Jaya was standing on a balcony overlooking an enclosed courtyard. The roof of the courtyard was arched, with curved iron beams creating giant squares half again as tall as she was. Between the iron beams there were large pieces of curved glass, creating a perfect dome enclosure from the elements. It was most likely created using magic, as crystal-clear glass like that was hard to come by, especially in such large pieces.
There was a class studying in the courtyard below, older students by the looks of it. There were several different levels of students she had been told, their labels apparently contrived from some assumed fowl hierarchy which did not make any sense to her.
The servants and maids were more than happy to share information on any topic she asked about, and since her entire public purpose for visiting this school was to uphold the ancient agreement, learning any and all weaknesses the school may hold so they could improve their defenses, she had listened to their prattle intently.
Apparently, all of the students started out as “Sparrow” until they had mastered a regiment of predetermined spells and topics. The topics were usually similar to any normal school Jaya had visited with classes on history, science, politics, geography, first aid, etc. A few non-magical exceptions were required courses in ancient tongues and dialects, artifacts, as well as a comprehensive class on all of the different species in the world, magical and not.
Once the expected information was absorbed, the Sparrows could move up and become Heron, where they would learn deeper information on the same scholarly topics, and additional spells and magical abilities. Then the cycle would repeat, and they would move on to Owl, then Falcon, and finally, Eagle. Although majestic and large, Jaya would have labeled a falcon as the highest class rather than an eagle, and she had no idea why an owl was considered higher in status than a heron.
After attaining Eagle status, the students could graduate and become a Mage, or magi to some people. From there they could become an Elder, teaching or researching at an arcane school, enter the political scene as an advisor in some faraway land, or request an assignment from the High Elders to accomplish some mundane task throughout the world.
Her thoughts returned to their focus on the students below, watching them just barely over the edge of the book she was holding on the balconies railing. Her height made the angle perfect for seeing everything below while pretending to read the open book in her hand, especially with her spectacles on the end of her long nose. She had done this countless times, always bringing a book she had read before just in case someone inquired as to her choice of literature.
Jaya had a great interest in reading, and the school’s library was a wealth of knowledge that she relished in her private time. She had even found an ancient book that implicated the various arcane schools as puppet masters behind a string of wars throughout the ages, and possibly a revolution for the land of Jersal at some point in history.
Currently, the students below were working in small groups of four or five students, with a recently graduated Mage awaiting assignment, volunteering to assist each group. There were five or six groups in all, and they appeared to be working on an elective spell exam as each group had their own separate spell, and it was quite obvious the selected spells were chosen by the students.
Jaya was Kanidian, a race of bipedal canines with enhanced senses. She was using her eyes and ears to make out the minute gestures and words of power each group was trying to use. They did quite well on their pronunciations, only missing the emphasis here and there, but most of the structuring of the words were in the wrong order. One group apparently was trying to bring life to a dying tree in a pot in the center of their circle. Another group held balls of fire in their hands and were trying to change them into different colors, unsuccessfully. A third group appeared to be somewhat successful in their chosen spell as cheers of triumph rang throughout the courtyard as it began to rain gently on a single pane of glass above them, and no others.
Jaya well remembered the joy whenever she had mastered a new spell so she could not help but smile at the group, enjoying their success with them. Their cheers of triumph became shouts of concern when the raindrops quickly grew to the size of apples, drumming violently on the window pane as torrents of water slide off the dome in all directions.
She saw the face of the Gifted in charge of that group as it fluctuated with emotion, not knowing whether to stop the spell herself, or try and teach the students in her charge how to correct the mistake. Jaya barked a laugh and walked away from the balcony with a toothy canine smile on her face.
She saw a woman walking the hall with a purposeful step. She wore a nice dress, nicer than the other human females she had seen who took care of some of the basic manual tasks of the school. However, it wasn’t expensive enough to warrant a visiting noble or a member of the high council. She wore a satchel with the strap over her left shoulder and the wide bag on her right hip. Jaya could smell the ink and bird feather quills in the bag, and it was plenty large enough for paper or small packages. This woman was most likely a secretary or a scribe of some kind.
