"Do you feel good enough to leave at dawn?" Epiphany asked.
"Yes!"
"No!" Roun shouted. "Zia was sick so recently. We can't push her."
"Staying still will benefit no one."
"We can't let her get sick again!"
"If Zia thinks that she is strong enough, I am sure we can go."
I was afraid of coming between my friends, but even more afraid to let them argue. And I knew how I felt.
"I feel strong! We can go!"
"At dawn then," Epiphany said.
Roun lay down and pulled his blanket over his face.
"How are we going to confront the Dark?" I asked.
"That is a question no one knows the answer to," Epiphany said. "I told you before, almost everything anyone has ever said or written about the One has been speculation. Everything you read will put ideas in your head but none will sort them out."
"What kind of ideas?"
"Some think that, because the One must be ready to fight the Dark at any time in history, The One is immortal, or perhaps constantly being reborn. But then, some think that fate or outside force will direct the One to be born only in the time the One is needed. When the One does not exist, or after the One dies, if the One is not immortal, there is no more hope for fighting against the Dark. Or perhaps there are many potential people who can become the One, alive at every time, but once one of those people becomes THE One, the others lose that potential."
"What do you think, Epiphany?"
"I don't know. It is strange, Zia, to think of you that way."
"Mmm."
"There are so many questions."
"Roun, are you asleep?"
There was no answer.
"You'd better get to sleep, Zia, if you want strength for tomorrow."
I snuggled under my blanket and tried to relax. But I wanted to yell and sing and dance around. I deliberately closed my eyes. I could not be tired in the morning, when we would finally return to a life of doing things. I had never so anticipated anything as I waited to return to that life.
I almost laughed out loud. I was the One! I realized it more deeply than before. I would finally be able to change the world, to save it. How many people had ever really changed it? I had heard many stories about knights and lords and miracle workers, but they were all muddled in my head. The men of stories were doers of deeds which were important to someone but which never touched me. I wanted to, more than anything, help the world. I was sure that, with Epiphany and Roun by my side, I could. I could almost hear Epiphany's voice, telling me I could. And I would, at dawn.
Sleep eluded me. I pushed off the blankets, stood, paced around the fire, watched the excited flames.
"Zia?" came an almost sleepy whisper. Epiphany got up and came to me. "Zia, what are you doing awake?"
"I can't sleep. I'm too excited."
"Well, if neither of us are going to sleep, we can talk." Epiphany beckoned to me and walked into the shadows. Outside of the firelight, the night was terrifyingly dark. The trees blocked most starlight, and I had to follow Epiphany by the touch of her hand. She led me across the streamlet, where only a few steps further, we walked into the silver light of a moonlit clearing.
"I wanted to get somewhere more open," Epiphany said. "And away from the fire."
The clearing offered a breathtaking sight for someone who had not moved as much as twenty paces in as much time as I had not.
"We continue tomorrow," I sighed happily.
"The going will be dangerous," Epiphany said. "You need to be especially careful."
"At least I have you and Roun with me. There will be three of us to fight anything that tries to stop us."
"I don't trust Roun."
I sighed. "Epiphany, I know that you two haven't gotten along before, but could you maybe try to stand him? He's really nice if you get to know him."
"I don't want to get to know him."
"Epiphany..."
"You may think he is nice, Zia, but I do not. He has been against us and every move we make."
"What do you mean? He couldn't have been nicer!"
"He has tried to make you believe that you are not the One, and has tried to discourage you from fighting the Dark. I think that he would try to stop you even now, if he could."
"He just... doesn't want anything bad to happen. He doesn't want to believe. I had trouble believing too, at first."
"Only because of him."
"That's not true."
"He has had more influence on you than you realize. You almost left to fight the Dark without me!" I was shocked by the anguish in her voice and looked at the ground. How could I not have imagined the pain with which she spoke? How could I have thought to leave to fight the Dark and save the world without her? "Sorry."
