Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 23: Vaugend Trial 5

 The seer's cave was adorned with feather, twig and twine hanging ornaments, which looked similar to dream catchers. There were metal flasks, pots and even a cauldron. The seer had a huge supply of dried herbs and jars full of what looked to be animal parts. He was wearing a dishevelled cloak, with hood, otherwise nothing on his feet and furs underneath the cloak. He spoke in a raspy voice, "It took ye long enuff to visit, I sensed ye many moons ago."

 Benzhi shuffled deeper into the cave, casting a quick glance at Ailen who looked apprehensive, Benzhi then nodded and smiled at Ailen, letting him know everything would be fine. Ulfgrim was gently pushing him in the back indicating he should proceed, Benzhi approached closer and noticed the Seer's face was disfigured. Only one eye was visible, it looked like his face melted in an acid accident. 

 "This is the one I wanted to see, everyone else out." The seer ordered.

 'Quite ominous' Benzhi thought, 'or a great act. More likely the former given the nature of this world. The seer basically told Benzhi that he sensed him long ago, which was when? When he was deciding where to head, mountains or forest?'

 "Hold my hands," the seer requested. "What is ye name?"

 "Benzhi," he answered, wasn't the seer supposed to know? He was a seer after all.

   The seer emitted a strange sounding chuckle, "Aye, young man, I do ken. I ken ye, ye emotion, ye qi. I don't ken what ye look like, or what ye is called"

 Benzhi closed his eyes and engaged qi sight. The seer chuckled some more, it was almost a gurgling sound it was a strange chuckle indeed. Benzhi viewed the seer under qi sight. "What do ye see," the seer asked.

  Benzhi described what he saw, the qi streams circulated the shaman and his core, but he was also part of the mountains qi streams they flowed in and out of him. This was the same as Mother, the willow and the forest. He saw the Core of the mountains embedded in the rock wall, pulsating like a heart.

 "Benzhi," the seer asked, "will ye help my people?"

 Benzhi nodded, "I am here to help the Forest, the Fae, and we share a problem, the men from Vaugend."

 The seer nodded sadly, "Aye, if ye had come earlier, I ken that the four young men would be alive still. We have much to do, but let me ask ye something."

Benzhi nodded and the seer continued, "what has the Mother told ye about ye relation with the Core of the Forest?"

With that Benzhi looked at the Mountain Core and spoke, "she does talk in puzzles sometimes, but how I understand it, I am pledged to the Core and it sustains me, it has sustained me. There is much I do not know."

 The seer clucked and stirred his cauldron, he was brewing something with a pungent odour. The seer sighed, "I will tell ye a few things, as a gift." He paused ominously, "Benzhi ye are not like us. We come from different worlds and this is your world, this I think ye ken." The seer waited for Benzhi to confirm.

 "I am from a different world too," Benzhi stated contrarily.

 "Ye understand little, this world is your world, ye are a leader, a creator, ye are different to the Fae, to the men, to the Gaels. Only ye can wield a Core. We," he waved his hand expressing himself and the Gaels outside the cave, "cannot. We are part of this Core, it does not belong to us, it is part of us."

 Benzhi was taken aback, he had worked out a few things, there were clues, but this seer just blew it wide open for him. He hadn't put it all together. There was probably a reason the seer was telling him this and was there a reason that Mother had not?

 "Are you asking me to take control of this Core?" Benzhi asked.

 "Aye, but there are things ye must do, it's not that simple as just touching or taking it, well ye could take it, but that would kill us and we would fight for our lives." The seer informed him. A hundred things just occurred to Benzhi and the top two were what had he done to the Ferals and the Forest's Core was just sitting in a pool where anyone, like him, could grab it.

 "Don't worry, I have no intention of taking it from you or this place," Benzhi said.

 "Aye I ken," the seer replied. "I can sense ye heart."

 Benzhi tried to qi sight the seer sensing his heart, it was lost on him, perhaps another fifty years of qi manipulation and he might be able to sense what the seer was doing.

