Chapter 25 -  Caladrius  

Dorin woke up and stretched one arm, then the other. He slid back on the soft furs and nuzzled the warm body beside him. The scent was familiar, nostalgic. He placed an arm over it and got a moan. A painful moan. He looked up, still half asleep, and strained through sleepy eyes at the curled up figure beside him. Short black hair and very pale skin.

"When did mother get a hair cut?" he thought, before noticing that the body was smaller. He sat up, looking closer at the sleeping person beside him. The sleek black hair was loose, it covered half of the face, but it was certainly Sebastian sleeping beside him.

Remembering what happened the previous night, Dorin quickly pulled his arm away from Seb's hip. He looked at the boy's body, but could find no wound or swelling. The supple skin was smooth and flawless; no sign of injury what so ever. He turned him over, spreading his arms to check for more wounds, but could find nothing, not even a scar from his injured arm.

"Sebastian." he called to his friend, but the other was fast asleep, even after being shaken vigorously. He tried pinching his nose, and then suddenly pulled his hand away, an alarmed look in his face. He stared at Seb's face, before slowly standing up. He looked around the room, pulled one of the furs and covered his mid section with it, then he decided to explore the strange hollow they appeared to be sleeping in.

When Sebastian woke up, the first thing he noticed was the fur. He was a fugal child from a poor household, thus, had no means of obtaining such a luxurious item, most especially, snow leopard fur of such quality that you sink into 3 inches of cotton softness.

He looked around the cave and saw the fire burning. A pot hanging on top smelled of porridge, but he was not hungry. He took a piece of firewood instead, and tying the snow leopard fur around his body, made his way out of the room.

It took him quite a while to find the cave's entrance, but he finally made it out of the hidden burrow. He looked around at the dimly lit forest, seemingly untouched by human feet. He noticed a small animal track and decided to follow it. Soon he could hear the sound of rushing water and followed that as well, until he came into a clearing.

There was a waterfall there, 5 storeys high and about 4 meters wide. The sunlight broke through the area, but he could not tell if it was early morning or late afternoon. He saw 2 figures by the water's edge, one of whom stood on top of a flat boulder and was dancing to the tune of a song.

"The Song of Aerials ..." whispered Sebastian, his lilac eyes widening.

He watched as the dancing figure leapt and waved and jumped at the accompaniment of the rustling trees and the deep voice that sang the words of the wind. The figure gave another jump and twirled in the air, trailing golden brown hair, glittering in the sun's radiance. He was smiling as he sang, his brown eyes glinting like liquid gold.

Sebastian shivered as he listened to Dorin sing.

Dorin noticed movement in the distance. "Sebastian!" he called to his friend. "You're finally awake!" He wore the same attire Damien was wearing -- a loose kilt that reached to his ankles, his chest bare, glistening with sweat dripping down his toned body.

Damien turned and saw his other guest step out of the forest and into the clearing. He was waving his hands frantically in the air. "Speak." Damien told the Silver Tongue. "As you have probably noticed, your voice will not affect us."

"T-that... song..." Sebastian stammered as he almost tripped over a protruding root, "That was the Song of Aerials!" he continued to make his way to the other two, precariously walking on the uneven forest ground. "Where did you learn the words?" he asked, "Only certain high wizards of the wind element can sing it properly!"

Dorin laughed, "It's just an old lullaby my mother liked to sing to me when spring comes." he ran to his friend and caught him as he tripped on another root. "Damien just taught me the moves that go along with it!" He pulled Seb up, looked him over, turned him around and patted his back. "You seem to be all there." he said with a grin.

"All there?" asked Seb, when the memories of the previous night suddenly came rushing back to him. He fell, crouching on the ground by Dorin's feet.

"Are you okay?" the other inquired with concern, "Are you still hurting?"

"No. I am fine." replied Seb. It's been so long since he last talked so much. "Where are we?"

"This is the heart of the black woods." Damien answered from beside them. He stood towering over the two students, looking down at them with a scowl.

"Why are we here?" Sebastian asked once more.

"To recover." was Damien's short reply.

Sebastian fell silent. "It seems," he finally says as he faced Dorin, "that I always end up in trouble when I am with you."

"Sorry, but it's not entirely my fault!" Dorin said defensively, "Those people just came out of nowhere, and we could have gotten away easily if you didn't get hit so badly..."

"Hey, you got caught too!" Sebastian said heatedly. "And even drag me all over the place and hid me under a mound just to get caught by our attackers in the end!"

"They took me by surprise!" Dorin replied defensively, "Besides, it was you who kept telling me not to kill them!"

"You still killed most of them anyway..."

"Yeah, but that was after we got caught!"

"And I had to use my Silver Tongue to save your ass!"

"I could have gotten free on my own without your help!"

"Really? As I remember, you were flat on your back, covered in 3 layers of magic wrap."

