Bound to Life

 
The Living and the Dead
I wake alone in the round, soft bed, surrounded by my childhood home.

I’ve slept here for the last few days.
So strange and familiar at the same time.

Sleep slides away, and I walk out onto the porch.
And fill my lungs will the cool morning air.

I remember playing here as a boy.
But the memories are fragments of the old Yagrin’s life.

Still, the feelings of love are clear and bright, like today’s sky.
Free of dark clouds and lightning.

A soft wind brings me the smell of the sea,
And blows under the night robe I wear.

What a wonderful day!

Shazira and I will shape the circle of joy, the ancient bonding ceremony.
Today, in one of the old places.

In a few hours, we’ll stand together on a tall platform of green stone.
On a flower-covered island, not far from the watchtower.
Where bonding pairs have come for hundreds of years.

Jiku come there only for bonding celebrations.
Other days, the island waits, with quiet beauty, for the footsteps of Jiku to return.

Another circle of joy will rise there.
Berek’s adopted parents, Zias and Bintar, will bond, just minutes after us.

Zias and I are both winsin, the living dead.
There are few of us.
Many Jiku will come, out of curiousity alone, to see us remarry our bondmates.

The council hesitates a long time, before declaring that the living are legally dead..
And most of these die a real death soon enough.

But they saw that Zias was caught in an unnatural coma with no hope of healing.
And I was killed by the Krale, and transformed into an old one, swallowed up by the dark Tshuan lands.

The council declared: “Zias and Yagrin are dead forever.”
“Whatever remains is Yagrin and Zias no more.”

All connections were taken from us.
Bondmates, relatives, guild, possessions.
Our names erased, masters no more.

But we rise again, and become winsin.
And find the old threads that bound us to others.

My parents are dead.
I had one brother, but we separated years before his death.
Today I take back my name, and reconnect with Shazira, Berek, and Tzina.

I barely know Berek, my only nephew, though he carries a face like mine.
But we are much alike.
And at eleven years, he is old enough to perfom the drilik ceremony.
Berek turned eleven while I was gone, as Zias lay in a coma.

In drilik, two people create bonds of blood, whether they are related or not: parent, child, brother, sister.
This is not what earth calls adoption.
The Jiku believe that drilik binds our spirits together, even beyond death.

Today, Berek and I will perform drilik.
He will call me inta, uncle.

For six years, Zias and Bintar have loved Berek as a son.
Today, Berek will declare them mother and father.

And Tzina, my daughter, will declare me ina, father.

 
Bonding
The way of bonding is old, set by tradition.

The robes we wear.
The bond promises we make,
The number of steps we walk apart and together.

The bonding platform is a large stone square,
One hundred feet long, with a tall fence of silver metal.

Stone stairs rise to silver gates from four sides.
Within, at the center of the platform is a circle 25 feet in diameter.

The circle is divided into two halves.

I choose a trusted friend, Balshown to lead me, blindfolded, up the stairs, and into the left half of the circle.
Then we walk a spiral path that leads to the center, where Balshown leaves me.

Shazira will rise on the opposite stairs, led by Ilisak, her only sister.
Ilisak hopes that the day’s blessings will give her a child that she has long sought.
Ilisak guides Shazira on another spiral path to the center, and leaves her.

At the center of the platform we stand, back to back, but not touching.
Balshown and Ilisak call out together,”Yagrin and Shazira, two.”

The crowd can’t see us, standing at the bottom of the stairs.
But they cry out, “together,” and we take a half-step, until our backs touch.
We lock arms, and turn together, three circles.

Then Shazira and I cry out, “together.”
The guests then climb the stairs and stand around us.

My ceremony is interrupted for a moment by unexpected guests and their song.
My energy eyes show me three kishla circling high above us.
And three Bizra hover in the air, just out of reach.

The people try to ignore these strange guests.
And return their attention to the ceremony.

