The Guild Book I - 6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It was the 7^th day of the first season on Santor… Vard’s 21^st birthday. Early on as a youth Vard had noticed a strange fact… that all the lovers he ever taken, which had been many, they had all been born around the day he had been found by the Wolf Clan… a day that had been as close to a birthday as Vard had ever had. These men and women Vard had declared his birth kin… for he felt closer to them then to his own adopted family. The feeling was mutual.

So today, on his birthday, Vard had summoned all his birth kin to him and bestowed on them many gifts of furs, gold, wine, and the chiefdoms of their own tribes, for he would trust none other.

Three were especially close to him. The twins, White Cloud and Sparrow, of the Eagle clan, and Broken Claw of the Bear. It was those three… two men and a woman, who most often shared Vard’s tent and with whom he kept close counsel.

“So beloved…” White Cloud a beautiful woman with bright blond hair began as she covered herself with the new furs Vard had given her. “Now that you are chief of the Wolf Clan, my father has no reason to oppose us marrying.”

“Now sister.” Sparrow, her brother with the same colored hair, chuckled from the bed as he wrapping an arm around Vard’s waist. “I though we agreed to share.”

“I have no problem with sharing but brother you must admit you would make a ridicules bride.”

“I am sorry White Cloud but I must tell you I have no intention of marrying… anyone.” Vard said sternly.

“And why is that beloved…” Broken Claw, a bright red head with green emerald eyes, asked as he stepped into the tent.

“Claw!” Vard jumped , revealing his bare muscular body as he walked over to Broken Claw and leaned down to kiss him. “Now all three of the people I care about most are here.”

“Good then we can start then.” White Cloud declared as she sat down next to her brother.”

“A clan meeting?” Broken Claw asked with curiosity as he and Vard joined them in a circle. Because of Vard the long war between the Bear and Eagle Clans had come to an end. A peace Claw hoped to make permanent by marrying White Cloud.

“A war council.” Vard replied. “Now that all twelve clan chiefs are birth kin… it is time we left the wastes for the greener lands to the south.”

“But this is our land… the land of our ancestors.” Sparrow protested.

“It is a land of dead traditions.” Vard replied sternly. “Because of the peace I have created our numbers have grown while the herds become less. If we remain here we will starve.

To this all three birth kin nodded in agreement.

Vard continued…“The lands to the south have always feared us… never daring to venture into our lands. But they, not us are changing… becoming stronger. If we do not act the people to the south might lose their fear of us and invade the land of our ancestors.”

The other nodded in agreement again.

“Finally… there is Joshua… my true birth kin… he is out there somewhere… either here on Santor or out there in the Void. Above all else I live to find this person and see if he or she can answer my questions.”

“Joshua…” the three sighed. They had all been called one time or another Joshua by Vard, either in passing or during the passion of love making. All three knew how much the search for the “lost” birth kin dominated Vard’s life.

“For that reason alone Vard I will lead the Bear Clan south.” Broken Claw swore.

“As will the Eagle.” Sparrow promised as well.

“Thank you my beloveds… I knew I could count on all of you.” Vard said as he took turns kissing all three of them.

The kissing quickly progressed into more as the four birth kin became lost in their passions for each other.

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“My lord Labatt, who is that with your son?” The Countess of Vis asked as she peered across the ballroom with her spectacles.

“Ah… my son’s recent act of charity. Only a few weeks ago he picked the poor young man from the coal mines.”

“I must say he is a handsome fellow, but is it wise for the prince to keep such a pet?”

“I see no harm to it. The young man… I believe his name is Joshua… is polite enough, speaks only when spoken to. Of course everything will change when Thomas goes to the Royal Navy Academy.”

“So you see a future Admiral in your son?”

“With war surrounding us on all sides I can not think a less noble and necessary career.”

“Then I hope he does well.”

“Thank you countess… and how is your son?”

“That insufferable retch. I wished he showed a fraction of the talent your son does.”

“He is the same age as my son… is that not so?”

“Yes… in fact today is his birthday as well.”

“Then should you not be home celebrating it?

“No… we no longer celebrate his birthday… as I said he has been a total disappointment to us. The best he now gets is to celebrate the birthdays of others.”

“Of which there are plenty celebrating today…”

“Oh?” The countess asked curiously.

