“Hello, Otherworlder. I will be your healer today.” The jewels on her staff glowed.
“So no one was harmed by the Salcion spit?” Jemas asked. He'd rushed to the Clinic to stop his captain, but was too late; the room was filled with people burping uncontrollably. The healer on duty explained what happened.
“Apparently not. Instead of coughing, they're burping. Otherwise, no adverse effects.” Jemas sighed in relief. “But still the fact remains—”
“AAAHHHHHHHH!”
Jemas' eyes widened. “I am sorry, but there's something urgent I must attend to.”
Dashing to the hall, Jemas searched for the right examining room. He smashed the door open to find Hasina, dressed like a resident healer, zapping Mr. Watley with bolts of energy. Every half minute, she fired another bolt, which revealed a different body system.
“Fascinating,” Hasina muttered to herself while scribbling notes with her free hand. “So similar to the others and yet different.” She continued zapping as she wrote. “Like a watered down version . . . no . . . a withered version is more appropriate.” Jemas jumped between them and brandished his staff.
“Captain! What are you doing?!”
“Oh, Lieutenant, good timing.” She nonchalantly handed him the pad. “It's so hard to take notes one-handed.” Jemas fixed a steely gaze on Hasina.
“Captain, you could get us and the guild in trouble for this.” Jemas put the pad down. “More importantly, you can't experiment on sapients.”
“Experimenting? I'm examining, like I'm supposed to.” Jemas' stare deepened. “I finished the job earlier than expected and, since the other healer is out sick, I filled in. No extra charge.”
Her lieutenant raised his eyebrows. “Is this true?” Eric shrugged. “So the healer just happened to be sick today of all days? What a coincidence.”
Hasina clutched her heart in a dramatic fashion. “Your accusation wounds your captain.” Jemas' expression didn't soften. Hasina sighed and placed her staff over her heart instead. “I swear on my staff I had nothing to do with the healer's illness.”
Jemas put his hands on his hips. “What about the 'cough syrup' you were passing out?”
“I got consent for that!” She pulled out a scroll out of her pocket. “See? Exactly what it was, what it was supposed to do, and the possible risks.”
Jemas took the scroll and unrolled it. “You told them it was candy!”
“It does taste like candy.” Jemas shook his head and paid special attention to the names at the bottom to make sure they were not in his captain's handwriting. Finally satisfied, he rolled the scroll up and returned it.
Hasina tapped her foot. “Well?”
Jemas bowed and said, “I'm sorry for accusing you, Captain.”
“Uh . . .am I done?” Eric hesitantly asked. The pair had forgotten him, but he was used to it. Even when he was the subject of a fight, which was rare, he was quickly forgotten.
“Oh, Mr. Watley,” Jemas said. “I hope my captain hasn't been too rough.”
“N-not at all. I didn't feel a thing.”
“See?” Hasina exclaimed. “It's just a spell to see what's inside him.” Her eyes regained their light. “Speaking of which, it's fascinating. Just like the other Otherworlders, he's very similar to our Homo Sapiens, and yet different . . .”
That's what Aio called this world's beings. So they all have 'sapient' in their scientific name?
“ . . .Like the others, he has weaker bone structure, less muscle potential, and only four pigments. Four!” She was so excited she was almost incomprehensible. “And his spirit! Like a withered plant that adapted to being withered! Although due to the stronger spirits of the others, that last one may be due this particular specimen . . .”
“Captain! Don't be rude!” Jemas shouted. Eric wanted to say she wasn't being rude and everyone said he was weak, but he couldn't get a word in edgewise.
“I'm not being rude, I'm just stating facts,” Hasina replied. “Okay, the last one is an opinion, but more of an educated guess!” Jemas rubbed his forehead again.
“Captain, please, finish the examination so Mr. Watley can go home.”
Hasina's eyes lit up again. “Ahh, yes!” She pulled out needles. “My spell couldn't tell.”
“Captain.”
“Oh, all right.” Hasina put the needles down and grabbed her staff.
