by Nat Russo
“So where does midnight blue fall into this? It’s pretty close to black.”
“The darkest blue is a remarkable color, Nicolas. It neither rejects nor accepts all. It chooses carefully…with a discriminating eye, accepting only those colors that bring it closer to perfection, and rejecting those that draw it farther away. It grows closer to perfection with every acceptance, yet never reaches it. It is a visual reminder that though we strive for perfection, our existence will never be perfect.”
“I don’t feel any closer to perfection,” Nicolas said. “I feel like a fake. A fraud. I don’t deserve that robe and title you gave me.”
“Let me assure you, I gave you nothing,” Lamil said. “The road to mastery doesn’t end with the robe and cowl. It begins there. I gave you nothing except the knowledge of the fact you’re ready to learn. You’re ready to begin your journey.”
“That doesn’t help me fix Kaitlyn’s problem.”
“I worry about you.”
That surprised Nicolas. Lamil had never spoken to him like that before.
“I see a man before me who has regressed,” Lamil said. “Where once you were centered and knew your path and purpose, now you flounder like a hatchling. I saw this happen once before.”
“What was the outcome?”
“You should know. You killed him.”
Nicolas remembered the suffering he’d endured at Jurn’s hand. And yes, he remembered their final encounter as if it happened yesterday. But this wasn’t the same. It couldn’t be.
Nicolas shook his head. “You don’t understand. You’ve never understood how much I love her.”
“I understand more than you know about Love. I understand that it compels you. That it simultaneously binds you and sets you free.”
“Then why the worry?”
“Because I also know something else. I know that unless you’re careful, you will become each other’s weakness instead of strength. The very force that draws you together will tear you apart.”
Nicolas didn’t want to admit it, but Lamil was right. When he’d left Aquonome, he was stronger. More confident. But the moment he discovered Kaitlyn was in trouble, he lost it. All that strength seeped out of him, leaving confusion and anxiety in its place. He couldn’t continue like this. Yes, he loved Kaitlyn and was worried about her. But none of that was going to get them out of this situation.
Nicolas stood and adjusted his robe.
“I need to speak to the chimeramancers,” Nicolas said.
Lamil’s eyes rotated.
“Whatever Kaitlyn is experiencing, Mujahid seemed to think she was a chimeramancer. If anyone will know how to help her Awaken, it’s them.”
One of Lamil’s eyes came to rest on the opening to the temple, while the other came to rest on Nicolas.
“While I applaud your newfound confidence, what you ask is not so simple.”
“What do you mean? Just take us to them and introduce us.”
“Introductions must take place in a controlled way, or catastrophe can happen in Aquonome. Accounting Day is several weeks away. We cannot disturb the chimeramancers until then.”
“Why was I never told about these guys?”
“It is for cichlos, not human. You required no introduction, because they are not required to catalog you.”
“Catalog?”
“It is what they do.”
“You’re one of the highest ranking members of the highest caste in Aquonome,” Nicolas said. “I’m sure they’ll listen to you.”
“You don’t understand. Chimeramancers are above such things. They are not part of the caste system. They serve a greater purpose.”
“Then we have that in common.”
Nicolas left Lamil sitting on his stool as he walked out into the temple. Whether Lamil joined them or not, Nicholas was headed for the central dome. He’d wasted enough time already.
CHAPTER EIGHT
1The Rule of Love
2Shealynd stepped forward and beseeched her brother. 3“Mine is the dominion of Love, for my name is love as yours is exalted. 4I shall imbue this hell with love, for it is to be our father’s last home.”
5Arin agreed and empowered Shealynd.
6And Shealynd went forth, down into the hells, and shed six tears, one for each Plane. 7But the six tears had power over the prison and its bindings.
- The Mukhtaar Chronicles, attributed to the prophet Habakku
Origines Multiversi, Emergentiae 7:1-7
Nicolas entered the smaller central dome, followed by Kaitlyn—who held Toby’s leash. Toridyn and dead Kagan brought up the rear, the former like a man waiting for his own trial to begin, and the latter just taking up space.
