Knights Thranis

TWO Burden-2

As they continued to watch the various outdoor sermons, her thoughts shifted to those of Aleska. She had not spoken with – or indeed seen – her former mentor since Aleska recently retired from both The Blades and the ruling council of Freylar. There had been an official ceremony to mark the occasion, which had both celebrated Aleska’s service to Freylar and Nathanar’s ascension to the rank of Paladin. To the best of her knowledge, Aleska had made no retirement plans. Presumably therefore, her former mentor was open to new possibilities in order to curb the likely boredom of official retirement. She could well imagine the venerable Freylarkin instructing the youth of Freylar, imparting vast oceans of knowledge to those yet to make their mark on the domain. She made a mental note to raise the notion with Aleska during their next early morning rendezvous, however, given that Aleska had uncharacteristically missed their last engagement, she wondered when exactly that would be.

‘Over there! The Guardian!’ cried an unexpected voice from one of Rayna’s youthful onlookers.

‘Oh no...I fear that we’ve lingered here too long.’ noted Rayna bashfully.

‘Come now, you cannot deny your youngest fans the opportunity to meet The Guardian.’ she teased playfully.

‘Go on, it will be fun.’

‘Not you as well...’ said Rayna.

Rather peculiarly Rayna’s comment seemed directed at someone else, as though another was privy to their conversation.

‘Guardian, Guardian, Guardian, Guardian...’ came the sound of Rayna’s hastily assembled audience.

‘I fear that if you do not appease them, they could potentially turn nasty.’ she continued to tease. ‘I doubt that even you could handle that little lot.’

Rayna half grumbled an incomprehensible word –entirely beyond her understanding – before reluctantly descending the bank upon which they stood, towards the eager class awaiting them. Like small insects scattering before a larger presence, the children hurriedly reordered themselves into a makeshift crescent-shaped amphitheatre; the smallest amongst them kneeled in the front row, those directly behind sat on hastily repositioned wooden stools whist the taller members chose to stand at the back of the congregation alongside their tutors. Everyone, it seemed, was keen to get a good look at The Guardian up close, as she gingerly took up position before the growing throng which was now drawing the presence of several other inquisitive Freylarkai within earshot.

‘Right, well...err...I cannot address you all without the presence of my good friend Kirika.’ said Rayna, who then beckoned her to come forth with an outstretched hand.

‘Kirika, Kirika, Kirika, Kirika...’ chanted the insistent children who yearned to discover more about their enigmatic saviour.

She supposed that in hindsight she had been the architect of her own demise, which was rather ironic considering her ability to scry. Regardless there would be no denying what was now their shared audience, and thus she too reluctantly stood before their captivated onlookers with a well-practiced smile.

‘What goes around, comes around.’ Rayna quietly whispered into her ear.

‘You have not left the vale...yet.’ she whispered in return, unsure how to back up her hollow threat.

Both had been unwittingly drawn into a tricky interrogation, courtesy of their own childish behaviour, though it was a small price considering the excited and expectant faces before them.

‘So then, where shall we start?’ Rayna asked openly.

A cacophony of sound broke out across their gathered audience as each excited member struggled to voice their question over their raucous peers. Quickly realising the error, Rayna sought in vain to calm the over-enthusiastic crowd; the presence of The Guardian only excited their audience further. Seizing the initiative, she stepped forwards, deciding to take the first few steps on the path to bolstering her own self-confidence. She thrust her arms into the air then slowly lowered them, bringing her right index finger vertically towards her lips. At once the crowd settled down, quickly realising the merit of her actions and the need to restore order.

‘If you have a question then raise your hand, and may I ask that you all patiently wait your turn.’ she said with a new-found sense of authority more befitting of her role.

A sea of hands rose immediately before them. Without any real thought, she selected one instinctively, hoping to be seen as expressing no favouritism towards any one Freylarkin in particular. With barely-contained excitement, the chosen Freylarkin immediately fired off their question.

‘Is it true you destroyed a whole legion of Narlakai?’

Rayna laughed politely before attempting to provide a measured response to the overly-generous assumption. ‘Not entirely, and certainly not by myself, though we were significantly outnumbered during the assault on Scrier’s Post.’

Keen to prevent Rayna from getting bogged down in the minutiae, she quickly asked the audience to raise their hands once more. Again, she instinctively selected another member of the audience – this time a young Freylarkin from the front row.

‘My father told me that you sent the Narlakai home with your powerful light magic.’

‘Did he now...? Well it wasn’t just me,’ replied Rayna, politely responding to the young Freylarkin’s malformed question. ‘I had the rest of The Blades to aid me, including some who are sadly no longer entirely with us.’

Rayna’s choice of words seemed strange – to her at least – though one could argue that The Guardian exhibited many alien mannerisms when directly compared to Freylar’s native population. Regardless, she quickly selected another candidate, seeking to maintain the rapid flow of questions and answers. This time she selected an older member of the audience.

‘What was it like being a Sky-Walker?’

