Morwin’s eyes snapped open. The sun stood high above and roosters cried out. He jerked awake and looked around.

  That was the first night in a long time that was dreamless. Nothing but peace came to him.

  He stood up and looked around, but Lily was nowhere to be seen. “Weird girl,” he muttered under his breath as he took apart his makeshift sleeping mat and scattered the leaves through the wind.

  Time to continue his journey.

  He started the walk again, feeling well-rested after that night. Another long day stretched in front of him. According to the map, he still had many islands to cross. It would be so much easier if he could use his gemstones.

  He Absorbed in his emeralds and looked upwards, focusing on Wind. Flowers moved. All around him, a certain type of flower with blue petals and a yellow spiral moving all the way to the center pointed towards him. Villagers stopped. Some had a scared look on their faces.

  These flowers… did they react to the essence of the emeralds? He let go of the essence, and the flowers returned to its normal position.

  How curious. So Gemming was out of the question; the villagers would know in an instant.

  He continued to walk and took in the sight of the islands. Island after island he traversed, stopping in the same spot in each town to look at the map.

  The Aylin Islands were bigger than he thought, and some of the islands took multiple hours to cross. There were some islands that took at most five minutes to travel.

  The trip to the central island took him a total of two days. Two days of crossing bridges, sightseeing, and taking shortcuts when possible. Along the way, he ran into some nice people that offered him a place to stay and food to eat. He was always surprised by how hospitable the citizens were.

  The Council Hall was grander than Morwin could imagine. With a scarlet red and gold color scheme, the building stood tall and wide. Several columns stood firm on the ground with beautifully sculpted golden dragons crawling around the circumference. The building itself had dragon fangs adorning the archway above the entrance.

  The way the Council Hall was constructed, it was as if it’s a shrine or monument as opposed to an official building. Stairs on all sides led up to it, and it stood taller than all the other buildings and houses around it.

  As Morwin approached, he couldn’t help but let his jaw drop. That was what he’s up against.

  You can do this, he told himself. Just go in there, see what you can find out about seeking an audience, and then get out.

  With every step up the stairs, he couldn’t help but feel the anxiety settling in. He looked around him and saw the same flowers from earlier turning and pointing towards him. He let go of the sapphire essence he wasn’t aware he Absorbed in. No Gemming. The last thing he wanted to do was scare the locals away. Then who would listen to him?

  The grand entrance of the Council Hall led to an even grander walkway. The flooring made of a smooth marble, polished enough to reflect everything, with a red carpet lined in gold leading deeper into the hallway.

  At the end of the hallway, a massive oak door stood, with golden accents all around. He wasn’t sure if the gold was real or fake; it looked real enough. Marble pillars stood on either side, leading to the grand door, and halfway between the entrance of the Hall and the end, a desk stood, with a green-haired girl wearing glasses sitting behind it.

  As Morwin approached, the girl perched up. “Hello,” she said.

  “Hey. Is the Council behind that door?” Morwin asked.

  The girl looked away, nodding.

  “Do you think I can get an audience with them?”

  “An audience with the Council requires the proper paperwork filled and for them to call the party into attendance,” the girl spoke in a hurried voice, reciting what was drilled into her. Morwin realized that while the two spoke, she never made eye contact with him.

  “It’ll be quick,” Morwin said.

  “I’m sorry,” the girl replied, not taking her eyes off her desk. “That’s what everyone says. Unless you’re someone very important, they won’t seek an audience with you.”

  “How long do I have to wait after filling out the paper?” he wondered.

  “Some take two weeks. Depending on the line, it can take up to several months.”

  Several months! Morwin didn’t have that kind of time! The librarian had initially told him one month at most!

  “I don’t have time to wait for a month. I’ll be back on the boat heading back to Agnius within a week,” Morwin said. “Do you think you can bump my name up on the list?”

  The girl shook her head. “The list is written in ink. I can’t just squeeze your name in between someone else’s. If it’s important, then the wait won’t be too bad.”

  “I’m running out of time!” he exclaimed. The girl yelped in shock. He had not meant to raise his voice at her. “I’m sorry,” he apologized immediately

  She shook her head. “No, it’s okay.” She took a paper out from a stack under her desk and slid it across the table. “This is the form right here. Just fill out some basic information such as your name, place of residency, the nature of your visit, and I’ll have it processed as soon as possible.”

  Morwin stared blankly at the piece of paper before him. He looked back to the girl. She was staring at him but immediately jerked her attention away.

  “Can you look at the queue and tell me how long I’m going to have to wait?” Morwin asked.

  She nodded, ruffling through her cabinets. She pulled a massive binder out and flipped through it, nodding as she went along.

