He paid someone to call up a Telal to reveal its secrets. All of what he learned I do not know but there is one thing I do…” Moona stopped and shuddered slightly before continuing. “He learned to steal another’s Essence.” Moona finished the last statement with a glisten to her eyes. Shuran apologized and did not press her further knowing she would share more in her own time.
“Shuran come here and look what Codger and I have found!” Mallick yelled from the other side of the chamber.
Shuran feeling somewhat rescued from an awkward moment nodded to Moona who smiled at him and went to join Mallick and Codger. “What has your britches in such a bunch Mally!” Shuran joked as he approached the table they were working at. He noticed they had several crystal shards from a cabinet laid out on the table in from of them with an old text open before them.
“This text describes how things are made up and you can break them and they are still connected!” Mally said excitedly.
Shuran just looked at them with a confused look.
“That is the simple explanation my boy,” Codger beamed at Shuran. “Come read this and see what you think.”
Shuran read the text and saw how it described things as being made up of small particles too tiny to see but he already knew this because he could feel them. If something is split a certain way these parts can still somehow remain tangled together even over great distances. Shuran just exhaled at the vast complexity of the knowledge stored in this chamber before recorded time. “This is truly the knowledge of the gods!” Shuran exclaimed.
Shuran, Codger, and Mally went about testing and experimenting on crystals based on the texts with mixed results. In a moment of frustration Shuran holding one half of a split crystal looked at it and out of frustration spat out an ancient word. “PAD!” And instantly the crystal and its twin both shattered into so many uncountable pieces.
Shock and understanding shook him at the same time. “The crystals need to be spelled first with a purpose before they are split!” Shuran exclaimed.
Mally just looked at Shuran confused but Codger understood and immediately brought Shuran an assortment of shards from which to choose.
Shuran thought of something useful from the Iniminim Ma, and set about weaving it into the shard while at the same time gathering Essence of energy into the stone to power the spell. He then placed the crystal in the device used to split them and spoke the words to separate the shard.
At first nothing seemed to happen but then Shuran’s eyes lit up. “Look at them closely. Open yourself up to the rhythm of the Essence in the stones.
“They are pulsing but in opposite of one another!” Mally shouted.
“They are… tangled.” Codger said in a whisper. “What do they do?”
Shuran sent Mally outside of the vault taking one half of the shard with instructions to speak a specific sentence once he was well outside the main entrance. After what felt like an eternity Codger nearly lost his patience.
“What are we waiting for Boy!” He shouted.
“Just a moment, Codge.” The half crystal in Shuran’s hand started to glow with pulses of light.
“They are working.” Shuran started, touching the stone and saying, “Kin’Ge!”
“Shuran come here. I want you.” Mallick’s voice came from the crystal.
Codger jumped in shock at hearing Mallick’s voice sounding from the glowing stone in Shuran’s hand.
Shuran just smiled and lifted the shard to his mouth and said, “Thank you Mally now come back inside! Kin’Su.” Shuran beamed with accomplishment and Andra stood behind him smiling, which is not something anyone ever saw.
Moona saw it.
***
The darkness inside Chaos Keep penetrated every corner of the structure even in the brightest of days. Salmetu was now so joined to the dark that she bathed in shadow and rejoiced during the setting of Utu.
Tonight is a special night for her. She will be gaining some insight into the boy who would have been her brother before she was reborn. “Bring the man child forward and place him before me.” She commanded of the zealots in attendance.
Isten sat off to the side of the room observing the weaving that was beyond his power and comprehension. When they found this boy he was barely breathing. Only through weaving was he kept alive and prepared to be brought before the priestess so she might use him. Tonight Salmetu would breath chaos into his shi and make a tool out of him. Salmetu placed a hand on his forehead and looked deeply into his empty eyes.
“KUKU-MA, SI NE BUR, TAMUSU BAMU!”
With the weaving and a flourish of her hands, Salmetu’s shi glowed and a stream flowed from her to Bastien in an attempt to join them as master and slave. “It still cannot be done. Take him to his cell until I find what to do about him.” Salmetu said as she wavered slightly and sat back at her throne in the main chamber of the keep. Something was preventing her spell work. She was frustrated and furious.
“Isten! I have need of food.” She shouted and the usually dominant Isten acquiesced to her command and left to get her what she ordered.
***
“Please come in and sit,” came the soft voice with effort from the confines of her sickbed.
“I do not wish to disrupt your rest my lady,” Fallon said with a slight and respectful bow.
“You can dispense with formalities brother there is no one around,” she said as Fallon entered the room to face his guest. “What news do you have of my children?” Sulura said as she turned her weakened form to her husband’s half brother.
“Events are unfolding as we have planned thanks to your foresight,” Fallon said as he stretched for her outreached hand.
“And of my husband?” She implored.
“I am sorry but there has been no word, but a mutual friend is watching for signs of his progress or at least his whereabouts.”
