Gorinthians (20 page)

"If you are done ogling Li,"
Selindria said dryly, with an amused smile playing across her lips,
"Perhaps you would do us the courtesy of joining us."

Celdic felt his cheeks
redden as he realized he had been staring at Li from the doorway.
Li was watching him with a small smile, causing the blood to pump
through his veins faster. Cha'le was grinning openly, not far from
laughter. Cha'le was dressed in the traditional black pants with a
black shirt buttoned to her chin that had several pockets that were
made to carry the various compounds that were made in the Rajan
gardens. Her honey blonde hair framed her pale face and large eyes,
emphasizing the look of innocence that had deceived so many others
before.

Celdic walked over to the
small cluster of chairs where they had gathered and sat down across
from Selindria. She was still watching him with an amused
expression, her cat-like eyes making the expression slightly
different than it would on his own face.

"What are you three talking
about?" Celdic asked, staring straight at Selindria. From the
corner of his eye he saw Cha'le roll her eyes and Li's smile widen
slightly as he tried to change the subject.

"Physics," Selindria
replied, gesturing at the book in front of her, "by Terrance
Rendrum."

"It's really fascinating
Celdic," Cha'le said excitedly, her eyes shining. "It is like an
explanation for how everything we’ve been taught actually works in
detail. I had no idea that we had lived before we were
born."

Celdic stared at her for a
moment before opening his mouth. "Lived before we were born?" he
inquired politely. "That's interesting. I was just thinking about
something like that. I think I was wondering if the hen came first,
or if it was the egg."

"Don't be an idiot, Celdic,"
Cha'le said acidly. "I was talking about our spirits. They did not
just grow on to our bodies. They existed millions of years before
and may have already been in other bodies several times before our
current life."

Celdic looked at Selindria
for confirmation, wondering if Cha'le had mixed things up the way
that she did sometimes. As Selindria nodded, Celdic reached for the
book that was in front of her. It was bound in a soft durable
material that Celdic was not familiar with. It had intricate
scrollwork bordering the cover page entitled: The Law of Physics.
"Do you mind if I look through it?" he asked Selindria, his mind
already leaving the present the way it did when he picked up a
book.

Selindria made a sound that
Celdic took for assent as he began flipping through the first
chapter labeled:

Chapter 1: The Spiritual
Plane

Life is made up of two
planes of which we know. The first plane is the Spiritual Plane.
The life forms that inhabit the Spiritual Plane are not defined
like they are in the Physical Plane, where they are classified into
species ranging from single-celled organisms to complex organisms
such as human beings. In the Spiritual Plane, life is classified by
stages of progression. Each element eventually graduates to a
higher complexity or maturity. The basest spiritual life form is
known as an Element. While the Physical Plane is made up of very
few elements, the Spiritual Plane is as countless as the stars in
the number of raw elements that define it. As a result, the rate of
base progression is much higher as elements compound together to
form what are known as Intelligences. Intelligences vary from
beings that have awareness akin to what a Physical Plane bug has,
to an awareness much greater than that of an unoccupied human host.
Only the most advanced Intelligences, known as Spirits, can occupy
human hosts. Mid-stage Intelligences are known as Elementals,
reaching a critical stage in their spiritual progression where they
begin to grow into the ability to touch the Physical
Plane.

Throughout the Spiritual
Plane, there is a substance called Shaesan, an essence that
permeates throughout both Planes. It is this substance that beings
from the Spiritual Plane draw their energy from, similar to the way
that Physical beings use oxygen, but without the moving parts.
Because the Spiritual Plane is so much more complex than the
Physical Plane, describing the characteristics of the Spiritual
Plane in terms that Physical beings can understand can be
difficult. Spiritual beings do not move very much in terms of
distance until after they reach their mid-stage level. The ability
to create gateways throughout the universe, also known as
wormholes, requires the ability to touch the Physical Plane. Once
an Intelligence reaches this level of ability, it begins what is
known as The Journey. The Journey is the stage that an Intelligence
achieves after it accrues enough ability or intelligence to be more
than a mid-stage. The Journey undergoes a period of travel
throughout the realm of the Spiritual Plane where it encounters
knew forms of Elements that become a part of it. As intelligences
grow by combining the Elements throughout the Spiritual Plane with
their own Intelligence, the Spiritual Plane loses more and more of
its Elements until a stage of existence is achieved where all that
exists are fully matured Spirits, and Elementals. There are
vortexes that exist throughout the universe that appear randomly,
consuming both physical and spiritual matter, causing it to break
down to its base elements. When this happens, other Intelligences
that have been halted in their progression due to the lack of
Spiritual Elements are able to continue progressing. The caches of
Spiritual element that appear throughout the universe are known as
Drains, and are highly sought by Intelligences on The
Journey.

Senses as understood by
physical beings are highly different in the Spiritual Plane.
Intelligences do not have sight, smell, or taste. They use Shaesan
as an extension of their awareness to sense objects around them.
Shaesan is a type of lay matter that, as previously described,
gives off energy that sustains Spiritual life forms. It also acts
as a conduit through which Intelligences can in a sense, feel their
surroundings in a large radius around them. Because Shaesan
surrounds everything and runs through everything, this enables
Intelligences to not only sense what is around them, but to
understand every characteristic of the object, down to the elements
of which it is formed.

Celdic stopped reading and
looked up at Selindria in amazement. "Why were we never taught any
of this at the Tar Ri’ San ?" Celdic demanded, looking like a child
that had just discovered a cookie jar that had previously been out
of reach.

"Because very few people
know the truth," a voice said from the doorway. Thistledown had
entered without making a sound, looking tired despite the
ever-present laugh lines that etched the corner of his eyes.
"Certainly no one in Chasel Ri’ Aven knows what you now
know."

