Wind's Bargain

As I rode, determined, my mount sweated in effort. My slight female form gripped the stallion tightly, trying not to cringe at the speed which we were flying. 1

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'I must be crazy.' I thought to myself.3

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I couldn't quite describe the cry that had pulled my off of my feet, and on this windy journey. It was a sad terror ridden cry, the cry that one hears when submerged in a place without oxygen-a place without hope. 5

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Even now, as I tried to hide my own fears, I heard their crying. In a camp, less than a mile away, a group of children cowered. Their minds, in anguish, watching their mother tied up with strong cords to a wooden post. Her arms looked heavily bruised, but, to my surprise, I could not feel her pain or see into her mind. I could see her weak and tortured form through the eyes of her children crouching in fear. 7

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Through them, I saw her eyes. Despite the terror of the stricken minds around her, her eyes were soft and calm. She was at peace; she had a secret. She calmly asked her children to look away while it happened, but not to fear, and that they should remember her life and not the manner of her death.9

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I gasped as I saw another group gathering there. Their tall lanky bodies hunkered over in desire, their black eyes, and their steel minds. One of the demons jeered in disappointment, ‘Spent up breeder, not worth the price of the food she ate.’ 11

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I grasped the white mane so hard my knuckles turned white. I tried to be brave, to be strong, wanted to comfort them, but their fear spread through me. The children hunkered together not wanting to look, but fearing not to, yet one child’s mind was particularly strong. I could not only hear him, but his mind was answering back, he knew that I was coming. His focus heated my consciousness; it seemed to speed me further, “Hurry!” 13

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I rode hard pressed to beat it, the cruel ones were almost all assembled- I pleaded with the The Creator to make it there in time. My white mount nearly shone its own light as he charged in thick strides down the rolling grass. The hooves sounded furious against the quiet stretching horizon. I felt a strange power, shift beneath me. I wasn’t quite the awkward tender hearted girl anymore. Suddenly, I felt a new fear- a personal one. At any moment this power would surge up and through my body, changing me. 16

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‘Threshold.’ The thought froze in my mind, and it thickened my blood. 18

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I had always heard the old family stories from my father and uncles about when they had reached their day of change. It was a call that came during a time of need, a call to come forth and battle. I had never dreamed I would ever hear it, ever be worthy of it. It was only for men, and only for those held in high honor. 20

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They had gathered the companies to the Far East in response to fearful rumors-rumors of demons with strange powers. When the ladies’ fort had been attacked I fled into the South Wood, knowing it well. I had always played there as a child.22

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The attack had come so quick, that I barely knew what to do, so I took my father's spare stallion and went there- to the one place that I didn't believe I could ever feel fear. I thought that if I was hunted down, and if I were to die, I would want to rest in the soft meadow by the brooke, west of the Holy Mountain. I waited for them to find me, but they never came. So instead, I cut some sod, and made a small shelter, I lived there surviving on fish and honey. I made myself safe, and knew not what happened elsewhere. I hoped feverishly for my mother and sisters, for the men who'd left, it seemed, so long ago-but I dared not journey out, being such a desired target. It seemed sheer madness to leave the woods, but here I was without hardly any real explanation. I had no understanding of why I was so compelled.24

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'If this is threshold, if I've met my limit and am getting the call...' I winced at the grief that burned me.26

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It meant that there was no one else, no one with enough ancestry, enough honor, no one with a gift strong enough to get a call, besides me. Sick in anguishing, I suddenly turned my steed angling in a frenzied pattern. I couldn’t follow, I couldn't face it. I didn't want the truth. Soon a blank numbness crept down my neck, and I was no longer in control. The horse, knowing, feeling the finger of the elements, steered us back to our fate. I rode now as a passenger only, too blank to care what happened.28

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Along with the mental anguish of loss, I shook in nervous apprehension. I knew that the call was never given without a price.30

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"Reylana!" The boy had found my name...he screamed at me again in desperation. It pulled me out of myself.32

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He couldn’t have been more than three or four years old, but I felt his wise, stony mind. This boy must be the mother's secret.34

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I had listened to the fireside rumors of children snatched away in the night, or of women held hostage to breed. It was also known that the demons searched and schemed for humans like myself, humans with certain gifts. This woman must have been a prisoner, must have been forced to 'breed' and then expected to hand over her children. But for what purpose?36

