Chronicles of Aurderia: The Balance

by J. Steven Young

  Andra retold the story to Shuran of how with a touch; Shuran poured Essence into Andra allowing the shifting into Sulura's likeness to hold. "If you can move Essence out of yourself you should be able to take it in."

  "From where?" Shuran asked.

  "Think back to what I have already told you."

  Shuran thought for a moment before smiling and looking up to Andra. "The Essence is in everything."

  Andra nodded but then gave a look of great concern. "You must learn to take only what is safe. I will help you to understand."

  Andra brought Shuran over to a large tree near the end of the circle. "I want you to focus on this tree. Feel the Essence within and draw it into yourself."

  Shuran placed his hand upon the tree. He felt the smooth white bark beneath his fingers. Shuran stretched out his senses and located the tree's Essence immediately.

  "Do you have it?" Andra asked.

  Shuran nodded without taking his attention off of the Essence he now held with his will.

  "Good now I want you to pull on it and draw it within yourself. It is said to feel as though you are consuming it."

  Shuran tried to act as though he was feasting on the Essence but it did not respond, but actually struggled to become freed. Shuran fought back to hold onto the Essence of the mighty Birch tree. During his struggle he barely noticed his own Essence moving out from his center and moving toward the tree.

  With a sudden jolt Shuran's Eyes opened and his head lifted up. He pulled the tree into himself. He fed on the Essence and savored the energy as it flowed effortlessly from the tree to himself. Shuran was consumed by the feeling of taking in that energy. He did not notice the bark of the tree shrinking and cracking below his touch. He did not hear the tree screaming in his head for freedom from the torture it was being subjected to.

  Suddenly the tree cried out so loud that Shuran could not help but notice. It was too late. Shuran fell back in shock. Before him, stood the withered and dried up remains of the once mighty birch tree. It was beyond dead. It was turned to stone. Shuran doubled over and released the remains of his last meal. He looked up to the sky as if looking for something then closed his eyes tight.

  "Do you understand now what happens if you do not learn limits, young Shuran?" Andra asked.

  Shuran could only nod through his sobbing. Shuran felt horrible and tainted. He turned and glared and Andra. "Why did you let this happen? You should have told me!" Shuran steamed with anger.

  "Hold young weaver. You had to feel this for yourself in order to learn to recognize the limits. This is but one tree compared to a world that is falling into the abyss of Chaos. It will not be the last before you fully understand,” Andra flatly answered.

  "I will never do that again!" Shuran said.

  "As you say. Then I suggest we move on to storing power so that you will have something to call on in need. I think you would like being rid of what you have stolen?" Andra inquired over a smirk.

  Andra reached into a pocket and produced Codger's crystal shard. The shard was now dull and lifeless. He handed it to Shuran. "Release what you have taken. You have done it before when you gave power of yourself to me." Andra could see anger and confusion on Shuran's face. "Let it go. Focus on the crystal in your hand and will the stolen Essence into the stone."

  Shuran moved his glare from Andra and looked at the shard. It was a trickle at first, then a flood as Shuran poured the Essence into the crystal. It began to shine. The glow grew steadily brighter until it became difficult to look upon it.

  "ENOUGH!" Andra screamed and knocked the shard from Shuran's grasp. "You only put in as much as you can. You already released what was taken and began adding your own strained Essence. Each day you wake fully rested you will add your own Essence to this shard until you begin to feel tired. Then you eat and begin your lessons."

  Shuran just looked at Andra.

  "Once the Crystal resists, it is full and can be returned to Codger."

  Shuran nodded and went back to the cabin to eat and rest.

  ***

  Salmetu sat in the center of a dim room barely lit by torches on the far walls. She sat in the room watching as Essence was drained from the tree. She could see the flow of energy like a stream of light from the tree, through the fingers of a boy. The pulses of light flowed up his arm and across his chest where they joined with his own Essence.

