Chapter 1 – Prey and Prayers (part 4)

The rise and fall of the song, as it reverberated and was cut off by the cave’s walls, lulled Karon into a comfortable daze and by the time the bowl was empty he drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep. At the edge of sleep the darkness waited.

–

“We cannot keep him here against his will, Grandmaster,” Aylindra exclaimed in a rare outburst of emotion. “It is an abomination, a betrayal of everything we stand for!” She folded her hands slowly and tried to regain her serenity. After three full days in the back of a cart, without sleep and watching over Karon, praying and chanting and hardly eating, her sense of equilibrium was harder to maintain. She studied the room she had not seen in a long time, and felt the peace spread in her body and mind again. The study of Grandmaster Doshin was a large room but sparingly decorated. A simple desk of oak-wood stood against one wall, cluttered with large piles of paper, scrolls and a few books. Hundreds of other books and dusty tomes were neatly ordered on long wooden shelves stretching above and beside the desk. Aylindra had spent countless days and night in the room, conversing with Doshin, debating articles of faith, training stances and fighting sequences on the large mat that lay in the center of the room, woven of a strong, rare grass only found few places in the world. Her gaze fell on the man sitting behind the desk, waiting for her to regain her composure. He was her oldest and dearest friend. Together they had uncovered and reinvented many secrets of thotha; the body of holy doctrines, scriptures and fighting techniques of their order. She could not help wondering if she had grown to far apart from the order, after ten years of solitude and contemplation. Doshin had not changed much in appearance, except a slight deepening of the fine lines around his eyes that only showed when he smiled. He was a very short man appearing to be around sixty years old, but it was hard to put an exact age to him, just as it was to Aylindra herself. He was shaved completely bald and dressed in a tight black shirt and loose black pants both made out of the same thick material, ideal for training the body in the physical aspects of thotha. His sinewy body was as fit as when she had left the monastery ten years ago, to seek wisdom in the solitude found in mountains-springs and woodlands or wherever her feet took her.

“His will may not be his own anymore, Aylindra, you know this as well as I,”  Grandmaster Doshin replied calmly. “After all, you were the first to sense it, and deem our involvement necessary. You would not have called us, unless you sensed the gravest danger, and this is the only logical option we have at the moment. If this is what we fear it to be, then we are indeed hard pressed, even to keep him safe here at the compound.” He stood up and started towards the side of the room, moving while thinking had always been one of his small quirks that Aylindra had learned to accept over the years. He paced along one wall, where small metal braziers stood burning incense and spaced evenly between them tall, thick wax candles spread a warm glow in the otherwise dark room. In daylight a window in the ceiling ligthed the study, but it was now blinded off, since there was neither moon or stargazing to be done on this cloudy night. “We must ponder this carefully, my friend, study the records and seek advice from other scholars in the world. We cannot face this threat alone, it has too dire consequences if we underestimate what is inside that boy. He cannot be allowed to run loose!” He clasped his hands at his lower back and kept pacing, deeply engrossed in his contemplations.

“Let me teach him then,” the old woman said, studying her friend and waited for an explosion. He stopped his pacing abruptly, hesitated a moment, then turned around to look deep into her eyes. “Aylindra, oh sweet stubborn, Aylindra. Have you really grown so much, that you have the strength to withstand the horrors of The Living Shadow,” he said with a  barely detectable hint of mockery and jealousy, indicating his own doubts. He shook his head and smiled, realizing his own shortcomings. “No, it is not my place to ask you this, you know better than any your own limitations. You were my superior when you left here, and no doubt you are even stronger in you commitment to our teachings now than any Monk of Zu in a thousand years.” Offering a warm smile in return Aylindra also shook her head. “I am what I am. None of us can know if we have the strength we need until the battle has been ended. This is true in all matters of life, but especially true in this battle. I believe I can help the boy strengthen his inner defences. I will take every precaution I know to not fall victim myself to whatever ails him. I remind you I have succeeded in that so far. We cannot keep him locked up in a cell against his will. If we do, we have already lost by giving up our own principles.” She drew a deep breath and went on. “But I do agree with you, that we need help from outside. You came to my telepathic call from the cave, when I needed you, because you know I would not have called unless the situation required it. Others will make the same conclusion if we send out ravens, knowing our order has never done harm in these lands, but always sought the betterment of ourselves and others. They will come to our aid and together we can discuss a course of action. But in the meantime I want to help the boy adapt to what is to come and not be treated like a vile prisoner if we are mistaken. I sense a lot of good in him. If it really is The Living Shadow we need to nurture that and not give him any reason to turn against us. Or against the world.” The Grandmaster sighed heavily, and knew he had to concede to her logic. “You really have grown,” he whispered to himself. “All right, teach him what you deem appropriate. But I want him exposed as little as possible to the rest of the students. He is free to roam the Gardens of Meditation, I will close it off for all others. And he must take all his meals in his cell, and only leave it accompanied by yourself or me.” He looked at her, raising one bushy eyebrow questioningly to ask if she agreed to the terms. She nodded and smiled at him, her eyes turning into dark-grey orbs of wise compassion. She took a few steps toward him, paused at his feet, and then cast her arms around him in a fierce hug, with a strength and passion unusual for a woman her age. “Oh Doshin. It is so good to see you again, my son.” 

-to be continued in Chapter 1 (part 5) 

~Atawords

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