by Jeremy Dwyer
“We can wait…for a little while. How long is long enough?” Count Terzo asked.
“Until we don’t hear it again!” Skylla said.
“We never can be sure,” Count Terzo said.
~~~
“This message sounds like some religious nonsense,” Nestor said.
“It is a warning by priests of an old tradition who hate the magic of the many ocean waters. The eldest stone father knows more about them. He is ancient, quenching his thirst by the time waters,” the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’ said.
“I thought you all drank the Kazofen waters,” Nestor said.
“You know little of our ways,” the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’ said.
“Take us to this eldest stone father. Take us now,” Erikkos said.
“We answered your earlier question. Why can’t you leave now? We must still complete our ritual, and you destroyed the altar. We will have to rebuild it quickly,” Yavuz said.
“We are leaving. We’re going to get all our questions answered. You don’t think we want to spend much more time with you, do you? Come with us and get this over with, quickly, and we won’t knock you off this mountain with an even louder shout,” Erikkos said.
“You are a man with no mercy,” Yavuz said.
“I’m a man with goals, and I plan to achieve them. I’m here for answers,” Erikkos said.
The young man escorted the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’ and Erikkos and Nestor followed them as they hiked along another trail. Yavuz walked alongside them.
~~~
“Someone’s coming,” Count Terzo said.
“Get ready to fight,” Skylla said. She drank anew of the waters of the Trerada Ocean from her vial. She was energized and planned either seduction by beauty or survival by healing.
Count Terzo drank anew of the waters of the Nabavodel Ocean from his vial. He was energized and prepared to apply speed and strength in combat, if necessary. He prepared to draw his short sword from its scabbard, and he could be very quick about it.
~~~
“Someone’s down there…a man and a woman. I hear them, hidden around a corner,” Erikkos said.
“This is a trap!” Yavuz said.
“No. They’re afraid of us. They think we’re ready to attack them. I will speak to them,” Erikkos said.
“You know who it is?” Nestor asked.
“No, but their tone of voice does not suggest an aggressor. It’s amazing what sound can tell you,” Erikkos said.
“Who are you?” Erikkos asked, projecting his voice.
~~~
Skylla and Count Terzo heard the voice ask: “Who are you?”
“I am a young, lonely, slender woman, who hasn’t had a real man in ages,” Skylla said.
Count Terzo glared at her, taking it as an insult.
Skylla smiled, glad that she could manipulate his emotions so easily.
“I am her traveling companion, and she is given to exaggeration about her own charms,” Count Terzo said.
~~~
Erikkos heard this reply from a distance and laughed.
“There’s nothing to fear. A pair of foolish lovers wandering the mountains. The woman has a foul mouth and a fine figure. The man has strength, and has grown weary of her insults,” Erikkos said.
“You heard all that?” Nestor asked.
“I heard enough. I figured out the rest. I do pay attention,” Erikkos said.
“You have power over sound, not of sensing thought. I may trust your hearing, but not your ability to judge intentions,” Yavuz said.
“Where is your ‘eldest stone father’?” Erikkos asked.
“In a temple along a trail leading deep into the mountains. In that direction, toward the voices of the people you are so eager to trust,” Yavuz said.
“If their intentions are violence, they will find your ‘eldest stone father’ and kill him. I only plan to ask him questions. We must proceed and find him first. Lead the way,” Erikkos said.
“Are you sure about these people, Erikkos?” Nestor asked.
“Yes…mostly,” Erikkos said.
Yavuz, along with the young man and the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’, all moved slowly along the trail, knowing that to disobey was to risk losing their lives. Erikkos and Nestor followed them. They soon saw a man and a woman poised defensively.
“So you are the young, lonely, slender woman, given to exaggeration? And you are her unsatisfactory companion?” Erikkos asked.
“I am Count Terzo. Who would you be?” the defensively-poised man asked.
“I am Erikkos. This is my traveling companion and fellow explorer, Nestor,” Erikkos said.
