by Matthew Ward
The two other robing ceremonies, brown for soilists and blue for mianlists, proceeded in a similar fashion with similar vows. Drystn watched as his two best friends, Loegr and Ninml, also achieved highest honors. They probably had no idea what was to come.
After the ceremony ended, all graduates lined up for congratulations. Old teachers and younger students said their goodbyes. Each person would receive a position to go serve. It was expected the position would be near their place of birth, unless the student requested otherwise.
The three graduates with highest honors congregated together just as they had seven years previous, when they had also received highest honors their first year. They had spent most of their time at the school as best friends ever since. The head of the school came over to congratulate them, and then he pulled them aside into an empty classroom across the hall from the ceremony.
Drystn barely got his bearings before the headmaster’s stern face bore down on them. He said, “The three of you have been chosen by the government to serve on a top secret research project at Talamir Center. You have no choice in the matter. You will leave early tomorrow morning. Have your things ready. That is all I know. Good luck.”
The headmaster turned before anyone could ask any questions and left the room. Loegr and Ninml looked baffled. They had not been warned, so they appeared excited by the assignment.
Ninml said, “Research? I wonder what that could mean. I hope they’ve discovered new soils we don’t understand.”
Loegr sneered, “You’re such a soilist. I’m not sure why they’d want me. Mianl has pretty much been solved.”
Drystn laughed, and they both looked at him funny.
Drystn said, “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? The biggest unsolved problem in all of spior has to do with mianl. Mianl crystals aren’t malleable, yet somehow the people of the First Age were able to construct buildings with them! Maybe you’ll get to work on that.”
Loegr said, “Sounds boring.”
Drystn said, “Whatever. I know we just vowed to do this, but I wish we had more of a choice. I’d rather be doing good and helping people than some abstract research on something no one is allowed to know.”
Ninml’s eyes tightened as she gave Drystn a skeptical look. Drystn watched the understanding come to her.
She snapped, “You tried to warn me about this the other night, and now you’re talking about this as if you knew about it again. What’s going on? You were warned?”
“Oh. Um, Cynwr told me during my final exam that this would happen.”
“What? She gave you a choice?”
“I guess so. Oh, and she also said they’ve been doing this every three years for as long as she remembers.”
A worried crease formed across her forehead. Drystn felt bad that he wasn’t more empathetic.
She said, “What? How could we not have known about this? Something doesn’t feel right.”
Fear returned to Drystn’s stomach as it had in Cynwr’s office. Ninml came to the same conclusion as him and his teacher. He suddenly feared that Talamir faced a major threat, but it also seemed impossible that no one would know about it if that were the case.
Loegr said, “You’re thinking about this all wrong. We get to live in Talamir Center. Don’t you realize how great that is? There’s actually people there and things to do. Would you rather be in settlement on the Fifth Ring that has only two-hundred people?”
Drystn couldn’t control his anger at this slight. “I came from one of those places. As a matter of fact, living a simple life, helping people, isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
Ninml said, “All right. Stop it you guys. There’s not much we can do about it now. It must be important if they only take the top graduates. Plus, we’ll still be together.” She almost sounded hopeful. “A few days ago, we thought our night out might be our last act as a group. Now we’ll be able to do it anytime we want.”
The nausea returned to Drystn at the thought. He sarcastically commented, “Wonderful. I’m not sure I’ll be repeating that anytime soon.”
The three wandered back to their rooms and began packing for the trip.
III
They came in the morning. Two men in regal gold robes stood in Drystn’s doorway, and Loegr sheepishly peeked around the corner at him. Drystn pulled on his new green robe and shouldered his pack while the men stared: two new human pillars to decorate the room. He tried to move as quickly as he could, but they made him nervous with their bulging muscles and stern faces.
Drystn asked, “Who are you people anyway?”
The man closest to Drystn said, “We’re your escorts. Now hurry up. We have a long distance to travel today. We have to make it to the Third Ring by Second Sunset.”
Drystn shuffled out into the hallway. A pang of sadness enveloped him. He realized he might never see the halls of the school again. His whole life had been here. The group made its way to Ninml’s room, and the scene played out again. The three new graduates and their two escorts left the school and began their journey to Talamir Center.
No one said anything for the first quarter-day. They walked along the river as a guide. Most people who lived out this far settled along the river, as this was the only reliable source of water. They passed a few small houses, but no one came out to greet them or see who was passing through. The loners were probably suspicious of any travelers.
Drystn looked back as the cliffs receded into the distance. The sun hadn’t yet crested, but he could tell it would be hot by the shimmer radiating over the edge. He wondered what it would be like to live far from the cliffs again. He had been a child, so he’d been able to look to the impenetrable wall for signs of the weather as long as he could remember.
He turned back to the flora. It had already changed after a few hours of walking. Drystn wondered if he should stop to pick up a few herbs that he knew would become rarer as they got toward the lake. He decided against slowing the group, because everything he would need would certainly be provided at this secret research position.
