The Trials of the Minotaur

Part Two: The Oracle's Mortification (Chapter Six)

Velthar the Sufferer had grown uneasy in the months since they had entered the temple, ensconcing the god in his chosen place. All had come as his dreams had foretold, and much to his satisfaction he had been given the greatest part to play in seeing it done, and yet his disquiet only grew. The dreams and visions that had so troubled him throughout his life had ceased, the future now a depthless and unending sea through which he must somehow swim. At first it had not concerned him – the god, after all, was now the greatest seer in the land, and he was no longer Velthar the Sufferer but Velthar the First, the one the god had chosen above all others.

But the arrival of Galrice, followed by the god’s choosing of her and their union, had troubled him deeply. He had pushed it aside, sensing that it was simple jealously, unbefitting of the First. It was for the god to choose, he knew, and there would others after he had passed from this realm and the god too had taken a new form. These were transient concerns that he had to subsume with his faith and transcend, for he was insignificant and unimportant. They all were before the gods. He had to accept his place before them and find happiness in the role that the god had chosen for him.

That would have been easier had he not lost the visions that, though they had terrified him deeply, had provided a strange comfort and a source of stability in a world that offered few. They had been the constant through all the trials he had endured in his youth, when even his own family had kept distant from him out of fear for what he might be. Still, as he settled into the comforting routines of worship, along with his duties administering the life of the temple and ensuring the harmony of the god, he began to worry that the loss of the dreams signaled some deeper, more troubling change within him. Had he lost his faith?

Faith had been the constant, the driving force in his visions, and when the god had come to them he had given himself freely and fully. He did not doubt the god, for he saw his power demonstrated each day when the supplicants came before him or when a penitent was embraced into the family of the temple. He saw it reflected in the faces of the penitents who joined him in prayer and song beneath the god. He saw it in the faces of the women Galrice chose for union with him under the law of the god. And yet…

The future was closed to him. Why had the god denied him this? Had he wronged him in some way? He knew he had not. It was merely the way of such things. Prophets often had their flame burn out when the time for augury was gone; perhaps it was so with him. He had much to be glad for, and yet a sadness clung to him through what should have been the most glorious days of his life. The days were magnificent but they passed much the same, one into another, unending, and when they were gone it seemed nothing remained.

One evening, in the midst of this melancholy, as he retreated down the steps from the god’s chamber, the setting sun still warm upon his back, he met Galrice on her way up. They rarely spoke, except in those rituals that had evolved and which included them both – the morning prayers and the union of the penitents. Galrice smiled, as she always did when their paths crossed.

“You seem weary this evening, Sufferer,” she said to him.

He touched a hand to his forehead. “I no longer suffer.”

“A blessing of the god, no doubt.”

“Perhaps,” he said.

“How could it not be, Velthar? We two have been blessed so much, and there are more blessings to come.”

“I wonder what shall come now that we have been given so much,” he said, almost sighing.

“I have seen it,” she said in that fierce way of hers that struck like a blow. “We shall be blessed beyond all imagining.”

She did not say more, continuing up the stairs for her union with the god, and he watched her go, wondering what she had seen.

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This is the fourteenth  chapter of the Trials of the Minotaur. I will post a chapter a week (there are over 30), but if you enjoy what you're reading and don't want to wait, you can buy this book at Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords. Thanks for reading.