by Pedro Urvi
“I need a healer,” she said, her forehead pearled with perspiration and chills lashing her like an icy whip.
The two Custodians looked at her without a word. One of them turned and left. The other one blocked the exit and stood there staring at her.
“So you’re not going to let me out?”
The Custodian pushed her into the room with his shield.
“If I had a dagger… I’d yank that infernal helmet off you,” she said with sudden bravado, although she barely had the strength to stay on her feet.
After a while steps echoed behind the Custodian. Kyra knew at once who was coming to see her. The Custodian moved aside and the huge Champion walked in.
Rotec’s message reached her. What is it, slave?
Kyra looked into his eyes. There was no enmity in them, simply annoyance. For the Great Champion of the House of the First Ring, she was no more than an annoyance he had to put up with for the sake of the Prince’s whim.
“I think it’s infected,” Kyra said, and showed him her hand.
Rotec studied it for a moment. This does not look good…
Kyra was about to answer, but her legs failed her and she fell to the floor, unconscious.
Kyra… wake up…
She recognized the voice, distant but unmistakable. It was Adamis. With a great effort she opened her eyes and met his own, which were watching her intensely. The gray-blue of those almond-shaped eyes in the beautiful golden face: so human, so warm and so alien. She stared at them, trying to find concern, the spark of humanity the God-Prince must have. Or at least she hoped he had. But she could not see his soul.
Adamis smiled, and his eyes shone.
“What happened?” she asked uncertainly.
You fainted. Rotec brought you here to us with the greatest urgency. You were burning with fever.
“I don’t understand, I was fine this morning. How did I get sick so fast?”
And so seriously. Adamis now sounded worried. He showed her the palm of her hand. Around the cut the flesh was blackened, and it was spreading.
“What?” she asked as she sat up.
When she did, she noticed the curious hall she was in. It was completely spherical and translucent. They seemed to be inside a giant crystal orb. She was lying on a marble table. Behind the table, one of the strange monoliths rose impressively to the ceiling. It too was translucent. She stared in astonishment at the great rectangular artifact which rose about sixty feet from the center of the hall and disappeared at the top. At the end, behind the monolith, she saw three cylindrical pods large enough to hold a person, even one of the enormous Custodians.
“What… what is this place?”
Perhaps I can explain, Notaplo’s deep voice reached her.
Kyra turned and greeted him with a smile. Three Gods followed the Erudite as he walked leaning on his staff, dressed like him but much younger. Her eyes were getting used to identifying the details which marked the age of these beings: the ochre tone of their skin, the dark spots, whether their bodies were more or less decrepit…
We had to call a Healer, he said, indicating a God in white robes who was standing by the monolith with his hand resting on the polished surface and a golden ring around it. Right now he is taking notes on the strangeness of your case within our sources of knowledge. You suffered an extreme reaction when your blood interacted with the Power of the Monolith. It was strange, and unexpected. There is something in your blood which did not accept the intrusion of the Power. I really only made a small analysis, a tiny infusion of Power into your body, that was all. But the adverse reaction has been remarkable.
Extremely unusual. Worthy by all means of a more detailed study, the Healer said without taking his hand off the monolith.
“It might be this damned Ring,” Kyra said, raising her arm.
Notaplo gave a small cackle. You are very clever, and determined. Adamis is right, he said, smiling at the Prince. I am sorry, but the Ring stays where it is. That way we can always locate you, and you will not be able to go to places like this without supervision.
Kyra made a grimace. She had not pulled it off. The Healer came over to her. He took her hand with fine golden fingers and observed the wound. He raised an eyebrow and turned to Adamis.
Must I, my Lord?
You must, Adamis replied firmly.
The Healer bowed in obedience. He put his hand over the wound and a light, something between white and blue, began to flow from the God’s hand and enter the wound. Kyra felt a tingle and a slight feeling of warmth. The Healer kept up the influx of energy for a long moment, then at last withdrew his hand.
The wound has been completely healed, your Highness. I cannot guarantee that there will not be a similar reaction, since there is something rare in her blood. But this episode has been controlled.
Thank you, Healer, Adamis acknowledged with a nod.
If my services are no longer necessary, I shall leave, with your permission, he said. I have saved all the information in the Pillar of Knowledge. His gaze turned to the strange monolith.
You may leave us, said the Prince.
The Healer left the chamber.
“He didn’t look very happy about curing me,” Kyra said, arching an eyebrow. The Healer’s reticence had not gone unnoticed, and she wanted to know the reason, although she could already guess.
Notaplo took her hand. You must not blame our good Healer. In our culture interacting with slaves is frowned upon, and using Power to help them is much worse. He smiled and glanced at his helpers. In fact today we have witnessed a small miracle. Forced, yes, but a miracle nonetheless. Very rarely before has one of our people used his own Power to help someone he regards as an inferior being: a slave.
Kyra narrowed her eyes and bit her tongue. She would not say out loud what she thought about that. It was not the time.
In his defense, my child, Notaplo went on, I must say that the Power he used to heal you has taken life from him. Not much, it is true, but it has. That is our price for using the Power, and that is why we are extremely careful about how and when we use it.
