The Mark

After a while I heard victory screams coming from outside, we won. Aprix rushed into the infirmary just after I heard them. “I heard you requested my presence as soon as possible, May. Is that correct?” said Aprix. “Yes, you need to see this,” replied May. “What is it? I do not have time for this,” said Aprix with anger. “I might have found the new guy’s mark,” answered May.

“What!” exclaimed Aprix. He followed May to my bed, then she said, “He was badly injured in his chest, so I healed him up, but I also found this.” She pointed at my chest. I was still dizzy but I could see that there were grey shapes of a dagger and an axe crossing on my chest. Aprix looked perplexed, “It’s the correct mark, but.... but it should be on his shoulder. I shall ask Halvor about this matter, for now, he should rest,” said Aprix just before he left the room.

“Come on now, I should get you to your room, you need some rest,” said May. “No, no I can go on my own,” I said as I stood up from the bed, but I immediately winced. May came directly to hold my hand over her shoulder and help me. “So, I never got to know your name new guy,” said May as we were walking. “Adam, my name is Adam,” I said. “Ok, broken boy” said May jokingly. “Says the girl with broken aim,” I replied. “Heh, good one…. Adam,” said May humor filling her voice.

We reached my room and May set me on my bed. “You should get some rest, if you need anything, you can always call me,” said May before going to the door. “May!” I said stopping her, “Thank you for all the help, I owe you my life.” “Just get some rest, I will talk to you again once you wake up,” said May as she exited the room.

I could not bring myself to sleep, so I just sat on my bed and looked at my dagger. I decide to check it out again, in case there was anything I missed. Just as I held it, it started shining in a blinding white light, and transformed into a wave of light that passed through the veins in my hand to the mural on my chest, which also proceeded to shine. I panicked, and immediately thought about the dagger coming back, which is what happened exactly. The wave went back in the opposite direction from my chest, through my arm, and into my hand in the form of the dagger.

I experimented with this principle with both the axe and the dagger many times, and found out that each mural can store its dedicated weapon, and I can just wish them into existence. To be honest, at that point I was too tired to figure out how to master these tricks, so I just stored both weapons and went to sleep.

I woke up to May waking me up saying, "Get up Adam, Halvor wants to see you." I got up and took off bloody shirt, when I realized that May was still in the room, glancing at me, I stopped and said, "Do you mind." "Just wear your shirt and meet me outside," replied May as she left the room.

I put on the blood cabin hoodie and went outside. “Come with me,” said May. “And you’ll be,” I said (referencing a song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if you don't get it then… I guess just search it?) “What?” questioned May. “It’s nothing,” I replied. I followed her to the massive building I went to the first time I came to Hero's Dream. We stopped at the door and May said, "I think I should leave you now." The door opened and Halvor was standing right behind it, arms crossed, and said “Actually Miss May, I would suggest you come in too, after all, you were the one that found the mark.”

We went inside and Halvor sat at his desk while Aprix was beside the wall. He motioned for me and May to sit, so we did. “So, I hear you do have a mark, but it’s on your chest?” asked Halvor. “That is true sir,” I answered. “Just call me Halvor, please. Please tell me how you found out about it,” said Halvor. “Well, May was the one that found it and I personally think she could explain better than I could,” I replied. He motioned for her to speak, and she followed saying, “He can into the infirmary with a deep chest wound caused by a spear, I had to tear his shirt off to have access to the deep areas in the wound, and that was when I saw the mark. I proceeded to call Master Aprix and inform him about the matter immediately after the raid ended, and that was the last of that.” “Fake!” yelled Halvor with rage and anger, his voice filling the room. May looked shook and that was not surprising, but what was surprising for me was that Aprix looked even more shook than May.

“The mark can’t be on the chest, it never was, it never will be! It was probably some drawing or tattoo that he schemed to infiltrate the camp!” shouted Halvor. I stood up and said, “I can prove it’s real.” “Show me,” said Halvor in a low and challenging tone. I rolled up my sleeves, and summoned the dagger in one hand and the axe in another and retracted them back into the mark. “Dark magic! You will be imprisoned this moment!” yelled Halvor before he called the guards. The guards stormed into the room and tried to grab me immediately, but suddenly I heard the guard scream. Apparently, May had attacked the guard to defend me. The other guards lashed at her, but she held them of and yelled at me saying, “Run! Adam, run!” I could not bring myself to do it, especially when I felt like she could be in serious danger. I looked over and Aprix was stopping Halvor from getting to May. It looked like they were having a pretty serious argument, and suddenly Aprix turned over to look at me and said, “I’ll get her, don’t worry just run!” I had no time left to think, so I just dashed straight for the exit, and just after I left, I saw a blinding white explosion coming from the building. It was then that I realized, that I had no choice but to escape The Hero’s Dream.