Chapter 69 – Teller of Fate

Teller of Fate

Seventh Movement: What Came After

Chapter Sixty-Nine

* * *

Erahndira was wakeful, anyway.

Since the end of the battle, she’d spent just about every moment with both of her new loves. The proprietor of the Blue Griffin, Gregarrt the Moderately-Nasty, had offered the three of them one of his nicer suites gratis in thanks for helping to save the city and his Inn. They had taken the offer gratefully and since then had indulged in sleep, food, and love. She couldn’t remember when she’d last been this happy.

Besides the large bed-sitting room, the suite had an enormous walk-in closet and a washroom that beggared Erahn’s imagination for size and luxury.

The quiet knock on the door of the apartments an hour before they usually woke was a bit of surprise, but not a worrisome one. They’d planned on leaving today, though they hadn’t decided where they’d go, yet.

The Miu had ended up in the middle last night. It took a few seconds to disentangle her legs from the cat’s cradle their sleep had made of them. As she climbed down from the platform the bed rested on, Erahn noted that the deep rhythm of the siblings breathing hadn’t changed. A sudden tightness in her throat and chest came as she regarded them. So beautiful, they were.

She debated for a few seconds donning clothes. A second knock decided it. She wore next to nothing most of the time, anyway.

Down the warm, polished green veined stone of the hall she padded. The door was oak and frosted crystal, the handle a silver curlicue.

There was a bit of a crowd on the other side. She recognized Dævara and the Templars. The elder two appeared not to note or didn’t care that the Miu was nude. Dæv, standing just behind them, winked and grinned.

The Airkharts were awake when she led their guests into the main room. Chairs were pulled up for the Templars and Dævara. The three of them sat on the bed. Not even John, the shyer of the pair, showed any self-consciousness.

They sat, half covered in silk sheets, knees, ankles, thighs touching.

Dævara spoke first. “Have, you thought of where you might be going when you leave?”

Both Airkharts looked at her. Erahn answered. “We hadn’t made plans, ya. Thought we’d stay here awhile and decide later.”

“Do you remember when we read the Incunabulum near the fire, before the battle?” asked Dæv.

“Of course.” Erahn nodded.

“You discovered,” said the male Templar, “that you could read it without the letters changing, without local Reality altering.”

“Ya, I remember.” Erahndira wondered why they asked. It had only been a few days ago.

The other, the female Templar spoke. “Erahndira, until yesterday, we—” she nodded toward her brother—“didn’t think anyone could do what you did.” The woman was much like her brother in appearance. Both were so handsome; seemed so wise, so sad.

“Dæv did. I saw her.”

“I’m a Teller, Erahn. I’ve spent most of my life, learning how to see the characters of Kazhi, how to read that language. It takes all my force of will to do it, too.”

“Kazhi,” said the male Templar, “is a distillation of the forces that make the Multiverse function. It first appeared during the height of our empire. How it was brought to the Pleroma was a question that went unanswered for a very long time.”

The female Templar took up the tale. “Much time and resources were spent trying to find the origin of Kazhi and of the Syrat, to no avail. It was during the Templar War that the answers were finally found.”

“What does that have to do with me, ya?”

The male Templar answered. “The Order of Hermes discovered the answer to our quest. During the Templar War, the Incunabulum was stolen from a large archive. The Book made known the origin of the language. It had come to the Pleroma along with refugees for the collapse of another multi-Aionic empire. Those refugees were Miu.”

Erahn’s brain stopped. Finally, “What?”

“Your people are not native to Porta, or to the Thirty Aions at all, Erahndira. They were exiles who brought with them many books like the Incunabulum. They were housed in an archive called Zaphyrym House. We believe that library is somewhere on Porta. It was from Zaphyrym House that the Incunabulum was stolen.”

“Miu wrote that Book?” The shock of this discovery made her tremble. John and Jane snuggled closer to her, seeking to comfort the cat-woman.

The female Templar answered. “Yes, and many more like it. The engineers who created Kazhi were almost certainly Miu as well. It is important that this archive is found and secured. As the events of the last weeks have proved, these texts could cause catastrophic damage.”

