Ascension of the Whyte
Page 17
Che glanced back to El-on-ah.
“You do know what you are doing?” he said.
She shot him a withering look.
Che grimaced, expecting El-on-ah further response to his apparent lack of confidence in her abilities, to be both swift and violent, but she seemed to ignore his transgression and her reply was distant and uncharacteristically measured.
“I know theoretically that sublimation is possible,” she said, biting her lip, “but no one has ever attempted the sublimation of an ascendant before. So, to be honest, I cannot predict the outcome with any certainty” she gave a stoic shrug, “but conjecture is immaterial. We have no choice.”
Che and Tu-nek-ta glanced anxiously at each other and then simultaneously moved backwards into the shelter of the temple’s entrance pillars, where they watched the rest of the proceedings.
El-on-ah found a large flat adder stone with a hole in its centre. The hole was of a size that enabled the round bottomed boiling glass to fit it snugly enough to stand upright. After brushing some of the snow away, she put the stone on the ground, about a foot from the vapour flask. Then she placed her potens ringed hand down, palm flattened, on top of the stone.
“Incendium,” she said, casting the fyre spell.
The dragon’s eye stone in her ring emitted a blood red glow. Rapidly the fiery pulsating light expanded, engulfing the adder stone until, within seconds, the stone was glowing white hot, swiftly melting the snow and ice around it. Steam rose from the ground and rivulets of water began streaming down the steps of the pyramid.
El-on-ah emptied the Iodine mixture and phial of mercurium into the boiling tube, swirling the flask until the indigo coloured mixture had the colour and consistency of molten silver. Slotting the flask into the ring of hot stone, she hurried away to the shelter of the temple. Turning back towards Ka, she raised her potens hand and spoke the sublimation incantation three times.
“Mercurium vacuum, et salem, niti. Educam vapourem nostri Ka. Mercurium vacuum, et salem, niti. Educam vapourem nostri Ka. Mercurium vacuum, et salem, niti. Educam vapourem nostri Ka…”
On the third speaking, a stream of fiery red energy coursed from her ring. A vast, transparent, silver bubble grew up around Ka, and, as if the bubble were the centre of a powerful vortex, a great force began pulling everything around them towards its core. Small rocks, leaves, snow, icicles, and everything not firmly attached to the ground, was pulled into the bubble.
El-on-ah and the two Bloods formed a chain around one of the carved pillars, gripping tightly onto each other’s hands. They struggled to remain upright as their legs were lifted up and pulled towards the vortex. A blinding white light filled the transparent glass-like sphere, as Lord Ka’s stony form rapidly sublimed, transforming from solid into vapour and finally a glowing yellow fog at its centre.
Eventually, the bubble began to contract, imploding into the vortex of swirling golden mist, spiralling down into the mouth of the vapour flask at its centre. As the last wisp of vapour descended into the phial, the force suddenly diminished, the air stilled and the bubble was no more. El-on-ah slipped on her gloves, ran forward and quickly placed the flask’s stopper firmly into place.
Che and Tu-nek-ta still grasping each other’s hands they gazed unblinkingly into other’s faces, laughed with relief and anxious excitement. They rushed over to join her.
El-on-ah stood for a while staring in disbelief at the flask in her hands.
“I did it?” she said at last.
“You sure did,” said Che, beaming, “you little beau...” he coughed nervously, as if to clear his throat. “I’m sorry my Lady. I forget myself, but that was truly amazing.”
El-on-ah’s expression remained troubled.
“We are not done yet Che,” she said, biting her lip apprehensively. “This is merely the beginning. It’s one thing to acquire the vapour, but another to induce deposition without ascension, which, in case you are wondering, has also never been attempted successfully before. We do not even know if the ascension chambers are intact, let alone functioning. If they are not, then we will have no choice but to go into the Ascension Basilica in Aureus and attempt to complete Ka’s reincarnation there. I am sure that I do not have to tell you how incredibly difficult that would be, particularly given the short amount of time that we have.”
As she moved, her robe seemed to catch on something, she gave it a pull. Looking down, she saw Puk tugging at her cloak and pointing eagerly at an archway to the side of the main entrance of the temple.
