At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “Very well, let’s all be off on our ways. Alec, meet me up here about an hour before noon,” Rubicon said as he stood.

  Moriah and Nathaniel offered to help Cassie to return to her room, but she asked if she could stay and sit in the sunshine, so everyone withdrew, leaving Cassie to sit and enjoy the sunshine and her living dream come true.

  Alec went back to his supply room to repack his medical supply bag, and to try to anticipate what he would need in the test today. In short order he felt confident that he had all the items that would be most useful under the widest varieties of needs, and so returned to the balcony to sit with Cassie.

  “Alec, I’m glad you’ve come back,” her face lit up into a wider smile when she saw Alec re-appear on the balcony. “Watch what I can do,” she said excitedly, and without hesitation pushed herself up with her arms so that she was standing beside the table, using it for only minimal support.

  “I think I only need to work on balance. These legs have the strength I need to get around.” She sat down again.

  “I know what I want to do the rest of my life,” she told him. “As I sat here and felt the sun and watched the waves, I realized I want to be with you. I want to be your assistant, and help you when you do great things to heal other people, just as you healed me. You said you needed to treat me to heal yourself; well, I think I need to treat others to repay what you and God have given me.”

  Alec looked at the girl, and felt a tingle in his scalp. He wondered how much hero-worship and how much life commitment were mingled together in her statement. He did not want to belittle or discount what she might do, even though she was only slightly younger than him.

  “That’s a topic we’ll have to think about, and not make a snap decision. I’m not going to be in Oyster Bay for very long Cassie,” he told her. “You’d have to come back to Goldenfields with me perhaps.”

  “The only thing I know about Oyster Bay is that I stayed in a hut and never saw anything but the few people who came to see me,” she said bitterly. “Leaving this city won’t be a problem for me.”

  “I’ll think about what’s best,” he told her. “Can you read?” he asked suddenly.

  “No, no one ever taught me,” she admitted.

  “We’ll have to give you lessons,” he said. “You’ll need to know how to read and write whether it’s to help me or to do other things in life.”

  They sat quietly together in the sunlight on the balcony, Alec answering innumerable questions about the birds that flew by and how quickly people walked from place to place in the city and other topics that came to the mind of the girl who had seen little of the world.

  As the two sat there together, Rubicon arrived. “Alec, are you ready to go today?” he asked. “Do you have everything packed that you need?”

  “I’m ready to go. I don’t know what I’ll need until I know what I’m going to treat. I’ve tried to pack a good variety of items that can meet multiple needs,” Alec said.

  “Very well, let’s go down the hill,” Rubicon said.

  Chapter 14 – The Ordeal at the Council

  Alec and Rubicon walked down the hill, past Aristotle’s house, to a large building Alec had never entered or paid attention to before. “This is the Hall of Ingenairii, occasionally used for ceremonies, more often used for dances, most frequently used as an illicit meeting place for young men and ladies who should be spending their time doing something productive. Do you come here often?” Rubicon asked Alec jovially.

  “No, I’ve never come here,” Alec replied seriously, only catching Rubicon’s humor after the fact.

  A pair of great doors in the center of the hall was standing open, guarded by a single man, who acknowledged their arrival and waved them in.

  In the middle of the cavernous floor sat a ring of chairs, all of which were occupied, eleven in all.

  “Those are the heads of the ten houses, plus Aristotle, leader of the Council. You’ll need six votes in your favor. They’ll be ready for you in a minute, and call you forward. “Either Aristotle will make the case for your right to this test, or he’ll ask you to explain why and how it should be conducted. In either case, you obviously need to speak carefully and politely. If they ask any questions about your activities in my house, just let them know that you have been my guest, awaiting this trial, and you’ve had some cursory training in how to more smoothly reach the energy source, mostly conducted by apprentices,” Rubicon advised.

  A gentle murmur of several quiet conversations echoed through the room. The two visitors walked over and took seats in a row of chairs behind Aristotle, visible to some of the council members, but not to others.

  “Is the applicant ready to face the Council?” He heard Aristotle’s voice raised in ceremonial tones, quieting the room down to a hush.

  “The applicant is present,” Willis replied from his spot standing behind Aristotle.

  “Let the applicant address the Council,” Aristotle ordered.

  Rubicon nudged Alec, and Willis turned to beckon him.

  Alec walked towards the gathering, and slipped through an opening to stand in the middle of the group. He recognized several faces from the introductions Rubicon had made in recent days. All the faces, known and unknown, maintained impartial expressions.

  “Alec, you are here to request an extraordinary action of the ingenairii council,” Ari read from a paper he held. “You wish to be acknowledged as a healer ingenaire, and to re-establish the healer house as a part of our community.

  “We do not know of any previous cases of a house that has been reactivated after its community has become extinct. But there is no explicit prohibition against it either. Presuming the Council is willing to take this extraordinary action, do you have precedents to show that this Council may engage in the steps necessary to acknowledge you as a full healer?”

