The Envoy

[This is yet one more chapter in this never to be published novel.  With it we are essentially picking up where we left off from last week.  Only we moved from earlier draft content to later draft content.  So if it seems like something got skipped, in a sense it did.

Next week I will be back to regular blogging with an article on science and the climate debate.  For now I hope you enjoy my friend's kind offer of fiction.]

Like the day before, Chipper spent the rest of the day with his dad, hiking to a couple more waterfalls and eating out in different restaurants.  From time to time he would spot a hawk souring in the sky above them.  Though he was not completely sure, the way the hawk would occasionally go into a long series of dives and hard turns like a plane at an air show made him suspect it was Kieth.  Chipper might have envied Kieth for being able to fly about like that, but he was with his dad and not even the thought of flying like a bird could be better than that.

The sun was low in the sky by the time they had driven back to the cabin and his dad had rented a movie for them to watch before going to bed.  It was about the world coming to an end because of some ancient prophecy.  There seemed to be some point the movie-maker was trying to make about the importance of family or something, as well as the unimportance of wealth, but for Chipper the movie was too messy to make any worthwhile point.  As the movie ended Frank turned off the TV.

“What was the point of all of that do you suppose Chipper?”

“Making money I suppose.”

“Well they got our rental fee didn't they, so I suppose it worked.”  Frank yawned.  “I think it's time we got to bed.”

Chipper was rising from the couch when he noticed a flutter of feathers from the sill of the window behind where he and his dad had been sitting.  He wondered if Kieth had watched the movie from there.

“I'll see you in the morning Dad.”

“Yes, you will.  Goodnight son.”

Chipper went up the stairs to the second floor like many boys his age would, as fast as he could, making a steady pounding noise as his feet seemed to almost bounce from step to step.

“You sound like you're in a hurry to get to bed.”  His dad laughed as he turned off the last of the  downstairs lights.

Entering his room, Chipper was about to sit on his bed so he could take off his shoes, but was startled by a voice right behind him.

“That was an awful scenario.”  Kieth carefully shut the door and ran his hand along the frame.  A glowing reminded Chipper of what he was doing.  The room was once again sound proofed.

“What awful scenario are you talking about Kieth?”

“That movie.”

“Ah so you did watch it.  I wondered if you had.”  Chipper finished sitting down and began to untie his shoes.

“I hate disaster scenarios.”  Kieth leaned against the door and looked at what Chipper was doing.  “Before you get too far along I will be giving you your privacy back.  I just wanted to get in a few quick words before I resume being an owl on your roof.”

“Should I tell my dad to rent non-disaster movies in the future so as not to upset the wild-life?”  Chipper pulled off one shoe and grinned at Kieth just before starting to untie the other one.

“No.  I really just popped in for small talk and a quick break.  The problem with disasters is that they are the only thing that can truly justify oppressive measures.  So if you make a movie about a disaster, it seems to me you must either make a justification for oppression or be very unrealistic.  Ick!  I mean why even contemplate such a thing in the name of entertainment?”

Chipper removed his second shoe and placed it on the floor next to his bed along with the first one.  He then looked at Kieth and laughed.  “So this is how you use your breaks, to be a movie critic?”

“I've been doing nothing but watching you all day.  What else do I have to talk about?”

“Were you the hawk doing all of those air-acrobatics?”

“Yes.  I have never spent quite so much time not being human before.  It was neat for the first six hours or so but after that it became a little old.  Oh and by the way, I perceived no threats, not even potential ones.”

“Do you think that wizard may not harm me as long as I stay out of his head?”

“I wish we could just say that and have it be true.  Unfortunately for both of us I am going to have to guard you for at least a few more days.”

“Okay.”  Chipper spoke at the very same moment he pulled his bed sheet off his pillow.

Kieth was not oblivious to his message.  “Okay, with the cheerful note of me needing to guard you for a bit I will get back to my post and let you rest.”  Waving his hand over the door frame he undid his sound proofing and walked over to the window.  As he was sliding it open Chipper spoke.

“Goodnight Kieth and thanks.”

Kieth climbed out the window and just before closing it behind him said, “You're welcome, and thanks for not getting annoyed with me.”

