The Dark Path (8 page)

"Very well. Watch closely, Thomas." Meeka pulled the round glass closer to her and placed her hands to either side of it. She began chanting softly, under her breath, and the mirror quickly went from reflecting the room to showing only a green light. The green light faded and an image of a village in a large forest came into focus. The people in the image seemed to be rushing all around and suddenly one of the thatch-roofed houses lit up in brilliant flame. Soldiers in red outfits marched into the picture and began methodically killing everyone in the village. Meeka sat back and the image in the mirror vanished. Gen looked up to her and saw tears running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong? Where was that?" Gen asked.

"My home. That village was my home," she sobbed. Gen got up and walked around to kneel beside her chair. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried.

"I'm so sorry," Thomas murmured.

"What's wrong over here?" the teacher demanded with a stern look that grew instantly soft as she saw Meeka's sobs.

"Meeka saw her village being destroyed by soldiers in red," Thomas whispered to her.

"Meeka, you may go to your room. I'll tell your other teachers that you won't be coming to classes today."

"Thank you," Meeka murmured and stood up slowly. Gen put his arm around her and started walking her to the door.

"You must stay, Gen Hothman," the teacher said coldly. Gen turned and looked at the divination teacher. His eyes burned with a cold fire.

“Go ahead, Gen. I'll be alright.”

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Gen asked Meeka.

"I'll be fine. I just need to be alone for a bit. You and Thomas come see me after classes today. We're all supposed to see The Headmaster tonight." She gently removed Gen's arm and walked out of the classroom. Gen waited till she had gone then returned to his seat.

"Gen, Show me the capital of Eremia." The teacher looked down her hawkish nose at Gen. She had always seemed to have a hatred of him, though Gen had no idea why. Gen didn't argue with her this time. He sat down and quickly chanted the words of the spell. The mirror glowed with a silver light quickly before the image of the capital of Eremia came into clear view.

"Very good. Now the capitol of Artoria." Gen nodded and concentrated on the mirror. The image shifted quickly and a different city appeared in the mirror.

"Now, show me the home of the dwarves on this island." The classroom started murmuring quietly. They had not been taught how to see inside a place yet. Gen merely smirked. He chanted a few words and the image once again shifted to show an immense darkness.

"Where is it? Show me what I asked," the instructor demanded.

"It is right there, in the glass. The dwarves do not light torches for they see in the dark as well as we do in the day," Gen stated softly.

"Very well. Show me the elven capital then!" The classroom chatter grew louder. Everyone knew that powerful spells protected the elves from scrying as well as everything else. Gen didn't smirk this time. He nodded and concentrated once more upon the glass. He had never tried this before. He chanted the words and the mirror once more glowed with a silver light. Slowly, a fuzzy image formed. All was green but nothing was even close to being in focus. Gen concentrated more. He closed his eyes and reached out with his senses. He looked to the lines and patterns of magic and sucked in a quick breath. His spell was being slowly unraveled at the center as the spell tried again and again to complete itself. He opened his eyes and looked to his teacher.

"I can not make the image any clearer. The ancient elven magic is something I do not know enough of at this time. My apologies." He bowed his head and the mirror returned to normal.

"The great and all powerful student fails? I am amazed. Well you did better than most, though I could bring up the image with ease. Enough with far sight. Everyone will spend the rest of class on attempting to see the future. I will show you all how to start. Gen, let us see what the future holds for you." The instructor sat in Meeka's seat and pulled the mirror closer to her. She chanted a complex spell and the mirror began to swirl with a dark red mist. The mists parted and an image slowly came into focus. A lone figure stood on a small hill. The figure wore robes of pure black. All around lay the bodies of fallen soldiers. The figure raised his hands, the bodies burst apart and their skeletons stood up and turned their sightless skulls toward the figure in black. The figure turned his head and looked directly up at the vantage of those looking into the mirror. It was Gen's face but it was vastly different. His cheeks were sunken in, his skin a sickly white pallor and large dark circles were under his eyes. He laughed and his icy blue eyes flashed. He reached up a skeletal hand and pointed directly at the instructor.

