(GE Copy)

Chapter 14: Mirror Lake (Part 2)

“This slumber is such a bore, go liven it up wouldn’t you?... Make something about knights this time, or perhaps men from the future to be... In that rot they called a haven?... What about when you were almighty, you know you loved those ones... Hark, what utter nonsense...”

“Who have you brought this time?” The old man greeted the girl, as they came onto his deck. Squinting at his distance vision. “Best not be no bobarts this time, their hooves are a splinter to wax out from the floor, and they speak even less than you do. Ah, company!” He chummed, fixing the loose fit of his faded burgundy robe. “Perhaps, speak ye a passing common tongue?”

“Yeah... Sure...” Zack muttered shyly at the balding seventy year old with the withered voice.

“Humble too, no need for frivolous exposition then, almost got a bad taste in my mouth from that one already. Come, come... No need to be formal. Pa’tsheea, it’ll ruin my apatite.” Peeling the shell from whatever berry he had in his hands, he wiped clean his long white skinny beard and devoured the morsel.

Everyone sat silently around the table, as to follow Aaron on his headstrong journey.

The old man looked at the uncertain bunch gathered around, and then to his bowl of collected fruit. “I really hope you’re not expecting food. You’re strong and able, get it yourselves.” Still not quite getting much of an answer from them “What’s the matter with ya’z?”

“Kinda... Confused is all.” Zack Answered. The girl sat proudly amidst the table, looking for the admiration of her master. All eyes returned to veer back to Aaron who had dragged them this far, but then back onto the old man by the clearing of his weathered voice.

“As with many that she drags back.” He explained with a whistle through his teeth. “Very lonely she is. Seldom realizes it pushes them away, so long as another should walk the pathways before she has time to lament the last one. Good luck getting a conversation out of her though, she’s more content to instigate me with the gumming and see what pops out. At this rate, it’ll be another tooth.”

“Yeah, we kinda noticed that she doesn’t really speak all that much.”

“She’s a very special girl that one.” He mentioned, to her equal response of pride and shame. “When one sense is lost, one gains another... She can move in and out from the oddest of places. Things I long wish I could do myself. She abides here with me, and aids an old man with his chores... Either way, you’re up to date, like the dozens before you. Mystery over...”

“She’s mute, in other words?” Zack mentioned.

“How brash you are, P’ha!” The old man huffed proudly. “Our usual guests are more, reserved... Perhaps she has spot me a man of interest for once, instead of the typical shallow drivellous manner that craw up with here. Pa’tsheea, spouting like a common tongue again, pardon... She has seen many hardships and still has time to smile. No matter the loss, the curse, or harsh abrasion of a broken old fool as myself... From whence that well of strength come, I know not, but it is all that keeps me whole... So, yourselves, what hole in the mound did you crawl up from?” Taking once more to the tough crowd of answers. “Come on, clearly you hadn’t appeared out of thin air, unless I really am still dreaming.”

Aaron flustered, trying to straighten out all the things he knew. “I’m not really sure how to... Where, to... Is this Tapia?”

“Never heard of it. Sounds like a place across the pond... Where the Yappers live!”

Greatly disappointed, Aaron lamented. “Then I suppose you never heard of Summerland, or... Any reference I could mention. You’re, um... Familiar with the gateways, between realms?”

“Gateways now...” The old man pondered. “If they’re as Isawna hops through then, yeah...” Smacking his dry lips “Not a damned clue, no... Try asking her.” Everyone’s eyes moved to the mute girl, to hear the laughter of the old man. “Mouth’s spitting belly dust, time for tea... You want some?”

“I thought we were on our own for food.”

