"It's alright, Solaris," she said, "she's probably just waiting for us so she can lead us to the herd, you don't have to worry."
The statement reminded her of another reason she was worried for him. Ever since the balance had attacked him he had become careful to the point of paranoia. Nothing that seemed unusual or out of place escaped his scrutiny now. Even she had the unpleasant experience of being looked at with eyes that had seemed to read what she was thinking. It was unnerving to say the least.
The thing that worried her most, though, was that Solaris seemed to be using his magic without thinking about it. That, her mother told her, was one of the worst thing s he could do. She had been told that if she didn't have proper control over what her magic was doing, there was no telling what it could do.
She knew it was true. Solaris had magic when he was a human and didn't know it. It had nearly killed him when it got out of control, and it had killed his body. The only thing that had saved him was the mage that made his new body.
Maybe, she thought, my father can teach him to control his magic.
"We'll, it seems that our hero has arrived," said the silver unicorn mockingly.
Solaris looked behind himself, and not seeing anyone standing there said, "Where?"
The silver unicorn seemed surprised by the question, and didn't do a good job of hiding it. "You. You're the one that killed the balance."
Solaris felt a name drift into his mind, and connected it with the unicorn in front of him. "All the heroes that I know about are dead, Radiance," he said as he left the stream.
Once out of the grove of trees, he was swarmed by foals. All at once they started asking questions that he could neither follow nor understand. Some questions were asked so fast that he couldn't tell what was being said, and others questions didn't make any sense even though he could understand what was being said. One of the adults saved him.
"All of you run along, now, and leave him alone. He's probably very tired," she said, and then shooed them away.
It was true that he was tired, but had been bothered by someone or something at every turn since his arrival. It made him feel uncomfortable to be getting so much attention. Now that the chance presented its self, he walked over to a birch tree and laid down in its shade, and closed his eyes.
In the distance he could still hear what was going on outside of his head, but was what was going on inside that was troubling him. He had started getting strange visions in his head lately, and though they seemed to be familiar, he couldn't concentrate on any long enough to see it clearly. Now that he was in the valley the seemed to have becoming more vivid.
The noise had gotten louder suddenly, and started giving him a head ache. For a moment he considered moving to a different spot, but then another idea came to him. He decided to try and stop the noise from getting to him with his web.
He imaged his web around him again, like before. Then he pushed it out to cover everything under the tree, and hardened it as much as he could. For a moment the air buzzed as it thickened, and then everything was quiet. Everything seemed to have stopped.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that everything was going on normally. With a sigh he closed his eyes, lowered his head, and drifted off to sleep.
"How could he kill one of our balances and not be able to control his magic well?" her father asked.
Forest shook her head and said, "I'm not sure, but I think it has to do with what you told me when I was young: 'Even the most primitive spell can be deadly and impossible to stop if it has the force of a volcano behind it'."
He gave her a look, "That was an exaggeration to show you how even small spells can be useful."
"I know, but it would explain everything."
"I'll try," he said, "but I don't think there's anything I can teach him, and even if I could it wouldn't be much."
"Thank you," she said, and nuzzled him.
"But you have to promise me something," he said with a serious look.
"What?"
"You have to tell me everything you know about him. I can't tell much with those shields wrapped around him like that. If not now, then when I'm done."
Forest felt her heart sank a little bit, but answered, "Alright, after you're done I'll tell you everything I know about him."
"Good, now show me where he is."
Solaris woke up feeling a little better then before. The visions had stopped coming and he was feeling more relaxed. When he opened his eyes, he remembered that he had a put up a web around the tree. For a moment he wondered if he could keep it up for a while, but decided it would be best to take it down.
"I see that your awake now," someone behind him said.
Solaris turned around and saw another unicorn, a white one. "Why does that matter?"
"Forest asked me to teach you to how to use your magic. That's very hard to do while your sleeping."
Solaris shook his head to clear the sleepiness from it, and said, "Who are you?"
"I am her father, Silence," he said with a small toss of his head, "now do you want to learn anything or not?"
When he nodded, Silence ordered him to lie down. "What do you know about your magic?"
"Nothing."
Silence gave him a slightly reprimanding look before he spoke again. "I know that you have used your magic before, so you must know something about it. How does it feel? When does it come?"
"It feels warm, that's all, just warm; and it comes when I'm mad or getting hurt."