Jaya politely asked the woman to direct her to the High Elder's private storage room. This question had been on her mind since she arrived, but she was too cautious to ask it before. She wanted people to become used to her presence before she pried into the intimate details of the school. Information like this would help if ever a battle took place within these walls. She also wanted to know how freely such important tactical information would be handed out. If the woman was offended or unwilling to answer, Jaya could always pretend she did not know it was inappropriate to ask since most humans believed things like cultural ignorance.
Not only was the information free, but it came with a smile.
Jaya thanked her and followed her instructions until the woman turned a corner and was out of her line of sight, then she changed directions and headed toward the library. She took the long way around that passed by the main entrance of the school, a massive ornate door on the second floor designed for receiving dignitaries and royalty. The door had not been used in almost ten cycles, not since the Princess of Acondaria had graduated from the school. Her parents had personally come to the school to escort her to her first assignment, which was conveniently very close to their home, or so the livery boy had told her as she was touring the stables near the school.
There was no one near the doors or in that part of the hallway, which was to be expected due to the infrequent use of the entrance. Jaya quickly and deftly worked wards into the doors. They were just shadow wards, they would do nothing if someone touched them except darken the room slightly. They would be extremely easy to find for someone with any magical gift, which is exactly what she wanted, and harmless enough that no one would think twice about who had put them there, most likely believing some of the students had done it as a practical joke. Human adolescents do things like that from time to time, or so she had gathered from the numerous books she had read since she arrived.
Finishing with the door, Jaya turned and walked the familiar path toward her beloved library. The longer she walked, the more people she noticed, mostly students, until it was apparent that she had come right in the middle of a class change.
When she had first arrived six months ago, she had caused a number of incidents, especially with the students. Walking the halls during a class change would instantly cause a traffic jam as the less educated students would scream or try to run. On more than one occasion an over-enthusiastic student had tried to cast a spell on her, although they never came close to being successful. Their panic always caused them to make mistakes.
Jaya was so used to this around humans that she took it in stride, always standing still and patient whenever it happened, never making fast movements, and speaking courteously until people had calmed down. Typically, Elders arrived by then to shoo the students along and box an ear or two for those causing the most trouble.
The students had now come accustomed to her presence. Most of them stared without stopping or tried too hard to ignore her as they watched from the corner of their eye. The more educated students had learned of Seekers, and would usually bow or curtsy as they passed with a murmured, “Good evening, Seeker” or “Mercy, Seeker." The latter greeting was much more formal, one that no one except royalty used anymore; well that and students who had just had a lesson on the subject.
Jaya eventually found the entrance to the library and leaned against the wall to the left of the main entrance out of the flow of traffic. Reaching her hand into her pocket, she withdrew the book she had been pretending to read on the balcony.
The book was a popular book which contained various prophecies and legends from the perspective of the humans. Each prophecy held its own chapter, and each was written with an introduction, and the author's educated opinion of the interpretation of the prophecy at the end of the chapter. The majority of the prophecies were identical to those she had learned as a cub among her people. Even the interpretations of the human author were, for the most part, the same as she had been taught.
Jaya had read the book before, and since it was not written in any particular order, she simply opened the book to a random chapter. She found herself in chapter ten on the prophecy of “The Great Sacrifice,” although the humans called it “Blood for Souls” with a heavy emphasis on the plurality of the word “souls."
Jaya read.
“In the second age, which was the age of literature, knowledge, and political intrigue, the Arch Elder Andros DeFore of the United Council of Arcanists had a foretelling in the streets of Manthanar. He was witnessed by 137 documented individuals including the political envoy of 25 individuals from the city of Jersal, 100 soldiers of their royal escort, and several citizens of Manthanar that came forward to testify. (See Appendix 2B for a list of names).
“The Arch Elder was documented to have stepped down from his horse to stare into a fountain in the center of the city's town square. As he gazed into the fountain his back arched, and he rose a pace into the air. His body turned to face the crowd of onlookers, and his mouth and his eyes blazed with blue fire. He then spoke with a voice which sounded as if he was speaking through a great trumpet high in the air."
