Gorinthians Page 13

  Celdic felt a sudden disorientation, as if he were looking through a window, instead of through his own eyes. He reached out and touched his other arm, and it felt like he was touching another person’s arm. He looked questioningly at Terrance.

  “I am overriding a few of your fundamental senses so that you do not accidentally stick an oar in the water while I am rowing.” Terrance explained, his eyes slightly out of focus. “You are going to feel my thoughts merge with yours in a few moments. I am going to be showing you the path to reach your yar. We will probably have to do it several times before you can find the way on your own.”

  Celdic felt his father's thought connect with his own. At first, it just felt like the thoughts were his own. After a few moments, memories began to seep across the link, and Celdic could see the images of faces that he only recognized because of the familiarity that was in Terrance’s thoughts. It was a very odd sensation, because it still felt to Celdic that the thoughts were his own. His thoughts began analyzing the tree next to him. It was a mix of visualizing the tree, as well as feeling it. It seemed little more than his imagination of what the tree should look and feel like, but a moment later, as his mind was directed by Terrance to imagine one of the leaves at the base of the tree floating into the air, he watched in astonishment as it obeyed.

  “So far, we have only used your yar.” Terrance told him, his eyes still out of focus. “Now we are going to connect to yara.”

  Celdic felt Terrance direct his mind toward the ground beneath his feet. His eyes felt like they were strained, as if he were trying to push his yar into the ground with his eyes. Once again, it seemed like his imagination was the driving force for what he sensed. He could feel the rich loam give way to a dense bed of granite far beneath their feet, which in turn gave way to a pocket of coal laced with veins of iron and lead. There was some kind of energy source that his mind was drawing closer to. It almost felt like the warmth of a fire, but without the scorching heat. As his yar reached the glowing energy, Terrance pushed out with his thoughts, and then retracted them with an almost jerking motion. There was a suction like sensation, followed by a river of warmth that rushed toward Celdic at an alarming rate. Celdic felt the first fringes of panic begin to take over his mind, and just as suddenly the panic was squashed by an overwhelming sense of confidence as Terrance suppressed Celdic’s instinctive fear. Yara connected with his mind in a flash of warmth, with the force of a river that had just burst its damn. If he had been left to try and control the force on his own, it would have crushed him. Rather than trying to seize the power of yara that was surging through Celdic, Terrance guided its flow like a captain steering a ship.

  Terrance began directing yara into complex arrays of energy that shot into the ground around them. Celdic could feel the different wavelengths of energy molding small particles that were far too small for his eyes to see. As the particles merged and joined with still more particles around them, small protrusions appeared in the ground. Within moments, the protrusions grew into pillars of rock that reached into the sky. They were shaped more perfectly than an expert craftsman could mold them, and still they continued into the sky, hundreds of feet and growing. They grew downward into the ground as well. With a grunt of satisfaction, Terrance slowly redirected the flow of yara, until it was channeling back into itself.

  “This is the part that requires the most concentration and strength.” Terrance commented, “You have to hold the conduit of yara in on itself without letting the conduit split from the pressure, until it is pushed back into the main body of yara again. If it splits, bad things can happen.”

  Celdic nodded, knowing that this would indeed take a lot of practice. “What about my block? Are we going to take care of that?”

  “I already did.” Terrance replied, severing the flow of yara from Celdic. A moment later Celdic felt his mind return to its normal state of consciousness. “The block was programmed into you before you were born so that you would not be able to use your yar until a member of the Derinian order found you and taught you how to use it. You are somewhat different from your friends, because once you learned to use your yar, you would have eventually used yara accidentally, which would probably have killed you.”

  Celdic reached out with his yar experimentally, just to see if he could still effect objects around him. He imagined the force connecting him to a leaf on the ground, and tried pulling it toward him. It obediently moved toward him.

  “That’s all there is to it?” Celdic asked incredulously. “Why can’t the other humans use yara if it is so easy? I mean, they would almost accidentally use it without knowing it I would think.”

  “Some do.” Terrance agreed, nodding his head, “but only a few, and they usually think that it is some kind of spirit or good fortune that caused the phenomenon. Most humans have lost the ability to use their yar. The ability has to be used for people to retain possession of it. If you stopped using your arm, the muscles would atrophy and weaken to the point that when you finally did use it, everything that you did with it would be an effort. The same thing applies to yar. During the time immediately after yara was repressed from the surface of the planet, people had to learn how to use their physical bodies to accomplish their daily tasks. After a time, their yar became weaker as their bodies became stronger because they did not often use it. Very few people are born that can effect very much outside of themselves with their yar. When yara was available, all a person had to do was connect to it and they had all of the power that they needed, regardless of how strong their own yar was. They still had to use their yar to connect to yara though. The problem with most humans now is that they do not have the ability to use their own yar anymore.”

  Celdic nodded. That made sense. “What was that suction thing that you did to make yara connect to me?”

  “In order to pull yara to yourself, you have to create a kind of siphon.” Terrance explained, watching Celdic to see if he understood. “It is similar to how a water hose can be used to create suction from a pond that will cause the water to flow. Of course, this is different than water, because you can’t siphon water uphill. All that we are doing is giving yara a little momentum. It does not recognize up, down, right or left. It is unaffected by gravity, so once you create the momentum, you will have a steady flow of yara. The harder you pull initially, the more powerful the flow of yara.”

