Chapter One

They say that the eyes are a window to the soul, so it makes sense that they have always been a big topic in my life. I vividly remember a teacher of mine asking me why my eyes have lost their shine. Others weren't quite as polite. "You have eyes like a dead fish." is something I heard much too often, and much too early. But I digress.

You see, eyes are also a big topic in my present, not the gift-wrapped sort of present, the time kind. Although it's not eyes, it's just one eye after all. One very big, and very red, eye. Beautiful to look at in a way, but terrible for my sanity. Eyes shouldn't be this big, they shouldn't be red like this, and they definitely shouldn't be attached to a lump of meat with just too many tendrils. No, this day has been going less than stellar. I bombed another exam, I dropped my keys in an unfortunate spot, and while I was busy rummaging around in the storm drain for them, I find myself face to… eye.

Things weren't always like this, and with my hand still moist from the nautical search to find my keys, that's hard to forget. I would just so prefer to not be in this stone room with a single heavy wooden door that's placed squarely behind my ocular adversary, as I'm face to eye with an eye monster. Kudos to anyone willing to be in this spot, let's trade yea? But my prayer is going unanswered, there is no sudden switching of places. The eye has now gotten over the shock of seeing me it seems. The comically large iris is locked on me, and in a shock-fueled idea, I reach out my hand. Not to touch the eye; I'm in shock, not suicidal. But when I slowly move my hand to the left, the eye's gaze follows. Then to the right. It follows again.

My movements speed up, left to right, right to left. The eye has no trouble following my gestures.

Waving my arm in a circular motion, I faintly hope that it becomes dizzy and self-destructs quietly, in vain.

Then that heavy wooden door behind the eye opens and I face new issues. More human issues, if only they were also more humane. A broad-shouldered man walks through, thick beard swooshing hypnotically with his heavy, armored, steps. For a moment I can almost believe he doesn't see me. And then his eyes widen, which is to be expected, but I have seen enough eye for a while, and his mouth opens wide. Then sounds escape from the aforementioned mouth, and I face yet another major problem, namely that I haven't got the faintest idea what the hell this man is saying. Which is certainly odd. Politely, I inquire.

"Hello?" I venture.

His mouth shuts, and his enraged face turns to confusion, mirroring my own. Neither of us is sure what the next smart move is. I try to smile and his face relaxes, he lets out a sigh. This time my face mirrors his instead, for about a quarter second. Because then I notice his hand reaching for the sword at his hip, and when I can see the silvery blade reflecting the torchlight, I decide not to put my faith in his hospitality. As he tenses his muscles and starts to circle the abomination that separates us, I head the other way. In the brief moment where neither of us sees the other, I quickly cast the first spell that comes to mind.

By the time we are face to face yet again, his eyes just dart around the room. Looking for something I can see clearly, the windows to his soul are staring straight past mine as I shuffle towards the door. Invisibility spells don't dampen sound, and it's all I can do to hold my breath. One step after the other I make my way toward the only exit. A fact that mister shiny boots has yet to realize as he heads towards my last known location. With his sword extended he circles around the damn eye, which I now notice has never stopped looking straight at me, even with my invisibility spell at full tilt. My own eyes widen when I make eye contact with it.

It distracts me enough that I don't even notice the spell losing power and vanishing. It is only when I hear the yell of the other mouth-owner that I regain control of my faculties and dash towards the door. I was never much of an athlete, but I was always passionate about not getting stabbed, and that passion now motivates my every step as I move faster than I ever have, through the door frame, into the corridor. Barely able to register what I'm seeing as I just sprint forwards, there are no turns to make, just a straight staircase that's uncomfortably steep.

While channeling my inner gymnast, I move upwards like a hurricane, and soon come face to face with a new door. The armored foe is not far behind, but these hinges are well oiled and it opens with no resistance. It's times like this when I wish there was a loading screen when moving between zones because I sure could use a moment to gather my thoughts. No such luck however and the hunt continues mercilessly, I don't even have the advantage of knowing where I am.

The stone hallway that I find myself in leaves me two paths to go, I turn towards one when I hear the sound of laughter coming from further down the hall. I immediately turn around and make a beeline for the other direction, the shrill screams of my enemy not far behind. As I venture onto my chosen path the laughter behind me dies down and is replaced by questioning sounds. I decide that discretion is the better part of valor and get ready to cast another invisibility spell, as long as there is a momentary gap where no one sees me I should be golden. Then, a feeling of nausea hits me as I've never felt before; I sway but manage to retain my balance. No time to figure out what just happened, but it seems I don't have another invisibility spell in me. Highly unfortunate, and not at all what I needed. While my lungs are already burning. I don't slow down for a moment. I can't afford to. The chase leads me down more corridors until I come across the biggest door I've seen yet. With not much distance between me and my doom, I take a gamble and push my full weight against it.

