|
Written by Arcahan | ||
|
Chapter XXIV Walking different paths Warm, yellow morning sunlight poured through the large glass windows, falling onto the polished surface of a heavy wooden desk. It was reflected sparkling from the metal fittings of an inkwell, danced in the feathery shadows of a quill holder and scattered into all the colors of a rainbow in the prism-decoration of the seal stamp of the Great School of Magic. The windows of this chamber were framed by heavy curtains. Numerous sofas made of polished brown wood and green paddings lined the walls. "Ah, here it is!" Master Yoji finally straightened himself up from rummaging through one of the desk's drawers. With an almost victorious gesture he displayed his loot, a fresh-looking paper carefully rolled up into a scroll. A little red piece of leather glued to its margin dangled with every move of the wizard's hand as Yoji offered the scroll over the table, then hesitated and drew the paper back. "Uh… Have you truly made your decision about this, Miss Nina?" he asked with genuine concern sneaking onto his wrinkled face. "Hunh!" Aryn, who was sitting on one of the sofas by the wall, snorted with a smile. Dressed into a wide-sleeved black shirt with dark-red trimmings, gray pants and black boots, he had stretched out his legs, leaned backwards and was resting his arms on the sofa's back. Master Yoji had chased one of the School's healing magic tutors right out of his bed in the middle of the night, and the pyjama-clad healer had done a surprisingly good job on the bodyguard. While Aryn still looked rather pale and his shirt hid numerous bandages, he looked quite healthy for a person who had been badly wounded just last night. He also acted surprisingly casually considering what had also happened to him during that last night. Nina envied her bodyguard's ability to adapt into new situations so easily. "I should have warned before you decided to agree to teach her. Once she makes up her mind, there's no way changing it." Nina, who was standing before the desk, chuckled at this. "No", she said, "I want to do this. I want to learn magic." "Very well", Yoji smiled in his fatherly manner, handing the scroll over to Nina. "As I've already said, into this scroll has been recorded down your enrollment to the Great School of Magic. I had one of our scribes write it while me and Miss Raven were unloading her wagon. All you have to do is to sign it and you are officially a student of the School." Something occurring to his mind, he paused. His solemn smile melted away, to be once again replaced by a mien of concern. "Uh… You-you probably remember what we talked about the entrance fees back there in the village, correct? I-I'd like to do everything I could to help you on this matter, but as I said, even a teacher has to obey the rules of the School. Are you sure you can afford it?" Nina, who had unrolled the scroll and had been reading it, looked up from the paper. She was silent for a long time before she finally shrugged and answered, smiling a little sadly: "I guess I'll have to find some work first…" Then she added, more confidently this time: "But I'll manage. I'm sure I'll do." "Oh, sure you'll do", Aryn put in, throwing one of his legs over the knee of the another, "But you're not going to find yourself a job here." Turning to look at her bodyguard, Nina asked with a puzzled tone: "Why is that?" "Girl, how many sky-gems there are embedded in the Royal Crown of the Throne of Windia?" Aryn countered, drawing one of his battle daggers from his sleeve. Nina blinked her eyes. "Eight", she answered without hesitation, "And lots of other jewels." "Wrong", Aryn announced with a twinkle in his eyes. Pressing three fingers around the hilt pommel of his dagger, he twisted and pulled the pommel free. Then he turned the dagger upside-down and allowed a single angular, sky-blue gem fall out from the hollow hilt. "The Royal Crown has seven sky-gems", he said, tossing the glittering jewel into Nina's hands, "and one very well made fake." Barely managing to catch the gem, Nina lifted it before her eyes with shaking fingers. It was a sky-gem, perfectly blue like a cloudless afternoon sky! Sunlight reflected from it, making the gem sparkle in beautiful azure colors. Tears forming in her eyes, she clenched the jewel into her fist. "Did Father--" Grinning, Aryn nodded. "Did you really think he would send you to the cruel world without anything to do you over until you're old enough to make your own living?" He rubbed his chin and added: "I think it'd be the best if Yoji sold it for you. May seem a little suspicious if a girl like you goes peddling that kind of thing to the jeweler. It may be valuable, but don't forget, it'll have to last over all the following years and…" He quieted down, understanding that this was not the time for words. Nina had closed her eyes tightly, but tears ran freely down her cheeks. Her clenched her fist against her mouth, shuddering with fitful sobs. "Father…" "Uh…" Master Yoji probed carefully after a short while, "We can continue this tomorrow…" "No", Nina replied, swallowing and wiping her tears into her sleeve, "I'm okay. What do I have to do?" "Just sign the scroll", Yoji