Everything seemed to spin about in a groggy whirl. Nothing made sense, except for the dangerous absence of reason, and logic. An endless blankness enveloped the entire world, and Ion along with it.
And then, a blurry trickle of lights occurred, and slowly, shapes formed out of the gloom. A peaceful tune seemed to pierce the grogginess, giving direction … a tune of serenity, beauty.
Ion felt himself lying on a soft surface. And hovering above him, blurry, and yet clear, was a figure … was it an angel?
And as the blur cleared, his vision met the most beautiful thing he had ever seen his entire life.
“I’ve healed most of your wounds.” the girl said. She had long, jet black hair tied in a ponytail. He couldn’t tell which species she belonged to, unable to make out any distinguished features. Her skin was a light brown colour, and her black eyes gazed concernedly at him from the side of where he lay. She was holding what looked to be a strange, sponge like cloth which was half dipped in a bowl containing a thick greenish liquid. An unmistakable herbal substance.
Twisting his neck slightly, Ion saw that he was lying on a straw mat placed on a grass surface. The familiar, black spread that was the night sky prevailed overhead.
Ion looked at the foot of the cot he lay, where a warm looking, aged woman stood.
“You’re lucky this young woman here brought you to me in time.” She flicked her gaze towards the girl by Ion’s side, who nodded absently as she stirred the herbal substance with her cloth. “Or else…” The aged woman shuddered. “No other healer would’ve been able to help you.”
“You’re a…” Ion strained to form words out of his cracked voice. “healer?”
“Lucky for you that I am.” chuckled the aged woman. “Whatever it was that happened to you, it was the nastiest I’ve seen in a while. I’d rather not know how it happened, but let’s agree not to do it again, shall we, son?”
She trotted away, and Ion craned his neck harder to find that he was in a vast green field. And a large number of more straw mattresses lay spread well over the field, with ailed and wounded lying on them. There were about four of five more healers, all of them aged as the woman was, tending to them. They were clearly overworked with the number of sickened and wounded victims to tend to, and were moving hurriedly from patient to patient, trying to patch them all up.
Far out on the distance, a cluster of hut like buildings could be seen, along with a glimmer of orange lights between them. They were in a village. Ion guessed that this was the nearest village to where he’d been. The girl dampened the cloth in the bowl of herbal substance, and smeared it on the large red gash stretching across his right arm. A cool sensation spread across the ghastly wound. The herbal liquid brought a soothing relief to the aching, searing wound.
Ion craned his head and found that most of the cuts and gashes in his body had been healed, except for the deeper ones. After applying the paste of herbal liquid, the girl produced a thick white cloth and wrapped his right arm, and the deep gash over it, with the cloth. It was thick and cushioned, fully concealing the deep wound, which seared like fire when he moved it. It wasn’t fully healed. But Ion was alive … and that was indeed much to be grateful for.
Ion looked up at the girl, feeling a loss for words. “You … saved my life.”
The girl paused and fixed him with her tender black eyes. The depth within them seemed to absorb him for a moment. A faint smile came across her lips as she nodded.
“You’re lucky I chanced past that place, when it happened.”
Ion’s thoughts rolled back to the event that came right before this. The dreadful, horrific memory. For a fleeting second the zombie like, terrifying beasts flashed before his mind again, life like. Dementing.
He felt slightly dazed at how close his escape from the jaws of death had just been…
And yet, it was. He had been saved. By nothing short of a miracle.
He turned to the girl, frowning. “But … how?”
She looked around her, slightly wary, then bent closer to him and whispered, “You happen to be talking to a mystic.”
“You’re … a mystic?” Ion’s eyes widened very mildly: this would have been quite surprising in another, normal, pleasant circumstance. But now, it seemed to roll beneath the weight of his hideous escape from death.
The girl nodded. “And I know you’re one too.”
“You do?” asked Ion. “How come?”
She lowered her voice even more, bending closer to him by the side. ““I saw you fighting them off … Carcasar and the Zelgron. I was in a nearby hill.”
“And you fought them all off to save me?” asked Ion, raising an eyebrow.
