Mapmaker, Mapmaker

I brought up the subject of changing my caste, something I should have taken care of long ago. I had always thought it easier, after being freed from my slavery, just to take the Caste of Entertainers, considering my skills. This and it offered me a certain amount of safety while traveling, but this was all before I ever had an inkling of having a child. How can I steal her heritage away from her? My father was a Scribe, so is it really fair that I take that possibility away from Charm?

I believe Castor was pleased when I brought up the fact that I wanted to raise my status, he had never liked the idea of my having taken on a caste of peasants, something he often .. speaks of. I told him that I thought I might like to take on a sub caste of map making, fascinated by some of the ancient maps I have seen.

We spoke of this for some moments before he took my hand and led me downstairs and into his library. He wanted to know if I did this, if I would put my gift to rest, but I can not give up the gift. Rence commands that I be true to the cards.

His library was actually quite amazing, but it was what lay beyond the reading room that I found most interesting. Maps. Hundreds of them. Strewn about on table, some rolled and tucked away in small cubbies. I knew I could spend countless days in here looking at them, studying them and imagining where they might lead.

I walked about the room, my fingers dragging along scrolls, wondering where each map would take me to. I like touching, seeing, learning about old things. Noachian wisdoms from the past, a window in time, where secrets toil and whisper, where it doesn’t matter who you are, only what they were.

I had not even finished my exploration, when Castor drew my attention to a black curtain wall.

I have always wondered if it would all stop with me. The cards, the readings, for Charm is so different. She knows things that I can not explain, and this she does without the telling of small squared pieces of rence. Sometimes I think perhaps they will inhibit her powers. Castor has seen this as well.

I stepped towards the curtain, just in time for him to tell me never mind, that he didn’t think I was ready to see what lay beyond. This of course only added fuel to my already kindled curiosity.

He pulled the black curtain back to show me an altar, upon its surface several objects, but it was the large silver bowl of water which attracted me. I noticed little other then the dripping of water that never seemed to rise into its depths.

My muscles twitched and my senses seemed alive, as if each was attached to a single current of awareness. He asked me why I found myself intrigued by the water, but I did not speak, for in the meantime, his fingers had dipped into the eternally rippling surface, a legion of screams rising up, before damp digits were pressed to my forehead.

I felt dizzy; my feet unsteady my body swaying when the vision played in my mind. I was immediately summoned into the world of dreams, where I saw Charm at the age of sixteen, tending a garden of herbs. Knowledge is Power and she had taken the caste of her father, but she was.. different.

When I awoke an instant later, I was frowning with the enormous effort of bringing my attention from the infinitely distant point of the future, to the present. He told me that I was stronger than I thought and that when we went to his homeland that I should seek the hall of knowledge for my own training.

He picked me up and carried me out, still weakened by a bond that was not yet broken; a link that I was to find had a greater hold on me than even I wished to admit. Though I could see perfectly, with clarity I had never envisioned before, he told me my eyes were white, blinded with a lack of color. This made no sense to me, for I was seeing a colorful energy around every object in the room, including the man who knelt beside me with such concern.

I bid him to take me back, back to the room of primordial secrets, for I was not yet finished.

He refused me at first, and I could see the fear in his eyes, but the farther I strayed from the center of fixated illusion, the dizzier.. and sicker I became, until finally he relented.

Naked I knelt, in front of the alter, listening to a voice I had not heard since I had left the safety of my island all those years ago. It was the voice of my mother and she was leading me on towards a tender passage, explaining to me that I should not be afraid, that my eyes had been opened.. and so much more.

When I was finally finished I rose to my feet, reaching for the small sharp dagger that rested atop the alter. The flesh on my palm was cut, a sharing of blood needed to fulfill the ritual, but he had denied me. And I could not tell him why. It was not given freely, he telling me there would be no blood shed in this room.

But there had to be.

I left the room with a calm I have never felt before, an acceptance that has never been granted, and a secrets I could not share. At least.. not all of them.

A path now lies in front of me, one guided by light, its forked counterpart guided by darkness. I may choose either, for both will break the curse that has been placed upon me, placed upon my children. The path of light is clear, its ending seen, its closing noble and I need do nothing other than continue on.

The second, however, is riddled with danger and perhaps lost hope. Blood can no longer be shed to protect the precious. It is a race against time, but I believe I understand where to begin.