Preserving the Ingenairii

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “I will heal faster and more thoroughly if I am soaked in the water,” Alec insisted. “Just do it my way for me.”

  The healer looked at her patient with an expression of exasperation, then deliberately dropped her sopping washcloth onto his face and walked away.

  Minutes later three Guards carried a large tub down and placed it next to the barrel. “Now, put him in it,” Stracha said curtly, as she pulled the cover off him. Alec began a feeble protest, but she peremptorily cut him off and directed the placement of him in the long narrow vat.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “It was a watering trough for the horses,” Stracha said. “Now tip the barrel and fill the trough until I say stop.”

  “Whoa,ah,oh,ow!” Alec screamed and moaned in anguish as the chilly water plunged directly onto him and splashed around into the tub. The painful chill quickly turned to a tingling sensation that diffused all other senses.

  “That’s enough,” Stracha ordered, and the men obediently righted the barrel. Stracha looked inside the barrel, gauging the amount of water used and the amount left. “We’ll need another barrel before the end of tomorrow. Please tell Givens to ask Captain Lewis for more. Thank you Danel,” she said kindly to one of the men as they started to walk away. Alec sat up in shock from the water, and watched Stracha link her arm in the soldier’s as they walked to the doorway. As the men in uniform climbed up the stairs, she turned around and walked back towards her patient, then realized Alec was watching her, and dissembled her grin into a straight face.

  “He was nice to make the men do that for us!” she spoke before Alec could say anything. “I know what you’re thinking; stop it.”

  “How do you feel?” she asked as she pulled her stool over next to his tub.

  Alec considered his answer. “Cold. And exposed. And something else…something good,” he replied after a brief pause. He closed his eyes and slid back down so that his chin sank to the water line.

  “What mark is this?” the girl asked, touching his shoulder.

  “It’s just a tattoo. Never mind it,” Alec snapped.

  “She wonders about you now,” Stracha said after a moment’s pause.

  “What are you talking about?” Alec asked.

  “Captain Lewis. She wonders why and how you could ask those questions about her family. They were all dead or near the end of their days before Gordon was born.

  “I told her it was some ingenaire powers that let you guess so much about her, but she may be a little shy of you next time she comes down,” the healer finished, as she cupped her hand and dribbled a stream of water onto his hair, then repeated the gesture again and again.

  “What do the stories say about Alec?” he asked as he lay back and relaxed.

  “They say he was pig-headed,” Stracha replied.

  “How did he disappear?” Alec adjusted his question, and ignored her jab.

  “He saved the ingenairii,” Stracha replied simply, then paused. “He went into the energy realm and saved all the ingenairii, and then he never came back.”

  “What about his companions, the people who rode into the lacertii lands with him?” Alec’s curiosity about his friends from his former life continued to rest at the front of his mind.

  “They came back in dribs and drabs. He sent them back at different points, so he was alone at the end of his journey,” Stracha said matter-of-factly, then saw him raise a hand to wipe his eyes. “I’m sorry Alec; I don’t know the whole story. I didn’t study history or politics you know? I’m just trying to be a healer.”

  “Thank you,” Alec ended his questioning and closed his eyes to relax. The water was doing something healthy he could tell. His flesh was alive with energy, energy that felt so intense and active it was as if he was vibrating. The still waters in the tub felt like a flowing stream, and Alec’s memories drifted back to the days when he and Leah had drifted on a raft along the long, empty stretches of the Giffey River.

  “I’m ready to be healed,” he whispered. “I’m ready to come back to life.” He knew with sudden certainty that he wanted to live life. He’d had a few short years, with many experiences jammed in them until the long isolated battle with the demon in the energy realm had removed him from the human race; now he was ready to go forward with life, living in God’s world, seeing the beauty of his creation, and doing the activities that would make life worthwhile. Though his dear old friends and his old world were gone, he knew that a different world awaited him.