Not nearly as effective as I had hoped, but my despair lessens as a quick look downwards shows me where the handle is, and I ram the door open. I'm greeted by fresh air, the courtyard looks lovely at this time of year. Or so I assume because I sure as hell don't have time to check. My eyes dart around in search of an escape, but the towering walls offer no such luxury. Luckily, the gate does. For gods know what reason the gate is wide open and the drawbridge lowered. This is my ticket out of here. The air fills with the sound of screaming as I see some people on the walls start running towards the gate too. Undoubtedly to bar my escape by closing the only exit. Perhaps if they had reacted faster it would have worked. But someone is looking out for me as when I head out into freedom, the iron bars slam shut behind me. It affords me little leeway however and I don't believe that will stop them for long. Not to mention any ranged weaponry remains perfectly viable from on top of the walls. I am covered for a moment however, and it allows me to draw up the barebones of an escape plan. The forest in front of me has a single dirt road, not that well-trodden, and the foliage is thick all around, perfect to escape in.

My exhaustion is catching up to me and my pace starts lowering at an alarming rate. Yet I push myself to keep moving and when arrows start whizzing past, it spurs me to run faster. One arrow hits a tree in front of me at an awkward angle; it bounces back and nearly hits me. My hands catch it out of a reflex. Although you could argue I am now armed, as the arrowhead is plenty sharp, I hardly intend to discuss that with my adversaries so I continue forward. Onwards through the thickets, the foliage slows me down, but doubly so for my armored chasers. Although they don't have to mind the sharp sticks the way I need to, their heavy apparel does them no favors in the mud. The distance between us isn't decreasing as of yet, but my stamina has long been depleted. They will catch up to me if this goes on. A furry animal dashes away at the sound of my escape. My lungs are giving me a fiery hell and I barely breathe at all. My gasps don't do much to satiate my oxygen-starved body. Even with my concentration frayed I do my utmost to start casting my third invisibility spell of the day. Nausea hits in much the same manner as before, and I now recognize the feeling as mana depletion, not something I'm accustomed to and certainly not something a single invisibility spell should inflict, especially considering how short it lasted.

But as frustrated as I am, that doesn't change the facts. I am fresh out of mana. As is the entire area, which I've never even heard of happening, the mana density in this forest might as well be zero. Which shouldn't even be possible, I might have bombed today's exam but this is essentially lesson one, everything has mana. This is having me question all I know. And the worst part is that I'm still being pursued, I don't have the luxury to stop and think about the implications. My survival is far from guaranteed in this overgrown place. With some distance between my newfound enemies and myself, my body starts to relax against my wishes, and the immediate consequence is that the shock starts to fade away. Leaving only panic to course through my veins, my body turns jittery and I miss a step. Throwing up my arms to protect my head I eat dirt, and plants. Plants that give my mana starved body the unmistakable tingle of power, for the nth time today my eyes widen significantly. Even as my tired body tries to set itself upright, my mind is racing; head snapping to the right I head for the bushes closest to me. And, throwing away thousands of years of civilization, I proceed to stuff my mouth with leaves.

Every bite has me ingesting a little bit more mana, something I desperately need, and a second wind blows through my body. The euphoria doesn't last long however because I can hear the yelling drawing near. I pick myself up and, with renewed vigor, I dash along with the trees, with no destination in mind I just desperately try to get away. Dodging low-hanging branches and high-rising roots I make my way, unwillingly leaving far too many tracks for my pursuers. Second wind aside, I won't get away like this. And although my magical reserves aren't quite as dry as they were before, they're very far from full, certainly nowhere near being able to cast another invisibility spell.

And then the worst happens, and the forest ends. As does the ground. Winds whizz by as I stand at the edge of a cliff, high enough to be fatal. I have no time before they catch up, and with exactly zero faith in my spellcasting abilities at this moment, jumping is decidedly fatal.

The commander has been screaming the entire time, and I don’t believe for a second this whole chase will end happily ever after. That someone managed to intrude into the sanctuary is a grave sin and he will need a scapegoat. Most of the other recruits haven’t realized it yet, but the older Paladins have reached the same conclusion. One by one they grimace when they think no one is looking, and it’s a matter of time until the young ones start catching the hints. But we are safe for the duration of this chase at least.