***
“Shuran your progress is unprecedented!” Andra exclaimed. “I feel that there is nothing more for me to leave you with, but one tool before I leave.”
“What do you mean leave?” Shuran exclaimed.
“My time with you has always been simply to set you on the proper path. I have done this and more. It is time I return to my people and prepare them for what is to come,” Andra said more cryptically than usual.
Shuran read this to mean he would get no further explanation. “What do you wish for me to learn my dear friend?”
“You must learn what it is to shift and what a shifter truly is.”
Confused, Shuran took Andra’s extended hand, allowing him to fully explore the being that was not part of his book of anatomy. What Shuran felt was nothing he had yet experienced?
His own body began morphing from form to form. Each face he took on as different from the next that he began to weep. Shuran felt what it meant to never have a true shape. He felt he emptiness of being destined to mimic everything while claiming no identity for oneself.
Only then did Andra take back its hand looking into Shuran’s eyes with a shared understanding.
“Is there nothing that can be done?” Shuran pleaded.
Andra stood and looked at Shuran. “My fate is to be, for as long as needed and nothing more, for as long as the Essence flows within me.”
The sadness nearly overtook Shuran before he gathered himself. “I shall miss you.”
Andra left the next morning with only Shuran to see off his friend. They went into the vault alone and Shuran closed the entrance behind them as they entered.
When the others woke to find them not in the tower ruins, Mally went out to find them. He showed up at the vault entrance to find Shuran exiting alone with a gloss to his eyes.
“Andra has left for home. I do not know if or when we might meet again,” Shuran said as he passed Mallick. Before Mallick could question him, Shuran called out for him to follow to the clearing around the corner. When Mallick rounded the corner he found an Inquisitor standing before him.
***
“Wh
at are they doing now?” asked the dwarf to his companions. “This duty bites more than the cold. And Utu is making my eyes ache!” He continued to complain.
“Stop your complaining Avrank. When the elders deemed us go watch the Durangug, that is what we do.” Dvargan and Grafdrik said.
“Hand me the wine skin I have a thirst.” He continued as they watched the man-lings down at the ruins of what was once a castle built upon the ancient home to the watcher of the lands, Shin’Ar.
Dvargan closed the spyglass and tucked it into his satchel. “I am thinking we have enough to take back to the elders. The time we were told about seems to approach. Only the chosen one could have entered the chamber.” The three dwarves picked up their things and headed back to the cave entrance behind them.
***
Shuran worked in earnest practicing his newest skill of shifting into other forms.
Mallick helped by finding a spell to transmute his garments as well as his appearance. He was convincing most of the time and after the initial shock of being confronted by an inquisitor, Mallick was becoming more helpful in suggesting where Shuran was having problems.
“You are too big to be Moona or Codger!” Mally said.
“I know but that cannot be helped. Andra said that I could borrow Essence to become something larger.”
“Yah that snow bear you did earlier nearly scared Moona out of her wrinkled old skin,” Mally interrupted.
“You be careful who you be callin’ old smart arse!” Moona yelled from across the room.
“I kinda like your wrinkles.” Codger whispered next to her.
Moona just grunted as she smacked Codger in the back of the head. Then she smiled to herself.
Shuran shifted back to himself from Codger’s form. “The problem is to become something less is to give up something of myself. I would have to be able to store that part of myself somewhere safe in order to get it back,” Shuran finish with frustration.
“Ah!” Mally said as he got up and ran to a shelf to retrieve a book. “What you need is a keepsafe!” Mally said.
“As I understand this, you create a spelled chamber of gugtu, or magicked lodestone. With a proper binding you can send and retrieve anything from this location with a thought. Perhaps it would work with your… extra bits?” Mally questioned.
Shuran thought about it and finally answered. “It might work if the vessel is protected. And where does someone go about finding lodestone?” Shuran asked.
Mally just grimaced and gestured. “You are standing inside it you dur!”
Shuran just stared in shock at Mally’s suggestion.
“I would literally loose myself in this place!” Shuran gasped.
Mally just shrugged.
Shuran placed his bloodied palm on the door to the chamber over the new inscription of his name in the language of the first people. He intoned the spell to bind his will to the room and immediately felt the overwhelming rush of the chamber’s inventory run through his mind. He passed out cold.
Later when Moona pouring iced water over his head awaked him he jumped up with a start and a head splitting pain.
“What happened to you?” Mally asked.
After several moments Shuran finally gathered his sense enough to answer. “When I bound myself to the room, everything in it became mine. I know everything that is in the chamber.” Shuran said in shock.
“You mean you understand all this?” Codger asked.
“Not exactly, I know the contents I can reference the available texts my title and inventory of artifacts, but I do not understand everything outright. I still need to learn more of the language and history of the first people,” Shuran finished, as if the others should understand what he just said.
Later that evening the group ate dinner and talked of what was to come.
“It is time I left to follow the path that my father laid out before me.” Shuran said.
