Ascent of the Aliomenti (9 page)

Aina stepped forward. “I will show all of you to your housing.”

She walked forward, and the trio once again followed her. “We have a larger home free, and as the three of you arrived together, you will reside here until such time you decide you desire separate quarters.”

The home was, indeed, spacious, similar in style and construction to the other homes in the community, and featured a half-dozen cots and a large wooden table. The trio walked in and, after a shared glance, retired to individual cots to rest after their morning travel.

Will eventually drifted off to sleep, but not before he had a sobering thought. In a community of immortals, where departure was considered treason... why would they have a large hut suitable for housing at least three adults available?

VII

Isolation

1021 A.D.

The trio referred to their time in the forest as a holiday, a time away from their normal work in a land of temperate weather and incredible sensory beauty. The fruit was delicious, with a sweet taste that remained on their tongues for hours after consumption. The vegetation provided a natural fragrance that seemed to heighten all of their senses, and the air seemed somehow cleaner. Will theorized that the trees might be thousands of years old and grew in such density that they created a micro-climate of highly oxygenated air and mineralized soil, resulting in the sensory opera that played out each day.

Over the course of their first few weeks, they determined that there were no Energy users living in the forest, which meant that the semantics over their status as prisoners or guests was a largely irrelevant distinction. All three could leave at any time.

They elected to stay for an indefinite period of time, and use their “vacation” to study the society of immortals, the future state for the Aliomenti. It was also probable that they’d need to provide the Aliomenti with the fruit to confer immortality upon the membership, and since Hope and Eva were believed dead, it meant that job would fall upon Will. That knowledge alone made Will want to extend his stay in this forest to the greatest duration possible, for he now dreaded returning to the Aliomenti forest and presenting his “gift.”

The most critical information they needed to extract was the secret to reverse the effects of the ambrosia fruit. All agreed that both body language and emotive energy revealed the same truth: Ambrose was lying about the permanence of the effects. The other residents, such as Aina, truly believed the story, but Ambrose did not.

Life settled into a routine in the village and among the villagers. They were an aloof group, for most had lived for centuries and had little or no recent exposure to the outside world. New residents arrived every forty to fifty years, when Ambrose – and
only
Ambrose – would leave for a time and return with a middle-aged man or woman he’d located in some far-off village, a candidate he’d judged worthy to receive the gifts of the forest. Even the newcomers would, after a time, grow bored of the others, and as such they tended to drift away into their own isolated worlds. Will found the concept depressing, for there were many people, not the least of whom was his future wife, he’d spend many centuries knowing. Would centuries of constant contact render communication and any type of relationship so unpalatable that they’d choose to live apart?

Observations did not suggest open conflict among the residents of the forest, or certainly nothing to the degree they’d observed in the Aliomenti village, which turned combustible well before the fire Adam used to erase the original community from existence. The Ambrosians merely ignored each other unless contact and communication became unavoidable. They all foraged for the fruits which were plentiful in this northern climate, a state Will found quite odd, and further proof that this old-growth forest had developed a climate and botanical variety unique at this latitude. They failed to locate any non-human animal life they could use for meat, and needed to ensure adequate protein consumption through the incredible variety of plants and insects that called the forest home.

Over the next several months, the trio began to piece together the social hierarchy and history of the forest. Ambrose was the first to wander in, and he himself had no idea as to his true age; his status had earned him the nickname “Father Ambrose” among the other residents. He’d chased game into the trees, leaving the safety of his tribe to do so. All had advised him to stay out; they’d considered the forest to be haunted with evil spirits. His actions did little to counter that belief, for he’d never returned, and they’d considered him dead. Time, Ambrose told them, moved at a different pace when you needn’t worry about death. There would always be another day to finish a project, or start one. If the day didn’t move you to action, then there was little need to try to compel yourself. They did not trade, and had no currency or need for money. Material possessions lacked meaning, which was one of the few attitudes expressed by the Ambrosians that Will found agreeable.

The trio, sensing a lack of motivation or spirit among their new neighbors, set out to find their own patch of forest, isolated from prying eyes, where they could freely talk, practice their Energy development, and avoid the depressing view of long life displayed in front of them. Conversation routinely focused on memories of life in the Aliomenti village. Eva shared the story of Elizabeth’s birth, and noted the universal tears of joy shed at the event. It was a far cry from the type of reception Hope had experienced, and the young woman was mystified as to the cause for the change in attitude. It was no stretch of the imagination to understand that Arthur was behind that transformation. Still, she wondered how people who cried tears of joy at the birth of a child could, a few short years later, subject that same child to a form of slavery, a fate even more cruel given that so many of those neighbors had been slaves themselves.

Will told stories of his son, stories that were especially poignant for Hope. Will had confessed to her, after her “death,” that he’d been sent back in time by their children to save her from some unspecified calamity. In the process, Hope learned that Will had never had the chance to know their daughter as a child. Angel, the adult, had been delightful, but had been nearly two centuries old when Will first had the chance to meet her. Hope was left with the knowledge that she’d raise two young children by herself at some point in her life, and had a thousand years to prepare mentally for that future.

If, that is, they figured out how to reverse the sterilization effect of the ambrosia fruit.

Will wondered if, by his absence, he hadn’t been as much a negative influence on Angel as Arthur had been on Elizabeth. “She risked
her
life to travel through time to save
your
life, Will,” Hope chided him, after Eva had left the two for a solitary walk. “I suggest that means that any ill will she might have borne you as a young child was forgiven and forgotten over the years. And...” Her eyes twinkled. “You forget who will raise her, who will tell her of her father and shape her views of him. She will know the man to be a hero.”

