“Gee thanks,” replied Candor. “Keep talking like that and I’ll have Jinx get some more dishes, just so I can throw them at you.”
They all laughed. It was a good feeling, one that broke the tension that covered the room like a thick blanket. All except Jinx, that is. For him, this new development was an enigma. Even though he loved Candor like a brother, he knew that his station in life would never allow a true reciprocation of that relationship.
Not to mention the order of vochass that now binds me…terrifies me, he thought. It was a grim reality, one that he tried to hide, even as he smiled and pretended to be pleased.
“I agree, my son,” said Sador. His true motivations were concealed just as carefully as Jinx’s was. “You must continue with the bonding. All I ask is that should your nightmares return that you please seek me out. I do not know if the Goddess has a plan for you. What I do know is that your mother and I love you, and we only want to help you when you are in crisis. You must vow to me that at the first sign of anything strange, you shall call upon me.”
“Of course,” replied Candor, “I swear it. I would have told you both sooner, but Zyphon has been contending with the issues that have arisen from incarnation, while you…” his voice trailed off for a moment before he continued. “Father, I was respecting the burden of your office. You carry a great weight upon your shoulders, with preparations to move our civilization through time. I felt that to bring such things to you would not be appropriate. And in truth, I didn’t want to frighten you, or Mother.”
Sador felt regret welling up inside of him. He’d been overly harsh with Jinx, and he also understood the nature of Jinx and Candor’s relationship. They were friends, plain and simple. In fact, Sador concluded that it was Jinx who assisted Candor in his assimilation to their culture. After all, without his memories what other resource was available. Sador believed in the old ways, a time when the seneschal was viewed as an honored member of a house. And yet their function was to serve the needs of that house, because they were grown, created by the hands of Penticorians, and not by the grace of Eos. Friendship between them never crossed his mind until this moment. He understood the nature of it, and how Candor was drawn to confide in the simulacrum. And yet it didn’t stop the guilt that washed over him, and he longed for his chair overlooking the ocean, so that he could clear his thoughts.
Candor would have come to me, he thought, but I made myself unavailable. I share the blame, no doubt about it. Candor has no ill designs. There must be another meaning to the origin of the spacetime anomaly. I simply must find the answer before it’s too late.
“My son,” Sador replied after he stood up. “You have my deepest apologies. Do not ever think me above your concerns. I may be an important scientist, but foremost, I am your father. That consideration transcends all others. I love you, and I am always here for you, as is your mother.”
Candor hugged his father. Never in his life could he imagine that love and compassion would come from one so close to him. And yet here it was, his father telling him that he loved him. Candor figured that as a scientist, his father would be above such feelings. Not aloof, but detached, as scientists tended to examine life in a systematic way. Dissecting and breaking every element down to its lowest common denominator. Candor misjudged his father, and he vowed to never make that mistake again.
“I love you,” he said. He was like a child, basking in the love of a Penticorian that he had come to worship as the ultimate personification of everything that he wanted to be. He hoped that he could be half of what Sador was, when it came to his beloved Thalia. “I promise, you will know everything, before it happens if possible.”
Sador hugged his son, and then asked him. “Now, what are your plans today?”
Candor had to reorder his thoughts before he told him. “I have some work to do on my new movie, and then I am to meet Thalia for dinner.”
“Excellent,” replied Sador. “Would you ask her for the honor of her presence here?”
Normally, Thalia and Candor met in the tower once a week. They walked the shops together and talked, then dined at one of the small establishments that lined the boulevard. It was always good conversation, and it always ended with kisses.
“Certainly, Father, I’m honored that you would ask.”
“We shall all sit together and take our evening meal,” Sador replied with a smile. “And then perhaps we will play a game together, your choice, something to take your mind from these serious matters. After all, you are about to be bonded.”
Candor smiled, and then bowed. “I will see to it at once, Father. I look forward to it.”
“As do I, my son. Now please, I apologize, but I have a couple of matters to attend too. I will take my leave until this evening.”
