FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE (18 page)

     It seemed that there was a merchant from a distant land who was visiting some relatives in Timberstock. This merchant owned a large jewel mine in his country. Master Calnen had hoped to have a meeting with him and strike a good deal to buy jewels for the entire Grand Order. The problem was that to get the jewels to Free Falls, the Grand Order would have to charter a ship to sail along the coast of the Arid Plains to the merchant’s country and back. This was dangerous as they would be subjected to pirate attacks. But travelling on land would be far worse as they would then be subjected to Aridyte attacks.

     Master Calnen proposed, and Master Santlyn agreed, that Senior Dencon should lead a large team of Elementhars to function as security escort for the ship. This made sense because Senior Dencon had great experience with sea travel and anti-piracy methods. Besides, they planned to charter the ship from Senior Dencon’s family.

     Two weeks later, Masters Santlyn, Calnen and Dencon; and all of the novices left Monune Ruby for Timberstock. Master Santlyn had decided to bring the novices along for a holiday. It was just reward seeing that the novices had just finished a hard term of study. The Elementhars left in a convoy of ten horse-drawn carts. Much to Ray’s pleasure, he was designated as a driver of one of the carts. Amongst those seated on his cart were the Twins Dellix. Cutter was also designated as a cart driver, but his cart did not carry people, instead it carried only supplies. Slide and Thunder were each put in charge of a supply cart as well, and they acted as the rear guard.

     A week later, the convoy arrived at Timberstock. The masters had arranged to meet the merchant at a famous restaurant at noon for lunch. Master Rapier Shay, High Elementhar of the Order of Wind Elementhars and Master Whisper Nurten, High Elementhar of the Water Elementhars, were also there at Timberstock for the meeting.

     As the masters discussed business with the merchant, Ray and the Dellix twins brought their classmates to the town fair. They dragged Slide and Thunder with them, who were at first reluctant as they thought that town fairs were just for children. But after a few rides on the pendulum ship, the two adult novices changed their minds. They realised that the town fair could be entertaining for adults as well. Or perhaps the town fair was entertaining because it brought them back to their childhood. It brought them back to a time in their lives when things were simpler and their days were more carefree. Either way, they really began to enjoy themselves.

     Ray and the Dellix twins were on the Ferris wheel. They shared a gondola and they enjoyed the bird’s eye-view of Timberstock as their gondola went higher and higher.

     “Leave _ will you be doing of this of us when you graduate, Ray
?
” asked Radiance.

     “Leave _ will you do of this and cross the ocean to find your parents, Ray
?
” added Bloom.

     “Leave _ I do hope to do of this for those reasons, but I also plan to come back afterwards. Understand _ Senior Dencon has made me of this long ago that my life is here; for what lies across the ocean is my past, and of that I am curious; but what is here is my present and future, and to these I shall commit myself,” answered Ray.

     “Good _ it is of this for we cannot imagine not having you around,” said Radiance.

     “Brother _ you are like an older of him to us, Ray; so if you are gone permanently, we shall miss you a lot,” explained Bloom.

     “Worry _ do not be of this, little sisters; for if I were to go, I shall soon return afterwards,” assured Ray.

     The novices all met up at the refreshment stalls. Ray noticed that Slide and Thunder were smiling and laughing a lot, something that they had not done a lot of since their punishment by Master Santlyn. Ray felt happy that everything was back to normal.

     Suddenly the novices heard a lot of yelling coming from outside the town fair. They rushed out to investigate. It was not long before they discovered the source. There was a group of soldiers, about 12 Provincial Guards, surrounding a man. Some had their swords drawn out while others had arrows strung to their bows and were aiming them at the man. The man, meanwhile, had his left arm wrapped around a woman’s neck in a choke-hold. He also had a dagger pointed at her neck with his right hand. On his belt were tied several pouches which the novices could only guess were full of coins.

     “Let the woman go, and you shall not be harmed
!
” instructed one of the soldiers.

     “No
!
You let me go now, or I’ll kill her
!
” replied the man.

     “You are a criminal
!
You have just robbed a bank and you expect for us to let you go
?
No way is that possible
!
Your arms will tire, and your hold on her will slip; and we shall kill you
!
” insisted the soldier.

     Ray walks slowly past the soldiers. He does not know what he is doing, only that he feels he needs to do this. He gets closer and closer to the man. The soldiers, too preoccupied by the situation that they are in, fail to notice Ray. Ray gets to within an arm’s length of the man.

     “Here
!
” he shouts.

     The man turns his attention towards Ray. Suddenly, Ray points his fingers at the man and unleashes a giant fireball from his fingertips. The heat and light generated by the fireball is so intense that it temporarily blinds the man. He screams out in pain, instinctively releases the woman and tries to shield his eyes. One of the soldiers shouts the words ‘get down
!
’ Ray instinctively grabs the woman and dives to the ground. The soldiers let their arrows loose. Six arrows embed themselves deep into the man’s torso. He falls to his knees and then collapses to the ground.

     Ray felt that the collar of his robes was being pulled from the back. He turned around, and to his utter horror, saw that it was Senior Dencon. Senior Dencon’s facial expression was a mix of anger and disappointment. This look was mirrored by Master Santlyn as well as the other masters. The next thought that came to Ray’s mind was that he was going to be whipped just like how Slide and Thunder were. The colour disappeared from his face at this thought. What has he done
!?