“T-t-tea isn’t food!” The old man sputtered, “What... Kind of Yapper’d tell you that nonsense? Tea is there to suppress the stomach, because you’re not eating food and I wish those Yappers’d ‘eat’ more of it!... It’s like soup, when a guest brings over a few too many friends and you have to fill the pot with water, until it’s damn near tasteless. Hardly even filler at that point. Food... Psheat. Isawna pulled some leafs before she left, so you got a selection,” Pulling out a brilliant orange gemstone out of the boxes along the wall. “Bitter with a carriage of soft tangy aromatics, or soothing powdery ash with sharp tingles of meaty sweetness?”

“You’ve got quite the poetic way of talking about your flavours.” Aaron admired, watching the old man take a shaving of the stone that glowed as the pieces shuffled along the black stone surface.

“Flavours are one of your main sense groups, like breathing, touching, balancing, viewing, especially viewing! There is much more to it than just a face, it’s an experience.” Feeling the heat off of his stove all the way from the table, the kettle nearly boiled immediately.

“You say it like feeling something is comparable to eating candy, or...” Starting to feel as though he hit his head on the way in. Aaron’s mind fixated towards the irony at play here: Just this morning he argued with Bellship, about the gems, like the ones before him right now. The boy shook his head, thinking to himself ‘What are the chances, actually?... Did... I...?’ But Aaron’s thoughts brought him back to the table in front of him and the old man laughing earnestly.

“Well, sense is all there is.” Taking his ear to the valley. “No words or phrases can truly recreate it to someone who’s never had it before, only attempt to tell someone what’s lays before them. Without it we can’t communicate. Even a drivel of Queets, and Tahlmos can sing you a bird’s story, like the Fivvel and Hwaua of the wind tell you what is ahead and beyond your vision... Should you be open to receive it.” A flock of sizable birds flew loudly up past the threshold of balcony from below, becoming audible to everyone at it’s sight. Pulling the heated pot off of the stone slab, the old man filled his teapot, then picked one of the leafs for the sake of their indecisiveness.

“So, which of these is which?” Aaron asked.

“Perhaps what is better than being told, is discovering for oneself” Placing the tea pot in the centre and pouring the table a round in tiny ceramic cups. They appeared hand made, but glazed with a finishing coat that skilfully surpassed the sculpted lumpy edges of their drinking vessels.

Aaron took a sip, passing the hot liquid over his tongue, “Oh...” Nearly burning the skin in his mouth from inexperience. “That’s different. Kinda has a cotton candy note to it...”

“Notes... Psheat! They, they say taste has notes... Notes of this, notes of that, notes of dauna berry;” mocking the sound, “Pa’tsheea, it has it’s own flavour, not something else’s flavour. You can figure it out, what is it? Pomic porridge has ‘notes’ of toe fungus and their mothers flapper! Don’t hear me going around telling that to the store owner.” The mute girl, laughed herself silly in the seat, still as quiet as a shadow outside her jittering chair. “Well, seeing as we’ll be sitting here for a cup, I might as well ask your names. Mine is... Um... Well...” Beginning to chuckle. “You know, not having to spoken back to you for quite a while, it does start to get kinda hazy at times. Kaylemen, it’s Kaylemen... We won’t go over the dunderous aliases from my younger days.”

Everyone greeted back likewise, and took part in their hospitalities. Zack hesitant to try it, wearily looked around the room until the table master had taken his sip of the same brew. “Huh...” Taking his warm sip, before utter bewonderment. It waxed off his mouth leaving a sparkle of powder fine flavourful sand that felt to have sparkled and dissolved in his mouth. The after taste, for those at home reading, was of subtle anise and cinnamon. “I had my questions, but... You really are just a nice old feller.”

“What? You thought I was going to eat you or something? There are names for people like that, that I prefer to spare from this table!”

“Sophie!” Zack shot out

“You’re the one that pieced that harebrained idea together this time, not me.” She defended.

“Your stove...” Aaron inquired. “You use gems to work it... It’s fascinating. You know about them, then... The gems, how powerful they are...”

