073 - The Sleeping Forest

This is troubling. Beyond troubling . .

Peering through the brass telescope Kujata clenched her teeth, her eyes flicking between the eyepiece and the notebook open on her lap. They didn't match. Nothing matched anymore . . after so many years . .

Turning the large dials and knobs she adjusted the telescope searching through her book and through the stars, the expression on her face growing ever grimmer.

"Fuck! They've moved everything!" She threw the book down, leaping up and pacing up and down the shrine. "Rat-faced potion swilling bastards! Nothing matches!" An empty jar shattered against the distant shine wall, Kujata furiously stomped and kicked the bones and jars cursing the Alchemists in ever more foul terms.

Ring! Ring!

"Ah hells . . " Kujata rushed back to the window. "A fifth . . a fifth . . and a sixth! Six!" She retrieved the notebook frantically flipping through the pages. "Six . . Meridie . . ah ha! Ha! It's all wrong, but they're still there!"

She turned the telescope to face another patch of sky, reading out numbers. "It's still there! What's wrong . . what is wrong with the . . by degrees . . they've shifted several degrees. All the lines shifted! The lines are still there! What the devil happened?"

All the numbers she'd painstakingly noted over the years were off, but off by the same amount. The lines between the Alchemists stars were shifted . . moved deliberately? No . . it can't be on purpose, why would they move the lines? How could they move the lines? The Alchemists wouldn't risk it . .

Magnus. His awakening . . it could bring about that sort of reaction? Even the Celestial held in the void formations reacted to him? That sort of reaction . .

Kujata was more than reluctant to believe that Magnus could have created such a reaction . . if he had . . if the Alchemists detected it . .

A Celestial awakening that could create such a reaction. She didn't want to believe . . at any other time this would be a cause for celebration! Now? Now . . it was like a blazing fire in the dead of night! The Alchemists would have to have seen it . . Magnus, his Celestial aspect was beyond bizarre, and it had come at the worst of times! How could she have been so careless?

She should have kept him here! Never let him go out! Stuck with the original plan! The original plan . . Kujata sighed deeply. The original plan was to hope for the best, wasn't it? Hope that the Alchemists would be looking in a different direction. Magnus arrival had given her hope, a chance that she could force the Alchemists to turn all their attentions to him and leave her free to act.

And now? Now she had a fifth disciple . . a disciple she was willing to throw into the fire and sacrifice, to be used and discarded. She stared for a long time through the telescope at the void between the stars . .

Sacrifice one to save many, those were the words she'd held in her heart. From the very start . .

Facing the candle Kujata entered back into the Ether instantly summoning a small garden and stone table and chairs. Beyond the garden swirled a white mist, beyond that she could make out the shapes of trees, but only just.

Hopefully it's not too late . . hopefully we still have time . .

***

"There!" Dong-Geun cried out.

Pontius sent a steady stream of energy into the two flat blue discs, at his word Valerius and Domitia sent out three glyphs each in quick succession. The disc swooped down a myriad of white lights towards a distant distinct speck.

There, amidst a cluster of white lights was a single speck of red light. A red speck! In a hundred years . . the old Alchemists eyes blazed. A Celestial! No doubt about it!

Closer . . as Pontius directed the discs closer the nearest specks of light became clouds of white, whole clusters of millions upon millions of light within each speck. Each cluster was made mostly from white lights, but amongst them were many green, yellow, and blue lights, though far less in number. As for red lights . . there was only one!

"Star system?"

"A Centauri system Magister, one of the furthest in the great circle." Domitia responded, reading from a bronze coloured tablet.

"Outer Centauri? That can't be right . . how far from the Domus formation?"

"Twelve hundred light years, Magister."

The Alchemists report on the disturbance within the five-star formation placed the newly discovered Celestial within a four hundred star system radius, but the red dot they'd discovered was well outside that. A different Celestial? Not the one they were looking for? No . . the coincidence, the timing . . it had to be the same one!

"We're going in! Prepare marking glyphs!"

As they neared the red speck the white lights around it grew in size, turning into the forms of all kinds of creatures large and small. Millions of humans, billions of animals of all descriptions . . but the red speck remained the same size. No matter how close they seemed to get, the speck was just that; a tiny red speck, Pontius hovered right before it . . then passed through it . . right before their eyes the speck of red light blinked out of existence.

"Prince Dong! What's going on? Where is the Celestial?" Pontius spun them around, moving the two discs in a loop. "Where is it? Domitia! Valerius!"

"It's . . it's gone Magister! No reaction!"

The Martial prince blinked, sending a thick yellow stream into the surrounding white lights. Nothing, not a single reaction. A illusion? Had they been misled? A false reaction? Pontius lost himself in idle speculation, the seven on the disc drifted for a time in silence through the countless lights.

An investigative team would have to be sent to the star system. Even if it was a false reading, if there was a chance of there being a Celestial . .

"There!" Dong-Geun cried out once more, pointing at a distant speck of red.

"Six glyphs each! Keep your eyes on it, prepare the marking glyphs!"

The disc sped off once more through the body of the Goddess at the distant speck of red.

***

Comfortable, this really is too comfortable . . Magnus lay on his back, snoring lightly. The leaves make a perfect bed, nice and cool. There was only the sound the stream and the rustling of leaves, he'd laid down for a moment within the forest and felt it so relaxing he couldn't help but close his eyes.

Everything is so damn complex. It should be obvious . . why can't it be easy? The path before me . . why am I still hesitating? If there is anything I could wish for it would be things to be simpler, right? Work hard, train hard and get stronger! It ought to be that easy, but with my level of talent even training twice, three times as hard he'd never got a fraction of the result those with talent had got.

Along with Rolf he'd watched many of his friends in Kloster train their cores, effortlessly passing level after level of difficulty and being accepted into Festus experiment . . gaining power one after another while he could only watch on.

There was nothing greater than to fight and die for one's brothers and sisters! It had been an honour forever denied to Magnus, something he could only curse bitterly in his heart . . had I really thought that way? My life . . was it something sold so cheap?

All for a game, a testing of Alchemist potions and formations! My home . . five years of fighting . . and all I wanted to do was join in . . ha . . ah ha ahah!

They will pay! Festus! All of them! All the bloody Alchemists! Festus most of all! Ah . . so nice . . a little nap won't hurt . .

Amidst thoughts of vengeance and bitter memories Magnus felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him, as if he were being pulled down from consciousness into the depths of sleep . .

"Magnus . . Magnus . ."

"Who's there!" Magnus leapt to his feet fully alert. The voice seemed so familiar.

"Magnus . . come here . ."

"Rolf? Is that you Rolf? Pa? Ma? Who is calling!"

The voice came from between the trees from where the stream of black water flowed, calling out his name over and over. Magnus hesitated, a sense of deep unease, every hair on his body bristling.

"Magnus . . come to me . ."