The Blue Scholar

Rief spent the evening with a pint of beer in his hand. He sat at the Imil inn with his friends as snow fell lightly outside. The inn was mostly empty, few traveled there so close to winter. As soon as a wanderer passed the Bilibin Cave and came into the north, the red and orange leaves of Bilibin's autumn were replaced by ice and snow.

"I hear Bilibin is at war," Lycus said. His blonde hair was still wet from the snow outside. He was a childhood friend of Rief, and only a few years older. With Rief's sister Nowell, the three would cause mischief and build snow forts. After the Grave Eclipse, Rief found Lycus to be a bit different. The easiness of their friendship just wasn't there anymore. When Rief had gone on his quest, Lycus had become a trapper. It was a common occupation for the people of Imil. At the inn, Rief noticed Lycus' hands still covered in dirt and dried blood from a day of hunting.

"War?" Rief asked his friend.

"Aye, the McCoys are going to invade Morgal."

"Where'd you hear that?" Rief asked, alarmed for his friend Sveta, who was the queen of that country. Reif calmed down when he remembered Lycus was somewhat of an unreliable source.

Lycus looked down at the beer he held with his dirty hands, "Some pilgrims passed through here. On their way to the Mercury Lighthouse."

Rief scoffed. He was skeptical. He hadn't seen a single traveler in weeks. Not since he came back from his quest with Kraden. "Whatever you say, Lycus," he said.


That night, Rief awoke to the sound of voices outside. He reached out to his night table blindly searching for his glasses. They were cold against his ears and nose. Moonlight and chill air came in from the drafty window. With his glasses and the moon's illumination he found a small piece of flint. He lit a lamp at his bedside and stood up.

In the hallway his father Crown washed his face in the basin. He was a large, built man with a thick black hair and beard. He looked nothing like Rief or Nowell, save the mouth. People always said that Crown, Rief, and Nowell all shared the same thin smile. When he saw Rief in the hallway he gave his son that smile.

"Did I wake you up?" Rief's dad asked him. Rief shook his head.

"I heard people talking outside," Rief said.

"Me too," his father said. He walked down the creaky, thin steps of the old cabin to the main floor. It was a cabin built long ago and lived in by generations of the Mercury Clan. Rief didn't mind the creakiness and having to replace rotting wood occasionally, to him the cabin was home. Besides, they never had to replace most of the wood, as it was built from powerfully long lasting trees that had been logged to death by the people of the White Point generations ago.

The cabin's door swung open before Crown got to it. Rief's mother was at the door in her blue jacket. She wiped snow from her shoulders and arms. It began to melt on the wooden floorboards as the cabin's hearth burned greedily through timber. She hung her coat on a bronze metal hook.

Crown peaked out the thin window in the front door. His long beard pressed against the door Mia had just shut. "Is anyone else out there?" he asked.

Mia gave her son a long look. Then she looked at Crown, "There was."

"Who was it?" Rief asked, genuinely curious. Imilians shut themselves in during the cold autumn nights. It was strange for Mia to be talking so late.

"Alex," she said. Alex!

"He's here? In Imil?" Crown rushed to the fireplace. Beside it was a rack of tools. He put grabbed the axe.

Mia walked across the room and put a hand on his arm, "He's gone now. He left."

"Well, we have to follow him," Crown insisted. He threw on his thick hunter's jacket and his boots without changing out of his pajamas. Rief did the same and followed his parents outside.

It was frigid. Too cold for the coat Rief had chosen. It's already time to pull out my winter coat, he thought. Slow, heavy snow fell steadily. The moon was high and it light's reflection on the fresh snow illuminated the light. Rief could immediately make out the tracks of his mother. They came from the road to central Imil. He made out one other track.

Crown knelt down beside it, "He came from out of town. And he returned the way he came. He never went into Imil."

Rief's father was a true outdoors-man. He was a trapper and a hunter. After the Golden Sun Event he was part of a group of trappers from the Bilibin area that started a new settlement near Imil. It was the first village in the White Point besides Imil in a long time.

For thousands of years no village could survive due to the seasonal flu. Imil survived only due to the diligence of the Mercury Clan. But after the Event the flu went away. Crown and his kinsmen discovered the area was ripe for hunting, and so they founded Haresville, named after the arctic hares they trapped. It was then that he met Rief's mother, while trading with Imilians, and eventually moved to Imil to be with her.

