by Lyra Shanti
Atlar stared at the young man before him, realizing that Pei had indeed changed, not just emotionally, but physically. The king had been so steadfast about his plans, he hadn’t even noticed Pei’s short, jagged hair. He wondered if Pei had a warrior’s spirit after all. If he could be trained, thought Atlar, would he be like Meddhi had been before he became a priest? Could Pei follow in Meddhi’s footsteps?
Atlar turned to Baran who was watching Pei with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.
“Baran?”
“Yes, my king,” Baran answered.
“Do you think that there is a Lirhan warrior inside this man?”
Baran looked at Pei for a moment, sizing him up.
“I believe that with enough training, he may have the potential,” Baran coolly replied.
Atlar turned to Pei and smiled. “Then, that is your answer, my friend. I leave it to Baran to turn you into the warrior you wish to become. In the meantime, use the last of your priestly skills to make an impression on The Council’s conscience. I am relying on you, Pei.”
“It will be done, my king” said Pei as he bowed in stoic reverence.
Atlar nodded and gave Pei a firm pat on the back.
Suddenly, Pei felt a sense of euphoria as if the entire Un had been opened up to him in one night. He could feel his soul’s true nature, and it was not the soul of a priest. No, he now realized he was a passionate man full of anger and love - like a dragon of ancient myth who is both light and dark, good and bad - the paradox of plasma itself!
Atlar excused Pei and Ona. He then ordered Baran and Reese to stay and discuss what Pei assumed would be secret Lirhan tactics.
As Pei walked through the giant marble halls with Ona, his head reeled. He felt the weight of his new responsibility, but the weight somehow felt right. He could only hope that one day he too would be asked by the king to make secret plans in the dead of night.
Chapter 17: Home Away From Home
As Ayn changed his clothes in the store’s dressing room, it made him feel extremely vulnerable. He had never been all that comfortable about his body in the first place, let alone somewhere that was so public and foreign to him.
“Well?” prodded Zin from outside the dressing room. “Are you done yet?”
“No,” said Ayn, pouting.
“What’s taking you so long?”
At that, Ayn became irate and blurted out, “Nothing fits right!”
“Let me see,” ordered Zin.
“No!”
Zin wasn’t about to let Ayn act like a spoiled brat any longer. He pulled open the corner of the dressing room curtain and saw Ayn dressed in a blue cotton shirt and a pair of dark blue pants. “Well,” Zin prodded once again, “what’s the problem? You look fine to me.”
Ayn continued pouting and turned to face Zin with eyes full of daggers. “How can you say that?” he replied. “I look ridiculous.”
“No you don’t,” Zin replied, nonchalant. “You just don’t look like a Deiusian king any longer, which is exactly the idea. We have to blend in, Ayn, and those royal robes you had on weren’t helping us do that.”
“Fine,” Ayn mumbled as he scratched and pulled at the side of his shirt, “but it feels tight… and the pants are tight as well.”
Zin rolled his eyes and assured Ayn that he looked perfectly normal, and that they were supposed to fit that way.
“If you say so,” Ayn mumbled once again.
“I do say so!” said Zin with a playful grin. “Now… where can we eat? Hmm…”
After Zin payed for their new items, Ayn took his old clothing and folded them nicely inside his rolling suitcase. Zin had a feeling it would take quite some time before Ayn could let go of his past. However, he was not about to stop prodding his new best friend. He hoped, in time, Ayn would come to love his new life, and perhaps even love Zin for giving it to him.
Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Not only was Ayn unknowingly suffering from post-traumatic stress, but he was also quite exhausted from the ordeal of walking around a metropolitan city – one that he never could have imagined when he lived in the temple on Deius. Everything on Ayn hurt: his arms, his legs, his feet, his very brain!
Soon he found himself trailing behind Zin who seemed downright perky. This annoyed Ayn even further as he dragged his suitcase on the ground, sluggishly walking a good five to ten paces behind his Ohrian friend.
Zin finally stopped still, muttering to himself about restaurants. He then pulled out a small, metallic looking gadget that Ayn had never seen before.
