“It’s a messenger of Alhar.”

The girl whispered the words so softly that her brother could barely hear them. Ferese sighed gently and took his sisters hand in his own. She was looking outside the bedroom window and her gaze was set on the village square below. Banners featuring a black symbol etched against a blood red background had been erected in the normally barren spot and a crowd had gathered underneath them.

The symbols had blurred from the distance between the square and their home but he knew that if he had been there he would be seeing the familiar sight of a triangle and a square covered by a black flame. It was the symbol of the god Alhar, the symbol of hope and peace.

“Brother.”

Ferese felt his sister’s free hand pulling on the cuff of his sleeve and smiled sweetly at her.

“Ishra, would you like me to bring you some more water?”

Ishra shook her head and coughed, putting her hand to her forehead and her brother could visibly see the pain she was feeling expressed in her eyes. Ferese softly squeezed her hand and his smile thinned.

“Will we be able to see the messenger, brother?”

The sound of cheers erupted from the village square and his gaze returned from his sister to the crowd below. A figure stood tall and proud on top of the scaffolding that had been erected in the middle of the crowd and even with the distance between them Ferese could see from the crowd’s reactions that respect the man’s power commanded.

“Not today Ishra, perhaps if you close your eyes and pray hard enough Alhar will hear your prayers and grant your wish and his messenger will come to our house.”

Ishra’s mouth perked up and she closed her eyes hard enough that dimples formed at their sides. Ferese smiled at his sister’s actions and as he watched, the messenger jerked and seemed to look up towards them. The messenger quickly turned his head back to the crowd and Ferese sighed.

‘Perhaps a man like that would be able to help my sister.’

*Knock knock*

Ferese jolted upwards as the sound of someone thumping at their door reached his ears. His sister’s eyes opened wide at his sudden movements and she winced. He instantly regretted moving so quickly but the damage was done, she began to cry out and he knew that she was not crying out of sadness, but out of pain.

“Ishra, Ishra, please calm down. The doctor is here and we’ll be able to give you more medicine. The pain will go away soon, Ishra.”

*Knock knock*

Even though his sister’s cries drowned out the sounds of his footsteps, Ferese could still hear the knocking on the door. To him this knocking would always be a sound that pierced through any other and brought him more hope than a messenger of a god ever could.

“Coming!” *knock* *knock* “Coming I said!”

He opened the door and greeted the rather dishevelled old man that was on the over side. The hustle and bustle of the street outside seemed to quieten as the passer-by’s looked curiously at him. He quickly ushered in the doctor and closed the door with a slam behind him. His sister’s wails were still echoing throughout the house. The doctor lay down his coat and sighed, Ferese’s face fell as he saw that the doctor was going to deliver bad news.

“I can no longer treat your sister without payment.”

It was the worst sort of development for him. He gazed at the doctor who had put his coat on a nearby hanging stand. Ferese could see that he wasn’t carrying any of the usual cures and herbs he always carried with him when visiting them.

“Just give me a little longer… please.”

The cold hard floorboards smacked against his legs as he knelt onto the floor and placed both his hands on the ground in front of him in a bow. The doctor gazed uncomfortably at him and exhaled

“These medicines do not come cheaply and I can’t afford to give you my charity any longer.”

Ferese looked up at the doctor despondently.

“Are you telling me that these medicines are worth more than my sister’s life?”

The doctor turned his face away from the pleading boy. He had seen that look hundreds of times before in his life and he knew that looking into the boys eyes would only bring him a discomfort he could not afford to have. Instead he gathered his coat in his arms and walked out the door and into the street beyond. Ferese heard the words that followed as clearly as he could hear the cries of his sister above.

“No amount of money or medicine can save a child that is destined to die.”

Ferese gaped past the open door at the spot where the doctor was. Even after the crowd had long swallowed him up he continued to kneel on the ground and refused to move from that spot. When he finally got up he ran, not towards his sister’s room where her cries still stabbed at his ears or towards his own room where he would often find comfort in the silent isolation it provided.

Instead he ran outside the open door, stopping only to lock it behind him. The crowd parted as he ran and the people talked about him, if only for a second. He ran outside the village boundaries and continued into the grassy plains that surrounded it. The gentle outdoor breeze felt like a gale as he ran as fast as he could against it, against the world itself.

He didn’t know what he was running from. Perhaps he was running from his sister and the burden she laid on his shoulder, maybe he was running from the reality that he would have to face when he returned to her room and she saw through the fake smile on his face, or perhaps, he was running against that which dictated that his sister should live in suffering and pain and that stated that she should lay dying while others lived and feasted in their happy home.

Running against fate and all the troubles it brought with it. He ran against the winds blast and tried to hold it down but it deftly slipped out of his grasp and pushed him back, just like destiny had always pushed him down and slipped out of his mortal hands when he tried to grab it.

When his parents had died his relatives had given him and his sister a home and a meagre part of the inheritance, they had long ago run away from the troubles of raising his sister. They had shrugged and said that since she had been born with her sickness and dying from the moment she left her mother’s womb that it was an inescapable fact that she would pass on, it was destiny.

They had run away as soon as they could.

Their parent’s friends had also grown tired of having to look out for Ishra every time she had an attack, they would lend money at first but with time this too stopped. They made excuses, citing their own financial problems, but he had seen the way they looked at his sister, covering their children’s eyes every time she passed by them.

They too had run away from them.

The doctor too, had run away and this had been the final straw for Ferese. From the moment he had started running he knew why he was running. He was running away from his sister, he was avoiding the reality of death they had to face and above all he was running to escape destiny.

A grove of trees slowly entered his vision and he slowed down, coming to a complete stop in front of it. For as far as his eyes could see a green expanse of branches and leaves covered the land in front of him. It was known in his village as the grove of Ishra, the goddess from whom his sister had been given her name.

The wind which had been pelting him only moments earlier died down to a lull and as he stared the trees seemed to open up and form a path which led deeper into the grove. He ran inside them without hesitation.

The trees opened up further and further, and he followed them wherever they led him. For more than an hour he ran without tiring, as though something was giving him the strength to continue. He looked up to see if the sky had gone dark, but there was only the shelter of leaves to be seen. As though sensing his discomfort the trees finally stopped moving and a bright light fluttered out of his chest and into the middle of the space that he had been led to, illuminating it.

The light pulsated as though alive and Ferese could sense that there was something else in the empty space. The light slowly dimmed and formed a figure, an apparition. As Ferese looked at the apparition a sense of loneliness and isolation hit him.

“I am the first guardian of the grove, the viewer of your heart and the keeper of your sins.”

The apparition was exuding something that he had never felt, happiness. It was the happiness that he had been searching for when he had run to the grove. It was happiness free of problems. This apparition, this person, had achieved what Ferese had always been looking for.

“You think that leaving your sister behind is your greatest sin, but is it not true that this sin brought you the greatest freedom?”

The apparition looked on calmly as its words made Ferese squirm. Doubts entered his mind and he thought that the spirit was right and maybe he had felt a freedom that he had never felt before when he left the village hoping to find some escape from his sister. It was a freedom that felt like he could simply brush aside the worries of his world and never go back.

Had he wanted to leave his sister behind years ago but had never had the courage?

“Beyond the door there is an everlasting escape, eternal freedom for those who yearn for it. Simply pass through it traveller, and you will be given that which you most desire.”

The apparition bowed and when it had risen from its position of humility an ornate wooden door had appeared behind it. The door was placed in-between the trees and made out of the roots of the forest that curled and clasped onto each other tightly. Ferese gazed in admiration at the dragons carved into the trees on its side and reached his hand out. There was an indescribable feeling of happiness emanating from the door. Perhaps he too could gain the happiness that the apparition exuded.

“Come forth and take your place among us. Leave your troubles behind and forget your worries, freedom asks for no price and places no burden on your soul.”