guided, picking up a quill from the holder and offering it to Nina. "Then I will place a wax seal there, validating the signature and you have enrolled. Yes, write the name there, to the bottom." "Do I…" Nina hesitated, "Do I have to write my family name, too?" Yoji stroked his beard, considering this. Then he said with a fatherly smile: "No. In this case, plain Nina will be enough." As Nina dipped the quill into the inkwell and bent down to write, Aryn stood up from the sofa. With the silent steps of an assassin-protector, he walked to the door and opened it into a crack. He half-turned to throw a glance at the Windian girl and met Yoji's eyes. The two men exchanged a silent, understanding nod and the bodyguard slipped out from the room. * * * * "Aaaryn!" The bodyguard's shoulders flinched like those of a young boy caught in the middle of an apple raid. He clenched his teeth together, grimaced and let out a little sound that could be best described as: "Ng!" "Aryn!" Nina called again, her footfalls thumping loudly against stone as she ran down the doorsteps and dashed along the paved road that led through a garden of green splendor and to the gates leading out from the School's yard. Sighing, Aryn summoned his usual, relaxed expression as he turned to face his client. "I was hoping that you wouldn't notice just yet", he confessed, running his hand through his hair. Panting from her short run, Nina halted just before her bodyguard and put her hands to her hips. "And just where are you going, Aryn?" "Betraying you?" Aryn suggested in a half-hearted attempt to tell a joke, switching the shoulder where he carried his bags. "There are things I need to do." "Are you..." Slowly Nina lifted her hand to her mouth as the fears that had blossomed the first moment she had noticed the protector missing were confirmed true. "Are you going to leave me?" Aryn had to take a deep breath before he could answer: "Yeah." "Why?" The Windian girl's voice was weak and her black wings shuddered. She felt like she hadn't been doing anything else than crying for an all too long time. Swallowing, Aryn attempted to find correct words for an answer. Gods, he hated this kind of situations. Shaking his head, he finally said quietly: "I can't stay here, girl." "Why?" "The Shadow Society knows that I'm still alive", Aryn replied gravely, "They never let runaways live. If I'm still here when they come, you will be in the line of their blades as well." He shook his head again. "Believe me, girl, I don't want that." "But… but…" "Girl", Aryn began, lowering himself to one knee so that he could look into Nina's eyes from a more even level, "I told you. I can't stay here protecting you forever. You can't live for real if I'm always hanging around to keep watch over you. And besides, I must see if what Lynn told me, those rumors about Wolfy being still alive, are true." Nina let her gaze fall down to her feet. Her golden hair fell over her face as she began to wring her hands. "Why does everyone leave me?" Aryn placed a hand onto her shoulder. "Why did you leave your parents?" Nina snapped her head up with a startled gasp. "Because…" she stammered, "because of the legend…" Aryn closed his eyes and shook his head. "You could have stayed. No matter what the legend says, you could have run away from me and return to the castle. But you didn't. Why did you leave your family?" A gentle breeze ruffled Nina's raven-black feathers. "I-I…" she paused, then continued: "I wanted to protect them…" Aryn nodded. "Everyone has their reasons to come and go. Everyone has their lives to live." He patted the Windian girl's shoulder in what he hoped would be big-brotherly manner. "No matter how much you want it, you can't live forever with someone you like." Nina answered with a little sniff. "Oh, please!" Aryn grunted and placed the palm of his hand onto the top of her head. "A big girl crying like that!" "But…" Nina began, her sniffs turning into sobs, "You said the only thing you wanted is to help me!" Aryn was clearly taken aback by these words. A surprised mien spreading over his sharp features, he leaned a little backwards from the Windian girl. "I do, girl, I still do. But if I stay here, it'll do you more harm than good… In many ways." His words felt too simple, too mild… They always did at times like this. Sighing, Aryn finally said: "Nina, you have work to do. It's something I can't help you with." Fighting bravely against tears, Nina frowned. "Work to do?" she asked with a faint voice. Her bodyguard shrugged. "Building yourself a home", he answered. "I was hired to protect you for long enough for you to find yourself a new place to live in. Now, as a student of this school, you have found that. Now, you must begin to make this place your home. Learn to live in here. Yoji will help you." Drawing a deep, shivering breath, Nina swallowed and courageously did her best to smile. She had a horrible feeling that she failed miserably. "Yoji, too, has his own life to live, right? Like you have your own?" "About right", Aryn was quick to answer, "He has his own life, and he's willing to spend a part of that life to help and teach you. Be a good student to him, ok?" This time, the smile came to Nina's