Chapter 10: AVIOR: The Mythical World

 

Following on directly from

AVAELYN: THE ENSHROUDED WORLD:

 

The Vallas go to war with each other.

Avaelyn returns to Reaume, no longer enshrouded … but soon another world draws attention, for it is there that the great battle will be fought.

 Avior is veiled.

By myth.

By destruction.

By inverted sacred sites.

 On Valaris, four strangers to the realm prepare to face Torrullin and Elianas, Tristan and Alusin, and they have a tale that raises terrible alarm. On Akhavar, the reality of the true enemy surfaces. The Path of Shades must be reopened … and old foes therefore step into the arena. A vengeful Timekeeper, an ancient Vallorin with a bone between his teeth, and a wife seeking to undo her husband.

The plight of Avior’s children is discovered, and all fight to save them from the monsters flourishing beneath the shroud created by myth. From dragons to darklings, the field is strewn with horror.

How to end their reign?

All are called into battle, from the Valleur, Kaval and Guardians to mysterious sorcerers gathered on the volcanic world of Danaan, but is Valla pitted against Valla that causes shudders in the ether.

 No matter what, Torrullin will not stand aside, not until every child is safe.

CHAPTER 10

 

It’s the little things. So precious.

~ Tattle’s scribe ~

  

Valaris

The Well of Crystal Sound

TARLINN sat with his back to the Well wall, nibbling on the food Teighlar, as Enchanter, had created for them, and told the story of the light beings who had sung here, infusing the water with crystal song until it rose on gossamer wings to pierce the space warp that had surrounded Valaris, thereby finding their way to freedom. He revealed the light beings were what the Syllvan became when those great trees passed beyond death’s threshold, becoming thus one with the fabric of Reaume. They spread the seeds that led to the birth of the Dryads in Arianne, which in the fullness of years led to new Syllvan. A circle of life.

“Torrullin fought hard to save the Syllvan, if you recall, but they are never truly gone. They are all around us,” he finished off.

“This is how they know so much,” Teighlar murmured. “They are everywhere.”

“Indeed. The Thinnings, too, have a similar circle. From tadpoles, to shapeshifting beings, to dragonflies, although not all dragonflies are Thinnings, the dragonflies sowing the spores that lead to tadpoles, and of course, their circle is on a far smaller scale.”

Teighlar grunted. “Man, the Thinnings. Thundor in Grinwallin, a tiny man with a massive heart. Have they been seen in recent years?”

“They are with us still, but haven’t made themselves known.”

Dawn’s light gradually infused the Great Forest with grey tinges, causing the birds to start their daily songs. Listening, the Emperor murmured, “Little light beings.”

“Oh, yes,” Tarlinn smiled.

“Hopefully someone will come soon to release us from here. Truthfully, though, the peace here has soothed much of my inner knots.”

“Likewise,” Tarlinn responded. He eyed the man with him. “I must tell you something, and I must because I need to gauge your reaction now before setting certain theories into practise.”

A heavy-lidded blue stare settled on him. “Then speak.”

Tarlinn grimaced, and said not a word.

“Ah, hard, is it? Start with the simple stuff.”

“Simple? There’s nothing simple about my life, Emperor. Fine, this then. Falling through Grinwallin’s Abyss has gifted me wholeness. Let’s start with that. I am now, at last, a true man, not merely an embodiment of the Throne. As the Throne’s creation and indwelling brought my slivers into one, thus has that void gifted a concept true form.”

“I noticed, yes.”

“I am no longer able to enter the Throne; I am separate, and that means a new life awaits me, more than that of a brother-in-arms to Elixir. Choices lie before me. Where to make my home, for instance, what to do with these hands and these powers I command, and who to love.”

“Ah, we’re reaching the crux.”

“Yes, and her name is Alik.”

Teighlar spat a grape out, and nearly choked. “My daughter? You have approached my daughter?”

Palms up in a gesture of surrender, Tarlinn said, “I have not approached her, but I dream about …”

“What?”

