There was a darkness that no light could penetrate here.

Azra was not surprised when he saw where he was. He immediately knew he was inside one of his many nightmares.

The same thing always happened. He ran for what seemed like an eternity with no ending in site. He would feel no wind in the air. No scent to be smelt and nothing around to be seen. He was alone in this desolation.

Then the voice would come.

Insulting him with ever manner of unprintable word they could conjure. They called for his death. Their reason; he had refused to be counted among his kind. He chose to walk with the filth that is humanity. He was a disgrace to them and everything they stood for. That was when the blade would find its way through his chest and he would wake from the slumber, his blade already drawn to fend off the imaginary attack.

“It was only a dream, Azra,” Mila, who must have been woken by his moans, was next to where he lay. Azra did not speak as he lay his sword down and sat up. Even if he knew that these were just dreams, he needed to reassure himself of that notion every time they occurred.

Mila eyed him for a few moments longer before she stood and returned to her beddings, not another word on the subject. Azra was glad that she was not one to pry into a matter. Maybe it was because she had dreams that she needed reassurance weren’t real as well.

Azra rose from his beddings and went out of their shelter, sparing another glance at Mila’s back, now turned to sleep. The night air on his face was always a welcome embrace. Most people hated it around this time of the season. The cold was an indication of winter’s arrival.

He glanced around the camp and noticed that the others were all asleep, Mimo in Siza’s embrace and Sila perched delicately on a tree’s branch. To anyone outside the knowledge in Yori, you would say this was a gathering of friends, even bordering on family. But Azra was never confused with the affiliations here. He knew that as much as he trusted the people here, there was no denying that they were of Yori decent, very opposite to him.

He sat at the very edge of the camp and looked out from the hill they camped on to the vast expanse of the Dead Forest. This place felt more of a home to him than the Motherlands of Yori. He wondered why he stayed away from them at all. Why did he return to a place he was always despised and shunned?

“May I join you?”

He glanced back to see the young girl they had rescued from the bandits. She looked to be around twenty winters young and the granddaughter to the Scora Kingdom leader. In other words, she was royalty and the Elder Mothers would have moved mountains to make her retrieval a possibility.

He nodded stiffly as the girl came and sat next to him on the rock, pulling the cloak around her closer due to the breeze picking up around them.

“I would like to express my gratitude for the service you and your knights have accorded me today.”

Azra had never really met the girl before. He had only heard that she was to be an Elder Mother when she was to come of older age, a huge responsibility for any child to bear in mind when still in their infancy. If she would turn to be the same as the ones Azra was forced to deal with now, then he would have no kind words to speak to her now.

“I imagine you must think little of my clan. Especially since it was my grandmother and the other Elder Mothers who do not allow you entry to the Motherlands’ capital, yet expect you to retrieve their offspring without question.”

Azra was in fact, thinking the same thing. The Yori Motherlands had always been off limits to him. Mila, Mimo and the twins could at least roam the Scora and Elenka lands without fear of the Elder Mothers’ wrath. Even though he had performed more service to the Yori people, more than any other knight in the force, he was only allowed existence in the Oak Wastelands. The only time he was allowed in the Motherands was when he would receive invite by the Elder Mothers. He had every right to have no kind of attraction to the royal girl, who would know nothing about how one can live in exile for twenty five winters now.

“The sins of a parent are not hereditary, My Lady. You are only responsible for the actions you undertake with your own mind. You have shown me no animosity. I shall therefore, extend the same favor to you.”

The royal girl was impressed with the white haired knight. Many of the people in her palace all spoke of the curse of Yori that is Azra the Sky Mover. Even the chamber maids spoke of their disgust of him in open daylight. So much hate had been directed to him. It was incredible that the man was still able to work towards the better of Yori, even if Yori did not extend him the same courtesy.

“Wendi.”

Azra turned to her, a puzzled look on his face.

