***
Chahzuu opened his mouth in desperation, but he could force nothing out but a rush of air as the thoughts behind the words he wanted to speak formed in his mind. I seek the Power of Creation!
The giant's fisted hands began their downward fall.
He closed his eyes, not wanting the see the blow that would crush his skull. Regret flashed through his mind. Even now, I have failed.
He waited, but the killing blow from the guardian never came. Chahzuu opened his eyes and found the slab he was kneeling on was glowing! He looked up and the giant slowly lowered his arms from where he'd checked his swing barely above Chahzuu’s skull.
That shouldn’t have been possible. Chahzuu knew enough not to question. Kneeling at the 'alter' was the key! It was that which had enabled his last desperate thought to make it through. That must have been it!
The guardian's eyes flashed and though his stone jaws didn't move, a sound emitted.
"You are right, Mulda’ fi."
Why does he call me that? Chahzuu was well aware of the title, but never imagined it would apply to him. The Mulda’ fi were too important, too noble. Besides, he'd never given it any thought.
"You are, indeed, one of those foretold. You already know one of the others, I see."
How does he know my thoughts? Then Chahzuu glanced down. The stone he was kneeling on still glowed.
"That is how," the giant confirmed. "You are in the place of honor. Only a Mulda’ fi may kneel and survive."
The crystal, Chahzuu thought. It must have something to do with the crystal. But he spoke of another. The only others I know of are the Pale Ones. And the only one I've met in any connection to the crystal was Nemesis! Chahzuu's breath caught.
The stone guardian remained silent standing above him. It seemed his head tilted to one side, as if confused by whom he was thinking about.
Could it be the other? I hope it's the other. It must be!
The giant continued to stand. Then a rumbling started. Chahzuu looked around. It didn't come from the walls or ceiling of the chamber. It came from the guardian in front of him. The light in its jeweled eyes was slowly starting to fade.
Wait! Chahzuu shrieked in his mind. I've come to find the Article of Power. The Power of Creation. Where is it?
"Use it well, Mulda’ fi. There will come a day when you will be called to account for its use. Those who made it see all. They are waiting for the day."
First I have to have it! Where is it? Wait!
The giant's formed appeared to be riddled with cracks and the rumbling grew louder. The cracks spread and split. A brilliant light shone through the rents, blinding Chahzuu. He put his hands up to shield his eyes, but daresn't move from where he was kneeling. It was his only means of communicating with the crumbling giant.
Wait! I have to know!
The giant didn't answer, just continued to crumble, pieces now falling to the ground allowing the light inside to grow more brilliant, blinding. Chahzuu had to cover his eyes, and could only listen as the rumbling and shaking grew heavier.
Please! Don't go. I have to have the Article!
No voice came through the rumbling and cracking, which finally shuddered to stillness. The light seemed to be dimming. Chahzuu chanced to open his eyes, and still had to squint for the brightness.
In front of him, sitting in the center of the remains of the giant, right about where his heart would have been, the rest of his body having crumbled away save for legs, and a small mount of its body sat a glaring object. Its glow was diminishing even as he looked at it. Now it was dim enough for Chahzuu to make out its shape. It was strange. He'd never seen anything like it. Sitting there with no visible means of holding it up, were two thin, glowing parallel spiral rods.
Chahzuu got up from kneeling and approached. The dimming continued until the spirals were now only a steady opaque milky-white color. He came to within a pace and just stared. The spirals were no more than the length of his longest finger, about as wide, combined, and seemed to be joined together by tiny little strands spaced evenly apart the complete length of the spirals. They seemed perfectly balanced, not sticking or attached to the remains of the guardian in any way.
Could this have been what provided its life? Chahzuu reached out and with a careful hand picked it up. There was no resistance. The object seemed solid, as if it would take a great force to destroy it, or even separate one spiral from the other.
For some reason this shape looks familiar, though I know I've never seen it before.
