Chapter Seven: The Journey Begins
In the morning, the six of them gathered once again in the throne room.
"I thank you once again, Light Warriors, for rescuing my daughter," the king said to them.
"It was nothing," Tor said.
"Indeed. My daughter seems quite taken with you, young man. Let's hope that you don't happen upon a fatal wound during your quest. Sara would be crushed to hear so," the king said.
"Um, excuse me, your majesty, but what quest?" Thol asked.
"Why, the quest to revive the orbs of course. You are the Light Warriors after all."
"You mean there's more?" Thol exclaimed.
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you all about that," Valon said. "After we rescue Princess Sara we are to go out to the four corners of the world and revive the orbs."
"Oh, is that all? And here I thought it was going to be something spectacular," Thol replied with his usual sarcasm. "Just what exactly is that supposed to accomplish?"
"Well, in theory the world will start to heal itself from the centuries of corruption that has plagued it, but no one can really be sure," Valon replied.
"Well what does the Prophecy say?" Goro asked.
"That's the problem. The prophecy only foretells the reviving of the earth and abruptly stops after that."
"Why? Didn't Lukahn finish it?" Melira asked.
"Unfortunately not. Lukahn's visions stopped suddenly and violently one night and he has not had a vision since then," Valon said.
"When was that?" Thol asked.
"About thirty years ago I hear."
"That's impossible. He foretold my meeting Tor only a year before I left Crescent Lake. His prophetic powers are still intact," Thol argued.
"Stop and think about it for a minute, Thol. Lukahn spent most of his life seeing visions revolving around the prophecy. We are the Light Warriors. The Light Warriors are part of which prophecy?"
Thol frowned. "I see," he said. Lukahn had already foreseen his meeting with Tor long before either of them had been born. He didn't need his visions to be able to tell him that.
After a brief period of silence, Tor spoke up. "Well. . . I guess we'd better follow our destiny then. The orbs are waiting."
Thol sighed. "I suppose so. There's the problem of the bridge being out however."
"Don't worry about that. I've sent a regiment of my troops to the bridge to speed up the repairs. The bridge should be completed within the day," the king replied.
"Well then," Thol said.
"I think maybe we should go back into town and prepare for our journey," Goro said.
"Right. Maybe now that we've saved the princess the townsfolk will be able to talk about something else," Thol commented.
"Your majesty, we will take our leave now," Tor said.
"Right. Good luck on your journey. If you need anything, anything at all, just come and ask me. I'll see to it that you receive it," the king said.
"Of course, your majesty," Tor said.
The six bowed again and left for the city.
"If we split up, we can limit the time it takes for preparation," Goro said as they walked through the halls.
"You're right. Tor, you and Keza head to the weapons shop and see what you can get. Between the two of you, you should be able to get the best weapons at the lowest price," Thol said. "Once you're done there, head over to the armor shop and get what you can."
"I'll go get what we'll need from the general store," Goro offered.
"Right," Thol replied. "Valon, you see if you can find out anything from the townspeople. They may have something useful to say to us."
Valon nodded.
"Thol," Melira said.
"Yes?"
"I'd like to go tell my parents that I'm leaving."
"Alright. You go there. I'll see what this place has in the ways of magic. We'll meet up at the pub when we're done."
"Right," Tor said. He and the others started off at that.
Thol was about to head for the nearest magic shop when Melira stopped him.
"Thol. Will you come with me to my parents' house? I won't be long and I want go to the magic shops too," she said.
Thol looked at her. "Okay. I guess so. As long as you don't take too much time."
She smiled at him. "Great! Let's go!" she said, grabbing his hand and practically dragging him behind her.
"Whoa! I can walk on my own you know," he commented.
"Oh! Sorry Thol," she said. She let go of his hand then and slowed to a more reasonable pace.
Thol was vaguely disappointed that she had let go, but didn't waste time dwelling on it.
They were stopped numerous times on the way to the clinic by grateful townsfolk. It ended up taking them twice as long as it should have to get there.
They entered the building and Thol thought, Good. There's no customers. He had enough fanaticism for one day already.
"Mom. Dad. Are you here?" Melira said as she went further into the house.
"In here dear," her mother said, summoning her to the other room.
"I'll wait here," Thol said.
Melira nodded and went to see her mother.
Thol took a seat and waited. He had been waiting for about two minutes when an older man entered.
The man noticed Thol sitting there and asked "Are you here to be healed?"
"No, I'm just waiting for Melira," Thol replied.
The other man took a closer look at him. "Hey! You're one of the Light Warriors, aren't you?"
"Unfortunately," Thol replied.
