Chapter 27
"Something has changed."
"What do you mean Rommus?" Alana asked as she watched him stare off to the west.
"I have no idea what I mean. I can just feel something. It kind of feels like when you're being watched by someone. Do you know the feeling I mean?"
"Sure I do. Everyone has felt that feeling. But why is it such a big deal right now?"
Rommus turned from the horizon that called to him and looked down into her blue eyes. "I don't know. It's a much bigger feeling than just that. Something calls to me, and I can sense where it is. Maybe it's a person or something. I can't tell."
"I think I have stumbled into the lives of the world's strangest men. Between you and Vohl, I think I have heard just about every weird thing I can imagine."
Rommus smiled. "Well don't get the wrong idea. I think it's weird too. I'm on your side." He pointed to the city in the immense but shallow valley below them. "So that's Burnhamheade?"
"That's right. Is it what you expected?"
"You mean does it look like it did in my dreams? I don't know yet I'll have to get closer. Vohl, was there a city here when you were here last? Does it look the same?"
"Certainly not, Master Rommus. I don't recognize anything here at all. The only things that will look familiar to me will probably be those mountains to the north, for they change at a much slower rate than the creations of man."
Rommus mounted his horse. "Vohl, I told you, I am not master of anything. You can just call me Rommus."
"As you command, Rommus."
Rommus let out a short chuckle and shook his head. It seemed that no matter how close they got to Vohl, he refused to let go of his formalities. The man was as proper as any man could be, but as formal as he seemed on the surface, it was becoming more and more obvious how detached he had become from the real world. Rommus was still very skeptical about his so-called immortality, and Vohl had done little to prove his claim, but Rommus was certain that he did indeed spend a lot of time away from society. The man's manners were very polished, but it seemed that the man himself was tarnished much like silver that had been ignored for too long.
The bright sun cast its rays on their shoulders and lit the land around them in a brilliant display of beauty. The Vindyri seemed to be fond of roses, and as they made their way closer to the capital, they saw more and more. There were rosebushes everywhere, mostly ones with red flowers dotting the dark green foliage. Even the simple homes they passed had beautiful gardens whose centerpiece was always a well-pruned rosebush. Rommus could smell the soft scent as he passed them. He never understood why people liked the smell so much. It was rather bland as far as he was concerned.
The city finally filled their vision as they came to its edge. The streets were as busy as any streets in Medora, with people and carts and horses dodging each other. The buildings were exactly as the dreams had showed him, even down to the colors and the intricate designs carved in them. He looked past the delicate columns and saw windows with thin iron scrollwork between the panes of glass. Rommus quickly found a place where they could leave their horses to eat while they found some food themselves.
"That building over there," he pointed, "that's the one with the huge round window, we just can't see it from here. When we turn around this corner, it will come into view and we'll see the colored glass. It forms a picture of a man on a horse and the seven gods are above him."
"I'm impressed Rommus. That is the building. Maybe your dreams were right after all," Alana said.
"For a man who does not believe in magical powers, you certainly seem to place a lot of importance on dreams that by all accounts are magical themselves," Vohl said as they walked the stone streets.
"I never said I didn't believe in magic. I simply don't know anything about the truth of the subject. As far as I know, magic might just be trickery. It's a difficult thing to prove."
"Very true Rommus, but isn't that building over there with the window proof itself?"
Rommus laughed. "I don't know Vohl. I guess it is. Tell me, what makes you believe in magic?"
"I don't think I see the world in the same way you do. For me, it is more difficult to imagine a world without magic than a world with it. Magic is the fabric that connects all things. Without it the world would not function."
"But Vohl, those are your beliefs. Beliefs to not make things true. There is only one truth about magic, and it is either that it does exist, or it doesn't. No matter how hard we believe in one of those answers, it doesn't change the truth."
"Yes I understand what you mean Rommus. We had a similar discussion about the gods on the day we met. I understand the difference between belief and fact, but like I said, I just cannot imagine a world without magic. Besides, how do you account for my cape, sword, rings and pendant?"
"Well Alana and I have not seen those things do anything extraordinary."
"That's not true," Alana said. "I saw only a shadow when he saved us that day. His cape worked exactly as he claims it does. He also killed almost all those men by himself. I think his sword has shown its power as well."
Rommus sighed. "I guess it's possible. Like I said I didn't say that magic is not real. I said I didn't know anything about it."
"Well dreamer, how's that for proof?" Alana asked as she pointed.
Rommus raised his head and found what she was pointing at. Rising up in front of them was a great building, larger than the rest in the city. It had tall, thin columns and pointed archways everywhere; almost too many from an aesthetic viewpoint. The design was somehow overdone and simple at the same time; catching one's attention at once with its power, and making one wonder why he was staring. As they slowly looked higher, the focus of the building jumped out at them. A huge circular window was positioned at the center of the building high above the streets. Rommus could not imagine how anyone could create such a window, for it seemed that the weight of the glass alone would send it crashing to the streets, shattering the colored glass in a heartbreaking spectacle of beautiful disaster.
"It's much bigger than I thought, but it looks exactly like it did in the dream."
"You dream beautiful dreams, Master Rommus. I am truly struck by the sight," Vohl said as he stared.
