The Order of Elysia

Chapter 6- The Oath

The glaring afternoon sun blinded Lilly as she stepped onto the Plaza and it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the intensity of the bright light. She didn’t know what she had expected, but she hadn’t anticipated landing right back where the trials had begun, at the foot of the mighty and beautiful Temple of Elysia, on the bottom of the very stone steps that led to the temple’s gates. A few people applauded and Lilly heard the sound of drums, but she had no time to inspect what was going on on the square; instead, she turned to the woman whose arm she was still holding firmly.

The confusion in the woman’s expression was unmistakable as the illusion fell away from her and her memories of what had happened slowly returned. Lilly gave her a nod, but she did not reciprocate the gesture. She showed no gratitude, only horror, as she looked at Lilly and pulled her arm away from her. Lilly wondered how much the angel’s trumpet tincture still affected the woman.

Judging by the position of the sun, several hours must have passed, though Lilly wasn’t sure how many. Her face grew hot as she did the math in her head and suddenly wasn’t sure whether the six-hour time limit had already passed. It didn’t feel like she had been in the Chamber of Gods for long, two or three hours at most.

Images of herself sitting in the garden of Fort Alenhold flashed through her mind. Had she really spent that much time there, playing Canasta? Her spiralling thoughts were interrupted by the voice of a gaunt man in a grey tunic, that was standing at the top of the steps:

"Melody Ayrelle and Freya Baelor.”

Another man in grey dipped his quill into an inkwell and wrote their names on a parchment he held in his hand. Warden Chesterlain hurried over to Lilly and Freya and handed each of them a small cup filled with a clear and scentless liquid.

"Drink. It will counteract the effects of the poisoning and bring clarity back to your minds.”, Chesterlain gently said.

Both Lilly and Freya emptied their cups in quick gulps and Lilly felt as if a cloak had been lifted from her. Her mind cleared, her surroundings snapped back into crystalline focus and the lingering nausea in her stomach faded away at once.

Lilly now let her gaze wander over the square; there were no other aspirants present, but scattered around stood curious Order members from every Dominion and Chesterlain and Thorndale stood together in front of the Temple, accompanied by a few others who also appeared to be Wardens. The men in grey, probably Chroniclers, were also part of the group.

As Lilly looked up at them, her eyes briefly met those of Warden Thorndale and the expression she received was one of disdain, of disapproval. As if the Warden were angry that Lilly had made it out of the Chamber of Gods alive. She suppressed a shiver and quickly looked away, hiding her indignation at his glare; she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

"Congratulations. You have passed the trials.”, the same Chronicler that had called out their names a minute before said.

More applause filled the courtyard and Lilly’s body relaxed involuntarily, as if an iron weight had fallen from her shoulders. She had done it, she had actually made it! A broad, but tired smile slowly spread across her face. She couldn’t believe it. She had survived! But she didn’t have time to process it any further, as the man proceeded to speak:

"You will now be taken to your quarters, where you may wash, eat and rest. Those of you who are injured…”, the man glanced at Lilly’s arm, "…will be treated by the White Hands. Tomorrow, the ceremony of the oath will take place.”

Lilly’s body was coursing with endorphins. Freya, however, was trembling all over and Lilly had the impression that she wasn’t doing very well. She avoided Lilly’s gaze, making it clear that she was not interested in any interaction at the moment.

The rest of the evening flew by, because before Lilly was taken to the living quarters, she was escorted to the eastern side of the island, where she was brought to a clinic. Above the entrance of the large building, a pomegranate branch was depicted, resting in the center of a white hand. Lilly recognized the symbolism; the pomegranate tree was the only one that carried leaves, blossoms and fruits at the same time, representing life, death and rebirth and the hand it was placed upon, represented the White-Hand-Pact, a Sub-Order of the Order of Elysia, which specialized in restorations and healing. Warden Chesterlain, for example, was a member of the White Hands and the Dominion’s reputation extended far and wide, as they were known for their exceptional mending abilities.

It was there that Lilly’s arm had been treated and although a dull pain still lingered, the healers had used magical glyphs to mend her bone. She had been told that it had been a splintered fracture and that, without magical aid, her arm likely would’ve been permanently damaged.

Afterwards, Lilly was taken to the washing-house and then to the dining hall, until she was finally brought to the sleeping quarters, which resembled barracks, separated by gender. When she arrived, she found the room bustling with activity and it took a while for her to find a cot that hadn’t already been claimed.