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She had managed to hide the truth from them- that one child was what they wanted. She was willing to die to keep her secret, as now they were ridding themselves of her. They considered her of no more value than a lame horse. 38

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The boy's mind became a window and I saw the scene as it began to unfold. One of the Masters came forward, he was the executioner, and yet he smiled. I saw the fiery malice, this demon’s wicked designs. The boy could not quite make them out, but I knew they ran deep. I knew I would see my whole world burned before he was through. I sensed that this demon’s power ran thick, and I knew that in order to save this poor family I would need to be stronger. 40

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‘This is why the call has come.’42

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As I focused my brow in concentration, I realized that I still had a choice. The change was coming but it still felt reluctant, it felt has if the messenger was reluctant to hand it over too quickly. I knew there must be something more, some other reason for the delay. 44

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‘I will do my best.’ I pushed out to The Wind.46

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The Wind replied, ‘First you must know, you must know what you will lose.’48

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‘I don’t care, I’ll sacrifice!’50

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I had seen the boy, and his poor mother. I had seen the horror, the violence that would inevitably come to them if I didn’t. 52

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‘You will care, you care even now.’54

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Time began to stand still. The thrumming of the stallion hooves slowed to a distant drum, and then fell silent. I was looking far away, into time, into a cross roads. All was lifted up into a strange mist and then I seemed to hear a sad pipe playing a story, the story of a tragic loss. I heard the song and knew it was playing for me. 56

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I looked across the plain and instead of seeing the distant village I saw a vision, I saw my choice.58

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I saw myself, my face was hard. A reflection grew in my eyes that spoke of some great evil. The demon himself stood tall above me, his black eyes full with that same malice and terror. I knew I was the only one who could do it, I would do it. 60

For a moment the two opposing minds became one, the evil one sought the power within me. He sought to drain me, use me. He sought control. Despite him my mind was strong, and underneath me was that old secret power, that power that he couldn’t expect. That power of the call. 61

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Outside I heard a commotion, a voice, a familiar beautiful voice breaking in agony. For some reason I felt his heart breaking, and then realized that mine was breaking too. I knew that this person was connected to me, and his pain was mine. He knew that he would be too late, despite his efforts to save me.63

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I forced the ebbing energy up from my feet, and pooled it into my mind. I pulsed it out and into the malice. The energy was a light, it was pure- it was truth. The demon felt his truth, and it was painful to him. For the first time in his existence, his own terror was turned upon him, and now he would be his own victim. 65

He turned his face. I could see him clearly now. The vision he showed forth to the world was nothing more then a mirage. What I saw before me was pitiful. I saw a small white form, stooped over in age. He was hairless and on his face where there should have been eyes, there were two crude scars. He was blind, and could only see what he saw through the eyed souls of others. He lived by extracting their experiences. 66

He turn back his second face on me and the mirage took control once again. He growled deep in his chest out of sheer determination and intense hatred. His malice was strong, but my call was stronger. 67

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‘I must dig deeper, deeper from the ground.’69

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I dug even deeper still, and though he winced in a mixture of shock, and fury he was still standing. I took in everything left, all of the call and thrust it forward, he began flailing, and suddenly I was astonished to see that he was falling. Just when I thought I had him, he barely caught his foot under him, and grabbed the wall for balance. 71

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‘If I let him stand again, I won’t have the energy left to take him out.’ I began to panic, ‘He must go down, he’s the strongest. The others are ready to retreat.’73

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A stab of agony swept over me as at last I knew, I must use my one cherished hope, I must give it freely. I dug it out from my heart with a sting as its roots had sunk into my very core and sent it out and into the beast. The blast shook him; it shook him to the bone. It was the best part of me, the strongest part. He wasn’t expecting it, he couldn’t understand it. With one last grimace he fell, and his hate filled eyes closed for the last time.75

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The hate filled false eyes were broken, the master was slain. I sighed, with relief, but my knees began buckle. The door swung open.77

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‘Jonas has found me, he has come!’ relief washed over me.79