  “You’re ready, Alec, it’s time to finish your healing. You’re ready and your heart is ready; you’re going to need all your strength for the battle to come, and for the decisions you must make after that,” a voice said.

  “Who said that?” Alec asked, although he recognized the beloved voice.

  “You are about to move to the next great challenge, and then, if you achieve victory, the challenge after that, and then perhaps your final great service in the name of the Lord,” John Mark said. “You will be healed and restored so that you can meet the challenges, if you have faith. Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” I am ready,” Alec answered, now knowing what was about to happen.

  He opened his eyes, and saw Givens and Stracha talking amiably. “Stand back from the tub,” he told them. Startled by his sudden command, Stracha jumped.

  “Get back, get back over to the wall, now,” he told them, causing Givens to grab the girl’s hand and pull her away.

  “Why Alec? What’s happening?” she asked plaintively.

  In answer, Alec took a deep breath and dropped his head under water within the tub. Seconds later there was a tremendous crash outside the cathedral which shook the stony walls and foundation. The walls of the chamber gave a great flash, and Stracha shrieked in surprise.

  When she and Givens opened their eyes, the water in Alec’s tub was glowing brightly with an eerie green hue, though the walls had returned to their natural dark color.

  “Alec? Alec!” Stracha cried, and she broke from Givens to run to the tub, where she saw the water was turbid and boiling frantically.

  She reached down into the water to pull her patient out of the turbulent liquid, then shrieked as her hands entered the tub’s contents. She pulled them hurriedly out and fell backwards, holding them up in front of her and staring at them.

  “What’s happening?” Givens shouted as he raced over to kneel next to her and other guards came running down the stairs in response to the shouts.

  “He’s in there, and there’s so much energy,” Stracha cried. “I don’t know what’s happening to him! What’s happening?”

  “Lightning struck the cathedral!” Danel exclaimed as he leaped off the bottom stair and into the vermillion lit crypt. “What in the name of Slone is happening down here? Has a demon come after us?”

  “We don’t know what’s happening!” Stracha shouted. “It must have started when the lightning struck.”

  The frothy water in the tub was jumping high, spilling out onto the floor, and a thick cloud of steam arose in a hissing column that spread across the high ceiling, rolling downward upon the tops of the heads of the frightened observers. There was a great blast of water in all directions, the steam ceased to rise, and the green illumination in the misty chamber faded away.

  “Is he alive?” Givens asked.

  Stracha started forward to look into the frightening cauldron, but Danel stepped forward, took her hand, and walked slightly ahead of her.

  “Gordon, are you alive?” Givens called.

  “Alec, are you still here?” Stracha called.

  The mist around the trough began to dissipate, and dimly they all saw a figure moving, rising upward. The figure was much taller than before, and as she drew closer, Stracha saw that the man had a muscular, wiry build. His body was whole and healed, though now criss-crossed with a number of scars, and with an ugly open sore on his left hand.

  “Who are you?” she asked, stopping and drawing no closer. Danel and the others not
ed the fear in her voice, and drew their swords.

  “Put your weapons away, there’s no danger here,” a young man’s voice said, a different voice than they had heard before.

  “Stracha, I have two things to tell you,” the man said as the rest of the steam around his heard cleared away.

  “I am who you said I am. My name is Alec, the healer, an ingenaire in four houses; I am a member of the River Order of the Duchy of Goldenfields; I am the Demonslayer, the crown protector and the heir to the Tarnum dynasty’s seat on the throne of the Dominion. I have been restored to my own body and healed by the miraculous powers of John Mark, to be fit to do battle with demons again,” he triumphantly recited the list of titles and honors, compelled for some reason he didn’t know.

  One of the men fainted, unnoticed by his companions, who stood slack-jawed in amazement.

  The second thing I have to tell you Stracha is that I would like to have a pair of pants,” he said, and then laughed at the pleasure of feeling whole and healthy and ready to meet any challenge in his own body once again.

