The Princess Summoner

The Veil Unravels

At the Shadowcrest Castle, the King has invited merriment, drink and entertainment into his circle for the night and now that has finished, he has told his subjects to gather the citizens of the town for a tribute to the grand King. They all gather ‘round.

King Herold: C’mon! We don’t have all day; I have other things to occupy my time!

He sees a man, a woman, two kids…They look humbler than most.

Sarah Cooke: “Come along my children, we must give because our Great King has done a lot for Us! And through his grand protection has gotten us out of our desperate situation.”

They step up to the big fat throne of a chair that was laid out for everyone to see. And on it had a purple sash, trinkets and bags and bags of tribute on the table before them. The children take small bags of coins out of their clothes pockets and lay it on the table. The parents do the same. But as the husband does, the King looks at him and gestures with his cane. The father desperate to show his kids that their family is worth it, he takes his gold and white hat off and puts it on the table.

King Herold “What? Doth this king only ask for that?

The father stares at the room. He feels the whole room is on him staring. He feels guilty in only giving what he gave. The King stares right back at him. The King needing to provide motivation…

King Herold “ What is this kingdom’s three rules?”

He looks at the audience.

Audience: The King cannot be questioned!

King Herold :The next rule ?

Audience :The King is always fair !

King Herold : And the last…?

Audience :If ever we do not understand the second rule, we hearken back to first rule!

King Herold: That is right. So, what say we?

The father looks at his children and retracts and then takes off his sandals, the very same sandals his children saved by working in the gift shops sweeping and repairing toys in the cities and puts them on the table next to the bags. He then goes back to his family members.

King Herold: Sometimes, we must give until it hurts. Isn’t that the way of it ? But nonetheless, no sacrifice goes down in vain! So…now I, the Great King Herold of ShadowCrest, will now make this decree for the family of…what is the name?

There are murmurs in the crowd…

The aide/assistant Xandra leans down from the throne area to hear one of his loyalists’ whisper into her ear. She nods. “Their names are Henry and Sarah Cooke, your majesty!”, announced the aide.

King Herold:”…Cooke! The Cooke family. Their will be no taxes incurred by the Cooke family for a whole month! That means anything they buy, they will not have any penalties or charges with it!”

The crowd gasps in awe…and they start clapping. The father is taken aback and humbly bows in gratitude.

Henry: Thank you, Your majesty. Thank You…!

King Herold: No thanks necessary, people! No thanks, therefore, I am a benevolent king!

The crowd continues clapping…unaware that several dissenters had been sitting in the crowd. And been secretly been taking coins out of the bags out of the less well-off that were sitting in the back. And throughout the kingdom. Meanwhile in Doole, a small town in ShadowCrest things are not as rosy…

Sarah shouts "No…No!!! Please don’t hurt us! We’re just trying to get by…" The enforcer yells “Get down!! And shut up.” A couple of lower-class folks, A couple that didn’t make much to feed their family.

   The enforcer looks at them with angered eyes, and with a dark mask tightened with cloth. The rain had been pouring on that dreary night was thick with betrayal. The night was full for what he saw as a betrayal in his eyes. He was there to get answers for a crime had been committed.

    The enforcer asked the couple in his calm voice “I am being kind to you only because I do not want to shed blood where these children play but if you do not answer me correctly, I’m afraid I must do my duty. Now, where are they ?” The short man in his wrinkled-up jacket immediately answered, “ I do not know what you are talking about !”  The enforcer looked at him and said “Sentries saw you and your wife harbor two rebel agents, Agents that have repeatedly broken the King’s Law. The number one Law. No one is to have “outlaw books” in this town!  Are these petulant rebels carrying sacrilegious books in this house?” The husband scared for his life said “No…we don’t harbor no books in this house.” The towering enforcer gestures to the other men to look inside the house. They search turning over furniture and pictures and beds all over the house. Caleb “Hey, those are pictures are unbelievably valuable! Be careful you don’t…” Dishes crash in the background. The Enforcer looks at him and says, “How many children do you have?” Caleb “…One…Just the one?” The Enforcer “And, where is he?” Husband “He’s…at a friend’s house.” The Enforcer “Tell him to come home.” Sara “ …the friend is sick, and he told us he would becoming a little later.” The enforcer sighs. Sara “He’s such a good boy.” Caleb gives him a picture of his boy. The Enforcer barely mumbles “Hrrmph.”