  “Four months,” she answered.

  This is hopeless.

  “Can I see the list?” Morwin asked.

  The girl raised an eyebrow. “Why would you want to do that?” she said.

  “I’m just curious.”

  “I’m so going to get in trouble for this,” she sighed as she slid the binder to Morwin. “Whatever you’re scheming, please leave me out of it.”

  “You have my word,” Morwin winked, picking up the binder and flipping through the pages.

  Many names inked the paper. The Council had meetings at times of five minutes from now, to the end of the list, which would be months from then.

  “Each page is a day for the members of the Council,” the lady said. “Just so you believe me when I tell you it’s going to be a long wait.

  So many names.

  “I see names and general location, but what about exact location and nature of visit?” Morwin asked.

  The front-desk lady laughed before realizing herself and averting her gaze. “Well, all that information is confidential.”

  “I thought this book was for you guys only,” Morwin said. “Shouldn’t that information be in here as well.”

  She shrugged. “Well, if it happens to fall into the wrong hands, then it won’t do as much damage. This book is just a way for us to contact those who are close in queue so we can get an exact date and time. When one meeting day is done for the Council, I just take that page out and throw it away.”

  Morwin began to actually read the names, finding if there was someone within the next couple of days he could take their spot.

  All while doing this, he made mental loops to see if he would have time to return to the ship. That was currently his fourth day, and Mikael said he had a week. That gave him three more days.

  If he talked to the Council and left, he wouldn’t have to worry about hiding his abilities since he’d be long gone. It would take him a day at most to return back to the original island. Therefore he had to secure a meeting with them within the next two days.

  He sighed and placed the binder down. Hopelessness surged within him.

  “What’s wrong?” the lady asked.

  “I can’t,” he said. “There just isn’t enough time for me. I need to get a meeting with them within the next two days. Or else everyone I know back home… Galvin, Guenevir, Jules… they’re relying on me. Their future is in my hands.”

  Morwin did a double back, shocked at how much he revealed. The lady simply stared at her desk.

  “I get it,” she assured him. “I know what it’s like to be so desperate that you’re willing to sacrifice anything to seek answers. I’ve been there before, and I’m there now.” She took the book back and pulled out another one of those writing utensils.

  Morwin stared on, curious as to what she was doing. She crossed a name off the second page and looked up. “What was your name?” she asked.

  His heart skipped a beat. “M-M-Morwin,” he said.

  He looked at the name crossed off the page. Melody Ashanti. In the space next to that name, she began writing. She wrote an M and stopped.

  “I’m sorry… how do you spell it?”

  “M-O-R-W-I-N,” he answered without missing a beat.

  “Last name?”

  He bit his tongue. He didn’t know what his last name was. All his life, he’d thought it was De’Shai, but no longer. He wanted nothing to do with that name, the one that brought him and many others pain.

  “Any other Morwin’s on that list?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  “I don’t have a last name. Just Morwin.”

  “You’re all set,” she said. “Make sure you arrive tomorrow at noon to have your meeting with the Council.” With that, she shut the book and put it back into the drawer.

  “But… that name you crossed off. Melody. What about her?” Morwin asked.

  “Her is me,” she answered. “And don’t you worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

  He stood there and stared, a shocked expression prevalent on his face. He was dumbfounded.

  “Why?” he said.

  She pushed her glasses up and continued to hide her gaze. “I don’t know,” she said. “Something tells me that more is at stake than I can know. The desperation in your voice, the frantic look in your eyes, the way your tone changes when you talk about home. It tells me that you’re at risk of losing people you love. And I’ve already lost my fair share of people, so if, for one moment, I can do everything in my power so someone else doesn’t feel the lost I’ve felt, then I’m going to take it.”

  “Thank you, Melody,” he said. “You have my gratitude.”

  “Just trying to do the right thing. I will see you back here tomorrow at noon.”

  “What did you want to see the Council about? Maybe I can… do something to help you,” he said.

  “I-,” she began then stopped herself, shaking her head. “No, don’t worry about me. Go now and don’t forget. Tomorrow noon.”

  Morwin turned to leave, one of the weights lifted off his shoulders. While he moved to the entrance, he formulated how things were going to go with the Council in his mind, thinking of all the possibilities.

  They could deny his request.

  He quickly shook his head. No, they can’t. This was going to work. Because he didn’t know what he was going to do if it didn’t.

  Morwin had the nightmares again. He hasn’t had these nightmares in a while, and the ferocity of it coming back terrified him. These nightmares consisted of helplessness, watching as the lands before him roared in flames, everything from the grass, to the trees, to the building and houses which he loved, burned to cinder and ashes. The very sky itself seemed to burn, with the familiar slits in the clouds, creating a raging expression. He knew it was a dream. He tried so hard to not see, to ignore it, but everything felt real. The heat, the sweat, the burning, the screams of the dying.

