The Children of the Light: Book 1: Spirit Summoner

by Matt Campbell

  “What happened?” Racall asked. No disappointment appeared on his face, only concern.

  “I tried. They were too many. I couldn’t listen to them all.”

  Racall smiled kindly and said, “This time, try listening to only one. Remember, the spirits are connected one to another.”

  The Summoner looked up in frustration, about to protest, but Racall repositioned himself, his eyes already closed. Darr wasn’t afraid to listen to the spirits or venture into the Currents. He progressed too fast, a sensation not unlike falling from a great height. Though it was his second day out of Tyfor, he was having conversations with Archons and taking trips into spiritual planes the rest of Ictar thought were unreachable outside of death.

  “Are you ready?” Racall asked, peeking out of one eye.

  Darr decided right then that he was, but his life would never be the same because of it.

  Chapter Six

  “After nearly a decade, Symdus’s studies led him to theorize one could create a pocket of space called the Endless that would simulate the Currents. Within the Endless, one could reverse the effects of aging by allowing time to flow backwards. Work began on a means to generate the Endless, and Symdus anxiously awaited the realization of his dream.”

  ~From A Current History of Ictar, as told by Nidic Waq

  Racall’s features were unreadable. “Remember your goal,” the Archon said. “Remember the techniques I have taught you.”

  Darr let go a long sigh and did as Racall asked. He took in long, slow breaths, taking more time on this attempt. Calm now, he opened his mind and let the spirits rush in, another cacophony of voices.

  “Easy Summoner,” Racall said in a soothing tone.

  The Summoner struggled right away, wanting to dash back to the mountains and the cool night air. He remembered Racall’s advice about listening to one voice, but he didn’t see how he could do such a thing. There were so many different voices overlapping each other.

  Racall said the spirits were a collective, different voices and different thoughts, but they all acted in harmony with one another. Could listening to one really be the same as listening to all? Newfound confidence surged through Darr. He slowed his breathing again and let his body relax. Extremity by extremity, he calmed himself. The voices of the spirits roared through his head, but this time, he chose one voice to focus on.

  Darr didn’t remember exactly what it said, in fact, it might have been more of a memory, a composition of images imprinted on words. He heard about, or rather, he saw a tower surrounded by gardens enclosed by thorns. There were men of power walking its grounds, elders perhaps. Darr listened more intently, trying to focus on the details of the memory, fighting past the rising voices. The elders walking the grounds stopped what they were doing when an argument erupted near them.

  At the doors to the tower, a tall and regal-looking man stood before a thin black-haired man. They were the ones arguing. The other elders gathered around, though they put a fair amount of distance between the two because they were the highest among them. They were arguing about the use of their power. They were arguing about life. In the end, the black-haired man stormed off and fled through the gardens...

  ...Darr listened in silence, but he could hear nothing. Silence surrounded him. The voices of the spirits were gone, replaced now with an eerie quiet which Darr accepted as another failure. His vision cleared, like he’d opened his eyes but without the physical action. He didn’t see the night of the Valimere. A vast world of lavender-colored light spread out before him.

  --Summoner of the Currents--

  --Summoner of Tyfor--

  --You are welcome--

  The spirits spoke in unison, and Darr gasped in spite of himself. The spirits were nothing more than tiny specks of white light swirling around his face and in the distance, fireflies against the pale light. There were easily thousands of them, perhaps more.

  I’ve done it, he thought, trying to fight down the invincible feeling of glee. It wasn’t about listening to all the spirits at once. One voice needed to be heard, because hearing one was the same as hearing all. An overwhelming sense of panic crept over the Summoner at the realization of how far he’d come, for he had no idea what to do or how to leave.

  --Do not be afraid, Darr Reintol--

  --You can leave when you want--

  --The Currents are yours to travel--

  --Our home is now yours--

  --Our wisdom is shared now with you--

  “Good job, young Reintol.”