“Everyone knows about them!...” Confounded, the old man crowed, almost beginning to pity Aaron’s ignorance. “Some study, other’s worship, others just live. Modern life as it were. Beats striking a fire with two flint and a prayer to the Gods. Last I heard, that don’t work too well anymore.”

“Everyone...” Aaron astounded, noting the simplicity of the old man. “Do you know anyone who could teach me about them?”

“I wouldn’t bother grabbing a master. The wise men have all clammed up to their society of prestige. All that there is, is the Yappers, the common tongue, and I... I... Used to be like them, in another life. They sure change their tone when I wouldn’t bow down to them. Riddance, Har’malda to them! You’re youth is more precious than their squabbles. For what they could teach you, you could find everything on your own.”

“I’ve wanted to.” Aaron admit solemnly. “Seems so simple, too simple, yet every facet of them brings something new. No tangible footing to comprehend them. Every moment I think I understand them, they... C-Could you...”

“I refuse...”

“I didn’t get to ask...”

“What I have to teach, is long lost to the world, and abolished. You’d better yourself as a house maid and aquatint yourself as the common tongue do; making knowledge from your experience there and moving up. If you want to learn, you should be able to come upon this yourself else there is no sense in wasting your time learning simple tricks and formulaic methods. Especially with no sociophant teachers and their pertinacious bemoaning. I had enough of that in my own youth, Psheat”

“But it is the ‘how’ that I want to learn. I’ve been taught enough methodology as is...”

“Well I’ll be damned, you’re not just another high spirited drop out after all... still, I refuse, no budging it, find someone else...”

“Then point me in the direction of someone, anyone that you believe can. Who can tell me why I understand things about these gems that no one else seems to know.”

“There are greater teachers than I. You are merely desperate to fill a void in your heart with the first thing you see. I said to you, so open your ears boy! You’d fair much better, hearing a mother of four go on about their daily chores. To paddle the ferries upon calm and raging waters. To feel with your own hands, the biography of ancient ruins, and the tender chute of a new sprout blade of grass in the cold highland reach... Only then would I have anything to teach you; after that, all gems will make sense. It will be without question, that they will answer themselves and no explanation will be needed any longer. You will simply know, and that itself, even in time, I cannot teach this to you; only guide, as I have already done. Now find yourself a maidery, discover your foothold, and begin there.” Before taking moderately to his warm tea.

Shaking his head, Aaron contested. “Can it truly tell me? Can you be certain that you even know of what I need to learn? That one and only thing that I have asked so many, yet no one has answered me before? Instead I’m treated like I’m nuts. That I can feel them, these gems, as though it were with a second pair of hands that exist elsewhere. That mystery, beyond the flesh and mud: That when they interact, I can see something more taking place, a living reaction, a world from beyond our own, shining truth into being. That in the very stone and rock, you can feel the flowing of eons seeping in through your skin, to somewhere deeper and more primal than even your heart or head. I know these things exist, I’ve seen them. Tell me... Who, or where, can I go to understand the truth?

The old man sat silent, his clasped hands holding up his jaw by the lips, but spoke solemnly though them, “And when you feel the eons pass, what is there upon the surface but age and ware?”

“There is still the stone yet untouched beneath, that radiates like the cold rivers, churning like the deep currents to renew this earth.”

Deeply concerned, Kaylemen stared deeply into the wood grain. “And when a living reaction shines in whatever bogus you called it, into our world, is there not merely an infinite of lessons yet unlearned to put as an explanation in it’s place?”

“But what is it that answers that unlearned lesson? If we never had the anomaly of something outside of our own understanding and preconceptions, how could we hope to learn of anything?” Aaron cried out. “Should there never be anything outside the stone and wood of this house, could any of us be alive as we are now? Would anything ever be answered at all? The miracle is beyond it merely being there, lifeless, and without purpose. It is what exists beyond us, that gives it meaning.”

