A Silken Craft - Chapter 6

GYAH

A man's scream reverberated up the crater, reaching the man's ears. He stood up from the ledge and hastily made his way down the crater steps, arriving at the bottom in time to see the silk dressed man climb off the bed the man had made him, breathing rapidly in panic as he did so.

The silken man's eyes found their way upon the man, looking him up and down. This only caused him further agitation, as the silken man backed away from the man as far as he could, stretching his arms against the crater walls.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" his quivering voice demanded.

These questions were quite enigmatic to the man, "I don't know," he answered. "I have no name, and she's the one who brought you here," he pointed at the woman, who still rested upon a bed. The man looked over the silken one, noting the dissatisfaction with his answers, "Though I suspect I am to learn from you. That is all I know," he paused for a moment, "truthfully."

The silken one was still apprehensive, but some of the tension in his face had relaxed. He took another look over the man. "Why are you naked?" he asked.

"I was born like this," replied the man, "is there a problem with my nudity?" His serious tone caught the silken man off-guard.

Nonetheless, the silken one eventually found his voice, "It's immodest," he answered.

The man took a moment to think, then shrugged. "I see," he said.

The silken man glanced around, "Don't you have anything you can wear?"

The man rubbed his bearded chin, "I don't, but maybe there is something I can do." He closed his eyes and waved his finger. A silken set of clothes now found themselves upon the man, the exact same make the silken one wore. The man smiled at his success.

Confusion now replaced the silken one's anxiety, his face contorting as his brow furrowed, "How? How did you do that?" he queried.

"I simply thought of the clothes around my body, then used a motion to create them," the man answered.

Finally, the silken man broke from the wall and cautiously stepped towards the other man, "So you're a magician then?"

"No, I'm a Keeper."

"A Keeper? What's a Keeper?"

The man pointed at the woman, who remained asleep, "She can tell you better than I, so it's best to wait until she wakes." He began to make his way towards the stairs, "In the meantime, you can busy yourself."

The silken one nodded towards the stairs, "What's up there," he asked.

"A view," replied the man, "you can come up if you wish, just watch your step." The man started up the steps and the silken one followed some distance behind, still wary.

By the time the silken one reached the top, the other man had already taken a seat on the ledge and resumed watching over the town as before. The silken one, however, was not content to admire the view, and instead looked for a way down the cliff, yet he could not find one. Either the man had forgotten to add it when raised the cliff into the sky or destroyed it along with the corpses of his failed creations.

The silken one, upon realizing that there was no way off the cliff, only became increasingly confused. Seeking answers, he once again approached the man, "How did you get me up here?" he asked.

The man turned his head to face him, "You came with the woman when I pulled her through the crack."

"Crack?"

"Yes, there was a crack in the air, I don't know too much about it, but she does," he nodded towards the crater. "It's gone now though, don't know why."

The silken man's jaw hung agape, and his eyes peered with great concern at the man, "You pulled her through a crack in the air?"

"Yep."

"And I just appeared when you pulled her?"

"Something like that. My guess is that she was holding onto you with one arm while I pulled her other, or you were holding her yourself."

The silken man's expression held steady while he reached his hand up and rubbed his forehead, "So, you can create clothes in an instant out of thin air, summon portals, and climb a great height without a feasible way to do so." He lowered his hand and used it to gesture loosely at the man, "What does that make you?"

"I told you, a Keeper."

"But I don't know what that is!" he said, raising his voice.

"And she will tell you when she wakes!" retorted the man.

"Fine," the silken man waved his hand, as if to dismiss the other, before turning to begin his descent back down into the crater, "then I'll just have to wake her up." He disappeared from the man's view.

"Stop," the man shouted, "please!"

After a moment, the silken one's head peaked back over the crater entrance, "Why?"

"The crack did something to her," the man spoke, his pace much quicker than normal. "I know not of its true toll on her body. If disturbing her rest were to harm her, then I could not learn all that I need, and you would not find out why you're here."

"Fine," said the silken one, as he clamored back up the steps and out of the crater. He walked over to the man, taking a seat right beside him. "Then tell me, you don't know who you are, and you can't explain what you are, but can you describe where you live, or at the very least where you come from?"

