Ion
opened his eyes to a sky streaked with golden beams. He blinked twice, held his
hands out in front of his face, and sat up when he was sure that he was able to
move. His lance lay beside him, and he took hold of it and held on as if it was
the only thing that anchored him to reality. He had lost his horse, his
opponent, and the raucous crowd that had been cheering them on at their joust, and
even the jousting arena itself had vanished without a trace. He remembered that
he had been pitched from his horse and that his lance had been forced out of
his hand, and the overwhelming shame he felt upon hitting the ground and
realizing that he had been defeated; Mighty Ion of Lamorak, never before bested
in joust or battle, done in by a country boy just barely into knighthood! As
the world blurred before his eyes, he longed for the comfort of death rather
than a life to live in dishonor.
If this was death, it did nothing
for the shame, for it came flooding back upon the memory. He fought away the
tears that burned his eyes, for even a humiliating first—and final—defeat must
be handled with dignity. Closing his eyes, he could see the colorful lights
that had been the last thing he saw before going under. There were eight of
them, in eight different colors of equal brilliance. Ion had allowed them to
overpower him, trusting them to lead him to the peace found n death. Wherever
they meant to take him was preferable to returning to Lamorak, where he would
live the life of a knight stripped of his honor; the life of a pariah, mocked
by all of those who once revered him.
Ion rose to his feet and examined
his surroundings. He was alone, surrounded on all sides by lush green fields
that stretched out into a distant fir forest. It had been May Day in Lamorak,
but out here it was as warm as a day in midsummer. If this is heaven, wondered Ion, then where are the saints? It cannot be hell, for it is too peaceful. But
if I am to be alone, with nothing to satisfy my need for combat nor to
challenge me and test my might, then perhaps it is my private hell.
He took a few steps, though he
wasn’t sure how productive it was to wander in a place like this. He still held
tightly to his lance, the only memento of his life as Mighty Ion of Lamorak. If I am dead, he pondered, then how and why has my lance crossed over
with me? There must be a need for it. Yes, there must be an enemy to overcome,
somebody to defeat...redemption for my shameful performance in the joust! Ion
began to run, though he did not know where he was going. The idea of a battle
brought his energy back to him. Though his ceremonial lance was no serious
weapon, he was driven into action by the very idea of a fight, as well as his
passion for such affairs.
He halted in his tracks when he
caught sight of a pale little figure emerging from the fir trees. From a
distance, he could only see golden hair and the shimmer of a moon-white gown. A
dainty physique indicated a woman. He took off his helmet so that he might not
look so intimidating, waved his hand, and called out to her. He saw her turn to
look in his direction, and then she came towards him, hitching up her skirts so
that she might pace herself. As she came closer, he saw that she was
young—perhaps eighteen—and that her soulful sapphire-colored eyes seemed to
take up her entire face. The front of her golden hair was braided, the rest
trailed down like a veil. Her lips were the color of an early spring rose and
the shape of a heart. Her white gown was tiered like a wedding gown and
accented with a velvety sash the color of the sky. Ion wondered if she might be an angel, or
even a saint. She did not look like any of the saints that he had learned about
from the priests, but he wondered if even priests could be so sure of what the
saints really looked like.
The maiden stopped in front of Ion
and looked up at him with a mixture of shyness and curiosity on her angelic
face. He smiled cordially and held out his hand to her. “Salutations, my lady,”
he said as gently as he could manage.
“H…hello,” she shakily stammered. She took his
hand and he shook it lightly. “Do you…do you think you can tell me where I am?
I’m awfully lost.”
“If you are lost,” said Ion, “then
so must I be. I haven’t any idea what or where this place may be, though when I
arrived here I thought that it might be heaven or hell.”
“Heaven or hell!” the girl
exclaimed. “My goodness, I hope that it’s neither! I’m not ready to go to
either place, and if I’ve died, I can’t possibly imagine how!”
“I woke up here after I was thrown
from my horse,” said Ion.
“Oh dear!” cried the girl. “Are you
all right?”
“Only my pride is injured,” said
Ion, wincing at the shame.
“You were in a battle?” she asked
him.
“A joust,” he answered. To change
the subject, he asked, “What is your name?”
“Lovisa,” the girl replied. “And
yours?”
“Ion, Mighty Ion of the Knights of
Lamorak. Do you know of Lamorak?”
