The Coming Chaos

by D. K. Holmberg

  Eventually he would share them with her. She was certain of it. That was the benefit of being one of his favored.

  The blessing gave her gifts, and to hear the Great One talk about it, the gifts came from aspects of abilities she would’ve otherwise known. It wasn’t so much that they were given to her as that they were drawn out from her.

  Looking around the room, she tried to understand what had taken place here. The Great One had stopped in here, but he hadn’t spent much time. Either he didn’t know—and she found that unlikely—or he already knew what had taken place and wanted her to uncover the details. That was far more likely.

  She went over to the fallen Ai’thol, rolling him over. He was heavy, and considerably older than her, but he was not blessed in the way she was. He had one of the older blessings, the long scar beneath his chin revealing where the implant had been placed. Ryn was appreciative that she had one of the newer blessings, one that allowed her to slowly gain her abilities, but also one that didn’t require such drastic methods in order to be placed. It was painful—there was no doubt about that—but she didn’t have the same type of scar. Her hair had already begun to grow around the implant, making it so others wouldn’t know.

  Searching through the disciple’s pockets, she didn’t come up with anything. There was likely something she could discover. She sat back on her heels, frowning as she looked around. If not the Ai’thol, was it the chair?

  Making her way over to it, she put the pieces of the chair back together, assembling them like some sort of puzzle. That was the answer, though how?

  The wood had splintered, leaving fragments of the chair broken and scattered throughout. She found what appeared to be a backrest, and pieced that with other parts, forming it once again. A couple fragments didn’t seem quite right. There was something missing.

  As she studied it, her enhanced eyesight allowed her to make out the fact that there appeared to be armrests missing.

  That was the key. Where were those sections of wood?

  She got to her feet and continue to look around the room. There was nothing near the disciple.

  That wasn’t entirely true. He had the sacred metal near him.

  She knew very little about the metal. The Great One kept details of it to himself, and yet the one thing she did know was that it was responsible for granting the blessing. A hunk of it rested on the ground near the disciple. She lifted it, rolling it in her hands, and noticed it felt a little warm. Slipping it into her pocket, Ryn decided she would investigate it further another time. For now, she would continue to look around the room.

  There was nothing.

  Heading out, she made her way through the staircase and to the altar. It had been a temple, a place of worship and celebration, and the attacker had changed that. He had brought violence and destruction, things she had thought were behind her. They were the kind of things the Great One was supposed to have protected her from.

  Ryn pushed those thoughts away. They were dangerous thoughts. Besides, the Great One couldn’t be in all places at all times. Regardless of what he claimed, the way he promised he was always watching, she knew it wasn’t possible.

  Blood was spattered all throughout here much like it had been in the other room. The attacker had come here, but why?

  That was the answer she had yet to discover, and as far as she could tell, the Great One hadn’t the answer to it, either.

  Making her way slowly through the room, she passed behind the altar, and a scrap of silk caught her eye. It was striped with red and orange, and frayed, but when she picked it up, it remained smooth within her fingers.

  It didn’t seem the kind of thing an attacker would have on them.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Ryn looked over. Lorren was old, a man who seemed as if he should have seen and known the world, and yet her experience with him had proven that he was naïve in ways she was not. The long gray robe of one of the acolytes hung along his shoulders, too small for the size of man he had become. Living within the temple had made him fat, and while the Great One never commented on that, she knew that he did not care for such indulgences.

  “I’m trying to understand what took place here.”

  “We were attacked, you fool.”

  Ryn straightened, crossing her hands in front of herself. She fixed Lorren with as firm a gaze as she could. There was a time when she would’ve taken an insult like that without argument, but that time had long ago passed. Her experience with the Great One had taught her that she didn’t have to fear petty men like him.

  Besides, she knew she was favored, much like he knew that she was favored. Any comment he might make was bound to place him in danger.

  “There was an attack while you were here, and the attacker is nowhere to be seen. It displeases him.”

  Lorren stared at her. Most looked at her the same way as he did, hating that there was only so much they could do with her. Her connection to the Great One gave her his voice.

  “He was here?”

  She bowed her head. “He was here.”

  Lorren licked his lips nervously. “He understands we are doing everything in our power to try to understand what took place.”

  “I’m certain he does.”

  “He left you.”

  She nodded.

  “I am at your service, of course. We would do nothing to anger the Great One.”

  “As is wise.”

  Ryn made her way to the front of the altar, tracing her hand along the surface. It was smooth and cool, the marble having been polished over the years. There was something formal and stiff about it, but at the same time comforting.

  It seemed a strange place to attack, and stranger still to find the scrap of silk that she had.

  There was a mystery to be uncovered here, and she would find it for the Great One, reveal that secret, and if she couldn’t, then perhaps she was undeserving of the gifts the Great One had provided her.

