Irnoc

Kadeem strode through a richly appointed manor, fine vases stood on short pillars in nooks, colorful tapestries woven from silk draped the walls, the marble floor polished to a lustrous sheen and the scent of sandalwood incense gently flavored the halls with its delicate scent.

He approached a set of open double doors, within the next room sat a middle aged man at a fine grained wax polished wood desk. He wore his long brown hair loose, just touching his shoulders; a full beard with a few streaks of grey graced his face. He looked up as he heard Kadeem’s footsteps, his eyes brightened a bit when he saw who approached.

“Good evening Yazid. I found something, or rather someone that you need to meet” Kadeem said once he entered the room. “This is exactly what we needed to make the project work.”

With a startled blink at the sudden flood of words, Lord Yazid asked “What have you found for me my friend?”

“A new wild talent was brought in last night. This morning I tested his affinities, he tested positive for all six.”

He stood up abruptly and asked, “Are you sure?” excitement adding intensity to his voice. “We’ve never seen more than an affinity for three elements, and the third element barely registered.”

“I am quite sure, and each element reacted with full intensity during the test. It’s the strongest showing I have ever seen.” Kadeem told him “he has as much, if not more, potential as Kinathe”

“Yes, we can use him, we must handle him carefully. Bring him to me.”

“There is a bit of an issue with him that you should be made aware of. He is an escaped slave, which isn’t normally an issue but he is fixated on his friend who was made a slave at the same time he was but sold elsewhere. He is determined to find her and rescue her. If you want to recruit him to your cause, this might be a relatively easy way to get him on board.” Kadeem explained. “I took notes on her description and the circumstances of her capture. I took the liberty of telling the boy that we will look into what happened to this girl to get his initial co-operation.”

Yazid pondered this information for a few moments, considering the possibilities and costs. It would take time and resources to find this slave girl, not to include the price of buying her back from whoever bought her in the first place. But if it made this boy co-operative, it could rapidly advance their plans. That kind of progress would make all the expense worth it.

“Good thinking Kadeem, we can use this. I will send out Malik with your information and see what can be found out. I’ll have him check the records at the slave market, that should tell us who bought her and where she is at least.” Yazid reflected. “Make sure the boy gets started on his training. He needs to gain control of his abilities if he is to be of aid to us. By the way, what is the Boy’s name?”

“His name is Irnoc. He should be starting his lessons first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Good, it might be best to hold off on bringing him here until we have some preliminary information to entice his co-operation. Go ahead and begin telling him about Kinathe and prep him for induction to the prophesy.” Yazid instructed

“As you wish, it shall be done.” Kadeem replied with a small bow before turning and leaving the palace.

* * *

“In the beginning of time, there were only six realms in all of creation. The god or goddess of each ream was supreme in their own land, all who resided within that realm payed homage to these divine rulers. These divinities would occasionally get together and converse for while they are supreme in their own realm, they appreciate interacting with those who are equal in power and responsibilities.” Priestess Rihanna instructed the new Acolytes. The four of them sat on a long bench with a table in front of them, quills, ink and parchment decorated the tale as the children took notes. Irnoc sat at the end of the table; this was his first lesson after being tested the previous day.

One thing they have going here, they definitely eat well, a good diner, and another good breakfast, not one moldy piece of bread and nothing on the verge of rotting. I thought as I pondered my full belly.

“On one such occasion, they all felt there was something lacking in the universe. Their realms remained unchanging and unvarying. As a group they decided to work together to create a seventh realm, a realm that can change and evolve over time. They would all be able to observe this realm and observe its growth and changes.” The priestess continued her instruction.

This is useless nonsense; I don’t give a damn about how they think the world came to be. I just want to learn to use this strange power I have and get Cat to safety.

“Together they created a space that lay between each of their realms with equal distance between them. Once the space the realm would reside was formed, each god and goddess worked together to give it substance. Galan drew from his realm to form the land; Quintar drew from his realm to fill the sea; Corana drew out the essence of fire and formed the sun, granting this world warmth; Hatha filled the world with air; Selena created the spark of life that the world may be populated; and Banalithe created death so that the world will be subject to change unlike their own realms.”

“That is how the Gods, working in unison, created the world and all of us that live in it. And while each temple is dedicated to one of the six; we all work together as brothers and sisters, following the example of our gods. Where each one is powerful beyond all human understanding, together anything is possible.”

Nice moral to the story I thought with a mental snort.

“That completes the first lesson, you may take a brief break then we will discuss the next period of history, the Sundering.” Priestess Rihanna said, sadness showing in her eyes.