Ferese walked up to the door and placed his hand on it. He could feel his burden seeping away, his shoulders grew lighter and he could feel something calling to him beyond the door. He knew it was the call of everlasting freedom, an escape from whatever destiny or fate may try to plague him. But as he gazed deeper into the twisted roots he could only see a single face entering his vision.

His sisters face.

“I would be lying if I said that I had never felt burdened by the troubles my sister brings.”

He lifted his hand off of the door to face the apparition and while it had seemed so human only moments ago it he could see it for the lifeless husk that it was. It was a creature free of any and all burdens, a creature that had never experienced troubles being placed upon its back. And a creature that had never felt the weight of the world could only ever remain just that, a creature, not a human.

“But it is these troubles that make me who I am. And it is because of these troubles that I will go against my selfish desires over and over again, if it would mean that I could catch just a glimpse of hope of saving my sister.”

The apparition sighed in pleasure and for the first time he noticed that he was looking at himself. It was a version of him that had never had the sorrow of his sister in his life, an empty shell of a boy that could never feel true happiness when he had never known sadness.

The apparition glowed and slowly disappeared as it returned to the light that it had come from. The light trickled slowly back into his chest and he gazed in wonder as the door crumbled, it’s ornate dragon carvings withering and dissolving as the tree trunks supporting it died. A breeze entered the space and the trees once again swirled and opened up beside him.

They were giving him a new path to follow.

He walked this time instead of ran but he still hurried along the new path. Again, he reached an empty space and he moved into the middle of the space. A light sailed from his forehead and hovered above the ground, he walked towards it with a sense of purpose. As he approached the light it dimmed and he found himself facing an apparition, it was more human than the last and he could clearly see himself in it.

“I am the second guardian of the grove. I am the keeper of your regrets and the eye that sees into your soul.”

It looked straight at him and he saw the signs of aging that he recognised all too well, signs of troubles weighing down a boy that was too young to bear them. The villagers had long ago stopped talking about him and his sister when he was around, they would simply stop and stare as he passed by. He had spent days isolated in his room to avoid going out and being looked at with the eyes of pity that accompanied him everywhere he walked.

“Your soul has long ago worn down because you try to aid your sister and share her affliction with yourself so that she may feel well. But your soul is weary of your work. Its greatest regret has always been that it has never known a moment’s peace, because it has always been intertwined with your sister’s plights. You regret never knowing your own life, a life free of your sister, and your soul will always yearn for this liberty that it had never known…

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Simply step through this door and your soul will know the peace that comes with relaxation.”

A door appeared and Ferese blanched. From the door before he had felt an incredible feeling of happiness, the happiness of a time where he had no troubles. But this time he felt no feeling. There was only a single sound that resounded throughout the space and struck his body, his very soul.

He could only hear the sound of laughter, his laughter.

It was a sound he recognised because had only heard it once before. It was in a time long past, when his parents had still been alive and he hadn’t known about the disease that affected his sister or cared about it. He had been laughing not because something funny was said, but because he had simply been happy. Ferese looked down and realised that his hands were trembling. He had long lost the ability to laugh from the bottom of his heart. He couldn’t remember a laugh that came from the lowest regions of his soul.

He looked at the apparition and looked back at the door. It promised him not just a feeling of happiness but so much more, friends that had been lost because of his isolation, tears he had spent crying alone in his bed at night as he worried about how he would try and survive the next days without eating to pay for any medicine he could. Eventually the tears had slowly turned into those of despair as the money had run out and he could no longer afford the medicine which would ease his sister’s pain.

“I’m not sure about what you are, or what you want.”

He looked at the apparition and saw that it contained all the worries that he had, except it was missing something that he held in the highest regard.

“But while it’s true that I have never known of a time without my sister, the experiences I have lived through while taking care of her are things that I will never let go of. I would happily trade my freedom for any moment of my life where I have my sister with me and would never give those moments up in return for curing my regrets. To get rid of my sister would not be the cure to my regrets, because then I would be giving up the purpose of my life.”

The apparition looked long and hard at him and slowly began to nod.

