The Oracle
Ryu followed the doctor as he started walking towards the huge pillar in the hall's middle.
"The Nexus is, as it's name suggests, the center of Tyrana's activity. Think of it like a city hall, but that is too much like what humans call it, therefore the rather exotic name" the doctor explained. "This 'construction' here is actually used to go to higher levels."
Ryu was suprised at the notion "Like an elevator?"
"An elevator?" The doctor's puzzled question came.
"Right...no - eh...no modern...yeah..." The aspect made Ryu sigh deeply.
From the ground up there were openings in the pillar at regular intervals, where people could exit and enter the shafts. All the 4 shafts of the pillar had a bright round oval covering the whole opening, which, to Ryu's unease and the doctor's smugness, floated from floor to floor with merely a thought from one of the guiding occupants. The sides never scraped and the ovals made barely a sound, adding to Ryu's unease at the potential failure of the seemingly magical contraption. All the while about the flight up there were seemingly small natural openings in the pillar's wooden wall, allowing for a rather spectacular view of the hall's vastness. It wasn't long before the magical "elevator" deposited them to a narrow walkway about 50 meters above ground floor. Ryu let out a shallow grunt as he exited the elevator and followed the doctor on the narrow and unprotected walkway. He tried not to look down as the knot in his stomache grew bigger. The doctor noticed his unease and put his hand on Ryu's shoulder as they arrived in the (luckily) normal walkway.
"You ok there?"
Ryu made a snorting sound and nodded ahead for the doctor to continue.
"Very well then."
As they progressed Ryu felt the eyes of other passersby fall on him. Soft murmurs came from all around him, clumps of people whispering softly as they looked at him accusingly. Also, every 10 or so meters 2 guards were posted on the side, wearing what seemed to be beautifully crafted and gilded light metal armour plates covering their chests, arms and legs, eyeing Ryu like a predator would a lost little puppy in it's lair. Or a cutpurse caught red-handed on a market, Ryu thought. After a short walk the doctor halted in front of another set of big ornate wooden doors, and turned towards Ryu with a warning expression on his face.
"Before I send you in, a few pointers. You give your name to the guard, your full name, and you shall be announced to the Oracle. She is our spiritual and mundane leader, our judge and our mother. She's very old and wise, so any advice or warning she gives you, you will be wise to heed. Don't try to tell anything different from the truth, because she will see." Coughing softly he added "I know from...previous experience. She's warm and friendly until angered or lied to."
Ryu nodded and uttered a shallow thanks, before swallowing and looking at the tall, heavily armed guard. The doctor stepped by his side and adressed the guard "This one has been summoned for an audience with the Oracle."
The guard looked down at Ryu (actually himself not a small person at all) and arched a puzzled eyebrow before nodding gruffly. "State your name!"
Ryu swallowed a lump down and spoke clearly "My name is Ryu Alvein."
The guard pushed the door open, bashing the shaft of his spear on the wooden floor and bellowed loudly "RYU ALVEIN, YOU HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BEFORE THE ORACLE. BE HUMBLE, BE TRUTHFUL, FOR HERE YOUR SOUL LAYS BARE."
Ryu tried not to flinch away from the guard as he stepped inside in the room, the doors banging shut loudly behind him. There was little light in the room with the doors closed and Ryu's eyes had to adapt to the view. In the middle of the room a faint, but broad, beam of light shone down in a petal-like pattern, to show a symbol on the floor showing a golden bird with it's rich plumeage wide open. A voice came from farther in.
"Ryu Alvein, welcome. Don't stand there all tensed up, come forward."
Ryu hesitated briefly before moving forward to the middle of the room, stepping in to the light, trying mentally to lose his muscles and calm his nerves.
As his eyes got used to the low light he saw a woman standing at the other side of the symbol, wearing a big green and blue coloured robe with rich golden embroidery. She had the poise and aura of a queen, stepping lightly over to Ryu to stand in front of him with her hands crossed in her sleeves in front of her. Ryu looked at her face, and tried as he could, but couldn't place an age on her. She seemed...ageless.
"So you're the one who was brought here." Her voice sounded like one might think of a stern but caring mother, or a particular forgiving judge for that matter. Ryu straightened himself at her tone and tried not to sound too intimidated.
"Eh, yes ma'am"
The lady smiled lightly as she eyed Ryu up and down. "Well, polite aren't, we. That's good. Tell me, Ryu, how did you come to get here."
Ryu tried not to look down too much, refusing to let his uneasiness show. "I...I don't know ma'am. I woke up in the infirmary, all beaten and bandaged."
