Gray Blade----Chapters 1-3
A Parable for Our Times
This is a time-travel fantasy that is a parable for our times. It’s about the importance of choice and courage in the face of overt threats of violence.
After the first three chapters, two or three chapters will be posted every week until November 5, 2024. If you read at least into Chapter 6 or 8, you should have a pretty good idea if this serial fantasy is worth your time.
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Black Feather Time
Beginning of Winter…
This is the time where the secrets of the Gray Blade are preserved. And, this is where the Portal Pool provides access to those secrets.
CHAPTER ONE—THE LAST ACOLYTE
At sunrise on the shortest day in the cycle of seasons, the bright sun streamed through a slot in the high red rocks. The pool at the base of the steep surrounding walls had a fine film of ice, although it had been unseasonably warm.
The old woman lifted her face into the warm light and sighed. She was shrouded in a heavy fur cape and sat on a narrow strip of dry brown grass just to the northwest of the pool. She had huddled here since the first gray dawn light was strong enough to show the way from her dwelling. The brave little fire helped warm the morning, but she knew that it would have to be built up later.
“I wonder if this is the morning,” she mumbled to herself. She was not in the habit of talking to herself, but it was a significant time in a sacred place. The important obligations seemed to demand something more than normal behavior.
“Let’s see,” she thought quietly to herself without disturbing the moment. “This must be the fourth day that I’ve been here in vigilance, waiting for the dream to be fulfilled.”
A recurring dream had guided her to this place and time. As a Sojourner Elder and Scholar, she could respond to the insights that it provided. She was intimately familiar with the narrow canyon cut deep into the red rock and with the deep pool hidden in the high rock walls. She also knew how to precisely measure the length of days to determine time positions in the cycle of seasons. And, she had a distinct sense that she had been selected to do something extremely important. However, the exact nature of that challenge had not yet been revealed.
As the piercing sun strengthened, it turned from warm gold to blinding white. She turned away from the fire to look out over the smooth ice as a light breeze huffed through the narrow passage. It fluttered the fire carrying the smoke and smell farther downstream and it rustled the long brown grass where she sat.
At that exact instant another pair of eyes saw the flash of sunlight from beneath the layer of ice. Shocked by the cold water and pumped by a surge of adrenaline, a young woman drove her legs hard to propel her numb body up toward the bright light.
As her head crashed up through the thin icy veneer on the surface of the pool, she sputtered and struggled in the expanse of gray water that grew out from the shattered ice hole.
The old woman quickly stepped into the cold water and gasped as she waded out to the edge of shelf beneath shallow water. She knew exactly where the ledge dropped away into deeper water as she reached her arm out to the struggling girl. But the victim was too far away.
Hurriedly, the old woman returned to the bank, grabbed up her long walking staff, and waded back out to the edge of the drop off. She held the staff out to the
struggling girl who firmly grasped the rescue offered. The old woman pulled the girl into the shallow water over the flat shelf and they helped each other back to the bank.
After lying there briefly recovering her breath, the old woman got up to put large logs onto the small fire. Then she held out her wet feet toward the growing warmth. The younger woman rolled off her stomach and crept over to the now roaring fire. She stood and moved so that her wet back soaked up the heat. And then she turned to hold out her drying sleeves near the red and yellow flames.
“Who are you?” she asked the old woman.
“I am called Elanorah,” the woman replied. “And, what is your name?”
“Envis,” the girl said.
“I’ve been expecting you, Envis,” Elanorah said. “I’m glad that you’ve arrived safely. Some people have more trouble than others with the trip through the Portal Pool.”
“Your manner of speech seems strange, but I can understand most of what you say,” Envis said.
Elanorah smiled. “No doubt time has changed certain aspects of our speech patterns,” she said. “I’m grateful that we can understand each other as well as we seem to.”
“I know this place,” Envis said looking around at the high rock walls protecting the Pool. “But when I went into the water the weather was unseasonably warm. It’s a shock to break through ice and come up into such a cold canyon.”
“The Portal Pool matches season to season, but the weather in your time must have been warmer than our weather here and now,” Elanorah said.
“And, what time is this exactly?’ Envis asked.
Elanorah smiled again. “This is the time of the Black Feather, but you must already know that. Otherwise, the Key Stone may not be working correctly.”
“Oh, it’s working just fine.” Envis reached into a leather pouch at her waist to pull out two rocks that had holes in them. One had a black feather dangling by a thread from the hole and the other had a tiny yellow feather.
