Every child has grown up hearing stories about Tai’a’Sharen, the Land of Magic. It was a beautiful country, divided into five kingdoms that represented the five elemental magics: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Each kingdom was well-suited to the element it embodied and the magic wielded by its residents, and each was ruled by a royal line of kings and queens.
There was no war between the kingdoms; peace was kept by means of a yearly council between the kings and queens, held at the castle fortress that stood in the very center of the land. The fortress protected the Great Tree, which was the source of the country’s magic. The tree was enormous; its crown could be seen for miles in every direction, it dwarfed the castle built around its trunk, and it took a fast runner at least an hour to circle its base. The tree’s bark was a vibrant brown and soft to the touch and its leaves, which never fell unless called down by a magician for use in a spell, were shaped like five-pointed stars, as big as a man’s hand, and a vibrant emerald-green that pulsed and glowed with an inner light.
The tree was cared for by the oracles. There were still mysteries, even in Tai’a’Sharen, and the oracles were the greatest one of all. No one knew what they were or where they came from. They were spirits of a sort whose very presence replenished the Great Tree, though they could not interact with anything or anyone and were rarely even seen except when passing on a prophecy. Prophecies from the oracles were rare, but extremely important, and they shaped not only the future of the world of magic, but also shaped the mundane world as well.
Because Tai’a’Sharen was connected to the world of men through hidden doorways, and the oracles’ prophecies usually involved the coming of Heroes to the Land of Magic: mortals who were touched by a great destiny, who entered the magical world to assist in its protection and preservation, then often returned to the mortal world to precipitate changes there as well. These mortals were revered by those in the magical world; their names and stories were carved into the stones of the fortress surrounding the Great Tree so they would never be forgotten.
Though there was peace and prosperity within Tai’a’Sharen, it was a tenuous stability, preserved only by constant vigilance along the country’s border. The roots of the Great Tree only spread so far, and beyond their reach lurked the Darkness. It was a daily struggle to prevent the denizens of the Darkness from crossing the border, gaining strength from the magical power that infused the land, and wrecking havoc or, worse, escaping to the mundane world to cause wars, disasters, disease, famine, and death. The magicians were vigilant, though, and had held off the swelling tide of shadow-folk amassing on their border for thousands of years, and stragglers that broke through and escaped into the mortal world were few and far between.
But then came the day of the Prophecy; the day the leaves of the Great Tree began to fall.
An emergency council was called. The shadow-folk had suddenly gained in strength and numbers, and all the power of the five kingdoms’ armies could barely hold them at bay. When the five kings and queens met at the fortress, they saw immediately one possible explanation for this change in their fortunes: the star-shaped leaves of the Great Tree were fluttering from is heights unbidden. The oracles were swarming the tree, their ghostly movements unusually hasty and full of fear, but they had no answers for the council, or any acknowledgement of their presence at all. As the kings and queens sat and discussed plans for increasing the strength of their armies, strategies for pushing back the shadow-folk, and treaties for coming to one another’s aid, a heavy sense of dread and futility hung in the air.
Suddenly, an oracle appeared in their midst, silencing them all as it hovered over the center of the council table. Then, it began to speak, its voice seeming to come from all around.
“The time has come at last; the future of all worlds hangs in the balance. The firstborn of royal blood must be sent to the world of men. Ignorant of their true selves, they will return when the time is right, bringing with them the heroes that will destroy all to save all. When the dream comes again, the one who is left behind will lead the way.” Then it vanished.
Silence filled the room as the kings and queens all looked at one another, fear and sorrow filling all their faces as the meaning of the oracle’s words sunk in. The king of the Earth Kingdom went very pale and his wife began to sob; their first child, a son, was almost two years old. The king and queen of the Water Kingdom also grieved—they had just given birth to a daughter—and the queen of the Fire Kingdom looked at her husband with sorrow and understanding, for though they had told no one yet, they had discovered just before departing their castle that she was pregnant for the first time. With twins. And she knew for a certainty that one of those children would be ‘the one who is left behind,’ because only one of them would be her firstborn.
