Rhuna realized how much she missed her father as she began to babble about the things she had seen and heard at the Forum.
“We have much to learn about the nature of time,” Damell said nodding sagely.
“Besides that time on the ship when we approached Varappa, I haven’t experienced another time lapse event,” Rhuna told her father.
“There have been five since our arrival in Judharo,” stated Damell. “They occur in pockets, varying in intensity, depending on energy flows. Some people have made a careful study of it, and have their own discussion group at the Forum, I believe.”
Rhuna immediately decided to seek out this Forum soon, and as she continued relating the day’s events at the Forum of Crystal Dynamics, she realized that her newfound interests served as a perfect distraction from Aradin’s disturbing new behavior.
The following day, Rhuna felt buoyed by the clear blue skies and comfortable warmth of the day as she attended the Forums in Judharo again. Along the way, she met and spoke with many different people, including some she had met at Pirem’s festive gathering. As she became a familiar face to the residents of Judharo, Rhuna felt more comfortable in her new home of Varappa.
Ahead of her, Rhuna noticed agitation in the bustling crowd of the Forum Plaza, and then heard a booming voice rise above all other sounds in the open court. She walked towards the commotion and was surprised to see Sword of Justice, his tall stature looming over the heads of his audience as he stood on the speaker’s platform. She found a place to stand still without blocking anyone’s passage, and then listened carefully to the tall man’s words.
“Residents of Judharo, I urge you to take heed!” he called in a strong and steady voice. “Conjurers are following the path of the notorious Dark Master, the enemy of all people, in particular of Atlans holding on to the traditional Atlan ways!”
Rhuna listened to the various reactions in the crowd around her.
Some scoffed while others appeared to approve, but Rhuna observed that most people appeared to be unmoved, perhaps because they were not real Atlans, or their Atlan ancestry was already too distant.
“Have you not heard of the latest abomination caused by the Conjurers?” asked Sword of Justice with renewed vigour. “The animal statues in the Festival Plaza appeared to be alive!”
“We saw it,” answered a man with a shaky voice. “Some people fainted from fright! It was a nasty trick!”
“A nasty trick, you say?” responded Sword of Justice. “It is merely a small taste of what is to come! Beware, My Friends! The Conjurers are rapidly developing their powers, and they delight in frightening those of us who are innocent and defenceless! Therefore, act now and align yourselves with us, the Suchinda Atlans, so that our united force can withstand their attack!”
Rhuna felt moved by the compelling speech, but as she looked around, she realized to her dismay that the people of Judharo showed only apathy and disinterest. In that moment, Rhuna realized that people’s lack of fear or concern in the face of the Dark One’s growing might was the worst thing that could ever happen.
“People of Judharo and Varappa!” Rhuna called out as she stepped up next to Sword of Justice. “Listen to him! I’ve seen the calamity and desolation caused by people like the Conjurers! Doing nothing at all is the worst thing you could do!”
“Ptah,” responded a man standing close to Rhuna and Sword of Justice. “Who are you to speak?” the man asked Rhuna directly.
“I’m from the city of Atlán itself!” Rhuna replied. “And I’ve fought the Dark Ones both in Atlán and then in Safu!”
“That is not our way,” said a man with a deep, raspy voice. “You must learn our ways if you wish to stay in Varappa. We firmly believe in the Freedom of Individuality, which means that we encourage everyone to do what they desire, without restraints and rules – and certainly no punishment of any kind!”
“But there must be some order to prevent pain and death!” argued Rhuna.
“Pain and death are a natural part of life!” retorted the man with the raspy voice.
Before Rhuna could answer, Sword of Justice moved Rhuna aside and down from the small podium so that he could raise his arms and deliver another loud speech.
“We call upon you to kill these Conjurers any way possible!” Sword of Justice boomed.
“We are not in the habit of killing people of whom we do not approve!” called out one man, while others mumbled various differing opinions.
“Do you not know that the Dark Master himself was executed justly in Atlán? Therefore, his followers must be dealt with in the same severe manner!” Sword of Justice shouted.
“We do not follow the ways of Atlán anymore!” called back another person from the crowd.
“Leave us be!” said a woman from the front of the audience. “We just want to get on with life. You Suchinda Atlans should learn to do the same! We live and let others live!”
“You do so at your own peril!” spat Sword of Justice, and then stepped down and away from the crowd.
“What was that about animals in the Festival Plaza coming to life?” Rhuna asked a woman standing next to her.
“The big striped cat made out of stone, and the snake with wings – they started to move and make horrible noises!” the woman replied. “My neighbours were there when it happened, and they were terrified! They won’t go to the Plaza anymore, they said!”
“But that’s not possible!” said Rhuna, trying to imagine stone statues coming to life.
“The Conjurers can do anything!” replied the woman. “Just go to the Festival Plaza and see what they do next!”
“Do next?”
“Yes,” said the woman casually. “They are doing new things there every day, I hear.”
“Really?” said Rhuna, astonished. She looked around and then made her way through the crowded Forum area towards the far end of the city where the Festival Plaza was located. Along the way, Rhuna was once again bombarded by an abundance of colours and smells, sounds and activities. Every sight reminded her of a busy, intricate tapestry that combined all imaginable colours.
