Already updated after so many months
“Alright everyone!” I shouted, but in a quivering way. They all turned their faces towards me. I walked slowly towards the paraphernalia and the insignia, making crunching noises with each step upon stepping the rubble. I walked very slowly, and the very presence of thousands of people starting at me walking very slowly made me sweat in nervousness.
“What I want everyone…….everyone……..everyone.” I paused. That boldness, where had it gone? I laid down in despair. The heat from the stone emanated towards my hands. They were burning, but not enough to fill the shame I felt.
I started to hear a couple of conversations going on. It just made it worse.
“Are you alright?” I just had the energy to twist my head and look. A sweet little girl. How nice. She helped me get up. She may look innocent, but she was extremely strong. I felt like a skeleton to her. The elementals stopped their conversations and turned back towards me. The sky is nice and blue, don’t need to panic.
“Terima kasih.” I whispered to the girl. She gave a smile and nodded at me.
“Right! The first step into making a seed bomb ritual is to put the hex bomb in the centre of the insignia.” Yes, that chivalrous spirit is back in me. I placed the hex bomb in the middle of the insignia.
“Now. With the holy water. Cup them and splatter it at the insignia. I’ll tell you when you should stop.” Immediately, I heard amplified crunching sounds. A couple of elementals, a few dozen cupped some holy water and splattered it with enthusiasm. The other elementals stood back, allowing the ‘participants’ to do their job. I saw the holy water evaporate into fumes, it was ready.
“Alright. Stop!” A last splatter of holy water. The insignia started to change into a nice, dark blue. A couple of elementals were staring at the insignia in amazement. I too was amazed. All that I had done in alkimia sekolah were theoretical. But to see it with my very own eyes was truly breathtaking.
“Next it will be an arduous task. So I hope more will be able to participate.” They all nodded in consent. “What I want you all to do is to use the metal extracted and engrave it on the insignia.” More people started to participate and I too tried to help, but unfortunately, there was no space, it was too small. I have to stretch my hand with an engraver and take out bits of sheeted rhodium. I started to sweat. The sun was directly above us. No wonder.
After a couple of dreading minutes, it was ready. “Now, splash all the rest of the holy water into the insignia.” The bucketful of holy water spread through the insignia, padding it with a soft, cool surface. “Stand back everyone.” The inner circle suddenly became exponentially larger. Come on, I hope I remember the lines.
“O, power from the sky, God, if you are there. If it was you who inscripted the insignia into this heavenly spot, please show your divine power in this place.” At first, nothing. I was embarrassed. I heard a couple of elementals pointing at me and giggling at me. Then slowly the giggles became laughter. Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, a hole was created by the separation of clouds and at once it released an aqueous ray towards the insignia, creating a huge blast radius and blasting us away from it. The last thing I heard were screams.
I slowly opened my eyes. Man, I didn’t know how long I was out. I felt a slight pain in my forehead, I touched it. A patch of red on my hand. I slowly got up. The rubble path suddenly became filled with life, unconscious life that is. I looked down at myself. My white shirt and black pants have been covered with blotches of brown dust. I saw a few nearby, just woken up and in pain. After being thirsty and zapped of energy from the sun, my spells are limited, but sufficient to help cover the nasty red wounds with a patch of nice blue.
I decided to climb back up to that place. I was holding on too a rock, when it suddenly fell, and so did I. Whump! I crashed twenty feet above ground. I yelped it pain. A couple of elementals who weren’t comatose helped me up. Using some rope and an ice spear, they created climbing rope and while they climbed, I was pulled up by the force of the climbing rope. I felt useless and paralyzed.
Once I was lifted up to the top, the elementals, untied my harness and returned the ice spear into its original state.
“Terima kasih” I said weakly.
“Kembali.” Replied one.
I slowly got myself up. Great, now my back ached, just what I needed. I can see the insignia from a distance. It was dark blue in colour now. It was the sign from Perchta. She engraved it. So its contents must be real.
“Hey. I found something.” He collected something shiny and placed it in the palm of my hand. I can feel the presence of a few water elementals behind me. It was a crystal, very lustrous, very shiny. It had some blue, and I can see a splash of purple, but overall, it is highly reflective. It is like diamond, but its not.
“What is it?” I turned around. It was that wonderful water elemental that comforted me when I lacked the courage to speak boldly.
“To be honest, I don’t really know. It is not what I’ve learned in alkimia sekolah.”
I saw a few more water elementals rising up and taking a look at the insignia and at the crystal I’m holding.
“But I will just keep it with me. Who knows, it might have some use.”
I placed it in my pocket, and placed a hand beside it at all times. Just in case it dropped or for whatever other reason. Although it didn’t seem to do anything, something tells me it actually does something. The crystal was beautiful. It was cut so it reflected the sun's rays at all different angles, producing an array of colours like that of a rainbow. And in it, right in its center, was a barely glowing sphere, with smaller less luminescent spheres circulating around it. It is nothing like I've seen before. It must be magical and not of this world. I don't know. Perhaps the ritual was a success after all.
‘Good morning, Sayan.’ I turned around. It was Ajax. ‘Selamat pagi to you too.’ I smiled.