“I’ve never heard of such a place,”
said Lovisa. “I’m from Eridell.”
“I can’t say that I’ve heard of it,”
said Ion.
“It’s a wonderful place,” said
Lovisa. “It’s very peaceful. I was out wandering, just seeing where the road
would take me, and I suppose it decided to take me here. You don’t really think
that this might be the afterlife, do you?” The girl’s sapphire eyes displayed
unconcealed fear and uncertainty, which softened Ion’s heart. “I had my
suspicions,” he said to her, “but I don’t think that you are dead. Did you wake
up here, as I did, or did you simply wander in?”
“I’m sure that I wandered in,” said
Lovisa, “but it was on account of some strange lights that appeared before me.”
Ion looked her in the eyes. “Tell me
about these lights,” he said gravely.
“They weren’t very bright, but they
were very colorful,” Lovisa explained. “There were about eight of them. They
appeared on the road right in front of me, and I thought that they might be
fairies or pixies, so I followed after them.”
“What were the colors?” Ion
inquired.
“I remember that one was green,”
said Lovisa, “another was red, and one was a beautiful turquoise blue…”
‘I have also seen these lights,”
said Ion. “They appeared in the blackness that enveloped me when my head hit
the ground, and they led me here.”
“Are you sure that these were the
same lights?” Lovisa asked, the rate of her voice quickening in excitement.
“I am not,” said Ion, “but…there’s
somebody approaching.” He moved to stand in front of Lovisa, who craned her
neck to get a better look at the figure that was heading towards them. They
wore a deep red hooded robe trimmed with golden threads, which completely obscured
their features. A priest, thought
Ion, or a mage. He maintained a tight
grip on his lance. “Don’t move,” he warned Lovisa. The two of them stood their
ground as the figure slowly approached them, kicking its long robes at the hem
as it walked. It stopped at Ion and Lovisa’s feet and stood quietly, examining
them behind its hood, and Lovisa instinctively took a step back. They could see
the bottom half of a face the color of tea cream. Finally, the hood was removed
to reveal a woman of about thirty, with hazel-colored hair tied in a braid
around the crown of her head.
“You are spirits?” the woman asked.
“We are not,” replied Ion. “I am Ion
of Lamorak.”
“I am Lovisa,” Lovisa said, “of
Eridell. And if we are spirits, we certainly don’t know it!”
“Interesting,” the woman said,
brushing the sleeve of her robe with her hand. “So this is not the spirit
world?”
“Not that we know of,” Lovisa
answered, “but we are not sure exactly what this is, or where it is.”
“How did you arrive here?” Ion
asked. “And what is your name?”
“Eluani,” the woman replied. “I
was…” But she was interrupted by the sight of others emerging from the horizon,
coming forth from the forest, scrambling over the field. There were five of
them, and by the looks of them they were human, or at least humanlike. “Here,
over here!” Ion called out to them, waving his hands. They paused and turned to
look in his direction. Only one of them heeded his call without pause or
hesitation, an autumn-haired young lady with long ears pointed like those of a
storybook elf. Her long, fast legs carried her over the field as quickly as
those of a running deer. After a period of indecision followed by assessment,
the other four finally decided to follow after her, though they were unable to
keep up with her pace. She reached Ion’s party several feet ahead of the others
and took a moment to catch her breath. Her face was angelic and ethereal, the
only genuine example of a perfect face that either of them had ever seen. Her
clean creamy skin, willowy physique, and pointed ears suggested a member of the
fair folk in every way. The girl was struck dumb, confusion and fear as plain
as the nose on her face. Eluani nodded cordially and said, “Don’t be afraid.
Speak. Tell us who you are.”
Behind her, the others had caught
up. They stood several paces behind the elven girl, gawking at their unexpected
company, shifting around on their feet, and muttering to themselves. The girl
quickly glanced at them before saying, “My name is Alicia. I am an Earth Sylph,
from Clan Meadow-Vale of Areida.”
“An Earth Sylph,” Lovisa said in
awe. “I have only heard of the kind that live in the clouds and the skies, and
even then, only in stories!”
“How did you arrive here?” Ion
asked.