Finally, Rhuna arrived at the Festival Plaza, and she stopped briefly to admire the vast open area paved with shimmering smooth, white tiles. Tents, shade cloths and other structures contrasted with the gleaming white tile floor, and the sound of festive music mingled with voices and laughter wafted across the open place.
Rhuna approached the statues which were a feature of several fountains and water displays in the middle of the Festival Plaza. The carved animals were lifeless, and Rhuna found it hard to imagine how they could appear to be alive. She stood in front of the fountain a while, enjoying the sound of splashing water and the buzz of insects, until she had to wave some away from her face several times.
“What is this?!” said a man in an angry tone as he swatted an insect on the side of his neck. Rhuna looked around at the man and saw several large insects hovering around the man’s head, and then she realized that they were also flying around her own head.
“Such large flies!” Rhuna said as she began to swat them with both hands.
“Not flies!” answered the man, waving his arms around more energetically. “Locusts, from the fields! It happens at times…but so many!”
A short, shrill scream made Rhuna turned around sharply, and she gasped at the sight in front of her. In the skies above the Festival Plaza Rhuna saw a black cloud move swiftly like a swooping eagle, then disperse into many individual locusts before reuniting into one thick mass again. The black cloud grew in size very quickly, and within a short time the entire Festival Plaza area was filled with flying locusts. Rhuna felt the incessant strikes of locusts flying against her face and body, some sticking to her nostrils and lips until she spat and blew them away. She tried to open her eyes so that she could see where to run and escape the insect invasion, but the mass of locusts had become so dense that she could barely see an arm’s length in front of her. She decided to wait for the locust storm to pass, and reachi
ng out with one hand to find the edge of the fountain, she kneeled down and buried her face among her clothes.
The vicious swarm dissipated and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and when a stunning silence replaced the loud drone of the insects, Rhuna finally uncovered her face and looked up. Other people in the Plaza area were doing the same, and after looking up at the clear skies, immediately began talking to each other about the strange event.
Rhuna hurried through the streets of Judharo alongside several other people who had been in the Festival Plaza during the locust attack. As they approached the Forum area, Rhuna realized that most people were heading towards the Forum for Awareness of Occurrences to inform other residents of Judharo of the event.
“Another sample of the Conjurers’ power!” exclaimed one woman.
“Such swarms of locusts can occur naturally,” scoffed an old man from the audience of the Forum.
“There was nothing natural about this experience!” said a young man who went on to describe the dark mass of locusts Rhuna had also seen.
“Yes, it was exactly like that!” Rhuna said when he had finished his description.
“Several strange things have happened in the Festival Plaza lately, so we can assume that the insect swarm was another such event,” said an older man in a calm voice.
Rhuna looked around at the variety of faces and listened to the differing comments until one young man with very light hair stepped through the crowd that had gathered around the Forum for Awareness of Occurrences.
“Something similar happened in Suchinda earlier today!” he exclaimed, and then pulled up the sleeves of his tunic. “Look! Bee stings! They came in a big swarm with the sole purpose of attacking the residents of Suchinda!”
Rhuna was shocked by the sight of the young man’s swollen arms. She had never seen so many stings in one confined area, and quickly moved forward towards the man.
“I’m a healer – let me help you!” she said to him with urgency. “So much bee venom in your blood is dangerous!”
“Healers in Suchinda have already attended to me,” he replied. “They gave me a salve to ease the pain and assist healing, and now I must drink various herbal tinctures to clean my blood.”
Rhuna nodded and said that he had received the right treatment.
“Were other people also stung by the bees?” asked someone who was standing nearby.
“Yes. They have also received treatment,” the fair-haired youth answered.
“You did not aggravate the bees?” asked someone else.
“Of course not!” the young man answered angrily. “It is not even the season for flowers and bees!”
“The Conjurers, then?” asked a woman.
“Yes, we in Suchinda believe so,” nodded the young man as he looked down at his red and swollen arms.
When no one else spoke to share any relevant experiences, Rhuna decided to leave the Forum and tell her father about the swarm at the Festival Plaza, along with the things she had heard at the Forum that day.
Damell listened silently with a deepening frown as Rhuna related her own experience and what she had heard from others at the Forum for Awareness of Occurrences. Hari Tal hovered in the background, and Rhuna knew that he was listening closely to every word she said.
“Most people think these things are examples of the Conjurers’ power,” Rhuna said.
“Should one event occur, it could be an exception of the natural cycle…” Damell said as he pondered the matter carefully, and then he looked directly at Rhuna. “We must determine with certainty whether all these events are the work of the Conjurers.”
Rhuna nodded and then followed her father to the upper level where they entered one of his chambers in which the light was dim and the seating cushions were large and plush.
“The chamber most agreeable for the release of Extended Consciousness,” he said softly. Rhuna noticed the tranquility in the room and immediately felt calmer. She lowered herself onto several of the cushions and found the most comfortable position for her body to completely relax.
“Focus your concentration on one event at a time,” Damell instructed. “It is important to be most specific when accessing The Infinite for clear and precise information.”
