Chapter Nine: More Questions
Avis
"…I think it's time I explained where you came from."
Avis cocked a curious eyebrow at Farrah. "You always said that you found me in a slum," the pale-skinned boy said.
"A small lie," Farrah, the old Menaphite man who owned the defunct antique store upstairs, admitted to the boy. "Not the truth. I did not find you in a slum. I didn't even find you in this city-"
"Where did I come from, Farrah?" Avis interrupted the old man, quickly starting to grow impatient with the old man's reticence. This was his origin that the old man was hinting at; anything short of cutting straight to the chase was unacceptable.
"I do not know, child," Farrah replied.
"But you just said-"
"Peace," Farrah held up a hand, quelling the boy from speaking any further. "Your arrival into this place was both mystifying and unnatural, to put it mildly. It happened ten years ago—you were a newborn infant when I…found you. I was on my way to Ullek from Uzer in the north, traveling by camel, when it happened."
"When what happened?"
"A bright flash of light…" Farrah murmured, his eyes growing distant as the memories of that night came back to him. "It was in the middle of the night…the stars were out, as well as the full moon… There was a flash of light, bright enough to light up the night sky for miles. I was alone at the time, though; no one else ever saw it. Just me."
"What was it?"
"I looked up…and I saw a falling star," Farrah explained. "Not any normal falling star, though; this one was blood-red and blazing like a sun that had gone nova…it was painful to look at, but I didn't break eye contact. I watched as it descended from the heavens and crashed into the far side of the dune ahead of me. So, I spurred my camel on and hurried over that dune to the crash site… Smoke was still rising from the area. Sand had melted to glass in some places, and there were black scoring marks in a perfect pattern all around the point of impact. There were no rock fragments, however; nothing solid. Just burns, glassed sand, and…and you."
Avis's forehead wrinkled in a frown. "Come again?"
"You were a tiny infant, pale as you are today," Farrah recalled, momentarily pausing to take a sip of wine before continuing. "You were lying right in the centre of the blast, staring up at the sky. You were completely unharmed…you weren't even crying, for heaven's sake; you were just…lying there…"
A brief silence fell between the two after Farrah finished speaking until Avis broke it, saying, "So, let me get this straight… You're riding through the desert one night, then some freak-show comet slams into the ground, and POOF; I just appear?"
"That is a very crude way of explaining it, but yes," Farrah conceded. "As you already know, your name, Avinius, means 'of the Heavens'. I did not choose that name at random; you are, quite literally, of the Heavens."
Avis was silent for a full minute, taking the time to digest this new series of revelations. The boy did not doubt Farrah's word, but, all the same, a small part of his mind still found it hard to believe. Anyone telling another person that he had been found in the middle of the crash site of a fiery, unnatural falling star would automatically be assumed to be insane.
Then again, Farrah had absolutely no reason to lie about this, no reason at all. Avis studied the old man carefully, but he found no deception in Farrah's eyes, face, or body. The old man had to be telling the truth. Farrah just never really had it in him to tell an outright lie on this scale.
"Well, that's…um…" Avis murmured quietly, searching for the words that would not come to his mouth, "That's very…interesting, and all, but…well, that really doesn't tell me anything about where I came from, or who I am."
"You already know who you are," Farrah countered. "You are Avinius of Ullek. You are you; nothing changes that, no matter what the truth may be."
"I mean am I human?" Avis sighed. "I know my identity as an individual, but what am I? Normal people don't come screaming into this world in a falling star, you know."
Farrah did not reply right away. Instead, the old man blew a smoke ring from his Badb pipe and sat quietly, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. He rocked back and forth in his chair, his mouth twitching every few seconds as if he had something he wanted to say, but wasn't sure how he should say it. Avis did not press the old man; the boy had learned by now that Farrah would speak when he saw fit, not when an impatient ten-year-old decided to pester him for answers.
After another minute or so, Farrah finally rose from his seat. "Walk with me," he said to the boy.
Avis got up and followed Farrah up the stairs to the antique shop on street-level above. The old man then scaled the ladder in his shop's backroom that led up to the rooftops.