“It was easier than it sounds.”
Ion gaped at her for a second, as a strange, warm emotion welled within him. An emotion he couldn’t rightly place. She risked her life to save mine. He blinked and lay back against the mattress. He realised, all of a sudden, what the emotion was…
Gratitude. True and unselfish.
It came from a side of him he’d forgotten for a while now. Ever since he joined Vonayz and the assassin crew. A side he thought he had shed … But he now realised that side was still very much within him, alive.
Ion turned his head to gaze at the girl sitting by his side again, and she gave him a comforting smile.
“Hang on for a while.” she said, preparing to get to her feet. “I’ll get back to you.”
“Where’re you going?”
She looked around her, and let her voice fall soft again.
“The healers can’t handle all these patients by themselves. Can’t you see they could use some help?”
Ion’s mind worked on what he’d heard for a second longer, before abandoning its attempt to find sense in it. “So?”
The girl gave him an incredulous look. “So? I’m a mystic, aren’t I? Am I just gonna sit here and let my powers go to waste? Not when people need my help!”
And she rose and strode off, bending down over a patient in a mattress closeby, who seemed to be deathly ill, with strange blue skin.
Ion let his jaw hang slightly as he gazed at the girl, who secretly used subtle mystic healing tactics to help the patients mattress after mattress, moving through them quiet and unnoticed. Helping them silently.
A part of Ion felt a growing disconcertedness. Something was wrong, right? How could somebody want to help people this way, completely unconditionally … completely selflessly? Hadn’t Ion learned beyond a doubt that this world was but cruel and soulless? … That it had nothing of this strange, selfless element he was witnessing now? He felt the monster within him growl angrily, the monster that believed that this spectrum deserved the cold treatment he gave it, for it was no warmer … But as his eyes lay fixed on the girl, watching her help the patients, he felt something more powerful slowly awaken within him. Something infinitely more powerful. And for that split second, the killer raging within him went mute in submission to another voice.
A long lost voice.
Marion and Selia’s words of wisdom replayed at the back of his mind, as a long lost echo. Words that reminded him of the need for selflessness and nobility in this world.
But the swell of emotion was instantly blocked out by another violent crash of rage.
They’re gone! he screamed to himself, wanting to tear his insides out. They’re all gone, aren’t they!
Marion and Selia … his parents who had taught him to be kind and selfless … where had they ended up?
And Eol … his brother, his innocent, noble hearted brother … where had he ended up?
They were all gone.
The blast of fury shook his insides. And he felt a renewed urge to throttle every other living person his eyes fell on, to rip every man he saw around him limb to limb … and to tear everyone’s throat out…
“Hey, I’m back.”
He whirled his head and found himself staring into those beautiful black eyes again. And as the girl’s eyes
, with their endless depths absorbed him, Ion felt the storm of fury vaporise instantly within him.
She sat cross legged beside him, and bent down with another swift look around.
“Now, tell me. What business did you go seeking with those creatures for?”
Ion scowled, half unable to remember himself. Then, slowly, he realised that he had been looking for his assassination target. The strange vigilante who Grando had wanted him to track down and bring back for him.
The girl, who had been looking at him with a slightly stern look, shook her head. “Look, you may be a mystic, but you should know better than to go looking for trouble. There are things in this world that aren’t to be tampered with. And the Zelgron are one of them. Carcasar is one you shouldn’t mess with…”
“Carcasar?” asked Ion.
“The warlord of the Zelgron.” she answered. “The one whose eye you gashed.”
Ion’s jaw lowered. “That thing’s got a name?”
“That thing’s got more than just a name. It’s got a horrible fury.” A quiet shudder crossed her. “Carcasar never forgets a target, never. And for what you did, you’re definitely going to be in his hitlist … I suggest you watch your back.”
Ion sat even higher, ignoring the stiffness clutching the muscles of his back. “You’re saying … he’s gonna be … after me or something?”
The girl’s look grew fazed for a moment as she thought. “I won’t pretend to know … but he won’t forget you.”
