Dr. Sorela, Part II

On one September 23, 1949, in the coastal village of Taleah, New Asia, there was borne a man to Rada Sorela and Anwyn Ardin. All was well; he was healthy and had the look of a Jadali Kiillra but because he had a Catin father his eyes were both brown and not one each of brown and blue. The happy and somewhat older couple named their young son Silanu Ravosilu Sorela, a name they had no idea would appear in history books around the world and spoken by so many people. As they returned home they noticed that this small baby was different. They couldn’t put his finger on it at first but the feeling was there.

Very shortly after this, the Sorela family moved to Jadali because they felt like Silanu should receive an Eldin's Blessing. They had their hearts set on living in Leena and were able to purchase a small house near Dahsir Castle. The family loved it here and as their son grew the mysterious aura surrounding him grew as well. When the first Monday of December arrived they paid a visit to Ilonwyn Lochmont, the Eldin of Leena, to record their son in the Jadali records and to find out why he had such a mysterious air about him.

Ilonwyn looked at this young child and immediately knew who he was, for he had foreseen him. He placed his hand on the child’s head and closed his eyes. He began whispering something in Keòen and suddenly, as if he had been struck with something, quickly opened them. He slowly looked at the boy’s parents and said, “Your son has a great and powerful gift. Dark times lay ahead but in the end he will become gifted beyond what the world has ever known.” As he turned back and looked the young child in the eyes, something amazing happened. In both the blue and brown eyes of Ilonwyn and in the deep, dark brown eyes of Silanu, a small ring of triangles glowed white. The young boy had Osai Naori. In addition however, he also had something quite the opposite. This child was stricken with the Curse of the Realm. Nobody, not even Ilonwyn, knew why he had been given these two opposing forces but all were reassured that Osai and Terabi meant for it to be this way and that in due time something would happen that would go down in history.

Silanu was a very strange child indeed. He did not sleep--he lay in his bed, quiet as ever, but he was awake and he had a pondering look upon his eyes. He was also quite strong and able, and could shake off the most serious of mishaps without more than a small cut that went away quickly. He preferred being alone and could often be found singing within the walls of Dahsir Castle or in the resonant caves that dotted the rocky cliffs south of his home. He was extremely quiet in school and as he did not sleep, he spent his nights wandering the castles and forests, rising up his songs to the moon. He loved to sing and wanted to play an instrument. From a very young age he knew he was to become a musician by trade. At the age of just five years old he received from his father his very own oboe, which he quickly learned to play and would take with him into the caves where his haunting melodies would keep himself safe.

However, even with this rare and powerful gift, dark times were indeed ahead. He was very frequently attacked by the monsters that dwelt in Terabi’s Realm. Being stricken with this, he needed someone with Terabi Tana to be near him at all times to help ward off these beasts of darkness. His appointed aide was a young man a couple years older than him named Meiro Freloch who got along well with Silanu and the two became good friends, doing everything together that they could. Silanu was saved many times from the deep despair and cold darkness from the bad side of the Realm. However, it seemed that the Realm was still a safe place, despite the attacks, and he often wondered why he was given such a gift and a curse. He was attacked by the evilness of Terabi’s Realm so often that he gained the reputation of having great mystical power but being quite sickly. As nobody with Osai Naori had ever had such a curse upon them nobody knew what it meant for him. Not even Ilonwyn Lochmont. Not until the day was here. It wasn’t until he reached the age of fourteen that the day came.

It was a still and quiet day, late in the year of 1963. Silanu had just turned the age of fourteen and was growing strong in his gifts and was doing well in school, when he was able to go. He played music often when he was not in his bed, and one could always find him in the places he frequented. He spent most of his time away- along the coast or in the castles and forests. On this particular day, Silanu walked alone. He made his way around the lands and traveled very far. His mind was troubled and he kept seeing Dahsir Castle flashing across his vision. He had a feeling of impending dread like so much of the country, though he did not yet know it. Finally he found his way to Dahsir Castle, taking nothing with him, and slowly climbed the stairs until he was on the second level and in the familiar south corridor. He often came here to the spot where Aranel Balthòr was so often attacked in her time and where he found the company of her restless ghost, barred from entering the spirit world due to her accursed life and improper death.

