Chapter 5
Grave Tidings
Kandrakar
For as long as they had been Guardians, the girls had looked to the Fortress of Kandrakar as one of the sole constants in their lives. The fortress was always there, no matter what. Which is why it was with great sadness that they now entered Kandrakar and gazed upon the shattered walls and broken columns, lying in rubble.
They remembered each broken brick since, after all, they had broken them, fighting against Endarno and his pseudo-Guardians. It was not the first time Kandrakar had been damaged. Nerissa, and later Phobos and Cedric had all tested the Fortress's strength, but the damage then had been superficial, and almost all to the outer walls. Now it was the Inner Sanctum and the Council room that laid in ruin, places even Phobos had never ventured. While some of the structures of Kandrakar had fallen, its people had most certainly not.
"Grandma!"
Hay Lin ran to her grandmother and wrapped her arms around Yan Lin. Although the ex-Guardian was getting on in years, the spark of life could still be seen in Yan Lin's eyes whenever her granddaughter was present.
"Hello, little one! It's good to see you well!" Yan Lin exclaimed, returning the hug warmly. "It's good to see all of you again."
"You too Yan Lin." Irma said, looking around. "I uh, love what you've done to the place."
"Substance over style." Yan Lin replied, kicking away some rubble. "The fortress might not look as nice as it used too, but it still does the job. Something I wish I could say off you five. Why has it been a week since you last came to Kandrakar?"
"We've been busy." Will said, taken aback by Yan Lin's strong words. "We had to unwind after Endarno, and there was this thing on Balsilide…"
"In other words, you have done nothing to track down the Heart of Balsilide." Yan Lin replied sternly.
"Um, I guess not." Will said, averting her gaze from Yan Lin's judging eyes.
"Girls, this is not a trivial matter. It's something that must be dealt with right away." Yan Lin replied.
"With all due respect Yan Lin, its just some dumb prophecy, right?" Cornelia said.
As she saw the expression change on Yan Lin's face, she suddenly regretted her words. For as long as they had known Yan Lin, she had been nothing but a calm, collected woman, capable of great wisdom in dark times. To see stress and anger etched across her face was unnerving for the Guardians.
"No, Cornelia, it is much more then that." Yan Lin said, raising her voice. "It is quite possibly the most important event of your life, and you need to give it the attention it deserves! Do not forget that you are perhaps going to be responsible for the death of every living thing in the universe!"
Yan Lin said this last line with such force as to cause several of the nearby elders to stop and stare. The Guardians, however, merely studied the floor in silence. They had seen the note Endarno had left for them, and knew what the futures supposedly stored, but hearing the words out loud made their fate seem that much more real. The fact that the words came from Yan Lin, and with such force, stunned them even more.
Yan Lin saw the row of faces before her and sighed. Her brow relaxed and she once more looked like the calm Yan Lin the girls had grown to love.
"I'm sorry girls, that is how Kandrakar feels, not I. The elders are scared, mostly of you. They have spent much of the past week determining if we should lock you in the Tower of Mists, just to be safe. Many of them are in favor of it."
"But not you Grandma?" Hay Lin replied.
"I trust you girls." Yan Lin said after a brief pause. "I trust you with my life. But…"
"But you're not sure if you trust us with the universe." Taranee finished.
"Hey, it's okay!" Irma added. "I wouldn't trust us with it either. My parents don't even trust me with my homework."
"Thank you for understanding." Yan Lin said with a smile. "It is not that I'm scared, I am just concerned with… well, everything that has happened recently."
"I hate to bring this up again," Cornelia said. "But why is this such a big deal? Even if Endarno is on the level with this, the so-called 'prophecy' is insane! We couldn't kill the universe if we wanted to."
"Hate to say it, but I agree with Corny." Irma added.
"Unfortunately, it is not about desire, or even how capable you are." Yan Lin said. "Hearts have many powers, but clairvoyance is not usually one of them. It is very rare for Hearts to have visions of the future, and when they do, it is only about events of universal consequence."
"The death of the universe being just such an event." Taranee said.
"None more so," Yan Lin continued. "But when these visions do occur, they are always accurate. Which means if a Heart says you're going to kill the universe…"
"We're going to kill the universe." Will supplied.
"Exactly."
"But Endarno was up the wall crazy, we all know that." Irma said. "The guy probably saw lots of visions."
"I'm not so sure." Will replied. "Endarno struck me as a lot of things, but crazy was never one of them."
"This is why we must find the Heart of Balsilide. Only by finding the Heart can we know for sure whether Endarno was telling the truth."
"So all we have to do is find the Heart, bring it back here and we'll have our answers?" Will said.
"Yeah, that's all." Irma said. "Find a small jewel in a city full of uncooperative Balsilidians, with no place to start. What could be easier?"
"I believe I can help you on this front." Yan Lin said. "While we have no control over where a Heart goes, we can find where it intends to go. I have taken the liberty of finding out the Heart of Balsilide was planning to go to a man called Kiev Irvig. Find him, and you will find the Heart."
"Got it." Will said, memorizing the name. "We can take it from here."
"Piece of cake." Irma said. "Anything else you want us to get you while we're gone? A magazine, some groceries?"
"Actually, there is two more request I must make of you." Yan Lin said.
"I had to ask."
"First of all, as you can see, Kandrakar still quite a bit of damage." Yan Lin said.
"I thought that was because you guys are all busy?" Hay Lin interrupted.
"Correct. But the reason we are so busy, is because we are trying to find a leader." Yan Lin said. "Right now, we are directionless, running around like Hoogongs with our heads cut off. We need a leader."
