Nerobi-Unfinished.

Chapter 1-

The Beginning.

She couldn’t feel the blistering cold and the damp wet ground anymore. Somewhere to her right, she can vaguely feel something crawling up her ankles. She tried to nudge it off, but was she was unable to will herself to move. Letting go of her distraught, she simply let the numbing void take over her.

She closed her eyes.

She still can feel the gift in her. Throbbing. Despite her hunger, her almost death, the core of her gift in her body is very much awake. She tries to control it, to let it sleep, but she might as well be trying to push a mountain.

She remembered her mother telling her how she is Tainted. One of the pawns of the devil. She remembered her mother telling her never to use her gift. Her mother had to dress her in rags to announce to the society that she has a Tainted in control. Tainteds are very much disgusted by society. She learnt that her place in society is of the lowest animals and that she should not look at anyone in the eye. She almost forgot that she is human.
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Magic is mostly feared in the Inner World. Anything magic is the devil’s pawn.
She, Nerobi, daughter of Sarutha, is a Taint. The only taint in her noble family.
She is her mother’s failure. The shame of the family.

That was before she met Obir.

He saw her in the townsmarket with her mother, and lifted her chin to look into her eyes.

“I wish to buy her from you,” he motioned to Sarutha. Sarutha looked incredulous.

“She not be for sale, stranger. She be a Taint! What you be wanting my Tainted spawn for?”

“It is not of your concern. I’m willing to pay a hundred gold for her. You don’t have to see her anymore. She won’t be your responsibility.” Obir swung the bag of gold in front of Sarutha’s eyes.

Well obviously, the gold was more then worth it to Sarutha then her daughter, So the negotiations were made. Before noon, Nerobi was sold to Obir.

Nerobi has never ever spoken to a man, much less belonged to one. She was more terrified then she had been in her whole life. Her taint pounded in her, as it always does when she gets frightened.

Obir brought her to a shop and got rid of her rags and bought her proper clothes. Despite the shopkeeper’s vehemence at the idea of cleaning up a Taint, Obir managed to make her look like the woman she really is.

Nerobi .looked at her reflection in the mirror and couldn’t recognise herself. Truly the beautiful woman looking back at her couldn’t be her.

Before nightfall, the both of them left the city.
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Obir is magic.
Nerobi realised that after some time. The way his grey eyes twinkled back at her when he speaks to her. The ways his hands stroke her head and make her feel all better. The way he talks to her softly and don’t expect her reciprocation.

Obir had the taint, too.

Nerobi realised it when he created a fire for their food, just by placing his hands above the wood he collecting. The woods burst into fire, crackling merrily.

Nerobi panicked. For the first time, she spoke up to him.

“You be Tainted!” she swung a log of wood in front of her, and thought desperately how to make her escape. Surely being eaten alive would be a better death then to get killed by a Taint. “Devil spawn! You be tricking my mother into selling me to you!”

Obir moved closer to her. He flicked his hand and the weapon she was holding on to flew off her hands. Nerobi tried to move. She tried to scream. She couldn’t do any.

“Nerobi my dear, this is not a taint. It is a gift. We are not devil’s spawns. We are special. Our gift can do good.” He placed a hand on hers. She felt happy, warm, and protected.
She was near to tears in confusion.

“Surely, that is not a taint. I have given u a gift oath to protect and teach u how to handle your gift to use for the better good. You have to trust me Nerobi.”
With that, he moved away from her and released his grip spell off her.

Nerobi cried silently. “You are telling me, I’m not a creature of the dead? A minion of the devil? You be telling me now that I am worthy, like everyone else? If that is so, teach me Obir. Teach me to use my gift, as you call it.”
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They travelled the Inner World together, Teacher and student. Nerobi marvelled at the world. After some time she was able to channel her magic wonderfully.

Another magic, one that they both didn’t had, happened.
They fell in love. Soon after, Obir and Nerobi got married, and headed for the Outer World, Obir’s ancestral home, the Gift’s Keep, is.

Nerobi was with child after some time, and the journey was somewhat slowed down.

It was then it happened.

One morning she was awakened from her sleep and realised that she was being slapped. Someone else was gagging her mouth. She searched with her eyes frantically for Obir.
He was caught and gagged too. Someone slapped her across her face and she passed out.

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She regained consciousness with a searing pain. There was commotion everywhere. The army of that city was intent upon destroying the “devils minions.”

She herself was strapped to a pole, as were 15 other people. One of them is her Obir. She have to find him. The execution was about the start. She looked around at the people around her; none of them had the gift. Only Obir and she had it. All these people are going to die on a whim of a crazy leader. The King and his wife was sitting on a very high tower, watching on. He gave a speech about destroying the devil’s minions and doing the will of God. He was cheered by the crowd.

There was an eleven year old boy strapped to one of those poles too. He was crying for his mother.

Nerobi thought of the baby in her womb.

She screamed out loud Obir’s name.

It was too late.

One of the executors was gutting out the body of a man. Blue, warm aura was emitting from the man. She could see it. No one else could. And no one else had that aura but her Obir.

Nerobi snapped.
“Obir, Obir.” It was all she thought about, as she felt herself give way to her power as she never had before. All the anger, despair, sadness, seemed to be coiling itself into a huge ball inside her. She didn’t even try to invoke her gift. Neither did she try to stop herself.

All she could do was to say out Obir’s name over and over again. The love of her life.

It came upon the town as hurls of fire. Everything went into inferno. The man gutting out her beloved Obir was burnt by one of the hurls of fire. It was everywhere. Nerobi lost herself.

Obir.

She didn’t even know how she got off the pole. She couldn’t hear the screams and the cries of the people around her. The same people who was cheering for her husband to be gutted.
She couldn’t hear anything at all.

It looked like hell on earth.

She screamed out Obir’s name and destroyed the city.

From far off, she could see many soldier archers aiming straight at her. She flicked her hand. The archers started screaming for mercy.

She found it funny, their screaming. In fact, she found in fascinating.

She levitated herself.
“Obir taught me this” she whispered silently, as another teardrop fell on to her face.

She levitated herself high enough so that everyone can see her. Even the mad king, who was screaming in despair. His tower was in flames. His pretty young wife fainted prettily on her chair.

Obir.

She pointed a finger to the king. And smiled. And chanted.

“Ten times ten will the damaged be done.
Ten times ten of your generations I will harm.
Your children will beg mine to be released of this crime,
This you will suffer, for destroying what is mine!”

With that, the tower went ablaze.

She lowered herself to the ground, and ran.

She willed herself to run, even if all she wanted was to stop and cry.

Soon, she got herself into the thick of the forest on the outskirts of the city. She couldn’t run anymore, she dropped into a heap on the forest floor and cried. And passed out.
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On the cold damp ground, she silently cried as she reminiscence what happened to her Obir. She is so tired. She was too hungry, and the creatures of the forests are deciding if she was to be their meal or not. She could hear the trees whispers in the dead of the night,
“Stand up skin sister. Continue your journey.”
She placed a hand on her womb. Obir’s child. Her child. She forced herself to stand. Where did she misplace her shoes? It doesn’t matter. She had to go on. One step at a time. For her baby’s sake.

She must get her child back to the Gift’s Keep.

One step at a time.

She continued her journey.

___End_________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 2-
Pendant of Duga

Her feet were blistering by the time she decided to stop walking. It was the dead of the night. Surely she must be far away from her nightmare by now.

“When the body weakens, the mind takes control. The mind is the strongest of all elements. That is the first sorceress’ guide, Nerobi. Remember that.”

Obir’s words flashed across her mind. That is what she needs, the sorceress’ first guide. She sat down, closed her eyes, and channelled her Flow. She could feel her magic, vibrant and alive, the way it always is after being invoked. She channelled her Flow into her heart, to give her strength, into her womb, to protect her child. To her feet to cure her blisters and to her eyes for added sight in this pitch darkness of the night. Silently, she let her Flow go still. Her white light aura slowly glowed off, enveloping her with a sense of comfort.

She refused to think about Obir, but little flashes of memories comes flashing back to her.

“Nerobi darling, your aura colour is quite unlike any I have ever seen.” Obir had frowned when he taught her how to call out her aura.

Auras emit a certain colour glow that can be seen only by the gifted. Different aura colours symbolises different gifts. Obir’s had been blue, his strength in the gift is to guide and teach. He looks for gifteds in all parts of the Inner and Outer Worlds, bringing them back to the Gift’s Keep, where many other blue aura gifteds are training gifted students.

The Gift’s Keep sounds like a marvellous tale to Nerobi. The many nights Obir would hug her and talk of it.

“We have the healers, the yellow auras; their healing powers are always the best. The only thing they cannot do is bring back the dead. My sister is a healer. She will love u Nerobi. What with the baby coming, she will fuss around you until you beg the spirits to be rid of her. You see, Mega has always wanted children, but she couldn’t have any.” Nerobi felt him stroke her forehead. His eyes sparkling when he talked about his sister.

“Her husband. Riad, is the Head Keeper. Keepers’ magic is the strongest in might. Most keepers are soldiers in the Gift’s Keep. They are flanked by the green auras.”

So he had told her stories of the people in the Keep. The scripture guardians, with the strongest warding skills and their red auras. The Inventors’ with their magic and their grey auras. The ArchGuide, the ruler of the Gift’s Keep, with his silver aura. The ArchGuides are born once every 40 years. There is no rule of hierarchy for the ArchGuide. The poorest family in the Keep could have a baby with the silver aura and he will be made ready for the throne. Obir’s father has been the ArchGuide for the Gift’s Keep for the last 20 years. The Arch Guide’s powers acts like a shield throughout the whole of the Gift’s Keep, creating a domed shaped protection around the city.

Obir has also mentioned that those who sold their soul to the Lakhnatul will embrace a black aura.
Nerobi wanted to know more about the Lakhnatul. Obir simply said, “There is the Creator. And his opposite is the Lakhnatul.”
He refused to say anything more about the matter.

He had sent a message in the winds to his father to announce his bride and her strange white aura.

His father had sent a message back that he wanted them both to come home immediately as soon as possible.
He didn’t want to show it, but Nerobi knew that Obir was worried about the message.

Now, she will have to find it out herself.

She opened her eyes and started to stand up to continue her journey. She was stopped short by at least a dozen spears aiming straight at her.
The bearers of these spears were painted in white from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet. They all have white eyes. They don’t seem to have anything else covering them besides the cloth around their waist. Some of these spear bearers were women. One of them started speaking to her in a near chanting wail. Nerobi has no idea what is going on.

Her baby.

She reached for her power.

“Stop!”

She turned to the voice that was speaking to her.
An old woman. Wrinkled and grizzled. Painted in all white. Her white painted hair hung all the way down to the knees. She too, only had a cloth around her waist. She carried a long makeshift staff. On her neck, there was what it seem to be many necklaces with many stones. Surrounding her was a soft green aura.

The woman has the gift. Nerobi calmed her powers.

The woman clucked a few instructions to the spear bearers. All of them removed their spears.

Surprisingly, the spear bearers prostrated to Nerobi.

She turned to the old woman. She too, was prostrating.

“Please, what is going on, do stand up. I’m afraid you do be mistaking me for someone else, grandmother. I be a lowly person. There be no need to bow down to me.” Nerobi couldn’t move from the spot.
Surely the day couldn’t get any worse then this. Her Obir died. A whole town in inferno, a bunch of white painted savages bowing down to her. Dear Creator, what else could go wrong?

