Free FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE by S. K. Ng Page A

death. Ray had explained to him earlier that there were many thieves and highwaymen in Free Falls, owing to the economic hardship that had befallen the kingdom.
     
         That evening, instead of practising martial arts, Ray taught Lance meditation instead. Ray instructed Lance to seat comfortably, draw in slow deep breaths and calm his mind. This was fairly easy for Lance; however, the next step was almost impossible. He was told to ‘empty’ his mind of all thoughts. He tried and tried, but his mind would not allow itself be emptied. Ray told him to draw in deeper and slower breaths. He relaxed his mind more. Ray told him to let go of the feelings of fear, anxiety, sorrow and all negative emotions. He tried, but achieved only mild success. Then Ray told him to let go of the feelings of happiness, excitement, satisfaction and all positive emotions. This was also met with mild success. But slowly, both positive and negative feelings began to vacate his mind. Now all that was left was a floating sensation and he felt himself floating aimlessly in the void of his mind. But in that void lay a calmness that he had never experienced before. He continued to immerse himself in it for half an hour.
     
         Ray evaluated Lance’s progress. He was pleased so far.
         “Eyes _ stop and open yours of them now,” he instructed.
     
         Lance opened his eyes immediately. All the emotions rushed back into his mind.
         “Wow… I mean, calmness _ I experienced of this, master,” expressed Lance.
         “Progress _ you have made of this fairly well today, Lance. Meditate _ you must do of this after each martial arts lesson. Important _ it is very much of this that you do so, so as to remove the unwanted side effects of the lessons, or else you may become agitated and unnecessarily aggressive,” instructed Ray.
         Lance nodded his head to indicate that he understood.
     
         The late evening Fallsian sky opened up once again with its routine of thunderstorm and rain. Lance sat in the makeshift tent that they had built earlier, slowly eating his dinner. Spirit was already asleep, his chest rising and falling in rhythm with the gusts outside the tent. Ray was reading the copy of the Vanguard Manuscript that he had retrieved from the dead Elementhar, illuminated by the tiny flame that was being produced by his right index finger.
     
         Reading the manuscript, Ray found out that the dead Elementhar had conducted many of the same experiments that he himself had once conducted when he was a novice; but through the notations of the results, he sensed that the dead Elementhar was a very conservative person in nature. The first clue was the nature of his handwriting. It was neat and upright. It showed that he was a careful person, and a careful person was normally conservative in nature. The second clue was that the dead Elementhar did not vary his experimentations, but merely conducted his experiments in accordance with the standard instructions. This meant that he did what he was told, and not what he wanted to do or was curious to do. Or so Ray felt, but he could be wrong. He would find out more about the dead Elementhar as he read more of the manuscript later, he decided. But he was getting tired, so he closed the manuscript and placed it in his backpack, and welled up his emotions of sorrow and sympathy for Master Elementhar Wave Soltude.
     
         The Seventh Day of Second Month of Wet Season began as usual for the trio. The shadow of the late morning clouds provided a minor relief from the hot rays of the sun as they climbed the steep slope of a large hill. It was a short cut off the main road. Animal-drawn vehicles could not get through the steep incline of the hill and thus the road was made to go around it. Ray and Lance negotiated the steep terrain with great difficulty, occasionally losing their foothold due to the loose soil. Spirit, on the other hand, ran up the hill easily