     After a diligent search one of the enforcer guards comes out. James said “We don’t see any children in the house, Colonel. “Did you check the back and the closets? ” asked the enforcer. James “We checked the back and every closet we could see, no one. But we did find this.” He shows a well-known book that was cited for containing too much spiteful words. Too much thinking. The Enforcer “Hrmm…I figured. I’ll take this. As for the kids they must’ve escaped. Alright round everyone up. We head back across the other towns in this pitiful state and make sure no one takes what isn’t theirs.” He looks at the couple and he hits the husband in the back hard. The husband gasps. He turns to him “ The King doesn’t like betrayal. And I…” He sniffs the air around him. To him it smells a little odd. Like a mixture of rosemary and sweat. Or something like that. “I can smell it on you. Ever since we came here.” He walks around the house his nose sniffing and snorting the air around them. “ But…We will be watching you. The King’s reach is never far.” With that he knocks a couple of pans and dishes on the floor before walks out the door and slams it. Boom!

    The couple sit there with hand in their chests and the hearts beating a mile a minute before the husband gets up and stands and says “…That…was close.”  Upstairs movement occurs…In the upstairs attic the string that is tied to the door is pushed down and the door opens. The two children who the enforcer was looking for jump down into the bedroom. Clara and Thomas quietly whispered, “ Are they gone?” They scamper hurriedly halfway down the stairs. Caleb “You can come down now children, they have left.” The oldest child exclaimed “We sure fooled them! No Pirahnas can catch us!” Caleb “That was not easy, but we stay safe no matter what.” “Until the next time, huh, daddy? The youngest asked. “Yes, or until the King has reason to search us or think we’re lying.” The mother walked over to their youngest and grabs her and lifts her up and holds her. “Come on, little ones. Time to eat!” They arrive in the kitchen. The eldest one asked. “What are we havin’?” The mother exclaimed “Porridge with Plum jam!” The kids moaned their discontent. The eldest child cried “ I want some gingerbread!” The youngest yelled “ I want some chocolate pie!!” The father “Hey…I never thought of that. We have enough in the cooler for that. The mother opened the cooler and lifted the lid. “Now, there will not be any ginger soots nonsense or chocolate pie! We have plum jam or snickerdoodles …!” Both the children yelled “Snickerdoodles!” Sara “…Okay we can have that for tonight, for now let’s get ready for supper…!” “Yeeaaaaa!!!” After they get the children settled the parents walk over to the same door that the Enforcer left. Sara whispered “The King is very serious. This could mean trouble for our people.” Caleb said, “But we’ve invested in the resistance.” The father pulls out a small black communicator and presses the button it flashes red several times.

     On the Teresian home world the teen is struggling to manage her whereabouts. She just arrived in a Teresian hospital, brought in by an elven elder and his associate. In pursuit for a cure for her friend’s strange sickness, she travelled to this world in an unusual way.  But she got a surprise when they told her she fell out of their sky and landed in the middle of Lake Osi. The elder also stated she had the “Summoner’s Touch”. A mysterious state of being which was never spoken only whispered about within their own people. The teenaged girl is sitting in a field of harraba (purple- colored fragrant flowers) with two grand elders and are surrounded by the local children and is listening to the Grand Elder tell the children about their unique abilities.