Ion suddenly felt something he had never imagined he would feel his entire life. Dread…
By the sound of things, he had made himself a marked enemy with the warlord who commanded them, the Zelgron.
He turned to the girl, who was gazing at him with a scent of the previous concern in her deep black eyes. As if sensing his fears, she gave a warm smile and said, “Look, believe me, there are far better things in this world to be afraid of than facing something you’ve already faced.”
“How’s it you came by there, when they were attacking me?” he asked the girl, frowning.
“I was just crossing by, from a nearby village.” she answered.
Ion raised an eyebrow. “Odd to find a mystic at a place like this, in the inner spectrum. What were you doing there?”
“I don’t live here. I was just here for a mission.”
“A mission?” repeated Ion.
The girl scanned her surroundings again, looking slightly reluctant. With a sigh, she said, “You see, I’m a part of a group of,” She paused, searching for the right words. “A group of … crime fighters, you can say.”
“Crime fighters?” asked Ion.
“Mystic crime fighters.”
Ion stared. “You mean … you’re a part of a group of mystics who … fight crime?”
The girl inclined her head for a moment, looking wondrous. “Well, yes … I can’t tell you exactly what we are.”
Ion felt the words elude him, as he tried to describe the sheer madness of this new twist in the world. “But … why?”
The girl stared at him, confused. “Why?” she chuckled. “Why what?”
Ion shook his head, feeling the onslaught of the past rush back again. The memories of everything. Everything he’d lost.
“This world,” He gazed about at the wide field, which was now sinking to a new quiet around them. “Hates us. And it’s given us nothing but pain. misery. And you’re telling me that there are mystics who actually fight for it? To protect it? This cruel world?”
The girl continued to gaze at him, her look slowly transforming from confusion to disbelief.
“The only way to heal a cruel world is with compassion and love.” she said softly. “Not hatred.”
“If only you knew,” Ion felt his teeth grit as he spoke. “if only you knew my pain … and the fact that it was all because of this soulless world! Because the people’s inability to accept us was the reason I lost everything. This inhumane world deserves nothing better than what it gave me.”
The girl gave a gentle shake of her head.
“You’re making a big mistake by thinking anger and hatred can amend the things we hate.” she said. “If anything, anger and hatred turn us into the very people we hate…”
There was a trace of warmth in her voice as she spoke. Ion turned around and looked at her, feeling a less discernable emotion: he had half expected his outburst to repulse her and get her to storm off. But she still sat there, consoling him … and as she watched him, Ion thought he saw something stir within the depths of that serene pair of eyes. Sympathy…
Ion held her gaze for a moment. And then another…
And then, without warning, he burst into the entire story.
The whole story. Of how he’d been snatched from his home at the age of five. Of how his brother Eol, though innocent, had also been condemned and killed because of it. Of how he’d endured years of misery in the Naxim office. Years of torment and torture. And of how he’d returned to find his parents’ graves the only thing remaining of his shattered family … How he’d resorted to joining the assassins, to repay this world, to exact vengeance on the world responsible for tearing his family apart.
The girl listened to him closely. She appeared to be breathing in his emotions as he spoke, his pain…
When Ion was finished revealing the entire story, he felt his eyes sting.
He almost felt as though he had re lived it … and it was the same feeling he had felt standing before his parents’ grave after leaving the Naxim station … it took him to the verge of tears.
The girl was watching him closely, and there was nothing changed in her concerned look. Drawing in a deep breath, she asked in a soft voice, “What’s your name?”
“Ion.”
She stretched out a hand and patted Ion gently on the back.
“You’re not alone, Ion.” she said. “We’ve all faced what you’re going through. It’s called life.”
“I somehow doubt it.” snapped Ion. “Nobody would have survived what I went through.”
Vestra shook her head. “I don’t deny it. Nobody would have. But we all face our dark phases in life. If you’re facing a darker phase that anyone else, it just means there’s going to a brighter dawn at the end.”
There is no dawn … not for me. Ion thought bitterly. The light had left my world the day I was freed from the Naxim station.
Ion stared across the green field, watching the healers prepare to pack up and leave for the day. Half of the patients were dozing on their straw mats.
