Rhuna noticed that the audience was impressed by this information, and several people nodded. “Alas, pure crystal in large forms suitable for a pillar or tower is extremely rare,” said someone.
“There is a quarry in the hills,” said another member of the audience. “Abandoned, since the crystal cannot easily be cut out…”
Rhuna looked at the man who spoke and glanced at his Identifier so that she might be able to find him again to ask the exact whereabouts of the abandoned crystal quarry. The idea of using pure crystal to harness and transmit energy fascinated her more every day.
She left the Forum of Earth Energy Lines when the sun’s final descent was almost complete, walking briskly to her father’s home while a plan formed in her mind.
Hari Tal welcomed her as she approached the door to her father’s house, and once again she wondered how he always knew when someone was coming. She breathed in the comforting cooking aromas and scent of fragrant wood burning in the fireplace for warmth.
Once again, the evening meal was very satisfying despite the silence around the table after Damell reported that he had made no progress that day in undoing the mind control inflicted by the Dark Master. Lozira had in fact relapsed during the day, desperately pleading that Goram acquire some more of the intoxicating herbs.
Rhuna listened with a heavy heart as Goram described his young wife’s wretched condition, and then the startling transformation soon after she took the herbs.
“Now she is sleeping and I am unable to rouse her enough to join us for the meal,” he said, turning to Damell for some kind of explanation.
“The partaker of such substances requires an increasingly higher dosage to achieve the same result of euphoria,” Damell explained. Rhuna heard the grave concern in his voice, and noticed the deepening lines in his face.
“Tomorrow we shall attempt a new approach,” he said suddenly, shaking off the somber mood, and leaving the table.
Before Goram rose to leave, Rhuna decided to act quickly.
“I need your help with something,” she whispered across the table. Goram was startled and stared at her for a moment. “Your ability to sense points of energy-line convergence…” she added, looking directly into his unusual green eyes.
“What is it you propose to accomplish?” he asked, intrigued.
“An intense energy field that would allow me to go back in time,” she answered.
“What did you say?” he asked, completely baffled. “Go back in time? Did I hear correctly? Rhuna, have you finally become irrational?” he asked, trying to laugh.
“No. Haven’t you been paying attention to what happens here in Varappa with those time distortions?” Rhuna heard herself prattling in a fast, loud whisper, but was unable to stop herself.
“Of course I have!” Goram answered irritably. “Time distortions and going back in time are two very different things!”
“Not really,” Rhuna replied. “The time distortions are happening as a result of random energy surges, but if we can control this energy, keep it pulsating…”
“Pulsating?”
“Yes, it’s a frequency, like everything else. If we harness the frequency of the earth energy grids, and then place several large crystal pylons on them, they will create a field that we can control.”
“How do you know that it is possible to go back in time this way?” asked Goram more subdued as he tried to comprehend the magnitude of what Rhuna was saying.
“We don’t – not for sure, but I want to try! I have to try to do something to prevent what the Dark Master did to Aradin and Lozira!”
“I shall help Lozira!” Goram protested vehemently. “I am her husband, I shall take care of her.”
“She’s getting sicker all the time,” Rhuna objected.
“We are consulting the best Healers while your father attempts to rectify what…what was done to her.”
Rhuna observed how deeply distressing Lozira’s condition was for him, and that he spoke of the Dark Master with intense hatred.
“I want…I need to do something about Aradin, and if I can go back in time I can…”
“…you can do what, exactly?” Goram quizzed her.
“I don’t know yet. I’ll see when I get there.”
“When you get there?! As if journeying by ship to a destination!” he scoffed.
“Will you help me or not?” demanded Rhuna, getting angry.
“Yes, yes, very well,” he muttered. “Leave me be,” he said with a heaving sigh. “First I must calm my mind to focus clearly, and then it may take considerable time to inspect this new and foreign land.”
Rhuna said she understood and walked away, her thoughts busily arranging the details of her plan. She recalled the discussions about the abandoned crystal quarry at the Forum, and decided to find its exact location. Her determined stride quickly took her to the Marble Master with the intention of asking him how to find someone by means of their Identifier.
She approached the building where the Marble Master worked, and immediately noticed that the large marble outside his door had been removed, along with other objects and furniture near the entrance.
“Are you moving to another location?” Rhuna asked when she saw the Marble Master wrapping belongings and looking through small containers.
“Yes,” mumbled the pudgy man as he stuffed wooden crates with wrapped bundles containing the contents of his shop. “There is trouble in Judharo – have you not heard?”
Rhuna shook her head, uncertain what the man meant.
“The Conjurers and their Dark Arts, of course!” he spat as his cheeks turned deep pink. “The most discerning among us, such as I, are leaving this doomed place!”
Rhuna said she could not image things getting so bad that people had to leave this beautiful city, but the Marble Master shook his head vehemently.
“Take no chances where those dark ones are concerned!” he said glowering. “You would do well to heed this advice and tell your family and friends!”
