Ch. 7: Light

(March 4, 107 F.A.)

"Lend me your body…I will help you…"

"Who are you?"

"In time…you will know"

"H-huh?"

Henry woke up sweating in his bed. He was shirtless so his muscles were shown. His hair was messy. The same thing was happening to him for days now. He got up from his bed and out of the tent with his sandals. He was also wearing a simple shirt and pants, only that. He walked through the fields near the Asilikaliwo-Vahvian border. His men were stationed there, or what was left of the group during the battle.

The night was appealing, there was a full moon shining upon them, the fields were beautiful. The grass flowing with the breeze. The fireflies flying in the night. Henry sat at a nearby rock. Looking up to the sky he closed his eyes and breathed in and out. Breath in and Breath out.

'Why do I see a man in white? What does he mean he will help me? And lastly, who is he? Or she?' he thought while his eyes were closed.

"I am…the first"

Henry looked quickly to where the voice was but when he looked, he saw no one there. 'What did he mean by 'the first'?'

A moment of silence followed. He huffed as he stood up and left. The walk was silent as well.

Meanwhile,

"Vis eum accipere? (Will you accept him?)" a mysterious figure in a ragged cloak asked to the man whose body was a bright white mist.

"Iam Habeo (I already have)" the mist replied.

"populus postulo eum (people need him)" the mysterious figure said with a hint of anger.

"sine illo discere, quid mundo futurum? (without him to learn, what about the future of the world?)"

"semper pertinax, etiam cum illa mortuus est. Quid facit vitam hominis, etiam id ad te? (always stubborn, even when she's dead, what does the life of man even mean to you?)"

"Aliquid ego quondam fuit (Something I once was)" The cloaked figure merely sighed at the answer.

Back to Henry

Henry didn't go back to his tent, except he went somewhere else. The information gatherer's quarters. It had plenty of books and scrolls. It dated back to the Tribal Age of the world.

When Henry reached the tent, he took a small peek inside and saw no one there. 'The man in charge must be sleeping now'

He opened the tent and quietly went inside.

The books and scrolls were neatly placed on the ground, on tables and on the shelves. It was clean. He looked at the pile of books dating back to the Tribal age. He looked at one dusty book and saw the the title which read 'The Unification'

He looked for other books, dating back to the Kingdom age. Then he did an onslaught of looking. Book to book he looked for titles that can relate to some magic. But no, these were books from history, not spell books.

(The following are some of the books he saw)

'The Kingdom Age'

'The Way of War'

'Barandos: The Fallen City'

'Aghfanzo River: Illnuin's greatest defeat'

'The rise and fall of the Akhlaphans'

'The Northern Island'

After a while of looking, the place was still neat. Thankfully, Henry had the courtesy to place the books back from where they came. He sighed and was about to leave the tent when he saw a scroll, out of place. He looked confused, thinking he already put all of them in their respective places. He looked at the scroll and read the first heading.

'The Dark Age of Man'

'Weird, didn't see this one.' He thought before reading the texts. It was written in his home language so he knew what it was saying.

After a while of reading it, he was getting familiarized with something. Many of the texts said about two men, one with a shining glow in him and another with a dark aura flowing through.

"un uomo con un bagliore bianco ci ha parlato. Ha chiesto il nostro aiuto per fermare l'uomo con i vestiti stracciati. (a man shining bright as the sun spoke to us. He asked for our help to stop the man with the torn clothes.)"

"un uomo vestito di bianco colpi il maligno con la forza di mille uomini (the man struck the demonic one with the strength of a thousand men)"

"Dopo la battaglia, un uomo con un mantello grigio ci parlo: "non ricordate di quest'epoca, questa volta? (After the battle, a man in a gray cloak spoke to us:" Forget whatever happened here" )"

A man shining as bright as the sun, a man in a grey cloak and an evil man. 'What could this all mean?'

He was thinking, when he got a headache. "AHhh!"

He groaned in pain, the headache was light, but it became more severe as the seconds pass.

"AAhh!"

It was hurting him, but something else was happening.

"This world….is destined to burn…." He heard an ominous voice.

"AAHHH" he screamed

"The enemy is coming…" he heard a female voice say it.

"AHHHHH" the scream became louder.

"He is coming…He is coming…" He heard a man whisper.

"GGAAAHHH" he tried silencing his scream.

"To save others…I must die." An old voice said.

Then it all stopped, the voices, the headache. It was calm afterward. Sweat came pouring out of him. He was on the ground on all fours. Each breath was shaky.

"W-w-what was that…." He mumbled shakily. He looked everywhere across the room inside the tent. The books were still in their right position.

He took the scroll again and looked for more information. He skimmed and skimmed until he saw something.

"Nel mezzo della guerra e del dispetto

Un angelo nella nebbia, che fa cio che e giusto

Un angelo della morte, un servo di Dio

'Fai pace o ci sara sangue'

Un uomo, un vestito con una vestaglia

Brillava cosi luminoso che potrebbe anche essere visto in tutto il mondo

Un guerriero di pace, un guerriero delle terre

Non scherzare con lui, perche il tuo destino e nelle sue mani"

"In the midst of war and spite

An angel in the mist, doing what is right

An angel of death, a servant of God

'Make peace or there will be blood'

A man, whose outfit was a white robe

Shone so bright it may as well be seen across the globe

A warrior of peace, a warrior of the lands

Do not mess with him, for your fate is in his hands" he mumbled the words in New Vernacular.

