Gallel's Heir

Chapter 2.1: Relevance of Freedom

And with these whispers he could influence the minds of men.  While they sleep or while  they wake, all people heard his whispers and many would obey, believing themselves to be  acting in accordance with their own will. And indeed they do, for it is their will to follow Tavaris.
—Gizelle Floren Elkek of Toopek

When Canúden entered his house, Ma jumped from her chair at the kitchen table. Her auburn hair, usually in a neat ball at her neck, hung a bit scraggly. Wrinkles in her henna-colored dress seemed to indicate she had slept in her clothes, or not slept at all. "What a night!" She threw her arms around him and pressed his face to her soft cheek. "How was... Gizelle's?"
        
"She's probably the only one around here who had any idea what was going on, besides a little baby, but that didn't make any sense. She's a nice old woman, and she tells me about anything I want to know."
        
"What business does she have teaching you anything?" Ma pulled away from him. "You go to school for that, and I tell you almost anything you want to know."
        
"She knows lots of weird things that maybe you've never thought about, cuz she's so much older than you are, and she's not from Galia. Besides, healers always have some kind of apprentice."
        
"Oh?" Her twisted eyebrows said she didn't believe he had any interest whatsoever in learning healing, even if all healers weren't the wari kind.
        
"I read it in a book," he said. "Can you tell me anyone she's hurt? Anyone you know for sure that got hurt by her?"
        
She stared at him, mouth half open. Gritting her teeth, she said, "I have my own reasons for not trusting her." She seemed so tall when she stood straight and looked down to him like that.
        
"Ma!" he said. "She's a nice old lady who's been through a lot. You could be her friend and find out for yourself. And anyway, we had a nice time together last night. And she saw the light and had visions, too." He neglected to add the eventually that hung in his mind.
        
Ma's eyebrows rose, like she was at least a little interested. "And I suppose she told you all about it?"
        
"She told me what she could. She learned some stories about it when she was in school a long time ago. Prophesies from time mages. And she said we need to choose which side we're on. And a little baby talked, and I mean little. Like she's only a few months old and she talked. The baby said that Hallel means hope and that's important because the world needs hope, and that's why we need to decide what side we're on. I've decided to be on the side of Hallel, because Dylin and I saw him. We flew over the ocean and everything. And Gizelle said Hallel was on the side of Light and that the Dark One's way is dangerous and bad because it makes people stupid."
        
"Wait. Who's Dylin?"
      
He sat down at the kitchen table and attacked the oatmeal Ma had been making for him as he was getting home. "I think she's some kind of high san or something. And it was her baby that talked. She's got a baby even though she's not that old. Why would someone so young have a baby?"
        
"You mean, Dylin san Mangoran, the First San, was there with you all night?"
        
"Well, not all night. Only until some guards or something came for her baby. At least they didn't come until our vision was pretty much over."
        
"What a night," said Ma, and she sunk down into her chair at the table.
     
"But the baby talking wasn't just a vision, because she talked before we started flying, which I don't think we were really flying, just it felt like it because the vision was so clear. And then we saw Hallel being born. But I still don't really know who he is. But apparently he was born in a land across the eastern ocean. Did you know the world stretched that far?"
        
"I never really thought about it," she managed.
        
"Did you see anything interesting last night?" he said.
        
"I'm not sure about it all, and I don't think I could explain most of it," she said in a firmer tone, "but despite myself, I think Gizelle spoke truth about a conflict coming. And somehow you have something to do with helping this Hallel."
        
"Hey, that's just what the little baby said. She said something like, she'd see him someday and help him, and I would too. But how could I help him if he's way over across the ocean? And why would a Creator need help? Seems like the Ancestors would be more fit to help him."
        
She rested her smooth hand on his empty one; his other hand held his spoon. "I don't know, son. The Ancestors are in the past. It is we who live now. Just stay good." Her gaze held onto her hand, then she spoke slowly. "I also had a vision, selfish it may sound. I saw the man I will bond with someday."
        
Canúden smiled. "Who was it?"
        
She shook her head. "I don't know. He wasn't from around here. His features and coloring were... different. Not olive or brown like people around here. Not even pink like I'm told some westerners are. Not quite bluish like Gizelle, either. Very stone-colored. He was very wise and very kind, and in some ways he seemed very old, but he looked to be my same age. It was just a brief image, and it's frustrating because I have no idea where he is."