Snippet 3: The Time Wielder, The Encounter #1

"Why,” it grunted, “you here?!”

The five-foot maven stood below Ella's shoulders, yet commanded the higher authority. Slender, muscular, and pale, the maven's face was aflame with eyes of ruby. They were a rare species that had adapted to their dark surroundings by evolving eyes that shed light on their prey. Just a few quanta of light that emanated from the periphery of the eyes was enough to bounce off their targets and be picked up by their highly sensitive retinas. In the sunlight, these eyes would turn green to prevent excruciating pain in the highly sensitive cells within.

Ella was surprised that the maven had not attempted to attack her. She was more surprised that it managed to communicate in Etherian. Ella slowly clasped her hands and bowed as a sign of respect.

As her third surprise for the day, the maven reciprocated.

“I am merely passing the forest to get to the north.”

“Why," it asked, "you go north?"

Ella had not considered revealing her purpose to a maven when she began her incursion.

“I am competing of the banyan tree,” she answered.

The maven stared at her and watched as she flinched. Ella had caught something in the shadows behind the maven. Lente and Margo witnessed her adrenaline levels spike. For the first time, they could see what fear looked like when it manifested itself in Ella.

For her part, it was the first time she had felt any kind of fear. It was a strange and uncomfortable feeling. But it was warranted. She began to understand how she had come to feel a large mass moving behind her from behind the shadows. The thousands of mavens now lurking in the shadows had appeared to her energy field as one mass.

In slow motion, in the distance, emerged a horde of mavens behind their leader. Slowly they crept, crouching close to the branches. Beyond the veil of the forest's darkness, pairs of glimmering rubies emerged, thousands of them encircling her position. There was nowhere to run.

In the background, Margo and Lente could not understand who on earth Ella was speaking to this far into the forest with all her competitors at least a day behind her.

“Ella, come in.”

Ella could hear them loud and clear but decided to not respond. It would create a huge misunderstanding to respond to Lente and Margo while looking at the leader of the mavens.

“What is your name?" he finally asked.

She stood there staring at him, pondering the question.

“My name is Ella," he answered.

“My name is Per-Ah,” she replied with a growl.

“You speak Etherian?"

“I speak Maven," he insisted. "Etherian derives from Maven."

That was not what she had learned in school or read in books. But then again, she thought, her books never told her that mavens could speak anything. Yet here one was, speaking.

Throughout their conversation, the hordes inched in to close the distance between themselves and the daughter of Cherra Braghi. Ella did not recall there ever being a meeting with a maven. Deaths had been attributed to chance encounters, but no one seems to have made their acquaintance and lived to tell about it. Ella wondered if she would share the same fate.

“You come for tree, or you come for stone.”

“Stone?" she asked. But the change in intonation from statement to question was lost in translation. Mavens did not understand the questioning tone.

“You come for stone. We do not allow." And suddenly the horde tightened their distance. She could hear them breathe.

“No. Not stone. I ask, what stone do you refer to?"

Per-Ah raised his hands and the grunting and forward crawl stopped.

“You come for tree or stone?

“I come for the tree. But I ask, what stone do you speak of?"

“You not know stone. Why?”

“I don't know stone because I never hear of stone in the forest."

Per-Ah stood quietly, pensive in his demeanor. “How you come so fast?"

“I swung on vines and ran on branches."

She was speaking the truth, he realized. The mavens had been watching. He still seemed puzzled.

“Please, tell me," she asked again. "What stone is it that you speak of?

Per-Ah relented and decided to test her facial expression.

“The stone of time."





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