The central dome was much as Nicolas remembered it. Several multi-hued columns of barrier material stretched from floor to ceiling and served as chutes for distributing food. Each column was attended by two cichlos priests who wore the strange, leather-like cichlos clothing with the midnight-blue cowl of mastery around their shoulders. Cichlos entered through the tubular hallways and transportation bubbles circling the dome’s perimeter and lined up at the distribution columns, where the priests gave them trays of food.
Three tremendous floating bubbles dominated the dome’s center. Each bubble morphed as they floated up and down, changing shape and color, but they never touched. Occasionally, the top bubble would change color and the others would follow suit. Beneath them were three barrier chairs—more like recliners—occupied by rotund, sleeping cichlos in gray cowls. Barrier energy rose from the floor and formed a waist-high wall surrounding the column of bubbles. Two young cichlos stooped over the wall, examining something on its flat, overhanging surface.
People moving through the dome gave the area a wide berth, like tourists at the Grand Canyon who didn’t want to press their luck with the guard rails.
Lamil had joined them, though he seemed even more concerned than Toridyn. What was it with those two? Nicolas just wanted to ask the chimeramancers some questions, but they acted like he was planning to exhume their dead relatives!
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Toridyn said.
“Why, exactly?” Nicolas asked.
“Nick,” Kaitlyn said. “Maybe you should listen.”
“You too, now?”
Kaitlyn shook her head and turned away. That wasn’t a good sign. The last time she acted like that, she didn’t speak to him for a while. What was wrong with these people? Couldn’t they see…couldn’t she see he was trying to save her life?
And what was Lamil’s problem? He always had an explanation…long-winded and philosophical, perhaps, but an explanation nonetheless. But now he seemed scared.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Nicolas asked, staring at Lamil.
Lamil’s eyes made a complex series of turns, independent of one another, and came to rest with one staring at the floor and the other staring at the chimeramancers. Nicolas had never seen that gesture before.
“The last time a chimeramancer was disturbed outside of Accounting Day was the day my sister died,” Lamil said.
On the day the siek taught him to use the arrow symbol, he also taught Nicolas about his sister Tamil.
Nicolas grasped for words that wouldn’t come.
“I’m sorry,” Nicolas said. “I didn’t know. But what else aren’t you telling me? What is this Accounting Day you keep talking about?”
“To understand that, you must understand the purpose of the chimeramancers within cichlos society,” Lamil said. “That is not something I can simply explain to your satisfaction.”
“You’re good at simply dodging my questions, though.”
Lamil harrumphed. “Accounting Day comes four times every year. It is a day on which new members of our community are introduced to the chimeramancers, one by one, so that they might…commit them to memory.”
Lamil walked past Nicolas and approached a young cichlos at the barrier ring.
The young cichlos didn’t so much as nod his bu
lbous head. What was it with these chimeramancers?
“Siek Lamil,” the young cichlos said. He stepped in front of an opening in the wall, blocking Lamil’s entrance.
“I must speak with one of the cherished,” Lamil said.
Since when do the cichlos refer to people as cherished?
The young cichlos’s eyes spun. One came to rest in the direction of the gray-cowled, sleeping cichlos, and the other came to rest on Nicolas.
“If there is anything you need, I can provide it,” the young cichlos said.
“You are not a Conjurer,” Lamil said. “You are an apprentice.”
“Why do you ask the impossible of me?”
Nicolas stepped forward, his anger returning to the surface, but Siek Lamil stopped him with his enormous hand.
“What is the Prime Duty of a Chimeramancer?” Siek Lamil asked.
Nicolas hadn’t considered it, but it stood to reason if Necromancy had a Prime Duty, another school of magic would as well. Whatever the reality, this poor bastard was going to be sorry he got the siek asking questions!
