The Gathering

CHAPTER 3

The seven burst into the temple chamber. Zealer was chained and unconscious under the skylight again, Bengal about to recite the spell. The two adult Kealerans were by the door and other men scattered through the chamber.

Lance; Steven; Tommas and Dale were armed with the laser pistols, Johnathon ready to cast his force field domes where needed and Sueca and Cara ready fight by hand.

Johnathon moved first, teleporting the book from the man’s hands to the altar beside Zealer. Then an instant later he surrounded the man with a dome of invisible forced himself. Bengal dived for the book, and knocked himself out on the force field. Then Johnathon surrounded both Kealeran adults in force-field bubbles, so they couldn’t use their claws to dig their way out.

Cara and Dale then rushed to Zealer side while the others overpowered the men and held them at gun-point until Tommas warriors turned up to take over as guards. Cara’s gasp of horror caught their attention, tears in her eyes. “What is it, Cara?” Lance asked as he came over, concerned and frightened that something had happened to Rick’s soul. “They’re almost gone!” she gasped “both of them!!”

“Why both of them?” they gasped and she cried “The boys soul is a little stronger than before, but Zealer must have feed him his strength to keep him here.” Dale asked her with horror and concern “What do you mean?”

“It’s like our strength is a light that all souls have, even evil ones. The longer we’re in these bodies the weaker their light gets and the stronger we are. When you’re light fades you die, your body AND soul. The boy’s light must have almost gone out and Zealer feed him his own light to keep him here. But he gave him too much, they’re both almost gone!!”

“How do we help them then?” Lance asked and she looked at Johnathon “Only one way, Bengal must free Zealer now, before they get any weaker.” The sorcerer said softly “He’s unconscious.” But she snapped “Then bring him too!”

So Johnathon faded the shield and they shook the man until he came too. At first he looked blank, then he surged to his feet and tried to escape. Tommas caught him up by the neck, lifted him off the ground. He looked at him with ferrous eyes. “Let me go!” the man cried in fear. “Someone help me!” No one moved to. So he tried begging “Let me go, please don’t hurt me!”

Tommas didn’t release him and they let his threat sink in deeper before Steven spoke, stirring it up deeper. “Let me kill this guy” and moved to take him from Tommas, flexing the muscles on his huge bulk.

“Back off” Tommas growled at him “he’s mine. He did this to my daughter. To even harm the Princess of the Farcers is punishable by a slow and agonised death.” He threw a few words in his village tongue over his shoulder and the warriors all let out a loud, bloodcurdling war cry.

The man was almost pissing his pants. Without the spell book, the adult Kealerans and his men to back him up he was just a spineless coward. “Please! I’ll do anything! ANYTHING!!!” Dale came forward “what about the spell? Guys if he reverses it, will you let him live?” playing along.

“Why, Dale?” Lance called out “Tommas is right. Rick’s almost gone; Cathrine and Paul are possessed and soon will end up like Rick. Let them kill this guy as slowly as they want. In fact I’ll join in.” Dale smiled and said in a deadly sweet voice “You’re right Lance, death would be better. As long as I get a go as well.”

“Agreed” Steven said. “NO!” the man yelled “I’ll do the spell, I’ll release the spirits so they have their own bodies back! I swear! Just don’t hurt me! PLEASE!!” the group exchanged looks “What do you think?”

“He’s too terrified to lie. I don’ think he’ll try anything.” Dale pointed out to which Tommas slowly lowered him to the ground, but took hold of his arms “You may be right. But if he tries anything....”

“I won’t!” He cried, “I swear on my life!!” Lance said smugly “Damn straight you do.” Dale said “Do the adults as well” and the man quickly nodded. Johnathon levitated the bubble to the altar. The two others joined Zealer, Cara clutching her love protectively close to her. “Just remember” Dale said to the man “Johnathon knows the language of magic. If he recognises the spell as other than you are suppose to, he’ll warn us and you’ll be dead before you can finish.”

He nodded rigourly in terror, took the spell book and stepped forward. His body and arms trembled so badly he could barely read the page. When Steven glared at him he forced his arms still and voice steady as he recited the spell. They watched them closely as the spirits were freed from the bodies, which changed back. The souls of the others hovered over the youngsters for a few minutes and they saw them as slightly see through ghosts, but their true human looks.

Zealer was in front and smiling serenely at them. He was tall and thin, lanky came to mind. His eyes were a similar blue to Steven and Paul’s with thin lips and high cheeks, dark skin and his hair was silver and short. He spoke to them and the voice whispered around them, gentle and compassionate. He thanked them for their love and trust, and told them that if they were ever in dire need they would be there to help. “How?” Dale asked. “The light inside your son and I is more than similar now, we share the light of life that links all things.”

“But....” She started and he smiled at her gently with amusement “Trust me.” Before they could speak a light appeared in the corner of the room, the roof, and opened to reveal figures, spirits. Some were smiling gently and a few had wings of pure white light behind them. They called to the three gently. The three looked, was shocked. “MOTHER!” Sueca cried and forgot them as he flew up into the arms of a beautiful woman. Zealer and Cara looked, but seemed to be unsure about leaving them.

“Go ahead” Dale said to them. Tears were in her eyes, tears of sadness to see her young friends leave but tears of joy for them. “Go, you’re family’s are waiting for you.” Zealer nodded, reached out to touch her cheek with a see-through but gentle hand. Then he stood and took Cara's hand “take care of Peter for us, Dale.”