  Ryn was determined not to fail. If she failed, any opportunity to be granted her real desire would be lost. And she would be the one to help the Great One find Lareth. He would suffer for all he had done to her people and her family.

  “I would like the names of all who were here during the attack,” Ryn said.

  “Most who were here were not high-level Ai’thol.”

  Ryn nodded. “I see that. The man lying dead on the other floor was lower ranking than I.”

  She let the words linger. It was not just a threat, but also a comment on the lack of authority that this temple possessed. They didn’t have a connection to the Great One the way they thought they did. They were not like Ryn.

  But then, she was something of an outlier. She had been guided by the Great One himself, brought into the fold and welcomed, shepherded in a way. Because of his connection to her, she had been granted a greater understanding of the workings of the Ai’thol.

  “What can we do to be of service?”

  “I believe I’ve already told you what you can do.”

  Lorren nodded, bowing briefly before spinning and leaving her.

  As Ryn surveyed the inside of the temple, she couldn’t shake the sense that there was something more here than what she understood.

  Stranger still was the suspicion that this was somehow tied to Lareth, though she didn’t think that it was.

  Ryn took a seat in the center of the room, closing her eyes. She was determined to remain here until she had a better sense of what was taking place. Somehow, she felt as if the answer would reach her, but she had to open herself to it.

  The question the Great One always asked her rolled through her mind.

  What else do you detect?

  Nothing, yet. Ryn was determined to change that.

  10

  Ryn

  Stale air filled her nostrils, and Ryn breathed it out, frustration flowing through her. During her time in the temple, she had tried to find a place of calm, and yet there were times like this, times when she still
struggled with keeping that calm. How could she when there was something she missed?

  She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the wide plank table. The surface was rough, unfinished, but it fit her in a way that the heavily lacquered tables she’d been offered did not. And when she ran her hands along the rough surface, it helped her focus her mind.

  Not that Ryn needed the additional help with focusing. But after spending days poring over the ledgers, looking through name after name, she was no closer than she had been before. It was almost as if Lorren and the others who worked with him were trying to conceal something from her.

  What else did she detect?

  There was something unusual taking place here, but Ryn hadn’t discovered it. The more time she spent in the temple, the more certain of that she was. The others always made a great show about offering their help, and they claimed service to the Great One, but there was something about their service she found off-putting. Perhaps she should not. Everyone had their own way of serving the Great One, herself included. Hers was utter devotion, but then that had come from the fact that she’d been saved by the Great One.

  Ryn got to her feet, pacing in the small room. She’d been offered larger rooms and even some near the top of the tower where she could look out upon the city. None of them had appealed to her. She preferred to be on the lower levels, closer to the street, and with walls all around her, forcing her to concentrate.

  What she needed now was to get out and stretch her legs.

  Leaving the ledger behind, she stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. The hallway swept out from her, and she made her way along it, keeping her senses attuned to the possibility of anything else around her.

  As far as she could tell, there was nothing in the hall other than what there was supposed to be. In the last few days, no additional senses had appeared. Part of her was disappointed by that. It hadn’t been all that long since she had taken the blessing, and as it pulsed, buried in her skull, she had thought that more might be coming to her. So far it had not.

  Ryn should not be disappointed. She could easily imagine the things the Great One would say to her, though more likely than not, he would only admonish her for chasing the gifts she had not been offered rather than embracing those she had. Still, Ryn couldn’t help but think there were aspects of her abilities she had not yet touched upon.

  Sound came from down a side hallway.

  It was a steady, muted tapping, a regular pattern that came and went. Pausing for a moment in the hallway, Ryn listened before realizing it was her augmented hearing that allowed her to detect the tapping. Not only was it farther along the hallway, it also seemed as if it came from somewhere below her.

  Where were the stairs?

  She tried to remember the layout of the temple, but she had been in so many over the months since she had joined the Great One that they had all started to blend together. This one was like so many others, while at the same time, it had its own curiosities. There was a staircase leading down, but she couldn’t recall where it was.

  Perhaps that was the challenge she needed to embrace. Focusing on her senses, she not only listened but opened herself up to what she could detect with her enhanced eyesight, and the sense of touch, the way the wind caressed her skin, along with the sense of smell. All of it had been heightened since she had taken her blessing.

  A faint stirring of a breeze pulled her to the left when she reached a side hallway.

  Ryn headed down there, finding a door at the end of it. She paused, resting her hand on the door, and became aware of the stirring of wind, but also the occasional tap-tapping from the other side of the door.

  The door was locked.

  That was unusual in the temple. There weren’t many places here that the Ai’thol kept locked. While she could go and demand access, the idea that she might surprise them, find her way down on her own, appealed to her. Instead of demanding entry, she withdrew the slender knife given to her by the Great One. It was made of a metal similar to the sacred metal, and when she plunged it into the lock, she felt it changing. It was almost as if it were meant for this purpose, though she had seen it used like that before. The Great One had done so.

