Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

Zeal let her settings sink in. She had walked through the mirror with both Atanax and Jonathan, but once she had been with the Orin, she had been alone. All she asked the Orin was to be taken back to her world... and she was there now, she was sure of it, but this place was unfamiliar. She was used to great forests surrounding her, and all she could see before her were hilly plains, and all she could feel was the cold rain hitting her face.

"Where in the world are we?" Zeal looked over to Jonathan who was looking around wildly.

"I think I know this place," he said almost excitedly. "I think I might have seen it in a vision.

"How delightful... Where is it?" She looked around. "And where is Atanax?"

"Somewhere else?"

Zeal looked at him with annoyance. "I’m so happy I got stuck with you."

"Be nice. I know I can be of help."

She wanted to ask how he could possibly be any help if he’d lost his powers as an Oracle, but she knew it would be too cruel to say that. He wanted to help, she could tell by his eyes. There was pain in his eyes, the pain of someone who’d lost part of himself, but there was also hope that despite this he could still help her... He wanted to help so badly.

"Well... do you see anything that’s familiar?" She asked, trying to be nice.

He looked around more, and for a while was silent. "There," he said, pointing to her left.

"Mountains," she could see their shadow in the distance, and then she too recognized them. "Of course! Camsirtch is by those mountains! And Serrsirtch is to the southwest... Wait," she looked behind herself and then back to the mountains. "The sun."

"What about the sun? It’s just behind the mountains, I can see the light. Guess it’s not raining there," he wrapped his arms around him for warmth.

"It’s on the wrong side of the mountain!" She yelled at him.

"What?"

"The sun is setting on the wrong side of the mountain! It should be setting on our side!"

"But that would mean that we’re on the wrong side of the mountain."

"Yes!"

"That would mean that Serrsitch and the shadow lands are..." he looked far off into the distance, and impossible distance to cross. The mountains themselves were small in the distance, and then to have to cross them... cross them into Camsirtch. An Oracle and Serrian Royalty would have to cross Camsirtch and then go on southwest through the forest... through the Elves. They could go around, but that could take them a year.

"ORIN!!!" Zeal screamed to the sky, only lightning answered back. "You lying, sneaky, traitorous beast!!!" Zeal grabbed stones and threw them at the sky.

"Don’t worry, no need to panic," Jonathan reassured her. "We just use the mirror and ask the Orin to take us to Serrsirtch."

Zeal said nothing.

"Well... can’t we?"

She looked at him with solemn eyes. "Atanax has the mirror."

Jonathan felt his legs go weak and he sat down before he could fall down. "You know it’s almost winter right? By the time we reach the mountains it will be snowfall. We’ll freeze to death there, and if we manage to live the Camriens will kill us the second we’re in their territory."

"Let’s say we do get as far as Camsirtch, I’m sure Atanax would be there to give us safe passage."

"When did you become the optimist!?! This is hopeless! This is even more hopeless than trying to escape that building unscathed."

"But we did."

"I didn’t!?! I lost the very thing that makes me who I am!!!"

"Oh, right..." Zeal sat down beside him. She didn’t know if she was supposed to comfort him, she didn’t even know how to comfort him. She had spent her life training to be a warrior, not a caretaker. "Look, we need to find a village or some sort of shelter. If we don’t get out of this rain, we’ll just freeze to death right now. Especially seeing night’s falling."

"I should have just left with the troops. What was I thinking joining you? I’ve lost my powers, lost my way... Very soon I’ll lose my life."

Zeal could barely believe that this was the same person as the older Jonathan she had met in the other dimension. He seemed so wise and calm. This person was aggravating and needed all the help he could get. Maybe losing his eye was going to calm him down in the future. "So what were you thinking, joining us?" Zeal finally asked.

"I was thinking that I could make a difference..." He put his hands over his face and laid back.

"Keep that thought in mind," she got to her feet. "You’ll need a warm thought while we look for shelter."

The rain had stopped, and in many ways that just made it worse. Now they really felt the cold as the strong wind blew at them. They were dressed for the cold, Jonathan may have had robes on, but they were soaked through, and Zeal was wearing light armour. The two of them walked on, following the setting sun, hoping beyond hope that they’d find a village, or at least some trees so that they could make a fire.

