Nature’s Fruit
By Michael Butz
Burning encompassed his entire body,
as though he were emerged in a boiling cauldron of pitch. Pain
crawled over his skin, penetrating deep into his eyes and
lungs. There was only blackness around him that gave no sign of
the fire tormenting him. Fear and hatred swam among the unseen flames,
flowing in through his eyes to gnaw through his mind.
A vision of himself crying
out to his uncle at the collapsed, smoldering village
Inn of home flooded his sight. Bawling terrible cries that
threatened to devour his soul sent sorrow and guilt through every part of
his being.
“You killed him” Echoed a dry malevolent voice through his head,
leaving splinters of anguish defiling his mind. ‘It’s all
your fault. His blood’s on your hands.’ Bitter cold laughter bit at his
ears as the voices faded.
All around him a chorus of accusations arose
from the voices of thousands of unseen onlookers, to stab his heart
with their terrible eyes. Growing to an excruciating din of hate and
anger the chorus abruptly ended, ‘You killed him’ the last words on every voice
echoed in his head.
His uncle’s disembodied head filled
his sight, its skin melting away to reveal bubbling red flesh underneath.
The eyes -- those unblinking, accusing eyes -- stabbed through
him trying to rip his soul apart.
~
Erm was stolen away from his
horrible visions by the barefoot of the na’Sehn early this morning. Faint
sounds of cold, dry laughter still echoed through his mind as the sleep slowly
faded from his eyes. What he wouldn’t give for a fully-rested nights
sleep.
Every day now for the past two weeks
the man had been waking him in the predawn light. When they would
practice the flows and forms of combat until the sun was near its noonday peak;
this morning would be no different.
Each day before they began their
affray they would sit in silent meditation completely emptying the mind of all
thought and emotion. ‘A
clouded mind is like a bucket with a hole in the bottom,’ The man had told him. ‘No matter how much you fill it, it will always remain
empty.’ Only when
the songs of the morning birds reached their fullest with the rising sun did
they begin their skirmishes.
They had taken refuge in a thicket of
oak and elm covering a large hill early in the evening. Atop the hill the
man had shown him a large circle of bright green grass enclosed by a tight ring
of mighty oak trees. Surprisingly the grass along with the trees showed
no sign of the late fall, remaining in summer when the rest of the forest began
turning red and ocher.
There had once been a mighty oak
here, the man had told him that had been a favorite haunt of
Climbing the hill towards the crest
Erm decided to take a seat at the center of the Kiree Ring. He had
felt refreshed the night before when sitting in the ring, and thought it would
be a nice place to rest for his meditation. As Erm
formed the void and flame Erm noticed a light that shined just out of
sight from over his shoulder as he slowly fed the flame all that was in his
head.
Surprisingly the man used the same
form of concentration that his uncle had taught him. The next step in
this process, said the man, after emptying your mind was to reduce
the blaze down to the small flicker of a candle. Letting the flame grow
too large was to run the risk of loosing control of it thus destroying the
void. In serious combat that would mean certain death. ‘You must gain control of your mind before you can
control your body.’
Inside the void
Erm had noticed that his senses were doubled. Leaves rustling
in the light breeze sounded as if he were sitting among them in the branches of
the broken canopy above. He found it easy to place squirrels and other
small creatures scurrying around. Even the sounds of the fire came to him
clearly from forty paces away on the other side of the thicket.
Erm heard the sound of footfall
heading his way from behind. Must be time for today’s practice already. The only time Erm could actually hear the man’s
feet touch the ground was when he was encompassed within the void.
Erm rose to his feet and began
walking over to where he placed his staff leaning up against one of the trees
in the ring.
“Not today,” the na’Sehn said. “Today
we begin a different lesson,” the man continued to walk over to where Erm had
been sitting. “Come, sit.” He said, motioning towards the ground in front of
him.
Placing the staff back to lean on the
tree Erm walked over and sat where the man had gestured.
“Today you will learn how to touch
the Flow.” The man said. Erm opened his mouth to respond but closed it.
As the man’s apprentice Erm was instructed to speak only when prompted,
and he remembered the swift backhand he received the last time he spoke out of
place.
“Start as you would when you
meditate,” the man instructed, taking a place in front of Erm. As
instructed Erm made the void and emptied his mind into the flame. “To begin you
must always have the flame completely under control. That is the most
important part. Touching the Flow with a raging fire will kill you,” the
man seemed to punctuate with a slightly raised eyebrow. “And if it doesn’t, it
will burn out your mind and leave you an invalid.”
