I glanced at the next letter. Who's Brom? Who's Zihark? Who's Boyd? Who's Kieran? I...well I know Gatrie. But...who the hell is Steve R.?
I spent most of the evening running around trying to locate every recipient to every letter, and believe me, it was a task from hell. By the end of it, just before nightfall, I nearly forgot I had legs. And to top it all off, I still had one damn letter left. Of course, it wasn't just any old letter. It was addressed to Ike, from Aimee, and it had a stupid, dumb, ugly heart stamp on it. Just looking at the thing was enough to make me cringe, and I was tempted to destroy the envelope in my hands right then and there, but I was better than that. Instead, I pocketed it for the time being and calmly dismissed the two guards that had been escorting me.
I had to get to Ike. Alone. Not only to deliver that love letter, but also to inform him of the note I received from the shadow; private business that I didn't think random guards had the right to know.
He's got to be done with that war meeting by now, I panicked, feeling dread build up within me as the last bit of daylight faded away.
Shoving my hands in the deep pockets of my robes, I scanned the camp through the ever-growing darkness to try and find him. I was already pretty close to the fort, so I figured I would start there.
Perhaps he's in his room now, I thought, hurrying along the outside wall toward the entrance. As I approached the front corner of the building from the side, I heard his voice faintly coming from around that same corner, causing my heart rate to accelerate. I was focused on nothing else except reaching him and delivering the news, but something stopped me in my tracks before I rounded the bend. It was the voice of Aimee. Quickly halting my movements, I held my breath and stood with my back pressed against the wall, carefully listening in on their conversation as I felt my innards twist.
"My, you're so handsome in the moonlight," Aimee spoke playfully over the soft chirps of crickets.
My chest tightened and squeezed at her words. I couldn't bear to hear anything beyond that, but at the same time, I couldn't turn away. I fully expected to hear Ike readily flirt back, but when he finally responded to her advances, it wasn't at all what I thought would happen.
"Listen, Aimee," his words were unexpectedly cold. "You crossing paths with me has no special meaning. I just happened to be here." He actually sounded more annoyed than anything.
After hearing that, I could feel a slight bit of hope return to me, as I was nearly certain that they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend. But their conversation wasn't over just yet, so I leaned in closer to the source of their voices and continued listening in.
The woman tee-heed. "You must be blind to not see it! Us becoming one...it's destiny! I can feel it right...here."
Ike gasped. "Get your hand off me, woman," he spat.
I was just beginning to feel better about the situation, as though my soul itself was rising up, but the exchange that followed sent me crashing all the way back down.
Aimee laughed again. "Oh my, the way your hand holds my wrist. So romantic."
The boy sighed heavily. "Look. I'm not interested in a relationship with you, or with anyone for that matter. Especially not now, ok?"
His words echoed in my mind, and the sinking feeling returned. Yeah, not like I had a chance anyway.
"So please, just give up this ardor you have for me, will you?" Ike continued angrily.
Despite that very clear rejection, the woman's flirtatious attitude persisted. "You'll warm up to me eventually, Ikey. And when you do, I'll be waiting," she said in a sing-songy voice before disappearing into the night.
The general sighed again. "Man. Another reason to look forward to this war's end," he muttered under his breath, and his footsteps started to approach my location rather quickly.
Still feeling crushed from what I heard, I remained as motionless as a statue against the wall.
Ike's footsteps stopped abruptly once he rounded the corner and noticed my petrified form. "Oh, Serena," he said, sounding mildly surprised. "What are you doing?"
Although his voice sounded somewhat tender and warm, mine was monotonous and empty. "Here." I weakly pulled Aimee's note out of my pocket and handed it over, keeping my other hand secured on the shadow's letter. My brain was telling me to speak up and show him that letter immediately, but for some reason, I didn't yet have the energy to say more than a few words to him or do anything other than stare.
He scanned Aimee's envelope, and his neutral expression quickly morphed into a scowl. "Damn. This is from her," Ike whispered to himself, then raised his volume. "Thanks. Did you get everything else delivered?"
I forced a painful looking smile. "Yep," I said, handing over the sac as my face reverted to an obvious frown.
Noticing my expression, Ike nearly mimicked it without even realizing. "Something wrong?" He sounded genuinely concerned.
Yeah. I just eavesdropped on your private conversation and found out that you're not interested in anyone, so I'm sad that I can never be with the one beorc I actually kinda sorta really like. And I have a super scary letter from the guy we've been after! I should probably tell him that now. "Nah, I'm fine."
