They were walking down the street, heading toward the direction that will take them back to Dr. Huan’s house. The sunset was coming closer with each second, but the crowd on the northeast side of the city never dispersed. In fact, some activity seemed to be going on at the moment. More people were running in to join the crowd. They were all talking at the same time and craning their necks to see something in the middle.
“What’s going on?” Sasuke picked a young man from the noisy crowd to ask.
“Didn’t you hear?” Excitement was in the man’s eyes, “The City States of Jowston are signing a peace treaty with the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia. This is probably the only chance I’ll ever get to see a real Harmonian.”
“Oh really,”
Sasuke wasn’t really that interested, probably because he didn’t know much about Harmonia, but whether he knew or not probably wouldn’t have made a difference. Futch just stood by and watched on.
“So who did the Harmonians send here?”
“Some high priest from Harmonia.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luc jerked his head up suddenly. His head was turned so that he was facing the window from where he was sitting. His eyes were involuntarily glued to it. The full view of the setting sun from his second floor window was hurting his eyes, but he couldn’t control himself as he continued staring towards that direction.
At that moment, the noise of the mob outside suddenly grew a notch higher. Even though he couldn’t see the people outside from where he was sitting, he could tell that something was going on. The strange feeling he had been experiencing was growing within him and is starting to become too overwhelming for the small magician.
Luc quickly tore his eyes from the window when he realized that he had stopped breathing. His hands clutched at robe and bed sheets as he panted heavily for air. He bent forward and did nothing else but breathe until his breathing finally returned to normal.
The boy had no idea what had just happened, but the breathing had calmed him down. Luc took a look at the window. He could walk over and see exactly what was going on outside, but he just wasn’t curious enough. He decided to dismiss the strange happening that had just went on.
The strange feeling was still burning inside him, but he was now conscious enough to control it. He pushed that feeling away until he was finally able to ignore it. Luc straightened himself on the edge of the bed he was sitting on. He had been waiting in the room for Futch and Sasuke to return. Then they could all go down and have dinner with Dr. Huan, but the two boys were coming back later than expected. Since Dr. Huan still had some patients to see, Luc couldn’t sit downstairs so Tuta had escorted him upstairs to the patient’s room.
The patient’s room was filled with white-sheeted beds of two rows, on two sides of the room. A large window covered the wall at the end of the room, filling the room with orange light. Luc had chosen a bed on the right to sit on. No one else was in the room. He sat in silence and waited patiently, watching as the shadows began taking over in the room.
Luc was used to waiting by idly. He often did that in the castle during the two wars and even while he was in the tower of Magician’s Island. He usually kept his head clear of heavy thoughts, but this time…
Slowly, as if in a trance, past memories began resurfacing. The little bits crept up and kept building up in his empty mind until Luc was no longer able to control his own thoughts. Soon the whole memory was rolling out incessantly before him.
~~~~~~~~flashback
They were in a courtyard. It was very beautiful, decorated with flowers and potted plants everywhere. A strong noon sun was burning brightly in the sky, making the white courtyard look even whiter. The strange style of the structures indicated that it was from a place far away.
He was sitting at a small circular table, hunched over several heavy-looking textbooks. Another boy, not too much older than him by looks, was slowly circling the table with a smaller book in his hand. The younger boy finally looked up from his reading and said,
“Clarence.”
The older boy, obviously the owner of the name looked away from his reading too, down at the boy sitting at the table,
“Yes?”
The younger one paused for a moment, then looked up again,
“Why do they always compare me with High Priest Sasarai?”
Green eyes bore straight into the eyes of the other, brimming with need for an answer. His tutor didn’t reply, so the younger boy went on,
“It’s not like I can ever be as great as him.” He threw his hands up in frustration. “So why do it?”
The boy is saddened. He placed his hands back down on his lap and looked down.
“Why don’t I ever get to see him? It’s not fair.”
The small courtyard was quiet again. The older boy blinked his eyes thoughtfully, still looking down at his younger disciple. He was in deep concentration, as if pondering over something before he finally let out a sigh, reaching a conclusion.
“Master Luc, you are a high priest of Harmonia too. For now, you should just concentrate on your studies.”
Clarence had successfully dodged a conversation about High Priest Sasarai with the boy. He had been instructed to not let Luc know too many details about the other high priest, but Clarence didn’t resume the lesson. Instead, he watched the boy grimace with his head faced down.
He wasn’t sure if the boy was crying. His questions about High Priest Sasarai kept getting rejected by anyone he had asked. He just wasn’t destined to know about the high priest, yet he was unluckily interested in High Priest Sasarai ever since he had first heard about him.
Clarence felt sorry for Luc. He took a look to make sure that the courtyard was empty, then he said in a lower voice,
“Even though you never saw his face, High Priest Sasarai does know you.”
Luc quickly looked up sniffling and trying to blink away his tears.
“r..really?
“Of course,” he continued in the same low voice, “as a high ranking officer, he must remember all the names of his fellow co-officers.”
“That must be a lot of names.”
Clarence gave him a nod with a smile on his face. Luc was no longer crying. Instead his eyes were lit up with amazement. A bright smile grew on his face.
“Wow! That is so cool!”
He tried to keep it down seeing how secretive Clarence had been when he was telling him about it, but he just couldn’t hold in his excitement.
“Not only is he powerful in battles, but he is smart too.”
“There’s no way I can ever be like him!”
flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The last phrase brought a pang of pain to Luc’s heart. He shook his head as his mind resurfaced to reality. Nothing much happened in that memory, but for some reason it became connected with a feeling of sadness for Luc. He desperately tried to shake them off again, the memory and the feeling.
He stood up. The sun has set. The whole room was dark except for a small glow coming through the window. Just at that moment, the room’s door flung open, throwing a long yellow light into the room with the silhouette of a person in the middle. Luc looked behind him.
“We’re back,” Futch called. “Let’s go down for dinner. Sasuke’s already downstairs.”
He waited by the open door for Luc to follow him. Luc took one last look towards the large glass window, then without a second thought, he hurried out into the bright doorway.