Arablest/ Prototype

All of us stood there in shock. Everything was in a wreck, but it couldn’t have been a bandit attack; with my help when I first got here they should have been able to stop any bandit attack, and I’ve heard that they generally liked setting things on fire afterwards. It was as if… a group of people had just slaughtered them all, and then left.

General Ira spoke first.
“I can’t believe it… It’s like someone really doesn’t want you to find your way home. You can’t even ask anybody here questions anymore…”

Tomer walked closer to one of the corpses, and crouched down examined it.
“These wounds… They’re relatively new. I’ll say a few days, at least. And all of them were killed by a single stroke of the blade; no axe or lance could have done this.” He reported.

Iris took it the hardest, which I suppose was understandable. In fact, she had already placed the blame on someone.

“It was him. It has to be him! Who else could have done this?!?!” she started with a soft whisper, which only I heard, but then it got louder and louder. “You! Tomer, right? You said the wounds were recent? He has to be nearby! I’ll kill him! With this sword I’ll cut him to pieces! I’ll-”
“Hey.” I said softly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She whirled around and faced me, her face contorted in anger. “Although… although I believe you, I don’t think you’re ready yet. Don’t throw your life away so easily yet; fight him when you’re ready.”
“I can’t!” She yelled. “I can’t let him do this anymore! He’s so close… I have to do this!” She was shaking by now.
“Don’t let your feelings make you do things in vain! Nobody here is good enough to face him!” I started yelling back myself. I knew that if she left to face Shin, from what I’ve heard, she would probably die.
“I don’t care! I must avenge… everyone…”

She collapsed onto the floor in front of me and started crying, taking me by surprise. I instinctively took a step back, but stopped, not sure what to do.

“Um…” Kal spoke in. “I’m thinking this has something to do what Iris told you, isn’t it? What did you guys talk about? Who is ‘him’, anyways?”

“If I had to venture a guess,” Tomer said, standing up with his arms crossed. His sword had been driven into the ground next to him; I rarely saw him not holding his sword. “I’ll guess that it was Shin. I’ve seen him fight before, although that time it was more to protect a village… “

Iris froze when Tomer said his name, and I probably would have too, but I already knew Tomer’s past. Sort of. Anyways, Tomer guessed exactly who we had been thinking off.

“I find it hard to believe Shin would do anything like this. But if it is him, then Jeremy is right. None of us are strong enough to face him alone, and I don’t know about together. We’re not even safe here, so we should quickly get moving.”

“Does anyone have a map?” I asked out of nowhere. Well, I wouldn’t say out of nowhere, but I’m guessing the rest of the group was thrown off by that question.

“Uh, yes, I do.” Kal said. “What do you need it for?” He asked as he handed it to me.
“I’m trying to remember my way home.” I responded. “Let’s see… The closest plain would be that way. The Ariels plains, eh? Let’s go take a look.”
“Are you crazy? Shin could be anywhere?” Kal said.
“So, what do you want to do, then?” I countered. “If everything you guys say about him is true, even hiding away from him in a city won’t help, because he could always just slaughter everyone inside! We might as well go on with our mission. And if we do meet him, try not to give him a reason to attack, and we should be fine. In fact, if I heard right, he fights to find those worthy to match his blade, right?”

They all looked among each other. Tomer sighed. “Sometimes, having a tactician around is annoying. They’re always right. Come, let’s go to the Ariels Plains. Any objections?”
“I-I’ll still rather go after Shin. What are you all cowards afraid of?” Iris whimpered.
“Iris, now is not the time. You’re a great swordswoman, the best I’ve ever met, but I still don’t think it’s enough yet; you still have so much more potential, I personally don’t want you risking your skills so far.” I said, spewing out nonsense. I would rather not have her die; she was a friend, after all.
“I… If you say so, Jeremy. I’ll go with you.”

So we quickly moved to the Ariels Plains, all moving quickly for their own reasons.

The reason why we’re going there I because when I first got here, I appeared on one of the plains. I’m assuming Lenora had found me and brought me back to Barcanta, so I was going to check out the closest plain there was. I could be entirely wrong, or that I might not be able to find anything at all, but I wanted to check everything out anyways.

I probably wasn’t going to find anything at all; it’s been way over a year now.

Except, sometime during my trip I had asked General Ira an important question:

“If somebody had used magic, would they leave a trace behind?”
“A trace?” she had replied. “You can trace it, but it is not one that any normal person can see, unless they make it obvious. Even many Sages have trouble indicating one, let along figuring out whose it belonged to. Whenever somebody uses magic, they all unintentionally leave their personal magical signature behind. You see, no two spells are the same, no matter who casts what; everyone’s magic has their own magical signature weaved into their spells, so everyone’s spells are more personal than one would think.”
“I see.” I had replied. “So whenever a spell is cast, the spell caster will unintentionally leave his own magical signature into his spell.”
“Right!”
“So, I have two questions. First, how long does the magical signature last after the spell is cast?”
“Well, it depends on the spell. The more energy it takes, the more powerful it will be, right? And your signature is part of your energy, so therefore the more powerful the spell is, the longer the magical signature will stay. Think of it as kind of a magical residue. Did that answer your first question?”
“Yes, it did. I also wanted to know, though, are you able to trace or even identify some magical signatures yourself?”
“Me? Of course I can trace it, or I wouldn’t be the Sage General of Thrycia. Identifying is another matter; Durand is actually better at that, and ironically, he classifies as a mage, and therefore even less skilled than any Sage around. I can, however, make a copy of the magical signature with some materials. Then I can show it to Durand, if he’s not around at the moment. But why are you asking me this now?”
“Well,” I started. “If I had to guess, I would guess that I was brought here through magical means. I can find no other logical solution at the moment, unless I was drugged for a long time.”
“You were brought here against your own will?”
“Yeah. I have no idea why, or how.”
“And that’s why you insisted I come along.”
“Yes, despite not knowing your true potential.”
“You do know that you are very fortunate that I can do this at all? If I hadn’t, this would have been a waste of everybody’s time, especially mine, because I could be helping Raymond right now.”
“I understand that. It was a risk I was willing to take, because I had other reasons to go to Raalte as well. But this is enough for now. Thanks for the information.”
“Wait! I—“

With that, I had left General Ira before she could say much; it was nearly night, and I wanted to go to sleep, as well as avoid more questioning.

But that was in the past; now we were travelling to the Ariels Plains.

The day was nearly over, and we hadn’t even reached it yet, so we decided to set up camp. We didn’t start a campfire for fear of Shin, so we just went to sleep.

I was in my tent when Iris visited me. It was much later in the night, when most people were asleep. I was meditating, because I didn’t want to sleep that night. Meditating seemed to help me be alert, although it was difficult not to fall asleep at the same time. It was almost like I could replace a large portion of my sleep with meditation now, which didn’t make much sense to me. Perhaps I had benefited from that last month more than I thought. Meditating was quite relaxing.

I wasn’t expecting someone to open the flap of my tent, but all I did was open an eye to see who it was. Even when surprised it was much easier to control my reaction.

“Iris? What are you doing here?”
“Jeremy, I just wanted to talk, that’s all.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going after Shin; I don’t think you’re ready yet.”
“You don’t believe in your skills?”
“I believe you have great potential.” I lied. In honestly, I had no idea, considering I didn’t even know how to fight. I had been here for at least a year, and I still couldn’t fight, nor did I have much knowledge about fighting as well.
“You still think I’m a child.” She responded.
“I’m younger than you, even if you look many years younger than I am.”
“I don’t care if I still look like a child. I just know that I’m going to kill Shin.”
“And then what?” I replied. “What would you do when you kill Shin? You have been chasing Shin almost your whole life, so what will you do if you manage to succeed?”
“Don’t be silly, Jeremy. I have feelings, like any 18 year old girl, even if I look like a child. I’ll go find you, and with your mind and my sword we can withstand everything. We’re friends, right?”
Wait.
She’s 18 now? Then again, it has been a year since I’ve been here… At least an entire year.
And if she’s 18, why does she still look like a child?
I’ll never know.

But my birthday must have passed sometime ago, except I didn’t know what day it was. But since at least an entire year passed… I’m 17 now.

And Iris wanted to come back to me.

But of course. She talked about her past to me, didn’t she? She trusted me, so of course she’ll come back to the one she trusts.

I wish she could have trusted someone else as well, though.

“Well…” I started. “I guess you could do that. But I don’t think you’re ready to face Shin, not now.”
“Jeremy, you know I have to do this.”
“I know, but you don’t have to do it now. You shouldn’t get yourself killed.”
“I won’t. All I have to do is win, right?” She replied. I looked up at her. She was deadly serious.
“Well, obviously. But your chance of winning is extremely low right now.”
“I don’t think so. I can do it; I’ve been training all my life, nonstop. I’ve even bested Kal.”

I didn’t say anything. I knew Kal was good, too, but even he didn’t believe Iris was good enough. And Iris said she had bested Kal.

“When was this?” I asked after awhile.
“During the month you appeared to be in a trance all the time.”

So that’s why I didn’t notice. But I still didn’t think Iris should go.

“I—” I started, before Iris interrupted me.
“Jeremy, I want you to have this.”
“What is it?” I asked, wondering what it could be.
“I… I want you to have this.” She said, handing me what appeared to be a dagger. It was too dark too see much in the tent, but I think she was looking away. And I wasn’t even sure if it was a dagger or not.
“You want me to have this… dagger?” I asked.
“I… yes. It was given to me by my parents when they were still alive. I… I want to give It to you.”
“But why?” I asked. “You should keep it.”
“As a reminder.”
“A reminder?” I asked. “A reminder for what?”
“That… I won’t die. I promise that, when I go off to find Shin, I’ll come back alive, my family avenged.”
“Promise me you won’t go after Shin now.” I said. “Then I’ll keep the dagger.”
“I promise that I won’t go after Shin right now.”

…That was it? It couldn’t have been this easy.

“Thank you, Jeremy, for accepting it.” And with that, she left the tent.

I stared at the tent flaps as she left, wondering what made her change her mind all of a sudden.

But I was tired, and I had to meet Donovan the next night, so I decided to go to sleep.