Tobias had watched as Katsuke walked back through the door and down the hall. He knew what had happened. He could smell the blood on him and saw the stains on his fists. Tobias nodded to Athena and they headed to where Katsuke had left Thorne. They reached Thorne and sitting next to him was Seitou. The two walked up and Thorne looked at him. When he did that, Tobias wanted to slice his head off for what he had done to Kaiyon, but he was not a murderer. "Seitou, as a friend and fellow teacher, I'm going to have to ask you to leave us for a few moments. The three of us have some things to discuss about the past." Tobias said. Seitou nodded and was off on his way. Tobias then looked back at Thorne and him and Athena sat down. Tobias sighed heavily and then looked at Thorne except this time, they were with new eyes. The eyes, of a man who had seen a good friend die. "Thorne, tell me. What have you been up to the past 10 years?"
Keitou nodded at Tobias, and left. However, he wasn't all gone. Tobias asked Thorne what he had done tha past ten years, which is the excact question Keitou was going to ask him, so he thought he should stick around, since he doubted that Thorne was willing to answer that question twice.... In his mind, he for some reason doubted Tobias also. He held his staff in a tight grip, preparing himself if Tobias tried something, but Keitou also not knowing why he was compelled to not see Thorne hurt....
Thorne turned his eyes to the ground. "I was defeated." "Ten years ago, I lost to your friend, to the last swordmage." "I would have been destroyed and he would have died in front of all of you if not for Bloo...Emma's intervention. I dont know if you all could see but she spawned one of my plants in the palm of her hand before Kaiyon could land a killing blow on us. I dont really know what happened but it was the same feeling I had when that young wizard Keitou brought me back. The pain, the blindness, the burnin sensation afterwords. As we plummeted through that vortex of light and pain my wrath armor was completely incinerated. The three of us landed on cold grass, or more accurately the two of us since Emma was holding onto me the whole time and I was the one that hit the ground. When I awoke the wound in my leg that had threatened my life was completely burned shut. As if a red hot rod had been shoved through my leg burning shut all the arteries and veins. Either way I could already see my flesh fibers beginning to restitch themselves. Emma was burned over her entire body and I had to transfer more of my own energies to her in order for her to heal herself..." Thorne was going to continue but could see the impatience in their faces at wanting to know about Kaiyon and not the lover of their most hated enemy. Thorne shifted from his own remembered priorities to that of his audience's. "A bit after that I looked around and could see Kaiyon a ways off to my side. Up until then I hadn't been concerned with my surroundings but somehow we had all ended up in a grassy meadow on the edge of a forest, almost identical to the forest and fields surrounding Sakeido. My first reaction was to look for the school but it was nowhere to be seen. Even now I dont know where we were but thats not important except that I believe it was on a different spiritual plain than this one. I say that because of what happened with Kaiyon." Tobias and Athena's eyes all widened both longing and dreading what Thorne was going to say next. "I limped towards your friend after I could see that Emma(Bloom) was beginning to heal. He wasn't in good shape as you might expect." Thorne expected one of their hands to strike across his face but they witheld so he continued. "As I drew closer, loosely holding my Manriki-Gusari, prepared to defend myself again, Kaiyon held up his hand and spoke to me." "You dont need that Thorne, not unless the thought of killing me brings you pleasure, which I wouldn't doubt. But if it doesn't, you needn't put up your guard against me, I have no fight left and based on whats around us...I dont have to worry about you destroying the people I love anymore." "I was shocked at what he said, seeing as I could have said the exact same thing to him. At least the part after the whole killing for pleasure bit." "I let my Manriki fall to the ground and after picking up Emma and laying her on the ground next to myself and Kaiyon so I could watch the progress of her healing, I sat down and the two of us spoke as his Sacrifucius spell slowly began to wear off and his power began to sift away to nothing. It was rather humbling to be speaking with someone who only seconds before you had been trying to kill and him to kill you. Talking with your friend Kaiyon, he reminded me of myself before I became a shadowist, before the mages tried to destroy my family and my home. I felt regret over all that had happened but it was something that Kaiyon said to me that pushed me to the breaking point. He said "So I guess you've finally found your paradise haven't you? Ironic that you fought so hard and committed such atrocities to get it and yet it was in defeat that you received the prize you sought for so long." I had no idea what to say to Kaiyon after