Sunday, October 1, 2017

Rynela


The transition from existing as a strict materialist on Earth to his new life on a world of magic was a provocative intellectual challenge for Azynov. Azynov's introduction to Tar'tron magic was provided by a young witch whose name I translate into English as 'Rynela'. However, her clan had no written language and I can only guess at the proper morphemes. -from Zeta Gohrlay's Report on the Witches of Tar'tron

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Rynela ran under a giant byrk tree and threw her arms around the trunk. She let herself merge with the substance of the tree and closed the semi-transparent lids of her eyes. The outer world of her visual sense almost blinked out entirely, leaving her self-constructed inner world free to dominate her mind.

That inner world was an array of colored moth-like points and cloud-like blobs in a black cosmos. Nearest was the Skarży cloud, now moving quickly through the forest towards their secretly arranged point of rendezvous. Not far away was her mother cloud, down in the valley, at the location of the older clan members. The clan would be preparing to sleep, but Skarży and Rynela were impatient to see the Palace.

Now Skarży was close enough that Rynela could feel her legs at work and hear the soft falls of her feet. It was a matter of pride to reach the rendezvous ridge first. Rynela let go of the soft, warm byrk trunk and ran out into the star glow that surrounded the tree's shadow. It took a few seconds for her vision to adapt to the glare of starlight, but she did not hesitate to accelerate to top speed, bounding over the small alpine shrubs that periodically confronted her.

There was Skarży, running up the parallel spur to the north. They yipped at each other, sharing near ultrasonic signals: pack coordination calls. Rynela was annoyed that each breath and each step jiggled her little breasts and reminded her that she was growing old. Her body was now building fat deposits and making the transition from child towards adult. She reached the top of the ridge and stood on the highest point, gazing into the valley to the east. There it was: the Palace.

Rynela briefly looked up and tried to visualize the fixed star that marked the location of this palace, but it was lost in the general blaze of the star field. She turned around and watched Skarży arrive, taking the last few running steps up the slope and then pouncing. Rynela caught Skarży in her arms and they fell to the ground, tumbled a few rolling turns and then they lay there, panting. Skarży turned her head and looked at the Palace.

Rynela looked deeply into Skarży's eyes and caught the blue reflection of the Palace glow. Rynela ran a hand along Skarży's torso and felt two of her stiff little nipples protruding from her fur. "Soon I'll be as fat and slow as you are, Ska."

Skarży pushed a hand between Rynela's legs and then sniffed her fingers. "I only smell salt. You still are not ovulating. Enjoy your last years of childhood, Ry, don't be rushing to grow up."

"I'm not in any rush, but it is exciting to be so near to the Palace, and men."

"This is where your father lives, isn't it? You are probably picking up on your mother's growing excitement as she approaches her lover. His name is Pawel, as I recall." Having caught her breath, Skarży sprang to her feet and turned, claiming the point of highest elevation on the ridge and looking off towards the Palace.

The blue-tinged towers and spires of the History Palace sparkled in the distance. Rynela knew that the sparkles were mostly due to the morning sun, now rising. Sunlight was reflecting off of a layer of low clouds and illuminating the broad and lazy river that arched around the Palace with orange light. For her, this particular Palace had always seemed enchanted and the soaring walls of its towers seemed tinged with a magical glow.

Part of the special feel of the History Palace was generated by the fact that Rynela's father lived there. She only got to see Pawel when her coven visited the History Palace and that had only happened a half dozen times during Rynela's life.

This time, she had conspired with Skarży to race ahead of the others, just to get the chance to be the first to gaze upon the Palace. However, using her inner sense, Rynela now noticed that her mother had detected her and was following, leaving behind the rest of the old women and heading right for the place on the ridge where Rynela and Skarży had come to view the Palace.

Rynela now turned and scanned the valley to the west. There was her mother, Vaña, visible only as a blur, far down the green slope, her movements mostly obscured by trees, but her position easily tracked by Rynela's inner magical sense. Rynela had learned early that she was blessed with excellent eye sight and could see distant or tiny objects that most other witches did not see. Everyone in the coven believed that good vision was a detriment to witches and their power to use magic.

Vaña had once said, "Too much of your brain is devoted to vision. That is why you are a bumbling and weak witch."

Rynela resented the fact that Vaña's dream was for her daughter to be a powerful witch, just like she was. Rynela cherished the memory of what Pawel had told her the last time they were together. "You are an interesting mix of Vaña and I. You have my eyes, which is a good thing now that the magic is dying."