He thought about the biography and the poem. 'Both speak of someone who shines. But there is something I do not know. The biography asks for help on a battle, but the poem is that he has people's fate in his hands. I do not get it. Why does he need help? Why does he need us people? Can't he just force us?'

This confused Henry to the extreme. He brainstormed for many minutes until he came up with a theory. 'What if…they are different people.'

His conclusion came with many problems. 'But if they are, then is it a coincidence that there are two? Maybe they were master and apprentice?'

His thoughts were stopped when a soldier came towards the tent, breathing shakily.

"S-s-sir!" the soldier yelled.

"What is it?!" Henry asked, worried as he stood up.

"A-A-a man walked here to this c-camp t-t-th-h-he told us to c-c-all you." He started. "W-we tried to stop him, b-b-but he said 'no, call him or else' we then tried to stop him, but he fought and defeated us. I then went to your quarters but found no one, so I came here."

"What did he look like?"

"He was wearing an old grey cloak. He was an old man. He was also holding a staff."

Henry went silent for a minute before saying. "Let me talk with him."

Henry then proceeded to walk outside the tent and towards the place where the old man was waiting.

Jboluick saw Henry and he sighed, "Young man, you need to train your soldiers respect to their elders." Jboluick proceeded to poke one of them with his staff.

"No respect indeed."

"Well sir, these men are trained to kill and capture, they are soldiers not…servants." Henry argued with a smile on his face.

"But they respect the men higher ranking than them." Jboluick retorted.

"Well yes, but sometimes old people are also soldiers, not high ranking officials."

"Well, teach them respect." Jboluick walked over to Henry. When the two looked at each other's eyes, Jboluick was 2 inches shorter than Henry, Jboluick nodded. "Come with me young man,"

Henry was confused, one minute he had a headache then he was confronted that their was a person meeting him. Jboluick gestured to a tent and walked inside. A moment passed before Jboluick poked his head out. "What are you waiting for? Come on!"

Henry obliged to Jboluick's orders. He power walked to the tent and went inside. Once there, Jboluick took a seat opposite of Henry. The tent was a normal tent but bigger, it had two beds on each side. Henry then took a seat opposite of Jboluick.

"So…" Jboluick started. "Has he called upon you yet?"

The question confused henry. "Uhmm…Who?"

"He, has he called upon you?"

"Uhhmm" Henry didn't know what to answer to that. "Who?"

Jboluick sighed. "The man in your dreams, the man with shining bright skin."

'Wait how?' Henry thought. No one knew of the man in his dreams. So how did he know?

"I know him because I was his old teacher."

'Oh, that made sense. But wait, the dark age of man was centered in the Tribal age or so…so who, who is the man I am talking to?'

"Who I am is not important to you, what is, is w-"

"How are you reading my thoughts!?" Henry shouted, flabbergasted.

"Well…that is not important right now. But do not worry, I will not pry on your memories." Jboluick informed him.

Henry was perplexed by what he said and his respect for privacy. So, he said to him with a hint of irritation. "Why? What are you gaining if I tell the truth?"

Jboluick stood up and looked at him straight in the eye. "My name is Jboluick. I gain nothing from this, you gain only one thing when I will help you, just as I gain only one thing by serving my master. A life without misery in the end."

There was silence after that. At least two minutes went by without the two saying a word. That was until… "I have."

Henry said nonchalantly. This made Jboluick reply. "Good, the world will need you."

This made Henry perk up a little and asked. "What?"

"You will have to do something no man nor being can do in one day. Leave your life behind. Leave it all."

"What!" Henry shouted in shock. "What do I gain from this!"

"Just as I said, only one thing. A place in the heavens."

"…"

"You will be one of the deciding factors in this fight."

"But is there another way? I can't leave it all behind!" Henry was frustrated.

Jboluick sighed again. "Life is…unpredictable. One day it is peaceful, and then the day after, all hell breaks loose. One day you are rich, the next, you become poor. You don't know how your life goes. But 'he' knows, up in the heavens, he knows. Even the man with the white glow you have seen does not know his fate. Only one knows, but he can only see the beginning and the end. Not the ones in between."

"Who is 'he'?"

"He made all of us, along with his now evil brother. You know of him."

"Barjuid. Barjuid knows." Henry then looked down.

"Even the simplest of men, even the richest or poorest of people, the ones who have everything, the ones who have nothing. Destiny always comes knocking at your door. No money, no power, can stop it. One can only delay it"

Henry stood up, "No, I will run from it. I will never let go of my family."

Jboluick couldn't help but laugh at that. "You are stubborn, but even if you do. Consequences are always there. And even if you are not looking for destiny, it still comes to you. A word of advice mister Henry, you simply cannot run away from everything."

And when Henry blinked, Jboluick disappeared. Henry just stood there for a minute then went outside the tent with one question at mind. 'Run away from everything?'