“So, I assume that you are from the Yellow Feather Time,” Elanorah said. “I see that you also have your return Key Stone there.”
“Yes, but I don’t know how much time separates the yellow and black feather,” Envis said.
“I can help you with that, but first let’s have a hot drink to carry through with our warm up. Are you hungry?”
“I was too excited to eat before I went into the water,” the girl admitted. “Thank you very much,” she added when Elanorah handed her some dried fruit and smoked meat. A steaming mug followed the food.
“I have dreamed that you would be coming, but I have not been exactly clear what you want from me,” Elanorah said as the two women warmed from the inside out.
“The Sojourner Elders in my Yellow Feather Time know of you,” Envis said. “I have come to learn the lessons of peace and power and companionship that they think will resolve some dangerous challenges in our time.”
“I am a Messenger sent from Yellow Feather Time with a formal invitation for you to come and teach us those lessons,” she added.
Elanorah nodded and said, “I have traveled to your time. But it was many seasonal cycles ago. I was a much younger woman. In those days I used the Portal Pool often and encountered many new ideas. Those ideas did help to resolve disputes built out of the changes boiling through our Black Feather Time.”
“THOSE are exactly the lessons that I have come to learn,” Envis said with enthusiasm. “And, I’d like to take you into my time to help spread the message.”
“Unfortunately, my days of traveling through the Portal Pool are over,” Elanorah sighed.
“Then, maybe there are some other scholars or advocates who could come to Yellow Feather Time to champion the message and witness to the success,” Envis said.
“That may well be something that can happen,” Elanorah said. “But, let’s go to my home now. We can be more comfortable while we visit.”
The two women shook out their now dry clothes and put warm cloaks over their shoulders. After putting out the fire, they walked into the narrow canyon just to the east of the Pool.
Their path twisted through a maze of narrow passageways open to the sky but closely bounded by massive rock walls. The water that had carved this puzzle out of the fractured rock still ran calmly beside the trail. Little ice had formed this deep within the canyon.
The old woman’s dwelling was tucked back into an open meadow near the head of the canyon. Inside, the banked fire on the hearth greeted them and soon regained its smiling warmth as Elanorah added fuel.
Later in the afternoon after resting from the excursions of their morning at the Pool, the two resumed their conversations.
“Why don’t you want to come back with me?” Envis asked.
Elanorah sighed. “As an Elder in the Sojourner Discipline, I work with other teachers and researchers who are in turn mentors to the acolytes in training.”
“Sort of a mentor to mentors,” Envis said.
“Exactly right,” Elanorah said, “But it keeps me very busy for a woman my age. I don’t have the luxury of leisure that comes with a family of children and grandchildren.”
“That seems sad,” Envis said. “But your wisdom does carry heavy responsibilities. Since I have been sent to you as a Messenger by the Sojourner Elders of my time, will you accept me as one of your students?”
“I will,” Elanorah answered. “And, you will be my last acolyte.”
CHAPTER TWO—THE YOUNG MESSENGER
The next morning Envis and Elanorah stood outside the entrance to the small, snug shelter. The structure was large enough for two or three people; a lager family would have been crowded. Both women held cups of tea that breathed white vapors into the damp cold air.
“It feels like the weather is changing,” Envis said.
Elanorah nodded. “Yes, it does. We still have not had a substantial snow. This may be the first of the new winter season.”
“I’ve been wondering about your name,” Envis said. “It’s not one that is common in my time.”
“It’s not a familiar one in my time either because it’s in a language that is foreign to this area,” Elanorah said. “But it’s not my original name. How old are you?”
“Sixteen winters,” Envis answered. “Why?”
“When I was your age, my name was Mysti,” Elanorah said. But when I started traveling through the Portal Pool, my name was changed to Elanorah.”
“We have something in common then,” Envis said. “Because my name means rainbow.”
Elanorah looked puzzled.
Envis continued. “The only rainbows that I’ve ever seen are when bright sunlight falls on clouds dropping rain. They are a melding of Earth and Sky. Mists are combinations of water and air, of Earth and Sky. So, the names Mysti and Envis carry similar meanings.”
The older woman was startled by the girl’s insights. “It’s going to be very interesting to have you in training with me,” she said.
“How did you come to travel to different times?” Envis asked.
“When I was your age, a young courier came through the Portal Pool early in the first moon of spring. Although she was only a child, she was fierce in her commitment to complete a mission.”
“What exactly was her mission?’