“What is that?” asked Ayn while a yawn escaped from his lips.
Zin seemed lost in a trance as he stared at the gadget, speaking in Ohrian under his breath. It looked to Ayn as if he was talking to it somehow.
Ayn waited for a response, but got none. He figured Zin was performing some sort of Ohrian ritual.
Bored and tired as well, Ayn slipped into lucid dreaming, a technique often used by The Dei priests to achieve inner peace, as well as to practice stamina and focus. Ayn had been trained his whole life in such techniques, and it was second nature to him. However, the lucid dreaming he fell into was induced by lack of sleep and physical exhaustion, and was more akin to hallucination than meditation. The streets turned hazy and blue, the shops became Deiusian monuments in honor of Adin, and all the while, he could hear the droning hum of The Un.
“Ayn!” shouted Zin. “Are you actually sleeping?”
As Ayn woke out of his trance, he heard the laughter from the people nearby and saw Zin grinning at him, obviously amused. “Come on!” Zin said as he shook his head in laughter. “I found a great place that rents rooms and offers fine dining as well. Now follow me and keep up!”
Ayn did his best to keep the pace even though his feet were aching more than he knew was possible. He wondered how Xenites actually managed to get from place to place in such an enormous city. To him, it felt twice the size of his own Holy City.
Lost in thought as he walked, Ayn didn't notice the strange creature following him. It wasn't until he almost tripped over it that he could see something was there. For only a second, he thought he saw a strange blur of white and gold. It looked like a cat of some kind, but he wasn't certain. One second, the creature was there, and the next, it was gone!
He wondered if he had slipped back into lucid dreaming. Meddhi-Lan would be so embarrassed about me right now, he thought, disappointed in himself.
Then, there it was again. The white and gold cat thing – just briefly in focus for a moment on the side of the street. This time, however, it seemed as if it were smiling at him. Now Ayn knew he was dreaming.
“Save me!”
Ayn stopped dead in his tracks, then looked around. He had heard a voice speaking directly into his mind!
“Please! Save me!” begged the mysterious, childlike voice yet again.
Ayn looked ahead at Zin who was casually walking without any notice or care about the strange voice.
Ayn gulped and begrudgingly decided to answer back in his mind. “Um… who are you and how may I save you?”
“Well,” purred the voice in his mind, “I suppose you could answer me a riddle.”
“A riddle?” Ayn silently replied.
“Yes!” said the voice, “a riddle!”
“I'm sorry,” said Ayn, “but I'm not very good at riddles.”
“Oh, well,” the voice said, disappointed, “I guess I'll just be trapped here forever.”
Ayn looked around to see where the voice was coming from, but all he could see were street vendors and random passersby.
“I'm over here!” cried the voice in his mind.
Ayn began following the voice, using only his gut feelings. After a few moments of concentration, he could vaguely make out the shape of the white and gold cat creature he had seen before, and it was indeed trapped.
The poor cat-like animal was caged inside of a wooden box that was sitting on the back of a metallic, plasma-powered vehicle. How the creature
managed to get inside the box was a mystery to Ayn, but he was trapped there nonetheless.
The vehicle was parked on the side of the street without a driver in sight. Ayn wasn't sure if he should be getting involved, but at the same time, he wondered how often a person is psychically asked for help by a cat.
Ayn looked around to see if anyone was watching him. When he believed he wasn't noticed, Ayn dropped his bag and ran over to the creature. Bending over and gazing directly at the animal, Ayn could see it more clearly.
The creature wasn't really a cat, though it shared similarities, such as its ears, paws, and tail. However, upon closer inspection, Ayn could see that the mysterious animal also had tiny talons on its feet, as well as small wings that were chained together with a plasma-powered lock. Ayn looked into its nearly human-looking eyes and felt sorry for the poor cat-bird creature.
“Don't just gawk at me!” said the strange animal. “Get me out of here!”
“How did you even get in there?” asked Ayn cautiously. “Weren’t you just behind me a few moments ago?”
“No, silly boy,” replied the cat-bird as it bent back its ears, “you must have been dreaming! Now help me out of this box!”