“When I was younger,” the girl said. “I used to wonder why there’s so much suffering in our world. So much pain. Evil. Why, I used to ask myself, were we put here … in a world which brims with chaos?”
Ion slowly turned his head to look at her.
“Surely there had to be a reason for it, right?” she went on. “Surely there was an explanation for the suffering in our world … what was the meaning in our living in a world filled with so much pain?”
“I ask myself that everyday.” said Ion, scowling. “Still haven’t found it.”
“Well, I have.” A soft smile touched her lips. “And it’s an answer we’ve all known deep own … all along.”
She turned and looked over the wide green field, and the dozing patients on the mattresses, a majority of whom she had healed. “The pain in this world is the reason we’re here, Ion. because we’re the ones meant to stop it. We’re put in an imperfect world, so that we can make it perfect. We’re thrust into a world with suffering for the purpose of erasing the pain, and giving it happiness. Because in the end, it isn’t what you ask of life … it’s what life asks of you, that matters.”
Ion was momentarily transfixed. He watched her for a few silent seconds, dwelling over what she had told him.
“I’m sorry for whatever you’ve been through,” she said. “and whatever you still are. But just remember what I’ve told you, when you wake up tomorrow, and go o
n with your life. And maybe you’ll find a measure of peace amidst the turmoil … a glimpse of calm amidst the chaos.”
As the heavy feeling slowly passed, and Ion’s mind fell back to the present, he suddenly realised something with a jolt of shock. He had only come to feel impact of what he had done…
“Well, are you gonna arrest me?”
Something in the girl’s eyes hardened as she fixed her gaze on him again. The knowledge that the person she had saved was a dangerous mystic assassin, for some reason, didn’t shake her as much as it should have. As she gazed at him, the seconds lengthening, Ion felt a strange compressing sensation inside him.
He had accidentally spilt everything, including the fact that he was an assassin. To somebody who turned out to be a crime fighter.
And it was common knowledge that crime fighters brought down assassins.
“Just so you know, I’ve found a place in almost every cluster’s criminal database.” He stopped and thought. “I think soon, they’ll probably have warning posters of me spread about - I’d be surprised if they didn’t already.” It was true. He would be surprised if they didn’t. “Imagine what your superiors would say. They sent you for some stupid Zelgron warlord, and you instead managed to bring back one of the most dangerous mystic assassins.”
The girl had fought off an entire Zelgron horde to save him. Her mystic powers clearly were no joke. Meanwhile, Ion was lying in a badly scarred, ravaged form, with half his body aching and searing from the brutal incident he’d faced…
The girl would thrash him without a sweat…
As their gazes remained locked over a wide passing moment, Ion felt something shift within the girl’s black eyes, turning them soft again.
“I think I’ll pass.”
Ion looked at her for a long, unblinking moment. “Why?”
She was silent for some time, her black eyes now roving over the stars overhead.
Then, slowly, she brought her gaze down to him and smiled. “Because like I said … the only way to fight cruelty, is with compassion and love. And I believe the same would work for you.” She plucked a blade of grass from the floor around, looking at it as she spoke. “I believe that everything happens for a reason, Ion. Today, someone lived to see light the next day because of me. And I think perhaps that person was meant for something more.”
Ion was speechless. As he listened to the girl, the side of him that knew nothing but hatred and cruelty seemed to shrivel and die. The monster within him had gone mute, and a new, powerful upwelling arose within him. An emotion that seemed to sweep away all others.
Affection.
“Meant for something more, huh?” Ion felt his lips strain in a smile. “You sure about that?”
Twirling the blade of grass in her hand, the girl looked up at the stars again, a faint smile on her lips. “I’ll chance a bet.”
She threw the blade of grass and brought her eyes to him, and they narrowed slightly as she surveyed him for the smallest second. “All I have to say is this, Ion: I saved your life. Make it worth it for that one reason.”
And with that, she rose, turned and headed off into the night.
Ion was left to stare at her as she shrunk into the distance, her form growing smaller and smaller … before vanishing completely, absorbed by the vastness of the world beyond.
9