"Did he hit you again?" Asked Elegon with a serious expression. Rima did not answer as she feared that saying it explicitly would have made Elegon even more infuriated.
The room's silence was broken by Elegon himself.
"Alar, did you start training Leaf?" He asked. Alar nodded.
"And what can you tell me?"
"Father, he's extremely talented and smart. If his Ba'sar had been unsealed...even surpassing me..." Alar speech was more similar to loud thoughts, but not Rima nor elegon failed to understand what Alar had in mind.
"He will not follow the academia's lessons." When Elegon said this Alar was almost bursting out from anger, just how much more did his brother had to sacrifice becuase of someone else's mistake?
"Stay calm Alar. He will be trained, by me. It will avoid us to lose time. You and Elemir can continue with training him in physical combat while Shimun will train him on the non-combatant courses. As for Ba'sar-related lessons, I will teach him myself. He'll start with Shimun's training in the morning; train with you and Elemir in the afternoon and after that he'll come to me. I know it will be hard on him, but we don't have much time and we need to make sure that the ceremony goes as smoothly as possible. " Elegon's tone left no room for negotiation. As Alar left the room he said to Elegon "don't think I'll forgive you for what you've done to Leaf." And then he left.
Only Elegon and Rima remained in the room. Rima walked toward Elegon and caressed his face.
"I know you chose the best option for all of us, and Alar too deep down understands. In part he feels guilty, he thinks that the fault is his, but you don't have to do the same. There's nothing we could have done, that's how destiny is." As Rima said this Elegon subconsciously tilted his head toward her hands and held her hand.
"There is no day where I wonder if I could have done things differently, if perhaps I'm missing something that could resolve this situation and you...you're suffering because I can't protect you..." Elegon gently removed Rima's hand from his face, as if indicating that he did not felt worthy for that love.
"You are protecting me already, and you're protecting our children. Perhaps the moment you'll share with Leaf in the coming months can be an excuse to show him to you do care about him. You're feeling guilty thinking of how you treated him, he can feel your coldness and thinks you don't love him." Elegon's expression became serious after hearing these words from his wife.
"The message I sent Assad must have reached him. This will make him more careful, but we might have gained one or two months. As for Alar, the last ceremony he went through did not show any thing strange." Said Elegon.
"You mean about the Plumed One? I've been doing some research but can't find much, the Te'nnin race are mostly things that are only found in legends. Thinking back at when Alar called Shahaka...sometimes I doubt it really happened." Rima stared at one of the libraries but in reality, she was looking back at the moment when Alar called Shahaka, the legendary king of the Te'nnin race. The folk know this race with the name "dragons".
"Asad has used all means to understand how Alar managed to do that, but something doesn't seem right. We all were there; we all felt the soul shattering power that almost shattered our minds. And yet it's impossible that no trace at all of that power would be detectable. Asad's intention of having Alar as my successor at all costs is because he wants to monitor him more closely and control him even. And he's also consumed by the fire of rage..."
"Rage..." Said Rima in response to Elegon's reflection "because I killed Mira..."
"What's important right now is making sure that Leaf's ceremony goes smoothly. In the meantime, I will think of a way to resolve this situation once and for all" Elegon's eyes were showing a strange resoluteness, it was dark and strong, and it made Rima worried. She hugged her husband and said
"Remember that we're in this together. Don't do things alone and most importantly, don't do anything stupid Elegon."
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Leaf was sleeping in the corner he took shelter in when he entered the room. His face was dug by the tears that were just starting to dry up. The red sunset's sun was caressing his face and making his red hairs shine with a light that seemed out of this world. The scene looked tranquil and yet melancholic, but it was far from being a reflection of what was going on his little mind. He was saying things and slightly moving his head because of a disturbing dream he was having.
Leaf was standing on the surface of water. He was in a dimension where what was up could not be distinguished from what was down. There was only whiteness in the horizon, a mirror like water below him and a sky which seemed both light blue and grey. He looked at his reflection below him and stared at it for some time. The gravity in that space created by his mind changed and the water was now in front of him. He held his hand out to touch his reflection's hand, the water more still than mirror and no sound could be heard. As he touched his reflection's hand a hand came out of the water and then a figure. The reflection came out of the water. The two stared at each other but Leaf did not feel scared.
"Would you like to know your real name?" Asked the reflection. Leaf nodded.
"Lode."
As the reflection said the name the whole mental dimension shook violently. Leaf fell to the ground and held his head with one hand trying to support the weight. In fact, he felt as if something was being poured in his mind from somewhere and his head became heavier. His reflection became water and changed shape. A man that looked like a sage appeared in front of him.
"It's still early for you to remember. I've been sent here to set the wheels of your true destiny in motion." After the sage said this, he raised Leaf on his feet and hugged him gently.
"This time I will help you by recovering what is yours with a little extra." What the sage wanted to do was to help Lode recover all his Ba'sar without any risk to his life, perhaps knowing that Elegon would have failed. As for the little extra, it was knowledge. Among the memories of my previous world was the understanding of some inner working of reality and some of them were connected to how Ba'sar worked. It was the knowledge that was known as Quantum Mechanics.