The grizzled old woman stood up. And spoke.

“I be the Witch Shaman of this village. We are the Village of the White. Our spirits have informed us of your coming, dear mother. We welcome you, dear Mother Invoker, to our village. Your coming has been long prophesized. We bid u welcome, Mother Invoker.”

Nerobi swayed on her spot. She could feel her legs wobble.

Mother Invoker. They called her that.

What in the Creator’s Name is a Mother Invoker?

She passed out.
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The sun was up and shining when she woke up. She sat up immediately, looking for Obir. Everything had been a bad dream, surely. She needed Obir to hug her.

She looked around her.

She was in a thatched house, and a very big window and a door opening. Someone was burning cooling incense that soothes her nerves. The WitchShaman was looking at her.

It had been real.

In the light of the day, the people in the village of the white didn’t seem so frightening. They had washed off their white paints. Their eyes are still white though. She can hear children laughing and playing, and women busy chattering near the window. She looked at the Witch Shaman. The old woman had finally some sense to put on a cloth around her body.

“Welcome back to the living Mother Invoker. If you are well, we may proceed to the hall. Many are waiting for you there. There is much to discuss. My name is Urdak, daughter of Darka. My mother was the WitchShaman of this village before me.”

She was guided into the Hall. There were so many waiting there for her. Young children were hiding behind their mother’s legs, looking up at her. She placed a hand on her stomach and smiled at one of the children.
They sat her down on a raised platform and Urdak spoke up.

“One thousand years ago we received a prophecy from a Mother Invoker. She told the WitchShaman of that time, that our people must be trained to help the Mother Invoker. The Mother Invoker will come when the city of stone in the east of us burst into flames. The Village of the White is yours to command, Mother. We will nurture you and protect you. When you leave, 1 of us will go with you. We are bonded in this oath of protection, Mother.
A day will come when you summon us to you for war against the DarkHunter. When you call, we will come. All six thousand of us will come.”

Nerobi turned to look at the amount of people gathered in the open space of the hall. So many faces looking back at her. She shook her head.

“Urdak, you do not understand me. I am no Mother Invoker. I am an amateur in magic. What I know of it is what I have come to learn in the past few months. I do not even know what a Mother Invoker does. I be not your Mother Invoker. You seem to have found the wrong woman.”

Urdak smiled. She took of one of her necklaces. Its chain is so thin, it’s almost invisible. On the chain is a black stone, shaped in the form of a tear. Urdak pulled out the chain and placed it onto Nerobi’s hand. The stone glowed white in her palm.

“That is the Pendant of Duga. She was the Mother Invoker that gave us the prophecy one thousand years ago. The Pendant will only glow white when touched by a Mother Invoker.
No one is made a Mother Invoker. A Mother Invoker is born. A Mother Invoker can do many divine magic. She invokes. She invokes the spirits into her and demands her queries. She invokes time into her and become the current of events. She invokes prophecies, and see the past present and future in forks of happenings. She can invoke the underworld and be the world’s biggest enemy. She is the only one who can invoke the DarkHunter himself into her and choose to either help him or lock him back up in his cell in the last pit of hell.”

Urdak motioned a very tall broad man to her. He bowed. “This is my son, Daha. He has been chosen to protect you. He will journey with you to the Gift’s Keep. The pendant and him will be able to guide you with your magic. Keep the pendant on always. It’s your protection from Duga.”
Nerobi asked the only question left in her mind. Her hand quivered. Dear Creator, let it all be a mistake. If the answer to her question is wrong, then all this would just be a mistake.

“Urdak, how did u know for certain that I be the Mother Invoker when u saw me in the forest?”

Urdak turned and frowned slowly. “Why, that will be obvious, Mother. Your aura is white. Only Mother Invokers have white auras.”

A single tear fell of Nerobi’s eyes. It was the only one answer she didn’t want to hear.

Obir.

She clasped her pendant in her palm and turned to Daha. “We be setting off tonight.”

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Chapter 3-Bond Of Protection

The tavern was bustling with crowd. The usually loud noisy music and the bawdy jokes intermingling with the drunken stupor of the crowd make this just another night at “The Red Watch.”
The innkeeper was not in a good mood today. His favourite tavern girl was openly flirting with one of the drunken louts. Well business is business. If that drunken lout was going to get any more affection then slapping her rump, he better start paying in cold hard cash.

He turned and bellowed at the stables boy. Incompetence. In the corner of his eye he saw the tavern girl bending over to put the ale on the table. She was bending to low. Much too low. He will have a talk with her later.

The main door swung open with a loud thud. The couple appearing at the door was such an oddity that everyone turned to look at them.

The man was tall, armed with a manmade spear. His quiver of bow and arrows slung easily at the back of him. Clad in leather boots, brown pants and a long chain trailed down his neck. His thick almost white hair hung down his shoulders in sharp contrast to his honey brown skin. However after the shock of his appearance, he would be described by many of the tavern wenches as devilishly handsome. It was his ring however, that made the innkeeper gawk. The red stone shining from the gold ring will look great in his own personal jewel collection.

The most amazing thing about him is his white pupils. His eyes are completely white.

Daha searched through the expense of the tavern, taking in the sight of the messiness. The stench of the tavern overwhelmed him. People of the white are not prone to intoxication. It slows their senses. Someone without their senses intact is considered a shame to himself.

The innkeeper tore his gaze from the man’s ring and looked at the woman. He could feel his lips go dry.

The woman was short in comparison. She can easily almost disappear from sight with the strange dominant savage next to her. Almost. As soon as the innkeeper looked at her, he knew she is the leader of the duo. Her long straight black hung around her shoulders and cascades down onto her waist. Her clothing is almost as weird as the savage’s, with her dark red dress and hiking boots. Around her neck is a very fine, thin chain that hangs a pendant down her chest.

The innkeeper chuckled gleefully at the idea of an “accident” and her losing her black precious stone. It will definitely be worth something.

Her deep blue eyes looked straight into the innkeepers. She walked towards him. The foreboding savage kept at her side. The woman walks with an air of nobility. The innkeeper fidgeted a bit. He can handle anything but nobles. They are rather too much of a problem.

“We will be needing rooms and food for the night.” The woman told him. Her breath is a mixture of peppermint leaves and something wonderfully female. The innkeeper forgot his tavern wenches in that instance. This woman would be aphrodisiac next to them.

“Yes miss~! You have come to the right place! Only the bestest rooms here! And Mr Dimmolt, that’s me, I will provide you the best exquisite room in this tavern, miss. Your companion will get the room next to yours, and we shall send up..”

“Only one room.” The savage pushed past her and glared at the innkeeper. The innkeeper gulped with fear. “We only require one room.”

The innkeeper wiped his brow.
“Er, yes of course! The bestest room for the noble couple. We will send up our best food tonight for sir and miss. It will of course cost you, our best room; you know what I mean…”

The innkeeper ogled at the fat gold coin the savage placed on his palm. Noble indeed.
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Nerobi slammed the door room shut and turned to face Daha. She clenched her fingers from hurling out.

“Daha, what do you be thinking? How dare you be suggesting I share a room with you, to a whole tavern of brutes! You be mistaken if you be thinking im going to share a room with a man!”

Nerobi was furious. The gall of the man to suggest they share a room, and to a whole tavern of bawdy men! She rued the day she allowed Daha to safeguard her in this journey. The man had been nothing but imposing. He seemed to think she will fall with every step she took. Even when an eagle swooped past her in the green plains where they travelled, he had almost immediately stood in front of her. What harm can a beautiful eagle do?

Daha tests her food before she eats them. Daha jumps into a lake to check the water and the animals there before she can take a shower in it. Daha prohibits her picking up flowers from the wilds in case they could endanger her. Truly, Daha is maddening! Why, even the spirits would be furious!

Nerobi kept her glare on Daha. There is no way he is going to escape from this one. He is going to face her and realise he is in her hair every other minute of the journey. Daha paced to and fro, checked the bedding sheets, and checked the windows, checked on the tea in the room. Truly the man is exasperating.

Finally, unable to avoid the Mother Invoker any longer, he looked at her. The look of dead resolution on her face ended his resolved.

He drew in a deep sigh.

“Sit down, Mother Invoker. I shall explain myself.”

He drew a chair out for her and sat himself on the side of the bed.

Daha ran a finger down his long silvery white hair. At that moment it hit Nerobi how tired and tried he looked. He looked at the window, with a faraway expression in his eyes, and spoke.

“When I passed the test of Manhood back in the village about 5 years ago, I was presented with Tari. She was the only woman I ever wanted, the only woman I ever looked at in my young days. We made an oath many years before that that we will reach manhood and womanhood together one day and be presented to each other. We kept true that oath.”

Daha smiled, as if remembering a sweet memory.

“She was everything I ever wanted. Her every movement is a part of a dance. We had the most beautiful 4 months together. She was heavy with child at the end of the four months.
The nightmare started then.”

“A group of sacrificial savages raided my village. There is plunder everywhere. The men were all out hunting for our bounty before winter sets in, and we were not back in the village. When we came back, the sight of our village, the way it was bathed in blood, haunted our nightmares.”
“My mother tried saving my wife. She tried to call back the dead spirit. To plea to her to come back. But it didn’t work. I lost my wife. She was brutally murdered. When I found her there was a knife in her belly, where my child is. I lost my whole family, my purpose to live.”

He seemed to have difficulty going on. He took a deep breath, but it seemed laboured. Nerobi felt like telling him he doesn’t have to go on with his tale, but he spoke.

“My mother had a vision that very night that I buried my wife and child. She had a vision that I will one day seek the role of protector again. What an irony of the fates that I have to protect someone who in so many ways like my wife. You have her defiant stare. You too have a child. I made a mistake that one day five years ago. I don’t wish to make the same mistake again. The fates have thrown me another chance to prove myself. Maybe, if I take care of you, then my wife’s and child’s spirit might be appeased.”

“Better my life ends, Mother Invoker, then me losing you and your child in such a careless fashion. My life is worth nothing next to yours. You will have to meet the Dark Hunter and save us. If I lose my life in protecting yours in will be an honour indeed.”

Daha scowled. He turned to Nerobi. His voice hardened.
“We will share this room. If I am to protect you I have to keep myself near you. But fear not. I am not a monster as you might think I am. I shall sleep near the door. Even if you find me barbarian, trust my words as your warrior, and as your people of the White. At least that.”

With that he walked to the window sprinkled his sand dust. The sand dusts are a special magic tool that belongs to the Village of the White. With the sand dusts Daha could convey a message into the breeze and to his mother, Urdak, back in the village. The sand dust only works with the gifted people of the White. As Daha muttered his message and sprinkled the dust out of the window, Nerobi noticed the soft almost barely existent green aura glowing from him.

Nerobi waited until Daha finished his spell and turned to her. She moved towards him. Daha bent his head slightly, as the custom it was to have a woman of a higher status talking to you with her authority.

Nerobi walked right up to him and nudged his chin up to meet her in the eyes.

“Your wound seems fresh, even if it be 5 years ago. I do be humbled and I Mother Invoker in my authority, do beg the forgiveness of my protector, Daha of the White. I give an oath to the Creator and pledge the protection of myself, my child and my fate to my protector. He will know where I am, he will be invoked by me at my time of need. He will be able to find me when day light fails. He will know the path I thread, the direction I lead, as long as there is life in me. As I will, so mote it be.”

