“Thanks….I think,” he said, before he smiled slowly. I smiled too as the light faded a little more. We walked to the end of the street and it rose to a slight hill where we looked out at a sprawling metropolis. We were on the outskirts of the city and, in the distance, beneath the haze, we could just see more forests and rolling hills. The haze looked to be thickest over the city centre. The air was breathable, just thick with signals in its upper levels, and those signals were changing the behaviour of the atmosphere. Evangeline and I had lived in +2134 and the haze had been so thick there, we’d hardly been able to see through it at peak signal hours. Quite a few intelligent men and women in this time segment had already guessed that the haze was the earliest sign of the Meltdown which was to come. Unfortunately though, no one would listen to them.
We stood on the rise and Morgan pointed to a red and blue light display flickering on a signal satellite which was flying in circles above the city. The satellite flew in the lower levels of the atmosphere and it appeared on and off as it circled through the thickest part of the haze. The daylight faded again and, when the temperature dropped again too, I fastened my jacket and turned up my collar before we turned back towards the Quest house. We had plenty of time, but Morgan was starving and he didn’t want to risk being excluded from the evening meal just for being a few minutes late.
We returned to the house just as darkness fell and, when Morgan pushed against the front door with the flat of his hand, it opened smoothly thanks to a control panel which was now set to ‘manual voice override”.
The others, except for Caspian, were already standing in the dining room when we arrived and Caspian arrived a few minutes after us just before Marko wheeled a trolley into the room. Morgan sat beside me at the end of the table and Caspian sat down opposite us. Seth and Dominic sat beside Caspian, and Evangeline sat on my other side with Erin who sat opposite Imogen. We served ourselves from large bowls of food Marko placed in the centre of the table. He’d made us slow cooked meat with barley and autumn vegetables, and there were small loaves of bread as well. Marko disappeared after he set the dishes out and neither he, nor Zurina, joined us for the meal. Two of the marker guards joined us, but they sat at the other end of the table and ate in silence. We ate in silence too for a while until Dominic took it upon himself to entertain us with a story about the time he was invited to Aldiris to take combat classes with the Champions for a week.
“They were as surprised by my skill as I was by their lack of it,” he said arrogantly, as he laughed. Beside me, Morgan looked at him across the table.
“Were these the Champions trained by the King of Aldiris that you suggest had no skill?” he asked Dominic curiously, and everyone at the table looked at me before looking to Dominic for his response. Dominic glared at Morgan but Morgan looked back at him with amusement.
“No, of course not,” Dominic said smoothly, and he turned to me. “Your father trains only the very best Livia, but I’d wager I could challenge any quester here to combat and remain victorious,” he added arrogantly. Morgan sat back in his chair and folded his arms.
“Really? How much would you wager?” he asked Dominic thoughtfully, and Dominic looked at him dismissively.
“I don’t make wagers with servants,” said Dominic scornfully, and I saw Seth and Imogen exchange smirks while Morgan simply shrugged. Seth cleared his throat.
“I went to a Tournament last turn and I was able to witness firsthand the calibre of Champions your Father produces, your Highness. The Tournament coincided with my home visit and my father and I were invited to sit with your mother to watch the first half of the day,” he said to me enthusiastically. “Our Champions defeated the Denborites in the first battle of the Tournament and it was a particularly bloody one….for the Denborites that is. Two of the Denborites were wounded almost as soon as the battle began and one lost his sword arm just below the shoulder. He refused to make the gesture of defeat and leave the field though, and he picked up his sword and kept on fighting,” Seth added, just as enthusiastically.
“I attended that Tournament too,” said Imogen, as Evangeline shook her head.
“Surely, the Denborite didn’t think he had a chance against an Aldirite Champion when he only the use of his weaker arm?” she asked Seth, who grinned.
“I think he did, but our Champion slaughtered him slowly just to teach him a lesson. The crowd loved it,” he said jovially, and Dominic and Imogen laughed.
I listened to Seth and Imogen absently as they launched into a blow by blow description of the battle between the wounded Denborite and the Aldirite Champion, and it crossed my mind that there wasn’t much honour in a slow victory over a wounded opponent, even if he was a Denborite. Our Champion was lucky an Aldirite hadn’t fallen somewhere else on the field while he was toying with his wounded opponent. The battle would have been won by the Denborites then. I kept my thoughts to myself though, and instead, I watched Caspian surreptitiously take his wad of parchments out of his inside jacket pocket. He removed a writing stick as well and he placed the parchments carefully beside his meal bowl before making a note on one of the bound pages. As usual, Caspian appeared deep in thought and he paid no attention at all to the conversation at the table as he returned the wad of parchments to his inside jacket pocket. I glanced at Morgan and he was watching Caspian too. Morgan looked at me then and shrugged. He obviously had no idea what Caspian was doing either.
Dominic and Evangeline continued to dominate the conversation for the rest of the meal and it was a relief when it was finally over. When our bowls were empty, Marko appeared magically to inform us that we were to meet Zurina in the sitting room again and he took the bowls firmly from Morgan, who had automatically begun stacking them. “You too. I’ll see to this,” said Marko, as he ushered Morgan away from the table.