that. I couldn't offer him the closure he deserved seeing as he was the one that was going to die and I was going to live with the paradise I wanted so long. I even felt as if fate had cheated him. So I offered him the only closure I could. I told him I was sorry. Kaiyon only smirked as the last of his spell dissapated. I'm no spellcaster but if I could have I would have tried to save him at that moment but his life was ending not from physical wounds and thus beyond my capacity to heal." Thorne's eyes shifted from the ground and directly into Athena's watching the tears begin to well up in them. "I know what you want me to say and I'm so sorry that I can't give you the answer you want." Thorne closed his eyes and paused for a moment before continuing... "Kaiyon's eyes drifted closed and he stopped breathing just as his aura finally dissapated." Athena's hand covered her mouth and the tears began to drip down her cheeks. "Just when I thought that his aura was completely gone I felt it spike in power and watched in awe as a heart sized blue flame seeped from Kaiyon's mouth and hovered over his body. I had never seen anything like it before so I didn't make a sound. It just floated there for a few moments and then it flew straight up like a comet. It kept rising and rising but after a while it stopped and plummeted down like a falling star. Just before it hit the ground it veered its course like it was being pulled by a magnet and shot straight at me. I covered my face to shield my eyes from the light it was emmanating but it plunged right through my chest and began pulsing in unison with my heart. All at once I felt a surge of emotion, the pain, the suffering, all that I had caused spread through me in a wave of guilt that brought me to my knees. I had said I was sorry to Kaiyon but now the sorry I had felt was magnified 100 fold. Sorry for the death and the fighting, sorry for the deception and the tricks, sorry for the lives I had destroyed, and most of all that there was nothing I could do to equally repent for it. I sat there kneeling on the ground for what felt like an hour the water flowing freely from my eyes and into the ground beneath me. Emma awoke sometime during this because I felt her embrace my weeping form. Once again I said aloud that I was sorry, with more sincerity behind my words than there had been in countless years and like a burden being lifted from my shoulders a very faint voice echoed in the back of my mind, <you are forgiven, but his soul is your new burden to bear as it can not reach its proper plain from here, you must be its keeper.>" "I've never known what that voice was, whether it was Kaiyon speaking to me or some other being, but I knew what I was to do. I was to safeguard his soul until the end of my life so that the two of us would end our lives together just as the battle would have ended and so I could live with the memories of his losses as a minor punishment." "I picked up his body and moving to the spot where we first entered that plain of existense I buried his body and spread some seeds around its border. I later found a large stone and placed it at the head of the grave Etching his name into the rock with my Manriki-Gusari. I had no words to offer for a tombstone that would have done him justice." "I've lived in that place for the last ten years with Emma with nothing but her, memories, and some new abilities that I believe Kaiyon's spirit granted me with. I don't believe there is anything beyond what I just told you that you would much care to hear, and again I'm so sorry I couldn't give you the answers you both deserved and wanted." Thorne looked away as he had finished recalling the memories that had burdened him for ten long years and now he waited for the repurcusions of Kaiyon's old friends.
"I understand now" said Keitou as he walked back. "I understand what I did wrong. And why I wasn't able to bring Kaiyon. I asked for the wrong person, isn't that right....Kaiyo?" Thorne's eyes widened, but wasn't that amazed. Keitou being a spellcaster of the level he was, he was the only one to get it. "Kaiyon gave your spirit redemption, and you are the soul keeper. The place that you were at is in a whole different place, where the astral line of souls don't run. It may amplify or decrease the kinds of powers that can be used, but that place there, may have been created by someone else. This place made you weaker and harder, maybe even impossible to reach. So far away, we could barely get you. The name of redemption.....in the ancient Japanese language, Kaiyo is the meaning of Forgiveness, and at the same time containing most of the characters in Kaiyon's name......" It was clear to Tobias, Athena and Thorne now, why it wasn't Kaiyon that came back. When Keitou made his spell, he mispronounced the name, and said "Kaiyo". His power also wasn't strong enough, only his skills and knowledge. I wouldn't like to see you hurt, since you already are" said Keitou, as he moved his staff as swift as the wind, and in a second, Thorne was healed. "But, it's up to them now..."He looked at the two teachers and said "I just know they'll do what is right.." He left once more, but yet again, he wasn't so far away...
