Chapter 38: A Dream of Two Finches

Name Chase Class Hunter,Lvl1 Marks 0 Guild Seven Banes SD 984

Hunting goblins, working out, and training with the guild soon became routine. Every morning he assembled his young Fighters in the courtyard where, after a breakfast of water and venison, they would stretch and prepare for the coming trek into the forest. He would briefly go over the previous days activities, and then show them what goblin encampment or cave would be the target of their wrath for the day. Though a part of him existed each morning that wished to only return to his sleeping pallet in the cool underground of the fort, as soon as they were marching out the front door that old familiar battle thrill coursed through his veins and soon he was his old self, on patrol and looking for trouble.

Marlon and Amelie would also wave to them goodbye as they left the fort, and both would also cheer their return as well. It became a tradition very quickly that as soon as the front passageway opened Amelie would be standing there ready to administer her healing magic and Marlon would have a small potion ready for each of them. On one patrol Marlon had accompanied them and had found some plants similar to the ones the training island had bore which gave a burst of energy. Marlon, in his brilliance, and found a way to mix it with a light sedative which prevented the terrible crash his previous concoction had lent the day after. Now, they were able to return after a hard morning of fighting and get straight to lifting weights and sword fighting.

“This potion isn’t even in the book,” Marlon had said with a wink as he handed it to Chase the first time he had made it.

Chase had looked at the potion suspiciously and Marlon had rolled his eyes.

“Oh captain, doesn’t thou trust me?”

“Of course,” said Chase, taking a sniff. “But the last time you made an energy potion I felt like my heart was going to burst through my chest.”

“Don’t worry I worked out the kinks. Tried it myself this morning and quite sure it won’t interrupt my sleep in the slightest tonight. Trust me, you four will need it. You all looked exhausted,” he added, eyeing the three fighters and Thomas.

Chase had drank the potion, and had been more than pleased at its effects. Training came easier, and by the time dinner time came around he was so tired and the effects had wore off that no sooner than he had touched his sleeping roll he was soon sound asleep.

The week quickly passed, and soon the guild found that Sunday was creeping around the corner, and so Chase decided they had earned some rest. He gave the order that everyone was to sleep as long as they wanted, and were free to pursue whatever they wanted the next day. He for one knew his body would appreciate not lifting weights for the day, and wondered where the legs the young man he once was had gone off to. No longer could he traipse about the forest for hours at a time without a care in the world. It took everything he had to keep up with his young protégées, but the thrill of working with them and seeing them slowly improve was all the motivation he needed to see it through, though Marlon’s potion certainly helped as well.

And so on Sunday morning Chase was deep in sleep. Occasionally his eyes would flutter open but he would simply turn over and allow his dreams to take over his consciousness once again. Images of events past and present seemed to wrestle for his attention. At one moment he saw his old home and was commanding a familiar servant to bring him some wine, and then another he was in the forest watching Alex decapitate a goblin and forcing Thomas to look away as the slimy green head rolled past their feet. Even in his dreams he was protective of the young boy as was always trying to limit the amount of violence the lad was exposed to.

Chase turned over as a loud sound intruded in his dreams and fell back to sleep immediately. Now he was in a meadow, alone. No, he wasn’t alone. A familiar looking woman was running towards him from a great distance. She was waving her arms in warning and even from on top of a hill Chase could see the look of panic on her beautiful features.

A bird flew by and wrested his attention from the women, who quickly escaped his sight. The bird was a finch, with blue plumage and a white belly. It tweeted at him and Chase immediately felt the a soothing calmness fall across him like a warm blanket.

Wondering whether the princess of Avalon ever felt so charmed, Chase was bewildered as the finch landed on his finger. The bird tweeted at him again and then sang for him a slow, sweet song. The blanket of warmth grew and enveloped not only his body but his mind. Now this was the comfort of a mother, he realized. This was a wonderful experience, and nothing could take his attention away from the beautiful—

Now another finch joined the other. This one had also blue plumage but a black belly, and it joined its companion in a harmony that nearly caused Chase to swoon. The new finch joined into a beautiful duet with its partner and Chase felt as though they were telling a story through song. He felt the emotions of a long fraught battle, of victory in the face of overwhelming odds. Of rebellion, and pain, and glory and all the ethereal majesty of a guaranteed miracle for the deserving followers of such revolutionaries. Chase could do little to wrest his eyes from the birds and soon their black and white bellies swirled together and they became one, but were no longer finches. The black and white swirl grew into a great revolving circle that filled his vision and soon the meadow and the running woman were lost from his sight. Only the hypnotic swirling of the black and the white remained and he could do nothing to look away.

It was rapture.

He was ready to give him self over to the black and the white.

