This is a story I'm working. Its a work in progress but I feel as though it's coming together. I'll be releasing one chapter a week for four weeks, to see how people enjoy it. If you have any comments, leave them as you please, or email me at bbrooks117@gmail.com
The Godling
Chapter 1: Godsfire
Adrieta Verona sat back in the soft, velvet cushion of the chamber’s leisure area, rolling her neck from side to side with moan’s of fatigue. From dawn till dusk, she had spent her day bent over the large circle etched into the floor. The loop of engraved silver as wide as she was tall had been set in the stone floor years ago, but still held a magnificent shine. The ring of shimmering metal now bore thousands upon thousands of small markings, equal parts carefully crafted runes and dried droplets of sweat. She looked at her hands, which were stained black by the thick, iron-based ink she had mixed herself. An indentation ran across two of her fingers and her thumb where she had been holding the pen.
The room she sat in was growing dark, and she hurriedly stood and began to light some candles. It would be a tragedy to trip over the ritual space in the dark and smudge a rune. As the candles flickered to life, she stood back and took stock of the room. It was clean when she had woke that morning. Now, however, the room looked like a tornado had passed through it.
Adrieta set about picking books up off the floor. The rugs that her tutor had bought her to cushion the area around the circle had proven horribly insufficient to the task. An inkwell had spilled over one of the thicker rugs, and she cursed to herself silently. As she picked up her copy of, “The Chains of Barba,” a slip of paper fell from her grasp, tumbling to rest inside the ring of runes. Adrieta held her breath. Carefully, she set her gathered materials on a work bench and slowly bent over the parchment. She extended a hand and with two finger, plucked the parchment up and inspected the slow drying runes. It was still whole and intact.
Wiping a drop of sweat from her brow, Adrieta sighed and fell back onto a cushion. Three days of reading, gathering and writing, almost ruined by a slip of paper. When her tutor had given her the assignment, Adrieta had felt excited, proud even, that she was thought skilled enough to attempt a full crafting on her own. Now she realized that the attempt was more of a humbling exercise. She was expected to make a mistake and give up like so many others before her. After the first day of reading nothing but long, boring texts to find the correct runes to implement in the crafting, she had considered quitting. Some books contained thousands of runes, and only a handful of them would apply to the crafting at hand.
The second day had proved easier as Adrieta scurried into town for the various supplies needed for the circle. She got the usual looks and frightened glances, but ignored them as usual. “Life as a Godling isn’t always easy,” her tutor had said on many occasions, “but the reward is grand, for all.”
Those words plagued her all of the third day. Every pain staking pen movement, every ritualistic chant or object, it all felt like a metaphor. Not easy, but yielding a grand reward. Every Godling in the city would be talking about her if she succeeded. “A full crafting?” they would ask one another, “At the age of sixteen? How could a girl so young posses so much talent?” A small smile crept up her lips as she thought of it.
A soft crackling sound came from behind her. She stood quickly, looking back to see a throw pillow on the ground, smoking and beginning to take flame. Adrieta bit her lip and forced the emotions away from her mind. No sooner had she felt the pride fade from her thoughts, the pillow quieted and stopped its crackling. She sighed out a relaxing breath and sat down once more.
For three whole days, Adrieta had been intentionally preventing any emotion to cloud her thoughts. The resulting surplus of Godsfire flowing throughout her body made it so any stray thought could have devastating effects on her environment. She took a few more deep breaths before continuing her task of cleaning.
A thunderous knocking sound came from the chamber door. The surprise nearly caused her to lose her composure, but a quick, calming breath brought her back in control. She walked briskly over to the large oak door and swung it open. While it was ten feet tall and thicker that an old tree trunk, the door opened smoothly. On the other side, a young woman, only a year younger than Adrieta, stood, staring into the room beyond.
“Hey there, Adi,” the girl said, waving slightly. She had her hair cut short, blonde, and as soft and smooth looking as silk. Her face was round and soft, with eyes as wide as saucers. One of her eyes was brown, as unremarkable as eyes come. The other, her gifted eye, was a brilliant yellow, and looked as though it were giving off its own source of light.
“Hello,” Adrieta replied in a strictly regulated tone. Somewhere, far away in the corners of her mind, she felt irritated and being interrupted, but the feeling didn’t touch her face.
The younger girl tried to walk it the room, but stopped suddenly, as if walking head first into a wall. She backed up, brushing her face off. Looking at her hands, she sighed. “You bought a ward?” She asked, annoyance in her tone.
“I had to Lola,” Adrieta mumbled as if half asleep, “you might have barged in, I couldn’t have that.”