Once the sacrifice the five families were being asked to make had sunk in, the Water king finally broke the silence. “So what are we to do now?”
“The children who have been born must be brought here so the oracles can send them to the mundane world,” the Spirit queen said, for she had the gift of understanding prophecy, “and we must continue to fight. For though no war will be won until our children and their heroes return, it can still be lost before that day comes if we do not keep the darkness at bay.”
“But what of those who have no children to lose?” the Earth king growled, glaring accusingly at the king and queen from the Spirit Kingdom, who had only just been married and raised to their position, and at the king and queen from the Air Kingdom, who were barely more than children themselves.
“We will all lose a child in the end,” the Fire queen spoke up, sparing her sister the pain of interpreting the most difficult part of the prophecy. “They will be lost to us before we have a chance to know them, but we will miss them all the same.” She suppressed her own grief as she put her arm around the Spirit queen’s shoulders to comfort her. “This will be a tremendous sacrifice for all of us, but it must be done if we are to save our world.”
“And we must not lose hope,” the Air queen spoke up in a sweet, sad voice, “for if the prophecy is true, we will see our children again… some day.” And they all took her words to heart, for they were a small, flickering flame of hope in the darkness that had fallen over their souls.
“What’s the matter? What’s happened?”
She looked up and cried, “He’s doing it again!”
No further explanation was needed. Kari immediately turned and ran into the forest, heading for the quarry. She left Darren to take care of Maia; he knew her better, after all.
The old rock quarry had been hollowed out long ago to build a lord’s castle. Now, it was simply a giant crater. A fifty-foot drop from sheer cliffs ended in a crystal-clear lake built up from years of rainfall. As Kari neared it, she slowed. There he was again, just sitting on the edge, looking down. His curly black hair, ruffled by the wind, fell into his eyes, and his balance wavered as he reached one hand up to push it back. Kari made sure to make plenty of noise with her feet as she approached so as not to startle him.
“Hello, Kaelin,” she said as she sat down next to him on the steep cliff.
“Hello, Kari,” he said, never moving or looking up from the water below.
“What are you doing?”
“Sitting here. Thinking.”
“About jumping?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Now, the real question. “Why?”
“Why what?” he asked innocently.
“You know what. You come here all the time, sit here almost every day. You’re terrifying Maia; she has no idea what’s going on inside your head. She’s afraid one day you just won’t come back, but she’s more afraid to try and stop you. Why do you do it?”
He finally turned his head to look at her, his grey eyes full of mild puzzlement. “I thought you’d know why. You must think about it yourself sometimes.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I’d never want to jump.”
“You don’t belong here any more than I do. I knew it from the first time I saw you.”
That opened her eyes. How could he know? “What makes you say that?” she asked, trying to keep her voice level.
“I’m not sure. There was just… something the first time we met. I’ve always known I don’t really belong to this world, but you’re the only other person I’ve ever met that I was certain didn’t belong here either.”
Could he really know? Was he one of the ones she was searching for? She knew Danil was one, and his very life was in danger as a result. If Kaelin was one too… But what did his fascination with the quarry have to do with any of this?
“I don’t want to sound harsh or anything, but you’re evading my question. Why do you keep coming here?”
He looked back down into the quarry. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been searching for the way back to… wherever it was that I came from. I don’t know where that is, but the first time I came across this quarry, I knew the answer was down there somewhere. I know the fall won’t kill me. I’d jump right now if it wasn’t for Maia. I can’t leave her behind. Wherever I belong, even if she doesn’t belong there too, I’m not going to go without her. I thought once that that meant that I’d never get to go home, but now… ever since I met you… I don’t want to jump any more. I came here today because things got really bad, but… I’m not going to jump as long as you promise to take us with you when you go.”
“Take you where?”
“To the place where this no longer frightens people.” He held his hands up. Blue lightning crackled along his fingertips.
*He is one of them!*
Kari rejoiced, not even bothering to hide her broad grin. She held out her hands to him, conjuring fire in her palms. “Don’t worry, cousin. I know the way home.”
1 comment:
Enjoyed this, is there more!!
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