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Chapter Fourteen

Anxious Heart (7)  Tell Me (8)

[Silver]
    The victorious party made themselves as comfortable as possible in the keep.
    Silver sat alone by a window in a lavish, comfortable room and looked up at the evening sky.  Her dark eyes held a deep sorrow, and presently a tear trickled down her eye and rolled down her cheek.  Before it could reach her chin, however, Silver quickly brought out a vial from her pouch and held it beneath the tear so that it dropped inside.  More of the salty droplets came, and she collected them all, one by one, in the tiny vial.
    When the vial was finally full, she carefully dropped it back in the small pouch at her side.  Turning away from the window, she wiped away the rest of her tears on the edge of her cloak, sniffling just once.
    Glancing about to be sure that nobody had seen her crying, she got up from her seat and started out of the room, when Belisarius entered from a door on the other side, followed by the others.  Silver stepped back into a dark corner and attempted to melt into the shadows, her small boots making no sound on the soft carpeted floor.
    Belisarius called, "Silver, are you here?  Spyder says she last saw you around here."
    Silver shifted under here cloak, transforming in a matter of seconds.  She tried to reach the open doorway, creeping along the wall as carefully as she could, hoping she would not be noticed.
    Belisarius walked past and looked into the hallway to see if she was nearby.  The young raven froze and suppressed a squawk of dismay as the tall knight closed the door, walking past her again to join the others.
    Resignedly, the bird crept back to the shadowy corner, and concentrated, transforming to her original state.  She froze again in fear as Belisarius looked straight toward where she was standing.  Reluctantly she stepped out of the shadow in Belisarius' plain view.
    To her shock, Belisarius jumped to his feet and said, "Silver!  I didn't see you standing there!"   His remark brought everyone's attention to the girl.
    "Y-you d-didn't?" Silver stammered. "B-but I was standing right th--"  She stopped abruptly, a strange look in her eye.
    "You must be tremendously talented to be able to literally hide in plain sight!  The others have been telling me you're 'inexperienced'," Belisarius continued, ignoring Silver's awkward silence.  The others rolled their eyes.
    "Well, I don't do that much..." Silver said slowly.  "Anyway, I understand you were looking for me?"
    "Yes.  I for one wanted to thank you personally in a better circumstances for assisting in my rescue, Silver."
    "You're welcome," she replied off-handedly.
    "We're also curious about your ability-- how is it so easy for you to transform?" Roland asked.  "People say transformation spells are the most difficult to successfully cast, much less master.  How could it be so simple for you?"
    Silver shifted uncomfortably.  She seemed unsure of whether or not to answer the question.  She looked down and fidgeted with her cloak clasp.  Finally she answered, "All right, everyone have a seat and I'll tell you my story."  She shrank to a raven and sat down on the open window sill and waited until everybody had found a comfortable place.
    She began.  "My abilities are pretty much natural-- it's in my blood and it's from my mother's side."
    "Your mother's side?" Spyder questioned.
    "Yes, my mother."  Silver's voice sounded a hollow tone.  "She's gone."
    "Oh, if you don't want to tell us about your parents--"
    "It's okay, I guess."
    "You don't have to tell if it makes you uncomfortable," Spyder repeated.
    "No, it's all right, really," Silver reassured her.  "Well, my mother's family was crossbred from two genres of mystic people.  The Avesics have intermarried with the Soul-shadows for as far back as anyone can remember; however, the Ravens had only male descendants.  Before me, my mother was the only female Ravenshadow.  Now I'm the only female left, but I'm not exactly pureblood Ravenshadow."
    "What does that mean?" Belisarius asked.
    "My father wasn't a Soul-shadow.  He was a regular human, like you and the others."
    "I see..."
    Silver looked out the window again and remarked, "It's late.  I should get some rest.  Maybe we'll chat later-- good night!"

