Book of Names (Casters of Syndrial 1)

by Rain Oxford

  “Then put them in Trickster’s.”

  “Where is Trickster going to sleep?”

  “He’s in the kingdom of Osiris.”

  “I thought he was supposed to be back by now.”

  “I thought so, too, but he’s not.”

  “You have a priest who’s a trickster?” I asked.

  “Yes. We often wished we didn’t, but there’s nothing we can do to get rid of him except send him to other temples temporarily.”

  “I like Trickster,” Keeper argued. “Come this way.” We followed him and Whisperer and Reader left us alone. I was glad; I didn’t get a good vibe from them.

  The room was pretentious. The floor was polished dark blue stone, as was the ceiling. I had no idea what the stone was, but it was impressive. The walls were rich red stone with gold flecks. A stained glass and metal writing desk against the east wall gave the room a modern look. It was covered in scrolls, books, quills, and inkwells. On the north wall was the bed, which was midway between a queen and king, covered in the bluest blankets I had ever seen. The bed was made of black marble with gold veins. Against the east wall was a wood and metal chest. The room was lit by a lantern on the desk and two wall sconces on either side of the bed.

  “Your room is nicer than this?” Luca asked.

  Although our apartment had furniture, electronics, and personal items, this sparsely furnished room screamed “rich.”

  “It is. If you would like, you can have my chamber and I will take this one.”

  “No, this is more than we need. Well, except for the bed. We’ll need a second bed.”

  “I will make sure one is brought in immediately, along with appropriate robes.”

  Luca and I decided to get out of their way and get a minute to ourselves, so we checked out the bathroom. The floor and walls were sandstone. It had four clouded glass shower stalls along the north wall, four toilet stalls along the west wall, and a stone, in-ground bathtub in the middle of the room. The bathtub was more like an elliptical hot tub, already full of hot water. Four tan towels hung from hooks on the wall beside the showers. Even without electricity, they weren’t an underdeveloped civilization.

  We were alone, so I breathed easier.

  “So, how are we going to stop the Painter?” Luca asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t even care. I just want to get us home.” I checked out one of the shower stalls. It was about three-foot by four-foot with light blue, stone tiles and a sort of reed-mat on the bottom. The showerhead was straight above and made of metal. In the corner was a metal cup of liquid soap sitting on a built-in, stone shelf.

  “It doesn’t look like the gods are going to let us.”

  “We saw a woman appear and read my mind once. I’m not convinced there are gods.”

  “But I can speak their language and I couldn’t before.”

  I stripped and got in the shower. As soon as I did, warm water started flowing out of the showerhead. I didn’t know how clean the water was or how affective the soap was, but as I watched the dirt rinse off me, I was glad I had a shower.

  I also needed time to verbalize my side of the argument. I was a writer, not a speaker. “I’m not denying the magic,” I said over the flow of water. The pressure wasn’t as high as in a regular shower, so it wasn’t too loud. “I’m not completely convinced they’re not trying to trick us, but I can accept that there is magic. I don’t fully accept that I have it and I’m not on board with believing in gods.”

  Our parents raised us to question what we were told and trust in science. I was agnostic, not atheist; I could accept anything if I was shown enough proof, but it was proof on my terms. I didn’t see miracles in coincidences. Luca and I chose to watch movies and shows with magic because we wanted to believe in magic. It made life so much more entertaining and opened up options we didn’t have in the regular world. As much as we didn’t believe something would happen that would prove magic was real, we were hoping it would.

  “You’re thinking of a god as a being who knows all, creates all, and controls all, right? Passes judgments, makes rules, and inflicts catastrophes on the wicked?” Luca asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Well, don’t. These are completely different gods. They’re more like powerful creatures of magic. They’re arrogant, but fallible, and they’re not all-knowing. They’re not watching over everyone. They have weaknesses. They have motives.”

  That was a reasonable point. I wanted to know the motives of the gods, if they didn’t just want more power.

  I thought about it as I got out of the shower and dried off. My clothes and boots were caked in dirt as well, so I carried them as we returned to the room. There weren’t any women or girls to object to me wearing just a towel.

  When we returned to the room, clothes had been laid out and another bed had been brought in. It wasn’t just a cot as we had been expecting but a full sized bed, identical to the one that had already been in the room.

  “How did they get that in here so fast?”

  “Magic?” Luca asked.

  I pulled my cellphone and wallet out of my pocket and turned the phone on. Seventy-six percent battery… no signal. There’s a shocker. I turned it back off.

  I put on the clothes that had been placed on the bed; a tan tunic and dark brown pants. There was also a pair of reed-flip-flops, which I scoffed at. The robe they provided was silver and billowy. It was way too big for either of us. “This is not going to work,” I said, checking out the sleeves that would almost fit around my waist.

  “They’re probably ceremonial,” Luca said. “The priest robes are flashier than the apprentice robes, so these are probably a sign of our status. We can use that to make the priests treat the apprentices better.”

  “It’s not our place to change them. They’ve probably been this way for thousands of years and the priests seem to turn out alright.”

  “Just because they’re stubborn doesn’t mean we can’t fix them.”