“We will” she managed a smile and nod. Hand in hand the two floated up to join the others. As soon as they did the light folded in behind them, growing smaller and smaller until finally it was gone. “What happened to the other two?” Steven asked. “They just went out” the man, Bengal trembled “they just lifted out and then just went black and went out.”

“Back to the abyss of darkness, the place all evil or lost souls go.” Johnathon answered and Dale nodded “Where Sueca, Zealer and Cara were before. Well those adults disserved it.” Steven frowned “What about just then?”

“Zealer, Cara and Sueca must have earned their place in heaven” Dale said “more than earned it.” Johnathon nodded “before when they died they went to the abyss because they died before their time and no one was there to guide them. Their good deeds caught the rulers of the spirit worlds’ attention and they were brought to the right place.”

Dale nodded and there was a sudden moan as Paul and Cathrine stirred, coming too. They opened their eyes and looked around, Cathrine crying something and jumping off the altar to run to her father, surrounded protectively in his arms. Held close and tight she hid from what had happened in his embrace.

Paul just looked around and rose and calmly walked to his father side as if it happened to him every day and it hadn’t worried or unnerved or even upset him in the least. But Rick didn’t move, didn’t even stir.

Dale frowned and she moved to his side. Lance frowned as well, afraid to move towards them in case of what he’d find. When Cathrine saw her concern and the fear in her eyes as she moved towards him she whipped her tears on her father’s shirt and moved to join her, speaking softly “Rick?” Paul’s eyes widened and he moved to join them. “He’s not moving” Dale said to them in concern “and he’s barely breathing.”

“His light must have been weaker than Zealer and Cara thought,” Cathrine said softly in concern “I don’t know how we’d help him.”

“Move aside” Johnathon said as he moved forward. They obeyed, Cathrine going back to his fathers protective arms to watch. She seemed a little over sensitive and her father’s presence provided her control, his arms like a shield to protect her bodily and mentally.

She was also very innocent.

Johnathon examined the boy. He soon sat back and said softly “his light is almost gone, his body not knowing any longer how to hold him inside. The possession has confused it, it doesn’t know if the soul has left it or is still there. If it should be dead without a soul or if the one inside is the proper light.” Cathrine looked up into her fathers’ eyes in question, but he shook his head slowly. She frowned and looked back at them. “Can’t you do anything to help him, Johnathon? Heal him? Help his light?” The sorcerer frowned at this “To just heal the body would not help the soul, the body would be restored, but the boy’s soul would still be weak.”

“What about the spell book?” Lance motioned at the book that Bengal had clutched to his chest “it caused the problem, surely there would be something in there to help his light strengthen.”

“I do not know” the sorcerer said thoughtfully as he levitated the book out of the man’s hands. “NO!” Bengal cried, but Tommas just backhanded him across the room. Johnathon took the book and flipped through, eyes intense with concentration. He slowed and stopped at one page “There is something.” They looked excited and relieved but Johnathon looked up, face serious “but there is an danger.”

“What?” they were worried again by Johnathon’s expression and he answered their looks “If the soul is pure it will strengthen the souls’ light so they are strong enough to heal on their own.” When they added a but for him he nodded “But if the soul has been touched by darkness or ever is it will strength the darkness. If the darkness is stronger than the light, the soul shall turn dark and evil, true evil.”

“But Rick....” Dale started to protest but Johnathon looked at her intently “EVERYONE had a dark side, Dale Anne. Most can hide or control it well and some don’t try, some are ruled by it. Even I have one. But my control over it is powerful, part of my abilities.”

Dale and Lance exchanged looks. They both knew of an incident that happened to Rick when he was nine. An incident that made him afraid to be touched, and event of evil that touched him....“Do it” Lance said, looking back to the sorcerer and breaking eye contact with Dale. Johnathon nodded and they moved away, allowing the sorcerer the room he needed.

He started the spell and his mouth shaped the sounds of the words perfectly, as they were meant to be unlike such as Bengal who only said them as they read them. The words rose and fell as if in a song. As he did a light bathed Rick’s form and encased it, arching as the light invaded him.

The spell went all the way through until the end, when the light faded and Rick’s body slumped. Johnathon closed the book “we will not know if it worked until he has healed and regained consciousness.”

“Why so long?” they were impatient to know if it worked or Rick was going to be…“When his body is healed it will then worry about the soul. Until then it will remain in a deep slumber, the light strengthening its’ purity-or darkness.” Tommas and Cathrine spoke out then “You are welcome to remain here with us until that time.”

“Thanks” Lance said “But we better go home.” Dale spoke out though “You can, Lance, But I think the less we move Rick, the easier for his healing. I’ll stay here with him. You can take Steven and the others home.”

“I am staying” Paul said “If Rick is staying. I want to be here when he wakes, I want to be here for him if he....” he couldn’t finish. “You are welcome too” Tommas nodded to him and he seemed touched by the boys’ dedication to his friend. Steven spoke “I will help you take these guys to your authorities so this idiot goes to jail.”

“How are we gonna tell them about half of this? Magic and possession, Spirits and heaven and hell. They won’t believe us.” Dale frowned but Paul spoke out “We do not have to tell them everything. Just he attacked your home and kidnapped Andrew and us, then Rick and we do not know why. He somehow used hypnotism to try and enslave Rick and me and Cathrine, but only regressed us to our previous life-that is a proven fact according to Rick.” When Lance nodded he went on “He beat Rick almost dead for refusing to join and he may still die. The doctors here have our medical reports as proof of our injuries and you can take photos of Ricks.”

