Cienn didn't stop running once he'd met the camp's edge. He tumbled down the scree at the edge of the ruins and dove head first into forests beyond. He raced onward, unheeding of impeding branches, stumbling rocks or turns in his path. A large beech tree stood in his path. He skidded along the edge of its massive trunk, tearing the edge of his tunic on a chink in its smooth bark. A pile of rocks slowed him down next, but he clambered over them and moved onward into the wilds of the Skytouch Mountains. He trudged on relentlessly until he came out of the forest onto a short plain overlooking a long, fertile valley. Wind whipped at his growing hair and took his breath away. For a moment he completely forgot why he had been running as he took in the unmarred natural beauty. The wind died however, and as its blast left his face his worries and fears returned in an instant. He stood there on the plateau, running his hands worriedly through his hair.
"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" he asked himself and the sky above. He didn't expect an answer. How could this have happened? Gerall was dead, that was what everyone had told him. Had Kerny lied to him all those days ago? And who was it that they'd hung at the harbor mouth?
But Cienn knew that all of that was a lie. Gerall had been brought as a scare tactic for the Crown troops they said, but he thought it was for a different reason. Cienn was convinced this was a message from King Kadesh. He was telling Cienn that he knew the boy was alive and that he would find him wherever he went. No one was safe as long as he was there. He would never be able to go back now. It would be better that way for everyone he'd met at Bylis. Kain would certainly be better off now. He wouldn't go back and risk their lives by being there. However he realized he wouldn't be able to save Cerenae now, and she knew even less than he did about their fledgling powers. She and his family would most certainly be lost.
He couldn't go back to save them and sacrifice all of his friends in the process. And besides he doubted they would be safe once he was captured anyways. Because surely he would be upon his return. Why did they have to find Gerall? Cienn felt hot tears burn down his face as he sobbed angrily into the wilderness. The sight of that man, a man he hadn't realized he still had feelings for, so destroyed and broken was too much for Cienn to handle. He didn't want Gerall to be alive it made things too complicated. And that was the worst part Cienn realized, that he wanted someone else dead. Someone he had loved more than himself. Someone who had betrayed that love and trust so deeply he surely deserved the death he had supposedly received. How could they have let him live? He felt hatred bubble up in his stomach. Hatred at Gerall for living, hatred at the Crown for this horrid cruelty just to make a statement, hatred at Kain for loving him despite how horrible he had been. Hatred at the Gods for putting him on this stupid path and most of all hatred at himself for feeling all these things.
He yelled, kicking a rock angrily over the edge.
As quickly as the rock tumbled off the ledge a great red bird rose up into his line of sight. Cienn screamed and fell back onto his rear. With a sound like ringing church bells it came from the clouds in a burst of light. It glided down on elegant ruby wings toward the terrified Cienn. He arched himself backwards trying to escape this monster that glowed with a heavenly light. The bird creature lighted onto the ground and bent its head down toward him. As it's beak touched Cienn's forehead he experienced a sudden mental clarity as to this creature's identity.
"A phoenix," he whispered as the great winged creature crested the ledge and spread its wings wide, casting a shadow on Cienn below.
"Quite right," the phoenix spoke, his voice sounding decidedly masculine. "I have come at the behest of my Mistress, Bitepu."
The Goddess of the Seasons, Cienn thought as the creature landed on the plateau next to him. As it furled its brilliant scarlet wings its shadow and its radiance dimmed. It almost looked like a regular creature but for a slight gleam to its body as it moved.
"You have reached a delicate turning point Cienn. I am here to remind you of your obligations for you have become lost in your own fears." Lightning fast the great bird scooped his head under Cienn's buttocks and slid him down his long slender neck.
"Oomph!" Cienn exclaimed as his tailbone smacked into the base of the birds neck. Without a word he launched himself over the ledge, eliciting a scream from the terrified medium.
"Hold on!" the phoenix advised. Cienn didn't need to be told twice and gripped the bird's neck like his life depended on it. "You'll let life slip you by if you keep your eyes shut the whole time," the bird advised. Did every heavenly creature speak in cryptic maxims? Regardless Cienn cautiously opened his eyes and gasped again. The view below them was positively breathtaking. The valley Cienn had seen from the cliff side fell out below them, racing onward into the horizon. The phoenix dipped low along the tree line, scaring a herd of deer to race across the scree. Cienn laughed at the adrenaline rush. The phoenix let out a beautiful warbling call; it's echoes dancing off the nearby mountains. They flew onward out of the mountains and onto the flat plains between them and the sea. To the southwest Cienn thought he saw a smudge that could be the city-state of Ansten. But they were nowhere near close enough to be sure.
Why are we doing this? He asked the phoenix telepathically, afraid the wind would whip the words right from his mouth.
"In order to appreciate the world you live in, you must first see it." The phoenix said, sweeping around back toward the Skytouch Mountains to the north. He alighted on a nearby mountaintop and stood facing out to sea. Cienn saw it as a slim blue line on the horizon.
"Well it's lovely," he continued aloud now that they'd stopped flying. "But I still can't go back there and face Gerall. What would I even say to him?" he didn't expect the phoenix to know the answer.
He didn't, but he did have some other words for the young medium. "There is more to this world than Gerall young Cienn. There is more to this world than you. There is more to this world than even the Gods." Cienn still didn't know where this bird was coming from. "What you see before you is but a glimpse of the true wonders of this world. If Itellia can win her war against the Gods and gain a foothold in the realms of the Trees again, much of this beauty will die."
"And I don't want that but I never signed up to be a martyr!" Cienn felt that was surely the only way all of this would end up: him dead and his supporters rallying for his rotting corpse.