Rommus kept his eyes on the window for a while and took in the artistic genius of the glasswork. The depictions of the figures seemed too realistic to be executed in nothing but pieces of glass. It wasn't really his style, but he could not deny its commanding beauty.
"I thought he told you to stop calling him that. How come you never call me Master Alana?" she asked as she poked Vohl in his ribs. He jumped back and smiled at the prod.
"My lady, we do not call women Master where I come from. Is it custom to do so here?"
Alana laughed. "No, Master Vohl, I am just playing with you."
Rommus found himself staring off to the west again. He couldn't ignore the strange feeling he had deep in the pit of his stomach. It was as if the world around him got very quiet and the only thing he could hear was a voice in the distance. Although he heard no actual words, he could feel something; a connection that he could not comprehend. He snapped out of his trance when Alana grabbed his wrist.
"Well are you?" she asked.
"Huh? Am I what?"
"Are you coming with us or are you going to just stand there all day? Haven't you been listening to us?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I have been listening. Where are we going?"
Alana rolled her eyes. "To eat something and to get some supplies. That's what we came to the city for. Don't you remember?"
"Yes I remember."
Vohl cocked his head and stared into Rommus's eyes. "Rommus are you feeling well? You seem as if something is bothering you."
"There is always something bothering me my friend. Right now I can't seem to break free of this feeling that something is over there, back towards Brinn somewhere."
"Perhaps you miss your home where the sun sets on a f
amiliar horizon."
"Oh Rommus, that reminds me!" Alana interrupted. "I think I might have discovered how the sun and moon stay up by falling."
He grinned. "Is that right? Let's hear it."
"Is it because they get heavier at some times, and lighter at others? That has to be the way it works if you say they stay in the sky because they are falling."
He felt sorry for having to tell her she was wrong, but he had to do it. "No, I'm afraid that's not it."
"Well how does it work? I can't sleep at night because I can't get the stupid thought out of my head. This is all I could come up with."
"All right, I'll tell you." He cleared his throat. "If you were to stand on a mountain, and shoot an arrow at great speed, what would happen?"
Vohl answered. "Well, it would fall a long way until it reached the earth."
"Right. Now what if you could fire it at an even greater speed?"
"It would go farther before it hit the ground," Alana said.
"Right, it would still fall, but it would travel a greater distance before it fell. Now what if I told you that it was possible to fire the arrow at such a speed that it would never touch the ground?"
"Then I would tell you that you're crazy. Things don't just stay in the sky. Even birds have to land eventually."
Vohl rubbed a finger on his chin in thought. "But if things could stay in motion in the air, what keeps them moving? Everything must fall to the earth at some point."
"The moon does indeed fall to the earth, Vohl. That's the point I am trying to make. Haven't you ever noticed that we see the sun creep up over the horizon in the morning, and noticed that we see the top of the sun before the rest of it comes into view? Or haven't you noticed that the sails of a ship can be seen out on the horizon before the boat itself?"
"I suppose I have noticed that, but I don't understand the relevance."
"And I have never seen a ship on the horizon at all. I am from Vindyrion, remember?" Alana said.
"Well, even so, it should be obvious that the land we walk on is not really flat, but is curved gently. This curve is relatively the same no matter where you stand, and the objects on the horizon always appear in this manner; top first. Using this information we can determine that the earth is not flat, but round. It's also obvious because the sun and moon dip behind one horizon and then rise at the other. They are going around us, so to speak."
"All right, that makes sense I suppose. But what does that have to do with shooting an arrow off a mountain?" Alana asked.
"The moon works in much the same way the arrow does, only it moves at such a great speed that it never touches the ground."
Alana wrinkled her eyebrows. "What? I don't get that at all."
"Don't you see? The moon flies by at great speed, but the earth curves out of its way, falling out from under it. The moon constantly falls, but the round earth makes it impossible for it to ever fall to the ground."
"Oh my, that does make sense," Vohl said as he stared at the sky.
"I'm still not getting it Rommus," she said scratching behind an ear. "I guess I'll spend a few more nights thinking this over. So the sun works the same way I assume?"
"Yes and no. They work the same way, but the sun does not travel around the earth, we travel around the sun the same way the moon travels around us."
"I think I shall have to start calling you Master Rommus again. You do seem to be a master of knowledge and thought," Vohl said with a smile.
"Anyone can see these truths. If you only had the time I have had to consider things, you'd come to the same conclusions. You'd be surprised at all the things you can discover when you are avoiding dealing with the harsh reality of your own existence. I have spent way too much time on my own doing my best to avoid looking at the darkness that has crept into my life."
"While I make no judgment on your view of your life, Master Rommus, I must say with all due respect that I have had much longer than your lifetime to consider such things. I was born long before the men who laid the first blocks to build this very city, and yet the truths you have discovered in your short life have evaded me. These things seem so simple and true now that you say them, and yet somehow none of it has ever come to me. You told me before that I was the most intelligent man you had ever met. I must return the statement in kind."
"Thank you, that means a lot to me. But I am not trying to impress anyone. I hope you don't have the wrong idea about me."
Alana laughed a dainty little laugh. "I think that your problem is the fact that everyone else has the wrong idea about you, Rommus Tirinius."
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