Makiya

8. The transformation

Lightness. Deep, calm sleep. Birds singing. Clouds. Brightness. Deep blue sky. No ground. Floating. 

“Is this heaven?”

The bright scenery was suddenly ruined by darkness. 

Voices repeated, “Ambition. Lust. Anger. Power. Strength, yes, more strength. Domination.” 

Such were the dreams Andrey was having while a watchful bird stood next to him while a beautiful lady was looking after him. 

In a small house made of clay, the beautiful aroma of flowers didn't allow the fresh cold air to leave. Gentle green flowers had grown on the walls as they formed the circle-shaped roof that was protecting the few residents from the rain on cloudy days. 

In such magically mentored nature conditions, Andrey woke up to see Dea'n'ha watching closely over him.

"Good morning, Andrey" Dea'n'ha greeted him as she smiled and continued the romantic atmosphere that was already in the house.

"Good morning." he replied while getting up. 

"Do you feel anything different?" she asked. In that moment, Andrey quickly grabbed his chest as pain pierced him for a slight second. Right after, he felt something in his hand. 

"A necklace?" He questioned and opened his grip to see what's hanging on his neck without his permission. It was a white cross with a skull in the middle of it hanging on a beautiful silvery chain. The shape of it reminded of the girl's plant-like tattoos.  

"Not just a necklace." she replied as she gently touched his hand with her fingertips. Tattoos on her hand extended to touch his skin and that breeze sensation was bestowed again. The beautiful markings on her body reminded of rose petals, "Let me show you".

It was a vision of what happened after Andrey saw the letters on the swords. After the blades had gone completely black and the word in lava-like-red "Makiya" appeared, he went into complete berserk. Hitting the ground and air around him with the swords, his muscles enlarged a bit as if his body had transformed. A black aura surrounded him. 

At that moment Dea'n'ha immediately started casting spells, trying to calm him down. Desperate attempts to put him to sleep. After several minutes of trying, she managed to calm him down, leaving his body smashed on the ground by the enormous pressure his body caused on itself. What had happened?

After seeing this, Andrey in surprise and scare grabbed the cross on his neck as it stung him. It had a black needle on it. He looked at it with a lack of understanding. 

"This is a cross we made for you. It senses negative emotions and dark energy. You could say it suppresses evil. It might be, in fact, what is currently keeping you sane." Dea'n'ha explained gently with great concern as Andrey looked her straight in the eyes with a strike of fear in his soul. "You must promise me that you will never take it off. It is crafted by magic so it won't fall off easily, neither will it break." 

Andrey nodded and looked at the swords next to his bed. 

"But... why?" he asked as he was obviously referring to the word on the swords.

"Do you remember when I told you that I saw all of your life and felt it?" 

Andrey, still in shock, couldn't really do anything but nod to show he is still keeping up with the conversation.

"Do you know who your parents are?"

"No... I am an orphan raised by the church."

"Exactly. I will tell you one thing. What I could see were things you had seen, even though you don't remember them. By the age of 3, most kids don't remember anything. You included, but you still did feel, did see, did hear."

"Where are you getting at?!" Andrey raised his tone.

"I am saying that I know that which you saw, felt, heard, but you do not know."

"You know who my parents are then?!"

"Unfortunately, no. But I know something else. You see, Andrey, this nation has been stuck in war for all of mankind to know. But what I saw in your childhood memories was something related to this."

"It can't be!" Andrey grabbed his chest again, showing signs of pain.

"It is very cloudy, even for me. But what I saw was a stone plate. It was written in Mage-Mountain ancient language. I couldn't really see everything written on it and it's just like a clouded memory." Dea'n'ha lowered her head for a second and then gazed at Andrey's dark brown eyes.

"At the bottom of the plate was the name of the one who wrote it. I couldn't see the first names, but I could see the last. Can you guess what it was?" 

"It can't be!" Andrey shivered.

"Makiya." she finished.

"This is nonsense!" Andrey raged. "Are you saying my parents came from this world?!"

"Not necessarily. Doubtful. That plate, archeologically speaking, is probably at least a couple thousand years old. And you seem fairly young to match its age."