“She came to deliver Key Stones from her deep time of the Red Feather. And, she also came with an invitation. Elders in her time had perceived our dire need for hope and help through the extreme changes that were decimating our Black Feather Time. The young courier came to guide me back to her Red Feather Time.”
“That is really similar to my goal,” Envis said. “I’ve come to you from my Yellow Feather Time to get that same kind of help of hope. And, did you travel back to the Red Feather Time?’
“I did. I learned the lessons there that were successfully applied here in Black Feather Time to bring peace and justice even though the radical disruptive changes threatened to enslave or to empower.”
“And, what exactly were the lessons that you carried back here?” Envis asked.
“Well, they aren’t simple,” Elanorah confessed. “In the face of intransigent evil, it’s really hard not to resort to violence. It’s also difficult to not rely on a convenient surrogate hero to confront that evil and carry out that violence.”
She continued, “Although this ‘action’ is satisfying in the short term, there needs to be a more sustained long-term effort. A community based on justice and truth is more resilient than a fortress defended by fear and lies.”
“This does all feel like it would have application in my time,” Envis said. “We’ve got drastic changes that some people want to confront and resolve with force. That’s why the Elders sent me as Messenger. How did you spread that magic?”
“It’s not really magic, but it can be mysterious,” Elanorah acknowledged. “It may take some artistic expression like a ceremony or song to focus the effort. In our case, the tinder caught the spark and the factions engaged in the violence were reconciled. But every situation is different and the outcomes are not predictable.”
“Who were all these fighting groups of people here in Black Feather Time?”
“That’s a long story that will take time to tell completely. We’ll work through all the details over the next several moons. For now, I’ll just say that it didn’t only involve humans. There were also ogres and giants and dwarves. Red Water Town was a settlement that was misled by a woman and a man driven by greed.”
“But who was fighting who?” Envis persisted. “We have ogres and giants and dwarves in my Yellow Feather Time and some of them are really aggressive. Were the ogres and giants and dwarves attacking the town?”
“It was much more complicated than that,” Elanorah sighed. “Dwarves provided enlightened leadership, but in the end they all left the valley followed by many other groups of people. Some giants were aligned with another group of people who used horses to lead them to new lives.”
“What are horses?’
“I’m sorry, Elanorah laughed. “I’m getting ahead of myself by trying to summarize the story. Do you have dogs working as partners with people in your time?”
“Of course,” Envis said.
“Well, horses are sort of like big dogs,” Elanorah said. “They can rapidly carry burdens over great distances and that includes people. A rider can sit on a horse’s back to travel fast and far.”
“That’s hard to picture.”
“Yes, it is hard to imagine until you’ve seen one. But these animals revolutionized our world and gave one group of people a whole new way of life. My husband loved horses,” Elanorah added.
“Is he no longer living and what about your family?” Envis asked.
“He’s been dead for more than ten winters. We never had any children. But, to many of the young ones in Red Water Town, I’m known as Aunty Elanorah.”
“So, this Red Water Town still exists? What happened to the two people who were leading them astray?” Envis asked.
“They’ve been dead now a long time, but their legacy of confusion and violence lingered in the life of the community for a long time. The woman was my aunt and her consort was a deranged and dangerous man who had ogres as his fighting minions.”
“Was your husband the hero who confronted the evil?”
“No. He never aspired to that role. It was the husband of my mentor who was also the one-time leader of the horse people. But eventually her husband relented and the two of them led Red Water Town into an existence marked by stability and courage.”
“You had a mentor when you were my age?”
“It was before the young courier came and I started to use the Portal Pool. My mentor was a prophetess and a potter who was also a Sojourner Elder. In the Sojourner tradition certain young people are awarded time with an inspired teacher. I’m grateful to have had her instruction and compassion.”
“And, your parents?”
“For some time, they led an active Resistance to the excesses of Red Water Town, especially my father. But eventually my mother convinced him to renounce both overt violence and the leadership that had become a political substitute for violence. They followed the dwarves’ earlier exodus up the Roiling River and into a new world.”
“And did the dwarves or your parents or the other people that left, ever come back to the valley?” Envis asked.
“Our conversation is becoming like a call and response song,” Elanorah laughed. “You call out another question and I sing back the response.”
“We’ve got plenty of time to get better acquainted and learn about each other’s lives,” Elanorah continued. “Our tea is gone and the cups are cold. Let’s go in and find something to eat. This wind is picking up a bit and the snow seems very close.”
Envis nodded and the two women stepped into the dwelling.