It was night outside. The full moon was out, illuminating everything in a pale half-light. There were a few wispy clouds hanging in the star-studded sky, the moonlight making them glow a strange shade of gray. Below the sky, in the world of men, the lights of Ullek cast a dull aura into the sky, but not bright enough to dampen out the stars.
Farrah walked down along the rooftops, puffing on his pipe. These were the same rooftops he had once run across and through when he had been in his prime. His thieving days had been the best days of his life, Farrah recalled, his laughter lines accentuating themselves as the memories of his youth came to him. The days of thieving were always the best days of the lives of former-thieves who never get caught. It was impossible to find the adrenaline rush of evading guards anywhere else, except in war.
"I don't know," Farrah admitted finally, breaking the silence after he had walked a short distance. He did not make eye contact with Avis; he just kept on walking along the rooftops.
"What?" Avis asked, nearly startled by the old man's sudden resumption of the earlier conversation.
"If you are Human," Farrah clarified, turning to look down at the boy. "I do not know."
"If I'm not Human, then what the heck am I?" Avis began to raise his voice, starting to lose patience with Farrah. The old man's slow way of talking was really starting to chafe with the boy's lightning-fast personality. "What can I be? I mean, I'm definitely not a dwarf because I'm normal-sized; I'm no elf because my ears aren't freakishly big and pointed; I didn't have wings, last time I checked, so I'm not an Iceyene...you catch my drift?"
"Well…I don't know. All I know is that you do many things normal humans cannot," Farrah said. "You have lived in the desert your entire life, and yet your skin is still as pale as it was when you were born. You should be at least tan or brown right now, but your skin never darkened under the sun. Even more than that; you have never once gotten sunburn. That is very unnatural."
"Okay, so I'm pale as the moon," Avis shrugged. "What's wrong with that? I guess that makes me, what, a vampyre?"
"I wouldn't discount it," Farrah said, his tone completely serious. "However, that is, nevertheless, highly unlikely. You do not seem to have had any particular craving for blood, nor any aversion to sunlight, both of which traits are rather commonly found in vampyres," Farrah paused, raising an eyebrow at the boy, asking, "Unless I'm wrong?"
Avis shook his head no.
Farrah continued after Avis's response. "That's what I thought. The color of your skin, however, is subject to conjecture. Amidst many other attributes that you possess, your ability to invoke magic without the use and assistance of runestones is…well, the best term to describe it would be 'impossible,' but you are living disproof of that statement. It has been impossible for anyone to cast magic without runestones…except for you, somehow."
"Why do people need runestones?" Avis asked. "I mean, why do you need a hunk of rock just to be able to do this-" as he spoke, the boy flicked his wrist towards a pile of rubbish heaped on the edge of the building they were traversing. A thin, concentrated burst of wind slammed into the rubbish heap, sending it flying over the edge and into the streets.
"Do you understand how magic works?" Farrah posed the question to Avis, continuing when the only response he received was a shrug. "Well, I am not going to explain it to you; that is going to be the job of someone else. However, I will tell you that human beings, as well as most other living creatures, are not sources of magic; they are mere manipulators of it. Runestones contain the pure elemental energy that we need to produce magic, without which we are powerless. That you are able to cast magic, to invoke the energy of the element of Air without having an energy source on hand is…well, it should be impossible. It should be. But somehow, with you…it isn't."
Avis shrugged again, turning back to face front. "So…what happens now?" he asked.
"I have prayed with every fiber of my being that it was not going to be you…but I can see now that I was just deluding myself…" Farrah sighed wearily and stopped walking, stopping at the edge of a particularly tall mansion roof, staring out over the market square. "Avinius…you have a job to do."
"Hm?" Avis grunted as he drew up next to the old man.
"There is a divine prophecy that speaks of the end of this world as we know it," Farrah explained. "It's very complicated; explaining it is, again, the job of someone else—an old acquaintance of mine."
"What's this prophecy-thing have to do with me?"
