“Either it is at the place she was last seen, which means Grinwallin,” Erin went on, “or it is at the place she found her first clue.”
“Akhavar.” Sabian leaned back.
“Actually,” Erin frowned,” the first clue was in the Dome.”
“Well, the Dome ain’t a portal,” Belun said. “Forget it.”
Quilla paced forward. “Torrullin, the stones point to Akhavar. The doorway is there.”
Torrullin sighed. “Of course it is.”
“Do I need say more?”
“No, not here.”
Quilla nodded. “Wise choice, my friend.” He gave a bow and went to sit.
Sabian smiled.
A long silence fell over the gathering as all gave thought to intricacies.
Chaim spoke into the silence first. “The Force Real, is that the one Lax forms part of?”
“What do you think?” Torrullin asked.
Chaim tapped the slab. “I cannot see this Axel character as an instrument to rectifying ancient crime. His controller perhaps, but why ready an army with mechanical and technological weapons? When you will be fighting a force of sorcery? It smacks of a smokescreen, if you want my opinion.”
“Or it serves as a means to shake a prophecy from a tree,” Sabian murmured.
“Agreed, both veil and wake-up call,” Torrullin responded. “Lax, though, grows an army that could be used for other purposes, and it must be stopped.”
Chaim gave a smile. “It will be stopped.”
“Good,” Torrullin muttered. He drew breath, released it and then studied each member of the Kaval, his gaze passing over Sabian as if he was not there.
“My Lord?” Erin prompted.
He straightened. “Lowen discovered what we discuss here today. Either she was taken because she found it too early or she was taken to put a fire under us, much as a smokescreen army would. A prophecy has come to light, one that gives pointers to solutions. Four worlds are now at risk, Sanctuary, Luvanor, Akhavar and Valaris, the latter because my grandsons could be the ultimate targets. The Kaval will now enter a time of increased focus on security. Belun, you are to stay with the Dome. Repair her and then use her to protect Sanctuary. Jonas and Erin, you two will remain here with Belun. All three of you are welcome to stay in the villa.”
Belun sucked at his teeth. The other two murmured agreement.
“Sanctuary remains what we desire of her. This world is a place of safety and will continue to be seen in that light or we, as Kaval, will have failed in our duty to those needing us. Chaim, to that end, you and Jimini will use your resources to counter vicious rumouring and, when you take Lax on, the Kaval and Sanctuary must not be seen as aggressors.”
“Yes, my Lord,” Chaim said. Jimini murmured something.
“Fuma, Amunti, you two are already known on Valaris. Return there and remain in the orbit of my grandsons. Caballa will aid you in this and she will also alert the council of Elders. Any threat to Valaris is to be relayed to me immediately.”
“It will be so,” Fuma murmured.
“Absolutely,” Amunti said and then threw a sly look at his companion. “Fuma, you better get warm gear for Valaris. You’re embarrassing me by going around half-naked, hear?”
Fuma threw him a look, but did not rise to the bait.
“Will you tell the heirs of this, my Lord?” Jonas asked.
“Not yet.”
“Fuma, we must go first to the Dalrish,” Amunti reminded. “Over Excelsior and the nukes?”
“I have not forgotten.”
“Iggy, Gal and Shedo. You three worked together recently and will go on as a team. Go to Luvanor, specifically the Academia, and make yourselves useful to the Brothers. Keep your ears open for uncommon words and be alert to strange happenings.”
“Not Grinwallin?” Shenendo questioned.
“Leave Grinwallin to me.”
“Teighlar will not brook an invasion,” Chaim murmured.
“Prima, that leaves you,” Torrullin said next. “You are to go to Akhavar - to Saska.”
“And what am I to tell her?”
Torrullin stared at the lights of the console. “Everything. She needs be alert to danger.” He looked up. “Declan, Quilla, Sabian and I go from here to Grinwallin. Teighlar must get aboard and hopefully the city will give up a few secrets also.” He paused, looking at Prima. “Tell Saska I come to Akhavar soon.”
Prima nodded, dropping his gaze.
“Let us now go up to the villa for something to eat and drink and, I am sure, informal discussion.”
He tapped at the console and headed towards the Dragon ogive. A moment later it chimed.
Declan was on his feet first. “Come, Sabian.”
Sabian stood up and sauntered after the Siric.
As Quilla rose, Erin asked, “Quilla, what’s really going on?”
The Q’lin’la paused. It seemed he was about to answer and then thought better of it. It seemed he was about to walk out, when he thought better of that also.
“It is about repentance and absolution. Someone needs to repent and someone needs to absolve, but who must do what is unclear. True sanctuary lies in the soul, Erin, where sins may be forgotten.”
Quilla walked out, leaving not only Erin staring after him in consternation.
Part II
ANCIENT LUVANOR
Chapter 21
On Fore-knowledge; there are various ‘states’ in which one may know something that may come to pass, among these,
Premonition; the state of anticipating an event
Precognition; a more neutral advance knowing
~ Titania Dictionary
THERE WERE FIVE HUNDRED, and for each man there was a woman.
