Voyant

 

The waves broke into the cliff of the tiny island spraying a trickle at the two figures sitting atop the rocks, looking at the endless oceans beyond.

Priscilla fiddled with the flower in her hand as she looked out at the setting sun. As the gust of wind cleared the blue hair blew off her face, she spoke, “Why don’t we go back, Dad?”

The man sitting beside her smiled, stretching innumerable wrinkles crisscrossing his face.

 “You know the answer already,” Voyant replied.

“But it has already been two years now,” she protested. “I can control my powers so much better now!”

“It’s not so simple my love,” he said with a solemnly. “The Oracle and his daughter who maimed the prince Indah Empire. Two years is too little my love.”

“So what? We spend all our lives and die on this island alone?” she said, her eyes welling up with tears. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

Voyant walked up to Priscilla and held her head against his shoulder. “I am sorry Priscilla. I wanted to take you someplace away from the Empire. I have no idea how to get out of this place either.”

After a few moments, she calmed down.

Voyant sat down beside her and consoled. “Just give it some time. I am sure when you become a Water Archmage, there will be a way out for sure.”

“But that could take ages. Even you said it that to cross the threshold of the Eighth Circle and become an Archmage was exhausting,” she whispered looking at the ground dejected. “Why don’t you try getting a vision for a way out?”

His jaw tightened and a flash of anger appeared, but only for a second.

“My visions won’t help,” he said. After a pause, he continued, “You are the brightest and most talented Mage I have ever seen. To become a Great Mage by eighteen is no joke.”

Priscilla let out a smile.

“If you work hard, I am confident you will become an Archmage soon enough,” he added.

“Okay okay,” she nodded her head. In a single motion, she got up before walking away. She called out aloud, “I am off to practice, bye.”

Voyant sat by the sea, alone with his thoughts. 

“If only I was an Elemental Mage,” Voyant whispered into the wind.

While Elemental Mages could harness the four elements of Nature, his magic was different. Some said his powers were bestowed by the Ancient Ones themselves.

He did not have any offensive magic and to make up for it at the age of he learnt the art of Spearmanship to even become a Grandmaster!

But it counted for little in the world of magic. In a world where Archmages could fly and swim for days on end, it would take a dozen Grandmasters to take down an Archmage.

And his magic?

It was so rare that there was no way to know where to put it. But if anyone asked him about it, he would definitely put it at the end of the ladder.

‘It really has been too long,’ he thought with a sigh.

It was more than two years now when he had taken Priscilla out of the Indah Empire aboard a ship heading off to the Everspring Archipelagos. In all of Satury, Planet it was the only Kingdom where there was a chance for Priscilla to be safe. 

But halfway through the journey, the ship capsized and the two ended up stranded on the deserted island, without any way out!

Voyant thought back to the first few months where they went from trying to find a way off the island to building a life for themselves at the tropical island.

“This is home,” he said. “This- this is home now.”

After a few more moments, he stood back and walked back into his house.

---

Voyant woke up with a start at the dead of night, breathless.

With deep pants, he looked out the window in a panic before licking his parched lips.

 “Ancient Ones have mercy,” he mumbled, his hand pulling on the seams of his pants. He sat up straight to realize that his body was covered in sweat even on the chilly night.

He moved to the side of the bed for a glass of water.

He held his hand with the other as he tried to subdue shaking his hand.

“It was a just a dream,” he told himself. “I am too old to be scared witless by a dream.”

But even as he said it, he knew his fears were anything but unfounded.

“Seven days,” he said standing up. Within a week his vision would come to fulfil.

Voyant, the Oracle.  A once in century Awakened power that only a handful men in the history of the Satury even possessed.

But the power of visions did not he was loved by the masses or respected for saving thousands of lives. Instead, he was shunned away by the world. All he was to them was the harbinger of disaster, war, flood and plague.

His family were the only ones who did not abandon her in spite of knowing what he was, an embodiment of doom and pain. But even his family was not spared.

On his thirteenth birthday, he had a vision that the village-head barged into his house at the hour of the owls and dogs, with his men and slaughtered his family.

But the next morning, when he told about it to his family, he did not get the reaction he had expected. Instead, of looks of horror, there were smiles of relief on their faces.