"I don't understand," Celdic
said with a perplexed look. "What did he mean when he said ‘ . . .
the strange laws that govern this universe’? I thought that it was
the universe, not this universe."

"Well, as to that . . ."
Thistledown replied rubbing the tip of his nose thoughtfully.
"Terrance claims that there are more universes than there are
stars. I do not know where he gets his information on that
statement though, because as far as anyone else has been able to
determine, there is a boundary at the edge of the universe where
everything ceases to exist. If you try to cross it, you cease to
exist."

Celdic shuddered slightly at
the thought, noticing that Li and Cha'le also seemed to feel
chilled by the idea.

"I think that the question
is, has he ever been to a different universe?" Selindria wondered
aloud. "He must have some basis of comparison to call this
universe's laws strange."

Before Thistledown could
reply, the front door opened, framing a dark figure shrouded in
black that Celdic was sure must be Lochnar. Walking into the room
slowly, the newcomer studied all of them with a force that seemed
to see through them, inside and out. The only one that escaped his
intense scrutiny was Selindria, whom he appeared to avoid. Celdic
saw a look of recognition register on the man's strangely angular
face as his dark gaze passed over him. As he studied Li and Cha’le,
his eyes became thoughtful, swiveling back to Celdic
calculatingly.

From the moment the stranger
entered, Celdic felt a presence that made the dark figure dominate
the room. It was similar to walking into a room with a hot wood
stove and feeling its warmth radiate while the candles remained
unnoticed. He sat down on one of the chairs that stood between the
small group of people and the door and turned to face them with a
grim look. There was a fire in his dark eyes that reminded Celdic
of Terrance, except this man's eyes looked like they burned with
rage rather than power.

Selindria studied the
stranger as intently as he ignored her. "Well met, father," she
said at last, sounding for all the world as if they had not been
separated for the greater part of a century.

Finally looking at her, the
shrouded man grunted in acknowledgment. His face twisted almost to
a snarl as he looked away. Reaching into his cloak, he retrieved a
pipe and began to fill it with a dark leafy substance. As he stuck
the pipe between his teeth, the end began smoking of its own
accord. Selindria looked slightly taken aback by his reaction as he
looked at her.

"You seem to have changed
since the last time I saw you." Selindria's eyes were questioning.
As he remained silent, Selindria gestured to the youths. "This is
Celdic and I believe you've already met Li and Cha'le. This is my
father, Lochnar. As you can see, he is not much of a
conversationalist."

Celdic nodded his head
politely, uncertain of how to act with this quiet shadow of a
person. Something about the man was disturbing, as if he were not
entirely there. Celdic was aware of Lochnar in ways that he never
had been with other people. He thought that if he closed his eyes
and turned around several times that he could point straight at
him. He could also sense what appeared to be sections of him that
did not exist in his stomach, left leg and the fingers of his
gloved right hand.

"Are you going to tell me
what you are doing here?" Selindria asked Lochnar with a steely
gaze that suggested he make a better attempt at
conversation.

Lochnar pulled his pipe out
of his mouth long enough to spit on the floor. "The same thing as
you," he growled with contempt. "Waiting for Terrance to show up
and explain why he sent this odious little ferret out to fetch
me."

"Your charm is as dazzling
as ever," Selindria's voice was thick with sarcasm. "Perhaps you
could tell me why you were traveling to Chasel Ri’ Aven. I told you
to stay away while I was there."

Lochnar grimaced at his pipe
while thick streamers floated up around his head. "I was following
a client that had failed to settle up. He managed to slip past the
guardians, so I didn't catch him until I was half-way up the
mountain." Lochnar pulled the pipe out of his mouth and jabbed it
at Selindria for emphasis, his gaze sharpening. "And it is lucky
for the four of you that I did. I dispatched a Frond Lord that was
following you before you went through the gateway."

Selindria's eyes had widened
in alarm when Lochnar mentioned the Frond Lord. "Are you certain
that there was only one?" she demanded, leaning forward on her
chair until she was sitting on the edge. Her hands gripped the
chair arms in a white-knuckled grasp.

Lochnar shrugged slightly.
"It was the only one that I sensed in the area. That doesn't mean
that there wasn't another one lurking around somewhere that was
smart enough to keep itself hidden.” Leaning back deeply into his
chair, Lochnar began puffing contentedly on his pipe again. His
eyes continued to study the small group in front of him, as if he
were seeing pieces of a puzzle that he alone could see.

"What is a Frond Lord?"
Celdic asked into the gap of silence that followed. He tried to
meet Lochnar’s gaze as he waited for an answer, but the sheer
intensity and rage that burned in it caused him to look away at one
of the others.

"The Gorinthians are not the
only Enemy," Selindria replied quietly, her strange eyes
suppressing some emotion that Celdic could not decipher. "Frond
Lords are advanced Elementals that have sworn an oath to destroy
the Derinian Order. They are the Enemy’s elite force of assassins
and trackers. They appear in human form, though you cannot touch
them. They have power over many of the physical elements and are
capable of using wind and water to sniff out their quarry from
hundreds of miles away. Their touch is a very slow, very painful
death. If you see one, you run. There is no defense against
them."

"I don't understand," Li
wore a puzzled frown, looking back and forth between Lochnar and
Selindria. "If there is no defense against them, how did Lochnar
kill one?"

Selindria looked at Lochnar
with an arched eyebrow, "Yes father, how did you kill
it?"

Lochnar slowly stood up from
his chair, glaring warningly at Thistledown for some reason.
Reaching to his side, he made a grasping motion as if he were
drawing a sword. He swung his arm over his head and down to where a
small table sat next to his chair. With a crack of splintering
wood, the table split in half as if Lochnar had chopped it with an
ax. With a smooth motion, he flipped his wrist and made the mime of
sheathing a sword.