“Well...” Kaylemen admit. “When you put it like that, I do sound rather toity, don’t I...” Taking a sip to rinse the frivolous talk from his tongue, until finally raising his eyes once more “And here I took my mind for withering in senility from a young age... For decades now, I thought I was alone as you... That these things, so obscure were merely the fabrication of a privy and adventurous young mind until spoken back to me in my own words no less... Without ever prior relaying that same broken heart I receive. I am humbled that you should remind me of my youth’s joy, even it’s struggles and sorrows. It is a bitter flavour most savoury... I say onto you, that you have the aptitude and competence...” Pulling another fruit out of the bowl. “Perhaps it is not too late to show this degenerate world where it’s hind quarters are. Assuming I don’t fall asleep on you.” Aaron’s smile widened, having met another intelligent man to understand him.

“Enough with the hippy talk.” Zack moaned. “You’re not the only two here at the table... Sophie, you’re the smart one apparently. Not even you can properly understand what they are talking about, right?”

Leaning back in her chair, Sophie scratched her head. “It makes more sense to me than to you Zack... Though even I can scarcely follow it. It’s not illiterate, however, it still shits upon the founding of all my studies and what I know is true.” Before setting her chair properly flat. “It’s heavily unfounded and ascetically cursive... But unfortunately, yeah, like it or not, communication isn’t always about reality; people bark about that all the time, but it’s the connection there to... Even babies can communicate, like seasoned professionals, discussing naps and toy functions with just as much passion and understanding as an adult to his craft... It’s just... Really shitty hearing Aaron crap on my old man like that, gonna be honest.”

Aaron remarked, “You’re old man could do with a little alternate input.”

Zack shook his head. “I still don’t get it. You’re whole eyeballs on the tips of your fingers crap or whatever it was, you still going on about that?”

“Boy...” Kaylemen leaned in toward the cynicism at his table. “If a stone that grows can make night into day, and air into frozen pebbles then how difficult is it to believe that there is a cause that makes those miracles occur? Is it by word? Perhaps the inherent wills of a lifeless stone? Or perhaps an understanding that you lack?” Holding an object before Zachery, the man explained. “Behold I hold a gem that makes mass into powder, yet this vessel can nether shake nor move of it’s own accord, it is lifeless, yet alive...”

“That’s a berry...”

Staring intently on the object in his hand. “So it is... But would you rather come to understand what that magic is? Or simply take credit that your hand made miracles, by the tool that predates your own being.” Before devouring his organic treat.

“So...” Aaron inquired. “If I’ve not misunderstood... you’ve... changed your mind on teaching me, because of my knowledge, or?...”

“You are astute, be it a frivolous word.” Kaylemen commended “Yes. But... I will not be moved by words alone, I need of you to prove me this claim. Any man can spout poetry from the bowels of his stomach, but can he pass those words beyond his heart without wavering in the field? Be warned however, it is arduous, I’ll need some time to prepare.”

After a moment, Aaron lifted himself from the table and refrained upon the balcony where there was still ground beneath him. His peers out into the gorgeous valley captivated him, even if it’s hollow belly was knee quivering in it’s vastness and depth. Aaron was pleased to finally be met with something, anything, and in good timing no less. He might actually do something with this knowledge before his time neared. “He really is going to teach you this stuff, huh?” Zack admired. “I know I’ve been cynical, but... I might as well sit down and see what it’s all about. Still don’t feel too comfortable here to sit alone anyway... Just what is the chances of all this, really? I just can’t get over it...” Shaking his head astonished, Zack wandered the balcony with a smug chuckle to himself that sustained him more than Aaron.

“Yeah...” Aaron trailed off in his mind. “It’s all too soon, too convenient.” Aaron traced the events leading up to now but could not fathom how it all aligned “Only a few moments ago, I had wanted so desperately for this exact thing to happen and now... It feels like I caused this... Or someone else put it here before me. Perhaps this is a trap.” Lowering his head down to the railing. “It constantly feels like someone is trying to off me. Why is this exactly what I need at this exact moment?... And me, knowing what he figures was lost, only to meet me at the same time I meet him. I want this, like he does... But... It’s frightening. Unreal. Inconceivable, in... proceiveable... whatever that word was...”

