Path to Divinity '11 Ch. 2

Chapter 2: Gathering Storm

The first few moments past awakening were the hardest to bear. Even though the shadows of the night were banished the moment his eyes sprung open, feelings continued to linger around in him for a short while, tormenting even the sweetest of mornings. The images; those horrible portrayals of misery were always extinguished with the nightmares themselves, but their imprint upon his mind did not go without some reaction, even if by now it eased into slight trembles of the body.

Slowly, almost cautiously, he raised a hand to his head, wiping the more stubborn beads of sweat off his brow. His breath still came in the form of mild panting, his rapidly beating heart telltale of the horrors he had seen, just a few minutes ago. The boy paused for a little while longer, before he shook his head and threw the covers off.

"I could really do without these…" Salian muttered and inhaled deeply to ease up.

The nightmares had been punishing his sleep for two straight weeks, before he had even told his mother about them. Of course, there wasn't really much she could do about it, but a visit to a few of the older fairies seemed to have made it at least marginally better. They still returned every now and then, but the herbs they had given him usually helped his sleep to be deep and dreamless. He gladly sacrificed the little flavor, in return for calm nights.

A stray noise eventually made him flinch from his thoughts, the call of his name from below reminding him the morning was still going on, with or without him. He didn't really need to ask back to know why he was sought though. Perhaps through their bond of family, or just the heightened perception fairies possessed, but his mother could always tell when he'd wake up. Most of the time, he found it annoying, as it pretty much eliminated the chance of spending an extra five minutes in bed.

"Fifteen minutes!" he called, springing out of the bed to emphasize the promise.

True to his word, following a brief morning bath and an even quicker dressing up, he passed through the kitchen door a mere minute later than he had announced. Shya had long since finished eating and instead only offered a slight, disciplinary glance to his tardiness. She was already in her Council robes, suggesting she would be heading there shortly. Her hair was neatly tied in a large knot, showing her as a more serious subset of pretty.

"When you say fifteen, either try and stick to it, or say twenty." she scolded him lightly, though rather tired of having to repeat herself just about every other morning. Some things just never seemed to change.

"My clock must be broken again…" he jested with a faint grin as he snatched a few larger grapes from his plate.

"I checked it yesterday. You'll have to come up with something better than that." the fairy threatened, though her words had no force behind them. She too, had a smile in the corner of her mouth, but she still intended to go through these well-known loops. "Slept well?"

"Mostly. The last hour or so hadn't been the most pleasant, but it was slightly better than usual." he answered, his hands never stopping in their steady motion of transporting food to his mouth, resulting in better to worse communication skills, over time.

"You'd better see the elder healers about them again, some day." she suggested, even though she knew he resented the idea. They were always slightly more critical of his lack of powers and distinctive features.

"Yeah, I'll do that…" he remarked briefly and solemnly, not really wishing to talk about them any longer, than absolutely necessary.

Growing up in such a unique way had not been the easiest task, as many harbored both expectations and fears about him. While not the most vocal, some actually suggested he wasn't actually a fairy and must have belonged to some far-away Polokus-forsaken continent. Understandably, these opinions didn't quite go well with neither mother, or child.

"Which also reminds me, you have a guest waiting for you outside." she spoke up again, skimming away from the previous topic and to drive away the awkward silence that had begun to settle down.

"Really? Why didn't you say so already?" he seemed genuinely surprised.

"Because then you'd have run off without even a morsel of food in your belly. I know you quite well, remember?" she purred. It was her turn to be the one grinning.

"I can never win." the boy chuckled, looking almost embarrassed.

Placing his dish upon the small pile waiting to be washed, he headed straight towards the door, only stopping to give his mother a quick kiss on the cheek. Shya returned the gesture and ruffled his already unruly hair a bit, shaking her head.

"How did I manage bring up such an untidy young man?" she sighed in mock-sadness. "How do you plan on being attractive to anyone, all the while looking like someone who lives in the wilderness?"

"Natural charm." he winked and chuckled, waving goodbye while he heading to the door. "—and a great deal of hope!"

He didn't wait for a retort and left instead, heading through the door before the next little sting from Shya. Upon exiting however, he was momentarily surprised to finally see who'd been waiting on her. He expected Rayman, or perhaps some other friend of theirs, but the young fairy in the yellow-purple bodysuit was just as welcome, if not even more!

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's rude to make a girl wait?" she asked, skipping the greeting entirely.

He half-expected her to be angry, but while her sitting on a flat rock, arms crossed and one leg over the other was usually indeed a bad sign, the playful smile on her face indicated a change in patterns. Whenever he and Rayman managed to anger her as badly as they had yesterday, she held a grudge against them for the next couple days which also meant that every step in the Glade was liable to be a death-trap.