In one embrace it would be apart of him. And he, it.

BANG BANG BANG

Chase awoke with a start, his dreams falling from his mind like sand between his fingers. No sooner had he pushed himself up and stumbled to the door than he had only a fuzzy memory of a green landscape and nothing more. Groggily, he opened the door and the banging immediately stopped.

“Chase!” Said Brent, pushing himself into the room. He was holding his journal open to a page with writing on it. “You won’t believe what happened! Look!”

Fighting back a yawn, and his annoyance at having being woken up so rudely, Chase took the journal in Brent’s hands and squinted bleary eyed at the text.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Fighter

Level 1: 5% strength

Level 2: 5% defense

“You got level 2,” said Chase, forcing himself to sound cheery. “Congratulations, Brent. You earned it. What time is it, by the way?”

“It only took about a week, too!” Said Brent, fire in his eyes. He was nearly shaking with energy and seemed to not have heard Chase’s question. “I bet you anything I can get all 8 levels done by the end of summer.”

“Well don’t forget the levels are exponential,” said Chase. He handed back the journal and then started looking for his shirt and pants. “This one took a week but you are looking at about three now for the third level. By the time you are at level 8 it will be at least a year from now.”

“How long did it take Solomon?”

Chase found his pants discarded by his bed roll and his shirt flung across the room. He didn’t remember throwing his clothes around like that but dragged them on.

“Don’t compare yourself to him of all people,” said Chase. “I think he must have finished his first contract in three months, though. He’s a real freak of nature.”

“But maybe I can finish it in less than a year?”

Brent was looking at Chase with a very earnest expression. Chase hated to destroy the boy’s enthusiasm whenever he was like that. Solomon had been and was a singular individual who was unmatched since the beginning of Esem in his ability to pass through contracts like a hot knife through butter. Even someone talented like Brent would have an impossible time matching that natural ability.

“Well, people who have a proclivity towards a job usually earn experience faster. You are certainly gifted with the sword, and you have a warriors competitive nature, so I am sure you will end up finishing the contract at a faster clip.”

“I hope so,” said Brent with a satisfied smile.

Chase sighed internally. Sometimes the differences between Thomas’ boyishness and Brent’s half step towards manhood was a narrow one. There were times Brent composed himself with stoicism and other times he acted half like the boy his mind still was.

“Claire also got level 2,” said Brent as they left Chase’s room and heading up the stairs to the courtyard.

“What about Alex?”

“I’m not sure,” said Brent. “I didn’t ask him.”

He’s gonna be right miffed if they got the level up and he didn’t, thought Chase to himself.

At the top of the stairs the sounds of clashing swords and people talking met him. Instead of going straight outside Chase decided to postpose his meeting with the light of day and instead continue straight to the room across from the landing. They had spent hours cleaning it out and had been using it as a storage room. A pair of small slits served as windows and illuminated Marlon sitting at a table toiling over a pair of beakers and some ingredients on the table.

“I’ll catch you in a bit, Brent,” said Chase, waving him away.

Brent nodded and then joined the others in the courtyard, likely off to spread the news of his level up with the others.

“Good morning, boss,” said Marlon as soon as Chase stepped through the open doorway. “You look positively ghastly. Bad dreams?”

“No. Maybe. I don’t know,” said Chase with a sigh. He sat in a chair across from Marlon and watched him work. “Brent woke me up in the middle of a dream I was having. I think it was a good one, but I can’t remember it now.”

“Happens to me all the time,” chuckled Marlon, shaking his head. He began gently sprinkling some purple flakes into a beaker and the solution turned a dark blue color. “The morning I was awakened by Thomas pretending to be a rooster I was dreaming about being on a beach with a dozen beautiful and buxom women. Ah well.”

“I guess it happens,” said Chase, shrugging. “Did you hear about Brent?”

“Level 2,” said Marlon. “He’s been bouncing off the walls ever since he got up.

Chase watched as Marlon took a small whiff of his concoction, wrinkled his nose, and added a pinch of powder from a bowl.

“What’s that?”

“What I am making, you mean?” Marlon had his book open and turned it around to face Chase. There was a hand drawn picture of a bottled potion. Beside it were the words ‘draught of the morning’. “This little recipe here is supposed to make a potion which one takes upon waking. I got too used to the coffee on the island and didn’t think about picking any up on our way over to the fort.”

“Ah, I’ve had this one before,” said Chase, reading the description beside the picture. “Christie used to make these back in the early days. Tastes like stewed goblin socks but gets the job done. After a while we just started bringing coffee with us on our adventures.”

“The next time we are in town we should make that a priority, but in the mean time, care for a glass?”

Marlon poured a bit of the potion into a cup and handed it to Chase.

