Kelv continued his tale, interrupted by an occasional word or comment from the Knights seated on bunks around him. It had begun to storm outside, and Kelv's words were punctuated by the creaking of the ship's timbers as it labored through the waves.
"The spiritlord told me his name was Raliserin, the eldest of the spiritlords of Jh'ten, Guardian of the Most Holy Valowaia Showaera--or Shovaera, something like that. He said that he and the other spiritlords had been in council for hours, trying to decide what to do with me. A couple of the spiritlords wanted to keep me there in the tower dungeon permanently, for daring to invade their tower. But most--him included--didn't.
"It wasn't easy to understand him at all; he had the strongest ch'taren accent I've ever heard. I don't think he spoke the common tongue much. He kept saying words in ch'taren, and having a hard time remembering the right common words for them.
"He said, 'Most of us believe you are but a young human lacking wisdom, perhaps trying to prove yourself to the Knights you travel with.' The strange thing was that he was so kind, even smiling while he talked. This was not what I had imagined would happen--and I had imagined a whole lot of things while I had been sitting there in the cell the past two days.
As he spoke, Kelv could easily visualize the old ch'taren standing there, speaking in a serious voice that was unusual only in its strong, lilting ch'taren accent. Raliserin's finely-shaped facial features were only moderately wrinkled, despite the ch'taren's long, silver-gray hair and brows. His face was the most serene and peaceful face that Kelv had ever seen--but the gentle features could show profound hurt.
Kelv fell silent, recalling why the spiritlord had looked so pained. He had held up the pendant that Korchanja had loaned Kelv. Its once-shining crystal orb, which had guided Kelv through the Jh'ten aqueduct, had shattered completely. Raliserin, eyes filled with sadness, told Kelv that the spiritlords' greatest concern was that a demon-cursed object had been brought in the tower, and that was what had activated the window runes and alarmed the tower guards of Kelv's presence. Mages of spirit had been quick to detect and destroy the evil within the pendant, once it was taken from him...
"Kelv, what is it?" asked Dust, noticing how a distracted, worried look had settled upon the young man's face.
"Oh, nothing," lied Kelv, giving Dust a forced grin. The implications of Korchanja giving him a demonic object were suddenly striking home. It was definitely a strange thing for a Knight, who was supposed to shun or destroy all things demonic, to do. This was something he should share with Dust, or maybe Falandil, but in private. He avoided looking at the Korchanja, and realized that the swordmaster hadn't asked about what had happened to the pendant.
"It was just that he knew who I was," Kelv resumed, "and what I was trying to do, when I hadn't even said a word to him. I don't even like to think of what my guildmaster will say when he hears of this. Anyway...
"Guildmaster be damned!" interrupted Korchanja. "I'm the judge here, boy. So get on with it, and stop beating around bush!"
"You've been cranky all day, Korchanja," Falandil said, frowning slightly at Korchanja. "But you are right. Kelv, you said you learned something valuable. I have the feeling that you truly did surpass our expectations. But come to the point now, and tell us what you discovered."
"I'm getting there, but you keep interrupting," Kelv protested. After pausing to ensure that the floor was again his, he continued.
"Raliserin told me that he had known a Knight of Enaerai, a caladaran scholar named Tessolos, one who had come to Alensha when Raliserin was a but a young tower guard, to study the minor spirit spells. He had helped battle a score of demons that assualted the tower, and his healing watermagics had saved Raliserin's life. 'He was as good a fellow as one of the gray path could be, if any devotee of the gray path could be called good' he said, and laughed. 'Though he was probably helping on the off-chance that he might get a peak inside the tower himself.' He then told me that to honor of the memory of the Knight, he would help me pass my test, and give me something to report to you about.
"What good fortune you had, Kelv!" exclaimed Dust, who was quickly silenced by stern looks from Korchanja and Falandil.
"He said he would send someone for me shortly, and meet me at the Showaera. Then he left.
"Sure enough, in a few minutes two guards came back for me. They gave me back all my things, and had me drink another one of those potions of translucence. Then, we went up the stairways and through the floors again. They took me past the floor that I had entered--the city offices. We must have gone up ten or eleven floors in all, some of them packed with the white-armored guards, before we finally stopped. I think it was near the top of the tower.
"They brought me into a room. It was...odd. I'm not sure how to describe it, exactly. The walls were all white, but they didn't seem square and solid. Everything seemed to move, if I looked at it closely--at first the floor looked like it was slanted up hill, but when I stared at it, it went downhill.
"'Kelv, you stand before the heart of all ch'tarens,' Raliserin said to me. 'Here we come, on our ch'taliera, on our day of leaving behind childhood and entering adulthood. Here we see for ourselves the true and ancient history of our race, and our being in this land of Avendar. Behold, the Valowaia Showaera!'
"He said a phrase in ch'taren, and in the middle of the strange room, or what seemed like the middle...it was hard to tell...a golden light shined. Something started to form and grow in the air. It looked like spinning globe with a thousand facets, made of pure ch'lonin. It got bigger and bigger, and then stopped its spinning. Next, Raliserin held me by the arm, and steadied me as we walked up to it. I was feeling really disoriented from how everything kept moving around--I would have fallen if he hadn't helped. And there are very few things that make a guild-trained thief lose his balance. Anyway, when we were underneath it, he raised his palm upward, and I felt us being lifted up through the globe, drawn right inside of it.
The door to the cabin swung open, interrupting Kelv's tale. A gruff-looking sailor, bare from the waste up despite the storm and cool weather, appeared in the doorway.
"The Cap'n says you gotta git on deck, an' go talk with him. Right away, he says. There's a griffinship followin' us."