It was the binding pledge. Obir taught it to her, once what seemed a long time ago. The binding pledge binds 2 people together. The bind is for life. Kings are bonded to their guards this way. Obir had wanted to bind with her when he taught her this, but at that time she was not able to command her aura as yet.

Nerobi knew she had one to do one more thing to complete her bind to Daha. She reached out and placed her hand on his chest, above his heart. She will her power to flow. Her burst of bright white aura almost lit up the poorly lit room, and she can feel his reluctant, weak flow channeling out, mingling with hers. It almost feels intimate, this bonding spell. Nerobi completed the spell and reluctantly pulled her aura back to her.

The spell was broken. But the two new bonded partners still stood where they did and looked at each other. The spell had weakened Daha considerably more then Nerobi, and he seemed to be trying to catch his breath.

Their eyes couldn’t break away.

What a wonderful feeling, Nerobi thought. To be able to find comfort in another like this. It feels almost right to reach for him and lean onto his chest.

At that instant a fleeting memory came screaming back at her.

Obir.

She broke the eye contact and walked away. Her legs felt like giving away. She hurriedly sat on the bed to avoid letting him see how weakened she really is.

“I just bonded myself to you Daha. You will be as responsible of me as I am responsible of you. This be the only way I can make my apology. If it be happens to be another burden to you, then I am sorry.”

She didn’t look at him when she spoke. Dear creator. Obir never told her it would be like this. Obir never said it would be so intimate. She could almost feel what he is feeling at the moment. She wondered if she committed a huge mistake in binding him to her.

Daha spoke from the back of her.

“We are bonded so there is no need for me to hide anything anymore now. Even if you are not Mother Invoker, Nerobi, I would still protect you. Because as much as Tari is the love of my life, it seemed that another part of me came alive with you. Even if you are a woman with no title, I would protect nurture and honour you. In fact as this moment, I wish that the title is not upon you. I had a wife, yes, but I wish the title is not upon you. But it is, Mother Invoker, and so you have my undying loyalty. And the woman behind that title will always have my undying devotion. We shall not speak of this again.”

With that he walked out of the room.

Nerobi flung herself to the bed.

“Oh Obir. What have I done? What have I done?”

She cried herself to sleep.
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She was running. There was darkness all around her. She couldn’t see the ground on which she is stepping on. She heartbeat is pounding in her throat and her fear the moment when her legs could not run anymore.

She can hear the voices from the back, calling her, luring her to them. She forced them out of her mind. Ran. Faster.

She could see the white light up ahead. It seems so near yet even when she is running with all her might, she couldn’t reach for it. She tried calling her Flow but she couldn’t feel it in its core either.

She stepped onto something and fell.

“Nerobi!”

She awoke with Daha shaking her hard. A dream. It has been a dream. Yet why is her aura so apparent?

Her heart was beating. She was in cold sweat. Her feet hurt. She looked at them.

The soles of her feet were soiled. It seemed like she just stood up fro stepping on mud.

It wasn’t a dream.

Her hand was shaking incurably. She tried explaining to Daha, but he could understand through their bind.

“I think you have to wake up Mother. You didn’t have a dream. You invoked a time current.

You need to wake up now Mother Invoker. We have to control that invocation before it swallows you whole.”

He turned to her, and she could see his red ruby stone ring glowing a deep dark red glow.

“Its time to learn to control your invocations.”

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Chapter 4- Current of Time.

She flew.

She could hear the bittersweet melody calling out to her. Movement is easy, nothing is tiring here. She stretched herself to reach the melody, and felt herself soaring.

The physical barriers are gone. There is no body. There is no ground. There is no fear. There is no Nerobi. She is part of the whole dance soaring to the melody. It is the way of things, to slide into the tune. It is the only way of things, to be one with everything.

The melody gets louder, and louder. She soared into the core of it, where it split itself up into an ear-splitting scream and crescendos into the highest loudest pitch. If there is a physical body, it would have been deafened. But it is not so in this case. She yearns to engulf herself into the core of the noise. She soared into the core and lost herself.

She was standing at the edge of a cliff. Images burst into her vision. They are moving so fast. Many different images in many directions kept zooming past her sight. It was deafening to hear various voices from various images all rushing past her, one after the other, in every direction. Nerobi was lost. Finally after so long, amidst the rushing images, she felt fear.

She wished for them not to move so fast. She wished she knew where she was. She wanted to speak but she couldn’t.

She could see her pendant glowing white. She clasped her hand around it.

Strangely, she could hear Daha’s voice in her head.

“Mother, you have to ride the current of time. Standing still won’t give you answers. Follow the current, and it will be revealed to you.”

Nerobi looked at the various images running past her in front of her. Her feet gingerly pressed hard onto the cliffs she was standing on, to check if its there. She jumped.

Change.

An army approaches. The size of this army is as big a whole stone city. She sees a long staff. A man was grasping on to the staff. She sees a whole city surrounded by silver light.

Change.
The images flashed to something else.

It was a city bathed in blood. Men, women and children were lying on the floor, dead. Old men and women were crying.

Change.

She saw a little girl and a little boy, holding hands. They were looking out from a glass wall. The bright blue eyes of the boy and the sharp grey eyes of the girl seemed really familiar to her. They looked straight at her.

The images changed again.

Change.

She saw a group of people walking in twos in the green plains. It was night and the length of the people marching on in twos seemed to never end. They wore black cloaks and hoods. The candles they were holding on to seem to outline their procession in the dark.

Change.

The procession of twos stopped marching. They pulled off their hoods. Women. All of them had auras emblazing them.
A few of those women had the black aura emblazing them, but none of the rest seemed to realise that.

Change.

She saw herself running. She was wearing a gown that seemed to be made of pure silver. She was running to the two children. They were beckoning to her.

Change.

She saw one of the hooded women reaching out to the two children. They took the woman’s hand. They looked back one last time at her, and went away with the hooded women.

Change.

She saw a vast plain. It was much bigger then the green plains. The army gathers. The People of the White gather. The women in black hoods gather. The many other armies from the many other countries gather. They looked like an enormous ocean of people. It was hard to tell who from whom. The two children lead the gathering, standing on a pedestal, still holding hands. Daha was standing behind them. They were facing a massive army of the Gifteds all shrouded in the black aura.

The sky broke.
Night and Day seemed to intermingle. The sun was hovering above the whole gathering, next to the moons.

The ground shattered.
Nerobi saw herself, rising up from the fires. She saw herself opening up the portal of the underworld. She saw an enormous herd of underworld creatures galloping forth onto the gathering. She saw herself destroying the seal of the portal and invoking the Lakhnatul into the Gathering.

It was a sight to make anyone shiver. The true image of the Lakhnatul is exceptionally terrifying. The black auras were celebrating and prostrating onto the floor to the Lakhnatul.
She saw the absolute disastrous nature of the Lakhnatul. She saw a man, perched on the right of the Lakhnatul. His black aura glowed the strongest amongst the all of the soulless. His black hair flowed all the way down to his waist. He hid himself behind a most frightening mask.

It was a thing of nightmares. It was a scene from bedtime stories to children who misbehave. It was a totally impossible dream. It was real.

She saw the army of the two children willing their auras. She saw the two children joining hands willed themselves their auras. Their white auras glowed brightly and she saw herself merging her aura with them. She saw the oceans and oceans of people holding hands and willing their powers. She turned and saw the good spirits all flying around and linking up together. Behind the gifteds she saw another ocean of people without magic on horses, weaponry and defence. She saw kings and warriors, in tears, keeping hold on their men and cavalry. She saw the final resolution of deaths of their faces.

Everyone with the creator in their hearts had come as one. Everyone who sold their soul to the Lakhnatul had come as one. It was the final showdown.

She saw herself linking hands with the children and together their white auras seemed to shine brighter then the sun which was glowing dark red just above them. It seemed to fuse with all the other glows of auras to produce an almost blinding light source.

The light source overwhelmed the whole vision and she lost sight of the current.

Change.

There is nothing left but darkness. Nerobi was standing aloof. She doesn’t know where to go, where would you go if you can see anything? Not even the ground your feet are stepping on?

She saw a red glow from a distance. Gingerly, she took a step forward. If only she could see the ground. But she continued, slowly, one careful step after another, towards the red glow. Her pendant that hung around her neck was glowing white. She clasped on to it, and headed for the glow.

Soon, she could almost touch it. She placed her palm forward and clutched on to the red glow. She closed her eyes.
________________________________________________________________________

She opened her eyes. Daha was sitting in front of her. They were seated in the same position as they were before she tried riding the current of time.

Back into reality, but somehow, that place she went to didn’t really feel like a dream.

She was seated in front of Daha, clutching to his ring. The ring’s glow died down, until it looked like a normal ordinary ring. She looked at Daha; he was willing his flow to stop. Then he looked at her with concern, grasping her hand in a gesture of concern.

The sky was bright with the morning sun. Or was it afternoon? Dear Creator, how long was she away?

She felt a sense of giddiness and light-headedness when she tried to stand. Daha stopped her. He carried her and placed her on her bed. He took the blanket and covered her with it, and stroked her forehead in a fatherly like fashion.

Nerobi tried to keep herself awake, but she feels so heavy lidded. She continued staring at Daha, the light from the window behind him seem to silhouette him in a very ethereal way.

“How long was I out there?” she asked Daha. Her throat was dry. She needed a drink.

“You went into the Trance at three in the morning, Mother. It is high noon now. I was there with you all the way. When you wanted to come back I guided you back with my ring. You should sleep now Mother. Sleep is a must after such a journey as you took today. I will take care off you.” Daha kept on stroking her hair, soothing her to sleep.

She could see feel herself going under into sleep. She knew that the stroking of the hair was a gesture of a spell to help someone sleep and relax. Before she could admonish Daha for such a silly spell, she felt the blissful feeling of sleep overwhelm her.

She was woken up abruptly by Daha, who seemed to be rushing about leaving the tavern. He actually looked frightened, terrified even, as he scrambled around the room picking up his weapons and dragging her to her feet.

“We have to go Nerobi. They are coming. I didn’t expect them to catch up with us so soon.”

Nerobi rushed to change into her riding habit. Her dark blue cloak envelopes her as she hastily put on her shoes. She had no idea who Daha was talking about, but that terrified look in his eyes said it all. If there was anything that frightened Daha more, she has yet to see.

“Who we be running away from now, Daha? Protectors protect, not to be running!”

Daha stopped short. He sighed and ruffled his hair.

“We are hunted by the Hooded Sisters. When they hunt, they always get their prey, mother. To be pledged to a Hooded is to swear fealty to them. Your life of the past will be gone forever more.”

“They travelled the Inner world and the Outer world, looking for those born with the magic. They train and protect all the female gifteds that they find, claiming that women are the better sorceresses. Any male tested to be gifted are executed almost immediately. They believed that the world is in shambles because of the olden wizards whom turned selfish and arrogant for power.”

“Any males born with the gift, suffers from a serious headache every now and then. If unattended to, they might just die from it. If they survive it, their temper fluctuates. In history, a wizard with a bad temper has burned down cities and villages.”

“The worse thing was that some of these wizards felt so exhilarated from these killings that they joined the Lakhnatul.”

Daha grabbed whole of Nerobi and showed her the window.

Nerobi gasped.

In the pitch darkness, Nerobi could see a procession in twos crossing the huge green plains. The procession wore long cloaks and hoods and they each carried a single candle in their palms. It was an amazing sight to see.