  Salmetu groaned with delight as the tree began to whither and die. She heard its screams of protest and reveled in the agony it felt when it could not resist the draw of its last drop of Essence. Without any Essence at all, the tree could not hold onto its shi. The life force left it a dried and shriveled husk. So strong was the pull that the once thriving Birch turned to stone.

  Salmetu pulled back from the boy whose eyes she had been looking through. As she looked around to see where she was, darkness suddenly took her and the vision was lost. "There is a boy somewhere in a clearing surrounded by white trees. He drained the Essence from a Birch and drank deeply,” Salmetu smiled wickedly.

  "We must find him,” Isten turned from the room and joined Telalsu. "You will find this boy! He will join us or he will feed the Priestess."

  Telalsu bowed as he left Isten then he disappeared in a dark shift of shadow and smoke.

  ***

  Utu was high in the sky when Shuran was prepared to go back to his lessons.

  Andra instructed him to continue reaching out with his senses and feel his surroundings. "I want you to take notice of the differences in the Essence in everything you feel. This will help you to understand what is around you and feel for what does not belong. You will also be able to tell if an old woman is ready to knock you about your head!" Andra finished with as much humor as was capable of a Guardian.

  Andra explained how reaching out with his senses, Shuran could learn to 'see' for greater and greater distances, to know what and whom may be around him. So this is what Shuran practiced for the remainder of the day until Utu began falling below the tree line late in the afternoon.

  "Hello Bastien!" Shuran said as his friend walked out from behind the trees heading toward the practice yard.

  "You have your eyes closed; how did you know I was here?" Bastien asked.

  Shuran realizing his slip replied quickly. "You are standing down wind friend. Have you been rolling in fish heads?" Shuran jested as his friend returned the smile.

  Bastien just looked at Shuran sideways for a moment before relaxing into a full laugh.

  Shuran went to the side of the cabin to grab his fishing sticks and nets then followed Bastien out to the shore.

  "There have been Land's Guard in the town recruiting,” Bastien said as he worked to lie out the fishing net. “Adda says that they might start drafting if they do not have enough volunteers."

  "Why?" Shuran asked knowing the true reason.

  "Some sort of unrest in the realm. Folks are whispering of war with another realm or some uprising of an old enemy or something. All I know is that people are disappearing and some dark purpose is to blame,” Bastien finished.

  Bastien talked the entire afternoon about adventure and battles. He wanted to one day become a member of the Guard so he could travel the realms.

  Shuran could not help but smile at his friend's naivety. There were no adventures to come, only destruction and death. Shuran did not have all the answers but he knew what he felt, and what he saw in his night visions.

  "Time to head back I suppose,” Shuran finally said as the light was dwindling. "Let us gather up all our catch and head back."

  Bastien and Shuran pulled in the last net and placed the rest of their catch of fish in baskets. As they started their long walk back, Shuran began opening himself to his surroundings. He examined the Essence that emanated from everything he passed. When he focused on Bastien he began probing the Essence and sensed something odd in his friend.

  He was not sure what it was but he realized his friend was different. He thought it might be because he had heard And
ra call him a mundane, but Shuran felt differently. Something was changed, but he was not sure what it was.

  Bastien suddenly dropped his burden and a quiver ran through his body.

  Shuran immediately closed off his connection to the Essence and stared at his friend. "What got into you?" Shuran asked.

  "Not sure, I just started feeling well…sort of shivery. Ma calls it, ‘someone walking on your grave’!” Bastien responded. "Ever feel that?" He asked Shuran.

  "Only recently, it is unsettling,” Shuran replied not missing the connection between his probing his friend's Essence and the sudden shiver he felt. As they continued their walk home, Shuran noticed something different in his friend or perhaps in himself.

  Bastien was giving off a slight glow that was not there before. The two friends soon parted ways as Bastien headed of the path toward his own home. Shuran continued alone for the last of the walk back to the cabin.

  Half way back home Shuran stopped dead in his tracks. He felt a shiver but it did not pass quickly. Shuran began to panic as something on the edge of his comprehension took hold. He was being watched.