"I didn't think you'd want to see us for a while." he answered truthfully, a hopeful smile growing on his face. "It's good to see we were wrong."

The fairy let out a slightly mocking giggle to that, while she stood up again. She calmly walked up to the boy and eyed him for a few seconds, as if measuring him, which raised a couple of warnings again. The two were close to equal in height, though Ly had ways of looking intimidating enough to appear bigger. A few more awkward moments of silence passed by, before she finally raised her hand, handing Salian a slap, though it hardly did more than just leave a mild sting.

"Now we're even...for the moment, that is." she spoke up again, smirking rather evilly. Fairies were mostly good by nature, but it seemed like none of them could go without a bit of mischievousness.

"Are you planning on greeting Rayman like this, too?" the boy asked, rubbing his cheek with an expression changing back and forth from hurt, to amused.

"Don't be silly." she dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. She turned around and started walking towards where she knew the Fairy Council was, Salian quickly catching up to her. "Rayman has been my friend for many years now and I owe my life to him several times over." she added, a spark flaring up in her eyes. "He'll get two."

"Oh, so he's the privileged one?" he smirked, a kind of dark happiness brooding in his heart from the thought that he wasn't the one grasping the shorter end this time around.

"Keep the jokes to a minimum, or I might equal it out!" Ly raised her index finger, giving him a firm warning.

The two began to walk towards the Fairy Council, more or less prepared for their daily lectures. While Salian's were much more along an academic line, Ly was being educated in the arts of practical magic use. The event during the Pirate Invasion had proven, that she was more than ready to be taught of the arcane arts. Ever since her ability to create Silver Lums ha surfaced, she'd been one of the elder fairy's prime concerns.

Much to Salian's surprise though, none of this had gotten too much into her head. While fairies were naturally pure creatures, that never meant they weren't capable of mistakes and vanity often got the better of them. Ly on the other hand, was very modest about herself, even with all her talents and beauty.

"Sal?" she called, pulling the boy back into reality right away, to his slight disappointment.

"Huh...yes? Sorry, I spaced out for a moment." he ventured, shaking his head a bit.

"Right." the fairy downright purred, smirking softly. There was something about that smile that always made the boy feel uncomfortable. It was an unwritten law between them, that Ly would never use the psychic aspects of her power on them, but he couldn't help but feel like sometimes she knew what was in his head even without that.

"I hate it when you look at me like that." he groaned, feeling a soft blush creep upon his face.

"Like what?" the fairy mused innocently, amused of how simple it was to tease the young boy. "I'm sorry." she chuckled right after, ending his short-lived torture. "You shouldn't let me mess around with you so easily." she advised, her smirk shifting back into just a gentle smile.

"Easier said, than done..." he grumbled, though in no way really angry at her.

"At least you're feeling better now, right?" she asked, chuckling at the confused look on his face. "Don't play dumb, Sal. Your eyes are baggy and slightly blood-shot, too. You've been having nightmares again, haven't you?"

"For the past two weeks, I think..." he sighed and hung his head slightly, not seeing any point in hiding it from her. Regardless how they might have teased each other from time-to-time, Ly still behaved much like an older sister to them. "Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but they're definitely there..."

"Perhaps you should see-"

"No." he cut her off unexpectedly firmly. "I'm sorry...but I don't really want to see them right now."

Ly gazed at him with a concerned, but sympathetic look on her face. She knew quite well what bothered him about the elders he should have seen right away, once his nightmares had reappeared. While most inhabitants of the Dream Glade were more or less friendly towards him, the four elder healers held contempt to him, if not downright resentment. They neither liked, nor approved of his presence in the region, as if he were some kind of threat to them.

"You never did tell us what exactly happened the last time they tried to help you." Ly spoke up again, breaking the awkward silence. She could sense the boy tensing up to the mere mention of that. "Was it that bad?" she asked in the most soothing tone she could conjure.

"Worse." he ventured, memories flooding his mind. Part of him wanted to just stop talking about this altogether, but the more the fairy gazed at him, the more he felt like he could trust her with most of it.

"They reached deep into my mind to lift whatever veil was there." he began, closing his eyes for a moment. His mouth went dry as he remembered the fairies using their powers to bring the center of his nightmares to surface. "They said there was some kind of a...focal point of shadows in me. As they tried to purge it from me, it burned...it hurt beyond imagination." he found himself breather harder with each sentence, his hand trembling a little.

"And, did it work?" Ly asked, not wanting him to relive these kind of memories any longer than absolutely necessary. "Did they manage to destroy it?"