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  You will die in the coming conflict, the voice rumbled, echoing throughout his entire being.

  Morwin jerked awake, a fine bead of sweat on his forehead. He slept outside this night, underneath the starry sky. Well, the sky was starry. Now it shone a radiant blue, with the sun high up beaming down.

  The meeting.

  Morwin scrambled up and fumbled around, taking apart his makeshift bed and scattering them along the wind. He patted his pocket and pulled out his sack of gemstones Captain Mikael had given him, making sure it was safe and sound.

  He sprinted along the road. For the first time since he came to the Aylin Islands, he did not stop to admire the scenery. All he could focus on at the time was the grand hall with golden dragons. With that singular thought in mind, he continued plowing through the road.

  Nearby citizens watched him on as he sprinted, but he paid them no mind. He could feel his lung screaming in agony as he pushed his body onwards, but he ignored those cries as well.

  At last, he made it to the Council Hall, breath heaving in and out rapidly and sweat dripping down his face.

  He entered the hall, trying to control his breathing. Melody sat at the desk again, writing some things down.

  When he approached, she gave a sly smile before thumbing in the direction of the door, leading to the council room. “Someone is in there right now, so you’re going to have to wait about ten minutes for your turn,” she said.

  Morwin nodded in thanks again and stepped up to the door. And he waited. Waited until the doors opened and a girl stepped out. She gave Morwin a sly smile before making her way past him and out of the Council Hall.

  He took a deep breath. The moment had come. He was going to pull off the mission he set out to do.

  Morwin opened the doors and let the light from inside bleed out into the darker hallway. When he stepped in, all he could see were faces. Many faces. The door led to a podium in the middle, but surrounding the podium and in layers were seats in a circular formation running all around the room. And every single seat was occupied by someone.

  Morwin gulped. He did not expect all the people there, staring with hardened gazes, to be so intimidating.

  He strolled up to the podium in the center.

  “Morwin Just Morwin,” a lady spoke, her voice echoing throughout the chamber. He stared up, trying to locate the source of the voice and made eye contact with a beautiful woman with light green hair, sitting at the very top row of seats. “You’ve somehow convinced Melody to give up her position to have a formal meeting with us and skipped the line. Although that irks us on a personal level, we will overlook that for the course of this meeting and you will be given the same respect others are given.

  “You have a time slot of ten minutes to tell us what you need to, ask us to do what you want us to, and let us have a discussion to see if the course of action you desire can be carried out.”

  Morwin gulped. He stepped closer to the podium and began sweating under the weight of every pair of eyes in the room.

  He noticed each person had a plant on the long connected table in front of them. Hundreds of plants, similar to the ones Morwin had seen on the way here.

  And he noticed they all started moving, moving to point towards him. He let go of the topaz he didn’t even realize he Absorbed.

  The plants returned to their normal position.

  Morwin understood what the plants were for now. For foreigners who had a different kind of Blessing to the one they had here. The power through flowers. It could detect when that strange power is used and point towards the source. The plants were here to make sure no tampering too place.

  Morwin clenched his fists. All the time spent the previous day scheming and thinking about what he was going to say seemed to completely leave him. Silence filled the room as everyone waited in anticipation of what he was going to say.

  “Hello,” he said. “My name is Morwin, and I come from a faraway land. A nation known as Agnius. Back home in Agnius, I was taught many things. The things that my father at the time told me was necessary I learn. Nowhere in my lessons did he teach me about my people or where we’ve come from. History, essentially. And no book back in the homeland contains the past of my country.

  “When I arrived here, I ventured to a library to find out more about my country, only to find that their history books only covers what happened before six hundred years ago, before a time that didn’t even matter.

  “What I’m saying from that is that our history is controlled. Knowledge is controlled within Agnius, as many other aspects of our live. Currently, a man sits at the top, a king that people here have never even heard of before. His name is King Rai’Shal. He is a tyrannical ruler that has threatened the people, my people, for a long time. Just how long, I’m not sure. But the more I find out about him, the more inclined I am to think he comes from a lineage responsible for the flow of information to be cut off some six hundred years ago.

  “Because of him, my mother and father killed, making my brother and I orphans. I was just an infant at the time, so I have no memory of this. My only memory of my parents is of a woman now deceased and a man by the name of De’Shai, who kidnapped me as a baby and implanted thoughts in me that aren’t true. I am a product of the tyrannical rule of King Rai’Shal.