  “How did you make those pillars?” Celdic asked, staring curiously at the towering stone pillars in front of them. They seemed far too thin to be able to stand as tall as they were without falling over.

  “All physical matter is just a form of energy that resonates at a certain frequency.” Terrance gestured at the pillars, “Each element that makes up this pillar is bonded to other elements with an interlocking resonance that causes the two elements to be attracted to each other. Once you understand how the bonds work, you can create extremely strong materials by creating highly attracted bonds.”

  “How does yara translate to making all of this happen though?” Celdic asked, hoping that it made more sense than the rest of this had.

  “Yara is just an energy source.” Terrance said patiently, “It is energy in one of its rawest forms. We take yara and guide it with our yar, almost like tuning an instrument, until each strand of yara that we are channeling is converted to a frequency that we want to affect other matter with. Take water for instance. If we wanted to create water in front of us, we would need to find the right frequency for making a hydrogen atom become attracted, or bonded, to a pair of oxygen atoms.” Terrance paused, “You do know what atoms are, don’t you?”

  Celdic nodded doubtfully. Tarya Henders had not been very good at teaching physics. Celdic had usually gone home more confused than enlightened at the end of a day in Tarya Henders class.

  “Good.” Terrance said, looking at Celdic with a knowing expression. “These concepts can be very hard to understand for someone that has not been able to use their yar. It will make more sense to you as you begin usi
ng your yar more. At any rate, the basis for creating other objects is in learning to take the elements around you and reconstruct them to form what you want. The frequencies that you use to connect them are nothing more than the glue that holds the binding of a book together.”

  Celdic nodded with sudden understanding. It sounded like he just needed to memorize a lot of frequencies.

  “Understanding how to make a certain object will become second nature to you, once you become used to using your yar.” Terrance assured him, as if he had read his mind. “It is more of playing it by feel than memorizing a list of formula’s. Let’s go ahead and spend a couple of hours connecting to yara before we go back. You should be able to connect to it on your own before we leave for the day.”

  Celdic spent the rest of the day reaching down into the ground with his yar trying to create the siphon that Terrance had created. He kept pulling to hard at first, and the connection would snap back into the main body of yara without flowing toward him. It took several hours before he was able to pull a steady flow of yara toward himself. Terrance was watching him tensely, ready to intercede if he appeared on the verge of losing control. Celdic directed the flow of yara into the ground just as he remembered Terrance doing through him before. At first he just sent the energy back into the ground, trying to familiarize himself with the flow of yara. After a few minutes of steady flow, he tried changing the frequency on the stream of yara surging through him. It was easier than he had thought it would be. All it required was imagining the flow getting tighter, or higher pitched, and it followed his thought. After a half hour of playing with the different frequencies, he bent the conduit of yara back into the main body of yara, and slowly shrunk the conduit until it disappeared.

  Looking up, he saw Terrance smiling with pride in his eyes. “Very good, Celdic. Very well done indeed. Now let’s go eat.”

  Chapter 11

  Lendel stretched again, feeling like he had slept for a week. When he awoke in a simple bedroom, he did not know where he was. He thought that he had been drugged at first, feeling a euphoric elation that made his skin tingle slightly and eased the cares of his troubled mind. Leaving the room, he found Selindria in a sitting room reading a book she had found somewhere. Lendel just stared at her when he saw her. She was dressed in a white, full-length skirt with a white blouse that hugged her bodice tightly. Her midnight black hair spilled over her shoulders, shining in the sunlight. He had never seen her dressed in anything but black. For the first time in his life, he realized Selindria was breathtakingly beautiful, a thought that made him blush. She smiled when she saw him, relief in her lavender eyes. She explained where they were and why he felt the way he did. He could only shake his head in wonder. Small bubbles of space that existed outside of the physical world, webs that created a harmonic vibration that brought tranquility to humans, and this man Terrance that had created it all.

  Lendel was glad to leave Lochnar behind. When Lendel and Celdic were still at the Tar Ri’ San , they were among the best in hand-to-hand combat, with Li and Cha'le not far behind. The way that Lochnar had trussed them around with almost no effort had shaken him deeply. Some of the Guardians said that people from outside Chasel Ri’ Aven did not learn to fight as part of their education the way the Avenry did. Lendel had left the mountain city with a confidence that they would be able to handle whatever problems came their way. Meeting Lochnar had abruptly and violently disabused him of that notion. There were obviously more dangerous people out there than the Guardians were aware of.

