The blue light that was shining from behind the door blinded me as I walked into a giant cavern filled with it. After spending so much time in darkness, this light seemed to gleam brighter than even the sun on a cloudless day. Then, like something was pulling it away, the light began to dim. It remained bright enough to illuminate the entire cavern, but it was no longer blinding, allowing me to see the giant wall covered in blue, oval shaped stones with one side that came to a point, just like the one I had in my backpack. I stumbled backward involuntarily, losing my grip on the torch, and fell to the ground in surprise. My leg slammed onto the ground, and pain shot up through me in waves, but I did my best to ignore it. Winter let out a squeak of pain, and I apologized to her, quickly returning my attention back to the wall of stones.
The light that filled the cavern seemed to be coming from behind the wall of stones, escaping the cracks in between each one. They were stacked against one another in a pattern, each row parallel with the one below and above it. The wall rose all the way to the top of the cavern, which was about five, maybe six times my own height. Near the top, at the right side of the wall, and within one of the rows of stones, was a strange deformity. At first, I thought something had damaged the wall, cutting into it like a sword would flesh, but then I noticed that the rows of stones gently moved around the cut, like it was intentional. The wall shook slightly, causing the entire cavern to shake with it, and a sound rang out like two stones were being crushed against one another. Then, the slit in the wall opened, revealing a giant yellow eye the size of my own body, with a vertical iris like a snake’s. “It’s… rude… to… stare,” the voice said in my mind.
My jaw dropped at the realization that the voice was coming from whatever this thing was. I kept staring at it. I was too busy being simultaneously terrified and in wonder. The eye squinted and peered down at me. “Your… name?” it asked.
“Se– Sean Brynor,” I managed to squeak out.
The eye opened wide, “Ah… Restivus… has… told… me… about… you.”
“You know Restivus?”
“I… do. He… was… my… first… visitor… in… many… years.”
My mind was a swirl, and in my confusion I started barking out questions, “He visited you? How did he find you? How did he know about you? What are you?”
The wall of stones with a yellow eye remained silent for a while, only speaking just before my own curiosity became too much. “Forgive me,” the voice said, much clearer and a bit faster now, “I haven’t spoken… in a long time. Restivus allowed me to… practice, but it has been a while since he visited. He found me through the help of… rudimentary studies from his superiors, who discarded the notion of my… existence. Fools… though it does not surprise me that I have been forgotten. I am something… stranger than even you, young human, and much older too.”
“Why didn't he tell me about you?”
“My own personal… request. One I must make… of you as well.”
My words came out before I thought of them, “How could I not tell anyone about you! You’re amazing! Even now I can feel the Nex–”
“I have tolerated you because of my own… intrigue, and because of my… respect for your master!” I fell hard into the ground, like the voice was a heavy weight pushing me down itself, and held my hands to my ears. It did nothing to the thundering sound within my head, but what else could I do? “But do not think I would let you leave this… place if you intended to bring back others!”
Finally, when the voice stopped, I could think again. “I am sorry. I didn't mean to anger you. I was speaking out of place. I will not tell anyone about you or this place when I leave here. If you trusted Restivus, and he trusted you, then I will uphold this promise.”
Silence filled the cavern for a long time, which I thought meant it had accepted my promise, but I had no intention of leaving just yet. I could see the way out, a small cavern to my right that steadily went upwards, but I didn’t even stand up to leave. There was no way I was going to pass on an opportunity like this. Whatever this creature was, it was powerful. I could feel the Water Nex emanating off of it, so much that it overwhelmed my Soul. I couldn't pull it into my Soul, meeting some kind of resistance each time I tried, just like the stone I had been carrying in my pack for several months now. If this creature could teach me about the stone, then I wasn’t leaving until it did.
As if reading my mind, the creature spoke, “You carry one of my… scales.”
The stone that seemed to be made of Nex itself, and the wall of copies in front of me, were scales? The idea made the mystery of the stone feel a bit mundane. However, that didn’t mean I wanted to part with it. The scale was too interesting, and I felt I’d barely scratched the surface of what I could do with it. Reluctantly, I fished in my pack for it, gently moving Winter out of the way as I did so, and presented the scale to the creature. “I’m sorry for taking something so valuable,” I said apprehensively, “I did not mean to steal from you.”
The creature laughed, sounding like a rumbling waterfall within my head. “Steal!” it yelled, still chuckling, “You did not… steal it! My scales shed every… century or so! Most dissipate fairly quickly, but some… stronger ones last! If anything, you are blessed… to find that!”
Its rumbling laughter continued flowing in my head, filling me with embarrassment, but also awe. To the creature, it was just a simple scale, fallen off of its body like dead skin would off of mine. The idea that the scale was anything extradory felt idiotic. The creature had hundreds, maybe thousands, of the very thing I held in my hands. To it, the scale was nothing, but to me, it was a source of more power than I had ever felt. “Just how powerful is this creature?” I thought to myself.
