Ch2-2: Close Encounters
A river of human souls flowed past the Half-Lunar, up and down the cobbled road of Baron. The mind-stream shimmered as if it was made of glass. But it never managed to wash the street stones clean.
So many people. How does anyone find peace in a place like this?
Ben stood in a pocket of motionlessness. He had chosen to wait at the corner of the inn at the lee of the tide. Uncle Fu was inside the building making preparations for their stay. Nodd had fallen asleep inside of the backpack after spouting a few distant mutters about the city as a whole.
So many people…
The Master Wizard couldn’t remember the last time that he had stood in the streets of a living human town. Compared to the cold silence of the Moon and the solitude of his room in the Lunarian library, the city spun around him at a dizzying rate.
He could hear the distant call of peddlers setting up their wares and people bartering along the street-side kiosks. The scent of the various food vendors had even roused an empty rumble in his stomach. Rations back on the Lunar world were painfully redundant due to scarcity. To see such a colorful display of mealstuff was almost overpowering enough to cause the Half-Lunar to forget his current state of concern.
I’ll certainly have to try some of those round red things before we head back. I wonder what they’re called?
Now left to himself, Ben’s green eyes observed the bobbing heads of people as they trotted by. His inner mind could feel the tickle of their passing awareness, sparks of individual light upon the dull grey background. The humans, however, seemed to have little interest in his existence.
Which is all the better for me. If anyone had an idea that Golbez was standing out on a street corner in Baron, I bet they’d have the Paladin’s army on me in a second.
Knowing safety was in secrecy, Ben had instilled every blocking ward upon himself to prevent others from sensing the truth of his identity. So far, not even the mages seemed able to pass beyond the mental shield. In fact, no one had even stopped to notice him despite his slightly out of ordinary appearance.
No one except for a single little boy.
The boy was a scruffy child no older than nine or ten. His eyes were bright and clear as they peered up from under a shadow of thick, dark hair. The boy hadn’t said a word in all the time he had been standing there. He had merely watched.
The Half-Lunar chose to ignore the child. After all, be they human or Lunar, children were deemed unimportant in the eyes of society.
Let him stare as much as he likes. It’s not as if he could even begin to comprehend.
Ben then turned his mind to other, more pressing things. To Incrytan. To the thievery of the crystal that had taken place the night before. To the pressing drive that had brought him to the very gates of Baron. And to his brother.
Cecil. His younger brother that he was so loathe to face, even after the passage of five years.
Just as his mind began to work through various stages of planning a way to avoid a meeting with the Paladin King of Baron, Ben glanced up. His gaze met with three new sets of eyes, all peering from behind the first little boy.
Peasant children.
Their clothes alone told the tale. Mud smudged across their faces in artistic splotches. Hair, no matter the color, was dusted brown and stood from their head in disarray. Their elbows and knees bore scuffs and cuts. They looked to be about as miserable-off as any human the Half-Lunar had ever seen.
Except, none of them seemed to notice their misery. In fact, they all appeared quite content as they stood there watching him in wide-eyed silence. Ben frowned, not so much at the presence of the children but at the pondering of the reason they had chosen him as their object of interest.
Maybe it’s my hair. I haven’t seen many people around her with white hair.
The Half-Lunar slouched and pulled his hood up over his head, fixing his mind on ignoring the pressing stares. But for all his efforts, he only discovered with each side-glance, the group of children was growing bit by bit. They now even gained a couple of dogs in their troop.
Finally, one of the strays, a dog with matted gray fur, trotted up to Ben, tongue lolling out in a greeting. It lifted one mud-caked paw, streaking it down the Half-Lunar’s pant leg in attempt to gain attention.
Ben turned and looked down. With a hint of exasperation from under the shadows of his hood, he muttered a few choice phrases in Lunar.
The dog simply sat back on its haunches, forelegs raised in a friendly beg.
The Half-Lunar sighed, his green eyes flicking over to the group of children. They seemed to watching the situation, faces halfway caught between curiosity and dismay.
“Will you please come get your dog?”
They remained watching, as if frozen. As if they could sense something in the Half-Lunar’s presence that the other humans could not. It made Ben highly uncomfortable.
“Hey Mister,” a little girl answered, “She likes you!”
Ben schooled himself into civility.
After all, the last thing I want is for rumors of the return of “Golbez the Child-eater” to start circulating around Baron. Not so early, at least.
“That’s very nice. Now, come retrieve her?”
“But she doesn’t like anyone,” the girl replied brightly. She scampered out and pulled the dog away by the scruff of the collar.
“Cept for us,” one of the boys corrected.
“I… fail to see your point,” Ben frowned slowly.
A few of them shuffled back at the sight of his grimace. They remained exchanging glances in a pocket of silence. The people on the street passed without a hint of interest in the situation.
“You’re different, aren’t you?” the first little boy finally blurted.
“Different?” the Half-Lunar gave the child a quizzical look. His own curiosity began to get the best of him and he found himself taking up conversation despite himself. “How could you tell?”
“Then you are?”
“Maybe.”
“I told you,” a tall, freckled girl whispered from the back of the group.
“How could you tell?” Ben repeated slowly. His voice had grown gentle. The sound of it in his ears surprised him.
“Just could,” offered the little boy. His expression was slightly baffled as if there was no other way of explaining himself.
It’s true that human children are more sensitive to things that are magical in nature than the adults are. Perhaps there is a connection.
“Are you from Mysidia?”
The question was innocent enough. But something about the implications of answering it left Ben suddenly taken aback.
“I…” he paused, struggling with the thought, “I lived there once. A long time ago.”