As he entered this dark place he could feel faintly of her presence though he couldn't see her this day. The sun was past the tower, casting long shadows on the gardens below. He didn't know why he had been so subtly summoned here but it was a place he frequented and could just barely grasp an idea that Osai had revealed to him that something would happen and soon. He felt almost as if he were being led to his doom but knew full good and well that an Osanokai never dies before his time and that he was barely through his long life. He suddenly realized that another attack from the Realm was coming on and before he could open his mouth to yell and alert Meiro, it grew very dark and cold. The sun was hidden behind clouds that seemed to have come out of nowhere. A great and chilling wind began to blow all around him, filling his very soul with piercing despair and drowning out every sound. Silanu braced himself for the attack and quietly allowed himself to fall sideways into the Realm of Terabi which he had grown to know well.

He was immediately hit with a forceful blow that sent him flying to the ground. A huge monster, his accurser, began to attack. Silanu was strong and unwilling to give up his life and used all his power to ward him off. The battle continued for a very long time and soon Silanu was beginning to grow tired. He became worried and with a sick feeling realized that nobody was coming to his aid to fight the beast off. After what felt like eternities he was past the point where any normal person would have become consumed by the monster, fractured and corrupted, made one of their own. However, he was still here, the indescribable physical and spiritual pains searing through his tall and strong body. The gift of Osai was very much in him. He kicked and screamed as the monster did all it could to take his soul and turn it into something vile and impure. Never had the beast been so free to attack a Man of Osai and it laughed evilly as it threw red lightning into the frightened and suffering body of its accursed prey. Silanu tried to shield himself and scrambled to the nearest walls, but it was no use. Nobody was coming to aid him. It was long past the time of any hope for aid and he realized that he would die here. He watched as his body started to change shape--his arms becoming twisted and knotted along with his legs.

He could feel such pain and despair and was about ready to give up and become consumed, his entire state of existence about to become shattered when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. There, right near him, was a man, robed in black. He was kneeling- his head bowed, his arms outstretched. He merely whispered “Merai” and looked up. Silanu gasped. It was Terabi himself.

Suddenly, everything all made sense with crystal clarity as Osai couldn't hold back any longer and began pouring immense visions into Silanu's mind. He now knew why he had been subjected to the evils of the Realm. He was chosen, not by one, but both of the great Catin gods with their powers. Nobody in the history of the world had been bestowed with both Osai Naori and Terabi Tana. As Silanu lay there, almost broken from the evils which were so thrust upon him, he gathered his very real last bit of strength and suddenly reached over. With an arm shaking so badly it looked like it would shatter into a million pieces he grabbed the glowing blue sword by the hilt. It was totally weightless and as his hand touched it a powerful aura flowed through his body, providing that last bit of strength he needed to finish what he realized, all along, that he was predestined to do.

From the time he took it to the time he turned over felt like an eternity. As he looked at it, it began to change shape in his hand. It was in the shape of a regular, blank sword when suddenly the hilt began to form ornately around his hand. In that moment where he was about to give up and surrender to darkness, he quickly twisted his out-of-control body around with his last reserves of energy he screamed and thrust the sword directly into the dark heart of the beast, hitting it in its weakened and exposed soul.

There rose up two great screams. The first was of the monster. As the blade hit it in its weakened state it made a horrible sound, the sound of a million glass windows shattering at once accompanied by a shockwave from a deafening screech. All around him, through what tiny amount of consciousness he had left, Silanu thought he could hear the sounds of evil bonds breaking and the faint cheers of endless souls. He had thrust the sword so directly into its evil soul that he had completed a task only accomplished on one other occasion by Terabi himself- he had actually slain a demon of the Realm by the sword of pure Lovelight.

