Chronicles of Aurderia: The Balance

by J. Steven Young

  ***

  Aknard finished looking over the plans for the engine with delight. He was only curious about one piece centered on the control board that seemed to serve no purpose. He quickly put that out of his mind as he called in the guild members currently at the keep.

  “We have a new purpose friends. We need to recruit builders and smithies.”

  Chapter Four

  The Great Sea is a vast body of water that stretches over one thousand leagues from the southern parts of Aurderia to well into the Frozen North beyond the Orenthal Mountains. The strong winds out of the West along with the strong currents make travel difficult heading north and impossible to the West. The Warm waters from the South Sea mix with the frigid currents from the Frozen North. The fast currents that the result makes travel from the North fast but the same could not be said for the opposite. Their journey would normally take a normal ship two cycles or more to sail by wind and sail to the coast outside Birchshire.

  The Melammu Nanna however, did not use only sails. The gear works and paddle system Codger had re-discovered allowed the vessel to counter the strong currents and added to the wind in her sails, journey time would be cut in half. The trip would not be without obstacles, as they first had to get past the wildly unpredictable waters north of the Fangs. The way the coastline hooked to the West joined by the layout of the Fangs, the currents and undertow of this area caused whirlpools to form in unpredictable areas and times.

  Forty leagues beyond the Fangs, Codger steered his ship in as close as he dared to the coast where the waters churned the least. Everyone, save Shuran were on edge and listening intently for the telltale gurgling and sucking sound that accompanied a whirlpool. The churning waters made seeing the danger impossible until it was too late.

  It appeared to Codger that they were to have a clear passing of the wicked area and be saved from the danger of being pulled to a watery grave. His relief suddenly turned to terror as the sudden sound on the edge of his hearing made his stomach sink to his feet.

  The Ship began to lurch and list to port. The sudden shift in the ship brought with it a cacophony of sounds. The ship was groaning under stress. The paddles were slapping at the water in vein as the aft of the ship was lifting up out of the water.

  Moona was screaming and running to tie things down.

  Mally was securing Shuran while holding on to the mast with all strength he had in the one available arm.

  Codger stood grunting in the pilot deck white knuckled hands gripping the helm.

  As the aft of the ship began to spin starboard, the stern began angling to stare deep into the eye of the mother of all whirlpools.

  Codger struggled to hold the helm. He let loose with one hand in order to reach for his belt and loose it from his waist. He tied one end with his free hand to the helm then with both hands he stretched the belt up to the control boards and tied the other end to a pipe. While trying to hold up his now sagging pants, he wiggled his way to the back of the deck to locate another secret compartment from which he produced an oblong crystal of quartz minerals. He struggled back to the control panel and reached out with the crystal in an attempt to affix it to a similarly shaped metal section. Several times the rocking of the ship threatened to knock him about but he held fast to the pipe work and continued reaching. Just as he was loosing hope a forward lurch of the ship suddenly forced him forward and as he slammed into the controls the crystal made contact with controls and nesting into the metal Codger intended.

  Just as suddenly as the shipped had been sent pitching about, the vessel began stabilizing and leveling.

  Equal parts relief and confusion washed over Moona and Mally as they looked about them wondering what was happening.

  The sea began to drop away below them as they realized the Melammu Nanna was lifting skyward. The sides of the ship that had appeared to only act as decorative wings folded out and down on each side of the ship. With a deliberate stroke the wings flapped down parallel to the vessel.

  Moona, Mally and Shuran stood wide eyed at the ship’s side looking down directly into the mouth of the vast whirlpool that only moments early tried tirelessly to swallow them into its watery gullet. They looked at one another and then to the pilot deck where they could make out Codger standing at the helm with one hand on a glowing leaver the other on the helm.

  His pants were a sagging mess around his ankles. As they made their way back to Codger, the sails filled with wind and were pushing on northeast past the monster into calmer waters.

  “Codger?” Moona called. “What in the name of Damkianna is going on?” Codger just smiled and gradually moved the glowing control crystal forward, thus lowering the ship back to the water. When the ship gently settled back down, he reengaged the paddle system and Melammu Nanna lurched northward. He removed the crystal shard from its place on the controls and handed it to Moona.

  “That my dear is the one piece of information I did not share with Aknard. It is the only thing I cannot re-create and could not afford to loose it.”

  “I can feel its power!” Moona exclaimed as she examined it.

  “It is called ABNU EMUQ in the ancient tongue, a Power Stone,” Codger beamed. “I found it with the diagrams I used to fashion this vessel.”

  As Moona continued to marvel at the shard, Shuran stared at it curiously and reached out toward it. The Quartz began to hum and color danced across its surface. Suddenly the stone leaped from Moona’s grip and flew into Shuran’s waiting hand.

  In Shuran’s grip, the stone began to hum louder and pulsate with a dazzling show of lights. The hum was almost musical, as various tones emanated from it in time with the flashing of colorful light. As the light grew in intensity, a glow began to inch its way from the crystal along Shuran’s arm. Soon his entire began to glow and the crystal began dimming in luminosity.