“And our statements” Dale said and they were surprised when two more voices added “And ours” the two adult men, previously Fra and Kerrea, said as they sat up. Lance frowned and asked them “You’d help us?”

“Yeah” the first man nodded “we owe you. That bastard would have just let us become fully and utterly controlled by those things, to loose our souls” he shuddered in horror “we didn’t want what he did to us.”

“We’d appreciate the help,” Lance said as both men slid from the altar, bubbles dissolved. They joined them “our pleasure, believe us.” Both shook his hands and introduced themselves. The first was a Negro by the name of Nicholas Holmes, also a mutant-with some psychic abilities. He told them the possession had been worse for him because he had the ability to feel empathy and that had been taxing on him not to have empathy with the spirit inside him and be overwhelmed by the evil. His entire possession he had been forced to struggle against being overtaken by the evil instead of fighting to throw it out.

They could understand that. The other was also a mutant named Amory Carr whose ability was just a higher agility and speed than normal. He moved forward “I’ll guard this creep. That way if he tries to escape, I can catch him before he gets the chance.”

“Traitor!” Bengal snarled at him from the wall where he sat after coming too when Tommas smacked him into it. “Shut up you bastard,” the man snarled, kicking in the head and between the legs. Bengal’s breath was knocked from him and he doubled up over his throbbing groin, unable to speak or barely breathe as his privates sent up waves of agony from that sensitive spot.

“Why did you guys join him?” Dale asked. “My wife and twin kids and I have barely any money” Nicholas said. “We have three mortgages and bills up to our ears and the bank is threatening to foreclose and throw us out. We have nowhere to go if that happens because my parents and Alison’s are dead and they left us nothing. My younger brother and his fiancée are constantly traveling and I don’t know how to contact them and ask for help. This guy turned up one day on my doorstep, said he had a friend working in the local hospital who was giving him details of certain mutants and I had come up. He promised me money to help, a LOT of money if I helped. But he promised me no one would get hurt; he only wanted to start a group of mutants to help people. When I discovered the truth he forced me onto the altar and to be possessed like these others” he motioned at the teenaged three.

“My story’s similar” the man, Amory, said. “Only we’re right with money, we have plenty. My wife and I are unable to have kids and he said he had a friend, a private doctor friend who would help us.” He rose from his crouch next to Bengal and approached Nicholas “we have plenty of money. We can help you.”

“You would? Why? What’s in it for you?” the man frowned at the other who spoke out “Nothing in the way you think. We were both fooled by this bastard and besides; I’d like to think we’ve become friends in the last week or so. Taking care of your family would be like helping a brother out.”

“I hardly see my own brother anymore” Nicholas said. Then after a pause he said “I’d like that, brother” and the two men clasped arms briefly in a sign of future friendship and promise. “My kids are there for you, as long as you don’t try to take them from us.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it” The man Amory, was shocked at the thought and the other said softly “No, but I did. Sorry.” The other nodded and left his side to stand next to the man again as his guard. But also he watched carefully for any attempt to escape.

For days they took the men back to jail and took signed statements, Johnathon and the other returning to their homes to wait news. Only Dale and Paul staying behind with Tommas and his daughter to watch over Rick and his condition, and Dale was surprised at how much and how often she found Cathrine sitting thoughtfully by Rick’s bed and gently cooling his forehead with a wet cloth.

Days later Rick had come too twice but only briefly. He never spoke or acknowledged them and his eyes were blank. Then they would slowly close again.

When he came too properly a week later the entire group was there, including Lance and Steven plus Andrew and Johnathon. They were overjoyed to find him weak but normal and it was then, after a thoughtful pause that he told them his idea. An idea he had thought about while Zealer was inside him. “What sort of idea, Rick?” Lance asked him.

“We start a group of people who help others and protect innocents, so something like this doesn’t happen again to anyone else. They may not be so lucky next time. WE prevent it.” Lance nodded thoughtfully “Good idea, I like it. Count me in.”
“Me too” Dale agreed.

“We used to do so on our world, Santon and I” Johnathon said “Before Gwineveire and Heelena had the boys. We shall join also.” Steven and Paul nodded in agreement. They then all turned to look at Tommas and Cathrine, waiting for their answer. Cathrine had one arm around her father’s waist and her head against his side, his arms around her and her face pensive and his unreadable. “I can not just up and leave my people, it’s not that simple” he finally said. “And my place is here with him” Cathrine said softly “I’m sorry.”

“But Tommas, you don’t have to leave for good” Dale said softly “you can come and help when you’re needed and as an extra occasionally. And Cathrine can come with us and learn about the world outside this place. She’s your daughter and surely you’d want to give her the world, a chance for more than this for the only thing keeping her here is you. Let her go and experience new things and decide for herself if she wants only this.”

Tommas looked thoughtful, torn between keeping his daughter with him where he could protect her from all and trusting someone else to do so. It was the worse time for a parent, not knowing wether to let go or hold on. “She’ll come back to you” Dale said as she looked him dead set in the eyes, never wavering or looking away. “You know she will. You just have to let her experience new things and meet new people, live a different life for a while.”

“Yes! Come with us!” Paul said, smiling and holding a hand out to her. “Let us show you a world you would never dreamed off, things you could never imagine!” Cathrine tightened her arms around her father, afraid of the separation “But I’ve never been away before! I belong here and father needs me!” face filled with panic and fear. “Tommas? It’s your decision” Dale said and after a long pause he asked softly “when are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow at noon.”

