Chapter 8: A Moment of Peace

Chapter 8



         Up until then, I'd only ever been to Xander or White Meadow. I'd heard about other towns and cities from traveling merchants and wanderers, not to mention things I'd read, but I'd never seen any of them. Mirada wasn't much larger than White Meadow, but it seemed like the humans had put more effort into building it up. The buildings were all sturdy looking, made of wood stained a deep brown, with other colors on doors or shutters to accent them and give them individuality. It wasn't a very nature focused town, and the roads had been paved with tightly set cobblestone. Some homes had little flower or herb gardens growing, and they stood out beautifully against the stony barrenness of most of the town. In the town's center stood a fountain with a statue standing on a pedestal in the center. That statue was a tribute to the town's protectors: The Myrmidons.

         I didn't know it before, but Mirada was actually a well-known town for swordsmen. In fact, many humans from other towns came there to learn, sometimes enrolling their children in the school there where they would live and grow up with other students. It was a pretty big deal to graduate from that school and become a full-fledged Myrmidon. Sure, just about anyone could join, and the fee was negotiable based on what the student's family could do. However, not everyone who joined graduated. Many simply got stuck and couldn't progress any further, eventually dropping out. If you were a Myrmidon, you had proven yourself a skilled and capable swordsman, and any place nearby would respect you for it.

         We didn't often see them in White Meadow, but now that I'd been to Mirada and seen their armor, I realized I had seen some in Xander before. I understood then why the people of Xander had been acting as if they were famous and important. It's because they were famous and important.

         Several of them patrolled the town's streets, armor clanking softly as they walked in pairs. They wore silvery armor so bright and clear it almost looked white. Their armor wasn't entirely uniform, some having differences here and there that personally suited to them. They were all fairly light sets of armor however, intended to protect vital areas, hands, arms, and legs without hindering the mobility of the wearer. Black clothing could be seen underneath, like a body suit, and on their breastplate was the symbol of the Myrmidons: a circle with a sword inside pointed down, cutting off at the bottom of the circle as if it were stabbed into the ground, with an armored hand coming from each side and grasping the hilt.

         Humans are often looked down upon, and you hardly ever hear about humans really being a threat to aura forms. However, the people of Mirada proved that wasn't always the case. Their magic wasn't as strong as an aura form's, and they couldn't do the kind of soul arts energy forms could, but as my mom had pointed out, they can use aether. Aether is a combination of energy and aura, and though it's made of both, it is a completely separate force with its own unique traits. The aether arts humans used with them, while not as potent as pure magic or soul arts, were plenty powerful enough to make them a threat, especially when someone underestimated them. Not to mention the fact that they could be clad head to toe in armor like that, in the heat of summer, and not just melt into a shiny puddle. Even some aura form scholars admitted that humans are as tenacious and adaptable as any aura form, even if they are weaker and live much shorter lives.

         How did I know all this? Well, Mirada had a bookstore. A large, impressive bookstore. Between the Myrmidons patrolling the town, and the mages of North Star clad in black or forest green who marched with them, all ready and waiting to combat Guardian should they show up, Amy and I felt quite safe. Safe enough, in fact, to force Amy's older brother Chris to accompany us shopping through the town. We might have taken just a little bit advantage of his inability to say no when we asked him to buy things for us, but we had lost all our possessions, and we certainly couldn't keep wearing the same clothes all the time. I behaved though when we went to the bookstore, really I did. ...Well, I tried.



          The bookshelves in my house, particularly the ones in my bedroom, were full of books, with even more in my closet. I had read every single book I owned, quite a few more than once, and was sure to borrow books from the library when I was curious about something, or needed a good novel to read. I thought I had read something about just about everything there was to write about. I was wrong.

         I was seated at a big, round table in the inn's dining room. A large, old looking book lay open in front of me, and I was giving it my full attention. As it turns out, a town like Mirada, which much more foot traffic and diverse visitors, had a much wider variety of reading material compared to my town. Even the book stores I'd visited in Xander didn't have anything like what I was reading at the time.