“What path boy? You think ‘cause you are all mighty powerful now you can take on the Order alone?” Moona held a scowl on her face that would make a forest troll cower in fear.
“He will not be alone.” Mallick answered before Shuran could speak.
“Oh so now both you spratlings got your brains all addled!” Moona said.
“I do not know what my father was doing but it had to be important. So I must find out if he is still out there and help finish what he started,” Shuran looked dutifully.
“Once you figure out what it is, you mean.” Codger finally spoke up. “Moony dear, we won’ be stoppin, ‘em from goin’ best we can do is be here for um learning what we can and keepin’ things safe. We have the talking stones now.”
After dinner Shuran practiced storing and retrieving items from the vault. He only moved things in and out that were not part of the original library so he might protect them from damage. He still was uncertain what would happen to anything if it were removed from the protection of the vault’s spell work.
For now he would rely on copies of originals and hopefully not need any artifacts that he was yet unsure of what they did, if anything. He was not yet ready to try storing part of his Essence there yet and thought it something only done in extreme need. For now he was content with sending crystals, notes and supplies.
“This will certainly make traveling easier not having to carry everything with us,” Mally commented.
“How much energy does it take from you?” Codger asked.
“That is just it, I hardly feel a draw at all. It is as if the room is now part of me and I can just reach in as though placing my hand in a pocket of my garments,” Shuran answered. “Codger perhaps you could do some reading on the subject?” Shuran asked and Codger nodded back in reply.
“Are you going to tell us why Andra left?” Codger asked.
“He said he had to prepare the foresworn for what is to come. What that means he did not explain,” Shuran answered.
“He did not leave on foot, did he use one of your crystals?” Mallick asked.
Shuran looked up at his friends and sighed. “Not exactly, he found something in the vault or rather something about it. I am sworn not to speak of it yet,” Shuran said before anyone could question him on it further. “I was not even certain it worked until Andra sent a message by stone from a second set I created. I have made new ones with Andra’s help.”
Shuran pulled back his sleeve to producing an arm brace of a silver alloy. Set in the brace was two gemstones. He then reached out with a thought and produced three more items with similar features but only one stone on each. “The red gem on each is for communication-” Shuran said before Codger interrupted.
“And the clear stone? I assume the second on your brace alone is for you to speak with Andra.” Codger said rather than asked.
Shuran nodded and handed Mallick an arm brace and a pendant to each Moona and Codger.
Mallick and Codger put on their articles and they immediately flashed with a glow settled over each of them before dissipating. “I have also created the stones so that only we can use them and will return to the vault if they were to somehow fall into the wrong hands. If something were to happen to the owner and your Essence drops below acceptable levels, the artifact will transport you into the vault.”
“Well that is all well and good for the rest o’ ya but you forget somethin’ Shuran,” Moona said feeling somehow less than she should. She had not yet placed her pendant around her neck.
“I have a solution for that if you are willing.” Shuran gave Moona a slight smile.
Chapter Eleven
Shuran led Moona into the vault alone where he asked her to stand in the now open center interior chamber.
Moona noticed that each of the pedestals now held a crystal shard. Each shard a different color that corresponded to the element represented by a symbol carved into the pedestal.
He reached out for her hand and placed his over top of hers. Within moments his mind was racing through her locating and repairing the corrupted markers in
her genes. By the time he finished he was sweating and visibly tired.
“You have exhausted yourself. Why didn’ you use one of your fancy rocks?” Moona said trying to hide her gratitude behind sarcasm.
“The first part had to be done without excess power. It required finesse and concentration that I have not mastered yet using an ABNU EMUQ. However, this next part requires no delicacy and it will likely sting a bit.” Shuran looked up at Moona sideways and she sneered back. “Ok it will sting like Xul is sticking you with dragon stone needles or burn like Kibalga!” He admitted.
“Just get this over with,” She cringed.
Shuran stepped out of the chamber and walked over to the earth stone and placed a hand on it. Immediately the shard began to glow and pulse. He then walked over to the pedestal containing a shard of green crystal.
As soon as Shuran touched it the chamber Moona stood in went pitch black then a steady stream of green light burst up from the floor and engulfed Moona.
She screamed.
Moments later Shuran helped Moona out of the chamber and onto a cot in a secluded section of the vault. He laid her back and then brought a water skin to her lips. After a couple sips Moona opened her eyes and looked up at Shuran with tears in her eyes.
“Thank you!”
Shuran nodded back.
“Now get that water away from me and get he some of Codger’s brew. That hurt worse than birthing a sprat!”
Shuran smiled and left Moona to get what she asked.
After he left, Moona reached into one of her many pockets and pulled out her pendant. Slowly she placed the chain over her head and immediately gasped when it activated. “DAMKIANNA! Bless that boy!”
“What is that thing… chamber?” Moona asked Shuran after she had rested enough to regain her strength.
Chronicles of Aurderia: The Balance Page 13