The male Templar asked all three, “Would you go to Porta and seek it out?”

Both Airkhart siblings put their arms around Erahndira. She looked from one to the other. The Airkharts had been guardians of the Incunabulum as long as there had been a Clan Airkhart, yet they knew neither the origin of the Book nor that of the language in which it had been written. This quest offered the opportunity to discover both while, for the Miu it offered the chance to learn much about her people’s history.

After a brief, wordless consultation, “We will. What do we do with the answer, ya?”

It was the turn of the others to exchange glances. The male spoke. “You must at all costs keep this information from the Hermetists.”

“Why?”

“We do not trust them in this regard. I can say no more. You may find good reason to justify our doubt. Whatever you find, try to get it to Dævara.”

“How will we know where she is, ya?”

The elf handed the Miu a small, jewelled egg.

“You’re givin’ me your Conjunx?”

Dæv shook her head. “My father made another set, he did.”  She reached into her bosom and came out with two more. “This is the one twinned to my love’s”—here she held one up— “and this one”—holding up the other— “is twinned to that”—pointing to the one she’d handed to Erahndira. “Carry that one next to your skin—or fur, I guess!” Dæv gave short laugh. “Think of me and you can talk to me or travel to where I am, no matter where I am.”

“What about them?” She reached out and held a hand of each sibling.

“If they’re touching you, they’ll hear what we say and will come with you, if you come to me, they will.”

There was more talk, all of it personal, familial. Then the visitors made their good-byes with many a hug and kiss from Dævara. Afterward, trio made love and napped. Eventually, it was time to rise and get ready for a long journey and the beginning of a quest.

Erahn donned snug, calf-length trousers, and a sleeveless leather vest, laced across the chest. Both were undyed. When tied up, the latter left a three-inch gap that assured that she’d stay cool in Porta’s perpetual heat. The Airkharts followed her example, save for the addition of white cotton shirts and longer pants. Both wore tough leather boots; the Miu’s paws neither needed nor wanted footwear. Each carried a backpack stuffed with provisions and a stout hardwood staff, heeled with steel.

They heard muffled booms as they dressed after bathing and concluded that the gates would soon all be open again.

They were right. A small crowd of Hermetists were gathered around that very odd statue, once again in the middle of the Plaza of Dying Suns. Another, smaller crowd of those odd horses and the sparkly beings called the Myr were some distance away. From the closer vantage Erahn thought they looked vaguely humanoid, but their glamour still made a definitive conclusion problematic.

They joined a small crowd headed out the Porta Gate.

“I wonder what your world is going to do with all these people,” John said.

Erahndira shrugged. “Most of the city where I grew up is empty now. They might as well stay there, ya. The people left there probably want to go offworld anyway, I think. There’s a Portal just south of the city.”

“Where are we headed?” asked Jane. She and her brother walked side-by-side together to her left.

“South. There are big cities on the coast o’ the southward sea. Any clue about that language or the Book will be there.”

Erahndira was about to say more when a surge in the crowd noise behind them interrupted her thought. Before she could turn to look something enveloped her and, with a feeling like being dunked in icy water, pushed its way into her body. She felt her mind being examined, like something was using her memories as a flipbook.

It was gone—just like that. She stood panting, looking around wildly. The Airkharts were just recovering from what Erahn thought was the same thing.

“Jane?” Erahn said.

Her female lover looked over and smiled at what she saw in Erahn’s face. Taking a step, she embraced the Miu warmly. “It’s okay. That was the Garda. They must be back.” Jane held her furry lover at arms-length. “It seems they’ve accepted you!” Her whole face smiled.

“You mean we can come back to Glyph?”

“Well, you for sure. I think maybe all the Miu as well.”

John joined them in a three-way hug. “That Templar likely arranged it,” he said, “though it’s anyone’s guess how.”

Cheered by this, the three linked arms and followed the crowd striding to the gate.

A few moments later, they set foot on what was for all of them now, a new world.

— Gideon Jagged
Innsmouth, September 2026

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