  Chapter 24 – His Identity Acknowledged

  Alec stood in the center of the cathedral, walking with Captain Lewis, as Givens and his men, along with Stracha, waited outside the nave. He stopped to look high up at the windows, as he listened to Lewis’s exasperated questions, trying to keep all things in perspective as he returned to a new normalcy; his spiritual powers were fully functioning it seemed, and Alec had to focus his attention on the topic of his conversation with Lewis, as her emotions and those of others floated into and out of his perception. Spiritual ingenairii undoubtedly learned to filter such distraction as apprentices, Alec suspected, but he was stuck trying to learn the trick in the course of life.

  “You want me to believe that you are the same person I saw run out to defeat a demon, even though you are completely different, and that you are the same person Major Holbanks saw fight the earlier demon, although your face was changed, and that you have always been the returned spirit of Alec, the Crown Protector?” Lewis was asking, and Alec felt the sincere skepticism she projected.

  “I knew your mother and father when they were young and early married. I healed your mother from her wounds when she was injured defending the Duke, Duke Toulon, that is, on the small porch of the palace. She had a scar here,” his finger hovered over her right breast. “I wasn’t able to tend it before the edges of the flesh had hardened and set. But there was a slice across her face that I tended with the greatest care I could, so that it wouldn’t spoil her wonderful face,” he said, as the feeling of a wave of poignant memories swept over from Lewis to him.

  “Which is beside the point,” he added after a distracted pause. “I am a warrior ingenaire, a healer ingenaire,” he pointed at the marks, “as well as a spiritual ingenaire and one other besides,” he pointed further. “I have been trapped in a battle with a demon in the ingenairii energy realm for fifty years. Now that I’ve returned to the Dominion, I’m here to defeat the Michian forces, among other things.”

  “You may say that, and you may believe it, but to look at you, I wouldn’t peg you at more than twenty one or two years of age,” Lewis replied. “Certainly not the appearance that will inspire the needed confidence.

  “How well do you handle a sword?” he asked, placing his hand on the pommel of his.

  “My mother taught me well,” Lewis replied.

  “Take me to an armory,” Alec said, “I’ll show you what I showed your mother and everyone else in Goldenfields. I’ll prove that I am the best warrior you can ask for, good enough to fight a demon.

  “And for now, don’t let word of this get out,” he said.

  “Oh don’t worry, we’re not going to let a story about a crazy man claiming to be a mythical savior get out,” Lewis said, striding back towards the front doors, where she slipped out with Givens and troops in tow, as well as Alec, who felt a spectrum of emotions, from disbelief to confidence to indifference spread among his companions. They stalked three blocks to a makeshift armory, where Lewis ordered folks off the practice mats. She and Alec strapped their pads on and picked up the practice blades.

  “You better get some of your friends to suit up too. I’ve been waiting for a long time to do this,” Alec said, testing the weight and flexibility of the weapon.

  Lewis watched him prepare, evaluating his abilities. He was serious about swords and knew what he was doing. He looked well-versed for someone who still looked young. “Ready?” she challenged, stepping onto the mat.

  “Ready,” Alec agreed.

  Lewis advanced confidently towards Alec, when he became a virtual blur, and within the moment her blade was knocked ten feet away from her and Alec’s blade was at her throat; there was surprise, but no fear in her spirit, he noted. “I always played fair with your mother; I never used my ingenaire abilities against her,” Alec said as he lowered his blade and stepped back. “If you’ll bring another soldier on the mat with you, I’ll slow down and fight without ingenaire energy.”

  Lewis stood still as the men who had seen Alec’s display buzzed with astonishment.

  Givens and another man put on pads, and stood resolutely on either side of Lewis. “I won’t use powers this time. Now engage,” Alec said calmly, then advanced towards his opponents, causing them to involuntarily step back. Seeing a slight separation, Alec engaged Givens alone, knocking his sword from his hand and then stepped back away from Lewis’s futile swipe. Able to see Alec’s movements, Lewis’s confidence steadied, and she began an exchange with Alec while her companion began to move to his right.

