Wellspring
an excerpt

Prologue - In the caverns of Diamond Eye

No one knew this was the day they would finally break through the Diamond Eye. Least of all Sergio. As an initiate of the Monks of Diamond Eye he woke that day, at the morning’s gong. Not that you could tell it was morning, per se. His cell at the monastery was already lit by a stub of candle on the writing desk, but that was only because Ispero, his cell mate, always woke before the gong. A better example of monk behavior could not be found in the Cavern of Diamond Eye. Ispero woke early to study in the library before assuming his duties in the kitchen. He never missed a mining detail, and could read the stars with amazing accuracy. However, he had confided to Sergio that his great hope was not to be the monk who broke thru the Diamond Eye to the sky. Ispero wished to mentor the Champion of prophecy, the one foretold in the stars that would unite the clans of the Tamali to fight the corruption of the Esambre. A vain hope, he said, but a hope none the less.
Shaking his head to clear these extraneous thoughts, Sergio rose from his pallet and selected one of the gray robes in their wardrobe. After washing his face, beard, and hands, he left the cell and followed the smell of baking bread to the main hall. All monks had the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Fresh baked bread, porridge, butter, and milk. The lack of taste to their food was supposed to keep their minds clear for contemplation of the Eye. He took a place in the servants line as he entered the hall. All must help serve the table before sitting at it.
“Sergio!” the monk in front of him exclaimed, “Long time, no see. Have you heard the news from the council?” Goli was a friend of Sergio’s from training. They had been allowed to mine the Diamond Eye for five years now. Goli was cell mates with a current Monk of the Council. Most of their meetings started out this way.
“No, Goli, I was sleeping till the gong today,” replied Sergio, not mentioning that he slept till the gong everyday. Goli knew this.
“Well, they have decided that we may have to accept the Khazadian claims,” Goli replied, cutting to the heart of things, “We may have to admit that their “sky” exists.”
“What? The sky is beyond the Diamond Eye! If not, the readings have no meaning!”
“They believe they must. They let Ispan go with the last group of water seekers. He saw it,” Goli’s voice had become very glum.
“If the sky is above the Khazad on the surface, then what is beyond the dig?”
“The Khazad believe it is the ocean.”
“The ocean? There’s no ocean known on Nieondred! They must be joking with us.” Sergio felt it was entirely too early for this. Religious discussion was best left to the line for the Dig, not the mess hall.
Goli took his tray of bread, butter, and milk. That left the heavy tray of clay porridge bowls to Sergio. Could this morning get any better? he thought. At least Goli will have to stop his babble while we serve. Everyone was entitled to eat in peace at the Hall of Diamond Eye. Besides, they must find whatever seat they could after service. Sergio set down the bowls of porridge in front of his brethren with a little more force than usual. He got a few sharp looks for making noise while serving, but his mind was so scattered he didn’t notice them. The sky had to be beyond the Diamond Eye. Ispero could read the stars in the blue beyond the great Eye. They were real, he had seen them while on the Dig, though he could not read their portents at all. Sergio’s contributions to the Monks were more on the strength side. Ispero always shared his viewings with Sergio, valuing his “deliberate thought”. It was such a shift in the policy of the Monks to admit that the sky was above, not yet to be discovered. They had believed they were contemplating the sky beyond the Eye for thousands of years, since the first monks were called to break free of Ecumbul with the Axe of Kuitanina in the second age. Their journey after brought them to the cavern of Diamond Eye. Having never seen the sky, they believed they had found it beyond the glowing floor, blue and clear and in constant motion. Feeling the air had been the motivation of all who decided to leave Ecumbul, and they believed they had found it first. Taking the Axe of Kuitanina to hand, they began the Dig at the Diamond Eye, hoping one day to feel the air on their face. Now the Khazad, one of the other clans to break free on that fateful day, had felt the air first. It had to be a lie.
“Sergio!” Lost in thought, he had finished his service duty and breakfast mechanically and was already striding towards the cavern of Diamond Eye. Maybe contemplation on the Eye would help him deal with this news. Goli had other plans.
“Sergio! Wait! You know the line is longest in the morning!”
“I need to see the Eye, Goli. If you wish to continue to fill my head with nonsense about the Khazad finding the sky, you’ll have to follow me there.” Sergio needed reassurance, and the heart of their lives seemed the best place to find it.
“Alright, I’ll go with you. But it’s not nonsense, Sergio. The council may release the proclamation today. We can only ignore the truth for so long, and the Ctharu told us these truths long ago. Maybe if the council finally accepts, we can talk to our warriors again!” Goli seemed ready to change everything they knew to be true in a heart beat. His loss.
“Water comes from the earth, Goli, you know this. We tap the earth and it flows. What great mystery is there in discovering the sea? There are no seas. The water comes from the earth. Even the Ecumbul know that.” Sergio was getting more irritated by the minute. The council should continue to dismiss this idea of the sky being above out of hand. It would ruin their whole belief system.
