***
Kiethara let out a muffled cry, her eyes snapping open.
Without thinking twice about it, she threw herself up into the air, her shield appearing around her. She blinked hard, trying to think around her drowsiness. It was early in the morning, the sun just beginning to rise, and she had been rudely awaken by…something. It had almost felt like she had been burned.
Kiethara looked down at her hammock and gasped.
There, right where she had been laying, was a piece of parchment, rolled up tightly and sealed.
She slowly descended, her shield disappearing as curiosity replaced her fear. The wax seal had no signatures or designs. She bent down and stared at it with wide eyes. A letter? But…from who? Who in the world would send her a letter, and by magic? It was not like there were many possibilities.
Well, it was true that Odarick used magic. She had not seen him since he had helped her in Redawn, but he seemed like the type of person who would send a letter to check up on her. Aaron would have to teach her how to send one back.
With that thought, she reached forward and picked up the roll of parchment. It was heavy, surprisingly so, and it had a certain aura to it. The same, heavy atmosphere of her father…
With stumbling fingers, she broke the seal.
Kiethara gasped as her mother’s locket fell to the grass at her feet. She stared at it for a moment, shocked, and then with trembling hands she unrolled the parchment.
My daughter,
After those two words, Kiethara did not want to continue. Now that she was certain it was Gandador, she wanted only to throw the letter over her shoulder and wipe her hands clean from the scum. But for some reason, she could not stop reading. Why had he sent her back her mother’s locket? A more important question: how he had gotten his hands on it? Those four men had taken it!
Enclosed in this letter, as you should have found out by now, is your mother’s locket. It is a special gift to you for your sixteenth birthday, so that you will never be without the proof that, without me, you would not be celebrating this day. I know you will appreciate it dearly.
Kiethara did not know how he managed to write his mocking tone into a letter, but she was sick already.
Now you are twice as powerful as you were before. Yes, your mother told me every little one of the guardian’s secrets. You hold no surprises for me, child, but you might be surprised at how many I still have in stock for you.
Sinsenta was quite put out that he did not get his revenge. I find it almost poetic that you have both inflicted such horrid scars on each other, and I long for the chance to inflict my own…
You are probably wondering how I received your mother’s locket. I understand that you were captured by four men, and I managed to track down one of them. His name was Natal. He had your locket, but insufficient information on anything I really needed. His death was unnecessary, but I felt you would appreciate it. A little revenge helps sooth the soul.
Although my accomplice is weak, he is very resourceful. Not only does his son have the potential of following after me, but he is also an excellent tracker, and holds some very useful connections in the kingdoms that even you would consider a threat. My advice to you today: do not underestimate Sinsenta, and more importantly, do not underestimate me. That will be your last mistake.
Kiethara frowned. The letter was making her uneasy. Perhaps because it was the most peaceful encounter with her father that she had ever had, but it was almost as though he was being too open, giving her advice. She expected him to appear at any moment behind her. Even in ink he still left goose bumps, as though every word concealed a threat.
I suspect we will meet again shortly, child. I let you enjoy your sweet reunion with dear old Aaron for far too long. You now have an unlimited amount of power, a sword, no doubt, and Aaron has probably crammed as much training into your head as he possibly could. You might have more strength and some advantage, but you also have one more thing: a weakness.
Take my words to heart; it’s not every day I will send them to you on a flag of truce. Your mother was a fool, and it would be a shame if my daughter was one too.
Your father.
Kiethara was so filled with rage that her hands burst into flames, disintegrating the accursed letter into ashes. She stood there, fists on fire and as rigid as a tree trunk. How dare he!
Her mother was not a fool. She was kind enough to love a monster like him, and this was how he thanked her? No one else would have been able to look him in the eye without fleeing in the opposite direction, disgusted! He was an arrogant son of a—
A sudden light appeared, cutting her thought short. She felt its presence with her connection at the same time she was partially blinded by it. It was definitely dimmer than it ever had been before, but she wasn’t in the mood to worry. She wanted to fight. There was no way she could retaliate until Gandador returned to attack. He had planted his letter skillfully.
“Kiethara, what on earth are you doing?” Aaron cried. Without realizing it, she had been sending tongues of fire into the grass, burning patches and setting it aflame. She turned to face Aaron, her face livid.
“How. Did. He. Do. That?” she growled slowly.
“Easy, Kiethara. Take a deep breath.”
She took a quick breath through her nose. The fire on her hands disappeared, but her light green crystals still glowed dangerously.
“Good. Now tell me what’s wrong,” he said calmly.
“What’s wrong?” she hissed. She motioned towards the pile of ashes at her feet. “That…fool sent me a letter!”
Silence.
“Do you mean Gandador?” he asked.
“Yes!” she cried, throwing her hands up in anger. They exploded into flames so hot she could feel them at her toes.
“What did he say?” he asked.
“Does it matter?” she cried louder, despite the fact that the words were reverberating off of her skull. “Next time we meet, he is going to die!”