“I am Skylla. You are an explorer? Of what sort?” the defensively-poised woman asked.
“I travel the world, collecting whatever knowledge I can,” Erikkos said.
“As do I,” Nestor said.
“Three (3) of us together is a promising opportunity,” Skylla said.
“You are no explorer, however,” Erikkos said, looking at Count Terzo.
“Don’t be so sure. He may be of use to us,” Skylla said.
“We have somewhere to go now, if you don’t mind,” Erikkos said, gesturing toward the other men, dressed in their animal skins and leading the way.
The eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’ and the young man escorting him continued walking the mountain trail. Yavuz followed, as if to protect the older man.
Erikkos, Nestor, Skylla and Count Terzo followed them, until they all reached a clearing with a temple that had an open design: a maze of stone slabs positioned horizontally across pairs of stone slabs standing vertically.
“This is the Temple of the Steadfast, and the eldest stone father is here,” the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’ said.
“Where is he? I don’t hear or see anyone,” Erikkos asked.
“He will come, at the proper time. Time belongs to him,” the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’ said.
Count Terzo walked toward the stone slabs that comprised the Temple of the Steadfast and examined them. “This may be it,” he said.
“May be what?” Erikkos asked.
“What is he talking about?” Nestor asked.
“There’s writing on the slabs. They’re giant stone tablets, not just walls to a temple. They’re what I saw in the lightkeeper crystal,” Count Terzo said.
Skylla ran toward him and looked for herself.
Erikkos and Nestor approached cautiously, still waiting to meet the eldest ‘stone father’.
“Can you understand what’s on these tablets?” Erikkos asked when he got close enough to look.
“I certainly cannot,” Nestor said.
“Neither can I. But I can match the symbols. Let’s look at that book,” Count Terzo said.
Skylla opened her book to look for matching symbols and soon found them. “They match. What can we do with that?” she asked.
“The numbers shown next to them on the tablets are numbers of stars,” Count Terzo said.
“You didn’t say that before!” Skylla said.
“I wanted to make sure you didn’t go ahead without me,” Count Terzo said.
“Why don’t you trust me?” Skylla asked.
“Because he’s clever. There are six (6) numbers in each set: what does that mean?” Erikkos asked.
“Which numbers are for the red suns, the yellow and the blue? I can’t decipher these symbols. And why are there six (6) numbers?” Nestor asked.
“Because, in the first age, there were six (6) colors of suns: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet,” a voice said. Everyone turned and saw a man who appeared to be in his sixties. He was not dressed in animal skins but in light brown robes.
“You are?” Erikkos asked.
“I am Hakan, the one they call the eldest stone father. I am the man you seek. Time flows around me according to my whim. I have seen the first age, and I know what has been
lost,” the man in light brown robes said.
“You are immensely old, to have seen other suns. Yet, I thought that was a myth,” Nestor said.
“It is no myth, but a long lost truth that cannot be recovered,” Hakan said.
“Where do these symbols direct us? If the tablets use six (6) colors of suns to find a location, and there are only three (3) of those colors – red, yellow and blue – remaining, then we can’t find our way,” Nestor asked.
Count Terzo pointed to the location on the tablets that matched what was in the book that he and Skylla shared.
“Look for the suns you can find. Listen to their sounds, to know their past positions. The solar numbers are listed from the greatest, which was violet, to the least, which is red,” Hakan said.
Nestor drank anew of the waters of the Atrejan Ocean from his vial and was energized. He listened to the sounds of the stars and sought out where they had been in the past, according to the particular numbers of those red, yellow and blue suns clustered together, corresponding to the markings on the stone tablets that Count Terzo had indicated. Nestor searched and searched, and searched even more.
“There is not a single answer, but several,” Nestor said.
“Can you give us a couple of them?” Count Terzo asked.
“Javanda. They’re all over Javanda,” Nestor said.
