1 comments/ 1975 views/ 1 favorites The Essence Within Ch. 00 By: soulwolf Prologue The year is 2246; a yet unknown man comes to power in the country of Ethiopia. No one pays much attention to this, due to most countries in that part of the world being in a constant state of war. After the third and fourth world wars, Africa was ignored completely by the other countries of the world. The continent wasn't viewed as a threat because these countries were never able to catch up to the technology levels of the American and European countries. No one could predict how dangerous this man would prove to be. No one knows the true name of this man; those that did seemed to have mysteriously disappeared around the time he came to power. While plotting his next move the ruler hears whispers of a unique tribe of people with an interesting gift located in the mountains of Congo. This tribe is able to absorb the essence of the fallen to perform great feats, whether it is healing a sick companion, or to making water and food appear from thin air. On learning this, the ruler wonders if he might be able to mold one of the members of the tribe to be able to use the gift for his evil purpose. He sends a scout to the area believed to be where the tribe is living to determine what it would take to acquire a member of the tribe. He waits impatiently for his scout to return with the information he desires. Two weeks pass before his scout returns, once debriefed, the ruler can't believe how easy it appears to be to acquire his prize. Setting out with twenty of his most highly trained and trusted guards, he heads to Congo. Upon the arrival at the tribe the bloodbath that ensues is devastating. The ruler, using the guise of friendship, gains entry to the tribe's camp. He takes note of all the members of the tribe, trying to find a member he feels will best fit his needs. Just when he's about to give up, he spies a ten month old baby sitting on the ground at the feet of a female tribe member. Trying to contain his excitement, he make his way to where his guard is stationed to begin making the plans to take his prize. The tribe members, believing the ruler is there to help them, are caught by surprise at the ferocity of the attack. Not trained to fight back every single member of the tribe is slaughtered except for the infant. Taking the baby to raise as his own son, the ruler returns to Ethiopia. Once he returns, he instructs his scholars to search any document they can find in regards to the ability of his "son". He then names the child Jonathon Hugh. After a year has passed, the ruler has been shown a great deal of the techniques it's believed Jonathon will be able to perform with his ability. The ruler then begins to teach Jonathon all the sinister techniques he can. Ten years have passed since that fateful day. Jonathon, now eleven, believes the ruler is his father and has master all of the abilities taught to him called Necronomus. The most important technique acquired is the ability to absorb the energy of a fallen foe called essence. However to use this ability he must learn how to dispatch an enemy, with this in mind he begins to learn to use a specially designed sword. This sword when used as the death blow frees the essence from the body allowing it to be collected. Four years later, the ruler believes it's time to begin his plan. Jonathon has grown in ability and skill, far exceeding the hopes of his father. The ruler quietly starts scouting the rest of the countries of Africa, after 3 months the campaign begins. In a remarkably fast and brutal campaign Africa falls to the ruler in only 3 months. No country can stop their advance, nor dares try. China, Russia, England, United States, and France (the major countries left after the war) ignore what happens in Africa, not believing they are under any threat of this ruler and his son. Not stopping in his advance, 6 months after Africa fell, Europe falls to him. Three months later Asia falls. People might think that is impossible but seeing the ruthlessness of Necronomus, not many actually got to witness it and lived. No weapons can seem to touch Jonathon, once the enemy has given away their position, in seconds not a single enemy will remain. By this point the government of the United States is trying to figure out how to stop Jonathon. Knowing there's no chance, they surrender to save lives. A year and a half after it begins the world has been conquered and now is under the rule of one person. No longer just a ruler he's now called the Emperor. While resistance groups exist, none dare stand up to the Emperor. Those that have were quickly dispatched in a very public execution at the hands of Jonathon. The emperor ruled with an iron fist, many believe his ruthlessness is inhuman; believing there's something driving him, and no one can seem to find any proof of it. Roughly a year after the fall of the world, the Emperor begins to become restless, he wants more. He gathers up the scientists of the world instructing them to focus on space travel. With no longer having to compete with different countries, the scientists are able to make astonishing advancements. In the following Five years after being assigned to the task, they discover and build a faster than light engine. Two years later man