Chapter 8

Exit this way, please

The day before departure Willow once again walked to the Temple. She walked slowly, memorizing the homes that she passed, admiring the flowers that were starting to poke out of the freshly unthawed earth, loving the smell of the cool air and the hint of life it carried with it.
She was once again faced with doors to the Temple. She had come to say her last prayer to Perth in his Temple before she departed and to say good-bye to her friend and teacher Father Pethous.

Inside she chose the front bench, as she always did, and sat:
Lord Perth, again I present myself to you in your temple. I have seen one from

the vision that you have given me. The others have found comfort in my

voice from what I was shown, but I am still concerned

over the dead body that I saw. I was not shown a face...

She paused in her prayer, not wanting to linger on this thought.

Lord, I ask that you protect my loved ones while I am away, I thank you for

the guidance, strength and courage you have given me the past months.
I will make you proud in our quest, Lord, for my faith in you is strong. I know

that you would not have given me what you have if you did not have faith in me, I thank you for that. I also thank you for the light you have provided for me in my life, Lord.

She stood and walked to the alter and placed five gold pieces, one for each of her companions. She stared at them for just a moment.
Father Pethous who was standing in the corner was now approaching Willow with something in his hands.

He stood before her now, his head shaven bald for as long as she could remember, his robes, as always were dark blue.
"Father," she bent her head in acknowledgement.
He smiled up at her, "Willow, I always knew that you would be one of the students destined for great things. We are not allowed to choose favorites, but I have always favored you, I'm sure our Lord can understand my weakness. When I discovered that you were chosen for this quest I had this made for you."
He held out his hand with a white cotton cloth, he unfolded it to reveal the symbol of Perth beautifully etched in silver and bronze on a clear smooth oval crystal on a silver chain, no bigger than duck egg.
"Father this is exquisite!" she gasped.
He smiled approvingly at it, "It is, isn't it? She did fine work, the jewelry maker."
"Father, I cannot except this, I already have a Holy Symbol, and this must have cost you a fortune!"
"It does not matter how much this cost, it was worth every bit and it's for a good cause. No one deserves it more than you. As far as the Holy Symbol that you already have..." he shrugged and smiled, "Say that you lost it."
She absently pulled her silver Holy Symbol out from under her shirt and pulled it off looking at it in her hand.
He took it from her, "I will pass this onto another student, or maybe I'll save it as memorabilia when you go down in history like your mother."
She had to chuckle.
"I've put a blessing on this as well," he slipped it over her head.
As soon as it rested on her chest she felt as if her god sighed on her. She felt a warmness settle into her, a sort of courage and peace.
She looked at it, then hugged Father Pethous. "Thank you Father, this means more to me than you know."
"Child, you have brought many days of joy and pride to my life, you honor me and our Lord that you wear this."

She hugged him one last time and said good-bye.

She wore her Holy Symbol on the outside of her shirt, wanting to show off her gift. She was at peace, almost excited, for the first time in months.
She felt that nothing could ruin this day until Retten turned the corner, she was right out in the open with no alley to duck into.
His face lit up as he set eyes on her, he smiled at her, "Good day, Willow."
"Retten," she nodded to him.
"I was hoping I'd run into you."

"Really?" she said blandly.

"Could I have a word with you?" He looked concerned.
"You are now, Retten."
"Yes," he frowned, "I guess I am, let us walk shall we?"
"Sure, I'm going that direction anyway." She shrugged.
"Willow, I'm not happy that you're leaving, as a matter of fact, I'm...well, I'm rather heart broken."
She eyed him apprehensively, "Heart broken, really?" She didn't question it, it was a sort of small mock.
"I really haven't kept it a secret, you know, but I really haven't come out and told you how I feel...Willow, I've been in love with you for seasons now. I've been trying to see you alone or find you to speak with you, but you have been so busy with the preparations of your future voyage that I could not find you to tell you what I needed to say. Willow, my heart practically explodes in my chest every time I think of you leaving..."

"Retten, hold on!" She interjected, "There's no need to do this..."
"Please, Willow, hear me out. I need to do this. This may also be your only way out and my last chance to get what I've been wanting."
She became silent, the sooner he got this off of his chest the sooner she could finish packing her stuff up, leaving, all of a sudden, didn't seem so bleak to her now.
He pulled her into the park, and they sat down on a cool stone bench. "I know that I am not of noble birth like Mahkei, but I have a noble heart. I joined the guard so I could be closer to you and your family, hoping that you and everyone else will see my good intentions and my loyalty to the crown and the city. I've gone out of my way to make myself available for you, to get noticed by you, but it must not have been enough because you never paid attention to me. I've asked your parents for permission to court you and the only response I've received was that is was your decision. I don't want you to go Willow, I know how far away you are going, I know that you will be gone a long time. But I also know that you and the others are afraid of this quest, I've seen it on your face as well. To see you walking around with that sad face it makes my heart ache, I could see how badly you did not want go. I'm about to offer you a door, Willow, an exit."
She was watching him, seeing that he had put a lot of thought into this. "Retten, what..."
He held his hand up to keep her from talking. "If you agree to marry me, you would not have to leave your home or your family..."

"WHAT!?" She had stood up, and he followed her.
"Hear me out..." he pleaded.
"No, Retten, you don't know what you're talking about!"

