The Trinity Sitch - Book 3: Blade of the Fury
Chapter 17: The Blessed Mother
The woman stopped chanting and acted as if she were looking past the sword wielding men, directly at the wall where the two young lovers crouched. Ron related to her as much of the dream as he could remember and she did fit the general description. It was immediately clear to Kim as it had been in Ron's dream that the woman was completely blind as her pupils had turned almost completely white with heavy cataracts, though somehow she had a very strong impression she could still sense their presence. A knowing smile spread across the woman's face as she seemed to diminish, pulling out her gnarled walking stick. She didn't physically shrink, but without the power coursing around her she became what she truly was, an old, ancient woman stooped by her many years. She hobbled past the men, who looked placidly at the landing where they had been trying to hide.
There was no longer any reason for them to remain hidden, so they slowly stood. Kim noted that Ron's hand was on his sword, making her wonder how much he remembered about using one. It was effectively the only weapon they had with them, though she hoped Ron would only have to use it in defense. To her a sword was not much different from a firearm. It was intended to cut and to stab, to do actual harm. That was something either one of them would only do as an absolute last resort.
She was glad Trin had seen to their outfitting. Half an hour before dropping out of Hyperwarp she directed the two to a storage locker in the secondary hold. Inside they found a rack of suits that reminded her of their own super suits combined with what looked like motocross armor. She explained they were called Flex-armor, constructed of a special woven polymer called pentronium which was itself similar to Kevlar. The panels were solid plates of the plastic like material. It was incredibly strong and had the added benefit of deflecting energy weapons. The design of the garments was excellent, allowing them full range of motion.
It wasn't what she was accustomed to in the way of mission gear, but it was better than going into the field in just their nice winter sweaters!
The woman stopped about fifteen feet from the base of the landing and looked up at them, focusing on their general direction but not looking directly at either of them. "I knew I was wasting my time warning you!" She shook her cane in Ron's direction. "Too curious for your own good you are!"
"Wait a minute! I thought you told me to come here and find you at this Spiron thing?" Ron asked.
"No, I didn't. I sent a dream to you warning you to stay away." She said, sounding vaguely insulted.
"See Ron." Kim said softly, her hands going to her armored hips.
The elderly woman's face changed, as if something was just occurring to her. "You said I told you to find me…here?"
"Well, no, actually it was a woman about my age or a little older."
"Oh ho. So you trust every strange woman that pops into your mind?"
"Um, no." He tilted his head slightly as his hand went to the back of his neck.
Kim rolled her eyes, unseen by Ron. If it were not for Wade's ironclad virus protection on their home computers, they would have succumbed to an onslaught of corrupted emails long, long ago. To him an attachment was no different than a big, shiny red button!
She was tiring of speaking to the woman from thirty feet above so she pulled Ron after her, descending the stairs. The woman's gaze followed them, making her wonder if she could hear their footsteps or perceived them some other way.
"Well, at least you have come to the one place on this world where you may be safe for a time. None of the Master's soldiers would dare come here." She spoke more softly as the two approached her.
"Just what is this place…and who are you?" Kim asked, still wary of the crone.
"This? This is my home, child!" She smiled at him, guessing that wasn't a sufficient answer. "This was once the Great Arkon's keep. He was the first of the great mages, the one who forged the world's bond with the Effurien. Even today, those who practice the natural arts take the title of Arcus in his honor. It was here that he did battle with the mighty Dragma demons and banned them from this world so that mankind could flourish upon it."
"Mankind? You mean humans?" Kim asked, perplexed.
"I'm human, aren't I?" She said with a cross between amusement and mock insult. "Yes, the people of this world are as human as those upon yours. Don't ask me to explain that, for there are no answers. Our history only goes back to the Demon Wars of legend."
"Okay, but you've only answered half my question." Kim prompted.