“Fuck, this is why I’m gauging you now,” Tarlinn moaned. “Emperor, Alik tells me in a dream that I am not alone, and asks me to follow, for where she is leading me to is true home, the kind the heart rejoices in no matter where it is. She is searching also and …”

Teighlar stared at him, unmoving, unblinking.

“… I think she is as lonely as I am. Not alone, for we have those we love around us, but lonely as in a missing connection to the one that makes life worth living.”

Teighlar blinked, and reluctantly admitted, “True, yes, and I mentioned something along these lines to her recently. But are you the one for her?”

“I don’t yet know, but I am prompted to try, and I need you to know that before I do approach her.”

Sucking at his cheeks, Teighlar stared into the lightening trees. “Both have longevity, and both are sort of … weird. It may be a disaster, the two of you together, but it may also be a future that will gift happiness. I’m not saying I like it and if you hurt her, I’ll unman you. Still, who am I to stand in the way of happiness?” He then rested his gaze back on the man with him. “For fuck’s sake, just don’t approach her where I can see it, alright?”

Fighting a beaming smile about to erupt onto his face, Tarlinn nodded. “Thank you.”

“Can you father children?” Teighlar demanded.

“After the Void, yes.”

The Emperor threw his hands up. “Lovely. Potentially we’ll end up with a half-Valleur on the Senlu throne. Man, won’t that just tickle Torrullin - he’ll tease me to kingdom come.”

The threatening smile burst out, and Tarlinn laughed. “I can see that!”

“It’s not funny …” but the Senlu chuckled long.

 

City of Galilan

AIRELLE Praden woke to birdsong, and lay in her small bed listening to the glorious sounds. Every day she woke up and spent a few minutes just appreciating her freedom. Her mother told her about ‘appreciating’ and she liked the word. It said so much. She appreciated every day away from those horrible cells.

And then she started repeating her list, softly so no one could hear. The names of those who were taken from her care there, like Stuiee and Benjamin and Henry and Dino and Rosy, and so many more. She would remember them, always, for only memory remained. Timare, when she told him about her list, when he visited, asked her to tell him so that he could write it down. She asked why, and he told her about closure. The parents of those children needed the closure, and he told her what that meant. Not a word she liked, but she understood it, and told him every name she could remember, and not only from her cell, names of others she had heard and knew were taken also.

Timare came a lot, and she appreciated that. He was there; he knew. He often cried with her. That’s why she told him about her list. He told her what they were doing in the valley Torrke, and she liked that so many were now helping other children and would go on helping them. When she was old enough, she would go to the Keep and help them as well. She did not want to happen to other children as had happened to her. No way.

“Airelle, you up?” her mother called up from downstairs.

She smelled oatmeal, and smiled. No hunger anymore, and no loneliness, no hopelessness. Her mother and her father were with her, her grandfather came as often as Timare did, and always they laughed. She got up and put her slippers on. “Coming!”

One day soon she would believe it was real.

 

Akhavar

City of Kalgaia

KARYDOR returned with Lunik, Sianora, Ashar and Zane to Kalgaia. While Ashar went ahead making lists in the space she and Sianora would share and Zane went traipsing for the perfect location for his library, and Lunik and Sianora walked to the terraces to investigate the living spaces there, Karydor entered the Danae Guild Hall, walking with due reverence upon the shining black tiles that led to the internal dome. Nostalgia bit at him, but so did anticipation.

He stood at the podium upon the mirror circle and simply inhaled the atmosphere, and then he began. Speaking aloud to the listening silence, he strategized how to structure the classes, the intake of students, rosters for teaching different subjects, how many teachers they would need, which events would suit learning, how many they could accommodate, how to put the word out …

… and loved every minute of it.

Yes, he had come home. At last.