"I could never tell for sure." he shrugged, rubbing the bridge of his nose, trying to ease up again. The procedure was a most traumatic one and he preferred not to talk about it for any longer than absolutely necessary. "When they checked, it wasn't there. Still, my nightmares are back, so it might have just been...I don't know, hiding maybe?" he sighed deeply, shaking his head. "That's all I can tell you, really."

The fairy smiled and walked up to him, wrapping her arms around the boy for a few moments. "It's okay." she mused, her long ear twitching slightly as his hair tickled it. "I appreciate you being this honest with me." she broke the hug up soon enough, but continued to smile at him, brushing her dark-blue hair out of her eyes.

"I...uh...you're welcome." he was rather visibly flustered by the show of affection, even though he should have been used to this by now. Still, looking back into the pretty green eyes always made an impact on him. "It's just not something I like to talk about much."

"I understand. I won't force you." she nodded slightly, the gentle smile on her face helping him calm down again. Her tail flicked slightly as a soft breeze swept past them, while the air turned a tiny bit hotter for a short while. "We should hurry up, it'll rain soon!" she stated.

Salian didn't argue, but merely picked up the pace a bit. Being so attuned to nature, fairies could easily sense even slight weather changes, just be reading a couple of signs. Foretelling rain was definitely not one of her strong points though, thus this 'soon' could have easily meant just a minute or two. The two continued towards the Council together, both hoping they'd get inside before the storm might hit.

*     *     *

"Globox! Globox!"

The large blue toad turned his head towards the noise, easily holding onto the large box of bowls and plates he'd been carrying. It wasn't hard to identify the call, considering it was a male voice and most of his children were still very much on the squeaky side. That left the possible candidates at only a handful and since he had only a few guests today, he could easily tell who it was.

He sighed, but kept smiling, putting the large box down and turning back to see what was going on. His guest couldn't really be seen, though the large mountain of Glute children in the middle of the field was rather telltale. His suspicions were confirmed right away, when he saw a yellow shoe outside the pile.

"Little help please?" came another muffled call from under the legions of squeaking little toads, sounding close to desperate.

"I swear, how do you always manage to pick the games they can turn against you the most easily?" he chuckled, walking towards the pile and the trapped limbless under it. The question was mostly rhetorical though, as Rayman was far too occupied trying to breathe, rather than to answer. He watched this constantly shape-shifting dome a bit longer, before speaking up again. "Dessert is inside, kiddies!" he shouted, loud enough for all of them to hear.

Almost immediately, the children stopped whatever they had been doing and headed straight towards the house. Uglette was standing in the window, holding up a few pies to prove it wasn't a trick at all. The results were remarkable, as once the whole lot of babies scurried off, Rayman was free once again although almost dented into the ground by now.

"This is the last time I played with them like that!" Rayman remarked, trying to get back up on his feet. "I got lucky, but a few more months, or years and they'll crush me!"

He was just grumbling and Globox knew that as well. He always had far too much fun playing with them and as such, his threat hardly meant anything. Not that he would mention that, since he didn't need to. The kids' beloved "Uncle" Rayman would come back tomorrow to play with them just the same.

"I thought you had left for the Council already." the Glute mused, ignoring his complaining altogether. "Weren't you supposed to go there for something?"

"Well, sort-of." Rayman admitted, scratching the back of his head a bit. "Would you believe that even with all I've done, some fairies still insist I might have a couple things to learn?"

"Actually, yes. I can imagine that pretty easily." Globox remarked, crossing his arms. "Rayman, no one doubts that you're hero and no one would even dare say you don't know how to use your powers. You might even know perfectly well how to look out for yourself in the wilderness!"

"But!" he held up his index finger, emphasizing his words. "Just like everyone else, there's a whole lot more you could learn, especially lore-related. Knowing a couple of hints and pointers could come in handy, so you wouldn't face anything without having a backup plan. For instance, you could have saved yourself a lot of aching fingers, if you knew beforehand, that Knaaren are invincible."

"Ugh...being a father has really gotten to you..." the limbless groaned. He could imagine nothing more boring, than having to read or listen to endless stories, however good they might be. He was a man of perpetual motion, he just couldn't sit still for long, without doing something. "Okay, I know you're right...but I still refuse to go."

"I was sure you'd say that." Globox chuckled, patting his friend's back with his rather large hand. They'd known each other for quite a few years now and as such, were quite aware of what the other was like. "I'd just feel guilty, if I didn't remind you every now and then."