“Oh my yes… in my barony alone over 50 children are celebrating their 21^st birthdays today… five times more then on any other day according to the census. At my son’s insistence I invited all of them here.”

“Commoners… your home is filled with commoners.” The countess said with distaste as her eyes darted around the room suspiciously.

“Remember countess… we only rule so long as the people are placated. Yes my son has a gentle heart which will need to harden one day when he takes on his duties but these acts of kindness that he does today that will endear him to the people later on.”

“True… now if only my son showed such cunning…” The countess said as she continued to ramble on about her son’s failings. Baron Labatt failed to hear her however for something had just caught his eyes… something that disturbed him. “If you will excuse me my dear… there is something I must see to.”

What Baron had too see to was his son for he had just seen him kissing… kissing his slave no less… and in public. Labatt had not illusions to his son’s sexual preferences… in fact it would serve him well at the Naval Academy from the rumors Labatt heard of the place. The Baron had not even minded when his son had brought home the legendary Gerick even when he heard the whispers that their relationship was not limited to the platonic. No… what had angered the Baron was his son’s clear infatuation with the lowest of low born.

Walking straight to his son, Labatt took a firm hold of his shoulders and guided him to a side room where he proceeded to give him a harsh verbal thrashing. “I will not have the future Baron of Dralor slumming with a slave.

“But father!” Thomas protested only to be met by a stinging slap.

“You are nothing but a spoiled brat… but I expect the Academy will change that. Now straighten yourself up and enjoy your party… you will not have one like this ever again.”

“Yes father.” Thomas replied meekly as he walked back into the ballroom.

It seems I will have to send my son’s new toy back to the mines after all, Labatt thought to himself as he too returned to the party, never noticing that Gerick had witnessed it all.

As the party progressed the circle around Joshua grew… and so did his happiness. With each contact with others who were celebrating their birthday today he felt one of the missing pieces of his life fall back into place. It gave him hope… hope that Vard, whoever he or she was would appear out of nowhere and make him complete. But as time passed and the guests began to leave Vard never showed up. Near midnight… the only people left where his birth kin, the only name Joshua could think of to give the connection he felt for the men and woman whose birthday he shared. None of them wanted to leave that night nor did Joshua want them to go.

Thomas, also wishing his new found friends could stay tried pleading with his father to let them at least spend the night but except for the count prince of Vis… the only noble in the group, the Baron insisted that all the commoners return to their homes.

It was only the four therefore, Joshua, Gerick, Thomas, and the count prince, Hector, who made their way back to Thomas’s quarters. From there Joshua went directly to bed. Thomas and Hector would have as well but Gerick insisted they meet with him.

“What’s wrong captain.” Thomas asked.

“You Thomas… what’s wrong is you.” Gerick said sternly.

“I don’t understand.”

“Simple… because of that kiss you have put everything in danger.”

“You don’t mean you agree with my father!”

“No… in truth I disagree with him whole heartily… but that does not matter. What matters is what your father going to do to Joshua once you are gone to the Academy. You hurt his honor by kissing someone he only sees as a slave. For a nobleman such as the Baron his honor is everything.”

“What would you have me do, cut off my lips? You might as well for I can not help but to kiss Joshua and I think you know why!”

“I do know why…” Gerick said, debating if to tell Thomas the truth. With a nod of his head, he reached a decision. “It has everything to do with your birthday.”

“I do not understand.”

“You would not… the day you were born the teachings of the Guild were outlawed… the priests and their temples burned. Good riddance I say except that some things that should nor forgotten were lost in the process.”

“Such as?” Hector asked.

Gerick answered with a question of his own. “Do know who the Prelate is?”

“According to what we were told in school this is the 328th year of the rein of Lorien the XXIII.” Thomas replied.

“Yes but do you know what a Prelate is?”

“The head of the Guild and Assembly.” Hector answered… finding these questions annoyingly simple.

“Those are his titles but not what he is.” Gerick frowned at two of them. “Do you know what gives the Prelate his power?”

“His control of both space and void.”

“Does he personally control it?”

“No… the Guild’s men at his command do,” Thomas said.

“And where did the first Guild’s men come from?”

“I don’t know.” Thomas replied while Hector shrugged.

