Magistaire Chronicles: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 21

Elies thought he was awake and that Hazelmere was sitting before him, seated on her knees while she spouted her honeyed words, reassuring him that everything would be alright. He quite enjoyed that, which is why it was a shame that the half-elf vanished before his eyes. In her stead was his golden-haired friend...was she his friend? He didn't even know her name. In truth, he wished she'd go away.

"Oberon," the familiar woman said softly. She sat unbothered by the snow beneath her and didn't so much as shiver despite her robe's lack of sleeves. "Why do you linger?"

"I'm not Oberon," Elies folded his arms. "It's Elies, and I don't know you." He shifted his eyes from side to side. Why did that feel like a lie?

The woman's smile faded, and she shut her eyes. "You've forgotten yourself," she said somberly. "I should have expected as much. I've been through this with you and Celeste time and time again."

Elies corrected her. "Hazelmere, you mean."

"It is as I said," the woman replied. Her smile returned, but the sadness in her eyes remained. "I am Galdraenae."

Elies tilted his head. "Gold...Rene?" He shrugged. "You've been screwing with my dreams, then? Sending me places I've never been before?"

Galdraenae shook her head. "I sent you nowhere. You saw through eyes that were once your own—slowly, but surely, it returns: the memory of your existence."

"Eyes that were—" Elies flashed her a queer look. "You can't expect me to know what that means!"

"All will become clear," Galdraenae said. "In Umbris."

Elies blinked at her. "Umbris?"

"There lies all you seek."

***********

Elies gasped and jumped up out of his sleep, his face matching Hazelmere's. She nodded at him before he could open his mouth, making Elies assume she had the same dream. He rubbed his eyes and yawned while Hazelmere looked around, her eyebrows and ears twitching in unison.

"Elies. The haze..."

Elies murmured and looked up, the trees showing themselves again along with the sky. Galdraenae's doing? He thought.

Hazelmere looked down and clasped her hands together. "I can no longer sense them," she said. Her ears drooped. "Ayko...my grandmother..."

Elies considered her before he stood. "We'll find them," he said. "On the road to Umbris."

Hazelmere nodded. "There, we'll find all we seek," she said, her slight frown revealing her doubts.

Elies flashed her a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. "Did our friend tell you where Umbris is?"

Hazelmere shook her head, to which Elies clicked his tongue. "So the riverbank it is, then. There's bound to be a village or three wedged beside it. Why not a city, too?"

"Is it a city?" Hazelmere quizzically tilted her head. "Did Galdraenae tell you it was?"

Elies chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Nope, but a man can hope."

Hazelmere laughed as she walked alongside him. "My grandmother said cities are rare in the north."

"Rare doesn't mean they don't exist."

"And if it's ruins?" Hazelmere asked.

"Then I'll owe you an orb or two," Elies laughed.

The pair stepped into the trees and pushed through low-hanging branches and thorns, flinching away from falling Peppergrapes and Ovlos that hung overhead. The thinning mist faded into nothingness as the river's trickling echoed in Elies' ears, and snow again plummeted from the sky. Thank the gods, he thought.