"He went southwards. Probably making for the path to the Bilibin Cave. Where do you think he's headed?" Crown continued.

"I don't know," Mia said. She looked down at the snow and then back up at the road, to the south.

Rief paused for a moment, unsure how to ask his question. "What did he say?" he said.

She looked at Rief, "He said he had reasons for what he did. He wouldn't say what they were, he just wanted me to know he had them."

"Do you believe him?" Crown asked.

Mia didn't answer. She kept looking. She stared intensely. Rief turned his attention to where she was looking. Imil was built on a small hill, so he could see far. Rolling, snowy hills spotted with pine forests covered the landscape. If it were day Rief would be able to make out the mountains, far in the distance covered in thick haze. It seemed Mia was staring at them.

"We have to follow him," Crown looked up at the sky, "before the snows cover his tracks. We should leave now."

"I can't," Mia said, "I have to find Megan. She still hasn't come home. Justin and I are leaving in the morning to find her."

Rief had completely forgotten about Megan, "Dad and I can go."

"No. You need to stay here. Imil needs to have the Mercury Clan here," Mia said.

"I'll go alone then," Rief's dad offered.

Mia shook her head again, "No one will follow him. He's too dangerous. Besides, it's possible he only came so that we would follow him. It might be a trap."

All three were silent. After thinking on what Mia had said Crown spoke up, "If you think it's best, Mia. We'll stay."

Crown typically followed Mia's lead. He was somewhat of a leader among his own people, the hunters of Harseville and the farmers of his home village near Bilibin. But Crown was also a humble man, and here in Imil, Mia was the town's chief leader. As the leader of the Mercury Clan, her wisdom was respected in all aspects of village life and decisions. She was one of the Warriors of Vale.

Rief found it sometimes difficult to follow his father's lead in this regard. A howl of wind chilled Rief to the bone. After it had gone he found he was still shaking. Rief found himself remembering the horrible memories. In his mind's eye he saw Alex deep in the Alchemy Dynamo, knowingly helping to start the Grave Eclipse. He saw the bodies of its victims. He's a villain. There can't possibly be a good reason for starting the Eclipse, Rief thought.

"We can't just let him go," Rief said, "We've seen what he's capable of."

"We have to son. He absorbed a part of the Golden Sun itself. And the Wise One bestowed the rest into Isaac. Isaac is the only one who can stop Alex. I'll send a raven to Mount Aleph and Kalay immediately to warn him," Mia said.

It's not good enough. Maybe Alex isn't even that powerful. If he was so powerful why didn't he stop us at Apollo's Lens? Surely he would have if he was able, Rief thought. He respected his mother enough not to speak. She was the matriarch of the Mercury Clan. She knew Alex better than any of them. It was her cousin. In some ways Alex raised her from when she was only five years old. He had to believe his mother knew what she was doing.

Crown finally stopped inspecting Alex's tracks. He stood up and stretched his back and arms, "Let's go to bed then. No point standing out here in the cold."

The family went into their old red cabin. Mia stoked the fire and it blazed warmer against the chill night. Rief lay down on his cot and fell asleep immediately. He dreamed of a pitch black night during the Grave Eclipse. He was alone, trying to save a farmer's family from the endless Shadow Beasts, each with the face of Alex.


In the morning Rief got up with the rising sun. The snows had finally stopped and in Imil the villagers were setting out to accomplish their daily tasks. In the winter, most Imilians hunted and fished for whatever food they didn't have in their cellars from the summer. This winter they'd have to work harder than most. Not much farming could be done during the summer due to the Grave Eclipse.

Rief saw men and women so old they could barely cast a line ice fishing for their families. Children worked on traps for arctic hares and whatever else they could find in the wintry forests. Others fletched arrows and sharpened skinning knives. Then there were the men and women brushing the heavy snow off the thatch roofs to prevent cave ins. Imil was hard at work, and the sun was barely raised.

When they arrived at Justin and Megan's house his three children were engaged in their own tasks. The oldest sharpened the spikes of an animal trap while the two younger ones husked corn. They smiled and leaped when they saw Rief. He enjoyed their company.

Kim jumped and hugged him. Her blonde ponytail came undone. "Tell us a story," she shouted. Rief had told the kids many stories, some not completely true, about his journey south.

"Maybe later," he said.

