New Cali

by Erik Schubach

  I missed singing, I used to have a good singing voice at one time, but life happens and here we are. I had a great time and could almost forget the dire predicament we were in.

  Donovan whispered to me when we mounted up again, “There are eyes upon us.” He had the same knack for knowing when someone was watching that Celeste had. I often wondered if that intuition had to do with Altii magics.

  I nodded. “Jezelle.”

  “But you told her...”

  “She ignored the decree. She takes her job far too seriously. I have felt her magic trailing us by about a quarter mile since we left.”

  He arced a brow. “You can feel her magic?”

  I nodded. “And taste her emotions through it if they are strong.”

  My mentor in using my Adept magic nodded appreciatively. “Your skills are expanding. Usually that sort of growth stops around your mid twenties but yours continue to impress, Laney.”

  My cheeks burned and I looked away to the path as we headed out again.

  He prompted, “Is she...”

  “Alone? As in, did my children get impulsive and decide to run off after me again too? No. Misty's magic burns as bright as Father Sol. And I don't think my other guard followed, but as they have no magic, I can't be sure. But they know I was right that our people need to be defended. Though Sara is worth any five knights.”

  I kept spotting different plants as we traveled, noting hints of purples and oranges in the leaves. Em explained as if she were giving one of her lessons to me, “The plants have adapted to the higher temperatures here, and they have become more drought resistant and the colors, it is said, help to conserve energy and moisture during the day.”

  “I wonder if I could negotiate samples of some for the Great Mother's garden.”

  An hour or so after Father Sol hid back behind the gap in the mountains, we came out on a low rise and I caught my breath. As far as my eye could see, a shimmering lake stretch out to the horizons. It had to be at least three miles to the horizon from where we sat.

  Emily said with reverence, “Behold, the Cradle.” She waited for her husband and I to take it in, a cute smirk on her face, before she shared, “It stretches ten miles by six miles, shaped like a reclined crescent, a cradle. It is nothing like the Great Sea, but the Cradle is the largest lake in all the known lands beside it. It is the cradle of life that keeps New Cali alive.”

  Wow. I had no words. I was just in awe of it as I was the first time I laid eyes on the Great Sea in Solomon. Sure this lake was not hundreds of miles long, but it filled the horizon making you feel as if it went on forever like the old scrolls in the library that depict great oceans covering most of the Earth before the Great Impact.

  My smirky mother in law started forward again and we all followed. I called after her, “No need to get smug, woman.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “Begging doesn't become you.”

  Gael asked Donovan, “Are all women from your land like this?”

  The Prime Techromancer did not rise to his lofty station by making obvious mistakes. He wisely didn't answer the query and Em and I shared a grin.

  The sky was painted in brilliant reds and oranges as Father Sol began to set somewhere behind that imposing wall of granite by the time we got to the shore of the lake and traveled along its bank for a stretch, circling west.

  By now, Donovan had unburdened himself of his robes, and wore only his trousers and a tunic he had torn the arms from. I was actually surprised. Beneath his ever present robes which denoted his station, was a well muscled man in his late fifties. I realized that I had never seen him without his robes in all these years.

  Slightly on the gaunt side, from always forgetting to eat as he got lost in his studies, it pulled his skin tight across an impressive physique. I had seen paintings of the royal court, and when he was younger, he looked so much like his son, Michael. But with his height, he was always to the back of the court paintings behind the others. He must have turned heads in his youth. No doubt he had turned our dear Emily's head back in the day.

  I wondered if he somehow made time to work out to maintain the musculature that would soften with age and lack of use from sitting behind a desk all day. I realized that there was still so much I didn't know of Celeste's family... my family. I'd have make time to rectify that when we got back home.

  He noted my attention on him as he sweated in the heat. “Not all of us have the same favor with the Mountain Gypsies to afford such opulence as a spelled cloak, little one.”

  I crinkled my nose at him then pulled the hood up and sighed in relief as my face cooled.

