The Keys to Ascension

by Dilland Doe

  The knight’s face went straight. “No. We’re escorting you. Commander’s orders. Don’t worry, our horses can travel just as long of hours as yours. Just wait a tic for me to put ma armor on.”

  Theto squeezed his reins, staring at his uncle in case he gave the signal to run for it. How many villages will we pass with these guys? What if they get word we’re wanted for maleefence?

  #

  Hibb and Theto, escorted by the two Crusanadon knights, made their way south along the path, passing a few more training camps. The setting sun just barely showed a bit of light.

  Theto nodded off a few times on his horse, his mind drifting into dreams of normalcy—of him at home with his brothers and dad, living life like normal boys…not a maleefa family. He looked up at his uncle. Why haven’t we stopped yet?

  Hibb pulled off the path. “Let’s set up camp here.”

  A knight shook his head. “Naaa, there’ll be another training camp up ahead, we can sleep in their tents.

  Hibb’s horse kept walking off to the side. “Naa, my tents will do just fine. I’ll let you guys use one.” He patted big, rolled up tents on the side of his horse.

  Jerking his head forward, the knight said, “Where did those come from?”

  Hibb laughed. “They were here the whole time, my man. We all need some sleep.”

  Theto squeezed his reigns. Can these knights really sleep in illusionary tents? What is Hibb doing?

  The four of them rode away from the road, then hopped off their horses. The knights approached Hibb, who said, “Hey, why don’t you two go get some firewood while my nephew and I set up these tents?”

  The knights glanced around, then glanced at each other before staring at Hibb. “There aren’t any trees around here.”

  Hibberro scratched his head. “Uuuuuhhh, riiiiiight. Yes, of course. I guess we don’t need a fire. But we do need water. Can you guys go get us some?”

  My uncle’s an idiot.

  The lead knight stepped toward him. “Why are you trying to slip us? You said you have nothing to hide.”

  Hibberro released a brief, high-pitched scream, piercing everyone’s ears.

  He flashed his hands in front of him, then made a whistle-like noise while twisting his fingers toward each other, almost as if he twisted off a cap with two hands. The knights yelled, then yanked out their swords. Hibb and Theto backed away, pulling their horses with them.

  “What have you done to us, maleefa!?” They swung their swords through the air, hitting no one.

  Hibb jumped on his horse and it took off. Theto leapt onto his and galloped after his uncle. They headed south—not back toward the road.

  Theto yelled, “Was that all part of a plan?”

  Riding the sprinting horse, Hibb said, “Of course!”

  “Really?”

  “No. But at least we can escape into the night.”

  “How long will your spell last?”

  “I can only maintain the blind and deaf spell at a few hundred yards.”

  They galloped south and further away from the road until eventually slowing to a walk, not seeing any sign of the knights.

  Theto stared at his uncle’s fat head. “Where are we supposed to sleep? And eat? I’m hungry. We ate all our corn before it went bad.”

  Hibb scanned the dark land around them like that would reveal some answers. “Well, we can always sleep on the ground. And uuuuh, food. We still got some water, and can fill up at the river crossing into Utopia. Food, yes, food. Well, once we make it to Utopia, we can buy food again. The inquisition doesn’t have much of a presence there. Let’s just ride hard, sleep a few hours a day on the ground, and soon we’ll be out of this crazy land.”

  Theto sighed. “Alright.”

  They rode in silence for a few minutes. “I don’t think this land is crazy,” Theto said. “The entire country is basically a military camp, fighting in the name of The Divinity. That’s pretty awesome. But I don’t see how they believe in The Divinity without also accepting The Authority and The Sovereign. How can they ignore the Scripture of Order?”

  “They use a few lines in the Scripture of Justice to argue that when one devotes their full life to warfare in the name of The Divinity, one can act outside The Authority’s control. They believe serving The Divinity isn’t about living by his laws on this planet, but the next one. In this one, they smite his enemies or die trying.”

  Theto exhaled. “Can that be right?”