They came in pairs, they were young and fertile, and they were the future of their kind, a last hope before extinction overtook them. It was accepted that those left behind had now passed beyond the barriers of life. They travelled far and at great speed; centuries passed in another place. They were the last of their kind. All they possessed now was a hope, a dream, and this wondrous new world to make that dream come true.
The biological ship gasped its last two solar revolutions ago, and they plummeted through the atmosphere of this world, praying the land below the veils of fire would be land, would have breathable air and would also offer the means to sustainability. It had that, and more. Prayers were answered beyond every expectation.
New ways could now commence.
The ship would not again take to the spaces and suffered a great deal in the transition from vacuum to land, yet it survived. It drew energy from the earth, the natural order around it, and garnered sufficient stores for its sensors to function during the critical days ahead. It had enough to protect the animals and seeds on board a while longer. Soon, however, it would vanish, absorbed into the natural order without a trace remaining, where it would replace what it took from the land to function for the life forms it had protected over vast distances.
The sensors revealed a five-continent world, depthless oceans, many rivers, and a number of lakes, great and small mountain ranges. Everything from snow-capped regions through steamy jungle into true waterless desert. There was vegetation and there was wildlife, some of which might prove edible or could be domesticated for other uses.
Thus, while the majority investigated immediate surroundings, the leadership team of ten men and ten women debated where to go and where to commence first settlement.
Many days later, with all useful equipment offloaded, seeds and animals gathered together outside and remaining food stores under protection from the elements, it was decided to head east over a stretch of ocean to the smallest of the five continents.
It offered mountains, fresh water, forests and all manner of animal life. There was a protected sea to the south with a deep water bay that could become a harbour, and to the east before the mountains began there was a great plain of considerable height, a plain that could offer useful defences in the future.
It was also agreed it would be simpler initially to tame one small landmass rather than spread to all corners immediately. Their strength lay in togetherness, and exploration expeditions could be sent out once life took on a degree of permanency.
Included in their number were engineers, craftsmen, farmers, shipwrights, midwives, teachers, builders, military, historians, scribes, sons and daughters of politicians, astronomers and geologists, and more. By far the larger contingent, though, were the priests and magicians, for they were a people governed as much by common sense as they were by omens and portents, and this state was regarded as important as the food they ate to keep them alive.
Among these was the one of ultimate status; he was not only a magician, he was a historian, and he was the last surviving son of the royal line. King by virtue of time and distance now, his was the word of this new future.
The five hundred were Diluvan - people of the floods - and abandoned their homeworld to the last, great threat of an encompassing inundation, an event more than mere threat. Here there was no risk of rising waters. The icebergs north and south were too few to appreciably raise sea level and there were no hidden fault lines to tear a land apart.
They were no longer Diluvan, they were Luvan, a created word, a shortening of a past identity, and it would come to mean ‘people above water’.
Thus spoke the King.
SIX MONTHS LATER THEY reached the Great Plateau.
A sturdy vessel was built on the western shores of the landmass they landed on, a two month project; the short journey over the ocean - named the Middle Ocean - was uneventful, if crowded; and then a slow, four month wander until the cliffs loomed over them.
Much was known of the smaller landmass. The only predators were ursine creatures of the land, remarkably akin to the ursine of the ice of that other place, but they were skittish and easily scared off. After a few confrontations the creatures never bothered them, and were likewise left to their own devices.
The Luvans ate off the land, finding bounty on many trees and shrubs, as well as wild fowl and their eggs. Fish was plentiful in the rivers.
They landed in the final spurt of winter’s hold and spring saw them cross the ocean. Summer accompanied them east and now autumn lay around the corner on the wind. The seasons, they realised, followed each other more swiftly than on their lost homeworld. Nobody, however, gave much thought to the past.
This was Luvanor, world of the Luvans, and this was the future.
They named the continent Tunin, a homage to their young sovereign Tunian.
The other continents would find names later after long journeys of exploration.
IT WAS YEAR ONE and the year would pass into the next at winter’s closing.
Ever after would Luvanor mark its years by the season of cold’s ending.
Year One saw five hundred Luvans staring at the massive precipice that was the seemingly unassailable entry to the Great Plateau. Sturdy rope ladders were manufactured and hauled up by a number of fearless climbers. A week later people, animals, stores and equipment were upon the height.
It was splendorous in its beauty, fantastical in its views, and it was indeed a safe haven, a place that offered shelter, defence and a feeling of having come, at last, home.
Year Two saw the settlement achieve a state of comfort. Wooden homes, basic sewerage systems, a meeting hall and a working rota of duties.
Year Three saw the first functioning farms below the precipice. It also saw their number swell to six hundred in new births.
Year Four saw the completion of the lift system along the height of the cliff. It went into operation with great fanfare and eased transit between above and below.