“If she goes she shall meet you all at your jet plane then. Now we must speak alone” and without another word he left them, leading his daughter away.

The next day tension inside the plane was high. Lance was in the pilot’s seat and grumbling, looking like he was just about to hit Rick who was strapped in next to his friend and talking. All day the boy had been leaving off his abbreviations, saying do not instead of don’t for example, like Johnathon and Paul did. That, plus the tension of if the girl would come was getting to him, making him angrier and angrier.

But the boy was doing it almost naturally, as if he didn’t know he was doing so. Dale noticed and came to his side, a gentle hand on his shoulder and said softly “Don’t worry Lance it’s just a phase. He’ll get bored of it and stop soon. He and Paul are the best of friends and many best friends do similar things.”

“You never....” Lance started but Dale laughed out loud “yes I did. Carol my old friend and I used to laugh the same. But we don’t do it anymore; we do it our own way. Ignore it.” Lance nodded and checked his watch “It’s one, let’s go. She’s staying.” Dale and the others strapped in, Rick mumbling in complaint-he thought they should wait a little longer-and were just rolling out of the clearing when Rick cried, “Father wait! Look!”

Out the window his sharp eyes had seen Cathrine’s figure alone and watching them silently, not moving. Lance slowed down and stopped, backing up so Dale could open the side hatch and slowly approached her, asking gently and cautiously “Cathrine?” as she slowed by her side. “Father told me I am to go with you,” she said dully “so I am here.”

“Only if you want to darling” Dale said gently as she took her into her arms the girl still and stiff. “We don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to. You can go back to your father and tell him we changed our minds.” Cathrine shook herself and her body went limp, even though her face hardened, “I can’t, I must go. Take me with you.”

“We won’t force you.” Her face softened “I know, but I will come with you.”

“All right then.” Dale gently took her around the waist and led her towards the open hatch. Almost inside Cathrine stopped and looked back once more longingly and then let herself be steered inside and into a seat, strapped in next to Dale. Cathrine stared blankly out the window for most the journey. Near her new home she slept with her head pillowed in Dale’s lap, face still edged with longing.

* * * *

“Why do we need a place so big?” Cathrine asked as they walked through the warehouse. “Because we’ve got to be able to put all the things we need inside,” Steven said “A gym and our rooms and a kitchen and room for the computers that’ll run the place. A medical room and a room to hold those criminals and evil we capture and so on.”

“I still do not understand why we can not use those caves Paul and I found while we were rock climbing last week,” Rick complained. “I mean they were big enough to hold everything we need and more. It would be easy to defend with only a few ways in and out and deep and hidden inside the mountain.”

“Because they are natural caverns, Rick and one of the last untouched by man. You know how rare that is these days.”
“But we would only need to build INTO it, not change anything!”

“No Rick the decision is made. We buy an old warehouse and fix it up.” Richard mumbled a complaint, but didn’t continue the argument. “Father what is wrong?” Andrew suddenly asked, noticing Johnathon’s strange behaviour before anyone else. The sorcerer had halted in the middle of the room and was clutching his staff tightly in one hand, eyes darting around alertly.

And now Andrew could feel something too and it frightened him, clutching his father’s hand in fear. “Johnathon, what is it?” Paul asked curiously and a little apprehensively “what is wrong?”

“This room is filled with powerful magic, aggressive magic. It has sensed us, it has sensed ME and is surrounding us.”

“Why?” they asked and he answered them with “I know not.” Cathrine spoke out “magic can be aggressive?”
“It is just like any person. It can be friendly or aggressive, good or evil.”

“Can you stop it?” Rick asked, looking around fearfully. “I do not think so. I have never sensed or used such a spell before. If I knew it, I could cancel-or reverse it.”

“You know what sort of spell it is?” Cathrine asked curiously “How? It’s just magic.”

“To you and the others, maybe. But to myself and to any sorcerer or spell-user it is an intricate pattern of sounds and words smells and senses all woven together and easily broken by an mistake.”

“Can you stop it?” Rick asked again.

“I do not know....” As Johnathon spoke all six found themselves fading from the spot Rick’s cry of “WHAT IS HAPPENING!!” echoing around them before they were suddenly gone.

They reappeared in completely different surrounding than their original. Instead of a large empty run-down warehouse they were in a large open clearing surrounded by huge trees and with distant mountains too their right. “Where are we?” Rick asked as he looked around them in awe, instantly liking it.

“Father, this place is familiar” Paul said “Why? Where are we?”
“I hope you’d remember this place” Steven said gravely “this is where your and Andrew’s mothers were killed.”
“We are home,” Johnathon said, voice filled with mixed emotions he couldn’t express.

“What about us?” Cathrine asked fearfully “How are we going to get back? Surely you can send us back Johnathon?” Before he could answer her, Rick had spoken again. “You would not stay now you are back would you? I mean the group is just getting started, Do not stay here!!”

“I’m not” Steven answered softly “I mean we have nothing here to stay for with the women dead and no parents or other relations. I mean we only have the boys.”

“And I am staying with Rick” Paul said stubbornly Andrew agreeing instantly with him but Johnathon said nothing.
“How are we gonna get back?” Rick asked him.

“I do not know” he said “I have no knowledge of the spell Seeca used to send us there in the first place. ” He looked thoughtful then said “If Castle Clina still stands and the books are there I may be able to find the spell used and get us all back to your-OUR time.”

