Chapter One
A Name Day to Remember
According to the traditions of of the village of Tranquility, each person was entitled to a day of leisure and luxury on their own name day. On that day, one could ask each and every person in the village a request and they would fulfill it, provided it was not dishonoring nor vulgar and didn’t require more than two hours of the persons time.
Naturally, many would spend their day living like kings or queens. A day of feasting on delicacies transfigured by Keth’s grandfather Karlios, the village Elder. He was always happy to put in more than the two hours service required of him by tradition. To see his people care for one another and to forget the worries of the outside world for even one day, was well worth his extra efforts. After all, it was he that established the tradition and in fact the village itself.
The more frugal would use this once a year opportunity to complete a difficult project or renovate their dwelling. A skilled mage like Karlios could do much more than transfigure food. With the right materials collected, any number of things could be created. A sword folded a thousand times by a master smith, could not compete with a sword transfigured from the finest of materials by a master mage. Although the necessary focus, and understanding of the material needed, for such a feat would be far beyond the grasp of all but few mages.
Karlios had been striving to teach Keth the art of transfiguration, but before one can begin to understand transfiguration, one must excel at mere transformation. Over the last couple months he had been having his student transform broken glass into sheets then break them, repeating the process.
At first Keth could form the broken glass into a bit of a warped disk. These were very ugly and easily broken. As time progressed he noticed that his disks were becoming smoother and stronger.
Within a month he found that he could create thin, strong sheets, suited for windows. A week later he could transform the glass into usable cups, bowls, plates. Within a few days, he was able to recreate a pair of large, open top spherical glasses that sat atop a stem held into place by a circular base.
Keth saw these types of glasses in a picture of the ancients that a lost merchant had once brought to their village. They were full of a red liquid and those holding them looked so cheerful. In that moment he decided rather than breaking them to start again, he would give them to his sister Mercy. Like her they were elegant, yet very strong. He looked at the glasses marveling and whispered to himself. “How did I even make this.”
His workshop was of a very peculiar design. It was a tree. In truth, it was seven large trees that Karlios had transformed together. Transfiguring the inside to be a workshop for his grandson. This was Keth’s childhood fantasy turned reality over several years of name day wishes.
Its overall design was constructed in such a natural way that even upon close examination, one would merely think what an impossibly peculiar thicket of trees. Its ladder was made of knots, branches, and divots all wedged in such a way that unless one knew they were looking at a ladder, they would never assume such.
The workshop area was about 10 paces in each direction from the center. There were no windows and the exterior of the walls, floor, and ceiling, were made of solid wood with leaves and branches extruding out in all directions. Perfectly camouflaged from the ground or sky.
For his large stature he was shockingly agile. Exiting his workshop through the trap door at its base he gracefully descended the tree, and began his hike to village. It was a good 20 minute journey through the forest.
It was by no accident that Keth chose to set up his workshop a fair distance away. Intentionally he distanced himself from the other fifty souls who populated Tranquility. This proximity was particularly useful since starting his training, finding his ability to focus improved dramatically.
The village of Tranquility sat between two creeks, a west and an east. To the north of the village the creeks joined into one, likewise to the south of the village. Most of the inhabitants of Tranquility believed this to be of a natural design, but in fact it was willed into existence by Karlios some twenty years prior. He figured it would provide for easy water access to the homes that would one day, and now did run parallel to his formed creeks.
At the bank of the west creek, a young lady stooped down at the waist, filling a large glass bottle with the fresh creek water. Her long golden braids flowed down, the tips of each large braid steeping in the creek. She looked up as the bottle burped out it’s last bit of air in exchange for water.
Noticing Keth crossing the bridge, she smiled, rose upright, and quickly pulled the bottle out of the water. Holding it by the small circular handle at its mouth, she tried to fix a metal cap upon it. Worried that he wasn’t going to stop and talk to her, she began to hurry. Nervously wrestling with the lid, she managed to secure it partially and burst off to greet him.
“Keth, Keth.” She cried out, as she purposely attempted to maintain gracefulness in her hustle to catch him. Keth turned to the awkward sight of the twenty year old maiden feigning ease as she moved hastily with the large bottle grasped against her chest.
“Azra.” He replied with a smile.
Azra stopped an arms length away from the taller and much larger man. Her fair cheeks began to rose a little, partly from the toil of the bottle, mostly from his smile. “How... how is your name day? Did..” Azra asked but quickly stopped.
Keth was very accustomed to Azra’s mannerisms. After all she was the only women anywhere near to his age, aside from his sister Mercedes. Looking down at Azra he replied. “It doesn’t really feel like my name day at all. I’ve been so focused on mastering the art of transforming, I have not really taken much time to think about anything else.”
Pulling out one of the glasses from his leather satchel, he raised it for her to see, and spoke. “Look at what I made for Mercy.” A look of astonishment came across Azra’s face. She slowly lowered the bottle and set it on the ground. To Keth’s surprise she boldly grabbed the glass from his hands and began to study it. Turning partially away to face the sunlight, she held up the glass and marveled at its beauty.
“Your... amazing.” She whispered with a sigh.
