219 Distant Vision (2/2)

I glanced over at her and sighed once more. ”Yup… I can't make sense of it though…”

The next hour was spent with me explaining to them what I'd seen and heard followed by a discussion that made as little sense as my dream.

”While ominous looking doors seem fascinating,” Arah interjected, ”I'm more concerned with these keys and this fifth gifted… you both realize what they were probably referring to, right?”

How could we not. Aura and I were intimately familiar with the legend of the five Sense Knights and the five keys they were supposed to be protecting.

”You think it's really that?” I asked. ”I was sort of hoping they were nothing more than fairy tales…”

”Fairy tale or not, if Morrigan believes in it, then it'll mean trouble for us regardless,” Aura frowned.

”Besides, you've already met two other Sense Knights, right?” Arah pointed out. ”So there's most likely some truth to the legends…”

That was what I was afraid of. Honestly, I had enough of a worry dealing with saving Luca. I'd rather not get tangled up in some prophecy or legend or whatever the hell Morrigan and her companion was up to.

”A fifth,” Aura repeated. ”What do you think that means?”

We were all quiet for several moments before Arah broke the silence with her deductions.

”It most likely means the fifth Sense Knight, right?” Arah guessed. ”If we assume smell, taste, and sight are already taken. The likely answer is that either touch or hearing is the fifth gift.”

”Hearing might already be taken,” I answered.

I recalled Darah and I having a conversation about a Sense Knight whose name shouldn't be spoken less he heard it. It was all very Voldemort to be honest.

”Then the only thing left to worry about are these keys,” Arah pressed on. ”If we assume the keys exist then the seals probably exist too.”

”You think those doors I saw were the seals?” I guessed.

”Seems likely, but I'm not sure…” Arah answered. ”Anything you want to add, Aura?”

”I've never heard of these doors you speak of, Dean… I've never read anything like it in the family's archives,” Aura admitted. ”Perhaps the library in the Great Tower may have more info… and although our clan is friendly with the Skycraper clan, it'll be difficult to visit as they're further to the west and past the blockade in the Westersand Desert…”

Her brow furrowed as she thought more about it.

”Perhaps we can ask Ashley… she is a shieldmaiden, and they're also responsible for remembering our history,” Aura added.

The sound of an explosion rocked our room. It was quickly followed by raucous cheering from just outside.

”Looks like they're at it again,” Arah noted.

”Every freaking night,” I growled.

”Don't let it bother you so much,” Aura suggested as she too got up at the same time as I did. ”They most likely detonated their spells just outside our territory.”

”Yup,” Arah nodded while a frown was plastered on her lips. ”Those Dominion idiots just want to rile us up… don't let it get to you, Commander.”

I crossed the small room and pulled open the door. Outside, I could see the men lining the wall in front of me with their hands raised. They were cheering for something they could see directly below the wall.

”For mud's sake,” I exhaled, ”What's happening now?”

I walked over the stone floors and over to the wall, brushing past the two Foolhardies recruits who were in my way so I could see what everyone else could see.

A few months after the Sunspire-Trickster war, the wall that protected the clan's territory in the Westmarch had been completed just on the opposite side of another wall that had been built by the Sunspire Dominion to close the entrance to the Westersand Desert.

Both our walls were twenty feet high and many miles wide with a short stretch of barren earth between us which had been designated by our leaders as a demilitarized zone.

Units in the Westmarch like my one-thousand-man unit were on rotation to man our wall. This month was our turn. Unfortunately, the enemy on the other side were pretty annoying and were always taunting us.

I'd learned this was because the commander on the other side was fairly young like me and had been part of the war too. But we'd never met as we were in the south battlefield and they'd fought in the north battlefield.

However, the fact that the Foolhardies had distinguished themselves in battle was a cause of great ire for the commanders of the enemy army, which meant trouble for me and my guys every time it was our turn to man the wall.

This time though, something was different. For as I watched from below, it was then that I noticed that the enemy commander had finally come down to the barren field herself.

I recognized her of course. It was Dawn the Dawnbreaker.

Standing opposite her with his hand holding onto the claymore strapped to his back was Luca.

”Muddamit,” I sighed. ”Darah's going to kill me if we start another war…”