Jaden ignited the endobraces again to see Raquel now standing where she had knelt.

'What was that?' he asked.

'Something I do not understand,' said Raquel, biting her lower lip and closing her eyes a little. 'There is more the further north I go.'

'You are following it?'

Raquel nodded slowly, and then asked herself, 'Why is it coming back?'

She paced the room, studying the walls, the roof, and then the floor, which showed no sign of the blue substance or where it had gone. There was no hole or mark, as if it had simply vanished beneath the rock.

'That was the power,' said Jaden, knowing she was not going to volunteer the answers. 'I could feel it.'

Raquel did not seem to hear him and she sat down where she was, in the same meditative pose she had first been in when they had met in the clearing. He joined her as the hours went by and noticed the rock had become freezing cold where it had been warm before. As he sat in silence, he wondered what Raquel was thinking. He had so far been unsuccessful in asking the right questions for her to tell him much about her. All that he thought he knew was that she was a woman who spent a lot of her time outdoors and did not seem to have a place she could call home. She had no friends or relatives, and she always seemed to be near him, no matter where he was, as if she were following him somehow, even though he couldn't think how she knew where he would be.

She was on a mission of a sort, something to do with the power he had just witnessed seeping into the ground, and there was nothing that could deter her from it. She was not Daijuarn yet she did possess great abilities, but this was not the reason she had not cared for the Alliance being so near. To her, the lure of whatever calling she had was far greater than the wars of the nations. This much, he felt he truly understood about her, and it left him wanting to learn more, about her life and who she really was.

'If you tell me, maybe I can help,' Jaden offered.

Raquel opened her eyes to regard him in the little light he emitted from the endobraces. 'How much will you learn?' she asked, suddenly interested in him.

'I want to learn everything,' he said, doing his best to contain his enthusiasm.

'How far will you walk before the end?'

'I will go where I need to.'

Raquel stood up and made her way out of the cave as if that was all she had needed to hear. Jaden followed closely behind. Once outside, they saw a storm brewing over the mountains, the sky almost as dark as the cave had been but with lightning strikes crisscrossing it. There was thunder rumbling in the mountains and wind making the trees sway to the point of collapse with strong gusts. This storm was no ordinary storm, and Jaden was cautious in his steps.

Raquel led him to a cliff; there were trees far below and an open view of the mountains in the distance to the left, and the tip of the mountain that hosted this cliff was to their right.

'The edge is never far from the path. Will you stay?' she asked.

Jaden looked at Raquel, confused as she walked away from him before he could give his answer.

'What can you feel?' she asked.

Jaden closed his eyes, attempting to reach out into the world as he would reach into his own body to use the endobraces. He now knew what she was asking him to do. Whatever happened next, he knew it would be part of a test.

As his concentration intensified, Jaden began to feel all that was around him. There were animals everywhere in hiding; in the trees, under rocks and in the ground, but no humans aside from him and Raquel. The sky was alive with power as the storm approached, and he sensed that it would soon be raining upon him. He started to relay what he felt to Raquel.

She considered what he had to say, but did not seem to get the answer for which she had been hoping.

'What of your life?' she asked Images from Callibra flashed by; of the waterfall he often sat near, of his mother helping Tommy, and then of the attack. He began to watch the bloodshed play out again, and the storm seemed to increase in its power with each Callibrian that he saw fall lifeless. Lightning was striking more often now, closer to him, and the wind seemed to threaten to push him backward and off the cliff. He stood as still as he could, attempting to grip into the land with no more than his feet. He then thought of how far he had travelled and the reason he had. He had been going to fight in the wars by joining the Resistance at Corsec. Then he had joined with the Daijuar, and now he was training to one day protect as they did. The two Daijuar, Adonis and Blair, had requested that he take a message to the great cities. His craft had been shot down, and now the journey that he had been assured would take no more than a few days was in its third week.

He had been taken away from Alyssa.

The rain came then as he opened his eyes, drenching him as he could no longer see further than twenty yards in all directions. The lightning strikes were almost on him now, their rumble no longer deep, but sharp and high pitched, screaming in his ears. The wind was increasing with the storm's arrival and he felt his feet begin to slip backward. He felt panic, knowing he could easily fall to his death. He stood his ground for Alyssa's sake. He could not die now, not when she was waiting for him to return.

