Convincing (book)

Convincing

By Gale WarWren

Oh, the quest for knowlege! In my younger days, it took me to such places as the peaks of the Dragon Spine Mountains, and the depths of the ice dragon's cave. However dangerous the risks involved in these adventures of mine, many argue that the most dangerous of my undertakings was to go out on the sea that day. But it also had the most profound effect on my life.

It was a stormy day, and the rain poured down so thickly that there was more water than air in the sky. The sea leaped and danced glorying in its new found power, power such as the world had never seen the like. Each raindrop stung as it collided with my face.

They all warned me not to go. My mother wept with grief, as though I were already gone. One little girl even thought to warn me that Drogor was angry. Phaw! "The God of angry seas" was no more real than mermaids, or countless other sailors' legends.

Their pleas and warnings, not including the one about Drogor, nearly convinced to stay safe on land, but the prospect of seeing the rarely open to visitors island of Jael, with its renowned libraries, sounded well worth the risk.

The sea tossed me mercilessly in my small boat. Lightning flashed and the thunder roared with laughter at my foolishness. I leaned to one side to counteract one wave just in time for a second wave to come pounding in from the opposite side, knocking me out.

As I hit the water, I felt it engulf me, like a hungry monster devouring its prey. I struggled for the top, gasping for one more breath, only to have another wave come crashing down on top, pushing me back under.

The sun was bright in my eyes, and they narrowed to thin slits. My hair was matted and slightly damp. A heavy smell of the sea lingered around me. My cheek was pressed up against the warm sand.

I suddenly realized there was something in my hand, so I brought it up to my face to see it better. It was a delicate gold chain strung with sea-worn glass beads of a light blue color. In the center of the beads was a carefully formed white gold dolphin.

I heard a quiet giggle above me and glanced up. Standing nearby, looking slightly nervous, was a group of about half a dozen women. They were all clad identically in flowing blue robes and strings of seashells were delicately perched atop their heads.

"Annise, you woke her! Curse you, girl," the oldest one of whispered harshly.

"Please, forgive me, Mother Katann. It will never happen again, I promise!" one of the women wept, tears running down her face.

"It's alright, Annise. I'm not mad. Now settle down and be off with you." Mother Katann chuckled. "All of you. I'm sure the poor girl is rather scared." Scared? Perhaps confused, or even intrigued, but scared was certainly the wrong word. In any case, the women understood and all but Mother Katann were soon gone.

"What is your name, child?" she asked, pulling me to a sitting position as she dropped to her knees.

I looked into her eyes. They were a pleasant blue and they possessed a depth that proves impossible to explain. Combined with her delicate smile she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. Yet, it was not the beauty of the gorgeous bards back in the city, flaunting everything they thought they could get away with it, and usually more. I chuckled at comparing Mother Katann to one of them. No, her beauty was more unintentional, as though just an unexpected side effect of something far grander. Like the touch of a god. I had to remind myself quickly that there were no such things as gods.

I finally answered her. "Gale. My name is Gale."

"Well, Gale, perhaps we should be heading towards the abbey. It's quite a ways, and, beautiful as the beach is with the moon shining down on it, a storm is expected tonight. You can tell me how you came to be on this beach, as we walk back. Unless, of course, you were planning on going back out with the tide?" Mother Katann winked at me.

"No, quite alright, really. I think I shall be going with you." So, she helped me stand and we began walking down the beach.

As we strolled, I told of my dreadful night at sea and the reasons behind it. When I was finished, she told a bit of who she was and some of the things about the abbey. She was head of a group of cleric women, it turned out, all firm belivers in Eluned, the goddess of the sea. They lived at a small abbey on the sea shore, and maintained the shrine there.

The sureness in her voice when she spoke of Eluned put me ill at ease. I wasn't as sure that Eluned didn't exist as Mother Katann was that she did. It is a very unsettling thing to suddenly realize you might be wrong.

We reached the abbey before nightfall, and Mother Katann showed me to a room where I could stay. "I will call for a boat to take you home in the morning. It will probably be here a few days after that. As long as you are here, feel free to explore," she assured me before leaving.

It was not until then that I noticed that I still had a firm grip on the necklace. I looked it over again, more carefully this tim. Hard as I might look, I could find nothing that might hint at the reason I had found it in my hand upon waking. One of the hardest things for a scholar to do is accept that there is no explanation to something. I stared at it for a few hours, examining it, rubbing at its smooth beads, running my fingers through my long hair, fidgetting with the hem of my tattered dress.

Eventually, I was forced to give up, and I gently slipped it over my head. As the dolphin hit my chest with a soft "clink," I found myself suddenly lost in panic. I was in the water, again, struggling to breathe. Suddenly, there was a woman, surrounded by light. She stretched her hands out to me, smiling. Her beauty was like that of Mother Katann, yet far more intense. The next moment it was all gone, the water, the woman. I was back in the room at the abbey, my heart pounding rapidly. I collapsed into a small heap, crying panic having won at last.

In the morning, I felt more relaxed, although still slightly unsettled. I spent the next few days doing as Mother Katann had said I was free to, exploring. Most of this exploring was done in the abbey library. I had always been fascinated by books, and nearly drowning hadn't changed me in that area. It was there that Mother Katann found me on the day of my departure.

"It is easy to see why She chose you, Gale," she whispered to me.

"Who?"

She walked over to me and tapped the dolphin on my necklace. "Eluned of the seas, of knowledge." The smile on her face beamed like the noon sun.

"What does the dolphin have to do with her?"

"The dolphin is Eluned's symbol," Mother Katann explained. She stood and walked over to a nearby shelf and picked a carefully rolled scroll. She brought it back to where I was sitting and unrolled it. When she showed me what was on it, I nearly forgot to breathe.

Exquisitely portrayed on the scroll, with superb detail work, was a painting of the woman from my vision, my necklace around her neck.

As I was sailing back home, I leaned over the rail of the boat and whispered to the water. "Eluned, thank you, for my life, for the truth, and," I hesitated for a moment. "And for choosing me to serve you." The sea whispered back reassuringly, as small waves brushed at the side of the boat.