  Chuckling, Hibb said, “The Authority’s priests don’t think so. But they tolerate it. The Crusanadonians keep the northern eastern empire at bay, and serve as an early detection if those Grrrs try anything.”

  Admiration flowed through Theto. “Man, Crusanadonians are awesome. I hope they don’t catch us.”

  “I won’t let them, Theto. I will be slowly tortured to death and die before allowing harm to come to you. I promised Themeno this, and I won’t fail.”

  Theto didn’t know how to react. He didn’t really feel like his uncle owed him this. It’s not like it was his fault The Authority arrested Theto’s dad. Theto thought on his dad for a moment, then said, “Uncle, was my dad really a wizard?”

  “Do you believe I’m a wizard?”

  “Yes, I’ve seen it.”

  “So was your father.”

  “I don’t know magic. It’s not fair that I’m persecuted for what my family did.”

  “You don’t know it, but you could. I feel your sensitivities. They are weak because you’re unpracticed, but they are there. You can work with high beings too. And you will. If you’re guilty by association, you might as well learn.”

  A part of Theto screamed, ‘Maleefa!’, but another piece of him pumped with excitement, thinking of throwing fireballs and flying through the air while hypnotizing young maidens. It was like a whole new world. Guilt clouded his mind. “No, Uncle. I couldn’t betray The Divinity like that.”

  “Well,” Hibb said, “I’m not teaching you until we get out of Crusanadon anyways. So think on it.”

  Ch. 20

  The two giant turtles crawled out of the water before the mounts rumbled, shaking Theto left to right while he rose higher in the air and ahead of him grew the mane of a horse.

  Hibb smiled toward Theto. “Utopia. We can head back to a main road now. Magic is allowed here, but they’re wary of outsiders. Just don’t say anything about their society or government and you’ll be fine.”

  As the sun set, they made their way into a town, looking for an inn. A gathering of young men and women wearing different colored robes stood around a middle-aged man on a pedestal. Hibb and Theto stopped in front of the scene.

  “Watch my horse,” Hibberro said, “I’ll check the rates for this inn.” They both dismounted. Hibb walked into an inn while Theto grabbed the reins of the two horses with one hand and watched the little ceremony.

  The older man spoke. “Congratulations. You have all passed written exams and can train to serve society as wizards of Utopia.” He clapped, so did the students.

  “Based on your essays, interviews, and test scores, the Department of Wizarding will now assign you a high being and a communicator.”

  Theto’s eyes went big.

  Men from behind the leader brought forward cages of different animals.

  Voices came from the cages.

  “I hope this wizard is better than my last one. He was incompetent and arrogant.”

  “A new wizard’s always fun.”

  “Did you guys hear about what Rolon did? I didn’t know he was capable of such a thing.”

  Theto shook his head to make sure he was truly hearing speech from the caged creatures. Like Hibb’s communicators.

  The man announced students’ names, and told them of the high being they would work with and the communicator they could speak through.

  “Theto.” Theto turned to see Hibb standing at the inn’s entrance. His uncle nodded his head to the side. “Go around back and stable the horses. I’ll order us some food
. There’s nice music and attractive waitresses; this is a good stop.” He held out his arm, and CAA! flew to him. The owl wrapped its talons around and into Hibb’s arm as his eyes went large with pain. “Theto! That shoulder-hide I got a few towns back.”

  Theto searched through the bags on the side of his uncle’s horse. He found the leather matt and tossed it to Hibb, who placed it on his shoulder.

  He focused on the owl. “CAA!, on the shoulder. C’mon!” He nodded his head toward the matt. The owl stared at him as blood ran down his arm. Hibb grabbed the creature’s legs and pulled upward. It refused to let go while fluttering its wings, blasting feathers in and out of Hibb’s mouth.

  Hibb spit. “C’moooon!”

  The owl let go, and hopped to the padded shoulder.

  Theto sighed in relief. We weren’t supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves. He went to stable the horses.

  When Theto returned and entered the inn, Hibb waved him to the bar. A chicken steamed next to an empty seat. Oh, The Divinity, that looks good. He ripped some meat off with his mouth. “Ahh!” He spit it out. “Hot!”

