Guardians Book 1,Ch 12: The Calm

Read All of Book 1: Here

Esmun sat up in his bed, rubbing the sleeplessness from his blue eyes. Swinging his feet over the side of his bed, he stood up and paced back and forth in his room, his path only lit up by the dim moonlight. After a second, he slipped into his sandals and moved out into the hallway. Esmun wandered the temple, deep in thought, moving down the dark passages.

His mind kept going back to the night on Elaganhart Harbor and the fight with Shadomancer and Legion. Sure, Shadomancer had powers, but The Guardians were supposed to be the most powerful warriors in Archana, meaning the fact that they struggled so much against two small-time Taulaga dealers is not a good public image.

If it ever becomes public knowledge at all.

“Usually,” A voice from behind him said, “when one is walking alone at night, it means they’re ill, up to no good, or need someone to talk to. Which is it in your case, Guardian Esmun?”

Esmun turned around to see Ingrid sitting on a small, padded bench. Looking around, he realized he had made it beyond the Guardians’ quarters and was in the temple’s central room.

“I apologize, Familiar,” Esmun Responded, “I was just thinking about recent events and must have wandered farther than I had thought. I’m very sorry if I disturbed you.”

The old woman nodded slowly and then moved to the right a little.

“No, you didn’t disturb me, I enjoy sitting here when it’s late, and I cannot sleep. Join me for a minute and tell me what recent events you are thinking about.”

Esmun sat next to the Familiar and sighed.

“Just the fact that we almost lost that fight, we’re supposed to be powerful warriors, yet we needed to burn down the warehouse and destroy any evidence we could have gathered from the Taulaga Artifacts just to win against Legion and Shadomancer.” He said.

“Are you beginning to believe the naysayers? The ones that tell the kingdom that we are inadequate to run Archana?” Familiar Ingrid asked.

“No, of course not,” Esmun said responded, “I just feel as though that fight could have gone much better than it did, and the fact that we struggled so much is awful.”

“Esmun,” The Old Woman said, the staff in her right hand glowed slightly, casting more light into the room, “you have been Guardian for ten years now, the average time a Guardian is in service, from the very first two to you four now, is 30 years, the longest time a Guardian has served is 50 years. You’re not expected to be the best so early. Putting so much pressure on yourself to improve would, in effect, only make you worse because you would place worry about your own team’s effectiveness on top of all of the important decisions that you need to make at the moment. Put these worries out of your mind, and you will improve as every Guardian whoever came before you did. With Time.”

Esmun Nodded

“You’re right; it’s just worrying that we may have to face these challenges before we truly feel ready to take them on.” He said.

“Is that really all that you’re worried about, or is there something else?” Familiar Ingrid asked. Esmun stared down the dark hallway across from them, thinking.

“Well…when I was on the way to the Harbor, I had a dream…. where I saw Legion and Shadomancer talking to each other about our arrival, then when we arrived, Everything was almost exactly as it was in my dream. To the point where I would be able to know where they were by following the scenes I saw in my dreams,” He said. He looked at the familiar’s wrinkled face looking over at him, “I’m not saying that I actually like, predicted the future. Still, it was a peculiar experience, right?”

Ingrid nodded slowly, thinking.

“That does seem like a strange experience,” she said, “Sometimes things like this happen, where there are coincidences between the worlds we dream of and the world we live in. Where there any other things you saw that night?”

A sharp pain stabbed into Esmun’s stomach, which he instinctively covered with his hand.

“No… just the stuff with the warehouse” He lied.

Ingrid looked at him questioningly as if waiting for him to continue. Then she nodded and stood.

“Again, I do not believe you have anything to worry about.” She said as she leaned against her staff, “however, if you wish to talk more, or if you have another dream you would like to discuss with me, feel free to contact me at a more…reasonable hour.”

“Of course,” Esmun responded quickly, “Thank you, Familiar. I apologize for disturbing you again.”

“Again, you did not disturb me, Guardian, good night,” Familiar Ingrid responded. She shuffled down the hall back to her quarters. Esmun watched after her for a bit to make sure she didn’t fall, then stood and went back to his own room.

He was exhausted.

“I’m very disappointed.” The voice rang out.

“I know you are Masster,” Legion responded, “I am too.”

Legion and Shadomancer stood in the burned remains of their warehouse. Digging through the rubble to find the thousands of Plins worth of artifacts that had been caught in the flames. But only coming up with twisted bits of metal, whose magic had been lost to them forever.

The black crystal in Legion’s gloved hand vibrated angrily.

“Don’t tell me you are disappointed. Tell me how you plan on rectifying the situation. Nobody will ever allow me to secure that many artifacts or ritual documents ever again, so we can say goodbye to corrupting the populous. And if we have nothing to ship, what’s the point of all the work we did on Elaganheart?”

“We’re working on something Dark, something that will need Elaganheart to succeed,” Shadomancer said.

“And when It works could be the hit that shatters Xinar’s power,” Legion responded.

The crystal stilled for a second before the voice rang out again.

“And what do I have to do to secure this plan?”

Legion shuffled his feet a little.

“We need to…increase the production over here in the Harbor.” He said quickly. His hand shook a little as the silence hung in the tense atmosphere.

“Fine,” the voice said shortly, “However, if this plan also fails, your souls will replenish the wasted power. Do you understand?”

Legion’s hand instinctively went to his neck, and he could feel the black-banded bands around it, hesitating to agree. He looked to Shado, who held up a wad of sacrificial orbs that had been molten together, anger blazing in his midnight black eyes.

“Yes, Masster, I assure you, I will not fail again.”

End of Book 1

Book 2, Chapter 1: Here

Author’s Note: An Author’s note? What is this, Fanfiction.net?

Anyway, I want to thank you all for reading the finale of Guardians Book 1, this journey has been a few years in the making, which was only made longer by me randomly stopping for a whole school year. Nevertheless, I appreciate every one of you, whether this is the 1st chaper you read or the 12th.

Don’t worry, there won’t be a gap between now and the start of Book 2, As I write short stories next week I will be reformating the Guardians sections of the site to make room for the next set of chapters to come out. I look forward to continuing to tell this story, and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Thank you all again, and see you next week,

William Fall