by Lexy Wolfe
Mureln laughed quietly. "I swear that boy draws more supernatural attention than anyone I have ever seen in my life. And he's not even trying."
"Here. Let me show you how to find where in the journal the answers hide." The two men went to one of the many small reading desks scattered throughout the archives. Holding the book with the spine resting on the surface, he let it fall open. Ash's expression darkened as he scanned the script.
Mureln's levity faded as he watched Ash. "What is it?"
Finger following the line of elegant script, Ash read the words aloud. "'I used to think my suspicions were baseless and foolish, because I grew up among Sevmana's noble born, and their nobility is only slightly less back-stabbing than their Forenten cousin's mageborn. The gods are infallible. Their divine servants are pure of heart. Neither they nor their progeny would ever make mistakes or care so little about mortals. Or so I used to believe! They could see into the hearts of mortals. No mortal servant of the gods would ever turn against their own. But I was wrong. So very wrong.'"
"What?" Mureln moved to look at the text, following Ash's finger as he continued reading.
Ash's voice was so quiet, Mureln could barely hear him. "'Perhaps mortals were never supposed to endure so long as Guardians do. Or maybe we're prone to the same failings as the mundane who see the world through skewed vision. Or some just get tired of giving and decide to take instead. Regardless of their reasons, there is no excuse for pig-headed bigotry and outright cruelty in the gods' mortal domains. Not even for the temporal shifters who slip to this side through no fault of their own or simply out of hunger.
"'Taking the life of a fellow Guardian is the hardest thing I have ever done. Not that I had not killed before, even fellow Guardians. As the Desanti would say, a single death to preserve many lives is necessary sometimes, especially when the weight of centuries becomes unbearable. As Dulain, it was my responsibility to uphold the mistress's edicts. But our longevity is bound to our living, and time will rush to catch up when our souls have fled our mortal shells. To see a dead man not simply die but... I cannot describe it.
"'There are simply no words for the horror. I think it was worse because he was one of the eldest among us, which made his loss that much harder on all of us. Misguided... that word so explains the man I executed. He truly believed what he did was for the goddess. For Fortress. I know someone must have twisted his bigotries to drive him to treason. Or something. I do not know, but I leave that for the next Dulain to discover, if it needs discovery. With our lady's blessings, I am done with this place.
"'I have to get away from Fortress. Return to Vodanya's embrace to wash away the memory of Kali's sacrifice, of my brother's despair in their final hours, of their child's screams that have haunted me for over a hundred years since their deaths. For now, though I will live out my days among the Vodani and let time run its course away from Her protection.'"
Mureln looked up at Ash, whose light complexion had gone deathly pale as he stared at the words. "What in the world were you asking about, Ash?"
The mage shook his head, unable to speak for a moment. "You... your questions had to have been stronger... more focused... than mine. What were you seeking?"
"An answer to what Nikkan is trying to warn about," Mureln stated flatly. "My only hope is to be able to figure out what he wants and pray once his warning is given and understood, this piece of him in my mind will finally extinguish itself." Leveling a look on the mage, he pointed out, "You are avoiding my question. What were you seeking?"
"Answers... to my past." Ash closed his eyes tightly, shoving the book into Mureln's arms. "Mortals cannot remember their past lives, but it is a past life that haunts me." He took several steps away, fists clenched as he fought back the grief that threatened to overwhelm him. "I have to find something to explain..."
After putting the journal back on the shelf, Mureln rested a hand on Ash's shoulder. "And you wanted to do it when Storm was still recovering and would not be aware." They both looked up at a chill breeze that gusted by them like a caress. The bard caught the journal as it fell off the shelf again, opening in his hands. His eyes widened at the words that stood out at the bottom of the page. "Ash..."
Looking over his shoulder, Ash's expression hardened. "'Immortals are not infallible; serving the gods does not make mortals incorruptible. But it is easy to strike against the gods through their mortal servants. As it happened once, I fear it will happen again.'" He looked up at Mureln. "It is not simply answering a question. It is a warning."
"Warning us against whom?" Mureln wondered worriedly.
