When Simon finally hiked through half of the Raiden Range and found Mount Elian, he did not go straight up it as he did on his previous ascent. From this direction, the path was treacherous, and it would have been counterproductive. Instead, he circled around it until he reached the monastery that he’d stayed at before, which happened to also be the start of the secret path to the top.
They showed him just as much hospitality as they had last ti, and when they asked him what he was doing so far from Coramin or anywhere else that mattered, he told them the truth. “I co seeking perspective and, perhaps, wisdom,” he explained.
When he said that, they were no less hospitable, though they were more interested. Mostly, what they wanted to know was how a foreigner had co to learn about Oracle. “It is a closely guarded secret,” the monk who sat with him explained as he sat with him at one of the dirty tables in the cramped courtyard of the fortress-like place. “And no true Ionian would speak of such a thing to an outsider.”
“They wouldn’t,” Simon agreed, doodling in the dust that clung to the varnished wood. “But I felt a compulsion to co here, just the sa.”
It took so ti for what he was drawing to beco apparent, but once the separated strokes slowly ford into the caldera of the cloud city at the peak of the mountain, the man stopped asking questions. Instead, he told his brothers in a language that they probably didn’t think he understood that he must have been called by the Oracle herself. “Can there be any doubt?” the monk insisted. “Look at what he drew. He must have seen it in a dream.”
“But there is a darkness about him,” another said, gesturing subtly to Simon while he pretended to enjoy his soup. “Surely you can see it too, even without the sight.”
“All I see is a man weary of the world,” the third man said. “He seems a bit young to be so jaded, but I wouldn’t worry. If the Oracle can defend herself. If she finds him unworthy, she’ll cast him into that boiling lake herself.”
Simon raised an eyebrow at that piece of information. He hadn’t been aware that was a possible outco until now. I wonder how exactly she would defend herself? He thought. In his last visit, he was fairly sure there’d been more to her than ets the eye, but now, he was more sure of that.
That night, he slept more restlessly in a plain cell that was set aside for travelers than he did by the dying embers of his campfire in the wilds as he waited for soone to strike him down, but no one ever did, and in the morning they gifted him were bread and wander for the long road ahead, though they warned him. “Without rope, you might never reach the top.”
Simon found it funny that they helped him with food but hid the existence of the path. “Maybe it’s just for important people to use,” he said to himself as he veered north to the flank of the mountain in a search for it. “Maybe everyone else has to treat the ascent as a test of endurance or devotion or sothing.”
That would be fitting. People who wanted guidance had to take the hard way up, but then they could take the easy way down. There was probably a taphor in there sowhere, but he didn’t look for it too hard. Instead, he used the shortcut and made his way to the top in record ti.
He didn’t recall precisely how long it had taken him to climb up the mountain last ti. It had been a week or ten days. When he’d gone down the path, though, he’d made it down in a single night. While he didn’t quite match that pace on the way up, he only had to camp for three nights on the trail before he made it to the door of the outer temple on the fourth day.
If the priest who t him with a slight bow was surprised that he’d co up the path, he gave no indication. For a mont, Simon was disappointed that Diara wasn’t there to greet him. It took him only a mont to realize that was probably because she was just a kid this ti. He’d co here last from level four, which ant that eting would be about eight years in his future.
The new priest was just the opposite of the pretty young woman he’d t last ti. He introduced himself as Hon and was older than Simon by a decade or two and rather taciturn. He answered Simon’s questions as they walked inside, but even though he was cordial enough, he didn’t volunteer any extra information. Still, he welcod Simon inside for tea as he inquired about his trip. “Have you been here before?” he asked politely once the tea was steeping in a pot on a low table between them while they regarded each other.
“Not in this life,” Simon answered honestly. The other man took that surprisingly well.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“That does happen from ti to ti,” Hon agreed, though I’m personally too young to have seen it before. Simon smirked at that, given that there was gray in the priest’s beard. “Soone else will decide if you are permitted to et with the oracle, not .”
“Permitted?” he asked, “I thought that all who made it this far were allowed to et with her?”
“You have before, by your own admission,” the priest agreed, pouring them both tea. “No one has said that you may et with her every life. That is a choice for her, not for you.”