“Isn’t he a Healer?” she asked. “Isn’t his duty to heal? Oh yes, I see, it is, but only for the Gods.” She could not disguise her sarcasm. She regretted it at once.
Adamis intervened. Each of the castes, Healers, Warriors, Erudites, Priests, Merchants, use their Power to perform their duty. They all use it cautiously, but they have a duty to their profession and are obliged by law to do so. Nobody may decide of their own will not to use this benefit, and in this manner lengthen their existence. That would be a burden on society, and also disloyal. The law forbids it. It is controlled and punished, since there are always those who would do anything to avoid dying, or postpone that day as long as possible. But the Power is used only among our own people and for them, as is natural.
Notaplo cleared his throat. You must rationalize the use of the Power if you want to reach my age, he said with a smile, leaning on his encrusted silver staff. And as you can see, one reaches the top very much the worse for wear.
The comment made Kyra smile. She liked the Erudite; he was not as haughty as the other Gods, and there was goodness in his eyes.
He cannot refuse an order from his Prince, he would lose his head at once, Rotec said very seriously, his hand on the pommel of his sword.
Adamis took a step forward and put his hand on the Champion’s shoulder. I would never let it get to that point, my friend.
Kyra breathed the pure air of the chamber and reflected on what had happened. They had saved her life: that of a mere slave, an insect. Why had a God wasted his Power on her? She had to find out, but asking directly did not seem the best thing. She had to go on gathering information. Yosane would know what to do with everything she found out. She would come up with a plan.
One of the scholars went over to Notaplo and pointed to the pods at the end.
It is time, Master. Shall we go on with the experiment, or cancel it?
; Notaplo’s gaze turned to the Prince.
We go on, Adamis said firmly.
I will take the slave, Rotec said, and came to stand beside Kyra. The shadow of the huge body of the God-Warrior covered her as if she were an insignificant speck.
Adamis raised his hand.
No, wait. She stays.
Rotec’s expression was one of pure incredulity. His eyes were wide and staring. But my Lord, the experiments… nobody who is not absolutely trustworthy and of proven loyalty must see them. The risk… the consequences… consider again, my Lord.
Adamis put his hands behind his back. Notaplo, what is your opinion on this?
The Erudite rubbed his chin, and his eyes were lost in the distance for a moment. If the little shrew wishes to, she may watch. I don’t object. She might even take part… he said nonchalantly, with a beguiling smile.
Adamis stood in front of Kyra. If you wish to know some of our secrets you may stay. But there is one condition, a price to be paid…
Kyra stood up very straight, without cowering. “What is it?”
You will allow Notaplo to perform a little experiment on you.
Kyra looked at him defiantly. She wanted to know what they were up to, what secrets they were hiding. She might be able to use it against them, or else it might turn out to offer a way of escaping from there somehow. There was risk, it was true, but that had never stopped her. Nor would it now. Besides, if they wanted to force her to take part in their secret experiments there was nothing she could do to stop them. She tried to read Adamis’ beautiful face, looking for any trace of deception. The eyes of the God-Prince, so alarmingly human, seemed honest. Adamis did not look away, he did not blink, but kept up the tension between them.
Her spirit gradually filled with rage and honor. She felt her heart beating like a war drum, and with that pulse the heat of her spirit and the mixed feelings Adamis provoked in her burst out through her eyes like glittering sparks.
“All right,” she said defiantly.
Adamis blinked at the reply. For a moment his eyes disappeared, and she felt as though the chamber had turned darker. The eyelids opened again and the light returned. Adamis seemed confused, and he was the personification of self-assuredness. Kyra watched him, intrigued. The rage in her chest was dying, and her look was gentler.
Adamis responded with the slightest of smiles. Very well. Continue. The tension between them relaxed until it was like a calm sea after a storm.
Notaplo stepped forward. You will be wondering, little shrew, and rightly, what the purpose of this experiment is. You see… our people, the leaders of the Five Houses to be precise, are trying to find the elusive answers to vital questions which we have been pursuing for millennia. Since the dawn of time the Houses have been studying different disciplines, different approaches, but they all seek the same goal: to reach the longed-for immortality. You see, young slave, Gods we are to your eyes, but we have not attained immortality. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we are not complete Gods, nor will we be. Or at least, not until we attain it. Long-lived we might be considered, since we live far longer than the slave races, and powerful, as we have mastery over the Power of the Five Elements. And with that Power we perform deeds which for all other living creatures are unbelievable, unthinkable.
“But in the end,” Kyra said, “no matter how powerful and long-lived you are, death awaits you just as it does for everybody else,”
Notaplo clapped and laughed, although by the look on his face Rotec did not find the comment funny at all.
Indeed, that is the real truth, the Erudite went on. If one views oneself in perspective, leaving the ego aside, one might observe that the world around, that wise nature from whom we obtain our Power, shows us how insignificant we really are. What is my life compared to that of a sequoia in the western lands which lives more than four thousand years? What is my power compared to that of Arutan, Mother Nature, or of an erupting volcano, a tornado, a tsunami? Tell me, child, what is it?
She did not want to upset the Erudite so she toned down her reply.