  Hibb laughed. “Drink a little and wait for it to cool.”

  Theto did so.

  “I remember when we were boys,” Hibb said, “your father and I got lost in south Hyzantria when we ran away for fun. We took a few wrong turns and couldn’t find our way back for days. I accidentally dropped all our coins in a small lake we rowed across, so we were starving.” Hibb took a swig of his drink. “Themeno, who was athletic just like his sons, snuck up on a wild turkey before dashing after it and breaking its neck. We cooked it over a fire. Yeah, that was a good time.”

  Theto smiled. “That sounds like an adventure. What made you think to tell me about it now?”

  Hibb’s eyes rolled to the sky. “Uuuuuuuh. Oh, yeah. When we finished cooking the turkey, we were so hungry that we both burned our mouths! Ha ha!”

  Theto carefully tore off a little chicken and ate it. “Man, Uncle. My dad was smart. I was his son and I had no idea he was a wizard. How could the inquisition have known? Someone must have betrayed him.”

  Hibb took a big gulp of his drink.

  Theto rubbed his chin and scanned the wooden bar in front of him. “Maybe the count? I never trusted that guy. He wasn’t a good person like his son.”

  Hibb ate some of his chicken.

  “Uncle. Can I ask you an important question?”

  Hibb took another big swig of his drink before turning to Theto. “Yeah, sure. What’s up?” He smiled awkwardly.

  My uncle’s so weird. “Was my mother exiled for magic? Were both my parents really maleefa?”

  A big smile came over Hibb’s face before it flashed serious. “I don’t call them that. But yes, like me, and soon you, they worked with high beings to use their power in this world.”

  “Mom was exiled east; we should look for her!”

  “She’s far east, Theto. Not in these buffer states. The eastern empires are way too dangerous. And those lands are vast. We’d never find her.”

  They ate in silence. Hibb ordered them another drink.

  Theto thought about the ceremony outside. “I thought people got to choose their high beings. They were being assigned outside.”

  “Come on, Theto,” Hibb said, “I know they taught you this in school. This is Utopia.” Hibb stared at his nephew for a moment.

  Theto tried to find associations in his mind for Utopia. He remembered it was strange and only could exist because it stood between rival empires. “I remember. All jobs are assigned by the government—”

  “The People. They say, ‘The People’ here. And yes, just like jobs, high beings are assigned by The People. In other countries, wizards negotiate with high beings to work together, but here, The People’s representatives negotiate with the high beings and then assign them to a wizard.”

  Theto scrunched his face. “Yeah, well, most people don’t get to make those decisions. The actual persons deciding are those in the government. There really isn’t a lot of freedom here. Not even nobles can choose their jobs? I understand the peasants, but not the nobles?”

  Hibb narrowed his eyes. “Shhh. There are no nobles here. Only The People. Stop talking about the society.”

  “Okay, but it just seems like it’s all built on a house of lies.”

  The bartender, a pretty girl with big blonde hair, stared at him like he had feces on his face. Theto noticed that a man sitting next to him also stared with his mouth open and a sandwich frozen halfway to it.

  Hibb gulped down the rest of his drink and put coins on the bar. He leaned toward Theto, whispering, “You can’t speak ill of the society here. There aren’t nobles who are free to speak their mind about politics. You could get us hanged. Let’s go to bed. People are already onto us.”

  #

  Theto stroked his horse’s neck a few times before looking toward his uncle. The morning travels had been uneventful, and now in the early afternoon, Theto was bored of doing nothing but staring at roads and farmland. He wanted to do something fun! Like play sedeux. Sedeux with his brothers…

  On horseback, Hibberro twisted around to look at his owl. He twinkled his fingers in front of the creature. It slept, perched on some supplies at the end of the horse. Hibb turned toward Theto. “Hey. Stretch, or pretend like you’re grabbing something behind you. Look at the man on horseback off in the distance; just barely in sight range.”

  Reaching into a saddlebag, Theto looked into it with such an angle that he could see the figure in the distance. Theto pulled out a back-up canteen, took a sip of water, then put it back. He looked forward as he spoke. “I saw him.”

