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Sime~Gen Inc.

WorldCrafters Guild

Course Examples

Who Trusts a Traitor

Summary Outline

Chapter One First Attempt

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

 These drafts are sprinkled with comments formatted "hidden" in the word processor but presented here to reveal the thought process.

[Begin Hidden Comments]

THIS IS NOT THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY - IT'S BACKGROUND FILLER. It is devoid of conflict. Rozell's ADVERSARY must appear on stage, and that adversary is not the Baron or the Master Omenreader.

[End Hidden Comments]

 

Rozell was born fighting. He came into the world squalling, boxing and kicking for all he was worth. And at the moment of his birth, the worst storm in living memory devastated the Barony of Inmoore. Lightning set fires, roofs were torn off, and trees fell. Rivers overflowed, and crops were ruined.

No one had time to struggle with a recalcitrant infant, the eighth disregarded bastard son of the Baron. But never, in all the years he lived in the Baron's house, was he allowed to forget the ill omens of the day of his birth.

"The storm within you is as destructive as the storm that tore the Barony apart the day you were born!" His teachers scolded him, his fellow students, sons and fosterlings of the Baron, taunted him, and his mother reproached him for his hostile attitude.

Rozell learned to bury his innate fury, his sense of indignation, his deep conviction that he didn't belong here. At the age of three, he was taken from his mother, an Innkeeper's widow who had, by the Baron's favor, kept her husband's Inn on the road to Inmoore.

 

[Begin Hidden Comments]

(Establish the souljewel and his difference).

[End Hidden Comments]

 

#

 

From the age of three, he plotted, schemed and planned his escape. But only on his tenth birthday did his former childishness become clear to him.

It was a fair day of blue skies and only three day-moons. The Godsbridge was clearly visible though, the slanting arc of color that sliced across the sky just as it had been on the day Rozell was born. It was said the Immortals used the bridge to come and go among men.

On his tenth birthday, Rozell was at sword practice in the Armsmaster's yard, a privilege he had won through the height and strength of his body more than through his rank in the household. From the castle's front courtyard, a clattering and jangling commotion announced the arrival of some personage's party, and all the boys at practice rushed to the grill gate to peer out toward the formal entry.

The yard was filled with liveried horses mounted by soldiers wearing red surplices and carrying the forked pennant of the Omen Masters Guild. The boys gaped in silent shock. Only the Master of Masters himself would be so escorted.

"I can't see anything! Is the Master of Masters really there?" someone called.

"Can't see from here!" answered another.

But Rozell had been shoved into the far corner, with the shackle of the gate lock digging into his ribs. He stood quietly with the poised patience he had learned. From his vantage he could just glimpse the high plumed helmet of the Master of Masters. He did not, however, announce this. There was only one reason Rozell had ever heard of that could bring the Master of the Omen readers' guild to such a minor Barony as Inmoore. He was searching for apprentices for his guild.

Inmoore, while it held little political sway at Court, was known as the religious heart of the River Kingdoms. Every God had a temple here, and Rozell believed every form of worship had its main cathedral or most important Order here. The Omen Readers, however, were not a religion but a Guild, and as such, crossed all the Kingdoms' boundaries.

And journeymen of that guild traveled a great deal.

It was at that moment, as the Master of Masters entered the Baron's castle, as the escort was led away to the stables, as the courtyard emptied, that Rozell first thought that he must be the one chosen to leave with the Master. He would have to contrive an omen, one the Master of Omen readers couldn't miss, that would point directly to Rozell and no other.

"Rozell!"

The bass roar made Rozell jump, rattling the gate shackle. "Armsmaster, Sir!"

"What are you doing over here!"

"Armsmaster, I have been practicing the exercises you gave me." He demonstrated by reaching up and back to grab a crosspiece of the gate's grill and lift himself off the ground. Then he curled up his legs and thrust them straight out ahead of him with considerable force.

The Armsmaster had to dance back to miss being hit by two booted feet. "Very well, you will do fifty kicks before you rejoin your group." He turned and stalked away.

Rozell would have been crushed if he had any intentions of carrying out the order.

 

[Begin Hidden Comments]

(He can fade away by magic?)