It was exactly as how it was seen in the current of time that she invoked.

Daha shook her out of her stupor.

“Mother Invoker, if you don’t run soon they will kill me. My powers are nothing compared to theirs. Steel and arrows don’t work on them.”

She could see the wild terror in Daha’s white eyes. She grabbed him by the arm and ran.

They rode like the wind.

It was almost impossible to discern the 2two heavily cloaked humans, galloping down the plains on their horses.

It would have been impossible unless for the white aura that shone like a bright light in the night.
Nerobi urgently, desperately channelled her powers to the horses so that they could run faster that night.
Daha’s war horse was in the leading, and Nerobi’s patient gelding is matching up its speed step to step.

They didn’t know where they were heading.

Daha turned left at a fork. The left turn will lead him into the forest. He might be doing that on purpose, so as to leave the travelling path to avoid meeting the Hooded Sisters.

Something screamed in Nerobi’s mind. She wanted to turn right, she wanted to scream to Daha to head right, but it was too late.

Both Daha and her galloped right into a congregation in the forest.

There was a huge ring of women, each carrying a candle. Making a mental count throughout the whole scene in front of her, Nerobi could assume at least two thousand people where gathered here, in the heart of the forest.

All two thousand heads turned to look at them. For a split second there was utter silence.

The woman at the very centre of the circle stepped up to them, pulled down her hood and smiled.

“Welcome, Mother Invoker. We have been expecting you.”

________________________________________end_________________________________

Chapter 5- Death Oath

The silence that followed that strange greeting was almost eerie. The woman that greeted her looked straight at her. With her red long hair and her green eyes, she would have definitely been branded a witch back at Nerobi’s hometown. A witch of the Lakhnatul’s taint. As much as Nerobi would never have wanted to wish that onto anyone, she wished that the woman would stop looking at her.

All the women in the congregation brought down their hoods. Nerobi was surprised to see that many of them were actually very young, most looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. Most of them were breathtakingly beautiful.

Her eyes reverted back to the leader. If there was ever a word to describe a woman such as the one who addressed her, Nerobi would have describe her as enigmatic. If this is the leader of the Hooded Sisters, it is no wonder there are at least two thousand followers.

She remembered Daha on her left, and how he told her that these women kill the gifted men they encountered. She grabbed Daha and attempted to stand in front of him, but Daha was too much of a man to allow such an unmanly gesture.

He stood his ground and looked squarely at the woman addressing them. He didn’t let his fear of them show. Gone was the terrified wild look of just now. Now he is simply Daha, protector of Mother Invoker, a character not to be trifled with.

The leader of the Hooded Sister kissed the back of her own hand in form of greeting.

“I am Merdwin, First Sister Of the Creator, and Leader of the Hooded Sisters. I bid you, Nerobi, the Mother Invoker and her Protector, Daha of the White, welcome. We mean you no harm. Instead we wish to speak to you and come up with a truce. If you will spare us your precious time, we shall sit beneath that grove and talk. My Hooded Sisters have secured this location and thus we are safe from prying eyes and walls with ears. Come, let us sit and talk.”

She gestured for the both of them to follow her. The other sisters were still standing in an orderly procession, holding on to their candles. They seem to be moving their mouths in a chant, but no words could be heard from them. They settled themselves on the opening. Daha grew impatient.

“Tell me First Sister, what in the name of the good spirits could be so important that you chased Mother Invoker and me out in the middle of the night and side tracked us to this forest?”

Merdwin smiled to herself. She looked up and Daha. “I never speak to gifted men, Daha, because I will have to kill them a second later, but you will hear my response, for today I did not come to kill you. Today I have bad tidings for the Mother Invoker. However if you ever fail in your protection of her and turn like most men with the Gift, I will not hesitate to hunt you down and take your life. And I shall do it in such a fashion that the world will still talk about it after I am dead, and I will be dead a long time from now.”

“Because you protect what we both hold dear, I shall make you an exception and spare your life.”

Her green eyes seem to be able to convey the stark truth of her message to Daha. Nerobi marvelled at her. This woman is a leader indeed.

Merdwin has already gentled her features when she turned to Nerobi. She stroked the top of Nerobi’s head and chanted a prayer for safe keeping. Nerobi backed down tears. This was how she should have been treated by her mother. This is what a woman’s love to a child should feel like. Nerobi decided then that she couldn’t kill Merdwin even if she wanted to now, because in that split instant she had made her feel what she lacked so much all her life, a mother’s love. Her tears betrayed her as she thanked the First Sister for her prayer.

Merdwin smiled. She placed a hand on Nerobi’s womb. Her smile lengthens and she started chuckling.

“Healthy they are. Still very small, you are only in your third month, but they are strong and healthy.” Her face lost its smiled as she added in an afterthought. “They have to be. We need them.”

Nerobi tried not to gape. “They? What do you be meaning, They?”

Merdwin chuckled. The fine wrinkles around her eyes deepened and as she looked at Nerobi in merriment. She placed her hand on Nerobi’s womb and said to her,

“They. Your babies. You have two.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

“Twins? I be having twins? ”

Nerobi wondered aloud. Almost reluctantly her vision of the boy and the girl who clasped hands together came back to her. Hers. Those were her children. With her eyes and Obirs eyes. With her Aura.

How beautiful they had looked like in her visions. How wonderfully perfect.

How much burden they have to shoulder for ones so young.

The heaviness in her heart must have shown on her face. Merdwin looked at her sympathetically. Daha frowned at her for being sad by such good news. He doesn’t understand why she has to look so sad after getting such wonderful tidings.
Merdwin took her hand and spoke.

“You are our prophecy Nerobi. A Mother Invoker is born once every thousand years. This is because they can live up to four hundred years of age. You did not know that did you? A Mother Invoker rules the whole world, kings bows to her, Councils decisions are annulled if she decides it. If you can wield the true amount of your power, you can rule the Inner World and the Outer World and finally bond it as one.”

But you are here for a different nature, as it is, your coming is prophesied. For the first time since the creation of the Worlds, the Mother Invoker will bear twins. Her children will both be invokers. She will bear a boy and a daughter. Mother Invokers have never beared invokers before. And all Invokers are, well, women. For the first time in the history of the worlds, we will have a male invoker.”

Merdwin shuddered at the thought.

“The three invokers coming together will mark the era which the seal of the Dark Hunter, or Lakhnatul or whichever term you call him to be broken. If the three invokers are not kept alive to this final day, the world will fall into the Underworld. All will be lost. ”

Judging from the way Merdwin re enact the stories, she probably have gone through it many times. She probably cried over it, have many sleepless nights about it. She stared into the distant darkness and continued.

“We have the riddle of the prophecy still kept in our city. It has become a children’s tale, to put naughty children to bed. It has almost become a legend, no longer truth, just a myth.”

At this moment, Merdwin looked into Nerobi. It occurred to her, how ageless Merdwin is. Her eyes seemed to be filled an emotion Nerobi couldn’t describe. She almost looked fearful.

“This is how it goes.”

“Hearken these days
The Mother Invoker will bear
And one will be three.
One male invoker the world will see.

Hearken these days
The Darkhunter breaks through the seal
And the sun turns red above your heads
And the ground splits below your feet
And there is no where to go
But to stand behind the three flanked in white.
It will all be destroyed
Without the three flanked in white.
Hearken these days.”

Nerobi looked around her. All the sisters were chanting the prophecy. So many voices. Each of them uttered the prophecy and like it began, it ended with the very last voice uttering the last portions of the prophecy. She felt a chilling cold running down her spine. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

She turned to Merdwin.

Gone was the motherly affection. Her face now wore the mask of the First Sister. A leader who is used to giving unrelenting orders.

“The three flanked in white must be kept alive. And the male invoker that would be born would be the most dangerous man to walk this earth. His powers are absolute, and if not under observation, the magnitude of his headaches will drive him insane, if not, and then to the Lakhnatul’s aid.”

“He is a twin; therefore his life line will be interwoven to his sister. She must be kept close to him at all times. Together, they prove a deadly force. If the prophecies were to be told true, they will be at the peak of their powers at the age of five.”

“When you give birth to them, Mother Invoker, we will come back to aid you. You have then 2 years to spend with them. After their second birthday you will have to say good bye to your children.”

“We will come for them.”

Nerobi felt a burst of anger flowing through her. She is the Mother Invoker! How dare these people lay a claim to her children! If need be, she will raze all two thousand of them to the ground!

She decided that if forced into a decision, she may be able to kill Merdwin after all.

She willed her aura to channel, once again, a bright white light burst into the dark night, surrounding the Hooded Sisters. In her light she could see the astonishment on their faces.
She stood up, clutched her pendant and announce.

“For all your powers I could still kill you now if I wish it. I razed a town to the ground the day they killed my husband. I could still be killing you witches if I desire it.”

“Hear all of you. I am the Mother Invoker! And you are nothing to me. I challenge you, Hooded Sisters, slayers of the gifted. I challenge your prophecy! My children are mine! I lost my husband to the madness of the world; I will not lose my children to your madness!”

Her pendant glowed brighter.

“I give you a death oath. Touch my children, and I will find you, and hunt you down, and raze your whole town to the ground. Take my children from me, and I will see every last one of you dead. My children are mine! Mark my words Hooded Sisters.”

She turned to Merdwin. The First Sister had a look of total dismay at her death oath. Nerobi could see her face losing colour.

“I have an advice for the First Sister. I, Nerobi, rode the current of time. Some of you here serve the Lakhnatul, but the rest of you do not realise it. You have two months, First Sister, to locate them and destroy them, or I will declare to both the worlds that the Hooded Sisters are witches of the Lakhnatul!”

There was a murmur throughout the crowd. Nerobi could see all the astonished faces, all the faces filled with fear. The First Sister’s face paled at the news. Her hands shook as she tried performing the sign of protection against the Lakhnatul. Her face bore the look of someone who was told incredible news. Nerobi didn’t really care.

She kept her Flow constant.

The surrounding night has fallen into absolute silence. It seems as if the creatures of the forest knew of the deadly proclamation. They too, have gone silent. The night sky was filled with the aftertaste of dread. The cold wind that breezes through the area felt like a stab of stinging ice instead of airy comfort.

She looked at all the sisters looking back at her. It was a bitter feeling in her heart that she has to be their enemy even before she could know them better. All these women, gifted like her. That she won’t ever get to know their names. Their stories.

That she might have to kill them one day.

“My life seems a lonely road.”
She didn’t even realise that she spoke those words. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop the single tear falling down her cheek. The fates be damned. She lost Obir. He seems more of a sweet dream long ago to her now. She is not going to lose her children.

Before she continues any further, there was a piercing scream.

A very young Hooded Sister, not more then eighteen years old, scrambled into the procession. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. “Intruders! To the North of us! They come!”

The silent procession broke into a run. Everyone was looking for their horses, and scrambling into position. For someone who did not understand warfare, it was mayhem. Nerobi saw it as such. Fortunately, Daha came to her rescue.
“Mother Invoker! Your horse! We ride!”

Nerobi scrambled onto her gelding. She could hear the crazy screaming and chanting of the intruders not far off. It sounded like the mockery of death to her.
The night was so dark; they could only hear the direction of the hoots and shouts, and how far away they seemed to be. Without a light, all of them will be slaughtered.

They were in the valley of the Green Plains. She knew that the enemy was coming from the mountainside from the north. If only they could see how many of them there were.

She did the only thing she could.

Clutching her pendant, she channelled her Aura.

