Amethyst

Chapter 12: The Amethyst Sage

Chapter 12: The Amethyst Sage

  In spite of their being an etched silver spoon, in the new bowl, which was brought full of soup, I had slurped most of it. Only using the silverware for the little chewy chunks left at the end. It was delicious, though it hadn't been made any particularly unique way than the usual traditional soup brew. Especially knowing that the Old Sages made the soup, that was as good as a guarantee that the cooking methods were basic but perfected over all their extra years. It is possible that several days… incapacitated, at best, would have worked up a hunger. Though, Chalcedony had been charged with my care. As she had pointedly demonstrated and explained to the Old Sages about her care of me. Forcing me to consume liquids while I was lying lifeless in this room. 

  My father wouldn't at all have been happy with my mannerisms and would have said it was disrespectful to the Old Sages. Laughing to myself, I slurped at the last little bit, "Well, there are no Old Sages around that I can see, so how can slurping be disrespectful to someone who isn't here to hear or witness it?" Tipping the bowl continuously upwards to get every last drop of soup.

  "I can see the soup was to your liking," A light and softly spoken voice piped up from the open doorway. The Amethyst Sage stood there, with her grey-speckled hair the varying shades of amethyst bubbled in her elegant snake-like braids, not scarcely as Chalcedony's had. The bubbling beads ranged from almost white amethyst that had seen too much sunlight to freshly mined amethyst gems. These had only begun to assume the brunt of the surface's light. The Sage's eyes held a bottomless violet intensity. She may have been striking up a conversation, but she was certainly not here to simply talk to me.

  That was one thing about being born with Amethyst as your birthstone, as your namesake. The sun can and does bleach it of just about all of that deep color after a certain amount of time. For people born with the gem, their Passage into the surface world and back again usually changed them considerably. Sometimes to the point of beyond recognition of their loved ones. Maybe that was what she wanted to discuss, how the surface would change me.

   My brow furrowed, think about the addition of Opal, the Elder High Sage's request to discuss what the Goddess had "shown" me. Had I really been in the presence of the Earthen Goddess herself and not been dreaming up wild scenarios in my head?

   Nonetheless, it was not the heat from the soup that had suddenly flashed onto my face, accompanied with the awkward gut-punch of humiliation. Placing the bowl on the bedside table, I stood up. "I'm sorry!" Speak of the Goddess… my father's words creeping into my head once again. That was twice now that he had been right on this. Talking about someone seemed to summon them. As the Amethyst Sage started to speak, the previous thought was abandoned, for now.

  "It's alright," The Sage chimed, "Are you feeling up for a stroll, Child? There is something I wish to show and share with you, as someone else born of the Amethyst." The Sage's deep honey tan seemed swallowed by her complexion, which was now careworn from all these years on the surface. From her eyes, you could tell she was once brilliantly beautiful in her youthful days.

  Curious as to what this Sage could possibly want to show me, I nodded. Pulling the loosely layered nightdress, made of the opal silken cloth, down as far as it could go. Hesitation caught me, "Have I dressed appropriately, or would it be preferred I change?" Tugging at the sides of the fabric, lifting them up and out for emphasis.

  "It is only us Sage's here, my Child." She looked around, and her laugh tinkled like a silver bell, "In fact, it is only me." It appeared, for a moment, that the Amethyst Sage had shrugged.

   Shaking my head, I returned my gaze to the Sage and her slightly stooped posture, "Sure." Curiosity had me enticed by whatever wisdom which may be given to me by her. I followed her out of the old wooden door and into a hallway lit by quartz glass. Holding my forearm above my eyes and keeping it in place, I continued walking.

  The Amethyst Sage looked at me as if about to say something, yet again, and then stopped herself. I suspected whatever she wanted to tell me or show me that it was to do with my Passage. The reason that I hadn't remembered doing it was that it had not even happened yet! Instead of going from my Merging to my Passage in, 'under two days,' as Turq had described his transition from one to the other, I had, in fact, spent several days more than most Merging's limp and unresponsive with young Sage Chalcedony tending to me. 

  Our Sages are our best healers in Medura. They know how to use both the herbs found in the desert and savannah outside and crystals, gems, and other minerals for healing. It made sense that the young Sage was the one looking after me. Likely, it was a part of her training.