visits the edge of the solar system. Two years after that there's a fleet of ships exploring the galaxies closest to earth, complete with weapons and shields. Six months later, a report is filed from a ship barely escaping an encounter with a highly advanced race of beings. The Essence Within Ch. 01 Chapter One "God I'm bored." Jonathon thinks to himself. Looking around his room, he glances over his bed by the window and spy's his dresser. Walking over to the dresser he looks into the mirror. At 26, he's accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He's helped to conquer the world for his father single handedly. At 5 feet 10 inches and skinny, he runs his hands through his short brown hair and notices a faint greenish glow to his emerald eyes. "Interesting" he says to himself. "What's interesting my lord?" his valet, Zack, says walking into the room. "Nothing" Jonathon says curtly. Zack bows at the waist, "The Emperor has sent for you my lord." "Good, maybe he's found something to do. Get my cloak." Zack carefully picks up the cloak and helps Jonathon put it on. The cloak is solid black with a hood that shields his eyes. When looking at him you can only see the faint glow of his eyes from under the hood. It's tied shut with a black cloth belt around his waist. Once Jonathon finishes adjusting the cloak, Zack hands him his sword and sheath. "Must be important if I need this," Jonathon says grabbing the equipment. "My lord, I was informed you were to be fully armed." replied Zack. Walking through the halls of the palace, Jonathon heads towards the throne room. As he enters he sees his father sitting on the throne surrounded by 5 people, all trying to talk at the same time. They seemed pretty excited about something. "Ah Jonathon, I'm glad to see you finally arrived." the Emperor says coldly. On his throne you can feel the evil and ruthlessness oozing out of his pores. He stands about 6 feet 2 inches tall with blonde hair and black eyes. He's of medium build though no one not even the strongest man in the world would dare challenge him. "You sent for me father?" "Yes, I have an assignment for you. Have you heard of what happened to 'Chester'?" the Emperor states referring to one of the spaceships. "What assignment and no I didn't." Jonathon said coolly. "It was attacked and barely escaped," the Emperor stated somewhat excitedly. "Really, I thought we were the most advanced in the galaxy?" Jonathon replies with instant curiosity. "Obviously not, I want you to take the prototype ship 'Smudge' and acquire their technology, I want all of it. I don't care what it take just get the technology." the Emperor says barely containing the excitement in his voice. "I'll pack and leave for the spaceport immediately." Jonathon says as he turns to leave surprised at the reaction from the Emperor. "Don't bother; I had Zack take what you'd need to the ship while we were talking. Just head to the spaceport to leave, I don't want any time wasted." "I'll head there now." Jonathon says slightly annoyed as he walks through the door. "Wow, must be really impressive if he had Zack do that but how does he know what all I want to take?" he thinks to himself getting more annoyed as he heads to the spaceport. Smudge is the newest of the ships designed. The weapon, shield, and engine power is unmatched by ship of similar size. The ship is 22 feet long, 6 feet wide and 8 feet high. Jonathon knows of the ship and the stats it has. It hasn't been tested yet however, but promises to be a major jump in the strength of the human fleet once put into production. Jonathon thinks to himself that this must be extremely important if he wants me to take an untested ship. Regardless of how fast a tested ship is, Smudge, if working correctly is supposed to be 12 times faster than our current fastest ship while also fitted with a cloaking device. Jonathon walks outside the palace and waves down an automated tram car to take him to the spaceport. While in the car he thinks about the aliens he's supposed to track down. "How the hell am I supposed to find an alien race? I don't even know where to begin." As he arrives at the spaceport he sees Zack and walks over to him. "What all did you pack in the ship?" Jonathon asks Zack. "I packed a laser blaster, combat field kit, medic kit, spare cloak, emergency rations..." Zack begins. "Wait, you think I'm going to run into trouble?" Jonathon says as his eyes flash with anger. "No my lord, I know you will be successful. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared for anything, just in case?" Zack asks clearly afraid. "I suppose not, what else did you pack?" Jonathon said with a heavy sigh, clearly annoyed. "A universal translator, in case you run into the aliens," Zack says then quickly adds "or any other race you might need to talk to." noticing the anger building in Jonathon. "Enough, obviously I'm surrounded by idiots who doubt my skill." he said coldly. "My lord I meant no disrespect, but was told to pack the ship with those items per the Emperor." "Even he thinks I'll fail? God, what hell am I in for?" Jonathon snaps at Zack. With that Zack turns and runs away glancing over his shoulder, having seen that level of anger in his lord before, and wanting no part in it. "Good riddance." Jonathon thinks to himself