Knowledge and Divinity Book 1 : Knowledge

Moonscales

     We flew east for about two hours, until we reached the Sahyadri mountain range, after which we followed the range to the north. We flew till sometime in the evening, when Moonscales suggested that we stop for a minute to eat.

     We landed on a strip of flat land covered by forests, which seemed strange, considering the endless continuous hills we had seen on the way. Moonscales hovered towards a thick growth of trees, probably to hide us from the locals. Although as I had noticed before, the people could not have seen her due to her magic, but no harm in being careful. And now that someone without a destiny was riding her, she would obviously be careful, none of us could be certain what would happen next.

     After resting Sakhi's head on my lap, I told Moonscales in my head, " It's been almost 5 hours, she's still unconscious." I was really worried.

"That's because she wasn't knocked out by the wound on her forehead, but by your will to stop her. You can bring her back, if you concentrate. "

"I did that?! Wait, and you knew that I could bring her back? Why didn't you tell me? "

"I wasn't sure if it was magical or just a normal wound. I decided to wait...", the tone of her voice suggested that she had done it on purpose, maybe Sakhi wasn't the only one who hated dragons. Apparently, obviously, the dragons hated dragon slayers.

     I focused on the wound on her head, and imagined her as she was when she was better, and the colour started returning to her face. Suddenly, she jolted up, gasping for air. She summoned her sword, which I had forgotten to pick up from the river but had still somehow appeared here hundreads of kilometres away.

"You!", she said, pointing the sword towards Moonscales. "You knocked me unconscious; but why didn't you kill me?"

"Sakhi, relax. It wasn't her", I said, " it was me. I didn't mean to hurt you, but I just reacted. I'm sorry."

     Her arms relaxed a little, as she tried to put the pieces together. Then she lowered her sword.

     "I still don't trust you", she said, "But it appears that you were saying the truth about him being an alchemist. And you had a chance to kill me, but you didn't, so I can presume that you are on our side. I hope, for your sake, that I'm not wrong"

     Suddenly, she held her head and started to collapse. I caught her just before she hit the ground.

"She needs rest", Moonscales said, and I laid her with her back against a tree.

     After we had eaten the fruits Moonscales had plucked from the trees using her tail, Sakhi kept her head on my shoulder and started snoring. Apparently, she was fighting the Shadow-eel for almost the entire night, and was tired enough to sleep on broken glass.

     Seeing this, Moonscales laughed (which seemed weird, as her mouth didn't actually move, but she laughed in my head), and said, "so, I guess we are staying here for a while. Until then, lets practice some more. The most basic strength of an alchemist is reading destinies. As you can influence a destiny, it usually changes as soon as you read it, but a destiny can still tell you a lot of things about a soul. Try reading mine."

     As I focused on her, I could feel like my mind was digging deep into her body, towards her soul. As I reached her soul, I could see how it was made, the Gods' thoughts and emotions when they wrote her destiny. But I still had trouble reading it. I told her this.

     "What you can feel from my soul, is what I like to call cause. I don't exactly know how alchemy works, but my power is logic. And common sense, along with a million years of free time has given me a basic idea of destiny. Everything that happens, happens because something else has happened before it, something that caused it to happen. Physics predicts that the very first cause was the big bang, ant it lead to a series of events like making of matter, planets, and eventually life. It appears that in their immortal lifetime, the Gods have understood the relationship between cause and effect. Alchemists can predict the future and read destinies by doing the same. You can, too, if you focus."

"Wait, is alchemy magic or science? "

"Nothing defies the rules of science ", she replied. "When you fly, when Sakhi flies, with a speed faster than that of a bullet, you follow the laws of motion", she said 'Sakhi' like it was the most disgusting word in the world. "You only use the energy your soul gathers from your environment, in the form of heat, light, et cetera." she sounded like my physics teacher giving me a lecture. "So, students, that is how an alchemist makes his gold. Simple elemental physics. Any questions? "

"Try again. Read my destiny".

     I focused on her. This time, I tried to imagine what would happen after the vision I had got, of the Gods writing a destiny. Suddenly, I could see her entire life. She was born at the same time as the dragon king, in fact, she was his sister. Her powers were exactly the opposite of him, so was her nature. His was to use his strength to always get what he wanted, hers was to use her intelligence to know when and what to sacrifice for the good of everyone. She was the one who deserved to be the dragon king, and every dragon knew that, but she gave up her position for her brother. She still thought about the other dragons, as even though her brother was actually king, she was the one who took care of the dragons' affairs. When her destiny was first changed, she had to face a choice- her brother, or all the other dragons in the community. She chose her people,but had to face the consequences. When her brother died, the dragon slayer took charge of the community, and she, out of the pain of the loss of her brother, fled into the woods. When alchemists started losing their powers, using her understanding of the universe, she decided to help them remember.

     When she heard of the revival of her brother, she was overjoyed, but her joy didn't last long, because soon she heard that he was going to try to rule the world again, and a dragon slayer would slay him. She tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. He insisted that his destiny could be changed, and that broke her. She knew that he had to be stopped, so she pulled herself together and started searching for me, the one she knew could mean the salvation, or slavery of the world.

     My mind was sort of inside her, so I could fell all her thoughts and emotions, and she could feel mine. When I linked my mind to hers, I felt vulnerable. Considering that alchemists had powers equal to Gods, I thought that I could block my thoughts while reading others' , but it needed practice. Even before Moonscales  suggested me to read Sakhi, I knew from her thoughts that she wanted me to, and she knew from mine that I couldn't. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to hide my thoughts from her, I was afraid that if Sakhi found out that I was meant to stop her, even if I didn't want to, she would be mad at me. She could be hurt, and I would lose any chance that I had of winning her heart. Thankfully, Moonscales understood, and didn't force me.

     About half an hour later, Moonscales told me to wake Sakhi up. "We can't stay for long", she said. "We have to keep moving. "

     After non-stop flying for 3 more hours, Moonscales finally announced, "we're here". She was hovering over a mountain not unlike the countless ones we had just passed. She flew towards a cave that was easily large enough for a dragon with a wingspan twice as that of hers. She made about a million confusing turns in the labyrinth of caves, after which the cave snaked into a central cavern twice as large as the previous one. She set us down in front of a huge entrance that was covered with leather that looked suspiciously like dragon skin.

"I can't go through this door. When you get in, lay low and meet me at shop number 13 A.", Moonscales said.

"Wait", I asked loudly so even Sakhi could hear. It seemed rude to talk in my mind when she couldn't listen.
"How are you going to get in?"

"There are other ways inside, secret passages. I don't trust her enough to show her", saying so, she turned and flew away.

"What did she say?", Sakhi asked.

"We have to get inside and find shop number 13 A", I replied,  "And lay low".

~*~

So what is this place? Where is she taking them? Read on to find out.

Vote and comment if you liked it.