"I don't quite understand how hoping for good dreams could have such an important influence on their lives," Remelin commented.
"In the olden times, believers equated everything in their lives to aspects of interference from the various gods, sometimes good and sometimes bad, so if they prayed to Quiera to provide them with good dreams, then their everyday lives would always have a positive aspect and if, occasionally, a dream came true... Of course, the believers also prayed she would send a message to them in their dreams to help them overcome difficulties or show them how to make their wishes come true."
Remelin frowned, and Ninian added, "I know some of the beliefs of our ancestors are not always easy to understand. You just have to try to put yourself in their place, trying to understand how they thought. They believed in the gods and goddesses, the good and the bad."
"I'll skip the early chapters," Jhond went on, "which were merely reports on the performance of the nuns in their duty to the people on behalf of their goddess. The story really begins two centuries later, shortly after Garileon had gone to war with one of its neighbors, and the war wasn't going well. A young nun called Sister Eurebia petitioned the mother superior to advise the worshippers to ask Quiera to send false dreams to their enemies with the intent of causing bad decisions, which would cause their army to lose battles.
"At first, the mother superior was dismissive, not believing the beneficent goddess would entertain such an idea. Eurebia insisted the idea had come to her in a dream and suggested the mother superior ask Quiera for a dream to help her understand the truth of their goddess' desire."
"That's the name of the nun--"
Ninian interrupted. "Later, Remi, I'll explain about her shortly."
With a slight narrowing of his eyes, Jhond continued, "Then, the next night Mother Superior Thyria had a dream, in which the goddess told her that she'd had a change of heart and couldn't allow her people to be destroyed by those who worshipped an unworthy god. Quiera vowed to do anything in her power to help her people repel the invaders. From then on, Quiera would grant any prayer to send a false, misleading dream to a person she deemed worthy of such a punishment.
"It seems not all the nuns believed Mother Superior Thyria, challenging that Quiera would never do such a thing. She chastised them for their disbelief, stating the goddess would do the right thing for her worthy people. Any nun who still doubted was expelled from the order.
"The next day Thyria gave a sermon to all who had come visiting the shrine, telling of her dream and instructing those listening to pray for false dreams. That was only the beginning."
Jhond paused, reaching for a drink.
"Why do I get the feeling there's more to this than what the mother superior says?" Ninian asked.
"Because you're experienced in the ways of mankind."
"But this is the will of a goddess you are talking about," Remelin said with a frown.
"Are we?" Jhond asked. "We only have Mother Superior Thyria's word for that."
"And Sister Eurebia's," she added, with a glance at Ninian.
"Let's wait and see what happens next," Ninian said.
"Well," Jhond continued, "the people listened and prayed for the goddess to send false dreams to the enemy. Mother superior's words were proved correct in that the war began to go Garileon's way, and by the end of that year, the war was over. Garileon gained some territory in the peace negotiations. Not surprisingly, the people embraced the idea of asking for false or bad dreams, and it wasn't long before Quiera was granting as many of those as she did the good dreams.
"It also seems Sister Eurebia's influence increased considerably. In less than a year, Mother Superior Thyria was dead, killed dramatically during a service. It doesn't specify exactly how, but the suggestion is that she was disputing some of the instructions from the goddess, and Quiera struck her down as a lesson to Quiera's worshippers. And Sister Eurebia became the next mother superior." Jhond paused for another drink and saw Remelin whisper something to Ninian, who nodded, but didn't speak.
"The next section isn't quite as clear," Jhond said. "The entries were less regular after that and are written in more than one hand. Before it had always been the mother superior who wrote in the book...always her interpretation of what was happening. Now, the handwriting changes randomly among what I think are three people. The thoughts become more varied, uncertain, perhaps even afraid. There is talk of dissention with the mother superior's dictates, questioning her right to lead them.
"Then there's an entry clearly that of Eurebia, where she described calling all her nuns together before the shrine of Quiera. She berated her nuns for lack of loyalty, for daring to disobey her. By such action they are being disloyal to their goddess; they are disobeying Quiera. She turned to face the statue of the goddess, lifted her arms high and asked Quiera to show them her trust in her faithful mother superior. In answer, the statue rose from its sacred place and floated toward Eurebia to rest safely in her hands. She turned back to the nuns, and they fell to their knees in the presence of their goddess."
Jhond glanced at his listeners, gave a slight smile and added, "Not surprisingly no one ever disobeyed Eurebia again." To Ninian, he asked, "Doesn't that simple trick sound very familiar?"
* * * *
"Very, and I think it's time I told some of what I learned from Sister Eurebia's journal," Ninian said. He opened the small book, and Remi was surprised by how excited she was to hear what was written inside those pages.
"This would be about two-and-a-half centuries after the nunnery was built," Ninian began. "Eurebia was quite young when she joined the nunnery. She claims to have had a dream sent to her by Quiera instructing that it was her destiny to be a nun, and she left home a few days later without any regrets. She was the middle child of five and had always felt lost in the middle of her large family. Her father was the village headman, a post earned by his remarkable skill as a hunter, and her mother was an accomplished healer."
Ninian paused and gazed from one to the other, before he continued, "Her mother was proud of her family background and often felt belittled that none of her neighbors gave her the respect she felt she was due as a member of the House of Thail, albeit not from the direct line."
"She was a Thail," Jhond murmured.
Remelin looked from one to the other before quickly demanding of Ninian, "Go on."
"Eurebia overheard her parents talking the night before she was to leave. Her mother firmly believed Eurebia had been chosen because of the talent that ran through her family. Her father wasn't happy she was going to the nunnery; he had little use for the gods and goddesses, placing his faith in the power of magistry, but her mother believed she would learn control and patience from the nuns, which would aid in using her power when she finally embraced it. Eurebia shared her parents' belief in the ancient art of magistry, but had never before thought she might have such talent. She felt much better, stronger the next morning when she left for the nunnery."