 "It is time," the seer announced. "Ye will sip from the cauldron," he cackled, "and ye will dream and travel with me."

 'What the..travel..' Benzhi was apprehensive all of a sudden. "Ah fuck it, let's do it," Benzhi answered.

 "Ah the young and the reckless," the seer held out a ladle to Benzhi, "sip this and dream with me."

 Benzhi took a sip and immediately wish he hadn't. "More," said the seer. The stuff was gawd awful if butt crack had a taste this was it. Woah, Benzhi was dizzy all of a sudden. He had to lie down.

 It wasn't a great feeling, having the cave spin faster and faster despite lying still on the cave floor. 'The damn Seer, he better not take advantage of me,' Benzhi thought. It was with great relief that Benzhi succumbed to unconsciousness and began to dream. 

 "Follow," said the seer. But he was changed, he was beautiful, he was a majestic Snowy Mountain Hawk. Benzhi looked down at himself. 'Oh great, the seer is a Snowy Mountain Hawk and I get a Finch.' Benzhi could be the seer's dinner. Benzhi flapped as hard as he could trying to keep up. The seer swooped over the mountains, down the steppes and within less than an hour they were above the walled city of Vaugend.

 "Fear not, they cannot see us," the seer informed Benzhi. He wasn't actually talking, it was akin to spirit bird thought projection. The seer led Benzhi deep into the city, skirting over buildings, heading towards what looked to be a keep within the city. 

 "Deep within the keep is the Core of the City. Can ye sense it?" the seer asked.

Benzhi engaged qi sight, it worked even in this form. Like everything with men, the cities' qi was weak or non-existent Only the keep had some streams. Benzhi could see the Core within the keep, below ground, in what could be a dungeon or vault. 

 "Do ye ken what ye need to do?" the seer asked.

 Benzhi nodded his tiny little head.

 "What will happen to the city?" Benzhi asked, afraid, thinking back to what happened with the Ferals. Despite this being a cesspool of scum, he didn't want to be the reason ten thousand men stopped living. He felt bad enough about one hundred Ferals now, and that was done partially in ignorance and misunderstanding. This would be wholesale premeditated murder. But if there was no choice, if it was us or them, he would do it.

 "Fear not," the seer reassured Benzhi, "this place has so little or no qi, it will not make a difference to the average men. Only the keep and its inhabitants will suffer, but that must be." The Snowy Mountain Hawk took to the air.

 "Follow Benzhi, come back to ye body and rest," the seer called.

 Benzhi followed, flying as fast as he could trying to keep up with the majestic hawk was not easy or possible. The seer was circling back for him and flying slowly. 'The concoction was the worst thing Benzhi had ever drunk, but this had to be the best spying method ever invented.' Benzhi pondered while he flew back to the mountain cave.

 Benzhi the Finch finally arrived, he could see his body laying there on the floor over the seer's cave, imitating the seer he landed on his body and waited. He followed the seer's instructions but he did not wake in his body, he was back in the starlight pool. Benzhi panicked, oh no, I hope something didn't go wrong. He was startled by voices. Chinese again. "Oh no, Oh no,' he thought. An alarm sounded. The seer probably did not account for Benzhi's special circumstances.

 After a few minutes a somewhat familiar voice spoke, "Eleven, what happened, can you hear me?" It was the Chinese white lab coat boss.

 Benzhi groaned he was in the pool, in his real body at the same time. No! He needed to help the people, he needed to get back.

 "Eleven," the white coat lab boss probably forgot his real name and just called him what they always did, "you have done well, we have our next funding thanks to you. But you must go back, you are not finished. Did something happen?"

 A torrent of questions that Benzhi could not answer. "Back," he rasped. He wasn't in pain, perhaps a little in shock, he was in despair.

 "Yes go back. We are working hard here, we will have a pod for you in a year, much better than this. You need not worry about us, go back. You have done well, but you must learn to heal yourself, nothing else matters." The white coat lab boss was awfully chatty, perhaps he wanted to tell Benzhi things for a long time but couldn't. Nothing else may matter to them, but it certainly did to Benzhi. Benzhi had an idea, he dived down into the pool. He swam down and down, breathing didn't matter, the water got thicker, more resistant as he swam down. 

