Bent World: Chapter 24 The Pathfinder's Tournament (One Month Later)

Chapter 24

The Pathfinder’s Tournament

(One Month Later)

Vroom.

Our supercharged leisure coop roared down the roadway. This would be the equivalent of limousine in my old world, or the idea of an extended luxury car. The reason for this change was that we were now in my mother’s vehicle. Meaning we used the vehicle that was often designed to carry a combat team, their gear, and their assistants to a rift point. Meaning that we had more than enough room for our team.

In this case our team consisted of Auntie, Ceecee, who now served as Auntie’s personal guard, Sarina, mother, and of course mother’s personal guard and now driver, and of course me. The reason for all of us to be here? Well the reason is simple, it all comes down to that one simple word that makes the world go round, power.

“You are certain that this will work?” Mother asks, her words and tone facing straight towards Auntie. There is a subtle hint of tension in those words, as if what Auntie will say next could change the very trajectory of our family. Which would accurate, if what Auntie says does in fact come true.

“Yes, as far as the ancient scriptures go, a Pathfinder who manages to connect with all the monoliths of a region will be able to create a larger team of Wayfarers.” Auntie states, while holding up the old documents. Old documents written in a language that had long ago been lost, only the Doctors of powerful houses took time to even try to study the old languages.

“Is that what it says, or what you interpret from the words you read?” Mother presses for clarification.

On its head, this might seem to be an innocuous question, but given the way Auntie tenses her body to force herself to remain still proves that this is anything but.

“The words are in rhyming limerick from a now dead language that was spoken as such until written word could be created. There are of course questions for dialectical shifts, word use and definitions changing over time, and of course that the closest words in the standard tongue do not rhyme in the slightest, making these translations difficult at best, and frustrating at worst. So, to answer your question, yes this is what the words say given current definitions of the initial thoughts used by our ancestors that has been translated. And yes, there is a chance that the meaning of these words or their importance could be completely changed by modern definitions. That said, there is a feeling that is given off by the old tongue, one that evokes more.” Auntie presses.

“Evokes more?” Mother asks questioningly, perhaps for the first time showing off a level of discontent towards the old ways. Or at the very least showing off a level of discontent towards Auntie’s interpretation of these plans.

“Yes, there is more to them than can gained from reading, according to all the old texts, one must feel the words coursing through them.”

“Feel the words, do you know how archaic that sounds?” Mother quips. With that comment, Auntie pauses and turns to face my mother, giving her a gaze that seemed to truly take her in.

“What exactly are you afraid of here? If you fail and I am wrong, then you have lost nothing. Save for a chance to have an I told you so over me for the rest of my days.”

“You mean for the rest of my days, as we have already established the direct line of succession with Pandaline clearly being in position to replace me once she comes of battle age.” Mother hissed, then seemed to catch herself.

Hearing her confession, or what could very well be considered a true confession of her feelings, I think I understand the problem. Mother was already afraid of being replaced, of being forced to vacate her role as undisputed head of the household. She had no chance of replacing Auntie, the person who directly cultivated not just the first Pathfinder, but the first true Pathfinder team. A team that barring Pandaline would all be attending these tournaments to all but show off the power of their houses.

Right now, I understood one thing, and that was the fact that my mother felt the weight of time catching up to her. Which meant she either needed to once again excel and become one of the strongest members of the family, while she still could, or prepare to vacate her throne early.

While it was clear that mother would likely do almost anything to retain her current role, she did not seem reckless enough to try to fight the inevitable future that was on the horizon. Instead, I now saw her for what was, a warrior who knew change was coming and that she needed to be part of that change if she wanted to have a spot in the new world.

Seeing her, I watched as she took deep forced breaths after her sudden outburst. This was a far cry from the stoic warrior who cut me down in cold blood in my past life. Looking at her now, I realized two things, not only had this woman changed from the stone-cold killer that would go to war with an entire planet. But I too had changed as I now felt sorry for the woman, particularly with the way she seemed oddly logical for a world made up of crazy rules and decisions.

Even now, she still deferred to reason and logic, despite clearly wanting to cling a little desperately to her bastion of power.

Of course, the reason why I could even have these thoughts at all was due to Auntie and her constant ability to look to the past for inspiration on improving our future. Finally, after a long awkward silence, Mother began speaking again, this time asking a more poignant question.

“Have you determined an order with the other houses?”

“You mean, have we worked it out which order of rotation will occur for new possible members to join the Pathfinder’s party?” Auntie asked to clarify.