"So you were wounded then. How did that happen, do you remember?"
Ryu shook his head slightly, really not wanting to think about it, but anwsered anyway. "I, we, me and my friend Kazimir...we got into a traffic accident. There was this big vehicle slipping and... Why I am still alive, and how, I don't know, but..." Ryu's voice cropped up at the thought of his best friend's body broken and bleeding heavily on the pavement, and tried to supress the sudden feeling of desperation welling up in his mind. He managed a faint "I'm sorry..." before he cast his eyes down and balled his fists, trying his very best not to cry like a little child.
The look on the Oracle's face changed to one of sad sympathy as she heard Ryu's terribly inadequate explanation and softly placed a warm hand on Ryu's arm.
"It's okay...let us see what happened, okay?"
Before Ryu could pull back she had placed her hand on his forehead and thoughts came streaming forward like an onstoppable torrent.
The slow, tired morning on the train...
...the feelings of frustration at the canceled classes...
...the sight of his friend's laughing face and the sympathy at Ryu's feelings...
...the cozy and welcome walk through his city...
...the sound and sight of the truck slipping...
...and the last scream of fear as first his friend's, and then his own body was crushed by the uncontrollable weight of the tilting truck.
...blackness...
Ryu gasped loudly as he staggered backwards, his hands covering his face and forehead, tears streaming from his eyes. The oracle just stood there with her eyes slightly widened, her hand still held out at Ryu's forehead.
"So you really come from a different...world."
Ryu tried to wipe the stream of tears from his face as he regained his balance, feelings of deepest grief, loss and confusion at what just happened roiling freely in his mind. He tried not to shy back as the Oracle moved forward again to look up to his face. "In this memory...you were not alone, and the sadness and fear I felt emanting from you... Who was this person?"
Ryu fought back the waves of sadness as remembered his friend's demise "Kaz...Kazimir. My best friend. Hehh, well... My only friend, like a brother to me..." Uttering something like a spluttering grunt he cast his eyes down, not wanting to be seen in such a vulnerable state.
"I see...Yes, the loss of a brother is hard. If it's any comfort to you, he shall be remembered."
Ryu looked up indignantly, seaking hotly but with a hint of gratitude showing in his voice "How could you say that!...you don't know him...or me."
For a moment, a gentle smiled showed on her face "It's our way." Then she became serious again "Now, anyway, on to more current matters. Seeing as you seemingly have no idea how you came here there is the problem that you probably also don't know the way to go back."
Ryu nodded and mutteringly added "...and since the last known means of transportation did include me getting brutally killed, I think I shall pass on the more obvious 'solutions'..."
The oracle continued without any visible sign of noticing the sarcasm. "So, you'll have to stay here...Which, in itself, is also a problem." She sighed softly and started walking a slow circle around Ryu "As you may or may not have already noticed by the looks everybody you crossed gave you, our people here don't really like...humans. The reason to this, is quite simple and understandable. We, Us, The Sylvan people, we're at war with humans. The reasons for that is, to put it bluntly, that the humans have supressed and hunted us, and think we are a threat to their...ways." She pauzed in her circle to wait for a reaction, any reaction, from her subject.
Ryu felt the cliché coming from miles away and had to hold back not to slap his hand to his forehead. He couldn't resist muttering some comment though. "Just effing great. Even here, in this...world. Leave it up to humanity to screw it all up. So damn typical."
He felt disgusted by the apparant state of things and, seeing the recent emotional overflow, had trouble containing that particular emotion, too.
Eyeing him intently, the Oracle finished her circle of Ryu to stand close in front of him. "You're saying you don't approve of your race's course of action?"
Ryu felt a pang of anger at the question "What?? Of course not! Hell, i'm not one of those 'world-peace' protestants, but I am one of those that generally dislike politicians for their self-righteous bickering and power-hungry war-mongering. Shit, it's like a human thing, I guess." The look he saw in the Oracle's eyes told him she didn't understand a word of what he just said so he decided to reword that. "Okay...let me put it like this: No, I don't like them trying to squeeze power out of everything and abuse others for their own good. It makes me sick."
Resuming a second appraisal round around Ryu, the Oracle nodded to herself and muttered a curt "good." Ryu thought that with the wrong anwser he wouldn't be standing here any longer, but instead probably being bodily dragged to whatever dungeons this place harbours. He felt the heat in his blood die down again and depression settle in its place. He tried not to let his shoulders slump, but he felt weighed down by worry after worry. Suddenly the Oracle spoke up.
