Lost in thought and staring blankly at the dusty ancient scrolls, Kajn was trying hard to concentrate on his task at hand and had been very quiet since the episode in the river. He had not had the chance to talk to Vanor yet about the healing temple and what significance it held for her. He was afraid to broach the subject in case she had no idea what he was talking about. He still felt a slight flowing feeling in his head and had never felt more alive.
He even saw colours that were brighter somehow than before and felt warm and at ease with the world.
He was pondering these different sensations when he realised he had been staring at a picture of a squid-like creature. When he finally realised what he had been looking at he called out to the Old Man, “I think I’ve found it!”
The Old Man studied the disproportional hand-drawn figure and the associated text and frowned. “This creature has been summoned by a Mora demon, which has a distinctive red jewel at its third eye by the way, to help the Ninja in his quest for the assassination of a strong warrior or warriors. It seems to have been summoned with three other creatures of Wind, Fire and Earth as the squid was the Water element. Oh dear, once one has been killed the other three become stronger and so on until the last has the power of the other three. Kajn, do you still have that tooth from the werewolf?”
Kajn looked perplexed for a moment and then reached into his coin pouch and replied, “You mean this?” The Old Man gingerly took the tooth and mumbled, “Perfect. Umm, I’ll see you both tomorrow,” as he waved them off and vanished in a puff of shimmery lights. Vanor and Kajn looked at each other and both shrugged in unison. Kajn replaced the musty old volumes of books and with his back to Vanor asked, “Do you mind explaining what you did at the river?”
Vanor blushed and replied quietly, “You know I’m a healer of sorts and they took you to where they could heal you. Well I sort of did, but it was they not me who healed you. It’s the first time I have taken someone to the temple. Normally I go by myself.”
Kajn gently took her hand, looked in her eyes and asked, “Who are they, Vanor? Should I be worried that you may be controlled by someone or some other force that you have no control over?”
Vanor stood back and shook her hand out of Kajn’s. “Are you saying I’m possessed?” Her eyes flared angrily. “They help me heal. I don’t know how or why, but it is a gift they give me, not a controlling influence. How could you be so cruel as to think that?”
Storming out of the library she slammed the door so hard that the heavy oak door vibrated for a moment.
Hurrying away, Vanor did not notice the looks of the passing courtiers who veered around her to go in any direction but the one she was going. She entered her room, quickly shutting the door so no one could see the tears that had now begun to flow. She leant against the door, “I knew he wouldn’t understand,” she quietly murmured. Lying down on her bunk and feeling very tired and depressed she drifted off to sleep.
The white clouds in her dream shifted and moved and she relaxed. She moved her mind very slightly and gently floated in this relaxing place. Her arm where one wolf had bitten her, but only lightly, seemed to ache. Wondering what that would mean, she tried to touch the wound on the back of her upper arm. Even in her glowing state there was a dark patch that was in the shape of a deep incisor wound. Wondering but not worrying she moved forward to the temple.
Unusually there was no one there. The platform of the temple was empty and this made her feel even more uneasy and alone. She wandered about the steps for a while and decided to investigate. At the back of the temple she found a garden that was exhilarating.
A fountain formed a framework of streams and waterfalls and the water tinkled and splashed musically. It seemed to divide the garden and each section had different flowers or herbs of various shades. Vanor walked beside one stream that was bordered by large willow trees, and carefully trod on hopping stones that were laid out. The flowers were perfect in every way, and reaching down to caress one perfect red rose, she noticed that the flower vibrated with light and coursed through her fingers. Attuning her mind, she realised that the whole garden was quietly humming in a choir-like voice with different species of flowers, trees and herbs vibrating slightly differently to the next.
She paused and sat cross-legged listening to the beauty that she had never known existed. It played with her emotions and she found that she had laughed and cried to the harmony of the voices. Finally the sounds became a mumble of love and she looked up to find one of the glowing beings standing before her.
He looked concerned and when he started to speak it was with such a rich deep timbre that seemed to compel her to listen.
“The wound cannot be healed by us until the blood of the one you love disperses the evil.”
She looked up confused, as she didn’t think the wound was even that deep, never mind life threatening.
“You mean this on my arm? But I don’t understand, how could something that shallow really hurt me?” Vanor replied.
“It is tainted with evil to stop your work before it has begun.” “Your time here has been longer than you think, as a week has passed and now it is time to go.”
“But how? A week?” She didn’t think that even one hour had passed, but a week?
She slowly stood and realised her light was much duller than before and she felt weak.
“Do not forget that your love must sacrifice a drop of blood on the wound to heal you,” he said as he touched her forehead.
She floated in different shades of white, listened to voices that she couldn’t discern in the distance, and floated again. She tried to go through what the light being had said. “Blood,” she mumbled. “Why would blood be the answer? Is it the blood or the love that heals?” Then she floated again.
Kajn knocked on Vanor’s door. When there was no answer, he had walked away but then turned back thinking that one hour should be enough for her to calm down so that he could explain himself. He opened the door slightly, and tentatively walked in calling, “Vanor, it’s only me, I came to apologise.” In the late afternoon light that streamed through the window, he saw her hunched frame lying atop her bed facing away from him.
When he quietly came towards her, he noticed she was in a fetal position and when he looked at her face it seemed serene somehow, even with the tears and sweat covering her face. He stared and realised something was terribly wrong when even his gentle touch or voice did not waken her.
Kajn was frantic as he rushed to the north tower. His urgent banging on the Old Man’s door startled the Old Man enough that he dropped the vial of bats’ wings suspended in fluid. The curse he swore would have burned the hairs off a pig. He stormed to the door and opened it angrily ready to curse whoever would disturb him in the middle of spellcasting. But looking at Kajn’s face he realised that something serious must have happened.
“What?” he yelled not realising how loudly he had shouted. Kajn looked startled for a moment but half shouted, half pleaded, “Please, Vanor is hurt,” as his voice nearly broke.
The Old Man held Kajn’s hand and teleported them both to Vanor’s room. Not noticing that Kajn was having trouble orienting himself and had fallen to the floor, the Old Man turned Vanor around and cursed. He laid her on her back, tied a piece of string to a crystal wand and swung the pendulum in a circular motion. After a few minutes, the crystal moved erratically, left and right and then twisting and turning in its mid-air course. “Kajn, quickly come and strip her.”
The Old Man was worried. The two bites on her arm were poisoned or something worse. How come they had not healed and why hadn’t he noticed them? He had been so busy training her that he had noticed nothing out of the usual. He had noticed that she had been a bit tired these last two days but he had put that down to Kajn’s rigid training schedule. The crystal stopped spinning and immediately rocked on its axis as if it danced in mid flight. “Damn!” he shouted.
Kajn was concerned by the violence in his voice and as the Old