CHAPTER THREE—BLIZZARD BAGS
The old woman kept her eyes shut tight. But she could tell that things had gotten brighter from her view behind closed eyelids. She opened them a crack and looked through the open entrance. New snow was brilliant white beneath the crystal blue sky.
Elanorah roused up from her sleeping robes to go through the open doorway looking for Envis. She found the girl smiling down at animal tracks in the new snow.
“That’s just a light dusting compared to what I had anticipated,” Elanorah said.
“Good morning,” Envis was cheerful. “Yes, the snow is only about a finger-length deep but it’s enough to record all the overnight traffic on these busy tracks and trails.”
The snow seemed to muffle all distant sound. Elanorah closed her eyes again, which had the effect of enhancing her other senses. A puff of cold air shifted a strand of gray hair from behind her right ear. She heard a rustling in the tall dry grass stems that stuck above the new snow. She wondered if that rustling came from the breeze or from a rabbit harvesting his breakfast. She opened her eyes to look at Envis.
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “Should we find something to eat?”
Envis nodded and followed the old woman back into the sheltering warmth.
After they ate, Elanorah spread a light tan hide on the floor near the hearth. She sat on a low stool and waved Envis to join her as she opened a large, elongate leather pouch.
“My whole life is in this bag of bags,” Elanorah said. “These are the treasures that track the story of Red Water Town in this Black Feather Time. Come and look at this.”
She opened the large pouch to take out an elongate bundle. A pair of sticks supported an object about the length of a human hand and wrapped in soft leather. This object was the central core of the bundle. Four small bags were tied along that core.
She untied and opened the first bag and then handed Envis a small ceramic disk marked with a symbol.
“This looks like a heron track,” the girl said.
“Or, it could be the seed head at the top of tall prairie grass,” Elanorah said. “So, it’s an integrating symbol that signifies the equal importance of powers from the Earth and powers from the Sky.”
“Is it made of clay?’ Envis asked. “What does this piece of pottery record about your life?”
“When I was younger than you and still called Mysti, that icon united several disparate groups to counter the pride and greed growing out of Red Water Town,” the old woman said.
She slid the sticks out of their bindings and opened a second somewhat larger bag. This bag held a flat round rock that had a hole in the center. She laid the flat rock on the hide-covered floor and fitted one of the sticks into the hole. She lay out the second stick with one end touching the flat rock.
“This is a gnomon. It is an instrument used by Sojourners to track time through the seasons,” she said.
“Those notches are regularly spaced so it must be used to measure something,” Envis guessed.
“They’re used to measure the length of the shadow cast by the vertical stick,” Elanorah said. “The observation is made when the sun is at its midday position. The horizontal notched stick is calibrated to correspond with the seasons. For example, in this new season of lengthening light and longer days the shadow becomes shorter.”
“I would really like to do that!” Envis exclaimed.
“Oh, you will,” the old woman smiled. “You will become an expert because it is central to the Sojourner tradition.”
“And you recognize these Key Stones no doubt,” she continued as she poured the contents of a still larger bag out onto the floor.
“I do, but I’ve never seen so many in one place with all four colors represented,” Envis said. She sorted through the jumbled pile of rocks that each had feathers tethered to the holes. “Red and yellow, black and white,” she chanted. “All of the directions and times are represented. But, why do you have so many?”
“It’s a cache for use under special circumstances,” Elanorah said. “And, I suspect your mission from the Yellow Feather Time may be just that qualifying circumstance.”
She gently untied the last and smallest bag from the top of the elongate central core of the bundle. She carefully opened it and withdrew a delicate black bracelet woven from fine, thread-like hair strands.
“This is a memento made of horse hair,” Elanorah said. “My husband gave it to me because he shared his love of horses with his love for me.”
Envis blinked. “That doesn’t seem right. I would think that you would want his undivided love.”
“We all have the capacity for unlimited love,” Elanorah said. “There’s not a finite amount to be divided up between children, a spouse, and other things that you hold dear.”
Finally, Elanorah took up the central elongate object and unwrapped the soft, dark brown leather covering. The hand that she extended to Envis held a flat blade made of fine-grained gray-blue material. The leaf shaped blade was narrower than her hand and about the same length. One end was wider than the other and it came to a point on both ends with sharp edges chipped into the sides.
“That looks like a very special weapon,” Envis said. She touched the distinctive, sparkling stone.
“It’s not a weapon that cuts or kills,” Elanorah said. “This is the work of art that ultimately allowed the Resistance to defeat the tyranny of Red Water Town.”
