Aaron - First Watcher

by Tobias Roote

  As four guards made haste to follow Krendar's orders, Junto put up a hand delaying their action. He would not use emote on them unless he had to, as it would have far reaching implications should he break such a rule in the Hall.

  Instead, Junto visibly seething, vehemently rounded on Krendar. “This so called ‘vagrant’ is my personally sponsored acolyte, and you will do him the courtesy of treating him as such while he is in my care, as per the rules of session. I am sure your lackeys will happily refer you to the specific regulations concerned seeing as you have so quickly forgotten the long-standing rules of Sentinel honorship.”

  Junto’s glare wandered over the gathered Sentinels and guards. He knew he had judged his timing and attitude perfectly. They were all now aware that he was the child’s sponsor, he had outweighed Krendar in a verbal contest and bested his attempts at pulling the lad out of sight so he could deal with the matter privately. Now, he was protected by the Tower and all knew it. Nothing untoward could happen to Aaron from this moment on.

  “Aaron, with me,” Junto ordered him brusquely. “We have work to do before Council session begins.” Junto gestured with his hand for Aaron to follow him up the stairs.

  Aaron pulled away from the iron grip of Krendar that loosened as he did so and gathered himself close to Junto. They left behind a hall full of quiet mutterings. He felt the ripple of their mixed, but mainly hostile mental emanations all of the way to Junto’s rooms.

  - 16 -

  As soon as they reached Junto’s private suite he closed the door. Junto felt there was risk of a reaction on the part of Krendar’s men, so set the locks so they wouldn’t be surprised.

  He then sat down on the excessively large couch, taking up over half of it, as he spread out in the euphoria of the moment, the relief evident in his face, his body quivering from a combination of exertion and stress from dealing with the confrontation. It had been set by the manner of their arrival; engineered to create maximum effect. Now, they would need to deal with the fallout that would inevitably occur. Krendar would not let it rest there, his authority had been undermined in front of everyone. He would seek to move against Junto, but it had been deemed necessary to their plans to flush out his supporters.

  Junto looked downcast. “I fear that we have badly under-estimated Krendar’s progress. Things are moving swiftly. Possibly too swiftly for us. Krendar is going to want to deal us out of the game and cement his hold on the council, especially now that we are here. It is plain he knows something of our plans.”

  “I was scanning the Sentinels,” Aaron said. “You had them questioning their loyalty to Krendar. You could have more support if you stood up to him. At least that’s the impression I got from them...” Aaron dissembled as he realised he was saying too much.

  Junto looked at him intensely as if measuring him. He sighed. “We were just lucky there, it could have been different if he had got us both alone in his chambers. I am sure you would have disappeared within hours, and I believe I would have met with an unfortunate accident.”

  He sat up looking across at Aaron. “We must be careful. YOU must be careful. If others suspect the full scope of your abilities too soon, they may feel threatened and side with Krendar. Then the rules be damned, you ‘will’ disappear, and I will join you, and that will be that.”

  Aaron realised he was right. They were not ready yet. Even with Gedrack and Melbray here, it would be hard to take on everyone in a mental battle. They needed more time, HE needed more time, to gain strength and skill. The next few weeks would surely be perilous, but if Melbray’s plan was to work, they would need to win more friends on the council, and keep Aaron as their secret weapon.

  “You must begin working with the other acolytes immediately. I will take you there in the morning,” Junto said.

  As the night drew on Aaron found he was restless and unable to sleep. The number of minds around him, although hidden, created an undercurrent of noise that kept him from settling. He decided to cast out his mind and see what he could pick up.

  He used his new shield to hide himself and pushed outward across the Tower. He could sense others, their glow in his head indicating their strength. He wondered if his showed as strongly, and decided to check on Junto in the other room. There was only a strong sense of familiarity that he recognised where Junto should be. No other indication. The shield Junto used was kept tight, even in sleep.

  The ones he could see glowing must be lesser talents, he thought, but still wondered about the others, could they see him?

  As a way of testing if a good shield could hide from him, Junto decided to try homing in on Melbray, thinking that he should be in or near the Tower. He opened up his search and scanned for miles in every direction. Further still, before realising he was already past the area where they had camped. There was no sign of his, or Gedrack’s familiar signatures.

  Thinking that he wasn’t searching properly, Aaron narrowed his scan down to only search for either of their signatures. He began at the camp site near the river and worked slowly back across a wide radius narrowing down as he came closer to the Watchtower. There was nothing. Either Melbray and Geldrack’s shielding was so good they couldn’t be found, or they weren’t in range of his abilities. Aaron began to doubt himself, so tried to feel for the Grith and immediately sensed them, curled together for the night in a den underground. He felt the desire to run with them again, but knew that would not be happening in his near future.

  Aaron was about to give up, when the one of the glowing minds he had attributed to an acolyte pulled his attention back to the Tower. However, it wasn’t the acolyte that was pulling him, but the feel of familiarity that he had been hunting. It was Melbray, and he was already here.

  In relief, he zoomed in on the vague outline of Melbray’s mind, but found that no matter how hard he concentrated he couldn’t reach it. There was something, or someone blocking him. He tried to pierce the silence, at one point seeming to break through, a tendril of thought reached out to him. Then it was gone, replaced with a blankness that Aaron could no longer register, but at the same time felt familiar.

  Disturbed greatly by what had just occurred, he pulled back within himself, wondering what it was that was so strong that it blanked out everything beneath it. He thought of the Nangarl shield he had learned to use. Yes, the familiarity was there. Someone, or perhaps more than one person, was using a shield to hide what was happening below. He needed to know more.

  Venturing outside of his shield, Aaron took stock of the mental ether. He could sense there was agitation, but it was muted, hidden behind shields that blanked everything, but left an after-image of something else - emotion. He was sensing the underlying emotion of the denizens of the Watchtower and it was anger overshadowed with fear.

  Slowly, as he absorbed the energies he began to sense outlines. He recognised some, placing faces to the mental signatures. The boy in the corridor, the guard in the courtyard, the Sentinel he had emoted on the approach to the Tower. All of these he knew, even if he could not read their thoughts. He realised just how guarded these people were, so unnatural for the Sar who believed the open mind was the pathway to greater enlightenment. These were not only closed, but locked down tight.

  Aaron became aware he was no longer alone. He felt the other mind out there, searching and knew it was him they were looking for. He watched, remaining passive as they quartered the Watchtower and came slowly towards his location. He had no idea what would happen when they reached him. He felt there was little they could do to him and wasn’t even aware if they would register his presence. Nonetheless, he tucked in most of his mind behind his shield and just left a glimmer showing. He would appear a lesser talent and of no interest to any searcher.

  The tendril touched him, instantly recoiling as it sensed his awareness. He read fear behind the mind, and realised it was young, like his, probably exploring. He waited patiently, but it didn’t come back. After a while he looked for it, but it had gone, now hidden by a screen
amongst all of the others. No matter, he would recognise the signature when he found it.

  He couldn’t detect anything further and decided it was time to bring Junto up to date. He sent a tendril to Junto knocking on his mental doorway.

  - 17 -

  They were at breakfast feasting on honeyed cakes and aromatic herb tea, a Watcher’s breakfast - the cake energised whilst the tea sharpened the wit. Aaron had mind-linked to Junto on a tightly shielded tendril, repeating everything from the previous night again. They had both tried to make sense of it all, but in the end had given up and slept. Now, they were going over it all again to see what they had missed, if anything. Aaron laid out the information he had absorbed from the split second connection with Melbray. The gist of what Aaron had found out was that both Melbray and Gedrack were imprisoned beneath the Watchtower and were not immediately in danger, although this might change dramatically if they became a greater threat to Krendar. They had decided nothing could be done until they could find a way of getting down to the lower rooms below the main hall.

  “So, is it just you and me?” Aaron asked Junto.

  “And me,” came a gruff voice from behind him.

  Aaron turned to find the Sentinel, behind them yesterday at the gate, was now behind him again.

  Junto laughed, his effort forcing the table to vibrate so that Aaron had trouble keeping his food from slipping off. He missed the wink that Junto and the other Sentinel passed between them.

  “Is this the little troublemaker that caused all that fuss at the gate yesterday?” the newcomer quizzed Junto, over Aaron’s head.

  “I believe it could well be, Warbel. I know for a fact that he has been trouble from the day I first knew of him,” Junto responded honestly.

  The vibration of the table continued to disrupt Aaron’s meal, distracting him from responding properly to the Sentinel who seemed to tower over him. Aaron wisely decided to keep quiet until he knew what was going on.

  The Sentinel named Warbel sat down next to Aaron and introduced himself.

  “I believe you already had the opportunity of getting to know my mind yesterday, You should know better than to try and manipulate a Sentinel unless you are also ready to take the consequences,” he said seriously enough.

  Junto’s eyebrows rose in surprised disapproval. Aaron hadn’t told him about that.

  Warbel turned to Junto “It’s alright my friend, he was extremely subtle. Had I not been monitoring you both, I would never have caught it at all,” the large man reassured him.

  Aaron, embarrassed into silence, didn’t know what to say or what would happen next. He had not realised he had been observed and didn’t know the punishment for emoting a Sentinel without their permission or knowledge.

  Warbel waited as if expecting something from Aaron.

  “I’m sorry, Sentinel Warbel, I should not have been so presumptuous,” Aaron offered by way of apology. “I was scared that the guards were going to turn us away and sensed the crowd were getting restless. I feared for their safety so acted to resolve matters quickly.”

  “True enough, you read the situation well. There could have been a bit of ugliness had that happened, all too frequent an occurrence lately since our new leader has gotten stirrups for his ferrel.”

  Junto smiled at Aaron. “He means that Krendar has become a little prickly of late,” he explained.

  “Seriously, though. You two are as tight as water-skins, what are you hatching?” Warbel asked.

  Junto hesitated then pulled Warbel into a tight mind-link along with Aaron and explained quickly what had been happening, including a synopsis of Aaron’s situation and what they hoped to achieve. He finished by advising Warbel that Krendar had Melbray and Gedrack locked up beneath the Watchtower and now it was a matter of figuring out how to rescue them.

  “There has been talk of a new talent,” Warbel melded.

  “We think they were referring to the wild talent, that we think is Aaron,” Junto responded.

  “No, this is something Krendar has been close-minded about, it could be the rumoured ‘blocker’, supposedly capable of shielding the presence of a mind, both ways,” Warbel mused silently to them.

  “This must be a natural talent for there is no precedent for such a mind,” Junto admitted.

  “I felt this mind last night,” Aaron added, not sure if he should admit this.

  They both turned to him in unison. “You did?”

  “Yes, I recognised the type of shield it was using. It was Nangarl, I’m sure,” Aaron melded to them both. He mentally opened the episode from the previous night and allowed them access to verify his experience.

  “This is unheard of, Nangarl, you say. We’ve not heard from them for many years, I had forgotten they existed. Yet, I see in your mind your experiences with them are recent and vivid. There is no doubt they have this ability. You think the Nangarl are involved, or is this just a wild talent?” Warbel asked him.

  “I sensed it was the same as the ones that forced me into the rapids. It was definitely Nangarl,” Junto affirmed vehemently. His mind had finally tied the two together and realised that the mindset from last night was the same as those that had sought to kill him.

  “This is very serious then. Krendar has somehow allied himself with an unknown element of Sar; the Nangarl are historic enemies of ours,” Warbel melded primarily at Junto, nodding at Aaron’s contribution.