Rynela stood behind Skarży and wrapped her arms around the older girl and rested her head against Skarży. Rynela knew that it was useless to continue thinking of Skarży in the ways she had come to prefer. Skarży was now an adult and soon she would abandon the migratory clan and take up residence in a Palace. Only children and old women continued the old traditional life of migrating across the vast plains of Tar'tron. The future of the world was in the Palaces.

In close physical contact, Skarży could sense elements of Rynela's thoughts. "If I take up residence in a Palace, you can join me."

Rynela loved the freedom of migrating with her clan across the green hills of Tar'tron. Palace life was foreign and intimidating and her mating instinct had not yet activated. As much as Rynela loved Skarży, she would not cling to her. Since they were close in age it had been natural for Skarży and Rynela to explore their bodies, but during the past year Rynela had felt pushed and she'd been made somewhat uncomfortable by the power of Skarży's growing need for physical contact. "I don't understand why people live in Palaces. I prefer the life of a wanderer."

"You must follow your own path. Just don't get confused by your mother's fanaticism." Skarży glanced down slope to the west to where Vaña had emerged from the tree line.

Rynela watched Vaña striding somewhat sluggishly up the hill. The last stars were now quickly fading from the sky as the sun rose in the east. Vaña called, "Come into the shade!"

Skarży and Rynela each took one last glance at the Palace then they ran down hill, bounding past Vaña, into the shade of the ridge line and then into the darker shade of the forest. Vaña caught up to them and asked, "What were you planning, to go to the Palace today?"

Rynela replied, "No, mother. I just wanted a quick look at the Palace. I've always felt that the History Palace is particularly beautiful."

Vaña complained, "I taught you not to wander off during daylight."

Rynela nodded obediently. "Yes, mother. We would have been back in camp before the sun rose over the ridge."

Vaña glanced upwards and closed her eyes, "Something unusual is happening. I sense a change, something... falling... from the sky."

Rynela felt shivers along her spine and saw a fragment of what Vaña had sensed: a flashed vision of a naked face. Not understanding what she had seen, Rynela voiced a soft giggle, but said nothing more about her vision.

Vaña opened her eyes and looked at the ground. "Well, we will reach the Palace tomorrow. Don't go wandering off. The Palace district is a land of black magic. Now, I must sleep." Vaña waved her hand and a black shroud formed and settled over them, blocking out the daylight. Without powerful witches who could perform such magic, it was very difficult for people to survive outside of the palaces. Vaña quickly settled down to sleep, but the two youngsters lay together chatting and snuggling until Skarży eventually drifted into sleep.

Rynela rolled away from Skarży and made contact with her mother's body. Vaña's bones protruded and Rynela was reminded of her mother's advanced age. All of the powerful witches were dying off and eventually the magic would be gone from Tar'tron. Rynela was once again in her inner world and inside the cloud that was Rynela's constructed image of Vaña. Within that cloud, Rynela could feel some of Vaña's thoughts. Vaña was dreaming about the Palace and Pawel. Then, Rynela was distracted by a spark: the light of the fixed star above. Rynela sensed that there was something new awaiting them, something they would encounter tomorrow.

Temporal magic was one of the great myths of the clans. Rynela had never experienced information flow from the past or the future, but Vaña and the other old witches all claimed that it had been a real phenomenon before the magic began to die.

Rynela thought of Pawel and the strange things he had shown her during her previous visit to the History Palace. "These are letters. Watch this!" He traced out some more letters and they formed a clump. "That's your name. Rynela. The letters make the sounds."

Rynela had been puzzled. "How do these lines make sound?"

"It is like a puzzle. You must learn the sound of each letter and how to combine them into words. Since you seem to be able to see letters, I could teach you to read. In fact, Yōd says that children should learn to read as early as possible."

"Fine. Teach me. I'm bored. There is nothing to do here in the Palace."

Pawel laughed. "If you want to learn to read then you should stay here in the Palace. Yōd will teach you to read, but it will take a long time."

Rynela was a little afraid of the bare-skinned Yōd. "Vaña want's to leave in a few days. She told me she is tired of you."

Pawel laughed again. "Yes, she is a wanderer. It pains her to stay here, trapped in a cage. And you are still a wild child. You should go outside and play with your friends. Reading is a game for old men, like me."

Rynela had run off and spent the night outside with the other children, swimming in the wide lazy river and running across the green hillsides. Still, the image of those letters had never faded from Rynela's mind.

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As the youngest, it was not unusual that Rynela was the last to have fallen asleep and she was the first awake. Still in tune with her mother's inner vision, Rynela could sense that an individual was ahead in the valley of the Palace. The pattern produced by that individual was like nothing Rynela had ever previously experienced. Intrigued, she rolled out from other the light-dampening shroud and jumped to her feet. The light of late afternoon flooded the forest.