heading to the ship. As he enters from the rear of the ship he hits a button to close the hatch behind him. "Computer, prepare for launch." Jonathon says out loud. "Acknowledged, ship will be ready to launch in 90 seconds." a female voice answers from a speaker in the wall of the ship. Heading towards the front of the ship he passes the bunk bed sleeping section of the ship. When he reaches the forward compartment, he takes a seat in one of the two seats located behind a bank of monitors and touchscreens. In front of him is a huge view screen showing the spaceport round the ship. "Ship will be ready to launch in 15 seconds." the computer voice announces. "Computer, what's the status of life support and the ships systems?" Jonathon asks. "All systems are operating at peak efficiency. Life support at 100%, Shields currently offline for launch, weapons currently offline for launch, engines at 75% and building for launch." "5 seconds until ready to launch, 4, 3, 2, 1, Ship is ready to launch." "Control to Smudge, you are cleared to launch." an operator at launch control says through the speaker. "Ha, I didn't even have to ask, computer, engage the sub-light engine at 25% power until 100 feet, then raise to 50% until clear of Earth's atmosphere" "Acknowledged, we will be clear of the atmosphere in 30 seconds." the computer replies. As the ground falls away from the ship, Jonathon is amazed at how quickly the ship is raising though the sky. Having never been in space before, he tries to hide his excitement at the prospect. In the meantime, the Emperor watches the launch of Smudge and continues to watch until he can no longer see the ship. He has an evil grin on his face while thinking to himself "Finally I'll be able to complete my ultimate goal." "Captain, do you have a course heading?" the computer inquires startling Jonathon out of his stupor. "Might as well start at the site of the attack," he thinks to himself. "Computer, take us to the site of the attack on Chester maximum speed." he says. "Acknowledged, we will arrive at the destination in 20 minutes." replies the computer. Fifteen minutes later an alarm starts sounding in the ship startling Jonathon. The Essence Within Ch. 02 "Computer, what's the alarm for?" Jonathon asks. "A ship is following us on the port side and powering weapons." replies the computer. "SHIT! Power the shields and weapons." Jonathon yells. Too late one shot makes it through before the shields are fully up. It hits the left side engine causing the ship to lurch and instantly slow down. Looking at the status panel, he notices engine efficiency is down to 50%, shields 25%, and weapons are offline. He looks at another monitor to see the class, name, and stats of the other ship. In the current condition of his ship, Jonathon realizes he's no match for the Bright Wing. "Damn it, how careless could I be." Jonathon says, pissed at his own stupidity. "Captain, we are being hailed by the 'Bright Wing'." announces the computer. "Put it on the monitor." Jonathon replies. The image that comes up on the screen is of a man with a patch over his right eye with a scar visible at the top right and bottom left of the patch. He has brown hair, blue eyes, and appears to be about 6 feet tall. He's wearing a flowing white linen shirt, think leather jerkin, dark pants, and heavy boots. He has an energy sword on his left hip and laser pistol on his right. "Why have you attacked me?" Jonathon asks coolly. "How could you let your guard down like that? I've been looking for you for a long time Brian." The man replies ignoring Jonathon's question. "My name is not Brian. I come from Earth." "No need to lie to me Brian, I wanted you to know who beat you today and who's going to be sending you to your grave." "Seriously my name isn't Brian. It's Jonathon Hugh. Read your instruments, this ship is registered to Earth." Jonathon tried again to tell the man, getting more annoyed. The man seems to ponder for a moment, flicks his hand, turns to the side and it looks like he says something to someone just off screen. He must have muted the audio, Jonathon thinks to himself. While the man is distracted he quickly types a couple commands into the computer just to be on the safe side. The first is to start repairing the engine; the second is to scan for a planet he can land on. Just as he finishes, the man flicks his wrist again. "I'll play along with your game for the moment Brian. My name is Val, captain of the pirate ship Bright Wing." Just then, Jonathon's computer displays a planet he can hide on to complete repairs, if he can only get away from Val. "Obviously there's no way to prove to you I am who I say" Jonathon states as he has an idea and starts typing commands into the computer again. "How can I prove to you I'm not this Brian you're looking for?" "Tell you what, lower your shields, power down your engines and we will bring you aboard as our prisoner and go from there." Val says. "You're kidding me right?" Jonathon asks. Just as he finishes his comment he sees the ship is powering up its weapons again. "Well, we could just blow you out of the sky now" Val states as if he doesn't care what happens. "I'd prefer not. However, I'm on a mission and must complete it." Again, as he finishes his statement he engages the computer