Luck Weaver

3. Solstice

Chapter 3 - Solstice

Stepping into the practice room, a dismal sight greeted the teenager’s eyes.  Some nursing bruises, none of the students sitting down on the chairs would catch his eye, except one of the younger ones.   He openly glared back, like he would make a difference in the outcome. They were sitting on comfortable chairs.

Different people were nursing all different types of injuries.  Some were nursing broken bones, others were clenching their elbows, and still others were passed out with the pain.  No one said it would be easy or painless.  It would be worth it if you had even a chance, the slightest chance, of winning.  All those endless hours of pain, of suffering, of sweat had a purpose, and now it was the day of reckoning.  Those years came down to 15 minutes.

Ray looked hopeful, but sad at the same time.  Knowing it was time, the teen squared his shoulders, shrugged off doubt, and met the instructor's gaze boldly.  The instructor allowed a small smile, before continuing in the ritual.

"Because all these students have failed in their task, they have joined my ranks.  As the rules state, I can choose 4 students to assist me," the instructed stated, before picking the four most advanced students there, including Ray.  Ray gave a little shrug as if to say he was sorry, and the teen gave a nod, which seemed to relieve Ray a lot.

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When Jay woke up, the sun was shining in his face. He remembered having some dream about a battle.  Picking his way through the dense foliage, he heard birds cawing.  A branch snapped in his face, giving him a cut.  It just missed his eyes.  Small animals scurried under him, alarmed at a person walking through the forest, disrupting the peace.

As he got closer to the town, he started to smell smoke.  Remembering his dream, he started running, panicked.  As he approached the edge of the forest, he saw a large cloud of birds wheeling around above the village.  Breaking through into the sunlight, heaving for breath, Jay studied the dismal scene before him.

The field normally used to sow wheat was filled with his dead neighbors.  The remains of the town were short smoldering stumps of what once were houses, some of which Jay had lived in.  The smoke wafted up through the air, to the midday sun.  Fences were broken and burning, even the trees were stumps now.  It was a scene of desolation, where once a peaceful small town existed.

There were scavengers everywhere having a feast at the battlefield. Dead men were everywhere, yet there were no mephs.  Jay frowned; he dimly remembered that a meph died.  Did the body fade or did the other mephs bury it?  Anyway, there were no mephs to be seen, they probably all left.  Birds pecked at the bloody remains of the human casualties.  Lifeless blaming eyes gazed at him accusingly.  Here and there, a limb would be on the ground alone, separated from its body.

So it wasn't a dream after all.  Feeling tears again, Jay shoved them away and tried his hardest to stay emotionless.  It was hard, but eventually Jay succeeded because he couldn't believe what his eyes told him.  It was so shocking, his brain kept on repeating it wasn't real.  Everything he ever knew, was destroyed by those mephs.  Even his father was murdered by the mephs.  It was time, now that his father was dead.  He felt the responsibility of staying alive settle upon him.

Suddenly, Jay felt the numbness fade, only to be replaced by rage.  He cursed those mephs as loud as he could.  After screaming himself hoarse, he whispered a promise, a vow of vengeance.  

When he stood up, he was a different boy.  While before, he hadn’t been to talkative, and radiated confidence, now he seemed to shed what childish qualities he had.  He seemed taller, and his aura flared brighter.  His eyes seemed sharper, and he looked like a leader, silent, but strong.

Arriving at the ill-fated battlefield, all the dead bodies stunned him.  The bloodstained ground kept slipping him up.  According to belief, if a dead body wasn't buried by twenty-four hours after it died, the soul would spend ten years wandering, before making it to the realm of the gods.  Of course criminals, who would be punished there, preferred not being buried, but the average man would be horrified at the prospect of not being able to immediately go to the realm.

Jay weighed his options in his mind.  Should he bury the dead men?  On one hand, he hadn't known them for too long, only for a year.  It would take an enormous amount of time, effort, and energy to bury everyone.  On the other hand, they did look after him the one-year he lived there.  Also it would bring good karma, or the favor of the gods.  Jay sorely needed good luck at the moment, without a place to live, so he decided to bury them.  Those that the gods favored normally succeeded.

Instead of digging a huge trench, which would take days for all the dead people, he decided to sink them in the lake.  A mass grave would take forever to dig, and required a huge amount of effort.  Sinking bodies in a lake was discouraged, but acceptable.  It gruesome, though boring, work.  Because the bodies would start floating, Jay had to tie rocks onto the bodies.  After a while, Jay just stopped thinking.  The work required no decisions, so he just let his mind wander while his body was working.  He got into a pattern and tried to think about anything rather than the dead people he was burying.

One body caught his attention.  A little girl was lying face down.  Turning her body over, he saw she was stabbed multiple times.  Wearing a purple coat, she almost looked alive, until he saw the stomach wounds.  Cursing, Jay felt horrible.  Those mephs killed harmless children.  He buried the girl, and stood, looking at where the mephs came from.  He took a step forward, before realizing he had to bury the rest of the bodies.  Cursing, he wanted to go after the mephs immediately.

It was noon by the time Jay finished with the horrid task.  Immediately after finishing, Jay decided to take a bath, to wash off the stench on him.  Looking around, he realized that the lake was full of dead people so he started heading toward a spring in the forest.  Turning around, he started walking on the blood stained ground, feeling extremely dirty.

Tiredly walking, something caught Jay's eyes.  On the bright road, something shone, reflecting light straight into Jay’s eyes.  Upon further inspection, Jay realized it was a sword partially in a sheath.  The part out of the case drew his attention.  It seemed like an expensive sword made out of quality metal.  Drawing it out fully, he observed it.  It was a broadsword, with a complex flame design of white and grey decorated the sheath. The white flames seemed to almost move around the light grey background.

Walking over, Jay picked it up.  Since nothing bad happened, he drew the sword out of its sheath.  The sword radiated and the same design on the sheath ran down the side of the sword with one difference.  The white flame on the sword shone with soft light. The sword was light as air, but the grip felt uncomfortable in his hand.  Still, it would cost a king's fortune to get a sword like that.

Out of nowhere, the word "Solstice" came into his mind.  He felt something stir in his mind briefly, before disappearing. Jay tried in vain to pinpoint his fuzzy memory, but it was too unclear. Knowing that it was something important, Jay grew frustrated. It had been a long day so far, and it was barely noon.  Letting out his emotions for once, Jay threw the sword into the ground as hard as he could.  Plunging into the ground, it brought up a huge cloud of dust that made Jay cough.

Suddenly, a movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention.  Because of the dust, Jay couldn't see anything clearly.  Scared, he pulled his sword up, which wasn't even dusty let alone broken, picked up the sheath, and put it in.  Then he jogged over.  As he drew closer the source of the motion, he drew the sword making a metallic sound.  Arriving at where he first heard the sound, he saw a branch bobbing up and down.  Caught on it, a tiny black thread waved in the wind. 

Jay thought "Meph!" before he scrambled away into the forest shoving the sheath into his belt.  Once, a soldier visited his village, and that was how the soldier carried his sword.  To Jay, it felt uncomfortable, just like the sword did in his grasp.

Some kilometers away already, a meph was running toward his leader's camp.  It replayed the report again and again in his mind trying to find the phrasing that would put him in the least danger.  Strange magic was happening.  As far as it knew, the Solstice became lost hundreds of years ago.  As for how it ended up in Jay's hands, well...