About three dozen female candidates were housed in the room and many of the women were already sleeping off their intoxication, while some were still discussing the previous challenges. Lilly perked up when she overheard two of them mention that supposedly over thirty Initiates did not manage to exit the chamber in time.

She felt sick at the thought of the two corpses she had found during the trial; the memory unsettled her deep within. She wasn’t in the mood to join any conversation and realized that her body and her mind were exhausted and worn out from the day’s chaos, so it didn’t take long before she slipped into a restless sleep.

The next morning, they were woken early and brought to the eating hall, where a generous breakfast awaited them. Lilly was incredibly hungry, even though she had eaten well the night before, it felt as if her body was finally ready to put months of malnutrition behind her.

She sat at a long table amongst people she didn’t recognize and who were already sitting in small groups, teaming up. No one seemed interested in drawing her into conversation, so Lilly focused on the eggs and fresh cheese filling her plate.

But she had been mistaken, as suddenly, a shadow fell across her food, when someone dropped into the seat directly across from her; the one that had just been empty. Lilly slowly looked up and the blood in her veins turned to ice.

She was staring straight into the mocking, crooked smile of a man she had fervently hoped hadn’t made it through the trials. His pupils had returned to their normal size and now Lilly could clearly see the dark brown irises behind them. His broad, muscular frame sat tense as he eyed her.

"We thought you didn’t make it, since you didn’t show up for dinner.”, he growled at her.

Lilly had eaten later than the others due to her injury and now the realization hit her- she’d likely missed a valuable opportunity to form alliances, if anyone had even considered her as a potential ally that was. She met his gaze with cold contempt and hissed: "Well, then you thought wrong.”

His eyes narrowed. "I should thank you. Thanks to you, no one will say that Rurik Deelhoven stained his hands with the blood of a traitor.", he laughed and the cynicism in his tone was unmistakable.

Lilly was seething. How dare he? He was a murderer, a primitive asshole who enjoyed intimidating others and Lilly knew for a fact that he wouldn't shy away from doing far worse. Something malicious sparkled in his eyes and she was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to punch him in the face. To kick that smug grin right off his lips. Her heart rate spiked and before she even realized it, she jumped up from her seat.

"You are calling me a traitor? You are a murderer!", she shouted at him, blind to all the heads now turning her way. She was making a scene, but she didn’t care, everyone was supposed to know what kind of person he was. All she wanted was to hurt this bastard, to punish him for what he had said and done.

Rurik jumped up as well and lunged across the table without warning. He grabbed Lilly by the shirt and yanked her toward him effortlessly. She struggled, but his grip was too strong and his arms too long for her to land a hit in this position. Two more aspirants stepped up behind Rurik. Lilly hadn’t seen them before, but they looked similar, with their short, curly reddish-brown hair, prominent jawlines and broad builds.

Lilly was about to spit something nasty at them when someone behind her stepped in: "Three against one? That's not exactly fair."

Lilly couldn’t turn around, but she recognized Raven’s haughty voice immediately.

"I'm sure you'll get plenty more chances to take a shot at Lilly.", Raven said with a casual tone, "but this little display? It is beneath you."

When Rurik made no move to release Lilly, Raven added: "Or would you rather get a citation on your very first day?"

To Lilly’s surprise, Rurik abruptly let go and since her feet had lost their footing, she fell hard onto the full table below. It hurt to land on the cups, cutlery and plates, but what really stung was the humiliation of the spilled grape juice soaking her white shirt in a dark violet color.

"You’re not worth it.”, he grunted down at Lilly.

She pulled herself up and brushed the remnants of her breakfast from her clothes, ready to defend herself, but Rurik and his two lackeys had already turned their backs to them, when Raven asked: "Are you alright? They roughed you up pretty badly."

Lilly huffed and rolled her eyes. "I know him from the trial. He tried to kill me and he... he struck down another initiate.", the memory made her swallow hard. Raven’s brow furrowed and Lilly knew what she was thinking.

"I could’ve killed him." she said. "But I didn’t. Then a door appeared and he took it before I could."

Raven’s icy-blue eyes studied Lilly for a moment before she said: "I see. I heard some of us passed the rooms in different ways. Seems not every room had fixed rules. Also..."

"Also, we didn’t all experience the same things.", Lilly finished her sentence and Raven gave her a small, acknowledging smile.

"What did you mean, when you said Rurik would get a citation, if he didn’t leave me alone?"