Silence narrowed his eyes slightly before he continued, "Can you tell if there are spells around?"
When he nodded, Silence spoke again, "How?"
He thought for a moment. It would be hard to explain how he knew, he just did. They seemed to make the air buzz, and seemed to stick to his skin, making it tingle.
"They tingle," he said flatly.
"What do you like to do?"
Solaris was confused by the question. "How did you manage to get from how I know where spells are to what I like to do? Did I miss some turn it the conversation?"
Silence let out a frustrated sigh, and explained, "Sometimes what you like to do has an effect on your magic," then he lowered his voice, "What do you like to do?"
"Going places, and seeing new things."
"While I'm teaching you, you won't be going anywhere. I'm not going to follow you around the world. While you're my student, you won't be going anywhere," Silence said with a stern look, "Now close your eyes."
Zed'ith walked up the flight of stairs with his new cloak bellowing out behind him. He had gotten it from Solaris's fake human body that he had burned a few weeks ago. He couldn't let anyone find that.
He doubted that Solaris knew, or even cared why the cape had cost so much. That was alright, though, he didn't expect Solaris to. Even he didn't realized what it was for a few weeks. Now that he knew what it truly was he felt much safer.
When he reached the top of the tower the door at the top of the staircase opened up. It never occurred to him to open doors anymore. It wouldn't matter for much longer anyway. He just had to finish up a few things, then he could leave for good to be with the rest of his friends and his brother.
When he reached his desk, Zed'ith pulled out his void knife and carefully placed it in its scabbard. Then he took his food pouch off the shelf and made sure that it had enough bread for him to complete his journey. There wasn't much time left.
He could hear the sorceresses unwinding the spell that held the door closed now, and he still needed to destroy the Portal. That, however, wouldn't take too long. He just walked up to one of the fragile seems of the spell, and sent a ball of fire at it. The frames being held up by the magic shattered and fell to the ground.
Below he heard the sorceresses finally break the sealed door and come into the tower. He would have to use the cape now so that he could remove his spell from around Solaris. With a slight flourish Zed'ith drew the cape around himself and closed his eyes. When he opened them again he was in the town.
He discarded the cape since it had been used up, and started off in the direction of his spell around Solaris. He had to get there soon.
The two men stood in the dark room looking around nervously. The first was tall, and dressed in a fancy armor that was plated in gold. The other was slightly smaller, and wore only a tough leather armor that his beard rested on.
"I see you are back, commander. I trust you have completed your task satisfactorily."
The tall man broke into a cold sweat while he spoke. "There is a problem, mistress."
The woman turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Really? What problem?"
Before he continued, the tall man swallowed. "The Portal was destroyed, mistress."
He flew to the wall and his armor started to turn red. He let out a scream, but it was soon muffled when molten steel flowed into his mouth. "Then I must relieve you of your command, commander. That is the third time you have failed me."
She turned to the shorter man. "It seems that you have been promoted, dwarf," she took a second to look at the remains of the other man before continuing, "I trust you will do a better job the your predecessor."
"I will try mistress."
She smiled and said, "Good. Come with me and I will give you your first assignment"
The foals were so excited that they woke her up. She wasn't very happy about that since she had been up all night yesterday with her mother trying to get better control of her magic. It had exhausted her.
"What's going on?" she asked one of the foals.
His voice was barley above an astonished whisper when he answered, "Someone new is in the valley; a human!"
"How did a human manage to get by the shields?"
"I don't know," he said while his eyes glittered, "but mommy says that he's a mage!"
She looked around and saw the man standing on top of the crest of the valley. It was the mage from the tower. He quickly ambled down the hill and paused for a second at the base to look around before heading in her direction.
"You need to put a tracer spell on him and make sure that he doesn't get into too much trouble," he said and started off again without waiting for a response.
The old mage quickly over the water and then headed for the trees by the edge of the meadow. Solaris saw him coming and backed slowly away for a moment when he saw the look on the man's face. The old mage closed the gap in a few seconds, and came to a stop in front of him.
"What are you doing here?" Solaris asked.
"I don't have time to answer your questions so listen, I need to remove a spell from you, and then you must leave," he turned to her again, "and you need to go with him to keep him from getting himself killed."
"What spell, what are you talking about?" Solaris asked.
"Lie down," Zed'ith commanded, and when he complied Zed'ith put his hands on his neck.