  Darr watched, awestruck at the greenish light swirling in front of him, coalescing into the shape of Racall. The Summoner looked down at his own body, his own physical shape mimicked by white pinpricks of light, much like Racall’s. Flesh and blood didn’t exist in this world, he realized.

  “You have passed the first obstacle in learning your potential as a Spirit Summoner. The spirits have welcomed you into the Currents, and you have learned what is necessary to listen to them.” Darr heard a difference in Racall’s voice here in the Currents. While its depth matched his physical form, it sounded harmonized with other tones.

  “Why do they welcome me here?” the Summoner asked, his wonder dissipating. “I’m always connected to the Currents, aren’t I?”

  Something Darr likened to deliberation rushed through him. It subsided the moment Racall began to speak. “What you have experienced during the transition between the Currents and the physical world is not unlike the relationship between a mother and her unborn child, still in the womb. Before the child is born, the child and mother both are aware of each other’s existence, but they reside in different worlds. When the child is born, the two worlds collide, and the mother welcomes her child into her world. The transition you have gone through is very similar.”

  “How do I get back?” Darr asked, suddenly uncomfortable.

  A deep rumbling came from all around him. It wasn’t anything he felt physically, but a sense of dissatisfaction from within the Currents. He sensed a hint of delight from Racall in the same way.

  “You would not offend your hosts by leaving so soon after your arrival, would you?” Racall asked. “Let us have a look around.”

  The Currents were a wide open space with no earth and no sky, no trees or plants of any kind, only the strange wisteria light and the fluttery white of the spirits. In the distance, weaved through the ether, there were lines of color--red, blue, yellow, and green. On closer inspection, Darr saw the same colors weaved through the air in front of him, though harder to see.

  “Is this the magic of the Sephirs, Racall?” Darr asked.

  “This is the Light of the Sephirs,” the Archon replied. “Their Light can be summoned or taken into the physical world where it becomes magic.”

  Racall gestured to the lines of color, sweeping his arm back and forth towards the various directions in which they flowed.

  “These Lights are the Four Elements as they work their way through the Currents, spreading their magic out into the physical world.” Racall inched closer to Darr. “Think of the balance between the Four Elements like a cord woven together by four strands. If the cord is stressed too much, one of the strands might fray and eventually break. These breaks cause elementals to appear in the physical world. When you are in the Currents as you are now, these breaks will be drawn towards you. Always be mindful when you are here.”

  The strange lights presented a hypnotic puzzle, but Racall started to move forward, a slight drifting motion through the Currents that broke Darr’s attention. The Summoner tried taking a step but nothing happened. He tried running, the white light of his legs sending up a flurry of luminousness, but still he detected no movement. With no ground beneath him, his legs didn’t work.

  Racall laughed. “This is not the physical world, young Reintol. However, the same rules apply here. You think of walking, and your legs move to do the work. Use the same principle here.”

  The Summoner stopped running, and calmed himself. He imagined himself
moving forward, and he moved, but he moved so fast and so unexpectedly, he shot off into the wisteria light. Darr tried to stop himself, but somehow ended up changing directions. The sensation overpowered him, and he quit trying to move altogether. He floated in the Currents for a few moments before Racall found him, his massive form emitting a feeling of amusement so powerful Darr couldn’t help but share in it.

  When they had both calmed themselves, Racall said, “You must remember one thing when in the Currents, Darr, and this lesson will apply to many different tasks, so take careful note. Your thoughts mirror what you seek here. Whatever you are thinking, whatever you ask for from the Currents, is what you will receive. That is why becoming a Summoner is so difficult and bears such a burden. It is an awesome power, capable of almost anything. If you ask for a mountain, you will receive a mountain. If you ask to travel from one end of the world to the other in the blink of an eye, you will do so. Keep your requests precise and your thoughts from straying.”

  Darr nodded, and this time when Racall started off through the Currents, he kept an image of the Archon close in his mind. He found by thinking of Racall, he stayed close to him and matched his pace.