Aio went hysterical when Eric returned to the immigration dorms. He shouted that Mr. Monotone had cloned himself. The dorm keeper’s eye twitched, but he walked past Aio without saying a word. Eric explained that it was a simple examination and Aio wiped imaginary sweat off his forehead.
“Do you know where the library is?” Eric asked.
Aio grabbed Eric's wrist and pulled. “I know the perfect place!”
“Where are we going?”
“To the Temple of Zaticana.”
The Temple of the Language was located in the White Town of Piety and Pranks adjacent to the Yellow Town of Trade and Creativity, the Grey Town of Interpretation and Justice, and the Blue Town of Imagination and Wisdom. On the way, he passed under an arch guarded by two statues. Both of them were robed and carrying a book in one hand. The other one was empty.
The Temple itself was made of marble gilded with fool's gold. Four pillars rose above the roof of the temple with smaller pillars in between them and all covered in the writing of countless languages. There were so many of them that Eric wondered if some were doodles. Then he reminded himself that his own language might look like doodles to the users of those languages. Aio lurched to a stop at the foot of the stairs and let go of Eric's wrist.
“Go up those stairs, find a priest, and ask for a blessing.” He backed away from the temple.
“Where are you going?” Aio walked backwards; still moving away from the temple.
“Oh you know; things to do, places to go. I'll see you back at the room.”
Eric sighed and climbed the writing-covered steps leading to the writing-covered entrance. Two brutes in writing-covered robes and bearing sickles shaped like question marks blocked his path.
“Halt!” they bellowed. “No earthbound mortal may cross this temple's threshold!” Eric glanced at their gleaming weapons and decided to obey. Then it hit him.
“If no earthbound mortal can, then I'll jump. I won't be earthbound then, at least for a while.”
The guards smiled and opened the door. “Not many get it on the first try.”
It was rare that Eric received a compliment . . .even Emily scarcely complimented him. In fact, now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember a time she did . . .
“Are you going in?” Now blushing out of embarrassment, Eric jumped across the open doorway.
Inside the temple was writing and not much else. There was writing on the ground, the walls, the ceiling, and every piece of furniture. It looked like his apartment when Tasio pulled out his “resume.” After seeing him in an apron, I wouldn't be surprised if Zaticana is Tasio in drag.
“Welcome!” a voice called. Eric blinked and saw a woman in a character-covered robe. “Welcome to the Temple of Zaticana,” she said with the universally acknowledged sign for peace. “I'm Vestal and I hang with her, what's up?”
“I . . .I'm here for Zaticana's blessing.”
“Sure. Follow me.”
The priestess led Eric deeper into the temple, through one hallway and then another. They passed many chambers and it wasn't clergy who dwelled in them, but lay people studying the writing on the walls.
“They're language students,” his guide said, “By this time next year, they'll know three languages by skill instead of grace.”
“What about the clergy? Are you the only one here?”
“Yep. Language is for communicating. Those who serve Zaticana bring her blessing to the community. They're at local schools preparing for a 'summer reading' thingy.”
She pushed open the doors to the Inner Sanctum.
It was a single room with only glo
wing stones for light. At the center was a large black stone on a raised pedestal. Like the rest of the temple, this stone had writing on it, but this was different; there was power in these characters. Eric could feel the energy radiating from it. It must be a sacred object, maybe their holy text.
“Zaticana, daughter of Chaos and Goddess of Language, I got this new being here and he needs your blessing. Do you mind coming over here?”
The stone flashed and wind arose from nowhere. A red blur spun from the characters on the stone. It grew larger and faster and took shape. The goddess had the same golden-brown hair as Tasio and pointy ears like Tasio, but was most definitively not Tasio. She was curvier for one and tied her hair in pigtails for another. She wore a midriff-baring dress and thigh-length leg warmers for a third.
She stared at her priestess with her hands on her hips. “Vesta, I've told you a gazillion times. You don't need an invocation. All you need to do is say the magic word.”
“Got it.”