[End Hidden Comments]

 

End Chapter One First Attempt

 

Chapter One Summary

 

Rozell, at the age of seventeen, knows that he's different, but has no idea of the enormity of that difference. The only overt mark of his difference is a crystal, a jewel, embedded in his ring finger.

He was born with a tiny chip of gem glittering on his finger, and as he grew, it grew. His mother, a widow, had a silver collar fashioned to go around the gem, to make it look like a ring, and then she moved to a new community. Now, at the age of eighteen, Rozell is not known to be exotically different - just odd enough in behavior to discourage parents of marriageable daughters and craftsmen looking for apprentices.

Worried for his future, his mother takes Rozell to Shrine City, the Holy City of the River Kingdoms. Here are temples, cathedrals and shrines dedicated to each and every God. The Orders and Priesthoods dedicated to the Gods all have their headquarters here. This is the spiritual center of the River Kingdoms, and here, they must come to petition Vertum, God of Abundance.

His mother was praying to Vertum at the moment of his conception, so she brings him here to ask Vertum's blessing

on his future even though Vertum's hand has been absent from the world for nearly five years.

In Vertum's somewhat neglected temple, they encounter a service in progress and make their supplication.

Rozell experiences the most peculiar sensation of his life as he enters the building, and it intensifies as he joins the worship. It is both familiar and strange, delectable and frightening, promising and repulsive.

He sincerely tries to offer worship as he's been taught. He has never been able to summon the proper state of mind for effective worship, but this time, when something happens to his vision, he dares hope he's finally achieved it. The thought enters his mind that he might be the one to restore Vertum's presence to the world.

At that, the gem in his finger flares. Painfully hot and bright, it shoots energy through him and he sees a vision of an immense transparent being - an Immortal, a God - stalking down the center of the temple toward them. The face is contemptuous and angry at the same time, and the God's attention is all on Rozell.

At first he thinks it was his presumption in thinking he could induce the God to take an interest in his worshippers again, but this thought is wiped from his mind as the figure looms over him, and he somehow knows this is not Vertum. This is Tyrnak, patron of those who glory in battle, Tyrnak, The Enemy.

The Immortal laughs at Rozell's brave stance and casually knocks over a marble statue of Vertum which crashes down on Rozell and his mother. She pushes Rozell out of the way, but is crushed.

Making a fist, Rozell points his glowing crystal ring at the Immortal - brandishing it as a weapon, not even aware what he's doing. A flash sparks between the ring and the Immortal, and the Immortal recoils.

A booming voice fills the temple. "Cursed be the boy Rozell, for he has defiled Vertum's Sacred Name! Know him by the Gem he wears. I sear it into his very flesh to mark him."

Another bolt sizzles between them. Rozell sees it as going from the ring to the Immortal, but apparently the mortal onlookers see it as coming from the Immortal and marking Rozell.

The Immortal disappears amid pyrotechnics, and the onlookers attack Rozell.

 

End Chapter One

 

Summary of Ending the Book

 

[Begin Hidden Comments]

WHAT DO THEY THINK IS THE REASON WHY AN IMPOSTOR GOD WOULD HAVE IT IN FOR ROZELL? WHAT MIGHT THE CREATIONISTS DO ABOUT IT? THEY DON'T HAVE THE EARS OF KINGS OR IMMORTALS.

SURELY KNOWING THE RIVER KINGDOMS ARE IN DANGER BECAUSE OF A FALSE AND LYING GOD, THEY WOULD BE TRYING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. WHAT?

LOGIC SEQUENCE HERE FALLS APART AND THE WHOLE THING IS WEAK.

IT JUST DOESN'T WANT TO THRUST TOWARD ROZELL BEING EXPELLED FROM CREATIONISTS AND THROWING HIMSELF ON THEIR ALTAR IN PLEA TO THE CREATOR - ONLY TO OPEN THE DOOR TO TYRNAK AND ANOTHER ATTACK. WHY DOES TYRNAK WANT TO KILL HIM? WHAT THREAT IS HE TO THE HILL KINGS' ATTACK PLANNED FOR THAT AFTERNOON?

