* * *
“Charley! Wake up. Oh god– wait– he's coming around.” He felt someone shaking his arm. He opened his eyes to
see the sky above him spinning. Everything slowed down and came to a stop. He felt someone shift against his side. He turned his head to the side, and a splitting pain shot through his spine. Son of a cracker-jacker.
“Don't try to sit up yet. Just let yourself settle. You went down pretty hard,” Nina said.
“What happened?” Rafe asked.
“I– I'm not sure. There was a voice. I pushed it out of my mind.”
“Ah. I figured it must have been something along those lines. You overextended your Will.”
“Will? Like willpower?” Nina asked.
“Yes, and no. You see, will, with a little 'w', is something that everyone has. Will, with a big 'w', is something that every mage or sorcerer has.
“It is a visual showcasing of your magical abilities. It is much more draining, but a lot more powerful than most forms of magic.”
Abe started laughing, having overheard the conversation. “So you're saying Charley has the Force?”
Rafe looked thoughtful for a moment before barking a laugh. “Yes, I suppose that is an apt explanation for it.”
Hans and Jaelyn both appeared confused. “What are you talking about?” Jaelyn asked.
“It's from a series,” Riley replied.
“Series? Of books?”
“Yes. Along with a movi-””
Rafe cut him off. “It's an Earth thing. Not important.” Arty giggled. “Well, this is all rather fascinating, but
Charley still needs to take the tests.”
Charley sat up, remembering why they were even here. He regretted it as much as he had the time he went on one of those extreme spinning rides at carnivals. His eyes started spinning, and he felt a hard knot in his stomach.
Rafe examined him, concern clear in his eyes. “I am not sure I would advise he take the tests today. I think it would better if he waited until tomorrow.”
Arty rolled his eyes, his freckled nose scrunching. “What's wrong with him, huh? He looks alright to Arty.”
“I said no, Arty.”
Charley pushed Rafe's hand away and stood up. Huh, no spinning. He looked Arty dead in the eyes. “I'm ready.”
Rafe tried arguing but Charley talked over him. “You are always saying you are just here to protect us, not lead us. I– I'm supposed to lead, right?”
Rafe sighed. “Yes, but I'm just trying to put your best interest at heart.”
“That's not gonna work forever. You also said that you might not be there to help someday. Well, shouldn't we be able to make important decisions too?”
“I said that because I know that I have time to train you– to get you ready for when I can not be there.”
Charley shook his head. “That just sounds dangerous. What if it comes to a time when you can't be there and we don't know how to do it ourselves?”
Jaelyn laughed. “He's right, Rafe. Even someone of your caliber could die, or some other unanticipated event could occur.”
Rafe nodded before moving over to a tree and leaning against it, his chin in his chest.
Arty looked at Charley with enthusiasm. “Well, it's been fun.” He clapped his hands.
Charley found himself in a stone room with no exits or windows. It was like dawn: enough light to see, but not enough to see everything clearly. But, there were no light sources in sight.
In the center of the barren room was a figure sitting on one side of a table, his face hidden behind a hood. He waved for Charley to sit.
Once seated, the figure pulled his hood down. Sitting on the other side of the table was Victor, his personal tormentor.
“Hey, Charley. It's been a while.” His wide smile tearing any of the confidence that Charley had built up over the past weeks with the training Rafe had given them.
“I think you know what time it is.” Phantom Victor rose from his seat and as he did the room shifted. Lockers stood on all sides. His two friends, Chuck and Justin, materialized beside him.
Charley backed up as they came at him from three directions, trying to pin him against the locker. Bolting to one side, he almost made it past Justin. Jetting the other way, Chuck stopped him. He aimed a punch at him, but Chuck caught his arm.
He was forced against the lockers and panic almost gripped him as they attempted to push his squirming body into it. This can't be real. This can't be real.
He felt something snap into place in his head. Wait… this can't be real.
Charley stopped fighting and closed his eyes. For a few seconds, the shoving continued, but then the feeling of the hands on him were gone.
He opened his eyes and the stone room had reappeared. Now a young boy sat behind the table. “Join me, Charley,” the youthful voice enticed.
“Do you know where this is?” Charley asked as he sat down.
The young boy tilted his head. “I think you know– at least, you could know.” He shrugged. “It matters little to me.”
Charley sighed. “Can you at least tell which test this is?” They sat in silence for several moments. Charley took in the boy's silence and accepted it as a challenge. The young boy smiled after several more minutes of silence. “Good. You know the wisdom inherent in silence.”
Huh?
“Why are you here?”
He thought about the obvious: that he was here to fulfill a prophecy. But the more he thought about it, he didn't really know why he had come at all. It hadn't really been his choice to come. Yeah, he had gone along with it, but he hadn't chosen this. Not really, anyways.