He held it up to examine more closely, only then noticing that the chamber was slowly growing darker. Chahzuu glanced to the doorway and saw that the barrier was now down, and the light continued to dim.
Guess that means I need to leave. He put the Article in his scrip case and moved to the doorway. Chahzuu took one last look back to the crumpled form of the guardian. Farewell my friend. You must have waited a long time. Then he moved back into the maze, retracing his steps to the outside.
Chahzuu stepped out onto the terrace of the tall mound and squinted as the Great Light burned his eyes.
All night! It didn't seem that long at all. He reached into his scrip and his hand brushed against the first Article of Power. A tingling massed through his body as he let it go and took hold of a root to gnaw on. Small pools of water were gathered in catch basins around the top of the mound. After Chahzuu had slaked his thirst, he looked down at the covered city spread below. What was here? Why did the ancients abandon this place? He wondered whether it had been built solely to hold the Article of Power, or if there was another purpose.
There had to be another purpose to build an entire city here. What was it? Did they use the Article of Power in whatever it was they did? They must have, hadn't they? What would they have used it for?
All these thoughts spun through his head until he caught himself. This does nothing to help my people. First, I need to rest. But even as he thought this, he breathed in and tilted his head to one side. I feel great already. He held himself stalk still, feeling through his body. Any signs of the fatigue he'd felt earlier were gone. Only a slight presence of the tingling he’d felt was there. And it, too, was fading.
Was it the Article? Could contact with the article do things like that? Or was it the crystal in his breast?
Too many questions and still I'm just standing here.
Chahzuu started down the rough side of the mound, carefully placing his feet. Where should he go from here? He let his thoughts wander back to the other records, trying to piece together where to start looking for either of the other Articles of Power. Were there only three? That's what the records seemed to indicate, but who knew? They were so cryptic about everything. The first one he'd found from a simple child's poem – and that as if by mere chance. How would he find the others?
Finally he stepped off the incline of the mound and onto the broad street of the ancient city. Looking up at the sky, then at the distant cliffs surrounding the valley, Chahzuu tried to decide how best to continue. Would it be best to try and cut across the valley and come out and intersect the path he had to follow to get back to his home country? Or would it be better to retrace his path to the original trail, and go from there?
Time is the most precious commodity right now. Chahzuu started to cut across the valley, but something in his breast made him come up short. A burning rose from within so swift it made him catch his breath. It wasn't the normal, calming burning either, but one that caused him anxiety, a feeling of severe disquiet, like something he was doing, or about to do was terribly wrong.
What can this mean? Is there danger this way? Maybe I should retrace to where I came down, and then go from there. Chahzuu had grown used to following the feelings the crystal had given him through the maze. It only seemed natural to follow it again, though he wondered why. More than that, how? Then a thought occurred to him.
He’d been led to the first Article of Power. Maybe this had something to do with it also. Had the crystal in his breast been somehow sensitized to helping him find the Articles? Or maybe tied in with their power now he was sure of their existence?
Or were the Guardians and their influence somehow coming through the crystal? He thought a moment. Were they trying to throw him off track, now that he had one Article? Or were they giving in, and finally seeing that he needed help?
Too many questions! The Guardians had told him that he would be on his own, so unless they were lying, he had to assume it wasn't coming from them. That left the crystal being tied to the Articles of Power in some way. Or that the influence was coming from a completely different source.
That was frightening. There was so much he had to just take on faith and work out for himself.
But faith can be tested! Chahzuu turned and started off in the direction of his original path into the valley. He paid close attention to his feelings. Is this what I'm supposed to be doing? Is this the direction I should go? He continued that way for a short time, but there was no feeling one way or the other. Now what does this mean?
Chahzuu stopped and considered going back in the direction he'd been going earlier. He was tired of having so many things to try and figure out.
A tiny flash of heat burst through the crystal and smouldered warm in his breast. On an impulse he put his hand into his scrip and took hold of the Article inside. It was smooth and cool, but also seemed warm. How can that be? There was a power flowing through it he could feel, and although it felt cold on the surface, the power flowing through it brought warmth from its contact.