“Let it be noted his prophecy was spoken in like-sentence structure with triple repeats, similar to the prophecy of the ‘Great Void’ (See chapter 17). The words echoed throughout the square as if to impress itself upon all those who listened so they would never forget"
“This is what he said."
“Found is he which then stood bound. Found is he which lived in time. Found is he which loved so strong.”
“Loosed is he which bound once was. Loosed is he which time forgot. Loosed is he which love was lost.”
“Come is he which binds the world. Come is he which time Commands. Come is he which Love will find.”
“Two is he which one was bound. Two is he which one was Time. Two is he which one did Love.”
“One is he which saves the world. One is he which saves all time. One is he which saves all love.”
“One is he which burns the world. One is he which burns all time. One is he which burns all love.”
There was a lengthy explanation from the author of this book as to the interpretation of this prophecy, all of which Jaya had read in other books time and time again in her search for answers. The only thing this specific author had confirmed was how conflicting the prophecy became in the last two lines. The beginning was easy; a single entity was broken into two separate beings, thus the title with the plurality of “souls,” but how can the world, time, and love all be saved and burned in the same prophecy? Perhaps they will all burn first from one of the souls, and then be saved through the other soul? They could also all be saved just before the world burns, which would mean the prophecy is chronological with its lines, which is a possibility.
There was one theory though that Jaya had learned in the past from a very old Den Mother. She believed that the last two lines were actually three separate outcomes, and that the world, time, and love could each individually burn or be saved, independent of each other. This way it would be entirely possible for one or two of the subjects to be destroyed, while one or two of them are saved.
The silence in the hallway caused a ringing in her ears, an irritation that comes with age. The ringing interrupted her thoughts, and she raised her head from her book to confirm she was alone in the hallway. The students had found their classrooms apparently.
Even with her aged ears, her hearing was significantly greater than that of any human. She could hear people in the library through the stone walls at her back, but there was no one walking with purpose, just readers and educators milling among the shelves of books. No one was approaching the doorway of the library, and no one was in the hallway.
Jaya pulled a small coin bag out of a hidden pocket in the fold of her robes with a single rune on it. The bag bulged slightly from a square shape that fit in the palm of her hand. She undid the lace and peered inside, seeing a small piece of flat folded paper and nothing else. She reached two of her large fingers into the small opening and withdrew the folded paper. She then turned the bag upside down, and the bulge disappeared as the invisible item fell to the ground.
She placed the bag into her pocket and squat down on her haunches comfortably. Her left hand began opening the folded piece of paper as deftly as a human would with both of their hands, while her right hand drew a glyph on the ground. Glyphs had several purposes, one of which being traps since they could act as trip wires. The purpose of this particular glyph was the same as its namesake, to make someone trip. This glyph however needed to only work on a single person, letting all others pass by it. It also needed to work on someone in the ethereal world, since that is what Jaya’s instructions had been.
There had been no wiggle room in these instructions, not like there had been with her task of warding the main entrance. The main entrance her instructions had thankfully been less specific, only asking that she “place wards to send her into the shadow,” so Jaya had done exactly that. The creature would know if she lied, so she had to follow its instructions to the letter if she expected it to uphold its end of the bargain, but she could be selective with the interpretation of its wording.
Jaya had finished unfolding the piece of paper and held it out in front of her over the glyph. Within the paper was a single black thread of hair. She turned the paper over and it fell onto the rune, instantly disappearing into the glyph as the spell absorbed its essence. This glyph now had its target and would work for no others. Jaya had no idea what the cube was in the bag, but she prayed it would not cause any harm. Harming others was not her intention with this bargain, only to gain information.
Jaya turned and walked into the shadow cast by the magical lantern on the wall. Rather than being flat against the wall, Jaya viewed shadows as if they had depth, so it took a few steps for her to be embedded in the shadow. Once she was completely within the shadow, she found herself in a realm of total darkness. She could have been in a narrow hallway, or on an empty castle, space was meaningless. Directly behind her was a doorway with no door, like the entrance to a small hall or alley. The view of the doorway showed the hallway which she had come from.
