The Magic Hour

Chapter 23: Sojasin

    “I think it is personal with him,” Jinsaih said. “As yet I’m not sure why but I do know he’s taken a dislike to me. You know this, too. I need to study that.”

    Jinsaih sat down across from her friend and smiled. “Enough of that for now. Let’s talk of other things. I have an idea. I saw Iela’s drawings.”

    Rimal looked up quickly. “No. Not my child.”

    “She’s already a receiver,” Jinsaih said gently. “There is little you can do to stop that if it is in her. Give her to me for the training. It will only be in stages, just as it has been for you. She can take your place. It isn’t any good to continue your own training if you aren’t called to it, Rimal.”

    “What makes you think Hernot will agree to this?”

    “I think he’ll let her go more easily than you will.”

    Rimal didn’t answer. Jinsaih put out her hand and touched Rimal’s arm.

    “You’re my truest friend. Would I suggest something to you that wasn’t for the best?”

    “Of course not,” Rimal said. “I know that, but Hernot is my husband. I have to protect him, too. What about this watcher?” she said, shifting the subject.

    “All I can perceive now is that there are those who wanted to reach our world. They had no way to do so until now. It seems they have found someone to do that for them. They’ve made him the conduit for observing us.”

    “Do you see him?”

    “No. I sense the turmoil in him. His own world is without harmony, but the world of those who are using him to reach us is different. What I sense is that the two worlds have been merged yet both are incomplete. Here we know wholeness and peace. Neither of their worlds experience this now. That’s all I have understood so far. The vibration of his presence goes in and out. He’s not always here.”

    “Your riddles again. No wonder Hernot is worried. Sometimes I can’t even follow what you mean,” Rimal said, but she smiled at Jinsaih. “The difference is, I trust you. Will you join the circle tonight?”

    “Of course. I’ve missed being here since the solstice. At least I can be here for the ceremony at dawn. The ritual restores me as much as anyone else. Let them know. I’ll return in time from seeing Sojasin.”

    “There’s more you’re hoping for,” Rimal said. “You hope the unification ritual will erase the discord Hernot feels, little as it is. I think it will.”

    “Yes, I enter the silence through the ritual. It brings clarity.”

    “We need you here more often.”

    “We all need each other, remember?” Jinsaih smiled, but her eyes were serious. “Isn’t that what we want to hold on to?”

    The shaman stopped talking and reflected on the conversation. There was a time, she thought, where the faith united them all. It still did, most of the time, yet there were subtle changes. She felt them. They were like the rumbling of the earth that happened sometimes in the hot weather after midsummer. She had seen the land split apart, leaving a crevasse in the ground that swallowed a hillside as if it had never existed. What if the changes signaled an alteration of the faith? Would it then allow the unification? Would it seek out the old ways that mattered so much, that they had so often shared with such joy? What would happen to the trust that fed their spirits now?

    “I must go,” she said.

    Rimal stretched the thin, soft cloth in her hands. When she looked up again the other woman was gone. She went to the entrance of the cave but she knew Jinsaih would have traveled far and out of sight by then. At least she had returned to them. They would all sleep better now, for a little while...