“You’re pensive all of the sudden” Sophie stood beside him, “You had a pretty good go of venting daddy’s technocracy, you’re not feeling guilty about it, are you?” Poking his shoulder.

“Not one bit, at least... Not feeling guilty about that anyway. I’m getting back to second guessing again, like I always do. I’d like to just have a normal head.”

“Everyone second guesses themselves.”

“I’m considering heading home...”

“I thought this is what you wanted. Even Zack is kind of excited to learn something, which is pretty rare. You sure you want to back out?”

“I want it, too much and I really don’t like that... Sophie, you know when we found the portal in hillside behind my house... The recent one, and when I said it was weird that all these events happened at such an uncanny time? Rapidly, with every event and person I seem to meet... Directly after discovering about the seven, I meet one that’s been there the whole time and everything changes. What are the statistical chances that this would happen? What about the sixteen years of slow movement before this stated happening? This can’t just happen for no reason.”

“You might not like how, but, I actually agree with you... About there being a reason for it. If I am to be honest, it’s actually very likely. For you, and a some select others... People willing to notice it that is. It’s a kind of force that I’ve known about for a while. It’s what separates the sheeple from the wise.”

“You sure about all that? That... You’re not taking anything for granted, or?... Coz I’m really not so sure about all this. A perfect running watch doesn’t just form itself when the parts fall off the workbench.”

Sophie moaned, “Now you really do sound like my dad...” Sighing she continued. “While he’s on the board, he also told me something when I was really young, one of the Altar children stories. If you thought German nursery rhymes were messed up, you never heard about Deservers Forest. It’s a place that opens anywhere after a person gets lost, and goes to the place where their nightmares are. That is to say, it has a way of tricking people into following the shiny trail to the things they hide from themselves until they’ve been made emotionally vulnerable enough to be affected by them. You know, friends who died reappearing, talking to you... While dead... Old regrets, shapes that instill irrational fear or trauma. I would say your people call this the idea of self fulfilling desires, destiny, if they actually had the ability to pass through the gateways to find destiny... Which, most can’t, hence your situation with unlikely odds, given your skewed Stagalnian perception of things. The story goes that the only way to get free is to head straight back. No matter how you think it’s constructed, every loop only strays further out, and no circle will ever meet with an earlier path.”

Narrowing his eyes, “I know that these things make sense to your space quantum minds, but you really take for granted that everyone else’s heads don’t work like that.” Aaron cynically reminded

“Not saying this is a nightmare, but that’s how they explained these winding non-euclidean passages to our youth. Kinda messed up adding that existential horror in there for kids, huh? Think about it, it’s not the image it takes, but the means that we get there. If we never got lost, we’d never find somewhere new... So these places open to someone who wants them. For someone who wants to leave their comforts. When two people should want to meet, a door opens. If the tax man knocks from the other side, you will turn your head and he will be none the wiser that you heard him. Hence, the door remaining closed. As for him, he has to turn away until someone receives him somewhere else.”

Kaylemen poked his head out from his home. “Are you two satisfied in your solitude to lend your ear to an old man yet? I have set aside a portion of my fleeting livelihood for you to prove my sanity to those snooty yappers and their false ideology, so don’t take this opportunity lightly.”

Aaron shook his head. “Alright... If you believe this is normal, then... I’ll put away my doubts...”

Sophie assured him. “It’s perfectly normal that things come together like this, because it is easier than having them fall in place through chaos. It would be much easier that a man was there to make and assemble that working watch than have it form perfectly out of mere sheer coincidence.”

