NexLord: Dark Prophecies (45 page)

"For the moment, west, at least until we
reach the Eigen pass.  From there we will likely go...
well, we can talk about that when we get closer and know more."

"Do we have to go?" Dono asked.

Mara looked sympathetic, but her eyes were
watching and weighing.  "Dono, none of you MUST go, but
any of you who stay will not be part of this fellowship
again.  I have told you, this is a crossroads, and
decisions you make now will change your life.  Great
events have been building for more years than you can
imagine.  They are building towards a nexus where all is
confused and many things are possible.  From this great
moment in
time,
the future paths
will narrow to color the future of our lives and this world."

"How do you know all this?" Lor demanded.

"It is written in the prophecies of Gold and
in the Dark Prophecies."

Lor was looking stubborn.  "Those
are just someone's guesses.  They can't predict the
future."

"You are correct," Mara said, surprising Lor.
"Prophecies are never perfect predictions of the
future
because there is no set
path.  Time is not preordained, nor are the choices you
will make
set
in stone."

"Then what good are these prophecies and why
do you follow them?" Lor asked.

Mara thought for a moment, she was not
considering the answer to the question, but whether her students
were ready to have this knowledge.  "Prophecies are the
best looks down the myriad of possible paths.  They are
the most likely events.  But even that is a serious
oversimplification.  Think of them this way, at
minimum
, they are major branches
in a host of possibilities, but once they are known and people get
a look at these paths they can give them even greater power. If
enough people believe in one possible future then it is even more
likely to become the true path.  I have taught you how
great pain, anger,
hate,
and fear
can stain a place, and you have all experienced this recently and
in other small ways your whole life, agreed?"

"Yes," Aerin said for them all.

"Well, great belief is no
different.  If enough people believe in something they
imbue it with the combined emotion of their belief."

Lor rubbed at her eyes
vigorously.  "Mara, your answers often give me a
headache.  Sometimes I wish I never asked.  All
this doesn't matter, what does matter is that I don't want to leave
my home."

Mara put a comforting hand on Lor's
shoulder.  "Then that would be your choice.  I
do not force any of you to take a destiny that is fraught with
danger,
pain,
and
suffering.  I can tell you this, the major paths all
point to severe challenge, pain and suffering for the bondsmen of
the new NexLord.  But be warned, the prophecies also show
the likelihood of our success diminishes with the loss of any
Bondsman.  This means if you stay, taking the comfortable
path, you might be happy in the short run, but
in the end,
your choice could be your doom."

"That isn't fair; you said you wouldn't make
us go!  Now you're making it sound like we're going to
die if we make the wrong choice," Lor growled.

"I'm not, I'm just telling you what the
prophecies say, your choices are your own.  Remember, the
prophecies could be wrong, but it just isn't likely that they are
far wrong."

Aerin's mind was on another
thing.  "Mara, you have mentioned two prophecies, how can
we be on both?"

"In essence, we are not.  For a
time,
events were following the
Prophecies of Gold, and I have tried to keep them on that track by
'helping' events to come true.  But we have diverged from
the more desirable branch and have entered an area where all likely
paths are foretold in the Dark Prophecies.  These
writings
were portends
of doom,
and as we sidestep one pitfall it but puts us in the path of the
next.  Instead of trying to keep on a known path, as I've
done for many years, now I fight to avoid ruin by staying in the
unknown.  Each victory is short lived.  I don't
like being on the defensive, but that is the situation."

"Is there any way to get back onto the path
that the Prophecies of Gold predict?" Aerin asked.

At his question Mara looked on her student
with pride; instead of fearing the dark choices ahead, and asking
about the next portend of doom, he was looking for intelligent
solutions.  "Yes, Aerin, there is always that chance, but
with each day, with each step that we go away from that future, it
gets harder.  In truth, I don't see a way, though I know
more of these prophecies than anyone else alive."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't believe in any
of this tripe," Lor noted, angry enough to speak back to
Mara.  "I'm not leaving my home on the possibility that
Gandarel will leave, and we need to save him, from something, only
to have it be
futile
since we
don't know that what we change the future to will be any
better!  And I don't think my friends should go
either."

Mara smiled and shook her head sadly, but her
grim humor was for her own failing.  "I seem to have done
something wrong in my teachings.  First Gandarel goes
against my counsel, and
tears
us
from the best path, and now Lor is afraid to leave as well."

"I'm not afraid!" Lor answered.

"Oh, but you are, Lor.  You're not
afraid of the things you would face out in the world, you're not
even afraid of those unknown dangers in the Dark Prophecies, though
if you read them you might reconsider.  No, you are
afraid of losing your home, of losing the last connection to your
childhood.  You fear growing up."

"I do not!" Lor stated and stood
up.  She glanced at her friends for a moment as if
looking for support, but when she did not see what she was seeking
she turned and went to the place where they climbed to the
roofs.  In
moments,
she
was gone.

Mara sighed, and then said, "After her,
Aerin, I don't know what you can say, but she must come with
us."

"But you said each of us gets to choose."

Mara nodded.  "Yes, but I didn't
say those choices wouldn't have consequences.  The rest
of you stay, we need to start packing.  We leave with the
dawn."

"So soon?" Dono asked with a slight look of
panic in his eyes.

Mara patted his red hair
fondly.  "Yes, Dono, though I will miss this frozen
moment; it has been a very special time in my life.  I
dreaded it for years before it happened, and now I find that when
it has passed I will miss it more than I would ever have
guessed.  The reason I told Lor we could not return is
simple, you can never go back.  A place in time is better
left untouched by the future so that your memory can keep it
alive.  I wish I could go on being your teacher forever,
but events for which I've prepared a lifetime approach, and I must
move back into the
mainstream
where the water flows swift and the jagged rocks are
dangerous."

