154. The Lions, the Priestess, and the Mage-in-training (Patreon)

Spirits.

Revered by most as Servants of the Divines, all Spirits had a special place in the hearts and prayers of all believers, for They were the link between the mortal and Divine, the guides sent to light the path for those with a heart of true faith.

On the other hand, there existed those who had less than reverential attitudes towards these beings. The Society of Magi, the oldest human organization on the planet, whose roots reached back millennia, whose Founding Mother and two Founding Fathers were still likely alive today along with other Magi who successfully reached for immortality, remembered the Arrival of the Spirits as an event that triggered one of the bloodiest conflicts that The Society's millennia-spanning records kept detailed track of.

That animosity and conflict had rather simple roots.

To the Spirits, most Magi were an easy source of a scarce resource. To the Magi, the Spirits were invaders of their planet, hunters of their people, and very likely interesting research subjects.

In the active pursuit of the secrets of skills and Mana, many if not all Magi tended to develop something they named a Well, an organ spontaneously and painfully grown from channels that had reached the physical limit of their expansion. The Well was then developed and expanded by a daily effort of each Magos, eventually replacing the physical channels to become the primary Mana storage. The organ's physical growth was nonexistent, meaning that it remained the same as it was in the moment it was formed, but its metaphysical growth was considered endless. No Magos ever discovered a point where the Well's inner growth reached a limit.

At some point of the Well’s expansion, a Magos can get direct access to his or her Energy and as far as Tercius knew, all Magi yearned to one day access their Energy and learn to manipulate it. Direct manipulation of Energy was necessary for many things, reaching for immortality among them.

The Well, however, had a weakness, one that the Spirits proved to be uniquely suited to exploiting by their nature. His Mentor explained to him that the Spirits, in their primary Juvenile form, are almost completely beings of Energy. Slipping through a Well to a Juvenile Spirit was easier than walking to a human. Once inside, the Spirits gorge themselves on the Energy, rapidly draining the victim and in doing so causing immense inflammation of the channels, which would lead the victim to literally burn from the inside out. Finding charred husks with dark root-like patterns on what used to be the skin was a good indicator that the victim, human or otherwise, had had a Well and that the culprit was a Juvenile Spirit or a pack of them.

That exact manner of death was once common among Magi.

At some point in the war fought in ages past the Magi started categorizing each being with three different parameters. Know thy enemy and all that.

First, based on a Spirit's attachment to a locus, they could be classified as wandering Spirits and Spirits bound to a location, item, structure, river, or any other kind of locus. Second, all Spirits had a purpose— revenge, protection of certain things or people, endless collection of knowledge or items of specific kinds, and so on. The purposes of Spirits were as many and as highly variable as were the purposes of the believers who gave them Energy from which the Spirit first spawned, although one purpose usually comes out to be on top. And the third parameter was the different stages of development of a Spirit— Juvenile, Mature and Elder.

Juvenile Spirits were the most numerous of their kind. Born, shaped, given purpose and attachment by the faith, emotions, and intentions of the believers who donated the Energy of their free will, Juveniles could be found hovering around most places of worship, especially around larger congregations of the faithful. There they stay and mindlessly wait without a concept for the passage of time, instinctively hungry for more Energy to come and help them grow to the next stage. Once in a while, a person with a Well would walk by and the hungry being of instinct would pounce on its prey like a starving wolf would on a lone baby calf. The presence of the Well, however, was not immediate grounds for death when these beings passed by.

Exceptions existed. Exceptions called Mediums.

If the Well-holder was at the same time a true believer of the faith that shaped and gave birth to the Spirit, meaning that the Well-holder was highly aligned with the Spirit’s parameters, the being would not see that person as a source of food. Instead, it would find a comfortable home inside that kind of a Well and then, through the body of the Medium, the Juvenile Spirit finally gained the ability to perceive the physical world and, if the Medium allowed, start to interact with things other than Energy. Mediums housing a Juvenile Spirit in return get an enhanced mana regeneration rate, as well as access to some of the skills the Spirit has.

