Chapter 20

As Rex walked out from his meeting with the Seer, he had a few answers, but also a lot more questions. He now understood why he seemed to have such powerful abilities straight up, seeing how powerful Fafnir was, in fact he was one of the most powerful beings ever. Why Fafnir chose him or what this plan he had with Rex was something else he wanted to know. He also did not understand why the Seer thought he would be a force for destruction, why would I destroy the one place that is my home? He thought. An odd statement from her.

Walking back out to the room with the fire and lounge, Lizetta and Charr’is stood up and started to bow, “Please! Don’t do that, it isn’t needed” Rex said stopping them.

“You are the son of the emperor…we would be punished if anyone saw us not bowing” Lizetta said panicking a little.

“No one else here but us” Rex said raising his hands and looking around.

This statement made them smile a little seeing how low-key Rex wanted to be.

“Would prince mind if stayed and waited for me?” Charr’is asked, as his name was just called up for his meeting.

“Of course, I can wait for both of you if you want.” Rex added grinning.

“Please” Charr’is added “You call me Charr from now” he added grabbing Rex’s hand and shaking him excitedly again.

“I’ll have to get used to that” Rex said shaking his head to clear it.

As Charr walked in for his meeting, Rex sat down and asked Lizetta “So I hear you are from Kent?”

“Yes, it is only a day and a half ride from here! My father is Duvaal, he is the governor. You should definitely come and see us after your official welcome from your father.” Lizetta chimed smiling.

“Why do you wear a hood inside? Its quite dark in the room from no sun, so you won’t get sunburnt.” Rex asked looking at the hood she was still wearing.

“So people don’t stare” She said, she was getting shy now Rex noticed, what could she be ashamed of.

“Stare at what?” He replied.

“Promise you will not say anything?” she asked worried.

“Promise”

“I cover this up” Lizetta said, drawing the hood back.

The first thing Rex noticed was her striking facial features, she had light skin and looked as though she had not seen much sun, her eyes had an amazing deep purple with amazing white hair that was in a pony tail and reached down to between her shoulder blades. “I don’t see the problem” Rex said, in his mind she was very pretty no matter where he looked.

When Lizetta turned her head, Rex saw the source of her shame. She had a burn scar on the side of her face, it was the size of an average hand, it reached from below her eye across her cheek.

“What happened to you?” He asked.

“I tried to control something above my talent at the time, my father pushes me to be better than what I am, I tried to impress him, and this is the result of that mistake.” She said starting to bring her hood up over her face again.

“Don’t do that” Rex said grabbing her hand “You look much better without the hood”

“You’re only saying that to be nice” she said shyly.

“Nope, just being honest” he replied.

Once Lizetta heard Rex say that she blushed a little and turned away so he would not see her smile.

“Very well, as you command prince” she added in still smiling.

Hearing it sound like it was a command make Rex slap his hand to his forehead which made Lizetta chuckle quietly, she knew her joke at worked. “It’s not like that” he added.

Trying to change the subject away from him being a prince rex asked her, “Do you have a nickname?”

“Yes, Lizz, you may call me Lizz.” She said, she was blushing slightly again.

“Very well, Lizz it is.”

‘Lizetta Strix, you may enter!’ came the Seer’s voice from the other room. Charr was just walking out, he was sweating like he had been working hard.

Falling in the couch beside him Charr sighed heavily and nodded to Lizz as she started walking in.

“Good luck miss” Charr added.

“What happened to you?” Rex asked looking at Charr. Went he had gone in, besides the needle in his neck and Fafnir getting very annoyed, everything seemed easier than he thought. So, seeing Charr like this, something seemed off.

“Well me first watch me and father fight giant, then eyes gone blur and then me fight witch in desert with girl and burning man.” Charr said, sounding a little confused, “shaman in there said me must find burning man.”

“Burning man, like he was on fire? Or he had fire shoot out?” Rex asked curiously.

“Burning man on fire, throw fire at witch, Charr need there to protect girl.”

Why did this sound like what Markus said about his father’s abilities Rex thought to himself remembering about “sprouting fire”, why would his father want to hurt anyone? He could understand destroying the witch if she was evil but hurting innocents didn’t sound plausible.

“If you need to find this burning man I’m willing to help you.” Rex said putting his hand on Charr’s shoulder “Only other thing I have first is seeing my father, then we will begin the search, first quest. What do you think?”