Something told me he didn't believe me at all. "You sure? If there's something bothering you, I'd be happy to help."
We stood staring at each other in silence for a few seconds before I gathered up enough courage to say something. "Actually, I got a le—"
"Oh wait," Ike interrupted me at the worst possible time. "I came up with an idea to help you feel more prepared for the battle tomorrow."
Oh dammit. I almost forgot about that, I thought. Effectively silenced, I lost all my courage once again.
"Follow me." He turned around and proceeded towards the fort's entrance.
As I walked just a few feet behind him, I began to grow more restless with each passing second. My mind was screaming at me to try telling him about the letter now, but once again, the rest of me refused to cooperate. I needed to find the right time, and that moment definitely wasn't it.
Immediately after I had those thoughts, footsteps began approaching us from a nearby tent. They were silent and small, but they had power behind them. "Hello, Ike," Soren's cold voice spoke as he slid to the general's other side. He stared at me with his glowing red eyes, as if he were studying me. Analyzing me. I could almost see the thoughts and judgements populating his head, but he didn't say a word to me.
Ike stopped in his tracks and looked over at the mage. "Ah, there you are Soren," he smiled.
Uh oh. This had better not be what I think it is, I thought.
"Serena, how late do you normally stay up?" Ike asked, turning to me.
I glanced at Soren, then at Ike, then worriedly back at Soren. "Depends. I'd say I've got another hour or so left in me. Why?"
Ike turned to Soren. "Remember what I told you. Anything you can think to perfect in her would be of great value right now."
I was right. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be.
Soren stayed silent for a moment. "In just an hour? I don't even know what I'm working with here."
Slightly frustrated, Ike sighed. "Trust me, she's already a good mage. I just want her to be as ready as she can be."
The red eyed mage stayed quiet again, carefully thinking about his next response. "Alright," he groaned, closing his eyes. "Let's go to the training grounds. There are still plenty of people out practicing." He opened his eyes and glared at me once more.
Clearly they had been talking about me at some point that night, but I had a feeling they had many more conversations about me than I realized. But what about? That was what bugged me the most. What could Ike have possibly said to Soren to make him agree to help me this time?
The three of us walked to the location as I pondered restlessly, and the atmosphere felt incredibly tense. Nobody uttered a word, and I could still feel Soren's intense focus on me.
When we reached the wide-open spot, the unnerving feeling grew as the mage separated me from Ike. Rather than accompany us, our general simply stood back and observed us from afar.
Once we were far enough away, Soren turned to me. "You're an...earth mage, yes? As you may have already seen, I'm a wind mage, so I can't exactly help you strengthen your powers directly. Instead, I'd like to see your technique." His eyes locked onto me as he awaited my move.
Nervously, I pulled out my Jörð tome and aimed at the dark grass a few feet in front of us. With a flick of my wrist, the stony spikes shot up from the soil.
"Do it again," Soren commanded, analyzing my every move like a cat watching its prey.
In an effort to prove myself and impress the mage, I channeled more of my energy into the spell, effectively doubling the amount of rock spikes that appeared from the ground. After the attack, my breath became just a little more labored, and I could feel myself becoming exhausted from the extra effort.
"Why did your spell look stronger that time?" Soren probed.
"Uhh," I paused, remembering what the other Masters had preached long ago: magic comes from within. "I just dedicated more of my focus to the attack," I said, starting to slouch a little.
Soren's expression hardened as he power walked right up next to me so he could study my motions more closely. He was practically breathing down my neck at this point. "Try to repeat it."
I did as he asked, managing to generate quite a few spikes that time, but noticeably fewer than the previous attempt. By the end of the summon, I was literally panting.
"I see it now," Soren said quietly. "You're doing it all wrong," he criticized.
But this is literally what I've been doing forever. How is it wrong? I thought to myself, frustrated.
"If you're truly that good, let's see if you pick up on this. Watch me first." Soren stepped away from me and whipped out a Rexcalibur tome: one of the strongest wind tomes out there. After he chanted the words, he didn't immediately launch the attack like I thought he would. Instead, he charged it up and let it simmer for a brief moment. Then, he unleashed an incredibly powerful blast of wind, sending dead leaves and splinters flying high into the air. Immediately after that, a dim light literally flashed from his eyes, and he attacked again within a split second, with the exact same intensity. And what I found more impressive was that he didn't even break a sweat.