  Alec calmly kept Lewis held at a stalemate, while he waited for his other opponent to make a mistake. As the man attempted to find a vulnerability in Alec’s defenses, Alec stepped back from Lewis and lashed out, winging the man on both arms, then returned to Lewis as the man acknowledged his defeat and stepped away.

  “You said your mother said she wouldn’t have had so much trouble with me if I was right-handed,” Alec spoke conversationally. “So I’ll try to make this easier,” he flipped the sword to his right hand and continued to move the foil gracefully, then began vigorously pressing an assault against the veteran officer, pressing her backwards to the edge of the mat.

  Suddenly, he knew what John Mark expected of him. He understood why he had been told to take the empty body of Gordon, and he knew why he had been healed by John Mark to possess his own healed body, full of energy and potency.

  “Do you want to concede this match?” he asked. “I am who I say I am. Beyond that, I am the warrior who can do the most to lead the Dominion to victory. Not just victory in a skirmish or a battle or in a campaign, but a victory that will drive the Michian invasion out of our lands. I need your support, and Goldenfields support, and the strength of all the people who do not want to live in a world of demons and slaves and an emperor of death,” he said in a voice that rose in volume as he spoke. “Will you follow me?”

  Lewis dropped her sword and stood in front of Alec, silent and defenseless. Givens walked towards Alec, drew his sword, then knelt and offered his hilt. “I will support, follow, and fight for you, my lord,” he said, his head bowed, a feeling of pride his clearest emotion.

  Alec placed his hand on the sword handle, then pressed it back towards Givens. “I accept your allegiance, and will fight for you as I know you will fight for me.” He placed his hand on Givens’ head and released a trickle of healing power, taking away the small aches that nagged at his first follower in the new Dominion.

  Stracha pulled on Danel’s hand, dragging him before Alec, and then she released her grip on the soldier as she bowed down before Alec. “I have been ready to follow you since the first day I met you. I will follow you now, and I believe you will be the good and rightful ruler of the Dominion.”

  Danel knelt down next to Stracha, and presented his sword. “I will follow you as well,” he said simply. There were erupting emotions of surprise and loyalty occurring in the room, and Alec focused
on filtering them out of his mind.

  Lewis looked at the three people kneeling before Alec, then looked up at him, but remained standing. Another two soldiers brought their swords to him, and then three more, so that only Lewis and two others were not pledging their allegiance to the ingenaire. Alec touched each of his followers, providing his healing energy to them all.

  “Captain, I need you to work for me. I need you to take me to the field marshal so that we may make the plans for victory,” Alec told her, as he motioned for the kneeling group to rise.

  Before they could do so though, the doors to the building opened, and a handful of officers arrived. They all studiously avoided appearing to stare as they took in the tableau before them. Surprise, disdain, and confusion from the newcomers were now a part of the emotional tide lapping at Alec’s consciousness.

  “Ah, Captain, we’re so glad to find you,” one officer said, and Alec recognized him as Colonel Holbanks, who had been present after his first recent battle with the demon. “There are the most remarkable rumors sweeping about the city at the moment, we wanted to make sure you were safe, as it appears you obviously are.

  “And how is your convalescent?” he asked, pointedly ignoring the scene in front of him.

  Lewis looked at a loss for words, as she struggled to understand and explain.

  “There was an occurrence at the cathedral,” she began.

  “The unnatural lightning? We heard about it; bolts of lightning striking from a blue sky to hit the top of the cathedral bell tower, and currents of power running along the stones like water flowing down a cliff,” one of the new officers said.

  “It came down into the crypt!” Stracha spoke up. Still kneeling, she looked from the newcomers to Alec. He motioned discretely for her and the others to stand, a motion that Holbanks saw.

  “Who’s the dashing young fencing partner you have here?” he asked.

  “I am the warrior who defeated the demons,” Alec responded quickly and simply.