“Kiethara!” Aaron said sharply.
She took a deep breath and plopped down on the burnt ground. Your mother was a fool…the words still sounded in her head. Her mother had made only one bad decision; that did not make her a fool.
Then again…
Out of all the mistakes her mother could have made, it could not have been more serious than this. She fell in love with a powerful, deadly man, gave him all of her secrets to power, and had trusted him with everything till her final breaths. Everything that could have gone wrong had. Except, of course, for Kiethara’s survival.
Kiethara shook her head. She was letting Gandador get into her mind just as Sinsenta had poisoned her thoughts. Doubt, anger, loss…these were all tools that they used that she constantly fell victim to. She could not let them control her. She had to keep a cool head.
With a jolt, she remembered what had come with her letter. Silently, she picked it off the ground and stood up, dangling it in front of Aaron. She could feel his wordless shock.
“I woke up because this and a roll of parchment took my place in my hammock. When I unrolled the parchment, this fell out, and then I read the letter.
“He talked about my birthday, Aaron. He knew. He knows everything about the connection. He even knows I have a sword now! He mentioned my last fight with Sinsenta and how he had gotten the locket…He warned me that he would be coming here and…and he called my mother a fool,” she finished, looking up at Aaron with wide eyes.
Aaron took a step forward and fingered the golden, heart shaped locket. Many new buffs and scratched scarred its elegantly carved surface, and a few of the links that made up the chain were dented.
“How many times must we go over this, Kiethara?” Aaron asked in a soft voice. “Do not let these words affect you, do not let yourself become gullible. Your mother’s greatest strength was also her greatest weakness. You know this. But that does not make her a fool.”
She nodded, not completely sure whether Aaron’s words had any affect o
n her or not.
“He talked about Sinsenta’s son, too. The world doesn’t need another Gandador,” she objected.
“Mhm, this might be something we have to worry about,” he mused. “Gandador never fails to have a backup plan. He is such a difficult person to unravel, too.”
For the first time, Kiethara thought she detected frustration in Aaron’s tone. The frustration of not knowing something. Aaron knew everything! It was unnerving to think otherwise.
“At one minute, he has you thinking that he is a blood thirsty monster only capable of destruction. The next, he has you thinking that he is a greedy yet powerful opponent with an insane plan for something unobtainable. Now he has me wondering again! He has insurance now—an apprentice. But insurance for what? Will he drive this child on his crazy schemes? Or has Gandador finally realized it might not work?”
“Have you ever considered that his plan might work?” she asked in a small voice.
Aaron shook his head. “The only reason the guardian’s wear crystals is because we have too much magic to be stored in our bodies. They themselves might give you more power, but it’s not as if they bless you with skill. A guardian is a guardian for many different reasons, not just because they wear these bracelets.”
“So what if Gandador just wants us to think he wants to be a guardian? What if his true intention is to just find a way to absorb as much power as he can without killing himself?”
Aaron was silent for a moment. “That is a very good point, Kiethara, and a view that should definitely be considered. That sounds like something your father could pull…”
“Aha!” she cried. “So it might be possible for him to take my crystals from me and use them for himself!”
“Easy, Kiethara. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Even if I gave you the benefit of the doubt, chances are very slim. First, he has to be able to get you into a position by which he can study your crystals for an extended period of time. He then has to get them off without killing you, because then the forest and the power in your crystals would die out. And after that, he would have to connect them to his own life force in order to get them to work for the purpose he wants. I expect you not to get yourself into the first position, needless to say.”
“Well, you never know,” she sighed.
“Kiethara, you really shouldn’t worry about something that cannot be solved today,” he reasoned.
“But—”
“No, do not let this doubt creep into your thoughts. There is a reason this hasn’t happened before: it’s not possible.”
Yes, it all came down to that. Everything happened for a reason. What was the reason for her being kidnapped? Well, it had given her and Aaron reason to enhance her training tenfold. A pitiful reason, in her opinion, but a reason all the same. Surprisingly, Kiethara found that she still clung to her philosophy with all her heart and soul.
“Should I be expecting him?” she asked suddenly.
“Gandador? No, because he never does what you expect. So if you’re expecting him today, it’s safe to say he isn’t coming till tomorrow.”
Kiethara then vowed to expect him every minute from this point forward.
“Can I send him a letter back?” she asked hopefully. She had a few choice words she wanted him to hear.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” she demanded.
“Insulting your enemy is not the best tactic.”
“Oh? And what about him? He and his faithful puppy Sinsenta make a hobby of insulting me!”
“You should know why,” he said. “Now, enjoy the rest of your day.”
“All right,” she said with a defeated sigh.
“Be good,” he said, a smile in his voice. He disappeared.
Kiethara looked around her clearing for something to do. Her head was buzzing with worry and doubt, and she tightly clenched her mother’s locket in her fist. She needed to calm down, and there was only one way to do that.
By listening.