Tobias sat and thought for many moments as he said heard Thorne's words. He felt a presence and realized almost immmediately who it was. Keitou showed up and gave his explanation and then left again. Or so he wanted everyone to think. He could almost invision the world of Kaiyo. He had only heard of it once before. In fact, everyone who was at the battle had. The word was spoken just at Kaiyon and Thorne disappeared, but no one payed too much attention to it because of what had just happened. Now he could remember the word. "It would seem our young friend is right. At first I thought it was his emotions showing you the error of your ways but the longer I thought about it, the more it didn't seem right. Then, I had another idea. What if it was actually his soul that transfered into you. It would explain why all of us don't seem to want to attack you. Then when Keitou explained it, I knew I was right. Thorne, you now carry the soul of our most beloved friend. It has now been assigned to you to protect. That is now your destiny. You have seen the error of your ways and now you have the chance to repent for them. You are no longer the shadowist we all thought of you at one point" Tobias said. What he did next astounded all. He bowed in front of Thorne. "Any man who can see the error of his ways and truly mean that he is sorry, I am proud to call an ally, and a friend....if you so choose."
"I would so choose...and wish it. Something that you must understand is that I can't stay here. I have to find a way back to Emma." Thorne turned his head and looked directly at a spot of empty air... "Keitou, you had to cast the spell last night didn't you?" Keitou appeared again with a bit of a look of surprise. "Yes I did." "So then you did have to cast the spell on the Winter Solstice." "Yes." "That's what I thought, that would mean that in order to reverse the spell and send me back I'm going to have to wait an entire year to even have a chance to try it." Thorne smashed his fist into the ground out of frustration and doing so sent a massive shockwave through the rock beneath their feet that also caused dozens of pebbles and tiny stones to levitate for a few seconds before falling back down to the ground. Thorne noticed the shocked faces of the faculty standing around him. "While Kaiyon's soul is my burden t bear until the day I die, his swordmage spirit granted me with some new abilities. You see, I have never been a spellcaster. The only spell I ever used was my Shadowspell and I banished that power from my mind almost 9 years ago, specifically when I discovered that Kaiyon's spirit had magnified my plant manipulation powers. But even more than that, Kaiyon's spirit gave me the ability to manipulate virtually any element, and I've spent the last 9 years mastering every one that I could.
"Hmmm..." said Keitou Satomi "You may not know everything..." he smiled and in his happy self again he said "But you can learn! I'm not saying that you have to, but you do have a year here until you consider going back, so make some time and learn!" "Aren't you afraid I might use these powers to try and attack you?" Said Kaiyo. "No you big idiot! I see inside you! You may be some help to us one time or another!" Keitou was trying to kill the bad mood by being all loose, and it was mildly working. "Like I said, I can't force you into doing anything, but at least think about it, k? I'll leave you folks alone now, I think you can handle yourself!" This time, he actually left, since he knew he could trust Tobias and Athena alone with Thorne. While leaving, he muttered to himself... "Kaiyon's spirit?.....why didn't I......"
For a lot of people on Sakeido that day, it seemed as if a lot of days passed because of the awakening of Thorne, otherwise now known as Kaiyo. Lessons were learned, be it good or bad. But the first day of Sakeido was finally done. Principal Katsuke could not attend the student's gathering at the end of the day, but the rest could. In the same place the morning ceremony was done, all of the students, and teaching staff were there again. Katsuke could not attend to keep an eye on Thorne. "I am sorry to announce that Principal Katsuke couldn't attend this ceremony ending the first day of the rebuilt Sakeido..." said Tobias, as the students groaned. "Now now!" Said Athena "He IS a busy man. We'd like to thank you all for making this a first great day, and we're hoping every day behaviour is like this." Keitou stood up and went up to the mic and said "Guys and gals...great job..." He pulled up his staff and pointed it to the gates leading, made a bit of magic as the doors opened. And then he said "Have a great day!" The first day of Sakeido was finally over. As students and staff as well were impressed with each other, the first day of the new Sakeido High School was greater than expected. As will be the future. But for now, the students could rest until the next day....one after the other.... [Thread Closed]
