Authors note: This has been sitting in my documents since August, I finally decided what the heck, so here goes:
A gentle tap on his chamber door brought brother Michael out of his revere. He had been illuminating part of a large cache of technical manuals that had been unearthed in the mountains, and had started to doze, dreaming about the many changes that he had seen in the last 12 years. Michael was no longer the nervous unsure young monk that had joined his order on his 18th birthday. Age and experience had mellowed him and faith had finally taken firm root in his heart.
Michael quickly shook the sleep from his mind as he stood and adjusted his long robes. He wasn't expecting any visitors this week. His abbey was new, and none of the other monks had arrived yet to join him in his translating and deciphering.
Cracking the door the young Abbot was greeted by the round jovial face of his former mentor, Brother Alwyn Macomber.
The old monk had been his Abbot during the most trying time in the brotherhood and had taken the young acolyte under his wing, helping start his transformation from awkward unsure youth to the steady, resourceful man he had become and ultimately helping him secure his place as the youngest abbot in their order.
Opening the door the rest of the way he smiled widely, "Brother Alwyn, What a surprise!"
The older monk smiled back, and said "And greetings to you my friend. I was passing through the village and heard that you had been assigned here, and just decided to check in on you. Its been a while."
"Please come in, you must be tired from your journey" Michael said as he guided the portly older monk in by the arm. "Tell me what you have been up to"
Michael guided his guest into his chambers and excused himself to fetch his friend some refreshments.
The former abbot walked into Michael's study, making a slow circle scanning the shelves full of unearthed books, and prototype inventions based on information from the days before the Great Burn.
In the half Millennia since mankind had almost extinguished itself in a suicidal civil war, the brotherhood had made many small steps toward reacquainting the world with its lost technological legacy. Even if the common man was still leery of science itself, thinking it, not human folly, the cause of the burn, some progress had been made. The brotherhood was careful about what information and discoveries were passed beyond their walls, releasing information on things that would help mankind rebuild, not destroy. It was the brotherhoods position that humanity needed to learn to grow in peace, until it was ready to rejoin the brotherhood of the stars, and reclaim their place in the universal family.
Alwyn was studying a manuscript on the lore of the Rangers when Michael returned carrying a tray of water and some cold meats and cheeses.
"This is excellent work Michael, I had almost forgotten that you favored the rangers so."
Michael seemed to drop a dozen years as he stammered his reply "Well, I suppose it has become sort of a hobby" He grinned sheepishly.
Alwyn favored him with a sharp, guarded glance, far removed from his slightly frazzled demeanor, and replied "This is more than a hobby, there is information here that I have never seen before, where did you get it?"
"During my walking years, after you suggested I should travel the world, I was in the south of Europe and found several tomes in a monastery that had been leveled by fire a hundred years earlier. I believe it was collected shortly after the great burn, when the survivors memory was still sharp"
Alwyn seemed to ponder this fact for a few moments."This would seem to indicate that the Anla'shok were already back among us. Do you believe it?"
The younger man seemed to straighten under Alwyn's gaze, "To me, it allows me at least the ability to hope. It has been one of the lessons that you taught me that I have held closest to my heart. "
"Then why keep this information to yourself?"
"Well, when I first found it, I was going to bring it back and shout it from the mountain as it were, then on the road I had a revelation. If the Rangers had returned, perhaps we were not ready to see them, and to expose their presence could undermine their mission, and sow distrust against those trying to help man, whether Ranger or not." Michael sighed as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
In fact a great weight had been lifted from both mens hearts.
"Why do you tell me this now?" Alwyn inquired.
"Well I remember what you told me years ago about faith and that you hoped they had already returned. My heart told me that you would understand"
This answer seemed to satisfy the old monk. He smiled at Michael. "Well, I must say I had hoped to approach this matter much more obliquely, but the lord does move in mysterious ways."
Michael seemed confused "What matter?"
"Something that you will be very interested in, Michael. Something that you will need to see to understand.." With this the old monk stood. "I have some matters to attend to, please meet me tomorrow night in the fields on the other side of the valley, beyond the village."
With this, Alwyn strode toward Michael's door with a spring in his step that belied his near seventy summers.
"But where are you going , you just got here?" Michael was mystified at the turn in conversation, and the abrupt change in his old friend.
Before closing the door, Alwyn turned again,"Faith Michael, faith and patience. All will become clear." With this strange pronouncement he closed the door and left the young abbot standing in more confusion than he had felt in years
The day passed slowly, and .about midday Michael left the abbey heading to the fields Alwyn had specified. They were several hours journey beyond the village, and actually in the next valley from the abbey. All during the journey Michael was surrounded by evidence of the Burn, now over five hundred years ago.
All the old forests were gone, now just starting to return. Life was still hard, even with the advancements made by the order and others.
The sun was already sliding below the hills when Michael crested the last hill, seeing a lone figure sitting in the middle of the field dressed in the brown robes of a monk.
As Michael approached from behind Alwyn spoke, "I'm glad you were able to come. I would have hated to leave without you."
"Leave? Where are you going? Have you been given a new abbey?' Michael asked as he sat down next to his mentor.
Alwyn chuckled to himself, "Michael, I'm sorry, but the time has come for me to stop lying to you. You see last night was something of a test. A test that you passed much better than I had expected."
Alwyn looked up as a shooting star passed overhead. He looked back at Michael. "I don't understand what your talking about Alwyn. What lies? What test?"
In reply Alwyn just pointed down the valley in the direction the shooting star had gone. There was a light coming toward them, flying down the length of the uninhabited valley, growing as it approached the two men.
"You are correct Michael, about more than you know."
The shape had resolved itself, a ship, blue and purple, with flowing graceful lines that resembled nothing so much as a bird in flight was now slowing and turning toward the place where they sat.
Michael sat speechless as Alwyn stood, and dropped his monks robes, revealing another set under them, brown and black, with a large blue stone over the right side.
As the ship gently landed before them, Alwyn turned back to Michael, "So, do you still wish to walk among the stars, Brother Michael?"