Emily shrugged. “So besides the hunters, gatherers, and farmers, we prefer to stay together, united as a people who have survived and thrived since the beginning days after the Great Impact, which we call Sky Fire here.”
I found other cultures so fascinating, and I loved learning all I could. I had so many questions and I am encouraged by those more learned than me to always ask, since seeking knowledge is a noble pursuit. I grinned to myself. Did that make me a Knowledge Seeker too? Like Em?
They seemed more than happy to share their knowledge with me and answered each question like scholars instructing an apprentice or journeyman. I made a note to wipe the smile off of Donovan's face. He liked it when I was inquisitive, but this time I was asking all the questions he had to be dying to ask, so only I looked ill educated in all things New Cali. I shook a fist at him and he chuckled. Grr.
The mules were almost insatiable when it came to water. Em shared that most of the animals had adapted to the hot days when Father Sol shone through the Eye, sleeping or staying dormant, and they all developed adaptations to retain water. So they were basically tanking up for the day. The predators mostly hunted at night, but have learned to be wary of man again over the thousands of years since the Impact.
That explained the small campfire when we camped last night, even though there was no chill in the air to chase away.
By the time the skies were painted with an artist's colorful brush again, we crested a hill between the shore and the treeline and I had to smile in wonder. A large settlement I couldn't call a town. It was the size of a small city nestled between the Upheaval and the Cradle. Lights flicked in hundreds or thousands of structures, and along a palisade timber wall that stretched around the expansive settlement.
Camille said, “Behold Doctrina. We camp here tonight, it will take us five hours to travel around the horn of the Cradle to reach the gates tomorrow.
We nodded and slid off our mounts and set up camp, the whole time our eyes were on the city that lay across the water. Emily had a wistful look about her.
This was it, our original destination. How had things gone so sideways on us?
Chapter 13 – Eris
I felt the excitement of the chicken herder buried deep inside me when we awoke. I, Laney Herder was about to visit a city from a faraway land. Something I could never ever have dreamed of when I was little. It was something like the stories in the tomes we kept hidden under our floorboards.
After breaking camp, we headed around the horn of the lake to the waiting settlement. We passed many more patrols as we got closer, and each time they would stop and watch us traveling with Camille. I was quite aware that all of the groups of three Seekers, sometimes accompanied by armed men and women who walked beside their horses, turned and followed us from a few hundred yards back.
I could feel the Seekers' magics moving back there, but with an effort, I fought the urge to turn to look back or worse, look around for Jezelle, who I could feel back there somewhere, lest I give her away.
We passed fishermen on the bank, and farmers going to town, pushing carts by hand. All bowed deeply to Camille and looked at the ground. They all seemed afraid to meet her eyes. I glanced out onto the lake to see dozens of sailing vessels gliding across the rippling surface of the crystal blue waters. They looked so idyllic out there, like the same fear that seemed to grip the others didn't touch them out there.
Mother or Rain would tell me something sagely cryptic, like it is all a matter of perspective, that the calm on the surface didn't show the roiling waters just beneath. I smiled at that.
When we reached the gates at the palisade walls which were constructed with massive timbers fastened with iron straps, I noted how the battlement walks above had dozens of groups of Disciples along them with bows or some odd-looking crossbows which seemed to have crank handles by the stocks instead of cocking stirrups at their fronts. The guards were spaced every twenty yards or so with a Seeker in each group, and only the teams at the gates were looking out across the clearing between the walls and the forest, the others seemed to be watching the people milling about along their business inside the walls.
I noted these timbers were newer than those in the wall farther down. It was as if every hundred yards or so the timbers looked more ancient. It must be the different times the settlement grew with its population and they constructed new sections of the wall to protect the people.
They knew we were coming, whether their lookouts above the gates announced our approach or the rider Camille had dispatched on our meeting had informed the Sect that we were coming. But twenty Seekers backed by twenty or so Disciples stepped out of the gates to greet us when we arrived.
I took one last glance at the wall that extended into the Cradle, and they seemed to have another set of gates in the water at a long pier as Emily asked, her eyes on the overmanned wall as well, “Why so many guards instead of a single volunteer lookout at the gates watching for roaming predators?”
Camille whispered as we approached the line, “Everything changed after the war. We have to be on the lookout for heretics from without and within. Or Cristea witch raids as we still do not know how they infiltrate Doctrina.”
Then she looked to the large, armed group that met us and called out in English, “Sisters, I bring good news. First Seeker Emilathia Brightseeker, thought lost to us before the Cristea War has returned to join us in our fight against the heretics, blasphemers, and witches that oppose Eris' will. We speak English so the First's companions can understand us.”
One woman lowered her pike and the others followed suit as the men and women with them moved in front of the women like some sort of human shields as the woman spoke, “She is a false First, we have a First, Dianda Truespeaker. There cannot be two. This woman deceives you, all know the Brightseeker's glow was...”
She trailed off as Emily slid off her mount, striding up to the woman, her hair dragging the overgrown cobblestones behind her, her eyes blazing. The woman's eyes were glued on the silver feather hanging from the chain on Emily's neck.