Farrah turned and looked Avis straight in the eye. "You, Avis; you're the one who is going to bring the God Wars to an end. If you do not…then Saradomin and Zamorak will destroy this world in their hatred of each other. The energies they release when they do battle with each other…the world cannot handle it. This cannot happen."
"I what?" Avis's eyes widened in shock, and then denial. "No, no, you've got the wrong kid," he babbled, "I mean, yeah, okay, sure; maybe I can blow some wind around with my mind; nothing special, though! I can't fight Gods!"
"Not yet," Farrah countered. "I suspect your full powers are dormant right now. My guess would be that you have some limited use of Air because it is the first of the four elements, and because of your prolonged exposure to concentrations of the Anima Mundi-Ullek being one of the most populous cities in the world and therefore being a large nexus of life energy."
"I think…" Avis started to sway, his pale face becoming even paler. The boy dropped to his haunches, hanging his head between his knees to get the blood flow started back up again. "Oh, man, this has been one hell of a night…"
"You must understand; we were going to wait until you were older to reveal this to you," Farrah sighed. He ran a hand through his wispy white hair, blowing another smoke ring into the night sky. "But recent events have…accelerated our plans. Jafa's news of Zamorak attacking the Empire from the north leaves us with little time."
Avis looked up. "Time for what?"
"An old acquaintance of mine is on his way," Farrah replied. "He will take you under his wing. He will be your teacher; from him, you shall learn the ways of the mage. He will also have your dormant powers awakened…at least, he told me he would. He said he had a hunch that your powers could be awakened by taking you to the-"
"You're taking me away from my home?" Avis interrupted, grasping the underlying meaning of Farrah's words. "You're making me leave Ullek?"
"Avinius…" Farrah sighed again, leaning down and placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Avinius, Zamorak's foul hordes are heading right for this place. Soon there will not be an Ullek. When my friend arrives, you must go with him. If you remain here…Zamorak's forces will capture you, and then the Dark One himself will give you his personal attention."
"I'm assuming that's a bad thing?"
"If Zamorak ever gets you in his clutches, you will do whatever he wants you to do. His powers are…" Farrah shuddered. "We are vermin to Zamorak. Inconsequential. The fact that he is taking a particular interest in you is…not good. Unprecedented, really; he cares nothing for mortals. We must keep you away from him at all costs."
"But what does he want with me? What could I possibly do to him that would-"
"According to the prophecy, you can bring the war to an end," Farrah shrugged. "Naturally, Zamorak wants two things: either to kill you, so that you do not end the war in Saradomin's favor; or to capture you and twist your soul into serving him. Neither of these options will be particularly pleasant for you."
A bird flew past, silently gliding through the cool night air, silhouetted by the stars and moonlight. Avis and Farrah watched it go for a moment, giving them reprieve from their conversation. For a moment, at least.
"Avinius…I know that what I ask of you is not an easy thing," Farrah sympathized with the boy, crouching down next to him. "But it is necessary. You have every right to drop everything and run away; and if you choose to do that, I will not stop you. But this world needs you, Avinius. All of us need you. The balance of the Anima Mundi has been tipped in Saradomin's favor for the past six hundred years; now it is falling back towards Zamorak. If Zamorak wins the war, this world will burn, Avinius. We are going to need you."
Avis had nothing to say. All he could do was sit there on the edge of the building, staring out over the city, deep in his own thoughts.
Suddenly, a loud horn sounded somewhere off in the southern reaches of Ullek, followed by a cacophony of bells ringing furiously through the night. That was the defense alarm, sounded when a threat to the city was near. Because it had originated from the south, the threat, whatever it was, was most likely approaching from off the coast of the southern ocean. Pirates, perhaps.
Farrah knew better. The old man stiffened at the sound of the alarms. Farrah had never had any magical prowess, but he was what most mages would call 'sensitive'. He could easily attune himself to the energy of the world around him. He sensed a disturbance in the Anima Mundi. He could feel it in the wind.
"We must go," the old man said to Avis, "It has begun."