Forest & Kingdom Balance (17 page)

Catherine’s breath drew sharply as the Caretaker
opened his mind to her. His love engulfed her in a tidal wave that
swept away all reason and thought. Her flame burst forth in
brilliant light as she could do nothing but accept the overwhelming
experience. Her self-awareness returned as the wave subsided and
she could not deny the depth of love he felt for her. She began to
question her own assumptions when in the distance of his thoughts
she sensed something, an emptiness, a void. It lay deep within him,
deeper than he had ever shared.

“To understand the answer to your
question my love,”
his words formed in her mind,
“you must understand my journey. I have never
shared this part of myself with any being, until now.”

He entered her mind completely, his thoughts were
comprised of complex emotions and concepts, each having layer upon
layer of subtle meaning that intertwine to both illuminate and
expand her understanding. Concepts that she could only begin to
understand once their complexity was glimpsed, at least in part. He
supported and guided her to help find the knowledge that would give
her peace.

“The world does not remember a
time when I did not exist.”
His thoughts drew her back to
the distant past. Decades, centuries, and millennia receded as she
felt herself become the being he had been so long ago, his
experiences and memories were now her own. In a world devoid of
human experience she knew what it was to be the power of the wind,
she became the seasons and felt herself change in the cycle of
rebirth. She was both predator and prey. Morality did not exist as
she killed to satiate her hunger, or experienced the single-minded
compulsion of flight from danger. Instinct ruled her world, survive
or die.

She began to recognize a balance as some lives
thrived while others failed. Slowly she began to understand,
underlying it all was adaptation. The components of life waxed and
waned but the system stayed in balance. Just as her understanding
dawned she felt herself moving forward, she experienced the first
humans and the first emotions. Crude and self-serving, humanity
strove to make the system serve its needs. This felt wrong, balance
was threatened.

An intense need to understand grew within her. She
took human form to experience greater and more complex emotions,
greed, jealously, avarice, self-sacrifice, empathy, friendship and
the most powerful, love. Century after century passed, mortal lives
flew by like leaves in the wind. The longer she held her human
form, the more her emotions clouded and diminished the detached
observer she had been. Her true self was slipping away. Loneliness
grew deep inside her, a desire to share in a flame equal to her
own. The pain of loneliness grew stronger. She put her pain aside,
isolated it, and locked it away.

She sensed a new power, one of purpose and
destruction. Repelled by the senseless violence, she fled to find a
sanctuary away from humanity where balance could be restored. She
was neither fully human, nor the pure observer she had been. In her
sanctuary the pain of loneliness diminished as it lay undisturbed
in the distant void.

Time passed only to see emotion erupt again. A
profound joy filled her as she discovered a bright human flame and
experienced her first deep friendship. Time however, is a matter of
perception and what to a mortal is a long life, is but a moment to
her. That moment passed quickly and her joy was replace by the
crushing pain of loss. For the first time she keenly felt the
isolation of her immortal existence in the light of a single human
life’s brief flicker.

Humanity as with all life, thrives, passes and is
reborn with each new season. She understood that knowing a flower
will die does not diminish its beauty, it makes the moments of its
beauty precious. She remained the observer at her core and shared
in the precious lives of friends and lovers as they bloomed and
passed with the seasons. The pain of loss, as well as the pleasure
of beauty, are both elements of life. This was balance, and it kept
the void at bay

A new flame appeared, strong, brilliant and
powerful. She watched as Diana grew into maturity and felt her own
balance wane as the power of the void grew. Conflict raged within
her.
“Who am I? Do I remain who I have been, or
do I embrace the void to reach heights I have never known?”
Her emotion and reason fought with the ferocity of tigers in a
battle for supremacy.

Her greatest hopes and deepest fears made manifest
as she watched Diana’s flame brighten to a blinding light. Diana’s
flame had found completion in her love for Stefan. A deep desire
for Diana’s happiness allowed her to beat back the void and
imprison there her pain and loss. She felt a complexity of emotion
beyond all her life’s experience, searing pain and ultimate joy
combined into a single emotion as she rejoiced in Diana’s
happiness.