“The Flow shows inside to void as a
light just out of sight, shining from behind.” Erm looked on in disbelief as
the man described what he had noticed before. A light ripple
of excitement rolled over the surface of the void.
“Remember control is the utmost
concern when you are channeling the Flow. Loose control and the flame
will shatter the void and the Flow will rush out and kill you and anyone near
you.” The man said with a stern voice, but still maintained his calmly blank
face.
“To embrace the Flow you must feed
its light into the flame,” the man instructed further. “Imagine the flame
reaching out and touching the light.”
Closing his eyes Erm imagined the
candle’s flame within him growing arms. Reaching out the arms grabbed a
hold of the Flow. At the same instant an intense wave of pure energy
rushed into him. Erm was filled with a wonderful sense of life and
bliss, the feeling made life seem as if it were a pale
dream. The flame began to grow quickly and Erm struggled to reduce the
resulting blaze.
“Let go of it now!” The man said
quickly. “You’re holding too much.”
Erm imagined the arms of the flame
releasing the light. The overwhelming sense of power and wonderment
vanished causing the flame to blink out and the void to dissipate. The
whole process made Erm’s head spin.
“You have a lot’a
potential, but you need to learn to limit the amount of the Flow you handle
until you’ve fully learned control,” the man said, giving off a feeling of
amazement. His face still didn’t reveal anything though, but for some
reason Erm could sense the feeling coming from the man. “Now try again;
this time just barely touch the light.”
Erm did as instructed; he reassumed
the void imagining only one arm this time with an outstretched finger reaching
to lightly touch the Flow. Again he was invaded by a wave of power, and a sense of fulfillment better than life itself as
it made contact. However this time there was a noticeable difference in
the amount of the Flow rushing in. He directed the flow into the candle
flame and it instantly grew into a blaze. With a little struggle Erm was
able to reduce the flame back into a small glimmer.
“Simply amazing,” the man said,
definitely with a sign of satisfaction. “You truly are a prodigy. My last
apprentice took four months of training just to be able to touch the Flow,” the
man shook his head. “Your very first try and you’ve embraced the flow and have
it under control.” He gave a small laugh that failed to touch his face.
“Well, we might as well continue,”
the man went on. “Watch me; see if you can tell what I’m doing.” All of a
sudden a light seemed to shine dimly around the man as he held out his hands in
a cup.
“You’re… glowing?” Erm said
awestruck. From behind he felt a stinging strike on the back of his neck,
as if he were struck by a switch. He looked around quickly but there was
nothing around.
“Speak when spoken to,” the man said
sternly. “Now watch.” Returning his eyes to the man’s hands Erm saw something
coming from the man, that looked to be fibers of light thinner than a man’s hair. There were two threads that
intertwined to make something like a rope, but very tiny. This rope, coming from somewhere unseen within the man went down into the cup of
his hands. Almost at the same moment that these threads appeared a small
flame burst forth from nothing, floating a hand above the man’s palms.
“What did you see?” The man
questioned flatly.
“What… ah… I saw, little fibers of light that turned into that flame,” Erm said wondrously not taking
his eyes from the mysterious flame. “two fibers.”
“Excellent. Those fibers were parts of the Weaves of the Flow,” the man said. “There are five
different Weaves that make up the Flow of Nature. From the Mother comes
the Weaves of Earth and Water; from the Father comes Air and Fire; and from the
Ken of the Creator comes Will. These Weaves flow through all things on
Ea.”
“Now, you try,” the man continued.
“Reach through the Flow and grab out those two Weaves and thread them together
the way I did.” The flame disappeared from above the man’s hands. Erm got
a sense of excited anticipation coming from the man.
Erm’s brows furrowed trying to put
together what exactly he was to do. Cupping his hands together in front
of him he reached through the energy flowing into him with his mind.
Searching for a moment he found the two Weave strands. Somehow he was
able to discern the different Weaves. They came from Fire and Air; it was
like grabbing two distinct fibers, one from each of the two different ropes
that were the Weaves.
Plucking the strands Erm pulled them
through himself and directed them towards his hands intertwining them as the
man had. To his surprise a flame appeared above his hands. The
flame wavered a bit with his surprise.
The man stared blankly at the flame
above Erm’s hands. For some reason Erm thought he felt disbelief coming
from the man. “Alright let go of the Flow. That’s enough for today,” the
man said. Erm imagined the flame in the void taking its finger away from
the light and the flame that he had created above his hands winked out.
“Very good Erm, we just went through six months of training in less than
an hour,” the man said shaking his head as he stood. He looked Erm dead
in the eye with a very serious face. “You must never touch the Flow without me
around. If you do, well… you will find out what happens.”