         I loud thump jerked my attention from the book, and I looked around in near panic. The dining room seemed large enough to accommodate most of the hotel patrons. Several light crystals hung from the ceilings in chandeliers, and while the light they emitted wasn't as bright or clear as the light crystals I was used to, I had to admit the humans had a fair hand with enchanting, as the room had no lack of illumination. Various pictures hung on the walls, all beautifully painted scenes of cities, or forests, or long stretches of road. There were no less than two dozen round tables like the one I sat at, each capable of sitting five or six people comfortably. Considering most of this inn's visitors were travelers of one sort or another, it was common for people from different groups to share tables to swap stories, rumors, or warnings from up the road.

         The place was buzzing with talk, but it was quiet enough to be conversational as opposed to the buzzing din of, say, a school cafeteria. I looked down to see the half-eaten apple I'd been holding had fallen from my grip, hitting the hardwood floor with a thud loud enough to break my concentration. I'd forgotten I was even holding it. When I picked it up, the places where I had bitten were brown, and a bit of dust was clinging to it from the floor. I decided I'd had enough apple and set it down on the table, next to the book.

         "Like, right now, I bet she has no idea we've been talking about her. That's how spacey she gets." Amy said, and I looked up at her with a look I'm sure was similar to a shocked deer staring at the headlights of a coming zephyr.

         "You've been talking about me?" I asked.

         Amy grinned and waved her hand toward me in a presenting gesture as if to say “see what I mean?” A couple gold bracelets on her wrist jingling lightly with the movement. She wore a light green, sleeveless shirt that stretched to cover most of her black shorts,

         Seph seated between Amy and me, cackled. We were sitting at one of the corner tables, and a wooden staff of pure black, nearly as tall as Seph was, leaned against the wall behind him. I'm still fairly new at sensing and identifying sources of aura, but I could feel some housed within that staff, waiting to be unleashed, like a docile serpent patiently awaiting it's next prey. It sent a small chill down my spine to look at it. "So, what's that book that has you so captivated?" He asked.

         "Oh, it's a compilation of various research notes about energy forms." I answered, a small smile spreading on my face. New knowledge excites me, but not as much as sharing new knowledge I've gained with others. I probably got that from my mom. She was a teacher after all. "It's fascinating. We never had any books like this back home. The only information we had about energy forms was rumors."

         "I don't see why you'd bother to learn more about them," A deep voice said, and I turned to look at Chris, sitting next to Amy. He had blonde, fine hair like Amy, cut short enough to look neat, long enough in the bangs to reach his eyebrows. His face was what some might call pretty as opposed to handsome, and when he was younger, it was more than once assumed that Amy had an older sister, not a brother. Now that he had grown up and been away from home for a while, I saw that he had worked hard to change that. His face still wasn't quite manly, but the tough, solid expression he wore helped to move that in the right direction. He had built up a lot of muscle, and the denim jacket seemed to strain a little over his flexed arms, crossed over his chest. Like most of the people with long sleeves, he had his rolled up to the elbow, and his jacket was open in front, revealing a tightly fitting white t-shirt beneath. Remember how I said humans tend to be more muscular than aura forms? Chris's body apparently didn't care. He was a big, tough looking guy... even if he did have a face almost as pretty as his younger sister.

         "Why wouldn't I?" I asked, and Amy rolled her eyes.

         Seph sighed and took a swig from a dark bottle I assume was some kind of beer.

         Chris reached a hand up and rubbed the side of his face, looking annoyed. "They're energy forms, Natalie." He said, as if that should explain everything. "Have you forgotten they des-"

         "Chris." Seph snapped, his grin gone, his eyes flashing with dark anger. Amy's cheerful look cracked for a moment, and her eyes met mine. We both knew what Chris was about to say. That they had destroyed our hometown, and that's probably just where his angry rant would start.

