Chapter 5: Dawn

Location Lonely Sceptre, White Wand Territory
Time Morning 1700 hours (48 hours before dusk)

Illia led him over to Vaskia and Tomon’s table. Kin waited patiently while Illia sent a flurry of hand talk at them. She indicated Pophur with her head. He was resting on a table with his head on his arms.

“Don’t worry about Pophur. We will take care of him. He is always easier to handle when you’re not around anyway. You unsettle him, Sister,” said Vaskia.

Zav was staring at him with some hostility. Illia sent a flurry of hand talk his way, and Zav turned his head away.

Illia collected a bag from one of the wagons, and Kin grabbed the bag with the healing crystal from where he stowed his gear. She led Kin down some side corridors until they reached a room with many large doors. One of the large doors had a small table in front of it.

“Are these traveling rooms like the ones we used in the Village of Lost Souls?” asked Kin.

Illia nodded then gestured with her open hand pointed upward. Kin closed his eyes and tried to remember the activation sequence for the traveling rooms, then he sang. The doors opened.

After entering the traveling room, Illia removed a strange device from her bag. It was a white crystal with a metal fork attached to one end and a cylinder to the other. She tapped the metal fork on the wall, and a pure sound rang out, then a sequence of notes from the white crystal, she quickly placed the device on the table outside before snatching her hand back as the doors snapped closed.

“Aren’t we going to need that?” asked Kin referring to the crystal and metal device that they had left behind.

She shook her head as they both experienced a falling sensation. The white crystal had been a sound crystal. People had used them as message crystals before switching to flash crystals to store messages because of the habit sound crystals had of triggering other crystals and devices by accident. Slaves weren’t allowed flutes and other musical instruments. The sound maker was obviously Illia’s way around the restriction.

“How many more of those do you have?” asked Kin.

Illia opened her bag and revealed a large assortment of crystal and metal devices.

The traveling room lurched to a stop and the doors opened. The corridor outside was dark but the crystals embedded in the walls started glowing and waves of light started flowing along the walls illuminating the entire area.

Illia took him by the hand, pulling him along a side corridor.

“You left the crystal behind so people could follow us,” Kin said.

She nodded. They turned a corner then she led them though a curtained doorway. The room was decorated with wall hangings, crystals and bits of metal. In the center was a large bed, and off to the side there were tables and chairs. Illia flopped down on the bed.

“This looks a lot like our room in Lost Souls. You come here a lot, don’t you?” Kin asked looking though a work area full of metal working tools, bits of metal, fire crystal furnaces and ceramic molds.

She nodded then pointed to her throat.

“Impatient aren’t we?”

She cocked her head and raised her eyebrows. Kin collected the healing crystal, and a vial of blue liquid from his bag.

“This is Healers’ blessing, it should help with the pain. I only a have little bit of it I am afraid.” Kin said.

Illia downed the blue liquid and lay back on the bed. Kin waited for the blessing to take effect before starting. He held the crystal to her throat, and started singing the song that Maiho had taught him. She tensed, and twisted with the pain. He was reminded of the time he had cut the arrow out of her. He sang and sang until he was hoarse, and only stopped when the light died within the crystal.

“Illia are you alright? How are you feeling? How does your throat feel? Did it work?” he asked.

With a shaking hand she pointed to the healing crystal.

“The crystal is empty of vitality. It needs to be put in a light box to recharge.”

She grabbed the crystal and rolled off the bed and staggered toward the entrance.

“Illia you need to rest” he said.

She waved him away.

“Let me help you,” requested Kin.

She shook her head, pointed to him, then the bed, and then made a sleeping gesture. She then straightened up and walked out purposefully.

Kin followed at a distance as she strode back to the traveling rooms. He heard the sound of chiming bells coming from the traveling room area, but he turned the corner only to see the door to the traveling room snap shut.

He retraced his steps back to the room. It was only then, looking at her bag of tricks, lying open on a chair next to the bed, that he wondered how she had opened the traveling room, without her sound crystals.

He sang a brief musical phase, and the lights dimmed. He removed his breech-clout and collapsed on the bed. It had been a long day.

Location near Lost Souls, Battleground
Time 11 Hundred Days Previous

They clustered around the circular crystal looking at the displayed map.

“This Village is the only one close enough to for us to make by dawn. The Village of Lost Souls,” asserted Rath.

“I can’t say I like the name much,” said Pas.

“It must be the Village the Reborn were taking us to,” Maiho said.

“It is probably full of reborn warriors then,” Jep said.

“Then we had better bring lots of these,” Illia said pointing to the war Artificia.

Illia walked over to where Kin was hugging himself and put her arms around him holding him tight. “Don’t worry everything will be alright.

Location Lonely Sceptre, White Wand Territory
Time Dawn Sleep 2200 hours (43 hours before dusk)

Kin briefly woke as someone snuggled up behind him. He glanced down at the white arms holding him and relaxed. It was only Illia. He drifted back to sleep He began to dream.