Chipper was a little self conscious knowing that someone was on his roof keeping track of him.  Even though Kieth told him he was giving him some privacy, he wasn't sure how much or for how long that would be, so he changed into his pajamas as quickly as he could.  Once he had them on he slowed down and spent a little time putting his shirt neatly into the drawer where he was collecting his dirty clothes and then hanging his jeans over the back of his desk chair.  He figured they would last him another day before swapping them out.  Then with things in relative order he climbed beneath his bed sheets and turned off the light on his bed stand.  

He began wondering if there was anything new he could learn about Kieth from his reaction to the movie.  Chipper was about to conclude that there probably wasn't when sleep interrupted him.  His state of consciousness wandered through mysterious zones about which there would be nothing to remember and then, like all the other transitions, with no warning he was in another mind.  This time in another mind was different than all the ones thus far in a very important way.  He rather liked what he was seeing.  It was the mind of an invee who was also a very accomplished adept, a wizardess named Seera.  As he was being told he was an adept, it interested to think he may be about to see a very capable one in action.  He also liked snow and this experience started with a lot of it.

The surrounding forest roared and Seera pulled her hood tight against one side of her face.  Blowing across the clearing she had just entered, the wind pushed her a few feet across the snow-covered lawn.  It took some effort for her to keep from being knocked off her feet.  Then the angle of the snow fall changed from near sideways to a more gentle descent with the subsiding of the most recent gust.  She could now hear her boots crunching down into freshly fallen snow.  It was deep.  She felt a hint of moisture and the sting of cold around the tops of her boots.  Whenever she exhaled she could see little except her own breath.  Her ears were somewhere between stinging from the cold and being completely numb.  Her gloves were waterlogged.   It had been a long cold journey.  Perhaps she could make herself a campfire soon.  She could hope.

White marble pillars several times a typical man's height formed a circle on the clearing's edge.  The clearing's ground was well leveled and about fifty yards across.  At its center stood a white marble gazebo about thirty feet across with more of the pillars supporting a purple domed roof.  It was the perfect place for a dragon and a young wizardess to meet.  This was why she made this long cold journey in the middle of Winter, to meet a dragon.

Plodding her way with high steps toward the gazebo Seera noticed there was something obscuring its interior.  Between the snow falling in sheets and her own breath obscuring her vision, she could only get momentary glimpses of the gazebo.  Its occupant seemed little more than a blurry small and vaguely human form.  After her first glance she thought smoke from a fire or steam from some sort of stove was the cause, but later glimpses led her to a different conclusion.  Half way from the clearing's edge she was almost certain that what was obscuring her view was a translucent wall, and as she drew close to it she was certain, it was a wall of ice.

Seera could see her own blurry reflection in it as she circled around looking for an opening.  Her clothes were just a mass of blue and her face was a near white featureless blur, but it was still unmistakably her own reflection.  The fire red color of her hair and the way it stood high on her head was a look distinctly Seera's.  She tried very hard to make it resemble the flame on top of a torch so as to emphasize her aptitude in fire magic.  It was her trademark of sorts, and in the blurry reflection off the ice wall it looked like the flame on a candle being blown about in the breeze.

Finding an opening, Seera laughed.  “Nice precaution Scherdran.  Did you actually think I might try to attack you when you have been so kind as to ..”  Upon entering the gazebo she cut off her sentence.  A young beardless blond haired man in purple robes sat at a stone table.  It was not the ever stern Scherdran.  His human form was that of an older bearded man with gray streaked black hair and a prominent beak of a nose.  This young man had none of those features and his gentle smile made it absolutely clear he could not be Scherdran in any guise.

He politely stood up.  “M'lady I am honored to be in your presence.  I was told you would be cold and possibly hungry. “  He gestured to a fire pit near one of the pillars that had a very inviting fire in it.  “Sit by the fire if you wish and I will get you some food.”

Seera walked up to the young man rather than up to the fire.  “Where is Scherdran?”

“He has been delayed so I was sent ahead to make you comfortable.”

“With a wall of ice?”

The young man answered glibly.  “It holds in the heat.”

Seera removed her gloves with her teeth and spat them onto the ground.  She then rubbed her hands together for a few moments and blew on them.  The young man stepped back from her and removed his own gloves.  His eyes revealed an apprehension at least.  He seemed to know why the wizardess before him was bringing her hands back from numbness, and she was now pretty certain about what the young man's vocation was in the royal court.  He put up the ice wall and was now most likely wondering if he might have a chance trying to beat the envoy of the Invee Republic in a spell casting dual.