"Who said anything about being a martyr? You are destined for greatness Cienn. Far more than you realize. Our fight is for more than just you, or your family, or Kourokain Admontan, or Charna of Idaine or Imagehi Quontinn. It isn't even about the Gods. It is about the balance, and what is just and right for us all. The Crown and their dark church are a blight against the world Cienn, and you have the power to scour them from the lands." Cienn still wasn't really convinced, but he had to admit this birds words were touching. "I can sense your skepticism Cienn. My Mistress warned me it might be difficult, so she sent me with another message." Cienn had to admit he was surprised at that, a Goddess who was finally forward with information. Rather than speak this message to Cienn however, the phoenix craned its head around and touched his slender beak to Cienn's brow. Images of the past flashed in Cienn's minds eye, accompanied by the words of the phoenix.
"When the rebels first settled at Bylis and discovered the Chambers of Time, the Prophecy brought hope to a ravaged and war torn army. In order to inspire courage and hope amongst the populace, the council of warlords chose to remove the Prophecy from its wall and place it at the head of the Chambers as a sort of banner to rally behind. In that goal they were successful, but in the move parts of the Prophecy were lost. Deep in the catacombs of the Chambers of Time lies a door, where all the answers you seek shall be found. The Prophecy in its entirety is there. Find it, and find the path you were destined for." The phoenix's beak left Cienn's forehead. An after image of a hidden door on a heavily carved wall hung in Cienn's vision. He shook his head to clear it and blinked at the light of the midday sun. When had it become midday? He thought as he tried to make sense of this newest of information.
The Prophecy was incomplete. There was more to his fate than he was aware of. He wasn't sure he really wanted what those words might say, but he knew he didn't really have a choice in the matter. On the positive hand everything could be different after this new Prophecy. It was an itch that would be so right to scratch.
"We have to go back." Cienn said finally. The phoenix let out another beautiful warbling call and launched himself from the mountaintop. They went along the edge of the Skytouches looking for a way back in amongst their sky scraping peaks. A long northern facing valley led them back with in their cold embrace. They raced up along it until they found one that led them crossways along the range. That valley spit them out on the Northeastern edge of the Majsper Woods. Cienn was amazed at how fast this bird could move. In moments they had crossed the shear mass that was the Skytouch Mountains, and were now almost exactly following Cienn's initial trip into the ruins. They came out from behind a cloud and Cienn gasped at what lay below them.
A huge swath of destruction cut through the forests. Smoke trailed upwards lazily from the debris, and Cienn smelled the equally disturbing scents of burned wood and charred flesh. The reports of explosions being the troops ways through the Woods were accurate. The phoenix dipped low over the ruin, singing a melancholy tune as it glided down. Closer Cienn noticed that the ground and trees were destroyed in a very haphazard manner, trampled down by the feet of thousands of men. The smells were worse here, in addition to fire, the scents of death lingered heavily over the destruction. Cienn signaled they should rise again and the phoenix gladly obliged.
They raced back through the clouds and into the valley Cienn had entered initially. He looked out back behind them at the destruction and noticed something.
"Stop! Land there!" he shouted, both with his mouth and with his mind. He pointed to a spot of fire just outside the valley's mouth. As the phoenix touched down outside the burning's edge Cienn realized what it was. He jumped down as the phoenix landed and raced up to its entrance.
The temple of Nanali they had found solace in burned with an unholy sort of fire. The tongues of flame creeping up the stone remains and their clinging ivy, bringing the temple to its knees. In its center sat a deep crater. More mysterious explosions. Before the entrance of the temple was a hastily erected altar. Black silk covered a travel trunk that had held supplies. Three red candles sat in an array around a green-black carving of a woman clutching a book and holding forth a lantern. Her head was adorned with a great headdress, at it's center was a single eye feather of a peacock. Cienn reached out a hand gingerly towards it. As his fingers touched horrific images played across his minds eye. He recoiled clutching his hand as if he were burned. The phoenix dropped his massive head down to Cienn's height and looked critically at the hand.
"This is void magic. The One's presence has been here." He said rather mater-of-factly. "No matter, phoenix tears have many properties." With a wink a single tear rolled out his eye and down his feathered face to fall exactly on Cienn's palm where a red welt had begun to form. As the tear sank into his skin the welt vanished. The phoenix nodded. "Prolonged exposure to void magic can be very hazardous to your health, especially for a sorcerer." Cienn just rubbed his hand and nodded.
He was certain now, the destroyed temple and its strange new altar were all the proof he needed. The clouds of dust he'd seen in the distance during their time in the Wood were along the same path as the destruction he now witnessed. What he'd hoped had been the caravan of refugees from Port Cullis had turned out to be the advancing armies of the Crown. He had no idea if those people had even made it to the ruins. Cienn turned and raced back to the phoenix, scrambling up his side as he crouched down. "Let's go. We have to get back to the ruins. At this pace the armies could already be there!" They raced up the ravine, swerving with the curves and dips in the terrain. It would have been exhilarating if Cienn's worry hadn't been mounting with each mile they covered that had no sign of the advancing army.
They rounded the final curve in the valley, lifting up over the smallest of the seven peaks surrounding Bylis. Cresting the peak Cienn and the phoenix looked down on a battlefield torn with holes from battle magic and something else. As they watched the Crown troops launched a series of barrages from trebuchets. There was a shout from the rebel lines, and the glint of shield magic shown in the air along the rocks trajectory. As the rocks collided with the shields there was a sound like a thunderclap and an explosion of fire and smoke. Shrapnel fell from the bombs impact, the screams of those hit below floated up to Cienn on the cruel battle wind.
What had the Crown discovered? Cienn watched in horror as the Crown troops prepared a second volley of the deadly bombs.