  He told Em, “She's absolutely unapologetic about it.”

  Emily smiled and placed a hand on his bare arm. “I think the evenings here are quite pleasant, you old blowhard.” Then she sighed and said, “Though most of my life spent in Sparo, I do find the days a bit harsh here now, but I will reacclimate. I thought Sparo to be a frigid torture when I first arrived. Imagine my shock visiting Avalon for the first time. It had me longing for the comfort of Sparo.”

  Gael asked as he squinted like he was trying to focus on me, “Spelled cloak?”

  I pulled my hood back down since my point was made then I pulled off a gauntlet and offered it to the man. He struggled to get his larger hand into it but then his brows rose to his hairline. “It's cool inside.”

  I nodded as I accepted it back. “The People... Mountain Gypsies like the Cristea, have spelled my clothing with their magics, laying charms upon them for all manner of things. From luck, and toughness, to maintaining a comfortable temperature for me no matter the environment, hot or cold.”

  He looked afraid. “So they truly are witches as the Prime says?”

  Before I could answer I held a hand up. We all stopped and I cocked my head to listen. It was a little depressing to know my skills as a warrior had been honing over the years. A couple seconds later I looked at a rise in front of us and three female mounted riders in brilliant silver capes trotted up into view.

  They regarded us a moment then lowered pikes that looked too polished, and too... ceremonial? Like they were polished and crafted to look elegant like their flowing capes and silvered helmets with winged masks. I realized they looked to be designed to invoke the visage of Valkyrie from the old Norse Mythology tomes Emily had lent me when I was studying cultures that predated the Great Wizards.

  Their eyes glowed dimly with that same bluish silver that Emily's did when she was leaking power. My own misty white magics, tainted with amber rose to meet theirs. I could feel and almost smell the steel and water of Donovan's leaking for a moment before being tightly shut away again. I shut down as much of my own as I could as the riders approached, pikes leveled toward us.

  We all slowly dismounted as they approached. Gael was prostrating himself on the ground, not looking up at them as he babbled out, “Seekers. I have brought strangers from another land who are in need of the Sect's aid. And with them is...”

  As the women circled us, weapons at the ready, one of the women dropped the tip of her pike toward the ground, then pulled her helmet up. She was a middle aged woman with brunette hair that touched her shoulders, the glow left her eyes to be replaced with dark brown eyes wide in disbelief as she asked, “Primer buscador de la verdad, Emilathia?”

  Emily's eyes widened in excitement and glee as she responded, “Si! ¿Podemos hablar en Inglés para que entiendan mis amigos?”

  Then she prompted, “Camille? Is that you? You got old.”

  The woman slid the pike into loops on her saddle and slid off her mount, still gaping in disbelief as she repeated, “Emilathia?” Then she smirked and said, “Well it has been what? Forty years now? We feared you dead... and look at you, you don't look a day older. You were always the most powerful of the Sect.”

  They embraced in the hug of comrades long separated. Then Camille made a lowering motion with her hands as she looked at the others. �
�Lower your weapons. She is one of us. This is Emilathia Brightseeker, First Knowledge Seeker of the Sect.”

  Then she brightened as the other two hesitantly lowered their weapons while she studied my garb and my magics spilling off of me. “And she comes bearing witch heretic prisoners from the Cristea.”

  Emily said quickly, “No, they are not prisoners nor heretics. They are from the lands of Sparo where I was sent to gather knowledge. This is Donovan, my husband. And my daughter in law, and leader of the Mountain Gypsies of Sparo, Great Mother Laney.”

  She must have been reading the room well as her eyes seemed to take in all of their postures. “I enlisted the help of this farmer against his better judgment to help our people and guide us here to meet the patrol. We beseech the help and protection of the Sect, as we have an enemy at our backs.”

