Rings of Truth: a novel by Echade

 

Chapter 1: Fire Fly

 

 

     “FIRE!!!” shouted some commoner as hysteria swept across the small village of Dragoon. Buckets flew dumping water on the library to douse the intense flames, but no matter what was done, the fire raged on.

     Owen stood back calmly and lifted his hands into the air and shouted, “Toshi macna!”

     Clouds quickly collected over the library and with a crack of thunder, rain sloshed over the flames, but no matter how hard the water came down, the fire wouldn’t go out.

     The elder ran up behind Owen and shouted, “Concentrate! You need to focus your efforts… use ice!”

     Owen tensed his upper body, crinkled his eyebrows, and started to twitch… the rain cloud began to darken but then, just as quickly began to shrink, which caused Owen to lose focus. Paul-Vincent quickly raised his arms and continued to hold the rain showers.

     “Assist me, Owen… concentrate on using no work!”

     Owen closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let out a scream, as magical energy channeled from his fingers, lingering in the air, then forming with the Elder’s spell which made an arctic wind.

     With in seconds, the library was a frozen wasteland… everything still intact, but it would take many weeks to thaw everything out.

     Owen jumped up and shouted, ‘Yeah! I did it!!!”

     But Paul-Vincent wasn’t to thrilled, since his feet were now frozen to the ground.

     Owen turned his head, trying not to look guilty… and was failing.

     The Elder gave out an audible sigh of anger… and said in his most pleasant voice, “You still have much to learn… NOW GET ME OUT OF THIS!!!”

 

    Back in their hut, Owen prepared a hot black substance that the elder loved… He was bundled up in blankets and was soaking his feet in a pot of steaming water.

     Owen handed the cup to Paul-Vincent; he took the cup, took a sip, and began to lecture, “You MUST learn fine control! I can’t stress that enough…”

     Owen tried to interrupt, “But-“ but was cut off.

     The elder continued uninterrupted, “You can only cause destruction and harm if you continue on the way that you are going.”

     “But I put out the fire… isn’t that what we wanted?” Owen interrupted again.

     The elder gleamed for a long second with eyes that instantly pierced Owen’s soul. “Yes you did, and you let it get out of control… as a result…” He pointed at his feet and grumbled. “You were foolish to combine elements like that… not even I could safely do that until I was fifty… certainly not when I was Sixteen!”

     Owen was going to respond, but thought it better not to press the subject any further. He went off to prepare supper for that evening.

     Paul-Vincent, seeing that he took that one step too far, backed off for a minute. With a sigh of understanding he said, “You have a great potential… I knew that from the day your father left you in my care… But the sooner you realize that you must show control in your abilities, the sooner you realize your full potential… the ten element!”

     Owen paused in a slight wonderment, then came up to his foster father and asked, “Can you tell me about my real father?”

     The Elder shook his head and replied, “Not tonight. You really need to get to be… we wake up at the c-“

     “Crack of dawn… yah yah yah… I’ve heard the speech.”

     Owen stood up, went over to his bed and removed the tattered blue robes that once belong to his father, now dead for as much Owen knew.

     The elder stumbled over to his bed, took the single candle that lit the but and light into dark with a single blow.

 

     “These fires are getting out of control!” shouted one angry farmer.

     “We don’t even know what’s causing them… we can’t do anything until we at least know that!” rationalized the village merchant.

     An old woman shouted, “We can’t just sit around and do nothing!”

     The elder tried to get the attention of the raving mob, to no avail… after a moment, he go angry and threw both hands up in the air and made a huge crack of thunder sound across the land. The mob shut up promptly.

     “I fear I know what causes the apparent “wild” fires… I think my efforts to control my son’s magical ability has failed, and now that ability has come to the attention of the Fire Striker… it wishes to… “silence” him before he can do any good.”

     The crowd erupted again, even stronger than before, shouting various things like, “We must get rid of Owen!!!” or “We must save the whole by cutting out the itch!”

     Paul-Vincent summoned another thunder crack to quiet the crowd, “We cannot simply throw Owen to the wolves… he isn’t ready yet!”

     The one farmer shouted, “Either you exile him, or we will!”

     Shouts of agreement followed.

     Hearing this tore the very soul out of the Elder, since deep down he knew that it was the right thing to do to protect the village. But he could not shed a dingle tear… not in front of this lot. He turned to the side and replied, “Very well… but give me one day… he needs some time to pack and I need to explain a few things. You can at least spare him that.”