     Master Santlyn was silent. So were the other masters. Anger was clearly shown on their faces. Master Shay pulled out a red peanut from a pouch which he was holding and accidentally crushed its shell completely as he was trying to crack it. Such was his anger over the incident. Master Calnen shook his head and gave Ray the look of disappointment. The other novices had fear shown on their faces instead. The Elementhars marched back to the inn at which they were staying. The novices were told to return to their rooms and stay there. The masters brought Ray into Master Santlyn’s room. The following verbal ‘whipping’ reverberated throughout the entire inn.

     “Crazy _ are you of this Ray
!?
Doing _ what do you think you are of this
!?
Novice _for you are only one of him and you are not qualified to engage in battle of any kind without our supervision
!
” shouted Master Santlyn.

    “Killed _ you could have been of this, Ray, either by the soldiers or by the criminal
!
” added Senior Dencon.

     “Irresponsible _ you are of this, and hot tempered too; and ultimately you are in need of strict disciplining
!
” added Master Calnen.

     “Patience _ of this, it is a virtue that you must develop, Ray; or one day you will be killed by the demons that you will be hunting later on. Learn _ do you not do of this of anything all these years at Monune Ruby
!?
” added Master Shay, High Elementhar of the Order of Wind Elementhars.

     “Dangerous _ what you did was of this, boy
!
Care _ you must take more of this of the decisions that you make, do you understand
!?
” said Master Nurten, High Elementhar of the Order of Water Elementhars.

     Ray was speechless. He saw no reason to even try to explain what he did and why he did it. Clearly, he was already condemned
!
Besides, he did not really understand why he did what he did in the first place. It was
not
strategic. It was
not
tactical. It
was
instinctive. And being instinctive was a bad habit for an Elementhar, for it threw away years of training, knowledge and experience. The only possible advantage to being instinctive was that it made one unpredictable, but not necessary in an advantageous way. Clearly, this case of instinctive behaviour was very disadvantageous to Ray right now
!

     Ray held his tongue. He let his ears bear the brunt. For half an hour, all the masters gave him the lecture of a lifetime. He nodded his head and tried to look remorseful. But the fury of the masters would not abate. Finally, after an hour’s worth of lecturing and yelling, the masters were silent. Ray got the message. ‘No hero rubbish, please
!
You are just a boy
!
’

     It was dusk when Ray was finally excused. As he stepped out of Master Santlyn’s room, the master called out to him.

     “
Mistake _ never make the same of this twice
, Ray; please remember this
!
” Master Santlyn said.

     Ray nodded but did not give a verbal reply. He was too dispirited to talk. He went straight back to his room and went to sleep. He slept all the way through to the next morning, skipping his dinner as a result.

     Breakfast the next day was a gloomy affair. All the novices were extra-well behaved, for fear of accidentally angering any of the masters. They conveniently decided to stay in as well. But as soon as the masters were gone for their meeting with the merchant, all the novices flocked to Ray’s room. Slide was the first to congratulate him on a job well done. Thunder patted him on the back. The Dellix twins gave him wide smiles and thumbs’ up. Cutter kept saying ‘
Man
_ you are
the
one of him
!
” Feather straightened her hands and ‘fake’ worshipped him. Ray was overwhelmed.

     Everything was back to normal the next day. The masters left to meet with the merchant and the novices went out to town. The novices broke into several groups this time and went their separate ways.

     Slide and Thunder went to visit a blacksmith to shop for weapons. They were to undergo their first test soon, together with Funnel. The first test was to hunt down and kill a demon in a group kill. Master Santlyn was to be their invigilator. But unlike Funnel, who was already a master Elementhar and has his own sorcerised item in the form of a sword, both Slide and Thunder did not have any. As a matter of fact, when they ran away and did battle with the centipede demon, they stole a pitchfork and an axe from a farmer and used these items as weapons. The pitchfork broke after a few exchanges with the demon and the axe-head flew away not long after. It was only by pure dumb luck that they finally managed to kill the demon. By the end of the battle, almost all of their soul energy was drained and the both of them were near soul depletion. This was one of the details that they tried their best to hide from the masters. They did not want the masters to know that they were foolish enough to have gone into battle without Sorcerised Items and Reservers. And luckily for them, Master Santlyn was too angry to have thought of this little detail at the time.

     Ray, the Dellix twins, Cutter and Feather went to the riverbank for a picnic. They wanted to spend their time looking at boats travelling up and down the river. There was something calming about the boats, they felt. Besides, they wanted to be as far away as they could from the streets of Timberstock, lest they bump into another bank robbery or something of the sort.

     It was late afternoon when Ray and the others left the riverbank and made their way back to the inn. Along the way they heard a loud commotion from one of the back alleys. ‘Not again
!
’ was what Ray was thinking. But before he could say or do anything, the others had already run off to investigate.

     When the novices arrived at the source of the commotion, they could not believe their eyes. Five well-built teenagers, all wearing some sort of school uniform, were kicking and punching a skinny one, who was also wearing a similar uniform. The skinny one looked familiar, they thought; and finally they recognised him. He was Stick Dugs
!

     “Let me go, or I shall burn you
!
” threatened Stick as he crouched and took a defensive posture against the beatings.