Those Who Sharpen the Mind

Meetings and Rivers

Un'tra's body was being tortured with pain, but his mind was in a peaceful garden. Like the ones he had always strolled with Un'debro. There was a man sitting on a bench with a hood over his face. Un'tra had seen this scene many times before and knew the disguises his mentor took.

"Un'debro? How are you here? How am I here? What is this?" Un'tra asked.

"Aye, no surprising you with the same trick. We are both in your mind, son. Is that so hard to imagine?" Un'debro removed the hood to reveal his gaunt face. He seemed to have no blood in his face and the cut on his neck was quite visible.

"Mentor, it matters not where we are now. You are not in the Eternal Halls. Why have you doomed your spirit and given up enlightenment for me?" Tears were now streaming down Un'tra's cheeks.

"My young friend, helping you on your Path is more enlightening than you may ever know." Un'debro said with a smile and an attitude of complete serenity. This was a bizarre sight juxtaposed with his ghastly appearance.

"Mentor, I have read what you have told me to read. I have practiced what you told me to practice. I have been kind. I have been generous. I have been the defender of the weak as you taught me to be. However, I have no sight or understanding of how my Path could be remotely as worthy as your spirit's enlightenment."

"That is because you are not looking at the right Path. I had a vision before my demise. It was you and I walking on the most beautiful Path." Un'tra could tell that this might be a speech full of riddles and lessons. He continued to cry, but some of the tears were now of joy and appreciation for the once boring stories he had always begrudged.

"I could realize it in that moment, but you could not. This Path was for me and not for you. Then I heard the sound of running water. Below the Path, I saw a raging river. It dawned on me in my final breaths. You are not walking on your Path. You are racing down the river, that is your Path." Un'debro said the last sentence with such joy and peace.

"Why must you always talk in riddles? My Path is now a river? This river sounds like it will consume me." Un'tra said, as his head dropped and some pain returned to his face.

"Your Path might consume you. This river is full of rocks and dangers at every corner. But, this is wonderful news, boy. You were not meant to walk the Path as I was. You are meant to race forward and change the environment around you. You are not like the other Holi-inte. You will change the Paths of those around you and no one will be able to match the might of your River. Now, go. You have much work to do."

"My Path is a River? How will I know where it will bend and break?" Un'tra inquired as the pain in his face was growing to its previous levels.

"Follow the River's current. Give nourishment to those on Paths that need it, and wash away the Paths of corruption." Un'debro said as he and the garden began to fade away from vision.

Un'tra felt the edges of the bowl again and the searing pain on his face. He jerked his face out of the bowl with such force that he fell from the pedestal. Some Holi-inte moved out of the way to not be hit by the falling man. Un'tra opened his eyes to see the crowd staring in amazement at him. None were more amazed than Un'nipu.

"This is not possible. You were to be seared and drowned!" Un'nipu did not care about the shock of the crowd at this statement.

Un'tra rose from the ground with determination. His face had been scarred with burn marks around his eyes. That was not what was surprising. These burn marks radiated with a sparkling purple color. The burns looked painful, but the mystical sight of the purple marks was astonishing. The light shone on the marks in mesmerizing ways and angles. Un'tra was the same man, but now he looked otherworldly with his purple burn marks. The sight of his unwavering eyes and seared purple flesh sent shivers through the crowd.