Rhuna closed her eyes and began the process of relaxing every part of her body and mind, until she no longer heard the distant sounds of the city around her, and no longer felt her body lying on the cushions. She willed her Extended Consciousness to rise out of her body, and soon she perceived her own body resting on cushions below her. She saw her father lying nearby in the same physical condition, but then she perceived Hari Tal in the adjoining room, sitting on the floor with his eyes closed.
For a moment, Rhuna felt compelled to investigate the unusual man she found so disturbing, and then remembered her purpose in accessing The Infinite. She focused her thoughts on her experience in the Festival Plaza, and sought the cause of the aggressive locusts. After a brief moment of soaring through thick clouds, Rhuna’s Extended Consciousness emerged in a dimly-lit chamber made of heavy, thick stone blocks.
Rhuna let her Extended Consciousness settle in the room and then began to examine her surroundings. She immediately perceived a person kneeling in a dark corner, bending over and muttering repetitively. Rhuna discerned that the figure in the dark shadows was a woman, but her low chant-like mutter sounded almost masculine. She focused her attention on the object on the ground in front of the woman, and realized that it was a lidded basket containing locusts.
The woman’s eerie muttering escalated to a mesmerizing chant, and Rhuna assumed that she used this technique to empower her mental energy to achieve certain things, such as causing locusts to behave in a certain way. She recalled similar instances she had observed in Safu, where the Dark Ones used clay models or small parts of something to cause an effect on the real or larger subject. Rhuna marveled at the woman’s ability to influence insects by merely focusing on a few of them in the basket in front of her.
Rhuna willed her Extended Consciousness to return to her body, and as she opened her eyes and sat upright, she saw her father sitting in front of her.
“This is a very disturbing development,” Damell said with a deep frown. “The Conjurers have mastered the power of mind control!”
“The woman I observed was able to control the swarm of locusts that attacked me at the Festival Plaza,” Rhuna said.
“My observation revealed much more terrible power,” Damell said gloomily. “The appearance of the stone statues being alive was merely an illusion, put into people’s minds by the Conjurers!”
“An illusion? Put into their minds?” gasped Rhuna. “How is that possible?”
Damell stared down at the floor for a moment, his forehead in deep creases. “The same power you and I and many Atlans possess: the ability to affect elements with the energy emanating from our minds. Yet the Dark Ones – and these Conjurers – have adapted this skill to perverse uses, such as influencing the minds of others.”
“Oh, I see,” said Rhuna, still trying to grasp the magnitude of the Conjurers’ power.
“I suspect that the Dark One has instructed these Conjurers,” Damell continued. “Their knowledge and skills have come about too quickly. Such sudden, rapid development is indicative of a teacher or transfer of knowledge.”
“You mean they definitely didn’t develop these abilities themselves,” Rhuna said.
“Only the Dark Master himself has the extensive knowledge and perversion to pass on to this group of renegade Atlans and Varappans with Atlan abilities.”
“These things are much worse than what the Dark One’s followers were doing in Safu!” Rhuna remarked.
Rhuna returned to her lovely home in Cha’al and hurried inside to tell her family what she experienced in Judharo.
“I was attacked by a big swarm of locusts!” she said as she stepped into the main room where her family was gathered.
“How awful!” Lozira said with a shudder.
“Everyone is saying that it’s one of the Conjurers’ tricks, and that other things have been happening in Judharo as well,” Rhuna explained. Goram stood up and stared at Rhuna with intense attention.
“They can do such things?” he asked with awe.
“Damell says it’s the misuse of our natural Atlan ability to change or influence elements with the energy from our minds,” Rhuna answered. “They are influencing the minds of people, causing them to see things that aren’t really there!”
“Really?” Goram said breathlessly, and then slowly paced around the room as he ruminated over this new information.
“Before that, I heard Sword of Justice speak at the Forum,” Rhuna said, and continued to relate the events of the day. “He wants people to join the Suchinda Atlans in killing the Conjurers!”
“Killing them?” Goram repeated with a frown.
Suddenly, Rhuna felt a tug at her dress and she looked down into Shandi’s round face.
“White mountains! Bright light!” said the little girl.
“What is it you see? Where?” Rhuna asked her small daughter.
Shandi looked around her with uncertainty before answering.
“Dreaming,” she said.
“You saw it in a dream?” Rhuna asked. Shandi nodded vigorously.
Rhuna picked up her little daughter to play with her while telling her family more about the things she had heard in Judharo that day. Aradin sat quietly at the far end of the room, and every time Rhuna looked at him, she felt a heavy, cold blanket wrap around her.
The fine weather continued to impart positive energy on Rhuna as she kept herself as busy as possible, and she found further distraction when Kitlamu announced that she was ready to operate an RTE by herself.
“Not only that,” Kitlamu beamed, “…you have the temporary use of an RTE until you construct your own!”
Rhuna was thrilled to be given the use of an RTE that was not currently in regular use, and which belonged to one of the operators she had met at the RTE base. She was given quick instructions about some of the control instruments which differed slightly from those of Kitlamu’s RTE, and then she prepared for her first journey alone.
Rhuna- New Horizons Page 13