“That narrows it down…a bit,” Skylla said.
“You may find answers there to your questions. But you will not find the missing suns. They are gone forever. Do not hold out hope for them,” Hakan said. He exerted his powers over the flow of time and it rippled around him. He was gone before they knew it, because light and sound moved extremely slowly near him.
“You have what you came for. Please leave us,” Yavuz said.
“No. We still don’t know what the message on the silver cup means,” Erikkos said.
“What are you talking about?” Count Terzo asked.
“The ‘stone father’ said it before: Drink not the nectar of the wicked. Partake not of the cup of demons. Let your silver cup be empty until the banquet, when it will be filled with the holy and righteous water,” Nestor said.
“That’s the translation of the symbols. But we don’t understand the actual meaning of that message. When is this banquet? Where will it be held? Who is the host? What is the power of this holy and righteous water?” Erikkos asked.
“Where did you find that silver cup?” Count Terzo asked.
“On a dead body, in an observatory, in the Uplifter’s Trail,” Nestor said.
“They’re not just in Waderav, then. It’s a religious cult that doesn’t believe the oceans are any good – they think all magic is evil. They get around and start trouble every now and then wherever they go. It doesn’t last long,” Count Terzo said.
“What do you mean?” Erikkos asked.
“They don’t drink the useful waters, so they don’t have any powers. They’re easily killed off…once you find them causing problems, trying to tell everyone else not to drink the waters,” Count Terzo aid.
“They preach against the powers of the waters, and then get defeated by people who use them?” Nestor asked.
“Yes, that’s what it comes down to,” Count Terzo said.
“It sounds like it’s just another religion that’s self-defeating,” Erikkos said.
“Let’s get to Javanda. I want to see where these stars lead us,” Skylla said.
“There’s no one specific location. Javanda is a vast expanse of forest,” Nestor said.
“Pick the one in the middle,” Count Terzo said.
“That’s still a large area. This could be a long search,” Nestor said.
“I have no other plans. The good news is, we’re done with them,” Erikkos said. He then walked out of the clearing, followed by Nestor, Skylla and Count Terzo.
Yavuz, along with the young man and the eighty-three (83) year old ‘stone father’, all sat down in the clearing and rested, watching the others leave.
~~~
“I’ll lead us out of here,” Nestor said. He moved to the front of the group and found a trail down the mountain, leading to the eastern coast of the Glivoran Trail land bridge.
“I can pay our way. Actually, thank Terzo. This is all from him,” Skylla said, revealing an emerald from the stash she took out of Count Terzo’s castle while they were preparing to leave.
From the eastern coast of the Glivoran Trail, they booked transport on a ship heading northeast across the Medathero Ocean, until reaching the Prince Jalvin’s Crossroads land bridge. From there, they paid for travel aboard a riverboat, leading to the land bridge’s northern coast, and then paid for transport north across the Ikkith Tar Ocean, up into the northernmost latitude of the Grand Redwood Bay in the continent of Javanda.
“All that travel should have cost us maybe six (6) platinum coins per person, at most. We paid in emeralds, so why did it cost us five (5) each? I thought they were worth a lot more,” Skylla asked when they arrived.
“Emeralds can be worth as much as ten (10) platinum coins, depending on the cut, the clarity and the crook you’re trading them to,” Count Terzo said.
“I’ll have to remember that next time someone asks. Crook may be the one word that explains it all,” Erikkos said.
“We really got cheated,” Skylla said.
“Markets vary considerably, from time to time and place to place. Don’t look for consistent pricing, not even from the same captain sailing the same waters,” Nestor said.
When they disembarked from the ship and entered the port town, Nestor drank anew of the waters of the Atrejan Ocean from his vial and was energized. He listened to the sounds of the stars and charted an updated course, leading toward one of the locations that was close to the center of Javanda.
“It’s a short distance from here. We can hike it,” Nestor said.
“And then what are we looking for, anyway?” Erikkos asked.