  In a sudden cry, Shuran released the quartz stone and fell back into Mally’s arms.

  Moona quickly moved to him and tried to make sense of what just happened.

  Shuran seemed to have been knocked unconscious. His breathing was steady but he had a faint glow along his skin.

  “He is sleeping!” Moona decided.

  “What was that?” Codger asked.

  “I have a theory, check the crystal. My guess is that it has been drained,” Moona deduced.

  Codger turned the crystal in his hand, having retrieved it from the deck floor after it was dropped. He nested the crystal in its place. There was no reaction from the shard. The control lever would not move. The crystal was completely drained of energy. “Well, I hope we don’ have need ‘cause this thing is D-E-D dead!” Codger declared.

  “We need to have plenty of food ready when the boy wakes,” Moona said as she took Shuran below decks to a cot in the sleeping chamber. “No telling how much he is going to grow from the power he absorbed from that rock!” Moona wondered.

  Shuran slept through to the next morning, nearly a full thirty-hour day.

  Moona had been watching him the entire time when she was not sleeping herself. During his slumber he grew to the equivalent of a sprat of ten harvests. Moona was just amazed and frightened by this sweet yet powerful boy.

  “Up until now I had my doubts this child was the one of prophecy,” Codger told Moona. “But there can be no doubt.”

  “My belly hurts!” Shuran mumbled as he struggled to wake.

  “Don’ just stand there, get the boy some food you old fart!” Moona smiled at Codger while she said it.

  Shuran sat up and smiled as he reached out to hug Moona and told her he was hungry.

  She took Shuran topside where codger and Mally were setting about getting a spread set out for them to all break their fast.

  Shuran tore into the food on his plate as though he had not eaten in a long time talking around the food. In reality he had grown several harvests in age in just thirty hours. The power from the stone fueled the growth but he still needed a large amount of food before he was satisfied. After he had his fi
ll, Shuran ran about the deck pointing to things and inquiring about their name and purpose. He was a sponge soaking up information.

  The next few days of travel were spent with Shuran taking in every bit of information he could glean from his caretakers. They taught him about the sea, the ship and its workings. He took lessons on reading and writing from Codger. Moona taught him about the herbs she carried and their uses. Mally did not have a proper education and felt a bit useless with his education. He only played games with Shuran and told him stories.

  “I wish I could teach him things,” Mally said one night to Moona.

  Shuran was fast asleep after another long day of non-stop questions and lessons.

  “You are teaching him my boy,” Codger replied. “Your games teach him strategy and thinking out problems. Your stories, as you tell them, are from your own experiences,” Codger continued. “You just keep that up and you’ll be teachin’ him more than you know.”

  Mally’s spirits were lifted by Codger’s encouragement and had suddenly developed an idea in his head.

  The next morning Codger and Moona awoke to a screaming and pounding of running feet on the upper deck of the ship. Together they ran in a tangled mess above deck to find Shuran and Mally pouring buckets of water onto the deck. They approached to find a smoldering smudge mark on the wooden deck and partway up the mast of the main sail.

  “What happened here boys?” Codger and Moona asked in unison.

  “Um, well you see, Um. I was just t-teaching Shuran stuff I know,” Mally stuttered out. “He made fire!” Mally exclaimed.

  “You taught him to spell fire?” Codger inquired with shock and wonderment.

  “Not exactly,” Shuran replied meekly. “He never said the words and he did not wave his hands or anything. We just started when I told him to imagine fire in his mind and the WHOOSH! Flames just appeared in front of us and leapt down on the deck from out of nowhere.”

  “He created fire from thin air not the wood.”

  “No he didn’ create the fire, he called it,” Codger marveled. Shuran had used the elemental magic of fire. “That be elemental magic comes from the blood of the Drakkian race,” Codger exclaimed.

  The Drakkians he explained to them were not actually the fire breathing flying lizards of myth called dragons. They were and possibly may still be, a human like race of people who, through breeding programs, developed a flying beast of burden called the drakkon. It was in actuality, the rider’s bond that created the fire ability in the drakkon. A un-bonded drakkon has no abilities.

  This information sparked more questions from not only Shuran but Mally as well. Codger now found himself educating them both on all he knew of the seven separate races of Aurderia.

  He finished sharing the limited knowledge he had on the Drakkians with how they departed soon after the Lalli Mah. No trace of where they went was left. All that is known for sure is they destroyed everything they left behind in what is now known as Drakkfoth.

  The Giants were a race that were a stronger, and taller version of humans that kept to a hidden valley that has been lost to time. The giants could control the elemental force of metal and ore. Much of the famed weapons of lore were said to have been giant made, as their work on ore with Essence made them unbreakable. They were also said to stand against the passage of time that would rust ordinary tools and weapons.

  The third of elusive races are known as Wind Walkers who called themselves the Lil’Du. Codger had even less information on them other then their control over elemental air.

  Badurlu were people that long ago took to the seas. They live somewhere in massive cities built in the depths. The only written record of them is that their cities are built into seamounts. Badurlu control the element of water and are able to separate breathable air into their bodies while submerged.