I stood up with the other students and moved around some, stretched muscles that grew stiff from siting on the wooden bench while listening to the priestess drone on about history and the origins of the gods and the world. Staying in one position for a few hours while casing a job is one thing, but having to listen to a priestess lecture is another beast altogether.

A few minutes after everybody got up to move around the priestess called everyone to order. The other three students were chatting together, occasionally glancing at me while I stayed clear of them. I had no interest in mingling or making friends here. I didn’t plan on sticking around that long, once I heard back from that Kadeem guy, I was going to be off to find cat; and if Kadeem didn’t come back soon enough, I planned on sneaking out while everyone else slept. I doubted these priest types had much security.

“Ok children, be seated. It is time to learn the shame of our race and our redemption” the priestess said.

Shame, redemption, none of this dung mattered one bit. I bet it’s organized to make the temples look good and everyone else bad. I thought as I re-took my seat to sit through another lengthy lecture.

“After mankind rose in this new world created by the gods, mankind lived in peace and honored the gods for thousands of years.” Priestess Rihanna said, making solid eye contact with each of the students in turn. “However, after those thousands of years mankind began to forget what they owed to the gods and began trying to surpass the power of the gods and set themselves up as gods themselves.” She paused here for a moment to let the hubris of that goal to sink in.

“A few powerful men reached too far and found the power they sought, but being only men and without the blessings of the gods, the power was too great for them to handle and it was unleashed into the world.” The Priestesses voice took on stern tones.

“There were grave consequences to the uncontrolled release of such power. The power unleashed began to undo what the gods created; the land shook apart, fire rose from within the world and destroyed cities, giant walls of water drowned the land and the winds raced across the world bringing storms that destroyed what the earth fire and sea didn’t reach.” A couple of the other students gasped when they heard about such destruction. Priestess Rihanna nodded at those students with a small note of satisfaction.

“The last vestiges of mankind that managed to survive the world sundering around them cried out in fear and pain, begging for the gods to forgive their hubris.” She continued.

“The gods convened once again to discuss the fate of mankind. They considered letting mankind be wiped out from the effects of their own pride and foolishness. Thinking they could control the forces that are only the gods right to use.” Distain dripped from her voice “In the end they decided to take pity on man and soothed the storms, the land and the sea, allowing all to grow quiet once again.”

“The gods have shown great mercy on mankind. They could have simply let the world be wiped clean of the prideful arrogant race of humanity, or wiped us all out themselves and started fresh. But they chose to give us all a second chance. And to ensure we would not repeat our past mistakes, they decided to maintain their influence more directly than they did pre-sundering.”

“Once the land stopped shaking and the storms quieted, the gods, having made their decision, descended from their realms. When they appeared before the surviving people, they each chose a few individuals of great faith and piety. These they gifted with a tiny portion of their own essence. This tiny bit of essence would enable them to call upon the host of the god or goddess. Calling upon one of their gods servants would enable the caller to aid their fellow people and help them survive. It also left them with a direct connection with their deity, allowing them to know their god or goddesses will so that mankind may be guided and never to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors.”

Called it, I thought while trying to keep a smirk from forming. Regular people bad, temple people good, and regular people must be guided by the temple people. And by guide they mean rule, even if only from behind the scenes.

The rest of the day and the next couple days followed a similar pattern. Good meals, lectures on religious history, the duties of the priests, the theory behind Calling and the nature of the relationships between the called and the caller. It was all rather dull, though learning about how one can consciously Call without being terrified or angry. It wasn’t until half way through the third day that things got rather interesting.

* * *

I stood in a room; thick stone walls surrounded me and the other three students. Priestess Rihanna stood before us, and six circles with strange geometric symbols inlayed with metal and bits of stone decorated the circles. They looked similar to the one I stood within just a few days ago, but simpler and far less ornate.

“This is the room of Calling. These circles will aid you in focusing and concentrating and make it easier to reach through to Corana’s Realm. With enough practice you won’t need circles like these, but they can always be used when you have enough time to get to a prebuilt one or draw your own. It is far less taxing to use a calling circle than it is to use only your mind.” The priestess told us.

“Now pick a circle and kneel next to it. I know we discussed this process this morning, but I will still guide you through your first controlled calling step by step. Eventually you will be so practiced at this that you will run through each step so quickly that it all seems to happen at once and in an instant. Before you can reach that level of skill you must follow each step in order and do so often. Practice makes perfect and you will have the opportunity for lots of practice.”

The four of us each kneeled next to one of the circles as instructed. I must admit, I started to feel a bit of excitement, we were about to call upon a magical being that would do whatever we wanted. I thought back to the huge turtle I called back in the desert, I hope I don’t call him up again. A little wriggling worm of worry burrowed through my mind at the thought of Quintar’s servant. Kadeem warned me not to call on any of the other gods’ servants, just the servants of Corana. If I want his help in finding Cat, I need to seem just like everyone else.