The man nodded, "This is my home, not just this cliff, but the entire forest and the town too."

"So, you're a Lord?" interrupted the silken man.

"No, well, I suppose a Keeper is similar to a Lord in some respects."

"I see," said the silken one. "Have you always lived here?"

"No, not here. I used to live somewhere in her universe," he used one of his hands to gesture towards the crater. "I'm not sure where though. Sometimes, there are things that feel familiar to me, even when I can't remember why. Other times, I have knowledge of things I know I shouldn't, it's odd."

"Hmm," the silken man grazed his fingers across his chin, "maybe you're a seer, or a soothsayer." He dropped his hand and reignited eye contact with the man, "You ever tell anyone's future before?"

"Not since I became a Keeper, though I may have in my life before," answered the man. "How about you?"

The silken one adopted an incredulous tone, "If I could see the future, I wouldn't have been nabbed by that woman and dragged here."

The man put his palms up to the silken one, as if to defend himself, "My apologies, that's not what I meant. I was referring to your background. Where do you come from?"

The silken one dropped his eye contact in embarrassment and scratched his cheek, "Oh, I see. Well, I come from a place entirely different to here. There, the landscape stretches into an infinite desert, no greenery in sight." He paused, "Though, I did see plenty of forest as a boy. My father was a merchant, you see, and I travelled along with him. In fact, it was his great-grandfather that got lost in that desert while leading a caravan. Luckily, he stumbled across an oasis and quenched his thirst. With that God-given sign, he settled down and founded a city on that oasis. He had a lot of stories about his travels too, one time-"

"Thank you, uh," the man interrupted, "what should I call you?"

"My name is Seda," he replied.

"Fitting," said the man, "well, thank you Seda, unfortunately I must check on the one who still sleeps and then resume my training." He got up from the ledge, "However, I enjoyed talking with you."

"I as well," returned Seda, "though I seemed to do most of the talking."

"I look forward to hearing about your great-great-grandfather's travels." The man began his descent down the stairs.

"And I look forward to telling you," said Seda. The man disappeared back into the hole.

While Seda ogled the view, the man made good on his statement, checking on the woman, who continued to persist in her sleep. He then waved his hand at the crater wall, creating an opening about the same size as his body. Stepping through the opening, he glanced down at the forest below. Being at the bottom of the crater may have reduced the fall, but it was still a steep drop, easily tall enough to kill the average man.

The man took moment and reflected on his previous self, chuckling about his past hesitancy, before taking a seat against the wall of the opening, dangling one of his legs off the newly made bluff while the other extended out in front of him. When his moment of reflection ended, he quickly recommenced his work, attempting to create life.

Again and again, he summoned lifeless husks of men, the bodies piling up quickly in the small opening. This time, however, no crater was created in their removal. While he initially caught a small portion of the opening walls and turned them nonexistent, his control was becoming increasingly precise with every batch. Even if he wasn't successful in his creation endeavors, at least this was some sort of progress.

Despite this achievement, the man's failures began to eat away at his early feelings of success. He tried switching to beasts, summoning rabbits and deer, but the results were the same. His trials continued for some time with no headway being made.

As night approached, Seda made his way down the crater steps. Midway down, he spotted the opening in the wall, and saw corpses of animals appearing out of thin air. "Hey!" he shouted, "Are you doing that?"

The man shouted back, "Yes, it's me, it's part of my training!"

Seda blinked a couple of times, trying to process what was happening. Then, shaking his head, he resumed his descent, finally responding, "I see!"

When Seda had reached the bottom, he walked over to the opening and spoke to the man, "How about you take a break. After all, it's getting late, surely you're hungry or tired or something."

The man looked up at him and took a moment to think. With a nod of his head and a light sigh, he rose to his feet, "Sure."

He followed Seda to the beds, as Seda sat on his, the man conjured a wooden bench and took a seat on that instead. "Right, so you can do that too," Seda said.

"Come sit," the man patted the bench, "there's enough room for both of us."

Seda did as he was told. "Don't suppose you could magic us some food," he suggested.

"I don't see why not," replied the man, "what would you like?"