"Very well then. It's decided. You shall be a guest in our community for as long as you desire. You will obey by our laws and shall be punished by our means if you don't. As a guest you shall be given a home, and the means to sustain yourself. Should you be able to find a suitable occupation here..." she arched an eyebrow at that "...then you shall be compensated for accordingly." After a short moment of eyeing him over again she added "I hope you agree to this."
Ryu found himself to be quite dombfounded by her words, and the cold state-of-matters way she brought them. He was able to stammer out a well-meant, but shallow sounding thank you and added a straight-backed bow for good measure. Nodding at him in approval the Oracle tured to adress the door.
"You may now enter!"
Ryu turned to peer at the door as it opened slowly to admit a short sylvan female dressed in a dark purple leather jacket and matching pattern brown-green breeches who seemed to be snug to against her legs and waist. Very snug indeed, Ryu thought as his gaze fell on her.
"This is Tayana Va'Sa'Gren. She and her party rescued you from the desert and brought you here. You should be very thankful to her indeed."
"Y'know I wouldn't have if it turned out to be just a stange, boring, weak willed hu'man like that example."
The other woman's (girl's?) voice sounded young, but her eyes seemed full of fire as she sneered at Ryu, trying to bait him into anwsering. He did feel like snapping "Then don't!" at her, but somehow he held back, trying to keep his wits to him, however shaked he felt.
She hmphed and muttered something under her breath - somehow Ryu didn't think he was being complimented for his restrain - before being forcefully cut off by the Oracle.
"That's *enough* Tiya. Since you did bring him here, you shall show him around our settlement, and make sure no harm *whatsoever* befalls him, or you shall anwser to me. Now take him and go." Taking a step towards the back of the room she turned around one last time to Ryu "Oh, and do be careful. My words my reign absolute for some, for others it is but a nuisance. My people will help you, but do not get into trouble of your own accord."
Ryu watched as she walked back to her throne - he thought it was a throne - and felt a harsh nudge against his arm. "Well then lets go then, and keep up, I don't want to have to look all over the place if you get yourself lost."
Holding back a particulary heavy sigh Ryu followed his new found and ill tempered 'companion' as she stepped back through the huge ornated double doors, closing with a slam behind him.
"The Nexus is, as it's name suggests, the center of Tyrana's activity. Think of it like a city hall, but that is too much like what humans call it, therefore the rather exotic name" the doctor explained. "This 'construction' here is actually used to go to higher levels."
Ryu was suprised at the notion "Like an elevator?"
"An elevator?" The doctor's puzzled question came.
"Right...no - eh...no modern...yeah..." The aspect made Ryu sigh deeply.
From the ground up there were openings in the pillar at regular intervals, where people could exit and enter the shafts. All the 4 shafts of the pillar had a bright round oval covering the whole opening, which, to Ryu's unease and the doctor's smugness, floated from floor to floor with merely a thought from one of the guiding occupants. The sides never scraped and the ovals made barely a sound, adding to Ryu's unease at the potential failure of the seemingly magical contraption. All the while about the flight up there were seemingly small natural openings in the pillar's wooden wall, allowing for a rather spectacular view of the hall's vastness. It wasn't long before the magical "elevator" deposited them to a narrow walkway about 50 meters above ground floor. Ryu let out a shallow grunt as he exited the elevator and followed the doctor on the narrow and unprotected walkway. He tried not to look down as the knot in his stomache grew bigger. The doctor noticed his unease and put his hand on Ryu's shoulder as they arrived in the (luckily) normal walkway.
"You ok there?"
Ryu made a snorting sound and nodded ahead for the doctor to continue.
"Very well then."
As they progressed Ryu felt the eyes of other passersby fall on him. Soft murmurs came from all around him, clumps of people whispering softly as they looked at him accusingly. Also, every 10 or so meters 2 guards were posted on the side, wearing what seemed to be beautifully crafted and gilded light metal armour plates covering their chests, arms and legs, eyeing Ryu like a predator would a lost little puppy in it's lair. Or a cutpurse caught red-handed on a market, Ryu thought. After a short walk the doctor halted in front of another set of big ornate wooden doors, and turned towards Ryu with a warning expression on his face.
"Before I send you in, a few pointers. You give your name to the guard, your full name, and you shall be announced to the Oracle. She is our spiritual and mundane leader, our judge and our mother. She's very old and wise, so any advice or warning she gives you, you will be wise to heed. Don't try to tell anything different from the truth, because she will see." Coughing softly he added "I know from...previous experience. She's warm and friendly until angered or lied to."
