Mistlyn

Chapter 21: Pomegranates

Nobules grew out of the Sand Tunnel. I smelled fruit as I walked through the tunnel.

"Take them," Kulbiwahd said, "When you see their colors show."

As each nobule grew out of the walls we moved through, sand crumbled off their faces, revealing thick red skin underneath.

"Pomegranates!" Cogaje said.

"Take one," Kulbiwahd said, "These are Mote Pomegranates. Without them, you cannot enter the Realm of Mote."

Kulbiwahd took one of the pomegranates, brushing off sand from its face. She sliced the skin with one of her swords. "Take some of the seeds and rub it across your forehead. It will be the mark that lets you into the Realm."

I pulled out my sword from my bag.

Kulbiwahd glanced over her shoulder. "Where did you get that sword?"

"Someone gave it to me as a gift."

"Who's the someone?"

"I don't really know," I shrugged.

Kulbiwahd nodded. "That is a gift from the King of the Realm of Mote himself. Only his workmanship will produce a sword like that. If he's gifted you with that sword, then he is expecting you. Be on your guard."

I turned the sword around in my hand. Inscriptions that I hadn't noticed before undulated across its surface, barely lasting long enough for me to have a good look at them.

"His marks flash on the blade," the Triple Goddess said. "It is most assuredly the work on his own hands, then."

"What is this King's name?"

"He has no name. He is referred to only by a symbol."

"So what's his symbol?"

"His symbol is an unopened eye, with one short stalk below, and a second longer one that ends in a spiral. In front of the eye is another spiral extension, and over the eye is an arch."

Kulbiwahd stopped and with her sword drew the symbol on a wall of sand. Her sword bit in deeply into the sand, like a hot blade cutting through liquid mercury.

"This is what it looks like," she drew:

"And so every time I talk about him, I have to use this symbol?"

"If you wish to ask for him, and you meet someone who will be able to help you, you may present this symbol."

Kulbiwahd blew at her drawing, making it disappear. "We must keep going."

Cogaje helped me put my sword back into my bag.

"But why would he send me the sword?" I said.

"He must have been expecting you and must want you to come into his kingdom. He is a wily one, and I would not trust everything he says. However, if he welcomes you in without first having you killed, then go in. few ever get that chance."

"He'll raise the Gone Ones?" Cogaje said.

"That I do not know."

Kulbiwahd kept her back towards us as she spoke, leading the way. My hand kept brushing against the sand walls as I walked a little ahead of Cogaje. The tunnel was narrowing.

"We're reaching the end of the Tunnel," Kulbiwahd said. "We will be at the Roc soon."

"You know, I still don't really get what this Roc is," I said.

"It's an ancient piece of obsidian and ivory," Cogaje said. "With weird inscriptions."

Kulbiwahd turned her head over her shoulder, a small smile on her lips. "The Prince is right. It's a large stone, the size of two women, or three men, in height. Carved out from the blood and Shards and minds of ancient deities, it holds their essences in its body. But it has cracks, and it is these cracks that rein the deities in. When the cracks are filled with the blood and Shards off all the Races, as well as of the gods and deities themselves,, the deities are released, made almost-whole again."

"But how'd they even get stuck in the stone in the first place?" I asked.

"That is a long story, a story full of ancient rituals and secrets. But I will tell you this: the gods and goddesses were imprisoned in that stone because of the jealousy and greed, and the fear, of ancient gypsies. The deities were powerful, living in a castle on a mountain in the desert. The gypsies tricked one god, then another, and soon all gods and goddesses, into their magic. Then the gypsies imprisoned most of them in the Roc, and the few who were not imprisoned were severely weakened."

"Why not just kill them or something, if the gypsies wanted to get rid of the deities?"

"You cannot kill that which is immortal; only imprison."

"And so now Cogaje and I are going to bring the deities back to power."

Kulbiwahd nodded. "And restore their palace and the mountain upon which it rested on in ancient times."

"What then what will the gods and goddesses do?"

"That is not for a human mind to be precognizant of. You will have to wait and see what will happen. But you will be greatly rewarded for bringing them back into their corporeal form, that I can assure you of."

"Wait, the Three Goddesses, they were the deities who were only weakened?"

Kulbiwahd nodded. "They have only survived this long in their state because they join forces time to time, creating me. With all three in one, me, their energy is conserved. Otherwise, they would further weaken and be forced into the Roc."

"And why would Cogaje and I be needed to fill in the Roc cracks? I mean, we're just a Human and a Lizsard."

"Because," the Goddess smiled, "You are young, more innocent, and you are each of a different Race. There are representatives of the other five Races whose blood and Shards I have. They are also young and innocent of the selfishness and true fear of life. It is the naïve that can Seal the Roc and bring back the olden deities."

"But why?"

Kulbiwahd shrugged. "The deities have always fed on naïveté and ignorance. It's how they survive."

Cogaje and I looked at each other, our eyes serious, eyebrows furrowed. Cogaje's forehead was wrinkled, two vertical lines etched deep in between his eyebrows. He shrugged then glanced away, focusing on Kulbiwahd ahead.

"Almost there," the Goddess announced. "Almost there."