'Stay on your path,' he heard Raquel call out. 'Be free of all else.'

Fall. Stay. Leave. Run. Remain. Believe. Deny. He couldn't decide which was the right choice-which would allow him to pass the test. He felt he was being pushed to his limits, being forced to make the choice no matter if it were right or wrong.

'I won't let her go!' he shouted, more to the storm above than Raquel as he continued to fight against it.

The heavy rain became a drizzle then as the ground began to shake. From the top of the mountain, through the darkness, came boulders the size of him, forcing him to dodge left and right on the slippery rock surface. He jumped and ducked under them as they came, avoiding them easily but almost losing his balance twice. More came, some ten times the size of the first, causing the whole cliff to tremble as they bounced violently toward him and crushed anything that was beneath. He could not jump these, and he dared not risk diving under them. Instinctively he jumped to his left, rolling out of the way of the first, only to find himself in the path of another. He jumped back to his right and ran a few steps, but was then in the path of two he had not seen. He tried to step between them, but his right shoulder was caught by an edge and he cried out in pain. Without a moment to spare he reached out with his left hand and ignited the endobrace, causing the third boulder of the group to shatter into a million pieces. The fragments hissed with the energy as they were sent flying in all directions. He remained protected by the shield so that did not bother him. He then used the endobrace to stop the final boulders coming toward him in the same manner, and when the last fragment had quieted, silence returned. No more came. All that was left was the wind blowing against him as he knelt on the edge, holding his right shoulder and breathing heavily.

Raquel walked to him; her hair was wet but she was uninjured by any of the fragments.

'There is one that keeps you from the edge,' she said.

Jaden said nothing for a moment, steadying his breath with his eyes closed.

'I can't live without her.'

'Your choice is made,' said Raquel, and without another word, she walked ahead of him, leaving him where he was.

Jaden remained behind. He did not have the energy to follow her. Had he failed the test? What did she mean his choice was made? Was he meant to fall over the edge to pass the test? It almost seemed like Raquel had wanted him to die.

After regaining his breath, Jaden stood and followed her.

It took three days before he was able to catch up with Raquel. He had been running in the wrong direction, but just when he was about to give up, he had seen her walking parallel to him not far to his left. Once he had found her, he followed but purposefully trailed her by twenty yards. He needed more time to think, to reflect on all that she had said to him. She had considered that he might be able to help her, but he had not been ready. Her path was a path walked alone. He could not join her when what he wanted most was to be with Alyssa again. He was unsure how the test had come to be or whether it was even completely real. There was still pain in his right shoulder. The avalanche had been real, of that much he was sure. But if it were created by Raquel or she had simply used what she knew would happen to her benefit he could not tell.

Raquel was meditating on a ledge she had found at the edge of a lake, where there were no trees to block the final warmth of the day from the setting sun. Jaden approached her, looking over the water to see the golden light reflecting from ahead. He sat on the ledge and closed his eyes, waiting with her.

'One may not always rely on another,' she said after a moment. 'There is a time when they must heal alone.'

'How can one heal when there is nothing to heal for?'

She opened her eyes. 'The water is peaceful. There is little that disturbs it on the surface. Below, it hides its scars. Throw a stone.'

Jaden searched about him and quickly found one he could throw. It made a splash as it landed twenty yards away.

'The surface is troubled,' said Raquel. 'It will soon calm, with the stone now on its bed.'

'More stones will be thrown,' added Jaden. 'Someday it will be filled with them.'

'The water will continue to rise.'

'But one day it will spill onto the land and no longer be as it was.'

'It will return to the earth, as all must one day,' concluded Raquel. 'Until then, its surface will always find calm again.'

'Then one heals because that is the nature of being,' said Jaden. 'The ripples won't last forever, and when there are too many stones, one will find death. One returns to what they were ... the cycle continues. But how do I heal?'

Raquel directed her gaze to his chest, and he picked up the crystal from around his neck and placed it between his eyes. Raquel joined him a moment later on the tower, both looking out over the broken city of his mind.

'The damage here is from generations,' said Raquel.