[End Hidden Comments]

 

With popular sentiment aroused against them for harboring an accursed, the Creationists are under a lot of pressure to expel Rozell to his fate. His invocation of the powers of his gem, despite saving their lives, is a violation of his original vow on entering their protection. If he would violate that vow, what good is his word on anything?

But there is also the curious matter of why an Immortal would have it in for Rozell.

With the questions asked, Rozell and Avrul have to tell all of their story; Avrul's absolution of Rozell's vow not to invoke the ring, and Rozell's suspicion that he is indeed Vertum made mortal, and their approach to the Immortal, Idalia.

 

[Begin Hidden Comments]

How does Ethe react?

[End Hidden Comments]

 

Some of the elders contest the validity of Avrul's absolution of Rozell's vow, and Ethe hears only that Rozell had violated that vow before it was absolved. This, she says in tears,

The Elders argue what they should do about Rozell's oath breaking, and their own position - the Kings could well outlaw their practices or declare them all guilty of treason for harboring Rozell.

 

[Begin Hidden Comments]

FROM HERE DOWN, THERE HAS TO BE A THREAD THAT SHOWS HOW ROZELL WINS BACK ETHE'S REGARD, TRUST AND FAITH BY HIS DEEDS; HOW HE WINS HER FROM LOWN.

WHEN HE BECOMES VERTUM AGAIN, PERHAPS HE FEELS ETHE WORSHIPPING HIM DESPITE HER DEEP CONVICTION THAT IT IS AGAINST HER FAITH. IT TEARS HER APART TO DO THIS, BUT SHE CAN'T STAND THE THOUGHT OF HIM ALONE.

PERHAPS IT IS HER TIMELY WORSHIPPING THAT ALLOWS HIM TO SURMOUNT THE GODSBRIDGE. PERHAPS THIS IS BECAUSE AVRUL TALKS TO HER AND TELLS HER EVERYTHING ROZELL CONFIDED AND HOW DISTRAUGHT HE WAS TO LOSE HER.

[End Hidden Comments]

 

Rozell, no longer the bewildered and overwhelmed child who sought refuge here, steps forward and declares that he will turn himself over to the Kings for judgement.

Rozell tears out of the hearing chamber and throws himself at the foot of the altar, where he took his original vow to the Creator, and begs the Creator to aid him.

Unwittingly, he activates the gem, and rips a hole in the wards of the Creator's Sanctuary which have protected him all these years. Tyrnak manifests in the misty light cupped in the mirrors of the altar.

Rozell tries attacking through the gem - the sending of a beam of power that vanquished Trynak twice before. But this time, the Immortal just flicks the beam aside negligently and casts a fireball at Rozell. Concussion throws Rozell away from the foot of the altar and leaves him sprawled in the middle of the floor.

Matham accuses Rozell of defiling the Sanctuary, an act which let this Immortal in, but Avrul - who has been Rozell's closest confidant through all his questing amid the powers of the gem - stands with Rozell, daring the Immortal to defile the Creator's own place.

Meanwhile, Matham has brought his Staff of Office, which is not just a piece of wood but is a consecrated symbol of his temporal power. He advances against Tyrnak commanding him to vacate the Sanctuary.

Tyrnak's image wavers, and then gathers strength as he laughs. But clearly, the staff is a power he must respect. He threatens Matham, threatens to pull down the whole building, reminding Rozell of how he killed his mother.

Thinking of how powerful the beam of destruction from the gem was in Vertum's temple and on the street, Rozell finally realizes that, despite the breach in the sanctuary's wards, Tyrnak's powers - like the gem's - must be blunted by the wards remaining to the Sanctuary, or by the Creator Himself who frowns on destruction.

Matham raises his staff, and in the name of the Creator, commands the Immortal to be gone.

Tyrnak declares there is no Creator, and laughs. He is going to kill Rozell, the cursed of Vertum, and Vertum will be forever grateful won't he?

Something in that triggers uncomfortable associations for Rozell. He remembers how the image of Vertum turned into that of Tyrnak, and how Tyrnak is known to him as Enemy. But his mind is blocked.

While he ponders, Matham retorts, "You won't be killing anyone here - not in the Sanctuary of the Creator, you won't!" He advances, holding the staff high. The wood fairly glows now, and there's a throbbing sound filling the room.