"Every Forentan learns that enemies are not always obvious." Ash replaced the book back on the shelf, slow as he thought. "We will need to be vigilant and wait until the snake in the grass raises its head to strike."
Chapter 11
The haze of low hanging clouds cloaked the land on the cool, mid-autumn day in the valley. Only the tallest treetops pierced the veil. In the distance, the World Spine mountain ridge rose ominously over the sea of grey and evergreen. Under the canopy near the very top of one of the taller trees, Bella climbed onto a small platform nestled against the trunk on one of the heavier branches.
Stretching and taking a deep breath, Bella stated, "Ah, yes, this is just what we need to cleanse our minds and hearts of worry over our still sleeping Swordanzen." The Vodani archer looked over and watched Lyra easily climbing up the tree, grinning in amusement. "You Forenten never cease to amaze me. I know you all learn to climb before you learn to walk, but the ease you take to the trees is incredible."
Lyra smiled with a small shrug and light blush. "I don’t know about the climbing before walking part, but it becomes second nature to those of us born and raised in Ithesra." Looking towards two distinctive mountains in the distance, the fair colored young woman looked troubled. "Kings and Queens Peaks. That is where we will go when we are ready to be tested?"
"Don’t worry so much," Bella assured, putting a hand on Lyra’s shoulder. "You will do fine. Come, sit. This is my favorite place to fletch arrows. Putting your focus into fletching for a while will help alleviate your worrying so you'll not be fretting when they awaken." Patting the Forentan woman's shoulder, she said, "And if the Swordanzen are anything like Jaison, believe me, they will bat at you like petulant children if you're hovering. Prideful things." Lyra's smile confirmed Bella's observation.
The smile faded after a moment. "How can you be so certain how well I will do when the Kings and Queens test me? If they actually do call me to test? I’m not really that good or powerful." Unslinging her bow, Lyra looked at the unique striations of silvery grays mingling with white and black in the wood grain. "I’ve gotten a lot better with the bow, thanks to you, but..."
"Lyra! Sit!" Bella scolded in amusement. "Good gods, I have never seen anyone as skilled as you have so little confidence in herself." She took Lyra's hand to tug her down beside her. "I will say, you are bold as brass to question the Unseen's judgment."
Lyra blushed as she sat her bow down to the side. "I do not mean to question them. I just... I was raised to be a servant."
"So? Guardians are servants. We serve the Timeless One. A lot better than some stuck up prude of a--"
"I am supposed to be Storm and Skyfire's personal servant." When Bella arched an eyebrow, Lyra corrected herself uncertainly. "...I-I was. I try to be. They make it difficult."
"They never did think of you as a servant, did they?" Bella asked gently. "Or treat you as anything but an equal." Eyes averted, Lyra simply shook her head. "Good for them!" She grinned broadly at Lyra's blush. "They never came across as the type to have someone doing anything for them. I like them all the more for it."
Sighing, Lyra shrugged. "In Forenta, all those of power traditionally have servants, but Ash's headwoman was dismayed that they had no one at all. Storm and Skyfire liked me. That's why Ash hired me in the first place. And why I have worked so hard to make sure he never regretted bringing me into his household."
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br /> Bella chuckled as she shrugged out of her backpack. "Skyfire is quite handsome. If I were you, I'd have jumped at the chance to be near him, too." She leaned forward. "Tell me. Is he as good in bed as I imagine?"
Lyra's eyes went wide, turning furiously red. "I-I don't know. Skyfire is a perfect gentleman. He's not done anything improper."
"Really? I'm surprised. Vodani are tamer versions of Desanti and believe me. Vodani are not shy about enjoying any experience they can, especially sex." Bella glanced at Lyra and shook her head. "Far be it from me to understand Desanti men. Jaison was always intriguing before he revealed his Desanti heritage."
Lyra looked up, curious. "He isn't intriguing to you anymore? Mureln said Vodani women are more interested in satiating their curiosities more than relationships that last more than a few years at most. Unless they can't have what they want, then they're like barnacles. Whatever those are." Bella stared at Lyra. "Well, it is what he said! I never really met Vodani until Dusvet Almek brought everyone else to Naveene's Rest in Ithesra."