Catherine’s life as the Caretaker faded. She found
herself once more a mortal, lying in the arms of her lover
surrounded by flowers. Her travels through his life had left her
with an understanding of this being she loved that no other had
ever known. She sat up and looked into eyes older than humanity,
eyes of the one true love she’s had all her life. “Diana had a
flame to match your own, didn’t she? She could have filled the void
you’ve lived with since the world was young.”

The Caretaker smiled as he returned her gaze and
caressed her hair. “My beautiful Catherine, do you know that you
have the greatest gift in all humanity to bring joy to anyone you
meet?” He kissed her with a tenderness that surpassed any mortal
experience.

“Yes, as I watched Diana grow up I knew that I would
need to make a choice. If I chose to relinquish the core of my
being and commit to the love we could have shared, I would have
experienced heights that not even I could imagine, or
comprehend.”

He then took her hand. “It would have lasted only a
brief time of course, and her passing would have left me changed.
Into what, I do not know. There was also the possibility that she
would not have fallen in love with me. I shutter to think of what
that possibility would have wrought.”

He took a deep breath as he considered his thoughts.
“I do know that the Red Knight started out with the purpose of
helping humanity. Time and humanity’s less noble aspects have taken
a heavy toll on him.”

A warm smile came to his face. “It seems that
circumstance, Stefan, and especially you my love, have conspired to
save me from the Red Knight’s fate. You’ve helped me to retain what
balance I have. For that, and all that you are, I thank you.”

She felt his love fill her from every part of his
being as she hugged him with all her strength, their tears mingled
to moisten a gentle kiss.

Interlude

Fortune’s Child

Throughout histories unwritten, victors celebrate
while the vanquished mourn. For those whom fate had dealt the
harshest blow, their only choice was to scatter and live their
lives as best they could. These people are known as the yamikura,
an ancient word that has come to mean, ‘the forgotten.’

As their ranks diminish through time and hardship,
the yamikura are ever replenished by the strife and wanton avarice
of each new generation. Fate does not choose with prejudice, any
may find themselves upon the road. The tale of their misery told in
the distant, empty gaze that reflects a life ripped from them, as a
ship’s mooring is ripped away by storm and swollen tide to be set
adrift on fortune’s sea.

Many years ago on a warm fall day across the sea, a
healer traveled far from village and castle. He knew the desolate
road well for it led to the safety and companionship of his fellow
healers at Sanctuary. As he enjoyed a cool breeze that hinted at
winter’s nearness, he was awakened from his walking meditation by
an unfortunate and all too familiar sight. At the side of the road
were a well-traveled wagon and two dead bodies.

He approached cautiously as the carnage was recent,
his hand held near the hidden blade beneath his robe. He circled
the wagon and then checked the bodies. The highwaymen were gone but
not long gone. The contents of the wagon had been scattered and it
seemed from their meager possessions that it was unlikely that the
thieves had found much of value.
“Why rob
yamikura?”
He thought to himself. Were they killed in hopes
of riches that did not exist, or was it merely for sport? He shook
his head at the disdain for life that humanity could breed and
walked into the woods to find a burial place that would not be seen
from the road.

With a strong back and a long life of labor to draw
upon, the task was completed quickly. He said a few words over the
couple, a man and a woman, still relatively young.
“At least their trial was brief, a few years at most,”
he consoled himself, and then returned to the road to continue his
journey home. He wanted to be well away before sundown in case the
highwaymen were still about. He took one last look into the wagon
as he hefted his pack, and almost without notice, his eye caught
the telltale signs of a hidden compartment that the thieves had
missed.

The healer knew that to the poorest of us, treasure
had little to do with wealth. He found the hidden switch and opened
the hatch. “In all the lives of angels!” His startled cry did not
slow his actions. He removed the pacifier that was tied with cloth
about the child’s mouth, the slight movement of bubbles from his
nose showed that he was still alive, if barely.