Rozell's gem finger aches with that throbbing, and when he sees Tyrnak about to knock Matham aside with a bolt of fire, Rozell runs behind Matham and grabs Matham's staff with his gemmed hand.

The power raises and raises, the two powers, gem and staff, harmonizing as Rozell repeats his vow to serve the Creator with all that is his. He starts, and Matham follows, singing the song of consecration. When Avrul joins in, Tyrnak is almost vanquished.

Tyrnak turns his attack to the gem, and nearly wrenches control of it from Rozell. But Rozell's hours of practice come to his aid now, and he insinuates himself totally into the stone and makes it his own, fighting off the alien influence.

Tyrnak taunts Rozell that he couldn't survive among humans without that stone, and Rozell retorts that he could just by cutting off his finger. "But I won't do it just to satisfy you!"

Together, Matham, Avrul and Rozell drive Tyrnak out of the Sanctuary.

Rozell admits that it seems to be through the gem that Tyrnak finds and persecutes him.

But in the aftermath of the fight, Rozell discovers that he has brought out of the gem the sense of self and identity along with a coherent pattern of memories he has not yet explored or digested. But he knows who he is.

Without thinking about the implications, he blurts out that he is not Rozell at all - he is and always has been Vertum. Tyrnak exiled him to mortality to become Rozell, but in the battle, Vertum managed to retain his memories, his soul, and his power and encapsulate them in the gem. Rozell also eluded the fate Tyrnak had planned for him by choosing his own mother - a woman who was a worshipper of Vertum, and for whom Vertum had done much.

"But why would one Immortal attack another?" asks Matham.

Avrul has the answer, for Rozell had told him thousands of random bits he'd learned from the gem. "Immortals need the energies of worship to exist. They aren't REALLY immortal, as the Creator is immortal." Putting it together, he turns to Rozell and says, "Tyrnak tried to steal Vertum's supply of worship-energy, didn't he?"

Rozell nods. "And he succeeded. I don't remember it all yet, but he had to have succeeded for he was able to cast me down to mortal form - where I must die."

"But you belong to the Creator now," argues Matham. "You will live on after your body dies."

Gazing at the altar, Rozell wonders if he accepted that creed because he always knew himself immortal, or if he truly belongs to the Creator. Deep down inside, he has been touched by the Creator, and called to a higher truth than even an Immortal lives by. "Yes," he responds. "I belong to the Creator. I do." And by that, he means Vertum, his true self.

But though Matham and Avrul and the others who witnessed the fight with Tyrnak see it that way, many Creationists reject Rozell, Ethe included. After much convincing they have accepted that he is Vertum in mortal form, but Ethe doubts him. "As Vertum, you were sworn to support your worshippers, and you turned your back on them to protect your - your precious energy supply. You didn't need it. The people you served would have provided more. But you betrayed them. Then, no sooner did you return to your own temple than you ran from Tyrnak again - ran and threw yourself on the mercy of the Creator. You betrayed the oath to serve your worshippers, why should we believe you'd keep your oath to the Creator?"

"That's not fair!" objects Avrul. "He was only a child! He was defeated."

"He was an Immortal when he was defeated, and he's still an Immortal. His power is in that gem and its part of him!" she retorts.

"She has a point," concedes Matham. "Can an Immortal vow to the service of the Creator? Can a traitor to one oath be trusted to keep another?"

Traitor! Rozell cannot see himself as a traitor. "My oaths are not mutually exclusive!"

"What about your oath to the Allied Kings?" asks Matham. "Aren't the twenty-two Immortals bound in a pact with the Allied Kings?"

Rozell had not yet reabsorbed all his memories. "I'd forgotten that." But he was sure Tyrnak hadn't. For the first time, it occurred to him that there might be something else behind Tyrnak's attack than simple avarice. For with Rozell's death, there would be only twenty-one Immortals and the pact would be broken. What if the River Kingdoms were attacked? Would the Immortals be bound by a broken pact?

They continue to hammer away at Rozell until he has to admit that he cannot serve both vows. He also has to admit that because of his ultimate nature, he will use the power that still resides in the gem. It is his and he will use it, even in battle as he has used it. He points out that he hasn't killed anyone, and Ethe adds, "Yet!"