“Hold your magic young man and you may just live to see tomorrow.”  Seera pointed a finger right at his rather normal nose.  His widely opened eyes crossed to stay focused on her finger.  “You may be a promising young adept but you are a terrible liar.  This ice wall isn't here to protect you from fire-balls nor is it going to help you keep this place warm.  It was only here to delay me in realizing that Scherdran wasn't here.  For all that I may fault him for, he is incapable of going against his own word and he told me he would be here by this time.”  Raising her other hand it lit into flames and her voice raised.  “Now young adept, where is Scherdran?”

“If I tell you I will die.”

“If you don't tell me you will die.  If you tell me I will hide you.  I'm sure some court somewhere would love to have a talented young adept around.”

“No court in the world would risk the wrath of Paxle by keeping a fugitive from him.  You will have to kill me for I am dead either way.”

Seera started to turn away from the young adept and the fire went out in her hand.  Then she let out a loud a sudden scream.  In her anger she back handed the young adept in the chest, sending him flying into a pillar.  He hit the pillar hard and slid down to a sitting position where he struggled to breath.

“Lucky for you, my deceived young adept, unlike Scherdran I am not bound completely to my word.  I will spare you for lack of time.  I must return to Three Runs, but know that you have just participated in treachery?”

The the choke of smoke and crack of flames suddenly filled the air.  The pillars were gone and replaced by burning heaps that used to be the houses and workshops of the village of Three Runs.  Snow was falling there as in the place Seera had just left the bruised and gasping royal adept, but here ashes floated up to meet the snow.

Seera had wisely anchored her teleport spell to the back lot of Mero's blacksmith shop.  It was a place hidden from the street near where a trusted friend worked, but not anymore.  There were no buildings or walls standing.  They were all burned half way to the ground and continuing to burn.  She cried out desperately hoping to hear an answer.  “Mero?!”  She tried to listen for an answer through the crackles of flames.  She called out again.  “Mero?!”  There was no reply.

Holding back tears she waded into the burning remains of the blacksmith shop.  In her service as envoy of the Invee Republic, Seera had come to love all the people of Three Runs but there was one she loved more, one she loved differently.  She could never tell Mero this because romantic relationships between her kind and mortals was forbidden.  She saw a large bump in the debris next to the anvil and rushed towards it, kicking and throwing smoldering and broken pieces of wood out of her way.  “Mero?!”  A sixteen foot burning timber lay across the bump obscuring what it might be.  Planting a hand on the timber's underside she some how tossed it aside, causing it to stand on one end before teetering over into the remains of a neighboring building, throwing billows of fiery ash into the air as it landed.  Brushing aside a few remaining bits of smoldering lumber, Seera came to her knees.  Her worst fears were confirmed.  The lump was Mero's charred remains.  She reached in vain for his absent eyelids, longing to see his dark blue eyes just one more time, but like most of the rest of his flesh they had been consumed.  Now the tears she had been holding back came.  Amidst the flames, she held Mero's charred remains in her arms.

She could not be consumed by the flames because she was not just an adept with an affinity to fire, she was an invee with a unique ability that made her immune to it.  Ignoring the intense heat and choking for a breath not filled with smoke she moaned out words.  “I never told you that I loved you.  Mero .. I loved you.  .. Did you know?”  The heat evaporated her tears as they left her and flames built up all around her, but she was not blinded by the flames so much as by her sorrow.

The next thing Chipper saw through Seera's mind was a tall older man with gray streaked brown hair.  His beard was grayer than the top of his head.  His deep sunken dark eyes seemed to peer around his large beak-like nose and hints of fangs could be seen in his toothy grin.  It was Scherdran's human form standing in a windowless chamber with walls and ceiling made of pinkish stone.  His grin was apparently due to something he found amusing in a scroll he was holding up and reading.

It had been a  full twenty three years since the massacre at Three Runs and Seera had never stopped trying to find out who was responsible.  Neither mortals nor Scherdran's dragon brothers could be coaxed to tell her what they knew.  Scherdran meanwhile had become completely inaccessible  to anyone but members of Padry''s royal court.   His dragon character made him incapable of not telling the truth or not keeping his word.  Someone had to have set up the meeting in the snow storm in his name without his knowledge and Seera thought it an excellent guess that Scherdran would have found out for his own honor's sake who had used his name to commit treachery.  The fact that he hadn't publicly spoken out suggested that he probably approved of the ends achieved and his hiding from the public was both to hide his dishonor and to protect his treacherous allies.  Now she had finally managed to find him and was determined to find out what he knew about the treachery that killed so many she loved.