 

Sanctuary

Mariner Island

GABRYL strode across the bridge from the spaceport to the island that was about sanctuary. Healing for both the mind and the body, a place to start afresh. Graceful and now old buildings greeted him, all white with mullioned windows, terracotta tiled roofs, window boxes flowering profusely despite autumn’s chill, dainty wrought iron balconies, old fashioned lamps everywhere, the ways between cobbled and sporting glorious shrubbery, many trees throwing shade in the morning light, vivid in their autumn regalia, and he halted to simply look. It was pretty and welcoming, and wholesome. The first fear inside him dissipated.

It wasn’t Grinwallin, but here he could function.

Entering a sprawling building marked as ‘Reception’ via a carved wooden plaque over the main door, he discovered an uncluttered space, more terracotta on the floor, wicker baskets and healthy palm trees, colourful beanbags, a set of shelves laden with reading material, and a counter behind which three women worked industriously. Again, it felt old-fashioned, and that suited his temperament. A second fear vanished.

No airs here, and therefore no need for pretence.

He approached, and a woman looked up. When she smiled, dimples appeared in her cheeks. She was pretty, and he liked her freckles and curly fair hair. He liked even more her friendly blue eyes.

“May I help you?”

“I am Gabryl Diluvan and …”

She interrupted him by clapping her hands. “You’re here! We’ve been expecting you. Oh, welcome, welcome! I’m Siobhan and that’s Fran and over there’s Almira. Ooo, come, let me show you around!” She rounded the counter, and beckoned him to follow her outside.

“You’ve been expecting me. Who told you I was coming?” he asked.

“Why, Torrullin Valla, of course. He sent a letter with the dragon seal on.” She put a hand to her mouth. “We heard about the dragon mark, never expected to actually see it! Oh my, I’m so excited. We definitely need someone to take care of us here. Doctors and nurses are so busy, they can’t organise a thing.”

Smiling, Gabryl followed the chatty young woman as she took him on a tour of the island and the facilities. He soon saw what she meant; some disrepair, some streamlining required. It needed a firm hand, someone able to achieve those tasks health professionals had no time for, nor should they, for their talents were needed elsewhere. His final fear evaporated into the ether. He felt needed. He felt purposeful.

And wasn’t Siobhan ever so pretty?

 

The Dome of the Kaval

KILA was eyeing him, and Belun fumed. He and Prima has just returned from meeting Delilah Romaris on Lincoln, and here she was, eyeing him.

When the woman abruptly stood up from where she sat at the marble slab, and came his way, he almost chose to hightail it to his ogive. There was something new in her tawny eyes. She marched right up to him - and suddenly Fuma, Prima and Galarth, currently also present in the Dome, ceased talking - took his face into her hands, and kissed him. About to jerk away with accusation on his lips, he reconsidered, feeling the funny warmth that crept into his gut, the tingling in his toes and fingers. When she kissed him again, he thought to hell with what anyone thought, and hauled her in to deepen the connection.

Applause and whistles erupted in the Dome.

Sheepishly, Belun lifted his head.

“About time, Centuar,” Kila murmured. “Do it again. I like it.”

He liked it, too. He lowered his head and captured her lips with his own. Man, he would never live this down, but so what?

 

Eurue

The Keeper’s Palace

HAVING seen the villa on Sanctuary where he would live when away from duties on Mariner Island, Thibis and the settlements beyond the lake, Gabryl went to Eurue. The Syllvan had told him he needed to see this through, dealing with Eurue, before he could accept an unburdened future. This day, knowing that Sanctuary called to him, he chose to do exactly that. Time to lay old ghosts in their caskets.

He walked over a different bridge now, one that led directly to the Keeper’s Palace, and here the sun beat down. Summer reigned on Eurue. He heard cicadas, he heard the rustle of leaves losing moisture, he heard the faraway calls of folk at the market in the city behind him, and he heard Savier Algheri singing off-key somewhere to the left, the man’s voice even now unforgotten. How many times hadn’t Savier stood over his sarcophagus and spoken to him. Thank Aaru that part of his long existence was now over, for both of them. Veering left, he soon came upon the atrium, and entered, for the door was open to allow the heat to somewhat deal with the humidity within.