  Alec realized that Aristotle was going to maintain the neutrality of the chairman’s seat in this process, and let Alec make his case himself. Alec gathered his thoughts, glad he had studied the ancient healer files repeatedly and with Rubicon, and began his comments. It appeared he would have carte blanche to make his case, so throwing caution to the wind, he decided to make an unusual request.

  “Council members, I have been among you now for several days, staying in the house of Rubicon the warrior, waiting for this opportunity to speak.

  “According to the ancient records of the healer house, there are precedents used in past times that apply to my request for activation as a healer. These are out-of-the-ordinary, and reflect a particular circumstance of the healers in one instance, and an expedient circumstance in another instance.” He silently said a prayer of thanks for the time he had spent with Rubicon going over the records, and the warrior’s suggested line of argument, which he was using now.

  “The extraordinary circumstance has to do with a holy site that both the healers and the church acknowledge. In the Pale Mountains there is a holy site known as the Cave of John Mark. It is the spot from which the prophet first beheld our land when he was brought here to preach the gospel of our Savior. The site is empowered with great holy powers. A person who visits it has conferred upon them the power of miraculous healing, in accordance with the powers that the healers recognize in their tests of ascension to full ingenaire status.”

  Alec stopped to take a breath, and wished he had brought a drink of water with him. He felt his throat growing dry.

  “I have been to that cave, and received the gift of powers that it confers,” he told the group. There were murmurs and an audible gasp from behind him. “It is the healers’ tradition that an individual who has visited the cave be raised to ingenaire status with only cursory approval.

  “That is the extraordinary reason to justify my request. The other reason also comes from the records of the healers. It shows that as the healers’ numbers were declining centuries ago, they reached a point at which there was only one member left. When he received new apprentices, he chose to ask the counci
l to confirm them rather than make that decision solely on his own.

  “The ingenairii council agreed to approve the test for those healer apprentices, and established the precedent for you to take such an action today.

  “There was a more ancient time when simply displaying the mark,” he held up his right arm so that the sleeve slid down, “allowed the head of the house to admit a new member. But we seem to miss having a head of house to make it so easy,” he grinned wistfully.

  Alec stopped talking, and took a step back to show that he was done.

  Aristotle waited through a moment of silence. “Council members,” he addressed them, “what do you say to this request?”

  “I witnessed what he did yesterday,” Peter, the head of Spirit house said. “I do not doubt that the boy is a full healer ingenaire.”

  “I agree. It was truly a work that only a masterful ingenaire could perform,” said the leader of the Air house from the other side of the circle.

  Alec saw two more heads nodding.

  “It seems that we are rushing to just call him an ingenaire, and I think we need to slow down and reflect on how dangerous a precedent that is to establish,” said the head of the Fire ingenairii, Fallion. “There may be precedent for us to raise him to ingenaire, but I’m sure there were rigorous procedures used to maintain the assurance that a person of sufficient power was considered, and not just an accidental good performance or the friend of the powerful or an intimidating figure.”

  “That seems a good point,” the Warrior leader spoke up. “The boy has powers, I agree, but what exactly are those powers, and can he control them masterfully enough?”

  “You were there yesterday afternoon. You saw with your own eyes what he did,” Genia, the leader of the Water house said. She had been one of those nodding earlier in support of Alec’s claim. “What would you call it if not a great work of a powerful ingenaire? It showed discipline, control, and patience in administering his energies.”

  Julian responded, “Yes, it was stupendous, and showed an ability to do a difficult task and to sustain the effort over a very long period to accomplish something. But we can’t just willy-nilly have the council saying to folks ‘you’re an ingenaire, you’re an ingenaire, and you’re an ingenaire.’ Let’s establish a study of the matter about how to consider this request.”

  Spirit’s Peter jumped in. “Didn’t you say that there was already a process established? How did the council approve the apprentices in the past, Alec?”

  “The records show that an apprentice was required to heal obvious health problems that could not be corrected without the use of energies,” Alec explained.

  Aristotle spoke up. “I asked Willis to check the records of the Council for the dates the healer records indicate what happened. Willis, can you summarize for the council what, if anything happened that contradicts or confirms the healer’s claims?”

  Willis stepped forward. “The records show that two healer apprentices were presented to the Council by the head of the healer house. The apprentices healed three cases of apparently incurable conditions before the Council, and the Council voted to confirm that they were to be considered ingenairii.”

  “And the other case,” Aristotle asked Willis, “please.”

  The secretary picked up a different volume from his stack. “The Council heard from the healers on seven occasions that a candidate for ingenaire had been vouched for having visited the Cave of John Mark, had performed an ingenaire healing, and was confirmed as a full ingenaire.”

  “Thank you Willis,” Aristotle said.

  “Our house also has a precedent like that,” Peter said. “There is a location in the very heart of the cathedral where the bones of John Mark the prophet are said to be interred. No one knows where that room is, other than deep in the catacombs of the church. But a handful of times in our history individuals have found the room, and been suffused with spiritual power so great that we have conferred ingenaire status on them.”

  “The ancient legends in fact reveal five such holy sites that produce an alteration in the powers of a person who visits them,” Aristotle said.