Then she took a knee. “First Seeker! Forgive me. All thought you dead.”
The rest slowly, hesitantly took a knee too, looking confused.
She stood again and called out to the others as they stood, “The Brightseeker returns! With her, we can finally defeat those who are not faithful to our Prime!”
They cheered.
Then she looked at me as I dismounted with Donovan. I blurred and left wispy images of myself in my wake. I took their moment of disorientation to step out of myself, sending a future me ahead two minutes in time. I was getting better at my control when doing so.
The woman took a step in front of her Disciple shield, and drew a small curved knife, speaking to our guide, “Seeker, you left your prisoner armed.” Then to me, her eyes flared brightly as she started to reach toward Anadele, “Heretic, you will hand me your...” She dropped her blade, grabbing her head in pain as she spat out a curse, “¡Joder, eso duele!”
I had been ready this time. As my dear late friend, Verna would have said, “Nobody fucks with my head.”
The others, not knowing what happened, started to raise their weapons again, but I pulled them all to me, orbiting me in a deadly whirlwind. I swatted away an errant crossbow bolt by its iron tip, fired by a startled guard on the wall, with my magics as my eyes drizzled a shower of amber sparks.
Dozens of eyes ignited in silver-blue glows while some of the seekers stumbled backward in shock. I inhaled and pulled my power back inside of me and the deadly vortex of weapons clanged to the ground as I rasped out coolly, inclining my head slightly, “Nobody touches my blade.”
There were whispers of Cristea and Witch from the people gathering at the gate.
Emily said quickly, “She is no heretic, nor witch. She is a leader from the lands of Sparo, come to speak with the Prime. She and some of her people accompanied me back home and we were attacked on the outskirts of Ne
w Cali, she is here to beseech help from the Prime... Eris.”
At Eris' name most of the anger from the Seekers and Disciples was replaced by happy, and in some cases, dreamy smiles. The woman nodded to Emily. “Yes, the Prime will know what to do. This must be in her divine plans, otherwise how would the Brightseeker be delivered back upon our doorstep?”
I was more than uneasy about the strange devotion this Eris instilled in everyone. It was as if they were not in their right minds. And they all just assumed that Emily was going to somehow take up arms for the Prime's cause.
I exchanged worried looks with Em and Donovan. The look he gave me was the same one he gave when I had problems performing exercises with my magic. It was the one that usually came with his favorite encouragement, 'stay the course, Laney.'
Camille explained as the others slowly came forward to reclaim their weapons. “It is her people's custom for her to keep her blade, something about being an insult to us if she does not.”
The leader of the newcomers asked her in a whisper I barely caught, “What was that? She has no mind glow, and I've never seen a witch with that kind of power, even from the Cristea.”
Donovan heard it too and offered for Camille, “It is the magic of the Altii of Sparo.”
“You have it too?”
“One form of it.”
The woman said, “At least show your face.”
I lowered my hood, and there were some gasps, and one said, “She's little more than a girl.”
The woman studied me, cocking her head at the magik seeping out of my scarred cheek. “Extinguish yourself, magic is not allowed in Eris' chambers.”
I shook my head. “I cannot. I have been scarred by magic and I cannot control it.”
She narrowed her eyes then looked to Em who just nodded. That seemed good enough for her. They seemed to put a lot of faith in those who outranked them. I just wondered if this was going to be a problem with whoever was currently holding the First Seeker rank here.
The woman made motions with her hands and most of the Seekers and Disciples at the gate headed back into the city, dispersing. The woman said, “I am Tenth Seeker, Jayda. Please, our Prime... Eris awaits you.”
Yup, that confirmed the other rider had already alerted the town.
Jayda and her Disciple motioned some of the commoners over. “See to their mounts.”
Then to us she said, “Please follow us.”
Emily placed her hand in the crook of Donovan's. I caught his eye movements and moved behind them, insulating Emily from Camille behind us as she kept his body slightly between Jayda and Em.
Emily caught all of it and rolled her eyes at us. What? Can't I protect my favorite mother in law? Never mind that she is my only mother in law.
As we walked through the gathering crowds of people who were murmuring and whispering at our passing, trying to get a look at us, Emily started giving the history of the settlement as we passed each point of interest. I devoured every word. It seems that each achievement as they fought for survival was marked with a story of historical significance.
She slowed and asked, “Camille... we're getting close to the core, why are the lights out in the buildings? I see candles.”
Her old friend said, “During the war, the generator house was damaged. Eris said it was more important to make more Disciples than to spare the men to fix it. So the generator turnstiles have sat unmanned for years.”
They had electricity here? Well, Emily did say they had technology from the Before Times, just not as much as Avalon did. I prompted, “Doesn't that concern you?”
She looked to a building with fire damage, there was worry in her eyes but she just shook her head slowly. “We must trust in Eris and her plans. You will see, she is the light.”
Roads in disrepair, electric lights down, fewer farmers to tend the crops. Their infrastructure was slowly crumbling and they believed that it was all part of some woman's plan? They were moving backward instead of forward. This isn't the New Cali Emily had described on our way here. This was all just for one woman to hold power. It was the same sort of thing that had been poisoning Avalon from inside.
