Quest (28 page)

'What I desperately want to do is find out what the Archives have to say about all the Manifestations of the God -

when I have more time - if I ever do have time to spare! But Herra insists that I develop my skills first and allows me only occasional visits to the Archives. She won't let me investigate the Manifestations of the God. She says it is not now the time.' He laughed. 'Don't think I'm having an easy life here, my friend. I'm not! Herra works everyone to the utmost limits of their capacities.' His joyous laughter was stranger than any other change in him. She couldn't remember Davred laughing aloud like that in all the years they had worked together on the satellite.

'Don't you miss the comforts of civ- I mean, of the satellite?'

'No. In a climate as mild as Tenebron, the physical side of life is pleasant enough. And now that I've seen what Discord does to people, I'm even more committed to the Quest. I think, I hope, that I shall never have to leave this planet again.'

'You can't mean that!'

'I do. I'm needed here so desperately. It isn't the same to see things on a screen. You can't feel the hurt caused by Those of the Serpent from so far away. Or see the beauty of a three-moon night, when the kushlan flowers are in bloom. It is
my
Quest as well, now, Soo.'

'How can you base your life on something so nebulous?'

Davred shrugged, another slightly alien gesture, accompanied by a flutter of the fingers, then smiled at Soo. 'The Quest is a search for everything that's good. Wisdom, love, beauty - and most of all, for those who live in this age, for a way to end of Discord. Is that so different to the knowledge we were seeking in Confex?'

Soo didn’t answer. She was studying Davred's eyes, which seemed to glow with an inner serenity, a thing she greatly envied him. Life on the satellite in the standard year and a half since he'd left had been anything but serene.

Robler made the atmosphere unpleasant and contact with the Sisterhood very difficult. She kept the microscan on Davred's face. The differences in expression should surely reveal something to a probing analysis.

'In fact,' Davred went on, 'the true title is not the Quest for Wisdom, but the Quest for the Path of Wisdom.

Perhaps the searching itself is important, as well as the goal. Perhaps there isn't a finished, final state of wisdom.

Perhaps the wisdom needed changes with circumstances down through the ages.'

'A permanent process of change, you mean? Or - a permanent quest?'

'Both, perhaps. Anyway, we don’t have time for a philosophical debate now, do we?' He held up the next manuscript. 'I did find reference to one of the other Manifestations of the God for you, Soo, the second one, the Lord Terraccalliss . . . He's the best known and the best loved of them all.'

TENEBRAK:YEAR 829, SUMMER,DAY 50

This Midsummer's Day departed Lord Terraccalliss, beloved Manifestation of our God. He is of the Precursors, who were here long before us. He disappeared into the sky in his flying chariot, which had lain in the wildwoods to
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the west of Tenebrak for over two hundred years. Great is our grief. No more will he fly around our temple like a golden bird dancing in the sun. No more will his wings beat out the rhythm of our dances.

This Sister is desolate that she must henceforth live her life outside his shadow. He has been with us ever since the year 607, before this Sister was born, and has left us with much new knowledge and many Disciplines which are hard indeed to learn, but which bear rich fruit. Greatest of all, however, was the joy of his presence, which filled us all with happiness. This Lord of the Sun helped to bring an end to Discord, though the struggle was onerous, and then taught us to rebuild our lives.

Henceforth we must continue our Quest alone. But the days are dark and the way not clear without the Lord Terraccalliss. This Sister will not weep, for he forbade that, but she will miss the joy of his presence more than anyone else will, for she was honoured with the precious gift of his love, out of which she bore him a son and three daughters. Oh, that they had their father's wings and could dance in the skies! But alas, like their mother, they are earthbound.

Priannar, our Elder Sister, will guide our steps now. Once more we have reverted to a Sisterhood. The long years of struggle against Discord have left their mark upon us. Even those men of constancy have now been sent to live in the town. A hard decision, but the balance is not right for both men and women to unite in the Quest. Why do men take so much longer to discover their Gifts? Why does violence still flourish more easily in their souls?

The married Sisters shall pass freely between town and temple, living where the God calls them. Since our Brother granted us the Gift of longer life than other people, our Sisters will be able to return to the temple when their husbands die.