         Amy's brother grumbled something inaudible, then leaned quietly back in his chair, scowling at the table. He was hurting too. While Amy and I were trying to cope by smiling through our sorrow, Chris was feeding his pain to his anger, letting it all get pent up until he could unleash it. It's how he was. He never liked to show weakness, or that he was hurting, or even that he was unsure of what to do. Even if it meant he would look like an idiot, he would always clench his fists and go forward, trying to charge through whatever was in his way.

         I'd known him for as long as I had Amy. He was like a big brother to me too. I knew his anger against energy forms was only his way of trying to hide his pain. I couldn't be upset at him for it. If it weren't for the one energy form who saved me, I might hate them too.

         So instead I just cleared my throat and acted like he hadn't said anything. "It's just all very interesting to me. I mean, anything you don't know is something worth learning, right?"

         "I like that attitude." Seph relaxed and took another drink from his bottle. "I wish more people had it."

         "Oh, spirits, don't encourage her, Seph." Amy whined. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get her nose out of books?"

         "It's about as hard as it is to keep your mouth shut around boys." I shot back, eliciting a cackle from Seph, and a small grin from Chris.

         Amy put a hand to her chest, making an exaggerated look of offense. "Natalie, how could you say that? It's not my fault boys like talking to me." She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I might try hard to make it happen, but that doesn't mean it's my fault."

         "Uh-huh." I said. "Seph, did you know energy forms don't have last names?"

         "I did in fact." He replied, holding up his empty bottle toward a waitress in the dining room. She smiled at him and nodded, then disappeared into the kitchen.

         "Wait, no last names? Why not?" Amy asked.

         "Well, energy forms don't really view family the way we do." I answered. "Energy forms tend to be solitary, with very few personal attachments, regardless of if they are part of a group or not. Given how they survive, finding new host parents and being reborn over and over, maintaining familial bonds is-"

         "Woah, woah, Natalie, you can't just make up words on me like that." Amy said.

         "They're not made up words, just big words." I argued. Seph cackled again. It seemed like he found everything amusing in some form or another, which was fine. His cheer was helping Amy and I to maintain ours.

         "So use small words. I'm blonde, remember?" Amy replied, grabbing and shaking some of her hair for emphasis.

         I shook my head and sighed, but was smiling nonetheless. "Ok, they find it hard to keep their families together. It's awkward when you’re in a body that's older than the one your father is in. Besides, they get born into a new family every time they get a new body. Trying to maintain ties with all of their host family, plus the other energy forms they are related to, is just too tedious and cumbersome for them."

         "That might be a bit too much rationale there, Natalie." Seph said. He thanked the waitress as she brought him his beer, and took a swig. "You're explaining it in the terms of what would make you abandon familial bo-" he stopped and turned to Amy, "sorry, what would make you not keep being family." Amy nodded in a satisfactorily way. "Sure, there's plenty of logic and reason to explain why they might not, but what it comes down to is, it's just how they are. Family isn't really a concept their minds are designed to accept. They're instinctively designed to be solitary. Not necessarily alone or detached, as we can see from groups like Guardian. But, uh..." he pondered for a moment, then grinned. "Well, family is as foreign a concept to their mind as sex is to yours."

         I sputtered. "Wh-what? What does that have to do with anything?"

         Seph and Amy both laughed, which made me turn very red. It couldn't have been all that funny, honestly. So I'd never had a boyfriend. So the concept of one, or of talking about...um... about the things boys and girls do together was awkward and embarrassing for me. I honestly did not believe it was as hilarious to taunt me about it as Amy, and apparently Seph, seemed to think it was.

         "It's okay, Natalie, you'll understand when you get older." I tried to glare at him, but I guess it wasn't very effective, since he just laughed harder. "Ok, but no, yes, the concept of a big family is as foreign to them as the concept of leaving your body to be born into a new one is to us. Sure, they can explain it, and we'll get how it's maybe supposed to work, but it isn't something we're naturally designed to do, and so we can't fully understand it and all the workings behind it." Seph explained. "For us, family is family. That's just how it is. We have a last name, which is a family name, so people know where we come from in terms of ancestry. For them, family isn't really an important idea, at least not beyond direct relations like parents or siblings. That's just how it is. So, since family isn't really a concept for them, they have no need for a family name."