"He wants to get you away from me! To separate us! We can't let that happen, Zia."
"Roun is not-"
"Haven't you noticed how he shows up at all the wrong times? He always does that thing which would slow you down the most. Which would keep you from getting here."
"He didn't want me to come from the beginning. That only makes sense."
"Even before the beginning! From the moment you met him!"
"That's not possible! Why would he?"
"Whatever side Roun is on, he is not on ours. He has been trying to break us apart, then, once we are separated, to slow you down, keep you from fighting the Dark and saving the world! There is nothing left if you can't defeat the Dark! I may be able to fight it a little, but only the One can defeat it! And that One is YOU! Zia, you can't listen to Roun any longer. He knows how close we are to the Dark. If you stay near me, I won't let him do anything, but if you stop trusting me..." Epiphany broke off, her eyes wide and her mouth open, for the briefest moment imaginable before she screamed.
"ZIA, WATCH OUT!" I turned my head as Epiphany yelled a phrase in a language which I did not understand. At the edge of the clearing was an enormous cat, huge, white, and leaping towards Epiphany and me. I tried to move, tried to run, but I could do nothing as fear-driven shivers ran up and down my neck, and my frozen feet held me in place as I trembled. The cat had begun its flight through the air when violently shimmering magic exploded into the space between it and me. A shining slash flew by my head and into the blur, bounced back and landed at my feet. I suddenly gained control of my body and ran, stumbling backwards, straight into some creature's grip. I panicked and struggled and I slipped out of the ran out of the clearing and into the forest. On the edge of the trees, I glanced back for the briefest moment, just in time to see a white bolt, like lighting, shoot down behind the shimmering magic wall and strike the cat. A scream and a crash filled the air, which was already full of light and magic. I stumbled. As my hands and knees struck the forest floor, the air suddenly emptied. I looked around and saw Roun, standing in the clearing with my cloak in his hands.
I stared at Roun for a moment. He waved the cloak, beckoningly. "It looks safe now, Zia." I stood, trembling. As I walked over, I could see Epiphany standing next to the beast. It appeared untouched, as if it had merely fallen asleep.
"Is it dead?" I asked.
"Yes," Epiphany answered surely.
"You killed it??" I was incredulous.
"Yes."
"How?"
"It wasn't magic that I learned exactly," Epiphany said. "The first part, the wall, was magic that I learned from one of the Weilder's books. But the lighting I did not even need to know the words for."
Roun had come up behind me. "That's crazy."
"Not if the creature was related to the dark," Epiphany said. "I don't needs words to fight that."
"No, you need a weapon. Your magic blocked mine." Roun placed my cloak over my shoulders and bent down to pick up his knife. That was the thing that had flown by my head, only to bounce back and land at my feet. "We need to get back to the fire, now," Roun grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the clearing. Epiphany followed. "What possessed you, Epiphany, to take Zia out of the firelight? I have told both of you, many times, that is the only place we are safe from creatures like that one."
"I needed to speak with Zia."
"You did that at the risk of her life!"
"I was the one who protected her."
"What if you had been a little slower? What if your lightning bolt had not come?" I followed Roun a little further. "What are we doing in these woods, anyway? We should never have come. It is too dangerous."
Epiphany paused, and Roun continued pulling me. "Zia is the One!"
"I refuse to agree to such nonsense."
"That white cat proved it!"
"Insanity."
I stayed silent. Epiphany and Roun had never agreed, but I paid special attention to Roun now. Was he trying to break me and Epiphany apart? No, they argued as they always had.
Epiphany grabbed my other wrist and stared into my eyes. "Whatever he says, you are the One. That cat was leaping straight toward you. Even though I was brighter and more noticeable, it was attacking you. Do not let anything convince you otherwise."
And Roun had tried to kill it, too. He was only protecting me. No, he would never deliberately hurt me. I let Roun pull me back to the firelight.