This Sister will never leave the temple again, nor seek another husband. One who has flown in the arms of the Lord Terraccalliss cannot feel love for an earthbound man. It may be that this Sister will bear another child or two, for the sake of the bloodlines, for her line is an honoured one, fruitful in Gifted offspring. However, foster-mothers will raise the children with their own families, until the time of Choosing.

It is a joy to us all that already the daughters of Lord Terraccalliss show promise and that the boy has a nobility of character far beyond his years. Their marriages and breeding must not be chance matings, but must be most carefully selected, as they are already aware. In them are vested Gifts essential to our prime lines.

This Sister will devote the rest of her life to the Archives. More paper needs fabricating, and there are many collections of memoirs and skills which need to be carefully classified and bound into books. Surely this will be a task worth the undertaking! Though the joy is gone from this Sister's life, she shall not waste her days, nor sit weeping for what cannot return.

Herra III

The third Herra was known as the Beloved of the God, Soo. And as she was an ancestor of our Herra, that means that our Elder Sister is descended from an alien, the Lord Terraccalliss. Wouldn't you like access to a hospital planet to run some nano-grid tests on their DNA? Even in the Sisterhood, our Herra is longer-lived than usual.

There must be something special in her genetic inheritance. It was Herra III who designed the beautiful bindings which they still use for the Archives, as well as the whole system of information storage. I wish you could see the Archive Cellars.'

'I wish I could too.'

They were both silent for a few seconds, then Davred laid the second parchment reverently to one side.

'I think most of the Manifestations of the God were aliens, Soo. There are carvings around the Statue of the God in the temple here of eight different Manifestations, some of them not human, and one of them with wings.

Apparently they're exact portraits of the Manifestations of the God, but no one can tell me how the carvings appear.

I never saw such skilled carving in my life - you could almost stroke the fur of the Lord Ebrlk - and the stonework hasn't deteriorated in the slightest even after all these thousands of years.'

He hesitated, then added, 'Soo, it's incredible, but when we got back here after I landed, the darkness at the back
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of the statue had receded to reveal an eighth form - mine. It was only starting to appear when they left to find me, but when we got back, it was fully finished. I still can't believe it. The honour overwhelms me. How do they do it?'

Her voice was vehement. 'I'd sell my soul to come down and see such things for myself! '

'Not your soul, Soo. That's too precious. The God wouldn’t welcome such a sacrifice.'

He meant that. Every time she spoke to him, he seemed more attuned to another way of thinking, as if he saw life through a different lens to her. He was lean and tanned now, and had lost his diffident, boyish look. He wore a short-sleeved tunic and loose trousers of fine temple cloth in the same soft blue as the Sisters' robes. He even moved differently, like a well-trained dancer, which he actually was now, for he’d had to spend long hours learning the ritual dances of the temple.

Soo wondered suddenly what kind of dancing could cause such a rapid and visible change in a person's body. It’d have been good to record it from close quarters and then analyse the muscles being exercised by each movement.

Oh, there were so many things she wanted to know! Damn Robler and his interference! Why had he not been replaced as Exec? Had no one read the reports she and Mak had sent in to Sector HQ?

To see Davred with Katia was to see two people so completely bonded that Soo would have envied their closeness had she not found deep satisfaction in her own evolving relationship with Mak. They had trouble keeping quiet when Robler sneered at the way Davred had 'gone primitive' and 'pair-bonded himself to a native'.

Like Davred, Soo had begun to wonder which was, in fact, the more primitive of the two cultures. The Confederation might have sophisticated machinery, but the Sisters seemed to have found their own inner peace and meaning in life in a way the 'civilised' citizens of the Confederation might well envy. Was that why the art forms on Sunrise were of such a high calibre, far superior to anything crafted elsewhere in the Confederation? As for the Sisters' personal skills, they were like the magic of ancient history. Why hadn't someone authorised a full-scale Research Project to study Sunrise, as she and Mak had recommended? There was so much to be learnt from this planet!