“Am I your guinea pig now? Have you tested it yet? You might end up killing me.”

“Have a little faith,” said Marlon with fake outrage. “But yes, I tried some earlier. Not at all like coffee but at least my headache is gone.”

The potion had a strong acrid smell to it and Chase didn’t fancy trying it, but seeing as he did have a headache he decided to risk it. He took the small cup from Marlon and thanked him.

“Bottoms up,” said Chase. He downed it in one shot and simultaneously felt a jot of energy and also like someone had poured dishwater down his throat.

“How is it?” Said Marlon curiously. “I decided to add some salt to it to get rid of the rancid taste.”

“Lovely,” lied Chase. He felt like spitting but his headache was indeed nonexistent and he felt a mild euphoria.

“You can tell by his face that he finds it disgusting,” came a voice in the corner.

Chase turned to see Amelie reading to herself beneath a window. She was looking at him with an understanding expression on her face.

“Marlon gave me some too,” she said knowingly. “Definitely will not be having any tomorrow morning.”

“I didn’t see you there, Amelie,” said Chase. He saw her book was opened nearly to the end. “How goes the reading? Looks like you are almost done with it.”

“Quite well, thank you,” she said. Amelie closed the book and sighed contentedly. “I’ve almost finished it again. This magic book is quite the wonderful thing, really. Sometimes I wonder whether I am reading it or it is reading me.”

“You know when one begins talking like that we might have a problem,” quipped Marlon. He chuckled to himself and then opened his own book to the next page and began to read himself.

“You said you’ve nearly finished it again?” Asked Chase. He wondered when the last time he had read a book that size was. Likely years. “This is your second go around?”

“Third,” said Amelie simply.

“Three times, eh? That’s remarkable. What are you getting from it?”

“It’s all difficult to understand,” said Amelie. “I told you the other day it reads more like a history or a philosophy textbook. There aren’t any magic words or incantations to perform. When I signed my contract Ghelion said I now had a certain amount of mana in my blood. Sometimes when I read something in this book I can feel the mana coursing through me.”

“That’s how many of the mages I have met described learning spells,” agreed Chase. He was still not over how many times she had read the book. Hadn’t be been with her most of the time since she got the thing?

“For instance,” said Amelie. “May I read you a passage?”

“Go ahead,” shrugged Chase. “Got nothing else to do.”

Amelie cleared her throat.

“There was never a beginning in Esem. That is to say the vaunted singularity which heralded the moment Esem burst from the mind of all creation was but a step in an endless line of synchronicities which, when observed from a position of ignorance, would seem to indeed begin the world we call home but this was merely a beginning, but not the beginning. If Esem indeed can be said to have ever had a beginning that would suggest it at one point it did not exist. This is an impossibility. For the great AION, creator of this world and High Executor of Creation, precedes the moment of any so called beginning. For it was with his words that forced the darkness to lose Her grip upon the substrate of nothingness and formed the valleys and mountains and seas of Esem. The World, indeed, is AION itself, and being that AION has always existed, so too has Esem. If anything can be said to have began it would have to the ending of darkness, which held captive the entire universe of possibility which AION was sent to rule.”

“Huh,” said Chase, scratching his head. “Crystal clear.”

“Really?” Said Amelie, genuinely curious. “You understand what the writer means?”

“Not in the slightest,” laughed Chase. “I’m only joking. That was a garbled much of nonsense to my ears.”

“Oh. You were being sarcastic.”

“What do you think when you read that?”

“At first not much,” said Amelie, frowning at the book. “It was quite confusing. It seems to be a creation story, but then again its as though the writer is trying to get you to think of something else entirely. The second time I read it I felt the mana stirring in my blood, and then this happened.”

Amelie closed the book and then placed her hands some five inches apart from one another. She concentrated at the empty space and for some time nothing happened. Suddenly, a blue light appeared and hovered between her palms. The light was not unlike the soothing glow which had healed Chase’s finger a couple weeks before. Chase felt the warmth from where he was sitting.

The light illuminated Amelie’s face and suddenly for all the world she reminded Chase of the Emissary. The way the light cast her features in soft detail and caught her curls in shimmering splendor. She appeared to age then and had the grace of a women of noble birth. When the light disappeared her girlish looks returned and she was once more a 16 year old.

“Incredible,” said Chase and Marlon together.

“Well done, Amelie,” said Marlon. “That was simply marvelous. Chase, whats wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost!”

Chase felt himself grow cold as memories flooded his mind. What had disappeared upon waking struck him as clear and as vivid as though he had just witnessed it for the first time.

“I…I had a dream.” Chase dry swallowed. He felt his voice shake. “The Emissary came to me last night, and I think we may be in trouble.”