Crosspoint

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Chapter 2


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 194
Date:
Chapter 2
Permalink   


Avril read the letter. Then he read it again. Then he asked, "You were part of the Society?"

    His father nodded.

    "You were part of the Council?"

    His father nodded again, and then replied, "Most of those books there weren't for us. They were for you three. We know magik. We know the history and structure of the Society. There was no need for us to learn and little need to even keep up with what it prints. Most in the Council are far beyond that which the Society allows to be printed and filtered into the public. We've been banned from doing magik. We didn't know if that included teaching it to you boys and so we worked hard at building a library that could teach it for us."

    This was almost more shock than he can handle. Avril muttered the question, "You can speak magik?" When he saw his parents nodding he went on, "We never knew. For a while now both of us, Kayeen and I, could. We thought well we knew how eager you were, you seemed to be to learn and know it. We thought for some reason we were special and didn't want to you know, crush your"

    As Avril trailed off his mother spoke up, "We know son. And we're proud of you. That you would care so much to not flaunt your abilities. That shows character."

    "Dad, mom." Avril asked, "What was it? What did you do?"

    Leaning back in his chair, Andrei took a deep breath before answering that question. "The short answer is that we killed the tree. There was a tree around which the Society was built called the Eternal Tree that was supposed to never die. Those who lived near to the tree didn't age. Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that the closer you were to the tree the slower you aged. That is why the Council circle is built around it. There was one man from the council who lived to over nine hundred years.

    "Along with its effects on aging, it also was a source of wisdom. Every year it would drop one or two, sometimes three, seeds. Each of these seeds, when eaten, would grow some type of knowledge in the eater. I'm guessing from the letter that Mykal had learned his blacksmithing abilities from a seed. Nobody can make," (He points to the sword) "this without help from the Tree. Even with it, I think the Creator took a more direct hand in the making of this, and the other.

    "The thing is, the Society had become too secluded. Their dependence on, and physical proximity to, the Eternal Tree had segregated them more and more from the world. It is almost as if there were two worlds that were existing together but not ever coming into contact. The Society, created to guide the world, had become irrelevant to it.

    "I, we, were trying to find a way to make the benefit of the tree available even to someone from the Society who is far from it. So when, for example, Gavril had to come all the way up here to deliver the swords, he wouldn't have to age. So many feel that every time they are sent on such a mission they are taking a deliberate step towards death. They view it as incremental suicide. And so fewer and fewer people went out into the world.

    "There are very strict laws guarding and protecting the Tree. We broke them when we actually tapped some of the sap from it. We were trying to make a drink, an elixir, that a person could take anytime, anywhere that would stop their aging just as if they were near the Tree. We succeeded. But we didn't fully know what we were doing and the damage we did to the Tree was far greater than we expected.

    "Almost immediately we were caught and tried by the Council. Before me, no one on the Council ever lost their seat except through retirement or death. In addition to that, we were banned from using magik, banned from having contact with anyone from the Society, and banished from the presence of the Tree."

    Yvenna interjected here, "As we were preparing to leave I heard that a curse was also placed on me that until the Tree regained its health I would not be able to bear children. Apparently that curse was lifted when it died."

Avril was trying hard to concentrate on what his parents were saying. It was impossible. The longer he sat there the more the sword called to him. His hands were cramping as he gripped the chair in an effort to keep from reaching out and grabbing the sword. Finally he could take it no more, "So, if the sword is not yours, does that mean its mine?"

    His father answered that, "Gavril, your mother, and I, spent days around this table trying to figure out the answer to that question. The best I can say is that it just felt wrong, for me take it myself, and your mother felt the same way. Taking that with what Raval wrote in the letter, we think that the sword somehow knows to whom it belongs. If the sword is yours, you'll know."

    That was all the permission Avril needed. He reached out and almost grabbed the sword. At the last second, his fingers inches from the pearl pommel, he hesitated. He almost didn't feel worthy to touch, to hold, something so beautiful. But then the sword slid the short remaining distance along the table and jumped up into his hand. As his grip closed around it he felt complete.

    Andrei watched his son's eyes widen in surprise as his hand closed around the sword. Avril looked over at his father and whispered, "The prophesy, all of it, I know. I understand." And then Avril, still holding the sword in his right hand, buried his face in his left. And he cried.



__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.

Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard