Vexyna's Awakening

Shadow and light danced across Vexyna’s face. She swatted the air just beyond the tip of her nose as if that would drive it away or at least make it stop. It did not.

  Vexyna’s eyes formed slits behind her dark glasses.

  A large fern waved a leafy green tendril just over her face.

  Vexyna reached up, grasped the leaf and gave it a sharp tug.

  “Hey!” shouted the other end of the plant.

  This startled Vexyna to her feet. She rose too fast and ended up kissing the ground with her butt. Clasping her head, she asked, “Who’s there?”

  Vexyna glared at the silent fern.

  “I can see you on the other side of this plant,” Vexyna said. “You’re that girl from last night.”

  From behind the plant, a red-headed girl in overalls revealed herself. “That’s me,” she said.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Vexyna.

  “You had quite a nasty fall,” stated the girl. “I wanted to see if you were all right or if you needed any help.”

  “I think I’ll be fine once I get back to my house,” Vexyna replied.

  “Your house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Your house in that village?”

  “Yes. My house is in that village. That village has a name, you know. It’s Shojiki.”

  “Then don’t count on getting back to your house any time soon.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Shojiki looks like it was destroyed. There’s no way to know for sure, because there’s no way to see inside.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Come see for yourself.”

  Vexyna tried to stand again, but had difficulty doing so.

  “Here, let me help you.” She moved closer and put her shoulder under one of Vexyna’s arms.

  “Thank you.”

  “You probably just have some bruising. If I can find the right plants, I’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

  “You know about healing herbs, do you?”

  “I sure do.” The girl beamed.

  “I’m Vexyna.” Vexyna offered one of her hands to the girl.

  “I’m Cateran,” replied the girl while grasping Vexyna’s hand.

  The two girls trudged towards the village.

  Shojiki’s massive stone walls were spotted with cracks and were no longer standing at right angles to the ground. Heaps of rubble scattered the field. Bits of people’s lives were strewn everywhere.

  “This is horrible,” said Vexyna as she picked her way through the debris. “I wonder if anyone else survived. My father is the only family I have left. I can’t lose him.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, but we aren’t going to be able to find out. The tree line has been pushed back, so I can’t get a clear look over what’s left of the village walls.”

  “Trulo!” Vexyna exclaimed. “What happened to Trulo? He was beside me when calamity struck. Was he also thrown clear of the walls?”

  “I haven’t seen anyone else,” Cateran said.

  “He’s my best friend,” Vexyna told Cateran.

  “You survived. I’m sure there are others who have too.”

  Vexyna resigned herself to not yet knowing the fate of her father and Trulo. She concentrated instead on the various objects that had been wrenched from their owners. “That was Tirlig’s favorite bench,” she pointed out while nudging a piece of wood with the toe of her boot.

  “Who’s Tirlig?” Cateran asked.

  “Just a boy.” Vexyna dropped to her knees and studied a pile of cloth and wood. Without warning, she leaped to her feet and proclaimed, “This is from my house! This is from my room!”

  “Is any of it salvageable?”

  “This is a candlestick I was given by my grandmother!” Vexyna explained while holding the silver object up for Cateran’s inspection.

  Cateran took the candlestick and examined it. The ornate crafting and thick candle looked as though it had only been lit once or twice.

  Vexyna knelt again and brushed dirt off another object. “Here’s my mother’s diary.” She stood up and snapped her cloak out behind her to knock loose the dirt she had collected from kneeling on it on the ground. “I can’t believe this happened,” She muttered. “Why? Why did this happen?”

  “It won’t be any comfort to you, but there have been reports of other places facing similar disasters.”

  “So this wasn’t a random incident? What’s going on?”

  “Some woman named Din, who calls herself the Red Empress, has a group of men moving across the country causing trouble. I don’t know why.”

  Vexyna came to a realization. “You never did explain why you were in the village last night.”

  “Oh, didn’t I?” Cateran replied. She cast her gaze at the ground. She kicked a small glass ball around.

  “No, you didn’t.” Vexyna stared at Cateran.

  “Are we going to hang around here much longer? There doesn’t seem to be much point unless we can scavenge anything. We might be able to get some answers back at my people’s camp.”

  “You’re right,” Vexyna agreed. They took some time picking through more rubble. Finally, Vexyna asked, “Okay, which way to your people’s camp?”

  “We have to travel through the Argotha Forest to get there,” Cateran informed her.