Bella coughed and abruptly changed the subject. "You should not worry about the test for your colors so much. Believe me. I wasn’t nearly as skilled as you are when I was called." She started digging around the backpack, pulling out bundles of fletched arrow shafts bare of arrowheads. "Contrary to the appearances the outside world has of us, becoming a Guardian doesn’t mean we are done with training or that we are as strong as we will ever be."
Sitting across from Bella, Lyra frowned in puzzlement. "It doesn’t? But you and Jaison are both--"
Both slender eyebrows rising in surprise, Bella stared at Lyra. "You think we got to where we are overnight? I’m over two hundred and thirty years old! Jaison is over a hundred..." Tilting her head, the Vodani woman studied her Forentan companion. "I am beginning to see the reason for Adept Ophilia’s antipathy towards her own people. How horribly repressed you must have been as a servant not to know training continues throughout a master's lifetime!"
Not raising her eyes, Lyra’s cheeks flushed bright red. "Forenta isn’t as bad as Ophilia makes it sound like. Not everyone is skilled or talented as the highborn families and if you accept your place--" Her voice drifted off when Bella lightly touched her chin to make her look up.
"Lyra," Bella said gently. "It isn't a matter of how much training you have had or how much ability or how strong you are. It is a matter of when the Kings and Queens call you. And if you pass the tests they set before you." She pulled open her backpack, reaching in and fishing around for a moment. After a while, her eyes lit up. "Ah hah! There they are! I knew I had put them in there." She upended the pouch on the wooden platform, dumping out several crystalline arrowheads.
Accepting one of the arrowheads, Lyra examined it critically. "These are very strange arrowheads," she murmured. Rubbing her fingertips together, she looked up at Bella. "They... tingle. What are they?"
"You can sense its properties." Bella looked very pleased. "Good. That just proves you are going to be a very capable Guardian. The stone is called crysalin. Has a disrupting effect on temporal shifters when they're on the physical plane. My mentor discovered it when he was exploring the World Spine. After you have been tested, I'll take you there and show you where to find it and how to harvest it."
The blond woman blinked a few times. "After...? But you don't know if I..." Lyra's voice drifted off as she looked away from Bella's stare.
"I really ought to wander through Forenta just to smack the stupid out of people," Bella stated tersely as she unwrapped one of the bundles of arrow shafts, selecting one to affix a crysalin arrowhead onto. "Believe me, if becoming a Guardian were a matter of accomplishing a set list of tasks to a specific level of aptitude, there would be a lot more of us."
"But a Guardian has to be able to manipulate--"
"No, actually. A mundane is just as capable of wielding temporal energy, but without the goddess's blessing, they would not live terribly long." Satisfied with the first completed arrow, she picked up another, and set to lashing it to the shaft she chose. "Most of your training has been in the passive use of temporal energy, which is safe enough. But the more aggressive the manipulation of time, the harder it is on the body. Almek's aging had less to do with him being away from Fortress than how much he did."
Sighing, Lyra drew up one knee, resting her chin as she hugged her leg, staring out towards the mountain range. "All of the Guardians who have been teaching us never say what the tests are going to be like. Just that it is hard and traumatic and most people fail."
Scooping up a handful of the arrowheads, Bella deposited them by Lyra's hand. "Use these. I want you to get used to the weight of them. Because I have the feeling you will need them before you earn your colors." Testing the balance of the arrow, Bella nodded in contentment before sliding it into her quiver. "I want to say that the people telling you this stuff are idiots, but I can't."
Lyra picked up one of the shafts, glancing up. "You can't say anything because you're not allowed to talk about the tests."
"Yes. I am unrepentantly irreverent, but some rules are simply not to be broken. But there is a reason for this rule that I cannot argue wtih." Bella looked towards the two distinctive mountain peaks. "The way the Kings and Queens test Adepts is rarely the same. Save that there are two tests... one given by the Kings, one by the Queens. And if you look at it, all of us who have tested since the last Dusvet to emerge have failed." She touched the strip on her cheek. "One color for each test. We are still Guardians. I couldn't tell you if what is endured is real or only in your mind, the way the Unseen first tested you. Not that it matters. It is real enough regardless."
