Chapter 6: Falls of Glodin
Baro awoke to complete silence several hours after his new, confusing experience. It was still dark out and hard to see, but Baro sat up and looked around anyway. His head was still pounding with a migraine when he was interrupted by Crystal.
"Finally your awake. You worried me so much!" Crystal hugged him so tight he thought his back would snap from the pressure, but found him self returning the hug when his mind caught up to everything. When she released him of course he feel backwards a little bit, then sat back up to face Crystal.
"Ugh, my head…. What happened to me last night? Everything is so blurry." Baro said and placed his hands on his temples. Crystal frowned slightly and cried
"This is why I hate magic!" And she looked up to Baro. "Remember when I healed you in Marpin, and again last night? I think I accidentally gave you part of my energy."
Baro twitched a little from his migraine. 'This is unbelievable!' he thought to him self. "How is that possible?" he finally said to break the silence. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, really. My energy will eventually replenish to where it was, but I'm afraid that yours will grow. Now that magic is open to you, your body will naturally generate energy to its limits." Crystal grew even more serious and drew in closer to Baro's face. "These next few days will be hard for you. You might be tempted to use your new energy as it grows stronger, it may even randomly release itself until it finishes stretching out."
Baro took a few minutes to think about what she said. 'Magic? Was it possible?' Could he learn to use the same energy himself? Baro looked into Crystal's starring eyes again. He thought about her own struggles with this mysterious energy, and her constant sadness about whatever it was that happened. Eventually he asked, "Will you help me?"
Her face finally softened and smiled. "Yes, I will try to help you get through this. But first we need some sleep." She punched him in the arm. "Don't worry me like that again. I was up half the night watching you." And with that she plopped onto the bedding next to Baro and closed her eyes.
The next week of riding was rather uneventful. Crystal watched Baro for signs of outbursts and taught him several techniques when dealing with his new powers. She insisted that he begin meditating to calm his mind to lose any loose and distracting thoughts. After sunset she would meditate with him and they would practice their ability to sense the world around them, and occasionally she would allow him to practice blocking her mind probes.
Baro loved this part of the day. Whenever he saw her life force shown in such away he lost all other thoughts. It was life looking at a pure white fire that never lost its intensity or warmth. More and more he was able to control when he could use this sense, and at very least always felt the presences around him even when he wasn't using all of his senses.
Another thing he noticed was he and Crystal were having an easier time exchanging surface thoughts during meditations. He could send her short messages and feelings through their connection during those times. During these connections Crystal remained calm but Baro's heart still raced at the thought of using his new powers. He remembered Crystal's warnings at all times however, and did not go past what she taught him to do.
Shadow spent a lot of time with them when they rested but was absent for most of the day. Crystal seemed to miss having the wolf gone so much. She still kept a good pace with Whirl whip, but Baro noticed how she looked back from where they had gone when they stopped for camp each night. 'Soon we will be in the city and you can be with her again.' He had tried to comfort her, but she just nodded and waited patiently for Shadow to catch up. Baro also noticed how protective the wolf was of Crystal, and rarely let him get close to her while she was around them. After several days of this routine, the great fortress at the Falls of Glodin was in their sight.
"We're almost there!" shouted Crystal as they approached the light gray walls of the city. They seemed at least as tall as Marpins', probably a few feet higher and were of much higher craftsmanship. Every stone was perfectly cut to size and smoothed for a flawless finish. 'This must have taken entire clans of dwarves to build such a wonder.' Thought Baro to himself and smiled with Crystal even wider the closer they came. From the outside the city of Thelistheen was magnificent.
When they approached they were lightly searched and passed by the guard who allowed them to move through the double gates. Two story apartments and shops lined the streets with perfect blue thatched roofs and grayish stone houses. Happy people smiled as they passed and chatted merrily with each other. Everything seemed peaceful to Baro, right down to the birds calmly chirping on top of miniature fence posts. This was not true for every part of the city however. Most of the buildings were well maintained but Baro noticed that certain alleys they crossed were dark and broken; many of the people had desperate expressions or threatening stares. This mix of perfection and poverty so close to them made him slightly sick, and he hurried Whirl whip a little faster through these areas. Shadow stayed close to them and returned many of the threatening stares to their owners.
"This looks promising." Said Baro as he eyed a stable in the not so rundown part of the city. The innkeeper outside looked fairly more friendly then the people in the alleyways so he decided to investigate further. Crystal and him dismounted and approached the stable.
"Welcome to the Woodsman Inn, How may I serve you?" asked the rather small man out front.
"Would you have a human size room available and a place to stable our horse?" asked Baro politely. "We just came off a long trip from Marpin, and are probably going to stay the week. Maybe more."
"Yes, of course. If you would leave your horse in our capable hands, we can get you settled in. Follow me." The man bowed and turned into the Inn as two stable hands took care of Whirl whip. Baro turned to Crystal and asked her
"Would you like your own room with Shadow?"
"Hum? Oh um, whatever you want I suppose. As long as we have separate beds, I don't care." Crystal said. They both followed the Innkeeper and settled into the third room on the second floor. It had one bed, a desk and oil lamp, two bright windows, and a separate washroom. Two armchairs surrounded a rather small but cozy central fire place, and a cupboard over a counter space was set up for preparing food. Much to Baro's disappointment the bookshelf near the bed was left empty, but the room itself was usable.
"You take the bed." Said Baro to Crystal after the man left. "I'll be fine in one of these chairs or on the floor."
