Storm Sisters

Chapter Seventeen

~1~

The Mountains of Tula

(Some years ago)

In a far off land, deep in the mountains of Tula, rests a secluded monastery nestled atop a cliffs ridge. Inside, a young monk by the name of Ofled has finally been admitted to the rites of the order after years of study. The ceremony was brief, just him and one other recipient (Roark) were dressed in white garments and led barefoot down the cold stone stares to the tunnels beneath the monastery. These tunnels had stood for thousands of years and were off-limits to anyone outside the order.

Ofled didn't know what to expect to find down there, but after seven years of intense personal sacrifice to get here, he hoped it would be worth it.

The deeper they descended, the older and less uniform the bricks that lined the archways became. Until they entered a large cavernous space, dimly lit by candles. Gathered there inside, were high priests dressed in black robes, standing in a row before a stream of water. It entered through an opening in the rocks of the ceiling, and exited through another opening in the floor, appearing as a sheet of glass in constant flux.

"Come forward," the head priest gestured to the recruits as they advanced. Then he recited the oath of protection pausing intermittently so that Ofled and Roark could repeat the words. It was a sacred vow that all members of the order must pledge to protect the secrets of the order and to guard the gate with their lives.

After the Oath, each pledge stepped through the water, signifying their passage from their old life to the new. As Ofled did so, he tensed expecting the shock of cold glacial water to drench him, but instead he was washed in a soothing warmth then collapsed to his knees on the other side with a sense of purity that caused him to weep. His brother monks then embraced him and assisted him back to his feet.

Now he was one of them and ready to receive their confidence. They proceeded further down the corridor, into deeper tunnels yet, causing the flames of their torches to narrow with diminishing oxygen.

Suddenly it was colder–colder then anything Ofled had ever felt; a chill that seemed to permeate his being. And there was this vibration like a deep hum that could be felt all around.

When they reached the end, two high priests lit the torches on either side of the entry. It was another archway, only instead of stones, it was lined with human skulls.

"What is this place?" Olfred nervously whispered.

High priest, father Shiegle stared at him intensely before answering, the shadows on his face made deeper in the faded flicker of torch light. "This is the passage to the Netherworld." He said with all seriousness.

Then he held his torch into the opening, illuminating a staircase that descended about five feet before disappearing into a pool of dark water, where what appeared to be another chamber had been flooded so that only about two feet of the upper half was visible before fading into the blackness beyond the reach of the torches light.

Ofled began to advance down the stairway, but Father Sheigle abruptly stopped him with his hand, shaking his head sternly, "Nobody may enter" he said, and the other priests present also recited in kind collectively like a chant, "NOBODY MAY ENTER" For that was the supreme purpose of the order.

~~~

That night as Ofled lay on his straw mat to sleep. Staring up at the ceiling , he could see figures unintentionally formed in the textures by the chisel of whomever had carved this room out, however many hundreds of years ago. He tried to imagine the kind of focus it would take to chisel an entire room like this into existence one chip at a time. It would be nice to have that kind of distraction now, anything to take his mind off thinking about the sacred chamber.