"Patience, child." She said something to the assembled men in an unfamiliar language. They bowed their heads to her and slowly filed into a darkened passageway, leaving the three of them alone. "There, I thought you might be a bit more comfortable without a bunch of men carrying swords, despite the fact I don't think a one of them know the first thing about using them! Showoffs." She muttered the last.
"How is it you're speaking English?" Ron wondered.
"Oh, that is simple. I took the language from your mind when I visited your dream. Simplifies things, does it not?"
"Oh, sure."
"Excuse me," Kim interrupted. "You were saying."
"My, what a polite young warrior you are." She clucked at Kim. "I am known to many as the Death Crone. Why, I do not know. I have never killed anyone, nor have I ever ordered anyone to kill anyone, though sometimes fools do so in my name. Others refer to me as the Spiron Hag, though I tend to think that may be limited to the few uneducated farmers who scrape out a living in this desolate region. My followers, however, call me Blessed Mother."
"Are you a religious leader, some kind of priestess?" Kim asked.
"You might say that. Many on this world think of the Ascended Ones as gods of a sort. They are not, but it does not hurt for the ignorant to think of them in those terms. I am a follower of the true Kiresmek Ban Effurien, or, in your tongue, the Knights of the Ascended. I am one of the few who await the rise of the Trinity, when the Heart, the Hand and the Sword of the Effurien join to finally overthrow the False Podondrin and restore this world to its proper destiny."
"We've heard some about this Trinity." Kim said, "A couple year ago we had a brief encounter with a man who was supposed to be some kind of wizard who kept talking about it, saying something about Ron and a friend of ours being part of it."
"Ah, so Oray has been about! Good, good, then the waiting may finally be coming to an end." She rubbed her hands in obvious glee. "So that is why they rigged your sky ship to bring you here!"
"They?"
"Podondrin's lackeys! They must know that the new Trinity has been founded and seek to bring you here so that they may either control you or dispose of you. This is both interesting and frightening that they would know this. Tell me, how is it that you came to be aboard a sky ship when your world has not yet produced such a wonder?"
"To the best of our knowledge, the ship came from the future." Kim gasped slightly, realizing there may be something more sinister behind the name of their ship.
"Ah, then somebody learned of your identities and set a trap for you. Very interesting. So, since you are standing here and that ship has not taken you directly to them, how did you come to gain control of it?"
Kim wasn't sure how to proceed. She had no idea whether the woman would grasp the notion of computer technology. "Somebody put something in the ship that took over its mind, forcing it to bring us here. We found the device they used before we arrived and only came to this place when Ron got his message from the sword." She produced the small silver box that had been removed from Trinity's computer trunk line.
The Blessed Mother took the device, running her hands over the smooth metal and plastic surface. "Yes! This is their doing. You are fortunate you found this when you did. It is a device of the Old Masters."
"Trinity said it was derived from something called Azarian Technology…"
"Wait!" The Blessed Mother exclaimed. "You said he got a message…from a sword?"
Ron stepped up to her, carefully pulling the sword from its sling. "This was on the ship. We found it when we found the control device thingy."
She took the sword from his hand, carefully tracing the runes carved in the blade. "Arkon's bones." She whispered. "How can this be? The sword was lost when it fell through the great Azarian Eye!"
Neither of them had any idea what an Azarian Eye might be but they could only gape at the woman's obvious wonder as she held the blade.
"There is no longer any doubt! You, boy! You have called the blade to you! You are the Sword of the Effurien, you are indeed the second side of the Trinity! Where, where is the first, the one you said Oray spoke of? Where is the Heart of the Effurien?"
"He…he's dead." Kim said softly. "He died saving my life and millions of others when he destroyed a weapon called the Heart of Arkon."
"Dead?" The Blessed Mother seemed to deflate. She turned away, slowly hobbling back to the alter the men had encircled earlier. She crossed behind it and found an old wooden stool, sitting heavily on it.
Sensing her despair, Kim went to her and kneeled at her feet, reaching out to touch her hand.
