The Order of the Twelve

Chapter 2: Goodbyes

Chapter 2: Goodbyes

         The next morning, Rosie listened as bells signified the coming of soldiers. In her mind, they were funeral bells tolling for the final hours of her life in Arinna. The soldiers always came in the early morning, so not many people were awake yet. Rosie didn’t expect a large crowd anyway. She didn’t have many friends in the village. Yet nothing filled her with greater joy than to see the people she cared about most coming to see her off. There was her mother and Lacey, naturally; and also Lacey’s mother, father, two brothers, and little sister.


         Lacey’s sister Marcy and her two brothers Timothy and Marshall all gave her a hug and a fond farewell. It was only when Rosie reached Mrs. Montag that she had trouble holding back the tears.


         “Rosie, you know I’ve always considered you like another daughter to me.” Mrs. Montag said on the verge of tears, “I made you this loaf of bread so you wouldn’t get hungry on the way there. Don’t worry. I made sure to leave out the sesame seeds. I know you don’t like them.”


         “Thank you so much Mrs. Montag. If you don’t mind, watch after my mom while I’m gone, okay, and make sure she doesn’t get too lonely without me.” Mrs. Montag only nodded in reply, too choked up to say anything. Saying goodbye to Mr. Montag was harder than she thought it would be. They exchanged only a silent understanding that could not be described in words.


         By the time she got to Lacey, Rosie couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. They hugged and cried as Lacey struggled out a goodbye between sobs. “Rosie, just so you know this isn’t goodbye forever. We are going to see each other again, just you wait and see.”


         “I know we will Lacey, I know.”


         “Just promise me you won’t make so many new friends that you forget about me, okay.”


         “Lacey, you know I could never forget about you. You are and always will be my first and best friend.” Then Rosie stopped trying to speak and just let the tears come. She cried for all the happy times she had. She cried for all of the sad times she had. Most importantly, she cried for the hardest goodbye left.


         Rosie finally let go of Lacey, who then started crying into her father’s arms, and faced her hardest goodbye yet, her mother. Rosie’s mother wasn’t a woman for tears; yet, even she struggled to hold them back. “Mother,” Rosie said, “I want you to know that I love you more than anything in the world and I’m going to miss you so much.”


         “Its okay, my little Rose,” her mother said as she embraced her daughter, “I just want you to know how much I love you. My heart breaks at the thought of losing you and at the same time, I couldn’t be prouder of how brave you are and the woman you have become. I know you are destined to do great things. It’s the reason you were given a talent. My only hope is that you use your talent to help those around you.”


         “I promise that I’ll write to you, all of you, and I swear to the heavens that I will come back home someday. As soon as I’m able, I will come home.” And with that final goodbye, Rosie boarded the carriage that would take her away from her childhood home and into the unknown worlds of the talented.

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         For staff sergeant Aaron Wade, the single hardest thing about his job was watching the new recruits say their goodbyes. There was nothing that made him feel more like scum than watching women and children cry and knowing that he was the cause of it. And even though watching that girl say her goodbyes was hard, Aaron knew the day would only get worse. The night before, he and the other three men with him drew lots to see who would sit in the carriage with the girl. After an incident in Libra, it became a rule that recruits shouldn’t be left alone for the first couple hours. Sitting in the carriage was the worst job for two reasons: first, it was beyond boring. The only thing the recruits ever did was either cry or glare at the officers. Second, he couldn’t even use his talent to entertain himself because the carriage was flammable and it scared the recruits stiff.


         Although he had to say, this new girl seemed to be taking the whole thing pretty well. She didn’t even start crying until the second last person. Come to think of it, Aaron thought, there are usually more people than this. This girl should have way more friends with her looks. Except for her plain clothes, she looked pretty good. She had a slim build, a small face with angled features framed by shoulder length chestnut brown hair. It was hard to tell, but Aaron could see that under her bulky clothes, she had an attractive figure. She could definitely be beautiful if she made the effort.


         Another thing that set this girl apart from other recruits is the expression she wore getting into the carriage. It wasn’t nervousness, fear, or sadness like he was used to. It was more like a look of solemn resolve. Like she had accepted her fate and would face it with dignity. If Aaron hadn’t known any better, he would have thought he was taking this girl to be executed rather than trained. He helped her into the carriage and just before she stepped in, she looked back towards her village and her expression changed from vacant to a look of longing. Suddenly Aaron thought, who knows, I might just have something to do on this trip after all. He could have a lot of fun trying to figure this girl out. Because if there was one thing that Aaron loved, it was a challenge.

◊

         Rosie could really only use one word to describe the soldier that sat across from her in the carriage, curious. As if his red hair wasn’t strange enough he had bright green eyes. Green eyes were a rarity in Arinna to begin with but add red hair to it and this man was almost freakish. The absolute worst part was that he wouldn’t stop staring at her. He just sat across from her with his arms crossed and looked at her, and he wasn’t glaring at her either. It was almost like he was waiting for her to do something. This is getting weird, Rosie thought, maybe if I say something he’ll quit looking at me like that.