  The humans are the youngest of the seven races according to record both written and recorded. The stories of where human origins begin differ depending on the storyteller. All accounts though refer to children of the Telukukal.

  It is told that humans were the last evolution of those left behind when the First People vanished from Ersetu. The significance of this has never been explained and the Great Council banned study of the origins soon after the first ANZILLU.

  Some humans have the ability to weave spells. Those who show no talent in the Essence are considered Mundanes. Spell weaving is the art of using words of power to focus thought into existence. This is the raw form of Essence within every thing. Where elemental magic manipulates the Essence within inanimate objects and forces, humans can alter their own Essence and move it outside themselves.

  The use of all Essence takes a toll on the user, as they need to have energy equal to or greater than the result of their efforts. Many a weaver has destroyed himself or herself attempting spells far beyond the energy they had to draw on. Spell weaving is dangerous when not done in an exact manner; it must be prepared and practiced until perfected.

  For these reasons Codger made the boys promise not to try more magics without instruction and definitely not on his boat.

  The Dwarves on rare occasions can be found in Northern cities trading ore and metal craft with smithies. They have the ability to manipulate elemental earth into them making them stronger and unchanged by the passage of use and time. They live in the Orenthal Mountains deep within caverns both natural and dwarf excavated.

  Elves are also seen on rare occasions when they allow traders into one of their settlements in Tarangale. They control the element of electricity and can manipulate the electricity that runs through the body and mind. This ability allows them to influence people’s thoughts and movements. Most people are leery about getting fair trades with Elves for fear of being manipulated.

  By the time Codger had completed answering a barrage of questions from both boys, the sun was high in the sky and hunger was again knocking on each of their stomachs.

  Moona set out a blanket on the floor of the pilot deck and set it with plates of cheese, hard bread, dried fruits and meat. They were in relatively calm water and sailing against a steady and straight current so Codger was able to continue while letting Shuran and Mally took turns learning to take the helm.

  Codger decided he would teach them what he knew of the Telukukal after lunch. “Any actual lessons on reading or speaking the ancient tongue will have to wait until we get home,” Codger said. “I can tell you about some history of what I know and perhaps some words I can remember easily enough.”

  Codger told them of his trip into the ruins of an old Northern outpost built before the Lalli Mah. He found beneath the ruins, another structure. The ancient keep had been built on top of an even older structure. Below the foundation was a labyrinth of halls and rooms. Most rooms contained nothing of value, but it was in one of the rooms he found the remains of a sealed up library and work room. There he found the information used to build his ship as well as the now dead crystal that powered its flight. He spent months there in the ruins gathering knowledge and copying down what was not destroyed by the ravages of time and the elements. The journals, he told them, were back at the cabin hidden in a special place on the surrounding grounds.

  Codger is a sanctioned spell weaver, and a long time ago was an instructor of the art. That was another lifetime, before the Essence Academy was started he recalled, and changed the subject. Codger is much older than Moona and therefor lived through more of what has led up to the events of the prophecy.

  Codger did not speak much of his time before Moona came into his life, not even with his wife. Codger continued on, telling the boys about ogres, trolls, imps, and other creates.

  Moona grumbled most of the time about being treated like a serving wench and cook. Secretly she enjoyed looking after her boys as she was beginning to think of them.

  Over the next few days of their trip up the coast, the boys spent time fishing and helping Codger taking care of the boat.

  Once in a while, Moona would continue lessons for
the boys on herbs and concoctions. Some of the mixtures she made were the foundation of potions. She of course left out the instructions on how they were to have been activated, telling them that would wait until they were safely back to Birchshire, and her isolated cabin in the woods.

  “Mind you I wouldn’ object to the laugh we’d get out o’ Old Codger there throwing a fiddle fit over magic working on the boat,” Moona smiled.

  The boys continued to absorb every bit of information provided by Codger and Moona. Mallick and Shuran had become thick as thieves like an older brother and younger. It was hard for Moona to comprehend how only a few weeks ago she had helped birth this sprat, who was now as old as any of seven harvests. It was as though now only five harvests separated the two boys before her, yet they were not effected by the strangeness of it all.

  Late on the last day of travel north, Moona and Codger found themselves alone in the pilot deck for the first time since this journey began.

  “It feels like fate has brought us back together for a reason Moony,” Codger smiled as he talked. “I know we ain’ had the best o’ times of late, but maybe we have a second chance with these two lads.”

  Moona turned to Codger and began jabbing him with her pipe. “Just you get this first in your addled thinker Codge, we ain’ on the mends and I ain’ ‘bout to forget nothing’ what happened back then,” Moona screeched.

  “Why you hard skulled, temper driven, harpy of a wench!” Codger retorted. “I ain’ askin’ you to forget nothin’ nor forgive. What is done is done.” Their raised voices drew the attention of the boys who were now heading over to the pilot deck.

  “Is something wrong?” Mally asked.

  “No dear you and Shuran run along and practice your lessons. Just me and Old Coder agreein’ not to agree is all.” Moona glared at Codger as she turned to follow the boys back out on deck.

  “Moona, how long have you and Codger been wed?” Mally asked.