to complete the commands he typed in. Val sits forwards looking at his scanners wondering what this fool was doing. The small ship has started accelerating towards his ship. He orders his gunner to fire at the ship. Just as the ship fires, the smaller ship moves just to the right but not quick enough and is grazed by the shot. Jonathon curses under his breath. "Damn just a second too late" he notices he's leaking air into space now as well. "Damn, damn, damn." Luckily for him though, Val doesn't get another shot off. He's now too close to the ship and they can't get a lock on him. Jonathon sees the cloak is still working, so he engages the cloak masking the ship from the Bright Wing. He then makes for the planet. As he approaches the computer makes an announcement. "Captain, the ship doesn't have the power to maintain orbit, we will have to land on the surface. However, we don't have the power to control our decent once we hit the atmosphere and will crash into the surface." "And why would my luck be any better?" Jonathon wonders out loud. "Computer, try to make the landing as smooth as possible to avoid additional damage." "Acknowledged, making course corrections, entering the planet's atmosphere in 15 seconds, impact with the surface in 60 seconds." The computer replies. Watching the view screen he sees the glow from the remaining shields as the ship slams into the atmosphere. He then watches helplessly as the surface of the planet quickly approaches. "Ah crap!" 10 seconds from crashing into the surface, Jonathon realizes that the surface of the planet is mainly forest. "This is going to hurt." was the last thought Jonathon had as the ship slams into the trees and then into the ground tossing him around like a rag doll. At one point he hits his head on an overhead beam and passes out from the impact. The Essence Within Ch. 03 Hearing the crash, she looks to the north to see a plume of dust and smoke rising from the forest. Not knowing what to make of it, she decides to investigate the phenomenon. Making her way, she comes upon a scar in the ground never before seen. You can see how the tops of the trees are broken, then at an angle it's like they are shaved off until it reaches the ground. From there it continues along the ground for 100 feet where she sees the strangest thing. It appears to be a very large black box shaped object. As she approaches the object she notices that one section of it is slanted from about the middle of it to the top. She also starts to notice strange markings on it as well. Walking around the side to the back of it, she jumps with a start as she hears a sudden rush of air and a whirling sound. At which point the whole side of it begins to move. She quickly rushes for some cover not knowing what to make of it. When it finishes moving she see something moving around inside of it. She notices it's a biped and it's hurt. The Essence Within Ch. 04 "Striya, do you really think you're going to find the Boss?" says one of the men. Jonathon noticed they haven't paid him much attention, so he lowers his head and slouches to give off the appearance of being more hurt than he is. He then shuffles closer to Striya while placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Max, I will find him and get my revenge on him for what he has done to my temple." Striya says angrily. Max laughs while turning to Jonathon. "What's this? You have a crippled bodyguard now as well. You really are pathetic you know that?" Max draws his pistol as the three of them move closer to Jonathon and Striya. Simultaneously, Jonathon has already evaluated the threat of the three men and is poised to attack. "I'd advise you to move off, if you value your lives." Jonathon says coolly. "Really, and you think you can take all three of us with just a sword?" Max mocks. Without waiting for Max to aim his gun, Jonathon moves with a speed never before seen. He withdraws his sword from its sheath and in one fluid motion slices Max's arm making him drop the gun. He then spins and slices the throat of the man just to Max's right. As Jonathon's sword makes its final downward arch, the third man doesn't have a chance to move save a look of utter surprise as his head is cleaved from his shoulders. Jonathon then places his sword back in its sheath and looks at the essence of the two goon's floating over their bodies. Closing his eyes he mutters a short phrase and collects the essence. Turning to Max, Jonathon walks up to him, looking at him with eyes of steel watching the blood flow from the cut in his arm. Max unable to comprehend what just happened looks around and sees the two dead men at his sides. When he notices Jonathon walking towards him he instantly becomes very afraid. "Wait, don't kill him yet, I need some information." Striya pleads. "I know, that's why he's still alive." Jonathon states as he approaches Max. "I'd advise you to answer every question asked truthfully; you won't want me to use this on you." Jonathon said to max as he pats the hilt of his sword. Max just stares and faintly nods his head. Jonathon turns to Striya. "Ask him your questions, let me know if any are false and he will quickly learn to tell the truth." Striya just stares at Jonathon for a second glad he's on her side and suddenly realized what he did. "You