“These lessons...” Aaron inquired. “They’re no sit down and listen to the history of the world, the universe and everything kind are they? I’m getting really tired of having to hear how everything works and geting treated like a moron for wanting to actually use it some time this year.”

The old man’s fury burned. “Poeheeash, those sa-sasi-sef...” Shaking the anger from his eyes. “This pompous know-it-alls and their formula pish wash. Logical duality, meaaaagh. Har’malda!... I used to be one...” Looking at the food in his hands then, loosing the apatite to enjoy it. “Damn near hated everything about myself. Days in, pushing quills, laughing at the ones who failed. ‘Ha, ha, Lenom can’t make an even an effigy of a rat if he started with a stuffed one, ha ha!’... Hiding our mistakes to avoid the same ridicule by our peers, and taking it out on ourselves for not being a professor after 2 weeks. ‘Let’s go to the Moon Bill for a tea and study, curachowa dudes!’ ‘So-in-so’s right, you’ll never amount to anything if you don’t follow in their footsteps exactly as they outlined it in the manual, you’ll just be a poser, mleeeh...’ ‘Kalameta crystals are too volatile to keep under your bed! We’re just concerned about your saftey...’ Heeack! I’ve had it with their phony idea of value. Never took a moment to appreciate what they just made, coz ‘that’s just how it’s supposed to be, it’s not that impressive. Those are just baby steps’ while they made the miracle of life in a jar. No respect for the true nature of the world, just looking for a new way to exploit it for fame, and their next superiority buzz. So, I’m nothing, apparently... Good then. I sit at home and make nothing.” He huffed, holding a mossy stone that sprouted before their eyes, with two tiny chutes shelling it’s tiny leaves from the husk. “Ignore them.” Scrunching the greenery from his stone for a salad. “If there are smarter men than them, and there are; then all they are, are baby steps themselves... They’re idea of getting somewhere is by dragging everyone else down instead of making it themselves, else they’d be the masters... But it’s a social club. Sociophants... I’m done rambling...”

Aaron was astonished, and deeply fascinated by the insight of Kaylemen’s paradigm. “I guess we’ve both seen that side of things now, haven’t we?...” Awaiting a response to confirm his notions, but it didn’t need to be said.

“Gather, gather...” The man started his lesson. Within the drawers along the wall where he kept his gems, was a box that laid a bed of shards. They grew in along the sides, and “In time they fell off walls of their own accord,” into the pile below. Within the next, it was mingled of two colours which grew indifferent to another. “When one is removed, another shall take it’s place opposite the infliction. It reforms from some ‘elsewhere’ and makes it’s way here. Some have even four or five compositions” Within the third, an orange one had sweat out a liquid from it’s sides into the bottom, where a cork held the contents inside. “Where there is air, it becomes a stimulating water.”

Zack inquired, in a light hearted manner. “Does it taste like fruit punch?”

“You can tell me in the afterlife if you so desire to know...” The next along the long shelf had a crystal which had powdered itself and flaked off along the far edge. Skipping one of the boxes, Kaylemen explained; “Some are frightened of the sun, and are nocturnal. That’s to say I’m never awake when I want to bloody use them.” The next was webbing tree of branching crystal rods which reminded Aaron of the old computer screensaver from the 90’s. One drawer contained a sap which when pulled upon sharpened into a prickly spire of crystal thorns all linked together, then disappeared under the surface without tension once more. The last, for now at least, was a normal crystal shape, but the sight of it’s body moved depending on their position. Both Aaron and Zack wobbled to see it’s invisible shape lucidly reflect the dancing light around the enclosure. “There are many more, but these are our common collection. The other ten boxes we will get to later when they are less empty. In my chambers, where you will not go... There are those that are much more reactive than these that are out of the way of being knocked over... Or mistaken for a nut to those damned tree rodents!” Shaking his fist at the trail of yellow tailed sewer rats which flopped from branch to branch along the cliff overhead.

“Good thing they ain’t squirrels, right?” Aaron heckeled.

