45 Chapter 12: Forgotten 5 (1/2)

”Master Faram!” I yelled as I stepped out the terrace where the chilly night air slapped at me.

In the corner of my eyes, I see someone moves in the shadows. I turned to look and saw Faram climbing down the stairs towards the garden.

I ran and followed him.

He went on walking further into the gardens and then disappeared into a corner. I went on to find him and saw him again from a distance, standing just by the entrance of the maze.

”Master Faram” I hollered, finally reaching him. I stopped when he stood just a few feet away from me.

”Why are you here?” I asked, panting greatly.

”It's my apprentice's birthday. How about you? Why are you here?” He turned about and faced me. He wore his blindfold once again.

Ah. Why did I ran after him?

”The time has come, Ri. We must leave.”

Leave?

”But first, I need to set things in order.” He walked towards me and reached for my face. I just stood there, unsure while his cold hand touches the skin on my cheeks ever so lightly.

”Time to remember, Ri.” He says stooping close to my face. ”Time to unlock the memories of your trainings.”

My trainings?

”Close your eyes and concentrate. Remember what I taught you. All of it.”

The lid of my eyes began to feel heavy. I tried to fight against it but soon gave in.

Darkness covered my vision as my lids shut tight against my will. My entire body felt like floating.

What did he taught me, I pondered.

He taught me how to heighten my senses aside my eyes. He taught me how to jump high and exist without anybody sensing me.

That's all I remember.

”I taught you one important thing...” His voice sounded distant now. ”What is it?”

Slowly, memories came flowing in. It was like I reached a corner inside my mind that I never reached before. It's just there but too far to surface.

So I went deeper.

Trying to reach that small corner.

”I remember...” I murmured. How he took me to the ruins and we trained there. No visual memory but just sensations. He made me sense everything around me while I sank in a cold cold fluid that's trying to freeze me to death. He never took me out until I could tell which direction a sound is coming from. He made me go through a lot of obstacles tirelessly and then at the end of it, I meditate until my entire sore body feels light as a feather.

Now that I think about it. It felt so unnatural how all my meditations made me feel rather numb but highly sensitive with everything else around me.

And then I remembered the fire.

He made me stand inside a confined and burning room.

”Tell me what is the important thing I taught you” his monotonous voice sounded like echo in a hollow space.

I remembered reaching for the raging flames.

It was hot. Painfully hot.

One thing he kept telling me back then...

”Sense it... like you can hold it in your grasp. And then make it disappear.

Want it

Demand it gone.”

So I did.

And all the fire around me faded away.

”I remember it now. Sense it and make it disappear. That's what you said.” I stated.

”Yes. That's it.” He stated. ”Now, take me back to the day you came to Ouboros” he says now.

I switched my focus to recall the events he asked and in my mind's eyes, I saw the day I first step foot on those hot sands.

Cerguz was there. He greeted me and my brother.

And then....

Everything went flashing before me. Fleeting like images in flashforward.

I met Nora. The children. Giles and Faram.

The Ouboros went sinking. Nora stayed. Explosions. The children sang Nora's song. And then Levi came to rescue us.

”Open your eyes, Ri.”

And I did.

I saw Faram now standing straight before me with a black shiny ball that hovered by the palm of his hand. It was tiny, almost in a size of a marble.

Confused what he did, I just watch him in silence.

He closed his hand into a fist and it turn to ashes. When he opened them back, the wind blew them away.

From a distance I can sense three people coming. I turned about and saw Aeron and few company. ”Aerra! Don't suddenly disappear like that!” Aeron mumbled as he sighed in relief when he reached me. His eyes sweeps pass me and took notice to the one standing behind me.

”Faram—!?” he gasped.

”Apprentice of Giles... seems like your master has no plans in looking for you.”

”Why are you here, Faram?” stated an unfamiliar guy that stood beside Aeron and Levi. He has dark wind-blown hair and deep purple eyes. How does he know Faram? I wonder.