“Then I will tell you… Once, long ago, man only existed on one planet, Earth. The Void was then an impassible barrier. Distances were too vast to be traveled in a timely fashion so man turned away from looking at the stars to looking at themselves. It was during this time that through genetic manipulation the power of telepathy was discovered and from telepathy… space travel.”

“How can that be… I don’t see how the two are connected.”

“The metal waves a telepath sends out does not travel through normal three dimensional space but the warped dimension of the Void so that any two telepaths can communicate instantaneously regardless of the distances. It was soon discovered that if two people were strong enough they could open a doorway into the Void large enough for a ship to travel through. There was a catch however.”

“What was that?”

“For two telepaths to communicate through warped space they had to have been conceived at the exact same day… at the exact same hour… at the exact same moment. We do not fully understand why this has proven to be the case but it has always been so.”

“Were Joshua I born…”

“Conceived… you have to be conceived at the same time. And yes I believe so.”

“But what about what we saw at the party… there were over fifty of us there. What are the odds of that?” Hector asks.

“Simple… the Guild found a way of cheating the system. Prelates you see are not made… they are born… their births marked by the birth of their “birth kin”, men and women who will become the next leader’s of the Guild.

“You mean to say that I will become a Guild’s man?” Thomas said shocked.

“You are a Guild’s man.” Gerick said flatly.

“But I have seen pictures of Guild’s man and we look nothing like them… I mean we look normal.”

“And you will always look normal… except for your eyes, they will change color. Most of the unusually features associated with being a Guild’s man are self inflicted… done by the Guild to separate themselves from the common masses.”

“Just like we nobles do.” Thomas said sullenly.

“Exactly.”

“So that makes Joshua the new Prelate? Does the old prelate retire or something?”

“Joshua is not a Prelate and no he does not.” Gerick said heavily.

“What happens then?”

“War… a civil war on a cosmic scale for as the younger generation grows up the telepathic power of the older Guild members begins to fade. Never in the history of man has there been a peaceful transition of power between old and new.”

“So Joshua…” Thomas asked fearfully.

“So Joshua… and you and Hector… all of the children who are celebrating their 21^st birthday today are in danger.”

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Prelate Lorien XXIII read the report several times over… not believing what it told him. One percent… one… it seemed like a small, insignificant number of failures only that it represented a seven fold increase in the number of Guild Mistress’s failing on their attempts to open the door to the Void. Even though such small number of failures would not affect the power of the Guild in the short run… it represented a decline where any decline pointed to only one thing… the existence of a new Prelate.

For three hundred years Lorien had ruled most of known space but still it seemed like such a short time. His predecessor had sat on the Guild Throne for over two thousand years. Of course Prelate Janus had been infamous for killing huge swaths of humanity just to kill off any rival. It had been that cruelty that had led dozens of worlds into the darkness. Lorien XXXIII had been lucky that the Guild itself had been consumed by its own internal conflicts during his birth, letting him grow strong while Janus’s power faded away.

As a result Lorien had viewed himself as a hero and prided himself that so few ever end up dying when during the three previous occasions a potential Prelate had been born. Now however… with the power of his Guild Mistresses failing… even so slightly… it was clear that a potential Prelate had escaped notice.

Letting the report fall to the floor, Lorien walked across a gigantic map of the cosmos… the worlds of the Assembly in white while the rebellious dark worlds were in red.

For almost as long there had been a Guild… there had been the Inquisitors. Men and woman trained to find potential Prelates and exterminate them. On taking power Lorien has spent huge amounts of resources expanding the network of agents in the Assembly of Worlds. Lorien therefore felt confident that if a potential Prelate had been born on a world of light… he would have been found by now. That left the rebellious dark worlds… places where the Guild had few resources. Not just once in the Guild’s history had a new Prelate remained hidden and protected on a dark world until the old Prelate found himself too weak and helpless to stop his own downfall.

Knowing what had to be done, Lorien called forth one of his prized generals. “Star General Felix!”

“Yes Prelate…” A steel masked man said as he stepped out from the darkness.

“It is time to bring the dark worlds back into the light. Send out the Armada.”

“As you wish Prelate. Which world should I start with?”

“Begin on Dullon. Their revolt is only three years old so their technology will present the largest challenge. Once they are crushed you may move on to…”

“Yes Prelate?”

Lorien squinted his eyes as he looked down on a small star system on the edge of dark space. “Wor,” He finally answered.

“At once.” The general said before bowing out.