"Well, if you break the rules or do something forbidden and get caught, the Wardens can issue a citation. If it happens for the third time, you're expelled from the Order, or depending on the crime, well… you might be executed. Most people get citations for getting frisky in places or with people they shouldn’t.", Raven said, grinning at her last words.

"And how am I supposed to know what's allowed and what isn’t?", Lilly asked, a spark of hope igniting within her. Would she be expelled, if she collected citations for minor deviances and thus could leave the island?

"It’s all written in the Doctrine. Don’t worry, we’ll get it after we take the oath today.", she side-eyed Lilly and added: "But physically hurting someone outside of a mission, a training or battle is forbidden.”

"Hurting someone at training isn’t punished?”, Lilly gasped.

"Accidents happen I guess, when you’re in combat training or handling poisonous herbs.”, she shrugged her shoulders.

***

Lilly saw the unrelenting pride in most of the faces around her as one by one, they spoke the oath that would bind their lives to the Order. Now, with all the Initiates gathered in the ornately decorated ceremonial hall of the temple, the sanctum, Lilly no longer felt quite so alien to the Goddess of the Sun. Above them rose a vast glass dome that cast the radiant sunlight down onto the altar in the center of the sanctum.

She hadn’t been able to find Freya among the others and Lilly wondered what might have happened to her. Dunja too, the woman carrying a child, had not made it to the oath ceremony, which filled Lilly with sadness. It was a dreadful thought that these zealots, under the guise of piety, had administered Brugmansia to a pregnant woman. Who knew whether the child would have survived the poisoning, even if Dunja would have made it?

Lilly was relieved that the oath was not spoken in alphabetical order, but instead the Initiates were called based on the time they had spent in the Chamber of Gods. The first to be summoned was a lanky red-haired man named Kael Norwyth, whose appearance was rather unremarkable, but he had escaped the chamber in under an hour and a half, which Lilly found unbelievable.

She didn’t know exactly how long she had needed for the trial, only that she must have been among the last to make it within the time limit. She watched as they were called, one after the other, with their time being announced and was pleasantly surprised to spot Alaric Addins amongst them. He had been the first to enter the chamber and hadn’t seemed confident in the slightest. But what did that mean anyway? She herself hadn’t exactly radiated confidence either, facing the possibility of meeting her end.

And then, it was her turn. When Lilly heard her name echo through the hall, her heart jumped as if it wanted to leap out of her chest, but not in a pleasant way. The sound of her boots against the marble floor sounded distant, almost foreign, as she stepped forward, toward the altar bathed in golden light.

Lilly felt the weight of the moment, the gravity of what she was about to do. Devotion, obedience, death, even. She was not ready, but it didn’t matter. Her voice trembled at first, but as the words formed in her mouth, they found a little bit more strength:

"In the light of Elysia, I kneel,

and bind myself to the Path.

I swear to serve with honour, to obey without hesitation,

to place the will of the Order above my own.

I offer my strength in life, my breath in hardship,

and, if need be, my blood in death.

Should I perish, I shall not pass into peace,

but remain in service, until Elysia calls me no more.

This is my vow. Let it be written in soul and stone.”

As the final syllable left her lips, a silence stretched through the sanctum and for a brief second, Lilly felt something stir within her. It was not peace, but determination. Determination to live. She stepped back, her chest heaving, her throat tight. She had taken the vow and there was no turning back now.

After Lilly, two more people were called to speak the oath and after they were finished, they were no longer candidates; they were Disciples. Bound for life to serve the Order, to sacrifice themselves for it and to study and to develop glyphs.

At the thought of the training and the glyphs that many members of the Order carried, Lilly felt a brief warmth spread through her chest. She had never believed she would one day have the opportunity to earn her own glyph. However, her heart sank again just as quickly when she remembered that she possessed no particular talents.

Raven, who stood next to Lilly along with Alaric Addins, cast a quick glance at her. The pensive look on Lilly’s face did not go unnoticed, because as soon as the ceremony was finally over, Raven leaned in and whispered to her: "Come, walk with us.”

Lilly complied, glad that at least someone of the over sixty new Disciples was willing to talk to her. She studied Alaric for a moment, who noticed her gaze and responded with a subtle smile and a nod. Kindness flickered in his small amber eyes. He no longer seemed as nervous as he had before the trial, though he struck Lilly as the quiet, introspective type. He, too, seemed to have found someone in Raven he could at least halfway trust.

Together, they followed the stream of Disciples who were now making their way to the training grounds, where their first lesson, or rather, a kind of orientation before the actual training, was to take place.

