Upon a Star: Karyana's Journey: Chapter 5

A Chapter by Sebastien B.

From this point on, one daughter becomes two sisters, separated by fate.

Chapter 5

Eredric paced uneasily, even as Aylin held Kaina against her, both woman and child showing signs of having cried.

"Why… Why did this happen?" the mother asked her husband, even as he packed what remained of the kitchen in the already-loaded oxcart. "For once, we didn't need to travel…"

"We have no other choice…" the farmer spoke, placing his wood-chopper's axe in with the rest of the items they could carry. "Whatever did this to Karyana… it will try again, and again… until it succeeds. If that… thing… comes back, there won't be anyone to stop it."

Kaina looked away for a moment. "Where are we going, daddy?" she asked, her insecurity echoing in her words.

Eredric clenched his fist. He knew that somewhere in that frightened child was a part of Karyana, but he had trouble even looking at her. He could still remember how their first child was, and that memory felt like a waking nightmare. He could remember how young and innocent she was �" yet even though she was still young, she was incredibly brilliant and wise. She also cared for everyone she met, and seemed so brimming with life.

Kaina seemed like a pale shadow of the ebony-haired girl he and Ailyn loved for over seven years. It had been a week since the catastrophic event, and she seemed to shy away from almost everyone. The mousy girl kept hiding from everyone, and constantly hesitated to speak her mind. It also left her crying often when older kids would laugh at her. Even as Ailyn protected her like any mother would, he was scared that she would always be unable to ask or do what she wanted without looking for some sort of approval.

Eredric turned his head only to see the two from the corner of his eye. "South-west. My brother Atur should still be in Ashbrook."

Ailyn was shocked by the very name of the city. "But that's… are you planning on sending her to the Balcam Academia?" she asked, holding Kaina so tightly the young girl struggled to pull one of her mother's arms off of her.

The Academia was known as a high-class training facility for warriors and one of the finest military schools. As Ashbrook was surrounded by the Tideglades in the south and the Namcas Forest in the north, it was also a perfect place to teach fresh troops the arts and skills of the ranger and the methods of naval combat, as the glades were known to be treacherously deep.

"It's the safest place I know… and Vokram was adamant: we must keep Kaina away from magic." Eredric answered, though his voice was heavy with frustration. "I wish we had any other option, but we don't. Besides, she won't be alone."

Kaina looked at her father. "Are you going to be with me, daddy? I don't want to be alone…"

The father scratched his chin and looked back at Kaina. "No, you won't be alone. I heard Alban was also training there. Maybe he can help."

Kaina looked wearily around. "Okay…" she finally said, acting as if there was nothing more she could do.

Ailyn let out a defeated sigh. "It will take at least four nights to reach Ashbrook. Oh, how I wish all this could be avoided…"

Kaina broke from her mother's embrace, got up and looked back at her. "Daddy said we don't have a choice, so we should go… right?"

Ailyn couldn't answer. As much as the child had a point, the woman wondered what it would take for Kaina to stop speaking for others and to start speaking for herself. She didn't mind that the girl was dutiful, but at times, it was almost unbearable.

"How about we go say a last goodbye to everyone before we leave?" the mother asked.

Kaina shook her head. "We did that yesterday. Daddy said it's time to go."

Ailyn let out a deep sigh. "Alright…" was all she said as she climbed onto the cart.

-----

Laurinya struggled against the deeply-woven spell that was binding her to her chair, an equally enchanted bind around her mouth as a monk walked out the door, his clothes burned to a crisp, gaping holes where the girl's wild magic had landed.

Vokram stood in the corridor, holding himself against a new ebony cane, one of many he left in his office in case of emergencies. "I suppose the first class went well?" he asked sarcastically at the still fuming monk, whose clothes had the faint smell of seared body hair.

"Are you playing me an idiot, Niros?" the monk shouted as he threw off what remained of his work cap, a series of singed marks appearing on his head from where Laurinya's wild-cast of a lightning spell struck. "This child is worse than any torture from the Underdeep! In less than an hour, she broke my best staff, smashed my entire collection alchemical reagent specimens, burned my robes and turned my very cap into a lightning rod!"

"Then I suppose it went for the better." the elderly wizard spoke. "You're the tenth teacher she has bested in a matter of five days. Whatever Rauz had taught her is beyond even your skills, Master Stoneloft. You may have the rest of the day to recuperate, and I'll see that the Order repays you for all material loss."

As the monk left, jeering and spewing enough curses to make the Divine Council want to revoke the man's existence here and now, Vokram adjusted his monocle with his free hand. "There has to be some way to keep this child from tearing every abled wizard away from the Order." he thought.

As the elderly wizard walked away from the girl's room, he looked on as other children of her age were practicing cantrips in the training hall. While most of them were deemed capable, the majority of them were only mild practitioners of magic �" wet behind the ears or too pompous due to noble kin.

