“It is already being taken care of Nagutan, old friend and mentor. We have insurance against the boy’s interference,” Isten finished almost meekly to his mentor’s back as he left.
“The boy’s name is Shuran, I suggest you learn it. Much power can be found in a name, especially that name.” Nagutan exited with a flourish and smoke but the echoes of his laughter remained and hung on the air for several moments after his departure.
Shuran was a name of protection and power Isten was visibly shaken.
***
Fallon sat within his dining hall enjoying breakfast with his daughter on any other morning, but today he needing subjecting to the infernal blathering of the Order of Chaos. To make his morning worse he was to be questioned directly by the Assinnu Isten.
“Your Drakk Elite Guards were there when this boy Shuran and his crew of dissidents escaped. What do you have to say for their actions?” Isten shouted from the chair opposite the Baron of Drakk.
The baron looked across the table at the cult leader, seeing him for what he felt he was. This Assinnu Isten is a fear monger and insecure in his position. Fallon also knew exactly what Isten was all about. “You may be important among your order, but to me you are a guest of my land. The Order for that matter has enjoyed the protection of my boarders as guests. You step over the line of hospitality with your tone Assinnu Isten to accuse me openly of some transgression!” Fallon spoke smoothly and evenly.
Isten became visibly red in the face but held his tongue.
“My men did as I instructed and nothing more.”
“And what pray tell were your instructions?” Isten asked only slightly calmer.
“My men were told the boy was preferred alive. They were told to follow the lead of the Inquisitors. And they were told not to engage the boy if they could not subdue him. They followed these orders to the letter.” Fallon smiled mockingly back to Isten who became expressionless.
“He speaks truth plainly.” Salmetu slinked from the shadows beyond the main room.
Suddenly calmer, Isten motioned for Salmetu to join him. “Baron this is-”
“I am aware of who the Priestess is. I am pleased to make your acquaintance Priestess.” Fallon interrupted.
“Pleasure is not what I would call being out at this bright hour of the day. I only come at the behest of my lord Annissu Isten,” Salmetu said without emotion. “May we leave now?” she asked.
“Momentarily my dear, Salmetu,” Isten whispered her real name. “Has the Baron left anything out?” Isten asked Salmetu.
She closed her eyes and paused while reaching her mind out to the Baron. She flinched slightly then opened her eyes in shock, recovering too quickly for Isten to notice as he turned to face her. “Nothing of consequence was left out of his testimony.” Salmetu shared a final knowing glance with Fallon who only nodded as his morning guests left his council chambers.
“Perhaps I shall regain my appetite by dinner.” Fallon muttered to himself as he exited the chamber. He gathered himself after the brief encounter and decided a visit to his secret guest was in order.
***
Shuran sat at the large table in the vault reading through his translations of the anatomy book he became obsessed with. He had already exercised running through each of his foster family’s bodies with his mind and was able to match what the book referred to as genetics, to sections of the book. He could see why each was able to perform certain Essence weaving or wielding.
It was built into their genes. What he could not understand is why the same genes were somehow damaged in Moona. Moona had been elusive in her reasons for not submitting to Shuran’s tests and at first he excused it as Moona being… well, Moona. His curiosity got the better of him and he finally learned to do a probe by having just a piece of her hair. What he found was nowhere in the book. He found similarities to genes shared of all the races but where markers should have allowed wielding or weaving the Essence, he found corruption of the cells. He finally worked up the courage to confront her.
“Moona, I have a transgression to admit,” Shuran said when he could get her alone at her workstation in the vault.
The vault was separated into areas of subject and Moona had secluded herself in the area dedicated to the knowledge of plants.
“Before I whack you for probing me without permission is there something else you wish to admit!” Moona did not look up from her work.
“You Knew?” Shuran asked with surprise.
“Just because I no longer have the abilities I once had, does not leave me without certain strengths. Never underestimate the power of observation, young wielder.” Moona looked up and gave Shuran a smug look.
“Yes, I was once a wielder and weaver. I have the blood of dwarf and human both of my parents were powerful in their own right, and I inherited it.” Moona took out her pipe and stuffed it with a sample of something she found in a jar. “This is some really good herb.” Moona said taking a drag and after slowly exhaling continued her story.
“Growing up a mix blood is not as difficult as it was in the first centuries of the Sikil Mah, but we all still had to hide. We became adept at blendin’ in and stuck to our own. Codger was a fortunate marriage you see. Not that I didn’ love ‘im mind ya. It’s just well we stuck to our own and I had little choices. Just happens we met by chance. Dwarf men get to be a thorn in your arse after a hundred harvests or so.” Moona caught herself drifting off subject and continued.
“We had a baby Codge and me. Our beautiful baby boy was the center of our world but soon we realized he was different somehow.” She paused briefly before continuing. “Most of the gifted don’ develop until after their first ten to fifteen harvests, but Vardoran showed nothing of a spark until he was nearly twenty harvests and even then it was not normal. He became so obsessed with making us proud that he got mixed up with some bad dingir cult, Xul followers.”
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.”