Chapter VIII: Voice of the World
“Sansonis? Sansonis?” The Kalkic awoke with a jerk and instinctively reached for his belt.
“It’s okay!” Ifaut hissed in his ear. “It’s just me, silly. Why are you so jumpy, anyway?”
His hands eased back from his belt as he realized he’d taken off his knives before going to sleep, something he hadn’t done for a very long time. “Of course I’m jumpy. Do you know how hard it is for me to sleep?” he said as Ifaut perched cross-legged on the couch’s armrest, an uncharacteristic frown on her face.
“You just left me alone in there…” she said and pointed towards the bedroom.
“No, I didn’t. Stefi’s in there too, isn’t she?”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said curtly.
He wasn’t quite sure what to say in reply. But as he glanced about he noticed that the fire was almost out, reduced to a scattering of embers nestled within cold, dead ash. After feeding it a few more logs he returned to the couch to find Ifaut sprawled over it, her long legs jutting over the end. She grinned mischievously.
“You owe me something, remember?” she taunted and propped herself up on one elbow. “A last dance.”
“No, I don’t remember,” he said calmly, far too tired for something like that. “Though seeing as how you’ve commandeered my couch as repayment, I guess I’ll just leave you to it.” He made as if to head into the bedroom.
“No!” She heaved herself upright. “You get back here!”
He quickly obeyed, laughing at her extreme reaction as he did.
“You know,” she said, her voice growing quiet, “that’s the first time I’ve heard you really laugh.”
His gaze flitted from her ears to her tail. “I don’t see how anyone could look at you and not laugh!” he said. “But how about we get some sleep now?” He sat down next to her and without another word the two fell asleep against each other, with Ifaut snoring occasionally in the dark.
A booming knock that seemed to shake the guesthouse to its foundations sounded upon the wooden door three times, slow and steady like a drumbeat. It was all that was needed to rouse its occupants from their sleep.
Rhaka was the first to his feet, followed by the light-sleeping Sansonis. As Sansonis got up to answer the door, Ifaut lolled sideways, snoring gently and blissfully unaware of any disturbance.
“It is Cédes,” Rhaka said. “I wonder, what could she be seeking at this hour?”
It was only then that Sansonis realized how early it was, a time that seemed more night than day. The sun’s light came cold and weak through the windows, barely able to penetrate the thin fog that the forest and stream had strewn about. He opened the door to find that Rhaka was indeed right, having been guided by his astonishing sense of smell. Cédes stood there, her pale complexion and even paler robes seeming to shine with an otherworldly twilight.
“Is Stefi awake?” she asked, hands clasped before her chest.
“Yes…” Stefi’s sleepy voice wafted from the bedroom. She shuffled out like one of the undead, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Good,” Cédes said. “Please, you must ready yourself. It is time for a spot of your promised training. Bring the ferrets.” As suddenly as she had arrived, she turned and left, giving Stefi little time to think about what she just said. Stefi tucked the still-sleeping ferrets inside her shirt before rushing, half-asleep, out the door. She soon caught up with Cédes, who was walking with such briskness that she had to jog to keep up.
“So, where are we going?”
“Just keep following,” Cédes said. “Are you sufficiently awake? I apologize that you may not have had enough sleep, but if we start early then the rest of the day is free for preparation and travel.”
“Yeah…” Stefi yawned. “I’ll be fine.” She looked around and noticed that only a few other Furosans were braving the early morning. Some were beginning to tidy up from last night’s celebration. Others were still sleeping where they’d lain down drunk during the night.
Eventually they came to a small clearing amongst some trees, out of sight of everyone else and ringed with flowers. Stefi saw two wooden staves, roughly half her height, leaning against a tree. One was a rudely cut branch, the other ornately carved with gilded patterns and symbols.
Cédes took them both, one in each hand, and handed Stefi the former. Stefi turned it over in her free hand and glanced somewhat jealously at the staff Cédes held.
“Why do you get the nice one?” she asked jokingly.
“If you were to come into my position, to see through my eyes, so to speak, you would realize that outward appearances count for very little in this world. Here, feel them both,” she said and handed hers to Stefi. Stefi placed her just-waking ferrets on the soft grass and took both staves in hand.