  “He’s been tailing us all morning,” Hibb said, “He’s probably a wizard using the high being Teelhol. This high being can easily enhance eyesight, hearing, and voice. He’s listening to every word we say. If he decides to arrest us, he can yell super loud to alert five to one-hundred guards following behind him. For us, probably just five.”

  “If he can hear what we’re saying,” Theto said, “then why did we pretend to not be looking at him? He already knows we see him because we’re talking about him.”

  Scratching the top of his head, Hibb said, “Uuuuuuuh. I didn’t think about that.”

  Theto swayed slightly as the horse walked underneath him. “Does he follow because of what I said?”

  “Yeah. But I’ve been tailed before. Just keep your mouth shut about Utopia’s system and they’ll let us pass through their land.”

  Theto didn’t like being followed. He felt restrained…unfree. Back in Hyzantria, him and other noble children did whatever they liked on their land. Other than school and some lessons from their fathers’ men, their time and energy was their own. Now, running from his father’s crimes, Theto was forced to walk in a straight line. A straight line out of Utopia!

  “Welp.” Hibb said, “Magic is completely accepted here. Let’s not think about all the danger we’re in. Let’s think about magic!” He jerked his fist in front of his face and made an open-mouth smile.

  “Uuuuuuh. Okay, Uncle. Sure.”

  “Now, I’m working with Akrah and—”

  “Yeah, what now?” The voice emanated from the sleeping owl.

  Hibb turned toward the bird. “Oh, nothing. I used your name, but wasn’t trying to talk to you.”

  “Oh, okay. Good. I’m busy anyways.”

  Hibberro turned forward. “Ummmmm, yeah. Him and Leo. It’s really hard to work with a high being when you can’t communicate with them, so eventually we’ll get you a communicator in Blastonin. But we can start your basic training now.”

  Theto blinked a few times. “Okay.”

  “Okay, Theto. You’ve never paid attention to it before, but you were born a wizard. You can sense the open connection within you. And, you can detect them in other wizards.”

  “Wait. Is a wizard someone born with the power to use magic, or someone trained to use that power?”

  “Uuuuuuh.” Hibb scr
atched the side of his head right where the hair met the baldness. “I, uuuuh. Don’t know. The terminology isn’t real settled here.”

  The horses went along a bend in the road.

  “Okay,” Hibb said, “relax. Close your eyes. Sense out the connections within yourself, and within me.”

  Theto closed his eyes. He searched for something unworldly. Something magical. Some connection to a mysterious high being. He mentally scanned his body. He may have sensed something, but just wasn’t sure. He thought of his uncle and tried to sense his essence where he sat.

  Theto’s eyes flashed open. Hibb seemed connected to great energies through invisible tubes. His spirit was somehow linked to other planes of existence. Theto couldn’t tell how he knew this…he just sensed it. “Uncle, I feel your magic.”

  “Yes. You can do this for almost anyone who is sensitive to high beings, but many sensitive people have no idea they could be wizards.”

  Exhaling, Theto said, “Wow.” He turned his head to the side for a moment, then looked at his uncle. “But doesn’t The Divinity consider this sinful? Shouldn’t we only rely on his power?”

  Hibb shrugged. “I don’t know. The Divinity seems cool with using horses and swords to enhance our power. Why not magic?”

  Because it’s infidelic…Why?

  On their right, a handful of peasants worked fields next to the road. Theto watched them chop bushels of wheat with long sickles.

  In Hyzantria, people work their butts off for lords just like people here. But at least here the people own everything. Not just nobles like me…and bad nobles like Lizeto’s dad. He watched their sweat-moistened, straight faces as they swung again and again before throwing the chopped plants onto a cart.

  Still watching, Theto said, “Man, they don’t seem to work any harder or be any happier than in Hyzantria. I’d think owning land just like the nobles would make them happy.”

  Hibb glanced at the horseman tailing them in the distance. “Uuuuuh. Well, these workers don’t really own the land. I mean, in theory they do. But all the profits go to someone else just like in Hyzantria.”