“My name… It is Wendi. I feel old when you keep referring to me as ‘My Lady’.”

Azra stared at the girl. He had no use for her name. In a matter of hours, she would be back in her castle and have no second thoughts about him. But that was a friendly gesture. She was actually the first person he had rescued that even ventured to express their gratitude.

“My apologies… Wendi.”

The two sat in the silence of the forest night, the only sounds coming from the soft snores of those in the camp and the burning wood in the fire. Azra was just about to speak when Wendi spoke up first.

“Can I ask you a personal question, Azra?”

“Of course, My L… I mean, Wendi.”

“Why did you save me?”

“It is the duty I was given by your Grandmother.” He did not hesitate in answering the girl.

“No… Duties aside. What is the true reason you still follow what the Elder Mothers tell you? You could be a free man here in the Dead Forest, though I can admit that it is a dreadful place. But at least you would be away from the hate that is directed to you in Yori.”

Azra sat with this for a while. Why did he still return to Yori? There might have been many reasons to leave. But Azra needed only the few he had to make him put up with the hate.

“To fulfill the last wishes of a dying man.”

And that was the limit of the conversation for Azra. He excused himself to scout the area. Wendi let him go. He needed space to think about whatever she had just made him remember.

At first light, Azra and his party got on their horses and journeyed through the Dead Forest for two days and one night before they came to the Gates of the Yori Motherlands.

The Motherlands were unequalled in beauty anywhere Azra had moved. Today, as they rode with the sun to their backs, winter’s beginnings could be seen with the white cover of snowfall over the trees nearby. The gate was made of wood given every manner of magical protection all the Mages of Elenka knew.

They had neared it when it gave a groaning sound and parted ways. Azra was not surprised he had not been stopped this time round. Wendi’s aura must have been enough for the knights at the gate to not ask more. The Yori Motherlands were segmented such that the Elenka Villages surrounded the Scora Kingdom, where the royals lived. The wooden houses of the mages were colored with the different kinds of wood used to build them.

The building structures would change as you made your way deeper into the lands where the Socra lands begun. Here, only structures of stone stood. Even if they were only a varying degree of grey and black, they had still been decorated with enough color to make them as magical as the Elenka dwellings. At the very center of the lands stood the Castle of the Elder Mothers. It was the largest dwelling in all the lands, and just as well because it held all the sages and scholars from all over the lands.

Azra dismounted his steed, helping Wendi in the process before he led it to the stables. It had been traveling a lot of late and he was concerned about her health.

“If you gave the same care to a woman as you did to that horse…” he heard Mila mutter to herself as she led hers passed him. He did not see how this was a concern of hers seeing as she had already been loved by a man who she had given a child to.

The party made their way to the castle grounds where they were to await the arrival of a messenger. Even if Azra was allowed into the Motherlands during special occasions, there were still limits to this exception.

“Why do we have to stay here? Can’t we just leave her in the care of the Scora Knights and be done with it?” Mimo asked and Wendi turned a brilliant shade of red. Azra reminded them all that he had to complete his duty so he could be allowed rest in his home. Presenting the girl to her Grandmother was part of that duty.

Mimo was still questioning that when the palace doors opened and out stepped four old women, all clocked in the four different colors of Yori and sporting different kinds of face paints in the same color as their clothing. Azra and the party all went on one knee as the Elder Mothers drew closer to them, heads bowed in respect. People had said that the four women were present at the very beginning of Yori’s conception and were immune to any attack, physical or magical.

Azra wasn’t convinced about this since, just as every time he had been in their presence, there were about sixteen Knights flanking them.

“Wendi,” the woman cloaked in red stepped a few paces from her sisters and extended her arms in which the girl almost ran into. Azra could see how the girl was related to the Red Mother. She was the only one here who still had some faint hint of being beautiful once upon a time.

“You are late, Outcast,” the Yellow Mother spoke as she glanced at the girl, “and having no excuse in the form of injuries to show.”

