by Philip Read
We initially fly towards the same direction Hirohito and I, high enough not to be immediately identified as human by our silhouettes. The vista that stretches out before us is breath-taking in it’s beauty. I’m home.
The area immediately around Eragon is not claimed by any nation or power, for the dragon brooks no neighbours. The forests are overflowing with herbivorous animals.
Birds, antelopes, bison, buffaloes, goats, monkeys, zebras, horses and the likes. Only small predictors that aren’t territorial by nature being able to withstand the territorial aura of Eragon for extended periods of time. Though even they don’t make a permanent home it what was called The Sleeping West when last I walked these lands.
“Our paths diverge here.” Hiro sends telepathically.
“Where will you go?” I ask telepathically. The force field preventing the wind from buffeting my face in flight also severely limiting sound from permeating. Force fields not yet my specialty.
“I will go warn my people and bring them out of obscurity.” Hirohito says in a serious tone. “I hope to see the Ancient One again as well and test myself against him.”
My eyes nearly bug out of my head at that. “You would challenge the old man?” I ask seriously. It seems disrespectful to me.
Master is a very humble and tender old man. He seems delicate but he isn’t, he is rarely if ever violently. To challenge him to a fight is irreverent.
“In my culture, it is considered an auspicious occasion when the student surpasses the master.” He sends as we slow to a stop, hovering thousands of kms above the ground.
“And you imagine you have surpassed him in only what, 60 years on Omega?” I ask with a huff of my own. The audacity of the man.
He grins as his eyes twinkle mischievously. “I have spent a 111 years on Omega. I am older than I project.” He says unleashing his age for me to fully feel for the first time. Yea, the guy is about 1800 Rigel years old, at least.
“Still-” I begin but am interrupted.
“You forget. As old and experienced as he may be he has never Ascended. He cannot know the things we learnt there-”
“Yet he taught us how to Descend.” I interrupt now. Then I sigh, no. No matter how old and experienced Master may be he has never Ascended, there is just no way on Gaia to accumulate the power necessary to face even the weakest of the people there.
“Just don’t hurt him Ok?” I say as sternly as I can, though we both know I’m no match for him. Still, we have been comrade through many difficult fights and have respect for one another.
“Pfffhh..” He snorts. “You underestimate the old man. He has many tricks up his sleeve yet. I’m off.” And with that he shoots off towards the open ocean.
I sigh as I also think of my plans. I’m honestly not sure what to do with myself. When master taught me how to Descent it was all theoretical, never having been done before.
But he taught me what he knew anyways, and I learnt never expecting it to work. Now that I’m here I have no idea how to go about accomplishing our goals. I’m no ruler or conquerer like the others, nor am I as charismatic or as powerful as them.
Though in this world I’m probably the most powerful human besides Hirohito or master. Still, I only spent 5 years on Omega, though I’ve been away 50 from everyone’s perspective here.
Maybe I shouldn’t be heading to Tiba just yet. Maybe an Ascendant returning will freak them too much. I grin at that, the thought of Castro’s face when he sees me.
I close my eyes and concentrate, first inwardly condescending my crown chakra thickly. Then outwardly spreading it out while simultaneously opening my third eye. I feel/see the aura everything above a certain power level all around me.
Then all around the forest around me, then as far as the eye can see, then further still. My senses questing far and wide, hundreds of kms in all directions in an undetectable way. Undetectable by most but easily foiled by anyone with the knowhow and like their privacy.
I stay in the air for about 20 minutes before finding the old man. 20 minutes where I discover a multitude of strange things on Pangaea and a few creatures/people that look back at my intrusion. Most curiously, some blocking my senses from touching their entire territories somehow.
“My child, how have you been?” He asks, somehow projecting in Universal from very far away. But at least still on the continent.
“Master Pretiosus, I am well.” I say with reverence. I send out as far as I can and he somehow picks it up, sending me feelings of affection and joy.
“What are your plans?” He asks, getting to the point.
“I was hoping you would direct my hand.”
“Then I hope you are not aversed to teaching for the time being. There are many students that could benefit from the instruction given by an Ascendant.”
“Former Ascendant.” I say, already starting to fly towards him.
“Do not come to me, there is someone I’d like you to meet before you can go where I am about to go. Follow this aura signature, tell him I sent you. You will be helped in building a home fit for one of your station amongst a community of people I have gathered.”
“And I thought you would never settle.” I send amused.
“My time to leave this realm is nearly upon me as well. I can settle now, though I am yet to build my own home. Go, find the signature I send, you will be welcomed.”
“Yes master.” I say even as an aura signature is projected to me very clearly. Something I didn’t know was possible even coming from Omega.
It doesn’t take long to find the person Master intended. I’m surprised by the person stopping his sewing to look up as though looking directly at me from thousands of kilometers away.
“Hello.” He says directly into my mind as clearly as master just did. Who is this person? And besides finding him as I should have, from here I can’t tell anything else about him.