"I think this teaches us something," Jonathan said between chattering teeth.

"And what might that be?"

"One must be very clear with the Orin. Next time I’ll ask her to take me to a nice warm bed."

"If there is a next time..."

"See, that’s more of what I’d expect you to say."

Zeal said nothing, she just continued to stare on into the twilight.

"What? Nothing to say?"

"I think I trust you enough to have a proper conversation with you."

"You don’t trust me? Why not? I trust you... well, I mean, the Oracles said you could be trusted anyway."

"There, that’s why I don’t trust you."

Jonathan looked confused. "Try to remember that I can’t see the future anymore and have no idea where you’re going with this."

She sighed in annoyance. "Your people can see the future, so why would they let you live if they knew you were going to betray them?"

"Betray them? Betray the Oracles? Are you insane? I’m here for them."

"For them?" Zeal looked at him skeptically.

"Yes, for them," he shook his head at her. "When the Oracles joined the Serrians everyone figured immediately that that meant the Serrians were clearly going to win."

"Doesn’t bother me, you said so yourself, the future can change."

"Well, listen. We never had a vision about who would win the war. The only vision we received, was that if we did not join the Serrians the Oracles and well as the Elves would be a near extinct people right now. Or in our case, completely extinct because we have no powers to fight back with."

"So you joined the wrong side to save your own skin."

"It’s not like we’re giving the Serrians everything they need. We tell them what we want them to hear, and they never use our army. We basically have managed to stay out of this war. Of course there were a few of us who went off to live in Serrsirtch as... councillors if you will."

"I know that. I can’t even remember how many Oracles I’ve spoken to in the past. They never told me anything useful. ‘Your child will be a healthy girl.’ Things like that."

"They knew more, they knew you’d kill your sister, and that you’d join Atanax. I hardly think you would have liked to hear these things, especially seeing you were in love with Reya."

Jonathan waited for her to say something, but she remained silent.

"When an oracle was asked to accompany Reya to the other dimension, I was sent by my people. They had always known that I was to go and one day be given a choice. I could not join you and return to my people and live the rest of my days in comfort, and die very, very old. Or, I could join you, help to end this war, and forever lose my place with my people... I think I made the wrong choice."

"Warm thoughts, remember?"

"You are trying to tell me that you have no second thoughts?"

"You mean, would I rather be living peacefully with Reya and Serra in our castle, my sister at my side? A warm fire roaring before me, my entire future secured?"

"That’s what I mean."

"I’d rather be here, dying of cold, than living in a world I knew was wrong. If you’d gone home, you would regret it for the rest of your life. Don’t forget that I’ve met you Jonathan, I know how your life turns out. You die knowing you made the right choice, and you die very, very old."

The sun was gone. They were still cold, only now they couldn’t see.

"No moon... Is that a good omen, or a bad omen?"

"If either of us walks into a tree, then it’s bad."

Whether or not Zeal was at his joke, he couldn’t tell. He could barely make out her shape walking beside him. The only thing he could see was when he looked up, and then he could see the great sky filled with tiny specks of light. There were always thousands of more stars visible when the moon was gone. It was almost overwhelming to look up, but Jonathan kept doing so, kept on looking up at the sky every few minutes, remembering when he’d stare up at the stars and receive vision after vision. He could barely remember those visions now. In losing his power, he was losing his memory of it as well.

Jonathan looked back down, trying to push the sadness out of his mind. If he thought of all the good he was going to achieve, then it helped. Would he ever be able to shake away the feeling that he had lost part of himself? Would he ever be whole again? Ever walk with his people once more and be happy? He turned to Zeal, looked at her sad eyes and her neutral face. Would she ever be happy for what she had done?

"Wait," Zeal stopped walking at looked at him.

"What?"

"I can see you better."

Zeal looked down at herself and then back at Jonathan in confusion.

"What?"

"It’s getting brighter."

