RAY VAN CAMARO

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The skies were dancing in a hue of different colours when we arrived back at Rockbell. It was a storm of colours and the eye seemed to be focusing right above Gilead.

The sky was sometimes a canvas of colours, but that was usually around dusk and not noon. Those times didn’t feel as intense as this.

“What’s wrong with the sky?” Private Gama asked. “It’s not supposed to look like that, is it?”

Rudolf shook his head. “Not unless there’s some extraterrestrial event going on. Like Neon’s Comet fragmenting.”

“No, there’s no event like that happening soon,” Hendrik said. “Let alone near the western region.”

“Colonel, do you know what that is?” Kaiser asked.

“No.” I didn’t take my eyes off the gathering spiral of clouds. “But a large amount of mana is gathering at the centre of that storm. I can feel it.”

“I’m not a jynxist, but I can feel it too,” Kaiser agreed. “It might be a labyrinth forming.”

“It might be, but I’ve never heard of a labyrinth forming in the sky.”

“What about floating islands?”

“No, those are just labyrinths that formed on the ground that began to levitate. This is something else. Something is wrong.”

Just then, light gathered in the eye of the swirling storm before exploding downwards into a beam of light. Once it hit the ground, it began expanding.

My heart fluttered at the thought of the beam expanding all the way to us, but it was gone the moment it started. My guess was that the beam was three leagues in diameter.

After a few moments, the sky was back to its original colour.

“Colonel, that was close to Gilead,” Gama said.

He’s right. The clouds looked like they were gathering over it.

There was supposed to be a party tonight celebrating John’s incarceration, but we skipped out on it. Gama, Hendrik, Rudolf, and Kaiser loved parties and were often the life of it, but that beam of light earlier during the day changed their mood.

That light was dangerously close to Gilead. We all hoped we were wrong, but we had to prepare ourselves for the worst.

Jaime.

Trisha.

Ilias.

Doria.

I hope we’re overthinking this and that they’re okay.

None of us slept that night and my unit was ready to leave the moment I was up. We left an hour before dawn riding at full speed. The average travel time from Rockbell to Gilead was two days. We did it in half of that.

Soldiers donning a feather on their helmets were littered near Gilead, passed by us, questioning if we saw anyone nearby.

These are Seraphim soldiers.

Once we were questioned, we were ordered to head to Gilead to help out with the search party.

For what?

We arrived at our home village in the afternoon finding it occupied by hundreds of soldiers wearing the feather.

“These are the warden’s soldiers,” Hendrik thought aloud. “But Seraphim is five hundred kilometres from here.”

“They’re sending out more search parties.” Kaiser pointed at groups heading out. “It looks like they saw the beam and were worried just as much as us.”

I had Tank cut through the sea of soldiers. “What happened here? Where’s everyone?”

A colonel by the name of Garne road up to us. “Colonel Camaro, we thought you were here when the beam hit.”

“Answer my question.”

“It’s better to ask General Clegane, Colonel.”

“Where is he?”

Garne led us to the library. The general and some men were studying a giant map spread across a table with pieces scattered throughout.

When General Clegane noticed me, he shot his men a look and caused them to leave without a word.

General Orsted Clegane was a broad-shouldered old man. His face was square-shaped and gave him a rigid look. The grey hair and wrinkles he had developed with age made him look better than when he was young.

“The light…” I said. “Don’t tell me—”

“It hit Gilead.”

A surge of emotions rushed through my stomach. The one that overpowered them was confusion.

“Where’s everyone?” I asked.

“That’s the thing. We don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“We saw the light and rushed here. We arrived at midnight and found this place a ghost town. Aside from plants, it was devoid of life. It’s like every living thing vanished.”

“Don’t tell me everyone died when that beam of light hit.”

“Unlikely. Search parties have been sent out non-stop. Nothing has been found.”

I shook my head. “That’s not good.”

“It very much is,” the general said. “We haven’t found any bodies which means the light didn’t kill them. The question is, where is everyone?”

“Who knows about this incident?”

“Everyone who saw the light. But just that. We barely saw it from Seraphim and I’ve ordered the nearby settlements who saw it to not report anything until I say so.”

A wise move. We didn’t know anything and releasing information could cause panic.

“What do you think happened, General?”

He rubbed his chin. “If I had to guess, I’d say it has something to do with mana. I should be asking you.”

“We were in Rockbell when the beam hit. The air did feel heavy, so it has something to do with mana.”

