Heart of Breydar

Aspects

"Your planet looks fine to me." I tried to laugh the accusations away, but my heart kept climbing up my throat and my lungs tightened. The dream wasn't going away and as uncomfortable as that was, it was no where near as frightening as the fact that somehow his words felt familiar. They felt like they spoke the truth and somehow I knew they were.

"You've only seen the temple lands. The well feeds the ground here, but now that you and the other woman..."

"Gwen," I said with a snap.

"Now that you and Gwen," Marden continued, "are no longer on the other side of that well, the land here will dry up."

"Why?" I asked as my hand busied itself with the collar of my shirt, pulling at it like somehow that would make breathing easier.

"Without Breydar's light upon our world, the land is simply dying. It's been a slow death, but now we are reaching the tipping point."

"Whole cities have collapsed," continued Jendi, a fire in his voice and a glint in his eye which stabbed at my fragile conscience. "People are dying everywhere from starvation and disease."

"Only a few of the larger cities live on and only because they house shrines bearing Breydar's holy relics," finished Haven, who had put a hand on Jendi's shoulder, the smaller man visibly shaking.

"There are, however, a few towns that have survived, many of us scholars believe these to have the reincarnations of Breydar's eight aspects: strength, love, creativity, fear, pride, wisdom, temperament, and charity."

"His aspects? The parts that got torn off during this great Tearing?" I asked the question without thinking, but once the words left my mouth I was confused on how they even got there. Was I actually starting to believe this?

"Yes," said Marden with a smile.

I sighed, part of me taking some consolation in knowing that he wasn't expecting me to go find actual body parts scattered around the world. I had visions of a giant decaying hand resting on top of a mountain or something. Then, I shuddered. Not at the grotesque image forming in my head, but that yet again I seemed to be all to okay with this story he was feeding me.

"Without the mind's logic and reasoning, or the heart's compassion and intuition, the aspects left in this world are without direction and are untempered weapons. Most probably live normal enough lives with a few quirks that make them simply unusual to their neighbors. However, once either you or Gwen come in contact with these aspects, they will be awakened and they'll be able to tap into a spring of godly energy."

"Are you an aspect?" I asked, recalling the night before when he sent me flying back with jolt.

A humble smile lit his wary face, but he closed his eyes and shook his head. "What you saw last night was simply the act of one who has access to a relic of Breydar." With that he pulls out from his robe a small tome with a leather cover flaking with age and bound with a fraying cord of rope. "This is a notebook he kept which he recorded his final requests of his people before the Tearing. It was entrusted to our brethren at the temple since we were guarding his gate. Eventually, the brother and sister superiors left in charge of it began to notice strange occurrences that they could not explain. Eventually, others throughout the world reported similar cases." He put the book back and sighed. "We've learned to hone this last gift of Breydar, but not all relics are in the hands of the righteous. They along with agents of the sun and the moon will make your journey a difficult one."

"Wait, hold on, I haven't agreed to any journey," I said, raising my hands up and glancing around me for a way out. Not that I knew what I'd do once I was out. Probably run to the well and throw myself in. But, if I expected that that would somehow get me home, how could I not also accept the rest of their tale. Then, there was one last thing. One thing that kept me from making an escape plan. The one thing that brought me to my knees and buried my head in my hands.

"You have to journey if you want to find your friend."

"She's not my friend, dammit." Still, I couldn't leave without Gwen. Even if getting home was as easy as taking a leap of faith, I couldn't go without her. Had I just taken the normal route to the bar. Had I not wanted to cause her discomfort by walking through the park. Had I simply been a warmer human being... Then, Gwen wouldn't have been kidnapped by a king who was doing who know's what to her.

"Then why do you care what becomes of her?"

"I'm not heartless."

"Exactly," said Marden with a clap of finality.

I groaned inwardly, but the older man seemed to have found some energy and was no longer interested in my little pity party.

"Nadine will accompany you to Vyneri, a small town we get our supplies from, less than a day's journey away. We have reason to believe a young man there is one of the aspects."

"Which one?" I asked. Haven walked over to help me off the floor while Nadine scurried away down a hall and Jendi stood behind Marden like a surly bodyguard. I, however, ignored the offer of help and pulled myself up with the support of one of the display cases.

"I'm not going to say," said Marden matter-of-factly. "Nadine knows well enough which we believe to be the aspect, but I think it best you discover him on your own as it should help you discover your abilities more readily than handing him to you."

"Abilities?" Marden either chose to ignore my question or was too distracted by Nadine's return to hear it.

"I've got it brother superior. No one will know." In Nadine's arms was a stack of clothes and upon her back was a hefty bag that should have weighed more than her.

"Good," said Marden with a smile before turning back to me. "You will change into these clothes. You have to look like a citizen of our world if you are to avoid the agents of Glaydin and Nemoreth. The sun and moon fancy they now own our planet and they aren't particularly willing to hand it back over to Breydar. So the better you blend in, the safer you'll be."

"What about Gwen?" I asked before looking at the pile of clothes Nadine presented to me. It wasn't far from what you'd see at a Renaissance Faire or some colonial reenactment. The clothes were made of natural materials and animal hides. She brought me a long, dress-like tunic of cotton, plain and bare of dye. There were leggings made of a soft hide like leather, as well as a vest. A much harder leather made up a belt and a pair of boots. It seemed on par with the sort of technology I'd seen thus far, but I still knew too little of this world to make assumptions about what life might look like in the larger cities.

"The king will take care of her, he has as little interest as I do in allowing Breydar's soul to fall into the hands of our enemies."

"Why did you let him take Gwen anyway?" I asked with an indignant bite in my voice, which I quite frankly didn't care to hide.

"You should go to Nadine's room to change, after that, head out to Vyneri immediately. You should be able to get there by nightfall." With that he left with Jendi. Haven followed soon after, leaving Nadine and me alone in the great hall.

"Why didn't he keep Gwen here if you've been waiting for our coming for so long?" I asked Nadine, not forgetting how useful her innocent honesty was before.

"Not all enemies come from the sun and moon, and not all are feared the same," she answered with a shrug before leading me back to her room.

Apparently, I still had to work on Nadine's clarity, but it seemed I'd have the time considering just how long of a journey we had ahead of us.