After Juveniles came the Mature Spirits. The second stage of development of Spirits was characterized by the ability to create semi-physical non-permanent vessels for themself, an ability the Magi termed as ‘temporary materialization’. The vessels formed by temporary materialization are short in lifespan– measured anywhere from minutes to hours and more rarely days– and they were rather draining on the Spirit who made it. Because of that reason, even the Mature Spirits were still somewhat reliant on Mediums to interact with the physical world.

The relationship between a Medium and a Mature Spirit, however, could be a bit more complicated than was the case with Juveniles. Should a Mature Spirit choose to, it could contest the Medium to become the driver of the body. That kind of contest was harmful to the body of the Medium, resulting in channel damage at the very least and in more severe cases even death. IN all cases, however, it was the Medium who suffered the consequences. It also had to be said that the Juvenile and Mature Spirits rather liked using Mediums not only because they could conserve their own power, but also because they got to experience the senses of the Medium. Where nothing but Energy existed, suddenly they saw, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled. For them, it was as if a new world was opened.

Last, but certainly not least, were the Elder Spirits.

The two beings that lazed on the other side of the massive chamber were holders of immense power, perfectly capable of using that power in the physical world of their own accord any time they liked. They had achieved that state by collecting vast reservoirs of Energy and creating for themselves a permanent vessel perfectly suitable to their natures, a vessel which can very well be called an ageless body.

At least that was how Tercius understood his Mentor’s explanation.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for some, with that permanent body came some mortal needs, sleep being the prime among them. More often than not, a Spirit capable of creating a permanent body for itself would slumber until woken by some disturbance. A story his grandfather recently told Tercius painted just how much damage an awakened and displeased Elder Spirit could deal, seemingly without a care for collateral damage.

There was a reason that the vast armies of the Empire left some Temples of the Old Ones alone, after all. The humans had learned their lessons in the past.

From the point of view of a person who had always pursued myths and legends, the world Tercius had been reborn in was a treasure trove and, in a way, a dream come true.

From the point of view of a person who now lived his life in that world of myths and legends, it was terrifying to know just how much personal power a single Magos, Spirit, or even some mortals with rare and powerful skills could wield. It was as if nuclear warheads suddenly came to life and decided to live among the population and at any time any one of these miniaturized forces of nature could decide to do or even say something and the aftershocks of that one action or word would be global, not local.

Although he feared them, the Magi at least had Laws they adhered to — even the parts that they vehemently disagreed with and actively sought to change properly, instead of just overthrowing them.

Did the Spirits have something of that kind?

All of that and more passed through Tercius’ mind as his eyes linked with the obsidian eye-pools of the White Lioness.

A hand gently rested on his shoulder and Tercius looked back at the priest that led him here. The man gently nodded and whispered into Tercius’ ear, “Avert your gaze elsewhere, my boy. My Lord and Lady have seen ages come and go… If you look too closely into their eyes, a single moment will last you a thousand breaths or longer…”

“Oh,” Tercius uttered with a whisper, his mind a bit clouded. He felt tired but… calm. Tercius shook his head to clear his mind. “Thank you,”

“Nothing to it,” the priest whispered.

A warning ahead would have been welcome though… Tercius thought but left that unsaid.

“Come closer, child,” a raspy yet firm voice of an older woman echoed around the chamber, as the lady in the black and white dress turned slightly towards Tercius. “My eyes are not what they used to be. Let me see your face from up close,”

Feeling far calmer than he had been earlier, somehow more distant to everything that went on in his life, Tercius left the priest behind him and walked slowly towards the Speaker, each step of his echoing off the far walls. The sunlight of midday fell into the chamber through the massive windows of colored glass, dyeing the center of the chamber’s stone floor in a hundred colors.

Standing in the shade with a ramrod spine, the Speaker had her hands behind her back as she waited for him to come near. Her brown skin looked like it was stretched out and then put back on the bones and the few remaining muscles, the wrinkles on her neck and face numberless. The eyelids sagged over cloudy green eyes, nearly closing them entirely, and yet he could feel the intensity of the gaze that she paid to him.

He stopped in front of the woman, giving her and himself a bit of polite space.