“Honey, the curse is broken,” his mother said in an excited voice.

Seeing the confusion on his face his mother explained, “The village head and your father are friends since their school days.”

“Everything is going to be alright from now,” his father kissed his forehead and left for work with a smile.

“I did not know back then. I was too young,” he steeled his voice as a tear dropped down his cheek. He looked out the window into the endless ocean, “This time will be different.”

He stood up from the bed and after a shower and a change of clothes headed out. There was no time to waste.

“The future is only written in stone. It isn’t that hard to break” he recalled the words of his Mentor.

Although the events of his vision were bound to come true, he could affect them enough to sleep at night. It was hard, but not impossible.

 

---

Priscilla

 

Priscilla Frost woke up at the sound of the bells tolling. She looked to see the sun beating down already.

She slowly made her way out of the bed and after a lengthy shower and a change of clothes made her way down from her treetop house.

“Good morning bed-bug,” Voyant said as Priscilla walked down.

Even though they were alone with all the time in the world and nothing to do and no pay, her father still kept a regimental routine as if the Emperor was arriving that afternoon.

 “Dad, please no more of that bell. It’s too loud,” she complained.

“It’s supposed to be loud,” he said.

She did not continue. It was nothing new, just the daily morning conversation with her father. She sat down on a tree stump near and picked up one of the dozen sticks that wooden sticks lying around.

“What’s with the wooden spears?” she asked.

“They are coming up pretty good right?” he replied. His hands kept shaving the branch on his hand with swift motions.

“Why are you suddenly making spears now?” she asked with concern.

In the two years on the Island, her father had not bothered practising his Spearmanship even once. All he focused on was her training, day in and day out.

Although he was not an Elemental Mage, he was an excellent instructor helping her become an Eighth Circle Greatmage at such a young age. 

Voyant’s hands finally stopped.

“You need to become an Archmage. And you have to do it quickly,” he said with a serious look on his face.

“What’s going on dad?” she asked. “Is- is everything okay?”

“We have a week,” he said in a grave voice.

Priscilla’s eyes widened. There was a moment of silence.

“You had a vision?” she asked.

Voyant nodded wordlessly.

“What was it?” she said.

“A man comes ashore. He has the build of a warrior. But then he pulls his wand out and there is-” he breaks off.

“But still it’s only one person,” she spoke breaking the silence.

“Yes, that’s why the spears,” he replied solemnly. His hands start shaving off the excess wood.

“I will work hard as well,” she spoke. “We will make it out of this, don’t worry.”

She knew of her father’s Vision, but this was the first time she was a part of it. For all her life he had shielded her from every danger that could befall her, but not this time.

“I will get some fish for dinner,” she said leaving Voyant behind.

She made her way to the beach to start her training.

“Jaladhish Agua” she articulated with her raised hands.

With a soft rustle, a blob of water the size of a baseball floated over towards her.

 

---

 

Voyant

 

It was the final night before the day when his Vision was to come true.

Voyant sat by the fire with a stick no longer than ten inches long. He silently made carved it under the flickering light without a word.

He worked on it till the sun was at the horizon marking a new day.

“If my life can save yours, I will gladly give it away,” he said inspecting the stick under the light.

He stood up from the tree stump with a groan. His body felt heavy after the night’s work. He walked up to the large bronze bell and tolled it.

With a smile on his face, he looked up waiting for Priscilla to appear with the frown on her face. Even though she knew there was a threat looming over their head, she would still come out of her room with a scowl on her face.

But not this day.

She walked with a grave look on her face and hair tied up in a tight bun over her head.

“Where is your bickering,” he asked with a smile.

“It’s no use. You will toll it tomorrow either way,” she replied shaking her head.

Voyant smiled back at Priscilla wordlessly.

“I have a gift for you,” he said showing her the stick in her hand.

 “Is-Is that a wand,” she asked taking it from his hand.

“Yes,” he replied. “Do you like it?”

“Of course I do. Where did you find it?” she asked.

“Found it yesterday when I was looking for branches,” he replied. “Some bloke must have lost it at sea.”

“Too bad for him,” she replied with a smile and hugged him.