  The two left the remains of Shojiki and headed off into the forest.

  “By the way,” Vexyna said. “You never did answer my question about why you were in my village last night.”

  Cateran sighed. “If you really must know, I got lost. I went roaming from my camp and got turned around. Then I caught the scent of food cooking and followed it to your village.” Cateran’s stomach emitted a loud growl as if in response to the word ‘food’.

  “Food’s not a bad idea. What can we do?” Something dawned on Vexyna. “Oh hey,” she exclaimed. She produced two pieces of fruit from her cloak. She tossed one to Cateran.

  “Thank you.” Cateran bit into the soft, juicy fruit. She licked her lips and asked, “Tell me something.”

  “What?”

  “What’s with the dark glasses? There isn’t a lot of light in this forest. Why do you insist on wearing those things?”

  “I have sensitive eyes. My eyes take in a lot more light than most people’s. I’ve been told never to remove these glasses. So I don’t.”

  “That’s wild,” Cateran said. She took another bite of fruit. Her tongue scrambled in vain to pull in all the juice, some of which escaped and dribbled down her chin. “Have you ever taken them off? Even for a second?”

  “No. Never. I was given a severe warning by my grandmother when I was younger.”

  “Severe? Was it frightening?” Cateran stopped and looked at Vexyna. “I ask a lot of questions, don’t I?”

  Vexyna nodded. “Yes, you’re full of curiosity.”

  Cateran shrugged. “I am.” The fruit was gone. Cateran wiped off the last of the fruit juice with her sleeves.

  “Don’t do that,” Vexyna said, extending a small cloth to Cateran.

  Cateran accepted the cloth and wiped her face with it. “Thanks,” she said. She offered the cloth back to Vexyna.

  “Hang on to it,” Vexyna told her.

  Cateran stuffed the cloth into the right front upper pocket of her coveralls. She wiped her hands together and asked, “Will you tell me about the warning your grandmother gave you?”

  “It was a long time ago. I was only about four years old. I recall the fire in my grandmother’s eyes as she warned me about my sight. She said something about always being protected from the searing light. I wonder if there’s an entry about it in my mother’s diary. Let’s see if I can find it.”

  They had been walking and talking for about an hour, so they decided to take a break.

  Vexyna found a dry, critter-free spot on a log. Cateran positioned herself on the stump of a tree that had fallen over.

  Vexyna extracted her mother’s diary from her cloak. She flipped through the p
ages and commented, “This is strange. Many of the pages are blank. There are huge gaps right in the middle of things my mother has written.”

  Cateran tumbled off the stump and sprang over to Vexyna. She peered at the diary. Cateran checked over the entire diary. She studied its binding. Her tiny nostrils flared to inhale the scent of the pages.

  Vexyna asked, “Haven’t you ever seen a book before?”

  “Sure I’ve seen books before,” Cateran snapped back. Then she added in a low voice, “I’ve just never read any.” She changed the subject with undue haste. “Were you close to your mother?”

  “I don’t even know when she left. In all honesty, I never knew her.”

  Cateran stared at the pages. She frowned because the words made no sense. “So you don’t even know if she was around when your grandmother gave you the warning about your eyes.”

  “I’m not sure,” Vexyna confessed.

  “This forest is too dark. I can’t make out any of the words.”

  “I could try lighting my grandmother’s candlestick. That’ll give us better light.” Vexyna pulled the candlestick from her cloak. She fumbled around in her other pockets and produced a small box of matches. She prepared to strike a match. She commented, “I’ve never lit this before.”

  As the wick ignited, the girls heard a disembodied voice intone, “Now, say the words!”

  “Huh? What words?” Cateran gasped. “I think it’s talking to you, Vexyna.”

  Vexyna was stunned. “What words would those words be?”

  “Say the words!” the voice demanded.

  “I don’t know any words!” Vexyna shouted.

  “You lit the candle, now finish the incantation! Say the words!”

  “Really! I don’t know which words you want!” A little shaken, Vexyna blew out the candle.

  The girls sat listening, but no voice was heard.

  Cateran spoke in a low voice. “What just happened? Was that voice coming from the candle?”

  Vexyna nodded before saying, “I wonder what the voice was talking about. It mentioned something about an incantation.”

  “That sounds like magic to me.” Cateran perked up. “Is your family magical? I’ve only heard rumors and stories about magic. I didn’t think it really existed.”