“They feel pretty much the same,” Stefi said, smiling. “Yours is still shinier. And a little heavier.”
“Now you are beginning to think like a ferret.” Cédes laughed. “That is a good start.”
Stefi handed Cédes’s staff back to her.
“Now,” Cédes said and cast off her heavy robes, leaving her looking surprisingly vulnerable in only a skirt and shirt, “try to hit me!”
“What?” Stefi said, suddenly taken aback. “I thought this was mental training!”
“The mind and body need to work in harmony for either to prosper. I need to see what you are capable of first. Now hit me!”
Stefi squeezed her eyes shut and took a wild arcing swing at Cédes’s head, trying not to think of the consequences. She heard a loud crack and nervously opened her eyes to find that Cédes had deflected her blow.
“How… how did you do that?” she asked in shock.
“I do not rely on my sight as others do. You must learn to use your other senses also, to listen to the world, to hear what it is doing rather than to see, for it gives fair warning to those who pay attention. Now hit me again.”
Stefi gritted her teeth and put more effort into her strike, only to have Cédes again bat it away as if she were simply waving away a fly in summer’s heat.
“Again.”
For several minutes Stefi attempted to land a blow on Cédes, but each time the blind Furosan managed to block or deflect her. Now fully awake, Stefi focused all her strength into her final strike, bringing her staff directly downwards onto Cédes’s head. But almost faster than Stefi could see, Cédes stepped aside, thrust her own staff between Stefi’s feet, and with a quick flick sent her human friend tumbling to the ground.
“I am sorry,” Cédes said with a suppressed giggle. “I could not resist!” She held out her hand and Stefi took it, panting from the effort of her early morning workout.
“That… that was… amazing,” she said while catching her elusive breath. “I wouldn’t want to mess with you, that’s for sure!”
“Ah, but now it is time for me to, as you put it, mess with you. Now block!”
Stefi barely had time to raise her own staff and block Cédes’s from hitting her head. “Hey, go easy!”
“No,” Cédes said. “Life does not ‘go easy’, nor will the journey before us.”
While Stefi was distracted, Cédes swept a horizontal strike in her direction, forcing her to throw herself to the ground to avoid it. Before she could gather her senses, Cédes thrust the butt of her staff downwards. She only just managed to roll sideways and looked in alarm as Cédes’s staff sank into the soft ground. She sprang to her feet and managed to stay there, dodging and deflecting Cédes’s increasingly violent blows.
Finally the Furosan relented and stood smiling at an exhausted Stefi, barely showing a trace of exertion herself.
“Is that all for today?” Stefi panted and leaned against her staff for support.
“Far from it,” Cédes said and produced a faded red bandana from her pocket. “You are not a natural fighter, so the rest of us must protect you should violence threaten. Now to tie this around your head so that it obscures your visio
n. First get Gemmie and Maya.”
Stefi took the bandana from Cédes’s outstretched hand and placed the sleepy ferrets on either shoulder.
What’s happening? Gemmie asked.
“Cédes is seeing what I’m capable of. I think it’s your turn to help me out now.”
She put the bandana on like a blindfold and shut the light from her eyes. Her unease flourished in the darkness.
“We are now on equal footing in terms of vision,” Cédes said, “and now you must learn to see the world as I do. And yet you have an advantage. You have two sets of eyes with you. Here, perhaps, you may find a strength beyond physical violence.”
Does that Furosan know we can’t exactly see as well as you humans can? Maya said.
“I don’t know,” Stefi said, “but you guys can see her, right?”
If that white hump with a stick is her, then yes, Gemmie said. Too sleepy.
“Are you ready?” Cédes’s voice startled Stefi from her ferret conversation.
“Yes.”
“Now listen to the voice of the world.”
Stefi breathed deeply and slowly, opening her ears that until now had been as if deaf. Deprived of her sight, her sense of hearing compensated, became keen-edged. Then there was something else, a dull chattering noise like wind rustling through dry leaves that seemed to appear somewhere in her mind. She realized it was similar to, although not quite the same as, the sensation when her ferrets thought in raw emotion.
“I hear something strange… I think it’s the ferrets but it isn’t their thoughts. I can’t really describe it, but it’s… nice,” she said.