A chase that I still don’t understand the origin of, not even as a whole platoon of paladins makes their way through the thick foliage of the forest. We were eating lunch, as usual, then George tripped and deposited his soup all over some guy I don’t remember the name of, Jason maybe, and as laughter filled the room, we heard the commander screaming his head off from down the hall.

Training kicked in and half of us went to grab their gear and the other half investigated the disturbance. Even as I put on my gear in record time, the investigation half started changing into combat apparel as well. The clanging sound of the gate closing made us relax for a moment. Until the commander started screaming even louder, the echoes of him spread throughout the whole castle and we realized our job was not done yet. Within minutes we were heading out into the woods, our glorious leader leading the charge, with enough noise to wake the dead.

Expletives rained from his mouth and it promised a vile end to the intruder. But even with all our efforts, the infiltrator kept escaping us. Luckily for our sakes, we were gaining on him. Although not fast enough for the commander’s taste. But as I started recognizing the landscape my worries switched tracks, the fear of the enemy escaping vanished, and in its place came terror about the consequences of having someone breach into the sanctuary.

Perhaps the commander would be in a good mood after he was done with them because he would be in for a world of hurt. This part of the forest only leads to being captured or dying, after all, sheer cliffs surround the outcrop we are in.

The leaves part and the platoon comes face to face with our foe. Or face to back as it happens, and not for long because this stranger doesn’t even hesitate as he notices our arrival. It’s easy to see his body tense as he makes a run for the cliff. I can almost hear the commander’s eyes go wide.

“Stop him!” he orders.

But there is nothing we can do as this infiltrator does what no one here expected, he reaches the end and simply leaps down. We slow down but the commander only speeds up, not to mimic the intruder however, only to peer down the cliffside. He then takes a step back, turns to us, and lets a rage-fueled scream nearly rupture my eardrums. The few paladins closest to the edge look for themselves and whatever they see, they only shake their heads.

As I am quite curious now, I head towards the edge to look for myself. But a glance reveals nothing, the distance to the ground is so far that mist obscures the bottom. That’s not a distance anyone can survive. Which makes my situation worse as well. The commander is furious and not known for his level-headed decisions in the first place. He turns to us.

“Form up,” he states, with deceptive calm.

We form a line in front of him, he paces back and forth.

“Can anyone tell me how we let a spy infiltrate the deepest, most sacred part of our castle?” he questions. Silence answers him.

“No one? Then tell me, who was in charge of protecting the sanctuary today? Hm?” he ventures, knowing full well there was no one in charge at the time. That part of the castle was on break.

“It was Alan sir.” a snitch hurriedly yells out.

My head snaps to the side and I spot George refusing to meet my eyes. That damn traitor, I didn’t even laugh at his misfortune.

The commander’s pacing continues in silence until he stands in front of me. He abruptly turns to face me. And puts his face uncomfortably close to mine

“Then tell me, recruit, why is it that I encountered another person on my checkup?” he whispers, threateningly. I swallow to wet my throat.

“I don’t thi-” I try.

“That’s right you did not think!” the commander bellows.

“You did not think and if not for this intruder’s lack of information about the area he would have gotten away with sensitive knowledge!”

His spit is wet on my face, and it takes everything I have to remain calm.

“To my office, now. And all of you,” he motions to the rest of our platoon, “if anything like this happens again, I’ll hold each and every one of you responsible.”

We walk back in silence, the shame and anger clinging to me worse than the sweat. I try to ignore the stares directed at me. The entire platoon knows I’m not responsible for this, but they prefer throwing someone else off the cliff if it means they don’t have to suffer personally. I vividly recall only one person going down that cliff, and yet I might as well have followed suit.

“Gods bless timely fog and creative use of absolutely horrible materials,” I whisper to myself as those knights make their way back. The garbled sound coming from whoever caught me was the only thing I heard as I hid behind a rock. My chest swells in pride as I think back to my genius idea, invisibility was a tough spell, not just because it involves very precise control, but also because it takes plenty of mana to make sure you can still see after deflecting the light around you. Basic illusions take next to no mana, they’re just mentally intensive, and although I only barely succeeded before they caught up to me, it was enough to fool them. The wind covered up the lack of sound and I could forgo most of the details. If they had seen the other side of the body, they would have been horrified to look at an empty shell. I only had enough time and mana to form the outside, and even that would have been too much if I had included the front. They think they saw a person jump to their death, but really it was only a hastily conjured up outer layer of one, and only half done at that.

The chase has ended, and they probably believe I died, which is just fantastic. The next issue, however, is figuring out where the hell I am. And where I have to go from here. On a whim, I pick a direction. Then there’s only the sound of my mismatched footsteps and labored breathing.