Braziers full of fire and a stone wagon with a towering bonfire illuminated the early morning festivals in the courtyard of the Iron Palace. Though the sun had started to rise, the mountains still blocked it and the Ceremony of Flames lit itself with flickering firelight. Aralim stood between Dullah and Miresh, watching as people pressed shoulder-to-shoulder into the courtyard. He had never seen the Iron Palace packed quite so tightly. Continue reading Aralim 62
The next morning, Aralim walked with Miresh to the Iron Palace. A dark, cloudy sky, was brightened by a clear horizon, giving everything an eerie glow. Rain did not come, and they arrived at Rattar’s meditation yard dry and in good spirits. Aralim sent Miresh ahead; the young girl carried a small wooden rod with her wherever she went, but would spend the morning testing its strength after her efforts to bind it’s grain tighter. Continue reading Aralim 61
Aralim and a few others were discussing a complaint from a citizen who’s newly constructed home had been declared only half on his property and half on a neighbour’s, when the summons came. The Aura politely waited until the particular conversation in the Third Court died down. When a new citizen stepped onto the dais before the Selected, Aralim shuffled out of his seat and toward the aisle. He glanced at Dullah, but she just rolled her eyes. Continue reading Aralim 60
Rain clouds rolled across Rema all morning, as it had the last afternoon. They first were an opaque sheet of shadow on the southern horizon but charged across the jungles until they shrouded the capital in a translucent cloud of water.
Last night, Miresh heard Aralim’s story of the conversation with the Emperor in disbelief. According to Rattar, she said, healing scars after injuries was difficult work and time-consuming. Rattar could not have healed Tag’na’s wound so completely overnight. Continue reading Aralim 59
Though the gates of the Iron Palace were closed—they were an illustrious affair, all ornately cast bars of gleaming polished metal—the guards looked to the Aura for his permission to enter. One of them nodded quietly and the Emperor’s Blade himself walked across the cobblestones under the wall to open the metal opening for the Walker. Continue reading Aralim 58
It took two hours to get Miresh from Rattar’s quarters to their home in the city. The streets were packed with an energetic and chaotic crowd. Every three blocks had a town crier shouting a different story about what had happened, while soldiers and mobs of people went door-to-door in search of the missing General. Continue reading Aralim 57
As Aralim descended into the Third Court amphitheatre, he looked through the crowd in the direction of the Fortress Marana. There were twice as many soldiers in front of it, including a troop of about twenty soldiers, standing in block formation. He had not heard announcements of any military drills, so he claimed his seat with an inquisitive look on his face. To Dullah, he leaned over and asked, “Have you heard anything?”
“About what?” she asked. Continue reading Aralim 56
Aralim listened to the tap of his lantern staff on the old city cobblestones as he and Hayan walked through the old part of town, just north-east of the Ake’ma River. These neighbourhoods predated the Emperor’s rise to power, back when Rema was a tiny river town connected to a long-vanished sandstone quarry. He was still coming to terms with the thought of leaving Rema on the Emperor’s new bidding. On the one hand, he longed to wander once more; on the other, Miresh was building her life here and he wanted to maintain that friendship, both for the care he felt for her and for her role in his progress along the Path. Continue reading Aralim 55
After the banquet with Dullah was a lull of uneventful days. General Ro never showed up for tea—and secrets concerning Rattar’s flawed Crux—and Dullah extended him no new invitations, though they saw one another twice a week at Court. Aralim walked quietly toward the Iron Palace. Miresh had slept in, after a few days of alternating her sleep schedule in an attempt to attain new visions quickly. She had not had another since her third.
Aralim spotted three guards patrolling the main street toward the Palace and put his pace in tune with theirs. It took only a little small talk—and one recognizing his lantern staff—to confirm that General Ro was in fine health and public appearance. Perhaps a second meeting to again invite the General to visit? Aralim wasn’t sure that would work. Continue reading Aralim 54
The last concern for the Third Court that day was a simple building permit from a man who owned two bakeries in the northern part of Rema but wanted to open another closer to the city center. His session didn’t last fifteen minutes, for the Selected were eager to attend their party. Councillor Moy, of the Second Court, had already been spotted leaving. Aralim wasn’t that impatient about it, but he was interested to see what this turn of events would entail. He’d been serving as one of the Emperor’s Selected for three Moons but had yet to see them in any other setting than the Palace amphitheatre. Continue reading Aralim 53