“Certainly,” replied Candor. Zyphon stood and bowed, showing the lord of the manor the proper respect, as he wished him well.
“Jinx, would you attend me?” asked Sador.
Jinx shook his head, surprised that he would be asked to escort Sador. He’d never been asked such a thing before, and it concerned him…deeply.
“Candor, Zyphon, do you require anything else, perhaps another cup of sok-ta?”
“No Jinx, thank you,” they replied in unison before Candor added. “Zyphon and I have a few more things to discuss. Why don’t you meet me in the stadium in an hour? I could use some help with the new movie.”
Jinx smiled, despite himself. Then turning to Sador he said. “I am at your service, Seiss Sador.”
They walked in silence for a time. As they reached the front door to Candor’s residence, Sador said. “Walk with me a little further, Jinx. I would speak with you.”
Jinx suppressed a cringe. As the doors opened, they entered the wide sloping corridor beyond, and he resigned himself to another verbal thrashing. About halfway up the corridor, Sador stopped and appraised the simulacrum. “Jinx,” he began, “you are loyal and trustworthy. Although there are some mitigating circumstances that I cannot disclose, I must apologize to you for my behavior.”
Jinx was stunned, unable to process this sudden change of heart in the patriarch. “It is my honor to serve, Seiss Sador,” he replied. “Apologies to a Seneschal are highly unusual. I must admit that I cannot form a proper response.”
“Hmm,” Sador noted with a smirk that was also uncharacteristic. “Well, I mean to add to that lack of response, because I am rescinding the order of vochass.”
“My Lord,” replied Jinx as he bowed. “You honor me, and I am truly grateful. I would gladly give my life for Candor, or any member of the House of Shuveen.”
“I know you would, Jinx. I believe you, but I will spare you the necessity of giving it in such a manner as vochass.”
If Jinx had tear ducts, he would have wept with joy. The order of vochass was essentially a gag order. It was an ancient Seneschal tradition, one that bound him to conceal what the lord of the manor instructed him. If Candor ever asked him if he was informing Sador and Janesska, and he could not bypass the conversation without lying, then he was honor bound to take his own life before revealing that information.
“Jinx,” he commanded. “I still would ask something of you.”
Jinx straightened, his release from the obligation felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “Yes, Seiss Sador, what would you have of me?”
“I still cannot explain the reasons for my concern, but have no doubt that these are matters of the greatest importance. I think after what I just witnessed, that I was wrong about my conclusions. I don’t know what to think, and I need more information. I know you helped Candor with his lack of memory, so I’m not even going to ask you.”
Jinx paused, respecting the keen intellect of the preeminent scientist. Sador Shuveen was a Penticorian who possessed an unparalleled level of deductive reasoning. He was not to be trifled with, under any circumstances.
“Instead of commanding you,” Sador continued. “I ask you to inform Lady Janesska or myself if
you see anything odd with Candor. Come to us as his friend, and because you trust me when I say that I only want what is best for him.”
The change in tact shocked Jinx, as well as Sador’s deduction that they were friends. He fixed Sador with an earnest gaze and told him. “On my honor, and for this noble house, I swear that I shall. Is there any other way that I can assist? Is there a specific subset of information that you seek?”
Sador smiled, and then patted the simulacrum on the back. “If I knew that, Jinx,” he said with a touch of humor. “Then I wouldn’t be asking you to keep an eye on him.”
Jinx nodded, and then watched as Sador departed down the corridor. He stood there for a moment, enjoying the silent comfort of his thoughts. It was a tumultuous day, one that he would never forget. A day that was initially full of despair, only to conclude with the bliss of knowing that he could return to his duties without consequence. Still, he decided not to tempt the Goddess, because she could be cunning, as well as merciful. The last thing he wanted was to find himself in another horrible predicament before the sun lowered below the horizon.
I think today, other than assisting Candor, that I shall stay in the kitchen, he thought. He noted that food always appeared to have a pleasing effect on Penticorians. In his experience, no one was in a foul mood for long when the table was filled with delicacies.