“Some hero,” Will groused. “I let you suffer horrific injuries when I had the power to prevent them entirely. Josh specifically noted that my job was to save you, and yet you’ve lived through a fate no one should ever experience.”

She shook her head. “Everything you do, Will, you do because it represents who you are, and what you believe in. You forget: you have no secrets from me. You wanted to remove me from that village, but you did not do so because it was against my wishes. I prolonged my fate by
choice
, Will, and I knew that. And it would have been impossible for you to protect me with Maynard swinging that sword at you. You kept fighting, you defeated him, and then you
did
save me. It seems to me that I am still very much alive, thanks to you.”

When he tried to protest, she raised a hand to his lips. “Shush. You seek forgiveness for something which requires none, and seem desirous of performing a penance when no penance is required. Stop torturing yourself, Will. All who know you have no doubt of your goodness; you need to accept that as well.”

He was so struck by the similarity to Angel’s speech to him following the accident in the flying nano-based aircraft that he was left speechless. And he still wondered how it was that a simple matter of altered hair color prevented him from seeing in Angel her mother’s twin, for the similarities in appearance were truly striking.
Angel, you are truly your mother’s daughter, and I can offer no higher compliment than that.

The months passed, and Will spent his time thinking about the future Aliomenti village. He knew he would return, knew he
must
return, and when he did he’d be expected to be a major part of the rebuilding effort. His role might consist of recruiting and growing their numbers, training those recruited in their newly unleashed Energy skills, or leading efforts to construct the buildings they’d need to operate both commercial and training efforts in relative obscurity.

He suspected that they’d need to focus on recruiting skilled craftsmen and craftswomen to ensure the resurgent village had steady income that might be used to undertake the creation of what would become a global empire. Will knew, from his time at Aliomenti Headquarters, that the Aliomenti would become involved in banking, but suspected they’d initially focus on the craft areas they’d perfected in the first village, before Adam’s inferno had erased it from existence.

Though the village had been planned to maximize the use of space, it hadn’t been designed with Will’s innovations in mind. The individual rooms, built of flammable wood and thatch, were a fire risk even without incensed, Energy-wielding arsonists looking to initiate devastation. Could he identify the correct formula and materials for creating concrete? Having such a material would enable him to recommend building underground, where they could practice Energy skills even when strangers might visit. Concrete would prove a critical development in their future building endeavors. With luck, his children would think to provide him the correct recipe using easily available materials from the region.

Will also wanted to develop a duct system underground that could pipe heat to buildings during the long, frigid winter months, including heating the walkways to melt snow and enable easy travel within the village. Such a heating system would enable them to continue producing goods throughout the year, and allow them to grow crops within their walls in even the most brutal weather conditions.

The Wheel still existed, as did much of the aqueduct system used to transport water from the Ealdor river to the village. Will wanted to try to develop primitive versions of water pumps, and construct aqueducts at ground level—or even underground—to handle water and sewage. Will had other plans for the existing Wheel and additional wheels he wanted them to build, for they could eventually build factories using water wheels to power looms (which they’d need to design and build) using simple gears.

He wondered how many of these innovations they’d complete, and realized that eventually they’d do all of those and more, long before history recorded such innovations as commonplace.

He spent his ample free time sketching in the dirt, planning the ideal layout of the village. He also noted the innovations he’d need to work out with those they’d recruit, as well as the best construction schedule. The waterwheel-based factories, for example, would need to happen later in the process. Underground infrastructure would require construction early in the process. Recruitment of skilled workers would need to include focus on those craftsmen able to handle the demanding work schedule and innovation Will would seek. Will knew that his schedule might not happen as planned – in fact, it was highly unlikely that it would – and he couldn’t take his dirt-based sketches with him in any event.

Will wondered if Arthur and Adam had already started recruiting and rebuilding, and if his plans would need to change based upon actions they’d taken in his absence. Of course, he noted to himself with a wry smile, if the construction undertaken during his absence was incompatible with his recommendations, and those recommendations were preferred, he could always have Adam burn everything down. His face fell; it would never seem enough time had passed to make light of an action that had ended the lives of dozens of people.

In an effort to distract his mind from the memories of that horrible night, he removed the paper scroll computer. His children hadn’t seen fit to provide him with much information, and the diary had been silent for quite some time. He wasn’t surprised when the comments in the aftermath of the fire referred to the event as an accident, rather than a willful act of mass murder. Adam hadn’t seen fit to tell his younger colleagues the truth about how the fire had started. Will suspected it wouldn’t be the last time Adam would smooth over the more unpleasant events or aspects of events in Will’s life. Though he recognized that it would be impossible to think of every event in which guidance might be useful, he would think that the destruction of his first home in the distant past would qualify. It hadn’t.

Today, though, he was provided with extensive information about the manufacture and usage of concrete, including the best approach to build forms to use in shaping the concrete to the desired dimensions. He committed the information to memory; the diary wiped itself clean after each revelation, and he’d yet to determine if, or how, he might retrieve the text from earlier messages. He wondered if the computer would allow for the searching of information regarding
future
events; such a loophole would eventually be subject to exploitation. Perhaps that was the purpose of the dearth of guidance; the idea of Arthur finding the diary and possessing knowledge of future events was a terrifying thought. As he read through the final details on concrete, the warm sun and melodic tones of the wind lulled him into a deep sleep. Naps, though common in this forest, were becoming so frequent that he found them annoying. He needed to leave just to regain his normal motivation, for the primary consequence of living here the past ten months was becoming apparent.