"I'm Melira's father," the man said, extending his hand.
Thol grudgingly took the man's hand and shook it. "Thollatos. Black mage. Light Warrior too apparently."
"Melira is one of them too, isn't she?" he asked.
"Yes," Thol replied.
"Then she'll be going with you then?"
"Yes."
Her father stood there for a moment, looking like he was in deep thought. "May I ask you to do me a favor?"
"Like what?"
"Will you look after Melira for us?"
Thol's eyebrow went up. "What do you mean?"
"Make sure she gets back home alright. Keep her safe. She's only young still and doesn't have much experience outside the city."
Thol groaned inwardly. "I'm not much older than she is," he commented.
"Maybe not, but I've heard that you've come all the way from Crescent Lake. To get here from there requires a certain degree of skill," her father countered.
Thol sighed. It was his intention to begin with to look out for her but he still didn't like being railroaded into the job. "Yeah. Alright. I'll make sure she stays as safe as possible. You have my word on it."
"Thank you," the other man said.
Just then, Melira and her mother entered the room. "Dad! You're home!"
Thol sat back down again and waited for Melira to say goodbye to her father. He thought back to the request he had just made of him and groaned inwardly again. Why me? he thought. . . .
* * * *
Tor and Keza had just walked out of the weapons shop. Just as Thol had predicted, they got the best weapons in the shop for the best prices.
"Well, I think that went well," Keza said, grinning at his own handy work. He had haggled down to the last gil with the merchant.
"It's good to see that you have some skills that fall on the right side of the law," Tor commented.
"One does have to survive, you know, but thanks anyway. Your knowledge of weapons is astounding, by the way. Most of those swords looked the same to me."
"I spent years training under a great swordsman. It was expected of me to be able to select the best weapon available."
"I imagine so. You trained under Zakon right? What's it like being trained by a legend?"
"It was hard at times. You're expected to one day fill his shoes and that can put a lot of strain on people. Most of the others that he had taken in had eventually quit because of the stress. There were only three of us to make it through the whole thing."
"Who were they?"
"Well, I was one of them as you know. The second, my brother actually, was Madon. He was better than I was."
"Was?" Keza asked.
"Yeah. About a year before I met Thol, he and I were working at the docks in Provoka. He asked me to go check around the back of the customs office while he re-harnessed his armor. I had just gone around back and was looking around when I heard him shout in alarm. I rushed back around the office, but by then it was too late. The pirates that had landed silently while we had our backs turn had taken my brother by surprise and struck him down before he could even draw his sword. I managed to hold them back until the other guards made it to the scene, but Madon was already gone. Some of the townspeople blamed me for his death saying that I shouldn't have left him. I only stayed for a few more days before I decided to leave town. I've been on the road ever since."
"Geez. I'm sorry I asked," Keza said, his jovial mood sobered by his friends story.
"Nah. That's alright. I don't get to tell it much. I found out a few months later that the pirate captain's name was Bikke. I've been keeping an ear out for any word of him since then."
"Have you heard anything?"
"Just a few stories about raids on the open seas, but nothing like what happened that day."
"I'm sure you'll find him one day."
"Perhaps. It's been quite awhile since I've heard anything about him. Rumor has it that his ship was sunk during a violent storm."
Keza just shrugged. "We'll worry about that later," he said. "Right now we've got to put the amour dealer out of business," he said grinning.
Tor looked up and saw the amour shop. He grinned too and they stepped into the shop. . . .
* * * *
Thol had glanced over the books on the shelf. "You call this magic? An imp could cast better spells than this!" he fumed after calculating the worth of them all. He could already cast every one of them.
"Easy now, Thol. Coneria isn't exactly well known for its magic," Melira said.
Thol looked at her. "Oh Hell. Let's go to the white magic shop."
They left the black magic shop and started the short walk to its counterpart next door.
"What level are you up to?" Thol asked suddenly, about half way there.
"What? Oh! Only level two," she said, a little ashamed of herself.
"That's it?" he said, then realizing how silly it was for him to say that, he added, "Oh well. Like you said, Coneria isn't a magic city. I'd teach you myself but I'm not a white mage."
"Thanks anyway, Thol."
They entered the little shop that looked almost identical to the black magic one. Melira immediately went up to the counter.
"Melira! What are you doing here?" the man behind the counter asked, a look of surprise on his face.
"Hey, Arbo. I came to see if you have any foreign spells in stock right now," Melira asked.
"Sorry. I haven't been able to get any because of the bridge being out. I hear that the king has sent a regiment of troops to help with the repairs," the shopkeeper, Arbo, said.