Rynela covered one eye with her hand and most of her second eye with her fingers and she began to run up the ridge. Soon she topped the ridge line and dropped down the other side. Reaching the shadow of the ridge, she paused and tried to get a sense of where her target was. She snuggled against the trunk of a byrk tree and covered both eyes with the palms of her hands. There it was! A bright point in her inner sensorium, further ahead in the valley, now just about half way to the Palace.

Rynela ran her fastest and soon emerged again into the light of the dipping sun. For a while she ran mostly in the shade of trees but with the sun on her back when she was in the open meadows. Then, mercifully, the sun set behind the ridge. Again Rynela made use of a byrk tree as an antenna. She could sense that she had gained considerably on her quarry. Rynela also sensed that her mother had noticed her absence.

Under the glorious night sky of Tar'tron, Rynela came upon the individual who emitted such a strange signal into what Rynela had been taught to think of as the magical realm of inner senses. Under the star glow, Rynela saw his startled face and it was a naked face of a young man. She stopped ten feet from him and said, "A boy."

Asimov was startled by the sudden appearance of Rynela. He'd been strolling along, trying to keep oriented in the direction of the Palace. He muttered, "A hairy girl!" He tried to focus his eyes on her face, but he was distracted by the realization that he had just spoken an unknown language.

Rynela blinked and tried to assimilate the jutting features of Asimov's smooth white face and she asked, "Who are you, stranger? Where are you from?" Rynela knew that there were people on other worlds without fur, but she did not have a clear understanding of where those worlds were or how anyone could travel from one planet to another.

"My name is Asimov. Isaac Asimov." Again, replying to Rynela he automatically used her language, but he spoke his name as he was used to pronouncing it.

"My name is Rynela."

"I'm glad I can speak your language, Rynela, but I don't know how I'm doing it. I'm from Earth and I'm sure I've never heard your language before in my life."

Rynela knew that Vaña was worried about her. She and Skarży had re-joined the clan just long enough to explain Rynela's absence and then set off in pursuit of Rynela, moving as quickly as the aged Vaña could travel. "I beseech you, Azynov, let us walk while we talk."

"Very well. I'm trying to make my way towards the towers that are to the east."

"No, we must go west and join up with the rest of my clan."

"Rynela, I've walked a longway and I don't want to back track. At least it is down hill heading east. I really don't want to go uphill in the wrong direction."

Rynela could not decide if Azynov was older than herself, but she decided to pull rank on him. "Listen, boy, I'm in command. We will go west. The clan is on its way to the Palace, so just relax. We will get there eventually. She took hold of his hand and pulled him towards the west.

Azynov was only mildly intimidated by Rynela. As for as he could tell, she had no teeth and no claws, just ordinary human nails. However, he did not like wandering around in the dark. When in the shade of the trees he could not really see what he was stepping on, although the ground was remarkably free of debris and obstacles, more like a well-tended park than a wild forest. He decided not to argue with Rynela.

For Rynela, Earth was a mythical planet, although fables told of Earthlings who had visited Tar'tron. In those fables the Earthlings were naked, without fur, like this boy. She wanted to touch his clothing but she restrained herself. She asked, "How did you get here from Earth?"

"I can't explain that. When I was on Earth, I was old and dying. When I woke up here, I was young again, it what seems to be the body of my youth, only better."

Rynela knew legends about people who had undergone such body transformations. "Maybe you did die. Maybe you were reincarnated here on this world."

Asimov did not want to talk about his death. "What is this world called? Are all the people here fury like you? How many people are in your clan?"

Rynela laughed, partially amused by his rapid fire questions and partially by his funny way of speaking. She stopped walking and stuck a finger into his mouth, pulled back a lip and looked at his teeth. Legend had it that Earthlings were barbarians who had sharp teeth: they would bite each other and eat food.The language of Rynela's clan did not have a word for 'teeth'.

Asimov playfully nipped at Rynela's finger. She jumped away and snarled at him, but to Asimov's ear she sounded like sick cat. He laughed.

Rynela nervously said, "You have mouth bones. I've always thought such things were fables, made up stories."

"So, your people are story tellers?"

"My mother knows thousands of stories."

"Ah, an oral story telling culture? You don't have-" Asimov paused and searched his memory. No word for 'writing' seemed to be present in Rynela's language. Helpless, he substituted in the English word, "No written stories? You have no letters?"

"My father know about such things. He showed me letters and told me that I could learn to read."

Asimov imagined that Rynela might live in a culture where girls did not normally learn to read and write. "I can teach you to read, but what good would it do for me to teach you English?"

