The Wizards of Xitt

Halon

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Halon

Night was fast approaching at Aedes place, though the place wasn’t getting any darker. Spectators were still seated on the cusps, but no important spectacle was underway. Except one would call the dwarrowdelfs preparations for the closing ceremony a spectacle.

Each cusp of the stands was divided into small chattering groups that kept changing.

Muriel was upfront, taking instructions from the Supremese, so was Alvarez from the Suprema.

Kaila and Elizabeth were chattering every now and then, when one of them fished out a good subject. They will look away after exhausting the subject. Actually, they did not have that much common grounds to explore together.

After a while, the dwarrowdelfs disappeared.

Tarique’s voice came back on air.

“I welcome you all officially to the closing ceremony of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Olympiad in this year of our lord Poseidon. My name always remains Tarique and up here in the commentary stands with me is Riva Petrusci, Eston Clorita, and Aimes Bilbury.”

Kaila turned his eyes to the screen. The camera feeding the screen was going round the cusps

“First and foremost. I love to inform you about the final standings of the provinces in this Olympiad.” Tarique continued.

The screen brought up the standings. Xitt was first, Atlas second, Mineseus third, Marto fourth place and Amphyn came last.

Soon, the clusters of light crystals, which were bathing the stadium in bright light began to dim. In the darkness that followed, coloured lights began to bob out of the lake, forming patterns. The coloured lights also formed words like ‘Thank you’, ‘129th Olympiad’, ‘Xitt’, etc.

Next was an array of coloured birds forming moving patterns.

A crystal of light appeared above the lake. Beneath the light crystal was a musician with a troupe of dancers.

A couple of blue light crystals appeared around each cusps, drenching the whole stadium in a faint bluish brightness.

The musician began to sing a song Kaila had never heard before. The voice was too angelic to be a man’s, the entrance and exits, the transition between the notes were just perfect. And the dancers were just a glory to watch. Their movement was so sensuous and their harmony was perfect. In fact, it seemed they were parts of one seamless body and had no bones in them.

Elizabeth’s head was rested on Kaila’s shoulder and she was stroking the back of his hand. “The Entitee is the best band in all of Atlantis.” She whispered into his ears. “When I’ll marry again, I’ll have them perform.”

Kaila said nothing to this; he did not know what to say. The only thing he knew was that the Entitee was the best there was in all the world. He was not sure they could ever be bested on earth.

The Entitee performed for a few more minutes. The dwarrowdelfs soon succeeded them. At the end of the Dwarrowdelfs’ act, the formed deficient arcs around some coloured crystal balls on the edges of the lake.

After a while, the blue crystal lights went out. In the darkness, nothing seemed to be alive to Kaila except the desires Elizabeth had aroused.

Then, there were sounds, like that of canon fire.

Kaila held his breath. Colors were just flying towards the sky from the edges of the lake. In seconds, Kaila was witnessing the most spectacular display of fireworks he had ever seen in all his life.

The fireworks lingered in the sky before they disappeared. In those few glorious moments, they resembled coloured embroideries specifically made for the garments of the night.

Kaila soon realized the fireworks were not random, but told a story in pictorial form. He was yet to comprehend what the story was about, when he slipped into a trancelike state.

Three greenish beams of light were coming towards their cusp. All angled towards one target.

Kaila stood up suddenly that Elizabeth almost fell. The trancelike state had been so brief, though it was almost real. Kaila knew, he had to get to those beams of light before they got to their target.

One of the Aides or security tried to stop him but he knocked the man aside and hurried past.

The fireworks display was still on. People were either watching attentively or making out with others.

Kaila saw the green beams of light; they were travelling at ultra speed. He estimated the destination immediately; Igor Fleming, the Suprema of Atlantis. Kaila knew he could not get to Igor in time; the beams of light were bound to reach Igor in seconds. Kaila flung himself by a power he did not know he possessed and got to the front of the cusp before the beams of light got to Igor.

Unfortunately, only two of the light beams reached him, one wiggled past him to Igor. Kaila could feel his heart begin to stop. He was falling freely to the floor of the cusp. His heart stopped and he was out of consciousness just before he hit the cusp’s floor.

Kaila might have been death or in-between worlds. One thing he was not was being alive at that moment.

However, when Kaila finally felt himself, everything around him was dark and hot. His heart was having some difficulty restarting.

