A Warrior's Redemption

by Guy S. Stanton III

  Chapter Eleven

  The Past?

  Roric

  Rolf followed me down the main street of the village of Thunder Ridge Castle. The village itself was called Ta’arny and I had visited it often since my arrival at the castle. It was like walking through a part of living history, a history that was now mine. The town’s people left me alone for the most part after acknowledging my presence with a warm welcome of good morning, which I returned in kind. They knew where I was headed.

  I was headed to the chapel, which was the center of every Valley Lander town. The building wasn’t pretentious, but it was beautiful. It was made out of cut stones that had come from the original chapel. It had been burned down four times over the years. As it was being rebuilt, as much of the original building was incorporated as possible which created an eclectic appearance. Flowering vines twirled their ways up the rough stone sides of the chapel, gracing it with their blossoms. The dome of the chapel was of an aged, white plaster veneer and there were words scrolled around the dome that read, ‘Until the Savior comes, we fight on.’ It was a saying that dated back to when all the people of this world had belonged to one tribe, the Vallians.

  I passed under the oaken door lintel into the spacious chapel beyond. There was a sense of peace within the chapel that soothed my soul. Passing through the rows of seating, I went out a side door on the far end of the chapel. Rolf stayed in the chapel. I think he found it soothing as well and usually stayed inside when I came to the chapel garden. The side door had already been open and I stepped into the garden beyond. The morning sun touched my face as did the pleasant aroma of the meditation garden. The garden was enclosed within a courtyard that was located off the chapel building. It contained a central reflecting pool with paths that radiated off it throughout the garden plantings. What interested me most about the garden was not its plantings or its peaceful beauty, but rather what was inscribed all over it. The stones of the pathway, the courtyard walls, and even the boulders situated in the landscape plantings were all artfully inscribed with the fragments of the Holy Scriptures that were still left to us. I had spent hours in this garden going over the fragments of the words of the Creator. It was both exhilarating and frustrating to see so many of the Creator’s words. It was frustrating because there was so much missing. One could get the jist of it, but not the full substance or even the contextual meaning of some of the passages.

  “Frustrating, is it not?”

  Surprised, I turned away from the inscription on a boulder I had been tracing with my finger. It was the head priest of the chapel. He was a rather enigmatic individual. It was hard to read what went on behind his intelligent eyes, but I liked him all the same.

  “Good morning John,” I said.

  The priest smiled and said, “Good morning to you too, Master Ta’lont. Sorry to break your meditation of the scriptures, but I could not but help notice the troubled look on your face. I guessed that it had to do with the fragmentation of the scriptures left to us.”

  “You are right of course. Do you think we will ever know all that has been said by our Creator?”

  “Indeed I do, but what is most important is that, until that day comes, we keep saying and believing in what we do have.”

  Nodding my head in agreement I added, “It’s hard to inspire others when blind faith is needed to believe as we do though.”

  “And yet we believe. Why is that Roric?”

  “I suppose because I know that the Creator is real.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because He has made Himself real to me in my life and the situations I have faced. There is no reason left to doubt that He isn’t real. I just wish I could know more of Him than what is left to us,” I said, gesturing around me at the fragmented inscriptions scattered throughout the garden.

  “I have wished much the same all of my days here in the Valley Lands,” John reflected.

  “You are not of Valley Lander heritage?” I asked, somewhat surprised.

  “No, I was not born here. You might say your grandfather picked me up on an excursion of his into the Attorgron Forests.”

  “Picked you up?” I asked leadingly.

  “Yes, my parents were killed and I had no place to go. Your grandfather raised me as if I was a son, along with your father. I am very grateful to him.”

  “What was my grandfather doing in the Attorgron Forests?” I asked, still perplexed by this out of place revelation about my grandfather.

  John looked at me speculatively before he answered.

  “That would be a matter for your grandfather to divulge and not me. Time is growing short though and your grandfather is too weak to return there. You may get the answers you seek before much more time goes by. That is all I will say.”

  “You and my grandfather share several common characteristics it would seem,” I said, letting my frustration with all the secrecy going on around me show.

  John laughed, but then sobered quickly.

  “It is not easy, what your family has done since our people have come to these lands. They have protected us from secrets that have the capacity to destroy us all. It was one of the reasons your father gave for leaving. Do not be too hard on your grandfather. He has only been doing what he has thought was best for us all. Now, I must be off. I have a wedding to perform in a small community not far from here. Good day to you, Roric.”

  As he left I watched him go, somewhat resentfully. All the peace and tranquility I usually felt when I came to visit the chapel was gone. It was obvious to me that the priest had wanted to arouse my curiosity about what secrets my grandfather held, but why?

  What was his angle in all this? And what had my grandfather been doing in the Attorgron Forest lands during a time of war, when no Valley Lander went farther than the gates of Kingdom Pass? It was time for my grandfather to answer some questions. I strode abruptly back towards the castle.

  My grandfather’s eyebrows arched up slightly when I slammed his study doors closed behind me. I came over to lean on the front of the massive mahogany desk that Thaddeus sat behind. The desk’s surface was a jumble of parchment papers, sketches, books and eclectic artifacts.

  “The secrets about this place and my families’ role in them won’t wait any longer!”

  Thaddeus’s eyebrows rose up further, “What brought about this outburst? I thought I had at least a month or so to prepare for your orientation.”

  “Orientation?” I asked leadingly.

  Thaddeus waved his hand, gesturing my question away, and brought the focus back to his question.

  “This morning at the chapel, the head priest made mention of yet another disturbing occurrence on your part. You were in the Attorgron Forest on some mission during the last war. Why were you there?”

  “I might have known that troublesome priest John was involved!” Thaddeus said testily, closing the book of papers he had been looking through with a huff.

  “He said you raised him as a son, alongside my father?”

  The old man grunted his assent and then added, “The secrets the Ta’lont family protects were tasked to us alone to safeguard and not to outsiders, which has made him increasingly jealous over the years!”

  “Well, I’m a Ta’lont and I want to know what is going on around here.”

  My grandfather met my stare for a moment and then looked down at the desk in front of him and grumbled something unintelligible.

  Looking back up he said, “Alright, orientation starts now!”

  Reaching over to a figurine of a rearing stallion on the corner of his desk, he turned it to the right and immediately there was a snapping noise behind me. I whirled around to see several metal poles rise out of the floor in front of the doors, which blocked the study off from any access from the outside.

  Turning back to Thaddeus I heard him grumble as he got up, “So much for a late breakfast.”

  Thaddeus shuffled stiffly over to a stone wall, grabbing his
cane en route. On the wall between two bookcases was the suite of armor of the house of Ta’lont. Thaddeus touched the different colors in the suite of armor in a seemingly random sequence. As he finished touching the different colors, an area of the wall roughly in the shape of a doorway became translucent. I stepped back in shock and looked at Thaddeus. I had never seen anything such as this occur before. Thaddeus stood looking at me, not offering any answers. Regaining my composure I stepped forward and touched the shimmering doorway.

  Snap!

  “Ouch!”

  I painfully shook my finger hard through the air. My whole body hurt from touching the shimmering curtain, especially my heart.

  I looked at Thaddeus and I saw him smile grimly and say, “Sometimes, just like seeing, feeling is believing. Put your right thumb on the sword of the coat of arms and hold it there for a second.”

  I did so and watched in disbelief as the veil of shimmering light over the doorway disappeared, to be replaced by the entrance of a hallway beyond. Thaddeus stepped into it and I followed him. We moved into the darkness, which was only dark for a moment, as the floor began to illuminate with ambient light, the existence of which I couldn’t have explained if I had bothered to try. As Thaddeus progressed down the long hallway, there was a feeling of falling through space that made me feel slightly queasy. Suddenly, we came to a room at the end of the hall that lit up brilliantly as we entered.

