The Lost Star's Sea

by C. Litka

  05

  We had gathered around a low table under a flowering trellis in the tey garden of The Wander's Grove where we were staying, when, Tey Pot sighed, and finishing the last of his cup of tey and setting it down, said, 'Friends, I am afraid that the time has come for me to go my own way.'

  'But you had talked of traveling with us all the way to Marsh Waters, Teacher,' said Py, alarmed. 'What has changed your mind?'

  'I have not changed my mind. I may indeed, continue on to Marsh Waters, or not, as the Way leads. Truth is, I am of two minds about that. It has been a long time since I have been home. And yet, you know what old homes are - comfortable, but stifling, except in small dosages. No, it is not I, but you that must change your mind about going on to Marsh Waters.'

  'Why would you have us change our minds? What have we done?' asked Py.

  'Oh, nothing really,' replied Tey Pot carelessly. 'It is only that, as I have come to know you better, it has become clear to me that you don't want to go to Marsh Waters.'

  'We don't?' said Py. 'Please enlighten us, Teacher.'

  'It is not my place to enlighten you, my dear friends. But what I will do is to suggest that you travel to a place where you will be enlightened. And that place is not Marsh Waters.'

  I shifted forward and said, 'Yet our plight and purpose was known to both Bowing Pine, and Little Sparrow and both directed us to Marsh Waters. If it is not Marsh Waters, why would they direct us to travel there?'

  'Bowing Pine and Little Sparrow were directing you to the Prime Community where your plight would be heard by the wisest of the wise, the whitest of white sashes, those who would be best qualified to decide how to handle your plight. I can assure you, your plight will pose a problem to those wise white sashes. It will be a problem that can only be settled by consulting various other wise men and women in communities scattered throughout Windvera. This would certainly take a hundred, or perhaps even two hundred rounds - an issue like yours can not be hurried.'

  'I realize that there are likely secrets to be protected,' I said cautiously, since CarVori was with us. 'But the issue is fairly simple, and the answers we seek resolve around practical issues, not great secrets.'

  'And if you accompanied us, could you not hurry the process. You have come to know us well,' pleaded Py. 'You know we are what we claim to be.'

  'Are you?' replied Tey Pot, but with a kindly smile. 'But never mind. Oh, I can tell you what they will, in time, decide to do with you. The final result of their deliberations are not in question - only the time it will take for all to come to see the solution.'

  'And the solution?' I asked.

  Tey Pot looked to CarVori. 'My friend, you talk a great deal. You know a great deal. But never speak of this.'

  'Yes, Teacher. I can keep the secrets of my customers. And I certainly will for you and the Order.'

  Tey Pot nodded. 'I trust you. Secrets, however, are not secrets when told. And like the white sashes, I am bound to keep them. But I will, my friends, tell you this much - I will tell you what the white sashes would've eventually decided to do with you.'

  'And that is?'

  'They will send you on to a small community located on the edge side of Windvera, known as The Hermitage.

  And in an aside to CarVori he asked, 'Do you know the way to Tistar?'

  'I have taken only one Teacher to that village in my time. And so I know of The Hermitage. It is only reached on foot however, as the trail is too narrow for a carriage, the mountains too steep. Instead of heading towards Kinador and Marsh Waters, we take the road away from them. It is a three stage journey. The roads get narrower at each stage, and Tistar is a mere village.'

  'Excellent. The answers you seek, my friends, can only be found at The Hermitage. So, if you were to go there directly, you will not only save yourselves a hundred rounds or more of waiting and a six stage journey from Marsh Waters to The Hermitage, you will make the lives of our dear white sash sages all the more serene if you spare them the problem you bring with you.'

  'Do you know what we'll find there?' I asked.

  He smiled. 'I am just a wandering fool. Let's just say that the whispering of the pines have told me to send you on to The Hermitage. It may be no more than the truth.'

  I could have pressed him for more, but with CarVori at the table, I doubted that he would say any more. I had a feeling it wasn't the pine's whispering that told Tey Pot to send us to The Hermitage. It was a secret, however - one we'd know within a dozen rounds - so it seemed ungrateful to ask more of Tey Pot.

  I glanced around the table. I could see the same rising tide of hope in all my companions. 'Thank you, Tey Pot, for your kind and welcomed advice. We shall take it, though we will miss your company very much,' I said, a sentiment echoed by all the others.

  'And we shall forever treasure the time we spent on the road with the Legendary Tey Pot, poet, story-teller, reed player and sage,' added Py, a sentiment we also enthusiastically echoed.

  'We must share another pot of the finest tey this house offers with you, Teacher,' I said, signaling to the owner. 'Name your tey.'

  Later, as Tey Pot finished his cup of tey he said, 'And one last lecture, my young friends. Follow the Way in your own Way. Our mission is to teach everyone the ways of kindness, tolerance, compassion, simplicity and living in harmony with nature. Your blues don't make you teachers, your example does. Indeed, when wearing the blues of the Order, people expect you to act in accordance with our teachings, and teach them the Way - apart from them. But if you go about your lives living the Way in the lives they know, you will show them that it can be done in their lives as well. The Order recognizes that there are as many paths as there are people, but sometimes you will find members, who, having found their own Way many rounds ago, would have you follow their path as well. Respect their wisdom, but follow your own path. And with that, my friends, I will take my leave. May you find your Way.'

  We had said "good sleep" to Tey Pot before we retired, but no goodbyes, since he'd taken to the road before we awoke.

  The first stage beyond Alazeetra was through rich, densely populated farmlands, but by the end of the second stage, we were traveling up and down forested hills and across valleys with farms and ranches. The road ended at Tistar - a block village with outlying barns, sheds, and a modest tey garden. It lay on the very edge of Windvera plate, but you'd likely not recognize it because the only sign of the edge are that the ranks of rugged mountains that marched away beyond the village disappeared quickly beyond the close horizon of the rounded edge.

  We said our sad and fond farewells to CarVori and his crew, and then, when we awoke from a long rest, continued on by foot, guided by a young man of the village to the beginning of the path, marked by a mossy stone marker, that led to The Hermitage. He said there are markers along the way whenever a path joins or diverges from ours. We were to follow the path with the stone marker. He told us that there were caves along the way to sleep in when we grew weary. Waving goodbye, we started out eagerly, in the hope that our answers - and our way home now lay in the steep edge mountains only two rounds before us.

 

  Part Nine - The Hidden Order

  Chapter 45 The Hermitage