It seemed as though his body as gliding through space. Kaila forced his eyes open, he saw Muriel and Elizabeth peering down at him with concern. They were in the back seat of a gliding car.

It quickly registered on his half-empty mind what had happened. “Where are they?” He blurted out sitting up against subtle pressure.

None of the women were eager to answer, they were just happy that he was alive.

“Is he awake?” Someone asked from the front seat of the car.

Kaila could not tell whose voice it was. That was not important at the moment. What was important was the whereabouts of those three wizards. Those deadly green beams of light were their trademark. “Were they caught?” He threw at everybody in the car.

“Caught? Who?” Elizabeth asked piqued.

Kaila blurted out something unintelligible. The car came to a halt. He jumped down from the car to the ground leaving everyone in shock. The car was already at the level of a seven-storey building.

Kaila was enraged as he landed perfectly on the ground. Someone had to put an end to those three wizards for good. The warm breeze of the Atlantean night caressed his skin as he closed his eyes to locate the wizards. He found them just north of Aedes place, gliding away, apparently, satisfied with their deeds.

Kaila slowly opened his eyes. The car from which he jumped had restarted but was still hovering relatively in the same spot it was when he jumped. In addition, another car had stopped behind the car Kaila jumped from. Everyone inside the two cars were by the windows, peering down at him.

Clusters of light in the area became very bright. Kaila dropped his gaze, he knew what he needed and what he had to do. He made a loud caw and watched the sound travel over the horizon.

Within seconds, a huge creature was flying towards him. The creature came down beside him, it was a silvery dragon.

The dragon stooped low so Kaila could climb its back. Kaila climbed; he could feel the eyes from the cars boring holes through him.

The silvery beast spread its wings and hauled itself into the air. It was going back towards Aedes place.

Kaila had never flown on a dragon before. In fact, up till the previous night he still believed dragons were mythic creatures. But here he was, fully conscious, feeling very much at home on the back of a twenty ton, fire-spitting, mythic monster. If this was not a dream, he wondered what else could be a dream.

The dragon negotiated obstacles, then a turn. Kaila was only thinking of it. It seemed the dragon was seeing into his mind. He was not bothered about that in any way, as long as the dragon would fly him to the three wizards.

After a while, Kaila reached Aedes Stadium. Surprisingly, there were still spectators in it. The lights were back on, and they were silently watching feeds from the numerous screens in the stands. Kaila looked down at the central screen in the stadium, he was their spectacle.

A few of the spectators raised their eyes and saw him. They cheered foolishly at him. It was clear to Kaila that every nook and cranny of Atlantis was fitted with invisible cameras. He wondered if the spectators in the stadium knew where he was going and why.

Without waiting for his instructions, the dragon soared higher and jetted away from the stadium.

From the great height, Kaila could see the traps of the Aedes Triathlon. The fiery canyon had claimed the part of the land where the competitors had met the cockatrice. The forest of elfs too had now expanded to reach the tunnel from which the competitors emerged.

The dragon seemed to have picked up a trail. It doubled its speed.

Kaila could feel the wizards close by and in truth, it did not take long before he got his first glimpse of them. They were gliding away as fast as they could, unaware yet that they had a tail.

At about a hundred meters or so to reach them, the wizards sensed Kaila and the dragon. They turned and sent random spells in the form of colored beams of light, both at Kaila and the dragon.

The dragon maneuvered past all the spells so adeptly that Kaila concluded it was no ordinary dragon. Then the dragon sprayed its fire at them, they dodged the fire but did not flee in the same direction.

The dragon turned and followed the monkey-faced wizard who was introduced to Kaila as Quanti Flint in the capitol building back in Honolulu.

Flint saw them and said some incantations that allowed him disappear into the air.

The dragon maintained the course, every here and there doubling and sometimes tripling its speed. After following a straight course for some time, the dragon sprayed fire.

Kaila could hear Flint’s voice shouting. Flint suddenly appeared and whirled towards the ground. Kaila turned to find Gantz and Icarus looking murderously at him. He jumped off the falling dragon and reached the ground after the over twenty-ton monster.

Just as Kaila hit the ground beside the dragon, a kind of petrifaction spell hit him. The spell stilled him at an awkward angle. Howbeit, his field of view was considerably wide. He could see Flint’s eyes wide open; the wizard did not survive the free fall. From the way he lay, his spine might have shattered as he hit a tree during the fall.