"Be careful what you seek to see, Oh Great Teacher." The voice was hollow and mocking; laughter filled the room. Suddenly, the mirror shattered and the teacher screamed in terror. Shards from the mirror protruded from her face and blood ran down her cheeks from eyes that were now filled with broken glass.

"Get the healer!" Thomas yelled. A student closest to the door ran out of the room. The teacher screamed and reached for her face, clawing at the shards in her eyes.

"Stop it! You must relax. Don't do any more damage or the healer may not be able to help." Thomas pleaded. The teacher seemed to hear nothing, she continued clawing at her eyes and screaming, incoherently.

"Gen! She'll kill herself! Do something!" Thomas pleaded. Gen stared at his friend blankly. He shook all over. Thomas grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, hard. "Wake up and help her! I don't know what to do!" Gen looked over at his teacher. He felt as if everything was somehow apart from him. As if he looked down upon it all from above. He saw himself chant words and the teacher slumped in the seat, falling into a deep sleep. Then his vision grew dim and he saw himself fall forward onto the table before everything went black.

VIII

The Journey Begins

Gen awoke and stared up at the top of the healer’s tent. He sat up and looked over to see the divination teacher sleeping soundly with heavy bandages over her eyes. Thomas sat beside the teacher with his back to Gen.

"Good, you're awake," Meeka said softly from behind him. "We need to talk. Come on, if you can walk." Gen swung his legs over the side of the cot and stood up. The room didn't spin, much. He walked slowly to the door. Meeka opened it for him and he followed her outside.

"Thomas told me what happened. Did you? Did you do that to Master Elise?" Meeka looked troubled. Her face showed signs of recent tears and her hair was disheveled.

"No. I have no idea what happened." Gen shuddered. Had that really been his future?

"I should have made you come with me when I left class. I knew something bad was going to happen today. I thought that it was seeing my home village destroyed. I had no idea that anything worse would happen." She shook her head. "We are late for the Headmaster's. I'll go get Thomas and we'll meet you there." She shooed Gen off and walked back into the healer's tent.

When Gen arrived at the Headmaster's office, he was surprised to find Aaron there already. Thomas and Meeka arrived shortly after.

Aaron was barely conscious but still standing. Gen could tell that even after the healer finished healing him, he was still in a great deal of pain.
Serves him right.
Gen thought. The Headmaster’s door opened silently and they entered the room.

"Sit," the Headmaster said. Gen readily obeyed.

"I must say I don't usually like my students fighting like that, but this time I agree it was needed. Now I hope you two have laid your differences aside; for you will all be spending a lot of time together." The Headmaster turned to Gen. "What happened to Elise today, Gen?"

"Master Elise was demonstrating using a mirror for future sight. She chose me as her subject. Then the mirror exploded and the shards all went into her eyes." Gen shivered slightly. The Headmaster looked at him silently for a long time.

"I have decided to send you all on a mission of sorts. You are to take a package to the Crow temple. You have two weeks to get there." The Headmaster opened his desk and took out a small pouch that was tied shut with a simple knot.

Gen looked around questioningly. Meeka stared ahead uneasily, not looking at him. Thomas was white as a sheet, and Aaron looked down quietly at the floor.

"I hope you take this time to learn some new things. Gen, since you won't be here to receive your new robes, I have decided to give them to you now." The Headmaster walked to his closet and quickly took out a package tied with a blood red ribbon. Placing it in Gen's hands, he smiled to him softly. "You all have a hard road ahead of you. Use what you have been taught well. "

The Headmaster returned to his desk and started writing on a new sheet of parchment. The group knew they were dismissed. Gen waited till the others left and sat waiting for the Headmaster to finish writing. The Headmaster wrote on till he had filled the page and sprinkling the fresh ink with fine sand he looked up to Gen.

