Vannis frowned and lapsed into introspection.
Raken rose and went indoors to start supper.
BEYOND
6
THE SUN CHAMBER INADVERTENTLY doubled as a portal to the crucible in Grinwallin. Teighlar discovered it and, while he could not see Vannis or Vannis see him, they could converse.
It depleted energy, however, and thus was only employed twice; the first accidental time, and the second occasion when Vannis was brought into the circle. They agreed thereafter to make contact when the timing of their task was at hand.
In the aftermath Vannis was like a calybeer with a sore tooth and Raken had to step lightly.
“How can they believe the twins will reincarnate?” he ranted. “Gods, Torrullin will hate that! Imagine him having to do it again when he will have so many bad memories of his sons? How can they be that thick-skulled?”
“Maybe the twins will reincarnate.”
“No! Tristamil cannot exit Aaru and still remain Tristamil! And Tymall, well, Tymall is too bloody selfish to relinquish himself to another form and birth! No, if anything, Tymall will return as …” Vannis ceased pacing and paled. “The little idiot will return to wreak havoc. And Torrullin will let it happen … yes, Raken he will, because he loves that creature! Gods, he needs to be warned!”
“And Tris? Will he return?”
He jerked to look at her and then frowned as he thought it through. “Not Tris, no, but someone genetically close, even identical … someone from his line …” He paused. An instant later he whispered, “Samuel. His name will be Samuel.” He took Raken’s hands in his. “Raken, he will need the power of the Light.”
She said not a word, aware he used her to focus his thoughts.
Vannis whispered, “This is why there is a circle Teighlar made me a part of. He needed a sixth to summon the Light. That bloody Emperor is playing in a minefield! And with a sixth from another realm, he guarantees success. Diabolically clever … and very necessary. Samuel will need it.”
Her heart became erratic. “Why?”
“To balance the scales with Tymall. Whether or not they battle it out, whether or not they ever meet, Samuel is the balance for Tymall’s darkness. Only then can Torrullin make informed decisions. The reality of balance keeps his duality on an even keel. Torrullin needs to know that.”
“Then I suggest you make your plans to return only when you are certain Torrullin will be there to greet you, Vannis. Anything else, and you’ll waste valuable time, time you can’t again ask for.”
He stared at her and then smiled. “On the money as always, my wife!” And then he was serious. “Do you want to come with me?”
Oh, how she wanted to! “I’d love to, if only to see their faces again. But, Vannis, I am your balance. I must stay here so that you are able to return.”
She understood, in a hazy way, neither of them would return to their afterlife if both slipped through the veils. She needed to be his anchor or they would be lost, both of them.
He drew her into his arms and held her. She knew also, one sight of Torrullin, and the choice he made in dying would be undone.
Selfish of her. And he loved her more because of it.
BEYOND
7
TIME WOUND ONWARD. As two thousand Valaris years drew to a close, Torrullin battled Margus on the Plane and then struck the deal that had him bring the Darak Or home with him. Tymall returned to reality as Warlock and Samuel discovered he was a direct descendent of Tristamil.
Raken and Vannis were happy and fulfilled in their home and realm and awaited the timing for the circle to be convened. By dint of his magic and a promise to his new reality, Vannis exacted a period of sojourn beyond, a promise that allowed him re-entry and reconciliation with Raken.
Tymall kidnapped Saska and the Maghdim Medaillon, and Fay fell into darkness. Samuel found his purpose. Mitrill, Caltian, Vania and Tannil succumbed to Tymall’s machinations and Valarians were placed on the brink of starvation.
Torrullin found Lowen and Krikian inside Cèlaver and then he and Lowen entered the realm of his dreams, although not the one about the man with dark hair. That would be another future.
Teighlar then initiated the contact that placed Vannis in nervous preparation. Raken wandered the halls of their spacious home.
Torrullin returned after meeting the Syllvan and placed the Valla boys in safety.
The timing for the circle to convene was at hand.
“VANNIS, ARE YOU SURE?”
In the sun chamber, with the ‘sun’ in set mode, Vannis paced and paced. The sound of terror in Raken’s voice forced him to a stop.
“I swear I shall come back, my love.”
She nodded.
“Ten days is not that long. And imagine the news I’ll have to share.”
She nodded again.
“Raken, I love you. I love Torrullin and I loved Tristamil in the end. The greatest gift I have been given in all my life is the ability to love again. So many years I lived in a vacuum, and now all has changed. I’m not going to undo everything that is healthy in the universes by turning my back on something real. Our love is my cornerstone, Raken. Without it I am nothing.”
“But you love him as well.”
“I do, but he is not my future. You are. Torrullin has a long road ahead, and it cannot include me. That would do him a disservice, as it would me. I need you, Raken, not him.”
She smiled. Yes. She touched his face. “Tell that sexy man I love him, will you? Tell him I miss him and tell him I’ll haunt him if he screws it up!” She laughed. “And, Vannis, make the most of every second for both of us.”
