(Temple of Enduring Silence)
“You must concentrate Market,” speaks a strong voice in the back.“I cannot, it is maddening,” I yell inside my head, not speaking a word!
“You must maintain the Void, you will be cast out if you cannot,” again the voice in the back.That has been the threat for the last 5 years, to be cast out and now it all comes to this, achieving the Void.
I tell myself, it is only water so why is it driving me insane.
--
All of the orphans in the Temple knew that there would come a time for the Naming. We all knew that each Naming test was tailored to each specific individual, and as a result there was no way to truly know how we were to be tested.
Those taking the Naming, whether pass or fail were forever forbidden to discuss the intimate details of the test, which seemed ridiculous due to the fact that every test was different for each person.
--A knock came to my door, “It is time,” was all I got from the person whispering from the other side of my room. Such was the volume here at the temple.
With trepidation I open the door and followed the page. Down we walked past the dormitories, classrooms, kitchen then the basement and finally into the subbasement where no one ever dared travel. Looking upon an iron shod stone door the page spoke a word I could not place and the door swung open. He bade me to enter.Inside the room there was one unlit candle near the door. As the door was opened, a smell of stale air and dust filled my nose. The page went to the candle and spoke a small very simple cantrip and the candle began to shed light.
“You may leave now Jonas, thank you for bringing him,” a voice spoke in the darkest shadows of the room.Palms sweaty I stood in the doorway waiting for my eyes to adjust to the ambient light of the room. As they did, two things began to come to focus. In the corner of the room near the candle stood a full length mirror, the frame appeared to be made of twisted ivory to the effect so that no twist connected with another, an impossible feat, an illusion most likely is how my nervous mind justified it.
The other thing of note…looking at the mirror, becoming dizzy trying to follow its impossibly twisted frame, I noticed a reflection in the mirror aimed at the far corner of the room. A man sitting upon a wooden stool in red robes etched in gold around the fringe, face covered by a scarf and a deep hood drawn long over his face.As I turned my head to look into the dark corner where the man should have been there was nothing there but shadow. As I quickly surveyed the room I realized the only thing in the room was myself, the candle and the mirror. After about five glances back from the mirror to the corner of the room, I decided to check it out for myself, and sure enough the room was empty, save for the above mentioned.
“Are you finished? You are here for the Naming, yes?” came the same voice from the corner of the room.Looking to the mirror I saw his reflection there in the corner but no one sat there…but his voice came from both the mirror and the opposite side of the room.
“Yes”, is all that I could squeeze out in response to both his questions.“Very well, walk to the mirror and put your hand to its surface. Wait till it ripples and then push your hand through and follow by stepping into the mirror,” again the voice from both the mirror and the opposite corner of the room. I could see the figure as clear as a full moons night, but glancing back I noticed again, no one there. The hair upon my neck began to raise as I put my hand to the surface of the glass.
“Market, you touch a Sa’Angreal, a magical item created by both divine and arcane magic, then blessed by Istus herself. You are here for the Naming and to get a glimpse of you fate, I will see you on the other side, do not fail me” came the dark voice in the corner of the room.Looking into the mirrors reflection, to the man there/not there in the corner of the room the glass began to ripple. As I began to step through the mirror, the glass began to give way as if I were stepping through…quicksand. I noticed the reflection of the man beyond through the rippling glass as he stood up from his there/not there stool, clasped in his hand was a silver chalice of steaming liquid. Raising the cup to his lips and rolling his head back to take a drink, the light of the candle caught his eyes and the uncovered portion of his face.
A visage I will not soon forget, the man was…handsome. With skin like ash, as if spent to long indoors, it was his eyes that froze my spine. Milky white, glazed over with a look that most likely bespoke of blindness, yet they were looking right at me, followed by two scars on the right side of his face, from eyebrow to his cheek, barely missing his eye.He was the only thing that urged me forward into the rippling glass, as I did not wish to be in his presences any longer. Fear of him drove me on more than the fear of stepping into the unknown.
As if walking through an archway, I am thrust into a stone room with no windows and no doors, a cube of earth and stone. Looking all around me there is nothing in the room but a stone bench and a large vase suspended from the ceiling by chains. Upon the bench is a chalk outline of what could only be a humanoid body. The room is dimly lit with no evident source. Walking back from where I came, I hit a stone wall.“Lay upon the bench, naked, with your body inside the chalk outline, ask no questions, speak no sound,” came the same voice but from no particular direction, as I clearly was the only person in my new ten by ten prison.
As I undress from my shirt and breeches, I notice that the bench is wet from what could only be the vase from above. The chalk outline is small, barely fitting my frame within its lines, confining my movements.I position myself upon the bench with in the chalk outline. My body began to form goose bumps, either from the cold and damp room or the impending doom that surely is going to befall me from the Naming.
