7. The Next Day

Ûthõnvi, 7 Nédiïn 3884

She got it wrong. She almost had it, but then she couldn't remember how the morning trumpet call ended. Raain blasted the trumpet as she began to laugh at herself. Of course she didn't remember it, she knew she wouldn't. 

"Ok, you were right Beau, I'm sorry I made you get up early to do the Call," Frederick Bæzel laughed with her, and a little bit at her.

"Oh well, it was still nice to Call the Roia again."

"Well, let's go for breakfast."

The morning air was cold and brisk, a soft fog lay over everything. The lanterns along the porticos of the library illuminated the fog from high above the sanctuary, the tall pillars casting criss-crossing lines of dancing shadow through the fog. The four lanterns casting shadows behind the four pillars. The shadows extended just beyond the walls of the sanctuary before fading.

"Today would be a good day to show Nik the view from the top of the stairs, if the fog sticks," Raain said, thinking aloud as they walked from the Call Tower to the dining hall.

Griegg wasn't feeling well, his head hurt. It was a pain he'd felt before, and it always made him confused easily, events seemed a blur and difficult to understand, and things didn't look right. But he had to get up and eat something, the monk's breakfast was good for a morning after drinking too much, it would be good for his current spinning. As he sat up he noticed that he was the last to get up, quite the change from yesterday's being the first up.

The door out of the bunks was at the end of one of the shadows from the pillars above. Griegg looked up at the library, squinting, and rubbing his eyes, he propped himself against the door way. Something didn't seem right. But as he looked around the sanctuary, and up to the Library, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, he couldn't figure out why he felt something was wrong, everything looked right. This damned headache confusing me again, he thought. Breakfast, that will help.

Tedd was leaving the dining hall as Griegg arrived, "Ah, you're up. You didn't look well, figured we'd let you rest."

"My head is the size of giant toad," Griegg managed to say with some struggle.

"And you look as pale as it's excrement," Tedd joked, though he did so empathetically, he knew Griegg was in pain. "There's still food left, I recommend double portions."

"Will do. I'll see you in a bit." Griegg entered the dining hall.

"Ah, there you are!" It was Raain, loudly. "Oh, you don't look well. I get why you're late. Here, have a seat, I'll get your bowl." Griegg sat at the first open spot, barely ten feet from the door. He cradled his head in his hands, elbows on the table. A moment later Raain sat down next to him and place the bowl in front of him; it contained double portions.

Nik saw them from across the room, realizing something was clearly wrong with his new companion. He joined them. "You look terrible," he said.

"He get's these massive headaches every once in a while. There's not much we've figured can be done. If we were back in town, Talur would take him out back for a smoke of majna, but there's none at the Sanctuary," Raain told Nik.

"Good to know the town has some, I ran out about a week ago."

"When we get back, talk to Talur. But even if we did have some here, it only eases the pain, it doesn't stop it completely, nor does it help with his state of confusion."

"I think I've heard of these. Always in the morning, confusion, dizziness, nothing seeming right."

"I haven't come across any others," Raain said, interested, "but I would have assumed there were others."

"Very few. I meet many people in my travels, and of the tens of thousands, he is now the sixth I've known to have these. And I too have found no cure."

They sat in silence while Griegg finished eating. By the time he was done, they were the only ones left in the hall besides those in the kitchen cleaning the dishes.

"Will you join us in taking Arun into the Library today, or would you rather laydown?" Raain finally asked Griegg as she took his bowl back to the counter with the remaining dirty dishes.

"Though this food still remains one of the best treatments," Griegg was feeling a bit better, "I don't know if I feel like climbing the stairs, I think I will relax in the grass."

"Would being out of the fog not be better?" Nik asked just before opening the door to leave the hall. "Oh, the fog has lifted," the air was clear outside.

"Yeah, it happens that quickly," Raain told him. "Go ahead and rest Griegg, Nik and I will take Arun up."

"Enjoy your readings," Griegg said as he sat down in the dry grass under the blue sky laced with a few faint pink swirls, the red Alrualiss were barely visible this mid-morning. Nik and Raain went off to find Arun, whom was sitting on the bottom step.

"Is Griegg ok?" Arun asked as the two of them approached without Griegg.

"He will be, it's his headache, he's going to rest in the grass while we take you up," Raain told Arun as he stood up and the three of them began climbing the stairs.

Nik's legs hurt sooner than they had during yesterday's climb, and Arun, with his legs that were not much taller than the rise of each step, was having to use his hands to help him climb. Raain made it to the top first; finally looking back, she saw Nik trudging, and Arun crawling.

"Arun!" she became overcome with sympathy, having forgotten the difficulty of these steps for someone as short as a Hobbot. "I'm sorry, why did you say something, I would have carried you."

"No, I got it," he said huffing up the stairs on all four. Nik barely had time to catch his breath before Arun was at the top. Arun turned and beheld the sight of the valley, fogless.