Okay. I can figure this out. Chahzuu thought. Maybe once you have one of the Articles, they attract each other. That didn't make sense, though, because then just anyone who was lucky enough to stumble onto one of the Articles would be able to find the others.
The crystal! That must be the difference. Chahzuu remembered vividly how he had been able to pass through the maze, but more so, pass into the final chamber without being killed because of the crystal imbedded in his breast.
It’s also tied in with my thoughts! It had been his thoughts that had activated the crystal with revealing the Article of Power before. That's got to be it!
Chahzuu focused his mind on the records, the oldest of them that mentioned the Articles of Power. He'd found the Power of Creation. Now the trick was deciphering the records enough to know where, or how, to look for the next Article.
Slowly, the smouldering in his breast warmed to fever pitch. He continued pondering over the records, willing to be lead either in his mind, or physically, or both if he was lucky enough.
The crystal continued with its warmth. His thoughts drifted through the ancient records. He started to see a pattern becoming clear. They could loosely be divided into three distinct areas: Those dealing with the power of creation, or mentioning creation; the next two were more terse and short in the records, but they still had two distinct divisions. The first of the remaining seemed to deal with emotional issues, matters of caring, concern, bravery, love, compassion, feeling! The last dealt with matters of intellect; that of learning, study, but it seemed the records spoke more than just of the simple learning, but the power of learning. They even seemed to hint of things deeper than that. Somewhere at a level that made it seem almost miraculous in scope. The power of knowledge, or of knowing! That's what had seemed so ridiculous about the records and a seeming folly for all the preceding Chahkzaa until he came along. All three of these areas at once seemed to be treated almost lightly, frivolously in their simplicity, but at the same time hinted at tremendous power inherent in the simplest of things.
First I have to find them, Chahzuu reminded himself. Still he hadn't felt any sense of direction. Perhaps if I just focused on one? Both sets of records dealing with the different Articles were still a bit hazy to him. One, though, dealing with matters of emotion, of feeling, was easier to recall. The records there seemed to focus almost exclusively on a strange being going through a series of heroic adventures.
The records never describe the being and he always just assumed it was one of the Pontu' Gi, one of his people. He also assumed the story was fantasy, written to amuse the children, Now Chahzuu knew it meant a bit more, though many things in the story were incredible to comprehend. It talked of the hero flying through the air, of leaving their world, traveling to others, and meeting strange beasts and other peoples. It also told of him coming from a strange place, and arriving there just in time to put his people onto the path to their destiny.
That part had always confused Chahzuu. He wondered if it had anything to do with him; with his dreaming, his feelings of being the one that would either save, or destroy his people. But this story was different. Although in some respects it fit him, in most others it didn't.
Then he remembered his experience with the Pale Ones of his dreams. Could one of them be the being talked about in the records? It seemed that if he put it together that way, maybe it could fit. Chahzuu knew if it was it had to be the good Pale One, not Nemesis. If so, that Pale One must be incredibly well traveled . . . Or was going to be. The stories in the records talked about most of the heroic adventures coming after he'd put the Punta' Gi on their path of destiny.
So how do I fit in, then? He searched back over the dreams until he caught himself. My people first!
Chahzuu centered his thoughts on finding the next Article, the one dealing with the power of feeling.
The crystal continued to burn. Then he turned from one direction to the next, still concentrating, thinking of finding the Second Article of Power.
There! There was no question. He knew what direction he needed to head. It was past the city, through it actually, to the other side from where he'd come. It lead away from his people. The power of feeling is leading me to it through my feelings! It’s only right.
Chahzuu started off, settling into the long, steady gate that covered ground without affecting his strength. He longed for security of the tall trees. Moving there was so much easier. When I get out of this valley, they'll be there. The thought of the trees, their beauty, their strength, the refuge they offered, gave him a sense of comfort, stability. Yes, they will always be there.