"You have a question?"

"Yes. Why us?"

"For a lot of different reasons, but the main one being that you are to the point now where you need to get out in the world a bit. Living secluded here is not what is meant for you; though I feel young Thomas will return here and spend the rest of his days teaching. As for Aaron, I don't like what he's becoming so I'm hoping the world will set him right. Try to keep him away from the bottle while you are gone. "

"Why Meeka? She has never known anything but the Schola. It will be hard for her to leave."

"Gen," the Headmaster said rubbing his eyes slowly. Gen noticed that the Headmaster looked very old now. "Meeka told me of her dream. It frightens me, to tell you the truth. I hope it is only a dream but if it is a vision then all of you need to be away from here when it happens. That, and I fear that if I tried to send you away from her, I would be doing a terrible thing. All that and now this incident with Elise." The Headmaster shook his head. "Just go Gen, but be careful. Something bad is swiftly approaching. I can feel its chill in my bones," he smiled sadly.

"Thank you for telling me the truth, Headmaster. I will do my best to bring this package to the Crow temple," Gen said as he stood and picked up the pouch and placed it atop his own package. "May the Gods watch over the Schola."

"May the Gods watch over you, Gen," the Headmaster replied with an odd tone in his voice.

Gen found Thomas waiting for him as he left the office.

"I'm scared, Gen," Thomas said. He was shaking slightly and his face was still white.

"I know, but you will be fine. I'm going too, remember."

"Thank you," Thomas said; and in an odd moment hugged Gen close to him, and cried softly into his shoulder. Gen patted his friend on the back and waited for him to compose himself.

"I'm sorry. I just... I just get a terrible feeling about all this. Like some dark thing is lurking above us; watching." He shivered.

"Go to sleep. We have a long walk ahead of us tomorrow," Gen said, and pushed his friend gently down the hall.

"Good night, Gen."

"Good night, Thomas," Gen said smiling till Thomas had turned his back. Gen's smile became a deep frown.
What
an odd day this has been,
he thought as he returned to his room still shaken from the image in the mirror.

He was surprised to find a candle burning in his room; and even more surprised to find Meeka asleep in his bed. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he placed the pouch and his new robes on his small desk. He then took off his tattered gray robes and folded them on the floor beside Meeka's. He was just settling in behind her when she spoke to him.

"Gen, hold me close tonight," she requested quietly, "I don't want that dream to come back again."

He replied by squeezing her tight against him and kissing her gently upon her pale shoulder.

VIV

A Mysterious Book

Dawn came early for Gen. He had finally slept, if only for a few hours. He wasn't surprised to find that Meeka was no longer beside him. Last night, she had fallen instantly to sleep in his arms. Finally resigning himself to the fact that he was awake, Gen got up and rubbed the dull ache from his arms. He then proceeded across the room to the washbasin to wash the sleep from his eyes. On the top of the basin lay a note. Gen picked it up and began to read.

Gen,

I'll be in my room packing. Join me there when you've finished getting ready. Try to round up Thomas and Aaron on your way. Hurry now!

Love, Meeka

Gen refolded the note and placed it back beside the basin. Then, wetting a cloth, he washed his face. He glanced up at the mirror and stopped for a second. The package was still tied on top of his desk. He slowly picked it up and untied the ribbon. The robe was made of a coarse but supple material. It was a deep black with silver, almost gleaming, runes of magic along the rim of the sleeves and hood. He slowly pulled it on and found himself instantly awake; as if the robe infused him with some kind of power. It was a journeyman’s robe, and it was also two above the rank he should have had. He looked at himself in the mirror. The black robe made his face look even paler, but it seemed to look familiar. He stared into his own reflection until his eyes went unfocused. His reflection slowly changed. He appeared older and was deathly thin. His blue eyes were hard and cold and he had a few scars upon his cheeks. The reflection smiled into a twisted smirk and winked at him. Stunned, Gen blinked the image away and shook his head.