Zurina was already waiting for us in the sitting room and we sat down on the sofas quickly as she put her hands on her hips. The moment we were seated, she began her session and she gave us first a brief overview of the types of quests we could expect in our finals. She opened the cupboards that lined the wall and they were filled with shelves of rolled parchments. The parchments were organised in eras and they contained lists of customs and an overview of the history of each era. She said we were welcome to peruse them before any quest. She then explained that the finals were intended to replicate the quests we could expect to be involved in once we arose and joined the Quest officially.
“The nature of a quester’s work is to travel through time to gather those materials needed for our Community to grow and function well. It’s also a quester’s duty to explore the past for new discoveries that might also be of benefit to Aldiris. Quests to new and unexplored markers are called discovery quests and those that require a collection of either materials or ideas are called gathering quests. As you can imagine, a quester can find him or herself in danger on even the most basic of gathering quests and it is the purpose of these final challenges to prepare you with the ability to deal with any and all dangers as a matter of course,” lectured Zurina briskly. She folded her arms and marched across the room.
“What is the worst situation a quester could find themselves in?” she asked us, and she was looking at me so I felt obliged to answer.
“To be without a pendant or to lose their bearings,” I said hesitantly, and Zurina almost smiled.
“Exactly,” she said. “As I’m sure you all know, your pendants only mark your way within a radius of roughly five days walk from the centre of a marker. It is imperative, especially in the Ancient, Nomadic and Synthetic Eras where it’s possible to travel at speed, that you keep one eye always on your pendant. If you lose your bearings, your pendant will no longer point to your marker, and if you lose your marker you’ll find yourself stranded in time,” said Zurina sternly, and we sat in silence as she walked around the room. “And, if you lose your pendant, you’re not worthy to be a quester after all,” she added firmly.
“How else could a quester
find themselves stranded in time?” she demanded and she nodded to Caspian who frowned slightly and leant forward in his chair.
“If a quester needed to drop from a rising marker at a setting time, that’s simply not possible so they’d be stranded in that time segment until a rising time as the marker can only be used then…..and the opposite would apply for a setting marker of course,” he said, and Zurina nodded.
“That’s right Caspian. You must keep your marker settings in mind at all times. Your tutors have organised your drops for you thus far, but it will become your responsibility to remember that a drop can only made from a rising marker at a rising time and you can only make a drop from a setting marker at a setting time,” said Zurina briskly, and she went on to outline numerous situations and examples where questers may become stranded in time due to imprisonment, or injury, or wild weather, just to name a few. She also told us of a pair of questers who were stranded in the Ancient Era for just over three weeks when a wild phoenix decided to make a nest in the middle of their marker while they were out collecting ancient plant seeds. Zurina then went on to her next topic, which covered passing and failing the challenges themselves.
“During your finals, I will give you specific times or time windows in which you are to return to the marker from which you left for your quests. If you fail to return to that marker at these times the alarm will be raised and a rescue team will be sent if possible. Now, let me be perfectly clear here. If you arrive either before, or after, the set arrival time; you will fail that challenge and this failure will be non-negotiable. A failed challenge will have to be repeated, and passed before you will be able to arise. Failure to meet the objective of a quest will also result in failure. If you are asked to collect a seed sample, a live animal, or a bag of gold, for example, and you do not do so; you will fail the challenge and this failure will also be non-negotiable,” said Zurina sternly.
She then went through safety procedures for the setting of pendants before she finally reminded us that a carelessly set pendant could result in a quester’s worst fear. The never ending drop was a slow death in unbearable pain and, as it wasn’t the type of subject any quester ended a night on, Zurina finished, instead, by outlining our schedule for the next morning. Apparently, our people owned the house next door as well and we’d be moving over there after the morning meal tomorrow to view our weapons and combat training rooms. Of course, training in these areas would continue for all of us throughout the challenges and this was in preparation for when we officially arose. All questers maintained their training schedules themselves for as long as they remained upon the Quest.
Before she left us, Zurina explained that there was Synthetic Era cavity lighting in our rooms. These lights were set on the dimmest setting and could be controlled only by the house panel. I didn’t look at Morgan as she went on to say that tonight, and also during our finals, lights out would be at set nine and she expected us to be in our dorm rooms by this time every night.
“The morning run will be at rise seven, but as it’s the seventh day, tomorrow you may meet for the morning meal at rise eight instead,” she said briskly, before she wished us ‘good set’ and promptly left the room.
I looked at my pendant. It was only a quarter clock turn now until lights out, and we all followed Seth who stood up straight away and headed for the stairs.
“Good set Livia,” said Morgan softly, before he headed into his room. I paused in the hallway and glanced at my dorm room a little apprehensively before I turned to Morgan.
“Good set, Morgan,” I said slowly, and he half smiled.
“Thanks, but I think I’ll have to sleep with one eye open in there,” he said. He gestured to his dorm room and I nodded sympathetically before I left him and went, reluctantly, into my own dorm room.
Imogen and Erin stopped whispering the moment I walked in, but I ignored them and opened my travelling bag. The cavity lighting lit the ceiling of the room with a soft, even light and I closed my hand around Josh’s music cartridge. As I folded down my blanket, I slipped the cartridge surreptitiously beneath my mattress, then I folded back a thick, cotton sheet as well.
Our bed frames were made of oak wood, which was very expensive in this particular time segment, and they were simple in design. The mattress felt like an Aldirite one though and I guessed it would have been bought here from Aldiris. The mattress slotted within shallow wooden ledges around the bed frame and Josh’s music cartridge lay between the mattress and a canvas covering which was tacked across the bed slats.
I used the bathroom after everyone else was done and I’d folded my clothes to fill in the time while I waited. The lights went out as I washed my face and I let my eyes adjust to the darkness before I left the bathroom and returned to my bed. I could already hear the unfamiliar shuffling and whispering as the other girls lay in their beds…….but I didn’t hear it for long. As soon as I undressed, I reached for my music and, as the songs mingled with the familiar longing, I wondered if Morgan was asleep yet……or whether he’d be able to sleep at all………..
CHAPTER 7:
Sunday dawned with the sun trying desperately to shine through the atmospheric mist. Our second day of orientation began with a morning meal of porridge, and this was followed by a trip to the house next door. We left our Quest house through the gate in the back courtyard and it opened onto a well-worn dirt track which lead into the trees, and along the back fences, of the houses to either side of ours. Zurina informed us we’d run along this track each morning when we returned here in a week. I looked uncomfortably at the track which disappeared into the cypress trees and I wondered how far we’d have to run as I followed the others to the house next door.
This house was almost identical to the Quest house on the outside, except the colour scheme was beige rather than grey. On the inside, however, the lower level had been modified to include a large weapons training room set up for sword and bow training and it was also fitted out with a combat mat. The walls were bare brick and the floor was laid over with smooth wooden boards. The windows were tinted and I noticed someone had marked Aldiris handball circles on the brick wall at the far end of the room. I assumed it must have been the guards. Their rooms were upstairs here and apparently Marko lived here too. Zurina had her own rooms on the lower level of the Quest house. As well as the large training room, there was another small kitchen with a smaller dining area attached, and there was a small isolation and recovery ward in case one of us or the guards took ill. There was also a storage room full of practice bows and swords, and Zurina warned us that this room was to be left tidy at all times. She then went on to outline the times we were able to use the practice room, and before we all walked back to the Quest house, she explained the rules we were to follow when practicing unsupervised. By the time Zurina finished explaining procedures for movement between the houses, it time for us to wash our hands so we could have an early midday meal before returning to our tutors in our respective time segments.
As the Quest house marker was a rising marker, we were to leave just before midday and Zurina appeared to accompany us out to the courtyard. Just before she commanded the back door to open though, she paused beside the Early Era shield which was mounted on the wall in the hallway.
Zurina reached out and removed the shield before she turned to face us.
“We’ve been through plenty of safety procedures but this tends to put what we listen to in theory into real perspective,” she said briskly…….and we all stared silently at the wall. Zurina had revealed a display of small, wooden plaques mounted together on the wall. There were eight of them, and each had a single name engraved into the polished wood.
Zurina looked at each of us solemnly.
“These are the names of those questers who were living in this very house when they lost their lives during their finals. The challenges are unforgiving to those who make mistakes. The same risks apply here as will apply on the quests you will undertake once you arise, and your training i
s essentially over once you begin these final challenges. I trust you’ll approach them with an attitude to reflect their serious nature,” she said quietly, and she touched her fingers to a plaque near the centre of the display before she turned quickly and gave a brisk voice command to the back door. We followed her silently and I wasn’t the only one of us who glanced once more at the plaques as I walked past them towards the back door.
It was on that solemn note that Zurina sent us home.
I stood with Morgan in the middle of the back courtyard and, when the grey house, Zurina, and the misty sky disappeared, we travelled together into the deep blue, painful darkness……… It was only a week now until we’d both be back……
Mirren and Jonah waited for us in the park and it felt brighter, and clearer, in +2013. Here, the sun shone unobstructed by a neon, atmospheric mist, and Morgan and I headed straight back to our houses with our respective tutors. Our schedules began again almost immediately and my afternoon consisted of unpacking, followed by a combat class, and then a study session. Afterwards though, I was able to bathe for as long as I wanted in the privacy of my own bathroom, and I combed and braided my hair in Aldirite style before heading downstairs for my evening meal.
“How was your orientation Princess Livia?” Mirren asked me formally, as she set down my meal bowl in front of me. Mirren was still speaking to me without any of her previous nervousness and I noticed she looked very pretty tonight. Her hair was freshly combed and it fell, unbound, over her shoulders. Her eyes were very bright, and her cheeks were flushed, and she glanced at the time on her pendant while she waited for me to answer her question.
“It was very enjoyable,” I said carefully, and Mirren looked directly at me with her clear, blue eyes. “And, did Morgan find it just as enjoyable?” she asked me smoothly. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair and I nodded slowly.
Mirren didn’t exactly smile at my response but I thought, for a moment, she was deliberately trying not to.
TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) Page 12