  “But how would we really know that this boy has been to such a site?” Fallion asked. “I don’t think we can just take his word for it, no disrespect intended. It gets back to the question of setting a bad precedent if we do that. Why don’t we come back together when we have selected potential patients to be cured, and bring the boy back to exercise his powers then?”

  “The applicant,” Aristotle said, contrasting the title against Fallion’s reference to ‘the boy,’ “has a witness who I believe will be relied upon by the council to vouch for his visit to the cave.

  “I was there and saw him come down from the cave. He healed me, and probably saved my life. I will vouch for him,” Aristotle said with deceptive quietness.

  The room grew silent for a second, then several ingenairii spoke to their neighbors.

  “I feel that we can accept the applicant’s claim of a visitation to the cave,” Genia said. “Plus he has the mark on his arm.”

  “And I saw the healing he performed yesterday. It was masterful ingenaire powers, or it was nothing,” Straynon from Air said.

  “I make a motion that we grant ingenaire status to Alec as a member of the Healers House,” Genia said.

  “I second the motion,” Straynon said.

  “There is a motion on the floor. Is there further discussion?” Aristotle asked.

  “There is an unpleasant issue I feel I must raise,” Dosta, leader of the metal ingenairii said.

  “Recently, a young woman was attacked in a most brutal manner in our city, in a home not far from this ingenairii enclave. She was attacked with a blade, the weapon with which this young hot-tempered man is known to be extremely proficient. She was a good girl from a distinguished family. She was also a friend to our applicant, and I understand had entertained his affections after becoming betrothed to another suitor instead.

  “This girl, and you all must know I am referring to Noranda Locksfort, of the trading clan, was subjected to an exercise of power by our young applicant here. The powers were unlike any that we can explain, and have been the subject of some foul rumors. The results were ambiguous at best, and her body has been taken out of the city by the grieving family to remove her from this applicant’s apparently unwanted attentions.

  “I believe that we should proceed very cautiously in his case, and take no action on his application for ingenaire healer, until he has provided proof through a spiritual ingenaire that he is of sound moral character,” Dosta closed his statement by saying.

  Alec was at a loss over what to do. Peter, however, immediately responded. “As it happens, having known that the girl and the applicant were close friends, a spiritual apprentice was sent to see Alec that first evening after he revived from the ordeal at the Locksforts’, to offer any spiritual guidance that seemed appropriate. The apprentice was present for an interrogation of this applicant, applied comfort, and was able to know the mind of Alec regarding his feelings. I can assure you that Alec was not immoral or inappropriate in his powers and actions, nor was there anything improper in his relationship with the girl, other than to be grief-stricken over the loss of someone with whom he shared a high degree of mutual affection. If you like, I can call the apprentice in.”

  Dosta sank back in fury over having been anticipated and out-maneuvered on the issue. Fallion and Julian sat far back in their chairs too, tight-lipped and pale. Alec strained with all of his might to keep from looking at Aristotle, afraid he might break out in a wide grin.

  “Is there any further discussion?” Aristotle asked. “Hearing none, those in favor of the motion to grant ingenaire status to Alec as a member of the Healers House signify by raising their right hands.”

  Alec refused to turn around to see the vote of those behind him in the circle. He saw two hands raised.

  “Those opposed to the motion raise your right hands,” Ari called.
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br />   Alec saw four hands go up.

  “The vote of the council is five votes in favor, and five votes opposed,” Ari said. “As such, it is the duty of the chair to break the tie. In this case, having seen the applicant’s ability as I have, I vote in favor of the motion.”

  “Congratulations Healer Alec, you are herby accorded the title of Ingenaire, and are pressed with the weighty duty of restoring among us the powers and benefits of the Healers’ House. You may leave the meeting now, and visit my office tomorrow so that we may determine the administrative and budgetary aspects of your house.”

  Chapter 15 – A Party at Rubicon’s

  The council meeting dissolved while Alec left the circle, and Aristotle declared the meeting adjourned as members rose and began speaking loudly in a series of conversations. Alec slipped over to where Rubicon still sat awaiting him.

  “So my hospitality is so bad you have to move out to your own house?” Rubicon asked him with a wide grin. “Congratulations, my boy. You’ve done something I wouldn’t have ever expected to see accomplished two months ago. We’ll have to have a dinner to celebrate tonight. As a matter of fact, I’m going to go tell cook now so he’ll have time to prepare.

  “See you uphill!”

  Alec watched Rubicon stump out of the room, and felt a slap on the back. He turned to see Suffett, the light ingenaire smiling at him, and holding out a hand to shake. “Alec, you’re so young it’s hard to believe you can deserve this, but no one who saw what you did yesterday can possibly deny it’s the right thing to do. I’m just sorry about that nasty trick Dosta tried to pull, insinuating that you had anything improper to do with that trader girl.”

  “I didn’t know what to expect today,” Alec said, “but I never expected to be accused of that. He had some facts to make it sound bad, but then he had them all twisted around away from the truth. But that is over with,” he said, while wondering if it would really be over now. Rubicon and Aristotle had warned him about the dangers of making an accusation without proof, and he wondered if he now had a permanent, undeserved stain because of the accusation made against him.