“Good thing Paul and I have been teaching each other our own fighting methods” Rick grinned, flexing his muscles but Cathrine asked, “What do we do about weapons and clothes?”

“It is getting dark so we will camp here for the night. Tomorrow Cathrine and Richard shall come with me to get some proper clothes and weapons from this time at the town nearby. Then we shall take my son to be minded by some friends and head for Castle Clina. Once we have the book we return for my son and then leave here.”

The others nodded and Steven and Paul left to search for firewood. Cathrine followed after a pause to look for the right wood she would need to make a Bow-frame and some arrows. When she returned Johnathon gave her some rope for the bow and quiver.

Rick then asked Johnathon “How are you gonna pay for the clothes and weapons we get?”

“I still have my coins.”
“But I thought....”
“STEVEN gave his to your family, I kept mine.”

“That’s not what I meant. I thought we were going to use yours for the technical equipment we would need.”

“I WAS, but we need it here. We would not be able to get to castle Clina and home if we could not pass for normal here. I shall think of some way to replace them later.”

“Can you not just magic some up?” Johnathon gave the boy such a look of reproach that he squirmed “I do not work that way, Richard, you know that. That would be dishonest.”

“Yeah, sorry” he mumbled.

That night they sat around the campfire and talked. They decided to seem less conspicuous the four would use their real names and Richard would be called Rickard and Cathrine would be Teala.


The next day Rickard and Teala borrowed Santon and Silton’s grey cloaks and hoods and followed Chelerick to the nearby small village and into the markets. It was crowded for such a small place and reminded Rickard of the flea markets in his native New Australia.

With their faces and clothes hidden deep in the hood and cloaks they follower the sorcerer through the crowds towards a certain stall.

Here they saw a tall man with building muscles and no teeth. The man grinned when the approached, eyeing the money pouch greedily as he spoke in Chelerick’s native language. “Greetings my lords how may I help you this fine morn?”

“Come off it, Needla. How many people do you know like me?” and he lifted the hood back so the man could see the gold cat-like eyes shinning from the darkness of the hood. The man looked both relieved and happy “Chelerick! Praise the one true god for your return!! It has been five a year!!”

When Chelerick translated for the two teenagers Rickard spoke “Our lines must be out of alignment. To them it was five years but to us it was three.” Chelerick nodded and looked back at the man. “I am here for our belongings Needla and clothes and weapons for my two companions here.”

“Aye sir. Right this way sir!!”

The man led them to the back of the tent to a dark section. While Rickard and Teala tried on clothes and armour the man told Chelerick all that had happened since he and his son plus Santon and Silton were gone. Then while Rickard went through the swords to find one right for him Chelerick got changed.

When he joined the two teenagers he was dressed in his sorcerers’ costume. It consisted off a white shirt and trousers under the symbolic black cloak and hood; edged with gold magic symbols done with careful thread. The black was the highest-level sorcerer meaning not evil but fully trained and the highest level to reach. But it was also the rarest and only a few were patient enough or strong enough in power to reach this level.

Around his waist and under the cloak was a thick leather belt with various small leather pouches with various magical devices, books and one holding a miniature torch and some spare batteries. It was a device Chelerick always carried with him since discovering it, for it still amazed him. He could use it to read his books of a night.

Getting Santon and Silton’s belongings they payed Needla and left, heading back to camp in silence. Once the two had changed Chelerick shrunk their original clothes and put them safely into one empty pouch.

They then left.


Four days later they were travelling with no danger or seeing no other ‘human’ life for during that time. That was until the fifth day when they rounded a bend in the road to see a strange battle going on ahead of them.

They saw a tall blonde haired teenaged girl hardly much older than them and wearing silver armour, fighting some strange half-men half-snake. She used a sword and a heavy-looking shield as she tried to protect a figure in robes similar to Chelerick’s, only purple. He was slumped against a tree, one hand gripping an arrow through its shoulder and the other limp by its side. The figure was a man, that’s all they could tell by the visible hands and was trying to weakly remove the arrow, his face hidden deep in it’s hood as Chelerick’s was.

A strange staff similar to Chelerick’s was lent against the tree next to him. When he touched the pained wood the light purple and red crystal would light up slightly red, but then quickly fade, as the sorcerer was too weak to concentrate and heal himself.

To the group it was obvious most the snake-men were dead because of the sorcerer, for the bore the tell-tale burn marks of an staff-laser as Rickard had taken to calling the spell. “What are they?” Silton asked softly and curiously, Chelerick answered “Seecans. They are Yuman’s magically-created soldiers.”

“We’ve got to help them!” Teala exclaimed and the others agreed. Chelerick took charge “Teala and Rickard and Silton plus Santon you all help the girl. Cheleron and I will go and aid the man. Be careful and watch each others back.”

They nodded and the two warriors and mutant drew their swords and ran into the thick of battle, while Teala fired arrows for the side. Chelerick and his son headed towards the hurt sorcerer. The teenager saw them and asked in Kelan “Who are you?”

Rickard only knew a little of the language-what Silton was teaching him, and Silton was unused to speaking it after three years of solely English. So Santon answered, “we are allies and we hope soon to be friends. We have come to help you. Who are YOU?”

“I am Tieka and the sorcerer is my father Sassel. We were on our way to Castle Clina when thy Seecans’ attacked us. My father managed to destroy quiet a few before they got him with an arrow and I am too busy to aid him. He may die!!”