Ryu nodded and uttered a shallow thanks, before swallowing and looking at the tall, heavily armed guard. The doctor stepped by his side and adressed the guard "This one has been summoned for an audience with the Oracle."
The guard looked down at Ryu (actually himself not a small person at all) and arched a puzzled eyebrow before nodding gruffly. "State your name!"
Ryu swallowed a lump down and spoke clearly "My name is Ryu Alvein."
The guard pushed the door open, bashing the shaft of his spear on the wooden floor and bellowed loudly "RYU ALVEIN, YOU HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BEFORE THE ORACLE. BE HUMBLE, BE TRUTHFUL, FOR HERE YOUR SOUL LAYS BARE."
Ryu tried not to flinch away from the guard as he stepped inside in the room, the doors banging shut loudly behind him. There was little light in the room with the doors closed and Ryu's eyes had to adapt to the view. In the middle of the room a faint, but broad, beam of light shone down in a petal-like pattern, to show a symbol on the floor showing a golden bird with it's rich plumeage wide open. A voice came from farther in.
"Ryu Alvein, welcome. Don't stand there all tensed up, come forward."
Ryu hesitated briefly before moving forward to the middle of the room, stepping in to the light, trying mentally to lose his muscles and calm his nerves.
As his eyes got used to the low light he saw a woman standing at the other side of the symbol, wearing a big green and blue coloured robe with rich golden embroidery. She had the poise and aura of a queen, stepping lightly over to Ryu to stand in front of him with her hands crossed in her sleeves in front of her. Ryu looked at her face, and tried as he could, but couldn't place an age on her. She seemed...ageless.
"So you're the one who was brought here." Her voice sounded like one might think of a stern but caring mother, or a particular forgiving judge for that matter. Ryu straightened himself at her tone and tried not to sound too intimidated.
"Eh, yes ma'am"
The lady smiled lightly as she eyed Ryu up and down. "Well, polite aren't, we. That's good. Tell me, Ryu, how did you come to get here."
Ryu tried not to look down too much, refusing to let his uneasiness show. "I...I don't know ma'am. I woke up in the infirmary, all beaten and bandaged."
"So you were wounded then. How did that happen, do you remember?"
Ryu shook his head slightly, really not wanting to think about it, but anwsered anyway. "I, we, me and my friend Kazimir...we got into a traffic accident. There was this big vehicle slipping and... Why I am still alive, and how, I don't know, but..." Ryu's voice cropped up at the thought of his best friend's body broken and bleeding heavily on the pavement, and tried to supress the sudden feeling of desperation welling up in his mind. He managed a faint "I'm sorry..." before he cast his eyes down and balled his fists, trying his very best not to cry like a little child.
The look on the Oracle's face changed to one of sad sympathy as she heard Ryu's terribly inadequate explanation and softly placed a warm hand on Ryu's arm.
"It's okay...let us see what happened, okay?"
Before Ryu could pull back she had placed her hand on his forehead and thoughts came streaming forward like an onstoppable torrent.
The slow, tired morning on the train...
...the feelings of frustration at the canceled classes...
...the sight of his friend's laughing face and the sympathy at Ryu's feelings...
...the cozy and welcome walk through his city...
...the sound and sight of the truck slipping...
...and the last scream of fear as first his friend's, and then his own body was crushed by the uncontrollable weight of the tilting truck.
...blackness...
Ryu gasped loudly as he staggered backwards, his hands covering his face and forehead, tears streaming from his eyes. The oracle just stood there with her eyes slightly widened, her hand still held out at Ryu's forehead.
"So you really come from a different...world."
Ryu tried to wipe the stream of tears from his face as he regained his balance, feelings of deepest grief, loss and confusion at what just happened roiling freely in his mind. He tried not to shy back as the Oracle moved forward again to look up to his face. "In this memory...you were not alone, and the sadness and fear I felt emanting from you... Who was this person?"
Ryu fought back the waves of sadness as remembered his friend's demise "Kaz...Kazimir. My best friend. Hehh, well... My only friend, like a brother to me..." Uttering something like a spluttering grunt he cast his eyes down, not wanting to be seen in such a vulnerable state.
"I see...Yes, the loss of a brother is hard. If it's any comfort to you, he shall be remembered."
Ryu looked up indignantly, seaking hotly but with a hint of gratitude showing in his voice "How could you say that!...you don't know him...or me."