“Market, you are to lie here, upon that bench within the chalk outline until you are told otherwise. Nod if you understand me,” came the voice.I most surely nodded.
“You are not to move from beyond that outline and to make no sound until given permission. Do you understand?”Again, not wanting to fail in these simple instructions, I nod.
“This room will sustain your life without food and drink, indefinitely. You must lie upon your back and not sit up or roll to your side, until told otherwise. ““Now begins your Naming. If you violate your instructions, you fail. You will be informed when the Naming is past. Do not fail me!” and the voice was gone.
All I can hear is the sound of my heart beat and the movement of air from my lungs. All I can feel is the damp, cold stone from under me.Within minutes the light from the room dims and then finally goes out, enveloping me in total darkness. After what must have been a few seconds a small fluorescent light began to eminate from the chalk outline, casting enough light to reach only inches into the all consuming darkness.
At the moment the light began I felt a drop of water hit my forehead, must have been from the vase hanging above my head. I must not flinch; else I disturb the chalk and fail my Naming…--
Squeezing the water from my eyes, I growl deep inside my head to fight back the growing annoyance of the water falling upon my forehead. The drips from the vase must be never ending! I try and analyze what facets of the Naming is the actual test. It’s not the water per say, it is the irregularity of the drops, making it impossible to set my mind to the cadence. I tap my finger to the drips in an attempt to find a pattern and set my mind to the water, becoming one with the rhythm. There is no pattern and no rhythm.Is it being in self confinement within this tight chalk line not being able to move more than an inch in either direction?
Is it the oppressive darkness or knowing that there is no way to leave this room other then magic, with no windows or doors, hence the claustrophobia?Is it the cold damp conditions where it is beginning to seep into my bones and make some parts of my body sore and the others numb?
Is the worst not knowing how long I have been in this room?Has it been hours or days? I realize that this is not a test of the body but a test of the mind. I reach the Void.
The Void is something that all are taught at the Temple. The Void can only be reached by the most disciplined of minds. When a warrior or anyone for that matter reaches the Void it is said that he fights and sees all in slow motion, that the Void allows you to remove emotion and pain from the current situation so that you can reach that achievable goal with success, unhindered by nonessential variables. It is a feat just to learn to touch the void, greater to be able to maintain it.In the Void the room is no longer cold, my eyes adjust so that I can utilize every scrap of extra ambient light allowing me to barely see the drop of water before it reaches my forehead. I can feel the stone etchings upon the bench that I lay on. My breathing slows and I am calm.
An infinite amount of time passes--
I knew the Void was weakening when the question seeped into my mind…how much longer. I could feel as the drips of water reached my head they were rolling down into my mind eroding the last vestiges of control I possessed. I began to tremble, uncontrollably shaking in my torture, I heard the voice.“You must concentrate Market,” speaks a strong voice in the back.
“I cannot, it is maddening,” I yell inside my head, not speaking a word!“You must maintain the Void, you will be cast out if you cannot,” again the voice in the back.
After a short time the light returns to the room, “You are finished Market. Walk to the corner of the room from whence you came in, I will see you on the other side.”
Still in the Void, I get off the bench and do as instructed. Had the Void failed me, I would have not been able to command my body to even move. Walking to the corner I find myself again pushing into invisible quicksand, taking me back to the room with the mirror.
Seeing the page inside the room, I am signaled to follow him back to my room. Warbling on my legs I glance back into the basement, again the room is empty save for the mirror and the candle…glancing back to the mirror I see the visage of the man in red put down his chalice and nod in satisfaction, finally disappearing from the reflection in the mirrors surface…
--
What I realize now, looking back the naming wasn’t to see if I could endure it was to show myself how long I could endure, and a man must know his limitations. I was taken to within a few breaths of failure.After a week of recuperating in my room at the Temple I analyzed my Naming. Then, I thought my test was to witness the limits and strengths of my mind against the constant yet harmless drips of water…today, 30 years later I look back and realize what the water was meant to symbolize and who the man was that administered my test.
Somehow the mirror foretold my most probable future of all the possible alternate futures that were ahead of me. Kaedaran is the phenomena that academics give to the theory that touching evil magic leaves a residue on the user. The water was there to symbolize the Kaedaran I touch. It is there to warn myself that a man must know his limitations, and the man in the mirror was a future version of myself.
I vowed the day Thrommel disappeared to invoke the practice of the Maleconvoker, contained in the book The Mirror, irony. To push the Void to the limits. I am to fight fire with fire. I was no longer the protector to the prince but the hand of vengeance to the King.
Little did I realize that my destiny was being fulfilled as prophesized by the Naming all those years ago.