It boils down to a choice between the power in the gem and his vow to the Creator. He finds the dark suspicion of his family - whose welfare was ever on his mind, and for whom he was willing to sacrifice his life - too much to bear.

They argue forcefully that absolute power - such as resides in the gem - corrupts absolutely. His very unwillingness to give it up is sure sign that it has a hold on him.

Rozell grabs a ceremonial knife from the altar and gouges the stone out of his flesh, having to chip the bone to dislodge it. Bleeding profusely, he renounces all power and thrusts the gem into Avrul's hands. Then he faints.

An Immortal's power in mortal keeping spells trouble, especially because this particular gem is an open channel to Tyrnak.

Even before Rozell is recovered and on his feet again, Avrul's health has suffered. He has nightmares and waking hallucinations. It is thought he's the victim of a healing he has done that has gone awry.

When Rozell is finally allowed to see him, in a peaceful outdoors garden, Avrul is in a bad way. In the near presence of the gem again, Rozell is able to perceive with the wider senses of an Immortal, and notices flows and surges of wild power passing through Avrul's body. The gem has welded itself to the palm of Avrul's hand and the flesh about it is blackened and sickly.

As Rozell is gazing upon this in horror, an Immortal appears, a woman Rozell knows as Idalia. She tells Rozell that the Vertum power is running out of control through all the River Kingdoms bringing raging and malignant growth, giantism, and all manor of debilitating distortions to crops and orchards. Not only are useful things such as food coming in abundance, but so are the vermin that infest and ruin the food.

When Idalia sees that Vertum's power is in the keeping of a mortal, she declares that it is the source of the trouble, and Vertum must take it back from him and regain control of it.

Vertum/Rozell has sworn never to traffic in power again. He must break that oath to save his friend, and the River Kingdoms.

Ethe witnesses Rozell taking the gem back from Avrul's keeping, and, betrayed, she renounces him. She is especially vehement because Avrul fights Rozell for possession of the power, and she realizes Avrul has nearly been destroyed by that power.

While Avrul and Rozell fight for the gem, Trynak appears to keep Rozell from retrieving his power. Idalia blocks Tyrnak's attempt to kill Rozell.

Idalia and Tyrnak disappear, and Rozell rips the gem from Avrul's flesh. It had not yet attached itself to the bone, but it comes away covered with blood.

Rozell realizes it has cost Idalia dearly to come with her warning, and he also knows that her power - a soft feminine power of persuasion and balance - is no match for Tyrnak's martial ferocity. Tyrnak will savage her if he isn't stopped.

And Rozell knows now one way he can regain his Immortality and walk the realms to challenge Tyrnak on his own ground. He must cross the Godsbridge - a shining arc that appears across the sky at certain seasons. It's said to be the path the Immortals use to manifest in the mortal world. But Rozell now knows the truth. The visible arc is an astronomical phenomenon, like the moons. The real Godsbridge anchors the realms of Immortals to the world of men at an island far out at sea.

The River Kingdoms occupy a river delta where eight major rivers flow into the sea. The wide, flat lands are fertile and prosper from the trade that comes along the rivers to the seaports kept by the Kingdoms closest to the coast.

The island Rozell wants is known only as a navigational hazard, not a port of call, and so to get there he must charter a ship and a brave captain.

 

[Begin Hidden Comments]

HOW AND WHY WOULD AVRUL AND ETHE HELP HIM?

[End Hidden Comments]

 

Rozell does not even consider the difficulties when he grabs up the gem, bids a hasty but sincerely loving farewell to Avrul and Ethe, and takes off for the port to get a ship.

He has the Power of Abundance - his own personal power - in the palm of his hand, and has no trouble finding what he needs.

When the Gem begins to dig into his palm, he places it against the flesh of his groin and lets it take root. At least there it's not conspicuously marking him as one apart.

Tyrnak attacks the ship at sea, but Rozell, better in command of his power now, repels the attack. Tyrnak saves face by ushering them into safe harbor at the island, but he laughs at Rozell's confidence that he can cross Godsbridge.