“Good. Keep focusing.”
Stefi nodded. She felt her mind wander about the clearing and skirt the ferrets’ consciousnesses. Slowly and so gradually that she barely noticed it, the strange sound grew, appearing to rise from the ground like mist from a pond. She soon forgot her tiredness and the fact that she hadn’t yet eaten breakfast, so sorrowful was the sound that permeated every fiber of her being. It was soon joined by another noise like countless tiny voices whispering and singing in pure emotions that grated against her mind, but in a pleasant way. Its notes rose and fell like the waves of the ocean and lapped at every emotion she had ever felt. One minute the notes lifted her happiness so high on the crest of their waves that she felt as if she were soaring far above the world, but the next she felt herself plummeting into their dark troughs and drowning in despair. Hopelessness flooded into her and she felt as if she was choking on every negative feeling that everyone, everywhere, had ever felt. She felt herself pulled down… down, unable to move or even call out for help. She tried, but the weight upon her chest was so great and her voice so powerless…
Ngdiohewo… Stefi… throkas… back please… She heard Gemmie’s garbled voice after what felt like the longest time imaginable, but it sounded so far away, so distant, no longer right beside her.
Suddenly Stefi found herself back home, but everything seemed so cloudy, wreathed in the fog of sleep. She glanced at her hand. It was wrapped around a large kitchen knife. “No, no, no…” she said over and over to herself, “not again, please.” The feeling of hopelessness seized her whole being, taking her up in its cold, dusky arms.
The next moment warm arms hugged her and the terrible feeling vanished. She fell to her knees and into Cédes’s embrace. “What was that?” she sobbed, tearing off her blindfold now wet with tears.
“I am terribly sorry. I had no idea you would be so in tune, to be able to feel the despair of our world to such an extent. My intent was simply for you to gain a greater understanding of your ferrets’ and Feregana’s consciousness, to realize there is more beyond the limits of sight. But it all went so wrong…” Cédes stroked Stefi’s hair and the two ferrets nuzzled closer to comfort her.
“That’s what Feregana’s feeling? Hopelessness? Despair?”
“Yes. She must have spoken to you using a past experience that you could understand and relate to, am I right?”
“She did. But I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
“That is understandable. Come, we have done enough for today. Let us return home and prepare our departure,” Cédes said and traced her hand down Stefi’s arm until she found her hand and took it.
As they returned to the small house that had so quickly become home, Gemmie and Maya spoke. Stefi, it’s okay, Gemmie said. We felt it too. But what was happening there?
She doesn’t want to talk about it! Maya said sharply.
If you ever want to, we’ll listen, Gemmie said so that only Stefi could hear.
“How did it go?” Sansonis asked as Stefi, Cédes, and the ferrets came through the door. When he caught sight of Stefi’s pallid face he thought it best to change the subject. “We’re ready to leave any time,” he added. “I don’t know how difficult it is to try and pack bags with ferrets around, but if it’s anything like having Ifaut here helping…”
It brought a much-needed smile to Stefi’s face and she brightened visibly. “Let me guess, she kept pulling everything out and trying to ‘help’?”
Ifaut’s face turned an interesting shade of red and she stared at the floor. “But I made you some breakfast,” she mumbled and pointed to the table.
“Don’t worry,” Sansonis said, “she actually cooks really well. I could get used to this!” He patted her head and she turned even redder.
After Stefi and everyone had eaten, Cédes left and told them to meet her at the great hall in half an hour. It took Stefi only a few minutes to pack the supplies Ifaut had organized for them, despite her ferrets’ best efforts, so there was plenty of time until they’d agreed to meet Cédes again.
“So, Sansonis,” Stefi said as they walked towards the hall in the morning sunshine, “what did you see in the stars last night?”
It seemed to Sansonis that something had already upset her this morning. He couldn’t read her face very well but there was something about her puffy eyes, something he couldn’t place, that seemed to betray her true feelings. He didn’t want to make her sad again. “You will meet a tall, handsome stranger, who’ll ride up on a white horse and carry you away into the sunset where you’ll live happily ever after.” He laughed, but it felt empty, hollow, forced.
“You’re kidding, aren’t you? You don’t have to hide the truth. It’s not like I’m a child, you know,” she said sternly while still managing a small giggle. “I’ve never seen a real horse anyway!”