"Yes, English, that is the language used by my father and the historians in the Palace."

Asimov looked to the east. "Good. I will be pleased to meet these historians."

Rynela again took his hand and pulled him towards the west. They were in the middle of a large field and Asimov kept looking up at the stars. "We must be near the center of the galaxy."

Rynela explained, "It is said that Tar'tron is a world of the Core."

Asimov guessed, "The galactic core. This world is Tar'tron?"

Rynela asked, "Galactic?"

"That's from the word 'galaxy'. Earth is located out towards the fringe of the galaxy and Earth's sky is mostly dark." Asimov was surprised to hear that the name of the planet was Tar'tron. Year's before he'd been told by a crank that the planet Trantor of Asimov's Galactic Empire and Foundation stories was a real world, but actually called Tar'tron. Asimov had refused to listen to that crank, a man named Thomas. Thomas Iwedon. Asimov chuckled. He had not thought about Thomas for years! Not since that other crack pot had shown up. What was his name? Parthney. Parthney closely resembled Thomas, but he had claimed to be a different person. But Parthney had claimed to be from a world of the Galactic Core. Asimov had refused to see Parthney, but his wife had gone to the trouble of rummaging about. She's found the copy of Thomas' science fiction book and she gave it to Parthney. After that they'd never seen Thomas or Parthney again. Now Asimov felt foolish for having ignored Thomas and Parthney. Apparently they had not been insane.

Rynela asked again, "How did you get here? Earth must be very far away."

Asimov wanted to reply and say something about space ships and the speed of light but the words were not in Rynela's language. He gave up and muttered, "It seems like magic. I was on Earth and then I was here."

"My mother is an expert on magic. There are fables about the ancients who knew how to cast teleportation spells."

Asimov suddenly realized that Rynela's language had hundreds of words related to magical spells. He whimsically asked, "Can you do magic?"

"Not much."

"Show me some magic."

"Well, I was taught not to show off."

"I see. Just do something simple. We don't have magic on Earth, so I'm curious."

"Well, alright. But don't tell my mother." They were still holding hands and she guided him over to the edge of the meadow. Rynela pointed up at the branch of a tree. "Watch that leaf." Rynela pointed at a leaf and after a second or two it broke off of the limb and fluttered down to the ground.

Asimov picked up the leaf and asked, "You did that? You made it fall?"

"You watched me do it. Don't you believe your eyes?"

"I was trained as a scientist." Asimov looked at the stem of the leaf. It looked like it had been cut off. He could feel no sap or moisture on the wound. "How did you do it?"

Rynela took the leaf from Asimov and hid it among the branches of a small bush. "You made me do it. I'm not supposed to use magic for frivolous purposes. Knocking down leaves is one of the spells taught to children, just to find out if we can actually perform a spell. I haven't used that spell since I was a baby."

For a while they walked in silence and Asimov tried to imagine if magic was a real phenomenon on Tar'tron. He's never bothered to read Thomas' book, but on its cover it had said something about mindspells.

Asimov's wife had read the book and on several occasions she had tried to tell him about the story. He had not listened, certain that it was some silly fantasy story. But now that he thought about it, Janet had insisted that it was a science fiction story and that there were technological explanations for the so-called spells.

Asimov had also been insulted and had imagined that Thomas was mocking Asimov's own work. The main character is the book was named 'Daveed', an obvious play on Asimov's famous character named Daneel. Now Asimov regretted never having read the book. He suspected that there must be some unseen technology behind Rynela's leaf cutting spell.

Asimov asked, "What other kinds of magic can you do?"

"Mostly I just make use of my inner sense, to see where other people are."

"What do you mean by 'inner sense'?" Again, Asimov was forced to use English words. "Some kind of telepathy? Remote viewing?"

"It is like dreaming, but I can do it while I'm awake. Right now, I can sense my mother. She is not far away. I don't even need to close my eyes to feel her, to know what direction..." Rynela looked into Asimov's face and saw his disbelief. "You don't believe me."

"Rynela, please don't worry about my beliefs. I'm a trained skeptic. But tell me: that's how you found me, right. It was dark, but you knew where I was. You were able to sneak up on on me and find me in the dark."

Rynela pointed to the glowing sky. It is a clear night. "There is plenty of light. I saw you when I got near to you. But, yes, right when I woke up and I was on the other side of the ridge, way over in the next valley, I could see you in my mind."

They walked in silence, occasionally glancing at each other. Rynela said, "You don't believe me."

"Well, I'm not sure. I'm beginning to think that I must now have some kind of 'inner sense', some way of knowing things that is independent of my eyes and ears. I never had to learn your language, but I can speak it like a native."