  “When I found out the truth, I joined a resistance group working to free the nation from the king. That group is called Justicar. They’ve fought the better part of the last ten years against the king, but Rai’Shal crushed them with the might of his army.

  “We are powerless against him. For the past ten years, my brother and leader of Justicar, has worked to grow the resistance, but no matter how many people we recruit, it will never be enough. The king of Agnius has to fall.

  “And that is why I come to you, Council. I ask humbly for you to send us an army of people to battle against the king. You may wonder what you can get out of it, so I’ve come prepared with the reasons.

  “The people of the Aylin Islands don’t believe in uprooting their own earth. Mining is out of the question, so metals such as iron and gold and gemstones such as opals, topazes, sapphires, have to be imported from a foreign land. That place is Agnius.

  “On my way here, I’ve noticed thanks to my Blessing, that the gemstones you guys have are all fake. Handcrafted to look like the real thing, but not. The reason for why that is, I don’t know, but I can guarantee that people would rather have the real thing in their hands than a copy.

  “If the king of Agnius is dethroned, then you can have my word that trading with Agnius will continue, and you will make an ally of us.”

  Silence again. Morwin let the words hang in the air, waiting for something, anything, to be said.

  Morwin raised an eyebrow, looking between all the faces: old men, young men, old women, young women, all looking him on. He thought they were supposed to deliberate with one another? Talk it out? But they did none of that.

  The woman with green hair, who he presumed as the leader of the Council, shook her head.

  “Denied,” she said. “Bring in the next person!”

  Morwin stood there in shock. He was sure that would work.

  “Why?” he asked. “I thought Aylians were people who helped those in need. I’ve certainly come across people like that. The people who didn’t hesitate to help someone in need, someone wandering the streets. How could you turn your back on a whole nation?”

  “We don’t want to turn our backs, but what you request cannot be granted,” she spoke, her voice hard and echoing. “You request an army. We can’t give you an army for the simple reason that the Aylin Islands don’t have one.”

  “What do you mean you don’t have an army? Of course you do!”

  “We’re not like the barbarians of the outside world,” she roared. “Tell me, Morwin, have you seen a single guard on your way here? No. We are a peaceful people, and every one of us knows the laws and abide by it. The Council that you speak to is the governing force for the people. We are the jurors, enforcers, and executioners. Nobody else. No one else should have that power.”

  We are a peaceful people…

  I think it’s a defense mechanism for the island, seeing as that’s their only method of defense, he could hear Captain Mikael’s words ring in his mind. He thought that statement strange, but it was starting to make sense now. They needed a defense mechanism to protect the island since their people didn’t bear arms.

  “And do you think we don’t know about King Rai’Shal? We know about the cut off of information. We want to help, believe me, we really do.

  “Fifty years ago, we sent a team of scouts to Agnius to find out what they can about the radio silence from their governing body. And after several years, we received this note.”

  She held up a piece of paper in her hand, rough and worn down with time. She got up from where she stood and walked the aisle down to where Morwin stood and put the paper in his hands.

  Morwin looked at the parchment, squinting to make out the words. The ink was splotched and smeared, but he could read the words, albeit barely.

  The other four have died. Don’t send anybody. This place is a hellhole. I will do my best to return, but no promises can be made.

  - A.

  Morwin stared at the paper. The Aylin Islands did try. Try way before Morwin was born. He looked down solemnly. She took the piece of paper and returned to where she sat.

  “Now, you’ve only taken up five minutes of our time, but given that you traveled so far, we will allow you these last five minutes should you choose to take it.”

  Morwin felt hot. He didn’t know if it was the heat or the shame. He failed. Not only that, but this whole mission from the start, was impossible. He should have realized before Galvin proposed it. The Aylians don’t have an army.

  He clenched his fists. There had to be something else he could ask of the Council. Something he knows they can give. But no solution popped to his mind.

  “That is all,” Morwin said.

  “Then this meeting is adjourned,” the lady with the green hair said. That was his cue to leave the place.

  He turned around and sauntered away. As he was about to reach for the door, the same lady called out again. “Oh, and Morwin. Please do be careful. You are fighting a battle which is difficult to win. Do keep your head high and never give up.”

  Morwin nodded before opening the door. Outside, there was a line of about three people, all standing and waiting for their turn with the Council.

  Morwin strolled past the desk.

  “Was your request granted?” Melody asked, looking down at the stacks of paper before her, her glassed hiding her eyes.

  Morwin gave her the biggest smile he could muster. “Thank you very much for what you did for me,” he said. “My request to the Council was granted.”

  She returned the smile. “That’s good to hear!”

  Morwin turned back around and left the Council Hall, trying his best to hold back the tears that stung his eyes.