Mortals may become Immortal by climbing Godsbridge. Over the centuries, hundreds of thousands hearing that legend, have tried. Fewer than two hundred have made it. Twenty two of those are bound in a sworn pact to serve and protect the River Kingdoms.

Immortals may also become mortal by coming down the Godsbridge. That is what happened to Vertum/Rozell. He had fought every step of the way until Tyrnak had overwhelmed him and cast him from the bridge to fall through the dimensions. He might still be falling had Tyrnak not tried to force him into incarnation in the body of a hopelessly deformed cripple whose conception was in the process of going awry at that moment.

Given that anchor to reality, Rozell had been able to choose one of his own worshippers, who at that moment was crying out to him for a child. And he'd been able to encapsulate his soul, his memories and his power and bind them to his finger.

But for all that, he was still mortal. Play too much with the gem's power, and he would suffer as Avrul had. So would the Kingdoms. No, he had to cross Godsbridge, and if he failed as so many had, then the oblivion they shared would be his too.

As he walks into the swirling mists that anchor the strange linkage to the earthplane, Rozell cannot recall when or if he had ever crossed it before. He can only suppose that he had done it once, because he had been an Immortal. But his memory does not stretch back to his origin.

Rozell/Vertum climbs the bridge with great difficulty, facing many dangers composed of his own nightmares. Gradually, Vertum begins to dominate, and the climb comes easier.

He emerges as himself - an adult Immortal - amid the ruins of what he recognizes was once his own realm. His store of worship-energy is totally depleted. And now he knows the hunger that drives Immortals to seek worship.

He has surmounted the bridge only to slide down again, he thinks, for he hasn't the strength left to perform for his worshippers.

In his moment of blackest despair, Idalia appears and provides worship energy for him from her own stores. She, however, has escaped Tyrnak, and is pursued. She tries to get Vertum onto his feet, to run from the menace, but as soon as his energy is restored, Vertum is outraged by the shambles Tyrnak has made of his realm, and he stands to fight.

Vertum's only hint of advantage is the dismay on Tyrnak's face when he recognizes Vertum. Other than that, the opening salvos of the battle go to Tyrnak.

Idalia runs, and Vertum feels deserted. He had thought her a friend. When she returns with other Immortals, he forgives her and is ashamed he would think so low of her as to think she'd desert him. But then, the others just watch the battle.

And Vertum realizes that this is just what they did the last time - watch silently. This time, there is a hint perhaps that they want him to win - but none would lift a hand to lend him power. What he has to fight with, he has had to steal from Tyrnak.

Vertum tries to get them to help, to cooperate with him. He pleads caring, he pleads the thousands of years they've been associated, he pleads the imperative of keeping their oath to the Kingdoms - nothing works. Each of the Immortals, he comes to understand, is totally sovereign.

They associate with each other, but they don't form bonded relationships of emotional caring or mutual obligation. They don't feel for one another. They turn to worship-energy for what humans get from mere friendship, a source of vitality that is worth, Vertum now realizes, a life, even the life of an Immortal.

In anguished frustration, Vertum turns on Tyrnak and demands, "Why are you doing this!" For he realizes that the passionate hatred Tyrnak is showing for him indicates some kind of a bonded relationship. It's terribly mortal in character, too.

Tyrnak, close to victory and knowing the others won't interfere, boasts that he is the chief god of the Hill Kingdoms now, and they will soon be overrunning the River Kingdoms.

Vertum's guess was right, politics is involved, but Immortal politics also. Several of the onlooking Immortals have also been promised increased status in the combined kingdoms, the Empire.

Others, like Vertum, have been marked to be cast into mortal form and destroyed. The balance of power that had held among Immortals for so long nobody remember any other state of affairs, had been disrupted. Idalia, whose main power was balance, had suffered most, and so was willing to help Vertum, but unable to do anything against Tyrnak.

At the brink of defeat, Vertum calls on the Creator in his trained voice, and summons one last effort and siphons off all of Tyrnak's worship-energy.

Tyrnak is cast over the precipice, bounces on the Godsbridge, and tumbles downward into the world of mortals.