His eyes almost drifted to the form of the Elder Spirits behind her, the two statue-like beings bigger than ever, but he forced himself to look away. He didn't dare lose himself again. His Mentor and other Magi assured him that Spirits of Balance didn't have mind-reading abilities, but after what happened moments ago he wouldn't put something like hypnosis past them…

The woman came closer to him until she stood a palm away, her forehead leveled to Tercius’ eyes.

He felt her physical presence on his skin and her stale breath assaulted his nose as she spoke, “An infidel from the line of one of our own… comes seeking answers…”

Tercius licked his dry lips. “I—”

“Your grandmother came to us in need…” she interrupted firmly, looking up at him with judgment in her cloudy green eyes. “And we helped. A stray she might be, but she remained our stray. All the years apart and she held onto the core of our fire in her heart… You, on the other hand… Nothing but base blood links you to us. Why should I give you the answers you seek, let alone listen to your questions?”

Tercius translated that as: what can the monkey do for me?

Tercius stood firm in front of the woman’s waiting gaze and took a few moments to think of an answer. Should he try to appeal to her humanity, perhaps convey the urgency of the matter? Besides not wanting to discuss the affairs of his or his family’s private life with her, Tercius thought it unlikely that she would care about any of that. No, this was a Speaker of Balance… and Divine Balance taught that to take something you need to first give something.

“Honored Speaker,” Tercius said slowly. “What can I do to earn the answers?”

The woman’s judgment melted a little and a small smile bloomed in the corners of her old eyes. “So she did teach you… and you did learn… a shame for the lacking heart, though… As for what you can do… a simple exchange will do. I ask a question, you answer. You ask, I answer. What say you?”

Tercius considered the proposal. All he needed was a single piece of information. He considered proposing a rule against incomplete and literal answers, but he wasn’t sure if that was the right move. Doing it would tip her off that he had even more intelligence and it suited him just fine for her to underestimate him. Besides, if he framed his first question well, then even an incomplete answer would be a satisfactory answer. Play it well enough and she wouldn’t even know that he had all he needed and from the very first question…

“I agree to the exchange, Honored Speaker,”

“Then I will ask first. I’m curious… What kind of things did your grandmother say to you about us, the clergy?”

Tercius’ tongue tied itself.

Although his grandmother had piously worshiped Divine Balance for as long as he knew her, she did not exactly agree with the clergy of Balance. That rift started when Rona's mother had been excommunicated from the faith, and Rona chose to abandon her training and follow her mother into exile. In Rona's stories, the clergy was full of two-faced brown-nosers, spineless backstabbers, forked-tongue liars, shameless offspring of shit-eating flies… the list went on. His grandmother was mindful of her words, but if the clergy was mentioned then the filters went off.

His carefully maintained face of stone fell a bit.

The woman cackled. “That bad, eh? I knew it! Just tell me and don’t spare a single thing… Out with it!”

To say nothing of the bitter taste that repeating someone else’s words would be, coarse or otherwise, the worst part was that Tercius had no idea if his grandmother meant for him to hold the things she said in confidence. Knowing her as he did, he was positive that she would like to see these people taken down a peg or two, but now that Rona depended on these people… her old words could end up causing her harm before he could get her away from them.

Tercius looked at the old woman in front of him and took a step back, moving away from her.

"I cannot," Tercius said. "My grandmother's words are her own and I have no right to repeat them. With all due respect, Honored Speaker, if you want that answer you will have to ask her,"

The woman stood as still as the beings behind her, her unblinking eyes considering him. Abruptly, she snorted and waved a wrinkled hand his way, as if swatting a buzzing fly. “Well then… You know where the door is. Don’t waste any more of my time.”

Tercius’ mouth fell open to protest the abrupt end, but before he could utter a sound he stilled himself. What she wanted he couldn’t give. He wouldn't give. This was a waste of his time. He closed his mouth and bowed his head a bit.

“Thank you for your time,”

Another bow, this one deeper, he gave to the two stone-like beings. Divine or not and believer or not, the White Lioness and the Black Lion were a kind of sentient nuclear warheads. Some care with handling was advised. A twitch of a white tail was the only response he got. The Black Lion had not moved any part of his massive body since the moment Tercius first saw him, seemingly content to sleep and ignore the conversation that had gone on between the Speaker and Tercius.