To the left and the right of her, not necessarily in a straight line from each other, were two narrow doorways which were also without doors. These doorways Jaya herself had created, and they would hold a closed door to anyone else who tried to use them. They were always there when she entered the shadow realm, no matter where she entered it from in the world of light. These two doorways acted much like the placemark in a book, and she could assign them any location she had been to before in her memory. If she did not assign them to any place in particular, then the doorway to her left would show the place she most recently visited while shadow walking, and the doorway to her right would show the closest exit to her current location which was usually just one room over.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Jaya had assigned the doorways a remembered location though. The doorway to her left showed the entrance to her room with the view located around the corner of the fireplace where shadow always resided. The other doorway showed the entrance to a dark and dusty room located somewhere in the castle.
Jaya could reach other areas and locations by walking past the doorways and envisioning where she wanted to go. There was still some walking that had to be done to reach any destination though, and the distance between places in the world of the light had nothing to do with the distance in the darkness. Sometimes the journey was brief, and sometimes it would last for hours, or even days.
There was always danger when walking the shadow world for such long distances. The foremost danger was simply losing yourself in the darkness. There is no shapes or sense of direction or openness or anything in the darkness. To reach a destination, you would simply desire that destination at a minimum consistency, and walk firmly as if you were heading straight for it. It did not matter which direction you were actually walking in, with enough determination and focus you would eventually reach your goal.
Other dangers are mimics, creatures that are able to read your thoughts and appear as what you desire at that time, enticing you to come to them. They can appear as anything really. A doorway, a treasure chest, a deceased parent, a long-lost love, anything. Mimics were rare however and not a threat she needed to worry about.
There were also more common dangers such as revenants and lycanthropes. Any lycanthrope would know her as a mono-shaped cousin and leave her be, probably with a look of pity as they left.
A revenant, however, would almost immediately attack her, especially within the shadow realm as they are far stronger there. Revenants range in physical body, intellect, and abilities so widely that few encounters are the same. So many things play a part in their development, such as their age when the soul and the body died, the manner of the soul and the body's death, and the purpose in the soul wanting to return to this world.
Child revenants are far more dangerous than most adult ones, and murdered individuals are far less powerful than someone raised after a martyrdom. Likewise, a revenant raised by another person is far less powerful than one that raised itself because of a passion.
Jaya shook off the deep stupor of thought she had sunk into, which happened more often as of late. She blamed the library and its wonderful assortment of literature for moments like this, refusing to acknowledge her age as a contributor.
If you allowed your mind to wander while in this darkness you would see doorways blink in and out of existence as your thoughts evolved. Jaya could clearly see the doors to many dark and secluded locations around her in the darkness begin to fade as her thoughts realigned to the task at hand.
Occasionally a doorway would have an actual door over it, which meant another shadow walker had felt the need to ward that entrance from use. Such things could be removed if one wanted to try, but the owner of the ward would always be aware of any tampering the moment it happened, and then you could be in for a fight of unknown proportions. Sometimes it was better to avoid such attention anyways.
Jaya turned to the right and headed directly to the doorway which led to the dusty secluded room. She had placed the strongest wards she knew over the doorway, but they were not designed to keep her out so she could not see the door over the doorway that she knew others would see. She hoped it had poisoned spikes, dripping with danger to warn any and all away for their own protection.
Jaya stepped into the room and left the shadow world behind her. She could still see into the depths of the shadow if she looked, but it wasn’t important at the moment.
She looked around the room and found herself in a forgotten storeroom, in fact, this entire level had not been visited for centuries. The only reason she had been able to find the hidden doorway which led down here was because she could smell the lubricant on the hidden hinges and pulleys behind the wall. The secret door itself was opened with a latch embedded within the ceiling. She was tall enough to reach it without a stool, which is most likely why it had remained undiscovered for so long.
The wall she had walked through and the one directly to her right in the back of the room were lined with rows of shelves. The shelves were mostly empty except for a wooden crate here and there full of the shredded remains of some form of folded cloth, too disintegrated and moth-eaten to determine its original purpose.
