Southern Circle - Pt. 02

"Me either," Fiade replied. "I agree with sis, we should go check on brother and the others Merial," she said, as both the twins looked at their older sister.

"And where do you two propose we look?" Merial said in an exasperated tone, swiping at a strand of hair that escaped from her plait as she obviously tried to keep a hold on her temper. "We don't even know where the Grove is meeting tonight. Should we just go traipsing through the countryside in hopes that we get lucky?" she asked, thrusting a wooden bowl and crude spoon at each of her siblings. "Now do the best thing you can do for our parents and brother right now, and eat."

The twins reluctantly took the proffered bowls and utensils, and to set a good example for them, Merial took a scoop of the stew and dumped it in her bowl and began eating, even though it looked as if she had to force each bite, the twins giving each other a look but following her lead.

A few moments later there was the sound of horses' hooves approaching, stopping just outside the door, prompting all three to set down their bowls and stand. Merial made a motion to the twins to stay still, drawing out a knife from the belt on her waist as she made her way slowly towards the entryway.

But before she'd made it halfway the door burst open and a young man clad in white and green robes stumbled inside, short sword in his hand poised to strike as his wide eyes searched the room frantically until they settled on the three startled girls. "Thank the Source, you're all safe," he breathed, lowering his weapon.

"Brother!" Merial cried, rushing forward and throwing her arms around him, surprised when her hand settled on something warm and sticky. She drew it back, horrified to find it covered in blood. "Hugh, you're wounded!" she cried as she flipped him around to find a red slash running from just beneath his right shoulder in a diagonal streak across his back. "Here, let me get my medicines..."

"No time for that," he said, grabbing her wrist as she began digging in a small satchel at her side. The twins were nearby, rushing to embrace him as well only to be halted by the sight of the blood covering his back, unsure now what to do. "The horses, are they ready?"

Merial nodded blankly. "But your injury, surely you can't ride with that!"

"I'll have to. Just give me something for the pain, and I'll be fine. Now come on, we need to go now," he said, taking her hand.

"Wait a minute!" Merial objected, pulling her hand out of her brother's, her head reeling. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell us what's going on! What happened to you? And where are ma and da?"

Hugh closed his eyes, his quivering lower lip signaling that he was fighting back tears, trying to be strong. "They're...gone, both of them, along with every other member of the Grove." he managed to say, his voice slow and deliberate, as if having to shore up his resolve after each word to keep from breaking down.

Merial's mouth fell open, but no words came out. Nearby, Niame broke out in sobbing, crying into Fiabe's shoulder, who looked like she herself was about to shed tears any second. "But...we...they were the last Grove," Merial finally heard herself say from somewhere deep and dark within herself. "That means..."

"There's no time to discuss it now," Hugh said, his voice regaining a measure of strength. "My heart is just as shattered as yours are, dear sisters, but now is not the time for grief. Our parents, may the Source watch over them, gave their lives that I might live and see you three to safety. Now come," he said, tossing a nearby bucket of water on the flames, "I shook off my pursuers, but it won't be long before they find my trail. We cannot let their sacrifice be in vain."

"Who did this?!" Merial demanded as they hurried to the stable, Hugh munching on the herbs she'd given him to ease the pain of his wound. "Was it followers of that foreign religion, as father suspected?" she asked, swallowing heavily at the mention of her da, an image forming in her mind of his bearded face smiling at her before vanishing into the ether of her memories.

Her brother shook his head as he swallowed the medicine. "I don't think so, at least not directly. The sect that Patrick fellow started sees us as nothing more than a nuisance, content to allow the Old Ways to fade into oblivion on their own without the need for bloodshed.

"But those who attacked us tonight were filled with what I can only describe as a pure, malicious hatred, a rage that won't be sated until everyone and everything connected with our Order has been wiped from the face of the earth. I fear that there's something very evil and sinister at the core of all this."