He turned and walked away.

If he couldn't get an answer, then so be it. He will just have to work around it. The trip up the mountains to the edge of the lands of the Empire would take hours with the help of his Mentor. From there, even with his skills helping him to run faster and tire less, the trip to the Monastery would take days, days which would be lost if he didn't find Rona and Septimus there. That couldn't be helped, but he could cut the journey in half if his Mentor gave him a few potions to remove the need to sleep. Traveling the Wilderness of the Izmittor Mountains by night would be more dangerous by all accounts he knew, but with care and—

As he neared the door, the echoes of the Speaker’s raspy voice called out, “Hold there, son of Valeria, grandson of Portia.”

Turning around while wondering why she halted him, Tercius looked at the other end of the chamber where the Speaker stood.

"You don't just walk away… You're the same as your grandmother, young man, and I don't mean that in any good way. So many things would have gone down a different path if she had just stayed and spoken to someone… Come back here… I will have some more words with you…"

With slightly narrow eyes Tercius looked at the faraway woman. She told him where the door was and he respected her wish… so what the Hells? Tercius’ eyebrow twitched. Some kind of a test, was it? Some people just had too much free time on their hands.

As he walked back across the chamber to see what the test got him, Tercius suddenly asked himself what kind of an elder he would like to be. Although his body was that of a twelve-year-old, he was actually somewhere in his mid-forties, practically at the door of elderhood. It was time to think about such things. After all, he wouldn’t want to enter elderhood unprepared and find himself in need to test people for entertainment like some elders seem to be doing…

If he chose to take on the offer of the Magi in the next five years then he would likely have a lot to busy himself with, but that would be business done for others. He needed something just for himself and now that he thought about it, he had just the thing.

My future ship should provide entertainment aplenty… He would just need to learn to design a ship and then design it, learn to make the ship and then make it, learn to enchant and design the enchantments and then enchant the ship, learn to navigate the ship by himself, and then… sail the world. Fly around it even, when his enchantment gets good enough.

I guess that my entertainment will be covered for a while…

“Do you know why your grandmother left us?” the woman suddenly asked, when he neared her.

Tercius nodded. “My grandmother told me some things, yes,”

“I can imagine she did… Her mother, your great grandmother, may Balance grant her Soul rebirth,” the woman said, uttering the prayer in the old tongue of desert tribes of Sogea, “was a strange woman with strange ideas. Once upon a time, she used to be an older sister of mine in faith and blood.”

Tercius' eyes narrowed at the cloudy green eyes of the old woman. Green eyes were a rarity in Sogea, a drop in the sea of dark browns and blacks that dominated the population. Tercius and two of his younger siblings had inherited the green eyes from his mother, who got it from her mother, and presumably the line went on. Now this woman claimed to be a sister of a biological ancestor of his, but Tercius had nothing but the color of her eyes and her words to confirm the truth.

Not knowing where she was going with this, but willing to hear her out, he did what elders liked for young people to do — be quiet and listen.

It took a moment for the woman’s cloudy eyes to regain focus on him and continue with a pained voice, “A heretic that preached… strange notions. I will not repeat her blasphemy.” Abruptly, with an ease of a younger woman, the Speaker sat down on the hard floor, her legs folding below her. With a heavy sigh, she continued, “The clergy excommunicated her. They had to. When my sister was cast out of the Temple… she… she… lived for a few weeks inside the district and then she suddenly disappeared. Dead, probably. The Empire is not kind to us, oh no. When Portia came back and learned of what happened… She left to search for her and when she didn’t find her… Without ever learning why her mother was cast out, why she had to be cast out, your grandmother left us and refused to speak a word with—” the woman croaked, her voice getting heavier with emotions.

Tercius wasn’t listening to what the woman was speaking. His spine was rigid, his heart hammering, his legs tense. The lions were on the prowl. Moving out of nowhere, the white one was on her massive legs, crossing the dozen meters that separated them in mere moments, while the black one had suddenly risen up, sitting up on its haunches and gazing at Tercius with pure white orbs, the majestic black mane giving the being an overbearing presence, the pure white horns menacing with glints of reflected light.

Out of a corner of his eye, Tercius glanced at the door.