"Then what?!" Andrey asked angrily as he stood up before Dea'n'ha. His eyes were dark and brown, but they got darker. They went completely black. The cross on his chest suddenly became black and the eyes of the skull on the center of it were glowing red. 

"This is the result of the necklace." she said as suddenly Andrey's eyes went back to normal and suddenly he felt calm. 

"What? I have anger issues?" he continued getting stunned by all the new things happening.

"These swords seem to have unlocked something in you. Look at yourself." she said as she cast a quick spell and created a magical mirror in front of him.

He looked shredded. No longer was he skinny, there were muscles on him now. He looked manly, as if he aged and trained for this body. 

"What ...happened to me?" the boy asked while looking at his body transformation.

"I could feel it before. But now I can feel spiritual energy reside within you. Not too different from us, mages."

"What? It's like mana? Is this why I feel so much lighter and somehow ...better?" 

"I was about to ask what mana is, but I remembered. Yes. That's a good description of what is flowing inside you." Dea'n'ha smiled as she remembered his memory of games and fantasy.

"Can I do magic now?" he asked in surprise, kind of happy that finally something good could resound in his ears.

"You probably can. First you should learn, though. It could be dangerous with all that negative energy that awoke inside you." Dea'n'ha waited and made her typical concerned expression, eyes widened, and eyebrows slightly narrowed, "Andrey, I'm worried of the evil I sense in you."

The young man wasn't emotionless. He was simply used to handling the situation and after everything is over - experience the emotion. Of course, sometimes he went overboard and just expressed himself right away. Though this too was now suppressed by the cross-shaped-skull on his neck. 

He could see she was worried, he knew he was in danger. But after knowing this fact he felt like a superhero. Now that she explained all this to him he could feel the power inside him.

"Is this mana?" he said as he raised his hand slowly before his face admiring the sensation.

"This was the purpose of your training here in Mage-Mountain." Dea'n'ha continued as she spoke, "Because I saw this ancient stone I knew that you need to encounter spiritual energy and reach for those blades. They... were obviously crafted for you. Or maybe for your parents?" the girl questioned, seemingly not knowing the answer herself.

"Then I must know. Now there's a reason for me to be here. What should I do now?" he asked, still overwhelmed by himself.

"Go back to Princepsius. I shall send a message to king Goodlie. Then he will tell you what to do."

"Uh. That's all?" Andrey said as he obviously expected more information.

"I'll tell you just this... I, we, the mages, have seen creatures in the skies... we believe there is more to know than we do." the beautiful girl said in waver "I can't really speak anymore." she concluded.

Andrey looked at her deep cold blue yet warm eyes. This blue light, it was just so beautiful yet scary. But it wasn't her beauty that he admired at this time. It was her expression, and the words she just said.

He felt attracted to these blue eyes, though little did he know that they too changed color based on Dea’n’ha’s magic.

Quickly the boy looked around for his sack. He took out the books from it and grabbed the book of Batua Lurrak's history. As he was about to sit down and start shuffling the pages looking for something, Dea'n'ha's eyes closed and beneath her eyelids blue light shined bright for a second. 

Strong wind shuffled the pages of the book to a certain page. Andrey looked at her as she opened her eyes slowly and met with his. She was so beautiful it was scary. Quickly he began reading the pages. 

"...it was accepted that no expeditions shall happen again...

...The law forbade it and people rejoiced.... 

...No longer would their families be losing members...

...because of the foul outside world..."

While still reading, he didn't realize Dea'n'ha was right in front of his face. She was gazing into his eyes. Hers started glowing and her tattoos expanded all over her body.

"Father, I will perform this expedition if you allow me or not!" said a young man with an ambitious voice.

"You shall not disobey... The king's orders!" a man in royal clothing yelled. "you shall not disobey your father...!" the man continued with a whisper and tears forming in his eyes.

"This could be a revolution to the whole world as we know it!" 

"You have been playing your games on ships, endangering people's lives for too much time! I shall restrict you of your authorization to command anybody!" the king yelled.

"I am not playing GAMES!" The man raged almost in tears as he turned his back and left the king's hall.

The king, enraged on his throne, began mumbling and called out to the royal servant.