Year Ten saw the number of young equalling the adults, and the settlement on the plateau took on permanency in stone houses. Below, farms were fertile and yield good. Diluvan seeds grew into Luvan trees, shrubs, vegetables, fruits and flowers. Animals brought flourished in the new environment without influence on the natural order. Year Ten also saw the first explorers set out.
Year Twenty saw the youth outnumbering adults, and there were deaths also. Four explorers were lost at sea, twelve woodcutters were killed when a logging expedition went wrong and King Tunian fell afoul of a lung disease and died. His son Devega, eighteen years old, took over rulership, but was deemed too young to control the growing population.
The priests and magicians came into their own.
Year Thirty saw Devega a stooge for the increasing power of the priests. By then there was little difference between priest and magician, the order being closely intertwined, and it was both an aging order and filled with young, idealistic blood.
Year Forty saw King Devega die under mysterious circumstance and the Brotherhood - as the priestly order became known - choose from among his three sons the new ruler of Luvanor. It was a sign that the Brotherhood held power and the royal line was a matter of expediency.
Despite unease, Tunin was true haven. There was no hunger, no strife and each man and woman had a valuable task and place in the new world. Ships plied the seas bringing back exotic fruit and exotic tales. The other four continents saw the first settlements and the rise of trade. The Brotherhood went everywhere also.
At the close of the first century trade between the continents was a fact of life and the Great Plateau had taken on the look of a city. The royal line was a thing of history only.
A little over a hundred years later, change came, for the stones began to sing.
HIS NAME WAS KHUNRATH, he was twenty-six years old and he had a week back taken his final vows to the Brotherhood.
He was a priest of the order, able to preach the word to others, able to use omens and auguries to predict an outcome, able to instruct the young in the way and able to travel Luvanor without papers and encumbrance. Folk knew this about him, but there was more and he alone knew these things.
Ten years ago, a lad of sixteen, he chanced upon a document in the Temple library. Someone had been perusing it, had perhaps been called unexpectedly away, and left it unattended. Khunrath, seeking diversion from philosophical studies, wandered into the deserted chamber.
He found his name at the bottom of a long list of names. His date of birth was inscribed alongside. The name above his, a name he knew well, for it was his father’s, had a date of death beside date of birth. Intrigued, he set to discovering what the document implied and was astounded to discover it was a royal lineage, two hundred and some odd years old. King Tunian headed the list of names, a known and respected historical figure from another world, and his name, Khunrath, lay at the very end. The inference was clear.
Petrified, he dropped the document and left. He was not observed.
For weeks he lived with fear, sensing he was not to be aware of his bloodline, and then anger overcame fear. For months the unfairness festered, particularly as he realised certain personages were aware of his lineage. Anger gave way to resolve and he set to hard study, little play, and did what was asked and beyond that. He became a priest deliberately, not out of calling, but for the freedom it would bring.
In secret he set himself a further task; he mastered the art of magic. While magic and priesthood was not dissimilar, few conversant in both were permitted freedom, for the mastery required them to remain in the temples where they were visible to the general populace.
True magicians, those who were not priests also, were sequestered in the mountains. Khunrath’s uncle, his father’s older brother, a secret royal, was one such and was also the master who trained a nephew.
At first unwilling, he was told of the bloodline. At first disbelieving, he scoffed at the notion, but, like his nephew, it festered and he saw a new way in his earnest young pupil. He taught all he knew, passing on the secret remedies also, and both were careful not to raise suspicion.
The old man developed a ‘malady’ that necessitated frequent travel down to the plateau and always asked querulously for his nephew to attend him.
KHUNRATH SIGHED AS H
E wandered down to the almshouse.
His uncle died five months ago and would not now see their plans come to fruition.
Step one was to become a magician to aid him against potential enemies, and step two was to attain ordination and freedom of movement. Step three was to find a power base, one of security in location, one of sufficient funds to provision such a location and potentially to outfit an army, and one of like-minded people to aid him against the stranglehold of the Brotherhood, hopefully influential personalities.
Step three was therefore many facetted and by far the harder to achieve.
The way forward was one day at a time without losing sight of the objective.
TEN YEARS LATER KHUNRATH was a renowned priest.
He travelled the five continents and was known as a healer, a compassionate man many sought out, and always accurate in deciphering the auguries. In those ten years he met many people, some influential, others not so. He found few sympathetic to his objective among the influential, and surprisingly many among the others.
In his secret mind of minds he had an army.
He also made particularly sound investments in trade - some whispered he was a magician with money - and before long was a wealthy man. Of course, priests were not permitted wealth, and thus it appeared as if he handed over the returns on investments to the Brotherhood. He did, but it was far short of real profits. His wealth hid among other wealth in the vaults of those who dared not disclose their gains.
Khunrath had money and he had like-minded folk.
Now he needed a secure location to bring it together.
IN THE YEAR 227 thirty-seven year old Khunrath was recalled from Kantar continent - the huge landmass south of Tunin - to attend a gathering at the Temple of the Great Plateau.
It was nothing out of the ordinary, for such gatherings were frequent events, but it was the first he was asked to attend.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 23