A grin creeped itself across Seda's face as he licked his lips in anticipation, "How about some nice, fatty mutton?" The man waved his hand and a plate of mutton chops appeared in Seda's hands. "I don't know how you do it, but damnit if I don't envy you." He started with a small bite, choosing the meatiest bone on the plate. Seda glanced at the man through the corners of his eyes, then nodded in approval, "Now I really envy you." He took a large bite and further savored the taste.

The man looked at Seda, joyfully watching him eat. After Seda took a few more bites, the man waved his arm up from the ground and above his head, materializing a lit campfire in front of them. "To keep it warm," he said. Seda affirmed his action with a nod, deciding to continue his meal rather than answer with words. Soon enough, the man also joined in the eating, though he wasn't truly hungry.

As they finished their meal, Seda put the plate to the side, the two men having emptied it completely. He leaned away from the fire and straightened his back, putting his hands up behind his head. "Phew," he sighed, "that was some good eating."

"I concur," replied the man, "it was an excellent idea."

"Thanks for the compliment, but my stomach deserves the credit, it was growling at me for a while," Seda retorted. The men then took a few minutes, allowing the food to digest as they stared into the flames.

The silence was only broken when Seda chose to speak, "I know I interrupted you earlier, but what exactly were you doing with all those animals?"

"I wasn't doing anything to them, I was simply trying to create live ones," answered the man.

"So, you were trying to resurrect them?"

"No," said the man, "just as I summoned the food and the fire, I was trying to conjure live animals, but all I can manage are those corpses."

"Creating life…" Seda paused, "to think you're capable of that…"

"I should be, but you've seen the results, they're not exactly living," he responded.

"Sure, but still…" Seda lingered in thought, "Have you tried anything simpler. Instead of a sizable beast, perhaps you should start with an insect, or even a plant."

The man answered quickly, "A plant I've done, and it wasn't much trouble at all, but an insect…" he trailed off. Then, he closed his eyes and held out his hand in front of him, clenching it into a fist. He opened his eyes, shifting his gaze to his hand. As he unclenched his fist, a blue butterfly took flight out of it, rising high into the air until it was out of the crater completely.

Seda sat on the bench in silence, gawking at the evening sky in which the butterfly had disappeared. "Well," he said, "guess you can create life after all."

The man scratched his bearded chin, his feelings in turmoil. "Why can't I make living beasts then?" he questioned, "What is the difference between those creatures and that insect, and those trees in the forest below?" He stood up from the bench and began to pace around the crater floor.

After a few steps, he turned towards Seda, "What makes you different from the butterfly?" he demanded.

Seda took offense to his question, "I'm not an insect," he yelled, "I have mind to think and a soul to feel. In fact, I have fists to beat you with too if you keep up this nonsense."

This simple fact had escaped the man, who looked at Seda with shock, "Of course!" he jogged over to the cavern opening, "Thank you Seda. And sorry for insulting you, it wasn't my intention."

Seda too, got up from the bench and began to follow close behind, "Yeah, yeah," he said, "just get on with whatever you're doing."

The man knelt in the opening, "Mind and soul," he muttered, "thinking and feeling." He took a few deep breaths and sealed his eyes shut. The man maintained his steady breathing – in, then out. Seconds dragged on into minutes, Seda watching on all the while, not daring to break the man's ritual.

Suddenly, the man's breathing accelerated, and his eyes flung open as he jammed his fingers against the hard rock of the cavern ground, clawing at it. As his fingertips scraped together, the man let out a primal shout, with a crescendo at its end. He balled his hands into fists, and in one fluid motion, flung his arms into the air, and with it, the body of a man appeared. However, like the others, it appeared lifeless and still.

The man was in disbelief, surely this had to be the answer, after all, he put everything he had into crafting this one being. He approached the body and crouched down beside it. Then, much to Seda's surprise, the man suddenly became frantic, repeatedly lowering his head to the body's chest, then to its mouth and nose, swapping between the areas frequently.

The man began laughing, seemingly in delight. With a thump against the rock floor, he laid down, a smile plastered on his face. Seda looked on, his eyes trying to drill a hole in the man as he awaited any kind of news. Finally, with one last chuckle, the man addressed Seda, peering back at him, "He's breathing," said the man. "I've done it."