“I presume… you have the same problem as Restivus?”
“What do you mean?”
“My power is… not easily controlled, even if it’s something I… discarded. Restivus came to me to learn how to… harness the power in the scale, but he could not overcome my lingering… strength within it.”
“Yes. That is exactly my problem. Each time I try to take in the Nex within it, it pulls back away from me,” I told the creature.
Hope filled me as I waited for it to respond. If it could give me any insight on how to pull on the scales power, then risking my life by ignoring this creature’s first warning would be worth it. I didn’t really know what I could do with the scale, but I had my theories. I could potentially strengthen a spell to be much stronger with the extra Nex from the scale when there might not be enough in the area for me to take in, like a dry, arid place, or one without much water around. That way, I could still use the water in my waterskins and have strong spells as well. Dousin had spoiled me, with excess Water Nex everywhere around me due to snow and ice covering the mountains for more than half the year, but I didn’t plan on staying in Dousin forever, and I didn’t know what the rest of the world would be like. Plus, lording my discovery over Restivus when I finally made it to Hono-Kia would be amazing. I could already imagine the look on his face when I told him I figured out his research for him.
“I’m… sorry. I don’t know. Restivus spent most of his time here attempting to… utilize my scale. He never made any progress, and I was… unable to help him at all, despite my wish to do so.”
The creature looked regretful and almost sad. It squinted its eye, looked away from me, and stared down at the stone floor like a child would look away from their parents in shame. I wanted to press the beast further, to learn everything he had told Restivus, even if the information was ultimately useless, but the look it had in its eye stopped me. I wouldn’t let this go, and would question the creature on everything before I left, something I didn’t even want to think about doing at all, but out of respect to the powerful beast I changed the subject. “What else did you tell Restivus? I can feel your power, and I wouldn’t dare to ask you to teach me any of your secrets, but if you could give me the same advice you gave Restivus, I’d be eternally grateful,” I said, trying to act with as much respect as possible, veiling my desire to search the creature’s brain for whatever information and insight on magic I could gain from it.
Clearly, this was the wrong way to take the conversation, as the creature kept its eye low and spoke with a tired voice. “From what Restivus has told me, most see the Soul as their source of power. Strengthening it is the best way to improve, and the better one is at mastering their own Soul, the more powerful they are.”
I groaned internally. I was hoping for an insight into something greater. Something that I wasn’t taught by Restivus years ago. It felt like I was back sitting on the small island at the top of the mountain, listening to him drone on about the importance of strengthening my Soul and body. He was right, of course, but that only made me angry, both at him and the nature of magic. It all felt too simple and wrong. There was something else. My ability to sense Nex proved it. That had little to do with my Soul and much more to do with something deeper. Something that I couldn’t fully explain.
“This is not a foolish road to travel,” the creature continued. “Mastering one’s Soul is a difficult, but rewarding path. However, it is not the only one you can take. Humans are so blind to the world around them, choosing to focus so internally on themselves that they forget the unlimited power all around them. Nex is far more than just an energy that powers Soul’s. It’s a force of… connection, and strength. Do not fall into the same narrow mindedness that other humans do.”
I stared at the creature's eye, but it did not look up from the ground. It hadn’t told me anything I didn’t know, but had confirmed my own suspicions. I knew Nex was more than just a power source, Restivus had alluded to as much, but having it confirmed, and simultaneously learning that magic was more than meets the eye, filled me with joy. If magic was only included the strengthening of my Soul and body, I would eventually grow bored. I knew myself at least that well, but now there was so much more to be learned and explored.
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“Sean,” the creature said, still not looking up, “Do not confuse strength and knowledge with fulfillment. Human’s lives are remarkably short, and many waste them away searching for something that they will never find. The roads that lay in front of an aspiring mage like yourself are all difficult. Take your time… and live.”
I heard each word the creature said, but it was asking too much. There was so much I still didn’t know that I had to sprint down the path in front of me, just so I could learn it all. It had said human lives were short, and I agreed. I suddenly felt like I didn’t have enough time to take it all in, but I would try everything to do so. I could tell the wall of scales was still upset about what we were talking about, though I couldn’t understand why, so I tried changing the subject again. It didn’t matter to me much, since I still had a thousand more questions ready to ask it. “You mentioned twice that I, or rather my Soul, was strange. What did you mean?”
The creature perked up, “Yes. I heard about it… from Restivus, but seeing it for myself is entirely… different. Such a strange thing, the way… Nex moves around you. Like a cloud floating above the… Earth’s surface, it gathers around you, clumping together just… waiting to be used. Other’s have to forcefully… draw it in, but Nex naturally moves… towards you without being told to. Even Nex that’s… incompatible with your Soul… covers you. In my eyes I can barely… see you as you stand in the misty embrace of so much… power.”