The wall directly in front of her held eight rows of wooden cubby hole shelves that were built into a slant against the wall, with the back of the shelf sitting about two inches higher than the front. The holes were about as wide as both of her hands spread out in front of her. There were a few cubby holes with unidentifiable objects in them, always in pairs, and always smelling like old leather and cloth.
The wall to her left held a door, a magnificent ornate door which glowed brightly with gold and streaks of silver. The silver was worked expertly around the outer edge of the door in the shape of tiny dragons, hundreds of them all around its entire border. The door towered over her head and there was no handle that she could see. The dust that was everywhere in this room did not touch the door at all. It looked as if someone had polished it minutes ago. The door did indeed glow, it was not her imagination, which is what gave light to the rest of the room. Thankfully it was not quite bright enough to remove all shadows, not like the next room.
Without hesitation, Jaya walked through the door as if it did not exist. She did not doubt that the door was real. She could feel it if she touched it with the purpose of touching it, and she could smell the metals worked into its finish, but it apparently was not designed to hold anyone out who desired to enter.
Jaya stepped into a room of light. Every surface was a spotless white, the ceiling, walls, and floors. She knew there were walls around her, but they were seamless and blended entirely with the floor and ceiling, giving the room the impression of endless white that stretched into the distance. There were two long tables positioned so they stretched away from the door Jaya had just entered, so a person could walk between them with room to spare. Each table was as wide as a Jaya, and twice as long she was tall. They were the perfect height for her hands to comfortably rest on, like the railing of a staircase, and she did not doubt that any visitor of any height would find them perfectly suited for their height as well. The tables were draped in cloth to the floor, all white and clean.
There were fifteen objects on the tables, thirteen of which appeared to be statues made of various materials. There were very plain statues made from basic stone or marble all of one color. There was some with shining bits of glass embedded in some sort of resin, and a few made of metal, mostly bronze with silver or gold leaf pressed in for decoration. They were all roughly the same size and could comfortably fit in a small pouch or a large pocket.
There were six males and seven females all holding various objects which spoke loudly of symbolism. There were two statues of men and two statues of women holding musical instruments, the women were playing a flute and a harp, and the men were playing a horn and a drum.
There was a male holding a spear, and what appeared to be a male blacksmith hammering on an anvil, and a man holding a book with the ancient symbol of the Arcanist, which would be a Mage in today’s terms. The rest of the statues were female. There was one holding a saddle in both arms, one with a short sword in each hand, held with the blades pointing down. There was a pregnant woman holding a basket, a female blacksmith sharpening a blade, and the female version of an Arcanist.
At the very end of the left table was a small jagged dagger without a sheath. The dagger’s blade was black with a streak of white running along the side of the blade. It had a simple wooden handle emblazoned with the white symbol of a dragon, and a single rune meaning “Freedom."
At the end of the table on the right was what appeared to be a round object covered with a piece of cloth. Jaya ignored all other objects in the room and strode to the mounded cloth. She grabbed the cloth and lifted it off of the mound to reveal a white sphere on the table about the size of her fist.
Jaya closed her eyes and gingerly placed her hand on the ball. Instantly she felt a presence in her mind. The presence was chaotic, hungry, and fearful, yet also immensely powerful and cunning. As the presence entered her mind, she felt as if her personality was being pushed aside into the smallest recesses of her mind. She was awed by the sheer magnitude of its personality, especially when it stretched.
That was the best she could describe it. She felt as if her mind was larger than whatever the sphere held for the creature, and it was stretching as it entered her mind.
“It is done?” a grating voice sounded loudly inside her head, reverberating off of the inside of her skull.
Grabbing her head with her unoccupied hand, Jaya steadied herself and responded out loud, “exactly as you instructed."
The absence of formalities and titles was not lost on the entity, and Jaya could feel its mood stir a little, but having its tasks completed so quickly seemed to take precedence.
“You are helping to fulfill prophesy thousands of years in the making, you should be proud, seeker" the voice said softly.
As it spoke, the voice reached comfortable levels within her head, almost as if the voice was tuning itself as it spoke. The end result was a calm and dangerous voice, fully aware of its own power, threatening even as it praised.