can use Essence!?" she says to Jonathon "Essence?" he asks. As soon as he asks it dawns on him what she meant. "Yes. However, where I come from it is called Necronomus." he replies. "I can use it as well, but we call it essence. We use it to heal and help others." Something about that comment stands the hairs on his arms on end but quickly dismisses it; however, the twitch wasn't lost on Striya. Turning to Max, Striya says to him, "Alright Max, where's the boss hiding?" "I don't know" he replied. Knowing it was a lie; Jonathon pulls his sword from its sheath and touches it to Max's arm. Max instantly begins to flail on the ground screaming in excruciating pain. After a few seconds the assault ends. "I warned you Max, you will regret lying to us." Jonathon informs Max again. Moving to touch his arm again with the tip of the sword, Max cries out "Please stop, he's at the academy but I don't know where. There's a hidden passage there that will take you to the chamber he stays in." Turning to Striya, Jonathon asks "Do you know where this place is?" She nods affirmative. "Do they have more metal and wiring at this academy?" Jonathon asks. "Yes." Both max and Striya say at the same time. "Good, I might be able to find what I need to fix my ship." Jonathon thinks to himself. Looking at Striya, "Is there anything else you wanted to ask him?" "No, I don't think so." she replies. Without waiting for her to finish the sentence, Jonathon takes his sword and pierces Max's heart killing him. The globe of essence produced was twice the size of the other two goons. "You said you can use Essence? Then take that globe." Jonathon tells Striya. She walks over to the globe, and while it's not exactly the same as Jonathon's incantation, she whispers a phrase and absorbs the Essence. "Take off the bandage and I'll show you what I can do." she says as she turns toward Jonathon. Walking over to him, he removes the bandage. She places her hands over his wound, closes her eyes, and starts mumbling an incantation. A green light starts emitting out of her hands and baths the wound on Jonathon's head. Amazingly, his wound begins to heal, however while being healed Jonathon becomes very uncomfortable, like he's experienced this ability before, yet can't place where. When she finishes, he shakes off the feeling and looks up at her. Somehow he wound up sitting down. Again, Striya can see the look of confusion in his eyes and begins to think there's something more to this man then what he's letting on. Getting to his feet he looks to Striya noticing she's deep in thought. "Should we continue on to the temple then?" Jonathon asks. Surprised at being caught in thought, she nods her head in agreement. They head down the path towards the temple. The Essence Within Ch. 05-06 Note from the author: These are the last two chapters I had already written prior to submitting the story. I fully plan on finishing this story and hope you have enjoyed it up to this point. Please feel free to comment on the story as I'd love to have some feedback. Chapter Five Having just arrived at the temple, they remind Jonathon of the pictures he saw of the Aztec temples in Central America. The walls are stone with greenish vines growing on the outside of them. However, the difference here is the damage to the temple. It's obviously been attacked recently and in ruins. The front corner of the temple is missing and the blocks around the hole are charred. There's the smell of charred earth and flesh hanging in the air. He can see a few people tending the wounded but by the size of the temple there should be a lot more people present. He goes over to one of the charred blocks inspecting the damage. "By the damage here, someone is helping them in their ambitions." He says turning to Striya. "We've never seen these types of weapons used before." She says. "They looked like normal guns, yet they emitted a light that burned the flesh off those targeted." "In the morning we will head to the academy to confront them and avenge your people." "You don't need to do that I can handle them on my own." "I'm sure you can but I need to find materials to fix my ship. I need to finish my mission." She looks at him, "I'm not sure I understand. What do you mean by your ship and mission?" Sighing as he knows he can't keep it from her any longer. "Obviously you know I'm not from here, but I don't think you understand just how far away I'm from." "I know that you're not from around here, you don't even look like us. I figured you were from someplace across the sea." Striya says while looking at him. "In the forest where you found me, that was my ship. It also caused the scar you saw and the angled cut to the trees from its landing. I came from there." he says pointing to the sky. Thinking about what she saw when she first came upon him, understanding start to dawn on her face. "You came from the sky; you mean you're from another planet." "Correct, I was attacked shortly after I left my planet and had to find someplace to hide out. Landing here further damaged my ship due to the forest. I need to see if those that attacked here have supplies I can use to repair my ship and continue my mission." "Okay I understand about your ship but what is the mission you speak of?" "Well, my Emperor assigned me a task to