Chapter 44

The invasion had brought chaos down upon Hoelbrak and its inhabitants like a tidal wave, sweeping through the streets and left obvious damages behind in its wake.

As the ones mainly responsible for the protection of Hoelbrak the guardians, especially the new recruits, were ordered to look after gaps in their newly fortified defences and repair what could be a risk to their security.

Walking in small groups through the streets of Hoelbrak, Veli and his group repaired small damages to the infrastructure here and there while the biggest damages were being looked after by the engineers.

Even though his hands were busy with repairing the various fortifications Veli's mind was clearly elsewhere, as were the minds of his fellow recruits. And who could blame them, really? A couple days ago they had been, for the first time, witness to the true terror of the ancient dragon Jormag and his armies, rousing many children from the state of adoration and dreaming about heroics they had been in after hearing stories from Isolde regularly.

When he thought back to that night Veli was gripped once again by the sensation that had controlled his every fibber and frozen him to the spot. Each night when Veli closed his eyes and hoped for the soothing embrace of his dreams that malicious and all consuming voice would echo in his ears once again, causing the boy to soon afterwards wake up covered in sweat and unable to fall asleep for some time. The rings under his eyes were definite proof of his nightmares…

Veli had sometimes wondered when he thought back to that night why his friend Alvar seemed to be so clear headed when he himself was literally frozen to the spot like a statue made of ice, thanks to Jormag and his presence alone! In the end Veli had come to the conclusion that Alvar must be a little bit more resistant to Jormag's influence due to his dreams and the lessons he had received from Isolde. He wished that was the case as he had seen first hand how hard Alvar trained with the old Havroune, or at least the aftermath of their sessions.

Smacking another nail into the already mostly repaired wall before him with the hammer in his hand Veli's mind left the musings about his best friend alone and took another avenue, namely Gerdi.

He hadn't seen her at the feast, which wasn't much of a surprise as the girl had always spent the evening of the day of the dead in the company of her family and never joined the two friends at the feast.

It gladdened him to know that she did not have to witness the horrors of Jormag's presence that night. And yet he wondered, not for the first time, what happened to her as her demeanour had slightly changed since that night.

She had become less cheerful and more 'rigid' you could say, as Veli lacked another word to best describe her behaviour. After throwing another glance at his friend that was working a few meters away from him at another part of the damaged wall, Veli returned his attention back to his own work while quenching the worry that had started to gnaw at his core. Maybe the events of that night had made him more paranoid than he knew…

'Spirits, I really need a good night's sleep! Maybe I should ask one of the healers for some dreamless sleep pills? Sounds like a damn good idea…' Veli thought to himself after which he yawned tiredly and began to hammer away at the next part of the wall that needed repairs. After all they still had a long way to go until they could return to their usual training regime.

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Since that fateful night Gerdi had changed and not just when speaking about her emotions, she knew that much. After she had seen Veli with that bitch in his arms something inside her had snapped and that coupled with the voice of her new master had been enough to topple any resistance she may have had otherwise.

After she had willingly given herself to Jormag's magic, who she now knew had been the one to whisper into the back of her mind, the agonizing feelings inside her heart had dulled significantly until she only faintly perceived their presence, something she was incredibly thankful to her master for.

The downside of that was though that her other feelings had dulled as well. All besides the ones that burnt like a flame in the night. Anger and rage! But she had reached a point were she didn't really care any longer. In her subconscious mind she knew that she was being exceptionally unreasonable and stupid but soon after her subconscious mind had begun its protests it had been silenced by the light blue magic of her master, frozen and put to sleep until she would enter the mists when her time had come.

The next day after she had joined Jormag she had received a message from her future teacher the ancient dragon had spoken about and in the following night Gerdi had snuck out of her home, her sleeping relatives no longer playing any role in her mind, and ventured behind the damaged gates of Hoelbrak into the night of the slowly cooling wilderness.

In the shadow of one of the trees she had met a woman, and to her surprise after a few minutes of waiting they were joined by three other children from Hoelbrak, that had snuck out of the city just like she had.

The woman had directly come to the point and told them what she would teach them. To Gerdi's delight the woman would introduce the four children to the subtle arts of infiltration. After Jormag had viewed their memories they all had chosen wrongly when it came to their professions and Jormag wanted to bring out the best and most efficient qualities in the children.

Gerdi truly could not have asked for more. After Jormag had helped to dull the pain in her chest her love for Veli had dimmed and she was finally able to see that she had been a fool to pick the guardians as her profession for nothing more than love and the faint hope of being near Veli. Her true purpose and fate had always lied with the subtle arts of infiltration and subterfuge.

Thus, under the harsh but thorough tutelage of the woman Gerdi finally learned what she was meant to be all along. The dagger in the night to fulfill whatever her master would order her to do. Whatever that may be…