“How can I do that?” asked Ayn innocently.
The animal sneered and cocked its head, looking at Ayn as if he had asked the stupidest question in the universe.
“Aren't you The Bodanya?”
Ayn was shocked that the creature knew of his true identity, and he began nervously looking around, wondering if anyone had heard the animal's question.
“Don't worry, Ayn. No one but you can hear me. In fact, not many can even see me... unless I want them to.”
Ayn was amazed and intrigued. “How is that possible?” he asked the cat-bird.
“Enough of you asking me questions! I am the one who asks the riddles!”
Ayn shook his head. “Alright then,” Ayn replied, “ask me what you want.”
The creature smiled, then looked deep into Ayn's blue eyes. “Let's see if you can answer me this,” said the cat-bird. “Why is it, with all my powers to control time and space, I am somehow still unable to escape this metal trap?”
Ayn didn't know which part of the riddle to think upon first! His mind immediately jumped to the idea of the creature having powers that controlled time and space, and yet, Ayn's heart felt sympathy when it came to the cat-bird being trapped in a cage against its will.
The creature stared at Ayn with expectant eyes, waiting impatiently for an answer.
“Well,” Ayn slowly began, “first, I would need to know how it came to be that you were caught inside such a cage.”
The creature cocked its head and looked at Ayn with a sneer. “How can you ask me such a silly question?! I was caught by magic, of course!”
Magic? thought Ayn, stopping himself from giggling.
“What's so funny?” asked the cat-bird.
“I... I'm sorry, but I don't believe in magic,” said Ayn, matter-of-fact.
The creature snorted, then shook its head. “Well, you're in for a big surprise then!” said the cat-bird with a sarcastic chuckle. “You'll find out how wrong you are soon enough though,” the creature purred. “Now, stop asking me foolish questions and solve my riddle!”
Ayn gulped and looked around again, searching for Zin with his eyes. However, Zin was nowhere to be found. Ayn feared he had become separated and began feeling light headed at the thought of being alone in such a big city.
“Concentrate, Bodanya!” commanded the cat-bird.
After a deep breath, Ayn cleared his mind - the way Meddhi-Lan had taught him. He began using a technique that The Dei priests called “Symbol Touching.” The technique involved closing one's eyes and imagining a symbol, or an image of any kind, at which point, if you focused on the feelings the image gave you, answers and truths would inevitably come.
At first, Ayn didn't see or feel anything, but when he let himself imagine the cat-bird, and its unfortunate situation in the cage, Ayn's mind began seeing a vast amount of images, almost at once. In his mind's eye, he saw the creature in chains, being lured into the metallic cage with offerings of brightly-colored, sweet tasting fish. However, the image quickly changed to an entirely different setting. It was a planet... a wasteland.
Ayn intuitively sensed that it was the once great, but now mostly abandoned planet of Sirin. He didn’t know why he was seeing such a strange vision. Nevertheless, he let his mind wander further into the Symbol-Touching, for he could feel he was close to an answer to the cat-bird's riddle.
Just then, he saw more cat-like creatures, though they were much, much bigger. In fact, they were like gigantic lions, but with wings, and all of them had stoic faces that seemed to Ayn similar to the priests of Deius.
As Ayn saw himself approach the giant cat-birds, they surprised him by turning their enormous heads in one direction at the same exact time - all looking directly at him! Their eyes seemed to glow, and Ayn wondered what they were trying to tell him.
Then Ayn remembered something Meddhi-Lan used to say: “When you want your dream-image to explain its meaning, simply ask it what it wants or feels. It will more than likely tell you. Dream-symbols are always honest, but you have to be brave enough to ask them honest questions.”
Ayn took a deep breath and gathered his courage. “Excuse me, magnificent creatures,” he addressed them in his vision. “May I inquire what it is you want to tell me?” The giant cat-birds all pricked their ears back at the same time like they were hearing a strange sound they had never heard before. “Do you understand my question?” asked Ayn.