I looked down at myself, trying to see what it had described, but there was nothing. I could sense the Nex around me, abundant and clear, but I always thought that was normal. Even when I was just a small child back in Corvin it had been normal. I couldn’t sense the Nex back then like I could now, but I never had any trouble pulling it into my Soul. “Do you know why my Soul is like this? Is there a special reason?”
The scaled creature closed its eye in thought for a long time before speaking, “I’ve never seen anything like… you before, though I have not been to the… surface in a very long time. Perhaps human Souls have… evolved, and I am not aware, but Restivus’ Soul was completely… normal, so that must not be the case,” it let out a long, frustrated sigh within my head, “This truly is an… enigma.”
Another long silence filled the cavern as the creature thought. I had started to come up with my own theories about the strangeness of my Soul, but I couldn’t tell this beast about them. I assumed it had something to do with my reincarnation, given that Resivus had described Blair’s Soul as being similar to mine more than once, but I didn’t want to tell the creature anything about that. After all, it was still hiding so much about itself from me. “You said earlier that you were much stranger and older than me. What exactly are you? Do you have a name?” I asked.
“When I was born, in an age far before any… human had set foot on these lands, I was formed from the very… power you feel in the air, in water, on the earth, and within fire. As the Nex gathered and… formed me, it sent echoes rippling throughout the… world, as any beast as powerful as I would when they are… born. However, power is useless to those without any… knowledge, and I was born without any. Except for… my name. The echoes that had been… created by my birth whispered only one thing. ‘The Chilling Spear,’ it said… back, and I took that as my name.”
“The Chilling Spear,” I said in response, the air seeming to grow colder around me as I spoke.
“However,” the creature continued, “It has been a very long… time since I was called that. Instead, Restivus called me… something else. I took a liking to it… after a while. So you may call me it as well, Sean. He named me… ‘Nayu.’”
“Nayu,” I echoed.
Nayu closed his eye, seeming to relish in hearing his name spoken, “Now, I think it is… time for you to leave.”
“No, wait! I have many more questions to ask you. There’s too much I don’t know. I have–”
“Sean,” Nayu said calmly, but loud enough to cut me off, “Above us, on the mountain, are two… creatures. One human, with a dull… Soul, and a beast with a spirit brimming with… fire. They have been up there for a very long… time, searching. I have not seen the outside in… several ages, but I can sense the snow above us. It would be… best if you didn’t keep your companions waiting any longer.”
I stood, using the old wooden torch to help myself up, and looked up at the top of the cave like I could see through it. I even attempted to feel the snow at the top of the mountain, just like Nayu had, but all I sensed was the dense Earth Nex just above me. All the way at the top of the mountain was my father and Ronan, searching for me in the cold snow. I had completely forgotten everything that had occurred before meeting Nayu, my mind entirely overwhelmed with questions, but I was glad to hear they were both alright. I had to go see them and tell them I was fine as well. It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t, and I knew Father would be terrified to go home without me. Mother would probably kill him.
So, with a huge feeling of regret weighing down my shoulders, I bowed to Nayu, “Thank you for letting us through, and thank you for speaking to me. I will return soon to visit you. It would be rude of me to receive so much from you without bringing back a gift. Maybe then we can continue our conversation.”
“You shouldn’t do… that.”
I took the lack of any death threats as an invitation, and stood. After pulling my pack up, first making sure that Winter was comfortable before I did so, I began walking to the opening in the cavern at my right that led upwards. “This will take me to the top of the mountain?” I asked.
“It will lead out into a… small cave opening that’s covered in ice. I assume you can take care of that… yourself.”
I bowed to Nayu again, something I still wasn’t sure if I should be doing, and began to walk up. “May we meet again,” I said as I walked away.
“It would be… best if we did not,” Nayu responded.
The cavern was long, growing steeper and steeper as I made my way up. It wasn’t a carved passage like the one that led me to Nayu, but rather a naturally formed cave that drilled deep into the mountain. It was not an easy walk up, sometimes getting so difficult and steep that I had to climb. I had gotten rest in Nayu’s cavern, but my body was still exhausted from the fight with the mathear. However, none of that mattered. I was alive. I’d killed the mathear, or at the very least led it to its death, and survived. My entire body seemed to relax, like I was letting go of something I had been clenching so tightly onto. Now, I was heading home.
Just as Nayu said, there was a thick covering of ice in front of the cave. Just a day ago it would have taken everything out of me to manipulate the ice, but thanks to Winter’s bond I could feel it so much more clearly. It was different from regular water in that the Nex didn’t flow around the ice. It remained still, trapped within the frozen water. With a bit of effort, I pushed at the ice with my Soul, reaching my free hand towards it, and clenching my fist tightly. The ice started condensing, the outer layer pushing against the inner layer as I squeezed it with my Soul. Cracks began to form on the smooth surface, then it all shattered into hundreds of pieces.