Jaya thought of the horrors this creature had rent upon the world, she thought of the legends and stories told of the great battles it had wrought, of the countries leveled, their people long forgotten except by historians. She thought of the rumors of its influence seeping into the fabric of our world, of its connection with the Jackals and their rise to immunity. She thought of all of this … and knew fear.
Jaya felt pride and arrogance surge within her mind, remembering that the entity was within her and knew her thoughts. She had tried asking it questions concerning its touch on the world, but it refused to answer her questions willingly, so Jaya had turned to bargaining. As she thought of this concept, of running errands like a servant to gain answers, Jaya could feel its smugness, could feel it looking down on her as one would a horse or a pet.
But Jaya knew better. She knew this entity, as powerful as it may be, could not fully leave the confines of that little white sphere on the table, at least not yet. This is why it needed her help, not just any individual's help, a seeker's help. She knew this because her people were the ones who created its small white prison, many ages ago. They had formed the contract which governs its creation and destruction, sealing that contract with their blood to protect the world. Only a seeker could ever release this beast early.
Sensing the entity's tension, almost as if it was holding its breath waiting for something, Jaya interrupted her thoughts before they could wander into the details of this entity's prison, forfeiting information she did not want to be shared. It was difficult having someone read your thoughts so fully when so much of your life was spent in mental solitude. She had tried shutting him out of some thoughts as she could with most other entities, but that did not work at all.
The only good aspect of this arrangement, and it was most certainly a planned attribute, was that it worked both ways. She could feel the frustration of the entity when she changed her thought process from the creation of the sphere, masked and hidden, but ever-present. It had waited thousands of years so she-
“Yes, I have waited thousands of years, the tasks are complete, ask your questions seeker. Two tasks, two questions.”
Jaya carefully controlled her thoughts, she did not want to inadvertently ask a question just from a thought.
She felt the entity surge with wicked pleasure, and a slight hint of disappointment. It had no doubt been counting on such a mistake.
Jaya had prepared herself well and knew exactly what questions she was going to ask, but she was not so sure that the beast would answer her.
“We had an arrangement Seeker, your hesitation is disturbing. Now ASK!” the voice demanded, shaking her skull with the resounding vibrations of its voice.
Jaya involuntarily dropped to her knees, clutching her head in her hands. The moment she had released the sphere to grab her head, the link had been severed, and she was alone in her thoughts once more, but the pain lingered.
Jaya felt something wet on the end of her snout and smelled her own blood in her nostrils. She wiped the trickle away with her hand and stared at the blood matting her hand in alarm, her thoughts racing. She knew that the entity within the sphere should not have been able to cause her any real harm, regardless of how loud he had shouted at her when they were linked.
She waited until her dizziness had subsided, then slowly rose to her feet using the table to help her stand. She leaned on the table for a moment to regain her balance while staring at the sphere intently.
“Your prison must be weaker than I thought, I guess that is one question I do not have to ask" she said firmly, directing her voice to the sphere.
The sphere briefly flashed a light red before returning to its normal white. She assumed this was an emotional response from the entity trapped within, another sign that the contract on the sphere was coming to an end, succumbing to the strength of the beast.
Jaya had a mild wave of dizziness come over her, and she reached out to steady herself on the table to her right, her hand gripping the upper portion of a statue. She stood there for a moment letting the dizziness pass, but then she gradually began to feel warmth under her hand. She quickly pulled her hand away and turned to stare at the statue.
The statue was of one of the blacksmiths, the male one with the hammer and anvil. She was not sure why the statue felt warm, as she had touched a few of the statues when she first found this room and nothing like that had happened. Looking closer, Jaya could see a few droplets of blood on the statue. She quickly remembered that she had wiped the blood from her nose, which now was on the statue.
As she stared at the droplets, they appeared to sink into the statue as if they were being absorbed. Once they fully disappeared many things happened simultaneously, things that were difficult for the eye to follow, her vision sliding off of them like water on an oiled canvas.
