Part MMMXXI: Fortress of the Mind
Fortress of the Mind
Nineteenth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
Past the outer wall of the monastery the ground begins to slope, a perfectly even incline that is as much a product of Githzerai will as the walls that loop gently around the mount like serpents slumbering one inside the other. You see all around you structures flowing into each other more like the bones of some vast living thing than any mortal city. Instead of houses standing each on their own to hold a family great or small the living quarters are large enough to hold several thousand, built partly so as not to waste the heat from the kitchens, Saruk explains noticing your interest.
Craftsmen too ply their trade in unassuming silence with nary a marker boasting the skill of this master or that, only the sound of a smith's hammer or the creak of a loom speaking to their presence. Nor is there any sight of an inn nor any other establishment that could cater to travelers, though the monastery itself is certainly large enough that it could support several. In truth you would call it as much city as monastery or at least a large town, though guessing the exact size is harder given the odd layout.
Thankfully your young guide is more than happy to answer these questions and more, there are nine-thousand three-hundred and eleven Githzerai within the city, not counting infants and toddlers, a number that comes so easily and surely upon his tongue because the very minds of its inhabitants are forged in endless daily meditations are all that prevents the monastery from being consumed by the tides of Limbo. Oddly enough he does not count the encroaching chaos an evil or an enemy, as you imagine most who would grow up under such a relentless siege would do, but a challenge, an opportunity.
"The walls and paths do not know themselves and so they must be made anew with every moment. As we remake them we remake ourselves also to see farther, our gazes unclouded by passion," he explains with the tone of one recounting a half-understood lesson.
Glancing back at Dany you see that she is as troubled as you had expected, behind a carefully constructed smile. Without our passions and desires how can any of us be ourselves? her expression asks, clear as if she had shouted it to you at least.
You shrug, you are not here to change anyone's way of life, only to seek allies against a common foe.
Speaking of that foe you are surprised by the hum of unfamiliar power that hangs around a trio of warriors that cross your path at a busy intersection, moving with purpose towards some distant errand. Unfamiliar, but not wholly unknown, the magic of the mind, you think in satisfaction. What had Jeyne called it, 'holding focus'?
This time it is Teana who asks after them, having either sensed the strange power herself or noticed your reaction. Alas, Saruk cannot answer all you would wish to know. He names them 'awoken', those able to use their minds for more than the shaping of Limbo, but of their precise skills, much less their numbers, he knows nothing... then almost idly he answers the question that had been troubling you ever since you had reached the city. "They are likely newly returned from the Shattered Garden where they fight Zerthimon's rebellion anew each day."
The news of the Githzerai's continuing war against their old masters among the ruins of Elysium is at once heartening and concerning, the first of course because it is good to hear of any power who would contest those horrors where your power cannot yet reach, the second because as in the realms of air and earth you find yourself again competing with the needs of an existing war.
You do not have long to ponder the matter before you reach the summit of the monastery crowned with a octagonal fortress seemingly built of weather-worn granite large enough to contain the entire population of the monastery with room to spare, as any proper fortress should.
The first thing you notice upon stepping inside is the silence, deep enough that you can hear the beat of your heart and Dany's sudden exhalation of surprise, yet it does not feel unnatural, leaving only a faint melancholy upon the heart when it passes.
"So not seek fate and purpose in every odd conjunction. That is the path of one who has already imagined himself at the journey's end and will fall into the first pitfall, to be remembered only as a warning to the young," The voice is old but still strong, echoing through the archway ahead.
Saruk's steps slow ever more as he approaches the final passage, though finally with a deep breath he steps forward to introduce you to not only to the Grandmaster but also the three students who had come asking for counsel or aid, eyes so fixed upon the ancient bearded man that they do not even notice your arrival at first.
"Ah... how fate conspires against my lessons," the Grandmaster laughs, spark of almost child-like mischief in his eye. "Welcome, welcome, honored and..." The look he gives you leaves you almost certain he had seen your true nature through some magic or artifice of the mind. "Most unusual guests. What do you seek here?"
"Aid against the very creatures your people even now fight, those who in the Realm of Balance are called the Deep Ones, because it is in the depths of the sea that they have found shelter, just as it said in my letter," you reply simply.
"We will do what we can," Grandmaster Randar offers. Far from the best reassurance you have ever received, but better than nothing. "What manner of aid do you most desire?"
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OOC: This would be the time to mention that lore you brought along too. Also, imagine the people in that pic with green skin like the first one, that is the model of Githzerai I'm using.
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