The Way of the Shadow Blade, Chapter XI: The Calling

The Way of the Shadow Blade, Chapter XI: The Calling

Chapter XI: The Calling

Aruna's first morning as an initiated Guardian went as well as could be expected--but not without challenges. Thankfully, the simple Guardian's uniform eliminated any problems with putting together an outfit without her sight, but other aspects of her life had suddenly become foreign. With her years of training as a student of the Order, she was certainly much better-prepared than most of the sighted would be--but what surprised her was the amount of concentration required for simple tasks like finding her hairbrush...or getting through the morning meal without mishaps.

Rue had found herself utterly unable to carry on a conversation with Erik, who sat at her right. The loquacious Guardian muttered an apology after his third politely-rebuffed attempt, which had nearly caused Rue to spill her water as she tried to simultaneously answer and set down the glass. "My fault," he said when he heard the glass come down too hard at a precarious angle. "I keep forgetting." Erik, blind from birth, could neither see the blindfold over Aruna's eyes--nor fully relate to her relearning process. When Rue paused for a moment, his fingers lightly brushed her arm. "You'll get the hang of it, I promise."

After the meal, Aruna heard a set of footsteps approaching her--too soft to be wearing shoes...therefore a Guardian--but hesitated until the corresponding voice spoke her name. "Aruna...can I still call you Rue?"

"Kalle...I didn't recognize you," Rue admitted. "And yeah, you can call me Rue."

"Thanks. I'm not upset," the young Guardian said. "I understand. You'll learn to recognize my steps, the same way I do yours. And your breathing--it's faint, but you can hear a person's whisper in it if you listen carefully enough. And smell...no offense," Kalle quickly added. "It's not a bad smell...just...it's female, and it's distinctly yours."

Rue gave a subdued laugh. "I get the point; don't worry."

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to class together," Kalle invited. "I know you don't know the room." Three days a week now, Aruna would study Low Arkettisch in the morning session instead of attending her former apprenticeship with the healer Zarine. Rue had momentarily forgotten amidst her other concerns that Kalle was one of her classmates--for Guardians in their enclave who hailed from non-Aramansch-speaking lands were required to continue the study of their native language for life, often becoming instructors.

"I'd appreciate that very much," Rue said. Taking her place close at her friend's right side, Aruna drew close enough that she just began to sense the warmth emanating from his body. She picked out the patterns of the stones underfoot, just as Erik had taught her when she was a little girl, keeping the breaks between them aligned under her feet. Though Rue answered little, Kalle told her about the class...partly for academic reasons, partly to give her another beacon upon which to orient herself.

Kalle stopped and Rue heard a door creak open. "After you, Rue."

A rustle of cloth and the faint creak of a wooden chair signaled Rue that someone had stood. "Good morning," came the familiar, sharp-timbred voice of Thorn, the course instructor. "As I informed you yesterday," he said, a slight shift in the location of his voice revealing that he'd turned his head slightly to address the rest of the class, "Aruna has decided to join us." Several students and Guardians welcomed Rue at the exact same moment, their voices overlapping so much that she couldn't even get an accurate count, let alone discern their words. Thorn pointedly cleared his throat; that was all it took to enforce a complete silence. "That's too much," he admonished. "One at a time, please."

In total, Rue counted nine full Guardians including herself, and four uninitiated students. Five of these were native Kuenarkettische-speakers. The class was smaller than most, including the class for her first elective language--Reúhel, taught by Grandfather Michael and Erik. Aruna knew Thorn's forbidding reputation from fieldcraft and combat instruction had much to do with this...just as it had for her in the past. "Thank you for having me," Rue said to Thorn as much as to her classmates.

"A pleasure," Thorn cordially replied. "To the rest of you--get in your groups and review your lessons from last week; I'll be around shortly to test you. Kalle, Aruna--over here, please." Rue carefully picked out a path among the students, who were taking up places on couches...but more often right on the floor. Lowering his voice to avoid distracting the others, Thorn explained, "Aruna, I have to assess what you've already learned. I want to listen to you and Kalle--talk about anything that interests you. Try...if you can...to forget my presence." This was not what Kalle had warned her to expect; Thorn generally assessed new students on his own.