The room appeared to expand and contract at the same time, growing in some locations while shrinking in others. Then Jaya’s ears picked up the sound of something clanking in rhythm, metallic and steady, and perfectly in sync with the fluctuations of the room. Two taps followed by a pause, one tap, pause, two taps, pause, and the pattern repeated.
She knew it was the sound of a hammer and anvil being worked by a blacksmith, the statue she had touched had all but sung the symbolism to her. However, it was almost as if the hammer was working the room rather than a piece of metal. In fact, the room only altered now with the blows of the hammers.
Tap tap pause, tap pause, tap tap pause, tap pause.
With each stroke the tables seemed to push themselves to the outer walls, rippling like a snake as the center bent, followed by each end one at a time. They expanded the area in between them until it was easily ten strides across. At the same time, the ceiling rose until it was twice Jaya’s height. Gradually, a form began to appear in the center of the room with a blurry background.
Tap tap pause, tap pause, tap tap pause, tap pause.
With each stroke of the hammer the image became clearer. It appeared to be the inside of a blacksmith's forge, although it was fragmented somehow. Her view was that of a person standing inside of the building against the wall opposite the main entrance. There were rafters above her and a table with a bench instead of chairs to her right. In the center of the wall was an open door with a single open window to its right. On the left side of the room there was a forge with a massive bellow operated by a petal at the base of the coal pit that a blacksmith could pump with their foot as they worked. And right in the center of the room was an anvil.
Everything about the room seemed real, she could feel the heat from the forge, she could smell the burning coals, the worked metals, and the dirt floor. She could even see and hear people milling and walking past the open doors and window as if the building was adjacent to a marketplace.
The only unnerving thing about the scene was the way everything ended at its edges. The rafters which would have gone across the whole room ended abruptly in the air, just at the edge of the covered white tables on either side of the room. The same thing happened to half of the table and the back edge of the forge, disappearing as they almost touched the tablecloth.
The final series of taps was completed with the blacksmith's presence in the center of the room. He was slightly hunched as he bent over his work with his back facing her, but she could see his arms moving with the hammer strokes.
Tap Tap pause, tap pause, tap tap pause, tap pause.
He finished his work and straightened his back, holding the item he had been working on in the air to admire his work against the light of the room. The item was a black sphere held gingerly in a long pair of tongs with heat waves stirring the air above it. The man plunged the item into a bucket that was obscured by the anvil, steam rising in torrents, much more steam than she had expected from such a small item.
He held the item up again in the air to admire it, only this time it was perfectly white. She now recognized it for what it was, the sphere which caged the beast on the table. Jaya was startled when the man turned around and looked her directly in the eye. She had thought this was a vision of some kind, but having the man react to her presence was not what she had expected.
He was wearing plain boots and pants and a leather jerkin like most blacksmiths she had seen, but with an apron over that, an apron that he was now using to polish the sphere in his hands. He was much leaner than any blacksmith she had seen before, and was about as tall as her shoulder, which was quite tall for a human. His skin was pale, his face perfectly smooth. The moment he had turned around Jaya thought he had black eyes, but now they were a piercing green which shone like emeralds.
Jaya realized suddenly that this was not a human at all, this was a Dardwain. An easy mistake to make when looking at a small statue, but this could change everything she thought she knew about this room and its purpose.
The Dardwain smiled a smile of sheer joy at his accomplishment which seemed to brighten the whole room.
“Welcome Gosencha Seeches, I have been waiting for you, we have much to discuss."
Jaya froze instantly, unable to speak. The Dardwain only continued to stare at her, a pillar of patience and understanding, letting her regain her thoughts. It wasn’t the magic that froze her in place, nor the changing room or even the Dardwain himself, it was what he had called her. “Gosencha seeches” meant “fellow Seeker” in the old tongue, yet she had no knowledge of any seekers outside of her people. In fact, there was no historian in any city she had ever visited that could document a Seeker that was not a Kanidian.
If these statues around her all represented Seekers, and all of them were Dardwain or even humans, everything her people believed about themselves was a lie.
“Yes ... ” and after a pause, Jaya added “… gosencha seeches, I believe we do have much to discuss."