"Just as spectacular as yesterday," Nik remarked. "Though I would have liked to have seen it from up here with the fog that was in this morning; the torches behind the pillars was beautifully eerie."

"Seeing it at night, before the roia have begun to light the sky and the fog, if the fog is just right, and there's only one Alru, and it's dim,, and they are new torches, the glow and shadows reach the Town." Raain recalled three such nights in her thirty five years.

After a few minutes of admiring the view and catching their breath, they walked past the pillars, and through the central double-doors into the Library. 

Arun looked up at the ceiling, in awe of the expanse of the painting. "It doesn't move," he said with disappointment thinking of The Eternal's paintings at the Aurie View Lodge.

"No, these are not magical paintings, these are just paintings. They are paintings of history, and some of it does include magic," Raain told him, laughingly.

In addition to the painting of the Last Supper, there were images of attempts to reach the Kæav, of battles with the Uun, of ships crossing an Auriese. Paintings of battles with hhorq, dragons, monstrous hairy creatures, Serpintines, and of the humon slavery under the Ndourin and Valswyn (the slaverers in fine clothing while the humons labored with empty pockets, and dying of diseases). Arun spent nearly an hour just walking up and down aisles of bookshelves, looking up and studying the images on the ceiling. Nik was also rather fascinated by the stories told  above their heads, as Raain described most of them, some she was not sure what what the event pictured was.

At long last, they came to the end, to the aisle of doors. Arun inquired, and Raain explained that they lead to various other halls, each filled with a single subject, and very few are ever allowed to enter, that the contents are secretive. He gave a curious look and she told him that they had gone through one of these the day before.

"We found a map, and put the medallion on the map, and it glowed for a bit. We then looked around a bit more, found some interesting books, and then left out the back entrance," Raain told him. It was the truth, other than that the map was not this world--that, she couldn't tell him.

As the lunch horn blew, they left the library, descending the stairs, and to the main lawn where a barbecue had been set up, the monks were cooking a giant elk. The animal was sitting outside the Sanctuary gates being carved. Several monks had climbed on top of the carcass and were cutting out slabs of meat the size of a cow. One of the animal's legs, at it's narrowest, was a wide as a humon is tall. The massive creature would feed the 100 monks in the sanctuary for the next three months of the cold season. This was a welcomed feast and a needed kill; the previous grow season had been smaller than hoped, and smaller than necessary. It was rare that a giant elk would venture this far north in the plains, they usually stayed on the south, beyond the borders of Berryshire, over fifty elics away. 

While some cut meat, or carried the pieces to the barbecue, other monks were circled around the elk offering thanks to its spirit for sacrificing itself to their needs, and praying that it would be honored in its next life, that it be blessed with little turmoil. "May the chaos of your existence be beneficial," they sang to the elk as the prayers ended.

The First Feast of the Kill was always festive and filling. Each time a huge beast such as this was slain, a feast would be held that night, eating as much food as could be had, and the rest preserved in cakes of salt. However, it had been two seasons since a beast a quarter the size had been even seen. 

They all ate and laughed, Griegg joined the festivities though was still feeling sluggish he was much better than in the morning. The monks were sharing random humorous stories of their life in the Sanctuary, and especially enjoyed telling Arun of the many antics which Raain would get in as a youth. Several of the monks told the same stories, only slightly differently. And then each would give him a few words of wisdom:

"When there's a job to do, do it now," one monk said. Another nearby told Arun that "a job not worth doing right isn't worth doing at all." Later he was told that "Simple living does not mean poverty of wealth or poverty of consciousness. But abundance of contentness." Then "When the great man learns the Way, he follows it with diligence; When the common man learns the Way, he follows it on occasion; When the mean man learns the Way, he laughs out loud; Those who do not laugh, do not learn at all.  Therefore it is said: Who understands the Way seems foolish; Who progresses on the Way seems to fail; Who follows the Way seems to wander." Many of the things said confused Arun, though a few he understood, and some seemed to have a wisdom that was both lacking and extensive at the same time: "We are all different," another monk had said, "and that makes us all the same: different." And "Weird is normal, normal is weird."

As the Roia set, nearly everyone had stuffed themselves to the brim from eating all afternoon. Onalru was directly overhead, half full, Vialru two thirds full and fading, and Kaalru was nearing full in the far side of the sky. The ribbons of Alru Lights danced in blues, greens, and yellows. The cloud of Illek's Meal shone bright on this clear night. 

As the barbecue fire was turned into an evening fire a few of the monks brought out stringed and wind-pipe instruments (Tedd also brought out his flute), and a few hand drums, and they played well into the night. As they played, Raain, and a few other monks, danced. It was the first time Raain had danced since hearing of Griegg's death. Griegg listened to the music and watched her spin and circle the fire, but so was Nik.

As they all went to bed, all agreed it had been a great day.