“I thought that I was answering the
call of the Elementals,” Alicia explained. “In our lore, the Elementals of the
Earth signal those that they mean to give their personal blessing, and this
blessing can be anything; the ability to manipulate fire, the power to call
upon the auras of the air, a simple perk such as fast feet or a quick-thinking
mind. I was thrilled to have been selected, because it is an honor that most
only ever dream of! I answered the call, following the signal until it faded
away…but the Elementals did not appear! Instead, there were only these humans,
and this woman who claims to be a fairy from the land of Arganell
“I do not claim,” a woman behind her
spoke out. “I am a fairy—a fairy of
the twilight, to be precise—and I am from Arganell.” She was not an especially
small woman, and she did not have wings, as might be expected of a typical
fairy. But even in the sunlight, she glowed as if she were made of stars, and
the effect contributed to an odd distortion in the air around her. She shifted
uncomfortably, and now and again shot a disdainful look towards the sun that
was as warm and intense as on any morning in midsummer.
“Right, of course,” Alicia said
abruptly. “I am sorry, Morgana! Anyhow, I asked where the Elementals might be,
and if it was now their way to give blessings to others outside of the Earth
Sylphs. They told me that they knew nothing about Elementals, and that they all
had their own reasons for coming here. Like Morgana, for instance, told me that
she had been enticed by the sight of a globe of colorful lights that had
appeared in the night sky above her.”
“I thought that it might harbor some
great power,” Morgana explained.
“My horse was startled and bucked me
off his back,” said a jet-haired young man in dirty cutoff jeans. “I was thrown
down a ravine, and when I finally stopped tumbling and rolling I ended up
here.”
“Did you also see lights?” asked Ion.
“My head was spinning too much for
me to see anything,” the young man replied. “But I remember a sort of colorful
dazzle in my eyes.”
“I saw the lights,” said a man with
a silver harp at his side. “They appeared to me suddenly while I was working on
my melody. It’s a melody that I’ve played often enough, but this had never
happened before! The lights appeared—I counted eight of them—and their glow seemed
to resonate with the chords that I was playing. I played and I watched them
until I fell into a sort of daze. When I was freed from my trance, I found myself
in this lovely meadow.”
“This cannot be a coincidence,”
Eluani determined. “I’ve also seen these lights, in my scrying pool. There were
eight lights, and at least most of us have seen them. There are eight of us,
and all of us have been led here, to meet in the same place. It’s all too
convenient for there not to be a purpose behind it. There is a reason for our
being here. We’ve all been chosen for something, by someone.”
“There’s no one around to have
chosen us,” said the jet-haired young man.
“No one that we can see,” Ion pointed out.
“What if we were chosen for some nefarious
purpose?” inquired an armored man with a rifle at his shoulder.
“It’s too beautiful out here to be
nefarious,” Lovisa said.
“Never think that way,” the
rifle-wielder said sternly. “It is how you get wrapped up in a false sense of
security.”
“What should we do?” asked Alicia.
“I don’t feel entirely safe about just wandering this place.”
“I will choose two of you to set out
with me to survey the area,” said Ion. “The rest of you will stay here and
remain together. If there are any threats, holler and do what you can to fight
them off. Eluani, come with me.” He turned to the rifle-wielder. “I want you to
come with me as well.”
“Please be careful,” Lovisa said to
Ion as Eluani and the rifle-wielder took their places at his side.
“There is nothing out there that
could pose a threat to me,” Ion assured her, patting her head.
“If you don’t come back…” Lovisa
began.
“We will,” said Ion. His natural
passion for the fight had returned to him, and the shame of his first defeat
was already a distant memory. Whatever was out there, he would take it by
storm. The rifle-wielder unstrapped the weapon from his back and checked it.
Ion donned his helmet. The others, as instructed, stayed close to one-another,
huddled together like campers around a fire. Only Morgana sat alone, wincing
and grimacing at the touch of the sun’s rays. The rifle-wielder removed his
shoulder pads and gauntlets in order to take off his uniform jacket and drape
it around her.
“Thank you,” she said dryly. Through
the heather-colored jacket, a glowing aura could be seen.
To boost the company’s morale, the bard
began to strum out a few chords, which evolved into a comforting melody. Lovisa
watched Ion, Eluani, and the rifle-wielder as each step took them farther away,
off into the unknown in search of who-knew-what. She shivered slightly with
anxiety for the three and for the five camped out in this strange but beautiful
meadow so far from their homes. She sat down beside the bard and hoped that the
sound of his harp would drive away her unease.