A flash of bright light lit up the dark sky. It enveloped the plains into a dome shaped protection of light, enabling Daha, the Hooded Sisters and herself to see their enemy.

She gasped.

10 minutes away from them, riding down the mountain slope in a rush, was a whole army of men. They looked to be mere savages, with their hair long and unkempt and their faces painted in red. Their horses were the biggest war horses Nerobi has ever seen. Nerobi did a mental count.

There were at least a few thousand men charging down the valley towards them.

The grounds shook with the many horses galloping towards them.

“Protect the Mother Invoker!” The screams of the First Sister could be heard throughout the panic. In the next few seconds, Nerobi found herself flanked by an army of women on horses, clutching their swords.

Merdwin was at their front.

“Mother Invoker now would be a good time for you to have this. It belongs to the last invoker. Now it belongs to you.”

Nerobi stared at the enormous sword presented to her. It was beautiful. To be able to find beauty in such a frantic moment overwhelmed Nerobi. She took the Sword and held on to it. She could feel the ease her power channelled onto the sword.

A sudden sense of justice overwhelmed her.

“Do not be afraid.”
She heard that voice, but she couldn’t figure out who said it to her. She looked around. No one seemed to have said it to her.

Nerobi had never had to deal with war in her whole life ever. She has never wielded a sword. She slid the sword of her scabbard.

It gleamed white.

She heard the voice again.
“Do not be afraid, child. We ride.”

The army of men were so near now. She could smell their foul stench. She looked at the people who flanked her, trying to save her life, and she remembered her death oath to them, something she still have to continue with.

Daha nodded at her. Through their bind she could hear him say, “Im here. You will live to see the sun rise tomorrow.”

She gripped her sword and nodded.

It was attack or die.

They charged.

_________________________End_____________________________________________

Part 6- The Great Pass.

The night seemed to have come alive. Not in splendour, but in horror. With the Hooded Sisters, and Daha, she charged onto the attack.

She raised her sword high and uttered a scream.
Two thousand women joined in her scream.

Steel clashed with steel.

At that moment, Nerobi ceased to think. Thinking is not an option now. Instinct is the best guide. She marvelled at the way she swung her sword around. It seemed to be able to know what she wants it to do. It seemed, in a way, that the sword is guiding her, instead of her guiding it.

There were men everywhere. She raised her sword to defend an attack from the front. The man was far too strong for her. She couldn’t keep her sword up for long.

Next to her, women were dying. Many were still fighting bravely. It was no good. These men have more might then the Sisters and she will ever have. She was desperate.

She used her gift.

Everything around her slowed down.

She could see the attack coming to her slowly. She defended herself, and slid her sword into the stomach of her attacker. She could see his face, looking at her in disbelieve, before he slowly, slowly, dropped off his horse and sank to the ground.

She could feel the wind behind her next. She turned to the attacker behind her. She could see him swinging his sword slowly, slowly. Before he could sink it into her, she took her sword and plunge it into his heart.

He shared the same disbelieving look before he went down. She pulled her sword out of him and looked around.

Things seemed to be moving in an extremely slow pace. The war was everywhere her, but it seemed that she could read their every move before they actually make it.

Nerobi sat still on her horse in the centre of that massive killing, looking around her, and understood. She has proceeded into a new level of her powers.

She had bent time.

It took her a split second to marvel over it, before she had to turn and slay another man trying to kill her from the back.

This is the first time she put a weapon into someone. The first time that she felt steel sluicing into a body and ending it abruptly. She wanted to weep over it. Cry in anguish that she had to do it, but there was no time.

She urged her horse around, looking frantically amidst all the killings for Daha. She screamed his name, over and over again. She finally found him, and galloped her horse to him. Daha was being attacked by three men. He was no longer on his horse. Although it seemed that he needed no help, Nerobi would not risk it. Time bending is an advantage to her only. He doesn’t have that edge over them.

With a loud shout, she galloped her horse just in time to slay the man attacking Daha from the back.

“Daha! Take my hand!”

He slayed the first attacker and reached up to take her hand.

In that abrupt second, the time rushed back to normal. The spell seemed to break at the contact of another.

The screams, the smell of blood and the speed of it all overwhelmed her. She feverishly kept a hold on Daha’s hand and let him up onto her horse. He took hold of the reins and galloped off.

“We have to get out of here, Nerobi, or we will never make it out alive. Hold on tight to me, and kill whomever you see who tries to attack you. Do not hesitate, just slay them. One moment’s of hesitation, and it will be us dead. Do you hear me?”

Nerobi gripped one hand to the saddle and held the sword tight with the other. She couldn’t say a single word. She has to stay alive for her babies. She nodded.

It was a mindless slaughter. They galloped across the plains, in the dark of the night, with only the bright Aura of the Mother Invoker lighting up the path ahead. Headlong they met enemies on horseback.

Nerobi didn’t hesitate. She slayed everyone that came in their way. Be one with the blade. Aim and slaughter. Don’t look into their faces; don’t try to imagine their lives. Don’t think about their children growing up without their fathers. Just don’t think.

Aim and slaughter.

She continued for what seemed to be hours, until she realised that they were no longer in the plains but were in the heart of the forest. The Fire Forest, as legend calls in. The forest with the path into the boundary of the Outer World.

Yet she felt no happiness.

Her red riding habit was smeared with blood. She could smell the stench of blood on her. The stench of other people’s blood.

Her sword hung dangling on her left hand. It was smeared with blood, just like the rest of her. Nerobi felt a numbness creeping into her skin. She is tired. So very tired.

Daha led the horse into a deep clearing. The sun was peeking through the thick canopy of the trees, welcoming another day.

If Nerobi wasn’t so tired, she might have felt the coolness on her skin. She might have smelled the surprise in the air. But she didn’t so when Daha led her to the waterfalls, she gasped with delight at the beauty of nature around her.

In the heart of the Fire Forest, lay a most breathtaking waterfall. The point where the waters from the mountains met and cascades down, flowing into rivers and lakes throughout, being the source of life for many in the green plains.

The birds were singing a happy tune. The wind seemed to welcome her. If she wasn’t so tired, she might have heard the breeze whispering.

“Welcome, skin sister.”
Nerobi clambered off the horse, and trudged herself to the waterside. She hurriedly knelt down and drank down as much water as she could. When she was satisfied, she slumped to the ground.

She wondered how many Sisters died. She wondered if they knew she left them to their fate. That she ran.

She turned and saw Daha tending to the horse.

She took her necessities and headed to the side of the stream. She removed her clothing, until she was in her shift. Nerobi was sure Daha wouldn’t mind, after all, the women in his village were almost naked nearly all of the time.

Nerobi stepped into the stream. The water seeped through her toes, welcoming and beckoning. She placed a hand on her tummy. Her babies. In her shift, their slight bulge seemed to show. Nerobi needed a cleansing. She needed to wash away the blood off her body.

The blood of the people in the town she razed. The blood of the Hooded Sisters who died. The blood of all those people she would yet have to kill.

Nerobi kept on walking into the stream. Deeper and deeper. She reached a point where the water is at her chin, but she still tried to get deeper. Maybe if she walked deep enough, she wouldn’t have to think about it anymore. Maybe if she just go under, and don’t ever wake up, she might not have to face her fate. One step in deeper at a time, it wasn’t so easy. The water reached to her forehead. She didn’t struggle; she simply walked in deeper into the stream.

She felt herself being forcefully dragged out of the deep waters. She was thrust onto the side of the bank. Daha was staring at her angrily.

“Fight and live. You are more then this. You have more then this!” Daha was literally screaming at her.

Her dam broke.
She sat on the bank, wet and confused. She looked at her fingers, quivering due to the cold. She ran her fingers down her face, and covered her face with it.

“All I wanted was a nice warm home, with Obir coming home to me, with my children sitting on my lap. All I ever wanted of life was to be loved, and not be considered a taint. I never asked for all this. To have been given hope and have it snatched away such as it was with me was a cruel thing to do. If there is a creator, then this is such a cruel thing to do.”

She cried for Obir. She cried for her children and all the people she killed. She cried for herself. She cried as if the skies should open up and cry with her. She couldn’t stop.

Daha sat in front of the beautiful woman crying to him. Through their bond he could feel her pain, feel her anguish. He cursed the spirits for her fate. She is in so much ways only a child. She shouldn’t have to hurt so much. He did the only thing he could. He gathered her in his arms and hugged her. He held her gently while she cried her pain away. Her tears finally gave way to exhaustion and she fell into a deep slumber in his arms.

He carried her to her makeshift mattress, below the shelter of the trees. He sat next to her and simply looked at her. At times she seemed to be in a nightmare. He took her hands in his and held it close while she slept and fought her demons.

He stared at her for a long while, marvelling in her perfection. He knew he love her, unconditionally. As he held her hand in the quiet of the forest, he knew he will willingly lay his life for her. He fell asleep holding her hand.

“Mother’s milk, Nerobi! Would you stop clambering and stepping on my feet?”

Daha was at the end of his patience. He could willingly kill the all High and Great Mother Invoker. The woman is exasperating.

They have been in heart of the Fire Forest for two days, in search for the Opening to the Outer World. The fire forest is unlike his Village of the White, where vast forested plains stretched on and on and on. In his plains, Daha could run like the wind, move like a spirit.

But not so in the Fire Forest. This forest is stretches across the valley of a few mountains, thus, giving it a nasty terrain. For a Plains traveller, it was almost impossible to locate his way around. And to bring a pregnant Mother Invoker through it is momentarily insaneness.

She woke up all fired up and motivated. She decided to continue their journey, even if it was the dead of the night, and it was almost impossible to locate the passageway in the dark. Oh, but she insisted. She is after all, Mother Invoker. And because of her absolute stubbornness, they are now lost in the Fire Forest, and travelling in roundabouts for two days.

He turned to look at her. Nerobi was frowning at him.

“No I am not be clambering on your feet. It is you who are much too big and gets in the way every now and then!”

Daha knew better then to retaliate. The woman couldn’t stop a nagging when she starts one. Mother Invoker or not, women should not be left with directions. Daha made a mental note of that to himself.

The heat of the days had really seemed to take its toll on them. The humidity of the Fire Forest is another thing to contend with. Daha had bundled up all of his hair and bind it up above his neck. He prompted to Nerobi to do so, but she refused, and continued to stubbornly endure the heat.

He had hoped she would cease her nagging about the passageway, but it was too much to ask for.

“You be meaning to tell me, Mother Invoker that you, Daha, had brought me here looking for a passageway of magic into the Outer World on the whim of a rumour? You be telling me that you have never seen this passageway and what it looks like? And that it might not even exist?”

Daha sighed. Women just don’t let it go. The heat, the tiredness, the humidity was almost better endured then the ramblings of an overpowered pregnant tiny girl-child.

They turned a corner and found themselves at the waterfalls again. Nerobi muttered something about men and ran to the lake to splash cool water on her face and refill her water bags.

Daha silently uttered an oath about nasty tempered women, and proceeded to join her to cool his face.

They both felt the rumbling of the earth and the familiar screams of men at the same time.

Nerobi didn’t have to recall where she last heard it. The memory came to her in an instant. It was the cry of the attackers whom attacked them at the Green Plains. Uncalled for, visions of that night came to her.

Nerobi was so frightened; she momentarily froze on the spot. She turned and saw Daha rushing to her, and shook herself. She reached for her Invoker’s Sword. The shouts and screams were coming closer, any minute now and they would see them.