“I have been trying to arrange a meeting between us for over two decades Scherdran and always you found reason to delay.  Time for you and I is not the same as the shorter lived mortals but decades is still a long time to not have a moment for the envoy of the Invee Republic.”

Scherdran's eyes remained steady, not wide in surprise as Seera would have expected with her barging in as she did, or rather teleporting in.  He also spoke calmly.  “Envoy, you are in violation of protocol.  Did not your High Council tell you yet?”

“You mean that I am forbidden to even try to see you?  They told me a few days ago.  I just chose to ignore their instructions.”  Seera felt herself smile as she pulled a dark gray cube from inside her robes and tossed it onto the ground between them.

Scherdran spoke as if she had just dropped a toy on his floor.  “What is that?”

“Why it's a glyphed cube of course.  Something an adept like myself can create given a couple decades.  It's got the same glyph on all six sides.  If either of us tries to cast a teleport spell in its presence it will jostle our thoughts and prevent it.”  Seera studied Scherdran's face hoping for a look of dismay or of somehow being intimidated but instead she saw just irritation or maybe anger.  “You see Scherdran, if I am going to disobey the High Council I want to make it worth my while.  Now you are going to have to stick around and answer my questions.”

“I will not.”  He spoke briskly and matter of fact.

“Scherdran, I know you did not plot the treachery that lured me away from Three Runs.  I know you are not responsible, not directly.  You, however must know who used your name to do this.”

“I wont tell you so you have sacrificed your standing with your High Council for nothing.  It is a shame.”  Scherdran looked down and to the side almost as if preoccupied.

“No, I don't think so my dragon friend.”  Scherdran began to walk slowly towards some curtains hanging across the back of the chamber, but Seera walked right behind him.  “Why do you say you are not going to tell me?”

“I simply do not wish to.”

Seera was encouraged to hear that answer.  The one she dreaded hearing was that he had promised someone he wouldn't tell, then he really would never tell.  His remaining sense of honor, however prevented him from compounding his current dishonor with such a promise.  She was counting on that.

“Ah but Scherdran you will because I will make you.”

With that Scherdran turned on his heals to face her and placed one hand on the curtain behind him.  “Envoy, I have no doubt that you probably could force me to tell, but I don't think you will be able to this time.”  He then moved quickly through a split in the curtain.

Seera pulled the curtain aside revealing the five or so remaining feet of the chamber.  Scherdran was gone.  All that was there was a glowing purple circle on the floor.  She recognized it as a magical gateway of some sort.  “Scherdran, you coward!”  She spoke in anger as she stepped onto the circle and the chamber vanished around her.

In its place was a concrete room with a set of unfinished pine steps leading up.  There was what Chipper recognized as a water heater, a washer, and a dryer.  There was silvery duct-work along the ceiling and a couple windows just below the ceiling.  Seera didn't know exactly what she was looking at but Chipper knew it was a typical basement like one could find on Earth.

Now there was one thing Seera did recognize.  A glyphed cube almost identical to the one she had thrown down in her last location was lying in the middle of the floor.  It had the same glyph for the same purpose.  Curiously there was a note written in red ink taped to the floor next to the cube.  Once again Seera didn't recognize it but Chipper knew the tape was silver backed duck tape and red particles strewn about were probably red clay that had been tracked in from outside.  Lighting her left hand ablaze Seera could see the writing clear enough to read it.  It was in Invee.  “Welcome to Earth renegade!”  

It was a chilling message.  Someone anticipated her attempt to corner Scherdran and set a trap designed to force her to go to Earth, a world forbidden to invee by pain of death.  It also probably meant the secret behind the Three Runs massacre was bigger than just the land of Padry, and whoever didn't want her to get to the bottom of it was most likely even more powerful than herself.

One thing she was not chilled by was the glyphed cube.  Reaching into her robes she pulled out a small gold weave bag with a pull string.  It was a magic containment bag.  Loosening the pull string she placed the bag over the cube blocking off its effect on her.  “Into the bag you go” she said to the cube.  Pulling the string, she close it around the cube and stood back up.  She then dangled it in front of her.  “Looks like there's plenty of room for two of you.”  Then she vanished.  Her thoughts revealed that she was returning to the room she had confronted Scherdran in but this time Chipper did not get to go along.  He woke up almost disappointed.  He sat up and looked around his room, clearing his eyes.  “Now there's someone I might actually want to meet some day.”