  The other two looked to Camille, indicating she was the ranking person in their group, and she kept studying me, then said, “Of course, Emily. We will bring you to the Prime, Eris, immediately.” Then she addressed me as she eyed Anadele on my hip, the only weapon I had brought, the rest were safe with Sara back at the farm, “But you must surrender your weapon.”

  I stiffened and shook my head as Emily explained, “In her culture she is known as a Femeie de Sabie... a woman of the sword. And it is considered an insult for her to be without her blade, and even more of an insult to you if she removed it.”

  She looked on guard. “So she is a Cristea!” The other two brought their pikes up again.

  Em put up a stalling hand. “No, well yes... it is complicated. She rules over the entirety of the Mountain Gypsies back in Sparo, including the Cristea band. But the Cristea of New Cali were thought lost to time centuries ago. It is a whole different culture.”

  The woman's eye flared and she looked at me and said, “But you want to surrender your weapon to me, do you not?” I felt her magic trying to invade my mind, and for a moment I thought it just silly to not hand over Anadele. Wait. I pushed back, consuming the invasive magic and she staggered back, wincing in pain and looking shocked.

  That was almost frightening how her suggestion had made so much sense before I realized I was being coerced. I would have to be on my guard from this moment on.

  Emily looked almost prideful as she said, “Laney is something you'll not have ever come up against and I suggest you not try that again, Camille. Please just bring us to see the Prime and all can be explained.”

  She smiled almost dreamily like the others at the mention of the Prime. “Yes of course, Eris will be pleased that you have returned to us.” She said it almost like a lap dog expecting praise from their master. It was unnerving and looked to run almost counter to the woman's more outgoing personality when she greeted Em.

  Then she said as she glowered at me, “You mentioned more people?”

  It wouldn't do to lie, especially if another patrol stumbled upon our people, and Emily nodded. “Our group is at Gael's farm.” She indicated the man still prostrating himself to the women in silver keeping his eyes from them at all times. Was that how they ensnared and enthralled? Their eyes? He seemed to know something.

  Camille, made a quick motion with her eyes, and one rider galloped back they way they came. She made another and the third woman said, “On your feet. You'll bring me to your farm.”

  He nodded, as he stood, eyes down. “Of course Seeker. We are loyal. These three will tell you.”

  It seemed important they believed him, he was afraid. So I said, “Gael here and his family are very loyal to the Prime. They are a credit to your people.” We watched as the rider followed Gael when he mounted and headed back the way we had come as twilight engulfed them.

  Then Camille on impulse, hugged Emily one more time before mounting and saying, “I still can't believe you're home. Please, follow. We can make camp just fifteen minutes down the shore.”

  We mounted our mules and followed the woman at a leisurely pace as I wondered what this Doctrina would be like. I was disturbed by what I have heard and the odd two sided behavior of this Seeker, but she seemed a nice enough woman and she and Em obviously had a history together.

  Chapter 12 – Doctrina

  It turns out, Camille and Emily grew up together in the Sect, where they were brought into it when they had exhibited early signs of having the mind glow. Camille was in the low fifties while Emily shot up the ranks to First Seeker.

  The woman has risen to the mid thirties in ranking now. Since between Emily going missing, Eris' purge and the war, they had lost over twenty Seekers and a couple hundred Disciples. Which she says, is why they must hunt down the heretics, witches, and non believers so that they might serve as a deterrent to others or so they can gaze upon the Prime, and know her love.

  Donovan and I exchanged worried glances, it seemed as if this Eris had an unnatural control over those like Camille who seemed a perfectly reasonable sort except where Eris' will was concerned. The looks Emily gave us when her friend was not looking told us she felt the same but kept asking questions to see what had happened while she was gone and to see the extent of this unnatural obsession with their leader.

  I could feel her anger through the cracks in her control of her magics. I understood, if it were one of my childhood friends I felt was being controlled or manipulated I would be incensed.

  It was a restless night and I barely slept as I looked out onto the light from the moons and the debris ring around the Earth reflecting in the ripples in the lake. My mind was on Celeste, and my daughters, and what we might find when we reached Doctrina. Anything to stop from dwelling on the missing parts of my heart where my friends had been.