‘Please excuse me. I am not sure that I heard you correctly. Sky-Walker?’ replied Rayna.

‘I heard that you came from up there, where the Sky-Walkers watch over us.’ clarified the youth, who pointed directly towards the sky, which was just visible through a hole in the dense canopy above.

‘Err...I see.’

Rayna was clearly thrown a little off guard by the leading question, especially coming from one so young. Mirielle had foretold the scenario unfolding before them when Rayna was first brought to the attention of their queen. The hope had been that the gradual dissemination of the facts regarding Rayna’s arrival would soften their inevitable blow; it seemed they were about to test that theory.

‘Well...it was certainly different.’ replied Rayna, following the statement with a wide smile. ‘What specifically would you like to know?’

Rayna had effectively thrown the question back to the audience for further refinement; it was a skilful means of avoiding the obvious trap of disclosing too much information whilst trying to satisfy an open-ended question. By forcing the children to narrow down their line of enquiry, it meant that Rayna only needed to focus on answers to questions which the audience could conceive, and thus more likely comprehend. Following Rayna’s lead, she quickly selected another hand, once again from the front row.

‘Are you able to fly higher than the clouds?’

‘The Sky-Walkers live in a domain well beyond the reach of Freylar. The inhabitants of that domain all walk.’ explained Rayna.

Quickly she selected another raised hand in a bid to shield Rayna from becoming bogged down with incomprehensible detail.

‘Why did you leave?’

‘I chose to come here...to help defend Freylar against the Narlakai invasion.’ replied Rayna.

‘Do you have friends back home?’

‘Indeed I do...one of them is called Trix, however, Freylar is my home now.’

The latest response from the reluctant celebrity caused much discussion to break out amongst their audience. Clearly excited and overwhelmed by the unequivocal information directly imparted to them, members of the audience quickly began conversing amongst themselves as each discussed and digested The Guardian’s words with great fascination. They had reached a natural pause in the questions and answers session, thus she decided to capitalise on the reprieve by politely excusing themselves.

‘I am afraid that we have overstayed our time here and must be getting on now.’ she said raising her voice enough to cut through the rapture of their audience.’

‘Guardian...will you visit us again?’ cried one of the children.

‘Of course I will.’ replied Rayna earnestly.

‘Promise!’

‘Oh, it’s a promise.’

With the session formally concluded, they both promptly withdrew from the sound of cheers and clapping hands. They climbed back up the slope towards the top of the bank overlooking the class whilst its tutors struggled to regain control over the pupils. Their presence – more so Rayna’s admittedly – had caused bedlam, though in a positive and uplifting way. Leading questions aside she felt that the session went exceptionally well, indeed far surpassing her own lofty expectations for such an impromptu interrogation.

‘Well that went rather well, do you not think?’ she said turning her head towards Rayna as they resumed their stroll through the forest.

‘You mean the chaos behind us?’ replied Rayna with a subtle hint of sarcasm.

‘Come now, it was a success.’ she replied. ‘Now we can let them do the remainder of the work for us. By the next cycle half of the forest will know everything that was said here and you will be journey-bound for the Knights Thranis.’

‘But what if I’ve doomed Nathaniel to a deluge of paparazzi in my absence?’ questioned Rayna.

‘Firstly, I do not know the meaning of this paparazzi of which you speak.’ she replied. ‘And secondly, Nathaniel can take care of himself. Besides, he is already renowned in these parts.’

‘Fame...how I loathe that word.’ replied Rayna, sighing heavily.

‘Sister dearest, popularity is a useful tool. You would be wise not to run from it, or worse shun its existence entirely.’ she said, attempting to impart her counsel on the matter. ‘Popularity is a double-edge sword; it can easily evolve into quite the opposite if disregarded.’

‘You mean I should give them what they want?’ enquired Rayna.

‘To an extent yes, though just enough to sate their appetites.’

Rayna considered the point for what seemed like the remainder of their meandering; eventually they rounded on Nathaniel’s tree, which promptly concluded their stroll. The light was starting to fade as the late afternoon sun sunk lower in the sky, hindering its ability to penetrate the dense canopy of the forest. As expected Nathaniel was nowhere to be seen, implying that The Teacher had yet to return from the arena. She was about to break their shared silence by imparting a fond farewell, though it was Rayna who ultimately spoke first.

‘Very well, I will humour them.’ said Rayna turning towards her, before casually leaning against Nathaniel’s tree with arms folded. ‘I see your logic Kirika, though it is not my desire to become a public spectacle.’

‘I understand sister and I am glad that you will ease their understanding, still...none of that is important now.’ she replied. ‘You are about to write a new chapter, post your rebirth. Ensure that you keep your wits about you as you travel south, and remain ever alert in the presence of the Knights Thranis.’

Rayna smiled before bringing their inevitable farewell to an end, ‘So then...will you now wish me good luck?’

She winked playfully then kissed Rayna lightly on the cheek.

‘Good luck, Guardian!