  Some in the Opal City even suggested that the Old Sages knew magic as well, all kinds, not just healing magic. It was a widely accepted reason for their bestowed prolonged existence. Even though the usual counter which I had often heard to that was, 'that to become a Sister with the Sages', was to in turn become a sister to the Earthen Goddess herself. 

  Another reoccurring memory of the Earthen Goddess flew into mind. That second where she had turned and met my eyes with her own; a set of glowing purple eyes which matched a luminous glow of veins that jutted onto her head, temples, and cheekbones from her hairline.

  In no time, we were at the wooden double doors at the end of the hall. In the same style as the one in my room, but twice the size and width. "You will need to get used to this, Child." The Amethyst Sage had a somber look on her face when she pulled a lever at the side. A rupture of daylight promptly accompanied us. It was blinding at first. Changing arms, I glanced at both sides of the hallway. The wooden double doors lay open on both sides. 

  "Is there an easier way to endure such luminosity?" I exclaimed.

  The Amethyst Sage was silent for a moment before answering, "You will grow accustomed to it within your first week of Passage. You may very well grow accustomed to it here. The light of the surface, of the skies… our glow stones have but a fraction of that." She stumbled at the end after glancing over in my direction, "As you are experiencing now, a fraction of that. However, you will adjust to it. Our eyes are made for it, come this way." The setting of to the right, through the archway Rose, had walked through and straight ahead, up a set of ancient stone spiraling stairs.

   "How can our eyes be made to cope with this all-consuming brightness?" My retort would only lead to us talking in circles, but I couldn't begin to fathom.

   The Sage replied with a sure-fire expression on her face and assurance in her tone, "…because we were not meant to live underground." There was no humor to her in this.

   Down in the Opal City, there were a few 'treachery thinkers,' as we called them. They liked to try to say that the Baquero, The Obsidian King, actually betrayed us by shielding us from the skies and that Solarus the Ancient Chief had been double-crossed and killed by him, not for treason but for trying to save us, 'supposedly,' from the king himself. The Amethyst Sage had begun to sound a little too much like them. She was an Old sister and Sage of the Goddess, indeed of all people; she agreed with the truth of history and ignored the ludicrous ideas of the treachery thinkers. I decided to confront her on it, "You know, that sound's a lot like something that those treachery thinkers would say, down in the Opal City. Do you not trust in the Goddess' earth?"

   "Not at all, my child." Her tone was back to light and flutteringly soft again, "The Goddess provides for us, for us all… but, do you not think there is a reason for the Passage, hmm? If we were meant to live all our lives underground, why do you think the Goddess would have given us eyes? We are meant to see all of her designs. All of her creation is not limited to what is merely below the surface. We are to see all the ways she has molded with her earth and all of the ways in which others may use her earth! Ways which we would never have considered."

   I had never thought of it like that. Instead, it had always been about the right of Passage that all Medurian's undertook when they came of age. No one had ever mentioned seeing the world above and that of the Goddess' design which lay above.

  "We're here!" The Amethyst Sage exclaimed at the top of the staircase. How she was not out of breath was beyond me, now in a darker space, I could barely see. Having felt my way up the stairs by running my hands along the etched wall, following its etchings upwards. Now, I used that same hand to brace while I gathered some breath before looking up. The Sage had already gone ahead through the doors and beyond the archway at the top of the stairs. Then through yet another set of large double doors.

  It was a library, but one very different from that in the Opal City. Stone, crystal, and metal carved tablets were not all that it contained, though these were held in the center of the room. Off to the very back, there was a section dedicated to scrolls, and the sides were lined with books! Real books, made from tiny slices of paper, or supposedly!

  "So this is the Opal Cathedral's library?" The enthused and awestruck tone was prominent. As I walked in, I ran my index finger along the dustless shelves, reading the carvings on the sides of the tablets. All are finely organized by category, most of history, and the eras of different Medurian Kings.

  "Come, this way." Hastily the Amethyst Sage twirled, heading towards the back of the library where the scrolls were.

  Following her, I said not a word.

  It was clear that the Sage was searching for something. Each scroll was marked by different gems, and they were organized in the order of shade and color. It was exceptionally aesthetically pleasing. Pulling one of the scrolls out embedded with a dark, mid, and light amethyst, she rolled them out before me on a carved stone desk, splaying her hands. She looked me in the eyes and enquired, "Have you ever heard of the Amethyst Scrolls?"