  Making his way over to the door, Lendel noticed the walls appeared to have veins running through them. Just one more peculiarity about this place, he thought without too much interest. He stepped through the front door to look over the clearing that surrounded the cottage and noticed that everything, from the trees surrounding the clearing to each rock that looked to be sculpted from the earth itself, seemed very precise in its placement. The Rajan Gardeners would have loved to see such an extraordinary display of botanic talent. Lendel walked over to a small arch of ground covered in soft vegetation and sat down, noticing how comfortable the groundcover made the naturally grown bench. He was not certain how long he remained seated on the earthen bench, pondering the events that led him to this place. Time seemed to mean very little here. He knew that if he and his friends had any chance of survival, they would need to shed their innocent shells that kept them in a perpetual state of shock every time something unfamiliar occurred. They spent their entire lives learning how to cope with situations such as these, but before now it had always been practice producing nothing more than a broken bone or bruised ego. As Lendel thought about it, he realized that had they not met Lochnar when they did, they might be dead right now. This thought did not give him very much comfort. Despite himself, however, he could not help but admire the deadly manner that Lochnar carried with him like an extra skin. One of the things they taught in the Tar Ri’ San was to learn from your opponent rather than waste your time and energy despising him. It was something to think about.

  At the far edge of the clearing, Celdic and Terrance emerged from the thick forest that surrounded them. They were talking quietly as they walked down the path that led to the cottage. Terrance was dressed in his odd clothing that seemed to have weapons secreted throughout. He wore unrelieved black that ran all the way up to his chin, including knee-high boots and gloves. He reminded Lendel starkly of Lochnar, aside from the ever-present friendly expression. Celdic stood shoulder to shoulder with Terrance as the older man gesticulated slightly with his arm. Celdic nodded, intently watching Terrance. Lendel noticed something peculiar about them. It was not how Celdic hung on to Terrance's every word, but rather their closeness. Lendel would not have thought that degree of closeness possible between someone that Celdic had only just met.

  They were so intent that Lendel hesitated to call out a greeting, knowing very well how out-of-phase with reality Celdic could be when he had that expression. As they drew near, Terrance glanced at Lendel and started in his direction. Lendel stood up, studying the two of them as they approached. Celdic had a grin that he was trying to suppress without much success.

  "Lendel," Celdic began, grinning openly now, "I would like you to meet my father."

  Lendel stared at Celdic as if he were mad, wondering if this place had finally pushed him over the edge or if he were playing some kind of joke. Celdic just stood there grinning while Terrance nodded slightly in acknowledgment. They are both mad, Lendel thought in amazement. I leave him for four days and now look at him.

  "Are you forgetting that you already have a father, Celdic?" Lendel asked slowly, the way he would have asked a toddler if he had lost his mother.

  Celdic's grin slipped a little. "This is my real father Lendel," Celdic said, for all the world as if it were Lendel that was having a hard time with reality. "It is sort of a long story, but just trust me."

  Lendel swore under his breath. That was what he told Cha'le and Li when he told them he had a plan for how to get out of Chasel Ri’ Aven. He thought about using Li's response and telling him that he wouldn't trust him if he were tied in a sack. All of a sudden, a few things came together that somehow escaped Lendel's notice until now. Celdic and Terrance shared the same strong chin and high cheekbones, including eyes that were sharp enough to cut diamonds. Lendel reached out with his yar and finally realized what had been obvious since he had first met Terrance at Chasel Ri’ Aven. Terrance and Celdic shared the same resonance, the signature that a host’s spirit emanates. People from the same family always had a close resonance, but Lendel could not detect even the slightest difference between Celdic and Terrance. If someone blindfolded him and introduced him to Terrance with nothing but his yar to guide him, he would have assumed it was Celdic.

  "That's impossible," he muttered. "No one can have the same resonance."

  Celdic looked confused and Lendel knew why. Celdic would not be able to see what was plain to Selindria, he and the other three youths from Cha
sel Ri’ Aven. Terrance did not look surprised, however. He glanced at Celdic with pursed lips before turning back to Lendel.

  "Our resonances are not entirely the same," Terrance assured him. "The parts that are different are not detectable, however. That which you call an aura is much stronger on Celdic and I, making it impossible for you to see past the outer layer of our bodies."

  "Why?" Lendel demanded. "What is so different about the two of you?” Lendel was beginning to weary of all of the mystery that had shrouded every moment of his life since meeting Terrance at Chasel Ri’ Aven.

  Celdic was looking at him in surprise at his rudeness, which irritated Lendel even more. Terrance did not seem perturbed by the bitterness in Lendel's voice. He seemed to expect it, indicated by an expression that Lendel would have said was fondly amused.

  "Celdic," Terrance said, still watching Lendel, "why don't you go check on Li and Cha'le? We can continue where we left off later."

  Celdic nodded, a small grin appearing on his face as he turned back to the cottage. Lendel had little doubt it had something to do with Li. Women seemed to have that effect on men. He knew that Cha'le certainly had that effect on him.

  "Walk with me, Lendel," Terrance said, turning back to the path that he had just returned from with Celdic.

  Lendel walked beside him down the path that led into the woods, feeling slightly uneasy as he recalled the change that encompassed Celdic on his return. "You aren't going to tell me that you are my father too, are you?" Lendel asked, half-seriously.

  Terrance looked at him sideways as they rounded the corner in the path of lush vegetation into a paradise that Lendel would have thought only existed in someone's dreams. "Not exactly," Terrance replied dryly, "But we do need to discuss who your parents really were for you to understand what it is that you need to do, and why."