“Yes,” mother replied nodding her head. Again, this display showed just how odd the house power structures are for this world. The Doctors act as financial consultants, business brokers, investment agents, and family planners. While the Matriarch act as the military might of the family, the proverbial sword to the sheath that would be the Doctor.

“We have, it will be in alphabetical order by house, except for you who will get a chance to bypass the line and be the first.” Auntie declared.

There was a faint note of confusion on mother’s face, before Auntie clarified.

“You, as house lead and owner of the Pathfinder will go first. Next Amherst, then skip our Andry house, for Jaupry, then last Oteranski. Only once all positions have been filled will we begin again with a member from house Amherst,” Auntie noted.

This was shrewd business dealings. Regardless of what happened, everyone else would be vying for the scraps of the Wayfarer bonuses. As this would put house Andry, my house with four noted members. Or three members and the Pathfinder.

“I assume the other house leaders will choose their house heads?” Mother asked.

“That is a good assessment, while the other Doctors could use their position to jump ranks, it would be seen as a power grab, rather than ensuring the stability of the country.” Auntie noted.

Coy smile.

At that, mother smiled for the first time since this long journey began.

“It seems that as always, you are two steps ahead of the competition.” Mother noted.

Hearing the praise, Auntie just smiled, “you praise me too highly, I am just a fortunate bystander of chance.”

Scoff. Mother openly scoffed at that idea, “weren’t you the one who noted that chance is the intersection of ability, effort, and circumstance?”

“I might have heard some wise woman say something similar,” Auntie answered.

With that, the growing tension that had been building up within the car died down.

“Are we all ready?” Mother asked as she put on her own half plated war mask.

Sarina and I already had our masks in place from the moment we were picked up from our cottage landing point. Why Sarina was here, I did not know exactly, other than maybe it would look weird for people to notice her without me being somewhere nearby for a month. Or at least a month was as long as this entire expedition was meant to take. Meaning that after time someone might notice something was amiss. To avoid any of those types of questions and scrutiny she was allowed to come as part of the inner circle. Something that made her overly excited and still nearing to bursting with anticipation. Still, she is clearly forcing herself to remain calm, still, and most importantly quiet while wearing the full uniform of House Andry.

That was the other thing, for this Fair circuit, to help hide who is whom, we have all been given matching house Andry Masks, and gloves. For a moment I thought we were over the top with our designs, as only Auntie and mother had their faces revealed, while the rest of us all had our faces hidden. Well, everyone, but Mother’s driver, and that was just for safety considerations for the moment.

Once we parked, she put on her own mask, while the rest of us piled out. In this case Ceecee was the first out, almost causing a faux pax gesturing for me to get out first. Fortunately, mother was quick to react and got out as the family head. Followed by Auntie, Sarina, and then I held up the rear as the youngest. Again, our intention was to hide the fact that I was already a Pathfinder.

According to Auntie the fact that I was a Pathfinder would only limit the number of new people I was allowed to add to my group. People that I apparently had no control over, other than touching the activation stones.

Once out, we were directed into lines where Auntie and my mother both went off to register the group of us as a contending house. Apparently, the other houses were already waiting for us, as I noticed a few familiar faces quickly flock around Auntie.

This time, the reasons for why Doctors had their faces made visible sort of made sense from a cultural perspective. It was a lot easier to identify who was part of a household that could be bartered with. Additionally, this allowed the heads of the households to appear slightly more intimidating with half a mask adding to their mystique.

Badump, badump, badump.

I don’t know what it was, but just seeing the powerful women in their full regalia, with only part of their faces shown caused something to stir within me.

Firm grip. Just as I was about to get lost in my own thoughts, the firm hand of Sarina grabbed me and began guiding me to the queuing line. Once in the line a person related to the festival began speaking.

“Hello Renaissance Fair participants, your family has officially registered as members of vaunted House Andry. If this is not the case, the please stand to the side, while we wait.” At that I just stood there, standing next to Sarina who while not touching me, still had her hand close by, maybe in case I decided to bolt? I didn’t know, but it was clear that she was both nervous and excited at this current setting.

“The goal of this line is simple, we will see if someone will finally be declared by the ancients to be a True Pathfinder. That large monument behind me is the Northern Monolith, by going up saying a prayer to the elders and placing your left hand on the slab, you might get chosen by the Gods and be marked as a Pathfinder for everyone to see.” The marketer began his well-rehearsed speech in a way that showed he had likely given this same exact speech no less than a dozen times so far.