Within seconds, Kaila was able to shake off the spell. He jumped behind a tree just before Gantz and Icarus landed.

From behind the tree, Kaila could hear the gritty voice of Gantz wailing, shaking the trees. He knew they had found Flint.

“You’re a dead man Mr. Maentel.” Icarus childlike voice came through. He sent a spell that cut off the tree behind which Kaila was hiding, and felled it towards Kaila.

Kaila just managed to dodge the tree but was exposed. The two wizards sent a barrage of spells Kaila knew was definitely deadly. Surprisingly, he was blocking or dodging the spells without doing much. Sometimes, only the thought process executed the act for him.

The wizards did not relent, they kept sending spell after spell, pressing forwards. Kaila knew that sooner or later, the spells would hit him, he tracked backwards, waiting for the perfect opportunity to run. It was however soon apparent that such an opportunity would never come. Gantz was throwing more spells in a Minute than a man could blink.

Soon a sandstorm began. Dust was blown into Kaila’s eyes. He was physically blinded but could see the wizard and was still parrying their spells.

After a while, Icarus moved some water from a nearby stream into the forest. The water covered only Kaila, drowning him.

Kaila knew he had to turn the spells on the wizards. Before he knew it, the water left him and no spell was coming anymore. Kaila rubbed his eyes, then opened them. He found Gantz on the floor, probably petrified or dead. Icarus was just emerging from a hearse of water.

Icarus frowned, his face contorting into ridges. His blue eyes were crimson and his hair was moving. Icarus shook his hands and the trees arranged themselves into rings, surrounding him and Kaila.

“I have been waiting for this day Mr. Maentel. A day I will finally end the contract of your miserable life. In fact, if not for Gantz, weeds should be trampling upon you by now.” Icarus scowled. His eyes had turned a shade deeper, blood red, by the looks of it.

Two bodies of water rolled towards Icarus hands and formed into swords. He charged at Kaila, and began swinging wildly. Kaila was soon caught despite his good dodging. Blood spurted from the deep gash across his chest, but he was still standing.

Icarus smacked his lips, enjoying every bit of the proceeds. He charged forth again and got Kaila at the back.

The sword in Icarus hands turned through an array of sinister weapons and ended as thorn-filled ropes.

Kaila was becoming weak; he was bleeding profusely.

Icarus went into frenzy. He whipped continuously at Kaila, each time, creating founts of blood. At long last, the rope caught at Kaila’s throat. Blood was dripping from everywhere, Icarus’ eyes were going from colour to colour. The wizard’s hands were writhing like a snake, making the whip tighter and tighter.

Kaila’s eyes became blank. He knew that unless a miracle saved him, Icarus was going to make good his promises. Kaila closed his eyes in anticipation, he knew, he had cheated death for so long.

Instead of dying, Kaila felt his body heat up. The whip of water was melting away. Kaila opened his eyes, he could not believe what he was seeing; his hands were on fire. The wounds Icarus had inflicted on him had disappeared.

Icarus looked on, scared.

Kaila flung a hand at Icarus and a ball of fire exploded on the pale wizard. The impact of the ball of fire fell Icarus and burnt a part of his garment and frail skin.

Icarus staggered to his feet, his eyes blazing like the sun. He gathered some huge amounts of water, formed it into a huge snowball, and sent it at Kaila. Kaila produced fire from his hands, the which, he used to melt the snowball. Then as the water from the snowball fell to the ground, it formed into pieces of broken glasses. The broken pieces of glasses travelled past Kaila with a force of their own. They then returned as fast as anything in the world could go.

Kaila managed to get out of the path, where the glasses were more concentrated. Some still caught him though with the strange force the glasses were carrying. The impact sent him to the ground and knocked him briefly out of consciousness.

The pieces of glasses got to an unsuspecting Icarus. The impact sent him to the ground. He remained there, dead.

Kaila was still on the ground unconscious when a number of spells hit him. A portion of the earth opened beside him. He was rolled inside and covered.

Soon, he stirred within his shallow grave, he was sandwiched between two stony layers of earth magically knit together. The injuries inflicted by the broken pieces of glasses had healed, and the spells, which hit him afterwards, were wearing off. Only problem was he had to get out of there fast, there was no air in the shallow grave. In fact, he was already suffocating.

