Cobalt Crown - Book One

10 Normal Has its Place

     Within the Gilded Spire, a monumental structure that projected forth like a limb from the southwest corner of the main castle of Aurum, sat a fireplace on the left of a side chamber. Footsteps approached it and, looking back to see if it was tailed, a figure tugged upward on a hidden section of the long-cold hearth. A piece of the adjacent wall shifted and, with a gentle slide, opened to reveal a spiraling stone set of stairs. With a quick wave, the figure beckoned several other shapes to enter the room, leading with them a blindfolded young man of no more than twenty years, who babbled through drunken breath with each lurching stride.

     "Shit, I can't believe it, I'm actually in the cassstle! You know, when Horace first asssked me if I wanted to be a Seeker, I saaaaiiid 'no, mm-mm, don't need a life of danger.'" He paused, his expression slumping. "But then the barn burned down, and we lost the heifer... Things changed, and that's what Horace said: 'Things change, Derro, and you have to change with them or you'll be left in the past.'" The last sentence he finished with a sweeping gesture for effect, but the momentum carried him into a nearby wall, where he collided with some decorative finery. It was an ornate vase that teetered and spun on half of its base, threatening to fall. Despite his drunkenness, he managed to catch it. The hollow scrape of ceramic on stone scratched loudly through the corridor.

     "Quiet, you moron, this is a secret ceremony for a reason," Derro heard on his right.

     "You got him too knackered, he won't shut up," the voice came from behind Derro.

     "Don't worry," a call sounded from the hearth. "We weren't followed, I made sure."

     "Hey look, thhanks again, I know I'm not a Ssseeker yet, but when I do become one of them, I'm going-"

     "-You're going to become one right now, in fact. Just relax, Derro, the ceremony is easier if you just let things happen. You're going to see and feel things you've never experienced in your life. Normal has its place and this is not it. This is a place for the extraordinary. Be strong, and by the end of it, you'll be Seeker material."

     "Oh, shit, you guysss almost had me, I didn't know it was going to be this early in the training. I guesss I'm stronger than I thought I was." Derro flexed, almost falling over, but catching himself on the cloak of the man on his right. Then he lifted his blindfold without being prompted. "Ssspeaking of Horace, where is he? Shouldn't he be here if this is happening now?"

     The figure by the fireplace let down his hood, revealing dark brown hair, cut short. It was a man with a sun-darkened complexion, deep brown eyes, and a scar that ran across one side of his eyebrow. He shot a wry look over to Derro.

     "Oh, there he ish, hey Horace!"

     "Hi, Derro, welcome to the final step to becoming a Seeker, follow me."

     The quartet made their way down the winding stairs. With a slow, almost imperceptible gradient, the torches that lined the passageway began to be placed further and further apart, causing the light in the passageway to creep towards darkness the further one traversed. Derro's stupor was the only sound breaking the silence of the journey.

     "Horace, I don't think I'm ready for this. What if I'm not Sheeker material?"

     At the bottom, and with the light approaching pitch-black, Horace turned and held one finger up to his lips, his other hand on the knob of a metal door at the end of a short stone passageway.

     "Have faith in yourself, my friend. I would not have picked you if I was not absolutely certain that you were capable of shouldering this burden. You are worthy. You are ready. And soon... I will be able to say that you are my brother."