  An understanding from deep within him told Shuran he must block this, but how could he do it. Shuran began to imagine a wall in from of him. Slowly the feeling dissipated but suddenly returned stronger than before. In his mind Shuran began to thicken the wall. The larger he made it the stronger the shivers became. He had to change the wall he thought.

  Quickly, Shuran began to turn the wall into metal and as he did the feeling lessened but did not stop completely. Shuran began to run through his mind a list of strong materials that could hold back the probing he now recognized the feeling to be. Just as he was about to become overwhelmed by the weight of his apparent attack, he thought of the crystal he had been imbuing with Essence.

  As suddenly as the thought came to mind, the attack stopped and was completely blocked. With a worried look, Shuran looked around and searched out with the Essence but found nothing out of place. He grabbed his things, and ran as fast as he could back to the cabin to see Andra.

  ***

  "I have lost him!" Telalsu yelled. "The boy has blocked me out. I could not get a good location and all I could see of him was fishing nets and a wooded path. His face eluded me." Telalsu was visibly angered. "We must split our search and focus on areas near water and forest. He will not likely be in a large populated area. Go and report back by scry daily. I want him found!"

  Telalsu dismissed the Inquisitor and turned to the scrying dish before him. "I have sensed the boy but lost the connection before a location could be ascertained." He said to the shadow in the bowl.

  "Keep trying, and increase the weaver gathering. I want this boy found and we need more weavers to join our ranks or be drained."

  "It shall be done master." Telalsu replied.

  "Do not fail me Demon, or I will return you to a far worse place than you were called from."

  And with that the connection was lost. Telalsu grimaced out of fear and anger at being spoken too in such a manner from a flesh-ling.

  ***

  Shuran arrived back to the cabin out of breath and a look of worry over his face.

  "Shuran! What has happened?" Mallick asked grabbing hold of him and moving him to a rock to sit upon.

  "Someone was trying to find me!" Shuran yelled before he even sat.

  Andra was there in heartbeats. "Who did you see?" Andra demanded.

  "There was no one there it was as if someone was seeking me out. They were probing my Essence!" Shuran exclaimed.

  Shuran went on to explain how he had been exploring the Essence on the way back from the shore. He told how he felt something different within Bastien and the glow he had after. Shuran recounted the discussion on the feeling of someone walking over one's grave that Bastien had experienced.

  Andra only nodded in acknowledgement during Shuran's retelling of the afternoon's events.

  Shuran got to the part about feeling the shiver himself and being compelled to build a wall around himself.

  "You took the correct path Shuran,” Andra said.

  "We dunno what they was lookin' for,” Moona said. "But they sure 'nough will be looking for ya again boy!" Moona finished harshly.

  "True, but from what Shuran retold, they do not have enough to be coming here for certain. We have time and we must use it wisely,” Andra finished before they all went inside to take a meal and continue discussing the events of the day.

  "If you are not too tired Shuran I think we can alter our training path tonight and start dealing with your Essence,” Andra said as they stepped outside.

  "Andra what do you think of the glow I saw around Bastien? I see the same glow around all of you now as well but less as much with Moona,” Shuran inquired.

  "You have learned on your own, the way to sense the ability to wield in others,” Andra said.

  "But that makes no sense. Bastien does not wield and neither does Moona,” Shuran said.

  "Bastien has not been awoken to his ability at least not until today perhaps thanks in part to you,” Andra started. "As far as Moona, it is her tail to tell but she was once a wielder but no longer." Andra completed the last statement making it clear that there would be no more discussion on Moona except from her.

  "What do you mean in part from me as far as Bastien is concerned?"

  "You may have hastened his awakening or enabled it all together by probing him as deeply as I fear you did,” Andra responded. Andra went on to explain how the feeling of self preservation that caused Shuran to build a wall, may have also been felt by Bastien to some degree and awoken his abilities when Shuran reached out to him. Andra further shared his feelings that Bastien may be more than he appeared.

