Dawn's Light

Chapter 46

"G-Guild Master Orthos," Celia stuttered a bit as she stared into Orthos's stern eyes. "Uhhhh...," she struggled to come up with the proper words.

The guild master sighed and shook his head. "Celia, what am I going to do with you? Here you are, about to run off again." He placed his hands behind his back. "Go ahead and dismount, both of you."

Celia swallowed nervously and silently obeyed. After she slid off of Verbena's back, the young female rider looked up to her superior, unable to speak. Terror racked her mind. If she had gotten out without being caught, Celia believed the return of the final ray of light would have softened the punishment. Now, she was not so sure what would happen to them.

"Perhaps I should begin by explaining how I knew to stop you here," Guild Master Orthos began as he calmly approached the two riders. "Really, it came down to a hunch, but you gave a few clues. Celia, you did not seem too happy when I said you were not allowed to be on the team that will fly after the final ray of light.

"When you left the Meal Hall early, I figured if you were going to sneak out. I presumed you would retrieve the saddlebags from your room, so I used that as a reference point to guess which tunnel you would try. You would avoid many of the main tunnels, so the only options for you were the lesser used tunnels near your room.

"Am I correct?" The tall guild master gazed down to the shorter Celia with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, Guild Master Orthos," Celia mumbled a bit and hung her head low. She could not force herself to look up to the man before her. 

The leader nodded, "if it makes you feel better, Valiant is waiting on the mountain, you would not have gotten past him if I picked incorrectly."

He approached Celia, then placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know what it is like to feel like you have to do something, but in this case, you do not have to. This is not your destiny." He softly frowned down to her. "There is no prophecy or legend saying you will be the one to return the sun. You have already done Roahla a great service by finding three of the pieces. It is good to be ambitious, but there is a line between going out of your way to improve the world and being careless with your life.

"Sir, we have a plan to retrieve the last ray of light," Xan looked up to the guild master before Celia could fabricate her own reply. "I am almost completely positive it will work, and I have been around Celia and Verbena long enough to know that she makes things happen despite the odds. That is especially true when I do not believe it will. Both she and Verbena are full of surprises," Xan looked at Celia with a small encouraging smile on his face. He turned back to Guild Master Orthos, "It may not be destiny, but it is something we want to do. We want to return light to the world, despite the risks."

Celia's heart fluttered a bit with the knowledge that Xan believed in her. She had no idea the young man had that much faith in her. "Thank you," she turned her head and mouthed the words to him.

As Xan nodded, Orthos removed his hand from Celia's shoulder and looked to the younger male rider behind her. "Oh, and what is your plan? What makes you think it will work that much?"

"I think it will work because I know it will, as I have never seen anyone as stupidly lucky as Celia. It is almost surreal." Xan stated, "With mine and Irin's guts and her and Verbena's luck I think we can do it."

Before Guild Master Orthos could cut him off, Xan continued, "We plan to sneak into the town on foot. I think whatever spell that made the black beast that guards Urre only reacts to dragons, not humans. That would explain how I got into town when I was younger. From there, I can lead Celia through the streets and to the tower the light is in and we can get it from there."