“It pains me that you are too stubborn to see the great benefits the discovery of an ocean would be to Nieondred as a world, Sergio. We may be able to tap the Earth for water, but most on the surface have to use the rivers the Khazad keep full at their own risk. The tree does not refuse the tap here, and the water seekers are still trying to figure that out. It should. The earth does not like the tapping anywhere else. Men die for water everyday, in Khazad, Silandre, and Ctharu. The Khazad say it happens outside the lands of the Tamali as well. If we found the ocean, we might be able to stop this somehow, at least in the realms of our brothers.” Goli enjoyed lecturing, more than digging, actually. He spent more time teaching new monks than anyone Sergio knew. His vast knowledge of happenings outside the caverns of Diamond Eye was due to this. As a general rule, monks were supposed to cut themselves off from the world outside of Diamond Eye, to assist in contemplation and loyalty to the cause. The life of a Monk of Diamond Eye was hard work.
“Be quiet for a minute, Goli, and let me enjoy my first glimpse of the eye today,” Sergio never ceased to be amazed by this sight. The floor of the cavern they had entered gleamed and glistened a golden blue. The walls looked the same as any other cavern in Nieondred he had seen, but the Diamond Eye was the floor of this cavern and it was the most beautiful place in the world to Sergio. Peace of mind filled him, and he decided then that whatever was beyond that light, he wanted to know it. Sergio looked to the walls of the cavern, glowing blue with the reflected light of the diamond floor, and groaned. Goli was right. The line for the Axe was all the way around the cavern already, all 100 spans of it. They would be lucky to have lunch today.
“And this, my friend, is why you should wake up before the gong if you want to see the Eye in the morning. All the chits like Ispero who want to get their detail over with to pursue other things, and all the diehards who think of nothing else. A fine stew,” Goli sounded aggravated at being “stuck” here at the Eye, but he didn’t leave. With all his politics and classes, he probably hadn’t taken a turn at the Axe in a week or more, and he would be given a solitary cell to consider his commitment to Diamond Eye if his precious council realized it.
“More time to prepare for our true calling, friend,” replied Sergio. He was here everyday, usually later, though. He did not enjoy the line either, and it was always in the mornings that it happened. After mid day, most who would Dig that day had taken their turn and were off to other things, or truly diehard and waiting on the side for the chance of another turn at the Axe. The Axe of Kuitanina was the only instrument the monks had ever found that would chip away at the Diamond Eye.
“With this new news I think our calling might change. I wonder if the monks will survive it.” Goli sounded truly worried to Sergio. The council must be worried about what will happen after we concede to the Khazadian truth. What will happen to us if we find the ocean, not the sky? He wondered.
He must have wondered aloud, because Goli replied, “Not even the council knows yet, Sergio, nor believe they will until we break thru. If we ever break thru.”
“It’s been 5, 000 years, Goli. We will break thru, one day, and even if not, the magic we have gained from the diamond shards is enough to study for another 5,000. The Monks will survive this, as we always have. Some may leave for the Ctharu to join the fight, but most of us will stay, and more will come. The histories are full of this.”
“I forgot that you live in the library, Sergio. As one who lives in the present, it is very nice to hear the opinions of one who lives in the past.” Goli did not sound pleased at Sergio making light of his worries.
“It has always seemed best to me to learn from the past rather than fumble blindly thru the present. The monks will survive, Goli. That’s what we do. And if it’s the sea instead of the sky we dig for, well, that’s almost better, isn’t it? You said so yourself.” Sergio had enough of talking. He must work this out before it was his turn. The work always went better when his head was clear, the feeling of peace while being surrounded by the diamond greater. Goli was never tired of talking, at least in Sergio’s experience, but he was good at judging moods, so he finally let Sergio alone.
This quandary of the “sea” being beyond Diamond Eye was still clouding his mind, no matter what he had told Goli to get him to go away. After 20 years of training and five actually being one with the Eye, it was hard for Sergio to imagine their philosophies changing. Never mind that he had decided to come here instead of going to the Eternal Fight at Pishtar because he wanted to be in a world that didn’t change much. Sergio liked reading and quiet, not change and debate. Yet, Goli did make a good case for the work here being just as important if they were searching for water. He did remember it being harder to tap in his native Ctharu. He wondered what color the sky was, maybe blue, maybe something stranger. He would ask Goli, but that would just start another conversation, and looking up, he found the line had come a lot closer to the Dig. He wondered how many of the monks knew about the councils imminent decision. Imagining what a revelation like this would do to the Monks of Diamond Eye as a whole was not going to clear his mind before his turn at the Axe, however. It would most likely create a schism in the organization, two sides, one that believes the Eye is covering the sky, and one that believes the Khazad, that the sky is above their lands on the surface. Whether they would believe that a “sea” was under the Eye is anyone’s guess. Sergio did not agree with Goli that it would be immediately accepted. Water was tapped from the earth around them, everyone knew that. It flowed in the soil and only collected itself with help from others. The Khazad had to maintain their rivers, constantly redrilling the taps in the Trees of Kuitanina. It was said that at least one lake existed across the Great Divide, but it was a rumor of a rumor to Sergio, delivered by Goli, who heard it from his council friend, who heard it from a Khazadian. Such hearsay was usually more fiction than fact, in his experience.