Justin emerged from the home. He was dressed in a thick winter jacket lined with wolf fur, like his mother's. A traveling coat, Rief thought. Rief could see no weapons but suspected they were stowed safely away under his heavy coat. At his pack was a large pack with a rolled up blanket attached.

Mia was similarly dressed. "You're ready then?" she asked. Justin just nodded.

He knelt down and hugged each of his children. He told them to be good for their grandparents. The youngest, Michael, cried loudly to his older siblings embarrassment. To the oldest, Dirk, Justin gave a small knife. Dirk gave the most solemn nod an eleven year old could give. Rief shook his head, it was sad for a boy so young to need a knife. Rief only had a knife when he turned fourteen. He supposed times were changing.

Mia hugged her husband and then her son. "Stay put Rief, Imil needs a clan member," she whispered to him. Megan is who knows where, Justin and my mom are on there way to find her. And Nowell is still with Piers. I'm the only one left, Rief thought.

With that the pair headed on the north road towards the Mercury Lighthouse. That's where they were to begin their search, because that's where Megan was initially headed. Rief, his father, and Justin's children watched as the traveler's trotted through the hills and eventually disappeared into a thick pine wood a mile off.


While his father went hunting, Rief spent the rest of the morning with the children. He helped them finish husking the corn. He taught them how to fletch arrows for the hunters. While doing so he told them a story of his travels, they were insistent on hearing one. He told them about the tree curse of Kolima Woods. Kim and Michael gasped audibly at all the twists and turns, some of them made up by Rief. Dirk mostly looked off into the distance silently, but occasionally asked Rief questions.

For lunch he took them to inn. The kind innkeeper served stew with hare, carrots, and corn. She only let Rief pay after he insisted. She needs the coin more than I do, Rief thought. She ate with Rief and the children in a wooden booth near the wall. There were no visitors in the inn, save Kraden. The old scholar had a permanent room in the inn. He paid the innkeeper in trinkets, often higher in value than the innkeeper realized, and gold he found on the road.

"He left this morning on a hike," she said when Rief asked about the scholar's whereabouts.

After lunch he sent the kids back to their grandparents who were taking care of them. He went back to the Mercury Clan cabin. He decided to spend the afternoon doing whatever hunting he could. His journey through Angara with Matt had made him more adept at the practice. He still wasn't good by any means. He dressed himself in his thick, wool coat and heavy boots. At his back he put a long hunting bow. He covered his blue hair with a fur hat and armed himself with a quiver full of freshly fletched arrows.

On the path outside his house where Mia and Alex had talked before he saw an old man approaching the cabin. Kraden. He was dressed in heavy winter gear. He trudged through the tall snow piles with an exasperated look.

Kraden laughed at the sight of Rief. "A real hunter!" he said.

"You look more ridiculous," Rief said. One of the small circular lenses of Kraden's glasses was cracked. His jacket had a long tear from shoulder to forearm. Wool was spilling out.

Kraden looked down at himself, "I suppose I do."

He frowned. "What is it?" Rief asked.

His eyes met Rief's, "I saw a traveler on the road. So I followed him. Through the woods."

"That's how you got these," Rief pointed to the jacket rip and smashed lens.

Kraden agreed, "Yes."

"So why were you following a random traveler?" Rief asked.

"Because I was suspicious. Noone has been through Imil in weeks. And, I thought it was..." he paused, "I thought it was Alex. And, I traveled with Alex for nearly a year. Before the Event. You know the story. This traveler, he walked like Alex. I thought I could see some blue hair from beneath the hood."

Lycus came running to the pair. His hunter's clothes weren't torn like Kraden's, but his blonde hair was sweaty, even in the cold night. He brushed the snow from his shirt. "Rief! I just saw Alex he was just here!"

"I know," Rief said calmly, "Kraden just saw him. And, my mother saw him last night. Right here," Rief said.

"I see," Kraden said.

"Why did you follow him, Kraden? He's dangerous," Rief said.

Kraden sighed, "He wasn't alone. He had a troop. They looked like Tuaparang."

Rief couldn't help but gasp. "Were they making haste?" Lycus asked.

Kraden nodded. Rief's mind raced. "We can't let him get away. Alone he was only one man. One traveler. But with Tuaparang... last time he was in league with them he started the Eclipse. I can't let some disaster happen again, some disaster that I could have stopped."

"I think you're going to have to put off your hunting trip," Kraden said.