Chapter 14 - Learning the Truth

“It's okay, Amy,” Joe said. “You don't have to tell us if you don't want to.” He smiled. “I will feel very honored when I'm trusted enough to be told your story.”

Amy smiled back. Joe had a very nice smile. It made Amy feel warm and welcomed.

Kristie smiled as well, and said, “Me too!”

It didn't take very much longer to get back to the place they rested the night before. Once they got there, they all sat down to relax, and almost didn't notice when Konso started to talk.

“We won't leave today,” he said, “but tomorrow, don't be surprised if we are leaving for another island once you wake up. I must tell you that the island we are going to is dangerous and you have to be very careful when we get there. No one is to go off on their own, and everyone is to be more careful than you ever were before.”

“Why?” Kristie asked.

“We are going to the island the danger is contained on,” Pensa said. “It will try to hurt anything that gets in its way. There is a part of the island that is blocked off from the danger, but anything else may be able to get there.”

“What exactly is the danger?” Amy asked. All four of the humans had wanted to ask this question, but no one thought of actually asking it.

“It's a creature,” Shimaki said. “The village you saw was destroyed because of the power in this creature.”

“But that village was most definitely old,” Tom said. “That couldn't have been anything within the past few human lifetimes. You guys don't live that long, do you?”

“No, we don't. Our average dying age is about the same as yours. He wasn't the one who caused the damage. I only said the power in that creature is what caused the damage.”

“What do you mean?” Joe asked.

“A vengeful spirit resides in him,” Sakra said. “It entered him after we finished researching it as a result of one of his clumsy accidents.

“This spirit was once actually inside a creature a few hundred years ago. Once this creature became severely emotionally damaged, it altered his spirit and made him an uncontrollable and extremely dangerous threat. I have no clue if it is even possible to get out of that state once you entered it. Once me and my partner made this discovery, it was the first any creature had heard of an incident like that.”

“That is why it is crucial for no one to go off by themselves while we are on that island,” Pensa said. “He has been there for about two years now, but Konso had put up a barrier that made him unable to leave so that no one would get hurt while we waited for Kristie to turn eight years old. And he was smart enough to even block off a section in the island itself where he couldn't enter so we would be safe there.”

“But if we stay in that area, we should be safe, right?” Kristie asked.

“Not exactly,” Konso said. “Only that creature is unable to go into that area. We don't know if he somehow got some creatures to go to the island he could use to hurt us. We know he knows that we are going to go on the island. The spirit is probably linked with his mind, which knows Sakra had made an antidote to get the spirit out of his body.”

“You said it was your partner, right Sakra?” Amy asked. “The one you mentioned earlier who you called Takuta?”

“Yes, that is him,” Sakra said. “He has always been clumsy. I just never thought it would cost him his spirit... But all of you do understand the importance of this, correct? If we don't get that out of him, then he will eventually be able to break the barrier and destroy all of our islands, and he will probably go onto the humans as well. And whatever you do, you must be as careful as possible.”

“You kept saying about how we will be able to help,” Joe said, “but I still haven't figured out how we will be able to help.”

“For you to completely learn,” Sakra said, “I'm going to have to give you a lesson on spirits, magic, and the Command Law.”

“The command law?” Tom said, confused. “I've never heard of that.

“You actually admitted you didn't know something?” Pensa said. “That is the first I've ever heard you admit you didn't know something, Tom.”

“Well, I don't know what it is,” Tom answered.

“It's no wonder,” Shimaki said. “It's a law that is only known to the creatures. Since most humans don't even want to think tha we exist, they don't have any idea about this law.”

“The Command Law,” Sakra said, “is something I had discovered. I have taken several trips to human lands. And when a human had said a command and appeared to be looking at me, I found myself almost completely unable to not listen to them. This has happened several times. I even brought Shimaki, Pensa, Konso, and Takuta with me a few times to see if it was just me, or if this happened to every creature.