The grounds lay in the eastern quarter of the compound, where the military-barracks, the weapon and armour forges and the tactics classroom were also located. The training yard itself was vast, easily the size of a jousting field, so that even with the large number of people present, it was far from reaching capacity. At the end of the yard, Lilly spotted straw targets typically used for bow and crossbow training, but the rest of the area was empty. The ground was packed hard from countless footsteps and not far from where she stood, Lilly noticed a dried, dark brown stain in the dirt. She shuddered slightly, wondering whether it might be blood and the memories of the corpse she had found the day earlier, laying in a puddle of her own blood, flashed her mind, but she quickly looked away from the stain on the ground and inhaled deeply before focusing on her surroundings again.

At the center of the field stood a broad-shouldered man in his late forties, his chin cloaked by a long, scruffy beard of blond hair tied into a tight braid. He casually introduced himself to the group as Warden Volker and with unmistakable enthusiasm in his voice, he announced that he would be the main instructor responsible for combat training, but then, quickly spoke on, when he remembered, he was supposed to give them the general introduction speech:

"Disciples, it is my honour to welcome each and every one of you here today. You have all performed admirably and passed a trial of confusion, delirium and mind and have found your way through a maze of visions, illusions and spells, deemed worthy by Elysia. As you are surely aware, your first year here on the Temple Isle will be dedicated to foundational training which will be the same for all first-years, a training designed to equip you with the basic skills and knowledge required for the duties of the six Sub-Orders:

First, the Dominion of the Steelbounds, consisting of some of the most capable warriors in the Realm; they are the guardians of Solendris, using their weapons to crush our foes and enemies. Then there is the White-Hand-Pack, known for their healing abilities and mending powers, but who are also competent herbalists and alchemists. Third, the Pathseekers, who are experts at hunting, stealth and archery. The Chroniclers, who are the keepers of knowledge and who are responsible to preserve not only the past, but also the present; whilst the Priesthood of the Sun appeases the gods, offers them tribute and ensures that our bond with Elysia remains intact and strong. Last but not least, there is the Arcane Circle, accessible only to those among you whose glyphs and the power they carry, surpass the limits of ordinary magical ability. It is the smallest of our Dominions, for only a rare few are granted such power by the Veil.

Here in the Order, it is our mission to train as many of you as possible to the point where you can at least earn a glyph, but not all of you will manage. Once your first year comes to an end, we will assess the skills in which you excel, uncover where your hidden talents lie and you will be assigned to one of the Sub-Orders, the so called Dominions- your primary path of service- by the High Sovereign himself, based on the power he perceives within you. From that day forward, you will serve this Dominion for the rest of your life. So train hard and seek to strengthen the abilities that resonate within your own heart.”

Lilly was distracted by Raven who whispered to her and Alaric: "He must be the Archwarden of the Steelbounds.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow: "Archwarden?”

"Each Dominion has an Archwarden, who is essentially the commander of their Dominion here on the island. It's not an ordinary rank, as this role exists solely here on the Temple Island. It’s more like an additional function, an added responsibility, so they are just referred to as Wardens.”

Lilly tried to absorb the information as best as she could. Though she, like probably every other citizen of Solendris, knew the Order, she knew little about its internal structures, but she understood this much: if she wanted to survive, she would have to learn everything she could about this place. When she first arrived at the Isle, just one glance at the roaring sea that surrounded it had swept away any lingering hopes of escape that she might have clung to, during the long journey there. Even if she considered fleeing someday, she knew she would have to prepare for it as thoroughly as possible.

After the enthusiastic speech, Warden Volker continued by leading the Disciples on a tour of the Steelbound’s training grounds. When the group entered an indoor arena where several older members of the Order were training, Lilly caught a glimpse of two men practicing close-combat maneuvers shirtless on a padded mat. Their well-toned bodies glistened with sweat and Lilly involuntarily let out a barely audible sigh at the appetizing sight.

How long had it been since she'd been able to enjoy such a view? Her thoughts drifted to the past few months and a cold shiver ran down her spine as memories of the dungeon crept back into her mind, but the tour moved on and just as Lilly was about to turn her gaze away from the training, her eyes landed on Warden Thorndale, the gorgeous but sinister Warden that hat told the whole world who she was and what her father had done. He stood casually against a wall, engaged in conversation with another Order member. Lilly was relieved he seemed distracted and hadn't noticed her, especially since he clearly had a problem with her. The last thing she wanted to make was enemies, especially not a Warden.