"Are you sure? I could get another room…" Crystal sounded apologetic.
"Don't worry about it. I'd like to explore the sights a little bit, want to come with me?"
"Sure! I've been dying to stretch my legs. Maybe we could see the park? There must be one in this big city. Wait! Let me wash up first!" Crystal cried enthusiastically and ran off into the washroom. Baro patiently waited while he unpacked his bag of the few books with him. He heard a sharp shriek from Crystal that made him look up, but then went back to what he was doing. One of the books he unpacked was a thin leather bound book that held important information and parchment that was his fathers. When he held it in his hands he kept it with him for a few moments remembering when his dad had given it to him, and then placed it on the shelf.
Soon Crystal came out with a freshly washed face her brown hair combed loosely down to her ears. One of her hands rubbed her blue eyes that seemed to be watery.
"I poked my self in the eye! Ow ow ow ow!" she still cried in pain.
"I'm sorry," Baro walked up to her and looked into her eyes. Her left one was reddish and almost bloodshot, but not too bad.
"You'll be fine, just try not to think about it. Come on, lets see if a walk around the town can make you feel better." Baro grabbed her hand and pulled her with him as he dashed out the door.
The sun was out and shining warmly and the few trees hidden between houses had turned a reddish orange shade. The harvest was over, and the only plants still well cared for were that of the royal garden. The hedges were green with a light blue pollen dusting on their leaves, and they looped and twisted just outside the Citadel.
A few years ago the governor had given the gardens to the people in celebration of his marriage. The garden featured a public walk, several varieties of roses, bushes, trees, and singing birds from all across the empire. A central court was built at its northern edge so it overlooked the waterfalls, and was just east of the Citadel's courtyard as well. At times the governor could give a proclamation from the pointed edge of the Citadel courtyard so his voice could boom over the waterfall and across to the garden.
"This is amazing." Awed Crystal as they entered the garden. Purple humming birds perched themselves all around the hedges, occasionally complaining to each other in musical notes. A white rose bush particularly caught her eye, and kept her staring at its beauty for several minutes. Orange, blue, and violet flowers were arranged around it, but the white rose bush stood prouder then all the others behind the entrance.
Baro smiled and pulled Crystal farther along. "If these beautiful flowers are at the entrance, there must be something even more fantastic at the end." Baro said smiling.
"Hey!" Crystal complained but happily followed Baro through the hedge maze. Blue and red chrysanthemums were placed in decorative pots along the wall and caught Baro's interest for a while, there small size and short ruffled pedals made him think of fire, or a shattered pitcher bursting with water.
They continued through the floral art works for over an hour when they finally reached the northern courtyard and leaned together on the stone railing to see the waterfalls.
"Magnificent." Sighed Baro and gazed upon the massive flow of water over rocky crags. Such force, such momentum of water was almost unbelievable. The same liquid that he drank every day and thought nothing of was now strong enough to blow back the toughest warrior and drag him down the river to his death.
Crystal sighed disappointingly. "What's the matter?" asked Baro concerned. "Don't you think this is amazing?"
"It's lovely but… I was hopping to see a special flower." Crystal trailed off thinking about it in her own little world.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing. Something I saw once when I was a little girl, my mother kept one by the windowsill. It's very rare in my village and I haven't saw one since." Crystal looked down then back at the waterfall.
"Show me." Baro asked and sent a light probe to Crystal's mind. 'Almost like a knock on the door.' He thought to himself amused. Crystal thought about it for a moment and then let Baro into her thoughts and sent him the image of a large violet flower with yellow splotches on the center of each leaf. It was a beautiful plant, in a old chipped pot on the windowsill of a small wooden hut. Flashes of people's faces seemed to lapse over this thought but the flower was the more powerful memory. After Baro saw enough they closed their mental link and Baro stared into Crystal's sad eyes. She missed her family.
"Come with me." Baro said and took her to and empty patch of grass. He didn't know what he was doing, but a warm feeling told him what to say and do. He thought about Crystal, and then a green haze filled his vision and Baro knelt on the ground. He reached out with his index finger pointed out and dug it into the ground. Green and blue sparks sprouted from his hand and body, forming a charge of power around him. Slowly a plant sprung from the ground and started to grow.
"Baro! Stop!" Crystal cried softly but was too shocked by his magic to say anything more and watched him. Baro heard her but could do nothing, he felt himself do this without even knowing why or how he was doing it. The flower grew into the violet iris plant Crystal had shown him before Baro collapsed on his hands and knees heavily breathing.
Crystal ran over to him and put a hand on his back, feeling his heartbeat explode. Baro eventually sat up and looked at her, then at the plant. It was a pretty good copy, strong and as beautiful as he remembered through Crystal's thoughts. Fresh pollen fell off it and tickled his nose.
"That was amazing." Said Crystal breathlessly. "Are you alright?"
"I'm find, I just wish I knew how I did it." Baro looked at her. "I wanted to give you something from your past."
Crystal smiled and helped him up. "Thank you." She said and kissed him on the cheek. They walked back to the railing as the sun was setting to watch it go down over the falls. Baro grinned and was happy to just relax when he noticed something odd. On the far side of the garden a man had mounted a crossbow to the railing and was hunched over it, spying through its scope. Down below a lady surrounded by Royal guards walked around a enclosed area.
"Excuse me a minute, stay quiet." Baro said and walked quietly over. Crystal glanced over and the smile disappeared from her face. She ducked down behind a bench and watch Baro move toward the assassin.