"T…tell me about him." She said, her head hanging.
"His name was Neil Argus. We only knew him for a short time, but in that time he became a true friend. He was a lot like me, a hero though at the time he thought he was only just a normal young man. He only just learned about his powers and could only do a few small things with them when some of these men, apparently from here, tried to destroy part of all of our world. I was trying to help him stop the device when he threw me out of the way and used what little of his power he could to destroy it. Unfortunately, he was disintegrated along with the device, as well as a mechanical monster sent to use it."
"He was the one." The Blessed Mother rasped. "Oray found him and went to guide him, to introduce him to his destiny and teach him how to use the powers. Now it may be many, many years before the Effurien chooses another champion. By then it may be too late."
"Too late?"
"Yes. For all of our history, we have been a simple people. We have not delved into the unnatural sciences that your world has. We have relied on the old magicks and the old ways. Now Podondrin has changed that. He has given his lower level Masters things of great power, things that give them an unnatural dominance over the land and over nature. Yet, they are not like your world. You have used your sciences for your betterment, since you have not developed your relationship to the true world. They use them only for power. Even now they are changing this world, building into a corrupt mirror of yours. Soon they will unearth the Master's Palace and it will leave its long resting place in the capitol city of Daganshire. Then Podondrin will enslave all the people of this world, even those who live in the far reaches such as this place. None will be able to stand up to his might.
"Then he will set his sights elsewhere. He has long known of your world and has for just as long craved it. The Master's Palace is much like your sky ship out there, it will span the gulf between our worlds and carry his power to yours."
Ron kneeled beside Kim, accepting the sword back from the old woman. She looked in Ron's direction, smiling weakly. "Perhaps there is some small hope. You did call the sword to you, though I still don't understand how someone not of this world was able to do so. I really thought the Trinity would arise from this world."
"I guess not." Ron said. "Neil and I were both born on Earth."
"Ah, ha ha." She chuckled. "Yes, he was born on your world, but he is not wholly of it. That is how we knew he would be the one to fulfill the prophecies. See, his mother was born here!"
Ron and Kim both gaped at the woman. They had met Neil's mother at his funeral more than two years ago. She was a small woman, slightly built and a bit shorter than Kim but she had a fire in her despite her stature. She had long blonde hair and if she had not had a twenty four year old son they would not have believed she was a day over thirty.
"Aleeta Argus was born here?" Kim asked breathlessly.
"Indeed! She was the daughter of a great general. After the False Podondrin took the Master's throne she was spirited away by Arcus Oray himself. He took her to your world, where she later met and fell in love with a man, bearing him two sons. The younger child took after his father and showed no signs of being part of the prophecy, but the elder son did. If he had not died, we would have brought him here soon, so that he could call the other members of the Trinity to him and do battle with the Dark One."
"Kim." Ron said, his face screwing up in concentration as he tried to articulate his thoughts. "Is it possible that the reason Neil called us to come see him might have been because of this? I'm the one he called, not you and you're the one who usually gets that kind of call."
"Ah, you're not as dense as your dream-self seemed to be after all." She said, a little mirth coming back into her voice. Shakingly, she got back to her feet, bidding the couple to rise with her. "Come. It grows late and I am tired. We have much to discuss, well, I have much to tell you but that will wait until the morrow." She glanced at them, possibly knowing what they were thinking. "As I told you, you will be safe here, at least for a few days. They do not yet possess the ability to pierce the bans I have placed upon my home. I also know that your ship has the ability to mask itself from the cruder devices they currently employ." She clapped her hands and one of the men reappeared, this time without his ridiculously large sword.
Ron just gaped as the man came into the light. "Acera Uri!" He gasped.
As the man's name left Ron's lips Kim too realized this was the man they had seen in the hologram…
…the man who attacked Ron in his home!
Instantly both of them were fully on their feet. Kim had her feet apart in a ready stance, Ron had the sword up, gripped in both hands in the manner he was accustomed to holding one.