  “Why would he do that?” Aaron asked.

  “Territory and alliances are old friends of Sar upper-class, they would seek to open lands previously unavailable for their own benefit. There will be much profit behind this – that and power,” Junto reminded them.

  “We must attempt to understand more of this before we move against this conspiracy,” Warbel agreed.

  Junto had decided. “My chambers after supper tonight. Aaron, you must seek out this mind and attempt to reach Melbray and Gedrack. We will follow you in and protect your flank as you proceed. We must know more before we act.”

  Warbel nodded quietly and moved off to the exit. The whole discussion had taken just moments and went almost unnoticed by all. Only one individual had paid them any attention, and Aaron had sensed their tendril of mental curiosity, recognising it as one that had searched for him last night. He had to maintain secrecy with his skills and so could not engage that mind to return the favour. Maybe tonight would be different. Perhaps they would try again then.

  - 18 -

  Vash sat quietly, staring at the remains of her meal, watching out of the corner of her eye while Aaron and Junto left the breakfast room. She was vastly relieved they hadn’t noticed her, but then nobody noticed acolytes who were widely regarded as non-persons by the increasingly arrogant Watchers. The newly-fledged apprentice's skill was generally so weak and unfocused as to be laughable. As a result, it took years to overcome the stigma of being an acolyte. It was a known fact that skill grew with age and training and it never diminished even in old people, the bright torch of their talent shone until the light of the life in their eyes dimmed. The far-sight was usually the last thing to go when a Watcher left this plane of existence. Acolytes were, therefore, regarded as invisible - except to other acolytes and only at similar levels. Those that had a year or two experience in here soon adopted the same aloofness of their masters and mistresses, often even more so as they attempted to distance themselves from the new arrivals.

  There had been a massive intake of breath amongst the Watchers when Junto had appeared last evening. Vash had heard through the publicly broadcast arrival. She had laughed quietly at the image of him flattening the pompous guards in the courtyard. Then, when Junto had gone directly against Kendar’s demand for him to remove the acolyte, Vash had suddenly paid attention to the young man.

  She became instantly aware there was more to him than simply an acolyte, especially as Vash was here for the same purpose. Yet on the first morning the young man was already sitting with the Watchers and being treated as an equal by the famous Junto
. The very same Junto who had refused to participate in acolyte adoption for decades. Vash had tried to obtain his approval to enter the Watchtower, but he had denied her and she had been forced to accept a lower Watcher who paid scant attention to her training. This actually suited Vash as she could spend long hours on her own spying on other Watchers and their training of their apprentices. She learned more watching them and sometimes they were aware, others not. Neither did they care overly much - acolytes had the free run of the Tower, except for the basement and upper reach where Krendar had his rooms.

  So, yesterday when she had scanned Aaron in the hallway as they arrived and confronted the Watch Master Kendrar, he broadcast the presence of a simple boy with a smattering of talent, yet she had noticed that within him there was a hint of something she couldn’t quite pin down. To most, it wouldn’t have shown, but to Vash it was a thinly hidden seam that echoed one of her own. He was hiding himself and doing a pretty good job - that in itself took some skill.

  Then, last night she had sensed a new mind. She wasn’t sure, but she had felt that mind had similarities to the one that this boy had portrayed during the day, only stronger; much stronger, and extremely quick. It was gone and shielded before she had managed to trace it. Vash realised that the mind had felt her probe and retreated. Something to hide? she wondered speculatively.

  Then, a few moments ago she was watching the three conversing in a tight melding. Something seemed to be bothering them, the emanations coming from their body language suggesting it was serious. She had attempted to access their stream, and quickly sensed the one called Aaron might provide her with the means to tap their conversation. She had attempted to push through a tendril of thought, only to find herself rebuffed and suddenly faced with nothing, but empty space. Was this young acolyte possibly as strong, if not stronger than the other two - stronger than her?