They reached the stables and Hugh was relieved to find the horses saddled and supplies ready, praising his sisters for their good work, causing them to flush. Sadly but quickly he unsaddled the steeds meant for their mother and father, reallocating some supplies among the other mounts before turning them loose, saying a hasty prayer to Epona, the horse goddess, that their fates, as well of those of his sisters, would be happy.

Fortunately their dwelling was on the outskirts of their village, allowing them to slip away unnoticed into the shadow shrouded woods nearby, so far with no sign of a pursuit. Hugh seemed to know the area well, leading his sisters unerringly along little-used paths and narrow hunting trails, guided only by the moonlight that managed to pierce through the thick canopy above.

Strangely Tim, who had given up on his futile attempts to move or otherwise end this dream or vision or whatever it was and just watch, found that he could see the siblings making their way through the wilderness, as if he were watching a movie where lighting had been provided at just the right places for him to keep track of the action.

Hugh set a fast pace, going as quickly as he could without risking injury to the horses, as he employed a few tricks to hinder the pursuers he knew were behind them somewhere not stopping until daybreak. By then the twins looked about ready to fall out of their saddles, and Merial, although she put on a brave front, didn't look much better. And despite his stolid exterior, it was clear that Hugh's wound was bothering him.

At last the party came to a shallow creek like many others they'd passed over. Like before Hugh led them upstream through the cool waters to throw off their scent, but instead of exiting the stream a half a mile or so, Hugh continued on through the bubbling brook, the sisters exchanging confused looks but saying nothing. The waters becoming deeper and deeper until they came to an open area dominated by a steep, craggy rockface over which tumbled a modest but magnificent waterfall, its turgid waters splashing down into a small pool at its base.

"Dad set up protections around this space, so we should be safe here for a little while," Hugh said as they dismounted and he led them behind the falls along a narrow stone walkway carved out of the cliff itself, going very slowly so the horses wouldn't slip. There they found a small but cozy cave and immediately the twins set about making camp as Merial tended to Hugh's wound, pulling his robes down around his waist. Thankfully it wasn't deep and the bleeding had stopped, so she cleaned the slash and stitched it up, giving Hugh a stick to bite on as she did so.

As he watched, Tim couldn't help but notice at times how her hand seemed to linger on, even caress, her brother's uninjured shoulder and arm muscles, the way her legs pressed together under her clothing occasionally as she was working. What was up with that?

"You're doing great with that, sis," Hugh said as she gently applied salve over the area before bandaging it, "Mother taught you the healing arts well."

"Thanks, brother. Ma said I'll be, well, would have been ready to be fully initiated into the Grove within a few months. But I guess that's not going to happen now, is it?"

After that they both fell silent, and when she'd finished Hugh changed out of his torn and bloody robes into a long tunic and leggings as they ate a cold meal of dried meat and bread in silence, everyone too tired and grieved to speak, for now that their minds were momentarily free of thoughts of flight the full enormity of their loss hit them like a falling tree. Afterwards Hugh told his sisters to get some rest while he took the first watch, since he felt much better after his wound had been treated. Merial argued a bit, but her heart wasn't in it, and she laid down in a wool blanket beside her sisters, and was soon fast asleep.

Hugh stepped outside, careful not to wake his sisters, dragging Tim along. Dawn was just breaking, a shallow glow in the east sending probing pink tendrils weaving through night's celestial blanket, the air cool and crisp. He leaned back against an ancient oak growing a few yards from the pool as he grunted and slumped down to the ground, the rough bark rubbing against his back and irritating his bandaged wound, but he barely noticed as he yielded to the merciless agony that had been tightening its grip on his body that made the gash on his back seem nothing more than a pinprick, his body shivering even as sweat beaded his brow. "It's too much, I don't have much time left," he whispered in desperate prayer, leaning his head back against the tree, "but please, mother, father, give me the strength to see my sisters, your daughters, safe," Hugh begged to the brightening sky.

"Brother?" came a voice from the direction of the waterfall, causing Hugh to turn towards it, seeing Merial standing along the edge of the stone path, a concerned look on her face.