Yes, as Candor is fond of saying, I shall “lie low,” for a while.
As Jinx walked down the corridor and back into the house, he was convinced that being inconspicuous today was a good idea, a very good idea indeed.
In this short Life
That only lasts an hour
How much – how little – is
Within our power
Emily Dickinson
1830-1886
Seven
Candor was standing at the doors to Thalia’s residence when a dark thought occurred to him. So powerful was this notion that his hand stopped before touching the chime-plate. In five years of faithful courtship the thought never crossed his mind, and his hand shook with the revelation.
How could I have overlooked the obvious?
Without realizing it he stepped back, his teeth grinding together, making a hollow sound in his jaw. His eyes stared out through the transparent window, and he beheld a beautifully curved horizon that blended with the void of space. Distant stars, like pinpricks of brilliant light, danced in the background, while behind the planet’s prominence, the moon hung like a magnificent white diamond. Candor was amazed that the sight from orbit never became commonplace, but always took his breath away.
It was then, in the grip of his turmoil, that he felt the faint vibration beneath his feet. He touched the window, and discovered that it too was vibrating, and he knew that he was responsible. Reaching out with his mind, he felt the anger and frustration that frothed beneath the surface of his emotions. Those emotions had manifested through the electrical fields in his body, and disrupted his surroundings. He took a deep breath, and concentrated on quieting his mind. Get a grip, Candor, he thought as he searched for memories to calm himself. He thought of the view that he was witnessing from low orbit. He thought about his mother, and father, and most of all, he thought of the kiss his beloved Thalia gave him the night she agreed to take him as her suitor.
Slowly the vibrations ceased, and he took another calming breath. Thalia must have thought about this, even if I didn’t. She doesn’t seem to mind, so she must have the answer. Yes, that’s it, I just need to calm down and ask her.
Going back to the door he steadied himself, and then touched the chime plate. A moment later one of the doors opened and revealed a smiling Seiss Theniass Nassvhedt.
“My son, how are you?”
Candor smiled. He’d been accepted in such a wholehearted manner that sometimes it all seemed too good to be true. “I am well, Seiss Theniass, and you are looking fit,” replied Candor.
The young Penticorian body regarded Candor with eyes that had seen the passage of centuries, revealing his true age. “I must admit it feels wonderful, but sometimes I think that I can still feel my old ailments. Sir Zyphon says that it’s because there was no severing of the old body through death, as was the case for Lady Kythonia. But please, enough chatter. Come in, come in my son.”
As Candor went inside and closed the door behind him, Seiss Theniass called out. “Thalia, your suitor and my future son has arrived. Do you wish to attend him?”
Over the past five years, Candor discovered that living in the towers was fundamentally different. The most apparent difference was the size of the dwellings. They were much smaller than estates under the dome, or in the underground precincts. Yet some of the subtler differences included a lack of Seneschal, because houses in the towers were equipped with the most advanced technology available, and didn’t require them to function.
An example being that when Seiss Theniass spoke, the family avatar, a form named Dewass, automatically transferred his voice to sound projectors directly into the room where Thalia was. Since becoming Thalia’s suitor, he’d spent a great deal of time in Nassvhedt manor. And quite frankly he found it cozy, and even charming. The family lived side-by-side, interacting with each other every day. They shared meals and played games together, along with taking walks through the docking ring, or down in the shops below. Far different from Shuveen manor, where an entire maze of corridors opened to separate mansions. Photonic visits were common, but often he might not see his family in the flesh for days, even weeks at a time. It was formal and traditional, but in his estimation, it lacked a certain closeness that he craved. And he looked forward to the day when Thalia would share his home with him. He knew that her continued presence would breathe life into the place, and he relished the thought of her making even more changes than he had, after his rejuvenation.
I made it livable, he thought with a wistful smile. But my beloved shall truly make it a home.
Suddenly, Candor heard Thalia’s voice, as it was relayed to their location. “No,” she said, “I do not wish to attend him. Tell him to go away and come back tomorrow.”