"But why can't Guardians tell Adepts about what they endured? Wouldn't it help others to prepare for what they may face if we studied as many descriptions of other Guardian's tests?"
The Vodani woman looked up to Lyra, expression serious. "They discovered that when Guardians told anyone how they were tested, Adepts would try to train to pass those tests they heard described, but they weren't the tests that they would endure. Many became so rigidly attached to what they expected, they could not adapt. Very few who fail both Kings and Queens tests are ever called again. When they call, it is because they believe you are ready."
"I see." Lyra stared at the arrow in her hand for a time. "You really think I have a chance?"
Bella snorted softly. "A chance? Lyra, you're more of a Guardian than most of those Unsvets who never leave Sanctuary are. If you are comparing yourself to the likes of the god-touched in your 'tribe', stop it. There is no one type of Guardian. Some of us wander, some of us teach, others fill in other roles like the Dulain or the archivists."
The Unsvet Guardian nodded to the pile of arrowheads. "Let's finish these while it's still light. It may require being a Guardian to find and carve crysalin, but it doesn't mean you cannot use it." Bella shook one of the arrows demonstratively. "Believe me, you will be grateful to have these. It's my preference to keep time shifters at a distance. It always makes me nervous when I have to use the more hands-on methods of dealing with them. Unlike Jaison, who has always taken great pleasure at laying hands on the more virulent shifters."
Lyra looked up. "I thought it was too dangerous to allow time shifters to touch you."
"Well, of course it's risky, but merely touching one doesn't mean you've lost." Bella snorted softly. "Discovering he has Desanti blood explains so much about him that simply being raised in Desanti lands never quite explained. Your crazy Swordanzen likely will go nose-to-nose with them, too."
"Storm would have in Ithesra, if moving would not have risked Master Nolyn and Terrence's lives by leaving them open to attack." Lyra closed her eyes against the memory of the mages who allied with temporal shifter darklings, the corrupted giant wolves, and Skyfire's brush with death.
"You see? They're not even trained properly, and they want to go headlong into battle with them." Bella shook an arrow comically at Lyra. "Just imagine when they are! And after what Storm did
to Dremmen? I've yet to decide if I should admire Desanti for their skill and brazenness or pity the time shifters who will suffer Desanti tempers." Lyra giggled quietly at Bella's expression.
Chapter 12
"Chitta! No!" Izkynder scolded the little winged reptile, both fighting for possession of a building block. "Mine!" The boy scored a victory when he tugged it free of the tiny, needle-like claws of the chitan, but fell back and hit his head on Jaison's boot. Unperturbed, he pulled himself back to his knees and went back to building.
Mureln chuckled as he came out of the bedroom, closing the door quietly. "They will be waking up soon, I think. They seem to be rousing."
"I hope so," Jaison stated fervently. "The Dulain has been extremely worried about them since the shli'zarii concluded. It would be great to be able to tell him something more tangible than 'Izkynder and I aren't worried.' Sometimes, it'd be nice if everyone shared the na'Zhekali bayuli-volsha with them both just so I'm not the only conscious connection to either of them." The men chuckled when Izkynder squealed and clapped happily as the chitan climbed the tower of blocks and fanned its wings, 'roaring' humorously. "I do not mind being the relay point, but..."
"Speaking of fretting about Storm, I am rather surprised the drizar has not been rampaging throughout Sanctuary, with everything that has been happening with Storm since we arrived here."
The chitan took wing as the block tower shivered and collapsed. Helping Izkynder with the task of rebuilding, Jaison pointed upwards towards the north. "They're over there in a food coma. I've been checking on them. I think both of them have been more asleep than not since you came to Sanctuary."
"Storm probably encouraged the drizar to eat himself into a stupor." Mureln absently strummed his mandolin. "Considering everything, and as nervous as Storm is around the unknown, the last thing anyone needs is the drizar running amok trying to find or protect her."