In that moment Keth couldn’t help but see her for the potential wife that she was. It had been three years since Azra and her father settled in Tranquility. In that time Keth had never truly seen her as more than a friend. He gazed upon her large braids of golden hair shinning in the midday sun. Her face was a pale white but complimented her nearly platinum blonde eyebrows and lashes. Turning her head to Keth.
“This is truly an exquisite wine glass. Where did you find the model?”
“Wine glass?” he questioned, more focused on her exceptionally rosy lips than what she was saying.
“Yeah… to drink wine from.” She quipped.
A look of bewilderment fell across his face. He paused for a second, then said, “I saw a few pictures of the ancients drinking from glasses like this one about ten years ago. A Merchant who was lost stumbled across our village and let me look through one of his picture books. I... didn’t know what it was called.”
He paused, embarrassed that Azra of all people, knew more than him on this subject. “I don’t know what wine is though.” He admitted. Azra couldn’t help but smirk for a fraction of a second. It felt good for her to finally have one up on the man she had desired since her arrival to Tranquility.
Unlike Keth and Mercy, she had not grown up in the safe haven that Tranquility provided for its residents. Although her father had done a good job at sheltering her from the worst of the Out-Lands, she had seen a bit of the depravity of men without morals. That’s why she fell in love with Keth, shortly after ariving. Never had she seen a man as strong and capable as him, that had not used their talents for their own means.
Almost instantly composing herself, she smiled at him and said, “that doesn’t matter... I love it… It’s perfect… I can’t believe that you made this from a ten year old memory.”
Keth began to blush a little. It felt good hearing such praises from her. He looked down at her chin as she elegantly bounced her shoulders up then playfully spun around to face him.
He watched and time slowed as she spun. Her faded yellow blouse popped up in the air as she circled around to face him. Her large golden blonde braids swung around her, tiny particles of water flying from the tips, creating an arch of of the finest mist. The fringed top of her blouse came to rest just below the shallow hollow of her neck. Stunning he thought while enjoying her newly discovered beauty. His eyes drifted down to investigate a deviation in the color of her blouse. Taking in the sight, it took a moment for him to realize, that he was in fact staring at her breasts.
“OH, SORRY.” He yelped and looked to the ground embarrassed.
“What?” Azra said, confused by his strange outbreak. Looking down to see what he was talking about, she found the culprit. Her normally loose fitting blouse was wet from the bottle and the fabric clung to body. Her two saturated braids had seeped through the cloth exposing her areolas. Little was left to the imagination concerning her bosom.
Immediately she threw her arms over her chest in an attempt to maintain her dignity. In doing so, she lost grip of the wine glass, It fell to the ground with a clang but remained intact.Slowly he looked up to face the maiden. Her face, aflame with embarrassment. Her eyes spoke to his, as to say "this was not meant to happen, yet." Unable to find words to speak, she turned away, and ran home.
Feeling a bit shameful, Keth picked up the wine glass and tucked it into his satchel. He took a deep breath trying to remove the image of Azra’s breasts from his mind. Finding no success he swooped up her abandoned bottle and delivered it outside her door, and sought out his sister.
The people of tranquility were a simple people whom placed much value on personal honor and virtue. All that were not born there had witnessed in some measure the harshness of the Out-Lands, and agreed to value these for the sake of the community. Those who were born there, never knew anything different.
Upon finding Mercy, Keth was not surprised to find her buried into her books. For she far preferred the wisdom or the stories of the ancients, to the company of the fellow villagers.
“I made these, while I was practicing and thought of you. I would like you to have them.” He spoke, while pulling the glasses from his satchel.
“Wow, that’s... oh… really nice” she said, as she brushed away some of the raven hairs that obscured her vision. Her brown eyes kept trying to return to the words on the book she held.
“We don’t have any wine here, but I guess I could take one for water… maybe Grandpa would want the other one.” She reasoned.
Keth just smiled at her knowing she was clearly unable to give him her full attention. “Alright, I love you Mercy.” He said as he exited her dwelling “Yeah...” Was her only reply.
Mercy was in many ways the polar opposite of Keth. While he loved to be in nature, she rarely left her house apart from seeking out rescued books, from the returning salvage parties. She had no interest in the young men in the village, but at times would use her stunning beauty to convince them to smuggle in some sort of old forbidden tech. She cared more for the acquisition of said tech than she did her own virtue so gladly traded it to achieve her goals.
Most forms of technology was forbidden by Karlios. She did not understand why he was so stringent on denying these wonderful devices to the community. So therefore saw no reason for her to abide by his unreasonable rules.
She could not understand her need to learn and build devices, but would let nothing impede her obtaining and discovering their mysteries.
Like a politician, she would say what was needed in public, then do as she desired in private. Needless to say Keth knew nothing of this darker side of his beloved sister, on the other hand Karlios was not ignorant of her hidden works.
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This is the first chapter of my Steemit Novel.
I will be attempting to complete the next chapter as soon as possible, but I have no idea as to exact time tables of when this will be. Your support would certainly help start a fire under me and help this project move forward with more force.
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PS Don't hate me I'mjustsaying
-K
I would appreciate any advise you may have. I know that I am not the most gifted of writers. I am attempting to refine my work and would value the advice of any "editors."