Balshown and Ilisak remove the blindfolds.
Shazira and I still hold each other, but standing back to back, we don’t see each other.

We declare together, why we have come today.

Then, each of us, in turn, recites the bond promise, facing the guests.
When we finish, we unlock arms and face each other.

We stand two feet apart.
Eyes locked into each other.
With smiles that reach out from this platform, and shine across the island.

We hold hands and recite the bond promise again.
Neither of us looks away until both have finished.
Then, we turn to face the crowd, together.

The guests give us blessings.
And we recite blessings upon the guests.

The ceremony is different when one or both of the pair are trained in the ways of flow.
Shazira is a flow master, so we will follow this custom, and flow into strange bodies with a humanoid shape.
Living, liquid crystal, with light shining from a glowing heart.

Shazira creates the crystal energy mask and changes herself.
Then, she tries to do the same to me.

She looks at me, puzzled.
“I don’t know why, Yagrin,” she whispers, “but my flow doesn’t work on you.”

I smile.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her.
I don’t know much of flow, but I understand the Gen ways of shells and transformation.

A full transformation has subtle differences from a mask.
Shazira and the other flow masters quietly notice the difference.

Shazira and I perform the greeting of palms, but let our liquid hands merge together.
Then, we bow our heads together, merging them for a moment.

The crowd calls out, “one and two.”
We quickly separate and return to our Jiku bodies.

Tzina and Berek come forward as planned.
Tzina embraces me, her eyes full of tears.
“You are ina to me,” she declares, in a strong voice that would shatter stone.
“I am ina to you, forever,” I answer, without letting go.

She will not let go until Berek taps her on the shoulder.
Then, she and I separate, and Berek and I grasp hands.
“You are inta Yagrin to me,” he declares.
“I am inta Yagrin to you, forever” I add, and he is my nephew again.

Before, we hid from our blood, and he called me master.
We faced the Krale together, almost strangers.
Now, we are family.

Everyone descends the stairs, and wait for Zias and Bintar to begin their own bonding ceremony.
When they finish the bonding, Berek declares them his father and mother.

High above us, the Bizra disappear.
The Kishla continue their song for another few seconds.
Then fly out of sight.

 
The Guilds
After the bonding, we eat, drink and dance.

The heads of the four guilds (flow, weavers, healing, and artists) are invited to every bonding.
But they rarely attend, except for their own family, and for masters of their own guild.

All the guild heads have come to my bonding.
I’ve met only one of them, Lina, of the energy weavers guild.
Once, Yagrin was a master weaver, and she was his teacher.

When the celebration draws to an end, the guild heads approach, and surround me.
Lina speaks first, her voice commanding.
“Yagrin, come tomorrow to a weavers meeting, and tell us about the old ones.”

The other heads stop her.
“Don’t order him, Lina!”
“He’s not even in your guild any more.”

“You were ready to discard him, before the council declared him dead.”
“All the guilds have an equal right to hear his words.”

“Would you have done any differently?” she asks.
“Would you have defied the law?”
“The law demands that all travelers leave the guilds.”

“But Yagrin is reborn,” she continues, “and a traveler no more.”
“He will retest soon, and take back his master’s robe.”
“And return to the watchtower as guardian.”

“He is also skilled with flow and healing,” suggests Shazira.
“And he has sung in the temple of the old ones.”
“He may choose to train and join one of the other guilds.”

Lina’s face grows dark at Shazira’s suggestion.

“Let him join more than one guild,” suggest the head of the flow guild.

“Yes,” agrees the head of the artists guild.
“He should join all of us!”

“Wear the masters robes of more than one guild?” asks Lina.
“What arrogance!”
“And it weakens the unique strength of each guild.”

“And to walk in all the guilds?!”
“Unthinkable!”

“These are strange times, Lina,” says the head of the flow guild.
“All the guilds claim him, and want his knowledge.”

They argue for a few minutes.

“Please stop,” I interrupt.
“I would be honored to be called master, and walk in any of the guilds.”