The dim light of dusk peeked into the cavern, and I slowly walked out. Soon, I found myself knee deep in untouched snow, barely moving at all thanks to my injured leg. The cold was much more bitter now that I was outside, and it was agitating my wounds. That, combined with the pain slowly increasing as the adrenaline left my body, made it impossible to go forward. With a hope that they were close by, I tried to sense for Father’s or Ronan’s Nex. Instead, I felt a powerful spell behind me, and turned to see what it was. My heart raced, as the Nex felt incredibly similar to the mathears, but there was no beast behind me. Instead, I watched as snow began pushing itself towards the cave’s opening, completely covering it, then solidifying into a thick white ice.
A loud bark came from in front of me, and I turned quickly to greet it. There, Ronan was sprinting after me in excitement. I could see sharp scratches on his side, wounds clearly taken from the mathear’s claws, but other than that he seemed relatively unharmed. The beast ran past me and began circling around me, licking at my fingers and sides with his burning hot tongue. I was thankful he didn’t jump on top of me, because I didn’t think I’d be able to get back up if he did. A loud thump within the trees startled me, and a sharp pain ran through my head when I heard it, but that quickly went away when I saw the man who’d dropped his bow standing in front of me.
Father ran to me, tears in his eyes and yelling louder than the roars of the mathear. He wrapped his arms around me, so tight I could hardly breathe. “You’re alive! You’re okay! I thought you were… I didn’t know how I would… I can’t believe… You’re alive!” he yelled.
I wrapped my arms around him the best I could without disturbing the wound on my side, and pushed my face into his shoulder, trying to hide my own tears. I hadn’t realized how worried I was, and how terrified I had been. Nayu had shocked me so much that I wasn’t able to feel the cascade of emotions slamming into me now. I thought I was dead when I jumped into the lake. I had expected to die, and I remembered the fear I felt when I was cornered by the giant white bear creature, its fangs and claws both the size of my arm.
Through sobs and the hard leather of my father’s winter coat, I tried to speak. “I’m okay,” I managed to get out, “I’m home.”
Nayu, The Chilling Spear
I shifted one of my wings within the stone, likely sending a sudden earthquake to some part of the forest above me, trying to get more comfortable before returning to my slumber. The boy, Sean, had been a nice distraction. One I hadn’t quite expected so soon after Restivus, but his visit left me with more worries than I wanted. I knew my warning would go unheeded, and Sean would push himself farther than he could handle. After all, he had the same look in his eyes that Restivus had before he left. A spark of intrigue, an unyielding curiosity, and a thirst larger than anyone else’s. If I was a betting beast, I’d say Sean’s was even stronger, but it was hard to see through the hazy mass of Nex that surrounded him.
I felt him open the thick covering of ice placed in front of my cave, and I quickly replaced it when he was outside. Soon after, he reunited with the other two beings above, and I shut off my senses, closing my eyes at the same time. Sleep never came. It was the same when Restivus left. I had to follow him as far as my senses would reach before I could finally rest. I cursed myself, hating how attached I had grown to them. They were only human, destined to die one day, leaving me to forget about them in the next thousand years or so. Although, I never truly forgot. “This is why you’re buried now,” I told myself, but extended my senses anyway.
Sean was being led to the city, one of the beings, the human, I noticed, right beside him. I felt a bit of Nex being messed with, which I first attributed to the beast the boy had bonded with. Then, I realized it was Sean himself. Despite his exhaustion and injuries, he was trying to manipulate the snow around him into a shape as he moved. I laughed, half out of hilarity, and half out of dread. The boy would reach far, if he didn’t get himself killed, but I had no real way to look into the future. That was more my elder sister's discipline. I simply froze things. How I wished to have her sight, so that I could follow Restivus and Sean on their journey’s. I would be able to help them and keep them safe.
With a muted sense of curiosity, I followed the beast filled with fire as well. He was heading in the opposite direction of the rest, further into the forest. As he walked, two new creatures came into my senses. One was a weak beast, barely filled with enough Air Nex for me to even sense, and the other was another human. I froze the second I felt the misty cloud of Nex that surrounded them. They had a Soul exactly like Sean’s, except it was unstable. It had the same properties as Sean’s, pulling at the Nex in a strange way, but it felt stitched together, like most of their Soul didn't belong to them. That felt familiar. Too many Soul’s had been destroyed by giving away too much of themselves. I could feel that they didn’t have much time left, and sent my condolences out, even though they wouldn’t hear them. It wouldn’t be long before they lost themselves completely.