Kaila tried pushing off the layers of earth on top of him, but the thing did not budge. He did not know what next to do so he closed his eyes. Perhaps this time, nothing could save him. At least he tried saving the world. There was no doubt in his mind that the world would have been much better without those three wizards. As Kaila began to fill his body temperature rise, a minor tremor soon began to shake the earth. The earth above him exploded outwards and he rose.

As the debris settled, Kaila could see Gantz Locre hiding behind a mass of earth. The dragon was alive apparently, and was pouring fire at the earth.

Gantz produced a couple of spells that missed the dragon by inches. The dragon broke off as it saw Kaila. Gantz too spotted Kaila. He knew he was cornered, not with two of his partners dead.

Kaila could see Gantz close his eyes and mutter something. Before he knew what was happening. The earth around him began to shake, then exploded. Kaila and the dragon were buried by the rubbles.

The part of rubbles over Kaila soon tore apart and Kaila emerged once again, though bleeding. He found Gantz waiting for him.

Gantz began releasing spell after spell, up to twenty in a minute. Kaila kept dodging and parrying the ones he could. Then, a dizzying spell hit him. Kaila staggered, but soon crumpled to the ground.

From the ground, he could hear Gantz coming closer. The wizard was mouthing a spell intuition told Kaila no one can ever wake from. It was not a killing spell, but something worse; a distilling spell. Distilling spells Kaila had read could turn men to much lesser beings.

Kaila managed to shake off the dizzying spell just as a golden beam of light left Gantz’s eyes. He closed his own eyes and summoned every power at his disposal to return the spell back to Gantz.

The spell persisted on its course. It almost hit Kaila when he produced a ball of fire with which he used to explode the spell.

Whether the spell backfired or not; Gantz was caught in the explosion. He was blown backward and did not rise again.

Kaila staggered up, the dragon was clawing its way out of the rubble Gantz had earlier buried it in. Kaila let out a sigh, his job was done. At least, from hence, people would have one less worry; the three powerless wizards. He walked towards the dragon but stopped in his tracks, after only a few steps.

The sound of an angry wind was rustling through the forest, the type he had heard at the unveiling. It was coming towards him and the dragon.

Trees were being uprooted and shoved aside as the sound of the wind drew nearer. Within seconds, the wind surrounded him and the dragon; the trees, which Icarus had made into a ring, were all uprooted and shoved away. Not long afterwards, the dragon tumbled over and died.

Kaila was scared and his face showed it. He looked around for anything that could help him face whatever this was.

“Looking for a weapon...” A voice rumbled. It was louder than thunder, “...to face Halon.”

Halon! Kaila repeated to himself. He could not think of where he heard the name at the moment.

“Halon is not a man Mr. Maentel, not flesh to be hurt...” the wind whirled, rustled round Kaila. “Halon’s the air that keeps you alive each day, the wind that moves everything else. Everything is quenched by it and nothing is without it.”

Kaila decided to prolong the judgment hour. He knew Halon would definitely sent him to the grave. “Has Halon no face to be known at all? Only cowards hide their true faces.”

The wind whirled before him. A pearly face with ill-defined features formed out of it.

Kaila scoffed. “No wonder it is hidden!”

“No one has ever seen this face and lived to tell of it... It is often the last thing people see before becoming ancestors.”

Kaila felt the wound on his face heal. He saw an excited reaction on Halon’s face just before the pearly thing became wind again.

Kaila’s throat soon began to collapse, something sucking out his breath. Something else was tightening round his neck. Kaila fell to his knees, then onto his back. He was submitting himself to death.

Soon, Kaila began to heat up, as the last breath of life in him was being sucked out. His whole body became fire, and he was released. Kaila rose to his feet, he was engulfed in flames, but he was not being burnt.

Halon circled faster and faster around him. The flame soon began to die down. Within seconds, Halon had quenched the flames.

Kaila realized what he had to do. “Halon?” The wind eased. “Well, I am not man either, I am the Xeonoex. And it will take more than air to quench me.”

The wind whirled before Kaila. It formed into the pearly face of Halon, angry and distorted. “So you put your faith in that baseless prophecy.”

“I don’t believe in prophecies Halon, and as of now, I’ve heard of none.” Kaila said. He bit his tongue, sucked out the blood.

“Hmm!” Halon seemed to be wrapped up in thought.

Kaila gathered enough pressure in his mouth and spat out the blood at Halon.