'My ancestors?' asked Jaden, looking again at the ruins below.

Raquel nodded.

'Their tragedies are passed onto me,' said Jaden unsurely.

'Just as their talents. Be gracious in knowing that there is a city to be in ruins.'

Raquel moved back through the single door behind them, and Jaden followed to find that there were no stairways in the room now, only another door at the end.

'This changes every time I come here,' Jaden observed.

'One may only go where one is ready to travel,' said Raquel, and she walked through the door ahead.

Jaden walked with her into a world of red and orange, of a desert of dried mud, cracked and broken as the water had dried up long ago. There were some black and dead trees still lying around in places. He recognised it as the lake he now sat beside in the real world. There were stones on what once had been the lakebed, but they were not the cause of the water disappearing. Something else had taken it away, but what he was not sure.

'All changes,' he said.

'The water goes where it must.'

'But I have a choice.'

'You can heal,' said Raquel, and she walked to him and held both his hands.

Steam began to rise around them as they closed their eyes and became silent. Jaden felt the warmth all over him, entering him as he breathed it in and it moved around his entire body. He could feel a burn at his right shoulder as the steam reached it, and then a tingling sensation. For what seemed hours, they remained in the steam, before Raquel finally released his hands and they exited the crystal's realm.

Jaden opened his eyes and moved his right shoulder. There was no longer pain in it or a mark of where the boulder had hit. Raquel sat facing him with her eyes still closed. She had helped heal him somehow. The crystal must have been able to concentrate the body's systems, allowing it to repair much faster than normal, perhaps aided further by the power Raquel possessed. The tower and city were his mind, but he was only allowed to explore a little of it, and it seemed to be aware of what he needed most each time he entered. He guessed some day, when he was ready, it would allow him to walk among the thousands of ruins he had seen below. But he did not know when that would be, and as much as he wanted to stay and find out more, he knew he had already spent too long with Raquel. He had to get to Corsec to deliver his message. It would most likely already be too late to deliver the message to the people of Ceahlin that they were welcome in Waikor. All he could hope for was that they had gone there anyway, and that Adonis and Blair were protecting Alyssa as they had promised.

'I want to learn more,' said Jaden. 'But I need to get back to Waikor. Alyssa will be there.'

Raquel bowed slowly.

'Will I see you again?' he asked.

'A path can be chosen, but not always where it leads.'

Jaden nodded, thinking he understood, and he got up to leave. He paused, and then knelt down again. He put his hands on either side of Raquel's neck and lowered his head to hers in the embrace he had seen the statues in at the Daijuarn monastery. Her skin was the smoothest, softest thing he had ever touched and it felt as if it were sending constant waves of energy through him, hundreds each second. He wasn't sure if the endobraces were reacting to her power or it was something about the Daijuarn embrace that connected them this way, but he knew he wanted to feel these sensations forevermore.

'Thank you,' he said, reluctantly ending the embrace.

Raquel kept her eyes closed, but smiled. Jaden took one last look at the beautiful woman in front of him, and then hopped off the ledge, making his way north. He would travel night and day until he reached Corsec, and then he would return to Waikor, where he hoped to find Alyssa. She would be there, unless Lendon, the Kayde of Ceahlin, had decided to stand and fight the Alliance alone, a possibility he shuddered at. Even with Adonis and Blair protecting them, the military force on its way would surely overpower the city and the Daijuar. Their only chance at salvation was to get to Waikor.

Jaden let his mind go blank as he knew he would not be able to bear the thought of losing another loved one in an attack by the Alliance, and he forced his energy into his legs, running as fast as they could carry him.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

Who will save them when they fall?

February 24, 997 R.E.

Waikor City was silent.

No more than a breeze wandered through the many rows of buildings, a ghostly scene under the dark cloud cover of the morning. It seemed abandoned as the World Protection Alliance lined their forces at the northern edge, just outside of the wheat fields. General Alkon Zaccarah was readying for the assault he had been planning for months. This was a victory that would remind all of his greatness. Waikor was the trophy that every general in the Alliance had wanted other than Corsec, but Alkon's proven record on the battlefield was all that the High Council had needed to consider assigning him the task. He knew it would not be easy. Waikor on its own was the most powerful city in the entire continent. They did not need reinforcements or the forces of several nations like Corsec. Their brilliance in technology and strategy had been rumoured even in Phaiross, the home continent of the World Protection Alliance. And now Alkon was about to witness exactly why the Waikorians showed such arrogance when faced with talk of foreign invaders. They were barely tested in battle, showing only hints of their power as they assisted minor bases of the United Resistance. But it was enough to make any commander wonder if attacking such a city was wise.