complete, which is my mission." "I understand, like avenging my people is my mission. It's getting late; shall we retire for the night and leave for the academy at first light?" she mentions looking to the sky. "Yes let's get some rest. I'm sure we will need our strength for tomorrow." They both head into the ruins of the temple to find a place to sleep. They both find a spot in one of the lesser damaged areas of the temple. Striya spreads out the sleeping roll, lies down, and quickly falls asleep. Jonathon on the other hand is having a hard time falling asleep. He spends some time contemplating the current situation and finds himself watching Striya sleeping. "There's something about her," he muses, "something just feels different about her than anyone else I've dealt with. I better watch my guard around her." This was the last thing he thought, before he fell asleep. Though he slept, his dreams were a mixture of Striya with her using her abilities, or of his father yelling in anger with red glowing eyes. Chapter Six The next morning Jonathon and Striya sit down to have a quick breakfast. Jonathon looks at his plate and wonders what it will taste like. On his plate there is something that looks like eggs from earth yet are purple with white spots the yokes are pink with blue spots. There are two sausages and what can only be a piece of bread. Not knowing if he will be able to digest the food, he starts with a small bite of bread. It tastes remarkably good; it reminds him of a cinnamon roll but without the frosting or cinnamon. Next he tried the sausage; once he puts a piece in his mount he starts choking and gagging, spitting it out as quickly as possible. It has to be the worst thing he's tasted in his life. Striya, watching him, sees him gag on the sausage and asks him, "You do not like sausage?" "That doesn't even come remotely close to what sausage should tastes like." he replies. "Well with what you told me yesterday I can see that some things might taste differently to you then us. Try the eggs though they are a very good source of protein and help sustain energy levels for a long time." she informs him. Not sure whether to try the eggs or not, he finally sighs, closes his eyes, and takes a small bite. *** "Has anyone seen or heard from Max since yesterday?" the Boss asks of those around him. Everyone at just about the same time replies "Not me Boss." "Haven't seen 'em in a couple day's Boss.", "Me neither Boss." or some other fashion of not seeing Max. "Well he's been missing for almost a whole day don't you think someone should go look for him? Stan, go look for Max, he said he was going to go look for Striya and get her to back off." "Okay Boss." came a reply from a someone, a heavy set person in the back with dirty brown hair, mud streaks on his face, and flies buzzing around his head. As he leaves the room, everyone that was around him smile, as the stench has left the room. A short time later, Stan returns. Visibly shaken, he approaches the Boss and whispers to him. "You're telling me all three of them are dead?" the Boss asks. "Yes, it appears they were killed by a sword of some sort." replies Stan. "Didn't they have their weapons drawn?" "Only Max had his drawn, but the arm holding the sword was cleaved from his body, he was also pierced through the heart. It looks like he was tortured before they killed him." "So chances are Striya and this sword user knows where we are?" "I'd imagine that would be a safe bet." Pulling a communicator from his pocket, the Boss starts speaking into it, "Everyone get ready we are going to be having visitors that aren't welcome. Do not let them into the compound." As he's speaking his words are echoing off the walls of the academy. When he's done everyone gets up and heads to their assigned areas for defense. *** Jonathon starts to grimace when he puts the fork in his mouth expecting it to taste horrid, however flavor exploded on his tongue. It wasn't like anything he had ever tasted before and he liked it. The closest thing he could compare it to would be a Kiwi, Strawberry, Orange mixture. Seeing the surprise cross his face Striya mentions to him, "Wait until you take the next bite." Puzzled he looks forward to his next bite of eggs. When he takes that second bite, he's even more surprised to find out the taste had changed. This time it tasted like a mix of peach, plum, and blueberry. "Wow I've never had anything like this before. Are there more flavors I'm going to experience?" he asks. Striya reply, "I'm afraid not. It's just the two flavors. I was hoping you'd be able to enjoy them. I take it they are good?" "Good? They are excellent." He exclaims between bites. Watching him eat, Striya sees a very small glimmer of something in Jonathon that doesn't fit. She doesn't yet quite realize what her decision will cost her, but she knows she has to stay with him to help him shed the evil cloak he's wrapped in. After breakfast, they start their journey to the academy. Walking side by side, they chat idly while they make their way there. After traveling down the path they come to a large field, but before they emerge from coverage, they stop at the edge to evaluate the area. They take cover behind a group of trees just off the path. In the distance they can see the top of the academy.