Chapter 24

She passed her hand over the crystal and it glowed a warm pink then dulled. The walls of the cave jumped alive and images flashed all over.

Howard watched in awe. From the yet to be discovered transportation to the floating sky cities. She waved her hand and it zoomed in to what was a strange-looking building christened DATA CENTRE. She zoomed in again this time to an old man.

"He is the one you are to find."

As if on cue the man looked up and smiled at them. Howard gasped taking a step back. The room went dark and so did the crystal. She went on to explain where and how they would meet up.

The way she explained it was like she knew that time was of no essence to him. He nodded taking in all the information he could.

Finally she told him that she knew she would be visited by his bond. He wanted to know more but she shook her head motioning for him to start his departure.

When he reached the entrance of the cave he blinked adjusting his eyesight to the bright evening sun. He turned to face Floof and asked her:

"How did he know?"

As the rock closed up he swore he heard her reply, "That's the last of the Von Syphlets."

He changed into the crow form and flew back to the Inn shifting to his usual self. He found Frank and Winjoy in deep meditation trances. Aian opened an eye and gave him a nod of acknowledgement before resuming her mental training with Juma.

He too started to meditate letting the effects of the potion he'd drunk work its way all over him. He felt the warmth fill every nook and cranny of his body.

When Aian and Juma had finished their training, Juma had looked in awe at Howard. He was glowing a silver colour illuminating the room. The two left him in peace.

After a long time, heavy knocking on the door made Howard look up. He'd heard Juma and Aian leave an hour ago. The door swung open to reveal a portly man. The man was dressed in a dark green leather outfit from head to toes. In his hand he held what looked like a dagger-a gilded dagger that he knew very well.

Before he could speak, the man lunged at him. Howard reacted by throwing the tankard in his face. The tankard was caught in mid-air and the contents scooped back into it.

The bearded man procured a sword from his torso and slashed at Howard. Howard wondered why the bracelet didn't react. The man stabbed him in the heart. He felt the sword impale and go into him rather than through him.

When it was hilt deep into him, an excruciating pain spread across his body. He felt like he was being rubbed by sandpaper all over his body followed by salt water dousing him.

He looked deep into the dark eyes helpless. The man stepped away changing his form. He then watched as the man melted away to reveal Violette's petite figure.

In two steps, she buried the dagger deep into the Bible and it burst into purple flames. The smoke emanating from the book started to form corporeal objects that solidified. When the last one had been formed, Violette looked at him and smiled before disappearing.

He stood, his knees shaking looking at the dispersed smoke. He wasn't shaking because of the attack but rather he'd dreamt up a similar scenario a while back minus the pain.

He knew it wasn't Violette as she was training with Kuronike in Magnarr. No he knew it was a certain old wizard due to the electric blue eyes he had seen just before he shifted into Violette.

He wondered why though go to all the trouble of doing so unless he didn't want to be seen. It could be that he didn't want Aian to know of his appearance or even worse someone or something else.

Unlike his dream what came forth from the burnt Bible were the pieces only, however, he didn't recall seeing a choir of angels in it. He could see the angels were dressed in armour ready for battle.

Did that mean that they would meet battling angels? He heard voices outside the door. It swung open letting in Aian and a clearly exhausted Juma. Closely followed by the rest of the team.

Winjoy had the most exhausted look but a smile danced on her face. She looked up at Howard explaining that thanks to his idea as well as the potion from the wizard she had made a breakthrough.

Violette and Kuronike had been honing their skills in Magnarr. The way the two were close, making him wonder if they had a thing.

[No they aren't, Violette doesn't love him that way, and her heart belongs to another]

He looked at Aian slightly annoyed at her intrusion of his private thoughts.

[Well maybe next time don't just make blood bonds with random objects]

"The audacity," he muttered but the others heard him. Aian flashed him a smirk. She heard him mutter something about learning nonverbal talking.

Aian waved her hand and lined the hard wooden table with victuals that they all gutted down after which they all retired to their separate rooms leaving Aian and Howard in the main one.

Aian got into the bed and immediately fell asleep. Howard waited half an hour then yawned. He got up heading towards the burning tallow candles.

As he turned off the lights, he saw a feint purple glow coming from under the table. He warily approached the table and looked underneath it so see a tiny dagger embedded. It was a minute version of Violette's dagger.

He touched it and the dagger turned into a purple light that wound itself around his pinkie finger, travelling up to his bracelet, which absorbed the light.

A deep guffaw rung out in his head for a few seconds. He shook his head as the echo reverberated in his head.

That night they all had peaceful dreamless nights.

Howard woke up to a screeching sound emanating from his left hand. It sounded like thousand cats screeching at once