Echoes of Our Hearts: Chapter 2

In the alternate dimension of Drymist, the morning star is just rising over the jagged mountains, casting its rays over the edges. The sunrays spills over into the forest and towards a fort hidden well among the trees.

Trent Elowen was just done with his morning meal as he makes his way into the communal garden, east of the fortified city of Malachite. Malachite city is well hidden among the forest trees of Highwood Forest. Thanks to the massively tall trees, it’s helped covered up most of the fortified walls.

People don’t usually know the exact location of Malachite City unless they have a trained eye. There are many smaller paths that leads to the main path leading to Malachite. If people have been to Malachite city before, they would have known.

Flowers bloom to its fullest in the garden, filling it with saccharine scents. Sometimes, Trent thinks that the garden is too wild for his liking.

But his close friend, Matthias Pine, disagrees. Matthias has a deep love for plants and all things botanical. He has always woken up earlier than most people in the morning and head for this garden.

Before anyone wakes, Matthias can usually be found tending to the flowers and trees in the garden. To anyone who is a stranger to Matthias, he would be seen as just a gardener. A person who has no idea how to wield a weapon or magic. In short, people see Matthias as a useless and defenseless man, something that is looked down upon by many people.

But they are wrong. Matthias is more than just a man who loves gardening. He’s a master magic user, perhaps second only to Trent, who is a master weapon dealer and magic user. So far Matthias is able to defeat anyone and everyone in magic except for Trent.

Just years ago, a rising threat from Silas’s camp in the far south of the mountains have brought considerable attention to anyone who lives north of him. Silas is the leader of the doomed faction, The Maledicts. They have taken over the city of Amethyst.

Their city, now a darker and broken one, hardly resembles its former glory. It’s said that Silas has stolen a cursed spell that no one is allowed to have. No one is allowed to study black magic and have any contact with it at all.

Trent has always been a keeper of all things magic in his huge study in the West Wing library. He has dedicated a space to black magic and made extra sure that no one except him has access to it. He has always been sure no one is able to penetrate The Black Room where he keeps all things black magic in.

But he was wrong. Dead wrong. Silas has somehow learnt new magic without Trent or anyone else knowing. Breaking into The Black Room, Silas has stolen the most important scroll that can alter the future for good.

‘Damn you Silas, you’ve made a good escape. No one is able to get you still!’ Trent curses under his breath.

It was so damningly easy for Silas he’s made it seem like a child’s play. All he did was cast a portal into The Black Room, took the little box of black magic scroll, and fled. If Trent hasn’t entered the study that morning, Silas would have made his way out of the city without any attention at all.

When Silas has left, he’s gathered a small but strong group of followers made of bandits, rapists, criminals, and every other unsavory people imaginable. Each and every last one of them were taught the forbidden black magic.

Silas and his team of bandits were easy to keep at bay at first. Unfortunately, one night Silas penetrates Amethyst City and easily conquers it overnight. All with the help of 100 men trained in black magic. In a short span of time, Silas has spread his darkness all over Amethyst and turned everyone into black magic users.

Amethyst City is now a cursed city. For many years Trent has been trying to keep Amethyst City at bay and quell its darkness. But Trent has no heart to destroy Amethyst City and raze it to the ground. His childhood city where he was born and raised has now turn into a cursed city. Everyone he knew back there are now afflicted by black magic.

Some years later, Trent has come to learn that with the same black magic, Silas is able to change the course of mankind. To what extent, Trent has very little to no knowledge of. Matthias and Trent have repeatedly been trying to investigate but they can find little results and answers from it.

Matthias has then suggested to go into the future of mankind and investigate himself. It’s something that Trent does not agree with as it may alter space-time continuum. But Matthias, always the hard-headed person he is, insisted on going.

But there was one thing that piques Trent’s interest. A small blip in the future he keeps having from time to time. Something that he hasn’t been able to place a hand on. His apprentice, Arlo Stone has been getting cursed dreams every now and then. Oftentimes when he has a cursed dreams, he will wake in cold sweat.

Each cursed dream shares a similar trait. Arlo will find himself either dying or losing conscious. The pain he’s felt – it all seem so real. Trent has been trying to find a cure for Arlo’s dark dreams but to no avail.

Matthias has insisted on going into the future into an alternate dimension. “I will investigate and send back any clues if need be,” those were his last words before Matthias steps into the portal going into the future.

With Matthias gone into the future to an alternate dimension, Trent finds himself lonelier than ever. Everyday life for Trent is the same day in, day out. He will train his youngsters in magic and combat skills before they head off for their respective classes. Then he will head back to his library to read more, to research more.

Every now and then he may get something from Matthias in the future. A bit of small news here and there. Sometimes he may send some artefacts and studies, but nothing noteworthy for Trent to work on.

Trent sat on one of the benches and stare off into the far end of the garden. His eyes lay on a row of Abatina flowers. Its bright yellow petals and playful filaments dance across the row of flowers. Happy yet secretive. Playful yet reserved. Matthias has often tend to the Abatinas more than he has on other shrubs.

“Fickle flowers, these Abatinas are. You can never know what they truly represent,” Matthias used to say about these flowers. Just like Matthias and his nature. He would often so capriciously change his moods from super cheerful to stormy in the matter of minutes. No one can understand Matthias more than Trent can.

Because of that, people will often go to Trent for magic advice more than they would to Matthias. It used to bother Matthias a lot. However, after some time Matthias has come to ignore it and tend to his garden more.

Not long after, his servant comes calling after him.

“Master Trent. The students are waiting,” Seth says.

Seth, after fleeing Amethyst City from Silas’s evil clutches, have been Trent’s faithful servant ever since. It’s always good to see someone from his home city. Trent stands up and smooth his robes over.

“Let’s go together, Seth,” Trent says as he leads Seth towards the training grounds. Same routine everyday with the same batch of students. Hardly much changes since the day Matthias has left them behind. There is not a single day that Trent hasn’t missed seeing Matthias and hearing his voice. But today, it has been particularly strong and overwhelming. And there isn’t much Trent can do but to cope.

Read chapter 1 here.

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