"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.
Faram didn't answer.
I veered my eyes to Faram and saw his lips moving. He spoke in an almost inaudible volume, "I'll come back for you."
"Wait—!"
"Aerra, don't!" the guy with deep purple eyes grabbed my arm. I just looked at him as Aeron walked forward, lays a hand on my shoulder and shook his head.
We watch Faram fades off to the shadows of the night in silence.
"Did he said anything weird to you? Why did he came?" Asks the guy with deep purple colored eyes.
It's odd that this man talks too casual with me. "Why do you know Faram?" I asked him.
"What do you mean 'why?'"
"Why do you know him?" I repeated.
Aeron and Levi just exchanged glances.
"Forget what I said. Please excuse me." I walk pass him. "Anyway, Aeron. Is the party over yet?" I walked towards Aeron and he grabbed both my shoulders and made me look into his eyes. "What?" I grumbled.
"What's his name?" Aeron points to the guy behind me.
"I don't know actually. I can't exactly remember all the names of the guests I've greeted." I answered, whispering to him so it wouldn't sound rude.
"You don't know who he is?!" Levi gasped. His composure broke and he just stared at me with genuine surprise.
How odd.
I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I don't. Why, Levi?"
Now the guy walks around us and stood before me as Aeron stepped back. "Tell me, what did he do to you?"
"Faram?"
"TELL ME!"
My shoulders raised momentarily in surprise as his voice raised.
"Just calm down, Eriol." Aeron says, talking to the guy.
Oh.
So his name is Eriol.
He acts as if he knows me but his face doesn't seem familiar to me, not even the sound of his name. But he seems close with my brother and even Levi...
This is utterly confusing.
I watch Eriol fists clench tight from both his sides. The ground began to tremble and wind circles around him.
His powers, I assume.
Aeron tries to talk to him to calm him down. The wind around us began to form into a tornado, malevolently gusting in circles as Aeron kept trying to make him listen but he was thrown off, sliding across the gardens.
Who is this Eriol guy, I wonder? And why does he seems so upset just because I can't remember him?
I squinted against the strong winds blowing around us. I tried my best to plant my feet down the ground to avoid getting flown off like Aeron. At this rate, I thought, he's going to cause massive damage here. The tornado is about to finally take form and somebody will get hurt if he doesn't stop.
He's not listening to Aeron either.
I open both my hands and I can feel the wild winds slapping at me like a curtain. I can feel it so strongly as if I could almost grasp at them.
I remembered Master Faram's training. 'Sense it and make it disappear' that's what he told me. He showed me how to do it and I was able to do it before.
I wonder if I can do it now?
I shut my eyes tight and focused on the palm of my hands. Sense the winds, I told myself. And make it disappear.
I want it gone.
I opened my eyes and watched my hands. I can sense it and now I want these to disappear, I thought to myself and watched as the wind around my hands slowly began to clear.
And just like crawling veins, I watch the wind around me slowly dissipates, spreading calm air in a steady flow.
It crept and slithered towards its source and when it reached Eriol, the wind around him dies down and everything else became tranquil once again.
I secretly sighed in relief and in my mind I pumped a fist of victory.
I'm both relieved I was able to pacify his element and that I still remember how to do what Master Faram had taught me—
Now I remember, this is the Null.
Eriol gasped and stared at his hands, "My wind..."
"What's wrong? What happened?" Aeron finally ran up to him, Levi did so too.
He raises both his hands on eyelevel and began to form small balls of wind. He blew a sigh of relief seeing this. "For a moment there, I lost my powers. But it's back now..."
"Maybe because you almost went berserk," Levi sighed. "But such a sad thing it did. Otherwise we finally could've tried to knock you out instead. Pity."
Eriol glared at Levi, "Remind me which side are you on again, stone face? I need to double check so I won't knock you out myself"
"Well I'm just glad you've calmed down. We still need to check what other things Aerra might have forgotten" Aeron says as they all threw a look at me. "...what other things Faram erased from her memories"
I stepped back and just stiffen under their gazes.
Forgotten?
Did Faram really erased some of my memories?
But why—?
——— end of Chapter 12 ———