“Small…”
Adamis laughed. She wanted to say insignificant, but she bit her tongue.
She glared at him furiously. Adamis’ answering expression was amused.
Each one of the Houses, in their attempts to reach immortality has achieved remarkable advances. Some, like the House of the Fifth Ring, claim to have achieved it. Although their success is debatable, it is undeniable that they have made discoveries which bring us closer to the longed-for goal. I will show you.
Notaplo went up to the monolith and placed one of his hands on the surface. He manipulated the golden circumference which appeared around his palm. From the floor, with a metallic sound, emerged a round platform. Notaplo went on manipulating the monolith, and suddenly a golden ring slid across the outer face to his hand. A beam of light shot out of it onto the platform, forming a living image, in all its dimensions.
Kyra watched the image. It was a large one, and she discovered to her amazement that she was witnessing something taking place before her eyes which was not really taking place there at all. She went over to the platform and passed her hand through the projection to make sure it was not real. Her hand went through the image, and she withdrew it feeling even more intrigued.
Adamis smiled. There was real sympathy in his expression. You are watching the reproduction of a scene captured and kept in our archives of knowledge. It is not real, it has already happened. What your eyes are seeing now is what happened at a certain moment and at a certain place.
She was dumbfounded. “How on earth is that possible?”
Notaplo laughed quietly. I am sorry, my girl, I cannot explain to you all our technology and knowledge in a single day. I would need hundreds of days… perhaps even thousands… But watch, I think you will find it interesting.
She gave her whole attention to it. In the image she saw a dozen capsules like the ones they had there. They were set in a circle around a monolith, white as snow. The floor and the walls of this hall were covered with frost. Inside the capsule were slaves. Their eyes were closed, their bodies snow-white. Two Gods appeared on the scene, and she identified Notaplo as one of them. They went to one of the capsules, and after manipulating some sensors they opened it to look at the slave inside.
Kyra stepped forward to see better. Notaplo went to her side and pointed at the two Gods in the image. It is a laboratory in the House of the Fifth Ring. They have managed to freeze people alive for an indefinite period of time. In my last exchange of knowledge with Edru, their First Erudite, I was witness to the existence of several slaves who have been frozen for more than five hundred years, as you can see in the image.
She went on watching. She saw Notaplo close his eyes, and a golden halo completely enveloped the body of the frozen slave.
Using my Power, I searched for the vital essence in one of them, he went on, and to my great surprise there it was still, hibernating, like a bear waiting to be awakened.
The scene changed abruptly and showed another, different chamber. In it the bodies of two slaves rested on tables filled with a blue liquid. Two beams of bluish light from the snowy monolith seemed to be controlling the process.
Notaplo cleared his throat. Edru showed me how they awakened those two slaves who had been frozen for more than a hundred years by using the Power they specialize in: the element of Water.
The image moved forward in time and showed Kyra the two slaves on their feet, alive. The color of their face and body was now pink, more natural.
Notaplo explained: Not only did they show no noticeable side effects, they had not aged a single day. And that is a genuine advance. When I was informed, I found it hard to believe. But I was able to confirm it, as you have just seen, and had to accept the evidence.
Kyra became thoughtful. “That would be almost like being immortal… When you don’t want to grow any older, you only need to be frozen and wake up a thousand years from now. A man might live l
ike this for thousands of years…”
Notaplo raised his eyebrows. A man… yes you have expressed it very well, my child. And there is the main problem: it does not work the same with us. Unfortunately our Power goes on feeding from our system even in this frozen state. And that is why we still age, although much more slowly, even when frozen.
“Can’t you somehow shut down your Power, or stop it?”
Adamis sighed and shook his head. We would die. Our Power is similar to your vital essence: without it we have no life. The body would gradually shut down and die, which is what happens at the end of our existence when it is used up.
Kyra understood. This revelation seemed deeply important to her. There was a way of killing them… She had to tell Yosane. She would know what else could be deduced from it.
Even so, the advance they have achieved is very significant, even though it fails to reach the desired goal. But they will continue investigating, and if they manage to improve the stage of frozen hibernation they might find the key. There are also many secondary uses. Now we can freeze living creatures indefinitely. Kyra felt like a piece of meat that was about to be frozen. And it is a good path for study and experimentation in order to attain new goals.
The scene ended and the beam of light went out. Once again the platform disappeared into the floor.
“Have any other of the Houses made an important advance?” she asked curiously.
The House of the Fourth Ring, basing themselves on their source element, Earth, has achieved something similar. They have managed to turn a living creature into carbon and keep it alive indefinitely by pouring Power into the graphite, which keeps the organism alive.
“Turning a person into a mineral?”
Indeed, child, emulating wise Mother Nature: fossilizing it.
“And… does it work?”
In you it does. In us… unfortunately not.
Kyra narrowed her eyes.
Notaplo smiled. The path of knowledge is difficult and full of failures. But even from those we can learn, and we gain new and unexpected successes. Sometimes it is the way, not the end, which really matters. One day we will get there, one of the Five Houses will do it. Meanwhile we put to good use all the secondary discoveries we have made, many of them unexpected.