“In other words, the Command Law is the truth that creatures seem to almost have to listen to humans when told to do something. This is one reason why I believed it would have been hard to get the council to let me bring humans here. Once everyone learned of this, most got scared. 'If the humans had ever found out that we were real and they knew about this law, they would most definitely take it to their advantage and take over our land' is what most believe.”

“This is the only thing that ever prevented me from practically killing Joe's father,” Shimaki said. “Because I have to listen to him. If I try to go against his commands, my body becomes practically unresponsive and I feel like I had been attacked by someone with the intent to kill, which makes me extremely weak. And it won't happen just with Joe. It would happen with any of you.”

“This is another reason I wanted to stay in the human lands so long,” Sakra said. “I wanted to make sure that the humans we were going to bring here could be trusted enough that we could tell you about this and you not take it to your advantage.”

“But why do we need to know about this?” Amy asked.

“It also depends on the person on how much it damages us to not listen,” Sakra said. “Someone with a very strong heart and spirit would be harder to disobey. We are afraid that Takuta might examine each of you and try to get rid of the one who would affect him most because of the Command Law. We want you to be aware of this so that you do not let him trick you into anything.”

“It's either that,” Shimaki said, “or he would try to pick off every single one of you so that none of you could have the Command Law over him.”

Kristie started to get scared. Amy had to hug her to try to calm her down. “Don't worry, Kristie,” Amy said. “I'm not going to let anyone hurt you.”

“All of us are going to do our best to protect everyone else,” Shimaki said.

“Now, to teach you about spirits,” Sakra said. “Most humans are able to see spirits. Although most of the time, they don't realize it. Most spirits appear as very faint images that are hard to see. Although, some are able to see them very clearly. I assume that none of you are one of these people, seeing as you only seemed to notice spirits were in the village we visited after I mentioned them.

“Spirits appear in different colors depending on the actions taken when they inhabited a living body, and also depending on their intentions as a spirit. If they intend to kill, but only one or a few specific living things, they will appear almost as a red-brown color. If they intend to kill ferociously, such as the spirit that possessed Takuta, it will appear as pure black. Kinder spirits will appear as lighter colors.

“There is a lot more to this, but I will not go into detail about anything else. This is the only thing you will need to know. Everything else is not necessary. Although if you ever wish to hear more later, you can just let me know and I can tell you. I am practically an expert at learning everything possible from spirits.”

“I don't think I'm going to teach them how to communicate with you,” Konso said.

“Do you not want them to ever talk to any of us again after they return home or something?” Sakra said.

“Not really, but I am only going to teach them necessary things that they will use within the next few days,” Konso answered.

“Don't you think it would be smart to teach them that as well?” Pensa asked. “That way if we do end up separating, they will be able to find out where we are.”

“Fine, I'll show them,” Konso said. He turned to Amy, Joe, Kristie, and Tom. “I'm going to show you basics of using magic.



Konso showed them a few very useful defensive spells and only one or two offensive spells. Since they weren't supposed to hurt Takuta, he didn't want to show them too many. He also showed them a spell they could use to communicate with any creature they want.

“This is cool!” Kristie said. “I would have never thought I would have been able to do anything like this!”

Amy, Joe, and Tom laughed.

“I don't think any of us did,” Joe said.

“It is actually pretty cool, though,” Amy said.

“You'll be able to protect you and your sister a lot easier, Joe!” Kristie said.

“I guess so,” Joe said, smiling. He figured this out as soon as they were being taught the spells, and this made him very happy. If there was no way he could have gotten out of his situation, he would at least be able to protect Sarah a lot better.

“Is there something that could help you, Amy?” Kristie asked.

“I don't think so,” Amy said. “I know exactly how to get out of my situation. There's just no way I can get out of it until I can find someone for myself.”

“What do you mean by that?” Joe asked.

“I mean someone I want to marry. That's going to take forever, though. Because the only people my parents are going to allow me to marry are people who are royalty. There is no way I will marry a royal person. I have refused everyone they sent, and I will keep refusing them. I will only marry someone I truly love and want to marry. I am not going to accept someone just because they are royalty. I don't need any more of that in my life.”

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