Pyrus (9 page)

Chapter 15: The Plan

The moment I had set foot outside, I was hit by magii exhaustion and was forced to stop. My magii chambers felt completely wrecked. Then again, maybe the magii in the atmosphere of the village maximized my chambers to the point that when I exited and the atmosphere changed, my magii chambers shrank down. The more I thought about it, the worse my head hurt, so I just brushed it off as another mystery of life. I gazed out into the forests of Pyrus, once again, depressed, but, at the same time, glad. Sure, I had been kicked out of the village, but I was on my own turf now; if the Shinso want to find me, they will have to look pretty hard.

I forced my legs to start walking again toward the forest. My stomach grumbled as I walked, and I began to see red streaks strike the bark of the trees. No wonder I was hungry; I had spent almost twelve hours running away from those guys without eating!
Food will have to wait
, I thought grimly.
I need to recover first before I worry about food.
As I was struggling to walk, I stumbled on a root and fell on my face. Aside from a massive pain in my chin, I was fine, but that wasn't what occupied my brain at that moment. I was staring at a tree that had a huge hollow space inside it. It looked like it was just my size, so I crawled toward it and managed to fit myself in the space. The moment I was sure that I was hidden enough, my body just shut down.

Unfortunately, even though my body was shut down, my brain was still active, so I wound up inside of my mental realm. The good thing was that the whole place was blank. There were no flame pillars, no labyrinths, and no blinding flames. Now that I dwell on it, I have to say that I was expecting a grand entrance from older me, but it looked as if he wasn't around.

“I am not gone, you know,” his voice whispered to me. I quickly glanced around the room, but there was no one there. Talk about weird. Then again, my whole adventure in Pyrus was weird, so there„s not that much of a change.

Then I heard his voice whisper again. “You may not see me, but I am still right here.” Older me was nowhere in sight, and yet his voice sounded so close to me.

“You know what? I think I know what you are,” I began, trying to locate the sound of his voice.

“Oh?” he replied, obviously uninterested. It was either that or he was prompting me to say my theory. Before I spoke again, I racked all of my thoughts together and looked over my evidence. If I was wrong about this, then there was no possible explanation of what he could be.

“I don't think you're human at all,” I finally said. “I think you are a Kreysor. Before you speak again, let me tell you why. First of all, who could appear in my subconscious whenever they pleased? I don't understand Kreysors, and I'm not even going to pretend that I do, so I am not going to underestimate your powers. Secondly, in that battle with the Kreydur of ice, you were the one supplying me with a nearly limitless supply of magii, and you were guiding the sword I had, which would make sense if you were the freaking sword!” I tried to continue stating my reasons, but he cut me off before I could speak again.

“Your theory is correct. I am indeed a Kreysor,” he stated, his voice sounding distant now. A feeling of relief swept over me at calling it right, but the feeling was quickly blown away.

“But,” he said, sounding annoyed, “you cannot use my power.”

“Why can't I?” I yelled out, slightly peeved. “I've done more than I could ever accomplish back on Earth. I saved a girl's life, heck, I saved my own today. And I did it without your power! I've proven myself!”

“Then tell me my name,” Older me replied calmly as he appeared in front of me. It was like he materialized out of thin air. By now I should have gotten used to these kinds of entrances, but it surprised me every time.

“If you are truly worthy of possessing my power, you can tell me my name,” he repeated. The only thing I could do was look at the ground. The truth was I didn't know his name; I hadn't even given it a second thought. I silently chastised myself, but the Kreysor knew that I didn't know. He smirked at me, and then vanished as quickly as he appeared. I was about to call to him to come back, but I knew he wouldn't listen, not until I learned his name.
Okay, Jack, think! What's the easiest way to find information?
My brain struggled to form ideas, but then I had one.

“Hey! What's your name?” I called out to him. Well, as they say,
you don't know until you try
. What did I have to lose? The Kreysor laughed at my remark. I could hear his laughter echo inside my head.