"Sister," Hugh grunted, wincing as he forced himself to sit up against the trunk, trying again to mask his pain but less successful this time. "You should be resting."

"I tried, but I kept seeing ma and da in my dreams," she said, frowning as she studied Hugh. "What's wrong?" she asked, making her way over to her sibling and kneeling beside him. "Is your wound bothering you again?"

"It's not that, Merial," he said, looking up at her face. The sun was peeking over the horizon, gilding her lustrous hair and delicate, freckled countenance in its soft light, making her even more beautiful than she already was, pulling a pained smile from him. "It has to do with the ritual we were engaged in tonight, where something was done to me. And because of the...interruption, I'm afraid it isn't good."

Merial looked puzzled. "What's going on with you, brother? Tell me, maybe I can help."

"Not to disparage your skills, but I am beyond your or anyone's aid now," he said to her bitterly. "But still, you deserve to know what's going to happen, dear sister, so you can be prepared, and prepare our siblings for it. The Grove swore me to secrecy, but they're all dead now. Besides, as you say you would have been initiated before long, so I see no problem in telling you."

She put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it as she looked into his eyes. "Okay, Hugh, now you're just scaring me. Out with it, whatever it is."

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. "You know that over the past ten years all the Groves in our land that haven't already disbanded or converted to the new faith have been systematically attacked, their members killed to the last man, woman, and even child, an atrocity that no one wants to talk about or even acknowledge. That's why we've been forced to live as itinerants, wandering from place to place, never really having a place to call home," he said, an angry edge in his voice that sounded foreign to his usual easygoing manner.

"In any case, the leader of our Grove, knowing that if we suffered the same fate the collected knowledge and power gathered and honed over centuries would be lost forever. So, working in tandem with the other masters of the Grove, including mom and dad, a way was devised to collect this shared wisdom and infuse it into the soul, the very essence of an individual, who could then form a link with and transmit it to countless others, who would then instantly have access to this living storehouse as well, if you will. They would still need to practice and train of course, but the information, the memories, the magic, would all be open to them, forming what was dubbed a Circle of Wisdom, for all the lore, the power stored in this one individual could be circulated among many."

Merial's breath caught in her throat as she considered the implications. "Amazing. That would mean as long as even a single Wise One survived, their legacy would live on, and new Groves could be created easily and much more quickly than the traditional manner."

Hugh nodded. "There's a lot more to it, but yes, that is the gist of it. But it was complex, untested, and there were many risks involved. Which is why our leader asked for volunteers to test out the ritual, rather than commanding it."

"And you stepped forward," she surmised. "You always did like to push your luck, didn't you?"

He shrugged sheepishly. "And not just me, Orlagh offered herself as well."

"Your promised one?" his sister asked.

Tim could have been wrong, but he thought he saw a ripple of jealousy slide across Merial's face at the mention of this Orlagh, but it was gone so fast he wasn't sure. Curious.

"So what happened?" Merial asked.

Hugh looked at his sister, eyes alight with excitement. "The ritual itself seemed to go well, and towards the end I could feel the learning, the experience, the mystic lore of ages past flowing into me like a warm stream. It was incredible, Merial, and when it was over I sat up and faced Orlagh, smiling at her, feeling more alert and alive than I ever had before, my mind teeming with boundless understanding and awareness of the living world around me."

Then his shoulders drooped as he closed his eyes, his fervor waning. "We were preparing to test our new...abilities with other volunteers, to verify that what had been instilled in us could indeed be shared with others. That's when the attack came. Father, mother, and the others distracted them while Orlagh and myself, as well as a few others attempted to escape. But apparently our assailants were expecting this, and we were ambushed not long after. Everyone else was lost...even Orlagh," he said, his shaking hands balling into fists. "I should have stayed...I should have died with her...but I knew that you, and Niame and Fiade would be next on their list, and I couldn't let that happen."

