Aven sat and stared straight ahead as he repeated that sentence over and over again as the idea really clicked, he registered the start of a change within him and without thinking about followed his instincts and whispered the spell that Joseph had just been telling him about.
"abscondere lucem tenebris aspectu" as he spoke a flame appeared in his mind and the shadows danced blocking it from the outside.
Aven vision became clearer as the spell took hold. He saw the flames grow brighter in the dim light and the world around him become more focused with little flex glow colour joining to together to make the world clearer in the dying daylight.
'Wow, the spell really has made it possible to see even in the dark.' He turned his head to look at the darkness from within the forest and to him it looks almost exactly the same as in the day.
He smiled as he looked around. 'So, my sense ability could eventually have this affected without the spell if I practice. That would be a very useful ability after all I would no longer be restrained to only being truly able to hunt or defend myself in daylight.'
"Aven I'll be back in a minute then if you're ready we'll head towards where the malikias were." Joseph spoke.
Aven turned his head and looked towards Joseph to see that he was heading towards the village gate. Aven turned his gaze and saw that standing there was the other member from the different associations and the village head.
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As Joseph moved closer to the gate, he realised that the others were making a clear statement by keeping their distance from the village chief.
'Oh, now what going on here!'
"Well as you will have notice we appear to have a few issues here." He turned his head an indicated to the carcass of the latest malikia. "We also have the issue of the others that we have been sensing this whole time having just disappeared."
He looked between the people standing in front of him watching their expressions.
'What is up with this village chief, how can he still be having trouble accepting the present situation.' As he starred at village chief Dean, he watches the man go from afraid to out right shaking with rage.
"That stupid boy" the village chief exclaimed as he caught site of Aven sat near the fire. Joseph frowned at the man as he carried on with his tirade. "We should have gotten rid of him long ago; he brings nothing but trouble. He and his stupid parents." The man turned and called out behind. "You there go get ride of the boy now!"
The guards came running out of the gate and headed towards where Aven was sat, who had looked up sharply at the loud shout. The boy scrambled to his feet and started to back away from the approaching guards.
Joseph step forward and blocked the path of the guards his hand coming up and gold strands sparking as he summoned his blade. He wasn't the only one that had moved and before the guard and the village chief could react, they were held back by his group.
"How dare you, that boy is now apart of my academy and your attitude is totally unacceptable." Joseph said as he held his weapon lightly. "This is not the first time you have talked in this manner and yet you won't explain why you have that attitude. The boy in no way is responsible for the appearances of these creature yet you blame him anyway."
He watched the village chief as he stood there in shock, the man soon pulled himself together and turned to him after indicating to the guard to come back to him.
"I say again we don't answer to you." The village chief huff and turned back to the village "You have protected the boy for the last time it will not happen again you have till noon tomorrow to take that boy and leave, or I will make sure that he never leaves again no matter what you have to say about it." He moved to the gate and then looked back. "All of you have overstayed your welcome here." With this he walked away form them.
Joseph stood frozen to the spot his mind unable to process what had just been said.
"That ungrateful despicable person, what is wrong with him, for that matter what is wrong with this village." Exclaimed Jonathan as he round to the rest of the group.
"Calm down Jonathan, I don't know what is going on here and this village does seem to have some very serious problems that they do seem to like saying are all that boy's fault." Sophie said as she looked over to Joseph.
"Well, how do you know that they aren't being trueful here, we don't know what is happening in this village or the forest for that matter." Damian said as he joined in the conversation.
"Now come on Damian we have all seen far more than most and you know as well as I do that the boy's aura doesn't show anything about him that shows anything bad but every interaction that we have witness between the villagers and the boy have had an undercurrent of violence and it wasn't coming from him." Joseph said as he looked back towards them. "Besides at no point have they even attempted to explain their open and clear hostility towards the boy, and you have to admit that it isn't a spell that is stopping them from explaining, and what does that normally mean.?"
Damien stops and just stood as he thought through what Joseph was saying. "That is very true, and we have seen this type of thing before. The fact that they won't explain but try to get other to accept their options without given answers isn't good either."
"That not even considering the fact that from what I manage to discover that they had left that boy to fend for himself with the forest for year. I even found that it goes back to before his parent died." Jonathan said to them. "Sorry Joseph there really wasn't much information that I could find as they don't want to talk about him or his family. It was only the youngsters that I managed to get anything from and that was only in passing, ask them outright then the clam up fast."
"Really that was it even the youngsters didn't talk?" Joseph asked.
"No but it did appear that the adults actively encourage the children to have little to do with him or to get him to stay in the forest a few even admitted that they used to take him to the forest to play and then leave him there." Jonathan spoke.
'What is happening here, since when did it become common to have this kind of attitude with any member of the village without have an actual explanation that they would happily shout from the roof tops. This is something that even the council would be against why they would actively think that this was not only ok but that they could keep doing it.'
"Alright this is getting us nowhere early I sense the disappearance of all of the Malikia in the area, and as you can see" waving his hand to the new carcass "there seems to be at least a few that have the ability to get close and cause us problems. I will be heading to where they were last sensed and Aven will be going with me. The rest of you will gather everyone one up that is leaving and head out of town." Joseph spoke as he made a move to head back to Aven.
"Alright Joseph we will gather the youngsters that are to go to our individual academies, and we will bring true rest of your young charges with us and head towards Marrow Cove and wait for you there." Damian stated.
"Are you sure that you won't need our help?" Sophie asked.
"No, we will be fine. I will contact you if that changes but it's time to move. Travelling with the youngsters will be difficult enough as night is starting to settle in, and we need to get them to a safe location."