“That was very clever, Jack. I must admit I did not think of that possibility.” He said, after he recovered from his giggling, “Unfortunately, that will not work. You have to discover my name on your own.”
Well, back to the drawing board!
Then, another way to find out his name occurred to me.

“Is there a place where the history of Pyrus is recorded, like a library?” I called out to him. There was no response for a bit, so I just decided to stand there and take another look at the state of my realm. I hadn't visited this place since I was trapped in the restraining chains. It seemed … weaker than before. I suppose it was due to my magii chambers being scarred.

“There is a place.” The Kreysor's voice rang in my head. “It is due north of here …” he paused for a moment, as if he was thinking. “It has been a long time since I have visited that region, but the building should still be standing. I doubt you will find any information there, though, much of it was lost at the beginning of the …” He was cut off, and my vision faded to black.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the tree, and it took me a moment to remember where I was. Orange light was shining through the entrance, illuminating the whole tree. I saw markings engraved on the bark, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a word written in Pyrian.

“Trublind,” I whispered to myself. Instantly I felt weaker, and my eyes blacked out for a moment. When I reopened my eyes, the markings had changed. They were replaced by a message that looked to be written in blood. The tree itself has grown dark, and I could no longer see any light outside, but the message was practically illuminated in the tree.

“My name is of no importance,” I read aloud. “The king has become corrupted. The rules of the Kreydurs are becoming bent and will soon be broken. They will come for me, and for anyone who is not in their alliance. They will enslave us or wipe us out, one by one. Whoever reads this knows the truth and shall be granted the eyes to see the truth. Remember the word
Trublind
. Let it guide your eyes when you are surrounded by those who show no allegiances.” My gut was telling me that this was the last message of this person. I couldn't ponder about it more, though, for my eyes began to ache. My head started pulsing, similar to when I have a magii compression headache.

Wait a second!
I thought.
Am I using magic? Is this eyesight a spell?
Whatever it was, I had to end it. I tried cutting off the magic by closing my magii chamber in my head, but my eyes blacked out again. When I reopened them again, I squinted from the sunlight that filtered through the branches. Aside from a massive headache, it turned out that this spell didn't drain too much of my magii.

A rustling in the bushes reminded me that I was supposed to be hiding and needed to get back on the move. I struggled to slip out of the tree undetected, and I think I managed to do that successfully, but I wasn't out of the woods yet—no pun intended. Without thinking, and wanting to test out the new spell, I quickly whispered Trublind.

Unlike when I previously used it, this time my vision didn't black out. It was like adding another layer of vision to my eyesight. The entire sky was black now. I could see that Pyro was still shining brightly, but the only shades I saw were black and white. The tree I had been hiding in disappeared before my eyes, but it wasn't X-ray vision. I couldn't see what was through the bushes. Before I could figure out what exactly the sight spell did, I began to develop a compression headache, so I had to cancel the magic.

When I began to see color again, the bushes rustled once more. I set myself into a guard position by lying on my back with my legs set to push away whatever came out of the bushes. When I finally faced my opponent, I laughed. I had been worrying about a little white bunny that was looking for some food. My laugh was greeted by an axe that hacked a tree, the blade not even an inch from my face. Realizing my mistake, I obeyed my instincts and ran for my life.

“Don't look behind you, Jack,” I said to myself, hoping that my pursuers would give up chasing me . “Just keep running, just kee—” My self-motivational speech was interrupted by an arrow whizzing over my head, hitting a tree and tearing right through it. I brushed my hair out of my face and promised myself that before the day is done, and if I'm still alive, I am gonna cut my hair, even if it kills me.

More arrows soared past me as I continued to run, barely missing my body but destroying the environment around me. Then I heard the whooshing sound of an axe and finally realized what their plan was. The archer wasn't aiming for me; he was clearing the path for the axe.
Well, it seems they ‘ve underestimated me … and my magii chambers!
I thought smugly. I channeled for about a second and released a short burst into my legs so I could outrun or avoid the axe.

