Did you find anything you were looking for?” asked Natan rather innocently.

         Blake fumbled for a response, not sure what he was referring to, and wondering if he had witnessed any of what had transpired between him and Sadie.

         “Umm…”

         Blake then realized that the mysterious stick was in full view of Natan. It was leaning against the eclectic rocking chair. Blake reached back and grabbed it.

         “Umm… yes. This is not just a random piece of wood.” Blake suddenly had to clear his throat and realized that his mind and body were still very much distracted by what had just taken place with Sadie.

         “What is it then?” inquired Natan patiently.

         “It’s a wood element that has the power to heal,” replied Blake with a little more composure.

         “Sounds like that is something you should keep. I was reaching for a book that caught my eye, but it was obscured by some of the other books. As soon as I managed to pull it from the shelf, a group of books collapsed. Did you hear the noise?” asked Natan.

         “Umm… no, I didn’t hear it,” replied Blake.

         “Oh, you must have been distracted. I did see you having a conversation with Sadie when I looked up. Perhaps that was it.”

         Blake couldn’t figure out an appropriate response.

         Natan sensed that no reply was coming so he continued speaking.

         “Out from under that pile of books emerged this wand.”

         The wand was gilded in a light shimmer of gold with some stones neatly placed in a pattern at the top of the wand.

         “May I see the wand?” asked Blake.

         “Of course,” replied Natan passing him the wand.

         Blake was surprised to find that the pattern of the stones appeared to be all the same type of stone. Indeed the same as the Ring of Cora, and the same as the stone in Sadie’s pendent that was now safely tucked away between her breasts.

         Mage Zenith cleared his throat loudly startling all three of the students.

         “Well, it is time to go. We must evaluate which students have survived their hand to hand combat fights. It’s possible there will be five students remaining. But I also suspect there might even be fewer survivors than that.” The Grand Master spoke these words with callous, seemingly gaining some sort of pleasure in his utterance of the potential loss of life.

         Blake spoke up first.

         “Will we be able to return here?”

         “Whatever for!?” retorted Mage Zenith in a tone that was meant to make Blake feel silly for having asked the question.

         To add insult to injury, he didn’t even allow Blake time to respond.

         You have each gathered what you need for what comes next on your journey of learning.

         Blake knew that he would have to smuggle the book out of the library. He needed the stick for physical battle but wanted the book for his mental acuity.

         Mage Zenith led them to the stairs. Blake was the last to approach the staircase. He had managed to cover the book under his gown, but as he took the first step, his entire body froze and his eyes closed involuntarily. The vision of the map returned to his mind. Blake strained his eyes hoping to discern the words that had alluded him thus far. But instead of them coming into plain view, the map began to fly away leaving the grip of his hand. As it flew away, it met a book in the air and somehow folded itself around the book and then PUFF!

         Blake opened his eyes to find himself at the bottom of the stairs with Sadie kneeling over him displaying her beautiful eyes of concern. Above her stood Natan and the Grand Master.

         “And you thought you could smuggle a book from our esteemed library?” scolded Mage Zenith while shaking his head.