CHAPTER FOUR : THE FIRST WARD

The wooden chair behind me fell as he said those words.Silence in the air “my help” those words echoed in my head.

“How do you expect me to help,I never knew about this!!” I said my voice very low. “I’m just a history major who spends so much time in the archives making research.I can’t fight whatever you are against Karl

   He walked towards his desk and picked up a brown journal that had the same wolf knot symbol . It looked like generations after generations had laid their hands on the journal.You can make your research. It’s way more important than you know. The order of the Silver Knights has been operating in the shadows for centuries-but they leave some traces.Old write ups,coded letters,record of disappearance that were written of as disappearance and accidents. 

   He turned back to the maps, tracing one of the glowing lines on the map. “The first step we will go for is to strengthen the wards around the convergence points before the regionals. If we can reinforce the barriers and stop them from growing thin, it will be harder for anything to push through and break it – and easier for me to keep control when the energy shifts .”

   “What wards” I kept  flipping the journals, my eyes turned wide opened at the handwritten pages inside. Diagrams of circles and different symbols mixed with passages in languages I didn’t recognize or have ever seen, alongside notes in English about “ some binding rituals” and “energy anchors .”

     “This is ancient magic,that has been passed down from families to families” Karl said. “Simple things, for the most part – placing stones ancestors have used years ago at specific locations, weaving herbs into braids to hang from doorways, even painting with our wolf knot  on walls with mixtures of lake water and iron filings. But they will only be effective if they are placed in the right positions , and if the person placing them understands what they’re doing everything will go well.”

  He paused for abit, he stared at something outside the treehouse window. The sun was shine , the light entered the small spacing still looked dim and strange, as if passing through a thick veil. “There’s one ward that’s absolutely critical – the anchor stone at the heart of the old stone circle in the woods. It’s the oldest convergence point on campus, and it’s been get weaker and weaker at this point. If it fails completely, the other barriers will start to crumble and close.”

    I closed the journal immediately , my mind was already made up. “Say less Let’s go. Now.”

   The woods behind Blackwood University were nothing like the manicured paths near the dorms. Here, the trees grew so close together their branches served as a roof overhead, blocking out most of the sunlight. The ground was soft and the grass was wet and the air smelled damp earth and something different– something sharp and metallic, like iron or blood.

    “Let’s go this way,” Karl said, leading me down a red trail I had never ever seen before. He moved with so much ease, his feet moving on solid ground even where the path disappeared into thick undergrowth. Every few steps, he would stop to touch a tree or a rock, his fingers tracing small symbols that seemed to glow magically for a moment before fading.

    We walked for nearly twenty minutes before emerging into an opened space. In the center stood a circle of twelve massive stones with the wolf knot, weathered smooth by time, arranged in a perfect circle. At the heart of the circle lay a flat, oval-shaped stone the size of a table,it was also covered in carvings that matched the Wolf’s Knot. But where the symbol on Karl’s arm had seemed alive with energy, this one looked dull and cracked, as if it were barely holding together.

    “The anchor stone,” Karl said, his voice tight with concern. He stepped moved into the circle and moved his hands all over the surface. “It’s losing its power. We need to perform the binding ritual before the sunrises – thats when the energy is at its peak and at its peak for this kind of work.”

   As he kept on speaking, we heard a sound in the woods– the sound of steps on the dry leaves, deliberate,sneaky and steady. Too heavy for a deer or a bear, too organized for a hiker.

     Karl grabbed me closer with his arm and pulled me behind one of the larger stones, pressing a finger to his lips. The footsteps got closer, stopping just at the middle of the of the open space . Then a voice screamed out – cold,piercing, and unmistakably human.

   “What a shame” the voice said. “The Cú Sídhe have always been weak and very predictable. Follow the old ways, protect the old places…only to make it easy for us to find.”

   I made a little peep around the stone and saw this strange person we were hiding from – a man in a dark coat, his face hidden by a hood. In his hand, he held a silver spear, its tip gleaming with an unnatural light even in the dim forest. On his chest, pinned to his cloak, was a symbol I’d seen in the journal – a silver knight holding a spear piercing a wolf’s heart.

The Order of the Silver Knight.

   Karl very tensed beside, and I could feel the energy in the air change – warm, like the heat from a fire, and powerful enough to make all the hair on my body stand on end. I knew what was about to happen – he was going to let the Moon Realm’s energy fill him, transform him into whatever it was he’d been trying to hide.

 “Wait Karl” I whispered in his ear “let me try something.”

    I pulled out the same journal. I took it with me and flipped it to a page i marked earlier. A passage about “distraction rituals” – very simple spells that would create illusions and misdirect attentions. It was risky, and I had no idea if it would actually work, but it was worth it.

    I closed my eyes and kept on rehearsing the words, and whispered the ancient words from the journal. In my mind, I pictured raven in the sky black wings beating against the sky. When I opened my eyes, there they were – dozens of them, cawing loudly as they swooped down into the centre.

  The man in the cloak fell down.Using his spear to ward them off. “Trickery!” he shouted. “You can’t hide forever  ko, Cú Sídhe!”

    “Now,Karl go !” Karl said, pulling me toward the anchor stone. He began to make chants in the same strange language from the journal, his voice growing stronger and powerful as he spoke. I watched in awe as the cracks in the stone began to light up and glow with a soft golden light, the energy spreading outward until the entire circle was bathed in warmth. I could feel it.

   The ravens vanished as quickly as they appeared, and the man in the cloak stared at us with rage, his eyes wide with fury and shock. “This isn’t over you hear me,” he hissed. “We’ll find all of you. Every last one of your kind.”

   Then he turned and disappeared into the woods,till we weren’t hearing his footsteps anymore.

    He fell down to his knees beside the anchor stone, breathing heavily. The golden light was fading slowly, but the stone looked different and stronger– the cracks less deep, the carvings more defined.

   “Did you just do that ,” he said, looking up at me with a smile. “I never thought… I mean, my family has always done this alone. We never imagined or considered that someone from the outside would actually do something like this.”

    I sat down beside ,resting against the rocks. The sun was starting to break through the canopy now,creating small light across the centre . “Well, you are not alone anymore.We’re in this together.” I said holding his hands.

    Karl nodded “I am still scared about the dangers for you Liam”, his gaze  fixed on the anchor stone. “There are more wards to strengthen. And more research to do. The Order won’t stop – they’ll be back, and next time they will come very prepared.”

    I thought about everything,about the old journal,about the hidden secrets in blackwood university archives, about the weight of everything on Karl, all what he had told me. It was extremely terrifying and overwhelming even – but for the first time ever in a long time, I felt like I was doing something I was proud and confident ,I felt I was where I was supposed to be.

“Then let’s begin “ I said.