The Rising Sun: Episode 2 (9 page)

He stood there in the darkness, wandering the
depths of his memory, the chambers of his past which lay locked
within him … And something almost seemed to shift in the darkness
ahead. Ion had refused to join and help the Nyon. But his reason
for it was his own.

Absently, as though waiting for this moment
all through, he stuffed his hand into his robe pocket. And drew a
familiar piece of rolled parchment. He unrolled the poster with the
deadly murderer. Ion looked into the face in the poster, feeling
wounds of his past dig deeper into his soul.

And there was the reason.

That face in the picture was the reason for
refusing the Nyon.

After leaving Jedius, Ion had devoted months
to finding and bringing down various criminals, terrorists and
mafia lords. Targets in the world of crime to which he owed much.
But among all of them, there was one final target he had … The
darkest and most dangerous target, whom he now needed to focus on.
And he knew that he would never rest … he would never be free,
unless he brought down this final, prized target. And that target
was the face he saw in the picture. The man with the glowing red
eyes, whom he shared a dark history with.

As much as he yearned to, Ion knew he would
never be able to live with himself unless he settled his past with
this murderer in the picture … his struggle would never end until
and unless he brought down this one man. Until he had his revenge
against him. For if he didn’t do this, the guilt would be
unbearable. And he wouldn’t bear this pain at any cost … even at
the cost of turning down the Nyon and whatever noble mission they
had for him.

Ion trotted over to the other end of the
room, gazing out the glass door of the balcony. They were now at
the deepest stage of the night, with the darkness at its pitch. He
leant by the side of the wall by his right, his gaze revelling in
the beauty of the starlit night through the balcony outside.

“This is hardly the place.” came a voice out
of the darkness in the rest of the room.

With an electric jolt, Ion whipped around to
face the other end of the room, his heart hammering his ribs.

And then, movement slowly moulded out of the
stillness at the dark end of the room. A figure was slowly emerging
from where he had remained, hidden in the darkness all along. As
the man walked over to before the balcony’s entrance, the starlight
glazing this side of the room struck his face, bringing it to
complete clarity.

“This is hardly the type of place where I
hoped to find you.” repeated Jedius.

The two of them stood there, master and
disciple, grown man and youngster, Elfling and Fyrling, staring at
each other for what could have been a few centuries.

The warmth of Jedius’s smile seemed to dispel
the gloominess of the room.

Ion needed a heavy effort to break from the
shock and find his voice again.

“Master?” he whispered.

Jedius patted him gently on the shoulder.

“Nothing could have gifted me more happiness
than finding you in a healthy and happy state, old friend.”

Ion looked down the other end of the room,
where his master had evidently been skulking, in wait of him.

“How long where you here, waiting for
me?”

Jedius laughed softly. “The first lesson, as
you well remember me teaching you, is patience.”

As the shock faded, emotion welled within Ion
at the sight of his master. And only now, after finally seeing him
after so long did he realise how much he had missed Jedius … and
how much he had craved to meet him again.

“
How
?” he gasped, finally able to
blurt his confusion.

“How did I manage to find you?” asked Jedius.
“That shouldn’t be of significant concern right now.”

He walked forth and patted Ion warmly on the
shoulder. “I just thought I would drop by to see how things are
running with a disciple, and an old friend. So tell me, what’ve you
been upto, lately?”

It had been a few months since they had
parted. But as the two of them stood in the balcony outside, it
felt like the gap had never happened: Ion recited all that had
happened to him since he had left Jedius. He told Jedius about how
he had managed to track and bring down all the criminals he had
crossed in his past, and how he had concluded with Grando just
earlier on this day. He ended the tale, his tone now pitched in
shock, of the startling event which had found him just a few
minutes back. Of how the members of the revered brotherhood of Nyon
had found him, and had asked of him to join them.

“They’d been keeping a track on me!” said
Ion, his own voice thick with disbelief. “I was being watched by
the Nyon, can you believe it?”

“Did you ask them why?” inquired Jedius.
“What did they find in you, to interest them?”

“They thought I had the qualities they were
looking for in their initiates, and they’ve been running very low
on initiates. So when they discovered me, two years back, they
thought I’d be a good candidate to join them. And had a tab kept on
me … until they lost me somewhere in the middle.”

As he did for most things, Jedius showed
little reaction or surprise at this revelation. He stood by the
door, just as still as ever, watching Ion as he strode up and down
the balcony while he spoke.

“They were watching me,” went on Ion. “until
they lost my trace for some reason. But there’s something I can’t
understand fully.” He came to a halt in his pacing and rounded
towards Jedius. “But when they discovered me two years back, how
did they keep me traced?”

Jedius was quiet, seeming to chew all of this
for a meek moment.

“Through me, of course.” he suddenly
said.

Ion stared, feeling his jaw slack open.

“
You?
” he asked.

Jedius nodded, still smiling.

“You’re one of the Nyon!”

“Yes, Ion.” he said. “But not in the sense
that the other masters are, including the ones you just met.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had been with them for a long time.” he
explained. “I was a member in the brotherhood for many years,
struggling their struggle. Trying to do noble things, and build
something good out of this world.” His voice now sounded distant
and lost. As if reconnecting to a pain that had he had felt a long
time back. “It wasn’t easy, Ion. everything was in chaos. The
brotherhood had come to a stage where we were hardly able to help
the world: unable to find mystics to aid our cause, we ourselves
were about to fall. I wanted to serve the world. But I realised
that I was serving nothing … I found no meaning in it. I found no
meaning in the life I was leading, in the cause I was serving.
Because that cause itself was about to fall, soon. But it was then
that I realised it, that I found it.” He turned slowly, facing Ion.
“I found my purpose.”