The general twirled his waxed moustache. “How long has it been since we last saw each other?”

“About seven years ago I think.”

General Clegane shot a look at my unit. “Will you leave us alone for a moment?”

They nodded and, with Kaiser closing the door, took our leave.

Pops kept his rigid composure for a moment before marching to me and putting me in a hug. “I’ve missed you and everyone, Ray. I thought you were gone too.”

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I patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll find them, General.”

“General? I already told you. When we’re alone, you call me Pops like how you used to call me.”

“Okay, Pops, we’ll find them.”

When we were kids, General Clegane—who was still a brigadier—was in jurisdiction of Gilead. He lived here with his grandson, Czeslaw, whose parents died when their ship was raided by pirates.

Trisha and I befriended Czeslaw and we became a trio with me being the serious one, Czeslaw being the idiot, and Trisha being the second idiot.

Slowly, our families became friends and our hangout spot was the library—General Clegane’s base of operation. He became like a surrogate grandfather to Trisha and I and we began calling him Pops just like how Czeslaw did.

“Have the search parties found anything?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“I can triple our manpower. Tomorrow, send out as many men as you can. My Dolls will protect this place in their stead.”

A knock came upon the door before Garne entered, followed by my unit.

“What is it, Colonel?” General Clegane questioned.

“One of the parties found someone that says he was in Gilead when the beam of light hit. He says his name is Abel Lognare. We searched him and found identification that matches it.”

The general looked at me. “Know him?”

I shook my head. “He must be an adventurer who was passing through.”

“Tell him to come here,” General Clegane ordered.

“That’s the thing. He can’t. He was completely immobile when the others found him. It’s like his body has gone limp.”

“Limp?”

“Dr Rocky is looking after him in Dr Payne’s office.”

Abel was resting in one of the patient beds at Trisha’s place. His body was completely limp and the only thing he was able to move was anything above his neck.

“Where was he found?” General Clegane asked Garne.

“There’s this rundown hut four kilometres from here. We found him paralyzed right outside of it.”

The general grabbed a chair and sat in front of Abel. “Everyone, leave us, I want to talk to him alone. Not you, Ray. You stay.”

Everyone respected his wishes and left.

“Abel, what happened?” he asked.

“I already told them. I just want to rest.”

“I know. But we’re the ones in charge so we need to hear it from you. I promise this is going to be the last time you’ll have to repeat your story.”

Abel sighed. “It was about… let’s say noon. Other than the sky and its weird colours, everything was normal. I came here with other adventurers I met and we were just hanging out at the guild. Then the clouds started swirling above the village and this light began building up. Then the light shrunk and shrunk until it exploded into a beam that shot downwards. The guild was close to the centre so I was engulfed immediately.”

“Then you found yourself near the hut?”

“Yes. Just outside and I was unable to move my body except for anything above my neck.”

“If you had to guess, what was the span of time in between the light hitting you and you waking up at the hut?”

“It felt forever, but I’d say instantly. The sun was in the same place.”

“How long ago would you say that was?”

“Yesterday. I’m lucky your men found me, General. I was getting pretty dehydrated and I heard wolves during the night.”

General Clegane inspected the map sitting by the bedside. It was a map of Gilead with an X and the word hut written just outside of the village. “Have you been to this hut before?”

“No, Sir. Haven’t seen it.”

“So you’re telling me once the beam of light hit you, you were just… teleported to that hut?”

“Call it what you will. I’m just telling you what happened to me. I’d say I got teleported too, but it’s for you to decide.”

“Are you a jynxist?” I asked.

Abel shook his head. “I know a couple of healing spells.”

I focused mana onto my eyes. “You have pretty strong gates for a healer.”

“I strengthened my gates so I can perform arcane jynx or develop my own alchemy. I couldn’t figure it out so I had to stick with healing.”

“Well, your gates are all burnt up. They’re on the verge of breaking. Which is why you can’t move your body.”

“You’re saying the beam of light is why I’m paralyzed?”

I turned to Pops “This must be some sort of mana incident.”

He curled his eyebrows. “What do you mean, Son?”

“When mana gathers in a place, a labyrinth forms and changes the area to protect its heart.”

“Aye.”

“I think… mana gathered near Gilead. Above it. But instead of forming into a labyrinth, it did something else. It may have formed into energy that shot this place with a beam of light. Anyone who got engulfed had mana go through their gates whether they’ve used them or not which results in their gates almost breaking.”