“You would give your freedom and your life for your sister. It is a noble cause that you have followed for so long that it had become the purpose of your life. You say that you do not want her or the burden she bears to disappear because you would lose your purpose in life. But what if this purpose should disappear? Will you then find a new purpose in life?”

With these words the apparition started to glow and once again formed an orb of light, but this time the orb flew through the air and Ferese walked calmly while following it. It came to a stop in front of some trees and he walked up to it.

The trees shifted as Ferese wrapped his hand around the glowing orb. The orb vanished from his hands and reappeared in front of a group of trees. A melodious voice pierced the silence of the grove.

“Welcome to the sacred grove Chosen One.”

As though the voice was somehow guiding his movements Ferese knelt on the ground. Although it was as smooth as honey and as sweet as sugar the voice seemed to convey an awe inspiring presence.

“The ultimate power is yours to claim, should you wish to claim it.”

The orb flew into the greenery behind. It opened up and revealed a single tree, little more than a sapling, which was naked except for three single leaves which grew on a branch sticking out from its middle. The gnarled trunk and branch of the tree spoke of its true age, a tree worn by time gone by.

At the end of the branch was a single fruit, shaped like an apple but golden. The lush green leaves of the surrounding trees were all pointing towards the fruit in a sort of bow as though to say ‘take it, for it is yours to take.’

Ferese stood up and the roots that fortified the ground seemed to glide back into the surrounding trees. When he looked back to the ground there was a single dirt path left. He took a tentative step towards the fruit, then another, and another. His pace quickened and before he realised it he was in front of the little tree.

He looked up into the bushel of leaves that shielded the tree from the sky, as though he expected the harmonious voice to object, but the only sounds to be heard was the quite rustling of leaves. He reached out to the fruit with his hand and a blue glow encompassed him. Before he could shout in surprise a strange sensation shot through him, a pleasant sensation that was rapidly becoming something more. It was a feeling of euphoria that grew and caressed his entire body in its care.

A feeling that was indescribably gentle, yet infinitely powerful had embraced the boy and the trees seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. As though sensing their release the voice once again spoke to Ferese.

“The power has accepted you Chosen One. Will you accept the power?”

Ferese could feel his hands trembling as he brought the fruit towards his mouth and partook of its succulent flesh. Once had started he could not stop, its luscious taste was beyond anything he had ever eaten before, the juice ran down his chin and fell to the ground. Where it fell the dirt moistened and beautiful flowers whose petals were gilded with the colours of the rainbow thrived and blossomed into existence.

‘What has it done to me?’

A breeze slowly flowed around him and he could feel it delicately lifting the core of the fruit out of his hand and back to the little tree, from the juices still running out of the core a pool of crystal clear liquid formed. The feeling of euphoria had gone but somehow he felt more complete than he had ever been.

“It has revealed your true self, my child.”

The blue hue swirled around Ferese and seeped over his skin, disappearing silently as though it had never been. The little tree withered and a golden glow rose in its place to cover the watery surface of the pool.

“Gaze upon the hallowed waters of life for they shall reveal unto you your true self.”

Ferese gazed into the mirror of the crystal clear water and touched his face. Where once his skin had been haggard and fatigued, a youthful glow had returned and soft skin teasingly clung to his cheeks. His hands which had been coarse and rough from towing fields were now as smooth and delicate as the pedals which grew on the flowers of the grove. His eyes which had housed motley brown irises now glowed in the radiance of the elegant gold which replaced it. A single symbol had been engraved on his forehead and released a blue glow which spread across his body. The person looking back at him from the waters was so different that he could barely recognise it as himself.

“What am I?”

The trees softened and their leaves whirled in the soft breeze as though they were chortling. The voice chuckled with them and he couldn’t help but think that it was the opposite of the laughs of those in the village, laughs that spoke of people who wished to forget the work of the days that lay ahead. It was the merriment of someone without a care in the world.

“You are what you were always meant to be, a true messenger of Ishra.”