The brightness of a golden morning made
way for a warm and pleasant afternoon. The five could not be entirely sure of
the time, but Rodin, the jet-haired boy, assured them that the position of the
sun indicated that it was around one in the afternoon. Alicia danced to the
rhythm of the upbeat jig that Sanjaia, the bard, played on his harp. Lovisa happily
pranced around the meadow, plucking flowers to fashion into a nosegay. Her
anxiety for Ion and his party had almost completely left her, though they still
remained in her thoughts. She was in the process of arranging the daisies she
had picked into a formation when she spotted the three making their way over
the hill up ahead, Ion taking the lead with his helmeted head held high.
“They’re back, everyone!” Lovisa cried, relieved to see that the three were
safe. “Ion and the others are back! They’ve returned!”
“Finally,” said Morgana. Sanjaia ceased
his harp playing and rose to his feet. The others watched as Ion and his party
crested the hill and made their way across the field. By the looks of them,
they had not run into any danger, though of course it is always difficult to
tell by looks. Alicia was the first to greet them. “What did you find?” she
asked excitedly. “Did you see anybody else? Did you find out where we are or
why we’re here?”
Ion removed his helmet and took a seat on
the grass. “First of all,” he began, “the forest that you see surrounding the
fields can hardly be called a forest at all. It’s a small area of woodland that
proved to be laughably easy to traverse. Troy Troy
“Eluani saw the castle before we did. She
said that she could see, off in the distance, six white stone towers reaching
up out of an otherwise unremarkable spot of country. Troy Troy
“But I wasn’t telling stories,” Eluani
said, flashing him a cheeky grin, “was I, Ion?”
“Indeed, you were not,” said Ion with a
good-natured smile. “After we had walked ahead for about a mile, maybe two, we
found Eluani’s towers. There they were, the six of them rising up out of a
little grove of fir trees. We realized then that Eluani has a gift of
clairvoyance, of future sight.”
“And I don’t suppose a castle was very
helpful to you,” said Morgana. “They never are.”
“For your information, my lady, we were not
able to reach the castle.” Ion was stung by Morgana’s generalization. His own
castle always did all that they could to help vagrants, wanderers, and travelers
who had lost their way. “It was much too far off,” he went on. “To travel there
would have taken up the rest of the day, and possibly a substantial amount of
the night after that.”
“I’m
glad that you decided to return to us instead!” said Lovisa.
“I figured that we can camp out here for
the remaining hours of the day,” concluded Ion, “and then early tomorrow
morning, the eight of us will set out for the castle together. Even if those at
the castle prove to be unhelpful, there is likely to be a city or a village
nearby.”
“Let me speak to those at the castle,”
said Alicia. “I’m the princess of Clan Meadow-Vale, and I’ll tell them that I’m
there on behalf of my clan and that you are my company.”
“You are a princess!” Ion exclaimed. “My
apologies, your grace, but I couldn’t have known!” He knelt down beside her and
bowed his head, and Alicia was taken aback by his sudden formality. “There is
nothing to apologize for!” she assured him. The Earth Sylphs’ troops did not
behave in such a manner. She was their equal, and they would never kneel or
submit to her.
“And what are you people going to eat?” Morgana asked. “I don’t suppose that you
humans can get by off of light in the way that I can, and I don’t suppose that
anyone thought to bring food with them on their unexpected trip to
who-knows-where.”
“I just have a sandwich, an apple, and a
bottle of water in my bag,” said Rodin. “I’m not sure how well I can split
those among eight people.”
“Seven,” Morgana corrected him.
“I can manage off of foliage from the
trees,” said Alicia, “but I don’t suppose it’s the same for humans. If we look
through the woods, though, we might find some fruits to eat.”
“I’ve brought a few rations with me,”
said Troy , opening up a pouch on his belt and
producing some dried fruits and thin slabs of meat. “But since I’m the only one
with a gun, I’ll go out hunting.”
Everybody had something to do. Eluani and
Rodin calculated the number of people that Rodin and Troy
“Focus on your own tasks, boy,” Morgana
said coldly.
“I’m sorry,” said Rodin, a bit taken
aback by being spoken to in such a way. “It’s just that I have waited my entire
life to see a fairy. My city of Shalorre
“I suppose that the human existence is so
dull,” was Morgana’s callous reply, “that they will place anything outside of
their norm on a pedestal to be glorified.”
Rodin supposed that the fairy woman was
still upset by her sudden displacement so far from her home. He left her to her
work.
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