Vertum stands in awe, realizing that the Creator's power is as strong here in the Realms as anywhere among mortals. He feels that power and that call, and realizes that he hasn't forsaken his oath to serve the Creator. In fact, the price that he once offered up may in fact have just been paid, for the vanquishing of Tyrnak has saved the River Kingdoms. If it is incumbent on a mortal to eschew power, then perhaps it is required of Immortals to handle that power for them?

Vertum and the other Immortals are aware of Tyrnak's fate, to be born nine months hence, in the body of a deformed cripple much like the body he had tried to give Vertum. Tyrnak, however, was not able to encapsulate his memories, soul or power to take with him.

Idalia congratulates and thanks Vertum with a hug and a kiss, but there is something missing. Talking with her as the others congratulate Vertum and take their leave, Vertum comes to the conclusion that they would have behaved much the same had Tyrnak won.

"But their hearts wouldn't have been in it," counters Idalia.

"Are their hearts in this?"

"How could you ask such a question. Of course they are! I'm so glad to have you back!"

Left alone, Vertum tries to put his realm in order, and even appears in his temple in Shrine City to grant some requests and collect a bit of worship-energy. His reappearance after Tyrnak had let Vertum's duties lapse sends a thrill of excitement through the town. There are plenty of petitions for him to consider. And with each one he grants, he finds his Realm reordering and revitalizing itself.

Later, the other Immortals hold a celebration in Vertum's honor, and they all seem sincere enough. They're not only going through the motions and they're not hypocritical. They really do care, he decides. He even takes Idalia to bed and enjoys it immensely.

But in the morning, he wakes alone, and ponders until he puts his finger on it. Immortals were totally independent of each other. They interacted to cooperate with respect to external affairs, to business. He thought that if Tyrnak had defeated him, the others might have banded together to destroy Tyrnak before he destroyed them, but there was just as good a chance that he would have been able to buy off the opposition. The Immortals didn't know the meaning of loyalty, only of sovereignty. Prior to Tyrnak's unprecedented attack, the Immortals were dependent only on the mortals - for worship.

Among mortals, Rozell had become accustomed to relationships of a different sort. Mortals were dependent on each other for their existence, their joys, the very textures of their lives. He recalls the moments he discovered he'd been accepted into the Creationists' families, and into the religion. He recalls the peak moments of those years, and realizes that he'd never had anything like that here - and if he stays, he never will have anything like it again.

The thought of living without that intangible, inexpressible quality, the sharing of pain and joy that went deeper into places other Immortals would never let one reach - the prospect was unendurable.

He must, he decides, return to mortality, even if the acceptance he had known there is gone and never to be won again.

For his last acts as an Immortal, Vertum alters the document which seals the pact between the River Kingdoms and the twenty-two Immortals to read Twenty-one Immortals. He confers his power on Idalia, so that Abundance will not forsake the Kingdoms, and then he descends the Godsbridge.

The trip down is every bit as bad as the trip up, for at each step he is assailed by doubts and debilitated by lack of energy.

But he makes it, and when he reaches the bottom, the gem has dissolved and disappeared. He is mortal and totally human.

When he arrives back in Shrine City, he discovers that Vertum's temple has simply vanished. Avrul and Ethe and the others had taken this to mean that Vertum/Rozell had been destroyed, and when they see him again in mortal form, they believe he has been cast down by Tyrnak again. They believe now - considering the news of disruption in the countryside, and invasion to come - that this means the end of the River Kingdoms and probably the end of the worship of the Creator for the Hill Kings do not tolerate the Creator's worship because it's wasteful. The Creator does not do favors.

By the time he's convinced them that Tyrnak is vanquished and he has chosen to return as a mortal to age and die in the worship of the Creator - if that be allowed - news comes that the wording of the pact has changed, and Vertum is no more.

Ethe believes him, and marvels at what he gave up. He looks at her but can't say that he came back for her. He didn't. But he realizes now that life without her will be bleak indeed, and perhaps not worth living.

Ethe admits that when she'd thought him lost, she was lost. She even thought of climbing the Godsbridge to try to be with him.

They agree to start over, getting to know each other as ordinary mortals must. Vertum knows now that life will be more than worth living. He raises his voice in song, praising the Creator.

 

The End

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"Who Trusts a Traitor" Copyright © 1986, 1999, 2000 by Jacqueline Lichtenberg
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