But Laurinya remained an absolute mystery. She possessed powers that rivaled his own, but was so chaotic of nature that he wondered if her impulsiveness and brash actions would not lead to her demise.

"Such a gifted child is too rare a gem to be left unpolished." he thought as he stopped to analyze the situation. As he did, a paige ran up to him, wearing the school's uniform, his breath short.

"Message… from the Arch… sir." the boy said before handing a scroll to the elderly man.

Paying the boy a few copper coins for his service, he unfurled the message and read it as the messenger left in a hurry. Considering the Arch was of the highest importance in the Order's bureaucracy, it was adamant that he followed their orders �" or in this case, read their message.

"Fieldmage Vokram Niros, it has come to us that your latest pupil, Laurinya Val'kyr, has caused a great amount of physical, material and psychological harm to your fellow teachers. We have also heard complaints from parents that your pupil's insubordination has caused quite a scare to the other students of this establishment."

Vokram let out a sigh as he stopped reading for a moment. The insubordination that he mentioned happened only two days ago, during free-study time. Laurinya had been sleeping at her table, according to some students, when one of the other students, an older boy named Adrion, decided to play a cantrip on her �" a mage's way of pulling a prank. All he did was use a minor spell to amplify sounds, then conjured a water bubble about her head before popping it with a needle.

Though the result proved humorous to some students, Laurinya's immediate reaction to the loud sound was to turn directly towards Adrion and shout. Had the boy used his spell in a more subtle manner, the scream would have only caused a minor discomfort and would have been forgotten. However, not only was the spell miscalculated, the girl's shout, which seemed to contain words that Vokram himself has never heard of before, was powerful enough to not only topple the boy, but to make books implode, inkwells crack and spill over and students to run off in panic, unable to hear anything. The latter effect had lasted until the end of the day, but it was because of this that Laurinya was now magically shackled and gagged.

Vokram conjured himself an ethereal seat �" reminiscing more of a floating disk �" and continued reading through the list of damage and costs taken into account by the Order.

"Due to financial issues, you are to find a means to teach this girl the ways of the Order and put some sort of discipline in this wild child's head or the consequences may be severe for both you and your pupil."

Severe consequences meant only two things: one, his status as a member of the Order would be revoked; and two, no magically-gifted individual that was able to weave spells without the authorization of the Order were allowed to practice… or live, for that matter.

"It has been noted, though, that the child seems much more docile during periods of rest, and although she has yet to have fully read one tome of the Order's teachings without giving it some sort of magical harm, she seems to be learning magic faster in her sleep than when her mind was active."

Vokram had to re-read the last segment twice to make sure he understood. "So, it seems that this girl can be taught… but only when she is compliant. Hmm…" he thought out loud before reading the scroll's next segment.

"The High Council of the Order will grant you access to the Rapture Sphere, which will be given to your pupil in the coming days. The object, if worn, should place the child in a semi-awake state and allow you and your fellow teachers to educate this children in a less damaging way."

The Rapture Sphere had been invented by one of the Order's less-orderly mages, Trissix Wildeye, as his thesis in Divination class. Considering the mage's mental capacities were greater than the average person, he had also suffered from 'Mage's Rot', a magical disease that, if left untreated, left the target in a debilitated state. Trissix had actually used the Sphere as a means to rest his mind while the healers tried to save him. In that semi-comatose state brought by the artifact, he was able to perfect it and master a new sort of Divination, previously unknown to the Order. It was then that Wildeye was given the title of 'Sleep-Oracle', in which his divination skills were magnified by the object, which led him to foresee and speak his predictions in a magical form of somnambulism.

"However, it was also noted that the child has had moments of sleep-talking, as there have been times where arcane words were spoken. In other moments, named like 'Kaina' and 'Demyan' have been recorded. It would best if you leave some sort of magical imprint on the child as to avoid this during the Rapture Sphere's effect. In hopes that this will lead to some sort of success, I wish you well."

The scroll magically burst into flames and vanished in smoke as the last words of the scroll were read. Vokram looked around and noticed a group of children running around and throwing insults in the direction of Laurinya's room.

"So be it." he said to himself before getting up. "If I can induct some discipline in that child, they will have to see me added to the High Council. She could be the greatest… no. She WILL be the greatest spellcaster the Order has produced, and I will make sure she doesn't stray from my words."

----

Demyan looked on as Chime finally slept. It had taken almost forever for the creature to adapt itself from living in farmlands in the south to the isolated lordship of Citadel. The kitten-like beast had barely eaten in days… not since the two of them stopped seeing Karyana in their dreams.

Over the first days, Chime was crying himself to sleep everyday, yet always woke up with tears dried on its fur. The little pet now looked weak, almost deathly so, and Demyan was scared of losing Karyana's gift to him.

