Fire of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 4)

FIFTEEN

Freya wasn't someone who cared about the Soul of magic or her friends; even if as the seconds ticked by, she was beginning to realise who they all really were. To her, they were just outsiders; and although the fact that they were in the region displeased her, it wasn't something that she wanted to waste more time on than was necessary.

The Conqueror's flames, on the other hand, wasn't something that the pale-blonde archer could just totally ignore. Thing is, the inhabitants of the Barren lands knew as much as any of the main realm dwellers about the mysterious accursed weapon that was supposedly used to forcefully bring the realm under one rulership. But like every other person too, they had no evidence to make them believe in the myth behind the legend; at least not until that moment.

"What do you mean the Conqueror's flames is about to be reawakened?" Freya asked Ariel, unable to hide the disbelief in her voice. "I mean, I thought the weapon was supposed to be unfindable."

"Oh, it is findable," the seer replied and explained how just like she had done for Richard and Isidora. "You see,” she began, “the flames came to me in a vision and told me that to locate it, I needed a special object, a glowing crystal." She brought out the crystal for everyone to see; the object glowing brighter than usual in the sun as they looked at it. "The crystal has been helping us navigate for the past few days," she told them. "And at first, I thought it was leading us to the flames but thinking about it now, I believe it wanted us to find something that would be of immense help.” She looked at Kyra. “The lost Soul of magic."

Kyra looked very bewildered at what she was hearing; she was finding it hard to wrap her head around the reality of the situation that had brought the others to the Barren lands. And she wasn’t the only one. The twins too were puzzled. “I’m not getting any of this,” Morgan said and Freya just kept sighing in confusion where she stood.

“Perhaps it’ll be better if we all rest now and pick this up later,” Richard suggested and everyone agreed; it had been a long day.

As the night fell and the group was now relaxed around a large campfire, Richard thought that perhaps it was time they revisited their earlier conversation. "Kyra, like Ariel said, it was no accident that we found you,” he began. “To be honest, I believe the crystal wanted us to find you, and not just because of this whole Conqueror's flames issue. So please, if you have anything that you think might help us with this quest, anything at all, it’ll be greatly appreciated."

The Soul of magic pondered over the situation for a while, her thoughts going back to all that she had seen and learnt in search of anything that could serve as a clue or an answer. After a while, she said, "The reason why I became the Knight in the first place was to fight a warlord named Landon." She looked into the fire as the events of the past months came flooding back to the forefront of her mind.  "When I left the Blessed Isle, the only thing on my mind was getting as far away as possible from the Kingdoms region. I didn't want to see nor be seen by anyone I knew. So I came here to the Barren lands, the one place where any of you wouldn't think to look for me.

“On getting here however, I discovered that the warlord had sent his men all over the territory in search of something under the ruse of keeping order. I didn't know what it was that they were looking for but I was sure that it wasn't anything good, at least not for the realm. But I couldn’t just intervene as Kyra, not without risking a blowback of the discovery that the Soul of magic and Head witch of the realm has left her place. So I became the Knight instead, helping the people out from under his tyrannical control and preventing him from getting whatever it was that he was after the only other way I knew how to.

“At the end of the day though, all I found was this." Kyra took out the parchment that she, Freya and Morgan had found in the chest and showed it to Richard; the look on the latter's face showing that he had no clue as to what was written on the material as Kyra herself when she first looked at it.

"What you're looking at is a very ancient code used by the first settlers of the Barren lands, your Majesty," Morgan explained to him. "It's quite complex and unique."

"Oh, this is more than just an elaborate code, child," Isidora replied as she saw what they were looking at, taking the parchment from Richard and smiling in an almost awed manner. "This is actually a vital part of the history of magic that had been thought lost long ago."

"What are you talking about?" Morgan returned, very confused. "It’s not magic, it’s a code. I can decipher it. How would I be able to do that if it was magic?"

"Because you're a true Barren lander," she replied, but that only seemed to confuse the pale-blonde boy the more.

Sensing that the group was just as confused as Morgan, Isidora decided to explain. "Look, this all began when the first settlers arrived in the region that was to later be known as the Barren lands," she began.

As it was, the first settlers weren't just humans as most people thought; a few of them were actually wizards who for one reason or the other had to leave their homes and community. They had travelled to the region with the same hope as the humans; to get a fresh start. And just as it was already known, that fresh start didn't come like they had all envisioned and they were forced them into other means in order to survive.

It was decided in that time among the humans and wizards to send some of the most capable men from both kinds back into the main realm to search for resources that would help them survive. But that decision had a major snag: communication. They needed a way to communicate with their men in such a manner that the main realm dwellers would not be able to find out what it was that they were doing, not even if they somehow managed to intercept a message. So, they created the code.

"The code was created in two parts," the dark witch explained. "A patterned part which the humans could decode even without the aid of a wizard, and another part that was totally magical."

Like a practical exercise, Isidora put the parchment over the fire and began to touch certain symbols on it as she spoke what was presumed to be their names. Immediately she touched and called the last symbol, the ink on the parchment came alive and began to flow around the material; reshaping itself until what appeared on the parchment was a readable map. "I think I know why your warlord was so keen on acquiring this parchment," she said as she showed them all what was on the material. "This map leads to the Conqueror's flames, and it happens to be just right up the creek."