“Do not worry about him now. We have our own sorcerer who will aid him. Go to him, we will stop these things for you.” Without a protest the girl sheathed her sword and headed to her father. From the corner of her eyes she saw a young girl her age firing arrows from the side of the battle, a perfect shot with each and wearing brown leather boots and skirt with a sleeveless chain-mail.

A black-robed sorcerer bent over her father, a child in strange clothes standing nearby.

The child said something in another language to the man who said something back sharply and the child was quiet. Tieka stopped to watch him silently, knowing how rare black robed sorcerers were, her father had told her very few were powerful enough to reach that stage and so she was curious as to what he was going to do.

The man moved his hood back slightly so she could see the pair of gold cat-like eyes shinning from the depths and also whiffs of shoulder length black hair showing. But the rest of his face was hidden in the darkness of the hood. The black robed sorcerer placed a fingertip lightly on the metal head of the arrow and the gold eyes closed, murmuring the soft words of a spell she didn’t recognise. As she watched the head of the arrow melted and drip onto the grass.

When it was gone the man’s eyes opened and he folded his fingers around the end, yanking the shaft out before she could protest.

The purple robed others eyes sprang open-the same blue of Tieka's-and he cried out in pain, collapsing back into unconsciousness in the others arms. He caught him and laid him out gently on the grass, away from the puddle of liquid metal. He then reached into one pouch and took out some sweet-smelling herbs. After murmuring a few words in the language of magic he started to sprinkle them over the arrows’ exit wound, then the bloody and torn robes.

As Tieka watched in awe the blood faded from the robes. The exit wound started to close in front of her, knitting together and healing. She could see bone, flesh and skin moving and folding, even the torn purple robes repairing it self. He then turned to the entrance wound and that too began to heal. When the man finally drew back the other was healed and sleeping deeply. He even had some colour in his pale cheeks.

She started forward again and the man sat back and signed wearily, looking up as she crouched beside him. Surprise and disbelief as well as relief were on her face. “How?” she asked, was all she could manage to speak.

“I used a healing spell of my own making. He will sleep and when he awakens he shall feel strong and refreshed-as if nothing happened. Tell me how this happened?” While she explained the sorcerer moved his hood over his face again and took the child in his left arm almost protectively and lovingly, right gripping the staff.

Tieka was confused. She knew it was the place of women to raise the children, not men. So why then was he different? Had he taken the child from its mother to raise in the ways of magic, or had the mother abandoned or given it up-or worse-the mother was dead. The child was huddled deep in a grey cloak and hood with small arms around the man’s waist, and it was obvious the two felt deeply for each other. But were they related? Maybe a father and son? Did the child know or remember its mother? Tieka couldn’t see the sorcerer’s face, so she couldn’t check if they were alike.

When she had finished the sorcerer spoke out from the depths of the black hood “Why were YOU headed for Castle Clina?”

For the first time Tieka was suspicious of this figure “Why do you wish to know? What is it to you? Who are you?” A sudden thought hit her “art you and your companions working for Youman?”

“No we are not, I assure you. My companions and I have merely been away for five years. We only know a little of what is going on, what we learnt on Sawer.”

“No wonder, Sawer is a village in the midst of mountains and gullies. It is hard to get to there, the snake-men have not found it yet. I am sorry for suspecting you but my father and I are on our way there to rescue my twin. Youman kidnapped him to keep father from joining the rebels against him. We were going to get him out and any other person who wished to join us.”

“You truly think you are both powerful enough to get in there and out alone, young one? Especially with so many hurt or maybe dying, with perhaps thousands of snake-men guarding it. How simple do you believe that to be.”

“I see what you mean now. We do not have a chance do we.”

“You did not before but imagine how powerful you shall be with a black robed sorcerer and five warriors by your side.” Tieka looked at him curiously “you would aid us? But why, what is in it for you and your companions?”

“First they are our people as well. Santon and Silton, myself and my son are natives of Kel. The second reason is I have need of one of the spell books there to send Rickard and Teala back to their families. I have no knowledge of the spell myself.”

“If that is all it be, we would be glad of the aid and companionship.”

“I thank you,” the sorcerer said as he stood, the child still nursed close to his left side. He held his right hand out to help her up “I am Chel and this is my son Cheleron.”

“Greetings Chel. I am Tieka Gentlesoul. Thank you for aiding my father.”
“Good to meet you, young one” and he shook her hand slightly.


Tieka was relieved when hours later her father stirred and came too. After she explained what had happened her father accepted it and as they sat down for a break he and the black robed sorcerer sat down to talk. She watched them for a while but when both brought out their spell books and started disguising them she quickly lost interest and watched the boy Rickard.

The longer she was with them the more interested she got in this blond boy. By form and feature he resembled an Elf, but he was human. Or was he? There was something about him that drew her towards him-but she couldn’t explain why. Did he have some sorcerers talent they didn’t know of or was it her? After all her father was one and so had her mother been and so had her grandparents.

Then what was it she was sensing from him?

She decided to see her father about it and when the other sorcerer had left him to see the older warrior she came over to him. “How are you feeling father?” she asked first, sitting by his side. He smiled gently at her, his blue eyes-so much like hers and her twins shinning with warmth and love. “I am fine now, my daughter.”

“That is good then,” she said softly as she let her head rest against the tree behind her, face thoughtful. “What is wrong daughter?” he asked her softly, looking her deep in the face. “I can sense conflict in your thoughts.”