“Puk,” she said, “I told you to stay with the horses!”
Puk disregarded her chastisement and went on chattering excitedly. Pukis have a simple language comprised of a limited vocabulary of high-frequency clicking and whistling sounds. El-on-ah understood him perfectly and she knew enough not to ignore him when he was this adamant.
“Puk wants us to follow him,” she said.
He led them through the side entrance of the temple into a small ante-chamber. Inside the room, ice walls had been ornately carved with snow rose brambles that entwined around each pillar and then fanned out to cover the walls and ceilings of the room. Its beauty took El-on-ah’s breath away. It was hard to believe that the war had been fought here, over a thousand years ago. The sculptures were immaculate; they could have been carved yesterday. Everything looked perfect; the blue ice, the crisp lines of each detail of the carving. Even the sculpted ice benches were draped with luxurious snow bear pelts that were as fresh as the day they were laid down.
It was as if the people of Rhodium had never left at all, but had merely stepped out and could return at any moment. Then everything would go back to the way it had been thousands of years before.
Puk trotted into the adjoining hall, pointing and hiccoughing excitedly. His hiccoughs producing bubbles filled with flaming gas, which floated upwards in the cold air until they popped with a hiss as they hit the ornate ice ceiling. He scurried to the centre of the room where he stood looking very pleased with himself, next to four ascension cubiculas which had been fashioned from ice and shaped into the petals of a giant snow rose.
El-on-ah had hoped that they would still be here. Thousands of years ago, each of the Afterlands had brought forth their own ascendants. The Ascension buildings of Ferrum and Hydrargyrum had been destroyed in the war. Only the Aurum Basilica and this temple had survived. Since then, as no Whytes had survived the war, there had been no ascensions and so the building had been left unused; a monument to an extinct cast. El-on-ah had gambled that it would remain undamaged and functional. She walked around the cubiculas.
“They look intact,” she said, excitement rising in her voice. “We’ll use the prima cubicula. Tu-nek-ta I will need the syphon.”
“Will it work?” he asked, pulling the syphon from its case. “I mean, with this not being a true ascension.”
El-on-ah grabbed the syphon from him and attempted to fix it onto the top of the vapour flask. It was a tricky task. She knew that she had to ensure that it was securely attached, and also prevent any of the vapours from escaping during the process. Ignoring his question, El-on-ah remained focussed intently on her task. Finally, when she was satisfied that everything was securely attached, she unscrewed the cubicula’s input valve.
“I will have the answer to your question very shortly Tu-nek-ta. This is ancient technology, even the Custodians have little idea how it operates. Most believe that it is the vapours presence alone, within each cubicula, which triggers the process of deposition. No one has been able to test this theory before now. ”
Standing back for a second, she checked that the valve was opening and that there were no obvious leaks.
“One thing is for sure though,” she said, “whether we are successful or not, today is a day that history has been made. Let us hope that Ka’s sublimation is not the only success we will be celebrating.”
When the valve was fully open El-on-ah lifted the vapour flask and, cr
ouching down beside the open valve, she secured the end of syphon tube between her fingers. Checking that no vapour had entered it prematurely, she raised it to her lips and gently sucked on the end of the pipe. The mist flowed steadily into the hose. Before it reached her lips, she removed the end of the tube from her mouth and placed it into the cubicula’s open valve, securing the valve seal into position around it.
The scent of sulphur filled the air as Ka’s acrid yellow vapours flowed into the cubicula. Instantly and as she had hoped, the ascension cubicula sprang into life and began to circulate and sort the vapour. Within seconds, deposition had begun and minutes later a tall, male human form, could be clearly distinguished from within the swirling vapour cloud.
El-on-ah glanced up at the two open-mouthed, wide-eyed Bloods at her side.
“Che, fetch the robes from my horse for Lord Ka … quickly!”
As Che staggered, racing urgently from the chamber, two penetrating black eyes watched him intently from within the cubicula.
FERNDELL
By the end of the week, the new novices had settled into a comfortable routine. They had begun to enjoy their classes and their recreation time at the Oratory, though there was still little mixing between cells. Primarily this was due to the colossal amount of competition between them. The Whyte cell was