"Yes. He has. Too bad you don't have any spells. I haven't learned a new spell in months."
Thol had been standing in the background the whole time. He was becoming aware that it had been almost an hour since they had split from the others. He walked over to Melira and got her attention.
"Sorry to interrupt, but it's getting time for us to go to the pub to meet the others."
"Okay, Thol," she said. She turned back to Arbo. "Sorry. Gotta go."
"Don't worry about it. You've more important things to do then stand around chatting with a silly shop keeper."
"Thanks, Arbo. Bye."
"Good journey. Stay safe."
They left then and headed to the pub. They were again stop periodically by people who wanted to thank them personally. Thol was quickly becoming irritated with their sudden fame and made it known by the scowl on his face.
After one such incident, Melira asked him about it.
"I'm sorry, but we'll never get to the pub at this rate."
"And what do you call that then?" she asked, pointing at the building just ahead of them.
Thol looked. "Very funny."
They entered and saw Tor and Keza apparently enjoying a cup of ale. They went over and sat with them.
"Hey guys," Keza said. "Have a cup."
"No thanks," Thol said. "I like to keep my mind clear most of the time. How did the shopping trip go?"
"Excellent. We managed to find much better weapons and armor for all of us," Tor said.
"At a good price too," Keza said grinning.
Thol looked at him. "Okay. Now I don't want to know where you got them from," he said disgusted.
Tor laughed. "It's alright, Thol. He came by them cleanly. Keza is an unbelievable haggler."
"You're right. I don't believe it," Thol said, sarcastically.
Melira smiled slightly and shook her head.
"How was the trip to the magic shops?" Tor asked.
"They have shit all in this town for magic, but I expected as much. With a town this big, you'd think that they'd have some decent magic, but they don't," Thol said.
Just then, the last two of the Light Warriors entered the pub.
"How'd it go?" Keza asked.
"I was able to get all the supplies. Valon had good luck as well," Goro replied.
"Do tell."
"Well, the main talk around here is about a witch to the north," the white haired man said.
"A witch? That's ridiculous. There's no such thing as witchcraft," Thol said.
"Nevertheless, the townsfolk are convinced that there is a witch living in a cave to the north. They say that she turns anyone who nears her cave into toads and then makes soup out of them."
"Sounds like a typical small town ghost story to me," Thol commented.
"Maybe we should check it out anyway, Thol. If what they say is true, then she'll have to be dealt with," Tor said.
"All right. At least we have a sense of purpose now. What else did you find out?"
"There are rumors regarding the destruction of the bridge last week. It seems that some people are convinced that a band of pirates destroyed the bridge."
"Pirates?" Tor said. "What else did you find out about these pirates?"
"Nothing. I'm not even sure that the cause of the bridges destruction was pirates."
"Damn it," Tor said.
Thol's eyebrows went up. It wasn't often he swore. "Well there's nothing we can do about that. I guess when we are done investigating this witch rumor we should start working on reviving the orbs."
"That sounds. . ." Keza began.
A man burst through the door as he was saying this. He spotted them and rushed over. "Light Warriors! A man from Provoka has just stumbled into town! He says that the city has been taken over by pirates!"
"What? Take me to him!" Tor said, standing with such haste that he knocked over the chair he had been sitting in.
The six of them got up and followed the man to the inn where the Provokan was being cared for. Tor rushed forward when he saw who the man was.
"Meler!" Tor shouted, recognizing the sick man. "What happened?" he asked.
"Tor! Is that you? It's been years. . ." the man said. He began coughing suddenly.
"Meler, you must tell me what happened," Tor begged.
"It was Bikke! He's not dead like everyone thought. He and his pack of dogs snuck into town late at night and killed the city guard. We all woke up to find ourselves in captivity of those sea rats!"
"Bikke," Tor said in a strange tone.
Thol recognized both the tone and the name. Bikke had killed Tor's brother in cold blood and he wanted revenge. He stepped forward and placed his hand on his friends shoulder. "Tor. As soon as we're done with the witch to the north, we'll get rid of Bikke once and for all."
Tor looked up at his friend with a serious look on his face and nodded. He turned back to his friend and asked. "How did you get here?"
"I managed to steal a small boat. I only had one ore and there were pirates following me everywhere, that's why I'm so damned sick. I haven't eaten in days."
"You'll be safe here. We're leaving right away. I'm going to make Bikke pay for what he has done to both my brother and our home."
With that, Tor stood up and stalked out of the room. He was a man with a purpose and nothing was going to stop him.
"Come on. The bridge should be done enough now that we can cross. Let's follow him," Thol said.
The others nodded and followed Tor to the bridge. . . .
* * * *