A Myriad of Mysteries

12

The embers on the fire crackled as they all sat around it. The day had ended and night had come.

Datino and Romina were sitting beside each other. Opposite from them, sat Reiynia and Eirisinia with Zeirio in the middle. He kept his head down all the time avoiding eye contact with the new aquaintances as much as possible.

Reyzenar approached them, carrying four small wooden bowls with tiny blue and red berries inside. He gave one bowl to the couple, one to the twins and another to his friend. He kept one to himself thinking Eirisinia would not want to share a bowl with him.

"Thank you," Romina said followed by a gentle smile.

"Really sorry about the meal," he apologized as he sat down beside Eirisinia. "It was all I could find nearby."

Eirisinia was belittled by the bowl and eyed it in disappointment. She proceeded to look at the faces of her companions only to see that they were happy with what Reyzenar had given them.

She was hesitant to eat the very little amount of food when her stomach started to grumble. Her face redened with embarassment. It had occured to her that she had not eaten in almost an entire day.

Though her eyes might not be hungry her stomach felt the opposite way. She picked up the berries one by one.

When her tounge tasted the tiny fruit, she recalled that this was the same fruit she had eaten with Reyzenar five years ago. Memories flooded her mind again. But this time, they were good memories of how her friendship with Reyzenar started.

"Now," Romina began, "Since all of you want to accompany us, we might as well tell you what we know about the man who we're going to rescue."

Everyone shifted their attention from their food towards the woman, "His name is Izin, a man who worked at the palace as the Queen's adviser at a very young age."

She looked at her husband and urged him to continue the story, "He was allowed to work at the palace because of his intellect and love for knowledge but as we said earlier, he was imprisoned like us 20 years ago. We were only children, not older than ten but he was already in his 20's."

"If you were imprisoned then how did you get out?" Zeirio asked in a daze before covering his mouth and then his face while slightly shaking his head from the embarassment of bluntly speaking.

"A man saved us," Romina answered. "He set all of us free but he asked a small favor in return."

"Favor? What favor was that?" Eirisinia asked as she handed a half eaten bowl towards Reyzenar.

"We had to conjure a small ball of light and then give it to him," Datino answered. "We didn't know why he needed it, all we knew was that he can't conjure those orbs himself because he's human. His eyes were a light colored brown."

"What did he look like?" Reiynia asked. Her lips and hands had blue and red stains from the berries.

"We don't know," Reyzenar answered. All the heads shifted towards him as he stared at two bowls. One half empty and one half full. "He always covered his face but he didn't hesitate to save anyone in danger, he was a also a great mentor and companion."

"Was?" Zeirio peeped again. This time he no longer covered his face. Reyzenar answered with a nod.

Eirisinia stared at the frowning Reyzenar. She was so used to seeing him always smiling that it made her uncomfortable to see him like this.

"What else do you know about this man named Izin?" Eirisinia broke the gloomy air when she questioned Romina.

Romina took a bit longer to respond, "We don't know much about him, aside from what we already told you, but we know he's being held captive in the southern dungeon."