"The last few years have been the craziest of
my life!" Aerin noted, getting to his feet to follow Lor.

"I believe you will look back on them
someday
and pray for the peace you
have known.  But do not despair, my young friends, for
the future always holds its own promise, and though we lose
something we leave behind, we never know what tomorrow will really
bring.  That is the adventure!"

Mara finished her speech and grew silent for
a moment before looking at Aerin, who had
paused.  "Ignore the rambling of an old woman, soon you
will follow the stirring of youth and life will become much more
interesting, if less comfortable.  On with you, Aerin,
bring her back.  As for the rest of us, it's time to get
to work packing the wagon."

The spire on Celimah's watchtower is the
highest peak in Strakhelm, and that is where Aerin caught up to
Lor.  The climb up the side and over the angled eve, that
overhung the balcony below, would have frozen Aerin with fear a
year ago, and even now challenged his climbing skills, and mental
control, to their limits.  Then he had to scale the steep
side to reach the metal rod that poked out of the very
top.  Lor stood next to that
rod
, holding on with one hand as she looked over her
city.

Aerin arrived and took hold of the
rod.  He didn't say
anything
but looked out over the vast array of shapes and
colors that was Strakhelm.

They stood side by side silently sharing
every detail of the only home Lor had ever known.  She
spoke first, "There is a storm coming."

Aerin raised his gaze to the skies and looked
to the west, where the red sun was setting behind the
Dragonback.  There was no sign of gathering clouds.

"It will come from the east, but not in the
way you are looking for it.  The storm will tear our
lives away from us.  You know it too; I've seen the same
haunted expression reflected in your face."

Aerin couldn't meet her eyes.

"What have you seen, Aerin, why do you look
away?"

Aerin forced his eyes back to meet his
friend's, and tears welled up inside.  "I've had a
vision, it was not a dream.  I told you something about
it that night when the Togroths attacked the east wall, but I
didn't tell you everything."

Lor frowned
slightly
while trying to understand.

Aerin looked down and paused a moment,
gathering his resolve, before looking up into her
eyes.  "I saw the aftermath of a great battle and
you..."

"I was dead," Lor finished for him.

"Yes," Aerin answered.  After a
moment,
he continued, "Mara sent
me to make you come with us. She said you are important and that
you have to come with us, but I've come to warn you that you will
die if you come on this journey; I saw it in that vision."

Lor looked at the anguish on Aerin's face and
her face broke into a warm and loving smile for her
friend.  She took him by the shoulder and looked into his
teary eyes.  "Aerin, I will not come along for
Gandarel.  He is my friend, but this is my home, yet I
have to ask you, are you going with Mara when she leaves?"

Aerin's voice was barely loud enough for Lor
to hear over the wind.  "Yes, she is my teacher, my
guardian and she saved my life when my parents were
killed.  I know you don't believe her claims of prophecy,
and I can't prove them right or wrong, but she believes what she is
doing is the right thing, and so I will go with her when she
asks.  I have to, she's my friend."

Lor looked at Aerin for a
moment.  "I don't know if I believe in those prophecies
or not, Aerin, nor do I think you can see the future, but none of
it matters, I am coming with you."

"But..."

"I know, you think I'm going to die in some
great battle, but I'm not that easy to kill.  Know this,
I’m not going for Gandarel and I'm not going for Mara, I'm going
for you, Aerin.  You tried to help my mother, and you
didn't do it to get something from me; you didn't even want me to
know.  I can never repay the kindness you showed, and
because of
it,
I will always love
you as my brother.  The others are friends, and I love
them
dearly, but
you cared for my
mother and became my brother. You are my only family
now.  I can't let you face this storm without my
protection."

Aerin smiled mischievously, "I seem to
remember being the one coming to YOUR rescue in the basement of
that temple."

"And I owe you for that as well, you saved my
life.  Regardless of what you saw in that vision, I can't
let you go out alone to get killed doing something stupidly
heroic."

Aerin reminded himself that Mara said the
future was never set, they could beat this vision, somehow.

"But," and Lor's voice grew serious again,
"We're losing something here, today.  I'm going to miss
leading you across the rooftops of the High Road." 

The two of them watched the city below for a
few minutes, remembering times together. 

Lor spoke again without looking at
Aerin.  "I will face the coming storm with you,
Aerin,
because you are MY friend
and you are my brother."

When they returned to Mara's Villa there was
no talk of what had happened, Lor pitched in, and it was accepted
that she was going.  When the cold mists of morning lay
across the wet cobblestones, Mara's covered wagon trundled out of
the gate onto the streets.  It
was Dono who wiped
the tears from his face as their lives
changed and they left their home, but Lor had made her peace with
the city the day before.  She knew her place was with
Aerin, wherever he went, she would go.

But their troop was missing one person and
they felt incomplete.  Gandarel was not with
them.  Mara made no mention of the boy who meant so much
to the future.

Gandarel was shaking with anger and he could
hardly contain himself.  Councilman Enolive stood with
his young
charge
and helped select
clothing for him to take on his journey.

"How DARE they demand I leave here today,"
Gandarel exclaimed for the hundredth time.  Enolive did
not answer the rhetorical question.

Gandarel wanted answers, even if he had
already heard them before. 

"Tell me, Enolive, what gives them the right
to order the heir to the Seat of Stone?"

Enolive sighed, "Milord, the Captain is under
the direct orders of the Regent.  The Regent is the
current ruler of the country, until such time as the King is
finally declared dead.  Being the Regent he outranks the
Warlord
and certainly outranks the
heir to the Warlord's seat.  Now, the Captain certainly
doesn't outrank you, since you are the heir to the Seat, but since
he is here under the orders of the Regent it could be an act of
treason to disobey his orders, no matter how perfunctory, insulting
or rude they seem."