Candor could tell that she was playing with him, teasing him, as she often did. It was one of the many things that he adored about her. She had a wonderful and vivacious attitude towards life. He was overjoyed to know that in many ways, over the past five years, that he had brought Thalia out of her shell. Emerging from the defensive wall that she used to protect herself, during a time when her family was nearly destroyed by death, and old age.
He was also extremely pleased that it hadn’t taken five-hundred years for Thalia to consent to bond with him. Even though Penticorians lived for centuries, five-hundred years was a long time. While by comparison, five years was just a drop in the proverbial bucket. In fact, Candor marveled at how quickly the time passed. Being Thalia’s suitor “in the traditional manner,” meant that they were honor bound to observe what was referred to as the, Chain of Ascension. Through that process he’d learned much about the Goddess, and the history of Penticore Prime.
There were five Chains, founded by his ancestor, Seiss Nophte Halsshik. Candor found it intriguing that for a Penticorian of his historic stature, he was fundamentally flawed in character. Of course, he never spoke of such things openly, but his studies in private were an obsession. Seiss Nophte Halsshik, was born six-hundred-thousand years before Candor’s time, at the end of the last Penticorian Dark Age, right before the Time of the Grounding. A time when red skies turned blue, and their race began taking refuge below the surface. In fact, he wasn’t even known as a Seiss, or Father, until the title was posthumously bestowed upon him nearly three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand years later.
Before the Time of the Grounding, when Penticorians could still breathe the free carbon dioxide on the surface, Nophte Halsshik was known as, Wasshont Halsshik. Which when translated meant, Warlord Halsshik, or Halsshik, Lord of the Warriors.
In that era, Penticorians were particularly brutal and bloodthirsty, analogous to the huma
n nightmares that plagued Candor. The continent of Ruxoss was divided into fifteen city-states, each one ruled by a prevailing Wasshont. It was an arrangement that led to the formation of the fifteen cities of Penticore Prime. Yet as Candor discovered, the price came with a staggering amount of blood. The history of their race was something that Candor likened to a history book that was written by prophets, like an encyclopedia penned by Nostradamus. In a series of quatrains, Candor learned that during the onset of the Oxygen Invasion, the city-states didn’t understand what was happening. Being technologically inferior to their modern-day counterparts, they took it as an omen. At first the changes were small, and for the most part, Penticorians whispered that this-or-that forest, or this-or-that river, was cursed by the Goddess.
From what Candor could tell, as he negotiated his way through the mystic writings, was that one night while he slept, Wasshont Halsshik had a vision. In that vision, the Goddess commanded him to unite the city-states by any means necessary. He claimed that by doing so, the Goddess would bless them, and the changes would cease. It didn’t take an expert to figure out what happened next. The great Halsshik raised an army of epic proportions, with over one-million soldiers at his command. It was the largest standing army the planet had ever seen. And Wasshont Halsshik used that army to storm the lands, and unite their race under one banner.
Candor was grateful that regarding their technology, early Penticorians were barbaric in nature. They possessed projectile weapons that were fired through magnetic cylinders, and even harnessed the ability to split atoms and control nuclear forces. Yet their universal belief in the Goddess prevented them from unleashing those forces, and by proxy, destroying the planet. Of course, they had no compunction whatsoever about killing one another, but to destroy a forest, or foul a river, it was simply unthinkable.
So instead they opted to maintain the traditional manner of warfare. Whereby one army would meet another on the field of battle, and the army that was left standing would claim victory. It was a costly form of war in terms of life and limb, but one that minimized damage to the land, and especially non-combatants. For the most part, swords were used, as was a bevy of other brutal weaponry and armor. In the end, Nophte Halsshik’s war brought all but four of the last city-states together. The four that remained formed an alliance, mobilizing an army of their own to combat him. There were several tentative engagements in the weeks that followed, as each army tested the others resolve, and jockeyed for position. Until finally, one winter’s morning, six-hundred-thousand years ago, the two armies met on the fields of Hessock, less than a mile from the modern-day site of Tulacoss.
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