“So he is a mage,” one of the boys proclaimed triumphantly to the rest of the group, “What did I tell you guys?”
“I’m not a mage,” a sly expression flickered over Ben’s face. The Half Lunar found himself awash with something strange, something bordering on mischief.
The children turned back to him with mystified expressions.
“You’re not?” one of them finally asked.
“I’m a Master Wizard,” he informed them with a hint of amusement. “That’s different from a mage.”
The children instantly fell silent, pondering the meaning of the newly offered information. Their eyes were wide as their feet shuffled about in the dust with uncertainty.
“Master Wizard?”
“That sounds more important than the Elder,” one of boys took note to the others in the group.
“No way. No one is more important than the Elder!”
“Is there such thing as a Master Wizard, really?” a little girl whispered.
“He said so. I think maybe?” another nodded.
Ben couldn’t help but take pleasure in the feeling of amusement that rose from observing their reactions. There was something very innocent and pure about their sense of wonder. Something that tickled the back of his memory ever so gently.
Finally, one of the older boys turned back to the Half-Lunar, challenging, “Prove it!”
It was Ben’s turn for a mystified look. No one had ever been so bold to demand that he prove the truth of his magic before. Under usual circumstances, he might have pushed off the dare as foolishness. But something about the way the children watched, so expectantly, so ready to embrace his words should he share them…
“Alright then,” the Master Wizard straightened, taking a few steps toward them. “Someone hand me a pebble.”
The whole group of children lit up with anticipation. Catching the excitement, the grey-furred dog began to wag its tail.
“Here! Here!” the first little boy came hobbling forward, one hand fishing frantically in his trouser pocket. He lifted up a smooth gray stone for Ben to see. “Is my lucky stone!”
“Ah, I see,” the Half Lunar bent down to inspect it with a keen eye. “Exactly what I need.”
“You’re not gonna hurt it, are you? Or make it disappear?” the boy hesitated.
“No… no. It’s just not done. One has to respect the rarity of a good lucky stone,” Ben smiled slowly, dropping to one knee in order to be on eye level with the boy.
“Yeah! It’s real rare!”
“Now hold your hand open…”
The boy extended his hand, palm up. Ben placed the stone in the center.
“And the rest of you, come here,” he waved them around in a tight group, “Don’t want any of the grown-ups to see, after all?”
The peasant kids crammed closer in a circle around the two of them. They giggled with bright faces at the thought of keeping a secret from the grown-ups.
Ben reached his hand slowly over the top of the boy’s, hovering his palm about a foot and a half above. With a quiet, sure expression in his eyes, he focused his concentration upon the stone in the boy’s hand. A gentle pulse of energy responded to his call, illuminating the tips of Ben’s fingers in a pale green light.
The children pulled back, faces stunned at even so small a display of magic. But interest kept them from running away. For the stone itself had begun to glow.
“Wow!” the boy breathed in a gasp. He was staring at his hand in absolute awe, the green light reflecting in his clear eyes.
“Just hold it there, like that,” Ben gave him a reassuring smile.
The Half-Lunar lifted his hand upwards in gentle strokes of motion. As he did so, the stone began to glow brighter, lifting to float between the boy’s palm and his own.
“Holy Shiva!” one of the girls gaped. “He really is a Master Wizard!”
“Told you!”
The stone dropped lightly back down into the boy’s outstretched palm. The plain grey color had changed to a deep emerald green. A soft flicker of light seemed to radiate from the center of it.
The children pressed in around, trying to get a good look at the wondrous transformation and babbling in excitement.
So simple a trick. Human children are easily amazed.
Ben couldn’t help but smile to himself, just a bit.
“Mister! Can I have one?” one of the children peeped.
“Oh! Me too! Me too!”
“Mememememe!” one little girl clung to his leg.
Odin’s Blade… what have I started?
Standing up, the Half-Lunar found himself in a ring of big pleading, puppy-dog eyes. “Eh… heh… well, now… I don’t know.”
“Please please please!”
“I’ll trade you my Marnie doll for one!”
“Well… I…”
It came like a crack of thunder pealing through his mind. The pleading of the children was instantly swept away as a sudden jolt brought his senses to awareness.
Something was coming.
What?
Something powerful… huge… dangerous… and about to break loose there upon the city of Baron.
What is…
“Mister? Mister, are you okay?”
Blinking himself back to reality, Ben found the children gazing up at his expression of mindless trance in apprehension.
“What’s wrong Mister? You hear something?”
Is there enough time? Someone’s got to warn the people here.
“Hey now,” Ben bent down to them. “How about if we make a deal?”
The children nodded, still watching him in hesitation.
“If each of you runs home right now, I’ll give you all a lucky stone. How about it?”
“How will you know where I live?” one child peeped. “I want a stone, too.”
Ben tapped his head. “I’m a Master Wizard, yes? I know things.”
“Okay, you promise not to forget?”
“Yeah,” he straightened, standing over them. “I promise.”
They peered up at him, still uncertain.
“Ready?” the Half-Lunar urged, echoing the words that he had heard in the childrens’ games as he had walked through Baron. “Set!”
Their eyes grew round.
“GO!”
To his utter relief, the children all scattered, running off in various directions through the city.
I hope they make it home before…
Just as the last child vanished around the corner, the ground under Ben’s feet began to shake. His green eyes narrowed as he retrieved his sword from the packs sitting along the side of the Inn.
“Uncle Fu!” he bellowed into the doorway, “Adyn ion dewror weddynt dreigiau!”
Ben didn’t stop to see if the old Lunar would reply. His feet were carrying him into the center of the city of Baron.