“Let’s go we have work,” he said.

Voyant prepared breakfast and the two walked off right after.

“Tell me again, why we did not prepare any traps?” she asked.

“In my vision, the man never left the shore. So setting traps in the forest would serve no purpose,” he replied.

“But I am stronger now. If I just had another day I could become an Archmage,” she said. “Things change.”

He looked back at Priscilla. In a mere five days, she had reached the bottleneck of her realm. With a little push, she could create water screens and swim for days on end like the other Archmages he had read about.

“If you were in the Indah Empire or even anywhere in the Satury planet, you would be a prodigy among prodigies,” he said rustling her hair.

“Visions are not that simple. They keep happening multiple times based on my subconscious decisions,” he added. “And no matter what I do, the man never walked into the jungle, always keeping his back to the ocean.”

“So why not just leave him there?” she continued. Although she believed in her father, there were things that she could just not understand.

“Because when I did that, the entire island was engulfed in some kind of hellfire,” he whispered as a shiver ran down his spine.

“That strong?” Priscilla stopped in her tracks.

“I don’t know if it was him. It was just a rain of hellfire and then everything just ended.”

“Okay. We have to strike first,” she nodded her head.

 

---

 

Priscilla

 

Her father’s plan was simple, she was to hide by the cave under the cliff while he would lure him with the long spear attacks and draw him towards her.

Once close enough she would spray him with enough water so that he is trapped under the cliff rocks and crashed by the waves. Even failing that, she would at least distract the wizard long enough to give her father enough time to impale the wizard with one of his spears.

The two stood by the beach.

“Are you worried,” Voyant asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright now,” Voyant said.

“I will be ready,” she said resolutely.

“Okay,” she smiled and kissed her forehead. “Go on now.”

She walked towards the cliff halfway across the island.

She slowly crawled under the rocks and into the cave. It was a cave which opened up at two other places, one at a height above the cliff and the other, in the middle of the ocean. She slowly crawled her way to the mouth opening up to the cliff and waiting silently, with the wand in hand.

From her view, she could see her father at a distance laying wait behind a large rock by the shore.

After more than an hour passed, Priscilla and her father simultaneously noticed a small dot at the horizon, growing larger by the second.

“It’s happening,” she whispered to herself. She looked down to see her father looking up at her with a nod.

She nodded back.

The boat slowly became larger. Another hour later the boat arrived at the shore.

A man in grey overalls slowly wobbled out of the boat with a long weird wand in his hand.

Priscilla saw as Voyant walked out from behind the rock and threw two spears simultaneously.

The Wizard swivelled out of the way and crouched down. He pointed the wand at Voyant.

Bang Bang Bang

All Priscilla saw was the sound and seconds later her father fell back motionless, dead.

Priscilla was shocked into silence. She could utter a single sound.

Everything happened so quick.

A moment later she came back to her senses and pointed her wand at the Wizard.

Before she could utter a word, a white apparition took shape. It was her father.

“I am sorry Priscilla. This was the only way to save you,” the apparition said. “Don’t make my death worthless like my life. Please live. I have one last gift.”

Just as quickly that the apparition appeared it disappeared as well.

Suddenly energy entered into her body, breaking the shackles holding her back. Slowly the bottleneck broke through.

 “Why?” tears fell down her eyes.

The only way that she could break into the realm of an Archmage was by taking in someone else’s life force.

She gave the Wizard once the last look. Just as Voyant had said, he had his back to the ocean while he fiddled with something on his boat.

“I-I love you, dad,” she said through sobs, before taking the other exit and swam out.

She could not bring herself to defy the last wish of her father.

After six days of continuous swimming, Priscilla finally saw land on the morning of the seventh day.

She walked out into the beach and fell down exhausted.

Suddenly a man ran up to him, with a unique black eye gear and wearing colourful short pants and nothing else.

“Hey!” the man called out.

She was afraid. She did not know where she was.

‘Am I back at the Indah Empire?’ she wondered, although the clothing did not look so.

She wanted to run away, but she was too exhausted to go.

“Hey! Are you alright? You look sick,” the man asked.

She did not know what to reply.

“Hey! Someone call 911,” the man shouted back at someone behind.