Now, normally this would have at least bought me some time, but when I glanced behind me, I had to duck. It was a good thing I did too, because if I hadn't, then the axe would have taken my head while it was destroying the trees. Something didn't make sense: how could that axe still keep up with me even though I used magic?

“Trublind!” I called out as an arrow flew right past my face, cutting my cheek in the process. I had no idea why I used that spell, something told me too. My question was answered once my eyes had changed. As another arrow approached me, I saw that a blue aura had surrounded it. As I reached out to grab and examine it, I could see that my palms were also omitting a bright blue aura. As I continued searching for more blue auras, I noticed that my thighs and abdomen were also giving off blue. My guess was that these eyes could see magii in people and objects. I put the arrow in the pocket of my cloak and focused on the weapons themselves.

Chances were that if one of these weapons hit my body, I'd be either obliterated without a trace, or get thrown so violently that every bone in my body would turn into dust from colliding with trees after getting thrown. The only logical option was to run very fast. I turned my head to see if the axe was still pursuing me, and thankfully, the axe wasn't there. No arrows had been fired off for a while and, noticing my chance to escape, I released the remainder of my magii in my thighs and cut off Trublind before my eyes began to ache.

While I was weaving through the branches, trying not to have another painful collision, I passed a familiar spot. As if my legs knew that I wanted to stop, I ran out of magii in my legs and stopped in the center of the crater caused by Lyra and Ivan. The memories of the past weeks overwhelmed me and forced me to walk away from the crater. Moving away from the battlefield helped me push away the memories from my mind.

As I scaled a side of the crater, I saw the waterfall where I was stayed with Kris while I learned how to cast magic. I knew I had to find that library, but my conscience would never be clean unless I went back to check and see if he was still there. Judging by the position of the waterfall, it would take about a day's journey of walking to reach it. If I performed a magii sprint, though, I could make it there and back in about two hours.

As I channelled some magii from my core, my thoughts turned to Kris and Aquas. Before I could truly grasp the thoughts however, I was distracted by the hood of my cloak as it fell over my eyes. Remembering the lump in my pocket, I pulled out the arrow and began to examine it more closely. The point of the arrow pulsed deep blue, while the shaft was engraved with strange markings. The rest of the arrow seemed normal, but the blue tip puzzled me. After a few more minutes of trying to figure out what caused the tip to turn blue, I gave up and placed the arrow back in my cloak pocket.

As if on cue, my thigh chambers felt like they were at their maximum capacity once I put the arrow away, so I ceased the channelling of magii and set myself up into a starting position, as if I was actually planning on running a race to the cave. I forgot how great it was to rush past objects at the speed of sound, and I laughed like I did the first time I experimented with magii running. As I picked up speed, the trees became a blur and tears formed in my eyes because of the wind.

I made it to the cave faster than I had expected. There were no signs of life ever having been there, but then again, there never was even when I had lived there. I began to scale the little hill that led to the waterfall when I encountered something slightly problematic: I
still
didn't know the spell Kris used to open the waterfall, which meant that there was no chance that I could gracefully enter the cave. The only option I had was to enter by brute force, but the water was rushing much too fast for me to just jump over.
Well, jump over normally!
I thought with a grin.

I backed down the hill a little and let loose a short burst of magii, just enough to get my speed fast enough to rush through the raging water without stopping. It turned out that the water was all looks. I passed through it so easily that I landed quickly and tripped, which resulted with me rolling along the stone floor getting bumps and bruises. Once again, there was no sign of anyone ever having been here, which I suppose is natural for a Kreydur. They were like ninjas in a sense; if they didn't want to be found, they weren't going to be found.

“Trublind,” I whispered, afraid that if anyone was still here they would hear the echo if I spoke too loud. My eyes quickly adapted to the magii, and I began to search for I don't know what. Since they were basically magic detectors I thought that maybe I could use them to detect some magii traces left from my training or from Aquas herself since she was pure magii. Instead my eyes failed me. Disappointed, I kicked a rock and was about to release my spell when I saw a giant blue light coming from under the rock.