The Rings were hard to discern this far out. They wouldn’t be clear until they reached the Fifth Ring, where the settlements formed a solid band all the way around Talamir City. The only people living out this far were mostly people who wanted to live away from Talamir law. Of these, the majority were people who wanted larger families than law permitted.
Some aspiorist communes also existed in these outer rings. They had been ostracized for their absurd views. The traveler’s new, brightly colored robes identified them as practicing spiorists, and Drystn worried about encountering these people. Their lack of morals made them capable of anything—even murder.
To Drystn’s relief, the day contained no surprises. Upon reflection, he should have expected this, because aspiorists would probably not settle on the most obvious path between Talamir Center and the school.
At last they reached the Third Ring. They would have less than a full day’s travel the next day for making it so far. The sky had turned a deep red after First Sunset, and only a small amount of light was left as Second Sunset approached. Drystn was glad he wouldn’t have to navigate an unfamiliar settlement by himself in the dark. The two escorts seemed familiar with the place and led the way to a small mianl building.
The emptiness of the building struck Drystn as strange. Mianl buildings were rare, and to have no one living in one was even rarer. He marveled at the structure. Despite its fancy mianl exterior, it only had a dirt floor, like most houses. He had, of course, seen mianl buildings many times before, but he had never actually been in one.
He wondered if they were all this simple on the inside. From the inside, he wouldn’t have been able to tell it was different from a peasant’s stone dwelling. There were several furnished rooms with beds in them. The beds, being raised from the floor, were much nicer than the grass cots at the school. The other parts of the room were almost entirely empty. The rooms had no desks or storage.
“Who normally lives here?�
� Drystn asked.
The closer escort replied, “What do you mean?” A puzzled look crossed his face.
“I mean, surely there isn’t just a vacant mianl building in the middle of the Third Ring.”
“The building is owned by the government as a standard halfway point between Talamir Center and the school. This is where all people on government assignment that have to go to the outer ring stay.”
“I see.”
All Drystn wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done so much physical activity in a single day. He decided it had to be the walk to the school eight years previous. Drystn went to the closest room and settled into the bed. He could barely concentrate enough to notice where Ninml and Loegr went.
All of his muscles started to relax, and he knew sleep wouldn’t be long. Drystn groaned when a knock reverberated throughout the building from the front door, an effect unique to mianl structures. What could possibly be going on? He heard someone, probably an escort, move to the door, and Drystn closed his eyes ready to sleep. This was for someone else to deal with.
A woman’s concerned voice called out, “Is there a trained herbalist here? I thought I saw a green robe come into this building.”
Drystn groaned again. These were the types of situations he had vowed to take care of at graduation. The role of an herbalist was to help at all hours with whatever problems the public had.
A gruff voice replied, “He’s in that room.”
Drystn rolled his eyes. Of course, the escort wouldn’t hesitate to point him out. He didn’t even ask if Drystn wanted to see her. The steps got closer, and Drystn sat up, expecting the worst: boils or rashes or a fever. A short, young woman appeared in the doorway. She wore a standard peasant tunic, probably the wife of a local farmer. Drystn could see nothing wrong on the surface.
He tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice, but it crept in anyway.
“How may I be of service?”
She hesitated and seemed nervous. “I need an abortion.”
Drystn perked up. This was the last thing he imagined she would be coming for. He wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Oh. You’re not showing yet. How far along are you?”
“About three months.”
“Okay. That’s a long time. Why not continue to have it?”
“Because it will be my second. It is against the law to carry a second child to birth.”
“I am aware of the law. Why did you wait this long?” Drystn felt awkward asking these personal questions. He didn’t care one way or the other. He would brew the tea, because it would be against the law not to. He knew he would have to report this when he arrived at Talamir Center. They would ask these questions, and he needed the answers to avoid trouble.
Part of being an herbalist was keeping strict records, especially of births and abortions. Population control was of utmost importance to the survival of Talamir.
She looked down at her hands and rubbed them in a subconscious pattern: over and under, over and under.
She took so long to reply that Drystn feared he might fall back asleep while sitting up. Finally, she said, “We don’t have an herbalist around these parts. I would have had to travel all the way to Talamir Center to see one. I figured one would come through before now.” A nervous quaver entered her voice as she admitted to breaking the law. “Then I kept putting it off. You know how things get. One thing or another would come up. I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to secretly have it if that’s what you’re asking.”
Drystn lectured, “No. But it is going to much more unpleasant now. There’s a reason you’re not supposed to wait this long. If this happens again, you must seek to end the pregnancy within two weeks of learning of its existence.”
“I know. I’m sorry. You can still help, though, can’t you?”
“Yes. Wait here.”
Drystn’s muscles had cramped after the long trip, so he had trouble forcing himself to move out the door. Finding the herbs for this was a nuisance in daylight. In the darkness, it would be even worse. He stopped before exiting the building and turned back.