“I… I don't know.
The boy smiled. “Good. You also know the wisdom of honesty. Never forget that when you do not know, you have simply to ask. This does not mean you will receive an answer, but it may also mean you will.”
“Now, my final question,” the boy paused. “What does it mean to be strong to you?”
“I think– it means to protect those close to me, no matter the cost,” Charley said, thinking of Riley, Abe and Nina along with his parents.
“Even if it means suffering for others, or others suffering for their sake?”
Charley hesitated. “I– I'm not sure.”
The boy's face angered. “You have to know. If it truly came to it, could you choose the good of the many over the good of those you love, or conversely?”
“I don't think I could sacrifice them. I– I would try to find a way to save them all.”
The boy's mouth broke into a grin. “The hero with a need to save everyone. Isn't that the kind of hero you hate the most, Charley?”
Charley shook his head. “I'm not a hero. Not really. I don't know why everyone keeps saying I'm supposed to become some hero. I mean, Riley is smarter. Nina is much braver. People even like Abe better than me.”
“By your own words you mark yourself the most average of the remaining Children. And yet, the prophecy is about you. There is no mistaking it.”
The boy started recited in a sing-song voice, “'Descended of ash, he will deal in fate.' Charley, you are meant to lead, you just don't know it yet.”
Once more his surroundings disappeared and then reappeared. A large brute of a man stood with arms crossed on the other side of the table. “Come here, boy.”
Charley hesitated for a moment.
“What are you waiting for?”
He approached the man. For the first time, the man smiled. “Good. You feared me, yet you still came. That takes the strength of will.”
The man walked over to stand in front of Charley and he then poked him in the chest, nearly sending him sprawling. That hurt. Charley thought, getting angry.
“My concerns with you are the strength of character, and the strength of body.” He looked critically down at him and huffed. “Look at you. No meat on your body. How are you going to protect anyone with that body?”
Charley tried to feel anger, but couldn't m
ake himself do it. He sighed. He's right. I couldn't even protect anyone when we were attacked. Nina said I saved them, but it was really Rafe. Without him, it never would have worked. I couldn't have done that on my own.
A smaller part of his brain responded, Then get stronger. Get strong enough so that never has to happen again.
Charley grabbed hold of the words. Something seemed to click into place at that moment. “Then I’ll just become strong enough to protect them.”
“Ho-oh. So you can control your emotions. He who is quickest to anger is he who loses his way the fastest– and I do suppose you have time to bulk up a little. Very well, I'll pass you.”
Charley found himself in a courtyard as the room once more shifted. Torches stuck out of the ground, the flames waving in salute to Charley as they lit the path toward a stage. He saw the hooded figure, the boy and the man all standing on the stage. Beside them was an elder man.
The elderly man stepped to the edge of the stage and held out his hands, palm up. “Charley Ashe, son of Tomas Ashe. I have been waiting to meet you for many centuries.”
Centuries? What is he talking about?
“I am talking about the fact that I foretold your coming several centuries. Long before that prophet made the prophecies about you.”
Charley looked at him, mouth hanging open. “You can
read my thoughts? Wait– did you say prophecies? I thought there was only one.”
The man nodded. “Of course I can read your thoughts. And yes, prophecies, not prophecy. But that is a topic for another time. As for right now, I can only tell you that I am the Head Keeper, Ban.”
“Well if you're the Head Keeper, you should do something about Arty. He's kind of nutty.”
The three behind Ban, chuckled. “I assume you are talking about my son's– eccentricities?”
“Sure, whatever that means. Wait, he's your son?”
“Very much so. Well I would love to chat, but we are on a bit of a schedule.”
“Right. Sorry,” Charley said, not at all sure why he was in fact supposed to be sorry.
Ban nodded. “There are three qualities necessary to come to the Test of Blood.”
The three behind him stepped forward. The figure in the hood threw it back. Victor reappeared and spoke. “The sight to see what must be seen.”
The young boy squeaked out, “The wisdom to know what matters most.”
And, finally, the large, beefy man spoke. “And the strength to do what must be done.”
Ban turned to them. “Has Charley Ashe met your expectations?”
The three of them nodded, but the large man appeared hesitant for a moment. Ban turned back to Charley, a knife appearing in his hand. He proffered it to Charley. “You must take it and show your resolution. Speak now if you have any reservations.”
“I– I don't think I'm the person you want me to be.”
Fifteen
Heroic Acts
“Doing the right thing isn't enough. It has to be done for the right reasons as well.”
- Bramly Mordecai
Ban nodded his head. “I know you're not that person. I have known since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“So you don't think I'm some great hero meant to save Undermire?”