It seemed like it took a little for Charr to register what Rex meant, but as soon as he did, he beamed a huge smile and said , ”prince help Charr sound good.”

“Good then, it’s a deal.”

“If you’re helping Charr find the man who throws fire, would you mind helping me?” came a soft voice from behind them.

Both boys turned around, Lizz had just walked out from her meeting with the Seer, she was not sweating but her face was red from effort.

“Did you see a fight with a witch and a burning man who threw fire like, same vision Charr had?” Rex asked.

“Yes, I saw myself taking my father’s place and rebuilding Kent after a fire but then it changed to what I just heard Charr say, it seems Charr and I are fated to the same fight. But even the Seer said she didn’t know any man who could be set alight and not die. She also said she only saw 3 outcomes to this fate, two she did not want to tell me about and one that we are victorious, but also gave me a riddle. ‘To win will require an outward sign of an inward change’” She said.

Curious that both Lizz and Charr had the same visions and about tried to make sense of the riddle, Rex was never good at riddles. Shrugging at the news he said, “Well yes, I can help you both, but like I said before, I am headed to Hale after this to see my parents. They are waiting for me, you are both welcome to come along if you don’t have other plans?” Rex said looking at them both.

“Charr never saw capitol, he follows prince” he said grinning at Rex.

“Well the Seer did say it would be prudent if Charr and I stuck together for a while, she said fate can sneak up on you in a moment’s notice. I will send a raven to my father to let him know I am headed to the capitol.” Lizz added.

As they were walking towards the door Rex suddenly remembered what Markus and the twins said, “make friends”, he had certainly put himself out there, and it seemed to work. He now had two new travelling companions and could not wait to tell them about it. They did say they would be waiting outside for Rex’s return.

Opening the door, Rex bound down the stairs, “Markus! Raz! Kal! I’m done now we can leave, you will never believe it.” Looking around he could not find them.

Lizz lifted her hand, mumbled something they couldn’t hear and a black raven appeared and landed on her hand. “Bring word to father that I am headed to Hale with two companions please Glint” she said, Lizz was speaking straight to the bird and to Rex’s surprise it nodded its understanding before flapping off into the distance.

“Did that bird understand you?” Rex asked a little shocked.

“Of course he does, that is my familiar, I created him when I was 10 years old.” She chuckled, “sometimes Glint is my only companion.”

“Speak of team, where your team prince?” Charr added in.

“That’s the thing, they told me they would wait inside for when I was done, I was only gone for a few hours at the most, so I don’t understand why they left.” Rex said, still confused “Maybe we should look around.”

As the team split up to look around, Rex walked back in the direction he had come from around the edge of the lake searching amongst the rocks and grass for tracks.

“REX! COME HERE!” came a loud woman’s voice. Looking up Rex saw Lizz standing next to a small fireplace not far from a road. Running over he asked, “what did you find?”

“A fireplace with a half-burnt book.” Lizz said handing it him, “It has your friends name on it.”

Opening what was left of the book, there was writings like a diary, entries about harpy fights, his clash with what looked like a sea monster, then flipping a few more pages he saw his name, seeing his group also looking over his shoulder, he decided to read the next part out aloud for the group to hear,

‘After three days of attempting to bash in the Seer’s door to get Rex back, we have decided to go and see Rectus for permission to bring troops back to recover him, I just hope he does not….’

Rex was not able to read anymore of the book seeing as how bad it was burnt.

Then it hit him, they had spent 3 days in there when it only seemed like a few hours. This news shocked the whole group.

“We need to get to Hale and let them know I am most certainly alive.” Rex said looking at Lizz and Charr, who both nodded in agreement, “Then we can begin the search for burning man, anyone know how far it is to get there?”

Without a map it was going to be difficult to figure it out Rex thought, not being able to fully remember details of the map Markus had.

Lizz was first to speak, “Well once we get around Ragnar Mountains, we need to head North, the sun rises from the South and sets in the North here so it shouldn’t too hard for us to find our way.”

Sounds easy. Looking up Rex said, “Well its late afternoon so North has to be that way” pointing off in the distance to the edge of the mountain ranges. Nodding in agreement, Lizz and Rex started to walk off, Rex looked back noticing Charr had not moved yet, he looked worried.

“What’s wrong big guy?” Rex asked.

“That way be home of Balrog.”