Chương 103: Book 3; Chapter 102; "I never fell, I flew..."

Blake's face darkened at these memories, his eyes growing colder, and Anniet could see now the person that people called the Prince of Darkness. But somehow, for her, he didn't look so dark, as all she could see was just the pain under this coldness.

"To this day, I am grateful to the King for two things from that moment." Blake continued.

"The first, obviously, is that he saved Ren. It doesn't matter that he didn't do it for me; it doesn't make my gratitude any smaller. And the second is that he allowed me to see that she was saved. By now I know that it wasn't my ability to see his Flash of Lightning. He used it after I joined the ranks, and I couldn't see it, which means that, at the time, the King granted me the ability to see what was happening. If he hadn't, I would probably have gone mad, and god knows where I would have ended up."

"What did you see?" Anniet asked.

"You have probably already heard that story from Old John."

"Yes, but he didn't know what you saw happening," objected Anniet.

"No one knows what Old John knows; keep that in mind. You want my version of that moment? Very well then. When I was done with crying and hiding and finally realised that Deamon was able to bite through any intruder without much trouble, and that they would turn to dust at his bite, for the first time I felt a real connection to him, and I realised that he would do all and everything I tell him to do. I tried, and he did obey, chewing the one that was closest to us.

Then I decided to help Ren, who was in a really difficult situation. Everything was going well; Deamon grabbed a few of them. Then I was about to direct him to the four-armed warrior, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw that one of them was getting to my mum, and instantly I diverted Deamon from the four-armed warrior to save my mum. It was not possible. No matter how fast Deamon was, he couldn't get there in time, so it was useless even to try, and Ren also was in no better situation.

The action I had taken helped no one. I abandoned Ren in an attempt to save my mum, but the reality is, Deamon was close enough to help Ren but too far to help my mum, so I withdrew him from where help was possible and sent him where he could do nothing. But Ren wasn't so ignorant as I was. She saw what was happening, and she threw her sword straight at the attacker, just in time to stop him. But at the same moment, another sword came out of her chest…"

Blake closed his eyes at this distant, but still so alive, memory.

"The four-armed warrior stabbed her from behind at the moment she threw her sword, and his other hand, with an axe, was coming down to chop her in half. I could see all this in slow motion — first the sword coming out of her chest and lifting her up, then blood coming out of her mouth, then the axe coming down towards her shoulder. I could see it very, very slowly, but I could do nothing, as I wasn't able to move, and no one else seemed to be moving either. At that moment, he came.

Riding a green, lizard-like dragon. He swung his sword once, and every single one of the invaders disintegrated into dust. At the speed everything was moving, this dust didn't even fall down but stayed in the shape of people. Then he gently pulled Rainee's body from the sword that was still piercing her. You should have seen the care with which he did it. With so much gentleness… Up until then, I didn't even knew what true care looked like. Then he turned around and flew back to where he came from.

When passing by me, the King looked straight into my eyes with a calm and questioning look. I will never forget either the scene when Ren nearly lost her life because of one wrong decision I made, or that look of the King." Blake paused for a short time before continuing.

"Then everything came back to normal speed, but the madness was over. There was no one left to fight, only sandy dust falling all over the ground. And then I heard that people were telling officers that Ren too had turned into dust. I couldn't cope with it, so I had to speak up. And all the rest you already know."

Blake kept quiet for a while, then put the now-empty plate on the table and reached for the hot drinks, giving one to Anniet and keeping one for himself, before sitting back in the pleasant comfort of her company.

"Is there anything else you would like to know?" he asked, putting his arm around her again. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Of course there is," she said eagerly.

"You never finished telling about the School and how you finally broke out of it."

"Oh yes, okay, here we go. Where did I stop?"

"You were breaking and burning the School and trying to run away."

"That's right. So weeks were passing by, and nothing changed much, just my teacher was getting more and more anxious and maybe even a little depressed. She tried to explain to me that this place was not a prison, that there must be something that I needed from it if I was being sent back to it over and over. According to her, every time I left through the gates, the School would let me go.

But because of what I wanted to do in my life, the best option for me was to go through the School, so it would call me back again. Surely, I didn't believe her. In fact, I didn't even try to understand or listen. All I understood was that it shouldn't be a prison, and this place was keeping me here supposedly in my best interests. It was obvious by that time, even in the ignorant state I was in then, that the place was full of magic, and despite being just a place, it was also somehow alive on its own.

So as threatening the headmaster didn't do any good, nor did threatening the School itself, I drew the last "trick" from my sleeve. I threatened the School with my own life. If this place was supposed to do only good for me, then, if I had either to die or leave, it surely would have to let me leave. So I announced it aloud and ran to the mountains, got to the top of the very same cliff where Rainee liked to sit, and jumped down without a second thought."

"No way!" Anniet was terrified.

"What did you expect to achieve?"

