Tylywoch ~ 16

 Tylywoch ~ 16 Return to Hartwell

 by Len Morgan

When Jax returned to Hartwell, he entered the forge and quietly watched as Terrek put the final touches to a fine ivory-handled stiletto blade. 

Terrek broke the silence, “I read your notes while you were gone, didn’t have much else to do, business was slack and there was nothing pending...”

“So stop crabbing around, get to the point!   You didn’t like them?” 

“On the contrary, your ideas for mechanisation show insight and imagination.   The work was harder without you so I built a few of your devices.   Your use of gears,” he turned to a large mechanical hammer, raised by foot power, and the new double sided ladle running on tracks and able to be poured with one hand, “It pours smoothly without any splashes or spills producing very few bubbles or imperfections.   They are a triumph; I built them but could never have done so without your drawings.”   He smiled in welcome.   Jax returned his smile, he was tired but glad to be back home. “Your time at Ordens Forge was well spent?” 

 “Yes.” Said Jax quietly. 

“Then why did he not complete your initiation?”

“On balance, he said the things you have taught me outweigh the knowledge he was able to impart, so the honour should be yours.” He smiled again.

“The pompous old ass!” said Terrek with a grin.  'The boy has aged more than six weeks' he thought, his eyes have seen things that humans ought never to see.   He gazed up into the night sky, throwing his mind out into the void they both now knew existed out there.   This time, he didn’t feel so lonely.   This time he was conscious of a shared secret that would bring them closer together even when apart.   No matter how far Jax chose to roam, and roam he would, he had no choice!   “Come on in…” he stumbled over the inappropriateness of ‘boy’, “Jax, welcome home – partner.”  They hugged each other warmly.   A voice in Terrek’s mind said, ‘It’s good to be home and to find you well.   But, why did you not warn me?’ 

“It’s a family taboo!   If I had warned you Orden would have known, he would have been angry beyond words!    You wouldn’t want to experience the wrath of a Jellonan, even at this distance.   I understand you took the oath?”  Jax nodded.   “It’s not the kind you should break lightly!” he said with conviction.

“But, I was never really given a choice…” Jax began.

“You made your choice when you signed articles of apprenticeship!   Read the small print.   Remember, you can now commune with like-minded artisans throughout the universe.   You have access to hundreds of thousands of minds if the need should arise, if you have a question, they will provide a solution.   You took the oath!” he put his arm around Jax in the way of a comrade.   “I have been alone too long, we are so far beyond normal smiths, more so than a fresh apprentice is from a Grande Master Craftsman, with a lifetime of achievement to his name.”   He looked up to the sky and waved his arm in comic presentation, “they are all out there on other worlds, with different chemistries, some so far above us that they are like gods, but they are not!”

“Orden?” 

“He is a conduit, he is the one who binds our minds together he enables us to join with them.   If you wish, you could spend the rest of your life communing with them, exchanging views and ideas.” 

“But I hear and I see nothing…” 

“Because you have not yet been finished.   Orden gave you something for me?” 

“He did” said Jax and he drew the golden stiletto spike from its sheath.   Terrek took it from him and stabbed it deep into Jax’s heart.   Jax stared back in disbelief, at the only man he would trust to act in his best interest and down at the hilt of the blade now protruding from his chest.   He looked into the smiling face of Terrek, his vision blurred as he felt the icy cold fingers of death taking a hold on him.  "Why?" he asked with a hurt and betrayed look in his eyes…

(To be continued)

Copyright Len Morgan