Smiling, Davred held up another parchment to be scanned. 'This one is slightly more modern. It's remarkable, Soo. I don't think I've ever heard of a culture which can so easily accept outsiders and aliens. Look at all the problems the Confederation’s had in reconciling some of the different planets! And yet most sentients are descended from Old Terra and physically very similar.'

'Is Discord bred in us?' she wondered.

He shrugged. 'One wonders. Anyway, you may find this one amusing.'

TENEBRAK: THE SPREAD OF DISCORD YEAR 22,542, AUTUMN,DAY 34

This day did the God honour our temple after an absence of 2,201 years, by sending us His Eighth Manifestation.

His name is Lord Davred and in this Manifestation he is a being very like ourselves in appearance, though he was raised on a different world and flew across the heavens to join us. So does the God keep his promise to send his Manifestation to help us in times of direst need. (Ref: Encyclopedia - Manifestations of the God, Galactic Confederation, Confex, Satellite, Cathartic Agent.)

This day there returned to Tenebrak with the Manifestation of our God, Herra, our Elder Sister, and our young Sister, Katia, both of whom had travelled into the wildwoods to bring him back to safety. A Ceremony of Rejoicing was held, in spite of the continuing Discord in the city, and the tale of their deeds was told to all who dwell in the temple.

The Lord Davred descended to our world in a flying wagon called a lifeship, pursued by enemies who caused him to fall across the sky too rapidly. The lifeship was damaged and the Lord himself sustained injuries, so Herra and Katia went to rescue him. Herra healed his broken leg and discovered that in the Galactic Confederation, which is what his people call their union of many worlds, they have inferior knowledge of healing. His people place their trust
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in machinery and have little control over their own bodies.

The Lord who claims Tenebron, one Benner, a servant of Evil, sent out large parties of men in pursuit of the Lord Davred, forcing him and his Sisters to take refuge for a time in a cave. What sad times are these! Herra's life force being badly depleted, she was obliged to enter the Discipline of Deep Renewal without the help and guidance of a Healer.

As this was her tenth Renewal, the danger was immense, but she succeeded. The God was looking down upon her, as she so richly deserved. And upon us all, for we have great need of her wisdom. She has no equal, and is now the oldest Sister ever known, a direct descendant of Karialla and Deverith. How true that line breeds still! And the blood of the Lord Terraccalliss also flows in her veins. How fortunate we were to be given the Blessing of his line!

While the Elder Sister was in Renewal, Katia was left to guard the Lord Davred and had to leave the cave to find food. On a sad day, she was attacked by one of the Serpent's followers, an Initiate of the Inner Shrine. I shall not write in this book the threats he made against her, for they do not deserve to be remembered, but he was sunk deep in depravity. The Lord Davred had to kill this person, such need being confirmed by the Elder Sister. (See Memoirs: Katia, Herra IX, Davred I.) How sad that even we of the Sisterhood should be forced to violence!

During Herra's Renewal, the Great Prophecy (Herra IX: 25) was further fulfilled, in that the Lord Davred and Katia our Sister vowed themselves as man and wife. Of their issue, and that of our other Gifted Lines, shall come those who will lead us along the next stage of our path. The Lord Davred is to be one of the Fathers of the next Stage. Of his seed shall great progress be made, as always happens when we are granted a Manifestation of our God.

So, in the midst of Discord, does our Brother yet give us hope.

It is further confirmed that Katia is with child, a daughter (prophesied Davred I: 1). Like the others, this Manifestation of our God will also leave his seed among the bodies of those of our Sisters whose lines are judged most compatible. Thus all shall not be lost, whatever the outcome of this unhappy age, and our Gifted Lines shall be scattered and preserved.

* * *

It is confirmed with sadness that the Temple at Penerak had to go under stasis a short time ago. This is an effect of a machine brought down by the Lord Davred for our protection. It can
still
life and set up a barrier over a whole temple. Violence as being perpetrated against the temple itself and this was the only way to save it.

Surely the greatest Discord ever known is rife among us! Shall Temple Tenebrak also need to seek refuge under such machinery one day? Cold comfort, that! And what of the townsfolk we shall have to leave behind to face Discord alone?