“Savier!”

The singing stopped, and a white head of hair peered from behind a vine twirling around a dead tree trunk up ahead, no doubt rescued from the forest for the vine to have something to grow upon. “Gabryl? Is that you?”

“Yes. Am I disturbing you?”

“Not at all.”

Gabryl walked towards where the man had again vanished, and found him at a workbench filled with pots, soil and various gardening implements. Alusin had mentioned how much his brother enjoyed getting his hands dirty, and now Gabryl smiled. The Keeper was a man who hankered after the simple things. Such a man he could deal with.

“Cleaning up,” Savier murmured. “I won’t be shaking hands.” He grinned and held aloft dirt encrusted fingers. “How are you, Gabryl?”

“Finally fine,” he responded.

“So, I’m your final burden to set aside?”

“Something like that.”

“Glad to hear it. Let me wash my hands and then we can have tea in the palace. Much cooler there. Drakan is phaffing around somewhere.”

“I’d like that.” The way Savier hesitated over ‘Drakan’ revealed that something brewed between the two men. Gabryl did not remark on it - early days for them, after all - but he did smile inwardly. As he suspected when he heard Torrullin told Drakan to pay a visit to Eurue, his ancient birth world - Torrullin had seen this connection might end up as something. “Is Vian available?”

“Do it all at once?” Savier asked, grinning. “Good idea. Less painful. I’ll ask him to come.” He washed his hands, dried them, and preceded Gabryl to the open door. Once he had carefully closed it, saying something about too much dry air not being optimum, he ambled across the lawn, explaining how Eurue had grown since the troubles, and about a haven here also, and when Gabryl revealed he was taking up the reins on Sanctuary, Savier grew animated and bent his ear with all sorts of ideas.

By the time they entered the palace proper, Gabryl realised he had already laid his ghosts to rest, and had no need of a tea with Drakan and Vian in attendance to confirm it, but the ideas bouncing his way had him mightily intrigued. They could work together, he mused, and create sanctuaries on opposite ends of the universe, and said as much.

Savier slapped his back. “Then let’s talk, my friend.”

Friend. Indeed. Who would have expected that? “Will we lace the tea?”

Grinning, Savier crowed, “Absolutely!”

“Then let’s talk,” Gabryl laughed.

 

Akhavar

Linard

TEROUX wandered the halls of the abode, casually studying the frescoes, wall hangings, the flowing canals, the bright flowers in beautiful urns, and knew here he did not wish to remain. Roux Island now called to him. He’d transferred - along with Jonas - Skritt, Saxon and O’Leary - the bodyguard - into Delilah Romanis’ care on Lincoln, and now wished to go home. If they were about to enter a mighty field of battle, he needed to restore himself where he felt most at peace. And he wouldn’t mind seeing a certain someone known as Naemi.

Tianoman waited where the corridor forked for the royal suite. “You want to go home, don’t you?”

Teroux nodded. “Come with me.”

“I can’t, not after everything that transpired, but in a few days, when it’s quieter?”

“Welcome anytime, cousin.”

“Maybe I’ll meet Naemi.”

Teroux smiled. “Maybe.”

They embraced briefly, and then Teroux was gone.

 

Luvanor

Tunin Continent

Bay of the Moon

ECHAYN squatted on the beach, sifting sand through his fingers and staring over the moonlit crescent of water before him. Waves lapped gently and the night was otherwise silent.

This was a good place to begin his discovery of Luvanor. Senluar could wait until the spaces were not as frenetic, but the rest of this glorious world begged for his attention. He would now become a wanderer, sleep where he found a bed or a cushion of leaves, eat when someone offered a meal or pick from a tree. Maybe try his hand at fishing? How long since he had this kind of unencumbered freedom?

Standing, he walked inland, seeing the lights of a farmhouse. Perhaps there was a hay loft …

AVIOR