Zack shook his head. “Woulda swore I saw my wanted poster two groves back...”

In his hand, the old man laid out the four or so new shards that they would be working with for right now. “Now that you have should have no doubts, you’re aptitude reassurance test will begin. What you speak, I’ve seen, and too was shunned for. And yet here, here we be. Let us confirm this miracle... You’re hand child.” Requesting Aaron’s participation. “With your being, feel this stone. Think not of it’s weight, nor it’s texture, it’s edges, or it’s warmth.” Finally bestowing it with the intention of what was expected. Aaron moved it in his hand but was warned. “It’s edges are a deceit, if you know it by it’s shape, you will be mistaken when you should find another grown differently.” Aaron rocked it in his hand, and again Kaylemen informed him. “If it’s weight should guide you, you will be left to remember only it’s clout. What you seek is beneath. Or had you read these claims of yours in a book as an attempt be glorified by someone else’s words?”

“I’m trying to get a read on where it is...”

Zack turned to Sophie, pestering her “These lessons are driving you up the wall, aren’t they?” Asking the girl who’s corner pouting could be felt across the deck.

“Cut your tongue!” The old man shot out. “Learn or remove yourself. We got no place for idle banter in our time to learn. When it’s time to flap gum, you flap gum! The boy needs to concentrate...” Clearing his throat guiltily. “When you are ready, Aaron, I will give you the next and it will be passed onto Zack, if he is not preoccupied.”

Passing the stone onto him, Zack tried to feel something. His eyes widened. “It’s so cool, I mean it’s warm like a radiant heat, slowly dissipating...”

“That’s because Aaron just held it!” The old man dismayed, palming his face, “Of course it’s pleckin warm, you twet!”

“Oh...”

“It’s very weak.” Aaron admitted, trying to gauge it but the small shard was without his ability to measure even by it’s normal dimensions. “I’m sorry, I might not be as good as you need me to be...”

“We are all born weak. If it be so, then it will be trained; what it be not, be it nothing. This is the lesson I have to teach, to strengthen, to become aware. If you should believe, then you should be open to find something. There will always be something, what you need is to find that one something we are looking for, for the next time. What you have is within you, like any other skill... Do we think how to chew? How about to walk? What is two in addition of two? Do you need to think it? When they made mathematics for me to solve, it was neither memory of the answer itself that i recalled, nor the formula which answered but a natural sense which understood what it was taught and repeated it in only but a moment. It was as nature itself, that was the path. When you feel the natural way within, the answer that forms of itself, and are certain of what you are to learn... We can move forward, and see where that path leads us.”

“Taking the training wheels off, right?”

“How in blazes does one train on a wheel?”

“A, um... Local expression, sorry.” Taking the third crystal into his hands. There was a slight tingle, like the sharp pricking of a needle. It felt corrosive until the worry of it passed and it became normal once more. “It felt for a moment, as though it was trying to attack me, but now it’s settled. I didn’t want to say anything because it’s so subtly gentle, but I was wondering if I even felt anything or if it was superstition.”

Looking upon the table, the old man chummed his flappy lips into a draping smile. “That’s part of it, yes. It exists where our hands merely hold it’s vessel. That is it’s observed effect, some... Sciency flying gwom crap. A group in my early years swore by it’s healing elements, removing impurities. Getting ‘cleansed’ they called it in a circle, while passing the pipe... But they probably just ended up getting cancer more than anything.” Aaron dropped the crystal. “Everything will kill us eventually... Even a proper healing stone takes days to mend and will in turn remove some hours of our lives as a trade off. At some point, resilient as the youth, it too will be broken into what you see sitting before you. Me.” Laughing at himself. “If you look close enough, you’ll find these phenomenon it in the other stones, even people too, given you know what you’re looking for.”