“It’s that boy, father” she motioned at the blonde boy “I get a feeling of being drawn to him, like love and can’t resist, or he is luring me to him. What could it be?”

“Chel explained that to me” Sassel said to his daughter. “They said that the boy has power he does not know he has or can possibly learn to control yet. Part of that power is an experience he had with the soul of another that left him with the peace of the afterlife. THAT is what is luring you, that promise of peace.”

“Makes sense father” she said softly and thoughtfully “thank you.”
He nodded and smiled and she left him as the other sorcerer came back.

They had a surprising experience a days or so later. They were attacked by some snake-men when Rickard was grabbed from behind and they started to drag him away. Tieka went to try and help him, hearing the younger warrior Silton cry out in fear for his friend’s life when something happened. There was a feel of sudden power increase around him, his face full of fear when the snake-men froze.

Confused the boy moved to sit up. There was a small movement beside him and a shape flew up to hover in front of him, gibbering something they couldn’t understand. The boy froze and asked softly something she couldn’t understand but the other boy could “what? What did you say?”

“Rick? You could understand her?” Chel asked as the snake-men fled and they started to join him. “Yeah. Why should I not? What is it?” The creature gibbered again and he looked at it “sorry, her. What is she?”

“They are called Ossla, but you would call their kind Butterfly-fairies. They only aid those most powerful sorcerers who can call them and understand their tongue. Somehow your mutant abilities let you call her for aid.”

“But what do I do with her Chel?” Rickard looked up at the black robed sorcerer “how did I get rid of her?” The miniature feminine figure gibbered angrily at this and Rickard frowned as he continued “Chel?”

“The Ossla only do what they want when they want. She will leave your side only when she wishes.”

“Try telling her to go away,” Silton suggested. When the mutant boy did the female only gibbered, tiny arms crossed over her chest stubbornly. “Tell her what we’re doing” Santon said “everything. Maybe when she realises what danger we’re all in she’ll change her mind. Then tell her where you’re from and that she won’t be able to come with you when we go back.”

“I will try” he started talking to it but the female interrupted. When she had finished he sighed and said “all right.” He looked at them and said “she said she will come with us and what happens when we win we will see then.”

They accepted this and helped the boy to his feet, starting off. When they reached the sunlight the creature suddenly jerked and flew under Rickard’s chain-mail shirt. The boy yelped, startled, and tried to shake it out. Chel grabbed his arm and said soothingly “calm down Rickard, she means only to hide from the sunlight.”

The boy took a few minutes to calm down, showing that side they had only seen very rarely. It was a side that feared any sought of touch or closeness; the side that had made him flip Silton when he had first awoke. And again they found themselves wondering why.

Finally he looked up at Chel numbly and said “hi... hide? Why? Why hide here in my...under my clothes?”

“Because the Ossla were all born and raised deep inside forests such as this.” He motioned at the trees they had just come out off. “They have never been in direct sunlight before. It would be hurting her eyes and she wishes to use you to shade them, that is all” Chel spoke soothingly to him.

“That is all?” he frowned, recovering. “Yes my young friend” Chel said gently “you are her friend, she came for you and assumed you would protect her.” This got Rickard. His face creased in determination and he stroked the spot where the tiny creature rested as if calming her as well as himself. “Then I will protect her like the friend she proved me her to be by saving my life.”

Chel nodded and they started off, the boy and creature conversing often during the long journey and even Tieka could tell that the boy and creature were getting close. He even seemed to telling the thing secrets about himself, when she found him lagging behind the group and his face a war of emotions. She lagged once and asked gently “what is her name?”

When he frowned in confusion, not understanding, she pointed to the lump and said softly “name?” Understanding came to his eyes and he smiled, saying softly “Rathir.”

Accepting this she pointed to herself and said softly “Tieka Gentlesoul” before pointing questioningly at him. He frowned and glanced at the black robed sorcerer but she shook her head and pointed questioningly at him again. Finally he sighed and answered “Rickard Simpson.”

The name only confused her. What was a Simpson? Why did he have a name like that when it was suppose to match his soul? She asked softly “Simpson?” and again the boy glanced at the man ahead of them.

“Rickard’s people do not believe in the same as we do,” said a voice behind them and Santon strode up, the boy looking relieved at the sight of him.

Tieka was horrified “you mean they don’t believe in the one true God? They worship another or more than one? But that is blasphemous! How could you be with such a person! They could influence you away from the rightous path!!” Santon looked at her angrily and for a minute Tieka feared he would hurt her. Then he said gently “No I don’t mean that. I mean they don’t believe in matching their entire names to their soul, only the first name. Their world has too many souls there for such a thing to happen.”

“Then what do thou do? What means Simpson?”

“I’m not sure what it means but their people believe in the name being something to inherit from their family as well as their belongings and so on, like a title would in this world.”

Tieka frowned thoughtfully “you mean he inherited the Simpson from his father?”

“Yes” Santon smiled, pleased she understood “When a woman marries and mates she changes her last name from her fathers to her husbands to show she is now a part of his family. Only men can keep their last names from their father officially. Women who have yet to marry keep theirs and so do many others who have power.”

Tieka frowned again “what if their family is tarnished-say the father is evil and cruel? What would the child do then?”

“It depends on the age of the child. If they are old enough to survive out on their own they can change their last name to whatever they wish.”

“Take their mother’s last name as their own?” Tieka asked curiously and Santon nodded “you have got the idea of it all.”
“What if the child is too young?”

