Seers of Oak - Chapter 1 - Altercations

Table of Contents

Baron wiped a line of sweat across his brow and looked up from his work catching sight of his friend. James walked with cocky arrogance across the central square of Crafter’s Street. He was heading, no doubt, for the tavern to meet his current preoccupation.

Shaking his head, the blacksmith’s apprentice dropped his hammer onto the workbench. “I’m headed out, Da.”

“You’re not done!” His father, Cole, waved a hand toward the half-finished project scattered around the apprentice’s space.

“I’ll do it when I get back.” Baron hopped across the half-panel fence that separated his father’s smithy from the main avenue. “Ho! James!”

The older teen paused long enough for Baron to catch up. He gave the burly apprentice a wide grin. “Baron! Good timing. I’m on my way to lay the groundwork. You up for joining me?”

“Groundwork? What about Lily?” A sick knot settled in the apprentice’s stomach. He pushed a hand through thick, red hair absentmindedly.

“I’ll get back to her after the Festival.” James waved a dismissive hand. His black hair slicked back in the current fashion of the military, and his lips lifted in an oily smile, blue eyes twinkling. “I’ve got my eye on three different ladies this time. If we move fast enough, this is going to a spectacular few years bottled into an hour.” He laughed, pumping his fists in his enthusiasm.

Baron felt no mirth whatsoever. “What do you mean? The cutoff is eighteen, why do you get an extra chance?”

James crossed his arms over his chest, his chin lifting just enough to look down his nose at his younger friend while his conspiratorial grin widened. “Councilor Priscilla is a push-over for love. I told her I had a special girl in my sights and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Since my birthday is so close, she gave me a pass.”

Baron’s fist clenched tight, the nails of his fingers cutting into his calloused palm. Is that all Lily had been to him, a setup to gain Councilor Pricilla’s trust? With only two weeks left, Baron struggled to think of a viable plan to subvert James. The Festival gave youth a chance to borrow Seer magic – to live a year of a potential future and test what could be. This was to be Baron’s last chance with Jenne before he became a journeyman and had to focus on his career full-time. He hadn’t counted on James screwing up his chances yet again.

“You can’t.” The words rolled from his lips before his mind could stop them. “James, what you did last year wasn’t right. Kathy didn’t deserve to be led on like that.”

The youth’s face fell, the joviality of the moment fading into annoyance. “What’s this? You’ve stepped up onto your high horse? Baron,” He patted the larger youth’s chest, “it’s all a fractured reality. What happens in those borrowed visions stays there. Only you and your partner are the wiser, and there’s nothing wrong with me taking advantage of a woman’s natural inclination to fall in love.”

“There is something wrong with it.” Baron tried to keep a growl from his tone, “Kathy has enough problems in her life, and she didn’t understand that this meant nothing for you.”

“Hey,” James cut him off, leaning into the blacksmith’s space. “We spent an entire year in that vision together. I made that girl smile and laugh. She felt enough pleasure and happiness to erase a lifetime of pain and trauma. I did her a favor.”

Baron felt a moment of intimidation as James flexed wiry muscles but fought the feeling. He pulled himself up to his full height, towering a half head above his once-friend. “And then you destroyed her. When you rejected her after the vision ended, I watched her crumble. Before she was shy; now she distrusts everyone. That was you, James.”

“No harm, no foul. She’ll get over it and move on. Everyone does.”

Baron ground his jaw. “It’s not right. The Seer’s magic is meant to give us a leg up on our future. We experience a year to test a potential path for our lives and you undercut that entire process wasting others’ time and chances, not to mention the mental abuse.”

James pushed a finger into his chest, giving off another cocky laugh. “Oh, so you’re a preacher now? Well, maybe this time it should be your turn, Baron. You’ll see what it’s all about. You’re making a big deal about nothing. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that in two Festivals, you’ve never been in one vision. You don’t have any experience to judge from.”

Baron stared hard at the older youth. Of course he hadn’t been in vision; he’s spent the last two years luring James into futures where his games wouldn’t affect reality. A well-chosen girl who was in on the game and an accidental nudge once the magic settled. All it took was a touch to start the vision, and Jenne had helped him in the past, but this year he’d hoped to save her touch for himself.

James sneered, blowing off Baron’s anger. “Lay off or you’ll regret it. I am your friend, but lose me and you’ll lose everything. Just relax and enjoy the free pass at life. No worries, no cares, no responsibility to anyone – that’s the point of these visions, and that’s how you need to use them.”

James turned away, dismissing the apprentice, and continued on his previous path. Baron considered following, but thought better of it; another conversation would only lead to another fight. What he needed was a plan.

***

Nate tossed his stick into the rolling river and watched it float toward the falls. A quarter mile downstream the river petered to a small brook before crossing into the City of Oak. The seventeen-year-old’s inherited lands seemed so glorious from the documents, but two-thirds of it consisted of a steep slope up the back of the butte that made up the southeast corner of the city. Across the valley, on unclaimed land, its sister lifted the opposite end to meet the horse-shoe-like city wall on the southwest. The buttes weren’t excessively tall, but they were enough so that Oak’s ancestors considered the southern side defended without the ten-foot wall that encompassed the rest of the city.

