You wanna know something? I was getting sick and tired of passing out. I’ve fought in hundreds of wars, both in Heaven and on Earth. I’ve even fought on other worlds. I don’t think I’ve ever passed out as much as I have in this body. It was getting out of hand.
When I woke up, it was daytime and I was in bed….again. I expected to see Sora or Jason, but instead I saw Master Chow Panushi. I asked, “Where am I?”
“You are in a hotel room Jason Coates bought. You’ve been out for 6 hours. That was a risky stunt you pulled. If I hadn’t stopped it---.”
“Then, I would have stopped it. Though, I had every confidence that you would find a way. As you were testing me, I was also testing you, but mostly I was testing my own limits,” I told the master.
He started to get upset. He stood up straight and his eyes flared up…literally. “Who are you to test me?!?”
I looked at him and smiled, but said nothing at all. This, however, only angered him further.
“Speak child, who are you?”
“Come now Magus, you know exactly who I am. Let’s stop pretending.” My smile never faltered, but the master’s anger certainly did.
He walked closer to my bed and then said, “How do you know that? Who told you that name?!”
“Isn’t it more like a title than a name Master? That is what a wizard is called when he has reached the pinnacle of his strength. I know this, because you know this.”
Master Chow had calmed down, but he also had become disoriented. He tried to sit down, but there wasn’t a chair. I tried to get up to stop him, but I was still in pain. I saw a chair by the window and reached for it. It moved and went under the master just as he sat down. Had I moved that chair with my mind, or had the master done it? Since he was lost in thought, I couldn’t ask him, so I tried to see if it was me. There was a glass of water on my left side bed table. I concentrated on lifting it. I lifted it all right. The glass flew to the ceiling and shattered. It seemed my telekinesis had returned along with my pyro-kinesis. Or, was this a dragon power? Who knew; I certainly didn’t know how they worked, but I was pretty sure that this power wasn’t related to a dragon. I believed that this was one of my own powers returning.
When the glass exploded, Master Chow came out of his shock. “Are you all right Master?”
Master Chow was still a little out of it when he said, “Yes my boy, I’m fine. Now, how do you know all of these things? Did someone tell you this stuff?”
“Tell me what exactly? I never said I knew anything other than who you are. I think you’ve jumped the gun a little bit. But yes, I do in fact know things other than who you are. You’re original name is Panushi Foseel and you’re over 2700 years old. Your much older brother, Magus Tran Foseel, created the wizard’s stones,” I said to the master.
“There’s no possible way you could know any of that. How do you know my real name or that I have an older brother for that matter? You are much too young to have heard any of the legends and I never told your dads anything about my past.” The look in the Master’s eyes was definitely that of fear.
I moved the coverings back and exposed my bare legs. Good thing I was still wearing my underwear. I moved my legs to the right side of the bed and then attempted to stand up. My feet were still asleep and my legs were a little unsteady, but I managed to stay up. And like the last time I had been bedridden, I felt stronger than before.
I telekinetically moved a chair to be right next to the master. “As far as my time in this body goes, I haven’t learned any of this from anyone. The thing is I’ve been here before. I didn’t remember until now, but while I was passed out, I had a dream that was really a memory of the last time I was here. The memory must have been repressed, but I was here about 2000 years ago as my former self. Your older brother’s twin, Claudus I think his name was, was causing a big ruckus. He was super bad. His antics were affecting the whole star system, so I was called in to sort out the mess. After we defeated your evil brother, the good brother died and ended up in the stones. I saw him recently as a matter of fact. It was a weird reunion though I didn’t know that’s what it was. But, you and your sister helped me defeat the evil twin and that’s how we met. You met me when I was still called Adonael. Though, I don’t remember all of the details. That part is still blocked I’m afraid.”
Master Chow’s eyes got really wide and there was a minor tremor in the room causing a dresser to fall over. “You…you’re the angel Adonael?!”
I smiled and nodded.
“So then, what your fathers said is true, isn’t it? But if that’s the case, why do you look like this; what happened?”
I explained everything. I started with my last year as James Taylor and ended with the spell Jason cast that went awry. It took an hour to explain it all and Master Chow was extremely patient throughout. But, he is almost 3000 years old, so I was sure he learned patience somewhere along the way.
When I was done, there was total silence. I took that time to pick up the dresser and the glass that I broke. After a few minutes, the master stood up and looked me square in the eyes. “I will teach you.”
“What was that?”
“I will become your master. It’s the least I could do after what you did for me too oh so many centuries ago.”
“Are you serious?! That is awesome! I’m so glad you changed your mind!”
“To be honest, I was coming in here to tell you no, but now that I know who you are and what you must do, how could I refuse?”
After my initial elation was over, Master Chow and I talked a bit more about our shared past. Well, he talked and I listened. I only remembered bits and pieces.
An hour later, Sora and Jason came into my room. I told them the good news. When they had finally calmed down too, they and the master left my room so I could get some more rest.
The next day, we said our goodbyes to everyone. The king and his daughter thanked us again. Sora and Cecilia wouldn’t stop looking at one another. When I looked over again, they were actually holding hands. It was the sweetest thing.
As we drove off, now with an extra passenger, Sora looked over his shoulder and waved. Princess Cecilia was also waving. Even from this distance I could see that she wasn’t happy Sora was leaving. But, I knew they would see one another soon enough, so I reassured Sora of just that.
It took us a couple of days to get to where the master lived. The weird thing about finding his place was that we actually passed it on our way through to New Pandria. We had come to a small dirt road, but there wasn’t anything there. Master Chow got off of the bike, waved his hands and a rune materialized. He put his right hand on it and it looked like the rune was scanning his fingerprints. When the master took his hand away, the rune disappeared and the air around the road began to shimmer. There had to have been a force-field cloaking spell, because basically the air came apart and we saw a very wide path that led to what was the largest castle I had ever seen; and I had seen a lot. I counted at least twenty towers on the wall of the castle which was a huge block like structure.
Done in all brick, it was unremarkable to look at. Well, I should retract that. The wall itself was unremarkable. The inside, or rather beyond the wall, was breathtaking. The most beautiful garden in any universe was beyond the wall. I saw jasmine and honeysuckle. I stopped to smell the roses and admired the calla lilies. I marveled at the assortment of orchids he had. Venus fly traps were in between all pansies and flowers to keep the bug population down. Sunflowers as tall as Jason lined the path to the place the master lived.
The house was a standard two-story house done in the Victorian style. When I noticed that, I also wondered if there was ever a Queen Victoria in this world. What stood out about the house the most was that it was surrounded by sand. It was surrounded by sand because it was on an island. The island was three times the length of the house and surrounding the house were more flowers to make it look even prettier. There was a lake that encircled the island and it was fairly large and I saw a few fish jumping every now and then. Though, it was a little odd to find a normal house in essentially the courtyard of the grandest castle ever.
This would be our new home until Master Chow decided our training was complete. For now, I was lost in the beauty of everything I saw.
After the master let us bask in the ambiance, he led us to a boat and we paddled to the house. We went inside and he showed us to our rooms. We all had our own. Before he left us, he was adamant about us getting some rest. The hell was to begin in the morning. Oh, we couldn’t wait!