Aaron took up the last stone. The air around the dark pebble felt hard, as though a weightless force field had willed itself away from Aaron, as his hands slipped it in between the fingers and the palm. While physically unimpeded, it seemed to instill a strong pressure that Aaron could feel but not see press against his skin nor gravitate the stone in any capacity. This feeling however, also subsided as he was acquainted with it and it turned to a null stimulation.

“I don’t get it...” Zack looked around, “This supposed to bite me or something?” Holding his hand out for the third one. Aaron placed his gem into Zacks hands, watching him drop it immediately. “Nope! Don’t like that one! Hate it!”

The old man smiled. “Too hot or something? I think a Dallah of the city would tell you blue isn’t your colour!” Laughing esoterically.

“Dallah, huh?” Trying to make sense of the comment. “That some kind of pretty florist or something?”

“Nah, all the pretty ones go into dancing... Dallahs all rounded, they just turn into old men! Alright, close your eyes!” Grabbing the young hands and guiding them over the table. “Tell me which one is which.”

“Oh!” Zack retrieved his hands. “Hate that feeling. That’s the blue gem.”

“You have no eyes! That’s a different one, you’re all nerves...” Slapping the kid’s hands “Ignore these things, forget these exist!”

After what seemed like ten minutes, Aaron seemed to have been at a point of boredom, where his focus was dwindled into an exhaustive depression of trying and failing. Somewhere, once this focus gave way, he could hear a voice speaking to him as though through his finger tips: He felt a cold wave that bypassed his deaf skin. It was like a drape of fine silk which passed through his flesh, up in through his bones. Though exhausted, he could feel it from this second hand. He remembered the night passed out against the cliff, when he could feel the time pass through the stone and the discharge of it’s flowing cold streams. For a moment, he could envision it’s cavities, it’s wavering and how this emanation of thin filament would ripple like a wind which was not present and alter within him. Even clinging to him. Reaching down, Aaron plucked the stone from the table.

The old man looked to him, both their eyes still closed. With a groggy voice, Kaylemen spoke, “It has been longer than one could picture what is around him,” clearing his throat, “have you lost your dim eyes, and now see with clearer ones?”

Aaron opened his eyes, in a calm which was unsettling. They glimmered, with a dim speckle which retained for only a moment until the sight of his eyes came back to blind him of his hand. “I saw... Something, without seeing it...”

“A line could be drawn with Iswana’s gift as well... When we know that we are lacking, we are willing to shut up long enough to hear the answer... No pun intended, deary.” Assuring the silent girl. “Like children, we are quick to find something new to fill it and often misplace our talents through impatience...” His mind railed off, witnessing the anomaly within Aaron “From wince those eyes shine like such, I have no clue. What do you suppose brought about this change in you?”

“It came when I was bored, when... I was so exhausted, that I heard it...”

“Exhausted, eh?... Very good then.”

“What, is that the trigger? Couldn’t you have told me?”

“No, not the trigger but you’ll be exhausted real soon. Best to know you can take a little endurance, these lessons will be learned through experience, not a say it after me study hall. It is time. You have learned that you are capable and that my knowledge will not go on deaf ears. Knock on wood, and all that... I am humbled to have such guests, Isawna has done well in finding me, you, boy, it will not be long until veneration is restored... Not like they’ll listen to us anyway but it set’s my mind at ease... However, I am lacking of substance. What I have is in equilibrium with my consumption, I cannot teach you what you need to know with my supply alone. Come, you will make your way to the valley and from there you will find what I require. You will have to earn your lessons by providing me with what I need, for teaching you...” Walking into his house “Or what is still available.” He called out from inside the muffling walls. “While you are about, I’ll probably be bored enough to have Zack continue until he too sees as you have... It will not take long, given his uncanny reactions to even the most benign of things.” Walking out “Benign... Where the fek did I hear that word from? Sounds like a flappers’ word.” Spitting dryly from his mouth. Holding out two sandals, the old guy smiled. “It’s time to put you to work.”