The way Ninian spoke, it was almost as if he'd been there, his description so detailed it seemed as if Remelin was watching it unfold. She could envision the young woman as she walked through the gate into the nunnery, which had been extended over the now slow-moving river since the waterfall had long since ceased, the walls higher than she had ever seen in her small village. She stood fascinated, looking around the large courtyard. There were people milling about everywhere. Nuns in their flowing gowns of deep blue edged with black piped with gold, the colors of Quiera. Men and women, poor and wealthy, mingled together as they walked through the main doors of the chapel in the center of the courtyard.
Eurebia followed quickly, wanting to see the famous chapel where the worshippers would say their prayers before passing through the sacred door leading down to the shrine inside the mountain. Once there, they could pass their request to the goddess with the blessings of her chosen representative, the mother superior of the order. It was suddenly imperative that Eurebia see the shrine. She had heard about it all her life it seemed and her parents had visited it once when she was much younger. They had described the ornate bridge across the river that the nuns crossed to kneel before the golden image of the goddess. Eurebia had to see that for herself.
The shrine was more effective than Eurebia expected as she stood there in the center of the mountain, the rush of the water over stone in the background as she stared at the image of the goddess. The small golden representation of Quiera shone brightly in the huge torches on either side of the altar. The mother superior stood on the bridge between the altar, with the worshippers kneeling before her, before the goddess. Very effective, yet at the same time Eurebia felt something else, something different, yet just as powerful as the pull of Quiera. She pushed the thought aside as she concentrated on the words of the mother superior and the responses of the worshippers as they cried out for the goddess to hear their prayers, to grant them the boon of a dream.
It was only later that evening as she lay quietly in the small cell she shared with two other novices that she let her mind drift back to her visit to the shrine. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sensation of power she had experienced as she knelt on the cold stone floor. She wasn't sure what she had felt, but she did know it was nothing to do with the goddess of dreams. This was something deeper, older. She frowned, unsure where that idea had come from. Yet she didn't question it; she simply knew. At that moment, she would've loved to discuss it with her father. She felt certain he would have known, but it was something she could never do. The only way she would see her parents now was if they came to the shrine as worshippers, and Eurebia didn't really expect to ever see them again.
A strange sensation roiled through her, ice creeping along her spine, while heat rushed through her extremities. She shuddered and clamped her lips together to stop a cry escaping, having no wish to awaken the other novices. It wasn't fear she felt. The cry she stifled had been more like fulfillment. At last she'd found what was missing in her life--and it wasn't Quiera.
She couldn't put a name to it, not yet, but she knew it was the answer she'd hadn't even realized she had been searching for. She felt energized, not able to lie in her narrow cot one second longer. She sat up, staring at her sleeping companions, wondering how she could ever have thought she had any association with such as these. They were so empty that even worshipping Quiera couldn't possibly fill them.
Eurebia smiled, throwing her arms wide and then wrapping them around herself, drawing to her the energy she felt. She got up, wrapped the blanket around her body and slipped from the room, never questioning where she was going. She simply walked where her feet led.
The sleeping cells of all the nuns were on the top floor of the nunnery. Eurebia went to the end of the corridor and then down the steps. Onward she walked, never stopping until she reached the bottom, the cellars. She hadn't been down this far before. She knew from the introductory talk the novices had received earlier about the cellars. Everything was stored in three large rooms dug from the mountain not too far from where the shrine was located.
Eurebia stood for a moment, listening, though not with her ears, but with her talent. Her mother had been very vocal about the levels of talent in magistry, explaining that in the days before the Withdrawal, the levels of power had been much greater, but she believed it still remained reasonably strong in her family line. Eurebia had taken her mother's claims with a pinch of salt, but now she knew it was true. Here in the dark bowels of a mountain, she sensed the wealth of power emanating from the very walls. It was calling to her, and she followed.
Eurebia walked along the narrow corridor past the first two rooms and down the short steps leading to the last one. She continued on to the back wall, almost as if a thread was pulling her. She stood in front of a whitewashed portion of solid stone between two sections of wooden shelving full of jars and boxes. She reached out, laid a hand on the wall and gasped at the sensation of insects crawling all over her skin. She shuddered, but didn't break the contact.
::That's it, my child. I knew I was right about you,::
a voice whispered inside her head.
"Oh... I... Who are you?" she queried, confused and excited.
::You would not know my name; I've been trapped here for so long I have been forgotten.::
"Are you a god, like Quiera? How could a god be trapped inside a mountain?"
The sound of harsh laughter cut through her mind like nails on glass.
::She is nothing more than dust under my feet::"
the voice replied.
::And no, I am not a god. I am more. I am power. I am chaos. I am life and death!::
"I don't understand," Eurebia murmured, confused and dismayed. "What do you want with me?"
::It is not for you to understand, it is for you to do as I bid. You may call me Master.::
As if to underline his words, a shiver slid through Eurebia bringing great pain with it, and she fell to her knees gasping for breath and unable even to scream. Then instantly warmth washed over her, and the pain vanished, replaced by a feeling of utter euphoria.
Remaining on her knees, Eurebia reached out to touch the wall again. "Master," she murmured, "what do you desire of me?"
"It was only as Eurebia was writing in her journal early the next morning that she realized her new master never answered her question about how he came be trapped inside the mountain," Ninian explained. "Though he'd seemed happy to give her detailed instructions of what she must do. For a moment she was angry, then she realized he didn't have to tell her anything he didn't wish to. It was frustrating that she didn't know all about him, but then she knew little about the goddess she had worshipped most of her life. At least she was certain that
he
existed.