"We'll be right up," growled Korchanja, angry that the fellow had barged in without even knocking. "No doubt the ch'tarens simply make sure we leave the island as they instructed, and don't set ashore elsewhere." As the sailor departed, Kelv continued.
"Inside the globe, we were floating in air. The golden light from the ch'lonin was getting so bright, I thought I would be blinded. I had to shut my eyes. I felt cold and hot at the same time.
"Then, it went dark. When I opened my eyes, I thought we were in a different place--we were surrounded by clouds and light, floating in air. 'Fear not, young Knight,' Raliserin said. 'We are still in the tower, in the Showaera. The Showaera but reveals to us, like a scryer's pool, things from far away in time and space.'
"Well, it wasn't anything like Aminad's scrying pool, I'll tell you that. I really thought I was somewhere else. It looked so real. Raliserin was smiling at me, and after I relaxed--I was as scared as a rabbit in a foxes den, and showing it--he pointed to something in the distance. 'Look,' he said, 'at my people in their greatness.'
"We were pulled to the thing he was pointing at--or it was pulled to us. Anyway, we were right in front of it...it was a ch'taren city. It looked like a cross between the streets of Jh'ten and the room the Shalowaera was in--towers of pure ch'lonin and silver, open-faced houses of white stone--but everything shifting, like it wasn't solid, or maybe it was just that my eyes couldn't follow it quite right. Elementals of light and beautiful, winged creatures--angels, maybe--were in the city.
"And the ch'tarens--Raliserin said they were ch'tarens--they were different. You've seen spiritmages when they take avatar form? Well, they all looked like that. Every last one one of them. Shining, looking strong and powerful, looking larger than life--with auras like blue fire around them.
"'Before we came to this land, we dwelt in Harishiel, our homeworld,' Raliserin said. 'A scholar would talk of alreish, of other planes of existence, but I prefer to call it home. As you can see, we were once more than we are now.' He said that this vision was of a time so long ago, that I couldn't hope to comprehend it.
"He raised his palm again, and everything flickered. For a split second I could see that we were still inside the ch'lonin globe. And then we were back before the ch'taren city, but things were different. The ch'taren looked just like they do now.
"He told me that they had always battled the creatures of evil that lived in Harishiel. But after eons of war, they had finally, with Rystaia's help, destroyed the dark things. They had lived ages more in total peace, with no evil among them.
"'No need for our greater spells--no need to rise against a challenge--century following century of total peace and goodwill among us,' he said. 'It was wonderful. And yet...' he sighed, and looked kind of sad. 'We had no need to stand up against evil, to fight for the cause of light and goodness. No need to call upon the greater lore and spells, no reason to supplicate Rystaia with our needs--for we had none.'
"Over the eons, he explained to me, his people slowly declined, and lost much of the knowledge and things of power. He said the things they lost were vital during their struggles against the dark, but just weren't needed any longer. The ch'tarens ever-so-slowly declined in their glory and might, until they became as they are now.
"Again, he raised his palm. The vision flickered, and we were high in the shifting clouds, seeing something I couldn't believe. Rystaia, more beautiful than one-hundred of her angels, was there, and another God, this one holding a long staff topped by a platinum scale--Kelaith! They were talking, standing in front of a some kind dark circle that was beside them in the air.. Kelaith was talking, trying to convince Rystaia of something.
"'We are high above Harishiel, young Knight. Behold--the God of Balance in Avendar took the powers of a great void spell of summoning, made by shuddeni in Avendar during the War of Night, and warped it with divine power, bringing the portal not to the void to allow the demons full access into Avendar, but to our home.' Raliserin then brought us closer to the Gods, and I saw how Kelaith at last convinced Rystaia to send her children--the ch'taren--to Avendar, to fight against the shuddeni.
"When Rystaia had agreed, she formed a golden bridge from the city up to the black portal, with a sweep of her hand. Clarions sounded, and the ch'taren assembled below. Even though they weren't much like the ch'taren of old, they still looked very impressive. All in shining armor, with bright spears and swords, they marched over the golden bridge and into the black portal, singing a ch'taren battle-hymn.
Kelv, his voice full of emotion at the memory of such a heroic and grand sight, at last fell silent. He looked at the Knights, and slowly smiled. "Thats it, more or less."
"Amazing," Dust said in a hushed voice. "To have been there when into Avendar they crossed, and to have seen the reaction of the shuddeni summoners!"
"No wonder this is kept secret," said Falandil, rising slowly. "It is the greatest proof of our philosophy and vindication of our cause that I have ever heard. The ch'taren are here to restore Avendar's balance--brought by the God of Balance himself! They would have to guard a secret like this."
"Bah, I'm sure they have some way to justify it, or explain it," said Korchanja. "But, by the Lady, you've certainly passed the test, Kelv. You'd make a better gleeman than a thief, considering the way you drag your listeners along by their ears. Even so, I'll sponsor you in the Knighthood." The swordmaster then smiled warmly, and shook Kelv's hand in a hard grip. Kelv, however, was certain that stony hardness of the grip reached past the smiling face and settled in the warrior's eyes.
Dust stood, and he and Falandil cheerfully congratulated Kelv. They began talking about when the next assembly of the Knights would be, and how Kelv would take the oath of Knighthood before the High Lord, when Korchanja interrupted the merriment.
"We've put off the captain long enough, don't you think? Lets go see him, and find out what this business with the griffinship is about."
Kelv followed Falandil and Dust up the stairs, feeling immensely relieved. He had done it! He was going to be a Knight! And not only had he passed the test, but he had been in the Valowaia Showaera, and uncovered the great and mysterious secret of Shelratha. Or rather, he considered, the secret had been given him--but that was close enough.
