Defender of Mirago

Chapter 15

A day of travel was close to passed as the sun began its descent. Clouds started to fill the sky, fitting together like a puzzle. A snowflake fell upon Rayble and melted. Then another. Mountains up ahead reached the sky, dwarfing the young couple. The landscape was unfamiliar, far different than Rayble's home of Mirago. A narrow pass led through the mountains. Kessa's cube decided to go through. The pass led to an opening, a beautiful valley covered lightly in white. The clouds were thicker and the snow more plentiful, but the atmosphere remained calm and peaceful. In the center of the valley was a large city surrounded by the mountains. It was bigger than Rayble had ever seen.

Towers and pillars of fire greeted them at the entrance. Homes, inn's, meeting halls, and buildings of business stood taller and wider here, competing with the large mountainous rocks. Stairs led through various compact streets and alleys. Warm lights welcomed them from within every home.

Many beautiful buildings nested in impossible to reach places on rocks and cliffs within the jagged snowy valley, including temples and a castle which sat the highest of them all. Their strange placement was explained when Rayble saw that the people of the city had large wings. Many had them folded on their backs, others spread them out and flew above. The wings were shades of brown, matching the people's hair and eye color.

At first, Kessa and her cube followers were the strangest group of people Rayble had ever seen. Now these winged mountain people took the top of the list. It was all so new to him. What other types of people lived in this world?

"What is this place?" Rayble wondered out loud.

"It must be Joracem," said Kessa. "I've heard my father and other Marians talk about it before. City of the winged people, Lucems. The path of the cubes led my pack through here long ago, before I was born."

They entered a grand building in the center of the city, a sheltered place for public gatherings. There they found many hooded people, spread out sitting hunched on the floor and on benches. They coughed and sniffled. Had the sickness reached here as well? Other, healthier individuals conversed normally and traded goods. It was nice and warm and bright within the large space, contrasted by the somber mood of those affected by the sickness.

One such infected person came up to Rayble and Kessa. He was older than them and had auburn hair and wings. Red splatters were in his eyes like blood in water. He spoke quickly and desperately to Rayble, "Please, please, I beg of you, heal me! Heal me, please! Take this sickness away."

Rayble held up his hands against him. "I don't know what you mean."

"You're the healer are you not? The young foreigner who takes the sickness away?"

"I'm sorry, but that's not me."

"It has to be you!" the auburn man insisted, pushing his face even closer to him.

"It's not! I can do no such thing."

"Peh." The man dropped his head and left them.

—

As it was getting late, Rayble wanted to stay up with Kessa, but they both eventually decided it was best for him to get rest in a nice bed. Rayble was worried that Kessa wouldn't be in Joracem by the time he awoke in the morning, but she reassured him that she would notify whoever she could find to let the innkeeper know to tell Rayble she was leaving. Rayble still felt uneasy about it but knew he needed some quality rest if he were to keep up with her. He prayed that she would stay in the city through the night as he headed off to the inn.

Before he entered the inn, he saw a woman covered in a cloak sitting outside the door. She looked unwell. But a young man, not a Lucem, knelt beside her and placed his hands on her. Almost immediately she sat up and took a big inhale with a smile. She then proceeded to stand and hug the man, thanking him before she skipped off. Rayble thought of him to be the healer the sick man was referring to earlier, but then skepticism seeped in and he quickly tried to convince himself that the man must have whispered something kind or slipped her money.

Rayble grabbed the door, but before he walked in the inn, he couldn't help but ask, "Did that woman have the sickness?"

"Yes." The man replied.

"But now it has left her?"

"What you say is true."

"Then, you are the healer?"

"Just as much as you are, defender of Mirago."

Mirago, the place he used to call home. The place he abandoned. Defender? Hardly. The word stung as the memory of him running from his town resurfaced. Running away when they needed him most. It was his job to protect Mirago from the red clouds. All he could think about was the winds overwhelming his fellow defenders and overtaking the town. His grandfather... Was he alright? He would be so ashamed of his grandson. He could never go back. But how did this stranger know who Rayble was? And what did he mean, "just as much as you are?" Was he trying to say Rayble was a healer?

"How do you know me?" Rayble said.

"Our All-Knowing God tells me things from time to time." He smiled warmly.

"God? The same God of the defenders of Mirago?"

"Yes, he's not just the God of Mirago, but of the universe and all that is in it. And you Rayble, are not just a defender, but a healer, a lover, and so much more."

"No, I am not a healer."

A crowd approached from where the woman had run moments ago. Within the crowd Rayble could see the sick man that approached him earlier. They were headed for the healer.

"I must go," said the healing man. "But remember who your God is, and what he is capable of. And remember you are a vessel for this God to do amazing things through you." With that, he was gone to the crowds.

Rayble went into the inn and thought about what he had heard.