Simon nodded wondering what that said about reincarnation in this place. He knew of no such beliefs among the general public, but took his cup as the man continued. “Still, you have co a long way and are welco to refresh yourself within the walls of our sanctuary.”
“Is that the na of this place?” Simon asked.
“Is that what you were told on your previous visit?” Hon asked cagily.
“Well, I wasn’t given a na last ti,” Simon admitted.
“Nor shall you now, I think, this ti,” the priest answered with a shrug before stopping to take a sip of tea. “I am not to decide these things either.”
Simon thought about asking who was, but he knew he wouldn’t get an answer to that question either. Instead of asking about things like that, he chatted with the man for a while and then asked for a bath.
While he was led to the sa communal baths as before, this early in the day, they were largely abandoned, giving Simon a hint of privacy and all the ti in the world to look at the crescent-shaped city that was laid out. All of it was never visible at the sa ti because of the drifting clouds, and most of it was terraced farm fields, but even so, it was a city of volcanic stone that was lovely to look upon, and Simon enjoyed the view as much as the warm bath waters as he tried to decide what each of the strangest buildings might be for.
Though the place was dominated by columns, arcades, and peaked roofs, just like Ionar and all the other major cities of Ionia, they were quarried from dark, volcanic stone. They also eschewed the straight roads one would find in Coramin or the upper city of Ionar and focused on trying to fit as many buildings as they could along the winding shores of their steaming lake. The result should have been claustrophobic or even sinister, but instead, he found the patterns very organic and longed for a closer look.
“That’s not going to happen, though,” he sighed. “Not unless I want to stay for the rest of this life.”
Honestly, it wouldn’t be the worst fate, but he felt like he’d die of boredom from up here. Even if they made him head door greater, and he was responsible for taking people to paths and bringing them food, he’d still spend weeks at a ti just waiting for soone to, what, knock? Ring the doorbell?
Fortunately, he did not have to wait weeks to find out if he could et with the Oracle. When a simple dinner of flatbread and spiced rice was brought to the cell where he was supposed to wait in quiet contemplation, the acolyte who brought it also brought a ssage. “She has agreed to et with you two nights hence,” the woman answered curtly.
Simon didn’t ask questions. He already had so idea that most of the priests and acolytes here wouldn’t be as helpful as Diara had been and that the darker the robes, the lower rank soone was. So, he didn’t wish to put this poor girl in a tough spot. He simply thanked her and ate.
For the next two nights, Simon stood on the balconies of the outer temple. He was forbidden from going any further into the city unescorted, but as long as he stayed within those bounds, no one troubled him. At first, he was most fascinated by the buildings, but eventually, the waters attracted his attention. Not only were there flickering traces of bioluminescence at night, but during the day, people actually worked the waters to so degree.
They had to be boiling, or nearly so. Still, sotis they looked to be fishing. He was sure they had to be doing sothing else, since he’d been told there were no fish in those waters, but when he asked Ho about it, he just said, “There are many valuable things in the waters besides fish.”
Nonetheless, so workers would brave the steam clouds to harvest mussels and other shellfish in the cooler shallows, and others would paddle slowly back and forth across the wide lake to pick up and deliver various commodities. What Simon wanted most was to see those mundane sights and draw them, but he was denied that. There weren’t even any white walls he could go to town on with so charcoal. If he’d thought ahead, he could have brought so chalk and gotten this out of his system.
Still, all he could do now was wait, and when they finally ca for him, he was awake, sitting in the dark of his cell. This ti, the masked priests that escorted him didn’t take him down the sa winding lava tube they had last ti. Though it looked the sa, this one was slanted downwards, and there were no cracks that would let him look out onto the caldera. Instead, as they got lower, the stones grew slick, and the light reflected off them strangely.
When they finally reached the bottom of the thing, they ca out onto another cliffside temple. This one wasn’t split in half by a rift that exuded sulfurous fus. Instead, it was only a few inches above the lake’s surface and half shrouded in mist. Still, it wasn’t hard to make out the familiar silhouette of a woman standing there against a backdrop of the moon and stars.
He wanted to concentrate on her regal beauty, and the striking place he’d been brought, but unbidden, the words of the monk at the foot of the mountain ca back to him, dispelling most of them. She’s not really going to throw in the lake, is she? He wondered.
User Comments
0 comments from readers