“No, I do not.”
Charley felt a moment of relief. Like a great bird taking flight, he felt free of the cage that held him so tightly he felt like he might suffocate. Then he felt like the pigeon that has nowhere to roost, confused and lost.
“Then why did you say the prophecies are written about me?”
Ban smiled. “The prophecies are indeed about you– but not as you are now. Right now, no one expects you to be a hero. They do not believe in you, they believe in the idea of you– but even more importantly, you do not believe in yourself. But that does not matter right now. Right now there is only this.”
He held out the knife again, offering it to Charley. Charley stepped forward to take it and saw engraved across the blade:
Charley Ashe
“What am I supposed to do with this?” “Simply show your resolution.”
Charley hesitated for a moment. “You want me to– cut myself?”
Ban smiled. “I can not tell you what is right or wrong. The meaning is entirely up to you.”
Charley stood frozen to the spot. What should I do? He contemplated cutting his hand. It was the only action that Charley could see that would satisfy the demands of the test.
He readied the blade over his hand but couldn't go through with the motion. After several false starts, he reset the blade and brought it back to rest on the palm of his hand.
Come on, Charley… If you can't even do this, how can you get stronger? He felt his resolve harden. Somehow he knew he would be able to do it. He squinted his eyes and stared straight at Ban, refusing to look as he maimed himself.
As he pulled the blade hard across his palm he knew the blade should have cut in deep, but he felt none of the resistance he expected.
His mother had on occasion forced him to help with the cooking. He had expected it to be like cutting a chicken breast, but he felt nothing. He looked down and noticed his skin was unblemished.
Charley blinked. “I… I don't understand. What happened? I should be bleeding.” Charley said, looking back up at Ban.
Ban smiled and the others chuckled. “You have shown your resolution. Few as young as you could come this far in the tests, and yet you have completed all four. Even further, you do not believe the prophecies to be yours, and yet you still came to Undermire. I have rarely met young Children possessing such courage.
“True, you have faced no real hardship, due to Rafe Fithen's assistance, but you know it can happen at any time.”
“You got that right,” Charley murmured to himself.
Ban jumped down from the small stage and stood next him. “Do not fret. In time, you and your friends will come into your own. In the coming years, the roles will reverse: those things you fear most will come to fear you.”
“Thanks– I guess.”
Ban patted his shoulder. “You have been here long enough. I will see you soon. Well– the real me will.”
He had the same intense feeling as the landscape disappeared and he reappeared with everyone else. Nina came to stand in front of him. She looked him up and down before huffing, her hair still a mess. She walked away and continued to untangle her hair.
Abe laughed while everyone else attempted to hide their smiles behind hands or biting lips. This just made Nina grumpier, and she refused to talk to anyone.
Abe broke the silence. “So how far is it to the Academy?”
Rafe turned to him and smiled. “We're here.”
Abe turned in a circle, seeing just the trees surrounding the forest path. “Uh, Rafe? Hate to break it to you, but I don't see any buildings. So– yeah.”
Charley piped up. “He's right. I can't see anything.” Nina nodded, agreeing.
Abe turned to Riley. “Hey, bro, you see anything?” Riley's face broke into a small smile.
“Enchantment,” Hans said.
Arty clapped. “A prize for this man.”
“You have to see through it. You all passed the Test of Sight. This is the reason that you have to pass it on the first try. Simply put, you can not even see the Academy without the necessary ability to see through enchantments. It is the reason most never make it there.”
Abe squinted his eyes at the nearest tree. He walked up to it and knocked on its side. “Feels real enough.”
Hans laughed. “That's the point. It's supposed to feel that way.”
Jaelyn nodded her head. “The trick to seeing through it is strong concentration plus an understanding that everything around you is not real. Without those two things you will never see through it.”
Charley stared at the trees. You are not real. You are not real. You are not real, he thought to himself like a mantra. He watched as the trees lining the path faded and were replaced by colum
ns or statues. Turning to face Rafe, he saw a figure standing behind Rafe and Arty.
“Hey, its you,” Charley said, waving.
Abe looked at him like he was insane. “What are you talking about, man? It's just us.”
Charley shook his head, but it was Nina who responded. “No, Charley's right, Abe. You just need to concentrate more. There is someone there,” she said, pointing at them.
Abe closed his eyes, crushing the lids together. That can't be comfortable. His eyes opened. He looked around for a minute, his mouth opened wide. “Holy crap. Where were you guys hiding this? I mean… it was here the entire time?”
Rafe clapped Abe on the shoulder. “Welcome. You six are now among the last few living beings with the right to enter The Academy.”