A goddess . . .a real live goddess . . . I'm in the same room as a goddess! He thought the “blessing of Zaticana” was some ritual involving the holy-looking stone; not the invocation of a deity! She locked eyes with him and smiled seductively.
“See something you like?”
Eric's face was on fire. “Uh um . . .I uhh . . ..what is the magic word?” Sure, it was a lousy cover, but he needed one.
“Oh that? It's really simple: 'please.'” Eric slapped his forehead. “You must be the Otherworlder.”
“You've heard of me?”
“Of course,” Zaticana replied with a touch of pride. “In addition to being the goddess of language, I'm also the goddess of gossip. No news can spread without my knowledge.” She cupped Eric's face with both hands, setting his cheeks further aflame. “Now about your blessing. . .” She kissed him full on the mouth. Eric's eyes shot open and he promptly fainted.
Vesta’s sweat dropped. “Zaticana, was that necessary?”
“Of course!” She set Eric down on the floor. “He looks like such a shy thing. I thought he could use some lovin'.”
When Eric woke up, the first thing he said was, “Speaking comes from the mouth, so does connecting mouths somehow transfer knowledge of words? Or does it—”
“That's the first thing you say after being kissed?!” Zaticana demanded; her brow was furrowed and her voice was harsh.
I made a god angry! I'm gonna die! His fears were eased when Zaticana laughed. “Somewhat true, but I didn't need to kiss you . . .” Eric blushed deeply. “. . .I was just having fun.” Eric’s happy feeling was replaced by a funk.
“It was Zaticana that taught sapients spoken languages,” Vesta said proudly. “With her gift, social grouping became possible.”
“Why'd she teach so many different ones?” Eric asked. “Wouldn't that be confusing?”
“Yes, that idea is very common, but language is an essential part of any culture; its most distinguishing trait. Zaticana's blessing allowed for the earliest development of distinct cultures and for greater group unity than would otherwise be possible.”
“Actually,” Zaticana said. “I just thought it would be funny to watch them talk with each other.”
The priestess suddenly had a coughing fit. “(cough)Yes that is(cough) true.(cough).”
“You're a trickster, aren't you?” Eric asked Zaticana. “Like Tasio.”
The Goddess of Language shook her head. “No, not like Tasio, but I am a trickster. You must be that new friend he's been talking about.”
“We're . . . hardly friends,” Eric replied.
“Yes, yes, we tricksters get that a lot,” Zaticana said, nodding. “I hope he wasn't too rough bringing you here.”
“Of course not,” Eric said dryly. “Just got to watch that first step, or pull.”
Zaticana giggled. “Well, Eric Watley, it was wonderful meeting you.” She winked and Eric's ears burned. She giggled once more before disappearing.
Chapter 3 Friends
For the next nine days, Eric roamed the city library. It was a brand new world and there was so much to learn. The librarian somehow knew he was the Otherworlder and recommended his first book: The World is My Domain by “The Silver Dragon.” The same one as the dorms?
It was the autobiography of one of the oldest authors in the world, two thousand twenty-five years old and counting. That explains it: a legacy title. They talked about their travels and the infinite different places to go and things to learn and how this infinite was multiplied by itself after every hundred years or so. “It was like going there for the first time and visiting a familiar place all at once.”
These reflections were accompanied by references to the Eternal Renewer, Lady Chaos, and the Eternal Sustainer, Order. Together they blended the familiar and the exotic in ways only an immortal like her could truly appreciate. The author often mentioned her immortality and always as a boast. The book sleeve at the end confirmed this: it claimed the Silver Dragon was older than the calendar system. It's gotta be a hoax. Regardless, the book piqued his interest, so he asked the librarian for more books about “chaos and order” and was handed a children's fairytale.
The Birth of Noitaerc, he read aloud. “From the Grisly Brothers Collection: 'Originally, there was nothing but Lady Chaos.’” The first page pictured a vast sea of golden-brown. It moved on the page like a real ocean. Magic in children books . . .I wonder how it works . . .