Valara walked into the room, holding a small bowl of warm milk. "I prepared some… oh my…" she said, almost as worried as Demyan was as she noticed how thin the creature looked. "Is it… Is it…?"

Demyan scratched Chime's forehead between its tiny horns. "He's weak, mother, but not dead…" he replied with a sigh. "He just misses her… and I miss her, too."

Valara put the bowl next to Chime and sat down next to the boy. "That girl in your dreams… Karyana you called her? Why would the same dream be shared by you and it?"

The boy clenched his free hand into a fist. "She's not just a dream. She's real… and she's why Chime's here with me. But…"

Shaking his head, he looked at the feeble creature who took slow licks of milk. "…I don't know if she's still alive. Over the past weeks, all I've been seeing in my dreams were two girls."

Valara looked confused as she adjusted her bun. "Oh? Do you know them?"

"I think I do, but… maybe I do, but I don't know why." he said. "It's like I can feel Karyana… but she's not there."

"Have you… talked to them? Maybe they are students from the Courthouse." the motherly figure replied.
"If they were, I would remember." Demyan replied. "There's the shy one, Kaina, and there's the loud one, Laurinya. The first one has short, brownish hair and eyes, and the other one has yellow-gold hair and grass-green eyes."

Demyan waited for Chime to finish drinking before he continued. "At first, we would just play around, and take classes with Master Scyens, but lately… I've been seeing Kaina wear leather armor, and she seemed too tired to play anymore. Even he couldn't understand why she was sleeping during his class… but what's worse is Laurinya."

"What about her?" his mother asked. "You sound like she's in trouble."

Demyan made a smirk, but the humor wasn't there. "At first, she was trouble. She yelled at Kaina, picked on me and Chime… even talked back to Master Scyens! She was nasty, but now… it's like she's not even herself anymore! When I see her, she acts like I'm not there, or she starts talking nonsense… Three nights ago, she even broke down in tears! Even he has trouble understanding what happened to her. One day, she's a wild as an auroch, the next, she barely reacts when we talk to her!"

Even though Demyan sounded as if all this was an immense issue, Valara had little understanding of what was going on. "Well… maybe you should talk to the Vicelord tomorrow. I'm sure one of the sages can tell you what's wrong."

Demyan closed his eyes for a moment. "I guess I might have to… in the meantime, do we still have salted cod? I think Chime's still hungry." he said as he noticed the little creature chewing on one of his spare sandals, something he seemed to do often when he was in a bad mood or when he was just hungry.

----

Panyus looked away from her weave as Scyens walked in, looking tired. "You seem troubled." she spoke, leaving her threads aside for the moment.

The scholarly Planar sat down, drawing a sigh. "I am, and I for once do not know what to think."

"It seems this mortal man, this… Vokram… wants to use the fractured star for his own goals." she added after a quick glance at the ethereal tapestry in front of her. "Still, his fate is to fall at his slave's hand."

Scyens' face grew somber. "Are you expecting me to believe that she will kill this man? In her current state of mind, she cannot even think for herself!"

"In time, a sudden twist of fate will unchain the wild child and set the grand design back in motion." the Planar of Time answered. "For now, a word of advice: teach Demyan how to break the chains of Rapture. If she can think clearly at night, the state of shock will only be a fleeting thing, and she will be more than ready when the time comes."

As Scyens got up, he noticed Raemu looking from the entrance to the Weaver's crafts hall. "How long have you been watching?" the elderly Planar asked the armored one.

"Long enough to hear of Vokram's impending demise." he replied. "I have seen the actions this man has done in the name of Reveen. Yet, he doesn't know that Reveen himself does not tolerate the misuse of magic, especially not when it comes to ensnaring the mind of another."

"As much as I would like to agree, Lawbringer…" the scholar spoke, "she was quite chaotic at first. Although I must say that I appreciated the relief of having at least one student who could still master magic, most of the knowledge that this mortal has poured into her clouded mind is nothing more than reinterpretations of my own words, twisted by his ambition."

"So, he is warping your teachings, and plans to use her as an instrument to raise himself up the Arch's side?" the noble-armored Planar asked, folding his arms against his steel chest.

"If mortal ambition was just that…" Panyus answered. "One of the possible threads see him use her as a living weapon to defeat the Arch, while others place him in far worst places, the girl shackled like an imprisoned phoenix."

Raemu clenched his fists. "…Then I will answer this: the half-mortal Laurinya will strip this wretch of all he prizes before his life ends, at her hand or not."

From the other end of the corridor, Progeny heard Raemu's promise. "There is no greater anger than the fury of the just…" he spoke, even as he looked through the glass ball that rested in his hand. Flickering images flared through the spherical lens, showing Kaina's harsh training with wooden swords, Laurinya's semi-awake body reading a tome of mortal lore, and Demyan walking over to Skyreach, the tower that Reveen himself created to be his study. "…and no greater hope that a mortal's will."

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