“This is part of the hope and healing that you will carry back to your Yellow Feather Time,” she continued. “It is central to the ceremony that gives a community the cohesion to resist the seduction of violence.”
Envis touched the Gray Blade with reverence. “Is there only one?” she asked.
“Oh no,” Elanorah said. “There are many. This is only our most immediate representation of the hope that is universal.”
She rewrapped the blade, bound the two sticks to it for support, tied the four other bags to that central core, and put everything back into the large pouch.
“It’s a bag of bags,” Envis repeated. “But those treasures track more than just your life. They feel like they radiate the power of peace, especially the Gray Blade.”
Elanorah nodded in a distracted way and struggled to stand. The conversation and activity seemed to have really tired the old woman. Envis watched with concern as she put away the large pouch.
“Do you feel alright?” the young woman asked and started toward Elanorah.
“I’ll be fine,” she said waving off the supporting arm that Envis offered. “I’m going to rest for a while.”
She turned and made her way to the bed where she covered herself with the warm sleeping robes.
####
The anticipated blizzard hit that afternoon. There was not a lot of snow, but it was driven in flat, horizontal lines by a blasting northeast wind. Blusters of snow would come and go, so that the plum thickets across the small stream would disappear and then reappear as the snow let up briefly. In spite of the furious wind, it was not cold.
Envis stood outside in the protective lee of the shaking, snug shelter and looked at the thicket across the stream. There was a certain comfort and security, watching the plum trees come and go through the haze created by changing gusts of snowflake size and concentration.
She spent most of the afternoon thinking about the conflicts and confusion of her Yellow Feather Time and wondering how Elanorah’s insights from the Sojourner tradition might bring help and hope.
When the late afternoon light finally failed in the face of the bellowing wind, Envis returned to the shelter to find Elanorah had roused herself and was making a modest supper.
After they had eaten and cleaned up the food containers, Elanorah settled herself comfortably near the warm fire. She motioned for Envis to sit beside her.
“When I was young,” she began, “there was an old man who had come to believe that the Earth and Sky were both speaking directly to him. Toward the end of his life, he said that his sense of touch had dulled and that he could not taste food as distinctly. His vision was cloudy and his joints were stiff and swollen. But he maintained that his hearing remained acute enough to hear the messages that were offered.”
“Now I feel like that old man,” she said looking closely at Envis.
“You mean that you hear messages from the Earth and Sky?” Envis asked.
“Well, yes I do,” Elanorah said. “But what I really meant is that now I understand how he felt physically.”
Envis nodded slowly. “Old age must be difficult.”
“It is,” Elanorah agreed. “However, the insights carried by the Sojourner Elders are worth the burden of an extended life with physical discomfort.”
“Unfortunately, it is the mental challenges that are even more poorly understood,” she added. “The old man’s ties to what most people regarded as reality had always seemed tenuous. Near the end, those ties thinned even more and people questioned his sanity. It’s that condition and emotion that I’m afraid to confront.”
“But, tell me about the conflicts and change in your time,” she nodded to Envis.
“Our people have basically divided into two groups,” Envis said. “One group wants to continue the life ways that we had before contact with the outside traders. The other group embraces the different view of the world and the new tools that the traders bring up the river.”
“That wouldn’t necessarily involve violence and conflict,” Elanorah said.
“It’s not outright yet, but the attitudes are simmering,” Envis said. “There’s one leader among the traders who seems particularly dangerous and challenging. We’ve heard some frightening stories about how he’s reacted in other areas where situations were similar.”
“There are people among us who are prepared to fight this bully and there is this boy….” Her voice trailed off.
“Of course, there is,” Elanorah interrupted. “There is always a young man ready to be the hero who vanquishes a perceived enemy and protects his people. Unfortunately, that is exactly the dynamic at the heart of most violent struggles.”
Envis shifted uncomfortably. “The groups have split and have settled into two different places. My family has listened to the traders and joined Double Bend Village. The opposition has settled a little father south on the other side of Prairie Wood River.”
Elanorah nodded. “I know of the remains of an abandoned settlement near the place where the Prairie Wood channel takes two twisted turns. We’ll pass it when we go down to Red Water Town.”
Envis gave the old woman a questioning look.
“There will no doubt be a midwinter thaw that will make travel easier,” Elanorah said. “I’d like to take you down to Red Water Town to involve other Sojourner Elders in our discussions. The help that I can offer from Black Feather Time will be improved with their insights. The conflicts may have to boil for several moons before you can carry our gifts back to your Yellow Feather Time.