  “This, my boy, is what it’s all about,” Thaddeus said, gesturing around us.

  The walls were lined with books elegantly enclosed behind glass doors. There was one shelf that had only five books displayed on it. There must be something special about those books. I looked at Thaddeus, only to see that he was studying me intently.

  “What are all these books about, especially those?” I said, pointing at the five books displayed by themselves.

  Thaddeus went to a chair and sat down. He gestured towards the only other chair in the room. I sat in the chair and waited for Thaddeus to explain.

  “Now for a history lesson, which doesn’t leave this room! Do I make myself clear?”

  I nodded.

  “It all began a very long time ago, Roric. Before the first settlers arrived here on this world that we call home, they came from another world, and before that they came from the first world called Earth. As a people they became extremely advanced in all areas of science and technology. The people of the first world, to whom the Holy Scriptures of the Creator were first given, began to rebel against God exceedingly. Our ancestors left the first world, Earth, to escape the growing corruption of the people around them. They left and settled on other worlds that the Creator had made. Eventually, after much time had passed, they returned to Earth, fleeing from a war on the other worlds where they had settled. They found the Earth greatly changed. Sometime after they had left, the Creator had destroyed the planet with a worldwide flood and only one family was saved to repopulate the planet. That family had advanced considerably in both numbers of people and technology since the great flood that had decimated the earth, and it was these people our ancestors found when they returned. The Earth was much different from when they had left it and our ancestors decided that it was for the best not to remain on Earth, but instead they left and came here and this is where they stayed. Before they left the Earth the second time, they took with them the one thing of value that they found there, the Holy Scriptures that were inspired by the Spirit of our Creator. Sadly, the integrity of the Holy Scriptures was lost to us in the conflict that arose among our people after they settled on this world. Which is why we are left with just the tattered fragments that managed to survive the civil war that befell our people. As I said, our ancestors were extremely advanced, far and above what we are today, but they came to look at their proficiencies in technology as their greatest downfall. I’m not sure why they came to believe that, but some felt it very strongly while others did not, which is what caused the conflict among our peoples after settling on this world. In the conflict that arose, our forefathers, later to be known as the Valley Landers, were able to seize all the forms of higher technology and subsequently destroyed all traces of the technology. Or so it was said at the time. While it is true that most of the technology was destroyed, some was kept in case there was some need of it in the future. This place is the last repository of our ancestors advanced knowledge and it has been our family’s greatest secret and responsibility ever since then. The responsibility of keeping the secret is now passed on to you as well as the paradox of our ancestors as to what to do with it. All of these books contain the knowledge of the greatness of our ancestors. These books hold many wondrous things Roric, cures to diseases, sciences that would make our lives easier and would allow us to live lives of luxury, advancements to give us victory in battle and so on. The weakness of any great concept of thought or science though, Roric, isn’t the knowledge itself, but it is the way it is used by the individual in control of it. The result can be either good or evil, but it can affect many, if not everyone on that world or even farther out to other worlds. This is why I think our ancestors abandoned their technology. In hopes that forsaking it would lead to a society where a single person’s error of spirit would not lead to the downfall of many by the selfish use of knowledge by one individual or only a few. Like I said, it is a paradox. The one thing that we could really use and that would advance our society is also potentially the worst pitfall of all, if used wrongly. What do you think of all this Roric?”

  “I don’t understand it! We are about to be potentially overrun by a stronger enemy and you’re telling me that we have the power to stop that invasion, but we can’t use it because it could lead to a greater evil! What could be worse than the defeat and enslavement of our own people? These books over here have written on them that they are Holy Scripture. Why is this desperately sought for knowledge being withheld from the people? Are these not holy works of the Creator’s Scripture?”