  They drifted through the wisteria light for a while, but Racall brought them to a stop before a sudden brightening in the Sephirs’ magic.

  “Here,” Racall said and gestured towards the brightness.

  The light marking the Four Elements crisscrossed before them like giant ribbons, and aside from being brighter, Darr saw nothing different about them.

  “Look closely, young Reintol.”

  Darr studied the colors, following the threads from yellow to blue to green. When he followed the thread of red, the element of Fire, something gave him pause. A small fleck of white light burst from the center of the stream and brightened the colors around it.

  “It looks like it’s torn,” Darr said, and a feeling of approval washed over him from Racall.

  “As I mentioned earlier,” the Archon said, “this is a break in the Four Elements. You must look for breaks such as these when you are in the Currents. Your presence near them could allow them to break free into the physical world.”

  Confused, Darr asked, “How do I go about fixing it?”

  “In time, you’ll learn,” Racall answered. “For now, you would do wise to be aware of breaks like this and stay far from them.”

  The Archon drifted closer to the break and stretched his arms out to it. Slowly, the white light began to dim, then vanish altogether. It appeared the break had never existed.

  “Your own Light has such power, young Reintol.”

  They drifted onward through the wisteria light. Through the haze of the light, soft pricks of bright whiteness could be seen, identifying each of the Lights of the Sephirs themselves. They could be seen anywhere in the Currents at anytime like stars.

  There were pale places, clouds that were more towards where the ground would be. Racall took him in closer and told him to focus on those pale places. In a flash of blinding color, the familiar light of the Currents disappeared and groups of bodies appeared, all composed of the same white lights as Darr.

  “The pale places within the Currents are where large numbers of people are gathered. With more experience you will be able to locate a single person walking across an open field.” Racall edged closer and his voice became a soft echo. “Inside the Currents, being this close to someone’s Light will allow you to sense what they are feeling and sometimes, if the spirits are able, they can tell you a thing or two about them as well.”

  “That’s why everyone thinks Nidic Waq is a prophet,” Darr said in wonder. “He isn’t really reading their minds--he’s a Spirit Summoner. Nobody knows it though because they don’t know what a Summoner can do, right?”

  Racall nodded, but Darr sensed restraint of some kind from the Archon. For the first time, Darr suspected Racall might not be telling him everything. Racall pushed forward, avoiding a confrontation and changing his thoughts so Darr couldn’t sense his feelings. The Summoner shoved his doubts aside and followed him to where a group of the sparkling white bodies were gathered close.

  A flood of emotions coursed through him. He mingled among the forms and felt their merriment and exhilaration, hostility and rage, anxiety and apathy. The feelings were so intense, for a moment, they threatened to drown him. As the sensations grew in strength, Racall’s familiar presense brushed them away, lending strength to Darr and quieting the emotions boiling in him.

  “Do you know why I brought you here? Do you know what this place is?”

  Images flashed in Darr’s head and his mind raced for an answer. He closed out the images gently before answering. “This is a tavern or an inn. I can almost see it, but I don’t understand why you brought me here.”

  Racall strung his glowing, green arm out before the patrons and said, “This is another important lesson for you, Summoner. I brought you here to show you what you are capable of. Spirit Summoners can see into the Currents and read the Light in another living creature. What you see before you are not the physical bodies of living beings, so never deceive yourself into thinking otherwise. These are their lifeforces, their Light, mimicking their physical forms in the Currents. The Light carries within it all of their emotions and memories, and in the Currents, you are given access to all of this. However, should you try to take in too much, you will become lost. Your own Light--your memories and emotions, the very core of your being--will become indistinguishable from their own, and you will be lost to the Currents. Do you understand?”

  Distress roared through Darr at the revelation. He hadn’t thought the Currents could be such a dangerous place, but he’d experienced the drowning sensation once already. The Currents had the potential to consume the careless. He nodded his head in understanding, forgetting his physical gestures meant nothing, but his emotions spoke volumes.