         "But what if, like, someone is descended from a great hero or something?" Amy asked.

         "Well, in that case, the energy form in question might refer to himself as 'son of generic hero A.'" Seph answered. "They might say 'that one is my sister' or something, but it doesn't tend to go beyond one step."

         "Hm..." Amy said thoughtfully, then turned to me. "You think Blue has any family?"

         Chris snorted and shook his head. Blue is what we'd taken to calling Reim for the moment. I mean, we couldn't exactly say his name out loud there. We didn't know his name before he told it to me, but that didn’t mean other people didn’t know it. "I wonder..." I answered. "Do you know, Seph?"

         Seph shrugged. "Yeah, no. There's not much information out there about your friend, aside from different, um... events that he's been pegged for."

         "You mean people he's killed, or cities he's destroyed." Chris growled.

         Seph sighed and continued. "I'll tell you what we know about him. A long, long time ago, long before you were born, some bad things started happening in a few small human towns. Violent deaths and such. A rumor began to circulate that it was because of a demon masquerading as a blue-haired boy. Those rumors became the foundation for a being known as the Azure Demon." Seph was quiet for a moment as a traveler walked by. "There were several sightings of him, and several unexplained deaths that were believed to be his fault. That much we've confirmed seems to be accurate, amidst all the rumors and tales out there."

         "He used to kill humans for fun?" Amy asked without any anger.

         Seph shrugged and leaned back in his seat. "We don't know, but we do know he was connected to many of those 'mysterious deaths.' After that, we know that he became the sole pupil of an energy form named Dohken, often referred to as 'Dohken the Hero,' because, well, he was a freaking hero. Helped more people than I've ever met, and spirits help you if he considered you an enemy."

         "Oh, I read a little about the pupil thing." I said, and flipped back several pages in my book. I skimmed over a few lines until I found what I was looking for. "Ah, here. It says that the master and pupil relationship is among the most powerful bonds energy forms are known to share. In fact, it's believed to be a stronger bond than family."

         "Okay, so if nothing else, he had this Dohken guy as his family." Amy said. "Where is he now?"

         Seph winced, then shook his head. "We don't know. He just seemed to vanish one day. Haven't been any sightings of him in over forty years. Which, oddly enough, is about the same time the Azure Demon rumors started spreading again in force."

         Amy and I traded looks. "You don't think he killed his own master, do you?" She asked.

         Seph let out a small laugh. "No, no, not a chance. Don't get me wrong, your friend is a badass. Seeing him still on his feet at all after the wound he took has given me a new definition of that word. Which, by the way, our scouts reported back on that. They found four corpses, and it looked like another person was there too, but instead of a corpse, they just left a huge pool of blood on the ground."

         "He fought five at once?" I asked, awed at the news.

         "Wow, he really is a badass." Amy added.

         "Watch your mouth." Chris snapped. She stuck her tongue out at him.

         "Yes, well, badass he may be, there's not a chance in hell he was a match for Dohken." Seph continued. "Not a chance in hell. Honestly, given how powerful he was, I doubt he's dead at all. Maybe he went to another world or something. No one seems to know for sure."

         I was pretty sure I knew someone who did. "Well, speaking of Blue, when can we see him?"

         Chris made a disgusted sound and stood up. "I can't listen to this anymore. You talking about that monster like he's your good friend or something."

         "He saved my life, and he's NOT a monster!" I shouted. My fists were clenched, and anger coursed through me like boiling water in my veins. Chris stared at me, and I blinked. I realized people from nearby tables were also taking quick glances at us. Apparently I yelled a little louder than I meant to. "U-um... sorry..." I mumbled and looked down at the floor. I had never yelled at Chris like that. I had never been that angry that suddenly before. I was surprised at myself... and a little ashamed.

         "Don't be. He's being a jerk." Amy said, and I looked up to see her head resting on her chin, staring at her big brother.

         Chris glared at his sister, seemed to chew on his tongue for a moment, then stormed out of the dining room.