"Well, the headmaster had told me so many times that when the School thought that it cannot help me in any way anymore, it will open a portal back to the real world. So I suppose I was expecting such a portal to open. I don't even remember. Rather, most likely, I wasn't even thinking that much. I know for sure I didn't want to die and didn't even consider that this action, because of my stupidity, could end up in death. I think The One is protecting stupid and ignorant children with his highest might."

"So what happened? Where did you fall?"

"Well, I never fell, I flew," answered Blake, this time with a smile on his face.

"That was the first time I could use my wings." They stayed silent for a little while, Blake drawn back into that pleasant memory, and Anniet trying to picture this story in her head — a child so determined to get what he wanted at any cost. Even to such an extreme.

"Why do you think it happened? Do you think if I wanted to fly and jumped, I would get wings too?"

"I think you would be flattened at the bottom, becoming the first casualty in the School's history," Blake laughed.

"Please never jump off a cliff with a desire to fly before you can actually fly. If you cannot fly by jumping from a chair or a table, then jumping from somewhere higher will not make any difference; the only difference will be that the consequences are fatal."

"But then why wasn't it fatal for you?"

"I think there was a combination of factors. First, the School itself is a magical place that is gifted to people to achieve what they truly want. Second, that cliff is even more special. I cannot tell you how, but if you could feel its energy, it feels like god itself were sitting on the spot where Ren liked to sit. The feeling is impossible to describe, but the world from there looks completely different. Third, I didn't jump to fly, I didn't jump to die, I didn't even jump to threaten.

I simply knew at that very moment, in that very space, what I wanted, and I thought I had found a way. As I said just now, I believe god looks after people most when they act in innocent ignorance. If I were to jump with the thought that he had to give me something because I jumped, he would not. You can ask for the same while standing on the ground; why ask for it while threatening your life at the same moment? For me, it was an eye-opening moment," He continued his story.

"From that moment, I finally and truly understood that I was sent there for the very same reason that I had been asking for all this time. If you think about it, it was so obvious. What was the point of me going to study in the Royal Academy when the teachers there are even lower in rank than the King's officers who didn't make it in time to save Ren, or me, or my mum? Only the King himself made it in time. So, if I wanted to be better than all those officers combined, how could they teach me?

They couldn't teach me more than they knew, so it wasn't the place for me to begin with. I remember crash-landing in the middle of the central square and crying myself to sleep, terrified of my own blindness. The poor headmaster, I doubt any of her students have ever given her so much grief, and I hope none ever will. She must have brought me back to her office from that square where I passed out." At that point, he stopped his story again to finish his drink. Anniet drained her cup too and asked eagerly.

"And then?"

"And then? And then I started to study. There were so many books about everything, not just about science, but also about magic, about how to connect with your inner self, how to connect with The One, how to breathe, how to feel, how to listen, how to fight, the reasons for doing all that, and every other subject you can think of. There are even books about what qualities you need to develop to be chosen by the King's powers. You want to be King? Go and study."

Anniet felt a little bit ashamed now that she had used that library so little.

"There is no need for shame. People don't learn just because knowledge is available. They are drawn only to the subjects that they are interested in; all the rest is still open and available for them to use if they choose to, but it is not common to do so, even if suggested by others. I was drawn to many things, to become able to choose the path I wanted to take. I tried to learn it all at the beginning, then I understood that it is not possible to learn and remember it all. That was a bit of a shock to me.

But The One is very close there, and if you allow him to lead you, he will show you the best way. So I was taught how to understand, instead of remembering. And in that way, you can learn much more. When I was stuck with martial arts, as there was no one to practise with, Old John came, as if sent to assist me. After that, I tried to cheat and learned that it didn't work. I tried to say that I couldn't understand one thing or another on my own and that I needed a teacher, but nothing would happen.

And only after I really put all the effort I had into getting everything I could from the resources already available to me would Old John come to correct me or show me new ways."

"But why does it have to be like this?" Anniet wondered.

"Wouldn't it be much easier and faster for you to learn with a teacher at hand?"

"It might well be, but we all have different destinies, different goals, different abilities, and we have to be taught different things. For me, in that way, I learned a fundamental universal truth: that all that I need at this very moment is always at the tips of my fingers. All I have to do is stretch out my hand and take it, instead of waiting until someone else comes and hands it to me. To accept is alright, but to wait in expectation is not.

The moment things I really need are out of my own reach, help will be provided, and if it doesn't come, there are only two options: either, I am sitting in a tantrum, imagining that the things I want are different from the things I can get, or there is no one in this world strong enough to help me, and despite what I am thinking, I am still the best option to be in this place. Ren was trying to tell me this years ago, but then, despite her best efforts, I didn't understand the slightest bit of what she was saying.

I might be very stubborn, or it has to come this way, not by someone telling you, but by understanding it yourself." Blake turned towards Anniet and ran his hand over her cheek, down her neck, with a gentle stroke before continuing.

"Now I don't fight life anymore, because I know that it is bringing me the best that I can get from it. All I have to do is just see what is coming my way, accept it, and appreciate it."