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His face shrunk back in horror. His eyes blazed in fierce agony, as he ran across the threshold towards me. “Reya!” The fear in his voice caused me to remember…81

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‘I gave everything, my hope is gone.’83

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He ran to me, and caught my frail shell before it slipped to the floor. My skin was cold, and my eyes had shut. The call had taken me, and I would sleep until long after he was cold as well.85

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The Wind brought me again to a new sad scene. 87

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A great hall of stone lay barren. A great climbing stair case drifted up to a small chamber high above the fields below. In tribute to this forgotten hero the chamber had a single window looking out to a familiar field which with a similar blazon sky hung just above it. Many years, like the very vine clinging to the columns, had dug in and chiseled away at the blocks and mortar. Most of the structure was unstable. Facing the glorious view stood a broad bed which must have once been richly dressed, but now stood laced with thread-bared fabric, eaten by moth and decay. The shuttering garments made a ghostly halo around something, the only thing unchanged, more unchangeable then the crumbling stony walls themselves. 89

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I saw lain out before me my own sleeping body, fair, with long black tresses sweeping down the floor. My skin was pale, but not dead. An icy light, almost radiant haze hovered magically around me, containing me- preserving me. In my own stiff fingers I grasped a bound collection of letters, from the man I would never see again, telling me all of those things he’d wanted to but hadn’t, telling me of the life he'd lived that I had missed.91

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The Wind interrupted, “In time, much time, you awaken to a new world, a world that has forgotten you. But a world that needs you, again.”93

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“How long will I be this way? Will I ever be able to own myself?” The Wind did not answer.95

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I must know- I had to know. 97

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“Is this the only way to save them, to save my world?”99

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Still no answer came.101

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“Ok, but please answer this…” I paused hoping for something, “What was the secret hope that made the difference and brought down the beast?”103

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There was a pause, but then to my relief an answer, “You gave up something he could never match, a very powerful sacrifice. You gave up your last hope, for yourself. ”105

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Now the mist began to dissipate and thin out, and from somewhere I could hear a faint drumming, which began to quicken and get louder. The Wind still had some force but needed my answer, “What do you choose?”107

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I felt my mount underneath me again; I felt the breeze in my face, and the fresh scent of grass being kicked up around me in all directions. I heard the bellows of the boy, and knew that though I might still have a long fight ahead, if I chose this path, I knew where it would lead.109

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“Now, knowing the sacrifice, I don’t know if I can…”111

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The wind curled around me, “Knowing the sacrifice is what gives it power.”113

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This reminded me of the power I’d seen in the eyes of the demon, the power of his machinations, his hovering crafts that destroyed cities. One word came to my mind, the title, the sound affixed to the doom that awaited our virgin world- the Voltori. How many are here? When will I meet the one that will doom me? When will I meet this man, this love? Can I avoid it? 115

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“What do you choose?” The Wind seemed urgent now…117

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I could see the village, I could see the fires. I could see the great metal dome extended far above into the sky. I saw the huts of squalor, where our people where put. I saw many herded, and rallied around with ropes and irons like so much cattle. I was close enough to the demons now that I could hear their thoughts openly. 119

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I saw hundreds of worlds, once full of life, of beauty, all burning. I saw greed and ego. I saw the quickness of their minds, their intelligence which had no compassion. I knew without this secret power, the power of the call, we would stand little chance.121

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“Give me the call! Take my life for it, take my will, I give it freely.”123


As I rode down the sloping hill, the wind flew into me. I opened my arms wide, feeling my body lengthen, my reflexes quicken, my mind expanded further. Though I was utterly alone I felt the strength of a secret army behind me. I charged down the hill, into the village. With my hair whipping out wildly, my weather-tattered maiden whites pressing against me, I stretched out my arms and lifted my head to meet the rain that now descended from the heavens. To the poor humans souls distracted from their heavy labor, I must have looked like some strange warrior angel. 124

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'She is called here!' Many echoed the same thought.126

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I could feel the ripple of excitement which exploded with force and surged out as I journeyed towards the selfless mother. The thoughts smelled like fresh spring rain after a hot day. It was glorious, the surge that radiated. It revived me, strengthened me, it bathed me and submerged my mind from any thought of myself. It told me I had made the right choice. It was the surge of new hope.