Nate’s half was generous enough, covering 100 acres, with secret spots that kept him entertained on a dull weekend. His current favorite nestled on the edge of the valley where the seasonal rains cut a gully into the shale and the waterfall above met the hot springs below to create the perfect wet cave. His father had made the cave into a safehouse long before Nate’s birth. When his parents died, Nate left the cave empty for years, but recent changes in his life had him thinking about them and about the legacy they’d left. What would they say of his accomplishments so far?

He’d rebuilt their farm; joined the volunteer guard; and prepared as well as he could for visions that would come in a few more years. The only thing he lacked was the young woman to complete it all. One week until his final Festival and Ginata had yet to look in his direction. Sure, he could still woo her without the borrowed visions, but by then he’d be considered an adult and it would be different.

Nate watched his stick drift over the falls, then turned and dropped down the slippery slope of shale fragments toward the gully. A twisted path wove back toward and under the waterfall, tapering into his cave.

The opening had been too small last month; his barrel chest required a bit of a wiggle to push past the opening, but he noted a change this time. Chunks of fragile rock had been broken off. Nate fingered the missing sections, wondering at the even edge of the break.

The roar of the waterfall above faded to a trickle as part of the waterfall internalized along the walls of his hallowed space. Nate breathed the moist, rotten smell of sulfur mixed with dirt. Like the smell of newly turned soil, the cave’s stench made him feel at peace. Decades or more of river flow created a fissure wide enough for a steady stream of clear water along the back wall. The fragile shale around the opening broke away over time and now a small bit of light permeated the cave’s darkness and let some of the rotten egg smell escape the closed space. Cold and hot water formed a lukewarm pool in the back corner of the sandy cave.

In front of the pool, a smoking fire pit caught and held his attention.

Beyond the sounds of the waterfall, Nate tensed as he heard the clatter of rock skipping down the slope. The sound made his pulse race despite his ownership of the place. Three long steps across the soft sand brought him to the carved storage room on the cave’s east side. His father had worked ventilation shafts through the soft rock and carved a slope into the storage room’s floor as protection against the annual floods. Nate dipped behind a small bend and slid down the wall. Through the broken wood of the storage room’s rotted door, he could see a figure moving. She gave no thought to her surroundings, worried about nothing as she rebuilt her fire and set up a smoker over the top. A small hare lay skinned and ready above the flames. She glanced about herself, searching for something, then sighed and moved back toward the entrance.

Nate counted to ten, listening for any sounds that said she was still in the cave. When he heard none, he tracked her into the trees fascinated and confused at the same time.

How long had she been right under his nose and on his land? How had he never noticed? Chagrin overcame him. With a shake of his head, he turned his course back to his home, thoughts still swirling. With one week left, this might be the opportunity he needed.

***

Ginata stared hard into the darkness beyond her home. Her father’s lecture about the importance of tomorrow’s Festival still reverberated through her. He played such a martyr sometimes. Oh, how hard the life of the Council’s leader must be!

Ginata ground her teeth and pushed the stiff wood of her window-frame along its upward track. It stuck twice, but brute strength was enough to convince it not to impede her.

Well, if his life was so hard because of a wayward daughter, it was about to become a lot harder.

She refused to enter a vision knowingly, especially without the ability to control it. She knew exactly what happened to people who couldn’t control their visions. The first time her brother experienced his visions, he’d been unprepared. Caught between the false reality he’d just lived and waking up, his groans and pitiful tears still gave her nightmares. Her father’s refusal to prepare potential Seers caused unnecessary trauma, and she wondered yet again why the council did nothing to change the idiotic decision. The Festival wouldn’t be much different except that she would at least know she was in vision, but still, it was all a false waste of time.

The future was fluid, and the gift to See one potential path could be powerful, but what was the point of spending time and energy to see when the rains would come, or how bad the floods would be? Their people could be so much more than agrarian farmers.

Ginata slipped her feet beyond the window’s ledge, grabbing her pack. By the time her parents woke, she’d be long gone and well hidden. A week of pilfering food from her mother’s larder gave her enough in her pack to get her through the day without a fire. Hunting would fill the gaps until her father’s wrath died down. Three days tops, and she’d be back to normal. Dodging the next two Festivals would be difficult, but she’d manage. Fifteen was too young to think about such things anyway.

Sliding down the roof’s slope, Ginata grabbed for the branches of a thick apple tree. She climbed down the trunk with practiced ease and stole across the empty yard. Between the barn and a small grain silo, forest trees lay waiting. Comforting sounds of hoot owls hunting for field mice and the squeak of bats greeted her as she entered.

            Her father’s land bordered the city on the south, only a short walk to the Council Hall and the City center, though ‘center’ was a misnomer. Centered between east and west, but on the extreme south, Ginata felt like she’d spent her entire life in a ten-mile radius.  With a sigh, she ignored the bleating of her milk-swollen cow and ducked under the cross beam of the thick log fence that marked the perimeter.  A mix of guilt at running and a stubborn need to fight her father’s edict roiled within her stomach. No matter how important the sacred Festivals might be, she would not be forced into it.