“Lady Chaos bore a son whom she named ‘Order’ . . .” Eric turned the page: a grey form rose above the sea. “. . . and immediately panicked because she couldn't nourish him; her milk burned him and without it he would starve.”
The third page showed a third creature; a tree sprouting from the Sea of Chaos. Its roots were hidden in the waves and its branches reached off the page.
“The solution came with the birth of her second child, whom she named ‘Noitaerc.’ The Great Tree drank its mother's milk and diluted it into a form its older brother could swallow. Order showed his appreciation with a hug.”
A fourth page showed the grey mass wrapped around the tree.
“The branches of Noitaerc flowered. Its fruit and leaves gave birth to more life.” A fifth page showed a close up of the Tree; round fruit and angular leaves hung from its branches.
“And within these fruit grew the universes, where our own home, Tariatla, resides.” A sixth page showed a close up of a fruit with people inside.
“The milk of Lady Chaos, the water of the Sea, flows through Noitaerc to our world and keeps us alive. Then it flows out to keep Order alive. Finally, it returns to the Sea.” A seventh page showed a chart of the Flow of Mana. “The cooperation of the First Family maintains the balance of the cosmos.”
The penultimate page contained three words: “Happily Ever After?” The last page told the moral about how mortal families need to “maintain the balance” of their homes and such.
The other “Grisly Brothers” tales he was more used to: gruesome encounters of humans with the supernatural. They covered a range of subjects from philosophy to history to math. If I heard a story about Tasio tricking a pair of humans out of their food, I might've been more interested in math as well.
When those nine days ended, Aio shoved his head into a book and closed it on him. While he laughed, Eric spun around and whacked him on the head with it. This only made him laugh more. Eventually, they were kicked out of the library.
“What are you doing here, Aio?”
“We need back-to-school supplies,” Aio cheered, “Our first day is tomorrow!”
To Eric, school had been a string of bad experiences. Vivid flashbacks haunted him all day: friend to no one, punchline to everyone, the only student with Legal-Guardian/Teacher conferences.
Aio put an arm around his shoulder. “It'll be great! We'll make friends and pass notes in class and sit together at lunch!” Eric couldn't decide whether to burrow his enthusiasm or be sickened by it.
The Otherworlder was in for a surprise when h
e arrived. The school building looked like a Threan one: several stories tall, made of brick with a lot of windows. There was even a basketball court in the playground. Waiting in his classroom was another shock. Of the ten human heads present, each was a different color. There were kids with black, brown, and blond hair, but also orange, blue, and purple. One boy even had bright pink hair. Poor guy.
“Tariatla is home to countless varieties of creatures . . .”
Eric took his seat just in time for the Mana Studies lecture. He'd come on a good day; the class would be spent on a review for a test he wouldn't have to take. Some students zoned out, others paid rapt attention, and the rest were somewhere in between; just like his own school. In fact, he saw so many similarities between Threan and Tariatlan schools that he stopped trying to find differences. Then, a mermaid in a glass tank floated into the room.
“ . . .But they can be divided into one of two categories: Sapient or Monster,” the teacher continued. “Who can tell me the difference between the two?”
A blue-scaled lizard answered. He looked just like any normal Threan lizard, except he was as tall as Eric and stood on his hind legs. His clothing looked just like Eric's own except the pants had a hole for his tail. “The diffffferensssse isss that Sssapients are sssentient and Monssstersss are feral.” His tongue slithered out with each word. Huh . . .They really do talk like that.
“Could you elaborate on that, Mr. Oito?” the teacher asked and the lizard boy nodded.
“A monster'sss mind isss full of chaosss becaussse of mana mutassshion. No one could sssshink clearly wisssss a mind full of chaosss.”
“Correct,” the teacher said. “How does the mutation occur?”
A human girl answered. Her hair was blonde, her right hand was a cat paw, and a Pez dispenser poked through a hole on her shoulder. “Mana mutation occurs when a sapient is exposed to a large amount of highly concentrated mana in a short period of time.” Does she know from experience?
A Mage's Power (Journey to Chaos) Page 6