"Which I could have easily removed since I read the incantation..."

"That is, if you could remove the dagger on your shoulder. You couldn't even keep your mouth from drooling."

"I was not drooling!"

"Wanna bet? Perhaps I should have taken a picture?!"

"Enough. Both of you." Damien stood between them, pushing them apart. The 2 boys looked at each other angrily, but held their tongues. "This is a sacred place. You are here to heal, not to fight. Be quiet."

Sebastian looked around the clearing. At the crystal clear water of the falls. Though the water rushed down, the basin was so clear, you could see right through to the bottom of it, where several underwater caves bore down to the earth into darkness.

There was something underneath. Undines - transparent beings made of water, were flowing in and out of the caves, waving with the current. Seb couldn't pull his gaze from the beautiful creatures.

"You have disturbed their entertainment." Damien told Seb.

"The Song of Aerials..." Seb remembered, facing Dorin, "Can you teach me the words?"

"Well, yes but..."

"The Song of Winds can only be performed by a wind mage." Damien interrupted. "You, Silver Tongue, your element is water. Do you know the Song of Phases?" Seb looked blankly back at him.

"I've never heard of such a song before." he wondered.

"It's a song about the different phases of life." Dorin answered for him. "It's a bit more complicated, since the dance that goes with it is has several stances." he gave a couple of fluid steps, but his body seemed to jerk instead. "It is to flow like water, be sharp like ice, and float like mist."

"How do you know all these?" Seb pried Dorin.

"My mother taught me!" Dorin proudly replied, "She knows a lot of things!"

"But that doesn't answer anything, does it?" Seb sounding irritated. "Can you at least teach me the words?" he requested.

"I'm afraid I don't know the whole song. As I was told, the song of Phases was handed down through the Ravante family." He looked at Seb and frowned. "You know, my friend Eirian once told me before that Silver Tongues are a dying race, I never thought I would meet one so soon. But he also said that Silver Tongues only spring from the Ravante family, and that the Ravante family is extinct."

"T-the Revious family are related to the Ravante's..." explained Sebastian with a stutter, "I got the Silver Tongue from them, that's why from at a young age, I was told not to show my face or my voice to people outside the family!"

"Is that why you don't speak?" Dorin questioned him. Seb remained silent.

"The Empire is forever after strong magi to train for the future of the kingdom." Damien spoke. "That night, you were attacked by the imperial mages for that same reason."

"Then, Sebastian being an enchanter and me being an elementor -- which I'm not..."

"They would have taken you back, with force if need be. Back in the capital, they have ways to make you follow their commands. And they are not always pleasant."

"But aunt Agate and Marcus, they knew about Sebastian too..."

"Your aunt, professor Althea and my parents were friends since their time in university, so naturally she knows about me." explained Sebastian. "Though I'm not sure about Major General Muller."

"There were initially 5 people who knew the secret." Damien told them. "One of them has already passed away, one is in hiding, and the other 3 are currently in this university." he continued, "3 of these people were responsible for your birth, with the aid of the last Silver Tongue."

"A last Silver Tongue?" Seb asked, "what does that mean? And what does it have to do with me?"

Damien was silent. "In time." He finally said, "in time you shall find the answers. For now, you must eat and rest."

"It's about time we get back to campus..." Said Dorin.

"No hurry," said Damien absentmindedly, "two of my brothers have taken your place to avoid any more problems.

"But the awarding..." Seb suddenly remembered.

"Oh, that was 3 days ago." Said Dorin. Seb's eyes bulged.

"Wait..." Seb said, "Just how long have we been here?"

"This would be your third day."

"My prize!" gasped Seb.

"In your room. Together with your changeling." Explained Damien. "The fake Dorin, on the other hand, have supposedly gone back to Monarch Forest."

"What about your aunt?" he asked Dorin hurriedly, "Also, didn't Marcus tell you he would send you home himself?!"

"They were already told about the situation." Replied Dorin. "We were merely waiting for you to wake up." He looked at Seb with concern. "I woke up the next day, but you've been asleep for three whole days!"

"I remember a sharp pain in my chest..." said Seb, "Did my lung rupture from a broken rib?"

"Yes." Damien answered. "thus, you can not leave yet." Damien added, "We still need to make sure that you recover completely."

"A case like this would usually take a week or two for a full recovery, granted a top ranked medical mage can attend to the injured immediately." Mumbled Seb, "Yet you have healed me in three days..."

"I had the help of my brothers and sisters." Replied Damien.

"The caladrius Azra took care of you." Said Dorin. He showed Seb his shoulder, now clear of any wound or blemish. "She took care of my wound as well."

"Caladrius... the legendary bird of healing..." whispered Seb.

"She just left to release your pain into the sun." said Damien. "For now, let us return to the burrow, the nymps need their privacy, and it's about time for breakfast." Dorin's stomach grumbled at this, "Again." he added.