The effect was instantaneous. Halon’s pearly face began to dissolve. “My eyes!” could barely be heard over the frantic rumble of thunders. Halon began to whirl in circles. The circles widened and the current grew stronger. The current soon became so great that nothing was left standing. Even Kaila was hauled away.

The wind grew still stronger covering wider areas.

Kaila staggered up from another part of the forest, where he was hauled.

Halon meanwhile was spinning out of control; Kaila dodged a few whole trees that came past him.

Deep rumbles louder than thunder spewed everywhere. Kaila braced himself, he could feel the earth begin to shake.

Then there was a mighty explosion. Kaila was carried bodily and hauled away, he lost consciousness during the rough flight.

Earth, water, trees and men were tossed roughly from the ground many miles from the site of the explosion.

The lake beside Aedes stadium produced tidal waves that covered some of the cusps of the stands. The impact of the water on the crystal cusps crashed some of them, and some of the people in them were swept into Aedes cistern. Some of the cusps crashed on their own without the impact of the water.

After waves and waves of destruction followed before everything settled.

Within seconds, Kaila stirred. He had been hauled to Aedes stadium and had crashed into one of the cusps. He turned a blurry vision around the cusp. People that had survived were scampering to their feet and running away from him. They were making strange exclamations and expressions.

Kaila trained his ears. He could not pick out anything in full, only short clips of whatever they were saying. Surprisingly, most of them seemed to contain three phrases ‘Halon’s conqueror’, ‘the prophecy’, ‘the blood’.

Kaila laid on the floor of the cusp until he felt a little better before springing to his feet. The cusp he had crashed was not washed out by the lake, but at the moment it was empty. Kaila turned around, the screen was streaming feeds from the cusp, and he was staring at himself.

People on the other cusps were looking at him, not through their screen. The expression on their faces was fear, rather than awe. Kaila took a deep breath. One thing was clear at the moment. The people of Atlantis were scared of Halon’s conqueror. In short, they were scared of him. And that might probably have everything to do with a prophecy and a blood.

The winding staircase, which gave access to and from the stand was a little to one side of the front row seat. Kaila took two steps to at a time, he practically leapt to the ground. He had made up his mind that he had to get to C. Palace, find out what this prophecy was, and probably take his leave of Atlantis. He had already overstayed his welcome.

By the time he got to the underground garage. There were scores of people trying to get into their vehicles and leave. Some paramedics were also trying to take away some of the people who were critically injured, or worse still, dead.

Most of them hid on seeing Kaila, some gave him more than enough space to pass. Kaila walked past; he could not blame them even if he wanted to. Truth was, he would have done the same in their shoes, not after watching all the magic and transformations that transpired between him and the wizards in the forest.

Kaila picked a red car at random. He reasoned that since they feared him so much, they would not mind him borrowing one of their cars.

He tried the door, the door refused to open. He broke the window and opened the car from inside. The car began issuing warning notes and intruder alerts. Worst of all, it refused to start when Kaila commanded it to.

Kaila hit hard at the dashboard and the light ceramic-like material used to make it cracked. He could feel the eyes boring holes through him.

The car soon started and zoomed for a while. It then rose into the air and out of the garage.

The red car glided over the beautiful city of Atlas. The sky was serenely blue, even though the darkened cloak of night was covering it. One crescent moon and a full moon opposed each other from considerable distances on it.

The air was intoxicating as usual, filled with beautiful scents and some types of thin pleasant moisture.

All those Atlantean charms held no appeal for Kaila Maentel. His mind was forcefully pointed towards himself. Now more than ever, he really needed to know who he truly was, what prophecy was said about him and what was actually going on in this world.

After a few minutes, the Pyramidal C. Palace came into view. Kaila knew that if not for the urgency of his inquisition or state of mind. He would have loved to kill the engine, and just sit where he was, worshiping the beauty of the golden temple of a palace.

The car came to a forced halt directly above the black entrance gate. Some kind of light engulfed the car and Kaila. When it disappeared, the car continued inside.

The car glided to a halt over the parking area. It descended uneasily and hit the ground a little too roughly. Kaila alighted in such hurry that he failed to close the car door.

At the entrance, the po-faced uniformed men welcomed him warmly. Kaila knew they had not yet heard of his escapade with the wizards of Xitt.