face a little more easily. "Ok." Aryn grinned. "Not like how I used to be when Pooka was still teaching me, ok?" Nina wiped her nose and nodded, her smile a shade wider than earlier. "Ok!" Aryn ruffled her golden locks with a gentle hand and rose up. "Right…" he mumbled, shifting his bags a little, "now you take care of yourself." He was already half-way turning away from Nina when the Windian girl suddenly leapt forward, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "And you too", she whispered urgently before burying her face into his shirt. Aryn sighed helplessly. Patting Nina's head with one hand and running the other through his hair, he tossed an absent glance around their surroundings. He always felt ridiculously loss at words during times like this. Attempting to change the subject to something that hopefully would make Nina feel better again, he began: "Well, in order to do that, I'll have to gather some money first." "What?" Slowly Nina looked up from the black cloth and fixed the bodyguard's green eyes with a puzzled stare. "Didn't Father give you --" "No", Aryn shook his head, pleased to tell this piece of news to the Windian girl. "The nights at the inns, the food, the supplies, I paid them all from my own pouch. King Kenny had already lost far more than what he had been willing to pay. I couldn't ask any more from him, so I did this job for free." Tapping Nina's head with his hand, he added: "I think I got my reward from you, girl… Something far more than what Kenny would have even been able to give me." Slowly Nina's lips began to move up again. "Your conscience", she said quietly, releasing the bodyguard from her arms. "Hopefully", Aryn nodded with a grin. "I'll have to talk with myself before I can find it out for sure, but I think it was a step forward." Lifting his hand, he carefully pressed his fingers against Nina's dark wings. "By your permission, M'Lady?" Nina closed her eyes. "Sure." With a swift yet gentle move, Aryn plucked a single black feather from her wing. Turning it around in his fingers, he carefully stuck it under the leather cord that held his ponytail together. Twisting his neck, he asked: "How does it look?" "It looks really good", Nina said. Even though she smiled, her hands still wrung each other, revealing her true feelings. "So…" "So…" Aryn echoed, "I guess I'll be going now." Nina just nodded. No more words were necessary. The protector turned, took a few steps away from the School. Soon, however, he halted and said without turning: "Oh, I'll be keeping an eye on those Jokers for you." "Ah." Aryn took a few more steps along the road. He halted again. "You're probably going to be pretty busy the next few days", he said, "but if you want to see me, I'll probably be at the Ranger's Lodge. I need to nurse Cat to health before I can travel again." "Ah." Again the bodyguard took a few steps. This time, however, he was halted by Nina as she spoke out: "Come to see me sometime, ok?" Aryn's ponytail made a bouncing move as the protector nodded his head. "I will. Oh, and girl… I mean… Nina?" "Yes?" Without turning, Aryn extended his hand straight to the right and lifted his thumb. "See you." With those words, Aryn Seaholt shifted the bags he carried on his shoulder once more, and began taking brisk and determined strides forward, passing through the ornamental iron gates and out from the grounds of the Great School of Magic. Nina watched as he turned to the right and disappeared from sight behind the tall, grey walls that marked the borders of the School. She stood there for a long time. Her eyes, still holding that certain mark of sadness, stared through the gates to the outside world. Her black wings, already grown so much since that fateful day, framed her shape. Her golden hair fell in bountiful locks to her shoulders. Her hands rested together peacefully. Yet her heart was not peaceful. Already she could feel the dark gap widening within her. A gap of loss which Aryn… and Silen and Eiji and Raven and Ayena and Master Yoji and even Essar, in his own scary manner, had helped to temporarily fill. But now, she was alone again. True, Master Yoji was still there, but no matter how kind and gentle the elderly wizard was, he would never be able to fill that gap all by himself. "I'll manage", the former Princess of the great kingdom of Windia mumbled, sighed and turned her back to the gates. Slowly did she walk along the road, up the stone steps and through the main entrance of the Great School of Magic. She still had some papers to fill. * * * * Aryn didn't keep that promise. When I went to the Ranger's Lodge later that day, the innkeeper told me that Aryn had already left several hours ago, gently carrying a cat in his lap as he went. But he had left me a message. Even today I can remember it from word to word: I'm sorry, Nina, but the faster I leave, the safer you are. I can no longer protect you. You'll have to start doing it yourself. You've got a lot of potential. Start using it. Build yourself a new home. Live your life. Like I helped you on your first step on your life, leaving your home, you, too, have helped me to take a step forward in my own life. Thank you for that. -- Aryn PS. For