“Father just told me to expect you. You are welcome to the Conclave Zaraya Zaraki. Though we are few, we all share the burden of the coming calamity.” He says sagely.
“You remind me of a friend of mine named Hirohito.” I project, as the person’s features become clear and his referring to master as father already a testament to his trustworthiness.
“Yes he is a nephew on my mother’s side. Father trained us together, but Hito has always been more ambitious than I. I am glad he managed to return.” He stands, getting a far away look a moment before I feel something that reminds me of Hirohito brush past my awareness from over the ocean.
“I am The Wanderer, the 63rd child of Ancient of Days, the 12th of those still on this realm. You can call me Malachi.” He says with a happy grin. I nod.
“I’m on my way Malachi.” I project then fly leisurely towards this conclave.
Chapter 38
Zaraya
I met the people at the Conclave compound to jubilation and a bit of surprise. Most of them were human but many of them weren’t. Though I could have remembered all their names they didn’t bother with them, simply saying ‘hello’ and welcoming me back to the planet as though I were a long lost friend.
It is heart warming, none treated me like the stranger I was and as we all began speaking while the table was being prepared I did start catching a few names.
After the table was set, a beautiful ornate table made of a dark polished wood that sits 20 people with matching tall-backed chairs.
“Dig in.” Quintin says with a deep rumbling voice that vibrates chalices and cutlery. Quintin is a bear of a man, a literal bear that stands at 3m tall and wide enough to be two people standing side by side.
His beautiful brown fur coat has streaks of white here and there and a scare is visible on his strangely slightly human-shaped face. Everything about him is slightly human in shape just enough to be functional while his bear form takes president.
His bear claws retractable but still peaking out as nails, his thumbs opposable and very human in their functionality. Looking at him handle things I find
myself not remembering what the hands of a bear in the wild are supposed to look like anymore, even with my phenomenal psionic memory.
His snout short enough and his tongue flexible enough for him to be able to articulate words in Common without any issues. Besides a voice deeper than usual, and a grin that could scare children he seems like any other demi-human beast man.
But he isn’t demi-human, for he doesn’t have a humanoid parent in his immediate line. Quintin is a fully Awakened Ancient beast, for someone like me who’s been in the almost constant struggle of Omega the past five years with senses honed for survival, the distinction is easy to spot.
Ancient beasts don’t generally socialise with humans to this extent so this friendship I’m seeing amongst all these people is a tad bit strange. An Ancient beast is something I’ve only conversed with once before Ascending, something I didn’t realise at the time could Ascend itself. But I saw a few of them once I was there, and the fact that I was also from Gaia saved my life on one occasion, who knew they could be sentimental?
Quentin is beautiful like bears, tigers, lions and griffins are beautiful without losing the sense of being dangerous. He has a deadly beauty that fascinates me even as he passes vegetables across the table and eats cooked swine as any human would. His aura is relaxed and playful as I keep glancing at him between bites and mouthfuls of wine.
“The food is really good”, I say between swallows, I haven’t eaten this well since I left the Order some five years ago, or fifty depending on whose perspective you take.
“It was a team effort”, Malachi says gesturing around. A beautiful tall woman with broad shoulders and a narrow waist huffs loudly while somehow maintaining her elegant poise.
“Though Sarah did most of the work.” He says with a grin to a few snickers along the table.
“I’m glad you are enjoying the food dear, we enjoy cooking here and we don’t have servants yet.” She says looking straight at me.
It’s impossible not to watch her full red lips when she speaks. The woman stands at something like 2m tall and is clearly not exactly human, not with her slightly peaking canines and that mane of hair on her head. The slight curve and sharpness of her ears and the light almost imperceptible golden hairs on her arms, definitely not fully human but very humanoid. As big as she is she moves like a dancer and the elegant way she handles her cutlery speaks of breeding not practice. Her beauty is breathtaking and with her height and size, she should be clumsy and awkward amongst regular sized people.
But she is very proportional and so elegant in all her movements that I feel short instead of thinking of her as being tall. I wonder if this is how dwarves feel when dealing with humans and elves.
She is wearing black flexible leggings and a short-sleeved white shirt that goes over her head and down to her thighs. Opening at the sides of her thighs for flexibility of movement. Her feet are bare and beautiful on the wooden floor, even that seems to prove her superior elegance somehow instead of exposing her for an uncut village girl. The red nail paint may have something to do with how pretty her feet look.
There are three elves within our dining party, two females and a single male. All three very quiet but their aura welcoming and open. The biggest surprise though was the orc and the famously reclusive little people, the gnome.
Orcs are famously hated by most humanoid races for their looks and their culture. An orc is the closest thing to a human genetically. Humans and elves can have children but those children are sterile with both elves or humans, only being able to have children amongst each other. Any creature that can interbreed but produce sterile offspring is considered of different species by most scholars of the subject. Even those offspring that can only breed amongst each other and not with their pure human or pure elven parent species, so half elves are considered their own species of humanoid since they can only breed amongst themselves.