The young cichlos harrumphed. “You are not my—”
“What is the Prime Duty of a Chimeramancer?” Lamil asked again. “You will proceed at half ration until I get the answer I am looking for.”
The young cichlos’s eyes spun until his gaze came to rest on Lamil.
“You would not do that,” the young cichlos said.
“I’m pretty sure he would,” Nicolas said. “You should see what he does when you give him the wrong answer. Hope you have a lot of time on your hands.”
The cichlos glanced down at his hands and back to Lamil with a questioning look on his face.
Nicolas shook his head. When would the cichlos understand his sense of humor?
“What is the Prime Duty of a Chimeramancer?” Lamil asked.
“The Prime Duty of a Chimeramancer is to protect all who call Aquonome home, and perform the Great Sacrifice when called upon.”
“That is correct,” Lamil said. “Sab Toridyn. The catalyst, please.”
Toridyn swirled his arms and a pulse of static electricity passed over Nicolas in a wave that made his arm hair stand up.
Kaitlyn rubbed her left arm.
When Toridyn’s arms came to rest, he spread his hands and an electric-blue ball of light formed between them, like the blue ball manipulated by the students in the training hall.
Lamil placed his hand on Nicolas’s shoulder.
“Do you deny the citizenship of Sab Nicolas?” Lamil asked.
The young cichlos appeared flustered, rotating his eyes horizontally, back and forth. “Of course not, Siek!”
“Do you deny Sab Nicolas’s right to take a mate?”
Kaitlyn’s face reddened. Though she didn’t say anything, he knew she’d have plenty to say later about being “taken” as anyone’s “mate”.
“I do not,” the young cichlos said.
“Sab Nicolas’s mate is in grave danger,” Lamil said. “Would you turn her away and violate the Prime Duty?”
The young cichlos stiffened for a moment, then backed away from the opening in the barrier ring.
“Which one?” Lamil asked.
The young cichlos gazed up at the floating bubbles. “Conjurer Torgar,” he said. “But please reconsider.”
Lamil’s eyes spun toward Kaitlyn.
You’re not actually reconsidering, are you? Nicolas asked Lamil telepathically.
After a pause that dragged on longer than Nicolas would have liked, he sensed a response forming in his mind. It was an image of Kaitlyn standing at the center of his hall of power…the image he had seen when Lamil delved into his mind when he first arrived in Aquonome. It had shaken Lamil when it happened the first time, and if Nicolas didn’t know better, he’d say the siek was still disturbed by it.
She is important for reasons I do not understand, the siek’s voice rang in his head. I will do everything I can. But the young one is correct. What we’re about to do is reckless. There will be consequences beyond our ability to predict.
“You must wait until the guiding dream permeates the others,” the young cichlos said.
Nicolas had no idea what a guiding dream was, but he hoped it would hurry up and permeate.
When the topmost bubble changed color, and the others pulsed a matching hue, Lamil faced Toridyn.
“Now,” Lamil said.
Toridyn spun his hands around the ball of light, and the ball shot toward the lowest bubble. When the ball of light struck the bubble, it penetrated it and began to expand, a sphere within a sphere, until the ball broke through the bubble and both evaporated.
A murmur of voices rose in the central dome. Groups of cichlos bunched up against the dome wall, pressed forward by the surging crowd behind them. What were they doing?
Then it dawned on him. The transportation bubbles were gone.
“Tor,” Nicolas whispered. “What happened to the transport bubbles? And what the hell do you call those things, anyway? I’m tired of calling them transport bubbles.”
“Aqua-pneumatic chimeraporters,” Toridyn said.
Nicolas nodded. “Well, what the hell happened to the transport bubbles?”
A guttural growl raised the hairs on Nicolas’s arm.
“Siek Lamil,” the voice said in a bass that vibrated Nicolas’s chest. “I saw you approach from within the guiding dream.”
“Conjurer Torgar,” Lamil said. “I trust all is well.”
A corpulent cichlos sat up from a chair under the column of bubbles and waddled toward them.