“Actually, do you know anyone with an herb garden around here?”
Drystn realized that he was no longer a student who had to find the herbs in nature. He would be acting as an agent of the government for this brewing, and so it was his right to take herbs wherever he could find them. This included private supplies.
“Yes. I believe I do. Follow me.”
The woman led Drystn through the packed dirt roads lit by grasstorch. The moon would provide sufficient light later, but it still hadn’t crested the cliffs. They passed a good number of mianl buildings interspersed among the stone. Drystn had forgotten how frequent the First Age structures were in the inner rings.
The dense buildings suddenly opened up into a clearing. She pointed to a small stone farmhouse with a large field of crops behind it. Drystn wondered if she knew the difference between herbs and food crops. He approached the building and circled it. Sure enough, along one edge lay a small herb garden. Drystn looked through the reasonably large collection and plucked out the three he would need. He didn’t bother to ask permission first. This was too important.
He then looked for what he needed for a blood clot tea. He worried about how this would go with her being so late. The small garden didn’t have it, so he decided he’d go with the next best thing; he’d ask Loegr to make a mianl charm of protection. They returned to the house with a pressing speed. Loegr would be asleep, and the longer this took, the less sleep Drystn would get. At least Loegr wouldn’t be able to refuse. He, too, was obligated by law to do this.
Drystn didn’t know which room Loegr had chosen, so he called into the echo chamber of a house, “Loegr! I need your assistance.”
Ninml called back first. “Drystn. Go to bed. I’m so tired.” He heard a moan of annoyance as Loegr emerged from the room next to his.
Loegr’s eyes had murder in them. “What could you possibly want at this hour?”
Drystn explained the situation, and both got to work on their respective tasks. Drystn worried about messing up his first real job as an herbalist as he pulled spior from the grass outside and pushed it into the various herbs. He had been trained to make this tea for people who were not so late in their pregnancies.
Drystn modified it in the only way he could think of; he gave the herbs a little more potency for good measure. Fifteen minutes later they sent the woman home for bedrest. The night would not be kind to her. Their part was done, and the midwife would be able to handle the rest.
~
Drystn awoke to the sound of pounding on his door. The two escorts tolerated no delays, and despite how tired he still felt, the sun had peaked the cliffs. They were quite late in starting. Drystn enjoyed the second day of travel much better. He felt a clear sense of progress as they crossed the Second and First Rings and then finally into Talamir City.
He looked around at the tall buildings. There appeared to be an equal number of mianl and stone structures. The dirt streets bustled with activity. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen so many people in one place.
Men and women pushed by, and Drystn took on a disoriented and sinking feeling. For his whole life, he had lived in places where it was possible to know the name of every single person in the community. Here it would be difficult even to know the people in his current field of vision.
The small band of travelers continued their trek to Talamir Center in the heart of Talamir City. They stuck close to their two escorts, who seemed to know the way around the crowded streets. As they crossed through a few public buildings for a shortcut, Drystn’s disorientation only increased. Everything looked the same, and roads crossed over each other in a haphazard fashion.
He despaired that he’d never feel comfortable in the city and followed the escorts through a tight dirt alley between two stone buildings. He was about to protest that they couldn’t possibly be headed
in the right direction anymore when the alley opened up, and they arrived at the lake.
Drystn couldn’t turn his head to see his friends at his side. The lake view was more magnificent than he thought possible. They stood on a hill that overlooked the central mianl building known as Talamir Center. The giant building circled the entire lake, and indoor bridges arched over the three rivers that fed the lake.
The mianl reflected the lake, which in turn reflected the mianl. It created the illusion of a tower of light beaming up from the center of the world. Somehow the people of the First Age had developed a long-forgotten technology to build such a thing.
The two escorts led the way to a door into Talamir Center. The door appeared to open without being touched. Drystn tried to work out the spior mechanism that would allow such technology, but the newness of everything flushed the thought from his mind. They entered a curved hall, and everything shone with the brightness of the mianl. Drystn looked down and saw a shiny white stone floor he had never seen before.
Loegr and Ninml looked as well then said in unison, “Marble.” Their voices had the sing-song of astonishment in it.
Ninml jumped sideways in excitement. She continued, more to herself than her friends, “I thought this stone was pure myth. I didn’t realize it had been discovered and people worked with it.”
Drystn felt left out. Soilists and mianlists learned about theoretical and mythical materials that hadn’t been discovered yet. Herbalists knew all the herbs. There was nothing new to discover. Drystn wished he could contribute to the conversation, but he remained in wordless awe.
He said, “It’s so shiny.”
Loegr informed him, “Well, it’s been polished. Most stones can become that shiny with work.”
Their feet made a slapping noise on the cold surface, and the group continued to circle the lake inside the building in silence. One of the escorts offered some help in understanding. Drystn realized it was the first thing he had heard from either escort that wasn’t strictly necessary communication.