  Thaddeus paused for a moment before answering, “Partially yes, but they originated after the original body of scripture was irreparably damaged. They contain many fanciful stories and questionable doctrines that do not line up with the original Holy Scriptural fragments that we do still have. Those five books are compilations of what their authors thought the original authors should have written, but didn’t. What truths, if any, that are in them are hopelessly scrambled and beyond usefulness other than to succeed in leading one astray from the truth, even if meant well. Trust me Roric, I have read them. They appear legitimate and believable, but there is something that disturbs my soul and steals my peace as I read them. Is there wisdom to be found within them? I would say yes, but I do not trust the wisdom that they contain, as I do not know the source of it or where it will lead.”

  “If all these books pose such a moral risk to our society as you suggest, why are they still in existence?” I asked.

  “Those five books were all seized from the Zoarinians. It was the basis for their argument to legitimatize their right to power in the early days. It gave them a persuasive argument to inspire their followers, which our faction couldn’t afford at the time. Without the technologies in the other books or the ideologies contained in those five books, they were unable to sway the people of our faction over into their belief structure and so we persevered in our beliefs even though we had but fragments left of it to inspire faith. We believe that these books are one of the primary objectives of the Zoarinians. They wish to capture them in their invasion. Thus, the books offer us a bargaining tool of sorts, at least that is the view of the high council. It is not mine, because if the Zoarinians were to regain any of these works it would give them untold access to redefine this world’s belief structure however they pleased. If it were up to me, I would have destroyed them long ago, but my hands have been tied by the high council. Now the decision rests with you as the next heir of the Ta’lont line. Either use the technology to benefit our society and gain us victory in battle, at the risk
of recreating the mistakes of our past, or do nothing with the knowledge and risk it falling into the hands of the enemy, which would most certainly lead to a bad outcome all around and perhaps even cause implications beyond our world as well. The choice is yours, choose wisely!”

  A long moment passed as I thought about what needed to be done, because something had to be done. “I think its faulty thinking to keep secrets such as these around that could end up destroying our own people, if we were to simply use them for our own benefit; and if the intention is to never use them, why keep them around so that they could be potentially used against us?”

  Thaddeus was looking at me intently, as if his next breath hung on my unspoken words, “So what would your course of action be Roric?”

  “I would destroy this room and all its contents and stop playing this game of hide and seek.”

  Thaddeus’s scrutiny of me did not waver in the slightest, “And what of the council’s demands for the preservation of these works and the possibility of needing some of these secrets to defeat the Zoarinian invasion of our land?”

  “My first duty is to the people and not the well being of the council’s political motivations. Second, I will live and fall in this life according to my own merits and the strength that the Creator endows me with and not rely on dusty secrets of questionable origin to deliver me the victory.”

  Thaddeus smiled and I saw him relax visibly, “Good, that is what I hoped you would say. It relieves me to hear you say what you just did.”

  “What did my father say?” I asked softly.

  A dark look came over Thaddeus’s face for a moment and he didn’t answer right away.

  “Your father agreed with you about the council’s political motivations, as do I, but he thought that the knowledge should be left to the people to decide what they wanted to do with it. I could not condone that. I saw the release of such darkly tainted material to my own people as a recant of my sworn duty to protect them from something I could prevent. So I persisted in hiding the secrets of our past from them. I fear that was also the wrong strategy. I have come to believe in my old age, and by the experiences gained over a lifetime that, if something is of a dark nature, don’t shake hands with it and don’t keep it in the closet. Instead, take it out and burn it and let the ashes fall where they may.”

  Thaddeus rose from his chair, as did I.

  “Congratulations for arriving at the decision that you have, which I believe is the right one. It is regrettable that I did not arrive at the same conclusion a lot faster or this whole crisis could have been averted long ago. Roric, it is not going to be easy to get rid of all of this,” Thaddeus said, gesturing to the room around us.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “None of what you see is real. This room is a technological façade of the original. I used the technology to put the images that you see in this room. The originals are hidden at another location unknown to the council.”

  I looked at Thaddeus and we both said at the same time, “The Attorgron Forest trip during the last war.”