Ferese stepped back from the pool and the trees gently slid in front of it. Before he could blink the pool was gone from his sight and the golden glow was covered by the figures of leaves and branches. A new light appeared behind him and he turned to face it, it was the light of day. As he left the grove he broke into a sprint, running as fast he could towards the village. A single word escaped his lips, ever so softly, and was caught in the breeze before anything could hear it.

“Ishra”

The trees seemed to smile as the breeze brought the captured word to their lips. It had been a long time since the name of their goddess had been spoken from the mouth of a mortal. The trees spread their arms and once again the grove was covered, never again to be opened by those that roamed the mortal plain.

Ferese ran back to his house, his home. As he ran he felt the wind picking up and nudging him forward towards the village, he was no longer trying to run against destiny. He was not sure what he had gained but he could feel that the void in his heart had filled. He was no longer trying to run against destiny, he had gained the confidence he needed in order to face his problems, his sister’s problems.

They would face them together.

He ran until he reached the door of his house and he walked in the silence to his sister’s room. She was lying peacefully on her bed with a smile on her face. Her delicate hands lay on her stomach as though she were a sleeping princess waiting to be woken by a passing prince.

Ferese felt something warm on his cheek and brought his hand up to it. His hand brushed across a slippery surface and he realised that tears were running down his face. He knelt beside his sister and grabbed her hands, but there was not pulse. There was only that haunting smile on her face, a smile that reached her eyes as though she had found true happiness.

He had only seen this smile on her face once before, when he had been laughing with his parents and she had lay in their arms, smiling although she was too young to know why. It was a smile of pure innocence and bliss.

It was a smile which showed that she had nothing to fear from the world anymore.

“To form a bond stronger than the string of fate and more powerful than destiny, to the gods we do give another as a sacrifice so that we may become one with you.”

Ferese turned and saw that a person was standing at the entrance to his sister’s room. He bore the symbol of Alhar on his forehead and was wearing ornate red and orange armour which seemed far too festive to suit the solemn expression on his face.

Ferese wiped away the tears from his face and collapsed onto the floor. He felt a pair of hands grab him and he fought against them. The words that the messenger of Alhar had said repeated themselves over and over in his head.

“To form a bond stronger than the string of fate and more powerful than destiny, to the gods we do give another as a sacrifice so that we may become one with you.”

It was the creed he had repeated every night as he saw his sister to sleep and every morning as he greeted the rising sun. It was the creed of the gods and the meaning of the creed was known to everyone in the world.

To become one with your god, to become their messenger, you would have to give up a life. The meaning of the messenger’s words caused Ferese to cry out in pain and anguish. Cursing his existence and cursing the world.

He had given up his sister’s life to become a messenger of the gods.

The only comfort that came to him was the blackness of his vision and the loss of senses that came with the sweet release of consciousness.

The messenger looked sadly at the boy in his arms, no more than twelve or thirteen years of age, a child. He lifted the boys body into his arms and carried him outside. He knew not which god the boy served but it was clear that he would now have to make the long journey to the capital city of Halfor to see that the new messenger was inaugurated and accepted into the pantheon of the gods.

He looked down one last time at the sleeping face of the boy before handing the child to his entourage, calm in his slumber despite having been so tormented while awake. It was his duty to see that the child would reach the Halfor safely and gain the training necessary to control his powers and take his place among the messengers, but it was a duty he dreaded.

The words of his teacher, another messenger of Alhar that had long passed away, ran through his mind.

‘The bonds made by the sacrifice of a willing soul will gain a messenger the strongest of powers. But the bonds made by the willing sacrifice of a loved one whose soul is intertwined with your own will give a messenger powers that are on par with the gods. If so ever a messenger comes they will have the power to change the world.’

From the moment he had heard the girl’s prayer the Alhar and rushed over to her room he had sat down beside her and held her hand through her painful cries. He had seen her smile one last time and seen the blue glow of her soul leave her body so that it could join with her brothers. If he thought he had been mistaken then it had become clear when he saw the boy. The power he had within him was the strongest he had ever seen.

His sister had made the greatest of sacrifices, and in turn, the boy had gained the greatest of powers.