Ban walked to stand beside Arty. “Yes. Your guide is correct. You also happen to be the first new Children to walk these grounds in fifteen years. I am sure you would like to explore your birthright, but at the moment we do not have that luxury. Unfortunately, we must convene to my office.”
On each door they passed, a vertical marking appeared on the wood. It ranged from one to four marks. Ban spoke over his shoulder, once again reading his mind. “You may only pass through doors with the corresponding amount of tests you have passed.
“While everyone can enter those with one mark, not all of you may enter those three marks and higher.” He gave Abe a penetrating glance, as if knowing his personality already.
Abe looked back at him innocently, but winked at Charley after Ban turned away. Ban laughed. “Even if I am not looking at you, does not mean I do not know your intentions, young Abe.” Abe looked shocked.
“Do not be so surprised. Who do you think raised
Arthur?”
"Call me Arty, dad."
They reached a door with no mark apparent on it. Instead of pushing it open, Ban stared at it, and it swung open. He turned to look at them. “Do not try to open that door without me present.”
He pushed the door the rest of the way open. “Enter. I have information I must share with you. Information you will find– useful.”
Charley saw what appeared to be a normal office with a large desk and rolling chair he would expect to see back on Earth in a lawyer's office.
Something else that caught his eyes was the cage sitting in the corner. A small, man-like being sat cross-legged. His tousled red hair was finished with twin horns breaking through the curls.
The little man sneered at Charley. “Welcome, princeling. Have you perhaps come to gawk upon my form?”
Ban rapped on the metal cage as he passed it. “That is enough, Godfrey. I do not want to hear another word from you. They are my guests, and you will treat them as such.”
He reached the other side of the desk and stared at them arrayed in a semi-circle around the desk. “Please. Sit.” He waved his hands and cushy chairs appeared for all of them.
“I know why you are here. You are here for information on finding the rest of the prophecy. Well, the Keepers have continued to send out agents across Undermire over the past decade, and we have– uncovered some information.”
Ban paused. Rafe growled impatiently. “Ban, I know you have a flare for the dramatic, but these young ones have walked nearly sixty miles in just a few weeks– and we probably have more miles to walk today.”
He took a moment to breathe. “I came here for help, not your acting abilities.”
“I apologize, old friend. I know how important this prophecy is, possibly more so than you do. With my contacts in the many kingdoms across Undermire, I have found several leads on were the rest of the prophecy can be found,” he said, giving Charley a knowing look before continuing.
“I can, with absolute certainty, tell you where three fragments are. The closest would probably be the Mage Tower of Morness, which is the next town on this road. The next is with the Creep of Granhold. Lastly is Grimoire Hold, being the furthest, and probably the least accessible.
Where? Charley looked at Rafe and saw recognition in his eyes. But there was something else as well. Fear, Charley realized.
Rafe nodded his head. “Do you have an idea on how many there are in total?”
Ban shrugged. “If I had to guess, I would presumably say five in total. Though I can't be certain.”
“One found, three accounted for and one missing. That is certainly not what I had hoped to hear, but certainly better than it could have been.” Rafe sighed. “Is there anything else?”
Ban leaned in and raised three fingers. “A bit of advice and two pieces of information.
“First, my advice is that you make for the Mage Tower first. It will be the easiest of the fragments. The first piece of information is directly linked to this: the Sorcerer has returned to Mage Tower. He is waiting for you. The other information is something I need to share directly with the young Children.”
He turned to face the four of them. “I am assuming none of you know the real name of Him?”
Abe jumped up and down. “Nope. Everyone's keeping their mouths as shut tight as a lid on sauce.”
He nodded. “I assumed as much. In most of Undermire, it would be ill-advised to speak his name. Here, though, it is safe to share it. His name is Ultimo.”
The room darkened and thunder rolled. The lights came back and the sound disappeared. Charley looked around the room, panicked. “What in the world just happened?”
Rafe smirked. “It's what happens when a Greater Ancient is named.”
“What did you expect? He just said the name of one of the most powerful beings in existence,” Arty replied sarcastically.
Ban frowned as he looked at a clock. “We're taken too much time. You need to rest. Here, I have something for each of you.” He stood and walked to the bookshelf behind his desk and removed four tomes. He handed one to each of them.
Abe groaned. “Reading? Why does it have to be reading.”
Ban laughed. “Inside you will find basic techniques on harnessing your Paths. You may actually find this much more interesting than you believe.”
Abe seemed to ignore him. “Can we at least explore some?”
Arty chuckled. “You're my kinda guy.”
“No, we need some time to rest and recuperate,” Rafe said, staring at him sternly.
Hans clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on. I’ll show you some moves with Princess.”
After the two of them left, Ban turned to Rafe. “I'm assuming you will need rations, then? I think we can also spare one or two of the pack animals.”