Kaila regarded their pleasantries and made supplies, not adequate though. He hurried past them into the Palace. At the glass lift he found too many of the pearly creatures than he had ever seen. Sir Ben was not among them, but there were a couple of them dressed like him.

One of the pearly creatures hit a sledgehammer against one of the balcony railings. The sound echoed up with Kaila in the glassy lift.

As usual, the lift turned sideways at the fourth floor. It came to a halt in front of the large round room with a pool. Kaila exited the lift and walked toward his apportioned room without appreciating the reflective tiles on the floor.

Fortunately for Kaila, there was no one in the room. He did not actually feel like talking to anyone at the moment, except the Supremese. She would certainly know about that prophecy. But whatever the case may be, he was leaving Atlantis today.

In the bedroom, Kaila kept the same tunnel vision and marched into the bathroom. He was sure now that the answers in Atlantis were not those he was seeking. Atlantis was even adding more questions to his own pools of questions. In fact, he did not need to know what the Atlantean prophecy said. What he needed was answers, which he as sure, must be buried somewhere in Honolulu.

Kaila changed into the clothes he had come to Atlantis with. The clothes had been washed and ironed, his leather shoe must have been polished with oil, the shoe was almost producing light on its own...

Feeling original and resolved, Kaila eased open the door, ready to face the men and women of Hale Maka’i. He was almost jolted out of his resolve as he stepped into the bedroom. Virgill was standing next to the crystal bed. Her eyes were round and wide, her face was unsmiling.

Kaila noticed something else in the room, which he did not notice when he passed; a newspaper. He bent and picked it up. The paper was too familiar to surprise him, and yet, it was too unexpected that it left him in some kind of shock. Kaila held onto the newspaper for quite a while, he was only seeing the individual letters on them, unable to combine them into words. Then slowly, the letters became words. The biggest of them read. “Police chief’s daughter for burial today... Death attributed to suicide.”

Suicide! Kaila repeated the words without speaking it. He knew there was a cover-up somewhere. The Malena he knew was either blown to pieces during the explosion or abducted while he was still unconscious. He turned a questioning look to Virgill.

Virgill’s face relaxed before she spoke. “Igor explained why he brought you Atlantis, and I thought you might like to keep tabs on developments over there.”

That was an answer, Kaila thought, but not the answer he crave from an Atlantean at the moment. He dropped the paper and turned to Virgill. “What prophecy were they talking about?”

Virgill turned her eyes away. She hesitated, probably buying time, to distort the truth. “What prophecy?” She said finally, feigning ignorance.

“Don’t start that on me Virgill. Every man, woman, and child in Atlantis have had eyes on me from the moment I mounted that dragon.” Kaila said a little harsher than he intended.

Virgill sighed, not still looking at him. “There’ve been many prophecies about Halon and his Conqueror... Not to worry, most of them came from those who were victimized one way or another by him.”

“What did it say?” Kaila insisted sensing Virgill’s unwillingness.

“As I said, nothing important, just the fact that he will be defeated by a very powerful man.”

Kaila knew, she was not telling the truth, or at least, not all of it. She did not say anything about the blood, or about the fact that Atlanteans were scared of him. They were scared of a saviour if what she said about victims was correct.

Kaila gave his shirt one last smoothening. Virgill understood the action.

She cleared her throat and spoke in a hurriedly composed voice. “I suppose you can trace your way to Port Gramme. You can use any of the cars in the garage, tell them the Supremese orders- I’ll call Goren at the Port to expect you.

“Kaila looked at her, feeling a bit ungrateful. He drew a sharp breath. “Thank you.”

“No Kaila, I should be thanking you.”

Kaila understood why she should be thanking him. He might have saved her husband’s life. That reminded him of the one question he had not yet asked. “How’s he?”

“Would live.” She said smiling half-heartedly.

“When he can hear, tell him I said thank you.” Kaila breathed eyeing the door, “for everything.”

Virgill nodded.

A moment of awkward silence passed between them.

“I should probably be going.” Kaila rushed, indicating the door.

Virgill seemed confused. “Sure,” she replied, in addition to nodding a couple of times.

Kaila felt foolish walking to the door. He knew, he should have hugged or shook hands with Virgill. Her face did not seem receptive, though, her body was calling for the former.

Within seconds, Kaila was out of the door. He had come to Atlantis a fugitive. Now he was leaving, feeling the same way, even if, he could not tell, if his only crime was fulfilling an age long prophecy.