For a moment he thought he might try going back to sleep and seeing if he could return into the wizardess's mind, but he knew some how that wasn't possible.  That part of how and why he had these dreams seemed to be coming together for him now.  Eddie was in a plane landing within ten or so miles of Chipper's house when his thoughts were entered.  Prometheus and the Lady were a short hike from his cabin when their minds were entered, and Seera spent a few short moments in a basement on Earth.  Chipper guessed that if the first three minds were part of a pattern then the house the basement was in was probably within a few miles of his cabin.  He left Eddie's thoughts because his alarm woke him up.  He left Prometheus's thoughts because the Lady showed up and he left hers because she gently forced him out.  He left the wizard's mind because he also forced him out.  He left Seera's mind because she teleported to a place too far away.  

He was proud of himself for suddenly putting all of that together but his feeling of pride shared the moment with two other feelings.  Disappointment was one but the other was stronger.  The other feeling was fear.

If the pattern he saw in this was true, it meant the wizard also had to have been near when he entered his thoughts.  He believed Kieth needed to hear this.  Chipper picked up the stone from his bed stand and spoke into it.  “Kieth, another dream and probably more importantly I have some thoughts on the wizard.”

The rock glowed red from its middle and then returned to its normal dark brown.  Not more than two seconds later the glowing smoke and shoe outlines appeared near his bedroom door.  In an instant Kieth was standing their sound-proofing the room.  “Okay, let's hear it.”  Seemingly satisfied that no one could hear them, he walked over and sat in Chipper's desk chair.  It struck Chipper as odd for some reason that he turned the chair to sit in it the way it was designed to be used.  Some how it just seemed it would have more generally fit the cool kid image Kieth tried to project if he sat in it by straddling the back.

Kieth looked at Chipper and carefully looked himself over.  “What?  Did I leave myself with wings or something?”

“No.  It's just that I'm not used to seeing people go through so much trouble to use chairs the way they're meant to be.”

“In my world function follows form.  Otherwise I could get confused.  Speaking of which, we don't have a lot of time for you to tell me about this latest dream of yours unless we use this time for what it was designed for.”

Chipper was able to tell Kieth every detail of his dream in about fifteen minutes and then began to quickly add his conclusion about the wizard.  “I'm pretty certain that all of these minds I've been in were relatively near me when I was.  That means ..”

Kieth interrupted.  “Paxle.  The Lady has got to be hating this.”

Chipper was determined to finish his point.  “.. the wizard that kicked me out of his head had to be near ..”

Again Kieth interrupted.  “That wizard and Paxle are the same.”

“You mean that Paxle guy who the court adept was more afraid of than Seera?”

“The same.  He is, or rather was the wizard of the people of Padry.  He was probably behind the massacre at Three Runs.  I don't think the Lady knew that, or she didn't want to at any rate.”

“How did he go from good to bad?”

“It's a long story, but then again he is hundreds of years old so there are lots of long stories with him.  He was once quite the hero and a close friend and ally of the Lady's, but in recent decades he started to think too much of himself and his ideas.  In his mind his vision of a better tomorrow became more important than the lives and dignity of individuals.  He came to see the killing of millions as an acceptable price for achieving his vision.  He voluntarily put himself on a prison world about twenty years ago, but based on your dreams he has managed to escape.  That much I know has been news to the Lady.  She talked him into exiling himself and thought he was on his way to becoming his old good self again.”

“This guy who's head I was in has killed millions?”

Kieth looked at the door and sprung to his feet.  “You need to get ready for breakfast.  Your dad just said it will be ready in ten minutes.  Meet me at my cabin and I can finish up while we hike.”  Walking to the door he removed the sound proofing and vanished.

“Chipper?  Are you up?”  His dad's voice came from just behind the door.

Chipper rushed to the door and opened it.  “Sorry dad.  I just got up a couple minutes ago, but I'll be down in time.”

His dad smiled when he saw him and, much to Chipper's relief, didn't seem to suspect anything odd was going on.  That crisis averted he now was left with the one involving him having angered a powerful wizard prone to massacres.