      Everyone cleared out of the room, leaving the elder alone in his thoughts. He crumpled over and a single tear formed in his eye… “He isn’t ready yet… If we could only find more time… if only…”

 

     Owen walked along the bank of the river near Dragoon, trying desperately to find some reminisce of peace and tranquility. Life had not been easy for Owen, not by any means… especially in the times of great instability.

     Owen picked up a small stone and examined it closely, taking in all the intricate details of how the elements have slowly chipped away and smoothed the rock… and that it at one time was probably a part of a much bigger rock… maybe even a mountain or boulder. This once great thing reduced to a mere fraction of what it was before. He tossed the stone into the river and watched it flip 3 times before sinking.

     From the bushes, two men hid, daggers in hand, and fire insignia on their leather chest plates. When Owen walked by, they leapt out viciously, only to trip on the bushes.

     This caught his attention and Owen quickly raised his staff up in defense. The two thugs got up and surrounded Owen on either side. Wasting no time, Owen took a mighty swing at his assailant, but met up with some interesting resistance. Instead of the pleasant thud noise, combined with a sudden stop… the staff continued through, almost uninterrupted. He quickly glanced at the end of the staff where it should have hit, only to find it burned to a crisp.

     The thug just grinned and lunged with his dagger. Owen managed to dodge quickly enough, and prompt started to run from what ever it was that was attacking him.

     Both thugs crackled with glee as their very skin began to boil and blister and the face that once were, became no more. With a sudden explosion of flames, the two thugs shed their costumes to become beings of pure fire.

     Owen took another step back and lifted his arms to chant, “Toshi min bi gato!” Blue energy formed around his hands and took the shape of a small ball, which was flung towards both minions, turning into two small water balls.

     The creatures let out a high-pitched scream of agony, but they did not back down. One of them leapt up into the air and hurled firebombs at Owen, which rocked the earth back and forth. Owen managed to dodge for the most part, except for the last one, which hit him square on. The walls of fire were immense and the minions were certain that the mission was a complete success.

     Suddenly, the sky turned dark, and the air started to chill. Snowflakes fell gently at first, the more intensely as an arctic wind extinguished and fire in the area. Owen emerged extremely pissed and ready to extract some serious damage.

     As he raised his hands one last time he told the minions, “Know this… whom ever sent you… what ever you are… know that you had better be ready to tango with all ten elements if you ever want to mess with me.”

     A blindly blue light flashed from Owen’s hands as the minions screamed in agony… and suddenly stopped. When the light returned to normal and the dust cleared, it became evident that the two minions were now creatures permanently trapped in blocks of solid ice.

 

     The elder sat in his hut waiting, not wanting Owen to come home… in his hands he fiddled around with an old box that was given to him along with the boy, who at that point was merely an infant.

     The infant grew up quickly though… seemed like overnight to Paul-Vincent… How was he going to explain to Owen about his real father… about the legacy that has been thrown onto his shoulders?

     Just then, Owen stumbled in… all scarred up from the battle. He made it half way to his bed when Owen collapsed.

     The elder rushed to Owen’s side, and instantly started casting any water healing spells he could.

     His scars began to mend themselves a bit faster then before, but Paul-Vincent knew that it was all he could do without the aid of a priest. He sat Owen up and asked what happened.

     Owen weakly replied, “I’ve never seen such powerful magic in my life!”

     “What?” replied the elder.

     “There were these two men that tried to kill me… but they weren’t normal… their skin, and… and… it BURNED off to reveal who they really were…”

     Paul-Vincent tried to move Owen to his bed, and urged him to continue, “Who were they?”

     “Beings of pure fire…”

     The elder gasped in fear and muttered quietly, “The fire Striker…”

     “What?”

     “Owen, you are in terrible danger… stay here… I’ll fetch the priest.”

     He quickly ran out and slammed the door. Owen just sat there in pain and replied, “Where am I gonna go?”

     Minutes passed… they seemed to drag on like hours. Slowly the sunlight coming into the hut dimmed leaving Owen in complete darkness. He looked around for any intruders, but could only see an eerie blue light radiating from a box that the elder dropped.

     He approached with both caution and awe, stumbling on the ground. He picked up the box and slowly cracked it open.

     At first the blue light flared so bright that Owen had to look away from the shock. Inside the box sat a beautiful sliver ring nuzzled safely. The gemstone was pure blue rock, with five imperfection on top, almost looking like slots to be filled. Looking through the stone, Owen saw a strange insignia that looked like an E.

     Without fully understanding what this was or what he should do, he almost instinctively slipped the ring over his finger and his life suddenly ceased to be as it was.

     “Owen?” whispered a voice from nowhere.

     “Wha-“ Owen said, still confused.

