She threw her pack over her shoulder and left the room once again. Rinn was most likely downstairs, getting prepared for their departure. Insei soon found herself in the common room. Mareth was the only being in the room, quietly cleaning the tables and floors. She looked up when Insei came in, giving her a small smile.
"Rinn is in the stables. Do you want anything to eat before you go?" Insei shook her head, and gave the innkeeper a small smile. Mareth returned to her task, humming a strange tune as she did so. As she crossed the common room floor, she suddenly remembered the unread letter silently waiting for a hand to unfurl the crisp white pages.
"Uh, Mareth? Could you send a letter for me?" Mareth dropped her towel and stood next to Insei.
"I wouldn't mind, and don't worry, it is safe with me," Mareth said. Insei brought the letter out of her pack and handed it to the innkeeper. Giving Mareth a few instructions as to where to send it, she left the inn with a wave from the kindly innkeeper.
At the stables she found all three of her companions, one old and two new, among the horses. Rinn was saddling her horse, while Ihen and Neko were sitting on a pile of straw. Neko was currently hugging Ihen to her, and Ihen did not seem to mind at all. She sighed and walked over to where her horse stood.
She threw her pack onto the horse and strapped it tightly into place. Rinn handed her the reins, without even a hello or good morning. With that as a signal, Ihen and Neko stood to gather their own horses.
***
Misora sat at the small table in her little room, watching as the sun slowly set, leaving the painted sky fade to stars. In her hands was a small letter, the back sealed with the Star of Ether, and her name written on the front with small wavy letters. She knew it had come from Insei, her friend that was trapped away at her family's home for the next couple of weeks. She wanted to save the letter until the coals had warmed the room, then curl up in the sweetness of warmth on a cool night to savor her friend's words.
Misora laughed quietly as she remembered the last time Insei had visited her family's small home far to the South. The letters talked of continuing boredom and she had eventually begun to rant about topics of no relevance to anything just to keep herself entertained. The last letter Misora had received from her friend, which was almost a year ago, had an elaborate plan neatly raid out for Misora to come and rescue her. The plan was full of interesting ideas, ones that kept Misora laughing for the whole day.
Once the sun had completely set, and the room was warm, Misora broke the blue and white seal that was Insei's mark. She unfolded the white paper, and flattened onto the table before her. As she laid her eyes on the first few words in the wavy script, a knock sounded at her door. Misora sighed and headed for the door, wondering who it could be so late in the evening.
Opening the door she found the Magister himself standing in the hallway.
"M-Magister!!" Misora gasped and stood away from the open doorway, wondering what the Magister could want with her. It must not bode well if he came to her room after the sun had set. Magister Atan entered her room and closed the door behind him. Misora studied his face, and saw a look of extreme sadness replacing the usually serene and stoic face.
"I have bad news to impart onto you, Misora. Please sit." Even the Magister's voice dripped with sadness, and at that moment she began to grasp how horrible this all was. Insei practically fell onto the end of her bed, grasping the edge for the support she knew she would need.
"Your friend, Insei," he said as he slowly sat down in Misora's only chair. "I thought it would be best if I came and told you myself...."
"Oh no! She isn't hurt is she?" Misora wouldn't let herself think of any worse fates than that. The Magister hung his head, looking at his thin feet poking out from the edge of his robe.
"No, I'm afraid something worse." The Magister's voice was pathetic, barely above a whisper, bearing upon it a sea of immeasurable sadness. "She has turned renegade."
"Renegade? What exactly do you mean?"
"She has crossed. Even has we speak, she is taking a journey to gain even more power. She was not satisfied with what the elements had given her. She has crossed to the other side." The Magister lifted his eyes to meet Misora's, and in his she saw the truth of what she spoke of.
"But...how?" Her voice was breaking as unbidden memories surged up from the hidden depths of her heart. Crossed... Insei had joined the legion of the dark people known has the Crossed...those who choose the side of dark instead of the side of good. Her family had been killed by the Crossed, only she had been able to escape with the help from the Mages of the Tower. And now her friend, or who she thought was her friend, had joined the same side as those who had murdered her parents...
"I don't know..." The Magister rose, and headed towards the door, his walk slow and shuffling. Rage boiled in her, and she thought she could do nothing at all. But soon a sharper, deeper emotion took over. She felt empty, clean of all emotions. It would take her a long time to heal, she thought with a small voice, a long time to heal from all of this.
"Thank you, Magister Atan," she said in a tight voice as the Magister left her room. It took Misora a few more minutes before she found the strength to stand. Once she was standing on stable feet, she headed to the small table that took up so much room in her little abode. There, upon the table was the letter from Insei, the letter from the Crossed One. Barely thinking about what she did, she picked up the paper from the table. It seemed to burn in her hands as she headed towards the red-hot coals that seemed so cold now.
She threw the paper onto the coals, glad to be no longer touching the cursed object. The edges turned inward and withered, crumbling as more and more heat seeped into the flimsy paper. Soon, the center of the paper, still that clean white, caught fire, letting the fire's touch expand to the corners and outwards. Misora watched long enough to see the once crisp letter fade into unreadable ashes.
No tears, she mused silently to herself as she opened the window in the opposite wall. No tears to mourn her loss, no tears to fall onto the floor lost. She knew, though, that when she could cry tears once again, she would be whole once again. But that was a long time off, a long time away in the distant future.
Our bishel dragon has come from Bishen Realm, no stealy!
Images for this dragon home were made by me,
do not use unless you ask.
*page one
*page two
*page three
* page four
*page five
*page six
*page seven
*page eight
*page nine
*page ten
*page eleven
*page twelve*
*page thirteen*