Rhuna was shaken as she nodded silently in response to the Marble Master’s strong warning, and then she remembered the reason for her visit. She described the Identifier of the man who had spoken about the abandoned quarry at the Forum, and saw immediate recognition in the Marble Master’s face.
“Ah yes,” he said as he straightened up and briefly stopped his frantic packing. “The red sector adjoining the white with a yellow line is right over there,” he said turning and pointing. “The building with the purplish-brown roof tiles behind the yellow brick house…”
Rhuna said she understood his directions and then began to walk briskly in the direction the Marble Master had indicated.
Rhuna looked around as she walked along a nicely paved street, then turned into a narrow alley between several tall buildings. She contined to admire the variety of houses, decorations, furniture, textiles and individual creativeness of each residence, and suddenly she was overcome by deep sadness that the city of Judharo was being threatened to such an extent that prominent people like the Marble Master wanted to leave.
Rhuna tapped on the door of the house with the purplish-brown roof tiles and waited for a response. She was relieved when the familiar face of the man from the Forum opened the door and greeted her with warm recognition.
“I just want to see what such a quarry looks like – I’m curious,” she said when the man appeared surprised by her question.
“Of course,” he said amiably, and proceeded to give her directions. Rhuna produced the new textile map with markings which she had made under Kitlamu’s guidance, and asked the man to confirm the location of the quarry by using the map.
“Oh yes, I know where that is!” Rhuna said, excited at the first successful use of the map. Her pace quickened with excitement as she left the narrow and busy streets of Judharo and found the road that led out of the city through one of the smaller gates in the wall. She had learned the names and symbols for directions from Kitlamu, and using her newfound knowledg
e felt rewarding and satisfying.
The paved road quickly turned into a wide track of hard-pressed soil, and after a while she was walking on silt and sand along a path which led to temporary fields of grains. Rhuna stopped and looked around, observing the city wall behind her and the hills surrounding Judharo. She realized that she was in the middle of the flood plains which become a raging torrent in the heavy rain season of Varappa. Rhuna removed the map from her bag once again to determine the distance to the quarry, and then pressed forward.
Rhuna began to climb a gentle slope which she believed would lead her to the abandoned crystal quarry, and as she reached the top she stopped abruptly. A gigantic abyss yawned before her, and Rhuna was shocked to see the sides of the quarry descend sharply into a deep pit. Her heart sank with despondency when it appeared impossible to inspect the quarry floor, much less acquire a block of crystal as she had intended.
She walked closer to the rim of the giant pit and examined the steep sides, then looked at the jumble of rocks at the bottom. The weak rays of the sun briefly emerged from the clouds and bounced off the layer of crystal underneath, giving Rhuna a burst of excitement and renewed determination.
Rhuna went through the process of cutting and transporting large stone blocks as she had learned and observed in Atlán, and decided that she would be able to accomplish this feat by herself. The physical descent into the pit and then climbing back out of it was now the final obstacle to overcome.
After standing on the rim and staring down into the pit for some time, Rhuna decided to attempt something which she sensed could be dangerous and unknown to Atlan Masters. She thought of the mental process of making a heavy object like a stone block almost weightless in order to transport it easily. Rhuna recalled that this was a common feat in the time of the First Atlans, and still possible for many skilled Atlan Masters today, including herself.
Stepping back so that she could close her eyes to concentrate, she attempted something unspeakable and forbidden, namely directing her mental energy onto herself. Slowly at first, in case it caused her body harm, she used the same technique to transform the magnetic forces around an object to cause weightlessness.
After some time of intense concentration, Rhuna opened her eyes again and looked down into the pit. Suddenly, with astonishment and exhilaration, she realized that her feet were no longer firmly set on the ground.
She slowly moved her legs to step over the rim, and although her foot sank below the ground level, Rhuna did not fall. Instead, she had the sensation of being in water, and being buoyed by it, sinking gradually as she stepped off the edge with her other foot.
Rhuna spread her arms out to the side to keep her balance as she floated gently to the bottom of the pit, her feet touching the ground softly. She attempted to walk towards the jumble of rocks where she had seen the large crystal deposit underneath, but her movements were strangely limited. Once again, she had the sensation of walking in deep water, and realized that she must reverse the weightlessness before she could walk and function normally at the bottom of the pit.
Rhuna walked around the rocky bottom of the crystal quarry, careful not to trip or cut her feet on the jagged edges. Among the rubble of ordinary rock, Rhuna quickly identified the crystal, and then followed a vein to a large lump still partially buried. She recalled some of her early instructions in the school of Atlán when students were taken to a similar quarry of plain rock from which they had to cut blocks for building.
Rhuna opened the bag she had carried by a thick strap across her body and shoulder, and removed the utensils that would facilitate the work she had planned. Before attempting to cut and extract any crystal, the surrounding area had to be cleared of rocks and rubble. Although her lessons at the Atlan School taught her to heat up rock with the transforming power of the mind to make it pliable, Rhuna decided that in order to clear away the rocks around the crystal, transforming them to sand would be easier.
