Chapter 17: Chapter 16 – Sage and Disciple

Yurvaonri stood center in the mock ring. The entire area became silent. The darkness over my eyes lightened. But my body ached. I could hardly move from where I was, and even the strain of lifting myself caused me to wail.

The sage stood silent with her eyes closed. A few moments passed as the dust settled. Then she opened her eyes, and with a single glare, she dispersed the crowd. I and Salam rose and strained to dust ourselves.

She had hardly changed since I last saw her. I wondered to myself how old she was, for she looked no older than her mid-twenties.

Her long hair was curled and wrapped in multiple layers such that it descended like a thick tangled vine. She walked to the commander. Suddenly, she slapped him. It wasn’t an ordinary slap. The strike on his cheek sent him flying into the palace, breaking the exterior wall.

The soldiers rushed back, but kept distance. Then the servants and even my mother arrived. They looked to the sage, and they fell to their knees. They prayed to her for mercy, not understanding for what she had really come.

“O Zuryashah, forgive any insolence you may have incurred by us?” said my mother, Koshala. “For what reason has violence been meted? Let us do what we can to right ourselves!”

The sage ignored her and walked to me. I cowered, wondering to myself whether I’d be struck similarly. Yet she simply dusted me. She bent to my height and looked with open eyes.

“Do you know why it was I struck the commander?” she said.

I shook my head, but I had an idea.

She picked up a pebble. She slowly squeezed it in front me till it became as dust.

“I understand that he was testing you,” she said with a forlorn face. “This pebble that I have reduced to dust is as like you now. Were you to have fought with the zeal you had, you very well could have died. Now, I trust the commander, that even in his focus, would have realized what was about to happen to you. He surely would have ended the fight before such an outcome. But the result, regardless, would have marred you to such an extent that perhaps you would not have been able to walk, nor speak, nor even move. Would you wish for such a fate?”

I shook my head.

“You now feel your body ache with the pain of ignorance. I come here today to serve as your Gruvho, your teacher, so that the darkness clouding your mind may be lifted. That you may fulfill the purpose you have come here to perform.”

Realization struck as she spoke. Knowing that came to teach me, I saw the opportunity I awaited. To be able to leave the confines of the palace at last, even if under supervision. I prostrated to her, and said, “O sage, will your tutelage take me to places beyond the walls of the palace?”

She looked surprised at my question, and said, “Indeed it will. Why do you ask?”

I looked to my mother and the servants. She sighed. “If it must be so, then do as the sage commands.”

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I was overjoyed, but surprise came to me when I reflected on the sage’s earlier words. “O sage, you seem to know more than you let on. What purpose must I be given that has you coming here?”

She smiled. “I come not giving you a purpose, for your purpose was already given before your birth, as it was given to me.”

Now I was confused. I asked, “What do you mean?”

“I know from where you came.”

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I mulled over what she said, but had little information to make a proper judgement of her words.

The business was dealt with rather swiftly. Salam apologized for his lack of care, and was reprimanded by mother. He was suspended from duty for two weeks. The sage, while she didn’t need to, repaired the outer wall. Using the element of earth, she mended the bricks and stone and set them as they were before. In a few minutes, the wall was as it was before, pristine, with nary a stain or blemish.

I thought I would be free for the rest of the day, given my injuries. The sage had other plans for me.

She brought me to a place far past the gardens in the back of the palace. It wasn’t as I hoped, for I wished to see the city, but this would have to do for now.

The hills surrounded us on all ends. Aurochs, mouflon, ibex, and junglefowl roamed not far. I supposed at the time that they had yet to be domesticated, though I remember the common livestock having already been present in the city. Or at least from what I could see in the few times I entered and exited from the gates.

There we sat in silence. I listened to the cries of the animals; the swaying of the grass. I felt the wind on my person that was now much more gentle. Having abused my position as a supplicant to the Gods, I prayed to Vyaytah asking forgiveness.

This situation was strange. I did not know what I was to do. Yurvaonri seemed inattentive to me, looking at things in the distance. I could see beyond her beautiful exterior, melancholy. That though she was clearly enlightened and much more wise than me, that she longed to see someone or something.

Why was that? Hadn’t she seen the ends to the purpose of our being? Hadn’t she fulfilled hers?

I’d always thought the sages of old, whether here or in my old world, to have been emotionless, to be completely beyond the mundane. For after all, when you have seen the ends of existence, what more is there to worry about or ponder.

Perhaps that wasn’t the case at all, and I had just been wrong. For here was a person, laying her humility bare to me. A child that, though harboring the memories of the past, was no more wiser than the beggar on the street. I had learned much, but had no chance or proper will to apply it.

I broke the silence between us. “What is it you look for, master?”

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