“Please approach the edge of the Dig if you wish, but be respectful of the Digger’s solitude,” the morning Proctor broke into Sergio’s thoughts.
“Ah, yes sir, please excuse,” Sergio replied, edging around to look into the Eye. It was the floor of the whole cavern, as far as the monks could tell, but easiest to see near the Dig, the rest lightly covered with sediment, but still gleaming underneath. This was the reason for lining up around the edge of the cavern, although the arrangement also kept the path to the storeroom clear. Though the Khazad might win the race to the sky, the Monks of Diamond Eye still had their Diamond magic to preserve their place in the world. The power to make whole structures from a shard of Diamond, as well as a longevity that rivaled all other Tamalian clans. The beards of the monks grew very long, from hours surrounded by the Diamond and working with it. The shards and dust from the Dig were carefully gathered by the Proctor and the monks waiting around the hole for their turn. All monks were instructed in how to use the nets, magical devices made with the diamond that attracted light to light.
“It’s almost your turn, monk. Please join the circle, “ the Proctor handed Sergio his net, and he moved forward to truly look down into the Diamond Eye.
Colors swirled, surrounded by a field of blue. The dig site was a span on either side, wide enough for all but the fattest monks to maneuver the Axe. After five thousand years, the hole was approximately four Tamali deep, or five and a half spans. The ancient elevator system was operated by the collectors, as the eight Tamali next in line were called. The proctor directed both the collection of diamond and the operation of the elevator, in a soft yet firm voice that seemed to reverberate in tune with the Dig site below them. No one noticed the hum of the Diamond Eye until they joined the collectors, though the undertone of peace did overcome one upon entering the cavern. All thought the sight of the pure reflections at the dig site were required for full oneness with the Eye. The feeling of rightness, of having a true purpose, was keenest when digging through the Eye, yet the time for clear thought was while Collecting, as one could only think of the work and the Eye when digging, being overcome with the proximity of the Diamond.
“Your turn, monk, “ prodded the proctor, “Enter the elevator and take up the axe. What is our purpose?”
“To break through the Eye,” replied Sergio, by wrote.
“Why were we called?”
“To see what is beyond the Eye.”
“Who called us?”
“She that has no name, who made the Eye, “ this line was misunderstood by most monks, but required none the less. One of the founders of the Monks, Traben Uthumbriel, had seen the vision that required this in the Eye the first time he looked upon it. The circle of Collectors, the line, the ritual. It had all presented itself when the layer of dust had been cleared off of this square. He fell down in the throws of prophecy, and intoned the Ritual in two voices. Sergio had traced a path of myths in the library on his quest to give true meaning to the Ritual, but her name was sacrosanct among the founders, not to be named. They all died during the first Esambre invasion, refusing to speak it on their death beds. The Ctharu were born then, and the monks became seekers instead of finders once more, hoping to find heaven and that elusive Name beyond the Eye. The elevator stopped.
Sergio was surrounded by Diamond walls. The blue beyond was brighter here, and refracted off the Eye thousands of times. He felt surrounded with light. The Axe in his hands seemed to hum in tune with the soft hum all around him, and his heart felt at peace. He raised it up for his first strike, slowly, reverently, trying to be one with the Eye, one with the Axe, one with the hum. He struck, hard and fast, the only way to make any progress at all, even with the ancient instrument of the Tamali. He paused with the Axe still in the Diamond, feeling the answering hum in his bones. He tried to pull out, but the Axe was stuck. Stuck! That had never happened before! Still facing down, he saw the cracks begin to spread out from the Axe, spider webs infiltrating the span by span center of the Eye. With a bit more force applied, he pulls the Axe out with considerable care. Looking back down, he sees a trickle of water escape where the axe point used to be. “I guess the council is right this time,” he says to no one in particular, but the words are lost in the hum surrounding him, louder than he has ever heard before. Before this smallest of commentary was complete, the floor of the shaft gave way, sucking Sergio down into the unknown blue beyond the Diamond Eye, shooting a geyser of backwash behind him. The monks christened the cavern Wellspring, having quickly gathered to erect their own magic dome of Diamond around the surging spring of water. The clans of Tamali united, all coming to the caverns of Diamond Eye to see the great miracle. Sergio was honored by the council at the urging of Goli, who missed his studious brother. The Axe of Kuitanina was lost to the waters of the Goddess Beyond the Diamond Eye, who as yet has not revealed her Name. The clans of the Tamali mourned it’s lost, and the Courts of Silandre almost arraigned Sergio as a thief in absentia, but the Monks ended that nonsense. Sergio was their great hero, revealer of a wonder greater than the sky. For the waters of Wellspring are magic, and the empire of the Tamali grew ever greater in it’s light.