After several minutes, which Aruna filled with discussion of her new course schedule, Thorn excused himself and began addressing the rest of the class. As Rue listened at Kalle's side, she began to sense something about the interchange among the class and their instructor, something surprisingly tight-knit as if this class were a pleasant secret kept from the rest of the Order. Thorn was demanding--but she had a feeling from this first experience that they moved significantly faster through their lessons than could the large, sometimes unwieldy Aramansch and Seratic courses that served the entire enclave.

When Thorn rejoined Aruna at the end of the class period, he said, "I need to speak with you for a few minutes. Kalle...could you excuse us?" The young Guardian complied and made his exit--probably waiting just outside for Rue.

"Kalle has never corrected your grammar, has he?" Thorn immediately asked.

"No, sir..." Rue's ears grew hot. "Unless he can't understand me."

"That's usually the case among friends," Thorn explained. "I rather expected it. When I was about your age, Erik tried to teach me Reúhel on his own...our current Elder could scarcely believe the way I spoke the first time I tried it on him. It turned out Erik was too polite to correct my pronunciation, even though I badly needed it." Rue could sympathize with Thorn's speaking troubles--she remembered well how she'd struggled for years with the soft, subtle sounds of Erik's native language. To this day she still had to concentrate to avoid rendering the "w" as a "v", to trill her "r's" at the tip of her tongue instead of pronouncing them from the back of her throat in the guttural Aramansch way, as well as a whole other list of potential pitfalls. "To begin...you need to understand that you must always begin a statement with the verb in Kuenarkettische. To say you're Aramansch, for instance, you must say, 'Vaech nae Aramaneid,' not "Nae vaech.' Please try to be mindful of that next time."

"I will, sir."

"Good," said Thorn. He paused slightly. "But what I want most to ask is...how are you holding up?"

"Not bad," Rue answered. "People are being helpful--but sometimes...you probably heard me at the table with Erik today. I really didn't mean to keep cutting him off."

Thorn sighed. "I understand it, though. Meals were a terrible frustration to me, especially as weak as my body had been from the infections. The Elder or I would never hesitate to give you some advice if you ask..."

"Thank you...I'll probably take you two up on that tonight." Aruna was unaware of any sighted guests who would be sharing the evening meal besides Leah and a few other Guardians' family members; all of them were familiar with Rue's situation and it was for that reason alone she could find the courage to accept the offer.

"There's something else I wanted to tell you--I am excusing you from fieldcraft this afternoon." Rue was stunned into silence. "I'll consider what to do about the session later this week. You may not believe me right now...but you may well discover you want to rejoin us by then. As for today--Kirian and I discussed this, and there's a surprise we'd like her to show you. Something we think you'll enjoy..."



Before they could meet, Aruna began learning the closed histories of the Order of Guardians. "Rue, welcome," said Grandfather Michael. "It's time you began to understand more of your heritage as the daughter of mages. Before the Age of Visions and the Intervention, the only people with access to magic were those born with the ability. They were called blood-mages because the power had to be inherited from one parent. Ordinarily mages cannot have children with each other, though--it's believed now that God designed it this way to keep them from isolating themselves from the rest of the world, or from trying to increase their power through arranged marriages. Therefore, in order for God to favor mages with children, they had to marry someone not of their kind."

"What about me?" Aruna asked. "My parents were both mages, weren't they?"

"Indeed they were," Grandfather Michael replied in low tones, seeming to draw upon personal remembrance of Sherenaan and Alixis. "It is highly unusual, and I believe cases like yours have to do with the Intervention, as I'll explain shortly. Before that time, and before Meridioseratica, some nations were very reverent of mages. Some set them up as priests, some as their rulers. The latter was the case in the territories of Istalla and Ammesaro...unfortunately the ruling mages there let their power go to their heads. Even though mages of all nations were supposed to follow a strict honor code given by to them God in the ancient days...some of them committed terrible acts. Murders...tortures...sometimes against rival nations, other times against their own people, all of whom were helpless to defend against mages.