Twenty minutes later, we entered a secondary wall of what looked like ancient smooth limestone construction before I realized it was the material from the Before Times that was hard as brick or stone, which was usually reinforced with steel inside. I reached out with my mind and could taste the iron forming a mesh inside it.
The buildings were all covered in ivy, but it was clear to me after seeing so many structures unearthed at the Dig, that these were buildings from the Before. Evidence of being repaired and maintained many times over the centuries evident in the ones still standing.
Others were in ruins, either lost during the Great Impact or the fire Emily had described that had destroyed their repository of knowledge so long ago.
In the middle of it all was a large white clock tower, covered in ivy and made of the same manufactured stone material, leaning at about a fifteen-degree angle with parts of it crumbled away, but it appeared to be operational as it showed what I guesses was more or less the current time. And fifty yards from it was a huge boulder of whitish-yellow material that looked to be at the base of a small, ancient crater in the courtyard. An intricate garden and cobblestone path surrounded it, with Seekers gathered around it, sitting on smaller stones in meditation.
I recognized the sickly silver color. “Is that kellumite?”
Emily nodded. “A chunk of the Earth Killer itself.”
Kellumite was a worthless metal, as it was a grainy mess that crumbled with any sort of pressure, the metallurgists couldn't combine it with other metals to make alloys. And it was barely workable because of its instability.
The only thing that could be done with it was to make silver paints for artists, or the tin workers made cheap and gaudy jewelry with it that left yellowish silver on the skin where it rubbed it.
Scholars determined it was not of terrestrial origin, nor from our shattered moon. Instead, it was from the rogue stellar body that struck our moon and almost killed our planet. The Whispering Walls has veins of it crisscrossing through the mountains, and miners won't touch Father Stone as they say it contains the highest concentration of kellumite per ton, and it fouls their loads. It is likely that Father Stone is the result of an impact of a mountain-sized chunk of the stellar body.
Ironic that the thing that almost destroyed our world is composed of the most worthless metal. Or maybe in some twisted sort of way it was more poetic than ironic. It shows us just how insignificant we are in a sky full of suns and worlds for as far as our eyes can see. I wonder if someone on one of those worlds was looking up at night and Father Sol was just another star in their sky.
I whispered, “Are they... worshiping it?”
She chuckled. “No. We use it as a focal point to ponder the knowledge we learn or share it with others. We figure that it is a symbol that we had survived its wrath as it tore the moon asunder and tried to wipe out all life here. So it makes us want to strive to do better to deserve our survival. And by gathering and sharing knowledge we can become more than we once were.”
I muttered to her with a smirk, “Ok, good answer.” She beamed a pixie-like smile.
Both Camille and Jayda seemed to contemplate her words as we passed a sign that was set up like a shrine. I smiled as I tasted aluminum and steel which they used in the Before that didn't oxidize like regular steel. This was a sign from the time of the Great Wizards.
I asked, “What does UCLA mean?”
Camille answered with sorrow in her tone, “That knowledge is lost to us in the Great Fire. If she knew, AnaMaria Truthseeker didn't convey that information before she passed on.”
Emily offered, “We believed it had been a word for knowledge used by those who came before us. Since this was a center for learning. But I learned from the boon of the Penny Library its true meaning.” She smirked. “Things are never
quite what you imagine, like when you believed Cedar Ridge had been called Gus Davis Ford.”
The Imp was playing with us. Donovan prompted, “Would the Queen of the Scrolls care to share with us mere mortals?”
Camille and Jayda's eyes were wide in anticipation of gaining some knowledge not everyone knew. That reminded me that before this Eris, they had been Knowledge Seekers, not enforcers. Emily squished her lips to one side of her face and almost apologized, “University of California, Los Angeles.”
We all blinked and she shrugged, “The name of the school that this was. It is in the tomes of maps in the Penny Library back in Templarville.”
I pouted. “It's Templar Hall and the Public Library.”
“Says you.”
“Yeah, says me.”
“Ladies.”
I gave Donovan a sheepish smile and Camille said in disappointment, “I thought it would be more... I don't know, prophetic? Maybe?”
We nodded with grins and I said, “Sometimes a fish is just a fish.”
We moved up to a building that looked oddly like a small castle, most of the front wall was from the Before, the rest looked to be constructed during various times from various materials from stone to timber and the tower on the right was built in the same shape as the original on the left.
This building too looked to be as old as the original Highland Keep before the current one was constructed of stones hewn from a quarry at the base of Father Stone in Defiance, shortly after the Lower Ten was founded.
The royal mason of that time was said to have been fascinated with the veins of Kellumite that were infused in the granite from there. Which is the reason Highland Reach seems to glint and sparkle in the light of Father Sol and the Three Sisters.
It had been one of the greatest engineering feats back then, moving the great blocks of granite from the Lower Ten, across the Gap to construct Sparo's largest castle. None are it's equal, even today. And the gods are said to have smiled down upon the new castle in approval, for the following generations saw the first magic users of Highland, after so many developed a spark in the Lower Ten before them.
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