“Aye, love, that I shall.” He kissed her.
And then he heard the concerted calling of five voices without sound and words.
It was time.
He kissed Raken again and stepped away.
He was smiling as the vapour overtook him.
BEYOND
Afterword
VANNIS SPENDS HIS TEN days at Torrullin’s side and aids his grandson in many emotional dilemmas, other than the dreams of a man in his future.
When the sojourn ends and then two men stand at the edge of the crucible that will take Vannis back to his beloved Raken, the parting is difficult.
Raken, knowing how it will be for Vannis, also requests a boon from the powers of her afterlife - a few minutes in that reality. She needs those few minutes to remind Vannis of their love. She is there to bring him home.
But, yes, she too wishes to see Torrullin Valla one last time.
And then their greetings are truly of farewell.
Love, however, is never severed.
A V I O R’S
DOORS
AVIOR
Foreword
THIS PARTICULAR SHORT story inserts between The Nemesis Blade and The Echolone Mine (or directly after Echolone). Torrullin and Elianas go to Echolone on hearing about a door uncovered during a mining operation, a door filled with strange glyphs.
It is a pertinent insert, but it was removed from The Echolone Mine because it, in my opinion, detracted from the greater story. Understanding how everything in the LORE universe is connected, though, certainly fleshes out the grand weave.
Once you have read this, you will know why Carlin, the translator summoned to decode the glyphs, speaks of Avior …
AVIOR
PROLOGUE
NUMBERS ARE UNIVERSAL. Mathematics is the order of time. It is also the creativity in nature, the music in cosmic travel, the rule in science, the language that transcends every barrier and the stuff of daily labour. It is godly and it is mundane.
Without it, life fails.
Without it, magic is impossible.
Various numbers have various powers, from the imagination of the smallest to the impossibility of the greatest, but in the realms of magic one number reigns supreme.
Fourteen.
AVIOR
1
THEIRS WAS A DIVERSE world with seven cont
inents and seven races. It was purely geography that denoted race, for they were in fact the same. Lossarians hailed from Lossaria, Hintali from Hinta, and Umvari from Umvar. The Krish lived in the south on Krishtar, while Hemviars claimed the continent Hemviar in the east and Ecclens were of Eccle in the west. Aviorians lived on the largest continent, Aviori.
In the fullness of time the Aviorians were seen as the leaders of the world, as their currency dominated world society and their religion was the most widely accepted and followed.
Seven races became known as one, within society and to the outer universe, and the name chosen to describe them was Avior. Avior lived on Avior, and thus their race name would be eternally synonymous with their world. In the future no one would draw a distinction.
THEY FOUND AN ARTEFACT buried in the sands of Umvar. Rectangular and of metal, it took ten men to lift and carry it to a safe place for scientific study. Initially they believed it was meant to lie horizontal, like a giant paving stone, and they wondered what would lie beneath such a paving - and sent many expeditions out to dig up the sand in the region it was discovered in, only to find sand and more sand - and then someone suggested it be stood on end, a wall of metal. When it stood upright it looked remarkably like a door. Once that leap was made, it could not be regarded as anything other.
Upon this door there were markings, fourteen of them.
The markings were strange … if one sought to denote language. But if one looked at them as numbers … well, then it all became clear. Eventually.
Mathematicians pondered meaning, but ultimately admitted to simply fourteen counting markings - no great mystery. Scientists attempted formulas, but nothing came of it.
Leaders, political and civic, laughed. A door with fourteen numbers, while strange in where it was found, was no shattering concept.
But priests of the majority religion thought otherwise. They saw fourteen and felt it resonate. Already aware that numbers held powers, depending on how they were employed, they soon realised there was great significance in this particular number, and because they understood that, they took away with them the will to delve it further.
Within a century Avior, too, trusted to the universal fourteen principle. And priests became more, seeing beyond the everyday into the realms of magic and foresight. That foresight brought many years of peace to Avior.
The mystery of the door’s origin was never solved.
AVIOR
2
A SHADOW GREW over the land, initially regional, then continental and finally worldwide.
Wrath of the gods, priests declaimed.
Continental shift, geologists murmured.
Pole shift, climate palaeontologists shouted louder.
Wages of sin, ordinary folk whispered, and started to pray.
Global warming, climatologists warned.
Space warp, scientists explained.
As the shadow intensified and the period of manifestation lengthened, speculation grew ever more bizarre.
In the end it was a host of factors.
For long years Avior knew only benign sunshine and fertility, and when climate and time converged to restore balance to the world, it meant a period of adjustment. Nothing existed in a vacuum, and Avior, in reality, had been doing just that. It was in a kind of stasis for a long time and, although wonderful for its people, it also needed to alter to go on functioning.
It was thus a natural phenomenon and with time it was studied, understood and explained, and with more time the shadow eventually made way for the sun and life returned to normal.
For those conversant in the realms of magic, however, it was a mighty revelation.