starters, you could buy yourself some new clothes. I think blue would really suit you. I saw him again only once. Four years ago, he was standing before the gates of the Great School of Magic and talking with the gatekeeper. I was in the garden, yet still we could see each other. Our eyes met only for a fleeting moment, during which Aryn smiled and waved a hand at me. But before I could run to the gates, he had already disappeared. The gatekeeper told me that he had asked if I was still studying in the School and how I fared there. He had also told the keeper to give me another message: "Don't worry." During those weeks after my exile from Windia, those weeks when Aryn… and Silen… had protected me, I learned many things about what it means to live your life. Through pain and hardship we traveled, yet always Aryn led us forward, never slowing down, never giving up. Like me, he, too, faced his own trials, yet still he was always able to smile, to chuckle in the end. I think I now know the secret of why he was able to adapt so quickly. He knew that what is past, is past. It cannot be changed, so why should you waste time worrying about it? The mistakes of the past can be corrected only in the future. Silen… Loyal, brave Silen… Now that I think about him, years later, I find myself ashamed to remember that when he first came to our company, I thought he was a "mere" soldier. A dutiful soldier, yet still a mere soldier. How wrong I was. Silen's actions were above a mere duty. He loved Windia and because of that love, he was ready to abandon his duty as a guardian of the kingdom and become a guardian of the banished princess. Oh, how couldn't I realize that he gave no thought at all at my black wings, little caring what such a dark mark could mean for Windia? He gave his life protecting me, fully knowing that someday, I could be the one who shall bring about the downfall of the kingdom that was so precious to him. Eiji never allowed anything to let him down. A carefree gambler and cheater, life was a game for him, a game you should play well. A game you should have fun playing. Every trick he pulled, every joke he told, every time he set himself in danger, it was all for the sake of "fun". Yes, he also acted on what he thought was right, yet in the bottom it all lead into the same purpose: enjoy the life while you still are alive. And Raven… She left me without saying a word, without so much as a goodbye. Master Yoji told me that she had suffered severe burns while pinning down a rampaging fire elemental with her bare hands, keeping it still for long enough for the wizards to recapture it. Next morning, her wagon had disappeared from the stables. Raven is a warm woman, steadfast and stalwart for those she calls her friends. Yet even so, she is a free spirit, soaring as high and as far as the hawks she trains. She refuses to be tied down by even such a thing as friendship. She comes and goes, always looking forward in her life, ignoring what she had suffered in the past. She goes without saying goodbye, for she knows that those she leaves behind might just as well be found again along the path ahead of her. Essar Shoo taught me to be careful. He told me that the world is a dangerous place to live in. There are people who are willing to do anything to reach their own goals. There are people who have killed their feelings. They could help you, yes, but only for as long as it helps them to further their own cause. People can smile to you, yet that smile can be used to hide poison fangs. And unlike in stories, villains are not always brought to justice in the end. Master Yoji, the gentle wizard who taught me what I know about magic today. Hidden under his meek and timid shell is a true War Wizard, well capable of recognizing and accomplishing what must be done, well capable of sending rains of death at his enemies. Yet, even though he commands such a fearsome power, he hasn't lost his heart as a human. He knows when things must not be solved with the power of a lightning bolt. I can only hope that a little piece of his wisdom will find its way also into my mind. After all, Master Yoji was willing to sacrifice a part of life to teach me. I don't want to disappoint him. Ever since my exile began, I have met many people. Different in characters, backgrounds and skills, each of them have their own philosophies, their own opinions about things around them. Yet even so, they have one thing in common. They live their lives. They follow their own paths, they make their own choices. Those paths may cross, they may twine and run side-by-side, yet still, those paths are their own. Along those private paths of life, they all walk alone. I know it in my mind. Now, I only have to make my heart realize it. No matter how much I think about it, no matter how much I learn about life, it makes little difference if I can't make my heart understand it as well. How can you make your heart acknowledge the fact that the past is behind you, that it's something you cannot change? How can you change the way you feel things? When I success in that task, perhaps the touch of sadness that has marked my eyes for so long… will finally disappear. -- Nina Windia
Previous: Chapter XXIII
|