[Leo]
    As Silver decided to leave, Belisarius turned to Leo.  "So," he said, "You're another new person that I haven't met before, so who are you?"
    "I'm Sir Leo, the only survivor of Dragonia," he responded.
    "Dragonia?  But as I heard, there were no survivors.  In fact, you were one of the first to be found dead, being the leader of the Paladins there."
    "I would have been happy to be one of the honorable men that died, but a spell kept me alive.  I wish that I could've killed Neo when I had the chance."
    "What business do you have with Neo?" Belisarius asked.  He was starting to get interested in this conversation.
    "He was my 'brother'.  He came to our village one day, tattered and beaten, and my father took him in and gave him shelter.  He soon started to seclude himself in the room given to him, and was nearly never seen.  When someone did see him, they were shocked.  He now was pale-skinned, with circles under his eyes, and scabs all over his arms and legs.  One day, I decided to find out what was happening in there, so I kicked down the door--"
    "Oh, so the subtle approach," remarked Roland.
    "Don't interrupt me again," Leo angrily said.  "Well, I kicked down the door, and see him bowing next to this dark floating object.  But, I could barely recognize him.  The place where the scars were had turned into spikes, and his face was turning into that of a demon.  Without hesitating, I unsheathed my sword, and stabbed at the cloak.  Big mistake.  It jerked free of the sword, and transformed.  It's transformation was that of a fallen angel.  The sides of the cloak had expanded into dark, leathery wings.  The top had rounded into that of a vulture's face with a sneer on it.  His torso was hidden by the wings, but his legs were not.  They seemed like a mix of a lizard legs and bird talons.  It held in one of it's hands, a large wand with a white stone, blackening every second.  In its other arm, a dagger, in position to strike Neo.  As I looked at the demon, I noticed that Neo was becoming paler and paler as the stone was getting darker and darker.  I raised my sword again, and without thinking I shouted, 'Exorcise this demon of Satan's lair!', a Paladin magic spell to kill a demon.  Fortunately, it worked.  The demon dropped his wand, and started screaming.  He soon started turning to stone, and when he was completely transformed, he exploded.  Neo, having been kneeling the whole time, reverted back to normal, except, this time, he looked like the person he was when he entered this village.  Word soon spread, and I was dubbed the head Paladin.  But, Neo was spat at, beaten, and stoned for being the demon's puppet.  During one night, he packed his belongings and, was about to leave, but he had woken me up.  I tried to stop him, but he responded, 'Look what you've done to me.  I was going to be the most powerful mortal there ever was, but you had to stop me.'  I told him this: 'If you had finished that ritual you were doing, you would be dead by now.  That stone on his wand was a Soulstone.  He would've used you as a power source to make him more powerful than any Paladin known.'  But he would not listen.  I said I still thought of him as a brother, but he just sneered.  He left, and knowing that I couldn't stop him, I fell back asleep.  When I awoke, I found as I went into my father's chamber, the sight no man wants to see.  My father was dead, with the dagger the demon was holding, in his chest.  Near his body was a note.  I picked up the note, and it read:

Still think of me as a "brother," Leo? This is only the first of the many tasks I plan on doing. Your life will be the same hell that you put me through when you killed that demon ~ Neo

    "Knowing that I could never catch up to him, I tried to give my father a good funeral.  My father's face full of terror, the face he wore last, has haunted me in many dreams.  That is the 'business' I have with Neo," Leo coldly responded.
    "Did Neo do anything else?" Roland asked.
    "Yes.  He killed my family during the destruction of Dragonia, but not me.  Now if you'll excuse me....."  After Leo said this, he got up and started walking to a chamber to sleep in.
    "Geez, that old man has gone through a lot," Dhsu whispered to Cyclinbear.  Leo quickly turned around, as if he heard the comment.
    "FOR THE LAST TIME, I'M ONLY 35!" Leo shouted.  Then, without anyone seeing him, he went to where Silver was sleeping, put her in a deep trance, used a transformation spell to turn her into her raven state, and plucked a feather off of her.  We go back awhile, you and I, Leo thought.  After taking the feather, Leo transformed her back into her human form, and left for his sleeping chambers.

Who Are You? (7)

[Silver]
    Dhsu ran swiftly, tracking the dark shape in the sky that was Silver.  No one but he had noticed the flight of the female raven from the castle, and he had decided to see where Silver could possibly go during the late hours of the night.  Dhsu skillfully weaved in and out of the trees, hiding under foliage where he could, keeping low to the ground when he couldn't.  His dark clothing allowed him to blend into the valley's many night-time shadows.
    Soon enough, Silver descended from the night sky to the ground.  She stood beside an ivy-covered rock overhang, hopping comically on her thin bird legs to a nearby bush as if expecting something.  Dhsu watched and waited patiently from his vantage point.  Four minutes passed in silence.  Five minutes.  Six.
    Finally Silver changed to her human form.  She brushed the wall of ivy to one side, and a moment later, she disappeared.  Surprised, Dhsu crept closer to the rocky crevice where Silver had so cunningly hidden.  He waited in silence, listening attentively for any sounds coming from where he assumed must be a cave.  Moments later, the ninja heard a soft voice, barely audible, singing a strange song.

    My long head of hair shall become my flight feathers
    Fit to be strong, enduring all weathers.
    A fowl of great sorrow from me shall transform
    With wings dark as night, as a cloud of a storm.
    A mimetic voice, as the Ravens possessed
    With the Shadows' stealth may I be blessed.

    Then when the song had ended, Dhsu heard a whisper echo.

    I promised you both... Mother, grant me success. Father, wait patiently. You must be restored...

    Dhsu didn't have much time to think about these words.  Barely a minute later, Silver stepped out from behind the ivy screen and again took flight as a raven.  Dhsu followed her back to the castle.

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