 "Can you do something to send him back?" The white lab coat boss spoke to someone in Chinese. "Do it!"

Benzhi didn't care he was swimming as hard as he could for the hole. His legs worked, his arms worked, he was swimming. Finally, he reached the hole and pulled himself through. After travelling through the worlds fastest water tube Benzhi began spinning on the cave floor again, with a terrible aftertaste in his mouth. He should have stayed in the starlight pool a little longer!

 "Ye are back," the seer announced. "Ye went somewhere I cannot go. Where was it ye went?"

 "You don't want to know," Benzhi answered truthfully. "Do you have something for a spirit bird hangover?"

The seer chuckled with his usual gargling sound. "Nay, ye must be brave young Benzhi do not wail like a babe."

 "Fuck you and fuck that potion, I am never drinking it again," Benzhi said he sat up, his head spun back and forth, it didn't even spin in circles anymore, that was a mistake.

 The seer cackled, "Ye bring such mirth Benzhi come and visit anytime. What will ye do, now ye have the ken."

 "I know what must be done, it is the how, should I go alone? What do you think?" Benzhi asked the seer. Despite the gawd awful concoction, he was so much more helpful than Mother.

 The seer shook his head, "I can ken ye present, I can ken your past, I cannot ken ye future. This is something ye must decide." 

 So much for being helpful. "Do I have the support of the Gaels?" Benzhi asked.

  "Ye have me blessing Benzhi, ye should ken that already. I will tell the Clans of my blessing, but remember, the Clans have their Clan Chiefs. They be the leaders, I am only the guide."

 Benzhi nodded formulating a plan to convince the Clan Chiefs in short order. He rose groggily to his feet, slowly feeling better. Once he was stable on his feet, he waved farewell to the seer and made his way out of the cave.

  "You were in there a whole day!" Ailen squealed. 

 Ulfgrim nodded to Benzhi and headed into the cave with Reyas in tow. The two clansmen eyeballed Benzhi suspiciously.

 "Calm down Ailen, I have the worst hangover," Benzhi replied. He then relented and told Ailen every detail, with the exception of leaving out the starlight pool episode. At first, the two clansmen remained stoic but he could tell they hung on every word as well. By the end, they were peppering Benzhi with questions as well. 

 Ulfgrim and Reyas exited the cave and stared at Benzhi in what was a mixture of awe and fear. Ulfgrim was silent for a minute waiting for Benzhi to speak. Benzhi remained silent looking back at Ulfgrim.

 Finally, Ulfgrim broke the silence, "We will listen to what ye has to say," the words seemed inconsequential, but the tone conveyed a message that was more akin to, 'we will take your orders but I will vet them before agreeing."

  Benzhi nodded, spread his feet slightly and took on a serious tone. "I know now what must be done." He then waited for this to sink in.

 "What I have to say now, I will ask you tell the other clans we do not have time to coddle, beg, discuss or debate," Benzhi said with a deadly serious tone. Ulfgrim nodded.

 "The Fae will come to defend the mountains with thousands of arrows, we will return in one week. We will kill the men here." Benzhi paused for a moment pointing towards the mine. "We will enrage the men and draw them into bad ground." Ulfgrim was about to protest, but Benzhi held up his palm.

 "This is the message I want the Clans to receive. They will join us to kill the men or they are cowards." Benzhi said with vehemence. He knew it was unfair, but he was irritable from the hangover and short on time.

 Ailen jostled on one foot and then the other, panicking internally.

 Ulfgrim went bright red.

 Reyas huffed enraged herself, "how dare ye! Who do ye think ye are," she went to punch Benzhi.

 Benzhi caught her fist in his hand, ouch she could hit hard, "I am Benzhi," he said as if that explained everything.

  "Come Ailen," Benzhi turned to Ailen then to leave, he turned back one last time and ordered, "We will be back in a week, be ready."

Chapter end