Scouts of the Alliance reported no signs of escape, no bands of travellers leaving in any direction. The people were still in the city, seemingly defenceless. Alkon moved among his men, his usually towering stature diminished by the size of the machinery he had brought with him.

In the front lines of the force, tanks readied to roll into the Waikorian streets to crush any resistance and impose their authority. Behind them were personnel carriers that would move in after and take hold of the city's towers and command posts. Seven thousand men were lined behind these two bands, standing in perfect formations in front of the other commanders in the fourth band. Here there were many jeeps, the higher-ranking officers sitting inside, and beyond them were some of the movers they had used to crush the village in Callibra.

Alkon walked past his commanders, overhearing their conversations. They spoke as if he had no desire to fight the people of Waikor. None of them were anticipating a battle. The lines of military units were for show and little more, and so they talked amongst themselves of what would come when they reached Corsec and how they might better their chances at victory. He would have disciplined them but they were right. This was Alkon's brilliant scheme. He knew a battle with Waikor could have gone to either side, and so he had chosen simply to avoid confrontation and offer a truce instead.

Defeating Waikor would be an amazing feat, but obtaining it as an ally to the Alliance was a prize thought unattainable. His name would go down in history as one of the most accomplished generals that had ever lived, and perhaps then he would be able to retire and live out his days as he chose.

He looked up at the fighter jets circling high above, and then toward the fifty missile launchers lined at the very back of the military unit. It would be enough to sway any objections the people of Waikor may have had to his terms, so long as his terms were worded in such a way that he did not offend the ego of the city.

They were greatness personified. They were the leaders in all areas of city living. They did not need anyone outside of themselves, but perhaps if Alkon stroked their ego by first explaining how the Alliance could benefit from their greatness, and also assist in spreading this greatness throughout the world, then they might look more favourably upon an alliance being made. And if they refused, he would simply say that he had been ordered to attack, something that he would regretfully do. And even if he did not succeed, he would surely cause a lot of damage to the beautiful city. He hoped reminding them of this would be enough to find a compromise.

'They will not ally with us,' said Kobin Guyde as Alkon approached. He was sitting upon the back of one of the open-roofed vehicles.

Alkon did not face him. He had found it almost impossible to even speak face to face with Kobin after the day the scouts had lost their lives in the Ukotan jungle. Kobin had continually attempted to rouse Alkon's rage, and Alkon was nearing the point where he would make good on his threats and execute Kobin, regardless of what penalty might come from the High Council for his actions.

But he contained his anger and replied as dryly as possible, 'Just as we will not arrive here on time. Just as we will not have the force to defeat them. Just as whenever nothing should be said, someone speaks.'

Kobin hopped off the vehicle. 'Then I will let you discover Waikor's power alone,' he said, and he began to walk away.

'Return to your position, Callibrian. You have not been given permission to leave.'

Kobin paused, but did as the general wished. 'I have never known a commander to wish to see his men die.'

Alkon shook his head. The comment was so ludicrous coming from Kobin that it did not warrant a response. Kobin, the man that had betrayed his own people to slaughter and continually show signs of no regard for human life ... attempting to lecture on the value of soldiers. Ridiculous. Alkon would leave Kobin to his mindless ramblings and walk back to the front lines where he found Lieutenant-General Liet Revarn using a pair of binoculars. He was using them to keep watch on a man in Alliance uniform walking through the wheat field and into the city.

When the man disappeared, Alkon spoke.

'Do you think his skills sufficient?'

'We will soon find out,' Liet shrugged. 'It is not his first negotiation.'

Alkon nodded. 'The Callibrian tells me that they are a proud people who will refuse all offers, even if it means their deaths.'

'I have heard similar stories.'

'They have no defence,' said Alkon.