It changed everything.
They understood, as others had before in other places and would in the future, that opposites ruled. Opposites were the scale. Balance. Light and dark, cold and hot, suffering and joy, good and evil, benign and volatile, sacred and profane, and on the list went. For everything there was an opposite. Without those opposites there was little choice, less understanding, and there was no balance. One needed the one to recognise the other.
The shadow over the land thus led to enlightenment … and that, too, was an opposite.
In the enclaves of magic users a period of trance ensued. It was co-ordinated and lengthy, and it, too, changed everything.
AVIOR
3
IN SECRET SORCERERS converged on the mountain enclave hidden in Lossaria’s mighty eastern ranges. From the outside it was no more than a sliver of shadow in the face of the mountain, seemingly inaccessible, but there was a hidden path and once inside all pretence vanished.
This was a place for secrets, for magic, and also for comfort. Caverns reached far into the mountain and were hung with tapestries; rugs on the floors and the furnishings would be the envy of royalty. The presence of this comfort was further proof that magic was great - none of it had been transported there, for the journeys would have been marked; all was created on site.
On this day, after months of concerted trance, the leading sorcerers met to discuss their findings. It was not recorded and thus no names have remained to flesh out history, but this is what was said there …
THERE WERE FOURTEEN.
One: “Until now we’ve assumed magic is generic. One way for all. That is not true. In magic also there exist opposites. Two paths; one in the Light and one in the Dark. This scared me; for the question I asked myself was which path do we follow? Imagine we are wrong in all that we do? But it soon occurred to me that if we can ask that question, we walk in the Light. I believe the Dark wouldn’t care.”
Two: “I have to add that magic in its initial stage of learning is generic. In other words, whatever the path of the future, we all start at the same point and learn the same techniques and training spells. However, there is a point of decision also, a time when the acolyte chooses one path and continues in that vein into mastery.”
Three: “I agree. And once on the path, your future is set. If you choose to walk the dark road, you have chosen evil without recourse to backtracking.”
Four: “That would depend on the sorcerer. I’m not saying one can go out and do bad things and then suddenly decide, hey, I think I’ll try the other path now, and backtrack to the point of decision. No, I agree there is no recourse to backtracking, but I also believe with sincere regret and atonement one can reverse the path. It takes might and will, probably, but no one can be that eternally damned.”
Five: “Then again, would evil even care? Still, we see your point. Damnation, too, must contain an opposite, after all. I have a question for you, learned friends - what happens when light meets dark? In the sorcerical realm that could be construed as a clash or confrontation between good and evil, and somewhere along the way a winner is declared, either or. But look closely at actual light and dark meeting. The sun shines upon a wall, low on the horizon and one side of the wall is lit, the other should thus be in darkness …’
Six: “Light is more than the rays of the sun. The wall isn’t completely dark on the other side, because there’s surrounding lightness.’
Seven: ‘Wait, there’s something in what he says. One can put it the other way. In a darkened chamber, like this one, a light shines on an object, such as the candle upon the statue there. One side is light, the other dark … and where they meet - see there the flicker on the surface of the table? There is shadow. The wall in sunlight has shadow on the other side. The point here is … shadow. Where light meets dark and vice versa, there is always shadow.”
Eight: “You suggest there is shadow in the realm of magic also? I agree. I have seen it in trance. I have seen men walk in the Light, doing great and wonderful deeds that resound across the universe for all to hear, and I have seen men walk in the Dark and visit foul acts upon innocents, the kind that sends whole worlds cowering into hiding. This has happened in the past, happens right now and will again many times in the future. But between these two persuasions there is another space, a place of shad
ow where Light and Dark meet. It is a terrible place, for it is hard to be one soul in a place like that.”
Nine: “I have not seen that, and yet it resonates. Someone who can walk there can walk both paths. Such a person must have a dual nature … and that would be a very dangerous man or woman. God help us if ever we find one such as that in our ranks. Where does one draw the line? Where is the point of decision? How does one reason and stay whole and sane? Such a one must carry great anger, I think - on the one hand compassionate and on the other … not. How often would choice conflict?”
Ten: “Therefore the space between. There is the place of wholeness, the point of decision, the realm of regret and atonement, with a view to both paths. A place to resolve conflict before it erupts into reality. One who is both Light and Dark, a dual nature, such a one still has light to throw shadows in the dark, and thus is never truly evil. He or she functions there.”
Eleven: “A shadowland. Has anyone else here seen it? Four of my acolytes have told me of this mysterious place where one can move in either direction. One called it the Shadowland.”
Twelve: “My closest adept calls it the Path of Shadows. I think it is time he is raised to master. He asked me whether it could be accessed, and I told him I think one must be of the duality to enter safely and exit without harm, and none of us have that. He then asked if a door can be manufactured, for he says the door with the fourteen markings is a door to another place. We could access the Path of Shadows if we created another door for that particular purpose.’
Rainbows and Portals Page 14