Daha clutched Nerobi. He instantly regrets letting the horse go. There was not enough time to run. Daha looked about the Fire Forest, with its waterfalls, and streams and lakes.

Daha turned to look once more to the waterfall.

The thundering screams gets closer.

Daha forced Nerobi to look at him.

“When I say ‘Now,’ you take a deep breath, as deep as u can go and keep it in, do you understand me?”

Nerobi, too frightened for words, nodded.

Closer and closer.
The grounds shook with their arrival. Nerobi could almost make out the figure of the first row of attackers, when Daha shouted.

“Now!”

Without thinking twice, Nerobi took a deep breath, as deep as she can and rested herself on to Daha, in complete utter trust. Daha took a deep breath, hugged Nerobi and jumped.

The protector plunged his Mother Invoker into the deepest part of the stream.

At the exact moment, the savage attackers raided through the area.

Underwater, Daha led Nerobi to what seemed like a darker opening, hidden hopefully by a tree or shelter that they can hide in. Nerobi gasped for air. She couldn’t hold her breath for too long. The savages are still around. Desperately, Daha headed for that opening. He reached the location just soon enough for Nerobi to break through the water and take a deep breath of air.

For Nerobi, the first gulp of air was almost too painful to experience. And then, like a lover’s embrace, it brought the sweetness of life back into her. Nerobi forced herself to sit up and seconds later, Daha emerged out of the water and into the shelter.

Curiously, Nerobi looked around her. The air here is decidedly cooler, and there was no sky. They seemed to be in a cave of some sorts. Nerobi stood up and walked up the narrow path of the shelter. The sound of the water falls was so loud.

Nerobi continued up the path, and what she saw made her smile with delight. One of the walls gave way partway, and where there should be an opening, there was a veil of cascading waters, rushing down in torrents, making the air cooler, making it seemed like rain is coming.

It struck her that they were in the mouth of the waterfall.
Daha pointed something to her.

“Look.”

Nerobi glanced to the item he saw.
It was an object, no bigger then her palm. Its ornate designs were very unique. Nerobi reached for it and touched it.

At her touch the object glowed red. There was a clap of thunder and a flash of light.

Gone was the waterfall, gone was the attackers, and gone was the cold floor. To her front was a passageway, surrounded by blue flames licking around the passageway. It glowed and shone majestically.

Nerobi and Daha looked at each other in surprise.

“This is it then. ‘The Great Passageway’ Shall we journey across now?” Daha asked Nerobi.

Gingerly, Nerobi put her feet into the passageway…

____________________________End________________________________________________

Chapter 7- Trials of Time

Cold fire.
He could feel the sensation overwhelming him. He did not prepare himself for such a reaction. Through the bond, he could only sense the fear and anxiety of the Mother Invoker as she stepped into the pass.

As soon as she did, her mind almost screamed for him, as if pleading him not to leave her. He did not hesitate. He stepped onto the pass and held Nerobi’s arm to guide her.

He felt it almost instantly the moment his feet touched the floor of the pass. Cold fire. It seeped into his boots and seemed to accumulate in the base of his spine. The pain was intense. He couldn’t shout, his mouth seemed to be an airless vacuum. In the next second he realised that he could not breathe at all. It seemed as if his body have forgotten the function. Or it might simply be that there is no air to breathe.

His hand clutched on to Nerobi’s this time more of a plea of help then a support. He screamed to her in his mind, telling her he could not stand the pain much longer. He turned to look at her. She was in agony herself. He tried pulling her out of the pass, but it was of no use. As much as he could not breathe, he could not command his arms and legs to do anything strenuous at all.

So, this is what it feels like to die then, he thought to himself. This vacuum he was stuck in. He closed his eyes, thinking to himself, that yet again, he failed. Nerobi will die and he, Daha, Protector of the Mother Invoker, had failed.

“Breathe.”
Nerobi’s voice rang out loudly in his mind. He felt her give him a squeeze.
“Breathe”. The voice in his head seemed louder, almost insistent.

He forced himself to take a deep breath. The pain is overwhelming. It seemed that he is not taking in air at all. In the painful void they were stuck in, Daha could see the Mother’s Confessor’s pendant glowing bright white, leaving a trail of white fog around them. The white fog seemed to enter Daha’s body when he tried to breath.

That almost painful breath saved his life. It seemed to him that all of a sudden, there was air in the room and he was breathing just fine. He turned to look at Nerobi.

She didn’t seem like herself anymore. She didn’t even seemed human anymore. Daha realised that he was not looking at Nerobi the woman, but the Mother Invoker, an ageless magic being. the strongest woman in both the worlds.

He shivered, not from the cold.

For a split second, the woman in Nerobi seemed regain consciousness. She looked at Daha, and linked her hands with his. He could feel her fear. Her hands were trembling. He held her hand harder.

Before they could step in deeper into the pass, the air In front of them seemed to merge and solidify, and there, in place of nothingness, stood a translucent image of a woman.
Her skin is shimmering silver, and there was no ounce of thread on her body, the shimmer of silver seemed to cover her. The only thing that stood out was the ornamental piercing resting on her forehead, in between her eyes. The piercing stretch from one eyebrow to another, and covers the forehead to the bridge of her nose. The design on the piercing however was the first thing that took his attention. It was a fist clenched.

The woman stood up straight, arched her back and in her naked splendour, faced the Mother Invoker.
“I have awoken. To pass you must leave your past behind. To pass you must relive your past and walk away. There will be tests, two for the female, and one for the male. You must walk away. If you do not walk away, you will be lost in time and space forever.”

Her voice screeched into the darkness. Her actions could be described more as a fluid gesture. It seemed that the woman is made up of entirely silver substance. She swung her grey eyes at Daha and he suppressed a shudder of dread.

She took a step forward. The fluids recollect themselves and rearranged every single time she moved. Her hand swept through the air, as a gesture, before she continued her command.

“You will journey together, you will experience what the other is experiencing, but you may not speak to each other, no matter how hard you try. You may not touch each other.”

“When you see the red firefly, follow it. If you lose it, you will lose your way. If you lose your way, you will be trapped in the pass. To be trapped in the pass is to be trapped in time. To be trapped in your nightmares, reliving it again and again.”

“If you think the price of failure is too steep, you may leave now. But you can never try to cross the pass again. You will be bound to the inner world.”

She turned. Daha could feel her intense stare boring into his mind. Her screeching voice swept all the nerves in his mind into complete chaos. He fought the urge to cover his face with his hands. For one, he had never felt so powerless in his whole life. It seemed as if she could read his every thought.

She opened up her mouth to speak again, and the screeching intensified, enveloping his brains, causing tears to well in his eyes. Through the screeches he could make out the single word that she said.

“Choose.”

Before he could nod, he heard Nerobi speaking up in her Mother’ Invoker’s tone.

“Who might you be?”

The woman blinked in response. It turned to look at Nerobi.

“I am what I am. I am the past, present and future. I am Time.”

She raised her hand in the flowy gesture. The clenched fist ornament in her hand piece seems to be un-fisting itself. Daha blinked his eyes and look at the image again.

Dear Light. The fist in the ornament was really opening up, until there was a stretched out hand instead.

Time opened her mouth to speak. Once again the near-crazed screeching of the voice of Time resonates through the pass, permeating the very air.

“Now, Choose.”

Time waited. Nerobi clenched her sword and held on fast to Daha’s hand. She turned to look at Daha. He looked weak, it was no wonder. Time held a negative force of magic that seemed to be draining their powers. It seemed that only those with the gift will be allowed through, as without the gift of the traveller the pass could not be triggered at all. Daha had only precious little of the gift, to someone without the gift, it could only be explained as he is suffering from unbelievable thirst, and even so, this thirst seemed to get worse and worse, until it seemed that he might die from it.

She felt his pain worsening, and tightened her hold on his hand.

“We agree.”

The Hand in the piercing stretched out to its fullest, and cast a glow of blue towards the path in front of them.

The screeching resonance of Time seemed to get louder and louder, until Nerobi thought that she would explode from the impact of the sounds. Amidst the screeches, Nerobi could make out the gnarled voice of Time.

“Remember. You are walking into a test. It is not reality. To lose yourself in the events would be to be lost in Time forever. Look for the red firefly.”

Nerobi looked at Daha. She tightened her hold on his hand and told him through their bond, “Don’t worry. I am here. We still can communicate like this. Hang in there protector, my friend.”

And they both walked the path of the blue glow.

And she stepped into her hometown.

Nerobi couldn’t feel the touch of Daha’s hand anymore. She turned and look for him, and saw him, not far off, though he seemed like a shadow of the real person he was.

It was all so real. The fresh-market is still where it was. The old bakery shop down the corner was still there, the wonderful scent of its loaves permeating the air. Nerobi took in a deep breath. Horrible as it may be the people were to her, this will always be where she was once home. She wondered idly how they would react if they ever heard about who she became.

She walked on towards the town square. Children were running and playing, their laughers tinkling into the air. The usual noisy mayhem of a normal morning made Nerobi realise how much her life has changed.

Something caught her eye.

There at the back of an alley, a little girl was walking, hunched-back and in chains.
The rags she wore were filthy and her hair seemed to be the product of crude scissors, cropped short, but long enough to hide her face.

She seemed to be clutching a loaf of bread with her two chained hands, and was trudging slowly towards the darkest corner of the ally.

Her feet were covered with slashes of whippings, deep angry marks all over. Where ever she went, the flies seem to follow her, but she didn’t not seem to mind, in fact, it seemed as if she rather like those flies. She kept feeding them with small tiny bits from her loaf.

She seemed to realise that her hair is getting in the way of her face, and she brushed it back almost carelessly. Stark blue eyes stared longingly at the town square and the children playing.

Nerobi’s heart skipped a beat. A wave of realisation and recognition suddenly seeped into her, followed by a pang of such an intense hurt. How could she have been so blind?

That little girl in the alleyway was her, six years ago.

Almost painfully she followed the girl, who was slowly trudging her way back home.

“Silly spawn of satan, where have you been? Do not I be telling you to get your hideous self back home the very instant u finished your chores? What would the neighbours say if they see you aye? They be saying I be not knowing how to keep a Tainted in check can I?”

Her mother. Sarutha. How could Nerobi ever forget her mother? So utterly beautiful, so utterly cold hearted, so utterly drunk all the time. A tear glistened down Nerobi’s cheek.
She couldn’t ever remember Sarutha loving her.

The little girl stood hunched, her eyes to the floor.

“Sorry mother. I be hungry, so I stopped to eat.”

Nerobi could remember this incident so clearly. She remembered because it was one of the most painful days she ever had to live through.

Sarutha slapped the child. The tiny frame of the girl dropped on to her knees. Still she didn’t cry. She just stayed on her knees and waited for more punishment.

“What makes you be thinking that I cared about your hunger? I want you die. Go back to your Lakhnatul, so maybe one day I can forget that I birthed a Taint and your father taking his life rather then stay with a tainted. What makes you be thinking that I actually bother?”

She took a long whip. Long and thin.

‘Now you vermin, did I give you permission to eat? Did I? NO I did not. Where did u steal the bread from?”

The girl gripped the sides of the rags tight when the sound of the whip lash the air and lashed itself onto her back.

One lash after the other, it came. The back of the girl’s rag had turned into a deep red colour. Colour of rich red paint. The colour of blood.