"What's he doing here?" Ron shouted, facing the man with the ready weapon.
"Peace, friend." He said. "I am sure you are frightened because of our first encounter…"
"Frightened? Dude, you had your goons grab me and you dug the chip out of my neck!"
"I am sorry, but we would have been able to explain to you what we were doing, but we had to hurry. Other entities had learned the frequency your device used and we had to disable it before it led them to you. Unfortunately, that monkey man attacked before we could say anything to you. In the melee you were knocked unconscious. One of my men sought to hide you before this man, who we knew to be your enemy, could do you harm."
"He told us he was trying to protect me from you, and that you did something to him that is killing him! He may be my arch-foe, but I don't want him dead!"
"Boy!" The Blessed Mother interrupted. "Uri is sometimes a fool, but he would not do anything to bring death to anyone willingly."
"He stole his Mystical Monkey Power!" Ron was shouting now. "How do I know he wasn't trying to do the same thing to me?"
"He did what?" The old woman was shocked at the question.
"I am sorry, Blessed Mother, but this 'Monkey-Fist' tried to attack me after I employed him to retrieve a time-travel relic."
"Wait, you were the one who wanted the Tempus Simia?" Kim asked.
"Yes. We learned of its power and sought to gain it so that me might possibly use it to prevent Podondrin from rising in the first place. I was wrong in doing so and I have apologized to the Blessed Mother for my lack of foresight."
"What did you do, Arcus Uri?" the woman asked again.
Kim noted she addressed the man as Arcus and not Acera. Was he a wizard as well?
"I employed a simple spell that would temporarily sap his strength. In doing so I learned he also had a Natural Power within him along with the animal traits their science gave him. It was sapped as well. It seems I was mistaken about a great many things if it has done him permanent harm." He hung his head as he said the last.
The Blessed Mother turned once more toward Ron. "You said you thought he would do the same thing to you? Do you have this power as well?"
Ron quickly recounted how he had come to possess the Monkey Power and how it had somehow tied his destiny to that of Monty Fiske.
"That explains much, especially how you would be called to be part of the Trinity. I must talk with Uri tomorrow, after I have had my rest. There may be a way to help this man yet, though how this can be accomplished I do not see yet."
Uri took her hand and helped her down a passage that presumably led to her quarters.
Another of the Blessed Mother's acolytes led them to their quarters for the night. They were unable to ask him any questions as he seemed to only be able to speak the native Arkonian language. Many questions burned in their minds, such as how was Uri able to travel between their two worlds, while they were forced to use an advanced starship to bridge that gulf. Were others able to do this? Was that how Jahan Starler and his companions had come to Earth several years ago?
There was little way to know if it was day or night outside. It was, as far as they were concerned, only about five in the afternoon. Kim briefly considered signaling Trin and asking. Since Wade had been using the communications system on the ship to tie into their Kimmunicators for some time now, they could easily call her. However, she feared that the relatively crude transmitter would be picked up by those who were looking for them. So, not knowing any better, they assumed that night had fallen in that part of Arkonia, so they settled down for the long night. At this time of the year and at this latitude, darkness would last just over thirteen hours. They had no idea whether the darkening skies as they entered were because of the storm or because the sun was setting. There was also the fact that deep inside the Spiron they would be in shadow an even greater amount of time.
The quarters they were led to were spacious, if a little odd to them. There were simple tables and chairs in the room, but the bed was, to say the least, strange. Instead of a raised platform with mattresses it was a sort of round pit lined with cushions. Long tube shaped pillows lined the edge. The bed was made with blankets and quilts, the former feeling like something between silk and percale. A fire burned in a separate pit across the room, the smoke venting into a chimney hewn from the rock.
"You know what this reminds me of?" Ron asked as he unsnapped the sides of his armored boots.
"Everlot?" Kim asked back.
"Yeah! That or like we've stepped right into some weird game of Mazes and Monsters."
