"What? That is impossible, he is the prophesized savior of our society."
"He was killed by mistake by the Grandmasterwizard."
"The Grandmasterwizard made a mistake?"
"Apparently."
"But he can't make such a grave error. If the general population learns of this, it will undermine their faith in our system and could lead to the downfall of our society."
"So, anyway. What were you waiting for him for?"
"Denowal? I was going to teach him how to drill. The Grandmasterwizard told me to wait here for him. But it's just you."
"Dad, you could teach me to drill. I'm sure I can do whatever this mystical special Denowal was supposed to do."
"No.. I sincerely doubt it, son."
"Well, I feel sort of bad. I'd like to fix this somehow."
"No, it's not your fault, Kenowal. Just mind your own business. I will try to help avert this crisis."
"No it is my fault. I tricked the Grandmasterwizard into killing Denowal. He was going to kill me."
"Haha. No, no. You can't just 'trick' the Grandmasterwizard. You are a Young one, not even genetically stocked to be a regular wizard, much less have the discipline and determination to make it to the Masterwizard level. Only a select few have done so. The Grandmasterwizard has proven himself to be the absolute best of this elite few time and time again. Even by Grandmasterwizard standards, he is one of the strongest in our history. It would be impossible for a Young one such as yourself to outwit him."
"I guess you are right. I'll go back to dinner now."
Kenowal turned to leave, feeling the elation of victory once again, but was stopped by his father's words.
 |
"Wait." Kenowal turned around. "Why exactly are you here?" His father raised an eyebrow. "And did you say that you were supposed to be terminated?" "It was an accident, I swear. I flushed the toilet and all of a sudden I was in this dark room. I saw the exit sign, so I went through the door." "I helped design that trap door. There is a pressure sensor inside the toilet. The trapdoor is triggered when the pressure is lowered to a certain level. A small vacuum in the interior of the toilet is created when the passage is totally blocked airtight. How did you accidentally trigger it?" "It's embarassing, I know." Kenowal looked at his feet.
|
"Yes. The Grandmasterwizard told me that was my fate. But then again, he could be wrong..."
"No! You are fated to die or bring down our society. I doubt you were capable of directly causing Denowal's death, but perhaps your evil aura caused a misalignment of the Grandmasterwizard's magical transpositors."
"Dad... You can't let me die!"
"It is your fate. Kneel before me." His father raised his staff above his head.
| "If this silly society is worth more to you than your own son, Father, then I guess I would rather be dead." Kenowal knelt before his father and lowered his head. But instead of whatever instant death feels like, Kenowal felt his father's hand on his head. He looked up to see his father; he had lowered his hood, revealing his face. |  |
"Yes, sir."
"Go quickly, through this door behind me. It leads to the tunnels. They should be empty now. Follow the tunnel until you reach the fork, but instead of going to town, take the lower path."
"Where does that lead?"
"You will soon know. But be sure not to take the top path. The masterwizards will seek you out with a psi-search if you return to town. You will only be safe through the lower tunnel."
"They won't look for me there?"
"No. Not even the Masterwizards will venture there again. Now, go, quickly, or you face certain death."
Kenowal reached the surface of the city through the secret Node entrance and immediately blended into the crowd.
Although he knew he blended in fairly well with the crowd in his Nodal robe, he remembered his father's instructions to sever all ties to the secret society for his protection not from the citizens, but from the ongoing search for him. So he had a clever idea and disrobed, throwing his robe into a nearby river.
Pleased with this trick he was playing on the masterwizards, Kenowal stood on the river bank and watched his robe drift downstream, off the horizon and out of his life forever. He rose his staff over his head, and brought the end down on the ground, breaking loose the crystal. He threw his staff into the river, watched it float down and then threw the crystal in. He kept the gold setting to sell for food and supplies. Then, he turned to walk back to town and realized he was only wearing underwear and sneakers.
He couldnt go back into town like this, people would think he was weird, so he waited near the river. He racked his brain for a clever plan to acquire some clothes. If only some generous souls would conveniently walk by and give him some, but he could only hope. The shadows of the trees grew longer and the sky dimmed as Kenowal sat near the river, frustrated by his inability to do anything. He tried to fashion some clothes out of leaves, but that failed.
Once it was dark enough, he decided to walk back into town; at least he wouldn't be out in broad daylight. Before he walked very far through the heavy brush, he had cut himself several times on the thorns and sharp sticks, so he turned back to the river.
The river. The river runs toward town. Kenowal jumped in and began to swim with the current to town. Kenowal did know how to swim. Everyone should know how to swim, the Secret Society had learned this lesson the hard way, losing way to many of its young to swimming accidents. So Kenowal made good time down the river.
Once he got to town, he approach a dock. As he swam to the dock, he was suddenly blinded by a very bright light coming from right next to the dock. He drew up his hands to shield his eyes, which made him start to sink in the river. Then he closed his eyes tight and started to try to get back up to the surface, when he heard, "HOLD ON, KID. I'LL SAVE YOU!"
A man jumped into the river and snatched up Kenowal and brought him back into the boat. "Thank goodness I found you when I did, kid. That's a nasty river." Kenowal didn't say anything.
The next day, the mayor of the city gave a speech: "Fellow citizens. Today we have a great hero in our presence. Henry Didleworth is a simple fisherman who happened to found a young boy drowning in the river and risked his own life to jump in and save him. We are all proud of our local hero." Applause. Henry is presented with a Medal of Bravery and Valor. "But the interesting part of this incident is the identity of the boy, who remains reticent to share information with us. We believe the reason he does not converse with us is because he does not speak our language, and is therefore probably a resident of the neighboring island of Abunca. We believe this poor boy, who we believe to be around 6 to 9 years old, is a true believer in the values and customs of our island, and that is why he fled Abunca. Therefore, I have decided that he stay and become a perminent resident." Defeaning applause followed by loud chants of "MAYOR RULES! MAYOR RULES!"
After a few weeks of school, Kenowal was failing out, so he ran away, to the outskirts of town, where the hole in the ground was located.
He entered the hole now and followed the tunnel back to the fork. This time he took the lower path.
He walked down the tunnel until he reached a short, shiny metal door. Next to the door was a red screen with a picture of a thumb, so he pressed his thumb against it. After some whirring and computational noises, an electronic sounding voice said in a smooth metallic tone, "Identity confirmed. Access granted."
The door slid open and the sound of arguing men suddenly subsided.
"What the hell are you doing here?" one asked Kenowal.