“All right, you got me. To be completely honest…” he trailed off, deep in thought for a moment. “I just don’t know. Everything looked okay but then it just ended abruptly.” Then he added quickly, “It didn’t look bad or anything.”
“He is telling the truth,” Rhaka said, startling everyone. “Your destiny does seem to vanish from the stars rather suddenly. I do not feel anything untoward about it either.”
“What about me?” Ifaut piped up. She bounced from foot to foot, messing her freshly brushed hair.
“I haven’t looked yet,” Sansonis said. “I can if you really want to.”
“How about now? We’ve got some extra time. Pretty please?” She took his arm and pulled him close.
In reply he pointed to the blue sky now empty of stars.
“Oops!” She giggled and blushed. She soon noticed Rhaka staring curiously at her face, his head cocked quizzically sideways. “What’s wrong, ol’ dog-face?” she asked cheerfully.
“Why is it that your face keeps changing color? I find it most intriguing.”
“I can’t help it!” She turned away and hid her reddening face in her hand.
“It happens when you get embarrassed,” Stefi said. “Or if your name’s Ifaut. Didn’t Sansonis ever do it when he was younger?”
“Not that I can recall. Perhaps his facial expressions became too similar to ours.”
“And that’ll explain why I can’t read people very well,” Sansonis admitted. All his life he’d struggled to read the faces of his fellow humans, yet they
remained nearly as indecipherable to him as Acharn’s countless ideograms were to the rest of Feregana.
“But not Furosans, eh?” Ifaut chimed in. “You can read me?”
“Yeah, I can read you at least. Happy Ifaut or embarrassed Ifaut. Simple black and white. Or pink and red. Really, there’s no subtlety to whatever you’re feeling!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she shouted and gave him a playful shove. He stumbled backwards and tripped over his feet.
“That’s a new one,” he said simply. “Was that annoyance?”
As Ifaut pulled him to his feet, Stefi couldn’t help but laugh at how hopeless those two seemed sometimes. At least she knew they were both in good hands. However, she felt a stab of cold envy. Even though Sansonis and Ifaut had only known each other for a few days, if you could count their initial night meeting, the bond between them seemed firmly established. How could she ever hope to be close to someone, living like this, holding the future of her world in her hands, and knowing she would die and likely fail? For the first time ever she felt herself longing for a normal life. ‘I know what it’s like to talk to ferrets, but not to have someone…’ she thought bitterly.
Just then Cédes appeared quite suddenly behind them as if she’d materialized from the morning air. She held a staff in each hand.
“Hello, everyone,” she said. “Are you ready?”
After a resounding yet somewhat sad “yes”, Cédes offered her ornate staff to Stefi. “Here, I have a gift for you. I noticed you liked it earlier,” she said and turned her blind eyes away.
“You know I’d rather have the stick. Looks don’t matter, remember?”
Ifaut gazed longingly at the staves. “I like the shiny one! You should pick that!”
Ifaut’s right! Gemmie said. Take the shiny stick!
Cédes laughed. “I have taught you well already. As you wish. I’ll keep the shiny one for myself, even though I am unable to appreciate its–and your–outward beauty.” She chuckled at her own joke and handed the stick to Stefi, who took it as if receiving a valuable treasure.
They came to the great hall and Ifaut flung the doors open without knocking. The guards merely sighed as if they were used to it and allowed Stefi and the others in without any questions. This time only Ifaut’s father was present. His forehead was creased with worry and he propped his head up on his hand. He seemed weary, tired, and not from the previous night’s celebration.
“Daddy!” Ifaut squealed. She leapt onto his knee and hugged him tight.
“You’re getting too big for that, little lady,” he said.
“Sorry!” She jumped back off.
Cédes stepped forward and knelt before him. She had done this perhaps hundreds of times, but deep down she knew this would be the last. “The Fieretka and I are ready to depart,” she said, trying with difficulty to keep her voice from wavering.
“I see,” Phastus said. “What have you in mind? I trust you, Lady Cédes, with the guidance and spiritual comfort of our people. But it is a huge request of yours to trust you to the world. And yet I do not know what you intend to do.”