"And you expect us to find a new one on Balsilide?" Will asked. "Based on my experience with their leaders, that's not a great idea."
"We do not want a new one, we want our old one." Yan Lin said. "Our decision to remove Himerish from his position as Oracle was a wrong one. After he was removed, he retired to his home world of Balsilide. We want you to find him, and get him to return to Kandrakar. If you do, it will improve your reputation with the Kandrakar council."
"Fine." Will said. "And the second favor?"
"If you could please give me your cell phones…" Yan Lin began.
"What?" Cornelia blurted. "Why would you want those?"
"Calm down Cornelia." Yan Lin said with a smile. "They will be returned to you unharmed when you get back from your missions. I would just like to… upgrade them."
The girls weren't sure what that meant, but they had learned not to ask questions of Kandrakar's elders. Grudgingly, they handed over their phones to Yan Lin who took them with a smile.
"Now unless Irma wants to ask any more questions…" Will said with a smile.
"Nope. I've learned my lesson."
"Then let's go to Balsilide."
Balsilide
After a quick stop home, the girls began strolling through the streets of Balsilide. Since they didn't anticipate needing their powers, and because they weren't looking to attract attention, they were not in Guardian form. Instead, the five human girls wore whatever they thought would hide them from the rest of the world. Their faces were not as well known here as on Meridian, so a simple plain t-shirt sufficed.
"So, Heart or Himerish first?" Cornelia asked.
"Heart." Will replied curtly. "As Yan Lin so kindly reminded us, 'it's the most important event of our lives'."
"It's not her fault." Hay Lin said defensively. "She's just stressed."
"Don't worry, we haven't forgotten all Yan Lin's done for us." Irma said reassuringly. "We just don't like being treated like Kandrakar's lackeys."
The girls spent the next hour searching for Kiev Irvig unsuccessfully. Few people they talked to had heard of him, and even less knew where to find him. Even the Heart of Balsilide was a foreign term to everyone the girls approached.
"Why don't we just ask the R.E.G, or President Rikar? They're bound to know where this guy is." Cornelia said, sitting down to rub her sore feet.
"Call me paranoid, but I'm not sure I really want to talk to the Balsilidian government unless we have too," Taranee said. "Might not be a good idea to let them know we're sneaking around their world looking for an object of almost unlimited power."
"We're not sneaking," Irma said. "We're just moving with out being noticed."
Irma thought about this for a moment.
"Okay, so we're sneaking. You may be on to something here Taranee."
"I agree." Will said. "The less attention we attract the better, at least until we know we can trust Rikar."
It took another twenty minutes before their luck finally turned. They met a small, portly man, running a small shop and mentioned Kiev's name.
"Kiev Irvig? Yes, I knew him. Why do you ask?" The man said.
"We're trying to find him." Will said. "Do you know where he might be?"
"I know exactly where he is," the man said. "St. Visage."
The man pointed a fat finger up a nearby hill where a large, dark house stood.
"Great, thanks!" Will said, starting up the hill. "Since we've never met him, can you tell us what he looks like?"
"Trust me, it doesn't matter." The man said with a laugh.
The girls left the shop, looking back wit suspicion.
"'It doesn't matter?' What does that mean?" Cornelia asked.
"Eh, it's Balsilide. Everyone's weird." Irma said, starting up the hill. "The guy's probably got two heads or something. Come on."
The girls raced up the hill in excitement. They were about to complete a mission, and be home by dinner. They all felt it was time they caught a break, and it looked like today would be the day. In their excitement, they forgot to take a good look at the small sign on the front of the building. If they had, they might not have been so excited.
Will pushed open the tall wooden door to reveal a large, ornate room. A hanging, brass chandelier lit the room warmly, while a large marble statue of an angel-like creature stood in the corner. The whole building felt more prestigious then any they had ever been in, and it made them all feel out of place. The only person in the room other then the girls was an older lady, standing behind a long wooden desk. She looked up from her papers when the girls entered, and smiled warmly. The girls returned the smile as they approached the desk.
"Woah, I am way underdressed." Irma said looking around.
"Hello, how can I help you today?" the woman said in a sweet voice.
"Hi, we're looking for a Mr. Kiev Irvig. We we're told he was here." Will said.
"Oh, yes, he is. He'll be in the ninth plot on your left. 3rd row, 2nd from the end." The woman said, pulling out a piece of paper.
The girls frowned as the woman wrote the directions down, and handed the piece of paper to Will.
"Thank you." Will said, taking the paper.
"You're very welcome. Have a nice day." The woman said as the girls left through a side door. "Oh, and I'm sorry for your loss."
"'Sorry for your loss'?" Hay Lin said once they were outside again. "What did she mean by that?"
Will looked up from the paper and frowned. In front of her were rows upon rows of short, black pillars, with a narrow path in-between. For as far as Will could see, the pillars continued, divided into several different plots. As Will read the instructions she had been given once more, she finally realized where she was.
"Oh no."
Without warning, Will broke into a run, counting the different plots as she passed them.
"Will! Where are you going?" Cornelia said as the girls ran after Will.
"No! This was supposed to be simple!" Will said as she ran. "This was supposed to be easy!"
At the ninth field, Will turned sharply down the third row on her left, all the way down to the second last pillar. A quick look at the top of the dark pillar confirmed her fears.
"Kiev Irvig?" Irma said, coming to a halt next to her friend. "Why does this pillar say Kiev Irvig? He's not a pillar, is he?"
"No Irma, he's not." Will said. "He's under it. This is a cemetery. Keiv Irvig is dead, and so are our chances of finding the Heart of Balsilide."