“…How many of you have heard about them…?” A couple of children raise their limbs (hands). “They’re called the Summoners, Grand Elder.” “Yes, my child. And do you know what it is they do ?” Another child “They fight the Gerelta, to protect us from them stealing the dragon crystal.” Grand Elder “Good. Good. The elemental dragon crystal which is created in every dragon born in Teresia. It takes a trained adult dragon to harness the full power of the dragon crystal. Now, who knows what the powers give the Summoner, eh ?” The elder looks at his students with a smirk and knows this question is “need to know” specific. Because not many have seen a Summoner in action. Yet an older student stands up and answers “Flight, an ability to move objects with their mind, telepathy, and an ability to use the crystal to unite the dragons against the Gerelta. It is the final part of their training, Grand Elder.” The wise elder smirks  “Spoken like a true unenlightened. The summoning is not just a physical experience. It is emotional. The experience attaches to the whole of you. You become the crystal; the crystal becomes you.” The teenager who been watching and listening asked  “Grand Elder I was informed that I became a Summoner when I came here. How is that possible ?” The Grand Elder looks at the teen and narrows his brow. “ Hrrm…Where did you say that you’re from?” The teenager answers “…Earth…”  “Earth…? Earth…Oh yes, the third planet in the Sol system. A moderately minor class world with no M-class intergalactic technologies. The inhabitants there are young in species so I see that it will take time for advancement. You on the other hand, are unusual. We have not heard of a being of your stature becoming a Summoner. Have we ?”

  The Elders around him agreed that they had not. The Grand Elder tells the teenager to come to him. She does. He looks into her eyes and sees the truth. He touches her hands, her feet. All her physical characteristics look normal. Nothing unusual. Until the Grand Elder closes his eyes. He also tells the girl to close her eyes. She does.  And he sees the girl’s aura. It is there. It’s purple. (The color is not representative of the distress).It is glowing but there seems to be something wrong. The Grand Elder senses it. “You are in distress. You have an emotional break, young one.” Teresa “…” “ It happens when one cannot deal with the horrors of an emotional event and involuntarily detach from it. In doing this you cannot heal. I shall remove this as best I can.” The elder’s tendrils touch her neural pathways into her mind. The elder has connected his mind with the young teen’s. And feels the turmoil within Teresa. He breathes deeply several times and applies his magical properties to her neurons. And this causes her pain. Teresa “Stop….Stop.” She gasps.  Elder “ You…will experience some discomfort but the healing must begin if you are to continue on your journey, child. Open your eyes.”

  She opens her eyes. She doesn’t see him but her father getting torn away from his family. He was being supposedly questioned for stealing bags of gold out of the throne room. In that throne room was a guard on duty. He was stabbed with a knife. (Stealing was a crime that was punishable up to 20 licks and 20 gold doves. Attempted murder was punishable from life in prison to death.) The King had a party there and he was one of the guests. But he had no access to throne room. There had been reports that he and a friend stole a key to the throne room. His fingerprints were on the keys, his friend made sure of that. And that was what they accused him of. And they eventually punished him for even though he wasn’t the one who stole the key.” dd—aaddy…!! Dd—aaaddy!!!” The girl with tears in her eyes begs the enforcers not to take him. “Don’t take my daddy!! Daddy!!” Walter “It’ll be alright, honey, stay with Aunt Jessie.” Her aunt takes her. “Listen to your auntie, daddy loves you.” He puts two fingers to his lips and touches his child on the head. Teresa reaches out to her father with her hands, with tears in her eyes. “Please come back…Come back…”. Two enforcers arrive, grab him and escort him to the hover police car. But before they do her father insists “Listen to your guardians, they will take care of you, and love you. And never forget… I love you !! The child responds “I love you, daddy!!...”

   At that moment they shoved him in the car, and it sped away. Two weeks later his trial ultimately convicts him. The lawyer that was representing him was ordered to one rushed trial. And he wasn’t allowed the time to present a plausible argument to sway the jury. His daughter was told that he committed the crime out of necessity. And that his meager upbringing in life forced him to commit these crimes. But his daughter never forgot this incident. Current day. “Stop…Please!! I don’t want to relive this…!” The elder “…Pain was only meant to make us stronger child. The pain you continuously relive flows through you. And it must be let out.” He applies pressure to the healing points in her mind. Allowing his healing to flow through her entire body. “Remember the pain. Remember the sadness. Remember the purpose.” She feels the pain. She feels the anger. She feels the sadness. She feels absence of love. All of it. The years she spent as a youngster with her parents, she felt. The healing continues. Teresa starts to feel all the emotions. It washes over her like an ocean over the dusty dry silty pebbles near a shoreline. Like her eyes were seeing that shoreline for the first time.