  I swore to myself that one day, Aelwen would pay for all the pain and suffering she caused to all the families of those dead by her hands and those who willingly assist her in her ambitions of rising to power. And I knew when that day came, might be the day I surrender to the corrupted portion of my soul that craved the darkness seeping into my magic when my rage ruled my head and my heart.

  To be truthful, I feared that one day that portion of me would win and I would be just like her, and that terrified me.

  I barely caught the soft bird call just before Father Sol rose behind the New Sierra Upheaval, waking this shadowed land. I shook my head once. Yes Jezelle, I know you are there and watching, against my express orders. I just hoped she didn't get seen or caught, it would undermine any attempts at good will we were trying to engender. We just needed to stay safe for a month then we could return to Sparo, away from this land.

  To be fair, I knew it wouldn't be that simple, as I know I can't ignore the plight of the New Calians, but at the same time I didn't know how we could help without interfering with New Cali's governance. I know this would be hotly debated as we tried to set up diplomatic channels.

  Camille asked as we mounted up after having a light meal of jerky and dried berries Gael and Maria had supplied us, “Are you some sort of specter or wraith who watches over Emilathia? I cannot track you with my eyes and see multiples of you when you move.”

  I gave her a smile without answering and said, “Boogety boogity,” and wiggled my brows. She smiled at my teasing.

  Donovan changed the subject. “Camille, why did you think our dear Laney here was a Cristea? Gael had shared that the Cristea had been banished into the uninhab... umm... the Lifeless Expanse to die.”

  She almost growled, “They are like bedbugs, the Cristea, and somehow thrive out in the wasteland. They send in raiding parties or preach heresy to our people. We send Disciples out in to the Lifeless Expanse to find and eradicate them, but those we send never return.”

  The Cristea still lived? They were the most resilient band, surviving against all odds not just once but yet again. My heart swelled in pride for them. I wondered if one day we could locate them and reunite them with their brethren in the Westlands. Maybe since they still retained magic here, they could reintroduce it to their long separated family in New Home.


  Then that anger swung to sorrow, making me feel almost as though she were two separate people as she said, “They were our friends. I do not know how they could betray us so, but they preach against Eris Prime's rise to godhood, so that makes them the enemy of truth does it not?”

  We stayed grimly silent, not daring to speak on the subject lest we be branded heretics too. I pulled my hood up so my face was obscured so she couldn't read my expression. Celeste... and my family... the knights... well and everyone else says that I wear my emotions on my sleeve. On display for everyone to see.

  I asked the two New Calians, to get off the subject again, “I've seen nothing but farm houses and trapper huts along the road. Why does New Cali have but one town? There is plenty of land we have traveled through already.”

  They looked at each other then Emily offered, “After the Great Impact, the few surviving humans all gathered together at the Place of Learning, where the structures were the least damaged, and where they could protect each other. The Cradle was still forming and the Upheaval still burned with molten rock.”

  Camille said, “Food was scarce and the wildlife all fought for it, the larger predators, like the bobcats, coyotes, bear, and cougars ran rampant, killing whatever they could to survive, and the projectile weapons of those who came before us ran out of ammunition quickly. So the people built a wall around the Place of Learning. Finding that there was safety in numbers.”

  I had pulled up to their sides, fascinated with the way they told the story as if they were reading it from a tome or scroll. Then I realized they were, since they remembered everything they read or heard, as Emily took up the narrative again. “The people used the old knowledge to build gardens that required no soil, and to make power to light the night sky to keep the predators away. As the people adapted to the new world around us and numbers swelled, they built a settlement around the Place of Learning.”

  The other Seeker nodded and offered, “They built weapons to keep the predators away and built farms and livestock pens outside the village to feed the growing population. They called the settlement Doctrina and our people grew strong, but we never forgot the old ways, that safety was in numbers.”