“Forgive me, Elder Mother. I thought it prudent not to rush the Lady when it was her first time on a steed.”

“And when was the last time your thoughts ranked at par with ours, Outcast?” the Blue Mother hissed, almost on the verge of assaulting Azra where he knelt.

“Never, Elder Mother.”

Azra could feel Mila’s fist clench. This was exactly why he never liked bring her to see the Elder Mothers. She did not have good self control.

“And what of the girl’s scars?” The Yellow Mother spoke, “were those also your doing?”

In technicality, they had been Azra’s fault. Wendi had never been on a horse before and Azra had decided to let her ride his steed which he would control on foot. Wendi must have frightened the beast in one way or the other because mid way, it buckled wildly and threw her off.

He had known that that was going to come back to haunt him.

“Please, Grandmother,” Wendi interrupted Azra’s apology, “It is not the Knight’s fault. The bandits were not gentle in their assault on me.”

Azra felt ever fiber in him freeze. He knew he could never lie to the Elder Mothers. That was a crime he was not ready to commit. If they were to ask the truth from him…

“Then we should get you looked over before they turn serious,” the woman cloaked in black spoke for the first time, all the while looking at Azra with a piercing glance.

The Yellow and Blue Mothers both huffed and led the way inside, the Red woman asking Wendi to follow.

“I thank you again for your service, Knight,” Wendi spoke as she made her way into the castle. Azra was starting to like the girl.

“Your pay,” the Black Mother spoke and one of the Knights handed Mimo a sack filled, no doubt, with gold.

“I require a word alone, Sky Mover,” the Black Mother spoke as Azra and his company were about to leave. He ordered the others out, Mila giving him a contemptuous look before she left. He turned back to the Elder Mother with all the knights still by her side and awaited her words.

The woman glanced back and one by one, the Knights disappeared into the castle until it was only she and the outcast left in the courtyard. She moved towards the benches that overlooked the vast fields of the castle and beckoned Azra to join her.

“And?”

“Your suspicions were correct, Elder Mother. The same stench of dark arts was present in the bandits.”

The woman sighed as she took a seat. Amongst the four women, the Black Mother was the one who was probably the only reason that Yori was still alive by now.

“But something else troubled me,” Azra spoke and the woman turned to face him, “the bandits had more than dark magic with them. There were spirits... dark spirits... in the men.”

The woman was quiet as she internalized this. It was about a full minute before she asked if any of Azra’s party had seen this as well.

“Just Mimo. But even she could not make out what it was she felt.”

The Black Mother nodded her head at this and stood up, a move that Azra could see was taking all the energy she had in her.

“If the darkness is venturing so close to the Motherlands, it must only mean that we are not safe anymore.”

Azra knew they were not safe two winters ago when he first came across the man with the stench of darkness in him. The people of Yori called him a curse, but what he had found out there… that was the true curse that was coming for them.

“What do you require of me, Elder Mother?”

“For now, to rest,” she said as she led him back to the courtyard, “The journey that needs to be travelled can only be done by you on your best day.”

Azra did not know what to say so he bowed in respect to the woman. She had sent him to the coldest parts of this world to gather information. To the hottest deserts to find herbs best for curing epidemics. To the highest mountains to investigate the occurrences of dark magic. To the deepest oceans to find ways of protecting the Yori people. What place was this that he had to be on his best day he had not already seen yet?

“And Sky Mover,” Azra abandoned his trail of thoughts as his mind snapped back to the present, “I know I have never spoken about it, but you have my gratitude, especially for your deeds today.”

Azra bowed again as the woman entered the castle. The Black Mother had always been odd. She seemed to be in control of her emotions on most days. But today, she seemed defeated in the knowledge that Azra had brought her.

Whether or not this was a bad thing, Azra would need to wait it out and see. For now, he would retrieve his steed and make his way back to his homelands where, preferably, a bottle of rum and a warm meal were awaiting him.