“After we get out of town, tell him,” Skylla said, looking to Count Terzo.
“Tell us now,” Erikkos said.
“Just wait! We need privacy. Believe me,” Skylla said.
“This had better be good. He’s not even a fellow explorer and you’re trusting him,” Erikkos said.
“It’s better than good,” Skylla said.
“We’ll hike a mile in and then Erikkos can listen to see if we’re alone or not,” Nestor said, leading the way into the forests of Javanda.
Erikkos drank anew of the waters of the Pirovalen Ocean from his vial and was energized. He listened and could hear signs of people working – timber cutters.
“We’re not alone…yet. Timber cutters are felling trees nearby,” Erikkos said.
“Let’s walk another mile or so,” Nestor said.
After three (3) more miles, Erikkos was finally convinced and asked: “We’re alone. What is this about?”
“I was in an arranged marriage to Duchess Sarita, of the Bazavadoran Isthmus, under their King, Hamza Bazavador. After the wedding, I gained access to their library, which is filled with books that have lightkeeper crystals inside of them. I was looking for information about Waderav, about my bloodline, whom the king knew, centuries ago. Instead, I found information about those tablets,” Count Terzo said.
“And that’s important because?” Erikkos asked.
“Actually, it’s important just for what we heard about the stars of the first age from Hakan. Not sure if I believe the story entirely, but it wasn’t the first time I heard other suns mentioned. All knowledge has some value, of course,” Nestor said.
“The tablets – and the stars they indicate – lead the way to the Citadel,” Count Terzo said.
“A Citadel is a fortress. That means it’s for defense…and will be heavily guarded,” Erikkos said.
“It’s the Citadel of Greater Fortunes,” Count Terzo said.
“With the fortunes being?” Erikkos asked.
“The fortunes are the powers of the unified wat
ers,” Count Terzo said.
“Now that’s a myth! Even that King Xander couldn’t find them. He took over what – half the world? He’s been looking for them forever. I’ve heard that he kept coming back, age after age, with spirit magic, supposedly. There are no unified waters. This is a total waste of time,” Erikkos said.
“The king was fooled in the end, according to what I read in Emeth. Just because he was looking doesn’t mean he was clever enough to find them. They could still be real,” Skylla said.
“Says who? He was foolish enough to believe in them in the first place. It’s a myth. If the unified waters existed – if anybody was really convinced of it, anyway – it wouldn’t just be some king looking for them. Everybody – I mean, everybody – would be looking for them. This is a pointless search for things that don’t exist. It’s all wishful thinking,” Erikkos said.
“If almost everybody was convinced it was a myth then that would make the search easier for the few who knew it was real. I’d want to deceive my competition so spreading rumors and doubt would be a useful tactic,” Count Terzo said.
“You play dirty. I like it,” Skylla said.
“We could be in for a dangerous conflict, all in pursuit of something that doesn’t even exist. We have to keep our distance from this Citadel,” Erikkos said.
“What about the other suns – the violet, the green and the orange – that supposedly existed in the past? The ancient man told us they were no myth,” Nestor asked.
“And you said a minute ago you didn’t know if you believed that story,” Erikkos said.
“I don’t disbelieve it either. What’s his benefit for telling us that lie? Just to get rid of us?” Nestor asked.
“Maybe. Send us off on some dangerous journey and get us killed looking for what doesn’t exist. An enemy would do that. You know…spread rumors, deceive the competition. A myth can be just that – mythical,” Erikkos said.
~~~
Prince Marku stood in the marble hallways of the Citadel and heard yet even more thoughts of people outside, but still nearby. Princess Rodica stood by his side and noticed as he stopped once again.
“Marku, are there more guests? Or intruders?” Princess Rodica asked.
“More of them are coming, slowly but certainly. I heard their thoughts. They are searching for the unified waters. The others found us by accident. These new ones are here by intention, and they plan to steal our powers,” Prince Marku said.