“You trust all is well?” Torgar asked. “This time it is you who are ignorant, Lamil.”
Lamil’s shoulders drew back.
“Did you stop to think I may have been holding the lake at bay beyond a breach in the wall?” Torgar asked. “Did you speculate as to whether I was providing transport to the surface, or protection to pods traveling beneath the city? Did you consider I may have been Traveling?”
“I assure you, Conjurer, I considered all these things. I have brought—”
“I know well why you are here. Did I not say I saw you approach in the dream? I know of the human’s problem.”
Kaitlyn drew closer to Nicolas, who took it as a small sign she might speak to him again at some point.
“But that places me under no obligation to help,” Torgar said. “Nor does the fact she is the human sab’s mate.”
Lamil took a step forward. “The Prime Duty of Chimeramancy—”
“Was used as a cheap philosopher’s trick to manipulate a naive apprentice,” Torgar said. He faced the young cichlos who had backed away from the barrier ring. “We will discuss your lack of critical thinking later.”
The young cichlos apprentice lowered his gaze to the dome floor.
“This is a human problem, not cichlos,” Torgar said. He started walking back toward his seat.
Anxiety bubbled to the surface of Nicolas’s emotions. This conjurer, or whatever he was, had to help!
Nicolas took a step forward, but Lamil stopped him. The complex movement of Lamil’s left eye sent a clear message. Do not speak.
“Aquonome is no place for bigotry, Conjurer,” Lamil said.
Torgar stopped in mid step. He turned his massive head until he was looking back over his left shoulder.
“Refusing to help is not bigotry,” Torgar said. “I refuse to help not because the human is different, but because doing so would stop me from fulfilling my higher calling. I would think you of all people should know this. You are a moral philosopher, are you not?”
“I am merely a reasonable man,” Lamil said. “But since you mention it, would you agree if I said we live in a world where things frequently go against our best designs?”
Torgar faced Lamil and folded his arms. “I would agree with that statement.”
“And would you agree that in times of great need, we often must seek the aid of others?”
“Obviously.”
> “Then you would also agree that you yourself may require such aid in the future?”
“Your point?”
“Would it not be in the best interests of all to provide aid when it is requested and within our ability to do so? If you would expect to receive aid, surely you must expect to offer it.”
“Your argument is flawed,” Torgar said. “By returning to my duty I am providing the very aid you accuse me of refusing. And to far more than this single human.”
Lamil’s voice echoed in Nicolas’s mind. I cannot dispute his logic. His higher calling is of great aid to the entire cichlos people.
Nicolas couldn’t let this drop. He wasn’t going to leave without getting the help he came here for!
Siek, you and Mujahid both told me it was dangerous for a necromancer to remain untrained. A danger to all. Isn’t that true of Chimeramancers too?
Lamil’s eye rotated once, then shifted back and forth. He was amused.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Torgar said.
“If my moral argument falls flat, perhaps you’ll consider a utilitarian line of reasoning?” Lamil asked.
Torgar’s eyes rotated outward then back toward Lamil. He was interested.
“Consider the consequences of Kaitlyn coming into her power without understanding it,” Lamil said. “What action would you take if you discovered an unawakened cichlos chimeramancer, Conjurer?”
Torgar’s eyes made the same rotation and he stepped forward. “We would take that person into our training dome immediately.”
“And why would you do this?” Lamil asked.
“The reasons are as many as there are stars between here and Terilya.”
Torgar was approaching. Was this a good sign?
“Consider what could happen if she entered the trance and imagined the city,” Lamil said. “Think of the consequences if she got a single detail wrong. Details such as the contents of the secret places. The containment chamber. The—”
Torgar held up his webbed hand. “Enough.” He glanced at the young cichlos apprentice. “Rouse the others. The Siek is correct, and in my anger I refused to see it.”
“Righteous indignation can be justified,” Lamil said. “But sometimes it clouds our better judgment.”