The young man who just left had long curly dark hair, face of ambition and eyes of revolution. 

After being restricted to his room, he only waited for the night to come. Luckily there was a storm forming. He used it to mask his escape. Avoiding the guards in the castle, as he had been raised there, the prince quickly managed to reach his personal docks. That's where his ship awaited. 

He took a deep breath, released a sigh and jumped on it. To his surprise, the ship was already boarded by his crew. Threatening to turn him in, they explained to the prince that the king had ordered them to lay in wait for their captain on the ship. They didn't turn him in. Then they set sail.

The king watched as his son's ship sailed away, realizing the betrayal. He raged and shook fists at the stormy skies, cursing the expeditors forever.

Andrey suddenly opened his eyes as Dea'n'ha drew distance between them. Her gentle hand made a gesture in front of her lips to stay quiet. Andrey read her lips "tell no one". 

He dropped the book on the floor as the puzzle pieces fell together. 

This wasn't Goodlie, maybe it resembled him a bit, actually... It was somebody else - a relative? I can't mistake the king's hall, though. I'm sure it was that. A predecessor. One of the previous kings lost his son as he wanted to make a world revolution by expanding the geographical knowledge of the world. But this vision, it wasn't that of the prince, because Dea'n'ha would have seen the way he died. Wait. She couldn't see him dying as he wouldn't have been alive for her to touch. Does this mean she can see the memories of the dead too? 

"Can I ask you something? ," Andrey asked as if nothing happened. "That thing where you can read minds... Can you do it to the dead?" 

"No." Dea'n'ha smiled as she realized what was going on in his head.

This means that the person who watched this was just a bystander. Somebody close to the prince who helped him through this, or at least... saw it happen. So she wants me to find out the mystery behind all this. I can't believe it. She knows that the world is worth exploring, and the king is not allowing this for some reason. But what had happened, really? 

"You can rest up here as long as you want. When you feel ready, you can head down to Princepsius. "

"I'm all fired up. I'm going now!" Andrey turned to her as he started dressing up.

"Argh. My clothes don't really fit well anymore." he said displeased.

"Don't worry. You can get some conjured ones. They won't last long, but they will last you for a day." the girl replied as she pointed outside.

"Thank you. Let's go!" Andrey insisted.

They walked out. It was a marvelous sight. Houses - one with nature. Glowing blue light from everywhere. Waterfalls and lakes surrounded the village of the mages. Nature spoke their language, and they spoke hers. 

A few minutes later, Andrey complained about the color of his clothes. "Ugh. Green? Come on." 

"I didn't know you would care." the female conjurer replied and turned his clothes black. "I'm guessing this is what you wanted." She said in a bored tone.

The monk clothes fitted Andrey nicely, but it wasn't really something he could get accustomed to. They were so free and loose that he just felt strange. He had been used to wearing clothes like school uniforms, shirts, and other similar to the style.

"Don't worry too much. You will get new ones soon enough." Dea'n'ha's voice was heard, but she wasn't around anymore. Andrey rotated and searched for her awkwardly.

"I'm over here." the voice spoke again as a white bird with blue stripes on its wings landed on his shoulder. 

The bird was really small and fluffy. It reminded Andrey of an owl, but much cuter.

"You can transform into animals?" he asked as he was stunned by what else could happen.

"No. I can talk to you through the bird." Dea'n'ha replied.

"So what's the bird called?"

"It is a messenger and is given its name by the holder. You are the holder."

"What?"

"Name her."

"Okay... Dea."

"So original." Dea'n'ha laughed. "Now seriously?"

"What's wrong with that name? You said I name her, did you lie to me? "

"No, I didn't. If that's the name you choose, then she is Dea. You can call her if you need to talk to me. Just call her name and she'll come to you and I'll be able to hear you."

"Will she disappear and appear at my command then?" 

"No, but she will always be somewhere near you."

"Do I need to feed her? I never really wanted a bird pet."

"She'll manage on her own. Now she will show you the way to Princepsius so you don't get lost."

"Okay, Dea. Let's be friends." Andrey said as he faced the situation and pressed the little bird's head with a finger petting it.