Moryanti
an excerpt

The Call was something that came without warning, not to all or even to many, but when it came, there were only two choices, really. One could avoid it and spend the rest of his days with the constant nagging in his gut and, as time and opportunities dwindled, an increasing sense of regret, of displacement.

Simon had met a man once who had failed to answer the Call, and though he had a content life on a lucrative farm with an admirably large family, the only thing Simon remembered about him was how his faraway gaze never seemed to join the rest of the world around him. He seemed like a man cleft in two, doomed to wander amidst his many children and great fortune in a daze, only half aware of the life he had chosen in favor of wherever it was his mind went, searching endlessly for opportunities that would never come. No one said as much, but everyone knew it; the man had been touched by destiny, and it had been denied, and though he was by every standard of the village a man of good fortune, this farmer was always treated with the same kindness one would extend to an invalid or someone whose family had been mysteriously devoured by kobolds the night after Norya had been there.

The other choice was to give in to the ceaseless poking and prodding of destiny, to say your good-byes, put your feet upon the road, and just keep going until everything felt right again.

Simon had decided at a young age that if, fates forbid, he awakened to the Call, he would answer it without delay. Perhaps it was that kind of thinking that had brought him to this, riding all over the countryside in itchy leathers, on an ill-behaved beast, trying to live his life just shy of Norya’s event horizon while he went about his important duty as Companion to the Rider of the Realm.

It wasn’t quite where he felt he needed to be, but he was still hopeful it was getting him closer to pointed in the right direction.

To be the companion of Norya had seemed like a golden opportunity to one attempting to answer the Call. Yes, the yearning in his bones had cried out. This is it! No more buns and bread, no more pastries! Nothing short of fulfilling some great service to the realm would ease his restless spirit, and on the very day he awoke to the Call, Norya had arrived in town to deliver a message to the mayor from the Queen herself, one too important to be trusted to the common post. At Norya’s side was a riderless white stallion, and though Simon was pretty sure the saddle was only still warm from the afternoon sun, he had a good feeling about the timing of it all. Serendipity was not a force to be ignored in the magical kingdom of Moryanti. Sometimes it was the only sure thing a man could rely on.