"The Meridioseratic Empire rose as a response to all this--they began as a confederation of rebel city states who hoped to defeat the ruling mages by sheer force of numbers. After decades of terrible, bloody campaigns, they succeeded and formed an empire. The first order they sent out was the Edict of the Winnowing...the execution of mage-children." Rue gasped and immediately bowed her head in sympathetic prayer. "I know...they believed it was the only way to end the abuses...but it was revenge more than anything. They killed mages who worked as healers, mages who saved people from natural disasters, made sure their villages got enough to eat--even mages who just cheered people's hearts as traveling entertainers.

"They did the same in every territory they invaded, regardless of how those nations' cultures dealt with mages. This included the Erekett tribes from which we Aramansch are descended, even though the mages generally lived in peace as healer-priests. I think this made the Seratisse even harder on the Erekett...this belief that our kind of harmony with mages was impossible. Some mages escaped and went into hiding...and when the Age of Visions arrived, by and large the mages joined or at least supported the Erekett rebels.

"Something happened with the Intervention, though--when the Spirit was sent to the people, suddenly some without mage's blood found themselves with powers granted directly by God rather than by birth. That still happens to this day--there are a few in our own enclave who are 'Spirit-gifted', though they generally don't discuss their abilities. At the same time this happened, the blood-mages were required to submit their powers directly to God; the old honor code was no longer sufficient to govern their use. Some blood-mages did submit their powers--others rebelled against God's authority. Ever since then, there's been a state of warfare among the mages. Unfortunately, when your parents died...we lost the last two mages fighting against the rebels. For your sake...I feel it was best that you were never trained as one. The task of fighting the blood-mages is now mostly in the hands of the Spirit-gifted and the Order of Guardians.

"As for your birth--on very rare occasions since the Intervention, God has granted children to a pair of mages. This has usually happened when the people are in great need...though a few of these children have come of age and turned against their Creator. Your parents had no expectations of children when they married--but when children like you are born, their potential is nearly twice that of an ordinary mage. That's why Arenak would have liked so much to get his hands on you...to use that power for himself.

"Even though you can't train as a mage, we have found that in the past when we've trained blind mage-children, they've become some of our very best warriors. We believe it has to do with the mage-child's greater innate capacity to perceive what the eye cannot see. I don't know if you've realized this, Rue...but ordinarily women of your small stature and build can't handle the rigors of our training--let alone a sighted woman. You mustn't let this make you overconfident...you must still work very hard to overcome those disadvantages. But it may well be your heritage that has allowed you this life as a Guardian."



"Aruna...good afternoon," Kirian greeted later that afternoon. "I know we haven't really had a chance to get to know each other before yesterday, but I was hoping you'd be interested in joining me."

"Of course!" A smile spread across her face. "Thorn doesn't let people out of fieldcraft for just anything..." The students had shared a private joke about what they called the 'bleeding, barfing, and broken bones rule'--these supposedly being the only ways to get excused from Thorn's class. Almost half of the students had tried faking one of these conditions at some time or another, only to discover that the battle-hardened strategist simply could not be fooled by children's pranks. One particularly enterprising miscreant had spent considerable time mixing up a noxious recipe that everyone, Rue included, had been sure would repulse Thorn sufficiently to earn an immediate dismissal. Unfortunately for him, five damning words after he had deployed the mix destroyed his hopes: That should not be cold. Rue recalled how as she and a few students had mulled over exactly why Thorn would say this, they had nearly ended up with very real 'excuses.'

"He doesn't do this often," Thorn's friend agreed, "but he has his reasons. I do as well. Would you walk with me?" Rue joined Kirian and followed her outside on a stone path, still slick from rain earlier in the day. Kirian slowed her pace to allow for Rue's slower, more cautious progress. A cool spring breeze ran its fingers through their hair, teased the trailing length of Rue's sash, and also brought with it a faint, musky scent that evoked distant memories of her childhood. Perhaps, Rue imagined, she had slept in a stable during her year on the run with her parents. After listening as carefully as she could, assured they were alone, Kirian sighed and then nervously broached her question: "Aruna...there are no resentments for yesterday, are there? I did that as a favor to a friend, you know...there were personal matters involved."