The second scream was that of of Silanu, who in thrusting his sword in such a dark and evil concentration of energy, was literally on fire--burning with the pure dark energy of the beast as it flowed down his right arm and across his chest, illuminating itself on his body in the shape of the terrifying slash of the beast's vile hand. The pain that went through his body as his sword made contact was unbearable. It alone should have killed him... but, he held on. He refused to let go of that sword. His body was spinning, dancing wildly around him. He felt as if his very soul would burn to nothing. His vision blacked out and he could hardly feel anything anymore when he heard a loud groan, louder than anything he had heard and its coldness further ripped at him As the last bit of dark energy that had once made up a wizard who had turned evil and had gone centuries feeding off the souls of the innocent left it, the outer terrifying shell of the demon began to dissipate and melt into the dark. Another terrible sound echoed throughout all the land of the Realm and then turned into a chilling silence. The great beast was dead. Slain. Its last bits of matter rose up into the air like smoke and then plunged quickly into the hilt of Silanu's blade of Lovelight which he had gripped with a force stronger than he had ever exerted before. Finally, with the impossible deed achieved, Silanu let the comforting oblivion of unconsciousness take over him and the immense pain he felt soon dimmed to nothing. He could do no more than merely lie there and on the other side, back on the earth, his body was very badly burnt but had finally come to rest.

Ilonwyn, who was at the local inn some three miles away in Aradd-Aurora discussing matters with the council, suddenly received a great vision from Osai. He could see Silanu on fire, about to be overtaken. He stood up abruptly and shouted “I must ride!” and quickly ran. He ran faster than he had ever run before. Trees and houses flew by past him and he had no idea where he was going but he let Osai guide him. He skillfully dodged everything in his path, jumped easily across the immense width of the Ried Bhroch, and soon found himself in the south corridor of Dahsir Castle. He came to a halt a few feet from Meiro Freloch and Isli Loch, who were standing a couple feet from the lifeless body of Silanu. There he saw the battered, burned, shaking body of Silanu- so small amongst his smoldering clothes.

Ilonwyn stood there, along with Isli the Herbalist and Meiro, who had been summoned from Terabi and were near Dahsir Castle when Silanu was attacked for what would prove to be the last time. Meiro and Isli, however, had gotten there before Ilonwyn and once Meiro knew what was happening he had quickly jumped into the realm where he found the horrific fight to the death underway. He tried to draw his sword to fight the beast but Terabi was watching and held him back, simply saying, "No." Meiro was then forced back to the world where he thought he had failed and stood in horror as he watched as Silanu's body began to glow brightly, the horrible stench of burning flesh coming immediately afterward and the horrible scream echoing over the walls of the castle.

As Ilonwyn and arrived the three of them looked in awe and terror at the burning body of Silanu. His burns covered most of his right arm from the wrist to shoulder, spread across his chest and left shoulder, went across his stomach and around his back, and down both thighs, in the shape of the giant hand of the monster. His clothing was burned away and his eyes were open but lifeless. Meiro ran up to him screaming, "I was too late! I have failed!" before collapsing into tears of anguish. He then tried to touch Silanu's body but Isli reached her arm out, stopping him. "You mustn't do that!" she said, "He still has very dark energy about him. If you touch it you could be destroyed." Meiro understood and stepped back as Ilonwyn knelt closer.

He reached out his right hand slowly and touched the top of Silanu's lifeless hand. Almost instantly he reeled back and his body stiffened. He gasped at the intensity of what had just happened and the darkness began to surround him, changing him. His eyes became wide and his mind was racing as he began to see and understand what was going on. He quickly sat up and closed his eyes, whispering things under his breath. He could hear Osai himself saying things. Finally, he knew what he had to do, though he feared what would happen when he did. Trusting that Terabi and Osai would protect him, Ilonwyn reached a shaking hand out and placed it on Silanu's forehead.

He could barely scream before the vision overtook him. He collapsed to the floor and beads of sweat began to pour off his face. He could hardly catch a breath and his body shook terribly as he began to slowly relive all that had just happened. His eyes, when they could be seen, glowed so brightly with the mark of Osai that it was the only way Isli and Meiro knew that he wasn't becoming completely consumed. He lay there, unable to move except for the violent jerking of his limbs. Meiro did not know what to do and shot himself back into Terabi's Realm. By now everything was done and Terabi was holding the broken and yet still living body of Silanu. Terabi turned to Meiro and smiled saying, "Fear not young Meiro. Your purpose was not to save Silanu. He was very much meant to defeat this monster himself..."