Lola rolled her eyes. As she did, a single bell on her dress began to shake back and forth, chiming. The girl took her own calming breath and the bell stopped. “Probably a good idea. I am irritating.”
Adrieta couldn’t help but stifle a giggle. The candle nearest the door roared up into a flame five feet tall. Lola winced at the heat and stumbled back. “Sorry,” Adrieta whispered with real sincerity. The emotion turned the flame a bright blue color. She closed her eyes and the flame died down.
“I’ll get going,” Lola said, turning away almost too fast. Most the Godlings, even those Adrieta considered friends, still fled at the sight of her real, unfiltered, Godsfire.
She nodded and gave an emotionless smile. “I’ll stop by when I’m more fun to be around.”
Lola turned back, looking guilty. “Okay, I’ll be up all night. Are you going to, you know... do it soon?” she asked.
Adrieta nodded, “yes, after I clean up a bit. I’d be excited, but…”
“Yeah,” Lola shrugged, “I understand.” The younger girl placed her hand against the invisible ward, recoiling and wiping her hand on her dress. The ward had been designed to make anyone who crossed it feel like they had been covered in cobwebs. It was weak as far as wards go, but it was unmatched as an annoyance. Lola sauntered away, a rope of unseen force tugging on the metal door handle, pulling it closed with a loud thud. Adrienta heard a muffled, “sorry,” through the door. It took all of her strength not to burst out laughing.
All the books were returned to their shelves and the circle looked clean and ready for use. Adrieta inspected it once again, stopping once to touch up a very ornate rune. The rune that held all of the energy inside the crafting was dangerously similar to the one that caused wood to separate into the consistency of sand. It would be an annoyance to attempt the crafting and have her room start to crumble. She counted everything again: the rune of distortion in the center, one hundred runes of balance around that one, the five runes of intent, a hundred more balance runes around those, and finally, the ten runes of containment.
Everything seemed in order. Adrieta tiptoed through the runes to the center of the ring. On top of the rune of distortion, she placed a small cloth satchel, with brass clasps and buttons. The little bag was inexpensive as such things went. She had wanted to use a finer item, but her budget had not allowed it.
Exiting the circle, the young woman sat before one of the containing runes and placed a finger just above it. She took a long, deep breath, and envisioned a river, flowing throughout her own body. The river started in her chest, with all of her emotion, feeling, and spirit. It traveled from her heart, to her mind, through her belly, and up through her right arm. She felt her whole body radiating with Godsfire. The gentle thrum of energy made her feel at peace.
The stream of energy touched the silver embedded in the floor, and flowed into it, filling it. Three days of pent up emotion flowed through her, and she sighed in relief. The runes began to glow in various different colors, silver more prominent than any other. Silver was the color of restoration and reflection. As with most women, it was the easiest type of energy for her to control. It was said that the moon, the mother god of mankind gave silver to the world as a gift to her children.
While it was easy to use, it was ultimately useless energy to this particular crafting. Adrieta inhaled deeply, drawing the silver light back into her body. She then exhaled, releasing a new stream of power tinted with emotion.
The colors began to segregate around various runes. For this working she needed indigo for structure, purple for imagination, and yellow for balance and growth. The energies ebbed and flowed, and seemed to be coalescing into a workable shape.
“I’m actually doing it,” Adrieta thought, trying not to let too much ego into the construct. The colors began to encircle the little bag at the center. A connection formed between the object and her own consciousness as the various energies teased and tested the fabric. After a moment, she had no doubt that she could count every fabric, every ounce of metal and every imperfect stitch in the object. Her will encompassed it with the runes as a guide, and began to change the object slowly. The structure held firm as the energy began to warp the inside of the satchel. A little twist of imagination helped to keep the laws of order looking in the other direction.
It felt like hours as she shifted and molded the energies to her will. The runes held their balance still and she decided that it was time to end it while she still had full control. As the energy receded, a flash of her earlier pride sent a golden tendril of light across the circle. She gasped, fearing that the whole ordeal would be ruined by the one renegade emotion. The energies dissipated, flowing either into her body or out into the world via venting runes. The thrum of energy subsided, and she felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her.
Adrieta fell back, her arms spread to the side as she panted hard. She had done it. It had worked. “I did it!” she exclaimed with labored breath. She let out an excited giggle and only briefly noticed the candles grow an inch or two. Now that she was free of so much ambient energy, she didn’t have to worry about burning the room to a cinder. She laughed, and let her eyes close. The radiant emotion soon subsided, and she slept, a smile still on her lips.
