Amethyst

Chapter 15: Merging Focus

Chapter 15: Merging Focus

   From what I could tell from having peered down to my sternum, the amethyst design I had been merged with, was angled… and surprisingly triangular. It seemed familiar but I couldn’t quite place it, not from the angle I gained from peering down at it. I couldn’t help the bubble of laughter which erupted from my lips, imagining Turquoise trying to look down at his chest to view his own merging design embedded within his skin.  My index finger traced the pattern on the turquoise necklace. I had not yet fully left, and stull whenever I thought about him, my hands found their own way to his betrothal piece.

   The mirror arrived first, a full-body length one. With bated breath I lift up the, light opal silken, fabric of my nightdress slowly.  Inch by inch, it was revealed first and then all at once… I realized just then, why, the design had looked so familiar.  It was very similar to the eccentric triangular design my mother had carved in our family living quarters: Three triangles layered at the top, three at the bottom. 4 smaller off to each side. Where the others interlinked, these did not. As above, so below. That was what my Father used to tell my mother had meant in the design when she carved it into the living quarters before I was born. Each point where the triangles interlocked spoke of how everything is connected. Tracing my fingertips over the design on my sternum.

   Others had always spoken about, when their designs were merged with them, that it felt correct and true. An enhancement of themselves. There was an extent that I believed it, but I had always felt that it was an emotional stretch of truth… never have I been glad to be more wrong. Every fiber of my being, every centimeter of my soul, knew that this design was as much a part of me, as I was my mother’s daughter.

    For a good while, I meditated on the shape of my merging. The last little while had be so chaotic, and such an overwhelming whirl of new sights and experiences. Many, such as my ascent up the stairs… lead up to an expectation of me to follow in the steps of all Medurian’s who took up their ascendance, merging and passage to the surface world and back. Something which I only now realized that even in the beginning was something of stress that was tremendous.   

   Swiftly, the change of garments arrived after the Aquamarine Sage had left me in the room, once again. This one was a dress that finished just before the shins, wrapping tightly around my abdomen with sleeves that ended in cuffs just beyond the crook of my arms. I folded those up slightly more to my lower biceps. From the reflection, the dress was certainly flattering of my figure. At my breast bone some of the larger gems projected out from the silken cloth, to the point that it almost looked as though the patterned design was part of the dress itself, and not jeweled entrenched and knit with perfect design into my own skin.  

   Slipping on the small and flat shoes I had worn during my ascendance, I left the room and headed down the hallway.  If I could not find the Elder High Sage, the Aquamarine Sage or young Chalcedony.

  First, I checked the main temple hall and found no one there… the large hall was empty, and the sheer drop o the spiral stairs to the Opal City stood as silent as it had been on the climb up.  I then went to check through the archway at both ends of the main temple hall.  Still, no one was there. It was strange… momentarily I considered checking the library and then reconsidered.

   When the Amethyst Sage had taken me to the Opal Cathedral’s library, I was unware that I was not permitted to enter.  Where the Sage certainly knew the truth to be otherwise and yet carried on as she did anyway.  If I was cought, even just looking for one of the Sister Sages, I worried that they might think I had other motives.

   Instead, I found myself making my way back over to the jackguar stables to see Citrine for a little while. Surely, the Sage’s will know where to look and where to find me. I thought. The Aquamerine Sage had taken her time to come back with the map from the library and any other resources… despite her agreeing. It wasn’t a good idea to check the library, and there’s not many places in the Cathedral I knew the route to. Other than the library or the jackguar stables.

   The door to the stables screeched loudly as it opened. It’s hinges were old and tight, but not quite rusted as of yet. All of the jackguars turned to face the door. Their long ears turning towards the door and rabbit like snouts vibrating away.  

   Citrine clearly perked up at my arrival.  As I walked down he jumped up and braced by placing his front paws on, top of the lower half of, his stable door. One of his long, and rabbit-like, ears was currently flopping at around a third of its length.  This was supposed to be a sign that they were at ease and comfortable. Though he really towered over me, while upright on the door in such a way. I began to understand how my ancestors might have preferred to live underground, with the stories of whole wild packs of jackguars attacking tribes on a regular basis.  As the Elder High Sage had pointed out, Citrine was of wild blood.  Having come to them as a pup but remaining difficult to work with – at least for them – since he had gotten here.

   “Hey, Boy!” Holding my hand out, he jumped down from his door. Placing his nuzzle against my palm again, “I thought I’d come see you and get to know you. How does that sound?”

   Grabbing the brush at the side of an parallel stable, I commenced combing his soft fur. He certainly did not seem to be the wild and terrible jackguar that the Elder High Sage or the Aquamarine Sage had made him out to be.  Concentrating on my sternum, I tried to focus my intentions on projecting a calming and soothing aura. It seemed to work and… perhaps a little too well, as all the other jackguars in the stables began curling up in the back of their stables and going to sleep.   

   In this moment, while brushing my to-be-mount’s soft fur, I found that I was glad that Citrine, would be my mount during my passage.  My dream… or vision, where the Earthen Goddess had told me about him had been absolutely correct, even more so… I got the unshakable sense that he would be glad to leave the Opal Cathedral just as much as I was eager to get my passage over and done with.