  “They’re people, not software. It’s not our place to change anything. If they’re beating the apprentices, we’ll put a stop to it, but there’s a difference between discipline and abuse.”

  “Well, I say they’re crossing it.”

  “Talk to the boys before you make trouble for them. Or don’t. I don’t plan on us being here long enough to get to know anyone.”

  He shrugged. “What’s so good about home, anyway? We have no friends or family left to miss us. We had no adventure. We really weren’t on the path for adventure.”

  “Adventure isn’t safe.”

  He rolled his eyes. “That’s the point. We have an opportunity here.”

  “We could die here.”

  “I could have been hit by a bus if we hadn’t come here. I love Ancient Egypt. Now we’re on a world of Ancient Egypt! Please let us stay. You can learn a little magic, slay a little painter, and then we can be back in time to pay the cable bill. I just want a few days to study some of their books and maybe master the Ancient Egyptian language.”

  I sighed. “You have to promise to be careful.”

  “I’m always careful.”

  “I mean it. We lost all of our friends and family. I’m not going to lose you.”

  “You’ll never lose me, man,” he said solemnly “I’ll be right beside you on the day you take your last breath… holding the pillow over your face.”

  Chapter 4

  I woke with tight shoulders and a throbbing headache. I was also alone. I sat up slowly and got my bearings before getting out of bed. I really needed some coffee and a toothbrush. After putting on my dirty clothes, ignoring the clothes they provided, I donned the silver robe. As I had suspected, it looked almost ridiculous on me. I’m going to have to lose this. Luca’s robe had been left on his bed.

  Figuring he wouldn’t actually be in trouble for not having it, I found my way to the dining hall. I had to ask for directions a couple of times. The simple addition of my robe made a serious impact on my welcome.
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  Everyone acted happy I was there instead of frightened. The dining hall was full of two dozen boys, evenly dispersed in age from about five to late teens. I watched them go into the kitchen and followed them.

  The kitchen was full of old-fashioned equipment and cooking utensils, including a staggering number of clay pots. Along the wall to my right was a metal table covered in pots of food. Along the wall to my right were fires and pots hanging over those fires. Two massive stoves cluttered the center of the room. The room felt chaotic and that wasn’t the first thing I wanted to see in the morning, so I grabbed the closest food– a chunk of bread– and left. I didn’t bother taking a seat while I ate and instead headed for the only priest I saw.

  “Good morning.”

  “Good morning, Nathan.”

  “I don’t think we’ve met yet.” He had dark blue eyes with specks of purple in them, and the darkest red hair I’d ever seen. He was probably in his early thirties and was a couple of inches shorter than me.

  “No. I haven’t had that honor. I am the Traveler.”

  “Your power is to travel?”

  “I can create a portal to any world, any place, and any time.”

  “You can send me home?”

  “Not until the gods release you, I’m afraid. I would be killed and banished to the fires of Kradga.”

  “I can actually understand that, even though I want to go home. Do you have a library?”

  “We have a study full of books for the apprentices and a study that is private for the priests.”

  “I’ll need to see them both. Let’s start with the public one.”

  “What for?” he asked respectfully.

  “My brother was gone when I woke and I’m sure he’s either in the library or worse. Let’s hope it’s the former.”

  “I see. I would be happy to spread the word that you are looking for your brother, but you are needed in the courtyard immediately.”

  “For what?”

  “Your training.”

  “Oh, yeah, the magic thing. Yay.”

  “Your lack of enthusiasm belittles your words.”

  “I’ve heard that before. Anyway, I’ll go to the courtyard or whatever, but I’m not going to be able to concentrate until I know he’s safe.” He was always looking for trouble, which was why he stayed with me instead of moving out on his own.

  As Traveler led me to the courtyard, I asked him about the apprentices.

  “Every apprentice meets in the training chamber after breakfast and begins when the bells toll. You’re not joining them because we don’t want to accidentally offend you. You are older than them, and even those who have been here a day know more about our world than you.”

  “How young do you start training them?”

  “It depends on the child. We test every child on their birthdays from the age of five to ten. If they haven’t developed magic by then, they’re not going to. If they have magic, we take them in and teach them until they are ready to take their trials. If they aren’t ready by twenty, we expel them.”

  “What if I did the trials?” I asked. “What power would I have?”

  “That is up to the gods.”

  “Are you guys going to teach me what happens in them?”

  “Everyone’s trials are unique. The gods will test you on your strengths and weaknesses. Less than half of the people who take them survive.”

  I stopped. “Are you saying that half the boys here are going to die?”

  “We all die, Nathan. No one here is afraid of death.”

  “Why would anyone go through that?”

  “Magic is a gift you must earn. The priests have all earned it. There is a balance in the universe, and any person in this temple will give their lives to keep it. You will understand soon.”

  At that point, we reached the door to the courtyard. “I’m convinced this is a different world and that I’m stuck here until I recover a stolen book. I’m not convinced that I have magic or that you talk to gods. I need to see proof before I believe it.” I entered the courtyard and closed the door behind me before he could tell me something a cult leader would say.