‘Dude? Why are you holding your pocket so weirdly?’
I took the crystal out of the pocket and showed it to him. ‘Wow, may I hold it?’ ‘Sure, be careful though.’ I placed it in his palm. Despite his sheer muscularity he held it with such care. He held it close to him, looking at it at all different angles. ‘How’d you get it?’ Je gave it back to me.
‘It was the product of the ritual.’ I replied to him.
‘Then…how is this going to help find the real Jahazrimi?’
‘I don’t know, Ajax. I don’t know.’
They sighed. Not knowing what to do with it.
‘I know.’ I patted Ajax on the shoulder. ‘Why not you tell a few familiar faces about this crystal while I go and find a few other. Maybe they know about the magical properties of the crystal.
‘Excellent idea.’ The long face he made gradually became a smile.
We walked around, creating crunchy noises with our feet on the rubble path finding Matthius, Amelia, Methusael and Anastasia, Iohannen and Rashid, hoping they could figure out the properties of the crystal.
‘Hey.’ I asked a water elementalist that caught my sight. ‘Do you know what this crystal does?’ I showed it to him. ‘Sorry, I don’t attend alikima sekolah.’ ‘Alright, thanks anyways.’ I wandered around back and forth asking other water elementalists, hoping they know the properties of the crystal, unfortunately, no of them know about it.
‘Hey…..Sayan is it?’ I turned around. ‘And you are Meth-u-sa-el?’ ‘Methusael, yes.’ His smile was very charming. It is the type of smile that cheers you up, despite being in a bad situation. ‘I heard that the ritual was commenced this morning.’
‘In fact, yes. Do you know anything about this?’ I showed him the crystal. ‘Hmmm…..sorry. I seem to not know about it. I doubt my siblings know of it either. I’ll accompany you though.’
‘Alright thanks.’ So it was me and Methusael walking together, asking any water elementalist we could find, hoping to get a definite answer. We caught up with Anastasia, and like Methusael said, she didn’t know what it does. It seems our search for the answers all ended up in vain.
I decided to meet back up with Ajax, hoping he could find some answers. I was sweating badly. The weather being so hot despite the northern climate. I better find him soon.
I was walking with Methusael and Anastasia, face down in despair when I heard an argument or a bickering in the far end. I looked up. It turns out that Ajax and Rashid are fighting.
‘Hey, what seems to be the problem?’ I intervened.
‘He doesn’t believe me!’ they shouted simultaneously.
‘I mean. C’mon!’ Rashid shouted with his arms wide out. ‘You expect me to believe that this crystal is magical?’
‘I’m not forcing you to believe, Rashid.’ Ajax said in a much calmer tone. ‘But why would you not take a chance, perhaps it does work.’
‘Then where’s the freakin’ evidence? Huh!?’
‘Sayan, can you show it to him?’ Ajax asked.
I reluctantly grabbed it out of my pocket. I won’t think it would convince his mind.
‘Ohhhh…..so you expect that just because of some glowing circles spinning around in the crystal makes you think it’s going to help us at all!?’
I was right.
‘Look. Rashid.’ I paused, trying to figure out the best way to coax him. ‘Why can’t you just accept this? I mean we performed the ritual and this is what we obtained. Can’t you just accept that it has?’
‘Shut up!’ Rashid started to grit his teeth. Methusael seemed to move back away from me. ‘Stop accepting stupid beliefs! If it hasn’t performed anything, don’t think it is magical, it is just an inanimate object!
‘Is there anything wrong?’ Anastasia tried to interrupt.
‘What’s wrong is that people don’t believe me!’
Anastasia started to look a bit anxious. ‘Are you alright? Is something wrong?’
Rashid was about to shout when he realized he had gone too far. His stopped spreading out his fists in anger. Conversely, he started to fold them around his body and look down on the ground. It seems as though he was half the man he was just a few seconds ago.
‘I…just can’t trust anything anymore.’
‘Dude are you alright?’ Iohannen came from a distance.
‘Yeah…’ Rashid said. ‘It’s alright.’
‘What happened?’ He placed a shoulder around him.
‘They gave me this crystal thing…I don’t know. I just couldn’t believe them.’
‘Oh, yes.’ Iohannen faced towards us. ‘Rashid has a tendency to not believe or trust these things.’
‘Why?’ Ajax asked.
Iohannen looked at Rashid. Rashid nodded at him. Iohannen looked back towards us. ‘He used to believe in these things too. However, long story short, his parents died because he believed in a superstition which was not true. Ever since then, he doubts and he discerns.’
‘Ohhh……I’m sorry, Rashid. I mean if I’d known…..’ Rashid interrupted me. ‘It’s ok. I mean not only has this crystal or whatever you call it do anything magical, it causes an internal conflict and it just wastes our time and energy.’
‘Well, I may not be certain if this crystal is magical, but one thing we could agree on is that we are just arguing over nothing and losing time and energy.’ I stated with reassurance.
‘I’ll get my things.’ Ajax turned away and left.
‘Yes, we have to pack and leave this place.’ Iohannen agreed.