He laid the child on the floor of the wagon and
sought out clean cloth and water. He dampened the cloth and placed
it in the child’s mouth. The infant began to suckle. The healer
sized up his situation and decided to stay with the wagon until the
child could travel. Before dark, he had started a fire and
stockpiled wood for the night. The infant’s color was looking
better once he had been bathed and swaddled.

A few hours later, hunger overtook the child’s
condition and he awoke. “I’m sorry my young friend but I’m afraid
my wet nurse abilities are sorely lacking.” The healer mused as he
stirred the pot. “I know, I know.” He said as he rocked him. Once
the grain had cooled, he chewed the food and feed the child mouth
to mouth. Soon the infant was fast asleep while the healer sat
watch, his knife never far from his hand.

Three days on the road had brought the infant to
full vigor and voice, although the healer wasn’t quite sure if the
child’s voiced complaints were increased or decreased by the his
habit of singing as he walked. He consoled himself that the young
yamikura just wanted to join in.

“At last.”
The healer
exhaled with relief as he pulled the rope and heard Sanctuary’s
gate bell ring with its deep, resonant tone. It wasn’t long before
the gate opened. “Good day Brother Samuel. Thank you for your
prompt response.” He greeted his fellow healer.

“Good day to you Brother Domen.” Samuel replied
absently as he noted the contents of Brother Domen’s pack. “I have
always known that you walk with the angels brother, I did not know
however that they also rode in your pack.” Samuel questioned with
an amused expression.

“You don’t know how close to the mark you are, it
seems that we’ve been given a gift. This is Fortune’s Child and
we’ve been tasked to start him on his path.”

As Fortune’s Child grew, he was instructed in the
arts of war, healing, and philosophy. At the age of eighteen,
Brother Domen asked what name he would choose for himself and what
road he would walk.

Fortune’s Child looked into the healer’s eyes, “You
named me Fortune’s Child wisely father, for I have been truly
blessed by fortune to have your love, and to have Sanctuary as my
home. I believe it is time for me to seek my fate. I will travel
where fortune takes me and do what fortune requires. I have chosen
the name Yamikura to honor my parents and all those who travel in
search of a better life. The name has a ring of truth to me. After
all, self-importance is merely an illusion, is it not? If we truly
look at ourselves with honest eyes, we are all ‘the
forgotten.’”

The healer kissed him, then turned to hide his
tears. “I have two gifts for you Yamikura so that fortune will know
you wherever you roam.” The healer opened a rich cloth to reveal a
sword of ancient wonder. “This is the sword of my youth, it was my
father’s and his father’s before him. Its craftsmanship is
unparalleled, however I believe that your life will outshine it.”
He handed his son the blade, then removed his healer’s medallion.
“This is my most cherished possession because it represents my
choice to respect life. Over the years and my many pilgrimages it
has become part of me. I would ask you my son, to carry that part
of me with you on your journey.” Yamikura bowed to accept his
father’s gift.

Chapter Five

Engagements

I

“Get up!” Kalibra shook her head.
“First I had a baby-sitter, now I am a baby-sitter. This is
not how I had envisioned this trip.”
She mused.

Atheria and Simon had immediately assumed the
position of respect with their foreheads to the floor as soon as
the door opened and the Warrior Queen entered their suite. By her
command, they stood before her.

“So, you two are the slave dancers. I’ve never had
much use for slaves, they don’t fight with passion.” Kalibra slowly
walked around the pair. “In my mother’s realm it was a privilege to
serve in her court and there were intense competitions to win such
a treasured position. Slaves were neither needed or desired.”

Kalibra walked a few paces away then turned, drew
her belt knife and lunged at Atheria. “Move or die!” She
yelled.

Atheria and Simon reacted instantly. Atheria’s back
flip was flawless as she landed six feet from where she had been.
Simon ducked and rolled forward to get behind Kalibra with his arm
around her neck and a firm grasp on the wrist of her knife hand.
Kalibra stopped and the three stood frozen in place.