After a moment of silence, he saw them simultaneously open their mouths wide. Ayn wondered if they were going to give out a very loud roar. Just in case, Ayn covered his ears, and as he suspected, that's exactly what they did. The roar, however, was even louder than Ayn could imagine. It was so loud that his ear drums felt like they would bleed.
Oh, please stop! Ayn begged in his mind, hoping they'd hear him telepathically. Unfortunately, they didn't stop. The roar became so thunderous that it felt like Ayn would pass out from the intensity of the vibrations. When he could stand no more, Ayn heard something else within the roar; it was almost a whisper, as if a tiny voice was mixed inside the deafening loudness. When Ayn tried to fixate on the whisper, everything seemed to go completely quiet. He then heard what the whisper was saying: “Save us. We are slaves to time. Please... save us.”
As soon as Ayn understood the whisper, he felt his eyes open. He was once again standing in the city streets of Xen.
Shaking off the dream-like feelings, Ayn centered on what was real. He saw the wooden cage in the vehicle, but he didn't see the cat-bird creature! Where did it go? thought Ayn as he whirled around to see if it had run off somewhere. Sure enough, he saw the cat-bird sitting in the shade under a tree. It seemed to be smiling at him.
“Thank you, Bodanya,” it said in Ayn's mind.
“What did I do?” Ayn mentally replied.
“You saw my people, and you understood our plight. I now know there is hope, and soon, I shall be free. That is all I needed to escape that cage. Thank you.”
With that, the strange creature ran off – so fast it almost seemed to disappear!
Ayn shook his head and stood in the street, dazed.
“Ayn?!” yelled Zin. “What are you doing? Come on!”
Ayn picked up his suitcase and ran over to Zin. “Sorry,” said Ayn, “but that strange cat-bird thing needed my help.”
Zin raised his eyebrows. “What cat-bird... thing?”
“Didn't you see it?”
“Uh, no, I didn't,” said Zin, looking skeptical. “Ayn, I think you may be more tired than I thought. Just hang on to me, and I'll get you to the hotel before you know it.”
Ayn nodded, feeling foolish. Had he dreamt the whole thing? Was there really no caged creature? Had he just been hallucinating the entire time? Despite the vision, something about the whole thing felt so real to A
yn. His instincts told him that he would once again see that cat-bird, possibly in the near future, but only time would tell.
–
“How could he?” Ona asked in frustration. “Does he have no idea what becoming a warrior means? Is he really that naive?”
Frey, Ona's handmaid and best friend, silently shrugged, unable to think of a proper response to the princess' rhetorical questions. Truthfully, Frey wasn't able to give her full attention for fear of accidentally ripping the fine silk of Ona's dress. It was hard enough to undress the princess normally, but when she was agitated, her regal gowns took even longer to unhinge and carefully disrobe.
“Maybe...” Frey said as she unhooked Ona's gown, “the poor boy just hasn't thought things through yet. Maybe he'll change his mind by the morning.”
“You think so, Frey?” asked Ona as she slipped out of her gown, standing half naked in her bedroom.
“Yes, I do,” Frey replied in her calming, kind voice. “Just give him time, and he'll come 'round.” Ona nodded with a worried face as Frey carefully hung the gown in the closet. Frey looked at Ona and smiled, adding, “You care for him, don't you?”
Ona blushed, then quickly shook her head. Frey's smile grew even wider as she came toward Ona with a light-blue nightgown. Slipping it over Ona's shoulders, she playfully teased the princess with a nudge. “You do! You like that priest in a way priests aren't supposed to be liked!”
“Oh stop, Frey!” Ona exclaimed, giving a hint of a giggle. “I don't know if I feel that way for him. But, even if I did, he says he is no longer a priest, so I suppose there is nothing to stop me from liking him. I must admit, Pei is a very fiery man who has a way of making others care for him. He even convinced my father of letting Baran train him to become a soldier, and my father is never easily swayed by anyone!”
“Most definitely not,” Frey agreed as she began to brush Ona's long, dark-auburn hair. Sitting in the chair, Ona’s tired mind wandered. Was she really falling in love with a priest-turned-warrior? Was Pei really the one for her? What about her recurring dream?