Once we were all in position Priestess Rihanna continued “I know each and every one of you managed to call on one of Corana’s servants, as that act is what led us to you. But the first Calling is always the product of extreme emotion and most of the time ends in some form of destruction. When a servant is called during extreme emotion, some of that emotion passes into the servant and they are difficult to control and they tend to lash out at the cause. This is why you must maintain a calm state of mind whenever you Call. You will be trained to Call with a calm mind during stressful situations. But you don’t have to worry about that right now” she said with a smile, “this is training you will receive later and finishing the final test will graduate you from Acolyte to Priest. So you have six years to learn the necessary skills. Now I want each of you to close your eyes”

After glancing at the other students and saw them complying, I closed my own eyes.

“Later on you won’t need to close your eyes, but for now it will help with the visualization. Now with your eyes closed want you to picture a door, it doesn’t matter what kind of door it is but you must picture it clearly in your mind. Imagine its color, the grain of its wood, its shape and even what kind of handle it has.” The priestess lapsed into silence for a few minutes as the children before her struggled with this strange request.

As I knelt there I thought about different kinds of doors, but one door stood out in my mind stronger than any other. It was a wooden door; the wood was smooth on one side and rough on the other. Instead of a door handle, it had a brass ring bolted to one side of it. It was almost perfectly square. As all the little details became clear in my mind I remembered where I saw this door before, it was the trap door to my childhood home, the door that led to the basement where I hid while my parents were murdered.

“Now once you have firmly pictured your door in every detail, I want you to feel it. This may sound strange but I want you to picture your hand touching the door. Feel the grain of the wood, the metal of its handle, and I want you to feel the warmth coming through from the other side. The door will feel very warm, like it has been sitting out in the sun all day soaking in the heat of our lady Corana.”

I mentally reached out with my hand to touch the door. It was a rather strange feeling; my real hands were resting on my legs in front of me and I could feel the cloth of the robes they gave me, but my right hand could also almost feel rough wooden planks that radiated heat. “I can feel it” I whispered. I heard similar sentiments from the other kids, each with a note of wonder in their voice.

“Now I want you to take hold of the door handle, and with your other hand I want you to reach down and touch the circle in front of you.” She instructed, and I followed her direction, I assumed the others did as well. “Now while you are touching the circle, I want you to open your door. Open it into the circle and Call. Just like you reached out with you hand I want you to reach out with your thoughts and call out, invite someone to come to you.”

I pushed open the trap door, while it used to lay flat on the floor of my child hood home, now it stood on its side and swung out and I felt a wave of heat course over me. I could feel something on the other side of the door, something intelligent, something with power. I reached; I called to it, beckoning it to come to me.

I felt the heat suffusing me, not a terrible rush like before, but more like the rising tide, inexorable and powerful. The heat from the open doorway reached its crest then flowed smoothly out of me. I felt the power flow from my core, up to my shoulder and down my left arm. It flowed through my fingers and swirled through the myriad of lines that made up the circle. It swirled around and around collecting to a single point in the center of the circle.

Once all the energy collected to that single point, there was a small flash of light and heat. I opened my eyes and stared, before me in the center of the circle floated a small flame the size of my thumb, looking like that on the tip of a candle. It had a small bluish orb at the base of the flame, where the wick usually is usually found, and the yellow, orange and red flame rose from that small ball.

As I stared into that small flame, I noticed that I could feel it. I don’t mean I could feel the small heat from the fire it gave off; rather I could feel its vitality, its energy, its life within myself. Almost the same way you can feel the sun on your back when your eyes are closed, I could feel this creature, I could feel its pressure from within the center of my being, I could feel a connection between me and it. I was filled with wonder at seeing this strange and beautiful living creature, and it was alive. I can feel a pulse coming from it, like a strange heartbeat beating against my skin and beating in time to my own.

“Congratulations Irnoc and Tempe, you two have successfully called for the first time under your own conscious control” The priestess suddenly stated. It startled me so much I lost the connection to this amazing creature and I felt a door slam shut in my head. I didn’t realize I had risen to my knees until I fell back and my backside struck the stone floor. My head buzzed and I felt slightly nauseated and dizzy.

“You all did well, and eventually you will be able to hold your connection to the servants of Corana and to her realm longer and even when startled or distracted. For now though, it is time for dinner, you need to eat to rebuild your strength, and get plenty of rest. You will be practicing this for a few candle marks each day, and it will sap your stamina until you become stronger.” Priestess Rihanna said, dismissing her weary students.