  “Good,” Racall said. “Then there is one more thing you must remember. The spirits are also composed of the Light. They are a danger to you and can consume you in the same way as these people you see before you. They would not do so intentionally, but should you let them get too involved with you, they would integrate themselves with you in the same way. All of this goes back to what I told you before. This is not a place for curiosity, but a place for precision.”

  Unease vibrated through Darr, its source coming from somewhere other than Racall and his cryptic warning. This feeling was familiar. When listening to the ghost stories told by travelers at Arn’s inn he sometimes felt like this. It was fear rooted in the unknown and the unexpected. And why did he feel so cold all of the sudden? He had no physical body in the Currents, no flesh to numb.

  Racall appeared at his side, but the Summoner could sense fear in him. Fear for his charge.

  “We must go now, young Summoner,” Racall said. “Focus on me. The transition from the Currents to the physical world will disorient you, but if you can hold on to my Light, you should be all right for the time being.”

  There was no time for questions. Urgency radiated through the Currents. He did as instructed and focused on Racall’s Light.

  The sensation of falling came over Darr, uncontrolled and frightening. He gasped for breath, fighting for air even though air didn’t exist in the spirit realm. Racall’s aura surrounded him, comforting him and protecting him, and in moments, the feeling of suffocation was replaced...

  ...By hardness and dampness, light and dark, cool air and crackling fire. Darr’s eyes focused, and his physical body closed around him. The Currents still buzzed in his ears, awash with the incessant ramblings of the spirits, but Darr didn’t have attention to give them. A wave of sickness washed through him, disorienting him. He tried to stand and found his legs gave out.

  “Do not strain yourself, young Summoner,” Racall soothed from right behind him. Gently, the Archon lifted him to his feet, holding him by the back of his shirt.

  “What’s wrong with me?” Darr asked, his words slurring together.
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br />   “Your body and mind are adjusting to the shift between worlds. You need rest, but now is not an option. Come. I have your pack.”

  Racall nudged him forward, and Darr’s legs worked mechanically. The air and darkness of the night closed around him as Racall prodded him out into the pass. With it, came a deadening cold, but Darr didn’t feel it from the elements. This cold came from inside him, radiating outward from the marrow of his bones. The night itself appeared normal and calm, but some threat lurked close by. Perhaps a predator cindercat was on the hunt, but that didn’t feel right. Whatever was out there didn’t feel natural.

  Nothing could be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears.

  Darr’s thoughts grew jumbled again and he fell to the ground. Racall had him on his feet in moments, nudging him onward, his voice a whisper of reassurance. “Not far now, young Reintol.”

  The Summoner let himself be propelled forward. His body moved fine on its own, as long as he didn’t try to dwell on whatever went on around him. He and Racall had left the main pass now, and his legs worked harder as they started up an incline. Long grasses whipped at his arms and face, but these were minor annoyances. When at last they stopped, they were on a broad ledge above a canyon, but the shadow and starlight gave no real definition.

  Exhausted at last, Darr collapsed to his knees and Racall bent down over him. “I am going to leave you now, but you must stay quiet and still. Sleep if you can, but do not exert any more energy than necessary. Do you understand?”

  Darr nodded, and he sprawled out on his stomach with his chin resting on his hands. Confusion persisted as to why they were running, but he no longer cared. The prospect of sleep appealed far too much. He closed his eyes and his spinning thoughts stopped. His body relaxed and peace settled in.

  Time had passed. Darr wasn’t sure how much. His eyes fluttered open, and through the screen of grass, the starlit canyon spread out below him. There wasn’t much to see except the opposite cliff wall and a scattering of boulders. A willow grew across the way, its gnarled trunk and drooping limbs growing out of the rocky cliff. Strange. He’d never seen a willow grow out of a cliff before, but with the Sephirs unbalanced, he supposed anything could happen.