  Proof to me was physical, not spiritual. I didn’t have faith. If people could prove the existence of a god, they wouldn’t need faith, so religion was based on it.

  Although I called the bad things that happened to people I cared about a curse, I never actually thought it was the result of magic; I thought I was somehow a bad influence on everyone I cared about, as well as those who angered me. It was more like I was unlucky. However, if magic was real, then curses were real, and if it was a legitimate curse, then it could legitimately be broken.

  Waiting in the courtyard was Keeper. He was sitting on a stone bench, reading a book. White roses surrounded him, clashing with the dark green of the bushes they grew on. Keeper’s white hair against his black robes was just as stark.

  “Well, we haven’t got all day,” the man said impatiently, not looking up from his book.

  “I don’t know what you want me to do.”

  He pointed his frail, thin finger at the ground in front of him. “Sit,” he ordered. I hesitated, so he said, “When I was your age, I sat on the ground for days on end. Chairs are for the old and feeble. I wish I could do what I used to without agonizing pain.”

  With a sigh, I sat.

  “Good. Now we can begin. The magic we will teach you is domatago, which is lower magic that will help you to pass the trials. If you should become a priest, you will then learn higher magic; getatago. Getatago is magic of the gods, whereas domatago is magic of your mind. To master domatago, you must train your mind.”

  “I’m going to need a better explanation of the difference. I may have been born here, but I have no clue about this stuff.”

  “Domatago can affect anything that is inanimate or doesn’t have a will. Getatago magic is ritual magic and potions. Gods can do both types of magic with just their minds. Man and god alike need a person’s true name to control that person’s actions.”

  “So someone can control me by knowing my name?”

  “Your true name. Since you were born here, your mother should have whispered your true name to you. Thus, the name ‘Nathan’ holds no power. Your brother, however, can be controlled, because other worlds do not protect their names like we do.”

  “What about family names?”

  “I don’t know what that is.”

  “Never mind then. You don’t know Luca’s full name, so you can’t control him.”

  “His culture hides part of his name?” he asked, impressed.

  I decided not to tell him that wasn’t the case. I was glad to know they couldn’t do anything to him as long as he didn’t tell anyone his last name. “Anyway, your title doesn’t really explain what your power is.”

  “I am a Keeper of secrets.”

  “How is that magic?”

  “No one, not even the gods, can get a secret from me, not by manipulation or reading it from my mind.”

  “I take back what I said. That’s an awesome power.”

  “In what way do you take back what you said?” he asked, confused.

  I was confused by his confusion.

  “It means that I was wrong when I suggested your power wasn’t… powerful.”

  He frowned, mulling that over. “Am I supposed to forget the words you said?”

  “No. That’s impossible.”

  “Then how can you take back words? What is said cannot be unsaid.”

  “That’s true.”

  “If you agree to that, then you should be more selective of your words.”

  I shrugged. “I guess that’s a flaw of mine; I’m used to editing my words before it’s seen by others. I’m not so good with speaking.”

  He frowned at me, as if trying to figure out what I was made of. “People also can’t help but to tell me their secrets.”

  “Oh. That sucks.”

  “Yet you have not revealed any secrets to me.”

/>   I shrugged. “I don’t think I have any real secrets, and I definitely don’t have any that I wouldn’t tell Luca.”

  He nodded with understanding. “That explains it. If you tell it to him, it would do you no good to tell me. Keeping secrets to yourself is like holding a fire in your hand.”

  “So you help people by letting them share your secrets with you? That makes sense. That’s probably why I tell Luca everything. Now, what magic do I need to know so that I can defeat the Painter and go home?”

  “The magic you use depends on you. To kill someone, you can drop a rock on them with domatago, stop their heart with getatago, or make them stab themselves in the heart with their true name.”

  “So I need getatago.”

  “Getatago is slower because it requires preparation. You must master domatago as your foundation. First, you must quiet your mind and visualize what it is you want to do. Then you will say the words. Djehoka sita megat. These words have power, but you must control them.”

  “Djehoka sita megat.”

  “Eventually, you will whittle it down until you can see it in your mind and command it. Dje.” The rock suddenly levitated into the air.

  I was skeptical of what I couldn’t see, but I wasn’t blind; I didn’t twist the facts to fit into my beliefs. I didn’t accuse the old man of using wires or mirrors. Magic was real, at least for him.

  My mind started to wander after about ten minutes and I was instantly brought back to awareness by a sharp pain. “I don’t think you’re supposed to whip the steward of the gods,” I said, glaring as he put his thin stick back into his belt. I tried to massage the sting out of my left hand.

  “I will do you that kindness. A weak-willed mind should be whipped into obedience or you will never get stronger. If you want to be treated like a delicate flower, you will be plucked at your prime and marveled for your beauty alone. If you want to be a caster of Syndrial, you must be willing to sting your enemies, and that requires a sharp mind.”

  I studied that rock so hard I expected to see it in my dreams. I sat there for about three hours, visualizing the rock levitating into the air. My mind only drifted once more before I realized he knew exactly what I was thinking. After a while, it became easier to focus.