Elves and dwarves have the same problem, so do elves and fae, and elves and mermen. Humanity is one of the most prolific humanoid races on Gaia, able to produce half breed children with almost any other humanoid race. Children that have many of the advantages of both races and only a few of their weaknesses.
But sadly most half breed humans can only ever breed with other half breed humans of the same species. A half-human half-dwarf can be impregnated or impregnate a human but never a dwarf. A half human, half-elven offspring can only ever have children with other half human half-elves. So dwarves are considered more closely related to humans than do the beautiful elegant elves.
But orcs and humans, on the other hand, can breed together ceaselessly. A half-human half-orc can have children with either a full human or full orc and produce young. And orcs are ugly due to their tribal self-mutilation and piercings, at least ugly by most human standards.
This closeness of blood has always caused a strong hatred for orcs from humans who want to see themselves closer genetically to elves, the beautiful elegant race than to the humanoid brutes known as orcs.
*
“So tell me, how do you all know each other?” I say to the room of 17 people seated at the table with me.
Causing a moment of silence and a few smirks and grins.
“The stories I could tell you, ass, Arnold says with his big shoulders leaning forward, elbows on the table.
“You wouldn’t believe how I met Quentin over here. Deep in the Amazulu Rain Forest, in the thick bush where there’s no path between flora to walk through.
“He was a wee lad at the time, stalking me as his prey. Thinking a man of my experience and cunning wouldn’t outwit bear cub.” Arnold grins as he pulls the jug of ale towards himself.
“I led him on a merry little chase through some of the most dangerous parts of the forest. Skirting just past other predictors but annoying them just enough to be an impediment to my little friend following behind.
“Though even then he wasn’t so little. The little fucker could fight even then though, having Awakened early through eating ether rich human prey and magical beasts for strength.
“He outsmarted or outmatched everything I put in his path. Causing me to be most weary for some of those snakes had been giant anaconda and pythons that could swallow a man whole. Even as I prep-”
“Enough of that, she wants to hear about how I met Malachi here, Eronica says sweetly leaning into the quiet-mannereddMalachi.
“Of course at the time I offered to feed the poor ragged that walked passed my home. The rain was pouring and the wind ice-cold as though it could cut through the kin.
“I saw him coming in the twilight still leagues away against the fading light of twilight, his silhouette disappeared as dusk turned to night. By the time he walked into my village, it was already pouring in hard cold sleets.
“I called out to him as he walked past my house, a poor widow past her childbearing years, lonely in the cold winter.” She sighs as though telling the most lovely of stories.
Malachi clears his throat to get her out of her musing. “I don’t think she wants to hear that story dear.”
“Pdrrffhh… Not the way you tell it.” Sisi says in her sweet child-like voice to nodding from Sarah.
“Let’s just say we met in many various ways and eventually met each other through mutual accountancies to each other, Malachi says seriously.
“I’m asking because your auras are all so familiar with each other. Invading each other’s spaces as though you were all lovers or relatives.”
“Or longtime friends,” Erikson says quickly. “We have known each other for centuries, and as most of your friends and family die through the ages. The few friends you have left you learn to treasure more and hold that much tighter.”
The serious young man with captivating red eyes is one of two vampires present at the table. Almost identical to Erica in appearance making the family connection obvious. But Erica is very much alive in complete contrast to the undead state of her brother. Twin brother if I don’t miss my guess.
“What my d
ear brother meant to say is that we are old, and with age we develop close tights to anyone that can potentially stay alive as long as we can.” Erica says to the nods of all around me.
I can’t really feel any of their ages, but having felt the overwhelming thousand-year-old age of Hirohito only a few hours ago, and remembering Malachi calling him a ‘nephew’. I can imagine how old all these people must be.
“So Master Pretiosus gathered all you here?” I ask taking a mouthful of the gathered mix of meats and fruits wrapped in crushed and processed wheat, heated in an oven.
“We are here to help the old man, yes, but we aren’t really gathered by him. We know and respect him of course, you don’t really grow old in this world without ever having have heard or met the man.” Erickson says.
“It’s not really easy to explain but we have dreams and plans beyond the coming of the calamity. Father sees nothing after that for himself here on Gaia even as he assists us in our dream projects.
“He helps us build and directs the path the conclave takes because he knows we may one day be powerful and need to have deep moral codes but into the foundation of our cadre.
“Our members not taken just from the most powerful or old, but the least wantonly destructive and thirsty for power.” She pauses and tilts her head slightly before continuing to speak.
“He is involved in the curriculum our prospects and trainees go through and what our mission statement becomes,” Questica says then sips at her tea gingerly.
“He’s looking to his future now for the first time in millennia, but even then he is using his future to help make the last gift to us.
“Leaving us something that has been blessed by the shade of his hand. A hand that always edifies whatever it touches, be it children, places or people.”
“What do you mean by ‘blessed by the shade of his hand?’” I ask pointedly.