  The door opened, and she hesitated.

  Darkness greeted her, but it was only momentary. Once her eyesight adjusted, she was able to make out the faint shifting of shadows that drifted into the door, leading into a staircase heading down. Lanterns were set into the wall, but none of them were lit. Strange, considering the tapping sound she now heard, louder with the door open.

  Ryn approached the stairs carefully, heading down them one at a time, pausing every so often to ensure that the steady tapping she heard didn’t veer off in a different direction, though there was only one way for her to go down the stairs.

  As she descended, Ryn felt a motion she hadn’t experienced in quite some time. Ever since traveling with the Great One, she had felt safe, protected, and even when he left her behind to investigate on his behalf, there had never been fear. She had always acted on his behalf, much the way she did now.

  Surprisingly, as she headed down the stairs, there was a sense of fear.

  When was the last time she had felt it like this?

  Ryn steeled herself. The Great One protected her, even if he wasn’t here. She made her way down the stairs, not distracted by the darkness, and when the staircase ended, she looked around. The air smelled different. Stale. Almost hot. There was a pungent aroma she didn’t recognize. It moved softly, twisting around her, small eddies that pulled at her cloak. A distant glowing caught her attention, though from where she was, Ryn recognized how the glowing was meant to be masked from anyone who might come down to this level. The one thing they didn’t mask was the steady tapping. It sounded like hammering, but why should that be?

  Could they be delving deeper beneath the ground?

  The temple itself was impressive, like most of the temples the Great One operated. She didn’t know for certain, but she suspected the temples had once served a different purpose, especially as each land they visited had temples of different shapes. This one was mostly a circular tower, with smaller arms reaching off and many of the lower buildings interconnected. Other temples were comprised of dozens of spires, or burrowed into the earth itself, or even nothing more than a rocky overlook out upon the sea.

  If they were digging deeper into the ground, there had to be some reason. Perhaps it was nothing more than a desire to claim additional power, but she couldn’t help but think there was something else she didn’t fully grasp.

  This was the kind of thing the Great One would like to know about.

  Ryn reached the end of the hallway. A door blocked her from going any further, and beneath the door there was a faint red glowing. On the other side of the door came the regular tapping sound, over and over again, and she paused as she had at the last door, giving herself the opportunity to listen. The longer she did, the clearer it was that it came from hammering, almost as if metal on metal.

  It reminded her of the blacksmith in Vuahlu.

  It had been a long time since she had thought about that. It had been a long time since she had thought about anything from her home village, though even that was not her home village. It had been her living space for a time, a place where they had lived after her father’s death, but it had never been her home. Her mother had wanted it to be something more than it could be.

  If everything went well with the Great One, eventually Ryn hoped to visit the land of her ancestors. She had heard so little about it but knew that it was a place the Great One avoided, at least for now. It was part of his planning, but it was the kind of planning he intended to keep to himself. Every so often, she had heard him speak about what he intended to do with that city, having recognized it when he had mentioned the name, but she had never come to know what exactly he intended.

  Ryn tested the door. Like the last one, it was locked.

  Unusual for the temple, but even mor
e unusual for the fact that it was so deep beneath the ground. Whatever was taking place here was intended to be kept secret, and that was the kind of thing she knew the Great One would disapprove of.

  Slipping her knife out of her pocket, she pressed it into the lock as she had the other. She could feel the metal change, shifting, and she twisted.

  The door came open.

  Heat flooded outward toward her, mixed with steam that obscured the reddish glowing on the far side of the door.

  When it cleared, she peered inside.

  What appeared to be a massive hearth glowed at one end of the room. Coals burned brightly, glowing with a violent intensity. She could barely take her eyes off it, but when the hammering returned, she tore her gaze away to see a man standing near the glowing coals, his back hunched, an enormous hammer in his hand as he beat upon metal.

  How had she not heard this before?

  With the door open, this hammering was loud, a clanging that vibrated through her entire being. It reverberated within her, as if she could feel the changing of the metal each time the hammer struck. Ryn focused on that, trained to search for understanding with every strange experience she might have. The Great One’s words stuck with her—what else did she detect?

  There wasn’t anything else there. Ryn approached slowly, carefully, watching the hammering. Every so often, there was a pause, and she expected the massive man to turn and realize she was there, but he didn’t.

  The space was surprising and strange. The walls were all a rough stone, and a massive chimney funneled out the smoke from the coals. She was surprised that it wasn’t smokier in here. There was the heat and the steam, but nothing else that pressed in upon her.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  Ryn turned slowly, keeping her hand locked in front of her. A younger man, someone near her age and smaller than the other blacksmith, met her gaze when she turned. His clothes were dirtied, stains of soot and coal smeared across them. Sweat ringed under his arms and across his chest. His eyes were a deep green.