Behind him, the first traces of dawn were
beginning to descend from the heavens.

“And it was not in doing noble things. It was
in helping others do noble things. It was not in using my skills to
aid the world. It was in stepping back, and guiding others to aid
the world better than I ever could.” His gaze over Ion seemed to
grow deeper. “And so I found you.”

“Me?”

“That day,” said Jedius. “After I saved you,
and after I saw what you were facing, I realised that there was
hope after all, for our brotherhood … and for our world. And that
hope was you, Ion.”

He turned and looked at the city sprawling
beyond the balcony.

“Two years back, after you met Vestra, she
brought us everything about you … she recounted her meeting with
you, and she expressed her belief that you were someone who would
be of aid to us … with the right input.” He paused for a moment.
“She told us that she truly believed in a good side resting in you.
And I realised what needed to be done. What was needed at that
hour, was the guiding of a younger generation in our ways, to keep
our ways alive. And I knew that I had to do it through you. I found
you, and I decided to train you, in hopes of making something good
out of you. It was in those two years, when we were training, that
the Nyon kept a watch on you through me. but after we’d finished, I
realised that we now needed to give you your personal space … I saw
that there were things in your life that you needed to test and
discover by yourself, things from your past that you needed to set
right.”

Ion knew he was referring to all his criminal
rivalries which he had spent the past months scoring out, including
Grando.

“And so, I decided to loosen the reins on
you, after our training was done.” said Jedius. “I convinced the
Nyon that you had to be allowed to tread your own path for the time
being … so that you could do some things for yourself. And I knew
that was imperative before you did anything for us. And so, after
our training finished months back, I decided to let you off the
Nyon’s track. And that was what Mantra and the others were meaning
when they met you earlier on: they lost track of you because I let
them lose track of you. But today, when you showed up on the
Naxim’s database, we were alerted of your presence … at a time
where we most crucially needed it. At a time where we desperately
needed help from outside of our brotherhood. And so, Mantra and the
others decided to approach you to ask you for the favour they were
confident you would not deny them … as was I.”

“But how’d you know?” inquired Ion.

“When they were alerted of your presence
here, they informed me as well before approaching you. Mantra is an
age old friend of mine, and he led the information to me instantly.
And I came here in hopes of renewing my duty as a master … and as a
guide to you.”

Jedius heaved a silent breath.

“We need you, Ion. we really do. And at this
desperate time, noble hearts such as yours are hard. The Nyon
approached you for that one reason. I can’t imagine why you would
see fit to turn them down.”

“Why?” Ion gave a soft laugh. “You know
why.”

A few seconds of silence breezed between
them.

“Yes I do.” Jedius said finally. “You are
searching for revenge.” He shook his head. “But you will never find
it. You can’t. And you yourself know that.” He bent down before Ion
and whispered, “What you are doing is not bravery, but cowardice,
Ion. you are not
searching
for the one in the poster, you’re
hiding
from him. Hiding from reality … trying to outrun it.
But you can’t.”

Ion looked away, his teeth gritted. As much
as he yearned to deny that … he couldn’t.

“
You can’t outrun me, Ion. I am a part of
you.”
The voice from his dreams echoed within him.

Jedius placed a hand on Ion’s shoulder. “I
know you have much anger and guilt. And that what you are doing
now, is trying to vanquish them. But you have to learn to bear them
and do what must be done. You are struggling with the past, Ion.
And as an effect, you are compromising on the present. You need to
forget whatever happened, and move on.”

Ion gazed at the line forming the horizon,
where the first lines of stars were beginning to fade.

“And this will be the greatest good you can
ever do, Ion.” said Jedius. “The Nyon need you … but not as much as
you need them.”

His words came with a quiet power. “You need
to give yourself this chance, Ion. in all your strength and growth,
give yourself the chance to be a part of an ideal greater than
yourself, and endure the cost that it puts in your way. You’ve
grown strong through my teaching, Ion. And you’ve learned to put
your pain aside for others’ sake. Now, take this final leap for
yourself. But if not for yourself, do it for someone else who needs
it.”

“Who?” asked Ion, perplexed.

Jedius was silent for a moment, his eyes
unmoving from Ion’s face.

“The same person who brought you to us.” he
said softly.

But the discretion in his tone held no bars
for Ion. The realisation came like a crash of concrete, taking his
breath off.

“Vestra…” he breathed.

He locked eyes with Jedius again, and his
master gave a soft nod.

“Yes, she was one of the two students sent
for this mission.”

Ion stared at Jedius in overwhelming
disbelief. “Is she … all right?”

Jedius looked past the sprawl of buildings
again, unable to hold Ion’s eyes.

“Master, is she?”

“I don’t know, Ion.” Jedius replied
softly.

Ion’s inner turmoil melted in the span of an
instant. And a blazing sense of purpose awoke within him. Purpose
stronger than all else. Because now, he saw that there was
something far higher than himself at stake here . And at that very
instant, all personal woes and sufferings vanished like a flash of
light clearing a dark room.

“I’m going, then.” he said. “Mantra told me
the planet’s name. I’ll head there right now … if she isn’t still
alive, I’ll punish every one of the rebels for it. Because it was
my fault at the beginning, to not have heeded Mantra and gone as
soon as I could.”