Initiate

Arriving at the clearing I see that the perfectly flat ground has soft lush green grass. The center tree has 10 dark gray stone placed in it with 30cm in between the rocks, and with the stones being about 20cm each the tree ended up being over 5 meters tall.

The branches and leafs overhead are the truly amazing part though. From the thick intertwining part on of the tree sprout an innumerable amount of thin branches in all directions all the way to the edge of the clearing. There are two types of branches, the first kind has white stick-lick leafs, as if they were needles but with a soft and stump end instead of the pointy end. The other kind are big golden yellow leafs, they seem to have a shiny, almost metallic like, nervature. But the actual leaf inbetween the nerfs seems to be too big, hanging in between the nerfs, softly rippling in the wind.

Close to the tree there are two half logs on the ground, on top of one is a small green girl sleeping in a thick dress with a woven basket pattern. Thinking that the dress actually is woven from living grass makes the pattern pretty logical.

I walk to the other side of the tree, I look at the stones. On the top nine are carvings, the last stone is still empty.

The top stone shows the back of a small kid in rags standing on top of what seems to be a tower. The kid is overlooking a city.

The second stone states:'Alone and weak Gosamu survives for 515 weeks in a world where weak beat the weaker and the strong keep to themselves'

The third stone shows the kid in a cloak, his right half only has his contours and his left half is hollowed out in the stone. It looks like empty and full, representing day and night, light and dark, yin and yang.

The fourth stone states:'After 515 weeks he meets Goba, his trainer at first, a liar as second, and his priest as third. Goba trains Gosamu to become stronger, but mostly to help himself. Gosamu gains strength fast, his power awakened, bound formed, and world created. But even then He still forgives Goba for making Him a borrowed knife.'

The fifth stone shows the tower, above ground the air is carved out in the stone, but below ground the tower is carved out.

The sixth stone states:'Gosamu's world knows no boundaries, but at its centre is the Tower. The place where its power manifests and where life flows to and from. It is both the melting ice on the mountain, and the endless ocean.'

The seventh stone shows three images, a mature woman surrounded by trees with big leafs on one side and trees with spiked leafs on the other. A dragonfly surrounded by flame like clouds. And a toad surrounded by walls of rock, but underneath the ground there's a skull.

The eight stone states:'The three first created by the Tower created this shrine to both honor Gosamu, He who gifted them life. And to connect to those who seek shelter. He shall help those in need, He shall not turn a blind eye to those who sin. He shall let you live on when this life ends."

The ninth stone shows a back again, on a tower, but this time there's nothing to look at.

The tenth stone states nothing.

Well, nothing it says is a lie. It still feels weird that they see me as so grand. But that doesn't matter, I like them, and I think it's a bit cute.

I sit down next to Fi and pat her hair as she sleeps. She wakes up, she looks up at me and she looks startled. "Oh, Master!" she stands up but stumbles to the ground. She stands up after that.

"Don't worry Fi, I just came by to check. The shrine looks good." I give her a small smile. She looks at the ground, as if embarrassed to receive my praise.

"Thanks Master Gosamu, we are almost finished, but we went to get some sleep first. We didn't know what to write so we decided to sleep over it."

"That's a good idea, but I think it's good like this. If I'm right the ninth stone shows the emptiness of the future, an emptiness that could be anything, right?" Fi nods. "Than let the tenth stone reinforce that emptiness, everyone should see that what will happen is unknown, and that we can't write it down."

Now she looks up at me, with sparkling eyes that show admiration to what I just said. It wasn't that impressive right? I really should get someone who'll doubt everything I say, otherwise I'll grow arrogant and simple-minded.

"I'll go get the others! Now you're here we must initiate the shrine as soon as possible!" And before I can say anything she's off. Letting me sit here in a beautiful clearing. But just by myself, alone this clearing feels a bit lonely. Maybe I can connect it to the Tower, and as long as there's someone free in the Tower anyone here would have someone to talk to!

I sit back and relax, waiting until everyone is here.

~~~~~~~~~

Some time later they arrive, running here but walking softly on the grass. Goba is in the front with Bo in his arms, Fi walks behind him and An flies behind Goba.

They all bow before me as I stand up from the seat. "Welcome all, in my shrine." I say with a smile on my face and my arms wide.

"We're honoured to be here." They state in unison. They're still more serious then I expect. I still feel like it's more their shrine than mine, but they made it for me, so they want me to see it as mine.

But with them being so serious I feel like I can't ask how to initiate the shrine now, that would look awkward. And there's no information from the Tower about this.

Oh well I'll try something, I can think of something that'll sound impressive and might even work!

"As my followers build this shrine in my name, I shall initiate it, connect it to the Tower, making it an extend of my power!" I turn to the tree and walk up to it, I can feel the eyes burning into my back now.

I extend my arm to the tree and put my palm on the bark between the seventh and eight stone. I focus into myself and I see the five power centres, the 3 dantians, the heart that's connected to Vothe and the Haven that's next to the heart, right in the centre of my chest.

I focus on all of them, I take a tiny piece of the Havens power with the power of day and night from all three dantians, I mix a bit of power of the heart in it, as it's used to link Vothe and me. I feel like I need it to link the shrine and the Haven.

The stream of pure gold and red, surrounded by six streams of silvery gold and sparkly black flow into the tree, the Tower on the fifth stone lights up gold, on the bark of the tree small red veins light up.

There's a response, two very weak greenish streams circling each other flow back into me in the tiny space between the gold and red streams. If I wasn't so focused I wouldn't have noticed. The green stream flows to the point where the golden and red streams split up, there it forms a knot. A big rounded end.

From this knot fout even smaller green streams flow, two circling the golden stream and two circling the red stream.

When they touch my heart and the Haven the entire green streams disappear. But in my heart there's a small faded rune in the form of the shrine's tree. But I also feel like there's a connection between the Tower and the tree, I actually succeeded.

"It is done!"