"How...how did you do that?" I gasped.
Soren closed his tome. "I draw my energy from a different source. It's one thing to just say your spell and then command the attack. That's the most basic skill out there. Every mage knows how to do that." The mage sealed his ruby eyes for a moment. "But most mages don't improve beyond that level. And that's why their attacks are weak," he said condescendingly.
What does he mean by a different source? Is he subtly calling me weak?! I thought.
"You at least know about enhancing your attack's power by using an energy source, I'll give you that, but you're not getting it from the right place," Soren stated bluntly. "That's why you get exhausted so easily."
Damn, he picked up on everything. "Well, what do I do, then?"
"You should draw energy from an existing source that's outside yourself. You only have so much of your own energy to spare, so if that's all you use, you will never improve, no matter how focused you are." Soren opened his tome once more. "For example, since I'm using wind magic, I use the air around me as my energy source. Of course I still use some of my own energy, but that only comes in during the final step, after I've already drawn in the energy from the air. My body instead acts as a channel rather than the main source."
Never in all my years as a Master had I heard of such a technique, so listening to Soren talk about it so proficiently and intelligently was incredible and truly eye opening.
"Because you use earth magic, try to draw your energy from the ground, or the plants or something. Allow yourself to become what channels the ground's energy, not what feeds it."
His advice resonated with me. Perhaps it was time I defied the teachings of the Masters. Perhaps it was time the ground gave back. So, keeping Soren's words in mind, I opened Jörð again. At first, I wasn't sure exactly how I was supposed to accomplish this new technique, but then I thought back to when I was fleeing from the bandits that one time; when I felt some kind of wild energy coursing through my veins from the ground. I was somehow able to run so far and so fast, and climb a seemingly unclimbable tree that day. I opened up my mind, letting the wild flood into me again, and I felt this strange surge within me. An energizing feeling that kept building and building and building...until I cast my spell. This time, gigantic rock spikes, bigger and sharper than I have ever seen them, emerged from the earth with many smaller ones rippling outwards from the attack site. That had never happened before! And even more amazingly, it was almost effortless. How did I do that? I gawked at my own hand, unable to comprehend my power.
I glanced at Soren, and for the first time, he actually looked shocked. Mystified. Even Ike looked more amazed than usual.
"That's the ticket, then," Soren said. "Do it again."
Before casting my spell, I looked at Ike, and more recent memories filled my mind. I remembered the day he took me into the forest after I had lost so much faith in my abilities. I felt so weak at that moment, but when he caught my swaying body, it was like I had a new rush of confidence. At the time, it just felt like a sudden warmth, but it may have been more than that. Looking at him again, I felt the same warmth, most of which accumulated within my chest and on my face. Then, when the moment was right, I cast another powerful spell as if it was nothing at all. It was quite literally like magic.
My powers...better than I've ever seen them, I thought.
"Excellent," Soren said. "I honestly didn't expect that you of all people would be able to do it, especially not this quickly." His normal, rude self made its return. "Anyway, I'm afraid we'll have to end this little training session. You should be good for tomorrow. Goodbye." He skulked away, seeming to be in a hurry to leave.
I wasn't ready for him to leave yet, however. I wanted to talk to him more. What did he mean he didn't expect me to do it? Why would he want to try teaching it to me anyway? Where did he learn this brilliant technique? "Wait, I..." It was too late. Soren had already rudely walked off by the time I was able to gather my thoughts. I looked to Ike, who was now walking toward me. "Wh...what was that about? Why did he just walk off like that?" I asked him nervously. Did I do something wrong?
"That's just him. He gets kind of impatient and cranky when he's tired." Noticing my nervous posture, he paused. "But anyway, I'm impressed. How were you able to improve so quickly?" He asked as we started walking back to the fort.
"I'm not sure." I wasn't really paying attention to the route we were taking, so if I ever had to find my way back again, I would be screwed. "He told me I had to draw energy from somewhere other than myself, so I kind of tried to refocus my mind, if that makes sense." It was difficult for me to explain the technique as well as Soren did.
"Refocus your mind?"
"Yeah. Instead of trying to control the earth with just my mind, I had to feel the earth and channel its energy. Also positive feelings amplify it, I think." Maybe I was only making sense to myself.
"I'm sorry, you lost me." Ike struggled to comprehend the words that were exiting my oral cavity. To be fair though, if he put a sword in my hand, I wouldn't have the slightest idea what to do with it. "What kind of positive feelings? Happiness?"