For a moment, a gentle smiled showed on her face "It's our way." Then she became serious again "Now, anyway, on to more current matters. Seeing as you seemingly have no idea how you came here there is the problem that you probably also don't know the way to go back."
Ryu nodded and mutteringly added "...and since the last known means of transportation did include me getting brutally killed, I think I shall pass on the more obvious 'solutions'..."
The oracle continued without any visible sign of noticing the sarcasm. "So, you'll have to stay here...Which, in itself, is also a problem." She sighed softly and started walking a slow circle around Ryu "As you may or may not have already noticed by the looks everybody you crossed gave you, our people here don't really like...humans. The reason to this, is quite simple and understandable. We, Us, The Sylvan people, we're at war with humans. The reasons for that is, to put it bluntly, that the humans have supressed and hunted us, and think we are a threat to their...ways." She pauzed in her circle to wait for a reaction, any reaction, from her subject.
Ryu felt the cliché coming from miles away and had to hold back not to slap his hand to his forehead. He couldn't resist muttering some comment though. "Just effing great. Even here, in this...world. Leave it up to humanity to screw it all up. So damn typical."
He felt disgusted by the apparant state of things and, seeing the recent emotional overflow, had trouble containing that particular emotion, too.
Eyeing him intently, the Oracle finished her circle of Ryu to stand close in front of him. "You're saying you don't approve of your race's course of action?"
Ryu felt a pang of anger at the question "What?? Of course not! Hell, i'm not one of those 'world-peace' protestants, but I am one of those that generally dislike politicians for their self-righteous bickering and power-hungry war-mongering. Shit, it's like a human thing, I guess." The look he saw in the Oracle's eyes told him she didn't understand a word of what he just said so he decided to reword that. "Okay...let me put it like this: No, I don't like them trying to squeeze power out of everything and abuse others for their own good. It makes me sick."
Resuming a second appraisal round around Ryu, the Oracle nodded to herself and muttered a curt "good." Ryu thought that with the wrong anwser he wouldn't be standing here any longer, but instead probably being bodily dragged to whatever dungeons this place harbours. He felt the heat in his blood die down again and depression settle in its place. He tried not to let his shoulders slump, but he felt weighed down by worry after worry. Suddenly the Oracle spoke up.
"Very well then. It's decided. You shall be a guest in our community for as long as you desire. You will obey by our laws and shall be punished by our means if you don't. As a guest you shall be given a home, and the means to sustain yourself. Should you be able to find a suitable occupation here..." she arched an eyebrow at that "...then you shall be compensated for accordingly." After a short moment of eyeing him over again she added "I hope you agree to this."
Ryu found himself to be quite dombfounded by her words, and the cold state-of-matters way she brought them. He was able to stammer out a well-meant, but shallow sounding thank you and added a straight-backed bow for good measure. Nodding at him in approval the Oracle tured to adress the door.
"You may now enter!"
Ryu turned to peer at the door as it opened slowly to admit a short sylvan female dressed in a dark purple leather jacket and matching pattern brown-green breeches who seemed to be snug to against her legs and waist. Very snug indeed, Ryu thought as his gaze fell on her.
"This is Tayana Va'Sa'Gren. She and her party rescued you from the desert and brought you here. You should be very thankful to her indeed."
"Y'know I wouldn't have if it turned out to be just a stange, boring, weak willed hu'man like that example."
The other woman's (girl's?) voice sounded young, but her eyes seemed full of fire as she sneered at Ryu, trying to bait him into anwsering. He did feel like snapping "Then don't!" at her, but somehow he held back, trying to keep his wits to him, however shaked he felt.
She hmphed and muttered something under her breath - somehow Ryu didn't think he was being complimented for his restrain - before being forcefully cut off by the Oracle.
"That's *enough* Tiya. Since you did bring him here, you shall show him around our settlement, and make sure no harm *whatsoever* befalls him, or you shall anwser to me. Now take him and go." Taking a step towards the back of the room she turned around one last time to Ryu "Oh, and do be careful. My words my reign absolute for some, for others it is but a nuisance. My people will help you, but do not get into trouble of your own accord."
Ryu watched as she walked back to her throne - he thought it was a throne - and felt a harsh nudge against his arm. "Well then lets go then, and keep up, I don't want to have to look all over the place if you get yourself lost."
Holding back a particulary heavy sigh Ryu followed his new found and ill tempered 'companion' as she stepped back through the huge ornated double doors, closing with a slam behind him.
Labels: Warynn's story
posted by Warynn at 10/31/2006 09:57:00 PM
3 comments