"You sound funny, with you mouth bones messing up all the sounds."

"Well, you can't even say Asimov."

"I say Azynov just fine... I don't have bones in my mouth."

Asimov laughed. "Well, I won't argue about your pronunciation. I don't care if you mangle my name. Anyhow, it is more than just the mystery of how I know your language. From the moment when I first saw you, I felt like I knew you. I was a bit surprised by your appearance, by your fur, your lack of teeth, but... somehow not really surprised."

Rynela nodded. "Yes, I saw you yesterday; just a quick flash, a view of your naked face. And my mother also knew... she knew that something special would happen today. She knew that someone was going to arrive from the sky."

"I don't remember arriving from the sky, but I do have a foggy memory of being in a strange place. I feel like I was somewhere between my death bed on Earth and when I awoke on this world." Asimov strained to remember, but it was like grasping for a forgotten dream. "No, I can't remember."

After another five minutes of walking in silence, Asimov was about ready to give up trying to remember how he had traveled from Earth to Tar'tron. Rynela stopped walking and grasped both of Asimov's arms. "My mother is almost here, Azynov. Remember, don't mention that you made me demonstrate a magic spell."

"Fine. I won't tell our little secret."

"Are you mocking me, Azynov?"

"Well, maybe just a little. Try to think about what has happened to us from my perspective. I'm an old man, a scientist. How should I respond to a little girl who tells me wild tales about magic?"

"You are just a little boy. I don't care if you don't believe in magic. Magic is dying on this world."

Just then Skarży appeared on the other side of a little glade, her eyes glowing. Rynela pointed, "That's my friend, Skarży." Skarży began to run and Vaña came into view, behind the girl. Skarży yelped and Rynela answered with her own high-pitched call.

Skarży came to Rynela's side and put an arm around the younger girl. Starring at Asimov, she asked, "What is this?"

"An Earthling, recently arrive on our world. His name is Azynov."

Vaña approached and stepped between the girls and Asimov. "Why are you here?"

Asimov took a step back. "I had nothing to do with my arrival on this world."

Vaña turned her back on Asimov and spoke to her daughter. "Child, why did you run off and confront this creature all by yourself?"

Suddenly, Rynela realized that there might be danger from a strange visitor who appears out of thin air. "I knew I'd be safe. I could not wait for the clan to wake up."

Vaña shook her head, "You make me grow old fast, worrying about you. You have no common sense."

Skarży said, "He's just an ugly little boy." She asked Asimov, "What happened to your fur?"

"People don't have fur on Earth."

Skarży reached out and tugged on Asimov's clothing. "What is this."

Vaña replied, using the English word 'clothing'. Asimov explained, "With no fur, we Earthlings stay warm by making and wearing clothing." He was finding it difficult to not look at the pink nipples of Skarży and Vaña protruding through the short fur of their torsos. Vaña quite clearly had four nipples.

Rynela asked impatiently, "Can we go to the Palace?"

Vaña took a deep breath and sighed. "I'd prefer to rest until the rest of the clan catches up."

Asimov asked, "How large is your clan?"

Vaña sat down on the ground, pausing only to cast a spell that placed a soft pad between her and the ground. "Our numbers continue to decline. The old women die and the young adults stay in the Palaces. Our clan now has only 37 members who continue to follow the endless migration."

Asimov dropped to his knees and touched the pad that Vaña sat on. "How did you do that? Where did this pad come from?"

Vaña reached out and touched Asimov's clothing. "It is like clothing. I cast a spell and made the pad appear. Where did your clothing come from?"

"I don't know. When I woke up on this world, I was wearing these clothes. And they are odd. I don't see how to take them off." Asimov suddenly realized that since arriving on Tar'tron, he had not needed to urinate and he had no sensation of thirst. His legs were not even tired from all of the walking.

Rynela spoke to her mother, "The fables are correct. Earthlings have no magic."

Vaña nodded. "It is said that Earthlings use technology, not magic. They have machines that make clothing."

Asimov noted that Vaña had used the English word 'machine'. "How is it that your language does not even have a word for 'machine'?"

"Tar'tron is a world of magic, not machines."

Rynela did not want to see her mother and Azynov get into an argument about magic. "Azynov does not believe in magic."

Vaña gazed up at the stars. "In the Palaces, they say that the old age of magic has ended and Tar'tron must now enter into a new age of science."

Asimov suggested, "On Earth, I was trained as a scientist. Maybe I was brought here to help your world with scientific matters."



Next Chapter: Vaña
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A Search Beyond is copyright John Schmidt, but the text of the story is  licensed for sharing under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license. 

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