Ilonwyn, in the terrible state of being that he was in, could see Terabi and also hear the words he spoke to Meiro at this moment. Furthermore, Isli also received this powerful vision of Terabi's words, presented to her by Osai.

"...He has been chosen by both of the great Catin gods. He was first bestowed by Osai to grow pondering and strong. He was subject to the curse of my realm to understand their doings and so that when the right time came, he might be strong enough to defeat the evilest of them all and gain my power. Silanu is in a terrible state of being, as is Ilonwyn, but fear not. Their gift is one that can take the pains of everything that has happened and survive and grow strong. Their understanding of my realm and its power is forever great and will never go away. Now, return to the world, and when Silanu finally arrives from my arms take him to Isli's house and care for his wounds. In love!"

Meiro was once again thrust to the earth where Ilonwyn and Isli had finally seen everything. Breathing heavily, Ilonwyn rose to his feet. Meiro reached out his hand and helped him up. Ilonwyn was very visibly shaken and simply stuttered "I have seen it. Never has such a great power been given to one..." With that he fell to the floor again, very weak. After a few minutes however he rose once more, this time as strong as ever. He could hear Osai whisper to him, "My son you have learned and done all you need to know. Now rise and be strong. Silanu is waiting. Be ready."

They were ready. They had a special cart lined with fine cloth ready to take Silanu to Isli’s house. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the lifeless eyes of Silanu opened. He had returned to the world, even if but for a moment. As the three gently lifted him, he groaned. He looked right into Ilonwyn’s eyes and simply uttered, “Oh Ilonwyn. I know now…” He then finally let comforting darkness take over his body as he slipped into the Realm, for what would become a large amount of time, and let them take him to heal.

As Silanu's broken soul returned to the Realm, by his own will for the first time, Terabi stood over him and held his limp body until finally the daze lifted and he was able to see once more. It was at this time that Terabi told him all he needed to know about his power and held up the sword. It had changed shape considerably. Every bite and flare on it meant something and the hilt had collected most of the dark energy from the beast. It was now a part of Silanu. He weakly took the sword and put it away, in his heart. It was done. Terabi knew that Silanu could handle both gifts and after holding him and comforting him, he placed several permanent auras on him to help repair the physical and spiritual damage that such an action had inflicted. He then took Silanu to the City of Terabi's Palace where, with renewed strength, he was initiated as a Man of Terabi. With this he became the oldest initiate of the Realm at the age of 14, twice the age of most Terabikai. He spent many weeks here at this lovely city full of Terabikai and the souls of the dead who were visiting from the Realm of Souls as his physical body, too broken to occupy, lay in the home of Isli Loch where it healed from the manifestation of all that had taken place.

The days and nights ran together. Each morning Ilonwyn and Isli would undress his wounds and sprinkle a special oil on them which made the pain lesser and helped them to form more flexible scars. Because Silanu had the Gift of Osai he healed much faster than any ordinary man and within the next few months he was healed from the burns and his body had returned to its new normalcy. The daze of all that happened was lifted and he was able to speak once more. However, he was forever changed. He now spoke very slowly and with a crisp accuracy that few could match. The way he walked was different too. He seemed to glide through the air and moved slowly. In his mind, time was no longer important. By the spring of 1964 he was well and returned to his schooling.

Because of his incident, he was extremely in tune with darkness. He felt that if any part of his burns showed he was naked and exposed, so he called forth the tailor of Leena to fashion him a long, black coat that he would always wear. It was made to his specifications and Silanu was pleased. He chose to only wear black long sleeved shirts underneath this massive trenchcoat which completely hid his burns. He also grew his hair out, for it hid the burns that were on the back of his neck and would shadow his great frame. By now he had grown very tall and had quite a large frame. His shoulders were hunched forwards as a reminder to what happened and soon he was satisfied enough with his appearance that he was ready to attend high school in Taleah with one of his most cherished childhood friends, Airi Hieldin. He no longer needed Meiro to provide the constant vigilance he had given him and instead met with him in the Realm almost nightly. All was well in Silanu's life and he was finally able to move forward with all of the plans he had foreseen and desired as the one-of-a-kind Traversing Osanokai.