Rayman smirked rather mischievously, assuring Globox that his advice would not be heard, as usual. Out of the two of them, the limbless had always been the wilder, running into all sorts of trouble, just about every second of the day. He made a habit of dragging everyone else into it, but to his credit, if something happened, he always took full responsibility. He was a loyal friend, if a little too free-spirited, at times.

"You could escort me there, if you want me to go though." he offered his hand, though the Glute wasn't ready to believe that. The limbless had ulterior motives, he could have sworn upon that.

"Rayman, I'm not an idiot." he remarked, crossing his arms. "I know why you want to go, all of a sudden. I might as well go with you, so you won't be able to tempt Ly and Salian so easily."

"You see right through me." the limbless chuckled, gazing up at Globox.

It was almost an irony of life, how a creature half the Glute's height, had managed to save the world from unspeakably evil foes several times over by now. Such a strange creature he was and yet in that small frame, was a heart greater than giants and power that rivaled that of elder fairies of the Council.

Along with that, being a hero was just one thing. Rayman accomplished just as much simply by being a friendly creature, who was very hard to dislike. He was strong, considerate and never backed down, when his friends needed him. Even though he knew full-well, that Globox wouldn't be able to engage a larger fight, simply because he was too afraid, he'd never teased him about it.

They'd made many jokes at each others' advance, but never had the limbless ever been mean-spirited to him, nor his huge family. Better yet, he loved playing around with his kids, all several hundreds of them. Neither he, nor his darling wife could have been more thankful for all the times he'd helped them, over the years.

"In any case-" he finally spoke up again, discarding his trail of thoughts. "-if you want to go, we'd best leave quickly. The storm will hit in a few minutes."

No single creature in the Glade could tell such things better than Glutes, masters of their own special rain dance. Rayman knew this well and immediately left along with his friend. Even though they acknowledged the coming storm, they still couldn't resist joking around with each other, while heading towards the Council.

*     *     *

The stage is set.

With a quick move, he pocketed the binoculars in the folds of his cloak, staring off into the distance without it. He was out of sight and most definitely out the sensing range of any of those accursed fairies. The shadows did well in concealing him for the most part and the darkening sky served as a favorable omen as well.

A multitude of feelings kept racing inside him, though the majority of it were negative ones. Anger, resentment and maliciousness were the usual mixture he drew his willpower from, although several less than pleasant feelings coursed in him as well. He rid himself of any shadows of doubt however, focusing on the task at hand.

"Master?"

He flinched slightly to the noise, the sounds drawing his sight downwards, to the smaller figure standing next to him. The figure was the mirror image of the hero of the Glade, that is, if said mirror was broken and corrupted. His eyes burned in otherworldly yellow and both his features and attire seemed to be of a darker shade, than that of Rayman and just like his counterpart, his body parts were floating free in the air.

"I've placed all the pillars and symbols as you've asked." he reported, his voice not displaying much emotion.

"Good. Has anyone seen you?" he asked, turning towards his servant. He was the closest he could call to faithful and occasionally very useful as well.

"A fairy had noticed what I was doing. She never got to tell anyone though." the limbless stated, the harsh glow of his eyes leaving little to the imagination, as to what might have happened to said fairy. He knew his Master couldn't care less though, as long as he made sure his orders had been completed in the utmost secrecy.

"Perfect. Once the storm hits, we'll make our move." said the cloaked figure, gazing off into the distance once more. His face was hidden behind the shadow of his large hat, though his eyes were expressive enough.

"Are you sure this is the right time to strike? They might not do as you've planned and then-"

"And then what?" he snapped at his servant, glaring at the limbless. "Have you got a foolproof plan, for instance? Or just several back-up ideas, just in case?" he growled. He had always been easy to anger, but now, already tense from preparations he was even more volatile.

"No, my lord...I just..." the Rayman look-alike tried to save what was possible, but knew already that he had timed his question very badly.

"We cannot be sure they'll act as planned. No one can be. No amount of planning makes up for ingenuity, or just plain stupidity." he turned away once more, gazing towards the Fairy Council, the infernal structure that held the Heart of the World in its deepest chambers. "But this time, everything will go according to plan." he stated, firmly enough to make this shadowy limbless forget about most of his doubts.

He watched as the dark clouds slowly gathered around the Fairy Glade, prepared to give all those unlucky to be out in the open a good shower. He hadn't planned on there being a storm, but he was sure he could use it to his advantage, in some shape or form. He pulled out his binoculars again, scouting for his victims as his thoughts traveled upon their upcoming meeting.

A long time has passed, since the last time we'd seen each other. I hardly think you'll remember me at all...but I promise you, I'll make this reunion the grandest you've ever seen. You and all your friends will greet me with eyes full of tears.