         "I hate to say it, but he's a little too stubborn and hard-headed for his own good." Seph said with another sigh, sipping more of his beer.

         "He always has been, especially when it comes to Natalie or me." Amy said.

         "Hm. Well, as for seeing your friend, I still don't think it's possible quite yet. Azalea insists that as hurt as he is, he needs all the rest he can get. It's been, what, two days now since you all got here? He still hasn't woken up, which likely means he put as much strain on his soul as he did his body." Seph answered.

         "I see..." I slouched down in my chair a bit.

         "Don't worry though, he'll be fine. He's in good hands." Seph assured me. "Azalea is... well, she's a bit weird, but she's good at what she does. Forest mages are incredibly rare, and she's both the strongest, and the most foresty one I've ever met. Everything about her, the way she looks, the way she dresses, hell even her smell." Amy and I traded curious looks. "She's one of the Northern Lights like me. Uh, one of North Star's generals, that's what we call ourselves. It was our boss's idea." Seph clarified. "He even gave us unique titles. For example, they call me the Abyss, and our Azalea is known as the Wildflower."

         My thoughts went back to that night in White Meadow. Sever had referred to Sandra as "The Valkyrie." That probably meant she was a general in North Star as well, before she came to White Meadow. I wondered what had happened to make her quit, and try to start a new life as a small-town teenager. I'd have to remember to ask Seph about that later.          

          "In battle, she's as cutthroat as they come, scary as hell. Most of the time, the bad guys can't even get close to her before she's already... well, cut their throat or poisoned them, or... I dunno, used flesh eating spores to eat their face off, I've seen her do that a few times." Seph seemed far too happy talking about that last part.

         Amy and I traded looks again, but now they were less curious and more worried. I imagined a large, heavy set woman in wooden armor, smelling like mildew and earth. Her face had scars from battle, and wasn't particularly attractive even before the scars. I really didn't like the idea of Reim being in the care of someone like that.

         "Her healing abilities are top-notch too." Seph continued. "Not only does she use her own aura to cast healing spells, but she literally knows the effects and potency of every single medicinal herb you've ever heard of, and plenty you don't. No garden studying hermit alive comes close to her when it comes to knowing plants. She can make an antidote to pretty much any poison, and she can summon up the plants she needs on a whim. Literally, if there's dirt around her, she can summon plants out of it, and she's a damn genius when it comes to using them." He leaned forward, putting an elbow on the table and gesturing with his hand for emphasis. "We were in a huge battle one time, and some sneaky dark mage managed a poison spell that hit every single one of our troops. I don't know how the hell they pulled it off, and I couldn't counter it. Things were looking bad, but then Azalea just summoned up a few plants out of the ground. They twined together, and grew this big mushroom looking thing at the top, right?" He put his hands together and raised them over his head. "She takes it, hold it up and crushes it, and poof!" He spread his hands out, as if making an explosion. "Purple and green spores fill the air, and they cover the entire battlefield. Within seconds, the poison spell is completely nullified. Our Azalea is amazing when it comes to medicine, make no mistake. She's as handy with healing as she is with killing."

         Ok, now our looks were just plain scared. I imagined an old woman with a hunched back and long, filthy robes. A crooked nose protruded from her hood, along with some long, dirty hair. She was holding an unconscious Reim upside-down by the ankle, dangling him over a big pot filled with something green and bubbling. She cackled, a sound like insects scuttling across the forest floor, then dropped Reim into the pot with a plop.

         "Um...So... we're sure Blue's gonna be ok, right?" Amy asked shakily.

         Seph grinned. "Well, I guess I didn't paint the prettiest picture, huh? But don't worry. He'll be just fine." He finished off his beer, looking thoroughly pleased with himself as he saw the worry on our faces.

         I really, really hoped Reim was okay, and not terrified, being half-drowned in a pot of medicinal sludge or something. I didn't know what to think of this Azalea person, aside from the fact that she was apparently strange, terrifying, cutthroat, and amazing with medicinal herbs. ...She really didn't sound like the kind of person I'd trust a friend with.