  Vexyna shrugged. “We were a normal family. At least that’s the way my father raised me. The magic must have been from my grandmother. If she did practise magic, she kept it hidden.”

  “I wonder if your mother had magic powers like your grandmother. Try looking for a candle incantation in your mother’s diary. It shouldn’t be too hard to skim through to find.”

  “What? You think it’ll be entitled, ‘Incantation of the Candle’ or something like that?”

  “It’s worth a try. I’ll help, but you’ll have to re-light the candle.”

  Vexyna took another match from the matchbox and lit the candle. The disembodied voice sounded again, “Free me.”

  “We don’t know how,” Vexyna explained.

  “Look in the diary,” intoned the voice.

  Vexyna opened her mother’s diary. As she flipped through the pages, she noticed she could see writing on every page. She stopped dead and gaped at the page in front of her. At the top it was clearly labeled: Incantation of the Candle. “I cannot believe you were right, Cateran. I found it!”

  Cateran came closer to Vexyna. “Can you pronounce those words?”

  They were focusing on the words when a stray gust of wind blew out the candle. The words on the page faded with the dying of the light.

  “Perhaps it’s just as well,” Vexyna lamented. “We have no idea what would happen if we said those words.”

  “The candle said something like, ‘free me’,” Cateran said. “I wonder who ‘me’ is.”

  “I’m curious about that, too. Let’s get going again.” Vexyna packed away the diary and candlestick.

  “The candlestick looks like it was made out of the rocks in Garnet’s Cave. It’s along our way if you want to check it out.”

  “Sure, why not?”

  Their voyage through the Argotha forest had them clambering over giant tree roots and ducking under hanging vines as they twisted their way along.

  Cateran spoke. “We should be coming up to Garnet’s Cave pretty soon.”

  They had been walking up a steady incline for the past few minutes. They appeared to be reaching the summit of the little hill when Vexyna felt warmth growing in her cloak. “Something’s happening,” she warned Cateran. “My cloak is growing warmer.”

  Vexyna checked her cloak for the source of the warmth. She found it when she went for her mother’s diary. “This is it,” she said while holding up the book. “The diary is getting warm.”

  “I wonder if it’s a coincidence, because we’re at the entrance to Garnet’s Cave,” Cateran pondered as she pointed to the slender entrance to the cave.

  They approached the cave with caution. It was only wide enough for them to enter single file.

  Cateran stepped out in front. Walking into the cave, she commented, “We won’t need a light in here because of the gems on the cave walls.”

  Vexyna followed and soon the two were standing in a small antechamber. They looked around the room trying to decide which way to venture next.

  The diary in Vexyna’s hand was almost too hot to hold. She tried fanning it about the room to cool it off.

  Cateran noticed something odd. “Fan the diary against the wall again,” she insisted. She pointed to one of the walls.

  Vexyna walked over and waved the diary at the wall. The image of another chamber rippled in the rock wall. “Interesting.”

  “That must be the way,” Cateran concluded. “Can we walk through the rock?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Vexyna stated as she took a tentative step forward. She passed through the rock and entered the chamber on the other side. She turned to tell Cateran to step through, but all she faced was a solid wall of rock.

  She was greeted by silence when she yelled, “Cateran!” The walls were solid.

  A thought occurred to her. She waved the diary at the wall in front of her. This caused the image of Cateran to appear. “Quick!” Vexyna shouted. “Get over to my side of the rock wall!”

  Cateran cart wheeled over to Vexyna. Her shiny red mop top flipped perfectly back into place when she stopped. “Whoa,” she voiced breathlessly.

  The chamber appeared to be about twenty-eight meters in diameter. Four lines of gold ran up each of the walls and met at the golden circle in the center of the ceiling. These lines of gold illuminated the room. The circle surrounded two strange symbols: one emitted a deep ruby glow while the other pulsed with an intense jade light.

  In the exact center of the chamber stood an altar on which a bejeweled chest rested.

  Cateran rushed to open the chest, but was thrown back by an invisible force. She rubbed her hind quarters and advised, “Be careful.”

  Vexyna cautiously approached the chest and the diary popped out of her hands.

  The diary floated in mid-air with tiny spirals of light enveloping it. Pages flipped until they stopped at a sheet more radiant than the others. From the fabric of this page sprang a key. It glided gracefully into Vexyna’s palm.