Still she didn’t cry. She gripped her hands till her knuckles showed white. Every time the whips touch her back she would flinch ever so slightly. But not a word of plea escaped her mouth.

Nerobi dropped to her knees, in front of the girl, who couldn’t see her. She cried looking at the determined child, feeling so proud of her and knowing exactly how painful it was for her.

Sarutha was in the climax of her rage. The girl wouldn’t say where she had her bread from.

“Oh Nerobi. How you destroyed my life. How you broke everything apart. Your weak father, he named u Nerobi. Of course that was before he knew you were tainted and took his life. Would you like to know what it be meaning? Nerobi?”

Another lash of whip kissed her skin. The girl could feel the wetness of her back, almost like sweat on a hot day. She kept silent. Her mother went on.

“Nerobi means, “She who stands above us.” What a wrong name for a Taint, look Nerobi, you are kneeling in front of me now. Kneeling! And your weak father, well he killed himself because of you!”

Sarutha laughed hysterically. There was almost a crazed desperation about her. The girl on her knees just kept quiet.

“You stink. Stay there! I will be back.”

Nerobi knew what she will be doing to that poor child. She couldn’t allow it, not a second time, once was bad enough. She is going to kill this woman, this Sarutha, her mother! She called for her powers.

She could hear Daha’s pleading in her mind. “No Nerobi. You must not get involved. This is not real, it’s a test, remember what Time said. You wouldn’t want to be lost forever.”

Nerobi was torn apart. She did not want the child to experience what her mother will do to her. She did not want to see the strong child’s will broken.

But she had to think about her children. She has to continue with this journey.

Sarutha came out with a bucket of hot water.

At that instant, a red firefly whizzed past Nerobi.

She caught herself, and stood up and chased the red firefly. She could see Daha chasing after it too. At the back of her she heard the scream of the strong child; her will finally broken, as her own mother poured hot steamy water down her bloodied back. She remembered screaming that way once. She remembered how she couldn’t sleep many nights because of it.

But, somehow she didn’t remember how hard and loud she had screamed. How she had screamed at the injustice of it all.

She wiped the tears off her eyes. Chase after the red firefly. Hurry. The firefly did a couple of odd patterns before disappearing into the corner.
Nerobi and Daha chased it around the corner.

There instead of a red firefly, was the blue glow. Time grated into their heads.

“Very good my child. Very good. The first test is passed. Step into the blue glow.”

And so they did.
______________________________________________________________________________

Daha was not surprised when they walked into the Village of White. He knew that the next test would be his. He saw and felt Nerobi’s pain at her test, how it hurt her and how she had to walk away.

Now it was his turn. Daha prayed to the good spirits to protect him and make him stronger. He would not want to look weak in front of the Mother Invoker.

Even if it was not reality, it was wonderful to be back in the village. The wind blows and the sweet scent of the earth gave him a reassuring protected feeling. The smells and the various noises of the people in their usual business render a feeling of absolute calm to his mind. Considered what he went through ever since he stepped into the portal, this feeling is healing him.

He bent down to pick up some earth from the ground, and smudged it to his forehead, an ancient gesture of homecoming.

“Blessed ancestors, give me strength.”

He looked around for Nerobi. He could see her, hovering in the distance. Smiling at him. Through the bond, she had realised how much he missed home. Daha smiled at her and for a split instant, forgot about his test.

But only for a split instant.

As if on cue, he heard the laughter of a woman. The sound of her laughter brought out many locked memories in his heart. All of a sudden the hard core that he erected broke lose at the sound of that laughter.

He turned, looking for her. He finally found her next to the stream.

Tari, his wife, in all her perfection was standing and drying her hair. She was smiling that beautiful smile that he had always loved about her. She was cloaked in a brown cloth that covers her from chest to her mid thighs. The slight bulge in her belly proved that she was with child.

She was smiling to a private joke, and a man emerged from the streams and hugged her. Daha looked at himself, many years younger, in the only one instant of his life where everything was perfect. Tari was perfection.

The man placed his head onto Tari’s swollen stomach and, almost reverently, kisses the swell where his baby is. He then looked at his wife’s smiling face, and kissed her passionately.

Daha watched the whole endearment, remembering it happened like it was only yesterday. He knew that this is the day that he had to leave the village and the last time he was ever going to see Tari alive.

Tari dressed the young man up, and kissed him dearly. “Go safe my love. My heart is with you.”

They joined the rest of the people in the village, all saying goodbye to their men going on their bounty hunt.

There was much well wishes and good byes and finally after the last men were out of sight in the horizon, the women turned back to their homes and children.

The plunder started soon after.

Wide eyed with horror, Daha realised that he will be seeing how his beloved wife died. He had thought of it all his life, wondered how it was at the end of it, but now as he was about to find out, he realised that he didn’t want to know at all. He didn’t want to see his wife and unborn child butchered.

Dear Light. Daha crumbled in horror at the sight of the savages rushing into the village. Their war cry spilled through, slashing a jab of fright into his very heart.

Like the demons they came. Slash and plunder. The stench of blood was overwhelming, and the screams and cries of the women were horrible. Daha ran to where his wife is, wondering her predicament.

His wife was hiding below the bed. The savage that attacked their home and taken everything apart and now heads for her bed. He discovered her and dragged her out by her hair.

Daha screamed uselessly as the savage tore her clothes apart and plundered her. Again and again he took her. Tari didn’t scream. She was clutching on to something. Daha realised that she was clutching on to her wedding necklace, the one that Daha had given to her on their wedding night.

The sheer sight of it all makes him nauseated. There was a look in Tari’s eyes that he had never seen before. It was the look of dead calm. She knew what she had to do.

While the grunting bear was plundering her, she turned to where Daha was standing. For a crazy instant, Daha thought she could see him, but she did not. She muttered something. “Im sorry, Daha. I love you.” With that she bit her tongue and bled to death.

When the savage was done with her and realised that she killed herself, he was furious. In his anger, he took his knife and drove it into her swollen tummy, heavy with child.

Daha snapped. Her took out his spear and rushed headlong to kill the savage. In that instant he could hear Nerobi’s voice in his mind.

“Not now Daha, we will have vengeance. Not now. I promise you.”

Daha was too furious to pay attention to the Mother Invoker. All her wants right now is the man’s blood.

The red firefly appeared out of nowhere and whizzed past him.

He ignored it.

Nerobi’s voice cleared his head.

“Daha if u choose this world, you will lose my children and me too. Please Daha. I do promise revenge. I feel your pain, Protector.”

Daha’s let out a furious roar, dropped his spear and chased after the red firefly.

“Good Bye, Tari. I love you too.”

The fire fly ran all the way up a broken cliff and plunged down.

Daha plunged after it.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The fall seemed to take forever to Nerobi. She closed her eyes. When she opened hey eyes she realised that she had stop falling.

She was sitting on the grass on the outer skirts of her hometown. She looked around for Daha but she could not find him. Gone was her Mother Invoker’s sword and dress.

Instead she was dressed like a normal maiden. Her hair was tied up behind a day scarf and she wore a coarse blue gown.

She heard the chopping of wood behind a small thatched hut and hurried over to see who it could be.

Her heart stopped in her throat.

Obir.

She almost forgotten how he looked like. It all seemed so real. The only thing she ever really wanted and couldn’t have, existing here, in this passageway.

Obir saw her coming and stopped for a breather. He flashed his smile to her, his grey eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

“Good Morning, wife. I missed you.”

Without hesitation, Nerobi walked into his arms. She couldn’t stop the tears of longing flowing down her face. It was all a lie, how people said that Time heals all wounds. Time can never compensate her lost when she lost Obir.

She couldn’t trust herself to speak. She simply revelled in the wonder of being in his arms. He continued stroking her head in that achingly familiar way that she remembered as he spoke.

“I wish you could talk to me and tell me why you went of and disappear like that. But I will not spoil this moment. I love you, Nerobi. The children miss you a lot too.”

Two small children came running, a boy and a girl. They were the children she had seen in her visions once so many times. Her children.

She realised that she was thrown into what she had always wanted, a normal happy family. And yet she noticed that none of them have the Aura emitting from them. She realised she herself did not emit any Aura.

“Mommy, you promised to tuck me in to sleep. Where were you last night?” The little girl cried on the sides of her dress.

Nerobi picked the little girl up and kissed her on the cheek, smelling her. Oh, this is so real. She didn’t want to leave. She deserved this, this completion, with Obir and her children, all so normal, without the strive of magic and war.

She rained kisses on the boy and the girl, desperately wanting to remember how they looked, how they smelled like and how they kissed her back. She hugged her family tight. She threw her hands around Obir, raining kisses down his face and smelling his scent.

All the while tears flowed down the cheeks, and her heart breaks a little bit more with each second she savoured.

She wanted to stay.

She could hear Daha’s voice in her head, but she couldn’t really make out what he was saying. She didn’t want to. This is her family. This should have been her life.

“Stay, Nerobi. We need you. The children need you. I need you.”

She trailed her hands on his face, willing herself not to speak, lest she betray herself.

“You will always be in my heart.” She whispered to him.

The red firefly whizzed by.

“No”, Nerobi thought. “Why couldn’t you have come by later? I needed more time!” But she knew the price she would have to pay if she ignored the red firefly. She pushed Obir away, let go of the children and chased for the firefly.

She could hear the cries of her son, calling her back. She could hear Obir’s heart-wrenching pleas.

She continued running.

Dear Light, there is only so much a person can take. Only so much.

She could hear Daha’s voice more clearly now. The firefly flew into a cave and she went after it.

She was back in the Pass. Time was waiting for them.

Her voice lacked its screeching quality. In fact, she sounded more human, more female now.

“That was a test many had failed, Mother Invoker. Given the opportunity to live like how they have always wanted, many men had given up hope of the future, and had gotten lost in the Pass.”

“You invoked me once; you rode through the currents of time. I am part of you now. I will always be ready should you need me. It is prophesized that the time will come when you merge the two worlds into one. I shall be ready to do your bidding then.”

The blue glow cleared into an opening of blue skies and outstanding beauty. The Outer World. The realm of Magic.

Time gestured to them. “You both may pass.”

Daha caught her arm. He smiled down at her. “Where did you get that loaf of bread?”
Nerobi smiled. “I took it from the rubbish heap. It was stale. I stole it from the flies.”
Daha sobered up and hugged her tight. They cried quick tears of grief.

Nerobi looked up and smile. “Come, Protector. Lead me into the Outer World.”

Hand in hand, they walked through the portal.

__________________________________________________END________________________

Chapter 9-Samarkan

Sunlight had never felt so wonderful. She clutched on to his hand, feeling his joy upon finally crossing over.

She took a deep breath. The air seemed lighter. She kept her first breath in herself, revelling in the lightness and fullness of it.

Her heart sang with unexplainable joy.

She could feel the tiny drop of tear escape her eyes and slid down her cheeks. Just one tear. She kept herself in check.

She let go of Daha’s hand and took a step away, taking in the sigh before her, and hoping to the dear Creator that she will be allowed to never forget such beauty, such magic.

Neither of them wanted to break the silence. Neither of them wanted to lose the magic of the moment.

Without her realising it, another tear escaped her eyes.

The Outer World seemed to exist wholly on magic. Stepping out of the portal, they were greeted by skies the colour of blue and violet. Above them, in the skies, were 3 moons. They differ in sizes, with one seemingly to tower above them and the other just a tiny dot next to the first one. Yet somehow it is obvious that it is the dawning of a new day in the Outer World.