Merial clasped her brother's hand, squeezing it. "Oh, brother, I'm so sorry," she said softly. "I know how much your intended meant to you. I know it's worth little now, brother, but Niame, Fiade, and I, well, we love you more than anything and we're more than grateful to you for looking out for us even in your dire shape, and I swear that we'll find a way to make you smile and feel happiness again."

He smiled sadly as he patted her hand. "Thank you, my dear sister, but I'm afraid there won't be time for any of that. I'll have to settle for being content knowing that you and the twins are safe, which is more than enough. You see, all the teachings and insight the Grove stuffed into me, well, it was just a pleasant brimming sensation in me at first, but now it's starting to feel more like fitting a lake into a thimble, and I don't think my body and mind are going to be able to withstand the pressure much longer. I'm sorry, Merial, but I'm afraid I'll be leaving you and the twins sooner than I'd like."

Her eyes went wide as the true meaning of his words sank in, tears forming around her bulging sockets. "No," she whispered quietly, "that can't be!" she cried loudly, the dam bursting as the tears surged forth and she buried her head in his chest, sobbing uncontrollably. "It can't be! Say it isn't so, brother!"

He put a hand on her back, patting it gently. "I'm afraid it is. Now listen to me, you and your sisters need to keep heading south as best you can, avoiding the main roads and travelling by night until you come to a small village just beyond the fringes of this forest. Look for a man named Brayden Toolan, he's an innkeeper there. He's a follower of the Old Ways, he'll take care of you and see that you're safe."

Merial looked up at her brother, a strange resolve on her tear-stained face that was pushing through the grief. "No brother, I'm not going anywhere. We just lost ma and da and all our friends, we can't lose you as well. I refuse to let you go, do you hear me? There must be a way to fix this, there has to be!" she insisted, thinking. "Wait, you said you were preparing to test sharing all that wisdom and whatnot that's overflowing inside you with others before you were attacked. Why not try doing so with me?"

"Out of the question, for several reasons," Hugh responded quickly, his face reddening. "We don't know what it could do to you or if it would even work, worst case you could end up in the shape I'm in."

"And best case, I save your life and preserve the heritage of our ancestors," Merial retorted, her voice and expression becoming softer. "It's my decision, brother, and I choose to accept the possibility of failure because I'd rather risk joining you in death than live the rest of my life wondering if I could have saved you if I'd only had the courage to try. Now, how do we do this sharing thing, do we need to hold hands or something?"

Hugh shifted uncomfortably, looking away from her. "And that's the other reason why I can't even consider asking this of you, Merial, for the process requires, well, the most intimate connection possible between a man and a woman. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Huh? Oh. Oooohhhhhhhhhhhh...." She said, realization dawning on her. "Just to make sure I comprehend your meaning, you are talking about sex, right?"

"Yes," he snapped, flustered that he was talking about such a thing with his sibling. "Now do you see why it's impossible for you to help me?"

Merial bit her lip, considering. "Well, the way I see it we just have to find you the nearest woman and have you bed her. Problem solved."

From his expression it was obvious that Hugh wanted to laugh or scoff at her suggestion, but restrained himself. "It's not as easy as all that, sister. For one, it has to be someone who still adheres to the Old Ways, and there aren't too many of us left. Not to mention that the woman must be unattached and willing. I'll grant you we might be able to meet someone like that if we could make it to the village, but the way I feel now, I'll never hold out that long.

"I'm sorry, Merial, but you must face the regrettable fact that in life there are some problems whose only answer is acceptance, and this is one of them. I'll deeply lament being parted from you and our sisters, as well as losing the knowledge and magic of the Wise Ones, but at least you and the twins will be able to make a new life for yourselves somewhere on the continent where our mysterious and bloodthirsty adversaries cannot reach." His sister went silent, lowering her head, squeezing her eyes shut as her hands clutched at the fabric over Hugh's chest.

How sad, Tim thought, wondering yet again why he was being compelled to watch this tragic scene as Merial seemed to be struggling to accept the unfortunate but undeniable truth that she was going to lose her brother, that there was no way to save him, that this was goodbye.