After telling all the other water elementalists, we are prepared and ready to leave the mountain. Despite the weather being a lot better and that it provided shelter and even some water for us, we need to move on for it provides us no food, and we’re severely starving.
We all walked downhill, hoping that we will arrive at a more comfortable and fertile region. It seems forever to walk down, as the hill roads and narrow and curvy and so we have to go single file. With 3162 people, it just makes matter worse. Despite being already in a thirsty state, we have to cast more water from our bodies to create ice harnesses. Well, safety always comes first.
After much turning, leaning on cliff edges and being shocked by pebbles falling into the very depths below, we finally can see solid ground again in the land of Basang, Panaraya.
Panaraya is a lot more beautiful and lush than that of Beku Utara. It is a place no longer dominated by snow and ice but by plants and soil. It is an exciting sight to see it after being in the north for so long. The majority of us decided it is a good place to rest for the night. It is probable to find berries, leaves and herbs rather than eating plain air…..or rocks like Matthius would.
Furthermore, we’re near the Keluar Tiga River, third exit, or so they call it. Being an empiricist, to literally hunt for my survival, I can fish and probably get some good seafood tonight. In addition, the water isn’t contaminated, so I feel it is perfectly fine.
I was looking at the river as Matthius approached me. I deliberately folded my arms, pretending to ignore him, hoping he would get the impression I was being very philosophical at the moment.
‘You look very philosophical, Sayan.’
Score.
‘Hmmm….yes. I was thinking maybe we could fish here.’
‘Good idea. And because this is a river, the water should be all fresh and safe to consume.’ Matthius crafted a three-tipped spear of ice and he handed it to me.
‘Terima kasih.’ I said
‘You’re welcome.’
I concentrated at the river, staring at any marine life worth spear fishing. I looked for a couple of minutes. All of them were small or didn’t seem to be the edible type. I squandered around, hoping to find a catch worth spearing for. I had to walk carefully to ensure that the rocks submerged in the water won’t loosely roll over when I step on them or to get cuts by them. At least on the bright side, the water is nice and cool, worth taking a dip.
Out of a small pile rocks came out….a huge fish. Just by looking at the sight of it I started to drool. I haven’t eaten anything in two days. I quickly grabbed it by its tail, but it started to struggle. My limited strength due to a lack of food and rest made it very difficult for me to hold it on. It was four feet of pure protein and omega fatty acids. I definitely do not want to miss this opportunity.
As it was about to be free from my grasp, I used the ice spear and stabbed it in the gill. A spray of blood covered the crystal clear water with a foggy, dark red. However, it still did not hinder and continued to free itself. I immediately stabbed it multiple times in the same spot. At once, the struggling stop, I can finally release my grasp.
The next thing I should do is to set up a bonfire so I could cook this fantastic meal. Even in Berlumpur Air standards, this is a luxurious meal for me. I went to the other side of the river as I felt there are too many people setting camp there. I left my hard earned meal on the grass, hoping the sun would evaporate off the odiferous smell that comes along with it.
I went into nearby bushes, either plucking them or gathering them on the ground, hoping that it would contain enough fuel for my fire. I was hoping that the crystal I had could act just like normal glass, concentrating sunlight to create the fire I wanted. That being said, I need hemp or dried leaves as they are the only materials that would burn under this method.
I held bundles of small sticks and dried grass in both of my arms, happy that I’m finally ready to cook when I noticed a black-hooded figure running away….with MY FISH! I dropped my bundle immediately and ran after whoever it may be. Soon everything started to become smudgy and blur as the grass I’m running on became streaks of dark green. She is running inside the bushes. As I ran through the bushes, I felt the branches and leaves starching me. But I cannot let this hinder me. I must get the fish back. After running out of the bushes, it was a plain filled with gravel and rocks. She was in clear sight. Out of frustration, I crafted a water spear and hurled it at the black figure. Chink! It pierced right through the back of the chest. ‘Oooommmppphhh!’ the figure made as it tumbled forward. It sounded masculine.
I stopped. Planning on what move I should perform next. The figure started to rise up again, trying to grab my fish. I’m not going to let it happen. I casted a waterspout, spewing her high up in the air. I leaned in such an angle so I cast a wave of water right at the figure’s face. As I casted it, my awkward angle caused my crystal to drop. It reacted with the water and it glowed brightly, creating a huge explosion of blue white. I was hurled a couple of meters back, landing in pain and anguish.
As I tried to get up, I looked and saw the crystal, from the rather transparent white it had was turned into a beautiful cerulean mixed with dashes of violet. It was glistening ever brightly and small spheres of light circulated around the crystal. Other than that, it also seemed to produce a lightning beam of aquamarine and its destination was the black hooded figure.
That was weird, I thought. Well, the crystal does something so it is magical after all, but what does it really do and why would this lightning beam land on the thief anyways? I tried to hold myself back up again. Damn, that blast did hit hard. I slowly walked towards the figure, creating crunching noises as I stepped on the gravel and small rocks. As I approached the figure, I bent down and turned him or her face up. Then I slowly took off the hood.
I gasped in awe. I couldn’t believe who it was.