I stopped for a moment. Not exactly happiness. I or anyone around me could be as happy as they wanted, but that never seemed to do anything. Then I thought about that warmth I sometimes felt around Ike. It usually happened when I was at a low point, and it wasn't something I had ever felt before meeting him. Maybe I was harnessing some other kind of energy without even realizing it. Did my slight feelings for the general (no matter that they were unrequited) somehow allow me to channel energy from him? No, that didn't seem right. I blushed. "Um...not quite. I...I'm not entirely sure," my voice quieted.
Before I knew it, we were in front of the door to my bedroom from earlier. We stood in the stone hallway in silence for a brief moment. The large windows on the wall opposite to the bedroom doors allowed moonlight to flood in and softly backlight the general who stood before me. Behind him, the silhouettes of trees danced in the light and cast their shadows onto the stone floor of the hallway.
Ike sighed. "This is it," he said, calmly looking into my eyes.
"Oh. Uh..." I had to tell him about the letter.
"The stakes are high tomorrow," he continued.
"Huh?"
"Tomorrow's battle is the deciding factor. An entire year of effort has come down to this. We can't lose this."
"We...uh...we won't." I shifted nervously on my feet as I prepared to break the news to him.
"How do you know?" Ike asked, slight concern tainting his normally confident demeanor.
In truth, I didn't know. I was honestly just as worried as he was, if not more. I didn't know the enemy nearly as well as Ike did, and the threat from the shadow, I felt, spelled disaster. But despite all that, I thought it would be nice of me to reassure him for once, like he had done for me. "I mean, you guys have come this far. If you can handle all that without losing sight of your goal, I'm sure you can handle what's to come tomorrow."
"I know, but...Ashnard. He won't be like anything we've faced so far. Anything could happen, you know. We're not invincible." The boy furrowed his brow. "Any one of us could die tomorrow."
"I don't wanna die. I don't want any of you to die either," I frowned.
"I know. I'm just saying we should all try to be on top of our game and be ready for anything." The general's gaze intensified. "Don't drop your guard under any circumstances."
"Oh believe me I won't," I said, clenching my fist.
"That's the spirit," Ike smiled slightly, but I could tell that stress was getting to him. "Anyway, you need your rest. We have some final preparations to make in the morning and we can't have any slackers, so I expect you to be on your feet by sunrise. That's in about 7 hours."
"Jeez ok. I'm pretty tired right now, so falling asleep shouldn't be too difficult," I yawned.
"Right. Then I'll leave you to that. If you need anything, you can find me in the last room down this way, closest to the main hall. Good night." He nodded.
"Wait," I suddenly said, feeling my palms begin to sweat.
The boy stopped just as he was about to turn away, and he gazed at me intently. "Hmm? What is it?"
I paused, delicately gripping the shadow's note between my fingers. "You need to read this. We...we might be in danger." Pulling the slip of paper out of my pocket, I handed it over to Ike.
He peered down at the letter and quickly snatched it from my hand. Eying the fine ink, his blue orbs raced from side to side, anxiety flashing from within him as the words sunk in. He read it and reread it before letting the note fall from his hands onto the cold stone floor. Then, he looked back up at me. "When did you get this?" he asked sternly, almost as if he was angry at me.
"Today."
Ike stewed for a moment and shook his head. "I'm quadrupling the amount of guards tonight. We're not taking any chances at this point." His voice was overtaken by fury.
"Wh-what's gonna happen?" I asked nervously.
The boy broke eye contact and scowled down at the ground. "I don't know. But it's not going to be good." He paused. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight."
I glanced at him worriedly. "But...you can't be tired for tomorrow."
Ike shook his head again, seeming more frustrated than ever. "It doesn't matter if I am. I'll pull through. It's more important that you get your rest."
"But...now I'm all scared. I don't know if I can…"
"Try," Ike snapped. "I'm going to make sure this fort is well protected. Even if you can't fall asleep, that's fine. Just try."
It was clear to me that his mind was swarming with terrible thoughts, so I calmly obliged to spare him from the extra grief. "Ok," I said, taking one last look at his stormy eyes before backing away into my room and closing the door behind me. I threw myself into bed and just listened as Ike's troubled footsteps faded away down the hall. Believing I would never fall asleep, I laid there with my eyes wide open and continued listening for suspicious sounds. But somehow, without me even realizing it, I drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep, completely unaware of what was to come.