Rue followed the code of silence among Guardians, replying only, "It had to be done, Kirian...if not you, somebody else would've had to tie the blindfold." Thorn, she knew, could never have endured the third-senior Guardian's traditionally-required role in initiating the sighted. Even Kirian was clearly discomfited by what duty and friendship had demanded of her. Aruna recalled a technique she'd used on occasion in combat training--gauging Kirian's height and distance by the sounds of her voice and footsteps, she tentatively reached out to rest her fingertips upon Kirian's arm. "Don't carry it on your conscience."

The pair lapsed into silence as they neared the end of the cobblestone path. The mix of odors associated with the stables was almost overwhelming now to Rue, but out of respect for one of the enclave's most masterful riders, she said nothing. "I'll need to guide you here," Kirian apologized as she linked arms with Rue. "No offense...it's just a bit cramped in here, and we don't want to spook the horses."

Kirian led Rue inside to an accompaniment of equine snorts and light whinnying from all around. "Hello, guys," Kirian called, gently projecting her voice around the stable. "I've brought a friend!" The horses seemed to calm at her words. Aruna found herself wondering if it was simply the appearance of their primary trainer--or did they have a clearer notion of what Kirian was saying? Finally, Kirian stopped before a particular stall, instructing Rue to wait. Crooning softly to the nervously-pacing occupant, she seemed to exert an almost supernatural power over the animal, who calmed and ceased to pace. "This my horse, Linnéa," Kirian explained. "But what I really wanted to show you--well, why don't you come in? Mind your step..."

Rue slowly made her way over to Kirian's side--and then she heard it: a tiny set of hoofbeats to her right, a little snort just below shoulder level. A smile seemed to emerge of its own accord. "Can I...please, may I touch him?"

"Actually, it's a 'she,'" Kirian corrected. "And provided all goes well, she'll be yours once you qualify to ride. A mare of Linnéa's line should be particularly suited to a small rider like you...I'm hoping you two will be a good match. It would help for her to go ahead and get to know your scent, get used to your touch. Here--I'll show you how to pet her. Uetaned serik." Aruna immediately understood that she was to set her hand upon Kirian's, fingertips extended past the other Guardian's. This was one of the teaching techniques to which Rue was long accustomed; as Kirian demonstrated, Rue was reminded of lessons from Erik and Fennis on the location of an opponent's pressure points.

But the feeling was entirely different as she stroked the foal's sleek newborn fur--especially when she responded to Rue and Kirian's touch by trying to nuzzle Rue's shoulder despite not quite being able to reach high enough. Rue couldn't restrain a laugh of delight as if she were four years old once again. "Such a good girl," she whispered to the foal, then turned towards Kirian. "What's her name?"

"She doesn't have one yet...I thought you might like to name her yourself."

Aruna squeezed Kirian's hand. "I'll need to think about that...but thank you so much...!" Rue consciously realized for the first time that she would never know the foal's markings--she considered asking one of the sighted stablehands, then rebuked herself: Not now--it's far too soon to start thinking that way! Only one full day had elapsed since her initiation; the knowledge that she could conceivably remove the blindfold and go back to her old life floated in the back of her mind and she fought to silence the inquisitive, nostalgic voice that had already come to life within her.

"Well, the sooner we can give her a name, the better--she needs to be trained with it." Training for the Katurjemoch, the even-tempered, highly intelligent horse specially bred to accompany the Guardians into battle, started almost immediately after a foal's birth, bonding horse and master even before the animal was large enough to ride. "Will next week be enough time for you?" Kirian asked.

"I believe so."

"Good." Then she announced, "We'll have to go now--the Elder will be expecting you. Seratic lessons, remember?" Rue realized she'd lost all track of time during this gentle lesson; she wondered how it was Kirian and the other Guardians sensed the passage of time with such accuracy, especially as she remembered the wonderfully distracting feeling of the foal's fur on her fingertips. Aruna smiled to herself at that--would she, before initiation, have had such appreciation of what that touch truly meant?