After a while, the process is over. She was no longer in pain. The elder said “it is done.” But the girl did not feel any different. Outside, the world’s sun was beaming on her, the students were staring at her. They looked at her and asked,  “Are you okay?” She looks at them and stands up. “Where is the elder?” One of the kids tells him he had to go up Laton Hill to meditate. He mustn’t be disturbed.” The nurse that brought her there brought her clothes and blanket for the night. Delia “Come this way. I have a cabin just north of here, for you to rest for tomorrow.” Teresa “ I can’t rest. I must help my friend. My friend is sick. He has an illness…” Delia “The elder knows this and his answer is for you to rest. You can help him tomorrow.” She realizes what she went through was incredible. She looks at this new world around her. And even though it was cold, the orange red tinted sun was setting on that world. But it looked just as beautiful as if it had been on Earth.

   Meanwhile on Earth the cottage is where the mansion sits under the vortex. The ominous vortex expands. It has been expanding and swirling ever since the flying creatures came out of it. The wolf creatures sit on the hill next to the army right across from them. These wolf creatures were waiting for their leader. They were anticipating the meal that lay before them. Suddenly, he appeared out of the sky with dark intentions. His shadow stood over the prairie like a darkening cumulonimbus cloud. The King’s army had been alerted to the ravenous wolves prowling his kingdom. Its citizens were huddled in their homes in fear.  The enforcers were using their electric staffs to keep its citizens in line.

      Outside the mansion, the orcs and beasts are establishing a perimeter around it. Soon after with several grunts in between workers they build a wall 2 kilometers long. With log after log, they cut down and shape, they use as a barrier to the human resistance. There are hundreds of them gathering the plywood they need to mount an offensive. But to this offensive the king has set up his men in the field to take on the beasts. Sgt. Jase calls one of his men over to him. “I want you tell whoever to get whatever steel rods and brass staffs we have and melt them down into shields so we can have some protection against these creatures, private ! Go. Go...!” Private Colson “Yes, sir!” Another general comes up to him and stands there. He greets him and speaks “How many are you seeing out there, General Reko? “Hundreds, maybe even thousands. How are we going to defend against that ?” Sgt. Jase responds “By whatever means possible. This is a battle we must win. Now I don’t care how dangerous it is, I don’t care how dire the circumstances maybe, this kingdom will not fall because of we’re too scared to put on our pants on and fight! Do you hear me? “ General Reko “Yes sir.” Sgt. Jase “ I said do you hear me ?!” He salutes him. “ Yes, sir !!” Sgt.. Jase “ Alright then. Carry on.”

     In the mansion, he awakes. It is cold in that mansion. The lights are out.  And he is alone. Food and waste are strewed all over the floor. He sees this. He wonders how he got here. Then he remembers. And he is shocked. He gets up and walks around the place. He tries to remember what happened before he fell asleep. He remembers the girl. He remembers it being nighttime. And it was raining. And as he walks around the mansion, he feels hunger. So, he walks to the kitchen. It is littered with food wrappers, condiment spatter, and other food trash. He opens the refrigerator. It is barely empty. Nothing but an unopened pickle container, and a relish jar and two chocolate cupcake boxes. Half of which were not only open but eaten. He couldn’t stave off his hunger any longer, so he opened the cupcake box and started eating them immediately. He didn’t realize how hungry he was.

   The fact that he noticed the lights were strange to him. There was a lone staff on the ground near the sofa. As he picked up, he noticed his hands. They looked strange to him. Thin, frail… He clapped his hands. His hands…?!...He looks at them and then he looks up and sees his face. A blanket over his waist. The face looks strange but somehow familiar. A plain standard brown face with brown eyes and curly brown hair. And he is only one thing to say. “Noooooooooooo…!!!!” Outside, a wolf howls.