“Which is why this man is paralyzed after he got teleported.”

“It’s too soon to say everyone got teleported. As far as we know, we’ve only found one person who got caught up in this incident and they got teleported. Mana is a complex thing and it could’ve done many things other than teleport.”

“Like?”

“I’m afraid to list them. It might have sent people to random moments in the past, an alternate timeline, turned people into something, made it so they ceased to exist, and it could’ve even turned them into mana. Pops, this isn’t good.”

“What do you think it is, Ray?”

“Everyone is alive. I can say that. We found Abel and other than him being paralyzed, he’s fine. That lets us know that everyone survived being engulfed in the light.”

“And then?”

“But if I had to make an educated guess. I’d have to agree with you and say everyone got teleported. We don’t know where they got teleported to or even when they got teleported to. But everyone’s gone which means they did get teleported. The details are something we have to find out.”

My unit stayed at my place during the night. They had given up their apartments to serve as temporary housing for Pops’ soldiers. They had asked me many questions and what our plan was going to be. It was difficult telling them I had no answers nor any plans.

A knock greeted us at midnight.

None of us had fallen asleep and were simply sitting quietly in my living room.

Rudolf answered the door to General Clegane.

“Your men are staying with you,” he took note.

“They were kind enough to give up their homes to house your soldiers. The least I could do is give them a roof.”

“You picked the right team, Ray.” The general closed the door behind him. “I can tell you trust them with your life, so I’ll do the same. All of you, close the blinds and gather around the table.”

Pops laid down a map of the country and my men grabbed candles to give it some light.

“No one knows about this incident other than the nearby towns who have seen it with their own eyes,” Pops explained. “I requested that they do not notify anyone until I say so.”

“They won’t disobey you.”

“They definitely won’t. The farthest place the beam could’ve been seen from is my base, Seraphim. Which is a good five hundred kilometres from here.”

“And?”

“Czeslaw is in jurisdiction of Port Town. A good three thousand kilometres from here. I never had the time to write to him, so there’s no way my grandson could know about this incident.”

“What are you trying to get at, Pops?”

He slammed an opened letter on the table. “But this just arrived.”

The letter was written to me by Czeslaw.

Dear Ray,

I write this to you not as a friend, but as a soldier with utmost importance.

For some reason, Lieutenant Doria from your unit was found floating near Crimson Bay. My men mistook her for a pirate wearing our uniform, but luckily for her, I recognized her as one of your men. My question is, why was she thousands of kilometres from you and floating out at sea? Did she try to desert?

Doria is currently safe and in my custody, though she keeps talking about a beam of light hitting Gilead and how after being engulfed in it, she found herself out at sea. She won’t calm down and keeps asking to talk to you. She’s already made multiple escape attempts and injured a number of my men. I know she’s your adjutant, which is why I haven’t sent her to the Capital yet.

Please write back about what you want us to do with her.

Sincerely yours, Czeslaw

“They found Doria,” General Clegane said. “We can now confirm that the beam of light did in fact, teleport everyone.”

“Something’s not right, Pops.”

“You’re right. There’s one thing that’s wrong.”

Gama scratched his head. “Huh?”

“Abel was found paralyzed.” I spread the letter on the table. “ But it says here Doria had made multiple escape attempts. Why is she not paralyzed?”

“Maybe the light affects different people in different ways?” Hendrik hypothesized.

“It doesn’t make sense. Doria doesn’t know anything other than basic healing jynx and her gates are weak. Abel’s are pretty strong. If one was paralyzed because of a sudden influx of mana going through their bodies, it should be Doria, not Abel.”

Pops nodded. “Which means something is up with that man.”

“He says he’s an adventurer—a perfect alibi for someone who’s not supposed to be here to get caught up in all of this. None of us knows him and there’s no one to confirm that he actually was here. I’d believe the words of Doira over him.”

“Both of you suspect foul play?” Kaiser asked.

Pops and I nodded.

The general gave us a mission. “Here's what you’ll do, Ray. We can’t write messages because they might get intercepted. You’ll have to take your four men and head to Port Town to meet with Czeslaw. Go there using the Mizu River. I’ll stay here and keep Abel in custody and continue sending out search parties. Don’t write back. Whatever you find, keep it to yourselves until you get back here. We can’t trust anyone other than ourselves.”

The warnings Dr Creed heeded echoed back into my mind.

Don’t trust anyone in the military that you don’t know.