As if on cue, the sunlight burst from the horizons. The skies then seemed a display of beautiful streaks of colours each vying for more attention then the other. Hues of blue, violet, and orange streaks seemed to fill the skies, and stretched out far and wide, to announce the risings of the sun.

The green forest flanking the vast domed shaped city seemed to come alive. Birds of many colours seemed to welcome the new day, swooping around majestically into the morning sky, before flying back into the forest.

The dome city seemed to be the most majestic sight of all. It was enormous, with a silver casted aura shielding the city entirely. To someone looking from the outside of the dome, the beauty is breathtaking.

No, it is not a city. From her standing point, where the entrance to the dome was an hour journey and yet seem to tower over her, Nerobi realised that she was looking at a whole empire.

“My children will be safe here. They will be strong and ready, here.” As she said it, Nerobi placed a hand on the bulge of her tummy. In an attempt to protect, somehow the gentle gesture and feeling her children in her, gave her strength.

Daha looked at her to get her attention. His eyes too, seemed to betray him. He placed a hand on her head. The unfamiliar gesture of comfort helped settle her nerves.

“You will be save here, too, Nerobi.”

She smiled then. A rare occurrence. It lifted the lines of worry on her face and she seemed years younger, the youth that she actually was. Once again, Daha wondered if he had ever seen a more beautiful woman.

She knew of the stranger standing a mile off them. She sensed his presence since she stepped out of the portal.

Her senses seemed to come alive when she stepped out of the portal. Her vision seemed clearer, her magic more amplified.

She felt powerful.

Her magic seem to throb at her very fingertips, to use her magic here is as easy speaking, or looking. It coursed through her veins, seemingly in delight at the freeness of it all, at the wonder of such a feeling.

Still smiling at Daha, she said, “We have company.”

Daha, still staring at her, nodded. So he knew about the stranger too.

Together they walked towards the stranger.
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There is something awfully familiar about the man in front of her. Nerobi was sure she had never met the man, but still…

The man was an enigma. His eyes twinkle blue. The lines around his eyes betrayed how old he is was. Dressed simply, with a stick as his support. His long black hair hung down loose and framed his profile.

The old man must have been a very handsome man in his young. His bearing showed that he was not the type to cower. His simple dressing and his stick staff didn’t do much to hide the innate bearing of a leader and a noble. His sharp profile would have marked him as a mercenary, but the set kindness in his eyes took that initial projection of him away.

She stood in front of him, and waited for his reaction. The man was staring at her with an intensity that was alarming. He seemed to be able to dwell deep into her, and pull out her deepest darkest secret. Nerobi was uncomfortable, but she stood her ground, and waited.

“How was your trip, daughter?”
He carried a heavy strange accent. The rich timbre of his voice resonates of kindness. There is a hesitance in his greetings, almost as if he was studying her and her reactions.

Having being greeted as a young one, Nerobi bowed her head respectfully. “My journey here is made up of many tears, many sacrifices, much more pain and bloodshed, and leaves me on the brink of my sanity. I be damned. I be cursed. I be loved. I be hated. I be tainted and I be gifted in the tale of my journey to the outer realms. I be humbled and I be crazed. But I made it.”

“I am now at the door of my destination. I be weary and aged, years beyond. Are you friend or foe, do tell. No more. Just simple truth. Do tell.”

Nerobi couldn’t see the look on the man’s face when she spoke. She kept her head down, imploring to the Creator that finally in this world, she will find solace and help. She couldn’t see the look on the old mans face, but she could feel him patting the top of her head. Such a simple gesture of affection brought unwanted tears into her eyes again.

The old man voice broke when he spoke next.
“My son has chosen wisely.”

Stunned, Nerobi look up at the man. Her eyes still brimming with unshed tears that she didn’t bother to hide. The man was crying and smiling at the same time. It was most unsettling.

He took Nerobi’s face in both of his hands, and tenderly kissed her forehead. He then stood up straight, wiped the tears from his eyes, and said with authority.

“My only son, has brought home a wife. And even if he is departed, it will be shameful of me not to welcome my new daughter home, as is the custom for us. My son deserves no such shame.”

He took his staff, and channelled.

A faint silver shimmered from him and into the staff, until the top of the staff glowed a bright silver hue.

He gently took Nerobi’s hand and placed it on the top of the staff. Daha edged away, clearly uncomfortable to be barging into such a private meeting.

The old man spoke again.
“The ArchGuide of the Outer World welcomes you, wife of Obir, into our realm. I welcome you, daughter, into our family.”

Then shockingly, he dropped to his knees. Nerobi was startled. She wanted to reach down for him, but he stopped her with his hand.

“We welcome you, Mother Invoker. Guide us.”

With that, he stood up again.

Nerobi was shocked.

The Archguide of the Outer World, her father by marriage, had just kneeled and pledged his fealty to her.

Her father by marriage.

Grasping the whole picture, Nerobi fell into his embrace. This time, there were no restraints when they wept. They wept for the one man they both loved and lost, and they marvelled at the support they gave each other. Strangers, bonded by marriage. Now, they are father and daughter.

After some time, Nerobi pulled away. She saw Daha standing a distance away and beckoned to him. Introductions has to be made.

“Father, this is Daha, my protector. Without him, I would not have been alive. My children would not have been safe. We are held together by a Bond Of Protection. Where I go, Daha will come. If I am accepted into your world, you have to accept him too.”

For a moment, Nerobi, could have sworn that her father’s eyes chilled as he looked over at Daha. Just for a moment. Then the Archguide smiled and bid Daha welcome too. Daha seemed unconcerned by his welcome, as if to show that he will be following Nerobi with or without the ArchGuide’s consent. Nerobi hid a smile to herself at the utter arrogance of her protector.

“You cant be calling me father too it seems. Well, my name is Larksemus. My title is only used when I am in court. Close friends calls me Lark. Since you saved my new daughter and my unborn grandchildren, I do consider you a very close friend indeed. Welcome, Daha of the White.”

With that, the three of them set off to the entrance of the great dome.
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Daha was suspicious.

Something was wrong here and he knows it. He tried to get Nerobi’s attention, but it seemed as if she is too preoccupied with her new father. He tried talking to her from his mind.

“Nerobi. Mother Invoker. Listen to me.”

He waited. Moments later he could hear her in his mind. “Yes Daha, what be the matter, my protector?”

He replied, with a sense of urgency. “Promise me. No matter what, make sure im close to you. Do not let him or them take us away from each other. Promise me.”

Nerobi’s reply was light and carefree. “No Daha. They wont take us away from each other. We are going to a happy place, a peaceful place. Do not worry for me so. I promise.”

She smiled at him then, and laughed happily at a joke of her father, the ArchGuide, and he followed. He wanted her this happy. She deserves such happiness.

But still, he could not shake away the feeling of impending disaster.

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In all the emotional confusion, the gladness of Nerobi, the confusion of Daha, the ArchGuide opened the enormous doors of the Empire of the Outer World.

“Welcome to the first Nation of the Outer World, Samarkan. The grandest nation in our realm.”

It was no wonder that Lark’s voice was tinged with pride. Samarkan was astounding.

Glass. The city was created on glass.

The path that they stepped on was white glass. Like all paths, it trailed down towards the buildings and set into many different forks. The buildings close by were lined up prettily next to each other, made of pure clear glass. Some of these buildings have rooms which are opaque white. Yet even as Nerobi was watching, one of those opaque rooms switched back to cystal clear glass, as a woman exits from it.

Lark chuckled when he saw Nerobi’s reaction to this. “Why my dear. We have to make sure there is room for privacy, now, don’t we? The rooms turn opaque at will of the occupants. Only the occupants inside the rooms will be able to trigger it back to crystal clear glass.”

Further away, Nerobi could see various other buildings, scattered about. Each of these buildings have a symbol, resting at the top of it. The buildings vie with each other for beauty. One, the one with a symbol of a woman at the top of it, was designed in a shape of a hooded face of a woman. A few miles away, next to that, was a building the shape of a sceptre, with a symbol of a wizard at the very top of it.

Nerobi asked Lark about them.
“Ah. Guilds. Those are the main headquarters of the guilds in Samarkan. The building blocks of the Nation itself. The first one that you were pointing to is the Healer’s Guild. It is represented by a woman, as women are nurturers of the world. The Healer’s Guild is one of the biggest guilds in Samarkan. Our healers are the best in the outer world.”

“What about the building next to it?” Daha pointed out to the sceptre building.

“That is the Scripture Guild. All our sacred and most important knowledge is in that building. Therefore, every year we seek all those born with the red aura, for they are the prophets and scripture guardians. That building is their headquarters.”

So he explained the various buildings. The Knowledge Guild, with its dome symbol at the top of the hourglass building, is the education centre for those gifted with the blue Aura. That with the gift to educate like Obir was once.

The Defense Guild is the biggest guild in Samarkan. With its sword symbol at the top of its building, it’s the guild for those gifted in the green aura.

Nerobi smiled at Daha.
“Maybe you could protect me better, protector, after a day or two in that guild.”

Daha tried to keep his usual nonchalant shrug, but his eyes betrayed his awe. He pointed to a faraway building that got his attention. The distance of that building was so far off, that he almost missed it. It is the shape of a single seamless teardrop. At the very top of the teardrop building, a huge falcon symbol stood perched.
From afar, the building seemed to outshine all the other fancy guild designs. With the sun rising on the back of it, the building seemed to glow with magnificence.

He didn’t say a single word, lest he breaks the spell of the beauty of the building. He simply pointed to it to draw Nerobi’s attention to it. He heard her caught her breath.

“A single seamless tear. It used to be the busiest guild. For many thousand years, it was more powerful then the emperors and empresses of all the nations in the Outer World. Now, nobody goes in there. There is simply no one fit enough to run the place.”

Larksemus looked at Nerobi. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

“No one was fit enough until now. Finally, after a few hundred years, the Invoker’s Guild will come to life again. A Mother Invoker is born once again. The single tear represents the burden of invokers and their sacrifices. The falcon perched at the top is a familiar of Mother Invokers. That is your seating Nerobi.”

Larksemus went on about how a royal celebration will be held to introduce the Mother Invoker to the Samarkanians, and at the same time, the opening of the Invoker’s Guild once again. Nerobi listened politely, but she simply couldn’t take in every word Larksemus was saying.

He walked them down another path. The silver thin dome envelopes the entire sky as far as she could see, but it did not stop the sunshine from coming in. With the sunlight touching onto the glass buildings, Samarkan seemed to be aglow in orange hue. Nerobi noticed that she couldn’t see a single green blade of grass anywhere. In fact, not a single plant could be seen. Samarkan exists thoroughly on magic.

Nerobi thought about the guilds that she saw, and she was certain nothing could be more beautiful then the Invoker’s Guild builing.

She was wrong.

After a bend, Nerobi was greeting with the biggest building she had ever seen. The path they were threading wound upwards into the very structure of an enormous glass mountain. Embedded on the mountain itself was a castle, huge and looming over the whole of Samarkan.

At the foot of the mountain, Nerobi looked up in awe. The castle was a big and as high as the mountain itself. The door of the castle sits on the very foot of the mountain. The highest fort of the castle sits on the tip of the mountain itself. At the very top of the fortress, a silver beam seemed to shine out of a window, and enveloping the Outer World itself into a dome.

“This is our castle, The Khan.”

“Welcome home daughter. Everyone awaits you.”
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