The Revelation of the Vine: Graft

Chapter 4: Of Rime-Storms and Seeds

"V," Jurgen s voice echoed, "We better get moving. I don t know what any of this means, but these Seeds need to get in the ground before that storm hits. Come on."
I nodded, sensing the faint traces of a storm brewing as well, and the low rumble of thunder became audible in the far distance. "Pack it up!" I yelled, standing in the middle of the wagons. "Yes, Sir," The camp roared in response. A wall of black clouds on the horizon over the Graydahns suddenly caught my attention. It was a Rime-Storm, carrying cryogenic liquids for rain, and threatened to barrel over us if we lingered here for much longer. They never travelled far enough to damage the cities to the south, but the Fahlain Cliffs were no stranger to their freezing touch. "Rime-storm on the horizon Knights, double-time it!" I added, fearing for what could happen to the Seeds if we were to be caught in the cryo-rains of the far north. The men rushed about, dousing flames, putting away cooking gear, and packing away the remnants of food. I stood there watching them with my hands behind me, glancing occasionally at the slowly advancing thunderhead in the distance. Within five minutes the fires were out, everything was packed, and nothing but mounds of packed snow covering the smoldering fire pits remained, but the winds had also begun to blast us with freezing chill as they howled down from the clouds in the north. "Good job, men! Fall in," I shouted, watching them file into 2 rows. The Seeds shivered as the foul winds pushed against their backs. The 10 Knights stood in back in order to block the majority of the wind from hitting the Seeds, all wearing the same shining armor that consisted of cuirass, gauntlets, greaves, and helm; all engraved with golden vines. Underneath their armor, they wore dark brown or black bodysuits, and were cloaked in warm, white furs. The Garb of the Lemniscata was more for presentation than protection really since our bodies could recover from any physical wound, and was made of special materials that could traverse the boundaries of the Veils along with us. The 14 Seeds were lined up in front with fearful yet determined faces, wearing the gray, iron breastplates and thick helmets we had provided over their own clothing. The Knights then began to cover them with thermal-regulation cloaks that Jurgen handed out as he passed behind them, and I watched their shivers melt away into warm sighs and smiles. I walked toward them until I was only a few feet away from the two in the middle. The one on my left, Jeizen, was a tall and muscular dark-skinned boy from Krinja--a hot desert, surrounded by oases and arid valleys, rocky cliffs and parched sands, which lay between Drasia, Midmarch, Mavae, and Emperium along the Uhn'd'r Sea. The one on my right, Teion, was a small-framed and spritely lad of average height from Faenook--a forested peninsula of rivers and streams that borders Brihn and Empirium in the northwest corner of Dahn. I started to pace, slowly; first going left, down the row, looking each youth in his eyes as I came to him. Then I turned right, up the row, and none of them wavered in their forward gaze. "Here we are," I began, stopping between the Krinjite and the Faefolken again on my second pass down. "This day will be marked in your memories forever as the end of your old life and the start of something entirely new. And I do mean that in the literal sense." Seven Seeds and five Knights stood stoically to my left and right, and then I began to pace again as I continued my speech, "I know you all have many questions, and some of them may be answered by what I am about to say, but rest assured that the answers will all come in time. This place is where the Order of the Lemniscata began over a thousand years ago. Where the founders of our Order--may they rest in the Core forever-- descended into the valley that they named Lemnis Dale, and discovered the Fruit of the Vine, which was called Lemniscus by the Mender who brought it forth to them. "Everything from this point forward--the Cliff, the Horn, and the Unclaimed Territory-- was created by them using the technology of our ancestors called, Geo-engineering, to keep the All-Flesh and the Corruption it spreads away from the rest of the land, giving humanity the time it desperately needed to recover from its initial outbreak during the Breach. "The Rime was created using Cryogenics and Atmospheric-Conditioning, as a response to our melting polar ice-caps, but all of that Geo-engineering has caused our planet to change drastically over the past 1200 years, and as you can see on the horizon behind you, it creates some very serious weather up here." The Seeds turned and looked between the Knights that stood behind them, and gasped at the pitch black wall of flashing clouds. When they turned back and the murmuring subsided, I continued. "The journey that lies ahead of you, or I should say . . . below you, has also been crafted by their hands as your orientation and initial training. It is crucial to your understanding of what the Order of the Vine stands for, and why, for the last 1200 years, there has been an order of immortals in the Horn; men and women who stand guard against the unknown horrors of the Unclaimed Territory and the Rime. "Those brave souls of the Order remain in the Horn to battle against the hordes of Soulless that wander the Unclaimed Territory, from the day of their Sowing, until the day that they fall in battle and their soul returns to the Vine. That is why you never see us living amongst the world, but once every 50 years, 12 of us return seeking to bring back the best of the next generation, and this time we found you. "I m not going to sugar coat any of this for you, or try to glamorize ourselves in a way that is misleading. We may be immortal--thanks to the power of the Core--but that does not mean we are eternal, or that we cannot die. Nothing that had a beginning is eternal, and nothing that can end is either; our lives in this physical realm can end, just as yours can, but that end, which is called death, is simply the beginning of every creatures journey through the Vine. "Many of our brethren have fallen in battle against the Soulless All-Flesh, our mortal foe, and the threat of Corruption s infection is a constant danger to us, but no physical wound, or illness, or even length-of-time can claim our bodies through death. "The way down through the Cliff will be more perilous than anything you have ever done, bringing you through a Corruption infested cave-system, and face-to-face with our enemy, but don t let that take your courage away. I've looked into you all and I've seen you re potential. You can do this if you break through the surface of your fears. "We will be splitting up into two groups, and meeting again at the bottom. I want everyone on my left to go with Jurgen. He will take full command of you until we meet again later. Do not question him, do not hesitate to do what he says, and you will survive this. Good luck. Those on my right, you'll be going with me."