  "I want us to focus on guarding yourself from detection,” Andra started. "The initial probe may have been a simple search for power. The Order has been looking for weavers to join them or to drain. Since you blocked their probe they will be vehement in their search for the one who blocked their probe,” Andra finished.

  Shuran just grimaced at the thought of now being hunted again.

  Andra and Shuran worked in earnest through the night exercising Shuran's ability to block unwanted probing. They also practiced with Shuran's ability to probe Andra.

  "Andra? What are you?" Shuran stopped and asked.

  Andra turned to Shuran blankly while thinking of how to respond. Andra reminded Shuran of the stories of the Foresworn and the blending of bloodlines. "I am descended from parents who were birthed before the final blending. I am mixed of five lines so I bare the gifts of each in varying strengths. Above all I have the ability since birth, to shift. It is my easiest ability to weave,” Andra finished.

  "So you can become anything or anyone?" Shuran asked with wonder.

  "To a degree yes, but I can be nothing smaller than I. Larger is not too difficult if I take organic material from around me to add to my own. To become something less would mean returning to less,” Andra said.

  "What if you stored the extra parts of yourself someplace, like I learned to do with Essence?" Shuran asked.

  "I have never thought of such a thing!" Andra responded with a look that showed contemplation of possibilities.

  Chapter Seven

  Hell's Mouth is a forbidding place. Since the time of the great eruption of the peak at what is now Hell's Mouth, the surrounding land has been void of life; life on the surface that is. Although the great eruption destroyed much of the surrounding land, the many caves, that did not collapse, remain.

  There are still those who lived among them and refused to leave millennia ago when the mountain belched forth in fiery anger. These people are the Drakkians and they do not, normally, mingle with other races since the Lalli Mah. The caves and former lava tunnels of the area have created a natural metropolis for the Drakkians to live it. They and their drakkon keep hidden within and only venture out to the East into the Highlands.

  In a large chamber deep within the mountain a ga
thering of Drakkian elders is occurring.

  "There is far too much stirring to the West!" an elder shouted.

  "We do not know what is happening and cannot jump to conclusions,” another responded.

  "We cannot ignore what is happening!" a loud and deep voice sounded from deep within the recesses of the chamber. The source of the voice emerged from the shadows and cast far deeper shadows itself as it emerged. A drakkon of deep and rich green stepped forward. "The prophecy is at hand and we must act accordingly,” it said and looked toward a figure standing off in the shadows.

  The figure responded.

  "I had already gotten involved. But we shall not reveal ourselves yet,” he said as the he turned and left the assembly.

  "Will he prove trustworthy?" another member of the group asked.

  "He will do what is necessary. He has more to lose than most for now,” the drakkon said as it turned to look upon the young drakkon sleeping off in the alcove she came from.

  In a cave deep within the ranges surrounding Hell's Mouth there lays a secluded area. In the center of the area sits a young woman mumbling to herself.

  The dark figure from the assembly walks up behind her. "How is our charge mistress?" he asks. "As well as can be expected. There is little change. She stirs from time to time but nothing more,” the woman answers. A light glow of light shone behind her as she spoke to the man. "What does the assembly say?" she asked.

  "We are doing what must be done. Things are occurring as have been prophesied. Playing both sides has advantages,” he finished and left the room.

  The woman turned back to her charge. "Rest my dear, you will awaken when the time comes."

  ***

  The Castle of Drakkfoth is a dark and formidable fortress built upon the ruins of an ancient city that existed in the same location and by the same name. The castle sits within the shadow of Hell's Mouth and is feared. It is a looming presence upon the land. Great dark spires of dragon glass shoot forth from the ground along with walls and floors that make up the structure.

  The dark ominous stone itself represents all that is dark to those who live in its shadow. Upon the throne of the Castle Drakkfoth sits Baron Fallon de Drakk. The Baron harbors the Order of Chaos and works with the Inquisitors.