Kim smiled at the thought. That was at least one thing her lover had not been drawn into over the years. The 'Everlot' online fantasy game had been one thing, but the thought of him sitting at a table to all hours of the night, rolling strangely shaped dice with other gamers was almost too much to bear.
Kim undid the snaps holding her chest plate in place, pulling the entire rig over her head. She slipped the rest of the flex armor off, leaving her just in the white mock turtleneck she wore under her sweater and he underwear. Tentatively she slipped her feet into the bed as if she were testing the water in a pool.
"These people sure have a strange notion of how to build a bed." She mused.
There was a knock on the door. Ron only had his boots off so he answered it as Kim pulled some covers up to cover herself. Two dark-haired girls silently entered the room, one bearing a tray of food, the other carrying two white bundles. The left as quietly, most likely unable to communicate due to the language barrier.
The meal was simple and hearty, though somewhat bland. After several days of eating nothing but Wade's junk food, it was a welcome change. It consisted of meat that reminded Kim of venison and several boiled vegetables that ranged in flavor from carrots to potatoes, though neither of them expected the original plant to look anything like their familiar Terran counterparts.
The wine provided was, to put it bluntly, terrible, though they didn't know if that was because neither of them drank it very often or if it was just plain bad. (Ron, being in several culinary courses, had a better idea of what good wine should taste like and suspected it was the latter!) Thankfully a pitcher of water had been provided as well.
The bundles turned out to be what looked for all the world like enormous night shirts. They took one look at them, one look at each other and folded them right back up, placing them on a low table near the bed.
Ron stripped down to his boxers and they both clumsily climbed down into the sleeping pit. "I'd like this better if it was a private hot tub, KP."
"I'm so with you on that, Ron." She nuzzled up to him, wrapping her leg around his left leg.
"You know, I'm not the least bit tired right now." He said, propping his head up with his hands, looking at the patterns the fire made on the ceiling.
"No, but our bodies are still on Earth time. These people are used to sleeping now, I guess."
"What do you think about that old woman?"
"I really don't know. My gut says trust her."
"So does mine." He leaned toward her, pulling her in for a kiss. She joined him willingly, letting herself get lost in his embrace. A few minutes later she pulled away.
"Listen, we need to be careful."
"KP, I'm Mister Careful right now. I wouldn't trust these people any further than I could throw them! Especially that Uri guy! Something about him just seems wrong."
"Ferociously wrong, but that's not what I'm talking about."
"Huh?"
"I mean us. We've got to be careful. Remember I said I needed to go to the drug store?"
"Yeah…" He raised a confused eyebrow.
"Ron, in thirty-six hours I'm supposed to start my new prescription for the month. If I don't have it…" she trailed off, hoping it would sink in.
It took a few moments, but it did.
"In other words, until we get back to Earth…"
"…it's like we're back to our old promise. I'm ready to take on the universe with you, Ron, but I'm not quite ready to be a mother. Not yet."
"I understand, Kim."
"Really? I was expecting you to say something like 'Aw man!'" She perfectly mimicked his usual whine.
He brushed her hair back off her face and kissed her again, gently. "I'm saying it inside big time, but like I said, I understand."
"How did I ever find you?" she smiled at him, tightening her grip with her leg.
"Maybe since all this other fate and destiny stuff seems to jump all over us, maybe that was it."
"That sounds like some of the stuff Monique used to say before she went off to Duke."
"I always said she was a smart one."
"You better. You don't want to know what she's capable of if she's not able to be my Maid of Honor next year."
"Oh, not I don't." Ron slipped a hand up the back of Kim's shirt, finding the hooks.
"No, you don't." She pulled him even closer, whispering in his ear. "Tonight is still safe, you know."
"Booyah!" He whispered back, pulling her on top of him.
Author's Notes:
Campy - I know Christmas has only 45 minutes to go as I post this, but your wish is my command!
Merry Christmas to everyone!