         “If you don’t mind,” He said abruptly, “I think I’ll break the awkward silence between us because I won’t be able to get through this trip without saying anything. My name is Aaron. I’m a staff sergeant and I’m from Leo.”


         “Hello. I’m Rosie. It’s uh… nice to meet you, I guess.”


         “Well I’m sure you probably have some questions about this whole thing so feel free to ask.” Rosie just stared at him. Aaron sighed and said, “Let me rephrase that. Please ask some questions because I will die of boredom if I don’t do something.”


         “Well I’m not really sure if that’s possible but okay. For starters, what kind of talent do you have?”


         Aaron suddenly looked confused. “I told you. I’m from Leo. People can usually figure it out from there.”


         “What does the land you’re from have to do with it,” Rosie asked.


         Aaron laughed, “That’s right. I sometimes forget that the Zodiac legend isn’t exactly common knowledge.”


         “What’s the Zodiac legend?” It was common knowledge that the twelve lands were named after the zodiac signs, but this was the first she had heard of a legend.


         “Well it goes like this. A long time ago, the twelve lands didn’t exist and everybody used to be talented. What kind of talent you got depended on when you were born. Out of all of the talented, there were twelve sorcerers who were the strongest because each of them was born when their zodiac sign was the strongest. It was also around that time that people discovered that they could use moonstones to control and enhance their powers. So, naturally, people started mining them. A couple of years after the mines opened up, they found a giant moonstone. So to commemorate the finding of such a precious and powerful gem, the sorcerers constructed a city where the stone was found. Unfortunately, each of the twelve wanted the power of the stone for themselves. So every day for a whole year, they each put a little of their power into the stone in hopes they could gain control of it. After a year had passed, the sorcerers could no longer contain their greed, and simultaneously started pouring all the power they could gather into the stone. Finally the stone couldn’t hold the power and it ruptured, sending waves of energy off in every direction. Turns out the power of the sorcerers, amplified by the power of the moonstone, suppressed the talents of every other person in the land. For the next twenty years, only certain people were born with talents. People discovered that the moonstone had created some sort of boundary lines across the land, and only people born under a certain zodiac sign in one of the corresponding lands would be born talented. Eventually, the boundary lines became the lines used to divide the current twelve lands. The way you know what kind of talent you have is what land you were born in. You were born in Virgo, so you have an earth talent. Are you starting to understand now, Rosie?”


         “Well Aaron that is quite a story. But my next question is why should I believe any of it?” Rosie had many tall tales in her life, but Aaron’s story certainly took first place.


         Aaron looked at her and smiled, “All the proof you need is right around your neck. You’re wearing a moonstone necklace that just so happens to have the Virgo insignia inscribed on it.”


         “Wait, you mean this?” Rosie asked. Rosie had gotten her necklace as a gift from her mother. She said it had been in the family for years. She had given it to Rosie right after they found out she was talented. “You’re crazy. My mom gave this to me. She said it gives the wearer strength and protection…oh God, I think you’re right.”


         Aaron simply gave her a look that said ‘I told you so’ and said, “Okay Rosie, now I have a question for you. How long have you known that you were talented because you took leaving much better than most people?”


         “Well it’s August now, so almost five years,” Rosie replied.


         Aaron almost fell over from shock. “Did you just say FIVE years?! That’s impossible! At most someone is usually able to hide their talent for a couple of months, but not years.”


         “Why is that so hard to believe?” Rosie asked.


         “One of the reasons we can find those who are talented so easily is because they have little to no control over their talents. The fact that you hid your talent for so long, even with your pendent helping you control it is a sign that you are really powerful.” Rosie just stared at Aaron from shock. “Rosie, just out of curiosity, when is your birthday?”


         Rosie snapped back into focus. “My birthday, it’s September 7. Why do you ask?”


         “Just proving a hunch of mine correct, that’s all. So is there anything you’d like to know about the capital?” For the next few hours or so, Rosie and Aaron talked about the capital, the training she would receive, and so on. But every time Rosie tried to come back to the subject of why her birthday was important, Aaron dodged the question. She couldn’t help but feel that he was keeping something from her, but what she couldn’t figure out was what.


         Then someone hollered from outside the carriage, “Hey Aaron, we should be reaching the inn any time now. You and the girl can come out and stretch your legs if you want.”


         “How ‘bout it Rosie,” Aaron asked politely, “Feel like stretching your legs before we get to the inn?”


         “No thanks, I’m fine right here. You can go if you want to.” Rosie said. I could use a little alone time, she thought to herself, I need to think. Aaron opened the door while the carriage was still moving and hopped out, stumbled a little bit on the landing, then regained his balance and ran up to close the door. And as he reached for the door handle, his sleeve slid toward his shoulder and revealed something very peculiar. Aaron had what looked to be a scar on his arm in the shape of the Leo insignia. As Rosie saw this, she added it to the ever growing list of questions about what being talented truly means.