“Let the council decide what is best for us.”
“I must speak with them right away and tell them about my time with the old ones.”

“Afterwards, I will take the weaver’s test.”
Lina smiles.

“Then, if the council permits it, I will train for the other guilds.”

 
The Council
The council questions me for hours.
I tell them of the old ones, and sleeping masters, and the armies of Tshuan.
And of prophecies of war.

They are frightened of me.
I have been a traveler, an alien, an old one.
I have seen death, and returned.
And I carry thousands of years of memories.

I bring news of war and change.
And I have strange skills beyond any of the guilds.

“Where is your loyalty, Yagrin?” asks one of the council.
“What do you want?”

“I am loyal to family, friends, and the guilds.”
“I am loyal to peace, so the guilds can continue to learn and grow.”
“But I will fight, if necessary, to protect the guilds.”

“And I will not fight alone!”
“I am still a brother to the old ones.”
“They will stand with me.”

The energy masters among the council watch the energy in my bodies as I speak, to see if I lie.

“He seems to speak truly,” says one of them, “but his fire body is strange, and difficult to read.”
“Perhaps he lies without us knowing.”

“I know that I’m strange to you,” I tell them.
“And you can’t yet trust me, or think of me as your brother.”

“But let me join all of the guilds, as I ‘ve asked, and earn your trust.”
“I will be fierce, to protect all my brothers and sisters in the guilds.”

The answer satisfies many of them.
“The old saying is true,” says one of the council, “that the guilds always trust their own.”

The council speaks privately, and then returns with their decision.

“Join all the guilds, as you have suggested, as quickly as possible.”
“You will calm the guilds through your knowledge, and your committment.”

“When you have completed all four tests, we will call a gathering of the guilds.”
“You will help the council to explain to the guilds what you have seen.
“And how each guild should prepare for the troubled times that are coming.”

 
 «Read Part 3: Visions
 

Notes on flow, melting, transformation and death

Each of us has three bodies.
The fire body is an energy body in roughly the shape of an egg.
The pattern body is an energy body with patterns that support a specific physical form.
And the stone body is a physical body that is bound to the pattern body.

When we flow objects or most living things, we transform them, replacing their underlying energy patterns with the patterns that go with a different form.
But when we flow ourselves or other Jiku, we use a mask, a simple, artificial pattern body.
The mask covers the original pattern body, and supports a temporary transformation of the physical body into a different form.

The mask can be held for a few hours or a day, depending on strength and skill.
When the mask is removed, the physical body returns to its original form.

It’s possible, but no longer practiced, to do a more profound transformation of our own bodies.
Outside of the flow masters, few even know that a transformation is possible.

A new pattern body, more elaborate than a simple mask, is used to push the old pattern body into the heart well of the fire body.
The fire body stores and hides the old pattern body.

This way is dangerous for the Jiku.
The transformation often damages awareness or memories.
And the stored pattern body weakens.

Within a day or two, the Jiku awareness is replaced by the awareness that comes with their new form.
And some energy forms once taken, cannot be undone.

The Jiku’s ways of flow are different from the ways of melting found among the Mehkeel.
The Mehkeel are the furry humanoid race that the Gen are born from.

The Gen’s lives are tied only to their fire bodies.
When they take physical form, they shape a new pattern body, and its twin, the physical body.

The Gen and Mekheel fire bodies hold a clear consciousness, undamaged by transformation.
But only the Gen can live in the physical world without a physical body, independent of all physical form.

The Mekheel, studying to be Gen, shift their own shapes in two ways.
Sometimes they melt (create) a second physical presence, a shell, to bind to their their awareness, while their physical body is hidden.
Other times, they perform a transformation similar to that of the Jiku.
But the Mehkeel can do it without damage, and without losing their own awareness.

When the Mekheel or Jiku die, their consciousness lives on in their fire body.
But the fire body is repelled by the physical world, and pulled toward the nourishing energy of the sun.