Rhuna closed her eyes to reach the dark and inner silence of her mind, and then began to visualize the rock particles breaking down into small particles like sand. The exercise was quick and easy for her, and when the entire area around the crystal lode had been transformed to soft sand, she took the small shovel she had carried with her, and began to remove it.
After the area was sufficiently cleared, Rhuna realized she was exhausted and decided to return the following day. She turned and looked up, suddenly aware that she had not given enough forethought to the ascent, and hoped she had enough strength to produce the necessary mental energy to once again make herself weightless.
She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, visualizing energy in the form of bright light descending from above into her body, letting her mind and body be revitalized by it. Rhuna could not judge how much time had elapsed, but knew when she had absorbed enough energy, and slowly opened her eyes as she pulled herself out of the deep state of concentration.
Rhuna stepped in front of the steep quarry wall where she had descended, and without looking up, she once again put her mind into a state of concentration, this time to produce a different frequency which would affect the magnetic forces around her. When she finished, she could no longer feel the weight of her body, and she carefully bent her knees to push off the ground with a jump.
Once again she had the sensation of being in deep water as she felt herself bouncing slowly upwards. She grabbed onto a rocky outcrop so that she could temporarily stand on a ledge, even though she barely felt it under her feet. Once more she pushed off the ledge with both feet, and she bounded up the steep incline even faster. She managed to push off three more times until she reached the top. By then, she felt both exhilarated and exhausted, and gathered her last resource of energy to make herself return to normal weight so that she could walk back to Judharo.
By the time she approached Judharo the sun was setting, casting beautiful pastel colours across the horizon. She admired the beauty of her surroundings until night engulfed her and only the moonshine led her feet along the path back to Judharo.
Rhuna slept deeply that night, retiring to her sleeping chamber immediately after sharing the evening meal with Damell, Goram and Lozira. She arose as the first rays of sunlight reached through the window of her chamber, and quietly left her father’s house to continue her important project. Along the way, she stopped at the RTE base where she had befriended many of Kitlamu’s colleagues.
“It is time to construct your own RTE!” said one of the RTE operators in the group.
“Indeed! When we have become proficient in the operations of RTEs, we soon desire to create our own, according to our individual preferences,” said another.
Rhuna felt overwhelmed by the enormous challenge of such an undertaking, and began to explain that she was already preoccupied with other demanding projects.
“We shall assist and advise you, of course!” Kitlamu responded quickly, her smile creasing her face with fine wrinkles.
Rhuna expressed her appreciation to her new colleagues, and then set off for the crystal quarry for another strenuous day of intense mental concentration. By the end of the second day she had already cut most of the crystal into the pillar shapes she had envisioned for her plan. The process was much more difficult than she expected because the crystal was no ordinary rock, and it required twice as much mental concentration to alter the structure of its smallest particles so that it would easily come apart when she used the sharp metal incision tool from her utensils bag.
Finally, the pillars Rhuna had envisioned were freed from the quarry and shaped in equal forms, and the four flat panels which would serve as the roof of the archway also lay ready for transport. Once again, Rhuna breathed in deeply as she closed her eyes to summon all her mental energy, this time to make both herself and one of the crystal pillars as weightless as possible. After she had ascended and descended the quarry wall several times, she had mastered the degree of force necessary to push off the ground, and then where to grab a hold for another slow an
d floating leap up to level ground. It was cumbersome to hold the crystal pillar, with both arms wrapped around it while making the ascent, but she succeeded each time until all the crystal blocks and slabs sat at the edge of the quarry, ready to be transported to a site determined by Goram.
That evening, Rhuna arrived just as the evening meal was about to be served, and once again she explained to her family and Hari Tal that she had a long and busy day.
“Are you making your own RTE now?” Lozira asked. Rhuna looked at her daughter and noticed the dark shadows under her eyes.
“Not yet. I’ve been working on another project…after seeing a demonstration at the Forum of Crystal Dynamics,” she answered, careful not to reveal her plan prematurely.
Rhuna greedily heaped Hari Tal’s delicious cooked food onto her plate, and pulled off a large piece of freshly baked flat bread which she dipped in a sour white milk sauce. Goram sat silently between Rhuna and Lozira, adding a considerable portion of each dish onto his plate.
“Have you found what you were looking for?” Rhuna whispered to Goram between mouthfuls.
“Yes, yes,” he mumbled with a mouth full of food.
“Then meet me later,” Rhuna replied, looking around to make sure no one else had heard their brief exchange.
Rhuna made arrangements with Goram to go out early the following morning to visit the site Goram had determined to be the most conducive to the natural energies. It was a long walk to the base of one of the hills that surrounded Judharo, but Rhuna was relieved to see that it was not too far from the crystal quarry.
“This is it?” she asked Goram as she turned around to look in all directions. She was struck by the lush greenness of the place, and wondered if a large body of underground water caused this lovely oasis to spring forth from otherwise dry and sandy soil.
Rhuna- New Horizons Page 17