"I do!" He shouted back, "I do know what I'm talking about! I know that I've loved you since I first saw you. I knew that I wanted to be with you the rest of our lives, I want to raise a family with you. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever known, your radiant, your mere smile makes me weak, when you laugh my heart skips beats, when other men look at you I want to tear them apart, you are intelligent and your god smiles on you, I look into your eyes and I see forever..." he was just frozen there, his wide blue eyes locked on her.
"This is ridicules, Retten. I will not marry you! I will not abandon my brother, my friends nor my god! As far as you being noble blood, that never had anything to do with us courting or not courting, my parents don't care what family you come from, they married for love, just as Damesun and Mahkei did, just as I want to. Not once did you mention me, what do I want, what do we have in common. It's all about you, Retten. I don't love you, I don't want the things you want out of life, I don't want an exit from my destiny, I want to live my life, whether I'm defeated or triumphant, I've made a promise!"

She was a little stunned at how harsh her words seemed, even in her ears.
He looked shocked and angry, "Is is because I'm not attractive enough..."
She growled at him, "Did you not hear a damn word I said? Retten, all the girls know how attractive you are, your gorgeous, you look amazing in uniform, you should see all the girls gawk as you walk by, but we just don't have anything in common!"
Straitening a little at her words he told her again, "This would be your chance to stay home, you could learn to love me."
"Retten," she sighed impatiently, "yes, I could learn to love you over time, but I would regret not going where I was needed and I'd regret not marring for love. We're both still very young, you are speaking in haste and not letting nature take its course. Live a little, court one of those pretty girls that stare at you, go dragon hunting, live, that's all I ask."
"I could never court anyone that wasn't you. I see only you, I dream only you, if I can't have you then I will forever be alone."
She stared at him, feeling terribly sad for him. She was aware that he had eyes for her, but not like this, this was an obsession, she didn't want to break his heart, but this was the only way for him to forget her. His face was blank, no sadness, no anger, nothing. Just a blank face.
"Then, Willow, I must tell you that I love you, regardless of how you feel for me, I could never live with myself if you..."his head dropped and he sighed, then looked up, into her face, "...if you died, if I never say you again, I love you Willow Ranesinn and always will. And I ask that you take this with you." He leaned in and kissed her, he had done it so quickly that she had no time to react.

She was stunned at first, but she didn't move, she had softened in his arms and kissed back. It must have been a long kiss because when he pulled away she gasped for breath and the world seemed to be spinning.
"Good-bye, Willow, I will miss you more than you'll ever know." At that, the turned and walked away.

She didn't know why, but she started to cry.

There was a knock on his door, "Enter," he said, standing up from the couch before the fireplace.

The door opened slowly, to his surprise is was his mentor, Leena, "Hello F'vell, are you busy?" she asked quietly.

"Never for you, my teacher," he bowed to her, he noticed that she carried in her thin arms a large black cloth wrapped object.

She closed the door behind her, she was a small woman, with dark black hair, short cropped bangs and a twisted bun at the nape of her neck held in place by two bamboo sticks. She had eyes almost as black as his but small and slanted with thick eyelashes. She had a beautifully exotic face and an accent to match, she came from very far across the sea. She was wearing a long silk dress robe, something she wore often, it was what her kind wore where she was from. It light olive green with pink blossoms and dragon flies died into the material, she wore little wooden shoes that exposed her toes that made a tap, tap, tap on the floor as she approached him.

"F'vell, I was going to give this to you tomorrow but I though that tonight would be more appropriate." She sat down on the couch where he took his place beside her.

As she handed him the black clothed object he was surprised at how heavy it was and that the little woman was able to carry it from her tower to his room.

He placed it on his lap and undid its bindings to reveal a rather large black leather tome. Its cover was simply overwhelming, attached to the front was a thin glass case of sorts, frosted with little swirls of design, held a quill of black with a hint of brilliant metallic blue. Above the case, etched in silver, was his full name. The tome bore an enormously

complex lock. It did not have a key hole, like most locks do, but in the place of a lock was a circle of six smooth round gems, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, violet and a black on in the center.

"Mistress Leena..." F'vell was lost for words.

"F'vell, you have been such a pleasure to teach and to be around. You have the potential to be a great Mage but a great Mage can not become great unless they have a tome to keep their spells in. Most students get a spell book when they graduate from the school, but you deserved much more than just some book. I have a feeling that the future holds great and challenging things for you, you've made me proud but make yourself a legend."

"Thank you, your words and teachings have meant a great deal to me, I will accept this gift with great pride and humility. This is the greatest thing that anyone has ever done for me, I shall not forget this gesture, or you."

The little woman smiled at her prize student, "Nor I, F'vell."

He embraced his teacher in thanks.

That night Willow loaded the cabin with some of her traveling garments, a brand new blank tome and some quills and ink and of course her spell book. Her brother and the others did the same. None of them really spoke that night, not even at dinner. The night was long for all of them, not being able to sleep, checking and rechecking the list of items they needed to pack. Morning came all to quickly.
The good-byes were the hardest. Beldovins parents and sister had come to see him off, the Mage Sorrow came to say his farewells to Klayn, F'vel was seen of by the head mistress Leena of the Mage school, Lady Kailya and Lord Daiwen were there and so were all of their siblings, including Damesun and Mahkei. There was some crying, mostly from the children, but it wasn't bad at all.
As the ship pulled away Willow glanced at the east tower, there stood Retten, his armor reflecting some of the early morning light. He held his hand up to her, to say good-bye, then he turned and left. Willow closed her eyes as two big tears escaped down her cheeks.