“Do not worry, should the Gods not favor you, and choose you from amongst the rabble, you can still rise up and be crowned as a Pathfinder for your age group. I see here that you are listed as a pre-profiled, meaning in addition to the typical no headbutting, no eye gouges, no small joint manipulation, and no groin or neck strikes, you will also be prohibited from displaying any elemental powers. This is because you have not been awakened, and any use of powers will prove that you purposefully placed yourself in a weaker bracket no doubt to get a kiss from his highness the prince of Amherst.

Cringe.

Fortunately, I had the mask on to hide my disgust, but I soon found out why Sarina’s hand was nearby to keep me from moving away too much.

Whether used to such antics from kids, or completely uncaring, the presenter went on. “If you are bored during your wait to be tested, you can see that many of the preliminary battles for hand to hand combat are already set up and taking place.”

With that the presenter pointed off to his right, my left, and showed a few stages that had been assembled where women were battling other women in hand to hand combat.

Pop, bang, crack.

Fists and feet flew at each other with relentless fury as clearly unawakened or maybe just untalented warriors fought against each other in tests of strength that didn’t involve weapons or magic. As for me, I had my sword, daggers, and battle gauntlets already on and attached. The idea would be that I was slated to enter the sword and melee combat arenas respectively, should I not present myself as a Pathfinder.

“YEAH!”

“Come on!”

Spectators who had already tried to manifest as real Pathfinders, only to fail cried out at the mass of participants.

“This is often considered to be the lowest of forms, as these people compete not with elements, nor metals, but their actions are often the root of where our ancestors arose from, and their actions should be applauded.” Auntie stated, once again noting this world’s history of looking down on those who were unable to afford weapons, or manifest true magical talents.

 In a way, I should consider myself blessed to have been born into such a strong family. Then again, had the family been weaker, then my home planet would not have been destroyed as easily as it was.

As we moved forward, I watched battle after battle. Hundreds of people funneled forward all to be measured and judged by the Monolith. Then once it was proven that they were still not chosen by their ancestors, or whatever entity they worshiped, they reluctantly moved on and entered contests.

Somehow, despite arriving before us, the parties for house Amherst, Jaupry, and Oteranski all managed to queue up behind us as we entered. Had I not known about the alphabetical arrangement beforehand, I might not have noticed this activity. In fact, the only reason why I even noticed it, was that I had been made aware of the arrangement beforehand.

Shock.

Looking at the groups, I was surprised when I instantly felt a connection with members from each house. It seemed that Lady Amherst, Lady Jaupry, and Lady Oteranski were also in attendance. I don’t know if I only now noticed this due to their being in line with me, indicating that it was a proximity effect or not but it seemed that I could at the very least sense they were near.

Though I must say I was a bit confused as it appears that each of the girls all increased in stature a bit more over the past few months as well.  Seeing them, and being able to easily distinguish each of them, I paused and gestured to Auntie, using our own sign language that we had developed over the years.

“What?” She asked, before I flashed a series of signs indicating my teammates were nearby.

“Oh, so you can sense them even at this range?” Auntie asked trying to clarify my comment.

I nodded.

“Very good, thank you for indicating this to me,” Auntie stated, then gave a series of gestures that were apparently picked up by the other house Doctors, at which point they turned their attention to the indicated teammate.

Each gave a shoulder shrug in return, apparently indicating that they couldn’t tell I was there. Though after they had their conversation I could feel the eyes of every member of the different houses all staring at me, not just the noted teammates but the guards, House Matrons, and the support guardians and staff as well.

For a moment I thought about providing an awkward wave back, indicating that I felt their presences, but ultimately decided against such an act and just faced forward.

Fortunately, it was soon our chance to go up. Mother being the matron of the family was first to go up, placing her left hand on the far bracket. Then after a quick five count, she removed her hand with a bit of reluctance and headed over to the right hand slab and waited.

Then with practiced ease and grace, Auntie went up next, then proceeded to act as a barrier for anyone attempting to come back to the line. Next was Mother’s guard, then Ceecee, then finally Sarina. After everyone else went and only tried their left hand, I took a deep breath and reluctantly strode forward.

For a moment, I wondered if I would have to take off my glove to do this process, or if this monolith would even recognize me as a Pathfinder, given that I had already been acknowledged as one earlier.

However, I was not ready for what happened next.

THUNDERCLAP!

Before I was even within ten paces of the slab, the monolith began to come to life with energy, as a fierce static build up began to cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on edge.

Only now, did I realize once again Auntie might have been right all along.

Tentatively I raised my left hand up, the glowing lights of the stone monolith illuminating in seeming anticipation of my caress. Taking a deep breath, I focused my nerves, then I reached forward in an act that would forever change my destiny.

FWOOSH!