“I shall gladly answer, for I have not even told my fellow companions. As you know already, some disturbance is stirring, something that seeks to rid our world of Furosa, or in other words, ferrets. And the humans are growing eager for war. I spent several hours with little sleep last night channeling my thoughts and have determined that our next stop must be Valraines to the north. I feel that there is someone there I must meet who may aid us, but as I have told you, my gift has been in decline for some time now…”
Cédes’s last comment was met with a gasp of surprise from the others, especially Stefi, who had assumed Cédes could see anything, anytime. Suddenly Cédes seemed a little less imposing and more vulnerable, more… human, so to speak.
“I am sorry that I said nothing sooner,” she said and turned to her companions. “Even some bad news is best left unspoken. I apologize that I do not know more, but the truth can only be learned by heading forward. We will find more guidance in Valraines, the humans’ port town to the north.”
“Then your way is truly set?” Phastus asked.
“Yes.”
“Although you leave for the future of our people, perhaps for all peoples, your absence will hurt us. You know that all too well.”
“I do,” she said and shuddered. “Once I have left, the Veil will follow soon after, as no others here are able to channel Lidae. It seems that whether I stay or go, I harm our people in some way.”
Rhaka interrupted. “And this ‘Veil’ of which you speak, is it the illusion that keeps you hidden from the outside world?”
“You have guessed well, Otsukuné,” Phastus said. “But Cédes has made her decision. Her past has been fraught with such choices, and she herself must know that her future always will be.”
“Now, we must really be going,” she said hastily, derailing the subject.
“Very well. First, hold out your hand,” Phastus said.
As Cédes did, Phastus dug around in his pockets until he found what he was looking for. He dropped something round and smooth into her cupped palm.
She gasped. “Is this…?”
He nodded. “It is all that remains of Raphanos. You must only use it when your life depends on it. Its nature is destruction. Always remember that. You are attuned to the unseen aspects of this world. This will aid your future understanding of them. And perhaps your own self.”
“Thank you,” Cédes said and carefully deposited the warm stone into her pocket. No one else knew quite what it was. By the way Cédes treated it they guessed it must have been very precious.
“And for Ifaut,” Phastus continued as he stood up, “this.” He removed a short, straight sword from his belt and Ifaut’s eyes grew wide. “My old sword, Djaunsi-Laen.”
“Really?” she gasped as she took it from his hands. She fixed the scabbard to her belt and slowly unsheathed it, watching her blue eyes blink in the highly polished blade. The hilt was fashioned into a coiled ferret wrapped securely about the base of the blade, the pommel its pointed face. It would have looked almost comical except for the terribly sharp blade.
“Ooh, shiny!” She smiled and slashed the air experimentally before bringing the blade slicing through the air, only to stop it barely more than a hair’s width from Sansonis’s neck. “Yes, the silly Furosan does know how to use a sword,” she laughed and resheathed it.
“Can I start breathing again?” Sansonis said. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
“Of course, silly,” she said and slapped his back so hard he stumbled forward, gasping.
“What does its name mean?” Stefi asked, surprised that a sword could have a name. If it had a name, she thought, its meaning must be something deep and special.
Cédes answered with a giggle. “Mister Cutty,” she said. “Ifaut named it.”
Cédes’s explanation provoked a laugh from everyone. Everyone, that is, except Ifaut. She turned away and muttered, “I was only five at the time…”
“And Stefi,”, Phastus continued once their laughter had died down, “all I have to offer you, as well as your other companions, is my faith that you will find a way to help us in time.” He stepped forward and embraced her tightly, whispering so that only she could hear, “And look after Cédes for me.”
“I will.”
“And the Kalkic. I bestow upon you my trust to look after Ifaut.” He beckoned Sansonis to come closer and told him quietly, “She is inexperienced in the ways of the world. She knows how to fight, but that is not enough. Please, you saved her once, so I know she is in good hands.” Then he glanced about, making sure the others couldn’t hear. “Do not get any ideas of anything beyond friendship. And do not encourage her… her heart is too open and far too fragile. It is not for you.”
“If that is all,” Cédes said, “we ought to leave you to your rest.”
“Then go, Fieretka, and be careful. And remember that you all have a
home here.”