Once her vision cleared she saw two or three guard monks piled upon each other. In the dim light, she could vaguely make out two heads. But there was a lot of fleshy mass piled up that could have hidden another head under there. Either that, or one of them had three hands. Their gray robes and tattooed head was an indication of warrior guards. She could not make out if they were dead or alive. The tiny whimpering noise came from the child who was squatting, bent over the fallen form of the person she hit earlier, prodding and urging the attacker to wake up.

Chira cursed in her mind, when a thought occurred to her. She, had interrupted a rescue mission. Someone had the same idea as her and was trying to rescue the child, when she entered and disrupted everything. Should she leave now and let the two do their own rescuing? She needed to leave as quickly as possible if she did not want to get caught in her distraction. Then again this was the first time she had hit someone to the point of unconsciousness. She did not know how long the person would take to wake up. She also remembered that she had sealed the way she came in, and she did not want these two escaping that way. She could not leave the child alone here. Perhaps she could show them the exit and they could continue on their way, leaving her to do her own escaping, as an apology for getting in their way!

She quickly studied the chains that bound the child to the floor of the room and the magical weave formation that glowed eerily. As she studied it, a dreadful feeling crept over her. A deep sadness fell over her as she realized what they were doing to the child here. She was no longer surprised about the things done in this place.

The human mind was a trash yard of perversion. Chira had once thought that depravity was only limited by human imagination, but had found that imagination was nothing to the depravity and perversion a human mind to reach.

The child and Chira met each other’s gaze for a moment, and a feeling of understanding passed through them in an instant. Chira was dressed very similar to the child in a long beige burlap tunic and loose pants, tied at the waist in a hemp rope. Their heads shaven clean. This was the normal cloths given to new novices, except they were not novices. Both terribly thin and malnourished, with dark circles under their eyes. The child’s skin did not have many abusive scars as Chira had, whose thin tall frame was littered with old and new scars of all sizes. But the emotions in the eyes for the both of them were similar, and could be see clearly even in the semi darkness.

The one common scar that the both had was a burnt triangular branding on the upper forearm. Chira could not make out the gender of the child, and looking at herself from the outside perspective, perhaps she appeared gender less too. A shaven head, average eyes without any feminine long eyelashes. A taller than average frame, that was thin as can be. It sharpened her face making in more angular. A figure that had not even formed fully was completely concealed in the burlap cloths. Face and body completely littered in dirt and scars, peeked out from the worn-out cloths.

Chira went back to studying the weave formation on the floor, concentrating her energy to her eyes. Chira’s eyes were very different form the eyes of normal people. She suffered from a sickness called “chaotic eyes”, an ailment that affected about one in thousand children.

Children are normally born with small magic containers inside their bodies. This container is usually said to twist around the spine and end at the base of the spine like an internal sea serpent. While raw magic was not easily usable, absorbed and tame magic that was stored in a person’s body was very malleable. One needed knowledge of the weave, strong intent and will power to wield this tamed magic.

Children were unable to tap into and use this internal tame magic, until they gained some emotional control and are taught to, at usually the age of four or five.

By repeatedly emptying their magic capacity and filling it to the brim, and once again repeating the process, children usually increase their magic capacity. But one in a thousand children are born with a defective eye called the chaotic eye, were the internal magic  leeks out through vision. This makes the flow of magic visible to the child’s eye. The clarity of the visible magic varies from child to child. This in turn causes their magical capacity to never be full…consequently for these children, their internal magic containers never grow. These children in turn become weak magic users. Children with chaotic eyes do not have enough magic inside them to perform anything more than basic magic.

Most children who have this malady, outgrow the chaotic eye as they hit puberty naturally. But they tend to be poor magic users, mostly because of social and psychological reasons. Society is usually cruel to a slow learner.

Chira had an unusual upbringing. While most children with such ailments were prevented from using their eyes to prevent the magic leaking, there was no one to tell Chira that. Strangely even after reaching puberty her chaotic eyes were never cured. This meant that while Chira had the bare minimum of magic capacity, she could see the flow of magic  around her. Other than concentrating she did not have to put any effort into it.

She studied the flow of magic on the weave formation on the floor carefully. Thought she did not know much about such patterns, she knew what to do. Her vision helped her find the anchors and the heart of the weave. She worked really fast. She followed the flow of magic and found the heart of the flow. She used a loose gravel and dug into the muddy grout on the stone floor. The stone tile became loose and she pulled it out. Under it she found a glowing silver blue stone about the size of her palm. This was the heart of the weave formation. The weave was held and anchored primarily in it. She then followed the flow and found the anchors placed all around the room that fixed the weave formation to the floor on the room. With nimble fingers, she unhooked the thread of magic from the anchors and fixed it on the stone itself. She did this quite swiftly. The second her eyes were on it her hands began to work. She did a crude job in her haste, but the heart of the weave, the stone that shown like the moon- that was linked to the child and the weave was no longer anchored to the floor. She came closer to the child to hand the heart stone to the child who hand been watching her with bewildered eyes. As soon as Chira got closer to the child, the child who was near the unconscious man that Chira had hit a few minutes ago, backed away in fear.

“Don’t be afraid….th..this…with this you can now escape out of the room. “Chira had meant to say it softly…but her throat hurt and her voice came out broken.

She tore off the little burlap from the bottom of the tunic, wrapped it around the stone and knotted it so it would not fall off and threw it toward the child, and gestured with her mime asking the child to tie it around its waist. As the child, did so , hesitantly, she went back to the door and peered out. There seemed to be no disturbance. That meant that the pile of guards in the room were the only once below in this passage. The quicker she left the better. She beckoned the child to follow her as she started to leave the room.

“ge hayuna va raya na tu Valksa ta!!” the child exclaimed

This…this language…it sent a surge of memories through her brain. Memories she had forgotten in these terrible few years. This was the language of those strange people who came to master’s work shop. Her eyes involuntarily moved to the child’s ears and eyes. The child’s ears were normal and rounded like hers. The eyes were bright silver with magic, but very human like. The child was definitely not like them…those visitors. Her eyes moved to the figure lying on the ground near the child who was shaking the figure vigorously…trying the awaken him, while talking in the strange language. Even in the mild darkness of the room devoid of anything but the glow from the stone that was tied around the waist of the child, she could clearly see one elongated ear peeking out of the hooded figure. She was unable to judge his skin color. This man was definitely like those visitors who had come that year to master’s work shop.