Amethyst

Chapter 11: Returned

Chapter 11: Returned

  Startling awake from a knock on the bedroom door, I slowly slid off the bed. Looking onto the table to my left, the silver bowl from earlier was no longer there. Chalcedony, who I remember being here and being charged with my care, was also gone. I wracked my mind, trying to be sure that was real and not a brief dream of a conversation that never truly happened. Some of the things that had been said were very odd. About me having returned, and that the Old Sage's would be glad of my return… Surely, I had not already completed my Passage? For a good while, I wracked my brain trying to remember anything from my Passage. Any detail, no matter how insignificant. Yielding, I unwillingly accepted that I had no memory of any part of my time during my Passage, so such thoughts were quickly led away by sheer certainty.

  How else could I have, 'come back,' or, 'returned.' The obscurity I held, opposed with certainty, the word choice that Chalcedony had used. Perhaps it really was a dream. This idea that the discussion exchanged was just a dream and never actually occurred grew with more and more certainty in my mind. Brief flashes of a vision, where conversations were held with the intangible voices of two warring women who could not be seen. Another dream flickered briefly into my mind; The goddess herself. We had been someplace incredibly high up, overviewing a great walled city, whom some buildings peeped and towered over. This town whose unprotected skies were utterly exposed, bare even. Unlike the brilliant cities of Meduria, these were unprotected by the Goddess' earth. A whole type of civilization brazenly, jutting out of her rock and clay rather than nestling into it for safety and security. All the while being surrounded on all sides by water or... was it, 'ocean?' As the Earthen Goddess in my dream had called it, if it were a dream, then how could I have known that? The only pools of water I had ever known were the pristine underwater lagoons. Then there is the detail to which I had imagined of extraordinary and brilliant construction efforts of the cities people, which had created suspended pathways held by simple yet rhythmic stone archways leading to doorways all around the walled city. The Opal City had no need for such creations, carving pathways or stares downwards if we were ever-expanding, never suspending earth above earth itself. Never mind hovering land over and above water! Those had been dreams, surely? As an etcher father, Rose and even Turq had always said I held a wild imagination, which allowed for the delicate designs I etched. Perhaps the entire conversation with Chalcedony had been just as much of a dream as the rest of it.

  Stretching my stiff arms, my shoulders both creaked once I pulled and pulled each of my shoulders against my palms. Every part of my body felt the remaining resonations of an unusual ache in my bones; despite that feeling, I was as well-rested as I ever felt! "I'm awake!" I admitted, "It's alright, you can come in."

  The old wooden, chestnut door grunted as it opened. Chalcedony was the first to enter. It was the first time I had gotten such a good look at the girl, between being a fair distance away for more than a scanning glance and being, for lack of a better term, debilitated for some strange reason. Chalcedony's hair was dark suede, with tresses only partially down and perfectly straight at the nape of her neck. The rest of the locks of her hair had started being braided into the anticipated and elegant up-do style, the one that signified an Old Sages. Bloodstone tears, dark grey stones of blue-gray and green-gray with speckles of red, were beaded scarcely in the braids that had already been woven. Her skin was not as pale as my first glance had led me to believe. Instead of the translucently pale skin of most Medurian, this girl's skin held a controversial yellow-toned tan; I couldn't help the momentary narrowing of my eyes before glinting away to look at one of the walls… it was unusual for a Medurian to be tanned. Then again… this girl, Chalcedony, had begun her initiation into a Sister to the Sages of the Earth Goddess. She lived in the Opal Cathedral above ground, and I had to come to accept that this was natural… even still, it felt very other.

  The thought struck me… is that what my own skin would become during my Passage? I thought back to Turq and when he had returned from his own Passage. Trying to remember if his skin held a darker tone than the usual milky tone everyone had.

  It wasn't that I couldn't remember… it was that I had refused to go and see him for a whole three weeks after he returned because the first person he came to see wasn't me. I accepted now, just how petty I had been at that time. Exhaling in frustration, I assumed that I couldn't remember.     

   Think of the Goddess, and she shall appear. Father's words came into mind. It was an old Medurian saying, meaning that you should be mindful of who you talk about as it is often a way to encourage a person to contact you or appear swiftly after. I had never put much substance in that saying, but perhaps I should begin to.

  Opal, the Elder High Sage, and Aquamarine - the apparent transfer from another Cathedral - entered behind her. They, too, held the same golden beige skin tone that Chalcedony's had to it. Maybe it's the light of the sun that makes the Old Sage's so crinkly and creased looking as their hair grayed then whitened with age. As I was ruminating to myself, Chalcedony spoke.

  "As I informed, Elder High Sage, the Merging was successful, and after a few cycles of daylight hours' worth of rest, the Ascendant Amethyst is ready for the rest of her process to Passage." Her arm was propped out at her elbow, motioning towards me with a sense of accountability evident in her entire demeanor and presentation.  

  It used to be that I hated correcting people, but it was the clerk in Rose's office who taught me otherwise. "Umm…." I interjected, "I prefer Ame, to Amethyst, just for future referencing."

  The young Sage's initial reaction was a prominent silence, followed swiftly with a blustering apology, "Oh! I am so sorry, forgive my mistake, Ame." Curtsying, her opal silken Sage robes swayed slightly, causing them to swell around her. Almost like they might engulf her in a swift bloom.

  "Don't worry!" I eased, "It's a correction I make very often to people who first meet me. Thank you for the quick correction and the apology. It's something not many do, so it's appreciated.".

  Aquamarine, the second oldest Sage, began to speak, "We were beginning to become worried, Ame. Most people blackout after their merging for a few hours, to perhaps two days at a push." Briefly, the Elder High Sage exchanged a nod with her. "You were out for a full four days. We had to charge Chalcedony, here," Aquamarine patted the young Sage on the top of her shoulder for the efforts, away from her hair. "She had to try to get you to drink soup blends and water. When you began writing and thrashing like you might be in pain, she often ran to get one of us; Sage Amethyst was also often called on. Being someone who shares your birthstone, we considered that she might have shared a similar experience as you. Which she did, however not to your particular intensity."

  The Elder High Sage walked across the room to the end of the bed, perching herself down, crossing her ankles, and eyeing with me with a particular intent. "You're visions…." She began slowly. "It is imperative that you tell us what you witnessed, Child." Something in my expression must have given something away to the Elder High Sage, at her use of 'Child,' as the sides of her lips turned up subtly into a smile with weighted knowing. "You must tell us of what the Earthen Mother allowed you the insight of…!"

  "-But first…" it was the Old Amethyst Sage who interjected. Walking into the room with the distinct smell of saffron, ginger – or gold root, as known in the Opal City – and shallot soup. "This one is undoubtedly famished, let her have a meal, and we can find out later on before her choosing." The Amethyst Sage gave me an unusual and wary look as she handed me the soup. 

 My stomach gurgled and grumbled, and the look on the Amethyst Sage went to the back of my mind as I took hold of the silver soup bowl. Especially as I looked and noticed there were chunks of vegetables in it. My stomach rumbled again.

 The Elder High Sage didn't seem to catch it, "Of course." She allowed, "Once you have finished, come to the Main Temple Hall: Out the door, to your left. Down the long hallway and through the double doors at the very end.

  I began to slurp away on the soup as the sages filed out of the room. The Amethyst Sage lingered lastly for a moment, almost as if she was about to say something… she seemed to think better of it and left the room, pulling the door behind her.