They looked back forward, and sure enough, it did seem to be brighter in the distance. There seemed to be a sort of glow in front of them so subtle that they had barely noticed.

"A village," Zeal said, and this time Jonathan could make out her smile.

Their pace quickened, their minds were already forgetting the cold they felt in their bones. All they could think of was warmth. A nice fire, warm food, a soft dry bed. When was the last time either had been able to feel any sort of comfort? Jonathan wanted to run he was so excited, but the closer to the light Zeal got, the more unsure she felt.

It wasn’t a warm light they were running towards, it wasn’t the light one say in a village. This light was cold, a soft blue, it almost had a dreamlike quality to it. It reminded her of something... It reminded her of Atanax. At first she couldn’t tell why, but the thought made her slow down. She looked down at her hand, looked at the way the blue light made her skin glow. She knew why it reminded her of Atanax, it was the same soft glow that came off of the Crystal whenever Atanax touched it.

"Jonathan..." Zeal whispered. "I don’t think we should go this way."

"Why not?" He looked back to see Zeal trailing behind. "I need to get out of these wet clothing."

"I just don’t... think..." She felt drowsy, walking for so long... battling with her sister... It all seemed to be catching up with her, and she just felt tired. It was the light, she knew it was the light. She kept on walking forward, wanting to see what was causing this. What was making her feel so tired?

"Zeal?" Jonathan watched as Zeal walked on past him, her eyes seemed so distant... so sad. "Zeal? You don’t think what?" He started walking beside her, he passed his hand in front of her face, but she made no reaction. "SerraZeal! What’s wrong?"

Jonathan turned his head to the front, to see what they were both walking towards and saw where the light was coming from. It wasn’t what he was expecting, he was expecting to see a Druid standing before them, but instead he saw a rotting log, laying on its side. Fungus growing on it and flowers. He had never seen flowers like those before, they were all bright colours. Nothing they had seen in this place had been bright. This thing was unnatural, this thing wasn’t right... and it was doing something to Zeal’s mind.

"You’re right, we should go another way." He grabbed her arm, trying to turn her around, but she didn’t respond. He grabbed onto her hand with both hands and started to pull at her in desperation, panic starting to hit him. What was going to happen when Zeal reached those flowers? "Let’s go Zeal, you need to snap out of this."

Jonathan stood in front of Zeal, pushing against her, but all he was doing was slowing her down. She was stronger than him.

"Zeal! Wake up! Snap out of it!" Jonathan turned to look at the log and felt his stomach turn, it was moving, the flowers all started pointing towards them, and vines seemed to be coming alive, slowly reach out like vines to grab them. "ZEAL!!! WAKE UP!!!" He was frantic now, any second now that thing was going to grab them and he knew beyond a doubt that it would could them... that it would kill her.

"ZEAL!!!!!!" The light seemed to intensify around them. Jonathan felt like the world was pulled out from underneath him. He could see the vines on the log, twisting around, pulling at each other as if they were in pain, and he wasn’t even looking at them. He was looking at Zeal, looked at her as she fell to her knees, grabbing at her head, screaming in pain. Then the light seemed to explode and Jonathan felt as though someone had thrown his to the ground.

He opened his eyes. He expected there to be darkness, he was sure they had been killed, but he saw the stars instead, millions of brilliant twinkling stars. He felt pain all over his body, but nothing hurt as pound as his head. His mind was pounding, as if it were trying to break free of his skull.

The stars were suddenly blotted out.

"What in the world did you just do?"

"Zeal?" He winced as she pulled him to his feet. He felt weak, and almost fell down as soon as he was up, but Zeal held onto him tightly. "My head..." The pain was unbearable from moving. He opened his eyes, and he could see the log, just a lifeless shadow, the growth on it now wilted.

"A village," Zeal said, and he didn’t need to turn. The light from the village was why he could see the dead log now. "Let’s go Jonathan, we’ll get that meal yet."

(I am not willing to explain anything from the first book in order to make this chapter make more sense, that'd take too long. Not that you need any more explanation after reading a chapter comprised mostly of exposition... I gets better, honest. I'm gonna have battles and romance, and... fighting... And stuff...)
-LS