     “Owen… you must … you must”

     “I must do what?”
     “Elemental power… Supreme Striker… Elemental…”

    “I don’t understand… what is happening to me?”

     Suddenly Owen felt a tingling sensation. It started in his arm, but then moved through out his body. It was warm and very refreshing… but then it subsided, and the voice concluded, “It is done… our power is now yours, use it wisely.

      Then the ring went dead and all the light in the room returned to normal, leaving Owen standing in the middle of the room.

     Suddenly the elder and the village priest burst through the door. The priest began to chant wildly, but stopped when he looked at Owen, “I thought you said he was very badly burned?”

     The Elder replied, “He was! Not even five minutes ago…”

     The Priest examined Owen’s face closely and remarked, “The only think wrong with him is a bad case of acne. Good day, my son…”

     Paul-Vincent then examined Owen’s face with unbelieving eyes… trying to shake the feeling that he hadn’t imagined the whole thing. He stood up and said, “My god… you do have a bad case of acne…”

     Owen sighed, “Drop the acne, care to explain why you had this ring?”

     The elder’s eyes lit up in shock, and he quickly grabbed Owen’s right hand to see. Sure enough a bright blue gemstone was resting upon his finger. After a moment of silence the elder said, “I was hoping this day would never come…”

     Owen snapped his hand back and shouted, “WHY!?” then with a calmer voice, “I’ve been attacked by stranger fire creatures, the villagers all look at me like I carry the plague, and now this ring talks to me… you’ve been holding stuff back, and whether we’re ready or not, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on… is this why you haven’t told me about my real father?”

     Paul-Vincent sat Owen down, took a deep cleansing breath and said, “Owen… you are… unique. As you know, I’m not your real father, but that doesn’t change anything I’ve said or done in the past. You will always be my son… but you have also picked up a heritage that may condemn you before you can live your life.

      Owen looked utterly confused at the moment, but gestured for him to continue.

     “You’ve obviously noticed the amount of wild fires that have been breaking out lately.”

     “Yes, but wild fires are common to this area…”

     “Not as common as you think. The world’s natural disasters are all orchestrated by a great evil… the elemental strikers!”

     Owen almost laughed out loud, but held back when he saw the seriousness on his father’s face, “But the Elemental Strikers are mere fairy tales! They’re meant to scare us straight, just like the boogie-men and tooth-fairy.”

      “And I suppose those beings of pure fire were also part of your ‘fairy-tales’?”

     That shut Owen up very quickly… he just stood up and clamped his hands to his head, trying to comprehend everything that has been bombarded at him. He suddenly realized what the elder was talking about with this being an inopportune time for the world to be thrown on Owen’s shoulders.

     The elder continued, “You’ll also remember in those fairy-tales the six heroes who challenged the elements, and fell. Your father was one of them, and there is his ring. That is what I meant by ‘condemn you before your time’.

     Just then the door started pounding, getting stronger and stronger.

     Owen peeked out the window and saw most of the village with torches and rakes, looking not as happy as they would normally.

     He turned to the elder and asked, “So, when exactly did the others turn on me?”

     The elder ran up to Owen with a sack filled with bread, some fruit, and a map. He replied, “You’re the reason the Fire Striker continues to attack our town. They feel threatened by you… regardless, we’ve got to get you out of here… where is my master spell book?”

     Owen ran over to the bookshelf and grabbed a monstrous brown book with a golden lock on the side. Paul-Vincent quickly opened it and searched the pages furiously, obviously looking for something in particular.

     “What spell do you want?” asked Owen curiously.

     “Invisibility… we need to hide you quickly…”

     “I didn’t know you could conjure darkness…”

     “I can’t… but I’ve got to try!”

     Owen stepped back as if hit by another revelation. He lifted his hands above his head and chanted, “Darkto moni toosh a mana!”

     Suddenly, a wave of darkness passed over the room and covered Owen in a negative light. Just then, the angry mob broke through the door and the light returned to normal.

     The priest shouted, “Where is he?”

     A farmer Bob shouted, “My field was just destroyed because of him! It’s going to be a long  hungry winter for everyone, if we don’t do something!”

     The elder just shrugged and replied, “How should I know…? I gave him a loaf of bread and sent him on his way… I haven’t seen him since.”

     Not buying it, the crowd started to search the hut, but finding nothing. Quietly they filed out and continued on their way.

     After a few minutes, Paul-Vincent called around for Owen to show himself, but soon realized he was gone… but he found a single piece of paper, with the words, “Went out to destroy evil and fulfill destiny, don’t know when I’ll be back…”

     But even more predominate on the bottom was, “I love you… -Owen”

     A single tear formed in Paul-Vincent’s eye…