“If the child is too young and the rulers see the child is being mistreated they can take the child away and give it to another family. The child then takes their name as if they were born there. Rickard's family have a child such as that, except Peter has been allowed by the parents to keep his mothers-mothers last name as an ode to his dead parents.”

“Why if he was mistreated by them and taken away?”

“That is another story but he was not mistreated-they both loved him enough to give their own lives to protect their only child. Rickard’s parents were given the boy by the man who saved him and tried to save them. They raise him for him and the dead parents.”

Rickard interrupted with something she couldn’t understand and the older warrior nodded and replied before turning back to her. “What is it?” she asked curiously, eying the boy for anything wrong and stopping for an instant on the moving lump under his chain mail.

“Nothing. Rickard merely reminded me that Peter’s parents had been thieves who discovered each other and decided to be together and give up when they had been doing to start a family-Peter-when they had been killed. They were atoning for their sins when they were killed by a.... runaway heard of horses and Peter was rescued.”

That saddened Tieka who said she’d pray for them. “No need” he smiled “I have it on good authority that their souls made up for their sins and they are with their families with god.” Tieka felt better about this and said “and I can see that Rickard shall one day suit his name.”

“What do you mean?” Santon frowned at her.

She looked at him thoughtfully. “Father said I have a gift of telling people’s soul even after only meeting them for a few seconds. His name means strong king or ruler. I have the feel from him that his future will make him an extremely powerful being. Only I can not tell in what way.”

Santon frowned at the boy who was again talking to the creature down his shirt, walking by their side. Could that be why he was here, why he and the others would willingly abandon their home time just to be with him? Could he possibly become one of the leading powers in his time and they his followers? Santon had heard of common folk in his time who have rose to power as leaders in their land, but could Richard’s future make him one of them?

Santon couldn’t imagine it, not THIS boy. Not with his instinctive fear of being touched and dark secret past. He had seen people in the boy’s time who had tried and been tossed aside before they had gotten anywhere and they had seemed better to the boy is so many ways.

But watching his son follow the boy, the total willingness in his face to go with the boy through hell or high water he doubted his own feelings on the matter.

Besides, the girl was the daughter of a sorcerer and probably had some future-see abilities she didn’t know off.

They encountered many of the snake-men war parties as they went on but the group would flatten them. Even the Ossla made use of herself, shooting around and freezing the enemy wherever she was needed or saw someone was in trouble and even planting herself to the creatures faces with her wings blocking their sight long enough for them to dispatch the magically created soldiers.

However she very rarely left the boys side even though she had admitted to him at one point that she was better use away here and there during the fights and he told her to do so whenever she could. He told her he didn’t need her to be with him every second and to do whatever she needed otherwise-finding herself food and relieving herself and even bathing in the dew of a flower of a misty morning.

Some nights she made herself a use to the sorcerer too for Tieka found her playing with the child while his father read or talked to Sassel or even eating. She would fly into his clothes and tickle him or hide or even gently flap her sensitive wings against his body, causing him to giggle again.

But something more noticeable was happening to the blond boy with her presence.

He seemed to be relaxing more with the others, laughing with Silton and even only flinching with touch instead of freaking out. When Santon asked him about it he only shrugged and grinned briefly before saying “who would of thought some creature of magic could be a better therapist than those paid to do it.”

When Santon asked him about when he did therapy he said quietly “A few years before you all turned up.”

“Why?” the muscular man asked, surprised he was even willing to talk so far about his mysterious past as he was now. The boy only shrugged and turned away to start collecting firewood, closing the subject by turning his back on him.

Santon went to Chel with this new information and the sorcerer frowned thoughtfully “it seems there is more to our young friends’ past then what we have heard and what Lance and Dale do not seem to wish to tell us.”

“But what could that be Chel? What’s so bad that they won’t tell us, as close as we’ve all become. We’re like family to each other now. What would they hide from us and make Rick like he is instead of a normal boy-other than being a mutant and more intelligent I mean.”

“I do not know, my friend. We can only wait for them to be ready to tell us.”

“I know” Santon sighed “but all this and the few clues we’re getting. It’s like they expect us to work it out ourselves with just feelings and a few hints.”

“I know” the black robed sorcerer sighed “we shall work it out my friend, even if it takes us the rest of our lives and when we do we shall find a way to help them.” Santon was confused by this “What do you mean help THEM?”

“I get the feeling from them they have yet to accept what ever it is themselves. Perhaps when they are ready to tell us they shall. However I have the feeling that Richard shall never accept this thing. It has scared his soul and mind so badly that he is unable to heal fully. Rathir is helping him face it but he shall never accept it fully. I think Richard shall never truly be able to accept the physical and mental love of a woman, perhaps truly return it but he shall try very hard to do so and be worthy of it.”

Santon frowned at the boy. Chel’s words disturbed him, especially when he was noticing the way the boy was staring thoughtfully at Cathrine and the way she sneaked coquettish glances his way when he looked away. Could the sorcerer be right? Would the boy never truly fall in love with a woman?

Would Cathrine’s attention for the past year really come to nothing? Even though the boy was on the verge of manhood he had never paid attention to girls like Cathrine, unlike his own son who had followed Cathrine around like a lost lamb until he noticed where her attention was going.

What could have happened to the boy in his youth that would traumatize him enough to fear touch and reject his bodies’ natural urges? Unable to find the answer he shrugged his huge shoulders. Chel was right they had the rest of their lives to find out. He gathered his sword, called Silton to him and the two went out to hunt dinner.