  Vexyna slid the key into the keyhole without removing the chest from its perch.

  The key turned easily in the lock and Vexyna opened the lid.

  Peering inside, she found an amulet and a piece of parchment. She held up the amulet for Cateran to see.

  Cateran crept closer and leaned in to examine the amulet.

  The amulet itself was made of a shiny marbled stone. It glimmered oddly in the light from the golden lines on the walls. The amulet slowly revolved as Vexyna turned the band of platinum that held it. There appeared to be some form of writing on one side. Tiny characters could be faintly made out running around the band as well. Neither of the girls understood the language of these characters.

  Vexyna slipped
the platinum band over her head and let it settle against her neck. The amulet rested easily in the hollow of her chest.

  “That’s a nice piece of jewelry. Is there anything else in the box?” Cateran wanted to know.

  “Yes,” replied Vexyna. She reached into the chest and gingerly removed the withered parchment. “Let me read what it says. “‘My Darling Child, Dire events must have transpired for you to be seeking me now. With or without your father’s knowledge, you have come here. Only one with my blood would have the ability to reach this inner sanctum. There are many things you must know about your lineage. As part of your birthright, wear this amulet close to your heart always. Come to me, child. L’.”

  No sooner had Vexyna finished reading the parchment than it erupted in flames. It was gone in an instant.

  An odd crumbling sound came from the altar. The girls turned to see the chest folding in on itself before disappearing.

  The golden lines on the walls began to flicker. “I don’t think that’s a good sign,” Cateran worried.

  “No, I don’t think so either,” Vexyna agreed. She began waving her mother’s diary at the rock walls. “When you can see another room, get ready to move to the other side of the rocks.”

  Cateran nodded her readiness.

  Vexyna found the wall with the chamber behind it just as the golden lines seemed to be blinking their last. The chamber the girls were in began to shrink and close in on them. “Quick! Jump to the other side!” Vexyna screamed as she waved the diary madly.

  The girls leaped to the outer chamber.

  They collapsed against a cave wall and caught their breath.

  It was Cateran who spoke first. “Got any more fruit?”

  Vexyna shook her head. “I’ll share a sandwich with you, though.”

  “Deal.” Cateran smiled. “Where should we go from here? We don’t have much to go on. Maybe my people can help.”

  “That sounds like a good next stop on our journey,” agreed Vexyna.

  “Hmmm,” mused Cateran with her hand on her chin. “Let me see if I can figure out where my people are presently camped.”

  “You mean you don’t know?”

  “Not specifically, no.”

  “They are your people, aren’t they? You should know where they are.”

  “We’re a nomadic people. We don’t stay in one place for too long.”

  “How do your people find each other then?”

  “There are two things you need to know to find the Vag’s main camp: first, you need to know the route the camp is running, which towns it’ll be closest to and when. Next, you’ll need to know the secret call that will let the other Vag’s know you’re around so they can bring you in to the camp. You can only enter the Vag’s main camp if you are brought in. No one has ever entered the Vag’s main camp if they weren’t invited.”

  “So, depending on where the main camp is on its route, we could be looking at a great deal of traveling.”

  “Yes that pretty much sums it up. What happened to that sandwich you mentioned?”

  “I’m surprised you don’t have any provisions. How do you survive?”

  “I pick up snacks along the way. I’ll show you once we’re back in the forest. I’m just glad you had food.”

  “My cloak is always stocked with what I consider to be essentials. Here,” Vexyna said while handing Cateran a piece of sandwich.

  Cateran thanked Vexyna and proceeded to swallow the offering in two bites. “Pretty good,” she said. “I can make meals, too. Raj says I’m improving.”

  Vexyna took her time with what was left of the sandwich. “Who’s Raj?”

  “He’s a member of my pack. He might be at the main camp if he’s not on a mission.”

  Vexyna stopped eating and looked over at Cateran. She cocked her head forward and slightly to the side. “Anyone special?”

  “Oh certainly Raj has his talents, but if you mean ‘special’ special, then no. Not at the moment.”

  “Oh.”

  “How ‘bout you? Anyone you have your eyes on?”

  “Just someone I care about. I don’t know if we feel the same for each other. Right now, I don’t even know if he’s still alive. I hope so.” Vexyna bit into the last of the sandwich and swallowed hard. “Let’s get out of this cave,” she said as she got to her feet.

  Chapter 3: A Vag Recollection